School hasn't even started yet and I've got homework! But if I do this homework, then there's a possibility that I have a couple fewer classes to take before I graduate, which means a) easier semesters, and b) time in which I could potentially get another job and earn a little money. Homework worth doing, huh?
So I was sitting in the living room looking stuff up and making charts and comparing classes I took at BYU with classes they offer here and so on and so forth, when Casey walked in and said, "Hey, I'm going to go play ultimate frisbee in canoes. Want to come?"
And would you believe, my first instinct was to say thanks, but no. I was in the middle of something and feeling a little lazy. But then I thought, 'You know what, Lint Monkey? If you don't do this, you're going to kick yourself later. Get off your lazy butt and go do something cool!' So I got off my lazy butt and went over to the house of a guy named Tony to play Ultimate Frisbee... in canoes! Only there were three kayaks too. I stuck with canoes, because those are what I'm familiar with. Actually, that's a lie. I wanted to try a kayak, but everybody loves the kayaks because they're faster and more maneuverable, which is a HUGE advantage, so they got taken really darn quick. I was one of the last ones in the water because Eric had a son and daughter about Kamryn and Noah's ages, and they decided I was their best friend as soon as they figured out I was a girl. Seriously, the little girl's first words were, "Oh, she's a girl!" and then she came up to me, tugged on my fingers, and said, "Hey, um, excuse me... um, do you want to come see my room?"
There were nine people there, and our team had five people, but we lost, partly because I was a hindrance to both sides. It took me a while to remember how to canoe, since I haven't been in one since I was about fifteen years old. I eventually more or less remembered, but was still out of practice. And I'm downright awful at Frisbee to begin with. After the first few points, in which I mostly stayed back and played "defense," which consisted mostly of practicing canoeing in circles, they decided to make sure I got to join in and had me throw the kick-off. My first throw landed maybe ten yards away. My second throw was a little better--closer to fifteen yards. I did have a proud moment, where I blocked a guy's canoe and kept him at bay for the whole round and refused to let him past me. But this guy on my team, Gerrit (Gerritt? Garret? Garrit? Garrote? I don't know how he spells it!), poor guy, every time I turned around, it seemed I accidentally blocked him. He was in a kayak, and one time, I accidentally rammed into him head-on, and the point of my canoe dug straight into his collarbone. I was seriously scared I had killed him for a second! I'm pretty sure it didn't feel any good at all!
The best part was when I was racing Tony, who was by far the fastest, strongest, and best at the game, to get the Frisbee, but he got there just ahead of me, so I reached out with my paddle as far as I could to pull the Frisbee in to me while he was still paddling... but I overbalanced and the canoe toppled over. It was great fun! I got so disoriented, though. When I first surfaced, I had no idea what was happening. I thought for a second I had surfaced under the canoe and wasn't sure if there was air, or if it was safe to breathe, or which direction I was facing, or what. There was water in my eyes, and I couldn't wipe it out because I was wearing glasses and anyway, I needed my hands to swim. But in retrospect, I probably didn't really. I was wearing a life jacket and no shoes to drag me down. But yeah, it was awesome! Out of the nine people there, FOUR of us fell in before we stopped playing at sunset. We lost, but we had so much fun it didn't matter!
So as we headed out, I was thanking them for the game and saying I'd had a lot of fun, congratulating people on some of the smooth moves and such, and I asked how often they play. "Well, this is probably our last game of the year unless the weather's nice next week. But we're always doing stuff here! I don't know why I can't people to show up," Tony said.
"Yeah, it's hard motivating people in Alaska to do stuff, it seems like," I said. "What sort of stuff do you do?"
"Well, every Saturday we play Magic: the Gathering," he said. "Do you play that?"
"I did, a loooong time ago."
"And then on Fridays, we do role-playing, with--"
"OH MY GOSH ROLE-PLAYING CAN I JOIN????"
So we went inside, and dried off and changed into clean clothes (I was SO glad Casey had told me to bring a change of clothes just in case I fell in!), and he showed me his gaming room, which is basically the greatest room I've ever been in!!! Fantasy and role-playing books all over the place, computers, fridges full of soda and junk food for role-playing nights, anime posters and wall hangings... I pointed to a Ranma wall hanging and said, "Oh hey, I love Ranma! One of the best animes ever!" and the guy brought out a silk Ranma outfit and wig and said, "Here's your Halloween costume! We've decided for you!"
It was SO COOL!!!
So yeah, I already have my Halloween costume (I put on the wig and Casey said, "Wow, Cat, you actually look like a REAL girl!"), and I'm going to start role-playing on Friday nights, and this year looks like it's going to be a blast!!!
Casey and Dylan (the two of my roommates that I've met so far) both play WoW, so we all started some troll characters and were totally geeking it up last night. They have a massive surround sound system in the living room, and every gaming system I can name. Dylan hooked his laptop up to the big TV to play, and afterward, we watched a bunch of funny youtube videos.
I dropped by to see my professor, Cindy Hardy, today. She gave me a big hug and told the person she was on the phone with that she had to go because one of her "favorite students" had dropped by. Hehe. I walked with her up to Burns Cooper's office (he's head of the English department), and talked with him for a little while, and as I left, I called him by his first name like Cindy does, then corrected myself, "Sorry, I mean Dr. Cooper," and he shrugged and grinned and said, "Eh, call me Burns." Mwaha! I got away with informality! I like Dr. Cooper. He taught one of my classes last semester. He's really smart, and is one of those professors that will actually admit when he doesn't know something, and then he'll go look it up and tell you the answer in the next class. He went off on tangents a lot, too, and my friend Jeremy and I used to have contests to see who could get him off on the longest tangent.
So yeah. That's that. And I should get to sleep here pretty soon, because I have classes from 9:45 tomorrow morning until 9:00 tomorrow night, except for an hour lunch break and then an hour and a half dinner break. And I'm really tired from canoeing.
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