Waiting to open the window
Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2006 @ 04:09 PM
I am waiting on my room mate to finish her math exam. I decided since there isn't much Texas paraphernalia to be found for sale in Alabama, a good gift to give her for the holidays would be a trip to the nail salon for pedicures. As I told Sydney last night over an expensive, delicious dinner, one perk that comes with getting dumped is the total inhibition one feels when it comes to spending money on luxurious and unnecessary things.
The golden light of sunset is streaming through my blinds as stripes on the wall—one of my favorite things about my dorm room. I'm listening to "Turn Into" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a song which has become an anthem of change and goodbyes. I listened to it nonstop as school was ending last year (especially on graduation day) and used it in this video. It captures for me the overwhelming nostalgia that comes with the raw moments just after something important has ended, for better or worse. Very few songs are as hopeful and bittersweet, or as cathartic when blasted in the car with windows down. I wouldn't hesitate to call it my favorite song, though I try not to listen to it very often.
Journal #1451 is making slow progress across the country, having visited Tuscaloosa, AL; Phoenix, AZ; and Atlanta, GA. It's currently winding its way through NYC before heading on to Oklahoma. Keep your fingers crossed; I'm still not convinced it will make it to the last stop before getting lost.
Liz, fellow creative writing ASFA grad, long-time friend, and letter-writer, wrote this on one of her journal pages:
I just turned in the final draft of my senior English thesis. It is fitting that this journal should arrive on the heels of such wonderful providence. The end of fall semester never feels like an end, but rather the opening of a window the morning after a long night trapped inside.
I'm still trapped inside until I finish my film exam tomorrow and American lit Friday morning, but I've already started gathering my things and doing my last loads of laundry before the window flies open and I can escape what has been a deplorable first semester. My room mate leaves tomorrow morning, which gives me a whole day and night to myself—something I'd normally enjoy, or else not think very much of, but under the circumstances am dreading. The number of people I can call who are still in town to distract me dwindles as the weekend approaches.
Once I get off campus I hope things will be better. I have a full month of my father's cooking to look forward to.
Welcome to the past, bucko. You're swimming through the archive of rocket-fish.org. If this isn't where you were headed, I suggest you get out of here while there's still time.
If you use a newsreader, you can subscribe to future updates via this RSS file.
Things WILL get better. The first semester of college is so hard, i just went through it last fall, but things get better from there. Hang in there!
13 Dec 2006, 9:26 PM.
Best of luck with the remaining exams.
13 Dec 2006, 10:14 PM.
Call me if you have nothing to do. I am gainfully unemployed and have time and money to waste. I would love to treat you to dinner. 305-8424
14 Dec 2006, 11:11 AM.
Yes, Glynnis, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Glynnises. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
20 Dec 2006, 11:00 PM.