I haven't forgotten, but I don't dwell.

The Ludi Romani continues.

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I was talking to Cellamica at dinner today, and the topic strayed over towards previous roommates, and she shared a very interesting story with me...

Imagine you're sleeping in a dorm room, and you wake up and the bunk is shaking. You look around sleepily, then, you happen to glance into the unfortunately-positioned mirror to see two sets of feet hanging out of the bunk over you, and a squirming set of bodies under a blanket.

Her roommate was having sex. In the top bunk of a bunk bed. While she was sleeping underneath.

I can't imagine what I would do in that situation. She said she just turned over and tried to not think about it, I mean, it's not like she could leave without it being awkward, and it was apparently really early in the morning...

I'm just amazed she didn't immediately request a roommate switch, I would have. But instead she stuck it out, and a while later she was working on her computer and her roommate had sex with a guy on the top bunk while she was in the room, and clearly awake. All that was covering them was a sheet.

God. That is just... man. Wow.

Best part? This girl is a girl that Ryter once mentioned to me before, in the context of "I once was attracted to her," so I got to inform him with a bit more glee than was probably fair that he was once attracted to an incredibly inconsiderate slut (to be fair, he stopped liking her when he started picking up on how obnoxious she was). Whee!

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My Ecology lab was outside today. It was raining. As in, downpour. It was depressing not only because I got soaked despite Cellamica loaning me her umbrella, but also because it was a really interesting lecture-- at least the parts I could hear while the rain drummed down on my umbrella and those of the people around me, and on the brook we were looking at. He was talking about invasive species, the species of plant that humans introduced to the area that have been damaging local environments, and he was throwing in survival tips as he went, like "This is poison ivy, note the shape of the leaves;" "Crush up the berries of this kind of sumac and you can make a kind of lemonade;" "The juice of this native kind of impatiens is an antidote to poison ivy," and "Do not eat any part of this plant or you will die immediately," which I kind of wish I could have heard the name for, in retrospect, especially after that lovely story about that gardener who mistook a root of it for a ground potato, ate it, and died.

Not that I normally go about eating random tubers I dig up. But knowing that the antidote to poison ivy grows all over College Ravine is useful. I just wish I could have listened to that lecture without mud in my shoes.

"I and my decapitated popsicle will now retire upstairs, THANK YOU VERY MUCH"

So I have discovered that it's very hard to drive home when you're crying for the last 45 minutes of the hour-long trip.

And now, I'll make you wonder, and start at the beginning.

Let's see... My Day, by Basiorana. After a quick trip to the gym and a shower, I headed over to the school to meet with my old guidance counselor, who was thrilled to see me, showed me the image of me she stitched into her quilt (the little tiny pencil in my hair was priceless), then gave me information to pass along to Shrewd and the Brother about jobs while offering nothing for me.

Figures.

Anyway, I proceeded to drive up to Dover for my therapy appointment, and after that, headed over to Ryter's. I was driving along a long, straight stretch of road at about 50, 55 mph in a 35 mph zone and I passed a cop. Thinking, Aww, damn..., I slowed and kept going, watching as he did a U-turn and followed me to the highway on-ramp, whereupon he turned on his lights and I immediately pulled over.

I got a warning. I mean, he put me into the system and nothing came up, I'm sure, so I got a verbal admonishment and was sent on my way. I've been driving kind of slow since then; I was always kind of proud of the fact that I'd never been stopped by a cop for anything and that's no longer the case, which I find mildly depressing, but I didn't get a ticket or even a written warning so that's good, at least. Ryter mentioned that he'd noticed the Durham police are able to devote much more time to catching speeders once school gets out, so I'll be especially careful this summer.

I met up with Ryter, anyway, and we went to go get stuff for his new lizard tank. He's getting a bearded dragon, got it approved by his landlady and everything. He's really excited, it's cute. He's going to name it Jesus (Hay-SOOS, not JEE-sus), for Jesus shall be his name (He said it, not me...). We got the tank and all, stashed it in the back of the car securely, and then went to get more climbing wood at another pet store, a few towns over. We had just passed the exit we would have taken to go back to his house when the skies opened up in terrible, torrential rain. Ryter decided we might as well keep going, and I didn't object.

We got to the parking lot, headed in, and a few seconds too late Ryter noticed that the lot was flooded. He realized this because his car was in a very, very deep puddle. Like, caulk the wagons and float across kind of puddle. After a few tries, the car moved and he parked. "On three, we run," he declared, and on three, I sprinted out of the car and over to the covered sidewalk, where a man was waiting to inform me that the front bumper of Ryter's car was currently floating in the waters of the Giant Puddle of Doom.

Much rain, bumper-fetching and bumper-cramming-into-the-back-seat later, the water-swept part was secured in the car, and we went to the pet store. Shoes squishing, I also stopped by Fashion Bug to grab a dry shirt for when we got back to his apartment. And, on the way back, it started to hail, too, so I was suddenly petrified I'd come back to see my car damaged or something. And, tornado watches, flashes of lightning, nonstop thunder... Yeah, not so fun.

Plus we got back to his apartment and the power went out, which displeased him greatly. But we set up both the terrarium and his bookcase, then went out and bought a chess game in a lull to occupy ourselves (he checkmated me in three moves, then in four moves-- I fail, but hey, I voted for Pretty Pretty Princess), but as soon as we got back, the power went back on.

None of this has anything to do with why I started to cry on the way back home, though. I'll go into it more when I'm not so tired, but suffice it to say that I'm very frustrated for my inability to ask for things I want. Need, yes, I'll ask for that. Want, not so much. It's driving me crazy.

Flood days are like snow days only wetter.

I woke up this morning to rain; torrential, wind-blown, miserable rain. I woke up late, thankfully, because I had plans to get breakfast with Libentra to try and make heads or tails of that ridiculous Chemistry homework, and she, unlike Loquatia, does not have a 9 AM class. So we sprinted to Philbrook and then to the lecture hall, where about 150 very damp Chemistry students were gathering.

Taking my regular seat, the girl who sits next to me (we'll call her Anime Girl, because she reads it before class starts sometimes) said, "He said that if you don't have your homework completed, don't bother turning it in-- it's going to either be a hundred or a zero, based on if it's all done." Fabulous. I at least was able to turn in my proof, as the book had gone over that part.

Anime Girl and I talked a bit about the ridiculous weather. I mentioned that College Road was a bit like crossing the path of a fire-hose stream, and she said that it took her 45 minutes to drive in from 15 minutes away because most of the roads were out. In fact, there was only one route on or off of campus. "That's ridiculous," I replied. "You'd think they'd cancel classes."

"Well, they never think of the commuters," was her answer. I frowned. "Actually, that's the only reason they call snow days. I mean, obviously I can come to class regardless, I just live across the street." I flipped out my phone. "I'm going to call the storm hotline."

"Curtailed Operations have been called as of 9:45 this morning..." I returned to the class and alerted my professor, but also mentioned that I understood if he held class anyway, I mean, it was 10:07 and pretty much everyone was there already. When he announced curtailed operations, there was a little cheer-- and then he burst our bubble by clarifying, "But since you guys talk so much, we're a day behind my other class. So I'm teaching anyway. "

Luckily, class was cut short when one of his TAs came in and informed him that the last bus off campus was leaving at 11, so he had to release us in time for people to take public transportation.

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As soon as I got back I noticed that Ryter was not online. This is basically the surest indicator in the world that his power is out (or that an alien menace has usurped his computer and/or his body and said alien menace has an objection to AIM), so I was expecting his call. He walked over after picking up some emergency candles for his apartment. Yes, walked. In only a sweatshirt. Since I figured you'd have to be insane to walk that distance in the deluge, I was waiting outside for about fifteen minutes...

But when the roads are this bad, it's easier to walk anyway, I guess.

I did homework, he did some writing, then we started talking about plans for the rest of the day-- if the roads weren't too bad, he wanted to go to his dad's house so there was actually power and running water, and food. But they've evacuated one of the towns on his route and there was concern about flooded-out roads and possible dam breakage. We finally elected to walk to the nearby Ace Hardware, grab some supplies, and check his apartment. As we walked, we noticed that the rain had stopped, so he decided to make a break for it and try to get down to his dad's condo before the rain starts up again. That should be happening anytime between 5 and 6. I agreed to watch Constantine, his hard-to-transport Betta fish, and he set out.

The tenuous cease-fire with the weather continues, but this is just a lull. In the next hour the rain will start again and last for the next couple days. Meanwhile much of campus is at least partially flooded. But don't worry about me. I've put in my order for a few hundred cubits of gopher wood (which I'm pretty sure is composed of compressed gophers), and I think if I build it on the roof of Hubbard Hall I'll be fine.