Apres la deluge

Much of Alumni Weekend was stressful and unhappy, due to an unfortunate confluence of emotional factors and bad reactions. On top of that, cold rain fell almost relentlessly, peaking on Friday evening with roadway rivers that swirled around my ankles and soaked my cuffs. But there were some highlights, which will have the spotlight here:

• Before we even arrived, sinsofthedove called to set up dinner plans, and we had a lovely double date with her and tirerim at Baja Fraiche. The 80s music was tuned by Muzak to my personal needs, and the conversation was fun and happy, albeit heavy on the mockery of me. :P sinsofthedove delivered an electric guitar unto me, because it had been feeling lonely and unloved in her room at home. (This made up for forgetting my birthday presents, because now I can rock the world. \m/ \m/ )


• Chelsea and I, long-distance co-workers, got to run into the kitchen of her apartment and gossip about our job. It's so fun to chat with someone who has signed the same NDA as me!


• I organized a trip to Haddonfield, land of my birth, to eat panzarottis, artery-killers of my youth. (A panzarotti is basically a deep-fried calzone, and one of my favorite foods since about age 2.) adfamiliares and I led showergrrl and sinsofthedove on an only-slightly-lost route, and met up with wayman at Franco's, where we collectively polished off delicious fried goodness. I remembered them being larger, for I was much smaller, but they were as tasty as ever.


• Friday evening I found sinsofthedove in George (SWIL's library and storage room), a hot and highly cluttered room up on the fifth floor of Parrish, where I helped her tidy up a bit and we had a really excellent conversation. At one point we were discussing what to do with Piers Anthony's Being a Green Mother, and she suggested I "chuck it out the window or something." So I did. There were no reports of book-related injuries, so I think it was okay.


• ajacs, stowaway_geek, and I rocked the patio Saturday afternoon for English/Scottish dancing. (I think our Flowers of Edinburgh was particularly tight.) Alice U., who'd been out of my life for a decade or so, stopped by to watch and listen, as did flammifera and Julianna P. stowaway_geek kept retreating beneath the trees when the rain threatened to resume, but his playing never wavered.


• [Edit.] How did I forget to mention Lesley Tsina's excellent comedy performance? In the face of old professors, classmates, and three rows of SWIL (who got a shout-out from Alan Kuharski), she brought the house down.


• During the delicious barbecue Saturday evening (thanks, ajacs and showergrrl!), I performed a fun science demo involving Mentos and diet ginger ale. The foam fountain was about 8 feet high. I ran to Worth for an unlubricated condom, hoping to do a second experiment of an inflationary nature, but they were closed, and the Ben West folks wouldn't let me in to grab a condom. I tried to look horny and desperate, but they weren't buying it. God knows why.

Things imploded midway through the BBQ, due to a combination of my dumbth and other people's stressth, and never quite fixed themselves before I had to leave, though they did get better the next afternoon. (There are four or five very simple things I could've done to avoid implosion, and I am kicking myself for not doing them, but they did not seem evident at the time. Pencils got broken and hucked.) I'd sort of like a do-over, but I'm glad I didn't flee on Saturday, as I was half-tempted to do. There were some very nice bits, and I don't think any permanent damage was done.