August 2004

James Ehrmann • Party Favor

In the waning weeks of the second semester, while finishing papers or trying to study for an upcoming final, I’d suddenly get an incredible urge to channel surf. Now that I’m home and have a plethora of free time to watch television, I find myself wanting to be task-oriented!

Fortunately, invitations to high school friends’ graduation parties broke a long, miserable streak of catching up on all the Law & Order reruns. Those parties reminded me of one aspect I didn’t enjoy when I was in high school: seeing college kids there.

I always felt that the amount of attention they accumulated (“How’s college life?” "What are you doing this summer?” “What’s your major?”) stole the spotlight from the graduate. So, you can imagine how awkward it felt to attend a party and, upon walking in the front door, hear a chorus of “James is here!” For someone who always seems to ham it up in the spotlight, I suddenly felt embarrassed to be a deer in the headlights.

But, at least one of those parties was memorable for all the right reasons. About a year ago, three of us promised to take our friend Karen on a limousine ride for her 17th birthday. We never managed to coordinate our schedules, though, and the gift faded into the background—until today.

We showed up at Karen’s graduation party and then surprised her with the limo ride. It’s easy to act grown-up in public, but climbing into the backseat of a stretch limousine with three of your best friends throws that maturity out the window. Suddenly, all you want to do is roll down the windows or poke your head out the moon roof at every stoplight and grin like an idiot at random strangers. Being able to change the temperature, radio station, interior lighting, and television channel all from the backseat is the coolest thing since the invention of the Walkman.

All of us acted like giddy eight-year-olds: we couldn’t sit in the same spot in the spacious limo for more than five minutes and we had to touch every button, even if we knew exactly what it would do. The time we spent was purely awesome, however. Sure, we may not have had the deepest conversation—in fact, we probably looked like four goons to the common observer—but absorbing the grins from my three friends made this one of the best nights I’ve had since being home.

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