Good morning and happy Thursday! This week, oddly enough, has been pretty relaxing. I should be stressed out of my mind right now between the start of midterms and mock trial regionals, yet I am utterly calm and desensitized to the stress. I’m sure the stress is down deep somewhere. I have been physically bouncing up and down since this weekend and am feeling so much more tired than usual, but I outwardly exude zen.
The mock trial team had scrimmages this weekend as one final push towards regionals. I have been doing invitationals so often for so long that I mostly operate on auto-pilot. At the beginning of the first semester, a competition would leave me utterly destroyed for the entire night after. I would have to down four ibuprofen and sleep for 11 hours just to feel sane again. But this time? I just changed out of my pantsuit and went about the rest of my day. I even had a chance to grab a coffee and go grocery shopping with my roommate after the round ended.
I always thought one of the biggest downsides to Wellesley was not having a college-friendly downtown. My older sisters who attend college in Boston and Amherst have hundreds of stores and businesses within walking distance that they can afford. Wellesley is a different story. Because the town is so wealthy, the shops are mostly out of a typical college budget. They used to have a CVS, but last semester it joined Peet’s Coffee and Starbuck’s as yet another Wellesley student favorite gone down under. Now, the closest grocery store/CVS/Starbucks/literally everything is a half-hour walk away in Linden Square. I have refused to make the half-hour trek, mainly out of bitterness and resentment for the town taking my CVS, but my roommate convinced me to take a walk since the weather was so nice. Turns out that the walk was not nearly as harrowing as I thought it would be. I am still protesting the lack of affordable businesses closer to campus, but might amend my earlier position to allow for some Dunkin Donuts runs every once in a while.
On the agenda for the upcoming week: dinner with my Big tonight, a Spanish exam on Tuesday, an American Studies midterm paper, and possibly Thai food on Friday night. The weekend is going to be a little wonky since regionals are timed to accommodate schools from across the country. After possible Thai food on Friday, the team will be watching opening ceremonies at 9pm that night. Round 1 starts at noon on and round 2 starts at 5 pm with the same schedule for both days. After we are done? Probably a lot a lot a lot of sleep.