Saturday June 12th, 1999

First, arrive on Saturday. I know this has been said before, but it is good advice and I'm repeating it. You will have time to unpack and meet some of the other students before your lives all become insane. Second, if you decide to road trip with other Clarion students, never trust the packing list they send to you in advance. People being people, they will either forget to ship ahead, or they will add a ton of stuff at the last minute. However, carpooling with other Clarion students is worth it.

I carpooled with Tim Harahan, a Clarion student from Illinois. Although we had a bit of a struggle to fit all of Tim H.'s stuff into my little Hyundai Excel, everything else worked out just fine. Tim turned out to be an entertaining co-pilot and an excellent navigator. The trip would have been much worse without him.

We finally arrive

With judicious speeding, we arrived at Owen Hall just after five. It was great timing. Eleven of the Clarion students had arrived before us. Everyone else was just about to leave for dinner, but they waited for me and Tim. They also unpacked my car and helped us haul everything upstairs. (Actually, I should clarify something here: I had so many eager helpers that I did not have to carry anything. When you're pregnant, everyone treats you as if you were made of spun glass. Sometimes this can be frustrating, but right then it was very useful.) It was noted that so far I have the distinction of being the lightest packer in the group, as all I had was two small suitcases and a laptop.

Dinner was fun, and afterwards we did a tour of everyone's rooms to look at the cool things they had brought along. My room, by the way, is in a dream location for an extrovert. The Clarion students are scattered between two hallways that meet in an 'L' and in the corner room of the 'L' is me. Everyone will pass by my room, so I will have to put a lid on my impulse to socialize if I'm going to get writing done.

The rooms at Owen Hall are small and quirky, but very well designed. I have never seen rooms with so many different places to stow stuff before. There are storage cubbies everywhere. The bed transforms easily into a couch, and I was able to tuck everything I had out of sight. I'm not going to have many excuses to be messy while I'm here. The rooms also have semi-private bathrooms that are shared with the adjoining room, a fact that I discovered when I walked in on my "potty mate," Karen Meisner. She was not yet dressed. "Hi," I said cheerfully, trying to cover my embarrassment, "I'm Hilary!"

She blinked. "My, you are outgoing, aren't you?"

I'm wondering if she will let me live this one down.

My Snail Mail Address

In case any of you are inspired to send me cards, care packages, or scantily clad exotic dancers, my address is:

Hilary Moon Murphy
E346 Owen Graduate Center
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48825-1109

By the way, Andy, if you are reading this, I saw the card you stuck in my suitcase. It was very sweet. Thank you!

Computer Woes

It was only after I had completely unpacked and said goodnight to everyone that I discovered something awful. My laptop, the only piece of equipment that was absolutely essential, is out of commission. It will not turn on, and both the batteries and the power cord are fine. (We checked.) My entire writing life was in that computer. What happened? I don't know. Maybe an internal wire got jostled during the long, bumpy trip. Yes, I know that I can get a rental or type in the campus computer labs for a while, but this really depresses me. I am currently writing this journal on pen and paper, until I can transcribe it for you. God, I hope that I can get it fixed, and soon.

Hmm