Today’s Business: 2010-08-06
Friday, August 6th, 2010Today’s Activities
- Shower. DONE.
- Cat duty. DONE.
Log
09:15 AM: We’re all up.
12:00 PM: [Mentat], [Emmy], and I hung out at her apartment listening to music on her computer, eating breakfast, and getting ready for the big weekend at the WPSBC Alumni Association convention. We’re heading to our favorite Indian restaurant shortly for lunch, before going on to the school.
01:00 PM: Circled around to CVS Pharmacy for a mini shopping trip.
01:45 PM: Lunch is done and we’re all pleasantly full. This meal should last us until the cook-out at WPSBC tonight.
02:15 PM: We’ve arrived at WPSBC. I’ve been asked to work the registration desk; greeting members and guests as they arrive, and telling them their dorm room assignments.
06:00 PM: The registration phase of the convention is now complete. So, we’re going to the next part; the orientation meeting. You’d think that as former students, we’d not require orientation. However, the school has undergone so many changes over the years, and continues to do so at this very moment. So in this gathering, the staff informs us of the alterations in building layout, campus rules, and such, who to contact in case of emergencies, where the emergency phones are located, and so on. Unfortunately, access to the basement, second, and third floors is denied this weekend, as almost all areas in the Mary Schenley building are being renovated; heating and air conditioning upgrades.
The school’s superintendent addressed us as well and discussed the renovations also going on in the old lower school. They’ve removed the tiles from the walls and floors in order to “tone down” the “institutional” look, to favor a more “family room at home” appearance. This is an effort, as he explained, to make the parents who must send their special needs children to the school for a time, perceive the school as more of a home-style environment; one that more closely resembles their own family rooms at home.
Finally, our president supplied the schedule of activities for the weekend and bade us all to have a great time.
06:45 PM: The orientation meeting is now complete, and we’re heading for what used to be the boys side playground area for the cook-out meal.
08:00 PM: The weather cooperated during the picnic style meal which consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, and brownies. The temperatures were slightly warmer this time than what I remember them being in past conventions; though I still had to don my sweatshirt as the meal progressed as the temperatures fell to the low seventies as the evening progressed.
After my big Indian lunch earlier, I limited myself to two hamburgers and no hot dogs. But that was still enough to capture the cook out picnic essence which has come to define Friday nights at these get-togethers.
09:00 PM: During the meal and for a few hours afterwards (until 11:15 or so), a Karaoke DJ entertained us. Several of the more gutsy members sang their favorite songs to us all. I was not so fearless however; as I declined an invitation to sing Jim Croce’s hit Bad Bad Leroy Brown. Hey, I know my limits. 
09:30 PM: I paid the DJ, then return to my table with [Ron], [Emmy]. and others, while [Mentat] played darts inside.
02:00 AM: Well, I couldn’t tear myself away from the good conversation and fellowship until now. As we must be up again by 8:00 AM for breakfast, I’m certainly going to pay for staying up so late tomorrow. I may have to rely on diet Pepsi with caffeine intact to get me through the upcoming business meeting and the Saturday afternoon social hours. But as hard as I try, it’s nearly impossible to maintain a healthful sleeping schedule with all this wonderful reminiscing and debating current affairs going on.
02:15 AM: I just entered the dorm and, well, it looks like I might not sleep very well. A roommate is snoring, lumbering, and growling like Sasquatch. He appears to suffer from severe sleep apnea; going through cycles of slow, deep breathing that gradually increase in volume and breaths per minute until a loud cresendo occurs, when he stops breathing altogether for ten to fifteen seconds, wakes up, noisily shifts position in his bed, then breathes deeply again as the whole process begins anew. But hopefully these foam earplugs I borrowed from [Emmy] will attenuate that racket enough to allow me to doze off and acquire at least a few hours of undisturbed shuteye. Good night.
Received Mail and Shipments
None today.