soon.

Finals finished: 1.5 / 3
Pages written: 21
Pages total left: 16
Pages in Spanish left: 10
Days until my birthday: 2.5

This morning I woke up with a sore throat, and last night I found my first gray hair.

aslkdfjalkkksdlfjaksfjlaaaaaaaaaaaa

143 milligrams of caffeine

One out of three finals finished and I am hopped up on caffeine. Or should I say... AMP-ED UP. That's right, I'm practically mainlining Amp energy drinks.
For some reason there's a warning on the can which reads:

This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Good to know.

incidentally, the number 9 in binary is 1001.

Trivia and margaritas were a winning combination last night. Though our team (Henry, Sam, Andrew, Kate and me) didn't place, we did do pretty well. My proudest moment: correctly guessing that the lacrimal gland is in the eye, purely based on knowing the word "lachrymose". YEAH.

Our team name was "The Golden Monkeys", what we thought was a throwback to the best show of all time, LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE. Unfortunately, after wikipediaing it today, turns out that the Monkeys were green, and there were no Golden anythings. At least we didn't go with the Purple Parrots. Those guys always lost.

Teams assembled in the 'Sco.

"Think! None of the rest of us know binary!"

A very weird blurry picture of Kate.

Sam and Kate.

Henry... dancing?

Margarita night at Agave.

Fooood.

We play Apples to Apples a lot.

Because it's hilarious.

And sometimes confusing.

Moon.

Somehow Henry always ends up back at our house.


[ADDENDUM]
Just found this on youtube (I do work sometimes too, I swear!). I totally forgot how that guy would always come down from the ceiling and stuff. That must have gotten old for him real fast.

BASSOONERY

Nothing relieves finals stress and simultaneously boosts Christmas cheer like Bassoon Christmas. Bassoon Christmas is the best (the only?) Oberlin holiday tradition — every year about a dozen bassoon majors put on a little wacky concert in the lounge of the Con, and about a hundred people pack into the space to hear them perform all kinds of silly carols, sometimes with the aid of kazoos. Today there was free pizza and cookies to accompany the lovely music, so I was totally there. When the bassoonists take requests, there are often Connie jokes that I don't understand. There is usually some singing along. And there is always O Berlino.

Yes, that's right. Oberlin has its own Christmas carol, and it is sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum. Everyone knows this (or learns this) and everyone sings along and it's very heartwarming. The words go like this:

O berlino O berlino
Berlin o ber lin oberlin
Oberlino berlin o ber
Lin oberlin oberlino
O berlino O berlino
Berlin o ber lin oberlin

Creative, I know.

I've been trying to do at least one fun thing every day, to break up the monotony of finals. The other night it was Andrew's concert:
They are... completely insane.

Tonight it's probably going to be TRIVIA NIGHT, if we can get a team together. "Cash prizes" was really the draw for this one. And of course, margarita night.

Oh man, that's potentially three fun things for today, if I'm counting Bassoon Christmas, which I am. I better get to work!

This is me procratinating.

And this is me in a womb chair in the library. Even though there is still one more week of classes left before reading period and finals, everything about life at Oberlin has become a little bit more tense and a little bit less happy. The campus reeks of procrastination, denial, and stress cigarettes. Just now, I heard the girl in the womb chair next to me crying. She calmed down after a little while, only to get worked up again while frantically flipping pages. Yep, that's finals for you. I haven't devolved into tears (yet), but I have resorted to carrying fruit around with me and giving in to occasional 20-minute power naps, since I've stopped eating and sleeping regularly.

Right now my biggest problem is that I haven't really been working on honors, and I have a meeting with my advisor in... 1.5 hours... and I have not a whole lot to show him. BUT, after honors is placed on the back burner after this week, I can focus my three 12-page final papers. Next week I need to write an average of 4 pages a day, and then finals week just 2 pages a day, and then I will be a-okay... I hope. Who needs a drink.

ELECTION DAY 2008

Well, I can't think of a better place to be for the election than Oberlin. Here are some highlights:


Watching the returns at the boys' house. This was right when they were about to announce Ohio...


... and this was right after they announced Ohio!


Pandemonium ensues!


We celebrated Ohio going to Obama with a bottle of champagne.


On a quest for extended cable, we went to Wilder to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. From this TV lounge upstairs, at 11 pm we heard the roar of the crowd already gathered in the 'Sco downstairs...


... and we went down to find a giant Motown dance party.


Relief and happiness.


Allypants.


The huge crowd gathered at the gazebo at the impromptu party in Tappan Square. Possibly the biggest party Oberlin has ever seen.

TRAGEDY STRIKES

So last week I was in a semi-tragic bike accident. By "semi" I mean that nothing (including the other guy and both our bikes) was seriously injured... except my face. A word to the wise: never break a fall with your face/head region. Use your hands, that's what they're for. So I got x-rays and cat-scan and everything was fine. But I did look a hot mess.

Anyway, this is what I looked like after it happened:

This is what I looked like yesterday:

And this is what I look like today:
TERRORIST SARAH. No, I've been using a different scarf to protect my wounds from the sun. But I still look like I'm in purdah.

Fortunately for me, my face got torn up before Halloween, so I was able to hand out candy while looking like the Phantom without his mask on. Many many youngsters came trick or treating at our house, which was very nice and fun. I think most were drawn to us because of our amazing decorations:

Before the accident, Kate and I got a little overzealous with photobooth, and these things happened:

And for good measure, photobooth also takes videos, and here is one of them: