I'm trying to brainstorm for my seminar paper, but instead, I blog. I've found a new musical love! "Spring Awakening!" Tis a musical which won eight Tony's in 2006, and Elsa told me about it sometime last year but I didn't really listen. Then, a couple weeks ago, Greg was telling me about when he went to Broadway and saw this show called "Spring Awakening" and he told me all about it. Then, this week, in my seminar on Berlin, I open my packet of reading and THERE IT IS. The original play was a late 19th century German one, so it applies. Then Greg brings me the CD today! And now I'm listening and loving! It's all about repressed sexual tension and is pretty explicit, so it was pretty interesting discussing sadomasochism, sex, masturbation, and suicide in class today...

But what I love about Amherst (and am kind of scared by) is how everything just comes together, like everything is reaffirming that we're making the right choices. Shannon and I went to the library to go watch this 1927 German silent film, "Metropolis," today for our history class. It's a dystopian science fiction movie about the tension between workers and owners, which ties in with our study of the Russian Revolution in history. It's also a German silent film made in the time period I'm studying in my seminar on Berlin. I've been doing nothing but watching old German films lately... And then, Shannon's seminar is on prostitution around the world (it's the dullest class in the world.. we don't understand how it's possible), and just yesterday she had to read a book called "Yoshiwara" about Japanese prostitutes. Then, today in the GERMAN FILM, the nightclub was named "YOSHIWARA." We paused it and started screaming (in library voices), "IT'S EVERYWHERE!!!! AHHH!!!!" And what was even crazier, for religion, we were reading from the Book of Revelations, and the movie quoted the exact passage we had to read the night before!!! It was SCARY!!!! We were so freaked out by the movie!!! We spent the whole time making a running commentary of it so we could stay awake. It was hilarious... the bad acting and the random clutching of the breast by the damsel whenever she is frequently in distress.

Last night, we had dinner with Greg and Tim, who are just absolutely HILARIOUS!! They're awesome and hilarious by themselves, but together (they're roommates), they're just like a dynamic duo of comedy. It was SO much fun. Greg texted me at around 5 and asked, "How do you guys feel about dinner tonight?" We told him that we were going to the gym and would be back by 6:30, but if he wanted to wait, we would be most happy to go to dinner with him. However, if he got too hungry (since he and Tim usually eat early), he should feel free to feast without us.

We were assured that they would wait, and at 6:30, headed off to Val together with Camille. Meals there usually take.. 30 minutes.. an hour tops.. We stayed till 8:10, just sitting there, talking and laughing about the most ridiculous things. We discovered Tim's ARDENT love for apple sauce, and how Greg eats apple sauce and cottage cheese together for dessert, something I've never even heard of. I wish I had a video camera or even a tape recorder to just capture the two of them in action because there's just no way to even describe it and my memory doesn't do me justice.
Tim: I used to have apple sauce every day for lunch until... I came to Amherst, actually.
Greg: Really? They have it here, you know.
T: I know, but I can never find it!! Where do they hide it?!?! Where is it??

After trying to reassure Tim that apple sauce indeed does exist in Valentine Dining Hall, we begin a discussion on apple sauce, which I've never really had.
T: I don't know if their apple sauce is any good though. My favorite was the cinnamon kind, but apple sauce is good for anything. When you're sick, it's like something light that goes down easy, and it can take the place of your fruit.. if your parents let you...
G: Oh Tim. You WILL have your apple sauce.
Elaine: Yeah. Greg will make it for you. Forget writing his paper. We're just going to see Greg out in the quad at 2 AM churning this huge barrel of apples and be like, "Greg.. what the heck are you doing?"
G: Making Tim's apple sauce!!!! It shall be done!

At this point, we're all completely done with eating. Greg then commences, quite absentmindedly, with cutting these two apples left on his plate. As the night wore on, those apples became smaller and smaller, until really, apple sauce was being made.

Apparently, Greg is one of those unlucky few that talk rampantly in their sleep. Tim thinks it's the funniest thing in the universe, but could never remember what Greg was saying the morning after. So, one night, after Greg went to bed, Tim got out his notepad and pen, and basically sat there WAITING for Greg to start yelling in his sleep.
Soon enough, Greg starts muttering and shouting. Tim dives for his pen and paper, and starts scribbling.
"NO! NO WAY! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!"
And Greg never remembers what he was dreaming about that would merit that amount of negation. Tim was gesticulating wildly doing impressions of Greg.. it was pretty hilarious.. GRAH I NEED A VIDEO CAMERA TO CAPTURE THIS!!!

Then Greg told us the story about how, ever since he was little, he was everybody's favorite person to have at a sleepover. And everybody's favorite game to play was make Greg go to bed before everyone else and then just watch him. In the sixth grade, he went over to this friend's house and he fell asleep before them all, and had this dream where it was his pressing duty to explain what a television was. This resulted in:
"No guys! No! It's like.. a giant, plastic fish tank!!!"

Since Greg lives in Newton, which is in Boston, it's pretty easy for him to get home. He's taking Tim back home with him for the whole weekend, and they're going to a Red Sox--Yankee game (Greg loves the Red Sox; Tim loves the Yankees). Somehow, this evolved into Elaine and Shannon making homosexual innuendos about them. I think it was because they were talking to each other and finishing each other's sentences so that none of us had any idea what they were talking about (they're like the male version of me and Shannon) and so we were like, "Aww.. they're like us!!!!"
And that somehow devolved into a "Greg + Tim = love" situation. Yes. We are mature.
Shannon and I started muttering together too to imitate them. Then Greg said something about, "This is getting serious!!!"
And I responded, "I know!! He's meeting the parents!! This IS getting serious!!!" before Shannon and I dissolved into fits of giggling.
They looked at us and Greg said, completely stone-faced but not quite managing to keep the note of laughter out of his voice, "Tim. Tim. I think they're making fun of us."
Shannon then said, "They live together! Greg makes Tim apple sauce while Tim writes Greg's paper! He's meeting the parents and coming home for the weekend!"
Pouting, Greg mutters, "You guys live together too!!!!! No fair!!"
We're so mature.. This is AFTER the whole, "Let's imagine our phones as people and how Tim's phone is cheating on Elaine's phone with Greg's phone.
AHH One story just leads to another!! Tim, Greg, Michelle, and I were sitting in North hanging out. Greg's phone has dead pixels on the screen, and we were like, "OMG. What do you DO to your phone??" and he throws it on the floor.
I tell him that he's too mean to his phone, and he apologizes by "making out" with his phone.
me: WHAT are you doing Greg?
G: You said my phone was feeling lonely!!
me: Yeah.. but what are you doing?!?!?
T: Man. I wonder if my phone's lonely.
Michelle: WHOA! You and Elaine both have red phones! Your phones are meant to be!
T: Whoa, whoa whoa! Are we being racist here??? Just because they're red doesn't mean they have to be together. We can have diversity!
me: Oh come on Tim. Now you're being like... reverse racist. It's like BECAUSE they're red, you're fighting Fate and not letting them be together.
MIchelle: I think those phones belong together.
So Tim and I put our phones together. Greg has this habit of spinning his (black) phone on the table, and on one of these spins, it nudges Tim's phone.
me: WHOA WHOA WHOA! What is this!!! Tim! Is your phone cheating on my phone?
T: I don't know! I mean! I keep it with me all day, but at night, once I go to bed, I don't know what they get up to!!

Then later that night, I was talking to Tim on AIM and we were saying good night and he said, "My phone's charging right now, so it's kind of on a tether. Stay away from Greg's phone, phone!!"

Then today at dinner, we bumped into Greg again, and sat with him and a bunch of other guys from North... who are decidedly less funny. We listened to "Spring Awakening" on his iPod and as we were walking back, he mused aloud, "I wonder if Amherst will still be this pretty in winter."
Shannon: Yeah. I think so.
Greg: Well, when it snows, yeah, but what about the days in between?
S: Oh yeah. When it's pure cold.
G: Yeah and everything is brown and grey. haha pure cold. Yeah...
I kind of whimpered a little bit, and Greg responded, "Aww Elaine.. I'm sorry.. I wish I could make my home more hospitable for you! It's okay. We have good company, so it'll be fun no matter what."