Episode XVIII: Stress

Today I do not have the heart to write about anything exciting, because I am in the middle of a nervous waiting period to see if I will be admitted into the lab I want to join. The problem is, one of my buddies wants to join the same lab that I do, and it is unclear whether or not the professor will accept two new students. We have both talked to the professor this week, and the due-date for lab choice is this coming Friday, so I should know my fate within a week.

Wipers

Okay, I guess I can muster one fairly exciting story:

I was driving down the highway from the Lawrence area to the Topeka area when out of nowhere, a massive rainstorm hit, pounding the windshield and making it difficult to see. For a brief moment hail started to fall, and then suddenly, my windshield-wiper blade just flew off. Of course it just had to be the wiper that covered the driver’s side, so I had to drive in the pouring rain, on the highway, leaning over my passenger just so I could see out the windshield. Fortunately the pouring rain only lasted for about five more minutes; nevertheless, I rate this to be the fourth most stressful driving experience I have experienced to date.

Episode XVII: Sport

I have been fortunate enough to have a number of entertaining, quality sporting activities at my disposal here in Lawrence.

NCAA

First, of course, there are the official college sports, which I have been watching a lot of this year, as I purchased season tickets to all the Jayhawk football and basketball games. I confess that I really never understood the allure of college sports until this year. Following the basketball team has been rather exciting, even though they ‘only’ made it to the Sweet Sixteen this season.

However, now that the basketball season is over, I have been seeing a lot more of the basketball players hanging around my apartment building. In fact, just the other day I was in the computer lab sitting next to one of our star players, and then the very next day he announced that he was going to the NBA.

Recreation

I have also been doing quite a bit of athletics myself. The Rec Center here is an excellent building, containing four basketball courts, two racquetball courts with all-glass back walls, a rock-climbing wall, running track, two pools, a sauna, and an absolute ton of workout machines. I particularly like the open gym volleyball, which is very similar to what I had back in CA (granted it’s a bit less competitive, but more friendly). Unfortunately, I have found nothing that even moderately resembles second-Sunday Anaheim volleyball game.

I have also played on an intramural dodge ball team and am just starting intramural softball. Our softball team, composed of biology grad students and professors, has played one game and lost 4-15, but at least I managed to score a run.

Huffy the Bicycle

Just this morning I walked outside and could not, for the life of me, find my bicycle. I usually park it in the rack right outside the apartment building, but I frankly can not remember the last time I rode it and where I might have left it. There is a possibility that someone decided to steal it, notwithstanding the fact that it is a 10-year-old Huffy, with no rear brake, a faulty front brake, and is no longer able to change gears. If this is the case, then it marks the end of a fruitful five year period of service during which I often rode my bike on campus but never once locked it.