The Sock Hop

I showed up at Trax a half-hour early to help set up, but by the time I got there everything was already done. “Here,” Collin, the VP of SU Swings, said as he dropped his hat onto my head. “You look good.” And then there was nothing left to do but listen to the band warm up and wait for everybody to show up.

The Sock Hop hosted by SU Swings was well attended (thanks, in part, to the free root beer floats and milkshakes). The student jazz combo played a great hour-long set that we all danced to, and then it was DJ’d swing music until 2 AM. There were beginner lessons upstairs by the pool tables and free-dancing downstairs in front of the stage.

It was really a great Saturday night. My girlfriend looked beautiful in her green dress, and I don’t think I looked half-bad in Collin’s hat (but judge for yourself). It’s always a huge amount of fun dancing with so many of your close friends. All in all, it was an awesome evening, full of inside turns, outsides turns, dips, leans, cuddles, milkshakes, barrel rolls, pretzels, and even a few never-ending loops.

• More on SU Swings
• More on Trax

Chilling at Charlie's

At 8:30 PM my long Wednesday was finally over—class, work, class, a meeting that ran long and made me late for dinner, and then I led an Intervarsity Bible Study. It was third long day in a row, and Thursday was promising to be even longer. What I needed was a break, some time to relax. What I needed was Zombieland.

Every Wednesday night (Friday nights too) Charlie’s Susquehanna’s student-run coffee house, plays a movie that’s left theaters but hasn’t made it onto DVD yet. I’d seen Zombieland at the Selinsgrove Cinema Center with Rob and Holly back in the fall and had been completely surprised to find that it wasn’t terrible like I’d expected it to be. It was actually really hilarious—especially for a zombie movie.

Anyway, Zombieland was just what I needed. I met Alice, Casey, and Eric at Charlie’s and for two hours completely forgot about how jam-packed Thursday was threatening to be.

Charlie’s is great. It’s home to both the best hot chocolate on campus and the university’s most comfortable couches (Get there early if you want a good seat!). They serve hot and cold drinks as well as all kinds of snacks. Occasionally they also do “mocktails,” and during football season, they have free wings. In addition to showing recent movies, Charlie’s also has live music, football games on the big screen, poetry readings, open-mic nights, and all sorts of other stuff.

It’s one of my favorite places on campus.

• More about Charlie's

One Week Down

The first week back from winter break is always an interesting one. It’s a comfortable return, with no heavy furniture to lug in, just small things to arrange. My refrigerator is plugged back in, and Elwood, my lovable betta fish roommate, is back in his spot on my bookcase.

The first week back is also an exciting week. You keep bumping into people you’re really excited to see. Of course, they’re the same people you were bumping into a month ago, except now they’ve got new haircuts and some new stories to tell.

In some ways it’s a weird week, with new schedules, new classes, and new professors. On Monday, I was feeling a little over confident—I arrived at Bogar Hall just in time for my Italian class only to suddenly realize that I didn’t know what room Italian class is in this semester (Don’t worry, I found it eventually.)

Of course, the newness of it isn’t all bad. My new classes this semester include Detectives in Fiction and Film as well as a novel-writing workshop. Excited isn’t exactly the right word to describe how I feel about churning out 150 pages in one semester, but I’m looking forward to the class anyway.

All in all, this semester seems to be shaping up pretty well.