A Red-Letter Day

In honor of my man Joseph and I, I present to you:

How To Be X-Treme!!!



That was so accurate, I actually wondered if Joe started up a web comic without telling me.

Oh. My God.

How many of you can say you've been stuck in an elevator?

None of you?

I can.

So I'm up at engineering... I just got out of Fluid Dynamics and was heading up to structures two floors up. Well, I was feeling lazy, so I jumped on the elevator with several of my structures classmates. We all hit 2, someone else mashes 5, and the door slides shut. And we don't move. At all. At all at all.

Are you kidding me?

We look at the display and it's still reading "G". We mash on the door open button, the door closed button, the G button... Anything we thought would be helpful. We got nothing. So we open the little door with the phone on it to reveal a little speaker, and one of the dudes hits the call button. A voice on the other end calmly asks us what the problem is. We quickly explain that we're stuck in the elevator and that we could use some help. "OK, I'll let someone know," she says.

You'll let someone know? Are they going to help us, or just laugh at our unfortunate situation? And most certainly don't keep us informed of our situation. Thank goodness there was only about 8 of us on the elevator. If we had crammed it full like we usually do, that would have been one very miserable situation.

15 minutes later the elevator door is pried open by one of the maintenance guys and we're free to go. First and only time, I predict, that I'll ever be able to legitimately use the excuse "I was stuck on the elevator" as I walk into class... And the professor pretty much had to believe us, since there was at least 5 of us missing. That's a 6th of the class.

I'm kinda proud of this, though. I mean, really, I'm a member of an elite club now... We're just lucky we were only in there for 15 minutes and not a whole weekend like some horror stories portray. That and no one had to pee.

So where'd my summer go again?

Oh, that's right... I spent it at the DOH. Darn.

But despite that and the fact I finished out my summer with mono and had a trip to Gettysburg forced down my throat, I think I did quite well for myself. I mean, Justin is no longer afraid of Gregson's house, spent way too much time in Pittsburgh, and even managed the impossible: asked a girl out. I'd say it was a job well done.

But now I'm back in Morgantown... I helped the freshmen move in on Friday (my good deed for the week year), chilled most of the weekend, and finished up my first round of classes today. It's going to be an interesting semester... Certainly not easy. Well, statistics and engineering econ should be simple enough, but when you add Civil Engineering Materials, Fluid Dynamics, and Structural Analysis I to the mix, you gain a fair amount of difficulty. Hopefully these classes will start to be meaningful, though. I'm getting tired of sitting through (seemly) pointless classes where the instructor assures me that I'll "use this later," but many times, at least so far, I never see it again. Hooray math classes!

What's really interesting is that several of my classes have suffered last minute professor changes... I'm not sure if this is good or bad, yet, but from what I can tell, it will make things easier. Of course, that's only a bad thing if my score on the FE suffers because of it. I have a year and a half to go before that, though... Yeah, you're right. I better start sweating now. *freaks out*

OK, not really, but we're going to have to get serious about that rather soon. At least the PE is 5 years off in the distance... Why did I choose a major that practically requires that, again?

Oh well. I'm already amazed at all the time I have. Compared to when I was working, I don't do anything now. Sure, that will change once the homework begins to pile up and the tests start coming, but even then I think I'll still have more free time than when I was working. Darn that 1-hour commute.

Does that mean I'm happy to be back down in Morgantown? I'm really not sure. I still only have like three friends down here, and I'm leaving someone rather special back home, but I'm going to try to make this year better than the last two. Maybe make some friends or something. Not sure how I'll do that, but at least the intent is there. I didn't have that last year. Or at least do things with the 3 friends I do have. We'll figure something out.

Alright... Bloggin' from work. Oh yeah.

Now that I'm done with my summer class over at JCC, I'll probably spend a couple of my last lunches blogging since, well, I have nothing better to do, except maybe sleep.

Which I definitely need to do. I am officially pooped. People with mono really shouldn't go to Kennywood or stay at parties till midnight or whatever, but that's clearly how I decided to spend my Saturday.

Now that isn't to say I think I made the wrong decision in going - it was quite fun - I'm just paying for it now. My shoulders hurt from helping carry in one of the coolers (I swear it had the shortest handle ever just to spite me) and I tweaked my back a little bit on the Phantom...

OMG THE PHANTOM! Yes I, Justin, the amusement park pansy, manned up and rode the Phantom's Revenge. I was scared to death. The ride itself wasn't bad, wasn't bad at all, but I was so worked up I just terrified myself mentally. When our car started over the second hill into the valley, a large portion of my brain just shut down before we even picked up any speed. Now, the 2% of my brain that was still functioning had a lot of fun, but man, the rest of me was jacked up. Would I do it again, though? While the 98% screams no, it doesn't really know what it's talking about... The 2% wins.

It was a big day for me at Kennywood, though. I rode the Swing Shot and was going to ride the Thunderbolt but Madison stole Tina and no strangers wanted to partner up with mono boy, so I just gave up there. I was also considering the Pit Fall, but no one ended up riding that one, so oh well.

Went to Ben's afterwards, which, again, was fun but probably a bad idea. Tina was watching out for me, though, so we left kinda early. I slept till noon yesterday, but had trouble falling asleep last night, so I'm a little iffy today. I was supposed to start working on analysis stuff here at the office with Phil (finally), but I found a note on my desk this morning telling me he wouldn't be in this week. That was definitely not what I wanted to hear. Luckily, I talked to Dave (the big man) and John (one of the other analysis guys), and now I get to work with John this week. I like him, though, and the stuff is interesting so far; my only problem is staying awake. This little sleep / mono combination isn't a good idea. I might have to run some laps or something mid-afternoon if I have any hope of finishing out the day.

So it's official: I have infectious mononucleosis...
But friends just say I have mono.

I've had a sore throat for over a week, and at first I didn't think much of it... It persisted and antibiotics didn't help, though, so I was forced to go to the... *gasp* doctor. I know, I know, they do no good... But he did have the power to send me to the hospital for a monospot, which indeed proved that I have mono.

The worst thing about mono... No, wait... The third worst thing about mono is that there's nothing you can do about it. No magic drugs, no special treatments. Nope. All I get from the doctor is a "Sucks to be you; you might feel better in 3 weeks." Gee, thanks, that's just what I wanted to hear 3 weeks before I start back to school. *Humph* Let my just sit here in my little house quarantine and go to bed at 7 every night. Sounds wonderful.

Well, so now you're asking what the other two worst things about mono are. Of course one of them is mono itself. I mean, being tired all the time and not being able to do anything? Pretty much the suck. Not fun at all. I'm not looking forward to it. Especially since it's gonna ruin the last little bit of my summer. I mean, come on. Not fair at all.

The other worst thing? Everyone thinks I am a walking bio hazard. I am not. I am posting here, for the world to know, unless you make out with me or drink from the same glass as me or share silverware with me, you will not catch mono. Simple as that. You can shake my hand, give me a hug, sit next to me on a bus, whatever. You will be fine. I am not a leper. I'm not anthrax. I don't have bird flu. Or tuberculosis. Be nice to me... Please don't run. I want your company. No, I won't kiss you. I promise.