Yes. Corny title. I’m aware.
So, STAC has been amazing. And I’d love to tell you all about it, but it’s 1:15 AM and I have to be up in six hours, so I want to tell you a short story of my Saturday night:
I finally got to go see Sy again, and we wound up hanging out with Amanda and Jess. After lunch at Burger King and dessert at Coldstone, we decided we wanted to do something fun and interesting that night—and Amanda told us she had a Ouija board.
I believe in the supernatural. So I was along for the ride from the beginning. If not a bit scared. We started out by lighting about eighty-seven-thousand candles for protection, and put our hands on the planchette (the triangle thing). Immediately, we were all giggly with excitement. And we couldn’t concentrate. It got to the point where Sy and I decided to do it alone, and Amanda and Jess left the room. Our first spirit wasn’t very talkative. He had died when he was nine, due to “F”, and his name was “F”. He had lived in Sy’s house. We weren’t getting a lot of activity inside, so we all decided to do it in Sy’s backyard. Sitting at a small table, the girls started while I watched, smoking. We almost immediately connected with Ethni, a 41-year-old African immigrant and her 25-year-old nephew, Duau. Ethni had been in love with her professor, Richard, (who I reminded her of) and had killed herself when he refused to be with her. She shared a heartbreaking story of her baby’s miscarriage and the fact that, even though she thought Richard loved her, he wouldn’t leave his wife Sewra. Even after all her pain, Ethni told us to trust in love, and Duau said to have an open heart.
We then went out for coffee with some other antics that I’ll bookmark for later. Because the experience we had after coffee was where the crazy started:
After sitting in the dining room for a few moments (it was cold and wet outside, and we had felt ominous about the last spirit we contacted, an older man) we first came into contact with Erte, who had died in 1723. We quickly disconnected from him, though, and then ran into two spirits who wouldn’t share their names. After dispelling them, we found Quentin. He told us he had died last month, at the age of nine, due to his mother drowning him. He said she didn’t have enough money to raise him, and that his father, whom he loved, thought he had run away. Quentin wasn’t mad, he told us, he was sad. He talked to us in a joking manner for a while, and we all had fun with his vitality. He even made me get Sy a napkin because I had to be a “gentleman”. But after Sy’s brother made fun of him, Quentin got angry. He threw Sy’s napkin and began pushing the planchette off the board. Suddenly, the happy little boy who had hope for “Another life” was annoyed with us for ignoring him, and forcefully grabbing Amanda’s shoulder. We immediately said goodbye to him, thoroughly freaked out.
In the end, I found the experience very fulfilling. Not often do we get the chance to find out what those beyond miss most about life, or what they would have us do. Despite the twists and turns of it, it was a great time. And now my suitemate Jimmy wants to buy a Ouija board, since I told him the story…
And so it begins.
I’m going to college tomorrow.
TOMORROW.
Like, in twenty-four hours, I’ll have been in my dorm and out of the house for six hours. No more Mom. I don’t know if I’m going to like this. And I’m definitely sure I’m not going to hate it.
Because it stands for freedom. And as much as I want that, I’ll miss Mom. But I still really want that.
So, I’m gonna get my mind off of it for now with a few updates. For one, I went to Rafa’s last night for her end-of summer party. I had so much fun seeing people I haven’t seen in months—Roli, Mel, Walter, Jan, Audrey, Rafa, Rika, Lucas… and I met a lot of new fun people—Danielle, Marty, Michael… It was great.
And McCain picked his vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska. I personally think it was a very smart idea to pick a woman. Even against Obama, who seems to be surging through the country with his facade, he’s proving to have a very strong ticket. Hopefully, America will make the right choice on November 4th. Which is obviously McCain-Palin.
I went to Krista’s the other night with Dylan, and when she was doing jigsaw puzzles (yes, a twenty-year-old and her girlfriend doing jigsaw puzzles, picture it), I had some time to think. And I wrote something that I’d like to share…
WHY?
What’s the point of hate? Does it make you feel bigger than others… hide all those deep-seated insecurities?
Sometimes I wonder why it’s so hard for people to accept things about others. If you think about it, everyone has some quality that someone else would find unacceptable. So you would think that, if anything, that would make us more accepting of others.
So what if someone’s gay? Or straight? Conservative? Liberal? Black? White? Isn’t the more important thing that we’re all people? It’s trite, but, if we were all the same, wouldn’t the world be a very boring place?
It astounds me that things like politics and religion, things that can be the basis of people’s lives, can teach us to hate. And the funny thing is, most of the time, hate is based on a lack of understanding. If people don’t understand a certain culture or faith or race or type of person, they can get scared. So, I guess fear is a part of hate, too.
Part of me feels like the year 2008 should be a more accepting time. But then I remember that we live in an imperfect world. Will we ever not hate?… I doubt it.
But there’s always hope.
So I said I would make a new post when I got the time… and I’m only two months late. But, in my defense, it’s been a very busy summer.
First off, I’ve been doing as much as I can with my friends because I know that soon I’ll be off to school, and then the weeks we had together will turn into precious weekends. I wanted to be able to savor the moments. We started out in June with graduation parties, and I have to say that spending time after graduation with Brendan, Josh, Mario, Wayne, Walter, Miguel, and Chris was definitely a lot of fun. And bittersweet. Nostalgic. Because the whole thing carried an air of the possibility we’d never see each other again, or at least not as much. You go from seeing someone every day to every few months, you know? I also got back in touch with some Bosco alum: Dylan, Chris H, John K… and that was a lot of fun, too. I spent crazy amounts of time with Sy, and had so much fun when Erkz came back from Maryland to visit. I saw Ashley, and am finally going to see Rafa this week, just two short days before I go.
Then there was work. My usual schedule is Monday-Wednesday-Friday nights and Saturday morning, which severely cuts into my social life and sleeping time. Especially when most of my friends live a half hour from my job. There was some shakiness when the Vice President of the company came and told us we had to cut hours. Paychecks got smaller, but now it’s basically back to normal. (As seen in my $366 clothing purchase yesterday).
And then there were the preparations for school. There were so many forms for financial aid and student life and roommate information. And finding people on Facebook. I got a crapload of school supplies from Drug Fair and I ordered my dorm stuff online from Campus Linens. I went to Old Navy, JC Penney, and Urban Outfitters to create a new wardrobe. I still have to get shoes, a haircut, and my textbooks. Orientation is Tuesday, and move-in is Saturday.
Tomorrow night I have dinner with Grandpa and Di. Thursday is Rafa’s party. I need to see Ashley, most likely on Wednesday. And then Friday will probably be spent at home, finishing up on packing.
It’s all happening so fast. So I hope you can forgive my lack of participation in the blogging world.
But now, at least, the site looks pretty—Thanks to Sy. She’s my enabler, apparently, in my ginormous crush on Milo Ventimiglia.
So, this is it. I just feel like…
Am I really already here?
