Saturday, September 29, 2012

Week 5 Adult Memoir, Audience

"Don't lose these," the coach said. "We can't let anyone find our signs. Make sure to memorize them, then tear it up, eat it, I don't care, don't let anyone else get them."

***

I walked back into the dugout to get my bag. Mine was the only one still there, everyone else had gotten theirs. As I picked it up, I noticed a piece of paper on the bench. I picked it up, checked to make sure that it was not mine. It was not.

***

I thought of asking if anyone was missing theirs so as to not get anyone in trouble, but several players had left already, and the others were signing papers with one of the coaches, so I could not ask if anyone had left theirs very well with the coaches there.

***

I went up to the other coach.

"Have you signed the papers yet?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied, "This was in the dugout."

"Oh, you saved someone's ass!" he exclaimed. "We'll find out who left it next practice." It was said in a nice tone, even though the words might not sound that way. I knew that they would handle it well.

***

I ended up getting to the next practice late. But at one point the coach was going over bunt defenses.

"Have you read the signs Joe?" he asked.

"Oh, I think I left it in the dugout-" he started.

"SHH!" a bunch of players said.

"You left it where?" the coach asked.

"He left it in his room," another player corrected.

"That's what I thought he said," the coach replied.

Week 4 Voice childhood memoir

I have always had difficulty with heat. Whenever it is hot, I always prefer to stay inside. When I get sick, I often get high fevers. About eight or nine times I have had fevers of 105. When I went to New Jersey to play baseball for a tournament I had difficulty withstanding the heat and humidity.

On the other hand, I have no problem with cold. Whenever I wash my hands, I always use cold water. I have not worn anything long sleeved except for baseball in two years. Last winter, I never wore a coat or a long sleeved shirt at all, which concerned my mother.

So it is no surprise that I like colder classrooms over warmer ones. Unfortunately, EMCC does not really let the students pick.

Over three semesters, I took three math classes with one teacher. Algebra in my first semester, Calculus in my third, and Calculus II in my fourth. The classroom however, was not always to my liking, even if the teacher was. The classroom always was kept very hot. In the really steamy days, the teacher would turn on a  fan, which helped a bit. But the fluorescent lights would bother me also, combined with the heat.

One time, I went in to take a test, confident and remembering everything. He talked for a few minutes, and I could feel the heat begin to get to me. As he finally was handing out the tests my head was hurting a lot. I always have headaches, there is not a day I don't have one to some degree, but this was one of the really bad ones, induced by the heat and fluorescent lights. By the time I got my test, and I looked at it, everything that I had so carefully remembered was forgotten. I had pretty much instantaneously lost all my short term memory. I could not remember anything very well. I was only able to remember how to do one of the problems, and many times I vision would fade, and I would be about to lose consciousness, and it would come back. I worked through the test as well as I could anyhow, because he would not like to have me see it, then he would have to make another one for me to do later.

I finally exited the class, once outside, able to think a little clearly, fully expecting the worst, as it was easier to do that. I thought that it was possible that I might get something like a thirty on the test. His tests were extremely hard because he would add things to it that we had never seen before, and expect us to figure it out. I was generally happy with an eighty, and made it up by getting a hundred on all of the homework. But fortunately for me, everyone else had difficulty with the test as well, and many got worse scores than I did. So the teacher took the square roots of everyone's grades, mine was a 54, and ended up with a 73, which I was okay with.

I ended up on the course with my first A- ever, but I was okay with that. It was Calculus after all.

But I found the other extreme when I was taking an Ethics class. It was a new classroom, still smelling new inside. And after a couple of classes I realized that they kept the room at a pretty cold temperature. I noticed this because another person in the class asked me a question "Aren't you cold?"

Considering that everyone else were wearing their coats and sweaters in the classroom, I was very happy. It felt perfect to me. Especially considering how the last semester I had dealt with the Calculus room.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Week 3 Travel Tone

I walked down through the campus. There was a large tent in the middle of the grass, but it did not look like anywhere the baseball team would be at.

Our team was going to have a table somewhere on the campus during "harvest day", (Such a misnomer, nothing gets harvested), and all of the players were supposed to get there at some time, and stand at the table. But of course, I had neglected to ask the coach where we were going to have the table, so I was left wandering the campus looking for it.

I went into Katahdin Hall, as he had said that everyone would have to go right by us to get food. But no one was there either. I decided that I could go up to the library, and check my email to see if the coach had remembered that he had not told anyone where the table was going to be, and realized that that would make it rather difficult for anyone to find it.

I went up the stairs, getting some Purell from the wall dispenser as I passed by. I went into the computer area in the library, and it looked like a couple of weeks after the semester had ended. There were only four people there, and one of them was wearing a blue hat with a yellow brim, precisely like mine. I went over and took the computer next to my teammate.

"Oh, hey," he said. He was apparently typing a paper for a class.

"Hey Doug," I responded.

I figured that I would give it a minute before asking him if he knew where the table would be. But he turned to me instead.

"Do you know where that table is?"

"No, I don't," I replied. "I've been looking for it."

"I have too, and I haven't seen anything. People will probably be there at noon though."

"They said that they would be here at ten."

Doug picked up his cell phone. "I'll text him."

He texted the coach, and continued typing his paper, while I proceeded to look busy by opening and closing various things such as my email, Blackboard, and Myemcc.

"The coach says it's in the gym, they're still getting set up."

"I should have thought of that," I said.

"I'll probably be down there at noon," he said.

"Okay, see you there."

I walked around the campus to the gym, and I went inside. Inside, there were large inflatable things, but no yellow and blue hats that I could see. I turned, and in the information window just inside the door was my coach, talking with the coach of the basketball team. He called me over eventually to show the basketball coach our new EMCC baseball shirts, and then I waited, while a bunch of people were walking about. There were a few too many people for me, and the coach did not seem like he was needing help with a table, and would have said something if they had had one, I was pretty sure. And they were still setting up stuff, so I decided that I would come back at noon, when I knew that Doug at least would be there.

I travelled across the campus back to the library, and met Doug coming out.

"Are you heading over there now?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"There's no one there yet. I saw the coach, but there isn't a single other person there."

"Do they have a table set up yet?" Doug asked.

"No, they don't seem to have anything set up yet."

"It's only 11:30," Doug said, "Yeah, I think I'll wait 'til noon."

"I probably will as well," I said. "See you."

I went into the library, still a little overwhelmed by too many people, and I went to the corner and read part of Stephen King's "On Writing" book, as I had nothing else to do. I turned on a computer to check the time. It was noon. I went back to the gym, and now there were a ton of people trying to get in. The line for the information window with my coach in it extended out the doors of the gym and outside.

I slipped past it, and saw that my coach was busy giving out harvest day shirts to people. I figured that we must have a table somewhere, but I was having difficulty thinking because they were playing very loud music, intolerably loud.

"Hi Tomas!"

"Oh, hi."

It was one of the softball players. Our baseball team had ridden down on the bus with the softball team for our first games a couple of weeks ago.

"Are you looking for something?" she asked.

"I'm looking for the baseball team. I have no idea where they are."

"I don't either," she said.

It was almost impossible to hear anyone, and I had an awful headache. I always have a headache to some degree, but the loud music and heat was killing me.

I decided that I should just ask my coach where our table was, but the line of people extending back into the parking lot discouraged me from it. I finally just hurried outside, and escaped from all of it.

I was on the point of just giving up and just waiting in the library until my mother returned when the assistant coach drove up and honked his horn at me.

"Where is the table we're having for the harvest day?" he asked from his truck.

"It's supposed to be in the gym," I said, "But I can't find it anywhere."

He drove on, and I followed, walking. I figured that if I followed the coach, that I couldn't be missing my duty of being at a table. Once inside, he turned to me.

"Have you seen anyone else here?"

"The coach was in the window, and I know someone else was coming at noon."

But the coach was no longer at the window, so the assistant coach just wandered about, looking for a table. The speakers for the music were right on the floor, under the basketball hoop. And standing remotely near them, it was the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life. It was not even music, just a crushing cacophony of sound ripping through my head. I could only stand it if I were at the other end of the gym. Nicki Minaj, Owl City, Taio Cruz, Sean Paul, and Michael Jackson- at that volume- all sounded exactly the same.

I made sure not to be too close to the coach though, or to let him out of my sight. Putting a tail on a coach is what I am really good at. Tolerating ridiculously loud club music- not so much.

"I thought we were supposed to have a table," I said to the coach at one point.

"I thought we were too, I don't know," the assistant coach responded.

Eventually, after we had wandered for several minutes, the head coach returned to the window, and the assistant coach met him there. After they talked for a minute, the head coach motioned me to come over, and gave me a harvest day shirt.

"You never got one of these, why not?" he asked.

Considering that for a while through all of this I had been near the point of collapse, my head that had heard too much ear crushing Nicki Minaj, could not come up with any sort of response.

I went back away from the window with the assistant coach.

"So there's no table?" I asked.

"No, no table. And there's no requirement to stay," he said.

So I walked out with the shirt. Which, with everything else going on, was the last thing on my mind- but close to my permanent loss of hearing.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Week 2 Coherence

My grandmother walked over to me.

"I would invite you in to see them, but they are not dressed yet."

She led my mother in to see my grandmother's friends, Nita and Suzie. The first I had heard of them together was when they went on a road trip across the U.S. in an RV a couple of years ago.

They entered the rented room, where Suzie was getting things ready, and Nita was still in her nightgown eating a sticky bun.

"Oh, hi!" she said, "Come in, I'm just eating one of Jean's cookies."

They talked for a moment.

"I think I should get out of bed soon," Nita said, "I wonder what I should wear?"

"Clothes," Suzie replied.

"Yes, that sounds good," Nita replied.

"Better than that saran wrap you wore yesterday. People stared."

Events such as this pointed out to me how much they remind me of Rinehart's Tish, Lizzie, and Aggie, three middle aged women who have adventures together.

Nita walked over and entered our car.

"Hi!" she said, "I've seen you a lot in the pictures."

Felicia commented about how it has not been picnic weather.

"Yes," Nita replied, "But I prefer eating inside anyhow. Away from all the ants. And uncles. Oh, I'm going to love you, you haven't heard all of my old jokes."

We reached the restaurant, and got out of the car.

"Suzie and Jean aren't here yet," my mother said, "They should be here soon-"

We turned around, and Nita was already off into the restaurant. We hurried in after her.

"Table for seven," my mother said.

"Six," I corrected.

"That will be just a minute," the cashier said.

We stood off to the side so that people could get by us, and Nita found an empty seat to sit down in next to us, with her back to someone else. We stood waiting, and then my grandmother entered.

"You should come in a little farther," Felicia said to her.

She moved in closer to us, smushing me between her, my mother, and a vending machine. We stood like that, with me on one foot, until they got a table.

Nita sat at the end because she was claustrophobic. My grandmother sat across from me, and Suzie sat across from Nita.

Suzie was interesting. She had long grey hair, and was definitely the youngest of the three, looking to be in her sixties. She reminded me a lot of Aggie from Rinehart's books. Aggie was always having things happen to her, like losing her false teeth, or falling over.

Suzie, on their rv trip, refused to sit down. She wanted to stand up. As a result, when they had to stop suddenly, she was hurled into the table, snapping a leg off of it. She was okay, though her back was sore from it. Upon hearing this story from my mother, I had said, "Well, at least she didn't break a leg- oh wait, she did."

Suzie ordered pancakes and eggs, and was disappointed that I wasn't going to help her eat them, as if I didn't help her, she was afraid she would eat them all herself. Which she did.

My grandmother stretched out her feet the whole time, so I kept my feet under my seat, which was almost where hers were. She reminds me a good bit of Tish from Rinehart's book. Tish is more of the leader of the group who decides to do things, some of which she probably shouldn't do, but once she determines to do something, she won't give up. She had not driven during the drive across the country because she was too slow. Tish was a very fast driver. My grandmother is a very slow driver, but a safe driver. But apparently not the safest talker. In I believe New Mexico, at a restaurant, Suzie took the piece of paper that covers up the straw, and stuck it up her nose. My grandmother was so surprised that she swore by accident. Swearing by accident was always something Aggie did, but I would have to say that Tish shares more characteristics with my grandmother.

But they had lots of fun with the straws then, which led to this day in the restaurant:

"Where are the straws?" Suzie asked, and they all fell to laughing.

Nita went out to take a cigarette.

"I'm down to one a day," she said. "I've quit tons of times. I'm an expert quitter."

"You must also be an expert starter," I said.

"We don't talk about that part," she replied.

Nita needed to brush her teeth, so we went back to their apartment, and she brushed her teeth, also showing us a stuffed bear who had accidentally come with them.

"It jumped in the bag. No jewelry is safe from it. It steals it all."

Suzie's ipad was not connecting to the internet, and despite not having never used an ipad before, I assisted her in figuring out what was wrong with it. Suzie was very good with computers, which would be another difference from Aggie, as Aggie lived in the early twentieth century.

Suzie was very happy she was on the internet again. We left to my grandmother's apartment, and on getting out, Nita borrowed my arm, to walk to the building.

Nita is about 84, and lively for her age having just recently had surgery. She seems to be the one who compares the most to Rinehart's character Lizzie, in that she is a little more normal, but she shares features of the other characters as well. It was the first time I had ever leant my arm to someone, and it was a little different.

"Make a muscle," she said. "Come on legs."

She was panting a bit, so I asked her if she wanted to rest for a minute.

"Oh no, I'm fine. I'll make it. I'll just pant a lot, like this."

She started gasping really heavily on purpose.

"Come on legs."

We reached my grandmother's apartment, and Nita sat down in a chair. Suzie showed us her iphone's radar application, that showed that the rain had just passed over us.

Nita requested a sculpted bear that she had made out of wood that she had apparently given to my grandmother at some point. I retrieved it for her, and she looked at it.

"What is it supposed to be?" Suzie asked.

"It's a medicine bear," Suzie replied. "It helps you when you don't feel good."

"Does it help mentally ill people like me?" Suzie asked.

"Maybe not for a case so severe as yours."

Suzie went on to tell us about how her husband had been accumulating cats. He had found one that was not doing too well, then found another one. He had named them all and could not go away too long or he would be afraid the cats would get hungry.

"My husband doesn't have any cats," Nita said, "We just have each other," hugging herself.

"Oh, isn't that nice," Suzie said.

"But he isn't that good in bed," Nita added, "Oops! I didn't say that!"

We were sitting on the couch, Nita was at a chair at the table, and Suzie was in a chair next to the couch. Nita was still gasping pretty badly, and my grandmother offered her something to drink.

"No, I'll be fine. I just need to rest."

"You could rest on the couch, you could lay down on it."

"No thanks," Nita replied, "All those legs would be bumpy. I could just lay down here on the table with my medicine bear."

We said good bye, and they went off to do some shopping, then to go whale watching the next day. And I was left with material for my english assignment, and memories of a very interesting trifecta.