thank you, 2006
For laws and sausages. For teenagers discussing nuclear options for North Korea. For "1776" moments. For couples in class. For Strauss Man and Danny Boy. For Calculus safety blankets. For crime scenes at one in the morning. For squirrels and tails. For ill-fitting shirts and cheese graters. For forgetting pillows. For marathons and sitting on top of tables. For "God, KAREN" and Clancy. For insufferable professors and "I'M MAD AS HELL." For communism and glow sticks. For Bhangra and pancakes and Craisins. For "It's raining. Shake my hand?" For nonexistent knights and days when it's just too hot to teach. For lists of words to look up and Kensington Rune Stone raps. For red checks and boxes of dead batteries. For crosswords hidden beneath Chemistry notes. For THE shower. For "whatever" and "it's not that I don't love you." For living on cliffs and safety goggles. For stoppers that hit the ceiling and lab safety. For missing test booklets and score aftermath. For el chico a la derecha and collapsible desks. For errores fatales and Jack's shoe.
For The Backword and confiscated student journalism. For Trinidad and Tobago and England and soccer with strangers. For tape recorders and trips to the museum. For coffee machines that steal. For stalkers on the campus on a beautiful day. For calling representatives. For Lulu's Noodles and trials. For long lines and partner-swapping. For back roads and hour walks. For getting lost in cemeteries and tall steering wheels. For "Who Wants to be a PA Driver?" For elections false and true and sweeps. For camas y desayunas and "ja?" For Super Bowls and klutzy refs. For cover bands and Hebrew songs about Singapore. For sitting in cars in parking lots to catch up. For forbidden and hilarious Eat 'N Park meals. For saving seats for philosophy professors. For British accents beckoning sleep. For ER mugs and anatomy coloring books. For Pitt buddies. For marriage and divorce and marriage. For building hallucinogenic bridges made of flamingo. For dancing with dolphins and patched vests. For snow-covered zoos. For bouncers named Abbey and concerts for Sudan. For "Free Falling" and spinning. For Maple Day and cooking rocks and forty points. For caught breath and boarding down blue slides.
For dancing in fountains and playing scientist. For mail runs and staff IDs. For side doors and prenatal care units and shy pizza. For wrong hospitals and understanding nuns. For gauchos at the park and weekly coffee. For loosing the same phone in two bathrooms in two cities. For "te gusta mi sombrero?" and "en chino." For gossip columns and French friends. For eating notes and summer love triangles. For after-dinner runs to "mandatory fun." For frisbee games and flag-capturing after dark. For lost shoes and misunderstood movie jokes. For pirates and ninjas. For trying to climb trees. For "dónde está mi mamá?" and microphones set up in front of trees. For two Al Jazeera seminars in 24 hours. For gym word games and group finals. For "PUH" and candid photos. For garlic mustard and April sunburns. For missed musicals. For Bif and Fritz and letters home. For Hos on every periodic table and Sleazy Cesie. For language theories. For flappers and nonalcoholic Bloody Marys. For playing the Bible and cake wars. For failed bus routes. For thrift stores and hidden size zeros. For graffiti walls and plain bagels. For radio-related movies. For letting go of ropes during dinner. For dramatic first graders and locked doors. For everything salads and renting apartments. For Commander Levs and jalapeño boxers. For clicks and Mexican music.
For midnight Romeos and miniature Sharpies. For seven people with seat room for five. For sneaking out to use the restroom. For really tall people and colliding when jumping off tables. For unwanted fish-shaped cookies. For enchanting haunted buildings and making someone enjoy hugs. For dance partners. For potato salad and coffee stirrers. For rusted swings and lost shoes. For familiar faded photos in store windows. For divorced physics teachers and trampolines. For songs about feet and the inner beast. For stepladders and marshmallows. For almost getting hit by ambulances while running from hospitals. For gospel sing-alongs with atheists. For interviews and insuppressible grins. For sober people falling asleep on bathroom floors. For food and drink prepared in Chem rooms. For Howard Zinn. For sign language expressions of love.