Return of the tree-painting elf

I'm gearing up to paint the tree again--this time, to promote a Teach For America campus event on Thursday evening. The tricky part in planning this has been gauging the weather, which has not been cooperating for the past few days. After a beautiful weekend (which left me with an October sunburn at the Bills game), the clouds have rolled in and it's been raining on and off for the past day and a half. This is bad news for my publicity efforts: sidewalk chalking is one of the easiest ways to promote things on campus, but even a ten minute drizzle could negate two hours' worth of work. So now I'm checking the hourly weather religiously, looking for rain percentages for tomorrow and trying to decide what I should spend the most time doing. Chalking or flyering? Tree painting or button making?

Anyway, the tree is a definite. I think I'm going to do it around 6 o'clock tomorrow morning and hope that the Greek groups will not paint over it before Thursday night. It's supposed to start raining in the early hours of Thursday, so I think I'll be good. In the meantime, weather dances are appreciated from anyone and everyone reading.

I call it deadline paralysis

My work habits in regard to classes are shifting in a worrisome direction. When I'm faced with an impending due date or exam date, instead of just hunkering down and getting the assignment/studying/etc. done, I worry about said task to the point of inaction. I realize how totally inefficient this is, but I really can't help it.

I met with Provost Long today about proposed changes to the curriculum and semester course loads, and in conversation she told me that her calendar is managed completely by her secretary, who hands her a schedule each afternoon with all the places she needs to be present the next day. I think I should hire a secretary, too, to whom I will give my entire tax-free stipend check every two weeks if he/she will make a daily task list for me and organize my too-colorful Google calendar. Additional responsibilities include refusing to engage in any talk with me about the future beyond tomorrow and a willingness to make coffee runs. Inquire via email, though I will hire on-site if prospective employee will take my East Asian history exam tomorrow morning.

"Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint!"

--Fanny Price in Mansfield Park

Running mad. Trying not to faint. I can't believe I'm a senior.

Floating schools and thoughts

It is just shy of five months to the day since I have written a blog post. My audience of about 2 has probably been disappointed to the point of no return, but that is not an excuse to not write anymore.

I came back to the blogosphere just now because I wanted to show this link to someone. I was in a state of mild panic yesterday while thinking about next year and what I'll do if I don't get into Teach For America when I found this website called Real Gap Experience. The company sponsors service trips abroad for various lengths of time that you pay to go on, in most cases, and the link above is to a program in Cambodia where you do a teaching project on a floating school near Angkor Wat. I don't know what it is about Cambodia, but ever since last semester I've had this little obsession in the corner of my brain with the country and its people. I can not explain it, and yes, I know it's weird. But the program sounds so cool.

Anyways, looking at the website reminded me of two things: one, that things are going to be okay next year, and two, that I am about to be set loose upon the world. It was a pretty liberating reminder.

Happy Pansy Rollerskate

I think that kooky band names can be really great sometimes: the Flaming Lips, Neutral Milk Hotel, Chumbawumba . . . I'm all for artistic license. But I just got an email from the WGSU server about upcoming shows in the area, and I think that I've found the wrong side of that fine line in the band name Positive Juice Restaurant.

To their credit, I certainly took note of them. Unfortunately, it was to wonder if each member of the group had blindly pointed to a word in the dictionary as a sad last resort in naming themselves. I hope that Positive Juice Restaurant's lyrics come about in a different way, for their sake.