I've been here...

almost two full weeks on my own. I don't really believe it. Some hours it just feels like the longest vacation of my life and any minute I'll actually head home and life will be back to normal. Other hours I feel the full realization of being completely here-in this state-in this car-in this apartment-alone. My adventurous spirit, the small bit I had, has abandoned me and it becomes hard to take the trash out or use the pool or merge into traffic because those things do not feel familiar.

I do like walking around campus. It reminds me that there are "others" in the world. The "others" being freshman, with their fresh-from-high-school haircuts and combination smiles of fear and ego. Hooray... It is a bit shocking to be on a secular campus. It has been a long time since I've been in this world. I can honestly say it has been since my own high school. I read the school newspaper today. It was full of the basic freshman tips. "Don't leave your food unattended, the squirrels will get it"... "The fire alarm will always go off in the middle of the night"... "Dinner at the dining hall does not count as a date"... a relief to know that students all around the nation are receiving the same advice and will know what to do in case a transfer is necessary, or if you never learned proper hygiene. Yet at the same time, there were other tips that were completely foreign to me. "A good friend is someone who will bail you out of jail-but a best friend is someone who is in the cell next to you" ...?? Possibly the title of a country song? "Coed dorms are fun but hooking up randomly with a floor mate is never a good idea if you have to see them daily" Really? Do you think this was learned through trial and error? Does that not worry anyone besides myself?

On the up side, the campus is truly beautiful and once I understood that to be sweaty is to be in style (except not really, it's a fine line...) I can almost forget that I am away from everyone and everything I miss. Not to mention my toilet sounds like Donald Duck choking when flushed. Total bonus, no?

I get a secret thrill from eating mints out of the 'not to share' side of the container. Instead of looking at what this says about my personality, let's take a look at what this says about our society as a whole. The fact that there are two spots from which to take a mint demonstrates our need for choices and the inability to just stick with the basics. Logically, a person only needs one spot from which to take a mint. Two spots create confusion and panic attacks when one considers that he or she may not be choosing a mint from the correct opening. Secondly, the fact that one spot is labeled 'to share' and the other 'not to share' represents the failing morals of our society. It creates inequality and narcissism. To decide whether one shares with another only serves to give power to that individual to rule over others in turn creating a monstrous ego unable to be contained in a teeny tiny mint tin. As you can see, the thrill I get from not sharing mints says nothing about myself and everything mints.

Yesterday I was stopped at a red light behind a rusty blue minivan. There was a blue crystal dolphin hanging from the van's rear view mirror. It seems that whenever anyone has something around their rear view mirror it's a little dolphin. Why a dolphin? Are these people part sea creature? Did they never outgrow the Flipper phase of eight year olds? I'll admit these dolphins are pretty when they catch the sun and shimmer pinpoints of light on the car's interior but really all this serves to do is create temporary blindness when it hits you in the eyes. At that point all I'm seeing are airbags and sirens from the sixteen car pileup caused by one glass dolphin swaying from a mirror. However, it does seem that some types of vehicles are more prone to hang dolphins than others. These cars often have some sort of 'proud parent of _______' or a 'i heart jesus/honk if you're happy' bumper sticker. Fine. Go crazy. But if you want to hang something less forest gump try an air freshener. They smell good, or at least they do if you don't get the vanilla passion fruit combo, but who would do that anyway...