Reunion

Fun Fun Fun. a year ago my old roommate and I talked about attending our 25th. We booked a non refundable hotel with two rooms. Now we could not cancel, even if we wanted too. I wanted to take Riles to see the campus.He is a Junior now and should be looking at his options. I really should have taken him to several schools this summer.

Another friend of ours heard we were going and I told her where we were staying. She booked the same hotel. We had a blast. It was all about reminiscing about the good old days on campus. Seeing the campus and all the changes that have occurred in 25 years.

The drive over went fast. We stopped for a nice dinner along the way. Riles refused to drive. I did most of the driving until my leg got soar after 4 hours.I made good time. In the middle of no where you can go 80 pretty easily without realizing it. At dinner my roommate, who had taken the train to my house so she could ride with us, told me that her son had googled my boys and I need to put nick names on them in my blog or they will never find work. So Tman and Riles it is.

We stopped at a rest area for me to stretch my legs and get someone else to drive the last bit. LL agreed to drive because riles wouldn't. The problem was she couldn't talk and drive without slowing down. All that good time I made was lost. We had trucks passing us on the freeway. She wasn't much better than if Riles had been driving. We finally got to Walla Walla. It was almost 9;00 pm. We had started the trip by picking Riles up after school at 2:30pm. Long drive

Our other friend E was waiting for us. She had arrived hours earlier and been able to attend some of the evening events. She works in the Seattle area but has family in the Walla Walla area, as a result she had been back before.

We went across the street to the local restaurant. They were locking up but agreed to let us in as their last customers. We ordered  appetizers and one round of drinks to unwind from the road trip. It was so much fun talking.

The next morning we caught a student led tour of the school. Our guide was wonderful. He got us into our old dorm area, even though we had been instructed that the dorms were off limits for student privacy. Rules were meant to be bent a little. After all we, the alumni, paid for most of the remodeling we were witness too.  There had been a lot of remodeling over 25 years.

Riles favorite was Sherwood center with the 110 foot climbing wall, sixty feet tall. designed by the REI architect. At 3:30 it would be open for climbing. Riles was there waiting at 3:30. E took him as LL and I were at a wine tasting room downtown sampling the selection. E didn't drink so she was fine laughing at us and then pretending to be Riles guardian so he could sign in and start watching the safety video for the climbing wall. By the time we walked back to campus with our bottles of wine Riles was just getting his gear on and heading to his first climb.

The first wall he aced in moments. Just a regular vertical assent. The next two climbs got progressively more difficult with the wall tipped out so he had to carry more of his weight on his biceps.. By the time he was done he said his arms were numb and exhausted. He loved it and just glowed with happiness. Honestly he was awesome all day. Hanging with a bunch of parents and not whining or complaining.

We picked up a couple of books at the bookstore in the morning before the tour and anytime he wanted to tune out he would just open "A hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy" and ignore us in a quiet corner or under a tree while we talked and laughed and admired all the changes to the campus.

Though how could you not love one of the most prestigious and perfect and most expensive colleges in the country. Whitman can do no wrong. Nestled in the lovely quaint town of Walla Walla in the middle of Wheat fields and grape groves for as far as the Eagle flies. The whole college population is smaller than a city high school.. It is warm fuzzy and nurturing.

Our student guide tracked down a teacher in the English department who does tea ceremonies. He did an impromptu Japanese  tea service lesson for us that was amazing. The calm presentation after all our rushing around, how the bowl seemed to float out there in the air all on its own as he held it in front of himself and walked the tea bowl to us. The professor was the same professor who had just started his career when we were at Whitman. Time had left him virtually unchanged in the slow back waters of the college.

At 1:00 pm, we were to have a group picture taken on the stairs of the administration building. We received our numbers and got in the photo group of about 100 people . I was surprised at how old everyone looked. I asked Riley if LL and I looked that old and he responded with "You are the youngest one's up there by far". What a wonderful son I have. I turned to LL and asked what was with all the small children. LL and I started late having our children I had thought. There were people with babies and small children running around in our class. Some were adoption children you could tell by ethnicity, but the baby surprised me. We are too old for having babies. LL leans over to me and whispers "second marriages". We giggled.

That night there was a banquette for our graduation group at the hotel down town where we had held many a dance function with our sorority, which is now folded and gone from campus. Greek was not heavily pushed on campus, it was more of a social organization you could join, and pretty laid back, but then maybe that is why our house failed. Maybe we were a bit too laid back .We didn't fight heavily for its survival. My friends and I were more GDI (God Damn Independent) at heart, feet on both sides of the fence

Afew of our friends did not attend the reunion as they said they were already in contact with everyone they wanted to see. That may be true. In my facebook I have more college friends than I recognized attending the reunion. I maybe remembered half a dozen of the people there, while the Whitties I like to play and party with are in my face book but not at the reunion. Thank goodness a few old friends did show up as it was a long way to come not to see anyone we knew and wanted to see and hadn't seen in a while.

People came up to say hi to me and I would have to lean over and whisper to E or LL "How do I know this person?" I am so bad with names and faces. Riley made the wise decision of staying at the hotel to read his book rather than attend the banquette. I brought him home a late dinner afterwards. The hotel staff boxed up his dinner for me. $43 for a slice of lasagna. I  did think the banquette was a bit pricey. I split a bottle of wine with another couple at the table. The hotel charged me $40 for a bottle of average table wine.

I was not impressed with the wine selections when we did the wine tasting either. For all the hype Walla Walla gets I think we fell into a tourist trap. But it was all in fun. And when on vacation you have to splurge a bit and have fun. We had a blast. My gut hurts from soar muscles from laughing. I have blisters on my feet from walking the campus in pretty impractical sandals. I have a wonderful glow from visiting my fantasy land. the sun shone the weather was perfect, my friends were all having fun with me. A few dear people I never get to see, I got to spend quality time with. Riles was wonderful and polite and easy. I showed him off with pride.

I have set the bench high by showing Riles such  a perfect college first. Now he needs to motivate and start applying and see where he ends up. I gave Tom the instructions that he had better take the boys to OSU and give a glamorous tour of his campus if he wants to motivate them in his preferred Alma Marta's direction.    I have to admit choosing a school for an incredible climbing wall, even if it is the biggest indoor climbing wall in North America, and designed by a preeminent architect,  is not really a good reason to go there. Now I am back to the real world.