1. I am getting a letter of recommendation from the president of Penn Valley. It's not too late to send it to Harvard and Brandeis.

2. Sharai got the Outstanding Student Contribution to the College award, which is going to be like gold on her college applications.

3. I got the OK from the MAST people to publish the article about my ambulance experience, making my last Spectrum issue everything I wanted it to be.

4. I now have two folders with "Excellence" embossed in gold on them. I want to get them signed by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter.

5. The cat man told me we should stay in touch, so I gave him my contact info.

6. I look bloody fantastic.

Yes, I've been bipolar lately, but I have reasons!

Today is Friday of Labor Day weekend. I get Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to loaf around. A bunch of people skipped class today. Did I rush home as soon as my last meeting ended at two?

Of course not. Sharai and I stayed at Penn Valley until ten PM, getting ready for Clubs and Organizations Day on Tuesday. Yeah, we spent all afternoon and evening in Student Activities and in the newsroom, voluntarily making trifolds and flyers for the Novel Challenge and Spectrum tables. We didn't leave until security came and told us they were closing down the building.

We are such geeks.

EDIT: Further geekery- QC is at comic #700! I should totally throw a party.

Sooooooooo, what should I buy with the five bucks this guy just PayPal'd me?

Also, I Metaquoted a great comment from scottchurch's journal. Definitely go look if you're a Star Wars geek. (Look in the comments if you don't remember the quote.) I created this icon just to respond to that comment, it was so fricking awesome.

I realized today, when the head of the Humanities department greeted me by name, how really connected I am at Penn Valley. I know people all the way from Brian the cafeteria janitor to the president of PVCC. I'm involved in just about everything there is to be involved in except Campus Crusade for Christ, and people know me all over the place- teachers, students, employees. It's a really nice feeling. I don't think I've ever been part of a community this large before. Really, though I hate to admit it, I have Dr. Spaulding to thank for it. She made me go to the leadership conference, and that's how I met Mindy and learned about Student Activities.

Anytown starts on Sunday. I won't have internet, phone, or personal contact with anyone outside the program, unless it's an emergency, until the 24th. Mom thinks they're going to withhold our luggage from us the first day, because it's supposed to be dropped off at a different location than we are and Sunday is the day we learn about oppression. slightly_wrong is the only other person I know who's going, so I'll be meeting a lot of new people. It should be fun.

I've been social lately. I've been hanging out with people from the Spectrum outside school, going to the library a lot, ran into Laura on the bus twice this week, and I have two new IM pals: Scott, the dude from St. Louis, and Phil, a guy I met at the Chuck Palahniuk book signing. I haven't been sleeping much, but I get to sleep in tomorrow.

I'm happy. There are plenty of things I could be unhappy about if I put my mind to it, but I'm honestly pretty satisfied with my lot in life right now.

I wrote an article for the Spectrum about HIV/AIDS. My original focus was its emotional effects on people, but when I started gathering quotes, I changed my mind. I let the quotes guide the article, and tried to keep myself out of it as much as possible. I would really appreciate comments on it. It's due today, but I should be able to change it until Wednesday. Please be brutal. I want this article to be good.

( It's under the cut. )