I am alive.

This past weekend was very Theta-riffic with initiation on Friday and an all-house retreat Saturday night. Which means it was the first weekend in many more than I care to count that I hadn't hung out with old PV friends and the variety was nice.

On Thursday, a few of the girls in my pledge class went to a bar called The Piano Lounge for half price wine. The guy playing the piano had a notebook of songs he could perform and sticky notes for requests. I'm not sure if he was good at playing the piano or not. He sounded halfway dec and I will admit he is a better singer than me. Upon entering the bar, a waitress approached one of my friends and I, said there was someone who wanted to buy us a bottle of wine and handed us the list. First we were confused who would buy us wine. Then we were confused about what to pick. Neither of us have much experience with wine, you see. We felt bad and didn't want to get anything expensive, and decided to try a white. After much speculation, we went with a Pinot Grigio. When the girl brought us the bottle, she said it was from Ben and thats all we ever found out.

Also last week, I met Jim Leach. We're pretty much tight. I've taped a lecture of his before, but he was doing a satellite uplink to C-SPAN from the studio, and I got chosen as the lucky one to come in for the 7:00 AM shoot to operate the camera. And we know operating the camera for an uplink is a joke. If you've ever watched a news program, you know there aren't a lot of zooms or tilts or anything when the guy is just sitting there talking. I'm just there to make sure it doesn't fall off the tripod or something. But even if it does, it's not like there's anything I can do about it after the fact.

Anyway, before the feed to C-SPAN Jim and I briefly chatted about school and work. Interestingly, he didn't ask me if I was a registered voter (I am not). On his way out, he said goodbye and addressed me by name. Suite. Immediately before the feed, Mike comes out of the Master Control room and tells Jim he's got a flyaway hair. He proceeds to try and pat it down by licking two fingers and brushing it. It didn't work. Mike told him he looked much better.

I'm pretty thrilled to have received my own invitation to Anne Wellman's wedding. Didn't see that one coming at all. Clearly I'm not bringing a guest. I bet they knew that, too. Anyway, you all should let me know if you're going because I'm not RSVPing until everyone else. And are they sending separate invitations so we each bring a gift? That'd be pretty sneaky.

I've been trying to think of good presents to get Mary for the birthday (happy tax birthday, btw) and most of them are out of my price range. Most of them are out of the price range of doing halvsies with someone. I have an idea, though, so we'll see if I can get the car for a bit tomorrow and find it.

On Sundays, we aren't served dinner, but two girls are in charge of the Sunday snack. Pizza and subs are popular items to be served. We've also had Olive Garden salads a few times and some Hy-Vee deli snacks. Tonight we had KFC. It was pretty much amazing.

I had a meeting for The 10,000 Hours Show at 8 and it ran long. I was supposed to have a "be there if you can make it" meeting with some kids in my video production class at 9 across campus, but didn't make it. Now I'm at the library and see a few of those kids coming in. Great.

I don't like video production and it was a very bad decision to take that class. I'm a little frustrated with all the people who encouraged me to take it and said it would be good for me. I don't feel like I'm learning anything and I'm not going to receive a good grade.

I'm going to go now. Maybe I'll update again later this week. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though.

TTYL :)