ramble exploring

on the lost days that hold memory - the freshman chronicles

a landmark on our walk

down to the riverside but not crossing the bridge was the big

RED and WHITE map of BU campus

we were roommate explorers our freshman year at MASSART

over on HUNTINGTON

we didn’t make great roommates

we had a suite of four people, two rooms, unlikely pairs

I had my CRAZY HORSE 40s

rolling around in the dorm ARMOIRE

“skee-roool …KLINK! skeeee-rollll…CHUNKA!”

only thing noisier than

the girls I brought to the room

or the late-night

TRANSACTIONS in THE GREEN

and coming back from a dubious

THIRD LOCATION just before DAWN

but — we were brothers for at least a few days

at least a few months

at least a few

good hours

eating CAFETERIA meals

watching SIMPSONS in the common area together

living on ramen, KETTLE

$3 student center RULE (pizza/coke/something sweet)

Why did Mom send me to school with a 5 lb. bag of sugar?

that bag only served the FLOOR of our four-person

SHARED bathroom’s linoleum tiles in a bizarre

“sugarsugarsugar” narration on one of my earliest

EXPERIMENTAL videos

in camera, an auteur,

I had only begun to candy

the FLOOR

marking the time stamp at 2 AM

we had a suite of four people, two rooms, unlikely pairs

strangers, but we moved into the space with two people a year ahead of us

THEY had secured this suite as our FLATIRON BUILDING-esque

design of the top floor DORM

we had a suite of four people, two rooms, unlikely pairs

*technically* it was the most enormous two-person suite in the building

because we were on the top floor and didn’t have a support beam

bisecting the room WKRP style

like the 3 floors

directly

below us

these upperclassmen had held on to their LAND

and let us immigrate

integrate

but the problems, as they always are - are ROOMMATES

HELL is other ROOMMATES

we had a suite of four people, two rooms, unlikely pairs

but thankfully, I had

lucked out with a cool RA that moonlit as an exotic dancer

“Choclair” was his night moves name

Choclair gave me only a SLAP on the wrist

for the green OUNCES slung just so

could barely cover the VIG

you can go into a STORE to buy the stuff now

“What to do on Saturday?”

“Let’s walk around the city.”

we’re excruciatingly new here

Huntington to NEWBURY to COMM to through the

FENS and back home

It is a WALKING city if you live close to where stuff is

or if you like your neighborhood well enough

I had never been that close to the CHARLES RIVER

I couldn’t even believe I was free to ROAM

the city for the first TIME

we must have made it back

in time for us to eat DINNER from the meal plan

I was still a vegetarian

this was a great day, and when I pass

the landmark map

30 years older

That was easily one of the BEST WALKS™️ of a lifetime.

I was there to paint.

But it didn’t take long for me to find my FAMILY

turns out, my new family just wasn’t

where the paints were STORED.