Jumpin' on the band wagon

I know that there has been a lot of enthusiasm for Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, but I must join in the cheers. This book has been exciting in several ways, and I've only read the first 60 pages. First, I learned about Cornell's Borrow Direct system (all the Ivy League libraries are connected, and if a book isn't available here, I can request it from the other schools and it'll be there in 2-3 days!), which became useful for coursework just 2 days later. Plus, it's the first book on my reading list for the semester. I have a list of 12 books and counting, that I've decided I'm going to just use the minutes I used to spend sitting and waiting, reading! This morning, while I waited for the bus (as 2 successive buses didn't show), I read. It helped keep me patient, and thoroughly enjoying my morning. In addition to these little excitements, the book is incredible. It's amazing how much commonality I can find between her experiences and my own. Over the past week, in several different instances, I found that different phenomena I've experienced have been very neatly put into words. Feelings, senses, etc. that I always knew about, now phrased in a simple, concise manner. It's pretty neat :).

Classes have begun, there seem to be more people around than the beginning of last year. There are definitely more people on the buses, which I don't care for so much. I like the group of first years that I'm taking courses with. We had our first analysis party this evening. Now that was an interesting experience. But, one problem set down, 13 to go ;). I have varying feelings about mathematics these days. If I can immerse myself in it, it's much easier to handle for some reason. Plus, I learned some very useful tools this summer, tools that didn't really seem quite so important as I learned them. But today, I got to teach someone something. Well, in fact I got to teach two different people two different things! I got such excitement from such simple lessons.

This past weekend I spent mostly at Green Acre Baha'i School in Eliot, ME. There, I met several people whom I had not seen for a long time. Apparently, my eyes lit up when I talked about being an instructor or teaching at a community college. I found this interesting, didn't realize I had such a response. Plus I laughed so much. Mostly at myself, but it was still utterly enjoyable.

I've had funny flashbacks to my year of service recently, mostly because of the heat. This is the first time I've really had to live without A/C in the States. Both at Green Acre and here at my apartment, it's slightly cooler outside but incredibly humid. I find urges to curl up on the floor and sleep somewhere, simply because it's air conditioned! :) I remember curling up in the check-in room and taking a 10 minute nap during breakfast, or during the Fast, taking a nap on the GF carpets (GF does not equal gluten-free in this case). Honestly, taking a nap anywhere that there was floor space. Floor naps were way better than bed naps.

I've learned the ironies of "help lines" over the past couple of days. Like, when your cell phone stops working and there's a customer service phone number to call. Or when your internet isn't working, and they give you a website to go to. The worst is when both break at the same time ;). But fortunately, I persevered and drew on the resources and stored knowledge that I had, and all is well again.

And the last bit of good news about my return to Ithaca: Moe's is coming to Ithaca!!!!!!! Welcome to Moe's! (but boo for Ugly Naked Guys now being Unanimous Decisions.)