University of Dayton - MyLife

It's Been a Lovely Week

While I cannot attest to the actual size of my reading audience, I am quite sure of it's popularity among my immediate circle of family and friends back home. I am constantly pressured by them to make frequent updates, and while my time here at Dayton is rife with what I have termed "blog-worthy" events, it exactly this schedule that prevents me from sitting down and writing an acceptable entry. However, I have cleared the time in my immensely busy days to sit down and organize my thoughts, both for the benefit of my family back home, and what I'm sure is my massive audience of prospective UD students.

First off, I have been exposed to what I am told is a fixture of southern Ohio life. Skyline Chili. And, in sampling this local cuisine, the eccentricities of the residents of this lovely region are all suddenly explained. Only by eating such slop, which I can only loosely term "chili", could people develop such peculiar and endearing mannerisms. After a day of this food being built up by my Cincinnati-dwelling friends, we made the long and arduous journey to a Skyline. The journey took a good half hour, as, despite having driven by a Skyline earlier in the day, the Steves were unable to locate it. Which resulted in me, a man who has gone off campus maybe ten times, and then only into downtown Dayton, navigating the way. Once I finally determined the way to the nearest Skyline, we were seated and served. From the sampling of chili that the waitress brought us, I was apprehensive as to the quality of the meal I was about to eat. They serve this chili on top of spaghetti! How weird is that? I can't purchase a hamburger pizza here, but I can eat chili on top of spaghetti. Utterly bizarre.

How can I fully capture just how disgusting this chili is? I equate it shoveling mud down my throat, except this is no ordinary mud. This is a greasy, stinking filth, with little chalk pellets sprinkled throughout. The spaghetti is no better, just long, limp noodles, evil little worms that creep down my throat and attack my stomach. Even after finishing not a quarter of my plate, my bowel paid the price hours later, nearly killing what was a pleasant Friday evening.

On a much better testament to these noble dwellers of the Miami River area, on Sunday I attended a production of The Importance of Being Earnest, in which Garrett's younger brother played the lead role. He was fantastic in it, picking up on all the refined witticisms of the role, and his accent was bar none the finest I have ever heard from a high school junior.

In another gracious act on the part of the Titlebaum family, Tuesday night, we were treated to a real homecooked meal of lasagna! I ate more that night than I think I have in the past few months combined, and it was utterly fantastic. The lasagna was the perfect blend of sauce, spices, and cheese. Dessert was a lovely affair as well, massive heaps of brownies, cake, and Moose Track ice cream found their way down my gullet. And of course, the Titlebaum's generous supply of ginger ale washed this all down. It was a splendid meal, and I dream of it nightly.

After dinner that night, we saw the movie Jarhead, which I really enjoyed. It was a blunt and gritty portrayal of war, certainly one of the most poignant war movies made in recent years. It's not an action movie, it's an intensely cerebral drama, showing the indoctrination and dehumanization that becomes necessary for a young man to be formed into an instrument of war.

After the film, we headed to Steak 'n Shake for a night cap, where I had a tasty strawberry shake, and some young men who were stoned off their asses wanted to fight us before being ejected from the restaurant, presumably for being stoned off their asses. Jerks.

It's been a fun week, I finally got my DayAir account all set up. FOR ANY PROSPECTIVE FRESHMEN WHO READ THIS: SET UP A DAYAIR ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY AFTER ARRIVING ON CAMPUS, OR YOU WILL BE CHARGED RIDICULOUS ATM FEES!!

So that was my week, I apologize to all who have been waiting so long for this update. I will do my very best to update more often from now on.

Nov 10, 2005 8:07 AM Permalink