Observations From A Dorm Room Window

My summer stint here in Oregon is a day away from being over. It’s been a week of highs (the good, healthy kind) and lows (the even better kind because I learned that any form of “self doubt is good”), all of which I like to think resulted from a long bout of positive thinking. Which is weird, because I am the most negative person in the world. Really. I can find something wrong in anything, even if it’s some poor girl’s outfit, legislation that would benefit the unfortunate and underrepresented or a delicious bowl of cake. (I’ve decided this past week that I like to eat dessert in bowls. It’s harder to share your food when it’s in a bowl. Think about it).

All lows are highs, even if it’s 1 AM and the low is really loud because this year, you were placed in a suite right above the dormitory’s front door, which means you can hear every door slam, every footstep, every raindrop that falls through the trees outside. But because I am such a positive thinking person now (no, I am not being sarcastic), I’m quite enjoying these observations from the ear–because I can’t actually see what’s going on (due to the trees outside), but I can hear everything. And it’s all very interesting.

Today, I sat through a class with author Bonnie Jo Campbell, who instructed us to write everything down to use later as inspiration. So tonight, I’m writing down everything that I’ve heard over the past 9 days. These may or may not be featured in future stories.

• A late night conversation about sports.
• “DRIVER, TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE WHEEL!” (A stolen car chase ended right outside our dorm, complete with 7 police cars, a fire truck, and every blue and red siren lighting up the street. I thought about running outside to see the commotion and then I worried about getting shot, and then I remembered I was in Oregon, not LA, and then I went to bed.)
• Every kind of laughter imaginable.
• What sounded like an old-fashioned doorbell ringing.
• A young woman singing a hymn.
• Some (gross) guy pissing into the trees.
• The same two people exchanging small talk over their cigarettes.
• Someone hocking up phlegm and spitting it into the bushes.
• The incessant tapping of water from a gutter leak hitting the leaves of the trees.
• Sprinklers
• The beep of the student ID card sensor to open the front door.
• “We are very bad girls.”

I would stay up and listen more but it’s almost 2 AM and that’s kind of creepy. There’s no way to put a positive spin on that.