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.

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)

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.