I signed up for most of next quarter's classes the other day. I was going to sign up for Intro to Jazz Dance, but it was closed already, so I went with Modern II/III, the sequel to the class that I took with Ricardo last quarter. Ricardo is currently in this class, so I'll have to ask him what the instructor's like. From what he's told me already, though, it sounds like the moves are going to get much more complicated, and I'll actually have to do some choreography. But I'm really excited to dance again - not just at dances or in my room, but in a professional sense with choreographed moves in a group.

The other classes I got are Socy 10 and 15. 10 is Problems in American Society, or something to that effect, and I'll have that class with Tatiana. 15 is World Society, and I have that class with Ricardo. For my last class, I have to wait until next week to sign up, but I'm hoping that World Lit: Time/Space will stay open. My first choice, Language and Social Interaction, was full before I could get it, so I'm stuck taking another Lit class. But Time/Space sounds pretty interesting: it examines lit from the perspectives of time and physical boundaries around the Pacific Rim. If I get that class, as planned, then I'll have a very nice schedule next quarter. No early classes and only one night discussion, so I'll get enough sleep! And not as much reading.

This week, all the students are protesting at all the UC schools, including ours, against the regent's raise of the tuition by 32%. On Wednesday, there was a giant strike at the front and west gates, and then they occupied Kerr Hall, the financial and administrative offices. They're still there. In fact, my co-workers took the leftover food from work today to feed them. I considered joining, but strikes and occupations do not appeal to me as a way to oppose things. They often inconvience people and damage things more than they help, especially if things get out of control, like a couple weeks ago when some students destroyed some furniture in a building, and they had the students pay to fix the damages, and focused more on that than the actual issues being protested. I prefer a more peaceful way of protesting that doesn't involve a chance of being arrested, and missing class, etc. In my Creative Writing class, we're going to write creative stories/letters to the people in charge to get their attention and let them know that these fee raises are not acceptable, not when the students aren't getting anything from the extra cost except for library hour cuts, less teachers, and larger lecture classes. It doesn't make any sense that we have to pay that much more to get THEM out of debt while they're continuing to cut more and more of our education benefits out.

In other news, next week is Thanksgiving, and I found out that Patrick (my gay friend who lives next door) is also staying at UCSC for Thanksgiving, so we've planned to try and cook a turkey for the holiday. It'll be interesting since we don't have a rack or pan or thermometer or anything to cook it with. haha. We'll have to go on a hunt for the stuff we need. But it should be really fun.

Tonight, there are two dances. I called Ricardo, but he didn't answer, so I'm hoping that he'll call me back soon. Otherwise, I'm a one-man team tonight at the Beatles dance. Although, chances are that even if he doesn't call, I'll probably see him there if I go. I also kind of want to play DDR, but I can't play on my floor. I'll have to see if Ricardo wants to play at his apartment, or if I can find someone else with a TV and a first floor apartment who wants to dance. There are a lot of events this weekend - an arts and crafts event, a student film festival, a battle of the bands, and a retreat to childhood at Heather's house where they'll be reading children's books aloud and having cookies and tea. I plan on going to Heather's event, at least, because her's sounds awesome and unique. I'll probably not go to the others. I have to write a paper this weekend, too.

On Monday, Kim had her music event - she gave everyone in her buildings a blank CD, which they then put their favorite music on, and she swapped everyone's CD's. Monday, she had everyone over for cookies, milk, and other goodies to find out who had who's CD's. It was a pretty good event. About halfway through, Ricardo arrived, which was funny because everyone in the room was from Kresge, and he had to introduce himself as a random person from Oakes - to which everyone did the "OOAKES" call. After the event ended, I went with Ricardo to Stevenson College, where his friends were waiting to watch the meteor shower on a grassy knoll. As it so happens, I actually knew one of the people there from kayaking. I don't know how, but Ricardo seems to know all the people from my kayaking class because I keep re-meeting them through him. Watching the meteor shower, it was freezing outside, but eventually we were all too numb to notice. Our eyes were fixated on the sky, where it was a challenge to see meteors since they didn't happen at any particular spot in the sky, but seemed to occur randomly. I'd be looking straight up, and the next thing I knew, people would gasp and point at the horizon... and then I would swear and watch that part of the sky, only to hear them all gasp and point in the opposite direction. So when I DID see a meteor, it was when I happened to be lucky and looking in the right spot. Overall, though, the show was pretty slow and the meteors were pretty small and disappointing. As the climax of the shower arrived, we all started to get impatient and started urging the meteors on - "Come on, just one big one, please?!?" - and then we started making sexual jokes - you know, "climax" of the meteor shower, "white streaks" of meteors, etc,etc. - and it progressed from there until we were all laughing at the most ridiculous of suggestive comments. Finally, we decided to leave... and it was just then that 4 giant meteors came in quick succession, and we all ooh-ed and ahh-ed in amazement. Then, of course, it took us longer to actually leave. But I did eventually get home, and did eventually sleep, although not for very long.

The weekend was an interesting one, too. Me, Silvia, and Ricardo went to the show Animals of Omaha, and it was hilarious because the two gay characters were my friends, and they had a kissing scene and everything... but in real life, neither of them is gay. AWKWARD! haha. Then Ricardo joined us for a game of Scrabble and Flux. The next day, me and Silvia got breakfast and then Katie called - she just happened to be in town with nothing to do, so I joined her and we walked from Swift to the beach, all the way across Westcliff to the Boardwalk, from the Boardwalk to downtown, just talking the whole time. It was very nice. I myself was tempted to go down to the beaches, since it was low tide, but Katie didn't want to. I kind of wish Ricardo had been there - I know HE would've been all for the beach, and even for swimming, if I'd wanted to.

Other than that, the only interesting tidbit I have left to tell you about is that Ricardo now knows that I identify as asexual. He brought it up as he was telling me about this crush he has on a guy he likes. Apparently, Toro told him. I was a little caught off-guard that he knew, but it was okay, and he seemed to accept it - he was just curious, I guess. What I'm curious to know is what Ricardo and Toro were talking about that brought up the topic - were they talking about me? I wonder what they said to one another. But I guess I'll never know because I didn't ask.