The night of nights

I'm sitting here at 10:30 pacific time, looking out through the thinning leaves of the tree situated outside of my window and I see the thick fog covering the air with bright lights adding a whimsical touch to the evening. But these lights are not just from the Student Rec Center's field, they also come from the blaring red and blue blinkers of the Lane County Ambulance parked outside of my dorm room. They're here because a girl from my hall, Kiki something has poisoned herself with alcohol. A few minutes ago I watched as it took three EMT's to hoist her limp torso onto the stretcher, and then next her legs, which at first would not sit right. They then wrapped her in the wool emergency blankets and walked her to the Ambulance.

Not more than twenty minutes before this escapade came a shattering noise from the hallway, just outside my door. I went outside to investigate and saw glass laying at the foot of my doorway and looked up to see a gaping hole where there once stood a window. Apparently a hack-e-sack had sailed through the air, accidentally of course, in fact as far as our RA is concerned from a clumsy pass from one player to another. In all actually Ben chucked it across the hallway trying to hit someone, except they moved. So perhaps $150 later we will have a brand new pane of glass to gaze through.

But this isn't the end of the evening. Because of all of this commotion, DPS, the Department of Public Safety, has come to investigate and is now on the first floor searching rooms. Of course first floor is the worst as far as drinking is concerned and DPS is sure to find the carelessly placed alcohol containers in several of the kid’s rooms.
This is College. As Jessie said, "I don't think I'm liking college," but despite these things, I can't say I completely agree with her. It's certainly an experience; you honestly don't know what will happen next. I can say that such events make me remember the innocent days of high school, only five months ago, where I had never seen anyone consume alcohol, or run into a drunk. Nor had I ever witnessed an acquaintance lifted onto a stretcher and taken away to the hospital. In fact I can't even recall a time when I had been in earshot of a recently broken window. I suppose I led a fairly sheltered life back in Hillsboro and I don’t find that to be a problem. Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge truly is powerful.

I’m actually really curious as to why, through-out these eight weeks of college, I haven’t been affected by the happenings. I’ve learned a lot about otherwise unexplored horizons, but it hasn’t changed me. I am glad because I like who I am, and could only see those changes becoming negative ones, but what is it in me? Why don’t I have the urge to drink? How did I turn out like I did? I’m no pimp, what would have made that happen? I can only go back to my upbringing and thank my parents for what they have given to me; the proper respect for woman, the compassion I am attributed with, and the courage to uphold my beliefs despite all of the opposition.

What a dork, this writing sounds weird, not at all the colloquial writing I ought to have. It's not even good writing either, not like great authors, it's just a bad attempt at sounding smarter than I am. But honestly, the writing style kind of just came, I didn't put effort into it, I just thought it'd convey the evening’s picturesque qualities. Interesting thought: in Anthropology we discussed the differences in language among the genders and came up with broad assumptions for the sexes, rather a poll conducted in 1980 did.

Women:
1. Ask more questions
2. Attempt more verbal exchange
3. Provide more minimal encouragement ("yes," nodding, and "I understand" to name a few)
4. Silent protest
5. Use "you" and "we" more often (men use "I")
6. Use hedge words ("just," "perhaps," "wondering if," etc)
7. Less assertive

Men:
1. Interrupt more
2. Put up more challenges, ("Why is that?" "I thought otherwise.")
3. Ignore others comments more often
4. Control top of conversation more often
5. Declare facts more often/ give more opinions.

I have to say I somewhat disagree with the list. I don't think I ignore others comments, nor do I particularly control the topic of conversation, or give more opinions for that matter. And I think I do provide nominal encouragement quite often, and ask a lot of questions. I just used a hedge-word in the paragraph before that list, which actually made me think of it in the first place. I could certainly be seen as incredible unassertive, in fact I hate pressuring anybody for anything. It’s also been shown that I have somewhat of a girly trend in thoughts, that is, I took a test (What Gender Is Your Brain?) and it said I had a 73.33% female brain. I don’t think that’s too terrible, of course it’s a huge crush to my masculinity, which is important, but I think based on its explanation of what that percentage meant, I simply care more than other people. Not more than other people, but more than the average man? Actually this is its explanation: "Your brain leans female
You think with your heart, not your head
Sweet and considerate, you are a giver
But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!" It means I’m sensitive ladies, so keep that in mind! HA! ‘Cept I aint lookin' no mo! I's got me miss fantastical, so don’t be frontin’. Enough of that, it also means I don’t want to get into your pants when I first meet you, at least I’ll say it means that because it’s true, and I might as well add as many boost points as I can at the moment.