Friday, October 12, 2012

Day 10: Becoming a Spectacle

Schedule:


10:30 a.m. Dixon Center Chapel
2:30 p.m. Laundry
10:00 p.m. Group


Today was pretty eventful. I didn't feel completely busy, but I feel like I have done the most I have in a while. 


10:30 a.m.
I went to chapel in the Dixon Center. This is the chapel I mentioned yesterday that had the Ladies of Lee chorus, as opposed to the dancers in Conn. Don't get me wrong the chorus was great. I just would have like to see the dancers. When we got there I recognized two people in the chorus. A girl from my english class who has chosen to not apologize for thirty days. She and I discussed this. We both agreed that we are the type of people who apologize for everything even if we are the ones who shouldn't be apologizing, but should actually be apologized to. I told her that I empathized with her, and I hope that her project is going well. Then I saw Rose. I mentioned her earlier. She was the girl I saw at the pumpkin carving contest. I still don't know who won. Anyways, I feel like she is my own little mini celebrity. I see her and I get butterflies as if I have just come across the president or someone else very famous. She's just so amazing. She has this great spirit, and gets excited about everything so that you want to be as excited about life as she is. She just radiates God's love. I love seeing her around on campus, and every time I do I smile. 

Before my last class of the day, English, I was crossing the street over to Alumni park, a beautiful park with a gazebo and lots of space that people often lounge around on either in hammocks or on the ground. While walking over a loud noise screamed out at me, "Hey you! Come smash this car!" I looked over and all I saw was a speaker. Then I looked closer and spotted the girl standing on the gazebo. About twenty feet in front of her (maybe, I'm terrible at guestimating lengths) was an old beater car with a guy sitting in a chair. Next to him was a sledgehammer and a baseball bat. On the car were spray painted targets and $1. For one dollar you could smash the car with whatever object you chose, of the two. They walked up to me and asked me to do it. I said, yes, but after my class. So I went to class and began to think of how I was going to get a dollar. I got hungry the other night so my bank account went from six dollars to four, and there was no way I was going any lower. Unfortunately, your meal plan here doesn't cover the cost of smashing in cars. Afterwards I continued to think, but I never came up with a solution. I was going to have to bring up the "I can't do anything impossible" rule and call it a day.

2:30 p.m. Laundry
A friend of mine had agreed to let me throw my clothes in the dryer with hers. So I went to her building and washed my clothes in the utility sink. When her clothes were done I squeezed my clothes to get off the excess water and then threw my clothes in with hers. We went to dinner and when we returned the load was finished, but the clothes were not dry. We thought, no big deal, and we put them in the dryer again. Then we came back and they were done, but STILL not dry. We grew frustrated. We decided it was the building's dryers. So we loaded up the clothes in her hamper, and then we left to take them to my building to try the dryers there. But the load was much heavier then we thought. First, I tried to lift it, but failed miserably. Then, she tried to lift it. She was doing pretty fine until we got outside. Then the next walk of the journey seemed like a never ending journey of tripping, dragging, and fumbling over the laundry with everyone watching as we walked by. About halfway there we were stopped by a group of people. One of which was a classmate of my english class. The classmate knew about my project and said, "Hey can you put that basket down?" I looked at her confused, one because I didn't really hear her and two because I didn't understand her. The fumbling over the laundry got me so flustered that I had forgotten I was supposed to say yes to everything. Then I got it after her third time of repeating it. I said, "Yes." And I put the basket down. Then she informed her friends that I could not say no. My friend picked the basket up and they asked me their next command. "Hey, can you help her with that basket." I looked at them, still hard at hearing, and said. "Yup." And I grabbed the other end of the flimsy basket and helped my friend. The group then walked away. It was weird. It was the first time in my project that I had experienced becoming someone else's spectacle. This would then happen again later in the day. 

10:00 p.m. Group
Later in the day was now. I went to group. We discussed many things. Then somehow I revealed to them the project I was doing. They became confused. At first they thought that there was something wrong with me and I physically couldn't say no. Then they realized that I meant I was choosing not to say no. So they then looked at me, and then asked, "So if I were to ask you to eat that cookie you would have to eat it." I responded, "Yes, but please don't." That didn't work, they did it anyway. Don't worry though it didn't make me angry, it was more of a good subject for laughter. I then picked the cookie up, and ate it. And that was that. 

Today I learned the part of this project that makes you a spectacle. Our teacher warned us of this. "Once people find out about your project there are going to try and make you fail.", he said. (or something very close, I'm not very good at remembering exact quotes). He warned us that for vegetarians, people were going to eat meat in front of you, for "yes men" people were going to make us do things, for those not aloud to complain, people were going to annoy them. This was just all bound to happen, and I am glad that it took at least ten days before it did. Talk you soon!

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