Tonight I met with one of my professors who has a framed picture of herself and Condoleeza Rice in her office.  And on that note..Condoleeza Rice, who is also an alum of my school, is visiting for two weeks in April!  I mentioned my interest and excitement to my professor, and she referred to the photo, saying, "Oh yes, just two girls hanging out."  She laughed and went on to talk about how Condi really plays it close to the chest. 

I don't intend to write about political things on this blog, but I do have to say that I am at least very interested in Condoleeza Rice.  I respect her mostly because she understands diplomacy and can tap into conflict resolution language when necessary.  She also seems to have an ability to connect with certain people (and really not with others) across cultures.  And she understand the purpose of justifying her policy decisions in terms of theory and real constraints.

So I am very excited that she's going to be here, but I'm still unsure of what my role will be in that situation.  She's supposed to visit classes and give talks and interact with students and whatnot, but I'm not sure what I would really say to her if I accidentally ran into her in the stairwell.  Because sometimes I'm more interested in her because of her uncanny ability to function at a high-level: i.e., wake up at 5 in the morning to exercise, play grand piano with Yo-Yo Ma, and talk back to Dick Cheney.  And that just makes me want to say: how do you do it?  Although, I'm also interested in her ability to function in situations of crisis, which is something that fascinates me.  As someone easily affected by stress, I find that I function remarkably well in high pressure.  In fact, I love it.  It brings out something very decisive in me that I don't often find.

But, yes, Condi's coming, and I'm, er, excited.