on my first week of school

I have two goals this Labor Day: do my nails and get comfortable with chemistry. I’m already well on my way to accomplishing both; my toenails are done and I’m halfway through my end-of-chapter practice problems. Hurray!

While everyone else is diving into fall with the emergence of pumpkin-EVERYTHING, I’m resisting the urge and hanging onto summer for at least one more month by sporting teal and coral nail polish before bringing out my arsenal of “fall” colors. You can read more on my “seasonal” categories of nail polish here and here. I just got Essie’s “Carry On,” a really deep yet vibrant purple, which I can’t wait to try for fall. I was going to use it today, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving summer behind in the beginning of September…

Anyway, back to school…

I love school. I loved it the first time around (for the most part) and have really embraced the thought of being a student for the next few years. It’s a little weird being older than everyone else, but I’m still in the “relatively young” category. Us “older folks” in my classes have kind of gravitated toward each other, which is nice. This time around, however, I sit in the front row, have to resist the urge to “ssshh” my teeny-bopper classmates and take notes feverishly.

I’ve been mostly impressed so far with ECC’s classes and teachers. I have a mix of teachers, ranging from a young-ish guy who must have his masters’ to a very old Indian man with his Ph.D. All of them seem genuinely interested in their students’ success and there is a little more ‘hand-holding’ than I was used to at Penn State. The classes are even small enough to take attendance!

I am definitely anxious about some of the math aspects of my chemistry and anatomy classes. It’s seriously SIMPLE stuff, and I vaguely remember it from high school, but I’m really having a hard time! I’m hoping it’s only because I’ve been away from it all for so long (10 years!), and that it will start coming back with practice. I rocked high school chemistry–seriously, I did. This self-proclaimed math- and science-phobe scored the highest GPA in chemistry way back when, to include all the bona fide science nerds. I’m still not quite sure how I did it, except that I studied a lot, wanted to impress my teacher and I actually did “get” the chemistry to some degree. So, there is hope I’ll “get it” again, and soon! Definitely going to have to hit-up Andrew for some chemistry-equation tutoring…

Speaking of Andrew… He’s been off mountain biking all morning with some guys from work. Jealous! Well, a little. I’m all for mountain biking on a much tamer level than he is. I’m excited to get a bike; I haven’t had one in years! If we buy a house in the village, I can’t wait to get one on which I can toodle around town and to which I can attach a basket. I mean, can’t you just see me riding over to the bakery to pick up a loaf of bread? Ha! I can’t wait! And I need to have some sort of mountain bike… I can’t let Andrew have all the fun alone!

OK, lunch- and blog-break over! Back to chemistry!

EA Co-op

Some of you know that I’ve gotten involved with the East Aurora Cooperative Market, which is still in the forming stages here. They have a board and are working on growing their member base before moving onto the next step, such as working on selecting an actual space for the store and raising money.

Yikes! Totally did not notice the woman in the tie-dyed spandex shorts when I was taking the photo…

Anyway, with my writing/PR/photography background and interests, I’ve joined the “media/communications” team of volunteers, mostly in a photographing and blogging capacity. The first thing I’ve gotten involved with is the mural project.

Alix Martin, above left and center, is a local artist who owns a gallery and has also gotten involved with the co-op. She volunteered to paint a mural on the outside brick wall of the co-op building. She’s been recruiting youngsters, some her own and some from other members of the co-op, to help with the project.

What I’ve done is document the mural on the EA co-op’s blog. I’ve really enjoyed meeting new people through the co-op and delving more into photography and blogging, although I STILL have yet to really teach myself how to use Andrew’s camera. With school now, I’m not sure I see that happening any time soon…

But, thankfully my new friends at the co-op don’t think my lack of photography skills is a show-stopper, so I’ll keep on clicking away, both at the camera and the keyboard. In fact, I have another project to start working on: being their FOOD BLOGGER!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to do this. The more I think about it, the more perfect it seems to me. I love blogging about food, but thefrozenpineapple isn’t just about food; it’s about everything that makes me, well, ME. I’ve struggled a lot with how to “define” this blog (not that it’s necessary to do so, by any means) and I’ve never felt like an ‘exclusive’ food blogger, because there is just so much more to this than food.

Which is why being the food blogger for the co-op will be a fantastic complement to what I’m doing now!

I’ll write a weekly “food column” of sorts that will focus on seasonal, local produce with information and recipes. I’m going to try to come up with as many recipes on my own as I can for this “column,” which I’m looking forward to and see as a bit of a challenge. I’m highly recipe-driven, not because I’m not creative, but because I enjoy actually USING the cookbooks I’ve bought and really, these cookbook authors know what they’re doing. Anyway, I’ll try to come up with recipes on my own, but depending on lots of factors (my school work and time, ingredients, creativity), I may have to resort to promoting some of my favorite chef’s recipes as well.

I’m starting with a promo for the “Locavore Challenge,” which is run by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, and is something the co-op is helping to promote. It’s a month-long campaign to both educate and encourage consumers to buy/grow/eat local, organic food. In just perusing the list of ways to be involved, I realized I already do a bunch of them already, shopping at a farmer’s market, growing a backyard garden, buying local honey and composting kitchen scraps. One of the things to do for the challenge is to either host or attend a potluck in the month of September that features local, organic food. The co-op wants to get the word out and give members ideas on what to make for their potluck, which is where I come in!

My post on that should be out this weekend, so I’ll let you all know when that goes live. So exciting!

If you’d like to follow me and my “food column,” (I’m trying to come up with a short, catchy “name” for it to differentiate it from other posts I do for the co-op, like the mural project or other “newsy” items) stay tuned to the EA co-op’s blog to see what they’re up to and what I come up with for them. I’ve linked to their blog on my blogroll, which is in the lower right of your computer screen.

here’s to multiple choice

Had my first night class tonight–Psych 100. I am, apparently, one of the only people who DIDN’T take Intro to Psychology in college the first time around. I did, however, take Sociology 100, as I learned from my transcripts. (Nope, didn’t remember taking it at all.)

The psych teacher explained to us tonight that because she herself is in her last year of graduate school, she doesn’t have time to read papers. Therefore, she said, we are the luckiest psych students at ECC, if not all college-dom, because there will be no writing assignments this semester. The sighs of relief emitted from my classmates was AUDIBLE.

I was, perhaps, the only one in class who was just the tiniest bit disappointed. Yes, you heard that right. Disappointed.

Don’t get me wrong; essays and papers and book reports are time-consuming, and time will be in short supply around here for the forseeable future, so I’m not that upset. But I did feel a slight pang of sadness that the ONE thing I know I’m good at, that I’m totally comfortable with, that I spent my ENTIRE four years of college the first time around doing, will not be a part of the only class it could have been. I mean, I’m basically taking all science from here on out…

Here’s to all the extra studying I’ll be able to do with all the time I’m going to save NOT writing for psych!