Welcome to another edition of my own personal rant board (IE no one reads this but me but I really don't care)
It was a pretty busy weekend all things considered. Cinco De Mayo first of all..I know it isn't really an actual holiday but still the celebration of it is something I've done since I was a kid. It's kinda a tradition at this point.
This past Saturday was also the Hume Fogg Centennial Block Party. Again all things considered not a bad experience. The school has changed alot since the last time I was back there. I'm kinda shocked how much. My old favorite lunch spot has been replaced with more lockers so I suppose no one gets to eat back there anymore. I pity, I had some pretty good memories sitting back there with friends. Also they replaced the antique hardwood floors in the front lobby. I'm sorry to see them go, they were, inspite of years of damage, still quite beautiful. Not that the new floors aren't mind you but it's just kinda sad that's all.
The tour guide (which they insisted upon even though it hasn't been that long since I went there and I wasn't liable to get lost plus he didn't know squat about the school's heritage) wasn't terribly helpful but he mentioned something I don't remember. He said Taylor Swift shot a music video there in 2005. I don't remember that and I was going to school there in 05. BUT there was that whole lost semester thing so perhaps that was when...idk. Not a fan of hers anyway so I doubt it matters.
The library was a shock too...Most of the shelves are gone. It looks like the place got robbed or something. The new librarian claimed some kinda reorganization or whatever, it doesn't look much like a library anymore though. Just a room that happens to have a couple bookshelves against the walls. Also they have dvds you can check out now....when did that happen?? And a manga shelf (one of the few shelves) which I'm sure most of the folks I hung out with in high school would've loved.
Another surprising addition was the vending machines. They used to just be in the basement at the little alcove which was under the front steps. Now there is one in the hall across from the library and another in front of the boy's locker room (not that I had any desire to go NEAR that area now or back then).
He explained about another change too, that they started to group the kids into home rooms and that you had to sit in your advisor's section in an assigned seat in alphabetical order whenever assemblies were called. This change I don't see as being a good thing at all. Speaking as someone who would've rather sat with people she actually knew (which weren't the people next to me alphabetically), it rankles. I can't change it and it doesn't affect me at all anymore but still seems to be kinda curtailing the freedoms which were part of what made that school so special.
Ran into a couple familiar faces. I wasn't expecting to see many folks I knew so the ones I did, it was kinda a surprise. I didn't talk to Mr. Bruce. Nothing against him really but wasn't really all that nice to me when I was in his class. Not mean or anything but I was certainly mostly invisible. Hard to do considering I was in his class every single semester.
Mr Babb was interesting. I was never in his class but I was in the history club so I was pleased he remembered me. Mrs Robinson was there too and she definitely did. She saw me in the front lobby and told me she wanted to talk to me before I left there so I was happy about that.
I saw Mr. Cash too...but had no desire to speak to him. In his case, he was nice and everything, I had his class once, but I just didn't have alot of respect for the guy. Sorry to say he wasn't a good teacher.
The lecture hall has had a makeover since I graduated. It's got this new high tech system, apparently set up for like executive kinda presentations. It also, according to the tour guide kid, has computer stations and there was even little sofas over by the windows, I suppose for studying as that room was never really open as a place people could "lunch".
Another spot which has changed some is the senior courtyard. By the time I was a senior, I knew that the anatomy classes used that space for disecting cats so it was never a place I was too keen to spend time. It's gotten alot more crowded. There are tons of tables out there now, of every miss-matched description. It used to look kinda sparce but certainly alot nicer. It kinda looks like a table junkyard now.
I did see some alumni I recognized, one of them waved to me but the rest just ignored me. There weren't that many there that I knew and the ones that were there, I never knew well so I kinda just brushed it off. I had more fun talking to the old alumns from the 70s about how it was when they went there. See that's what my tour group was made up of, so we all kinda swapped stories of what life was like at hume fogg at the times were were there. It was also cool to see all the antique docs they brought out. I went so crazy over this playbill they had from the 1920s for a show they did at hume fogg. It was really cool. Before I left though I made my way back to the main office to see the big seniors photoboard from the year I graduated. I'm not on it. I couldn't afford to use their photographer which is the only way I would've been on it. It doesn't rankle though. It's just one of those things that seems bittersweet. Looking at the faces of people I knew and remembering how many of them I never saw again is kinda sad when you think about it. When you're a kid in high school, you kinda just get this feeling sometimes like things are always going to be like that. But they aren't. You give everyone a hug at graduation, promise to keep in touch but that's it. You'll see them again someday, a familiar face in a crowd. I miss it sometimes. But you can't go back again. Would I if I could I don't know, probably not. I just think about it often.
After making an appearance at the block party (spending about two hours), it was off to the movies. I went to see the raven then the avengers both were good as I had hoped they would be. It was a pretty long day and I stopped off at applebees after the movie and the doppy waiter brought me lemonade. Now I did not order lemonade and I was too tired to notice what it was. That was until it made me sick...Lemonade always does which is why I don't drink it...ever. I ended up being sick all day sunday as a consequence. Stupid waiter.
But in more positive news I do have a couple things to report. First off, news on the extended family front, two of my cousins are expecting! congrats to them :)
Oh and lastly, Currently at #40 in my books challenge! yay!!! So that's kinda awesome. I didn't think I'd be doing half as well as I am when I started this so getting this far is pretty amazing. The year isn't even half over yet so I don't know what the rest of it will bring but that's quite good so far though :)
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