This weekend I headed back to Indiana for a 10 year (eek!) college reunion with some of my sorority sisters. 15 out of about 35 in our pledge class made the trip to Bloomington. As the title states, it was AWESOME! It was so great to see all of my girl's from back in the day and even more amazing that I have made such a wonderful, group of lifelong friends.
I flew into Indy on Thursday night, I got in at like midnight due to a delay and my poor friend, Woody, was gracious enough to pick me up at the airport, despite being 24 weeks pregnant and having a 3 year old who was going to wake up at 6AM. First off, I walked off the plane and told Woody that the airport looked completely different, she told me that's because it wasn't even the same airport, they built a completely new airport! We arrived at her beautiful new house and hit the sack, I personally couldn't sleep, I think the time change plus the excitement of seeing all of my friends, some of whom I have not seen in 10 years was too much for me! So Friday morning came very early
Friday morning our friend/sister, Crista, hosted all of us for brunch, those who were local brought their kiddos, it was a wonderful brunch. Crista seriously missed her calling because she is an amazing cook and is the Martha Stewart of the group!
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| Us ADPi ladies and some of the kiddos of the group! |
I also got to meet the super fabulous Julie. She is a friend of Crista's and found my blog through Crista's blog and we got in touch with each other after I had a clubfoot meltdown and Julie posted a super supportive comment. We've been reading each others blogs for 2 years and are Facebook friends and we FINALLY got to meet this weekend. Julie came with her two beautiful babies, Owen and Eleanor. It was so awesome to finally meet her! We definitely did not get enough time together so we will have to be seeing each other again soon! Perhaps she and Crista should make a trip to California for a girl's weekend in Napa! Hint, hint!
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| Me, Ella, Julie, and Owen |
After brunch we all headed down to Bloomington, the spot where it all happened, Indiana University. We stayed in the Student Union where there is a hotel. Six of us got a suite and the rest were down the hall. There was one guy stuck between our rooms, poor guy! It was a great time! We headed to dinner at Yogi's, an old favorite, and then hit Kirkwood, the main drag for some bar hopping. The first stop was the Upstairs Pub for some AMFs (translation Adios
Mother#*$&@%), it's a pretty blue drink that is quite potent.
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| Derkash (we use last names a lot in the house, I was Ski, short for my maiden name Wilensky, and even though the majority of us are all married now, we still used our nicknames from college) with her AMF. See it's pretty blue! |
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| Ralsto "Red Dawg", Andrea and Derkasch enjoying their tasty concoctions! |
Then we went across the street to
Nick's, quite possibly the BEST college bar in America. I spent many weekend nights and many dollars on beer at Nick's.
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| Nick's is known for a game called Sink the Bismarck, I am proud to say that I am a master pourer! |
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| Ready to get this game going! |
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| Mad Dawg going in for a refill! |
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| Derkasch, Autumn and I |
After the bars we ordered Pizza Express cheesesticks and breadsticks, I dream about these breadsticks. Rumor has it they are expanding nationally under the Hot Box (yes, classy) name so I might have to look into being a franchisee because I have never had better pizza, cheesesticks, and breadsticks. And that is not the beer talking! We kicked Saturday morning off with a hearty breakfast at
The Village Deli, it has been featured on Food Network and in their magazine for have one of the best breakfasts in America. I had the most delicious, ginormous, banana pancake! I somehow never made it there for breakfast in college but they have delicious lunches as well and feel like I missed out on their breakfasts!
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| Getting ready to chow down! |
After breakfast we walked into a couple of shops on Kirkwood and stocked up on IU gear. I scored an awesome IU shirt with an owl in it! Then we headed over the sorority house for a house tour and some reminiscing!
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| My senior year composite picture, look how young I look! |
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| The cold dorm, where I used to sleep. My standards have certainly gone up in the past 10 years! |
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| Jonna, Andrea, Crista (top) and Derkasch (bottom) checking out their old bunks |
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| Amy and I in the Cold Dorm |
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| My old room, I shared this with 2 other girls! We didn't have the pretty blue paint 10 years ago, it was all beige. |
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| Our dining room, the yellow striped paper is a step up, it used to be what every one who has ever seen it can agree, a tacky floral print |
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| The entrance of our house |
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| We took our first pledge class photo in this very spot some 13 years ago, who knew all of these years later we would be gathering again in Indiana to see our lifelong friends! |
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| Front of our house, it was the biggest and newest when I was there, some of the other chapters on campus have now built new houses and the are ginormous! But I am proud to say after many years of struggling, ADPi is now the biggest house on campus with some 160+ members! |
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| Avery and Ralsto in front of our house |
After our house tour we headed up to Oliver Winery which is just north of Bloomington for a picnic and wine tasting. Crista arranged for us to have Dagwood's sandwiches (another Bloomington favorite, yes we pretty much ate our way through the weekend). It was pretty hot and humid so my picture taking skills dropped off significantly. :)
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| Oliver Winery |
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| Down by the pond at the Oliver Winery, in college we used to take our books to the winery and spread out on a blanket on the lawn and "study" for finals! |
After the winery we hit up Jiffy Treat, the best ice cream place ever, they even used to deliver to campus. So when it was snowing and we had a hankering for Jiffy Treat, they would bring it to us! Does life get better than that!?! Their cyclones (like a blizzard) with cinnamon toast crunch are my favorite! Then we hit up the school bookstore and I stocked up on some IU gear since it's hard to come by in California. I got Riley a super cute sweatsuit outfit, an IU hat, and stuffed IU bear. When I gave it to her Sunday, she grabbed the bear, hugged it and said "Oooo I love it!" So adorable! Saturday night we went to the
Irish Lion, another old classic for dinner and then followed it up with Kilroy's. Then it was time to head home on Sunday!
Campus and Bloomington has changed a bunch, unfortunately Kirkwood used to be filled with local eateries and is now very corporate. Where Jiffy Treat used to be there is now a Panda Express. It's kind of sad actually, one of the most appealing things about IU and Bloomington was it's individuality and independent charm. When Starbuck's first opened my senior year (yes, there was no Starbuck's in Bloomington until I was a senior, that's how old I am), there were protests because it was the beginning of corporate business in the adorable college town. Now there is a Starbuck's in the Student Union which to me is wrong on every level! They are also building new buildings on campus like crazy but I will say that IU is doing an amazing job of making them blend in architecturally with the rest of the older buildings.
I would be remiss to say that we were reminded daily of the tragedy of missing IU student
Lauren Spierer while we were on campus. She went missed about a week and a half ago and there are very little leads in the case. We didn't see much of the search efforts as they were concentrated in the woods around campus but we saw the posters all over campus and town and we all hope that there is a very positive outcome in the search for her. It's a reminder of how much Bloomington has changed and what a scary world it can be out there.
All in all it was a great weekend, I have made such amazing lifelong friends and only hope that one day when Riley is in college, if she chooses that she can have the same experience! I truly hope it is not another 10 years before I get to see all of my fabulous IU/ADPi ladies again!
