I wasn’t expecting to win.
I really wasn’t; I thought Sam’s magic routine was cooler, honestly. The mic check/rehearsal was a disaster: I flubbed almost every lyric of Total Eclipse, a song I thought I knew by heart; between the audio test and the start of the show, I had stage fright for the first time in my life.
By the time I got up on stage, all I could think of was Dr. Zerkle tut-tutting everything I was doing wrong (from a technical standpoint). I was able to paper over the cracks with stage presence, though, spinning the mic stand around and other such theatrics. I mean, I won both Best Overall Performance and the Judges’ Award, so I did something right if my peers thought it was worth voting for. Or maybe they voted for me ironically.
Upon popular request, I sang an encore as I walked out of the auditorium, took some photos with my classmates, and was invited to Lucy’s; having nothing better to do, I accepted. A group of us walked back to Anova since Rachel and I live there, and we needed to change (especially since I was in a three-piece suit), but the group went with Rachel when we split up. Fine by me, my apartment is currently unpresentable (after lunch, I intend to rectify that). Granted, that’s a common failing among Young People™, but it’s not one I’m proud of when it happens. I readjusted the curls in my hair, threw on my bright blue sweater (slightly baggy now), spritzed on a dash of cherry cologne, and proceeded back to the lobby to await the rest of the group.
Joe got us an Uber XL, and I rode shotgun across the river to Lucy’s. Apparently, it was amateur hour, since some of the drivers sharing the road with us made me look like Vin Diesel. Lucy’s itself seemed like a nice spot, Joe got me a Cherry Coke, and Josh got me a Rum and Coke. I wasn’t supposed to pay for anything since I was the man of the hour or something like that, but I still slipped the bartender a few bucks for his trouble.
It was fun to dance and to socialize, but I had Property at 9:30 this morning, and since I like to walk back after nights on the town whenever possible, I left around 10 with hardly a word. I was tipsy, and I think that contributed to the walk back to UCity feeling incredibly quick.
Friday was much less eventful than Thursday; in fact, it was shockingly mundane. The sky during the day was the color and texture of cracked pavement. We managed to catch up in Property, for once. Afterwards, I decided to treat myself for my victory and went to Tataki, where I had spicy shrimp tempura udon. However, I was early, so I idled in Old Nelson, snacking on some Babybel as I typed out the first half of this blog post. I would have updated this website sooner, but after Tataki, instead of being productive, I kinda sorta crashed. I spent yesterday afternoon and most of yesterday evening in a great dreamlike nothing. Actually, my dreams are vivid; it was just a great nothing.
I decided on a whim to go to the cinema. I used to love going to the cinema, but I’ve been so busy with classes and managing the sludge inside that I haven’t made time for it. I saw Project Hail Mary (dirs. Lord and Miller, 2026). I was a huge fan of Weir’s earlier work, The Martian (2011), and its film adaptation (dir. Ridley Scott, 2015) when I was a young teenager, but I didn’t read Artemis or the book this movie is based on. In fact, I went in more or less blind, beyond vague inklings of the premise and hearing that it was really good. I’m inclined to agree, and yet again, Ryan Gosling is literally me. He was me in Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2023), he was me in 2049 (dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2017), he was me in La La Land (even though I didn’t see it at the time)(dir. Damien Chazelle, 2016), and now he’s me in this.
The sky last night was much prettier than in daylight, like endless mauve ripples of a wine-dark sea, and the air was cold and still; the symphony of the city’s sounds enveloped me like a cocoon as I walked to and from the theater, alone.
Sierpinski Tetrahedron 