So somebody clogged one of the toilets in our suite last night, and it overflowed. This wouldn't be a big deal except did they take responsibility for it? No. Did they write a note on the door letting people know that it was clogged or at least tell anyone? No. Did they clean up the mess? No, they just put paper towels on the ground, which in my opinion doesn't amount to cleaning. Also it means someone else has to clean up the paper towels.

Now to understand what happend next its important understand the way our bathroom works. When you walk in there are two toilet stalls on the left. On the right side there are three sinks. The second sink is almost across from the farthest toilet from the door, the one that was clogged. Between the farthest sink and the second sink is a drain. In the very back, separated by a door are two shower stalls. Now every time someone takes a shower wanter flows out under the door and goes to the drain under the sinks. Also it is not rare for the sinks to overflow somewhat when people use them.

So some people (read I) can't tell when there are a few paper towels around an area that usually has a lot of water on the ground, that the toilet is clogged. And some people (again read I) can't always tell the different between a clogged toilet and a toilet where someone has forgotten to flush. So not knowing the difference, I flushed the toilet, causing this to overflow. This happened at 1:30 in the morning. The only reason I was in the bathroom in the first place was to get ready for bed and this was not something I wanted to deal with right before I went to bed.

Anyway I'm still fuming. I'm if you clog a toilet, even though it may be embarassing, you find a way to let people know. Then you submit a work order so it can be fixed. You don't leave it for other people to deal with. You don't just walk away from it. I really want to find the person who did this and talk with them. I also think that they should be responsible for cleaning up this part of the bathroom floor, becasue hey in the first place it's their mess and in the second place it would not have gotten so bad if they had let people know about the problem to begin with. Of course no one is going to own up to this (though I have been able to narrow it down to three people) and they only way to really get this solved is to hold a suite meeting, which will probably never happen.

Something about the second floor of my suite reminds me of the second floor of my Grandma and Grandpa's (these are my Dad's parent's. Nana and Poppop are my mom's parents) old house. I don't know why though. The layout and rooms are completely different. Even the stairs used to reach the second floor are differnt. The one in my suite twists and turns, but the one at my grandparent's house went straight up. But sometimes when I reach the top of the steps I feel like I'm a little kid, back at my grandparent's house and about to go to bed.

I still remember the layout of the second floor of my grandparent's house. When you reached the top of the stairs on the left was the bathroom, which always had a blue tint to it. Straight ahead was my grandma and grandpa's room. Next to that was my dad and uncle's old room; and at the end of the hall on the right was my aunt's old room, where I stayed during the majority of our visits.

I remember when I was little I used to be scared of sleeping with the door shut. For years the door always had to be open at least a crack. I used to be scared of so many things. The first time I was able to sleep with the door closed was when I was staying in my aunt's old room. I remember being so happy the next day as I told my aunt and mom about my acheivement. I then preceded to close the door, only I couldn't open it back up. Somehow the door had managed to lock itself, and I had to stay there and wait while Grandpa went to look for the key to unlock it. Somehow this event did not scare me away from sleeping with the door closed.

My dad's side of the family has always been sort of dysfunctional. My grandpa and uncle never really liked my mother or how she raised my sister and me. These feelings led to a huge falling out during the spring 1999. We had gone down to visit my grandparent's for Passover, as we always did. This huge arguement actually took place on Passover. I had been eating sometype of cereal and then I went to the basement to do a puzzle with my aunt and grandma. Apparently I made a mess and my uncle cleaned it up instead of asking me to. He then complained to my parents. Somehow this lead to lots of yelling.

I remember somehow knowing this whole thing was going to end badly, and crying to Grandma and Aunt Jane that I did not want to go home. They tried to reassure me that I wouldn't, but the yelling continued. For years I could remember the words that were thrown around and I'm so glad that now I've forgotten them. Finally either my uncle or grandpa (I can no longer remember who) insulted my mother and my dad insited we leave. We left so quickly I ending up forgetting quiet a few things, which my grandma later sent me. When we got home we stopped at TCBY to buy an icecream cake. This was the first time I had ever eaten something with yeast on Passover.

We didn't see my grandparent's for a year. Even once we started visiting them again, only my sister and I would stay at their house while my parent's stayed at a hotel. For years we stayed at home for Passover and Thanksgiving. I didn't see my uncle until my Bat Mitzvah. For years I blamed myself for this falling out. I still do sometimes.

It finally looked like we were going to repair the relationship between my dad's family the week Grandpa died. We were all planning on staying at my grandparent's house for the first time since Spring of 1999. It was only going to be for the weekend and then we were going to spend a few days in Charlottesville. But Grandpa was so sick we ended up staying at a hotel and canceling our Charlottesville plans. The whole situation was so hard on my dad. In the end Grandpa died without ever apologizing to Mama, something which has always bothered me.

Our relationship with my dad's family has since gotten much better. We visit my Grandma often and always have Thanksgiving and Passover with her. My dad is much closer to his brother now, and talks on the phone with him often. A few years after Grandpa died, Grandma sold the house and moved to a retirement home. Now I'm just left with my memories of the place and an occasional sense of deja vu.

I really want a v-neck tee shirt with the phrase "The Angels Have the Phonebox" on it, preferably with a picture of the Weeping Angels and the TARDIS on it. I've wanted this shirt ever since I saw the Doctor Who episode Blink. I just love the quote; it is so weird. Also it is one of those quotes that you either know, or think is extremely weird, and I love shirts like that. They are like inside jokes. I love it when people give me werid looks because they don't understand what is on my shirt. I can also imagine people coming up to me and telling me that Blink is their favorite episode. I've seen shirts like the one I've described, but they are $20, which is more than I'm willing to pay for a shirt. I also haven't told my parents I want this shirt, so this is probably going to be one of those things I always want but will never acutally get.

Also on a completely different note, I love this video. I've been meaning to post it for a while.

I think it is my favorite vampire related thing ever.

Sometimes I feel bad that most of my friends are under a ton of pressure and I'm not. I know that will change after fall break when I have a test on Wednesday, a test on Thursday, and and a paper due Saturday. This weekend was initially going to be fairly stressful, but then one of my teacher's canceled the paper that was going to be due today. Then he went and shortend the number of 1,000 word essays we had to write this semester from five to three (and the lowest grade is still dropped) and the number of 6-7 page essays from two to one.

Clemons decided to order the movie I requested, Cold Comfort Farm. This is especially exciting because the woman I talked to at the Robertson Media Center told me they most likely would not order it because it was not needed for a class. Now if only the RMC would get the fourth season of Lost. I really don't understand why the Law School library, has Lost season four but Clemons doesn't. The RMC has the first three seasons and the Law School Library only has season one. I really don't want to go all the way to the Law School just to check out Lost. And why does the Law School need Lost, or any movies or TV shows anyway?

Speaking of TV shows, I really need to get into another TV show. All the TV shows I love I have seen my favorite episodes of at least five times (I think this is a conservative guess, by the way) with the exception of The Big Bang Theory, which I have only recently gotten into. Sometimes I wish I had some type of selective amnesia and forget having watched any of these show. That way I could watch my favorite episodes for the first time (and second and third) again. I'm just getting slightly tired of watching the same thing over and over. I need something new, but have had very little success getting into another TV show. I've tried a few shows, but have lost interest in them after a couple of episodes.

I feel like so many little things lately have been making me happy. It just seems like so many things have been going right in a way they haven't for months. I know that this won't last, that things will start to go wrong and life will become miserable again. For now however it is nice to feel this way.

A few of the things that have made me happy I mentioned in my previous post but I'll reiterate them here. First of all I love my classes and enjoy going to them, which is something I haven't felt about all my classes ever. The material is interesting and the teachers are enthusiastic and seem to love their field. The other thing is getting my computer fixed right in front of me. It was not something I was expecting to happen and it has really made my week.

Here are some new things that have made me happy. There's a really good chance that by my mother's birthday (June 27) we will have two dogs. I realize that her birthday is nine months away but since both my mom and I had given up hopes of ever having a dog again, this news is very exciting. We are probably getting a basset hound and a whippet or greyhound. My mom and sister have been talking about a basset/lab mix, but I don't know how that would turn out and I'd rather have a purebred Basset. I'm going to go ahead and guess that both dogs will be male and whippet or greyhound will be named Felix and the basset will be named Oscar.

I joined the Student Archaeological Society. For $15 I get to go on fieldtrip to see the archaeology in Jamestown and the archaological lab at Monticello. I also get free dinners with archaeology professors. There is also a chance we will be able to digging out at Morven farms where I spent three weeks doing STPs as part of my field school. I'm really excited to be a part of this club.

Finally today I went to Clemmons and discoverd they reorganized their DVDs. They have seperated the TV shows from the movies and all seasons of a TV show are kept together. Their method still doesn't make perfect sense. The shows are not arranged in alphabetical or chronological order, but there are parts of this new arrangement that, I'm slightly ashamed to admit, make me surprisingly happy. First of all I love seeing all seasons of the X-files next to each other. I know I mentioned that seasons are now grouped together, but it makes me even more happy to see the X-files seasons together as they used to be especially spread out. It seemed like every shelf had its own season of the X-files. It's nice to see shows next to their spin offs or sequel. I liked seeing every season of Buffy on a shelf right next to every seaosn of Angel; even though I've only every seen select episodes of the original series, it was still nice to see Star Trek TOS next to TNG, DS9, and Voyager; and it made me way too excited to see all of their old, Doctor Who arranged in order by Doctor next to New Doctor Who, which was next to Torchwood. Finally it was nice to see all 40 volumes of the Twilight Zone together. Also due to the new arrangement I discovered Clemmons has shows I didn't know about such as the Wild, Wild West and Northern Exposure (which I have wanted to see for a long time). I realize how nerdy I sound in this section.

It's been a long time since I've written anything. In someways I feel like so much has happend in this time and in other ways I feel like nothing has happend. It's almost fall. When I look at my window I can see the leaves starting to turn. I love fall in Charlottesville.

I guess the highlight of my summer was my class. I couldn't find a job again, partially due to the fact that I couldn't start working until July. I stayed home and worked with/for my mother. I also watched over my sister once her camp ended. I also really got into Joss Whedon this summer. I have now seen most of his shows, except for Dollhouse. In a way it has taken me six years to get into him. I first started watching his shows on and off in ninth grade, but I never went out of my way to watch them. I just saw them because they were on TV and I didn't feel like changing the channel. It wasn't until I saw Dr. Horrible last fall that I really started to like him, although it also took me until this summer to realize how much I loved Dr. Horrible. . I showed mys sister, who is also a Whedon fan, Dr. Horrible this summer. She loved it and went around singing "Brand New Day" for days afterwards. When I first saw Dr. Horrible I was not expecting that ending. Now that I've seen other Whedon shows, that ending just seems like classic Whedon.

The only other thing that happend this summer was that my computer broke, again. It's almost funny, the number of problems I've had with this computer. The right hinge broke. Sometimes I feel like my computer is falling apart on me (sometimes it is). I finally got it fixed yesterday. The guy fixed in right in front of me. He completley took my computer apart and then put it back together. It was amazing to watch. I never knew so many parts of a computer came out. I also thought I would have to go without my computer for three days while it was being fixed. They usually look at computers on a first come basis and there were a lot of computers ahead of mine. I still don't know why the guy went ahead and fixed it. Maybe because it only takes 15 minutes to fix a hinge and they were going to close in 20 minutes. Maybe he had finished working on his last computer for the day. Maybe it was because the first thing I did, before I told him what was wrong with my computer, was to ask if the had a loaner so he knew I really needed a computer. Whatever the reason was I'm really thankful. It's nice not to have a broken computer.

The fourth week of school began yesterday. I'm only taking 4 classes and 13 credits. This is the first time I've taken less than 15 credits. All of them are through the Anthro department although two of them are Archaeology classes. I think my favorite class in Archaeology of Virginia. I love the teacher and find the material fascinating. Virginia is actually very important when in comes to Archaeology in the United States. The first archaeology in North America was done in Virginia by Thomas Jefferson and historical archaeology originated in Virginia.

Since I've mentioned it a couple of times in previous entries, here are some pictures of the feature we found in my unit. Also a couple of weeks ago we had some people out at Morven from UVA today to inerview us. The article on the archaeology at Morven was published yesterday. Since then we have become a local news story and today we appeared on two different stations news, Channel 19 and Channel 29. There is a short video of us on the channel 19 website.

I realized last night that in all my posts about my class I haven't really talked about how much fun I've found it, how much I've loved it, and how many great moments have come from it. Unfortunately I've now forgotten some of the great moments that happend at Monasukapanough, our first site, but here are some of my favorite parts of class that I do remember.

The thing I really love the most is walking home from class everyday. I always get a ton of stares. It was bad enough when I was coming from Monasukapanough and I was covered in dirt from my feet to my waist, but it has gotten even worse at Morven. Now I usually have a little bit of dirt around my ankels and then nothing up to my knees. After that I am covered in dirt and clay from my knees to the top of my shirt. I also usually have red clay smeared across my arms and face. I always wonder what people think I've been doing all day.

As I said in the last post, conditions at Morven are not optimal. By the end of the class it it tends to be very hot out and we end up, as my teacher claims, delerious. This has lead to some great moments. Yesterday people were entertaining themselves by throwing mud balls at trees. Last week one group was entertaining themselves by throwing mud balls at people in my group. We would look over and you could hear someone say, "don't throw it. They're looking." Then we would hear giggling and something would hit us on the head. At the our first site we had to test what the soil felt like which usually lead to my partner making little things out of the soil and letting it dry. Once my teacher made a cube out of soil from my unit and my TA drew in the little holes to make a dice.

My favorite funny thing is actually a continous thing. At our first site we sometimes had a graduate student Jack ,out testing things. He was very afraid of snakes (instert Indiana Jones joke here) My TA Mike went out and bought two fairly fake looking snakes from a dollar store and planted them where he thought Jack would find them, hoping we would get a big scream out of it. The day went on and he still hadn't find them and I could hear Mike whispering, "come one Jack find them." Well after lunch we all started talking about it and laughing and wouldn't you know that is when Jack found one of the snakes and he heard us laughing and figured out it was fake. The next week we left the site and Mike took the two snakes and put one of them in my teacher's car by the windsheild. She forgot about them and got in the car one night and it startled her. Then today we were in lab and one of the girls in my class went to use the bathroom. As she was going in she saw a long snake by the door and figured it was something Mike had planted. She came out and the snake was partially on the steps and moving. Turns out a real and fairly large black snake had gotten into the building. Of course everyone in the class had to come out and look at it.

So we moved to a different location and a different stage of Archaeological excavation. We are now at Morven Farm, a place that used to be owned by John Kluge begfore he gave it to the UVA. It is located right past Ash Lawn. There were originally 7,000 acres of land but UVA sold a little over half of it. Dave Matthews bought a great deal of it. Anyways the land is beautiful. I wish everyone could see it, but it it is really hard to get into Morven. Security is very tight and only certain people are allowed into it.

We are now doing Phase I archaeology, surveying. We are doing shovel test pits. Basically we make a hole 1 foot in diameter and dig down until we reach clay, usually somewhere between 1-2 ft, but ocassionally as deep as 3.5 feet. What we are doing now is finding the location of artifacts so it can be determined where there should later be archaeological units. We are looking for both Native American artifacts and 19th century tennant farmer artifacts. We have yet to find anything expect for a couple of flakes, a few pieces of pottery, and some things with a metal detector (including a Pepsi can).

There are quite a few drawbacks to Morven though. First of all we are basically working within an open field. There is no shade unless you want to go under trees that are surrounded by poison ivy. The bathrooms are anywhere between half a mile to a mile away, depending on where we are digging. These are actually the least of the problems. Then there are the ticks, which include deer ticks and there are deer that live within Morven. Lyme disease is thus a possibility if a tick stays on for too long. Everyone has to check themselves for ticks when they get home. Most people in my class have found at least one on them. I've found three, but they came off easily. Then there are the black widows, which no one has yet spotted. I only know they are there because I heard one of my teachers tell the another that he had yet to see any black widows. How comforting. Finally there are the snakes, especially the copperheads which we have already spotted three of. However we try not to concentrate too much on all of the dangers at Morven or we would become paranoid.

On a completely different not UVA has just decided to tear down a third first year dorm and is placing 144 students in the area of Dillard where I was supposed to live. I was happy where I lived last year. I wanted to live there again. Most people don't want to live in Dillard. I'm sure first years don't. You don't tend to interract with a lot of people outside the 4-6 other people living in your suite. I want to live there though. I was looking foward to being there. I signed a contract which guaranteed me the room I had last year. Now instead of living with one person I don't know and two really good friends, I am living with 5 people I've never met before. Also they didn't even tell us we were being moved until the day before they moved us. I am so furious. This post doesn't even begin to cover everything I have thought and felt in the little over 24 hours since I found out about the change in room, but I have talked to so many people about what has happend that I am now pretty vented out.

I'm really enjoying my archaeology class. I love actually getting to do field work. Also there are only 7 people in the class, which means we all get to know each other very well. And we are going to get our own t-shirts. My favorite design that has so far been proposed has been a UVA logo with a shovel and trowel instead of sabres.

So far this week we have gotten caught in the rain twice. The first time we waited under a shelter into the rain died down enough for us to make a dash to the cars. Today made a dash to the car as soon as we could. In the five mintues it takes for us to get from our site to the cars, the rain got progressively worse. By the time we got to the car we were completely drenched. And hysterical. We could not stop laughing.

My unit, the area my partner and I are excavating,is doing interesting things as well. Up until last week our unit was doing much of anything. I mean we were pulling up artifacts, but the other units had interesting things going on in the soil and even found features. Then last Tuesday we came down on some rocks while my partner was troweling. On Wednesday we found more rocks in a similar area. Finally on Thursday when I was troweling three farily large pieces of pottery were uncovered by the rocks. Our unit has a feature! And it is something man-made, not a natural feature like the ones in the other units which turned out to be things like animal burrows. Also the head of the Archeology department at UVA is very excited about our feature, which turned out to be a lot of rocks in a circular shape and included the pottery as well as charcoal.

This week my teacher has been excavating the feature, while I help her. The slightly frustrating thing is that even as we remove one rock, another rock appears underneath it. There seems to be at least three layers of rocks piled on top of. When my partner and I originally mapped the feature, there were 29 rocks. There are now at least 44 rocks, and we are not even finished with the southern half.

Unfortunately we will soon be moving to a different site. Unless we have been relegated to the woods at this site, which is slightly possilbe, we will be working in wide open fields with long grass and no shade. Oh well, I'm sure that this too will be fun in its own way. And we may be getting IDs for this site, which excites everyone in my class.

I've just completed my first week of my summer class, Archeology field methods. Motst of the class involves in the field archeology, regular excavation for the first three weeks and shovel test pits during the second three weeks. There is some lab work involved as well. I'm covered in dirt, my muscles hurt, I'm exhausted, and I'm sunburned behind the ears, but I'm quite happy. I just wanted to make a few reflections and observations.

There are many things about field work I've discovered in the past week that really surprised me and went against some of my assumptions. First of all when you go out to a site, there isn't already a unit (hole) that someone has started for you. You start the unit yourself with your partners and dig it with your partners.

Second of all, digging soil is a lot harder than it looks, especially when it is clayie and slightly wet. Digging really works the muscles in your arms, which can be great unless you are spending 8 hours a day, five days a wekk digging or sifting throuh dirt. It can also just take a lot out on out on you. I come home everyday starving and exhausted.

Third of all, you don't just start digging dirt and automatically find artifacts. Me and my partner had to wait until we got down over 30 cm to find anything. Also artifacts are not always big, nor do they scream out, "artifact!" They can be quite small and easily mistaken for rocks. That being said, they are quite exciting to find. Most of the artificats me and my partner have found have been small quartz flakes and lithics and a couple of fire cracked rocks. However there have been a few exciting discoveries. My partner found the rim from a piece of pottery, I found an arrowhead that is somehere between 1,000 to 1,500 years old while sifting through the dirt my partner had shoveled (initially I thought it was a bigger than usuall rock), and I found an arrowhead while troweling. Also it is very exciting, although sometimes jarring, when you are digging and you hit something.

Finally guess who is credited with conducting the first archeological excavation in the United States and is considered the father of archaeology? That's right, Thomas Jefferson. He dug up part of Monocan Indian burial mound which was being plowed down and later completley disappeared. Actually the site my class is working on is a Monacan site and the bound that Jefferson excavated was located right across the river from our site.

I keep hearing people use either Palentology or Archeology in when they mean the other. Considering I am a major in Anthrology and plan on focusing in Archeology it bothers me when people refer to the wrong discipline. I would like to take the time to give my definitions of these disciplines.

Palentology is the study of ancient (prehistoric) life. It tends to deal with fossils. It looks at evolution of plants and animals and how they interacted with their environment. Palentologist also try to use fossils to determine what the environment was like when these plants and animals were alive. It may look at early humans, but the culture of these humans is not important. The study of dinosaurs would be considered Palentology, not Archeology as explained below.

Archeology is the study of human culture from the past using artifacts, bones, remanents of structures etc. Some of these cultures are ancient while others are fairly recent. Some of these cultures no longer exist, others have ancestors who are still around. It studies the way cultures used to live, not the way cultures live now. Because Archeology deals with the study of man, in some places, including North America, it is considered to be a branch of Anthropology.

Anthropology is basically the study of man. There are four brances in North America: Cultural, Physical, Archeology, and Linguistics. Archeology I already explained. Cultural is the study of current cultures as they exist now (including religion, kinship etc.). Physical Anthropology has to do with study of the human body. There is some crossover with biology. It includes the way humans evolved and adapted. It also studies the varience in bone structure over time and place. Physical Anthropologists can look at bones and figure out the ethnicity of the person they belonged to. Forensic anthropology (like on Bones) is a subset of physical anthropolgy. Linguistics is pretty self explanatory. It is the study of languages and the evolution of language.

I will post something longer soon about this past week but I want to post something else at the moment. I've finally gotten my first black eye. Granted it only goes around part of my eye, not the entire thing, but it is basically a black eye. What's more, I gave it to myself. That's right, I accidentally punched myself in the eyes. Not only that but I also hit it in a way that caused my thumbnail to also scratch right below my eye. Now not only do I have bruise, but I have a scratch in the middle of it. When it first happend it was slightly scary because I saw this bright white light through one eye. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but it was very weird. Now that it is over with I can't help but find it funny that I gave myself a black eye.

So I've noticed that most of my posts lately have been pretty much just me complaining about life (because nothing has been going right lately). I've decided therefore to write a post about the things that have made me happy lately.

The Sci-Fi clube meeting I went to on Tuesday: I had a lot of fun, which has been rare for me in the past two weeks. The conversations can be really interesting and also extremely funny. The topics range from very intellectual things (which don't always have to do with sci-fi) to the really ridiculous. I always love it when people describe the really bad fan fiction they have read. There are a few descriptions that I don't think I will ever forget. The president of the club actually described one slash fanfic that caused me to both blush for a few minutes and laugh until I cried. I really should go to meetings more.

I got an A+ on the paper I wrote for last Thursday: I guess I'm not always apathetic about grades. I worked really hard on this paper. It is not easy to create a good thesis that connects ten different articles where a few them don't really overlap, and still keep the paper between 2-3 pages. Actually the hardest part is keeping the paper between 2-3 pages. I've decided the perfect paper tends to be about 4 pages. Anyways I thought the paper was kind of disorganized and that I had problems articulating what I wanted to say. I was very happy to find out I had done so well.

The New COD: Say what you will, but I get really excited looking at the classes that will be offered next year and trying to decided which classes to take. I was especially excited to see there was going to be an Anthropology of Religion class taught next semester by a professor I had last semester who I really loved. He's this cute, little old man from New Zealand who gets really excited about what he teaches. Anyways I had already been planning on trying to take whatever class he taught next semester (he teaches a new class every fall). I was looking on the catalogue and I stumbled upon this class, which is very similar to a class I have been trying to take for the past two years. So I was already excited that this class was being offered and then when I saw who was teaching it I became estatic.

Okay time for more very disconnected thoughts (maybe I should change my journal title from various musings to diconnected thoughts. Hmmm...)

Starting off with a complaint - so I bought a used DVD online, and I've never had problems with used DVDs in the past. This time though the disk was so scratched that it stopped in various locations and I could not get it to work. Now I have to send it back because I want a refund! So that takes up time.

Now for some good news, because I really need some good things in my life now. So I applied for a job as a camp counselor at my temple. My sister has been going to this camp for years and now she is a CIT there. I'd just like to make money this summer, and my sister has always said how fun it is, and fits my summer schedule perfectly (I will explain later). I got an email back from the person who runs the camp and I have a phone interview with him tomorrow. I'm really nervous, but also really excited.

The reason a job would need to fit my summer schedule is because I am planning on taking a class during the summer. There is a 6 credit archeological field work class offered at UVA during the summer. It provides real, hands on experience doing field work at an actual archeological site. It sounds like a lot of fun and is just the type of experience I need!

Now for my really random question of the day: how come when we run into people we know we always ask how the other is doing? Why we always respond to that question with good? It just seems to me that sometimes when we ask, we are in such a rush we never hear the answer. When we do answer, we always say good. I can tell you that I've done this a lot lately. If you've been reading my posts lately you can see that I've not been good. So why do I respond with good? I'm lying to the other person for no real reason. Yet it only briefly ever occurs to me to respond with anything aside from good. Why?

Yay, I finally made it to another page. Anyways I know I should be doing homework and not writing but for some reason when the pressure level goes up, I procrastinate more.

My blinds broke :( I can open and close them now (barely) but I can't bring them up and down. I always had problems with them, but I never reported it because I could eventually get them to work. Now they won't even work and I don't want to have to pay for the repairs :( At least they probably won't be that expensive if I have to pay for them. It is a small window and fairly short, and they are probably aluminum and inexpensive. I just noticed that part of the things in front of the blinds are broken as well. I didn't do that. Grr. Oh well, I will have to see what will happen.

Speaking of breaking, I've had more computer problems (surprise, surprise). So the little bit of the wireless switch finally broke off. Luckily it broke off when the wireless was switched on, or I would be extremely miserable at the moment. So now I have to get it repaired (again!) although that probably won't happen until next Tuesday afternoon, at the soonest. I can't see myself parting with it until then.

I really wish someone would make superglue that didn't stick to skin. I have superglue all over my hands now from trying to remove my broken thermometer from the inside of the desk. Somehow it got superglued there. I've been using nailpolish remover to get it off and all I've taken off is the nailpolish I put on yesterday when I was procrastinating

I gave my presentation today. It went okay. It could have gone better, but it could have been much worse. Also my teacher agreed to let me change the date of my next presentation, so I won't have to give it next Tuesday (yay!). So now I just have to worry about the paper due on Thursday (which is really what I should be working on now), the take home test for Monday, and the one for Tuesday, my midterm on Tuesday, and various reading. I just need to keep perspective and focus. That means don't worry about things in the future and don't do something easy before I do the harder assignment that is due sooner.

I know I just posted recently about how much pressure I am under. Now however I have come to realize that there is a good chance that sometime between now and next Tuesday I am going to snap. I have recently been reminded of all the things that one of my suitemates does that have bothered me in the past: slamming the front door, slamming the bathroom door (really uneccessary) stomping up the stairs, talking really loudly in the bathroom and common room(it echos in both places). I don't know how I can deal with the stress I'm under and these annoying habbits of hers (many of which I've talked to her about in the past). Trying to study, write a paper, or complete a take home exam doesn't work well when someone keeps slamming the door, and the sound of their chortling drifts into your room.

I'm going to go ahead and predict that one of two things will happen in the next week and a half, and there is a chance both will happen. The first one is that as I said earlier, I will snap. That is I will lose my temper (yes it does) happen and just start screaming at someone. Or I will just start screaming in my room, although not saying anything. The other thing that might happen, which is more likely to happen and probably will occur multiple times, is that I will just break down and start crying. That's what happend last year when I was under so much stress due to orgo exams (one of the reasons I stopped taking Chemistry). Of course the crying would probably happen without all the added distractions of my suitmate, I just think they will induce it sooner. I really just want to make it through the next week and a half in one piece with my mind intact.

By the way I feel like this song really captures how I am feeling now: Pressure

I am under so much pressure at this moment, and the worst thing is that it will not go away for over a week. I actually felt this way during spring break as well, and it seriously impacted how much I enjoyed spring break. It wasn't very relaxing. However I know I didn't do as much work as I could have done, and now I will pay for it. If I can make it through next Tuesday, I will be fine. Until then though, I will be extremely stressed out. I find a good way of relieving stress is listing what I have to do, so here it is:

RELG 230: Nothing major, thankfully. Some reading may be assigned for later this week, but hopefully not. There will probably be reading for next Monday though

HIME 224: A take home exam with 10 words that need to be defined and related to Zionism in only three sentences. It is open note, open book, open computer etc. It isn't very hard, but it is worth 50% of my grade

ANTH 290C: An exam next Tuesday for which I need to study very hard for, and read another book

RELJ: A Take home exam which is given out on Thursday and due next Tuesday

ANTH 303: A presentation for Tuesday, reading and a 2-3 page paper due Thursday, and another presentation due next Tuesday (which requires reading)

In summary that is a presentation on Tuesday, a paper due on Thursday, a take home exam due next Monday, and for next Tuesday - an exam, a take home exam, and a presentation.

Like I said, if I can make it through next Tuesday, I will be fine.

I feel like lately I've been extremely apathetic about most things. I'm not so apathetic though, that I'm not bothered by this development. I just can't get myself worked up about anything lately. I get grades back and I don't care what I got. I'm no longer really excited about Spring Break. Occasionaly I will feel something else. Lately I've been really nervous and stressed out over a test that I had to day, but as soon as it was over I went back to being apathetic. I'm happy when I'm with my friends, but as soon as I get back to my room, I go back to not caring. I will get happy sometimes when I'm watching things, although lately many shows that would normaly get some type of emotion out of me, don't get anything.

I think part of my problem may have to do with the classes I'm taking. They're okay. They're not bad. I'm certainly not miserable the way I was last year, but I don't enjoy them the way I enjoyed my classes last semester. There are two classes I really like (Religious ethics and Moral problems, and my Anthro seminar). But my other classes are only okayi. I sit there and I really don't care about being there. It's made worse that they are all 1 hour and 15 minute classes. Maybe if they were shorter I would enjoy them more? But I've never had this problem with longer classes before. I really feel though that my apathy first arose in conjunction with my classes.

Lately though it has spread to other aspects of my life. I thought about skipping one of my classes and came to the conclusion: why bother? If I skipped I knew I would just sit in my room, be just as bored as I was in class, and not care. I don't know why I've suddenly been feeling so apathetic in outside of class. Maybe it goes back to the fact that, like I mentioned in an earlier entry, I feel like I'm missing something or someone in my life. But I've felt that way for two months, and I've only recently stopped caring about things. I don't understand it. I just know it bothers me.

It seems that I currently am facing a dilema. Not a (exactly) a bad dilema, but a dilema nonetheless. So I've been trying to work out plans with my parents for when I'm going home for springbreak and what is going on with Passover. Springbreak isn't officially settled yet, but I thought that Passover plans were pretty solid. Then my mom called me today and said that she and my dad had gotten confused about when my birthday was vis-a-vis Passover. They thought it was the Monday after Passover, I always knew it was the Monday before. So now I have this offer to go home the Friday before my birthday and stay home for a week (well that is stay home, go to Richmond, and then go back home.)

I have no idea if I should take up this offer. It is so tempting as well. I know that it sounds like I would be missing a lot of classes. I would be. However I was always planing on missing classes on Thursday (Passover is Wednesday night) and I was going to have to miss most of my classes on Wednesday beacuse of traveling. That means there are two days of classes I would be missing that I wasn't planing on. Now I can easily miss my classes on Monday. They are large, I wouldn't be noticed, if I do the reading I will be fine. However I have two seminars on Tuesdays and one other small class on Tuesday. For the non-seminar, I'm allowed to miss three classes and it won't be counted against me. For one of my seminars participation is a big part and it is counted against you if you miss class. So I don't know. And of course I can sit here and dileberate, but April is still over a month away and who know what will be going on then.