Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Life, the Universe, and SPRING [2011/05/02]

Don't get me wrong, I love winter. I love snow, I love warm sweaters, I love ice skating, I love going from the bite of the winter winds into my warm, comfy bedroom. Preferably with a mug of tea or hot chocolate.

Due to this chilly love, I invariably forget how desperate I become by, say, February/March, when the lovely parts of winter have been replaced by freezing winds and rain, the heating in your building may or may not be working, and walking outside feels like subjecting yourself to the cruelest torture imaginable. At that point, any hint of sunshine seems like a malicious joke of the universe, dooming me to hope frantically for the temperature to rise to a point where I can rid myself of my bulky winter layers. (Overlarge sweaters don't count. Overlarge sweaters are always appropriate, no matter the weather.) All I want is to be able to linger a little outside without feeling like the warmth is being beaten out of me, okay? It was even worse because I was in Florida for part of Spring Break, and in Florida I could wear shorts. It was like a religious experience.

And then, spring! Which, as I am informed is typical for New England, begins with a full two weeks (at least) of mud, before finally getting into the beautiful days of sun-soaked, breezy warmth.

[BENEATH THE CUT: more spring stuff, a vague recap of my week, pie, and the Old Spice Man.]


Some people do not believe that 60 degrees counts as warmth. To them, I say that if I can sit outside while wearing shorts without freezing my legs off, then I am damn well going to not only call it warmth, but also cling to it with all of my might. I was so not kidding about that desperation thing.

I love spring at Wes, though. It seems like everything blooms — the flowers, the trees, the amount of stress as finals approaches (less nice), the birdsong at five in the morning when you're trying to go to sleep, the amount of people sitting on Foss Hill while pretending to do homework, the amount of shirtless people on Foss Hill... It's a beautiful time of the year, people. Look alive.

In fact, it's a little bit like this:



"Hello, ladies. Look at your campus. Now back to me. Now back at your campus. Now back at me. Sadly, your campus is not me, because it is an institution of learning while I am a paragon of socially-constructed values known as "masculine," and thus am highly valued in a patriarchal society. But if your campus stopped being covered in ice and snow, it could make you as happy as watching one of my commercials. Look down. Now back up. Where are you? You're on Foss Hill, soaking up sunshine that is almost as impressive as my well-defined pectoral muscles. What's in your hand? Back to me. I have it — it's all that homework you should be doing. Look again! The homework is now a poster for Movie Night on Foss Hill, showing Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Anything is possible when your campus is warm. I'm on the roof of Olin."

...Unfortunately, I just checked the weather, and I'm pretty sure it's going to rain for the next week. Oh, Spring. You giveth, and you taketh away.

In other news (if you're not already dead of boredom from hearing me ramble on about the weather)... Well, there's no real news. But I could recap my week! This week I did things! It was very exciting, trust me.

Admittedly, before I did things, I stayed up horrifically late trying desperately to finish my story for my fiction writing class. (Birds are never more irritating than when you're listening to them on the wrong side of your sleep schedule.) I finished it, though — I was still making minor adjustments up to fifteen minutes before class, but I did finish it — and then it was onto the rest of my weekend!

Friday night meant Lobster Night at Weswings — typically I'm wary of seafood at Wesleyan eateries (especially Usdan), but this was delicious. After that, and the meeting I had with the Wesleyan Musical Theater Collective (our motto: "We're going to try to collaboratively write a musical without killing each other!" Well, okay, it isn't our motto, but it probably should be), it was off to Movie Night on Foss Hill, which as the Old Spice Man already mentioned, was Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

(I almost typed "arc" right there, which would have made it an entirely different movie. "Oh no! I need to find the tangent of the angle made by that arc! Where did it go?")

It started late, status quo for most things at Wesleyan, but it's hard not to enjoy one of my favorite Harrison Ford movies. Also, the best Indiana Jones of the bunch. After that, the night was completed by chilling with my friends (inside... it was getting a bit cold) and then four episodes of Buffy.

Saturday, I went to brunch, made pie dough, and then went to the Chinese Music Ensemble concert. Admittedly I'm biased, since my roommate was in it (GO JOEY), but I thought they sounded awesome!

Overture of Dream of the Red Chamber

Radetzsky March

Then it was off to the Wesleyan Melodrama, described in the wesleying post as "the annual spaghetti western that never takes itself seriously." I would describe it as "a musical satire of Wesleyan life and events that is only made slightly more inconvenient by the raucous audience response (always encouraged by the creators), which often includes marshmallow-throwing and repeated calls for the actors to make out."

Also, all of the actors are always totally sober. Completely. In fact, no one would ever associate the melodrama with any form of intoxication whatsoever, except perhaps the natural intoxication provided by so much unadulterated awesome.

AND THEN THERE WAS PIE.

I wish I had pictures of the pie (strawberry, blueberry, and DELICIOUS) — if I were Hannah I would definitely have had pictures — but unfortunately I do not, and it is mostly gone. It was still the highlight of my week, though. I mean, I had a great week (aside from the aforementioned desperate story-editing), but never underestimate the power of baked goods.

Alright, I'm pretty sure that's enough of me foisting my life on you people! Go. Escape. Enjoy spring before it rains or turns into summer!

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