Sunday, March 18, 2007

Notes from earlier today




An overwritten little vignette of this morning:

At 11:08 in the morning at SUNY Purchase, or rather their yellow on-campus apartment buildings. Everything that surrounds them are stuck in time. The area is covered with snow, dead trees line the pathways, and everyone seems to be asleep.

Everyone sleeps in this room, at least. To my left, a young guy with plugs and short, brown-black hair lies on an old maroon sofa, covered with a blanket. My cohort Gabe is lanky, has a bushy, short hairdo, and he rests face-first on his narrow twin. He twisted his arm back, awkwardly, to conceal his head.

The last time I visited Purchase, most students didn’t arise and make a showing until 2 pm. It felt like 8 in the morning when I woke up, popped in “Arrested Development,” and waited as the college’s early-morning, ghostly haze wore off and things got moving again. It was around 11 in the morning. I couldn’t tell the difference, the blinds sheilding the windows from light and hearing the emptiness of the atmosphere. No walking, talking, yelling humans.

I’m guessing many here are content to go about this lolling. I am hyperactive. That or I am content to witness all this serenity, having cast off my own responsibility and accountability for the moment, it being spring break and all.

Today we plan to nourish ourselves at a diner in White Plains, explore Purchase’s forests and sail down packed hills of icy snow. Everyone just has to get up, first.