Hello again! I am now four weeks into my second quarter at Western. I don't know what it is about this quarter, but it seems like everyone (myself included) has way more work to deal with. If I actually read every book that was assigned to me in every class, I'd be juggling six different books right now. Can you say insane?

Luckily, I'm not one of those freshmen that are under the impression that every book must be read. I'd never leave my room if I had to do that! So I try to prioritize and balance my time as needed. Of course, I'm writing this blog entry (and reading Perez Hilton, and eating a muffin) instead of studying for the huge exam I have tomorrow, so maybe I still need to work on prioritizing. 🙂

But overall I'm having a really great quarter. I have a new roommate, "S," who is so much fun to have around. Last quarter, my roommate was a sophomore who had a boyfriend off-campus and never really intended to live in the dorm, so I had the room basically to myself. The privacy was nice, of course, but I did feel like I was missing out on an essential part of the college experience. I know that not every roommate situation is great, but it's still something everyone experiences and remembers from college.

So S moved in at the beginning of this quarter, and although it's been an adjustment, I feel lucky that I got her as a roommate. Pretty much anyone who still needed a room could have moved in, so there was definitely potential for disaster!

But as much as I like my new roommate, my neighbors are a different story. The girls in the room right next to mine don't really socialize with everyone else on our floor, so I don't know them well. But the walls here are like notebook paper, so every night when they invite five of their friends over to smoke pot and play the guitar/drums (badly) at 2 a.m., the entire hall is "treated" to their concert, S and me especially.

At first, we tried to go over and ask them politely to quiet down, but they'd just ignore us or do it again the next night, and our RA isn't much help. Now my approach of choice is just to pound on our adjoining wall until they shut up (I can't be expected to go talk to them every time. Who could confront someone properly wearing pajamas and no makeup? Not me.)

S is more upfront. She's studying to be a teacher, so she uses her "Dealing with Bratty and Irrational Small Children" techniques on them. She'll just go up to their door and say "Listen, you're being rude and you need to be quiet right now." She's SO not confrontational in normal circumstances, so I find this hilarious. And what's great is it actually works!

Anyway, I really should start studying for that exam, so goodbye for now!