[no ball or chain, no prison shall keep]

[minervacat]

the bulk of sorority rush started last night, which is sort of disconcerting. hundreds of undergrads running around campus and franklin street in little black dresses. i'm not anti-sorority, i never have been, but i don't think i would have been happy in one and i'm glad i didn't do my undergrad somewhere like carolina where it is a massive part

Comments

[throughadoor]

did i tell you that, uh, last week i was watching nesn (new england sports network, local basic cable, shows most of the sox home games) sports desk and they were doing highlights from the day's games and the ONLY highlight they showed from the cubs game was thanks beautiful making a chokingly awful fielding error? i was like, oh, boston, we forgive but we don't forget.

P.S. PLS KEEP ME FROM JUMPING OFF A LEDGE RE: THE B.BONDS SITUATION.

[minervacat]

he has made a lot of those lately. i mean, thanks beautiful makes a-rod look like god over there at third. it's just bad, kel., it's BAD. ugh.

p.s. b.bonds will be back and it will be good and it's sort of the opposite of kerry wood having surgery last week, see. it means the giants haven't given up yet. whereas the cubs totally have. you need a glass of water over there?

you know what, though? the nl west is seriously pathetic. i mean, my cat could win the nl west this year. oy.

[throughadoor]

will b.bonds be the second coming of jason giambi? inquiring minds want to know. also, this is my feeling on the nl west -- i need them to get within four games of the dodgers before i will allow myself to truly hope. because the yankees are within four games of the sox and i worry about the yankees catching up to us ALL THE TIME.

also, i don't think i realized how pathetic the nl west was until i was looking at the nl wild card race. the giants are five games away from the padres for the division, but they're 10.5 games out of the wild card spot. seriously, the cubs are fourth in the nl central and they'd still beat the giants for the wild card. that's how pathetic the nl west is.

[minervacat]

re: the patheticness of the nl west. last week? the padres were leading the division with a record UNDER .500. i just. in the sense that i can't even. can we send them ALL to triple-a?

re: b.bonds as related to j.giambi. i have to think on that. i'm going to go off to my cataloging class and do just that.

[tinpanalley]

Sororities are a crazy business. I remember within two minutes of my Freshman year, I had been asked if I was going to rush by five girls!

I've never been the Sorority type, but I did join a co-ed service fraternity!

[minervacat]

sororities are crazy, but not necessarily bad. i hate to think that it's a default setting on this campus, though, like it seems to be sometimes.

[cindyjade]

hi min min min!

[minervacat]

HI HELLO LIZZIES HI.

[xayide79]

Rush week is a strange and bizarre thing. At FSU, some frat gets sanctioned just about every year for trying to kill hazing its pledges. Not to mention the misery and stress of some of the kids who are just doing this because it's what think they are supposed to do, along with the binge drinking.

OTOH I know that if I had gone to Emory, I would have rushed because I wanted to be in a sorority step group.

[minervacat]

hey, my sister was in a sorority! she was a chi omega. it's not all bad, it's just WEIRD. you know. because, you know, nothing comparable at carleton. not even the theater department, no matter how much anyone accused us of it.

[xayide79]

Just about every person of any stature in Tallahassee was in a fraternity or sorority and are still active in it. In some ways, that's cool and in other ways, it really bothers me.

I consciously know that it goes beyond the keggers, file cabinets with old tests, and old ids that are passed down from person to person so they can be confiscated by the police at a club door.

The pride of the black frats and sororities in particular is impressive to me and I kind of wish I had that.

And then I think about the pledge fees and the group thing and having a formal process to get people to accept you into a social club and I think I was better off.

Except for the stepping. Coming out of high school, that was the coolest part.

[bantha_fodder]

aside from the stuff about due south, i have NO IDEA what is going on in this entry. i know what a sorority is, but that's about it. rush week? compulsory sororities? black dresses?

the cultural gap IS HUGE.

[minervacat]

oh, not compulsory sororities, it's still a thing you choose to do, but sororities are really a huge part of southern university culture - at least at the big schools, the state universities - and it seems to me like a lot of girls join sororities because their mothers or grandmothers or whatever expect them to. it's ... complicated. hard to explain if you're not used to the idea.

[xayide79]

Some of the black frats and sororites have junior chapters so they can get middle school and high school kids involved. The ones in my town are really good mentorship and leadership oriented programs.

[minervacat]

see, that? that's awesome. i guess i just don't see enough of that in the rush stuff i see. i mean, i'm hardly speaking from experience here - i never rushed. i suppose i should not be so quick to judge.