Appreciation and Surviving

I'm still alive.
Barely.
It's not the 60+ pages of reading per class that has me down, or the assignments in Algebra (on the contrary, I find most of the reading riviting and the algebra slightly fun because it's easy-so far), and I can't begin to say how much fun I have learning to respond to other people's writing in Advanced Writing. No, it's not my classes that have me flinching in fear.
They are hairy, they are small, and the arctic pressure wash inside is almost painful. It's the showers.  I'm not a germaphobe. I've never flung to the side of a mud hole in soccer and I've considered dust bunnies my friend. I'll play with my cats and dog and eat a sandwich after, without washing my hands. But this is a different matter. It's other people's hair. Long hair, blond hair, red hair, moose hair on the shower wall practically lines the tiles. And refuses to wash away. I spend a quarter of my allotted time staring into the dark space, fighting to overcome the urge to not shower for my urge to feel hygienic. Though thinking I'll feel hygienic after a shower in there seems to be counterproductive. I spend another half of my time trying to fling enough water at the walls so I can see stop feeling like the walls are lined in fur rather than tile. I have seen the janitor in the bathrooms, his bright yellow sign warning that he is in there and we are not to enter. So I have to assume that he cleans the showers at least some of the time. So does the hair grow back? Or do the girls sense the tiles are finally clean and rush forth to make it otherwise? Needless to say, going home this last weekend was amazing. I've never missed a clean shower so much. I will never ever take advantage of a shower without hair ever again.

I'll be posting a piece I wrote for Advanced Writing soon, after I edit it. My professor didn't want to rush through it in the 6 minutes we had left because he said "it's too good to rush through." I took this as a sign that he didn't hate it. Score one. Now I have to brave my armor for Wednesday's read through and listening to what people thought. I've never had to do that before, aside from kids in my Literary Arts class vague "Yeah, that was good." This group seems a bit hardcore. It's going to be interesting.

Time to get back to work: 60 pages of reading for one class, several more for another, studying to do in astronomy, a math assignment to do, and a 'personality quiz' to take for my FYE class. Should be fun!