*snif*

I'm getting a little sad. Today was the last day of classes of my undergraduate career. It's very weird. It was also my last day of Newswave. At least half of all the people who work on Newswave are seniors, so it was a slightly emotional last broadcast. But I know all the people who are taking over will be great!!! Good luck you guys!

The Communication Department has a special luncheon for all the Comm seniors. They handed out awards and made speeches and it was very nice. I forgot to take my camera to either of these events, because I'm a moron, but hopefully I can snag pics from someone else.

Also, I picked up my cap and gown today!!! Ahhh!!!

Warm weather means geckos. Here are some that were hanging out on our window when I got in tonight:

The geckos here are actually bright green, though you can't tell. Well it was dark and they were on the other side of the glass, so this is the best I could do. I happen to think geckos are adorable, though!

Graduation is sneaking up on us. It's easy to ignore within the busy cycle of school and homework and extra-curriculars and friends. But every time I look over it's always a little closer. 5 months, 3 months, 11 weeks, and now 6 weeks. It still doesn't seem real, except that every day someone hears back from a grad school or job or internship. Also, registration is beginning, and we aren't part of it. My junior and sophomore and freshman friends are picking out their schedule for next year, while we seniors are ordering our gowns and graduation notices.

I'm very happy for all my friends who are getting into grad schools. I've been hearing mostly good news from people. Congrats, guys! Most people who haven't applied this year still have grad school on the mind. A lot of them are like me: wanting to apply eventually but also seriously needing to take a year or so off to work for a bit and see what's out there before going back to school. Do you realize we've been in school for nearly 16 years?! It's crazy.

I am very excited about graduation. I'm sad about leaving Trinity and all my friends, but I'm also totally ready for whatever comes next. Although I'm sure that as it gets closer to graduation I'll become much more emotional. But for now it's fun to do job searches online and talk about what cities we'll live in and what kind of pets we want and that sort of thing.

Yeah yeah, most of my friends are doing cool things like hanging out at the beach or going on crazy road trips. But what I really needed was to go home and do nothing but sleep and watch TV and veg. It was totally the right choice. Plus, I got a lot of important things done like doctors appointments and informational interviews. So all in all it has been a very good Spring Break so far. Now, back to sleep!

Well, it's supposed to be. It's actually been freezing outside. It was 40 degrees out last night!!! That's way too cold to go jogging in. Anyway, a few weeks ago it actually was warm and I took some pictures of the pretty while I was walking to the library.

Here are the purple flowers (Mountain Laurel?) which overtake campus this time of year. It's very pretty, like the cherry trees in DC, except they're PURPLE so it's even better.

There are fish in the Murchison Fountain! I'm confused, they weren't there before. I'm also scared that they won't survive the cold weather. Oh well. Good luck, Fishies!

Dorms in the Freshman Quad. I love the dappled sunlight effect of the oak trees. *sigh* Sun, come back!

This was a very difficult shot to get, since the stupid butterfly kept flitting away. You'd better enjoy it.

Last night I went to an event for Seniors called "Wine, Dine and Act Fine," where you get to dress up and eat a fancy 6 course dinner and learn etiquette and other important things like that. It was really fun! And now I know the proper way to use a cocktail fork. My polite-and-refined quotient has gone up at least 10 percent.

Also, I'm going to my suitemate's play tonight. Everyone send her happy thoughts! Break a leg, Jamie!

So you cannot live in Texas for 4 years and never get on a horse. This weekend I went horseback riding with O-Rec . It was really fun!!! I haven't ridden in a really long time, so I was a little nervous at first. But we got to roam around the beautiful Hill Country wilderness for a while, and trot and canter and it was perfect. Here are some pictures ^.^

Here is the very nice ranch-owner guy getting our horses. This shot looks so delightfully Texas, does it not?

Adorable ranch pup!

You can't tell, but the horses were raring to go at this point. Chomping at the bit you might say. Apologies to our fearless O-Rec trip leader, Kyle, for snapping this picture at the exact moment he was taking something out of his pocket.

On the trail.

Here we are in the middle of our first ride, gathering around a tree in a very scenic clearing for a bit of a rest.

This is me with my horse, Too Tall. We're both a little tired at this point, but he was such a sweetie.

*sigh*

So that was really fun. The last few days since then have been pretty busy, but happily it looks like I'll have the afternoon off and be able to catch up on some non-school stuff. For instance, I'm doing laundry right now for the first time since the semester began. Yay for clean clothes!

I thought this semester would be my most laid back yet. I'm only taking 16 hours, 6 of which are just introductory classes that I'm doing for fun. I didn't commit to too many extra-curriculars, so that I'd have plenty of free time to absorb the onset of Senioritis. And yet, my schedule is filling up faster than ever before. Each day in my planner is a mass of black, pink, purple and blue things I need to remember to do. It's crazy.

On top of that, I've been having trouble sleeping. I don't know why, I've never had it before. It only just started at the end of last semester. "Ah ha!" you think, "you are certainly feeling the effects of subliminal worries about Life After College." But it's not true! I'm actually at the point where I'm very excited to graduate and go travel for a while and see what's out there, job and grad-school-wise. Additionally, I have been very honest with myself about the worries that I do have. Plus, it's not like I can't go to sleep because I'm up worrying about something. I just can't get to sleep. And then when I finally do, I wake up way before I have to and can't fall asleep again. I don't know why this is happening, but it needs to stop. I have a lot to get done, and I need to be well rested to do it.

OMG! It's my last semester of undergrad! That's so weird. My classes this semester are:

1) Popular Culture in Early Modern England
2) The New Testament
3) French
4) Capstone Seminar (for my Communication major)
5) Magazines in America

So far they all seem pretty good. But I have to admit that a lot of my focus right now is going towards preparing for Life After Graduation.

Anyway, yesterday my roommate, Catelyn and I went to this really cool glassblowing studio called Dragonfire. Here are some pictures from the demo:

Oh that? Um, that's just MOLTEN GLASS being twisted around a piece of slightly less molten glass. Let's take a closer look.

See?

The best part was watching them make a conch shell. It was beautiful and amazingly realistic. I didn't get a good picture of the final result of this one, but here's another that was made earlier:

So that was a fun way to spend an afternoon.

I would like to close this entry with a quote from my former roommate, Stacey, who I am chatting with online at the moment. Stacey is a year older than me and currently in law school, and therefore full of sagely wisdom. I was freaking out to her about how/when/what to do after I graduate. "Travel? Job? Grad school eventually? I'd love to travel, but I'd need money, which I can only get from working. (Or, I guess, robbing a bank?) But if I really want to travel for a long period of time (months), then I should do it before I get a job. Or maybe just get a temp job for a few months to save up and then go to travel? And then get a real job? What should I do?" I went on like this for a while, and then Stacey said:

"Well, I don't know, life isn't a formula. You can do it anyway you want."

Which made me stop and reconsider everything. I think I had been operating on the assumption that there was a single Right Way to go about planning everything after graduation, and that it was up to me to figure this way out. But it doesn't work like that.

Back to homework! Although there's an adaption of Northanger Abbey on TV right now...

I spent all of last summer interning in Los Angeles, so I haven't seen many of my high school friends since this time last year. It was so fun to see everyone again!

I actually saw Jackie (second on the left) this summer, because she was interning in LA as well! But for the most part, seeing high school friends during college breaks go something like this:

"Eeee!!!!!!!!!!!" *hug* "Oh my god!!! You changed your hair!"
"Hi!!!" *hug "I know! I just went crazy one day"
"I like it!"
"After the boy and I broke up I just needed a change"
"You broke up? Why didn't you call me?"
"You were in Israel!"
"Oh right..."

(note: this is only a sample conversation, it didn't actually happen)

Keeping in touch with high school friends takes more effort when you're in college. You actually have to plan all your get-togethers, instead of being able to count on seeing each other everyday in school. But it is definitely worth the effort, unless you didn't actually like your high school friends.

Here we are at an alumni function held by our (former!) high school last week. All the current students looked so little! It was very weird.

And then I spent the rest of my time watching TV with my cat.

Well, not all of it. I also did some important things, which include:

- putting up the Christmas lights all by myself! (go me!)

- mastering two new recipes: a Basque chicken dish and a very complicated Waldorf-type salad. I also tried out a Jambalaya recipe, but managed to completely mess it up for reasons that are too stupid to admit.

- arranging and conducting informational interviews with people in the Bay Area publishing industry. I did two over this break and sceduled a few more for Spring Break. I highly recommend doing as many informational interviews as possible with people in industries you are interested in. They are a great way to gain insight and help prepare for getting a job after college, and deciding when or whether or not to go to grad school.

Done with finals! I = so happy. Now I've got a whole month to sleep in and catch up on reading. In the meantime, here are some pics from my recent trip to the San Antonio Museum of Art. I went with some Brittany and Hack as part of an extra credit assignment for our History of China class. Enjoy!

Hack and Brittany in the Buddhist art section. At this moment, Hack realizes that he can read the Chinese writing on the back of this statue.

Part of a beautiful (and giant!) embroidered silk satin valance.

Adorable dragon on a piece of Ming (I think? I don't remember really) ceramic work

Best dragon ever! I'm pretty sure this is from the Qing period, even though I don't remember which section it was in, because this is the Qing dynasty flag:

Coincidence? I think not!