Here Comes Thanksgiving Break!

Just like everyone on else on campus, I am so relieved to be on break right now. Everything that I've been working on this semester seems to have come to a satisfying end just in time for some delicious turkey with trimmings. And while I'm glad to get off the Hill, I'm also kind of worried for what I will find upon returning...

This semester has been quite busy for me, specifically over the last two weeks. It seems as if all of my work is finally coming to a pleasant close. I finished a huge project for the Tribune-Review (resulting in an ad of my eventually making it in the print edition of the newspaper), and got enough money to cover my Day-After-Thanksgiving shopping spree. My graphic design project, a restaurant menu for Stephen King's Family Restaurant, wrapped up nicely. The newest, and prettiest, issue of Eye Contact is now officially at the printers, getting ready for the first week of December. And the College Republicans have officially planned their next event on campus, a movie night the Tuesday of finals week. Everything was going nicely... until I looked at the Boss while leaving for home.

The Boss, while still a popular location and reference on campus, is not what it used to be... not that it really ever became anything. There was a while there, however, in which it was really looking nice. We had a sweet entertainment system, a futon and couch, and a pleasant end table. Then we got a drum set, which I think is an awful idea because no one plays it, and it's too loud when it actually IS played. From there the Boss became merely a legend of greatness compared to what it actually was. I think we are all in denial about how cool it really is, which is "not." Because of the clutter, it got messy, un-sweepable because you can't move the furniture anywhere. Then it got stinky... some say it's because of a roommate with smelly feet, others say it's the huge garbage can that goes for weeks without being emptied, I say it's a little from each column. But thanks to that very garbage, combined with the bounty of fruit we amass, little flies have found a home in our dorm unit. They don't just limit themselves to the Boss, but they fill our bathroom, and invade Puff and I's room. Our room is probably the cleanest out of everyone in The Boss, I pride myself in that, and yet I am now getting these little bastards flying in my face while I type on two computers at once.

And so as I walked through the living room, carrying a sack o' laundry, I couldn't help but dawn a disappointed, disgusted, and slightly worried look on my face. Thank God no one was around to see my face, or else they might have thought me "slow." I was never really fond of hanging out in the Boss, due to the majority of uncomfortable furniture and its eclectic smell, but now I was down right ashamed of it.

Some might say to me, "If you are disgusted by it, why don't you clean it?" And I have to say, "Well I didn't make the mess, I don't even go in there... and besides, it's just going to get worse the second I'm not there to pick things up." Every time we have cleaned that room, it just gets messier than before even faster than before. The worst time was last time we cleaned it, myself and the other guys went to town on the whole unit, making everything smell nice and be dust free. Then, the very next day we found a big smelly kid (who doesn't live with us) passed out on our couch, souring the entire room. That put a downward spiral on things that culminated in a pile of unrinsed cans, used food wrappers, and an overflowing garbage can within a week of the stinky-kid-presence. So why would I spend the time to correct others' doings only for things to get even worse. Instead I confine myself to my room, as does my awesome roommate, and we do our best to keep clean and healthy.

I am afraid to see the condition of things when I return. The Boss, while as stinky and disgusting as it is, at least as air moving through it thanks to the inhabitants constant hussle and bussle. But now that none of us will be there for a week, I have to wonder if things will get even more stale than they already are. Will these bugs collect, multiply, and form some haunting life form? (Just like in "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King.) Or perhaps the folks that live above us, the same guys who insist on dribbling a basketball every night at 1AM, will break through the ceiling on accident, find themselves in what would appear to be a trash dump, and clean things up for us. Or maybe the whole thing will just spawn a soul and crawl out of the Lodge, leaving a crisp cocoon of a new dorm room. I can only hope.

And so I will spend this Thanksgiving break enjoying myself, basking in the few obligations I have, and doing a heck of alot of improv and sketch comedy. I'm not going to worry about The Boss or the gross objects contained within. That'll be another matter for another day... or semester.

Have a great Thanksgiving!