All-Nighters

While the extensions on my papers were very welcome surprises, I had booked gigs last weekend before I found out about them. This week (if you include last Saturday) I have 5 gigs total, two of which were last weekend. Needless to say, that kind of got in the way of my writing. However, I still got it done. I ended up just staying up all night Sunday into Monday afternoon in order to finish my 20 page paper (which actually ended up being 30 pages). Unfortunately, I still had 2 more papers due Tuesday. After class on Monday, I came home, took a 4 hour nap, and then stayed up until about 6 the next morning working on my last two papers. I finally finished and went to bed only to wake up 2 hours later for the last day of classes. Most of them were cut short which was good. I didn't get to go to sleep immediately after because I had to go check out one of the locations that I would be playing at during the week.

But when I finally got home I slept for about 12 hours. It was awesome.

So now I'm about to get all of my stuff packed up to take to my first formal. It's at a really nice hotel in their main ballroom. I'm just hoping that my speakers will be loud enough.

Wish me luck!

-theFroshPrince

The Joys of Health

As promised, I took Tuesday and Wednesday off and slept. On Tuesday I went to all of my classes and as soon as I came back I crashed in bed. Since classes finish at around 2:50 and I got back around 3, I ended up going to sleep at about 3:30/4:00. I didn't wake up until 9:00 the next morning. I am now confident that sleep is definitely the best medicine. When I woke up on Wednesday I felt awesome. My cough was still there but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been and all of my headaches and stuff were gone. I was also totally energized (without caffeine!) which was another good thing. Since I didn't have class on Wednesday I decided to take it easy that day as well. I know that it was risky, especially with my 3 papers around the corner, but I needed to make sure that I was fully recuperated. On Thursday I started back working after class and today I've been working on my big paper all day.

Surprisingly, it's much easier to write when you don't feel like you're about to die :-)

-theFroshPrince

Yay!

After spending the entire weekend working on this paper for Friday, I just found out that the deadline has instead been pushed back to next Monday. This is probably a bad thing because it means that I'm just going to put it off now. However, I need to get some sleep. I'm ridiculously sick and I'm not sleeping as much as I should be. That being the case, I think that I am going to take those two extra days to get better so that I can write this paper in proper health. I have two more papers due next Tuesday which I intended to work on over the weekend (they're much shorter) but I guess I'll just have to juggle all three now. In retrospect it seems like a bad idea to have taken that gig on Saturday and the picnic on Sunday.

Oh well. If you love what you're doing, you make it work.

-theFroshPrince

Still Sick Part 2

So it's Saturday night and instead of being out enjoying myself I am writing my research paper and this blog entry from our lovely library. For the record I am still sick and I'm pretty sure that my coughing is annoying the people sitting across from me. But that's just too bad ;-) As for the paper, I spent all day yesterday and all day today (and when I say all day I mean from 10AM to 2AM) in the library gathering research and writing this stupid thing. But it's coming together. I'm almost done with the most research intensive part and once I get through that it should be smooth sailing. The paper is on crack sentencing discrepancies with regards to race and mandatory minimums (fun right?). Right now I'm writing about all of the different drug legislation that led up to where we are today and the societal climate surrounding their creation. But once I'm done with that I get to start talking about the situation today and what I think should be done about it. Writing that is going to be a lot easier than paraphrasing what a bunch of other people have said about these laws so there's definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately I can't do the fun stuff until I get this dredge work out of the way so I'm going to get back to it!

-theFroshPrince

P.S. I've gotten 3 more gigs in the past few days. One of them is at a club! And the best part is that they're all after I turn in my papers. That means I can't really practice for them but I'm confident enough in my skills to get by without it. I just have to make sure that I organize my music beforehand.

Still Sick

So I've been sick for the last couple of days and I'm not sure what I've got. I went to Student Health Services today (it's the student clinic) and got tested for strep but that came out negative. Typically when I have a sore throat it's gone after a couple of days but not this one. It's pretty stubborn I guess. The doctor prescribed me some pills that are about the size of horse tranquilizers that are supposed to break up all of the gunk in my throat and nose so hopefully those will work. If not I guess I'm going to have to keep on working and being sick. Luckily we only have about 2 more weeks of school left. I still have my two papers to write (I kind of slacked off of the schedule the last couple of weeks) but after talking with my teachers I didn't need all of that time anyway. The ten-pager shouldn't take me more than a few hours. It's the research paper I'm worried about. I have a feeling that that one is going to eat up the next week and a half. But it's on a topic that I'm really interested in so it shouldn't be too bad :-)

-theFroshPrince

Spring Fling

In order to relieve some of the stress that exists in the brief three week period before finals, my college established a tradition lovingly titled "Spring Fling." Spring Fling is a weekend-long event that is basically a big carnival that also has a lot of musical acts. It lasts from Friday to Saturday and consists of a lot of inflatables (moonbounces and the like) and two big stages that, combined, host more than 50 bands throughout the weekend. Needless to say it's a pretty good time. On top of that, Friday night there was a concert in our football stadium that had some really big name musical acts. I'm not at liberty to say who those acts were due to privacy issues, but let's just say you've probably heard of them ;-) While the Quad was the place to be in the daytime, nighttime was just as fun. It seemed as though every frat was having a party. Typically I'm not one for frat parties, but during Fling a lot of them were actually fun. A group of friends and I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights out partying and we all had a great time…

Unfortunately, last night I went to bed with a little bit of soreness in my throat and this morning I awoke with a full-blown sore throat/weakness/crazy congestion. The weather here has been pretty erratic and I've learned over the semester that my body is no good at adjusting. While that may be the case, I think that my sickly state is just a sign that the fun is over and it's time to get back to work. So that's what I'm going to do…after I take a nap.

-theFroshPrince

I Got Tickets!

There is a certain show on cable that I really like that has decided to shoot a few episodes on my college campus. When the host announced that tickets were available they were gone within 5 minutes of the announcement. However, the group on campus that handles student events managed to secure 500 tickets for students which they distributed through an internet lottery. I entered the lottery as soon as I found out about it and lo and behold…I got tickets!!! Exciting happenings indeed. So now I just have to pick someone to go with me (we can only bring one guest) and wait in line to pick up my tickets tomorrow. I think I'll pick them up before class so I get first dibs on the shooting date (you can only attend one taping). I've never been to an actual taping of a television show and this show is one of my favorites. The tone of this entry may not adequately convey my true excitement right now, but I would like to make it known that I am very, very, very, very, very, very, excited at the moment.

-theFroshPrince

More Fundraising

Yesterday I DJ'ed a charity event for a sorority that benefited St. Jude's Children's Hospital. It turned out to be awesome! The theme of the event was "Fiesta," which basically meant that I had to play nothing but Latin-inspired music. I ended up doing a set that consisted of Salsa, Merengue, Latin House (It's like techno but with Latin inspiration, if that makes sense), Reggaeton (Spanish rap), and stuff like Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. I was situated across from the party which happened to be on the main walkway of campus. And by main walkway I mean that if you want to get across campus, you have to walk on this walkway. This was good because it meant that anyone who walked by would hear me. I ended up having a lot of people ask me for my card and I got a lot of compliments and stuff which felt fantastic. I'm hoping that all of the free publicity will materialize into something but right now all that I can do is wait.

-theFroshPrince

Relay for Life

I'm not going to lie, this week was pretty dull. I didn't have any exams or anything of that nature which meant that it ended up just kind of flying by like usual. Right now I'm writing from the very back row of the gym waiting to start the Relay for Life. Relay for Life (as the name suggests) is a relay that raises money for cancer research. You sign up in teams (which set a goal for a certain amount of money to raise) and your team always has to have someone walking in the relay. Typically the event lasts overnight and is held outside. However, due to possible inclement weather and the resultant move to the gym, our relay was cut to around 8 hours. So instead of finishing at 8 in the morning, we'll be ending at 3 in the morning. It's ok though because it's really hot in here right now and I have a feeling that it's not going to get any cooler. But it's for a good cause so I can't complain :-)

-theFroshPrince

For more info on Relay for Life visit: http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/whatisrelay