Snowflakes

I have just escaped from the vortex known as hall council, where I spent the last hour and a half cutting snowflakes out of coffee filters. Tomorrow is the hall decorating contest, and a couple of people seem to think it's actually worth trying to beat the undergrads. I know we don't have a chance, but I figured I'd pitch in anyway. They'll spend the rest of tonight and tomorrow afternoon turning North Hall into the North Pole. Pictures will be taken, and they may even eventually be posted for you to see!

Well, it's been quite a week or so since I last posted. Two weekends ago I saw several USF professors and a Broadway musical, just not at the same time. Theology profs Hiigel, Gregg and Lierman were in town for a national Biblical studies conference. I bumped into the first two at service at Park Street, and joined Katie in meeting up with Lierman the next day at the Prudential Center. Good times, hearing about what's going on at USF this semester and trying to explain to Dr. Hiigel just what it is that I've been doing out here. Sunday afternoon I caught a matinee of "Spamalot," on tour off Broadway. Absolutely hilarious! I have no time for a full review, but I loved it, and it was well worth the price, even to sit in the nose bleed section.

This week has also been busy for schoolwork. I wrote an entire research paper over the course of Thanksgiving break, and am about half done writing/editing a group paper for my technology class. There's never an end to it...

Thanksgiving itself was pretty great. I stayed at the dorm, and a bunch of us cooked together and had dinner in our RD's apartment. And we stayed there all day, through lunch, dessert, two movies, dinner, second dessert, and all manner of conversation and relaxing. It was a great way to spend a holiday.

I also got to see Katie again last weekend. On Saturday I took the train out, and she met me at the station to get lunch and then wander the largest mall in the area. But on the way back, I got squashed on the subway! I had managed to grab a single seat right by the door, and as the car filled up, there were lots of people standing around me. Well, a couple guys didn't make it out of the car at their stop and were rather upset about it, and I guess someone grabbed an emergency break, because the whole train lurched to a stop, and the guy standing closest to me was thrown forward. But, since he was holding the pole by the door, he ended up swinning around and squashing me against the side of the car. I'm just lucky his coffee didn't spill all over me. Nobody got to get off the train, and we got moving again only a moment later. The moral of this story is to never touch the emergency break unless it's a real emergency!

It seems like every moment of my days are planned out now. Today I tutored and then did work in the library, then had a SCoSAA meeting, then had class, then got roped into decorating. And tomorrow I have class, then I'll work in the library, then I'll help decorate again and take pictures, then we have the end of the year GSLIS party at a local Irish pub, with free appetizers and a raffle. So yes, I'm going to that. Oh yeah, and I have a paper and a presentation due on Saturday, another project and presentation due on Wednesday, and a small project and unrelated presentation/panel discussion on Tuesday night. And I still have to finish my application for the summer internship I'm interested in. Plus, I'm working two extra tutoring shifts next week as a favor to my fellow tutors. At moments this feels overwhelming. But, one huge paper got turned in tonight, and my archives group project is now finished. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank goodness!

I can't wait to go home and have a real break! It's been too long since I've been able to do something totally fun and relaxing without feeling guilty about it. I've had too many weeks with every minute scheduled so I can get everything finished on time. I've had too many evenings hunched over my keyboard with my shoulders tightening up every minute (even the swimming hasn't quite helped that, and neither has the new shower head with optional massaging setting that was randomly installed a few days ago). I want to come home and see the people I miss and get to hug them, not just hear their voices.

I don't mean to whine, it just sort of came out that way. After all, it's not that much longer before I'll be able to breathe again. For now I'll just have to be the stereotypical anime heroine and "work hard and do my best!" until all this has been dealt with.

-Kim