Charge Me With WTUIH--Writing A Thesis Under the Influence of Hockey

I have returned. With my thesis nearly finished and part one of my theory and methods project over, I now have time to write here.

I'll miss the constant stress of my thesis, and how I always worked best on it while either watching or listening to hockey. In case you don't already know, my honors thesis is about the Metis People of Canada and their relation to the issue of Quebec separatism. And in both of its forms (the senior seminar paper last spring it evolved from, and this version), I always got the most work done on it while being under the influence of hockey. Take last night, I'm typing away, listening to game 7 between the Leafs and Senators, and I finished roughly eight pages in an hour and a half. That’s prolific if I do say so myself. I guess I need the hockey to get in the Canadian mindset.

Now, mind you, my thesis was due a while ago. And I've never ever ever turned in anything late in my life. However, seeing that I've been wicked sick this semester, it kind of got delayed. I no longer know if I will get the honors designation--but at least it's almost done. I had to finish it to make myself happy--and for the three people who have asked to read it when I’m done. It’s very weird to think that people want to read my dinky little thesis, or that if I do achieve the honors designation, it’ll be in the Bartle Library forever. It’s just a little….unnerving? I mean, there was a time in my life where I aspired to be a writer, and here I am kind of, sort of fulfilling it. But then I think, “Wait, who the heck here at Binghamton is ever going to want to read about this topic? That book is going to sit on the shelves and collect dust for 20 years until they decide to move it to remote storage.” Eh, oh well.

On that note, my quote of the week comes from that Leafs-Senators game last night. I was listening to Toronto’s coverage of the game, and the announcer yells before the start of the game, “If you have lucky underwear, put it on Toronto!”

If you have lucky underwear?

I guess they did, they put it on, and it worked--they scored 3 in the first period to go on to win 4-1. Complete blow out. “I’ve never seen worse plays by a goalie IN MY LIFE!” exclaimed underwear man about the Senators goalies at the intermission between the 1st and 2nd. He then proceeded to talk for at least 10 minutes about how the OHL (Ontario Hockey League for you non-almost-Canadians) has 8 game series instead of 7 game series (the games don’t go into overtime until game 8...I’m still a little unsure as to how this works, but the minute I can do mindless research on stuff that interests me, and not stuff Binghamton tells me interests me, I will look more into this.)

I love hockey. Luckily, I am moving to a city that holds its hockey close to its heart--even if they lost to Montreal on Monday. Montreal=where my great-grandmother was from, or so I have been told. Boston=where I am moving. Very interesting…for a few seconds.

Speaking of moving, I have reached that point where I lack any motivation to do anything for the next, oh, 25 days. You know, senioritis? The fact that nothing I am doing right now has little bearing to anything I’ll be doing starting on May 19th? Well, I mean, working in the office and store has to do with it, but that’s it. Nothing else does. It got really bad last week, when I actually had the physical Harvard rejection letter in my hands, along with 2 letters saying I lost out on roughly 7 different senior campus life awards here. I was thinking, “Well, I worked my tail off for years, and it meant absolutely nothing to anybody.” And that is definitely not true--I did get into the other 4 grad schools I applied to, and I got a lot of my grad school costs taken care of--but it all came at once and it seriously stunk. Add onto that the mess that was elections, and I was in a serious funk where I just wanted to go to bed and sleep until graduation. But it worked out. I may not have gotten into Harvard, my dream since I was 10, and I may watch every other senior student leader out there get awards except for me, but you know, it was fun while it lasted. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. It’s like that saying they tell you at every leadership conference ever, “Don’t do stuff for the recognition, do it because you like it.” Very true.

But on to less depressing things…
-No, I don’t care what they were saying on SportsCenter last night--Kurt Warner SHOULD NOT go to the Niners. That’s just wrong! Like say the Bills had had a chance in 93 or 94 to sign like Nate Newton from the Cowboys or the Niners had had a chance to get Brett Favre--heck no. That’s fraternizing with the enemy right there!!!! It’s wroooonnnnnnngggggg. I hate the Rams, except for the fact that Marc Bulger is hot. The Rams are evil. Their former coach (Vermeil) cries more than my mom does at TV shows, their current coach doesn’t know what he’s doing, and they always have to beat up on the Niners. I don’t care that Warner doesn’t like the Rams anymore--he’s still a Ram. He can’t can’t can’t can’t go to the Niners. I’m sorry, SportsCenter guys, but that would be a bad catch. Never mind that Rattay is really not all that proven and Dorsey’s even more unproven. There are principles.

And Carmen Policy should come back to the Niners, now that he’s left the Browns. While we’re at it, how about the whole 1994-95 team and office come back, in the same shape as they were then? Works for me!

-Fantasy baseball is fun. I rather enjoy it. My dad wants to kill me because I do. “Katie, you’re playing fantasy baseball? Why? I didn’t raise you to like baseball. That’s not a sport.” Sorry, Dad. I actually might be good at it--well, either that or I’m a fluke.

Oh, and on the subject of baseball, I now have a baseball player to add to the pantheon of hot athletes. However, upon telling a certain boss of mine who it was, that certain boss made fun of me. So I’m thinking I will not say who this player is, to avoid further ridicule. However, think about what kind of guys I like, and then if you also know baseball pretty well, take a wild guess. Yeah, I’m that predictable. Winner gets…to make fun of me.

-It’s dorm wars week here at good ol’ Binghamton, with Newing Navy, Hinman Hysteria, Salamander Days (Mountainview) and, the one nearest and dearest to my heart (sorry Mountainview), Mutant Mania (Dickinson) going on. And I’m judging a few Mania events, since I have no bias because my hall no longer exists. However, kudos to Whitney (sorry about that--I had it down as Champlain at first, then I remembered it was really Whitney) for mentioning Holiday in its alma mater--we may be hotel rooms now, but it’s nice to know that our spirit is not forgotten. So if you visit Binghamton this week and find random people in different colored t-shirts running around like chickens with their heads cut off, don’t worry. That’s dorm wars for you.

-I’m going home this weekend to see my sister’s lighting and tech work in SOTA’s production of Ragtime. If you’re there, go out and support the show--there are rumours going around that next year’s production season (my sister’s last) is going to be drastically cut because of lack of funding. This very well could be one of the last huge musicals (and trust me, this one is HUGE) SOTA puts on. But the other motivation to go home this weekend comes from the fact that I don’t have ESPN2 here, but I do at home, and the draft is on.

Till next week…