No one ever writes songs mentioning October. I'll change that.

It's sort of rainy here. There are so many puddles to...

JUMP in. Geddit?

This is how it's going to go, folks. I'm going to talk about my highlights of the week, and they may or may not be in chronological order.

On Friday Night, The Bates Authors Guild hosted it's first Open Mic for both poetry and prose (commonly referred to as BAG's bastard child). Around twenty people read, and the room that we had the Open Mic in was packed. I was initially signed up to read my poetry, but I didn't know what to read. And then I suddenly realized I would be in indirect competition with twenty other people and they would judge me for my poetry... so I opted out this time. It's hard to read poetry in front of people you know, especially people who know the intricacies of your life and who thus often know what you are referring to in your verses.

However, despite my deep fear of judgement, I have been writing a lot of poetry lately. In fact, on Tuesday for my "Reading and Writing Poetry" class, the professor decided on a whim to have the class climb to the top of Mount David (The mountain on campus) and write poetry for an hour. 

It probably was the best class of the semester so far, even if the professor sometimes screams at us to appreciate our current positions in life, enjoy our privilege, telling us to ~FEEL~ things and write about them and be inspired by our surroundings. "YOU ARE SO LUCKY. DO YOU REALIZE HOW LUCKY YOU ARE?" Granted, I know I should be thankful of how lucky I am, but the way she says it is so accusatory and a bit fake. She also said "If you cannot write poetry here of all places, God help you". Excuse me, professor, but the last time I checked, you could not force creativity. She also tells our class to smile all the time because she doesn't like looking at somber faces. As if we had an obligation to look a certain way for her own enjoyment. It's like men telling me to smile, and sometimes adding that I should do it because I look prettier when I smile. Thanks, but I'm pretty sure I have bodily autonomy (And hopefully still will after the elections. I'm looking at you, Mittens.) and do not need to please you by smiling. Wait, where was I? Oh right, the professor. 

Also, while we were climbing the mountain she kept on yelling "Where are all the chivalrous men?!" trying to incite guilt into the hearts of the male students for not thinking of helping their professor up the mountain. Firstly, all the chivalrous men are in the Medieval times, ma'am, hiding with all the gender norms and lack of women's rights that go along with them. Either there or the South, where you will be told to "calm down, little lady" if you speak up against something offensive to you. Okay, feminist rant over. For nowwwww.

Back to poetry. For the BAG radio our club has created, we record poetry and play it when we're on air Monday mornings (6 am to 8 am, ugh). We didn't have enough material for the show, so John recorded me reciting two of my poems. It was very exciting. I think I'm going to do it again this or next week. Because having strangers listen to my poetry is less frightening than having acquaintances and friends listen to it.

Speaking of not having a segue... 

It's been raining lately and my favorite place to be when it's pouring outside is in my little nook by my giant slanted window. Since it's at a slant, each droplet of water that falls from the sky as it rains hits my window and slides down it. So I hear these small little drops of water hitting my glass as I study in my bed. Light thuds, plunks and scatters. And the water distorts the view to the outside world, like a bit of a forcefield. It's very calming.  

Last night I did three things of merit (or I only remember three things I did that were of merit):

1. I had a conversation with my friend Colin and when I visit him in D.C. during my October break, he's going to (hopefully, hopefully) get me into the White House and give me a tour of it (either by himself or with a guide. It's a little short notice, but he says he'll figure something out). The reason he has this ability is that he's interning at the White House. I know, I know. What a badass  The weird thing about it, though, is that now that he's working for the "Big Guy", any information coming in or out of his cellphone or computer he uses at work can be monitored and tapped into. So. Now every time I message him something I imagine an old white guy reading my texts. Needless to say, I've started texting Colin nonstop about all the criminal activities we've been planning for a while. For the lolz, of course (and yes I'm kidding). 

2. I emailed the president of the debate team and have solidified my spot as a judge for the Brown University debate Tournament. I'll get to see Yvonne and other friendly faces again. Actually, I'm pretty sure Colin is going to make it there too (if all goes well), so I'll get to see him twice in October. 

3. I created a birthday card for my friend Nick Kinnon because today is his birthday (20 years old. Oh my, he's not a teenager any more! I don't know what I'm going to do with myself once I read that landmark). What I did was I took an old judging ballot and filled it out as if the case construct was that Nick deserves to have a good birthday, no existential crisis, and donuts today. And then I wrote about all the excellent points Gov (My roommate and I) made as to why he deserved these things, and why Opp (stupid people) made no valuable points against our case. We won, of course. We also bough Nick two of his favorite flavored donuts from Le Ronj.

This weekend I'm going to Harvard with my partner Alex. I haven't written any cases lately and the last time (until today) I debated in an APDA round was second semester last year. However, I debated today and would have gotten the 1 if they were judging rankings (All the praise went to me, and the judge said that until my speech it was a pretty evenly matched round but then I brought really good points and "nuance" to the round. I'm feeling pretty good about myself.). Despite not being ranked person by person, Alex and I were told that we "picked up" the round (won the round). 

One last thing, I got an email about this possible fellowship and internship opportunity for Environmental Science/Studies and I really really want to apply for it. Doing all the work to just APPLY for the fellowship for research and an internship is really tough and competitive, let alone actually starting to DO the research, but the money and prestige is good, man. And I have three professors who can vouch for me (I need letters of recommendation  and help me figure out what research project I'd want to do. I've got to remember to look more into it tomorrow (and there's tax stuff I need to do for it. So, you know, I might need your help Dad. BUT IT WILL SAVE US MONEY IF I GET THE GRANT SO IT'S WORTH IT.)

Alright, I've got to go study for a Chinese quiz I have tomorrow (don't I always, though?).

Sweet dream my little pumpkins,

Nicole