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

ZetaGirl22 · #1 02-09-2009, 08:11 PM

I understood that “casual” probably meant something a little more. I wore a nice cream colored turtleneck sweater (it was COLD here in January) and nice jeans, and I made sure my hair and makeup were done. I was going to approach this like a job interview. I get to the Armory and all I see is a SEA of navy blue peacoats and dark wash bootcut jeans. Oh hell........what in the WORLD was I doing here? I was wearing a bright red parka......THEY TOLD ME TO DRESS WARM dammit! And a lighter color jean. They were bootcut..............Express to be exact. I was solely wearing Express jeans then. I think MOST of my wardrobe came from Express. They were the only ones to have short length pants that weren't too long or too short and looked good on me! I see a familiar face......Jackie, a girl I had gone to middle school with. She runs up to me and says hello.............she's as nervous as I am. She asks, “Are you wondering what the hell you are doing here too?” I nod. Clearly she knows more than me. She's wearing the required uniform. Finally, someone yells to everyone that we should find our Rho Chi and get into our groups, and sadly, Jackie isn't in mine. Our Rho Chi group will be visiting all the chapters with another group headed up by Sara. My Rho Chi finds me and hands me my rush book. I briefly glance at the schedule. Holy Cow! We are seeing 8 chapters today and 7 tomorrow? How in the heck am I going to keep this straight? She tells me to write everything down in my book on the chapter's page. She also hands me a stack of calling cards and tells me to deliver one to each chapter we visit.

The following chapters were present at Maryland at the time:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Phi Sigma Sigma
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
Zeta Tau Alpha

So here's my code-this is the order of our visits during Tours. In keeping with the punk/alt rock girl theme, I will use bands that I LOOOOVED when I was in HS (and many of them I STILL love)

The Ramones
Nirvana
The Clash
Blind Melon
Filter
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Dropkick Murphys
The Sex Pistols
The Cure
The Pixies-I had actually been in class with a Pixie, Beth, the semester before. It was a one credit class, trying to orient freshmen to the school. She had AP credits so she joined in the fall. I always remembered her bid day shirt.....it was a Maybelline theme........”Maybe she's born with it, Maybe she's a Pixie” Beth was awesome. I hoped I would see her when we visited.
Alice In Chains
Live
Weezer
Pearl Jam
The Smashing Pumpkins

Now keep in mind, I was a commuter. I knew NOTHING about greek politics. I hadn't heard not a single rumor or a single stereotype-NADA! I was totally clueless about EVERYTHING sorority.

The Ramones: Holy geez, I was NOT prepared for the screaming and clapping and singing when we entered the house. I remember having a nice conversation with the member who spoke to me during this round. She asked where I went to high school, and when I mentioned the name, she excitedly told me that one of their sisters who had pledged the semester before as a freshman was from my high school. Uh oh......I knew this girl, she had been a class officer and was uber popular. Our groups did not mesh-at all. I had a feeling I wouldn't be asked back here

Nirvana: I talked to Shana here. She was a sophomore and in the same major as me! She was also in the year ahead in my same Scholars program. We had an AWESOME conversation, beyond the boring, “What's your major” chit chat common in the first round. I was SO excited. I also saw Liz, who had been a TA for us the semester before in my Scholars class, and Melissa who I had made friends with during Intro to Shakespeare the semester before. I had no idea either was in a sorority. LOVED this group, definitely wanted to return.

The Clash: I had a great time here. The conversation went well. We talked a lot about socials and living in the house. I LOVED the idea of living in a sorority house. I explained that I grew up in a house of all brothers, and I would LOVE to finally live with only girls! (It was true, teenage and middle school boys stink sometimes, literally, haha) And plus, my dad would feel A LOT better knowing I was living in an all female house versus a co ed dorm, and would MAYBE let me move out next year. I definitely want to come back!

Blind Melon: All the chapters had themes for the first party. There are only 2 that I remember what their theme was. It was “Walk of Fame.” I remember because they had black poster paper covering the ENTIRE chapter room. It was VERY dark. I was also staring at the “stars” the whole time because the member that I was paired with would NOT make eye contact with me (eye contact is a HUGE thing for me) and was playing with her hair the whole time. She seemed totally disinterested in talking to me. I told her about my waitressing job and her response was,” Oh, well pledging takes a lot of time, maybe you should rethink if you want to join a sorority or not if you want to keep your job” I wrote a big fat NO in my rush book.

Filter: I remember sitting in the kitchen with my sister, Jolene. She was very sweet, but very quiet, and we didn't have a lot in common. Much of the conversation felt forced. I wrote, “Sweet girls, but not for me” in my rush book

Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Megan, the sister I was paired with and I hit it right off. We started talking about what drama nerds we were and how much we loved Tori Amos. This one is a definite YES!

Dropkick Murphys: I met Pia here. She was super sweet and funny. We talked about our future career goals. She was a Government and Politics major too and wanted to be a lawyer, like me. I felt really good here and hoped to come back. Plus the house felt so warm and cozy. It really felt like a home

The Sex Pistols: This was the last visit of the day. I was totally exhausted and my face hurt from smiling so much. I met Danielle here. Our conversation was nice, but I was so tired that I was having trouble staying engaged.

So my favorites after day one were: Nirvana, The Clash, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Dropkick Murphys. I judged them on how the conversations went, and who I felt most comfortable with.