Saturday Night Prograstination

I realize most people my age go out to party on a Saturday night, but I'm mostly stuck inside, writing. 
I have some papers due and I have been working on them on and off, but I've been also typing up some poems I wrote Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon.  (Again, I wrote poems at work.  I am going to probably get caught, so I try desperately not to.)  The first poem I typed up this night is rather silly and possibly terrible, but since I share my writing with people so infrequently anyway, it doesn't seem like a big deal. 
Then I tried to get back to editing a shorter essay.  And then I got an idea for something I wanted to write, so I stopped to write down the draft of a poem.  (I know!  Another one.) 
After I had gotten that out of my system, I sat down again to edit another one of the essays.  I realized I had made a note to myself to look up something in Wide Sargasso Sea, which I was referencing in the essay.  Of course I've left the book at home.  I went last night to the library, couldn't find it.  So I tried online, just because I just need one tiny reference.  No luck, there's no online edition either.  I could probably leave it, since it's too big of a deal, but I wanted to check that I was remembering a set of allusions correctly. 
Then I started preparing a little to go home.  I still have a little less than a week to pack but I'm so busy that I'm afraid I'm not going to have enough time. 
And, it must be said, I always struggle when it comes to what I should pack and what I shouldn't.  I decided to take home my comics and some books and leave them there.  I have more books than I know what to do with here, and they're just so heavy.  In addition to writing here, I do keep a diary.  I finished one of my diaries up while here, so I'm taking that home and leaving it.  I'm probably going to take the current one I'm writing in home to so I can write in it.  I have a third diary that someone left on our community donation table.  It looks like the front set of pages was torn out and there's a small red stain on the side of the pages, but it's otherwise useable and the leather is very soft.  I am going to leave that here so I can write in it when I come back.  I have some postcards and letters I was meant to send that I'll just take home with me and post when I get back there. 
I did make the decision to leave some of my study materials here.  On the off chance I do get enough time to do some studying, I made myself a very long list of things I want to read up on, all of them English-centric, a good deal of them obscure ancient Greek mythology that I probably once knew but no longer remember.
At the very end of the night I chatted with Madison (who was working on a paper) about what the plans were for Christmas.  So far it's unclear if we're exchanging gifts or if someone is having a party, etc. 

The Rest of the Night

As we were walking into the apartment complex Nate lived in, we saw a little frog hoping around.  It's been raining on and off around here, so it made sense that there would be frogs out, though can honestly not even remember the last time I saw a frog there.
I spent a little time writing out my thoughts for the day.  And then I showered. 
Using someone else's private space is strange, even when there's not tons of reason to be.  It's hard not to guess what someone does to their body based on what's in their bathroom, especially with certain things sticking out.  There wasn't a lot, just things like shampoo.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  And yet I felt a little odd. 
Showering itself went fine, though it took me a while to figure out their hot and cold water situation.  I even put a little lotion on.
Like I said earlier, I've been painting my toenails.  I brought my stuff up to do so again, if need be.  Maybe if I get a little time later.
I slept okay.  I have a lot of trouble sleeping, as I've mentioned before on the blog, and sadly, this night was no different.  I thought, given how much excitement I had I would be tired, but even that wasn't enough.
I fell into a light sleep that was interrupted by Megan getting up for work.  She was relatively quiet, but there's no way to make coffee pots on stove's so. 
I fell back asleep.  When I woke up Dorian was in the kitchen, playing a game on his computer. 
Dean texted me asking if we wanted to get lunch, and, I assuming, go swimming after that, since that's what he asked for.  Nate and I are going to get ready and go soon. 
I'm also a little miffed because, right before school ending, I forgot a hoodie at church.  I called the church today, and they told me they had sent it to a shelter.  I'm a little annoyed, because it wasn't there that long, and because it's the summer, and it's a parish for students.  (Did they really expect me to come back here for it, especially if I was an out of state student?)
This is just the clearest example of me feeling that the church, for all it's carrying on, wasn't a community place, because they seemed deeply disinterested in the actual students and just interested in doing whatever.  I'm sure if I complain to Josie about this I'll get an earful. 
My plans for the rest of the weekend are this: dinner party at Erin and Nori's, hanging out with Nate, Juicebox and Paul Saturday night, then going home Sunday. 

Coupling Us Of

Jennifer and I had a nice drive over here to East Lansing.  Jennifer complained to me about her job.  I don't mind because I know everyone needs a little space to complain about their job.  Sometimes, even if you love your job, you need some room to say what you don't like.  You need to feel listened to.  I love listening to Jennifer.
Finding Nate and Megan's place was not tough.  I was afraid it might be, but it was this really nice section of apartments.  Jennifer was kind enough to take my bags up one set of stairs and then a second set, since we went up the wrong one.
And then we found their apartment.  The door opened, and there Nate was.  He looked exactly the same.  I almost felt like the Grinch, like my heart was expanding three sizes in my chest.  I felt I was going to burst.  We hugged, we talked.  I said hi to the other two roommates, Valerian and Dorian.  We chatted a little.  (Megan was at work and would return soon.)
We sat around and talked.  I called and texted various people, telling them I was in town.  Now that I was forced to consider it, there were a ton of people here this summer who I wanted to see.
Justin called asking me for ice cream.  Sure, I thought.  I'd love ice cream.  Sadly, Justin's work schedule was a little screwed up, so I would have to wait for his call.  But I was already happy to see even some people.
I laid down for a little in Nate's bed while he worked on his homework (he's taking an online class.)  We had earlier teased people who weren't doing so well with what were pretty easy questions.
I had another bout of not sleeping last night (I think from so much of the excitement surrounding this trip) that I was really tired.  I felt terrible.  Even though I don't think I slept, just giving my body a little downtime was good.
Dorian offered me some cheesecake, which I had.  It occurred to me that maybe I would spend this entire trip eating junk food.  This is a vacation, so I'm okay with that.
Megan came home, and it was so good to hug and see her.  She changed into this really cute outfit and we sat around and talked and took care of some business.  It felt like no time had passed at all, like I just graduated from school yesterday, and the next day I was seeing my friends.
We decided to go out for dinner, since Nate and I got invited to a dinner party tomorrow and Nate is going to be working Saturday night.    
Megan, Nate, Dorian, Valerian and I piled into Dorian's car.  I texted Dan to tell him that he was welcome to join us.
Driving through the town was weird.  I have all these memories here, but I've already been able to put so many of them in the past.  Feels strange to deal with them now.
We went past my old church.  I had accidentally left one of my favorite blue hoodies there right before graduation.  We went in to try to find it.  No such luck.
The church was eerily quiet.  No one appeared to be around.  All I could think of is how people at home are afraid to leave a church like that because people come in and vandalize so often.
We walked over to the restaurant and ordered our food.  The guy at the counter did that thing were he couples people off.  He assumed that Nate and I were a couple, which was awkward.  Nate had already walked away when he mentioned that we were a couple.
I laughed.  "We're not," I said.
"I don't believe you," he said.
People in this town are both crazy and fascinating.

Better Safe

This is one of the things I did with my Saturday night: barricaded my room in the event of another Cedar Fest. I was here during the last shindig, and my room got teargas in it, despite shutting the windows. I think I'm paranoid, sure, but paranoid in a way that allows me to wake up without a headache or smelling bad and needing a shower after only having one eight hours ago. I wanted my room hermetically sealed from the outside world, so I used a towel and clear duck tape. I realize now that I could have designed something better, but I did this on the fly, and for something so quick, I think it would have worked. Luckily, it didn't need to, because mostly people behaved themselves.