School Spending

Thursday night, I went bowling with Jen, Chris, and a bunch of Chris' friends from work at BestBuy. The alley we went to was difficult to find, as its sign had burnt out and the building was set back really far from the street. Inside, it was absolutely packed. Thursday nights are a dollar a game (plus a buck for shoes). The alley had been redecorated last in the 1970's so that was kind of interesting. Combine that with all the college kids with pitchers of beer and the beat up old cars outside, and it felt like I was wandering around the 70's. It made me especailly conscious of the big soccer-mom minivan. Anyway, my bowling sucked. I can't even remember the last time I'd even been bowling. The second game was better, but not by much. It was still fun, though.

Yesterday, I returned some CDs to the library and took a look at Changing Hands bookstore down in tempe. I was instantly reminded of Brace Books and More in Ponca City- they had that natural thing going with beads and stuff for the house sold alongside the mixed new and used books.

I headed down to school where I picked up and deposited my paycheck from the library. Speaking of the library, the other night this very strange guy came in, and was extremely annoyed I didn't know how to print off a reciept showing he didn't have any more books that were being recalled. His whole attitude was so condescending and abrupt, it reminded me of a Ross customer. He had had three books recalled (that is, someone else puts a request in for them, otherwise you can renew to your hearts content) and immediately filled out recall cards to get them back asap. This guy had 551 books checked out, some of them doubles. Something was strange about this situation. I did some further research on this guy and found out he had reviewed all 87 cafes, restuarants, and bars in downtown Tempe, and cataloged every tree and bush on campus for an exhaustive areal survey book he published. Definately some kind of obsessive-compulsive personality.

Last night, Jen and I biked down to Mill Avenue where it was hopping from all the people going to and coming from Octoberfest down in the big park. We walked around, got ice cream, and people watched. Afterwards, we went on a bike tour of new asu construction. There are some really cool buildings. The first one we saw was a new applied science building, which was still pretty empty. A long courtyard runs the lenght of the building with second and third floor walkways. On the second floor, Jen was appalled to find Herman Miller and Knoll designer chairs and tables. These two compainies are the Mercedes-Benz' of the designer furnature world. The combined value of the 8 chairs and 2 tables is about $9,000. These were just sitting there, getting dirty, and able to be taken by the first unscrupulus person to come across them. She was especailly distressed to find them in an engineering and applied sciences building, where no one would recognize them. Similiarly comfortable and styled chairs can be had fo a quarter of the price, so why is the school spending tuition money on the designer label?