And we thought steroids were bad...

Earlier this week I was listening to an NPR report about people using drugs or surgery to increase their effectiveness in school or their career. Trying to boost performance seems to be a chronic problem among athletes, the steroids thing is beyond out of control, but now there are the academic dopers, kids whose parents have them take Adderall, ADHD medicine, so that they will be able to focus and do better in school. According to the journal Addiction, one in four college students misused ADHD medication, and the Partnership for a Drug Free America reported that 1 in 10 kids between middle school and high school age are using drugs like Adderall or Ritalin without a prescription. In addition, people also give Tiger Woods a hard time because he had lasik eye surgery, and thus has an advantage over the other players as his eyesight is not better than 20/20. I've heard all of these things before, and have my own opinions about them, but check out this new one- click on the title of this blog and be prepared to be shocked...

Heads Carolina, Tails California

Well somehow I have ended up in Flagstaff, AZ and not Carolina or California, oh well. I have committed to being better at updating the ol' blog, so we will see how it goes. Anyway, I drove Friday afternoon in a U-haul towing my car. Yes, it was a fabulous drive. I think that the fastest we went was 65 mph and that was downhill. Needless to say, it was a very long drive. But now I am in my new home for the next two years, well for the next little while at least. So here are a few pictures of the place...

View from my window



I realized when I was unpacking that I have a lot of clothes. And I don't know why that is, I'm not a fancy dresser, I think that I just like to have options. Well, that is all good when I have limitless space, but there is no space here for me to hang my coats and dress pants, and where to put all of my shoes?

Closet:

And new "mobile" closet at the foot of my bed:


Some pictures from around campus, now these aren't the greatest pictures because, don't judge me too harshly, I was driving when I took these pictures. Gasp- I know, dangerous, but I did it for you, so that you could see what it was like!



Driving down street around campus

The skydome

And yes, the mascot of NAU is the lumberjack. Fantastic, right?

Also, Saturday night it smelled like a fire outside, and then Sunday we could see smoke- it was a fire about 14 miles away. I was convinced that I had brought some bad fire karma to AZ, in SoCal we have a fire season after all, but then I talked to my sister who lives in Mesa and she reassured me that there is generally a fire or two in AZ every year. Talk about relief, I thought that the burning of the forest was going to be blamed on me and the neighbors were going to come with their pitchforks and kick me out of town! (Although, it might be axes instead of pitchforks...) Here is a picture that shows the sky Monday evening:

And finally, I went to a grad student orientation today and towards the end they had a raffle and I won! Wahoo! I can't believe it! When they announced that the prize was a family of four pass to Meteor Crater I told my table that I wanted to go there, and I won! I think this could be the start of a great time here in Flagstaff...