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.

The Weird Al Experience

On July 6th, Scott and I went to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert at the amphitheatre at the Toledo Zoo. It was worth the heat and the wait. When I got the tickets, I immediately called Scott and informed him we were going. He called me a geek. I quickly informed him that I wasn't a geek, that I was a nerd, there's a difference.

The concert didn't start until 45 minutes after it was scheduled to, but that gave us plenty of time to people watch. Scott turns to me and says, "These people make you look normal." There was a wide variety of individuals present - I felt like I had stepped back into Hosey and Houts Hall from my freshmen year of college.

He played a wide variety of his songs, mostly from the current album, Straight Outta of Lynnwood. He did play his parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" (You're Pitiful), which isn't on any albums. It was a thing of beauty. The ending for it, he appeared in a Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt, polka dot shorts and a pink tutu. The best part was his salute to Star Wars complete with Darth Vader and Storm Troopers. The Emperor was on keyboard for "The Saga Begins" (American Pie).

Even if you don't like Weird Al, you have to admire his stage presence and his theatricality in performance. Costume changes for the band came at key points in the show, which was multi-media - while they changed, "Al TV" episodes played. You can tell that he and his band have worked together for years - when a technical glitch appeared - only the trained eye could tell they had to cover.

There were a number of surprising revelations - there are Weird Al groupies, and they hung out in the parking lot after the show listening to the song he closed the show with "Albuquerque." Also, there were a large number of second generation nerds - the Weird Al fans and their kids...and the kids knew all of the words to all of the songs. I felt like I wasn't nerdy enough to be at the concert!

"White and Nerdy" from the Lynnwood album still makes me think of people I went to college with and lived in the honors college dorms. I must classify myself among the nerds - especially since while I'm writing this I'm listening to my Weird Al play list on my IPod.

I have a Bacon number of 3!

Everyone has played "Six Degrees of Keving Bacon." Started by some college kids the idea is that Kevin Bacon can be linked to any actor in 6 steps or less. So I got on the IMDB database to see if I could link myself to Kevin Bacon through Allan Kayser.

Allan Kayser attended CMSU (now UCM) my freshmen year of college and we were in the musical Into The Woods together in the Central Missouri Repertory's 1999 season. So on my own I linked my self to Kevin Bacon in 6 steps:

Macaela was in Into The Woods (1999 CMR)with Allan Kayser.
Allan Kayser was in Night of the Creeps (1986) with Jason Lively.
Jason Lively was in European Vacation (1985) with Chevy Chase.
Chevy Chase was in Christmas Vacation (1989)with Randy Quaid.
Randy Quaid was in The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) with Illeana Douglas.
Illeana Douglas was in Stir of Echoes (1999) with Kevin Bacon.

Pretty neat. However, I came across another website called the Oracle of Bacon, here they do the work for you. So I typed in Allan Kayser and he can be linked to Kevin Bacon in two steps, so that links me in three steps, thus my Bacon number is 3.

Macaela was in Into the Woods with Allan Kayser.
Allan Kayser was in More than Puppy Love with Lisa Sloan.
Lisa Sloan was in Starting Over with Kevin Bacon.