Easy Lovin'

 The picture above is a shot from Puerto Vallarta. When we ate our sunset dinner, we sat right on the beach and we were told to take our shoes off. The sand felt so cool against my tired soles, and I squished my toes between the grains with the same level of enthusiasm as a toddler playing in the mud. Rachael thought our bare feet were the funniest things and so she insisted on taking a picture of my feet. I just like the way this came out, although it makes me laugh a bit because of how strange my toes look. I think feet in general are just weird though.

Today was a lovely day, all things considered. I actually slept last night, for about seven hours, and thank goodness too, because otherwise I would be a walking zombie right about now. The weather was wonderful today! Cold but not chilling and the irises planted outside of Talcott Greenhouse are finally budding, all purple and yellow and full of charm! I braved my French exam and I think it went relatively well. The English prospective majors/minors tea was today and after having Professor Quillian (the chair) sign my declaration form, I turned in my statement and here I am, a declared student! I feel so much excitement about such a little thing. Later this afternoon I went to my history class and received my graded first paper, on which I worked incredibly long and hard and on which I earned an A+! Needless to say I emerged from class extraordinarily giddy. It is reassuring to know that all of my hard, butt-busting work does pay off sometimes. 

Rachael and Olivia were both away for dinner, so I ate dinner by myself. This was fine - I just read The Quarry Wood for my Scottish Lit class - but after a while this really nice junior from my floor asked to join me and we had a really nice conversation. She is so sweet! She always says "hi" to me when we run into each other in the hallway or bathroom. Tonight she asked if I was from Paris. I nearly fell out of my chair in laughter. When I explained that, no, I live about ninety minutes east of South Hadley, but that I do study French, she realized her confusion and everything made sense again. It was funny, though, and I was flattered regardless of how ridiculous an idea it was. (Me? Giving off Parisian vibes? I wish!) Rehearsal tonight was pretty good. I have been starting to talk more with the upperclassmen and I really like that. OH! Around nine o'clock we were rehearsing Act I and Bryna started freaking out and pointed to this gray blob moving around on the floor. Turns out it was a domesticated centipede, or at least that's what Bryna called it. We just stared at it in horror for a minute and finally I asked, "Should I step on it?" I did and then shrieked when I realized the dead bug, with all of its little arms and legs or legs and arms or just legs, was stuck to the bottom of my left sneaker.

So that was funny.

But yes, even though I have yet to begin writing my English paper (the draft of which is due tomorrow at 8:35 AM), I am in relatively good spirits. All I need now is a bit more persistent sunshine and I think I can fully recover from the funk I have been stuck in lately.