Yeah… programming. Criminy, either I’m slow or this assignment is a near-Sisyphusian effort. And I’m doing this all on a Mac (All together now, CS majors cringe, everyone else kinda shrug and wonder why the CS majors are cringing. A couple hippies let out whoops of Mac-loving joy).

So… I suppose it’s time to make a big “This was my break” post. Okay. Here goes:

Friday: visited Adam at John Carroll with Kemal. That was fun, we went to the Cheesecake Factory, which surprisingly isn’t immensely overrated. A little overpriced, but hey, it’s in Legacy Village, (Pittsburghers: it’s like the Waterfront, only yuppier) what do you expect. JCU was cool, we kept running into various people we knew. Hey, St. Ignatius Part 2.

Saturday: Talked to Erik, it’s cool to hear what he’s up to. Very different experiences, I guess, with him at American U. learning about Communications, Law, Ethics, and Politics. Or something like that. Hey, that and CMU both have their ups and downs. But it’s great talking to Erik, even though we think differently on a lot of stuff, it’s fun to compare what’s going on, and thoughts about this and that.

Sunday: drove to Michigan with Kemal. That was a cool place, pretty big. Ate at Noodles, which was very good. Hung around w/ some of his friends there, then they started talking about their ridiculous Cancun vacations and smoking pot, so we left.

Monday: lifted weights w/Kemal, which was very cool because he knows much more about it than me. Learned many new fings. (Among them: hey, I can do chin-ups/pull-ups (plural) now! As opposed to say, a couple years ago.) Lunched, drove to Chicago. Chicago was very big and gothic! How cool! Got to Chicago an hour earlier than I thought I would (hey time change!), hung around with Dave, dined at his dining hall which is much better than CMU’s… (they don’t have blocks! it doesn’t expire every 2 weeks! it tastes better!) Coincidentally enough, lifted weights again. That was cool too… I was sore for two days afterwards though. Played Mafia, of which I am now a fan. Such intrigue and trickiness, in a game that doesn’t require anything but 8 people! We lost though, the quiet kids, Steven and Anna, tricked us.

Tuesday: went to Dave’s “Hume” (sorta general humanities) class, they were reading the Tempest, teacher was a crazy old man. See: Interp. Midday: watched Kill Bill. Good movie, I had never seen it before. Went to the Snail for dinner, a Thai place. Wow I love Thai food. Played Mafia again, it’s still good. We won… it came down to the last vote, I successfully killed Jonah, Dave’s roommate, to win. Hooray!

Wednesday: Drove home. I kinda like driving. Having 10 new CDs for the drive helped. Props to the Fiery Furnaces, Radiohead, Broken Social Scene, Decemberists, and of course the Arcade Fire. Slops to the Walkmen (waah I’m whining to death!) and Neutral Milk Hotel (I’m still whining to death… although not as badly!) Undecided: Pretty Girls Make Graves (by the time I got to “P”, I was kinda tuning the music out)

But driving is better than just music… inventive food/coffee stops (That Starbucks Frappucino stuff is good because it tastes like melted coffee ice cream… which is excellent. Also Fazoli’s is good if you have 10 minutes to sit down and eat pasta. Whoa, fast food pasta, what a concept. Their salads are tasteless as Post-it notes though.) and hey, just time to think.

I guess I did think a lot. Mostly I’m optimistic, CMU’s getting better all the time. Thanks almost entirely to S’n’S people; specifically mainly “WASP” people. (I’m not racist, I’m talking about the play! Course, if you’re reading this, you probably already know that) And improv people too, although I only see them during improv mostly, which is too bad. Dunno why I didn’t get involved more with S’n’S earlier… didn’t think I’d like it I guess. No thanks to a few people of a certain fraternity, but we won’t go into that here. No thanks to classwork, which, like I’ve said, makes me feel somewhat robotic. You’ll notice I cut off on Wednesday, because Thursday and Friday have been “work on programming all day.” It’s kinda sad.

And oh, the family. Being in college gives you a sort of outsider’s perspective. Mom’s been working a lot, she’s never home for dinner any more I guess. Bah. And Dad’s still mostly the same, somewhat curmudgeonly sometimes. Still does his daily “call home at about 4:30, give a bunch of chores to whomever is unfortunate enough to answer the phone.” Still mad that Mom’s not home enough, which doesn’t help. Cheryl’s cool still; she’s been having tough times with swimming and school and such; Dad responds by trying to get her to swim all year, or get outside tutoring, or whatever. I dunno, she’s 16, old enough to make her own decisions I’d say.

I love them all, my family’s great. But there’s some day-to-day friction that happens. Dad wants things done his way, and if they’re not, why not? Mom acquiesces, and mostly feels guilty about working so much I guess. Dad doesn’t know what’s going on with Cheryl. Dad wants me to work hard to I can make $17 grand. Or maybe $17 million. Whoa, did I just stumble into a WASP reference? Yeah, guess I did. There’s a lot there. There are big differences though, I’m not saying my family’s anywhere near as screwed up as that one. My sister and mom are a lot more sane. Dad kinda knows he doesn’t have to teach me stuff like “what a luxury item is” anymore. We kids don’t fight. But I gotta wonder if Dad ever calls out to the voices. And if I’m going to turn out the same way.

Whoa… if that all sounds really grim, sorry about that. Make Alan Greenspan proud, get out that irrational exuberance, and joyfully romp through your next day or week or whatever.