Come Together

28 October 2007

3:51 PM

Well, I was right about last weekend. I just watched the football game on Saturday afternoon, went to Smart & Final and Ralph's to get some groceries, and sat around the apartment the rest of the weekend, partly just slacking off and chilling, partly trying to read some of the material I should've known about for my midterm. On Monday, I took my Powerizers out again, just for the hell of it. I took them about half a mile away or more to the closest McDonald's, where I had lunch. It was the first time I had taken them outside the apartment complex and not fallen. I was pretty stoked about that. Though, I will still be wearing protective gear when I get it, just because I don't like being scabbed and bruised everywhere. Later in the night, a friend, Kathy, and I made plans for dinner. When she came over, we didn't know what we wanted. We were gonna order something from http://www.dormroomdeliveries.com/, but we couldn't decide on what to get, so we ordered a pizza instead. We ate it while watching The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She said she wanted to watch it because her boyfriend was reading it, and always talked about it. I lent her my copy of the book to read, too. I should probably re-read that novel, because I can't remember all of it. I think I a lot of the book was in the movie, but I don't remember if the endings were the same. Even though I probably would've been better off reading and studying instead of watching a movie and chit-chatting, I enjoyed the company.

On Tuesday night, there was another presentation in Bovard Auditorium that I had to go to for my WRIT 140 class. Well, since I didn't have to carry anything with me to it, I decided to take my Powerizers, haha. Because so many people ask about them when I go in public with them, I made some sort-of unofficial business cards to hand out so people could remember them more easily when they wanted to look them up online. Here's what they look like:
I cut out about 25 of them initially, and I'm down now to about 3, haha. However, with as many as I've handed out to curious people, I haven't seen any of them add me on Facebook or MySpace yet. That kinda sucks, because I'm still looking for more friends, but whatever. When I got to the auditorium, I was allowed in with my Powerizers, but when I got up near my seat on the top balcony, I was asked to leave them with the ushers so they wouldn't take up a lot of space around me in the seating area. Well, the presentation was alright. It was about rap and hip-hop music, like the last one, but even though this one had more variety in it, like a DJ, some interpretive dancing, and a fellow Trojan singer, it didn't interest me as much as the debate from last time. I think it was partly because the acoustics on the top balcony aren't that great, so I couldn't clearly hear everything the speaker was saying. Last time, I was way up in the second row, and could hear everything.

After the speaker series, I went down to Parkside to get dinner before going back home to study. Handed out some more cards to people I passed, talked to one guy who had seen them before and claimed he's wanted a pair for awhile, and gave him a little demonstration as I jogged away. Dinner wasn't bad, but I didn't get to finish, because there was a fire drill. Ugh. They gave me a ticket so they would know that I was there initially, and not to charge me for another meal, but I had eaten enough by then, so I figured I'd just go home and have some Easy Mac or something if I got hungry again. Plus, with so many people outside because of the fire drill, it was a perfect time to strap up my Powerizers and strike interest. I didn't stick around long after I got them on, but I could tell everybody was staring at me... Mainly because I was standing at least a foot above everybody else, and could see their faces, haha.

Wednesday was fun because it was the first day I took my Powerizers to class. Well, only one class... I went to Calc and Intro to CECS in my rollerblades, but then came back for the hour and a half between Intro to CECS and my Engineering Freshman Academy class so I could take them. I took what I thought I might need in a small briefcase, but from now on, if I need to take anything, I'm going to try to wear it on my back, because the briefcase kept getting clipped on the 'risers whenever my leg came up. Hopefully I'll gain more stamina as I use them more and more, because so far, I haven't been able to run for long periods of time without having to stop and walk for a minute to catch my breath. I also work up a good sweat whenever I run a lot, so I need to figure out how to go out on these and not show up somewhere dripping wet and smelling like shit. I kept my 'risers on and sat on a table near the door until most people in the class showed up, just to spark some interest, haha. The professor thought they were awesome when he saw them, and said he wanted a pair. I can't wait until a few weeks from now, when I can take the class outside and demonstrate a flip or two.

Wednesday night was where the school week started going downhill fast. I tried to read up for my midterm, but couldn't keep my mind on what I was reading because I was so tired, so I took a nap for an hour or two, woke up at about 11:00 or 11:30 at night, and then read and studied until about 4:00, when I finally went to sleep. I then woke back up at about 7:30 to study some more. Luckily, my WRIT 140 class was cancelled because we were doing conferences this week with the instructor, so I had an extra hour to study before POSC, and the dreaded midterm. Overall, I don't think it was as bad as I was making it out to be. I failed to mention a few key terms in my identifications, but I think I also hit on a good majority of the material that I was expected to know about. I debated going to Calc afterward, but went anyway, just to hand in my homework. Honestly, I don't have to pay much attention in the lab sessions for Calc if I finish my homework beforehand, because the TA pretty much just does our homework for us on the board. I didn't do anything for the rest of the day, because I wanted to wind down a bit before going straight back into work. I even went to the engineering school's talent show at 6:00, which wasn't bad. Most acts were singing, instrument-playing, or dancing, but a few acts were decent. One of the frats had a bunch of engineers come and crank dat Soulja Boy as an act, which was kinda funny, but I don't think anybody really knew what they were doing well enough to make it look good. After the first two runs of the chorus, the entire thing fell apart because the music changed beat and the dancers didn't. It was really poorly organized. Whatev. At least I got some free nachos and cotton candy.

At night, I napped again, then stayed up late researching and prewriting for my net neutrality essay, taking naps somewhere in the middle. I just about finished everything I intended to have ready for the conference by about 11:00, but was too fed up with my work to go to class, so I skipped Calc for the second Friday in a row and took another short nap. Then I got ready for my conference, which was at 12:50. I'd say the conference went well. The instructor changed the schedule around so each student would have a 20-minute conference instead of a 15-minute one. Last conference, I don't even think I made it to the end of 15 minutes before I was out of stuff to talk about, but this time, I was surprised that I had taken up the entire 20 minutes, even though I told him at the beginning of the conference that because of all the studying I had to do for POSC, I had only started researching and writing the day before/morning of. I think everything went better because I'm way more interested in net neutrality than political cartoons. I'm sure it's an engineering thing, since this new topic atually has something to do with computers.

After the conference, I dropped my backpack off in the apartment and headed down to the E-quad (engineering quad) for Viterbi Spotlight, which was this thing for freshman engineers that promoted each engineering field with the intent to gain interest from people who weren't sure what they wanted to do. I only checked out the computer science, electrical engineering, and industrial engineering booths. Electrical engineering seems pretty cool. One of my professors who was there said that if I really wanted to work with hardware fabrication, I could go either way, into CECS or EE. After I finished checking out the booths, I grabbed some free food that they had. The event was catered by Earle's Grill, and I had a cheeseburger and some chili-cheese fries. They were pretty good. I talked to one of the Freshman Academy coaches, Harry, who graduated from Clark High School in '06. He said he's not going back to Vegas for Thanksgiving, but his roommate might be going, so I might be able to hitch a ride home with him, which would save me a lot of money. We'll see how that turns out.

After the barbecue, I came back to the apartment to drop off my rollerblades and strap on my Powerizers again. I went down to the quad on them and then took them off to tumble in the field. The grass was wet, which wasn't nice for tumbling, but I managed. Eventually, some familiar faces came by with frisbees, and I threw around with them for at least an hour. I'm getting a bit better at throwing with different techniques, which is cool. After everybody left, I went to Jamba Juice and then back home to shower and rest. I kinda wanted to see Saw IV, but really was okay with going out to see any movie at all. Jourdan was down to go, but of the three movies playing at the closest movie theater, she wanted to see The Comebacks. We waited until the next showtime to go, but when we finally left, I double-checked Fandango and found out I was wrong about the time, and that we were half an hour late for The Comebacks, which started at 9:30, and actually on time to see 30 Days of Night at 10:00. Well, she was fine with seeing that movie, but our plans went to shit once again when we got there to find out that they only took cash. This was a problem because I didn't have enough money in my bank account to make an ATM withdrawal and she didn't have enough cash to spot me, so she returned her ticket and we just headed back to my place and watched Chasing Amy. Afterward, we were gonna drink, but with it being just us two, it didn't really seem like a fun idea, so we just talked and hung out until we got tired. She crashed out on the couch, and left in the morning sometime.

Woke up on Saturday and watched the game, which I usually do whenever it's televised and I don't have other plans. We lost again, which sucked. I was sore from the previous day's activities, so I didn't plan on going out to do anything, but I eventually ended up going out. Alex, Dallas, and Alexa drove out to go to Knott's for the annual Halloween Haunt. Since Knott's is only 25 miles away from me, they came and picked me up to go with them. I was still broke, so Dallas paid for all of my stuff. I'll pay him back within the next two weeks. We had a bit of trouble getting in, because Alex, Dallas, and Alexa had tickets, but the event was sold out by the time we got there and I was too sore and too much of a chickenshit to try to sneak in and make a run through the crowd to avoid getting caught by security. Dallas and I walked around the entire park looking for an entrance, to no avail. As we were scouting, though, some guy walked by, saw what we were doing, and offered us his extra ticket for $40. He was with some kids, and looked honest, so we followed him to the entrance, where Dallas got some cash from Alex to help pay for it, and we all went in.

Knott's was packed! Like, too crowded to be able to sit against a wall without having to bring your feet in close to avoid getting stepped on. We only really went on one ride, and the rest of the time, we walked through the haunted mazes, which weren't bad. We also got some funnel cake right before the park closed at 2:00, which was delicious. Afterward, we took Alexa to Alberto's because we thought we were going to sit down and eat with her sisters and cousins, but it turned out everybody just went through the drive-thru, so that was pretty pointless. Finally, we left Alexa with her family, and Dallas and Alex took me back to my apartment before they started their drive home.

I'm glad they decided to pick me up and take me with them. It's always really fun to hang out with friends from Vegas whenever they come out to visit. It would've been more fun with more people, but oh well. This visit was still fun, and very much needed after such a long week of schoolwork.

I talked to Dallas about the whole situation with Niki while we were waiting in line for a haunted maze. He said he plans on helping Niki pay back his mom and Sarah, but he doesn't have the money right now. I'm glad I asked him about it, because Niki's been too much of a titch lately to ask about it. He said he doesn't like asking people to pay him. Luckily, I don't give a fuck, haha. I'll probably talk to Chris soon about giving Dallas the $25 I transferred to his bank account to pay for the parking ticket they got last time they were here. If Chris is going to hound Niki for the money for Maricella's birthday party, he better expect me to hound him for the money he owes to people. I don't even know if he kept his word and gave my router back to my dad yet... I'm getting kinda critical of others now =/ Maybe a little bit of Niki rubbing off? Haha. I'm over it. Lately, Niki's been my only feed into the lives of everybody back in Vegas, so I've only got his view to go off of.

Well, this entry's getting long enough. I think it should be enough to keep you busy. Special birthday shoutout to Sarah =D Hope your weekend with Niki, Rachel, and Salome was a blast =)

Hands held high,
Vaniah Schwenoha

P.S. ~ I spent the past week listening pretty much only to the Minutes to Midnight and Across the Universe albums, so that's where the title and outro come from.