Let the Morning Runs Begin!!

Before I get to the bulk of this post, let us take a minute to note that our dear friend Mary Hobbs is turning 21 today!! Happy Birthday Mare, we love you!!!  On Monday night the Hobbs family took Mary out to Tango and she came back with the biggest cupcake ever, made by the best protege ever...Nat.  Here's a pic of it- it was delicious! We commemmorated her birthday last evening by going to bed at 11:00 because we had....Morning Runs!! Mary's first (and best) birthday present of the day.

So basically it was a normal morning run. Cory has a new minion named Kevin from Cabrini. He just stood there awkwardly.  We learned cheek to hip pocket AGAIN, but somehow avoided doing that thing where you stand up against the wall and essentially run into it, which I hate because my shirt always rides up while hopping about.  Also, the entire women's Ultimate team showed up. I felt really bad for them though because the website start time is 7:15 and it starts at 7 (and we didn't end until 8:37...) so they were late, which of course Cory disapproves of.  So he proceeded to ignore them throughout the day, but at least Coach went over and apologized for the time change.  Two of them had to drop out and I feel really bad because Cory is of course going to be a jerk to them, but I'm impressed that they are willing to show up and do it and think he should try to be nice as a result.  Also, I asked if we could do some sort of name game because I don't know who any of them are (or any of the soccer freshmen) and think it would be good to have some unity so everyone feels less awkward, but I'm not sure other people were into that...so we'll see. 

Went through the warmup, did some buildups, running technique and then a circuit.  So we weren't on teams we just all had to do 4 rounds of the circuit continuously.  And Cory was timing it.  It started with 10 pushups, but they were being sticklers about having your elbows really far in when they explained it, so we all did girl pushups.  Then 5 burpees, which apparently were supposed to include jumping up and a pushup while in the middle, and then a 5-10-5 down backwards,  and back forwards.  So it didn't sound that bad. Until you tried to do 10 good pushups the way they wanted us to.  After that, our arms didn't really work anymore.  So Coach yelled at us that soccer was going so much faster and we were just trying to do the form of the stupid things right.  In the end I think we all cheated on some pushups and burpees (props to anyone who didn't because I couldn't get anywhere near having my chest on the ground by the end) and Mary Ronnie and I all finished last except for some Sneetches.  Interestingly Mary Ronnie and I were all next to each other and taking our time trying to get through those pushups, so I was proud of us.

Then we went to lift and did 8 sets of everything.    Cory didn't quite get why I wanted to do things out of order (because the WHOLE team was lifting then and we had TRX stuff and I didn't want to stand around and wait forever) but he did let us and we ended up finishing in only an hour, which was impressive.

Power Yoga starts tonight, so I guess Mary and I will be playing the double shower game today.  Bringing my class time today to 1.5 hours and my field hockey time to 4 hours.  Interesting ratio, isn't it?

So now Mary's in class and I'm going to sit here and make her a card and watch the Bachelor.  And finish writing Dayna and Brooke's PAF recommendation letter. They gave me about 27 hours notice to do it (I think they had just decided to do it), but ended up deciding to do 2nd round apps, so that worked out nicely.

Snow was all washed away by rain and it's  a lovely windless 45 degree day!

Love from Haverford,
Courtney

Snow!

Well, this week hasn't been too exciting, but thought I'd let you know that yesterday morning we woke up to about 3 inches of snow...enough to cover the grass, make the paths all slippery and treacherous, and annoy me.

In other news, most of the freshmen on our team have managed to go out EVERY SINGLE night this week.  Unsure if this is an impressive feat or what.  Every evening they all spend about 2 hours getting ready and last night they trekked about in the snow.  Mary and I stayed in our beds where it was warm.  Also, it was Mathletes vs Athletes last night, but I haven't really heard much about it.

Jen gave Mary a lava lamp in our gift exchange, which is exciting.  I received a stuffed hedgehog, some plastic dinosaurs and a bendy straw shaped like glasses.  Otherwise the gift exchange was uneventful.  Clearly no one wanted to be there because it only lasted about 15 minutes.  So another fail at team unity.

Yesterday, Brooke, Mary and Ronnie went to the gym to do the bike/elliptical/swim/fartleck workout.  You were supposed to get to choose one so clearly they were going to do the bike or something.  Well, they got there and Cory intercepted them and told them they had to do the run.  So they ran 20 laps around the indoor track.  Meanwhile, I ventured down to the gym about 5 minutes later and somehow avoided Cory and got to do the hill workout on the arc-trainer.  Needless to say when I found out where everyone else was, I have never been happier to have done a hill interval workout.   So props to Mary, Brooke, and Ronnie for being troopers!

Well, it's time for Relay! Our casino night is Friday so we're getting ready for that tonight!

Love from Haverford,
Courtney

Welcome Home!

Hi everyone and welcome back to virtual Haverford!

Well today was our second day of classes so by now we've all been to everything and are starting to figure out our schedules.  Mary and I are both taking Photosynthesis with Jon (who is really cool and so into plants that you just really want to like them too, but a little over our head with his environmental global warming talk) and Superlab with Rachel and Judy (we're learning how to clone a gene, so we get to pick a gene in the gastrulation pathway of mosquitoes, run PCRs and then transform it into a plasmid in bacteria so that others can work with it in the future).  Rachel and Judy are going to be really cute together, and my lab day only has 8 people in it (Paige and I are the only returners...) but they are requiring us to wear lab coats. Not so into that but whatever.  I'm also taking a Phoenetics class that Maury is TAing and good old Physics, and Mary is taking Critical Issues and another class that is eluding me right now. Alyssa is taking Physics....I don't really know anything else about that :)

Random Thoughts (in no particular order):

1. Andrea had her baby (so yeah she apparently was pregnant??) at 33 weeks, so she's not really going to be around this semester because she's with the baby.  Heard this through Rachel but haven't heard anything at all from Andrea...awk

2. Brooke has a new nephew!  His name is Oliver Bennett and she's very excited obviously

3. Sarah Andrade and Mike Galleta are engaged

4. Swat Sucks shirts came out yesterday and they're pretty funny!  The game is tonight and our seniors are getting their blankets, so the team is hanging out before the game and going together


5. The DC now has hardwood floors in the dining room, which look really nice, and scoopable ice cream at every meal.  That's right, we now have cookie dough and peach yogurt and strawberry all the time!

6. Gummere now has off white walls and black/gray carpet in the hallways.  The stairwells currently have no flooring at all and the stairs that lead toward Hall that come out of the first section have been blocked off because some of the stairs are broken. So that's annoying.

7. If you are ever thinking about getting a tattoo, do not be concerned about the pain, but the itching afterward.  My arm has been itching constantly for days now and it's driving me nuts!! But it looks cool so it's okay :)

8. Cory and I held hands yesterday for an extended period of time.  There's this new TRX thing where you face away from the squat racks, put your foot in the TRX loop and hop toward the platforms and then basically do lunges.  So it's really good, like you definitely feel it and I can tell it'll be good for my squat form, but it's hard to stay balanced on one leg while squatting and holding your other leg behind you. So I was hopping around and Cory was telling me to keep my front knee in line with my ankle and then I was like falling over so he walks over and puts out his hands in front of me and says "Take my hands" as if we were getting married. And then he held my hands the rest of the time. It was an excellent experience overall.

Well, I am off to lift (and see Cory my lover again) so that's all for me right now!  As more things happen I'll be sure to keep you aprised! 

Love from Haverford,
Courtney

The Beginning of the Goodbyes

Today was the first time I've really felt like I was actually saying goodbye to people when we all left for break.  It is so strange knowing that Sydney isn't going to send me random texts asking if I'm in my room so she can stop by and distract me, that I won't be walking hunched over as Bridget goes over instead of under, that I won't have tangential chats with Quaker late at night in the Sci.Li, and that Sarah won't be coming to visit me and Mary anymore.  And knowing all of that, it was hard to say goodbye.  We'll all get to see B.Gibbs before she goes to Argentina because her program starts later than the others, and I'm hoping to get to see Sarah before she leaves in January, but I likely won't see Christie, and definitely won't see Sydney since she leaves in only a week.  We had a wonderful going away party/hang out tonight (thanks to Molly and Chris!) but it's weird knowing that same group will never hang out together again.  I know I made the right choice for me deciding not to go abroad, but I'm sad that being back at Haverford won't be the same without you guys.  So goodbye for now...I miss you already!