October Already??

So, I sat down the other day, took a gander at the calendar, and realized that this week, it turned to October. I was astounded- where did September go? Or August, for that matter? The days really seemed to go by fast September, which was both a blessing and a curse all at once: less time til the end of another semester, and it's closer to Christmas, but you also have all these little deadlines coming to bite you in the posterier. Granted, there's considerably fewer deadlines for me this semester, but there is the pressure of it all the same. Just having the deadlines hanging over your head of projects and quizes and tests too numerous to count... ugh. It's a mess.

So, I think I'm officially through the first round of tests- I've had a test in every class (except reading, which I've had a quiz in), and managed to figure out what those are like. Overall, I was pretty impressed with myself. I got a 97 on the Sight Singing test: I basically blurted out to the teacher that I don't know how I do that, since I certainly don't think I'm any great shakes at sight singing, to which she laughed and said I must be since she didn't see anything wrong with it, nor did the AP Theory graders. *shrug* I was disapointed about my chem/phys test- I got like a 83 on it, which is entirely UNacceptable. What threw me off is the inconsistancies in the professor's teaching: in class, they'll tell us to round until the cows come home, but on their freaking tests, they want all the digits there. So, yeah, I got screwed on that one: hopefully I'll be able to turn that grade around to the A it should be. :P

What else. I suppose the collasal news around Nac is winning this week's football game. I know: a Lumberjack victory? Is that even possible? Apparently so, folks. 48-45; like the week before, most all of the good plays were in the 4th quarter. No wonder I was nearly falling asleep out of exhaustion and hunger after halftime! I do have to admit, I'm still not quite used to the fact that we're able to get up and get food/beverage from the concession stand at will. Coming from high school where even certain candies were forbidden in the stands, much less a plate full of nachos, it still is a bit shocking to me to watch a color guard member come down the steps with a big old boat of chili cheese nachos, or watch a trumpet player eat sausage on a stick between playing shorties. Funny stuff. I get the impression the football team was beyond pleased. Coming off of last week's game, where we lost to South Dakota by a mere 2 points in the last 2.6 seconds (no joke) of the game, I don't blame them. Had I been a bit more invested in the football team's success, no doubt I would've been a great deal more excited. As it is, though, I secretly harbour the hope that they won't do well enough to warrent playoff games. Seeing as how our university thinks it's perfectly acceptable to be sending the band galivaning off to away games as a kind of pick-me-up for the football team, I have this feeling that were we to get into the playoffs, that would be the time when they *certainly* wouldn't let us off the hook in terms of traveling. On the surface, I wouldn't have a problem with traveling- I mean, heck, it's free food, free fun, free lodgings- good times, right? But it's also a Saturday on the road, on a bumpy charter bus that's near impossible to get anything accomplished homework-wise on, lunch at shady fast food joints on the road, all of which are over-run by your fellow band members, and then exhausting games and an equally un-productive bus ride home. You have no weekend whatsoever, and basically it's a big hassel. I don't like it well at all. When I was talking to my mom earlier this week, she mentioned coming up to visit me some weekend, to which I was all for: to date, my mom still hasn't even seen my dorm room, which kinda makes me sad. It just kinda seems like the thing a mom should see- her daughter's first pseudo-apartment and all that jazz. I would like nothing better than to spend a frenzied day of cleaning so I could proudly show my parents about and prove I'm capable of living independently. But anyway- Mom was asking if I had any weekend when I wouldn't be busy, to which I just laughed and said I had a game every weekend. My mom just kinda did a little 'psh' and so I began explaining what having a game means. Game days mean Saturday morning practice for 2 hours, a hurried brunch in the crapateria, followed by an awkward span of time where you make the decision to either shower or just go stinky to the game (because you're kinda nasty from practice), and then don the uniform and go over to the colleseum by 4:30 for a 6:00 kick off. Yes- it makes so much sense, doesn't it? Of course, my mom was complaining that if the family comes over here, they wouldn't really want to be spending time watching me rehearse, but rather spend time with me. I agree: it makes no sense for them to stay and watch me do what I'd do any weekend, right? But at the same time, I had no other option for her. That's the crap that they were subjecting me to when they convinced me that marching band for another year wouldn't be "that bad". Now, I guess, we all get to reap the wonderful consequences of that decision. Not cool indeed.

Anyway... moving on from that little whine-fest. This weekend was so nice and relaxing. Started off really nice on Friday by going off to Lufkin- yay! That's the first time I've been to Lufkin this semester, which is almost sad in a way. I've been here almost 6 weeks and hadn't left Nac but to go home. Wow. Anyway, we went to the usual places: Target (yay), the Lufkin Mall, Old Navy, Rue 21, Best Buy. Rounding out the day we went to Olive Garden. Mmm- I got their "Never-Ending Pasta Bowl", which was amazing. Being the devious little person I am, though, I polished off the first bowl (how, I don't know, since it was a really big bowl. Guess I was just hungry.) and then ask for another, which I manage one bite of and promptly stuff in a to-go container. Ha. Take *that* corporate America. Only problem with my plan is that they twarted me by bringing out a considerably smaller portion the second time. I guess it makes sense- you probably wouldn't want to eat as much the second round, but still, it kinda miffed me. I should've, in my mind, been able to have as much as I wanted for my $8.99, but oh well. It made for some yummy dinner on Sunday night. :) Back to my linear progression of time: Saturday I relaxed in my room for a good chunk of the day. My roommate went home, so I had the place to myself, enabling me to go out to the living room with my big wonderful comforter and hunker down with my laptop and the tv. It was great- I didn't move much until about noon, when I met up with Meghan to go to the East College caf, all the way across campus. So not cool. So, we drive over, barely catch the end of "brunch", and I ended up having the worst hamburger I've ever had. It was kinda crispy and burnt on the edges, the tomatoes were terrible, and the cheese was a mess. Not good times at all. At least the french fries were for the most part palatble, otherwise I wouldn't have been very happy at all. As it was, the cookies were off, too, so not even a good desert made it better! So, I went back, watched Once Upon a Matteress with Shannon and Meghan, then moseyed up to my room to get ready. I left about 10 minutes before my carpool was supposed to leave, got three quarters of the way there, and realized I had forgotten my hat and gloves. Lovely. So I had to turn a to the rear and kinda jog back to my dorm, up the stairs, and grab the hat in frustration, along with the gloves, and run back down, hoping I wouldn't make my friends late. Turns out it was not a problem, since other people waylayed us much more than I did, but whatever. We had the game (see above), and afterwards Meghan and I went off to Bueno for some post-game food. It was amazing- I love Bueno. Most every week there's a $4.52 charge on my bank account from them (MexiDips and Chips with a Medium Diet Coke), and that's the only way I'd have it. After that, it was like 11 or something, so after a few minutes of the history channel, I just gave up and crawled into bed.

Sunday was a royal lazy-fest. The laptop was already situated in the living room, so I only added my big fluffy comforter and a pillow to it. TV, goldfish, and diet pepsi rounded out the equation. Yeah- I plugged in the sims, turned on the history channel, and promptly went about wasting my day. I didn't end up leaving the room until 6:30 that night, when I went to go wee Wall-E at the student theater with my friends. Wall-e, by the way, was amazing: you really got attached to the little robot, and I thought it was really cute, though somewhat disturbing that humans could ever turn in to that mess of blobs that we were. The end credits, though, were wonderful- I don't know what kind of animation it is, but they did some method that looks like it's a painting moving, and I really liked it a lot. Showing how people survived- ahh! Anyway. It was cute, and if you haven't seen it, you should. The end. After Wall-E it was time for some Amazing Race, then bed. Yes, sleep! As it was, the alarm went off entirely too early this morning. Gah.

Anyway, that's all for now. Aural Skills is in 20 minutes, and I have to get goin for that. :) Until later,
~r