Hi All! Somehow, "going to the beach" conjurs up thoughts of sun, the smell of suntan lotion, the feel of aloe after a sunburn, a gentle breeze and a light salty smell and feel to the air. Unfort., this trip to VA beach was cold, rainy, and I think there was an ocean somewhere around. :) Gotta love mother nature!

The weekend was a little odd. My Head Athletic Trainer from college was wonderfully nice to me (not that he was ever mean, but sometimes I was sure I just blended in with what was around me) and my former Asst. Trainer from Greensboro was there and it is always nice to see him. There were some alumni present, and I got to spend the weekend with Meg, the other GA with me at UNCG.

It's always a little disconcerting when things change. I'm not sure if more is changing around me, or if I'm just more cognizant of it (and it might be a little of both). There were 3 alum present this weekend who really threw me into a tizzy. I'm not sure if any of you remember me ever talking about Jeff Boyer, Tom Morgan and Craig Yingling. I met Craig my Junior year in High School. He came to Cherokee with Rusty for a weekend (and to work a football game I believe). It was nice once I got to Salisbury to occasionally see a familiar face (Craig was doing his internship at Cambridge at the time). I met Jeff through Wayne, and although I met Tom this way as well, I was probably closer with Jeff. I have some great memories with each of these guys; nights out drinking, talks about girlfriends and boyfriends (mine, not theirs), training classes and learning techniques, funny (and sometimes risque) pneumonic devices and our famous "study sessions" which somehow always involved "trainer talk", but usually involved way more alcohol, games, or movies!

So, what threw me for a loop? They're all married. Laura, Tom's wife, lived on my floor in Choptank my Freshman year at SSU. I met Jeff's wife when I traveled to ECU for a softball tournament and she was the host certified. I still have yet to meet Craig's wife, although she was there and I saw her. I really like Laura and Amy (Jeff's wife). They are wonderful people and I couldn't have picked a better match for eithe rof these guys, but they are married. The guys I used to drink with, hang out with, be "in college" with are now "those married people". :)

The first night wasn't so bad. We had an Alumni Party and I got to play catch up with husbands and wives alike. Then the current SU students (No, not a mistype....they dropped the "State" after we left) whisked us alum into special seats while they presented their required skits. We laughed, threw out inside joke one-liners in the midst of their presentation, we reminesced and for a moment it was like old times. Then the clock struck twelve and we had to go. The current Grad Assistant's at SU and some of the senior students were headed out to hit the local hotspots in VA Beach. We all passed. It was late, we were tired...off to bed we went.

The second night was the Director's Reception. Most of my fondest memories of convention come from this night. There were the volleyball games in the hot sun, the country two-steps on the dance floor, the seniors playing bartender to the "youngsters", the descending on the hotel bar after the reception ended, but we didn't want to have to part as a group, so of age and under age headed to the bar, singing kareoke and dancing up a storm until the bar kicked us out. Ah, the good ol' days. I was so excited about the reception. Meg and James had never been to a District convention and I was so excited to act as their "host". However, life had different plans. the Alumni "table" was all married couples. Those who were not married were off mingling with their Grad School alum and students. Eventually, I looked around and all the marrieds were in a huddle standing next to the dance floor, having a drink and talking about married people stuff I guess. :) After my one drink, I looked at Meg and we opted for the hotel room, jammies, and t.v. It just wasn't the same.

I was speaking with Chris, an Alum from 1994 later. I asked her if it was the push the board was making to make convention more family oriented, or us. She (a nice 7 mo. pregnant) said it must be us. She conjured up some memories she had of conventions of yore as we looked around the room. We talked about a mutual current student we knew who had interviewed me a few months into her freshman year, and who was one of Chris' students at her High School job post-SSU. Ashley, the student, is headed in the fall to Chapel Hill for a GA position. A silence fell and we looked over at Chris' husband who was engaged in a conversation with a young man. As they finished, Bruce sat down and when asked how he knew (anyone at convention) him, he replied "I taught him in High School. Man, I feel old." "Welcome to the table, Bruce." I replied. They laughed and then excused themselves for bed.

Growing up, I could never wait to be 25. I had visions of a nice car, my own apartment, cute little boyfriend, and happy hour and dinners with girlfriends and their cute little boyfriends. (Even though I didn't exactly know what a happy hour was, I knew that grown ups all "met for drinks", so I was gonna do that too when I grew up!) Well, 25 came and went. Had a car (nice...yeah...but not what I'd envisioned), an apartment with a roommate, did happy hour, only thing missing was the cute little boyfriend (well, at 25 I had Neil, but boyfriend he wasn't). Now 27 is fastly approaching and I have a car (which is currently the family one and fast approaching 100,000 miles and FAR from the convertible BMW I was supposed to have at 25!), live in a house with the same 4 people I've lived with most of my life, think happy hour is a waste of an hour - with all the drunk people, smokey air, and loud people/music, not to mention being bumped into, having drinks spilled over you, and generally feeling like a turkey at Thanksgiving! :)

So, when did I go from too young to too old? 27 isn't OLD, according to most people; And even I would have to agree to some extent. I Don't feel we should be getting marriage, having kids, and the other daily hassles of "adult" life. We're still too young. But, I don't feel like I should be hanging out in bars, picking up phone numbers, and drinking into oblivion. Where's the medium? Where's the great image I had of the post-21/pre-30 stage of life?

All I know is I came back from VA Beach feeling old. Too old to hangout with the drunken students dancing on the floor - making THEIR VA Beach convention memories, and too young (or too old b/c I'm not) to be hanging out with the "marrieds" sipping drinks and talking about whatever occurs in their circle. Maybe someday I'll find out. But, probably by that time, I'll be too old to be talking newlywed and too young to be talking kindergarten. :)