Monday, August 25, 2014

You Win Some, You Lose Most

          We’ve all had rough mornings. We all – or at least most of us normal people – hate Mondays. We’ve all had days that just make us want to club a baby seal. I mean, of course we don’t. ‘Cause that’s pretty uncool. People who club baby seals – or seals in general – are people who should never see the light of day again. Or at least you can tell they’re people who've had a really, really bad day. This is my very own Monday from Hell. The struggle was finally real.

This image hits so close to home that I literally can't even.

          I went home for the night last night in order to make it to an early appointment this morning. But we’re not talking about Sunday. We’re talking about Monday. So let’s begin at midnight this morning, shall we? The bed in my room at home is a wee bit different from the one here at school. So the sleeping experience was, shall we say, less than pleasant.

Lose.

          Nevertheless, I woke up promptly to my alarm at 7:00AM so’s that I could make some chocolate chip cookies for some new friends who helped me move a couch into my room. I had a lovely cup of coffee and set to work.

Win.

          One of the three batches baked a tad too long, and they got a tad burnt.

Lose.

          I got all of my stuff together to go, loaded it up in the truck, gave my mom a big hug with a funny accent to get a hearty laugh, and hopped in the truck. I turned the key, and *click*. Huh. That wasn’t supposed to happen. *Click*. *Click*click*. I sat back, took a deep breath, and did a little diagnostics check in my mind. The radio was on, and the battery was relatively new, so it couldn’t be the connection or the battery itself. Which left - *click* - the starter.

Lose.

          Luckily, I drive a standard transmission, which means when push comes to shove (ha), the clutch can be popped and life goes on. I know how to pop clutches, so ultimately I wasn’t stalled for long. I stepped out of my truck, met my mother’s worried eyes, and looked around. I was nowhere near a hill. In fact, I was at the bottom of a few small hills. A valley if you will. Which meant if I was to leave the house at all, the truck was to be pushed uphill. Against gravity. In the dewy grass. In the already-unbelievably-thick Kansas air.

Lose.

          Oh yeah, and I’m still recovering from a torn MCL, which at times is a very painful knee injury.

Lose.

          Still fairly optimistic – oh, how naïve I was – I hopped out, pushed the truck with whatever sleep-lacking, knee-deficient strength I had toward the hill behind me. I made it an embarrassing 10-12 feet up the 50-60 foot hill and let it roll back down, jumping in and popping the clutch as it did so. It didn’t work.

Lose.

          Mom readily jumped in to aid me. With the two of us, we made it a relatively impressive 12-14 feet.

Lose.

          I texted Dad to see if the farm truck was running. The truck worked, so I drove it around, hooked up the chain, and tugged it up to the top. My truck rolled down, the clutch popped, and it didn’t work.

Lose.

          Luckily, I had enough hill left for a second try. My baby took a gasping breath and roared to life.

Win.

          At this point, I gave my mother another hug, apologized for being somewhat short-tempered, and plopped down in my truck. I was bathing in my own sweat. Gross, I know, but it’s important that you feel the sheer suckiness.

Lose (for both you and me).

          At this point, it was 9:38AM. My appointment was scheduled for 9:40AM. The office is 40 minutes away from my house. A little mental math, aaaaaaannndd…..

Lose.

          I called the orthodontist and asked them to remove me from the schedule. Again. I’m already two weeks overdue on my checkups, and I probably won’t get to go back again for another week or two at least. So in other words, I haven’t gotten a pretty important check up done and over with in over two months.

Lose.

          The road to Emporia was pretty uneventful. I managed stay awawke. Of course, I didn’t really have much of a choice thanks to the lack of air conditioning in my truck. Both of my windows were down. 75+mph.

Win/Lose, it doesn’t matter at this point, right? The truck disaster has been averted (for now), and I’ll be in plenty of time for my classes.

The End.


          
          Yeeeeeaaaahh, that’s what I thought, too. Until I had to take my ID picture for my newly issued student ID.

Lose. Lose lose lose. In every sense of the word. So much so, in fact, that as soon as my friend Teresa, who is sitting here watching me type this saw what I wrote, she immediately spun around in her chair, snagged my atrocity of a headshot, and laughed pitifully.

A 90-year old career meth-head is the most apt description, I would say.

Lose.

          I finally got to go to the theater rally and see all of my theater peepsk;ngsbeji;ofw

Lose.

*all of my theater peeps (Holla if You Hear Me (a 2Pac Musical (that closed very shortly after opening (look it up)))). Good times were had by all. And we did the Waka Waka dance.

Win.

          But I had to leave a little early for our RA staff meeting.

Lose.

          The conference room had a wall with all of the RAs and their strengths. Guess whose name didn’t have any strengths listed.
One of these things, not like the others, you know the drill.
Lose.

          There was a long black hair on my head. I haven’t had any interaction with a dark-haired female friend today.

Lose.

          Teresa and Courtney drew on my head with dry erase marker.

Lose.

          I now know that dry erase markers wipe off of my bald scalp.

Win?

          I just discovered that all of my nails have been filthy since this morning, and Teresa put a crinkly light brown hair on my head with the justification of, “Well, you were complaining about a black hair, so I put a light brown one on your head.” It’s been there for a solid half hour.

Lose.

          Oh yeah, remember that filth I rode to school in, baking in my non-starting oven on wheels? Yeah, I’m still wearing those clothes. I stink. I haven’t had a chance to change since I got back.

          Oh. And I’m dehydrated. And Paige took half of my remaining six cookies.

Lose.

          I’m watching Guy Ritchie’s Snatch.


         
          Anywho, you win some, and you lose the rest. And all pity parties - no matter how justified - aside, you have to remember the important things in life: funny accents that make your mom laugh, chocolate chip cookies, and Guy Ritchie.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Heroism in the Face of Certain Doom

Today, I crashed on my bike.
And it

was

AWESOME.

          Don’t get me wrong. My knee is killing me. I can’t straighten my leg and put any amount of pressure on it without squealing in pain like a 6-year old, but still. I should get a medal or something.

          There I was, riding my bike back from rehearsal, going no faster than normal – if anything, I was, in fact, going at least half the speed I usually go. I round an incredibly dangerous corner, complete with tripwire explosives

Tripwire explosives.
automated machine guns

Automated Machine Guns
and stinging nettles.

Stinging Nettle

          Have no fear, random obscure reader who stumbled across this blog by accident while misspelling the word “breast”, I usually make it through this incredibly volatile gauntlet with the greatest of ease. Picture a small child, frolicking through the meadow. I am the hunter on his deer stand, scoffing at that child’s naiveté. At least, I am when it comes to this particular corner on campus.

          As I approached this area, I battened down the hatches and leaned into the corner. It was just like any other day. With one alarming exception.

          Right at the start, surrounded by the alligators that usually reside in the moat at the end of the gauntlet, stood an anxious-looking mother.
And a stroller. With triplets in it.

And a dog.

          What was I to do? Without a moment’s hesitation, I bailed. I squeezed the brakes with all the strength in my fingertips, and when that wasn’t enough, I threw myself and my bike to the ground, losing a shoe and (the other) half of my hair in the process. And oh yeah, the lower half of my left leg rotated outwards with a forceful pop. It rattled my bones (that was for you, Brandon).
          
          I got back up, and once the insane amount of artery lacerations were repaired with an expertly steady hand and some barbed wire, the mother and her three children thanked me with celebratory Oreo Cheesecake shakes from Sonic, America’s Drive-In and a $20 gift card to Linens ‘n’ Things.

          Once the high from purchasing new decorative centerpieces and an alarm clock wore off, I noticed a faint irritation. An irritation most would consider alarming. I went to the emergency room, and they said it’s fine as far as they’re concerned, but they gave me a bionic leg anyway. So I am going to be the best gosh-darned dancing bear there ever was. And it’s all thanks to my daring bravery. As I said, I should get a medal.

(He allows himself to hang a moment, suspended in his own verisimilitude.)

          Sigh. I took a corner too wide, leaned into the turn more to avoid hitting a fence, therefore ruining my $5 bike, and hit the ground instead, ruining my left knee.

          At least there were a couple of ESU maintenance guys on a red gator who saw me hit. They said it looked pretty awesome. Courtney Romero and Nathan Short said the same. (I will be signing autographs and taking photos later this week.)

          Nevertheless, as Christopher Marlowe once said, the show must go on. It’s very possible that Evan Eisenbarth will be the World’s Greatest Dancing Bear, and I will be the Ringmaster, all pending an MRI in the next couple days. If that’s the case, go get ‘em boy-o. I know you’ll kill it.











For those of you who don't know, this is what happens with stinging nettles.