Crazy...

Life has been pretty crazy lately. Thanksgiving break was great, but when I came back Monday a tempest of activity awaited my return. First of all, this is the last week of classes, with finals starting next week. I've got a couple papers due, a couple end-of-the year tests and one project. So in case school wasn't enough to keep me busy I tacked a bunch of other stuff on.
-The Christmas Vespers Program: This Christmas tradition at Coe is a combination of readings, prayers, singing and all around Christmas joy. I had the honor of reading this year.
-Intermural Racquetball: I love racquetball. I love it so much that when it was announced and IM league was being played this fall I signed up for both singles and doubles. We're in the final couple days right now which means scrambling to finish all my games (I played 4 matches Tuesday afternoon!)
-Kohawk Basketball: The Kohawk men and women opened conference play last night at home. One of my friends and I are "the voice of the Kohawks," bringing the game to the world via the Kohawk Sports Network on the internet.
-Student Senate: Last Saturday we had out Budget and Finance Day. As the treasurer I oversaw the proceedings as we allocated over $140,000 to our clubs and organizations across campus. We had to discuss the budgets before the full Senate on Wednesday night.
-Job Search Workshop: Our Career Services Office held a workshop designed to give graduating seniors tips on how to find jobs. This was a pretty big reality check for me - I graduate in 6 months!
-Sherry Wott- Sherry is a diversity speaker coming to campus speaking on how to have difficult dialogue. Its sponsored by the Residence Life Department and sounds like an interesting talk.
-The Office: Now this probably doesn't sound as important as the others, but it definitely is. Every Thursday night for the whole semester anywhere from 5 to 20 fill my apartment for our weekly ritual of watching Steve Carell create awkward moments and drop unforgettable one-liners.

Oh yeah, and I write this blog which has already taken enough of my time for today... I've got a paper to write!

Electra- fying

Each year Coe's theater department puts on three major productions. Right now they are performing their second show of the year, Electra. The play follows the life of Electra, the main character, as she agonizes over the death of her father, who was a great warrior. Adding a twist to the plot is that Electra's father's murder is her own mother. This pain of losing her father at the hands of her mother drives Electra nearly mad.
I had heard of this play written by Sophocles and was pretty excited to see it put on by my peers. The main character, Electra, was played by my friend Addie. Seeing Addie transform from herself, a happy friendly person to the deranged Electra was amazing. The amount of emotion pouring off the stage from all the actors was unrivaled by any show I have seen at Coe. Adding to the skill of the actors was a first class set that included rain, blood and knives.
For one of my classes my first year at Coe I had to go to a play. I was reluctant to go at first but after seeing the ability of Coe's performers and the professionalism of the production I haven't missed a show yet, and it seems like they just keep getting better.

Fall Break

So every year Coe has a Fall Break midway through the first semester. As this semester is already drawing to a close, our Fall Break was obviously quite a while ago, but my camera has been broken so I have to rely on friends to get me pictures to put on this site. Well, that and the semester coming to an end generally overwhelms me with everything I have procrastinated on all semester!
Anyway, this year for fall break I went with two friends to Chicago for a weekend. My friend Mike is from Skokie, which is a suburb right next to Chicago, so we decided to use his house as a base. We left Cedar Rapids Friday afternoon and after a stop at my house in DeWitt it was off to Skokie!






We got into Skokie and ate a delicious meal of lasagna with Mike's family and watched some baseball before heading out to visit some of Mike's friends. We were pretty tired from the trip and went to bed early, as we had a big day planned.



Saturday morning we woke up and immediately called resturaunts in town to see which would have the Iowa football game on TV. Naturally, Buffalo Wild Wings, one of our favorite places, was where we ended up. After the game (they lost, of course) we got on a train and headed downtown to Chicago. We stopped and picked up my friend from home, Landon, who is now a student at Columbia and living in Chicago (that's Landon on the right). We just got off at a stop with no real plan or destination and wandered the streets for a while until we wound up at Millennium Park (with the giant metallic "bean"). While we were there Mike was enticed by a game of bags at the restaurant in the park, so just like we do every other weekend in Cedar Rapids, we ended up playing bags for a few hours, except it was under the Chicago skyline, which was pretty cool.
After our hours of bag playing we didn't feel like paying to eat at the trendy restaurant where we were playing bags so we stopped by Jimmy John's for a sandwich (while Amy escaped to do some quick Michigan Ave. shopping). We were then back on a train to meet some other friends for a drink in a different part of town. We then jumped from place to place until we realized it was 3:00 a.m. and we should probably be heading back soon! The night ended with another train ride to Mike's house and a very welcoming night of sleep!


We got up the next day and made the trip back to Iowa feeling good about our little adventure from the ordinary!

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!