Homecoming Weekend 2005 Part 2
And to continue the Homecoming weekend, here's part 2!
Saturday
We all started stirring about 11am (when the parade was supposed to start). After showers and such, we decided to go grab breakfast/lunch at the newly built Cracker Barrel. It's amazing how much the city has grown (I forgot to mention that there's now a Radio Shack, Merle Norman, and a 24 hour Taco Bell), so we hit there and had a delicious meal. Soon after, Kathleen headed off to do her thing while Brittainy and I went to the annual Black Music Ensemble's (BME) Homecoming concert. It's a tradition for me (especially since I was a member) and Brittainy was also a fan. It's always a great time with some great gospel music that I still cherish to this day. The concert was very well done and the new robes look fantastic. There were two low points though: 1) In honor of the 150th anniversary, BME invited the Hairston sisters, 6 sisters who all graduated from Berea and two of whom started the original BME back in 1970. Although historically a wonderful moment, the song selections they chose to sing were not (which is not to say that they lacked in quality). They gave great testimonials though about the trials the BME originally went through and how their parents sacrificed so much so they could go to college (their mother just retired in 2002). 2) For one of their groups faster-paced songs, the soloist Zack's (a young, hyped-up white kid who everyone in the group applauded when he came down) microphone fritzed out. After frantically trying all the microphones and finding none of them working at all (I still don't know what happened), he had to sing his solo over the claps and voices of the choir unsuccessfully. I felt bad for him as it sucks when technology fails.
After the concert, Brittainy ran off to meet Kathleen at the aforementioned Papaleno's. I made my way over to the BME reception and ran into several people I remember from my days at Berea, including Arianna, a spunky little (about 5' tall) black girl with attitude to spare. She was another of my best friends my final years at Berea and I had lost contact with her about a year ago. She's gone full-circle, now working for the Admissions office of Berea College and soon to be attending grad school at UK. We had a brief conversation and exchanged numbers. We'll see if we stay in contact. I left that reception and went to the Young Alumni's "tailgate" party near the gym (our homecoming is basketball as Berea doesn't have a football team). I met Shawn over there and we walked around, running into people we knew and such. We walked around the campus again (I can never stop doing that) and finally went back to the hotel to rest before the festivities of the evening. Kathleen and Brittainy were already there. We basically did more talking and were also waiting on Robbie who was coming down to go with us to Lexington. Yes, we were ditching the annual Homecoming dance (because it's usually either too crowded/too hot to do anything) to head out to the Bar Complex in Lexington. We did head back to campus about 9pm to hit the Alumni dessert reception, which was fun. I dragged Arianna from her apartment to come out for a little while as well. Robbie arrived about 10:30pm and we left the reception much later than some of us wanted to. We wrangled Robbie and made our way up to Lexington, Shawn leading the way.
Saturday evening's fun in Lexington coming soon. One hint: Bitch. That is all... ;-)
Saturday
We all started stirring about 11am (when the parade was supposed to start). After showers and such, we decided to go grab breakfast/lunch at the newly built Cracker Barrel. It's amazing how much the city has grown (I forgot to mention that there's now a Radio Shack, Merle Norman, and a 24 hour Taco Bell), so we hit there and had a delicious meal. Soon after, Kathleen headed off to do her thing while Brittainy and I went to the annual Black Music Ensemble's (BME) Homecoming concert. It's a tradition for me (especially since I was a member) and Brittainy was also a fan. It's always a great time with some great gospel music that I still cherish to this day. The concert was very well done and the new robes look fantastic. There were two low points though: 1) In honor of the 150th anniversary, BME invited the Hairston sisters, 6 sisters who all graduated from Berea and two of whom started the original BME back in 1970. Although historically a wonderful moment, the song selections they chose to sing were not (which is not to say that they lacked in quality). They gave great testimonials though about the trials the BME originally went through and how their parents sacrificed so much so they could go to college (their mother just retired in 2002). 2) For one of their groups faster-paced songs, the soloist Zack's (a young, hyped-up white kid who everyone in the group applauded when he came down) microphone fritzed out. After frantically trying all the microphones and finding none of them working at all (I still don't know what happened), he had to sing his solo over the claps and voices of the choir unsuccessfully. I felt bad for him as it sucks when technology fails.
After the concert, Brittainy ran off to meet Kathleen at the aforementioned Papaleno's. I made my way over to the BME reception and ran into several people I remember from my days at Berea, including Arianna, a spunky little (about 5' tall) black girl with attitude to spare. She was another of my best friends my final years at Berea and I had lost contact with her about a year ago. She's gone full-circle, now working for the Admissions office of Berea College and soon to be attending grad school at UK. We had a brief conversation and exchanged numbers. We'll see if we stay in contact. I left that reception and went to the Young Alumni's "tailgate" party near the gym (our homecoming is basketball as Berea doesn't have a football team). I met Shawn over there and we walked around, running into people we knew and such. We walked around the campus again (I can never stop doing that) and finally went back to the hotel to rest before the festivities of the evening. Kathleen and Brittainy were already there. We basically did more talking and were also waiting on Robbie who was coming down to go with us to Lexington. Yes, we were ditching the annual Homecoming dance (because it's usually either too crowded/too hot to do anything) to head out to the Bar Complex in Lexington. We did head back to campus about 9pm to hit the Alumni dessert reception, which was fun. I dragged Arianna from her apartment to come out for a little while as well. Robbie arrived about 10:30pm and we left the reception much later than some of us wanted to. We wrangled Robbie and made our way up to Lexington, Shawn leading the way.
Saturday evening's fun in Lexington coming soon. One hint: Bitch. That is all... ;-)