This is actually being typed on a Word document as I fly home from Northfield. My last few days in Northfield were a lot of fun, as was the time spent in Walker at Annie’s cabin. I’ll try to cover as much of the past week or so as possible.
I love Annie’s cabin. This marked my third time going this year. I have many fond memories there, and this trip was no different. The personnel changed slightly, but that was of no matter. In fact, the alteration probably enhanced the experience.
We left for Annie’s cabin Friday evening in Lippincott’s car. Lippincott, Ward, and Fowler joined me. On the way up to Walker (about a four hour drive), we listened to about a third of Al Franken’s Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. I had heard a lot about the book (and may actually own it…I’m not entirely sure) and it was some good background noise for the long journey. Al makes some good points, though not ones that were unbeknownst to any moderately aware liberal thinker over the course of Bush’s administration. Though it was dark most of the way up, I was able to observe and appreciate Northern Minnesota’s landscape. It really is beautiful land, complete with evergreen trees, rolling meadows, and crystal clear blue lakes. It’s too bad the people that live near these physical splendors are those who Franken despise (as he would say, “there’s something fundamentally wrong” with them), and blame for the current dishonorable state our country is mired in. While I, theoretically, believe that every individual human being is entitled to the right to free thought and idea, I do think that their political and moral conceptions of responsible rule and relation to other sovereign nations is, for lack of a better phrase, flawed.
But I digress. We arrived at the cabin at around 10:00 PM, filled with fun sized candy bars, soda, and liberal protestations from a possible candidate for Minnesota’s Senator in Washington. Annie, Lily T., Goodspeed and Heydinger had traveled the previous night, and had by all accounts started drinking/smoking at around 2 PM that day. Needless to say, they were ready to go. Graciously, they had made pizza hot dish, a regional treat, for us. Essentially, “hot dish” is Minnesotan for “casserole” (much in the same vein as “corn dogs” become “pronto pups” when they cross state lines…go figure), and this one surely took the cake: mozzarella cheese, canned mushrooms, pepperoni, sausage and ground beef, smothered in pizza sauce, thrown unceremoniously over a bed of spaghetti, and baked in an oven for about an hour. Delicious, I tell you! After a few helpings of PHD, and a few Sam Adam’s, we were all in the cabin spirit. A few tired Seths collapsed almost immediately, while the survivors talked long into the night. In a strange twist of fate, I found myself curled up next to Heydinger in an upstairs bed. Though there was no cuddling, I have never felt closer to young Mr. Heydinger.
The next day was amazing. It would be pointless to recount everything that we did, for written out; it appears as if we did nothing. I got a lot of reading done (though none of it was comps related), ate a lot of fattening food, and smoked a lot of pot. My goal in going to the cabin was to clear my head in preparation for writing the 15 pages of comps due on January 3rd, and clear my head I did. There really isn’t anything like hot chocolate, a comfortable chair, and some good company to put everything in its right place. Lily left at around 1:00 that day to join friends and family in the cities. To our surprise, Laura Ambuel arrived, fresh from taking the GREs that morning in Milwaukee, and undertaking an eight hour drive to join us—a fairly impressive feat in my book. Our pattern of doing nothing continued for the rest of the day, interrupted by spikes of the consumption of vices.
We drove home the next day in spectacular, albeit unsafe fashion: passing bowls back and forth to one another as we sped home through the Northern Minnesota landscape. It was a great weekend all in all.
So, I’m on my way home. The flight seems interminably long and bumpy. Some precocious bitch keeps claiming that I am kicking the back of her seat. It’s actually my favorite thing to do as a 21 year old student: kick the back of airplane chairs of uppity blonde girls from Edina. Nothing gives me greater pleasure, in fact. I was sorry to leave Minnesota, as JJZ has an empty apartment to herself for the remainder of break. She arrived in town yesterday after spending the first part of break in Amsterdam and Berlin. I would’ve liked to spend more time with her, but one day was good enough. I’ve got a Hannukah party to attend tonight, and dentist (boo) and eye (whatevz) appointments the next day. I love coming home, seeing the family, etc. There’s not much by way of friends to see anymore, as they’re all either (a) in school, (b) huge fucking strokes, or (c) all of the above. Of course there are exceptions, namely Dave and Chels, some members of the Cutting Crew, and all the Frisbee players I have met over the past few breaks. I’ll focus in on those people to keep myself sane over the next few weeks.
And, of course, I’ll continue to procrastinate on comps.
PS: Saw pirated copy of Children of Men, staring Clive Baker, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. Highly, highly recommended as a smart, dystopian sci-fi thriller.
