June 25, 2022: Sleepover

Morning Games

Once I woke up and danced, I went upstairs to fold my laundry. After that, I went downstairs and started playing a huge, chaotic game of The Mind (“Take a simple concept such as putting numbers in order and remove something important like talking to other players and you’ve got yourself an introduction to the Mind card game rules.”—the website) with (I think) at least 12 or 13 people.

Among the players, there was me, JW, JC, and others (around this time, JW and JC started hanging out a lot, such that if there’s JW, there’s JC, and vice versa). (According to DX’s blog, the players were VT, RQ, JC, JW, DD, VivL, SA, KS, LiT, and JLin) It went incredibly well.

Then, we played three games of Secret Hitler. This is the first time I’ve ever played Secret Hitler, so it was a lot of fun! Of course, I lost all three rounds (and Hitler won all three rounds), so that was slightly less fun :(.

Brunch

After that, I went to get food at Resnik with all the others who played Secret Hitler.

While I was at Resnik, I put my stuff (phone and backpack and all) in the garage, next to JW, where I was eating. After eating, I went to the Egg Shoppe to get my tea, where I saw IZ sitting. Thinking I should actually, like, get to know my roommate, I went and sat with her. We started talking, and it was quite fun.

However, when I returned to the garage, I found the JW was gone, as was my phone!

I absolutely freaked out, thinking I must have somehow lost my phone. Turns out, JW thought I’d left, so she was incredibly nice and took my phone with her.

TSTST Day 3

Then, it was TSTST Day 3! I sort of had three writing topics today:

• I wrote about caution and regret. I was going to post that essay in order to prove that I’m not being too cautious, but as of July 22 (and now, as of August 2), I have still yet to post it. Hmmmm.
• I brainstormed ways of advertising for DC Live and wrote a little blurb.
• Then, I wrote a silly little thing about social hierarchies and cliques within MOP.

After the TSTST, I hung back to chat with Turtle a bit and help them clean up. It’s a bit jarring to think that we’ll have no more tests left at MOP. We started walking to Resnik, but then I noticed on Discord that apparently a bunch of people were going to Squirrel Hill for dinner. I vacillated over whether to go to Resnik with Turtle or Squirrel Hill with the bunch of people, but eventually I chose Squirrel Hill.

Squirrel Hill

Thus, I shouted a goodbye over my shoulder to Turtle and then ran towards the intersection, hoping to meet up with those headed for Squirrel Hill. When I got to the intersection, I tried to hit the walk button multiple times. However, I was busy waving at the people (mostly TJ gang) on the other side of the street, so I wasn’t looking at the button, so I missed multiple times.

I laughed about it and tried to see if the people on the other side of the road found me as amusing as I found myself. Once I crossed the street to them, we returned to the dorm so that everyone going to Squirrel Hill could gather.

After gathering at Stever, we started walking to Squirrel Hill. I walked with DX and CH.

Like last time we went to Squirrel Hill, we sort of split into three-ish groups based on how fast we walk. Once we all arrived there, we started trying to figure out where to eat. Initially, I think we were all going to Squirrel Hill for noodles, but. Well. I think there must’ve been at least 20 people who went. And an influx of 20 people in some noodle shop was likely not going to work, so a few of us split off to go eat burgers, instead.

Burgers

AZ, DerL, LC, AnW, JC, DX, and I went to get burgers. According to JC’s blog, BW and FW were also there. I joined the burger group because I figured I’ve had Chinese food so often at MOP, I ought to try some burgers.

I found out something wonderful! Apparently, whenever DX gets food and they ask for a name, he always says “Mr. Dinosaur.” It’s funny and absolutely precious <3. It brightens someone’s day and brings interest into monotone. I’ve decided I’ll pick some ridiculous name and do the same!

DX and I got the same thing: Pineapple Chicken Burger with a can of 王老吉!!! I haven’t had 王老吉 in so. Long. We usually drink it when we’re in Chengdu eating hot pot, and it just brings back so many memories!!! Go to DX’s blog for a very enthusiastic description of how great the food was. It was very good, but after reading his description, I don’t think I can do justice 😛

My phone has an app that allows my family to know where I am so that they know I’m safe. Through that app, my mom could see that I was in Squirrel Hill, so she texted me (by which I mean she WeChatted me) to ask what I’m eating. Having finished my burger already, I sent her a photo of my 王老吉 instead (7:37 pm). It’s a tad sad. I always try to remember to take a photo of my food, but I literally never remember to.

A few days ago, at one of Po’s story times, he mentioned that one can get college aid by marrying someone during (or even better, before) college, as then, you’ll both be penniless and not dependent on your parents. We discussed this as we ate. DX was talking about how he might be willing to find some stranger across the country to “marry” and then break it off after college, while Jeff was being extremely serious and saying he would never do such a thing: he’d only marry when he really loves the other person, etc. etc.

Then we started a round of kicking one another under the table. After that, we started throwing things at one another, and then it just devolved :P.

JC stole my phone and take many selfies with it (7:52 pm). Tall people are bullies: I kept trying to jump for it, but he’d just hold it out of my reach because he’s too tall :(((((.

Also, apparently, DerL got a nosebleed during the TSTST. He had a brown stain on his shirt and someone was like, “Wait, blood is that color?” That made me wonder how they could possibly not know that.

(If you note the time, you may notice that we missed TSTST test review)

After hanging out at the burger place for way too long, we finally left the establishment. Some people went to get boba at the place that we got boba during Pre-MOP.

The Return Walk

On our walk back to CMU, I was talking to DerL and BW. BW was talking about how the IMO team members are six people that everyone at MOP looks up to, so they should be excellent role models. They should, in fact, be the top six influences at camp. DerL was talking about how he’s worried because he’s not really sure how to be a role model and an encouragement the way LR is. BW suggested to maybe start by not playing tag in the dark, which apparently DerL did last night and managed to injure himself.

He also talked about how DerL shouldn’t brag about getting problems right. For instance, DerL is often like, “iMagInE noT sOlvInG tStsT 1” (because he did). I don’t think what he does is too bad, but I can see where BW is coming from. Then, DerL asks what he should do if people ask him how he did, and BW said that DerL should just say, “None of your business.”

Honestly, I think saying “None of your business” is actually worse, though. DerL pointed out that when people ask, they want to know. I pointed out that when you ask LR, you sort of expect him to say that he solved it, and if he didn’t, you feel better.

That did not come out the way I wanted it to, though. I meant it as a sort of thing where, if even LR doesn’t solve it, that means it was probably quite difficult so that there’s no need to beat yourself up over it. Of course, my philosophy is that you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it either way, but most people aren’t as sanguine about it as I am (because they care more about their scores than I do). 

Later, I asked BW who he thought the top five influences were. He said LR, of course, was up there; he also mentioned that he used to think I was one of the top five until I said that thing about LR just now. Lol. (I think he did not take it the way I meant)

One of the things I like to do as I walk is to walk on ledges. I was doing that today, but as I walked along it, the ledge kept going horizontally, but the sidewalk was going downhill, so by the time the ledge ended, I was a human above everyone else. I had to take off my backpack and jump down carefully in order to continue on. It really makes me wonder why BW ever thought I was such a good influence: I told him he probably just didn’t know me well enough :PP.

He told me I was a net positive influence, at least. Of course, when I prompted him, he said that he thought that everyone at camp was a net positive influence.

So, doesn’t say much :P.

As we drew closer to Tepper, I recalled that I had still yet to respond to the last meme volley from the wrong-number on June 16. I happened to be walking next to AZ and JC, so I asked them if they had any suggestions for the exchange. This was a rather large mistake. The memes suddenly devolved into very sus territory. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I handed my phone and free rein to those two, but not this. Like, how can a meme battle devolve within five texts into this sort of thing?!? I had told JC that I trusted him because I knew him decently well, but, well. Then this happened.

Special Assembly

Once we got back, we went to the special assembly at Tepper (which we were rather late to, but it’s fine, half the camp was off at Squirrel Hill, so half the camp was late). We were celebrating VivL’s birthday, which was on the twenty-third. After playing Happy Birthday, they started having Turtle play “Happy Birthday” in various composer styles: Bach, Chopin, etc. Then, he started playing the singing troupe songs in terrible keys. 

Now, the thing is, I cannot sing well even with the right accompaniment. With the wrong accompaniment? Well, it’s just a bit of a nightmare.

I sat with Po a bit and he smiled at me rather consolingly. The assembly was going on for a very long time: I think it was still going at around 9:50 pm! So Po didn’t have story time today. Then, I talked with CH a bit, along with DX and DebL, and then we returned to the dorm.

After that, we did some kpop dancing. IZ, VH, and I practiced the piggy back jump in me gustas tu!!! It was very satisfying. I was so excited I dragged DX in to watch us :)))

After we finished dancing, it was already past 11:30. I was very excited because I thought I was finally going to sleep at the same time as IZ!

Sleepover

As I was brushing my teeth, however, I became curious about where everyone else was, as the lobby downstairs was strangely quiet for a Friday night. I found a few people (maybe ten-ish?) playing Seven Wonders in one of the lounges on the living floors, but that still left many, many people unaccounted for. I texted JC to ask where everyone was, as I figured that he’d likely be in the midst of whatever was going on, and he told me to go up to the fifth floor. When I went up there, I ran into a woman (presumably another of the pre-college RAs) who asked me if I was with Helen. I mumbled something indistinct, and she pointed me towards the other end of the fifth floor, saying that there was some noise coming from over there.

It makes me wonder why she would think Helen, whoever that is, could make that much noise. And why she would.

I found a bunch of people sitting around and playing cards. Initially, I think they were playing ERS, but that quickly devolved into throwing cards all over the place. JC was literally climbing under the table in order to hide from the flying projectiles.

The people up there at that point were EL, LiT, AGe, JC, and JW. 

After we somewhat cleaned up the cards, JW tried to persuade us to play Fish or Tractor. We dealt the cards, but in the end, JC gave them a geometry problem to complex bash, instead.

They spent an hour or two doing that.

While they were struggling with actually doing math while their brains were going haywire from lack of sleep, I worked on writing my journal.

Some of the TJ Cult also dropped by around this point. I later found out that they were talking in the lounge on the other side of the fifth floor. I feel like joining them probably would’ve been a bit better for my sanity.

A cockroach appeared, but no one was willing to get near it? So I whacked it with my shoe. So much for “Also just kil it :P,” JC :P.

Then, JC started working on the Superlatives form. Namely, MK sent out a form asking for suggestions for superlatives that she would then send out a voting form for later. JC was working on creating a very specific superlative for everyone at MOP (and putting the answer in the form, as well), which was absolutely not what we were supposed to do. It’s fine, it was funny.

At that point, I was getting cold on top of sleepy, but I wanted to keep listening to the superlatives. I tried a few strange positions to sleep in—upside down and then on the arms of the couches—but ended up just scrunching into a ball on the couch. But that still did not solve the issue of being far too cold, so I went down to my room to get my blanket and then returned upstairs (a bit before then, we briefly discussed sleeping up there to general vague, tired approval).

By that point, LR, who periodically came upstairs to remind us to be quiet as some of the pre-college TAs are actually sleeping on the fifth floor now, brought many very loud people from the third floor up to the fifth floor. Most notably, there was RG, who kept making his rawr noises. I could not at all understand why LR brought those loud dudes up when he was trying to make sure we stay quiet.

Eventually, they all left.

By then, JW and EL had finally finished their complex bash, so they started playing a game of Semantle.

Eventually, the rest of them also decided to get blankets, so VH, JW, and JC went downstairs to get their blankets and pillows. We ended up going to sleep at around 2:30 am.

VH, AGe, and I pushed two armchairs and a couch together in a sort of horseshoe formation, where VH and I slept on the armchairs (with our legs sticking onto the couch) and AGe slept on the couch. That way, we could share two blankets among three people. Meanwhile, EL just made do on the other couch with his sweater. Finally, JC and JW didn’t sleep on any couches. Instead, they both ended up on the ground with their blankets acting as both impromptu mattresses and actual blankets.