School...
Bina
Bina is one of those really cool people that most of us never notice because she doesn't advertise herself. She doesn't need to. People who would like her just gravitate toward her by a strange force that scientists have yet to identify, mostly because they haven't noticed it. Maybe it's the moon.
She introduced me to Cheryl Wheeler, a "Folk Singer" whom I highly recommend, and to the wonders of Jimmy Buffett. She is also the person responsible for me owning every single Lois McMaster Bujold book ever published. Sad...
Bina is game for almost anything that doesn't involve idiocy or talking to strangers, and she loves Gaming itself. She has convincingly played sociopaths, tricksters, and a Southern gentleman (you should hear that accent!). As for hobbies, she easily picked up dancing, playing the flute, sketching, fiction writing, and random foreign languages. It seems that she is at least competant (and often quite good) at whatever she feels like doing at the moment.
However, her favorite activity is wandering out in the wilderness, on land or sea. She loves all four seasons, climbing trees, and proto-sentient creatures. Her life exists quietly on the edge of the undefinable, and it doesn't seem to affect her sanity too much, but only time will tell if dealing with the rest of us has changed that ^_^
Raven News Alert: Bina is going to grad school up in Canada, at Dalhousie. Augh! But at least it's not British Columbia. Anyone who has access to a working transporter, please contact us! We will pay in chocolate!
Mimi
Mimi is the sort of person you never seem to know. If she doesn't feel comfortable, she disappears, and if she can't actually disappear, she fakes it really well. On more than one occasion, I've heard people ask "where's Mimi?" when she was standing right next to them. Once or twice, I was the one doing the asking (Gomen ne, Kumicho?).
Mimi has extraordinary patience- she was kind enough to help me with photography and Japanese despite my slowness. She also has excellent taste in anime and music- everyone else's addictions are entirely her fault. She owns more electronics per cubic meter of space than anyone else I know, though this makes her personal Murphy's law something along the lines of "you will never have enough boxes to pack at the end of the year."
Besides being kind of a Goth with incredible fashion sense, Mimi is also an artist (though she denies it) and a collector of classy stuff (her junk is stuff; my stuff is junk). She may go into economics, but I really hope she goes into film production or something like, because she'll have more fun. Anime, music, and art are about the only things she'll discuss, but Mimi is the person I find when I'm bored- at the very least, we can watch episode 28 of Rurouni Kenshin together (again). (motto shinsengumi sanbantai kumicho Saitoh Hajime!)
Kristin
I mention Kristin next because she and Mimi come as a pair, as far as I ever see her. It just wouldn't be right not to reveal Miko's partner in crime and to make it look like our kumicho was responsible for everything by herself... ^_^
Anyway, Kristin is the other reason everyone is addicted to anime. She has this thing about Kenshin (from Rurouni Kenshin)- she has this great life-size poster of him on her closet door... So kawaii. She is also the okashira of Wellesley Anime for the 98-00 school year (yes, that's two full years) and the keeper of the Rurouni Kenshin Archive, so check it out.
Kristin throws great parties, but she can be really vicious. Not only does she own a plastic katana (I assume it's a katana- hard to tell), but she also plays a mean game of spoons. And she puts on quite a party when she decides to. How many other students have a tiny Christmas tree in the corner of their rooms? Definitely funny farm material, this one.
Sarah
Sarah was my suitemate my junior year, and I have never met anyone with as much tea, soap, or room decorations. When hell freezes over, she'll be able to offer everyone hot tea and cider. We once held a sleepover party in her room for half a dozen people, and we bought no decorations at all, even though we blew up a bag full of balloons, put up Christmas lights, and hung streamers everywhere.
She also owns more stuffed animals than I have cousins (I think- my parents are still counting...), though only about 30 of them (the stuffed animals, not the cousins) live at school with her. In fact, they all live on the bed. How do they fit? The world may never know.
Sarah has a problem saying 'no'. Not to drugs- she doesn't even take aspirin unless she has to- but to people who want a piece of her time. "Sarah, we need you to help clean up today"; "Sarah, can you be at practice a half hour early today?"; and "Sarah, will you run coronation?" are all questions I've heard her answer with "yes, of course" even when she is swamped. They invented "Just Say No" seminars for this woman.
Sarah is naturally talented at most things (except for Mac computers...). She's a ballet dancer who is considering running away to join Cirque du Soleil (not your ordinary circus), but she doesn't know whether to do it before or after she goes to grad school for her degree in psychoneuralimmunology (tongue-twister, ne?). She's a musician (piano and harp) with eclectic tastes, and she directs the local catholic choir with humor and patience. This is one of the busiest and sanest people I've ever met in my life- too bad it doesn't rub off on me more often.
Oh, and that dress she's wearing on my book reviews page? She made the whole thing, hoop skirt and all, in less than 2 weeks. Insane, ne?
Helen
heehee... Helen is a dear. I love this picture.
Who is this British beauty? She is that dramatic dreamer, that romantic ruminator, that prospective pediatrician- wait, what? Yes, that's right. This georgious gal not only has a bubbling personality that makes people of all ages comfortable (except that laughing too much hurts a little), but she also has a serious brain.
Although technically Helen is from Florida, that's just an unfortunate accident. She's an Englishwoman through and through. And she has the biggest heart of anyone I know. If you want her to talk for more than a couple of minutes, you need only mention the Lady of Shallot or a British male actor (Ralph Fiennes would be best). Or just ask her to do a Newcastle accent.
In the few spare moments she can squeeze out of her day, Helen is working on an interesting novel with her friend Laurie. It's a romance novel for science professors, some of whom seem to need a little help with their love lives. Besides being one of the best cheezy romances I've ever read (with more in-jokes than an episode of Seinfeld), this manuscript inspires budding actresses to even greater levels of rediculousness. "Oh Roger" "Oh, Jessica", etc. becomes really funny when you get the pseudo-British accent and the simpering in person (not that Helen's accent is faked- but all romance heroines must have a British accent, even if it happens to be faked). Besides, I couldn't pronounce all the technical jargon if I had to read it myself. After all, it's very important that yeast mates in a certain way, don't you think? Or else it wouldn't be a good excuse for flirting....
Sophie
Sophie was my roommate my sophomore year, and a nuttier pair I never hope to be again (or should that be "I hope never to be again?"). Anyway, she's an environmental science type person and a techie with various theater groups. She does lights. It's so neat to go to plays and wave to her up in the booth ^_^
The two of us lived in a room half the size of my first one, so we bunked the beds and put the bookshelves in the closet. This never seemed to cause any problems because neither of us ever stayed there. Besides, we had the same weird tastes- she would read aloud from her daily Tao calender while I did Tarot readings on the floor. Bina, however, has complained that by putting our books out of sight we deprived her of a means by which to figure out if I was worth talking to back before we knew each other well. I think she could have figured it out by the company I kept- after all, she met Sophie first. But who am I to tell introverts how to behave?
Luckily, Sophes isn't the quiet sort. She is also the only person I know who gets through life without her own computer. How does she do it? I have no idea. But she listens very well and provides an excellent place off of which to bounce ideas, among other things. Don't ever ask her about the 'animal crackers in the bathroom' escapade, though, or she might come find me and beat on me ^_^ (worse yet, she might tell you what part I played in that whole mess).
This is Anne, the fire spirit who lived in our basement last year. I don't remember what she was laughing at- me, probably. Anyway, Anne is the one who dragged me (unwillingly- really...) into Morris dancing and gaming. She is a fun GM and loves to torture her players in just the right way ^_^; I don't think Paranoia would be nearly as fun without her (and Erik, her s.o.).
Besides all that, Anne is definitely a fighter, and I'm really glad she's on my side, or I would be just a tad worried. Luckily, she sublimates some of it into SciFi characters, since she loves that genre, too. You'll never guess who loaned me her precious copy of the Principia Discordia with admonisions that if I hurt the book, I would be hurt in equal proportions to the damage done- but you can't get a copy of that book much anymore, so I understand.
There are other sides to her, too, of course. She plays a bouncy and happy Ariel whenever she gets the chance, and she does a very down-to-business techie. She is also accomplished at the domestic art of sewing (envy...), though without that added touch of insane fervor that makes us worry about Sarah...
Christine and Anne
Christine and Anne were roommates last year; they are the Next Generation of Feldings, and lots of fun. They seem to be complete opposites most of the time, with Christine being shy but liking to take care of people, and Anne being organized and the quietly take-charge kind of person. Together, they make quite a team.
This picture is from Halloween, 1998, where Christine was a gypsy and Anne was a medieval-type person. Since we decided to all go trick-or-treating at the last minute, they very practically chose to wear costumes they already had. Common sense and practicality are almost palpable in the two of them. Perhaps that's why they're so cool.
Next year, Christine will be Exchequer (treasurer) again, and Anne will be Provost (president) and Autocrat. History repeats itself, ne? But Anne-Nora and I never roomed together, and Sarah was provost/autocrat the year after my stint, which means that Christine and Anne-Ysabel are the first pair since Leanne-Erika to be former roommates and to hold those three positions. What does this mean? Well, actually, not much. It's all in the family anyway ^_^;
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Last Updated: June 20, 1999
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