Passing Incidents

I have a few miscellaneous items to share about Wednesday night before giving a brief account of the honors retreat. After the deluge, there were, of course, puddles. And, of course, I felt compelled to wade through all of them. I told my group I was protecting them by testing the depths of the treacherous sidewalks. I don't think they appreciated my service enough, but they were amused. I guess they're not accustomed to people who don't care whether or not their feet are wet.

The comedian for the night was actually the dating doctor played by Will Smith in "Hitch." He shared with us about relationships, and one snippet of his presentation was about something called Jahira windows. I had never heard of them before that time. For the first window, we were supposed to pick a favorite animal and tell your neighbor the first three words that came to mind related to that animal. I chose a millipede. My first three words were cute, round, and black. He proceeded to tell us that these three words describe how we think people perceive us. I think my answer breaks that.

That night we stayed up later than normal. When we finally did go to bed, we must have been asleep for only a few hours when we were awoken by the loudest crash of thunder I've ever heard in my life. There was one minuscule rumble a moment or two later, and then it left as quickly as it had come.

On Thursday afternoon I departed for an honors convocation retreat at a beautiful state park southwest of Indianapolis. The best thing about the retreat was that we didn't have to play any stupid ice-breaker games, and we weren't arbitrarily divided into small groups where we were expected to instantaneously form life-long connections. We got to choose what we did, and in choosing we found people with similar interests. I chose to go hiking. The park had some of the most beautiful trails I've ever seen, even considering the fact that we couldn't see beyond the range of our flashlights given that we chose to wait until dark to go hiking. The terrain reminded me of West Virginia, and the sky reminded me of Butler Springs. It was delightful. I would have preferred to go with a smaller group, but I ended up talking with a handful of people who I continued to talk to for the duration of the trip and beyond. After hiking, I learned a new card game and played mafia with a louder group of people. A bit later, I transitioned to a smaller group that had started a jigsaw puzzle. I showed that puzzle who was boss and proceeded to start another with the only two people who had any interest in starting another. Friday morning was spent listening, discussing, and asking questions, but for the most part it was valuable information... unlike orientation.

Soon I'll be leaving to go paint pottery with my roommate. Next time I'll introduce some of the people who have or might become my friends.