The Finite

I got a new watch, $9 at Walmart. Thanks go to “Delicious” Dylan, Katie and Chris Brown for buying it in my stead. Since my old resin one came apart like polystyrene in nail polish, I specifically requested a nylon watchband. And it’s held up in the kitchen so far. But if it goes through any of what the old watch went through, it’ll become encrusted with sweat residue and pizza grease and get its plastic partially dissolved by sunblock (true story).

It mysteriously has no brand logo on it and unmysteriously is made in China. (Note the “Water Resist” imperative.) The wrist band is velcro-attached and so every night when I take it off, it curves into a question mark, which bothers me for some reason. I also find that it was designed for someone of slightly thicker wrists. My wrists are really narrow. So the velcro overlaps a bit where it shouldn’t.

Dylan: Tommy, I feel your pain. I know what it feels like to have narrow wrists.
*fist pound*
Tommy: (clutching his wrist) Ow! Not so hard!

I am rapidly running out of three things that every college student needs: toothpaste, laundry detergent, and hard drive space. I also need an allen wrench to mod my scooters and more ethernet cables. Many many more.

So I’m going home on Sunday morning and staying until Tuesday. For some reason, Purdue transplanted the first two days of Thanksgiving break into October.

Don’t worry, I’m not going alone. My friend, “Larry”, is going up with me. He and his circle of international student friends are going up to Chicago to do the whole “tourist” thing. Since all my white friends went home by dinnertime Friday, I ate with Larry and his friends. To say it was awkward would have been unnecessary. You probably felt a wave of awkwardness pervading your being from across the state. It was like sitting at a table of eight ‘me’s. Everyone was quiet and didn’t make eye contact. I don’t blame them. I can relate. I mean, what else could they have done? I don’t exactly fit in with them. I stood out. Here’s a sample of conversation.

Larry: ????????????????谢谢???????
George: ????谢谢?????????? tennis ???????谢谢!
Cicy and Hannah (in unison): 谢谢??? wheel ???!

So I was a little lost because I only know one word of Mandarin. But they were nice. Larry tried to find us topics of conversation but we had a little trouble sustaining any.

I figure that it’s better to be awkward early than to be awkward on the 3.5 hour train trip. We leave on the daily Amtrak to Chicago at 8:00AM Sunday (Saturday’s train has been booked for months) and arrive at Union where the Metra station is just a short power walk away.

I stay just long enough to see some old friends, return stolen goods, steal some more goods, and upstage Cassidy. There’s also some dentist and medical related stuff on Monday at 1:00 and Tuesday at 11:00. The rest of the time, I’m free to see old friends/go clubbing/back up my hard drive.