The Holiday Wait
My winter break is officially over, and this is probably a good thing since all I did was drink beer and eat the entire time. Today was the first day of my Spring semester, and I have to say that I got off to a rocky start. But first, I really should backtrack about a month or so. Fall semester wrapped up rather seamlessly-I gave my presentation on the ills of Vice magazine for my journalism class, taught my art class how to design their own children’s books, and scrambled to finish my ethnography papers while shamelessly handing in an incomplete portfolio to get credit for my internship. In honor of my 21st birthday, Lorena and I had our first party in the apartment, and I could not have had a better time. Chloe drove in from Philadelphia, and Becky from Penn State, to celebrate with our friends from school and the city. We had more sangria than the Iberian Peninsula, along with what seemed like every kind of beer imaginable and various liquor brought by various guests. I adhered to the theme of Saint Nikolaus, making people leave their shoes outside so that they could be filled with treats-such as tampons, candy canes, loose change, and pills. Whatever was lying around the house. As more and more people showed up, I got more and more drunk, drinking a bottle of champagne just because I thought it would be funny. Somehow I managed to make out with everyone in attendance. And so did everyone else. After finally falling asleep with Becky on the inflatable mattress, I woke up with the worst hangover I think I have ever had. I told everyone, if there were a guillotine in Brooklyn, I honestly would have decapitated myself. Lorena started cleaning the apartment very early, and Chloe helped, while Becky left for home with Cassie. When I got my life together, I went with Lo and Chloe for some delicious burritos. Then we walked around Park Slope in the cold and bought tickets for “Apocalypto” which turned out to be the greatest movie I have ever seen. Lorena and I tried to catch the bus, but just ended up walking home. As the semester wrapped up, I assembled my caravan of luggage and met Lorena in Chinatown to catch a bus to Philadelphia. We bought desserts in a little bakery and drank bubble tea that was way too sweet. On the way, we watched “Labyrinth” until my laptop died. Chloe and her roommate were throwing a holiday party, which was filled with professional young people from Baltimore. We all gushed over Katie’s little brother, and made nice with her coworkers from Anthropologie. I fell asleep in Chloe’s bed, then she and Lorena joined me. Lo went back to New York with Matt, so Chloe and I wandered around the city, eating falafel and shopping. I had to borrow money to get a bus ticket to Scranton, which was way too expensive and takes too goddamn long anyway. When I finally got to my house, it was in a state of chaos, but I was happy to see my family and help finish preparations for Christmas. My brother and his girlfriend took me out the next night, buying me lots and lots of drinks. Alex and Liz were able to get into The Bog, so it was nice to have them there too. It was a fun night, though I was kind of nervous to go drinking with my brother. My mother made the Christmas Eve dinner, and all the Polish relatives came over. I talked to my cousin Joey about his trip to China, where he taught English and ate frogs. Christmas Eve is my favorite night of the year, but I was not really feeling it. I can usually smell it, and it can make my bones just shiver, but this night might as well have been Halloween to me. Or just another night. Blah blah, commercialism, blah blah. Christmas Day was pleasant, and there was great food at my grandmother’s to be had. I got presents like a Little Mermaid ornament, a blender, a VCR, and a Chinese movie about gay people. My Mom said that Grace picked it out. I continued to eat leftover stuffing until about New Year’s Eve, when I played poker at my Grandma’s house. We rang in 2007 with some fireworks and general merriment, then I went out to meet up with some friends around one o’clock. We went to a party at a house in Green Ridge that I could have just walked to, and I fawned over Zak Zavada before going home to bed. With the holidays now behind me, I began to fashion a steady routine of getting coffee with Becky, and going to the bar with Alex. Louis and I drove to The Crossings so he could buy something for his grandmother to give to his boyfriend for Christmas. I bought the same thing for myself, a reasonably priced sweater from Burberry. I just decided I needed to have one nice sweater in my life. Then he took me to one of my favorite Indian restaurants, the one in the train car. Eventually I returned to Lake Scranton and started running again. The holiday weight was getting out of control. It was really foggy on some days, and I would see deer that were close enough to touch. One day it was so cold that I was sure the head of my penis had frozen and was surely going to fall off. Becky moved to Portland on the same day Chloe drove to Scranton for a visit. I hated not having her around the corner anymore, but I have since booked a flight to go visit her in Oregon the first week of February. With Chloe in town, we went for crab bisque and Cooper’s and drove up to my lake house to tell scary stories before realizing it was only six o’clock. We watched “The Office” with my father, then went to Perkin’s and The Green Frog. Alex had been seeing this guy Donovyn from Montdale, and one night we ended up at his parent’s house in the country, which was very funny and weird. I thought about going back to my summer job, but decided it would be too miserable. I tried not to loaf around the house too much, and did a lot of laundry for my family and cooked dinner. I waited and waited for Omer to get back from the Hajj with his mother in Saudi Arabia, mostly because I was lonely. We hung out a little when he finally got back in town, and I got to see some of his pictures. He looked so handsome and grown up. Hm. I used my time to clean my room and donate all my clothes from middle school and early high school, and figured it was no wonder I had been so miserable, wearing shapeless Abercrombie t-shirts and muted beiges all those years. During my last weekend in Scranton, I had dinner at Formosa with my family and began to pack my shit. Adam Goldman came to Scranton, so we took him to Victor’s bar and to Kelly’s apartment. He left his good weed in Philadelphia, and we really had nothing to do. Adam and I decided it would be fun to masturbate in a plastic cup for Kelly to put in her vadge to see if she would get pregnant. Just to see. I left on Sunday afternoon, and managed to maneuver all my suitcases onto the subway and to my apartment. I almost expected the electricity or the gas to be off, since the apartment had been empty for an entire month. My new semester began at 8AM today, with History of the Spanish Conquest. I dropped it right after. Then I went to my journalism class with my old teacher, and I think I’m going to drop that too. My literature class was canceled, and this sent all four of us that registered for it into a tizzy. I kind of wandered around campus aimlessly, and eventually figured out how to get an appointment with the Chair of the Writing department, tomorrow. I hope I don’t whine too much to him. I don’t want my schedule to get fucked up because I am trying to work at Penguin, for Rough Guides. I also want to get a job in a bakery. Lorena is coming back tomorrow, and I think I have to go meet her at the subway in Bed-Stuy at six in the morning if she can figure out a way to call me. I am also having a mattress delivered so that I won’t have to sleep on the futon anymore. There is nothing else to say other than I wish a werewolf would bite me.
Also, I got a new tattoo. It's a cricket.
Also, I got a new tattoo. It's a cricket.