Today Is the First Day of the Rest of the Semester

It was cold in my room when I woke up this morning. At first I thought that maybe my heater wasn't working, but I supposed leaving the window open all day doesn't really help. I had to leave it open, though, because it smells odd in my room. I don't know why. So I am now inclined to sweep and mop the floor, change the sheets on my bed and do all the laundry sitting in my closet. I haven't done any of it yet, but I have good intentions. Good intentions which will later go on to help pave the highway to hell, because they're expanding it by three lanes and completely redoing the interchange with the road to Purgatory.

But anyway, it's been a pretty good day. Hum lecture wasn't anything special, but I stayed awake for it. Hum conference was better than usual, because Robin kept his mouth shut most of the time. Except for when he kept trying to make Plato's Republic and the Roman republic the same thing. Roman republic does not equal Plato's Republic. Greece and Rome are two different things. Not to mention that Plato's Republic is a hypothetical polis ruled by a philosopher-king and is what Plato thinks of as the perfect polis (kallipolis), whereas the Roman republic has the whole senate system and was very militaristic. I will stop there before I get going any farther, because I am digressing and getting angry. We also have a new member of our conference. She hasn't said much, but I sort of know her from orchestra.

After Hum conference, I ate lunch (oh boy, Commons food again) and tried to get a ticket for the Kronos Quartet concert from the Student Activities Office. But god damn it, they were already out. GRR! I heard about the concert yesterday in an e-mail from my prof. for the String Quartet class very strongly suggesting that I go to this concert because we're going to have a project having something to do with the Kronos Quartet. Not to mention that I really want to go to this concert. I'll call the box office people tomorrow. And if they're sold out, I'll just go on the night of the concert (this Friday) and see if I can get in somehow. I'll sneak in if I have to.

But after that my day improved quite a bit. I started the Hum reading for Wednesday and actually enjoyed it. Livy's history is actually entertaining. (Not at all like Herodotus, which was amusing by turns.) Then I had Tai Chi. I'm in the beginning class again because there's a schedule conflict with the intermediate class and I want to stay in practice and get P.E. credit while I'm at it. It started out exactly the same way as last semester: most of the class sitting in Gym I while the class is actually going on elsewhere. Today they were in the dance studio, and I actually made it to the class this time. And I properly learned the warm up! Also, I was talking to one of the guys in the class while we were all sitting there waiting, and after a while he asked me, "So are you a sophomore?" and was mildly surprised when I mentioned that no, actually, I'm a freshman. So that kind of made my day.

I had Bio lecture after that, which was actually very amusing. This section (dev. bio.) looks like it's going to be challenging, but the professor will keep things interesting. I already have some quotations to send via DQL. One of them is, "You can put your finger in DMSO, and your finger is still there. But after a few minutes, you start to taste garlic. What's all that about? What does that mean? It means DMSO is pretty fucked up stuff."

After that I went to eat dinner. I initially sat by myself, but then managed to collect people. It's always nice when people come to sit with you. It was at dinner that I found out (finally) that I am indeed one of the copy editors for the Quest. Which means, for one thing, that I get a key to the office, and for another, that I'll get paid at least a very little bit for copy editing. That'll be quite a nice change from copy editing for the sheer joy of it and the chance to scream a lot about comma splices.

The most recent and best part of the day was orchestra rehearsal. Or non-rehearsal, as it turned out. We just had a meeting and didn't actually play because there was something of a surprise with the parts for Faure's Requiem. Apparetnly it's scored for lower strings (which includes viola), a solo violin in parts, and an odd assortment of winds. Apparently the lower strings is the major part, which means cellos and violas carry it, particularly violas, as David Schiff told us. So, the viola part is very hard and very important. What a nice change! I'm as excited about playing this requiem as Kristina is about singing it. We're also going to play a Mozart piano concerto, also reportedly difficult. I'm excited. It looks like I'll actually have incentive to practice this semester. Yay!

So, that's my exciting day. Tomorrow should be exciting too, because I'm starting two new classes; Logic and The String Quartet.