A few notes:
-My posts will be fewer and further between because I am a very busy man. I'm taking 6 classes, working 30 hours a week, attempting to put together a portfolio of writing for grad school aps, and reading "Ulysses" which is a total bitch of a book. All this said, I am still going to attempt to write two posts a week. I'm formulating one based around the election- basically, I'm an Obama man myself, and to celebrate his victories last week, and in preview of the upcoming primary in Wisconsin, I wanted to write about the wonderful road trip possibilities of Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin. I've spent a lot of time driving through all these places (family in Wisconsin, a best friend in Baltimore, and an ex-girlfriend in Virginia will do that to you), and they all offer up some fantastic opportunities for a long weekend drive.
-I want to respond briefly to two of Andrew's posts. I, too, want to drive through Montana. I'm not sure what the appeal is, but the words "big sky country" conjure in me images of vast, windblown plains beneath a lustrous, clear afternoon sky filled with languid cumulous clouds drifting past. It's a place that, to me, embodies the spirit of a road trip: nothing but open road in both directions, no one but you and your car and some good tunes. You roll your windows down, let in the sweet smelling, mild great plains air, and just cruise until you can't cruise anymore. So as you can see, my desire to drive through Montana is more cliche than Andrew's- I'm not one who drives for the sake of accomplishment, I drive for those token moments of American transcendence that have made "road travelogues" such an emblematic part of our culture.
The second post of Andrew's I'll address is the one about The College of New Jersey, also affectionately called the NGay. Yes, Andrew and I do have some mighty fond memories of our trips to the NGay. My experience at TCNJ can be summed up by a hungover me jolting awake in horror at around 8:30 am, fully clothed and sitting upright, a dull headache pulsing in my temples, wondering where in the fuck I am and how in the fuck I got here. It's not a terribly glorious legacy, or one that I would recommend anyone try to replicate, but it's what I've got. My latest sojourn to the NGay resulted in Joe cooking a shitload of pasta, the two of us pounding an entire bottle of rum in about 30 minutes, a spirited round of darts, me falling into a bush, and some wildly inappropriate facebook messaging (I apologize, Sarah Schachner...I hardly knew ye'). Needless to say, everything that took place after the bottle of rum is hazy at best in my memory. It was dangerously irresponsible, but also way, way, way too much fun. God bless the NGay.
-On a far more sobering and responsible note:
In lieu of the tragic shootings at Northern Illinois University, and as we near the one year anniversary of the Virgina Tech massacre, I want to reiterate a point I made a few months ago after the untimely and tragic death of Sean Taylor: this country has a serious, serious violence problem. Gun violence is the most extreme form of this epidemic, but violence is every where in America- from football to video games to the disturbing rise in popularity of the barbaric MMA fighting shows and their ilk. This is not a black problem nor a white problem. It's not a male problem or a female problem. It's an American problem. Until we pragmatically address these issues- by seriously analyzing why we're so drawn to the spectacle of two men beating each other to a pulp, by enacting real gun control legislation- tragic events like the ones in DeKalb, Illinois, and Blacksburg, Virginia, will continue to be a regular part of our news cycle. I'm aware this is not road trip-centric, but I did take a trip to Northern Illinois University in the fall of my junior year. I was working for the Temple football team, and we had a game in DeKalb. I was only there for a night, but the students I met went out of their way to be hospitable and kind. The campus seemed to be a vibrant community in the midst of a vast nothingness (oh the corn fields of the midwest...). I hope those students I met are safe and with their families. Our prayers go out to those students who were injured, and especially to the families of those who lost their lives.
Showing posts with label TCNGay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TCNGay. Show all posts
1.2.08
Its a small world, even with all this cyberspace.
This morning I woke up and read Hoosier's post, and thought to myself, "Good. My post worked, gota keep going." But I agreed we should return to the subject central to all of our thoughts... not how Mets still can't threaten the Phils, but how this road trip will proceed. I then decided to look around at our competition, to see if their was prominent road trip blog out there that was stealing our interested public. Well if there is I didn't find it yet because Google's top result for "road trip blog" was far better then I could have hoped. I found DriveAndAHalf.com and started reading. It looks like they more or less abandon the site two years ago after a mere six posts, so if nothing else we're doing better then them, but I kept reading.
After a little while it became apparent that the contributors where, like yours trurly, of college age. I guess the awe of the car wares off by age 30, or your life becomes overrun with "more important" issues that leave little time to drive for pleasure. Then after reading still further, I began to sense that they were from or traveling in the Philadelphia area, on roads I grew-up on. The Blue Route. Route 1. The PA Turnpike. Then my heart skipped a beat as it grew clear they went to school in New Jersey, "These schmucks go to TCNJ" I said out loud to my empty bedroom. I hadn't read it, but deep in my soul I knew it to be the truth. Now completely unconcerned with whatever pulp I was reading, they appear to like horses, I started scrolling through text and pictures, looking for conformation of their enrollment at "the NGay." Then three quarter of the way down the page, in a post over two years old, BAM! "We left TCNJ at around 7am." After a brief period of laughter, I knew what had to be done.
First I want to make it known that when our trip does begin, New Jersey will not be on the itinerary. Second I have been to The College Of New Jersey, and a dear friend of ours will soon be graduating from the college formally known as Trenton State, and he may or may not be joining us on our big adventure. After multiple visits to the school, I think I would feel as comfortable walking 5 city blocks in Camden as I do walking through the dorms of the NGay. Luckily the students their always provide the cure for my discomfort, alcohol. Entering the campus is like leaving reality, and during the drive their you saw logic, reason, and good judgement commit a group suicide by pushing each other off the Scudder Falls Bridge. Usually with in an hour off being trapped in confines of their, "we wish were Princeton" red brick, I've started drinking, and will not stop until the nightmare goes away and I pass out cold. I think it says something when one of my most secure moments their, was sharing a bottom bunk with Hoosier, and this was done soberly mind you.
I should now take a second to say that I do have fond memories of TCNJ, like returning to my friend BD's dorm room to find him in only his breifs, with his head hidden in the trash can he was vomiting into. I also laugh to hear all the ways I agitated, questioned, and even abused the students and their lifestyle during period of drunkenness I do no recall. Although, my crowing achievement is without question pissing in BD's roommate's bed. I feel completely justified in this, although a bit sorry for the Drake, for this is what happens when you put locks on the public (multi-stall) bathrooms, the only restroom on the floor. If there is ever a place that illustrates both the evils and necessity of booze, its that little school in Ewing... Trenton State, um, I mean... The College of New Jersey.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Joe "BD" D'Urso. A true patriot and bro who's friendship was ironically claimed by America's armpit in 2004.
After a little while it became apparent that the contributors where, like yours trurly, of college age. I guess the awe of the car wares off by age 30, or your life becomes overrun with "more important" issues that leave little time to drive for pleasure. Then after reading still further, I began to sense that they were from or traveling in the Philadelphia area, on roads I grew-up on. The Blue Route. Route 1. The PA Turnpike. Then my heart skipped a beat as it grew clear they went to school in New Jersey, "These schmucks go to TCNJ" I said out loud to my empty bedroom. I hadn't read it, but deep in my soul I knew it to be the truth. Now completely unconcerned with whatever pulp I was reading, they appear to like horses, I started scrolling through text and pictures, looking for conformation of their enrollment at "the NGay." Then three quarter of the way down the page, in a post over two years old, BAM! "We left TCNJ at around 7am." After a brief period of laughter, I knew what had to be done.
First I want to make it known that when our trip does begin, New Jersey will not be on the itinerary. Second I have been to The College Of New Jersey, and a dear friend of ours will soon be graduating from the college formally known as Trenton State, and he may or may not be joining us on our big adventure. After multiple visits to the school, I think I would feel as comfortable walking 5 city blocks in Camden as I do walking through the dorms of the NGay. Luckily the students their always provide the cure for my discomfort, alcohol. Entering the campus is like leaving reality, and during the drive their you saw logic, reason, and good judgement commit a group suicide by pushing each other off the Scudder Falls Bridge. Usually with in an hour off being trapped in confines of their, "we wish were Princeton" red brick, I've started drinking, and will not stop until the nightmare goes away and I pass out cold. I think it says something when one of my most secure moments their, was sharing a bottom bunk with Hoosier, and this was done soberly mind you.
I should now take a second to say that I do have fond memories of TCNJ, like returning to my friend BD's dorm room to find him in only his breifs, with his head hidden in the trash can he was vomiting into. I also laugh to hear all the ways I agitated, questioned, and even abused the students and their lifestyle during period of drunkenness I do no recall. Although, my crowing achievement is without question pissing in BD's roommate's bed. I feel completely justified in this, although a bit sorry for the Drake, for this is what happens when you put locks on the public (multi-stall) bathrooms, the only restroom on the floor. If there is ever a place that illustrates both the evils and necessity of booze, its that little school in Ewing... Trenton State, um, I mean... The College of New Jersey.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Joe "BD" D'Urso. A true patriot and bro who's friendship was ironically claimed by America's armpit in 2004.
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