Category: Whining

in the unconcious sense anyway.

yet another change in weekend camping plans: 46 peaks has been postposed b/c of hurricane isabel, which is supposed to drench the mountains this weekend. we’d be at risk for mud slides, flash floods, you know, your general life threatening wilderness events. and you thought bears were scary! we should be going next weekend, when it might be colder, but not nearly as…wet.

i saw “groove boutique,” which my jazz professor, ‘the doctuh’ mike woods, composed. he and the band he put together jammed for us in class this morning and then performed in the barn tonight acompanied by scenes from a one-act about a salon called groove boutique. the atmosphere was perfect – lights, tables, set, audience, the smell of “light refeshments” coming from the kitchen. oh yeah, the best part was the food. they served potato salad, collard green and roasted tomatoes, fried chicken and corn bread. uhh, yum.

on a whiny note: why is the internet connection so slow?

in the past two days, two different girls have randomly introduced themseleves and started talking to me on the way up the hill. one of them skipped right by, “hello” and went straight into, “how are you?” it takes me by surprise when people do that b/c i try not to think about how friendly most people are, b/c i don’t want to jinx it, but that’s what drew me to hamilton in the first place. i introduced myself and explained that i’m a transfer student (“i’m like a freshman”) and both girls went, “oh! i keep seeing you around but i didn’t recognize you so i just thought you were a freshman,” and were cool about it. maybe they’ll spread the word?

should i go abroad? i think i want to, but it seems a little weird to spend two semesters at hamilton and then take off again for another whole year. honestly, it still feels a little like i’m only here temporarily. maybe just one semester away? where? hmmmm.

i talked to laura yesterday! she asked how i was adjusting to the new masculine presence in my life, and i told her the truth, which is that on monday morning, i saw a guy crossing the street and unconciously thought, “oh, he must either a) be visiting his girlfriend or b) be taking one of the five college classes.” i had to poke myself mentally! there’s obviously some residual all-women’s college-itis in my system.

quote of the day: “she says, ‘forget what you have to do, pretend there is nothing outside this room” – ani difranco

love always, em locke

first of all, i’m very excited that the fourth edition of “teen girl squad” has been released. check these chicks out. they are looking soooooooo good!

not so excited about the current state of my physical health. (sick)

so, it looks like i’m going on 46 peaks weekend after all. still feel a bit nervous about proving my woodsiness abilities, but as long as i can act as independently as possible and maintain confidence in myself, i think it will be a good experience. mom is excited that i’m going – she’s sending all my random camping equipment that i haven’t used in years and never would have thought to bring. i need to locate my long underwear though – it’s going to be mad cold in the adirondacks! as long as i don’t get hypothermia again it will be all good. it’s a four mile hike into the campsite where we’re staying on friday, then we campout and leave our gear at the site the next morning, and it’s about 6 hours up the seward mountain peak and back down to camp. i want to take it easy and enjoy the mountains for the weekend. we’ll be back on saturday night, just in time for me to do some laundry, watch tv and read walden in my spa bathrobe before bed.

addie said she would be interested in going camping anytime, so maybe we can do our own little chill trip sometime.

had my computer cleared for viruses today. the help desk guy was very interesting, and told me that he is always looking for people to work the night help hotline, so maybe i’ll go fill out an application there. de ja vu or what? i’m also going to finally gather the courage to e-mail the director of the writing center and see what my options are, if any, in terms of continuing my writing center work at hamilton. i do really miss it; i helped addie with a paper of hers last week and just felt right at home.

sometimes i miss mhc, but i cherish those feelings of belonging. more to come, right?

quote of the day: “this is the class where you learn a healthy disrespect for things.” – mhc journalism professor

love always, em locke

it’s just insane for to attempt survival without my laptop for upwards of a week. but when the keyboard starts producing something like this: QwERtrTyYuuIioOoP each time you type one key, something needs to be done! so i shipped it off to hp and was left using the library computers any time i could drag myself up the hill from bundy. i used to rave about hp’s customer service and quality, and after this experience, i take it all back!

so, i had an ok week, in spite of the significant lack of electronics in my room. thank goodness for my small video library of dr. quinn medicine woman reruns. i had a meeting with my jazz professor on monday and we (well, he) talked for 40 minutes and he gave me poems to read, which i took to be a positive thing, so i was happy and felt pretty honored, like he had thought me worthy of discussion.

academic highlight of the week would have to be what went down in lit & environment on tuesday. i had written a one-page description about my african violet, which i bought b/c my mom has had one for years, and i love purple, and i love my mom, and i love the sentimentality of taking care of a plant for so long. so, i turned it in, really thinking that it was far too short and not at all what my professor, who is awesome, was looking for. on tuesday, he pulls out the stack of papers to return and decides to read a couple as demonstrations of “really superb writing and description and obervation.” and the first one he read was mine! even better, though, was when i picked up my paper after class and read the comments at the bottom: “this is spectacularly good writing, emily! (i love how he’s so grammatically correct with the punctuation there) i love the detail in your observation, but (i got a little worried here…) i love even more the poetic beauty of your sentences!” sweet. nice. cool.

after reading aloud to the class, he said something about the way “the author” (he didn’t use my name) made a concious effort to thoughtfully choose each word. that was cool, b/c that really is the way i try to write. every word counts. every word is worth something.

socially, eh. i have been going to these ropes course workshops, where we’ve been playing the same kind of games and initiatives that we use at camp, and eventually will be trained on the low and high elements in the hamilton ropes course. everyone is really nice and i feel pretty comfortable in that environment, but i don’t know how i’m ever going to really fit in. this weekend the outing club (hoc) is going camping.hiking in the adirondacks for what they call “46 peaks weekend.” i was a little hesitant about going out there with strangers and risking the revelation of my next-to-non-existant physical endurance, but i was starting to feel more confident about the benfits of going camping and meeting more people who are involved in hoc and who might seem more like my kind of group. turns out, you need a group of people to go with, and a way to get there, etc., and i guess i missed the boat on that one, b/c the person i was expecting to go with, well, she has already made other arrangements. oops.

on the upside, i finally bought a refrigerator and microwave, and hung my posters up. i hope my disposition brightens as much as my room did.

quote of the day: “i will wait until it all goes around. with you in sight, the lost are found” – dar williams

love always, em locke