I had a whole ton of stuff planned out to write today (and I might still get to some of it), but all I can think about right now is a cute little poem that Kristin wrote about college and put up as her AIM away message. I would love to share it all with you now:
An Ode to Homework
Kristin Welch
Homework, homework everyday
Homework, homework in every way
Oh, how it I loathe to do
I would almost rather have the flu
Books here, books there
Strewn about my room
If I get a problem wrong
It'll surely lead to doom
So take a breath, look around
And in my mind have set
That all my new found education
Will one day put me out of debt
I love it! After reading it, however, I am again reminded of how much I really do miss the college life. I thought that I'd eventually get settled into the work world and maybe even learn to like it, but I still pine after the good ol' college days as much as when I first graduated.
I've adjusted to the work world, and I'll even say that I've gotten to the point where I don't mind it, but there's just something missing. I've tried to pinpoint exactly what that something is, but I always come up with a different answer every time I pose the question to myself.
After being up at St. Ben's to see Kristin this weekend, and posing the question of "what is it that I truly miss" to myself, my latest answer would seem to be the people. Even though I spent most of the time with Kristin and her roommates, just seeing and talking to a few of the people that less than a year ago I was going to school with made me want to be back in that atmosphere.
Rochester, as nice of a town as it is, and Kingland, as great of a company as it is, just doesn't compare. There are few people around here that I know who are my age or share my interests. Sure, talking and goofing around with the guys at the office is cool and it gives me a quasi-replacement feeling to fill in the spaces that have been vacated by not being around all of my college compatriots, but I don't have relationships with my coworkers on the level that I did with the people I knew/know from college.
After my classes would be over I would always have something to do for the evening, and if I somehow didn't I would find something to do with the people around me. If it wasn't ultimate frisbee practice or volleyball or basketball or going on a mall run or just chilling in front of the tv playing video games, it was doing something education related like going to a reading group, seeing a play, or doing homework with some classmates.
Now, in this working world I'm so entrenched in, I drive 40 minutes into work in the morning, work my eight hours, drive 40 minutes home and proceed to try to think of stuff to do. True, I've had lots of crap to get done at home (fix computers, sell all my old stuff I don't need on ebay, finally go through and unpack some stuff from college), but there are days where I'm sitting on my bed wondering what I should do--play a video game by myself, go for a run by myself, read a book by myself, watch tv by myself, or just sit there and wonder why everything I'm doing is by myself.
It's getting even worse now that my little brother has a girlfriend. It used to be that when I'd come home we could watch the Simpsons together, play a video game, or go have a bon fire & blow things up with fireworks. Now he's always at her house or playing Diablo (I hate that game with a passion, but that's a story for another post, maybe tomorrow). I really don't even have the option of doing something with him if he's not around.
I'd like to hang out with people that I know in Roch after work, but usually they want to do things later in the day when I'm already home and I am NOT going to drive into Rochester twice in one day. Doing it once a day is bad enough. I'm just struggling here trying to cope with my non-existent social life. At the moment, Monday-Friday afternoon I have no social life and from Friday evening through Sunday evening I have a nice, healthy social life up in St. Cloud. I love the latter, but it's a pain in the ass dealing with the former.
On a more upbeat note, Kristin and I were both thoroughly impressed by both Hero and Dodgeball. I didn't expect Dodgeball to be all that great, considering I loathe Ben Stiller, but it managed to be extremely funny. Part of the reason it was so good was that Stiller's character was so over-the-top that I couldn't help but laugh at the parody of the uber sports jock he was portraying. Vince Vaughn was also very good as the leader of the underdog group of guys who continually get hit with balls, wrenches, and cars among other things.
Hero was a phenomenal movie owing its influences in equal parts to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Usual Suspects, and MacBeth. The martial arts were very much in the vein of CTHD, but the set-pieces used to film each battle were amazing in how unique they were, as well as how grandiose they appeared. The story, although not as intelligent as I had hoped, was still better than most of the turds that Hollywood has cranked out lately. If this doesn't finally get Jet Li noticed by the majority of American movie-goers, I think he might be relegated to making movies that will forever hover in Steven Segal and Jean-Claude Van Damme territory.
If you get the chance, go to see both of these movies. They are two of the few good movies to actually have come out in theaters this summer.
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