All alone and almost out of here.

May 8, 2003

The only people left on my floor now are myself, one other senior, my RA, the three track people, and Margaret, who can’t go home because someone quarantined for the 10-day period to watch for SARS after coming back from Bejing is living in her house. It’s kind of quiet, but it doesn’t seem deserted with people’s stuff in the hallway. Just not mine. I haven’t really begun packing yet, so I think I’ll do that today. I’ve gotten rid of some stuff that I won’t need by putting it in the give and take box (not that anyone is left to take, but they’ll go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill), plus I’ve put my posters away. I did take the big black fridge I had been borrowing down to storage and got all my boxes, but they’re just sitting in the hallway now, untouched since then. I really don’t want to pack stuff up, but I know I have to.

Tuesday was the senior party, which was kind of fun. A bunch of us went and checked it out, and they had somehow managed to stuff most of my class into a small bar here in Beloit. They had a keg of pretty weak beer for us to enjoy, but that didn’t last long. Nor did the food that was set out for us, alas. We stayed for about an hour or so and then a few of us took off back to campus by way of Cub Foods. We bought some blender mixings, some snacks, and we made some frozen drinks while playing Taboo and Pictionary. While I wanted to see the people in my class, without anything to be munching on or have to drink (alcoholic or not, doesn’t matter), it wasn’t going to be all that fun. I heard that people started leaving at that point, anyhow. So it’s all relative. Yesterday I got back together with my friend Ali for the last time and we finished up watching “Babylon 5.” I first met Ali my sophomore year when she became friends with Leslie who lived on my floor at that time, and we became fast friends. We watched Dune together, and when I found out she liked sci-fi, we began watching the reruns of “Babylon 5″ on TV every day. Since we both were in choir, we were forced to miss it twice a week, but the other three days a week, we were in the lounge, glued to the TV and watching the progression of the story in “B5.” Ali and I were joined by Heather and Sarah (who was Leslie’s roommate and moved away after that year), and so the four of us watched the show practically from the very beginning to the very end of the show. The first season of “Babylon 5″ was released on DVD in December, and so for old time’s sake and because we all liked the show, Ali and I got back together to run through what I had of the show. We managed to convince my friend Julie to join us after the first episode since she was procrastinating her work, and so from then on the three of us and Heather when she could make it would watch “B5″ almost every night. The second season of “B5″ came out on DVD in late April, and so once we finished the first season, it became a race to get the second season done, too, since people were leaving and we all had finals and papers. We got more than halfway through the second season when the crunch started, and we found ourselves on the last night that we would all be here with about six episodes to go. I finally had to compromise and skip over a few, watch one, and then the highlights from the last episodes. Kind of disappointing to go that far and have to compromise at the end. Anyhow, Ali, Heather, and I all watched the episodes that we skipped over, and it was like the end of something great when we reached the last one, since we knew we wouldn’t be doing it again.

Good thing, however, that Dan, Kristine, Heather, Ali, and I all went out to dinner last night. Ali is a sweetheart and one of my best friends here, and I’m really disappointed to not be able to see her anymore. Especially when you consider that in the last couple of months, the two of us have watched 44 episodes of “Babylon 5″; at 44 minutes apiece, that comes out to roughly 1936 minutes just watching “B5,” or a grand total of 32 hours spent together. Now that’s a bummer. A good way to end our time together, methinks. We all went out to dinner at the Japanese restaurant that I mentioned before, and it was great fun. It was kind of like Beni-Hana in that you ate at the grill and a cook made your food right there, very showy. I didn’t get a lot of pictures of the actual cooking process, but I took a bunch of pictures of us at dinner, and then I got a good group picture taken by one of the employees. Good times. Ali spent all of last term in Japan, so she knew what kind of things to get and what was good. I skipped the sushi appetizer, but I ate most everything else.

So that’s been my week. “Babylon 5,” senior party, Japanese food, and now packing. I have a bunch of things left to do on campus, so I’ll do those either today or tomorrow. You know, little things, like paying my library fines so I can graduate, turning in my ITS key so I don’t get charged for recoring the door, that sort of thing. I’d liek to do all of my errands on the academic side of campus in one fell swoop, so I’ve been waiting it out. I think I’ll actually get going and be productive now, because since my Mom and Dad will be here today, I’d better look busy, no?

Three days until graduation.

Posted in Beloit, General, Movies