Beeb Blog

    - Saturday January 29th 1AM -

    I left the house the most let down and disappointed that I had ever felt. I wanted nothing more but to run until it hurt, I felt like only pain could take away the anger building inside of me like lava. I was hauling ass, I hadn't run in over a month and a half but I was hauling ass. It took a little while for me to start feeling a burn so this too felt good, at least I wasn't totally out of shape. By the time I was starting to really feel it I was on the southernmost part of campus near the stadium. I was planning on just a quick loop around campus, but I was nowhere near done so I turned down a path directly towards the stadium. Once I got to the intersection and crossed the street I was still wondering when I would turn around. As I crossed the Montlake Bridge I looked down upon the begging of one of my favorite runs, a pitch-black trail that twisted in and out of the woods inches above Lake Washington. As soon as I saw it, there was no more contemplation, it was calling out to me and I had to answer. A quick interlude down a flight of stairs and I was there, on a trail that I knew I could always come back to, especially when I needed to think. As I ran alone in darkness hearing an occessional toad jump into the water I was finally able to think. I love running in the dark because even with your eyes open you can't see much. You are left with all your other senses, enhanced and burning for information. Your heartbeat is clear, the feeling of the bark beneath your feet, the rustle of leaves in the light night breeze, and the sweet taste of the sweat of a good workout; solitude. 

    As I ran I could feel an urge welling up side of me. As it grew I knew what it was; the urge to scream. I'm no screamer but this past year I've overcome the feeling of being awkward about it and am not shy about it any more. However, I was running in the pitch-black, in the middle of a park at night, with nobody around (at least nobody whom I wanted to know where I was)… but as the urge rose higher I could not deny it, why deny it? I screamed as loud as I could and it felt great. A few minutes later I screamed again. There is something about screaming as loud as you possibly can. You feel like you're letting the heavens know that you're alive and fighting. 

    I kept running but was again wondering when I was going to turn back. I felt fine but it had been nearly two months since I last ran and I hadn't since because of a broken foot. I shouldn't push myself or my foot beyond the limit. So I asked my body if it would be ok if I kept going, and it answered with a strong silence, no complaints, only urging me on. I decided not to ever turn back tonight, I decided that I would not repeat any part of this route. 

    I got to the arboretum and was happy to be on familiar trails. I could run these trails with my eyes closed. It felt great to be in a familiar wonderland surrounded by trees, running on dirt, with nothing to light the way but the little moonlight that ventured through the foliage investigating this foreigner. As I twisted and turned through the evergreens and ferns, up hills, down hills, I could feel another urge welling up inside of me. I asked my body what it was and I heard one reply, "naked." Run naked? Really? I've heard of people doing it but I'm now at least a mile away from anyone that could save me if anything happened, this was a fairly dangerous place if I came across someone wishing to make it so. Furthermore, to run into a threat naked just goes against your natural instincts but this urge too I had to answer. I ripped off my beanie as I stopped, took off my shirt, and dropped my shorts.

    The first time I was naked was in a public shower at the end of last year, my sophomore year in college. I have never been naked anywhere outside of my bedroom and certainly don't walk around naked. I can't tell you how truly wonderful this feels. When I was running in the woods at first I had the impulse to cover myself a little bit but it started to feel natural very quickly. A while later the cloths I was carrying felt heavy in my hand so I set those down and ran a bit in nothing but my Lance Armstrong bracelet, an "over 21" wristband I got earlier that night, and my Vibrams. I could barley feel my body it felt so light. My arms were free, my legs were unimpeded, it was fantastic. I picked up my cloths and kept running. As I got close to a road I knew I had to cross I put on my shorts and beanie. There was no way I was putting my shirt on the rest of the night, and kept going. I rounded a bend and realized that I still had a ways to go so down went the shorts again. I ran naked until the last possible moment. 

    When I put them back on, the shorts felt so heavy and restrictive I wanted to take them off again, but decided to finish my run without the risk of being "questioned" by officers. I crossed the street to run on my second favorite trail in the world. It's a mile and a half long road that winds through the a mountainside overlooking the university district. There are houses on the left, no lights, and smooth black pavement. It's like running on a black frozen river. As I pressed on I started to feel better, more at ease than I thought I would be possible after happened earlier in the night. I thought I wouldn't feel this way for at least a week, maybe two. I asked myself what was important to me and one thing that came to mind was my California Superbike School interview. So I started reciting things that they would ask me in the interview. Survival reactions (things that happen when you are scared on a motorcycle) and what to do about them. I started quietly lipping them, "Throttle rule number one, once the throttle is cracked open, it is rolled on evenly smoothly and constantly throughout the remanded of the turn." The further I ran the louder it got until I was just short of the volume and intensity I would use to answer a marine drill-sergeant. Any louder and I thought I would wake someone, which would be rude, so i kept it to a dull roar. Once I emerged from the road back into the dull yellow illumination that the street lights of Seattle so faithfully offered, I was at ease. 

    I was running down the last huge hill before the university bridge and was coming up on a guy walking with headphones on. There wasn't much room so I darted by him nearly brushing his jacket sleeve. He BOLTED to the side instantly. For a moment, I felt bad, I didn't mean to scare him, but then I started to laugh. Laughter spilled out for the next few paces and I smiled. I was at ease. A little over a mile and some hills later I was back at Theta Xi. Watching Good Will Hunting and drinking a glass of coffee polished off the night better than anything else could. 

    I am at ease.

    This quarter I'm taking a class called Water and Society. It's a study of water in natural ecosystems and humans affect (usually destructive) those systems. 

    So, now for this girl. It was the first quiz section of the quarter and we were discussing what to do about cities or countries that can not be naturally sustained by the local watershed. Vegas is a great example of a city that would not be there if we did not pipe in water from miles and miles away. We also talked about Yemen and what to do about places in general where this is happening. Do we tell the people to move? We can't really do that… do we decrease their supply even if they can pay for it? 

    Anyway, ideas were being thrown around and my day week was made when this girl raised her hand. Unknown by me at the time was how truly amazing the words she was about to speak were going to be.

"Umm like it floods around here a lot and… well if we could hold onto that somehow we could like ship it to Yemen." 

Silence.

    When she finished it looked like she had just crossed "save an impoverished country" off of her list of things to do that day. The rest of the section looked at each other, not really sure what to do. Then someone raised their hand and said, "I don't really think there is a viable way to ship our floodwater to Yemen," which was more polite than anything I could come up with. There are so many things wrong with this idea I was taken aback but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. Yes, we can't "ship" water there. Yes water is mainly imported via pipelines or diverted rivers. Yes, it doesn't flood enough in Seattle to sustain another country, but hey she tried.

    Later we were talking about what to do about water conservation. Most people were saying that we needed to get rid of corrupt corporations like Global Bank and fix Coca Cola's priorities, essentially stick it to the man. I had a different idea. I suggested that we should make water conservation cool. A majority of the population does not care much about others, especially others on the opposite side of the globe, but they do care about celebrities. So if we could convince a celebrity to be water-conscious and make it cool, then eventually cool goes to habit, habit goes to lifestyle. So over time water conservation would become a part of our culture.

    Water girl raises her hand and very seriously, almost with anger responds, "I don't think celebrities are the answer because if you like look at Tiger Woods, people used to think he was respectable and then he cheated on his wife and people like don't think he's cool anymore so I don't think that's a good idea." I assumed that she was trying to say that if a celebrity was conserving water and they cheated on their wife then conserving water would no longer be cool, but it really is a mystery to me.

    I raised my hand to respond but for the first time ever in class I didn't wait for the TA to say anything, I just said, "I'd like to respond to that" and went for it. I looked her in the eyes and said with a grin, "I DO think Tiger Woods is the answer. It doesn't matter if he cheated on his wife or not, he had, and still does have a major influence on a large part of the population today. Regardless of the celebrity, if they wear a certain type of jeans, those jeans WILL sell. Like I said before, I think that because the majority of the population doesn't really care about others and isn't involved in politics, to get their participation we have to make this cool. As sad as it is, I think celebrities could help get the ball rolling so we good from cool, to habit, to lifestyle with water conservation." She turned around, either frustrated or confused by my use of "big words" like "politics" and "regardless" I'm not sure, but she was silent. At least for the time being…

    The last thing we talked about in class on that wonderfully magnificent day was how to conserve water in our personal lives; no companies, no Tiger, just what can you do. One person suggested to reduce the amount of meat we eat (which has the largest water footprint out of everything we commonly eat, second only to chocolate). Another suggested to use metal water bottles, to reduce the use of plastic water bottles. Then the best thing that could have happened did; she raised her hand.

    She started off with, "Well like, I'm not an engineer…" and I almost cried because I felt so truly truly blessed. What had I done to deserve such a honor? Thank you God! Her idea was as follows, "Well like, I'm not an engineer but I sometimes take longer showers than I should. Let's just be honest, we all take 30 minute showers and I don't want to sound weird but it's like an addiction, which is kinda weird but it's true. The warm water feels so good I end up staying in there. So if we could like, make the hot water in hot water heaters less, and like make the cold water come sooner, I know I would take shorter showers." She ended, satisfied that she had given a groundbreaking world-saving answer. 

    I don't usually take notes in class, I'm a visual learner so I just watch and listen then study later by looking at the slides, but by this point in class I was writing furiously. My paper was titled "Quotes of Water Girl," and for good reason was quickly filling up. 

    Having grown up in the garage wrenching on motorcycles and cars, and pursing an engineering degree it makes my day when someone starts by saying, "Well I'm not an engineer but…" because I know that physics is thrown out the window, usually along with logic. With this girl though, I feel like any person over the age of 5 could spot the flaws. 

    Yes there is a small bit of logic there, five minutes before she raised her hand we talked about how wasteful long showers are so props to her for listening, but make the hot water less? I didn't know they sold water heaters with less to more dials on the outside. Also, make the cold water come sooner? She's right, the water drummer-boy has been far too lenient lately, he needs to make sure the cold water gets there sooner. 

    I'm sure there will be more sightings of Water Girl as my journey through the wonderful class of Water and Society continues. Over the course of the quarter, I'll keep you updated.