My room

Cough Cough. I make my way through the disorganized mass of books, laundry and paper that is my room. I finally make it to the chair in the center which faces my laptop. I open it brushing away all the cobwebs. I access the blog and begin to post...

All of that is just my (Eric) way of saying, long time no see. A quick lesson about college, boys and girls. It keeps you busy. Between classes, homework and amusing ourselves time can fly by and before you know it it's been over a week since you've posted. So here is a quick one about my room. ( A bigger joint venture is in the works, so stay tuned for an even greater blog, headed your way soon)

So my room has been the same since I've been here. Hansee Hall, Leary Wing, 103 blah, blah, blah. It's a single room, so I don't have to worry about my roommates, it faces a bathroom with a closing, locking door and shower. (A nice difference from the rest of the building where showers are tiny stalls in a semi-open area.) So what is the downside, Eric? I hear you asking somehow. It's all revolves around the old saying, location, location...you get the idea, location. My room has two hot water pipes running floor to ceiling, which without insulation keeps the room as warm as the best sauna in the business. I have insulation, but even so it gets a bit hot from time to time. So I naturally like to keep my windows open during the day. This leads me to, depending on your sense of humor, either the most serious or most funny problem with my room. It faces a little place I like to call Greek Row.

That's right folks, my dorm faces the street that the frat houses are on. So whenever there is a frat party, kegger, mixer, social event, or Thurday (I recently discovered there is a little event known as 'Thirsty Thursdays'. You can guess why) I get to hear the drunken ramblings of frat boys and their girlfriends. Now these fall into categories, which I'll describe for you now:

1. Yelling stupid things. I once hear a guy and his girlfriend get into a very loud arguement over Doctor Pepper, the catch that was all they said. Or more accurately yelled. "Dr. Pepper!" "Dr. Pepper!!" "DR. PEPPER!!!" .

2. Giggling + Running sounds. This is usually the girls domain, but I've heard guys do it too. A loud laugh and what I can only asume are foot steps. This is less funy in and of itself, but it usually heralds the beginning and ending of a stream of drunk people. It's like they send these people out to herald the arrival. It's one of those mysteries of nature, beautiful in it's way.

3. Incoherence. By far the most common, this happens for a number of reasons. The drunk people are all talking/yelling/being stupid at once and drown each other out, which is only fair as each one has already drowned themselves. It can be because my curtains are usually closed and somehow block a large amount of sound. And sometimes it's because drunk people don't make the best oraters.

4. And now my personal favorite, The drunkboys choir. Inside every frat boy, apparently, there lives a chorus boy just waiting to get out. After enough imbibing, these melodious men prowl the streets half yelling half singing. It's almost like the people who do Gregorian chants went on a communal wine binge and started chanting popular songs. But let me add, these are not the songs you'd expect college age boys to sing. For example, Oh Canada. You are the wind beneath my wings. That song is all the more touching when chanted by four guys who don't know all the words and cover this up by skipping parts or yelling randomly over parts they don't know. And of course, they did a Christmas special, singing the entire Jingle Bell Rock song around the Holidays last year. It was remarkable, they didn't miss a beat. "Jingle Bell time is a swell time to rock the night away" Heart warming, really.

5. And then of course there are your mundane, garden variety conversations and speech snippets, but these are less memorable, so I have no real examples.

And there you have it, a list of the five sorts of folks you'll hear outside my window if it's open around midnight. Have a great day and a joint venture will be posted soon.