Lonely.

Tonight marks the second time in my life that I have felt lonely. The feeling that there is nobody here, and that this span of time could be better spent in the company of others, is somewhat overwhelming. As with the first time I was lonely, I am at a place in my life where there are actually people with whom I could be having fun, which is not a state to which I am accustomed.

Yesterday, Ryan, Bobby, and I (whom you may remember from a previous episode) went to Detroit lake, where we hiked about five miles and met a group of exhausted elderly-ish people at the top of a mountain, then meandered down to the lake itself, where we swam- that is to say, the boys changed into swim trunks in a nearby port-a-potty, then we all stood around, knee deep in the murky water, watching Bobby shiver. Later, we rented a paddle boat, and peddled our way hither and yon around the lake. That is to say, Ryan and I peddled while Bobby sat in the back and tried (unsuccessfully) to catch something with his newly-purchased fishing pole. We ate some pasta salad left over from my graduation party, and some leftover sandwiches from Ryan's graduation party. Two of the three of us ended up with pretty wicked sunburns. Around 4:00, we discovered that there really isn't that much to do in Detroit, and started for home. I nodded off for about 45 minutes on the way home, thanks to the sunburn, which always makes me sleepy. We all came back to my house, where we all hopped into the pool and ate some barbecued chicken and veggies. (Aside: we recently purchased a new barbecue. Now, our food choices largely revolve around what we can cook thereupon. Never before had it occured to me that pizza could be barbecued. In Ryan's words: "the same thing happens when you get a deep-fryer. Suddenly you want to deep fry everything." End aside.) Dad then invited them to play a shoot-em-up-type-man-game on the 360. I sort of spoiled the fun, however, by chainsawing them all to death with the Lancer. They exacted their revenge, however, by subjecting me to a racing-type game, where I made an utter fool of myself by running into walls and driving better in reverse than I would have otherwise. All in all, June 14 was among the most fun days I've had in a very long time.

So today I'm lonely. The moral of the story: people need people- in much the same way that smokers need their cigarettes. The first time you try it, it makes you cough and gag, but when you get used to it, you can't not have it. Or so I've been told. At the moment, I'm going through friend withdrawals, which is really all that loneliness is.

Graduation

Graduation was Saturday. Theoretically, I am now an adult. The world feels no different, it's just that every day now feels like a Saturday for now. I 'knew' that I would cry at some point, but the forecast eye-showers never materialized. I came close when I said goodbye to Patrick-sensei, Japanese teacher of six years, but I ended up just sort of welling up. The all night party was fantastic. Though I didn't walk out of there with any mini-fridges or toaster ovens, I had a fabulous time playing craps, on the verge of breaking out into "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" from Guys and Dolls the whole time. Around 3:30, they gathered us all up to pass out whatever prizes we may have won. Unfathomably enough, someone (probably The Man. It's always The Man.) decided that, rather than any reasonable order, they would call the names totally randomly. Twice. On the positive side, I left at 4:30, $50 richer than I was when I arrived.