So, Saturday night, D and I went out (two Saturday nights in a row) and attended The CSUSM All Greek Reunion party. (Yes, I was in a sorority and I married a fraternity boy...no grief please!) A little background on us...we (the members) were pioneers of the greek system at CSUSM...it was a fairly new commuter campus that needed a way to increase campus involvement. Then-President Bill Stacy recognized the need to do something to allow CSUSM to become something more than a 4-year community college atmosphere. Hence, the four "local" club groups solicited organizations, sat through "dog and pony" presentations, and went through a lot to become recognized Greek letter organizations. I never imagined myself as a sorority girl (and probably would not be one if I'd attended a larger university), but I needed a social life and liked the women of the local club. With their encouragement, I joined their club because I hung out with them anyway...little did we know that we would be part of a national organization a year later!
This annual tradition of a party started in 2005 when my chapter (Alpha Chi Omega) celebrated it's 10th anniversary of the charter. So, our friends, Shawn and Fara started an annual party as an excuse to socialize and hang out. This year's festivities were held at Oggi's in Encinitas (Shawn is related to the owners and is part of the company). Initally, there was quite the divide among the two sororities and two fraternities hanging out, but finally people stepped out of their immediate circle and started talking to others. Upon walking in, we saw people we hadn't seen since the last party or longer. D headed off to see his fraternity brothers and I talked to some other people. We already had the designated driver conversation...I was DD that night because I had witnessed the behavior in prior years. Basically, women can have a drink and catch up, where as men (especially these men from a fraternity) act like they are back in college when they get together. Shortly after the party had started, I hear Art (he was the party coordinator in college...we always pre/post partied at Art's place in PB...within walking distance of the bars) yelling for all his TKE (Tau Kappa Epsilon...D's fraternity) brothers to come over. Then, I see an Oggi's waitress dropping off a tray with 20 shot glasses filled with some brown liquid. D looks at me...I tell him to go ahead and have fun! (D wanted me to take a picture with the new camera...I was hesitant after the camera incident last week, but I was careful and snapped a photo!) Then, the chorus of 20+ men (boys on this evening) chanting about their fraternity. I think I got sucked into a time warp...because these boys were back in college at that moment (and many more throughout the evening)!
I saw some friends...one of my sisters who was married to one of D's fraternity brothers. I haven't seen her for a while and found out that the rumors were true that their marriage had ended in an ugly fashion. (Aside, as a newly married woman, it's difficult to hear about divorces, but especially when you are friends with both parties.) I saw a guy that I was heavily into and we were the best of friends in college...he was the one who could make me laugh one day and break my heart another. I saw him last year (first time in 12 years...we didn't speak for most of my last semester because of a falling out) and he was worried that I would still be mad at him. For me, that felt good...I mean, seriously, it's been 12 years and I am engaged (now, married). I think I've gotten over that! He was there with his wife (one of my sister's that was the one of the reasons our friendship ended) who ignored me...get over it already...he married you. (Sorry for the random vent!) I saw another male friend who was giving me grief (in a joking manner) for marrying D, but he told me he was so happy for us! I caught up with "Stretch" (a really, really tall guy) who was an SAE (Sigma Alpha Epsilon). We were talking and some of his (drunk) brothers tried to corral him into shots at the bar. He stayed low key and they forgot about him! I also talked to an AZD (Alpha Xi Delta) who I had a psuedo falling out with over the same boy mentioned...he pitted us against each other and we figured it out after a year of dirty looks and ignoring each other! And, I talked to so many people that it was great to catch up on life, jobs, kids, and remember all the crazy things that happened to us in college!
All in all, it was a fun evening...we stayed until they kicked us out at 1:00 a.m. It was reminiscent of college...we made a late night stop at Denny's for some late night grease before heading home to crash!
No comments:
Post a Comment