April 22: View from the Roof

Have you ever worked in an office that makes you feel tired, sick, and more than slightly miserable? Within 30 seconds of setting foot in the room or cubicle, you feel 10x less healthy than you would in absolutely any other location on earth. No matter how good you felt before crossing the threshold, your presence in that space raises your body temperature to around 101 degrees and makes you feel like you haven’t reached REM sleep in at least three months.

This used to happen to a good friend of mine in high school. Tim Van Rheenen would immediately begin to experience flu-like systems if he was awake past 10:30. Without fail. It started with a “scratchy throat” and about 10 minutes later he would begin feeling “a bit feverish.” By 11:15 he was delirious with cold sweats and a touch of vertigo. It got fairly dangerous from time to time. Of course he has kicked this since college. Aside from the occasional flare-up.

The Towerlight office tends to have this sort of affect on me, granted a bit less severe. Regardless of how much sleep I get the night before, I am guaranteed to be tired within minutes of entering the room.

It doesn’t get any better when it is a flawless 76 degrees outside, with zero clouds within 12 hours of the Baltimore County line. As a result, PSmith and I ventured around the campus, with no particular goal or destination in mind. At first we tried to get on the balcony atop the Burkshire Hotel across the street form Towson’s campus (about 15 floors above the University Club–home to the best Bacon Cheeseburger on the East Coast). No such luck, the office with the balcony view was closed.

So we settled for the next best thing.

As a sophomore I heard rumors of people going to the roof of the Media Center, for one reason or another. I called a friend of mine, and TSW Producer Ryan Dooley, to see if he knew how to get up there. Sure enough, there is a rusty ladder in one of the custodial closets that leads directly to the roof of the building, and that of the adjacent Cook Library. Money.

Without a moment’s hesitation we climbed up and took a few shots. I got a couple nice ones overlooking the central area of campus. The above shot is a look at the signature bell tower atop Stephens Hall (from which The Towerlight derives its name). I plan on making a few more visits before graduation.

Anyways, the rest of the day was pretty bland. We gathered all the fake bushes in the offices near ours, set them up around the office, and lined them up like bowling pins, as I hurled myself into them a few times. Nothing too exciting.

Speaking of exciting (and bad segways…) 38 minutes until I watch Allen Iverson and the Nuggets take on the Spurs in the office. I should get going.

Does anyone have some DayQuil?