Letting Go

Today, I turned in my very first college academic paper.  I have been furiously working on it, pestering friends and floor mates for peer review, making revisions, and pretty much obsessing over it.  When I finally placed it in my professor's essay collection folder, I actually had a hard time letting go.  As she took the pile away, so many doubts flooded my train of thought (at the time I was wonder why class was being held in Baker-Berry rather than the seminar room on first-floor Kemeny).  What if the format wasn't exactly what she expected?  What if I had missed some grammatical errors?  What if my MLA citations weren't quite right?  Did I connect my evidence to the thesis enough?  Did I make sufficient transitions between topic sentences?

I guess I didn't have that much time to contemplate the quality of my paper, since my professor promptly assigned the next one.  Oh great.  I thought I'd actually have a weekend to myself.  The new book is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is a much more pleasurable read than Bad Blood.  Rebecca Skloot definitely has a way with words, even though her intensions may have been questionable.

Moving onto the good news.

1) Dancing!!  For the past couple weeks I have been attending ballroom lessons with a friend who is actually trying to fulfill a P.E. credit.  I have brushed up on my waltz and east coast swing, and I am learning how to foxtrot and salsa!  So much variety...  I forgot how much I loved it.  This Friday, I also plan to take an intermediate classical ballet lesson with my roommate.  I don't know which style of dance is the most exciting, but I know that I've really missed the ballet from my childhood.

2) Republicans!!  Dartmouth hosted the Republican Debates tonight.  Actually, I totally forgot about entering the ticket draw, so I couldn't actually attend live.  I'l be Youtube-ing tomorrow.  However, for the past couple days I have been surrounded by campaign propaganda and commotion on the Green, including the big Bloomberg stage and the Jack-O.  I have pictures.  This week has surely started off on an interesting note.

3) Fire and Ice Formal!!  Yes, that's right!  We have our own freshman Homecoming dance this week to celebrate all the hard work we've put in this fall term.  I really cannot wait to prep with my floor mates and wear a dress... just like high school... *squeal* I can see grinding and sweat in my future, but hopefully more refined than a frat party.

4) GLEEEEE!!  Last Thursday I was kidnapped from my dorm room by the upperclassmen of the Glee Club as part of an abinduction tradition.  Since East Wheelock was the first cluster targeted, I took part in the rest of the parade around campus, from the Choates to the River, singing the Alma Mater.  I really enjoyed myself and kind of learned the first verse of each Dartmouth song.  I reached the halfway point to the deadline for memorization (Dartmouth night is next week).  Perhaps I didn't mention this before, but we do not sing Journey mashups.  In November, we will perform Bach's Magnificat as our major work.  We are really starting to come together with all the intricate parts and harmonies.

5) SEXXXX!!  Well, first allow me to preface this with some background information.  I did not go on a Dartmouth Outing Club trip.  I have a floor mate who went on the Farm Living section of the DOC.  During Orientation, I met a lot of her trippees, and over the course of the month, I hung out with them a lot – gathering for meals, watching football games, playing tennis, "studying" on the Green... Now, I am officially an adopted member of their trip group.  So, what does this have to do with testosterone? Everything: Tripcest (trip group incest), condoms and cookies, releasing the inner sexual animal, unanimous crushes on the trip leader and each other, extreme stalking, love triangles, THE DARTMOUTH 7!!! (just kidding about the last one, by the way... who would ever dare to do the nasty on the President's lawn?)  But... in all seriousness... letting go of my current infatuations is near impossible when I see these people every day.  Wait, I didn't actually see them today!  I need to drift away step by step.  Umm... that was vague.  Syruprun would understand this one though.

6) Russian Unicorns!!  "We can do it on the couch while my roommate's out hiking... So take it off or bite your tongue..."  Just look it up.

Bye for now~