Homecoming

The Oklahoma State University Homecoming celebration is this weekend, and I won't be there. I'll be writing. And I'll be thinking about Stillwater. And getting nostalgic. And wondering if anyone there is thinking about me and hoping they'll see me among the massive crowds that will fill University Ave for Walkaround Friday night.

But I won't be there.

I'll be working.

Which is a shame.

I never realized how seriously people at OSU take Homecoming until I went to Cornell and asked, "When is homecoming?" and the response was, "It was last weekend."

In Stillwater, that would never ever happen. Homecoming is everywhere you look, in everything you touch. Orange fills the trees and the painted windows of the stores in town and even the water in Library Fountain.

So even though I'm several hundred miles away in the midst of the biggest deadline of my career, I still have to reminise about my time at OSU and share the following highlights--the things that, win or lose, will go with me everywhere, the memories that remind me that being an OSU grad is always better than just being another school's "fan."

MEMORIES OF OSU, by Ally Carter

-- One kind of involved homecoming. And some convertibles. And a tiara. But I don't want to go into it.

-- One kind of involves my friend Crazy Beth and a telephone pole, but she would probably rather I not go into it.

-- One involves my friend Mace and a series of impersonations featuring characters from Days of Our Lives and I know the partners at his law firm would probably sue me if I went into it.

-- One invovles the day when Mace decided we should start calling Crazy Beth "Crazy Beth." (Because she was wearing "crazy mittens".)

-- Several involve the fountain in front of the library, and the Union, and Ag Hall, and Gallagher-Iba Arena, and the section of Hester Street where I fell on my face in the middle of finals week and then my friend Jacob came by and took pity on me and drove me home.

-- One involves the basement of the Student Union and an electricty blackout and being so exhausted that when my friends Rhett and Stacey asked whether or not the marching band could play and march at the same time I had to stop and think for a minute about the answer.

-- A lot involve a little two-story apartment on Bellis Street, and specifically, how the windchime on the door disappeared one day in December and magically reappeared one day in February (we never figured out how or why).

-- A whole bunch involve my friend Laurie who, ironically, is significantly crazier than Crazy Beth and yet was never once referred to as Crazy Laurie.

-- Several involve my friend who was a male cheerleader trying to show off and hold me over his head (regardless of the fact that I am in no way cheerleaderish).

-- In fact, a lot involve me being picked up. Literally. And carried against my will by boys who thought they were both strong and funny and I was pick-up-able.

-- One involves a certain professor. And a perm. And the people who were there will totally know what I'm talking about.

-- None involve tests or papers or the thousands of notecards I made and memorized on my way to the honor roll.

--None involve the fears about what to wear or how I looked or any of the things that kept me in my dorm room freshman year.

-- And two involve the memory of me and a little white car. In one, I'm nervous and scared and driving into town for the first time. In the other, I'm sad and crying and driving out for the last.

You can't go home again, I know that. But you can visit. And you can cheer. And when the time comes you can stand with your family and sing "ever you find us, loyal and true, to our Alma Mater, O-S-U."

Go pokes.


Ally



PS...this is my first and last blog entry for the week, since I'm Deadline Girl. In the meantime, what are your favorite school memories?