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20B - The Michigan Daily - Best of Ann Arbor 1999 - Thursday, April 8, 1999
The Michigan Daily - Best of Ann Ad
A2 Best Restaurants
E Best of Ann Arbor Column
'SENIORITIS'
AFFECTS ALL AGES
have never officially met a rock
star. But I have gotten to know
hundreds and hundreds of students
in Ann Arbor who live the rock-star
life style.
Being a rock 'n' roll phenomenon
usually means being doped up on
some serious drug most of the time
and being drunk all of the time. It
means staying up all night then
sleeping until the late afternoon the
next day. It means doing all manner
of outlandish things, most often in
cramped spaces. It also means hav-
ing lots of sex.
With the exception of the whole
hard-drugging scene, which hasn't
caught on here for want of time,
money and because of the whole
healthy lifestyle craze, most of the
rest of the rock 'n' roll scene does
not seem too different from the lives
the vast majority of us enjoy as full-
time students.
How many times have you gone
the entire term without buying
coursepacks because all of your
money went to the Tuesday night
wait staff at Mitch's? How many
times have you started drinking on
Mar. 3 in preparation for the day
named after St. Patrick? How many
times have you spent every instant
of a weekend steaming things up
with your girlfriend, tearing your-
self away only long enough to go
downstairs to meet the delivery
guy?
Don't misunderstand: College
here is not easy. Most of us go to
class, do our homework and get
decent grades. Most of us have jobs
in addition to school. Most of us
also find time
to get involved
in everything
from publica-
tions or student
government to
theater or stu-
dent activist
groups.
But at the
end of the
week, the day
or the morning
- most of us
also party very,
very hard.
For those in
their last year
at the University,
professors and
other academics
Will
Weissert
Lost in the
Rain in
Juarez
excuse why seniors
I happen to be a senior. I also hap-
pen to have spent more time during
my last year at the University get-
ting rip-roaring drunk on 40s of
Schlitz Ice on a weekday night and
chucking a pumpkin, a lawn chair or
a defunct printer off the roof of my
house than I have writing papers or
doing course readings. I don't hap-
pen to get up before 1 p.m. more
than two days a week - ever. I also
happen to always find an excuse not
to go to class whether it involves a
hangover, my girlfriend or the
Sunday Conversation on the next
morning's replays of Sportscenter.
In my case, the senioritis diagnosis
would seem to be correct enough.
The problem is: I've been like this
for four years. And so has almost
everyone I know.
Most University students are not
seniors. Still, if you aren't yet old
enough to blow all your money at the
bar, maybe you don't buy course
materials preferring instead to pur-
chase the latest EA Sports offering
for Play Station. Maybe you don't
drink so much, so you skip your
classes to watch re-runs of 90210 or
you forget to set your alarm and
"accidentally" sleep until 5:15 p.m. It
seems most of us don't have a signif-
icant other, so we sometimes stay in
bed masturbating until well past the
dinner hour.
Students spend a lot of their time
screwing around - it doesn't matter
McDonald's (Best Fries) Well, their commercials say that
their fries are the most beloved in the country, so why should
the University be any different? And the best part is that the
fries you get on South University Avenue are the same that
you would get in Kentucky, Alaska or Amsterdam. Roy Krock
is very proud of his fryers.
Mitch's (Best Overall Bar) It's not just for Tuesday
nights anymore, man. By night you can play darts and
rock out to the blaring music. You can even hit on
women or have.guys who don't know they don't have a
chance with you buy you exotic drinks. By day the old
adage "It's 5 p.m. somewhere in the world" not only
applies to Mitch's fans, it compels them to climb a
flight of stairs.
Mongolian Barbeque (Best Best Overall Restaurant,
skip four classes a day so they can
run around the Diag barefoot with a
dog and a Frisbee as the fault of a
common disease called "Senioritis."
Put simply: Because fourth-year
students are usually almost finished
with school, they really stop caring
about doing well and just want to
fall on the ball and run out the clock
to graduation - all the while eyeing
the cheerleaders and kegs that await
on the sidelines.
Best Dinner) A
on campus (ev
friends that wc
shirts play on
and sex better
Weeks." Or, pe
lot of grilled f
are great, but g
Jerusalem G
word, it's chea
you get the i
Garden is it is
than you would
town. Come fo:
and student-fri
ment.
how old you are. And the beauty of
it is, we can all get away with it
because we are students and the
consequences we face are never that
severe.
If you sleep through History 408,
you will not be fired from the facto-
ry and not be able to make rent. If
you turn in a paper a day late you
won't lose your health care cover-
age. And on and on.
Of course not everyone has the
luxury of being as lazy as I am.
Still, even if you are one of those
dedicated souls who is putting your-
self through school by working 40-
hours a week on top of taking 21
credits per term - you still find
time to have a little fun once in a
while. By the same token, just
because your an a Harvard-law-
bound Angell scholar doesn't mean
you haven't once gotten drunk and
rode the pumas outside the
University's Natural Science muse-
um - or at least done or witnessed
the doing of something similar.
The great thing about college is
that all this is OK with the rest of
the world. Our time at the
University is like a four-year get-
out-of-jail-free-card issued by soci-
ety as a whole. Because we (at least
in theory) will one day make u,
world a better place with our knowl-
edge - we are allowed to call tak-
ing four classes a full load, spend
entire days at the computer lab
doing little more than e-mail or
spend most nights with some friends
and some beer.
No wonder college life has turned
out how it has - whether you're a
senior or not.
-Will Weissert can be reached via
e-mail at wcw@umich.edu.
NATHAN RUFFER/ Daily
Mongolian Barbeque employee Larry Norris tends the grill. Mongolian won "Best
Dinner" and "Best Overall Restaurant" honors.
1999-2000 Fall/Winter Financial Aid Applicants: 1
READ THE DAILY
IN CLASS, ON THE
DIAG, IN A CAR,
IN THE BAR, AT
HOME, ON THE
PHONE.
READ THE DAILY.
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Need help making
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are eligible, be sure the
Office of Financial Aid (OFA) receives
all your required application materials by:
Friday, April 30, 1999
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