White Ladder/Turning Circles

It's not often we find ourselves lucky enough to be completely surprised.

Which is strange because, at any given moment in our lives we cannot know what is going to happen next. So you'd think we'd be surprised all the time.

But we aren't. Obviously part of this is explained by the fact that, as college students, our lives are set patterns, every __day the same as lasts weeks' __day.

And when you work every Saturday and Sunday at the exact same time your life becomes even more of a pattern.

I think this is why college students love to get drunk. ("Wow, who are you and why are you in my bed?") ("Wow, how did I spend 90 dollars at Kilroy's?)

But it is also strange how we constantly are seeking more patterns in the form of relationships and jobs and clubs and sports and such. It's like we need patterns and hate them at the same time.

And friends are patterns too. I have a lot of long-distance friends (the majority actually) and all of us were at one time or another living near (or together). And you get used to patterns with these people...you know what you like to do with them, how you both work best together. With some friends it doesn't matter, you always have a good time with them - these are the friends you really want to hang on to. And some friends work best in certain situations.

I have friends that don't go here that I work best with when we get to spend lots of hours playing video games or eating dinner and drinking beers together...doing nothing essentially. But since we are now long-distance friends every time we hang out has to be this explosion of awesomeness where we have to be drunk the whole time and we have to go out and we have to get crazy.

Not that these things aren't fun, but I just want to sit around and play video games and drink beer. (Honestly, who doesn't want to do that?)

So, even the times when things are supposed to be different they are the same. I know this is depressing, and I'm not trying to say that I don't have fun with my friends - because I do - it's just that I've made a lot of mistakes and most of them have started with the words..."Shots, then bars."

Because those times don't really make you better friends, they may make better memories, but they don't create healthy friendships. Again, I just want to sit around and talk.

So I guess I was surprised when a crazy drunken night turned out well for me. This is completely unprecedented. COMPLETELY. It was like reading a Dave Barry column and not laughing at least 10 times. Like reading Harry Potter without loving every damned second of it. Like when you think you are drinking milk, but accidentally pick up a glass of water instead. That moment of realization is so shocking.

I won't say no more here other than to say that rarely has a night been so unexpected. And the moment of realization was shocking. I was completely surprised. But never have I been so happy to drink water.

_Todd


p.s.- go to ruckus and download 'Here it Goes' by Jimmy Eat World off of "Chase this Light"