Today is a different kind of day. Typically, I have Mark in the morning and then quickly head back home to jump on the bike and ride to Cal for 213. Instead, I'm skipping 213 and will be spending the duration of that class up in the air on my way to Colorado. This holiday weekend is being spent celebrating the beginning of Cameron's final year at USAFA and most of my time will be spent reading for classes (both for next week and this past week).
After a late night of cleaning, I spent this morning doing last minute errands in preparation for my trip. After all the remaining cleaning, packing, and showering, I hopped in the car around 10am to head over to the shop to pick up another textbook that came in. I figured since I was just down the street, I would also head to Krishna Copy to pick up my reader for 213. Another Berkeley joke: there are THREE Krishna Copies within .75mi of campus and NONE of them are related to the others. I ran back to my car cursing after finding this out and pulled two illegal U-ies in order to score a parking spot in front of The Original Krishna Copy. Three minutes and ninety-four dollars later, I am the proud owner of a two-part reader. It was fun trying to cram this in my bag and then make my way through security with it. Better be worth it.
Even though the speed limit down Telegraph is 35mph, I was booking it at about 45-50 and making it through every light. I made it to class with about 10min to spare, a feat I hope to never have to pull off again.
I think this class, more than any other class, is going to be the one that sends me under. It's not so much the workload, as it is what we are working towards. This is the precursor to our Senior Thesis class, in which we gather the materials in order to prepare to write our Master's Policy Reports (MPRs) next semester. It's not extremely work-intensive compared to the rest of my classes. But that will certainly become the case next semester. Understanding the purpose of this class is what makes me feel as though I may be in over my head.
After class ended for the day, I needed to head to the airport to catch my flight. First things first, I need highlighters. For the life of me, I have not been able to find my pencil pouch ANYWHERE, even tearing my room apart to find it. It went missing about two weeks ago but I've not recovered it. For the time being, I am in a DESPERATE need of highlighters.
So desperate in fact, that I was willing to pay the inflated price for a pack at the bookstore on campus. However, when you walk into the bookstore, see a line of 15 women at the cash register and you have to be at the airport in 30 minutes (and it takes about 20 minutes to get there), you realize that you aren't THAT desperate. Though, it was extremely tempting to grab the pack, toss $5 on the counter and yell "keep the change".
I made it to the airport in good time, even picking up a double-double from In-N-Out. The airport was business as usual: eating lunch and cracking up over a video, while waiting for my plane to board. I nabbed one of the last aisle seats at the back of the plane, thinking this was a prime space to be so I could read for class during the 2.5 hour flight.
WRONG. The row in front of me had two young boys, talking and watching a movie (without headphones). And the row behind me and on the other side of the aisle had a mid-40 year old rocker that looked something like Chad Kroeger, but with more tattoos and an air of California drug propensity. We landed around 5.20pm MDT and he yells out "WOOHOO! It's 4.20". It was even better when I turned and reminded him that it was actually an hour ahead and he missed it. I got a glare for it, but considering his chattiness kept me from getting more reading done, I didn't feel bad in the least bit.
It was a relief to be off the plane, even though it would later mean waiting an hour for Cameron and Nate to come pick me up and then another 90 minutes of driving to the Springs, after we got caught behind a car accident on I-25 that shut down the highway (and Cam's car) for a good half hour. How I managed to make it through dinner and then back to our host family's house, I don't know. But I was out cold and had no more thoughts of traveling. Only of how I was going to get all my readings for next week finished.
No comments:
Post a Comment