trial by fire
im sitting in my parlor because my desk is in a black hole in my room. i cant possibly relate all the stories of college life that have unfolded (unfeld? haha) in the past week - this really has given me something to write about! - but this is one that i have told scores of people and it seems to have gone over pretty well.
anyway, enough with the building up... the story might just let you down.
its the first day of classes. i have had a bitch of a time getting registered because i had an early time the first day - got my two plus a lab in fine and dandy - but a late time the second day. basically this meant that i was registered for eight hours and could get a single damn class to get the required twelve to be a full-time student. every damn thing i tried got me waitlisted. so all that was left to do was show up come classtime and beg the teachers for a POI number so i could bypass the system. i need these hours... if i dont get twelve they will kick me out of my dorm etc.
i leave my dorm ten minutes to noon and head over to tribble - notorious for being split level x 2 and having three inaptly named wings... - and find the room, A209, studies in british literature. so i wander in and am about to sit down when a buddy of mine from high school, alex, waves at me. turns out theres a chair at the head of the table smack between him and patrick, a new friend from my hallway. this is cool. i havent had a class where i knew anybody so im getting excited.
anyway, i introduce them and get to know alex's new friend, sitting on his other side, and we sort of chat and then the room goes silent. when he mentions something, i tell him that charles - another kid from my hall - told me that his mother told him when theres a silence like that its because an angel is passing over... but thats all a big sidetrack anyway and doesnt add much to the true tale.
after another couple minutes the professor wanders in looking all the world like a lame colonel sanders {and i know thats a cliche but bear with me} with yellow hair and looking sincerely angry at the entire class because he himself was late. he goes to the front of the large table we are all sitting around and says in a loud, gruff voice, "i'm professor king..." and looks at a girl sitting in the front, "who are YOU?" she doesnt respond, kind of recoils back in her seat. im sure most of us would have done the same thing. getting no response, sanders stands up a little straighter and says, "im supposed to have fifteen people in this class." of course, everyone starts counting to themselves and we all kind of come to the realization that there are, in fact, sixteen people around the table but nobody says anything about it.
sensing my opportunity, i raise my hand and get his attention saying something along the lines of, "hi... umm my names brooks morgan and i am on your wait list and i have come to sort of beg my way into your class and i really love these people and was hoping to join in." well, having done my best in pulling out all shreds of charisma, he wanders over to me and hands me a sticker with the POI and course info so i can register. i thank him profusely and sit down.
good. i got brit lit.
well he starts talking about papers and such and after about ten minutes says... and i quote him here... "now, as we all know, the focus of this class will be the Bill of Rights..."
wait a second...
i turn to alex and whisper "the Bill of Rights?!?" and he's like... yeah... "this isnt british literature?!?"... umm, no...
shit.
i hang my head for a second and raise my hand, interrupting sanders while he is speaking. my part of the conversation went something like this:
"umm... did you say this class was on the Bill of Rights?"
"so this isnt british literature?"
"isnt this tribble A209?"
...
"i must be mistaken then somehow because i wrote down tribble A209"
he directs me to the english department in another wing and, with all the class i can muster, i get up and excuse myself from this class {after begging to get into it} and wander out into the hallway... i drop by the english dept. and theres nobody there so i run back down to my dorm to check my scheduling to find the right room and flip open my laptop and its frozen. ah damn. so i run next door and kick another buddy of mine, justin, off his laptop, log on, check the class, get the course number, steal his course book, look it up, and find its actually tribble A209... thats what i had. i get justin to check it and he comes to the same conclusion. well...
i run back up to tribble, back up to the english dept. and find someone there. i explain my whole rotten story, trying to sound innocent and eager, and she tells me the class is actually in tribble A201. ah. so i run upstairs and realize i was on the third floor and run back down the split level and find second floor, a couple rooms down from where i was, and stop outside the door.
i knock and slowly open the door. the professor, a youngish looking guy, is looking at me so i ask him if this was, in fact, studies in british literature. he said that it was. i then introduced myself not as someone in his class but someone on his wait list that had come to beg for admittance and admitted that no, it wasnt cool that i showed up late to do so but i ended up in the wrong room and it was a big hairy deal and all. he replies that he has, in fact, already had to turn away a couple waitlisted kids today but that one was sitting in on the class so i could too just in case. so i thank him profusely and look around. there arent any seats at the big table so i go to the back and take a seat by the wall. after the class, me and this other girl both walk up to talk to him. i apologize for interrupting his class and she starts brown nosing her assss off, telling him that she was fascinated by this shakespeare stuff and loved that he taught this one guy and had been trying to get into his class for three semesters and that she was, in fact, #1 on the wait list.
being kind, he takes both our names and emails down and said he would do his best to get her in but he really didnt want to break the cap on the class. noticing i was #6 on the list, i thanked him for taking me email but asked him if i should really be looking for something else to do. he agreed. well...
NOW, i dont have brit lit but do have a means of bypassing the system and registering in a course i dont want to take because i inadvertantly conned an old angry man into thinking i was on his wait list - i hope i didnt knock anyone else off. after some deliberation i register for this Bill of Rights seminar with my buddies, cant buy all the books, borrow one, and have read tonights homework. i have that class again in the morning. i just can't wait to see the look on his face when i wander back in and tell him i will be seeing him, and the rest of my new classmates, for the rest of the semester.
thank you.
theres much more {late night ufo ultimate frisbee games on the quad mainly} but i need to sleep because i have been writing for precisely one hour and i have class at nine this morning. i will get back to this when i have a chance.
thanks again loves, goodnight.
anyway, enough with the building up... the story might just let you down.
its the first day of classes. i have had a bitch of a time getting registered because i had an early time the first day - got my two plus a lab in fine and dandy - but a late time the second day. basically this meant that i was registered for eight hours and could get a single damn class to get the required twelve to be a full-time student. every damn thing i tried got me waitlisted. so all that was left to do was show up come classtime and beg the teachers for a POI number so i could bypass the system. i need these hours... if i dont get twelve they will kick me out of my dorm etc.
i leave my dorm ten minutes to noon and head over to tribble - notorious for being split level x 2 and having three inaptly named wings... - and find the room, A209, studies in british literature. so i wander in and am about to sit down when a buddy of mine from high school, alex, waves at me. turns out theres a chair at the head of the table smack between him and patrick, a new friend from my hallway. this is cool. i havent had a class where i knew anybody so im getting excited.
anyway, i introduce them and get to know alex's new friend, sitting on his other side, and we sort of chat and then the room goes silent. when he mentions something, i tell him that charles - another kid from my hall - told me that his mother told him when theres a silence like that its because an angel is passing over... but thats all a big sidetrack anyway and doesnt add much to the true tale.
after another couple minutes the professor wanders in looking all the world like a lame colonel sanders {and i know thats a cliche but bear with me} with yellow hair and looking sincerely angry at the entire class because he himself was late. he goes to the front of the large table we are all sitting around and says in a loud, gruff voice, "i'm professor king..." and looks at a girl sitting in the front, "who are YOU?" she doesnt respond, kind of recoils back in her seat. im sure most of us would have done the same thing. getting no response, sanders stands up a little straighter and says, "im supposed to have fifteen people in this class." of course, everyone starts counting to themselves and we all kind of come to the realization that there are, in fact, sixteen people around the table but nobody says anything about it.
sensing my opportunity, i raise my hand and get his attention saying something along the lines of, "hi... umm my names brooks morgan and i am on your wait list and i have come to sort of beg my way into your class and i really love these people and was hoping to join in." well, having done my best in pulling out all shreds of charisma, he wanders over to me and hands me a sticker with the POI and course info so i can register. i thank him profusely and sit down.
good. i got brit lit.
well he starts talking about papers and such and after about ten minutes says... and i quote him here... "now, as we all know, the focus of this class will be the Bill of Rights..."
wait a second...
i turn to alex and whisper "the Bill of Rights?!?" and he's like... yeah... "this isnt british literature?!?"... umm, no...
shit.
i hang my head for a second and raise my hand, interrupting sanders while he is speaking. my part of the conversation went something like this:
"umm... did you say this class was on the Bill of Rights?"
"so this isnt british literature?"
"isnt this tribble A209?"
...
"i must be mistaken then somehow because i wrote down tribble A209"
he directs me to the english department in another wing and, with all the class i can muster, i get up and excuse myself from this class {after begging to get into it} and wander out into the hallway... i drop by the english dept. and theres nobody there so i run back down to my dorm to check my scheduling to find the right room and flip open my laptop and its frozen. ah damn. so i run next door and kick another buddy of mine, justin, off his laptop, log on, check the class, get the course number, steal his course book, look it up, and find its actually tribble A209... thats what i had. i get justin to check it and he comes to the same conclusion. well...
i run back up to tribble, back up to the english dept. and find someone there. i explain my whole rotten story, trying to sound innocent and eager, and she tells me the class is actually in tribble A201. ah. so i run upstairs and realize i was on the third floor and run back down the split level and find second floor, a couple rooms down from where i was, and stop outside the door.
i knock and slowly open the door. the professor, a youngish looking guy, is looking at me so i ask him if this was, in fact, studies in british literature. he said that it was. i then introduced myself not as someone in his class but someone on his wait list that had come to beg for admittance and admitted that no, it wasnt cool that i showed up late to do so but i ended up in the wrong room and it was a big hairy deal and all. he replies that he has, in fact, already had to turn away a couple waitlisted kids today but that one was sitting in on the class so i could too just in case. so i thank him profusely and look around. there arent any seats at the big table so i go to the back and take a seat by the wall. after the class, me and this other girl both walk up to talk to him. i apologize for interrupting his class and she starts brown nosing her assss off, telling him that she was fascinated by this shakespeare stuff and loved that he taught this one guy and had been trying to get into his class for three semesters and that she was, in fact, #1 on the wait list.
being kind, he takes both our names and emails down and said he would do his best to get her in but he really didnt want to break the cap on the class. noticing i was #6 on the list, i thanked him for taking me email but asked him if i should really be looking for something else to do. he agreed. well...
NOW, i dont have brit lit but do have a means of bypassing the system and registering in a course i dont want to take because i inadvertantly conned an old angry man into thinking i was on his wait list - i hope i didnt knock anyone else off. after some deliberation i register for this Bill of Rights seminar with my buddies, cant buy all the books, borrow one, and have read tonights homework. i have that class again in the morning. i just can't wait to see the look on his face when i wander back in and tell him i will be seeing him, and the rest of my new classmates, for the rest of the semester.
thank you.
theres much more {late night ufo ultimate frisbee games on the quad mainly} but i need to sleep because i have been writing for precisely one hour and i have class at nine this morning. i will get back to this when i have a chance.
thanks again loves, goodnight.
posted by sunshine at 1:07 AM
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