Day two began with an unexpectedly good song. Robert had set his alarm radio to a popular local station that played mainly local artists. Some guy's good song woke me up and Robert quickly set about explaining the guy and his music (I think his first name was three letters and started with an S. Sal?) while I rubbed my eyes open. Today was to be a busy day. Thankfully, breakfast was covered courtesy P2. My friends and colleagues, never trust an honors program breakfast. I mean, Motel 6 could have beaten the crap out of the bagel and OJ combo that was served. But it was an unexpectedly good social opportunity. I got to know the handful of P2ers around me who I hadn't met in the office the day before.
"Hi, I'm Blake."
"I'm Kinsey. Nice to meet you." After the requisite questions concerning her hometown and major, it finally clicked that I had thought this chick was cute. Apparently I hadn't been wrong. As the P2 group of 20 students split in half, she and I headed together to the meeting with the two academic advisers instead of with Dr. Woodruff, P2 head honcho Sadly, I don't remember my conversation with her or anything the advisers said. I think it was pretty basic stuff that absorbed fairly easily. Woodruff's meeting was a bit more pleasurable on all fronts. Woodruff gave us information on the P2-specific classes we were to take and gave us homework - we had 24 hours to browse some 30 courses and pick two to take. I even did some writing - Kinsey asked me for my email address which I happily wrote on the back of her advising manual. Woodruff took notice and stopped the orientation to ask if we were passing something around. Great. I've been orienting at P2 for about an hour and I'm already busted for passing notes with the cute girl. Looks like college is the kind of high school I always wanted to live. More on that later. The afternoon was torture. It was spent with the College of Communication. There, they went over extremely basic information (though I spent the whole time chatting with a Sophie from New Mexico and receiving glares from the adults running the show) and then shipped us off to info sessions from various schools within the college. I chose to attend the Journalism meeting. What a mistake. I spent that retarded two hours wishing I wasn't in Communication at all and worrying about the fact that they scheduled me for an advising appointment that overlapped with a really important P2 thing where I'd choose which honors classes I'd be taking. Ultimately, I spent an extra hour there fighting with the Communication people to change my appointment and missing a lecture from Woodruff in the process. But with persistence and annoyance, and a healthy dose of sacrificing the shit you'd rather do, you can navigate the UT bureaucracy to get what you want. That night was another assembly designed to sort of shock us into the UT ways of campus life. Except this time it had a guy get his backpack stolen after he left it, a girl was forced to have sex with her dumbass boyfriend, and some girl got really wasted. So basically, their point was 'Don't be stupid.' This assembly, and the session afterward where a large group discussed the issues inside a lecture hall, was a total waste of time. The whole time I just wanted to get out to go see the funny show being put on by the OAs. The funny show eventually came around, and I really wasn't disappointed. It was called "Longhorn Is As Longhorn Does" and it was a dead giveaway that the show was in the vein of Forrest Gump. Forrest, this time around, was involved in accidents that gave UT most of its traditions. For example, people had been running around with little horns on their heads and tails on their asses to act like Longhorns until Forrest held up his pinky and index fingers and said with his typical slow-kid drawl, "I cut my fingers." Late that night, around 11:00, there was free pizza for the whole dorm. Wow. Everyone showed up at the same time and I still hadn't made it in time for the pepperoni. So with my two pieces of cheese pizza, I sat down with my buds Mike and David, as well as Kinsey and her friend Laura, and eventually our favorite Thomas made an appearance. By midnight, the pizza was long gone and Kinsey was feeling adventurous. "I wanna go drive my car," she playfully whined. "What do you drive?" I asked.
"An X5." My eyebrows suddenly raised themselves and I too was in the mood for adventure. The whole crowd hung around for a while longer until a few people decided to go to their rooms. Meanwhile, Kinsey stood up as if she were ready to leave campus. I forget how it happened, but I had agreed to come on an adventure for either coffee or a cookie, whichever we found first. Laura surprisingly decided to disappear, leaving the two of us alone to adventure together. I wasn't entirely complaining. Heading to Kinsey's car, the conversation had already started. We were just talking. The topics weren't important as they sort of all meshed together. In short, we made a good pair for conversation. Once in her brand new X5, ignoring the assistance of the navigation system, we headed to Guadalupe St. and cruised up and down it looking for coffee shops still open past midnight. Unsuccessful. But still a fun trip. The lack of coffee shops made our adventure quickly devolve into a tour of Austin, with this beautiful girl as my personal guide. I got to see 5th and 6th streets for the first time up close and personal - though they were completely dead on a Wednesday night during summer. As our tour concluded, I was the happiest I'd been in a long time. We walked back to the dorm, and up the stairs to our respective floors, and I gave her a little hug as she disappeared onto the second floor, and I continued on to the third with that feeling that you've just had the most refreshingly great night of your life and you wish you could live in the previous moment forever. End of Day 2. Day 3 coming soon.
"I'm Kinsey. Nice to meet you." After the requisite questions concerning her hometown and major, it finally clicked that I had thought this chick was cute. Apparently I hadn't been wrong. As the P2 group of 20 students split in half, she and I headed together to the meeting with the two academic advisers instead of with Dr. Woodruff, P2 head honcho Sadly, I don't remember my conversation with her or anything the advisers said. I think it was pretty basic stuff that absorbed fairly easily. Woodruff's meeting was a bit more pleasurable on all fronts. Woodruff gave us information on the P2-specific classes we were to take and gave us homework - we had 24 hours to browse some 30 courses and pick two to take. I even did some writing - Kinsey asked me for my email address which I happily wrote on the back of her advising manual. Woodruff took notice and stopped the orientation to ask if we were passing something around. Great. I've been orienting at P2 for about an hour and I'm already busted for passing notes with the cute girl. Looks like college is the kind of high school I always wanted to live. More on that later. The afternoon was torture. It was spent with the College of Communication. There, they went over extremely basic information (though I spent the whole time chatting with a Sophie from New Mexico and receiving glares from the adults running the show) and then shipped us off to info sessions from various schools within the college. I chose to attend the Journalism meeting. What a mistake. I spent that retarded two hours wishing I wasn't in Communication at all and worrying about the fact that they scheduled me for an advising appointment that overlapped with a really important P2 thing where I'd choose which honors classes I'd be taking. Ultimately, I spent an extra hour there fighting with the Communication people to change my appointment and missing a lecture from Woodruff in the process. But with persistence and annoyance, and a healthy dose of sacrificing the shit you'd rather do, you can navigate the UT bureaucracy to get what you want. That night was another assembly designed to sort of shock us into the UT ways of campus life. Except this time it had a guy get his backpack stolen after he left it, a girl was forced to have sex with her dumbass boyfriend, and some girl got really wasted. So basically, their point was 'Don't be stupid.' This assembly, and the session afterward where a large group discussed the issues inside a lecture hall, was a total waste of time. The whole time I just wanted to get out to go see the funny show being put on by the OAs. The funny show eventually came around, and I really wasn't disappointed. It was called "Longhorn Is As Longhorn Does" and it was a dead giveaway that the show was in the vein of Forrest Gump. Forrest, this time around, was involved in accidents that gave UT most of its traditions. For example, people had been running around with little horns on their heads and tails on their asses to act like Longhorns until Forrest held up his pinky and index fingers and said with his typical slow-kid drawl, "I cut my fingers." Late that night, around 11:00, there was free pizza for the whole dorm. Wow. Everyone showed up at the same time and I still hadn't made it in time for the pepperoni. So with my two pieces of cheese pizza, I sat down with my buds Mike and David, as well as Kinsey and her friend Laura, and eventually our favorite Thomas made an appearance. By midnight, the pizza was long gone and Kinsey was feeling adventurous. "I wanna go drive my car," she playfully whined. "What do you drive?" I asked.
"An X5." My eyebrows suddenly raised themselves and I too was in the mood for adventure. The whole crowd hung around for a while longer until a few people decided to go to their rooms. Meanwhile, Kinsey stood up as if she were ready to leave campus. I forget how it happened, but I had agreed to come on an adventure for either coffee or a cookie, whichever we found first. Laura surprisingly decided to disappear, leaving the two of us alone to adventure together. I wasn't entirely complaining. Heading to Kinsey's car, the conversation had already started. We were just talking. The topics weren't important as they sort of all meshed together. In short, we made a good pair for conversation. Once in her brand new X5, ignoring the assistance of the navigation system, we headed to Guadalupe St. and cruised up and down it looking for coffee shops still open past midnight. Unsuccessful. But still a fun trip. The lack of coffee shops made our adventure quickly devolve into a tour of Austin, with this beautiful girl as my personal guide. I got to see 5th and 6th streets for the first time up close and personal - though they were completely dead on a Wednesday night during summer. As our tour concluded, I was the happiest I'd been in a long time. We walked back to the dorm, and up the stairs to our respective floors, and I gave her a little hug as she disappeared onto the second floor, and I continued on to the third with that feeling that you've just had the most refreshingly great night of your life and you wish you could live in the previous moment forever. End of Day 2. Day 3 coming soon.