So I spent basically five hours in the ER with my friend Josh and this guy, Steve(no, not Stoner Steve or Long Island Hipster Steve). Steve was a guest at Josh's party in the University Courtyards at Newark. I didn't know him, but Josh somewhat knew him. A bunch of the guests decided to hop the fence surrounding the UC pool for a late night swim. To impress some pretty girl, Steve decided he'd do a cannonball into the pool- only he did it at the shallow end. He got a gnarly gash on his head and apparently broke the sixth vertebrae in his neck.

I found Steve on the balcony of the apartment and he looked like he had a small gash at his hairline, so I took him over into Josh's room so Josh could put a bandaid. That's when we saw the large gash on his scalp, and realized that he needed medical attention. The dude's friend, who was there at the apartment, seemed more interested in getting back into the pool than his bleeding friend. I felt bad for Steve so I went with the contingent that took him to the hospital. We got there at 4, and stayed there until 9, when his parents got there. He wound up needing to get two staples in his head, and they said he was going to have to stay there to get a consult for surgery.

My sister was working in the E.R., so I had to get her to promise not to say anything to my Mom because knowing my mom she'd overreact and accuse me of being on drugs or something. We were up so late that I couldn't drive by the time we got back to Josh's apartment, so I had to crash on the couch for two hours, with the lovely smell of cheap alcohol wafting in my nose.

It was a crazy night, and it just seemed so stupid- this guy wanted to impress some pretty girl, and now he's in a neck brace for a month. He's damned lucky that he didn't die or get paralyzed. It made me think about this line I heard from the tv show Girls - "You couldn't pay me to be 24 again." It's seriously a wonder that we survive our 20's at all- we make so many dumb mistakes and stupid decisions.

Is it my 30th birthday yet???