po po, I dunno

 At the college on Thursday, I worked testing in the morning and had tutoring in the afternoon. I had a little break in between and sat outside the student center for a little sun and sandwich as it was a relatively cool day for July. 

A couple of our security guards walked by, which in itself was not strange. They do frequent walk-arounds to various campus buildings throughout the day. I saw them convene with a couple of other law enforcement types and then the four of them headed to a nearby building. 

A few minutes later, I packed up and headed into that same building, which houses a computer lab, to check off a few tasks before tutoring. Inside, I found many campus security guards and city policemen huddled in a hallway. One of them spotted me and politely asked me to "go around" the building.

I did a quick 180 outta there. Campus is relatively quiet since it's summer semester, and I didn't see any other people who I might ask, "what's up?" There were just a couple of policemen stationed outside the building in question.

So I headed to the library, where I saw seven or eight police vehicles parked, with a couple of others arriving. Curiouser and curiouser.

Exiting the library a while later, I saw one policeman retrieve another policeman from a freshly parked patrol car. The retriever was clearly toting a large rifle, and the retrievee was carrying a hefty riot shield.

And I'm thinking, "does anyone care that I'm just walkin' around out here?" I did see one of our maintenance guys out driving around in his golf cart/ truck, and I asked him if he knew what was going on.

"Everyone I ask says, 'I dunno'. I asked one of the cops, and he just gave me a dirty look", end of story.

On my way to the tutoring center, I asked my testing coworkers if they knew what was up. Boss said, "Security came by, said they were looking for someone. That's all I know". Then he joked, "We didn't tell them where you were."

And that was that. The campus was never put on lock-down. I don't know how long "the incident" lasted, but it was cleared up by the time I'd finished with tutoring. Later that evening, we got an email acknowledging "police activity" with links to mental health services for anyone who might've been freaked out by it, but no explanation.

Yesterday afternoon, we got a follow-up email saying that a student was suspected of having a firearm on campus, so police were contacted, but nothing was substantiated. 

So was it all a prank or what?  Seems like there's more to the story,

That's all my excitement for the week. That and this Bon-Sai that was added to the scratch paper wall-of-fame

No kiss cams to see here.

Trash

 A good declutter, how I love thee.

One of this week's highlights: we went to the dump. We had a few items that we'd gathered over the years that needed the heave-ho. They weren't useful to donate and were too big for the weekly trash bin. It was time.

The last time we'd been to the dump was probably about 5 years ago after we'd lived here for a few months. Back then, the fee was 9 or 10 dollars. The current fee is $35, so the price has increased, but it's still bargained-priced therapy if you ask me!

We backed the truck up to the designated spot and tossed that garbage with reckless abandon. Afterwards, I felt like Nicole Kidman in that famously supposed "divorce photo" after her divorce from Tom Cruise.

On a side note, I learned that Ex Mrs. Tom Cruise denies the photo is her celebrating the divorce, but I didn't care enough to dig further. 

Speaking of Nicole Kidman, we've been watching the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers. Anyone else? 

I gotta say, it's not doing much for me. We watched the first season, which was okay, but pretty forgetable - as I realized I'd mostly forgotten it. But so far, I'm finding the second season almost embarrassingly bad. A f&cebook friend says it gets better after episode 4. Well, we watched episode 5 last night, and it's still not doing much for me.

Heading into the week ahead, there are only 3 weeks remaining for summer classes. It's a densely packed timeline, and the tutees are feeling it. Hopefully, they'll all be celebrating like Nicole soon.

something's brewing

Magnum and I had a nice Sunday morning bike ride today. Once again, we cycled passed a [fave local brewery], and once again, there was some sort of outdoor exercise class going on. I recall coming across this for the first time last summer, and here it was again: [Cycle Sips and Lifts].

The mood seemed quite festive. I doubt that anyone who attends a workout event at a brewery is going to be too hardcore about the fitness aspects.

Speaking of local breweries, Chaco talked us into going to a different one earlier this week for dinner while he was here. He figured he "had to" go to a brewery while in Fort Collins, it's what you do. Apparently.

So we went to [Odell Brewery]. Chaco and Wolfgang could not believe! we'd never been there before. 

What can we say, we don't think to go to breweries. I'll admit that it was a nice experience on the patio on a pleasant summer evening. The food truck on site was an Italian flatbread truck. Nothing to write home about, but it was fine. 

As I perused the menu, the vegan option sounded interesting. I wondered how they would pull off the vegan mozzarella. I chickened out on ordering it, however because of the name: Vegana.

I wasn't sure how to pronounce it, and it looked so much like "vagina", so I ordered the Marinara lest I say vegana incorrectly. ( I have since learned how it's properly pronounced...)

Our 4th of July was lowkey. We were dogsitting Chaco's dog Ella, and she is NOT a fan of loud noises. Our dogs, Penny and Merlin, couldn't care less when it comes to fireworks, thunder, etc. Ella is more typical.

"What was that?!"

It was nice having the day off from work as I'm typically scheduled to work at the testing center on Fridays. I've decided to have a sit-down with Boss to discuss my future there. 

On one hand, I like my coworkers, and it's pretty decent pay as far as part-time jobs go. On the other, the work tasks are pretty mundane after four years. Because of tutoring, my availability for testing is really not flexible  - for when someone is out sick or on vacation. So I'm going to straight up ask Boss if it would be easier for him if I left and he hires a replacement (impossible!) with more flexibility.

I'm not sure what answer I'm hoping for. 

terms of endearment

"Well, I thought I should've used that approach, and got too far into it before I realized I was f*cked"

I was having a tutor sesh yesterday. The student had recently taken an exam and wanted to go over some of the questions that had tripped her up. 

She was explaining her thought process when she nonchalantly dropped the F-bomb.

Now, I personally speak quite cleanly, but often in my mind, I'm saying all kinds of nasty sh*t. 

I happily welcome the introduction of "the f-word" or its various cousins from tutees, however. It's an indication to me that the tutees are comfortable around me. Yesterday was this particulary student's first F-bomb. It was followed by a couple of others later on, while she maintained her typically cheerful demeanor. It made me happy inside.

In other totally unrelated thoughts, I'm considering getting an Instant Pot. Is it worth it? Would I use it that much?

I certainly don't cook as much as I used to since the nest emptied, but I've heard good things about the ease and versatility of Instant Pots. 

Plus Best Buy is teasing me by sending me random $5 coupons - spit in the ocean for an Instant Pot, but still...