A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut...

Last night was somewhere between definitely cool and awesome. I needed that.

I've been spending all my time between classes down in the music department. Sometimes practicing, sometimes clowning around with friends, sometimes listening to other people practice, sometimes just sleeping on the couches. They have the best couches that I've yet encountered in the school. They don't look pretty or anything, so we all beat up on them and steal cushions from one to take to another one, but they are cushy, and soft, and Amanda in a fetal position almost perfectly fits in them.

We had the power go down yesterday while I was sleeping. Oddly enough, it woke me up. It had been storming outside all day, which I love, but the whole music area is kind of in the basement, so you can't hear or see anything going on outside. You also get iffy cell phone reception. Sleeping, curled half-tightly because it's always cool there (and I think I was one couch down from this vent blasting cool air), and then there's this terrific clank. Yes, clank. Woke me up, and it took a minute to register (okay, I'm not completely with it for about twenty minutes or so after I wake), "Oh. It's dark." *pause* "It's not supposed to be dark, is it?"

Some people had been watching a dvd in the band room, and they came pouring out. This is why power outages are not better for sleeping in. Everyone gets riled up and makes a great deal of excitement. You can't sleep through excitement, the human brain refuses to allow it. You could miss something exciting! And I think it's a survival skill, too - a lot of stuff happening means that there's a chance some of it could come your way, and you want to be prepared. One girl had been planning on meeting her friends up in the theater, and actually had an issue with the dark. So, I sleepily offered to walk with her, and she jumped at it.

First doors into the light, I felt something lightly catch me from behind. Ah, Tony. I think he kicked me, I'm not sure. Light-girl headed off up the stairwell towards the sunshine, and Tony and I had another unexpectedly long conversation. I like these.

Turned out later that the miscreants I call my friends had come looking for me in an attempt to kidnap me. Normally, they all hang out in the tv lounge between classes, except for the musician who heads down to practice or be one with the music world. Tuesdays and Thursdays, two of them bring their GameCubes and play Super Smash Brothers. I kid you not. I believe this goes from 9-1, or 5, if Michael decides not to go home. My last class on Tuesdays ends at 5:15, and Brian had offered to wait for me, even though that's an extra three hours for him. *hugs Brian* I've watched them all play - they'll recruit just about anyone in the lounge who's interested, and I've never seen a bout last more than five minutes. 8 hours of 5-minute bouts. You can see why I hang out with my sax.

But, after my last class, I headed over there to see if the boyfriend was miffed at having to wait. Brian's version of 'miffed at having to wait' is not remotely miffed. Rather, he goes to sleep. Where would our culture be without 20-year-old males? :) Actually, when I go there, it became apparent that these five (they'd picked up another straggler) had had only the faintest idea of the passage of time. I laughed, made a light attempt at distracting Brian from the game, and then headed down to get my sax from my locker.

Playing with my combination, doo-de-doo-de-doo....a pop cap comes ricocheting around the corner. And then Brian, in hot pursuit of said cap. About a minute later, the other three of our five (okay, we're actually six, but Dani had work that night) came pouring around the corner like loose fans searching for Orlando Bloom. "There she is!" Assorted squeals, everyone runs up...until someone throws the pop cap again, and then the guys go off chasing it.

We were actually hanging around the band department for another hour, doing absolutely nothing productive and having a blast. One of the clowns from our band came by, and we began what can only be described as 'penny wars'. I, being a penny pacifist, abstained and went for balancing on a chair and convincing Jen to spot me on handstands. Spent most of the night flirting with Jen - I love her, but she wouldn't believe me if I told her. So, we just have fun together, and get some great photo ops. Scott, our auxilary percussionist and cameraman came by and got a few good shots of me curled into Jen, all of us being incredibly immature, and the afore-mentioned band clown climbing up our director's doorway, Spiderman-esque. Tony was practicing in the band room, as usual.

Jen's got an interesting take on males. She always has something to say about envying me having a boyfriend, but the fact is that far more guys ask Jen out than me. She's gorgeous, she has the cutest personality of anyone, she's got this dark sense of humor, etc. The fact is that she just has her own set of standards, and they're fairly picky. So far, I've gotten that the guy has to be cute, funny, and have no clear sense of personal depression or darkness. I've rarely been interested in guys without that darkness - creates kind of a common ground. She actually exchanged numbers with three guys today, and seemed to take an interest in the clown. No interest there for me, he's a lot of fun, but I haven't seen anything deeper to his personality. We almost never like the same guys, always in love with each other.

And you would not believe the stab of jealousy I encountered when she was checking out Tony while he was playing.

Anyway, after much deliberation (hah!) we went for Pizza Hut, since 2/3 of these people had already gone to the mall that day. Much silliness on the way. John's been moodier than usual (although, it's been long enough that moody is becoming usual for John), which disconcerts Jen a little bit. She hasn't made the connection that he's a friend of mine and Michael's - she just thinks he's a random guy who's better than everyone at Super Smash Brothers. He's still off in his own world - I used to worry about him, but now, I'm starting to think that he spends enough time there that he can handle anything it does, and none of us have a chance. Some discussion came up of Michael and his dating life, Jen having the cutest curves of anyone human, and why Michael doesn't react to me and Jen the way the other two do. Really, we'll be clowning around, piled on or around each other, or just dancing, and it's not until we stop that we realize that two of the guys are staring at us, and he's just kind of spacing in some other direction. :)

I've missed hanging out with my friends, especially random nights like this. No planning, no real notion of what's going to happen - and we have a blast. When I went up to say hello after my last class, I was thinking that I'd be home within the next forty minutes, and it would be just another evening. Silly me. :)