Friday, October 23, 2009

Paparazzi

It was a lovely day on the Oval today! The sun was out, the leaves were rustling, and the cameras were flashing.

Today was picture day. All upperclassman know what I'm talking about. It is the day OU hosts every semester to turn the campus and its students into cheesy layouts for the Prospective Student Services website.

You know what I mean...

It looks so natural...

It was humorous to watch this happen. They had all the students they had selected to be in the photos standing in a group near the gardens and they would pluck three or four at a time to go take photos.

The students standing in the group were awkward to say the least. There were about 12 of them and none of them would make eye contact with each other. One girl gazed out into the distance (Dale Hall probably never looked so interesting to her). Some of them stared at the ground. Most of them were texting and playing on their cell phones. None of this a was a surprise after the Sept. 8th post.

What was humorous about this scene was what happened when they pulled the small groups of students out of the group to take pictures.

Suddenly they were close enough to put their arms around each other, have fake laughs, and have mock conversations with one another.

As we all know, this is what all OU students act and look like on a daily basis.

You know, just chilling out on the wall of the Passion Pit, hanging with my friends. All of us wearing our school colors... it's no big deal.

The other beauty of the extravaganza was watching how other students reacted to this photography session/traffic block in the Oval.

Students were turning completely around to see what happens. Bikes became swervy and uncontrollable trying to contain their curiosity.

A few students walked by without looking at all, putting the hoods up on their jackets, worried that they may be caught on camera.

One of the male models for this photo shoot told me that a bike almost hit a camera man. That it almost looked like the biker was charging him, this makes me wonder, if this student was acting out of aggression.

Maybe he saw these pictures when considering being a Sooner and thought to himself Wow college looks like fun! Everyone just hangs out together on campus all the time! It is so diverse there! People wear school colors everyday! OU is the only place for me!

Then he arrived here and realized that those beautiful flowers are only planted during prime high school tourism times in the semester. That a good 80% of the time those gardens sit unplanted with brown dirt.

It's OK, I still love OU. As, I'm sure, this gentleman does too. However, to this I raise a question.

While considering OU and seeing these pictures, although you knew they were a little fake and cheesy, didn't you think (just a little bit) that college may actually be like what you saw?

Shout Outs!

* The guy who decided to walk with his bike when he found a friend and wanted to talk. That was just too sweet.

*To the guy on the bike with the awesome afro. Your hair is just cool!

*To the little boys that came to campus with their family.

-Particularly to the little boy that fell in the fountain!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOO PRECIOUS!


Wednesday, October 21, 2009

B-E-A-Utiful!


This is my favorite time of the year!

Nothing seems more collegiate than falling leaves, football games, and the yellow, orange, and gold flowers in the South Oval!

Everyone should go and take a look when it isn't rainging, it is gorgeous!

That's it, not a real post, but just a sidenote.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

My Sincerest Apologies

I would like to begin this post with an apology. I have been getting numerous complaints about the length of time between my last post and now. I am sorry, midterms are killer. I will be better from now on.

Moving on to the real business. The oval.

The South Oval was bustling today, and I was quite impressed! Overall, everyone was pretty aware today! I didn't see too many people plugged in or shaded over! The atmosphere was pretty low key, but observant.

Who knows why I seemed so visible today, perhaps it could be because I was perched like a bird along the wall of the Passion Pit, or maybe because everyone was just excited to make friends today. Either way, I got dozens of waves from friends, welcoming smiles from acquaintances, and awkward stares (as to say "Why the hell are you staring at me") from strangers. It was a good day!

Also, I got a glimpse of some of the things I have been waiting to see all semester long. The funny stuff, so here it is:

-General Humor: As I was sitting on the corner of the passion pit, happy in my own world of observation, I received a visitor... Kind of. About 15 feet away from me and on the opposite corner, a boy climbs up onto the wall and begins to walk it like a tight rope. I didn't think much about this, he was too close to openly stare. I try desperately to use my peripheral vision to capture every moment. Then he got to the entrance of the pit, where there is an opening in the wall about 2 or 3 feet. I watch him openly now, while he obviously contemplates leaping the entrance. He thinks about it, he bounces on his toes to test his longevity, he takes his leap! However, he is a little short, but lands on his feet. Then he sees me watching, does a run/walk over to a tree and hides behind it until I look the other direction. Yeah, it was pretty awesome.

-Bikers: First of all, I noticed today that the majority of the biker population on the Oval is made up of guys. I don't know why this is. Maybe girls don't want to worry if they wear a skirt one day, or they feel it isn't feminine, who knows. The point of it is, more boys prefer to ride bikes than girls.

One of my hypothesis about this was that boys choose to ride bikes because it is further proof of their masculinity. Proof: Bikers are crazy about ramming people. Proof: bikers get crazy aggressive when someone slips a toe into the bike lane. (I think sometimes they aim for the people who enter the lane, even if it isn't actually in their way). Proof: Bikers usually like to show off, they ride around you through the grass, they hop curbs, they steer with their knees, etc.

*I was completely convinced of this until my theory found its glitch. The Mini Biker. It was a boy on a bike much Much MUCH smaller than he was. Just chillin' and riding along. I was surprised how few people noticed this. He reminded me of a clown. I obviously stared with amazement, my jaw dropped, trying to retain my laughter. How had anyone else missed this?! It was BEAUTIFUL! This man was obviously not trying to prove his manliness with aggression, it looked like he had stolen his little sisters bike. It would only have been better if it had a little basket and streamers. Or if it had Dora the Explorer stickers along the sides.

*As if the prior example wasn't enough to disprove my hypothesis, there was yet another scenario that made me giggle. I don't know what this is called, tandem maybe? There was a boy driving the bike and another boy riding on the handle bars. Like you see in the old movies, where the guy chauffeurs his girlfriend around on the handle bars of his bicycle while she swings her legs and squeals. It was EXACTLY like this... minus the squealing. There was none of that. However, the guy on the handle bars did seem pretty happy to be there. It was great.

*This doesn't really go with my hypothesis, but it is just a funny scene. A boy was trying to pass the bike lane, and the second his toe pushed that little white line a biker came out from no where ready to ram (like any true biker would). Then the walker throws himself backward onto an innocent bystander, who catches him. All three of the parties live, but the walker and the innocent bystander become friends. They walk on laughing and talking about what had just happened. What a happy ending.

Shout Outs!

-To all of my friends who spotted me today and said hello!

-To all the tangent bikers out there!

-To the grown men who steal their little sisters bicycles!

-To the random stranger that I smiled at and got scared and walked by without eye contact!

-To all the people who openly resent smokers on campus... you guys are just funny.