measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's not surprising... We missed the damn boat. Ivanna, Joe, Erich, and I. We got completely lost, went the wrong way upon directions by one of our fellow sisters (and confusion on my part about which hotel was, and missed the boat by minutes. Sally kept describing a lighted arch (which was right... only it turns out that there are TWO sets of lit arches down there-- we happend to see the wrong one and went the wrong way). Dammit. After a gloriously loud scream inside the dome of the Boston Harbor Hotel (which echoed quite nicely), the four of us made the best of the situation and went for dinner nearby at Legal Seafoods, waiting the three hours until the boat came back. Gilligan Isle whistles came up occasionally-- the three hour tour indeed. Before I forget, though... here are my photos from the evening. Ivanna took more because our battery was running low on the camera. So... we headed to Legals, which had nearly an hour wait-- but since we needed to kill three hours, that didn't bother us in the least. We had a nice dinner, chatted about various things, vented occasionally about the damn boat, and had some yummy drinks. After dinner, we headed back to the Boston Harbor Hotel. We took a picture of a previously undiscovered map-- right in front of our parking garage-- that had EVERYTHING labeled so we would have been just fine getting to the boat on time. On the way to the hotel, however, Joe had a little surprise for Ivanna... one where he had to think quickly on his feet after the cruise plans had been tossed out the window. In the middle of the lit dome entry to Rowes Wharf by the hotel, Joe proposed to Ivanna. A beautiful, simple little proposal-- the words which I missed because I was too busy trying to make sure I got a photo of the event (I did). She was COMPLETELY blown away by it-- she didn't expect it at all. And for the rest of the night, she was bouncing around and just GLOWING much like the goofy Ivanna that I saw in college when the two of us were being wacky and weird. Her ring is gorgeous-- even in the dim lighting of the hotel bar, it gleamed. We arrived at the hotel bar and had a round of drinks as we waited for everyone to return. After a while, everyone did. Ivanna and Joe went out to greet people. Erich and I remained in the bar to hold the large table we'd claimed in the corner. Everyone arrived, and *my* anniversary and reunion began. Catching up with Heather was the greatest thrill-- I hadn't seen her since 1996 when she, Ivanna, Sally, and Jenn moved out of 1426 Comm. She looked fantastic and seemed like she's hit that stride in life where things are going well for her and she's excited about life. Sally was embarrassed for giving us the bad directions, but we laughed it off and went on from there. Heather talked about the actives and alumni she met and saw there-- some good experiences, some bad. She raved about John, who was the first guy inducted into the sisterhood. I've exchanged emails with John a couple times in the past few years, but never met him-- hopefully I'll be able to one of these days. She commented on how the entire vibe of both chapters was so different than when we were sisters. She sounded a bit regretful, as if the sisters currently in the chapter are missing out in some way (particularly with the banter that was very prevalent between the brothers and the sisters during her first couple years)-- but with every batch of sisters, the chapter was going to change anyway. Granted, I haven't seen the dynamic in play personally yet, but change isn't necessarily a bad thing. Plus, the current actives and recent alumni essentially started a brand new chapter-- they have bits of history, but it's not clear since they haven't pieced together a lot of it from the last four or five years of the sisterhood... so they started fresh, and the chapter dynamic apparently is much, much different. Considering said vibe in 1996 and 1997, I'd take it as a strong improvement. :) Anyway... we stayed at the hotel bar until they kicked us out around 12:30. Then we headed over to another bar in downtown Boston which apparently has the latest last call in town. The added hour from Daylights Savings had us finally leaving the bar around 3:30 or so. We said goodbye and drove home, dropping Ivanna and Joe off at the hotel before crashing out ourselves. The next morning we were woken by the phone ringing-- Ivanna called because it was 11:15, and nearly time for us to get going to meet up with the alumni for brunch at Cheesecake Factory in Cambridge. Erich and I had forgotten to change the clocks-- set our alarm time, but didn't turn it on... so we just slept. (whoops) We scrambled to get ready--they arrived, and we headed up to Cambridgeside. This time we were on time. heh. We had a very long (due to slow service) but fun brunch, chatting with everyone and laughing over the photo albums that Ivanna had brought up from her four years of college. Beth and Kellie Walton joined us (they hadn't been with us the night before). My fellow alumns were all encouraging me to definitely help out the chapter (especially with the website). It honestly felt like the weekends we had when everyone was an active sister-- the bonding just picked up right where it left off. Familiar best friends, extension friendships-- people we probably would never have met or hung out with had it not been for being sisters. Afterwards we all said our goodbyes and I got everyone's email address so we can hopefully get together more often. Ivanna and Joe headed out west directly from there. Erich and I headed home to become slugs for the rest of the day. And late in the evening, my brunch decided to begin rebelling against me-- I spent a good part of last night running to the bathroom. *sigh* So I'm home this morning, hoping that the pain and other unpleasantness will go away and I can go in for a half day. In the meantime, I've heard from two fellow sisters-- one alumni (John) and one active (Christine) who want to get together at some point. I've responded to both of their messages, and hopefully it will be a great turning point and I can reconnect with everyone... Off to rest for a while... 12:07 a.m. - 05 April 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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