Guess I'd make a rather shabby prophet. I actually wasted a full additional hour before rushing over to medieval women lecture. Fortunately, it was a guest lecture, which means decreased demand for student involvement. I really liked Nicholas Watson's emphasis on the question of how to relate medieval women writers to our present (or whether it's even possible), an element conspicuously absent from most of our regular lectures. His British accent (though he is currently an English professor at Harvard) helped keep me awake, too.

I have a program due tomorrow at 5pm which I haven't started, but that's okay. This was planned. You get a couple of punishment-free late days per quarter—which in truth are late twodays or late weekends, because they delay your due date until the next class meeting—to apply to any assignment(s) you want during the quarter. Three remaining late days and four remaining assignments... hm... yeah, I'm not going to do it tonight. Instead, I'm trimming Post-Its to mark sections in this year's course bulletin. Tonight's my night of excitement; can you tell?

Sorry. I keep lying. I actually got swept away to Tressider by Ima. Beautiful pools withstanding, it was my first visit to any sort of organized sports complex here, and I started it quite auspiciously with serious stairmaster issues. Stairmasters and stationary bikes constitute 75% of the equipment at Tressider and all of the weight equipment was rotationally occupied. After 10 minutes on the stairmaster, I got kind of bored and lifted for about half an hour. Would definitely do the latter again, but I'd much prefer going to Arrillaga (the athletic dept. facility) or, better yet, taking a nice long bike ride or checking out the climbing wall.

After a shower, I headed over to the pre-Big Game bonfire that wasn't. Apparently, it used to be a giant annual inferno in the dry bed of Lake Lagunita until environmental concerns turned it into a puny little campfire in the middle of Arrillaga Plaza. Furthermore, we were relatively on time, which means dead early in practical chronology. After a few minutes of standing around and wishing for a frisbee, Hiten and Chad mentioned a poetry reading/wine-and-cheese tasting at Toyon, the all-sophomore dorm next door, and off we went. By the time we got there (the guys were walking), the poetry reading was over but plenty of food still remained, so in we dug. Tory and I had some really yummy white stuff spread on baguettes and imagined ourselves to be incredibly highbrow (or lowbrow? what order was it in on the table?) until we were told that it was spinach dip. The guy who was cleaning up kindly gave Tory two empty wine bottles and Chad a quarter-full jug of red wine. Upon our return, Robbie discovered that it was labeled "White Zinfandel." Hm, fishy...

I played a couple games of Mario Kart ensconced in the mustard velvet chair next door, even winning once out of sheer dumb luck. I may be getting infinitesimally less horrible than I was when I first started, but tangible progress remains to be made. Around 1, I came back into the room and was checking email until I heard commotion in the hall. There being perpetual commotion in the hall, I went back to my email until I heard someone say, "I think there's a fire in Branner!" There being constant ridiculous comments, I went back to my email and Betsy back to her PWR paper until the fragrance of burning plastic floated up to our room and the fire alarm went off. We all traipsed gaily downstairs and onto the sidewalk, from where we spied fire trucks. Real fire trucks. Multiple fire trucks.

Apparently, someone put a cell phone in a microwave and turned it (the microwave, silly!) on. No structural damage, but I'm not sure about Karen's microwave or room. Gotta love Branner.