Sunday, March 07, 2004
edit: Got some photos from the hockey game online... they're posted up on the side, and, for you lazy folk, right here. Celebrate.
Oh, and Ryan posted some photos from the Envelope show on his site, check 'em out. /end edit
OK, so I didn't blog on Friday. I am SORRY. Too much work. And technically I've got enough work so that I shouldn't be blogging right now either, but I'm doing so because the work is going to terminally annoy me if I continue working on it just now.
Anywho, a lot has happened, but let us go back about a week ago, and hundreds of miles away, when I was still in that glorious state of being known as Spring Break.
I didn't do much to finish it off... the family went to see Triplets of Belleville, which was in-freaking-credible. The animation was gorgeous, the story was funny, the music was great. It looked like the sort of thing which would have been very fun to do character sketches for. Everyone in my family loved it except for my brother, who 'didn't get it', despite the fact that there was almost nothing that needed getting. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it, you fool.
On Friday (I think it was Friday, anyways... it's been a long week) I went to Tufts to visit Jess and Stephanie. The campus was pretty much how I remembered it from when I visited during the Grand College Search, but back then I hadn't gone into any of the dorms. Jess's dorm was certainly much more modern-looking than dear ol' MoJo (i.e. not made of 100% flammable aged wood).
I was shocked and appalled by the size of their rooms. Neither Jess nor her roommate Elyse have their beds lofted, and even so their room was much larger than the biggest room (with two lofted beds) on my hall. Stephanie said that her room was smaller, but it still looked larger than mine is. I only peeked into Stephanie's room, though, since her roommate was firmly ensconced in there and she, I gathered, is not the most sociable of people. Jess's roommate was very nice, though. Made me slightly jealous, since she seemed like the anti-Brynn.
So I got to meet some of their Tufts friends. It seemed like a good bunch... funny, friendly, and slightly insane (that being the best combination). They seemed to indicate that it was weird that their hall hung out together, but maybe that's a Tufts thing, since my hallmates and I are all good friends (well, with a few exceptions). Then again I've heard that kids don't do much hallmate bonding in Markley or Bursley, so what do I know.
One of them had apparently just got a conch shell with the pointy bit cut to make it a horn, and they made the mistake of telling Stephanie about it. Stephanie ran to get it, and a little bit later we heard this sonorous horn noise drifting down the length of the hall. Then she brought it in to Jess's room and we were treated to the full aural pleasure of the conch shell blowing. It is very, very loud, I assure you. Other people tried it but Steph and the guy who owned it were really the only ones who could sound it properly.
Eventually we went into Boston to meet up with Corey and get some dinner. We went to the Prudential, aiming for the Cheesecake Factory. The 70 minute wait was not to our liking, so we ended up at the California Pizza Kitchen instead, which was much more reasonably crowded. We had been wandering about the Pru a bit before we ate, and we had noticed a whole lot of high school kids walking around dressed up with little badges on. A bit of scrutiny of the badges revealed that this was a Harvard Model Congress weekend (that being a large event attended by many high schools, run by Harvard, where kids go to a hotel or something in Boston and go to committees and such and pretend to be Congress for four days).
After dinner we were wandering around looking for a bathroom, and we decided to wander off down into a part of the Pru none of us had been in before. We were strolling along, marvelling at the fact that there was this whole part of the building we'd never seen, when suddenly we were treated to a most glorious vision. Before our bemused eyes was the enigmatic visage of Ms. Henning, accompanied by what was presumably her gentleman friend. Apparently she was chaperoning Swampscott's Harvard Model Congress team, and was taking a break while the kids were in committee to go in search of ice cream. She directed us to the hotel tucked away in the corner of the Pru, saying that we might see some of our (younger) friends there.
When we entered the hotel we could see the first floor and also the second floor, which was set up kind of like a balcony. Who did we see hastening across this upper level? Why, who else but Maura, Swampscott's own little Harvard attendee.
She descended from on high to speak to us, and then led Stephanie and Jess off to a bathroom. Corey and I stayed on the lower floor, slouching casually against the wall and generally looking very much like we were in no way, shape, or form associated with the Harvard Model Congress. Some fantastical images of high school wandered by, among them an unlikely couple (an enormous and awkward boy crammed improbably into a suit, chatting amiably with a trendy midget in a day-glo tshirt and large tinted glasses) and some delightful high school females (tottering uneasily on their high heels, their eyes rimmed heavily in eye shadow). Of course we commented upon and laughed at them, causing a couple to turn and glare at us. We also attracted the gaze of a security guard, since we were such plainly suspicious-looking figures.
After a bit Jess and Steph returned, and we headed home.
So Spring Break was good, it was great, it was glorious. And the week following it sucked a lot, because the teachers apparently thought it would be a good idea to make all kinds of things due right after we got back from break. The only good bit was that I started Digital for this semester, and we're making websites that will ultimately be big online portfolios. Mine's coming along slowly but surely, and it can be seen here.
This Friday Sara and I went to the Union for dinner, then we all sat around in Sara and Elisa's room watching a movie (Summer Catch with Freddie Prinze Jr.... hey, it was about the Cape Cod baseball league, and it was on TV, so watch it we did) and chatting. Then we decided that we wanted some ice cream, so off to Stucchi's we went. We were, for some inexplicable reason, completely crazed by this point, so that we thought it would be a good idea to rocket all over the streets and scream and for Beth to do the Horny Chicken Dance. Anyone seeing us would have immediately assumed we were drunk, although this was not the case.
A couple of fine lads driving along South U. at one point slowed down and leaned out the window and hailed us, asking if they could come back to our house. As we giggled like morons and said that we didn't have a house one of them asked Katy and Beth if they were twins, which caused us to scream with hilarity. Eventually they had to move on because they were holding up traffic.
Last night we went to the Michigan/Michigan State hockey game at the Joe Louis arena in Detroit, 'we' being me, Sara, Beth, Katy, and Sara's friend Amber. Oh, it was glorious beyond glorious belief. I took lots of pictures, including a whole lot where I zoomed way in and took pictures of the hockey players. Because they were zoomed in so far some came out pretty fuzzy, but some actually came out OK.
like so. hooray for the Michigan goalie!
We had a hell of time getting there, because 96 (the highway) was completely closed for a very large section, and this meant that we ended up following orange detour signs for around 45 minutes before we got back to where we needed to be. Those orange signs are going to haunt me for the rest of my life. Eventually we got there and managed to park, but were horrified to see that the line to pick up tickets was enormous... luckily they had it split alphabetically into three lines, and the P-Z line was, for some reason, a great deal shorter than the other two.
Pizza was consumed, as were Dippin' Dots, which I hadn't had in ages. I had almost forgotten how incredibly glorious they are. We were sitting pretty high up but could see the ice perfectly. We also ended up sitting quite near the Michigan band, which was nice. The game was a really, really, really good one that we just had the misfortune to lose. It was scoreless up until the end of the third period, when State scored with only 5 minutes or so left to go in the game. Michigan just couldn't muster up anything in that time, and that was that. Sigh. It was agonizing.
But it's OK, because we're still Michigan and they're still Michigan State... MSU: where the men are fat, the women are bored, and the cows are running scared. I heard some people singing the ever-popular chant "If You Can't Get Into College Go to State" (sung to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands). The State chant "Go Green, Go White!" was countered loudly by Michigan fans yelling "Smoke Green, Snort White!", which is an accurate assessment of State.
The fans were great... there were some State fans sitting around us, but there were tons more Michigan fans overall. We had a very small Michigan fan sitting in front of us who was cute, as parasitic children go. There were also a couple of slightly older children sitting a few seats down from us who started cheering "Go Blue!" at one point, so we cheered and applauded them. A man sitting behind us in his most heinous State finery leaned over and said, "Hey! Don't encourage them, those are mine!" which caused us to laugh and assure him that we had their best interests in mind... after all, we were urging them to go to the better school. There were also some very attractive Michigan fans sitting a few rows behind us. They were very vocal and we appreciated them a great deal.
Leaving the arena was a bit of a mess, since the place was mobbed and there was no easy way to get through the press of people. At one point we were going by the bathrooms and an awful smell was lingering in the air, indicating what must have been a backed-up toilet. People were yelling "Smells like East Lansing!" and "Smells like MSU!" At one point Beth attracted the attentions of a very, very heavily inebriated man. Eventually Katy stepped in and dramatically shoved the man away, shouting, "That's enough! This man is TOO OLD for my friend!" When we got outside and got a little bit of breathing room we all had a good several minutes of hysterical laughter over that.
We then discovered that not one of us had noted where we had parked the car. Amber thought it was on the 6th floor, but we weren't terribly certain about that and we weren't at all sure where on the floor we had parked it. We wandered around the parking structure for maybe 20 minutes, getting increasingly crazed as we covered the same ground over and over (It should be right here!). At one point some guys in a car honked at us, causing some guys in another car to yell, "Yeah, great way to pick up girls, honking at them!" which made us laugh some more.
Another car full of gentlemen stopped at one point to inquire if we had any rolling papers. Katy politely explained that we did not happen to have such things in our possession at the moment. Later we circled back and saw them again. It must have been clear that we had lost our car, because they shouted, "Lost your car, huh? It's OK, hop in and come back to Ann Arbor with us, and figure it out in the morning!" We prudently declined this invitation, although not without some more laughter.
Eventually we started hearing a faint beeping that wasn't the honking of the tons of other cars in the garage (we'd been compulsively pressing the beepy indicator button on the keyring). By following the faint beeping we were finally able to find the car. This naturally was cause for us to scream like anything and run towards it. This scene led some fans sitting in a car nearby to honk and yell, "Congratulations on finding your car!" Ahh, yes. T'was lovely.
So we made it back much more quickly than we had made it out, since we knew enough to avoid 96. We had very loud singalongs in the car, and had to scream at Beth to stop dancing spastically while driving on the highway. But make it back we did.
Today I slept until 1:30, which was beautiful. Then I did work, then I edited the photos from last night, then I decided I should blog. And now I really should go do more work. Amanda's mother is a professional baker, and she made a giant cake for Beth and Amanda's birthdays, which Amanda brought back to the dorm today. So that shall be my dessert later, which will make tonight OK.
Mmmmm cake.
2:25 PM
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