So now that everyone has pretty much found their niche, I really wish I hadn't had to work during the involvement fair last week.

That's one of the really great/really bad parts about going to school right near your hometown: you get to keep your job (and mine is the best job I could ask for). While it's nice to have some extra cash hanging around, though, you can't ask your boss for every event off (and there's lots of events). Actually, to be fair, if my boss could pay me for never even coming in, she would. The powers that be, however, seem to have something against that...
Can't imagine what...

So, as a part of that whole "time management" thing, you have to learn to pick and choose your battles.

Anyway! The long-awaited post about roommates and food!
I'll start with food because it seems like it's always on my mind these days. Why? It's way too easy to get. I know food really isn't free, because you've paid for your meal plan, but it feels like it is free because all you have to do is swipe your ID card to get it.

When I was home, if the cupboards were empty, that was it. There was nothing to snack on and nothing you could do about it.

Yet here, if the snack drawer (a bad temptation!) is empty, just walk over to Raymond Hall for endless choices, or to Slavin if you need something on the go.

People joke about the "Freshmen Fifteen" (the extra pounds that people pack on when they first get to college), but I can see how easy it is to over-do it. Pizza, pasta, and fries are an option every day (again, to be fair, so is salad), and there's always chips, candy, pudding, ice cream, pretzels, and lots of other junk food for sale in the convenience store in the bottom of Davis Hall, which is also home to Jazzman's Cafe.

There are a million delivery places around campus that are not only delicious, but willing to give students discounts, too.

Sometimes I love that such a variety of food is always accessible, but other times I resent it. As a girl plucked from a "no carb" household (I kid you not when I say this is the first time in a year or two that I've seen regular, unhealthy white bread), it can all be a little over-whelming.
Of course, the other battle of eating is finding someone to eat with.

It's a known fact that freshmen move in groups at all hours (and girls will never, ever, for as long as mankind exists, go to the bathroom alone), and it’s a rare sight to see people eating alone in Raymond. Perhaps this is just my perspective, but it also seems to be generally more acceptable to eat alone (while reading, studying, talking on a cell, or what have you) in Slavin than Ray Hall.

Actually, I was talking to a friend of mine at another school, and I said something along the lines of, “O, today, at one of the cafeterias…�
And he was like, “Wait! One of? You guys have more than one!?�
I don’t think I’d really realized until right then just how convenient the two options are.

Now, roommates!

I completely lucked out.

Scratch that.

The Office of Residence Life paired my roommate and me up perfectly!

I have yet to meet anyone here in McVinney (or from anywhere else, for that matter) who has a problem with their roommate(s).
Also, PC requires that students who live in the dorms have “roommate agreements�, which occur when you are your roommate(s) sit down with the floor RA and go over common issues that occur. You all decide who can and can’t touch/use which thing, what objects are meant to be shared (and to what extent), and you address any pet peeves you might have about your living situation and/or the people you’re living with.

My neighbors, who get along fabulously, joke around that they weren’t having any problems until after their roommate agreements. It’s clear that they’re joking, though, because they only argue when they vacuum.
Yeah. That’s the kind of people you meet when you go to college.
(I’m only teasing them; I wrote that because I’m sitting in their room right now watching them vacuum each other’s feet in an attempt to each domineer the rug-cleaning, and I know they'll read this when I post it.)

Living on campus is great because it gets you so much more involved! For all the studying that goes on, there has to be some fun, free time, and roommates and neighbors are, of course, the first people you usually look to for socializing.
You’d have to force me to commute and miss all this!

For example, I can’t wait to head out to the Slavin lawn today for some henna tattoos!

The final bit of scoop is that I am heading out this weekend for a field training exercise with ROTC. I’ll be up at Forth Devens (Massachusetts) from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Quite frankly, I’m mostly nervous, but I am a little bit excited, too. There’s so much to learn, which is daunting, but it’ll also be nice to be more on top of the game.
Next time I post, I’ll let you know how my weekend in the woods was!

Later, all!