Today's rambling: A walk, and quiz results
Written on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2002 at 11:02 p.m.
while feeling a bit

I just came back from Wendy's. I'd been craving a Frosty for ages, and even though I only had a few dollars, I figured I'd take a walk. It was after 9 o'clock, and I knew that if Kristen had been here, she wouldn't let me go 'cause she doesn't want me walking alone in the dark. *giggles* It's nice to know she's concerned, eh? But anyway, I was tired of sitting here, so I figured, "What the heck? I'll just go." It's quite a haul! My dorm is sort of mid-campus, but I think it's closer to the opposite side from Wendy's. I don't typically like walking so far by myself, because I get increasingly self-conscious the farther I go (especially when I'm not holding anything, like my schoolbag or something), but I thought that it'd be relatively dark and so I'd almost be concealed.

This campus is very well-lit, especially around "the ghetto and the ghetto's ghetto" (aka Wilk and Nair). I would not want to have a room on the campus side of the buildings (one side faces out over the mountains), because there are basketball courts and what I think is a hockey rink thinger. The lights are those really bright lights...like the ones they use at stadiums, only not quite as large. Even the yellow street lamps that shine through my window are too much sometimes (though by now, of course, I've gotten used to them)...I feel comforted when I stand underneath those bright lights, but I wouldn't enjoy trying to sleep with them shining through my window!

It was kind of nice walking out there, though. I think, if I can keep up my motivation, that I might take a walk every night. Not to Wendy's, because that would just defeat the purpose of walking, but maybe just around the campus. The air was just cool enough to warrant a sweatshirt, and it was really quiet and nice...until I got toward the edge of campus, anyway. I think every sorority was having some kind of shindig in Founder's Hall or something, because as I was walking up that way, this big mass of them flooded out onto the street. I couldn't believe how many people there were!

So anyway, yeah. Not much else happened today. Kristen and I went to dinner at 6, and as we were walking past the big windows at the front of the dining hall, we heard someone knocking on the glass. Looking over, I saw Kevin and Lauren grinning and waving at us. I ended up sitting with them, as usual, but Amanda was nowhere to be found. Kevin got up to get some ice cream for himself--and Lauren, after she asked--and I asked where Amanda was.

Lauren was indifferent about it, saying that she was just glad to finally get some time alone with Kevin. Uh oh.

I'd had suspicions before that she had a crush on Kevin, but that just seemed to confirm it. To be honest, I see no fault in her infatuation. Kevin is a very good looking young man, with lightly tanned skin, dark hair and eyes, and beautiful long black lashes. He's also got an attractive, endearing grin...just overall a nice-looking guy. Hopefully Lauren doesn't think of me as a 'threat'; I told her today that he was too young for me, and she laughed and said, "That's okay!" But then a minute later, she was like, "If he wasn't younger than you, though, wouldn't you--"

"Yes!" I interrupted, laughing. "He is very hot." We were both laughing when Kevin came back to the table, but thankfully he didn't ask us what our amusement stemmed from. I don't think I'd want him to know that his 'older sister' thinks he's hot. :P

Kevin has a girlfriend back home, but I have my doubts as to whether the relationship will last. Statistically speaking, relationships from high school rarely last through college. And I've seen Kevin and Amanda flirting a lot with each other, not just verbally, but sometimes physically as well (like he'll play with her hair or briefly massage her shoulders). I don't really have a problem with that. My view is that, if you're still dating someone at high school graduation, you should both agree to see other people at college. It doesn't mean you're breaking up, but seeing other people allows you the chance to see if you really do care about your boyfriend/girlfriend in a romantic way.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

Yesterday, I got back my CIS and French quizzes. I got a 100% on my CIS quiz, but I'd already figured I would because that class isn't even a challenge at this point. In French, I got a 98% on my quiz, which is very good, but still disappointed me much more than it should have. The mistakes I'd made were just stupid ones, and I want to do as well as possible in this class. The kid in front of me got a perfect score, and he can't even pronounce the words! *sighs* I'll just be more careful on the next quiz, that's all. I did do better than Miranda, hehehe... ;)

In Writing, we got back two of the responses we'd had to hand in on Monday. I'd been correct in suspecting that the professor wasn't going to grade them. Since she hadn't even told us how to do them, I knew that this was just a way of gauging how much we understand. And, as I said, I was right. She handed the responses back with notes of her own, underlining points that were vague, or things that were 'reactions' and not 'responses'. When I walked up to the front of the room to get my papers, I was dreading to see all the marks that would undoubtedly be scribbled over everything. But guess what? The first paper had only two marks on it: the words "good response" and a smiley face. I emphasize that because this professor does not have the personality type to draw smilies on students' papers. Though I couldn't stand her at first, I've realized that she really is a nice person, just strict. Still, despite the fact that I know she doesn't come from "a mean space", the smiley face startled me.

The other paper had only "good response" written on it. No corrections or other comments...So apparently, I did a very good job on both responses, and I'd been thinking that I had absolutely no grasp on how to write them! I could have laughed with relief. I guess I won't completely fail this class after all!

What I need to practice is the ability to pick the main idea out of an essay. In addition to our responses, we also had to write one sentence for each essay, stating the main point of each author. That paper came back with plenty of marks. Even the professor said that this was a hard thing to do, so I know I'm not just dense, but ugh! It's hard to be able to pick out the exact main idea!

Still, overall I'm pleased with my work. The funny part is, I've written all of my responses either the day before they were due or the day OF class. She was telling us that these things take time, that you can't just write them the day before and expect them to be good, but I've found that I do better at the last minute anyway. The few times I've actually started early on English-related assignments, I've gotten really bad grades on them, but I've almost always done well when I finished the assignments at the last minute. I'm not saying it'll always be that way, but generally speaking, I work best at the last minute.

Ugh, I'm getting tired now, and I need to wash my hair so I can just get ready really quickly tomorrow. Hopefully my little gang will be at breakfast tomorrow, like they usually are! ^_^