Do.

A couple weekends ago  I went to the ARC with my friend, Scott. He’s from Tennessee and is into climbing – specifically bouldering. So I decided to tag along and see how it works – and let me tell you, climbing is difficult, and bouldering is a hell of a lot worse. I was able to climb the big walls on which we wear harnesses fairly easily, one of them bested me because I ran out of places to hold onto. Bouldering however is not the same. Bouldering is free climbing – no harnesses – and you have to follow a certain path, and each path has a set of moves you need to perform to reach the top of the wall. I was only able to get to the top of the easiest wall, and returned home with swollen, throbbing forearms.

Go.

During finals week, a group of friends and I decided to take a load off for a night, dress up all fancy, and go out for a nice, semi-formal dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse. The group of us went out in blazers and dresses with a pocket full of change and a mind full of anything but finals. We took the COTA downtown, got off earlier than we needed to and had to walk the rest of the way there. Once we arrived, we checked our reservation, waited a bit in the room where we took these dapper photos, and soon after were seated. Amidst great conversation, we gorged ourselves full of (realitvely inexpensive) high quality Italian food, finally resulting in the best food coma I’ve had since move-in day.

Once we had all finished eating and paid, we left and walked around downtown looking at the lights and stunning architecture of Columbus’s most active districts. Some running around a place that looked like a park lead to us heading back to High Street, and walking up to the State House, where we hung around and made jokes about being law makers and what-not while waiting on a bus to take us back. When the COTA arrived, we hopped on and started singing A Capella style in the back of the bus, where a few strangers joined in as well.

Finally we returned home to Three Park, and let the reality of having to study for finals consume us, as we did previously to a few spaghetti bowls and lasagnas.

Eat.

Last night I went out to Pies & Pints for a Valentine’s Day dinner. I felt slightly nervous, because I was out with a girl I met recently, and was doing my best to not say something stupid or do something that might make a bad impression. Naturally the date started with missing the bus –  by about a minute – and we spent the first fifteen or so minutes of the date out in the cold waiting for another COTA to come along. When the 2E showed up, we hopped on and were on the way down to the Short North. I checked Google Maps to make sure we would get off at the right stop, and as I looked up from my phone saw a sign that read “Pies & Pints”. I pulled the cord requesting a stop, and the bus took us about two blocks farther than we needed to go. She and I got off, walked back, and got seated. I managed to create some interesting conversation while we waited for the food, we learned about some of the crazier things we’ve done in our lives, and when our waitress returned with our food she told us, “So there are a few interesting things going on in the kitchen, and this pizza has the wrong sauce on it. We’re going to remake it correctly and bring that one out for free.” Nice turn of events. We got two pizzas for the price of one, all because some little topping was wrong.

We finished eating, got the check, and left to wait for the bus. However, the bus we were waiting on was late, and we thought perhaps we have the wrong time. So we decided to walk. Not two minutes into walking, the bus passed us. Fantastic, I thought sarcastically. We continued our walk in the frigid night and eventually got back to her dorm. We hugged and made plans for Friday to see Deadpool. All in all, I’d say it was a pretty successful night.