The end of the semester is here again…and busy as ever! It doesn’t seem like there is enough time in these last two weeks to do everything that needs to be done. The last week before finals, I have 3 papers and a presentation due-only one of which I’ve started. I expect to be functioning on very little sleep…

Plus, my boss scheduled me four days a week at Barnes and Noble. My entire Tuesdays and Thursdays are devoted to class and work-class at 11 (waking up earlier if I decide I need to do homework in the morning) and work until 11.

In the midst of it all, my bike got a flat tire-as if I needed more stress. I don’t really have time to go and get it fixed. Fortunately, I’ve been able to get rides so far, but I may be reduced to walking. On the bright side, I only have 5 work days left!

On Thursday morning, Brittany B. interviewed me for her TV Production class (not sure if that’s really the class, though). I was on camera. Wow. I’m not very comfortable with cameras (as my fellow blogger Ashlea can attest to since I actually helped her with a filming project just a few days earlier), so being in the spotlight, in front of the cameras, with her entire class watching was a little worse than awful for me. I got through it though! She interviewed me about my blogging, asking what I write about, if people recognize me, how my friends have reacted, and lots of other questions.

I managed to find time to register for fall classes-that was fun. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I’m done with class at 12:15! On Fridays, I’m done by 11. I am kind of in love with my schedule. I am also taking one of the new dialogue classes that is a part of the restructuring of the curriculum. If you haven’t heard about it, check out the Knight Writer, where you can learn a little more.

Also, we had our last poetry coffeehouse of the year. Quest, our literary arts journal, was published and offered to students. I took 6 copies. It seems like a lot, but one of my poems was published in it, and all of my family wants copies. It was Christina’s last night as President of the Poetry Club. Next year, I’m up. She gave me all of the information I needed to run the coffeehouses smoothly. I’m looking forward to it; I’ve never been in a leadership position before.

The same night, Brittany B., Alyssa, Kaileigh and I went to the play-The Boys Next Door. It was AMAZING, like Morgan said. Everyone did a great job. They put a lot of work into it; they even built an entire set (which I watched them take apart Saturday morning during brunch)! If anyone didn’t get to see it, you missed out. My favorite phrase since the play is, “Oh boy! Donuts!”

So, that’s an update on the past week or so. It’s been busy! Hopefully, the next two weeks will fly by so I can go home! I can’t wait…

Aly moved out of our room about two weeks ago. I meant to blog about it sooner, but I haven’t had a chance.  She and I hadn’t been getting along since before Spring Break, and more recently, she and Kaileigh had not been getting along. I know that advice is Morgan’s area of expertise, but I think this situation could provide help for other students dealing with the same issues. There are some things that you need to remember when you have roommate trouble.

Your first step should be to talk to your roommate about whatever problems you’re having. It’s easier to attempt to fix them yourself before involving others.

Talk to your RA and RD. They might be able to help. They might have you sign new roommate contracts to set boundaries in the room.

Try to keep things civil. For one, if you’re still living with someone you don’t get along with, you don’t want your room to have an uncomfortable atmosphere. Also, remember that this is a small school, and you’re going to see this person even if you or they move out. It’s easier to pass someone on one of the paths to class if things don’t end badly. So even if someone does move out, try not to be rude. Chances are  you’re going to run into your ex-roommate again.

Next, don’t start gossip. Plain and simple. No explanation should be needed.

Finally, if there were good times before you and your roommate started having troubles, if you were friends, try to remember that. It’s better than dwelling on everything that tore you apart.

I’m not saying that all of these suggestions will work, or even that we followed all of them when Aly moved out, but maybe they will help you to avoid the stress that this kind of situation puts on everyone. College is hard enough without coming back to your room and knowing you don’t want to be there.

 The conference began on Thursday with a convocations session where Eleanor Wilner was the guest speaker. Later that night, we had a banquet as a welcoming dinner where Geoffrey Wolff delivered a monologue he had written. Brittany and I took pictures and made some new friends. We both wore dresses that were not appropriate for the 40 degree weather, but we were, fortunately, inside most of the time.

I read my paper Friday morning in front of a small audience of students. It wasn’t quite the excruciating 10 minutes that I made it out to be. Of course, I forgot to bring a bottle of water up with me, so my mouth was worse than dry, but other than that, the reading was fine. Unfortunately, Brittany and I were in different rooms at the same time, so we did not get to hear each other read. After our sessions, we ate breakfast and then went to hear a session where one of our new friends, David, read a story. It was an interesting satire on fantasy that he calls a mix between Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn on crack. We mostly attended sessions that were poetry readings rather than research papers. It was definitely entertaining to listen to. They served us lunch (but ran out of vegetarian sandwiches, so I had to buy food) and Bret Anthony Johnston read the introduction of Naming the World. I have to say that he was the most entertaining of the three authors.

That night we attended a poetry reading and Brittany, of course, read two of her amazing poems. It was interesting to listen to students from around the country read their poetry, as well. The man in charge of the poetry reading said it was one of the best attended readings yet (though I have to say that it doesn’t compare to the poetry coffeehouses at Lynn; I just didn’t feel the same sense of closeness in the room).

Afterwards, we went bowling at a place called Fat Cats. Brittany had made us about 7 new friends from the conference, so there was a huge group of us. Four of them were a group of boys who had roadtripped all the way from Oregon and didn’t even have a place to stay for the night. We found out later that they slept in a park. Talk about dedication to literature!

On Saturday, we attended some more sessions. I think two of them were poetry and another one was with a couple of people with whom we had bowled. One girl read a paper about James Joyce’s Ulysses and T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” She kind of gave me the urge to read Ulysses, though, in general, I’m not attracted to Joyce’s writing. Another student in the last sesssion read a paper about a graphic novel called Fun Home. I had never before considered graphic novels as literature, but I would have to agree that this one was. It was a memoir by, I think, someone named Bechdale, though I’m not sure.

After all of the sessions were over, there was a question and answer period for the authors who had attended. People asked about publishing and living off their writing (which all of the authors agreed is not likely to happen; most authors hold jobs other than just their writing careers).

The conference (and Utah) was an experience. Although I was sometimes bored, I definitely don’t regret coming. Meeting all of the people I met and the experience of actually attending the conference was amazing. Now we’re sitting at the hotel waiting for the time when we need to go to the airport to catch our plane. I should probably go and catch up on the homework I’ve missed while I’m waiting…

I won. Sam didn’t think I could do it, but I did. Of course, at 12:00 on the dot, the first thing I did was open a Three Musketeers and eat it, but I was successful.

So I am the stereotypical woman when it comes to chocolate: I adore it! However, there is a point at which too much can be a bad thing. I have reached that point: I have had chocolate every day for weeks now. Not healthy. So I decided yesterday that I wasn’t going to have any chocolate all day. Maria kind of killed that goal when she offered me the rest of her chocolate chip cookie. I couldn’t very well refuse it, could I? I told Sam this and he said that I couldn’t go one day without eating chocolate. I said I could. So we made a bet that if I went all day today without chocolate, he owed me a dollar. If I couldn’t, though, I owed him a dollar. (He also upped the bet to include sweets of all kind-I agreed because I thought I didn’t eat other sweets-that turned out to be wrong!). Stupidly, I forgot to stipulate that there would be no tempting allowed before we shook on it. The temptation began at approximately 10:15 this morning. I was in his room and unfortunately for me, there was documentary on Hershey’s chocolate on the History Channel. Wow can I say coincidence? Why, on this day, would this be on TV? And how did he find it! However, it did not break me down. Then on the way to dinner, things got worse…There was an ice cream social outside the cafeteria. Ice cream: a weakness nearly on the same par as chocolate.  I just thought, the entire world is conspiring against me today! At dinner, Sam conspicuously placed a bottle of chocolate syrup on the table, in addition to trying to put a piece of cake on my tray. Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Kaileigh, Aaron, and Brittany all decided to join in on the torment. They started talking about how good chocolate is and how much they were going to enjoy the ice cream after dinner. Sam even went so far as to grab some oatmeal raisin cookies, pour some chocolate on them, and push them in front of me. After dinner, the real torment began. Everyone around me had a bowl of ice cream and was waving it under my nose. Sam decided to drag his ice cream soaked spoon down my leg. But that’s not as bad as him trying to force feed me M&Ms that he bought for solely that purpose. He spent $3.00 on candy for a $1.00 bet that I will win!  It’s about 9:00 now and despite the many temptations, I am still going strong.

So I was having a conversation with my co-worker, Erika, this morning and I revealed to her something I only recently discovered myself: I can do push ups. Real ones, not girly ones. I usually only do girly ones, but I always see Kaileigh doing push ups, so I thought I would try it myself and I did it! I was quite proud of myself; so was Kaileigh (or so she claims). I’ve even worked myself up to doing three at a time…..yes, I am that weak. So I told Erika (because I had to brag) and she didn’t believe me. She said, “Do one.” So I did. Three of them. Right behind the circulation desk. How’s that for a morning’s work?

Most people would agree with me that being used by someone is not something they aspire too. Most people likely avoid it at all costs. However, I would bet that most people have not been used in the same way I was used Friday…

I went to dinner with Kaileigh, Sam, and Mitch, and while we were there, the skies decided to open and pour down rain. I had come prepared (though not as prepared as I would have liked) and was wearing a hoody (my hair was nice and straight and I wanted to keep it that way). My friends were not. As it turns out, Sam did not need an umbrella or a hoody: he had me. Apparently, I double as an umbrella. He literally hauled me over his shoulder to keep him dry (not comfortable on a full stomach). He walked with me like that nearly all the way back to Old Lynn. Bumpy ride for me. Then, when he finally put me down, I was so unsteady from being bumped around that I nearly collapsed. But that wasn’t as important as the fact that I really did keep him mostly dry…

So like I said, not many people can say they’ve been used the way I have: as an umbrella. I can now officially say that.

One of the amazing things about living in Old Lynn is that we get our own bathrooms and showers; we don’t have to travel down the hall to use the community restrooms like students do in three of the other dorms. I think we are very fortunate for that; I’m not particularly fond of public restrooms, no matter how clean. However, this positive aspect has recently become somewhat negative…

Lack of toilet paper can be an issue. Since we have a private bathroom, the school does not provide toilet paper like they do for the community bathrooms (which I believe is kind of unfair; we do pay the same price for our rooms. But-can’t have everything!). We have to fend for ourselves in that respect. All year, Aly, Kaileigh, and I have had a nice rotation plan going on. One person buys toilet paper, then the next, then the next, then we start over again. But, since Kaileigh and I do not have cars, getting toilet paper can sometimes be difficult. Usually, we can catch a ride with someone to Walmart or CVS or we will give someone money to pick it up for us (not that that worked out so well last time; I asked Sam to get us some toilet paper and he comes back with paper towels). As of now, it’s Kaileigh’s turn to buy toilet paper and–well–she hasn’t been doing such a great job of procuring it. In fact, we’ve run out. Fortunately, though, we have not yet been stranded on the toilet without it. Until she gets a chance to get some more toilet paper for us, we have been taking miles of toilet paper from a bathroom downstairs outside the gym. It’s not very soft, but it gets the job done.

The Liberal Arts Symposium was last week. I meant to write about it sooner, but other things just kept getting in the way. For those who don’t know, the symposium is a chance for students from the College of Arts and Sciences to share some of the work they’ve done throughout the year. My friend Maria was in it, reading a paper from a China/Taiwan trip she went on over the summer. Michael, a guy I know from Medieval/Renaissance class last semester, gave a comical presentation about his trip to Egypt over the Winter break. Three of my friends were doing a project from math class, but I missed their presentation because I left early. I heard later that it was pretty funny, as well. There were many more presentations: one from a sociology project that included many of the Haitian workers on campus, another from an international student on, I think, the secretary general, and a couple from the science department. I read a research paper that I wrote this semester on The Awakening. It’s an eight page paper, so pretty long. I knew I was going to be up there for a while, so I tried to read fast to get it over with more quickly. A couple of people picked up on it, which was kind of embarrassing, but really only natural. It’s a good night for the College of Arts and Sciences, a good chance for the students to show off their talents. Great job to everyone who had the opportunity to present!

The Lynn Magazine is out and the bloggers are in it! Debbie Stern interviewed all of us last semester for an article she planned to write for the magazine and I think she did an amazing job! She said that we’ve created “a living, breathing brochure for Lynn University,” which I thought was an exceptional phrase. She included information we gave her in our interviews and mini bios as well as excerpts from our blogs, which I wasn’t expecting (though I suppose I should have). The entire article is so colorful! The excerpts from our blogs are color coded (I’m green) and in a different font, which makes the whole article more interesting aesthetically. And I have to give Anthony credit; the pictures he took from the beginning of the year are amazing, as well. Good job guys!