A Completely Ordinary Day

If the title of this post hasn't scared you away yet, then keep reading, because I promise that my clever word play, dastardly witticisms, and florid adjectives will keep you on your toes until the very end. I hope. I mean, I am an English major, so I think I know how to spin a tale or two or five. Anyway, read on about my plain, completely ordinary day!

Like most people, I began the day by being jolted awake at 9 A.M. by the rudimentary buzz of my cell phone alarm clock. "Blast!" I thought to myself as I stretched myself out on the tan and blue sheets of my bed (which isn't actually mine; I'm just a lowly sub-letter [who still needs to pay the utility bill, OOPS!]). I considered skipping class today because I had a horrendous headache, which was obviously caused by a hangover since I drank last night because I drink every night since I'm a borderline-alcoholic (otherwise known as a "college student"). That last sentence was not true, sans for the portion about the headache. I really did have a headache that felt similar to lighting bolts constantly flashing inside my head. I WAS NOT HUNGOVER (you can stop worrying now, Mom). (Unrelated, I feel like I'm using a lot of parenthetical asides. Oh, well. Story of my overly-verbose-English-major life). Anyway, after contemplating drilling something into my temples to get rid of the pain, I crawled out of bed, hobbled over to the kitchen in a blinded fog, took two Aleve, and hoped for clear-headedness by the time I made it to class. Turning around and past the corner of my apartment's little hallway, I made it to the bathroom. I didn't throw up! Now do you believe me when I say I wasn't hungover? I hope so. So, standing there in the bathroom in just my boxer briefs, I flashed my pearly whites at myself in the mirror. Damn, I look good! The MV Explorer won't know whats hit it when I board! But really. To keep those teeth lookin' so fresh, so clean (thanks OutKast), I had to brush. Two minutes of vigorous up and down and side to side movements later, I spat and smiled again. SWOON! Apparently, all of this took longer than I thought, so when I looked at the clock, it was 9:26 A.M. Shit! Class is in four minutes and I'm still in just my underwear! Now, I knew the four girls in my class certainly wouldn't mind if I showed up in (almost) the buff, but they're in high school, and 16/17-year old girls aren't really my steez, so I used my better judgment and threw on some clothes. Out the door at 9:27, I scurried up Cache La Poudre St towards Pikes Peak in a failed attempt to make it to Armstrong for class by 9:30. Didn't happen. Instead, I sauntered into class, as cool and collected as I possibly could, at a solid 9:36. My professor didn't seem to care, so I didn't either. The next two and a half hours was class, so I fed my SAS-addiction further by researching some more about my ports of call...I mean, I was attentive and made excellent points about the dualities found in Peter Pan, as well as the nature of the character of Wendy in relation to the men in the story. Those high school chicks sure wish I showed up naked at this point. "Smart AND sexy AND studying in college? SAM IS PERFECT!" were on their minds during class today, I'm sure, but not really; I just wanted to use some cool alliteration. 

After class let up at Noon, I quickly walked up Tejon St to Central Services to see if I had any mail. Nothing! No letters, no packages, no fan mail, not even a love note. Shucks. Dejected, I walked to the Library to learn how to do a screen capture on a computer from a film for my paper that I have to write for tomorrow. 0 words down, 1,000 to go. Turns out, I already knew how since it's the same as it is on my laptop.  Winning! Realizing I had no reason to be there anymore, I blazed out of the Library. Lately, I've been feeling pretty antsy about my visas and passport. I sent them a while ago, shouldn't Pinnacle Travel Document Services be done processing them? I called them to see what was up. A receptionist picked up, but failed to connect me to the proper person. Annoyed, I walked home to my apartment. I was wearing a tank top, so the sun beat down on my pasty white shoulders, meaning I'll hopefully have some kind of tan soon. Or I'll probably end up looking like a raw lobster. Sup, Skin Cancer!?

I made it to my door and noticed a little slip of paper hanging on the side. It was from FedEx. Somebody came by with a package for me while my roommates and I were out this morning. At first, I wondered what somebody might have sent to me. A letter? A package? Fan mail? A love note? I began calling some friends with the request of driving me to the FedEx location on the slip, a ten minute drive up by Garden of the Gods. After a few failed attempts, I finally got in touch with the one, the only, Mr. Zachary Luna. I explained my plight to Zach and inquired about a ride, to which he obliged. How kind of him! He picked me up a little while later, and the two of us set off on an adventure in the big bad world of non-CC Bubble/Downtown Colorado Springs. WE WERE ATTACKED BY FOCUS ON THE FAMILY! AHHHH! Okay, not true. The drive was really short, actually, but biking there would've probably ended with me in the hospital with several broken bones. Upon arrival, Zach and I meandered inside. I showed my shiny new Colorado drivers license, signed a form, and waited for the mystery package to be brought to me. When the nice lady brought it out, I noticed the label in the corner. It read "Pinnacle Travel Document Services" and came from a Washington, D.C. address. This could only mean one thing: MY VISAS FOR GHANA, INDIA, AND CHINA, AND MY PASSPORT HAD ARRIVED!!!!!!!! The clerk must've noticed it came from a travel service, so she asked if I was going anywhere fun. I humbly responded "Everywhere. Canada, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Hawai'i, Costa Rica, the Panama Canal, Cuba, and Florida." She was impressed. Zach and I left the store, and as soon as the automatic doors shut behind me, I let out an uninhibited scream of pure joy and excitement. I tore open the package and took out my passport, now filled with the visas of Ghana, India, and China, and held it tightly in my hand for the entire trip home. I returned home feeling victorious, but then I remembered something: I still have 1,000 words to write by tomorrow. Damn.

One month until the adventure officially begins!

There's a picture of and signature from 16-year old Sam. Things have improved since.

How's Your Aspen?

Mine's great, thank you. In fact, so great that I wish I could've spent just a little bit longer in my lovely mountain home. I left early this morning to go to another SAS-related event: a "Bon Voyage/Welcome Home" Reception for students and alumni. There were six Fall 2011 students there, myself included, and, yeah, you guessed it, ALL NERVOUS. Whatev. We're gonna be a-okay. Anyway, ASPEN. I miss it! Yeah, so what if it's a postcard? So what if isn't a real place that's consistent with the rest of reality? So what if I sold Felicity Huffman chocolate last summer (she's SO nice)? IT'S MY HOME, DAMMIT, AND I HAD A GREAT WEEKEND VISITING. I did (almost) all of my favorite things with (almost) all of my favorite people, and I can't wait to be back in August before leaving for Canada.

Is it really home, though? I mean, the majority of my time these days is spent in Colorado Springs, land of the Religious Right, locale to a United States Military installation on all sides of the city, home of gap-toothed homeless drug addicts. Okay, stereotypes aside, the Springs is nice...for a time. Perhaps I'm being cynical. Perhaps I'm jaded. Or perhaps I'm rambling. Pontifications on my aforementioned aside aside (ha), I spend most of my days here in the Springs, but I pay taxes in Pitkin County and have an Aspen address. I grew up in Virginia, though, and I'm going there on Friday (!!!) for my best friend's birthday. That will always be home. Really, though, what is home? What is the concept of home? I feel like I'm getting too abstract and/or metaphysical for this blog, but it's my blog, so for all you logic-y types, I apologize, but you can go look elsewhere for a blog more based in reality, cause goodness knows I am not the most pragmatic thinker in the world.

I'm wondering about home because as Semester at Sea looms ever closer on the proverbial horizon, I expect it will shift my perception even further. Maybe I'll be even more illogical after the voyage is over! I'll try not to be, though, because I'm not sure if I could completely handle that. I don't even know what I'm talking about at this point. I'm really hungry. 

HUNGRY. Also, minimal chest hair exposure. More underneath the shirt. GOD, SAM, YOU'RE SUCH A TEASE. But really.

New Layout!

Hey, goons! I mean, readers! Yeah! Y'all are readers. That is, if anybody still checks this, because I'm certain my entries are far less exciting since I'm not traveling at the moment. I bet my mom is reading this. Hi, Mom! We just talked on the phone. It was nice.


Anyway! Look at my blog! There's a new layout! And if you look over to the side, you can see a little tool where you can enter your e-mail address that lets you subscribe to my blog in order to receive updates as I write entries. Neat-o! Isn't technology just great?


That's pretty much it. I mean, I could talk to you about Human Sexual Behavior since I finished it yesterday, but that could get very inappropriate very fast, so I'll spare all of you the salacious details. 


44 days, folks! 


P.S. I've edited the settings on here so that anybody can leave a comment now. I wasn't aware I had it so only people with blogs on here could. Somebody should leave me a comment on this so I know it works. C'mon. Humor me here. Make me feel like I actually have friends. That'd be nice.

Lunch, Dinner, and Shots

No, not shots as in alcohol. Shots as in immunizations. Five of them. Polio, Japanese Encephalitis, Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A, and Rabies. On Friday. My arms hurt. They're worth it, though, because now I won't be turned away from the ship and/or any of the countries we go to! I also got pills for Typhoid and a prescription for Malaria medication. I hope that covers all the possible diseases that I could get! I'd really rather not come back to the USA with some kind of weird incurable sickness from Southeast Asia, or something.


Last Saturday, I spent the day with other SAS students and alumni. I woke up and hitched a ride with my friend to Boulder and ate at Red Lion, a well-known (and very tasty) restaurant in Boulder Canyon. While I was there, I met two other people I'm sailing with this fall! 

There were also speakers, a band, and some games outside. At the end of the event, I got a world map for my room. Looking at it and mapping out where I am going is quickly becoming my favorite activity. After lunch was over, I hitched a ride with one of my new friends into Boulder, met my friend at her work, enjoyed some ice cream, and walked to the bus stop so I could make it to Denver for dinner. While I was waiting, two other guys met up with me and we all bussed down together. Once we got to Denver, we walked to Rock Bottom Brewery on 16th Street Mall for dinner and enjoyed a nice meal together. There were a total of 6 of us, all from different places and schools (except for two from CSU in Fort Collins), and despite not having known one another at the beginning of the night, we ended up staying and talking and sharing stories and laughing for somewhere around 3 hours. It was easily one of the best meals I've had all summer. Afterwards, we all parted ways and I bussed back alone to the Springs, falling asleep in my seat thinking about how this fall continues to loom closer and closer on the horizon.

From these two events, I realized there are REAL people (not just Facebook profiles) in the exact same boat as me (pun somewhat intended). We're all nervous, we're all anxious, we're all scared, and we're all more excited than we ever have been before. It'll be nice to legitimately know some people upon arrival to Montréal, which will be on August 22 for me!  Summer is ticking away, which I usually would be upset about, but in this case, it's totally fine. I never thought I would say that and actually believe it. First time for everything, I suppose!