Redemption

12/29
I TOLD YOU I'D DO IT! I think I got more exercise today than I've gotten in about a month. I started out by getting outside to play pickleball with Eli. He played valiantly, but unfortunately his skills were no match. (By the way, this is pickleball. It's like table tennis, but not on a table.)

Mama, resident social studies teacher, has decided to learn all the countries and capitals of the world once and for all by doing Sporcle quizzes. (They have more than just geography, so stay awhile even if that's not your cup of tea.) I'm a bit of a geography nerd myself, so I have set a challenge– first to learn all the countries and capitals wins.

We took a family trip to the Y and I had a decent run. Afterward, we made an impromptu Wawa run, where I tried the new Jalapeño Beef Flatbread. Delicious indeed.

Afterward Eli and I chilled with our mutual friend, Lauren. (For distinction, I'll henceforth refer to her as Laurhen because she sometimes likes to spell it that way.) We went for a drive and for the longest time couldn't decide what to do. Then it hit us: Oreland Pizza.

We've dreamed about this for almost a year now. Riding the train into the city, we hear "Next stop, ORELAND!" every time, and we decided this was a place to check out. No, this was a place to fulfill our wildest dreams. Our lifelong goal was to someday make the pilgrimage to Oreland, the home of true rageosity, which until today was a mystical mirage. And at the heart of it all, Oreland Pizza. It is rumored to be a pizza joint of respectable excellence. It has become to us what White Castle is to Harold and Kumar.

Sadly, we didn't get there until 1040, so it was closed. Next time though. Today was a bright day in the history of Dash Amatash.

12/30
I think our family is a bit late for the redemption of Christmas gift cards, but then again, we're late for everything. Better late than lacking of gift cards? Anyhow, you know you're an adult when the majority of your presents were clothes, and that's exactly what you asked for. On the other hand, you know you're still in college or younger when you shop at Pacsun.

At night Eli, some friends, and I hit up the local skating rink. Well, the closest. I guess 20 minutes away on 45+ roads isn't exactly local. It's far enough that I don't skate very often. Luckily for me, I still remember how, and I think I've actually gotten better since last time! That is, when I'm not paying attention to Evan and his sister, Emily O, who have been playing hockey for years.

It was in the lounge of the skating rink that I got utterly owned. Eli, Evan, and Emily V and I were just taking a quick break. We got a couple of sodas and an order of chicken poppers and were minding our own business. So this young punk ~12 year old girl walks up to me and asks, "Is this your glove?" As the word "no" is leaving my lips, she chucks the glove in my face and walks away. I sit in complete dumbfoundification for about 5 seconds trying to comprehend what happened, while the others are roaring with laughter. Interesting night...

12/31
More pickleball today. I like this life.

I met up with Kevin in the afternoon, and we went to this place called "The Movie Tavern", where you sit in a theater and watch a film, but you have a traytable type thing and they bring you food like you're in a restaurant! It's a really cool concept, although we experienced a few order mishaps. By the way, we saw Tintin, which recieves my utmost praise.

Went to Madi's later for New Year's Eve shenanigans, which included pool, table tennis, darts, and Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin. Happy New Year, reader, and my 2012 be joyful.

1/1
I don't remember what time it was, but I do vaguely remember telling myself to just sleep for about 5 minutes on the couch before going up to bed, which explains why that didn't end up happening.

Today, I can proudly say, is the first time I have successfully remembered every country in Sporcle's quiz. I am ahead of Mama, too, which is good. Now it's on to capitals...

EVEN MORE PICKLEBALL! Sixth-grade across-the-street neighbor Connor M is proving to be quite the pickleballer lately, particularly with his returns. He and I managed to beat Eli in a shutout, which, trust me, is impressive.

The fam went to see The Descendants later at our local indie theater. Good flick.

I am trying to teach myself how to work with redstone in Minecraft. It's sort of like wasting time, but at the same time, I'm using this to learn logic concepts which will help me in computer science. Maybe. Hopefully. Maybe I'm still just wasting time. No! It's cerebral! I am developing my critical thinking skills! Right?

Trophy for Atrophy

I deserve a prize of some sort for letting my activity deteriorate the most. I woke up this morning with the plans and the gumption to do something great. And then I didn't.

I recently got the Humble Bundle on Steam, and let me be not the first to say, Cave Story+ is a true masterpiece. I think it's among the top 5 in games that give me hope for the future of the gaming industry.

In others' news, Molly took a train home at about 1 and Eli installed his new speakers in the garage. They're a bit scratchy and fuzzy, but they put out some nice sound and have some boomin bass. I'm sensing this is the beginning of man cave part II.

Eli joined me this evening for his first and my worst deck workout. I was having trouble completing everything, cardio and muscular alike. Maybe I ate a little too soon beforehand. Then again, maybe I'd just been living too sedentary a lifestyle beforehand. With you as my notary, this changes tomorrow.

Remind me to go outside and play some pickleball.

The Relazening

12/25
CLASSIC ELI... He jumps on the foot of my bed Christmas morning at 7 and shouts, "CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS!!" I think he's been doing that for three years now. At least.

We opened up a few nuclear family presents, then packed up and hopped in the car. This was the first major road trip in the Infiniti, and the previous owner put in a Bose sound system for crying out loud. It's pretty great and we're very lucky and thankful to have it, so naturally Mama used the "I plan on reading for this car ride. And can't we just talk?" excuse. I decided to choose only one of those options, and since out loud music was out of the question, I busted out my noisecancellingishbutnotreally headphones and went under for the majority of the ride.

We got to Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Tom's house and Lela (my maternal grandmother) and Aunt Molly were already there. We unwrapped the presents from the Secret Santa, and then had dinner with special guest, Heidi (Gretchen and Tom's neighbor).

Later on, we broke out the games. Rummikub and Bananagrams, two family favorites, made an appearance, as well as The Simpsons Clue. (I was Bart, naturally.) Unfortunately, I didn't know how to declare victory, so in my infinite wisdom, I asked how right after I had stated what I believed to be, and what ended up being, the final combination. Molly snagged the win, that little cheater.

12/26
We woke up the next morning to more games. Copious snacking occurred, because all the snacks and leftover hors d'oeuvres were right in front of us. At about 5, after a dayful of lazing about, we finally got in the car for the trip home, this time bringing Molly with us.

Remember that really crowded place you went to that one time? Well the rest stop at which we rested and stopped was even more crowded than that. And apparently, Sbarro has this new thing where, if you want your pizza to go, they give it to you on a plate, and then you get a box at the drink station. Maximum codswallop achieved. Shoulda just gone to Roy Rogers... got me some fixins... The drinks from Sbarro, of course, caused three of us to require a brief stopover at he airport, because that was pretty much the only feasible place.

On the way through our town, we took the most scenic route possible (seriously, we drove down like half streets) in order to see everybody's Christmas lights.

12/27
Today began the redeeming of redeemable gifts. It started out easy. I just plugged in a flash drive given to me by Molly and downloaded dat music. I further augmented my library after redeeming an iTunes gift certificate and now I have enough trance music to last for approximately all time.

We then went thrift hopping. My gift to Eli was $40 worth of stuff from any thrift store(s), and he went crazy with it. He loves searching for used electronics, and he has recently come into possession of a couple of gigantic speakers, in addition to a couple of fly shirts. I managed to find a pretty sweet coat for myself, which I desperately need. Winters for me are going to be a lot colder than I'm used to from now on. Nothing in my life has prepared me for this. Except, you know, snow. And now that I think of it, we could really use some. It's just been cold and dry and desolate and that needs to change.

Due to the unfortunate weather, I've been staying inside a lot, catching up on much-desired-probably-not-needed vedging time. Thank goodness I jotted down what I did on Christmas and Boxing Day, because my brain was just wiped clean by about twelve episodes of Malcolm in the Middle. Netflix instant play, don't ever change.

The Five Days of Christmas

Now I know what happens when you put off posting until 3AM every day! (Hint: you fall asleep and don't post.) So I'm gonna try and recreate the past 5 days. Here goes.

12/20
Evan came over today because, like me, he was "bored out of [his] fucking mind," to quote him. We Mario Karted for a bit, but then I remembered some Christmas shopping I had to do, so we parted ways. After all that, I attended Eli's jazz band concert. I had bunches of fun with Madi, Connor B, Katie, and Suzi, crossing things out in the pamphlet to make it sound dirty.

12/21
I was texted by Dave, my acrossthestreet neighbor in the morning, and he soon came over to chill for a bit. Ryan F and Barb soon arrived, as well, and Barb brought our family an apple pie, which was delicious. We went to school to visit old pals, and I left the others to go visit the high school robotics team. Evan was there (he's the coach's son), along with just a few others. Evan and I did a Wawa run, returned to school, met with Dave and Ryan, went back to my house, played Super Smash Bros, Dave and Ryan left, and Evan and I went back to school for an evening robotics meeting. Saul and John M were there, both fellow graduates, so we caught up. Later I helped Eli with some pre-calc homework.

12/22
I woke up earlier than I have in weeks to go to a 915 dentist appointment. All is well with the teeth, aside from a stain on tooth #2 that could manifest into a cavity if I don't brush. I had a sudden and strong urge to play Megaman, so I went to Dave's to get back Megaman X: Collection, which he borrowed over a year ago. I almost beat the game; I have amassed all of the powerups and now I just have to take down Sigma's fortress. At night, Kat came over and we watched Tron: Legacy, with the intent on rejoicing in the awesomeness that is Olivia Wilde. Unfortunately, Kat fell asleep halfway through due to working at the grocery all day.

12/23
Last year's graduating seniors from the robotics team met today to catch up and to celebrate Festivus. We went to Luke's house, where Hannah flubbed about in Mario Kart, John M irked us all by playing as Diddy Kong in Super Smash Bros, I almost toppled the mighty Evan in air hockey, ping pong, and feats of strength, Dirk almost made me give him a ride home even though he lives practically nextdoor to Luke, and finally I gave Ryan M a ride home. I watched Ocean's Twelve with Eli, then went out with Little Bear and Lily to Wawa and to chill. All in all, it was a day most rageous, indeed.

12/24
I trounced Eli but lost to Papa in a three-way sudoku challenge, then the three of us finished up our Christmas shopping. Papa just got a used Infiniti with a Bose sound system, so today I finally got to bathe myself in its glorious audio nectar. After shopping, there was much wrapping, which, I must say, is a forte of mine. I wrap hard. The three of us finished up the night by watching Home Alone 3, and now here I am in bed, while I believe Santa is currently setting up the tree room. (I went to the bathroom and the lights were on downstairs and I heard movement. Seems legit.)

Anyhow, now it's the 25th, so Ima get some sleep. If you roll that way, then Merry Christmas to you and to you a good night.

Seeing Improvement?

Today went pretty much the same way as yesterday. Which would be awful except for two things. In my defense, I was intending to see Josh L's band perform in a talent show, but it got cancelled. But I was gonna do something with my life! Hooray!

Also, today I got around to that deck workout, which, surprise surprise, didn't end up happening yesterday. I feel relatively accomplished.

Earlier I started Ocean's Eleven with Eli, but he had to write a paper, so AS PER USUAL, we had to stop halfway through which I HATE DOING. Seriously, top 3 most annoying things ever, probably.

Anyhow, I saved writing this post for after I got in bed, which was a horrendously stupid idea, considering the softness of said bed. It's a miracle I'm still conscious.

Also consider the hour. HOLY SHIT it's 2:30 in the morning! What are you doing still browsing the internet at this hour. I want you to close this window and GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP.


I'm making that difficult with my linking shenanigans aren't I? :3

Old habits NEVER DIE

I think I had a lucid dream this morning, but I may have just been daydreaming. It's hard to tell because they're almost the same thing. Also lucid dreams easily turn into regular dreams if you forget you're controlling them, but that might be one of those things that actually only happens to me.

This morning was just like the Sunday mornings I remember, because I started out with some coffee and challenged Papa to a sudoku puzzle and a kenken puzzle. I won both, which is surprising because Papa is a bit of a sudoku enthusiast.

Then I started playing Minecraft. This was my first time in months. It was at precisely this point that I knew the day was lost.

I tried to redeem myself by washing dishes and helping make dinner, but I couldn't shake away that dirty feeling of laziness, and the rest of the evening was consumed. More Minecraft, some websurfing... I found out Kim Jong Il died today, because facebook told me so. Also, try googling "big fishy" and clicking the first link. It's really fun, until you realize how irresponsibly you're using your time.

Eli's working late on a science project (due tomorrow, naturally), and he has been all day, so I haven't even had someone with whom to share my antisociality. And it gets worse. For a little while I was playing Mario Kart. SINGLE PLAYER MARIO KART. That's how advanced my condition is. I have become a stage four couch potato. I'm worried all my muscles are going to atrophy except the ones I use to process food, or to use a mouse/controller/keyboard.

Maybe if I do a deck workout this day won't be a total loss. Though I'm pretty tired, and there's nobody else working out, so odds of me staying motivated are slim.

Where to, Master?

Notes on 12/17

The other day, Mama was watching a video about Buddhism that explained how you never really know whether something is a blessing or a curse. This morning, I had to cart my brother around from drumline practice to home to a birthday party, yadayadaya. I've fully resumed my position as family chauffeur, and this time, I hadn't even had a chance to get breakfast, so I was getting rather cranky. But as I was pulling up to the party venue, I was reminded that there's a Subway right next door, and I soon remembered the unused Subway card in my wallet. Perhaps it's fate that I didn't eat breakfast. I didn't think too much on it though, because I was busy with my sandwich.

The evening plans were simple: laser tag in semi-formal attire. I wore a sweater over a polo, jeans, Vans, and a Gatsby cap. That seems pretty semi-formal to me, but pretty much everybody else seemed to disagree. (Comment your opinion on that one if you'd like.) Kevin and I were the only ones dressed that informally, and incidentally, the only college students in attendance. Correlation? No, causation is probably more accurate.

Eli, Kevin, Elliot, and Caroline all piled into the Saturn and we were off, followed by Josh L and his fully-loaded Volvo. Getting to the laser tag arena was the fun part. And when I say fun, I don't actually mean fun. My father and I had a bit of a miscommunication on how to exit the highway, which ended up in us lost for about 20 minutes, miles away from home. Partially my fault for sure. I was the leader car, though, so I took a lot more blame than I deserved. We made at least three wrong turns, got separated at least once, and retraced several steps.

Laser tag was delightful, just as laser tag always is. The first round, Kevin and I were a two-man strike team, and the second round I flew solo. Of the two rounds we played, I was overall top scorer for both of them. This happened once the last time I played laser tag, so it would seem I am becoming quite the phaser-ace.

Getting home from the arena was the REALLY fun part. (And in case you haven't guessed, when I say really fun, I actually mean really shitty.) This was possibly the most stressful hour of my life, because there were lots of twisty roads (some of which were highways, though I couldn't always tell), virtually no signs telling me how to get anywhere or where highways will end up, I was driving around in the middle of Wherethefuckami, United States, and IT WAS DARK. Also, when I was about to turn onto the highway home, Eli had the bright idea to suggest I take that road in the other direction. I was stressed, so I tried it, and it took us away from home for a little while. I guess roads tend to do that when you're driving the wrong direction. Also that led to another separation. Turns out Andrew G had had an iPhone the whole time. A trip that should've been 25 minutes took 75 minutes.

My navigational skills were reaffirmed when we returned to familiar territory. I took my own route that got me to the next destination a whole 5 minutes before the other car. Boss sauce. The next destination was Josh D's garage that he converted into a man cave, in which we snacked, watched TV, played cards, chilled, and generally had a smashing time until far into the night.

Thank goodness Josh D lives close to me; I don't think I could have taken much more driving. Tomorrow is to be a day of staying the hell inside.

The Magic of Christmas

Papa and I buried Riker a short while after I woke up. I have a feeling he had been getting weary of this life, so to me it seems he has been released from a cage of sorts. Thank you so much to those who sent their condolences, it means so much.

I broke out a game that we haven't played in ages today. It's called IZZI and it is composed of just 64 tiles with black and white patterns on them, and the object is to arrange them into an 8x8 where black always borders black, and white always borders white. Papa essentially took the day off work, so he and I spent part of the afternoon challenging ourselves to IZZI with various variations. My favorite was the center cross:

[PICTURE TO BE UPLOADED WHEN I'M NOT SLEEPY.]

Mama and Eli came home and we went on a family Christmas shopping trip. So it's only natural, of course, that the first stop was dinner. We went to Chipotle, where they make burritos the size of adult guinea pigs. Delightful.

At the mall, I was reminded how hard Christmas shopping can be. My mom's side of the family (to me, an aunt&uncle + aunt + grandma) lives generally within the same area, and we participate in a secret santa each year. My recipient's list was not too expansive, and I thought I'd be able to find most, if not all of the things I was looking for, given that the mall we went to is probably larger than the town we live in. Even after a bit of prior research though, I only managed to find [CENSORED DUE TO REVELATION OF SECRETS]. Thoroughly disappointed, but not completely bummed, I will have to continue searching this week.

Eli managed to find The Dark Knight at 5Below (score!) so we got to continue from where we left off the other night. (Did I mention we watched Batman Begins? I cannot recall.) Unfortunately, Eli fell asleep halfway through. Or maybe that's fortunate. I mean, I guess I'm gonna HAVE to watch the second half over again. Darn :)

I'm slowly remembering all my household responsibilities. There are so many lights and appliances to turn off. And since it's December, those lights include the Christmas tree. Every night, Mama says, "Don't forget to turn off the magic of Christmas!" because she loves being ironic and making fun of the perfect American family. What a hipster. She always reminds us that we have to behave like muggles so other families don't find out how crazy we are.

Tonight it appears somebody has already turned off the magic of Christmas. Looks like I've been outsourced. Oh well, some poor sucker just played right into my laziness.

The Rowers Keep On Rowing

Today really seemed like it was going to be a regular day. And most of it was. I did some chores around the house. At 730 I went to see the high school band and orchestra concert, and afterward I visited Eli and a bunch of my old friends backstage. Madi got into my college on Early Action, so now all I have to do is work on convincing her. That was a nice piece of news to break up this very irregular evening.

Just before the concert, Riker experienced a car accident as Papa was backing into the driveway. He's been sick several times and is unnaturally old for a cat, so it's a bit uplifting to know he probably experienced a minimum of pain and went out quickly. He's been going deaf for years, so he probably didn't even hear it coming.

The family is quiet now. We managed to make it through the concert, but now it's a somber mood around here. I don't think I've ever seen Papa cry until now. He felt responsible, even though he knows it was an accident. Mama has been in tears a couple of times since the incident. And I've certainly never seen Eli experience grief like this. He's usually the guy full of witty retorts and humor, so he's certainly out of his element. I cried a bit, but I'm still processing the event. Tomorrow, Papa and I will bury Riker in the backyard.

For now, life keeps happening for us, and for everybody. I have some leftover online submission homework, and it isn't just going to stop to let me catch up. It'll be weird not having to check the couch for a little orange furry creature, but I suppose we'll just have to get used to it after a while.

Hack It Up

[EDIT: From now on, I'm not explaining people in-post. If there's someone who's unfamiliar to you, please refer to the people reference page ===> ]

Last night I visited indoor drumline practice at my school, much to the surprise and excitement of my high school friends. Afterward, I settled down to watch Batman Begins with Eli, but he left halfway through which means I get to watch half of it again tonight :)

This morning, I finally got some work done around the house, and it was looking pretty spiffy. Evan and Stephen then showed up, and we hacked for a little while. For those who don't know, hacking is when you take a hackysack, and you try to keep it in the air with as many hits as possible, but without touching it with hands. Also no self-serves. As awesome as frisbee and hockey are, hacking really is the best sport to play AND the best sport to watch. Though it's also the hardest sport to watch because watching generally leads to joining the game.

We decided then that it was time for a Wawa run. I have been without Wawa for three weeks, and two months before that and it's unacceptable. Evan and Stephen have had access to Wawa for this whole semester and it's absolutely unjust that Wawa doesn't exist where I now live. But for now, everything has been rectified by a 10-inch hoagie, a half-gallon of Wawa iced tea, and half a box of cookies. Delightful. While waiting for our hoagies to be made, we saw Amy K and Mike B and chatted with them for a while, and it was nice to catch up.

Upon our return home, the inevitable occurred: we loaded up a game of Mario Kart Wii, and it was then that our fate for the afternoon was decided. I started out on the Bit Bike, because for some reason I thought that was what I used to drive, but it only reminded me why Mario Kart is the most frustrating thing in the known universe. As soon as I remembered my finesse and skill at the wheel of the Cheep Charger, however, I was able to reinstall my karting dynasty that had been suspended approximately one semester earlier. Eli showed up after two grand prixs (prixes? prix=plural?) and filled the final controller slot. We managed to engineer a combined victory for the blue karts after a 10-race team series, during which hilarious quotations abounded:

"Oh there are cactuses there for a reason..." –Eli

"I've never had this many un-points!" –Evan

...and many more, for a good time had by all. We hacked for a little while longer before Evan and Stephen took their leave.

Eli and I spar every once in a while. Usually it ends in a stalemate, but today he managed to catch my kick and push it upward, compromising my balance and sending us both thudding to the floor. It was, in layman's terms, fucking hilarious.

Oh my. Mama just watched a bunch of Youtube videos about Sriracha sauce, and the kitchen currently contains that and scrambled eggs. Needless to say, I'm leaving to eat. Bye.

Cravings... FULFILLED!

Upon landing back home, I was promptly greeted by Papa, who then showed me his astounding "rockstar" parking spot, which was just one row away from the exit of the airport. When he told me about it, I was so incredulous that I thought he was being sarcastic and had actually parked the car on the other end of economy parking. But there she was, our good old Saturn Vixen, greeting me as I stepped out of the airport doors. Papa and I reminisced on musical favorites on the ride home. My DJ skills were confirmed as the last song ended just as we were about to pull into the driveway.

I had spaghetti dinner made by Mama, a meal of tradition for my family that I had been sorely missing. I settled down to a viewing of The Incredibles with Eli that I had been craving throughout the day. We learned that this is a very good movie not only because it's awesome (seriously, amazing, if you haven't seen it, do), but because we had a particularly fun time commenting on why it was awesome. (principles of animation, story, characters) Unfortunately, Eli was sentenced to bed before the movie ended due to the fact that he's still in school, at which point he went upstairs to finish his Pre-Calculus homework.

After the movie ended I computered about for a while. I had a lovely text conversation with Meredith in which I finally brought closure to the stocking stuffer madness. I spent two weeks filling Meredith's stocking on the outside of her door with apples, and her roommate's with cookies. Yesterday I finally gave Meredith the cookie she had desired, for which she was very excited and grateful. I fell asleep at about 130AM, earlier than I have done in weeks, and I woke up at 1130AM to a text from Evan that said he was walking by my house, not knowing I was already home. I hailed him inside, and we chatted for a bit before he left for a train to visit his girlfriend.

Now I am more full of sleep than I have been in ages, and I have nothing to do. I think I'll go take that bath I've wanted. Now that I have access to, you know, a bathtub and everything. Okay, my house is cold and the bath is warm, so Ima stop procrastinating this. Bye!

Evan– AKA Estrow. Evan is a mechanical-engineer-in-the-making, so I hope someday he'll design and build me something cool. He is also the owner of the original heyman hat, though it was made the Heyman Hat by Dirk. No matter what, Evan is always found holding a half gallon of Wawa Iced Tea, and I commend him for his devotion. I must also credit Evan for his mad jumpstyle dancing skills mixed with Russian dancing and hat tips. I could never...

Dirk– This guy. The originator of the Heyman Hat, nuff said. "Hey, man!" became Evan's catch phrase when Dirk, wearing said hat, was challenged to impersonate Evan. At the time, "Hey, man!" was not a catch phrase associated with him, but that's all Dirk could think of after 11 hours of bus riding. He's usually sharper and wittier, when well-nourished and -slept, but either way, he's almost always cracking jokes. Licensed funnyguy.

On the Road Again... Or... Wings

So here it is. I am in the airport, and it's about time to board for home. I had never guessed a three month semester could have felt so short, but there you go. I woke up to a lovely Casio keyboard serenade by Harrison, and spent the rest of my time cleaning and packing. Harrison and I reminisced upon the semester by playing Fireflies, the theme song of the 929 boyyyz <3, and we rejoiced in its awfulness. In the train station, I had a chance encounter with Eric, who was headed downtown to visit his girlfriend.

Anyhow, d'love to chat, but I ought to get on the plane before I have to sleep in the terminal. Happy holidays to all my collegemates who may be reading this, good luck on your remaining finals, and I'll see you in a month!

Eric– AKA E-rock. I dunno how it happened, but one moment he was living on the 5th floor, and the next moment he was living with Harrison and me. He only returned to his room occasionally to eat and sleep, and spent the rest of his time gaming or chilling as a 929 boyyy. Since then, Eric has generally migrated back to his room, where he presumably does battle with the phantom roommate, JetSet (Justin), who once slept for 18 of a day's 24 hours.

Foodstuffs, Foodstuffs, Everywhere and Not a Bite to Eat

I am the walking shade. I feel like I could sleep for at least 24 hecto-aeons. And it really doesn't help that 2 of the 4 other people in the common room are currently dozing off in comfy chairs. It all started this morning when I woke up. I was returning to the waking world after a particularly rageous night of shenanigannery, and the only thing that kept me awake at that point was the remaining quarter of a Sunny Delight gallon. But seriously, I was so tired I felt like I was being smushed on every side by cushions, but at the same time levitated, not touching anything. It was sort of blissful.

Anyhow, my netherstate was soon interrupted by a Rageous Band event. It was an end-of-year fun times chill sesh of sorts, with pizza and soda and games and everything. Andy and I totally didn't think it was a gig, by the way, we definitely didn't have lunch at the dining hall beforehand, and we certainly didn't bring our instruments to the band office and then to the venue. :3 We proceeded to build a gingerbread house kit. My table's ended up looking much better than that of the other table, and was finished about an hour earlier, so we switched to playing Apples to Apples. I am proud to say that I finished with 7 green cards, bringing the Andy-Al combined total to 8. Since then, I've used two more of my dining hall passes, of which I am given 15 each week, recharged on Sundays. If I'm not mistaken, that means I get to eat 12 times tomorrow before I fly home for the break at 3. Perhaps I'll use those meals as chances to stock up on nourishment for the long winter...

The Misadventures of Mershell

Today I woke up at 1PM, but only after 9 hours of sleep. Bros night lasted until 4AM, and consisted of max snacking, Team Fortress 2, an intense card deck workout, and a successful series of scouting missions for the 9th floor chapter of G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS).

Ritz crackers of whole and incomplete wheat, along with peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, and the ambrosiatic omnispread, nutella, are the ingredients to a delectable night. Sean brought us most of the ingredients. And while I'm talking about him:

Sean– AKA Batman. He's my suitemate. One day Harrison and I were looking out our window onto a courtyard and imagined watching Batman run across it. We then realized that Batman's secret identity could be no other than Sean. He is a singer in one of our three a cappella groups, and also happens to be quite the bro-gentleman.

Our deck workout requires that we turn over cards one by one until the deck is done. For each card, we do pushups, situps, squats, or flutter-kicks, depending upon the suit, the number of each determined by the  number on the card. Aces high, because we tuff shiz. Jokers are a minute of chuting and a minute of planking, respectively.

At our 3PM lunch, we learned that Meredith has trouble saying the syllable "when" and we gave her all the shit for it. Example, she says one might get a frosty and a baconator at "Windy's" and might do so on a "Windsday".

Meredith– AKA MerShell because she reminds me of Marcel the Shell due to the random nature of the things she sometimes says. She knows more random facts than anyone I know, and is adept at reciting facts on a specified topic when prompted. Now, though, it looks like she will be undergoing a nickname change because the group generally supports "Winnie the Pooh".

Meredith has now taken to drawing on my leg with purple pen to distract herself from math homework. That's what she says, but I know she just wants an excuse to touch my luscious leg hair. And yes, she's doing math homework in pen. Take a moment to shed a tear.

Now I'm off to play some sexy sax with Rageous Band. brb

Brofist Generously

Welcome to the future. We have sweet chilli sauce.

First, gotta take care of the important things. Multiple props go to:

Andy– Tremont Street Raiders– http://finger-chopper.blogspot.com/
Iris– Paper-Mache Mephisto– Private blog. Sorry :/
Angel– Cake Pops with Prometheus– http://mentalcakepops.blogspot.com/
and Heather– An Education– http://jesuisdino.blogspot.com/

for coercing me into making a blog by force. Sorry– force applied over an area. Specifically that of the peer variety. I hate to be an advertiser, but I had to shout out to them, and you should check out their blogs 'cause they're totally boss and everything.

Now on with business, to introduce the characters mentioned in this post. I may post about them again later, so memorize them. Not really, but you might have to keep referring to this post. [UPDATE: You can now reference people via this page! Check out the other pages in the sidebar, as well.]

Andy– Lives just across the 9f common from me. AKA Das FingaChoppa. He hosts 9th floor movie nights regularly and doesn't actually sleep, but can grow several facial hairs. He is sitting near me currently, sporting an Ambrose Burnside for a movie I recently made. He and I theorized the Clooneyan Principle: In a nutshell, George Clooney is always behind you. Smiling.
Iris– AKA the Miraculous Mandarin, so named by Andy after he watched a similarly titled pantomime. Iris stole my phone once but I managed to chase her down. However, under her alternate identity, the Paper-Mache Mephisto, she secretly gives a berth to George Clooney in her room. Somewhere...
Angel– She lives nextdoor to Iris. I helped her upload a photo of a chocolate that we agreed looked like a mini-bonsai. I'm told she has salesperson skills that make Billy Mays' ghost prostrate itself in reverence, though she has not tried to put me under her spell.
Heather– Heather hails from Colorado, so my New Mexican upbringing tells me one thing: she's really good at skiing and does it all the time. That notion is solidified by the fact that she drew mountains on my wall of art. Heather lives several floors away, but increasingly often graces the ninth floor common with her appearance.
Lauren V– (Other Laurens are soon to be introduced.)– AKA Powerpants. I wave to her often. She lives only a couple of doors down, and she waves back everytime. It's real cute, we're like total bros and stuff, united by our abundant waving. We were once united in our quest against College Writing, but we have since vanquished that foe.
Sarah– AKA Sherbert. Sherbz and I have a rivalry of epic proportions. Not actually epic. It's mostly a constant struggle for Sarah to avoid having her wristlet (I hate that word, so will henceforth not be using it.) confiscated by me. She's recently been becoming more astute and forcing me to use much trickier tactics. Also, the other day, Sarah and I bonded over the construction of a gingerbread house. It had a helipad, nuff said.
Jenny– One of the craziest characters I've yet met. I'm pretty sure her mind is generally jumping around in a bouncehouse. And it's one of the most lovable traits in humankind. Jenny lives with Lauren V, whose life must be brightened to no end by Jenny's 97%-of-the-time sunny attitude and bro-tier guitar playing.
Papa– He's the daddyo. As in who's ya daddy? Well maybe not quite, but almost. This man is an architect by trade, and over the past few years, a runner by hobby. He was 50% responsible not only for my existence, but also about 50% for my introduction to Electronic Music.
Mama– Quite predictably responsible for the other 50% of my existence. She's a Spanish language-turned-social studies teacher in the same district in which I was schooled, but never officially taught me. I'll be honest, she unofficially assisted in my Spanish and social studies learning, but has since taken up the study of Japanese language and frequently laments that my Spanish abilities have surpassed hers.
Eli– The broingest of the bros, Eli is also, quite appropriately, my brother. Though we used to have a rivalry of TRULY epic proportions, we have now joined forces to create an unstoppable brotherhood of chillness. Our ongoing project is to convert an attic into a man cave worthy of that brotherhood. So far, we have amassed a respectable array of game systems and bass-blasting fury, but minifridge capacities are yet unfulfilled.
Riker– More properly known as Commander William T Riker. This valiant leader is truly an inspiration to felinekind, as he shall soon be celebrating his 19 and 2/3 birthday. In other words, this cat has had my family waiting on him hand and foot since before I was even conceived.
Jake– Jake is one of my artbros. He always greets me with a "hi", sometimes multiple times. Jake's forte is in art that mixes recognizable pop culture symbols with the magically intricate designs from within his mind. It's always quite inspirational and mesmerizing to look at. Jake always wears a black beanie, and he manages to make it look fly 60% of the time, all the time.
Harrison– This gentleman is an animal in all the best ways. I do not believe there could have been someone more appropriate with whom to share a room. Sometimes he's my Belarusian brother and we lament on our lack of bread. Other times, we are 500-pound Westerners who sit around doing nothing but yelling at each other to go to the gym. Perhaps we are commenting on the hilarity and stupidity of the lack of political climate in the Republican debates. A roommate bromance if I ever saw one.
Laura– My fellow ginger of 9f. Unfortunately, I can't even hope to match the redness of this bright shock. Laura ranks around a 90 or 95% on the ginger scale, massively outdoing my 65-70%. (Note: The ginger scale is, as yet, an unofficial measurement. Other note: GINGERS HAVE SOUL. Laura would agree.)

Anyhow, to begin my blogging career, I will recount to you a dream I had this morning. You know how when you try to tell someone about a dream you start forgetting it? Well, when I began telling this dream I remembered even more. And it was deep as hell. And there's a TL;DNR version below, so if, like me, you are cursed with a short attention span don't stop reading yet.

DREAM SEQUENCE

I fell asleep at about 11AM. After a confusing labyrinth of a dream sequence that I can’t quite remember (I only have notions and emotions), I was watching a movie with Lauren V, Sarah, and Jenny, and we were sitting on a wood floor that seemed to be part of a large room of some sort, and there was an orange sunset behind us. For some reason, I felt a sense of loss (which I seem to remember could be explained by the missing segment of the dream– I believe it involved a convenience store), but as the girls tried to keep my mind off of whatever it was, I turned around to see nothing but glass. Papa was driving me home in a spaceship. That’s all I can call it because I know I was standing at a large windshield with an aisle behind me, we were rushing forward, and I was having trouble standing. The backdrop was a dream sunset: a gradient that contained every color. Papa, Eli, and Mama (both in the backseat) seemed somber, and although Riker was with us (at Papa’s feet, I saw him) Mama and Eli seemed to be hinting that he wasn’t. I looked back down only to catch a glimpse of a ghostly shade of a cat before I hit the floor. I found myself in a vast cubic room three stories tall that had floor, roof, and all sides made of wood except one of entirely glass. It was the same room I had been in with the girls earlier, but now was lit only by a full moon. I felt completely alone in this empty room, even when I noticed a silhouetted figure on the other side of the room. The ominous shadow walked closer and closer until it revealed itself as an old friend. It was a guy I remember from... Somewhere. He looked like a taller, musclier version of Jake, with the voice of Paul. (Paul is a wrestler from my high school. I didn't officially introduce him because I don't expect he'll be mentioned anymore.) I thought this familiar character had gone to my school and had been two grades above me, but I couldn’t put a name to the face. He had been a bit of a douche and had possibly bullied me in younger years, but he had also left before high school, and he was acting like a total bro now. Turns out this person was just a figment of my imagination, because in my waking state I know of no such person. We started catching up, but then he had to go. He, along with Russell (a professor who taught my intro to college class) and their "animation 4" class, were filming a scene for a movie. Spotlights hit a platform at one of the wood to wood corners of the room, and the class appeared on the platform. Two guys tried to summon super powers, but then Russell jumped epically to the floor. I began to chat about it with two random nerdy guys next to me, when Sarah appeared and grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me to the dining hall entryway. It was different than usual, somehow, and I really noticed this when the woman who works at the desk swiped my card and handed me a handle of alcohol that had some sort of “sweet” name. I thought it was just a gag soda of some sort, but then I realized it was indeed 10% alcohol. I looked at Sarah, who had stepped back and was looking at me naively and expectantly. I asked her if I should give it back, thinking it was just a trick to catch me with alcohol. But then she got one herself and led me into the dining hall. I followed her around a corner to a crisp New Mexico morning. She had joined a crowd of people on a train station platform that I now realize must have been the purple line stop in Dedham, Massachusetts, because it looked like it, but also because at the center of the crowd was the governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. He was making some impromptu inflammatory speech. I know it was inflammatory because the crowd was unresting, and I knew it was impromptu because he was traveling alone– no bodyguards. Immediately I knew something was fishy, and this notion was solidified as soon as I started to walk up the platform to stand next to Sarah who was somehow on the other side of the crowd. Rick Perry walked in front of me and gave me a Clooneyan glance of despisal, like he knew I knew what he was up to, but I didn’t think much of it, because he walked away unnoticed, and I had to go find Sarah, who turned out to have been replaced by some random person I don’t actually know but somehow thought I did. I wasn’t really listening to Romney, especially when I saw some scruffy dude with a sketchy coat walking away grumbling. I now know this man was the homeless guy who sometimes accosts me on my way into my local train station. Immediately I thought he was an assassin, and though I didn’t pay him much mind, sure enough, 15 seconds later he appeared on the other end of the platform with a small revolver that looked like just the barrel of a gun. He shot at Romney and we all dropped, I thought he had hit, but he must have missed and Romney must have pulled out a gun because they started having a retort-off. The guy just wanted Romney to clarify something he’d said, something that apparently would expose a great hole in Romney’s campaign. I was busy trying to crawl out of any possible gun range, when I was suddenly in between them both. The gunman had seen me moving and threatened to kill me, when Romney finally conceded what he had been hiding. Just as he was saying it, though, I woke up. The clock read 752, and I thought I had slept for nine hours. I was also confused because it was still light outside. (It was sunset, so it couldn’t have been AM.) I explained the shootout scene to Harrison, and walked out to the common room. I was amidst explaining the dream to Laura and someone else (Andy?) when I woke up again. it was 1208. I had only slept for an hour or less. I haven't gone to sleep or woken since then.

TL;DNR: I had a crazy dream in which I almost got shot, then woke up to what I thought was real, then woke up from that.

INCEPTION. Until now, I didn't know I could be inceived in real life, but such a circumstance is now proven to exist. Who knows? Maybe I'm still dreaming. dah-dah-duhhhhhhhhhhhhm

Either way, I've wanted to go back to sleep ever since my second wake up, but I have yet to have the opportunity. And I expect to remain awake for hours to come.

PS– Future posts are expected to be much shorter.