Favorite College Memories

There is a group of people that I am still in touch with simply known as The Bitch Barn.  A majority of us met freshmen year at UCM, and we just kind of picked people up a long the way, the name didn't come around until 2001 when a majority moved into a house on College Street, most lived there, others like myself just seemed to spend every waking minute there and another still lived in a different state, but she became a Bitch Barnian by proxy.

So many memories, they all run together (yes some because of copious amounts of alcohol), but mostly because we all just had a good time together.  Up until recently we even had our own private chat room/discussion board. (By the way, where did it go?) and we try to have yearly reunions since we are all spread across the US now (a majority in Missouri, but Ohio, Illinois, Arizona, and California are in the mix as well).  Yeah, we've grown up (maybe not grown up, but gotten older), but we still find time to keep in touch despite all of the grown up stuff we seem to do now (buying houses, having kids, etc.).

Lots of memories blend together - all with great amounts of laughter involved.  There was the champagne incident - sure lucky the cork didn't hit that car.  There was the truth or dare games - can't forget one particularly interesting dare that involved the pillar of the neigbhor's porch.  There was New Year's (that silly blanket game and Russian cooking and shots of some type of alcohol), oh and who could forget the shot put contest with a can of orange juice concentrate.  And our most recent reunion involved nerf guns in the hallway of the Drury Inn.

We've been there for each other through everything, weddings, funerals, divorces, graduations and most recently a birth (ok so not actually at the birth, but you get the main idea).  The second generation of Bitch Barnites was born last month!  Right now one of the Barnites is visiting me while she is on a vacation of sorts.  Today we went to the zoo, but now we are too tired to walk down to the art museum (we think it is because we are getting old.) She's going through some stuff right now and I'm glad to be here for her, and her company has been a godsend for me.  Being unemployed and trying to write and job hunt and everything else has really thrown me for a loop - and with a good college friend here, I feel a bit more stable - even though I know I can get through this tough stuff - with her here I actually BELIEVE I will get through it. 

I guess what prompted this specific rant is a conversation I had with my youngest sister-by-marriage a couple of weeks ago.  She just started her freshmen year of college and I was just answering some of her questions and I remember telling her how much fun I had my freshmen year - that it was a very influential year not only because I started my college career, but because of the friends I made - that are still my closest friends today.  I hope she has a similar experience.