So, while life has not actually started to slow down, I have gotten some big presentations out of the way. I spent fall break in Cary, NC this year to show my stuff at a day-long final interview for TFA (Yes, that's me in a suit of sorts to make a good impression). It felt nice to look all sleek and put-together. My roommate, Stephanie, is a business major and always knows how to dress up professionally. I'd say I felt a lot like her.
Because I spent most of my short fall break preparing for the interview, I spent the rest of it catching up on neglected homework while attempting hibernation. Some highlights were Indian food, shopping w/David, making dark chocolate chip pancakes from scratch in the late afternoon, taking Gizmo to the dog park, and going to see Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story (I cried). 
The break in general, though, was filled with lots of cute animals. That's Gizmo above wondering what-in-the-world I'm doing, flashing at him like some paparazzi. I'm basically obsessed with getting him to like me, even when I'm not holding food in my hands.
And here's a very recent picture of Irina (who came to David's home with me). She's still alive and kicking (not to mention biting). In just a couple of months I will have had her for one year! It's exciting, but also a little depressing because I think her breed is only supposed to live for about 16 months (and she hasn't grown that much since I got her). She, too, was curious about the camera.
And this is a picture taken from my powerpoint presentation (yesterday). I had to give my "Presentation of Progress" for honors. I went first and despite my nerves everyone said I did an outstanding job. It was actually a really nice opportunity to get 15 minutes to tell an audience (some, complete strangers) about a project that I've almost been working a year on now. The other presenters in my group were wonderful too. I was lucky to be in a fun, creative, enthusiastic group. There were eight concurrent presentation sessions spread across two floors and grouped by like-majors so that all of the 37 honors students could present within two hours. My group had an art major (me), an art history major (my talented and genius friend, Nichole), a Music Technology major (rock n roll Andrew), a Theatrical Design and Production major (cute and confident Sarah Linn) and a Music Theatre major (Topher, who was wearing his signature vest).
Nichole is doing a presentation comparing perceptions between flat, abstracted paintings and their realistic, 3-d (using perspective) counterparts (Flat Can Be Deep: A Perspective on the Valuation and Common Perceptions of Two-Dimensional Artworks). Andrew is busy writing, directing and composing music for a Rock Opera with a story line comparable to Westside Story (Beautiful Disease: A Rock Tragedy). Sarah Linn is stage managing the spring musical (State Management for Musical Theatre: An Artistic Presentation of Elon University's 2009 Fall Musical, "Kiss Me, Kate"). I loved learning a lot about what goes on behind the scenes and I will never look at her in the same way now, knowing all the hard work that she is doing. Lastly, Topher is writing the script and lyrics for an original musical (Finding "i.d.": Developing an Original Musical within the Workshop Process). I'm really excited to see Topher's musical in the spring because last spring I went with some friends to see a preview and the writing was hilarious as well as the music fantastic and inspiring. In a sentence, his musical revolves around a young woman with dissociative identity disorder whose father has just died.
Speaking of fathers, my dad is coming on Tuesday. I can't wait because he's going to take me to a bike store to get a rack which I can use to tie a milk crate to. Kind of like this:
Love,
Monica
P.S. David and I might venture out to the football game. That might change, though, as it's Homecoming weekend and crowded like mad. Our back-up plan is to see the lemurs at Duke.
