Mi Vida Loca!

Down Memory Lane

So much has changed at good ole HPU since I was a student there. I perfected parallel parking my truck on Center street in front of the dorms. Now Center street is closed off at both ends of campus by pretty gates and there is a strip of trees/foliage all the way down the middle. I assume they open the gates on move-in day because otherwise it would be a PAIN to move into the dorm. But other than that, the street is closed to traffic. I must admit, its much quieter and nicer but still, so different! Now there are benches and street lamps, sand volleyball courts, plants and more pretty decorative stuff around campus. And the dorm! OMG Veda is not the same! Now its carpeted - granted its that thin cheap carpet with no padding, but hey its not bad! We used to get carpet pieces for our rooms so that we weren't freezing our feet. And there are snack/soda machines in the laundry room now. That was bare before! Its so nice now - like a little lounge! There are a few things that haven't changed though. It still smells the same. I can't explain what it smells like, but its the same. The doors are the same and the elevator.... still scary! That thing always creeped me out - I usually took the stairs instead! Its still small and slow and creaky. But the stairwell shrunk. I'm serious! It really felt smaller! Somehow I just don't remember it being that narrow and chlosterphobic. The cafeteria is totally improved now - pretty booths and nice tables and a big open buffet style food center. I didn't see the waffle machine - poor thing. We lived off of cereal and waffles in my day. Now there are internet kiosks there too! You can check email or surf the net in Mabee. Fambroughs now has Starbucks. Its a good thing they didn't have that when I was there. OMG I would have spent SOOOOOOO much money! I'm sure they are making a killing. If they charged just $.05 more on everything I'm sure they'd make a nice profit. I don't think they are doinng that but who knows? So many changes - its a great campus now. But Mims Auditorium is still the same. Someday I'm sure that will change and they will replace the hard old wooden seats with nice soft ones and they'll fix the ceiling where there are tons of water stains........ but I'll miss it when its gone. Lot of fun times in Mims - Spring Sing, concerts, Chapel (7 semesters for me!) movie nights, etc. I saw Matt and Holly get engaged there. I saw lots of good speakers there on stage. Many performances and announcements.... and thats where I first heard Dr Newberry tell his story of "The Smallest Jingle Bell". For those of you who are clueless, Newberry was really cool. He was President my freshman year but then moved to Chancellor my sophomore year and then he was gone. I missed out on having him there the whole time, serving popcorn on his porch. But if you have any interest at all, he's done a lot of writing since his HPU days and he's great at it! Dr Don Newberry- just google him! To hear him tell the Jingle Bell story is classic. He's like Paul Harvey!

The funniest thing about Brownwood this weekend was what I have dubbed Starbell. There is little room for new construction in Brownwood, and so Starbucks moved into what was previously the Taco Bell. Same structure - so now the Starbucks sign fits into the "bell" that used to be Taco Bell! I have a picture that I'll post later. But it was hilarious. Great idea though - its a HUGE Starbucks and now they are advertising that they'd like musical entertainment for the weekends. I wish I could be there for that!

I'd love to go back to college. Back to where I didn't have to work (yes I was spoiled and I had a college fund), where I stayed up all hours of the night (because I could) and I had tons of friends to hang out with. I loved my professors, even though I didn't always like classes. I had so many great experiences in college and I would never trade a single day. . . .

posted by Jan @ 12:05 PM