Labor Day Weekend 2012

On Friday Mom picked me up and drove me home. On the way home I heard about Jack’s mom being put in a hospice program and having an estimated three to four weeks to live. That was unfortunate. When I got home I got Dave’s old computer and that night I went to Dad’s where he, Jamie, Cam, and I ate at an El Salvadorian restaurant in Downtown Overland Park. On the first night of September, I went to my mom’s from my dad’s house to have dinner with Mom’s friends, the Bakers. The next day, Dad and I went to Micro Center and I got Microsoft Office for my computer. Then later that evening, I got in a car with Jamie and drove back to UCM.

The Birth of a New Year

I made it to UCM and with the help of Dad and Jamie, I got all my stuff into my new dorm. I filled out some paperwork for Jena Rhodes, the CA for the first floor of South Ellis. I saw the sister of one of the new THRIVE students who I dated during my middle school years. Her name was Elizabeth. We broke up many years ago and moved on but we still remained friends. We caught up on news and I learned that she was now engaged. I told her congratulations and after she left, I proceeded to unpacking my things. I put up my Buddha poster and my Lego Architecture sets and my bottle cap collection along my windowsill and set up my altar. I built my Sungyemun Lego set which I put with my other Lego Architecture sets along my windowsill.

After I got unpacked, the THRIVE students, first and second year, and the mentors, went to the TV Lounge and introduced ourselves. Then we split into groups each led by a mentor to go look around the campus so the second year THRIVE students could help the new students get more acquainted with it. I got paired up with Nathan, Jack, Taylor, and Autrey, Sheldon, and Paige, three of the new students.

I went to the Campus Kick-off that night before me, Hillary, Phillip, Amanda, Dave, and Kayla went to see the comedian Rob Gleeson perform in Hendrix Hall. After seeing the comedian, I got back to my room and then Tyler and I went to a meeting in the TV Lounge where we were given our roommate agreement forms. After the meeting, Tyler and I got to our dorm and filled ours out. 

The next day, all the THRIVE students went to see the Convocation before we went to Brunch with the Deans. That night I went down to the Rec Center for the first time in a while but realized I forgot to bring my earphones to watch TV. Thankfully Tyler was gracious enough to let me borrow his headphones until my earphones came in the mail.

The next day I went to my Screenwriting class which took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30-10:45. One of our assignments would be to find three sources for a movie and pick one. I already had two ideas but was debating on a third.

After class got out I deposited my three paychecks in my bank account at UCM and withdrew twenty dollars. Then I went down to the Einstein Brother’s at the library where I saw Cassie for the first time in months. We were both glad to see each other. I asked about her summer and she said it went good.  She told me about working at a summer camp then asked me about my summer.  I told her about going to New Hampshire and working at Hen House. It was good to see her after three whole months. 

Unfortunately my Student ID wasn’t working in the cafeteria so Esther, the check-in lady, had to write my name and number down on a sheet of paper until I got a new ID. I called my mom that day and asked her that she send me my earphones and she said they would come on Thursday. Still hoping to do whatever I could for Jack’s mom, I took one of my meditation cards, the Medicine Buddha one, and set it one my altar, in the hopes that this bodhisattva (Buddhist saint) would help Jack’s mother as I honored him during my daily practice by bowing before my shrine. But I knew I had to not expect it to cure Jack’s mom and not base my faith off whether it does or not. In Tibet, the Medicine Buddha is venerated in devotion when loved ones are sick. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.  Either way it is a way to help realize and awaken one’s Buddha nature.

The next day I went to my Public Speaking class and after that, I went to the Union and got a new ID. I also printed off my syllabus for both of my credit courses, some papers for my Screenwriting class and a paper for me to read for my Public Speaking class called What Every Yale Freshman Should Know. Then I went to the bookstore and got my Screenwriting textbook.

Afterwards my ID card still did not work in the cafeteria so I went to Housing and found out I had not signed up for a new meal plan so I signed up for the full meal plan like I did last year. During lunch, I looked on-line at Lonely Planet’s section on Nepal, to go there as a Buddhist pilgrim and I read about a strange Hindu temple in which a woman multi-tasked by combing her hair as she makes love to her husband. After lunch I read Chapter One of the textbook for my Screenwriting class where I learned that true screenwriters spend about five hours a week on their screenplays, so I decided I could probably work that around my schedule. I went to my Transition Planning class, which, this year, would not be taught by Mrs. Carter but a teacher named Mike Brunkhorst, or Mr. B as he liked to be called.

                The next day when I got back from my Screenwriting class Alex Place, the brother of Elizabeth, asked me if I wanted to go rock-climbing with him. I said sure and we went down to the Rec Center and ran into Jack on the way and he agreed to join us. Unfortunately the rock-climbing wall was closed so we went back to the dorm. After that however, I went to the library to try and work on Plato math and, in addition to seeing Cassie, I saw and interesting thing on the wall of the library called 19 Possible Discoverers of America before Columbus. There were several Norse explorers mentioned, and Indian one, an Irishman, Danish and Portuguese, a Black African Muslim from Mali, but what stuck out to me was a Chinese explorer named Hui Shun. Hui Shun was a Buddhist monk from China in the fourth century and supposedly landed in Guatemala where he taught and preached Buddhism to the indigenous people of the region. In fact, the name Guatemala was believed to be named after Gautama Buddha, the Historical Buddha. 

So Buddhism maybe had reached the West before Columbus. I had always speculated so after I read the book Buddha or Bust: In Search of Enlightenment, Happiness, and the Man Who Found them All. The author, an American Buddhist journalist named Perry Garfinkel, suggested in his chapter on Buddhism in America that Buddhism had reached the New World before Columbus blended of course, with traditional Native American beliefs, just as Christianity is among several Indian cultures in North and South America, such as the Maya. Now more evidence was starting to pile up.

I was going to work on Plato math but then I got a call from Jessica asking me to meet her by the UCM bookstore at 12:45 to pick up my books. I got there and mentioned I had already picked up my Screenwriting textbook and so I got the book and the packet for my Public Speaking class. I went down to the library to work on Plato math thinking about that temple I read about in Nepal and then it came to me, the third source of an idea for a screenplay. A screenplay that takes on how we multi-task so much in our society about a woman who makes love to her boyfriend whiles she does other things such as papers, phone calls, and credit card bills. 

Afterwards I worked on Plato math and went down to the Rec Center. I came back and read the paper for my Public Speaking class, then went upstairs to check my mail and, sure enough, I had gotten those earphones from Mom. 

Tyler went home the next day to work at his job over the weekend at AMC Theater. That night I went to New China Buffet with Hillary, Philip, Amanda, Philip’s friend Marty, Kayla, Daniel, Kimmie, Jack, Corey, Emily, and Autrey, Tyler, and Paige, some the new students from THRIVE, and a UCM student who was thinking of becoming a volunteer.

On Saturday, my mom came and we went down and ate at Crazy Dog’s. Then we went to Hasting’s and I sold some of my old books and DVD’s I didn’t want and got $11.50 worth of store credit. I also got a crossword puzzle and I got a thing where you scratch at the surface and get three matches in a row, you get a prize, which they were giving out with every purchase. I got three matches so I got five dollars store credit the next time I sell anything at Hasting’s. After that, Mom and I went back to my room and she helped me hang a drape over my windows.

Unfortunately I realized when I tried to do Plato math that day that my earphones weren’t working. After that I went back to my dorm and then went to the cafeteria. I saw that Spongebob Squarepants was on so I tried to sit near the TV. At the table next to me was Mckinsey and across from her sure enough was Cassie.  Cassie said, “You can sit here.”

           I sat down with them and talked. I found out Cassie was living in the Foster/Knox apartment building. Time flew by fast as we ate and as I sat with Cassie, I noticed something going on inside me that I just couldn’t express. We finished dinner and Mckinsey said, “Well it was good to see you.”

Cassie said, “Well, I’ll see you around, maybe at Einstein’s.”

“Yeah,” I said.

That night I found out my study hall nights were Monday and Tuesday.  I also watched Pawn Stars on the TV that Tyler brought as he was home for the weekend.  I worked on Plato again the next day and I worked on a few of my screenplays for a full hour.  That night I did my homework for my Transition Planning class and my Public Speaking class and I ran on the treadmill, watching King of the Hill on my phone, which was actually very frustrating.

The next day I went to the UCM computer store and bought some new earphones, some really cool red, black, green, and yellow earphones which came with a bag to carry them in and smaller earpieces. They worked fine and I used them as I did Plato math. I also worked on a few of my screenplays for another hour that day. That night I went to study hall and after that I went to the Rec. Center and ran on the treadmill using my earphones to watch King of the Hill and they worked great.

When I got back from the Rec. Center that night, Alex said, “We should hang out sometime.”

“Sure,” I said.

I asked Alex what kind of stuff he likes and he said, “Japanese stuff, antiques, Nintendo, looking at Medusa stuff.”

“Cool,” I said. “We should watch Pawn Stars some time. It has a lot about antiques.”

“Ok," said Alex.  

The next day during my screenwriting I class there was a student who needed a note taker so I volunteered to be one like last year. Then I went down to Einstein’s in the library before I went there to work on my screenplays for an hour and Plato math. I worked on Plato and my screenplays for an hour the next day and went to study hall again. The next day I worked on Plato math and worked on some of my screenplays for an hour and the next day I did my exercise for my screenwriting class.   

Tyler left on Thursday morning and when I went to Einstein’s that day, I found Cassie wasn’t there because she was sick. So I sent her an e-mail saying I hope she gets well soon and gets all the things she needs for her classes. Later that day I finished Plato math and did my homework for Public Speaking.