Laura

I'd like to meet:

00:35 10.12.08

It's an update so big, it requires subheads.

School's out for...autumn

This year we had Fall Break, and this year I stayed in Tuscaloosa.

I don't remember if we've always had Fall Break, but in the past, I went every chance I got. High school football game at home? Get me a ticket. Alabama's on TV? Let's all watch together. Laundry basket full? Make sure we have detergent. Please.

Monday night, though, after sloughing through Mgt & Ops without one of the 31 books we're supposed to have, enjoying a half-class in Theory and getting all geeky talking to undergrads about my "prestigous" internship this summer, I didn't pack up my suitcase full with laundry, toss it in Grumpy and go.

I went back to my little apartment and chilled.

And decided to chill the whole week.

It's probably due to two factors. One, I was home last week. I was home the week before. I think I was home the week before that, and I know I'll be home the next two weekends for various engagements. I figured the best way to get away from it all would be to stay in one place and let it all get away from me.

Two, I got kind of used to the solitude over the summer. I wouldn't go so far as to say I missed it...but being 70 miles away from home isn't as lonely as being 700 away. This distance of seperation is much easier to handle.

I guess there's actually a three. Three, I've always wanted to know what Tuscaloosa looks like when no one's here. This was my greatest shot at finding out.

Oh, and three-and-a-half would have been to catch up on homework. This should have been priority number one.

All right, y'all, git

Tuesday and Wednesday were your average lazy days. Days where you personally don't have anything to do, but folks are still in class. These days were great for watching movies and looking at the internet, but they got real boring because you're the only one playing hookey, so to speak. I became friends with Hulu.

Thursday was when everyone vacated. Sorority-girl-migrations across campus ceased. The frat parties across the street were put on hold. No tailgating. No loitering in the parking lot. Traffic slowed way, way down. Things got quiet.

Literally, you could hear crickets.

The sound of the Million Dollar Band was replaced with the occasional but consistent clackety-clackety-clackety of traffic down University. The sight of brightly lit soccer games on the Rec fields as brilliant sunsets and the often-neglected moon and stars shone instead. The sweet smell of Saturday grill-iron action was forgotten for a time while the freshness of a cool autumn night wafted through my window and cleansed my tiny but cozy bedroom. Sometimes, on a really productive night, it would smell like the tropics. Publix makes a great tropical scent laundry detergent.

One afternoon it smelled like orange cleaner and Lysol (at different times, of course; mixing chemicals is bad). That was Mid-Semester Cleaning Day.

And so it was for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I slept until I felt like getting up, which always happened to be 10 a.m. I made two seemingly inefficient trips to two different grocery stores, purchasing several vanity items, such as headbands, a nail buffing kit and two boxes of Halloween lights. Every day, I would make and break plans to catch up on homework, although I did buy a three-hole punch and some binders and organized all of my, ahem, graduate study research and notes (read: papers).

Walk this way

My crowning achievement of the break, however, was getting back into exercising.

Oh yes. I ride a bike to class. But I wanted more. I wanted to "work out." I wanted to "work out to tunes." I wanted to "do laps" around the Quad. Boy howdy, I sure did.

I started out by biking aimlessly around town for an hour then hitting the Rec -- the Smoothie King at the Rec for a smoothie. That was my first attempt at exercise.

The second attempt involved those laps around the Quad -- only they were on my bike. I did 10. But that got boring, and I wanted more.

Yesterday and today were rather fulfilling. I left the bike at home and walked, something I haven't done since I've had the Pink Terror (it's actually magenta). I pulled out the G9 shirt, the Adidas shorts and the New Balance running shoes, put on a cap, some shades, my mp3 player, my athletic Velcro watch, some ID, my phone and my keys -- armed with only bare essentials, I set out to make tracks.

The first day, I started walking with one goal in mind: to check the mail. My mailbox is about 12 minutes away. After I did that, I decided to live out a 2-year dream and be a Quad-walker. The sign on the sidewalk told me it takes 3 laps to complete 2 miles. I could so do that, I thought. I ran that in high school in, what, 15, 16 minutes?

It took me a dang 34 minutes to walk a flat two miles, even after being spurred on by a high-heeled nemesis walking counter-clockwise. I was so disappointed. I need to find some peppier music to walk to.

The disgrace shamed me into speeding up my program. I'm contemplating skipping the graduation from walking to jogging and going right into running...in a week or two.

The one other thing I discovered over the in-town hiatus was that there were a lot of...well, garbage-collectors out. Not the kind that ride in or on big trucks. I don't know who they are, or where they came from, but I do know they were headed up University. Just people with trash. I think they were actually hauling recyclable material, though. I don't know. I'm not judging. I just passed quite a few of them while I walking.

Back to the grad school grind

So, that was my week. I did plenty of loafing, a good amount of walking, a little fun-driving, a little library visit, a little housework, and some more loafing. It was a good week.

Tomorrow, I say goodbye to my private town and university. Welcome home, everybody.

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