| Current mood: | drained |
| Current music: | Bob Schneider -- Big Blue Sea |
Holy update
It's been wayyy too long since I've posted. Hopefully the fact that midterms and spring break were recent at least partially excuses that.
The weekend before midterms began was crazy. I was all over the place.... started with Chris at Caleb's hitting Jager bombs, then went to 207 where I think we had creek water (this is almost a month ago now so I may have my parties confused). Then I was at the bar for a bit, and then ran into Dom and some friends of his near the apartments. Peewee and I hung out with them after that. Dom's friends were kinda cool. 2 freshman guys from Purdue, and 1 high school girl from Roncalli, where they're all from. One of the guys was really cool, one of them was really just an annoying punk. Peewee and I told him off eventually because he wouldn't shut up about how much better Purdue was in every little way than SJC. Finally we were like, "It's fine if you don't like it here or you think you have it better or whatever, but you're a guest in our home and you're being disrespectful and you're not going to be welcome here again unless you chill out." We weren't assholes about it, and it was actually kinda funny to everyone else but this kid, since he was called out so hard. I drank possibly more than I've ever drank in one night that night, and eventually ended up crashing in the lounge. One of the Purdue guys crashed on my (Egan's) loveseat, and the other crashed in Nick's bed in Dom's room. The girl passed out in the lounge so I decided to stay in there since a random high school girl lying around the lounge of a guy's dorm didn't seem like the best idea. All in all it was a fun night.
Midterms were a blur. I don't think they were bad or hard, I just didn't care.... I would literally show up in class not knowing if I had a midterm to take or not. Whatever. I'm almost done. I wrote a long core paper for Watkins, we'll see how it turned out.
Dean Keller did the most offensive, ridiculous thing I can imagine Thursday before Break started. He miscounted the number of new chairs and sofas in Halleck, thinking one was missing. So he authorized his staff to enter every single student room on campus, without warning or notice, to look for a couch that was supposedly missing. He later realized he had miscounted, and sent an email apology to everyone. His staff were rude and disrespectful to students while conducting their gestapo search, though... not to mention dishonest. They told some people they were looking for fire hazards, which was an all-out lie. They woke people up, walked in on people naked, and arbitrarily confiscated contraband. They took some peoples' booze and candles, but not others. Keller's email said nobody would get punished for anything that may have been found, but lots of personal property was still destroyed that can't be recovered.
I've written a petition (with help) in protest of his behavior on the grounds that it violates our right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and several students are working on organizing a walkout where we get as many students as possible to skip classes one day and email their professors to tell them they're making a statement in protest of Keller's administration. I feel like I'm the one to make the call on whether it happens or not, which is a really weighty decision. I don't know for sure what I'll do yet, but I have a good idea.
Going with Habitat for Humanity to Austin, TX for Spring Break was far better than I expected it to be. I really wasn't excited about going at the outset since I felt I was going because I had to ($200 Habitat trip is cheaper than $300 plane tickets to Boise) and none of my closest friends were going. But it worked out really well. The van ride wasn't too bad, and my cell phone with Internet access was a lifesaver -- I still got IMs and email all week. We got to spend one afternoon "deconstructing" a house, salvaging what parts we could (cabinets, shutters, doors, appliances, etc) and destroying/removing what parts we couldn't. It's a trip to see an unfurnished but complete room turn into nothing more than studs and rafters in a few short hours. We took out walls, ceiling, carpet, pretty much everything. We gutted a lot of this house really quickly, and it was a hell of a lot of fun.
The rest of the week our work was on building a house. Mostly I worked at siding the house, using cement fiber siding instead of the vinyl siding most H4H affiliates use. The stuff was kinda fragile and awkward, but we definitely got the hang of it by the end of the week. Sarah Bozenda, Shenley, Jim Gratner and I worked together the whole time, calling ourselves "Red Team Siding". There were more inside jokes on this trip I think than on all other Habitat trips I've been on combined. It was awesome. Even now after we've been back a week, I can run into any of them and say a word or make a face and we'll crack up laughing. Lotsa fun.
The weather was gorgeous while we were there -- 75ish every day, and sunny all but one day. I got some sun, but not as much as I would have liked. S'all good.
We went to San Antonio and the Alamo one day; I thought it was pretty anti-climactic.
I drank way more on this Habitat trip than I expected. Shen and Jim ran interference for me to get a couple bottles of cheap wine the Sunday we got there, and one day when Fred and Sally went to the grocery store after work, Shen and I walked half a mile to a Chevron to get Boones Farm and beer. Thursday night we all went to UT to bowl with members of the UT Habitat chapter, and that was a lot of fun. We had started drinking discretely before we left, so Jim, Shen, Sarah and I were more than a little drunk when we got there. Drunken bowling is perhaps one of the most amusing pastimes created by man.
The UT Habitat people were cool, though I didn't spend a whole lot of time with most of them. But two of them, Jennie and Jasmine, came out with us the next night on 6th Street to party. That was a blast -- there was live music everywhere, and cheap beer everywhere, and girls everywhere. It was like Bourbon Street, but mellow and not as gaudy. I really dug it. A buncha people went back in the van at midnight, but those of us more hardcore stayed out later dancing at a club called Exodus. I danced the whole time with Jennie and had a lot of fun. I got a goodnight kiss, which was cool. : )
AmeriCorps Kate who was also out partying with us drove us back at 230ish. It was raining kind of hard and we had to walk quite a ways to her truck, but we were still too drunk to really notice. Everyone from RTS was in the back of her truck (it had a cap), and Kraemer was in the front with Kate. We decided that a capella karaoke at the top of our lungs was in order, and had fun with that for wayyy too long - Kate didn't know how to get back to where we were staying so we were driving for abut 3 years. Poor Jim had to piss so badly I swear he was about to just hang it out the back and let loose. All in all the Austin nightlife was a good time though.
The drive back to IN seemed much shorter than the drive down, which is normal. We drank in the hotel room to finish off our booze, and it was another random and unexpected night. Good stuff.
The weather in Rensselaer has been depressing -- 35 to 40 degrees all week, and cloudy, while Austin is still 75 and sunny every day. I want to move there.
I finished my application for AmeriCorps NCCC Sunday. Shen applied too, deciding at the last minute she might be interested. I'm glad. I won't hear anything for awhile, but I'm optimistic about my chances of being accepted.
I've been talking to Jennie online almost every day. She's a lot of fun, and we have a lot in common as far as personal tastes, hobbies, and philosophies. Good stuff. I wish that we lived closer so that we could interact more in person, but I can't complain because even just talking on IM is very enjoyable for me.
I'm trying to get into seriously running again. Yesterday was the 5th day in a row, 4 days of 3K with a day of about 6K in the middle. My pace is not anything like it was, but even in the few days I've been running again I'm noticing improvement. My lungs and calves are still in good shape from running last year, but my quads and hams definitely aren't. They'll get there.
Peter's discussion class has been really interesting this week. We spent both classes just discussing the question "When should the US intervene economically, militarily, or otherwise, in the affairs of other nations?" It makes me really interested in political science and history, because it's such a simple-sounding question that has nothing remotely resembling a simple answer. I actually want to try to write an essay with that as the prompt, just for fun/education. I think it would help me figure out exactly how I feel about it, since I'm having a lot of difficulty putting a specific answer to it. Thanks, Peter. : )
Other than that, classes still suck. A particularly apt away message I had up this week says it as best I think I can: "Academic masturbation. Err, I mean class..."
Last night was a really random night. I was in the computer center til 10ish doing asterisk stuff, then ran and showered. Tony and I were supposed to go to 207, but he ended up going to Noll instead. I went to 207 and Szynal and Jen were there, and Peaches and Betsy. I didn't feel like a total third wheel until Peaches and Betsy left. I took off shortly after that for the bar. I had been told lotsa people were there, and that wasn't really true. There were maybe 15 people there, so it wasn't totally dead, but it definitely wasn't a 'busy' Friday night. I talked to Sarah Wells for a while, and Money. Sandra Wood was there with her mom (who was a fucking riot all night long), and Brandy Herriott. Somehow someone (I think Money?) had the idea that we should play spin the bottle, so we did. It didn't get nearly as graphic as it could have, but it was still interesting. : ) I can honestly say I never thought I'd play spin the bottle in a bar. Whatever works.
After the bar closed we went back to 207 to continue partying. Sandra's mom was so funny.... she was really drunk and said random, off-color things. She would kinda try to seem like a hardass, but she really was just fun, and out to have a good time. I really enjoyed hanging out with that group, I feel I've missed out by not doing so sooner. My face hurts from laughing so much. After 207 we went to Halas and stayed there for a really long time. It ended up being a really late night, but definitely a memorable and enjoyable one.
I got a random email from high school friend Janey today. She sent me a compilation CD this week that has absolutely nothing I've ever heard of on it -- I love it. Back in the day she used to constantly be exposing me to new music. I miss that.
Now I'm going to try to write all the papers I have left to do for the rest of the year... if I get motivated (yeah right) I could potentially finish them all this weekend. We'll see how that goes...
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