(ThatKidInTheCorner :: Meetings, Observed)

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June 3, 2006

Meetings, Observed

Missing the Meetings from 3,000 miles away, with high levels of wistfulness

A few years ago, my Mom told me that she wasn't worried about me moving away from the East Coast, because she knew that I would make it home at least once a year for my college Reunions.

Errr, ummm, thanks, I guess.

Though I think my mom meant it in a semi-nice way (more focused on the "My son really likes Reunions" part and less focused on the "I can only hope to lure my son to the East Coast with the promise of 48 hours of immature nonsense with his college buddies"), it certainly struck me as perhaps 12 percent too insightful. Moms are good like that; even when you think they don't know, they know.

Still, was I really so transparent? Was my enthusiasm for Reunions so obvious? Even if I really did like The Meetings as much as Mom thought, shouldn't I have done a better job of keeping that intel to myself?

Not so impressive.

Yet, in a cruel and semi-ironic twist, I have moved away from the east coast and also have managed to skip Reunions. Mom wasn't precisely right. Sure, there were some circumstances that colluded to keep me on the Left Coast this weekend (the Vegas thing a couple weeks back plus the upcoming mission to Germany for the World Cup), but still, I didn't make the extra trip back East. I don't know if that implies some level of maturity (possibly), or just a stacked travel schedule; either way, the result is the same: I have missed a Reunion for the first time.

The P-Rade At The Fifth, Over The Shoulder Of Donny Baseball

So far, I'm doing a pretty good job of pretending that I'm not bummed out about it. Am I wearing my jersey from the Fifth? Maybe. Did I enjoy a flash of schadenfreude when I heard that it was muggy and rainy in New Jersey today? Sort of. Mostly it just made me wistful (that's right, wistful) for the soggy Reunions of years past. Sigh.

The thing is, on paper, this should have been an easy Meetings to miss. The eighth? That's nothing. Complete transitional year. Nothing much to it. If anything, I might have had to encounter classmates who are doing things like "bringing strollers" that weren't just deployed as beverage transportation, and that's a reality check I don't necessarily enjoy. But the problem is that there were some surprise guests (whose journey back was a whole lot more treacherous than mine would have been) as well as some scheduled events (a 30th birthday that I would have liked to have attended) that were doing an excellent job of selling me the event.

As it is, I can only imagine. Luckily, with over a decade of Meetings under my belt, I can do a pretty good job with the imagining. It's 12:14 pm PDT right now. That's 3:14 pm EDT. The P-Rade is just finishing up. Checking the weather report, I see it's 67 degrees and cloudy. The rain has stopped. My crew is soggily making its way from the erstwhile Poe Field up along Washington Road towards the Street. There's a main group that's headed to Cloister, while two or three subgroups have broken off on side missions to other clubs and places. P-Rade props, save for the damp costumes on everyone's backs, will have been shed, and empties will have been consigned to trashcans (or the erstwhile Poe field). A few people are on their phones, doing some coordinating. A few others will be doing LOTS of shouting at this point. Others still will be contemplating walking down to the Dinky -- or should I stay for just one more beer, maybe something to eat out at the Street?

Yup, wistful.

All that said, it should be a lovely Saturday out here in C@L. I've got a couple events on the social calendar for this evening, including a birthday party up the road that should be allow me to stage a rough simulation of some of my favorite Meetings activities (and some fellow alums in attendance to boot). I'm looking forward to it -- it should be some good times. And I can't complain about the upcoming World Cup mission. Still, it would have been nice to make it back for the Meetings.

(Rest assured I'll be wearing my Reunions jersey to the dry cleaners this afternoon.)

Cheers.

Posted by thatkid at June 3, 2006 12:50 PM under ThatKid

Comments

I too missed Reunions, due to moving out of 153. It was indeed a sad day, being so close to the Meetings yet unable to attend. So I wore my Perhaps t-shirt.

And I didn't even go to school there.

- dinho

Posted by: pjdinho at June 3, 2006 9:17 PM

June 3, 2006

Meetings, Observed

Comments

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