Thursday
One of my least favorite things about living in the dorms is having to wash my dishes in the bathroom. Kind of weird for me. I'll be standing at the big sink, doing my dishes, and someone will be showering like 6 feet away. It's just weird.


Plus, then I have to make space on my dresser for stuff to dry on, since I can't dry them out on my own. Somehow though, I feel like bringing dishes home is a little different than bringing laundry home. Probably dishes need to be done in the dorms.

Friday
It seems like everyone on my floor is getting sick all of a sudden. Mostly colds. I've got a sore throat and a weird combination of stuffy and runny nose. Not quite sure how that works.


It has, however, led to my recent obsession with these Ricola cough drops. They're amazing!

Ok, I'm behind again

Here's the thing. We're getting dangerously close to Thanksgiving break. Which means that everybody and their mother is just piling the homework on. I didn't take pictures this weekend. Why? Because I was either sleeping or glued to The Tome. Remember that? It's still terrible. Here's the rest of last week:

Monday
Somehow, I naively, thought that I'd have time to do fun things this week, so I downloaded Plants vs. Zombies for my iPod.


Trust me when I say, it's pretty awesome. Who doesn't like plants that shoot peas at zombies and sunflowers that pop out little suns?

Tuesday
My roommate went home the same weekend I did. She came back with this:


If you think it's something you could get used to, or that after awhile it gets less creepy, you're wrong. Very, very wrong. Those eyes are so big that no matter where you are in the room, it's looking at you. And giving you one creeptastic smile.

Wednesday
I had a math test! (I got an 80!) It was also a really nice day out. However, this is Wisconsin, so I'm expecting snow any minute here.


I figured that this would be the last time I'm going to see green grass for a loooooooooooong time.

Thursday
It was a very sad day for Jon. He decided that, since he recently bought a computer (and they have cheaper and better games), and that he rarely uses his xbox anymore, that he would sell it.


Still, it was pretty sad to pack it up. He feels better that it's going to a good home- our friend's roommate NEEDED it so she could play Assassin's Creed. I don't get it, but whatever. Not a video game person.

Friday
This counted as the weekend, which I already explained was not photographed due to my being stuck with The Tome.

Goodbye, Bones!

Yesterday
Meet Bones. My roommate found him at the Dollar Tree and thought he'd make a good door dec for Halloween. Apparently the girls on our floor thought he needed some cash.


The CAs, however, thought Bones was a policy violation- he's covering both our room number and our spy hole. Since Halloween is over, I don't mind seeing him go.

Today
On campus, we have these things called TitanDollars- a campus currency that we can use at the Union, in vending machines, for laundry, at the bookstore, etc. It's been cold lately, and today it actually snowed a bit. Just a little. And none has stuck so far (for which I am INCREDIBLY thankful). So because it's been cold and it's now starting to snow, I ventured into the bookstore to see if I could find some mittens.


And I did find mittens. But even better than mittens- I found mittens that are also fingerless gloves! So I can still do things like unlock doors and unzip my backpack to get my keys while still being really warm (50/50 cotton/wool blend ftw)! Even more exciting! These are fair trade mitten/gloves, knit by women in Ecuador. Did you know that UW Oshkosh was the first fair trade university in the nation? (article here) It's just one of the things we do to be a more sustainable campus :)

New friends

Yesterday, I met the girls who live across the hall from me. We lived on the same floor last year, too, but they were both farther down the hall so we never really crossed paths. Yesterday, though, we both had our doors open, so I went over to introduce myself. Turns out, they're quite nice :) Then, when they found out I had never seen Firefly, they loaned me the first season.


They both have it, so they can keep watching it while I get caught up on yet another geeky tv show. lol

The last few days of summer

Sunday
Freshmen moved into the dorms on Sunday, and returning students moved back in on Monday, which meant that Sunday was the last night I had the room to myself.


Of course, I cleaned up the room a little bit so it wouldn't be a mess when she got here. I may have been using the extra bed as storage for the numerous sweatshirts and hoodies I've been wearing the last few days. (I was NOT prepared for it to be this cold this soon!)

Monday
Last night was a lot of fun- a bunch of my friends got together for a huge Magic-athon in one of the dorms. We even had a few new friends join us :) Jon made a sweet green/black deck, and JD's roommate kind of just owned most of us. This year though, I brought more than just my Magic cards to play with.


Now I have an entire section of my bookshelf dedicated to games: Magic, regular playing cards, backgammon, chinese checkers, and cribbage.

Tuesday
Today we had a big fair type of thing on campus for welcome week. All of the clubs organized stands on the library mall to get people involved. There was tons of food and lots swag.


Seriously, look at all of this stuff! 3 different bags, a bunch of pens, pins, a pencil sharpener, a frisbee(!!!), and a sweet ID card holder. AND they had corn on the cob for lunch! It was pretty awesome.

Sooo behind...

3 novels and a book of short stories later, here are the rest of last week's picture:

Wednesday
During a break from massive amounts of reading on Wednesday, I hung out with the boys. They played computer games and I tried to snap out of my reading coma. Eventually, while aimlessly looking around in Netty's room, I discovered this!


A troll doll! I have yet to decide whether or not I think he's cute or creepy.

Thursday
Back to studying. Although I suspect that the boys were playing computer games again...


At least Jacey and I got stuff done.

Friday
Once again, hanging out in Netty's room with the boys. This time I discovered his lifesource:


Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's the same as Ben's...

Happy Hippos

I found these little soapstone hippos at a fair trade shop in North Carolina while I was visiting an Aunt over spring break during my senior year of high school. My sister, B, had bought one the previous year, and I had been hoping to find them again. Happily, I did.


The original plan had just been to get one (I think I picked the yellow guy out first), but then I realized that one just wasn't enough. I love that because they're hand carved, they've each got their own unique look to them :) They've kept me company in the dorms these last two years, and given me something to play with when I inevitably get writer's block in the middle of a paper. For more inspiration, I keep XKCD: vol 0 (Randall Munroe), and my complete Shakespeare works- a handy graduation gift from another of my aunts :)

Spring?

The weather was beautiful today! Sunny and very warm- I was out in shorts and a tee shirt all day. It's finally starting to feel like spring might actually be here to stay :)


This is what I see when I look out from my desk (at school, anyway). Is is ridiculously exciting to me. Just last week there was snow on the ground and now it's all gone and the grass is starting to come back in. When the weather is nice, you can usually see people studying or playing Frisbee or catch. Sadly, today it's too windy to be studying outside, so I get to sit here and draft my paper at the desk.


At least I have some nice pictures, courtesy of my younger sister B, to brighten up the dull dorm walls :)