I saw Kurt the other day in all of his arm flailing glory. He was at a Halloween party at an apartment near Illinois State's campus. He was drunk and eventually passed out allowing some prankster to draw a crude depiction of a penis on his cheek.

I was invited by my old roommate to come down and party around campus with the promise that I could crash at his dorm with my girlfriend. She decided against staying in the dorm and we booked a hotel room for the night. We drove to our alma mater without saying much to each other. I assumed we were enjoying the open scenery of the Illinois farmland.

When we arrived at the hotel my old roommate called me to see if I wanted to hang out for a while before the party. My girlfriend informed me that she had no intention of leaving the hotel before the party.

I said that I would at least go and see all my old for a couple hours. For some reason this upset her that I wouldn't spend that time with her. I explained that we see each other every day and that I haven't seen these old friends for months, so I couldn't squander the opportunity without losing a degree of friendship.

After that comment she was livid - crying, shouting and accusing me of not loving her. I responded to her outrageous outburst by saying that it was a forced response to get me to abandon seeing my friends. She became intensely cool and with angst told me to go and have my fun.

I did and was able to forget about the drama for an hour until she started calling me every ten minutes. I became frustrated with trying to calm her over the phone and told her that I'd be back at the hotel in an hour. She kept on calling and I was so agitated that I turned off the ringer on my cell phone.

Arriving back at the hotel she was irate. I thought she had gone insane within the last several hours. I couldn't understand why she was so upset. I assumed that she had anxiety over seeing people we both hadn't seen in almost a year. In fact, she had never been that comfortable in social settings.

She told me that "we" weren't going to the party and insisted that I spend the evening with her alone. I told her that we have spent many evening together in privacy in Chicago and that traveling 150 miles to do so while at the same time alientating all our old friends was ridiculous.

The argument became even more heated and I just shutdown and stopped responding to her absurdity. This made matters worse and she eventually hit me in the face. I was laying on the bed with my back against the bedboard. Her hit forced my head to strike the top edge of the bedboard and it was quite painful.

I became enraged and subdued her and in the process ripped a sleeve from her shirt. Gathering my wits back together, I realized how irrational she had been and I decided to leave her in the hotel room alone and deal with her when she was more in control of her emotions. I gathered my things, concerned that she would destroy them in her rage, and left for the campus without her.

I found out later that while I was out she ordered room service complete with beer and food, and charged it to the room. Then called her father to drive 300 miles round-trip to pick her up.

Feeling a bit depressed I wasn't in my best spirits throughout the night. At the party while most people were mingling I was sitting on a couch smoking and drinking. I saw Kurt and he pretended that he didn't notice me.

See, Kurt was my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, the one before me, and they had lingering tension due to a mutual gay friend that preferred her with Kurt because he was more in possession of her rather than the ex-boyfriend.

I went up to greet him and he was slurring incoherently. Someone told me that he had been drinking since ten o'clock that morning. He had been an alcoholic since before he enrolled at ISU. Within the hour he was laying unconscious on the floor.

Antics continued throughout the night with Kurt at the focus. People removed his shoes and placed them on his hands, they drew upon the exposed parts of his body and when no place was left they took down his pants and made vulgar images on his ass. He passed out near nine and by eleven people grew tired of abusing him.

He was laying across from me in a putrid embarrassing heap. I starting thinking that I wanted to attend this party with my girlfriend but instead I got had her ex-boyfriend's company. I finally found the humor in the situation and shook off the depression and started mingling.

I had several good conversations. People were dressed in costumes and were enjoying themselves and each other. I caught up with all I had missed since graduating. A sophomore girl was flirting with me and I had to inform her that I was spoken for, but nothing became awkward and we all had genuine fun.

At the end of the night I told my old roommate that I had to check on my girl saying that she wasn't feeling well and that was the reason she couldn't join me at the party. I went to the room to find it vacant besides a half eaten meal and four empty beer bottles. The next morning I checked out to find the little extras were charged to the room, doubling the expense of staying there.

I went out to breakfast after checking out and met up with my old friends which included an exgirlfriend of mine sitting at a bordering table. We had a terse conversation, briefly catching up on each other's lives. She had dropped out of school and was working full time. I told her who I was seeing and she replied that it was great I found someone so pure. I laughed and agreed. The remainder of the meal we refrained from speaking. I said good-bye to them all after paying my portion of the check, and they all asked me when I'd come back to visit again. I told them that I'd have to play it by ear. They all seemed to understand and didn't give me hell over it.

I drove home alone. It wasn't much different than the drive down.