Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Fish Bowl

From July 14, 1997 to October 11th 1999 I attended Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. Ricks College (now known as BYU-Idaho) was then a junior college. 2 years only. (Though it isn't uncommon to have found someone that was there for 3 years...) Because it was only a 2 year school, there were only freshman and sophomores. But really it worked out so freshman = freshman, but sophomores kinda = seniors. Even I was there for 2 1/2 years.

Since I was a music major I pretty much lived in the Snow Building. (Eliza R. Snow). The Snow Building was the home of the fine arts departments. My sophomore year I lived there even more so then my freshman year. I had pep band at 7am, different classes throughout the day in the Snow and around campus, then I would have to squeeze in two hours (at least) of practice time, and I also worked as a tutor in the piano lab. I was also the band historian on the band council so it was my job to take pictures of everyone throughout the year. Some days I wouldn't see my roommates till 11pm. A famous line from my old roommate pretty much sums it up. I had walked in to the apartment at 10:30 at night, (30 minutes after curfew) when she standing there in the living room and said "Hello, Stranger of the world!!!"

The lower level of the common area in the snow building was called the Fish Bowl by all those that lived there. It was called the fish bowl because anyone could see you from the top level, the railing all around the top was clear glass. When you are at the bottom you felt like you were in a fish bowl. This is where we studied, ate, took naps, talked with friends, and had a good cry. At each end of the fish bowl was a small staircase that went up to the upper level. There was a wall of windows on the outside wall of the stairs.

My apartment wasn't too far away from the Snow Building and on some days I would have a break between classes so I would try to go home for a minute or two. I always seemed to go home by going down the stairs on the north side of the fish bowl and then out onto the street. It had become habit to slide down the railing from the upper level to the landing in the middle before the stairs would turn 180 degrees to go down to the bottom level. The railing between the landing and the bottom floor was too close to the brick wall that made up the top section of the stairs, it wasn't very condusive for sliding down the banister.

So pretty much every day I would do the same thing(if I had the chance to go home). I would go sliding down the railing of the top section of stairs and then walk down the bottom section. There were maybe 10-15 steps on each section. One day I was in a fairly happy and silly mood. I hopped onto the railing to attempt my normal routine, but this time it was far from the norm! The strap from my backpack had gotten stuck under my legs, this didn't allow me to slide very well. I lost my balance and tumbled over the banister to the second section of stairs, where I rolled down the stairs to the floor. I just layed there for a minute looking up at the ceiling. At the other end of the fish bowl was Dr. Taylor and a close friend of mine talking. They had witnessed the whole thing. They both came running over to me. I sat up quickly. In my backpack I carried my electronic metronome and tuner for practice time. During the crash the tuner turned on and while I was sitting there on the floor it was playing a very loud Concert A. While trying not to laugh, or cry I sat on the bottom step to open up my backpack to turn off the tuner. My friend said I looked like a rag doll being thrown down the stairs. One second my backpack was on top of me the next it was under. Dr. Taylor was very concerned, but once I stood up and showed them I was fine, he tried not to laugh at the situation. After we were all done wiping the tears of laughter from our eyes I very slowly walked home.

I had quite a few bruises from that ordeal and walked very slowly for awhile. I never tried to slide down the railing again. Even before this accident when I would walk down stairs I would have visions of taking a misstep and tumbling down the stairs. The fact that it actually happened has only made these visions in my mind occur more often and move vivid.

(If you want to read another post about my time in the Snow building please go read Music Lit.)
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/29/2005 08:35:00 AM :: 8 Comments:

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