Week in Review

I had a great time with my parents last weekend. I'll post some pictures from our trip to the tiger preserve as soon as they send them to me. This week has been pretty crazy since they left. Evidence:

1. I flew to DC for a 24-hour trip on Monday afternoon. I was composing a post in my head about how I really don't mind flying and have pretty good luck with regards to delays, cancellations, and screaming children, but I decided that the only surefire way to end up in a seat next to a sweaty fat man was to brag about my luck to the internet before my return flight. Summary: I really like to fly and I consider myself to be a master of the security check-in.

2. Wednesday night trivia! The Non-Profiteers redeemed ourselves after our extremely poor showing earlier this month by coming in first. With only three people! We each took home a Duck Rabbit pint glass and a PBR shirt. Kudos to Jeff for pulling the location of Brenner Pass out of his ass.

3. One of my fabulous aunts (not to imply any of my aunts are non-fabulous) was in town last night. I got to spend time with her and meet some of her friends who were also in town.

Plans for the weekend include a Durham Bulls game and a play at Carolina if I can get my act together. Next week is filled with wedding related parties and madness.

Recent craftiness

Here is a picture of my linoleum in progress and a couple prints with the finished block. I just did these on construction paper to get an idea of how it would look but I have some nicer paper and different ink I'm going to work with when I get a chance. I also made a pineapple carving but didn't take any pictures. I want to get the linoleum mounted on wood blocks so it's easier to print. I know I could buy pre-mounted linoleum but I like the flexibility of the sheets (and I'm kind of cheap).

Also, here are some pictures of the re-fashioned clock. I had all these neat Americana travel/luggage stickers and had no idea what to do with them. I cut some wood squares and pasted twelve on those and used the rest of the stickers to cover the clock face. The "arms" are just small pieces of wood painted and glued to the clock and stickered pieces. The final product is way too big for the space I had the clock before and I don't really know what to do with it now. Let me know if you like it and it's yours.

Pictures coming!

So it's four in the morning and I've decided the whole sleep thing is overrated. Look at how productive I've been! I've done some dishes, folded laundry, and made hotel reservations for DC next week.

I've been working on several crafty-like projects and will try to get some pictures posted later today. After years of intentions, I finally did some linoleum block carving and I'm pretty excited about the results. I had forgotten how difficult inking and printing is but for now I'm content to pet my pretty linoleum and stare lovingly at my handiwork (while nursing a wicked case of carpal tunnel). I also have a rehabbed (rehabed? rehab-ed?) clock to offer to anyone who wants it. I'm happy with how it turned out but it's way too big for the space I have - I'll do some pictures later.

Did somebody get the license number?

I think I got hit by a truck this week. Either that or I underwent general anesthesia. I can think of no other explanations for my complete inability to do anthing besides sleep the past few days. When I got up this morning I had slept 30 of the past 34 hours. I've been up for almost 4 hours now and my head is just beginning to clear. I could seriously go home and sleep until Sunday.

In other fantastic news, I discovered my phone quietly drowned on my kitchen counter and could not be revived. I went to get a new one before I went in to work this morning and was afraid that my cloudy head would cause me to walk out with a blackberry and a $70 monthly charge. I should have known my phone cheapness would win out - I stayed on my tiny current plan, which hasn't been an official plan for at least four years and got a new $10 phone.

Just made reservations to go see the tigers next weekend! I totally want to take this one home.

Why no love for Guster?

Today Dooce opened up comments on a post about having her car broken into. Some of the comments are great - it's obviously terrible to have anything stolen or broken, but it's really funny to hear what thieves take and leave behind.

My car (the Accord) was broken into the fall of my senior year in college. I can laugh about it now but at the time I felt so violated and angry. Someone broke through the little triangle window on the rear driver's side and ripped my steering column apart before giving up and leaving the car. I had two cell phones in the car (albeit one weighed about two pounds and was roughly the size of a purse dog) along with other personal items, but they didn't steal anything. The part that really gets me is that my cds had all been taken out of the holder on the visor and tossed on the passenger seat. None were missing. Was my taste in music really that bad? I still feel kind of offended about that.

My sister will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but a girl she knew in college has the best car break-in story I've ever heard. She lived off-campus at their school in Memphis in a not-so-great area and had her car stolen. It was later recovered by the police, no worse for the wear except for some mysterious stains on the seats and carpet. I don't know if anything was taken, but the car was recovered with the following items in the trunk: baby clothes, porn, and a chainsaw. I know if it had happened to me I would feel so dirty and violated, but I can't help but crack-up every time I think about it.

10 Years of Summer - 1998 and 1999

1998 - "The Summer of Laurel""
I worked maybe 10 to 15 hours a week and spent the rest of the time at the pool. I was dating a guy who didn't have a job and would come over almost every day to swim. When we got tired of my house we would walk to my best friend's house and swim there. Nights were spent on a houseboat docked near downtown, drinking Bud Light and listening to Bob Marley.

1999
For some incomprehensible reason, my dad decides I need to spend this summer working rather than half-naked with my boyfriend. This is met with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. I couldn't pick up the extra hours at my regular job and had no desire to find another job so my boss found a volunteer position for me with the maintence department at the Y. I spent about 20 hours a week stenciling and painting the words Caring (red), Honesty (blue), Respect (yellow), Responsibility(green) as a border on the walls of a small gym. I think I barely had time to finish before I left for college. (This is surprisingly not the most tedious job I would ever have.) Aside from the painting job and the looming move to college this summer is very similar to the previous one.

Next summer, off to Wyoming...

Busted!

A friend recently directed me to this article about all the stuff college students leave behind at the end of the year. As a graduate of one of the schools mentioned in the article, I can attest that the amount of stuff (furniture, books, clothes, things you can't even imagine) piled in dorm lounges and on the lawns between the senior apartments is unbelievable. Although Davidson is one of the smaller schools listed in the article the amount of stuff left behind probably rivals that of larger schools because everyone lives on campus.

I think the school started making an effort to donate usable items during my senior year, but before that anything left behind was first come, first served. I was one of the last people to move off campus my sophomore and junior years and picked up enough storage pieces (shelves, stacked drawers) to eliminate the need to ever buy others. The lamp in my office was picked up from the pile of unwanted things at the end of my junior year and still looks and works great. My alarm clock and a pair of brand-new flannel monkey pajama pants (like these) came from that same pile.

I obviously had (and have) very little shame about re-purposing people's trash so I could get a little carried away. For example, I pulled a street sign (intersection of Depot and Jackson streets) out of the pile at the senior apartments after my junior year. Instant decoration! College-town authenticity! It ended up sitting under our sink for most of the year until Ryan Auster decided to separate the individual street signs by jumping on it in our hallway (and putting a big rip in the carpet). Someone wanted the Jackson half and the Depot half ended up on the junk pile at the end of the year for some lucky underclassman to claim.

I worked on campus the summer before my senior year and was able to live in my assigned senior year apartment over the summer. At the end of the summer there was a mini-move-out day where all the underclassmen and non-Davidson students who had spent the summer in the senior apartments had to move out. As it happened, my mom and sister were visiting during that time and we spent the day away from campus since I didn't have to move during this time. When we came back to the apartments after dinner, there was a futon and an entertainment center near the pile of stuff that had accumulated over the day. Our apartment needed an entertainment center so my sister and I lugged it up the stairs and I got busy positioning my tv and vcr in the cabinet and reconnecting all the cables. My sister was interested in the futon so we picked up and carried it half-way to my mom's car before she decided it wasn't really worth it to take it all the way back to Tennessee.

Later that night I was sitting alone in my apartment, watching tv and thinking of how excited my roommates would be that I had scored this great entertainment center, when I noticed someone looking in the windows. A minute later there was a knock at the door and I opened it to find an underclassman (I think he was from Africa but I wouldn't swear to it) pointing at my entertainment center. "Did you get that from in front of the building?" Totally busted. Turns out he had left it there with the futon while he went to find a friend to help him move it across campus. He graciously offered to come back later to pick it up rather than standing in the doorway and watching me unconnect all the wires while trying not to die from shame. When he came back with his friend to move the cabinet he asked about the futon. "It looks like someone was going to take it because it's 50 yards away from where I left it. Do you know what happened?" I just kept my mouth shut and shook my head. It had, after all, been my sister's idea to take it. I was merely an accessory to that particular theft.

What is the NRA?

I love trivia. I can play Trivial Pursuit for hours and I can't flip past Jeopardy without stopping for a few questions. In high school my best guy friend and I woke up early one day during the summer and played along with Jeopardy in my living room to determine the trivia master. I won in Final Jeopardy: The acronym used by a current organization and was also the name of a New Deal organization. He called for a rematch and wiped the floor with me but we were generally pretty well matched.

Last night was bar trivia night at Tyler's. We went a couple times during the winter but there was a much larger crowd this time. The woman who comes up with questions has a thick Scottish accent so you really have to concentrate to listen. The last time we went we won third place (certificates for an hour of free pool at the Speakeasy) but I don't think we were even close last night. We have all summer to try, so I'll be keeping Wednesday nights free. (It doesn't hurt that there's a Wentworth Miller-esque guy who's a regular at Tyler's trivia.)

Ode to Tuesday

I'm not one to reminisce about college. Sure, I loved it while I was there and there are definitely some things I miss (laundry service, Outpost quesadillas) but, with one exception, there is nothing from college that I actively wish was part of my current life. The exception? Twenty-one year-old night.

Twenty-one year-old night took place in a two-level room in the union every Tuesday night. The balcony level provided prime people watching spots while the floor level provided easier access to the bar. Students looking to earn some extra money worked the bar, manned the popcorn machine, and controlled the music. Most people came straight from the library or computer labs and everyone would drop their backpacks in a large pile right inside the entrance. This was the time of the week where you wanted to get your work done before ten because there was no way you could drag yourself back to the library after last call.

College obviously provides lots of drinking opportunities, and of all occasions involving beer, twenty-one year-old night was by far my favorite. It had the set-up of a bar where you could mingle or claim a private table for you and your friends but without the bad lighting and terrible local bands. It had the atmosphere of the basement of a fraternity house, where all the people of age would gather during parties to escape the underclassmen bothering you to get them a beer but it also attracted people who hadn't been to parties on the court since First Night Down freshman year. Beer was cheap and served in bottles (no Beast to be found!) and by my senior year the bar accepted id cards for payment so you never needed cash.

I think what I really miss about Tuesday nights is the chance to put everything else aside and relax. It might be the first time all day you got to see your friends and roommates so it was a great time to catch up and exchange gossip. It was a scheduled social time that inconvenienced no one (no one was left cleaning beer bottles off their coffee table the next morning), was easy to get to, was affordable for everyone, and would be there next week if you missed it.