Hooray. The fever broke late last night during my nap (during what should've been orchestra... -sigh-), so I don't have to deal with the chills anymore. Now, it's just the congestion in my head and my sore throat, and that irritating, awful weak feeling. Grrrrr.

But at least I have an inexhaustable fount of hugs and support across the hall. :) Thanks for putting up with me, Sam.

Now, to catch up on all of that reading I should've been doing instead of napping yesterday...

Well, a "couple of hours" sure turned into ~10 hours... but I did finish Rise of Endymion this afternoon. :) I rather liked the Hyperion series - wish that Simmons could've extended the last book to incorporate all elements referred to in the first, but oh well.

Stuff that's happened:
-went riding on Friday - rode Gambit again, though he wasn't behaving quite so well as before. Lotsa fun to go over fences with him, though. ;) It really is fun - closest thing to flying without wings (well, without severely hurting yourself by falling off a roof). Even better, Yussanne got to ride too!! :) It was so nice to be able to ride with her again - it's much more fun when friends are around. And we've talked Sandy into riding with us as well! Sandy's quite a ways past either of us, though, so I imagine she'll be way beyond us as soon as she gets her muscles back. But she'll be in our class for now. -grins-

-this weekend: read a lot of history, and played some D&D. Curse this illness, I was trying to play Lyra while going through fever and chills and developing a sore throat. I'm afraid her character development may've suffered because of that... but oh well. I'll just make up for it next time. :) And I'd damn well better get well before the week's end! I don't want to be sick for weeks on end like I was frosh year... gosh did that suck. None of that this year, no sir.

Oh yeah... I figured it might be nice to get a description of Lyra, my D&D character, up here. She's a true neutral fourth level druid, pretty traditionally minded. She's got a chaotic neutral druidic half-sister, Lacha (played by Abby), who can shape-shift to mountain lion, and boy is she a handful. Lyra's mom is dead, having been murdered by a magical assailant 6 months before, and their dad is a mad hermit wandering through the forests. Ergo, they're traveling with a motley crew of nutcases, such as Toes (the chaotic good, somewhat greedy rogue/bard of the group - Pat), Hoon (lawful neutral monk - Brian), Ethan (lawful neutral ranger - Luigi), Melvin (Lyra's old friend from home, a good sorceror with an affinity for fancy clothes and BIG floppy hats - Nate), and finally, the good-hearted Richard (lawful good member of the Queen's Guard, usually on intelligence missions from Vittonia - Mike W). It's an amusing party, especially since Richard's the only lawful good one among us... and these are usually HIS missions that we're botching. ;) At last count, I think the group had left 3-4 cities running for their skins (it's only happened once with Lyra and Lacha there, when we hightailed it out of the College, a wizard university and town).
Anyway, Lyra's easily the best healer of the group - druids tend to get stronger healing spells than sorcerors, and Lacha's only a 3rd level druid planning to expand into rogue skills. She's not too squeamish about Lacha's mountain lion appetite, and I suppose she tends to be the most 'sensible' in the party (though that'll probably change... she's loosening up as she continues to travel with them). She's still more of a small-town girl - she's 24, but had never been very far outside her village until Melvin showed up in town with his new friends. She was originally shocked by the rapidity at which the others get themselves into and out of scrapes, but she's learning to adapt and act rapidly in combat, and I think that she'll come into her own in a couple months tops.
Anyway, I think it's time to sleep... but before I go, here's a picture of her, looking awfully dressed up. Imagine her hair in braids, hide armor rather than court clothes, a quarterstaff, wooden shield, and dagger, sling and scimitar in her belt, and that's about the right image. ;)

(drawn by Eva Wilderman - check out more of her artwork at http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.epilogue.net/users/boudicca/thumb/cailinn.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/list.pl%3Fgallery%3D468&h=100&w=61&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcailinn%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG )

And I've succumbed to the viruses raging through the dorms yet again. Fever and chills, scratchy throat, general malaise and nausea... a little better today, since the headache that was bothering me yesterday evening went away with sleep. (thank goodness) Dammit, forget to take vitamins for a weekend, and this is what happens... grrrrr. Dorm life's terrible sometimes.

I realized that it's been nearly a week since I've written here, but a bunch of stuff's been going on in my life (imagine that). Patience, please - I'll put a summary up soon, probably a little after I finish this essay, probably couple of hours from now. Or I'll just curl up into a ball with a mug of hot tea and finish reading Rise of Endymion. ;)
---
Personal reminders:
Tues: ec 130, lunch at Ath at noon, ec or h reading or german review, sfc meeting 3:30-4:30, more reading, dinner, orchestra
Wed: 5 PM meeting with deverell

Oh good god. I've got something on the order of 1700 pages to read over this weekend... that's just for the history tutorial. And I'll need to write an essay on that material by monday... yikes.

But at least I finally took that German exam this morning. Not too bad, though I was a little afraid of it. We learned so many things last chapter, a bunch of us are still having problems keeping everything straight. And she's forging right ahead into genitive endings... it's fun, sure, but it's so much information to assimilate sometimes, and even as a history major, I feel there's not enough time to spend on it.

Anyway, I think it's time to get some reading done for h 161. But before I go, I've had numerous people over the past month tell me that I'm violent, terrible, scary, and/or merciless. While I have no idea what would prompt someone to say such things, I did find this, and apparently, they're all correct. Be afraid. Be very afraid. -grins-

Which Ringwraith are You?
By Lisa

It seems that as soon as I'm comfortable on one horse, Davee switches me to another one... didn't ride Gambit this afternoon, but Boo (also a pony, but less experienced, cuter and *very* frisky). It seems that she's preparing me to ride that crazy bat Ruby again - that horse is an absolute nutcase, but perhaps the next time she'll be better. But no matter who I ride, I always learn something new in every lesson - what I'm doing right or wrong, what various bucks and bolts feel like (lots of this recently), or a new way to approach training. And I always manage to do something that I didn't think I could before, whether it's just staying on the horse (more often than not... I really thought I'd take a dive at least once today), eliciting the right reaction from the horse, keeping in good form, or just learning to relax and breathe. I love riding, even with the risks of injury, because it challenges me to believe in myself. Davee once said that things like falling are self-fulfilling prophecies: if you believe that you're going to fall, you will. If you're determined to stay on, you will. The difficulty lies in mustering the confidence to pursue your goals. But once you have that confidence, you're set - you can do anything you put your mind to. There are no limits.

Hooray for riding :) So much fun, and so many of the little mental things you learn in lesson are applicable to daily life. It's just a shame that they don't help in ec 130... which I should be reading right now. Guess it's time for work again.

Since I should be doing work... it's update time!

Toe status: meh. it's healing well enough. I can walk on it if I'm careful. ditched the crutches as soon as I could, and still taping the toe. 5 weeks, 3 days and counting till it's 'healed' by hospital standards.

Riding status: tune in tomorrow night. after the rain, the friday lesson got canceled (probably for the better, considering the toe).

Class status: low on motivation for h 97 et al. I like 'em, but I need a break from tech before I can function at peak again. grrr. can't burn out now...

Emotional status: eh. not terribly good or terribly bad. a little worried about kat and family, but other than that, ok.

How strange. Despite the last-minute essay-writing and dash to turn in the Bishop application, that was quite possibly the best Valentine's Day I've ever had. It's a much nicer holiday when someone cares about you. (thanks Sam :) But it's so strange to be in a relationship again, after holding out for independence for so long. So, so strange. Not bad by a long shot, of course, just... different. -shrugs- Difficult to describe. But I know it'll pass. It's just that 'is this a dream?' kind of feeling that lingers for a while after a change, disbelief that my world's altered again. It'll take some getting used to. But it's nice. -grins-
On the other hand, I detest being the topic of the Blacker gossip mill conversations again... -sigh- "Inevitable", eh? -snorts-

In other news, I've been hit by an artistic streak. All I want to do right now is paint... but instead, I'll do my history reading. Or nap. =D

All right. Fate's working against me. Davee just canceled the riding lessons on account of rain, so I'll have a few more days to heal before I get to ride again.
In other news, I hate those crutches. My arms are at least three times as painful as my toe right now... I guess that's one side effect. Give someone crutches, and it'll completely take their mind off the old pain, right? ;)

Aight. Time to sleep, LOTS to write tomorrow.

Well, that was an adventure.

Dislocated toe around 1:30 AM last night in tickle war with Sam (not recommended, he's deadly). OW. Wake Fred, since all oncampus Health Ads are asleep. First response? "Wow, I've never seen anything like that" (and he MEANT it. no amputation jokes :( ), and determines that I'll need to go to the ER... but RA's aren't allowed to drive students to the ER for some liability reason. Sam calls and wakes Pat (wonderful, wonderful person that he is), Pat comes over at 2:15 AM to drive me to the ER (did I mention Pat was awesome?). Spend 1.5 hours waiting in ER and holding cold pack on toe, trying to do german and keep Pat awake (much laughter about infomercial advertising pep-up vitamins for dogs... "He was *never* this energetic before..." - must have crack as main ingredient. ;). Talk to somewhat flaky male nurse who tells me they won't realign it, they'll just tape it and send me on my merry way with drugs (what?! should've just grabbed toe and yanked when I was sitting on the floor of Sam's room...). Pat and Sam very interested in peripheral equipment in ER room, especially GI pump. Get X-ray taken. Doctor comes in with X-ray... no fracture. Yaay! -sigh of relief- They will realign it... after a LOT of local anesthetic. 4 shots of lanocaine into digital nerves on toe... No sensation! Blissful :) Doctor takes toe, wiggles, and one loud pop later, toe is realigned. Pat fascinated ("I could've done that! ...well, they do make it look easy"). Released at 4:30 AM, Pat drives Sam and me back to Blacker. Asleep by 5:15, after emailing for extension on german exam. Hooray. (well, except for 10 AM class...)

I think this means I win the 'dumbest reason to use crutches' award this year. Boy do I feel stupid... damn toe.
If I have to use crutches anyway, I might as well have broken something, and have an impressive story to go with it. ;) I just wish I didn't have to use these crutches... my arms are already sore. I don't want to make the round trip to Baxter two more times today! Ah well. Only a few more days... though I'm sorely tempted to try to ride tomorrow regardless. The doctor did say that it was possible to use the foot afterwards, just not too much... it's not hurting at all right now... and if I don't put any weight on it for the first 40 hours, riding for a half hour wouldn't be so bad. Right? -sigh- Curse my luck.

Wow but that's a lot of rain. It was kinda nice waking up to hear rain on the roof... reminded me a little of home. Then again, at home I wouldn't have ended up soaking wet going to and from class. At least my high school had those nifty covered walkways... or better yet, interconnected wings! Ah, the bygone days.
In the meantime, I wish I could remember where I'd put my umbrella. My rainjacket (der Regenmantel! :) may keep the torso dry, but my jeans are soaked.

List of stuff to get done (for my benefit):
-german exam. take tonight, due tomorrow 1 or 2 PM.
-h 161 reading. do some tonight, due tomorrow 7 PM.
-bishop essay/app. write draft and finish app tonight, edit, rewrite thurs night/fri morn. due fri 3 PM.
-h 97 reading. always going on in the background... grrrr.

It's not nearly as bad as it could be (and believe me, now I'm glad I ditched the bio double major), but the constant h 97 reading is beginning to have a numbing effect... all I read for that tutorial are different accounts of the Spanish conquest of America, and the monotony is beginning to wear me down. A break would be most welcome... can't wait for that 3 day weekend. :)

Ok, back to work.

Feeling much better today. Dunno what happened yesterday (seemed like a throwback to last year... strange), but at least it doesn't happen often anymore. Can't remember the last time that happened since I've been a history major.

I think the morals here are: trust in your friends, spend time around others, get some work done and don't worry so much about things you can't control.

And, of course, spend more time on socteam trips with Jenny. ;) Hilarious.

Time to go get some work done...
---
There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. -- Og Mandino
---
Don't be afraid of wanting changes in your life
Don't be afraid to go to wherever you decide
Believe in yourself and believe in what you can do
And no one can deny the will that lies in you

Try to pay more attention
And live your life with good intention

Look into yourself
-Anggun, "Look Into Yourself"

Some days, I wake up doubting everything I ever believed in. This is one of those days. I want to spend hours reading comforting lit like Harry Potter, or painting, or playing flute - anything but face my work and the world.

How quickly the negative voices in my head return, once I begin to doubt... for some reason, they've returned with a vengeance. I need a hug, a lengthy cry, or my dog. But I'm unlikely to get any of the above. I think I'll just go work on my german assignment instead and hope I can ditch this unhappiness on my own.

Hm... I think the stomach pain's receded enough that I can sleep. Oy, didn't do much today, other than flick and watch Sam et al. play Natural Selection... -rolls eyes- I did manage to get through at least 100 pages of h 97a material, so that's not so bad. Bishop essay's still not done, though, and it's due friday. Grrrr.

Oh well. Time for sleep now, and I'll unravel all that I need to do over the next couple days. There's time yet to finish it all. I just need to recover my motivation that went missing last week and gear up for the remaining weeks of term.

Argh... so much to do, and I'm not feeling very well at all. So I'm flicking a little, and as I was listening to Phantom of the Opera...


You are Christine. Naive and sweet, you easily
fall into traps. Beware of older men...
While you may not be in the spotlight right now,
make the extra effort and you'll soon find yourself
in a starring role.


Which 'Phantom of the Opera' character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


And since Andrea McColl just lent me 'Surfacing' by Sarah McLachlan (thanks a bunch! :)...

You
are Building a Mystery

You hide your true emotions and feelings for fear of rejection.
Unfortunately, your cold façade has isolated you from those who care
most about you.

Which
Sarah McLachlan Song Are You?

Created by Noor

AND, since Abby, Sam and I watched "Into the Woods" (musical by Sondheim) last night:

Wow. Today was actually pretty darn good. And here I expected the sky to fall again.

-leisurely sleep-in
-got through most of one travel book preparing for the bishop essay
-had a *great* riding lesson, even though I didn't get to jump today. Oy, but my legs and arms are sore. I hung on the four times that Gambit (the pony) ducked his head and bucked a bit in canter, not to mention the time that he went absolutely berserk - a FedEx truck started up in the background... scared him half to death and he bucked, flipped and took off. I almost didn't stay on that time, but managed to stick to him, throw my leg back over and gain control. Yaay me. :) Davee seemed pretty impressed by the 'death-defying moves' on the last panicked bolt, as did the girl who usually follows her around (also rides a lot, probably much better at riding and only 13 or 14. even she remarked on what a good save it was :). Davee was also kinda surprised that I still wanted to try to canter him over the pole. She asked if I was ok, and said I could stop there if I wanted to, but I wanted to try it again at a canter (what I was doing before the fedex truck). And I did. No problems at all this time, either. There's a lot to be said for confidence in yourself... she was explaining afterwards that generally, if a rider thinks they'll fall off, they will - it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. But to stay on, regain control, and keep going really takes determination and grit - it's not the easy way out, but you learn so much more (in ANY area) when you push yourself. And you learn how to work with the horse - what's bothering him about the course, why he reacts the way he does, and how to school him to respond correctly to what you're asking for. Davee's protege even thanked me for schooling Gambit over the pole, "because if you hadn't, Davee would have made ME do it." -grins-
Oddly enough, according to Davee, a bunch of other people wouldn't have kept at it after dealing with Gambit's panics... admittably, I was a little apprehensive now and then, but when a horse bolts, there's no time to worry about whether or not you'll get hurt. You just DO, and try to react as quickly as possible. And when it's over, you calm the horse, and you take the course again, because that's what you were trying to accomplish in the first place. And it's odd, because I know that this could really injure me... all it would take is one time being a little off-balance or slow to respond, one bad fall, and I'll end up with a sprained/broken limb or worse. Yet most of the time, it doesn't scare me at all. Perhaps it's because I feel it's worth the risk. Or I have enough faith in Davee's faith in my ability to believe in myself... hm. It bears thinking about.

New motto: "As long as I'm breathing, I'm ok" (the response to Davee's question). And I am. I've just got to keep that in mind when dealing with problems in life aside from horses. ;)

-begin philosophical section-
All in all, today was a damn sight better than a year ago, when my trust in love was shattered and I slipped into the worst depression of my life. Since then, I've put my life back together, and I'd say it's even better than before. I lost my old dreams and gained new ones when I changed majors. I've discovered that I really enjoy history full-time, enough to maybe make a career out of it. I've got my real friends (the ones who really, honestly cared, the ones who were always there and willing to listen). I've regained confidence in myself and my abilities, and -the hardest thing of all- I'm learning to trust, to reach out with my emotions again. And I know so, so much more about myself... and I find myself wondering if I would've learned so much, had I not gone through this trial by fire. Would I have switched completely to history, if last year had not been so awful that it convinced me I could not live with being mediocre and unhappy in biology? Had happiness not seemed so precious, perhaps I would still be a biology major, slogging it out in another lab and wondering if there was something better out there. I can only wonder. And yet, for all the pain, I believe that I am the better off for the difficulties I experienced. So, in closing, here's to you, Adam. It took a damn long time, but I can finally forgive you for deciding to let go right when I needed you the most. Going through several kinds of hell forced me to toughen up and deal with the shit that life sometimes deals out by changing attitudes, majors, and friends, and that just might be the most valuable lesson I've ever learned. Besides that, I refuse to let that eat away at me any longer - holding onto that anger does nothing but undermine my confidence and divert my mind from more important pursuits, and I don't need another voice in my head telling me what I couldn't do. I only hope that I never have to repeat that experience.

I feel better. I think that means it's time to go sleep. Night all.

Well, crap. Apparently, I only *thought* I set my alarm last night... I woke up at 11:30 feeling amazingly refreshed from 9.5 hours of sleep, but completely missed my 10-11:30 ec 130 class. Dammit, I *like* that class. Perhaps I should start setting my alarm before I get tired... it wasn't so bad this morning, as it was a lecture, but if this had happened on a discussion day, I would've been docked a good deal for not coming. And heaven knows my GPA doesn't need another low grade...

Wait a minute, that's the first class I've missed all term. That's amazing. Usually, I would've figured out which lectures are and aren't useful by now, and begun the pattern of skipping lecture for homework or sleep. I guess this means I'm in the right major... I don't want to miss any of them. :) That's a stark contrast to most of my bio classes over the past couple years - I enjoyed vertebrate evolution, and the labs, but that's about it.

State of my life at the moment: I did well in German (again :). The weekend's in sight! I'm going riding tomorrow (I just wish Yussanne was coming too...)! I don't have any midterms hanging over my head (yet)! I get to watch "Into the Woods" with Abby and Sam Saturday night! Yaay!
The only sad thing: no D&D, as Mike Wilson's off at shotokan special training for most of this weekend, then has a bunch of midterms to take. I still say we could do a 6 hour session next weekend to make up for lost time... the DM has plenty of time on his hands to come up with a story line, right? (just joking, Sam :) But it would be nice... and Abby and Luigi certainly seemed enthusiastic about the possibility. No pressure, of course. ;)
Then again, I'd better quit bothering Sam about this, or Lyra may "accidentally" take some serious damage in the next session. Oy.

Anyway, back to the hum reading. H 161 tonight 7-10, then I'm free* for the next three days!

*not counting 600+ pages of reading for h 97, a 3-4 page paper for h 97, 200 pages of reading for ec 130, ?? pages for h 161, german work...

I don't know what's going on today. Didn't want to get up, didn't want to do anything but sit and think, but it's not good to dwell too long on the past. German buoyed my spirits, as I was actually competent in there today. :) Then the mood came steadily down again, until I felt like crying for a while. Curling up in the library with harry potter #2 solved that, but I still feel a little down. -shrugs- Just because I broke apart under stress a year ago doesn't mean it should bring me down today. Perhaps I just need to spend more time with others. The more I'm around my friends, the less time I have to replay those scenes from last year in my head, and the happier I am.

Anyway, time to be productive. History reading's calling...

Almost full circle, in time and emotions. Odd, to think that this was the week it all came crashing down last year... here's to hoping the same doesn't happen this year. -cringe- Then again, perhaps I should hide in my room until next week, just to make sure.

Perhaps it's time to move beyond the contemplation of shoulds and should nots, the endless internal debates, and stop running from these spectres that pursue me. Perhaps it's time to let go of these inhibitions, to allow myself to reach out again. Perhaps admitting I'm human and allowing emotions to surface wouldn't be such a terrible thing. I finally feel strong enough to stand on my own, I've found and kept happiness on my own for some time, and I finally feel that I have a strong hold on reality - I'm not the most brilliant person oncampus by a long shot, but I believe in myself. I know what I love, and I know what I will and won't stand for. I know my limits, more or less. I can look at myself and say that I accept who I am, both strengths and faults. I may not like everything about myself, but I'm becoming someone who I can live with. And after this past year, I'm firmly convinced that believing in yourself is the only way to true happiness - no one can ever give you that sense of self-worth, and once you have it, no one can ever take it away. Relying on someone else for basic happiness is foolish at best... but perhaps sharing time and affection with another to increase that happiness is a wiser course of action than trying to keep your distance and stifle your emotions. Perhaps that's the difference between then and now. Or perhaps there's more. I don't know.

I give up. I can't sort this out tonight, and I don't have the time... if you've got feedback, by all means, send away. As for now, I'd better keep working on my ec questions (grrrr). Night all.
--
"Though we may have our disputes
This family tree's got deep roots
Friendship is thicker than blood
That depends
Depends on trust
Depends on true devotion
Depends on love
Depends on not denying emotion
And I guess
It's gonna be a happy new year"
-RENT

I don't understand the correlation between studying in Starbucks and being hit on by strange old men... especially strange old men who could've been wanna-be techers. Oy. This time, it was a fellow who saw that I was studying german, then started telling me about all the german women he'd hooked up with. o.O
Current count: 3 old men (>30), 1 college-age. Dammit, do I have to hang a sign around my neck: "Go away, I don't want your email or card"? -sigh- Regardless of this problem, it remains one of the best places to study - comfy chairs, generally good background music (today was classical! yaay!), and no computers or buzzing lamps anywhere around. When the Red Door's not open, then it's an acceptable substitute. (Now, if only SFL could get rid of those stupid buzzing lights, bring in comfy chairs, and invest in a sound system... ;)

But hey! It was funny when I realized that two people were standing by the window staring at me... and it turned out to be Susan and Bernadette making funny faces at me. -grins- Hilarious. Apparently, they'd just gone shopping at Pavilions. Thanks for making me laugh, you two. :)

Aight... back to german.

For my benefit:
-german exam due monday 1 PM
-count ballots tomorrow afternoon
-reading for tues ec 130 discussion
-tons of reading for h 97 meeting on wedneday at 5. grrr.
-reading for h 161 on thursday
-bishop essay...

Goodness, I'm tired. It's been a long day, though I haven't gotten anything done.

Oh yeah - verdict on D&D: cool. :) It's definitely one of those things where you get out of it what you put in... but it was a little difficult to play my character instead of myself. Guess it doesn't matter now, since both of us are pretty darn inexperienced in the ways of the world, but it'll become easier with time. Gotta learn not to smart off to erratic, dagger-wielding sneakthieves, even if they're hurt and don't trust Lyra yet... that *was* funny, though. And she's already shown she's useful to the group as a healer! Hooray! :) Anyway, that'll be something really fun to do on Saturday nights.

Also, I got dress dinner pictures from Vikki (several of us were wearing cloaks, so she begged someone to take a few pictures). Mom, Dad, Kat, Grandmom, look at how well the full circle cloak turned out! Aren't you proud? ;)

L to R: Vikki, Sandy, Ewen (She made that dress herself! She's amazing!), and Kirsten



L to R: Sandy, Vikki, Ewen, Kirsten

All I can think of, is it's kinda bizarre that I never realized how much I look like my Mom did at this age... especially in that first picture. Odd.

Ok, it's time for sleep. night all.

“The cause in which they died will continue,” Bush said. “Our journey into space will go on.”

I hope so. I can't remember the Challenger tragedy (I was only 5 in 1987), but I don't think I'll ever forget this.

A moment of silence for the crew of the Columbia, who died in pursuit of their dreams.

"Dream as if you will live forever.
Live as though you will die tomorrow."
-James Dean

Life's an interesting thing. No matter what I do, I can always seem to learn something from it later on. One of the few benefits of overanalysis, I suppose. Though I've become a lot better at not dwelling on things that bother me, and not allowing little things to irritate me. It varies by day and person, but in general, there's improvement. yaay.

random thoughts:
Riding today: eh. I'm not as strong as I was last term. I should start doing yoga again to strengthen my lower leg. At least I didn't do anything stupid when I jumped today - managed to stay in the saddle. :) Go me. It's going to sound funny, but I really don't enjoy riding ponies quite so much as the larger horses - their short legs move too fast to be able to post at a comfortable pace, so you feel like you have very little control. And there's no neck to keep you from falling off if he ducks his head at a canter! It's a little unnerving.

Core paper: Finally done! (Well, till the next due date... or 5 days before ;) I can make it.

History classes: All's well. No real changes since the last post - I still love what I'm doing, and that's what counts. God knows what I'll do with that to earn a living after college, but I've got another year or so to figure that out, right?

Tomorrow: Huntington with Andrea Mc, Laura, and a couple other friends. Should be fun :) And then, I'm playing D&D with a buncha moles around 10 PM (yeah, yeah, I'm a nerd, I know)... again, should be fun and completely different from anything I've done before. Somewhere between those two things, I should do a lot of history and ec reading for next week, and study for the german test that's due on monday... oy. Oh yeah, and I'll call my parents (love you guys - I promise I'll call).

Ok, it's time to sleep. G'night all.