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

[ZetaGirl22]

Saturday morning rolled around and I woke up SUPER early to get ready for the day. I wore the requisite black pants, black sling backs, and a dark brown, chocolate brown, and brownish-gray striped V neck fitted sweater. I also packed my work clothes away in my car so I could change on the way there from the parties. We started at 11 AM that day.

When I arrived at the Armory, I met Lynn and she asked me who I was liking so far. I told her I was most excited to see Nirvana. Then I sheepishly told her I had actually liked The Smashing Pumpkins too. She kind of gave me one of those “Oh, that's nice” smiles as Megan handed out our schedules. Mine looked like this:

Nirvana
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Clash
The Cure


Nirvana: As I walked into this house, I was SO SO excited. Overall, they were my favorite chapter remaining on my schedule. I walked in and was met by Heather. This is where things started to go downhill. She was very nice, but very meek and quiet. The conversation definitely had not been as engaging and interesting as it had been with Shana. I found it much the same with the other sisters I met this round. I did see Shana, Liz, and Melissa during the party though, and they all made a point of waving to me. I hadn't yet gotten to talk to Melissa during recruitment yet and I was kind of bummed about that, since we had gotten to know each other very well the semester before. They performed their skit at the end of the party. It was “Saturday Night Live” themed. They redid all of the popular sketches of the time, like The Spartans and added in Nirvana. I remember being disappointed that there was no Goth Talk though. I loved that one. As I left the house I was getting worried. They had been my favorite and I had really felt let down today.

Mighty Mighty Bosstones: This chapter started the party with their skit. It was Hollywood themed and they re-enacted scenes from popular movies with Mighty Mighty Bosstones added in. The main thing I remember here was the FOOD. OMG it was incredible. They served my FAVORITE dessert here, but I wont say which because it might give this chapter's identity away. I got to talk to Megan again here and we had another great conversation about music. I also met Julie and she honestly was one of THE funniest people I had ever met before. I was starting to feel a lot better about today, and Mighty Mighty Bosstones had definitely moved up in my eyes

The Smashing Pumpkins: And again, “the bitches.” I had liked them so far, but nothing about them had REALLY stood out to me yet, like some of the other chapters had. I was fairly certain that they were definitely NOT bitches though, and there really must be something wrong with Lynn. I was met here by Lesley. I had actually gone to high school with her and our groups of friends definitely overlapped, although I didn't know her too well. She was in the lit mag crew and I in the drama crew, there were several people in my group that did both, so we all knew each other in passing. I really enjoyed talking to Lesley and catching up on all the latest news of everyone that had been in our respective circles. This was also the round this chapter did house tours and it was in one of the rooms where I was passed off to Honey. Uh-oh. I could TELL that this was going to be an awkward conversation. There were a few moments of silence and we started in on the “What's your major” talk. I was NOT feeling good about this, until for some reason and I cannot remember why, we started talking about cheese. She exclaimed that she LOVED cheese and could survive solely on cheese and potatoes if she had to. OMG me too! From then on, the conversation was GREAT and I quickly realized that this girl was almost the exact same person as me. I was so sad when the skit started, which was a Fashion Show Theme because I wanted to talk to her more. As I left, I realized that this chapter had moved up to my number one.

The Clash: This chapter had us line up outside alphabetically and then we were led inside and seated in several rows of folding chairs where we would watch their skit. It was The Clash Talent Show themed. It was so cute, there was a sister who did a comedy routine around The Clash which I loved and then one routine that took the cake. There were 3 sisters, one playing acoustic guitar and they sang The Indigo Girls song “Closer to Fine” in harmony. I was SO SO impressed. I met Audrey here and told her how impressed I was and that I played guitar too. She thought that was awesome and mentioned that they had quite a few musically talented sisters. After the house tour, she guided me into the TV room where I was introduced to Lauren, the chapter president. We talked and she asked if I had any questions and so I asked her what she thought made The Clash unique among all the other chapters. I think I stumped her because she searched for her words and said something like, “I really don't know anything about the other houses, but I know I joined The Clash because I felt I could most be myself here.” I was hoping my stumping of her wouldn't reflect negatively on me as I left. I was really liking this chapter too!

The Cure: I was met by Ashley here. To my surprise she pretty much already knew everything about me. She said her sisters had all adored me and told her so many great things about me. This kind of creeped me out, but then we started talking about Dawson's Creek and she had me totally enrapt about how she had run into James Van Der Beek in an airport. I was so jealous. Their skit was Studio 54 themed and honestly left a lot to be desired. It seemed like something they had thrown together at the last minute. Everyone I had met here had been SO nice, but it just didn't seem like they had put in the effort that the other chapters had. This chapter was at the bottom of my list, but I wouldn't be totally pissed if I had to come back.

After the last party was over, I raced to my car, changed and got to work just in time. Invite pick ups were the next day but since I had to work, Megan told me to rank 1-5, give the list to my mom, and she would call her to get the ranking if I needed to release anyone. After today, I could say with confidence that my ranking was:

The Smashing Pumpkins
Nirvana
The Clash
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Cure