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I owe a lot of back posts, but I figured I'd start here.
Reunions was this weekend. From my perspective, it mostly went well, if exhausting.
Just going to say off the bat that ARR was in general very well behaved. He did his best.
I think he had kind of a mixed experience, overall. He loved the concept of marching bands. (He spent the entire day excitedly yelling about marching bands.) But when actually faced with the band concert, it was too loud for him, and we had to take a long walk some distance away. (Where we could actually still hear fairly well, at least.) He liked the idea of parades, but the actual P-rade was miserably hot and gets kind of boring even for the adults without friends to talk to and often the lubrication of alcohol. He was fascinated by the concept of the bouncy slide, but intimidated by the actuality--he was excited while standing in line, but very hesitant while climbing up and had to be coaxed back down. (The bouncy castle was not a hit.) He likes meeting new people--he immediately adopted a number of our friends after being introduced, grabbing their hands and hauling them off to play with him. But he got overwhelmed by the crowds. He was very excited about his mango sorbet from Bent Spoon, even, but they changed the cup sizes to be larger and there was just too much for him. It was emblematic of the day--many exciting things, but all of them overwhelming.
Still, I think we were mostly sensible, and he did seem to have a good time for large chunks. We actually skipped out on marching in the P-rade--as I said, miserably hot, and I think both Alex and I were courting heat stroke. We went to the CJL for a brief Koleinu concert instead. ARR stared in rapt fascination. It makes me sad that the Wildcats arch is so late at night--I wish he could have heard me sing, because he obviously loved a cappella. But it was not to be.
He also got to walk with the band and play a snare drum, so he was delighted. He found a broken plastic horn someone had discarded and spent probably fifteen minutes playing "marching band". He went to bed talking about how he wanted to see the marching band again tomorrow. (Sorry, kiddo.) He got a bedtime story about picking an instrument to join the band instead.
This year's theme kind of turned into "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to". I'd initially planned to go do Thursday. But work has been hellish, and Chuckro's been taking the brunt of the childcare, and I decided to skip Thursday night. I'm glad I did--I was way too tired to have enjoyed myself. I also had planned to leave with Chuckro in the morning to head to Princeton--I changed my mind and went back to bed for an hour and took a long shower. I had a better weekend for it. One of the highlights of Reunions is usually going to all the tents with their assorted bands and drinks. After the Wildcats arch, I decided my feet hurt and I was tired, and I hung out with a small group of friends in the well lit, air-conditioned student center, drinking a ton of water, and then went to bed instead of staying up all night drinking and dancing. And as I mentioned, we skipped out on the P-rade--I wasn't finding the people I wanted to talk to, I was hot and dehydrated, I'd already sent Chuckro and ARR to go drink more water and eat fruit in an air-conditioned building--and I realized, why am I doing this? I'm not actually having a good time. Just because I've enjoyed this in the past and may enjoy it again in the future doesn't mean I'm enjoying it right now. So I stopped.
This is a big deal for me--I tend to power through even when I shouldn't. I'm trying to rein that in.
Despite my care, though, my feet are incredibly unhappy with me, as is my knee. It used to take four days to acquire this much damage--I managed this in a day and a half. Two lessons: I'm not 22 anymore and never will be again. But also, I really need to find some better shoes.
On the other hand, I looked fabulous. My class theme was "Ten-tucky Derby", which was a terrible theme. And they executed it really poorly. As in badly fitting ugly jockey outfits with white pants that showed your underwear through them. I boycotted. I signed in with a friend from a non-major year (which are free, as opposed to my major reunion year fee of something like $280). I hadn't wanted to do the class meals to begin with, but I certainly wasn't going to pay for this monstrosity. Instead, I got myself a gorgeous fascinator and a great belt and put together a stunning Kentucky Derby outfit that I could have worn to the actual Kentucky Derby without embarrassing myself. (All orange and black, of course.) ARR, on the other hand, was wearing a polo shirt and madras shorts and a straw trilby that people just couldn't get over. He got even more compliments than I did. Someone took his picture on the PATH platform, they were so charmed. (And someone finally recognized Chuckro's Orange Lantern shirt, so we all got a little fashion love this year.)
So now I'm icing my knee and trying to catch up on email. How has your weekend been?
(Oh, and yes, there are photos and videos, but they're all on a nearly-dead phone. I'll pull them later.)
Reunions was this weekend. From my perspective, it mostly went well, if exhausting.
Just going to say off the bat that ARR was in general very well behaved. He did his best.
I think he had kind of a mixed experience, overall. He loved the concept of marching bands. (He spent the entire day excitedly yelling about marching bands.) But when actually faced with the band concert, it was too loud for him, and we had to take a long walk some distance away. (Where we could actually still hear fairly well, at least.) He liked the idea of parades, but the actual P-rade was miserably hot and gets kind of boring even for the adults without friends to talk to and often the lubrication of alcohol. He was fascinated by the concept of the bouncy slide, but intimidated by the actuality--he was excited while standing in line, but very hesitant while climbing up and had to be coaxed back down. (The bouncy castle was not a hit.) He likes meeting new people--he immediately adopted a number of our friends after being introduced, grabbing their hands and hauling them off to play with him. But he got overwhelmed by the crowds. He was very excited about his mango sorbet from Bent Spoon, even, but they changed the cup sizes to be larger and there was just too much for him. It was emblematic of the day--many exciting things, but all of them overwhelming.
Still, I think we were mostly sensible, and he did seem to have a good time for large chunks. We actually skipped out on marching in the P-rade--as I said, miserably hot, and I think both Alex and I were courting heat stroke. We went to the CJL for a brief Koleinu concert instead. ARR stared in rapt fascination. It makes me sad that the Wildcats arch is so late at night--I wish he could have heard me sing, because he obviously loved a cappella. But it was not to be.
He also got to walk with the band and play a snare drum, so he was delighted. He found a broken plastic horn someone had discarded and spent probably fifteen minutes playing "marching band". He went to bed talking about how he wanted to see the marching band again tomorrow. (Sorry, kiddo.) He got a bedtime story about picking an instrument to join the band instead.
This year's theme kind of turned into "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to". I'd initially planned to go do Thursday. But work has been hellish, and Chuckro's been taking the brunt of the childcare, and I decided to skip Thursday night. I'm glad I did--I was way too tired to have enjoyed myself. I also had planned to leave with Chuckro in the morning to head to Princeton--I changed my mind and went back to bed for an hour and took a long shower. I had a better weekend for it. One of the highlights of Reunions is usually going to all the tents with their assorted bands and drinks. After the Wildcats arch, I decided my feet hurt and I was tired, and I hung out with a small group of friends in the well lit, air-conditioned student center, drinking a ton of water, and then went to bed instead of staying up all night drinking and dancing. And as I mentioned, we skipped out on the P-rade--I wasn't finding the people I wanted to talk to, I was hot and dehydrated, I'd already sent Chuckro and ARR to go drink more water and eat fruit in an air-conditioned building--and I realized, why am I doing this? I'm not actually having a good time. Just because I've enjoyed this in the past and may enjoy it again in the future doesn't mean I'm enjoying it right now. So I stopped.
This is a big deal for me--I tend to power through even when I shouldn't. I'm trying to rein that in.
Despite my care, though, my feet are incredibly unhappy with me, as is my knee. It used to take four days to acquire this much damage--I managed this in a day and a half. Two lessons: I'm not 22 anymore and never will be again. But also, I really need to find some better shoes.
On the other hand, I looked fabulous. My class theme was "Ten-tucky Derby", which was a terrible theme. And they executed it really poorly. As in badly fitting ugly jockey outfits with white pants that showed your underwear through them. I boycotted. I signed in with a friend from a non-major year (which are free, as opposed to my major reunion year fee of something like $280). I hadn't wanted to do the class meals to begin with, but I certainly wasn't going to pay for this monstrosity. Instead, I got myself a gorgeous fascinator and a great belt and put together a stunning Kentucky Derby outfit that I could have worn to the actual Kentucky Derby without embarrassing myself. (All orange and black, of course.) ARR, on the other hand, was wearing a polo shirt and madras shorts and a straw trilby that people just couldn't get over. He got even more compliments than I did. Someone took his picture on the PATH platform, they were so charmed. (And someone finally recognized Chuckro's Orange Lantern shirt, so we all got a little fashion love this year.)
So now I'm icing my knee and trying to catch up on email. How has your weekend been?
(Oh, and yes, there are photos and videos, but they're all on a nearly-dead phone. I'll pull them later.)
