searching for more meaning on a tuesday

dearest all-

to everything, there is routine. no matter how basic the idea, or experienced the individual, a routine helps keep focus, momentum, and drive to some goal, whether it's waking up and going through "your morning ritual" or stepping out of the batter's box and nomar going through his complex tightening and retightening of his batting gloves. here, in quickdrivethru format, is my current routine:

wake up. late. ignore coffee at home since i can make it at school. remember bike lock for bike. usually. get out the door. ride to school, staying clear of the big pothole on nagle and the even bigger storm water bypass at the catholic church (its not fun to hit dead on). wait at crosswalk. ride across university onto campus. begin count of "people with cell phones engaged." make estimate of total numbers of students i pass on way to office / class (if i'm really late). we're averaging, by the way, about 1 per 15. with 50,000 students here (more or less), that's 3333 students on their cell phone at ALL times of the day. well, at least between class times. avoid pack of sorority girls and wind through the library walkways. try to not get in collision with students leaving library. turn right onto spence dr. make hard left back onto walkways, making sure to time my spot so i don't run over freshmen and cadets. which is difficult (see my paen on slalom biking through students). park bike away from the crowded spots near the door, go upstairs to office, make coffee, read email, and respond to the students in my lab who are having difficulties. we're averaging, by the way, about 65% extra help response for the latest lab. which is impressive in that the lab books are hideously written oftentimes, and that i don't think i ever went for extra help. ever. spend day engaged in academic pursuits like taking out all the fish behaviour books from the library (apparently, all fish behaviorists are british, or like to spell with the extra u), or updating the website: http://geog.tamu.edu/marinegeog , or reading the news and trying to figure out the density of the average american adult brain should certain political figures in congress win re-election. make pbj when hungry. go to class/lab as needed. end day around 7pm or 8 sometimes. bring something home that's nice and easy to do while watching tv (daily show, colbert report, countdown with keith olbermann, southpark reruns, sportscenter). get to sleep sometime around midnight. rinse and repeat.

why am i boring you with this? well, we had the apocalypse on tuesday. seriously. right around 5:30pm, some monumental power failure hit the campus and surrounding burg. with computer in tow and not much else, i head home. this would be where i would practice hitting acorns and making them skitter across the sidewalk with my front tire. but instead, it was a mass of humanity. all the students were outside, milling about as they tend to do. the campus roads were totally backed up and there were lots of angry looks as i skirted by them on my way home. off campus was much worse. being rush hour and everything, the main drag, university drive, was total gridlock without street lights. people were trying to cut through parking lots to get around to side streets, but so many people were doing this that even here was a mess. the taco stand (called fatburger) apparently had a generator because roughly 250 students were waiting in line for food. it was amazing to see it all. and it reminded me of that great protest sign me and my brother once saw near a nuclear power plant. "i don't need your electricity. i get mine from the wall!" the behind-the-scenes string that ties our routines together, electricity, was, when noticeably absent, seemingly also the glue that keeps people sane. i couldn't imagine what life would be like without electricity. i would, for all practical purposes, be a bit put off by it after a while.

which is really amazing. and so i got to thinking about thoreau and simplicity and deep, important, human things that aren't reliant on 110v coming out your wall, and how it'd be a nice evening for stargazing and hanging on the stoop. and then i got home and somehow my block wasn't affected.

so i went inside, sat down, turned my computer back on, got olbermann at the right soft volume, and settled back into the routine.

moral: it's hard to break routines and habits. we know that. and here's why: we like our habits and routines. given the choice of a nice, unusual night of stargazing inside city limits and hanging out with friends or the glow of a computer screen, a research proposal, and south park, i did indeed choose the latter. not that i'm proud of that.

of course, i did finish and end up outside playing guitar and talking about marxist geographers with eugene. yeah, that's what i said too. and in the excitement and newness of it all, even if my enjoyment was delayed, made for one of the best nights so far.

especially when i woke up the next morning and went to class again, only to realize, once there, that i had forgotten to proctor an exam at 8am.

--goose

quick brief recap shout-outs:

off-the-fiveball-side-pocket shoutout to roommate, fellow trojan and graduate studentee eugene f. for accepting his mentoring role as i finally take on the important challenge of learning to play pool properly. we have 4-6 years, depending on your worldview, and that's lots of thursday nights committed to following through the cue. most important discovery: you don't have to hit the cue in the dead center! apparently, that was my biggest problem (well, that and not following through). and though my record against euge in 8-ball is like 0-58, we're getting better. we ignore the two games he scratched the 8ball, obtw. and i have beaten him fairly in 9-ball twice. and this is a guy who describes his college days as "long stays at the pub playing pool and snooker."

happy shoutout to skype! do you skype? i do (apparently). it's loads of fun seeing the good dr. and clan in far off guam and having little skylar react violently to my goattee and long hair. note: the goat is gone and the dreams about short hair have begun. thank you skylar. oh, if you do skype: i can be reached by searching for my full name. should be easy as peezy, yo! skype it up!

happy housewarming-can-we-take-your-leftovers to faculty member kathleen, who had a nice housewarming yesterday. and some aluminum foil for me and euge to (politely, mind you) procure some leftovers. and by leftovers, we mean: 1/3 of a pecan pie, 1/7 of an apple crumb strudel, 20-30 celery/carrot sticks, 3 handfuls of broccoli, 15ish hot dogs, 1 tub macaroni salad (sans mayonaisse!), 1 tub potato sald (mit gelflugelmayonnaise, boo!), and some baked beans.

happy can-you-believe-college-football relief to the usc trojans! two squeaky wins but no.2 auburn loses to arkansas, who the trojans ate up. but the local alumni affiliate here in college station would appreciate a little more offense. no offense.

happy sunday and for those of you who get the columbus day off, i say: &%$^@!