a time of relative stability

Things are kinda stable at the moment. As I type, the sun is rising in the Brunswick hills to the east, as seen from my new north-facing window. not ideal for horticultural purposes, but it's actually better for the summer, as there's more shade and little sweltering sunshine coming in.

speaking of sunshine, it's funny that I've never taken the time to watch a sunrise before. I've seen a lot of sunsets, and a good amount of times when I've stayed up long enough to notice that it's suddenly light out (thanks mostly to biochemistry exams), but I've never actually noticed how beautiful it is. you'd think that it's just sunset backwards, but it's not: it's more energizing, yet tranquil, than the standard sunset (which, living on a hill, we take for granted here). for me, sunset means another long night of work, full of laptop time, nose-in-the-books time, and, inevitably, guilty-procrastination time. on all those all-nighters, sunrise meant, "shitshitshit, only a couple more hours until my 8:30am exam || until I have to hand this in." nowadays, it just means, "you spent another night dicking around on the internets again? oh well, this is your beautiful, natural reminder that YOU NEED TO SLEEP!!" sings the first bird as a welcome to the rising sun.

this is usually my cue to stop what I'm doing (nowadays, forumwarz, I'm afraid), take the crap off of my bed, lie down, read a chapter of "Watchmen", and doze off until I have to get to work at noon. After work ends at 5 or so, there's some time to mess aorund on the internets longer, then go down to the kitchen to cook for myself for at least two hours (what can I say, I love to cook), then mess around a little bit more, at least until the sun comes up again. ah, summer sleep schedules.

I should probably explain what I've been up to. I actually got the RA position, so I'm on campus for the summer. I get a free room and some pocket money (not much) to spend on food. in return, I work in the residence life office, take care of lots of paperwork, and take responsibility for the well-being of more than 50 people in my hall. I'm a bit nervous, but I think I'll do fine, as long as I don't mess anything up as royally as I did last summer. it's kind of interesting to be an authority figure: to be respected and given so much power, and yet have so much responsibility. I can do a lot, but a lot can also go wrong. one step at a time, I guess, unless there's a fire, in which case, run as carefully and authoritatively as possible!

as for research, I've had no luck. my lab group might have forgotten that I intended to stay for the summer, or something... the grad students are busy being worried about their doctoral candidacy exams, and the PI is off on another trip, so I don't know what to do. until they all get back to work in the lab, I'll just be whiling the hours away in my room, watching anime, arranging a cappella music, stumbling around on the internets, or (gasp!) writing blog entries. thus has been my life for the past two weeks or so.

as for money... I'd rather not talk about it for a while.

one strange thing I've found about myself is that I can go for long stretches without eating much. all I've eaten in the past twenty-four hours was a banana, sometime before the sun went down. and it's either that I don't eat, or I can't stop eating snacks (I keep some crackers and peanut butter in my room). one reason for this is how far away the kitchen is: it's four floors below me, so having a meal, no matter how small, requires some effort. I think the main reason, however, is because of my schedule: I find that all I do most of the day is sit in front of the computer, engrossed in something for a good while, or sleeping. don't know why, but under those conditions I usually don't have an appetite.

that reminds me... I need to eat. I'll definitely be posting more in the future.