So Friday Rex (my boss) came into my office and offered me a ticket to this event, Abbendonza. I has seen some advertisements about it and knew it was food and music, but wasn't sure about it. It was a charity event in town to raise money for Junior Achievement and the United Way. The ticket was $55 and it was held at The Ohio Building, which is this cool old building in Terre Haute where they have a lot of event and stuff. I had never been there, but a friend of mine from undergrad is an event planner there.
I asked him who else was going and he sent me a list. It looked like a fun group but I was hesitant to commit so I told him I'd think about it. We went to lunch and Heather M was there. She works for our Center for Public Service and Community Engagement and was the campus contact for the event. She pulled me aside and asked me if I was going. I've been to charity events with Heather before and she's a lot of fun and she is also one of those people that says just about everything she is thinking, which I find amusing. So I decided to go. I then texted a couple of my other friends in town, Jaime and Heather (Heather is the one who works at The Ohio Building) to see if they were going to be there. Jaime wasn't but Heather was. Yay! Funny thing about both Jaime and Heather. I've been back in Terre Haute for two years now and I've seen them both twice... am making promises to myself to make more of an effort to see them both more.
Anyway, so the event is "dress casual" which works for me. I was excited because I don't get much of a chance anymore to get all dressed up to go out. We usually hang out at my house or sports bars.. with the same group of people, so there is no one to impress which means there is no reason to wear anything but tshirt and jeans.
Sigh -- I miss going out out...
So, I get to the event and right away know it's going to be two things:
1. An event that I'm pretty much going to need to drink a fair amount of alcohol in order to feel comfortable.
2. PRIME people watching. Ahh Terre Haute-- how I love you!! People were dressed in anything from tiny tiny micro mini skirts to prom dresses to ripped jeans and a tshirt. I love how unpretentious this town is...
So I get me a drink and sit down at our table and trade chit chat with Elonda, our new Director of the Career Center and watch people. We were on the 2nd floor and the band playing was amazing. They played a bunch of 80's and 90's pop and rock. They had me when they rocked out with Billy Joel's "You May Be Right." Anyway there was this old couple out there dancing it up -- it was adorable. This this other gentleman joined them. He had to be 90 and was dressed to the 9's. He had on white dress slacks, a white dress shirt and a white fedora. his tie was black, white and gold striped, and the band on his hat matched. He also had on white patent leather shoes... it was HOT. This guy was deaf as a door nail, but he danced like a 21 year hold.. he got low and was hip bumping. then he started grinding with a lady -- WOW it was interesting. He sat down at our table and asked Heather to dance and she did. It was entertaining -- then he followed her around the rest of the night.
After a few drinks, Elonda bailed and Amber (Heather's friend) and her husband and Heather's husband decided to leave for a while. So Heather and I decided to get up and check the rest of the place out. We ended up on the roof where they were playing Caribbean music. We danced and started being silly. We noticed that whenever a new woman would join us on the dance floor they all made the same funny face... so we started doing it to make each other laugh. She introduced me to some new folks and we had a great time. But it was hot so we soon headed back down to our table. the band down there was called Switchback and we had a lot of fun. Several of the girls we were dancing with on the roof came down with us and we were rockin out. So much fun!! I can't remember the last time I got to dance like that. I miss dancing. I think it may have been the one night at pub when i wanted to dance and no one was in Club Divine so all the guys went with me and Erica and we all danced for like a half hour in an empty bar... that was fun too. Anyway -- we had a great time. then the band took a break and Heather and I hung out with the guitar player -- Brian or Dave maybe?? and his wife Amy. then we danced some more. Amber and the husbands came back and stood and watched us dance then they decided it was time to go so we left around 10:30.
What a fun fun night!! I really really miss going out like that and listening and dancing to live music. AWESOME!!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
More Craziness... and then it was over! :)
So that last post was posted Last Friday Night/Sat Morning around 1:30 Am -- apparently no one was able to wish me luck quickly enough -- phone rang at 3:03 am.
My first instinct was NO NOT ANOTHER FIGHT -- HA -- wish it had been. I answered the phone and one of my Area Directors reported that a student had been injured in one of our buildings and blood was everywhere. She was pretty shook up so I got dressed and went in. I didn't get home again until 7am.
In the past the phrase -- blood was everywhere -- has typically meant a trail of blood droplets from the elevator out the door... that's what I expected... boy was I in for a shock. I walked in and just stopped and stared. Our police officers were with me and one of them mumbled, "Yep, it's a shock." If I hadn't known better I would have thought someone took a gallon of paint and dumped it in various places on the floor and then smeared it around. The kid had cut his arm pretty bad and then stood in the lobby bleeding profusely while waiting on the ambulance. It was a LOT of blood. Every time I closed my eyes I saw the smear patter on the inside of my eye lids.. it's been a week and I'm still seeing it.. crazy.
Good news, the kid is ok. Spoke with him several times this week.
Today is closing day -- THANK GOODNESS!!! We still have about 900 students to go, but graduation is at 2pm.. the rest will leave after that. YAY!!! Am looking forward to calmness for about a week -- then the summer gets busier than that school year. :)
YAY SUMMER!!!
My first instinct was NO NOT ANOTHER FIGHT -- HA -- wish it had been. I answered the phone and one of my Area Directors reported that a student had been injured in one of our buildings and blood was everywhere. She was pretty shook up so I got dressed and went in. I didn't get home again until 7am.
In the past the phrase -- blood was everywhere -- has typically meant a trail of blood droplets from the elevator out the door... that's what I expected... boy was I in for a shock. I walked in and just stopped and stared. Our police officers were with me and one of them mumbled, "Yep, it's a shock." If I hadn't known better I would have thought someone took a gallon of paint and dumped it in various places on the floor and then smeared it around. The kid had cut his arm pretty bad and then stood in the lobby bleeding profusely while waiting on the ambulance. It was a LOT of blood. Every time I closed my eyes I saw the smear patter on the inside of my eye lids.. it's been a week and I'm still seeing it.. crazy.
Good news, the kid is ok. Spoke with him several times this week.
Today is closing day -- THANK GOODNESS!!! We still have about 900 students to go, but graduation is at 2pm.. the rest will leave after that. YAY!!! Am looking forward to calmness for about a week -- then the summer gets busier than that school year. :)
YAY SUMMER!!!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
What a week!
Sorry these have been pretty random with long breaks in between--
Been a bit of a rough patch lately. The semester is supposed to be winding down, but instead the kids seem to be winding up -- their right hook, that is. Been seeing a lots of fights lately. I think in the last three weeks we've seen like around 10 fights -- damn spring weather. When it's rainy they behave.
The most recent -- tonight-- was a doozy. Happened in the parking lot outside of one of my halls and they ended up fighting on top of one of my grad student's cars and dented the heck out of it. We had to put the building on lock down, with two staff at the door checking ID for everyone who walked in, all guests had to sign in, and one person couldn't sign in more than three guests. Campus police also had an officer stationed there with the staff in case anyone gave them problems.
I was at a play at the community theater when it all broke out so after the play we went to campus to check on the staff and hang out a bit. Jess and I ended up buying them pizza and soda to thank them.
These fights (tonight's and the two last night) all stem from one we had three weeks ago were a gun was pulled on a student for a stupid video prank his fraternity did that mocked members of two other fraternities. So a dude associated with one of the fraternities being mocked pulled a gun on one of the guys in the video. This wasn't a toy gun either -- it was a 50 caliber desert eagle with hollow tipped bullets --- they weren't playin. Luckily he just pointed the gun, everyone scattered, and he jumped in a car and drove off. the police found the truck with his brother in it with the gun and arrested him. The brother turned himself in later. The associate director of our police department told me that the gun/bullets would have went right through the Kevlar vests that our police wear. Like I said, they weren't playin -- hence the police stationed in the building.
It's just been a bit crazy since then. Luckily we close a week from tomorrow (err today actually) -- Saturday May 8th!! Woot woot!!
I almost hit a breaking point this week -- as in I almost broke some people. So I took Wednesday off and had my RHA kids over for dinner. I made lasagna with sauce from scratch... I have to admit -- I make a DAMN good lasagna -- ask anyone who has had it. :)
That's the craziness in my life now -- we are counting down the days until closing so that thing will slow down a bit for us. :) Wish me luck for the rest of the semester!!
Been a bit of a rough patch lately. The semester is supposed to be winding down, but instead the kids seem to be winding up -- their right hook, that is. Been seeing a lots of fights lately. I think in the last three weeks we've seen like around 10 fights -- damn spring weather. When it's rainy they behave.
The most recent -- tonight-- was a doozy. Happened in the parking lot outside of one of my halls and they ended up fighting on top of one of my grad student's cars and dented the heck out of it. We had to put the building on lock down, with two staff at the door checking ID for everyone who walked in, all guests had to sign in, and one person couldn't sign in more than three guests. Campus police also had an officer stationed there with the staff in case anyone gave them problems.
I was at a play at the community theater when it all broke out so after the play we went to campus to check on the staff and hang out a bit. Jess and I ended up buying them pizza and soda to thank them.
These fights (tonight's and the two last night) all stem from one we had three weeks ago were a gun was pulled on a student for a stupid video prank his fraternity did that mocked members of two other fraternities. So a dude associated with one of the fraternities being mocked pulled a gun on one of the guys in the video. This wasn't a toy gun either -- it was a 50 caliber desert eagle with hollow tipped bullets --- they weren't playin. Luckily he just pointed the gun, everyone scattered, and he jumped in a car and drove off. the police found the truck with his brother in it with the gun and arrested him. The brother turned himself in later. The associate director of our police department told me that the gun/bullets would have went right through the Kevlar vests that our police wear. Like I said, they weren't playin -- hence the police stationed in the building.
It's just been a bit crazy since then. Luckily we close a week from tomorrow (err today actually) -- Saturday May 8th!! Woot woot!!
I almost hit a breaking point this week -- as in I almost broke some people. So I took Wednesday off and had my RHA kids over for dinner. I made lasagna with sauce from scratch... I have to admit -- I make a DAMN good lasagna -- ask anyone who has had it. :)
That's the craziness in my life now -- we are counting down the days until closing so that thing will slow down a bit for us. :) Wish me luck for the rest of the semester!!
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