After being cooped up in the starting-gate of the dorms, the starting bell went off and the gates shot open and the race of this new semester was on; as the student-horses launched themselves into the routine of school life, mental hooves pounding wildly as they expend the effort necessary to meet their goals.
Huh? Oh. You're sure this isn't a horse race? Well, that would make it a lot more exciting, at least....
The first week of classes is halfway over with. It's going to be a long semester, I'm thinking. Sort of feeling pretty overwhelmed. The Latin II class is made up of eleven students, I know about half the people, that's going well so far.
Saw lots of faces I recognize from other classes in Media Management and Planning yesterday, it was moved at the last second from Leoser 127(the Strat classroom) to Seminary 207, which is also where my speech class is meeting. Anyway, I guess it'll be about advertising, planning marketing strategies or something, sounds intimidating. Most other people had no clue what to expect, either, so that helps a bit. Mostly it's PR folks, with some VisComm(Visual Communication; photography) people, a handful of journalism people and maybe three advertising people. Should be informative, to steal Mr. Shamblin's favorite word.
Needed to take Fundamentals of Oral Communication at some point, so I figured now would be as good a time as any(besides, it saves me from having to take those dreaded science courses this semester). Asked around about teachers, Elizabeth said her teacher was all right, so that's who I went with. He has a Duck Dynasty type of bright red beard and is always wearing an orange Thunder baseball cap, seems like a cool enough guy. Though everybody calls the class "speech", we only have about three real speeches, the rest is quizzes and tests and things, it seems. The first of the three speeches was of the loathed "Introduce Yourself or a Stranger to the Rest of the Class" variety. So the awkward interviews were done Monday, and trying to encapsulate the personality of a complete stranger in sixty seconds was handled this afternoon. I was trying so hard not to snicker at some of the phrases used.....
"My pet peeve is: that I'm not a cat person." (That's not a pet peeve....at least, not the way you worded it. Try "My pet peeve would be cats in general" or something.)
"He doesn't like bugs with eight legs." (Then what you meant was that he doesn't like arachnids; spiders, ticks, scorpions, things like that. Insects have six legs.)
"His family's pretty normal....mom, dad, brothers, sister - He's the oldest of all of them." (....Do what? I know what you meant; but the image is so absurd and outlandish....It could work in talking about the cast of a play or movie, though. That's the case of our SWAT skit "The Parable of the Big Push", Elizabeth and I are both actually older than both of our onstage parents, Bubba Jacob and Susan. We were all quoting the skits to thin air over the break, without people around who could catch the references.)
My speech went about as well as could be expected, got through most of the relevant information gathered about the guy I interviewed and wrapped up with eight seconds to spare. I sound nervous on playback, and need to work on writing conversationally on paper so it will translate well into spoken words.
No SWAT practice this week, much to nearly everyone's extreme disappointment. We kind of wandered around campus Monday evening wondering what to do with this suddenly-spare time, eventually one-by-one dropping in at the BCM for the first meeting of the semester. The worship team was blasting a bunch of gospel-style songs like "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", which was awesome(and really made me wish I'd brought my mandolin). The video message was mostly the Duck Dynasty people giving their testimonies, which was somewhat interesting, and probably would've been better if I followed the show.
After that there were some snacks in the basement, so everyone tromped down the stairs and caught up with friends and compared notes on the upcoming courseloads and things like that. James talked a friend of his into visiting for the first time, and we tried to be friendly, but probably terrified him instead by constantly yelling over the top of whoever was already talking and slapping each other.
After that was over, I suggest a coffee run to Bubba Jacob, it quickly becomes a SWAT reunion, as us, Elizabeth, Susan, TJ and James all decide to head somewhere to catch up. It was way too cold to hike anywhere, so while trying to figure out whose car to use, a couple of us suggest we just pile all into one car. "We could fit....we're all small. Well, except for James, but..." The guys jump into James' red Firebird and the girls hop into TJ's car, both were playing the radio and everyone was talking at once, so it made coordinating the meeting-point interesting. We beat the girls to McDonald's and stand there waiting like Brad Paisley until they burst in dramatically, exclaiming about the miracle of getting green lights all the way down Muskogee Avenue. We were the only people there, probably entertained the McDonald's employees. It was two hours of six people crammed into one booth, complaining about the government, about school, trading unsolvable Hobbit riddles, debating which of us could successfully pull off a murder, mountains of Princess Bride quotes, scheduling a list of movies we need to see, even a mock proposal. (After that, well...what else CAN you do but spontaneously (automatically?) sail into Impressive Clergyman mode? At least that's what I thought. And Bubba Jacob. And Susan. And Elizabeth. All at the same time.) It was fantastic, a great way to catch up with everybody. At one point somebody says, "Man, it's getting late. I've got a class at 9:30 in the morning." "Me too." "Me three." "Me four." And nobody makes any effort to get up and leave. We needed that. Susan said the next morning, "That was the best reunion I've ever had!"
Went to Grace Baptist on Sunday, that was good. (I just wish there was some type of directory or something so I could start to remember which names go with which people's faces.)
American Idol is starting tonight; I may watch some of the auditions, but I don't think I'll be watching. It just wouldn't be the same, watching it all by myself. Because even though I did that most of last year, watched literally alone here in my dorm, we had email to talk about the episodes. I just can't stand to listen to Jennifer Lopez's irritating giggle for a while nother season. And Harry Connick Jr. was always really annoying as a guest mentor, so I don't think I'd like him being a judge. And RANDY is the new mentor, replacing Jimmy?! So even though Keith is back, just doesn't seem worth it. Always said I'd try out at some point....still might, but I can't really see that happening anytime soon. Maybe I have a better grasp of life now, see how ridiculous it seems, I don't know. Most people aren't meant to be famous, and Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Scotty McCreery, David Cook and the others are the extremely rare exceptions. We started watching in Season 6, Season 13 is starting now. That's over half the show's lifetime; Amy's been around it since literally before she was born.
The girl next to me in Latin got hit by a car today on her way to class; that doesn't happen every day. Went down to Morgan's Bakery for some cookies and saw a Hiland Dairy truck parked in front of Ned's bar, which was also unusual. And as I was on my way to the UC to get some dinner, I heard a guy walking the other direction whistling the theme song from the Disney version of Robin Hood.
I tried watching a bit of Idol, and all I could hear was Quinton's line "That was the most overly egotistical, pompous presentation I've ever had the misfortune to witness" on constant repeat. (It came from a musical we did in middle school called "The American Ideal") The judges just....I don't know. Something just didn't click. And nobody sounded good.
So I've been playing guitar for a bit, watched a couple Blimey Cow videos, think I might read To Kill a Mockingbird. No classes tomorrow, so it'll probably be a study-day. Like, even more so than usual, especially since we won't have class on Monday(arrrggghh.)
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