help me get my boots on

I have a lot to say but I'm not sure I feel like typing it out. I had a calc ii midterm on Thursday. It's always fun to take tests you haven't studied for. But it went better than I expected. No grade yet...

Friday I had a bio midterm that I also hadn't studied for. 9am is just cruel. But that also went better than I expected. I also did a make up physics lab and work on Friday, so by the time we got to PINK ZONE!!!! I was pretty tired.

However, there is nothing like a gym full of people wearing ugly pink shirts to lift your spirits, right? It was cool because we stomped Brown. Pink Zone is a fundraiser for breast cancer research/Barnard night for women's basketball.

Here Jackie and I are showing off our awesome shirts.


There were also a ton of pink pompoms lying around. In true SEAS (school of engineering and applied science) fashion, Sam engineered a better pompom.

It was really more like a whip. It slowly dwindled throughout the night as adults came over and asked if they could have some pompoms for their kids. A sad, but necessary death.

After PINKZONE!!!! I was considering going to V&T's for some pizza/bad Morningside Heights food, but those initiating that mission totally ditched me. Instead I went over to 620 and had a lovely caking-making time with my bffl Elizabeth. We made a sweet cake.


It says "L'CHAIM =)" because we were making a cake to celebrate life! Also, because we are mistaken for Jewish ALL THE TIME. Or at least I am. D: Oh, Barnard.

We ate some chocolate frosting while we waited for the cake to bake. Even Nanette's voldemorting could not deter us from our sugary treat. We made a special trip to Morton William's University suckfest--I mean supermarket--to get decorating supplies. We almost put dried peaches on the cake, but we changed our mind. How sad.

Saturday brought my John Jay Valentine's Day date with Elizabeth. She brought me a chocolate rose--how cute! We are totally soul mates. We had cranberry orange waffles, which, while better than expected, were NOT up to s'mores waffles standards. Sad. I guess I will have to make the trek another day in hopes of eating ridiculously flavored waffles.

I had to be at Teacher's College at 2:30 to leave for Yale. Far too early, haha, but it was good. The bus ride was alright. Connecticut is kind of cute. But Yale blows. For serious. We stopped at Stew Leonard's, which is a "the world's largest dairy store."



Stew's is super serious:


It is also serious about fun:




This is how I feel about Yale:


Yale is a very odd place. Not only do they play basketball in what is essentially a church, their water fountains dispense holy water:


Ok, not really. It's just shitty New Haven, CT water, but doesn't it look like holy water should come out?

Also, some of their fans were dicks. Seriously. When one of the band members took off her rugby (because hello, gyms get hot) and was wearing a tank top, these drunk guys from the Yale baseball team chanted "be self-conscious" and "put your shirt on." Of course, the band defended her honor by having everyone take their shirts off. We make fun of the team, but we would never attack the other band or their fans without being provoked. That's uncalled for.

The men lost, but I think they still have a good shot in the league standings. However, CUMB definitely won. The Yale band sucks. A lot. I feel bad because their conductor was very enthusiastic. But they played great songs, like "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" and "Carry on," but their played them in a manner more suitable for a funeral than a basketball game.

When we got back to TC I hit my head on climbing out from under the bus and started pathetically crying. How embarrassing. Jackie and I got Chinese and ate it in Sulz. A pretty good ending to my Saturday.

Sunday wasn't very exciting. I taught swim lessons and went to church. I think the priest is Italian. I had a hard time understanding his homily, but I will probably go back. The choir was excellent and the church is beautiful.

I haven't really done any homework, but I felt like I owed you all some news.

Love,

Sara

ps: I am taking all of you to Crumbs when you visit me because that is the correct answer to the poll.

why

why do you all like pineapples so much?

I'm changing the poll.

today is a bad day

But can I just point out that autotrophs can't drool. I think the word you're looking for here is heretrotrophs, Barenaked Ladies. But the show is ok.

anticlimactic

This is interesting: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7892272.stm

Flute Choir had a bake sale today. My bio lab went well.

S.

he tried to save the calendar business

Hello again. I am taking a quick break from my ridiculous pile of homework to update you on my super exciting life. haha, not really. I am mostly sick of rambling about restriction enzyme mapping in my lab report and not really looking forward to the other eighty things I have to do.

I thought I would tell you about my exciting Valentine's Day. I had a hot date...with the Columbia men's basketball team. (They aren't that cute.) We played Harvard. It was a pretty exciting game that we won by 1 point in the last seven seconds. nice. But still. Basketball. Fortunately, being at a basketball game somehow exempt me from seeing any happy couples making out. Because if you take your significant other to a Columbia basketball game as your Valentine's Day event, you should not have a significant other. This is a fact.

We had a classy dress day for the game.

I actually wore some heels from target, but this is after, I think? Anyway, wearing heels from TC to Levien, the gym, is a TERRIBLE idea when you have to carry a huge mellophone case. Seriously. Don't do it. This is another reason flute is superior.

My valentine had another date for the night (with her sister. how cute!), but she stopped by the game to give me my present.


Bench made fun of me, but he was just jealous because he had no valentine. This is obviously the greatest present ever. Elizabeth, looking sheepish: "I had to buy sponges..."

Columbia's valentine's day present to me was a water bottle. I love free things. Not quite as sweet as my Roar-ee bobble head, but close.


After the game, Jackie and I had a hot date at Ollie's. It was decent. I haven't died yet, so I am feeling ok about them. After we parted ways, I watched SNL with Bree and her piece, Owen. It was pretty funny. SNL these days is not as bad as everyone likes to say. Those people are just whiny and forget that it was "funnier back in the day" because the reruns of "back in the day" have the lame sketches edited out.

Have you ever wanted a reason to feel smarter than me? Because if you have, I have two excellent opportunities for you.

A. Even though SNL starts at 10:30 at home, I had it in my head that it starts at 11pm in EST. Um, that makes no sense. Bree texted me about watching it a little after 11 and I asked where they were because I thought it already started. About twenty minutes later I realized that when you add an hour to the Wisconsin start time you get 11:30, not 11.

B. I was reading up on how to get blood stains out (haha, don't ask. I can't tell you because the authorities can read it. Stoughton PD is totally my facebook friend. lol.) and they suggested meat tenderizer. My first thought was that they wanted me to hit the stain with one of these:


lol at my life.

Also, this is the pigeon that lives outside my window. Maybe tomorrow I will take a picture of the lady my roommate sometimes (accidentally) changes in front of because we never close the blinds. (The lady had an office across from our window. It's creepy. She has a lot of books.)



Best,

Sara

I'm sick of eating.

Oh hey. I'm alive. Barely. I'm recovering from the plague that's sweeping Morningside Heights. Love being sick. Not. But my roommate was so thoughtful. She encouraged me to sleep literally all day and night for two days and brought me toast and crackers when I couldn't walk straight.

A lot has happened in the last nine days, but I won't bore you with the details. Basketball has been going fairly well. We beat Dartmouth tonight and Penn last weekend. We did get stomped by Princeton last weekend though. We play Harvard tomorrow. These games have been pretty fun. Since tomorrow is Valentine's day, we are having a classy dress day for the game. I can't decide what I will wear. Maybe I will post pictures.

It was my birthday on Monday, so we went to this European bakery called Artopolis. It was super cute. I got crepes with gelato, strawberries and this crazy blue strawberry sauce on them. Yum. My friends had a good time too, I think. It was kind of hard because everyone has lots of work on Mondays.

But it was a good birthday. On Sunday night I was reading in the study lounge with Sruthi and Luyang. At midnight they surpised me with cupcakes and chocolate. Awesome. I hadn't even realized it was midnight, heh. Unfortunately, afterward I had to return to my reading. Downgrade. Martha also snagged a sweet garland from a Mardi Gras party she worked and hung it around our door. One of the cleaning ladies complimented us on it. It was so cute!



Mum mailed me a block of cheese for my birthday. haha, as if everyone here needs another reason to think I am strange. It is so good. They are just jealous.





My friend Nathalie also got me flowers. They are so cute. I put them in my Newman's Own lemonade bottle. His lemonade is so good. You don't even know. I have a little crush on him.



Speaking of crushes, Bree, Elizabeth and I were rating the Dartmouth basketball players today. They're not a very attractive bunch.

Ooh, Hillary Clinton is speaking at Barnard's commencement this year. I'm excited, except I will already be home. No way am I missing Syttende Mai for a speech. I booked my spring break ticket a few days ago. I am home from 3/13-3/22. Only another month! I am already pretty tired of school. It is so stressful. I'm not even doing as much as last semester.

This week went so quickly because I slept through most of it. Health services scared me on Tuesday. I went in for my cough and the nurse asked if I had asthma. Then she measured the oxygen level in my blood and went to speak to a collegue. When she returned, she said that this other nurse would be listening to my chest. When the new nurse said that I sounded fine, the first nurse insisted that she couldn't hear me breathe in! Turns out her stethoscope is broken. How comforting, health services. I feel so safe. I hope I never actually get sick here. This is just some viral thing, so we're good.

It also turns out that I inflamed the tendons in both of my ankles and that's why they're so swollen. I'm not supposed to use them for two weeks. haha, how am I supposed to live in NYC without walking? Impossible.

Ok, I am totally going to sleep now. I promise not to ditch you for ten years again.

Yours,

Sara

ps: I am sad that no one thought I would have an elephant. But I tricked you. There should have been an option for all of the above.

buffon

So, I'm supposed to be reading Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson right now, but it is terribly boring. I've read about 80 pages so far, and all he has done is describe the geography and wildlife of Virginia. Like, with exact latitude and longitude and such. For serious, man. I'm not exactly sure how that relates to my class that is centered around utopias and rebels, but whatev. I think the last couple chapters discuss the actual society of Virginia. But why the hell did he have us read the first couple chapters that are full of flora and fauna? How am I supposed to discuss that in class tomorrow? haha.

this feels better

Today, surprisingly, went well. Last night I wrote an entire paper, did an entire calc problem set, skimmed about 50 pages of Thomas Paine (new hero? possibly), and revised my research fraud presentation for HSPP. Shit, son. That's a lot of stuff to do when you get out of lab at 4pm. And after the dreadful weekend, I wasn't expecting much. But I went to bed at 2am, finished my paper over lunch and somehow bullshitted the rest of my stuff. Yes!

I am so happy this day is over. I had class from 9am to 6pm with an hour of lunch. Then I went to physics recitation at 6:30. I am excited because I get E&M a lot more than I ever got mechanics. It's odd because it's the other way around for most people. I still have to do a problem set for Friday, but I am optimistic.

At 8pm I went to flute choir. lol. And I played oboe. double lolz. Jackie and Commander have been trying to recruit me for ages, and I finally showed up. It was so refreshing! We're playing "Peter and the Wolf" right now, so of course I get to play the duck. It's pretty easy and in the lower register, so I'm getting a good tone even though I haven't practiced in ages. I hadn't realized how much I missed playing real music (sorry marching band, but you are not exactly up to par). I'm also pleased because now I will have music on Tuesdays and Thursdays (not to mention games Fridays and Saturdays), so I bet I will be more cheerful all the time. heh.

It snowed a lot today. Well, a lot by New York City standards. It stuck for a while. I saw more people using umbrellas to shield themselves. I also saw one of the janitors sweeping the snow in front of Barnard Hall. haha. It makes the steps pretty slippery. Good thing I had my trusty rainboots.

Ballet is another highlight of my days. It's really relaxing. I like being able to focus on minuscule technical things and not think about exactly how much work I have to do the rest of the day. Dancing at this level isn't very strenuous, so it's is a nice warm up for my atrocious day. Today we learned some new jumps and third position. I need to buy some more tights. Preferably ones that aren't from Duane Reed and therefore tarnished by a darker control top thing. :)

Today was so busy that I am pumped to lay in my bed. I need to do laundry. I need to plan some sort of birthday thing. Geeze.

Yours truly,

Sara

"from the fatal, blessing be obtained"*

Last weekend was odd. Some parts were awesome. We beat Yale and Brown in basketball. Those games were more fun than usual. Some new people have started coming to band, so it was nice to get some variety in friends. I also was in withdraw from my band friends over break and the game provided a perfect opportunity to catch up.

It was nearly 50 degrees on Sunday. I took a walk in Riverside Park. My shoes got really salt-y, but they've recovered. Then I got a really delicious steamer from Starbucks. I was in a bit of a funk following some sad news, so it helped cheer me up.

I'm reading a lot of cool stuff for my seminar (Global literature: new world utopians and rebels), like Thomas Paine and Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz. It's really inspiring, beautiful stuff. We're also doing some history of South and Latin Americas' pathes to independence. My prof is so much better than my English prof last semester. It's a really nice change. But he assigns 100-150 pages to read for each class (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and it's been difficult to balance with everything else. But I'm hardly working this year, so I have faith that I will balance it out.

I have a lot of work to do, but most of my textbooks have arrived. It's almost my birthday, so I'm trying to figure out what to do. I think I want to go out for cupcakes. It is a little hard to plan because it's on a Monday...

My lab partner in biology today spoke just like the star of The House Bunny, which was really distracting/amusing. It was hard to take her seriously. She also didn't really know what was going on, so... haha.

I swear I am planning letters in my head. I need to get on that. But this should suffice in the mean time, yes?

I really miss home right now. Like I said, kind of a funk. I think this week will be better, though.

Sincerely,

Sara

*from "First I dream" by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

lab 1: keep in touch

PURPOSE: To keep the people in touch with the life and times of Sara Jean.

MATERIALS: computer, internet, desire for knowledge

PROCEDURE:
1. bookmark blog
2. read blog
3. comment/email