This one time, at Bates College...

The unintentional theme of this weekend has been revisiting my past.  I started out by running a marathon put on by the ski resort where I used to work.  Then I ended up, completely by accident, at the lake where I attended a wedding last summer.  Today, I took a look at my alma mater, Bates College.

Roger Williams Hall a.k.a "The Bill"

That was the dorm where I spent my freshman year.  I lived with a zany group of guys down in the basement.  Because the dorm was labeled chem-free (drugs, alcohol, and tobacco were strictly verboten), we came up with other ways to have fun.  We hosted a yoghurt wrestling tournament.  We played pranks on our junior advisor.  We cited maritime law as reason for hanging laundry from the ceiling in the hallway when we deemed it had been left unattended for too long.  Yes, some improbably good times were had in that basement.

Now it's all classrooms.  The exterior remains the same, but the building has been gutted to the core and rendered an academic building for foreign languages (at least somewhat appropriate, given my current profession).  I can't tell you how alarming it was to descend the main steps and find an elevator where my room used to be.

I continued to wander around campus, taking note of the new buildings and renovated old ones.  Much has changed in the eight years since I was last on campus.  I was happy to note, however, that my favorite place had not changed at all:

WRBC 91.5 FM studio

I was a bonafide radio geek of the highest order while in college.  In addition to my own show, called "Mainstream Commercial Nihilism" (bonus points if you catch the reference), I served as programming director my sophomore year, went to all the general meetings, hosted the all-night Trivia Night my senior year, and subbed for other people's shows whenever I could.  I loved that tiny, cramped studio in the basement of the Office of Career Services, and I love that it is still crammed with posters of bands no one has ever heard of and stuffed to the rafters with old CD's and records, just the way I left it when I graduated in 2003.

Following Bates, the last thing on my list was to get lobster, preferably from somewhere on the water.  I ended up in Bath at a restaurant with outdoor seating by the Kennebec River.  I ordered myself a Shipyard Export draught, a giant lobster, cracked open a book, and truly relaxed.

It doesn't get much better than this