Exhaustion
The return to school from my exhausting weekend was rough. Affects were immediately apparent, when I realized I had arrived to class only an hour after actually sitting in the class. To this day, I have no idea what happened to that early Monday hour. I’m really overwhelmed by the complete lack of work I’ve done on my big research paper that’s due very soon.
Tommy and Emily accompanied me to Andreas for a good time. A lot of people have accompanied me to Andreas in the past two weeks. Jess helped me for a photography assignment which, funny enough, the film never caught in the first place. All that stress for nothing, right? I’ve gone through a lot of hell for photography, and will probably go through plenty more this quarter. Gaustad was a big help the recent assignments. The pictures that actually did develop turned out fairly horribly, but I’ve learned.
English has brought two field trips, both resulting in some writing I’m mostly confident with, albeit the material is really a bummer for the most part. They’ve been good for introspection and observation. I also liked being able to kick around in the leaves some more, down at Loring Park.
The quarter’s organization fair was another dead day with minimal impact and only about four sign-ups for the AIGA I was partially minding. It really bothers me, the apathy most people show towards doing more in this school. Something I don’t really touch upon these days is my completely skewed perspective towards relationships. I don’t think I’ll go much further into that, save for it’s not just my interactions with others. Really, it’s confusing.
On that first Wednesday after Design Camp, it was mostly a big social day. Art & Design Concepts involved going to see a speaker in an off-site room, where I talked a bit to some people I don’t know too well. The speakers themselves couldn’t hold my attention which, admittedly, is a pretty hefty task. The web guy included some links at the end of his slideshow, which actually matched a bit of my own bookmarks. Among the remaining scrawled notes about Wednesday, I spoke to Ben (my former films teacher) about interviewing him for my A&DC class. He agreed, although I think he was a little confused for a while. I also talked to another Zach I know, who’s a pretty cool guy (and a really awesome designer, in my opinion).
In English, we ended up doing the telephone game and earning pizza from Corteau. He said we couldn’t do it, and was so confident he put pizza up for the taking, but we managed to do it. I wonder if that’ll ever flesh out. Later that day, I was sitting in the lounge with Tommy, Andy, and Bagley. Andy got frustrated that I told him he couldn’t join my club and he threw a Dr. Pepper at me. For Josh’s reference, Andy’s kind of like Greg. We like him, but he’s kind of a dick. I don’t think I hate him as much.
At the AIGA meeting on Thursday, things went really well. Jake brought cookies for Rachel’s birthday and they were huge and delicious. To add to sweetness, I got to hang out with Jess and Zach for a while. I really missed that guy. While I’m not much of a nap man, but I took a ridiculously long nap that night. It’s probably my lack of sleep that’s taking such a toll on me, but I’m not really sure I’ll do anything to remedy that. Chase joined me for the first time in a long time for some half-priced appetizers. We also visited Jake’s place, where I sneezed a lot and they talked about cars. Y’know, the usual.
Friday was when the sneezing got out of hand, and I emptied a box of tissues. Everyone left me, and I’m not sure where. I didn’t really do anything for the day before going back to sleep for another nap. Josh came over that night and we finally realized that the headphone jack input-thingy to my TV is like, a headphone jack. We plugged in his iPod for some better-than-headphones-on-max-volume rockin’. There was a visit to Barnes, Cheapo, and also the delicious Flameburger.
Saturday reunited the Gilligans for the first time in months- if not years. Gaustad and Kopy came over to play some games and eat food. I guess they had other obligations in the evening, though, as they took off just shortly after Josh returned. I had the fortune of introducing Josh to Green Mill (and the check was on him, that awesome dude!) We returned to the suburbs to pick up Breanne for a Perkins visit. The cool waitress was working and really nice to us. Josh and I returned to my place to watch three episodes of Spaced with fond memories of the time we first watched it.
Sunday was long. It began with my dad, Gaustad, and me going to Ember’s for breakfast. There’s never a line at Embers, but there was a line at Embers. On our return, we headed to the park for my next photography assignment. This was indefinitely better and more fun than the previous rolls.
Monday’s half-hour late start threw me off real harsh. We had our first interviewee in A&DC, which was a really nice old lady who was a professional painter and collagist. She had some really interesting things to say that I’ll save for my project. Another guest visited my next class, Corporate ID. She was a little crazy, I think, and I wont get into that either. Lunch at Andreas has become pretty commonplace. If you can’t find me or Tommy or maybe even Jill or Andy around lunch hours, there’s a fair chance you’ll find us there.
Jill offered to help me in the developing process for my first roll of film. It was a little scary, but the roll actually turned out! I was amazed. I’m still amazed. I thanked Jill with Subway and watching some Metalocalypse. After that, it was bus troubles.
I found my way to Dinkytown, after a bit of walking and waiting for a bus driver who, I swear, was doing a crossword puzzle across the street as we waited patiently in the cold. Josh met me on the corner of Washington and 14th, and we stopped into Potbelly’s for a drink. Gaustad’s arrival wasn’t until about an hour of misdirection, confusion, and frustration. He made it, though, and just in time. Well, we thought. Turns out, 7:30 was the time the doors opened, not when the show started. Excellent. Josh picked up my ticket in his ongoing display of awesomeness.
The Varsity is really a gorgeous venue. Couches, arm chairs, huge rugs, intimate lighting- classy stuff. The first band was pretty interesting, although not really something I’d listen to. The Cat Empire was mind-blowingly good. I saw what was probably the most attractive woman I’ll ever see, and she knew all of the lyrics for anything before the Cities Project. The two X marks on my hands made all of this irrelevant.
Tuesday was the big two-zero. My English paper I got back went well, but Jason made the class of people I don’t know (most of which I hadn’t ever seen prior to the class) sing Happy Birthday to me, which was really uncomfortable. The leaf field trip was a little different than the rock field trip, but I really liked treading through the leaves.
Jess gave me a belated birthday card with a cute dachshund on it, which was really funny being that it wasn’t belated and the word was crossed out. Back at home, there was relaxation. I didn’t do any homework, although I should have. Gaustad arrived first, and gave me an awesomely obnoxious cylinder that, when tipped over, makes a mooing sound. I imagine those close to me will soon be driven mad by this gift.
The rest of the gang arrived and we had a good time. The beef tenderloin I had been raving about for weeks was amazing. I probably almost died, it was so good. In the basement after dinner, Jenga was played. It wasn’t ever a real game, but Josh, Gaustad and I had fun. Josh got frustrated by his clumsiness of getting hit with stray Jenga blocks, and chucked an entire Jenga tower at my crotch. Thanks Josh!
The guys left and I was pretty much inebriated on that beef tenderloin. I watched the episode of Metalocalypse I missed from last weekend, and it was amazing and full of zazz.
I’ve made a pretty bad habit of not showing up on time to A&DC. Also, the habit of not getting anything done in that class. Yikes. Corporate ID was pretty bad, too. Clay didn’t seem too disappointed, and said he’d let me slide for now because I “had a good track record.” Clay’s a real cool dude. Lunch turned things around, when I joined Tommy, Emily, and Rachel (new!) for some lunch. The girls wanted Potbelly and we waited forever while they joined the lunch rush line. We returned to our beloved Andreas for actual eating. It was cool and fun.
Developing today was rougher, maybe because it was busy and it was my first, crappy roll. This was kind of a weird time, with the busy darkroom and me generally sucking at being in the dark room. I want to leave it behind me. I had some free time and bought my two of the last three books I need for classes. Gad (thanks Kerouac!), this quarter is expensive and stressful. Zach and I hang out for a good amount of time, with me accompanying him to Potbelly. He bought me a Fanta and we caught up.
We wanted to go over to Barnes & Noble to look around. I bought the book “Night Watch” the other day and forgot to note it. The movie based on it was pretty rad, although pretty difficult for me to follow. Hopefully this’ll shed some light when I get the chance to read it. Zach caved into my pressure to get a Moleskine, and I think he’ll really enjoy it. He also realized he finally had his money in his account, so he paid me back the tab he had built up. Very cool.
On the ride home from downtown, I read an incredible line in “On the Road.” Kerouac wrote “A pain stabbed my heart as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this mixed up world.” I’ve been really fascinated with reading and writing lately, if you haven’t gathered. The writing homework I had left for that night was very difficult. The writing part was simple, but the researching of the leaves was molasses. I wrote like hell.
Early the next morning, my alarms buzzed and I raced down to print and get on with my normal routine. My prints looked like crap today, but I’m learning. I did managed to buy the last blotter book at National Camera Exchange, across the street. Sweet. English was pretty intense today, as far as reviewing papers can be. Everyone tossed their essay into a pile, and you had to review 3-4 papers. Out of the thirty-or-forty students in my English II, three of the four students’ papers I reviewed had reviewed mine. I made four reviews, but only received three. All of those matched, which is so crazy.
The AIGA went real well, I think. I haven’t sent out those minutes yet, I’m too tired. Jess was around school after I got out, and we hung out for a bit. I showed her this idol movie I found, an episode of Tom, and an episode of Metalocalypse. She liked the first two, I think! Emily sent me a text, telling me her lung was probably collapsing again and she wouldn’t make it to the school to attend the Vanderbyl lecture with me. I hope she’s not hurtin’. I got a call back from her later tonight saying she was okay, which was relieving. I didn’t end up attending that lecture, but I’m sure I wasn’t missing too much.
I’m exhausted from the week, and barely made it this far. I hope it was worth it.
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