The Week In Review

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I've been super busy lately. What with "real" work from my classes setting in, trying to balance my homework with my job, and my hour-long commute (each way), I feel like I never stop long enough to catch my breath. So here's the important things that went down this week:

• Last Friday was Alex's birthday. Jimmy and I went to dinner and a few movies (hooray for movie-hopping!) and then headed up to the Upper East Side for her party. It was really fun, and it was so good to see everyone all in one place! I feel like we've all been so crazy with our busy lives that we've never really been able to all spend time together yet, so it was really good to see everybody. It was a late night for me, but definitely worth it.
• On Saturday, Richie, Gerard, and Jimmy came over for dinner. I love it when people come over (since it rarely happens, it's even nicer for me when they do). Richie and I had found a recipe for Turkey Swedish Meatballs that I had made for Rosh Hashanah, and he wanted to have it again. So we had Swedish meatballs, macaroni pie, and chocolate chip cookies. I think we'll probably all keel over soon from the cholesterol, but it sure was a good dinner.
• Sunday was football day, of course, so I headed over to Brittany Hall to do homework (which I barely did) and watch the games (which I did a lot of) with the boys. Plus, Chinese food!
• Monday through Thursday were pretty normal days. I've been really short on money this week (getting sick the same month you have to buy textbooks is a very bad thing) but other than that I was doing okay until...
• Friday. Friday was supposed to be payday for me. Unfortunately, I didn't receive a paycheck. Why, you ask? Well, apparently there was paperwork that I was supposed to fill out before the semester started so that I could continue to be paid through the work-study program. But no one, not my boss, not any of the three people who deal with paychecks, told me this. So I had no idea. Needless to say, I noticed on Friday when I didn't receive an email saying my check had been deposited. As of right now, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. I don't want to have to call my mom and ask her to front me the money for rent, but I don't know what else I can do. I've considered calling my landlord and explaining the situation, but that feels so immature. I'll get the check I'm owed by next pay period (on October 8), but I don't want to have to call him and say he can't cash my check until then. I'm really just frustrated because this isn't my fault at all, and now I'm the one having to stress about not having enough money to cover rent.
• Saturday was a pretty easy day. I considered doing homework, but instead watched Intervention (Have you seen it? You really should. It's excellent) and hung out with Richie. We went up to midtown to try to win lottery tickets to Next to Normal, since his friend Jess and a friend of hers were coming down, but unfortunately we weren't successful. We ended up just getting dim sum at Ruby Foo's. I then ended up just going home; there's been a lot of drama going on with some people here, and it all just kind of came to a head last night. I'm very frustrated and hurt by the whole situation, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm trying to just be adult about it and take the high road. Sigh. Some things never change.
• Anyway. Things here are good, for the most part. Classes are going well, and I'm feeling more confident about them. I'm making friends in my classes, too, which is really nice; I'm starting to feel connected to the people and the program, which isn't something I'm used to, but which I certainly like!
• In other news, I'm going to Maine over the Columbus Day weekend! Mom and Danny decided they wanted to go hike up a mountain (sometimes I don't know how I'm related to them...) so we've rented a cabin and found a park to explore. I was lured along with the promise of shopping, beautiful views, and lots of seafood. My mom knows just how to get to me.
• Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to post more regularly, but there's just so many other things going on!

Classes!

Okay, after this, I promise I'll calm down with the torrent of posts. It's just that I have a lot to write about and a little bit of free time right now.

Now. Classes!

My schedule this semester is unlike any I've had before: finally, I have classes that consist purely of my major requirements. This is also the first semester I've been part of a "real" school, not just LSP (which, while they try to make seem like a school, is really just a sorry excuse for a program). And so far, it's...pretty much exactly the same.

In all fairness, I'm not exactly taking the most riveting courses this semester. Research Methods I isn't going to be a big bundle of fun (although the professor actually seems to manage to do a good job of keeping us all awake). And Developmental Psychology, while important, is not my kind of class. We're concentrating solely on development ending in adolescence, and as someone who wants to work only with adults, it's really frustrating (yes, I know that it's important to know the background of what makes people into the fully-formed adults that they are, but I'd still rather concentrate on the cool stuff). Personality Theories has so much potential to be interesting, but the professor is just so boring. It doesn't help that the class is at 9:30 AM, either. Fieldwork I was actually a class that I wasn't looking forward to, but it seems like it's going to be my most useful class. We spent the entirety of last class discussing how to format title pages and use in-text citations in APA style. This sounds duller than the most dull of all possible topics, but it actually is extremely useful: APA style is the iron rule of this major, and no one has ever taken the time to teach it to us before (in all other classes, MLA has been the law of the land, and there are lots of very important differences). The other exciting thing about Fieldwork is that it sets us up for the next two semesters of Fieldwork, where I'll actually get to go out into the real work and work with professionals in the field. I'm really excited and nervous for that!

My other class is the required New Student Seminar, necessary for any first-semester Steinhardt student. It's a class tailored more to freshmen or people that have just transferred to NYU from other colleges, but luckily I'm with all transfers, so they're mostly people that are in my other classes.

That's the other strange thing: I have so many of the same people in all my classes. I've never experienced going to classes with the same people all day, and while it's weird, I know that come midterm and final times, it's going to be awesome. It's also really nice to be able to make friends with people in my own major (I love my Tisch friends, but it's nice to have some people I can talk to that aren't obsessed with themselves).

All in all, I'm really happy with my schedule this semester. It's also allowing me to continue working 20 hours/week, which is super important (if only rent would go away when school started again)!

Recovery

No, this isn't a post about Eminem's latest CD (although it could be, since that album is so good). It's about my saga with this sickness.

As I posted, I was pretty ill for the whole first week of classes with what was diagnosed to me as mono. I was prescribed two medications, an antibiotic and a steroid, and I took them for five days with no improvement whatsoever. On Saturday, I decided enough was enough, and went back to the Student Health Center. I saw a different doctor this time, and she was concerned enough with my lack of improvement to refer me to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. The way she described it to me was as a clinic for ear, nose, and throat conditions, and that it would be a relatively quick visit.

With this mindset, I took my time getting there, first getting lunch with Richie, then grocery shopping, then hanging out and watching a few episodes of Family Guy. Finally, at about 3:00, I decided it was time to mosey on over to 14th Street and 2nd Avenue and see what they could do for me.

This was a poor decision.

I arrived at the infirmary at about 3:15, and signed in with a nurse. About ten minutes later, she took me in to an examination room to take my temperature, blood pressure, and to figure out why I was there. She then sent me back out to the waiting room for what she said would be a "short wait" to see the doctor.

Three hours, six episodes of (the completely mind-numbingly horrible) Spongebob Squarepants, and tons of insurance and admittance forms later, I was called in to see a doctor. He looked at my tonsils, made disapproving noises, prescribed me two different meds (a different antibiotic, this time penicillin-based, and a stronger steroid), and sent me away. Three hours of waiting for three minutes with a doctor. Sigh.

The good news, though, is that I feel much better. I wasn't able to get the prescription filled on Saturday, but I started taking the new meds on Sunday, and by Monday morning was starting to feel like a person again. At this point, I'm not quite at 100% (maybe 80%), but I've been feeling steadily better with every passing day, and I think I'm going to kick this thing.

The only thing that confuses me is that mono is caused by a virus, so an antibiotic shouldn't do anything about it. My personal opinion is that I actually have tonsillitis (another condition that all three doctors discussed with me) and they just wanted to slap a "mono" label on it because of my age. But whatever. It doesn't much matter. The only thing that's important is that I feel better!

Cyborgs vs. Robots

Last night, I went to the Highline Ballroom to see one of my favorite bands: Ludo. I first saw them perform senior year of high school, when they opened for The Spill Canvas (yeah, so I have a bit of a love for emo-rock...don't judge me) and their energy and fun songs won me over immediately. The second time I saw them was when they headlined The Knitting Factory, in winter of my freshman year here at NYU. This was exactly my kind of show: quick openers, followed by a long set by the headliners, in a small setting. I don't like going to huge shows; I much prefer a smaller club, and I like that even at this point in their careers, the guys from Ludo are still playing relatively small shows.

I've got to say, though, last night's show was probably one of the best concerts I've ever been to. It was the first one I'd ever gone to alone (which was my own fault, since I completely forgot to tell anyone about it until the day before the show), but it actually was more fun than a lot of shows I've gone to with good friends. I always get self-conscious at concerts, about dancing and singing loudly, but this time I was with a bunch of people I will never ever ever see again in my life, so I just went all out and let myself go crazy.

I got to the Highline at about 7:15 (the show was scheduled to start at 6:30, but I've never been to a concert that began on time, and there were four openers scheduled). I missed the first opener, Tommy and the High Pilots, but I saw The Graduate (who I really liked), Jet Lag Gemini, and There For Tomorrow (whose cover of Ice Box I actually have on my iTunes, and they played). Finally at about 9, Ludo came out, and the crowd went wild.

Now, a side note. I really, really, really like this band. A lot. I think they're very talented, and the members have a great way of interacting with the crowd, even at a slightly larger show like this one. But some of the girls at this show...they were just crazy. I never really understood that whole "OH MY GOD HE'S A SINGER AND I LOVE HIM AND I'M GOING TO MARRY HIM AND HE TOUCHED MY HAND! I'M NEVER WASHING THIS HAND AGAIN!" mentality. Is there something really sexy about a guy standing up on a stage, completely rocking out and making awesome music and obviously doing what he loves most? Absolutely. But these girls that began sobbing when Andrew Volpe walked up to the microphone...they kind of scare me.

But anyway. They opened with "Go-Getter Greg", which has been one of my favorite songs by them for ages, and they didn't have a bad song all night. They played all the classics I wanted to hear: "Love Me Dead" (probably their best-known song), "Good Will Hunting By Myself", "Drunken Lament", "Lake Pontchartrain", "Topeka", "Hum Along" (probably one of my favorite songs of all time), "Save Our City", "Broken Bride"...and on and on it went.

They also played quite a few songs from their new album, which I'm not as crazy about as their older stuff, but which is still pretty kickass. The highlights were "Anything For You", an incredibly sweet love song; "Rotten Town", which is about pirates and is therefore automatically awesome; and "Whipped Cream", their new single. For "Whipped Cream", they had everyone in the audience do the dance from the video, and it was hilarious.

For me, though, the best moment of the evening was when everyone in the band took their break and Volpe stayed on stage, playing "The Horror of Our Love" with just a guitar. It was gorgeous, and with the singing along from the audience, really quite haunting. I wish the show had been taped, because that was one of the most beautifully creepy moments I've ever experienced.

As the evening ended with "Girls on Trampolines" (the encore, for which they brought out tons of people from the other bands, playing tambourines and cowbells and whatever else was around), I danced and sang and screamed and felt fully happy. I always forget how much I love concerts until I go to one, and am reminded of how wonderful it feels to just let go and completely release yourself to the music. It's a moment of catharsis that I never really find anywhere else (since I'm almost always too wrapped up with what's going on in my head).

Sick!

Well, this wasn't how I wanted to start off my junior year.

Classes started Tuesday, and I missed the first session of one of mine. Why, you ask? Because I was at the Student Health Center, being diagnosed with mononucleosis.

My tonsils and glands had been swollen for most of the weekend, and of course, being a holiday, everything was closed. So I went in on Tuesday morning to see a doctor.

The long and short of it is, I've had mono for probably around a month and a half or so. No wonder I've been feeling so run down and fatigued all the time! Finally, after so much time of me not doing anything about it, the virus kicked itself up to the next level and made me pay attention to it.

The doctor prescribed me a steroid (to bring down the swelling in my tonsils) and an antibiotic for my immune system. I've also been taking extra amino acids, vitamins, and Aleve in addition to my birth control. I've never in my life been on this many pills at once, and it makes me feel like an old woman who needs one of those labelled pill cases.

The biggest reason this has been such a drag, though, is that my tonsils are so swollen that they're affecting my swallowing (it hurts to swallow anything, even water) and my voice (I sound like Cher, or as Richie put it today, like Helen Keller). It sucks because I've been trying to introduce myself to people in my class, but I can't make my voice go much louder than a low whisper!

I'll write about my classes and everything later, but for now I need to go to bed and get some rest. This illness is kicking my butt!

So Summer Comes To An End Again...

Well, this is almost the end of the summer. Not technically, of course, since it's around until September 21st, but in the sense that matters, the sense that counts, it's winding down quick. I went home last weekend for the last time until probably Columbus Day or Thanksgiving, and it was lovely to spend a few days relaxing and getting away from the high stress of city life. Then, this past week has been super busy: seeing everyone that's back in the city after the summer break, trying (and failing) to get back into being excited about classes, and figuring out how I'm going to manage my time taking five classes and working 20 hours/week.

The most exciting part of the past few weeks, though, is our new couch (in the photo at the top of this post). We actually moved it in today, and was it ever an ordeal! Luckily, we had Aubrey's boyfriend Patrick and Emma's boyfriend Andrew there to help us. All in all, it took a couple of hours to move it about seven blocks and up our two flights of stairs. And while there was a bit of a plaster casualty and a lot of cursing, everyone eventually pulled together to get it done, and we celebrated with extra-large Slurpees (have I mentioned how happy I am that I live two blocks from 7-11?) and lounging on our new living room centerpiece.

I actually am pretty excited about starting school again. It's going to be the first semester where I can take all classes in my major, and while I'm getting a bunch of not-so-fun requirements out of the way (Research Methods, for example), I'm really pumped for Personality Theories and Developmental Psychology. I know that I've picked the right major for me, and I'm really glad that I'm going to be spending the next two years taking classes like The Counseling Interview and Group Dynamics. I can't wait!

All in all, this summer has been...different than what I expected. At the outset, I imagined it would be the best summer of my life. And while there were some down times, overall, it was a pretty damn good one. I wish I felt more rested and ready to go back to school, but hey, I can sleep when I'm dead, right?