A retro tale: 10 years ago today.........

[violetpretty]

Yay! I was hoping you'd do a retro thread!

[CougarGrad]

Yay!

Retro thread, retro thread!

*tosses confetti*

[ZetaGirl22]

The second day I arrived at our designated meeting spot at 11am. I was a little less intimidated now, knowing what to expect. I wore another pair of Express jeans and a cute light blue knit top. I still felt a little silly though since I didn't even OWN a navy blue peacoat. It was definitely easy for me to find my coat at the end of the parties though. I remember a lot of PNMs getting their coats mixed up. Today as I waited for the parties to start, I noticed that A LOT of girls from my Scholars program were going though, probably almost HALF of them! I had also gotten to know a fellow PNM in my group, Lynn, a sophomore, the day before. At our Rho Chi meeting, Lynn was asking Megan if we could skip any parties. Megan told her definitely not. Later Lynn told me that she had been to events in the fall at The Smashing Pumpkins and they were total “bitches”. She complained the ENTIRE day that she did NOT want to go to the party at The Smashing Pumpkins. Well now I was intrigued. I couldn't WAIT to meet these Smashing Pumpkins girls and see if they really WERE bitches! So we set off on our day of meeting the final 7 chapters.

The Cure: Well this party just started OFF on an awkward foot. The President and Recruitment Chairs came out and introduced themselves, just like at every other chapter. The difference was, they were wearing business suits, which I just thought was weird, because everyone else so far had been wearing matching letters. I started hearing the grumblings and outright LAUGHING from the other PNMs in my group. I later learned this was the smallest chapter on campus. I didn't really care too much. The thought of a small, tightly connected group really appealed to me. It was further strange because as I entered the house, all the OTHER sisters were wearing letters and jeans, just like everyone else. Why did the President and Recruitment Chair have on different clothes? Once we got inside, we were paired up 2 PNMs to a sister. I remember everyone I met here was very nice, and the conversation hadn't been terrible. I just couldn't shake how DIFFERENT this party was from everyone else.

The Pixies: Oh, The Pixies. Their cheering and excitement was INFECTIOUS. I was led inside and met by Leah, who led me into the kitchen and took my coat. As she did so she kind of laughed and I gave her a puzzled look. Then she said, “I am sure you are thinking just what I did when I rushed, 'What the hell am I doing here?'” She then proceeded to tell me that she showed up to recruitment just a year earlier wearing a bright red parka too. Oh my gosh! I felt a HUGE weight lift off my shoulders!
Finally, someone I could relate to! She proceeded to tell me that she thought “the sorority girl uniform” was pretty ridiculous, and who you were on the inside was what mattered. Then she handed me off to talk to none other than Beth from my class from first semester! Beth seemed THRILLED to see me and exclaimed, “You should have TOLD me you were rushing, I could have helped you plan!” At that moment, I wish I had too, because clearly I hadn't planned. I left this chapter positively beaming!

Alice In Chains: My first thought..........this is the most AMAZING incredible house I have ever seen! I was led inside and taken on a tour. The member leading me, Jess, started asking me where I was from. She told me that there were several members there that had gone to high school with me. When she said the names, I was kind of awestruck. The two names she mentioned, Lauren and Patience had been two years ahead of me in high school. Both were cheerleaders, and generally recognized as perfect, especially Patience. She and her boyfriend had been basically royalty at my high school. She also mentioned that the chapter was HUGE. That really turned me off, honestly. I wondered how you could actually be friends with so many people. As she led me out of the room, we ran into Patience and Jess introduced me and mentioned I was two years behind her in high school. She said hi in a very warm way, but I could tell she didn't know me from a hole in the wall. I didn't expect her to. Her crowd and mine were polar opposites. I wrote, “too big” in my rush book.

Live: I was met by Andrea here. This was the second of the two that I remember their theme for Tours. It wasn't because she was so standoffish, like the sister from Blind Melon had been, but she was SO painfully shy. The conversation was boring, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to talk. Their theme was “Winter Wonderland”, and half the time I found myself staring off at the snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. I didn't hold it against them, though. I myself at one time had been VERY shy.

Weezer: I met Casey here. She was a total crack up, and I loved that! At the time, my guilty pleasure was teen movies, and this era was teen movie central. I had just seen “She's All That” and I LOVED it. We talked the whole time about that movie, and how cute it was. Then we were led into the living room to watch a sisterhood video. This was the only chapter to do this, and it really stood out to me. I LOVED this chapter.

Pearl Jam: The day was really starting to wear on me as we entered the house. It was lucky because this house was a whirlwind of energy. This was the ONLY chapter that did bump groups during Tours. Some I talked to maybe one or two other sisters, but here I talked to 5. In 25 minutes! My head was spinning from trying to remember all the names. It was kind of overwhelming, but I absolutely LOVED every single sister I met. They were all incredibly funny. I definitely wanted to return here.

The Smashing Pumpkins: Dun dun dun..................the bitches. Lynn was practically crawling out of her skin as we walked toward the house. The more she talked about them, the more intrigued I got. I figured there HAD to be at least ONE “bitchy” sorority as the doors opened. The first thing I noticed was that the president was African American. That impressed me. My group of friends in high school was VERY racially diverse, and I hadn't seen one African American girl yet. UMD sororities are VERY diverse now, but when I first joined, they weren't really at all. I walked in, wondering if Lynn was right. I met both Kara and Alyse here. Both were seniors, and both were incredibly friendly and down to earth. I was starting to question Lynn a lot, and questioned her even MORE as I left the house. On my way out, I saw Kari, who had been my OA (Orientation Advisor) over the summer. She waved at me. I had LOVED Kari. She had really allayed a lot of my fears about being a commuter student over the summer, and got me SO excited to start classes in the fall. It appeared that Lynn had been quite wrong, but still I wondered what had happened to give her such a bad taste.

That night, my family went out to dinner at Barnaby's, a British style pub that was close to home and a family favorite place, even though it technically was a bar. It was the first time in a LONG time we had been out to dinner. My dad wanted to know all about it. And I told him after today, my second day favorites were: The Pixies, Weezer, and The Smashing Pumpkins.

[AOII Angel]

Oh...and by the way, Go Alice and Chains! (Of course, every time my husband and I hear an A&C song, we change the lyrics to ones about being found dead in our home after a week with our dogs feeding on our dead bodies! Yeah....it's gross, but Lane Staley died an aweful death~)

[ZetaGirl22]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Oh...and by the way, Go Alice and Chains! (Of course, every time my husband and I hear an A&C song, we change the lyrics to ones about being found dead in our home after a week with our dogs feeding on our dead bodies! Yeah....it's gross, but Lane Staley died an aweful death~)

Ewww LOL! Yeah, Layne Staley DID die terribly. We lost so many talented musicians from that era because of heroin...........so sad.

Anyway, re being from Olney, I could understand why someone wouldnt know it. When we moved there in '85 there was one stoplight. It has expanded SO MUCH since then. They keep building ridiculously huge house after huge house. What really happened was people from Rockville and Bethesda that wanted to live in a more intimate community started moving there in probably the late 80's early 90's-that's when Olney really started to explode, but compared to Bethesda and Rockville, we are still pretty tiny.

[CougarGrad]

Must. Have. Moar. Retro thread!!!

[ZetaGirl22]

After we got home, I called into work to get my schedule for the next week. Crap. I was scheduled to work the second day of Set of 10 (the second round) AND a double on the day of Set of 5. Preference was also a Monday night, and I was supposed to babysit. My mom was mad when I suggested I talk to Mrs. S. about having that night off. I had made a commitment to the family, and my mom and Mrs S. were best friends at that time. I think she saw in me that I NEEDED some close friendships in college though, and she agreed to talk to Mrs S. for me. Now I just had to figure out my work schedule.

I had gone into recruitment at pretty much the last minute. We had to ask off 2 weeks in advance to have a day off. I thought about dropping. There was NO WAY I was going to get a dinner shift AND a double covered. I finally decided that I would stick it out, but I would need to decide which day I would have to miss, because knowing my co-workers, I would be missing at least one.

At lunchtime the next day, I went to get my invites for Set of 10 at the Union. This was before RFM, and there was no ranking by PNMs so we got a list of who had asked us back and we had to pick who we would return to. I found Megan, my Rho Chi. I talked to her about work, and she told me that missing one day of Set of 10 probably wouldn't kill me, but I needed to be at Set of 5. Ok. I could AT LEAST find someone to cover my day shift and I could make it to work in time for dinner. My list looked like this:

Nirvana
The Clash
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Cure
The Pixies
Alice In Chains
Live
Weezer
Pearl Jam
The Smashing Pumpkins

I was invited to 10, and you could return to a maximum of 10, so I didn't have to regret anyone. I was pretty happy about my list, but no Dropkick Murphys? I had had a great conversation there! Oh well, still had ALL my favorites left. I was pretty surprised by Alice In Chains, though. I did NOT think that the “perfect” girls from my high school would want me back.

I also ran into Kristen at invite pickups, one of my FAVORITE people from Scholars. She asked if I was happy with my list. I told her I was and asked how her recruitment was going. She was dropping. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! She said she had realized sorority life wasn't for her. I was a little surprised, but didn't try to talk her out of it. I figured everyone could make the best decision for themselves. Set of 10 would start tomorrow night, so for now I was focused on figuring out my situation with the S kids and my waitressing job.

I had to babysit that night. When I arrived Mrs S. pulled me aside in the kitchen and told me my mom had called her earlier. Uh-oh. I really hoped that that hadn't disappointed her. I LOVED the S family. Mrs S was even my Confirmation sponsor. She explained that she was ECSTATIC I was rushing! She knew that I was having a hard time meeting people at school, and she herself had been a Pi Phi in college (Pi Phi wasn't on our campus) As luck would also have it, her dad was coming into town that weekend to stay with them for the week, so I wouldn't be needed anyway! Problem #1 solved. Later that week I begged and pleaded for someone to switch work schedules so I could have off Saturday afternoon. As I suspected, there were no takers for ANY of my shifts at first. FINALLY after much convincing, I got one of my friends to pick up my day shift so I could at least go to Set of 5, but I would still need to be there for dinner. Problem #2 solved! Now I just had the rest of recruitment to focus on.

[speedsters]

haha, I was going to guess MoCo! A lot of my college friends are from MoCo.

Can't wait to read more, my bid day was 5 years ago Friday

[ZetaGirl22]

Set of 10 parties started on Tuesday and I woke up early to get my outfit ready for the day and get myself made up. I would have to wear the clothes I would wear that night to school because there was NO WAY I would be able to go to class and then drive home, get ready, and get back by 5 when the parties started. School WAS very close to home, but rush hour traffic in the DC/Metro area is absolutely ungodly. It had taken almost an hour to drive 15 miles in rush hour traffic before. I consulted my rush book and noted that the dress for the day was listed as “casual”, which was REALLY hard to interpret. I decided on nice jeans, and a white blouse underneath a fitted black wool V neck sweater. I put my makeup in my backpack so I could touch up before the parties and headed to school.

In Scholars that day, ALL the girls going through recruitment were buzzing about how the weekend had gone, and outfits they were planning on wearing that night. They were ALL going to wear khaki's. My mouth dropped. Apparently at the orientation meeting they had been told that that is what they should wear. I wasn't going to be able to get home to change. I was stuck and totally mortified. I was sure that this was going to ruin my chances, and I definitely knew that I was going to feel REALLY stupid at all the parties. I worried about this for the rest of the day.

Sure enough, when I met my Rho Chi group at the Armory that night, it was a sea of khaki pants. I felt totally under dressed and VERY self conscious. Megan sensed this and apologized for not being more specific as to what to wear, since she knew I missed orientation. There was nothing she could do about it now, I thought, as she handed me my schedule for the night. It read:

Alice In Chains
Pearl Jam
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Cure
The Smashing Pumpkins

Now I felt even WORSE. There were SO many of my favorites that I was going to miss because I would have to work the next night. I REALLY wanted to see Nirvana, Weezer, and The Pixies again, and I worried that now my chances with any of them would be doubly ruined. I decided to put on my most fake-confident face and try to let my personality shine. It was going to be hard, and a very, very long night.


Alice In Chains: What a way to start the night, totally under dressed, feeling not that great about myself, and having to start at a chapter I really wasn't sure why they had invited me back. All the sisters AND the house looked perfect, as always. I started to feel better when I met Steph. We laughed about the recruitment dress code mix up and she griped that she thought the expectation for dress should be made A LOT clearer in the rush book. She even complimented me on my sweater/blouse combo. I felt at ease. Then she passed me off to another sister. I could tell right away that this was going to be a hard conversation. We had absolutely nothing in common as we worked on the chapter's philanthropy project. I just tried to steer the conversation towards philanthropy. Then came the fatal mistake in my book: The philanthropy chair stood up to make a presentation about philanthropy. She mentioned a group they worked with and I was ECSTATIC. It happened to be a group that I had been involved with almost my entire life. Score. When I got back to the conversation, I mentioned to the sister that I had been involved with the aforementioned group. To my horror, she replied in a not very nice tone, “Oh, XYZ group, I'm not sure about them.” I made a mental note that I did NOT want to come back here.

Pearl Jam: I was met by Jamie here and we went into the kitchen to work on the philanthropy project. We mostly talked about that. It was hard to get a read on her. I was pretty happy when I was then met by Stacey who lead me into the chapter room to talk some more. She was hysterical and we joked about my outfit disaster. She asked me what I did outside of class and I mentioned my job. She wanted to know all about it as she was interested in getting into waitressing over the summer. I told her about it and gave her some interview tips and tips on how to handle a big station, things like that. Then we started talking about one of my favorite things EVER......DAWSON'S CREEK! She was a big fan too. We laughed and I found myself get into a goofy mood. Maybe too goofy, I don't know. I was sad when this party was over.

Mighty Mighty Bosstones: It was a far walk to get here from Pearl Jam so I had to walk fast. I was practically out of breath by the time I got there. I first met Kelly who I worked on the philanthropy project with and we listened to a presentation about philanthropy by their philanthropy chair. I was then met by Amy, who gave me a house tour. I liked their house a lot and Amy was really cool. They had pictures of some famous Mighty Mighty Bosstones on the wall and one happened to be an actress in one of my favorite shows. We talked a lot about that show and how funny it was, even though based on what it was ABOUT, maybe shouldn't have been funny at all. I was enjoying myself a lot.

The Cure: This was another far walk, and unlike the other chapters, I only talked to one member, and they didn't give a house tour. I met Christina and she was so easy to talk to. She was funny and again we goofed around about my fashion misunderstanding. That's how I treated it everywhere, I tried to laugh about it with the sisters. I just wanted to make sure they understood that it was a misunderstanding, it wasn't because I was a total frump. This was another Dawson's Creek conversation, and she mentioned that one of the other sisters, Ashley was a TOTAL Dawson's Creek nut and had even MET James Van Der Beek. I was impressed. It still struck me as weird though, that their parties were so different than everyone else's. I wasn't sure what to think about this group.

The Smashing Pumpkins: The “bitch” house again. I was excited to come here. At this point, I was DYING to prove Lynn wrong, and she was starting to get progressively more and more annoying about it. She hadn't been asked back here. I was met at the door by none other than Kari, my OA, who I had ADORED! I was so happy to see her and she remembered me! She took me on a house tour as we talked about how my first semester had gone. Then she led me into a bedroom where I met Lisa. That is where we did the philanthropy project, along with a group of maybe 2 other PNMS and 2 other sisters. I think NOW this might be considered a huge no-no, but it wasn't then. Lisa was very cool and we talked about the perks of living in the house, especially during Homecoming/Greek Week time. She was the chapter's star volleyball player, and that made me smile. I was TERRIBLE at volleyball, but my mom had played very well and I LOVED watching! I couldn't wait to tell Lynn how wrong she was.

Overall, I had fun that day, but no one REALLY stuck out to me. All of the chapters that I had REALLY loved from Tours I was going to be missing and I was still really disappointed by that.

The next night I went to work and REALLY didn't want to be there. I wanted to be at recruitment, visiting my other favorite chapters, and I hoped the fact that I WASN'T there wouldn't hurt me. I don't think I did very well on tips that night.

[tangelo212]

Originally Posted by ZetaGirl22

Then came the fatal mistake in my book: The philanthropy chair stood up to make a presentation about philanthropy. She mentioned a group they worked with and I was ECSTATIC. It happened to be a group that I had been involved with almost my entire life. Score. When I got back to the conversation, I mentioned to the sister that I had been involved with the aforementioned group. To my horror, she replied in a not very nice tone, “Oh, XYZ group, I'm not sure about them.”

This sounds like her fatal mistake to me, not yours! A PNM already involved with our philanthropy gets a star in my book!

[ZetaGirl22]

Originally Posted by tangelo212

This sounds like her fatal mistake to me, not yours! A PNM already involved with our philanthropy gets a star in my book!

It WAS her mistake. I had otherwise been on the fence about this chapter. Her comment really turned me off

[CougarGrad]

Well, so far, it sounds like the jeans-khakis misunerstanding didn't hurt too badly, and you recovered from it pretty well. I'm interested to hear the next installment.

[AlphaXi_Husky]

As someone else who rushed 10 years ago, I am really enjoying your story. Can't wait to hear what happened next!

[ZetaGirl22]

The next day, I had to go to the Union to get my invites. I was very nervous as I found Megan, who handed me my list. It looked like this:

The Smashing Pumpkins
The Cure
The Clash
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Live
Nirvana

I was overcome by happiness and incredible devastation at the same time. I was ecstatic that Nirvana wanted me back, even though I missed their party. I was also very happy about The Smashing Pumpkins and Mighty Mighty Bosstones, but I was crushed by the fact that both The Pixies and Weezer had released me. Megan saw this and encouraged me to be positive. I still had several chapters left that I REALLY liked, and the rest I still felt good about. That helped me put things in perspective, but the rejection I felt really stung, too. But I had a decision to make. I could go back to 5 chapters, and I had 6 on my list. It was between The Cure, because of the awkwardness I'd felt at their parties, and Live, just because I hadn't connected well with the member I had met during Tours. I decided to keep The Cure, because even though there were awkward moments, I had genuinely liked all the members that I had met. I marked “Regret With Interest” on my card for Live. Megan also made sure to tell me that Set of 5 would be more dressy, and most women would wear black pants. Now, when a sorority woman at Maryland 10 years ago told you to wear black pants, you knew EXACTLY what she was talking about.

Ten years ago, “sorority girl pants” were all the rage. They were a nylon/cotton blend stretchy bootcut pant with an elastic waistband. EVERYONE was wearing them. I already had a pair because they had been popular in my high school as well. They were from Express, of course. (In case you hadn't already noticed that theme LOL)

There was one day to wait until Set of 5 parties started on Saturday. I started getting very excited. The feelings of rejection didn't last long for me. I was totally focused on making the best possible impression on my remaining 5 chapters.

[indygphib]

Originally Posted by ZetaGirl22

Now, when a sorority woman at Maryland 10 years ago told you to wear black pants, you knew EXACTLY what she was talking about.

Ten years ago, “sorority girl pants” were all the rage. They were a nylon/cotton blend stretchy bootcut pant with an elastic waistband. EVERYONE was wearing them. I already had a pair because they had been popular in my high school as well. They were from Express, of course. (In case you hadn't already noticed that theme LOL)

I am totally LOLing at this! "Sorority girl pants" from Express were all the rage at my former school as well!