Pre-Enroll

After a disgustingly early morning, I am now tentatively enrolled in classes for next semester.  I am signed up for an English seminar called "the great Cornell author," which will include works by Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Kurt Vonnegut, and my current creative writing professor J. Robert Lennon.  I'm also taking a cognitive studies course called "the psychology of language," a French seminar, a linguistics class on the history of the English language, and biology lab course.

Lynah Faithful

After both Hillary and I weren't able to make the annual camp out in line for season hockey tickets, we were ecstatic to get an email saying they had a few remaining unclaimed season tickets.  We rushed to the ticket office, landed first in line at the window, and managed to buy the next-to-last season tickets.

This makes us officially "Lynah Faithful," the dedicated fans of Cornell hockey that frequent Lynah rink.  Our first game was against Dartmouth (who we whomped 5-1), and our second was the legendary Cornell-Harvard match up, our biggest rivalry.  Tickets for this game are nearly impossible to get, unless you happen to have season tickets, of course.

Hillary and I with our Lynah Faithful shirts (free with tickets), and our fish.

Fish, you say??  One of the weirdest hockey traditions is throwing fish on the ice at the Harvard game.  The history behind it is that Harvard once threw a dead chicken on the ice to make fun of Cornell's agriculture school.  The next year, we threw dead fish to mock the fishing industry in Boston (not sure why that deserves to be made fun of, but I'll go with it).  After that, Harvard tied a live chicken to the Cornell goal, but they (obviously) got in huge trouble, where as we have been throwing fish ever since.  Security is intense on the way in, patting people down for dead fish.  Most people now use swedish fish, gold fish, or paper fish as a more symbolic gesture.

A giant fish head thrown on the ice after the 2nd period-- like the fish thrown at the beginning of the game, it was picked up by designated fish-picker-upers with garbage bags.  Fun job.

The line up at the Cornell-Harvard game

The zamboni man, who is now retired but makes special appearances, always dresses up in some crazy costume.  I believe he is a Chinese emperor here.

In case you care (that's a rhetorical question, OF COURSE you care), we stomped Harvard, 6 to 3, in a very high energy game that stayed neck and neck right up to the third period.

The Knitting Craze

Come on, everybody's doing it!

Hillary knitting a scarf outside on a lovely day

Melissa knitting in some awesome footie pajamas.  This is her first practice swatch, she's now moved on to a scarf using the needles I gave her for her birthday.

Hillary starting a baby hat for her cousin's baby, and Illika working on a swatch she started last winter when she learned to knit

Hillary and I with our dueling mittens.  Her mittens are Pittsburgh Penguins mittens for a friend, mine will be flip-top mittens.

Here's the finished product for mine.  I added a cable down the center to make them go with a hat for a gift for Laura.  The project's on Ravelry.

Here's the full set.  I LOVE the hat pattern-- it's molded after Hermione's hat in the 5th Harry Potter movie.  You can find it online here as a free Ravelry download.  I used a bamboo yarn, but the yarn suggested by the pattern is heavenly.

What can I say, I'm a trend setter.  And, knitting makes a great low-stress, high-productivity break from homework.

Murder at the Speakeasy

Friday, October 30th, 2009

362 Becker House, Ithaca, NY

For halloween, our suite decided to throw a murder mystery party.  We bought a kit online for a 1920's themed mystery to take place in a speakeasy, and raided some local thrift stores for supplies to cobble our costumes together.

Hilary, playing tailor for Melissa.  A lot of our costumes were basic dresses that we decked out with fringe and other 1920's accessories.

Illika, stitching fringe to her dress.  But of course, it couldn't be just normal fringe, because that would be boring.  She went with purple.

Setting up the suite.  We stacked our coffee table on our end tables to make a bar, complete with mini-fridge hid underneath and stocked with juice, soda, and energy drinks for mixing.  What's a speakeasy without a bar, right?

The final product of our costume efforts: fringe, fun headbands, and pearls.  Hillary was Dina Diva, the singer, Tahra was Molly Moll, the prima donna, I was Rosie Marie, owner of the speakeasy, Illika was Cindy Butt, the gossipy cigarette girl, and Melissa was Kitty Cocktail, the waitress.

We had a blast, and in the final vote 3 people correctly guessed the murderer.  It was the police chief, can you believe it?

Insomnia Hat

October 29th, 2009

I call my most recent knitting accomplishment my insomnia hat.  After some difficulty falling asleep, I decided to knit a couple rows on this hat every night before going to bed.  It helped a lot, and now I have an awesome hat.  I picked the yarn to match my favorite scarf-- a plaid cashmere that my grandma gave me for Christmas.  I also modified the pattern to add a button flap on the side.  Find the super-simple pattern here, and my project on Ravelry.

Book Doctor

If there's one thing my new job has taught me, it's that you really can judge a book by its cover.  I work in the basement of Olin Library repairing books that come in damaged from circulation.  In this workshop, all the restoration of rare manuscripts and obscure texts takes place, but not by a new student employee like me-- I'm working up to it.

So far, my work has included taking books after they go through the "cleaning" process, which is basically where the covers and spines are separated.  It's my job to reinforce the "text block" (the chunk of pages without the covers and spine) by drilling and stitching it, then gluing on a spine liner.

As I add the covers back on, using linens to secure them to the text block, the book starts to come back together.

Next I choose a color of buckrum (the thick durable sheets we use to reinforce the spine) and apply it to the outside.  Finally, I trim what's left of the spine label and glue it on top of the buckrum.  The reconstructed book looks something like this:

This is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, the thickest book I have repaired to date.  I've also repaired such well-known titles as the Jungle Book and such obscure things as math texts in some unrecognizable script and fine arts books on gardens western Europe in the 18th century.  The amazing part about the obscure books is that since all the books I repair come out of circulation, someone has actually just checked out every book I get.

I've come to identify books based on the type of wear and tear they get.  Because the spine label is the last step of the process, I can go through almost the whole repair without knowing the title of the book.  I've discovered that I can tell the genre before reading the title based on the "shoulders" of the book (the place where the covers open out).  Books read cover to cover (novels) have deep shoulders at the front and back, while non-fiction books tend to have a deep shoulder in the front and almost no shoulder in the back, indicating that they are opened most often near the front.  I thought I had found a flaw in this theory once when I worked on a book that had a deep shoulder only in the back.  As it turned out, this was a math text book with an answer key at the back, so of course it made perfect sense that people often opened it to the back.  Ah, what you can learn from books.

Urban/Rural Camping Adventure

October 10th-11th, 2009

Buttermilk Falls, Ithaca, NY

With no good form of transportation, Illika and I decided to camp at Buttermilk Falls as a little getaway.  After much hassling and irritated looks, we managed to get there by bus with all our 

Illika, laden with stuff at the bus stop

baggage.  A further hike brought us from the base of the falls to the actual campsites, which we grossly overpaid for (ah well, what can you do).

The waterfall is really quite pretty, especially with all the fall color peeking out.

The hike within the park was quite pretty, full of little streams and views of the colorful foliage.

The one not-so-pretty part of the walk: we were disappointingly close to civilization.  Hello, Home Depot.

We built a lovely fire and roasted some surprisingly delicious hotdogs, as well as the obligatory marshmallows.  Then, very well bundled up, we crawled in to hammocks to brave out the night's 35 degree low.  I ended up amazingly comfortable and toasty all night long, and Illika's only complaint was cold toes-- the perpetual problem in chilly weather.

Our view waking up.  So refreshing.

Illika all cocooned in her sleeping bag

My very useful hat!

The next day, after a bit of an adventure navigating our way back with the unreliable buses, we returned home safe and sound.

The rural half of the trek back...

...and the urban half.  Much less pretty.

Fall Garba

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Ithaca, NY

Illika took Tahra, Hillary, Melissa and I out for Fall Garba, a Hindi festival celebrating harvest season.  Although, when Illika was asked to explain the exact reasons for this dance celebration, she mostly responded that Indians just really like their festivals, and that at any given time of the year there's some sort of celebration happening that warrants a large dance party.

Illika, of course, was far more decked out than we were in a full traditional outfit, while we just borrowed shirts.

So, once Illika had provided the proper attire, we set out to learn some hindi dance moves.  For this event, the dances were large group dances, not partners.  There were some dances where each person had a pair of sticks and clacked them together, or on someone else's, or on the floor as part of each dance move.  There were also a lot of dances of large groups of people doing the same jump, skip, or spin steps around in a circle.  One dance was remarkably similar to the electric slide.

In spite of us being in an extreme minority of non-Indian people, it was a really fun and interesting experience.  Plus, they provided some awesome Indian food.

Tree Climbing, Fall 09

Day -1: Monkey Run Rigging

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Monkey Run, Ithaca, NY

The preparation for our first tree class is supposed to be the easiest of all the riggings for the whole course.  Unfortunately, all did not go as planned.

Julien, Lilian, and Rob lead climbed the two trees at Monkey run, with Evelyn, Sean, and myself belaying.  After Lilian placed the anchor in the tree we were working on, I decided to climb to check the anchor out, but mostly just for kicks.  I started to climb, then, while making a reach with my right hand, said something like, "Oh good, and this is my bad shoulder."  Cue dislocation number two.

Lilian lowered me down, and we all made our way very slowly back to the vehicles, me in a makeshift webbing sling.  Then on to Cayuga Medical Center, where I got some funny looks from forgetting to take off my harness... oops.  Several hours of waiting, some x-rays, and a big dose of morphine later, my arm was properly back in its socket.

Day 1: Hand over Hand

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Monkey Run, Ithaca, NY

Once again, as is the curse of day 1, we climbed in the rain.  I also had the privilege of teaching with one arm, as the other was still in a sling.  All in all though, it was a great day.  Our students showed excellent enthusiasm, despite the weather, and a genuine interest in what we were doing.  Always a good sign.

A couple of students working their way up a sycamore

Melissa and Katrina, smiling in spite of the rain

Day 2: First Ascensions

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Fischer Woods, Ithaca, NY

This is one of the busiest days of class, with a lot to learn.  Once again, our students  showed a lot of interest in the knots and the methods involved, and (obviously) loved playing with the big shot.  We had one little freak-out moment when a VERY large branch somewhere nearby broke off with a VERY loud crack, then came crashing to the floor.  Luckily, no one was near by.  It made our students a little nervous, because the branch was healthy and green, so we took it as a teachable moment to talk about tree selection and safety procedures.

Day 3: Big Tree Day

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Hoffman Challenge Course, Varna, NY

We had some issues rigging for this day, but eventually we had no problem getting everyone up and hanging out in some really tall trees.  Everyone except me, that is, who got to play ground crew thanks to my still not very functional shoulder.  Julien, Dana, and Evelyn got to try out the new tree saddles, which they were very thankful for after a lot of time literally hanging out.

Day 4: Motion Lanyards

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Stuart Park, Ithaca, NY

This was our first time trying motion lanyarding with all the students at once.  Thanks to some donations to the tree climbing program, we now have enough motion lanyards for the whole class, so we decided to give it a shot.  Everyone really loved this method, since it allows for some real tree climbing instead of rope climbing.  It was great (and a little nerve wracking) to see everyone getting off the ground and moving around independently.  Motion lanyards are a complicated system, with a lot of knots and hitches to tend, but I think the way we ran the lesson made it a manageable and safe situation for the students.

The sycamores at Stuart park have great canopies for climbing

There were a lot of people (and ropes) hanging from the trees, which made for some interesting interaction with the normal park-goers-- one guy who saw us as he walked past is now planning to take the spring tree climbing course.

Once they got the hang of it, the students made it up quite high in the trees

Dana, instructing from the ground

Apparently there are train tracks RIGHT next to Stuart park-- when the whistle blew, it was so loud that everyone about jumped out of their skin.

Overnight-- Oh wait...

We sadly had to call off our overnight, thanks to cold, rainy weather, much to the disappointment of our students.  I'm beginning to think I'm cursed as an instructor-- this is the second overnight I've had to call off.

Us Friday Tree instructors made up for our loss by pranking Saturday Tree's overnight.  They had perfect, beautiful weather, so we thought they deserved a little mayhem, involving some late-night surprise guests and a bear costume.

Tree Staff Training, Fall 09

Day 1: Alternate Ascension and Motion Lanyards

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

Hoffman Challenge Course, Dryden, NY

Before tree staff training, an email went out to all COE instructors from Mark (head of tree climbing) saying:

"I have received a number of requests from folks about attending the Fall 09 Tree Staff Training.  If you are interested in learning to tree climb, the best thing to do is to take the class.  If you are interested in teaching tree climbing, either PE classes, camps, or private lessons, you should come to the training."

Apparently, lots of people wanted to come to the training just to try it out.   We ended up with 17 people coming, which is only really shocking if you know that basically the entire tree staff consists of 8 people.

To accommodate the large number, we split into groups of more- and less-experienced tree climbers.  My group went with Keith, one of the original pioneers of tree climbing, to the platform that we use for the tree overnight.  Here, we played around with the yo-yo, frog, and unicender methods of climbing, rather than our usual Texas kick.  These basically just involved different pieces of equipment, with each methods having its own pros and cons.  I tried the yo-yo method, which involves using a gri-gri.  Lots of people enjoy this method, but I found it irritating.

Sarah, one of the instructors this year, getting set on her motion lanyard.

After ascending, we used our motion lanyards to rig the platform tree with some hammocks for those at the training who were spending the night.  Me and some others who had already slept in the platform several times bowed out so that the tree could accommodate all those who wanted to try it.

Lilian, another co-instructor, rigging hammocks

Day 2: Rescue Scenarios

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

HCC, Dryden, NY

For breakfast, we met up with those who had spent the night in the tree.  Then we split back into our groups, with my group going to the platform tree again.  Our morning wake up was a race using gri-gri direct aid, a method that allows you to lead climb a tree with no branches on it.  After that, we all headed up to the platform again.

Today, I got my chance to try the unicender.  This very unique piece of equipment is the brain child of Morgan, a friend of marks who is both a tree climber and a machinist in his spare time.  He developed the idea for this piece of gear that would allow you to go up and down easily and auto-lock, and that can be used to ascend or in a motion lanyard.  Once he had the idea, he hand machined all the parts himself, resulting in a very limited number of very expensive pieces of equipment.  I found it very convenient to ascend on, as it is auto-advancing.  I also enjoyed the new foot locking method that I learned from someone else at the staff training who spent a lot of time as a canopy photographer in Costa Rica.

Ascending under the platform on another beautiful day

We ran through some rescue scenarios while on the platform-- what happens if a student get knocked unconscious and rolls off the platform durning the overnight?  After successfully saving the helpless student with a haul system, we wrapped up for the day.  On the way down, I asked if we could test out our evacuation drill, which involves trying to lower several people at once.  In theory, this is a very safe and easy method.  In practice, I'm glad we tried it out.  I was one of the people being lowered, and it was more nerve-wracking than I thought it would be.  It was hard to get us all off the platform together, and once we did, all the extra weight on the rope made the tree groan.  However, the person on the ground lowering us had no trouble with the added weight, and we all got down safe and sound (after they suspended us in mid-air to take some pictures-- we looked pretty silly.)

Kayak Rolling Clinic

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Bebe Lake, Ithaca, NY

Bebe lake, with a crane sitting on the edge of the waterfall.

After my little adventure with sea kayaking at fall all-staff training, I managed to convince some of my friends to come to a clinic with the cornell outing club.  This meant an evening paddling around Bebe lake, then practicing some of the same rolling exercises I had learned before.  We used white water kayaks this time, which I found much harder to steer in a straight line.

Between the spray skirt and the helmet, kayaking outfits rank among the most stylish of anything I've worn.

As we packed in our kayaks, the moon rose up big and beautiful.

Fall All Staff Training

August 28th-29th, 2009

HCC, Varna, NY

So far, I don't know how well I've explained the whole COE concept, so here it is in a nutshell:  Cornell Outdoor Education is a very large group of students who are really passionate about some outdoor activity or other, and through COE they teach courses to other undergrads to share their expertise.  COE runs courses on everything from backpacking, mountain biking, and rock climbing, to caving, kayaking, and (my area of expertise) tree climbing.  This means that, when ALL the COE staff get together in the fall for one giant training session, you get a huge jumble of very enthusiastic, very individual type individuals.

This was my first all-staff training, since last year I was hired shortly after it happened, so it was my first time really meeting everyone in one place-- which means all 150 of us.  The event involved a lot of food (COE really knows how to feed people), camping out at the challenge course, a lot of get to know you activities, and various education seminars.

I think they must have special-ordered rainy, cold weather just to give us all a lesson in weather preparedness.  One of the COE full-time staff likes to use the quote, "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing choices."  In spite of the general wetness, we stayed relatively dry by camping in yurts (and of course because no one was wearing cotton pants-- cotton kills!)

I got to sit in on seminar about different leadership/group interaction models, and one about basic first aid.  The afternoon saw everyone splitting up and doing what we do best-- actual outdoor activities.  The idea was to try something that wasn't in your program area, so for me that was sea kayaking.

We went out to Lake Cayuga, and the first thing we did was "wet exits," meaning you flip underwater in your kayak, then, from the upside down position, take of the spray skirt and get out of the boat.  It was a little freaky at first, but not nearly as hard as you would think.  Then learned some of the basic strokes before having to retreat to the van for a lightning drill as a big storm rolled in.  It rolled right out again pretty quickly though, and we were able to get back on the water and tour around a little.  I picked up a lot of helpful tips on form and maneuverability that I had never quite grasped before.

We also started work on rolling, which meant practicing tipping the boat side to side, then bringing your body so that it lay parallel to the water and using just your hips to pull the boat on top of you, then tip it upright again.  My sides were sore for days, but apparently I had the advantage of "spinal flexibility" over the other guys in the seminar-- women can natural tip their hips farther and with better coordination than men.  We ended the seminar with a little tour around the lake, paddling in a very pleasant light rain.

All in all, fall all-staff training was informative, entertaining, and exhausting, AND I finally got my staff shirt!

Discovery Days

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Ithaca, NY

No pictures of this, so I'll keep it short.  Discovery Days is the demo that Cornell Outdoor Education runs on the arts quad during orientation week so that freshman can see how awesome we are, basically.  We hoist tents and kayaks up into some of the trees on the quad to draw in attention, then set up a mountain biking obstacle course to demo, a slack line to try out, and (drum roll please) a zip line out of one of the tallest trees.

I volunteered for Discovery Days, first because it's the one chance a year us tree climbers get to go crazy in the trees on the arts quad, but also because Discovery Days last year was what made me decide to take tree climbing in the first place.  I basically spent the day setting up the zip line, testing it, and helping freshman into helmets and harnesses so they could give it a try themselves.  As I was in the tree tying off the tensionless hitches for the two lines of the zip, I kept waving to people on the ground, who all seemed to think it was best to ignore me-- crazy girl in a tree.  Hands down the best part of the day was, as I tested the zip line for the first time, watching the expressions of some innocent pedestrians as I zipped right at them, landing a few feet away.

Move In Extravaganza

August 22nd, 2009

Ithaca, NY

After a lot of Philip Pullman books on tape over a 14 hour drive, my parents and I arrived in Ithaca for the big move in.  Since we came a little early, the whole process was fairly simple without the usual crowds.  This year, I'm living in a dorm again, but this time it's in a suite with 5 people sharing a common room and bathroom.  Having our own space is amazing-- we are still working on the settling in process and making the suite really feel like home.

Largely, the messy process of unpacking and organizing was something that people weren't psyched for me to take pictures of, but here's what I got:

I moved in before my room mate, Illika, so I took advantage of the extra space and spread my bounty of stuff over her bed as I tried to organize.  Sorry, Illika.

Hillary rocking out to some music (after finally unpacking her ipod speakers), while trying to sort through her mountains of stuff.

Melissa spread pretty much everything she owns across her floor.  We have a phrase in Cornell Outdoor Education for when you dump out your bags after a trip-- "exploding your pack."  We decided this was "exploding your life."

Tahra's very happy about her bird, Pedro, that she just hung from the ceiling.  (not a real bird, incase you were wondering)

Tahra displaying our mood magnets (she's portraying "ecstatic")

The process of mounting posters and pictures and making the rooms personal was a lot more fun-- everyone has a lot of personality that they are proud to display on their walls.

Tahra spelled out her name and Cornell on her walls in Arabic using wall decals.

Tahra's pictures and decals add a lot of color

Hillary put up her foam finger to point people to her room....

...Unfortunately, command strips apparently don't stick to foam fingers.

Hillary's poster spread.  She has a lot of them.

Some of my posters/pictures.  Sadly, at this point, I couldn't put them all up yet because I planned to loft my bed up and maintenance hadn't got around to it yet.

Our common room, complete with my quilt, a kitchenette (aka, a fridge, microwave, and toaster oven), and a world map with pins in it for where all of us have traveled.

We put up ribbons in the hall way to use as little clothes lines for communal pictures.  The tiny colorful clothespins were an awesome AC Moore find.

The amazing view from my window-- you can see Lake Cayuga, as well as some amazing sunsets.