Sarah P

Fighting the End of the Semester Blues

I don't really have the end of semester blues. It's more of a mental block. I'm not graduating until December and classes are only one a week for me except Spanish so I'm kind of losing focus. Only kind of. So today, I decided to get myself out of my funk.

Last semester I blogged about Merle's Record Rack in Orange, CT. It's a 25 minute drive from SHU, so it's pretty convenient. It's also the only record store within 50 miles that's open on Mondays. Double win. The sky is insanely blue today and the weather is pretty mild, so I drove up to the store with the windows down enjoying the scenery. It was relaxing and definitely the welcome break from the day-to-day routine I have going.

I walked into Merle's Record Rack and said to myself, "What is the one record that I've always wanted and no one has ever had?" and I answered myself "Never Mind the Bollocks - Sex Pistols." So I was browsing, looking through the classic rock. (Found the Clash "Combat Rock" and almost bought it, but you'll find out in a bit why I didn't.")

I found a little section of the racks called 80's Prog. And I don't particularly like 80s prog rock. Until I discovered it was just a general filing for stuff they didn't know where else to put it. And lo and behold, what should I find? NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS. I have been searching for this album for almost five years. FIVE YEARS. When I saw it, I may have teared up a little bit. A lot a bit. I really love vinyl records and finding this record was just a perfect moment. It's one of those moments that aren't just accidents. Happenstance maybe? I don't know. It definitely banished any blues I was having.

I also found The Smiths "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" promotional single. In MINT CONDITION. If you know records, you're pretty excited just hearing that. The reason I decided not to buy The Clash was because, well, those records were pretty pricey. I put down The Ramones, too. I just have to cross my fingers and hope that they'll be there when I go back next month for a pick me up!

When did Spring happen?

It has been quite an eventful Spring semester. While the majority of my friends are preparing to graduate, I spent Wednesday afternoon registering for three sessions of summer classes and Fall classes. Fall also being what I affectionately like to refer to as my "bonus semester."

Classes have been tough, but what else is to be expected from 300 level courses? Women in Film has a big paper due at the end of the semester. The first draft was to be 9 - 10 pages and at one point I realized I could not continue my paper without adding "fluff" to meet the page count. I e-mailed my professor what I had done and she told me what else to add and then to hand it in. Sometimes page counts seem silly to me - if you affectively get your point across in 5 pages, why stuff it to make it 10? But I suppose I understand where its coming from.

Comics & Animation has been quite busy and also quite stressful. Our last project was a stop-motion animation film. 30 seconds requires 180 hand drawn index cards. It took me an hour to do 18. Suffice it to say the process was not easy and there were a great deal of sleepless nights, even with attempted work schedules. (It took me far longer than I had anticipated.) We've received our final projects now and my friend from class and I are going to work on it together.

Senior Project! Wow! Handed my first draft in last class, but my first draft and my last draft are basically the same. I finished most of the phyiscal work for the project last semester so this semester was mainly just tracking data and writing up the process and the conclusion. (I did a social media campaign.)

I took the day off from work on Saturday and went to NYC with my boyfriend who was visiting from Boston. While completely unrelated to school, it's nice to have New York City relatively close. It's a good day trip. It was also one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen. It was high sixties and not a cloud in the sky. We wandered through Central Park a bit - here's a photo:

On the club front: WHRT is now accepting applications for the new Executive Board! After nearly two years as General Manager/President I can say I'm happy to be stepping down. I've loved working for WHRT but my time there is over. In fact, a lot of the e-board is graduating, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how the new e-board shapes up.

Project Nur is continuing their film series on Thursday night, and Hillel? We're doing the best we can with only two members, but it's been tough.

More updates as the spring continues. And dont' forget, you can still follow my blog next year because I'm not graduating until December!

Snow Day Snow Day

It's a snow day! We were hit by a snowstorm today. Wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, but then again I've spent my whole life in this state, so maybe I'm biased! It's still snowing today, but I'm not particularly concerned about it. The roads are well plowed and there's no need to go out.

The roommate and I cleaned a great deal of the apartment today, overcame some sticky counters and and exploding vacuum cleaner. (Okay, that was terrifying!) I also tried to catch up and get ahead on some homework, but snow days increase laziness tenfold.

I am disappointed that today was our snow day, because my favorite class, History of Broadcasting is today. It's taught by Professor Alicastro, and he is 100% an amazing professor. (For any incoming students reading this blog, you MUST take a class with him.) I've learned more about broadcasting in the first two classes than I've known after four years of working in radio!

Everyone's looking forward to graduation in May, and I'm getting a little bit sad that I won't be graduating until December. I'm still proud to call myself a 2010 grad though! I'm looking into grad schools now. I've decided to take classes over the summer so I can take less classes in the fall and thus prepare myself for the GREs and have all my grad school applications out for Fall 2011 entrance. It's intimdating. It seems far away but at the same time, it's less than a year!

Aside from that, classes are going fine, as is everything else, and now, back to work!

It's MLK Day! A New semester, a new roommate, a new season!

Apologies for the lack of posting. I started off my Winter Break with a massive car accident and it went downhill from there. So - a quick recap.

I didn't have any final tests because all my classes were media courses so I finished school the day classes finished. Granted, I had a lot of big papers due, so the stress level wasn't any less. But school ended, my GPA wasn't quite what I wanted, but it wasn't bad either.

School starts tomorrow and there's lots of new things happening! We have a new Vice President at WHRT, and I'm looking forward to working with her. I have a new roommate! She moved in yesterday, she spent Fall semester in Rome. It's going to be a new experience, I haven't had a roommate in three years! I am looking forward to it. We started our first full day as roommates together with a visit from the gas company trying to figure out what was going on with our water temperature.

Classes start tomorrow, I'm taking 18 credits, but I'm looking forward to most of them. I'm also keeping both my jobs so I will be working 30 hours a week, too. (Ahh!) I'll post soon about my new classes and the crazy new schedule!

Semi-Formal - A Welcome Respite from Finals

Last Friday night was Semi-Formal, and I barely made it out alive! Oh, no, no accidents or messes, I had just worked a 9 - 5 holiday shift at my job before semi!

Semi was a great deal of fun though. Being 22, I had access to the bar, and it was set up quite well. Being my graduation date is a bit odd, this was my last (and only) semi-formal with my senior friends. Also, the only semi-formal I've ever gone to.

Dancing isn't really my thing, but it was quite evident that everyone who went had a great time, and it was funny/fantastic to see all the student body dressed to the nines. So many ties! The school did a great job making sure everyone made it to semi-formal safe and sound, and I must give them credit for that. Prospective students should rest assured that when the need calls for it, SHU takes care of their own.

Here are a few photos from Semi:

 

This was before we caught the buses to Semi... they were packed!

And here we all are at semi-formal, all dressed up for the Hollywood theme. (I went for the old school 1950s look. I loved it.)

That about sums up semi-formal in a nutshell, and now it's time to hunker down into the craziness that is final papers and final projects, and holiday hours at work and getting up some more articles for the website! Phew! Two more weeks, two more weeks.

As a side note: It finally snowed! Thank goodness for new tires on my car!

I May Have Eaten An Entire Pilgrim's Body Weight in Turkey

Totally not kidding by the way. I actually went up a pants size between last Wednesday and today.

Thanksgiving was really great. Normally we have upwards of 40 people at my parents' house for Thanksgiving but due to some very tragic circumstances, we lost a large amount. We also normally have a huge Leftovers Party on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but instead we spent it with our family to mourn someone special.

But more about Thanksgiving. As I've mentioned, I'm a commuter and have never lived on campus. My apartment is about 30 minutes from my parents' house. I did NOT stay at my parents' house over break. It is a completely spoken fact that I'm outta there, and not moving back, and we're all very happy about that. So I stayed at my apartment and drove down to Thanksgiving, and it was wonderful. My parents called me early in the morning to play "Alice's Restaurant", a family tradition, and I sang along on speaker phone. (Quite poorly, they woke me up.) I made it down there early afternoon and helped any way I could.

Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. My stomach STILL hurts I'm so full. My brother, who is in West Africa with the Peace Corps, was once again sorely missed, but it's a comfort to know he will be at next Thanksgiving.

The short break was a welcome respite from school. I have SO many papers due my mind swirls just thinking about them. I allowed myself time off from homework (although I DID work Black Friday, scary!) but today I'm hopping back into it.

I have two projects due for my History of Ads & PR class, and I'm meeting with my group tonight to work on them. It should be said about college that scheduling group meetings is sometimes quite difficult. Example - one of my groupmates has a sorority meeting, another commutes from half hour away. It's hard, it stinks sometimes, but we make it happen.

That's the update for now! Happy Thanksgiving! (Belated...)

It's Almost Turkey Break

You know those weeks where you have a giant list of things to do and all you want to do is nap? I'm having one of those weeks. And it's only Wednesday. I opened up a new bank account and need to make some calls about that, need to call the car dealership for a check up, need to plan some essays.

It's easy to put off big final essays, but there really are about three weeks of school left. These essays will not do themselves. I have big ones in Honors Film & Lit, and a moderate sized one for Media & Democracy. I need to have my final portfolio and my Final Project done for Digital Still Photography, and still need to figure out what's going on in my PR class. (No one knows...) I still need to get my Senior Project moving, it seems to have stalled which is quite frustrating.

I was afraid that with my stress level my immune system would fail, especially as it seems to be failing students all over Sacred Heart. (Swine flu, apparently.) I'm really glad I live off campus. I have less risk of being exposed. 

I've been asked to do an interview about WHRT for The Pulse, the student news television show. I'm looking forward to that. WHRT is still getting new DJs, and we have a new high school intern!

I can't believe the end of the semester is so close!

Birthdays at SHU!

Last Sunday, November 8th was my 22nd birthday! It was a pretty fantastic birthday as far as birthdays go. I was with my friends at midnight and one of my friends ran to her keyboard and banged out Happy Birthday. It was really great to be able to share it with a small group of friends. Since it was 22 I didn't feel a huge need to go out to celebrate so I just went out to dinner with my parents that evening. (We went to Centro in Fairfield. I highly suggest it.)

I did end up going out Tuesday night to celebrate with my friends. Nothing crazy, but just going for a casual night out. And while I was out, crazily enough, I ran into a girl I knew from my old college who also transferred out! (Cue "It's a Small World"!)

Thursday was the Maroon 5 concert at Sacred Heart which I absolutely did not go to. (Can you tell I don't like Maroon 5?) But I do applaud Sacred Heart for bringing diverse bands to campus. I did, however, go into New York City to see one of my favorite post-punk bands, The Cribs, play at Bowery Ballroom. Two friends of mine from the radio station bought me the tickets for my birthday and we all went together. It was a lot of fun, even though we ended up not getting home until nearly 3 am. I'm running on so little sleep these days I may completely be a zombie. Here are a few pictures from the show!

 

It was a great show! The only problem is now that whenever I listen to the album it's never as good as the energy of the live show! Oh well, such is life!

Media studies, and jobs and sleeping, maybe?

It's been a rainy few days at SHU. Never really a problem until I realized I lost my car in North Lot in the pouring rain. It was either adorable or painfully hilarious, but i wandered around for a few minutes until I found it.

I actually was leaving from a Vision Project presentation. Photographer Andrew Lichtenstein presented the photos he took at military funerals resulting from the war in Iraq. The pictures were incredibly moving, and I know I wasn't the only person in the Schine Auditorium who may have teared up a little bit. After the photos, Andrew showed us short films made with photos and recorded sound of the funerals as well. It was great that Sacred Heart was able to bring in a presentation so moving. I can imagine that the topic of military funerals is a bit controversial.

I just got a job as a Staff Writer for a website, and I'm pretty excited about it. My articles have gotten a pretty good reception, from my peers and from strangers who read the website, and I'm really excited.

Aside from that school is still going, classes are still classes, and I just keep pushing through. I'm waiting for my mid-semester second wind, hopefully it'll come when this rain ends!

Swamped!

Goodness me, I've been remiss in my posting. But the lack of posting has actually inspired a new post! I've decided to add a new list of "unmentionable and unforgivable swear words" to my life. They are as follows:

• Midterms
• 20% of your final grade
• Richard Nixon

And now, an explanation. It's that ever-enjoyable time of year, midterm season! Interestingly enough, as a media major, I'm taking all media classes this semester and don't have tests in any of my classes. I do have classes, however, in which only three or four assignments are due the entire semester, and doing poorly on any one of those assignments makes it completely impossible to maintain a GPA above 3.6. Today I had two papers due - one in Media & Democracy (my favorite class!) and one in Honors Film & Literature. The first was on Banned Books, and I wrote on A Clockwork Orange. The second was a critical analysis of scenes in a film compared to the scene in the literature. I wrote on sexual dichotomies in The Maltese Falcon. I'm nervous about both, because both of these papers are 20% of my final grade.

Now, Richard Nixon? Why Richard Nixon? Seriously, Sarah, is not being able to sleep addling your brain? No, no it is not. I was looking through my obscenely extensive Media & Democracy notes after class today and I realize that at some point in every single class, Richard Nixon is in my notes. And I don't know why. Kind of strange, I know.

On a more interesting note .. Things are going really well with WHRT. It's running incredibly smoothly, and the only big problem I'm having is remembering all the new DJs names! There's so many of them! I'm very excited because this upcoming Tuesday we're hosting our very first event! We're hosting the WHRT Wicked Halloween Riot. It's a concert, featuring Ice Brothers, and contests and events and DJ Rena, who is WHRT's go-to girl for DJing.I'm so excited for it.

Aside from that, nothing really new. Piles of laundry to do, I've been remiss. But the dust bunnies have finally been defeated, for as I'm sure you recall, it was quite a battle.