hypnos part 1

what kept me awake in bed last night was a strange determination to be able to describe my college eateries to someone who had never been to school in upstate new york. my mind wandered over the art student cafe and paused for a sweet moment at the cafeteria in the basement of the humanities building. it was run by a tibetan couple, and attracted tortured humanities grad students as well as senior undergrads aspiring to be tortured grad students. emily and i used to line up for soup every day -- by noon because the line would become absurdly long afterwards. we would always opt for the vegan soup option with a pumpernickel roll. there were about 8 or 9 different soups in rotation, and we speculated daily about the day's soup. the hours spent reminiscing about groundnut and thai carrot, the two clear favorites!

in ithaca, a bleak wintry town with very little amenities, one looked forward to alcohol, sex, and soup -- in other words, things that kept one's body warm. alcohol always resulted in vomiting, headache and regret, and the sex never occurred as frequently as one would have liked. soup remained our one constant source of comfort.