Lent bumps approaches

Maybe it's wrong for me to admit this, but I'm terrified of racing.  I've always found this about the few sports I've played: I enjoy training, but the actual competitions make me all kinds of nervous.  Well, for better or for worse, lent bumps has come 'round again: they start tomorrow.  It has been a hot-and-cold term in the women's first boat; the crew has been in flux for much of it, and while some outings were great, others seemed to forecast an embarrassing performance.

Fortunately, we had a good little practice today drilling the start.  But as our coach has said repeatedly, bumps is designed to freak you out: a cannon goes off with four minutes to go, then one minute, then to start the race.  By then, your adrenaline is flowing so much that you react strongly when you hit the rough water caused by all the boats ahead of you...  If we can keep from panicking, though, I believe our boat has the strength in our training to perform well.  Now about that not panicking thing...

In other news, I've been writing a massive chapter-chunk for my supervisor for the past month, and I'm hoping to send it to her tomorrow so that it's considerably less awkward when she comes over to formal dinner at college on Wednesday night.  Trinity Hall generously offers to pay for your supervisor to come over once a year, and I thought it would be nice to host Heather for a purely social occasion.  Of course, what we're going to talk about for all that time is somewhat unclear, especially since I don't really want to emphasize how much time rowing and choir take out of my schedule.  Heh.  But we get along well, so I'm sure it will be a pleasant evening.

And just because I feel this blog should have more pictures, here's the fireplace in the Robin Hayes Room, which is usually only for fancy faculty/staff meetings.  However, a couple weeks ago, the MCR writing group (run by moi) got put in there instead of our regular room.  Soooo cozy and Oxbridge-y!  Even if the fire was gas-fueled.