Driving.

College kids don't always own cars. I personally have always had my car at college, though I usually only use it once or twice a week if I can help it; I walk almost everywhere I can. Usually grocery shopping, volunteering, and churchgoing take me outside of walking range. Since there are a number of us on campus in this same sort of situation (Leah, Daniel, Judy, etc.) we usually carpool. For example, the weekly Tuesday get McDonald's and Wal-mart occurs after I have finished volunteering. I pick up Daniel and Leah in my car, since parking is still so horrible that there's no use trying to find a spot. Leah and I alternate driving the carpool to church, etc.

It rarely happens that I am driving my car alone at some point without specific plans in the very near future. However, today was one of those unusual exceptions. I drove to meet my friend Eric (he is one of the four or so people from my high school class that came to the same university, and the only one with whom I've kept any contact) for dinner. After some wonderful firehouse subs (right after I'd finished the blog prior to this!) I began the drive back to my dorm. It was one of my favorite times of the day; the sun was below the horizon, so the sky was still light, though there was no blinding glare in any direction. I was listening to music, and suddenly I realized I was not ready to park and walk back up to my dorm. I didn't want to stop driving, I didn't want to be here this weekend. I wanted to drive somewhere, maybe home, with just what I had in the car (basically just my purse.) No extra clothes, no preparations, no computer. Just drive somewhere far away.

I don't know what stopped me. Maybe some of my spontaneity is gone, maybe I know better than to make rash decisions, maybe I figured Mom would think I was ridiculous since she'll be here Tuesday, maybe I figured that it wasn't worth going on a trip without friends with me, though half the beauty of the car ride was the solitude. But either way, I followed the usual route back to the gravel lot where I always park, and calmly pulled my car into the spot where my car always resides. I exited my car and took the same path to my dorm room as I always do.

Jess told me once that I drive more than anyone she knew. I seem to spend many a weekend traveling. Last year I blamed the long-distance relationship, which was part of it, same with the month of December. However, it's really not that, because without those reasons I still find myself out of town frequently, whether visiting Jess or family or finding some other reason to draw me away. I just don't like staying put for too long. Maybe it's because I'm torn between my college home and the home where I was raised. Maybe it's because I miss all of the people whom I love. Maybe I just get restless staying in one place for too long and feel the need to change my life up. Maybe I'm not busy enough here, since I have so much more free time in college than I ever did in high school. Whatever the reason, I felt it tugging at me again tonight, the need to just drive, to go, to break free from routine, the desire to go somewhere else and see people I haven't seen in a while. Though I know if I left, I'd miss the friends still here. Neither option was really fully satisfying.

Now I sit in my room, on my bed, typing this blog, while the sun sets out the window. Somewhere in the course of the sun's descent and the onset of night, the sky will turn a shade somewhere between night blue and sky blue, and I'll smile, because it's the color I love best. And I'll continue this weekend like any other here, push the restlessness down, and find contentedness with where I am. I'll enjoy time with the friends that I love, and find time to get in touch with the people that I don't get to see in person daily.

And in a month I'll drive home for the summer, and in a few weeks I'll be itching for another trip. And next time, maybe I'll keep driving.

Food.

My favorite food is, without a doubt, pizza. Many of my friends.. Jess.. share similar, if not identical views. Maybe it is why we are friends.

I have always loved pizza, from quite a young age. During high school, when I became busy and ate on my own, not as family dinners, I lived on frozen pizzas. Tostino's pizzas are wonderful. I ate them and bagel bites. You must not microwave the bagel bites. This is imperative. Jeff used to commit this atrocity before I showed him the light of yummy, crispy, pizza-y bagels. You can use an oven or preferable a toaster oven. Microwaves and frozen pizza is a horrible, horrible idea, though I microwaved a lean cuisine pizza the other day and it was bearable. However, by eating some combination of these foods on average four times a week, I survived. I think it was difficult for my parents when I left for college and they had to remember that there was no longer any need to buy the pizzas at the grocery store. In middle school, we had like a sandwich press and I used to make "pizza pockets," with bread, pizza sauce, and cheese. Good times.

Tostinos pizza rolls, as I recently discovered, are also tasty. Gauraw introduced me to these. Again, don't microwave them. Use ovens. Cheese needs to be baked, not radiated.

Now, another food I love almost as much though not quite as closely as pizza is subs. Is subs a singular way to refer to this food? Anyways, I love subs. I hated them until high school because I didn't like bread crust and they were all crust. Now, however, they are amazing. I never get cheese on them, it just ruins it (represent, Dustin!) I either get turkey or some sort of chicken. I prefer toasted subs, so I really like the trend of toasty subs that has taken over the sandwich industry. Now, here's some ideas of my sub choices.

Subway: Sweet Onion Chicken Terriyaki. This is an amazing sub, also a $5 footlong. Turkey is also good.
Quiznos: Honey Mustard Chicken. Wonderful. Again, Turkey is also good.
Firehouse: Turkey. I think that's all Iv'e ever tried.
Publix: Turkey. Or anything, really. Publix is a great maker of subs.
Jimmy John's: NOT acceptable. All college kids seem to think this place is the best. MAybe cause they deliver. Wrong. They are not toasty and have a weird refridgerator taste about them.
Blimpie: Occasionally I still find one of these. Turkey, of course. I am pretty predictable.
Arby's: They make toasted subs. Surprisingly good, though the turkey is a little dry and bland.
Dominos: Have yet to try their subs, if I'm ordering from them I'm obviously getting pizza.
Hungry Howie's: My mom loves their subs. I tried one once, not so much a fan. Maybe I should try it again sometime and see if my tastes have changed.
Dining Hall: My dining hall makes sandwiches, and then toasts them. They are good.


See, it's not that I'm against other subs, it's just that I usually always know what I want. If I'm going to Subway, it's because I am craving a specific sub, not because I want to try some other sub they have to offer. Quiznos also has good side salads. Publix has good side everythings. Like a whole store full of sides. And entrees.

I should not write blogs when I am hungry and figuring out what to do for dinner.

Umbrellas.

Yesterday, I was at Wal-mart with Leah and Daniel, Leah's boyfriend. Daniel and I have coupons for McDonald's, so we go every Tuesday to get our free value meal, then go to the Wal-mart behind the McDonald's for our weekly shopping excursion. I had a caramel iced coffee, which was the perfect balance of coffe, caramel, milk, and sweetness.

Anyways, the weather has been frightful these past few days, what with tornado warnings, rain, thunder, and the like. Did you know tornadoes on average have a 500 foot diameter? Some get to be over a mile. This is something I have often wondered and only recently remembered that I wondered it within range of the internet. Now I know. Anyways, as we go to walk into Wal-mart, we open our umbrellas to the drizzly water falling from the bland gray sky. Daniel's umbrella does not open properly. It "works," its just one of the spokes is broken.

My mother always gets the words "jump rope" and umbrella confused. Even to this day, she'll tell her students to play with the umbrella and reminds us not to forget the jump rope. I always assumed that she learned these words in the same vocabulary lesson as a child and her brain filed them next to each other, like me always confusing Leah, Mary, and Judy. And alot of other words. My friends tell me that I talk oddly. I get caught up on words, I talk so fast that I can't physically form the words, and sometimes I use the complete wrong words. They can usually contextually tell what I'm saying, so they don't correct me, and so I never know. Also, I confuse beginnings, like Chepsi Perry (cherry pepsi.)

So, Daniel decides to buy a new umbrella. As he stands next to the stand of umbrellas, I think, Ive been here before. Deja Vu! Actually, it wasn't deja vu, I had in fact been in that scenario twice before. Daniel is on his fourth umbrella this year, and the handle on the fourth is already breaking. He has the worst of luck with umbrellas, poor guy.

For Christmas somebody should buy him an umbrella with a lifetime warranty, Leah and I decided. My umbrella, which I got at the beginning of the semester, is beginning to break. It gets jammed when I try to open it. It still works well enough for me, though. Maybe it'll get sunny again and I won't have such a need for umbrellas. This weather is crazy. I like the rain unless I'm trying to walk across campus to my class.

At least the weather fights the pollen. Whenever it doesn't rain, all the cars everywhere on campus, even the ones in garages, are covered in a sheet of yellow powder. It's not exactly pleasant.

I hope Daniel's new umbrella lasts a good long time.

Gyms.

My college has a gym that is free for students. We swipe our IDs when we enter, then we can exchange our ID temporarily for a key to a locker, or for equipment for different things in the gym. Usually, I get a locker and then go to the ellipticals, or maybe the track.

My brother drove up to visit me this weekend. This is because my dorm forced me to buy a meal plan and I have alot of extra meals and money that can only be used on campus before the end of the semester, and I need help using it up. So he drove up. Unfortunately the county was under a tornado and flood watch the whole time, but we still had fun. One thing I wanted to do while he was here was play racquetball. I have never played, but I know that Dustin does, and I know that the gym has courts. So I called and reserved a court for Friday evening.

First of all, when I get there, it costs ten dollars to get a guest pass on the day they arrive. I voiced my opinion that such a thing was ridiculous. Why didn't I get any free tickets? At Dustin's school, guests were free. Ten dollars? Oh well, we give in. We go and claim the court, but the desk doesn't have any extra rackets. They say wait until the hour, when people usually exchange racquets. We walk around, we look in all 7 courts at the racquets, and we watch people as they leave. Most people have their own racquets, and we calculate that if the school owns any racquets, it must be the two bright yellow ones belonging to the people on court 1, leaving us to conclude that for six courts, the gym owns two racquets. Ridiculous. So, 15 minutes into our reservation, the yellow racquets are returned, and we go play racquetball.

Racquetball is like tennis, only not on an open court. Tennis involves only a court. Racquetball has four walls and a ceiling. It's very echo-y and difficult to hear, but very fun. Dustin, of course, beat me easily, but I was still learning and getting the hang of how to hit the ball, the rules, and certain things like when to run forward, when to let it bounce, when to use the back wall, etc. I did better as time passed.

Now, the next day, we wanted to play again, and with Judy since she had expressed interest in the game. I considered buying a racquet at Walmart with Dustin earlier that day, but we decided to save money and continued on our adventures in the dark, cloudy day. We went to little shopping stores, looked around, and just killed time. We called to reserve a court at four, but they were full, so we reserved one at five. At five we walked to the gym. This time, Dustin brought his own racket. The weather was still dark, cloudy, and windy. As we go to enter, I say that Dustin has a guest pass, because I was under the opinion they lasted a week, which was the only way I could jsutify in my mind having to pay ten dollars. No, I had to pay another ten dollars to get Dustin inside the gym. We decided to wait and be certain we could even get rackets first. Judy asked. They had none. We waited a few minutes, and saw two people returning the yellow rackets. Judy went, but not fast enough; two other girls claimed the yellow rackets.

Dustin and I were fairly positive that they only had two rackets, but I asked, where the woman assured me that I should wait, they owned at least ten rackets. I returned to my friends. Ten minutes later, I went back and asked. She asked the other girl at the desk, who said they only had two. I rolled my eyes. She apologized. I cancelled my reservation, frustrated, and exited the gym.

As we walked out, the rain began to fall, but lightly enough that it was bearable. I had brought an umbrella, but nobody else had, though Dustin and Judy decided to brave the weather. Ten feet into the rain, it began to pour, and they jumped back under the overhang. We waited, then began to walk again, only to have it pour again halfway through the journey. Dustin and Judy were soaked.

Back at my dorm, Dustin laughingly brought up something he said once over the summer, when work had gone terribly because the pool had been shut down, residents were acting up, the weather had gone bad, and basically Murphy's law had played out in full effect: "Today is a terrible, terrible day." As he had said it, we had burst into laughter at how so many things could go wrong in one day. When he said it again after the walk back from the gym, we laughed again.

Though I am still disappointed in the gym, I am glad that at least Dustin helped me to laugh it off. And I'm going to buy my own racket.

Observation Hours.

As any education major will tell you, a good amount of time each semester is spent volunteering in a classroom. The schedule is designed so that you always are in some class that requires between 10 and 15 hours doing some form of work with students. Sometimes, the teachers sign you out a bit early and cut you some slack. This semester, I happen to be in two such classes. For one of these classes, I spend my Tuesday afternoons in a middle school reading class. For the other, I was assigned--halfway through the semester--to a high school mathematics class. So, I decided to spend the next three fridays in this class to make sure I complete all the hours.

Now, somehow I had yet to volunteer in this school, even though it is a fairly well-known high school in these here parts. So, not knowing my way around the school, I left my room bright and early, early enough that I could get an iced coffee from McDonald's to assure that I was awake. Now, McDonald's iced coffees are addicting. Unfortunately, they have no real recipe, so the tastiness of the beverage is solely dependent on the maker of the drink. Sometimes you get a bitter barely flavored drink, other times you basically are drinking caramel milk (I always get caramel, though Leah prefers vanilla and Daniel hazelnut.) However, this morning the drink was made wonderfully, and I was quite content as I drove around the school to find the gravel lot where interns parked.

Now, trying to find the main office is the next big problem. Some schools have signs pointing visitors in all the right directions. Other schools just expect that everyone will obviously now where to go. In such cases, I don't like to ask the students, because I suspect that they will only lead me astray. I mistrust high school students, they don't seem like kind-hearted souls that would look out for my best interest. But being left with no choice, I asked a student with a bathroom pass where the main office was, and he escorted me there quite well. I suppose any detour from class was welcome to him. My opinion of students helping me find my way was forever changed, I now know that they are more than welcome to take me to my destination before accomplishing their own tasks. However, I also realize that this is not in the best interest of their educations, so I will try harder to never get lost on school campuses.

Eventually I found the teacher's room (314, which she cleverly decimaled into 3.14, like pi, those math nerds) and get settled in the back of the room with two other interns from my class that had been also assigned this teacher. We talked some, we took the Algebra I test with the class (I can still factor quadratics, what now?) We discussed the weather, as the sky was cloudy and suggested rain (Floridians can predict that weather) and when it would start. I then checked my cell phone, discovering that I had a text message from the college alert system, meant to tell us of criminals and dangers on campus. It warned me of dangerous weather, which the darkening skies and pouring rain only reinforced. I showed the text to my fellow interns. Then the principal came on the intercom and told nobody to leave for lunch, which would be extended needed, the students parked in the lowest parking lot immediately move their cars to higher ground, and that a tornado watch was in effect just south of us. All this on the day before their spring break.

The other two interns left at lunch, and I was escorted to the room where all the mathematics education teachers ate their lunch. Knowing that I might not be able to drive off for lunch, I had packed a granola bar, cheerios, carrots, and applesauce. Quite a fitting lunch. I sat in a chair and listened to the math teachers discuss their lives. I was given a brownie with the rest of them. I didn't participate much in conversation, but was very interested in what they said. I felt... oddly at home. I never realized how much teachers talk about students.

The bell rang. The weather was clearing and the next class started, but the electricity went out. On top of everything else that was happening, the power went out and the students were taking their test by cloudy skylight and the emergency light on the wall, rather unhappily. One student tried to sharpen his pencil, onyl to find that the electric sharpener was in no way working. Eventually everyone adjusted. Then the lights returned, shocking everyone. Then the lights went back out for another extended period of time. Then they returned The power just couldn't make up its mind. I took out Of Mice and Men and decided to pass the time reading since I had taken the test last period and now had nobody to whom to talk. It's a wonderful, though sad, book, which I suggest everyone read.

Then, I asked the teacher where the bathroom was, to which she gave me a key and directions. I entered the student bathroom, then used my key in the locked door to the left of the entrance, and gasped in amazement. The room had two cushioned chairs, a table with a tablecloth, a sink, and some sort of dresser. It was also very decorated. When I returned, I commented on my surprise, to which she replied, "Yes, we have our own bathroom. We prefer not to use the student's bathroom, lots of STDs going around," to which I sat in stunned silence.

I look forward to being a teacher.