Telepopmusik

I'm really hooked on this song by Telepopmusik called either "Just breathe" or "Just believe." It was used for a car commercial and I'd always hear that song, but it took forever to find out who sang it.

This being Thursday night, or more correctly Friday morning, I've just completed my first week of school. Last Wednesday (August 25), in my writing workshop, our professor assigned "Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prarie" for us to read and write a 5 page paper on-- due the next class meeting (September 1).

The first paper of the year, no matter how short, is always the most difficult to write. I find myself wondering, 'wait, how do I footnote?' Although I had to stay up until 2am, I did write my paper. I've got two friends in this class, who I'll call Lisa and Alexandro. Both campus bookstores were out of "Sugar Creek," and Lisa couldn't find it at Barnes & Noble or Borders. This guy used to teach at UC Berkeley and it pretty strict-- no late papers PERIOD. So poor Lisa gets a zero because she couldn't find the book.

Speaking of books, I spent $350.02 on books. Since Roberts Bookstore was out of the boofs for Religion 1, I didn't even buy all my books yet. That's not even for new books, I always try to buy used books-- that haven't been attacked by 6 different shades of highlighters. (Really, what's the point of highlighting at all if you are going to highlight whole pages at a time?!)

Anyway, last Wednesday my friend Phuong decided to sit through what she was sure would be a brief intro to my writing worskshop class-- Lisa, Phuong and I were going to have dinner at Peanuts after school. This class starts at 3pm and runs til 5:45-- but sometimes on the first day, the professor will let the students out early. This was not the case. Phuong sat through the entire class with us. Poor girl, she's already taken the class.

Peanuts, right across the street from San Jose State, is an institution. Students and professional drunks alike frequent the establishment. You just can't go wrong when a grilled cheese sandwich and fries costs $3. That's cheap for around here. Lisa had tuna salad, Phuong had a tuna melt. The A's game was on and "Hey Joe" was playing rather loudly. (Jimi Hendrix, for those who don't know.) It's the kind of place where you have to yell to the person next to you. Also, it's the kind of place (and I speak from personal experience) where we girls have to got to the rest room in pairs. If you don't have someone to guard the door, some skanky drunk will barge in on you, claiming he didn't know anyone was in there. (Yeah, right, that's why you banged the door hard enough to knock the "lock" switch to the "unlocked position".)

When it was my turn, after I closed the bathroom door, I realised that the owners had added something new. One of those quarter machines-- 75 cents would buy any sort of coloured/ flavoured/ textured condom, "asian tightening cream", or watermelon scented stuff to provide a "warming sensation." I wondered what sort of cut the management gets from a vending machine like that? (And then thought, 'ewwww, why is the floor sticky?') Ahhh, urban living.

Directly around SJSU, the crime rate is much higher than the rest of the city. There are lots of those half ways houses where people on parole live. Also, for the whole county, more registered sex offenders live directly around campus than anywhere else.

It's something I think about on my walk clear across campus to the parking garage after my night classes. I just try to walk as fast as I can.

I have no news about my CT scan. I'm supposed to wait for her (the doctor) to call. Hopefully, Schmiser wouldn't let me languish if they had thought up a way to help me. I'm still feeling crappy, but I'm just taking loads of tylenol and crossing my fingers. If it was something deadly they would have let me know, right?

~Adios amigos, Tragic