I had a dream this afternoon in which I was watching a news report about vicious black spiders that love to attack people. I was resting comfortably in my bed and, not too long after the broadcast, I felt a scurrying of prickly pods on the back of my left hand. My immediate response was not panic because I don't have any real phobia of spiders. I shifted around in my sheets and felt the scurrying anchor itself in. At that point I was thinking, "Spider!! Spider!! Spider!! Spider!!" and brought my right hand in. Righty always gets the job done. I seized hold of the arachnid, tugging at its firm, plump abdomen. The spider was locked in and after it first plunged in its buggy, tack-like fangs, my upper wrist became further victimized by the spider's hyper rhythmic dagger attack. Arms flailing and room spinning, I could not get the spider off. When it decided I had been defeated, the spider vanished.
I left my room and began stumbling around campus looking for help. I didn't recall the report on TV saying anything about the spider being poisonous, but my hand was beginning to swell from the wrist up. I found a group of familiar people and told them what had happened, but could not find anyone to help. I opened my cell phone and dialed 911. A 'call failed' message popped up almost immediately. I needed to use the specific Emory emergency phone number, but all the info magnets I could find only listed the last 5 digits of the number. That would have been enough had I had access to a landline phone.
Soon I'd lost my patience and screamed at my friends to help. They didn't seem to think my case was serious. I yelled, "It has been fifteen minutes and nobody has even given me the number for 911!" My hand was pinkish and numb and was at least 3 times the size of my right. Bob Sherrets grabbed me and told me to chill the f*ck out. I calmed down and asked him to at least help me get the swelling down.
I left the building and eventually, I found myself locked outside of my dorm. I was approached by a Spanish nurse with a lunch baggie full of first aid supplies. She grabbed my arm and shoved a needle into the bitten area. She asked if I had been doing drugs that night. When I said no, a second Spanish nurse walked up behind her and laughed. I told them about the spider that had bitten me.
Just then I felt a crawling up the meat of my sensitive love handles. I shrieked and yanked off my shirt. I gained a glance of the black creature by looking over my right shoulder. I turned my back to the nurses, screaming for them to knock the spider to the ground. They yelped and laughed and said, "Hurry! We can get this on the news!!" They opened to door to my dorm and ran inside. I felt a smaller second and third crawling up my back. My cell phone was showing the voicemail icon.
I woke up, grabbed my back, and felt passing dribbles of sweat, which I was covered in.
There was a period of time last year where instead of talking to anyone, I would write. I read over some of last year's thoughts today and I think I was actually writing ideas for future writing. Here is one of them. It's a conversation between two people.
-I've never really had anyone I could casually kiss. Someone who, whenever you saw them, before you say anything to each other you know you can just go up to them and give them a kiss. Kissing someone for me has always been something I really have to work for, some big event. Something to be nervous about. I suppose that is part of the thrill, but I think id really like having someone who I can kiss hello.
-Well that's cute. But let someone in the know tell you that that is not the ideal. Really it's just like you said, the feeling of sensation right before you kiss someone, that moment of resonance, the thrilling instant between when you make the decision to lean in and kiss someone and when your lips actually touch. That is what it is all about. A hello kiss doesn't have that. In fact, hello kisses can be damn gross because its not like you are thinking about sex, all you are really doing is saying hello and there’s not always something special about that. And when you do kiss them its not wet so all you experience is the scraping together of two peoples' lip crust.
-Well that sounds pretty good to me. Every day I wake up hoping to find a person willing to share lip crust.
Roommate Sitch Update:
I have done absolutely nothing about having a criminal as a roommate. He is rarely here and he has only slept here once in over two weeks. He has really cool Jason Kidd shoes. He is part of what I have decided is the Korean frat, where American gestures of brotherhood are put to shame. He parties on Monday nights and skips Tuesday classes as a matter of principle. Once he patted me on the back while he was leaving, just like a good friend would. And yesterday I popped my head up to say hi in the middle of a nap, which made him laugh.
My Christmas list mentions tweed at the top.
EPD arrested a student on charges of simple battery and underage possession of alcohol Oct. 20 at 4:14 a.m. A 20-year-old male student had a 12-pack of beer in a cooler in on-campus housing and had attacked his 20-year-old wife. He was released on $3,000 bond, with the condition of no violent contact with his wife. Campus Life officials were notified. The investigation is ongoing.
~ Emory Wheel