June 21, 2012: Post 527 (2012 Day 173)

June 21, 2012

Daily Comment

In the second phase of my college life, college was the smallest part of my life. 

I had already moved out of my parents' house, was living in a beautiful apartment that one of my roommates had grown up in. The apartment was beautiful, but the South Bronx neighborhood had declined quite a bit (a few years later, I came back and the apartment house, and every other apartment on the block, was abandoned and totally boarded up).

During my brief tenure at CCNY, I met someone (a pot dealer, to be honest) who eventually moved in, and then extended the invitation to me. He was much older than I was (I was 16, he was 21) and was a Junior, where I was a 'rising Freshman'. 

New roommates meant new friends, since neither of them were from the area where I had gone to school. My existing friends came by a lot (people used to visit each other a lot before the internet). But new friends, with new ideas, and no preconceived notions of who I was, was very liberating. It also offered me possibilities of reinventing myself beyond the natural changes of growing out of puberty.

First, of all, there was music and pot, the burgeoning youth culture (that would become hippies), and the anti-(Viet Nam) war movement, all of which I had discovered and embraced while still living with my parents. My room-mates were of the same mind - music was central, we were all enthusiasts, although I was (at that time) the only one of us who played an instrument - which also helped me sort out my new and evolving identity.

This is the environment I was in when I started my next attempt at college.

This time, I was better prepared. I knew people who had gone through the process, I had some recommendations for courses, I was closer to school, and I was a year older. I got registered (although, again, the courses were general, and, for the most part, not my first choice), and actually started attending classes. I liked a few of them, this time around.

The CCNY campus was divided in two: North campus (for math, engineering and science departments and classes) and South, for Liberal Arts. Each had its own newspaper, too. I got involved in the Observation Post, the South campus paper, located in the Finley Student Center. 

In my time there,  I met people who were serious about journalism, about writing and reporting. Many of them ended up working at the Times and other papers. One of them became a fairly respected radio sports reporter, who later became a producer for radio and TV. 

Me? I saw one article published, an interview with Stan Lee of Marvel comics about comic-dom's first pregnancy. I also had a photo of a student demonstration posted (a different photo of the same demonstration was printed in the NY Times). I was anything but serious. About anything. My life was sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, as best as I could make it.

School was a social milieu. Academics were of little concern. Part of the reason was that I had no goals, especially, no career goals, and part of it was inertia: I had never applied myself at school before: Things either came easily, or I couldn't really be bothered. I had no work ethic: My only goal was to avoid pain. I didn't really care all that much. I wanted to be liked, I wanted to not feel so inadequate (I was younger than all my classmates). But high school is another story...

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Food and Diet Section

Today's Weight:        203.0 lbs 
Yesterday's Weight:    202.4   lbs  
Day Net Loss/Gain:     + 0.6 lbs

Year 2012 daily weight from December 31, 2011.

Diet Comment:

Ugh - if you look at yesterday's Food Log. you can see I ate an entire day's food last evening, with a predictable result. Today may not be much better, although, at least, my eating begins at lunch - where I typically overeat (it's a buffet!).

Food Log

Breakfast
Skipped.

Lunch

At Ling-Ling Chinese Buffet:

Mongolian grill: chicken, pork, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, peppers, bean sprouts, cabbage and hot sauce; with kimchee.  

Snack
Pepperoni, baby carrots, home-made mayonnaise.


Dinner

Diced buffalo chicken breast with cole slaw on Spring Mix greens. 

Liquid Intake
    Coffee:   22 oz,   Water:112+ oz

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