Our five-year "block" Grinnell Reunion

We were to be housed on Norris second. (the wrong end of the hall, according to Bill). Very close to being Josh Trost's old room, but not quite. Right away when we walked into the courtyard in front of norris we encountered Jason and Renee and family, along with Amanda O'connor, hanging out there. We dumped our stuff in the room (and I ordered a second pillow and set of sheets, not really liking nostalgia enough to want to share a single twin bed for the night) and we went down to hang with Jason and gang for a bit. Amanda and I wandered off to check out the "Grinnell Planning and Building" meeting, which had been canceled. Then we headed down to fine arts, saw the art show, dropped in on Roberts and the office. I wrote a note to Pip Gordon, who was away that weekend.

We rejoined the others at the picnic on Mac field. The cheesy potatos were good, said Bill, so I got him extra. Peer was there, and while I was sitting down I saw Jon Shearer and then Donna at the same table, and that was too much: I had to go attack Donna. I got a big hug from Donna and finally got to meet her wife, Debbie. They seem pretty well suited for each other, and Debbie is a pleasure to be around. I also ran into Thad Lesiak and his girlfriend (Kate?) around that time. Thad is doing Social work in Minneapolis - no surprise, I said. The picnic was made slightly surreal by the cottonwood cotton floating down on the tables, the food, all of us. It was like snow. A little extra fiber, I said.

After the picnic Bill and I headed over to catch the second half of the Grant Gale Memorium in the Science Building Courtyard. After that was over we wandered through the building over to math and found our way into the Mathlan. Jordan and Dave found us there. JD wasn't in but Henry Walker was. While I poked around online, Walker talked to the others about how the current incoming students are different from how we were.

There was a band concert at Harris, so we hung around in the lounge where Bill and Jordan played table tennis and Donna and Debbie and then Keith and I played pool. Jeremy Sheely was there and I guess played a song but I missed it since I wasn't generally in the room with the bands. Free Pizza arrived and I took it upon myself to organize it, which I'm not sure was a help. Julia Tauber was around. it was good to see her. She's getting married in July - I think to Heather? It's amazing how many alumni decide to hook up later.

Later on Friday there was some juggling distinctly not happening. Jonathon had his fire poi - Jordan and Donna each took a turn getting their arms singed. I was in a dress and didn't want to risk hitting it, but I'd like to dance with fire sometime. I got some pictures, one with jonathon (see top of page) and two with Gnat Hopkins.

Saturday we met up with Jason and Renee and some others at breakfast, went over to the bookstore to hang out and shop, played frisbee, had lunch in boxes in a cottonwood haze again. That dose of cotton was conveniently scheduled right before our class pictures, at which I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen before that. Said hi to Liz Dillon, my freshman year roomate, and a couple of guys who lived upstairs from us that year. Lots of people are married. Jeremy Giltner is married. That weirded me out for some reason. Ran into Aaron Fate on Saturday, and Josh Trost, and Chris Graver. I couldn't remember Aaron's name right away and had to ask Donna later.

In the late afternoon a group of us went looking for JD Stone and/or a way to get into Mathlan. We found JD in the forum and pretty soon the assembled group (including Barton and girlfriend, as well as Vicky, Dave, Keith, Jordan, Jeremy Sheeley and a friend of his whose name I blanked on, and myself and Bill) was large enough Barton made a motion to adjourn to someplace quieter. We switched to the Coffeehouse, which is really just another space in the forum with a large table, and JD held forth for a couple hours leading a discussion on Tutorial design and the current state of computer science education. At one point I went for a walk in order to see if Dan and Laura Juliano were about and while I was out I grabbed my camera from the room.

Then at 6 pm they had a reception and official social hour for our block out in front of Harris. Wine and Cheese sort of thing. I tried not to fill up.

Dinner was a fancy affair (one needed tickets!) that took a little too long to serve, but was tasty. We sat at a table with Keith, Peer, Jordan, Dave, and Donna and Debbie. I also saw Tim Corkery there, and stopped by his table to say hi to Brandi Agerbeck. She tells me she's using the same skills she used in our Tutorial. Who would have thunk it?

Chris Freeman came by to deliver Laura's cell phone to us at dinner and we used it after dinner to guide us to Laura and Dan and Curtis and Chris, who were eating at the Station Restaurant. They came back to campus with us and we played nighttime frisbee and one way or another stayed up late enough we went to try a bakery run but the bakery was closed as I guess it usually is saturday nights? I am not wise in the way of bakery runs. This is the closest I've ever gotten to going on one. We said farewell to that particular Iowa crew and went to bed.

Sunday morning we had just enough time to catch breakfast at Quad (back table of course) before heading back East toward home. It was great to see everyone.