August 25, 2003

First Day of Class

Everything was going well when I woke up this morning, bright and early at 6:00 a.m. What possessed me to ask Andrew to wake me that early, when my first Monday class isn't until 10:30 a.m.? Well, it takes me a while to become fully with it in the mornings and that can last as many days or weeks as it takes for me to get readjusted to going back to school. I was also concerned about what might happen if I was too short on time. Something invariably goes wrong for me on that first day back, but when I'm short on time it becomes all that more harder to deal with effectively. I got dressed and ready without a hitch. Andrew didn't monopolize the bathroom when I was looking to get in there. When I left the apartment I caught the elevator on its descent down to the first floor and my neighbor was inside and offered to drive me along with her boyfriend she was going to be dropping off at the Metro. As I was heading to the lower platform I could see a train - I couldn't determine which line it was - and I instinctively hurried to catch it. I got stuck behind some meandering people on the escalator and I ended up missing it. The next train came along and the marquee proclaimed that it was the Orange Line to Vienna - I couldn't hear the conductor's voice to verify that the information I had seen was correct. I was slightly pleased to see that it was less filled than I was expecting for 8:30 a.m. on a week day and happy just to be boarding a train. No sooner had I taken a seat by the door they began to close and the conductor announced that the next stop was Arlington Cemetery. I was on the Blue instead of the Orange. The marquee had lied to me. So, I disembarked at Arlington Cemetery and headed back toward Rosslyn on a return Blue. Luckily I had made this mistake before, so I quickly navigated through the station. When I got off I arrived just in time to miss the Orange train yet again. Two trains later I was headed in the right direction. Despite all the run around I arrived at school an hour early. I was fairly nervous so I went for a walk around campus to kill time and excess energy. I was back in the classroom fifteen minutes later and I tried to read some of Good Omens, which hasn't been a very cohesive book so far and I am not sure if that is the author's fault or my own. That book basically ruined my plans for reading a set number of others over the remainder of my summer vacation (I first opened it sometime at the beginning of this month). For whatever reason, I just couldn't get into it. Maybe I was distracted. I still can't. I've come too far to abandon it now, though. I have to finish it. Unfortunately I didn't get very far this morning reading it being as nervous as I was. My awkwardness lasted throughout the day. Fortunately, everyone else was just as nervous and seemed to pay little attention to me. Things will get better as we become more at ease with what we'll be doing over the course of the semester.

I have not forgotten to post the remainder of the images from the Hirshhorn Museum - I'm about half way through with thirty or so left to go. I'm dead tired tonight. I still have to fold the laundry when the dryer is all finished with it. Then I'm going to call it a night. If I get through my homework tomorrow at a reasonable time I'll upload the rest then.

-- CrystalShiloh @ 11:42 PM