Life After Connecticut College

ATTENTION CLASS OF 2007: We're having a One Year Out Reunion on Saturday, May 17 from 8:00pm-12:30am in the campus bar, and you are all invited! There's a Facebook event for it; check that out for more info. I hope to see everyone there!

The Senior Giving bar night on Tuesday was a success; who would have thought that a bunch of 21-year-olds who haven't seen each in other in a month would want to come together to drink cheap beer and eat free pizza? I guess there are still some mysteries in life (another great mystery: who let the dogs out?). As of right now, the seniors are at about 25% participation, which is definitely a good start, but now it's time to shift things into high gear. The Big Hig wants at least 50% by Spring Break, and I'm not inclined to disappoint him! Speaking of our giving progress, it's pretty exciting to be in the Advancement office these days; this is by far the College's best year ever for fundraising, and I definitely encourage all the alumni, parents, and students out there to be a part of it.

I actually got to see a really exciting example of the fruits of our fundraising efforts last night when I went down to the Athletic Center to use the gym....

....As you may know, Conn is building a brand new fitness center this October, but in the meantime there are some long overdue and much-appreciate renovations going on with the current facilities. What I hadn't expected, however, was the degree to which the exercise machines were getting upgraded. The gym was closed for about five days last week to install some new equipment, and when I went down there last night to check it out I was stunned! I felt like I was working out in the future; I don't think I've ever seen that much brushed nickel and streamlined ergodynamic architecture in my life. Definitely check out the company's website to see these things (preview: the company is called Cybex, so you know it's got to be high-tech).

I'm also happy to report that today is FRIDAY! Don't get me wrong: I like working at Conn, but there's nothing quite like the weekend. Tonight I don't have any plans, but I'm thinking about catching a flick since there are so many good choices out there right now (I'm still on the fence between the new Rambo movie and 27 Dresses; what's a girl to do?). I can't go too hard tonight, though, because there are two alumni games and athletic receptions tomorrow morning that I have to staff. I suggested that the women's ice hockey alumni just play against the men's basketball alumni, which would have cut the amount of work I have to do in half, but for some reason nobody went for the idea; go figure! Tomorrow night I'm heading downtown for the 29th annual Hygienic Art Festival, which should be, if its name is any indication, both festive and sanitary. The Rivergods will be playing right across the street at the Roadhouse, so I'll be able to get in double the fun without any additional commute. On Sunday, I'll be on campus again to staff a CELS event that will feature a bunch of alumni who are involved in finance; I'm going to ask them if they think investing all my money in chocolate pudding futures was a good idea.

Well, that'll about do it for this post, except to announce that I have a BIG SURPRISE that I'll be revealing next week! Until then, feel free to post comments on what you think it might be (hint: it's not that Nate got a hair cut; that would never happen).

Posted by Chris Reilly at 08:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm finally blogging after a couple extremely busy weeks. The weekend before last I flew back to santa cruz, california (where my dad and his girlfriend live) to surprise my dad for his 50th birthday. It was a pretty complicated ordeal which involved kenda (my dad's gf) telling my dad that she was taking him on a trip which involved going to the san jose airport...which was true. I played the role of "Melinda", kenda's friend flying in to meet them at the airport to take their car and stay at their house while they went on their "trip". Anyway...my dad was surprised to pull up to the jet blue terminal and see me...so much so that he almost drove right by me. The next night we took my dad out to dinner which was actually his surprise party with about 50+ in attendence, including my grandparents and uncle who drove up 7 hours from san diego to be there. It was a wild party equipped with DJ (sporting glasses, a tux and bow tie), a taco bar, and lots and lots of booze. Kenda also fashioned a Scott Pepper (that's my dad) jeapardy game on power point which got really competitive with all the loopy 40-50 yr olds. So all and all it was a successful trip....

I flew back on sunday night...of course when another nor-easter hit the boston area. By the time my flight reached the boston area monday morning logan had closed due to failing radio transmission equipment..so we made a big 180 and headed to Newburgh, NY. In case all you didn't know there's a quaint little airport south of poughkipsee(i have no idea on that spelling..i think i'm close). We landed at Stewart airport for about an hour, refueled and de-iced until logan opened back up. We arrived in Boston finally at around 11am (i was supposed to arrive at 8am so that i could make it to work....yah right!). Since it was a nannying day i decided to skip work and head home. When I got home my poor dog practically knocked me down...although my roommates had taken him for the required 3 walks per day, he hadn't eaten any food in my absence. Needless to say...he's a mama's boy!
I spent the week going to work and then got to hang out with Laurel Mitchell '09 who was still home for break. We took a roadtrip (about 30min drive) up to Burlington, MA to meet up with another physics friend for Korean BBQ (my favorite food). It was delicious!!! but I could tell by the looks of the other patrons that they were not used to non-korean customers...which didn't help when I butchered my way through ordering.
This weekend was filled with conn-reunions! But first I have mention my ridiculous friday night...My friend Nick (once a conn '09er...now a farmer) and I went to see Cloverfield...which was awesome!!! definitly see it in theaters!
One of those movies that leaves you in a weird mood and I expected as we walked to the car through the commons that an an alien was about to come storming through copley. Anywho...so we got out of the movie at around 9:30pm and since we hadn't eaten yet, we decided to head to harvard sq. to get some Felipe's (damn good burritos). It's extremely hard to find parking in that area on a friday evening so we parked a few blocks away in an alley. As we were about to pay for our burrito's, I realized that I didn't have my wallet and figured I had left it in the car. Not really concerned about it..we got back to the car and drove off. Right before we turned out of the square I realized I had no idea where my wallet was. crap!!! That feeling sucks! After some calming down from nick we backtracked to where we had parked and there, lying on the side of my road was my wallet, untouched. Yay!!! This would have been a tremendous loss for me because in the moving to boston process I had stuck my social security card and my birth certificate in my over-sized wallet and had forgotten to take them out. So whew! So then I was shouting with happiness and kicking myself for my stupidity. Not a minute went by that I get a call from my father and his girlfriend saying that my dad finally popped the question! Poor Nick's ears...that's all I gotta say.
Later that night after letting everything sink in and devouring those delicious burritos, nick and I headed to THe Western Front in cambridge where we met up with Eric, Meg and Eliza '06. It was a cool venue but a really bad dj...oh well. The next night I made it over to Mike King's '06 house in Wayland, MA with Eric Podolsky '06 and Nathan Peirce '04...also a few other conn kids were there. We played some drinking games which brought me right back to college (i think i can say that). It was really fun! I almost forgot that I had left. It was strange spending the whole week/weekend with conn classes ranging 04 thru -09.
Anyway....I think i've said enough for now. I just heard on npr (which is playing on the background...yes i can listen to npr and talk about my life at the same time) that Heath Ledger died today...that's really sad..he was only 28...so RIP Heath!

Posted by Jaime Pepper at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yet again, I am back at work after a busy weekend and very much need a few more days off. As I mentioned previously, I was in New York on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to meet with young alumni. The meetings were good, but what can get tiring is trying to kill time between meetings, especially since they are sometimes 2-3 hours apart. Since I seldom stay at hotels while on the road, I have to find cafes where I can sit and type on my computer; this usually works out fine, but sometimes baristas get a little steamed (pun intended) when you sit in their establishments drinking a small coffee for an hour and a half.

On this particular expedition, I stayed with my fellow blogger, former roommate, and feminine-looking sidekick Nathaniel "Nate out of Ten" Borgelt. I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I had hoped, but we did get to have lunch together on Friday at a new Mexican place near his building. For those of you that aren't acquainted with my pabular preferences, burritos are by far my favorite food (so much so that Mitch and I are thinking about opening a late-night Mexican food delivery place in New London called Vaya Con Burritos). That was actually my second burrito of the trip; I had eaten lunch the previous day at Chipotle, so needless to say I was muy satisfacado by the end of the trip....

....I rolled back to New London on Saturday after hitting almost no traffic, despite the fact that I took the FDR and went on 95 the whole way, which I seldom do because it is typically a recipe for delay. I decided to test out the Garmin that my mom got me for Christmas (love you, mama, and an early happy birthday (she turns 39 tomorrow)). If you don't know, a Garmin is a little GPS device that attaches to your car's windshield and gives you turn-by-turn directions in the language of your choice (my language of choice: Luxembourgish). Anyway, I decided to use it on a test run in which already knew where I was going in order to evaluate its effectiveness without risking getting lost; I was quite impressed! What struck me the most was that it displays your estimated arrival time, which it calculates based on the speed limits of each road, and despite driving 10-15 mph over the speed limit for most of the way (what can I say? I live and drive on the wild side), I only shaved about 4 minutes off of my total travel time! Seeing how negligible an amount of time speeding saves definitely made me rethink my driving habits. Thanks for helping me avoid future speeding tickets, Garmin!

On Saturday night, Mitch and I met up with a bunch of the Conn coaches for a few drinks at Hot Rod's, a sports bar in downtown New London (there aren't really any Admissions bars or Alumni Relations bars around here, so we figured we'd go where the coaches felt most at home). Hot Rod's isn't my favorite place in the universe, but we ended up having a great time. The highlight for me was when the topic of conversation turned to tattoos. The men's assistant rowing coach had just gotten a brand new tattoo and was eager to show it off, which of course set off a chain reaction of people comparing and contrasting their ink. Mitch kept things pretty tasteful; he has a small shoulder piece of the mascot from his college cross-country team (which, interestingly, happens to look A LOT like the Aussie shampoo logo, and Mitch's hair is always soft and luxurious. Coincidence?). The women's assistant rowing coach had a slightly more adventurous work, which was four lines of poetry from her favorite poet, whose name now escapes me (all I remember is that it wasn't Dr. Seuss, thank God). In the interest of common decency, I decided not to display my tattoo, which is the Chinese character for "fart" on my right butt cheek.

After things wrapped up at Rod's, Mitch and I made our way over to Oasis, another local bar. There was a pretty good turnout, even though the DJ was playing techno and house music at an eardrum-obliterating level approximately the same volume as getting your skull jackhammered open and having a firetruck siren installed inside your brain. I'm pretty sure that a large portion of the crowd was hanging around due mostly to the attractiveness of Oasis's new bartender, who was wearing the tightest pair of jeans I've ever seen (mine were a close second). Ordinarily, Mitch is wary of good-looking female bartenders because he spent the year after his college graduation pouring drinks in Austin, TX, during which time he felt the continual frustration of not being able to earn as much in tips as his bosomy yet butterfingered bartending babe buddies simply because of his gender (yet another victim of the infamous "shot glass ceiling"). In this case, however, the bartender was actually a great worker and very friendly, so his ire went unroused.

Sunday: beer, football, couch, didn't shave. Pretty much it.

Yesterday my brother Tim stopped by to have lunch, as New London was the first destination along his nascent transnational trek to San Francisco. Though he has plenty of stops to make along each coast, I expressed concern that he would have nowhere to visit while traveling through land-locked states (which, I'm pretty sure, are some of the bigger states). Fortunately, native Midwesterner Mitch "On the Cob" Herz was on hand to provide him with a list of all the noteworthy destinations throughout the Heartland (not surprisingly, the list was pretty brief). Hopefully he'll be able to find something interesting to see since he's planning on taking about 4 weeks to get to SF (did I mention he's walking?).

Tonight there is a Senior Giving bar night here on campus. It should be pretty well-attended since it will be the first night that the bar is open after Winter Break. I'll be sure to post again later this week to let everyone know how it goes!

Posted by Chris Reilly at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Classes started this past week, and what a week it was. Since last semester I've been trying to get into a Penn Law class. There are only so many available to non-law students, so I attempted to take special topics in public health law with a professor who did the bioethics degree. I've been thinking I might want to go to law school, so this looked like a great opportunity to see what it's like! I registered for the class and made seventh on the waiting list...what a success! For a 14 person seminar the chances were slim that I would get in. You know where this story is going, but I promise it's worth reading. Just in case I didn't get into the law class I registered for a bioethics class at the same time, biotechnology and the body. Sounds pretty awesome, but I have to try out the law class.

The first meeting of the class was last Wednesday, the 16th of January. First, I'm hanging out at the law school earlier in the day and I accidentally run into the professor, so I introduce myself and tell her that I'll be sitting in on the class and trying to get in. She tells me that's probably the best thing to do since it's such a small class, we'll just have to see who shows up. THEN, this is where it gets interesting (if it hasn't already), I'm at the bioethics center and my brother calls me from Baltimore. He asks me if I want to see our favorite A Capella group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, next wednesday in Baltimore. Of course, there is no way I can make that concert because I have class, and if I get into the law class it would look really bad to miss the second class for a concert. Or, if I don't get into the class I would have to miss two weeks in a row of the bioethics class...

This looks like a good place to paragraph. So, I go to the law class and it turns out 14 people show up, including me. SWEET, I'm in the class. Then we start running through the syllabus and the prof says "I hate to do this so early in the semester, but next week's class has to be moved to next week Friday." That means, Sam is going to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo. For those of you who don't know this group, you may know them as the South African A Capella group that sings on Paul Simon's Graceland. If they're coming to a town near you, I would recommend seeing them perform. I believe tickets range from about $25 to $50.

I have some more great stories, or just great stories if this one didn't satisfy, but this is enough for now. I'll keep you updated with the annals of Penn Law. Next time, more on the party scene.

Posted by Sam Garner at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

First order of bidness: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MITCH! He turned 25 yesterday (gross). On Saturday we had a really fun party for him, and a lot of our fellow Conn staff members came over to celebrate. One of my coworkers, Liz, is married to one of Mitch's coworkers, Tim, so they were there and even brought their 5-year-old twins along. Dan, another one of Mitch's coworkers brought his 3-year-old, so there was a quite a contingent of people under 4 feet tall. I was actually a little nervous about having the kids there, not because I thought they would break anything (the net value of everything in our living room is about $11) but rather because people under 17 seldom find me funny (once you strip away the humor from my personality, there really isn't a lot of substance left). I ended up watching the kids for most of the party, which was a lot of fun! I even got several compliments on my child-handling ability (I'm very nurturing).

All told, the weekend was a good one....

....On Friday night, I headed over to the Bank Street Cafe in New Londy for a concert by The Rivergods, which is a local band fronted by Ben "There, Done That" Parent, who works in the College Relations department here in Becker House. I had heard them on CD already, but live they were about 10 times more kickin'! Everyone in the band was talented, but the person who grabbed my attention the most was their mandolin/lead guitar player, who looked exactly like a gold prospector from the 1800s (I thought about writing a pickax pun about using a pick on his ax, but you are too sophisticated an audience for something that obvious). I was definitely impressed by his guitar playing, but at one point it occurred to me that he's probably had 60 years of practice, so that kind of diluted my admiration a little bit. The best thing about the concert was that it was only from about 6:00-8:30, so I still had plenty of time afterwards to have a full Friday night. I decided to hit the bars with Mitch and our friend Laurel "Not Laura" Mitchell. Since she just turned 21 last month, she had never been to the bars in New London before, so we did a little tour of all of the more noteworthy establishments. I was sad to learn that Adagio's, New London's only jazz club, has gone out of business; in its place is a bar called Rouge. We decided to give it a shot (or rather, have it give us a couple shots), but when we went inside there was only a bartender, a DJ, and one patron; we all looked at each other for a second and wordlessly, unanimously agreed to get the hell out of there before it got awkward. I'm actually not surprised that Adagio's closed and that no one was in Rouge; the location is in the basement of an otherwise vacant building on a side street, so you'd never know it was there unless you were already aware of it (that kind of subtlety and secrecy is often lost on drunk people). Fortunately, there were plenty of other places to visit, so we had a good time.

During the day on Saturday, Mitch and I cleaned every inch of the apartment, which we hadn't done since moving in on June 1st. Needless to say, there were a lot of dusty corners, but it was nothing that a couple Swiffers couldn't handle. Swiffer works so well that it occupies the same place in my mind as Google: both are so great that I'm worried there must be some horrible secret about them, like that prolonged Swiffer use causes rabies or that Google is secretly Skynet from Terminator 2 (Eddie Furlong shout-out).

On Sunday, I met up with a guy from New London who, like me, plays upright bass. An alumni couple had put me in touch with him when I visited them in DC recently. He's a cool guy and fun to talk to, but the strange part about it was that he's 45, yet he looks and talks like he's about 30. Is it weird for me to have a buddy who is twice my age? I'd be interested to hear if anyone out there has had a similar situation (I know that Sam's best friend is his grandma, but that's not really the same thing).

Just now I got a mass e-mail from the College saying that the gym will be closed tomorrow through Monday so that they can install some new equipment. I'm happy we're getting an upgrade, but I'm a little bummed that I won't get to get my work out on for a couple days. After all, Mitch and I made a New Year's resolution to be able to alley-oop and dunk by the end of the year, so I really need to start spending some quality time with my Jumpsoles (our dream of making it onto the And 1 Tour will come true someday...).

I'll be in New York this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday doing some alumni visits for the College, so if anyone out there reads this and wants me to stop by and chat about the College, just let me know! I'll do another post when I get back to update y'all on whether anything wacky or hilarious happens (as it usually does while I am on the road). Until then, stay gold!

Posted by Chris Reilly at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My holiday season was pretty enjoyable. I did the Jewish thing on christmas, seeing Charlie Wilson's War and eating chinese, and I spent the first few seconds of 2008 in a car with one of my friends driving back from downtown Milwaukee. The two days before new years I was in Chicago with fellow camel Emily Gagen! We spent the day in downtown Chicago eating lunch and walking down michigan avenue, the major shopping street in chi-town. For those east coasters that haven't been to Chicago, or think there is nothing but farm land in the midwest, I would recommend Chicago. It's way big and cleaner than New York (sorry New York) with plenty of awesome museums, restaruants and music venues. The Shedd Aquarium is the biggest indoor aquarium in the world, and the house of blues is an awesome place to eat dinner and watch live music. Okay, I'm done selling Chicago now, but if anyone is interested in finding things to do there just ask (or look online...)!

Next, I spent about 5 days in Baltimore with my brother who is one of the head assistant coaches for the UMBC college swim team and the retrievers swim club. Although I spent a lot of time with him at the pool, we did explore Baltimore a little bit. I have to say, this city needs a little more credit. Anything from center city over to federal hill and locust point is really really nice. The city has cleaned up really well over the past several years and maintains an east coast, harbor city, colonial charm. The neighborhoods outside the downtown area are packed with rowhouses that are brand new or in the process of being renovated. There are plenty of nice bars and restaraunts to hang out at with a pretty young crowd.

If you're around either of these cities and you don't venture into them too often I would recommend you give them retry!

Anyway, I'm back in philly now...lovely lovely philly. It's rainy and cloudy, and rainy and cloudy does not look good on philly. But, on a more serious note, has anyone heard about the cycle of sunspots and how we're about to go into a global cooling cycle that we haven't seen since the 1780s? I read an article about it, but it has not been on the news....Looks like northeastern weather is only going to get better! I'm sure there are some camels out there involved in environmental stuff that could tell me more about this! Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Posted by Sam Garner at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, long time no blog. Getting used to this whole thing is really demanding, especially when I tend to fill my free time with ice-cream and perfecting my juggling (I just moved onto flaming daggers). The past weeks have been filled with uneventful days at work due to the slow season (which will be starting up again this Saturday with our Americana week) and relaxing days back home in Vegas and up in Massachusetts with the parents. After having an incredibly strong year, Christie's was generous enough to grant a ten day vacation over the holidays, during which I visited my brother and parents in Nevada, caught up with old friends, and had endless debaucherous dinner parties. Among the topics discussed were the fact that when I was born we used to live next to the amazing Robert Goulet, and would occasionally join him at parties across the street at Gladys Knight’s (the memories a 23 year old wishes one at 2 years old could remember!) as well as where everyone was during the O.J. Simpson car chase (my brother and I happened to be at the house of the mayor of Las Vegas). I returned to New York in time for New Years to join several coworkers at the bar Whiskey Town which is owned by one of my friend’s cousins. During the night I was also graced by the presence of the infamous Christopher Reilly and the equally (or would it be oppositely?) famous Sophie Fitzgerald (both ’07). After a short week at work I had a long weekend up in Norwell, MA, with the parents and a friend from New York. It was great to get into the country and watch alpacas grazing under the searing Massachusetts sun. Oh, and go to Wal-Mart.
Now I am back at work and getting ready for the kick-off into the new year of overbearing clients and priceless property. It is very interesting, and slightly depressing, to know that I am at work while those still enjoying the college life have a slightly longer vacation than me. Additionally, I can say goodbye to that trip I planned to the Bahamas in the spring. At least I can look forward to the Chargers winning the Superbowl as my dear Eagles were swiftly eliminated.

Posted by Nate Borgelt at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So during this phase in my life where all I do is work and lack much of a social life, I've been following election 2008 closely. I was encouraged yet terrified after Iowa voted Obama and Huckabee to first place. I loooove Obama...the i want his babies kind of love. As a woman though, as I'm sure all women feel, I'm a bit torn because I feel that I should vote for Hillary. She's a tough gal trying to make it in the male dominated world of politics and I say "you go girl!". I'll inform you all about what I actually decide to do. Now...Huckabee is the reason I'm completely terrified. Anyone who doesn't believe in evolution scares me initially, then after that to throw on the homophobia and anti-pro-choice (my term for pro-life)...I share absolutely no morals with this man. He can play bass though...I'll give him that! Ok, enough politics! I just hope New Hampshire does the right thing. I don't care if Hillary or Obama get first but I do ask that they stay away from Huckabee. I don't want the country thinking that this guy could actually win!

Alright then...so chris asked me to talk about the baby I nanny because everyone loves babies! His name is Toby and he is now 7 months old which means I've been taking care of him for half of his life. He's really friggin' cute and I promise to post a pic of him soon just to prove it to all of you. I nanny 20 hours a week because #1 I'm good at it and #2 no taxes. The one issue is going out with Toby. When I take him out I usually "wear" him, which means I strap him to the front of me. I do this instead of strolling him because the town of Newton doesn't plow their sidewalks and lifting an 18lb baby is easier than lifting the same baby in a 20lb stroller. So anywho...these Newton townspeople are a little bit snobby, and if you know me...you know that I look no older than 17. So whenever I take toby out I have to face an incredible amount of judgement, even though he is a little jewish baby and I'm of scottish/english decent. I really want to make a hat that basically says i'm a nanny and something to the effect of "shove your judgement up your a%&". If anyone has any design ideas, please email me at jlpep@conncoll.edu.
K that's all I can write for now because i have to go to work!!!! i'll report back soon!

Posted by Jaime Pepper at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well if nobody else is going to blog, then I guess I'll just have to do it! Just kidding, this time of year is hectic for everybody, so I'm sure the rest of the bloggers are just busy with their daily lives. I know, for example, that Nate's New Year's resolution was to lose his gut by rollerblading 10 miles everyday, so that's got to take up a lot of time (plus there's the 2-3 hours a day he spends on haircare, not to mention all the karaoke practice).

Things are actually kinda quiet on the ol' Conn College campus since students are on break for another two weeks. A few kids are around, however, most of whom are athletes. Mitch and I supported the Camels twice last week, though not with our usual cheering and elaborate post-scoring celebration choreography (we're really quite graceful) but rather in the form of driving the women's ice hockey team to and from the airport for their trip to Minnesota (that sounds like the setup to a really funny joke, but it's actually true). In order to drop them off on time for their departure flight, I had to get up at 4:15am; before that day, I didn't even know there was a 4:15am! Needless to say, that is slightly earlier than I usually wake up. It was definitely worth the lost sleep, however; the players were very appreciative, and they had a great time on their trip...

...This Saturday, Mitch and I are having a party because he is turning 25 on Monday (yeah I know, it's weird living with a senior citizen). What I like most about throwing a party at the apartment is that it's really the only thing that motivates me to clean the bathroom (maybe I should have just kept that fact to myself). I thought about trying to put together a surprise party, but that guy has the reflexes of a highly-caffeinated Burmese tiger, so in the interest of the safety of my jugular I try to startle him as infrequently as possible.

This week, my aforeblogged-about friend Laurel is in town to do some research with the Physics department, so it'll be nice to have some fresh blood around (that came out a little more vampiric than I had intended). Last night we went out to dinner at Margarita's in Mystic, which was great because I love Mexican food and could eat it all day everyday (although if I actually did that, I'd probably have to start throwing more parties in order to keep the bathroom anywhere close to sanitary (that was gross)). As is apt to occur with young people, the conversation eventually turned to relationships. It turns out that neither of us has had any successful projects recently, and accordingly I at one point said, "Ugh, I need a new chick," to which Laurel responded exasperatedly, "Yeah, I could use a new dude." This relatively unremarkable exchange was rendered humorous by the fact the we said this just as our waitress came by to see if we needed anything; judging from her nervous and uncomfortable facial expression, I'm pretty sure she thought that Laurel and I were a couple that had just had a really laid-back breakup. Of course, neither of us did anything to indicate otherwise or to alleviate the waitress's unease (hey, she gets paid to bring us piping-hot nachos, not to feel good about her customers). Fortunately, I did convince Laurel, who astute blog readers know has recently turned 21, to become my wingwoman for when we go to bars in New London, so hopefully our mutual singleness will be undone in the near future.

Well, that'll about do it for recent happenings in my life. Tonight I'm thinking about seeing a movie, but the only ones I really want to go to are Walk Hard and Juno, both of which seem like such great date movies that I feel like I should hold off on seeing them should the tides of romance flow in my favor (or would they ebb in my favor? I dunno, this metaphor doesn't really make sense). Maybe I'll just go see P.S. I Love You alone and then cry myself to sleep afterwards. Sounds like a fun Tuesday!

Posted by Chris Reilly at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!!!! Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged! I apologize to anyone out there who's been experiencing withdrawal.

Today is my first day back on campus since December 21, and I'm having trouble remembering how to work (I've deduced from staring at my business card for an hour that my job has something to do with alumni). Granted, after having ten days off I should be well-rested, but this break was definitely the kind that you need a few more days off to recover from....

....I headed up to my parents' house from New London on Christmas Eve Eve, stopping along the way in Boston to see Emily Bassin '06's new apartment. I thought it was really nice, but she and her roommate said that there was a frustratingly small number of electrical outlets. I could relate to them because I have the same problem in my winter home (it's an igloo). The three of us went to a cafe that is famous for its hot chocolate. I opted for the dark chocolate (I find it more mysterious and brooding than milk chocolate) because it sounded really good on the menu, but this beverage was so thick I could barely swallow it! The texture was somewhere between chocolate syrup and chunky peanut butter, so I was actually thirstier after drinking it than I had been beforehand. Fortunately, I keep a 24-ounce Gatorade Fierce stashed in the glove compartment of my car for just such occasions, so everything turned out fine.

I ended up spending five days at my parents' house, which doesn't seem like a long time until you consider that because I went to prep school I have about two friends who live in that area. Needless to say I was a little bit bored. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but when I have absolutely nothing to do for a few days I can't even motivate myself to read a book or exercise or anything, so I basically spent the better part of a week lying on my back with my computer on my stomach looking at Facebook pictures. I did get out of the house on the 27th, however, because we had a Welcome to Florida show in Peterborough, NH. There was a pretty serious snow storm that day, so I didn't think anyone would show up, but we ended up filling the place past capacity (much to the chagrin of our lazier fans who didn't arrive on time and thus couldn't get in). During the show, we had Nate Staub '05, who now lives with Duncan from WTF, come up on stage to play a guest guitar solo. We have about a half dozen friends that we call our "special teams" who join us for a song or two whenever they come to a show. There is a little bit of competition among the special teams guitarists to see who can get the crowd the most excited, so they try to play as over the top as possible. At this show, Nate shredded so hard that when he handed the guitar back to Duncan, all six strings were out of tune and one of the speakers on the amp was blown! I wonder if that ever happens to the guy from Nickelback.....

The morning after the show I headed back to New London so that I wouldn't go insane. It was great to be back because I got to sleep in a real bed (as opposed to my childhood bed, which is a twin purchased circa 1990) and because I was able to sit on the couch and watch TV without getting guilted into doing something productive, like shoveling snow or putting dishes away (my apartment has neither a driveway nor dishes).

I spent Sunday through yesterday in New York and saw plenty of Camels while there. On Sunday I met up with Sophie Fitzgerald '07 for a bagel and a couple beers (not at the same restaurant, though that gives me a great idea for a breakfast place....), then I went downtown to eat pizza and play Cranium with Jaime Pepper '07, Lilli Millhiser '07, Melissa Skolnick '07, Concetta Duncan '07, Ursula Bailey '06, Will Hagaman '06, and a few non-Conn people. Of course, the only all-Camel team won the game! My team came in last, despite our valiant efforts, the most notable of which was when I had to wordlessly pose my teammate onto all fours and pretend to milk her like a cow (that wasn't one of the tasks in the game, it was just our victory celebration after we got a question right). After the game, Melissa was nice enough to let me crash at her apartment since I had not arranged a place to stay ahead of time; my plan if I hadn't been able to find somewhere to sleep was to go to Times Square and just start the New Year's countdown early ("86,410...86,409...86,408...86,407..."). Concetta was also staying with Melissa that night, so the three of us headed out to Brooklyn after things had wound down. Once there, Melissa and Concetta said they wanted something to eat, but since it was so late the only thing open was a place called The Anytime Cafe (after tasting the food, I think it should probably be called The Maybe Some Other Time Cafe). This was some seriously gross grub; I had mozzarella sticks that were actually colder than room temperature, and Melissa's veggie burger looked and smelled like what I'll call in the interest of keeping the blog clean "post-consumer recycled material."

On New Year's Eve, I met Jon Tortora '07 and Jenny Madden '07 at Jenny's new apartment and then went out for a drink, but we couldn't stay at the bar for too long because they were starting to kick people out who weren't buying the $60 all-night tickets. So, I joined Sophie, Alyssa Tartaglione '07, and some of their high school friends at a party on Wall Street in one of the nicer apartments I've ever seen a couple of 22-year-olds live in. We made it to midnight successfully, and by that I mean no one lost an eye to an errant champagne cork (I wore ski goggles just to be safe). The party was a lot of fun, but someone had brought samosas that were so delicious I had trouble focusing on the conversations I was having; it wasn't too big a problem though because most of the conversations were about the samosas. After midnight I headed over to a place called Whiskey Town (which is in New York and not, as I had thought, in Ireland), where I met up with Nate Borgelt '07. The cover charge was $100, but Nate's new ladyfriend is the cousin of the two owners of the bar, so I got in for free. The whole night turned out to be a lot of fun.

Yesterday, I headed back to New London on a sold-out Amtrak train, about 90% of whose passengers were hung-over college kids going back to Boston. The two dudes sitting behind me spent several hours having one of the dumbest conversations I've ever heard (an excerpt: "Yeah, but the thing about being a fisherman is that you spend all of your time on a boat because most of the fish live in the water.")

This morning I booted up my computer to discover that my unread e-mail messages numbered in triple digits. I had intended to check my mail a few times over break, but never got around to it because I figured everyone else would also be on vacation and wouldn't be e-mailing me. Plus, I was on vacation, so doing work just didn't feel right. Fortunately, all of the e-mails have been pretty easy to deal with thus far, so making the transition from vacation mode to work mode has been pretty smooth. Speaking of which, I should probably make the transition from blog during lunch mode to get back to work mode, but there are more updates to come from my exciting life!

Posted by Chris Reilly at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)