So I got my invitations for Day 2 - invited back to all six (I thought I was pretty cool for about 15 minutes - until I talked to everyone else and found out only grade cuts were made after the first day. Oh.)
So I regretted the invitation to Cookie Monster, and geared up for skit day.
This was back in the day of "full frills" rush, meaning - BURSTING! Now for those of you who have never seen this, and I, being fairly greek ignorant, it is a pretty impressive site when all of a sudden 100+ women coming flying out the door singing in perfect tune but VERY LOUND - it is a site to behold. In my later years I found out that it was a bit of a nightmare as far as practice went to make it look this perfect, but it was pretty amazing.
So off I go...
Oscar - Really cute decorations, theme of "Camp Oscar", girls had on khaki shorts and vests, room decorated like a forest and a campfire in the front. They did a great skit, complete with campfire song and guitar playing. I am of the musically challenged variety, can't hold a tune to save my life, so I was impressed. I also talked with this very cool volleyball player and the chapter president, both of whom were so funny, smart, and down to earth. Oscar was definitely a dark horse in the running, and I really enjoyed this party.
Bert - Theme was sort of a bedtime/dream theme, had bunk beds (real bunk beds - I wondered how in the heck they got them in the room), girls were wearing nightgowns, except for 6 or so girls dressed like sheep. They were part of the skit, so it made sense later, but I was a little puzzled why farm animals were running around the room at first. I was not so excited at Bert today, the skit and decorations were a little cheesey for my tastes (again, which just reinforces why frills are sometimes NOT a good idea - picking sisters for life based on whether their paper decorations were to your tastes???) Another sour point was when the nasty R.A. from my floor came to say hi.
Ernie - Ernie had the coolest door song, this really rhythmic chanting/clapping thing that just got into your head and stuck there. Brilliant on their part - I found myself humming it for WEEKS after rush. They had a Genie/desert theme, cute skit about how all different types of girls wre Ernies, not just jocks/hippies (again, very smart to address their stereotype head on). I talked with an amazing pre-dental junior who I basically thought was my idol - such a cool girl. Overall, again, laid-back, friendly, great enviornment
Elmo - New Year's Eve was their theme - they had great outfits on, tuxedo tops with black skirts and different jewel-toned cumberbunds - so cute. Their poor rush chair though fell while trying to get them hyped up before we got there, and shredded her nylons and knees - ouch! She had to make a little speech to welcome us and at least could laugh at herself, but I felt so bad for her. Anyway, they had a very funny skit as well that was a spoof of "Wayne's World", and I chatted with Charlotte and her best friend for awhile which was great...but the rest of the girls that I talked to, while they were really sweet, just, well, I just didn't feel like I clicked. Nothing particularly wrong, just not that little spark that I had felt at Oscar and Ernie.
Last but not least...Big Bird - The theme was "Big Bird Republic" - for the fellow old ladies like myself, remember the old Banana Republic tee-shirts, with the black and white jungle drawing and the lettering above in red? They had white tees on just like that except Big Bird instead of Banana in the slogan. So cute. The room was amazaing - completely covered in jungle vines. The skit was this darling song, that was to the tune of Steve Miller Band Jungle Love, then The lion sleeps tonight. At one point in the song it said some line about "Come join our sisterhood..." and I just about jumped up and rushed the stage, yelling "Yes, I will!!!! Sign me up right now!!!". I also met several amazing girls, and each one just seemed more outgoing, smart, fun and friendly. Needless to say, I liked this house just a little bit
So I leave rush and go back to the dorms to wait for our invitations for the next day. Back at the dorms is occuring something that is worse than tent talk. It is dorm talk. Which means it goes on all night, and also includes opinions from people who ought to have ZERO input into these decisions, IE the BOYS who live in the dorm. Ugh. When they asked me which houses I liked, I told them Big Bird, Ernie, Elmo, and, Oscar. In all honesty, I probably had a better time at Oscar than I did at Elmo, but as soon as I said Oscar, the guys started saying how they were a crummy house, blah blah blah
Again, these are FRESHMAN guys. They know less about these chapters that we did. But it kind of got to me. I was also starting to get a little concerned that I wasn't feeling the love for Elmo like I thought I would. And even worse, I was starting to have the world's biggest rush crush on the Big Birds. And I wasn't sure I could even "get in" (again, so embarassing, but that was exactly the way that I thought at the time) to Big Bird, since I didn't have friends there, and I wasn't sure I was pretty enough to be a Big Bird. Roomate Samantha loved Ernie and Big Bird, and was not crazy about Oscar but was worried about hurting her mom who was an Oscar. Pretty much all of the other girls on my floor were liking some combo of Ernie, Big Bird, and Elmo.
I went to sleep with chants in my head, waiting until it was 7am and I could go pick up my invitations...