( If you haven't been here before, READ THIS. )

I'm really mad at the weather right now.

For days, they'd been saying we were going to get a storm that would drop 6-8" of snow on us. Then they upped it to 10" minimum. Then they decided it might be more sleet than snow. Then they stopped talking about it altogether; maybe it was snack time or something. Around 9 p.m. last night, they decided it wasn't going to snow at all, and that we'd just get torrential downpours.

Right now, it's warm outside, the sidewalks are dry, and I'm left here feeling cheated.

I was hoping for a snow day today so that my absences from English and Western Civ wouldn't count against me, but no such luck. I really wanted to try to get to class today, especially since English was a workshop for the paper due next Thursday and Western Civ was going to be review for the test on the same day, but I can barely walk, and on top of that I've developed the Head Cold of Death and can't take anything because I'm getting blood work done in the morning.

...I kid you not, a plow just went down the street. STOP TOYING WITH US.

Mr. LaRocca wants me to get notes from today's class from a classmate. I don't know any other classmates. How am I supposed to pull that off?

This weekend's going to bite. Western Civ paper, English paper, cram for Geology test, and write the homeschooling article (due Tuesday). I'm thinking that might just be left for the next issue, seeing as I feel like death and all.

Anyway, A POX ON YOUR CLOUDS, water cycle. In the meantime, back to bed.

Today was The Day That Would Not End.

Geology is actually starten to get better, thankfully. I think I'll pass the test okay, even if I only get a 75% or something else too low for my taste. Going over the review sheet she handed out earlier (pointz to her), I actually do remember more than I thought. The vocabulary still throws me a little at points, but I get the general ideas well enough.

We're learning about volcanoes — randomly, I keep hearing "liquid hot mag-ma" in my head whenever she starts talking about lava — and it's not just rocks anymore, although that's still a big part of it. At least during today's rock lab, we got to blow bubbles into cups of milk and molasses to see the difference in viscousity. Very kindergarten, but it was better than using our GeoTools— to measure phenocryst size.

After getting out at 12:40, I realized I had absolutely nothing to do until 3:30 and decided to go sit in on the scholarship seminar they were having. (Darnit, I just remembered that I printed something out and forgot to pick it up. Whoops.) The only other person who showed up was a Vietnamese woman who spoke no English, so that was fun. I learned that I'm eligible for just about nothing and I'm going to be stuck in Loanville for the rest of my life. Joy of joys, but we move on...

I stupidly went and ate lunch in the Cougars Cafe again, but only because I was already so close to Lowe and didn't feel like walking back to the tower for a real sandwich. I've decided that the Lowe building is wicked skeezy in every way, and that the only people who hang out over there (especially in the cafeteria) probably aren't students to begin with. I wanted to be old and yell at the bad children to stop carrying on so much while I was trying to eat my morsels.

Dragged myself over to the tower again after that, this time sitting down about every three feet to rest my braceless foot. (Yes, we'll get to that.) I think I've pulled every muscle in my right arm from using the cane today; non-stalker massage offers gladly accepted.

I went to my first Organization for Community Acceptance Students for Disability Inclusion Students for Inclusive Community gimp club meeting. (God only knows what the name is, but it's overly complicated.) I signed up to go buy candy to give out at the club fair next week, which I won't even be present for to begin with (Geology, of course). Any recommendations? I'm thinking of going to Sam's and getting one of those variety buckets, with the little peppermint wheels and Bazooka Joes and other assorted junk.

Sat in the AST upstairs hallway for awhile, tried to put my foot up. Got tired of that, went over to the CLC to submit my testing accomodations form for Western Civ next Thursday. To be quite honest, I don't even know if we're having a test then, but I think that's what I heard and decided to play it safe by getting a form in on time just in case. The testing administrator wasn't in, so I left it taped to her door. I get the feeling I'm going to be thwapped for that, but oh well.

Sat in the big comfy chairs with ottomans for awhile, then went up to the room we meet in for Socio. It was only 4:45 and class doesn't start until half past 5, but I figured I'd use the time to study a little, which I did.

Socio is ticking me off. First of all, we've been there, what, three weeks, and the guy is still going on about chapter 1 of our text. He spends half the course talking about everything but sociology, he keeps promoting his "multiple master's degrees" like we really care, and spends more time talking about his actual job (he's an administrator at the college) than what he's supposed to be teaching us part-time. We can't even take our first test until we've finished the 4th or 5th chapter, and that's honestly not going to happen until April at this point. It's a complete waste of time to even go.

As I mentioned before, I went without a brace today, due to mine being completely broken and all. I was supposed to go see Evil Orthopaedist for a new one, but the appointment ended up being cancelled, meaning I still have nothing to get around with. (I'm now tentatively going on Friday, depending on openings.)

I had to go dig around to find a right shoe this morning, and then I had to somehow shove my foot down in there. That was fun. I can't flex my foot up or down, so I've basically been walking all day by picking my knee up, sticking my leg forward, plopping my foot down, and then trying to only put pressure on my heel. Which is, you know, impossible. Everything feels all jammed in my plantar area now, and my whole foot is completely red and swollen. I really, really don't want to go anywhere tomorrow. I was hoping we'd get a snow day, but it's looking like that's not going to happen now. Please oh please oh please, snow like it's never snowed before...


On a completely unrelated note, I would like to point out that this is the day of the year that freaks me out the most. I never remember Ash Wednesday is coming up, meaning it ends up totally disturbing me when I see a flood of people with black targets on their foreheads. I live in a 65% Catholic state, and yet I never ever remember until the day is almost gone, by which point I'm already thoroughly convinced some sort of alien invasion has occured that has caused everyone to have a smoldering welt on their face. Someone needs to remind me in advance next time so I don't keep spending one day a year wondering what is going on with the masses (no pun intended) around me...

Greatest post ever in the history of LiveGerbil.

Also, Pats over Eagles, 24-10.

My father and I drove out to Crystal Lake and watched people ice fish. Yes, that passes for excitement around here in February.

We stopped at Barnes & Noble on the way home. I wanted to see if they had Spice: The History of a Temptation, but no such luck.

While I was there, I dealt with one of my biggest pet peeves: male bathroom loiterers. For some reason, men always loiter directly outside the women's rooms at the mall. This isn't the type of thing where they're waiting on a female companion; they're just being trollish. They hang around the bathroom door for 20, 30 minutes at a time, and keep craning their necks to look in whenever the door opens. The worst is when they actually start inching their way into the entrance. I hate that with a passion. I don't get why they do it, but it's something I always notice there. Maybe our mall just naturally attracts creepy men.

As part of my research for the article I'm writing about homeschoolers at MCC, I have to keep e-mailing advocacy groups for comments. I get the funny feeling I'm going to be on more than a few mailing lists after this.

Sorry, I'm spammier than usual lately. Forgive me.

I have never wanted to attend a high school prom as badly as I do right now. Good lord.

...

After English today, I went down to the library and studied like a nut for my Western Civ class. I then flew upstairs to one of the open labs, where I somehow managed to drill out 8 pages of answers to the homework questions I hadn't done all week. Took about 3 panicked hours altogether of reading, rereading, writing drafts, and then coming up with my final composition.

I was feeling pretty good about this, until I got to class and realized we weren't actually supposed to write out responses, but just go over the questions mentally. *stabstabstab*

I have a Geology test in a little over a week, a Western Civ test the week after, a Socio test around the same time as the Western Civ one, and a 500-1000 word essay on the similarities between the struggles Sophocles in "Crito" and The Misfit in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" go through for English that's due on the 17th. I also have two newspaper articles to finish by Tuesday, a stack of FAFSA forms to complete, and I need to reread Ivan Denisovich at some point this weekend, as well as reread 5 chapters of my Geo text and about four more chapters from two separate textbooks for Western Civ. I also need to figure out why Durkheim was so bloody special, even though I really don't care.

Can I drop out yet? Please?

In other news, my lunch experimenting continued today. I somehow squeezed in a sandwich from the Tower Cafe between my unnecessary frantic essay writing and my 4 p.m. class. Sandwich was pretty good. I really need to start taking a lunch on my long days (which is turning out to be every day, for the record), but the thought of having more stuff to haul is frightening. I'm starting to understand why Mr. Navarra told me to get a locker.

I get to sleep late tomorrow. Hooray. /me dead

But isn't it always a deadlock? And why is this shocking? Speaking of which, my Socio instructor was talking about the "Catholic terrorism in Ireland" in class last week. Facepalm.

I feel like garbage today. I'm leaving for English now, and then I'm going to half-heartedly finish my Western Civ homework in the library before class. Hopefully. Very tempted to blow off my second class so I can come home and sleep. My head feels heavy. I hate that feeling. I can't find any Tylenol, either.

Geology today was not as bad as I thought it would be. We all dropped acid and learned about how Mica is weak between the sheets. We also talked about all of the excellent cleavage in the room. It was very exciting, I can assure you.

Kelly and I finished lab at least an hour early and were dismissed. I headed down to the Tower Cafe, after having learned my lesson about the Cougars Cafe yesterday. Turns out that the Tower Cafe, which is supposed to sell fresh deli sandwiches, chicken breasts, warm soup, and the like didn't actually think ahead to order supplies for this semester, so all they had were overpriced chef salads and some dreadful macaroni soup that had been left on the boiler too long and had turned to mush. (Blue, I thought of you! I say that with love.)

As I was sitting in the dining area, I (unintentionally, mind you) listened to a discussion two women were having about anal and oral fixations. (That helped the dry lettuce leaves go down, I assure you.) The lead girl in this conversation had the most grating, nasal voice I'm heard in a long while. I wanted to dig up Freud's remains and stick a large bone up her nose.

From there, I headed over to the library to study for tomorrow's Western Civ. I class. I found a nice, comfy chair to sit in in a quiet area, draped my coat over me like a blanket, put my feet up on an ottoman, and woke up about two hours later. Oops. I got about 12 pages of reading done, which is Not Good. I'm going to have to finish my reading tonight (about 80 pages from one text, 50 from another) and then somehow answer all of the questions between my two classes tomorrow. Thankfully, you can print in the library.

I stopped by the Live Wire office before heading to Sociology to see if Mike, the editor, was available. I already have two (possibly three) formerly homeschooled students to interview, and I'm hoping to get a phone interview with the head of one of the major state homeschooling associations. I need to interview someone from the college, though, but I wanted Mike's input on who to go to. I'm thinking someone from Admissions or Student Affairs would be best, but I'm pretty sure he said on Tuesday he had someone in mind. I'm hoping to have this set up tomorrow so I can do an interview on Friday, but we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I can write up my Ani DiFranco review.


Eh. The ACLU hurts themselves by going over-the-top. Pick a more realistic setting and circumstances, and people will actually pay attention.

I came into the library around 2 p.m. to do my reading for Western Civ. I tomorrow. I just woke up. Whoops. At least I got up before Sociology starts...

Got to English late, but Mr. Klucznick was forgiving. I have now been late to at least one meeting of each course. Whoops.

Pet peeve: When someone says something wildly different from what I'm thinking, I respond with my thoughts, and they reply with "Exactly", followed by a retelling and/or extension of what I was saying. Yep, it's gonna be one of those classes.

I had my first experience with the "Cougars Cafe" after English, which is the fancy name they've given the lame cafeteria. I got a cheeseburger that had been sitting under the lamp for God knows how long, and I made myself a salad that consisted mainly of wilted, wet lettuce and garbanzo beans. Next time, I'll just go to the Tower Cafe, since their offerings seemed somewhat appetizing, albeit rapefully priced.

After that, I wandered over to the library to work on my Geology homework. I did some reading, but it was hard to concentrate once some girl arrived, plopped down right next to me (there were probably 40 available chairs in my area), and began eating potato chips and talking on the phone using the walkie-talkie function. I was literally going to grab her phone and throw it on the ground (hi, short temper) when I looked at the clock and noticed it was 15 of 3, which was when the newspaper meeting was supposed to start. I somehow managed not to throttle her on the way out, though believe you me, I was tempted.

The Live Wire meeting was really nice. Since I couldn't remember where we supposed to gather, I went to the office first, where I chatted with Alex for a few minutes before we headed down to L242 (there went my guesses of 253 and 258). I'd say maybe 15 or so gathered for the meeting, probably evenly split between old and new writers.

For the next issue, I'm going to be writing two articles. One is a CD review of Ani DiFranco's "Knuckle Down", and the other is a feature on formerly homeschooled students now attending MCC. I also volunteered to be the new Distribution Manager (ooh, fancy title!), which basically means I have to make sure copies are delivered to all of the pick-up points on and off campus.

I'm all of a sudden questioning my writing abilities. I'm going to be really embarassed if I submit something that stinks. I know I overthink everything and worry about stupid stuff until I aggravate my stress-related ulcers (speaking of which, ow), but it's hard for me not to. It's my nature. I'm anal, what can I say.

I went back to the library after the newspaper meeting ended and did some research on homeschooling in Connecticut. I planned on studying some more after that, but I'm quickly learning that the library is one of the least quiet places on campus. I decided to go wander around the LRC building until I found a remote nook to curl up in, which I eventually did. That's one of my favorite things about campus: there are all sorts of quiet study areas located in the most bizarre of places. It's nice, and I thoroughly plan on taking advantage of them on Tuesdays, since I'm going to be there pretty much all day.

While waiting for Mom to pick me up at the tower, I admired the giant wire pig now on display in the middle of the rotunda. I'm going to take the disposable camera I've been trying to finish off with me tomorrow so I can get a couple shots of it. It's really great. If it were for sale and I had money, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, even though I'm not quite sure where you display a giant wire pig bolted to an anvil. I might take some pictures of the campus at night, too, just because I think it looks pretty all lit up.


I can't help but think how much more boring my life has gotten since I started going to school. This is going to be all of my posts for the next 4 or so years. You bored yet?

( Links for my own reference; feel free to poke. )

I have a newspaper meeting at 3 p.m. somewhere in Lowe. The message on my answering machine said it was at 2 p.m. in 258 (or some such), and Alex said when he called yesterday that it's at 3 p.m. in 253 (or some such). I think I'll just show up around 3 and wander until I find it. Yep.

I have almost fallen out of this chair now at least a dozen times. It's really high up, the seat is tiny, the back is too far forward, and my brace keeps slipping off the foot rung, nearly taking me down with it. I should move, but I'm stubborn and kinda lazy. If you hear a thud followed by angry mooing noises, send help plzkthx.

Stay of execution! Jess, I'm glad you didn't come down. :)

( Full text. )

In other news, God only knows what that man was talking about tonight. My brains were already fried from Geology this morning (pudding, it's all chocolate pudding down there!), and Mr. Mesquita spent most of tonight talking about his full-time job at the college (he's only part-time faculty) and other things entirely unrelated to sociology. At least we got no homework?

I went to the college library and renewed Spellbound for a week. I just missed the bookstore before it closed, which ticked me off. Walking back to the tower to meet my father, I couldn't help but notice how pretty the campus is at night. When I first started taking classes at MCC in '99, most of my classes were in little modular buildings that were filled with termites and were situated at the bottom of a hill that had a staircase anyone could break their neck on during the winter. It's really grown, and the AST and LRC buildings look so beautiful all lit up at night. It was a nice walk, and I'm glad I took it rather than going through Lowe like I'd intended.

I'm going to have the last leftovers from Mom's navy bean soup and go to bed. My feet are killing me, and I think I feel a cold coming on. Sleep will be nice. :)

I'm calling bull. Who's with me? Looks like a watercolor to me. And good lord, girl, drink some water.

No, you don't want to click it if you have a weak stomach and/or you're a male who gets grossed out easily.

I'm going to class. Have fun eating dinner tonight! lulz

Lawyer may withdraw from case, preventing execution from happening

Griswold's reaction

( Text of first article. )

( Text of second article. )

I wonder sometimes what it would've been like to have been the age I am now back then, when all of this was going on. The feeling of terror girls around here went through must be unmatched, especially further east.


I had a small blemish on my forehead right between my eyes that I scratched in my sleep, and now it's so bad I can't even put concealer on it. Great. (Nice way to end that, right?)

I drove down to Lebanon (random trivia: Lebanon and Scotland are the only Connecticut towns sharing their name with a foreign country) with Dad to pick up snow tires he got free from someone he found on the Connecticut fishermen website he frequents. We drove over the "Most Beautiful Bridge" anywhere. We know it was the Most Beautiful Bridge anywhere because it had a sign reading "Most Beautiful Bridge". For the record, it was a typical bridge over a highway.

We stopped in Colchester and had calzones at Family Pizza on the way back. We should have stopped at my grandmother's house, but I've been sniffly and wheezy and didn't feel like dealing with the overbearing smoke smell there. I feel kinda bad, but honestly, I can't handle the smell of that place. It didn't bug me so much when I was younger, but I'm getting more and more sensitive to it as time goes on.

I'd say more about the Ross execution, but I've already left comments at the last post that sum up my feelings about the whole thing. I doubt there will be another stay, so I'm sure Monday at 9 p.m. will be it, but I'm still in shock over it. The idea that you can be given permission to kill someone else is beyond me.

I have a lot of reading left over. Bleh. Topography, here I come.


Also, this is the most disturbing thing I've ever seen. Yes, even more disturbing than anything found through jameth's journal. (That probably says more about me than the clip.)

It was such a bizarre feeling of relief when I woke up and read that Michael Ross wasn't executed last night.

He was scheduled to be killed via lethal injection last night at 2:01 a.m., but they announced at 12:45 that his lawyer was asking for another stay. (I wish I'd known then. I watched all of the coverage up until midnight or so, but then said a prayer for him, the person executing him, and the families, after which I went to sleep, thinking it was over with.) The state has until Monday to execute him; it's currently scheduled for Monday at 9 p.m.

I'll post more about this later — no time right now, since I'm going with my father to Lebanon to pick up snow tires for his truck — but I figured more than a few of you would be interested.

( Full story from CTNow.com, in case you get pestered for a password or something. )

I was late for Western Civ. I tonight, which of course had to be my first class in this course. I'm sure that left a great impression. I actually arrived at the campus and was starting to walk towards to entrance about 15 minutes before class started when I realized I'd left two papers from disability services at home. Fortunately, I flagged Mom down in time and we went back and got them. By the time we got back and I'd made it into class, pretty much everyone was there and seated, yet I somehow ended up with a seat in the front row.

Mr. LaRocca's wonderfully engaging and entertaining. He's very clear with his presentation and he uses the board and overhead a lot. (He also gives out free copies of The Nation, so points on that alone.)

We watched three short clips from shows he'd taped from television about ancient civilizations, and we also got a nice 10-minute break halfway through class (it's 3 hours long). The course is going to be pretty challenging, but I think I can do alright with it. All tests involve some form of essay, so...yeah. Wow. Lots of facts to memorize. At least there's a week between classes so I can read material over and over again.

I'm thinking I might make a more official poll for my toothpaste question. I suppose I should explain the reason I asked, since I know it's a rather bizarre thing to ask about. The theme of my Honors Comp class is "how we make choices". We opened with "The Road Not Taken", and every other reading we have involves some type of struggle between two (or more, I suppose) choices.

In addition to our regular writing assignments (I believe it's 4 papers total for the semester), we have to complete an independent study project where we write about an ordinary choice that everyone makes every day without putting much thought into it. I can't really give away much more than that since it could influence answers, but I'm thinking that my ordinary choice will be toothpaste. I've already been doing some research on the matter, and I think the final paper could be great.

I really should make an official poll on my website, though, since it'll need to be referenced in my final paper and I'd also like it to be somewhat blind. Unfortunately, I'm no good with any of that (pretty much no clue how to set up a poll without using Response-o-Matic or something like that), so I guess I'll read up on that this weekend. In any case, if you haven't responded yet, don't worry about it, though I would like it if you could jot down the information so you have it handy when I ask for it again.

I'm so happy I get three days off. My body's tired and my feet are beyond sore. Plus, I have so much reading to do. Oy. This is tough stuff.

I've decided that I adore Mr. Klucznik. First of all, he's an environmentalist. Second, he found a way to discuss coffee & free trade during a discussion of Flannery O'Connor. Third, he uttered the line "G. W., bless your heart" under his breath before using the "you're either with us or against us" line when talking about how we make choices in life.

Yep, this is going to be a fun course. :)

Also, I know this is entirely random, but I need to know this for my independent project, which I'll have to explain in greater detail at some point soon:

Which toothpaste do you use? Which company produces it? What are the listed active and inactive ingredients? (Yes, you'll need to have the tube and/or box handy to respond.) Where do you buy it (name of store if chain, please)? How much do you pay for it? What size tube do you usually get? How often do you buy a new tube? Do you reapply when brushing? Most importantly, why do you pick that brand?

I can't explain it entirely right now, but if you could leave me a comment with that info, I'd love you (more) forever.

Edit: To make this a little more fair, I suppose I should answer those questions myself. It'll give you an idea of what I'm looking for. ( Read more... )

Woo, snow day! I'm sorry I'm missing Socio tonight, but having some more time to read all of my Geology homework isn't a bad thing.

Dejio dropped off Word yesterday at my mother's store, so hopefully I'll be able to return the $130 Office disks and wait to get them from someone else. I wrote up my paper on plate tectonics, which is incredibly short and lame but really all I felt like doing, and did the topography work we were assigned. I should probably stop by Ms. Hadley's office tomorrow (if she's even in?) to find out if there's extra work she wants us to do for Monday, but, uh, no. ;) I'm going to finish up all of my reading for tomorrow's English class, then enjoy some more of my unexpected day at home.

In other news, Kelly is soliciting movie stars. I'm somewhat intrigued. I'm not exactly movie star material, mind you, but the idea of playing dress-up at my age seems interesting. :) Maybe I'll poke around Mom's store to see what she has for '30s-style glamour wear. She did have a flapper outfit a few weeks back, complete with hat and feather boa, but it's probably gone by now, and that's the '20s anyway. I guess I have to learn how to do my hair and apply makeup?

It's sooo cold. Off to forage for food and find another fleece to put on.