Episode VI: The Little Things

Here are some of the small, day-to-day kinds of things that have caught my attention recently.

Sports

Around here, college sports are indeed a day-to-day kind of thing. Friday the 13^th was KU basketball’s opening night kind of celebration, featuring skits, mascots, Harlem Globetrotter imitators, and somewhere in there some basketball as well. The funniest part was both men’s and women’s teams doing exquisite choreographed dance routines. So sports fans, if you will, please imagine former KU players, such as Paul Pierce or Raef LaFrentz, dancing the waltz (or the Macarena) on the basketball court. I think you will agree, it is a pretty funny thought.

(These pictures were not taken by me. I forgot my camera.)

Pithy Sayings

A few words of wisdom that I have picked up while out here:

First and foremost:

“Knowledge is the understanding that tomatoes are fruits,

Wisdom is not using them in a fruit salad.”

And a couple on location:

Note that the city of Lawrence, but not the state of Kansas, has rules against smoking in indoor public places.

Around Town

A couple of structural curiosities that I have found here in Lawrence:

First, in some of the older parts of town, the sidewalks are made out of bricks which are fairly uneven and not particularly well-taken-care-of. The interesting thing is that many of the bricks have “Lawrence, Kansas” engraved into them. I have two hypotheses on why this would be: first, the city may want to discourage other cities from stealing the bricks from Lawrence’s sidewalks to use in their construction. After all, it would be embarrassing to have a public building in Kansas City built out of bricks that said “Lawrence, Kansas” on them. My second hypothesis is that it serves as a sort of station identification so that, if you were abducted, blindfolded and taken to Lawrence, then left on the sidewalk to fend for yourself, you would immediately be able to get your bearings and recognize that you were in fact in Lawrence, KS.

Another useful public sign is this, typical of the stairwells on campus, letting you know that you are on the fourth floor, and if you go up one level, you will be on the fifth floor, and if you go down one level, you will be on the third floor.

And Finally…

Even though I have not been driving much (since nearly everything is within easy walking distance), it is nice to know that gas has been hovering just below $2 here.

Episode V: The Roommates

And now... the other moment that you all (read: Mom) have been waiting for... My Roommates!

The following is a short description of my two suitemates and one roommate, arranged in age order.

Christopher Flynn

Preferring to use his last name, Flynn (19) is the youngin' of the group. He comes from Boston, and I mean BAW-stuhn

This picture is fairly representative of his life. In a sense, he fulfills Kyle’s role, in that if the TV is on, it is probably Flynn watching sports or playing videogames.

I have compiled a list of things that I have seen Flynn doing here at the Towers, and ordered them by frequency with which he does them:

1) Watch TV

2) Play videogames

3) Sleep

4) Eat

Note that "study", "read", and "have pleasant conversations with his roommates" are items not included on the list. He goes for days it seems without speaking a single word to a single one of us. However, if I should ever want to have an animated discussion with him, all I have to do is mention something sports related. For instance: "Hey man, it's a shame to hear the Red Sox didn't make it to the playoffs. Did you see Garciapara's grand slam the other day for the Dodgers?" Etc.

Flynn's greatest observable talent is his cooking skill. He does quite a bit of cooking, and makes one killer BBQ burger. I suppose this works to cancel out the fact that he drinks all my sodas.

Zachary Roland

Zach is an undergrad, but is older than me (23).

He is a pretty nice guy, very much into music (able to identify almost anything I listen to, barring Jazz and Classical) and movies, and plans to be a senior for, say, 3-4 more years.

One particularly convenient thing about Zach is that he lived in his own house last year, and therefore has a good deal of furniture and housing supplies that he has contributed to the place (i.e. couch, TV, vacuum, Playstation, cleaning supplies, etc.)

And amazingly enough, he is only the second person I have met who is really into Ben Folds- and consequently, we are going to see him in concert next month.

Paul O’Sullivan

Paul is a gem, and I am quite glad that he is my roommate. He comes straight from Ireland, and I mean AYE-ur-land. He is the old man of the bunch (25) and spends way too much time working in ‘the studio’ on his architectural models.

We hang out from time to time (when he’s not working)- eating at Mrs. E’s, or using the free indoor pools here on campus. He is/was an avid surfer (go figure- a surfer from Ireland) who wishes he lived in San Diego. Note that he consented to me using the corniest picture I could possibly find of him

Not only does he have a wicked Irish accent, but he is also the second-fastest talker I have ever met. And on top of all that, he has a certain speech impediment in which he says things like ‘flat’ when he means to say ‘apartment’, or ‘lift’ when he means to say ‘elevator’ (note that he also says ‘a lift’ when he means ‘a ride’, and if you ask him for a ride he thinks you are saying something naughty). He also pronounces things oddly, for instance, ‘pecan’ rhymes with ‘vegan’.

Finally, rather than saying ‘eight thirty’, he says ‘half eight’, which is difficult to decipher: does he mean eight + half (8:30), eight - half (7:30), or eight * half (4:00). One of the funniest things he has said thus far was when I asked him what time his classes started, and all he said was “half”.

And for something completely different…

Here is hard evidence of, believe it or not, the FIRST turkey I have ever bowled. It just so happened that it was in the 10^th frame, during cosmic bowling, while I was suffering from a moderately severe case of food poisoning.