Waco Wisdom

As I get ready to depart for Belton tomorrow, let me share with you a few more tidbits of knowledge I acquired from the Waco trip.

First, an important thing to remember if you're exploring the Baylor campus unguided, is that Memorial Hall does not house classrooms, faculty offices, or a student center. It is a girl's dorm and I'm not supposed to be in there. Especially on a week when it's full of mothers and daughters attending an orientation.

The business school in Waco isn't as good as Mays Business School at A&M, but the influence of A&M is felt there. The first conversation I heard on campus was in Baylor's business school. It was a little after 7PM and some students were walking up the stairs from some territory I had not explored. One of them hogged the conversation as they passed me, "And A&M...please..they're even worse! This is their schedule! The first two weeks they play Army and The Citadel (incorrect). Then they play Louisiana-Lafayette and some other pansy cupcake team. A&M is pathetic..." Before I could correct him on his schedule errors, they'd progressed to a classroom.

The most important lesson I learned in Waco was college is important, it holds the key to your dreams. This became apparent during dinner at Taco Bueno. As I walked up to the counter to order, the cashier took notice of my Freebirds shirt.
The cashier put his fists in the air and exclaimed "Freebird!"
I looked at him, nodded and said "Yeah!"
"Now is that the band Freebird?" He asked?
Well to be honest with you, bro, Freebird is a song, not a band. I simply answered, "No, it's a burrito place."
"Oh, is it as good as Taco Bueno?" He asked, beaming with pride for his employer.
"No way dude, Taco Bueno is awesome."
"Yeah!" He exclaimed. "Where is this Freebird place?"
"Well, there are 4 in College Station. There are also some in Houston and Austin and stuff," I responded.
"I bet you went to school in College Station, didn't you?" He asked.
"Yep, just graduated in May, I'm up here for my job." I told him, giving him more information than he asked for.
He returned the favor by providing me excess information, "I was gonna go to college once." He paused. "But they told me I couldn't drink beer. So me and my brother decided we didn't want to go to college."
As he spoke, I glanced at him with a confused look on my face.
"Yeah," he continued, "Looking back, I probably could have gone to college and drank beer."
"Probably," I told him, trying to hide the amusement I was getting from his reflection.
"College..." He said, "If I would have gone, I would have done robotics. I'd be rich right now." He went on in an Uncle Rico-esque manner, "I would have built something, I don't know, like....like uhh... A Robotic Taco Maker!"
I chuckled, he didn't. I proceeded to give him my order and told him to have a nice day. Sadly, I'm afraid barring a taco maker invention, the story depressed him for the rest of the day.