Day 105 – Alumni Ball

I had work at the Buy Back from 8am to noon. Waking up for that was hard. Also, there were no consequences for students who skipped out on work, which was frustrating. But I mostly just played Euchre with Susie and others working there, so it wasn’t really a big deal.

I was starving after work, and my notes say that I had a delicious lunch. So that must have been enjoyable.

After lunch I got started on a memory book. I’d have my friends write down their contact information, as well as their favorite memories from the trip. I spent a couple hours walking around the ship, finding people to start filling it up.

After getting a solid start on my memory book, I had to go to an afternoon meeting with Cynthia. I had no idea what to expect when I walked in, but it turned out to be good news; the administration was letting us—Nick, Connor, and I—attend the Alumni Ball. But we could not have any alcohol at the event, nor could we attend the dance.

While I appreciated being able to attend the dinner, the meeting sucked. Cynthia just acted so benevolent and gracious the entire time, it was as if she wanted me to kiss her ring. Then, once the Alumni Ball had been discussed, I had to listen to her complain about how reasonable she is and how unfair it is that people on the ship don’t like her. That went on for nearly half an hour.

After the meeting, I went to Dean Laurence’s office to ask if I could attend the dance. Though she didn’t say so, Amy was really bummed that I couldn’t go. And while I didn’t care that much either way, I wanted to go to make her happy. Unfortunately, Laurence was not in his office, so I sent him an email.

When I got back to my room, I had a note from Lauren, the Assistant Dean of Students. It asked to see her immediately, so I bolted to her office. When I learned the reason of the meeting, I honestly laughed, out loud, at the pettiness of the administration. The meeting was called to make sure that I would not get a glass of free champagne when entering the Alumni Ball. Now I know Lauren is too nice and reasonable to care about such a thing, so I’m sure the order came straight from Cynthia. She was just too busy being benevolent to tell me herself.

After the meeting I got dressed for the Alumni Ball. I wore the suit I’d brought, plus a white dress hat I’d gotten in South Africa. You guessed it, dear readers, I looked dashing.

The dinner was delicious. I ate with Greg, and our neighbors Blake, Alan, and Mark. Nick was supposed to come as well, but he was feeling under the weather. The first course was a frittata, which was tasty. But the best part, easily, the main course of filet mignon. It was so tender and delicious.

Better than the dinner, though, was the company. Not just at my table, but all over. Everyone was dressed up all fancy-like, and all in one place. I got a ton of great photos, many of which made it into a collage I just put together.

I went back to my room after dinner and, unfortunately, had no email from Dean Laurence. That was OK, though, because the Sharks game was on. Instead of going to the dance, Nick was using his extra internet minutes to stream audio from the Sharks game.

It was a blast to listen to Dan Rusanowsky call the playoff game. Unfortunately, though the Sharks scored right after we turned on the game, they were down 3-2 after two periods of play. And we couldn’t get audio for the third period, because streaming the first two periods used all of Nick’s remaining data.

So Nick and I just sat around refreshing the New York Times online sports page, hoping for news. It was really tedious, since we couldn’t find a scoreboard. But suddenly, after one lucky click of the refresh button, an article popped up saying the Sharks had come back to win 4-3. WOOHOOO!!!

As Nick and I were whooping it up over the comeback win, Amy came by. She said the dance sucked, so she just wanted to hang out. Jenna came by a short while later, and the four of us just hung around talking before going to bed. It was the most low-key double date ever.