End-of-the-year awards

Apart from finals (and 3 science papers), my freshman year is over. So I wanted to do kind of a fun wrap-up of some of my new favorite and least favorite things. Well, and I'm trying to avoid those science papers.

Best Part of College: Swiping My Student Card Everywhere

Worst Part of College: Bad Weather

Best Dining Hall Meal: Grilled Cheese and Vanilla Coke

Least Favorite Things: Fire Alarms and Tornados

Favorite New Item: My Watercolor Colored Pencils

Least Favorite Accusation: "Eowyn is a gold digger"

Favorite New Book: The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B. Dunkle

Least Favorite Book: Microcosmos

Favorite New Authors: Sharon Shinn, Patricia Briggs

Least Favorite Campus Buildings: Geology, all the J-buildings, Middlebush (all far away)

Favorite Campus building: Conservation (closeness)

Favorite New Singer: Loreena McKennitt

Best Part of Having a Mac: itunes; Expose

Worst Part of Having a Mac: Lack of games; Windows-based Discrimination

How to tell if you're a college student (bonus: do you go to Mizzou?)

8 Ways to tell you're a college student (or at least think like one)

1.You believe that pedestrians have the right to cross at any time and any in any place they desire (with or without crosswalk)--unless you're the one driving
2. You know that teacher evaluations are there merely to create a façade of student empowerment
3. Naps and pizza at midnight are not deviance, but social norms
4. You brave weather to get to class that Columbus, Magellan, or even a postman would quail at
5. Facebook is not a site, it's a way of life
6. You think that ipods are natural appendages of the body
7. You eat all your meals at a dining hall
8. You follow any flyer that promised to lead to "free food"


Are you at Mizzou? Five easy ways to find out

1. You can't walk to class without seeing someone setting up a newscast
(aka journalists to people ratio : 14 to 1)
2. You not only have your school song, chant, and mascot, but your own ice cream flavor
3. Kansas= Nemesis
4. The campus library is a labyrinth
5. You are standing next to a sign that says "University of Missouri Columbia"

Rain and Beleriand

Today it was raining all morning. Not just drizzling, but really raining. The cobbles and sidewalks of Mizzou are obviously not prepared to deal with a downpour of this magnitude (I know, I know: it's Missouri; they should be used to it) and turned everything into a lake-marshland-pond-area. All the pollen stuff that they trees have been dropping make very convincing algae, too. I had carefully wrapped my backpack in my raincoat before slinging it onto my back, so the priceless artifacts inside (read: LotR dvds to return to a friend) were safe. But even with these precautionary measures, and my small but cheery brighton pink umbrella, my shoes, socks, and bottom half of my capris were soaked by Econ class. So I trudged around all day in wet socks. Just what a person recovering from an ear/sinus infection needs.

On a more happy note, on thursday my Tolkien class is putting on an impromptu play from a script that a local highschool student wrote-- based on the Tolkien story Of Beren and Luthien (or the Lay of Leithien, or whatever name you want to call it). Apparently he is quite thrilled that college students will be performing his play, even if it is just in class and without any run-throughs. I am totally excited (even if I'm just playing the queen and have 3 lines) and I'm already thinking ahead to a yearly Tolkien Extravaganza in which we make it into a real play. Actually, I'm already planning for a movie deal, if you're interested. ;) I'm very excited to met this guy; finally a captive audience for me to recite the hour of Beren and Luthien stuff that I have memorized (evil grin). On another happy note, I won the little campus dining writing contest, and I now have a $300 gift card for next year. Sweetarts here I come!

So, yeah, things are wrapping up fairly nicely around here. Except for that dreaded Word-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named.

Sick

Ugh! [I cough, groan, and curl into a ball] I hate being sick. Yesterday after church I was at Walmart, getting some absolutely necessary supplies for a science project, and waiting on a bench for my friend to get out of late service and come pick me up. I had only had five hours sleep, and I had a headache, so I was not feeling the best. I remember that I forgot to get the glue, so I go back inside to buy it, and I start to feel dizzy. As I wait in line, there is a problem with the checkout in front of me, and as it goes on and on I feel like I'm going to pass out. When it's my turn, I slap down the glue (proud of myself for staying upright) and fumbling throw 3 dollars down. The cashier asks me if I have two pennies. Do I have two pennies? I can't even see my purse. I'm going to fall over and you want me to find some pennies? I manage to buy the glue and I rush to my bench, feeling horrendous. I second later I think I'm going to throw up. So I rush back through the store to the bathroom. I'm going to pass out on a wallmart floor. I can't believe this. I feel less nauseous after I get there, but now I'm all trembly. My face in the mirror is so white that my lips look bright red, even though I know they are cracked and dry.
My friend shows up after another half hour. We try to go to the student heath clinic, but it's closed on the weekends. I don't want to go to the emergency room, so she drops me off at my dorm. For the next few hours I toss restlessly in bed, calling home and telling my mom it's okay; she doesn't have to come up. Finally at four o'clock my mom convinces me to find someone to drive me to a clinic downtown that's open til five. Jason gets his car and drives me, and, after going the wrong way on Providence, we finally get there.
Then it's a lot of filling out forms, etc. The doctor comes in to see me, and does all that normal doctor-y stuff, asks me questions, etc. He makes me get up and try to walk putting one foot heal to toe in front of the other one. He tells me to hold my hands out, close my eyes, and touch my finger to my nose. I sit back down and wait breathless to see what he'll say (well, yeah.,. cuz breathing hurts). I'm almost afraid that they're is nothing wrong with me; that I've dragged everyone on a wild goose chase for nothing. Then the doctor says "You've got a sinus and ear infection" and goes on to explain to be how that throws my balance off, etc. Ohhh I think, I never would have guessed that. So he writes me a prescription, and off I go, dragging poor Jason to Walgreens. That took like 40 min (I miss my Kaye Pharmacy). But to end this sad tale of woe, I'm now on 3 different medicines: Meclizine (take three times a day), Amoxicillin (twice a day) and 12 hour Sudafed. Which I'm sure is more information than you ever wanted to know about my sickness. So, yeah, I’m still feeling miserable, but at least not as bad as yesterday morning; thanks to my mom's insistence that I take care of things right away. The road to recovery may not be fun, but at least it's better than staying in Sicktown.