Halloween!

I almost wasn't going to dress up at all, but I managed to pull together a last minute Carmen Sandiego costume, with a hat and everything! It's not perfect. The hat is a converted felt pimp hat, and the coat is Julia's, so a size smaller than would be ideal. But it works, somewhat. Tomorrow night I'm going with Taylor and a few of his friends to a Joss Whedon sing-a-long. I'm kind of bummed to be missing all the events going on on-campus tomorrow night, but I won't miss seeing a million and a half girls in costumes titled "Slutty _____". (Fill in the blanks with nurse, cop, penguin, whatever.) My peer mentor, Jocelyn, is going as Xenu, the alien from Scientology. Julia is going as Velma from Scooby Doo, Dinah as an Ostrich, Heidi as a French revolutionary, and the creativity goes on. I hope I'm able to get pictures.

I got my Core midterm back today, and I did really well! Unfortunatly, the work just goes on and on. I have a paper due Monday on Toni Morrison's Beloved, a Marine Bio exam on Tuesday, and an Italian exam on Wednesday. I've managed to catch -up on, and even get ahead, in all my reading, so I started reading Fellowship of the Ring on the side. A couple years ago when I tried reading it, I found it super dense and difficult, but after all the reading we've done for Core I find that the Lord of the Rings is much easier, and even has a relaxing cadence.

My face hasn't gotten any better. The muscles that I can't move are a little sore, and trying to eat/drink is an adventure all it's own. At least my friends are nice enough to laugh with me when I take too big of a gulp and my coffee falls out of my mouth unexpectedly.

I need to go do laundry. I'm down to about 3 shirts, which makes getting ready in the morning quite a pain.

Also, what was I thinking when I didn't bring ALL my shoes?!?!?!

This is the picture of Julia and I that was taken for the Photobooth project. Last month for 2 days a photo booth with a professional photographer was set up in front of the dining hall. He took 238 sets of pictures and then they created a large wall of pictures that stands in the lawn in front of the dining hall as a visual representation of the Scripps community.


In other news, over the last couple of days I've developed Bell's Palsy which is a paralysis or weakening of the muscles on the right side of my face, caused by some sort of trauma to the 7th cranial nerve. The doctor said it was probably a virus I caught on campus that attacked the nerve instead of making me sick. The last couple of days food has been tasting really weird, and then my hearing became super sensitive, and then yesterday I was having trouble eating and wrapping my mouth around a straw. I asked the girls I was eating with if my smile was lopsided, which it was, so I called the on-call doctor on campus who suggested I go to urgent care and suggested that it could be this palsy. I went to the hospital with Julia and Dinah, and they prescribed me a steroid and said most people get better with in 6 weeks. In the mean time, it will be very strange eating and I can make really funny faces:

That last one is my "kissy" face, if you can't tell.
Oh! And I can't really close my right eyelid, so I have to wear an eyepatch at night so nothing scratches my eyeball.

Arizona

Taylor and I went to Arizona for fall break, which puts one more state under my belt. It was ridiculously hot! Even in October it was 100˚F every day. Saturday we went to the Arizona State Fair with Taylor's friend Greg, and my friend Ellie and her new boyfriend. We rode some rides, rode an elephant, saw monkeys riding dogs, went to a petting zoo where they had an adolescent giraffe, and went to a Weezer concert for free. And Sunday we had lunch with Taylor's Aunt and cousins. The drive wasn't bad, aside from the heat. It was 5 hours from Claremont to Tempe and all on one freeway. It was a whole lot of nothing though, so I'm grateful we didn't break down.

Fall Break Looms

Last weekend Taylor took me to see Joan Osborne in concert for our anniversary. It was a great surprise. We also spent all day Saturday at Santa Monica. My camera was broken, so I couldn't take pictures, but it was beautiful weather and a whole lot of fun!
Fall Break starts on Friday. I'm excited to be going to Arizona to see Ellie, but not so much excited for the drive. I also wouldn't mind some alone time in the dorms, but I miss Ellie so much. We're going to the Arizona State Fair and have tentative plans to see Weezer in concert. And plans to play a thrilling game of speed scrabble.

Good News!

This week I got back my first Core essay and my Marine Biology test. I got A- on both of them, which I'm so happy about! My Core professor said he had graded all the essays pretty harshly and that we shouldn't freak out about it. But I don't think an A- is very harsh and I can certainly live with that.
On Monday it was our anniversary, so Taylor and I went to Red Lobster (where it was crab-crackin' monday!) and watched Garden State. Tonight we're going out to do something, but it's a surprise, so he won't tell me. It's amazing how much harder that makes choosing what to wear. I hope it's fun.
My voter registration went through! I would've been pretty upset if I couldn't vote against Sarah Palin.

October Arrives

Here are Dinah, Abby, Hannah and I posing as Jedi. I'm the androgynous looking one on the right.

I've been here for over a month now. It doesn't seem that long, and at the same time it feels like it's been forever. A lot of things are like that here.
My Core paper went super well. I haven't received it back yet, but I have a really good feeling about it. We did get our Writing 50 papers back and I was one of 2 people in the class within an A-range. I only have minimal revisions to do to it. My Marine Bio test last week went reasonably well too, I think.
Friday night I went to go see the Dandy Warhols in concert in Hollywood with Taylor. It was a really good show and I super enjoyed it. There are so many concerts down here! It'll be pretty hard to pick and choose which ones are worth seeing.
Saturday, Scripps sponsored a trip to Disneyland with about 46 freshman students. I went with pretty much my whole dorm hall. It was the most fun I've had so far and a really good bonding experience with all my new friends. The Indiana Jones Ride and Splash Mountain are probably the best rides ever. I didn't take pictures, but plenty of other people did!


This is Abby and I after Splash Mountain. (She went to Lincoln!)

And this is Abby, Hannah and I in the O in front of California Adventure.


And this is all of us waiting in line for Indiana Jones.