Birthday Parties
It seems like Birthday season is in full swing. Had a fun outing with the grads from GVSU last night, next week Ken turns older and then after that little Ramiro will get his wings (turns 21). It was a good end to a blah week. I never had so many meetings and conference calls in my life. Got a lot done though. But back to the fun... last night.

Started the night with the Betas. Santi, Hermen, Ramon and I went to BFE. We started what is becoming a tradition for us, Thursday night pool night. Last week I cleaned the table and went 5-1 (this old guy sharked me), this week it changed. I lost my first game to Hermen, I scratched on the 8 ball. So I consider that I lost, not that Hermen won, there is a difference in my opinion. Then Ramon lost to me (he scratched the 8 in his second shot). Santi was running the table last night... must of learned some tricks in the pool halls of SagiNAW. We stopped playing pool and just sat and chilled.

From there the grad outing started. I was picked up by the crew, Andrea's boyfriend was driving a two door Sundance and we managed to get 6 people in it (The guys up front, Shawna, Heather D, Andrea and Amanda in the back)... I almost felt like I was back in High School packing the car and running to lunch from school. We arrived at Taps and had to wait in line to get upstairs. After an hour of waiting (the birthday girl was already upstairs) the rest of us were getting bored. They came down, realizing we were never getting in and we all decided to leave.

We got all geeked to go to MargaritaGrill, but then remembered it closed down. So off to Gardella's we went. Dena and her husband took off at this time and wished Heather a happy birthday. The rest of the gang made it down to the basement, were we played with the jukebox all night long. The music selection was shoddy at best, but we made a good time of it. Heather D busted out the happy birthday camera, Von showed some mean dance moves, Amanda was droppin' game, Kacy and Carrissa danced on their chairs, Ken was low key, Andrea played the instruments Heather D brought, and her boyfriend walked Heather N to her car. I just kept requesting something from Cake, which when it finally played we were all leaving... so I only heard the first half of "Going the Distance..." I wanted to hear it all.
- Late Edit: I left off Shawna and her seduction of the metal iBeam on the dance floor and Paul leaving cause he was not feeling well (maybe he went and puked in the river).

Now I am at CompuCraft working and waiting for the rest of the weekend to kick off. On Sunday I am going to see Novali. Hermen might come with me, so I am excited about that. Hopefully the pictures from Halloween will be developed already and I will post them when I get back.

Have a fun weekend everyone!

Forced Vacation
It caught up with me. Last week I was fighting the flu that was going around the office. My ears were plugged, nose was stuffy, and I was working extra hard. Yesterday was a crazy day, at the Office of Student Life around 8am, then off to CompuCraft and had a lot to do. Then a conference call for my Executive Director position with the Western Region Greek Association, followed by a GVSU Beta colony meeting. Long day.

To top that off I had to drop the NX in the shop again. Some of you might remember over the summer, at one of my races, when I was driving her so hard that on an upshift I blew apart one of the welds in my exhaust? (For those interested, check the archives, 6.8.2003~"The Fast and Exhaustless...") Well it came back. Mark over at Tolman Auto who has gotten to know the NX had to reweld it for me. So I had to bum rides yesterday as well.

So right now I am sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea, and watching CNN. After some rest I plan to get up to campus tonight for some meetings. Nothing like a mini unplanned vacation, even if I am not feeling well.

Zeta Lounge
Friday night, Halloween, we rolled to the University of Michigan (Zeta Chapter of Sigma Lambda Beta) for a little costume party. Becky, Hermen, Ramiro and I rolled from GVSU. We got a little lost on the way, Mapquest said to take exit #3, there was no exit #3... but after much arguing in the car, we made it.

The party was great! Zeta Brothers were excellent hosts. Good turnout, Brothers from all over came, MSU, CMU, GVSU, WSU, EMU, my chapter bros Vic and Rudy from WMU, and lots of Gammas. Most everyone was dressed up: Rudy was Zorro the only Latino super hero, Hermen was a priest (I thought he looked like a nun), Becky was easy street, Colleen was a witch, Maria had an afro and real crutches (but she still got down on the dance floor), Liz had on a purple wig (got to love purple), Marcie had on a cowboy hat (I was not sure if it was an actual costume or not), Vic was wearing swim trunks and a leather watch, he was the guy at the beach wearing a leather watch (cause I mean there is always that guy...), Ramiro took the show with his boxer costume (nice abs), and I was a fireman.

I am posting some more pictures at the GVSU Betas website tomorrow, check it out: GVSU Betas.




The funny part about Ramiro's and my costume is that they were made for little kids. His barely fit and his boxer abs were in his chest and his pecs around his neck and had no nipples, and my fireman pants were ultra tight. Yes, not just tight, ultra tight. I was betting they would rip, and they did. By the end of the night I was wearing two separate pant legs being held together with the velcro fly and suspenders. Not a good sight, so I put some jeans on when helping to clean up. An experienced road-tripper always has backup pants in the car.

Speaking of experienced road-trippers, Vic and I realized that we have now been road tripping together for over 5 years. That is a long time. We have been to almost 30 different schools together, traveled through the corn fields of several states, craziness in Buffalo, spring break in Chicago, Canoeing in Mio, hung out in DC, drove through Canada, Greek Town eating at Plaka Cafe, Canada Retreats, (always got hassled at the border), got crazy at Purdue, Beta Olympics, Greek Weeks, hanging out in the Peer Room, and many many nights at Club Soda. Good times.




So... like any good road trip with Vic, we ate at Big Boy. Ramiro was not in a greatest mood and very sleepy, too much partying will do that to you. Of course I got the breakfast buffet. It was cool to have the GVSU group and what was left of the WMU gang (the rest left all early last night... wack) eating together. The first meal Vic and I had as Brothers (the day we crossed) was at Big Boy. April 17th, 1999... it was a cold rainy day in Toledo, it was Saturday, and I got a ticket on the way home.

All good road trippers remember one thing: What happens on the road trip, stays on the road trip.