Monday Monday so Good to Me
Mondays: you either hate them or you really hate them. Just like gender and sexuality, I don’t believe in such a polarizing angsty Monday-themed binary. For me and “The Mamas and the Papas”, Monday is “so good to me” and “all I hoped it would be”. To redeem Monday’s status, let’s go on a journey chronicling a (Mon)day in the life of one Jose Palmer.
“I woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head”. Beatles nostalgia and references aside, I proceed to shower whilst singing classic rock songs with my good friend and hallmate Ned. On this particular morning, we achieve an objectively amazing harmony on “House of the Rising Sun”. As a point of clarification, Ned is in another shower stall. I’m not THAT good of friends with him…yet.
After all is sung and done, I realize it is 10:03 and digital logic starts at 10:10. I run back to my room, throw on some clothes, bike like a madman to the campus store to pick up my daily Kombucha tea, and book it to class. I arrive at 10:14, during that awkward period where I’m too late to be unnoticed and still too early to be considered fashionably late. I hate being late to digital logic especially because our awesome hippie-turned-professor professor always starts class with a classic rock staple and explains its origins. In fact, one time he dedicated one lesson to one digital system in particular – the guitar amp. It quickly devolved (or evolved depending on your perspective) into him playing guitar for half an hour. Case in point, he’s an awesome dude.
Between class, I pass by “The Wall” with my pink-shirted friend Floyd where student orgs always gather to vie for attention. Today, I buy a refreshing, homemade boba tea from VUCA, talk up the UCat peeps, and get free Ben & Jerry’s after signing SPEARs petition regarding the EPAs regulations on carbon emissions. With ice cream cone in tow, I hurry on to my favorite class of the day and the semester: CS201 (Abstract Data Structures).
The class is taught by Dr. Roth, the legendary professor who made me the man I am today. In all seriousness, after taking his CS101 class, I was hooked on computer science and changed my career goals. If you think I’m a CS-junkie, wait until you meet Professor Roth. He sometimes dances in class and excitedly tells us that soon we’ll be dreaming about particularly sexy pieces of code. He enthusiastically introduces us to our newest programming assignment by blasting Barracuda’s “Heart”; we are to develop software that reverses sound files and use it to uncover a hidden message. He eagerly plays “Heart” backwards and encourages us to do the same with “Stairway to Heaven” to hear its hidden satanic meaning.
Aside: the hidden message turned out to be “O_o ecnatropmiH neddih evah srevoh knilrepyh naties liah ufot evol i”. Note: That gibberish wasn’t the actual secret message for purposes of academic integrity.
Anyways, I had intended to write one post about this aMazing Monday, but alas I am too longwinded and only halfway done. At this rate, this post will end up being over 1000 words. (WHAT?! ONE THOUSAND?!) In the interest of continued readership, I will end here and pick up where I left off next time. Catch ya on the flip side!