Sorority Reunion

    It's been close to 3 weeks since I returned home from a second trip to New York, this last time for my sorority reunion.  My sorority - Alpha Sigma Beta, used to be Alpha Sigma Alpha which is a national sorority.  In the 50's, New York ruled that there were to be no national fraternities throughout the university system, and we became AEB.

    A few years back, one of the gals from the class of 61, decided to try and find as many sisters as she could to form a directory. One thing led to another and then a committee and after 2 years of hard work and fun, Joan was able to track down over 700 sisters over the course of 40+ years.  This led to another thought - to have a reunion and invite everyone.  The reunion was scheduled for the same time as Homecoming weekend. After such a long time, she expected max to be @ 50. To her surprise, 125 sisters came in from all over the US - all ages - all classes. Many of us didn't know each other but had the common link of sisterhood.  We took over the Hampton Inn - all 4 floors who joined in our excitement and joy as though they were part of our group.

We were greeted with signs and flowers in the Alpha Sig mug and I still have my mug (filled with pencils).

Lots of activities on campus but we were excited to go back to our dorms.

My first room in dormitory life.

I was a resident advisor (RA) during my sophomore and junior year so I spent 3 years in this dorm. As an RA, you had to keep your room spotless and open at all times; this was my room now occupied by a guy.  Yup, the dorms are co-ed.  Things have changed! But actually, he's quite neat and so nice to let us in.

This was my best buddy (on right) in freshman year; we lived across the hall from each other.  It was great to see Helene after so many years.

Friday night was the cocktail party. Seven from my class came in; we didn't want to leave each other's side for a moment, so much to catch up on.

Next day, we toured town, mainly to see our old sorority house.

That night was a wonderful dinner. We were all to wear red which was the sorority's colors. Some even had glitz.

It was a "sea of red" wherever you looked....

The tables were beautiful; this was my class below.

Afterwards, it was back to the Hampton Inn. We were aware of the policy of No wine in the lobby, but they shut their eyes and let us party-on, They were great!

The bricks around campus were beautiful.

We were to leave on Monday (hubby and I) but left on Sunday morning. The reunion was over by then but we also needed to be one step ahead of Hurricane Sandy which we barely were.

It was a weekend that will stay with me forever. There is nothing like reconnecting with old friends and going back in time if only for a weekend.

When is a library not a library?

There hasn't been too many fiber related things going on around here with all my reunions and trips. 

I've had 2 reunions in New York 2 weeks apart. It was a whirlwind of fun and emotion.  My first reunion was high school.  Hubby stayed behind while I flew up to La Guardia, rented a car and proceeded to drive out to Long Island on a friday afternoon during rush hour!  What was I thinking? It was one scary trip. I forgot that New Yorkers don't let you switch lanes and they like to honk their horn a lot....sooooo, I wasn't able to go exactly the way I wanted. My GPS kept "recalculating" and at one point, I really wanted to throw it out the window at one of the honkers. Okay, I've vented and it was a wonderful weekend despite the trip on friday.  One of the things we did was to walk through our old town of Farmingdale, NY.  It was beautiful and not one building the same, well except for the bank and the library.  They are the cornerstones of the town, standing on each corner, almost identical and the architecture amazing. The bank had been turned into law offices and the library

 well - a cafe, now called the Library Cafe.  They kept a lot of the original woodwork which I love.

 They also kept the upstairs balcony area which was always featured that way - only filled with books. It still has the same old rickety stairs going up to the top.

 They did add a carousel horse, another thing I love.

 And a view from the balcony area where we ate.  It thrills me to see old towns that keep their original buildings intact - especially ones as beautiful as here. A bit of refurbishing can add so much charm and sometimes make it even better. More important, we can revisit our past and relive some of the happy memories that took place there.

 Reunions are wonderful; they give you permission to be a kid again and reunite with wonderful friends.  To my left, my best bud Val from 5th grade and on the right my best bud Audrey from 2nd grade.  We were also in Brownies together - what a great night!

Color Splits, Events and Reunions

Some wonderful shows and exhibits to check out if you're in the Asheville area in the next couple of months. The Echo Gallery in Asheville, NC has a new show opening this friday - October 8. The opening reception is from 5-8. The gallery itself is beautiful and spacious and showcases many different mediums from local and regional artists. I'm excited to be part of this new show as a guest artist. For more info, check out their website.

And more scarves to report on. I'm having fun dyeing with some new colors. I don't know if this qualifies as color splitting - probably not but I love the color - Magenta. Oddly enough, both scarves were dyed in the same stocking at the same time. The top one is a China silk and the bottom a crepe de Chine. It's interesting how the crepe is so much more intense.

This is Twilight - a new color and not really color splitting but I love the results.

And here's Chili pepper which really looks like a Chili pepper. And again the top is China silk and the bottom is crepe de Chine, done at the same time in the same stocking - such a difference in intensity.

This one is Nautical blue and there was color splitting, just hard to see here but some green came out along with a greenish-blue and true blue. I loved this color and plan to do some yardage for a blouse.

And last but not least, my reunion. I leave tomorrow for Baltimore to see 2 very dear friends from college days. I haven't seen them in 35 years, life got in the way, we lost touch, Facebook came into being and here we are! I'm very excited I'll so will be signing off for the week and talk to you soon. Have a wonderful week and I hope you get to do something you love (Or love something you do)!

Until next time