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May 30, 2005

something to fill up the space

all right, back by popular demand...or just regular demand...ok, fine, there was no demand at all but I feel like it. Anyway, I'm home sweet home once again, which has it's ups and downs. I enjoy seeing my family and pets again (Becca, you fall into the latter category) as well as all my old "stomping grounds" as Grandpa would say. However, I often find myself bored and greatly missing the friends I made in Ithaca. What makes it harder is that I have a couple really good friends who are there now and I'm extreamly jelous and am itching to hitch a ride with anyone I can find. But for now I guess I can sustain myself with talking on the phone and IM when possible.

So I'm sure my sister alreadly flogged this topic to death, but the VT City Marathon was yesterday, and again we had a gangle of friends and family running in it, A.K.A Anna's job was to run around and try and catch everybody on multiple spots on the course to encourage them on and take pictures. I always enjoy marathons (except at the end when there is the great possibility for puke-age). I love seeing my "city" fill up with people from all over and seeing some familiar faces in the croud. I managed to run into 2 former teachers from highschool as well as a few friends. As for the people running this year, here's how it laid out: My friend Monika came up from NY city to run and she came in with a impressive, but above her goal time of around 3:30 (she was aiming for 3:20 or under). Unfortunately we didn't get to hang out much, but I'm sure she was awful tired. Then there was my Dad, who came in over 4 hrs, but no big deal. My friend from NH also ran for the second year in a row and came in with a time of 4:09, and got her first blister! There's a couple I sometimes babysit for who came in with impressive times, Joe was ranked 14th with a 6:20 pace and Sue a little slower (but give her credit, she's had 2 kids, one just recently) with a 7:10 pace ranking her 64th overall. There's also some of my mom's employees and such, but I don't think i'll bore you with the details. Anyway, I have grand hopes to run one day, but that means i'll need to get my cardio and knees all set first...I'm working on it. I cannot let it stand as the only one in my immediate family to run (I know Becca hasn't yet either, but I'm scared of her determination, I know she could walk outside and run 26.2 mi right now if she had an inkling, that is, if it didn't get in the way of rowing). But now I've got to tend to a naughty bird and an empty stomach.

P.S. the best time for the marathon was 2:25:27 (average pace 5:33) by a guy from Texas.

Posted by agutwin at 06:24 PM | Comments (4)

May 07, 2005

almost done

Ok, so yesterday was slope day here at Cornell. Snoop Dogg, The Starting line and The Game gave concerts on our beautiful Libe Slope. It was pretty fun, I got to hang out with Danielle, Laura, Katie, Chris and Evan most of the day which was awesome, they're very fun people. Plus I found that not all the people on my floor are crazy, which is always a good thing.

I know I haven't posted in a while. It's one of those things that seems like a chore, but after it's done it feels a lot better. Oh well. So I'm going home pretty soon, which i'm not terribly happy about (sorry family :P) I have found so many cool things and people here, although the work is very hard. But I think that I'll have fun at home too, because it's home. Uggg, my neck is still hurting from the chemistry exam....i talked with one person and she said i'm probably carrying all my stress on that one muscle in my shoulder, so it's getting all tensed up and big.

So i think i'd better study some more, then go to bed.

Posted by agutwin at 11:10 PM | Comments (3)

May 02, 2005

End-of-year pranks

Ok, for those of you who don't know her, Lindsay is what I would call the head climber (chick I might add!) at the good 'ol Lindseth wall. She is responsible for organizing who is working when, as well as teaching a bunch of classes both indoors and out. She is an amazing climber, kinda short with bouncy curly hair. I think i need to add that she's a very nice and cool person. Anyway, one day this sign showed up (it used to read Lindseth Climbing Wall). Lindsay swears she didnt' do it, but it's pretty funny anyway :) I think i'm going to miss a lot of the COE (Cornell Outdoor Education) staff when they graduate, so many of them are seniors! I wonder who's going to fill their shoes when it's our turn to walk down in cap and gown? Who knows, one can only hope to be as cool as Lindsay and the gang.
Onto another pretty cool prank, also involving climbers. So there's this ledgend that on halloween night in 1997 a group of people placed a gigantic pumpkin on top of our belovid clock tower. Apparently nobody to this day knows who did it or exactly how they did it, but it remains a source of awe to every student or faculty member. So a couple of days ago there was another addition to the point on McGraw tower, apparently it's a disco ball, party anyone?....i think that anything after the pumpkin is going to be old hat, but you've got to hand it to them. Apparently, there was a hatch on the top of the tower that the first group used to place the pumpkin up there, but it was welded shut after that event. So this new group needed to climb the lip of the tower, which seems imposible for all you flat thinkers, but to a climber, especially the one's we've got here, it would have been no problem. Although authorities do not know who did it, i think i've got a pretty good idea. Again, I can only plan which object I want to look over (most) of the Cornell campus. (click on the pic to see a biger version)

OK, so i've wasted enough time, back to work. I've got a bunch of things that need pulling together, not to mention studying for finals and trying to deal with all the social situations going on. Oh, and my neck is still sore from that chemistry exam (I kid you not, it was about 3 weeks ago now...) ohhh, I just want all the work to end and have time to have fun with my friends before I leave for sooooo long!

Posted by agutwin at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)