Remembering

Today at 4pm there will be a memorial service for 2011 graduate Aaron Riley, who died suddenly this summer while on a field trip with his graduate class...

I didn't know him extraordinarily well but we talked in the student center or when I was at Chi Phi, his fraternity house.

And it's also his birthday. Miss you buddy.

NEW HALLOWEEN COSTUME IDEA

Another dirty mouth cleaned up with Orbit!!!

Hangin' out the passenger side of his PS ride, tryin' to give me a ticket

Sometimes I get very frustrated when I try to park on campus.

Okay, I live a few blocks away. I don't often get up on time, so I can't walk to class. My only option is to drive over and find somewhere to park (usually in Selby). Same with when I do my laundry. It's hard, when you accumulate several hampers full of dirty clothes, to park on Spring Street in the rain and drag laundry to Smith. It's almost worse in the rain, or freezing cold, to park by the door, drop laundry off, go park and then come back. Sigh. It's no fun not having a permit sometimes.

Why don't I have a permit? Good question. I guess because when I have to pay around $400 a month for rent, utilities, food, gas and other items, a $100 permit seems like a stupid idea (especially since I'm graduating in December). I go to class every day and have meetings pretty often, but that's about it for my academic-side ventures. I certainly don't park in Selby or HamWill for hours at a time...and if I ever dare to park in Smith, Hayes or Welch you bet it will be for like half an hour.

Since moving off-campus, I have gotten my fair share of parking tickets. My car stayed through lunch at Selby? Ticket. Parked in Smith lot in a blizzard because I was late to PRIDE? Ticket. Parked in Edwards to interview a coach for an article? Ticket. Set my Toyota by the fraternities last year (on a Saturday!!) for a philanthropy event? Ticket again!

You bet your lug nuts that I contested all of these suckers. Not only do I have a chance to get out of the ticket, but I have more time to save twenty bucks! But not once have I won my contest. I'm on to you, Mike Esler.

I hear a lot of complaints about the parking situation on campus, and especially about tickets. I know someone who parked right in front of Hayes for two minutes while she ran upstairs to get tampons and got a $45 ticket. Yikes. People park there all the time...sorry about your luck, lady. The construction by Stuy has affected some Peaceful and Justicey peoples' ability to park by their house. Hayes and Smith lots are always full of folks--and those Smith spaces are too small even for my Corolla. Even if I shelled out a Benjamin for that parking pass, would I even get a good spot?

Parking can be rough here on campus but those of us without parking passes are lucky we have all the side streets to park on--Rowland, Washington, Winter, Oak Hill, Spring...and Catherine Street when it gets back to normal. And there aren't even any meters, just Delaware residents who may get mad at you when you park too close to their driveway. Bigger campuses don't have that luxury. I have visited OSU for events--and you either pay to park in a garage, feed the meter all your quarters, or risk getting a ticket. OU is the same way. All the side streets have meters, and if you park in a lot when you aren't supposed to, you get slammed. Or, let's see...you get your damn car towed on Halloween weekend!! Not that I have ever had that experience...or anything...

True, parking tickets are a pain. And it's hard to be happy about your parking pass when there is nowhere to put your vehicle. But there are close streets to park, and no worrying about meters or major time limits. Yeah, we may have to walk a little further or get up a little earlier...but it beats having to spend Taco Bell and beer money on a ticket.

It's a vicious cycle, too, I suppose. I get mad at Delaware parents who park in front of or actually in my driveway every day when picking up their kids from Woodward Elementary. But then I think. There probably aren't parking spots over there for them to stop and get their kids. Some of them are mean when I ask them to move but it usually isn't a problem...usually.

Great Greek weekend!

Today was Delta Zeta's annual Jell-O Tug of War and my sisters and I had a fantastic time. :) We raised a lot of money for the Delaware Speech and Hearing Center and spent happy hours sliding through gelatin after our fellow Greeks finished their tug-of-war competition.

There were quite a few fraternity men and sorority women there (and some unaffiliated folks, of course)! Everyone was having a great time and was very supportive of the cause and the tug. It made me think, as I often do, of how awesome the Greek community is at Ohio Wesleyan. I have gained so much from Delta Zeta and from my leadership roles here, but also have gained so many friendships and connections from the overall group o' Greeks. The other men and women in the community have been a great support network for the last two and a half years of my life--valuing service, scholarship, friendship and community along with my sisters and I.

I know that the Greek community has problems. I know we have a bad image--we haze, we stereotype, we judge, we drink, we discriminate, we dirty rush, we are too selective. Some of us really don't live up to our ritual, to the standards our founders set up. And that's a shame. I feel that I am fortunate to be in a chapter full of strong women who believe in our creed and our aims: "...to unite its members in the bonds of sincere and lasting friendship, to stimulate one another in the pursuit of knowledge, to promote the moral and social culture of its members, and to develop plans for guidance and unity in action; objects worthy of the highest aim and purpose of associated effort."

Sometimes our organizations get lost in peer pressure and image, or even our own stereotypes. It's true. I know hazing and misuse of alcohol are rampant at some bigger schools and that turns a lot of people away. I'm sure it happens here too, just not on a huge scale. We hold each other accountable and we have our founders and ritual to keep us on task. We try so hard to keep the fraternity and sorority experience enriching for everyone in the system.

I think all of us at OWU in the Greek system, need to count ourselves so lucky that we have good people, dedicated alums, and a supportive faculty on our side. I love our Greek community and I would not change my memories in DZ for anything. Thanks to everyone for being such a great group of people and making today such a big success!

Get me out of here!

I do love going to a liberal arts school, but sometimes it just makes me crazy.

Like science classes, for example. I'm a journo. I don't deal well with science. I'd rather not ponder how everything works and just let it work. But noooo, that's too simple isn't it? I have to take classes on it.

I'm in Organisms and their Environment this semester and it is awful. I have no idea what's going on!! And my current grade is a disappointing D. Sigh.

Plus, I don't belong in the science center. Plain and simple. It's scary, it's confusing, it's cold and I always get lost. I feel like I walk around and people can tell that I don't belong. Like a pariah.

You can always tell when people don't belong in a certain building or a certain class. At this school, by the time you are a senior, you know how certain majors look, think, and act. And where they hang out. The fellas in my Islam class who look like Vineyard Vines advertisements? Not religion majors. And me, the pseudo-prep with newsprint on her hands every Thursday morning? Not a science major.

Being in science classes throws me out of my comfort zone. I like my comfort zone. It's comfortable and it's nice. I am good at writing and the study of religion--obviously, because I haven't failed out of the programs yet. But put me in Schimmel-Conrades Science Center and I balk. There are two buildings (and one is mostly MATH)! Too many floors! It's dark! All the bathrooms look the same! I am afraid to go up or down stairs because I don't know where they lead. I don't want to open doors because I am afraid of what is behind them--mutated lab mice? Noxious gases? Freshmen having a quickie?

Four times a week I enter into this frightening place to learn about terrifying, difficult and sciencey things. After that, my newspaper deadlines don't look that bad.

Deadlines!

Oy, deadlines make me crazy.