Chipper _______: Part II

Nuts, I missed my Wednesday goal by about an hour. Oh well, here’s the conclusion to Monday’s post anyway. I’m sure this will placate the none of you who were clamoring for it. :-)

Before I continue from where I left off on Monday, I want to mention something that I found interesting: As an experiment, I changed my Facebook details Monday night to reflect the fact that my blog had been updated. I checked my counter statistics, and my blog was visited by about 15 people on Tuesday, most of whom were referred by Facebook. Thus, I’ve concluded that it’s more effective to alert people of my blog’s status via Facebook than my AIM profile, which makes a lot of sense really. So, from now on, I’ll be updating my Facebook profile every time I make a new post, because that seems to work best in getting the word out about my blog. Thanks for coming; it’s a nice ego boost to know that I have regular visitors. :-P Let me know what you think.

Ok, where was I last time? Ah yes, Saturday had just ended. Sunday was Lehigh’s Honors Convocation and consequently the day my parents arrived in Bethlehem. They were here not only for the Honors Convocation but also for my Monday night induction into Phi Beta Kappa, apparently a big deal among people who pay attention to such things. But first, the Honors Convocation: I woke around 9 am, knowing that my parents would be here around 11 am and not wanting to be late to brunch with them at Perkins. There, I had a Belgian waffle, some bacon, toast, and (of course) milk. Fantastique!

Afterwards, I hustled back to my room in order to change into my business-casual outfit: short-sleeve collared shirt, Dockers pants, belt, and dress shoes. Once finished, I went to the Packer chapel (digression – I’d like to do a post sometime in the near future where I go around campus, taking pictures and writing as I go, and then uploading the results to this blog; if I accomplish that, the chapel will be included in the pics), where the ceremony was taking place at 1 pm. While the convocation is a boring event consisting of an hour-long marathon of name reading, I saw several friends and chatted with one of them, so it wasn’t all bad.

Next, my parents and I had a decision to make. I wanted to see an on-campus A Cappella concert, featuring my roommates for next year; my parents wanted to see a movie with me. The concert was at 3 and 6 pm, so we agreed that I would go to the concert at 3 while they went exploring, and I would give them a call once the concert got out, at which point we would go to dinner and then a movie (ew, that made it sound like I’m dating my parents :-P). After a quick change back to standard Lehigh garb, I made my way to Zoellner.

I hadn’t thought ahead of time to invite anyone to go with me, and by the time the idea struck me, I would have been able to give only about 15 minutes notice before the concert. Fortunately, upon purchasing a ticket and arriving at the venue of the concert, I noticed my freshman roommate, Phil, was already there. I sat in front of him (the place was packed) and chatted with him beforehand and in between pieces, and I was glad, as it had been some time since I last saw him. The concert itself was excellent, consisting of great compositions such as The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (do yourself a favor and see it if you haven’t yet).

Immediately following the concert, my parents and I headed out to have dinner at the Jack Creek Steakhouse in Allentown. By the time we had finished eating and made it to the theater (all of a minute away from the restaurant), we still had an hour before the movie. Well, I didn’t have a problem with that, because this particular theater happens to also have an arcade, and inside that arcade is my absolute favorite single-player arcade game: the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade game. Until I went to this theater about a month ago, I didn’t know any arcades still had this game, so when I stumbled upon this gem, I knew I would have to always see movies at this theater while I’m at Lehigh. Although I did “complete” the game (on under $3, which is saying something considering it costs $.75 initially and $.50 for each continue), I did not defeat Boba Fett or Darth Vader and failed to blow up the second Death Star (I’ll get you next time!).

Oh, and the movie was good too. It was Thank You for Smoking, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in political satire. It’s short, it’s funny, and it’s well-written. It does feature a certain talentless actress that is only infamous for her husband, but otherwise, the movie’s solid.

After the movie, I remembered that tonight (Sunday night) was the changing of the Gaming Club guard, meaning it was time for the transition e-mail, where the old and new Presidents and Secretaries sit down and write the weekly e-mail, which is the old administration’s last e-mail and the new administration’s first one. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to inform the new Secretary of this tradition, and I was unable to make contact with him until the composition process had begun. Instead, my D&D DM, Tom, volunteered to take the Secretary’s place, and Hans (the outgoing President) and I agreed. Together, we wrote a ridiculous but hilarious (well, for us, at least) e-mail that I think accurately reflects the spirit of the new officers.

I’ll just briefly mention Monday’s activities because this post is getting ludicrously long. And it’s past midnight. Anyway, class was good; I completed and turned in an extra-credit homework for my algorithms class, and I found out that my quiz grade for European International Relations wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. That evening was the Phi Beta Kappa initiation, which was quite enjoyable; I saw many familiar faces and had some interesting conversations, one in particular about The Movement (I’ll save my thoughts about it for a future post; in case you’re not familiar, let me oversimplify by saying it’s trying to improve “diversity” on campus, a nebulous but desirable concept). After the ceremony and dinner, my parents went back home, and I went to the Gaming Club’s weekly meeting, my first as President (yes, I was late, but that was unavoidable without moving the day/time of the meeting).

All right, that’s it. But what was my point with this meticulous recounting of this past weekend? For the most part, I simply wanted to write about it because I enjoyed it so much. However, I also wanted to show you guys that I’m doing fine and to help reassure myself of that same fact. Recently, I’ve focused too much on the melancholy in my life, and I wanted to take a moment (translation - several hours of writing and editing) to shine the spotlight on the good stuff, which I believe is more representative of my life as a whole. Yes, I frequently lose myself and precious hours of my life to depressing and brooding ruminations, but overall, I’m a content person, even now. I deal with these thoughts as they come, normally with some quiet time to think and/or write, and then try to move on. Often, I do, but sometimes, I get stuck.

I felt I was giving the impression that I’m miserable, curled up in the fetal position in the corner of my room, which may be a truthful depiction of how I felt between one and three weeks ago but isn’t anymore. Things are still awkward between Rachel and me, but that’s natural for two people in our situation. I’m learning to let time smooth over my grief and its stages of hurt, sorrow, and anger (what little is left of these at this point) and get back to appreciating the rest of life. I’m getting there, and I think so is she, if she isn’t already there.

And to all of you who have provided support and comfort to me during this turbulent time in my life, if I don’t get the chance to express this to you in person, thanks from the sincerest portion of my soul.