Is it Halloween or Christmas?

It is so unbelievably cold here! This morning I saw a friend and almost wished her a "Merry Christmas!" instead of the traditional "Happy Halloween!" According to an important weather website, yesterday's low was two degrees above the record (2+24=26). The current hourly tempterature reads 45*, but feels like 41*. Brrrr! Tonight it's expected to drop to 27*F. And the best part is that it's the kind of cold and dry weather that makes everything static. I really hate that. I hope y'all are enjoying much warmer temperatures. (I know you are, Frog. Upper 80's... *sigh*) And you can expect to find all the little Bellingham trick-or-treaters scaring up their pumpkin Peeps in the nice, toasty mall tonight!

Snirch

Last weekend Stephanie brought home a black, telescope-eyed goldfish. When I saw him the first time, I really wanted to say "snirch!" to him. After a while I queried, "So, are you going to call him 'Fishy'?" since she's always called her fishes that in the past. She said, "I guess so..." At which point I decided to tell her that he looked like a 'Snirch.' Laughter ensued. That's his name now. The great thing about it is that it sounds very Dr. Seuss-ish, like "The Snirch Who Ruined Easter." Haha! The Grinch is to Christmas as Snirch is to Easter. So far he's been a really great pet. It's amusing to listen to Stephanie tell people about him over the phone. "I got a fish! [description of fish]... Snirch... Snirch! S-N-I-R-C-H... No, Claire named him... I don't know! Hahaha!" It's priceless. (I would put a photo of him here, but I have no way to download them since I've lost the cord necessary for such things. My apologies.)

My friend Stephanie

I thought it might be fun to point you in the direction of the first year student blog at Western. Four freshmen were chosen to post articles on this blog about their experiences as freshmen, and I think the idea is that freshmen can connect with one another on it... I don't know how well that's working, but some kids in the dining hall the other morning recognized Stephanie as one of the bloggers. Her fame is surely spreading. I thought I would help the process by inviting all of you to visit it as well. I haven't really read much of the stuff on there, but I've read all of Stephanie's posts. So, click here if you want to visit and find out what she's like a little bit... and see a picture of her! (I think it's a good shot.) And, by the way, the picture on her "Happy Trees" post is her first big project for art class: a landscape of her backyard at home. She's never really done landscapes before, so I think it's a great start! And the title (happy trees) comes from the mouth of Bob Ross, the afro-haired painter who makes you feel sleepy and calm and like everything's OK. "We'll just add a happy little tree over here... *chk*chk*chk* The-re we go." :)

Other than that, I think tomorrow is Navy Day... yeeah!

Fabre is insane...

Hey everyone!

Here I am, back again, with I can't remember how much stuff to relate. Classes are mostly going well- I have Don Rags next week, where all my tutors get together with me and talk about me as if I'm not there (somewhat scary thought...)- and I'm definitely getting the hang of it all. We just finished the Odyssey in seminar, we're into Aristotle's Categories in philosophy, half way through book three of Euclid, finishing up Deuteronomy in theology, back to Fabre in lab (crazy frenchman...) and in chapter eight of wheelock's. I think philosophy is shaping up to be the best class. I didn't really like Plato a whole lot, but I'm really digging Porphory and Aristotle. It's quite thrilling. I'm looking forward to Don Rags though, to see how I'm actually doing. *thrill of excitement and terror*

It's actually been getting sort of cold down here. My fingers and nose have been predictably chilled every evening for the past week or so. It still doesn't feel like October though. What IS the weather supposed to be like right now?

For Columbus day weekend, I went home for a day (went shopping!), then a couple of friends and my younger siblings and I all headed down to Ventura for a fantastic afternoon of boogie boarding. It was my first time. Besides almost killing myself/giving myself a concussion (my cheek still hurts from where I crashed it into the sand) we all had a fabulous time. Salt water tastes gross, but when you catch those waves right, it's oh-so-fun. After our afternoon at the beach, we went to Red Robin for quacamole bacon burgers and steak fries, and a milkshake. It was a dream come true, and reminded me very much of good times in the Northwest. The Red Robin actually reminded me a lot of the one at the Northgate Mall.

Besides that weekend, nothing really remarkable has been going on. Lots of studying, enough sleeping, trying not to get sick, hanging out with people, going to classes, and doing things that you do at college. (And not doing things that a lot of people do at college...)

Anyway, i'm intensely fond of you all. I'll see if I can give more frequent updates, with little hillarious things that happen from day to day. But probably not. You'll have to be content with this, until next time on READING RAINBOW! *doot doot doot*

Lindy Hop!

I learned the lindy hop yesterday! *feels empowered*

I went to three lindy hop lessons in a row yesterday afternoon. It's the kind of swing that looks really complicated, and is, a little. It's really nice to know how to do it. Besides learning the basic step, we learned maybe six or seven variations of it, like with turns or transitioning into the Charleston, which has a couple of variations as well. Later in the evening there was a dance, and many more people came to that. It was great getting to try out my new grooves with some really swell dancers! Their different styles made it really fun.

Now the hard part is learning the lead's part as well as the follow's, so that I can teach it to all the boys back home. :-O

And, by the way, in Seattle over October 27-29 there will be jitterbug workshops and dances. I won't be going, but if anyone else is interested, check out the Jitterbug Club. I just saw on their website, of course, that there is a nice steep fee involved: between $119 and $129, depending on how speedy you are!

Anyways, happy dancing!