Nieve!! aka sometimes when i smile i cant stop smiling
By Tamika Whitenack
So this is supposed to be the most stressful time of year, but I'm not exactly experiencing that. Today I spent a lot of time SMILING because it SNOWED!
IT SNOWED.
S
N
O
W
!
!
!
It was magical, beautiful, marvelous, splendid. I squealed, possibly multiple times. I had resigned myself to believe that it was too warm for us to get snow before I would go back home, but earlier this week I saw that snow was in the forecast and I started obsessively checking the weather every day to see if it consistently said it would snow. I began to anticipate the snow yesterday night when my weather app said 100% chance of snow, but I did not want to get my hopes up. Best to set your expectations low for these sorts of things, the weather is not known to please.
This morning, I woke up and left for a run at 9:30. It was chilly and cloudy, but no snow. We ran to the Walkway Over the Hudson, and then on the way back, baby snowflakes began to fall. I was excited about this even though it was hardly noticeable. We stopped at the Deece after the run to replace some calories, and in this time it began to truly snow and stick to the ground. On my way back to Raymond from the Deece, I ran like a crazy person (my cover is that it was cold and I needed to get back to the warmth of the dorm, but really I was just bursting with jubilation with the snow and had a lot of energy). I spent the afternoon studying with friends in Crafted Kup and when we emerged the ground and trees were properly blanketed and it was beautiful. Charlotte (who is from LA) and I had a little photoshoot because we were both so excited about it. I have been taking pictures of everything because campus is a new and magical place and it just makes me smile.
I mentioned last time that I've been getting in the ~holiday spirit~ and the snow has really boosted that! I've been listening to Spotify playlists: Christmas pop, Christmas instrumental, or the Nutcracker. I feel the cheer spreading into my soul.
Anyway, this week has been so strange because it has just felt like a perpetual weekend. I have so much time, it sort of feels like a vacation. Don't worry Ma, I'm still being productive. I finished my freshman writing seminar portfolio pieces today. The portfolio consists of three essays and an annotated bibliography related to a group presentation that we had to do. My group did environmental racism, so that is what my bib is on. My three essays are: a literary analysis of a Judith Ortiz Cofer essay on Latina stereotypes, an essay examining the significance of chopsticks as a pop culture item (specifically looking at my experiences with chopsticks and my pair of pink plastic chopsticks), and a memoir piece about eating dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I have also been making consistent progress with studying for Spanish and Psychology. Escribo mensajes de texto a mi padre en Español y hablar con mis amigas (otro estudiantes en mi clase de Español). Me gusta estudiar para Español, pienso es divertido. Some fun facts from psych studying today: drugs release dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, which is part of the brains rewards pathway, which leads to pleasure and the desire to repeat the use of the drug, which leads to desensitization through decreased production of natural dopamine and loss of receptor sites which leads to tolerance and withdrawal effects when drug usage is stopped. The concept of evolutionary psychology is that our brain developed in order to solve the problems that our ancestors faced and to regulate behaviors that we needed to survive, so our current brains are still wired for the stone-age world and not the modern world. The pitiutary gland is located near the hypothalamus and is the "master gland" of the endocrine system because it secretes hormones that trigger all the other internal organs to do their thing. Coregulation for infants and caretakers is when the behaviors and emotions of infant and caretaker mirror each other, and this connection and the idea of an attachment relationship is necessary for experience expectant development because it provides the normal environment needed for baby brain plasticity to develop.
Okay sorry just using this blog to help reinforce some key concepts. I've been up to some other fun stuff this week...I've gone to a fair number of student shows (sketch comedy, tap, singing) and also had two fun end of semester lunches. On Thursday, we had a "flutefest flute reading party" to quote my flute teacher, in which all her flute students got together to sightread flute duets/quartets and have sandwiches. On Friday, our ALANA staff had lunch at Shadows, a nice restaurant on the Hudson River to celebrate the end of the year and give a good-bye party of sorts to our administrative assistant, who sadly is leaving next semester.
So yes, overall, I'm enjoying myself and also sleeping really well. Here are too many pictures of snow.
So this is supposed to be the most stressful time of year, but I'm not exactly experiencing that. Today I spent a lot of time SMILING because it SNOWED!
IT SNOWED.
S
N
O
W
!
!
!
It was magical, beautiful, marvelous, splendid. I squealed, possibly multiple times. I had resigned myself to believe that it was too warm for us to get snow before I would go back home, but earlier this week I saw that snow was in the forecast and I started obsessively checking the weather every day to see if it consistently said it would snow. I began to anticipate the snow yesterday night when my weather app said 100% chance of snow, but I did not want to get my hopes up. Best to set your expectations low for these sorts of things, the weather is not known to please.
This morning, I woke up and left for a run at 9:30. It was chilly and cloudy, but no snow. We ran to the Walkway Over the Hudson, and then on the way back, baby snowflakes began to fall. I was excited about this even though it was hardly noticeable. We stopped at the Deece after the run to replace some calories, and in this time it began to truly snow and stick to the ground. On my way back to Raymond from the Deece, I ran like a crazy person (my cover is that it was cold and I needed to get back to the warmth of the dorm, but really I was just bursting with jubilation with the snow and had a lot of energy). I spent the afternoon studying with friends in Crafted Kup and when we emerged the ground and trees were properly blanketed and it was beautiful. Charlotte (who is from LA) and I had a little photoshoot because we were both so excited about it. I have been taking pictures of everything because campus is a new and magical place and it just makes me smile.
I mentioned last time that I've been getting in the ~holiday spirit~ and the snow has really boosted that! I've been listening to Spotify playlists: Christmas pop, Christmas instrumental, or the Nutcracker. I feel the cheer spreading into my soul.
Anyway, this week has been so strange because it has just felt like a perpetual weekend. I have so much time, it sort of feels like a vacation. Don't worry Ma, I'm still being productive. I finished my freshman writing seminar portfolio pieces today. The portfolio consists of three essays and an annotated bibliography related to a group presentation that we had to do. My group did environmental racism, so that is what my bib is on. My three essays are: a literary analysis of a Judith Ortiz Cofer essay on Latina stereotypes, an essay examining the significance of chopsticks as a pop culture item (specifically looking at my experiences with chopsticks and my pair of pink plastic chopsticks), and a memoir piece about eating dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I have also been making consistent progress with studying for Spanish and Psychology. Escribo mensajes de texto a mi padre en Español y hablar con mis amigas (otro estudiantes en mi clase de Español). Me gusta estudiar para Español, pienso es divertido. Some fun facts from psych studying today: drugs release dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, which is part of the brains rewards pathway, which leads to pleasure and the desire to repeat the use of the drug, which leads to desensitization through decreased production of natural dopamine and loss of receptor sites which leads to tolerance and withdrawal effects when drug usage is stopped. The concept of evolutionary psychology is that our brain developed in order to solve the problems that our ancestors faced and to regulate behaviors that we needed to survive, so our current brains are still wired for the stone-age world and not the modern world. The pitiutary gland is located near the hypothalamus and is the "master gland" of the endocrine system because it secretes hormones that trigger all the other internal organs to do their thing. Coregulation for infants and caretakers is when the behaviors and emotions of infant and caretaker mirror each other, and this connection and the idea of an attachment relationship is necessary for experience expectant development because it provides the normal environment needed for baby brain plasticity to develop.
Okay sorry just using this blog to help reinforce some key concepts. I've been up to some other fun stuff this week...I've gone to a fair number of student shows (sketch comedy, tap, singing) and also had two fun end of semester lunches. On Thursday, we had a "flutefest flute reading party" to quote my flute teacher, in which all her flute students got together to sightread flute duets/quartets and have sandwiches. On Friday, our ALANA staff had lunch at Shadows, a nice restaurant on the Hudson River to celebrate the end of the year and give a good-bye party of sorts to our administrative assistant, who sadly is leaving next semester.
So yes, overall, I'm enjoying myself and also sleeping really well. Here are too many pictures of snow.
ah you before the snow was exactly me before the snow!!!
ReplyDelete:)
Deleteeeee so fun!!
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