Home Again

I'm back home. I don't know how I feel about that. My Christmas was great. I've been hanging out with the old Plainwell gang. I've had a ton of fun but I think that I'm ready to go back to campus. There is always a ton of food in the house. It's hard to get motivated to go down in the dark dingy basement to jog. It's just different I guess. I'm not sure if I will buy another group exercise pass. I can get to the fieldhouse for free. I really need to just work on running so I think it might be a waste of $10 but it's also a nice change-up. I don't know. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I need to get on the treadmill now so this will be an extremely short entry. Meh...

Mr. Spock Would Be Proud

I'm done with two of my exams. It makes me sad that I'm done with Logic now. GVSU doesn't offer any kind of advanced logic course or anything. When I left the exam, Pestana said "See you later." It made me so sad. I definitely had a ton of fun in that class. This morning I also found out that PS was in logic this semester. She struggled a lot with it so now, I feel guilty because I could have been helping her out all along. I did get to help a guy from my Logic class though. His name is Chris. He is really sweet. It seemed like things were really starting to click for him. It makes me wonder if I should be a teacher. Then I remember how small my tolerance is. I am seriously considering applying as a tutor for logic. I know Pestana would give me a glowing recommendation. Apparently, Chris talked to him during office hours and I came up. I'm intimidating, I guess. Nothing I didn't know but it's sort of different coming from the Bushman himself. I don't think I completely aced the exam but I would have to mess up severely to have the exam bring my grade down. It was wedged very squarely at an A before so I'm not worried. I'm not super confident over the Chinese exam. I think I got between an 85 and a 90. With the dropped dictation and quiz scores, I think I might even get an A in that class. I know that my Honors grade will go up to at least a B+ with my term paper. That overall makes my GPA higher than a 3.5. So I'm on the Dean's List (barring any major screwups on my IR exam) and I'm well on the way to keeping my scholarship. I also got my housing situation majorly improved today. I'm going to apply with Louise from the rugby team. She is a super sweetheart and we get along really well. We want to live in Murray or South B. They are kind of expensive but they are SO spacious and gorgeous. They seriously look like a hotel...a really nice hotel. I hope we get in there, but that's all up to the Freshman lottery.

The Life and Times of the Studious Mind

Today was very productive. The beginning was definitely mild. I got my phone back so I got to talk to Mom and Dad. I also went to go get a muffin for breakfast. They are fattening but damn those little suckers are good. I read through most of my Chinese vocab, trying to get some of the characters to finally congeal in my brain. I figure if I just keep hammering it in, some of it is bound to stick. Then, Dad called and I started freaking out because I had already talked to them today so I figured Soozy died or something because they were calling again. Instead, he was just calling to give me a break from studying and to have me look at some really funny stuff on YouTube. Thanks, Dad! Then, I had my Logic study group at 2. I went to the library early to do more Chinese. It was nice to have a change of venue. Kristyn and Matt were the only ones to show up but that was fine with me. We spent 3 hours there. It felt like a complete waste of my time. I was tutoring them more than we were reviewing together. I was getting really anxious after being in there that long too. I took my meds but I still had that annoyed sensation in my whole body. I came back here and putzed around for a little bit. I got some dinner and all that jazz. Then I took a nap because my brain just stopped working. Afterwards, I got an energy drink from the C-Store. They were out of most kinds (surprise, surprise). Then studied Chinese some more in the lower Great Room for 2 more hours. Part of it was spent joking around with Isabella, Joel and Gabe, but I did get a lot done. I'll need to do more tomorrow but my final isn't until 2 p.m. so I'm not super concerned. I do need to have some brain function so I'm going to bed. P.S. I got a 100 on my last Logic quiz. Yep, I'm pretty much a badass.

Refrigerator Box

I have recently gotten shafted out of my housing arrangements. Grace apparently asked Carmen to live with MaryBeth, Treena and her. This would be no big deal. They have 5-person units at Laker Village. The problem is Carmen is in a wheelchair. We would need to have handicapped accesible housing and those units are only for 4 people. So, Grace pretty much said "Sorry I fucked you over. Good luck finding new housing this late in the game." I asked Mikay if maybe I could apply with her, Laura and Jessica (my neighbors) and Nora. I'm not quite sure what they'll say but I need an answer pretty quick. Housing contracts are due on the 15th. This needs to happen now. I don't even have any checks left. I don't know how this is going to work. Maybe when my mom comes to pick me up we can drop off the check for the deposit. This is stressing me out so bad. Although, I have found a good lead on a new home for the pigs. Beth's mom works at a Girl Scout camp that they keep guinea pigs at. If they have room, she would be able to take them. All of that plus exams makes me really surprised that my hair isn't falling out. I'm going to a little holiday gift exchange/dinner with some of the rugby girls tomorrow night. That should be a nice little diversion.

deMorgan is My Homeboy

Yesterday was the actress/ activist orientation for Vagina Monologues. It was a lot of fun. They talked about feminism and activism. We were all in small groups and they asked us to use Play-Doh to represent what we think that feminism means. We made an equals sign among other things. I was just really excited to use Play-Doh. They let us take it home at the end of the get-together. I made a llama while they were talking. I'm really excited for the production. Today was also a pretty good day. Logic was kind of pointless. I discovered that every time I speak up to solve a proof, I use deMorgan's law. de Morgan's is as follows:
For any two propositions, p and q, the negation of the combined conjunction is equivalent to the disjunction of the individual negations and vice versa. The negation of the individual conjunction is equivalent to the negation of the combined disjunction. Symbolically: ~(p . q)=~p v ~q and ~p . ~q=~(p v q)
I use it a lot because nobody else in the class seems to get it so when it has to be used I'm the only one who sees it and says something. After class, Kristen and I were joking around and I said that I should get a shirt that says deMorgan is my homeboy. I should make Treena a shirt that says "Confucius is my Homeboy." Then we'd match sort of. My tutoring session this morning was...interesting. The walk to the Student Services Building was miserable. It was crazy windy and cold. Then, Jeremy was about 20 minutes late. He was still a little bit sleepy. It was funny. Then we ended up talking about how the Chinese radical for door is like a saloon door. Then we drew in cowboys in a shoot out on the white board. I didn't really gain much from the session, except I don't think I'll ever forget 'jian.' I'm not mad about it though. There is this miasma of tension over exams. I'm not too stressed out about it. I'm most worried about my Chinese exam. The exam for Asia is take-home and Smith said that it's really easy. Speaking of Asia, I got my term paper back for revision. I got an A- and it was only the first go-around. I was really surprised that they got our papers back to us when they said they would. It's so not like them. I need to clarify my thesis, clear up a few of my topic sentences, and fix a few punctuation and citing errors. These are all very easy errors to fix so I should get a solid A on the final. Hopefully, I can pull out an A- overall in the class. I had a B on the midterm. An A- would solidfy my GPA and I wouldn't need to get as freaked out about it next semester. The GPA requirement on my scholarship is a 3.5 which I think should only be applied after your freshman year. As it is, I'm stressed enough about the transition to college and on top of it, I have grades to fret over. I'm feeling better about it with my term paper though.

Snow Falling On Chelseas

Yesterday was ...interesting. I had class across campus in the morning. I actually felt like Christmas is coming with all of the snow. I even got a chance to use my new coat. It's so warm. I just kind of putzed around a lot during the afternoon. I did some homework, worked a little bit on my scarf, and took a long and luxurious nap. Later in the evening/ early night, I went over to Julia's. She made me eggs. They were delicious. I sat on her floor reading her French textbook while she was on the phone with Lee. Then at 9, we went back to Niemeyer because Ruthie's friend Dave said that they were having a poker night. They weren't there so we ended up hanging out with Izzy, Treena, MaryBeth, Chris, Lyndia and Andrew. We watched the last half hour of Memoirs of a Geisha. Then we went to Ashley's room to watch Kate and Leopold. It was fun. Not too high energy but it was nice to just be around people. It feels like I have been a hermit lately. It was a nice break from my hermitage.