Jump to: Intro :: Living Spaces :: Tremories :: Conclusion

Semantics and Generalities
As I was driving home this afternoon for my last at-home vacation for a while, I realized that being that I only have a single exam remaining before my senior year is officially at a close and, continuing with a tradition a whole two years in the running, it's time for that end-of-the-year post where I can get all appropriately nostalgic about things that have occurred over the past nine months. Being that it was my senior year of school, I think that this year is, by definition, as good as it gets in the academic scope of things. Even though this is not technically my last year of school (I have, at a minimum, a single class remaining before I can graduate), there's just something about that "senior year" that has a sort of finality that cannot be tampered with by mere facts.

These posts have, in the past, been relatively short entries (keyword: relatively), but since I have a single article posted in 2007 thus far, I figure I should try and, at the very least, make up for it with a decently-comprehensive personal article -- something I so very rarely do anymore. I have a few days of vacation before I head back down to Ann Arbor to take my final exam and then, a few days later, starting my internship over at Stardock... So, I'm planning on at least getting this article on top of two game-related articles done over the course of the next week. If I had to guess, I'd say that one of these articles would definitely contain some mention of Command and Conquer 3.

Living Spaces
I lived in the same house this year as I did last year, and I'm living in the same house for the next year and a half (it's an August to August lease) as well. Last year was a... Well, the cohesiveness of the house throughout the year was less than ideal. This wasn't a house that was just a group of randomly-selected people -- most of the eleven people who lived in the house all knew each other; I, personally, knew all but two of the people. But, from day one, there was a very distinct divide between the basement, first floor, and second floor from the very distant, quiet, and, dare I say, eerie third floor. "We" (being the basement, first, and second floor Alliance of Good People) did have a man on the inside who served as a sort of representative of the AGP to the Others, but it was, to be kind, a Truce of Necessity that was to last the entirety of the 2005-2006 lease. We lost one of our own at some point in the year -- a person on the first floor (my floormate) -- to the various evils that the college world has in abundance that can suck a person's very soul away from them. That was unfortunate.

Anyway, I signed up for the 2006-2007 lease within the first two months of living in the house that year, so most of the subtle political warfare that occurred throughout the course of that year had yet to take place but, by the end of it, we were plus a kitten (and the later-released progress report), but down four housemates. We decided to make one of the previously two-person rooms into one large bedroom for a person and we picked up a friend of a great deal of the housemates to make the current count for the 2006-2007 lease eight people (and we needed ten). So, over the course of the summer, I was tasked with the job of filling the remaining two rooms. All of the friends that I thought would fit well into our fairly complex house dynamic had already secured living quarters many months before I asked them, so that was out of the question, so with that I turned to Craig's List on the advice of a friend. This led to a fairly heavy influx of interested people for me to deal with, and I'm certain I lost a handful of souls in the confusion, but in the end, a twenty-seven year old senior and a twenty-two year old grad student were the two guys that ended up filling the rooms. The latter of which moved in towards the end of summer when I was the only person left in the house and our day-one task for him and I was to clean up the mess left behind by the former occupant of what was to eventually be the GradBoy's (who, from this point on, can be referred to as Bro) room. This was a two-hour combined effort with the spiffication efforts on his part lasting another couple hours past that. A few days later, when the other new random guy (who, for sake of brevity, will be called Joe) showed up to get a house key (since I was going to spend a couple weeks at home between the end of my summer term and the start of fall semester) he and Bro got into a discussion about the city of Chicago which, I swear to God, lasted three hours. In my room. The night before a final.

And, somehow, here I am nine months later wondering how in the taff I became such good friends with two guys I got to fill two rooms in this house off of Craig's List in a last-ditch desperate real estate catastrophe. The Circle that was eventually formed between Bro, Joe, myself, and the on-and-off inclusion (depending on the hijinks) of a girl known only as B. McGee is something that defies logic. Over the course of the year, the situation got to the point where, upon realizing that I was a close connection of Bro and Joe's I would get sly looks and awkward glances from people I have never wronged, much less met, at any point in life.

The ability for just a few people to completely change the dynamic of a house filled with people who have known each other for a large majority of their time at the university is something that isn't that remarkable in the day-to-day happenings of the house, but when I'm forced to get nostalgic in an entry like this, it's something that boggles my tiny brain. Looking at the people who have remained in my house from last year and the way that everyone interacts in a vastly more positive way is one of the coolest things I can say I've been witness to over the course of these past four years.

Tremories (Trent + Memories)
At one point in the last nine months I had a drunk girl tell me that my life could be a reality show. I felt dumber for hearing that. What is true is that the things that I do or say could constitute an entire character in a sitcom -- that character that always says either the wrong thing at the wrong time, the dumb thing at any time, the sarcastic thing (this is a generality), or the one that does something so mind-numbingly dumb that it's the cause of stories that will haunt me into eternity. I'm sure there are a great number of these tales that I could echo here, but I'll focus on the things of personal significance to me.

One of the best experiences of the year for me is, actually, one of the simplest: during our "fall break" earlier this year -- a break we get which is intended to allow students to study for upcoming midterms of get started on whatever papers or projects may be due in the middle of semester but usually functions as more of a mental cool down (for me, most of my exams occurred prior to the break) -- half of the house went home somewhere while a few of us stayed behind to guard the place against hypothetical robot zombie ninjas. This weekend constituted some of the most relaxing fun I think I can remember; we just had a group of about five-six people sitting around in our living room playing board games (Balderdash, namely), watching movies, and having a big barbeque the evening of the Michigan vs. Penn State football game. The interesting thing about this whole weekend was that not a single alcoholic drink could be found over the course of the break (a rarity for a college gathering); the first drink that was had during this fall break was the last night of it in which a bunch of us went to a local sports bar just to eat and hang out as a swan song to a relaxing weekend. It doesn't sound like much, but it's something that, when I was thinking of events to record here, stood out.

One of the more recent things that I think'll stick with me for a while is the first couple of weeks of March. It was such a mixed bag of events that I'm not entirely sure how to describe them -- they were not, on the whole, bad things so much as they were just discouraging. It's a sort of discouragement that I think I've actually been holding on to for a while and I think it unintentionally showed itself every now and again. Either way, the most concise summary I can manage (concise and Trent go together so very often) will follow. I think the important series of events is that I decided that spring is as good a time as any to buy that car I've been holding out for four years to get (I sold my first car shortly after I came to school since I realized I, for the most part, had no need for it given the layout of the U of M campus). This led to me getting a black Saturn Ion that I like to pet like a cat when no one is looking. This car purchase also, as it happens, was where I found out that my Grandfather died a week earlier (I found this information out from the salesman) which was... Well, not exactly the ideal way to find things like that out. For whatever reason, during this break, I came to the realization that I wanted to get out of my current house and move into a more secluded apartment -- a decision that greatly annoyed a few of my friends, but a decision which was quickly overturned with a quick one-two combo from a pair of my close friends (although I got strange looks from my housemates for a while). This sort of funky mood lasted for a couple weeks and, I think it's safe to say, reached its conclusion fairly recently once I "recovered" from the effects of my very first concussion (acquired during a game of basketball the night I returned from a quick trip home) -- specifically, after I ran a nice four-ish miles a few days ago without being in any excessive pain. I'm not usually a fan of whining about personal stuff on my site, but this is the end of the year post. It's allowed.

The other particularly awesome time of this year was the weekend before the school's Thanksgiving break. That Saturday before Thanksgiving our house decided that not only was Thanksgiving itself just around the corner, but also that the Michigan vs. Ohio State football game was taking place -- so, we decided to celebrate this momentous event with a feast capable of satiating the gods. "We" woke up early (and I use we very loosely, as I woke up in time to make comments about the cooking process that solely served to entertain myself), a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, corn, curry, more 'taters, cookies, and other stuff that I'm sure I ate at some point despite not having a memory of it. The game went poorly for U of M fans, but after the game, all of the people that remained at the house took what is best described as a "catnap" and then we resumed group activities with our second house-wide game of Balderdash and then those who were still awake watched what was left of Apocalypse Now! on some random movie channel. The next day we woke up and played a house-wide (and more, once other people caught wind of the idea) game of tackle football in what had to be the most bizarre combination of mud, rain, snow, wind, and cold that I've seen in Michigan this year. This night ended with a large Chinese dinner, a post-dinner two mile run for me, and then I finally got around to watching Total Recall that night.

I realize that these may not seem like the most interesting of events that I could share to the world, but to me they're fantastic, and this is my site. I'm claiming executive privilege for once. And it feels good.

A Conclusiveish Finale

This isn't really my last year of school, nor is it the last time I'll be seeing a majority of my friends. I'm losing some really close people to other parts of the country in a week or two after a graduation speech by former President Clinton himself, and that isn't the most ideal thing I suppose, but it happens. I was never one to really dwell on the idea that I may not see some people again because, as uncharacteristic as it may be of me to say this, I figure I'll run into my long-gone college friends again at some point in my life. The little ride as Disney told me that "It's a Small World" in satanic verse, so that means it's obviously true. And now, the traditional end-of-year summary factoid thingies (I'm all about splitting the titles this year):

Best Meme: Cats.
Best Bands: Bowling for Soup, Sister Hazel, and Jump (Little Children).
Best Songs: Sister Hazel - Tear By Tear and Jump, Little Children - Cathedrals.
Best Movies: Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed.
Best TV Shows: The Office and Heroes.
Best Games: Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, Supreme Commander, and Company of Heroes.