#Atlantis2013

You know how whenever you go on vacation, you get back and you're even more tired than you were before? That's exactly what I'm experiencing right now, even though I didn't even go anywhere outside my city.

UC just had its spring break, and I had no plans. Nearly all of my friends were going to great places, whether it be Gatlinburg or Florida or somewhere completely out of the country, and I was going to be staying at my apartment in Clifton. I wasn't too happy about it, but I ended up having one of the greatest spring breaks, somehow almost without even leaving about a mile radius from my apartment. We had epic battles, ate good food, had some of the funniest moments of our lives, watched movies, and even went new places.

It all started with an innocent invitation for the few remaining (maybe five or six of us) friends in Cincinnati to head over to my apartment to play some cards or watch some movies. From that point on, there were mere hours between times that we were all hanging out. A little card game called Cards Against Humanity was a real catalyst in the whole week. It's a game very similar to Apples to Apples, but this one really pushes the envelope in a lot of ways. It forces you to break boundaries on what you would normally joke about in terms of inappropriateness, the battle of the sexes, religiousness, and so many other things.

This was one of the things that I felt like made our week feel like an actual vacation that friends would go on during spring break. In all the vacations I've gone on with whatever friends tagged along with me, we always returned home with our friendship changed and deepened so much. The combination of how often we were together with the level of closeness it required to be able to play that game together (and not think worse of/be disgusted with each other and the offensiveness it brought, as well as ourselves) really created a whole new level of closeness in our group. Sure, I knew these people beforehand, but spending the whole week with them in that kind of setting, whether it was across the country or in my living room created the very same effect.

Not only did we hang out and goof off together, but we cooked and ate together. Eating together has always been something of vital importance to me and getting to know someone, almost like it's the last supper with Jesus and the disciples or something. I'm pretty sure there's a reason he chose the dinner table for the last time he would eat with his bros. I feel like the "breaking of bread" together just creates a whole sense of community that you really can't find anywhere else. Especially when the folks you're eating with chew with their mouths open or talk with their mouths full, but that's a whole other level of closeness (and one that's not really very desirable.)

Along with the eating together, we fought together. It was quite possibly the battle of the century, all starting from the baking of a cake. It was the first cake cooked in my kitchen, and holy schnikes was it good. But all that flavor came at a great cost. That cost was the cleanliness of our faces, our bodies, our hearts.
We had a cake icing fight.
Maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but it sure felt dramatic. It all started when Emily smashed some white icing onto Mikeyy's face. Mikeyy retaliated with the brown icing. Brooks felt left out, so he pasted icing onto his own face. Mikeyy put some icing on Grace's nose. Logan and I were the only ones left. Yes, we had a katana and a BB gun, but they were no use against the power of the icing. We retreated to my room, him hiding in the corner, while I buried myself in the mess in my closet. Nothing could stop the onslaught of the icing though, and in the end, there were no survivors. There was nothing left but desolation and chocolate cake. Many shirts and coats were ruined that night. Chocolate entered into eyes that it didn't belong. Trust was wounded, friendships were broken. Well, in this instance, not broken, but strengthened.
So yes, we fought together. Afterwards, we rebuilt together as well. We rebuilt with the common interest of cake.

We did a lot more than that too. We hung out at coffee shops, went to new pizza places, watched a couple movies together, went to an art museum, really got to know each other. We even shared worst fears (like vacuum cleaners...and that information was promptly abused.) All of our friends were going on about Gatlinburg and Florida and wherever else they ended up, so we even came up with our own little name for our--#Atlantis2013. I thought my spring break was about to be boring on so many different levels, but it turned out to be one of the best ones yet, and I didn't even have to leave my city. I guess it's nice to know that it's not the location that makes the vacation, but the people you take it with.