If only writing essays was an Olympic sport...
I love the Olympics and look forward to them every 4 years. I have been staying up WAY past my bedtime to watch one more swim or one more vault. I am particularly fond of gymnastics and forever I have wished I had been involved in that sport. Of course back surgery at 12 and a blossomed chest might have stunted this dream, but who knows...it still would've been awesome to learn how to do a round-off hand stand. (Hey, I didn't say I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast!) I am only 5 feet tall and I often think, along with my strong thighs, I was built to be a gymnast. I am sure if I had just said something about this to Mom and Dad they would've allowed me to give it a shot. But no, piano was to be my sport. To this day I walk with confidence on a curb and pretend it's the four-inch beam on which I must perfectly balance.
School starts Monday (*gasp*) and yesterday I got up and at 'em nice and early so I could beat the mad rush to buy books and a parking permit. I arrived promptly at 8:30am and found the parking lots to be quite empty. I entered the bookstore and found that it too was absent of long lines and gobs of students. I went to Parking Operations and promptly received my parking permit in a record time of 2 minutes (the first minute was the lady retrieving the pass and the second minute was me telling her how much I loved her haircut). I was done with this chore within 30 minutes. There was time to spare on each of the parking meters I fed coins. I could not have been happier and more surprised. In the past this was a chore of epic proportions and usually consisted of long, winding lines with arms full of heavy books, grouchy parking permit people with sour faces and bad haircuts, and parking spaces far, far away. Yesterday was actually a delight and reinforced my enthusiasm for the semester ahead.
On my way home I started thinking about how smoothly everything went - how I was able to charge my $120 French textbook to my school account and not use money from our grocery budget to pay for it, how everyone seemed fresh and ready for the day.....and that's when it hit me. It was 8:30 in the morning and I was at a college. The campus opened at 8am and many of my fellow students wouldn't actually be awake for another two hours, at least! I've never really liked being categorized as an "non-traditional, older student" but yesterday I was reminded that it definitely has its' perks.
The quick turn around at UMKC allowed me plenty of time to visit Office Depot and what a glorious visit it was. I bought pens, and a shiny new notebook, a new calendar and even a cute new tote book bag.
Let the games begin!
School starts Monday (*gasp*) and yesterday I got up and at 'em nice and early so I could beat the mad rush to buy books and a parking permit. I arrived promptly at 8:30am and found the parking lots to be quite empty. I entered the bookstore and found that it too was absent of long lines and gobs of students. I went to Parking Operations and promptly received my parking permit in a record time of 2 minutes (the first minute was the lady retrieving the pass and the second minute was me telling her how much I loved her haircut). I was done with this chore within 30 minutes. There was time to spare on each of the parking meters I fed coins. I could not have been happier and more surprised. In the past this was a chore of epic proportions and usually consisted of long, winding lines with arms full of heavy books, grouchy parking permit people with sour faces and bad haircuts, and parking spaces far, far away. Yesterday was actually a delight and reinforced my enthusiasm for the semester ahead.
On my way home I started thinking about how smoothly everything went - how I was able to charge my $120 French textbook to my school account and not use money from our grocery budget to pay for it, how everyone seemed fresh and ready for the day.....and that's when it hit me. It was 8:30 in the morning and I was at a college. The campus opened at 8am and many of my fellow students wouldn't actually be awake for another two hours, at least! I've never really liked being categorized as an "non-traditional, older student" but yesterday I was reminded that it definitely has its' perks.
The quick turn around at UMKC allowed me plenty of time to visit Office Depot and what a glorious visit it was. I bought pens, and a shiny new notebook, a new calendar and even a cute new tote book bag.
Let the games begin!
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