January 2001
1/16/01
There's only half of the month left, so I'll have to try to be really good about updating this. :-)
MUCH LATER.....
Okay - I wrote that a LONG time ago. Ooops. Here's a quick preview of what you might see on this page in the not-so-near future....
I've been doing some decorating....
And playing with the webcam...
But, I'll have to get to that later.... l8r g8r.... -J :-)
2/7/01
Okay - I know that it's February already, but I promised I would update this page, so here I are. :-)
To bring you up to date briefly, let me share with you something I wrote for the Hermanson newsletter just a few days ago. (When it was technically still January...ha ha.)
I have officially survived my first semester back in college. I am happy to report that I earned a 3.8 GPA on my report card – that’s four A’s and one B. My high GPA also earned me a spot on the President’s Honor Roll. (I think that means that I get to wear some funky tassels when I graduate…) At the risk of sounding like a nerd, I hope to top that GPA next semester… Good grades can mean scholarships, and I am not one to turn down free money!
I started spring semester on January 16th. For the most part, I am working on the minor portion of my degree: English. I am taking two Shakespeare classes, a humanities class called “Love in the Arts”, and a sociology class that focuses on media and how it affects culture. (Right now I am learning about the technical aspects of films – very cool!) So far I have spent a vast majority of my time reading [and sometimes writing about] Shakespeare’s plays and ancient love poetry. For example, in my Shakespeare classes, I just finished reading Hamlet and Richard III last week, and this week I started reading Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew. I am glad that I decided to drop the TV show and free up more study time!
The only communications class I am taking is a Media Writing course that is required to officially get into the communications school. I know this will sound silly, but this appears to be my most challenging class so far. Writing for newspapers is very different compared to any other type of writing, so you sort of have to re-learn how to write. I will probably practice on the next issue of the newsletter, so be on the look out for minor changes in my writing style.
As I mentioned earlier, I opted not to do the TV show this semester. I did keep my radio show though. You can still find me playing DJ on KUGR 95 Rock on Thursdays from 6-8pm. The station is still going to go online, but I am still not sure when. Hopefully it will happen before the end of February, but I am not holding my breath.
All of the above has been keeping me so busy that I hardly have time to whine about the snow! Before you start to say “But I love the snow!” let me dazzle you with a quick summary of Pullman’s winter weather: it snows, then some of it melts, and then it snows again. (Repeat once to twice weekly.) It has been doing this since November. I am more than ready for some sunshine.
Speaking of sunshine, Spring Break is in March, just before production of the April issue of The Duct Call will be getting started, so look for me to be gathering new material in mid-March. Until then… GO COUGS!
Well, there you have it. A quick update on what I've been doing since returning back from Winter vacation. Of course, since I spent half of my January in Seattle, it's only fair that I should write a little about that too.
In a nutshell, I had too much fun. It was VERY DIFFICULT for me to come back to Pullman. VERY DIFFICULT. Had I been there any longer, I would have been kicking and screaming all the way onto the plane. It would not have been a pretty sight....
So why was vacation so much fun? In a word, friends. I did more socializing with old friends from high school and GRCC than I have done in years, I'm sure. I was constantly going here and there to meet up with someone or a bunch of somebody's. I saw my friends that have recently relocated to California, and others that are still in Seattle but that I didn't see very often. I ran into a few people that I hadn't seen for a REALLY long time, and that was equally fun simply because 'catching up' is always a blast, for me anyways. I went out quite a bit too: hockey, dancing, karaoke - I tried to get all of it done while I was in the Emerald City and could actually do it! The only thing I didn't get to do was see any live bands (Gravity Check was on vacation too, apparently... :-( boo-hoo...) and I still haven't been to EMP yet. I think I'll try to do that during Spring Break. :-)
All in all, it was absolutely wonderful. Sigh...
The downside to that, of course, is that I went through some pretty bad withdrawals the first couple weeks back in Oz. In a matter of hours I went from being within minutes of all my good friends to being surrounded by miles of white snow terrain and a few HOURS away from everyone. Add to that the fact that once classes started, I didn't even get to see the few people I do consider friends here on campus, and basically I was in a pretty bad deep blue funk.
Ahh... the disadvantages to having too much fun at home. SIGH....
Lucky for me, I had a visitor on the last weekend of the month, and that seemed to bring me out of my melancholy state of mind. (Whew!)
Of course, I did go shopping that weekend, and that's always tended to help too... The shopping trip was significant because I finally bought some frames for the posters I had at home, sitting on the floor, waiting to be hung. So, I decorated my living room and now I feel like my house looks like someone LIVES there. The white, bare walls were getting to me! (Click here to see a picture of my lovely decorating job...) For those of you who are wondering what the posters are, here's the lowdown from left to right: Singles movie poster, a Shakespeare love-quote poster [I did buy this before I signed up for my classes, but yes, I'm beginning to think I'm obsessed with the playwright too....ugh.], and the movie poster for Say Anything, complete with the lyrics to "In Your Eyes" on it. I know--sweeeeeeeet. :-) Speaking of my house, I am thinking of putting up more pix of my place somewhere on the site. I'm still pondering it, so if you have an opinion, your comments are welcome.
Considering that my homework load has not gotten any better with this semester, I should stop playing on the website. I think I've sufficiently updated you all on January 2001 anyway. Keep checking February's news page for more news. I figured out a shortcut to updating the pages, so I'm pretty excited about keeping the updates coming on a more regular basis. :-)
Take care!
Love,
Jennifer
OOH - so you want MORE??? I see how you are... Well, lucky for you I'm feeling generous today.... Feast your eyes on this:
Yes, there she is everyone...
The Karaoke Queen
Well, one of the Queens at least... Kate probably outranks me, technically. :) Anyhoo, this pic is of me singing "Into the Groove", a song I performed during vacation when I went out for an evening of "Karaoke Bliss" with Kate. (This pic was taken at some crappy bar last February...)