The UW Chronicles: Volume VI: The Taste of Sweet Success and Conscious Caffeine

Two very meaningful things happened this morning, and it’s not even 11:00 yet. Firstly, I had my Astronomy 101 quiz section, and in that quiz section I received my score for my first mid-term. I got a 3.8, which is really good! And I was happy. I think I know exactly what questions I got wrong, so I’m feeling pretty good about the exam right now.

Secondly, I had my first cup of Seattle’s finest attraction, coffee. I had my mug (what am I talking about?! I ALWAYS have my mug, it’s glued to my hand) and they were giving away steaming mugs full of organic, shade-grown, fair-trade coffee at the Students for Fair Trade booth in the middle of the Quad. So I said, fill ‘er up, and while I’m at it I’ll sign a letter saying that Brazil should stop exploiting coffee farmers and laborers, and reject Free Trade policy and begin to trade fairly.

And you know what? I LIKED it. All of my cluster mates were like, uh oh, Erinn likes coffee. Of course, I’m a light weight, I put like a cup of vanilla soy milk in it and two packets of sugar. Speaking of sugar and food and such, I haven’t gained the freshman fifteen, in fact I’ve stayed at my previous weight, I work out just about every day now and we students are like cattle, we walk EVERYWHERE (in herds.) And there are stairs and hills everywhere, and we have to dodge squirrels which randomly propel themselves out of trashcans and scurry across the sidewalk. They’re quite frightening.

One time I caught a squirrel sitting at the base of a tree in front of McMahon chewing off the bits of meat from a hamburger wrapper. He looked at me with one beady eye, and seemed to say, “What are you lookin at you damn herbivore?!” And I was like, OK, and backed slowly away as he went on chewing menacingly and staring at me with that one big black eye. Carnivorous squirrels…scary.

Anyway, the leaves are changing, and I was going to take some photos because they’re quite pretty, but there was a huge windstorm the other day and most of the trees are looking very self-conscious, being that they are naked. I don’t think they would appreciate me taking a picture of them. Supposedly, it snows a bit in the winter here, and campus is just gorgeous. I definitely take a picture of that for all of you.

Well, I’m listening to this song by folk goddess Ani DiFranco called Little Plastic Castle, and it compares us humans to goldfish with short memories and one of the lyrics is: “…the little plastic castle is a surprise every time…” And that’s how I feel, I feel as though Seattle is a big fishbowl and that the UW is the little plastic castle that is a surprise every time. I just can’t get over certain things, like the Space Needle lit up at night and how it feels like it’s in a snow globe in some tourist trap, it’s just so beautiful. And when you can see Mount Rainier it is just amazing. The sunset lights up the snow on the peak and it glows orange, and during the day it’s a stark white against the gray of the sky. The buildings are also amazing, I mean, where else can you study in a reading room that looks like Hogwarts from Harry Potter? Brennan Figari thought the UW looked “fancy.” Yes, it is beautiful when the crows lift off from the spires of Suzzallo Library at around 6:00 pm every night in great flocks and the sky is speckled with moving black shapes against the gray.

Well, enough of that, I must go take a shower now and go get my laundry. I love you all and miss you.