Archives for 2000

My first birthday ‘party’ was held in the Armory, the only building on campus where it’s possible to feed 2200 Freshmen almost all at once. All of our groups fit into the main room except for the last one, which was given their own private gym in which to eat. Upon finding out about my b-day, the ever-motivated Derek (leader of gym-bound group J) invited group H (my team of 225 Freshmen and 9 leaders) to come and ‘party’ with them in the side gym. This plan was a toned down version of the original idea that we bring a bunch of electric instruments, an amp, and a DJ. What we wound up with was concert-sized speakers (borrowed from some frat, i hear), a stereo, and a bunch of wound up student leaders. The wound up bit was resolved with a very violent game of what i can only call “frisbee bowling,” but first i and my co-birthday girl were presented with yummy cakes adorned with our names (and for me, one with a “lucky star” on it) baked by other student leaders. The whole event was unbearably cute of Derek to pull off, and it was the first time i had a birthday cake with more than four or five friends since before i started grade school. And, it was only the beginning of a very cool 19th birthday night.

Friday wasn’t actually so bad in NSW-land, except for when it was decided that 2200 Freshman would be sitting by academic major rather then by the groups they had sat with the day before. Of course, this was decided about four minutes previous to our filing into the gym, so it wasn’t the easiest plan to put into effect. However, somehow we wrangled it together, with me even managing to grab a hold of the Communications sign (i somehow wound up being the only comm major doing NSW out of a hundred, though Orientation was 4/24). The new Comm peoples rock, especially Liz and Krissy, who i remembered wuite clearly from my harrassing of them at their respective orientations. We all sat through a lovely talk by our four prominent professors, and then all the Freshmen left for other plans leaving me alone to schmooze with my department. As it turns out, Drexel offers a MS/BS (Masters degree in the same time period as your Bachelors) program for my major… of course, i’m a Bachelor of Arts and not of Science, but that’s a small detail to be worked out at a later date. While hanging out with the profs, i was invited to write for Drexel’s upcoming web-magazine, which will obviously bring me even more fame and fortune than this has. And my favourite professor complemented my site. So far, the b-day was going well!

I hadn’t had a birthday party since age five. I couldn’t really tell you why, but i suppose it either has to do with how close my birthday is to the beginning of the school year or my lack of large crowds of friends. Or, it could be my dislike of throwing parties. Going to parties is fun, and helping set up for parties is a blast, but to put in so much time and effort into a production that ultimately celebrates yourself seems a bit wasteful and lacking a point. So, i need other people to throw me a party, and i can’t come right out and ask them. Happily, because my birthday was shared with another NSW staffer and because it was the last friday before classes, i had no problems find some celebrations to call my own. Of course, i had to get through an excruciating day of NSW before i could do anything for my b-day.

In a related tangent…

I leave for two weeks and look what happens… a quick poll of the top Power Bloggers reveals a massive factional split, the decline of SurvivorBlog, and my little trend of posting the screenshot of my ranking catching on. I’m not about to criticize the latter, but the first is incredibly stupid (especially since two of my preferred blogs have been dragged into it). I don’t pretend to be a part of or care about the Blogging “community,” but i can recognize idiocy across the internet as well as i can face to face. And don’t forget it.