Gravity - it works for me

When I was a senior in high school trying to decide which college to go to, my mom made me go visit campuses. I'm glad she made me do that, because originally I said I was going to go to Carroll College in Helena, Montana. I just knew it was the place for me. My aunt Terry and my mom took me to visit WSU in Pullman, and then they put me on a bus for Montana. I liked the WSU campus well enough, but I thought it was a waste of time because Montana was the place for me. However, when I arrived in Helena, I got off the bus, and immediately wanted to go home. But I was stuck there for two nights and three days. I was miserable. It just didn't feel right. Have you ever had that experience? When you walk into a place and you know immediately if it's right for you?


When I got home, I started looking more closely at WSU and Central Washington University. We took a family camping trip, and went to visit both campuses again. I liked Central, but try as I might, I couldn't picture myself there for four years. The next day we made our way to Pullman again.


This time, I knew I was home. It just felt right. It was comfortable, and I knew I could be there for four years at least. The only question was what dorm was right for me? I felt like Goldilocks and the Three Bears...I tried on several dorms, and while a few were okay, none were just right. Until I got to Gannon-Goldsworthy. It was the last dorm we visited, because our tour guide knew I was going to be an education / English major. You see, GG was the Math, Science and Engineering dorm, which meant that mostly math, science and engineering majors lived there.


For the second time on that visit, though, as soon as I walked in the doors, I knew I was home. I told my parents I was going to be a Coug, and I was going to live in Gannon-Goldsworthy.


As one of very few non-science majors, I was way outnumbered. I had NO classes with any of the girls I met on my floor. The upside, though, is that this meant the only time we spent together was fun. And I didn't compete with any of them for grades on anything. Man, were those girls competitive. And while I don't think I'm dumb, some of those girls were brilliant.


On the downside, though, that meant that ALL of my friends and all of their boyfriends were science majors, and let's be honest: science majors walk a fine line between totally geek and totally cool. My friends fell mostly on the cool side of the line. Unfortunately, most of their boyfriends fell on the geek side.


One of these guys in particular was not only a geek, he was sort of a jerk. By sort of a jerk, I mean a real ass. To me, anyway. He was nice to the other girls and guys in our group. But for some reason we really did not mesh. He spent as much time as he could arguing with me and trying to make me angry. I'm ashamed to admit that I let him bother me...often. His problem was twofold: first, he's a chauvinist, and I'm a strong female, and two, he was an elitist. He felt that liberal arts majors were "worthless" and that's a quote. J was over studying with this guy and his girlfriend, and he told J exactly what he thought of English majors. His girlfriend, my friend, told him to shut-up because J was getting angry. I don't know if he was dumb enough to think that J wouldn't think of me when he said English majors were dumb, or if he was so dumb he didn't realize who he was talking to. I'm betting on the second option, but that may be giving him too much credit.


Two of our dumbest arguments really stand out in my mind. The first was when we were in the car coming home from a movie we had all gone to see. I commented that movies today are longer than they used to be. He told me I was wrong. I told him he was wrong, that movies used to be about an hour and a half, but now were usually two hours or more. He had no examples or proof, but continued to argue with me. I finally realized how dumb the argument was and quit talking to him, but he sucked me right in at first. I hated that about him...how easily he could get me into an argument.


The other argument that was monumentally stupid was when he told me that because I didn't know the mathematical formula for gravity, that I couldn't say it existed. I was flabbergasted. I asked him what the formula was, and he pulled out his math book. I told him that any idiot could look up the formula, and that if he didn't know it by heart, by his own definition he couldn't say it existed, either. He then amended his stupid argument to say that if you didn't understand the mathematical formula, you couldn't say gravity worked. I was SO mad!! I was sick and tired of him implying that I was dumb. That I was worthless because I was a liberal arts major. What an ass he was. I think he was just intimidated that I was smart (I'm pretty sure I'm smarter than he is, but I could be biased) and that I stood up for himself. His girlfriend never argued with him when he was stupid. She always let him have his way. Not me.


Anyway, after he implied AGAIN that I was dumb because I didn't know the math that proved gravity's existence, I had had it. I stood up, picked up a textbook that was sitting on the table, raised it high in the air and dropped it with a loud THUD.


I glared at him, pointed at the book and said, "It works for me!" Then I turned and stalked out of the room.


I don't know what his deal was, but gravity does work. Even my cat knows it. Zoe is probably one of the laziest cats on the face of the planet. She will jump up on to a surface, but she will NOT jump down. She will take her front paws, lean over the edge, and just wait for gravity to pull her large hiney down behind her. Here are a few video clips of her doing just that. Sorry for the poor quality of the video. I'll get better stuff eventually and update this post. Also, these videos show her using gravity from low places. She'll even do it off the counter or the bed...anywhere, really.