Writing on a Friday

So here it is, 4:46 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. I'm a college student. Every time I leave my room, I hear people talking about the parties they're planning on going to. I even looked over the shoulder of the girl standing ahead of me in line at the coffeeshop, hoping to learn something interesting. I found out that Travis told her about a four-kegger somewhere tonight. Considering it's raining, 55 degrees and yucky out, I hope Travis and his four kegs are inside somewhere.

I'm currently writing my eighth article of the day, with no plans to stop or even leave my building again for perhaps as much as 24 hours (although I'll definitely need to get milk and coffee asap).

I don't understand the culture of drinking that pervades college life. I have a friend who parties pretty regularly upwards of 4 days a week -parties, in this case, means getting absolutely trashed. He's not 21. He and his roommate (who is also not 21) built a bar in their room (I am not kidding). He's reached a point where he can drink about 10 beers and not feel them. He's started drinking as early as 10 in the morning.

That looks, to me, a LOT like alcoholism. His excuse? "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a college student."
And I wonder how that makes it okay.

Drinking to excess isn't something that I imagine being fun, or cool, or exciting. It's certainly not healthy or safe. Wandering around a college campus at night while intoxicated, especially alone, and especially for women, is sometimes very dangerous, as the recent spate of sexual assault reports on campus have proven. I've dealt with enough drinking/drunk/hungover people my age to realize that it's not as cool or as fun as the media or other people make it out to be.

I've been made fun of more than once for staying in on weekends (this is not me boo-hooing, by the way. I can't remember the last time I actually was upset by someone who made fun of me). Mostly, I think it stems from people not understanding what I do all alone up here in my room (and wouldn't they like to know! That sounds so much dirtier when you don't know I'm about to tell you exactly what I do).

I write. I'm making money. I'm making good money, as it happens. Not enough to buy me a Porsche anytime soon, but enough to keep me fed, caffeinated and in school. I'm working. This, people, is my job. And I enjoy it. I would rather stay in my room all weekend getting eyestrain from staring at a computer screen and writing so much that I can't identify a red pepper (I kept calling it a banana). That, to me, sounds like SO much more fun than getting shitfaced, making a fool of myself and not remembering any of it the next day.

Writing is my passion, though. It's my excuse for being anti-social, and more often than not, also my excuse for being social. I don't know how people who don't write occupy their time in many cases, but that's just because it's such a huge part of my life. I guess I should modify that -I don't know what people who don't have a passion do with their days. Maybe that's why kids go out and drink on weekends, because they don't know what else to do with themselves or where to look.

Personally, I think that's sad.
Right now, I am surrounded by people who are preparing to go kill off brain cells, injure themselves and spend the next 2-3 days feeling like they're going to die. In some cases, this is because they just don't know what else to do. How depressing is that?

Granted, I go to the #4 (or are we #5?) party school in the nation, so the whole culture of drinking is much bigger here.

That doesn't mean it's excusable or should be encouraged.

I've had people try to convince me to drink by saying, "All writers are drunks or druggies. You have to give in sometime." My only response to that is to shake my head and sigh, and think of Stephen King (one of my favorite quotes of his deals with treating alcohol like a road to creativity -to him, that's just an excuse to be a drunk. I agree). I've got better things to do with my time.

I wish other people did, too.

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Some books on this and similar subjects:
Dying to Drink
College Drinking
Pledged

I know I presented a brief (well, actually it's pretty long. Mostly it's rambling) and unspecific look at college drinking, but it's my blog. I'll do whatever I want. Seriously, though; this is just a glimpse at some of the things I've seen and experienced as someone who is within the college culture and yet looking at it from a pair of eyes that isn't seeing things quite the same way a lot of other 20somethings are.
What do you think of all of this? Am I too hard on other people?

Somebody is about to feel the fury of my fists

Not that my fists are all that furious. I guess that's not a really good metaphor. I'm furious, so maybe that translates into having fists of fury. Let's hope so, anyway, because my cell phone broke and the guy at Verizon seems to want to frustrate me in every way imaginable.

1. The phone is static. I mean...the thing has turned into a giant ball of static. It works occasionally and for maybe 2 minutes, after which talking is no longer an option. I don't yell. Clearly this is not a viable situation.
2. The guy, fully aware that I own a Mac (since I told him) nevertheless sent me back to my dorm to try to download the new software. Which can only be downloaded onto Windows. From Windows Internet Explorer. Neither of which I have, because I have a MAC.
   
3. So I trudge back to my dorm (this guy is lucky it's not really a long walk) and discover that -surprise! -I can't get the software. Here I am in Verizon waiting for my phone to get fixed when I wanted to be at the Athens Book Center trying to get a job.
   
4. Bastards.

On the plus side, classes are awesome. I'm excited about them. However, I'm also starving to death, so more on that later.




Quick edit: A discussion I had with my mom today has got me all fired up, and I've been writing (unrelated) things for almost 2 straight hours, so I'm a little fried and a lot irritable. Politics right now can only be described as a shitstorm. I can't stand to read a newspaper, half the Tweets I get on Twitter are related to this stuff and it's in the headlines everywhere -I get that there are controversial issues. I respect that. In fact, I think that's awesome.

What I don't think is awesome is the way it's being discussed -by either side as a whole, or even by most individuals.

I am so sick of anyone who disagrees with anything Obama says being labeled a racist/fundamentalist Christian/idiot. If their argument is not based on race, religion or a lack of intelligence and information, those kinds of comments are not only irrelevant, they're insulting to both the person being criticized, and the one making them. People who call the opposition racist, fundamentalist morons when that is not the issue at hand only serve to make themselves look like bigger, more ignorant jackasses.

If you don't agree with the point someone is making on an issue, argue with them about the issue. Don't attack them personally. What does that accomplish, aside from hostility? If someone attacked a point I made during a religious debate using the fact that I'm a creative writing major, I would laugh in their face. That's the same situation. If it's not relevant to the discussion, then leave it the hell out. There's no point stirring up more (unnecessary) controversy over an issue that's already divisive.

As for the other side, comparing Obama to Hitler is never going to get anyone anywhere except pissed off and frustrated. Make your point without getting over dramatic. Stop predicting the damn apocalypse every 30 seconds and actually research the issues once in a while (this is meant to be taken with a grain of salt -I know plenty of people who do their research on the issues at stake and can argue them well while leaving religion out of it. I'm not talking to these people). If your religious views are playing a role in what you think of the issue, and if the only point you can make involves Obama = Hitler/the country is being run into the ground/morals are dead/Obama = commie, but you can't say why, then shut up.

If you can't argue on the issues themselves, then don't argue about the issues by bringing in irrelevant points about the apocalypse and Hitler. It doesn't accomplish anything positive.

For real, productive discussions, people need to do their research, understand the issues at hand and learn to discuss things respectfully with one another. We are not small children on a playground fighting over who gets to pitch first at dodge ball based on which team has the better insults, we're talking about real, serious issues that will have a place in the lives of real people. So get over yourself, grow up and stop acting like babies -ALL of you.



I realize nothing in this post has anything to do with books whatsoever, so here are some links to reviews I've been writing.
South of Broad
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Richard Wright (he had a birthday)
Alex Cross's Trial

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." Einstein knew what he was talking about. Some people never learn, and it's just something that happens. You deal.

I leave for college on Saturday. :) I'm excited and bummed and have totally not started packing (mostly). I've got stuff pulled out of my closet and from a couple of drawers and stuffed into bins, boxes and bags. I also bought a big black bumbershoot today -it looks like it should be a sword cane. Sadly it's not. I have also officially used up my alliteration license for the day. I only need to get food now and I'm pretty much good to go, aside from laundry.

As should be expected, I'm taking far more books than anything else. They're languishing in bins in my room right now, and the guilt is just absolutely crushing me. Books belong on shelves, on display, where they can breathe and are easily accessible. Crushing Jane Austen underneath my copy of "Not Quite What I Was Planning" is just not cool. I don't like it. I want to get to my room and set up my pretty silver shelves (although it'll take me a lot longer than it should, since yours truly is not mechanically inclined -maybe I can talk Jonah into helping me with this) and lovingly place my books out in the open air again.

If I could have floor to ceiling shelves in my dorm, I so totally would. How do you display your books?

In other news, I love Spongebob. And I reviewed another book.