kids these days

It's still pretty chilly around here, but for some reason it's really starting to feel like spring. I'm not sure why.



Things around here have been crazy, but so much FUN. Yesterday alone, I spent enough time laughing that it made my stomach hurt. In Civ Arts, my professor spent five minutes singing "Staci's Mom" to try to illustrate to us how Vivaldi uses reaccuring musical phrases in his music. I'm still not sure how that correlation works, I don't think I heard that part because I was so busy laughing at my professor, who was standing at the podium - bow tie and all - singing "Staci's Mom" off-key at the top of his lungs. Hilarious.



On top of that, we had lacrosse practice. It was just a conditioning session, which usually means lots of strength training and lots of running. We did strength training for a solid hour (lots of lunges and pushups and crunches and planks) and just when we thought we were going to go have to run a couple of miles, they took us all down to the basketball arena here on campus and announced that our run was going to consist of follow-the-leader. We thought they were being coy and tricky and that we were just going to run stairs or something (it's happened before), until we realized we were actually going to play follow the leader. Everybody had a turn and we could pick anything we wanted to do as long as we were moving - we played TV tag and Simon Says and Duck-Duck-Goose and did the limbo under the volleyball net, and played Leapfrog and ran sprints and did the Hokey Pokey. And everybody was running around shouting with the biggest grins on their faces. I know we're all 18-22-year-olds, but sometimes you just need to let loose and act like you're seven. Especially because ninety percent of the people around here expect you to act like your forty-two all the time.



And THEN, Stephen and I have got this game going where we have a playing card that we're trying to give back to the other person without them realizing it. I'm not sure how it started and I'm not sure why it's continuing. Maybe it's because we're both competitive people. Yesterday morning, he put it in my hand with a lollipop he was giving me. So I mailed it back to him through inter-campus mail. Then he came stopped by to say hi when I was in the library yesterday afternoon and somehow - I'm still not sure how this one worked - put it inside my wallet in my coat pocket without me noticing, so that when I opened it to get my ID at dinner, there it was. Most recently, I mailed it to his Biology professor in an envelope with a nice note asking to please return the envelope to Stephen Mowery, a student in his 9:00 am Biology class. The rules are - you can't do the same thing twice, and you can't do something somebody's already done to you.



Finally, my friend Brad (a really great kid who lives on Stephen's hall, and who I rode to Columbus with a couple of weeks ago) keeps harrassing me in the library. I'll be sitting there minding my own business and he'll sneak right up behind me and say "hello" in a really sinister voice in my ear. Everytime I get up to go find a book, he steals something off my desk. Once it was my Spanish textbooks. Another time he took every single writing utensil I had in my backpack. Sometimes he leaves his trash on my chair. On occasion, he'll walk by and reach out to take something, I'll slap his hand, and he'll hit me upside the head in a very Gibbs-esque fashion. Then he'll wander off shaking his head, saying, "kids kids kids..."



On a more serious note, my lacrosse stuff should be in today. The club ordered a new chest protector, new gloves, and a new helmet. I'm so excited. I'm used to the decrepit stuff, but it'll be nice to have new things. It was really expensive, though. The helmet alone cost $250, because it has a special spring-mechanism thing that's extra protection against concussions. And the chest protector has a special pad that goes right over your heart, so it diffuses impact from that part of your chest and ribs.



They're having a memorial service here on campus sometime in the next couple of days. We had a terrible house fire just a couple of blocks away on Friday, I think. A twenty-one-year-old fireman was killed trying to save the people inside. They're holding the service here on campus because it's the only venue in town big enough to hold that many people.



Alright, that's all. I'm off to do more homework. Surprise, surprise...