St.John's College
Annapolis, MD
Sunday, April 27th, 2008

The Dedekind update

Why Dedekind? Because Dedekind deals with rationals and irrationals, both of which are real. Like the past few weeks, in which I have been both rational and irrational over events which are, simply, real.

First of all, let me apologize for the irregularity of these updates. I know I don't have a promise or commitment to any of you to publish them every week. I don't even have one to myself; but the fact remains that I habitually write one a week, that's expected, and I haven't been doing that. Please excuse me.

And then...what the hell has been going on? Even I'm kind of wondering at this point. Somewhere, Spring arrived and everything seemed as if it started going crazy. Sure, there's a lot going on, but I don't usually lose track of where I am like this. There's a bunch of good stuff (most of which is similar to what you've heard about before), and some bad (again, most of which I've dealt with previously). However, one good part of my life, and one bad part, are entirely new.

The new, good part for me is that I have a boyfriend. His name is Jason, and I like him very much. The biggest complication presented by this wonderful change is that I want to spend time with him, and I have a really tight schedule! So working that out is a bit of a challenge.

The crappy new part is this: I didn't get the Hodson internship award. So, while LAMI and sailing and teaching happiness may not be entirely out the window...I just don't know what to do. I really want to earn money over the summer, although my father, with so much generosity, has promised that I'll be graduating next year whether or no. So the really important part is taken care of. But I still don't know how to make LAMI work.

Of course, I'm open to other opportunities, and it's time to start dredging those up. Anything teaching, anything outside or on the water, anyplace I can make a difference, would all be great ways to spend the summer. Even better would be a research experience or internship someplace where I can learn skills that are actually interesting and add to my value as a scientist and educator. I'm going to be searching for these soon.

Best of all would be the brigantines, though, and I will be very sad if I have to give up on that. If anyone knows a kind person with four or five grand to give away, tell them you know of a good cause. Actually, if anyone reading this knows of any lead whatsoever, whether to a job I might be a good fit for, or to a group or person who thinks the TopSail program is worth supporting, please contact me! Anything is worth hearing about and following up on - at this nebulous stage of the game, leads are everything. Start telling me about stuff, everybody!

So those are the more looming pieces of my life right now. In other news - just because I haven't updated regularly doesn't mean I've been idle! Last weekend, for instance, was Croquet, and I basically spent the whole weekend working on that. Shopping on Friday, cooking Saturday, and the event Sunday.

It was huge, it was fabulous...it rained...and we went through a great deal of champagne. Yes, my friends and I woke up early on a beautiful Sunday morning and hopped over to back campus to finish up the cooking (we made so much bread!) and to fix ourselves a little breakfast, since there was so much food sitting around. And we watched as angry clouds gathered and intimidated us, and then dumped lots of water and dampened everything, and then parted just in time for the game. They came back when the games were almost over, but we did manage to have a lot of fun while they were gone. I had huge amounts of help and labor - which is so important! - a whole lot of really good food, most of which I cooked myself, and also a lot of homemade bread and cookies and cupcakes, none of which I cooked myself. There was also a seemingly unlimited stream of cold champagne and chardonnay coming out of my room, which made some people very happy. I even got decently reimbursed with contributions, though as expected I paid a lot of the cost myself. But it was worth it, as usual. So many people were excited and cared for, and I got to have people run errands for me and have a good time. We had a couch and a mattress and sheets and pillows, and really quite an enviable setup.  It was good.

In other news, I had my oral on my junior paper. It went fine, but sadly, nothing particularly thrilling came up. But I worked hard on it and was pleased with it, and that's enough.

I got the Campbell room I wanted too, by the way. Taylor Waters, the director of student services, actually got it for me. (This means I didn't even have to show up, and skip work, to get the amazing room). Everyone is suddenly talking about great Campbell basement is, and how I'll be having really great parties down there. Which I will, and I plan on having a hibachi down there too. I miss being able to grill things. So - miraculous room. Check.

Two music events - One, we performed Requiem! [Mozart's Requiem, your humble editor is assuming.] Oh my gosh! And we did so well, and I enjoyed it so very much, and people afterwards told me it was a transcendental experience for them and we were incredible. I got compliments for days afterwards. And then there was pizza and champagne for all chorus members and interested members of the polity at the boathouse, and it was a lovely warm night and there was much rejoicing.

The other musical event is that, it turns out that there is a funk band on campus, in which at least one friend of mine is a member, that is completely awesome and which I have never heard perform before. Well, they played a set at the Reality music party, Coffeehaus, and then were so popular that Reality gave them their own Funk party. So good! So tight! So much fun!

Good times, obviously. There's also end-of-the-year scary stuff, but I won't go into that for now. I just hope that something wonderful comes up for the summer, and that I continue to be as incredibly pleased with life as I am now, because even with scary things going on, spring and then end of the year at St. John's is always kind of wonderful. Thank you for reading, as always, and please, start telling me about any delightful openings you hear about for the upcoming months!

Yours for miracles and unreasonable happiness,

Roxanne