Sticky Note Chaos

You may remember me mentioning in an earlier post that I wanted to dedicate an entry to the messages other apartments have spelled out of post-it notes in their windows. This is that post. Prepare yourself.

You may have seen this one before; I used it as a sneak peek earlier. It was the first, and it remains one of my favorites. After this had been up for a few days, they changed it to "Still hungry :(" and a girls' apartment in the building across the lawn replied with "No you're not," followed by "Come say hi." Sadly I didn't get pictures of all of them, so use your imagination.

This is the only one not spelled with sticky notes, but I felt it had merit. There used to be an additional sign that said "Come Date Me!" with a phone number, but by the time I came back for a picture it had been taken down. Too bad.

Remember the first picture? That one's in building 25, which faces building 26. Building 25 is a boys' building, 26 is girls. One day someone in 26 put up the word "Beans" and nothing else. Our dear friends in 25 #3204 (The 'please send food' people) replied with "Beans?" and another apartment in 26 also put up "Beans." Before long, no fewer than six apartments had the word "Beans" with either a period, question mark or exclamation mark, and everyone was confused. Finally the fourth floor of 25 put a lid on it with this:

After that, the windows were silent for a few days, until game day. For every football game, at least five apartments put up something along the lines of "Go cougs" or "Beat [insert opponent here]." Here's a sample.

Somewhere along the line our friends at 25 #3204 must've gotten some food, because they then tried to unload some excess peaches. The two responses from building 26 were nothing short of perfect.

Then there's 25 #4102. Poor 4102. All they want is some company, but it never seems to work out. One day I looked up and saw this (and the response) and couldn't help but laugh.

4102 has also tried "Somebody love me," "NCMO Tryouts" and "We <3 Girls" (sorry to say I don't have pictures of those). On the other side of the building, one apartment tried a different approach, which I think has been more successful.

4102 changed their approach, probably trying to be a little less creepy.

And this was the counter-offer from the first floor. Ah, capitalism.

So now you're up to speed on the window conversations. I hope you find them as entertaining as I do, and if I can gather enough to do another installment in the future, I will. In the meantime, I have some sticky notes to put up.

Hic Manebimus Optime!

Trial And Error

Normally I would be waiting a few more days before my next post, but quite a bit has been happening recently, and I felt I should make up for my less-than-diligent summer installments, so here we go!

I have now completed a week of classes, and I must say I'm getting used to the college dynamic. By which I mean I've embraced the fact that everything could change at any time. College is a world of spontaneity, and I'm discovering more and more that the the best way to get through it is to stay loose. You have to be simultaneously relaxed and on your toes. I'll let you decide whether that's actually possible.

A thought occurred to me as I was thinking about a certain board game, in which a group of players must work together to succeed. Each round, a new crisis faces the colony, and players must join forces to combat their circumstances. I believe living with roommates is a remarkably similar dynamic. Sometimes the crisis is a communication breakdown which has caused there to be six gallons of milk in the fridge, and sometimes the crisis is that a toilet is clogged and nobody in the entire building owns a plunger.

I'm happy to say that we've survived both of those scenarios. It only got sketchy for a little while.

This week also saw the emergence of new communication methods between apartments. I have heard that putting signs in windows is a fairly common thing, but I've been pleasantly surprised with some of the things other students have spelled out of sticky notes on the glass. It's gotten to the point where entire conversations have developed, and I plan to make a whole post out of it, so in the meantime I'll give you a teaser trailer from an ill-prepared apartment two stories above my own.

And that's just the beginning. More of those later.

In other news, last night my roommates and I went to a friend's apartment to watch the football game against Arizona, which was very fun, if a little long and drawn out. I mentioned last time how the level of school spirit in college is flat-out intoxicating, and I'm finding more and more evidence to support this. First of all, BYU is known for having one of the strongest traveling fan bases in the country. This was proven true when we out-sold the Arizona fans at what was considered their home game. Granted, it's important to note that it isn't technically their stadium, but it's a lot closer to them than to us. Secondly, following our field goal victory in the last six seconds of the game, everybody we saw on the street cheered back and forth with us as we walked home. Drivers honked, passengers yelled and night joggers high-fived us in single file, making it really sink in that everybody was watching. We didn't make it back to our dorm until about 1:00 in the morning, but it was worth every minute.

Come 6:00, of course, I was rudely awakened by the ear-splitting noise of the fire alarm. Now, I've been through plenty of fire drills at various places, but this alarm was something else. It's RIDICULOUSLY LOUD. By the time I stumbled out of our dark apartment and onto the lawn beside the building, I was already checking to make sure my ears weren't bleeding.

That isn't the end, either. Once outside, we had to sit listening to the unholy noise for a solid thirty minutes, barefoot and freezing, while the hall advisors and fire department determined the problem. The verdict: some kindhearted soul pulled the fire alarm for absolutely no reason. I had hoped that college students would have grown past that sort of junior-high-level prank, but I suppose I was wrong. It isn't all bad, though; I may be falling asleep on my feet now, but I had half of my homework done before the sun came up, so it's all good.

That's all for now. Tomorrow I will be using my class-free Labor Day to recover from my sleep deprivation and most likely clean the apartment, which has rapidly deteriorated over the last four days. I have my work cut out for me.

Hic Manebimus Optime!