I wanna go home.

Soooooo the past week has been fairly uneventful. Lotsa school+more free time than usual+no family+no Ian= Autum is homesick. Yup, it has finally happened.

I was so busy during the first month of the quarter that I had literally no time to think about any homesickness. Now that things have sort of slowed down, I have plenty of time to realize that I am pretty damn alone. It's a very weird feeling to be surrounded by people and be lonely.

And how does Autum deal with this loneliness? (Sorry for the third person references, I have no idea why I keep using them.) The answer: she withdraws. She kind of shuts down, barricades herself in her cave and doesn't socialize like an adult. This causes all kinds of problems of course. Other people pick up on my mood, misunderstand it, and end up in bad moods of their own= shitty.

I want to apologize if I've been sort of standoffish this week. Bryan, I should have called you back. I will this week. I just thought I might start bawling if I talked to you and that's fairly unattractive. (I have a great story about how I met five very attractive gay men on a bus last night by the way. I even got a number for your/our future use.)

Quite frankly, I miss you guys. But, as I told myself I would from the beginning, I will suck it up and perservere because I owe it to myself to dedicate everything I have to this program. What did I tell you to tell me if I whined about coming home, Mom? Oh yeah. "Autum, you got into one of the top three journalism schools in the country, stop whining and man up."

Now that is some logic I can run with. :)

In other news, I went out with the Medillians last night (Lab Awesome as we like to call ourselves) to this cute place called Funk. One of the people in our group won a VIP party where everybody got free cover and free drinks between a certain time. I documented like crazy and took some very incriminating/
AWESOME photos of the J-school kids doing what they do best - being fucking crazy. And I wore a dress.

I also got the chance to cover the Chinese New Year Festival at Navy Pier last weekend which was pretty much a journalist's dream. The PR person not only introduced herself to me but also dragged me around to all kinds of people she thought might be able to help my story. I put together an audio slideshow out of the whole thing that I'm quite proud of. My professor said he thinks I have a great radio voice, "nice and deep" - which I find pretty hilarious.
Now I know that if this journalism thing doesn't work out, I have a possible future in phone sex. Awesome.

I also went out with the roomies to an Evanston bar last week. Twas quite enjoyable. I have nothing too interesting to say about it because I'm feeling uninteresting. So sue me. I can be dull if I want to!

In other news, 11 days until Ian comes to visit again for V-day (Yes I do have the best boyfriend ever thankyouverymuch. He's pretty awesome.) I can't wait! I tend to be at my happiest/most contented when he is around.

Now, to cheer myself up, I'm going to watch kitties. I would suggest you do the same.

I hope you all are well. I promise to be in touch more often here soon. I miss you!

As always,

Peace, love, perseverance.