I had plans, majestic and beautiful plans, to be all cool and post new entries every day for two weeks leading up to JournalCon. Suddenly, those plans had to be revised to one week, and now, they've changed again. How's one day? Sound good? I hope so, 'Cause, people, that's ALL I'VE GOT!

Time has gotten away from me in a hurry, what with all the busyness of school and work, and school. And work. And... school?

But somehow, I'm managing to stay at least somewhat afloat ("though I'm sitting in a leaky boat..." -Ted Leo & The Pharmacists). The amount of reading my professors have assigned is astounding. No wonder I never read anything last quarter! Ha! But this quarter, I vowed to be a good student, and study, and read, and take notes on the reading, and yeah. So far, it's kind of working. I just need to bust ass a little harder to catch up. One problem? Some of this stuff is not stuff my mind wants to listen to! I'm all, STOP WITH THE NEUROTRANSMITTERS ALREADY! Do I really want to know about GABA and norepinephrine and the lateral geniculate nucleus and other weird long words that have somehow become a recent part of my vocabulary? No. But I have to make myself, and that's the hard part. I'm sure I'll eventually train my brain to chill out and let the complex concepts in for the party.

Speaking of school, I had this awesome start to an entry the other day. It was about the start of school being the quintessential symbol of Fall's arrival. How Mabon, the autumnal equinox, brought with it new textbooks and new pens, a brand new planner, and my first ever UCLA notebook, with UCLA written in gold capital letters across a blue background on the cover (our school colors). But then I got sidetracked! After only two sentences! So here I am trying to remember where I was with that. Right, okay...

Being back in school was definitely exciting the first week. I rode the bus for the first time! I walked to school for the first time! And, all my professors are men this quarter, and that is definitely a first. Even my T.A.s are guys! Crazy.

Now, I've settled in. Being a senior doesn't feel quite as cool as I expected it to. That's only because it feels pretty much exactly the same as last year, actually. Even though I was excited to be back, it was evident on the first day that nothing much had changed. In fact, it was like time had stopped on campus, and here we all were again, starting over, as if a three month gap separating last year from this one had never even occurred. In a way, that's a good thing, because getting back into the flow of school stuff was pretty easy.

I've seen familiar faces, and in two of my classes, I have friends to sit with! Ruthie is in my last two classes of the day, and Belinda is in my middle class. It's so good to see them again! Also, I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which makes me super happy. This is officially the best school schedule I've ever had!

My classes this Fall are Abnormal Psychology, Human Sexuality, and Sensation and Perception. Even though they're a lot of work, they are all very interesting classes. Sensation and Perception is the most complicated right now, having to do with anatomy of the eyeball and brain and how we actually perceive images, etc. I just had my first midterm in Abnormal Psych today, which went pretty well, I think. I only purely guessed in a "WTF is this??" way about three or four times. That's pretty good for a 44 question exam! It was mostly about anxiety, as that's the section we just finished studying. And let me tell you, that was a weird experience. I actually have an anxiety disorder, so to discuss it in class, and read about my own symptoms in a textbook was kind of a surreal experience. It did nothing to help my symptoms, either - in fact, having the information so salient in my life, right there in the focus of my attention, as something I was supposed to be studying, made it all the more difficult to deal with the actual experience of those symptoms in my everyday life. It was quite bizarre. In case you were wondering, I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as a young child, and, as my textbook says, "Once the disorder develops, it tends to be chronic." I am worlds better than I was as a kid, and I manage my anxiety pretty well, for the most part. Some days are better than others, though. This may warrant a whole entry of its own.

The most interesting thing I've learned so far in Human Sexuality is that Bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) are the only non-human primate species that, like humans, have sex for non-reproductive purposes. That is fascinating! I love that other species of animals are evolving to experience recreational sex. Maybe all animals will do that, someday? Interesting to think about!

Well, the extra fun tidbit I forgot to mention is that my home internet access is crashing often. It's enough to drive me up the wall. Soon, we will have DSL, because unreliable internet connectivity is for suckers!

Anyway, that's the gist of the beginning of Fall over here. That, and a bit of cooler weather mixed with some rain and thunder has made for a nice start to the season. And tomorrow, JournalCon! Stories and entries to come, soon!