The Friday Five1. Do you have a dream you will always strive to achieve until your dying day? If I die having never published a book, I'll be very upset. Well, I'll be upset right before then, but obviously not afterward.
2. Do you believe in fate or free will, or something else? I believe in God and free will. We can choose everything about our lives, right down to accepting or rejecting God. He has a plan, but we have to choose whether to follow it.
3. Marilyn Monroe. Conspiracy or tragic accident? Um?
4. Favorite childhood sweets/candy? I used to love Gummi Bears. Now they're too sweet for me. I don't eat much candy.
5. Favorite cocktail (alcoholic or virgin) and its ingredients? I don't drink at all, not even non-alcoholic versions.
Ugh. School sucks. I have two and a half papers coming up. For Comm, I have to arrange an in-person interview with a special education teacher. I also have to submit a very long outline of potential questions to ask. In addition, I have to write a 4-6 page
group paper. That's all due Wednesday. ON TOP OF THAT, I'll have to do a group presentation in mid-October. On our info sheets, my teacher asked us if we would have elected to take the class if it weren't a requirement. The little foresight I have prompted me to choose "no". How true that has become.
My other paper is for ENGL 301. We have to explicate a poem. That's basically what I did last semester for my workshop, and I got a B+ on that paper, so I'm not terribly worried. I don't like poetry very much, though. Much of a poem's significance begins and remains in the author's head. I like to know definitively what something means. It's frustrating when I'm being graded on something that the grader won't really know is correct or incorrect. Maybe the lovely, dark, deep woods is just a big clump of trees! It doesn't have to be sex, or death, or obligation. Some poems really are just about trees.
On my way... somewhere... on Tuesday, I heard a guy in a convertible playing "Stars." I was very excited. I've recovered from the fiasco that was trying to rip the songs from
Nothing Is Sound. Wandering around the official site last night, I discovered
this forum post from one of the band members. It's comforting, knowing the band is as upset about the DRM on their CD as I am. Also, as one of the later posters noted, it's kind of cool that Sony considers Switchfoot popular enough to feel like they need to protect the CD.
I had a Spanish test on Wednesday. I think I did pretty well, especially if I got all the technical details in the "letter" we had to write. We've moved on to the preterite (past tense -- why do we never talk about English's preterite tense), which I don't remember at all. Much less fun than the first section, when I knew stuff. Last night at dinner, Dan's friend, another Jewish guy, turned out to speak fluent Spanish. So when he asked me what classes I had and I told him, he asked me something in very fast Spanish, to which I replied, "I have no idea what you just said." But sometimes I have to say that to Dan, too.
On Tuesday night, Maura and I went to a women's Fiat Dinner at the CSC. Fr. Bill cooked baked ziti and chicken, with homemade bread. It was fabulous. I see why Wednesday dinner is so popular. We ate, then Fr. Bill sister told us the story of how she became a sister (nuns are usually cloistered; all the "nuns" you've ever seen are probably actually sisters). They're planning a dinner every month, each on a different vocation. I've thought about religious life, but I don't know. I had a good time, though, and plan on going back next month.
Also at the CSC, I went for lector training Thursday night. For those that don't know, lectors read the first and second scripture readings at Mass, and the psalm when it's not sung. I've lectored once before, in 8th grade CCD. (Every class had to help at one Mass, so I volunteered to lector when it was my class's turn.) Since I went back to church, I wanted to be a lector again, so when the call for new lectors showed up in the bulletin, I replied... and I'll be reading tomorrow. Cool. The hardest words I'll have to say are "Philemon" and "Ezekiel"... so let's hope I don't sneeze or anything.
Sneezing... I had a cold this week. I was sniffling Wednesday night, by Thursday evening my eyes were watering, and yesterday, when I finally gave in and took some DayQuil, I was still sniffly and watery-eyed. This morning was sketchy, too, but I seem to be okay now.
I volunteered at the Sign Language Club table for the First Look Fair. I was supposed to be there 11-12, between 301 and church-and-lunch, but when I went out there, the table was empty. Sick, hot, and achy, I walked back to the dorm. Then Age called to ask where I was. I'd had a feeling that would happen, but chose to ignore it because I was sick and frustrated. She was fine, though, so I went out there for an hour after church and a fast lunch with Sara and Hana. It was very hot, and I was in direct sunlight, but I managed to read a little for ARHU and sign some people up for the listserv. Yay for recruitment.
That was basically my whole week. In my quest to find an interview subject, I called a PG County office in Adelphi, but the woman whose voicemail I eventually got (I was frazzled and forgot to write down her name... crap) hasn't called me back yet. I booked it to Hornbake to check the Alumni Directory, but they only list by year or current address. I found a bunch of people who live in Adelphi, but work other places. A lot of them work on campus; not surprising. One is the principal of DeMatha.
It's gloomy and cloudy outside, and I have so much work to do. As I was telling Maggie, Alex, and Annie at breakfast this morning, sometimes my emotional reaction to dimness makes me think I have SAD. Then I realize it's probably just that thing where I try to diagnose myself with a disorder so I'm not just weird.
