A Day in the Life Of...

READING TIME: 8-10 mins.(!)

Well, I finally decided to write an entry relevant to the title of this blog...about a day in my life. To be more accurate, a WEEKday in my life IN FREDERICTON. If not the most exciting, I'm sure you will find it sadistically amusing...enjoy yet another wordy account of mine.

Being an engineering major means you average around 5 to 6 courses a semester...unless you want to pull a Van Wilder and stay 5-6 YEARS...WITHOUT failing of course! Given the phenomenal workload, one is usually forced to take one of those accursed 8:30 a.m. classes. Yes, pity me...for three days out of my five weekdays, I must attend an 8:30 class.

The Start...
Thus the morning begins with me shutting the alarm off with one smooth, practiced yet irritated jerk of my hand (expressive arms, eh?). I reluctantly leave the enveloping warmth of my comforter and step into the cold rubber of my flip flops. Such a start is almost symbolic of my days - reluctant and going through the motions. Anyway, my trusty flip flops carry me through my morning bathing and brushing routine. Both rituals which are, most expectedly, ruined in one way or the other. The bathing - the hot water tap has a mind of its own, and slowly turns itself off. (And people, just in case you didn't know, I live in CANADA. If you still don't know what I'm referring to, please go back and complete your Geography homework.) So I stand every morning in the shower, my left hand holding the disobedient hot water tap, while rinsing soap off as best as I can, occasionally doing a very athletic whirl to aid effective cleansing. The brushing - my teeth demand privacy. I stare into the mirror at my hypnotic hand motion that coaxes so much white minty froth out of my mouth, quite enjoying this momentary relapse into blankness. But heavens no, one of my friendly neighbours must pop in...to either provide background music of pee or shower, or to join me in my frothy ritual. Don't see how that's such a horrible thing? Go brush your teeth in a bathroom in Heathrow Airport.

Well...so that paragraph concludes the first 15 minutes of my day. After that, I slowly accelerate. You can almost hear the metaphysical "whoosh" of my mental and physical engines. I grab my little satchel with its meagre contents of a pen, pencil, a single binder and a MAD magazine, slip into my newly-acquired and supremely-comfortable Hush Puppies, and off I am! Funny how I can make the prospect of walking down at 8.30 in the morning so...exciting.

Upside of Canada's cold weather: the downhill 7-minute (yes, I'm a geek with nothing better to do than time his descent to college) walk to my building wakes up a night owl like me.


Classes...
Next stage: enter class approximately 2-5 mins. late (I am SO punctual about being late). Front rows have already been taken up by the eager learners, middle rows occupied by those humbly obliging, and the back rows...my brethren...the half-lidded species of Reluctants. I take my spot in the midst of my sluggish brotherhood and endure the first hours of education. Luckily, I am still too engaged in the process of waking up to bother going to sleep yet.

Hour passes. Engines are almost on optimum hovering speed. To give it that extra morning boost every nocturn needs, I take a detour by the canteen to grab a cup of hot, dark and bitter coffee. Yet another glaring metaphor as I slug through my second class - education and coffee: bitter, yet the only way to get on with life.

Now that "all systems are go", I am ready to interact with the world around. From my vantage point near the back of the classroom, I "soak in" knowledge. Yet, in between those "soaks" lie little holes in time waiting to be filled up. I look straight ahead of me at the backs of the heads of fellow budding engineers. For people out there with very "happening" lives, this may not be much of an interesting practice. But for people like me, living the anti-thesis of THOSE people's lives, finding amusement in the back of people's heads comes easy as pie.

People's Heads...
Hair. My brother once told me that hair made up 70% of a woman's appearance. Combine that with the knowledge of a 19:1 male-to-female ratio in engineering, desperate libido and a flexible imagination, whaddaya get? Gorgeous daydreams, metaphysical harems, salve to solitude. So there I am, picking off 5 hairdos (in my class of 50) that look female. As I keenly gaze at their promising locks, I mentally form pictures of the breathtaking beauty that must obviously accompany such wonderful hair.

Straight, tangled hair, reaching the shoulders and fanning over them...means an oval-faced babe with very "curved" features...the smoothly rounded nosetip, comforting eyes, slight lips with an easy smile, and a wide arc of a chin.

High ponytail, a waterfall of ruffled hair cascading down from a central point in the center of the head...sporty type...high proud forhead, keen eyes, an aquiline noe, thin lips that give out a sly intimidating smile and a broad confident chin.

Waves of curly hair come down to mid-back...wonderfully sweet...heart-shaped face with large curious eyes, adorable dimples of on slightly plump cheeks, and a contrasting sharp chin on an otherwise roundish face.

Silky straight hair, coming down in a rush in a well-defined highway down the back...haughty and bored...medium forhead, thin eyebrows and captivating yet bored eyes, sharp straight nose, small sneaky smile and a perfect point of a chin.

Single long braid reaching down all the way till her lower back...subtle beauty...overall plain features, but with passionate eyes that sheds a whole different light on her face for those looking carefully.

And class time's over...sometimes, when the image of the girl is really strong in my mind, I wait to see at least a profile and see how accurate I was. I am proud to claim that I have been quite right on most accounts...though the reader must note that I have just given a sampling of what goes through my mind...even similar hairstyles produce different images, depending greatly on my intuition.

To Do:
There's generally one more class immediately after the second (i.e., I have three classes in a row on most days). This can be labelled as my "To Do" class. There's a bit of background here to explain, so be patient and keep reading. You know how most of us have not been able to overcome procrastination, and how we can never seem to remember to do everything we're supposed to? And when you work out a schedule, you can simply NEVER follow it beyond the first few hours? If you answered yes to both questions, I have a solution to offer. "To Do". Grab a handy one inch think, pocket-sized spiral notebook and keep a pencil or pen in your pockets at all times (my proud geeks-in-the-making!). Some time during the day, when you have sufficient amount of your attention to devote, like in the middle of class, you start jotting down the important things you need to get done that day. I map it out in my head. What I mean is, all the tasks are put into order such that every task is simply a geographical "stop" along my route to my final destination (generally my room). As you walk and complete your tasks, cross them out of your list. At the end of the day, look at your scratched of list with pathetic pride...and if you're a freak like me, collect your To Do notes for future self-esteem boosts.

Lunch:
After my "To Do" class it's normally lunchtime...usually with one or two friends (yes, I have friends...believe it...people landed on the moon...and I have friends). This phase in my college day is highly ironic and contradictory. Back home, I am a moderate eater, unless there's unbelievably good food. Here, where I assure you the horror stories of canteen food are understated, I eat ravenously. I pack away three times as much as I eat at home, thus meaning five times more than those "feeble-stomached" Canadians. My tastebuds belatedly inform me that the food tasted highly mediocre. It still baffles me...perhaps it is "denial overload"...in an attempt to deny the fact that I'm not eating home cooked food, my mind overcompensates and I eat like a starved man from Bangladesh.

Damn...I AM from Bangladesh.

Final Class and Onwards...
Anyway, moving on with my day. (I rhyme in good time, with a kind mind, give out a fine line) Fourth and usually final class...in the middle of the afternoon. Peak siesta time. Though I am not an afternoon-siesta guy, waking up early in the morning puts me in the mood for one. So the afternoon class is the one where I nod off all the time...only the presence of my studious pal keeps me up!

After the final class, I'm off on my "To Do Trip"...rapidly walking with proud purpose throughout campus, dropping off documents, picking up books, meeting people, etc. Finally, I end up back in my room...just in time for a highly satisfying trip to the washroom...so that I am prepared to ingest phenomenal quantities of food at "dinner". (Double quotes because these guys eat "dinner" at 5 or 6 in the evening!)

Following that, it's usually my reading time. I am a compulsive reader: right now I have three books "in line" waiting to be read. I shall not elaborate here on my "Art of Reading" - that I shall reserve as a topic for my as-yet unused blog, geekscribbles.blogspot.com

Dreamy Mood...
After that, I'm in a "dreamy" mood. This is the time when your brainwaves kind of slow down and you enter this highly relaxed yet creative mode. It's like the whole essence of your being relaxes...and that's the only way the "pores of creative energy" open up...ideas well up and float in a mind drunk on synthesis (creativity). This is the time I might choose to blog, go out for a soulful walk through green and clean Fredericton, daydream...and one of my newest options: come down to the closeby empty Science Library, borrow a laptop, sit down on of the high-backed cushioned chairs with foot stools, pop in a music CD, and get wild in the cyberworld. (Guess where I'm writing this from?)

Of course, there're times when this euphoric "alpha phase" (as is the scientific term - I promise!) is interrupted by assignments, tests and education in general. And just in case you were thinking I'm a total misanthrope, I do socialize...but I will admit that's an "area under construction"! Hey...gimme a break...a guy's got the right to be a loner!

And it finally ends!
Yeah...so there you have it...one of my longest entries yet, filled with insignificant information regarding my daily schedule. I know it's long, I know it has difficult words here and there, I know it can get boring...but you know what? It may SEEM like a writer writes for his stuff to be read, it's usually because a writer simply needs to express...if people "listen", it's an added bonus.

Take care, my precious gem-sized Readership...and be back for more (next week probably). By the way...if you like the stuff I write, feel free to leave a comment...if you totally hate what I write, leave a comment...if you just wanna leave a comment, LEAVE A COMMENT! (And don't foget to read my other stuff in the other blogs - check the right hand side panel)

Ciao!