This has been a very eventful week. From the 4 day weekend to the birthday of Sheldon and the first hockey game of the semester Oswego has had a lot to buzz about. The four day weekend for me was especially nice giving me a few days to catch my breath from all the work and monotony of my schedule. I personally love not having to wake up at 8 Thursday and Friday for class and sleeping in so it was especially nice. I had time to review material that I was unsure about and since I didn’t have any lab reports to do time to sleep.
Since I finished my Pchem lab fairly early I also had time to enjoy the birthday of SUNY Oswego’s founder Edward A. Sheldon. This was on the 4th in the quad. There was free food including BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, cup cakes, and apple cider which was enough to attract most students, not just the ones who bleed green and yellow. There was a group picture taken by the lagoon after which we sang happy birthday to Sheldon and I was off to Pchem lecture. All in all it was a fun week but its back to being tethered to my books and Snygg.

                With all my classes in full swing it hardly feels like it hardly feels like summer break even happened. Even the Oswego weather seems to have forgotten unleashing a small cold front to remind people that summer is over. Though the cold has been bad the 1-2 punch that comes with having physical Chem lab and analytical lab the same day has me reeling. Although it hasn’t come close to knocking me down.

                Chemistry Club however is doing very well having our liquid nitrogen ice cream social last Friday. It was a fun time to meet some of the newer chemistry majors, and connect with faculty. My fellow officers and I mixed the milk and cream with the chocolate and strawberry toppings adding the liquid nitrogen ever so slowly. We then played chemistry jeopardy. There were a team of most of the officers and two other teams; the officers, of course, were able to make a comeback victory against the other teams winning beaker mugs! Though the other teams lost I’m sure that they had fun and will try again next year. We also set up an official general ChemClub meeting time and day; so the year is off to an auspicious start.

Hah. I’m a Post-It note addict. Now I’ll never forget!….. or will I?! Muahahaha

Um anyway, today I wanted to blog about something that has evaded me for most, if not all of my college career. That’s right, people…. perfect overachieving me is FLAWED! Totally kidding. Since moving to Oswego for school, I just haven’t quite gotten the romance part of college figured out. Maybe I went on a date or two (dining hall lunches DO count if you refuse to go Dutch and guest pass for your commuter’s meal. Just sayin’) but I never got the hang of it. It seemed that college boys just weren’t ever interested in me.

I met Matt in April of my freshman year. I had gone out dancing with a few of my friends after much convincing (I was kind of a hermit for the first two years of college). He had come down to Oswego for the night with about a dozen other soldiers from Fort Drum. A tall, very broad guy with a cute smile approached me while I was dancing with my friends and like a cowboy displaced from a country song came this thick Southern accent, and the mystery man introduced himself as Matt. I immediately went starry-eyed. Southern accents get me every time. We talked and laughed with his Army buddies until my friends decided it was time to go home. We exchanged numbers, said goodbye, and I headed home already crafting the text message in my head.

To make a long story short, nearly two and a half years have gone by and I can safely say Matt is my best friend. Most people on the outside looking in see this relationship with Matt as new, blossoming, and in its infancy. Some may even say we’re moving too fast. I say…… it’s about time! On the surface things are new because we had not been together in person for two and a half years. The Army life isn’t very forgiving to couples. Through the years we have known each other, Matt has deployed to Iraq, been home on leave, and been stuck on base without the opportunity to go out…. and each day we did our best to still keep in touch via the Internet, texting, phone calls, and even care packages. For some reason, we just couldn’t coordinate a date to meet up until I returned to Oswego for my last semester. The drive to Fort Drum is a bit lengthy, but I don’t mind it. 75 minutes there and back is just a minor inconvenience to me, considering that I feel as though everything has finally come full-circle. I have found a wonderful person who spoils me rotten (he says I just haven’t been treated well and I’ll get used to it. hehe  :D), who laughs uncontrollably at a certain way I scrunch up my face, who eats my homecooked meals and cleans the entire kitchen afterwards, and who encourages me to be comfortable in my own skin.

Anyone can be taught a skill – this I have come to realize in my six elapsed semesters at Oswego. But sometimes, you don’t leave college with just a diploma. You leave with another person’s hand in yours.

I don’t know where this will go, but all I know is that I amFinally, so happy. 🙂

               The summer has come and gone and now it’s back to the work maelstrom. With three upper division chemistry classes the training wheels are officially off my classes. Though I have made it past the gate keeper of the chemistry major (organic chemistry) it will be this semester more than any other that will determine if my career in chemistry, my future as a molecular architect, and my skills in chemical investigations will be lofted to detective status or will be taking a long, slow decent into the river Styx. All the math, physics, chemistry, and research skills I have gained throughout my two years will be tested. However, I am optimistic that I can succeed if I can tighten my belt and head boldly into the maelstrom.

               My third year will push my analytical skills and physical understanding of the world to new bounds. It will test my leadership skills and will at times gauche at my time management. This is the time when I will earn all the “Oh’s” and “Ah’s” that I get when I tell people that I’m a chemistry major. These first few days have shown me just how intensive the phrases “junior chemistry major” and “Chem Club president” will be and just how ready I am.

Okay, so the summer got away from me. It happens. But let me just say, it was quite the ride.

I wrapped up my internship with WBLI and WBAB just before returning back to school. I wish I had actually kept up to date on my blogging so that I could have really given all of my readers an in-depth view of an internship radio industry, but I will do my best to play catch-up. Here’s an excerpt I wrote in my journal during the summer that I wanted to share here:

“Every Wednesday, I wake up at 4:15am on the dot and I’m out the door by 5:15am to get to the BLI studios just before 6am. During my studio shift of 6am-9am, I pull half hour sections of the morning show from the studio inventory as the morning progresses, and I created podcasts from segments that are featured on the show. For example, last week Dana and Jeffrey talked about a news story involving a peacock that broke into someone’s house and snuck into bed with the unsuspecting homeowner. Dana and Jeffrey are always hilarious and offer up some great commentary on these little segments. My job is to string together the segment, edit out the breaks, make it sound sharp and coherent, insert opening and closing station IDs, and publish to the website. Wednesdays are also the day that we air ‘To Catch A Cheater”, a segment focused on a caller’s predicament involving a significant other that is believed to be cheating. Dana and Jeffrey essentially get the “cheater” to ‘fess up through role-playing, and the audience and caller are in on the “sting”! I’ll create the podcast for that as well, and publish it to the website for listeners to download and replay at their own leisure.

My other obligations during studio time involve creating on-air promotional pieces for the Morning Show that air throughout the day. These consist of 5 second witty one-liners from a segment that morning, plus the opening and closing sound effects and station IDs.

We also have office shifts where we participate in what is considered the behind-the-scenes work to help the station run smoothly. Tasks range from updating listener contact information databases, to calling contest winners, to keeping promotional items stocked, and other odd jobs. This isn’t your stereotypical coffee-slave internship! Because of my phone skills, my site supervisor referred me to a friend in the sales department who put my skills to the test as an interview screener. This meant that I would conduct recorded phone interviews with sales interviewees of Cox Media Group Long Island. Basically, I was just a friendly voice on the other side of the phone, feeding screening questions to the prospective employee. It was pretty awesome being an intern and getting to interview people for real positions in the company!

The final piece of the internship puzzle is the wonderful world of promotional events. Have you ever been to a benefit walk or maybe a car dealership or festival where you’ve seen a radio station tent set up? I get to work at these kinds of events for internship credit! In my first two weeks, I have: driven the station’s van in a parade, interacted with fans at a minor league baseball game, provided music and prizes at a blood drive, and attended an in-store musical performance with 5 lucky fans and their guests. BUT, the possibilities are endless, and every week, there are new experiences to be a part of. As interns, we are encouraged to choose events that we are interested in and passionate about, and believe me, I am taking advantage of these experiences.” (Editor’s note: Some other events I did this summer included the Long Island Nassau County vs. Suffolk County Police Tug of War Benefit for the Wounded Warrior Project, Long Island Summer Marathon series, Tour de Cure Bicycle Race for Diabetes, 7-11 store events, Contractor Appreciation Party, Adventureland Family Theme Park, and lots more.)

So there ya have it. My summer in a nutshell. Wish you were all there!

Here’s a picture of the front page that I made for our e-mail list sign up binder. I was so proud of my work! Gotta love those Polaroids 🙂

As I said in a previous post , Ive been enjoying the summer life. Now as great as all the barbecuing may be , and as much as I’ve enjoyed my trips to Rudys & Bev’s. There comes a time when the fun must be taken indoors. This has less to do with exhaustion and more to do with those wretched mosquitoes! In any event. During those moments of quiet , I have been doing quite a bit of reading.These are the books that are on my list of reads( in no particular order) before summers out.

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin( finished)

City of Thieves by David Beinoff

The Cross of Redemption by James Baldwin

Seat of the Soul by Gary Zuhkov

Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin

The Strawberry Statement by James Simon Kunen

The Celestine Prophecy By James Redfield

N***** An Autobiography by Dick Gregory

My ultimate goal was to finish this list before school starts back up , and I definitely intend to try! The only foreseeable issue is that with every book I read or day that passes , I add at least two more books to the list. Oh well. Maybe what I will do when I finish, is make a list of the books I liked in order of impact and relevance to my own life and what I gained from each read. Until then. I’m off to read and enjoy the day , as you should.

-Peace