Monday, May 16, 2005

Exhaustion.

That was perhaps the longest, most eventful weekend I've had in recent memory. From driving through storms of Biblical proportions to disappointing track meets to good times in the TKE BASEMENT of all places, it was non-stop action. I was really tired from it all, and had to pull over and take a nap last night on the way back. I didn't return until 2:30 a.m., and I went to bed without taking off my clothes or my shoes. Then I had to get up at 7 a.m. to read.

Whew. But yeah, Mark was disappointed in his performance at conference, even though he season PRed into the wind in the 110s. He was 5th, though, and really wanted a medal. The 4 x 4 was the real kicker, however. Things were going well until this kid named Ben handed off to Mark. I'm not sure what happened, maybe Mark took off too early and they couldn't adjust, but they completely botched the handoff. By the time Mark got going, he was in last place. Right afterwards he was pretty devastated but by the time he got back to Knox he picked himself up and felt better. I'm proud of him for how he did (despite what he thinks), for how he has done all season, and also for how he reacted to disappointment. He and I are pretty different on this point. After my last conference, which was pretty much a nightmare, I was bitchy and snappy at people and generally immature about it. Mark, though, was able to get past one disappointing performance and be glad of the season as a whole, which was fantastic for him. So we partied that night, had a great time. We hung out with Drew and his parents at Seminary Street for a while, joined by Chris and Margaret, and then went back to Mark's room, where we found Erik, Tim, and Brett (transfer junior, 4 x 4 anchor). We all hung out there for while, which was funny, because this is a small dorm room we're talking about. I drank two large rum and cokes in this time. Drew left early, and Margaret went home not long after. So this left me with five nice-looking young men. Oh yeah. We actually went to TKE, where I was assured the basement would be empty, so we could hang out there and not be bothered. We weren't for the most part, until later. I played two games of beer pong (for which I drank a third large rum and coke), one with Chris and one with Mark. The team I was on won both times. By this time I was well and truly drunk, but my hand-eye coordination was still spot-on. Then we played pool. I tried Icehouse beer for the first time. Of course, I was pretty far gone, so I don't remember really how it tasted. I wasn't rocking so hard at the pool, but it was mostly because Mark didn't give me a chance. He pretty much got all the balls in on one turn so I didn't have much to do.

It's been a long, long time since I've hung out at TKE and played pool there and all that, so that was kind of interesting. But as promised, there were few people around until later. So, it was actually not a bad time at all. At this point we decided to go to the bars. We decided on Corner because one of the Knox coaches was there with her friends, and I guess her and Chris hang out a lot. A few rounds of Kamikaze later, I was done with drinking for the night. I think my final toast was "To being the only girl with four incredibly hot guys." (Erik had left by that time, so it was four instead of five.) Then it was on to the good old Broadview for French toast and other fine 3 a.m. delicacies, and at this point Mark, Chris and I decided we needed to see Starship Troopers, so we headed to Chris' apartment and then proceeded to not watch the movie. By this time it was almost 4 in the morning and we were all pretty beat. Chris and I are getting old after all. =) And Mark isn't far behind, with the gray hairs to prove it. So...it was truly a fun night, just like the old days at Knox. The last time I was out that late partying was senior year, probably senior week at some point. Ah, the craziness. I have no wish to go back to that, but every now and then, it's nice to revisit. I think the night after graduation is going to be some sort of mad recreation of last year's bar crawl, which is officially the drunkest I have ever been. I won't be doing that again, but a night like Saturday night would be ideal. I had plenty, but spaced it out enough and knew at what point to stop, so that I was at a good level of silliness all night, but never to the point of stupidity.

Back to reality today, I lament. I need to really get cracking on magazine reporting, and we also got our first big assignment today for design. I need to turn in a draft of my first article on Friday. I may be fucked. I've gotten a start on finding sources, but no interviews yet and worse, the idea is really not very focused. Grrrr.

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