First Rain

Ah, the first rain of the season... oodles of naked undergrads prancing about campus... jiggling and bouncing up and down the hills...

There really isn't anything like coming back from a night of karaoke at the local bowling alley to hundreds of tookuses bouncing across the intersection. For those who don't know, First Rain is a tradition here at UCSC in which you strip down and run around campus in your birthday suit the first day/night it rains of the fall quarter. I must say, the temptation to leap out and join them was might strong, tempered mainly by a somewhat tipsy Luke and the fear that I would run into students. And really, what do you way to someone in your section after seeing them without their knickers?

In a rather large break from the norm I have been to karaoke twice in the last 2 days. I even sang, albeit it nervously and probably badly, Cabaret, from the musical by the same name. This followed an impromptu potluck with the new cohort - a sprightly group who have brought laughter and some much needed energy into our dept.

So far, the quarter is threatening to eat me alive. I'm overloaded with work, class time, meetings, TA assignments and so on. I'm trying to QE in fall of next year, so I'm working on putting together game plan to streamline my MA/QE process. I'm moving in all the directions I need to, but it's going to be tough getting through this quarter. I see Luke much less than I want to, I run around much more than I want to, and I never seem to have enough time to actually sit down and work. Fortunately, I'm still getting my buns to the gym (or Tae Bo in my living room), so I feel like I have control over at least part of my life. Of course I'm out of clothes and the kitchen is a disaster area... but maybe with all the exercise I'll embrace my inner slug and go sans clothes next week :)

I need to add more pictures. I need to take more pictures. This will be my plan for my next few posts.