Welcome to second semester. Or, the first semester of 2014. Whichever perspective you wish to take.
By the way, a velocipede is an early form of bicycle. I used it in the title for alliteration purposes and because come on- velocipede is an awesome-sauce word. It sounds like your bike is a dinosaur or something. Sweet.
I feel a bit like a sophomore, to be honest. I know that I'm not, but there are people here newer than me (the spring admits), I already know my way around pretty well, I already have friends, and I'm much more used to how life on a college campus works than I was coming in last semester... So, it just feels like I've been here longer than I actually have. But maybe that's a good thing?
One thing I already love about second semester is I don't have 8am classes for three days in a row!!! Today, I woke up at 8 instead. It feels so, so nice to get up at 8 instead of 6:30. I absolutely love it. Also, I have plenty of time to get to my class at 10. I even got to go to breakfast with my friends. :)
My first class is the next acting class that I'm taking: THTR 152- Intro to Scene Study. I've decided to just call it my scene study class. Today's class was a very basic introductory, and getting to know both our professor and the other students in the class. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and already have some new friends!!! However, it's going to be very challenging. That's ok, I want to be challenged... it's just that the problem with being challenged is that it makes me very vulnerable. The problem with being vulnerable is it opens me up to judgement. In particular, it's going to be painfully obvious that I'm not the world's greatest actress, which I already know, but I'd like to give off the illusion that I'm fairly good. Oh well... bring it on.
After my first class, I scurried back to my dorm to pick up a package, and then waited a good half hour or so to send it out. I'm sending my Philosophy textbook back to Amazon. Good riddance.
The next item on the to do list was to finally fix my bike- picking up where I left off yesterday. I already had the too-small wheel attached to the bike, but since the brake was in the way, the wheel wouldn't turn. So I wheeled my bike, upright by the back wheel, all the way out to the DPS office, losing my balance quite a few times in the process. Also during this journey, I went past many people who I knew thought I was totally crazy. I imagine their conversations behind my back went something like this:
"Oh my gosh, don't look now, but there's a girl doing something totally weird with her bike."
"Wait... what? What is she even doing?"
"There are two wheels on the bike! Why can't she just walk it? Or ride it?"
"She's going to kill somebody with that thing."
.....shut up, guys.
Though I admit, I saw Kieryn as I walked past the bookstore but didn't say hi out of shame. Also, I didn't want to embarrass her by making her acknowledge that she knew the crazy girl with the bike. I told her about this later (in the presence of Jinny and Sneha) and they all thought the situation was quite funny. I agree.
Actually, I thought it was quite funny in the moment too. It makes for a good story, at least.
I made it to DPS at last, and had to explain my situation and wait for an officer who actually knew the bike tire stash of which I was speaking. By the time we got over there, I only really had about a half hour or so until my next class. So it was a 10 minute scramble to find a tire among the mess that was actually the right size. I only found one- and it didn't have the right middle that I was looking for... but I took it anyways. Something was better than nothing, and hey! It was the right size, right?
I ended up locking the bike and the new tire up at the Drama Center before rushing over to my classroom. It's my Sociology GE class, and guess what? It's in the exact same room as my Philosophy class was. Trippy experience. Luckily, a friend of mine (named Michael) was in my Philosophy class with me, and is also in my Sociology class now. We got to joke about it a little bit.
This is the class that I spent a long time stressing over getting into, by the way. I think it was worth it. The professor is very engaging, but is also very... dad-like? I know that he knows what he's talking about backwards and forwards, and that he's done a ton of research in his field... but the way he spoke at times made it seem like he was getting new information in a caught-off-guard type of way. I guess only time will tell. My other worry about the class is that I'm not sure exactly what it is we'll be learning... I know what we'll be looking at and examining and studying... but learning? I guess we'll see. But the subject is fascinating, so I'm excited for that. Also, I met the professor afterwards and he was really nice!!! I'm going to go to his office hours at some point to chat with him and learn more about him and his work.
Then it was time for me to go and retrieve my bike. After I signed up to audition for 5 plays all on the same day (Wednesday). Yup. It's gonna happen. Wish me luck.
Back to the bike. I realized that I might be able to take out the mechanism in the middle of the tire and replace it with the quick-release system that I needed, but the nuts were on the bolt too tight for me to do alone. So I wheeled the bike (again. Less humiliating this time since the front tire was actually missing so it made more sense why I wheeled it the way I did), but this time to the Set shop. I figured they'd have tools that I could hopefully borrow to help my situation. Turns out my situation was better than expected. There's a worker there named Mike, but nicknamed Whiskey. He invited me to bring my bike in, and then walked me through step by step to evaluate how I can fix my bike problem. He got a wrench and tried to undo the middle thing for me, then explained why that wouldn't work. He then said that all I really needed was another nut. I wouldn't be able to keep the tire on the bike with the quick-release, but I could fasten it on with just another nut because of how the system worked. He tried to find one that would fit, but didn't have one. Instead, we put the tire on the bike as much as we could (even though it wasn't secure on one side) and also fixed the brake up for me so that it would work properly with the new tire. He then advised me to go to the bike shop to get the nut I needed, and I thanked him and left. I owe him cookies. Seriously.
I actually biked (despite the one nut missing and flat tires) to the bike shop, where they not only replaced the nut, but pumped up my tires, and it didn't cost me anything. I biked all the way back on my bike that felt good as new.
Summary- A lot of amazingly nice people assisted me in the journey of replacing my bike tire so much so that I gained a lot of new knowledge about bikes and everything that I needed to get my bike back to working order all for free. Praise God.
In celebration, I went to a lovely dinner with Sneha, Jinny, and Jessie at Cafe 84. Since I got back, I finished reading a play that I started, read the entirety of another play, and I've been chatting with Michael again as I type up this blog and try to figure out what I'm going to do tomorrow. More specifically, the order in which I'm going to attempt getting more things done. I'll make a schedule or something. We'll figure it out.
*sigh*... how was your day? I'd love to hear about it.
Fight on, friends.
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