Like a good book you cant put down

Generally most of my time is spent watching. Computer screens, tvs, people. Whatever needs my attention. And now with the NFL and college football seasons starting I watch quite a bit more. Both of my classes require quite a bit of time on the computer and our lectures mainly take place as we sit in front of computer screens.
Last thursday I had my GPS class. After watching our prof. painfully go through a powerpoint that took over an hour, we got to lab time. This is only our second week of lab so we are still figuring out the GPS receivers that we are using. For this lab we were suppose to go out and collect some points around campus. We needed to collect multiple points at three different locations but with time in between. (If that doesnt make sense dont worry, half of our class did it wrong because our TA didnt explain it) Either way I am lab partners with the weird kid who kind of smells funny. So i get to walk around campus for an hour and a half making small talk with this kid. Awkward. I handed him the GPS so he could do all the work. This enabled me to do some quality people watching. I realized how much I missed being on a college campus wasting time. So lets delve into what I noticed last thursday afternoon.

There are plenty of weird looking college students. Lots of individual spirits. People who dont care how they look or what other people think of them and people who care to much about their image. The clothes dont interest me as much as the facial expressions. Every expression imaginable is seen in between classes out by the fountain or in the cafeteria. I just wonder what thoughts are provoking this enthusiastic look? Are you really having that good of a day? Or does a D on a test really cause you to look like you want to cause the sandwich lady bodily harm?

Most people you see are walking somewhere, on their way to class or to get some food. People watching in class is a different situation and a potentially dangerous and creepy one. I walk alone almost exclusively, except for our GPS lab adventure. Other people walk in groups, with friends, girlfriends/boyfriends, teammates whatever. One of my favorites is the group that is to big to avoid in the hallway and that is nearly impenetrable. These people have seemingly come from the same place and are all going to the same class. If you get stuck behind them you are in danger of being associated with them, and eyes could be rolled in your direction.

People also multitask constantly. I listen to my ipod. A very popular choice. Others choose to talk on their phones which I find weird because anyone can overhear your conversation as you walk. Walking and talking is not as disruptive as walking and texting though. Texting diverts your eyes and you better hope you can walk in a straight line and you know where you are going otherwise you can be in trouble. Its not like the sidewalks are empty on campus. There are people everywhere, many texting and not looking ahead like you. Bikers cruise around people and longboarders who dont have much control because they obviously just picked up on the fad try to avoid people as well. So these people who text either are overly cautious, walk slow and stop to look up every once in a while, or just dont care and get in other peoples way. Funny either way.

My thoughts are drifting though as I try and watch football and think about people watching at the same time. So as important as listening, talking, interacting, reading and all of that is my favorite still might be watching. You can get a lot of information from watching people, fabricated or real. You decide.