Friday was the end of another era for me, as it was the day of Zack's Farewell Blowout. A handful of friends came up to Zack's parents' house, where we ate excellent fajitas and cruised the nearby lakes in his boat. In a shocking turn, I finally managed to get Chicago-supremacist Adrian to admit that Michigan is not so bad. It was extremely pleasant and more than a little melancholy.Zack and I have been friends since the very beginning of college. We both came to the first Gargoyle meeting of our freshman year and, as I recall, hit it off pretty immediately. We got even closer living in the same house this past year. I can't count the number of strange and wonderful in-jokes we've generated over the course of our college careers, how many times we've had breakfast at the Fleetwood, or how many times we've walked down the tracks to The Underpass (actually I can: two).
So here's to you, Mr. Beauvais. I wish you all the best in DC, keeping all the nuclear things under control. I'll meet you one day at the Hoist Bar with a fresh bowl of Cracklin' Oat Bran, some Fancy, and a steaming glass of barber's milk. Greg Allman will be there. He will be smiling.
So I've half-moved back to Rochester for now to save money, since right now it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting a job before my lease in Ann Arbor is up. By happy coincidence, my semi-clone Sam Nash, who used to live in the same town as Zack, has moved to a neighborhood about a five minute drive away from here, which will be nice. I've spent the past day re-integrating my possessions and throwing out old stuff, something I'm a little tired of doing at this point. If college has taught me nothing else, it at least trained me well in the art of packing, moving, and unpacking.
Right now I'm waiting to leave for my aunt and uncle's house for our annual July 4th cookout. It's hard to believe that is was only a year ago that I was packed like a sardine in a crowd of strangers, watching fireworks burst over the Hudson. Last summer still seems more like a strange dream to me than something that actually happened. It was so far out of my paradigm that I can't reconcile it.
Anyway, I hope you're all having a great holiday. Let's all show our country we love it the best way we know how: by setting things on fire.
Got a bit choked up.