Easter Weekend: The Last Hoorah: (Wednesday)

          A week rolled around and it was the Wednesday before Easter. I had already  taken the rest of the week off from work, so there was no reason for me to sit around the house. I packed my things into my backpack and in a flash I was on my bike and on the highway. The forecast had called for rain so I prayed that I wouldn't get rained on and arrive in Ann Arbor soaked. I sent Sweeny a text message and rode onto the highway. Side note: Our first winter in the States, I was moderately frost bitten during recess as I was playing in the snow. Anytime that you have been frost bitten, that part of your body is more susceptible to cold, thus my hands get cold very easily. This made those last four weeks of football in high school unbearable. Thus before I stored my bike in the winter, I knew that I would need heated grips because from our November trip to Hotel Arch, I got off my bike and my hands were frozen in a claw motion. "The Claw!" (Shoutouts to you if you know where that quote is from). So before bringing my baby out of storage for the spring, I made sure to install heated grips and they certainly paid off. After about 35 minutes of fast and furious riding (pun intended), I arrived at Hotel Arch and parked my bike. The sky was gray and hazy, as rain was in the forecast, thus campus looked dreary. It had snowed in Michigan that Monday, and I remember how this had pissed me off at home because it was technically spring. Maybe AA was echoing my sentiments that day. I walked into the house expecting the inhabitants to be raging. Fail! The house was strangely quiet and I could not figure it out. I walked through the kitchen and noted the mess that greeted me. Either Sweeney had died or was being held captive like Piggy in Lord Of The Flies, or he had just given up any hope of getting the guys to clean up after themselves. I ventured downstairs to set my bag down and from what assaulted my eyes, I should have turned around, went back outside, re-boarded my bike and rode back home. 

          We were in town that weekend to RAGE, and from the looks of things, they had been raging since 1976. There were food cartons and containers everywhere. Naturally there was uneaten food in each and every container. There was pizza, something that looked like soup, something that looked like Chinese, scrapes of BTB, etc. Beer cans and bottles were literally everywhere as if Hitler himself had blitz bombed the basement with cheap beer. The trash can looked like someone had played a game of Jenga with it, as the trash had now toppled over and was surrounding the floor. I wish I was exaggerating but "mess" is not a strong enough of a word. I couldn't even find a place to sit without feeling uneasy. Thus I immediately set myself to cleaning the basement. I had stayed there for almost a month after we left 1502, so to show appreciation I would always try to keep it neat and tidy, so cleaning up was not a big deal. Besides, I cannot bring myself to relax in a mess that I did not help to create. I grabbed a trash bag and began discarding all of the pieces of trash that were around. I changed the trashcan and inserted a new bag into it. I picked up all of the old beer bottles and cans and took them to the backyard. I grabbed a Lysol wet wipe and wiped down every table surface. I gathered all of the blankets, Febreezed all of them before neatly folding them and stacking them neatly. I dusted every couch and proceeded to spray Febreeze on all of them as well. I tidied up the TV stand by rolling up stray video game controllers, and what not. 

          I wiped down Stev and Laura's "True Love" photo and laughed while I was doing this. It was on a whim that the pictures were up there in the first place. He had left a book bag to be thrown out, when he and Chin had left Ann Arbor in the fall. I forgot who I was with but we opened the book bag to discover a bunch of goodies. There was a toy gun, an unopened DVD collection of Lost Season 3, and two pictures with Stev and Laura (I assume she's "Number 1"). Thus as a joke we said that we should display the picture as an example of true love. This had occurred back in the fall, so to have made it all the way towards the end of the school year was what "tickled my fancy."(I do not talk like this. It's just from time to time I have to try out new phrases to see if I can sneak them in) I continued with the cleaning up and I eventually was able to vacuum. After one last round of Febreeze in the air, I sat down on the couch confident that I would not contract something. One by one, the boys eventually made their way home and in talking with St. first, I realized that campus was quite because they were in the middle of finals week. This stunned me because it seemed earlier than it should have. This meant that in a week, St. and Sweeny would be graduating and I would be back in AA because my sister would be graduating as well. Everyone went off to study for their individual finals and I returned to the basement to do some work of my own. There was a City Year program that I was applying to, so I decided to compose the essays that night. The rest of the night was filled with me finishing those essays, ordering some Chinese right before they closed (I HOPE they didn't spit in my food), and watching the Detroit Red Wings win their playoff game and Chris Paul beat up on the Lakers in game 1 of that series.


          In closing, I just realized that I have ZERO pictures of my baby. Anyone that knows me, is well aware that I have a thing for older women, well my baby is about 7 years older than I. So the two pictures that follow are first of the knob to activate the heated grips and then a full profile of my baby the 1981 Yamaha 550 Maxim. Ladies if you see a handsome, black guy on this bike, feel free to ask for a ride, but try to be discreet about it as my baby tends to get jealous. Cheerio.