A real chill Saturday

Today has been what Saturdays are supposed to be like. I woke up to go give tours for the admissions office for our campus visit day (I was late of course because I slept in!) The tours went well, except the weather has started turning cold and there were a few snow flurries. I decided that after doing my tour I didn’t really need to be outside much more.
After a quick lunch I met my friend Amy at the racquet center to play a game of squash followed by some tennis (in our indoor tennis facility). My favorite part of the day, however, was sitting in the sauna after working out. I love sitting in the hot sauna and sweating on a cold day and try to do it quite often in the winter.
Following my time at the racquet center I came back to my room and took a quick nap, my other favorite Saturday past time. Now I’m just sitting in my room, drinking some tea and watching the Iowa game. I think I’ll order pizza and watch football all day! Life is full of simple pleasures and this chilly Saturday is full of them.

An Air of Presidency: My First Encounter With Barack Obama

[I wrote this the other day to try to put some thoughts on paper. I don't know how applicable it is to Coe except that maybe I was on Coe's Washington DC term during the time I write about. p.s. my biases are out now, I'm an Obama supporter]

With the election only days away I’ve been contemplating the idea of President Barack Obama quite a bit. Every time I see him on TV or read something about him, I’m always reminded of the very first encounter with the senator.
I was an intern for Senator Tom Harkin in the spring of 2007. As an intern, one of my responsibilities was sitting in the front lobby to answer phones and greet guests. We got Senator Harkin’s schedule every morning so we knew which visitors to expect and where he would be all day. Much to my surprise, as I was looking through the schedule one morning I saw an appointment with the freshman, Senator Obama.
A preface to this story is that I had just fallen in love with Barack. I watched his 2004 convention speech and was transfixed. On my drive to Washington that winter I had read his book, and had been carrying it with me all around D.C. I was amazed by his oratory and when reading his political philosophy I often caught myself nodding my head in agreement. I had already joined the Facebook group attempting to draft him for president and DC was just starting to stir with the same suggestions.
After waiting all day and most of the afternoon, the appointment time was finally approaching. A few Iowans were sitting in the lobby waiting to meet with some senior staffers, and were just milling around talking about the popcorn we served in our office, as Iowans often do. In mid conversation about DeWitt with one of the guests, the door opened and in walked a stately-looking Senator Obama. He walked with a certain swagger that I can’t quite explain. A swagger seemed to say “I’m confident in myself, but I’m no better than you.” As he walked in he flashed his trademark smile and introduced himself to no one in particular, but seemingly everyone at the same time. “Hello, I’m Barack Obama.” Everyone in the room knew who he was, but he didn’t take this for granted and humbled himself to introductions and pleasantries with the Iowans. He fit right in with talk about popcorn.
About fifteen minutes after the scheduled meeting time the senators finally got to their meeting. Obama was a young rock star in the senate, but was meeting with Harkin to pay his respects to his elders and just get to know his way around the block. The fame hadn’t gone to his head, he knew his place and was seeking to build relationships and learn from the veterans of the Senate. When the meeting ended, again about 30 minutes behind schedule, Senator Obama’s staffers we hustling him out of the office to meet another scheduling commitment. Barack wasn’t concerned, however. He wasn’t caught up in the hustle of day-to-day Washington. He was more concerned in making sure he soaked up the advice of Harkin and took time to greet everyone on the way out (and yes, sign my book). He assured his staff that the schedule wasn’t that big of a deal and they would be alright. I had no idea what the scheduling conflict was, but his assuring tone and confidence made me believe him. Eventually he left the office, flashing the same smile, and walking with the same presidential air.
I’m not voting for Barack because he’s a good speaker or looks presidential. I’m voting for him because I agree with his policies and worldview. It is very reassuring, however, to have experienced first hand a calm and collected candidate – a man that is confident in himself, but seeks the advice of others. A man who flies so high, but does so with both feet on the ground. A man who understands the importance of other’s opinions, but can reassure others around him that he’s made the right decision. A man who gets respect without demanding it. A man who’s confident demeanor is reassuring in a time of uncertainty. And a man who’ll stroll into a room full of Iowans and be able to talk about popcorn.

An interesting week for the social scientist

So while I do have a lot of fun at Coe as you can see from my past posts, I do occasionally engage in some academics. As a political science major and economics minor, I like to consider myself a social scientist (studying how people interact with each other in different aspects). While the last few weeks have been interesting in this field, this week has been the best so far.

Last night I went to a student-led discussion on race. It was moderated, but mostly just students talking about how they felt about race. I learned a lot of interesting things from my fellow students, and we discussed in detail and debated things like Affirmative Action and White Privilege.

Right after the race discussion I hustled over to meet the Political Science Club to watch the debate. We’ve watched all the debates together and last night we ordered food from Aladdin’s, an awesome Middle Eastern restaurant in town. After the debate I sat around and ate pita bread and discussed education policy with my friend who is doing her semester of student teaching.

Right after I post this I’m headed to an economic forum. Two of my economics professors and a guest lecturer (one of our trustees) are going to be discussing the current state of our economy and most importantly, how the $700 Billion bailout is going to work (or not work). I’ve been reading a lot and trying to keep up with this but it will be nice to have a couple economists explain it to me in the way a professor knows how.

Ladies and Gentlemen... The Capitol Steps

If you're a long time blog-reader of mine you've probably picked up on the idea that I'm fairly interested in politics. If not I'll just lay it out there for you: I'm a political science major, president of the Coe Democrats and spent my summer working on campaigns.
My sophomore year this interest led me to an internship in the U.S. Senate in Washington DC through Coe's Washington Term. This is a whole other blog in itself, but the one thing that is relevant is the evening I went to a showing of the Capitol Steps. The Capitol Steps is a group of former Congress staffers who got fed up with the day-to-day business of Washington and quit their jobs to form a satirical group to mock the very establishment they worked for. Needless to say, the fusion of political humor and satirical versions of Sir Mixalot (I like tax cuts and I cannot lie) had me hooked.
After loving this show in DC I knew I had to find a way to share it with everybody at Coe. It took two years and cooperation among four or five different student groups to muster up the support, planning and most importantly, funding. Finally, last Tuesday at 8:00 in our Sinclair Auditorium the Capitol Steps took the stage at Coe College. I got to (or had to) introduce the group and it was probably the most nervous I've been about something in a long time. There were over a thousand people in the house and I had to go out and read some corny jokes and thank all the sponsors. I managed to get through it without fumbling or tripping on the stairs, so I think I'm going to consider my part a success (or at least not a failure!)
And probably the best part was that my parents came and took me out for dinner afterwards... food again!

Homecoming recap

So my final Homecoming has come and gone, and while I'm a little sad thinking that I won't be able to do it again, I had a great time last week. We won the volleyball tournament and the girls won the powderpuff football game... of course the seniors always do!

The end of the week consisted of the football game and the dance. The football game was exciting to watch (I used to play on the football team so I think I have an even greater interest ) but we ended up losing when Loras ran a controversial last play with no time left on the clock. Even though the game ending kind of sucked, I had a good time tailgating with my friends and playing some bags. A couple of my friends who graduated last year came to visit and a few of my friends' parents brought grills and food, which always makes me happy!

And what is a homecoming without a dance? I didn't have a date to the dance this year (I never really have I guess). Every year I've just hung out with my friends before the dance and we all just go together. This year we were being cheap and decided not to go out to eat or do anything big and hung out at a friend's house and ordered some Papa John's. After we devoured the Papa Johns in our ties and dresses, (classy, I know) we decided it'd be fun to live in the past and take some "prom-esque" pictures. This is my friend Danielle and I just before we left for the dance. Everybody at Coe then jumps on a shuttle bus that takes us to the Crowne Plaza hotel, where the dance takes place. I had a great time and at the end of the night my shirt turned from light peach to a dark orange.

(Thanks to Alec Herr of Coe's newspaper, The Cosmos, for the pic of volleyball and Danielle and Lauren for the other two.)

Homecoming

One thing that i think is pretty cool at Coe is our traditional Homecoming week. Sure, it may sound corny and juvenile to get excited about Homecoming when I'm a senior in college, but I don't care, I'm guilty.
Yes, we have a dance and a football game, but my favorite traditions at Coe are neither of these. I absolutely love the men's volleyball and women's powder puff football games. After watching sand volleyball in the Olympics all summer, I was pumped for our first game this fall. I showed up rocking my beach wear (tank top and visor) and some of my friends busted out some old spandex. Our preliminary game was against the freshman class. Needless to say, we may have taken them a little lightly and lost the first game, but got it together and won the next two to move on to the championship (to be played tonight).
While I do love playing volleyball, its not nearly as fun as watching girls play football. My class played last night (against the freshmen, of course). They had been practicing all week and handled them very easily. Even though it is flag football, every year the senior class is notorious for making a few tackles and pulling some hair, which brings me back to the game every year.
Tonight brings the championship games in both volleyball and football, tomorrow is "follies," where different groups will perform various skits and Friday is our bonfire, where we find out who is king.
I'm going to try to take some pictures this week (I hate taking pictures) and post them for you later.

Welcome back!

Welcome back to me! I'm back into the swing of things at Coe, and welcome back to you if you are a blog-reader. My summer wasn't really a classic relaxing summer, so I'm pretty excited to be back at school.

My summer, although not the most fun, kept me really busy. I managed to land an internship with a law firm here in Cedar Rapids (Hallberg, Jacobsen, Johnson and Viner for you locals). I worked every morning doing the bidding of the four criminal defense lawyers. I got to watch court cases, research case law, write letters, observe client interviews and make a lot of coffee. Working at a law firm and seeing the workings of the day-to-day business of the courthouse gave me a lot of insight into the legal field... and perhaps someday maybe a career.

After my mornings at the law firm, I got a couple hour break to eat lunch and work out before it was off to my real job - canvassing for the Iowa Democratic Party. Canvassing basically consists of walking around for four hours every night knocking on potential voter's doors and talking with them about the upcoming election. It wasn't glamorous, and sometimes very humid or rainy, but I believed in the work I was doing, and am glad I got the opportunity.

I had some fun too. I managed to play a little golf, got hired to umpire a few baseball games, rode my bicycle, cheered the Cubs on to victory at Wrigley Field and spent the Fourth of July in Guttenburg, IA on the Mississippi River.

I have decided not to work this semester. I figured I worked enough this summer (and hopefully saved enough money) to just relax and enjoy my senior year. I fully intend to live it up and love every minute of my last year at Coe. I don't think I'll have any problems in this department, and I'll keep you updated.