2003-06-03 - 9:34 p.m.

What Happened To Me At My College Reunion

by Adam Hartfield, June 2, 2003

Note: rough-edited due to author's tiredness. See pictures here.

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FRIDAY

Friday morning I got out of Springfield around 10:45 and headed south to Drew. I took I-91 to 691 to 84 to 87 to 287 to 124. The I-84 bridge over the Hudson is much nicer for me than the Tappan Zee and is cheaper to boot. Southern New York really is lovely - how I wish I could see more of the horizon from my car - but I can barely see the tops of the trees since I'm so close to the roofline. Anyway. On 287 I passed a funeral procession in the middle lane - I wondered why the cars were going so slowly with their hazard flashers on, and then I passed the limousines and the hearse. It seemed very strange to see a funeral procession on the highway.

I noticed that traffic moved faster the further south I got. In CT I did 75 in the passing lane. In NJ I had to do 80. The Taurus of Toleration performed adequately, but it was nothing spectacular or fun.

I noticed after I got off the highway and was on Madison Avenue - the street Drew is on - that the office buildings that were virtually empty when I left in '92 were now no longer for lease or for rent - they were fully occupied. I was glad to see that.

So I rounded the last curve, and there was campus. I drove on in, parked in the main parking lot, and walked to the gym where registration was happening. I walked in, found the Last Names G-P table or whatever, and gave them my name. "Hmm...you're not on the list." Typical, I thought. Fortunately, I had anticipated this exact situation, and had brought along the printout of my registration confirmation that listed all the events and meals I had paid for. They happily took that, and assembled my hang-around-the-neck name badge and gave me tickets for all my events. Oooh, I got a ticket for a free ball cap and key chain, too. The hat actually looked pretty nice, and I haven't looked at the key chain too closely. I felt kind of weird that it did say College of Liberal Arts '93 on my badge, but whatever, for all intents and purposes I was a member of CLA '93 for the weekend.

So, I left the Forum (the gorgeous athletic complex built during the summer of 1992 right as I was leaving) and went to the dorm room Rob and I decided to share for the weekend. Oy. Even though this dorm was rehabbed in 1995, it still needs more work. We were on the top floor, and there was a trash barrel in the hallway under a leak, and there was a big hole in the men's bathroom ceiling with another bucket under it into which a steady drip fell. It's really sad to see that kind of thing.

I then walked down to the University Center. One of the electrical transformers in the building had blown, and half of it was closed off. That power situation also forced the moving of many events to different parts of campus, as did the near constant rain that started around 3:30 Friday afternoon. I digress. I got to the UC and called my friend Ginny who works in the library, and found that she was there for another 10 minutes before she left for the weekend. I walked over to the library, marveling anew at how beautiful the campus is and how little it had changed in ten years. I got to the library, found Ginny, and we had a nice (short!) catch up chat before she had to go. She's been promoted, her husband's got a great job, and they're happy.

After Ginny left, I realized I needed something to eat, as it was going on 3 and I hadn't had lunch. I walked back to the UC, but the snack bar was closed because of the power and I couldn't find any vending machines. The sign said the snack bar had moved to the Commons, so I walked over there. I arrived in quite the sweat and was not feeling so well - a low BG event for sure - I walked upstairs, couldn't find anyone, so went back downstairs to the vending machines (new since 92) and got a Diet Coke and a packet of pretzels. I ate and drank, and in a few minutes felt somewhat better.

I then called my good friend Maria, who works in the next town over as a high-powered tax attorney, and convinced her to leave her office early, come get me, and we'd do something. She suggested going to the ultra-rich mall a few miles away and having dinner, which I was amenable to. During our call, the skies opened. I got to my car and the umbrella just in time to avoid getting soaked, but it *poured*. Then it started to hail! Either my water magnet powers have really intensified, or Nature didn't want me at Drew, I wasn't sure which.

Maria arrived. She said this was the first time in 3.5 years she'd ever left work early! She's such a hard worker. We went to Short Hills Mall and had dinner at the first restaurant we saw since we were both starving. We talked a lot and had a great meal - I can never go wrong with steak, and I treated myself to some mashed potatoes, yum.

After dinner we walked around. This mall isn't like malls here at home. Our malls showcase Hyundais - this one had a Bentley. This mall has a Tiffany's, a Gucci's, and who knows what other swanky boutiques. It also has a Crane stationery store, into which I joyfully went and bought some of my favorite stationery at 50% off. :) We then went to a pen store, where I bought a business card case. I thought I might be giving out a lot of business cards over the weekend, and I didn't want to just pull them out of my wallet - I wanted something nicer. So, I got a nice case for about $20.

Of course we did some clothes shopping for her, and then we got some coffee, talking all the time. It was really nice. We're such good friends that intervening years just disappear when we're together and we're completely comfortable. It's great. :)

She brought me back to Drew, and had a major fit as we pulled up to the dorm as she saw one of her friends who is now a mucky-muck in the state legal system as she's a district attorney or something. Maria jumped out of the car, ran over to Desha, and just gushed about how she always reads about her in the law journal, etc etc etc. She rattled off Desha's accomplishments to me and the woman Desha was walking with, and the best part was the last one, which Maria's wide-eyed exuberance made totally charming: "And her hair's always *perfect*!"

After about 15 minutes of chatting, Maria left, and I went to the class of '93 gathering in the Commons theater. I was kind of nervous as none of my good friends had arrived yet - but I talked to some people I had been friendly with, and listened to the way-too-loud band, and drank a lot of diet Pepsi. I also kept reminding Desha that her hair was always perfect. My friends finally arrived, and we had a great time catching up. The last time the four of us (myself, Rob, Jenny, and Joy) had been together was the summer of 2000 when we vacationed for a few days in a beach house in North Carolina. There was a really nice slide show of photos people had submitted. I wish I'd known about it - I would have scanned in a bunch and sent them. I was even in a few pictures! The slide show was put on CD, with copies for all. I thought that was a nice touch.

Around midnight I got too tired to keep partying, so I went back to the dorm and set up Joy's Aerobed for her, and then went to bed. I left a light on so Rob and Joy wouldn't trip when they came in...but the light kept me from falling asleep. Joy's recently-diagnosed asthma has the side effect of her snoring.....and Rob and I were awake for HOURS....we woke her up a few times, but to no avail. Upon rising Saturday morning, she announced that if we'd only had her flip onto her back, it would have stopped. *boggle*

SATURDAY

So, I got up around 7 on Saturday due to the light coming in through the blinds, and I was completely exhausted. Of course the shower I chose to use had a busted hose - it was handheld - so showering was challenging. Gotta love Drew facilities. Anyway, I woke Rob and Joy up around 8:30 so that we could hit breakfast for 9. We did - and the day was beautiful - sunny and nice. Breakfast was good - but I got hit up by the roving professor soliciting donations in exchange for a little tree on one's name badge - so I made my first contribution to Drew. It wasn't much, and it won't happen again for a while. We met up with our acquaintance Melissa, and that was nice. After breakfast, we tried to go down to the computer center, but it was closed. We then went to tour the new arts building, and it is lovely. Lots of huge windows and natural light flooded all rooms. I did note with amusement the Ethernet cabling snaking its way down the corridors - they had open ceilings.

After the arts center, we went to look at the remodeled theater building the NJ Shakespeare Festival is housed in. It is bigger and nicer now. From there we headed to the library, where I discovered that there weren't any close Targets, but there was a close Wal*Mart. We hung out in the library for a while looking at our CLA '93 yearbook and reminiscing. We then went to the UC to go to the bookstore, and we hung out there for a while in the "Alumni Lounge" which is where the arcade used to be. Just as we'd gotten to the UC, it started to pour, which was to be the theme for the rest of the weekend. Melissa split off from us at this point.

After the UC, we went down to lunch in the Grand Tent outside the Hall of Sciences. What a joke this lunch was. It cost us $15, but all they had were rolls, salad greens, pasta salad, grilled chicken, a fruit platter, and cookies. Not many good choices for a diabetic to make as the salad green bowls were all pretty much empty. I had a lot of chicken and some pasta salad. The tent was packed - no place to sit - so we ate sitting on the edge of the stage that had been erected for the band that was to play in the tent later in the evening. After a few minutes, my friend Tina came running up to me, and we chatted and caught up. It was good to see her. Her husband came over after a few minutes. Neither of them have changed much. One of my other friends with whom I used to work in the Aide Station came over, and we chatted for a while. It was fun handing out my business cards from my snazzy new case.

Jenny and her boyfriend Andy (also from Drew) showed up after a while, and we all talked for a while. Joy and Rob had wanted to go shopping, as they apparently don't have stores in the cities where they live, so the three of us left lunch. Joy went to wash her feet off - they were all muddy from her wearing open toed shoes while having to walk across the lawn to and from the tent. Rob went to get the car, and away we went to Wal*Mart in Whippany.

What a nice store! It was a lot bigger than our stores here, much more well-stocked and organized, and much more pleasant in general. I found a new camera bag for $10 that would hold both my film and digital cameras, and they found what they wanted. I gave Joy a laundry tutorial on how to use the Downy Ball. Hee. We had a five minute conversation on our preferred dishwashing detergent scents, and we also discussed toilet paper preferences.

We left the store and returned to Drew, and went back to the dorm room. Soon after that we headed to another class gathering in the Forum. This was really good - there were A LOT of people there. Especially nice to see was our floormate Joelle, whom I haven't heard a peep from in 10 years. She married another Drewid whom I knew from a computer class, and they now have 3-year-old twins! It was so awesome to see her - and like me, her name wasn't on the attendee list, so it was an even bigger surprise.

At one point we were herded outside where the Official Photographer of the event took our class picture. It will be interesting to see the results.

The class gathering ended at 5:30, and then they started setting up for our dinner. Rob and Joy left - Rob had some family fishing trip to go on and Joy wanted to get back home to her daughter. Jenny and I went back to the dorm for a while, and headed back to the Forum for dinner. We sat with common friends, and reveled in the lousy food service food.

Maria arrived around 8, and sat next to me. She managed to eat half a cheeseburger. I was impressed she got that much down since she was so busy talking to people who came up to talk to her. I'm so happy she came to that, for her sake. She wouldn't have gone if I hadn't gone, too. We had another nice evening of just hanging out and talking. I walked her back to her car around 10:30, and went back to the dorm and went to bed.

SUNDAY

I woke up around 7:45 and had a much better shower than Saturday. :) I packed up all my stuff, went and got the car, put the stuff in the car, checked out, and met Jenny and Andy in front of the dorm at 9:40. We then traveled separately down to the Nautilus diner in Madison, where we met up with Joy and her daughter Mercedes (whom I hadn't seen since she was 2, and now she's 11), and Jennifer O'Boyle (Jenny's soph roommate) and her husband Jonathan (with whom I took BASIC freshman year). We had a great breakfast - I don't think I ever ate at the Nauseous while in college. I had both home fries AND toast - what a rebel! It was a special occasion. :D

After breakfast we all separated. :( I drove up to Danbury and stopped at the Trader Joe's there. I met a friend of mine from the diabetic chat channel at the Starbucks down the plaza and we had a nice time drinking coffee and talking. I shopped at TJ's, hit the road again at 2:30, stopped in Waterbury for lunch at McD's as I could feel another hypo coming on, and got home at 4:30.

CONCLUSION

I'm glad I went. I only had a few moments of feeling like a loser for not graduating. Mostly I was happy to see my friends, and happy with myself for being strong enough to go. I need to spend more time with my friends.