Stepping Into Spring

Today, I spent time with the campus map and my spring schedule.  Oy veh.  What a mess.

Here, want to see the beautiful UNLV campus?  Take a look... http://go.unlv.edu/assets/maps/flash/main.html

Ok, now that you've got the map I do, you'll get to see the wonderful distances I'll be traversing.

As an overview, you have to remember UNLV takes up approximately 332 acres.  It's a big campus.  Not as large as say, Texas A&M, but at 332 acres, UNLV is still sizable.

On Tuesdays, it's History then Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications. I'll be between the Classroom Building Complex (CBC) and then I have an hour and 45 minutes until I have to walk just a short distance to Wright Hall.  Not bad, short and sweet, right?

Mondays and Wednesdays are a whole different enchilada as I have to leave the house at an ungodly early hour to be on campus at the beloved Greenspun Hall for my Global Media class with Doc Fish.  After finishing with Doc Fish, I'll be hauling butt (because I only have 15 minutes to get there) all the way across campus to the White Life Sciences building for Personal Growth.  Ok, if you're not looking at the map, let's put it this way, White is HELL AND GONE from Greenspun Hall.  They're literally on opposite ends of the campus.  Ok, let's put that into brighter relief...I'll be walking from corner to corner of the 332 acres in 15 minutes.  Guess I'll be jogging...

Thursdays aren't bad though.  It's History lecture at the CBC followed by its' discussion just 10 doors down in the same building.  After discussion, it's off to Wright Hall for more Intro to IMC 40 minutes later.

Those Wednesdays are going to be killers this spring.  Leaving the house at 7 a.m. to be on campus and in my seat in Doc Fish's lecture by 8:30 a.m. is going to be a feat of strength all of its own.  I'm seriously considering parking in the lot behind White Life Sciences, doing the trek to Greenspun Hall, walk back to White for class then fall out of class and back into my car.  It's a logical approach, but thinking about the distance, I'm cringing hard.  That's a lot of walking.

Before you say, "use your bike," you have to remember, I don't know how to ride one.  Yes, yes, you skinned your knees and have fond memories about learning how to ride a bike, but I don't.  My mother even tried to bribe me with a $5 bill stuck to the fridge (which stayed there until she took it down) in an effort to get me to try to learn...but while I was trying to learn how to ride a bike, a girl that lived down the street from us decided to ride her bike down the hill we lived on.  She crashed into a tree, resulting in a piece of cedar tree bark being shoved through her eye and into her brain.  Yeah, that swore me off bikes but good.  As a kid, while all of the other kids were riding bikes, I was running.  I ran everywhere.  When I got old enough, I learned to drive, which you'll agree with me, four wheels and a metal housing are infinitely safer than two thin wheels and my balance.  We all know how clumsy I am.  Do you think I was any less clumsy as a child?  Oy veh.  Let's just say that clumsy and I have been friends for a l-o-n-g time.  Oh yes, me, who if I can step in it, step on it, bump into it, fall over it and usually does, do you honestly think for a second that I belong on a bicycle?  Um, no. Just thinking about it has the sounds of car tires screeching and loud crashing noises echoing in my head.

I'll walk, thanks.

But, distances aside, I'm grateful for all the quality time on campus this semester.  Yes, we remember me and my two online classes last semester...ewwww!  Yeah, for all that time I spent sitting on my butt, I'm now going to be hauling it across campus three days a week.  If I have my 'druthers (read: I'd rather), I'll walk it.

Let's turn a negative into a positive though.  What do I get out of walking all that way?  A healthy body.  There it is...the ol' nutritional value I love so much.  This time, it's almost literal.  With all that distance being covered by my legs, I'm bound to lose more weight with increased activity.  Am I going to like it?  Probably not.  (Oh yes and all of you are just running out the door to get to the gym, aren't ya?  Mmmhmmm... *poof*  ooh!  There goes another weight loss New Year's resolution!  LOL!)

I consider it a forced workout regimen.  That's right, if I want to get to my goal then I'm just going to have to pound the pavement.  Like I've said countless times, you can't become great without being in the trenches and pounding the pavement first.  It builds character (and removes cellulite).

I'm trying to have a good sense of humor about it, which I'm sure at 6 a.m. on a Monday or Wednesday morning the humor will be non-existant, but hey, it is what it is.  On opposite ends of the UNLV campus are classes that will be enriching my GPA and getting me closer to my degree.

And let me tell you, the theme to The Eternal Sophomore can't be more appropriate at this moment because I'm going to be walking across campus, one foot in front of the other, doing my best to keep marching on.