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I'm at home now. I wish I could sleep... but yesterday the whole house got up early, causing me to get up early with nothing to do (I later took a nap) and now today I have to go pick up my cousin from the airport so there's really no point in going back to bed....
The last week has been pretty crazy, what with all the traveling I've been doing. Boston last week was a lot of fun. I didn't want to leave, so that has motivated me to start looking for jobs again. Only I have yet to have time to do that. Hehehehehehe. Later today, maybe. I hung out with Herb and Jeff - we did Herb's laundry, went to 1369 Coffee Shop, S&S Restaurant, back to the apartment, then picked up Rebecca and purchased UpWords. So the night was spent playing board games and drinking wine. I enjoy the fact that Herb came in last in UpWords (I came in second). :-)
Wednesday was the meeting with the Analog Devices people. Their foyer is nice, though they had fish in a pond that was way too shallow for them. I don't think I learned all that much from the meeting, and it went on and on and on... at this point, I just want to get the data and jump right in - I think that's what we need to do. I think it would be really great if we were able to find out some really cool things about the data and the company just by doing straight, plain analysis instead of going in with pre-conceived notions about what we should find. The one other person in the group who's taking data mining is cool with that idea, but no one else is. They seem to need to get all these questions answered, and I do not see the point in that. I also don't WANT to know the answers to all the questions they are asking, because I think they'll taint our results. Ahh well. And despite how nice the hotel was (full kitchen and living room), I did not sleep well so I was way tired. After the meeting, I went back to Herb's and we went to make copies of something for me to give to Will and got McDonald's. I was going to head back to Ithaca after that, but I was about to fall over and would have had to drive in rush hour traffic, so I stayed and layed down for about an hour and a half (the idea was a nap but I couldn't fall asleep again). I then hung out while Herb and Jeff discussed their bar plans (which was interesting at first but now they've gotten into nitty gritty details and I say just build the damn bar), stuck around for the West Wing (which is good because the episode was so good and Cat forgot to tape it for me), then headed back to Ithaca. I got home at about 3:30am.
Thursday I got up and started running around. I bought wine, went to watch presentations for Inventory Management (note that I never actually gave a presentation for inventory management, since my group had to go on Wednesday without me), held my office hours (which were super-busy - I'm glad I normally hold them on Wednesdays), went home for a few minutes just to learn I needed to run another errand right away, went to Colloquium (they all seem the same after a full semester of these lectures - this one was on biomedicine), went home and then left right away to go to Syracuse to see A Perfect Circle. Jamie, Anubhav and Kristen (Initiate) and I met up with Bolcar in Syracuse for the concert and it was really really good. I'm sad they don't have more music yet, because it was kinda short, but still good. Definitely worth going to Syracuse for. It was 11:30pm when I got home, and we were leaving for Charlotte at 5:00am. Needless to say, I didn't sleep. Between packing for Convention, packing for Illinois (since I was getting home from Charlotte late Sunday and leaving for Illinois Monday afternoon), debating my political views with Herb for 3 hours (though when am I not doing this) and trying to get some work done on the Inventory Management written report, I was up the whole time.
Paragraph transition doesn't seem appropriate since I didn't sleep, but whatever. Friday early morning started the trek to Charlotte. We took Kathy and Chris's cars (yay for my car not going) and Dana's car left several hours later. I actually managed to sleep for 7 hours in the car - this is mad impressive for me since I usually cannot sleep in a moving car (or a car in general). Before lunch, we stopped at a wine store, which was fun. :-) I then drove after lunch until we got to Charlotte. It was quite warm in Charlotte, which was really nice. Friday night involved the bazaar.... I bought kazoos which don't work but are kazoos, a knit hat that has Phi Sigma Pi in Greek letters on it, and Kathy and Chris bought me a godfather shirt (it's from two chapter's founders day and says "Ten years in the family"). Then there were silly regional activities.... the highlight, though, was that our region's poster was really cool. It had all the chapters listed by Chapter name and school, and then had some sort of PSP gang sign, and read, "Gangs of the Northeast." Then at the bottom, it said, "We'll keep each other warm at night." Someone from Delta Alpha did the artwork, and it was really really good. I even heard some of the staff commenting on how good our poster was. After all the official stuff, the real fun began... our chapter found some Alpha Rho brothers to hang out with (courtesy of Cynthia, who had met them when she was still at her other chapter), so we kinda followed them around to various rooms, drinking their alcohol. We ended up in one of Gamma Epsilon's (University of Florida) rooms, where I stayed for quite awhile until I remembered that it's no fun to be sober when everyone else is trashed and screaming and there are far too many people crammed into a small hotel room. So I went back to our set of rooms to greet the rest of our party who'd just arrived, and then I went to bed.
Let me take a minute to tell you how nice the Westin was. You know how when you stay at a hotel the blankets and comforters on the beds are pretty thin and unimpressive? Well, in addition to sheets with a high thread count, these beds first had a down blanket, then a regular acrylic blanket and then a cushy comforter on top of that! In addition to about 10 pillows on each bed. The rooms had mini-bars, too (don't worry, we didn't open them). And the food... I'll get to that later.
So Saturday morning was a small breakfast and then some conference stuff. There was the State of the Fraternity address, which was hopeful, realistic and motivating. I think Tammy did a good job with that. There was also a keynote speech by an alum from the Sigma Chapter who's now 88 years old. Though it had nothing to do with Phi Sigma Pi directly, I thought it was cool to hear about his life (though okay, maybe it was a little long). There was a leadership workshop that I slept through half of (I have a short attention span) and then a workshop about alumni, during which I realized I lost my Service Key, so Cat and I left that to go and find it - luckily we did! Lunch for me was the VIP/Alumni Luncheon, which was my first experience with the food. Yummy salad and cheese ravioli with a pesto sauce and grilled shrimp and vegetables to top it. And cheese cake... mmmm. The portion on the main course was quite small, though. Decent portions on everything else. During the lunch our table talked about the role of alumni in chapters. After lunch was my committee meeting that didn't happen, because for the second time in a row, I was the only person to show up! So then Demetri and I went to try and get the internet working in the hotel room so we could do work, but that failed so I took a nap on the cushy bed (I had slept on the floor the night before). The banquet was nice - the tables only had 10 seats so I went and sat on my own, which meant sitting with people I know from Delta Alpha and Epsilon Alpha. I think the chapter was bothered that I ditched them, but whatever. Maybe they should start getting used to not having me around. And Delta Alpha won an award, so it was nice to be by them when that happened. Banquet food was good, too, of course - more salad, roasted chicken and green beans and garlic mashed potatoes, followed by this mocha cotta thing that was half gelatin, half mouse in texture with a strawberry sauce - that was REALLY yummy. And the best part of the food... Tim (DA) and I got tea, and the way they brought it to you was really cool... you got a mug of hot water, and a plate that had two Tazo tea bags on it (so you had a choice between black and herbal tea), a small personal jar of honey and a slice of lemon. It was classy. The afterparty followed, and I danced some, but you all know me and dancing - when I do it, I get bored after 20 minutes. Kathy and I walked a little outside the hotel - we found a strip club with purple neon lights on MOREHEAD AVE, which was exciting. We took a picture of the street sign and then went back to tell everyone we went to a strip club, even though we didn't go inside. I then wandered between the dance and our hotel rooms before settling on sleep. I got more sleep at this convention than any other one, probably because there was not a whole lot going on, and this year, unlike last year, I did not know as many people.
Sunday, we drove back. I drove for about 8 hours. I was also a travel nazi while doing it. I insisted on leading, since Chris is kind of an erratic driver, but he kept passing me until I called and yelled at him. I then got a call requesting that we stop at a Waffle House, so I started looking for one and got kinda excited about the idea of going to one. But 10 minutes later, I got a call saying we had to stop right away, because the other car has no willpower as far as eating and using a restroom. So I reluctantly stopped at this Pink Cadillac Diner, which was disappointing. Ironically, though, as we were finishing our meal, the other car, which had left earlier than us since they like to make more frequent stops, walked in! No communication and they chose the same place! We got back on the road, and half an hour later, Chris insisted that we stop AGAIN to use the bathrooms. So I got off the highway in a place where there was nothing and kept driving and turning, and the other car decided that I was driving into the countryside so that I could kill Chris, chop him into a million pieces and they wouldn't be found. Eventually, though, I found a Dairy Queen, which made Kathy really happy, and we then got back on the highway. Now, there hadn't been any Waffle Houses for miles, but of course, all of a sudden they appeared again. Kathy and I commented at every exit for several hundreds of miles. I was tempted to stop before we got out of Virginia, then I was tempted to stop at every exit in West Virginia (only 30 miles were in WV), then I was tempted to stop at every exit in Maryland (only 10 miles were in Maryland)... each time it was too early for dinner. I was sure that I wouldn't see another Waffle House once we crossed the Mason Dixon Line, but miraculously, there was one, and it came not too long before I was planning on finding a place to stop anyways! Kathy and I started screaming "WAFFLE HOUSE!!!" and I slammed on the breaks. I think the other once again thought I was going to kill them. The Waffle House was definitely NOT worth all the hype Kathy and I gave it, but at that point, we had to go. Kathy drove the rest of the way, which let me rest my eyes (though not really sleep).
Getting home was kinda welcomed, though I was immediately overwhelmed. For one thing, Anthony pretty much pounced on Cat and I the moment we walked in the door about taking out trash. I refused. If he'd waited an hour or so, that would have been fine, but right when we walked in the door? Let me settle in first! I felt bad, because Cat did help out, but I just wasn't up for it yet. And come on, I try and do what I can around that apartment. I'm the only one who's ever cleaned the bathroom (and we've lived there how long?). I clean the kitchen fairly regularly, both with cleaning dishes and taking out garbage and whatnot. I try and keep the living room in reasonable order. I open up my room to people. And Cat and I have definitely taken out the trash without Anthony before. If it was such a big concern to him, he could have done it himself anytime over the weekend. Whatever. I also came home to several emails from various group project people, wanting me to do some things that night or the next day. I did what I could that night, and then I blew off everything else. I actually made a pretty big effort to make sure that my not being around that week would not be that much of an impact, but I obviously failed. Ahh well. I ended up missing a problem set that was due Monday, because I thought it was going to be due the FOLLOWING Monday, silly me. Those things happen, though.
Monday was okay. I went to one class, and then skipped another because Andrew swung through Ithaca on his way home from Syracuse (he ditched Convention this year to go to Beta Epsilon's formal). It was good to see him, and his friend Meredith, who's a BE alum now at Cornell's Vet School, is really nice. We ate at the Pita Pit, which was apparently very important to Andrew since he ate at the Pita Pit in Syracuse over the weekend and they screwed up his Pita. After lunch, I went to another class, and then packed up my stuff to leave. I only forgot a few things. :-) I made it to my Aunt's house in record time, sorta, since I got lost as she now lives in a very busy part of town with lots of stores and it was sleeting sideways and there was lots of traffic so I couldn't find the street! I only missed it by a little bit, though, and was smart enough to turn around not long after it. Tricia and I then descended upon Illinois, and got in around 2:00am CST, which isn't bad.
And that brings us up to my arrival in Illinois. I'll post later about this actual visit, but this entry is long enough as it is!
- Lizzardie, at 9:06 AM
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