My College Years Part 32

By Corbin

How life tests the endurance, patience, and sometimes faith of one young woman.
 
**********
 
Rant 1:

For the short period of time that I worked in the Corporate World, I can say, 
happily, that I was never subjected to sexual harassment; No butt-slapping, 
groping or lewd comments made directly at me, nor was I ever invited to a peer 
gathering that took place off site at Hooters, Strip Bars...or something else 
foul like that. Also, I do not believe I worked in an unusual work environment, 
I feel that allot of Companies are like mine. They had ethical standards and 
hired ethical people while promoting a very balanced working environment. 

Management was quick to jump on anyone that was even perceived to be acting 
inappropriate. The more I think about it, I am mostly thankful for the fact I am 
not in jail. I bet you didn't expect that comment, but it's true. I know how I 
am, and if I am standing in an elevator or someone's office...or whatever...and 
some guy was to grab my butt, I can honestly say that I would be beating that 
man to within an inch of his life. Thus I would be guilty of violence in the 
workplace and probably hauled off to jail, not to mention fired!
 
I've punched a guy before...uhm...make that two...okay, I'm not going to sit 
here and recollect each one but they had it coming. I aimed straight for the 
nose, the nose provides some cushion for the blow, but my knuckles would still 
ring out with a bit of pain because ultimately bone connects with bone. But I'll 
never forget that first time, I was so stunned...not that I threw the punch, but 
at the effects! He just collapsed to the ground while cupping his face, it took 
a second but then blood started to smear everywhere and I suspect it was good 
and broken too. I could even feel the cartilage crunching under my knuckles as 
it flattened...ewww...isn't that gross! I thought it was...or maybe it was my 
imagination working now...I'm sure I felt something giving and popping.
 
You know what was really gross? The sound he was making afterwards, that 
gurgling, coughing sound as he spit blood out of his mouth, I guess from where 
it was running down the back of his throat.
 
That was it...end of fight...not very dramatic huh? Most fights are very anti-
climactic.
 
Aren't you glad I shared that? :) 
 
But I'm really such a cuddly, romantic girly-girl sometimes it's sickening 
(blush).
 
 
Rant 2:

I actually get emails from women who say things like "Pushing up 65lb dumbbells 
ain't shit!" or "Is that all?"
 
Uhm, no that's not ALL I can do, I just don't make it a habit of walking into 
the gym and throwing on the maximum number of plates every time. What's the 
sense in that? Besides wrecking your body...joints and so on. You have to pace 
yourself, over the years I watched many a 'big' man and women cripple themselves 
by coming into the gym and doing the absolute maximum their body can tolerate.
 
The one thing that grates on my nerves most of all are the guys and girls that 
feel the need to DROP the dumbbells on the floor. There are signs posted all 
around the gym "Please do not drop the weights". But apparently that does not 
apply to these knuckleheads, they huff-and-puff and have about ten aneurism 
trying to get those giant dumbbells into the air, and when they've exhausted 
every last ounce of strength from their body, the go totally lax. Letting the 
big weights flop to the ground with jarring THUMP!
 
Instead of struggling to do just one-more-rep, I use that last bit of energy to 
gently set the weights down on the ground. It's called respecting the rules of 
the establishment, but respect in this society is becoming a foreign term to 
most people.
 
**********
 
Just in case everyone thinks that I am invulnerable to feeling certain emotions, 
let me recount an event that happened one evening;
 
On a whim one night I decided to hoof it down to one of the bars on campus, 
knowing a number of my friends would be there and hoping that Nikki might be as 
well. Maybe we could make amends...I don't know...I had a million thoughts 
swirling around my brain as I strolled down the sidewalk. 
 
"Hey tubby" I say to the bouncer at the door. No, I'm not being a smart ass, his 
nickname was TUBBY, cause he was a bit of a lard ass. 
 
"How are you doing Corbin?" He asked.
 
"Okay." I sigh.
 
"Three bucks." He says.
 
"Three bucks? Cover tonight?" I pause in shock. I don't like paying cover to get 
into any place.
 
"There's a band tonight." He groans.
 
"They should pay me three bucks to listen to that fingernails-on-blackboard 
music." I mumble while fishing into my pockets. He just shrugs, sometimes he 
would give me a pass, letting me in for free, but Management was cracking down 
on the freebies. So he takes my three bucks, stamps my hand and I walk in.
 
I took about five steps and stopped, I always do that...survey the scene and 
decide if I am going to leave or stay. So I'm standing there in my most 
fashionable attire: Running shoes, faded jeans, button down dark blue silk 
shirt, long sleeve cause it was chilly that night.
 
Now let me pause here and explain a few things about my state of mind. I was in 
my senior year and full of my self (full of crap:) whatever you want to call it. 
But I had imposed some self-important status on my shoulders at this time, I 
could out lift, almost out run any girl on campus (some of those track girls are 
damn fast and the then there are the long distance runners), and let me add most 
any guy to that mix. With Dale no longer 'officially' my boyfriend I moved into 
my free spirit stage, not wanting to be tied down to anyone, but it was my aloof 
attitude that seemed to make me all the more desirable. My grades were 
outstanding having acquired several honors over the years (I will spare you the 
details, unless you really want me to get into some serious back patting). So 
basically I thought I was HOT stuff, and why not, it took me years of socially 
struggling to reach where I was, while still maintaining my self-respect and 
dignity. Uhm, I suppose arrogant, self-righteous were also terms that applied to 
me, but so what.
 
So, I'm scanning the bar and some guys are now scanning me, come on guys 
plain as day I can see you elbowing each other and nodding in my direction. That 
still makes me uncomfortable as hell, so I do my little awkward shuffle of my 
feet and flip some of my hair over my right shoulder before stuffing my hands 
into my pockets as I continue to look for Nikki. But what I caught sight of next 
caused my stomach to turn, there was Dale, leaning up against the bar with his 
arm around Tiffany. (Don't remember her? Well you'll have to go back to around 
part 9, she's had her sights on Dale for years now and with us broken up, 
well...how convenient. And to top things off, Tiffany was what my parents almost 
called me at birth, did I mention that? How ironic, so I'm looking across the 
room at my alter ego (In that Tiffany and I were such opposites) dating my ex-
boyfriend. So there you have it, my face is pinched into an uncomfortable 
expression as I kind of block out the band, loud patrons, and cigarette smoke 
and try to come to terms with seeing Dale.
 
Ah, so now I don't feel like staying and do a quick about face, thinking I will 
go back to my apartment and just chill.
 
"You okay?" Tubby asks as I reappear just a few minutes later.
 
"Yeah, tired." I groan and stroll back to my car, head down, thinking about how 
all of that makes me feel. 
 
"Hey...HEY!..." 
 
I though I was hearing things somebody is really being annoying, so much that 
I finally look over my left shoulder to see these girls coming up behind me. I 
don't recognize them at first...so I am about ready to ignore them cause I 
figure they must be talking to someone else.
 
"Hey...DUMMY!...YOU...BLONDE GIRL!" I hear the voice, "What's your name?", 
"Corbin!" I hear another one say behind me.
 
"What?" I snap and abruptly stop, turning around, but that's when I notice it's 
the anorexic chick from the party, the hostess who punched me in the gut when I 
was so drunk. You must be kidding, this is a dream come true...cause I ain't 
sick, or drunk and a little irritated. But honestly, I don't feel like arguing 
and turn around, doing a detour thru this parking lot, hoping they won't follow 
me.
 
"What's a matter honey, looking for another bush to pee in?" She say's, and the 
two other girls with her burst out laughing.
 
"Maybe she's going to puke after seeing Dale with his new girlfriend?" Another 
one pipes up.
 
Ahhh, so these girl's are Tiffany's friends...I see now...the pieces are coming 
together and I stop. Slowly I turn around to face my harassers, while 
diplomatically putting my hands into my pockets. Thinking maybe if I take up a 
none threatening posture the situation will maybe diffuse. I suppose to any 
passerby, we look like four girl's having a nice little conversation...well, 
let's just see about that.
 
"Are you done?" I sigh.
 
"Hardly." She sneers while her two beanpole friends look on with grand approval 
of her comments. You see, I can't quite figure out what this girl's agenda is? 
Do they just like to pick on people? And why me? So I guess she's thinks that if 
she clobbers me in this parking lot, she'll have some bragging rights...to 
something...whatever. I mean she tried pulling that little bragging ritual when 
I was drunk at her party, but people paid her no mind because I was being 
restrained and I was so sick, so I guess she figured if she took another shot at 
me she might gain some great notoriety.
 
What's the achievement in that anyway? 
 
Really now, this skeleton of a girl and her two lap dogs are dressed to 
socialize, so ARE THEY really looking to fight? Maybe they think I'll back down 
and start crying or something. This is just too bizarre to figure out. 
 
"Okay" I sigh and I can feel my heart starting to flutter because I'm shifting 
into my aggressive mode, I hate making this transition, but once I make it, I'm 
pretty comfortable. "How do you want to do this?"
 
"Do what you idiot?" The black haired girl snaps.
 
"One at a time or are all of you jumping me at once?" I look her dead in the 
eye and then over at her two friends. I notice that these social divas are 
really dolled up tonight. Par for the course you know, they live for 
partying...clubbing...driving their BMW's and Mercedes around campus.
 
"You must be kidding you stupid bitch, you think you can take all three of us?" 
The girl nervously chuckles. I don't even know this girl's name I realize, I 
also observe that the other two are looking more to their ringleader for 
direction now because fighting is the last thing they expected tonight.
 
'I'm going to smack her with my left hand, no wait, my right hand, which will 
setup a kick to her friend on my right...the one in the middle...not my far 
right (got that folks?)' Is what I'm thinking. So I just kind of give the girl 
this disarming smile and raise my eyebrows like 'Well let's see how you like 
this?'. Some of you are thinking I'm going to punch her, but no, my bare 
knuckles crashing into her bony face would not feel good and I don't feel like 
damaging her nose, so I decide to throw caution to the wind and find out just 
how good this girl's reaction's are. I jerk my right hand out of my pocket and 
throw this wide arching swing, I telegraphed it fairly well, but the idiot is 
still standing there! So here it comes, me cupping my hand to nicely fit around 
her high cheek bones, nice bone structure on this girl by the way, probably a 
model wanna-be, well that career is going to get side tracked for a few days.

WHOOSH....and CRACK! 

HOLY SHIT! On a scale of 1 to 10 that was a perfect 10...good form...and follow 
thru on my part.
 
So this girl grunts, then squeal's in horror, her other two friends scream as 
they watch her head then the rest of her body corkscrew in a clockwise fashion 
before falling backwards. But I'm not done, my body was twisted around to the 
left from delivering the slap, which sets me up for my next move....my left knee 
comes up and I now twist my hips to the right, shooting my leg forward, like a 
front kick, very basic, *POW* this catapults the middle girl backward, damn just 
about chopped the girl in half.
 
The third girl to my right is taking several steps back now, her hands covering 
Her face as she trembles and going 'Oh my god...oh my god' (funny how people get 
All religious in moments like this) as she looks back and forth at her two 
fallen friends.
 
Wait, you people didn't actually think I was going to like, wait for one of 
them to lash out first did you?
 
"Now, are we..!" I grunt as someone has just grabbed me from behind. Wait a 
second, is this a setup? I don't remember a forth girl but wait this is no 
girl grabbing me, but a guy and he's kind of strong. But not tall, cause he's 
trying to crush me in a bear hug from behind. I guess all he wants to do is 
restrain me as I am obviously dismantling these three girl's with little effort. 
Still, don't try and restrain me like this. So, I got this guy behind me, or 
some girl with hairy arms wrapped around my torso, trying to pull me backwards 
and up. But since he is my height, maybe a tad shorter he can't get me up off 
the ground maybe he's just not strong enough. Hey look at that, there's his 
right foot and he's wearing sandals, so I lift my right leg and stomp down on 
his right foot with all of my might. He just found out that this blonde can 
squat allot of weight, hence strong legs, hence lots of downward thrust, 
actually his poor foot just found out.
 
I wish you all could have been there to here him yelp in 
pain. It worked, I'll be damned, his grip slackens a bit and I shoot my elbows 
out while dropping a few inches, thus breaking his hold completely. Basic stuff 
here folks, but I do proceed to stomp the shit out of his foot a couple of more 
times before getting away. But all those techniques I used were basic stuff I 
remember from my grappling class.
 
"Fucking bitch!" He yells.
 
So now I'm out of his clutches and still crouched down low as I hop back, as I 
indicated, I was still taking classes with Nikki and had started to learn those 
fancy Thai Kicks too. Amazing how you retain stuff because now his left thigh 
was looking good, like a good target. So this guy is not expecting a girl to 
throw a kick like that, and I explode with a twist of my body slamming my lower 
shin into his thigh. Is he going down? Almost, but he's stumbling and hopping 
around on his mangled foot. I then just loose it, the girls were out of 
commission, so I just charge, throwing punches at his neck, ribs and then he 
starts swinging wildly at me really putting up a fight, but I start throwing 
some hard knees into his upper body as he leans over to cover up and charge me.
 
"CORBIN!" I hear someone yell and look over my shoulder...and it's Tubby, poor 
guy is huffing and doing his best to move his fat ass over to the parking lot to 
break things up. I get the guy off balance and push him down as I take several 
steps away, actually looking myself over to see if my nice silk shirt was 
ripped. What a mess it is, total confusion half the bar has poured out 
into the parking lot now and you have my friends yelling at their friends who 
are yelling back at my friends. I am just standing still now, fists balled up 
ready to take on the next in line. No one knows what to do...that's what Campus 
Police are for...uh-oh.
 
I look over and the guy I was just fighting is sitting on the ground nursing his 
torso with one arm and inspecting his bleeding foot with the other.
 
Just great, now you have an ambulance local police and campus police. And 
hey, how come nobody is asking me what happened! Take twenty some girls and guys 
all talking at once, most everyone is pointing at me, three girls sobbing (Oh 
they are playing it up a little I think) and I'm just leaning against someone's 
car with my arms folded as I watch this officer walk over to me. I full expect 
to get charged with disturbing the peace or some offense, instigating a riot or 
something. Just my shitty luck.
 
Thank god for Tubby, he's a friend with the cops and his word is gold. He goes 
On record as saying he watched those three girl's follow me out of the bar 
(true!) and started to harass me (true again), I was just defending myself (now 
he's fudging things a little). Well that started allot of wailing and screaming 
FOUL! by the girls.
 
My silk shirt is drenched in sweat and I'm shaking a little bit as I am allowed 
To leave, the crowd disperses and I amazingly get out of there before anybody 
Corners me with a barrage of questions.
 
Back at the apartment, Sharon chewed my ass out, god I really got an earful 
from her. She's fairly protective of me and listening to her lecture me is one 
thing I hate because she goes on...and on...and on!
 
"IRRESPONSIBLE!"
"TROUBLEMAKER!" 
"COULD GET HURT!"
"MIGHT GET ARRESTED!"
"MAKE ME WORRY ALL THE TIME!"
 
See what I mean?
 
Hey, like said, I'm just trying make it to the end of the day while people come 
Looking for me for some reason.
 
Well folks, I only feel like sharing one more thing from College and that will 
be it....


  
My_College_Years_Part_32