I think the temperature today stayed below the century mark for the first time in quite a while! It was kind of nice to see the thermometer reading just over 90 degrees this afternoon instead of just over 100.
I love the Olympics, but it's really messing with my sleep schedule. I've had a pretty lazy weekend and have caught up on sleep a little bit. I slept in until nearly 11 this morning. I can't remember the last time I did that. It was great! Speaking of the Olympics, have we all seen enough volleyball yet?! I have. Now that swimming is over, I probably won't be watching all night of the coverage, but I wish they'd show less beach volleyball and more of other things. Like badminton? I haven't seen any of that yet. Or table tennis? I haven't seen that, either.
Summer is winding down. I expect there to be a bit more bustle around campus starting this week. Parking will start to get a little tougher to find. Lines in restaurants around downtown will start to get longer. This week is a freebie week at the Rec Center for staff and faculty. I plan to check it out. I haven't truly worked out in months. I do yoga now and again at home, but no real working out has been done for a while. I don't really like trying to work out in the weight machine area at the Rec Center because it's usually filled with kind of scary looking guys that don't appear to be too happy to share the machines. But, maybe I can find a time of day when the scary guys aren't machine-stalking and I could just use one or two and then scurry back to the cross-trainer on the other side of the room? Plus, I might start using the pool a little bit, too. I think it'll be nice to have access to the center again. It's a really nice facility. A few of my co-workers use it and we might be able to motivate each other to actually go and use it once we're all members. That would be good.
I've been looking for little enrichment courses to enroll in. So far, I've seen a lot of possibilities, but have only enrolled in one through a career center in Columbia. It's a car maintenance class for women. Lord knows, I need that sort of knowledge. Did I mention how I freaked out earlier this summer when I had to get an oil change + tire rotation and tried to take it in to the mechanic? I bolted when the mechanic came out to find out what I was doing sitting in the car in the parking lot. I couldn't get the courage to walk in and face the mechanic. Or sound like an idiot when telling them what I wanted done. After discussing this situation with my friends, it was decided that this is probably the real reason women finally throw in the towel and get married: you can get your husband to do this sort of task. Over lunch at Jimmy John's, we decided that's why there are never any women in these lobbies waiting for the cars to be fixed. It's always men, which adds to the intimidation of having to be the only woman in the entire place. Or deal with the condescending 'tude when the mechanics surely find other things wrong with the car that need to be fixed. And the helpless feeling of knowing that you have no knowledge of what the dude behind the counter is telling you. It all boils down to feeling really helpless and nobody likes that. I always feel like an idiot when it comes to car things, and I always feel unprepared to deal with manipulative auto shops.
Anyway, in this case, I just sat in the parking lot, trying to gather the courage to walk in and tell the mechanic what I wanted done. I failed that day, but a few days after fleeing the scene at one mechanic shop, I dropped the car off at Sears, where I could have the mechanic do the work while I wandered around the Mall and ate Chinese food in the food court. Not having to sit in the lobby awkwardly waiting to be told how many things are wrong with my car or why my bill will be a hundred dollars more than I thought was a huge incentive in going this route. Shopping + food makes things less scary and intimidating. But, it obviously galls me how scared I was at the prospect of having to be an adult and handle the car by myself. I gave about ten seconds to the idea of calling my Dad and begging him to take my car in to an auto shop, but couldn't bring myself to do that. I don't like to chicken out on anything and was determined to somehow be an adult about this and get the job done. Clearly, I think this one-night class in Columbia is good for me. Here's to becoming less of a wussie! "Jeah!"
Track is on! I love the name Asafa, by the way. I cheer for Asafa Powell just because I think he's got the coolest first name, ever. It's fun to say. Asafa, Asafa, Asafa. He just got third place in the 100m semi-finals. Justin Gatlin from the USA won the heat. Woot! I think that Jefferson City could do a much better job in trying to cheer on the track stars we have in our midst. Lincoln University has a fantastic track team, and several of the LU track stars are in the Olympics every Summer Games racing down the track. Take tonight, for instance: Dane Hyatt is racing in the 400m semi-finals and he graduated from LU. He runs for Jamaica, which is super impressive, since Jamaica = racing Royalty. But, the track team never competes here at home. I've heard that they don't have a facility good enough to hold the type of track meet that they compete in. If that's really the case, I think JC should help them get one. I'd love to see Olympians coming to my hometown to race! How neat.
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