Rianne

For those of you not familiar with the basics of me, I'm going to University of Colorado (CU for short) in Boulder. I'm majoring in Chemical Engineering, in the Engineering Honors program.
All the Engineering Honors kids live in the same wing of the same hall (Hallett 2nd West), which makes for some interesting times. Josh is in the same program, and happens to live right across the hall from me. My roommate's pretty awesome- she's a lot like me, in many ways (but she has longer hair- who would have thought?)
Anyway, I haven't had too much of interest happen- just getting settled in to classes and life here. It's a pretty awesome place, way too hot for me most of the time, but the people and the weather are pretty nice. The food is also quite delicious most of the time. However, as I found out at 7 o'clock on a Saturday morning, the dining halls don't open until 11 on weekends. I've stocked up with PopTarts and rice cakes (yum!) so that I don't have to spend another 4 hours waiting to eat. Actually, now I just don't get up until 10 or so. Works better that way, really.

By request of River, I'm going to post an account of the long and awkward situation I found myself in the other day:
So there's this guy in my hall who's in marching band (my roommate is, too.) He came in the other day at like 8:45 (remember this time) looking for her - he just had some question about what time rehearsal was, or something - but she wasn't here. So, instead of leaving, he comes in.
I was playing a game on the computer that Josh had been playing earlier (the three of us are in the same physics class, so we had just all gone back to Josh's room afterward to chill and do homework.) So, in the evening, when this guy came looking for Mackenzie, I was playing the same game. He sees that I'm playing this game, and he comes over, stands behind me, watching me play, and keeps making a bunch of suggestions about what I should be doing better. After a few minutes, he grabs the chair from my roommate's desk, and brings it over next to me at my desk, and sits down, making himself comfortable. Quite uninvited. The 'backseat gaming' is getting sort of obnoxious, so I switch to FaceChatting with someone (I don't remember who)
and he just keeps sitting there. Watching me.
Then he says, "So, I like to get to know people, and I don't really know you. Tell me about yourself." So I say, "Uh...well...I don't really know what to say about myself...were you wondering about something specific?"
"No, no," he says, "just tell me about yourself. Where you come from is a good start, then just go from there."
So I tell him where I'm from, and he says "Oh, wow, cool! I've heard that's a really cool place"
I ask if he's ever been there. He hasn't.
So then he says, "So, tell me more about yourself."
I don't really know where to start on the apparent life story he wants, so I just open my iPhoto, and start randomly scrolling through pictures- "This is my brother. This is graduation. This is a hike I went on."
After who knows how many minutes of this, he says, "Well, my life is really pretty boring. I can show you a picture of my sister on Facebook, and a picture of my car on eBay motors, but that's about my whole life."
Reluctantly, I let him pull up his Facebook on my computer. He shows me a picture of his sister, and his sister's page, and his high school group page, and his sister's boyfriend's page, and ...apparently he looks just like his sister's boyfriend. He told me some story about that, too.
Eventually, he gets off Facebook, and switches over to eBay motors, because apparently the car he has is some old one. He tries to look it up about 6 times on eBay, but the page isn't working
so, not to be deterred, he switches over to Google, gets an image search, and types in "volkswagen beetle"
Predictably, 50 billion results come up.
"I have a Super Beetle" he says, and begins clicking through the pages...one...by...one...
I suggest that he try typing more specific (like "Super Beetle") into the search box, and that maybe he'll have better luck with the search.
"Oh wow, good idea!" he says, like it never would have occurred to him. Who knows? Maybe it wouldn't have. So he types it in. And there it is. He begins telling me a bunch of stories about his car...and then his other family cars...and then pictures of them, too.
Since he's effectively taken over my computer at this point, I get up, and start cleaning up my desk. He's still on my computer. I go over to the doorway, and mouth "help me" to Josh across the hall, but he can't see my half of the room from his room, so he's just confused.
I go back to cleaning up my desk. And other parts of my room. And he's still on my computer, going to some random website. Which really pissed me off.
It was maybe 9:15 or 9:30 at that point.
So then, as I'm cleaning up my desk (it's pretty dang clean by now), he looks over at my math homework, which is out.
"Oh, are you in Calc 2?" he asks.
"No, Calc 3."
"Oh, really? wow!"
He starts flipping through my math book.
Then he asks if i'm a gamer. I said, "You mean, like online games? No, I don't really play those much."
"Not necessarily online games" he says.
"Well, I don't really play video games that much either. We have a gamecube at home, but I don't use it that much" (not really true, but i was trying not to encourage him)
(unfortunately, he needed no encouragement)
"Well, when you do play, what games do you play?"
"Um, Zelda games, mostly."
"Oh, hey, well, there's nothing wrong with that" he says, as though somehow I was insecure about this and needed him to make me feel better.
Then a Killers song comes on on my iTunes, and he asks me if I have all three albums. I manage to reclaim my computer, pull up my iTunes, and show him, that, yes, in fact, I do.
He's impressed.
I don't care.
Finally, Mackenzie comes back....but she's on her cell phone, so she doesn't realize the full scope of the situation, and goes back out into the hall to talk on the phone. Now he's just standing by my desk, because I've shut the computer. So I go over to the window, and just look out. For like three mintues. With my back to him. Not saying anything. Ignoring him.
He just keeps standing there, so I keep cleaning things up, although there isn't much to clean up anymore. I lean against my bed and stare at the ground. I sigh a few times.
He keeps standing by my desk, occasionally asking a random question, the responses to which I keep as short as possible. For about the next 15 minutes, I keep looking out the window, or sighing, or leaning against my bed, and talking as little as possible. He doesn't get it.
I'm actually fairly incredibly frustrated at this point, because I'm used to dealing with people who have some sense of subtlety, which he is clearly lacking, and I have no idea how to get rid of him without being mean. The idea of just walking out occurred to me, but I didn't want to just leave him in there with all of Mackenzie and I's stuff. Also, I imagine, he might just hang around until I got back. So I didn't leave.
Then he walks over to my dresser, where there's a Robert Jordan book. (For those of you not familiar, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has 12 books, all between 700ish and 1000ish pages. It's quite a good series, and I would recommend reading them.) We had had a brief conversation about those books earlier, (when he was looking for Mackenzie at some other time), because he's apparently read some of them- but he said it took him almost an entire year to read the series, and he didn't even finish. So he picks it up, and says, "Oh, I'm glad you're still on this one. It would have been depressing if you had finished it in just a week." Generally, I finish in 4 or so days, but I had been busy. He opens to the inside back, where the 'about the author' section is. He bends the cover back all the way to do so.
This book is about as old as me, and has been read many times. It isn't in the best of shape. And he's freaking bending the cover back. So I took it from him.
Then he goes over to the window, and asks, "Do you guys have a fan in your room?"
There is clearly no fan. Anywhere in the room.
"No, but it stays cool, because our window is always open"
"Oh, why do you keep it open all the time?"
"It doesn't shut."
"Oh, really? you should get that fixed." He stands there eyeing the window, as though that will fix it somehow. I say, "Yeah, I've sent in the work order already."
"And they haven't fixed it yet?"
No shit, sherlock.
So while he's still at the window, I take the opportunity to go to the door and silently beg Josh for help again. But he still doesn't get it. So I continue to ignore the guy, sigh, pace, etc. He goes back over to stand by my desk.
"So, what kind of games do you play?" he asks. Uh....didn't I already go through this?
"I don't really play that many video or computer games."
"Not computer games. What kind of board or card games do you play?"
I think of one that I figure he'll have never heard of:
"I play some Whist sometimes"
"Whist? I don't know how to play..."
A brief ray of hope..."Yeah, my brother learned in Belgium," I say.
"...but my parents play that game a lot," he finishes.
Crap.
"So what kind of board games do you play?" he asks
"Um, I don't really play games that much"
"Well, do you know how to play cribbage?"
"...yes..."
"Oh! Really? Wow! Cool! Hey, I have a cribbage board in my room! Let me go get it really quick!"
Crapcrapcrap.
"No, no, I'm probably going to go to bed pretty soon"
"Oh, well, we could probably get a quick game in- when are you going to bed?"
"Pretty soon" (fake yawn)
"Well, it would only take like half an hour"
"No, no, I'm kind of winding down for the night"
Mackenzie comes back in, and I silently communicate the situation. I really don't like being mean to people, but I had no idea what to do. I was really, really frustrated. When he isn't looking, she says, very very quietly to me (under the guise of still being on the phone) "Just tell him you're going to bed. Grab your stuff and leave." Now that she's in the room, I feel comfortable doing this. So I grab my toothbrush and toothpaste, and say, "Yeah, I have to get ready for bed."
"Well, we can always play tomorrow," he says. "My last class ends at 12, I think"
"Hmm...I'm pretty sure I have an afternoon class, so I don't know if that'll work. I don't know what time the class is, though."
"Well, when you get out of class, give me a call."
Uh......NO.
So I start heading out the door...
"Oh!" he says, "I forgot to add you on Facebook. What's your last name?"
"Oh, don't worry about it." I say, "I can just look you up later."
(I CAN, but i'm certainly not going to)
I leave. And take longer than is really necessary in brushing my teeth. When I come back, he's gone (thank god)
It's fricking 10:15.
Yes, he was there for AN HOUR AND A HALF.

I was talking to Brian on iChat later that evening, and told him the story, and he said that if I gave him the signal, he would give me a rescue phone call (the signal either being a quick text or instant message if he was on the computer)
Mackenzie and I went across the hall and filled Josh in on the basic story, and he agreed that if either of us came to the door and mouthed "help" again, that he would also give us a rescue call.

Then, the next day, I had a 9:30 class. I knew there would only be like 12 people in this particular seminar.
I didn't know that he would be one of them.
I walked in, saw him, and thought 'crap.' We all had little nametags. I turned mine away so he couldn't look me up on Facebook.
After that class, my next class was like 15 minutes later, so I went straight there. It was my Engineering Honors humanities class- there are only two of them, one in the morning (mine) and one in the afternoon. I had thought he was in the afternoon one.
I had thought wrong.
I was talking to Mackenzie, because we were all congregating outside waiting for the professor.
The guy walks up. "Oh," he says, "I didn't know you were in this class. I would have had you wait for me after the last class if I had known."
(Excuse me? You would have HAD ME wait for you? I think not.)
"Oh, yeah," I say, " I thought for some reason that you were in the afternoon section."
Then I shift and talk to Josh and his roommate, so that my back is to the guy, and so I don't have to talk to him. The professor shows up, and so the small crowd (35?) starts moving toward the door. He was fairly close to me in the crowd, maybe two or so people away, and I could see him doing the casual slow-walk to try to get to where I was. I, however, was quite aware of his not-so-sneakiness, and walked even more slowly, and kept several people between us at all times until he had to give in and go into the classroom.

Later, as I was in the middle of typing this (to hillary, the original FaceMail), guess who walks in?
"Hey, do you have 50 cents in quarters?"
"Um....I don't really think so..."
(I'm well aware that there is a small stack of coins inconspicuously placed on part of my desk, but I was hoping he wouldn't see them)
He sees them.
"How about those right there?"
"Oh, yeah, I totally forgot about them...what do you need it for?"
"Oh, I'll trade you for this 50 cents (he holds out assorted nickels and dimes), I'm just doing laundry." He starts counting it out to me.
"No, no, you don't need to. Here, here's the quarters."
"Thanks." He starts walking out, then (oh crap) turns back: "Hey, you want to play some cribbage when I'm done with laundry?"
"Uh, I'm going to eat pretty soon, I think (but, thinking ahead, before he asks to eat with me), but I don't really know what time. I have some homework I have to do, too. So, yeah....."

Anyway, that situation has mostly resolved itself by now in that Mackenzie and I have avoided him enough that he finally seems to be getting it. I really do feel bad about having to do that to someone, but in this case, I think it's a necessary evil.

Until next time,
Rianne

Just a little shot of home...

The Idea of this Blog

I am amazed by the huge variety of situations and places our group will be living in this year. Whether going to a women's college with under a thousand students...like Andrea or a university with over 60 thousand total students like me, Arizona, Colorado or Norway, we all will share some of the same fears, joys and desires to be able to tell someone our latest crazy story of dancing in a thunderstorm and making sandcastles in the volleyball court (more on that later). 

I hope this can be a place to document scattered Alaska with glimpses into our lives. 

I hope this can be a place where we can post lists of the 10 things NOT to get in the dining hall, haikus about the mold in the communal bathroom and pictures of our dorm rooms. I hope we can tell stories, share videos and maybe post music that is really applicable to us at the moment. 

I want to hear about your lives.

River and I thought this would be a good way to not have someone have to keep up all the demands of a solo blog but to work together. River, in all of his river-y awesomeness, set up this blog for us.  

Please post, please comment, please share, I want to hear.