9.26.03
I’ve seriously been meaning to update since the fourth…the last time I updated. Twenty-two days later, I’m getting on it. I actually started this update two weeks ago, when Mel wasn’t around and I was trying to kill time before going to Laurie’s before a party. But I’ll back up.
The day after my last update – that’s the fifth – was the a cappella concert/auditions. I tried out for the only coed group – the Pipes. They were a fun bunch, had free beer and a room in which to sing and goof off while we waited…and waited…and waited. I ended up being there until almost midnight, and since I’d been there since before nine, that was over three hours. For a three-minute audition. And I didn’t get in. Not that those three hours weren’t enjoyable. Mel and Erica and David and I goofed off and sang real loud, David and I climbed a bit around the room, I had a great chat with Kevin, who I don’t think I’ve mentioned before. He sings (tenor), is a junior, and is heavily involved in the arts. Therefore, I have nothing against talking to him, and I’ve done just that several times since that Friday. I also sang with Patrick and Devon, the former of whom has one of the most amazing operatic tenor voices I’ve ever heard (in person, anyway.) He’s also hilarious and extremely high-energy…talking to him for twenty minutes last Thursday was enough to exhaust me.
So anyway, after auditions, Mel and I joined the rest of the crew (David, Jamie, Ayesha, Christine) at Jamie’s suite (not really, but it’s way bigger than my room) for a dance party. We danced until we got sick of it, and I came home and went to sleep. Slept ‘till late the next day and eventually wandered down to Laurie’s quad to watch the Yankees game, because they have a TV and a live-in Yankees fan (Jackie.) I watched the game (a brutal slaughter by the Red Sox) and wrote my religion paper. Eventually some guy named Chris showed up, and then Laurie and some guy named Jack did too. Chris proved to be interesting and friendly, as did Jack, and the latter is also the most amazing MarioKart player, I think, ever. He kicked my ass, I kicked everyone else’s ass, and the hierarchy remains, except that I’m not at the top anymore. Beh. After this bit of videogaming, chasing down a pizzaman, and subsequently consuming said pizza, Chris and I went to see Spellbound at the CineStudio, I met back up with the Idiot Brigade (Mel, Jamie, David, Christine, Ayesha), decided not to go dancing with them and went back to Summit. They were playing Kings when I got there, so I observed for bit, then observed some drunken dancing and other alarmingness, and Laurie and Amy finally pulled me into Amy’s room to watch Family Guy. Sweet. Nothing exciting really happened that day.
Sunday was my first service with Chapel Singers, and it was actually quite pleasant. The chapel here is Episcopal, so I was a bit thrown off when the rituals were different, but the service was still really nice, the group is fun to sing with, and I’m almost looking forward to going to a St. Bridget’s mass at home when I go back in October.
The following week passed more or less uneventfully, at least until Tuesday. That was, for a variety of reasons, one of the best days ever. It started out when I got coffee with breakfast, which just put me in a good mood. Then my Seminar was mildly entertaining, and I headed off to my religion class, where one of the most attractive people I’ve ever encountered had come back. (He was checking out another class or something…I have no idea.) His name is Wes, and I’d had a hunch that he was a climber because…I honestly forget why. Anyway, I asked him after class, and he does, in fact, climb, and added that he’d totally hook me up with some of his buddies so I could get outside. And that was thrilling. He also mentioned that these are the guys who do stupid shit like climb the buildings, which is also thrilling. So I’m completely amped about that when I get back to my room, and there’s an IM up from an unfamiliar screen name. Remember how I mentioned Kevin before? Well, Monday night I sent him a short email that basically said ‘I think you’re cool and want to get to know you better.’ Rather than being frightened, like I’d figured he would be, he’d talked to me, and that was also exciting; two new friends in one day. I also talked to him for a good while online that night, and it was good. The rest of the day just sorta bounced along and I was a happy child…I’m sure there was more to celebrate that day, but I don’t remember it…oh yeah! After Chapel Singers sectionals, I headed down to the Cave for dinner and ran into Wes, who agreed to stick around and eat with me. We chatted for a half-hour or so, and it was just great to connect with someone and be able to have an intelligent conversation that was also just shooting the breeze…if you know what I mean. So that was exciting, and the whole day was exciting, and I went to bed elated and feeling, for the first time, like I’m at home.
And that’s the thing that I’ve been thinking about a good deal over the last month. I’ve been here almost a month. Wow. Anyway, I haven’t yet quite found my niche. I know I’ll be here for four years and I’ll have plenty of time for that, but I hate feeling this detached. Don’t misunderstand me; I’ve got awesome friends and I love everything I’m doing and my classes are the appropriate mix of dull and engaging, but I still haven’t yet found the kind of comfort I had at home with the theatre and climbing. I’m working on it – looking mainly towards theatre and climbing for that, you know, but I’m open to other things – and in the meantime, I’m hardly letting life pass me by. I just have my moods, y’know.
So nothing eventful really happened between Awesome Tuesday and Friday, which was a back-to-school dance. Eep. Since I realized I had nothing even moderately ‘semi-formal’ to wear, Mel and I hit up the mall (which was exciting, since neither of us had been off-campus yet) and wandered around there for a good while. I didn’t find anything for the dance, but I found a neat skirt and a cool pair of pants for church. Now I just need shoes…I have my Chacos, sneakers, climbing shoes, and slippers. I wasn’t exactly packing to come sing in a church choir every week. Oops. So that was fun, and we escaped without incident. I ended up wearing my red pants/Chinese-ish shirt dealie, not that you care, but I thought I looked hot. Kevin snagged me on his way to the Chapel Singers pregame (yeah, I thought it was funny as hell too), and that was entertaining. I talked a lot with Sergio (freshman, tenor, in Pipes, cool guy) and Patrick (who I’ve mentioned before) and then we headed down the four flights of stairs (eep) to the dance.
Keep in mind that I’ve never really been a big fan of dances. But I was feeling good, cutting loose, and I did enjoy myself. It was fun to dance with people and not worry about people making wagers onto how long before we hooked up like they had a habit of doing at Collegiate dances…or, if they were, I didn’t hear about it, and that was nice. There was also a pavilion which offered a non-dance-floor place to go and beer for the people with wristbands. I ran into Wes, chatted with him for a bit, and continued my aimless wandering. I eventually found myself in a circle with Kevin, Matt (who I knew from Laurie’s but hasn’t yet entered the story), and a couple of other people I didn’t know or don’t remember. Now please note that at this point in the evening I’m pretty much stone cold sober. (Ask me why. It’s a good story.) Kevin’s talking about the party at Cleo, the non-frat, to be held the next evening. He then adds that it’s better than some other frat whose name I missed, ‘cuz if you put your drink down they’ll slip roofies into it and you’ll get date raped. He then adds that no one would want to date rape him. And me, in my infinite wisdom – keep in mind that I have no recourse as I’m not drunk – responds “don’t worry, Kevin, I’ll date rape you” and give him a hug. And then proceed to mentally kick myself. Luckily he either didn’t hear, didn’t care, or doesn’t remember; the latter of which will be shot to hell if he ever reads this. Oh well. So that’s the first story of stupid shit Erin’s done. Mel loves telling that story.
After the dance winded down we headed back to Jamie’s room for post-game dancing. It didn’t last that long, though, because I was fucking exhausted and had to be up earlyish (ten) for a memorial I had to sing at. I get home around two, set my away message that if it wasn’t down by ten, call me, because I had somewhere to be, and crash. At eight thirty the next morning Spoon calls to let me know that I need to be awake in an hour and a half. Bastard. So I’m ready to go by the time I finally head off to the Chapel. No one seems to be hating life too much, which was fortunate, and they gave us free breakfast. The memorial, while touching, was long, and it probably meant less to me than to most people there because I had no idea who they were talking about. After that let out I sorta wandered back to bed and took a nap. I was awakened by Laurie, calling to tell me I should go pregame with them chez her before the Cleo Leather and Lace party. Fine, so I did. We played a bit more MarioKart, hung out on the roof, and I bonded a bit more with this Matt guy I mentioned earlier. Pat calls him Bam Bam, so I sorta picked up the habit, because I have this compulsion about nicknaming guys I now named ‘Matt’. There are just so damn many of them. Anyway, Bam’s quite cool, funny, friendly, and he’s in choir with me, which is nice. He did give me some bad information, but I’ve since forgiven him. It led to some interesting stuff last week, but that’s okay, because it’s all good now.
So the Leather and Lace party was at Cleo, which, to the best of my limited knowledge, is sort of an anti-Frat. For example, Psi U is having a Tropical party tonight…Cleo’s response is to have a ‘Siberia’ party. The red light wasn’t spectacular, but I enjoyed myself. I also stayed a bit longer than I really wanted to, but that goes back to the bad information Bam gave me. But I got to see Kevin, resplendent in fishnet-gloves and an old choir vest do a dance to one of our choir songs, which has forever tainted the song for me. That’s okay, though, because it was funny as hell. I came home around four a crashed until around two the next day, feeling mildly bummed but not discontent.
Sunday was another service, with nothing thrilling to really make it stand out in my mind. The week that followed (this was last week) was rather dull until Thursday. A variety of things led to me having a minor breakdown – okay, ‘minor’ means I didn’t want to jump out my window, but it was definitely the most emotional I’ve gotten since I’ve been here. It had to do with a ton of things – lack of sleep, stress, lack of climbing, bad information, and the hurricane that was threatening Richmond. So I had a good cry, read the letter Andrew sent me when I left, and looked through the photos of him and Alex at Joshua Tree last year. I felt okay, climbed into bed, grabbed my teddy bear…and heard a god-awful buzzing from outside. I thought it was my computer at first, then I realized it was the fire alarm. So I grab my sweatshirt and troop downstairs with the rest of the very pissed-off dorm while firemen come running down the Long Walk and peer into the buildings and establish that there was not, in fact a fire, and whoever pulled the alarm needs to be shot. I came back to my room and paced for a bit, then sat down at my computer, too pissed off to sleep, and found Pat had IMed me. I talked to him for maybe twenty minutes, got the photos he’d taken at the party the night before, and it absolutely exhausted me. He was wired, giddy, high-energy, and even the brief IM conversation was enough to wipe me out. I slept until I had to get up for music the next day, which was unfortunate, ‘cuz I could have slept a great deal longer.
After music last Friday, I slept until history; after history I slept until 6pm. It was nice. Mel came and grabbed me at one point and we went carousing…I really don’t remember what happened before she whipped out a copy of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Game Cube. I played that for twoish hours, then headed out to…the Long Walk. (For those of you not here, the Long Walk is the sidewalk that runs right next to my building.) Nothing was happening, most of the campus wasn’t there, but the entire Jarvis dorm was out in front of it, goofing off and having fun. I wandered from group to group and, though feeling mildly sick, managed to have a good time. It was humid and gross, which sucked, but I didn’t really care, and there weren’t any mosquitoes, so that was awesome. I spent a good deal of time with Owen, who lives one floor below me, and that was nice. After he went to bed (‘cuz he’s a tool and had to row at the ass crack of dawn the next day), I sat in bed for a while and my mind was racing and I still wasn’t feeling well. So I got it into my head eventually that I should write an email apologizing for the way I might have acted based on that bad information I keep mentioning. And once this idea got into my head, I knew I wasn’t going to sleep until I wrote it. So, around three am, I did. I read it the next day and was quite proud of my command of the English language…I even used semicolons, because I am the semicolon god. So I got a response to that and everything’s pretty much kosher again, which was a real relief; I didn’t want to lose an amazing person as a friend because of a mix-up. So life is good there.
Saturday I slept ‘till two, did some dishes with a hymn running through my head (this was ironic) and then Mel and I ventured down to the ghetto grocery store a few blocks away. I got some grapefruit juice which I was stoked about, but it was the cheap kind and it’s really quite gross, so that was upsetting. I also got hair dye, though, so now my hair’s the kind of red I tried to get it to the second time Suz and I messed with it. I like it. I didn’t really go out that night…well, I went down to Vernon Street to check out the frat parties, but they were all negatively exciting and I wasn’t in the mood to pay to go in and not drink. We ended up back in Mel’s room with a trashed Erica, a distraught Christine and Ayesha, and a sober me and Mel. Oh, and a very confused Rocky. We had girl talk for a while, and I finally ran off to bed around three.
Sunday was nothing exciting at all, especially since I slept until 3:30 in the afternoon it messed with my schedule, since after singing, my day basically started at 6pm. I really accomplished nothing, and my Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful, except for the opening of the Underground. This is a coffee shop in the basement of the dining hall building, and it sells cheap coffee, has comfy couches, and game tables. We trooped down there Monday night and it was fun; Mike and I played Rummy and chatted. I have a feeling I’m gonna become a pretty permanent fixture there.
Tuesday it poured, which bears no matter on anything except that I left my window open and my tampons on the windowsill. We’ll see how that works out in a few weeks. And the rain was kind of exciting, too. I had lunch with Wes and a few of his friends who were all friendly. Mather was packed for the first half hour or so, and I was antsy, but I got a cup of coffee and eventually settled down and hung out for a bit, which was relaxing and nice. Nate and Mel and Erica chilled in here for a while, then Bam showed up to read. We had another fire drill while he was here, which was obnoxious. Tuesday night, after sectionals, I found my way into the common room to watch the Yankees. A whole bunch of people sorta wandered in and out, and Mario and I watched the Red Sox/Orioles game which was, to the Sox’s credit, an exciting match. Then Rocky, Mike, and Andy moved in and we all watched Family Guy and the first half of Futurama. Good times. Then I got back to my room and discovered that the guy across the hall had projectile vomited all over the place…welcome to college.
Wednesday I dorked around for the better part of the day, and then we all went down to the Underground. I told Kevin we were heading down there, and he should show up. He said he might, and, to my cynic’s surprise, he did. We chatted for a bit about the college and diversity and such, and then he played the piano for quite a while, and sang, and goofed off, and it was awesome. He’s a brilliant, fascinating, fun guy, and the fact that he’s musically talented just makes it all the better. I came back from the coffee shop feeling warm and happy and probably more content than I have since I’ve been here. Not just because of Kevin, but because of the whole thing; it’d been a chill day and I’d had fun with a lot of people and I just felt happy.
Yesterday was pretty uneventful, until the fire drill around midnight thirty. Then I came back and read for a bit and crashed. I woke up this morning with a migrane-ish headache and the light hurt my eyes so much I couldn’t open them, so I slept through music, finished up my history paper, went there, and now I’m here. I ventured down to the Cave a bit earlier, was pleasantly surprised by their clam chowder, and now I’m full and content and waiting to go climbing.
Yeah, you heard me. CLIMBING. Wes, in his infinite coolness, gave me the name of his friend Chris, who I summarily tracked down and harassed until he agreed to take me. So of course I’ve been bouncing off the walls all week for that reason, too, and it’s probably a big part of why Wednesday was so awesome – we’re going to a gym tonight and probably somewhere outside tomorrow. I can’t wait. I’m gonna be weak and pathetic but I’ll be climbing, so I don’t care.
So that’s what I’ve been up to. Like I said, I’ve settled in physically and mentally but not quite emotionally. I miss home sometimes; my river, my gym, my theatre, and the people…but there’s amazing people here, and stuff to keep me occupied, and life gets better by the day. I have climbing and music and weekends and concerts and friends to look forward to; I’ve had adventures and laughed ‘till I cried and just plain cried and haven’t done anything to regret (except for that whole dare-rape comment), and I haven’t made any enemies. I’m not going to say that I’ve ‘discovered myself’ or ‘stepped out of my comfort zone’ because even though I might have, I refuse to be the poster child for Life Lessons of College.
So everything’s kosher, I’ve had a decent experience thus far, up to and including the Cave clam chowder, which I just took a chance on (and was pleasantly surprised by.) Mel should be back now, and I’m gonna be on the walls in an hour and half or so, and I’m out of things to say. See? It all works out.