The More They Change, The More They Remain the Same

As many of you know, I traveled to Ohio for a college reunion this past weekend. I didn't know what to expect--who I'd see, who would remember me, who I would remember, even what I would do. From my perspective, I've felt that I've changed a lot in the past 9 years--evolved from angsty, rebellious, clueless teen into a person who at times resembles a responsible adult. Although still a little shy and prone to periods of darkened mood, I like to think I'm a little more together than I was when I graduated.

Reunion weekend was a series of highs and lows, presenting me with the same dysfunctional human interactions I experienced back in my college days. The institution of learning that I attended is renown for attracting some eccentric personalities. Although brilliant and wildly talented, many lack simple people skills. The setting for reunion was small and intimate, and we mainly saw the same people over and over again. Whenever you place a group of eccentrics in a social fishbowl, strange things are bound to happen.

The Highs:
Catching up with old friends. There were several people there I knew I'd see, so their presence, although not a surprise, was a real pleasure. Also in attendance were several characters who I had been friends with early in my college career, but had sort of forgotten. Why we ever lost touch is a mystery to me, because hanging out with again revealed them to be total kindred spirits. Hopefully we'll be better about staying in touch this time around.

Making new friends. There were a lot of people there whose faces I knew, but had never befriended. To be honest, a lot of them had intimidated me for whatever reason back in school. But being thrust into a very small environment with them sort of forced us to interact, and a lot of these interactions were quite pleasant. I even met an extremely cool woman who lives in DC, who I will hopefully get to hang out with in real life.

Visiting old haunts. The coffee shop where I spent a lot of my time back in the day is now a bar. The town used to be dry save for beer and wine, but this place now serves liquor. Their bloody marys are to do for and I very much appreciated the fact that gin and tonics are only 3 dollars. Ohio is cheap, yo. And they serve tater tots.

College-subsided debauchery. Every night after checking out the scene at the only two bars in town/random college house party/campus dance club, we'd return to the dorm that we were all staying at and partake in free beer. Lots of free beer. Saturday night at 2 am found us drunk and making huge forts out of sofa cushions just as we did back in the day. Some of us stayed up until 5 am. I know I heard birdies chirping by the time I made it up to bed.


The Lows:
Boredom. There isn't much to do in Ohio, yo. Because of this, we spent the majority of the weekend drinking. Also, campus and town are SO small. I find the fact that we used to complain about walking across campus to be hilarious, as it would take a total of 15 minutes to get from far corner to far corner, and most of the places you'd be inclined to visit are crammed together in a very small space.

College dorms suck. How I managed to live in a dorm as long as I did is beyond me. Between the horrid bed, the dingy lighting and the weird smelling showers, my group house back here now seems like a palace to me.

Boys continue to suck. Leave it to me to visit Ohio for the weekend, only to meet a boy from DC who would eventually torment me. The details are hazy but we had a very dramatic 48+ hours together. The trajectory of our relationship went as follows--we meet, he initiates flirtation. Flirtation sustains itself for a healthy 24 hours. Several hours after he gives me his business card, I make the foolish mistake of suggesting to him that we hang out back in DC. This inspires a flurry of angst on his part, informing me that my actions towards him (mainly saying, "Hi, you're cute, let's hang out back home) are inappropriate, so on and so forth. And that he made out with somebody else earlier in the evening. How reciprocating the actions of a person who is clearly trying to get into your pants is inappropriate is beyond me, but boys from my school are notoriously weird. Anyway. We patched things up the next night, as I wasn't willing to repeatedly run into him and exchange menacing snarls.

Essentially, I pointed out that we started off an strange foot and perhaps we could start over. He agreed, introductions were made and from there things were just fine. Part of me thinks I will probably just "lose" his card. Although extremely cute, I can't get a good read on him and trying to is getting to me more than it should. But then again, he's extremely cute and I think there's something there. But perhaps he's crazy and not worth my time. Lord knows I have enough extremely cute boys in my life who are already causing more than their fair share of drama. Time will tell.


For better and for worse, my weekend plunged me right back into my late teens/early 20's. I'm sort of happy to be home, although I'm feeling extremely shell-shocked. The fact that my coworkers are being extremely demanding today hasn't helped a whole lot. To be honest, I'm having trouble caring about much of anything relating to this city today. Maybe I need a vacation from my vacation.