Old Friends

A friend from my undergraduate days called today. Thanks for the wonderful conversation, Maureen. There's something about the fall that seems like a good time to connect with old friends, especially ones I have met through school. Maureen and I met, I think, in an Honors Political Science class. If it wasn't in that class, it was right around that time (which is also when I met Nedda, Heidi and Becky). I just took a look at my transcript, and that would be fall 1993. 13 years ago. Zoiks!

We spoke for an hour about nothing and everything, which means it was perfect. Friends we have known have lost parents, had children, or moved into/out of Michigan. I love catching up, though I am not the world's best correspondant (just ask my friend Maureen in London). But as I told Geoffrey the other day, and Maureen today, as long as I know where people are and that they are doing well, I'm good.

Which is one of reasons I really like MySpace. It's established enough at the moment that some of my classmates are starting to post their pages, and Geoffrey figures it will be about two years before the whole thing collapses under its own self-importance. In the meantime, I can find some of the people I haven't spoke with or thought about since I graduated from Bishop Foley.

The nostalgia jones are bad enough that I am typing and watching a very old VHS of my high school graduation. It's pretty much the same as most high school videos - footage of a pep rally, prom and graduation. I just watched myself cross the stage. I had long hair and a sprial perm. It's pretty darn funny. I'll have to scan in a prom photo sometime.

If I were the drinking sort, I would probably be bleary-eyed from a mist of nostalgia. But you know, by the tiime I was a senior, I had already been though a house fire, three months living in a Residence Inn (which, I assure you, is not a glamorous as it sounds), and my father passing away. My yearbook entries my senior year were pretty bland, and I slept for a week after graduation. And I really liked high school. I am happy to say I am still in touch with many good friends (shout out to Patti, Lori, Doug, and my newly rediscovered MySpace crew), I just felt like I couldn't relate. I am not saying this was anyone's fault. I imagined myself as the maiden aunt and resorted to extreme sarcasm to keep boys at bay who I thought wouldn't like me anyway. I didn't give myself the chance to find out.

By the time I got to WSU, it was time for a fresh start. I got involved in Student Council and made up for the fact that WSU was (and probably still is) 98% commuter. I say probably it's probably still 98% ccommuter since many of the res hall students go home on the weekends. But this was 1993, and we moved into the offices in the Student Center and made it our home for three or four years.

Oh man, it's at the part of the graduation ceremony where I led a small crackpot choir in our Alma Mater. I grafted the start of a song in "Sing" to the beginning and then we went into the Foley Alma Mater.

One more time
Sing the song
There's a power in our voices
Hopeful and strong

Years from now
Somewhere down the line
We'll remember and we'll all sing
One more time

And then, oh the horror!, Jeff C. and I sing "Just for a Moment." Many of you know the song as its instrumental version "The Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire." Dan created the instrumental on the computer, and it went just a touch too fast. Oh, I'll have to digitize those parts of the video, at least.

I'll try to post more on this later. The big thing is, I am so completely blessed. I married a friend I grew up with during those undergraduate and graduate years, and I have kept many of my friends from high school, some of whom I have known since kindergarten.

I'm pretty sure this is just the start of a (hopefully) short maudlin phase.

More later!
^_^