1) You have been selected as the next super hero in your city. What power will you choose to have?

The power to fly so I don’t have to worry about getting stuck in a traffic jam while en-route to thwarting a bank robbery.

2) Lemon or Lime?

Plum, please.

3) How many speeding tickets have you recieved?

One, last November. But I’ve been pulled over for various offenses — speeding, burned out headlight, etc. — a dozen times. I’ve been issued, in addition to the speeding ticket (for which I recieved probation before judgement), I’ve been issued two repair orders and a citation for failing to display my registration.

4) It’s last call for alcohol what will you order?

Water, to sober up.

5) Which video game character would you want to be?

Uh …

6) What event do you think has had the most effect on this country?
a) 9-11
b) Iraq War
c) 2000 election of Bush

The 2000 election of Bush.

7) What was the street name you lived on the majority of your childhood?

Towhee.

8) The name of your first pet?

Tigger.

9) Your first grade teacher’s last name?

Masters.

10) What color are your current undergarments?

I don’t remember, it’s not like I color coordinate my boxers to go with my shorts, y’know? And, no, I don’t feel like looking to refresh my memory. Er, I mean, “blue.”

I’m certain I’m guilty of this, so I shouldn’t hate, but I do hate, I’m a very hateful person.

I hate people who write “should of” as the abbreviation of “should have.”

No.

It’s “should’ve.”

My first day of school is three-quarters over. It felt like a homecoming — I yelled at inconsiderate assholes in the Linthiculm Parking Garage (I know it’s the “Towson Town” garage, but I never call it that because people think I’m talking about the mall), marveled at the fresh paint and wall-decorations inside Linthiculm Hall, and greeted Dr. Wilkotz, who I haven’t seen in five years and gave me this “I know I know you somehow but am afraid to ask” look.

The Folklore Prof — who I had many years ago — asked us to write a few lines for him, including what experience we had with ‘folklore.’ I wrote that’d I seen “The Brothers Grimm” and “Shrek.” He flipped through the sheets after we passed them forward, reading aloud some of the responses and using them to illustrate some of the point he’d made earlier about the origins of folklore. Getting to mine he read it, chuckled, and mentioned he’d have to track me down to find out if “Brothers Grimm” was worth watching (it wasn’t).

So I’m not enrolled in History of Rock and Roll, but rather, the Roots of Rock and Roll. Any expectations I had of this class being easy went out the window when the Prof started talking — the class itself might be easy, trying to keep up with his often meandering lecture is damn near impossible (a discussion of the migration of Jazz musicians from New Orleans in the nineteen-thirties detoured to a lecture on the Spanish-American War, the evolution of the music industry, and a discussion of the Great Influenze outbreak post-WWI, before he finally got around to “Oh, right, the migration! Well, New Orleans up the Mississippi to Davenport, Iowa and then to Chicago, and than to New York City.”) I sat next to a couple of stoner dudes who were loudly discussing their excitement for the new Bob Dylan CD that apparently came out today. One whispered to the other, when the prof finally showed up (he was a few minutes late), “Dude, we’re so going to have an easy semester — he has our hair!” And, grayer, yes, but the prof did have the same stoner/70ish/permed doo going.

I’m still a book short from the Union — the Chaucer text was apparently never ordered, and I’m afraid the pricetag on that massive text is going to cause me convulsions. As it was, I just spent $240 on texts. After stuffing them into my backpack, and lugging all of that out of the Union and to the top deck of the Garage, I just wanted to break down crying (it hurt!). At least I got a stenuous workout.

By Thursday, next week, I have to memorize the first 18 lines of the Canterbury Tales‘ general prologue as part of my class participation grade — this including the proper middle English pronunciation, which is what we spent a good half the class today learning. For example, ‘tooth’ pronounced ‘toh-th.’ Joy.

The Chaucer class was also the first class I really relaxed in — an upper level English course? Of course, everyone who I knew from the English classes three years ago has long since gone, but I got to talking to a few people — including two cute ladies — and it really felt like just yesterday that I was in an English class with other English majors I’d known for years.

It seemed that at least one person in each class had a laptop computer with them. Even though it hasn’t been all that long since I last went to Towson — my last semester was Fall ‘03 — I can never remember seeing someone with a laptop in a classroom (there was one dude who would set himself up in The Brick).

My night class is at the unlikely start time of 7pm. On the bright side, the class is in the same building that Bill Bateman’s is, so should the subject matter be overly difficult, I can just walk down a level and get hammered.