Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Quilting, Wine, and Wands?

Hello again! I jsut got back from a lovely lunch where I was sitting with some Lexingtonian ladies who told me all about their quilting guild and master gardener's club and other such activities. Lexington seems like such a lovely place to retire.

Well the past week or so has been really nice. I have come to find out that the AC participants are (with few exceptions) unbelievably sweet and adorable. They're just such genuinely nice people. Yesterday Danielle and I got a knock on our suite door and we opened it to this woman who had been with the program for two weeks in a row, and while standing in the hall she launched into this entire story about how she knows we're not allowed to accept gratuity but she just had to get us something so she bought all the RAs cookies from Coco Mill. It was such a kind gesture, we were all so excited. If we thought the people last week were old, well they're even older this week. The theme is Verdi and Vino, so we have about 65 opera and wine lovers to tend to. They're a little more demanding and needy than past groups but they're very nice and fun to chat with. I drove the golf cart yesterday, which I've decided I really enjoy doing because people are so grateful for it. They may ask for a lot but they're also quite appreciative when we do it for them. We did have one resident this week who left today because of health problems. He collapsed during dinner the other night (I must have been really engrossed in my table's conversation because I completely missed the incident) and was taken to the hospital. He stayed in all day yesterday but still wasnt feeling better so he went home. Scary...I'm really hoping I don't walk into one of my rooms to take out the trash and find a dead person or something. We're all a little scared of that I think.

Now, I'm pretty tired today because last night Stephen and I (along with Danielle, Mike, and half of Lexington's youth) went to Lexington's own R/C State Cinema 3 to watch the midnight premier of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! It was thrilling! The movie itself I thought was pretty good. It definitely diverted a lot from the book but that's to be expected. I thought it was hilarious and relatively well-done. Definitely worth seeing. I want to be Ron Weasley's best friend. But probably the most entertaining part of the night was sharing the theater with a large group of angsty lexingtonian high school kids. First off, they were waiting outside the theater by 8:00. I think my group showed up at around 11:25 and we still managed to get perfectly fine seats. Whenever people would drive down Nelson St past the theater these kids would yell and scream and wave. Many were dressed up. One of our favorites was this girl wearing a full-on cloak and carrying some kind of extremely strange stick. We think it was supposed to be a wand? But it looked more like a tree branch. Next to her was a girl who was wearing an extremely flowy flowerypatterned concoction that i'm guessing was supposed to be a costume for some identifiable character. But then again, maybe she just dresses in the medieval hippy style for kicks? Her bright gold scarf in her hair was kind of a distraction as well. I really wanted to take a picture of these kids for posterity so Julia Miglets (whom I was sitting next to) graciously offered to lean out into the aisle so i could attempt that awkward "Oh look I'm taking a picture of you while really its the people behind you that i want to capture on film" kind of thing, but I generally fail at such subtlety. So the flash of course goes off really obnoxiously and the girls (smart cookies, they were) call me out and say in an unearthly annoying voice "Oh my gosh you just took a picture of us!" First reaction: ignore them, darn narcissists. "You did didn't you!" Second reaction: turn around embarrassed and deny it. "You can take another one. Here get one of me and my friend" Third reaction: just ignore. The girl was wearing an obscene amount of eye liner and to be perfectly honest I was kind of intimidated. For the rest of the night every time I turned around to talk to Samara and Beth who were sitting behind me, the girl was staring at me. Not okay. So I turned my attention to other people in the theater. My eyes fell on this one chick a few rows infront of me who was dressed perfectly normally, with really cute clothes actually, but she was wearing an eye patch. I'm sorry...is this the midnight premier of Pirates of the Caribbean? No, i don't think so. Maybe she's a hardcore mad-eye moody fan? Too bad he wasn't even in this movie. Other interesting characters included little nerdy 15 yearish old boy in glasses, a harry potter t-shirt, and leather shoes who kept turning around to look at Julia and myself. I think he was sitting alone. Julia thought he was special. He looked like a nice boy. Then there was the obnoxious group of kids to the side and infront of us who kept running back and forth and switching places and flirting with eachother...the early teenage hormones were rampant. They kept yelling out countdown numbers (OMG 13 minutes everyone! TWO MINUTES LEFT!) which prompted Julia to mutter "Chill out, it's not the second coming of Jesus Christ". Now, I was just as excited as the next person for this movie to come out but I think these kids overcaffinated themselves in preparation for the big night. It also probably didn't help that they kept going out of the theater and coming back with huge bags of candy.

Anyway, that was the harry potter experience, which I feel made it lots more of an experience. The air conditioning kept coming on and off in the theater during the movie, making a very very loud rumbling noise, which kind of added to the suspense of the film, I feel. Way to go Lexington. I'm proud of you for being legit enough to have a midnight showing of Harry Potter. I'm glad I went to it. Even though I'm tired today.

Well that's it for now. I'm off to Campus Kitchens and Stephen is off to pick up his lost swipe card from Wendy's. How it got there, don't ask.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Bah Humbug

Here is my update. Short and sweet.
Alumni College is fun. I'm warming up to Rob and Suze and Tracey officially has a place in my heart. She is probably one of the eclectic, hilarious people in this small town. Life in Lex is as great as ever.

Otherwise, I found myself "contemplating my place in the universe" when I went tubing with Mike and Tyler. I've decided that tubing is a far better occasion for contemplation than stargazing is.
Shiri is right, these people are old.

Sorry Emily and Youval. Stop complaining.

Our apologies for failing at updating this thing. Once we got into the swing of alumni college there was much much less free time, but now I've got a few moments so I'll give you a quick recap of the past week.

Last week's program was on the Vietnam War so we had lots of really interesting alumns who were all somehow involved in the war--most of them were actually on the ground. Their stories were incredible and I know I learned a ton about what it was like over there and how they've dealt with the aftermath. Our oldest alumn graduated from W&L Law in 1949 (you can do the math to figure out his age) and our youngest was from the class of 2007 (it was refreshing to have some young blood and a guaranteed fun time at all the cocktail parties). So there was quite a range of ages, but most graduated sometime in the '60s. There were definitely some characters in the group. I wont use their real names but I'll give you the rundown on some of the most odd.

There was Mr. BB who I sat next to at dinner one day. I made the mistake of asking him what kind of work he does (he went to VMI then W&L Law) and he responded with an approximately 33 minute long detailed account of this one case he had worked on (he's an insurance lawyer). I think I understood the first 5 minutes, then kind of zoned out, then was so lost that I only grasped about one out of every 17 words for the rest of the story. I sat there nodding, "okay"ing, "oooh really?"ing, and otherwise making noises and body language insinuating that I was interested in what was going on. He went on through the salad, main course, and half of dessert. When he was finally through we joined back in to listen to the table's conversation. Someone mentioned something about owning a house in New Jersey, and he leaned over and said to me "You know, I had this case in New Jersey once..." and proceeds to tell me about the case. Good Lord. Eventually he leaves (thank goodness) and the man sitting on the other side of me leans over and says "You'll get your purple heart tomorrow morning for sitting and listening to that whole thing". Ohhhh Mr. BM, you're my new favorite. It was pretty funny.

Mr. AC was probably everyone's favorite person to talk about because he was just so odd. He's the kind of person who would repeat stories over and over again but they were not funny or interesting the first time (graduated W&L in 1962. He also had an interesting sense of style. He showed up to a cocktail reception one night wearing some kind of tunic-type wear that screamed "Discuss amongst yourselves from which region/time period this attire springs forth!" After the RAs and '07 grad discussed the matter, we concluded that it was either African Tribal garb, traditional Mexican, or Aztec. We should have asked. I'm sure he would have given us a lengthy description of whence it came, what it represents, from which plant the dye for each color of the fabric comes, and anything ese we asked. He was an interesting fellow to say the least. Nice, nice guy, but a bit of a handful at times.

Mr. BD was everyone's favorite person to talk TO because he was just legit. He was a star football player for W&L, fought with the Marines in Vietnam, was big in the magazine business, drives a beautiful Jag, and now lives in Palm Beach, FL. He was so cool. The RAs would fight with each other for who got to sit at his table for meals. Danielle and I were really into playing matchmaker with him and one of our bosses....they had "struck up a friendship" a few years ago and we were all about rekindling the friendship and allowing it to flower. Gosh, he was so cool.

Stephen loved Mr and Mrs H, they hooked him up with some connections in Africa and South Carolina. I loved Mr. and Mrs. L who were just the nicest most awesome people ever from Charleston, WV. There were also these three musketeers from New York who drank a lot and were really intimidating but hilarious. There was a guy from Little Rock who knew more about baseball than anyone I've ever met. Basically there were lots of really cool people. We were pretty sad to see them go.

This week, there are some other characters. The average age of the participants has increased about 20 years. We have some grads from class of 1950, our youngest is from 1970. They're definitely up there age-wise. Let's just say there are a lot more golf cart passengers this week. Speaking of golf carts, as I was loading people on yesterday to drive them from lunch to the classroom to watch a documentary (When the Moors Ruled in Europe, actually quite interesting, surprisingly enough) I heard this clank. One of the passengers was Mrs. H from St. Louis who drives herself here every year all the way for Missouri and carries her own bags and is remarkably self-sufficient considering her ancient age. After the clank, she squeals and yells to me "Wait! Don't go anywhere, dear! I dropped my cane!"

Ohhhh Alumni College. I'll give you more info on this week's events soon enough but now i'm off to watch Michael Jackson's memorial service and facebook stalk the W&L Class of 2013 by way of their facebook group, then i'll go hang out with some cool kids at the Lexington Office on Youth (I have to get some youth in my life after dealing with 70+ year olds all day). Here's hoping there wont be as much time between posts next time.

Monday, June 29, 2009

And so it begins

Well, folks, it has begun. Yes, the first week of Alumni College is underway. The lack of posts from the past couple days clearly indicates that we RAs have been quite busy. There’s a SNu conference going on and we had to distribute linens to every single room in Gilliam, Davis, and Graham Lees. White the task. We spent Saturday finalizing preparations for the first batch of Alumns. We made beds, distributed towels and set up their little display that consists of a wine bottle, wine glass, flowers, box of chocolates, and other classy kitsch things.

First we all had to pass the Rob Fure room inspection which was no easy feat…I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who was super nervous. Luckily that happened without too much disappointment on the part of Rob and Susie and we filed over in our little blue Special Programs Polo Shirts to the registration table. Registration was a funny experience because Rob, Susie, and Tracey (our three AC bosses, if you didn’t figure that out, we’ll refer to the three of them as RST) know pretty much EVERYONE. A program participant would walk up and RST would see the person, know who it was, have their nametag ready, and tell the RA’s their life story. RST seriously know everything about every one of these participants. The alumns have been coming to these programs year after year and they’ve all struck up quite intense friendships. It’s really interesting. Pretty cool, actually.

Our first real event (other than my campus tour that was kind of lame but fun) was a reception before dinner. There was an open bar with many kinds of exotic alcohol which was entertaining because there was also wine with dinner and tons of beer in the lounge (and wine in their rooms…apparently people don’t lose their affinity for alcohol after they leave W&L). we got to chat with a number of different people: an ’07 grad who is now a high school teacher in New Jersey who was anxious to talk to some other young people, a ’62 grad who was on the EC when he was here (fascinating guy), and a few others. The oldest person we have is a law school grad from the class of 1949! Pretty old. It’s a sprightly and really interesting bunch and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better as the week goes on. We already know a lot of them by name and hometown and they’ve already shared some great stories, so it should be a great week. Now off to lunch (oh yeah, the food is amazing. Last night’s dinner was unbelievably delicious and even breakfast was kind of exquisite….delish). More to say later.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Oh the gems you find at Goodwill.

Danielle and I went to Goodwill this morning to rescue one of her sorority heirlooms (long story). While we were not able to successfully complete the mission we set out to accomplish, we did find some sweet shades. That cost us each a grand total of $1.56. I feel I should show them to you now.

Settle Down, Now

Alright I've had some complaints that this thing hasn't been updated in a few days. I would like to say it's because we've been uber busy doing really cool things but in actuality it's because we have done nothing even remotely exciting that's worth writing about. However, there are a few things I guess I can say.
1. I have been asked this several times by several individuals so I'll just put it out on the internet to set the record straight. Yes, Stephen M Wilson has deactivated his facebook. If you want to know his reasoning, send him an e-mail (don't call him because he's mentioned to me several times his hatred for phone conversatinos) and he will tell you. He gives a different reason every time I talk to him. No, he has not contracted swine flu. No, he has not locked himself in his room mourning the fact that his governor is a freakhead nut job. No, he has not been eaten by a deer. He is perfectly well and healthy, unless you think not being able to move on account of a new weight-lifting program to be unhealthy.
2. For those of you who know about my phobia of pickles, I would like to broadcast the fact that twice in the past few days I have eaten a sandwhich off a plate infested with pickles. And i did not complain. I dealt with it. Of course I could taste the pickle smell on my sandwhich, which definitely made the experience less enjoyable, but I believe this means I am making great strides with my legitimate fear.
3. We had "AV training" the other day in Stackhouse Theater and the woman training us (who's name escapes me, but we'll call her Connie, she looks like a Connie) freaked us out by warning us about a phenomenon called the "blue screen of death". Unfortunately, she only sort of told us how to get ride of this monochromatic screen that supposedly brings about the apocalypse. It had something to do with pushing certain buttons with your middle finger (she made it VERY clear that the middle finger part was a very necessary step). So all us RAs are hoping and praying we don't come across the blue screen of death. Keep your fingers crossed for us please. Ohhhh Connie.
4. Although I have yet to see Transformers 2, the RA's had a nice bonding session the other night, watching the first installment of the series to prepare for the sequel. Danielle and I bonded over Shia LeBouf while Mike and Stephen bonded over Megan Fox. It was great.
5. In order to kill half an hour and get ourselves out of our rooms, Stephen and I took newly-acquired van 94 out on a little spin. We aimlessly drove around Lexington singing rounds and patriotic songs (since we couldn't find a good radio station) and discovered some interesting things. For instance, who knew we had a little planned community for old people out in the country? I certainly didn't until we happened upon it and immediately left after the old people standing outside their houses gave us death glares. I think they were robots. They looked really angry. Others might disagree.
6. Mary Murphy needs to take a few sedatives. That is all.

Well I think that's all I have to say for now. Tomorrow and Saturday we have 400 Sigma Nus arriving from accross the country for a SNu conference so things should get interesting. Until then we have to distribute pillows, blankets, linens, etc to all 300+ rooms in Gilliam, Davis, and Graham-Lees. And then our lovely Alumns come on Sunday. I think we're all looking forward to the alumns getting here so we can interact with some interesting people and have more to do in our day. Although it's kind of nice being paid for a full day when we only do about 3 hours of work max, we're ready to get started doing the job we're here to do. Until later, hope life is good with all of you. I'll get the wilson kid on here at some point with some pictures or something else exciting, if he isn't sleeping or doing something of that nature.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

6/23/09 Question of the Day

You've won yourself a double feature today.

Q1: "Want to come sit with us?....Ok, Mr. Popular":
Context: I am verbally accosted 2 DAYS IN A ROW by 14 year old girls in the dining hall. Yesterday, I was the first of the RAs to sit down for dinner and so for about 3-4 minutes I am sitting alone. I can feel the harsh and unabashed glares of 3 giggling female specimen searing into my left frontal lobe. I can see through their high-pitched cackling and into their very innards where harrowing, puerile ideas form. I hear an asinine outburst.
"Want to come sit with us?," says the girl dressed as a soccer player.
"No, but thanks," I respond. "The other RAs are coming."
(Here is where the script flips.)
"Okkkkk, Mr. Popular," says the girl who is beginning to look like a Bratz Doll.
I laugh of this moment of immense awkwardness and continue with my meal while I hope (read: pray) for my fellow RAs to join me.
------3 more minutes where no one has come. I'm under the impression that conversation with Soccer Barbie is over. That is until I hear....
"You're just so popular"
WHAT IS THIS?! Is this even REAL?! I didn't even know what to do. I just sat there, put my head down, and laughed uncomfortably.
Finally, Danielle came and I was saved.

---Or so I thought.

The next day, we RAs sat at a table very close to the one we sat at yesterday. I sit down, notice no Bratz dolls in sight, and breathe a sigh of relief. Lunch is certain to be uneventful.
All of a sudden it gets loud, and then louder and louder. And before I know it, the girls soccer camp has taken over the dining hall and the same group of girls sit as close as they possibly could.
And then it happened.
"Hey, Mr. Popular!," slips from her mouth all too intentionally. I ignore although I am shaken to the point that I just wonder what the hell I have done to be the victim of their foul play.
The meal ends soon after and I make my escape.


Q2: "What if the deer eat us?"
I suppose Shiri's post is enough explanation for this tidbit.