over easy.

Mike Alger recently explained something important to me over a plate of eggs.

"I don't like runny yolks because I don't like my food to mix-- didn't I recently have a big conversation with you about this? I think the way people approach food mimics their work style. I like to eat one thing on my plate until its gone and then move onto the next item. I'm the same with work. I finish one thing before I move on to the next."

"Bo-ring. I love runny yolks. I love the way it tastes when mixed with jam. I love the way it tastes when mixed with syrup."

The next morning I'm paddling in a pool with my beginning swimming class. I'm on yard 40 of the total 50 that my super-cute, freckly, brunette coach commanded us to swim. Everyone else is finished and waiting near the side; all eyes on me.

"Don't even worry, everyone wants a little break", I'm told when I reach the rest of them at last.

I am one of three girls in my swim class this semester. The rest are men. They are not freshman. They are not skinny. Some are soccer players; some are in the ROTC. The other girls offer no comfort whatsoever. One of them runs 5 miles every morning, the other swims laps daily at the gym. They are both lean and muscly and blonde.

After swimming is Spanish. My teacher is blonde, but rotund. Her Spanish is beautiful and spoken with great ease. Everyday feels like a strain to remember the vocabulary I learned from previous semesters. Sometimes I get lost listening to the sound of her voice as the meaning glides over my head.

Next: Motion graphics. After Effects. Technology and computers. I purposefully sit at the iMac closest to the teacher to watch his every mouse click so I don't get lost.

I'm trying to choose comfortable projects in my design classes this semester to balance things out a bit. I am relabeling some ginger beer and choosing a more playful magazine to redesign.

I eat eggs most at nights in Provo since I moved out. They are tasty and cheap. I even learned how to make a cheap muffin recipe to have something to soak up the yolk with.