Chronicles of Growing Courage

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Finals Time at Fuller

You know it's the end of the quarter at Fuller when:

You can't find a place to sit in the library

Everyone seems a lot friendlier when you pass them on campus because they are desperate for human interaction after being cloistered for hours on end in the library

People let down there "wardrobe" guard a little more...I start seeing women err on the side of comfort over fashion

People start sharing fantasies to the tune of, "You know what I"m going to do when this is all over?"

Occasionally you see a frantic person rapidly moving across campus to some unknown destination or catastrophe

Once in a while you see a "bed-head" on someone(actually, males only for this one)

The vending machines are almost empty

AND,,,,,MEL GETS HER COMPUTER BACK!!!!! Yes, I will finish the quarter in style, on my (now blank) MAC.

P.S. The end of the fall quarter also means football finals! Stay tuned for a posting this Saturday that details the Chicks playing for the championship!

Friday, November 09, 2007

Mr. Murphy meets my Macbook

I am trying to come to terms with something that happened yesterday morning. In a nutshell, my computer crashed and my hard drive is now obliterated. Not just damaged...but utterly gone. So gone that after seven hours of having my computer hooked up to whatever it is that attempts to retrieve data, the computer technician told me it was a wash.

The good news is that I did not lose everything; I had backed up my computer at the end of my summer quarter. The bad news, however, is that it is week 8 of my 10 week quarter, and therefore, my entire fall quarter is now non-existent. Notes, research, assignments, thoughts, ideas....everything.

This is what I am trying to come to terms with. I keep telling myself, "Put it in perspective: No one died, no one lost an eye or a leg, my home was not burned up", etc. etc. These are all very grand and noble gestures on my part to handle this maturely. But the bottom line is...this sucks. And as I sit here, in the library, by myself on this Friday evening, trying to focus on my part in a group project that needs to be done tomorrow, I've decided something. I've decided that I'm going to give myself a few hours to be discouraged, disheartened, to contemplate quitting, to feel sorry for myself, and to basically move through my emotional upheaval. I need a few hours of a sort of unabashed head-beating-against-the-wall-and-screaming fest. And then, I need to pick up, move on, and start over.

Did I mention that I am not as fond of Macs as I once was?

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Jesus lizard

My cute and knowledgeable five year old nephew taught me about the Jesus Lizard when I was in Oregon this past weekend. Although this is not the formal Latin name(although Spinner could tell us what that was), the folk name is quite apropos.