Essays and Concerts and Subs - Oh My!

Wow! I’ve done a lot this week! Let’s see how much of it I can remember to write down.

Well, there was Halloween, of course. There was a competition between the entryways for the best jack-o-lantern. I actually have about twice as many pictures as can reasonably fit on here; I may post some on facebook as well. And blogger isn't working (I even started a second blog, but it still won't work), so you'll just have to scroll down to see them. Sorry. I celebrated quietly in my room with a cup of hot tea and TV in bed. Which was nice, but is also part of the reason I still haven’t finished my work from this weekend.

On Friday Under Construction, my a cappella group, had our concert. It was awesome – everyone had a great time, and the crowd got really excited. Not only did the singing go well, but the skit and testimony were also done fabulously. Afterwards we hung out at a reception and then had a late-night/early-morning party with UPenn’s Full Measure, who opened for us. I didn’t go because, well, coming up…

On Saturday I got up early in the morning for an ROTC trip to see the USS North Dakota christened. It still blows my mind that we can drive through three states in less than two hours, after all those six-hour drives just to get halfway across Texas… anyway. It was awesome, even free food aside, but no cameras were allowed in, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. It was quite a different atmosphere from Harvard – the prayer was directed not to “everything forever comforting” but to “creator” “divine master” and “God.” It made me smile.

And then, when we got back, I went to another ROTC event: passing out free programs for the Harvard/Dartmouth football game (which we won, by the way). Oh, speaking of winning, everyone is very happy about the Red Sox here. Anyway, it was a couple hours of standing with stacks and stacks of very nice programs, yelling out “free programs, as many as you like!” and then adding “completely free, totally free, no scam, no catch” to clarify, because people are really very suspicious. Some of them still refused to take them, or even went to the trouble to hand them back. We still haven’t figured out why.

In any case, Saturday was a very long day. And then I went back to my room, tried to watch a movie, and managed to flip my laptop viewscreen upside-down, which led to a call home and a quick google search that did in the end come up with an answer. So Sunday I was feeling pretty indolent; I ended up watching TV most of the day after coming back from church (which was also good).

For those of you who might not know me, in my opinion the phrases “I edited my philosophy paper, finished my math homework, read and responded to a three-page story in Hebrew and studied with my calculus exam” and “I was feeling pretty indolent” are not mutually exclusive. This is, after all, college. At Harvard. I have a midterm, two midterms and two presentations coming up. Things never actually stop.

But then, life never actually stops for anyone. It just slows down occasionally. And today has been pretty slow so far. I went to practice for the Birthday Ball for ROTC this morning, which was pretty low-stress, and then went to Calculus. My long class of the day is Hebrew, but we watched a movie. It was actually more of a documentary, I think. It wasn’t bad, though I wouldn’t suggest anything that gets into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a warm, pick-you-up sort of entertainment.

Overall, it’s been a pretty good day, though it’s kind of dragging. I have to do all the work I’ve been putting off all weekend, and all the work I put so little effort into that it didn’t actually count. And of course, whenever one’s schedule is filled with things one doesn’t want to do, time will drag. But that’s okay. I still occasionally look around my room and just stop to think, “Wow. I’m at Harvard.” Immediately followed by, “Wow. I need to vacuum.”

But, only about three weeks until Thanksgiving! And hopefully this round of papers/exams/presentations is the last wave before reading period. If the syllabi are right, it is. So, time to start picking up the pace and jogging around the final quarter-mile before vacation. For a while I was kind of neutral in the homesick department, just chugging along as normal, but the closer I get the more I look forward to Thanksgiving break, and even more to the end of the semester and Winter Break!

Three blogs away from Thanksgiving – hard to believe. Until next week, then! Happy time change!