Highlights II

How Aboot a Party? Canada Themed Birthday Celebration for Christena:
Molly, Amelia, Ryan, and I know pure joy. Holla! Happy to Be Alive Hour Party:
The finest Loose Second has ever seen hosted by Ryan and me. Waltz:
Ryan, Nilesh, and I. Typical shot of me- Nilesh is likely very uncomfortable. Nilesh prefers the sparkling grape to actual Champagne. Meredith, Ryan, XTena, and I before the Pre-Waltz festivities.

Highlights I

Halloween:
The dead male hooker to my truck driver. Forever and always. Scooby Doo was also born on Loose Second. Claire (as Fred) told us the gang had been planning this for months. The Scooby costume is rented. Winnie, Molly, Britt, Katy, Christena, Anna, Meredith, Erin, and Amelia are from my floor. They were "The Wizard of OZ." There was wine in Dorothy's basket and Meredith's tail looked like a dildo. Christena as Glenda. Isn't this picture sweet?New Orleans:
Anna, Neo, Erin, and I waiting for our delicious beignets at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. This is the Adult Superstore, the closest adult themed retail venue to Grinnell College. We go here at every opportunity. October 7, 2006: 10/10 on 10/7
I call this the night we almost died.

A letter to myself

Dear Margie,

Remember when you were a first semester first year (just like how they say it in Canada and in Harry Potter) at Grinnell and you lived on Loose Second with Kathleen in the corner room next to the fire escape? Well, that's where you lived. And that’s who you lived with. You liked living there a lot because most everyone was older and you didn’t have to deal with first year bullshit. Loose also hosted good parties and everyone on the floor thought you and Ryan should get married because you spent so much time together even though it could never happen in real life. Other people who lived on your floor who were cool are Christena, Nilesh, Adam, Britt, Meredith, Claire, Anna, Katy, Les, and Molly.

At this point, you have been in Iowa for four months. The semester is over and you’re on the plane on the flight home for Winter Break. Your favorite foods in the JRo (Joe Rosenfield '25 Student Center) are tater bucks with ranch dressing, fruit of the forest pie, pita pockets with hummus and cucumber and red onion from the vegan station, and, on occasion, the Fettuccini Alfredo from the pasta bar.

You are the Assistant Design Editor as well as a Sports Writer on staff at the Scarlet & Black and you occupy your time by decorating your dorm room, monitoring the Stonewall Resource Center’s Library, throwing wonderful bashes, bowling on an all men’s league of townies, and illin’ it with Ryan, Christena, Meredith, Kathleen, Claire, Nilesh, Adriane, Adam, Katy, and Anna. You also do homework. The classes you took were Intermediate Spanish, which you hated with a burning passion. As soon as you completed the oral final you vowed never to speak the language again unless of course you found yourself in a hostage situation and you were the only one able to communicate with the criminals. You’re Gender and Women’s Studies class was profess-ed by Rita Alfonso, a militant feminist with steel-toed boots and chin hair. She seemed to like your papers (except probably your final one which was a feminist critique of tampons.) First year tutorial with Sarah P. was fine. Kelsey, Ryan, Greg, Thomas, Jacob, Mary, Leah, Caitlin, and Liza were in your tutorial. You particularly liked sociology because it gave you a chance to make other people uncomfortable i.e. encouraging the reclaiming of the word "cunt." Plus, you got to sit next to Ryan and complain about all the privileged kids from the suburbs of Chicago who were very out of touch with reality.

Several highlights include but are not limited to: talking on the cell phone to friends and family in the nast co-ed bathtubs, the ReNew Orleans house gutting trip you took over fall break with Evan, Rachel, Adam, Anna, Fai, Jessica, Erin, Neo, and Ryan, Halloween (you were a truck driver and Ryan was your dead male hooker- you also went to Daniel Carroll’s Pumpkin Farm even though he hates gay people,) the word “Holla” and the “Holla, Happy to Be Alive Hour Party” which you hosted on Loose Deuce with Ryan, Sleepovers in the pit with Ryan, the Pub, Thanksgiving weekend, and being done with finals. You really like Grinnell and even though you were kind of sad about being in Iowa at the beginning, you really think it’s going to work out fine, as long as Ryan doesn’t transfer.

In the Des Moines airport today you found Fai wandering around the gift shop looking really dazed and confused and you sat next to Amanda Gay who was illin' it at the Delta Connection gate on her way to Russia. She shared the cookies with you that her housemate, Chris made for her. Ryan texted you several times throughout the morning because he took the train home to Colorado from Ottumwa; you saw him off after you shared nachos and “strawritas” from “Fiesta Cantina.” You noticed that no one working at “Fiesta Cantina” was Latino/a. This bothered you a little.

When you get off the plane in Bellingham, your mom will probably be crying because she’s so happy you’re home and you’ll give both of your parents a big hug because you haven’t seen them for four months. Then, you’ll all go out to lunch and then cut down a Christmas tree and then eat Chinese in celebration of shortauntiej's graduation from WWU . YAY. You’re going home. Holla!

Thanksgiving. Holla.

This is my beautiful Grinnell Family. Not to be confused with my real family that called three times on Thanksgiving Day and passed the phone around the table. The turkey was 21.6 lbs and delicious. I could tell Kathleen was a bit nervous (she was responsible for cooking the turkey) because she set her alarm for 8 AM to ensure the seasoning was just right. The oven was impossibly small but the turkey was covered in rosemary and tin foil by 10:05. I literally shoved it in for her. She basted every half hour during the second half of cooking and she must have run up and down the first and second floor stairs 30 times over the course of the morning looking for assorted ingredients. Rumor has it, she jacked a pot from Read or Haines Hall for the gravy.

I think the tablescape speaks for itself. Auntie Joanie's turkey was a really fun, really festive touch.

I had originally planned to cover the entire table with a single beige plastic banquet-size table cloth that I found atthe Hobby Lobby (not Shack like I suggested in a previous post) while I was lost in Des Moines. It was not until I realized the table was twice as long as the cloth (the guest list was up to 17 at this point) that I freaked and started cutting things in half. Les took me to Wal-Mart at 2:30 for a second tablecloth and a meat thermometer. There were three patterns of plastic cloth left in the entire town of Grinnell. I chose red thinking the "Happy Birthday" motif may detract from the orange and red leaves I picked up in the city. Before dinner, Spring, Christena, and I found a massive bag of balloons left over from a hall study break. We blew them all up, even the green and purple ones that detered from. This is Britt, Christena, Suzanne, Spring, Les, Brian, and I blowing up balloons in the first floor lounge. We ate at 3:30. To Britt's HORROR, six extra, unaccounted for people from North Campus showed up with a massive bowl of chow mein and a pineapple and honey glazed ham. Britt got especially pissed when they sat at the decorated table instead of the supplementary one we threw together just after they arrived. As the hostess, Britt encouraged everyone to introduce themselves and tell the group for what part of the meal we were responsible. I sat near Les, Kathleen, Christena, Adam, Amanda, Will, and Nilesh. A good time was had by all.

After dinner, we sat around in our PJs, ate leftovers, watched Little People Big World, and Pieces of April, a Thanksgiving classic about a young woman charged with cooking dinner for her estranged family.

Friday, instead of “buying nothing” as suggested by our favorite chapter of Free the Planet (FTP’s president and vice president both live on the third floor of Loose,) Nilesh, Spring, Christena, Britt, and I drove to Jordan Creek Mall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to find formal wear for Winter Waltz. We were almost stranded in Grinnell when Britt’s car broke down on 6^th Ave. right in front of Spring’s house. We called Campus Security for a jump, but fortunately the car started (although we were fully prepared to get out and push her Volvo the 55 miles to J Creek.) We hit Cheesecake Factory for lunch then split up for the afternoon. Actually, it was just Nilesh that peaced. The rest of us went to Torrid and took advantage of a really incredible sale. The mall wasn’t as crazy as I expected- the M.I.L.F.s and the sexy preppies and their beautiful Arian children were out in responable numbers but they weren't overwhelming. On our way home, we stopped at Hyvee and picked up some ingredients for Thanksgiving II. Christena was kind of disappointed with the non-traditional green bean casserole served the day before so she bought infinity cans of beans and made a second pan. We ate half of the pan together and then Christena ate the rest that night after Irish Car Bombs. I made spaghetti because it sounded good, Britt made delicious corn cheese mush casserole, and we reheated all the leftovers we could find. Three weeks later, the massive bowl of gravy is still in the top of the fridge. I may dare someone to eat it tonight. You know, just to break up the monotony of hell week. Sunday evening, we TPed Noah's room. This is what the room looks like if you are lying on the floor on your side outside of his room. This is the first picture of Ryan back on Loose Second after break. He missed many wonderful Loose antics while he was gone. Sucka.