Day 1x100

The concept of yesterday feels so far-off and foreign, I can't fathom that it could possibly have been 24 mere hours ago.  Looking back down the mostly linear, clean lines of my life to this moment on this squishy velvet-esque dorm apartment chair under an eco-centric LEED-certified roof, I can't pinpoint any other time I have packed so much activity, stimulation, thought, socialization and (attempts at) absorption into 1440 minutes.  I think this is a good sign, and my mind is reeling with newly-realized ambition and purpose and raw, uninhibited drive.  In the meantime, however, my body is lurching back at me, jilted from sleep and clawing for routine. 

Oh no, mattress that's like sleeping on an unforgiving tarp over wood slats.  You can wait.  Eats of Eden needs dorm food updates!

Since I originally got here three months, er, 36 hours ago, I've been drawing constant comparisons to my experience at Concordia.  Which really isn't fair.  I was at Concordia as an undecided, unknowing undergrad, surrounded by dozens of other undecided, unknowing undergrads.  The people here are self-assured and pivoted toward a goal. Not flailing helplessly in a sea of choices that come careening past, flashes of opportunity too fast to see and too early to comprehend.  Living and conversing with them is a whole different dimension than Karen "Why Are You Mad That I Had Sex In Your Bed?" Fellner.  Physically though, this place is fantastic.  There are meandering paths, stately old class halls, and state-of-the-art residential buildings.  You could actually (and I did) GET LOST on this campus.  Not just have a choice between Luther and The Library Building.

The surrounding town is small, but adorably college.  Art, murals, decoupaged signage, painted benches.  For breakfast, me and my super-fabulous roommates walked down to the notorious Maggie's Buns.  Stacked with hand-painted, one-of-a-kind chairs and tables (with a different salt shaker set at every tabletop), retirees, cops, and college kids all crowding in for coffee and confectionery.  The country hipster-baked pastries were arranged in a gilded case that included:

THE CHICKEN LIGHT!!!

I wish to God this was for sale, but I think they may be as attached to it as I instantly became.

Throwing my resolutions to eat-in to the wind, I ordered juice and a scramble.  I didn't have to feel too guilty: the prices were set for struggling undergrads with single-digit debit card balances. 

When I was living on campus at Concordia, the cafeteria was bought out

at Sodexho.  The food was laughably awful: brown iceburg lettuce in the salad bar bucket, powdered scrambled eggs, deep-fried chicken strips and pizza drowning in a self-contained slick of grease.  I was ecstatic to hear at one of our intro talks that we should "try the salad in the salad bar; it was grown by our students at our eco farm."  The eco farm lettuce, abundant sandwich bar and overflowing freshness didn't disappoint. 

It was so refreshing to know that I'll be taken care of, and not be deprived of non-processed foods for a week and a half.  Also refreshing?  The peace offering of the soda fountain gods:

Everybody can be happy.  Costco, you could learn a lesson here.