May the Four/ce Be With You – Day FOUR In a Nutshell Sunday, Sep 8 2002

:: 2002 8 September :: 11.02 pm
:: Mood: relaxed
:: Music: Verve Pipe- Freshmen

Today we reversed the orientation activities. All the groups who’d gone to the Ropes course this time were scheduled to go down the Delaware river on a rafting trip for a few hours. We were supposed to meet by the Chapel at 7:15- I REALLY had to take a shower, so last night I’d set my alarm for 5:15. BRRRRING BRRRRING five-fifteen and I fell RIGHT back asleep as soon as I’d turned it off. So, with absolutely no intention of wearing shorts for nine hours in I-haven’t-shaved-in-four-days prickly leggy hair, I was naturally awakened by the sunlight or someone hitting my wall at 6:52. HAH! But I DID it! I shaved in my ROOM, with moisturizer, and it only took SIX MINUTES! Cha. Victory of the morning.

I went to breakfast, chugged two coffees, ate half an apple, and ran to the bus. On the hour-long bus ride, we were blessed with the opportunity to view “SHANGHAI NOON” on five inch televisions. It was wonderful.

We got out into the freezing air in PA wearing shorts and tank tops, etc. and immediately regretted dressing so. It was about fifty degrees! AUGH! We got into rafts wearing our too-cool P.F.D.s and began to paddle downstream. We had water fights, seaweed fights, and just blabbed on and on about random topic.

We stopped for lunch on Hot Dog Isle, home of the Hot Dog Man- he sells t-shirts, water guns, beverages, and most importantly HOT DOGS! To tubers and rafters and kayakers, from shacks on the side of the Delaware River. I screamed out my greetings to the Mexican imported Hot-Dog-Laborers, and reminisced about the Mexicans on the way to Camelback. They did not purchase hot dogs for us- no big loss- but they gave us bag lunches, subs and pretzels and apples and cookies.

After lunch, we swapped around groups, and overloaded a four person raft with seven people. We ran around being pirates, diving off our raft into the current to capture everyone’s paddles and overturn their boats. It was fun, and by then it had warmed up considerably so I was only on the cool side of comfortable.

We had field hockey practice, which was horribly boring, two hours of beginner stick lessons for the seven girls on the team who’ve never touched a stick. The coaches decided to make cuts- this I really don’t think I need to worry about because I’m fairly sure that I’m among the ten best players on the team.

What I REALLY wanted to tell you about was this night. SATURDAY NIGHT! This is the big deal at L’ville because it’s the only night before a morning without classes, and every single kid on campus gets out-of-their-minds hyper. Tonight, at seven thirty, a band started to set up in the Bowl. I kinda wandered around chatting, and then I found Matty, who introduced me to all her most hot friends, and some girls. Then the band played some radio TUNES, and I talked with this sophomore named Sam who went to Episcopal last year. I asked him if he knew Alexandra and Robbie, and he responded with an enthusiastic, VERIPAPA AND VERIMAMA? OF COURSE!

THEN. The band started to play. It was the B and G band- buildings and grounds- and consisted of a janitor, a field-mower man, a custodian, and a mopper-man with a tambourine. At first we were all like, wow they suck… so we went inside and watched some of The New Guy. It was royally boring since I’d seen in last week, so I left after six minutes or something. As soon as I’d walked out the door, Doug walked out. Then Madison, then Bobby, then Ross, then John, then Hillary Becker, and then the girl who looks like Tory with red hair. We talked about what to do, and then came to the conclusion that it was best to give the band ONE more chance… GOOD CHOICE! We all got out there and really got into it. We were all dancing on the steps, and they played all this classic shit- like Sitting on the Dock on the Bay, and especially a fifteen minute rendition of Shout! And Everyday People, and it was awesome. Doug is the best dancer- it was great, he was breaking it down and doing all this crazy shit, but I was laughing and dancing with the crowd. This is the ONE thing I was determined to make over about myself after switching schools, and now I am going to just say I’m an enthusiastic horrendous dancer instead of No! I don’t really dance!

It was three hours of earsplitting, screaming, dancing, singing crazy people and a janitor … with a tambourine.

We all crashed in the Cromwell common room and sprawled out on the furniture, tired and laughing. We talked and stuff… Keith is this enormous freshman with kind of a Camp build, except just like a HUGE football player. He showed us his condom pockets on his pants, and a girl named Meghan showed us her flashing belly button ring (real.)

They made the guys leave our house around quarter to midnight, and we had our first Feed. A Feed is every Saturday night, when the housemaster goes out and buys midnight snacks for the whole house. This time, Mrs. Krebs bought hoagies for all of Perry Ross and Cromwell, and we sat around munching then and having “girl talk” (some of the people here make me slightly nauseous) and singing. It’s now way too late, and I need to get to sleep… thanks for reading through my phsychobabble!

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Third Time’s The Charm: DAY THREE of BOARDING SCHOOL Saturday, Sep 7 2002

:: 2002 7 September :: 10.35 pm
:: Mood: cheerful
:: Music: AVRIL LAVIGNE. She is on every single radio station we get. I may die.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Alrighty there, buddies. I only have ten or some short amount minutes till computer/phone switch off time, so I will LIST this time.

Today I:

• Had a free first period, so I went out for coffee across the highway at the Maidenhead Cafe with two day students. Madison is a tall redheaded girl with a caffeine addiction JUST LIKE ME! She says that from now on whenever she stops in her town (ten, fifteen minutes away from here) she’ll get me a really GOOD coffee, and bring it over to the school. The other girl’s name is Kali? Callie? And she’s also nice. I’m hoping to make this some kind of Monday morning “thing” because we all have free first period Mondays for the whole trimester.
• Went to my Geometry class…. AHHHHH! Scarific and I understand about three quarters of it, don’t even wanna talk about it, I wasn’t even hoping this would be any fun at all. Follow expectations very well.
• Went to my ENGLISH CLASS!!!!! It was the coolest class of the day, I am reeeeeally glad I’m taking it. The prof.’s name is Mr. Greenberg, he’s kinda cool. Second best part: there are 3 girls and 10 boys. BEST PART: I SAT NEXT TO DOUG! Wheee-heee-heee (grins crazily). He was very nice to me and we talked for a few minutes.
• Went to my history class and sat next to Doug AGAIN! And also managed to make a total fool out of myself by forgetting what the effers Mesopotamia was and means. Oops. Don’t tell Mrs. Calloway!
• Went to my first French #1 class. This is WONDERFUL because apart from the guy who just finished the seventh trimester of LATIN, I am one of the most experienced students! I know that aubergine means eggplant, that pamplemousse means grapefruit, I can count to ten, I know that Le Lapin Feu means the Crazy Rabbit, know that un petit grenuille means a little frog, and I also remembered from my Kindergarten French class that there is a Princess named Sylvie on roller skates in the French MUZZY movies.
• Went to the first Bio class- we are going to DISECT FETAL PIGLETS in the winter trimester. This. Is. Sickening. We did a hokey little interview thing, and I interviewed Ali Howard- this is so remarkable because I actually remember her last name!
• Went to the Freshman field hockey meeting. BOOOORRRRING! Oh well. A bunch of girls have actually never played before. I am deathly thankful that everyone isnt’ spectacular, because I’m reeeeeally out of shape!
• Got all my books at the Jigger Shop – total was $416.47. Haven’t gotten any supplies yet and I’m still missing a few books! Lucky ole’ me.
• Signed the INDUCTION BOOK! I was third on the page after John and Doug. This is a big deal thing, the book is like, ancient. We got Chocolate Tacos afterwards though, so standing in the hour long line was worth it!
• Checked my email (nada except Ryan’s email address…) and said Hi to Zach. He said it was Mr. Stone so I cursed him out jokingly, thinking it was Zach’s new roommate fooling around. I then ran off to dinner, where I coincidentally found out that Hill doesn’t start for Freshman until Sunday. Oops. Also at dinner, I talked to Nick Lee (there are many, many Nicks) from my orientations group, and got some COFFEE! (Not decaf. I’m an idiot.)
• Had my first Friday night here! A couple of girls- Willowby and someone else, and I, got parietals (Greek for “allow,” it’s how you get permission to have BOYS in your room here or other boy-girl-in-house-visitation stuff) for the 3 of us and Doug and Evan and another guy, and we went downstairs to girl ______?’s room, and Doug and I assembled a chair together. Everyone was laughing their head off. It was totally great, classic. Felt very happy and homey. Sigh of happiness occurs at last.
• Mrs. Krebs, my housemaster, got us PIZZA at ten thirty because the dining hall is filled with administrative and hired idiots, so the second form dining room is open less than … less open than…. Less open than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s feminine side. It was cool. VERY good hot gooey greasy melted-cheesy soft-crusted puffy pizza. [Slobbers.]
• And THEN, last of all, before getting into bed (where I am now), I stood in my PJs in the middle of the upstairs common room and had a heated discussion about eminem, razors, elephants, injuries, recess, cockroaches, crew team, and sexual harassment.

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second day; an update Thursday, Sep 5 2002

:: 2002 5 September :: 8.43 pm
:: Mood: pessimistic
:: Music: simon and garfunkle.. sound of silence..
[ edit | delete ]

Today’s Update: SECOND DAY- September Fifth

Part One: AM

La-dee-dah.

Well, breakfast was a BLAST, being that the freshman dining room was locked so we had to go upstairs to the sophomore/junior dining rooms to eat. I sat down at a table with some other girls in my dorm, to eat bagels. Actually I did not eat a bagel. I had a glass of milk. It was the only table in the entire room with girls at it, the rest of everyone were seniors- GUY seniors. At el schoolo grande, the freshman do not exist to los old people. So nobody talked to us but everyone else was chattery and happy, so it was okay.

After breakfast, we went to this orientation thingermajig. Half the IInd formers went river rafting, and the other half (my half) went to the ropes course. In the BACK FIELDS and WOODS at L’ville, they have three huge-mungous climbing structures- one tall-tall-tall rock climbing wooden tower, a thing with wires and poles and shit, and then a Tower almost exactly like the Echo Hill one. I got 2/3rds of the way up the rocky tower and sprang to the top of the tower because it was s/o easy, I having done it before! (hah hah, but I didn’t have to TELL anyone that, did I? But no I really did explain it.) We stood around in pairs falling on each other, played hugging games and rubber chicken chucking games and games that involved squatting and saying “Bob the Weasel, keep it goin’; keep it goin’; Bob the Weasel, keep it goin’; keep it goin’; Bob the Weasel, keep it goin’; keep it goin’; Bob the Weasel, keep it goin’; keep it goin’; and so on and so forth.

We had lunch, a picnic deal, with brown paper bags, with turkey sandwiches and cookies and pretzels and apples and bottled water. We went into the woods and a guy named Dusty had to pick me up and shove me through a tire in the air. Yeah. This was confoundedly embarrassing because everyone in my group (let me name them if I can.. Kate, Fife, Jeremiah, Carrie, Camden, Nick, Dustin, John, Lynn, I forget, and I forget) was staring at me and this Dustin dude was like shaking (jesus Christ, could YOU lift like 117 pounds above your head without shaking? I THINK NOT!). Then we played Strip-tarzan. This was supposed to be a game for getting a rope to swing to your groups platform and then swinging everyone over the “acid River” below—however, to get the rope we all made a rope out of our clothes, so everyone was taking off shirts and belts and shoelaces. It took us about 45 minutes to do this, whereas it was s’posed to take about 8.

So. Alright. Now it’s now. I’m going to go. More later!

Part Two: PM

YES! SCORE! I HAVE MADE A GUY FRIEND!!!! This is so WAY cool. VERY SO TOTALLY AWESOMELY NEATO-SCHMEATO! I CAN FINALLY WRITE SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT SOUND OVERLY DEPRESSING AND WHINEY!

Go me, GO ME!

Well it started out bad- we were going to freshman computer-tech-phone-library orientation after the whole-school barbecue (thank GOD, I finally saw matty, she was such a wonderful sight after feeling so completely LOST!) and we sat down in Kirby Science center, in one of the tech-computer labs, and there were THREE empty seats in the entire forty seat room, one on either side of me. I didn’t sit down FIRST, but I definitely was in the first twenty. Sigh. But then, a girl walked in late, and she sat down on my right, and five minutes into the bladdy-blah of the ugly tech-prof’, a guy walks in with a girl called Marguerite. Now, he’s not hot. No, he’s about six foot, black over-gelled hair, with a little acne and horrendously chapped lips. But he sat down next to me and we talked about the computer stuff for a while the professor yapped on at us all, and then we got around to joking, etc., and he’s actually really cool. Well, I am only saying that because I haven’t had decent longer-than-five-minute conversations with any other guys… his name is Steve Dareci? Daroci? (last name… difficult. Something like that!)

I talked to the blue haired girl. She’s very lucky; her name is Bari. So everyone can remember her name because Blueberry= Blue-Bari, and everyone remembers the blue hair. I ran into her a second time, about an hour later, and she needed to borrow a belt because she’s a day student. Made another FRIEND… (again, an annoying person who follows me around.) Her name is Isabel. She is slightly fat, with stringy orangey-fake blonde hair and a lot of hemp bracelets that she can’t pull off quite as well as Bari. I think she wants to be like me. It’s kind of sad, seeing as I really don’t want to be like me currently.

Now I’m back, even though I never said I was going anywhere! I was downstairs and Mrs. Krebb’s latest Impromptu meeting… this time it was about tryouts tomorrow afternoon (I have a Freshman Field Hockey team meeting on the Steps of the Field House.. I need to repeat this to myself all the time else I’ll definitely forget.), and because we were having the September birthday celebration- hmm… let me think. Who’s birthdays? Ah.. Hillary Bun.. Ivy-the-Chinese-Girl, Maddy LePere (which I remember because of Pepe Le Pewe, that skunk in the cartoon), and… this scary tall girl who plays a lot of sports and stands in front of me in the fire drill line. See? I am doing very well… well, at least better than yesterday or this morning. I don’t love it yet. In fact I still hate it. But I am really hopeful that someday I will love it as much as I loved Kent… I just gotta stop moping around in the past.

The reason I’m writing these dumb letters is to get out everything that I haven’t said all day, which is a lot because I’m vocally retarded all of a sudden. But I did do GOOD today. I accomplished a lot. I figured out how to work my phone, spent all my cash on textbooks and managed to paddle WAY up shit creek without a paddle or a cent left and still need two hundred dollar textbooks, (ok I’m starting with the weenie complaining thing again) and … okay. I’m going to go settle in and get some sleep, cry a little (it’s very healing) and HOPEFULLY, very very hopefully, because I have no other way for ya’ll to be in my life, dream about you.

Lucy

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