Because Memory Lane is Chautauqua Avenue Tonight

Tonight I am a substitute House Mother.

The fantastic House Mother at the Alpha Gam house is away at a conference for work tonight, and we have to have an "adult" stay at the house with the collegians each night. I volunteered for the task as I live close and, although I do have a husband to take care of, he is pretty self-sufficient on most fronts. I'm pretty blessed that way.

I enjoy spending time at the Chapter House. It's not about recapturing some lost part of my youth or feeling young again, it's about seeing how things change, yet they stay exactly the same. It's seeing how the experiences that I had in the three incredible years that I lived in this building and among the same kind of women are still happening, both the good and the bad experiences, and shaping the women of the Chapter into the women they will be when they leave that Chapter House and the University and go out into the "real world," although you can't convince me that what you experience in college isn't real :-) I know that I'm not "one of them" anymore and I'm fine with that--I don't expect to be. I know that we share the same core values that make us sisters and that's a bond greater than any age difference. I hope that I can continue to feel this way as I get older, and that the women of the Chapter will continue share their rich lives with me as I get the opportunity to share with them.

As I sit here in the guest room, I can almost feel the same way I did nearly eight years ago when I did live in these rooms. It's easier to stay up late here. It's easier to get distracted from your work and just chat for a while here. I remember the noises--the footsteps outside in the hallway, the sound of people on the stairs coming in from studying or being out, the banter of inside jokes being told down the hall. It seems like yesterday. And while it will be hard to fall asleep here since I can't have a boy in my bed (no boys on the second floor!), the familiarity of this place makes it easier than any hotel I might be in alone. To a degree, it still is my house, in that I feel like I can always go home again.

Although I'd really have to get used to that whole community shower thing again. I have lived by myself for a long time now ;-)