Week 12 Prompt II

60. I held you in my arms.

"Tom, would you like to go next?"

"Sure."

I took the evaluation form to the teacher, then returned to collect my laptop. I turned and faced the audience.

"Mitch." I called. "Mitch!"

He heard me the second time, and looked up.

"How do I plug this in?" I asked, gesturing at the laptop.

"To the projector?" he asked, coming up.

"Yes. I have no idea."

"Do you have a port for it?"

"Yes."

He plugged it in, and I started my speech. At the beginning of the semester an 8-10 minute speech would have sounded impossible, but now, it went a little quickly. I was doing Geographic Information Systems, one of my favorite subjects. I was showing how to manoeuver about in ArcGIS 10. I realized from the person holding up the time cards in the back that I was running out of time. So I hurried to show some functions. I show how to clip, then I realize that I am at ten minutes or so, so I hurry to show the finished product by turning the huge TIN layers on.

And the TIN's freeze the computer.

I fiddle with it, and get the time to explain that the TIN's are over a gigabyte and a half size for a small area. That it gives the appearance of elevation by turning contours for elevation into triangles. I tried to open my original file, while getting to explain that in GIS, patience is the biggest thing, and that something will generally freeze on you.

The person in the back with the time cards held up the 1 minute and 2 minute cards together.

"Good, I like that," I said to him, "Innovative, very good."

I cancelled the drawing of the TIN, then tried again. I eventually realized that I would have to give up and conclude my speech without a final product, and lose a bunch of points on the speech for not having it. I thought about doing my closing for the speech, but realized that I needed the finished product for it. Then I remembered that I had taken a screenshot of my map with the TIN's for my GIS class earlier that week that I had never used, and had not gotten around to deleting.

I hurriedly opened it, and hoped that it would not be slowed down by the TIN's still trying to load. It opened quickly, and I was able to show my finished product and get out of my speech at 18 and a half minutes.

"You only left me with ten minutes," the next person complained, "I'll have to hurry."

I got my grade back from the teacher at the end of the class, and I had gotten 80/80. She had not taken time off for almost going twice as long as I should have gone.

It's possible she thought I just did really good for my speech. Or she might have thought that mine was more interesting than the two it was sandwiched between, cheerleading and braiding hair.

Week 12 Prompt I

61 A.  50 Ways to Leave Your Lover!





You could leave them for another,

Or just leave and let them suffer,

Strand them and make them pay the cover,

You could become famous by learning to hover,

Or by getting arrested for someone you smothered,

Get appointed to a huge salary by the governor,

Or work for the CIA undercover,

Or worst of all, you could run off with their mother.

Week 11 Theme

I traversed my way through my classes. My speaking teacher noticed my EMCC baseball shirt, and asked how we were doing. I told her okay. I went to my math class. It was hot, so I pulled up the sleeves of my blue long sleeved EMCC baseball shirt that I was wearing underneath.

***

I got to the bus. We were going to the very bottom of the state, so I pulled on my EMCC baseball windbreaker to combat the cool morning air. I tossed my EMCC baseball bag onto the Bar Harbour tour bus. "You can only wear your blue long sleeved underneath," the coach said, "If you're going to wear long sleeves, it has to be that. Let's be good representatives of the college."

I think we were.

Week 10 Theme

I was walking along the campus. Rain was pouring down onto my blue and yellow EMCC baseball windbreaker. I watched droplets of rain gather up and drip off from the brim of my blue and yellow EMCC baseball hat. I have to jump to the side as someone runs by me.

***

I am walking back after my class. My socks are pretty wet now, and I have to jump off the path into some mud to avoid a few people running from the dorms. I get inside, and take off my hat. It is about ten pounds, sodden all through.

***

"Hey Felicia, you look really silly running around all over the campus," I tell her a few weeks before. "Imagine if everyone ran all over the college like you do? It look really queer, not to mention that the walking people would be having to jump out of the way all the time."

***

Rainy days are now called "Everyone on campus running around like Felicia" days.

Week 10 Prompt III

47. Nature red in tooth and claw. The Law of the Jungle. Survival of the Fittest.

The team was red. They were known as Frankfort. They were also known as really bad.

The score was 32-0 in about the third inning when they decided to call it quits. I was already out at the plate, with the pitcher ready to pitch to me and everything. "They were too scared to face you," the coach said.

The catcher threw the ball back to the pitcher from his knees, and it sailed over the pitcher's heads, into center field. A run scored. It was now 22-1, instead of 22-0. The Frankfort fans honked their horns and screamed for approximately ten minutes in excitement of scoring a run.

I was pitching, against this green team, and I was doing pretty good, only given up ten runs or so in the inning. I threw a passed ball, and ran in to cover the plate as the runner came in. I slipped as I got to the plate, and the freaking runner cleated me in the neck in his slide. I had to leave the game, but I made sure of his number. The next game, I got to face him again, and threw as hard as I could, trying to strike him out. I walked him twice in 8 combined pitches.

I played with the player who I had cleated a few years later, and I apologized to him at one point.

"It wasn't me," he said, "I was never cleated in the neck."

"Good," I said, "I apologize to you for your teammate that I did cleat then."

Week 10 Prompt II

49. Doesn't matter where you begin, you'll end up back here.

My mother hurried up behind me. I noticed her, and went to get my sister. We went to our grandmother's car. We got inside. My grandmother started to drive off.

"I'm not in yet!" my sister exclaimed, one foot in, and one out.

***

"She's not there yet?" I asked my sister.

"No," she replied, "I don't see her anyways."

She ran towards the college building. I started walking, then noticed my mother hurrying up behind me. I waved to her, and caught up to my sister.

"She's here," I informed her.

"Oh, good."

We returned to the car. We had not noticed it because it was our grandmother's car instead of ours. I entered the car.

"Hi," our grandmother said.

My sister struggled trying to get her backpack into the backseat, with one foot in and one out.

"There wasn't room in the parking lot," my mother said, "Our car's parked over in Great Skates."

Slowly, our grandmother started driving.

"I'm not in yet!" Felicia exclaimed.

***

He turned and saw someone approaching him. It was his mother. He collected his sister, and they made their way to the car. It was their grandmother's car instead of their own. He knew that they had been out driving, and he assumed they had returned to the college together, but he had no idea where their car was.

He opened the door, and entered the car.

"Hi," his grandmother said.

"There wasn't room in the parking lot," his mother informed him, "Our car's parked over in Great Skates."

Apparently, his grandmother was unused to passengers in the back, as she started driving off with his sister still half out of the car.

"I'm not in yet!" she exclaimed.

***

She pulled around the curve and towards the college. They stopped out of the way. After a while, her daughter noticed her own daughter and son walking away, and hurried out to get them. The grandmother watched as they came up to her car. She started moving the car.

"I'm not in yet!" her granddaughter exclaimed.

***

My grandmother stopped the car, and Felicia pulled herself in.

"She's slow getting into the car all the time," my mother told my grandmother.

"Oh, that's fine," she said.

Week 10 Prompt I

43. 51. Just calm down and begin at the beginning.

"Where's my umpire's gear?" he said. "They better not have lost it. In Bridgton."

I walked back onto the bus and looked along it with him. It wasn't there.

I got there on time. There was a bus there, but it did not look like the right one at all. The coach had said we would have a coach bus. I didn't think this was a coach bus, unless coach = "Bar Harbor sightseeing tour bus."

"Why do they still have that up there?" one of our players said, gesturing to the scoreboard. "Get that 17 off of there."

We got off at the field. The coach stared at the field for a moment.

"I think I'll call to make sure it's the right field."

I ran to the ball, got under it, and caught it. Then threw it in.

"Right field will be interesting," a player commented. "Tomas, you starting in right?"

"Yes."

"Have fun out there. Look at those hills."

"I suppose that if it hits the house on that hill it's a homerun."

The ball hit the huge dip on the edge of the infield grass and drilled our second baseman in the face with a thwack, knocking his glasses off.

"Well," the coach said, "I wasn't disappointed in our effort. We didn't have too many errors. But we weren't really crisp. That should come with time."

I ran after the ball, and ran past the spot the fence would have been if it had existed, and watched the ball hit the tree on their front lawn, breaking some branches off. I crawled through their lawn up to their house to retrieve it.

The school was in the background from right field, and it was bright white directly behind the batter. I figured out after one inning that unless I stood in one place in right so that the batter was in front of the shadowed part, then I could not see where the ball was going at all. This meant I had to play a little farther off the line than I would have liked, especially with the five lefties in their lineup.

There were no dugouts, so we had the sun beating down on us the entirety of the game. I held my uniform shirt up my neck a little bit when we batted, trying to prevent sunburn. It didn't really work.

We were heading to the game, and one of the players was talking. "I looked them up last night, and I looked at three of their player profiles, and saw 6-6, 6-6, and 6-4. All Pro for the state of Massachussetts in six sports last year. It's basically a one year school to prepare for the SAT." They're a prep school, and take all the stupid athletes that can't get a 2.0 GPA in college.

I looked myself later. Two players from Maine out of 26. One from Barbados.

Week 10 Prompt I

47. Nature red in tooth and claw. The Law of the Jungle. Survival of the Fastest

The light was on. It flashed a few times then removed itself. It then moved from its current locale, sliding over along the dark surface.

We were sitting together. We were heading home.

She came running out. They informed her of what had happened. Sometimes it is the anxious waiting that is the worst.

There was the crash, and then the light sat still.
Survival of the fastest.

Week 9 Prompt III

You never know (before you take calculus) what you have (time) until it's gone.

“You need to switch with someone for the speech, don’t you?” the communications teacher asked.

“No, Felicia and I will just switch. She goes the class before me anyhow, so-“

“Did she charge you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Did she go ‘You can switch with me for twenty bucks.’”

***

I walked towards the library, and noticed one of the baseball players from my team kicking a soccer ball about in the new team windbreakers. He held the door open for me.

“What’s up Tomas?” he queried.

“Calculus test soon.”

“Calculus?”

I entered, and he stayed behind to open the door for the person who happened to be running in behind me, my sister.

“You bet,” she said to him.

(he presumably thinks “What the heck? Do I know her from somewhere?”)

***

“Could you help me on this one?” I asked.

“Yes,” Felicia responded.

“First you are putting it in standard form, then you find P(x), then you use that with this formula to find the integrating factor. You multiply it times the whole equation, then integrate both sides, then solve for y.”

“Yes, I think so. Good thing the teacher gave us practice tests.”

“I hardly remember any of it. It was all before break.”

***

Felicia and I were working on a problem, when someone on the other side of the room working, said “What’s 1+0?”

Felicia started laughing as we were trying to integrate (x^2-4)^2/4.

***

“I don’t get it, you’re doing the integral, but you are saying take the derivative of this part. With integrating something that’s more of the anti-derivative.”

“Oh yes it is. But you take the derivative of this part.”

Someone else in the room was getting help on a paper from another student.

“What do you think of it?” he asked the person.

“I need to fix your spelling mistakes,” was the response.

“You can’t. There’s no spell check.”

“Well, ‘These’ isn’t spelled ‘Theas.’”

“I don’t care. I’m a bad speller.”

It sickened me that he said it like he was proud of it.

***

I typed my English paper after the calculus test, remembering how horrifically that person spelled. I made sure not to spell any words wrong.

Week 9 Theme

The coach hit the ball to right field. Knowing the ball wouldn't be hit to us for a minute, the other left fielder and I were conversing.

"Look!" one of the two center fielders called out, pointing behind us.

We looked around, and saw some sort of large rodent looking creature making its lumbering way across the field.

"What is that?" we exclaimed, laughing.

"I think it's a muskrat," the center fielder responded doubtfully.

"It's saying 'What yo bi—-s doin' on my home?'" the other left fielder quipped.

"Don't go near it," the center fielder said to the second one, "It might bite. Hey coach!"

At the same moment, the coach happened to noticed the large mass moving across the field.

"What the f---?" he exclaimed, according to the catcher.

"Hey coach!" the center fielder called again.

"I see it. What is it?"

"I think it's a muskrat."

***

"Any idea what this skull is?" my uncle asked. "I found it down at the pond at the lab."

"I don't know."

"Whatever it is, it has large eye sockets."

"I think it's too large for a cat," my sister commented.

"It looks more like a rodent."

"What does a mouse skull look like?" my mother asked.

"It's too large for a mouse."

"Yes, but it has a mousy look to it."

"Muskrat!" I exclaimed jokingly. "That was what was on the baseball field during a practice a couple of days ago."

***

I typed and pressed enter.

"Here it is. The centerfielder was right, it was a muskrat that was in the field. Here's what was on the field during the practice."

"Is that what the skull is?" my sister asked.

"Yes, here. This is it."

"Not the one with the huge teeth?"

"It is. The teeth fell out."

"Oh, you're right, it has the holes from where they were."

"Ooh, where did you get that?" my grandmother asked.

"I found it at the pond at the lab."

"Oh, you found it? Why hadn't you showed it to me?"

"I only found it yesterday."

"Oh."

"Here, do you want to play? You can play with it."

"No, I'm fine."

"Interesting that I had hardly heard of a muskrat before now," I said, "And now in one week I've experienced a lot of it."

Difficulty

I have been having difficulty writing recently, as I have run to the point where I have used up most of the things that are interesting in my memory. Something mundane can be interesting if written well enough, so I wrote about what was immediately happening to me for a while. Then the break came, and I have been stuck all week on material, as I wasn't doing anything that inspired me at all. I am hoping for more material tomorrow. I will keep thinking as well.

By the way, with week 10 distancing, would something like Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" qualify as distancing the reader? It distanced me until I stopped reading it several pages in.

Week 9 Prompt II

I came, I saw, I caught it (Most of the time)

I ran in on the ball, and dove for it. The coach was excited, as not many ten year olds try to dive, let alone actually make the play, even though it was a practice.

***

I was in centerfield, and a line drive was hit to shallow left field. The left fielder was unable to get to it, and it filtered through the gap. The same left handed batter came up to bat, and I felt certain he would hit it to the same spot. I moved in, though not too much, and when the ball was hit I ran in and dove for it, making the catch and somersaulting to my feet for the third out.

***

I ran in, prepared to dive on the ball the coach hit, but it was dropping too quickly, so I dove and managed to stop it on the bounce.

“I think you dive too much,” the coach said.

***

I ran in on it. I knew that if I caught it, the game would be over. I dove, closing my eyes for some reason, and it ricocheted in and out of my glove. The pitchers had been invalid though, so we got another chance at it, and I just took it on the bounce and threw him out at the plate, though the umpire called the runner safe.

***

I was playing first, and ran in and dove for the pop up. I caught it, and rolled over. The umpire ruled that I didn’t catch it. We ended up winning the game 34-1 anyhow.

***

The ball was hit in the gap, and I ran and dove, the ball glancing off the tip of my glove. That ended up being the winning run.

***

The pitch I threw was popped up, and I ran towards it, and dove. I caught it forehand, and landed on my glove elbow, jarring the ball out and up into the air. I rolled over, looked up, and caught the ball barehanded.

***

I ran from third base into foul ground, and laid out and caught it in front of the third base coach for the opposition.

“That was one heck of a catch,” he said, and high fived me.

***

It was a perfect easy line drive for a diving catch, and I ran in from center. I dove, but did not extend my glove quite far enough, and it glanced off my glove. It was the first time I had missed a diving catch in three years.

***

The ball was hit out to me in right, and I came in a good deal, having figured out that the lights made the ball go shorter than it appeared it would. It plunged, and I dove to make sure I caught it. It was good I had, for it was the state tournament game.

***

It was thrown a good bit over my head, and I dove and made the catch, sliding along the hardwood.

“This is a gym you know,” another player informed me.

“I know.”

“You could get killed diving on it.”

“It hasn’t happened yet.”

Week 8 Theme

I opened 8.1. I checked problem 2. It wasn’t it. I tried in the middle, it wasn’t it. I then tried 8.3. 8.4, and 8.7. I checked them throughout and could not find the problem.

“It will be difficult to do trigonometric substitution on the calculus test if I can’t find how to do it,” I thought.

***

“Hey Felicia, what are you going to do your speech on?”

“I was thinking of making a modular origami cube.”

“Just a cube?”

“Well, maybe I will have more time.”

“You will have six minutes.”

“Maybe I will.”

“Could you help me on this?”

“Sure.”

“Trigonometric substitution.”

“Oh, you take this, and here is the list. If it is in the form of ‘a’ squared minus ‘x’ squared, then you use sine…”

***

“Oh, practice test,” another student said looking down at what was at a student’s vacated table.

“The recitation teacher handed them out on Friday,” I explained. “I hope you are prepared for the test without the practice test.”

“Well, I didn’t get to do 8.7, because I thought it was due on Saturday but it was really due on Friday. I got to look it over in the book once, but once.”

“It helps to do the problems to, to get them in your head,” I remarked.

“Definitely.”

“I don’t know if I will be prepared with a practice test or not,” I said. “It doesn’t seem too bad, it only has 16 problems.”

“Then the test will probably have five or six.”

“It has evaluate the improper integral-“

“That’s what was in 8.7,” he said.

“Well then, it would seem you’re in trouble,” I said. “It basically is that when one of the limits is infinity, you take the limit of the integral as ‘a’ approaches infinity, then change the limit from infinity to ‘a’…”

***

I knew that this was the problem where something was supposed to cancel. Otherwise, with e to the x power in it, the integration by parts would just keep on forever. I looked up. It was the center fielder from my baseball team walking by the classroom.

“Hey Tomas, Tomas!” he called as he passed by with his friend. I heard them talking as they went down the hallway, “That kid is sixteen, and taking Calculus II.”

“Really?”

I was glad the teacher was not in the classroom at that moment. He would not have appreciated the disturbance.

***

I set my test upside down on top of the others on the teacher’s desk. It had gone well, I thought, though I would not know for certain until Wednesday. I walked out the door, preparing my mind for baseball practice.

Week 8 Prompt III Clarification

36. A city street--

I crossed the street to the gym. A few of the players were already waiting to carpool to the field. We sat on the concrete blocks waiting for the rides to come. The president of the college pulls in smoothly and goes into the gym to look at the progress being done in preparing it for the chef competition. I wish our college didn't engage in publicity and money stunts.

***

The truck pulled up, and a bunch of players jumped in. They pulled out, and I was left with the first player, waiting for the next ride.

***

A car pulled up with another student waiting for a ride, player 2.

"Hello," he said in a silly voice, "What's your name?" He changed to a more serious tone: "There's no one else

waiting for a ride?" he asked. “Just us three?”

"Six of them already left," I said.

"I thought the coach said 4:30,” he exclaimed, “It's just past four."

"Well, the first ride came and  filled up his truck and left. We're waiting for the other person."

"Who already left?"

After the first player who was waiting with me went through trying to describe all the players he didn't remember the names of, I went through and listed them all out by name.

***

The ride pulled up almost to our feet. The driver got out.

"Hello, what's your name?" was asked by the second player to the driver.

"Joe Smooth," he replied. "Since you're short, you probably should go in the back."

"Who are you calling short?"

"Just watch the stuff in the back."

We stuffed ourselves in on top of his sweatshirts, shoes, bags, papers, etc. We took off, with the radio blasting directly behind my head. I thought in my head "At least the seatbelts all work."

***

"I was coming here going 70 in the 55 zone, and there was this white truck trying to pass me, and I was like who is this idiot in the white truck trying to pass me. We had been alongside each other a while, so I looked over and it was the coach."

He was a relatively safe driver anyhow. He drove pretty carefully, though was exceedingly jerky pulling in to merge. He didn't change the radio until we were going straight though. The radio worked better the faster we went. The players all turned their hats backwards so as not to be blown off from the wind pouring in through the wide open windows.

"Does this seatbelt works?" one of the players asked.

"No," the driver replied.

At that point I noticed he wasn't wearing one either.

***

It wasn't all that far, and we made it there without rolling over.

"We'll carpool tomorrow too, and probably for the foreseeable future," the coach said.

Week 8 Prompt III

36. A city street--

I crossed the street to the gym. A few of the players were already waiting to carpool to the field. We sit on the concrete blocks waiting for the rides to come. The president of the college pulls in smoothly and goes into the gym to look at the progess being done in preparing it for the chef competition. I wish our college didn't engage in publicity and money stunts.

***

The truck pulled up, and a bunch of players jumped in. They pulled out, and I was left with another player waiting for the next ride.

***

A car pulled up with another student to carpool.

"Hello," he said in a silly voice, "What's your name?"

"There's no one else waiting for a ride?" he asked.

"Six of them already left?"

"I thought the coach said 4:30, it's just past four."

"Well, he filled up his truck and left. We're waiting for the other person."

"Who already left?"

After the other person went through trying to describe all the players we didn't remember the names of, I went through and listed them all out by name.

***

The ride pulled up almost to our feet. The player got out.

"Hello, what's your name?" was asked to the driver.

"Joe Smooth," he replied. "Since you're short, you probably should go in the back."

"Who are you calling short?"

"Just watch the stuff in the back."

We stuffed ourselves in on top of his sweatshirts, shoes, bags, papers, etc. We took off, with the radio blasting directly behind my head. I thought in my head "At least the seatbelts all work."

***

He was a relatively safe driver anyhow.

"I was coming here going 70 in the 55 zone, and there was this white truck trying to pass me, and I was like who is this idiot in the white truck trying to pass me. We had been alongside each other a while, so I looked over and it was the coach."

He drove pretty carefully, though was exceedingly jerky pulling in to merge. He didn't change the radio until we were going straight though. The radio worked better the faster we went. The players all turned their hats backwards so as not to be blown off from the wind pouring in through the wide open windows.

"Does this seatbelt works?" one of the players asked.

"No," the driver player replied.

At that point I noticed he wasn't wearing one either.

***

It wasn't all that far, and we made it there without rolling over.

"We'll carpool tomorrow too, and probably for the forseeable future," the coach said.

Week 8 Prompt II

31. Eeenie, meenie, minie, moe, catch a rabbit by the toe....

"Page 29 is the vocabulary page," my sister said.

"Yes, that's it," the teacher replied.

"I didn't know I was supposed to read the chapter!" Felicia exclaimed.

"Oh, that's okay, don't worry about it," the teacher said, walking off.

"I didn't either," I told Felicia, "The teacher never told us to, don't worry, it doesn't matter anyhow."

"We're all in the same boat, 'cause I haven't either," the person sitting next to Felicia said.

***

"I think it is D," I said.

"Yes, that looks like it," the other person said, "Hogging the conversation."

"So we have to act it out."

The teacher came back over.

"Yes, it is D," she commented, "So it would be like 'How was your weekend?'"

"Good."

"Mine was great, I went to a movie, enjoyed the great weather, it would be something like that."

She went off again.

"So it's sort of like not waiting for the answer," the other person commented.

"Yes, waiting for the monosyllabic answer," I replied. "I suppose we have to pick one to act out, so it would be something like 'Do you like your purse?'"

"Yes."

"I wouldn't like purses, they are so bulky, and I would just ramble on like that."

"You are good at rambling."

"It helps when I talk as fast as I can while doing it."

***

"Okay, what about you three? Who are you in your roleplay?"

"Oh, college students," I said. "So we just start?"

"Yes, go ahead."

"Do you have a purse?" I asked Felicia.

"Yes, in my bag."

"Oh, I wouldn't like purses, I just think they're too bulky and stuff for me. And they're just so big and you drop everything inside. Do you have a purse?" Turning to the other person.

"Yes."

"I just wouldn't like purses, they're so large to carry around, and you're just sticking stuff in them and their are all these pockets and corners, and everything always vanishes and it seems like things always migrate like they're deliberately trying to escape. Do you ever lose anything?"

"No."

"I can't imagine how you don't lose things, I would be losing things all the time, with all the space, and you're just dumping everything in, and it all just gets jumbled up, and everything always disappears, it is like a drier with socks in purse form, like a black hole or something."

I did all of this talking as quickly as possible.

"What just happened?" someone else asked.

"That's scary, Tom," the teacher said, laughing. "So what listening habit was he doing wrong?"

"Hogging the conversation?" a student asked.

"Yes, except with this it was like 1 percent, 1 percent, and 98 percent. That was scary."