One summer, Jess, Kay Nekota and I were at the world reknown theme park Marine World in Vallejo, California. After some enjoyable rides and fun (including riding Kong; a bright orange roller coaster complete with free head bashing and a guaranteed headache to follow!), we came to the part of the park that had the "sky coaster in it. This is not a ride, but a rope swing on steroids. You get strapped into a kind of body harness attached to a cable; you are lifted up to a ridiculous height; you have to pull a cord; you plummet to certain death...until the rope catches you and you proceed to safely swing back and forth through the air with a mixture of laughter, tears and urges to vomit. And only idiots do it because you have to pay extra and it's expensive.
So how does one go from feet firmly planted on the concrete baking in the Vallejo heat to being x amount of feet in the air staring down at some flamingos below and wishing it was all over?
Sibling Competitiveness...and kind of a sick secret wish to do it anyway...
So there Jessica and I were, young and invincible (sigh), playing this game:
"You won't!"
"I will if you will!"
"Yeah, I will if you will too, but i know you won't!"
"Wanna bet?"
"I would but you're not going to!"
"Well, fine let's do it then!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
(Kay laughs at our evident stupidity)
(Wallets become $20 lighter each)
Next thing you know, I'm saying prayers to temporarily become one of the tame, fat flamingos I see underneath me and screaming at Jessica to pull the stupid cord.
We lived.
I didn't become a flamingo.
So, it is in that strange spirit of loving sibling competition that this blog has come to fruition. Jess wrote one about a felt pink Jesus figurine tonight. I'm writing one about... Well I'm not sure yet. Dare to keep reading. Yes, they dare. (Bearenstein Bears Spooky Old Tree)
Well, how about some updates? Matt and I are a few weeks into our winter semester now and at about day 2 we both agreed it felt like we'd been back in classes for a month. Not a good sign at day 2.
Luckily for Matt, he's caught the study bug. It really is good because in addition to his regular classes he is preparing for the MCAT at the end of May by taking an extra prep class and meeting with a tutor. Yay.
Me...not so much. But as any true and seasoned procrastinator, I ride my deadlines with skill. Seriously though, I am enjoying my classes, all whopping four of them. Hey, it's still 13 credits, not including my .5 from track (a true credit hour reflection of time put in...NOT)
My news editing class consists of me being scared to death that we'll have one of our infamous "New York Times" quizzes in which I'm asked questions about things I don't know the answers to, even when I have been reading it. After frantically scanning headlines and leads, Professor Hughes walks in the door late, either delcares it's a quiz/judgement day, or begins presenting various real life situations that an editor would have to determine correct ethical decisions from. I spend the majority of this time focusing on his Bristih accent or resisting the urge to play devil's advocate. Example: Prof Hughes: "Can a reporter or editor ever accept Disneyland tickets for free?" Boring rest of the class: "No, never! Oh the sanctity of objectivity!" (amid gasps and various recitations of grammar rules and the latest front page NY Times article) Cecily: "Does that apply to freelance journalists? Or a journalist with no strong interest in being objective?" (The girl to my right faints, and Professor Hughes asks me to leave, British accent ringing).
My "Advanced Reporting" class is fun. It's small. It's once again Professor Hughes. It's once again NY Times anxiety attacks. But it is also writing (advanced?) and I like it. We're not talking about back when I took Comms 321 and had to crank out two stories a week on freshman or food or construction (I didn't get two stories done a week. Yeah, I got a B) No, ADVANCED reporting means two stories a semester. That is a number I can live with. I just turned in story #1 on the Verizon vs. AT&T battle. Look for it in The Daily Universe soon, student journalism at its finest. Yes, once as a lowly 321er, they scorned me for editorializing and a lack of story production. My first week attending my editing lab back in that prison of a newsroom (or so it once was for me) I was welcomed with open arms and declarations that they claimed me as one of their own once they had to start covering me in the sports section. Well, guess what? You've gotta print me again fair-weather fans, and I WILL editorialize. A little...
What is Psychological Statistics? It is that smaller class for people who didn't want the huge stats class with a teacher and TA's who don't actually care about you. Translation? If you're bad at math, you've come to the right place. Enter Ross Flom, my stats teacher. Quite a character, but good at explaining math to me as if I was six years old because let's face it, when it comes to math I am still six. "Okay Professor Flom, where did you get that number from? Oh, and all those ones too?" The sugar on top of this class is that Ross Flom runs. He likes BYU runners. He taught Josh Rohatinsky once upon a time and may or may not be tight with men's coach Ed Eyestone. Whatever the case, I'm in.
Finally Media and World Religion. I've never participated so much in a class since high school. Professor Randle reminds me of the dad on the Suite Life of Zack and Cody (would this blog be complete without a Disney Channel reference?) Basically, he's musical, looks young, but you know he isn't, and has an air of coolness that may borderline nerdiness. Anyway, he carries a stack of 3x5 cards around the classroom with him, each one dedicated to a student in the class complete with picture and probably some other kind of inside info. Does he know my favorite ice-cream? It could be on the card. The point is, he will call on you if your card comes up next in the pile, so you'd better have a comment ready to go. I have noticed though, if you voluntarily comment, your card will be passed over for someone other non-participant. So I beat the system and raise my hand a lot. Or, the system beats me because I actually like commenting now? Ah! What is on that card?!
Don't forget the enormous half credit for track. Right now that consists of anti-inflammatory pills, painful calf rub-outs, ridiculous amounts of stretching and icing, and daily sweat fests as I cling to the elliptical desperate for a workout. Yes, my achilles tendon decided to get inflamed the 24th of December. Merry Christmas to me.
That turned into a long update about mostly me. Sorry. Hope it was somewhat entertaining. I'll close with a some more fun facts about Matt and Cecily 6 months in:
-We love NCIS and Criminal Minds and darn it why do they always show them in a row? -Don't you people know we can't turn it off?!
-We finally hung some wedding pictures up! Don't ask Matt about thank-you notes though, he might get queasy. But me, the girl who made, yet never sent out graduation announcements, hasn't lost much sleep on this one.
-Matt categorizes most future events in two ways: Before MCAT. After MCAT.
-Cecily categorizes most future events in one way: I'd better be running by the outdoor season!
Sorry the "inaugral blog" has been the only blog for so long now. Thanks Jess for spurring the competition that's not really a competition. I'm glad this one yields blogs instead of us flying through the air at Marine World.
