College Wrap Up

For everyone who doesn't know my story, my college situation is not exactly standard. When I came to Manhattan College, I somehow ended up befriending a large group of people from the year above me. In fact, I have about three friends tops in my grade. While I love my friends, this leaves me in a bit of a predicament since the majority of the people I know will be graduating in just a few short weeks.

A lot of people having been asking me if I'm sad to say goodbye to them or if I'm worried about what I'll do next year. Since I'm going to Madrid for half of the year, I'm not too worried about my final year of college. And for some reason, the fact that all my friends will be leaving me never really quite sunk in. Recently, though, I'm coming to realize that my college years are in a lot of ways over this year as well. Last night while having margaritas with my roommate Caroline and our friend Joe, I was saddened to think that everyone will be going there seperate ways in a couple of weeks. I'm confident that I will stay in touch with a lot of people (particularly Caroline since she has threatened me to do so), however, I know there are some I may never see again. In honor of my dear friends' departure I've compiled a list of some of my favorite memories of Manhattan College:

1) One of my first times out at Manhattan College was for San Gennaro, an Italian festival held in Little Italy each year. Nick, Jonalin, Katie, Seth, Brian, Karen, Geno, and I all took the long subway ride downtown to enjoy the festivities. After roaming the streets for sometime we all indulged in two very large daquiries, which after quickly downing we realized were in fact non-alcoholic. Feeling extremely sick and not at all intoxicated, we decided to ditch the fesitival and hit up a nearby lounge called People. Coincidentally, the first bar I went to in Manhattan was also the nicest one I've been to in the past three years. The crowd was mostly older (there was actually an engagement party being held on the second floor) and Katie and I spent the night flirting with older men in a sleazy attempt to win ourselves some free drinks. Within an hour or so, the group of us were wasted, and made a drunken juvanile scene dancing in the middle of the bar. Seeing Seth dance and hearing Jonalin ask katie to "Hold her shoes because her feet were too heavy", I knew I would get along just fine with these people.

2) Spring time ofcourse brings good weather, but it also brings good excuses for drinking. Freshman year, in honor of the first day of warm weather, Anthony and Duke bought a keg and snuck it into their dorm room. We spent the day drinking on top of Jasper's roof and the night playing flip cup in the dorm- Dicks vs Vages. Halfway through the flip-cup tourny- which I'll proudly point out, Vages won- Duke hurled himself across the table slip N slide style. It was one of the most bizarre and funniest things I've seen in my life. Coincidentally, the night also ended with a massive slip N slide fest out on the quad. In full clothing, we all went out and got down and dirty on the infamous yellow plastic. I ended up walking back to my dorm at 3 in the morning by myself soaking wet, completely confusing the dorm security, and slept through class registration the next morning, but it was a fun-ass time I smile about to this day.

3) Super Bowl, 2005. Eagles Vs Patriots. Philly vs Boston. Me vs Caroline. We had people here at our apartment in honor of the event. We bought a keg, and Caroline, Erin, and I made copious Jello Shots which we, as usual, began "testing" very early on in the day. By half time, everyone in the apartment was WASTED. Caroline played waitress, carrying around jello shots to our guests every 5 minutes. Maggie and Marco made out very publicly in the kitchen. And best of all, upon going to the bathroom, I found Nicole "playing crouching tiger hidden dragon" in our bathtub. It turns out her and Tresky were hooking up in the bathroom when I knocked on the door. Trying to conceal their tryst, Nicole thought she could hide in the bathtub while Tresky made his exit. Unfortunately for her, I heard her almost instantly and, even worse, I ofcourse told EVERYONE all about it. It also turns out that she had played the hiding game earlier in the night and some poor unsuspecting person went to the bathroom without realizing she was ever there.

4) Cat Day. Unfortunately, this day is somewhat hazy since 100% of it was spent D-R-U-N-K. I don't remember what we had been doing the night before but Erin, Hess, and I woke up still intoxicated and decided it would be best to just keep on drinking. We began doing shots of straight vodka in our kitchen, cheersing the construction workers outside our window. For some reason, we started screaming " I love (fill in the blank)" about pretty much everything we laid eyes on. After looking at the picture of some random man in a hawaiian shirt we named Jim and his cat, which I found in our apartment basement and for obvious reasons found hysterical, "I love cats!" became our main chant, and really stuck for the remainder of the day. We started asking the construction workers if they loved cats and calling friends to ask their opinions. Most of the people we surveyed understandably found this question really bizarre and confusing- except for Sara, the animal enthusiast, who quickly responded "yeah, I love cats!". A few weeks later, Hess and I engaged in some more daytime drinking and, after taking a trip to Eckerd, bought an extremely tacky statue of two cats playing chess as well as a "Dig a Dog", a dog that kicks its leg and barks when you push a button. Certainly money well spent.

5) How Frank convinced me to go to Medievil Times is beyond me, but thank God he did. For anyone unfamiliar with this ingenius establishment, Medievil Times is a themed restuarant/performance in New Jersey. If you've seen Garden State, the one character was an employee of Medievil Times and, as in real life, was cruelly forced to wear Medievil regalia. Anyways, Frank and I headed over to Fenwicks for a little pre-gaming and were definately "feeling it" by the time we got on the bus. Everyone who went was way into the event and spent the entire time valiently cheering on our knight (seriously, you have to go to understand). Frank was, ofcourse, the most enthusiastic, and spent the night running down the isles high fiving little kids witht heir parents. At one point, one of these kids turned to him and said "Are you drunk!? My dad said you're drunk!". Well, the kid and his dad were very astute because Frank was indeed drunk and so was I. After getting back to school, Frank and I went back to Fenwicks to continue the party where we were told by our friend Kevin later on that we "stumbled through the door". Luckily, Frank and I were wise enough to end the night shortly after that, managing to keep what little dignity we had left.

6) For Caroline's 21st, a bunch of us went out to Free Wine, a chinese restuarant in the city that gives you, what else, free wine with your meal. Walking to the resturant, we met a homeless man who serenaded us with a kickass free style that included repeated use of the phrases "stop playing" and "girl I didn't know you could get down like that". Unfortunately, our meal was rushed as they were eager to close up, but we still managed to have a great time afterwards barhopping on Amsterdam Ave. Afterhours partying continued at our apartment afterwards and Frank was taunted was incriminating photos after passing out on the couch. Gotta love it.

7)This year Caroline and I went to Maritime's Annual Halloween Booze Cruise. Though the cruise itself was a bit of a letdown, we ended up having a blast afterwards. We went to a local bar for a few more drinks and got way more than we intended. The bartender, who was fully dressed up as a devil, was completely shitfaced and ended up giving us shot after shot of jaeger- FREE. Needless to say, I blacked out shortly after but I woke up the next morning in Joe's room with jaeger all over me, including in my hair. Classic Caroline, she asked how the hell we got home and was informed by Joe that she drove home...on the wrong side of the road. Now I am not condoning drinking and driving, and I am strongly opposed to the practice, but that is just f-ing hysterical.

Now, I'm sure everyone of these memories will suck in comparison to the debauchery that should be coming up in the next few weeks. Senior week, which consists of a booze cruise, a clam bake, and a formal all in three days time, will surely be a shit show to end all shit shows. Speaking of which, i'm off to make some more memories as we speak- Brunch at Piper's with Megan, Natasha, and Kristy. I mean, I only have paperdue at 7 tommorow morning but that can wait right???