Back to the Basics

Hello blog, and happy Monday! Even more importantly, happy spring semester!

Today was the first day of classes here at Wellesley- FDOC, as the Wendies say- and it was a doozy. Our first week of classes is virtual this semester to accommodate the students who tested positive upon their return to Wellesley, which is a super awesome plan that I 100% agree with. What didn’t agree with this plan? The Wellesley College Wifi, which spent all day fluctuating between barely working and being completely down. I didn’t have a class this morning when it first went down, but I spent most of the day virtually working at the Computing Help Desk, struggling to get my own Wifi to work long enough to message everyone why their Wifi wasn’t working. It was a long morning.

I only had one class today, and that was French; unfortunately, the Wifi crashed again as I was logging in, so while I spent the hour or so of class trying desperately to log into Zoom, my friend Kate- who was also in the class- was gracious enough to call me on their phone and let me listen to the class that way. It wasn’t exactly an ideal first day, but it could have been much worse.

Going backwards a little bit, I had a super awesome and wonderful winter break home with my family in Iowa; I got to see most of my cousins, spend a couple days watching ice skating with my Grandma Terry, knit a sweater for my nephew and a sweater vest for my Dad, and I turned twenty! I’m no longer a teenager, another year older and wiser and all of that.

Tonight is a different night of the week than I posted last semester, but one thing hasn’t changed- am I, in fact, watching the Bachelor with my friends in the Bates first common room right now. We’re bringing back the bracket for Clayton’s season, and I’ve been doing pretty well so far. Susie is my pick to win it all; Clayton really seems to like her and she reminds me of my friend Abby. I was right about the winner of Michelle’s season- Michelle and Nayte forever!!- and I’ll keep you updated throughout the season as to how I’m doing this time around.

A knitting update: as aforementioned, I made a toddler sweater and a sweater vest while I was home, and I’m currently working on six projects at the same time. I cast on a sweater for my little brother’s birthday the day I left Iowa to start traveling back to Wellesley and I’ve been making steady progress on that, but I keep having new ideas for quick projects and setting it aside to work on those. Last night I cast on a hat during my floor meeting and finished it this morning during my work shift- picture in the header- and I’m also working on another hat, a sweater back, a sock, a cardigan, and a bag for my friend Emma. I know it probably sounds like a lot, but I spend so much of my time knitting- I knit while I’m at work, during my Community Engagement hours as an RA, during Zoom classes, during in person classes… you get the picture. I have at least fifteen other major projects planned for this year and I’ve started a knitting journal to keep track of everything I knit; how long it takes me, how much yarn I use, what I’m knitting it for, etc. I have no idea if I’ll get them all done before 2023, but I’m really excited to see how much I can do knitting consistently all year.

I’m sure there are lots of things that I have to say that I’ve forgotten, but that’s the good thing about doing this blog every week; if I forget something this week, I can always write about it next week. For now, I’ll leave you all with some pictures of my cats from my month back home.