the haus

This weekend I attended Dudes' Weekend. Yes, the name is corny, but bear with me. My junior and senior years of college I lived with 6 guys in a house on Green Street in Urbana. It was Haus, as we called it. I couldn't have desired any more from my living accomodations those years. Anyway, these ex-housemates of mine occasionally have these weekends that are Guys Only. At least one significant other wanted to join us this weekend, but it was not to be. During these weekends we do simple stuff, much like we did in college. We play video games, watch movies, drink, play video games, play volleyball, and drink. Highlights this time around included volleyball on North Ave. beach in the rain, 7+ hours of Catan, and 6 Flaming Jesuses (ironically JC didn't partake).

It was all well. It was all good. Yes, both. However, I'm not sure it's worth a blog post. However:

I was falling asleep on Friday night. It was well after Saturday had officially begun, after half of the Catan, after many beers, and after honestly too many video games. I had the carpeted living room floor and my cozy sleeping bag and my comfy pillow, but I also had this odd feeling about me. I looked down the hallway to people finalizing their sleeping arrangements, finishing their end-of-day hygeine rituals, generally just wrapping up the night. I was back in Haus. We had seven guys--six of which were not yet falling asleep--carrying on three or four conversions across four different rooms. It was this moment of peace that I haven't felt in such a long time. My life is normally pretty peaceful, don't get me wrong. It was just this other type of peace, a younger, less adult peace, which carried me off to sleep. We had few cares in the world this weekend, and it brought me back to 2001 so fully as to be eerie at the same time. Our group sometimes has its personality flaws, it sometimes has its disagreements, it sometimes has its misgivings, but I couldn't have desired a better bunch of friends, and I thank them all for coming out to take part.