So. Yesterday was Slope Day, an annual tradition here at school. On the last day of classes, most everyone heads out to Libe Slope, this big hill that bisects the Arts Quad and West Campus (dorms). You can see a small chunk of it in the picture below:
For some reason, on this one magic day, the drinking age effectively becomes 17 for anyone standing on the Slope. Every year, the school talks about carding, about restricting what you can bring onto the Slope, and it never really works. I think they effectively kept fifths off of the Slope this year. They offer other stuff too - a DJ at the top of the slope (that glassed in area you can see in front of the library in the picture above), obstacle courses, fried dough, things like that. Nada Surf, that band from the mid-90s that sang some song about a cheerleader, they were here, although I didn't see them.
Back to the main purpose of Slope Day, however - to get rippingly, freakishly drunk. I woke up around 10am, took a shower, and started drinking Wild Turkey with some ice, waiting for a few other people to get up, so we could head to the Slope. About an hour later, some people had amassed in the hall outside, the dorm, and I went out there and had a beer with them, and then orange juice and something, vodka probably. During the time out there, I had brought out the liter of Wild Turkey, and passed that around quickly three or four times (impressive, that everyone here took a shot of it each time, although they all made faces the first time or two).
Headed out to the slope, got some fried dough on the way, or, well, a funnel cake. Tasty food, I like them. It was cold, about 50 degrees, so I think there were only about 3000 people on the slope (it can get up to 6000+ I think). Everyone, clustered together in this gigantic group, as if they were waiting to see a band, standing there drinking. I think that's one of the singular things about Slope Day - there are places where you can be surrounded by 3000 drunks (concerts, mainly), but those people are there to see the concert. How many places you can go to and be surrounded by thousands of people whose only goal is to drink? Few, very few.
The police are great - they don't say anything, they just walk around inside the crowd, making sure everyone's okay. They also play along with the people on the slope: taking pictures, standing in with pictures while people hold beer in front of them, one policeman even mock-chugged a 40 of OE. The swarms of volunteers hand out lots of free shit: t-shirts, portable cameras (I have some pictures). Volunteers rove about inside the throng of people handing out water bottles and bagels with cream cheese, in some vain attempt at keeping people from getting drunk, so on. I went out with about 6 people, although the circle we were in kept growing. After a while, though, the press gets kind of oppressive - people started throwing cans of beer in the air, which was good fun, but I left a little after that. 7 more beers, I think, about 2-3 hours on the Slope. I stumbled home, grabbed a trash can, and fell asleep.
I just woke up. I faintly remember moving my head to, you know, a few times throughout the night. I don't think I've ever slept for 15 hours in a row. So, 9 more days, 27 pages to write.
They have some pictures of the slope from the last two years here: Slope Day.
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