Real World, Day 2

I have been a college graduate for hardly 2 days. Besides consuming my time tagging graduation pictures on Facebook, I have started to dabble in real grown up, old people things.

My overactive bladder woke me up relatively early today. My knee was stiff and I had some cramps, so I took a hot shower to rejuvenate myself. I went downstairs and had some cereal with bananas and walnuts, which are supposed to help alleviate joint pain. I was still a little hungry, so I ate a few prunes.

During the day, I unpacked my trash bags and sorted through heaps of exam booklets and final papers, none of which will ever matter, and tried to integrate my old high school memories, my faded Hawaiian bedspread and prom dresses and baby pictures, with my new ones, the down comforter on which we would have bed parties in the dorms and Beatles posters that had once revived the dead walls of McMahon. It was difficult to impose my new life upon my old one, and I stopped trying, resigned to the fate of stuffing things under my bed.

Kelsey picked me up in the afternoon, so that I could help her clean the apartment before she checked out. Brian and Bianca joined us, and, in between spraying tables and making pasta, we managed to make the apartment finally decent, just in time for no one to live there. It was the last time we would be in 15F; everything was bare and empty, except for the unclaimed black socks under the dining table.

I went to my physical therapy appointment afterward. I sat between a wrinkly old man and a middle aged Asian woman; the doctor once again commented on my young age, and chuckled at how only older women develop my knee condition. He massaged my knee and I was on my way, with my purse and massive bag filled with leftover tupperware, free brown sugar I had stolen from restaurants, and miscellaneous objects I couldn't let Brian or Kelsey throw out. I took the first bus out of Port Authority, and before we had even hit the Lincoln Tunnel, I had fallen asleep on the stranger next to me. It was about 8:30. I woke up 30 minutes later with a jolt, apologized to the poor man on my right, and then talked to Bianca on the phone in order to keep myself awake and to muse about real life. While mine consisted of intimacy with strangers on public transportation, her real life consisted of a starved cat and dreams of moving to DC. We talked for an hour.

When I got home, I ate leftover pad thai and an apple, and then stayed up late to talk to my friends through all forms of media (Facebook, Gmail, text, etc...) My mother was lying down on the couch next to me, and I realized I was just as exhausted as her. The Real World tired both of us out.

I ate two more prunes before finally going to bed. My knee was throbbing, I still had bags to unpack, and my mind was restless with unfinished conversations and incomplete thoughts. I finally drifted off to sleep to the sound of a deafening silence.