College, Part Un

I mean, if you can't steal their ideas for a blog post, then may as well kick them to the curb, right? *smile* Thanks, Amy!



As most of you know by now, I went to Slippery Rock University in western Pennsylvania. Look at a map of Pennsylvania, find Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, draw a line and find the midpoint. You're in Slippery Rock. Yes, it's a real town. And yes, more often than not, it is slippery.

I spent a total of 34 months there, give or take a few weeks, between 1998 and 2002. I lived in three different residence halls and one set of on-campus apartments. I changed majors once and even declared a minor - but only because they made me do it. I had six different roommates. I participated in one organization and one on-campus protest. I learned how to drink AND how to smoke (cigarettes, that is, for the most part but more on that later) and discovered the inherent beauty of the Hangover Hat. Let me tell you about it. College, not the Hangover Hat.

I started SRU in Fall 1998. My roommate, whom I'd never met but only spoken to briefly, was Megan. We thought we'd be alright with out a TV, so neither of us brought one, but after about four days we we were bored out of our tree. I went home that weekend and brought one back with me. Maury Povich at 10 a.m. became the only thing we had in common. She had an emotional basketcase of a boyfriend who'd started at SRU that fall too and man alive, was he a mess. We went through a week or so of him calling every. five. minutes. in the middle of the night because he was homesick and panicked about being a school. Sometime after Christmas break, she stopped sleeping in our room; she'd stay at her boyfriend's dorm every night and hardly spoke to me for the rest of the semester. I never did figure out what that was about.

I made the majority of my friends in my dorm on my floor, primarily Sara, Pam, Becca, Cary and Erin. Cary and Erin took me to my first fraternity party. It was a finger-painting party, we had to wear plain t-shirts, drink and paint other people. It was my first foray into drinking and I got lost in the beer. I came home that night with a pair of handprints on my boobs, reportedly from a gay guy (hey, it was Phi Kapps, a fraternity with mostly male band geeks in it, and I say "geeks" endearingly: I served my marching band with pride in high school).

Any drinking I did that year, I did with them, save for my trip to London. That's right, across the pond. See, I was a member (for all of three semesters) of the honor's program and that entitled me to an invitation for a week-long trip to London and a day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Wheee! I don't remember what it cost me but the college footed most of the bill. It was freaking awesome. I made a friend on the trip, Beth, and because the legal drinking age there is 19, we all had a good time. Americans to the core, we dedicated a night to drinking at - where else? - TGI Fridays! It was a few blocks from our hotel. I also had a bottle of MGD at the first pub I ate at. I had fish 'n chips. I'm such a tourist.

I majored in psychology when I enrolled at SRU and was still a psych major when I wrapped up my freshman year. I'd accumulated about nine credits in the psych department at that point and thought I was well on my way. I'd taken College Writing I and II with the same professor though, Dr. DiMarco, and she was like the English teacher I'd never had in high school. One who saw how much I loved writing and encouraged it and was NICE. Cohorts from CVHS remember D. Baker. NOT nice.

I never returned to Harner Hall after my second semester wrapped up. I'd found new roommates in North Hall, the all-girls dorm at the top of Cardiac Hill on campus. I was supposed to room with Heidi and Angie in a suite. I got my roommate assignment letter in July with my roommate's name on it, and it definitely didn't say anything about a Heidi or an Angie. It said Kelly. I hadn't the foggiest the ride I was in for with Kelly or the hooligans in the adjoining suite, not to mention the neighbor across the hall who, for all intents and purposes, lived in the suite too.

To be continued...