No One Ever Said I Lacked Ambition

Summer plans recently fell through (I was supposed to take a physics class at UC Berkeley, but things just didn't work out), so I found myself with about eleven weeks of nothingness.

Well, they're no longer weeks of nothingness. I plan on filling them with working for my dad's aircraft parts business, seeing friends, and reading. Lots and lots of reading. Rather than listing all the books I aim to plow through in the coming months, I'll just show them to you.

The two upright books on the right are the only two I've made it through so far. Clearly, I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Many of the books I'm part way through (one's a book I started for my high school senior English class and I never finished it), and there are only two that I haven't started yet (Naked Lunch and The Sound and the Fury). The book I'll be concentrating on most, however, is that behemoth on the bottom: Infinite Jest.

I've been interested in reading Infinite Jest for quite a while now, but for one reason or another I just haven't picked it up. And then I heard about Infinite Summer. Essentially, everyone participating in Infinite Summer is reading David Foster Wallace's massive tome from June 21st to September 22nd. It's really informal, you can read as fast as you want, and essentially there are no rules. Online there are forums and blogs from readers. Naturally, I can't pass this up, and it's motivation to actually sit down and read Infinite Jest. If this is something that's been on your to do list as well, I highly recommend participating - it's not too late!

I'm Baaaaaack!

First: Kelsey-Pedia is exactly one year old! Well, as of yesterday. Also, this is the 100th post! whoo! It's kind of amazing that I've managed to keep this going for a year now, and it's looking like it'll be continuing into 2009!

Second: I am back in Oregon!

I am very lucky that I left when I did. I flew back on Thursday - if I had left just a day later, I would have been dealing with snow in Boston delaying flights, and snow in Oregon delaying flights. I don't know how excited I am to be back, though.

Why's that?

This was taken early this afternoon. We've been hit with a lot more snow since then. Essentially, I am snowed in. If we want to leave, we have to put chains on my dad's truck and plan for about an extra hour of travel time. So I'm stuck. Which really messes up my plans - I really wanted to see friends all over the Willamette Valley before I fly back in two weeks. I really wanted to go visit a few of my favorite places and eat some of my favorite food before going back to MIT. I just really need this damn snow to melt. And melt all the way - none of this melt-a-little-and-form-a-layer-of-ice-that-could-be-
used-as-tank-armor-until-you-unexpectedly-crash-through-
and-bruise-your-shins crap.

Oh, and let's not forget the icing on the cake! We don't have power! Well, I guess that's a bit of a lie. My house has a propane-powered generator, so we have a couple of outlets that have power, and our refrigerator and well water pump have power. So I am currently hogging one of those outlets, using my laptop and the nifty little wireless internet card my dad got (right after I left for MIT! How cruel is that?). We also fortunately have a wood stove in part of the house, so we have the wonderfulness that is heat from a fire permeating through the house. This also means that I can flaunt my skills as a Girl Scout by making grilled cheese (perfect grilled cheese with Tillamook cheese, might I add... Oh, Tillamook cheese, how I have missed you...). I'm trying omelettes tomorrow morning for breakfast. Basically, I would have been a badass on the American frontier.

It's a strange feeling to not have work looming over my head. No p-sets? No papers? No upcoming tests? I don't know what to do with my time! I've been sleeping a lot. And sitting on Facebook way more than is healthy. I've also been reading, which I haven't done in a long time. I read all but about 20 pages of Watchmen in a day, and I have a huge stack of other books I need to finish. All while listening to excessive amounts of the Decemberists. (Who, by the way, have a new album coming out on March 24th that I am unbelievably excited for! And you should be too, because it will no doubt be amazing.) While it's nice to relax a little, I am actually excited for IAP and spring semester. I think I learned a lot about study skills over the course of the last term (looking back, I had zero study skills before MIT) and I'd like the chance to prove that I can use them and be successful at MIT. Because now I actually think I can do really really well at MIT. And I suddenly have to motivation to do so. Maybe I just needed to shake the senioritis from high school? Who knows... Regardless, I am excited to get back and get started. Plus, I really miss MIT in general. I think I realize just how much I love the place when I'm somewhere else. Being stuck at home means I'm relegated to AIM conversations with people, and texting or calling them. Which isn't bad, but simply doesn't replace walking across the hall (or Briggs field) to hang out with friends and be with people. I also miss the stress (weird, I know... but I thrive on stress) and having something definite to do every day. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy to be home. I've really missed the people and places here, but it's pretty exciting to have fallen in love with a place that you've made a conscious decision to go to.

I'll make sure to post more about my adventures (or lack thereof) over winter break. Next possible chance for misadventure: I have to go to Salem tomorrow for an eye appointment, and I desperately need to go (things are getting fuzzy, even with the glasses on!). Tomorrow's going to be a long day. And pictures of the snow madness will be coming soon!

Good luck to all of you in Oregon dealing with the snow and ice, and happy holidays to everyone!

I am way too tired to come up with a decent title for this.

So, the past few days have been rather epic, no lie.

Sunday, Tess and I went with a bunch of random people to the Museum of Fine Arts (free with our snazzy MIT ID cards...) and saw some fabulous fine arts! Actually, it was really amazing and I nearly died when I went into the Impressionism room because Monet and Degas just make me so happy. After the art museum and a fruitless search at the Galleria mall for hangers for Tess, I was off to a million and two (okay, three) club intro meetings.

First was the Parliamentary Debate team, which I am ridiculously excited about. I really miss competitions, and debate is going to be amazing. As soon as the demo round was over, I dashed over to the student center to go to the Tech. I volunteered myself for writing a story about the US News and World Report rankings, which I am kicking myself over because it's already stressing me out. Not good. Anyway. So, after visiting the snazzy offices of the campus newspaper, I hiked on over to WMBR, MIT's radio station. We got to eat free pizza (which, by the way, was better than the pizza they gave us at the Tech), and we got a tour of the station, which is pretty bad-ass.

On Monday, Tess, Stunes and I went to Target. My oh my, was that epic. So, we had to trek to the bus stop in Central Square, take a bus, walk several blocks and across the Target parking lot. After we came out of the store with an entire cart's contents in giant bags, we went back to the bus stop and waited, and waited, and waited. The bus we wanted never came, so we ended up having to take a bus to Harvard Square, where we got on the T and took that to Central Square and then we had to walk back to Simmons from there (and that is a long walk when you're carrying a bajillion things). It was a really long day, and I naturally complained a lot.

Tuesday morning, I was on the radio! Yeppers...
Stream it here. I played the set starting with "Oregon Girl" by Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin. Pretty much, the second half-hour. The other shows are good too, though! Definitely listen to them! And you can make fun of the times where I messed up. Whoo...

Today, I worked on getting textbooks. Holy crap, they are expensive. If I went through the Coop for everything, I'd have to pay something like $860. Which is not going to happen. I really hate whoever decided that these books needed to be so damn expensive. Seriously, our high school textbooks were at most $60 and they really aren't all that different. Grrrr...

And now I'm going to bed because I am really tired and I have classes in the morning! Yea! Sorry if this post is rife with errors or passages of incoherence. My brain is already pretty much a goner. For now, here's this interesting (okay, maybe if you're from the Northwest) article about spotted owls! I like how they don't mention that the spotted owls and barred owls are cross-breeding in the wild...

Oh, and hi there Mom and Dad! :)