Last weekend was the chapter’s Spring Banquet. This year, we held it at the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis. The banquet itself was good, but the events before and after made the night especially memorable.

Early on Saturday, Minufo, Jenn, and I drove to St. Louis early so that we could play the role of tourists. The plan was to go up the arch, so we did. It was a bit of a disappointment. Just another high observation deck. Ho-hum. I found the structure to be much more interesting from the ground. Awe-inspiring, really.

After visiting the arch, the three of us ate lunch at Caleco’s. The “Caleco Club” with pasta was excellent. The service was impressive (in a good way). That eatery is definitely going on my “places to eat” list for St. Louis.

After a short stroll around the city, it was time for banquet.

It turns out that our banquet room was next to a prom banquet room. I’m not sure what was worse: the fact that I felt old because all of the prom-goers were so young, or the fact that I wasn’t old enough so as not to be confused for a prom-goer.

Whatever the case, the dinner was good. Backing up a bit, I found out while in the hotel that my car, which I left back in Terre Haute, had been pranked in my absence. Vince, one of my little brothers, was the apparent mastermind behind the operation. Understandably, I was a bit apprehensive during banquet about what condition I would find my car in once I returned.

The car turn out alright. Photos were taken, of course. I found out more of the story later in the evening, and I must say that I was impressed by the amount of planning that transpired. I ended up cleaning the car up at 3:30 a.m., because they had stuffed my bed sheets into the car (gotta fill some space with other than newspaper, ya know).

Back to St. Louis…

After dinner, a group of my Brothers and I went walking around the riverfront area. We stopped by the arch, we saw some of the old parts of town. We talked and soaked in all the sights. After walking around for an hour or so, four of us decided that we wanted to look out from the hotel’s observation deck. Back to the hotel we went, and up in the elevator we flew, until we got to the restaurant on the 28th(?) floor.

The place was classy, and we felt appropriately dressed in our suits. The restaurant had another notable trait: the dining area rotated. Vosmek, Saunders, Wojo and I decided to stay and enjoy dessert there while watching the world go by. The experience reminded me of my favorite memory from Scouting: sitting on Tooth Ridge in New Mexico with a couple of my good friends, watching a thunderstorm far off in the distance roll across the desert. Looking out across the river and at the lights of the city, with the tranquility of the restaurant and the camaraderie of my good friends, rivaled that experience.

The night drew to a close, so Wojo and I headed back to the Haute. I’m glad I wasn’t driving, because I kept drifting in and out of consciousness. I would say something to Wojo, and then, in mid-sentence, I would have to think hard about whether or not I was actually talking and, more importantly, whether or not I really said what I thought I previously said or that I merely dreamt it. Not being certain of the line between reality and my dreams is, in hindsight, somewhat disturbing. At least there wasn’t a repeat of the Winter 2003 banquet.

Thoughts more for my own reflection rather than your comprehension:

I had two conversations tonight that were reflective of my Fraternity experiences and were significantly important to me.

One of those conversations was completely unexpected from a completely unexpected source. Not that it was a bad thing; on the contrary, I found it quite interesting. I was ill-prepared for the subject, so I spoke from the heart. It’s strange, though not surprising, that cliques exist even in fraternities (which are themselves big cliques). The reality is that not everybody is close to everybody. In fact, nobody is close to everybody. I just think it’s a shame, almost like the chapter failed him, when somebody feels that they have no close friends in the chapter. It’s even more unfortunate when the cause of this disconnect is that which has brought me so much: lineages. Another cause, real though sometimes a scapegoat, is the consumption of alcohol or the lack thereof.

Why do so many conversations revolve around alcohol?

I don’t regret starting to drink; I’m glad I experienced it. More importantly, I’m glad that I have no significant desire to drink. Sure, I’ll swing back a beer on occasion during social events, but overall I simply don’t “get it.” Where’s the draw? I wish that I would have realized my low motivation to drink before building my collection.

Only human.

People who I thought might not really “care” do in fact care a great deal (this being based on a third conversation).

I’m glad I’ve become less active over the last quarter but that I’m still around to be a quasi-advisor. There comes a time when the torch must be passed.

After long search and much thought, I found a replacement person for my job. One of the techniques I used was to interview candidates without them being aware of the interviews.

I’m 22 now!

Nice night + TV + VCR + really long extension cord + roof + the Big Lebo + a bunch of Brothers = cool

Initiation for Spring Class at the Fraternity was earlier this evening. Our chapter is now six stronger, bringing our total active membership to about 100.

My sister called me today! I was happy (and quite surprised!) that she called.

Why have I been in such a reflective, pondrous mood as of late?

I took a risk with my latest photography assignment. The assignment was to create a photograph relating to “foreground / background.” I chose my subject so that the photo would be thought provoking, but I took a risk because I feared that the prof might be displeased. Fortunately, art people tend to be open-minded, and the prof appreciated the photo. What was the subject? Not appropriate for this blog. Man, that sure was a pointless tease, wasn’t it?

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Something significant is now completely done, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. My senior project team was awesome, and having the final documentation turned in brings a great deal of weight off of all of our shoulders.

Something else significant is still happening next weekend, that being the triathlon. I’m all registered! I’m confident that I’m in good enough shape to a) finish b) not be last and c) not injure myself. I’ve enjoyed the training for the triathlon because, if nothing else, it gives me a good reason to be exercising significantly (for the first time in my life).

One more cool thing: I acquired one of last year’s senior shirts. Yes, that one. 🙂

Last weekend, we participated in Greek Games here at Rose. It was a blast, and we did well too. We won the cart race and made a respectable showing in pool/foosball/ping-ping. And what of pyramid? We won pyramid! We almost won Greek Games overall too but lost a tiebreaker dodgeball game to Delta Sig. Check out my photos from the day to see the action.

Notice the cool jerseys that say “Pi Kappa Alpha Athletics” in those photos? Yup, that was my project. I had a general idea of how I wanted the shirts to look: good-quality garnet soccer jerseys. The big challenge is that I had only 12 days between the time I acquired the project and when the jerseys needed to be printed and ready.

I started by going to my usual local source for printed shirts: Creative Impressions. I looked through their catalogs of sports jerseys but wasn’t able to find anything that I really liked. I really wanted to have brand-name soccer jerseys, like Diadora, Adidas, or Kappa. After looking around the web, I found a Kappa soccer jersey that I really liked and that was affordable. Just one problem — Kappa is out of business (at least in the USA). Disappointed, I resumed my search. I came across a nice Adidas jersey that was perfect except for the color (they didn’t offer it in maroon). Tyler noticed my plight and pointed me to a nearly identical jersey. A quick call to an inexpensive source was made, and the jerseys began their journey.

While the jerseys were traversing the country, I began playing with designs for the front. After some important inspiration (thanks again, Tyler), I drew my version of the front design. I brought the idea to Creative Impressions and finalized the screen version of the design.

Some time went by. The jerseys arrived, Creative Impressions printed the design, and names/numbers were fixed to the jersey backs. Perfect! I distributed the jerseys as soon as I got them rather than waiting two days for Greek Games.

I’m happy to say that the jerseys were well-received. They look awesome and feel great. There was only one little problem: the maroon dye bleeds. I wouldn’t have thought that a machine-washable soccer jersey would have a bleeding problem, but here it is. “No problem,” I thought, “I’ll just recollect the jerseys and wash them all.” So, I merrily gathered the jerseys and put them in washing machines. I set the machines to “Cold” and added no detergent. Half an hour later, I returned and opened the first washer.

My heart sunk.

Inside the washer was a mass of maroon jerseys, as expected. The shocker was that the white areas of the jerseys were pink. Very pink. I feared that I had ruined $1000-worth of jerseys, but I resolved to find a solution to the problem.

The solution turned out to be three additional wash cycles, each with warm water and copious volumes of detergent. I also spread the jerseys out among three washing machines and included an old white cotton t-shirt with each load. The purpose of the cotton shirts was two-fold: to soak up excess dye and to serve as an indicator for when the shirts no longer bleed. After four washing cycles, I was satisfied enough to dry the jerseys and redistribute them: the whites are white and the dye doesn’t seem to be bleeding anymore. That must mean I have domestic skills! Or I got lucky.

I’d rather believe that I have mad skilz.

I participated in pyramid last night for the first time, and it was fun! Sure, my back is a bit sore this morning, and my wrist felt strange for a couple hours, but it was worth it.

I’ve nearly completed the refinishing of another wood floor. Some of the Pike seniors (plus Tyler) have been working on refinishing the pool room, particularly the floor. This time, we’re using a water-based polyurethane instead of the oil-based polyurethane that Tyler and I used in our room. The main advantage of the water-based polyurethane is that each coat dries in two hours as opposed to the oil-based six hours. I keep thinking that there must be some horrible catch, but none is yet apparent. Why didn’t we do it that way?