Junior College: Year No. 2

While sitting in my sociology classroom for the first time this morning, I had a good look at my possible new classmates and read a bit of THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. I recognized one person from my alma mater, but did not think he would a) remember me[even though we were both in the very small Liberal Youth of America club :| ] b) care to acknowledge my existence[but I am in no way saying that he should]. At 9:30, Dr. Sumner, my Geography professor from spring semester, walked in and announced that she would substitute for the day, as the original professor would not be able to come in until next Monday. We went over the syllabus and were set free.

I retired to the library for the next hour. While on the third level, I read some more Hemingway for about twenty minutes, then fell asleep with my head down on a desk. Amazingly, I awoke with no alarm of any kind at 10:50, gathered my things, and walked to the vending machine to get myself a bottled mocha Frappuccino.

I wandered aimlessly for about fifteen minutes, then gave up[on...something?] and sat down on a curb near the Women's staff restroom since all of the benches were taken--there is always a big crowd on campus the first week of school due to people registering, textbook purchasing, and the like. Just as I was about to grab T.O.M.A.T.S.[ha, tomats..hehe], the person who I had recognized from my sociology class walked up to me. "I know you, right?" he said. "Yeah, you're Fernando from Los Al," I responded with a hesitant grin. He sat down and we talked a bit. He told me he is also attending another community college and has kept in touch with the former president of the L.A.H.S. Liberal Youth of America. :P He started to eat his lunch of sushi, and the first thing he stuck in his mouth was a sliver of ginger. And what comes next is horrible of me and I want to bash my head in a wall repeatedly for having done this: Fernando starting coughing from, what I thought was, the slight spicyness of the ginger, but then he started full on choking, and...sigh...I giggled about two times. :| God, I hate myself. But, as I realized he was really choking I became sympathetic and asked if he had some water or if I could get him anything. God, I am so stupid. And the poor guy seemed kind of nervous or anxious as well, but that could have been from the coffee he was also drinking. Luckily, he had a bottle of water and washed the ginger down. Sigh. I am such a jerk.

I found out that Fernando is enrolled in the same transfer-ready class as I(the Sociology I-English 3 core-like class), so we sort of stuck together until class started at noon, and decided that we would introduce one another to the class for the "getting to know you"-game that the professor wished us to participate in. It was nice to see the face of someone familiar--especially the face of one of the very few unpretentious people I attended high school with.

English ended a half-hour early and, after calling my grandmother and finding that her car had stalled while at the bank, I walked home. I took a different, more shady, route home and read some more. I got home fifteen minutes earlier than I would have if I'd taken the other route.

I lazed around, ate, watched Natalie Portman in "Where The Heart Is" and some of my old dance videos, then had dance class, which I was unusually anxious for. I will be sore tomorrow. I can already feel the muscle in my right shoulder starting to tighten up.

Geology starts at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, then I have my Creative writing class in the evening. Sigh.

And Grover sighs with me.