This post has only got minor Belle & Sebastian content. On the B&S Content Scale I would give it around a four, probably. And that may be generous. This post is probably best summed up in the following sentence, if you're in a hurry. I went to Kutztown to visit my friend Ryan and check out the campus. Day 1. The first day was swell, I was tired from driving up there but there was a festival outside. Bear Day, or something. I got a strawberry milkshake, which was nice. I walked around the campus and thought what a beautiful day it was. Then we hung about the dorms, until Ryan had to go home to see his sister's play. That was fine though; 'cause I had other friends there. And I would make other friends to boot. There was this fellow named Woody that really amused me. He always walked around with his hands down his pants. So did Lem. I wondered if it was Kutztown tradition. Apparently there had been some sort of party the night before that had gotten busted and there was a bit of a buzz from that. We went out to play mini-golf. I got third place, which was pretty good for me. I am hardly an avid mini-golf player so it came to me as quite a surprise that I actually got a hole in one on hole thirteen. I was proud. Although I didn't want to cheer or anything like that, because I didn't know these people too terribly well and when I tried to talk around them I got a bit shaky and flushed so I didn't do it too much. I just watched them. They may have been a bit unnerved by all the watching that I was doing and the small amount of talking. After mini-golf we went to a lovely record store called the Young Ones. There used to be a Young Ones near me but it got shut down. There is no correlation between the two stores. So, I found the Lost Patrol import that I'd been searching for high and low so I was excited about that. I was wearing a Weezer hoodie and got to talking to the girl behind the counter about Weezer for awhile. She'd seen them too. She was very friendly but I felt bad about talking to her because I didn't want to harass her while she was working, even though she initiated the conversation. What a nice store. I forget what we did after Young Ones. I may have taken a nap. I tossed my sleeping bag on the floor that night and tried to sleep. I think I had a conversation with Ryan after he returned from his sister's play around midnight but I was half-asleep. If I did don't worry about it; it can't have been that interesting. Day 2. So, I was needing a shave. But I forgot my razor. I should've shaved before I left, I thought. Eh. I went to Six Flags with the rest of the dorm and rode some rides. I said a lot of nothing to the people I went with even though I thought they were exciting. When we got home I met some more interesting people. I felt really bad for one girl in particular. She said her cramps were unusually painful this time around. She thought that her ovary had exploded. I said ouch, and I hope you feel better. Because I really didn't know what to say to that. Later that night I went across and played chess with some people that I didn't know at all. They were high but they still beat me. Lucky, that's what they were. Back in the day I was quite the frequent chess player. Although I think I lost a fair amount back in the day, as well. A girl in one of the upper dorms said that she had an empty room that I could sleep in but I didn't want to impose. I slept in Ryan's bed instead of on the floor. He was up until 4:15 working on a project for the next morning's class. Day 3. I pitched on some generic clothes. I was excited because today we went to class. I was very keen on this idea of going to class because I could meet new people. Ryan told me that there was a girl in the class that was wearing a Belle & Sebastian shirt and that I should talk to her and her friends because he knew that B&S were my favorite band. I thought it sounded like a great idea. So we got to class and I was keen on sharpening my social skills and making new friends. Although when I thought about talking, I got shaky and flushed, just like on the mini-golf course. Sometimes I'm worried that when I talk to people that they'll think that I'm making passes at them. I didn't want the girl to think that at all, since I really had no basis for conversation other than that Ryan said she had a b&s shirt. We went to the library to find pictures of grasshoppers and the girl was there. Her and Ryan made funny insect poses and I laughed. She seemed like she would be fun to talk to but I still didn't say anything. I was unshaven and a bit disheveled from my late night. She may have thought that I was a child molester. We found some grasshopper pictures and went for coffee. On the way back to the dorm from coffee we passed the girl but I didn't say anything again because I didn't want her to think I was hitting on her. At lunch I made a mess of the waffleiron and felt a bit bad for the lunchladies. We went to Young Ones again and I bought Up A Tree, which is what I listened to while waiting on a parkbench outside the dorm for my mother. Everyone was really friendly to me, although I have to admit that I regret not talking to a lot of interesting people. I'll go back soon though, and I recommend that everyone go there as well. It's just a nice campus. Respectfully, Timothy. p.s. Sorry for using the mailing list as a diary. Just thought that someone may be excited by my fun stories. p.p.s. Also sorry if anyone is reading this that I talked to oncampus. I was a bit of a tag-a-long. E-mail me if you'd like and tell me about your uni adventures. xoxo _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+