Editor's Power

My latest article has been published today. I got a little tip from the editor-in-chief to add a little meat to my article and I went ahead and added some hard facts in there. It's nice to get constructive criticism, even though, I'll be honest, I've been known not to take it too well at times. But given in the right ways I think it's very helpful.

However, I'm a little annoyed that some editor (not sure who) changed the first sentence of my article. To me, it sounds a little snobbish to start out by saying "In my Californian opinion...". First of all, this is something I would never say. And second, I don't want everyone to hate me. Oh well, we'll see how they respond to this one.

Here's the link.

No Homesickness Here

This year, I am pleasantly surprised that I haven’t been very homesick.

I miss the people at home—my mom, my dad, my best friend—but I don’t really miss being at home. This summer was interesting. I was bored a lot. I really don’t have much going on at home anymore. My life is here now (as much as my mom doesn’t want to hear that).

This year has been a great one already. I’m really enjoying living on my own. However, sometimes it’s a little, well, lonely. My group of friends used to live in my building last year. So because all of us were extremely lazy, this worked out well. But now that they all live together in another building, I don’t see them nearly as much. I’m not really involved in their plans and most of the time they don’t make a huge effort to come visit me.

On the bright side, I’ve gotten closer to the RAs on my staff. We’re on the same schedule and do live in the same building. Weird how that works out. Anyway, I feel so comfortable as an RA. Like this is what I’m meant to do. I love my hallway, my building, and my staff. It’s a great atmosphere. 

First Article!

So today my first article was published in my school's newspaper, The Chronicle. Here's a link to it: Bob Saget Opinion Article

Within an hour of it being posted, I already had 2 comments online. While they weren't encouraging comments, it's nice to know that people are actually reading what I have to say. I'm in the process of planning my next article. I'm not sure if I'm going to stay solely in Opinion. While I do love sharing my thoughts with the world, I'd like to do a hard news story or maybe even a feature. Im doing a news feature for my Journalism class, so maybe I'll work on that for both class and the paper.

The meeting for the paper is tonight and I'm also thinking of joining the production stage of the paper (editing, designing, things of that sort). I'm interested in running the actual web page because that's leaning more towards what I may be doing in the future. But anyway, I hope you enjoy my article! It's fun seeing my name in the by line of a paper again!

Getting Old

It’s official, I’m getting old. Sometime last week, I pulled a muscle on the left side of my back. It is the most annoying thing in the world. For those of you who have hurt your back before, I feel your pain.

It might not be so bad if I didn’t have a life and could just lay in bed for a week. But of course I had to drive 2 hours to Massachusetts, walk around all weekend, drive 2 hours back, and still have to walk to all my classes and sit in very uncomfortable desks and chairs.

However, think goodness for Aleve and Icy Hot! They are the only reasons that I’m able to get through the day. But I still feel a little ridiculous holding my back to bend over to pick something up. I suppose this is just a little taste of what it’s going to feel like when I’m older.

It's About Time

So this semester, I have decided to finally join the newspaper for my campus. I wanted to do it last year, but for some reason I never made my way to their meetings on Wednesday nights. But, with the encouragement from one of my residents (yes, it’s a two way street of support in my hall) we went with one of my friends.

For the next edition of the paper, I am planning on writing a story about being from California at a school in Connecticut. Sound a little familiar? So maybe it’s not the newest idea I’ve had (pauses to look over blog) but I think it’s a great point to start. It’s kind of like introducing myself to everyone.

The cool thing about our newspaper—called The Chronicle—is that even if your story doesn’t make it in the print edition, they post everything online. Once I’m officially published, I’ll be posting links to my stories so you all can check them out!

And yes, I realize that it's been a while since my last post. I'm going with the excuse that I've been really busy (because I have been really busy) and just haven't had any quality time to sit down and do this. It's difficult to write personally when I have homework to do and newspaper articles to write. Also, for one of my business classes, I've been asked to write a blog. So I'll be spending some of my time doing that. I have to post 4 times a week on a subject of my choosing. I'd just like to reflect that I don't even post 2 times a week--let alone 4--on this blog. We'll see how that goes. Here's a link to it: Erica's 20 Percent Time

Labor Day Weekend

It’s great to be back at school and be busy again. During the summer I feel so unproductive that it’s nice to actually do some work and cross something off your to-do list. But, at the same time, it’s great to take a break. Whenever I see Jeff is my break time. This weekend, he came and stayed with me and we had a blast. More importantly, I put all my work away and just focus on having fun. I know I’m not going to get any of it done anyway, so what’s the point of even thinking about it?

We had only two things we wanted to do: enjoy an awesome storm and hike the mountain that’s across the street. The first item on our list failed miserably. Like I said before, Hurricane Earl totally missed us, and we got small excuse for rain. So that left us with only one thing planned. But, not to worry, whenever we’re together, we always find something fun to keep us busy.

On Saturday we did a little bit of shopping, and I picked up some things that I have needed. We knew we wanted to do something outside because while the hurricane didn’t bother us, it did bring some amazing refreshing weather. On our beautiful day, we finally decided to drive 20 minutes south to a small beach that my friend recommended to me.

It was so peaceful to walk along the shell-strewn beach listening to the calming lapping of the waves. I love finding beautiful shells to take home with me. This trip, I found a very unique one that is now sitting on my shelf.

While I was collecting shells, Jeff—my soon-to-be pro photographer—was snapping away beautiful shots totally enjoying the way the afternoon sun was glittering off things. I’ll put a few of my favorites in so you can check them out.

After that, we went to the pizza place where my friend works and had a delicious dinner followed by some ice cream. We then returned to the beach to sit on a blanket and watch the sky change colors for the sunset. But, it’s only so romantic until the sand fleas start attacking.

The next morning we were up a little early so we could climb “The Giant”. The name of the mountain is called Sleeping Giant because it looks just like one. So we were going to go get breakfast (and coffee) at the caf and grab a few sandwiches for lunch on the top, but when we got there, it was barred off and we saw that it doesn’t open until 11 on Sundays! Leave it to college to be open so late. Aren’t people up before then? Apparently not.

Anyway, we then had to hike up to my car (and yes it’s quite a hike, it’s parked in a lot called “Hilltop” and they aren’t kidding) and went to go get some Dunkin. Fueled up with a breakfast sandwich and Jeff with his coffee in hand, we finally were able to start our adventure.

It was a beautiful hike and it’s so nice to go with someone who’s on the same pace as you and is appreciating the same things. The view from the top is absolutely amazing. You can see the entire campus and all the way to the Long Island Sound. We were overlooking a beautiful forest of trees and it sounded like the waves of the ocean. 

Let me add here too, that Jeff had his Dunkin cup in his hand the entire way up—and down.

We found a friend at the top of the mountain climbing on the rock. He was a little caterpillar that we had some fun with taking cool pictures. Jeff got him on a leaf and placed him a tree when we were leaving because he seemed so out of place on the edge of a cliff.

But now that Labor Day Weekend is over, it’s time to start the week. Thankfully,  I had enough time today to finish all of my work and the great part about this is that now I have only 3 more days until the next weekend because I don’t have class on Friday’s!

My First Hurricane

It turned out to be nothing at all. Just a little bit of rain, but it pretty much missed us. Kind of disappointing. I was so ready for a huge storm and lots of rain. But I was especially ready for some cooler weather.

It is so hot here! The majority of residence halls on my campus have no a/c, so we rely on the mercy of Mother Nature to keep us cool. So far, she is not cooperating. Luckily I am on the first floor. We all know that hot air rises and boy oh boy is the 3^rd floor ridiculously hot!

I really wouldn’t care about that, but as an RA, we have to make rounds of our building (or in my case buildings) every 2 hours or so. Which means I have to climb up stairs to the Saharan desert.  After walking around for a bit up there, I then retreat back to my room in front of my overworking box fan.

I think it’s just starting to cool off outside, but there’s all this hot air trapped in the building soon. Man I can’t wait until fall!