What the sunshine does...

April 18, 2010 - 6:14 PM

In the three years I have spent in Eugene, I have been able to depend on a few things: the first weekend of the year brings out the partiest of partiers, Frog will try to sell people joke books come rain or shine, and if in fact it is shining, people flock to the streets, fields, rooftops, courtyards, sidewalks, bike trails, and front porches.

Sunshine brings out the college town quality of Eugene like nothing else.

This weekend, we have had GORGEOUS weather, and with it came hundreds of college students pseudo-studying, part-playing, and in large-part lounging in the beautiful spring weather.

It has been this all three years I have spent here. When I was living in the dorms, it was seen as absolutely crazy to be inside on a sunny day. If you were sitting in your dorm room when the sun was shining, people would flock to your door to drag you outside and into the sun.

Last year, in front of the Harris House, which is where I lived, we had a plateau of grass in front of our building. All spring long, girls in bikinis would lay out there with sunglasses and unopened textbooks.

This year, while I walked around the neighborhood with my friend's puppy, nearly every house and building had students pouring out of the doors and windows into the sun.

I even saw one guy with his bare mattress perched atop a breezeway roof. He had sunglasses and an iHome keeping him company as he peered down at the smorgasbord of girls in bathing suits in the lawn beneath him.

Even though I had tons of things that needed to get done, when I was invited to play whiffle ball on the lawn behind the library, I couldn't resist. I wondered when the next time I would be invited to play whiffle ball with a bunch of young people would be, so I rationalized it by acknowledging the fleeting youth that becomes apparent in one's last term in college.