Freshman year of college on parent’s weekend, my roommate’s and many of my friends’ parents came to town but mine did not. It was a couple of months into school, and everyone was preoccupied with their visitors. I returned to the dorm on a Friday, and was an absolute slug. I did not leave the dorm until Monday morning after a weekend of pizza eating and watching TBS/TNT movies. It was a fantastic weekend of relaxation.
Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling extraordinarily well and had a relatively unproductive day. I went to bed at the normal time begrudgingly setting my alarm. However, it never seemed to go off in the morning. My oversleeping then led to a splendid day.
With it raining and dreary outside, I plopped myself down and watched my favorite two episodes of The West Wing recently DVRed. I emailed a friend asking if she wanted to go to lunch, with a passing notion I may go into work. During our email exchange, the university sent out an email saying all computers must be rebooted that night (what I needed to do at work eventually required a program running overnight). Therefore the administrative Gods seemed to say: “Steve, don’t go to school.”
I showered, with the only debate in my head of being where to go to lunch. I didn’t want pizza, but wanted fries, and then buffalo sauce, but not wings. And bingo it hit me, Winberries’ buffalo chicken wrap. Perfect.
The next question was how to spend my day off. I looked at potential movies, and decided to give Harry Potter as a mindless escape for the day. There was enough time for lunch before the movie.
Driving to Winberries on a rainy day, I pulled into a spot right in front of the door. There was already money on the meter, walked in, ordered, and continued to read a political junkie book. I was distracted by The Proclaimers “I would walk 500 miles,” a regular on the Steve playlist. My wrap arrived, and satisfied my craving for buffalo sauce and fries.
I then proceeded to Harry Potter, driving past three Americanist political science faculty along the way. Continuing my remarkable random music luck, “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow” popped on the radio. After stopping for gas, my GPS easily guided me to the theatre. Got my ticket, discounted for being a pre-five o’clock show. I was contemplating a small popcorn, priced at $5 but discovered the kids fun pack which got me the popcorn, a soda, and my childhood favorite of M&Ms for only a $1.25 more.
I went in the theater, and I was the only one to do so. It was the first time in my life I was the only soul in a movie theater. Given this opportunity, I had to use my cell phone during the movie. So I did, and called my friend Vicky. While only a voicemail, I was sure to be loud and obviously on a cell phone. I then checked out, snacked on my popcorn, and watched the wizarding world. (The M&Ms got eaten about halfway through).
After Snape killed Dumbledore (sorry for the spoiler), I drove home, guiltily indulging in a few of my favorite recent pop songs. At home, I had multiple messages telling me that I had missed the first CSDP happy hour of the year (for non Princetonians, I never miss CSDP happy hour, I even set it up on days the professor who runs it doesn’t). Since Josh left, I have turned to this professor more for advising. I had met with him yesterday, so I jokingly emailed him apologizing for missing the happy hour. He then replied humorously, which I appreciated (even moreso, since a big thing for me is being able to joke with those I work with). So even missing CSDP happy hour proved to work out.
My roommate then popped in and said he was going to New York for the night. So the apartment was mine. So I then did what I did six years ago as a freshman in college. I then watched a junk movie, ordered pizza, watched two more episodes of West Wing, and now another junk movie.
It may not be the most interesting SteveRogers.info post, but it was a fantastic way to spend a the last Friday before year two of Princeton starts. Some days you just need to be a sleep in, enjoy some guilty pleasures, and be a slug.
