Pain Is Timeless

          I meant to get up and work while everyone went sightseeing in D.C., but ended up sleeping like a rock into the afternoon. Hence, I missed out on doing much of anything. I don't like D.C. that much anyway, so it's cool. I attempted to begin a small essay for U.S. Congress that was due within an hour and a half, got about two sentences down, and gave up. Our girls lost 63-61 to Delaware -- an unexpectedly exciting game, but still a loss, meaning that we'll have been in the city for about a day in total. On the bus back to the hotel, I paged through an ancient book of poetry and vocalized my extreme dislike for Emily Dickinson, who wrote all of one poem that I found to my liking. (See below.) Katie E offered one reason to enjoy Dickinson's work: nearly all of her poems can be read to the tune of "Gilligan's Island."
          Corey and I decided to smoke before we headed to dinner. My mother then displayed uncanny spidey senses, calling me just as the gear was in my hand. The entire conversation from my end: "Yes, ma. Yes, ma. Yes, ma. Yes, ma. Yes, ma. Yes, ma." Due to this interruption and some other shenanigans, the two of us were late in getting to the lobby and found everyone waiting for us. We were forced to drop and give JL 10 pushups for our tardiness, and I did my utmost to stand as far from him as possible. Our enormous group convened at a sports bar/restaurant called RFD (Regional Food and Drink) and waited around outside for some time. Via phone updates, we learned that the men's hockey team lost the first of three games versus UNH, 1-0.
          When we finally got inside, we found that RFD was a popular place to eat. This was a positive sign, though the abundance of Ovechkin and other Capitals gear was mildly repulsive. I enjoyed an exquisite regional root beer called Dominion with a hearty buffalo burger, and our table alternated between watching basketball and playing extremely tense rounds of Drug Dealer. (It's tough playing a game based on sneaky eye contact when the players are in rows.) On the way out the door, I created an awkward moment by bellowing "CAPS SUCK", only to be recalled by the hostess since I wasn't allowed to leave the restaurant with the root beer bottle.
          Post-dinner, I ended up drinking with a strange combination of people: Kevin, Abby Rosie, John, Charlie, Adam P, Katie E, and for a brief time, Malcolm, Bruno Mars Nick, and their friend Nancy, who drives a Red Bull truck. She hooked us up with three cases of the stuff before the three of them went rambling and left us to play card games. After we'd exhausted the standards, we played a new one: Purple. This is a maddeningly simple game in which one guesses how the next card to be pulled relates to the last one, and I quickly became addicted. Highlight: John and I combining for a 31-card streak, during which I correctly called 2 blacks and a "higher" on 10, and his eventual (and catastrophic) loss. I spent the last of my drunken energy trying to catch up on blog entries.
          Quotes of the day:
"Go NU! I bleed red!" - me
"Are all of the cabs here Priuses? Priii?" - Julia E
"I think the Calgary Flames should be from Washington. 'Washington Flames.' The British would root for them." - me
"How can a buffalo be spicy?!" - Eminem
"They're the whitest school on the planet, and their entire basketball team is black." - Malcolm
"And the 'Holding Your Liquor' award goes to Andy. Good job brah." - Adam P
...
[The room phone rings.]
Me: [huskiest possible voice] "Room 717."
JL: [deadpan] "Hello, room 717."
...
Me: "Mr. [redacted], what the hell?"
Malcolm: "Hooters is on the other side of the street!"
JL: "After! After!"
...
About BC losing 7-2 to Notre Dame...
Me: "But BC is losing."
JL: "Humiliatingly so. That's a victory for the whole world."

19.

Emily Dickinson

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there was
A time when it was not.

 It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.