Chick Habit: Dalton
WORDS BY Dalton Feldhut
I opened my oculars to the wildly vivid fluorescent strips illuminating room 704 in UCLA’s Hedrick Hall. The regular confusion washed over me. As I gathered my bearings, I could not help but feel around my sheets, which were covering two twin-sized mattresses smashed together to form the mythical “megabed.” The concept of a megabed, and the whispers of its existence, arose after my old roommate moved out of our tiny dorm two weeks earlier than quarters-end, so graciously leaving his bed frame behind. In the aforementioned morning fumble, I conducted the daily search for my spectacles. I found that the frames had fallen into a state of disrepair that felt indicative of a much larger issue with myself at the time.
In my blurred state of vision, I glanced around the room, expecting the usual sight; remnants of my roommate’s decor. Gaming memorabilia and large maps of Russian public transportation spotted around the recently emptied walls. I blinked, and suddenly found myself in a dimly lit bedroom facing the interior courtyard of 510 Landfair Ave. Refusing to believe my eyes, I reach to rub them again and give it a good, long blink to come to my senses. I open them to my wall-to-wall decorated bedroom on Glenrock Ave that I am fortunate enough to presently call “mine”. I frantically reach around for my glasses, blinking in and out of each room. A feminine yawn escapes from the pile of blankets next to me, startling me to my core. It seems, yet again, the past few years have completely escaped me.
Try as I might, I can’t help but feel this may be at least somewhat connected to my tumultuous, mostly-unjustifiable affair with digital love. Though it seems to work for others —hookups and marriages alike –, I cannot say I have found my fortune on the heavenly hinge just yet. But I will not shame others, for I still have my pickaxe, and that patch of dirt ahead has a deceptive glimmer to it. I’ve been there. you have been there. we have all been there.
There’s too many examples to recount here in a singular go at it, so I’ve decided to impart stories of more specific flings, immediately following the other tales. in order to unite this motley crew of anecdotes into a whole, sensible piece of work.