Homecoming Dance '09

Last night I attended Rockhurst's Homecoming dance at Bartle Hall. Before the dance, Res Life treated us to a free dinner at the intercontinental hotel (special thanks to Nicole DeJanes for supplying the names of these establishments). I was excited to try out the new dining etiquette techniques that I mentioned in my last post. Immediately upon arrival the dilemma of how to properly eat our dinner rolls arose and I seized on the opportunity to spread my newly found knowledge with the other members at my table. Throughout the dinner, Res Life raffled off some great prizes. Unfortunately I did not win anything. This seems to be a common trend for raffles here at Rockhurst and there have been several. Don't worry though guys, there will be a post eventually about me winning something. Even if it's just a key chain

I'll.....but I digress.

After the dinner we were bussed to Bartle Hall for the dance. It was at this dance that I met a truly incredible individual. To think that in eighteen years of my life I had been deprived of their presence until last night is truly disconcerting. Last night, for the first time, I was introduced to the chocolate fountain (shown above). I assume that for most people the dancing highlighted their evening. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy attempting to dance as much as the next guy, but the chocolate fountain made my night. I think I'll have at least a half dozen at my wedding. Each with a different kind of molten chocolate rippling in sheets down its sides. Until then I suppose waiting once a year for the annual homecoming dance will suffice.

Dining Etiquette Dinner

Last Tuesday I attended the Dining Etiquette Dinner put on by Career Services. The dinner was a walk through of proper dining etiquette for those who will soon find themselves in a professional setting. Career Services went over basics such as how to properly cut meat, which silverware to use, and how to enter your seat as well as minute details including how to correctly eat a roll, proper topics of conversation, and how to fold your napkin. The presentation was well done and I found it to be informative.


I learned many things from the dinner, one of the most important being that your neck and back will be sore afterwards if you properly dine from the rigorous posture mandated. I also found myself much more self conscious of my actions at the table. This resulted in a somewhat tense and nervous dining experience. Granted I enjoy getting dressed up for the occasion and acting professional, but having to sacrifice a potentially fun outing by focusing entirely on a set of specifications doesn't completely agree with me. Perhaps after enough practice I could learn to enjoy myself more in that kind of environment.

Mass of the Holy Spirit

Today Rockhurst celebrated the "Mass of the Holy Spirit." This is a traditional mass held each year as a way to kick off the school year. Fr. Curran led the congregation of students and locals who wished to attend as we prayed for both students and teachers in this scholastic year. My favorite part of the mass was getting the chance to listen to the choir. I took part in concert choir my junior year of high school and it brought back the memories. Maybe i'll join next semester....definitely not this one though. I could bore you guys with stories about my homework, how WebCT and webassign are currently down, and how the printer in the computer lab doesn't care that the review on calcium and the heart is due tomorrow. I guess that is what I signed up for when I picked out my classes this semester. I complain about them sometimes but I really do enjoy a challenging curriculum. Yes for those of you reading this I do like school and I am not one of those people who dread going to class each morning. And somehow I just got way off topic.........I apologize for the lack of coherence in this article but I'm not really focused right now. So in conclusion, (an extra apology to all the English majors out there for my atrocious use of this cliche to end my post), the Mass of the Holy Spirit was enjoyable and the technical difficulties of trying to do homework is not so enjoyable.

Fruit Smoothies

Today after a long morning of Biology, Calculus II, and Chemistry, I decided that the best way of celebrating surviving the morning was to enjoy one of the amazing smoothies our cafeteria offers. This might not seem like a major deal to someone who has not experienced the magic of a Sodexo smoothie, but I can assure anyone that it is. Let me begin by explaining just how these smoothies are made. You walk up to the smoothie counter and choose any combination of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, bananas, blackberries, to be blended with either milk, orange juice, yogurt, or cranberry juice. Many smoothies at commercial chains add processed, sugary additives to sweeten their smoothies. Not in the Rockhurst cafeteria! Knowing that I can have a natural, flavorful, unadulterated, unprocessed fruit drink at lunch is the main reason that I have such an obsession with these smoothies. I can certainly see myself getting tired of most cafeteria foods that are offered every day but fruit smoothies are not one of them.

I would like to give a special thanks to Kim Patterson for inspiring me to write my latest blog entry about smoothies today. Without her encouragement this blog entry would probably never have happened.

Frosh Get-A-Way

Last weekend I attended Frosh Get-A-Way, a retreat put on by the school for incoming freshman. We left on Friday afternoon in three buses destined for the Tall Oaks retreat center in Kansas. Once there we were organized into groups that we stayed with throughout the retreat. My group was dubbed the "flaming ice cubes" and we fearlessly led by Jacie, an awesome upperclassmen who helped us to acclimate to each other during the first few awkward hours. All the retreatants participated in several icebreakers to get us acquainted with each other Friday evening then we ate dinner, went to prayer service, and afterwards had a bonfire. I spent the night will all the other male retreatants and male leaders in the Delaware cabin. We awoke the next morning at 7:00 to Fred (one of the several awesome leaders besides Jacie) banging something metal against a table to get us out of bed. I would also like to note that our cabin had been air conditioning the entire night and it felt about 43 degrees getting out of bed.

Saturday centered around a low ropes course. Pictured below is our group for the course plus Bill from campus ministry (center) whose last name I will not even attempt to spell. The course consisted of many small challenging activities that required teamwork and cooperation to complete. My favorite was a fourteen foot high wall that our entire group had to get over. Bill was most impressive in the "human spider web" which required bodily contortions and the optional rolling up of shorts for increased agility. Our group passed all of the obstacles with flying colors.

On Sunday we had our final prayer service after a sumptuous breakfast provided by the Tall Oaks staff. I would like to give a special shout out to them for their home cooking all weekend. The retreat was a great experience and I hope to come back as a leader next year. After about a half hour of pictures we had our last group meeting and packed back onto the buses. By this time I was entirely exhausted and managed to sleep the entire ride home.