We Meet Again...

While I did say that it was an "End of Orientation Dance," Orientation wasn't quite over. Our orientation groups assembled the following morning, first to learn about the honor code in a meeting on the lawn in front of Main Hall, and then to perform service projects in downtown Buena Vista (BV).

The front of Main. The speakers were on the steps and all the new students sat on folding chairs.

After all the speeches concluded, my group helped put away the chairs, and then shuttled up to the dorm to get our wallets (so we wouldn't have to take the time to climb the aforementioned hill), and then shuttled on downtown, where we picked weeds to beautify the streets in preparation for the Labor Day Parade. (I learned later that Colin's group just helped put away chairs and considered that the extent of their "service.")

There was a lot going on in downtown BV that day.

This is downtown BV. And a beautiful friend who, while a lovely person, is completely irrelevant to my story.

To thank us for helping out, as well as to advertise, business in BV were offering special discounts to SVU students. I went to lunch at the local Italian restaurant ("the" being singular, because there's only one...) with a couple friends from the group. Kasia is kind of a big deal in this story, so I will show you her.

This is me with Kasia. She lived next door and was in my orientation group.

So I ate lunch with Kasia and Josh, and then we went to Battle of the Bands in a nearby yard. I looked absolutely disgusting, by the way. I was wearing ill-fitting jeans and the bright green orientation t-shirt, accented with grimy streaks from weed-pulling fun.

Orientation T-shirts! (And just hangin with my roomie...)

And Colin was at Battle of the Bands! While he hadn't made it down for the service, he did manage to be there to jam out. Kasia and I decided to see if he had made good on his promise to remember all of our names. He managed to prove himself (and possibly guarantee himself a couple more votes for Freshman Class President in the process). So Colin was hanging out with a group of guys from his orientation group ahead of us. Kasia and I were both kind of checking out this fine fellow in Colin's group, Patrick.

Patrick. Also answers to Pattycakes and P-Nasty.

We were clapping along to the music, but when boy-whose-name-we-didn't-know smiled, Kasia's clap got a little delayed and totally off-beat. It was embarrassingly funny.

When Colin was over talking to us, Kasia asked him if he could introduce his friend (Patrick) to us. Colin's man-ego sprung a bit of a leak, and that's how Kasia got dibs on Pattycakes, who had JUST gotten back from his mission. So Colin called the tan, well-dressed guy over, and the four of us started talking. It was around the middle of the afternoon.