Monday I went camping with two of my friends. Yup, just two. Everyone can relate to what I am talking about, be it camping or any activity planned with your friends. You call everyone up, schedule a meeting date for 7 months in advance, send out invitations fancier then a wedding note (which in my town is not hard to beat since most are printed on the back of Domino's boxes), even arrange for a limo to pick everyone up.
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| Just a small get together from foxypar4 |
"Totally, that sounds great, we def gotta do that!"
"Yea broski, let's get it dude!"
BAM, you're inviting everyone you can think of and they are all down. 10000 guests! You start inviting anyone you see, the girl at the cash register where you're buying snacks, because hey, didn't you go to my kindergarten class? No? Whatever just come, I'm gonna call you Michelle every time I see you anyways. Because that's what anyone wants to do after they get off a shitty service job like dishwasher or cashier, is go straight to a party smelling like service job. And if you've held a job that results in this smell, you know exactly what I am talking about. Its horrifying, mainly because it's unlike everything else you have ever smelled, it doesn't smell like anything you have been exposed to at work so you don't know what deadly cocktail of old food, bleach and urban decay concocts it, and for whatever reason the only thing that comes up in your mind to compare it too is the inside of a cat's ass.
Oh, you think I'm crazy? You think about that statement for a minute and see if it doesn't strangely seem to make sense.
So you're inviting everyone to this shin dig, maybe you see a hooker and think what the hell, 'Ol Lonely Larry will be there too.
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| Also, these guys from unknown |
And then they start dropping like flies. Ahh, I have to work, blah blah, my grandmother died, blah, robot penguins.. from the future.. blah..in capris blah blah. Just like that we are left with 3.
But it's ok, because it was a good three. My friends Josh Kevin and I all went camping up at Good Luck Lake and Cliffs. It was a good precursor to a second attempt at the larger group in a few weeks. I'll put pictures and talk about our trip in more detail in a separate post, so we can just move on.
We got home from camping Tuesday afternoon just in time to go to work. The next morning I was en route to Binghamton to visit some of my friends from school who are living there over the summer. In this case I found myself in hippie/hipster central in the avenue of Outdoorsclub Kevin's apartment with his housemates Evan and Lauren and an ever changing cast of bit hipsters coming and going from the place two houses down.
We biked. A lot. Literally everyone in the house used bi pedals for their preferred method of transportation, and in the city of Binghamton in general, there is an abnormal amount of bikers. And sundresses, a fact I noticed at around the same time. I was in heaven at Binghamton in May when sundress season came, because it came in full bloom down there. Nowadays back in the Arctic circle of Central New York I just about forgot such beautiful things exist. Until I go down to bing and see two within as many hours. They would solve their problems with deflating population if they put that fact on the brochures.
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| You're welcome for the free publicity, admissions office |
Staying in the house with them made me decide without a doubt that I am moving off campus next year. You feel like an adult and a real member of the community. A lot of older citizens in college towns hate the kids that attend the school, with good reason, a lot of them are pricks, or little bitches who were mollycoddled their entire life, and get self esteem issues because they need to give themselves some kind of excuse to use as a crutch so they can act like Holden-fucking-Caulfield and continue being an immature tart.
So many students do not ever go off campus except to go to the bars and drink. They know nothing about the city, or the people who work there every day. Living off campus and immersing yourself in the populace is so important. I mean really, its what college is supposed to be right? To prepare you for your profession, to transition you fully into an independent adult. Kids today go into college with the wrong expectations. Its to get yourself to the point where you can function in society, while providing you with a rope to catch you while you inevitably struggle and trip over the hurdles. It's not a summer camp to go to where you can shed responsibility for at least another 4 years and act like a 12 year old while your poor parents pay for you to take arts and crafts.
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| Senior Thesis from guiltyx |
Its an amazing thing to have neighbors who are 30 years older then you, telling you about what is really going on outside your bubble. To be surrounded by real people, not a bunch of idiots drawing dicks on the dorm whiteboards reminds you how close you are to being an adult.
Something my parents don't seem to understand is that I want to struggle. I want to be self reliant, and I honestly want to have a crappy apartment and car and live the world like a hobo. Its part of the experience, it keeps stuff in perspective.
You appreciate being with people more. Kevin sits on his porch for hours when he is bored, and as a result he is on friendly terms with almost every person that bikes down the street. Notice how I said biked. Kevin, Lauren and I entertained ourselves for over an hour learning how to cook a mouse.
This would be a good point to mention how awesome Lauren is. It wasn't Kevin or I who first started talking about cooking up mice. It was her. This cute woman whom you would never suspect, just sits down next to me on the couch and starts reading a wilderness book and pointing out mouse recipes and carved venison.
When it comes to free food, I have learned some ridiculous things that I had never thought of. Years of my mother being paranoid about never taking the first milk had all but brainwashed this from my mind: dumpster diving.
Leftover bagels and donuts, entire sheet pizzas, thrown away still in the box after they close. And it's really not as dirty as it sounds, its literally stacked pizza boxes at the top of the dumpster. Just don't go to McDonalds because you will not find anything there. They never throw away food, because there is no point getting rid of something that can't decompose!
It blew my mind to hear Lauren say 'Well I'm not hungry enough for pizza but I may go with you guys to enjoy the trip.' Something about an pretty girl who isn't afraid to stick her hands in a dumpster for a free sheet pizza is really attractive. Yeah, its definitely love. I mean, she even offered me her homemade ginger ale.
It was a sad day when I had to leave Thursday morning. But at least I got some Plaza Diner out of the deal.
I got home Thursday and went right back out to play ultimate Frisbee. And then run 13 miles the next morning. Needless to say right now, at 1130 Friday night, I am EXHAUSTED.
But will I stop? Of course not, I'm going mountain biking tomorrow, working, and doing some urban exploring of an abandoned plant after the sun goes down! Which I am sure will be another post in itself.
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