I'm sorry... snow-ma-what?

Snowmageddon. Our President [of the United States of America] said snowmageddon. He obviously does not read this blog. Ha ha ha. It will snow again this Tuesday and the upcoming weekend as well. This will be a winter to tell the first-years next year.

bid day for fraternities

It's snowpocalypse plus bid day. This means a maximum of seven fraternity boys are walking in the snow to dorms from the IRC to Old dorms to Hereford to welcome their new additions. Poor boys... Well, congratulations to the new bids, and good luck! Tonight will be a busy night...

snowpocalypse in c'ville

It's official. The snowpocalypse. The snownami. Death by snow. As well as challenging me to spell 'pocalypse correctly, this snow day has officially shut down classes. That's right. In the first time in the history of UVa (pardon my excited exaggeration), there are no classes.

Looking at my facebook homepage and all those excited status updates (mine included), I must say that my favorite line by far is "Because Mother Nature's pretty much decided to take a massive white dump..." How can you argue with the imagery of snow as excrement of an omnipotent, nurturing female being? Bring it, Mother Nature. Virginians have an obsession with snow simply because it has the power to break down barriers for all behaviors ordained socially as okay. For example, when I went to Kroger's yesterday to get my fruit intake for the week, I found the grocery store packed. Not only were there only a couple loaves of bread remaining on the shelves, the check out line started in the front of the store and spiraled into the back. (Being the impatient New Yorker that I am, I divided my friends' and my stuff into 15 items and ran through the 15-items-or-less line four times. Aw yeah.) People were sprinting to get coveted items, such as:

1. Nutella
2. Organic chicken
3. Wheaties

As one friend aptly put it, those three things cover breakfast, dinner, and dessert.

Another place where people were scurrying was Robertson Media Center, aka third floor of Clemons and source of all DVDs. One DVD that I put down for three minutes was snatched by another person, who looked at me and asked if I was going to watch this. While I think that he was also checking me out, I do believe there was genuine frenzy in his eyes as he thought, What movie do I really want to be watching when I am snowed in for days in a snowpocalypse? It's important because Clemons limits your DVDs to two a person. Therefore, if you pick wrong, there is no going back. There will be a lots of cuddling with snuggies this weekend.

While I look forward to cuddling with my Russian history textbook about genocides and massacres of the Reds and Whites, I also look forward to the chili made by the Principal of the IRC every time it snows. Yay, IRC!

Amish Friendship Bread

I'm curled up on my bed, knowing that in the hall kitchen Amish Friendship bread is baking. It's sitting in the oven, patted with cinnamon and sugar and mixed in with salt and milk. It smells heavenly and so do my vanilla-stained fingers.

After class, I went to Residence Life Office (RLO) to sign Valentines cards. That's right. They're not-so-secret, Valentines cards addressed to entire teams of RAs. It's like falling in love with a band. You don't know whether to confess your admiration for one person or just become a fangirl of the entire group and will Ringo really get upset if you only love Paul? Ah, the dilemma of every secret admirer. I decided to keep true to myself and not get entangled in any love triangles by clearly stating the person to whom I was addressing my feelings and clearly signing my own name. I only wrote in print. For my own team, and yes, you were supposed to write to your own team too, I drew a lovely caricature of everyone. Once we officially "receive" the card on the weekend of Valentines, I will take a picture and post my glorious artwork. It's indicative of the many different personalities on our team and how our SR works hard to work with us. (He's an old, wrinkly Grandpa in the caricature. We're quite a rambunctious group of grandchild-RAs.)

After that, I was supposed to read The Soviet Experiment for my Russian history class, but I decided to bake instead. I'm so excited for how it turns out!

Boss Says

I just had a talk with my Senior Resident. That's my boss. He's also a friend, a fellow student, and just a fellow. At UVA, because we believe in student governance, this happens a lot. Your boss is a student just like you.

While there are benefits to this method, because hierarchical systems usually require formality and support a culture of supposedly "masculine characteristics" (e.g. your boss should be tough, commanding, and authoritative -"masculine characteristics" vs. your boss being nurturing, listening, and understanding -"feminine characteristics."), students get stress from students. Specifically, I get criticism from a friend, a student, but ultimately my boss.

I cannot deny that the ability to take feedback well is a fantastic characteristic to develop. It is especially crucial if you work in any manner as a team. I want to point out that this isn't being silent as someone gives you flack. Being able to see your mistakes is step one and taking steps to not repeat them is step two, and having someone point these out is feedback. (I believe the politically correct term is "constructive criticism.") In fact, being able to give and take criticism is a sign of a healthy, professional relationship.

However, because the boss-worker relationship is formal and not many college relationships are formal, having your friend be your boss is difficult in any situation. I hope I remember this when I am on the other end.