December 30, 2007
Return to Nesting
This weekend is a very special time for me. Not because of New Year's--that's nice and all, but eh. No, what's significant about this time is that as of this past Thursday, it has been eighteen months since we moved into our current apartment. I know, that doesn't seem all that exciting. But it is. And here's why:
This is the first time in ten years that I've lived somewhere for that long without moving.
Seriously. Ten years. Since March of 1998, I've been moving with such regularity that it's amazing I didn't just buy an RV and move into it. I'd like to present a log of my moves over the last ten years, so that you can all see just how crazy it's been. I'd also like to point out that while, yes, all college students move between home and school every year, my situation was a bit different. That's because after the summer after my freshman year, I lost my bedroom. My brother moved into it, my things were... well, not there anymore, and when I was at home, I was sleeping in either my dad's office or a den. That means that for the entirety of college, all of the belongings I wanted access to were with me at college. I didn't leave clothes at home, I didn't leave keepsakes at home, I either boxed them up and stored them, or moved them at the beginning and end of every school year. That said, here we go:
- March 1998: from Plymouth, where I'd lived for 12 years, to a house in St. Louis Park
- August 1999: to an apartment in Toledo, Ohio, for college
- October 1999: to a dorm at UToledo, because my apartment roommates were homophobic party girls who exploded my microwave and expected me to cover for them when the cops came a-knockin and they were drunk
- May 2000: home! to my room, for the last time
- August 2000: to a dorm in Oberlin, Ohio
- June 2001: home! but... to my dad's office
- August 2001: to a different dorm in Oberlin
- January 2002: to another different dorm in Oberlin when I got a promotion that involved a move
- April 2002: home, to my brother's abandoned room, when I had a nervous breakdown
- August 2002: back to a dorm in Oberlin, the same one as the previous August
- May 2003: graduation! off to an apartment in Hopkins, MN with Lauren
- August 2004: wow, a record! over a year in one place! but now off to a dorm at Augsburg when I got an RD job
- October 2004: hmmm, another promotion that involves moving to a new dorm...
- January 2005: and another nervous breakdown that involves quitting and moving. this time to a fabulous apartment in Minneapolis near 50th & France
- July 2005: sadly, we have to leave the great apartment when Lauren gets an RD job in, sigh, Oberlin
- June 2006: and that was all the Oberlin we could handle. off to our new apartment in a res hall at the U of MN, where Lauren got a new job
And here we still are today. And here we will stay at least through June, if not for another year, depending on whether or not they move Lauren after this year.
All I care about is this--I have not had to pack, search for movers, pay movers, or tear my hair out about how to set up a NEW living space in 18 months. It's too bad this apartment isn't the most livable place and has no storage or closets... But it's still a wonderful feeling, to be in one place so long. It still doesn't feel like home. I guess maybe knowing that we could be moved any given year, combined with the fact that it's... well, a dorm, kind of means it might not ever feel like home. But it's still been nice to stay still.
And maybe that's why I've been looking for houses again lately, stalking edinarealty.com like a deranged person. Maybe that's why for the first time in a year and a half, I feel like I can look toward the future. Maybe feeling just a little bit more stable has been good for me and I can finally, finally relax enough to start feeling like I'm not running a marathon just to keep up with where life is taking us. It's a really nice feeling.
Posted to Minnesota & Nesting & Nostalgia & Oberlin at 06:54 PM | Comments (1)
January 09, 2007
Welcome to 2007!
Last night I was watching the Cosby show (and yes I did just start my first journal entry in months with 'last night I was watching the Cosby show') and I was half asleep when I heard Bill Cosby say, "Bennington is the most expensive college in the country right now!" Right away, I snapped to attention, because I have interest in both 1) Bennington, 2) the cost of college, both of those for reasons it would take me way too long to describe.
Anyway, I'm not going to describe the whole scene on the show, but one thing did literally make me say, "OUCH!" out loud. Following saying that Bennington was the most expensive college in the country, they added that the cost of tuition plus room and board was $17,000. That was the MOST expensive college in the country.
Okay, so that episode originally aired in September 1987, but still. Wow.
Because I'm both insane and a nerd, today I decided to compare that to the current most expensive college, George Washington University. Their tuition plus room and board? $49,290. That's almost enough for three full years at Bennington in 2007. And just for curiosity's sake, Bennington, which is 7th most expensive this year, now costs $43,070. And by the way, Oberlin only missed making the top 10 list (which is based on tuition only) by $914. That's just... Great.
Basically, what this tells me, is that my children better be interested in going to trade school. Hope they all want to be mechanics!
Posted to Mindless Entertainment & Miscellaneous & Oberlin at 02:03 PM | Comments (6)
June 03, 2006
Moving right along...
We're outta here! In just over an hour, we'll be driving off, watching Oberlin getting smaller and smaller (which shouldn't take long) in our rearview mirrors.
I'm no so stupid as to think I'll never be back here again. I'm an alumna, and in case my obsession with all things facebook/myspace/friendster hasn't made this clear, I love reunions and any other experiences meant to remind me how miserable I was during previous life experiences. And I really do love Oberlin in a twisted way, I just wish to love it from afar. So yes, we'll be back someday, probably sooner than I realize. And that's ok.
But for now, we're leaving, and going home. Unless we get too tired and stop for the night, in just over 12 hours, I'll be home in Minnesota.
WOOHOO!!
Posted to Oberlin at 07:17 AM | Comments (1)
May 22, 2006
Deja Vu
Right now I'm making frozen organic macaroni that specific says "Do not bake in toaster oven" in the toaster oven. I'm a rebel.
Oberlin is a different place today than it was 24 hours ago. The last of students--except for one senior and one RA--have checked out of our building. The commencement workers are preparing to move to their new rooms. Everyone else is gone. This isn't permanent; on Friday all the parents and alumni arrive and will surely be at least as loud as, if not louder than, the students we've been living with all year. But I don't care.
I've never been here for senior week before. At the end of my own senior year, I was a huge rush to get out of here. I was finishing away, since I had 8 credits left due to having taken a semester off my junior year, so I wasn't walking. I had no interest in a day at Cedar Point and buses to the Flats and ironic keggers in the freshman dorm. I just wanted to leave.
I don't regret missing senior week, although I wish I had known that I could have petitioned to walk at graduation. But it's weird to be here for the graduation of the students who were freshmen when I was a senior.
We're more than halfway done packing. By the end of this week, I expect that all we'll have left is the last minute stuff, like the bathroom. We can leave as soon as a week from Saturday, if we want to. And we might.
I don't like feeling guilty about wanting to rush out of here. I don't like feeling like I'm back in college and I'm in such a hurry to blow out of Oberlin that it's likely that I'm missing out on things. I don't like feeling like I haven't changed at all in the 3 years since I graduated. I know I have, but today, right this minute, I feel familiar and ugly.
Thank goodness I'm going home to a good therapist.
Posted to Oberlin at 11:40 AM | Comments (2)
May 01, 2006
I didn't mean to stay away so long
I haven't posted in quite awhile, have I? I've been very busy. I've been busy knitting on the practice piece I used to teach Lauren how to knit, reading a LOT of BSC books, and avoiding thinking about our future. So you can see why I haven't had time to post.
Actually, though, this past weekend was a very full one. On Friday, Lauren and I went to see Stick It, which I had been looking forward to since January. I'm sad to report that it really wasn't very good. You'd think the combination of stupid teen film, gymnastics routine, and a character who fits my type pretty exactly would make for a good (bad) movie, but it didn't. That won't stop me from Netflixing it when it comes out on DVD, though.
On Saturday, Lauren and I got up early, went to Black River the moment it opened, got a window table, and ate a very yummy breakfast. I'm an ice cream LOVER, but even I wouldn't have expected a waffle with fresh fruit and vanilla ice cream to be that good. After that, we got the perfect seats and watched the Big Parade. This was only the second time I've been able to make it, and the first time for Lauren, and I'm glad we went.
We watched the parade, we waited in a 45 minute line for hot dogs, we enjoyed an Oberlin Steel performance, we talked to SarahD, who I haven't seen since August, and then we met up with Lauren's parents, who came to visit for the weekend and sat outside and talked while watching the Israeli dancing ExCo and the donut eating contest. It was a really good Oberlin day, and it reminded me how much I really loved this place as a student.
Even the insane sunburn I got wasn't enough to ruin my day.
The rest of the weekend was good, too. We went out to dinner with Lauren's parents in Westlake, and on Sunday Lauren made a two-weeks-early Mothers' Day brunch and then we all went to an OMTA performance.
And then we died of exhaustion.
Still, not much that's worth writing about, but I figured it was time to break my almost-two-week silence and say SOMETHING.
Tomorrow I go back to the Twin Cities while Lauren heads off to an on-campus interview. She's got two back-to-back this week, but since her second one is in the cities, we get to spend the weekend together at my parents' next weekend. I'm fully committed to a visit to the Crema Cafe and Pizza Luce. I'm in full "homesick for Minneapolis in spring" mode, and I plan to take advantage of this last-minute visit.
Or just sit around my parents' house and enjoy being with family. Whichever.
Posted to Oberlin at 01:20 PM | Comments (5)
April 15, 2006
Please don't ever let me wait until April 15th again
I hate Ohio, I hate taxes, and I hate Ohio taxes.
I guess I'm now officially an American adult.
Last time I was in town, in mid-March, I did my taxes as well as Lauren's. It was the first time I had ever done my own taxes, and that was a pretty cool feeling. My dad has Turbo Tax, which I guess means that I didn't do anything that amazing, but it was still a big deal to me. I mean, I figured out how to put in our savings account interest, the credit Lauren gets for paying for grad school, and her two separate state tax information on the federal return. I was so confident that I didn't even need my dad to help me. I did both of our federal and Minnesota taxes without a problem.
But for Lauren's Ohio taxes, we had to do them manually. Turbo Tax doesn't let you buy a 2nd state (as far as we know, at least), so we figured no big deal, we'd just do the Ohio ones by hand. But somehow, they just kept getting put off and put off and put off... I finally decided that I'd do them with my dad when I got here this week.
Somehow, they got put off some more until last night after my dad had gone to bed. Lauren and I sat down to do them and we were completely stumped. Trying to figure out how to NOT have to include her Minnesota wages on her Ohio forms was mind-boggling, for some reason. So this morning, my dad and I spent stupid amounts of time figuring that out. And then we weren't done. We also had to do CITY taxes. What the hell?? And then we STILL weren't done, because we had to do school district taxes.
Now, in the end, we're getting refunds from each of the 5 separate envelopes Lauren had to mail in, and we're getting refunds on both of mine as well, so I shouldn't complain. But still... It was ridiculous. I'm already dreading next spring when we have to do her partial year Ohio taxes AGAIN.
I hate Ohio. I hate taxes. I hate Ohio taxes. And we will never live in Ohio again for this reason alone.
Posted to Oberlin at 10:10 AM | Comments (3)
February 28, 2006
so y'all don't think I'm dead or something...
I've tried to update several times in the last couple of days, but it hasn't gone so well. I don't know what's with me. Either that or I do know but have no interest in dealing with it. Let's just say I'm anxious for some changes and am trying not to wallow too much in my frustration as I bide my time.
I will, however, talk about one of my frustrations. I've complained pretty regularly about the noise here over the last several months, and I know that many people think I'm exaggerating. After all, having AS does make me more sensitive to the noises around me, and I've always had what my dad calls "longhearededness". However, I would like to share some external validation that proves that I'm not crazy, at least not when it comes to this.
Last Friday, around 5 pm, the building was already as noisy as it usually was around midnight on the weekends last semester. I was actually dealing fairly well, but Lauren -- my calm, unshakable, tolerant wife -- was stressed out. The noise was making her nuts. So I hopped in the shower, we packed a little suitcase, and we took off for an impromptu trip to her parents' house. We spent the weekend with her mom and dad and aunt, we went to bed at 10 pm on Saturday night, and we ate a lot of food that didn't come from chain restaurants. It was really nice to get away for a little while. And it was really nice to see Lauren go from wired and about to jump out of her skin to calm enough to function again.
Also, Lauren has been getting complaints from residents that the building is too loud and that the student staff isn't doing enough to enforce quiet hours. When a normal college student complains that a building is too noisy, we have proof that I'm not making it up.
Now if only all this validation would lead to some changes... Because there's no way I can go without sleep for another 3 months.
Other than that, life continues to be uninteresting around here. My major excitement comes from surfing the web to find resources for my parents' kitchen and bathroom renovation on the house they closed on today. That and helping Lauren prepare for ACPA, which is in exactly 17 days. I guess that's not such horrible stuff to occupy my time.
Posted to Oberlin at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2006
I guess it's all just fodder for that book Lauren says I should write...
First of all, I just have to share that this is my 100th post since switching over to Movable Type. That's probably completely insignificant, since I've been keeping an online journal for over 10 years now, but I don't care. It's fun to acknowledge.
Moving on.
The end of this week marks the end of J Term at Oberlin, and I'm less than thrilled about it. Although this month hasn't been perfect -- we can't go to bed until about 3 am unless we want to be awoken many many times -- it's been an AMAZING break from the normal anxiety-inducing noisy crap that comes with living in this building. Tomorrow morning we leave for San Diego, and although I'm thrilled that we won't be back until midnight on Sunday, thus managing to completely miss any sort of Superbowl craze, I'm dreading our return. When we get back, the students will all be back. Spring semester will likely be even louder than fall, as the freshmen don't require that same settling-in period and cabin fever sets in and makes everyone crazy.
I've really tried hard to give this living situation a shot and to not immediately write off the people who are affecting my mental health, but somehow, I can't help but fear the upcoming months. January has felt like an entire semester, and the thought that we have to live here for ANOTHER semester, for four more months, is beyond overwhelming.
I'm going to try to not create any self-fulfilling prophecies, and to focus my energy on enjoying my Hebrew classes, which start back up on Tuesday, and hope that Lauren can find a job somewhere where, even if the living situation is as bad, I have other outlets in my life that will give me a break from the insanity.
This didn't quite turn out to be the positive entry I had hoped for. Oops.
Posted to Mental Health & Oberlin at 11:13 AM | Comments (2)
November 13, 2005
Only in Oberlin...
Only in Oberlin can one be awoken by rowdy kids in the hallway rapping/beatboxing Jewish camp & Shabbat songs at 1:30 in the morning.
Posted to Oberlin at 01:26 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2005
Where we live (not a big black hole)
I wrote out a great entry and then closed the window. There goes another tidbit of my genius, lost to the world forever.
Anyway, we've been living here for about 3 months now, and people have been asking for pictures. Even though I haven't even talked to Pam since we moved, I can imagine her saying, "Rebecca, I need pictures. I keep picturing you floating around in a big black space."
We haven't complied because, frankly, it's been a big ole mess. I unpacked about 90% of our stuff the day it arrived and left the last 10%, most of which affected Lauren, for us to do together. We finally got it done last week, with the exception of a little bit of mess that we don't have room for and will be existing in messy prominence until we move out.
We've also finally begun decorating for a change. We're not done yet, but we're having fun. We're working on a picture wall of family and friends for the living room, but acquiring enough frames from Goodwill that can all be painted the same color is taking a good amount of time.
So even though our last place was so much nicer looking, and so much more homey, we've finally caved and taken pictures. One here, the rest after the jump.
The living room:
The kitchen:
The bathroom (lucky you -- you can't see the pink tile in the tub!):
The dining room/office:
The bedroom (originally a dorm room):
Thrilling, huh?
Posted to Oberlin at 01:30 PM | Comments (5)
October 03, 2005
I wish I could join...
Living direclty above a coop kitchen and not ever getting to eat there is TORTURE. It smells SO GOOD...
Posted to Oberlin at 11:41 AM | Comments (6)
September 30, 2005
Remember in July, when I had no neighbors?
Why did Fairchild have to wait until the day I was so sick that I couldn't breathe, let alone lift up my head, to be the loudest place on the planet? It's been such a reasonably-noisy/quiet building until today...
At least I have a wife who makes me Jewish chicken soup from scratch.
Posted to Oberlin at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2005
Oh, yeah, that one vowel is called a patach...
I just got back from my very first Hebrew class since 7th grade (if you could call Talmud Torah Hebrew classes), and to my surprise, I'm ahead of the game. It should stay that way for the next two weeks as we learn the Alef-Bet, the one part of the Hebrew language that I've already mastered. After that, all bets are off and I'll probably drop to the bottom of the class, but that's alright. Today's class (we learned alef, mem, nun, hey, and taf in both block and script, plus four vowels) was a nice confidence booster.
There's other good news about this class, as well. It's free (I'm not getting any credit for it, but I really don't need credit), and the book only costs $25. The book should also last me through both semesters. This is the best financial investment I've ever made. That alone is reason to take this class, especially after spending an amount of money I don't care to sum up on my Oberlin education and subsequent masters degree.
It's funny how differently my pursuance of entrance to RRC is going from other endeavors I undertake. Normally I speed through everything, making decisions before I can second guess myself and change my mind. It's now already been nearly 6 months since I first decided I wanted to apply, and things are going slowly and steadily. I'm on the mailing list for interested students. I've attended two online open houses. I applied to the Institute for Prospective Students (including writing an essay and getting a letter of recommendation) and have been accepted. I'm taking Hebrew classes. On Thursday, Lauren and I will register for a trip on birthright. I've started thinking about what I'll say in the essay that will accompany my application for admission. I won't even be submitting it until February at the earliest, but I'm building up to it. So unlike me. So frightening.
Ugh. I hope this doesn't mean I'm becoming a grown-up.
Posted to Jew-mania & Oberlin at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2005
Dinner tonight is a freshmen mingler. Is free food worth it?
I would officially like to smack whoever conditioned me to automatically do a double take whenever I hear or read the word "dorm". I'm not a hall director anymore. I don't HAVE to call it a residence hall, and I don't want to. Stupid people.
The freshmen are all here. It's quieter than I expected. If I have to be in Oberlin, I wish I could be in Barrows.
Posted to Oberlin at 03:51 PM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2005
Why can't I just do the best thing for myself and stay home?
I swear I'm going to puke if I have to keep my lunch plans. I just feel sick at the thought of leaving the house today. But then again, if I don't go today, I have to do it another day, and since I already managed to shower today -- BEFORE NOON -- I suppose I should just get it over with. But really, my stomach is a mess. I just want to stay home and not feel sick.
Yesterday Lauren and I took advantage of her getting done with work at 3:30 to go to Elyria to open a bank account. I already miss TCF. Our new bank doesn't allow us to transfer money between accounts without doing a wire transfer. There are other issues, but that one bothers me the most. And then there's the fact that the closest branch is in ELYRIA, 20 minutes away by car. So Lauren will be doing our depositing and withdrawing, and I'll just be doing online monitoring. Some financial head of the household I am!
And of course, neither TCF nor our new bank are available in Philadelphia, so if we move there next, we'll have to start over again. I hate banking.
Ugh, I swear I'm going to throw up. I really am. I don't know why I constantly put myself in this situation where I'm doing the "right" thing instead of taking care of myself. When am I going to learn that my health is the MOST important thing?
Posted to Mental Health & Oberlin at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2005
oh Oberlin...
Yesterday the weather was nice enough (under 80 and not raining) that I decided to spend a half hour outside using my free cell phone minutes to catch up on some calls to people back home. Sadly, none of my friends were home, although I did get to talk to my grandparents.
Anyway, while I was out there, this man walked by with his two dogs, and I swear I almost ate the little black one up. It was so cute and so tiny and it was grinning away and kept trying to come toward me. I really would have run across the street to say hi, but I didn't think my grandpa would appreciate having me screech into his ear.
The result? I NEED a doggie. Now. I swear, I'd keep it in a kennel whenever we were both not home and I'd take it outside and clean up it's poo. I'm talking like a little itty bitty under 10 pound thing. Why won't ResEd let me have a puppy smaller than a cat?? It'd be hyperallergenic, because I'm allergic to everything anyway... Damn ResEd.
The only other excitement in my life is the one decision I have to make daily: should I go to Stevie for lunch today or starve to death in our apartment? Today's deciding factor is that lunch is turkey enchiladas or cheese and bean enchiladas. I've been kind of sick lately, and cheese isn't sitting well with me. Plus, I don't eat beans and turkey in an enchilada seems weird. But then again, I'm still hungry from not eating for the last two days... But then, I hate Stevie with a burning firey passion...
Ah, decisions.
I'll leave you with a picture. This would be me and my brother, Jake, being pirates. Can't you tell by the dowel rod sticking out of my pantleg, signifying the presence of a peg leg? I would say this is circa 1988...
Posted to Oberlin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2005
"This is no Lyndale Avenue."
Today I went to a city. Cleveland, to be specific. Lauren and I went to dinner at the Great Lakes Brewing Company.
We sat at a table outside overlooking an alley-like street. The outdoor part of the restaurant allows dogs and provides water for them, but there wasn't a single dog in sight. No Lyndale Avenue indeed. The one block the restaurant was on was cute, but a block away, where we parked our car, felt less than inviting. The food was decent, but I have to admit that for me, the trip was much more about getting out of Oberlin (and the Cleveland suburbs that we usually hit up) than about what we ate.
Unfortunately, though, I don't think I like Cleveland. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been there. The first was when I came to visit Oberlin as a high school junior and my family spent a day at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame and then saw RENT somewhere in the city. The second time was for an Ani DiFranco concert that I got to by a school bus provided by the college. The third time, I saw Jess Klein at the Beachland Ballroom. Tonight was the fourth time. And I really don't think I like it very much.
I know that probably, no city will ever be to me what Minneapolis is. But I really was hoping that I'd like Cleveland enough that when I felt desperate to escape Oberlin and that Nasty Ohio Feeling (sorry, Ohioans), I'd have a place to go. I know I've seen very little of the actual city, but it just feels wrong to me. I promise to give it another try, but so far, I'm just not a fan.
How am I ever going to find anywhere but Minneapolis that feels like home to me?
Other than our great adventure to Cleveland, the only excitement in my life is our gorgeous new computer. Since I can't have a baby or a puppy right now, this computer is going to have to fill that void for me. A tall order, I know, but I'm fairly confident that it will be up to the challenge. Just as soon as we find a name for it.
Posted to Oberlin at 09:06 PM | Comments (1)
August 06, 2005
Where's a good therapist when you need one?
I think I spoke too soon about not enough going on over here. A lot has been going on, though most of it is not stuff that I really want to talk about here. I've been on an emotional rollercoaster regarding my future, all brought on by this potential job with Hillel. In short, I'm a mess. But I'm not ready to talk about it yet.
Today I ran into Meg M. downtown. She's someone I hope to get to know better this year. It's so strange how much the people I thought of as "my girls" have matured. They're not these clueless freshmen with unending energy anymore... They've got a lot more perspective and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them again as seniors. As long as I'm careful not to start comparing myself to them or thinking of myself as a student, it should be a lot of fun.
I'm also really homesick. It hit me suddenly today that as cool as the town of Oberlin can be, it's no Minneapolis. It was a busy day in town today because of some family fun festival and a classic car show, but it still wasn't the lakes. Black River is good for breakfast, but not as good as my favorite places at home. We took a nice drive, but it made me feel lonely and unsure of where I was. And there's no driving to see my parents and brothers and the dog when I need to feel like I'm home. And seeing Carly G. every day seems like something that happened SO long ago... I didn't think this homesickness would come on so quickly, but it has. Thankfully, it's not an all-consuming, the-world-is-coming-to-an-end kind of homesickness like I had in college.
Tomorrow Matt is coming over, and I'm thrilled. Even though he lives in Ohio, I think of him as part of my Bigger Life, the life I'll always have no matter where home is. He's someone I expect to know for a long time, and a person who I always feel safe around, even when I'm feeling crummy. Plus, I know Lauren has missed him terribly.
In the meantime, I'm going to finish the very last of the unpacking and watch Big Brother 6, and that will get me through the night.
Posted to Mental Health & Oberlin at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)
July 30, 2005
email for our new contact info
When I read this this morning, I was really concerned that I wouldn't be able to help my kids with their homework someday, because I'd never be able to remember that there may now be 10 planets. Then they said that they've been calling it Xena informally, and I realized I would have no problem remembering it.
Now that I have that out of the way, we're in Oberlin. We survived our three-day-long, drawn out road trip. We've moved in, although our stuff won't be here for a few more days. I have to admit that this place is quite a bit grungier than I remember it being, but it could be a whole lot worse. The biggest problem is that we're not allowed to remove any furniture, and what the hell are we supposed to do with two beds, amongst other things?
It's really odd being back here. The things that have changed, like the location of the ResLife office and the faces of most of the students, are freaking me out. The things that have remained the same, like EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE ENTIRE COLLEGE AND TOWN are also freaking me out. I never thought I'd be back here to live, especially living in a residence hall, especially one that I lived in before. If we open the door to hallway in our bedroom, we're looking directly at my old room. Very surreal.
And just like when I lived here last, no matter how much sleep I get, I'm still tired. I'm going to hope that has to do with what a busy week we've had and nothing else.
Posted to Oberlin at 07:36 AM | Comments (2)
July 18, 2005
Maybe if the HD position had included making bulletin boards, I would have lasted till May...
Today, as I was paging through Martha Stewart Living (hey, everyone needs a packing break, and I could justify this one because I was going to throw it away when I was done), I found myself tearing out ads for alcohol and setting them aside "for when I do that One Last Drink bulletin board again." And then it hit me. I'm really never going to be an RA again. I will never again have the opportunity to use my skills in cheesy displays of Important Valuable Information for the rest of my life.
I became an RA because it seemed like a very Me thing to do. It involved knowing more than my residents, being a listening ear for scared freshmen, getting a large single room, and best of all, creating the world's cheesiest bulletin boards and door decorations. It was so easy to disguise my love of clipart and shadowed block lettering under the guise of a "requirement". I was able to impart information that I actually cared about while pretending I was just fulfilling a requirement of the position. I could make the bulletin boards as cheesy as I wanted, because that's what they're supposed to be. I could secretly spend hours upon hours holed up in my room making the most ridiculously complicated door decs without anyone realizing that I lived for that crap.
I don't have anything like that to relax me these days, something to mindlessly focus all my nervous energy on while completely ignoring all the stress of the rest of my life. Maybe that's what I've really been missing for the last two years. Maybe I don't need meditation or exercise or reading or bad reality television. Maybe despite the emotional torture that came with some of the other parts of my RA job, it was worth putting up with.
Maybe I should consider a career as a kindergarten teacher after all...
Posted to Oberlin at 09:07 PM | Comments (1)
July 07, 2005
after paying for my first Oberlin education, I SHOULD get another one for free
I was just informed by the Oberlin College registrar that asking professors if I can sit in on their classes instead of paying to audit them is officially condoned by the college. After I did a little happy dance and emailed the Modern Hebrew 1 professor to beg admittance, my inner college student went wild.
I'm now slowly making my way through the entire course catalog looking for more classes to sit in on. Because hey, I only celebrated finishing my masters a month and a half ago (with the knowledge that at least 6 more years of schooling are in my future), so why would I do something as silly as taking a damn year off from extra classes?
That was a long sentence.
Sadly, though, so far the only classes that look good to me are either full or taught by professors I spent three full years avoiding (like the evil Sutton). So Hebrew will have to do. Maybe it's for the best.
Posted to Oberlin at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)