On Friday morning, I flew to Boston for my five-year college reunion. I graduated from Wheaton College in 2002 and have not seen a lot of the people I went to school with since our graduation. It was great seeing everyone again. It seems like everyone is still pretty much the same, only five years older. It’s weird thinking about all the things that have happened to us in the last five year but we end back at Wheaton again and it’s as if no time has passed.
We were supposed to have a lot of outdoor things to do at the reunion but it was cold and rainy which ruined a lot of our plans. It didn’t really matter though, because all we really wanted to do was reminisce and tell stories. We did a lot of laughing. That can be done anywhere rain or shine. Most of us stayed in the dorm rooms. That was an interesting experience. Those rooms are so small they remind me of prison cells and they smelled funny. When I first arrived on campus for my freshman year in 1998 I had to share a room the size of a closet with two other roommates. I didn’t mind the dorms back in the day. It was actually fun because everyone was required to live on campus all four years so it was actually a lot of fun. However, I couldn’t imagine doing that now.
My Wheaton friend, Caitlin, and I decided that one night of Wheaton nostalgia was plenty so we left and went back to South Boston where she lives with her boyfriend, Dave. On Saturday night, we went to Mexican food at Borders in Cambridge. Then we went to a lacrosse game at Harvard. Dave plays professionally for the Boston Cannons. It was cool being at the game, but we got soaked from the rain and then I was freezing. We ditched the game at halftime and met up with some friends in South Boston. I really like that city a lot and “SouthB” as they call it, seems like it would be a fun place to live.
On Sunday, I went up to Maine with Caitlin and our two friends, Robin and Heather. We went to a wedding shower for our friend Megan who is marrying our friend Chris. All of us are Wheaton alum. We had good stories for the car ride and the shower was pretty fun too. The August wedding is going to be really fun. I’m really glad we don’t have a race that weekend, at least not as of right now.
I flew back to Michigan really early Monday morning. I had enough time to practice on the Tree at the shop and take care of some odds and ends. I unpacked, did laundry, and re-packed. I just flew to Charlotte, N.C., for the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend. I’m going to do some things for Clevite over the next couple of days. They supply us all our rings and engine bearings so I occasionally make appearances for them at some of their events. Bill McKnight, director of brand development at Clevite, has some different things scheduled for me this weekend in North Carolina. He got me tickets to the Busch race on Saturday and the 600 on Sunday. The next few days should be really fun. It’s also a great opportunity for me to meet people and make business contacts to help our team in our sponsorship quest. Plus I have never been to a cup race so it should be interesting. I’m sure I’ll have lots to talk about in my next blog.