Twilight of the semester: tests, misadventures in Fort Lauderdale, Little Havana, Taco Bell…
Library nights, starbucks, starbucks, starbucks, Matt & Carmen’s B-day (Touristas in Kendall + bad-dest-assed box of chocolates ever.), Beta Theta Election mess x 4… &, &, &,
Confluence magazine finally uploaded.
Pen to paper, paper to Penn.
Thanksgiving break predictably so, Little Havana, Sedano’s, hulking German-Petite Haitian, & etc., Dan Marino’s, movie placeholders, entertaining, entertaining thoughts, Taco Bell, ARH papers, library, junior year fades, My Super Sweet 16, South Miami, gym, these questions, mortification of mind/body, starbucks mugs…i own them all, frust-triats.., & ice cream.
Throwing things out, keeping them in.
Finished confluence, cutesy shit, last minute assignments, starbucks, waste, movies, movies, movies, laserquest, broward, tacobelllll… Thanksgiving is near…tests are nearer.
The breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Grappling with rotting books, desperately trying to finish Confluence, hiding in cloth, watching countless movies, midnight runs to Taco Bell, stop (re)format it…my hard drive is dead.
Richter Stacks, Meetings, marginalization, Halloween in Fort Lauderdale (Coliseum, Taco Bell, Beach, 7-Eleven) after a midnight rescue mission of three blind mice in the Grove, long nights, “Borat”, Gelato, and raging queens in South Beach, “Running with Scissors” by NSU in Kendall, “The Queen” and Burger King on Lincoln Road again (got stuck in the rain and saw old rich French guys while stepping),
Flea market in Little Havana (utterly peasant with fannypacks, illegal birds, bootlegs, and immigrants), Homecoming and an explosion of a boat on the university lake, Beta Theta Pi and our first Greek T-shirts, ridiculous amount of design work, Starbucks, Taco Bell, volunteering, redecorating the floor, catching up-touching base, Dostoyevsky, reports, essays, duty drammy…
…a mixture of busyness and inefficiency
became slovenly,
diligently scribbled,
& pushed squares around the courtyard,
Predicated, predated, worked at the library, and saw some movies; “Marie Antoinette” at Dolphin Mall, “Clean” at Cosford, “Last King of Scotland” and “Saw III” at Sunset, “Infamous” at Aventura Mall.
Had my epiphany a few hours ago; it was very tardy, but welcome.
seum, Oz, Sunset (where the fountain was full of foam again), “The Grudge II” in Little Havana, “The Prestige” in Sunset, pledge induction to Beta, guises, tests, beach balls stuck in the lake, reading outside, desperately stamping out inefficiency, “seasoned salt”, Coli with Lewin and Boosnap (after various adventures in Brickell), scorned Gymmy, faked a tan, haired my color (and yes, it did turn out to be orange just like Carol Perry said it would be), got hired at the library, and had constant supply of coffee at all times.
No exceptions.
Semi busy regularity, midterms, 5:35am, marching in semi-darkness to the library clutching my coffee mug, commissions, writing, RA dut(ies).
– Rushed Beta Theta Pi, got a bid
– Little Havana food dives with boosnap
– Titanic bulletin board and canceled program
– “catching up” lunches
– Meetings, projects, Outlook express.
Looking into BETA, Prepping for Midterms, & picking the files off the floor,
– Sunset, Kendall, “The Last Kiss” at The Falls
– Hialeah Gardens, Wal-Mart at midnight, The not-so-grand tour of Hialeah
– “The Departed” with the entire school at Sunset, Hollister, PacSun
– Selecting dragonflies at Dadeland
– Eating Taco Bell at 1am in a park downtown “Ah m’ wife lives in Frankfort!” says the wino
– South Beach (The Beach) after dark, finding rotting things in the water
– Midnight rescue missions in Alexandra’s truck
– Falling out of Cars, Starbucks, Library, Starbucks… Gym,
– Applications, applications, applications, building my castle (?)
Strolling,
Little Havana Pizzaruns, Fight Club attempts (always fall asleep/get distracted during that movie), Taco Bell, Coliseum, Surfside Ihop, Beach/rain/sketchballs, South Beach, not being there for most of the ride home…
…Azucar, Taco Bell again, Jackass: the Movie, Science of Sleeping, Lincoln Road, Artist Colonies, Gelatto, Anthropolie/Base,…listless.
I’ve been slow/things have been slow/it’s been slow all semester. This week: we kick things into gear.
Plotting, bidding, receiving.
Equinox, Tests, Dropping classes, wasting time, & Sklavi.
Despite everything, things culminated.
There was relentless clubbing with the Eatoners followed by late night excursions to Surfside.
…sitting on the beach staring at the lights from distant boats and talking turns talking into the black ocean while the other sipped bad coffee with cheap creamer from the Quickie mart.
Four years worth. Rehashed, relived, and released.
– My roommate moved out but we managed to have him stay on the floor, which is awesome.
– Redid room, got my computer back after much BestBuy screaming
– Lost voice, got it back, lost voice…got it back…losing…
– Dadeland three times (with guest appearances by Mr. Potatohead)
Fall Hölle Woche,
The cabaret party at the Morgue on Wednesday, Wild Thing show at Oz on Thursday, Coliseum on Friday, Azucar on Saturday, and Mariloly tonight at Oz… Movies, movies, movies… fast food, etc – Crank and Trust the Man, Denny’s, Donald’s, and Taco Bell… Hollister, Urban Outfitters, Lucky, and of course Targié,
What was a novelty in high school is now simply degenerative.
Preparation for Ernesto, the shower with a name, ushered in the week but amounted to little more than a two days off school, wind, some rain, and a ton of duty drama for us.
Spent a lot of time holed up in the dorm room with the roommate, video games, junk food, comedy central, fucking kangaroos and hanky codes. Wednesday was the military ball at the Morgue with Alexandra, who placed third…fun night, usual people. Denny’s afterwards with our favorite waitress.
South Beach – gallery opening after party with JHR … sketchball artists with bad paintings, McDonald’s, stray dogs… yeah, complete waste of time. Friday night I stayed in the dorm and just entertained/was entertained by a constant flow of people… loud Islanders, screaming Kerry-look alike (say the Islanders) arguing the law, Alexandra stopping by, plate errands, other residents.
A quiet, sweeping sense of apathy prevailed this week – I’ve wasted a lot of time – next week will be intense.
Oh, and randomly, we went to a house party:
Well, we didn’t go to the gym, write, or study. We didn’t watch our backs or plates, and we certainly didn’t “pay attention”.
So, then, what did we do this week?
Stood in line at the bookstore, milled about Starbucks, hung out at the front desk, sorted mail, ran the first floor meeting, got pissed on by Edda the dog, reunions, reggaeton house parties in the suburbs, got attacked my roaches outside of sunset, greeted people whose names I didn’t know, had superficial, awkward conversations, charmed, went to the movies three times, …shopped for four hours at Wal-Mart, Costo, and Publix for a floor dinner that eventually got canceled, got buried under a magazine avalanche as my roommate cackled, rocked the Hasselhoff during duty, tried Carmen’s step class, brought the knife to the gunfight, humored, rumored, and tumbled.
Next week begins with a hurricane.
Training finished, roommate moved in, residents moved in…12 hour days, bonding, misbonding, unbonding, rebonding…. the descent, exhaustion.
Alleys, allies, & etc. Next week things really get started.
RA training. Long nights, door decks, mold on floor, 2 inch roaches, residents, carts, carts, carts…parents…yar.
Retreat (we went to the Macro Island Marriot) was actually a lot of fun. We got loose at this fish joint with a small dance floor and manly-looking singer.
I slept both nights on the penthouse balcony of our hotel. Looking down at the dark beach and ocean while listening to C-Mos was relaxing, and needed. Priorities, etc.
My summer ends when RA training begins.
Summer was sort wild…definitely fast and stupid, and utterly unproductive. It won’t be regretted or repeated.
3am street race downtown. Not with cars – but on foot.
We started on Flagler and ran full speed towards Wolfson. Screaming obscenities and rushing past homeless people and then collapsing on the Wolfson steps. Hah. Just like in high school.
Later JHR had a Silent Bob moment when he pulled a boom box out of his car and we danced in a parking lot in Wynwood/Rosewood like a bunch of dorks. There were only five of us but it was fun. He had Mindless Self Indulgence and Benjamin Theves. Holler.
Other people’s weeks were much more interesting. Megan had her purse and cellphone stolen and ended up doing a sting with police at the Douglas-US-1 gas station. She had a small female cop hiding in her car with a loaded gun cocked and everything.
Then last night after hanging out at the Martinibar at Sunset with Alexandra and her grad student friends – I don’t drink but she turned 21 so I was there for the less-than-appropriate conversation… we skipped off to the Mariloly show at Oz. She left with a Gogo dancer.
Hot. Latin. Passion.
She’s still screaming about it.
I move back into Hecht this week. I stayed in another residental college over the summer… RAs were told that we might have temporary roommates, but if we do we get $500 added to our stipend. That’d be awesome actually. I want three.
In the middle of the week Carlos and I saw “A Scanner Darkly” in South Beach and then skipped down to Homestead…there was a PacMan game in the back of ‘the theater’ and plenty of creepy dark trailer-park lanes… it was awesome. One bad piece of news though – they tore down the abandoned paintball course and building I had pictures of but lost while Big Box was reformatting my life. Oh fishsticks.
On the way back to Miami I got into a car accident.
Bitch decides to do a U-turn as I’m entering the intersection. Carlos and I screamed, I slammed on the breaks and swerved, and SMACK! All up on her bumper.
We both pull into the gas station that was right there and she gets out of her car, calls me “dude” a million times and announces that she has to pee.
And in addition to being drunk tipsy she doesn’t have insurance. Blah. The glass on my passenger side headlight is busted and the hood is sort of crumpled. Her bumper as two and a half scratches but isn’t even dented. She got a careless driving ticket. Ching!
She explained to the cops that she let her insurance lapse because she’s working two jobs and bla bla blasay bla bla bla. They didn’t care, nor did I. Carlos and I had more adventuring to do.
So after that police-report-filing drama we were back on the road with 1.5 headlights and headed to misadventures by the Airport and FIU. Hah! Long night.
Went to the Morgue this week as well. My costume was awesome. Eddie made a guest appearance after saying he wasn’t going to. Peter & Crew were too trashed/wasted for comfort. I stole Peter’s goggles because they looked stupid and no one should wear them. At the Morgue they had a “Doll Parts” show… three gogo dancers in underwear and pasties… they put liquid rubber or some mess on themselves and had the audience peel it off. It smelled really bad…and was a little stupid. To think that this all goes on across the street from the dorms!
…Then the other night there was floating in Mike’s pool, which was too cold, joking about skiing and geography. When I went into the house it was so cold I wanted to cry. There is NO reason for the AC to be set to 45…that shouldn’t even be an option!
This week has been very-much-so summer: movies, clubs, starbucks, hanging out, adventures, junk food, laughing, computer games laced with Diet Mountain Dew, stupidity, mayhem…the gym sometimes…