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Headline: This Accounts for the Axe

For the Moment

By R.i. Wilson

Home: Huntington, New York and Adams House

Concentration: Biological anthropology

Claim to fame: I'm in one of the infamous coed rooming groups in Adams House. And we have this viny1 decor in many different colors with body paint on it. We have a velvet Elvis on our mantlepiece with an axe on the wall hanging over his head.

Annual summer job: Building wilderness trails in the Adirondack mountains.

Why this is important: That accounts for the axe and the big boots, and a kind of weird attitude about not minding eating insects, although I'm a vegetarian.

Surreal trail-building story: I was standing up to my waist in mud, trying to move a boulder, and a hiker came up to me and said, "Are your feet dry?"

Even weirder: I was digging a hole to set a boulder in. I was wearing a head-net to keep off the flies. And someone stopped and said, "Are you digging for bees?" They were really scared.

Why she's socially handicapped: I didn't watch TV as a kid, so I don't understand about 90 percent of pop-cultural references that people make. I've never seen "Gilligan's Island."

How she's fixing that: I've been forced to learn the names of all the Bradys and the Brady theme song. I'm learning--I'm trying to catch up.

Mission in life: Trying new things.

New things she's tried lately: Rock climbing. I tried artichoke hearts for the first time yesterday; they could be good if they were a little less pickled. Learning how to juggle--I can juggle badly. I have this problem with depth perception, because I'm blind in one eye. But I can do it anyway, which is a personal triumph.

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