Phonecalls From the Rice Rocket

With the heat pouring into Ithaca, and the sun up above, it truly had the makings of a great day.

Not that I would have known though. I spent the entire night reading (Seabiscuit for those of you playing the home version), and consequently began my day at 2:30 p.m. I then spent the next hour or so working up the energy to live when the phone rang. Thank God for Phonecalls.

It was Rachel, but it took me a minute to catch on in my heated state. Apparently she and Brian were headed to the gym, and she wanted to know if I was interested in tagging along. I did, and in less than 15 minutes, we were on our way.

The Rice Rocket (Rachel's car) was exceptionally hot, which is probably why Brian had his window rolled down. Of course, Rachel also had on the air conditioning. She yelled at him, I laughed. They're good people. As we drove, Brian and I both noticed that the women around campus were looking good. But we chalked it up to the weather and the fact that so many students are just visiting for the summer.

There wasn't much parking at the gym, but there really never is. Rachel parked in the corner of the lot and next to some sort of Asian car (A Mr2?), which prompted a discussion on the worst cars to buy...ever. I played along, not really knowing anything more than your basic six year old. Eventually the conversation phased out and we began to exercise.

Unless you haven't been able to see your feet in years, you probably know what happens at a Gym, and yesterday's visit was no different. Basically there are always people who lift more than you, and they always use your machine after you're done. There is nothing more degrading than watching the next person add 50 pounds, especially when it's a woman. But I like to tell myself I'm doing a lot of lifting for my build.

Though we may have left the gym after 6:30 p.m., the sun and heat were still parked outside and waiting. Brian moaned that we should have gone swimming in the gorges instead of working out, and I asked why we still couldn't. So after some discussion, we piled back into the rocket and headed down to C-Town for a little Cascadilla Gorge action.

We couldn't find a place to park. That and Rachel didn't really understand where we had to go, so eventually I shouted out, "make a right," from the back seat. We then drove down Dryden and parked behind Cascadilla.

The walk down into the gorge was beautiful, but it was also the best part of the trip. As it turned out, the water level was a bit shallow for swimming. We didn't care. We waded in anyway, and soon found ourselves skipping rocks. For some reason, skipping rocks is a bonding activity. As we all sunk our stones, Brian confessed that he had never learned how to do it beucase they didn't have rivers in Arizona. Thinking back on it, we didn't really teach him how to do it after he said that, but it was still nice to make small talk.

But that got old and we grew hungry. Climbing back out of the gorge, we examined the trail structure and figured that the old trail was much cooler than the current one. But then we got hungrier, so we made our way back to the rocket and were soon off to their apartment.

I stopped home to grab dry shorts, and I also grabbed a pack of hotdogs. If I had realized we'd be boiling them, I would have also grabbed the grill. Nonetheless, I have found that the company can be as important, if not more so, than the food; and, last night was no exception. We talked about movies, our LSAT class (Brian is in it, too), and farting contests. It was one of those things that just kind of makes you smile. Kind of like seeing a hot blonde...

Which is what we used to get Rachel to go to Hollywood Video, not that Rachel was interested. Brian actually wanted to get a movie for when his girlfriend came to visit (I got the idea she would be there later that evening, although I never asked), so I jokingly added that I could check out the hot blonde behind the counter. The joke never got old, atleast not with us. It got even funnier when she wasn't there. We headed to Wegmans afterwards, and I suggested that she might have two jobs, so maybe we would see her there. Rachel applauded my optimism in her typical fashion.

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that," she cynically said.

Wegmans was Wegmans. I got eggs, juice and yogart. Kmart, however, was a maze. There, I just got lost.

We were looking at ball pumps so Rachel could inflate her soccer ball, and as usual I saw something shiny and got distracted. When I looked up, I realized that Rachel and Brian had left the aisle and were no longer within ear shot.

Great.

There I was, stranded in the aisles of Kmart. And the sporting goods section at that. Atleast they sold guns, so I could have survived if I was stranded. I felt like I was eight again (only this time it wasn't an Austrian supermarket), and nervously began to wander the aisles in search of the pair. All I could think about was how I was holding them up, and I didn't want to make them mad. They were, afterall, nice enough to feed me and cart my ass all over town with them. They were like family, but I feared I might have been wearing thin.

It must have just been the agent orange talking. My paranoia was absolved when I saw the two of them. They hadn't spent anytime looking for me, they were just finishing up their wandering. I was laughing when they finally walked up to me. Brian wanted to know what was so funny, and I told him I thought I was lost. I was unable, however, to transfer the emotions of the moment. I didn't care.

We went back and I ended up in the apartment. The kiddos had just polished off a delivery order from Wings Over Ithaca (good, but not quite Classic Pizza standards). They asked if I wanted some, but I told them I already ate. From the common room came a "good," and I heard Graham reach for the remaining wings. I didn't care, I just went about my business.

It turned out that the gang split up after that. Jason had a problem set, Kajsa had girl things to do, and Graham was going to watch Apollo 13. I really wanted to play Clue, but couldn't find anyone else besides Matt Nagowski . I ended up going with Graham to watch Apollo 13 instead.

Dan Sunshine had rented the projector from the engineering library, so we were watching in style. There was just one problem. We didn't have the movie.

When we arrived, the first thing they told us was to go get the movie. I thought we were headed back home (Graham owns it on video), but instead we went to C-Town Video. It didn't make sense to me, but they were engineers. Of course, when C-Town Video only had VHS, we had to go get our copy. But we also had to get our VCR. It turned out that for all of Ben's fancy AV equipment, he didn't own a VCR. I suppose nobody' perfect.

We grabbed our VCR and were all ready to go, but forgot. A tape was stuck in there. Two weeks ago, Jason and I watched the African Children's Choir, and never bothered to eject the tape. I guess Kajsa was having a party a few weeks later and found the tape wedged inside. As a result, we hadn't used the VCR in ages, and now it looked as though we were going to have to perform minor surgery.

Graham and I broke things down visually first. It didn't help. There weren't any moving levers that seemed to jam up the tape, and pressing random parts down didn't help either. Jason came out and couldn't understand why we just didn't accept the fact that it was stuck and watch the African Children's choir. In his mind, they were clearly superior. But he's also a Met's fan.

Just when I was running frantically around looking for a screwdriver, Graham started smacking the VCR. I yelled at him to stop, and when I did, the tape fell out. I was speechless. But it didn't matter, we were soon on our way.

The movie was uneventful, and afterwards I came back home to check up on my fantasy league. I'm currenly winning 7-3, but am marginally holding onto home runs. I own RBI, but he has runs. I need to keep this 7-3 to do some real damage, but a 6-4 would still be a win nonetheless. Hopefully my team's batting average pulls around. Then I can keep it 7-3 (or possibly make it 8-2).

I soon got ready for bed. 7:00 a.m., and the Polar bear swim club would greet me all too soon.

-- Today's Random Thought --

Two people from Lancaster visited yesterday. It's nice to know someone back home cares. Oh, and the offer is still open to anyone from back home to come and visit. It has been for two years.

The gorges are calling, and with a car (I'm assuming you won't come by camel), we can go see some of the waterfalls in the area. They are amazing.

But so is the roof of the Ag quad...