Greetings and salutations, web surfers,
Wow, have I been out of it. Last week was Spring Party Weekend. Needless to say, I've been gone for an entire week. It was simply great, a wonderful medley of sex, drugs and ska. That's right, Reel Big Fish was here.
This week involved the consumption of virtually every drug known to man - not by me, personally, but on campus. The entire student crowd shared a common feeling of elation, a strange sense of excitement and pride for who we are, and a fear of who we will soon become. These next few weeks mark the end of the road for many Colgaters. They will go off to perform in new schools, or find themselves menial jobs to get them by until either they're 'found', or they find themselves.
Back to the past - It all started on Thursday afternoon, with the Felix concert. That's right, I went, I supported my local punk rock band. Besides, the guitarist is my roommate. Anyway, at this concert I had countless cans of piss (Keystone Light to the rest of you), and ended up wandering off somewhere in a drunken stupor - still wearing my aviators at night, wondering why I couldn't see. I eventually found myself at a Subway, eating my first bit of food for the day (it was 9:30 pm, as I recall). After allowing the sub and Pepsi to sober me up a little, I went on my way back to the party. When I got there, I was dismayed to find the house shut down for the night. I was still far too intoxicated to walk up the hill, so I sat by a fire hydrant beside the Hamilton Fire Station, waiting for the Colgate bus to come by.
After about 15 minutes, I heard the familiar rumble of a Colgate Cruiser. I saw it coming up the road. I saw it pull up to the curb a distance away from its marked stop. I saw the doors open as I ran to catch the bus. I saw the doors close. I saw the Cruiser begin to pull away. I saw it drive by me, the kid waving his arms and shouting "WAIT, YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!" And that's when the cop pulled into the station.
At this point, I didn't know what to do. The next Cruiser surely wouldn't be around for the next 20 minutes, at least. And there was this cop, just sitting in his car in the fire station lot, with his dome light on. He was looking in my direction... Was he staring at me? Shit! Well, that limited my choices. I could head back over to the party house, and try to find refuge - that would save me from whatever that fucking pig was planning. Or maybe he wasn't planning anything. Maybe it was all in my head, in which case it would be alright for me to awkwardly take a seat and wait out the next Cruiser, at which point I'll probably have to run to catch it again. Then the cop would definitely notice my intoxication. As long as I was on the streets, I was at his will. I had to...
"Aw, fuck it." I mumbled to myself, turned, and started walking back to Hamilton. Wandering through the streets of Hamilton at 10:45 on a Thursday night, I was feeling a little low. My friends had ditched me. They told me they'd stay at the party... Didn't they? I wasn't too sure. What I did know was that I needed to either find a way to sober up enough to climb up the hill, or just ride it out, and hop on the next Cruiser to stop at the bookstore. I chose the latter, and sat on the curb, watching the cars go by. There was an enormous number of police SUVs driving by in the time I was sitting there - or was it the same one, circling the block that is Downtown Hamilton? Worried, I headed over to the Old Stone Jug. Unfortunately, the pub wasn't open. It was just as well; I hated the Jug. But I was forced to linger in the shadows while the cop pulled into the Jug's lot, and had a look around. I managed to slink back to the bookstore, just in time to catch a Cruiser back up the hill.
I don't remember too well what transpired back at the dorm. There was some partying, some story-telling, and some mescaline with acid. Supposedly, the LSD helps to make the mescal last longer, and the two work together to form a more potent trip. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I do seem to remember that what I had read did have some validity. I do remember the feeling of tentacles all around me, like I was surrounded by strange sea of blue octopods. I could feel their suckers on my skin, pulling me up to my feet. I was pulled out of the room, and into a strange white hallway. As I started down that hall, I gazed back. There was something coming out of my room. I couldn't quite see, but I knew it was there. As I looked back, I noticed the walls around me had started to bleed a strange, grey goo that collected on the floor, forming a sea of sludge. I stared at my feet, trying to avoid the oncoming sea of grey - A truly difficult feat, since the goo appeared to have the same color and texture as the carpeting. I could feel my heart beating through my chest, my sweat pouring liberally down my face, as I looked back at my door. Some reptilian nightmare, some beast whose anatomy was a lethal combination of claws and teeth, stared back at me, reaching out to me. It started into the hallway, and I saw that it was really several creatures, grouped together. But wait... No, there were millions of creatures. Each creature, I saw, was actually made up of many thousands of tiny, identical monsters. As the beasts took a step, they lost some of their mass. The little outcasts quickly scurried up the hall towards me, wanting to make me one of them. I turned, and stumbled quickly down the hall in the opposite direction. One of the little bastards was crawling on my shoulder. I could feel him. I slapped at him, trying to brush him off as I kept running. And that's where my memory ends.
When my consciousness returned to me, I was standing at the bar in the Stone Jug, gulping down small plastic cups of ice water, drinking the cubes as if they were liquid. I perceived great amounts of motion all around me, and eventually was able to focus on the people on the dance floor in front of me. As my mind came back to me, I began looking at each individual, looking for a familiar face. I checked the time, noticed my watch was gone, and then went back to the dancers. I knew none of them. It's funny how, in this situation, you begin to come up with your own stories for these people. I tried to decipher their lip movements, and eventually just filled in their speech with whatever was on my mind. Hell, the stories I gave them were probably more exciting than their real ones. I finished my water, and headed out of the pub, on my way back up the hill to regain my strength - there were still three days left in this Spring Party Weekend.
Until next time,
Goose
©2004 by Goose
