Yesterday I finally had summer.  After a month of seeing no one and willing myself to clean up after lazy people for hours on end, I went to a graduation party.  Of course, it took great strength of will to tear myself away from the last Harry Potter book, but after chapter twenty-eight I managed it, and headed over to the graduation party of one of my not-so-close friends.  Well, one of my best friends outside of my closest circle.  I hope I’m making sense.

            I got there and it seemed that no one was there yet.  That was due mainly to the incredibly long driveway.  But I found one of my friends.  Oh, bother, this is going to get too confusing if I don’t actually use names.  Booglewarts.  I’m still a little paranoid about the internet.  (Though if I’m going for admissions blogger, I should probably get over that)  Anyway, Kevin and I hung out and didn’t fall out of the hammock (a great feat, believe me) and bemoaned the thirty-ish days left till college.  Eventually, Karen came, with news that Matt’s party was deserted, and she had said that she’d put in an appearance.  Kevin though he would too, and as none of my other friends were there, I went as well.  We all took Karen’s car.  You would do well to remember that important piece of information later, as you try and solve the dreadful murder…Oh wait, wrong night.

            Matt’s party was well, not deserted, but populated entirely by distant relatives, so perhaps and even more dire situation.  It featured an abundance of food and babies.  However, we had been there scarcely fifteen minutes when a chain of frantic phone calls eventually resulted in the news that Karen’s boyfriend’s dad had had a stroke, and he was at a concert with friends, and they wouldn’t bring him back to his car.  Yes, this brings up many questions as to the quality of these friends, but for the purposes of my story, it simply leads to the start of the “random-running-around-the-Capital-region-as-if-we-were-on-a-scavenger-hunt” segment.

            Karen doesn’t trust her sense of direction, nor, apparently, the digital compass in her car.  So she asked for Kevin to come along, and again, I went mainly because there was no one else there I would really hang out with.  So we drove to Albany.  And then to the hospital in Troy.  And then around Lansingburg, passing people hanging out in the street listening to car radios and smelling strongly of pot (I admit, until this point I really had no clue what pot smells like…others just said that it was), trying to find Karen’s boyfriend’s car because we needed to bring it to the hospital for him.  The fact that our main landmark was Stewarts and there are two in Lansingburg really didn’t help.  We found it though, and took it back to the hospital.

            There we followed the signs to “Patient Registration”, wandering down long corridors, absolutely deserted, the lighting growing dimmer…until we reached the desk, which was only open until seven.  So back through the empty hallways (there really was no one around) until we reached the beginning, and went the other direction, to the emergency registration, where we finally found him.  Karen decided to stay, and more convoluted driving plans were required.

            Kevin and I drove Karen’s car back to his house, where we hung out for five minutes until Erin, who had arrived at Emma’s party in our absence came and got us, with silly Pat in tow, and we finally made it back, only three or so hours after we had said we would be.

            Three more hours there, including an hour of Pat begging us to play Ouija, and then blaming it not working on our cynicism, and kicking us out of the room, and still not getting it to work, all the while protesting that he really didn’t believe it either.  And then we left, and I went home and finished Harry Potter.

            Which I will not talk about even though I really really want to.