shoes and laundry.

I have so many different things to talk about today.

1.  College
2.  Shoe choice at college
3.  Laundry

It's really not that many things.

College has lots of facets to it.  I will start by saying that I don't think I would have ended up here were it not for the fact that OSU has an Arabic major.  I think I would've liked a smaller community of people in a larger city.  I do like Columbus a lot and although I have explored a little, I need to do more.    There are definitely things I miss about Cleveland, for example, the privacy of our nature.  This is a weird thing to say, but I miss being secluded in beauty.  There's a pretty garden I should go visit here, but it's not the same as like, the waterfalls in almost-Berea land and the Bradley Woods nature park past center ridge, and the edge of this country that is all of the Lake Erie beaches.  Privacy, in all ways, is probably what I miss most about home aside from my family, my cats, home-cooked meals, my shower, my bed (all of which I miss a lot, in that order).

But of course there are the good things, which are my Arabic class and my Social Psychology class.  It feels great to be taking Arabic again, I really do love it and never find my class to be a chore.  Social psychology I like because of the format mostly.  This is another weird thing to say but I kind of do love just sitting there and being lectured to and taking notes.  That's what I liked about history freshman and sophomore years of high school.  I never studied hard enough to get A's in those classes but I love lectures when they're interesting.  And in some ways I love note-taking?  I realize it's probably a sign of low intelligence to enjoy such mundane tasks.  Don't care.

I also sort of like the social life here.  I keep telling myself to just be brave and try to make friends and be social and admit to being a freshman who is sort of lost and fears loneliness.  Knowing what you're socially up against and admitting your handicaps is the first step to making new friends.  Big house parties aren't that fun because I don't know anyone, so I try to meet people at those parties and make friends.  It works about half the time.

Also something college has taught me:  be straightforward.  Simplify the language you use.  Say what you want, when you ask questions, ask exactly what you want to know.  Life just becomes easier when you stop avoiding what you want to say for fear of embarrassment.  Stop being embarrassed.  Say what you want.

The thing I don't like about college, which Marissa pointed out today, is the blatant hatred and ignorance present on campus.  This comes with any diverse group of people, having varying beliefs about different subjects.  And while the racism here is something I'm a bit more accustomed to (though still not happy about or comfortable with), prejudice against gay people is something I don't think I have dealt with as much, and I have noticed it here sometimes from individuals.

I wrongly (and sometimes rightly) judge people based on shoe choice.  This is something I have always done, but there wasn't as much opportunity for it in Westlake because at Westlake High School, the fashion is fairly homogenous as are the people, which is not meant to be a slam on my community.  It's just kind of true.  There is always bound to be more variation in the fashion choices when the community is people from all sorts of different geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds than a place where everyone is from the same geographical background, and most people are from the same socioeconomic background.  Right?

So anyways.  Shoes.  Obviously most people don't consider their shoe choice to be a personal choice reflecting who they are on the inside, and lots of people don't think about fashion at all, but I still think something is reflected in shoe choice.  For boys, there are usually three schools of fashion:  well-dressed (this could be trendy, classic, or more casual original style.  Either way they look good.), athletic (it is such a cop-out for boys to just wear athletic shorts and sweatshirts every day.  Although, if you have the calves for it...), and awkward (examples:  white tennis shoes, ever, nice shirt with athletic shoes, different styles of clothing all in the same outfit, etc.)  The well-dressed man will have shoes that match the rest of his outfit.  From the same type of style, degree of casualness, and/or color as the rest of his outfit.  The jock will probably have some tennis shoes or sandals with some mid-calf socks.  I get it- fashion is hard sometimes.  That's kind of what I see when I see a boy in this outfit.  Unless he's sweaty, in which case congrats!  Your outfit is activity-appropriate.  And the awkward boy often does not match the degree of casualness of his shirt and pants with his shoes.  That's usually where the awkwardness comes from.  White tennis shoes are pretty much never okay.  I'm trying to think of a situation when they're okay, and no, they're pretty much not okay.

Girl shoes are usually a little easier.  Of course there are the awkward shoes that don't match the outfit, but then after that everything other type of shoe can really help classify the woman's mood at the moment.  Heels?  Don't fuck with her; she's important today AND she's angry because her feet hurt.  Flats?  She's probably looking cute even though it's not required at the moment.  Congrats! You found someone who is probably happy.  Rainboots?  Ask yourself: is it/was it recently raining?  If it is, she is trying to stay warm.  Wet shoes are the worst.  If it isn't?  Maybe she's dumb!  Maybe there's something she likes about her rainboots.

Disclaimer:  Those last two paragraphs are fully speculative.  That's what I see.  You probably don't see the same thing, but I'm not the only person who looks at you and makes inferences about who you are. So look fly, because you'll feel good about it.

Laundry:  I love the laundry room in Drackett.  I wish I could reserve it as a study room.  It's warm in there, and the chairs are nice, and I like the soft rumble of the washers and dryers.  This is why:  it is impossible to study in full silence.  There is always a noise-- the soft scratch of your pencil on the paper, the sound of your laptops fan, the click of your fingers on the keyboard, the flipping of pages.  And those are caused by solo-studying, so multiply that by 5-40 if you're in ANY study room on campus.  So, while the laundry rooms are kind of noisy, it's a constant noise that is loud enough to drown out anything else, and constant enough to study with.  Right? RIGHT? Yes. Right.

I have more things to write about so I'll probably be back within a week!