Dorks @ MindSay

Day one of the semester is is coming to a close and has been decent enough for a first day, in spite of the fact that I've managed to throw up twice and have had multiple moments of nervous nausea. Explanations are to come.

Anyway, I kicked off the day by going to Fin. Aid. and picking up my check. Thank God it was in--I was sure that the university would have screwed me over like they usually do and not given me my check until the following week. However, the full amount was there and is now sitting happy in my bank account (*sigh* oh how happy having money makes me!).
From there I went to my US History after 1877 class. It's a class that has multiple sections and is televised to other rooms on campus as well as other branches of this university in surrounding areas. I was annoyed by where I had to sit (small'ish room in which all the good seats were already taken) because I managed to snag the seat that was the closest to the televised camera. Sooo, I was on the tele for a bit until the professor came in and began her lecture, at which point the camera switched over and began broadcasting her as opposed to me (thank God!). I later ran into a friend who's in the class at one of the other locations that it's broadcast to on campus and she said that she and her boyfriend, Josiah (also a friend--one of my group, one of my besties, if you will. lol) were trying to find me on their TV and then they were like "There she is!" when I took my seat in front of the camera. lol Needless to say I plan to arrive extra early on Wednesday and get a much better seat.

After History my sister and I walked down to Pizza Hut and had lunch. Although it was good, it was a little hard to keep my gag reflexes under control and actually enjoy my meal. The reason for this is as follows:
When I get nervous, stressed, and/or excited about something, I have oral issues, so to speak, and will gag at the thought of ingesting most anything. It's weird and in no way appealing, I know, but we all have our nervous ticks I guess and my stomach happens to be mine.

Now then, why on earth would I be nervous, stressed, and/or excited this early in the day? Well, I got a call while I was in History. And when I got out of class I saw I had a voicemail. So, I listened to it. It was Ryan. Oh my. He seemed very apologetic about things and thanked me for the gift, saying he was "so undeserving" (this is true, is it not?), the gift was so "unbelievably thoughtful," and that he would "do a better job keeping in touch this time", give him a call, etc. He never specifically mentioned the whole "stood you up" issue, though. So, I don't know. Obviously in hunky-dory land I'd like to think everything's golden and jump at the opportunity. However, whatever it is/was that caused him to do away with me, so to speak, is not something that is magically cured and disappears after you're given a gift. And so, I know full well that that call was only out of guilt. And what better way to relieve a guilty conscience than by making things "right"....surface deep, anyway. If he really wanted to keep the lines of communication open and flowing his message wouldn't have told me to call him, he would have said he'd try back later. Or he would have said something along the lines of "Please call me when you have a chance, I'd like to talk." Or even, "Give me a call back. I'm not in classes/busy as these times ________." But none of that. I'm sorry, maybe he is being honest. But if he is then maybe he needs to get a clue and stop putting the ball in the girl's court and making her have to do all the work. I refuse to be the person that "holds the friendship together" anymore. It takes efforts on both parts. So anyway, I sent him a short sweet text in response to his message, telling him I was sorry I'd missed his call, was glad that he likes his gift, and that I hope he has a good semester, too.

At 1:40 I had Marriage and Family. Seems like it's going to be a great class (in spite of the 75+ students in it! Oi!). However, on Wednesday she wants us to introduce ourselves to the class and tell one important/descriptive thing about ourselves. So just what exactly am I supposed to say?...."Hi, I'm Mea. I'm a klutzy dork and public speaking makes me nervous," ? lol I don't know...

After classes and everything my mom, sis, and I went to Target where I bought two hoodies and two shirts (I may return the two shirts....or at least one of them, I have yet to decide).

Hm....I hope tomorrow has lots of good things in store...

So Saturday morning rolls around.  We were supposed to be dressed and ready to go by 11:00am.  Everybody in my room had their alarms set for 9:00am, including me.  I happened to randomly wake up at about 7:00am.  I got up and enjoyed the amazing morning view from our window.  It was so awesome.  The sun was just beginning to rise over the city, and it was just a beautiful scene.  I eventually decided that I wanted to go for a little walk around the hotel.  So I got dressed and took the elevator downstairs.  (Yes, I said elevator.  No more stairs.  lol) 

 

Before going outside, I bought a Snickers bar and a bottle of pink lemonade.  An interesting choice of breakfast, but it worked.  I went outside, and as usual, my mother was right.  I should have brought a jacket.  Anyway, I found a place where the wind didn't hit me as much, and I ate my breakfast.  After I finished eating, I walked around to the front of the hotel.  I saw a little gazebo where I could sit down, so I went over to it.  As I sat down, I noticed there was a magazine on the ground.  Not just any magazine, either.  A Game Informer magazine.  I was like, "Sweet."  That's a damn good way to start off the morning, eh?  Finding a free magazine of your preferred genre.  =)

 

So I read that for a while, and then I decided to go back inside at about 9ish.  I was already dressed, so I just kinda sat around and watched cartoons while everybody else woke up and got ready.  We got our stuff together, checked out of our room, and got back on the buses to go to the TSU campus.  Who would have guessed, we got lost again.  Thankfully not for very long.  We got off the buses, had a playing rehearsal, and then got in a long-ass line to get into the cafeteria.  The food wasn't too bad, actually.  I only had a burger and a slice of pizza, but it was pretty good. 

 

After we were done eating, we changed into our uniforms and got back on the buses.  We drove to the stadium, where we realized that the TSU fans weren't very nice.  The first thing we were welcomed with was a sign saying "Go back to Loser-ana".  I was like, "Wow, you're so creative."  Upon Evan's suggestion, we gave them the "Fork 'em" sign out the window.  :p (For those who don't know what that is, take your hand and put all your fingers down except your pointer finger and your pinkie.  That's the Fork 'em sign.  But keep the two fingers parallel.  Don't spread them out.  We're not the Texas Longhorns.  lol)

 

Yeah, so they gave us hell right from the start.  Evan's advice to us was, "Don't start anything, but defend yourself if you have to."  Sounded good to me.  lol  We got off the bus and went into the stadium.  There we encountered some guy with a dry-erase board where he wrote all kinda shit like "Band is for dorks" and "This one time at band camp..."  Pft.  Loser.  We mostly told him to shut the hell up because he was an idiot. 

 

Here cometh another interesting setback:  TSU has a band of about 120 people.  When the university called to ask how much space we needed to be reserved for us in the stands, we told them our band was a bit bigger than theirs.  Well, they thought, "Oh, ok, 150."  When we gave them the actual number of 330, their response was, "Yeah right."  So we get there and find a space roped off for 150 people.  Somehow, we all managed to fit into this space.  Semi-comfortably.  I'm not sure how that happened.

 

Anyway, so the game proceeded.  Our team played rather badly, and we did end up losing 31-16.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  We went down to get ready for halftime, and of course we had to deal with more drunken frat boys calling us dorks and all that.  At one point, I was tempted to turn around and say, "I'd like to hear you say that to your own band!"  But then I realized that the TSU band was being awfully nice and civil to us.  So I figure they probably have been told that on a regular basis.  I guess they figured we band nerds should stick together, which would explain why they weren't taunting us or trying to start shit. 

 

As far as halftime goes, I did think our show was the better of the two, but damn, we could have done so much better.  We were mediocre at best.  They marched and played quite well, I just enjoyed our selection of music better.  But yeah.  We could have done way better.  We kinda went flop.  *sigh*  Oh well.

 

*chuckles*  Before their band performed, they had a twirler line or something come out and do some kinda gymnastic monkey bars routine.  It was...interesting.  About 50 chicks in skimpy outfits twirling around on poles.  I think one of them may have actually been tied up at one point.  Now, TELL ME that is not about a million innuendos waiting to happen.  =P

 

Anyway, so the game ended, and we got back on the buses to go home.  I slept on and off during the bus ride.  During one of the times when I was awake, the buses pulled over.  I was like, "What now?"  Wouldn't ya know it, Bus #6 broke down somewhere way behind us.  Bus #1 went back to help, so the rest of us just kinda sat around and waited.  I was like, "For the love of Christ..."  Thankfully there was not a three and a half hour delay this time.  Bus #6 got up and running again, and we were able to get back on our way.  However, Josh woke me up later to tell me (although at the time I was too tired to care) that Bus #6 had broken down AGAIN.  This time, Mr. Richardson just decided, "Fuck it, put everybody on the other buses."  (He didn't say that, I'm sure, but you get the idea.)  So whoever had formerly been on Bus #6 was now sleeping in the aisles of the other buses. 

 

Somehow, even with all these delays, we managed to arrive in Natchitoches at 5:10am, only 10 minutes later than our planned arrival time.  After that, I went back to my room, put on some cartoons, had a bowl of Ramen Noodles, and then I went sleepy sleepy until 1:00pm.  And then I stayed in bed being lazy until about 4:00pm.  lol

 

So yes, I had a very eventful weekend, damnit.  =P

 

Up next, Mr. Brent and Mr. Richardson both sent follow-up emails about this weekend.  I will post both, for they are hilarious.

 

Until next time,

 

TheFallenAngel

Last night was somewhere between definitely cool and awesome. I needed that.

I've been spending all my time between classes down in the music department. Sometimes practicing, sometimes clowning around with friends, sometimes listening to other people practice, sometimes just sleeping on the couches. They have the best couches that I've yet encountered in the school. They don't look pretty or anything, so we all beat up on them and steal cushions from one to take to another one, but they are cushy, and soft, and Amanda in a fetal position almost perfectly fits in them.

We had the power go down yesterday while I was sleeping. Oddly enough, it woke me up. It had been storming outside all day, which I love, but the whole music area is kind of in the basement, so you can't hear or see anything going on outside. You also get iffy cell phone reception. Sleeping, curled half-tightly because it's always cool there (and I think I was one couch down from this vent blasting cool air), and then there's this terrific clank. Yes, clank. Woke me up, and it took a minute to register (okay, I'm not completely with it for about twenty minutes or so after I wake), "Oh. It's dark." *pause* "It's not supposed to be dark, is it?"

Some people had been watching a dvd in the band room, and they came pouring out. This is why power outages are not better for sleeping in. Everyone gets riled up and makes a great deal of excitement. You can't sleep through excitement, the human brain refuses to allow it. You could miss something exciting! And I think it's a survival skill, too - a lot of stuff happening means that there's a chance some of it could come your way, and you want to be prepared. One girl had been planning on meeting her friends up in the theater, and actually had an issue with the dark. So, I sleepily offered to walk with her, and she jumped at it.

First doors into the light, I felt something lightly catch me from behind. Ah, Tony. I think he kicked me, I'm not sure. Light-girl headed off up the stairwell towards the sunshine, and Tony and I had another unexpectedly long conversation. I like these.

Turned out later that the miscreants I call my friends had come looking for me in an attempt to kidnap me. Normally, they all hang out in the tv lounge between classes, except for the musician who heads down to practice or be one with the music world. Tuesdays and Thursdays, two of them bring their GameCubes and play Super Smash Brothers. I kid you not. I believe this goes from 9-1, or 5, if Michael decides not to go home. My last class on Tuesdays ends at 5:15, and Brian had offered to wait for me, even though that's an extra three hours for him. *hugs Brian* I've watched them all play - they'll recruit just about anyone in the lounge who's interested, and I've never seen a bout last more than five minutes. 8 hours of 5-minute bouts. You can see why I hang out with my sax.

But, after my last class, I headed over there to see if the boyfriend was miffed at having to wait. Brian's version of 'miffed at having to wait' is not remotely miffed. Rather, he goes to sleep. Where would our culture be without 20-year-old males? :) Actually, when I go there, it became apparent that these five (they'd picked up another straggler) had had only the faintest idea of the passage of time. I laughed, made a light attempt at distracting Brian from the game, and then headed down to get my sax from my locker.

Playing with my combination, doo-de-doo-de-doo....a pop cap comes ricocheting around the corner. And then Brian, in hot pursuit of said cap. About a minute later, the other three of our five (okay, we're actually six, but Dani had work that night) came pouring around the corner like loose fans searching for Orlando Bloom. "There she is!" Assorted squeals, everyone runs up...until someone throws the pop cap again, and then the guys go off chasing it.

We were actually hanging around the band department for another hour, doing absolutely nothing productive and having a blast. One of the clowns from our band came by, and we began what can only be described as 'penny wars'. I, being a penny pacifist, abstained and went for balancing on a chair and convincing Jen to spot me on handstands. Spent most of the night flirting with Jen - I love her, but she wouldn't believe me if I told her. So, we just have fun together, and get some great photo ops. Scott, our auxilary percussionist and cameraman came by and got a few good shots of me curled into Jen, all of us being incredibly immature, and the afore-mentioned band clown climbing up our director's doorway, Spiderman-esque. Tony was practicing in the band room, as usual.

Jen's got an interesting take on males. She always has something to say about envying me having a boyfriend, but the fact is that far more guys ask Jen out than me. She's gorgeous, she has the cutest personality of anyone, she's got this dark sense of humor, etc. The fact is that she just has her own set of standards, and they're fairly picky. So far, I've gotten that the guy has to be cute, funny, and have no clear sense of personal depression or darkness. I've rarely been interested in guys without that darkness - creates kind of a common ground. She actually exchanged numbers with three guys today, and seemed to take an interest in the clown. No interest there for me, he's a lot of fun, but I haven't seen anything deeper to his personality. We almost never like the same guys, always in love with each other.

And you would not believe the stab of jealousy I encountered when she was checking out Tony while he was playing.

Anyway, after much deliberation (hah!) we went for Pizza Hut, since 2/3 of these people had already gone to the mall that day. Much silliness on the way. John's been moodier than usual (although, it's been long enough that moody is becoming usual for John), which disconcerts Jen a little bit. She hasn't made the connection that he's a friend of mine and Michael's - she just thinks he's a random guy who's better than everyone at Super Smash Brothers. He's still off in his own world - I used to worry about him, but now, I'm starting to think that he spends enough time there that he can handle anything it does, and none of us have a chance. Some discussion came up of Michael and his dating life, Jen having the cutest curves of anyone human, and why Michael doesn't react to me and Jen the way the other two do. Really, we'll be clowning around, piled on or around each other, or just dancing, and it's not until we stop that we realize that two of the guys are staring at us, and he's just kind of spacing in some other direction. :)

I've missed hanging out with my friends, especially random nights like this. No planning, no real notion of what's going to happen - and we have a blast. When I went up to say hello after my last class, I was thinking that I'd be home within the next forty minutes, and it would be just another evening. Silly me. :)

I'VE DONE IT!!!! I have found my niche in college! In life! I have located my fellow Dorks!!!

And here I was beginging to think I was the only one left in a 200 mile radius. My whole dorm floor is preppy girls...

Yeah, so it's great. We are going to go and meet up for supper later and then watch Dogma. You seriously don't know how great it was. I just spent the last hour talking about things like the new Nintendo Revolution and quoting Monty Python. You can't get any better than this!!!!

Oh, and that guy Eric who is teaching me juggling, he is in my logic class. I'm just looking around today and... voila! There he is! We talked for a while, and he was pretty kewl. I figure I can add him to my list of victims... I mean friends... lol.