It’s wonderful though. I’m wired funny, so being stressed about work gets the endorphins flowing like crazy and I’ve mostly been in a pretty good mood, although a couple shitty things happened this week that kind of put a damper on. Last week, as I think I informed you, I spent at least 4 hours everyday in the ceramics studio, making four 18 inch bulbous coil-pots. I’m going to take some pictures of some of the stuff I’ve been doing in there and I’ll post them as an entry. Coil-pots are labor-intensive. Bulbous pots are difficult to form, and the larger they get, the harder they are to control. I made one pot that was 21 inches high, and 18 inches wide at the widest point. It took me at least 8 hours. Unfortunately that one didn’t survive (broke in half and split all over at the top) but it’s still pretty impressive, just chillin’ on the shelf all broken.

This week we’re doing smaller, decorative coil pots that we’re coating in porcelain to make them bisque and glaze prettier. I’ve made both, technically but I think I need to make another because one is too small and the other collapsed a bit. I salvaged it, but it’s going to look like slacking if that’s all I have to present on Tuesday. So that means I have to go back to ceramics, as soon as I read the last hundred pages of “Down and Out in Paris and London” for class on Monday, do my homework for my drama class and write an eight page paper on the presentation of morality in The Great Gatsby and The Mayor of Casterbridge. All this weekend, mind you. So like I said, I’m kind of swamped.

I’m currently at a rehearsal for Songspeil Mahagonny, the musical (German Opera) that I’m assistant stage managing. Usually I come on days when they need music played over the soundsystem, which is on the third story booth above the first story stage. Today they weren’t sure if they’d need it or not, because they’re doing fight choreography. So I’m lurking up here on the catwalk, trying to get some homework done, bird’s eye view of the rehearsal, feeling like the phantom of the opera and sipping my mini-coke.

Something else I’ve been doing is going to work, which is both educational and utterly terrifying. Some of those catwalks are ridiculously high, and some of them are not well lit. All of them are scary because they are up  in the air. Hanging lights is scary because they’re heavy and sometimes you have to lean over the railing, holding this instrument and a wrench, and it’s hot up there and I still don’t totally know what I’m doing but I am learning a lot and getting paid to boot.

Bronwyn and I have decided to move next term, somewhere on first street. She really wants to move to Woolley, which is where all her friends are, but I’m uncertain about our ability to get a room there, so I’m thinking about Franklin. We’ll see. It’s not quite that time yet.

I’m also trying to get involved with this minor overhaul some students are attempting to initiate within the drama department. It’s much needed. I talked a little bit to Kaitee Tredway today about community outreach we might do in order to get more people from the area to come to the shows, she’s kind of the Natalie Turturro here.

Next Tuesday we’ve decided to screen the new episode of Glee in the student center, so that’s pretty exciting. Wednesday morning we leave for NYC for long weekend, and I’m super excited about that. Now if I could just get one of these damned assignments done I’d be sitting pretty.

Good bye for now!

Pretty much as soon as I got here, barely started unpacking, Bronwyn and I decided against dining hall dinner and went to wal-mart to grab a meal and some crap to have around the room. The room is great, it’s really big with lots of windows. The windows are all on Bronwyn’s side, but she gave me the two person closet to myself. Our hallway is pretty quiet too,  so that’s a lot better than last term. I gave everybody their presents, and they all really liked them. Bronwyn particularly appreciated her Gators t-shirt and has been wearing it a lot.

I confirmed my job with Rob, I work in the afternoons on Monday and Tuesday. I worked one shift this Tuesday, helping them hang lights for Border Towns, which is the upcoming production that started rehearsing last term. I have auditions for the playwrights festival tomorrow, and I’m doing my Henry VI piece. Hopefully that will go well. It also looks like I might be able to assistant stage manage the musical that goes up at the end of this term (Songspiel Mahagonny) and that’s pretty exciting. I have started two of my classes, Voice and Speech with Kirk Jackson and The Literature of Money with Akhil Sharma. They both seem like they’re going to be really good classes. My homework for lit. was to pick my favorite passages from Gatsby. LOL. Voice and Speech is a huge class, and we’ve been doing a lot of breathing and stuff. It’s not super interesting yet, but he did push the time back from 8:10 am to 8:30 which is a big difference, and also Kirk Jackson is FANTASTIC. He’s like a shot of espresso in human form. Akhil Sharma is more like a muffin, just this adorable little indian man in a cardigan. He told us this amazing story about growing up super poor in India, and then going to Princeton and becoming a screenwriter, then going to Law school and becoming an investment banker…anyway it was such a great backstory for the class, and it’s nice to see how invested he is in teaching us not about literary terms, but about what the literature actually has to say. It’s exciting.

Tomorrow I have groundworks, and then Tuesday I have ceramics, so I’ll tell about those at some point. They each happen once a week for four hours, while lit meets mondays and wednesdays for 2 hours and voice on mondays, wednesdays and thursdays for an hour and a half. It’s a really good, balanced schedule, I think. They should all be pretty challenging too.

I have started cutting back on my soda intake, and I’m drinking a lot of water and eating veggies with every meal. I also went to the gym for a little over an hour today, and I’m planning on going at least a few times per week. I went in the sauna, which was super intense, but did feel pretty good.

However, my room is still a mess, and I have some reading I should do to get ahead of my homework. I’m not going to lie to you, now that I’m feeling better again I’ll probably party just a little bit. Party theme, courtesy of Canfield house: Meow vs. Mao.

I should of course mention the weather briefly. It’s not that cold, low thirties, but it has been snowing non-stop until today. It got really think yesterday (I heard 16 inches) and it was really gorgeous here, total winter wonderland, just white and shimmering everywhere you looked. But the icy sidewalks are NO GOOD. I’m slipping and sliding all over the damn place. And the snow keeps falling off of roofs onto me. Today it rained, so a lot of the snow melted and everything is kind of slushy and gross. But it’s supposed to snow more later this week, so it may get thick and fluffy again, in which case we’re going to go sledding at some point in the near future. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Hope all is well.

Things worth getting up for:

1. my new flip-top gloves.

2. finding the perfect song to listen to, and listening to it.

3. Meals with Bronwyn, Kelly and Emily.

4. chocolate chip pancakes

5. walking on frost

6. The first hot shower in quite a while

7. Being super warm everywhere except the tip of your nose

8. my desktop background (it’s Conor Oberst playing guitar)

9. quality roommate bonding time

10. having to rub your feet in class (because the teacher tells you to)

11. “3 rounds and a Sound” by Blind Pilot

12. Getting extensions on papers

13. projects actually starting to take shape

14. having a Greenwall game plan

15. New episodes of Glee, 30 rock, and the office on Hulu

16. “Epistemology” by M. Ward

17. Dramatic Reading of a Real Break-up letter (http://youmakemetouchyourhandsforstupidreasons.ytmnd.com/)

18. Yeats’s Poetry

19. moving a day closer to the end of term

20. sliding around in socks on a wood floor

These are the things I’m trying to focus on. Sometimes it’s hard, but I do what I can. More later.

Other than that, i just have sooooooooooooo much WORK to do. It’s ridiculous. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. I’m currently balancing As You Like It rehearsal, a sound design project that requires me doing not only extensive studio work but a lot of research, playwriting and a variety of readings as well as a couple of term papers involving extensive research and other assorted assignments.

So actually I started this entry a few days ago and I don’t feel like editing it, so now, in the future/present Bronwyn and I have moved into the faulty apartment, like I told you, so that’s going to be really good once Molly gets all her stuff out of here. We haev a lot of space to ourselves now, and now that I have all my stuff moved out of Fels, I’d really like to get it all situated and put away and be officially moved in here but we can’t do that because there are computers everywhere. But things are definitely looking up. We have a living room with a fireplace and a kitchen with a stove and a fridge and everyone wants to come have dinner parties here and cook for us in our kitchen, which will be lovely. Also Bronwyn and I are planning a first big snow party where everyone will go outside all day and play in the snow, build snowmen and have snowball fights and then come back to our place, build a fire and have hot cocoa and spend the evening together singing christmas carols, in all likelihood.

Yesterday we went to Northampton Mass. which is about 2 hours away to see a Blind Pilot concert, which was wonderful, but rather a stressful drive. We got rather lost on the way there, and on the way back it was ridiculously foggy and we took a much better route but it was west across MA on 2 and then north up 7 to get back to Bennington, and about 10 miles outside of town, there is this mountain that you have to cross on 7 to get home and I forgot about it when I decided to take this route. It was sort of an issue, because my car really can’t handle uphill drives. I was literally touching the floor of the car with the pedal all the way up and the car went from 45 miles an hour to about 20 by the time we reached the top. I don’t even know what happens if your car decides not to make it up an incline like that. Does it stop? Do you careen backwards to your doom? I don’t know, and I don’t want to. Is there something I can do to help my poor car? Is there something wrong with it? It seems fine except it can’t handle steep inclines at all…

On the brighter side, we named the car at long last. It has been christened “Toby” and it seems well suited by this name. Also I bought some adorable pink and blue knitted flip top fingerless gloves in Northampton. They are super warm and also very versatile and I love them. They were only 6 dollars.

The last weekend in term we have decided to go to Burlington VT for saturday night and sunday and stay with Kelly’s family friends. We’re going to see A.A. Bondy and Willy Mason (10 dollar tickets!!!) and to spend some time together before the end of term and get the hell off of campus, so I’m really excited about that.

Next week is the play (I cannot wait to be done) and posters have gone up, people are really starting to talk about it. So that’s good, I guess. I’ve been telling everyone to come. I do not at all feel like I usually do the week before a show. It’s a bit weird.

I’m going to take some pictures of the apartment and post them here or on facebook soon.

That’s about it on my end. Hope all is well.

I got to go down to Boston, at long last, and see Anna. It was a long drive. I really can’t figure out why, but driving in New England seems to take soooo much longer than driving everywhere else. The drive was totally worth it though. That concert was AMAZING. I seriously couldn’t even believe how good it was. In case you’re wondering what I’m talking about, the Monsters of Folk concert that I’ve been waiting months for was this week. IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT. They played for almost three hours, no opener, and they played all these old songs of their respective bands, that weren’t on the album, which was such a nice surprise. Also in the category of nice surprises, I ran into Natalie Turturro, and we talked briefly about college and life. She seemed really happy to see me, so that was nice.

I have sooo much work coming up in the next few weeks. All my end of term projects have been announced or assigned, so I have to start working on all these huge cumulative assignments and they’re kind of intimidating, but at least I’m not being graded, right? Bronwyn and I are definitely getting a double next term, we have to reserve it at the next coffee hour and then we’ll be all set, so that’s really exciting. And, just FYI: I find talking about Dene exhausting. She is who she is, I don’t care, and I won’t be living with her that much longer, so my attitude is ‘let’s just try not to think/worry about it anymore’.

I’m still working on FWT, I’m going to make some phone calls today, since email is getting me nowhere. Hopefully by next week I’ll be all settled into something.

The play is going a bit better, I met with Kathleen to discuss how lost I felt character-wise, and how unsure I was of what she wanted out of Audrey, and she made her ideas a lot clearer to me. I don’t totally agree with them, but I at least know where I stand now, and I can make choices based on that, and sort of comprehend and therefore intelligently discuss the blocking I’m being given. We actually had a pretty productive rehearsal last night. So…that’s good.

That’s about it, really. I’ll try to do this more often.

Also, because I think everyone needs good music in their life i’ve included a few links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfcI2HliOIM (Say Please)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKwv-PPVap8 (Slow Down Jo)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weei4wtsbP8 (The Sandman, the Brakeman and Me)

For some reason these aren’t working, so you’ll have to copy and paste them. It’s worth it.

Now that she’s gone, it’s back to work. This week is midterm week, and it seems so weird to think my first term here is half over. But I have a crapload of work to do, so I am really grinding it out this week, and I’m going to keep working into long weekend, since I’ve decided to stay here, and that sort of inspires me to work hard this week, because I’d really like to have time to relax. I’m also really getting down to work on FWT stuff, which is necessary. I have another appointment today to discuss my resume with the FWT office, so once I’ve done that I’m just going to send it out to everyone. EVERYONE. I’ve sent out some emails but I haven’t really gotten anything promising back yet. I got one place in Omaha that I could probably get the internship at but then…where the hell am I going to live in Omaha? I DON’T KNOW. Now would be the time, by the way, if we have any relatives or family friends that I don’t know about living anywhere other than Florida to tell me. Seriously, anywhere at all. You never know what’s there so please, be open. Anyone who can offer me a couch and occasional use of a shower is a candidate. F’realz.

Classes are good, they’re all pretty interesting, and I’ve been looking ahead to the next term, because the curriculum is about to come out and that’s really exciting, and rehearsal is going alright. I’m a little frustrated that they keep calling me in for rehearsals when I don’t really need to be there, but it’s fine. I’m trying to demonstrate a ridiculous amount of work ethic and professionalism. I think it comes across, and as long as I establish my reputation, I think my talent will help me coast to a better role next time. I really don’t think I ever want to work with Kathleen again. Her directorial style drives me absolutely nuts. But it’s still nice to be doing theatre, so I’m happy.

Still awaiting care packages, riding bike everywhere, not sleeping enough, eating too much, laundry not done, very cold.

Have to go write a lesson plan now for teaching and learning, au revoir!

~Ashley

It was a really busy weekend, as Mom knows, and I barely got my homework done, so that’s why the blog got sort of (totally) neglected. On the bright side, I am now a pro at getting to Albany and back. And Buffalo, too. Not that I want to go to Buffalo, but I could definitely get there if I wanted to. AND I am now officially a fully initiated Bennington student, having attended the most famous tradition-theme-party of the college (INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT WARNING) the “Dress to get Laid” party. I wore a dress, which is more than I can say for most of the attendees. That’s a word, right? It was actually a really wonderful party. I went with a bunch of friends and we all had a really good time. The house that threw it, Kilpat, is essentially the Bennington version of  a frat house, so this was, I guess, a Bennington Frat party, or as close as we’re ever going to get to one. They projected porn onto the ceiling. LOL.

So anyway…just thought I’d tell you about that, don’t know if you really wanted to know or not. Feedback is appreciated on stuff like this, would you rather not hear about the parties? Let me know.

Anyway, I have today off from classes, so I intend on getting a bunch of stuff done, hopefully that works out for me. I spent most of the morning in the sound design studio, working on my assignment for that class, and I just got it done, and decided to hang out and write this (I’m in the studio right now) so I could listen to some music on these AMAZING speakers. It’s pretty chill in here, I’m really glad I’m on the key list for this space, because it’s really nice to be able to come here to work, on sound design, or anything really, and the speakers are great and it’s very isolated in a nice way. It’s suspended above this huge empty room and it’s just such a nice place to be sometimes.

Anyway, I think I’ve finally started to solidify a group or two of friends that I can hang out with whenever. You know how sometimes you have friends, but you feel weird asking them to hang out or joining them because the relationship is sort of in between? I’m past that awkward stage with two of my groups now, and it’s really nice. I hate awkward stages in relationships, so I just plough right through them, and hope for the best.

Dene has been in a bad mood, so she’s drinking even more than normal. That girl is not going to make it through college. Like, Bennington has such a safety net and she’s falling right through. It’s pretty ridiculous.

Other classes are going well, and rehearsal too, the week is just starting really, so we’ll see. I have a lot of rehearsal this week, because there are two all calls (friday and saturday) and I’m there for most of tonight as well. I’m sorry this is kind of a meager post, but I don’t really know what to talk about. Last week is sort of a blur, and Mom was here this weekend, so she knows what happened (got lost, found airport, ate too much, rehearsed, partied, did work, walked, drank hot cocoa, went ‘grocery’ shopping, slept, drove, drove, drove) OH! I’ll tell you about ‘white-trash’ coffee hour before I go. So every week we have a theme for coffee hour, and this week was Bronwyn’s and Mine to cook for, so we decided the theme would be “white trash” and we bought all this gross food (Twinkies, Ho-Ho’s, ‘circus peanuts’, KFC, and these store brand sodas called respectively “Orange”, “Grape” and “Cream”) and we all dressed up as rednecks and had coffee hour. It was a great success. Everyone was really excited, and we had a lot of fun. The KFC went SOO fast. Anyway…that’s about it.

As a note, mom and I went grocery shopping, or what passes for it in college, and I’ve decided my staples are:

• Easy Mac (the kind that doesn’t need milk or butter)
• vanilla wafers
• little debbies of any kind
• pringles/goldfish
• coke
• chef boyardee ravioli
• fruit snacks

Just so you know, in case you felt like sending me anything. I also like pens, and I really need a bowl. A microwaveable one. And a travel coffee mug, and a plate. Possibly silverware also. Not that I’m asking. I’m just blogging…that’s all.

Hope everything is well down there, try not to worry that I’m not sleeping enough, or that I party too hard, or that I only eat crap, and my social life is more important to me than classes, because none of that is true (except the sleeping thing and that’s not a big deal) even if this post gave you that impression. All is well here in hippie-commune-fairy-land.

~Ashley

Dene is still pretty much out of control. It would seem, however, that peeing on the stairs while blacked-out-drunk is sort of a last-straw sort of situation, as much as that happens here in consequence-free-Bennington. She got written up, and she actually has to go meet with the Dean tomorrow. Ouch. Maybe she’ll learn her lesson though, and not fail out of college. That would probably be good. If she keeps going the way she is, she’s not going to make it through.

I’m doing quite well. I had a really wonderful weekend, I met some really nice people, and I already told you how much I enjoyed the Dewey blacklight party, but it bears repeating. That party was what parties should be like. ALWAYS. The music was much better than usual, they didn’t play “Birthday Sex” (Look it up, it’s like the worst song EVER WRITTEN) and there were blacklights, everyone was wearing white, it was awesome. Although, at one point they did play the music so loud that  they blew out a speaker. And I thought I had gone deaf. It was pretty scary. LOL. But after the party I met some cool people and we all hung out in Noyes for a couple hours, and now I have new friends. Then on Sunday we had a really good coffee hour. It’s just been a really good weekend.

I’m blogging because I never know what to do with myself on Monday nights, because I don’t have class on Tuesdays, although I do have a couple obligations tomorrow, I have to go to the sound design studio and work for an hour, and then I have my weekly Dina Janis (my faculty advisor) meeting, and then I have Copenhagen rehearsal (I’m directing a staged reading of Copenhagen for Science and Drama, did I mention that? I must have…) but other than that…I just wander around and maybe do a bit of homework.

Exciting things coming up: Street Olympics, where we compete in various events to earn points for the streets we live on and the winning street gets…something wonderful? I don’t actually know what happens after, but I know the first event is Laser Tag at 6:30 on Wednesday, and I know I’m excited. And now you are too. College: It’s a strange but beautiful experience.

~Ashley

In addition to all the homework I’ve been doing, which has been pretty ridiculous, I met a guy named Lambros, and we’re sort of dating. He is a friend of a friend who I had met a few times before, at mealtimes mostly, and then he and this guy Zach were over one night around 1 am, when Bronwyn and I went upstairs to the common room to hang out and talk, and we ended up staying up really late to talk to them (we left around four) so we really got to talk and get to know each other then, and when I’m really tired, I can be quite…intense, but he still wanted to talk to me the next day, so I took that as a good sign, and we started hanging out, watched a movie together blah blah blah, anyway we’re I guess sort of an item now. He’s from Greece (heavy accent, which can be pretty funny) and he’s a sophomore studying art and music. He’s actually only 18, although his birthday is only about  a week away. He’s really sweet, but he’s never had a girlfriend before, which is sort of weird…but we’ll see how it works out.

I got a job, but it’s not really very many hours, because while in theory I can go in anytime I want, in reality I can only go in between 9 and 5 on weekdays and 9 and 12 on weekends, and if I get there in time, I can stay later, but most of my free time doesn’t start until after 5 on weekdays. So…I’ll just have to find time whenever I can.

I missed my first class this week, because I slept through my alarm, or it didn’t go off, or something. It was dance, and there was a sub, so it’s not really big deal but it made me mad. I really try not to be that person, you know? Oh well, I won’t do it again. I’ve been doing all this organization and decorating, like every night I do some, I’ve been trying to make my room as perfect as possible. I really like it. The decorating is going well.

I still love my classes, although the homework is a bit excessive. I’m learning to manage my time a bit better. I’m about to go to my first soccer game, to watch the Bennington “Pioneers” take on some area high school. It’s gonna be intense. LOL.

Anyway, thanks for the package, sorry there wasn’t much to talk about. I had a busy work week and didn’t do much that was interesting. I’m going to start collaging, and writing some more, and maybe do some photography because I’ve been feeling a bit inspired, and then I’ll have something to talk about…also there are some events this weekend that could be interesting, and I’ve got some more rehearsal, tonight and tomorrow. Anyway, I’m just ranting because I have nothing really to say, and I’m typing this sort of in the spaces between conversation with Bronwyn, so I’ll go for now.

~Ashley

Friday is one of my early days, because I have dance at 8 am, and I was pretty out of it because I was a bit sick. i got through it though, and Science/Drama was wonderful as ever. I had rehearsal Friday night, and we finished reading and talked about the play, then Kelly and Bronwyn and I went to UpCaf which is this great little space attached to the Student Center with all these couches and board games and one of the only TV’s on campus, that not many people seem to know about. We watched Bambi, because Bronwyn had never seen it, and then we watched this weird low budget film called “But I’m a Cheerleader” about gay people and mind control. It was odd, but funny.

After we finished the movies, we went back to Fels and found that Den hadn’t made it home from the Bingham party yet, which was not surprising (it was just past one) but she had been sending some texts to people that got us a little concerned. Just to clarify, Bingham is one of the houses on campus, and this past Friday was their turn to host the Friday Night House party, and their theme was Bend it Like Bingham, the first cross-dressing party of the term. Anyway, we waited until two-ish, and then went to talk to our house chairs about Dene, and went to look for her. We found her at Bingham, drunk but safe, and walked her home. She’s been having a lot of problems, missing classes and getting wasted every night. Also she’s stopped being polite in any way to our fourth roommate Allie, because she hates her, although she’s still on very good terms with Bronwyn and I.

Anyway, that leads us to saturday, and I’ll go ahead and tell you that I did not get to direct a 24 hour play like I’d hoped, because it did conflict with AYLI, but after rehearsal I did get to go see them. More on that later. at rehearsal we blocked THE ENTIRE PLAY IN THREE HOURS. It was insane, a very different way of working than I’m used to. It seemed to me that Kathleen was not particularly concerned with the smaller characters, like myself and Touchstone, so I talked to the guy playing that role (Sam) and we agreed to take it far on our own, and not really worry that she wasn’t going to give us comedy, but to just find it on our own. After blocking the show, we all went to “The Forest of Arden” and took a hike. Arden for our purposes was the mile round woods in North Bennington, and  they were sooo beautiful. Also I got to see some really wonderful horses while we were there. we all stood on a rock (the entire cast) and sang “Chapel of Love”. It was pretty bizarre, but we had good cast bonding time. The woods were created by this really wealthy businessman in order to restore his sanity (he was actually clinically insane) and apparently it worked. Just a piece of trivia for you.

After rehearsal, I had dinner and then went to the 24 hour plays with Jackson. They were very good, and afterward we walked to North Bennington, to Lake Paran, to look at the stars and talked for a couple of hours. Itv was very nice, but I was not particularly impressed with Jackson, so I actually gave him the boot a couple of days ago…just to get that out of the way.

At this point I’m having a bit of trouble remembering what days things happened on, so here’s a few miscellaneous events. I went to the sound design studio for the first time to do my homework, which was really weird and sort of intimidating at first but I ended up really enjoying and being very satisfied with my work. The assignment was to record ourselves reading aloud a shakespearean sonnet and a paper we had written a week ago that was a listening activity, where we had to sit somewhere in silence somewhere on campus and write down a description of everything we heard for five minutes. I did it at 10:30 pm on my house, and it was pretty ridiculous, because my house is loudest between 10 and 12, so everything was going on then. There were people yelling and singing, etc., etc., it was intense. While I was recording myself reading that sonnet though, I really got to listen to the way my voice sounds so I could understand it a lot better as an actor. It was a really worthwhile experience, and I’m much more comfortable with the ProTools software that we’re using. I was sitting in the common room one night (weeknight) doing homework with like, 8 other people, and Johno and Bahar were climbing around pretending to be monkeys. This was around eleven. Someone said jokingly “We should all play that game” and then emily, without warning yelled “THE FLOOR IS LAVA!” and everyone in the room, without hesitation, hopped on top of the furniture and crawled to “the island” before eventually returning to our seats, and then having a dance party. The first time I tried to write this blog, I was interrupted by security walking to the front door of Fels, taking pictures. There were a couple of other people there, including one of the house chairs (Veronica) and we were all like “Oh Crap” because there was a bit of what one might call graffiti all over the front walls of the building. It was only chalk in actuality but it looked like paint, and the painters wanted it gone. Rather than risk getting a fee, the six or seven of us who were home grabbed soap and water, mops and buckets and a hose and got to work washing our house. This was doubly depressing because a) I have better things to do than wash a house, even though we were cleaning to the sick techno beats from the upstairs quad and b) this graffiti was AMAZING. It was the work of everyone in Fels and a lot of friends from outside the house, for the whole first few weeks of term, pictures, and messages, and words that had been erased and rewritten, addressed to different people. For instance, there was a note that originally read “You look beautiful today Tim Voice” but with spacing became ambiguous and could be read “You look beautiful today Tim Voice” or “You look beautiful today, Tim Voice” and after a few incarnations read “You looked beautiful once but not today always Caldwell Akers”. Over the door, it originally read in big blue block letters “No Hipsters”, then “No Hitlers” then “No Homers” then “No Homies” and finally “No Ineshkes” (Ineshke is the guy who lives upstairs and plays all the techno). Anyway, it distinguished us as the fun one of the 70′s houses, and now it’s gone. So that’s really sad. But we passed inspection.

Then there’s the roommate issues. Prepare yourselves, this gets a bit complex/ridiculous. Sooo, we have this quad right, and it’s not working out. Dene, Bronwyn and I want to kick Allie out. But then Bahar got kicked out of Bennington because she couldn’t pay, so they moved Dene in with Terry (Bahar’s old roommate). Allie, Bronwyn and I figured out how we were going to live together and everything seemed like it would be a lot better. all during this time, there was this girl named CiCi who wanted to move out of Noyes, which is a much quieter 70′s house down the way, and move in with Terry, which would mean Dene would move back in with us and Allie would move in with Amanda (Cici’s roommate) but Cici kept waffling, and we were all just like “What’s going on???” So now, what seems to be happening is this. Dene is moving back in with Bronwyn and I, Cici is moving in with Terry, a girl named Gaia is moving into Cici’s room (she’s moving out of the Pine Room in Franklin which is a quad that is half the size of our room) and Allie is moving in with a girl named Holly, who’s just a terrible person and like, the worst pairing ever for Allie, and Holly’s roommate Dee would be moving in with us, which would SUCK because she’s really terrible. I really, really don’t want to live with her. We’re trying to figure it out, and Bronwyn and I made an appointment to visit Eva, the dean of students, who is in charge of housing. We’ll see, I guess.

Then I had a week of classes and despite them being wonderful, all my teachers assigned a ridiculous amount of homework, including science and drama, where I’ve now been assigned to direct a staged reading of Copenhagen. I’m excited to do that, but I’m soooo swamped. Oh well. I’ll figure it out. Next term: NO 8 AM CLASSES.

I have one more story I wanted to tell, that of the Sunday Afternoon Laundry Drama, and the friendship that sprang from it. But I’m tired and it’s kind of involved, so maybe I’ll dedicate a whole blog post to it at some point. If I don’t do it, someone remind me and I’ll explain. It’s funny. At least to me.

That’s all for now. I know that was long, and it might not even make sense. Questions are welcome, lol. I just don’t feel like rereading. Enjoy!

~Ashley