Memories of College in Manhattan: Part 2
Posted by Moose on March 12th, 2008. Filed under: Uncategorized.(Part 1 is here.)
I make Rice-a-roni at 2 a.m. on a freezing February night. Our dorm’s poor ventilation becomes clogged with smoke that may or may not have poured from my pan. The fire alarm goes off and everyone troops out into the cold, grumbling. The firemen come. I grumble along with everyone else and hope no one notices that the smoke is seeping from under my door.
~
I take my visiting mother to a history class and nap on her shoulder. She does the math on my tuition and sends me the bill.
~
The girl sitting next to me in Victorian Poetry has long brown hair and long legs; she sits with her chin resting on a striped knee. She trains with the Joffrey Ballet and makes insightful comments about Christina Rossetti. Part of me feels stupid and dumpy. Part of me really enjoys listening to smart people. I let that part win.
~
It’s a blustery Friday night. A friend and I listen to Garrison Keillor on NPR as she teaches me how to fry zucchini. We look out into the blowing snow and pop hot green circles in our mouths. For the first time in months, I don’t feel lonely.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Oh my god, that rice a roni story is the best!
March 12th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Isn’t it funny how bits of our lives come back at us like snapshots instead of a streaming video?
When I think back (I have to go a bit further than you, I fear), I remember sitting out in front of a 100 year old auditorium in the nippy October air while jack-o-lanterns flickered on the steps and thespians read bits of Edgar Allen Poe and students handed out cups of steaming hot cider and thinking this was the epitome of college life.
I remember another Halloween walking across campus on a late night, having left my date at a dance because he was being a jerk, and crossing a quad while drunken guys laughed uproariously and staggered down the walkways leering. I thought, “this might have been the dumbest thing I could possibly have done.” And when about six surrounded me so I couldn’t move, I knew it was.
I remember falling down the stairs everytime it snowed because no one ever iced them. I fell a lot. It made me laugh, even when I know I looked stupid.
After gymnastic meets my friend and I would run the mile and a half back to the dorm by dashing from grate to grate, where the steam from the heating vents rushed out in such a fog that you could get lost in them. I think that kept us from getting frostbite!
I remember sitting all night curled up in a dark TV room in my dorm night after night for weeks watching the bombing of Iraq and Kuwait, knowing somewhere under all those anti-aircraft missiles was the man I was going to marry, if we were lucky enough for him to come home.
Thanks for the memories!
March 12th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
And then one day I’d move to Gotham after graduating grad school and I’d see these fabulous NYU students and ache that it didn’t occur to me to apply there.
But then I’d always tell myself that they were cooler than I was. New York would have chewed me up and spit me out at 18.
Love this post!
March 12th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Rice-a-roni took SO long to cook. What like twenty minutes, right? I remember having no patience for making it, which is probably why I mostly lived on Top Ramen. Oh, god, the flashbacks.
(Not that I don’t still love Top Ramen, because I totally do.)
You know what is strange? I don’t think my parents visited but once in the three years I was away at school. I just realized that while reading this.
(I love that you listened to NPR.)
March 12th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Your mom has a good sense of humor.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:41 am
My mother has a running tally of how much I’ve cost her since I was born. I fully expect to receive a bill someday, too!
March 13th, 2008 at 10:41 am
You are inspiring me. Though remembering my college days is actually pretty painful (snipers and terrorists three miles away. good times).
March 13th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
These are lovely.
I clearly see my college days as snippets and I like it that way. There was too much sadness as a common theme to remember it as one long stream!
March 14th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Here’s my version, titled “Memories of College in Utah”:
Come home from class at 5 p.m. Say hi to the parents. Do homework.
Awesome!
March 15th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I’m glad you “let that part win”–I’ll have to remember that for similar moments that are bound to occur in my future.
(And I’m secretly in love with Mr. Keillor. One day I shall move to ‘Lake Wobegone’…)
I love this series of posts…I hope there’s a Part III to follow.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Is it even possible to cook Rice-a-Roni without burning it? That stuff would always adhere itself to the pan like I had used a spray adhesive instead of Pam.
Too funny. I love your memories!