The End as a New Beginning

I have decided to blog once again. I really enjoyed blogging my Rome semester, and I did get some excellent feedback. I took last semester and the summer off as well, mainly because I correctly surmised that my life would be relatively boring after months writing about life in Italy and traveling through Europe.

One key moment that made me think of blogging again was on my birthday I got the neatest gift: my Dad turned my Rome blog into a book, with color pictures and everything! It is cool to look back on the old posts without having to squint at computer screen.

So this summer was relatively uneventful. Instead of applying for jobs last spring I decided that I was going to work on my senior thesis, which is supposed to be two semesters worth of work. I am doing that because I decided to graduate a semester early in December, mainly because I was also deciding at the same time that I wanted to go to law school thanks to my Law and Economics class, and I figured an 8 month break from academics would be a welcome respite. As of this moment I have no clue what I am going to do for that time, but I'll be blogging it (that's part of the transition, I suppose).

The summer was spent like so: one month in Charlotte, highlighted by Tim's graduation and a week at the beach that followed. On June 11 I headed back to South Bend, living in Keough Hall. My 21st birthday was uneventful, because three days later I took the LSAT and I wanted zero distractions. After that, I started working on the thesis, which has morphed from a focus on victimless crime theory to legalization of gambling, and this semester I am going to apply the framework for legalizing gambling to Indiana's decision to legalize a lottery and commercial casinos in the late 80s/early 90s. I spent a little more than a month and a half up in South Bend, with a week break during July 4th up at the Lake with the family. On July 21, I packed up my Keough room and headed up to the lake for what I thought would be a relatively uneventful month.

My parents were there for the first week, and we had a good time. After that, I cleaned up the house, watered the plants, went to the township office for Internet and exercised. That, plus watching episodes of The Wire (which is, beyond a doubt in my mind, the best show in the history of television to this point, and I am not usually one for superlatives), filled a good number of days. All the while, I have the thesis floating around in the back of my mind, because I wanted to write a section of it before I got back to ND. So, by about August 6, I had read a few more things for my thesis, and I had fully outlined the section I wanted to write. Life is good, right? No: two days after I had finished my outline, the screen on my laptop goes black. I didn't panic, but I knew something was up. I start calling around, and I realize that the LCD screen has died, and the computer is out of warranty. At least it wasn't a hard drive issue, because all my files for my senior thesis were on that computer, but I had no way to work on my thesis. So my dad overnights my mom's Dell laptop, and I buy a flashdrive and the nice ladies at the township office let my plug my computer into their monitors so I can upload my thesis files to the flashdrive. So problem solved, apparently.

So when everything looks to be okay again, Uncle Mick, Aunt Julie, and their kids, as well as Grandma and Grandpa show up to the Lakehouse. Since Grandma and Grandpa are leaving within a week, I allowed myself to get distracted from my paper again, because I figured even after they left I'd have 10 or so days up there with my laptop and nothing else to do, because I wasn't going to water those damned flowers any more. So, the day my Grandparents are about to leave, I come back to my laptop after a nice walk, and I can't get it out of what I think is sleep mode. So I reboot it, and it won't load Windows. Dammit. I soon realize that I need a Windows XP disk to solve my problem, and no one has it up in Middle of Nowhere, MI. I think I must have pissed off the Higgins Lake Gods: too much technology for such an unplugged place. Bad computer karma.

So, my Grandparents leave, go down to Owosso, and I'm up a creek without a paddle. Their computer runs on Vista, so I didn't know what to do. While I am at a trial in Roscommon about the roadend, I get a call saying that Grandma and Grandpa do have an XP disk. A minor miracle. So that night I head down to Owosso, hoping to salvage my mom's laptop. The next day, after moving in, I used my Grandparents computer to get instructions on how to solve my problem, and after doing a bunch of confusing techno-babble into the computer, XP loads again! Yay. So, of course, the first thing I want to do is watch an episode of the Wire on the laptop. It works! I am saved. Or so I think. Again, after working out, I come back and the computer is into blue screen of death mode. It just won't load right.

So I spent about 5 days in Owosso eating good food (Grandma cooks way better than I do) and working on my thesis on my Grandparents computer. I didn't get a ton done, mainly because I kept trying to fix my mom's laptop, to no avail. I moved back down to South Bend on Wednesday, and moved into 307 Dillon Hall. I have a beautiful view of South Quad, like I've always wanted. I can see the Dome. I would post pictures, but I forgot to bring the connector cord for my camera, so I should post those shortly.

Anyhow, I was still having computer issues, but I figured I could use some from the computer clusters. Problem was, they weren't opening until today (Monday). So I was again up a creek without a paddle, but at least I had to move in, so that gave me something to do. Moving in has been a slow process, and I just finished everything up yesterday when Packy finally got everything out of storage (a few of my things were in the back, so I couldn't get back to them).

A few days ago, though, I tried to turn on the Dell, and it randomly worked! Magical. Everything seemed okay, and it worked all day, so I was thrilled. The next morning my computer was making weird noises around where the hard drive is, and the screen was black again. It wouldn't turn on. So I went a day without computer. The next day, it worked for a little while, then it started making the noise, and then the computer went into blue screen of death. And today is the next day, and the computer is working fine, as I am typing on it. But when the noise starts, I know what is coming next. I don't know if I should work on my thesis on this computer, but at least I have a flash drive.

Outside of dealing with computer things and moving in, I've had a pretty good time since last Wednesday. I'm back in the flow, exercising at Rolfs like always. It's nice to have the treadmill after so long without one up at the lake, but I am out of shape so I can't run for an hour like normal. I'm working back to it. Also, I had a very pleasant evening with the Sweeneys, who were nice enough to take me out to dinner with Meghan and a friend of hers who is going to study abroad in France, and they also took a bag of my junk home so that I will have a little more space to stick things in the VW when I move out in December and drive back to Charlotte (probably... we'll see). I also helped with the freshman orientation on Saturday because I am taking a Peer Advising class this semester through the First Year of Studies. It's really, really weird seeing these freshmen moving in. I didn't go through that last year with going to Rome, so this is the first time I've really felt older than the new kids on campus. I look older too. It's really odd. Plus, Dan Krcmaric is Michael Reeve's RA. Dear God: we're in charge. How did that happen?

Anyhow, I'll try to update often, as I only have class on Mondays, every other Tuesday, and Wednesdays. I will have to do applications to law school, but that shouldn't preclude this by any stretch of the imagination. Also, if anyone is reading this any wants to know anything about ND life or what I am up to, just fire me an email or leave a comment