The other day I was going over a very simple list that guys should go over before complaining that the Tech girls are suffering from Tech Bitch Syndrome.

1. Shower
2. Shave
3. Get regular haircuts.

And my roommate Karen says, "I wish there was an instruction manual like that for girls."

I wonder how much of our lack of girly characteristics is due to going to such a male school, or if it's because we are ungirly that we chose such a male school. The other day I was on a packed bus and was the only girl I could see. In my Unit Ops group of three I'm the only girl. In my Design group of six I'm the only girl.

This comes up now because I'm trimming my nails. And they weren't even to normal girl length. I just can't stand them long. I missed that somehow. The ability to deal with long nails. How to deal with my hair, which after considering growing out again I just got cut again.

I'm thinking about the time I was going to a gig for band, and was crammed in the back of a school trolley with the other trombones, and one remarking, "Well, guys like girls who are easy and stupid. Which I'm sure Abby knows."

I think it's weird how there's some many areas where I'm not typically feminine. All the hair and nails stuff, the fact that I chose a career probably 80% male, even a more masculine instrument, though I did switch from flute to trombone, that I'm very straightforward, which I've been noticing this year. But then I do things like cook and sew and wear aprons which are very 1950s housewife.

It's an interesting experience to be a girl at Georgia Tech. There's so much you get used to, like being the only girl in a group or a whole class. And there's other times it strikes you more than you thought possible. I was thinking about that the other day, how sometimes you get treated like something special, and sometimes you're completely forgotten. Like once I was talking to a couple of guys and one mentioned something about setting steel wool on fire somehow and he told me not to do it, but encouraged the other boys to try it, like I needed to be protected, but then on the other hand, one of the most unpleasant times of my life was being the only girl in a room full of guys, having to listen to them how hot one of my female classmates was, when the expression, "What am I? Chopped liver?" was really running through my head.