WAG - End of the Semester Silliness
Once again I find myself changing from wet clothes into my swim trunks.
It's been a good day.
After spending most of the at the computer at my desk - mostly playing computer games - I got around campus this evening.
First, I went with several friends to torch notes and papers that have accumulated over the semester that are no longer needed. Me being a packrat, I didn't bring much to burn, but there was some perverse pleasure in roasting an edition of the Missourian.
We had three fires roaring on the grills and kept them going for some time - which is a good trip considering how fast paper fires last.
At the end, as the flames died down, the smoke was in the air, and ash swirled around we paused for a moment.
"I feel cleansed," Stephanie said.
"I feel like I need a shower," Anna said - prompting the rest of us to crack up.
From there we went to the "Midnight Breakfast" put on by the student staff of the dorm. It was a slim meal of bacon, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and French toast sticks [excuse me, FREEDOM toast sticks].
It's not much, but it's cheaper than IHOP, a more cheerful atmosphere than the Waffle House, and did I mention free?
Next, our group proceeded on to the quad and the columns across from Jesse Hall. We took the scenic route to get a better view and because Stephanie, who works at Jesse, had lied to get out of work early (in her defense, she has a long, solo drive tomorrow and didn't want to packing out the equipment for the production of Saturday Night Fever until 1 a.m.).
Anyway, we got to check out the bats that we're flocking around the dome before making out way to the columns.
We took photos, rolled down the hill and simply talked.
My friend R.J. was sure he could leap from column to column without a running start, while others told him he couldn't and/or it was to stupid to try.
I thought he could, but kinda agreed on the stupid part since he was wearing sandals (and they're not well known for traction). The distance wasn't even 5 feet, and after the initial debate slowed down, I made the jump when no one was paying attention to me.
Of course, leaping through the air tends to attract the eye so shortly after R.J. pleaded his case by saying, "Look, Caleb can do it..." he was bounding from column to column.
Last, we made our way to the fountain near Brady Commons with the intent to take a quick dip in it. "Diving" in the campus fountains is a traditional act, albeit on that is usually discouraged by campus policy.
The soap that filled the fountain, whether placed there by MUPD or stupid frat people (earlier on the quad, there were people taking pictures of plastic geese poised on the columns. They refused to tell us why, but it was obvious they were of members of a Greek organization], but extra steps had been taking to try to curtail the behavior.
Of course, six of still slid into the cold, soapy water, submerged ourselves, and then made a hasty exit taking the scenic route back to Hatch - to avoid extra attention.
We left a water trail for quite a ways, though it started to rain, and that covered our tracks quite well. When we got back to the door someone said, "I TOLD you it was raining hard."
I made my way back up to the room and changed out of my wet, formerly sooty and grungy clothes and into the swimming trunks I've taken to wearing at the end of the semester.
Something about going from the Missourian's semi-strict dress code to being able to wear not only shorts, but also swim trunks, gives me great twisted pleasure.
Anyway, today has had a good start and if anyone questions me about what happened, I'll simply tell them it was good clean fun.
And I have the soap in my clothes to back that up.
'rub_a_dub_dub'
