Anneka plods through Winter Quarter

I'm back on campus after a wonderful President's Day weekend/Valentine's Day at home. Sitting in class right now, actually -- we're listening to a couple of guys talking about the production of the Wasteland that our entire IHUM class is seeing tonight. Joy.

After class, I'm going (more or less) straight to an interview for volunteer opportunities at the Center for Relationship Abuse, an organization one of my RAs is involved in. Once again, I'm sort of waiting for extracurriculars to come along and smack me in the face, but I'm tired of it. Drama here has been so frustrating: I got an audition notice this morning in my email and I got all excited and then noticed that all roles (except for the two-line prison guard) were male. Nice. It's been weird going from high school -- where I was always deep into shows and extracurricular stuff -- to here, where I go to class. And do my homework. And stuff.

I'm feeling anxious about summer plans. I need to find a job: earn money, hopefully find something that looks good on a resume, stay in Seattle, work decent hours (unlike Starbucks). What! I don't know how to look, or start looking, and I'm already feeling like I'm running out of time. I have to interview for this stuff over Spring Break, or something, because if Stanford doesn't get out until June 10th I can't very well start interviewing then. AGHHH. Stress.

Anneka eats yummy things

I just need to make an announcement that I had an amazing snack.

It was strawberry yogurt with GoLean Crunch bits (like granola) and milk chocolate chips. WHAT. DELICIOUS. I am so proud of it.

Anneka is... bored?

That's not supposed to happen in college.

I'm off the crazyness that was one acts, and back from my wonderful weekend in Seattle and have been holed up in my room watching Alias. I didn't get cast in "For Colored Girls..." (shocker!) and am sort of looking for the next thing to do with my time.

I got a B on my first Comm paper. I am sort of under the impression that my TF is looking to be tough on his kids -- in the first section, he drilled us with questions about lecture in his somewhat-unintelligible Indian accent and would shoot down our opinions. I left that section feeling foggy and exhausted (this is the same guy who, replying to my email that I would miss section because I would be in Seattle said, "I wouldn't want to pry into your 'family reasons' but missing section will adversely affect your grade." THANKS, ASSHOLE.) So I'm mad at him. He didn't even write a grade on my paper. Confused, I went back into the classroom to ask and he said essentially, oops, I'll email you.

Not a lot else to report. Miss home.

Anneka was in a play

So the show went very very well, as you can see - it was beautiful, thanks to Cassie's (our director) background in tech. Of the three original shows that went up, ours was the best received -- especially by a guy from some festival who came out to give us feedback and potentially nominate us to perform in Reno? That's still coming down the pipe. Flashbacks to Roosevelt Drama, though.

Scariest moment of my life: all six of us in the show enter from different places in the theater (behind the audience, doors near the stage, etc). As I was trying to get to my entrance, I got LOCKED OUT OF THE THEATER. I swear, my life flashed before my eyes. I ran outside, barefoot, banged on several sets of doors to no avail. I had to run all the way to the front of the theater where the producer was just locking the front set of doors. It was terrifying.

The weekend was very good, too. Lots of good people. Most of the dorm was gone on ski trip up at Tahoe, so I hung out with the few people left here: including an epic grocery run to Long's with Danielle! I have soooo many frozen things in my teeny freezer compartment. I think Shawnee's gonna be hard pressed to find space. But I'll worry about that when she pays me back. Hmm.

P.S. It's a lot more satisfying to write a blog when more than two people comment on an entry...

Anneka makes New Year's resolutions

Normally I make a point of NOT making resolutions for the New Year, because I expect that if I did, I would break them and therefore be plunged into a terrible mire of guilt and self-loathing. I skip all that either making none at all or making very general, very vague resolutions like "I resolve to be happier/healthier/nicer/smarter." This year, Anneka resolves to be BRAVER and therefore make actual resolutions.

1. Take a multivitamin every day. I have a bottle of Centrum sitting on my shelf, and although I prefer gummi vites, it seems like they're dosed for the needs of four year olds and therefore totally ineffective in my body.

2. Go to the gym! Ohmygosh I am so excited about the gym. I just got back from a nice spin on the stationary bike and climbed forty "flights" of stairs on the stair master! I am all noodle-y with delight.

3. Eat out at least once a week. Somewhere really delicious. Most importantly, get the eff out of the mindgame insanity that is Stern dining.

4. Take better care of my hair by using heat-protectant. That one's easy, but I'm happy with it.

5. Drink more tea. Mmmmmmmmm.

6. Eat fruits and veggies with every meal. If not every meal, almost every meal. I'm finding fresh fruits and veggies are just about the only reliable thing in the dining hall... hurray!

7. No Late Nite. Exceptions made only in dire circumstances.

Off to dinner, and then four hours of tech. Hurray.

Anneka's dorm room is no longer a figment of your imagination

My bed, fuzzy grey blankey, Flea-bee, photo collage.

Me with my picture collage.

Our door, plus our bulletin board (to the right) that I decorated. Note the Winter One Acts poster.

My closet.

Microwave + jewelry + tea essentials.

Desk + shelves. Can you spot the Nalley Vegetarian Chili?

My side of the room.

Anneka embarks on her second quarter

So this first week is kind of fun/really stressful. 

Stressful being:

- Pre-tech week for Bloodsong. Nightly three-hour rehearsals, mainly focused on developing and performing emotions that would occur ten minutes before execution. Not pleasant stuff. I'm exhausted. And the weekend will only be worse: four hours on Saturday night, five on Sunday. And then the whole next week we have tech from 7-11 nightly. SHOOT ME.

- Buying $214 of text books. For ONE CLASS.

- My door is locked because I'm suspicious the birthday mafia is trying to throw everyone who had birthdays over break in the shower and I'm soooooo not in the mood.

- 9am classes. Ergh.

Kind of fun being:

+ Shawnee and I finally ordered a fridge today! That is, I ordered it. Shawnee approved. And then I am going to go to the grocery store and buy milk and juice and popsicles and eggs (well, not eggs, but I wanted to refrigerate eggs I so could) and ice cream and cream cheese and frozen food. HURRAY not-dining-hall-fare.

+ I think I'm finally figuring out what my schedule is. Tentatively, I'm taking my IHUM, Art and Ideas (focused on the ways theater and dance communicate to wide audiences -- we spent 30 minutes today talking about the rhetoric of WALL-E), a great French conversation class (our prof is named Tanya and she's pregnant and wears heels), probably Comm 1B (Media, Culture, and Society), and Sleep and Dreams. Comm is cool because the professor was super energetic at 9am and played with shadow puppets for us as an example of "media" 140 years ago. Sleep and Dreams is cool because the subject matter is actually FASCINATING and there are really cute narcoleptic dogs that will visit us. Wish the class wasn't 600 people.

+ I'm making an effort to eat fruits and veggies with every meal, and I'm feeling good.

Anyway. Yes. That's been the last two days for me. I miss home, very very very much.