a short list of things i noticed during the first week of school

• Most freshmen still think they need to look nice for class. I suspect this will change around October.


• Grad students are more likely to bring laptops to class than undergraduates. I suspect this is not because they are taking more notes, but because they've learned that playing games on your computer is much less conspicuous than doing the crossword in the newspaper.


• Only about 30% of people on campus will have umbrellas during a torrential downpour. The rest use a copy of the student newspaper; they soon discover one more way in which the paper is ineffective.


• There is always one student in every class who thinks he's too cool for school.


• Chivalry has not made a comeback. (I rode the bus this week.)

i'm back!

Hello, blogosphere. It's been a long time, but I have finally returned. I know my audience is crying tears of joy as they read.

I returned to Arkansas last week, and I am so glad to be back. I had a wonderful time in Georgia, and I made some terrific friends whom I will cherish for the rest of my life...but there is nothing like home. I hope to make it back to Georgia at least once this school year for a visit, so hopefully I can save up enough money to make that happen.

Speaking of money, I was at the bank yesterday depositing some money, and I had to go inside because my checkbook is MIA and I needed a deposit slip. So I went inside, deposited a measly $175, and went back to my car. I had just started up the Honda when I noticed a young, relatively attractive man leaving the building. I thought to myself, "Hmm, he's pretty good-looking." It's not that I was really shopping around with the intent to buy, but I'm single, and there's no harm in asking yourself the hypothetical "would I ever date that guy" question.

So there I was, sitting in my environmentally friendly, low-emission Honda, watching an attractive late-twentysomething or early-thirtysomething man walk to his car...which turned out to be a brand new white Mustang GT.

At this juncture, many women would be impressed. "What a hot car," they'd say, or, "I bet he's loaded," they'd think. But me? When I saw him arrogantly stride to his Mustang GT, I scoffed in disgust. I could only think of how much money he'd wasted on such a ridiculous automobile when, no matter what people (ahem, advertisers) say, the car's sole purpose is still to get a person from point A to point B. I also wondered whether he cared that his car only gets 17 miles to the gallon, or whether he realized that he'd be spending twice as much as I do at the gas station. When I saw him drive away, I deemed him fiscally, socially, and environmentally irresponsible.

So, yesterday I realized something about myself. At one point, I might have been one of those women who finds expensive, gas-guzzling cars attractive, but not anymore. I'm no longer attracted to guys who drive cool cars and have lots of trendy stuff. If the guy at the bank had driven away in a small four-cylinder hybrid, I just might have chased him down and asked him to go get a cup of fair-trade coffee. But a mustang? Psssh. No thanks.

Maybe this means I've grown up a little bit. Either that, or I've turned into a complete hippie.