I took the train to New Haven from New York with Gianna, Lara, Daeve and Anne this afternoon, and being on the Metro-North certainly brought back some memories! It's the regional train that runs from New York through Connecticut, and for our years in college was our connection to the city. I didn't remember quite how crowded it got, though. When I boarded the train with my three bags (which included several pounds of gifts, and winter clothing that I needed while in Argentina, but was totally useless in the heat and humidity of an East Coast summer), I was a little bit ill-equipped to navigate the narrow aisles, with feet and shoulders jutting out into the aisles. The only block of five seats we found together was right next to the bathroom, whose door conveniently didn't close. We got to play the "how long will it take before the door swings open on someone who is in mid-pee" game, which contrary to how simple it sounds, provided a solid hour of entertainment. Good times.

Arriving in New Haven, the entire town seemed to have been taken over by alumni, and we hustled ourselves to the dorms where we were staying. Staying in dorms again was really fun, especially since they've all been renovated and no longer contain bunk beds. We all got assigned rooms together (hooray!), and the first thing we did was disable the locks on the doors with duct tape, to allow for easy passage between all our rooms. I spent my entire sophomore year with no lock on my door, which seems crazy now, but was de rigeur at the time.

Our first night, we were somewhat caught off guard by the shut down of our class cocktail party at the very early hour of 1am. We tried (and failed) to throw an impromptu after-party in our rooms, but due to a severe alcohol shortage, and lack of pre-promotion, we all ended up in bed by 2. The next night, Saturday, we resolved to do better...

Saturday dawned and we all headed out to various activities. I went for a run, much to the surprise of everyone, including myself, and got a chance to enjoy the New Haven scenery a bit. The loop I used to do every day seemed a lot longer than it used to, but maybe age is catching up with me a bit. To help in our party-throwing redemption, I went with Gianna to create flyers for our second attempt at an after-party, and the girls and I distributed them for the rest of the day. We were determined to make Saturday last well into Sunday morning.

As the dinner hour approached, 5 of us headed to the local convenience store to stock up for our party, and ended up buying enough supplies that we needed to have one of the clerks come back to the dorms with us, with a handtruck. The thought did cross my mind at one point that maybe we had overdone it, but then I snapped out of it, and remembered the purpose of the 5-year reunion: Party, and party hard.


Oh, the party power of the wee...

The party ended up being a raging success, and lasted until almost 5am. I heard reports the next day that people were up well past dawn. Ah, sweet success.


My nearest and dearest from college (and the co-hosts of the rager)