Barnard rocks.

Granted, I've had a few moments this week that were definitely not happy, but on reflection, the balance has been wonderful. I mean, I'm in New York City, in the first place; New York City, one of the most wonderful cities in the world; New York City, subject of countless books, movies, and poems; New York City, home of Spider-Man, Sports Night, and (of course) Sex and the City (Cynthia Nixon/Miranda is a Barnard alum!). :)

Then there's the school, the women who have come here, and the teachers who are thrilled to their toes to teach here. If anyone tries to tell you that the people you surround yourself with don't affect the kind of person you will become, laugh in their face for me. Thus, I'm very happy with where I am.

Regarding individual instances of rocking-ness, I have made the following list.

-Anna Quindlen spoke to us at convocation, and then again about her book Blessings, after which she signed books and took questions and was generally very cool.

-We had a dance party on the deck on the USS Intrepid.

-I've been running in Central Park and Riverside Park. I got lost on the Central Park run with a very nice girl named Anne and bonded over being lost, so it wasn't all bad.

-We had a hypnotist perform for us. He made (among other things) a guy think he had lost his penis, a girl think the guy she pulled from the audience was Johnny Depp, and that another guy was pregnant and then had a baby. 'Twas hilarious.

-Most of the people in here are fellow Pride & Prejudice groupies. Yay!

-My roommate Emily, the girl across the hall named Bethany, and a fellow Texan named Kacie are all with me on the Harry Potter love. Emily has a giant Snape poster coming, Bethany and Emily and I stayed up until 1:30 one night because we got into an in-depth discussion about the Harry Potter books. Also, they apparently all read The Shoebox Project (although they haven't read the Stealing Harry 'verse, a situation which must be rectified), so our message board currently says:

(Bethany) Emily & Lindsey ~ You guys rule! I'll catch up with you later. And Emily--you read SBP?! Let's discuss! ~Bethany
(me) Hell, I read SBP! Emily's been holding out on me!
(Kacie) SBP is life! - Kacie "I do believe in commas!"
(me) I do! I do!

And then (drumroll please), the fabulous ladyjaida, co-author of the aforementioned SBP, who happens to attend Barnard and who had been in touch with Emily, came by and added

(Jaida) YAY stuff! - Jaida

I'm far more excited by this than I should be, but I'm very excited to meet Jaida. She's a really good writer.

-The lady who runs the College Activities Office is so sweet. Her name is Doris, and she has a strongly pro-hugging philosophy, and she calls and leaves messages on everyone's phones saying "Hello, strong, beautiful Barnard women...", which is a bit of a catch-phrase around here now as a result. The calls also are usually about free tickets to great shows, so that helps.

-I got into the Dance in New York class that I really, really, really wanted. I'm so excited about it. I'm also taking English, Women & Gender Studies, and Elementary Chinese(!). One on my new friends from my hall, Andre, is also in the class, so I plan to have lots of fun. :)

-My advisor is a lovely woman by the name of Katie Glasner. She's a dance professor, and is kind, understanding, smart, and also really excited about Dance in New York (she teaches the class).

-Katie gets to meet Joss Whedon and will get me his autograph. Yay!