Musical Memories

There are always certain things that remind you of past times and events – sometimes it could be a specific smell, food, sound, or season. Many times, for me, music will play that portal. I graduated from Penn State in 1994, and there are many, many songs from that era that will immediately transport my mind back to 705 Cedarbrook. Here are just a few of them:

Backwater – The Meat Puppets
Anything from Pearl Jam 10
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
All Together Now – The Farm
Enter Sandman – Metallica
Silent Lucidity – Queensryche
Symphony of Destruction – Megadeath
Right Here, Right Now – Jesus Jones
Two Princes – Spin Doctor
More Than Words – Extreme
Shine – Collective Soul
Zombie – The Cranberries

Only One Bathroom???

How we did it for an entire year, I’ll have no idea. The five of us. One apartment. Two bedrooms. One bathroom. How did we coexist in such a small area for such a long amount of time? We are more-or-less all still friends, probably the most shocking. In my opinion, 5 women would be incapable of such a feat. You may disagree, but I’ve heard outrageous stories with three women sharing one bathroom. I can’t imagine 5 being able to do so.

Maybe it was because we were inebriated for a good chunk of the time. Perhaps, we just had a good mix of slobs and neat freaks who didn’t mind cleaning. Maybe it was good that some roommates spent a majority of their time at their girlfriends’ dorms (not mentioning any names here). I’m not saying we never fought, argued, or complained. We had our share of touchy moments. That probably happens everywhere.

I think what really helped was that we all had well-developed senses of humor. I truly believe that laughing can cure or help cure a lot of illnesses. We had so many laughs in our apartment, that we should’ve probably charged people for the healthy doses of laughter they were receiving.
I think back to that place, and memories of one roommate eating pancakes morning, noon, and night everyday – he became so good at it that he used to make pancake initials for each of us. You can’t find that kind of training anywhere.

Another roommate spent four hours playing a videogame on a hand-held device (it did not have a save feature) – he was just about to win, but nerves probably got the best of him, as he ended up losing. A normal person might have thrown the device off of the balcony after investing so much time in an empty cause. But this guy just started playing from the beginning of the game again. True dedication. If only he would’ve put that kind of dedication to schoolwork, he might have been able to graduate in less than 7 years.

I know I had my quirks. Unfortunately, I was engaged during my senior year – probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done. I missed out on numerous potential rejections from women all over Penn State. But, I also missed out on hanging with some of my best friends.

Good Luck Graduates

Penn State is once again unleashing graduates into the work stream, so hide your daughters! Ah, I remember my graduation like it was 12 years ago …. Wait, it was 12 years ago. In all honesty, it was a culmination of 4 years of hard work and hard partying, and it was an end of an era that I look very fondly upon to this very day. Isn’t it funny that one spends four years (or many more) in college, looking forward to the day of graduation, but once that graduation day comes and goes, one begins to start looking back?

I remember the final two weeks very well, leading up to my big day. I was actually lucky enough not to have any finals – Three of my classes had papers due (two of them had them due before finals week, but I was diligent enough to hand the other class’s paper in on the last week of classes as well), and the other two didn’t bother to even have a final. It was glorious. It was like a giant two-week vacation, complete with much drinking and partying (probably time that should’ve been spent looking for employment, but nevertheless).

I guess it never really hit me – that I had finally completed my tour of duty at the Shangri-la known as Happy Valley, and that I was mere days away from being thrust into the real world. Or maybe it was my way of preparing myself by pickling my brain. I’m not really sure. I do know that the last night, I became very emotional.

Spending time with all of my roommates and close friends at the Rathskellar, probably for the last time (at least with all of these friends), it hit me. I immediately started longing for more time, and if I couldn’t have that, I wanted to go back in time, so I could tell my younger self to not be so impatient and to enjoy the moments. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy them, but I think I could’ve enjoyed them more. It was tearful for me that night, because I was putting an era that I loved so dearly behind me.

The experience at Penn State was so powerful, that every year around this time my mind drifts back to Happy Valley. Certain songs that were popular back then will taxi me back. Songs like Backwater by the Meatpuppets, and anything from Pearl Jam 10, and even some Nirvana – at the time, I wasn’t crazy about those songs, but now I can’t get enough, because it gives me a Penn State high.

Good Luck Graduates.

Spring Rules!!!!!

Man, when the spring-time comes around, I sometimes think of great spring-time occurrences that went on (and continue to go on, I’m sure) at Penn State. Yes, I went over one of them a while ago – the HUB lawn, so I’ll reluctantly skip the sites and wonders of said place.

One of the first things I think about is sitting out on the patio of the Café 210 West, sipping a Long Island Iced tea on a Friday evening, watching scantily clad women walk by. The Café often had $1.00 Iced Tea specials, which meant that I ended up ordering a lot of food and stumbling home at a nice-early hour. Ah, the memories.

There were also many events that went on around campus that featured local bands and some decent national bands. For instance, once there was a free concert that featured the group Belly – at the time, they were getting a lot of play on college radio stations and modern rock stations (Modern Rock stations? What are those? Well, they used to be plentiful in many markets, until the giant corporations took over, and gave us an overload of Metallica, Audioslave, Ozzy, and Led Zeppelin). Unfortunately, it downpoured right when Belly took the stage, but it was still a fun experience.

Being able to go out and not (a) freeze your butt off, or (b) bring a jacket. There was nothing worse than running from the apartment to a bar in 30-degree weather, with only a long-sleeved shirt on, AND then having to wait in line. It wasn’t so bad stumbling home, as the alcohol always numbed us to the extremities. But, when the weather was nice in the spring-time, we could wander from bar-to-bar, not worrying about the cold.
All this talk about these great memories, makes me want to go up to Penn State right now, get a delicious grease pizza from Carmen’s, and walk down to the Café to lose myself in another cheaply-fantastic Long Island Iced Tea. Road Trip!!!!