Good news du jour. Also a little on the state of the union.

It’s actually good news “du” last night, but I don’t feel like being grumpy at my schedule this early in the quarter, so we’re saying it was for today.

Barring a minor catastrophe, Lissa-love–that’d be me–is going to L.A. during Spring Break. Yes, for the entirety of the first full week of April, I will be seeing beaches and sand and possibly San Fran/Bay Area/Stanford area. I most likely won’t even bother to buy a swimsuit, but I am hella excited about the chance to go running on the beach. The sand should be killer on my calves.

I’m almost afraid to mention how I’m going on this trip, lest I receive an e-mail asking me to remove said details (he’s notorious for doing this), but I’ll do it anyway. Javid (and family) is/are providing the transportation and accomodations for five of us (including Adam and two other basement (?) dwellers) to hang out there and chillax.

Depending on how much independence I have if/when I get to the San Fran area, I may be meeting a certain blogger-type and his SO for coffee, which would make my first meeting of an “Internet person” (and a cool one, to boot). Like, you know, he’s not real and only exists on the Internet. Which, I suppose, one could easily argue that given that my only perception of him is through weblogs and IMs, he sort of does only exist on the Internet [with regards to me]…

On to the state of the union. I had dinner with the Wonderful Miss Amelia Mae yesterday, and I felt like I was doing my best to avoid doomsday-predicting about the quarter. I don’t want to say anything too harsh about my professors yet, you know, for fear that it turns out to be true. I feel like if I don’t start in as optimistic a mode as possible, the work and the winter and the mental/thinking stuff and the not-great physical health will combine to make my quarter as or more unpleasant than the last.

So I’m not thinking about my material belongings remaining packed in boxes by a moving company for, most likely, the next two and half years. Or whatever school dilemmas I can dream up. Or the social ones. Or the employment ones. Or the Thorn transitioning, which will take place this quarter–and it looks like I’ll be doing ad management on top of news editing and editor-in-chiefing. Honestly, if we can’t get a replacement sports or entertainment editor, I’ll just scrap the damn pages fall quarter until I can recruit sufficiently–a four page paper that J. and I can manage all ourselves.

A core Thorn staff of two, one even flakier than the other. How the mighty have fallen. What will we ever do with our ten free pizzas a week, assuming we can keep our contract with said pizza company?

Strangely, what has made things seem better has been the story-writing, which I wouldn’t have expected. I’m not a terribly creative person; whether it’s an underdeveloped creativity muscle or a genuine lack of a knack, I’ve always shied away from creative writing assignments in school–my imagination tends to produce things not fit for public consumption.

But with a little password protection, it doesn’t have to be for public consumption, and although I didn’t meet my 25k word count goal for November (ah, well), those four days spent working on the story became the focal point and most revitalizing part of my vacation. I came back (shh, don’t tell the EICs) thinking pleasant thoughts about the Thorn, which is a first for this year, honestly, and looking to have all sorts of fun with my hummer this term, although it will probably fall to a low spot on my priorities with all the group projects in the CS classes. I guess I’m just feeling more balanced all around.

So maybe carving a chunk out of my weekends to write a little… Decompression and all that. Combined with the fact that I think I can actually do workouts regularly during the week this term (and given my loss of conditioning–a four miler at a snail’s pace was a struggle the whole time today–this is going to become a must if I hope to be able to run on the beach in April).

A last note, before an early bedtime: during a chat with George, I got a good link: “Rural Route“, an article by Mara Levy.

Okay, one more thing: I’d never visited Nerve before, and I glanced at the horoscopes before leaving:

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

The sweet smell of Christmas is right around the corner; it’s time to figure out who’s been naughty, who’s been nice, who should get a little ass-slappin’ and who should just get slapped. Heads up: Miss Mental Clarity will squeeze her cherubic ass down your fireplace on Wednesday, so if you’re going to make a list, Wednesday’s the day to do it. On Thursday, spend a few extra hours shopping online (Miss Mental Clarity HATES the mall) for your most deserving bedmate. If you’re single or don’t have any naughty people to shop for, treat yourself to a bulging sex drawer.

Too funny… I love being a Scorpio; we always get the good horoscopes.