happenings in bulk

The past few weeks have flown by, and thank goodness because last week was not fun. But maintaining sanity is my number one priority this semester, and so far I've been mostly successful, despite what some might say about momentary lapses…=]

On Columbus Day I saw Interpol at Avalon, and though I'm really happy I got to see them, I'm not sure it was so good for me at that time. I was a little moody that day, partly because I'd been studying chemistry all weekend instead of having fun, and Interpol made me moodier. They were characteristically aloof—few words, crisp suits and cigarette smoke curling in the dark. But that was probably the point, and worth it.

Later that week we surprised Jen for her 20th birthday (such a young one). We were supposed to hide in her room but her roommate forgot to leave us the key so we staked out in Henry’s room. When she came by, eager Amy sprang out first while the rest of us lagged behind (she left us the left-over surprise factor) but fortunately we didn’t miss the what’s-going-on expression on Jen’s face. We went to Blue Fin for sushi. Since we had time to kill before getting a table, we cruised the narrow aisles of a Japanese supermarket, where we were amused by super size Pocky, “sweat” water, and the Asian obsession with light skin and plastic surgery. When we finally got a table, we ordered lots of sushi rolls, tempura and dumplings. My stomach’s growling now that I’m remembering the tuna, eel, avocado, salmon, shrimp…sigh. I can’t remember anymore exactly what we were laughing so much about, but I know that laughing comprised the majority of the night (the eating took about ten minutes). Andrea has the best facial expressions ever. She also showed us the “I-want-you” handshake which literally put us all in hysterics. People are so funny. Humor is like beauty, in that sense; everyone has it, I feel. There are of course varying degrees but I don't think that's so much important as the varying degrees in how long in takes you to realize it in a particular person.

Last week I had a chem exam on Monday, English paper due Tuesday, and bio exam on Wednesday. So I pulled my first ever all-nighter before an exam, for bio. Well, I got three hours of sleep, from six to nine. Chris told me that doesn’t qualify as an all-nighter, but that’s probably the closest I’ll ever get. I’m never going to do that again. Thankfully Melkis was up too. By the middle of the night, we would just randomly stare at each other, blink, and then look down to our notes again. And I became even more inarticulate than usual. That Wednesday was a horrible, horrible day…but then the Red Sox beat the Yankees, craziness ensued, and it was better.

Last Friday night we went to Mr. Bartley’s. I pass by the restaurant every day, and the warm burger and french fry smell makes me shiver in my winter coat, which I’ve already started wearing because it’s been so cold. When we got there it was packed, as usual, and the compactness made it all the more distinct from the cold outside. I had a Tony Blair with the famous Lime Rickey, Melkis and Frank had Jesse Venturas, and Chris had a Colin Powell (I just realized we all went for political burgers). Soooo good. Afterwards we went to the Square theater to see I Heart Huckabees…where I was carded! That hasn’t happened since I was 18. And no one asked Courtney, Frank or Melkis. Okay, so they do look a lot older than me. But I was still slightly miffed. Anyhow, the movie was good. Some very, very unnecessarily strange moments, but overall I liked it a lot. Frank came over yesterday night (and as Steph said, brought music and poetry with him). I think Frank is the only person who has ever made me feel even slightly like a pessimist, because he’s such an adamant idealist (in a good way). So we were talking about the movie, and I said to him that it wasn’t exactly optimistic. He replied, but it wasn’t pessimistic either. And we agreed that it was just there. Which is the best part of existentialism. I got so teary-eyed when Albert sees his face in Brad’s image; that was my absolute favorite part of the movie. It was surprisingly touching, and sweet.

I always start out thinking I have so much to say, and I do, but by the end of it, it doesn’t seem like much at all. I wish I had time to write about these events in isolation rather than in bulk. They come off—not exactly unimportant—but not as strongly as I feel them. Emotions begin so intensely and sometimes descriptions dilute them. Or maybe it’s just my descriptions. Something Frank said yesterday prompted me to finally begin this entry. He said, someone asked him why things have names and he responded that things need to be classified; and the person replied that that’s not the reason, that the reason things have names is because they’re important. So I start out writing about these things to prove that they are important, if only to me. But I end by realizing that there are a lot of things important to me that I don’t have names for.