Aggieland Lives On... At Least in My Memory

Apparently you can't ever go home. Or back to college 20 years after you were there.

Ouch. That number really hurts. It's not quiiiiiiiiiiiite that long since graduation, but still.

We took Son the Older to College Station, home of the Fightin' Texas Aggies, today. And I forgot my camera. Bad blogger! So my only pics are from Son's camera phone, and for some reason they have an odd frame around them. Don't know why, and can't get rid of it. Bear with me in my inadequacy, please.

Shortly after arriving, we decided we were hungry. Rather than getting a yummy off-campus lunch (original Freebird's, anyone?), we elected, at Son's request, to show him what he was in for in the finest dining hall anywhere. Yep, we ate at Sbisa. Here's my lunch:

Mmmmm, can't you just feel that starchy goodness clogging up your arteries? Fortunately, we proceeded to walk 18.3 miles, so I feel no guilt about my chicken fried steak and mashed taters. With cream gravy. And there's not even a picture of the ice cream bar I had for dessert.

We wandered around, visited the engineering building, talked to my hubby's old advisor, saw all our fine dormitory choices, visited the financial aid office, where we found out that to get a good scholarship you must apply before you're actually born, and then before we left, we had to go and see the bonfire monument for ourselves.

Now, hubby and I were out of the country when this catastrophe occurred. I've been out of the country precisely once since my birth (which occurred out of the country owing to the draft), and the news of the bonfire disaster was big enough that we heard about it in Spain. I don't go back to campus frequently (or pretty much ever), so I hadn't seen the monument. And they held bonfire in a different field back in the day when I was there. But still, that place is powerful.

This is a picture of the very center of the memorial, where the center pole would have gone. There are coins all over it, which I'm not sure I understand -- is it because there is no fountain to make good wishes into? Anyway.

And here is a pic of hubby and son, with part of the memorial behind them. No, you can't tell they're related. Not at all.

Most bloggable thing from today? Overheard snippet of cell coversation from college student walking the other way on the sidewalk in front of the Academic Building: "So now you think you can read God's mind?" Great one-liner... cracked us all up. But who among us has not been there?

Shortly before we left, we went to the MSC (that's Memorial Student Center, or the student union building for you non-Aggies). I just had to buy a roll from the cafe -- they're pretty much the best in the universe, in my memory. While they didn't have the buttery sheen I remembered, the roll I bought today was still quite yummy. My men agreed. It was at this point that my ever-observant son pointed out, after having listened to the reminiscing of his parents all the livelong day, "This trip was really just so you guys could take a trip down memory lane, wasn't it?"

Maybe, son. Maybe. You got a problem with that?