The Tunnel

Before the start of each football game you go through a routine. Get on the bus with all of your stuff and head over to the stadium. Once you’re in the locker room it starts to get quiet and everyone starts to focus on the game. Everyone gets into their pads at different rates and the mood starts to change again. People start yelling, slapping helmets and then coach calls us in for the pre-game meeting after we do our warm-ups out on the field. He gives us our talk and then coach white comes in to get us going. Next we file into the tunnel and squeeze in al tight up next to the banner. The stadium lights shine through the banner into the dark tunnel making a weird artificial light. There’s a strange feeling behind the glowing banner and it gets quiet until the announcer yells the Kennedy Cougars, then coach yells, “go get ‘em!” and we break through opening us up to all the light and noise as we flood onto the field.

Waking Up

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! My alarm usually gets its chime off four times before I reach my arm that’s still stiff from the nights sleep and grip the plastic slider to ALARM-OFF. The slider reminds me of the day to come. I’m reminded of everything I have to do next; I’m not in a good mood.
Next, I reach down and grab my thick blue comforter and pull it off of me along with my sheets. The cool air of my room hits my legs and jolts me awake. Once again, I am not in a good mood. The cold wood floor I step onto just adds to my jolly early-morning mood. As I walk to my door my room is already bright because of my large window, the door opens me up to the stinging hallway lights that shocks my pupils. My eyes get even with me by sending a stinging pain through my forehead.
I walk into my bathroom and turn my adjuster light on low and run some cold water in the sink. I look through the fog in my eyes to the mirror. After I splash my face with some cold water they clear up and I finally get the feeling that I’m awake. I dry off and stretch my arms as I walk into the kitchen and open the pantry and scan the shelves for something decent. I usually can’t find anything and end up grabbing a protein shake then heading out of the door.

Captain Crunch

I open the kitchen cabinet early one morning. My eye automatically goes to the second row from the top, where all the clear tupaware containers are holding different types of cereals. I read them left to right, like a book. First, the dark rough texture with little black dots spots me through its textured plastic container. This would be my dad’s favorite, Raisin Bran. Next over, I see some lighter colored circles, cheerios. Maybe another day, there not even honey nut anyways. My eyes keep moving. Next to the cheerios is some ugly mixture, something too healthy, something that tastes like different types of cardboard and gravel, one of my mom and sisters healthy cereals. I don’t even hesitate as my eyes keep moving onto the familiar, yellow round-cube like pieces of gold. Captain crunch, my favorite. My mouth starts to water as I reach into the cabinet and grab the container. This is going to be a good breakfast.

Presidential Physical Fitness

Presidential Physical Fitness is a program that is meant to keep kids in shape in grade school by encouraging kids to get in shape so they can get a badge and letter "signed" by the president. I remember the first day we were told about it. Our PE teacher told us we could be part of the elite presidential physical club.

All you had to do was meet some guidelines based on your age. Personally I think i remember having to do more than 30 situps in a minute, 4 pull ups, run a mile under 7 minutes, and be able to pass my toes on sit and reach. All of these were fairly easy for a skinny 5th grade boy, the pull ups were the only thing that threatened me every year. Since then they've gotten easier while the sit and reach poses more of a problem. I can't exactly touch my toes.

I remember after you met all the guidelines the gym teacher would anounce it. You would then recieve a blue badge and certificate "signed" by Bill Clinton himself. It was an elite group of athletic specimen everyone wanted to be a part of. Actually, it wasn't that hard and i think all but 2 or 3 kids in my class made it. Still, at the time, many kids thought it cemented there place in professional sports once they were older.

Homework

Last night i sat down to do my homework at about 3 in the afternoon. I figured that it wouldn't take very long and that I could finish it quickly and get to bed early that night. I wasn't exactly sure what I had for homework so I opened up my folders one by one. Starting with first hour. When I opened up the ap lang folder my eyes met the research paper.. o crap. I sat down at the computer and began to do one final revision for the paper. I didn't think that it would take me long, but it sure did. Three revisions later and my dads revision led to a different paper. Then I had to go back and cite the sources by paragraph, which I hadn't done before.
Luckily after that paper my 2nd and 3rd hour classes didn't give any homework. But my fourth hour pre calc class had a big test monday.. So i sat down and studied that for about an hour. After that i didn't want to go on to the next class, which was spanish. We had a quiz over ser vs. estar coming up. After looking at that I was ready to throw my bag out the window, instead i went over my ap lang paper one more time then went to bed, great night.

UltraKeys

If there was one class I wish i payed more attention to in middle school it's typing. We used this program called UltraKeys. It was part of Computer Tech Ed. Everyday you would go through this computer program typing the same sentences over and over.

The senences would work on one row of keys at a time. You would start by typing just the letters, like asdfghjkl; asdfghjkl; asdfghjlk; the eventually switch to real words, as dad sad a sag dag jag jas fash. This was pretty boring, and for that reason i didn't do it everyday. Then when it came time for testing we would have to type for speed. I barely passed because i never got any better. I'd just type really slow on the pre-test so it looked like a improved.

The other reason for my present day typing handicap is the cardboard covers we would put over our hands as we typed. I'd always cheat by bending my wrists so the cover would slide up and I could see the keys. Today, I still can't type without looking, sorry UltraKeys. It's your fault for being so easy to cheat on.

Michael Ayers

The class have recently ended the eternal quest to find Ayers's blog. The simple answer was to just google, "Michael Ayers" UIowa Blog. His blog is panoptiblog.blogspot.com. The actual search for his blog was quite interesting. The name Michael Ayers in synonomous with many things we have found out, from potty mouth teenage girls, to British boxers.

• 
  Michael Ayers, age 50, is a ultra-distance in line skater. His famous quote, "If it ain't at least 30 miles, it ain't worth putting your skates on for." Titles his website, there were numerous photos of him finishing these skating marathons, and some of him and his granddaughter skating around also. Quite the athlete.

While on the topic of his athleticism one should note his boxing career. He was 31 and 5 with 28 knockouts while boxing in the UK. He's a lightweight from London and is now retired at 48.

One of the more discriptive accounts of Michael Ayers cam from a teenage girl. She seemed to be upset with him and in love with him at the same time. I think he said something to one of her friends about her and someone else, so she resorted to name calling i'm not going to repeat.