On public gyms

I went home for a volunteer gig this weekend. While home, my mom and I pursued our quests for personal fitness by going to the community center to use the workout machines. I have no problem with this. I like this plan.

The part I always forget about public workout facilities is that they're public. Technically, there is nothing wrong with this. When I'm home, however, I'm used to running on trails in regional parks - outdoors and alone. The only real social courtesies you have to remember are to make sure the people ahead of you hear if you want to pass them, and not to let your dog poop on the trail without picking it up. However fast or slow you go is up to you - and you run into all speeds and skill levels.

Public gyms put everyone in the same room and add a social layer of visibility: no matter you fitness level or mile time, THEY CAN SEE YOU. Sometimes the only consolation I can offer myself on a bad day is that only God and I saw the whole run. When I'm in a public gym, though, I'm plagued by self-doubt - usually along the lines of "I bet that five-year-old chasing his dad around the track is running faster than me" and "I'm sure those teenagers playing basketball are secretly laughing at my lack of endurance" and "those gray-haired individuals probably think this 20-year-old is a wimp."

The thing is, most of those are probably untrue and are very self-centered. I dom't have any kids I have to look after, so I have many years of training to make sure I can keep up with any five-year-olds I may wind up having custody of. As judgmental as people can get, I'm pretty sure the teenagers and gray-haired people alike care more about their own games of basketball and badminton than they care about my mile time.

And yet, all the fears I have are directly proportionate to how many other people per square foot there are in the workout area. There are few times anyone else cares about my pace: to make sure they can get their basketball off the track before I (or any other runner) accidentally run them over, or when my mom is wondering when I'm done. So why do I care so much? The very fact that I'm priming my muscles for fitness should send the signal that I am working on being a physically viable member of the species, and that I am resisting the urge to sit on the couch and marathon Doctor Who with a bunch of yarn and cookies.  Maybe I'm scared that people would realize I sometimes prefer the TV-and-cookies route and call me an imposter?

In the end, though, nobody really cares. Just like in real life, be polite to people in the gym. And that's all. 

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Day: 1

Current Words: 1500

Current Page: 5

Target Words: 2100

Target Page: 7

Deficit: 2 pages, 600 words

Things that have Happened So Far: Eva has entered Galen's palace because it's rainy and cold. Galen's servants welcome her. Galen might not agree. He's kind of a brat.

Things That Should Happen Before Bed Tonight: Galen and Eva should meet. The challenge shouldn't necessarily be issued, but they should meet. 

So far, I feel like this is a slower NaNo start than normal. I need to fix that tonight. That might be a downside of starting NaNoWriMo on Saturday: there's a lot of things I have to do on Saturdays. Homework. Service. Stuff like that.

Also, the NaNoWriMo word count updated seems to have crashed. They should fix that.

As you can tell, I'm tired. I need to go write and go to bed. 

On Fabulous hair

Okay, I've debated on whether or not to show my face here. I don't have photo editing software on my phone, so I'm not showing my face.

The point of today's post is the fact that today, because I put time and energy into looking a certain way (spiking up my hair and wearing satyr horns and makeup), I get a certain result (super spiked hair, a cord with satyr horns around my head, and attention on my eyes).

It would be nice to have great hair right out of bed, but let's be real here: my hair looks the way it does because of patience, eyeliner, and more hairspray than is wise to use on a daily basis. And let's be real, here: many people don't have time to do their makeup and hair gel and hairspray every single morning. I'm lucky if I get out of the shower on time. I think that's part of the draw of Halloween: for one day, get up early to do ALL THREE AND LOOK SUPER COOL. (Or, in my roommate's case, use "hair doughnuts" and a lot of bobby pins and go as Sansa Stark).

The thing is, I do the roll-out-of-bed maneuver when writing. I'm just trying to get through the story. Though I could make it so much better if I took it a bit slower, I haven't lived long enough to see the plain writing every day in order to know how to do the important writing. I should keep that in mind during the next month.

On being backup

It's time for story time with Wild Card!

I have a friend, J, who is going on a first date tonight with a young man whom we shall call D. (This isn't supposed to be a sexual entendre. We're going by first initials here.)

In order to be good friends, I went with another friend, S, to meet D with J. S and I were functioning as a cross between J's parents and her backup mob in case D turned out to be some sort of creeper that made J really uncomfortable.

So we all went to the commons to meet D, and it turned out that D is very nice. He greeted J with a hug and then awkwardly hugged S and me as well. We all hung out for a few minutes to get acquainted with D.

It got to the point where D mentioned that maybe he should have brought a friend too - that was my cue to turn and let J and D do some date-y thing.

I turned to S and proceeded to gently pull her away towards our dorm.

"Wait, no, I haven't threatened him yet!" She protested, pulling out a key.

"S, we don't threaten nice people," I told her, and I started to pull her away again.

"I do!" She said, and I kept pulling her out gently.

When we finally got out of the commons and into the dorm, we grinned at each other. "I liked him," I said. "I liked the exit. We should do that more often."

And that was how S and I became the resident Romantic Partner Screening Committee for our group of friends.

On the planning of zombie apocalypses

Today in Greek class, we started out talking about Thucydites the historian and ended up discussing a hypothetical zombie apocalypse in Athens.

See, Thucydites survived a plague in Athens and wrote about it in a very clinical way. In class, we decided that this plague was the thing that started the Peloponnesian wars - that Sparta had to wipe out the Athenians in order to stop the zombies. Thucydites recovered from his bout of zombieness in order to write about it. Others, however, were not so lucky. Either Socrates or Plato (I don't recall which) became a full zombie but was cognizant of it, which inspired the quote, "I know that I know nothing."

We also decided that the classmate that came up with the idea is going to write the bestselling novel based on the premise. Our professor is going to adapt it into film, and Samuel L. Jackson is going to play someone important.

This is what we do in class, in case you were wondering.

Communication is key

Something that amazes me is the human ability to interpret things. There's a wonderful and hilarious game that shows (in a really bad metaphor) how interpretation can change things depending on what the message is, who is doing the interpreting, and who is receiving it.

Here's a photo:

It starts with "Hitler gets so angry his toupee falls off." Then the person next to me reads the sentence, draws a picture, and folds down the paper so the next person can only see the drawing. The third person writes a sentence based on the drawing and folds it down again; the system repeats with alternate drawings and sentences. Somehow, the last sentence is "Hitler with Antlers' toupee falls off and he calls lightning on people."

though the results are frequently hilarious in this game, it can also show how much you really need to know the facts in order to actually know what is being communicated to you. Though the humor in the game is dependent on misunderstanding someone's artistic ability and/ or penmanship, you need to actually communicate with your peers in order to be effective.

Choir tour

I'm on choir tour right now, so this is posted from my phone.

So far, tour has been really cool. We spent last night in a superhuge house (maybe a mansion? What's the defining line for that?). They could fit all sixteen of the women in the basement, and there was almost enough couch and bed space to fit all of us. It was amazing. They had Steinway pianos and spiral staircases to the basement and sheet music on the walls and a fridge that is built into a wall and looks like a cabinet.

So far, though, it has been interesting. I nearly couldn't come because of a test, and somehow I forgot my uniform but brought a plain black shirt and a blazer (I'm not sure how I managed that). I borrowed someone's black yoga pants and stood near the tenors and it all worked out. We have a few more performances, but someone's going back for work, so hopefully she'll be able to bring it back.

That's all I have right now - I'm on my phone without wifi, and I don't know how long I have until the next school visit.

Question for y'all: what's the coolest house you've been in?

In an airport

Well, here I am, sitting in an airport, waiting for a flight to Florida for my cousin's wedding. This is my first time flying alone, so this has been kind of an adventure - if only for the fact that the route from school to the airport - a new way for both my ride and myself - was full of the perils of going on a left exit and then a right exit.

I think the part I was most nervous about was security. Not for any major reason - well, maybe because I hardly look like the photo on my driver's license anymore, so they might have gotten suspicious. That's not the reason I was a little nervous - it was because I was unsure how I would explain my knitting.

Most of the time I don't get nervous about taking my knitting on planes anymore - security issues with needles have been relaxed in recent years. But I'm not familiar with this airport, and I'm not sure how strict they'd be. If they pulled out my knitting, what would I say?

"What is this?"

"… my math homework…"

"How is this mathematical?"

"… um… it's a 3-D representation of a concept in non-Euclidian geometry?"

I feel like that answer would either merit me leaving or more security getting called. Or my math homework getting confiscated. Or me possibly missing my flight as I bungle an explanation on what non-Euclidian geometry is and why I am knitting it.

Anyway, boarding is soon, so I'm out. Farewell. 

On Geekery and College Majors

Right, I know now why I'm an English major. Well, I've always had an inkling that I might be an English major, but various reasons came to mind in the past - I like writing, I like reading, I like words. But my former choir director said something the other day that kind of made me think about it. He told me that one thing he liked about me is that I'm fascinated with a lot of things. (I was being a bit of a nerd and telling him about my honors essay on Pueblo mythology and death practices in Blood Meridian, and how I couldn't put in a cool detail about a supernova in 1054 AD, recorded only by Chinese scholars and Anasazi artists).

Anyway, that got me thinking about my major. I haven't officially declared yet, but I'm going to declare in English for the reason my choir teacher described. I'm interested in ALL THE THINGS, and lit courses study a lot of things. This semester was Cormac McCarthy, last semester was early Brit Lit (think Beowulf), next semester is King Arthur. I'm typing this on my new iPhone in Barnes and Noble; in front of me is a book on Pope Celestine V, who reigned in the 13th century for a mere 15 weeks before quitting. He was the only Pope to quit for almost 800 years, until the resignation that opened the way for Pope Francis.

Everything is really interesting for me - Popes AND prehistoric cultures AND GSM rights AND DnD AND writing scifi AND knitting geeky items and socks for cats - so it's sort of difficult to pick just one major. I think there are two important things about college: one is to learn how to make your way in the world; the other is to learn all the cool stuff you can.