Touched

Today was orientation day at Newhouse. I'm so glad the day finally arrived, but from about 6:30 this morning until about 3:45 this afternoon I was nothing but nervous energy. First I had to take the bus to campus, which is fine and super convenient, but since I was only operating at 75% confidence I was rather self conscious through the ride. I ended up getting off the bus earlier than I had planned because I followed some people, but it turned out to be a more convenient stop.

Then I arrived at Newhouse...


I showed up about 8:45 and expected to be one of the early arrivals (thanks ObieTime). I was actually one of the last to arrive. This only meant that I had to wait for my nametag and welcome folder and added to the randomization of who would be in my tour group after we took class photos. I ended up in a group with a couple other TRFers, a guy in Media Management, and a broadcast journalist (with the unfortunate BJ acronym). We spent the morning waiting to get our welcome gift, getting turned away when they ran out of the first supply, going to the convocation, then waiting in line again for our gift. This time we weren't turned away and soon all five of us became new owners of iPod Touches.

I actually did not know much about the Touch since I was not in the market. I am still happy with my 1st gen Shuffle. But this thing is amazing. It is pretty much the iPhone without being a phone. I can check my email, surf the web, and laboriously type out blog entries (probably not a regular thing).

As we set up the wifi aspects of the pod, I ran into a few of the cohorts I friended through facebook. We scrambled for a quick lunch before the somewhat tedious policy trivia session. After that we had our first TRF session. The nervousness was palpable in the room, but no one had an anxiety attack as near as I could tell.

Since then I have been home playing with my new toy. There is the faintest wireless connection nearby and I have been using it to my heart's content. I swear this thing is more powerful than my computer. It's so nice to feel connected again.