Success and reunions

So I think I maybe just made a couple of friends. Or at least the beginnings of making of friends. Weirdly, going to University of Virgina has just served me well. I never really expected that. Maybe in the job market - okay, it helped me with my first job out of college (or at least one prof knew of one job available after college with a UVa alum, etc...). But I never expected to find UVa or UVa-related folk later in life that I might actually enjoy. I planned to avoid every UVa sponsored activity I might ever hear about. But now I discovered there are more like me. Exhibit A: Stephanie. She was not a fan of UVa. Not in the Greek life. Not feeling the whole TJ thing. But she was really cool. I couldn't believe she had gone to UVA and even graduated the same stinking year as me - the year of the commencement with speeches from Christopher Reeve (he had recently had his horse accident and gave a speech that was, uber-sadly, mostly inaudible) one day and the craphole Senator (a primarily craptastic election speech, and, of course, uber-conservative) another. And Katie (though not exactly a UVA-er [or "Wahoo" if you prefer]) knew the whole UVa deal and seemed all sarcasmo about it (like Stephanie and I) and seemed way far beyond it. Perhaps I am rising above those less-than-pleasant college memories. Not that I didn't enjoy college. I found my niche there. Eventually. It just over took two years to find a place where I felt like I belonged, and that's a hefty hunk of college. When I was at UW I kept thinking: This is was college should have been like. Not the sorority haze of UVa. The floral print skirts. The formality of everything. The weird traditionalism. It was actually an act of rebellion NOT to wear a dress to a stinking football game (I remember feeling like a bad-ass in my comfortable jeans and t-shirt). Jeesh! What a weird place! Anyway, tonight was cool. I am happy. I have ever so loose and tentative plans to hang out with these folks (shopping has been bantered about as has "quizzo" - which makes me think of "The [BRITISH!] Office} - again (plus, Josh and I provided the bottle of tequila for tonight's festivities, so maybe at least some alcohol-related guilt will inspire them to repay the favor). I hope I have more to say about all of this later.

But speaking of reunions...we're going to Josh's 5-year college reunion tomorrow. It cracks me up. I about peed my pants when I first heard word of my UVa 5-year. As if! Stephanie (see above) felt similarly. Weirdly, one of my good friends from UVa, Monica, wanted to go. That was about the weirdest of all, b/c she never seemed to buy into the whole UVa thing. She never even went to fraternity parties (which seemed as much part of the curriculum as...I don't know...math?/English?/Thomas Jefferson history?/Katie Couric?). Anyway, it was weird to me that she wanted to go. So I didn't go. And now I'm going to some other college for some other 5-year reunion. A place towards which someone actually has warm feelings and only warm feelings (or mostly warm feelings). A place where someone knew (or at least knew of) just about everyone. So weird. So I look forward to hanging with the Mules and having the song "Allentown" stuck in my head all day. I apologize in advance if it gets on your nerves. Anyway, here's to you, Muhlenberg College, a place that people actually genuinely liked and didn't just feel ambivalent (or mostly ickiness) towards! And here's to the class of, gulp, 2000!