Lindsay Loves

Friday Five: Turkey Talk
1. On what day do you celebrate Thanksgiving? The last Thursday in November, same as the rest of the country. Thanksgiving isn’t like your birthday. You can’t just celebrate it on the weekend because the real day was a school night.
2. How do you traditionally celebrate this food-filled holiday? Since we moved back stateside, we’ve gone to my grandma’s house to meet up with some other extended family.
3. How do you like your stuffing cooked (in the bird, separately in a dish, store bought, etc.)? I don’t like stuffing, actually.
4. What is your favorite dessert to eat on Thanksgiving and who makes it? I like cake and ice cream. I’m good with store-bought cakes as long as they’re not frosted.
5. Can you name five things you are thankful for? God, being back at Church, my awesome friends, Harry Potter, and my infinite patience.

I didn’t do much of note last weekend. I unexpectedly got to lector on Sunday. I don’t know whose turn it was, but I don’t have any more Sundays until next semester. I was totally unprepared, but there were no difficult words, just really long passages. Thanks for not letting me stumble, Holy Spirit.

This has been a strange week. We haven’t had a day off since Labor Day, so everything seemed all topsy-turvy this week. I’d forgotten I didn’t have to go to 280 on Monday, but I stayed for the review session anyway. I had a question and got it answered, and then I had lunch with Andrew and Jen, so all was not wasted.

On Monday, I went with Sara, Grace (Sara’s GoF trip friend), Scott, Andrew, Hana, Dan, and… the last person, who’s name I can’t remember, to Adele’s. Sara had a ton of points to blow, since theater keeps her from eating at the Diner. It was an awesome time. I love my friends.

Apparently all our audience analyses for Comm sucked. He had them scored, but decided not to give them back so as to not crush us all. I thought I did better on this one than my last one. I avoided analyzing the audience as “twenty-four eighteen- to twenty-one-year-olds,” so there’s a point in my favor. The biggest problem I have with not getting them back is that I don’t know what exactly I did wrong. How can I do better if I don’t know what to do better than?

I was running insanely late on Tuesday morning. Luckily, 301 was in the library, so I could stay in for Honey Nut Cheerios instead of trying to run to the Diner for a bagel and then back around to the library. I live far too close to McKeldin for that kind of mad dash. It was also raining that morning, but class in the library was vaguely interesting. Auerbach invented a group presentation for us to do on Frankenstein. I’m covering contemporaneous reviews, which doesn’t sound hard at all. Then again, I got another B on my last paper, so I’m pretty much guaranteed a B in that class. I can live with that, but it’s frustrating to have done (what I think is) good work and get straight B’s. I feel like I haven’t even improved.

Tuesday night I went on yet another Adele’s trip. Most of us opted out of focus dates this semester, so we got a $40 spending cap for the last few weeks instead. It kicks in on Sunday, so the people with huge surpluses rushed for their last chance to take half a dozen friends to Adele’s. Sara covered Monday, Dan had Tuesday. Guy came on Tuesday, which was awesome because I finally got to see him. I hate losing track of people over time. We had ten people that time. As it turns out, Adele’s doesn’t seat groups over eight, so we split into two tables of five. My table had Hana, Dan, Guy, and Nick (a first-year from Wicomico). I finally had something other than a cheeseburger, since I’d had that Monday. I like habits; they’re comfortable. Again, dinner was an awesome time.

Wednesday was an odd day. I stayed on campus, but I didn’t leave my room until about noon since 280 was canceled outright. I met Scott and Andrew at the Diner, where we also ran into Cassie and Nick (from my astro lab last semester). Then Cassie’s boyfriend and Guy joined us. I never would have thought I’d like being with big groups so often, but group meals are some of my favorite times, period. I bought lunch for Andrew and Scott, which put me back on track since I’d spent no points Tuesday. We had to cut lunch short because I had to get over to Jimenez for my Spanish interview.

The interviews were up on the fourth floor, in my TA’s office. Man, that was a lot of stairs after a fast walk. The first interview took a while, which made me nervous. I went second. I was nervous, and told her that (in Spanish!), but I could tell she was impressed. So I nailed it. Yay me. (Does that translate?) Andrew came over after I got back and packed my last few things. He’s the first non-relative I managed to rope into watching Joan of Arcadia with me — and he liked it! We were in the middle of the second episode when my mom showed up. He helped me carry my things down, though I’ve managed my mammoth bags by myself before.

I got back and unpacked a bit. My mom, the rugrats, and I went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner. Our server reminded me a lot of Greg’s friend David. It started to snow while we were eating. Of course I left all my heavy gear at school when it got frigid down here. Campus is not that far north of here!

Thanksgiving was the perfect lazy day. I woke up late, found some breakfast, and got dressed around 1pm. We left for my grandma’s house around 3:30. The food was fabulous, as always. My grandma can cook. I’d had a feeling my mom would try to talk me into saying grace. She’s done it every single year, except last year, and then she picked on my dad because he was in RCIA. She tends to volunteer other people to do things. That’s not to say that she never volunteers for things, but I get tired of her volunteering me. At least my intuition is aroused easily lately, so I was prepared.

Yesterday, I did some homework so I wouldn’t feel I’d wasted the whole weekend. Megan and Stephanie are home for break, and wanted to do something, but they couldn’t figure out what, so I went out with my family… again. We had dinner at IHOP (so much yay!), then went to see GoF… again. I’d never seen a movie more than once in theaters, but I knew I didn’t quite get GoF the first time, so it was a good chance to break that habit of mine. It was so much better the second time. I cried. Since I already knew the major things, I had a chance to look around and listen for things I’d missed the first time. My family enjoyed it. Ryan was really tired, but not scared. I wrote a personal review for my LJ (if you’re not on my flist, or on LJ, go do it, and let me know so I can friend you). Now, about that series re-read….

I have done mostly nothing today. I cleaned my bathroom and did another load of laundry. I hate chores, but I love being clean and having clean things, so I do them anyway. I really like Nickelback’s “Photograph” and Gorillaz’s “Feel Good, Inc.” but I am hearing them far too often on the radio this weekend. Nickelback gets seriously overplayed. I like the radio, but there should be more variety than that among the four stations I listen to.

Thursday night, I think, I decided that, since the Good Ship redesign is finished, I should go back to my personal blog archive project. I only got through about 200 entries, but it’s just copying and pasting now. The problem is the framework. The GS redesign was my first attempt at XHTML, so now I intend to use XHTML all the time. That means I have to convert almost 200 files. I knew there had to be something I could download to do it for me, so I Googled and discovered HTML Tidy… but only as a Linux program-type-thingie. (All I know about Linux is it’s an OS and has that cute penguin logo.) So I did some more Googling and discovered HTML-Kit. Oh, dear. I was IMing Sara at the time, but I was very interested in our conversation, so I pretty much drowned in it. HTML-Kit, as I told Sara, is the Firefox of Notepad. It is at once the simplest and most complex source code editor I’ve ever seen. I love it. It has HTML Tidy, so it’ll convert my HTML files to XHTML with only a few mistakes. I still love Notepad, but whoa. It can do everything for you, or only what you want it to. It’s just… I’m geeking out. Check it out for yourself.

No plans for tonight, but I might give Megan and Steph a call. Or maybe I will watch Finding Nemo. Decisions, decisions.

Friday Five
1. What do you do for fun? I love to read, but I do so much of that for school, I don’t get to do it for fun very often anymore. I spend a lot of time on the computer, but I try to balance as much as possible by actually going out to see people sometimes. You know, other than Maura sitting next to me at her computer while I’m at mine.
2. Is there a person from your past you would like to talk to again, even if it would be a potentially painful conversation? I haven’t talked to Mark in a very long time. I’d really like that.
3. What is your favorite comfort food? Ooh, mashed potatoes! It has to be in moderation, though. I had mashed potatoes in the Diner recently, but the server gave me such a huge mound, I got sick of them. Or maybe that’s just what happens with Diner food. It could be so much worse, though.
4. What is your preferred form of self-expression? (Do you dance; or express yourself through music, conversation, etc.) Writing, of course. I would still blog even if no one read it, and I love my stories and rare poetry. I’ve become better at conversation, though. Come out of my shell a whole lot. Thanks, Greg.
5. You just received $5000; what do you spend it on? Spend? Coming up is the time of year when I have, like, no money. Christmas and everyone’s birthday all the way through the end of February. That’d go into the bank, saving toward my loan payments. Le sigh.

You know, I always say I should blog more often, yet I never actually do it. I’ve fallen into this Friday habit. It’s like Windows Update Tuesday, only more like Lindsay Blogging Friday. And that’s not even consistent anymore; I’ve had Saturday afternoon and even Sunday now and then. So the weekly roundup continues. Prepare yourselves: this post is spectacularly long, even for me.

Fr. Bill was back on Sunday. It made me realize how much I’m going to miss not having him around once I graduate, whenever that is (see previous posts re: BA or MA). If I’m still in Maryland if/when I get married, I want him to officiate.

I have not been watching 7th Heaven lately. This season is about consequences, and I’m tired of SexyAndBoyCrazy!Ruthie and Martin, the Boy Who Won’t Admit He’s Going to Be a Father. I haven’t minded missing it… two weeks in a row. Smallville, I miss. Anyway, I didn’t watch because I was busy working away on my last paper for 301. My thesis was kind of eh, but my organization was so tight. I gave every paragraph a subject/title so I’d remember to keep it all straight. Yay for obsessive neatness. I really don’t want a B in 301. (I accidentally typed “C” when I wrote that, then panicked and thought, “NO! That was not a Freudian slip! No no no!” only very quickly as I do not always think in nice sentences like that.) Right after I finished writing the body and went to spell-check, my computer froze. Thankfully, I recovered the body entirely because I save every paragraph. Then it froze again, so I had to edit partly by hand. I managed to get it printed in the morning, so no crisis for that one.

Side note: Jenny sent me a very lovely grammar book, Woe Is I, for my birthday, which I retrieved when I went home a few weeks ago. It is very helpful and witty. I love it.

I had lunch alone on Tuesday, so I was finished by 12:30. I knew I should read for Spanish at 1, but I really didn’t feel like it. Suddenly I remember that there’s Adoration in the Chapel every Tuesday and Wednesday, so I decided to go. Lacey has the first shift on Tuesdays; she waved at me when I entered. I prayed for about 15 minutes. It was very nice chatting with Jesus, but my knee was hurting again. Then I hustled to Spanish class.

We did the imperative tense last lesson. One of my teacher’s examples of a command was the first Commandment. I was very flustered when I couldn’t remember exactly what it says. I’m reminded of a saying: “There is no such thing as a bad Catholic. There are only those who try and those who don’t.” I’m learning. I’m trying. The first Commandment is six verses in Exodus 20 (I looked just now), but I knew she was looking for something shorter. We eventually came up with “Love God above all things,” which translates as “Ama el Dios sobre todas otras cosas” (I think). So by then, I’m thinking, “Okay, Jesus. I hear you.” Then, our activity was to give a list of commands we’d proclaim if we got to be President of the United States for a day. Examples of my class’s responses: Lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. Legalize marijuana. My first proclamation was to recycle more. My teacher told us we were all socialists.

So after class, I dumped by stuff off and went back to Adoration. I prayed a rosary that time, so that was another twenty minutes on my protesting knee. My dad called while I was finishing up, but I keep my phone off until I’m sure I can let it ring, so it just beeped once quietly. When I came home, I Googled and found an article on the debate over the appropriateness of praying the rosary during Exposition. I’d felt a little strange doing it, but I like the meditation. I do my best to focus on Jesus when I pray the rosary. My thought process goes something like this: “Hail Mary, full of grace… Coronation of Mary… Queen of Heaven and Earth… someday we’ll get to be in Heaven too… with Jesus!” Always linking back to Jesus. Reading about Catholicism and apologetics has made me aware of the Mariolatry claim, and since I’ve committed to living my faith, I avoid wandering into that area like the plague. I don’t know if I’ll ever combine the rosary and Exposition again, but I don’t think it’s wrong.

I had to get up early on Wednesday to do my white laundry. I only wear white socks. I had a few pairs left, but only just enough to last until today, after which I’d be forced to do laundry on a weekend. I’ll choose volunteering to sheer necessity any day.

I got a B- on my informative Harry Potter speech in Comm. I was expecting a better grade. He did like my “conversational style” though, so maybe over rehearsing is the way to go. I think I’m going to ask if we can see the rubric for our persuasive speeches. I started with a rhetorical question, which we were apparently forbidden to do, but he didn’t tell us that. I’m never quite sure which way to go. He strikes this odd balance between strict and liberal. He wear jeans and a baseball hat, and sits on the table to lecture and lead discussion. But when my group paper was seven pages (over the requirement of 4-6), he wrote “4-6 pages!” And he didn’t understand that I’d cross-referenced our list of works cited. For our speeches, we’re apparently suppose to stick to additional requirements that we don’t know about, but be innovative and interesting. I think it’s really boring to say, ” Blah blah attention-getter. Blah blah intro. Blah blah this is a one-sentence outline of my speech.” I guess not, since I lost points for not forecasting. I will be very disappointed if I get a B in such a pointless class. I did all this stuff in the eighth grade. And I don’t like giving speeches anyway.

I got to the CSC for Mass a bit earlier than usual. It was hell week for Maura, so I went by myself again. I ran into Estefania there, who was in my retreat group. When we went into the Chapel, there was only one guy there, and the lights were still dimmed. It was very nice for those first few quiet, dim minutes. I led a decade of the rosary, praying on my knees again. There was another lector, so I knew I’d get a chance to sit. My knee protested so much when I stood up when Mass started. The pain was insane. I could barely concentrate through Mass. I looked when I got back and found a rather large bruise, right on the top of my left knee. No more kneeling for a while.

Dinner was really fun. I decided to skip Sign Language Club, so I stayed a while to talk. There were seven or eight of us from First Timer’s Retreat sitting around having a very tangential discussion. We decided that Jane Austen is generally underappreciated by anyone without a uterus. I got to do some HP talk, so I’m sure they all now understand how crazy I really am. Good times and really good brownies.

Thursday was a very busy day. I woke up at 7am and actually left about four minutes earlier than usual, so I didn’t have to use my breakneck Diner pace. Right after I got my (well-sliced, finally) bagel, my knee started to ache, throwing me into a sudden limp. Not fun. I did finally get some chocolate milk, though, which was fun, and I recovered enough to get to class. I’d also finished the reading, so yay. We had Frankenstein this week. It was a pretty cool book. I don’t think I’ve seen any movie version of the Frankenstein story other than the bits from Van Helsing, but I’d never heard the real story before. It’s very interesting. Dracula is also on the Lifetime version of my To Read list, but it’s nice to have knocked off Frankenstein. Also, I share a birthday with Mary Shelley.

I came back after class and registered for next semester. It was tricky working out my schedule so I could have Wednesday afternoons free, but I think I managed it. I don’t think I’ll have time to eat lunch, though. I’ll work it out somehow. I really need this job for the experience. The money won’t hurt, either.

I finished registering just in time to scan the readings for Mass, then scoot over to the Chapel in time for the rosary. I led a decade, then read. It’s the Book of Maccabees right now, which I’ve never read before. The Old Testament has some really cool stories. After Mass, I met Sara for lunch. We talked for a while, but not too long.

Then I went over to Cole Fieldhouse for my job orientation. I’ll be teaching at Severna Park with a junior named Irene. I got stuck with planning the activities for the Service Learning unit. I wanted Academic Planning, but they gave that to the senior, Liz. I have no idea what to do. I’m not big on volunteering requirements, though I try to volunteer when I can. I think I’ll enjoy this job. It’ll help me bridge that problem I have with a whole room of students whom I’m expected to make learn. And it’s low-pressure, since I’ll have a partner and only fifteen students. It’s not like I’m trying to make 35 kids understand Chaucer. That will come later, I hope… I think I hope.

The meeting lasted almost an hour and a half, so I came back quickly to try to read for ARHU. There was much skimming going on, though the readings were “accessible,” as Tanya puts it. I call that “not horrible.” I was a bit behind leaving for class, so I wound up sitting at the far end of the room. I literally had a new perspective on the class. I also had another vaguely telepathic moment with Tanya, since Pat led discussion again. (She passed her defense — yay, Tanya.) Pat asked a question, and I mouthed (to myself), “I don’t understand.” She mouthed back, “You will.” So I waited, then I understood more, then I mouthed, “Oh,” and she smiled. Class ran right up until 6:30 again, after which I split for the CSC.

I was late for Fiat dinner, but another girl showed up right as I was crossing that horrible intersection, so we were late together. The food wasn’t fabulous. The chicken casserole had a lot of peas and celery in it, but I was very hungry, so I ate around it and tried not to be too conspicuous. We had cream puffs for dessert, which I’ve never had before. A bit too rich and creamy for my taste, but fun to try. I sat next to Sr. Rose, who told me how excited she was to read The Constant Gardener, since she’s from Kenya. Sr. Ann, from the Sisters of the Visitation, was our speaker. She was so lively and animated. She teaches Latin at Visitation Prep School. They’re having a day of discernment in December, but I have an Evil 8am Saturday Final, so I can’t go. Otherwise, I totally would. I haven’t met many sisters, but I like the ones I’ve met this fall.

I got back from Fiat dinner around 8pm. I did my 280 and Spanish homework, studied a bit for my Spanish test, watched Everwood, and waited impatiently for Sara. She showed up with Grace around 11:15, having driven about 100mph to get back up from Virginia after her show. We picked up another girl, Arielle, then flew out to Arundel Mills. We wound up sitting in pairs in the theater in Muvico; I sat with Sara since I didn’t know the others. We got our seats at least ten minutes before the trailers started. Sara made excellent time.

The movie was SO COOL. The woman next to me kept commenting, and she was a loud laugher, but I subtly shushed her, so it was fine after a little while. No spoilers ahead. GoF is my favorite book (though my one read of HBP is pushing for a takeover), so I had high hopes for this movie. It wasn’t as enchanting as the others, but I think I like that. As I told my mom when she called at lunchtime, it was less about the magic, and more about Harry’s story with some magic thrown in. It was more realistic… as realistic as a supervillian without a nose can be, I suppose. Ralph Fiennes as was wonderful as Voldemort. I was kind of scared. Not as scared as during HBP, though. Ooh, that’s gonna be a good movie. Anyway, there were some beautiful visual moments. It was literally darker. Combined with my tired, bleary eyes, I had some trouble seeing during the graveyard scene. I could have done with a lot more of the Champions, especially Krum. (Giggle. And Draco. Oh, dear.) They did very well with keeping up the characterization during all those plot points, though. The smaller scenes were the best, I think. This series has made me acutely aware of how influential the director is to a movie. I’ve never quite understand what effect the director has. But these movies all have the same writer, and the same actors, more or less, so the huge differences must be due to the director. Yay for Mike Newell. So, overall, lovely movie, go see it.

Coming back was fun, too. Sara and I were in the very back row. The people were dawdling getting out, so we decided to climb over the seats in front of us, which is how we got up there. I attempted to pull my long-legged great big step, but wound up slamming my bad knee into a cupholder. I’d also run into a velvet-ish rope pole with that knee on our mad dash to the theater, so I was not in good shape. Much pain. Sara is far more space efficient than I am, so she tried to climb down by stepping into the chair, forgetting that they rock, so she kind of fell, too. We’re so graceful. We drove back at a normal speed, then Sara and I took the last Blue shuttle back to North Hill. I got to bed around 3:45am.

I got to sleep in until 8:30, but then I had to get up for class. Maura slept in way late, which was odd. I was pretty tired, but functional enough. 280 was fine. I had lunch with Andrew, which was lovely. My knee was its worst, though, since I still have that bruise, and the cupholder left a big bump. Making my bed this morning was awkward. I felt underprepared for my Spanish test. My teacher wrote this one, so I knew it’d be the hardest, but who would have expected me to study last night with Harry Potter on the horizon? I’m pretty sure I messed up some conjugations, but we’ve done about four tenses now, so that’s expected.

I came home and took a nap since Comm was cancelled. I got up and played online for a while, then went to dinner with Hana, Rebecca, and Dan, then came back to play some more. I intended to study. I’m about 3 weeks behind on copying my 301 notes. The rest of my weekend work looks deceptively light. Guy called me last night; he, Andrew, and probably Scott also decided to go to Muvico, but I went straight to voicemail when I called him once we got there. Maybe we’ll hang out tomorrow night.

Oh, Harry Potter. How I love thee. Yay, squee, and all that good stuff.

It’s late, and I should be getting to bed before church, but I’ll do this while it’s still Saturday according to Lindsay time.

Friday Five:
1) What is your favorite noise to hear? Good music. Hey, a weird question deserves a weird answer; failing that, a boring one.
2) If you could live in any era of time, what would you choose and why? The 80s seem fun. Not so much with the AIDS and what have you, but otherwise. Lots of fun 80s dancing tonight. Everyone do the Molly Ringwald!
3) You just found $50 while cleaning your house. Where do you decide to spend it? Bookstore, hands down. Of course, that means I’d have to wait until I need some new books… and since I have no time to read for pleasure anymore, that could be a while.
4) What magazines to you subscribe to/read on a normal basis? I used to read COSMOGirl, Seventeen, and Teen People, but now I don’t read any of them. I let my subscriptions expire. Now I read the last few CGs and the Washington Post Magazine when I can.
5) If you could witness any event in history, but not change anything about it, what would you choose and why? Either the Ascension, for obvious important reasons, or my parents’ wedding, since I’d like to see how they started out.

Oh, my week. I had to do my Comm speech on Monday. I gave it on reasons why adults that like Harry Potter aren’t childish, and I think I did well. I’d practiced so many times while writing my outline Sunday night that I nearly memorized it. We had to be between five and seven minutes, with deductions for being under or over. I’d gotten seven one time, then five exactly, and six when I rehearsed that morning. My actual speech was just over five. I got nervous when I was nearing my conclusion and my teacher hadn’t flashed the two-minute warning at me, but it turned out fine.

I went to see UMRO (UMD Repertoire Orchestra) on Monday night after a lovely group dinner. I’d never seen a live orchestra, nor had I heard Maura and Andrew play, so I was excited. I sat with Nick, one of the HH first years. It was amazing. I was so impressed. I have such awesome talented friends! And it was free!

Tuesday, I think, was pretty empty. We debated the merits of the English major in 301. Then there was some Spanish spoken, though not necessarily by me. (What a Dan-like sentence that was.)

Wednesday, as well, is drawing a blank for me. Obviously I did something besides go to class. Ah. Maura finally came to Mass and free dinner at the CSC with me. We got there just a bit behind for the rosary. I knelt again, thinking maybe last week’s extreme pain was a fluke. Nope. So I kind of hobbled up to the lectern (well, not really), and I think the pain in my knees made me stumble a little as I read. I’d pre-read those, so I shouldn’t have had as much trouble as I did. I still got compliments, though, even from a guy in my Spanish class I hadn’t known was Catholic. Also, Lyzii talked me into buying a ticket for the Fall Ball, and then we walked back to North Hill.

I missed Sara and Hana at lunch Thursday, but I did see Grant from my Bible study at Mass. Tanya decided to quiz us on the ARHU readings, so I wasn’t able to do the second half of my deliverable that afternoon. I had to try not to fall asleep over Foucault, the freak. Pat led discussion, since Tanya was worn out from preparing for her dissertation defense. Maybe it was Pat’s energy or just my eagerness to not fail the quiz, but I think I understood all the things I took notes on. I’m not sure how the quiz went. I think I answered the question (a choice from five) well enough to prove I’ve been… well, attempting to do the reading.

I also had advising Thursday afternoon with English. My advisor was very nice and pregnant, which go well together. She highly recommended Foundations of Rhetoric (or whatever it’s called), which sounded boring and scary to me, but I might go with it. I’d had some downtime before I went there after lunch, so I fiddled with Testudo in the HH reading room for a bit. I ran into Julia, Seth, and a girl I think was named Davida. Not as cool as the old study lounge, but still handy.

Friday morning, I managed to finish my laundry early enough for advising at 10:20am. I had to wait a little while after I got there, but I did see Danielle from retreat there. The Department of Education has worked out its five-year master’s program. I’m not sure if I want to do it, though. I want to get out of this school and go teach, to quit spending all this money I don’t even have yet. On the other hand, it might suit me better and be more profitable if I have a master’s degree starting out, rather than a bachelor’s. We shall see.

I had another group dinner last night, after which I came home to study. Yes, studying on a Friday night; I am a wild and crazy gal. I took a break to watch another episode of the awesome awesome Joan of Arcadia, to try on clothes for tonight, and to waste time online.

Today was pretty good. I had breakfast with Sara and Andrew. Sara’s latest play just opened, so I hadn’t seen her in a while. We’re going to see GoF next Thursday at midnight, though, so that should be fun. I will be very tired on Friday, but my Comm class is canceled that afternoon, so I can come back early to nap if necessary. Anyway, I did some work after lunch, then Hana came over. She helped me decide what to wear and we talked for a while. Lovely girl, that Hana. We walked down to the CSC to see if we could get a Fall Ball ticket for Maura, but Fr. Bill just said she could get advance price at the door regardless. We met up with Andrew, Seth, and Nick for dinner, and ran into Dan leaving with carryout, but he came back in to sit with us.

After Maura got back from CSPAC, we got ready for the dance. It was great fun because we listened to awesome music that got us pumped before we even left the dorm, and because we thanked God for being so gorgeous. Yay, God. It was cold walking over there, but the dance was so much fun. Maura and I started dancing with Kaitlin right away, since no one was really out there yet. It had started about twenty minutes before we got there, so the people just needed some warming up. Our CSC is kind of partnered with the Newman Center at Towson, so some of their people came down to join us. Oh, the dance was awesome. There was an odd string of grossly inappropriate rap songs, though. Seriously, the Catholic dance is not where you play “Get Low.” Once the supervising DJ came back, we were better. I danced with Fr. Bill for a bit, which was strange because (a) I’m not a very good dance partner, and (b) I’ve never danced with a priest before. My hair totally frizzed because I was sweating so much. The ringing in my hears is almost gone, though. My feet are still killing me, but I’ll get to bed soon and they can rest. I’m so glad I went out tonight. I love to dance. Yay for happy Catholic dancing fun.

Friday Five
1. What are you most self-conscious about? I don’t like to be so predictable, but my appearance. I mean, if people can’t look at me seriously, how can I expect them to take what I say seriously? It’s like my Comm TA was saying, don’t give a speech about cancer wearing a tube top. I also just like to look cute.
2. What’s your favorite word? Lovely. Again, fairly predictable. It’s just such a… nice… word. And it goes with my name, which was very handy on retreat.
3. What’s your biggest fear? Failure, loneliness, and uselessness. Yes, dear readers, abstract concepts are scarier than spiders.
4. What’s the weirdest thing ever to happen to you at work/school? I get lost fairly often. I still can’t ever remember which end of St. Charles Towne Center has Old Navy and which end has Afterthoughts. So, getting lost at school is my weirdest thing. On my first day at Flowers, my first class was in room 400-something. The school only has three floors, so I had to ask for directions. The admin right inside the door sent me up to the third floor, where another teacher sent me down to the second, where I was directed back to the first floor and finally found my room. The numbering there is by department, not floor. It’s worse than Jimenez. On my first day at OHHS, I couldn’t find my engineering classroom because it was across the courtyard, but numbered like it should have been in the main part of the building. Like Craig said about Jimenez, it has “crackhead” numbering.
5. If you were going to have a revolution, what kind of society would you create? Fear not, I think I’ll forgo my dreams of starting a revolution. I’m good with small change. I had this great Ghandi quote on my door last semester, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Words to live by.

I don’t do much online shopping, but sometimes I look around. (Not unlike my real shopping habits, really). Of note yesterday: an awesome Urban Outfitters shirt I saw a girl wearing in my Comm class (which I would totally wear if I could spend that much on a t-shirt), the Ravenclaw shirt Hot Topic finally made (but again, I can’t really afford it), and this very funny bumper sticker.

Yesterday afternoon, the carillons (the Chapel bells) played the Marine Corps march at 4pm. I thought I was hearing things at first. I remember seeing someone post in the UMD LJ about the carillons playing a special song sometimes, but I thought it was Sunday evening. Either way, it was cool to hear something other than the alma mater.

Sunday was a nice day. My mom still won’t take the rugrats to church every week, which bothers me, but they’re not my kids. We went to church together, then had lunch at Ledo Pizza. My stromboli was yummy. We did some shopping afterwards. Payless was having a Buy One, Get One Half-Off sale, so we got our respective sizes of the same shoe. I haven’t spent time out alone with my mom like that in quite a while. We don’t have quite the same relationship as she does with my grandma, but maybe someday. I spent the afternoon doing laundry and no homework, then my dad drove me back to campus after dinner. Rule of thumb for trips home: Always stay for dinner.

We got timeslots for our informative Comm speeches on Monday. I have to do mine this coming Monday. I’m worried, as usual. It’s like how my writing is technically flawless, but sometimes boring. I fear my speech will be that way. I’m also not sure I can inform people about the experience of Harry Potter without sliding too far into persuasion. I don’t want to go with something non-HP because I’ll lose the sheer passion of my speech, and that’s my big selling point.

Tuesday was All Saints’ Day, which is a Holy Day of Obligation, so I had to go to church. I have my study gap that day, so I decided to sit in the garden behind the Chapel instead of dozing off in the library. I got to lead a decade of the rosary, which was cool. Lacey was kneeling behind me when I sat back down, and apologized for being kind of in the way, saying, “Sorry, Lindsay. I’m all up in your grill,” which was just south of hilarious. I was surprised to see so many people there, even though I’d expected them. It’s weird to go from a weekday Mass of about twenty people to about two hundred. Fr. Bill asked me to read. I’d had a feeling I’d get to lector, though not enough of a feeling to have pre-read the night before. I had to wing it through two readings and the psalm, but I got through it without a single mistake. Thanks, Holy Spirit.

Wednesday was okay. I hadn’t read for Spanish class, but I’m doing really well regardless. It still amazes me how much I retained from freshman year of high school. Comm speeches were pretty interesting: aromatherapy, pumpkin carving, video games, and Asian-American food. When I got to the CSC around 5:10pm, I found a Mass already underway, which I joined in on despite my utter and complete confusion. Apparently, there are three Masses celebrated on All Souls’ Day, instead of the usual two. In arriving early for the rosary, I’d walked into the middle of the second daily Mass. Oops. I lead another decade, then stayed through the right Mass and dinner. I’m beginning to love Wednesday Dinners. If I’d started going before First Timers’ Retreat, I probably would have just had that awful alone-in-a-crowd feeling, but since I know some people now, it’s fun. And there’s free food. Sign Language Club is getting a tad repetitive, but my retention of ASL is nowhere near my Spanish, so I will keep going.

Thursday was a long day. I left on time for 301, so I didn’t have to rush as much. I talked with Julia, a first-year HH-er, on the way there. Auerbach intended to have an open discussion just amongst the students, but that never works. Someone has to facilitate it, so it was basically just his leading the discussion from a very out-of-the-way seat. It made the class seem really long, though, when it usually passes pretty quickly. I came back to the dorm, then went to Mass. Hana and Sara had gone for lunch early, but we all stayed and talked for a while after we ate.

I came back after lunch to tackle the rest of the ARHU reading. Oh, Tanya, why do you have such high expectations for us? Settle, please. It was the linguistics mode, though, so I was actually mildly interested. I think I actually understood Saussure enough to write my response, and I enjoyed reading about Signifyin[g] once I figured out he meant momma jokes. For once, we had an academic article that was really interesting. Class wasn’t so great. We stayed the whole period, and Tanya and Pat are still going to quiz us next week — AND our next deliverable is due. ARHU, why do you suck so much?

I went to dinner with Scott, Andrew, and Dan, then came back for Bible study. I found Tim this time, but there was a class using the basement lounge, so we moved up to the Honors library. Maura came this time, along with Jim from my retreat small group, and a guy named Grant. We’re doing the Gospel of Luke, so we studied the Annunciation. I really enjoyed it.

Yesterday was okay. I got up and did my laundry without much hassle. Finally, I got a Friday morning where it wasn’t raining. I was a week behind on my 280 reading, but I still got through class. It’s mostly lecture, anyway. I had lunch with Andrew and Scott, and ran into Dan (from retreat, not the Dan I usually mention). Kelsey sat behind me in Spanish. When I turned around to pass the attendance list back up, she was writing with this enormous pencil. I swear it was fourteen inches long — it was like suddenly being in a comedy or something. We played a version of bingo that had no prize, only “punishments.” Yesterday’s Comm speeches were decidedly more… I’ll go with “interesting”: Bollywood, hangover recovery, why one girl joined her sorority, and sex toys. As Javi remarked on our way out of class, I’m glad my parents no longer ask what I learned in school every day. Oh, it was awkward.

I tried to study, but I’m such a bad studier lately. I had dinner with Hana. I like talking with her. I think I just like talking to people in general. I spent so many years never going out, never doing anything, and never seeing anyone. I’m glad that’s changed. I desperately wanted to go karaoke, but I couldn’t find anyone to go with me, so I shall have to wait to indulge next month. When I got back from dinner, though, I managed to get down to studying and caught up on my 280 reading from last week. Now I just have to tackle the rest of my mountain of work. Boo.

Two weeks until GoF! I’m pretty sure Sara and I are gonna do the midnight thing. I’m so excited! It’s going to be SO COOL! </fangirling>