On the way back from that interesting but ultimately disappointing sojourn, Mike decided he wanted to hit a water fountain. Remembering there were some by the bathrooms in the Science Building from Thursday's mad rush to Calc, we stopped in and eventually settled in the first floor lounge to get the reading done. He did his American Politics reading then slept while I worked through about thirty pages of ...Sand and Fog. The novel is a depressing novel, and so I was rather downbeat when he woke up and his grogginess didn't help. But during the walk back to the dorms, his roommate called wondering whether he wanted to go to Wal*Mart with them in search of a table. He had a strong desire to either nap or work out, but I decided to go for the hell of it. The opportunity to go off campus is rare enough, and something from last night made me want to pick up the Clerks X DVD.

These are the events that led to my sitting in the back of a '86 Chevy Astro that shoots water at you when you pop the hood and makes five of the seven noises my own car makes back home. Because the three others in the car, driver included, were from New York City, the rules of driving are both faster and looser than I am accustomed to. We made it to Wal*Mart in record pace, however, and I split off early to hit the Electronics section. To my dismay, due to Wal*Mart's family friendly policy, they would not carry the Clerks X DVD. Instead I picked up the complete first season of "Everwood" in open defiance of any contempt my roommate might have for a WB teen soap. Making sure it was safely concealed in the small blue Wal*Mart bag, I tracked down the others who were at this point preoccupied with the matter of choosing better computer chairs for their respective dorms. Angel, who lives across from me and one floor down, grabbed the last undamaged leather chair. Josh, our intrepid driver, ended up taking the only other one of the same model; its box was quite busted but we placated him with what would prove to be false promises of markdowns. Then I went off with Josh looking for a plain white T-shirt while the other two did God knows what. Checking out all of the shit, not the least of which two large computer chairs, was its own adventure. Then we all piled back into the scary-ass old maroon Astro and blasted off towards our next stop: Wegman's.

We came to Wegman's, a grocery store chain I don't have back home, looking quite inexplicably for a card table that could be used for poker. Josh and I joined the Wegman's buyers club at Angel's urging, and the others bought several things of which I can only remember a case of Coke and a toothbrush.

Josh dropped Angel and I off outside Gleason at four minutes of seven, which meant my chances of hitting Gracie's were effectively shot in the ass. I helped Angel carry his other shit so he could carry the chair, dropped it off in his room, and then I headed up the stairs a floor to my room. I stopped in only to drop off the "Everwood" DVD and then took off again for Sol's, the only eatery that I understood to be open past seven.

Now I'm not a big wrap man, and to be honest Sandella's inside Sol's didn't do much to change that for me. But on the plus side, it was the first shake I'd had since I waved goodbye to my parents and it gave me a chance to touch bases with Darren when I was stuffing my mouth. Always in the rush, I had to take off much sooner than I'd like to catch the comedian at eight.

I caught up with Mike only to find out he didn't want to go, so I went solo. It was at the Ingle Auditorium, and it cost a buck. The comedian was Marc Theobald, who apparently was on Comedy Central at some point. He had a really long routine, at least an hour and a half, and so naturally there were a couple lulls and when he brought in politics I was turned off. But all in all, it was a pretty hilarious set and I had a great time.

I capped off the night by watching the pilot for "Everwood" first without and then with the commentary. Then I watched the special features on the last disc. Feeling guilty for a wasted day, I hit the Comp. Sci. I site and looked into the lab. The third activity I was able to do, but for the last one I think I need to use a UNIX workstation, so I'm going to have to hold off until tomorrow. And of course, I closed my night with this journal entry, which has proven to be far more exhaustive but far less meaningful than many. It was an action-packed, generally satisfying day.