No, Really. I'm Done.

I know I've said this twice before, but my stint really is at an end in Admissions. Now in the final days of my second summer in this office, I don't have my camera around to take cute pictures of toilet paper holders and the Director of Admissions. I don't have any puns left up my sleeve. In fact, I haven't got much to say at all. In two days, training begins for Orientation Leaders (like me) and on Sunday, New Students arrive. This is the lull before the semester starts and it is eerie.

After work today, I'm heading down to the Turtle Creek Bookstore to take advantage of being one of the first on campus and nabbing the used books on the stacks. I know this makes me sound like an economical, motivated student, but the truth about the rest of my afternoon paints me a little bit lazy. Ready?

I'm supposed to have read the common reading for New Student Days by now. This book was sent to all OLs and New Students at the beginning of the summer with instructions to have it read cover to cover before setting foot on campus. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is a book that's been on my own personal reading list since last summer. I think I actually slipped up and said "yay" when I heard it was the selection for this year. And yet, somehow, I still have a hundred pages to go.

Historically speaking, I'm not procrastinator, but this first academic assignment after a summer full of 700-word articles on the NY Times website is posing me a bit of a challenge. So, this afternoon I'm buying as many used books as I can find off my list and turning to the one book that's been on my desk all summer. I'm sitting down in the coffee shop on Pleasant Street and I'm not getting up until I'm done.

It's time to put away my summer brain and get to work. Wishing you all the best in doing the same.

Au cinéma!

Coming from the wilds of Vermont, I don't have a lot of celebrity sightings to my name. I won't lead you on: this post isn't about Britney Spears crashing Beloit, although this isn't a bad story either.

Last year at this time, I spent a weekend in Chicago with my friend Karen '10 (a Chi native & Midwestern enthusiast). After dinner downtown, we got a little turned around and wandered onto a deserted street. It was the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday and the road was littered with broken glass and trucks with shot out windows. After a couple minutes, we started seeing trailers and food carts. Walking through the scene was even fun once we realized the bazooka-sized holes in the cop cars were just part of the movie magic. We had no idea what was being filmed at the time and I've been on the look-out ever since. Fortunately, Karen and I took a snapped a couple photos on our adventure. The most memorable was this semi:

Reads: "Slaughter is the best medicine."

Those of you who have recently seen "The Dark Knight" will recognize this as the vehicle Heath Ledger's Joker takes during the street chase. Yes, Karen and I wandered onto the Batman set.

I don't go to the movies all that often, but when Shelley '09 called on Sunday night, I decided it would be worth $8 to see the late Mr. Ledger totter around in candy striper outfit. When the temperature stays above 75 (F) after sunset, there are few places I would rather be than a cool, dark movie theater. As for our choice of film, I'm glad I saw it up on the big screen. The Joker did not disappoint and I finally ID-ed the set from last summer.

In current events, Sports Camps has arrived and campus is infested with children. Professors are showing up en masse. New Student Days are drawing near. By next week, this blog will be turned back over to academic goals and big plans. It's that time again...

Trailing Off & Sufyawning

Summer is flying by, but my reading list is still rather long. I'm trying to get myself into the literary groove by treating myself to such francophile trash as Stephen Clarke's Merde Happens and alternately forcing myself to pick up Light in August (because I'm in that Faulkner/Oprah's Book Club kind of mood).

This weekend was calm. I spent Saturday night down in Glen Ellyn, IL visiting a friend from the running team. It was the first reunion since her semester in Greece and my stint in France. We had a delicious brunch and her dogs filled my affection quota for the week-- it was just what I needed.

Returning to Beloit on Sunday, I went for a long run out in the Turtle Creek flood plain. In the summer months and during the off-season in general, I take off my watch for long runs. I love picking a route by distance and going the miles at a pace that just plain feels good. Down on the trails, Beloit is green and with my weekend schedule wide-open, I can afford to go any extra twenty-minutes if I've got the energy to spare.

[Above: one of the trails by Turtle Creek.]

After my run Sunday evening, I stumbled back to campus pretty exhausted. It was only seven o'clock, so I cleaned up, made my favorite spinach/raspberry/feta salad, and settled in to do something I hadn't done in a long time: I sat in my room to listen to music and enjoy the air conditioning.

Taking a slow evening of old Sufjan Stevens, trashy reading from the public library, and catching up with family on the phone feels a lot like a good tooth brushing: healthy. So, with August and the fall semester fast upon us, I'm milking the merde of the end of July. Hope you all have a very relaxing week, wherever you may be.

Port-A-John Stamos

This weekend was Beloit's annual Riverfest down on the banks of the Rock River. While I had a great weekend and caught up with some of my favorite Beloise passing through town, the highlight of the weekend was Sunday night at Riverfest. Shelley '09 drove down to accompany me to the Beach Boys concert. We met up with Sophie'09, Ben '09, Alicia '09 & Zach before the show and tried to get excited about the concert. It's funny to think that there are only one or two members of the original gang left on the circuit, but it takes no stretch of the imagination to see how all the Beach Boys classics could be decently performed by pretty much anybody.
Now, to the title: Riverfest ("The Ultimate Rock Festival") is always a little, how shall we say... unusual. It's a true cultural experience. This year, that experience was enhanced by the guest performance of John Stamos on percussion for the Beach Boys. We got a great look at the Port-A-Johns, Uncle Jesse was too far away to see in any detail. Happy to report that even from a distance, he still seems to maintain a great head of hair.

I'll confess that I didn't go into Riverfest last year. It's right down the hill from Campus and you can get the gist of things just hanging out on Aldrich Field. I'm a firm believer in paying for live music and I can't say the Beach Boys disappointed. And as a closeted Full House fan, you know I was just livin the dream.

In Pursuit of the Fifth Season*

To make the most of the three-day weekend, I drove to Iowa to visit some friends from the Cross Country team. Karen '10 is doing an REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) in Cedar Rapids and Stutz '10 is measuring Echinacea up in Western Minnesota, but we all managed to make our way in for the Fourth.

Eastern Iowa isn’t flat. Yes, contrary to all my mental images of the most industrial state in the nation, the land rolls. The goal of the visit was to see some runners, run around somewhere new, and maybe make it over to Des Moines for the 80/35 Festival to see The Roots and Yonder Mountian String Band. Happy to report we were successful on all fronts.

Since we were able-bodied and in town, it seemed as though we ought to pitch in on the flood relief work. Cedar Rapids seems like it must be a vibrant community with a good sense of humor, but as you should have heard by now, the place is devastated.

We spent Saturday gutting a couple houses with crowbars and hammers. The second house wasn’t as badly damaged as the first and it was off the main street in a more residential area. The owner is a single woman and the water line is six feet high on the wall. Her wedding dress and a yearbook were the only signs leftover from her old life— needless to say, the city is eerie and the amount of work left to be done is overwhelming. The experience has me thinking back to two events from my first year at Beloit:

1. Matt Tedesco's FYI discussions about our responsibility to aid distant persons in the face of disaster. My seminar was entitled "Natural Disasters: Questions of Faith, Morality & Science" and we spent a lot of time discussing situations much like this one.

2. Down on the level of muscle memory, tearing down soft walls of sheet rock brought my mind back to the walls I cut and put up with the Beloit chapter of Habitat for Humanity during that spring semester two years ago.

Draw your own conclusions from that list. I'm too wiped out to fill in the blanks for you. But here, I'll tie this up: played cribbage, caught up, and returned to Beloit exhausted. And as for the fireworks? Not bad.

(*If you don't understand this title, it's not your fault. It just means you're not from Iowa. Click this link and check out the city motto: it reeks of Iowa and I'm not talking about cows.)

I'm a Winner!

A big theme for my life this summer is "change of plans." Last week, this meant foregoing LeAnn Rimes & Gnarls Barkley for MiniGolf & Go-Carts. I change my plans a lot, but this post isn't about indecisiveness or how stormy it was all weekend, because there is something more pressing to discuss. That's right, I won a game of Mini Golf for the first time ever. I putted two under par at Volcano Falls in Rockford, IL running on only the power of tuna fish and Triscuits. I know, I know. I'm massively impressive. We were initially a little concerned about getting everyone in considering the 58" minimum height requirement, but on our tip-toes, both Ashley and I made it over the bar.
Above: Hazel '11 starts off the round at the first hole. Behind her, JuliaBeloit, Bridget '08, and CaitlinBeloit.
After 18 holes, we settled back on the track for some automotive harassment by Ashley. She's the one in the pink car. If I had any nagging concerns about her abilities behind the wheel before putting her in a Go-Cart, last Thursday only served to confirmed them. Just goes to show you can take a girl out of Massachusetts, but you can never teach her how to drive responsibly.

Messages to take home: I'm a winner. Go-Carts are winners. Drive safe, Massachusites.

In the Spirit of the 2008 Presidential Campaign Season:

Here are more promises chalked on a blog along with some details that don't make a huge difference in your day-to-day life! (Can you tell the election coverage is starting to get to me?)

I'm pooped. Today was our first Summer Visit Day of three and though the June crowd turns out about half the number of visitors we will see in August, everyone in the office looks like they could use a nap. It's Friday afternoon, but the week is ending on an upbeat: Summer Visit Days are some of my favorite of the summer. Hundreds of people roaming campus, excited about Beloit, wanting to talk about what happens here... it's a nice change of pace from the weekday trickle of guests off I-90.

I mean it. I do. And I know I sound tired, but brace yourself, because here comes some optimism and the future tense:

Next Monday, I, JuliaBeloit, will put up some pictures of last nights Go-Cart/MiniGolfing adventure. I will post my review of Pixar's latest robot love story (WALL-E). And most importantly, I will call my mother. Now that's change I can believe in!

Thanks to all the prospies and their patient parents who dropped by campus today. We had a blast and hope you also enjoyed the mini-pastries!

Milk It

June is Dairy Month in America's Dairyland. The Walworth County Dairy Breakfast has been going on for 33 years. I've attended twice. The drive from Rock County up to Walworth is worth the gas money for the events at the fair grounds. Caitlin and I woke up early on Saturday morning and took a drive for our breakfast.

The main attraction is the food. Arriving at 8:30 AM, we missed the coffee cake, but got our $6 worth of pancakes, OJ, milk, string cheese, eggs, and sausage. (Above: Caitlin looking a little over-excited.)
Also featured: the petting zoo. It's a pretty basic array of ponies, sheep, roosters, and cows.

Favorite attraction: Cow Plop Bingo. (Chalk a grid in a pen. Keep feeding the Cow. Bet and wait.)

The main draw to this event is the company. I love watching the milk chugging contest and listening to the awards for dairy production in the county. It's nice to eat breakfast at a table full of families or to be a part of the crowd cheering on the Dairy Princess in her epic battle at the udder against the local State Representative.

I spent the rest of my day at the Farmer's Market back in Beloit, reading out in the sun. Went up to Kettle Moraine on Sunday morning to run trails with a few teammates. Barbequed in Waukesha and did an 11 PM grocery run to get set for the week. Spent Monday feeling wiped out, but I guess that's a sign of time well spent.

Good weather all weekend? Yeah, we milked it.

First Day of Summer: Friday Files

This week has been quiet. The Snapper's played away and the weather was erie and calm after last weeks light show. Today is the first day of summer and there's still not much to blog about. Here's what I'm waiting on:

• The Rock River to crest. The college is safe up here on the hill, but everyone down on the floodplane is still holding their breath.
• The Walworth County Dairy Breakfast tomorrow morning.
• Post-pancakes, catching the train into Chicago to visit with some Beloise and some Francais.
• SummerFest up in Milwaukee-- although I'm not headed up until next Thursday.
• Summer Visit Day #1-- next Friday.
• Tonight, when I will finish off my latest stab at homemade salad dressing over dinner.

Pictures captioned with exciting recountings of these events to come. Hope you're all on dry land!

Fast Forward

Six months later, I'm back in Admissions for the summer shift.

Let's bring the blog up to speed: France was lovely, thanks for asking. Yes, I'm psyched for autumn to arrive and seeing all the Beloise together again. Reintroduced myself to fast food and stick shift and drove 1300 miles last week to get here. Caught a little bit of Blues Fest in Chicago on my way through. That's about it.

At the risk of overgeneralizing, things are good. Sure, sure the Midwest is flooding, but my fridge is full of lettuce and the air conditioning is bliss. As my friends roll back through town on the road between semesters abroad and summer internships, I've had some great lunch dates, but between catching up and unpacking, I haven't got much in the way of blog-worthy news.

Ducking out (as it is a Friday afternoon), but leaving you with the promise of a beefier post next week. Cowabunga!

Off The Clock

It's Wednesday morning on the last day of classes before exams begin. After a week of procrastinating, last night saw some serious progress in packing up my room. Unfortunately, this inspiration hit me at 2am. So, I was running a minute or two late for anthro and there on the corner were the Head RAs, handing out donuts from the Old Fashion Bakery down the road. Angels, these kids!

I'll confess: I didn't take one. Donuts freak me out, but I did appreciate the sentiment. I sat through my first class on an empty stomach in favor of a bagel in the Java Joint (where I am now) and I can't say I regret my decision. I love a good bagel and OJ in the morning.

There was an ice storm in the midwest yesterday and all the sidewalks are nearly impossible to navigate. Still, the trees are beautiful and it's not too cold out. The Java Joint is warm and full and smells like the weak, horrible coffee they serve here. (Clearly, I have no real complaints today.) The fact that there are only a few class periods left seems to have mellowed everyone out, including myself. I am in an stress-free oasis. It's nice here.

This is my last blog of the semester, but also for the year. I'm off to Rennes, France for the spring. Next semester some new SOI will start up a blog of their own and fill it with Beloitian things far more scintillating than the details of the sidewalks and the color of the coffee. Thanks for reading along & good luck with all your college decisions this spring! I think it's time to sign off before I pretend to know anything about giving good advice.

Au revoir!
JuliaBeloit

I Made You Cookies! I Brought You Flowers!

Above: Sean Hershey holding flowers he swiped off the dining room table of the Spanish House at around 12:30 AM. He's clearly swept away in rapture with the spirit of the season. Or maybe just a little tuckered out.


Above: Anacelia Saenz and Ruby Jennings on cookie sheet tectonics. No two cookies may touch.

Last night after the library closed, my friend Danny invited a small crew over to the Spanish House for some much-needed stress relief and a cookie carnival. Admittedly, all cookies were baked from premade dough, but the decoration was all our own skill. My friend Anna has a famous stash of "Hanukkah Cookies" (read: shape of the Star of David, blue frosting, and appropriate sprinkles) she gets annually and shares liberally. There are a lot of cookies to be had on campus. My own family does a great job keeping baked goods flowing my way, especially during stressful times such as these, but sometimes it is necessary to strike out into the culinary world on one's own. Besides, half the fun of holidy cookies is getting frosting on your face.


Above: Anacelia and Ruby showing off their best work. I believe Anacelia has a duck and a star, while Ruby is displaying some perversion of St. Nick and a particularly lovely tree.

Below: Please forgive me for not posting any photos of myself in the wee hours of the morning. Instead, let me present you with my cookies. Yes, those are carrots mixed in with one particularly lovely red reindeer. He's got a little 'tude and a rather confuddling anatomy, but these things happen when you play with cookie cutters past midnight. Some of the shapes we had at our disposal were Easter-themed (hence, the crosses and the carrots and the umbrellas-- not pictured). Whatever the shapes of the cookies and however blue my hands are dyed this morning, it was a great study break to celebrate the passing of Hump Day.



Next week: finals and how Anacelia kicked Calc like a bad habit.

Stop Making Sense

Beloit College students love dance parties. I'm quite partial to them myself. There are some parties clubs hold annually that everyone looks forward to. This weekend, the Outdoor/Environmental Club held their Talking Heads Party. All Talking Heads, all night long.
It's the perfect theme: every song is danceable and it doesn't matter how familiar you are with the jams because the beat is loud and good and steady.

Clearly, I'm a fan.

I could fill this space with stresses or make some quip about the title of the reading assignment I'm currently wading through ("The Dead," James Joyce). I could upload some pictures of the delicious brie and multi-grain loaf I picked up at Cub today-- I promise I don't usually take pictures of my food. The lighting was just particularly lovely on the West side of Porter Hall this afternoon. Anyway, I won't do that. The pictures aren't readily here in Admissions and the stresses are just fine in their place, listed as assignments in my day planner. Besides, if you're reading this with the Common App open on another window of your browser, chances are you have quite a long list of your own to mull over. Good luck with that. I recommend dark chocolate.

Welcome to December! There's not much light, but at least there's good music.

P.S. In breaking out my winter jacket this weekend, I made a startling discovery: it has pockets. It would seem that my brown peacoat is a little too classy for me. The manufacturer tacked the pockets shut, so they seemed to be faux. Just part of the seams on the front. Just another reason my cell phone is always falling out of the back pocket of my jeans. I am in the habit of hooking my thumbs into the small hole that was exposed, but finally broke apart the stitch to claim full function of my coat. It's like a whole new garment.

Thought I would share in the interest of self-exposure. Ho-hum. Dark chocolate, anyone?

P.P.S. Please forgive this obnoxious, crunched format. Blogger is giving me 'tude.

It's Colder

Low and behold! Five-and-a-half hours north of Beloit, Wisconsin, Minneapolis/St. Paul are dusted in snow. I didn't bring my winter coat on my big Thanksgiving adventure because I don't learn from my mistakes (see: contents of my suitcase over Thanksgiving Break last year). It's colder farther north. It's always colder. This is a rule I learned this weekend.

I don't get a lot of chances to get up to the twin cities because rides headed that way are on the scarce side, but one of my dad's sisters does live up in that neck of the woods, so I take the opportunities when they drive down College Street. I spent Turkey Day baking a pumpkin pie with my cousins up in Minnetonka, Minnesota. They were a total blast. I don't spend a lot of time around 6, 4, and 2-year-olds these days, but they were super. I even got to meet new baby Caroline! I must confess that no pictures were taken the whole holiday, so I've got no proof of how cute these kiddos are except my solid gold word: they're adorable and blond and look entirely like the side of their family that I have nothing (genetically speaking) to do with.

I do, however, have evidence of the day I spent with my Beloit friends at the Walker in Minneapolis. We went to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit and came out overwhelmed and thoroughly educated in her life and work. Naturally, this warranted a group picture. We were mere yards from the Sculpture Garden, home of the Cherry-Spoon-Bridge-Landmark Thing (pictured above) that every visitor in the world takes their photo with (see Quinn's latest post, where she unknowingly proves my point). So, we faced the cherry and had someone else's mom take our photo.

Above L to R and mostly very far from home: JuliaBeloit, Danny Zipse (Portland, OR), Anna Noyes (Sorrento, ME), Sean Hershey (St. Paul, MN), and Anacelia Saenz (Austin, TX)

No, Anna's sweater wasn't a planned promo. Yes, we were frozen by the time this photo was taken. In any weather, it was a great diversion and now my nose is pressed flat against the grindstone. I've got three weeks to pass all my classes, pack all my earthly possessions, get a visa for France, and get on a plane to Vermont.

Layer up. The pond in the Sculpture Garden is frozen and so is my nose. A hat might not be a bad idea either...

The Use & Abuse of Caffeine

I'm not actually abusing coffee, but the beverage does seem to aid a bit with the waking hours this gray time of year. I'm getting in some of the best naps of my life, but that's not really what I'm here for. So, I've been search for antidotes to November. Here's what I've got to tide me over until the snow flies:

• My big sister came to visit from Rhode Island. Hanging out and scarfing nachos is better with family.


• Knowing that I'm taking off for another Thanksgiving in the Twin Cities on Wednesday afternoon.


• Those cookies mom sent last week. (No, thank you Glad-Press-&-Seal!)


• Running. Walking. Biking. Breathing cool air outside of my admittedly stuffy dorm room. I love my single in Porter, but I'm already going through lotion like water. Also, dodging the geese down by the Rock River. Those birds are vicious.


• Virginia Woolf. No, just kidding. However, throwing myself into work isn't so bad once I get the pages turning.


• Flight of the Conchords. It's a duo and an HBO show and the best way to understand is to YouTube these seriously funny guys or better yet, click this link to my favorite jam.


• Good company. Whether I'm sneaking off from the library to grab a snack at Taco Bell or walking out Colley Road to gawk around the horse farms, my friends are keeping me out and about and almost entirely off of c-c-caffeine. Except right now, when I am sitting in Admissions sipping on the vanilla frapp I picked up when I took my sister out to the bus stop. Little do they know...

I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving. Start loosening your belts kiddos. There's pie and potatoes and even the vegetarians are planning on overeating this year...

The Woman With All The Answers

(There are no pictures to accompany this post, but it took me a while to articulate my thoughts. Please bear with me, although I acknowledge this is a long one.)

Wednesday was International Symposium Day. I would bother to explain why I got up at 7AM on a day when classes were canceled to attend a bunch of presentations in windowless rooms. But Symposium Days are an important part of Beloit. That may seem overstated as they are just one day out of each semester, but I sat through six consecutive symposiums today that touched upon the role of the AIDs pandemic in various African nations. I went to one talk on shadowing a Peace Corps worker in El Salvador and one on organic farming in Germany. None of these students had an easy time going abroad, but what my friends learned enriches our entire campus. Each of these students comes back with an understanding with depth and color that you can't get from in any classroom. That’s the practical reason we bother with Symposium Days. Plus, sharing is fun.

And now I move on to the inspiration for the hyperbolic title of this post: Carol Bellamy. Carol Bellamy is a big deal. Click the link. Read up. She’s got a mighty impressive résumée. Ms. Bellamy attended several of the symposiumsI sat in on today, spoke with our Model UN club, and gave an open lecture on the need for Global Citizens to round out her visit to campus.

She's the kind of speaker who makes you want to change your course of study. I'm not saying I'm about to hop over to the Registrar's Office and change my major to International Relations. At very least, she made me certain that I will go abroad twice. I've been waffling. I've been reconsidering choosing France (as it is a stable, developed nation)-- and she touched upon this as well. Ms. Bellamy cited statistics about study abroad on the global level. In the US-- less than 1% of students (approx. 200,000 annually) go abroad during their undergraduate experience. I'm proud to say just under half of Beloit students study abroad before they graduate, contributing a couple hundred to that annual stat. Let's face it: the NY Times article I linked above runs along many of the same lines Ms. Bellamy touched upon and states them more artfully than I might. To follow this train of thought, click away.

If all the prospective students could have heard her, you would understand why I live on the border of southern Wisconsin over a thousand miles from my family and friends. It would make sense that I want to double major is French and any field that will land me solid communication skills.

In a way, I came here to leave this place. I am comfortable here. I love my friends and my classes and my Beloit Life (shameless, I know). I could have loved my undergraduate experience at many colleges if I chose to, but I remember reaching a point in my college search where I realized that coming to Beloit would push me and provide the motivation to become the a "global citizen." Studying in France is outside my comfort zone and a sizeable hop over the language barrier. Studying in Senegal would be out of my league entirely. So, I'm going to do it. I'm doing it because Senegal is not a country that has the same level of respect for women and their health as the US. I'm doing it because it's likely that I won’t have many more opportunities to choose to live in this kind of transitional climate again in my life. Getting perspective is what we're here for.

I was leaving Pearson's Hall on my way to Middle College for work last night and John Burris, the president of our college, held the door for me on my way out. It was all I could do not to turn to tell him how glad I was to have heard that speech on my way over to talk to prospective students. Some nights, loving this place makes this job a piece of pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting (alla Commons).

In conclusion, when it’s windy on the quad or your visa application makes you want to turn on some Sufjan Stevens and crawl under the covers for a week, a Beloit student has to keep a wary eye on the Student Activities Board in case some amazing person might be on their way through Beloit who will remind you why you ever left home.

Puts Hair On Your Chest

Oatmeal, that is. And quite effectively (or so I'm told). It's also my breakfast-of-choice for the month of November.

My weekend was productive. I like that in a weekend. There was coffee and letter writing and great running weather. It has also been great eating weather. It's chilly enough that have to bundle up, but you arrive at Commons wanting warm grub. On the way out, you can bask in the warmth of your own digestion all the way down the Chapin steps before you noticethe chill. Across the office, Californian Quinn is oozing joy that we made it through October without any of the white, fluffy stuff as it did last October. Snow-shmoe. I say it's pleasant.

Speaking of pleasant things, I did some serious eating tonight. The Cross Country team is traditionally hosted by Coach Dave's family at their lovely home in Pecatonica, IL each season for a little something we call "The Breakfast of Insanity." Sunday night dinner is always a challenge with the dining hall closed (as you read every week on the blogs), but today my main challenge was leaving enough room to, erm, fully appreciate the meal. I dined on stuffed blueberry french toast, spinach quiche, hash browns, pumpkin bread, and homemade applesauce. Those of us who were more carnivorously inclined polished off the greater part of a pig in bacon. All of us left drowsy. Thank you, Mrs. Eckburg.

With Thanksgiving looming on the horizon, everyone is scrambling to make plans and looking forward to seeing family and friends at home. It's not a bad study plan, but I'm taking a new tact this year: I'm studying my way towards mashed potatoes. Starch is an excellent and seasonally appropriate motivator. Try it out. Add garlic. Add butter. It's delicious.

Oh, Judy! You Shouldn't Have...

Look! A flamingo, an 80's exercise diva, Old Judy, Young Judy, a pirate, Amanda's Aunt Susan (at Christmas), a lion, Athena, and Avril Lavigne (before she loved life):



Halloween at Beloit is well-done holiday. Everyone dresses up. Everyone. Whether you're out at a dance party at one of the special interest houses or sitting up in a single in the '64 Halls watching free episodes of Grey's Anatomy online, you're in costume.

Last year, I had a night class until 11pm (self-inflicted, although not the worst course decision I've ever made) and thus missed Halloween entirely. I recall putting on my skiing uniform from high school-- my back-up plan was to be a ski bum last year-- and hopping right into bed. I was the "Grey's Anatomy Kid" described above and besides, there are worse things to sleep in. The sob story here is how I missed a golden opportunity to cut a rug. This year as repentence, I was a young version of Judy Garland.

In group shot at the top of this post, Sean Hershey '10 is the man in drag portraying an older, strung-out version of Judy Garland. To his left, I go to play a younger, sunnier version of Ms. Garland. When I met Sean last year, we quickly discovered that we had both been deeply moved by the Judy Garland biopic "Me and My Shadows." When Halloween came around this year, it seemed like an obvious costume choice-- and who else on campus would think of it!? It was unanimously agreed upon that Mr. Hershey looked better in his dress than myself. To my own credit, Judy was always more about the music than the demanding expectations the studios required of her physical appearance.

In or out of your own shadows, I hope you all had marvelous Halloween!

The Rest of Illinois

There's an image of Chicago's skyline and vast cornfields on the stateline between Beloit, WI and South Beloit, IL that has always left me a little befuddled. (I found the above on Google Images-- same deal although not from our particular stateline-- although the dapper gentleman posting at the bottom is a nice touch for the blog.) When my friends from the midwest told me that Chicago and corn is all there is to Illinois and that this state-produced rendering was spot on, I was skeptical. They weren't kidding.

On Friday morning, the cross country team took off from Jacksonville, IL for the NCAA Division 3 Conference. Two long days later, I feel like I've been on a second fall break. While we fared fourth in the standings (the men tied for sixth), the trip was a nice break from the weight of the brick wall that fell on me upon my return.The workload around here is really warping up and for those of us who won't be going to Regionals, our brains are back on the library shelves. Focusing on Conference was a nice distraction from the stress of school, but with that past us, there was no dawdling at brunch this morning. On a more exciting front: down in Illinois, Allie Hood '08 took my camera around while cheering on the guys. She got some great shots, but as with most pictures from races, everyone either appears to be in extreme pain (fair enough) or half out of their uniform (again, fair enough). In the name of dignity, I think we're all comfortable sharing these few shots:

Above: Men at the starting line-- they're the guys in blue and white with the poorly dyed hair.

Women's Top 20: In the back row on the far right you can find Shelley Quade '09. Amanda Hammermeister '08 is the fourth in from the left on the bottom row.

Left to Right: Heather "Rocks Well" Rockwell '08, Karen Baumann '10 and JuliaBeloit '10 post-race on Saturday morning.

It has been a great season and I'm leaving it feeling healthy and pale as only those who live this far north of the Mason-Dixon Line can. I'm nervous about fitting running into life abroad, but I'm sure going to miss having 20 other girls elbowing me around the Turtle Creek Flood Plane. I'd better go work on my visa application, or I will get to run with the pack for track season after all!

How I Didn't Get Sick Over Fall Break:

I didn't breathe around my sister. Not once. My week away from Beloit consisted of a couple nights with my older sister at her college in Rhode Island, a lot of running on my old favorite trails, and much pie baking (followed by cribbage & topped off with vanilla ice cream).

Breaks are a nice reminder of who/what you've got where, and why you bother travelling back and forth. It's pretty simple. However, in my most recent assessment of priorities, I find Beloit lacks three essentials for me:

1. Mountains. Every time I take the VanGalder back through the flatlands, I'm reminded that the runway at O'Hare isn't the only open space available for landing a plane. This part of the country is beautiful, but if you're concerned with maintaining your naturally-toned mountain-dweller physique, I recommend frequent trips to the StairMasters in the Athletic Center.

2. My family. My homies. Ben, Jerry, & (former) Governor Howard Dean. My people are important to me, but they don't live anywhere near here. Below, my friend Ruthie is posing by a miniture version of the VT state captiol. She's not in Beloit... yet. But I would bet five pounds of the freshest cheese curds at the Beloit Farmer's Market that she'll visit before I graduate from this popsicle stand.


3. And then there's the creemee issue. There is a hot regional debate you may or may not be aware of and it is based out of New England. Creemees are delicious and only found in my homeland. Ruthie and I are both pictured enjoying maple creemees at my favorite local farm. You can't get creemees in New Hampshire. Those kiddos call it "soft serve." I doubt I will find creemees in France at all. There are no creemees in Beloit and that is my final complaint. We've got a fro yo machine in Commons and a DQ down the road, but Wisconsin (and the rest of the world) will never quite taste like home.