My First Saturday At College

Would you like to know what I did with my first Saturday at college? It was actually really fantastic.

I have this new clique that fluctuates between 5 and 8 people. This morning it started out with 5. We call ourselves The Breakfast Club. I'm Claire, Molly Ringwald's character, the "Princess". Anyway, the five of us went to breakfast on Hilltop, and the first thing the cashier says to us is "Hey are you all freshmen? Do you want a job?" So... we all got hired on the spot to be dishwashers in the cafeteria. Sweet. I start on Thursday.

After that eventful morning (which, by the way, this all occured around 11AM. I like not having band camp), we went to my friend's room and we sat around on Facebook, updating our statuses to "So-and-so has got a job!" Then we all commented on and liked each others' statuses. It was intense. Then we sat around and were extremely lazy for a good hour or so, and then we decided to buy our books.

At UWEC, you can rent most of your books. I only had to pay for one. I paid an astounding total $36 for five textbooks. Well, technically one textbook, but... I got 5 (for the price of one!). I also got a free stick of gum. Yep. One individually plastic-wrapped stick of gum. Awesome.

Then we went back to my friend's dorm to decide what to do with the rest of our day. Our intent was to explore the city, so we hopped on a bus on lower campus and sat on it full cycle just to see where it went. Then we got on another bus to see where that one went. It went into the neighboring city of Altoona, and there were tons of creepy homeless-looking people and a spooky old lady who kept staring at us.

At the end of our epic 2-hour bus adventure (bussing is free for UWEC students, by the way), we ended up just a couple of blocks away from where we first boarded. So we rode on a bus for 2 hours to go somewhere that was 10 minutes away from the residence halls.

And then we went to dinner at Dooley's, and then we went to a $2 play! It was really good, albeit incredibly depressing.

So in order to take our minds off the massive cloud of sadness left by the play, we went back to my friend's dorm, and by that time it was just four of us girls left. So we found the worst fanfiction ever written ("My Immortal"), and we had a Reader's Theater for an hour and a half.

Pretty much the most epically lametastically awesome Saturday I've had in a while. I love college.

First Week - Band Camp

So I'm all moved in at UW-Eau Claire, and I really have not had much of a chance to breathe since I got here, so I apologize to my folks for not calling them, blah blah blah...

So some horrible demon possessed me and told me to sign up for marching band. I didn't really like marching band last year, so I don't know why I thought it would be more fun in college. It's not. I wake up at 6:30 in the morning and kind of want to kill myself.

I miss my old guard. They didn't make me feel stupid, and we all got to be really good friends, I'd like to think. Don't get my wrong, the girls at Eau Claire are all really nice, but, since I'm a freshman, a lot of the upper classmen already have their well-established connections and don't really say much to the freshman. They give us rides and are more than happy to help us out (thanks everyone who puts up with me, I know I'm terrible!), but... it's not the same. I guess that's to be expected though.

So here is my advice: Don't do something in college that you really know, deep in your heart, that you don't want to do it.

Currently, the cafeteria is not open, but we did have dinner there once. The food is okay. I didn't have a whole lot, but I had a brownie, and it was decent enough. I've only been in one other college cafeteria, but this one was pretty much the same. They have a soup n' salad line, the main entree line, pizza, cereal, soda fountain, desserts, etc. Other than that though, I've been living off the food I have in my dorm and stuff like Subway.

Okay, actually, there is this really awesome pizza place on Water Street called Jeff and Jim's. They have 2 slices of pizza and a soda for $5.50, and those slices are MASSIVE. Bigger than Sbarro's, I swear! Good pizza, too. And they are open until 2-3AM most nights. A lot of places are open really late in town. Which makes sense. But it's kind of funny, getting used to "Open 'til 3AM!" and it's not a Taco Bell or a McDonald's.

Tonight, I had a pretty good fruit, yogurt, and peanut butter... thing. It was good.

So I have hardly explored my dorm at all. I saw a kitchen downstairs once, but I haven't been able to find it again. I figure I'll just get a tour when all the other people move in on Sunday, but I'm kinda bummed. I have to do dishes. I guess I'll just do them in the bathroom?

Currently, it's just me, the RAs (Resident Assistants) (I'm next door to one of them), and a couple of international students who are on my floor (I'm on the 9th of 10 floors in Towers South).

Wanna see some pictures? I bet you do. That's what you came for. But first, you have to listen to this little bit:

I miss home. I really, honestly do. I didn't think I would. Rochester is dumb, and I don't miss the town at all. Like, yesterday, they were talking about health care or something on the TV and the Mayo Clinic was mentioned and I couldn't help but groan. I can't get away from that damned place! But I do miss stuff like my house. My grandma's house. My friend's houses. I don't miss work yet, but I haven't had time to sit around and effectively be unemployed. I also don't miss JM, but that's not surprising seeing as how I didn't really even go there the last two years anyway. I don't miss RCTC. Well, okay, I kinda do. When peoples' Facebook statuses were RCTC-centered this past Monday, I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic. At least I know where stuff is there!

That's one thing I miss the most. Being "omniscient". Like, I know where almost everything in Rochester is (not including residential areas). I know how to get from class to class at RCTC or JM. Here in Eau Claire, I have no idea where anything is. I can get from my room to the Haas Fine Arts center where we meet for band each morning and back. Yesterday, I went to Walgreens to get some soda, and I was really disoriented and couldn't find my way back. It was a little depressing.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, whichever way you look at it, I only have time to think about home really early in the morning or late at night.

Okay, here is my other rant. Dorm showers, at least in my dorm, are TINY. It can't be more than 2 feet by 2 feet. It's a nice enough shower, sure, and it works, but let me tell you about things they don't tell you in the college booklets.

This mostly pertains to the ladies, but... whatever. Ladies, ever tried to shave your legs in a 2 feet by 2 feet shower? I don't know about you, but it's tough! Balance is key (because I sure as hell am not touching those shower walls with any part of my body if I can help it). Also, next time you're in your dorm shower, check out the drain. I just happened to look down while I was taking a shower this evening, and at the drain there's all this hair. Most of it's mine, I'm sure, because I shed like a beast, but that's kind of gross. So don't look down when you're in the showers.

All right, enough of that, here are some pictures.

Here is my nasty tan lines. See that, around my neck? I have sock tan lines too.

This is the view from my dorm room. It's a nice parking lot and all, but I generally prefer the view at night.

... I guess you kind of have to be there to see it?

... Okay it takes forever to upload pictures here, because they don't format very nicely, and I'm too lazy to work it out, you can see the rest of my dorm pics here: http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f241/crazykitsune17/Dorm/

To Those Still Stuck in High School

My boyfriend is still stuck in high school this upcoming fall, and he's one of those people that enjoys talking about the future. "I'm gonna be an astronaut, and I'm gonna be the first man on Pluto, and I will re-establish its planet-ness!" kind of thing. Where he maps out this epic future of grandeur and whatnot.

Mini-tangent: I saw a guy in a T-shirt the other day that had a picture of Pluto on it, and it said: "PLUTO: Never Forget." It made me smile.

But anyway, he's more or less picked out a college, a career path, a retirement plan, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with this. I did it too when I was a kid. Granted, he has changed these life plans several times since we started dating, but the point is, the kid likes to plan ahead.

And if your parents are anything like mine, they practically shoved "planning ahead" down your throat. I vividly remember when I was about 8 years old, my parents told me, "Okay, so when you get to high school, make sure you take four years of math. You take your Algebra freshman year, your Geometry sophomore year, your Trig junior year and Calculus when you're a senior! And then take Calc 2 and Finite Math when you're in college!" And I nodded my head with excitement (because I was good at math back then), and said, "Yup! Sure will!"

I also distinctly remember summer before my freshman year of high school, I sat with that damned course registration booklet and mapped out my entire high school career in one sitting. I literally picked 8 courses for each semester (I wasn't aware that one of those 8 periods in a school day was actually your lunch hour), wrote them all down, and was like, "Yeah! I'm so ready for high school!"

And then when I got to junior year, I stopped caring, didn't take trig or calculus, didn't even take a math class my senior year, I was actually truant for part of senior year, I hadn't had a "full" schedule since... 2nd semester freshman year? Fuck that, honestly.

Whatever, that's all in the past, I'm done with high school. My point is: Don't bother making all those great plans for yourself. Just go with the flow. It makes me unbelievably sad to see the younger generation (and by younger generation, I mean those younger than myself, so about 1/4 of all my Facebook friends) mapping out their entire lives.

Even my own classmates, including those who were hit pretty hard with senioritis! They all start planning. It's ridiculous. Your plans are going to change. Don't think about adulthood until you really have to.

I'm staring at my medical bills that aren't really mine because I don't pay them but they are addressed to me anyway, and it depresses me. I'm staring at the e-mail I received from Eau Claire telling me that I just signed my life away in student loans, and that after I graduate, I have 6 months to land a job and start paying $50 a month for the rest of my youth, assuming I even make it past 30... and that makes me sad.

I do a lot of "adult" things already. I do my own taxes. I buy some of my own food and toothpaste and stuff like that. I buy my own clothes. I pay for my own gas. I do my own laundry. I read Business Week magazine (but only after I'm done with Seventeen and Cosmo). I'm so "grown up", right?

No, because I gotta start paying for a mortgage or (eek!) actually make payments on my car that my parents told me to pay for myself but I never did and so they just pay for it for me, pay for my electric bills, my cell phone bill, my parents' nursing home fees for when they get too old to function!

I don't even want to grow up. Ever. I want to be slightly grown up, meaning that like, I'll buy my own food and stuff, but I don't want to pay taxes or pay bills. I don't want to do any of that. I don't want to have a real job where I have to actually do work that matters, where I have to work hard to avoid being laid off or watch some asshole get promoted over me. Where I earn a SALARY instead of a WAGE. :( I don't want to grow up! I don't want to leave college!

Okay, I'm not even there yet, but I don't want it to end. I couldn't wait for high school to end, and I know the rest of you who are still there can't wait for graduation either, and that's fine, because high school sucks, but... in all honesty, what is there to look forward to? Bills? Responsibility? Procreation (yuck!)?

And so I'm saying, enjoy your youth while you still can. Don't stress out about making decisions, like which college to go to, what to major in, what career you want. You still have a month of summer left. Enjoy it. Just go a day without thinking about your future and live your life how you want it NOW.

It's bad advice for the long run, and I'm sure you're all just saying, "Well, stfu, you applied for your colleges in August!" That I did. Keep in mind I also changed my mind about which college I wanted to go to halfway through the whole acceptance process. But that's a story for another day.

I guess I just don't know how to convey to you how unbearably sad it makes me to see my friends planning out the rest of their lives. This is the best time of your life. You're young, you're beautiful, most of you are so fortunate, you don't even know. Most of you have cars that either your parents are paying for, or you're just borrowing it from Mom anyway. Most of you have jobs and can buy your own clothes and stuff to continue being beautiful. You're in your prime! Don't waste it all away giving yourself wrinkles stressing about the future!

I'm not kidding. Just relax. If only for a day. Don't let all that higher education/planning for the future BS weigh you down. You'll only get one Summer 2009. Live it up.