NEW WEBSITE!!!!!!

Hey Everyone!

Check out PARC's awesome new website at nuparc.org :-)

Learn what PARC's all about, meet some of the friendly faces Exec and the Master Staff and get wayyyyy excited about the amazing place PARC is!

Go there now: nuparc.org

Rain!

This morning, the sky and ground were pretty much exactly the same color. Gray.

That cloud of mist we had been walking around in yesterday had finally turned into the rain we all knew was inevitable. Needless to say, it was a pretty dreary sight to see.

But I have to say, the Northwestern community sure does bring color to a gray day.

Clearly, today was a day that carrying an umbrella with you was a must. It's always fun to see the different umbrellas people sport. There are the official-looking people from Kellogg who totally pull off the trench coat and black umbrella look. There are the quirky polka dots and patterns you see from students (and the occasional child-at-heart faulty member). Some even carry what can only be called tributes to Monet--his water lilies covering the heads of many art fanatics.

Aside from the umbrellas, there is also no restriction to the spectrum of footwear that is worn during these rainy days. From highlighter green to multicolored dots, the rainboots are an expression of the most vivid of colors.

And I say, why not? Let's add some color to these gray days. Why wait for May flowers...let's bring some color to the April showers as well! So next time you open the blinds to a morning where the world is wet, go ahead and channel that inner Gene Kelly--after all, life's not about waiting for the storm to pass, PARC...it's about learning to dance in the rain.

(Sidenote, the forecast for this weekend is supposed to be A*M*A*Z*I*N*G...hope you enjoy the sun and have a wonderful start to the weekend)

Exec Conference Extravaganza

Hey All!

We're just back from our first official RC (res college) exec conference! (Hooray for exec RCB!) What is an exec RC conference, you ask? Well, up until about 4 hours ago, we exec members were all asking the same question.

Here's the scoop:

So, we got to Norris, and after being treated to a pretty legit dinner by RCB and meeting a greeting the other RC execs, there were different info sessions for exec members to attend (everyone went to two). There was lots of variety....everything from "Worst Case Scenario Guide" to "Rituals and Traditions." (Speaking of which, who's up for PARC painting the Rock?? Just a thought...) Then, in a final, small group session, we had the chance to meet with the other people who hold the same exec positions in other RCs and received wisdom from letters written by outgoing exec members. A closing ceremony with deserts and raffle (where PARC's very own Tracy claimed a nifty prize!) ended the night, and we all made the trek back to PARC (those poor Slivkans had to walk all the way North...but then again, we all already know PARC is clearly the best place to live, so no surprises there :-P)

Anyway, how does this event link to you, PARC fans (and/or residents)??

Get this: Exec is SO PUMPED to make next year (and the rest of Spring Quarter) REALLY AWESOME!!!!!! We're fired up to make PARC the Perfect Amazing Really Cool place we all know it is.

So get excited, PARC.

This is gonna rock.

Housing Fun!

Spring Quarter is barely underway and, already it's time to think about housing for the fall!

PARC is (obviously) the coolest place to live, and we're super excited to have awesome returners for the 2011-2012 school year!

How is this all going to go down??

Here's the deal-eo PARC:

PRACTICE HOUSING DERBY--TONIGHT 4/4/11 at 9 pm. Be there or be square.

This is when we do a dry run of the actual choosing of rooms. Basically, it's time to see who's thinking of living where and see how your housing points stack up against the other returners.

ACTUAL, FOR REAL, BETTER BE THERE, GET THE ROOM YOU'LL BE IN FOR THE NEXT YEAR--WEDNESDAY 4/6/11 at 9pm. be there. for real. (oh wait, I said that already)

This is the real deal, PARC. After you sign your name on the line, you've got your room for the coming year! HOORAY :-)

So, get pumped PARC. Not only is there going to be a sweet basketball game tonight (who's your pick? are your brackets in tact, or have they crumbled to pieces?? I digress...) but there's going to be some sweet housing planning tonight, too!

Direct any questions to PARC VP (Eric) or another exec member. See you there!!!!!

Because babies are awesome, and so is Steve Jacobsen...

 

PARC Associate Master Steve Jacobsen welcomed a baby daughter - and the newest member of the PARC family - late Friday night. Silvia Jacobsen joins rock-doc Steve and his wife Vickie, along with their daughter Evelyn, and the rest of PARC! Congratulations Steve and the Jacobsen family.

The Home Stretch

For reasons known only to the sadistic black-suits atop the ivory towers of Northwestern, our university enjoys the sweet satisfaction of torturing its students into mental oblivion. It's not exactly the Jack Bauer kind of torture, like lowering your naked body onto an electrically-charged puddle (I promise, it's a 24-reference. I don't just think of torture methods in my free time). No no, this torture is worse. It's the kind of torture that consumes your mind and sends you spiraling slowly into the depths of insanity. The kind of torture that forces you to torture yourself, to bite your own nails, to pull your own hair, if only to prove that after three tortuous summer months before college, you're still alive and Northwestern is still waiting.

BUT WHYYYYY? WHYYY ISN'T SCHOOL HERE YET?! CAN'T SUMMER BE OVER?

They dangle the date luringly before our eyes. SEPTEMBER 14. "Move-In" Day. The beginning of Wildcat Welcome. They send out seemingly innocent e-mails with friendly to-do lists and news. But we know they just want us to crave Northwestern that much more.

So yes, we wait. There are two weeks until Northwestern's "doors" officially open. It's painful, no doubt. At this point, our friends are sitting satisfyingly in a dorm room in some better place, and we're stuck pondering what awaits us in college this year. Two months from now, we'll probably be asking ourselves why in hell we wanted to be in school so badly, why we wanted these homework assignments, these exams, these STDs. But until then, our curiosity and anticipation is uncomfortably akin to torture.

2 weeks. It's the home stretch.

Toilet-Talk and Other Unpleasantries

If it isn't blatantly obvious already, PARC: The Blog leaves no topic untouched. Here on the interwebs, we believe every issue should be taken on with complete candor - political correctness and common decency entirely set aside. It's the only way we can stay true to ourselves, and jump-start discussions on the topics we all secretly think about, but are never quite comfortable discussing in person. On that note, ladies and gentlemen, we move to... pubic hair.

For most incoming freshmen, the experience of using a relatively public bathroom on a daily basis is uncomfortably unfamiliar. Of course, we share our bathrooms with the same seven or eight people every day, so it's not quite as public as the bathrooms in the airport (though the prospect of sexual encounters is probably just as likely - yes, we're looking at you, Larry Craig). And of course, our bathrooms are intensely scrubbed and sanitized, thanks to the superstar cleaning team of Annette - pronounced ANN-ette, not uh-nette - and Juan (colloquially known by their superhero team-name, Juannete). But the fact is, it's decidedly more public than most of us are accustomed to.

To ensure that the transition from private to public facilities is as comfortable as possible for the entire dorm, let's lay some ground rules.

Here in college, certain people have certain expectations for the cleanliness of certain areas of your freakishly pubescent body. I won't weigh in on whether this practice is a necessity or not. (For those of you interested in the debate, check out College ACB's more detailed discussion on the topic.) But if you are, in fact, performing maintenance on your personal pubic property, perform the deed in such a way that does not result in the littering of our bathroom floors with your discomforting private shavings. I'm all for personal hygiene, but for the love of god or whatever holy deity you pray to, clean up after yourself. I would highly suggest never performing such an act under the influence of alcohol or drugs (unless, of course, you have no intention of reproducing or urinating in a straight line ever again, or if you lack any general respect of your genitals), so assuming that you're sober while you're cleaning up "down there," there should be no reason why your body fur is anywhere but the garbage. And it's not even like you're hiding it that well. Between the eight people in your suite, there's a pretty good chance we'll be able to whittle down the suspects and discover who the droppings belong to. Long story short, don't get your hair all over. There's a reason you're shaving in the first place. Nobody wants to see it.

Moving right along...

Showers. Everybody enjoys a long, warm, refreshing shower once in a while. But when you share a relatively similar schedule with a handful of other people, your long, refreshing shower is actually a long, refreshing slap in the fucking face. Unless you're showering at 3 a.m. - which is certainly a possibility, don't get me wrong - keep it brief. Secondly, don't get all your nasty soap-I've-never-hear-of shit all over the walls. Also, if for some reason you produce clumps of hair every time your exposed to running water, pick it up and throw it away. Yes, the pile of hair may be gross. It might even have a pulse. But if it's your fucking hair, deal with it.

Toilets. First of all, aim. It's really not that hard. Focus for a few seconds before you start the flow. Take a couple of breaths. Then let it happen. Second of all, I think we can all agree that it's generally awkward to use a stall that's directly adjacent to another stall in-use. If at all possible, don't use the bathroom when someone's clearly engaged in nature's necessity. It's disrespectful and downright weird. If your bowels simply cannot sustain the mounting pressure of digestion, and you're forced to engage in adjacent stall-use, don't start engaging the other person in conversation. Protocol is to blatantly ignore the other individual's existence.

Lastly, clothe yourself. Yes, we're college students. Everybody craves a little skin. But more than likely, nobody wants to see your bare naked ass.


Uncomfortable yet? Mission accomplished.