Class, cakes and credence

I'm not even really sure where to start... In the hustle and bustle (emphasis on the 'ustle) I haven't written of the goings on in the world of Ben. That said let me take some of the time I would normally be doing something silly (like Latin or Grammar) and fill you in. (No this isn't a diversion from HW... this is errr, work for my "Imaginative writing" class. (Yeah, that's it...))

Monday and Tuesday I worked most of the day and Wednesday found me starting my classes afresh and new. Here's the run-down:
8:00am, sharp (so sharp in fact you could hurt yourself), finds me sitting on the 2nd floor of Demary Hall (hereafter DH) ready to begin "Intro to Communication". I had no idea what this meant when I signed up for it, but it fills a requirement so I dove on in. The Professor switch hits for Northwest College (Kirkland) and here at SPU. She is the ultimate in morning person. I have to admit that I look up to her and her morning-person-ness. She gets up at 1 or 2 AM every day. (Many people didn't even realize that WAS morning, but thought it was a time of night!) She finds herself in bed at 7pm. By the time she comes to class, she's been up for 6 or 7 hours already. I have to admit I really wish I could do that. However having something of a social life prohibits that kind of action. (The world is so much quieter at 3am...)

At 11am I find myself back in Latin for a 2nd quarter. Dr. Ewald hands out our finals from last quarter, goes over them with us, and continues on into Latin like we haven't been gone for a month. It's great. (I am finding, however, that while some concepts were cemented in my head, that other ones, possibly more important ones, fell through the cracks. We shall see what happens tonight with my homework.

12:20pm then finds me in "Advanced Grammar" with a professor who was just awarded for being the best English teacher in the state of Washington. Imagine if you will a gentleman you might expect to find manning a museum in London: Tall, skinny, gray hair that doesn't really obey the whims of a comb (and he keeps running his hands through it), big bushy eye brows and a big grey mustache that hides his mouth. He seems very personable, if a little forgetful, but I still can't help but feel cautious when I speak, afraid I could very well be uttering some grammatical profanity of order. This class is only 50 minutes, which is good because at the end of it (The syllabus he handed out was 40+ pages) I already feel like a well used sponge. Someone ring me out please... (Note: He told us that after he finished teaching high school he vowed he would never take roll again. He's been at SPU 20 years now and he hasn't taken roll once. He says that if you've signed up for the class it's your responsibility to be there. (And that sometimes you need to miss a class because, (and I quote) "You're in love, or you've got to go feed the ducks, or whatever... Who knows the mind of Man?"))

3:00pm (on Wednesdays) finds me wandering through the halls of the humanities office to get to the writing classroom. “Imaginative Writing” is what waits for me there. I am taking this class with my best friend’s (Dan) mother. (She works at SPU, and gets to take one class free a quarter if she so desires.) The teacher of this class is youngish. She’s 3 months pregnant, teaches a class or two at the UW on poetry, and from what I can tell is very much the poet. (I am having a hard time at this point however figuring out how seriously she takes herself.) This is a 3 hour class and I feel it. Yes we get to do writing in class, but towards the end I was wishing they had chosen to spread 3 hours into 2 sessions a week instead of just one. The first time I walked in the table in the middle of the room (no desks, just one big table) was completely full. And not just of a random assortment of people, no no, it was a classroom filled with young ladies. When I stepped into that classroom I was the ONLY guy in that room. Another guy ended up coming in late, so the odds went from 1:20 to 1:10 instead. The writing we did in our free-write was mainly cold angsty prose that conveyed that most people in the room had a problem with something or other in their lives. I think it will be my goal in this class to be considerably more entertaining. I have the book “How to write funny” beside me here and I think I will give it a glance over once more before class on Wednesday. That bunch seems to be a little too serious.

Today I again worked most of the day, came home and took a nap, and then I went by the bank. Have you ever noticed that everyone that works in a bank looks, how should I say this… preppy? Why don’t you ever see anyone working behind the counter that looks like they are a moody painter or an alternative rock band member? Dare I ask what is it about clean cut, short haired, collared shirted young men and women that make people feel like they’re “safe”? Is it they that fit the job? Or is it the job that styles them? I think that is something about working with computers that I enjoy a lot, you’re not expected to shirt and tie it everyday. Ninety percent of the time I’ll end up doing something that requires me to get under a table or desk, so why dress nice? I think it allows me to be a little freer in my “self expression”. (IE: I can get away with wearing my Spiderman shirt, or my shirt that says “Geek” or even my “I’m blogging this” shirt.)

Following my standing in line and thinking about all the bank people being preppy looking, I took myself over to QFC to get some much needed supplies for the apartment. Dustin just paid 6,200 for a used car so he had an aversion to spending more money. We’re very well stocked now. We should last a good two or three weeks!

I’ve now been typing for an hour (Imaginative Writing HW!) so I think I will wish you all a fond farewell and… OOPS! I almost forgot something! Wednesday night Lisa, her father and myself went cake testing for our wedding cake. Sharon’s Catering is where we had been suggested to look, and I will tell you now, that lady knows her stuff, and she’s a great cook as well. Possibly some of the best wedding cake I have ever tasted. I think as well that we’ll end up using her for catering as well. Our cake is going to look a little (this is the closest thing she has done to what we wanted) like this. That’s pretty cool! Then the wedding expo on Saturday! THE THRILLS! I’ll be SURE to write about that for everyone… =)

Now, I must be going! Tonight promises of snow!

~B.