cant_talk_knitting

Monday, September 12, 2005

Iowa makes everything better.

Just back from 5 days visiting my alma mater, Grinnell College. Ah, I got to live in the Grinnell bubble for several days and it was wonderful.

I do admissions volunteer work here in California, and you know Iowa is a tough sell to California 17 and 18-year-olds. But, it does tend to be very self-selecting and since I made the choice to leave the Bay Area for 4 frosty winters and hot humid back to school days, I can talk to students about how the choice is not as crazy as your high school classmates (and neighbors, and Nordstrom sales people) will make it sound.

The downside? Iowa still allows smoking in bars. I went with some classmates to "The Bar", or "The Pub", as it is now known (they get real original with the names there) and had some pitchers and talked about how pitchers were $3 when we first started. And got to hear Bad Company's "Feel Like Making Love" on the jukebox, which always takes me back.

But the following evening we could not handle the smoke again, so drank beer at The Depot, which is new to town since I graduated, outside on the patio. It was one of those lovely, sit outside until midnight and never feel chilly kind of evenings that happen approximatly once a year in the Bay Area.

I got to visit with my advisor, attend several classes, and start planning my 15 year reunion (ack!). Actually, it will only be 14 years by the time I go, since they hold cluster reunions -- this upcoming time with the classes from 91 and 92. These tend to be more fun since, at Grinnell, most people live in the dorms all four years, so you know people in the six classes on either side of your own class.

THEN, THEN, THEN, my husband and I are sitting on the couch last night, catching up on "Rock Star:INXS" (ha ha ha, yes I totally got sucked into this show, even though I think the whole premise is slightly creepy, but I totally want Marty to win.) and I get a call from the aforementioned person who had agreed to "scout around" for me at a particular company -- and she's got a very interesting job that is really going to happen and she'd like me to start fairly soon. YAHOO!!

I won't go into all the details for fear of jinxing myself, but it looks quite positive. (and oddly, another contact there called on Friday to talk to me about a only slightly less desirable position -- raining, pouring syndrome, I guess). I am so looking forward to going back to work, and getting a paycheck, but don't remind me that I said this when I'm bitching about having to actually get out of bed before 8am.


(and shhhhh, shhhhhh, shhhhh, but this also means Operation Wee One could start in a few short months... not that I didn't already purchase a Grinnell T-shirt this weekend or anything)

2 Comments:

  • Iowa does indeed make everything better...or at least put it all in perspective. Landed here from Crazy Aunt Purl's page, and was astounded to find another knitting Grinnellian. (My *20th* reunion is coming up in a couple of years!) So comforting to know that the Bar and the Pub are still around...but what about the Longhorn?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:21 PM  

  • Sadly, the Longhorn closed awhile ago, but happily, there are some new restaurants in town that are pretty good. Grinnell actually has *two* Chinese restaurants now! I've eaten at one, and it was mostly Americanized fare, but it was not bad.

    The Bar and the Pub are one and the same. The Pub location that you are probably thinking of (next to Gardner, underneath Main Hall) is now Tripod Bob's Coffeeshop, which opened in 1992. Named after a stray three legged kitty who used to hang around campus.

    Hooray for knitting Grinnellians!

    By Blogger cant_talk_knitting, at 10:47 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home