November 2000

THANKSGIVING IS COMING!!!

November 4, 2000 - this entry is taken from an email I sent out to family & friends... 

Hello everyone! 

 In fact, the excitement of my college-life is about to increase as this morning I awoke to look outside my window and see what appeared to be white stuff on my truck.  After rubbing my eyes and squinting for some time, I finally realized that the white stuff was indeed what I was fearing - snow.  Before all of you go into a panic, or a fit of laughter, let me first explain the rest of what I saw...  The reason for my bewilderment in seeing the white blanket covering part of my car was that what was on the ground looked more like a hailstorm gone terribly wrong.  In essence, last night it had snowed, but by this time, rain and hail had prevailed, thus the cars looked snowy, but the roads were covered in slush or just really wet. 

Regardless of the minute amount of white stuff, in my mind, it is the BEGINNING OF NOVEMBER, and it is just a little TOO EARLY for SNOW!!!  Of course, reality then slaps me and I suddenly have to remember where in the heck I am living.  Eastern freakin' Washington in Winter.  Suddenly the transit system out here seems like a very novel idea.  :-)

 I just now spied the weather report for the next few days, and to my JOY (not), I might get to see more of that fluffy white stuff later in the week.  I can feel the enthusiasm welling up within me right now.... as well as the sarcasm oozing...  UGH.  For those of you who are well aware of the fact that I am the very proud owner of an SUV, you are probably thinking I am either on drugs or drinking heavily in order to be bitching about snow when I have a 4x4 vehicle.  That is true, I do have 4-wheel-drive, and yes, I am glad that I have it just for these sorts of occasions.  HOWEVER, there is something I may have neglected to share with you all since I moved here...

 I live on a very large, multi-level, HILL.   (This is the view from my hill...)

Getting up the hills will not be a problem - that is what 4-wheel drive was created for - to climb burly hills and seem manly.  (insert Tim Allen grunts here.)  HOWEVER, in order to get to the grocery store that is only a few blocks away, or to go anywhere via the main roads, I have to go down no less than three hills.  (Actually, you could say four, because there is an incline at the first stop sign... )  Anyhoo, in order to get down these hills, I have to stop and/or turn at the bottom of every single one of them.  This is where my 4x4 capabilities will help me none.  As I mentioned before, GOING is not a problem with 4-wheel-drive.  It is the STOPPING part that concerns me the most.  Anyone that has been to my humble abode (all three of you...ha ha) knows exactly what I am talking about.  The stop signs are in the gnarliest of places, and basically I just see it as an accident waiting to happen. 

I can see it now, I have successfully rounded the first turn, and also stopped at the first stop sign.  I check for oncoming traffic and see none.  I gently step on the gas and start turning my steering wheel towards the next stop sign, only a handful of yards away.  I gently tap my brakes to start my stop as I am straightening the truck out, when lo & behold, I feel no stopping motion or slowing down.  Frantically, I look for oncoming traffic, and to my horror, there is some idiot pulling out of Dissmore's, trudging his way up the hill. 

Now, since I have lightning quick reflexes, and also have no problems using my horn or brights to alert the bozo that I am not going to stop and will have to slide (literally) past him, I could probably escape this perilous scenario with nary a scratch to my beloved Pathfinder.  The problem is that the ratio of grey hairs to black ones would increase exponentially with such incidents, and if I'm going to continue to blend in with all these younguns here at WSU, I can't be participating in activities that will increase grey hair production!!!

 (I will now pause for all of my dad's side of the family to roll on the floor in laughter, wipe their eyes, and smile with the contentedness of knowing that yes, another one of us has been bit by the grey hair gene-bug.)

 In all seriousness, I simply just don't want to have anything bad happen to my truck, or me, so if the snow indeed does decide to come in full force, (beyond this slushy, wussy stuff), I will indeed become an avid supporter of public transportation.  I would like to think of it as a noble gesture to the community... I know I am from Seattle, and therefore am very susceptible to sudden lapses of reason when snow is on the ground, and therefore should not be driving in the snow until I have ample time in an EMPTY parking lot to practice avoiding doing 360's and other various automobile ballet moves, and have successfully passed the "I'm from Seattle but Now I Know How to Drive In The Snow In My SUV Properly" driving exam, which, as you should expect, is given by Idaho residents that think a little snow is nothing but a good excuse to go hunting rather than go to work. Until that happens, I don't want it to snow a lot, or at all, except for maybe on Apple Cup day.  A sudden flash snow storm would be great right before the game... we all know Dawgs don't play well in the snow... :-) 

"And that concludes my ranting and raving over snowfall in Pullman, Washington in early November.  Thank you for tuning in.  Next time, be ready to hear all about the California students who mistook the white stuff for confetti left over from a tickertape parade and consequently found themselves in a jam that has nothing to do with a sandwich..."

 Speaking of Apple Cup, it appears that I will have a couple Huskies camping out at my place for the event.  A couple guys from Hermanson, who are staunch UW freaks, Dut and Devin, have asked if they could crash here after their "drunken victory celebration"....  I said yes, but that makes me think....  What if their precious Dawgs lose?  Should I deny them entry because they will not be coming from a victory party??  I guess that would be cruel... I'll let them stay, but will have to torture them with the Coug fight song, over and over, until they apologize for all the smack they will have thrown down before their tragic loss.....

 There might be other Hermanson Dawg-fans over here for Apple Cup, and I'm hoping to catch up with them too, if anything just to harass them and keep them talking smack all day.  If there's one thing about Husky fans that I do enjoy, it is the fact that they are easy to get riled up.  All I have to do is say "Cougar" or wear Crimson and they will instantly start a tantrum of insults and roasts, that quite frankly, is pretty stinkin' hilarious...  But, no matter how entertaining my UW pals are, I am a Cougar after all, and therefore, I do hope that the Cougs kick maximum UW ass at the game on Nov. 18th.  Like I said, a flash snowstorm would be perfect for that day...

 Aside from the chilly weather over here and plotting against my Husky friends, things are basically the same as they were in October and September: my daily routine consists of going to class, sometimes going to work or doing my Cable 8 show meetings or radio show, and studying.  In regards to my classes, I have found myself going to at least one study group session a week, on average, to help me be successful in my classes.  These study sessions are for my various COM classes, as there are a few of us who are practically taking all the same classes this semester.  The sessions have proved to be extremely beneficial for me.  I'm currently getting A's in all of my COM classes.  In fact, in one of them, surprise, surprise, as of last Thursday, I was getting the highest grade in the class.  "How about them apples!"  Thursday was our second exam, so hopefully, I will continue my reign, even if it is still only by a point or two.  :-)  My goal for this exam was to get a perfect score.  The last exam, I had only missed one.  :-)  I was shocked over that one...  In the rest of my classes, I have been doing almost equally well, although I don't think I'm at the top of the heap as I have a lot more competition.  My Com 270 and Com 101 classes have hundreds of students in them, so the point spread is a little larger.  I just checked on my 270 class grades, and I am definitly in the top 10 percent of the class, so that's cool with me!  I don't have the highest A, but I don't have the lowest either. 

 This is kind of shocking to me that I am getting such astounding grades in all my classes.  Oops... I guess not ALL.  There is still the dreaded Astronomy class from HELL.  As reported on my website, I did MUCH better on this last exam than the first one, so my grade should be considerably better than it was after the first disastrous one.  (With any luck, I'll be able to pull off a low B by the end of the semester...tee-hee)  Of course, the curve only improved 5 points from the last time, so overall, as a class, we are still struggling.  The main problem is that he covers everything in the book in lecture, and when you go to study, you have no clue which parts are actually important or which parts are fluff, and therefore not necessary to commit to memory.  The other problem is that he asks the question on the exam in a very confusing manner.  I actually have to go talk to him about one of the questions because technically, and literally, I got the correct answer.  The answer he said it was, I could not find in the book, anywhere.  Aside from that, I had written what the answer was next to the question, indicating that I found the choices odd and that I thought he would have wanted this other fact, which I wrote down.  Did I get partial credit for knowing what I was talking about?  NO.  This man obviously has no clue who  he's messing with... I promise I will be polite when I talk to him, because he is a professor after all, but I am an intelligent human being and do not appreciate being ridiculed like that.  But I digress...

 I went to talk to the head of the department a few weeks ago to discuss the fact that I wasn't learning much, and neither were others, (after the second exam, unfortunately), and the meeting went well.  He agreed that my concerns were legitimate and he said that he would try and work with the professor to improve his teaching style or SOMETHING so that myself, and the rest of the class, could learn something, and essentially, get our money's worth.  In some ways, things have been improving, sortof.  For this next exam the professor has actually given us a study guide... the problem is that it is over six pages long so far.  I guess it's a start. (sigh...)  I'm going to try and complete the review questions at the end of the chapter to help in my study efforts this weekend... we'll see if that helps me more this Wednesday. 

In other non-class related news, my radio station, KUGR 95 Rock, is going to be going online very soon.  I don't know much beyond 2-3 weeks from now and that we, the DJs, have to sign a contract to stay on the air.  Even though we won't be under the jurisdiction of the FCC, we still want to play by their rules so we look good if we get a chance to go FM again in the future.  As a web radio station, anyone in the world with internet access can listen, so all of you, from Seattle to Orlando, will have the chance to hear how "Rhayna, The Mistress of Rock" sounds, live, on the air.  There is a request line too, although it is not a 1-800 #, so if you wanted to make requests (which I would love...), you'd have to make a LD call.  You all know my email address, so if you don't want to call in and tell me what you think of the show, you can always send me an email.  Any feedback would be GREAT at this point as I have NO CLUE whether or not I actually kick ass on the air or not.  I'm going to assume that I do until I hear otherwise...  HA HA HA!

 My TV show, Another View, has been busy too.  We did an election show that I wasn't a huge part of, mainly because politics do not interest me much.  Growing up in a divided house probably had something to do with it... ha ha.  Anyhoo, Ana, the producer, knowing that I had been buried in homework, etc., said I could bow out of this episode if I wanted to.  Ana and Kye were hosting the show, so Clare, Melissa, and I were not going to be dong our regular thing anyways, so I didn't feel bad about not wanting to be involved.  As it was, Clare and Melissa weren't even on the show either.  I wonder what happened... The next show is supposed to be more light hearted and fun, which I think would be a good change of pace.  I think the seriousness of the show's previous topics was making me insane.  :-)  Rumor has it that it will be like a pajama party...

 Well, I think that I have probably taken a long enough break from my books now, so I should get going and get back to the study efforts.  I hope this little update has made up for my lack of communication thus far.  As I mentioned at the beginning, keep watching my website for more timely updates.  I miss everyone at home, and in other parts of the country that used to call Seattle home, and I hope that A) you all are doing splendidly, and that B) you do not have any snow anytime soon.  :-)

 As the title of this states, I've re-thought it all, and I've decided that a White Christmas just isn't as cool and mystical as it's cracked up to be.  I don't want one anymore...

 Take care everyone - and as always, feel free to write anytime.  I love hearing from my family and friends - it makes the 300 mile gap between me and them seem not so big.  :-)

Love,

Jennifer

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