I am in the midst of the end of the semester crunch, my last end of the semester crunch at Sarah Lawrence College, and it is intense, as usual. SLC's end of term is particular because the average student has 2-4 conference papers (20-25 page semester long thesis projects), dance concerts, art shows, and regular class assignments (usually including additional 5-10 page papers).

So last Monday (almost two weeks ago), my roommate had a conference with her professor who said something like, "Your thesis is crap. You haven't done enough work. I am not confident that your final project will be good enough." (Or so it was perceived.)

NOTE: This friend is a complete workaholic. She is an academic to the bone and forgoes work for nothing. Unfortunately, she hasn't found the work particularly rewarding this semester. She is doing work that she needs to get into grad school, but nothing she is particularly interested in. She also doesn't handle stress well.

So this conference was crushing, absolutely crushing. She felt like all her work and stress and discipline was for nothing. And, she has tons more to do, and not just for that class. So what else do you do when one of your friend is flipping out? Get ICE CREAM!!!

Sarah, Erin, and I hopped in my car; Sarah shotgun and Erin at the third door. Erin provided the Andrew "Less Dirty, but just as Smelly" mix for our listening pleasure. Sarah started to skip through the tracks (not appreciating Andrew's craftsmanship), so I was happy when she moved to the back with Erin. We went to Central Ave, the commerce center of Yonkers, and decided to stop at every ice cream shop we saw (minus Baskin Robbins, because they're lame).

First stop Carvel's! I don't think any of us had been there before. We entered the small shop, looked around, glanced at the ice cream cakes, then noticed the lack of labels on the ice cream bins (some had labels, but not all). Sarah slammed her wallet on the counter and took charge. "Sir, what's your favorite flavor?" "I like the soft ice cream." (not helpful) I tasted something I knew we wouldn't get, because I always love tasting one flavor and ordering another. We decided upon the Artic Almond Blast (or something, please correct me) because Erin likes Penguins. Really, that was our only reason, and that is was for a limited time only, we saw the label but not the corresponding tub. And the penguins pulled through, they always do!! It was a dark, fudgy, chocolate base with almonds and other delicious snacks mixed in. One regular scoop in a cup, with three spoons.

Next we went to the TCBY inside the Nathan's complex. We entered with our three plastic spoons and the end of our Carvel's ice cream. It looked like they had a great play room, but a pathetic frozen yogurt selection. We finished our Carvel's inside, threw away the cup, and left without a replacement frozen delight.

But that's okay, because last is Cold Stone Creamery. Overpriced, but always serving delightful delights. We decided to get two cups "love it" size. "Sir, what's your favorite flavor?" "Cake Batter." (not what we wanted to hear.) We went with Erin's staple, White Chocolate ice cream with Gummi Bears. Sarah tasted the Pumpkin ice cream, and decided it was a go. I chose to add Oreos. Pumpkin and Oreos, yum.

Sarah and Erin got in the back of the car, while I drove. At the stoplights I handed Sarah my spoon saying, "Fill 'er up!" and she returned the spoon filled with half White Chocolate mixture and half Pumpkin mixture. The white chocolate tasted a little mocha-ish, but still good. As we passed TCBY at Nathan's Erin said, "Shake your fist." Neither Sarah nor I understood to whom, so I shook Northeast, Sarah shook South and Erin shook due West towards the TCBY that let us down.

The adventure left me with a sugar high, a sugar low, and an evening-long stomachache. What more could one ask for?

*Since this adventure, we have had two more ice cream runs and two rhubarb cobbler nights.