Hey! You remember when...

It seems all the computer work I've been doing at work has worn my immune system down to the point of allowing illness to succeed in the germ war. As such, I am not at work today. And I didn't plan on writing anything today do to the fact that I feel much less than OK, but my friends have given me a good idea for a post, and as such since I have lots of time on my hands today, I mustered the strength to pull myself into the computer chair and start tapping away.

Some of you may follow my facebook page, and if you check there recently, you will see that I posted a status update about college life. A few days ago, myself and a lady (I couldn't resist that little barb Heather) down at work were reminiscing about college life. Those blissful years where you didn't have much responsibility, not a whole lot of bills, and you basically slacked off when not in the classroom. For me, weekends involved lots of fishing and hunting, hanging out with friends, and not having a care in the world.

So, I posted that and the responses have triggered some pretty good memories. For those that were not part of the Bemidji Crew, I will elaborate on some of those posted memories, and share a few of my own that weren't mentioned. Let's take a trip down memory lane:

Fishing whenever you want: Indeed. It seemed whenever there was down time, a group of us was on the water in Danno's boat. We hardly ever did anything worth bragging about with regard to stringers of fish, but we had a good time, we were never in any rush to get back, and would kind of just putz around one of the 50 or so lakes within 10 miles of our location for the afternoon. Thanks Hilson!

Like the time we skipped Chemistry to build a snowman: I don't know for certain how this one came to be, but if I remember it correctly, I was walking out of the dorm with my backpack ready to go to Chem when I came upon Anna not armed with a backpack but clothed in snow proof clothing and working on a half assed snowman. The snow was that slurshy wet nasty snow, but enough to create something small. I asked what she was doing, she replied about the snowman creating, and I dropped my backpack and started in. That was a good time, and I wish I could do more of that type of thing (dropping everything and screwing around for an hour or two) now a days. Thanks Anna!

How about putting things in my hand to see if they fall out: College involved booze. And like most people, our social engagements had lots of that involved. Most of the time we were controlled and social drinkers. A few times we got carried away. We had this one gal that was always fun to be around, however she made you laugh a little harder when she had a few. When she got tipsy, just like the heading for this paragraph says, we would put something in her hand and see how long it would stay there. Trust me, it doesn't sound all that funny written out here, but it was hilarious if you saw it in person. Things weren't the same when you left BSU Bridget. Thanks for the memory!

Sledding behind Danno's van: Doesn't take much of an explanation. It's exactly what it sounds like. We were all staying at a friend's parents place away from Bemidji. It was in the country, which as you would expect had country dirt roads with little to no traffic, it was winter, and we had sleds. Pretty much everyone took a rock in the eye that night, and the plastic red sleds were shredded, but it was good fun. That weekend also involved another Danno getting the van stuck pulling out of the driveway. But I'll save him the embarrassment. Thanks Mark!

Or that time Chad broke his finger: I wasn't there to personally witness it, but the story is legendary amongst the crew. A group was walking back from a track house party and decided to take a short cut across the soccer fields. It snows a lot up in Bemidji, and the soccer fields were where they would dump the snow from the parking lots when they plowed. Needless to say, there would be mountains of snow in that field. So, they are cutting across the field and over said mountains, Chad stumbles, gets up, and shows everyone there that his index finger is normal until the first joint, and then the rest of the finger points almost straight up. People gasp, and he grabs his finger and sets it back in place. Yes, booze was involved in that as well. And yes, his finger was quite sore and swollen for the next couple of days. Thanks Kelly!

I'll list a few more of my favorite college memories below, but will save explanation for another day (note that these are in no particular order):

-Sitting in Danno's boat in front of the green house.
-Johnny Holm concerts
-Inn Burgers
-L&M Fleet Store
-Headbanging with Kelly
-15th street
-The Muskie
-Danno and Chad's rap battle
-Homecoming
-Mario Cart

Share some of your favorite college memories in the comment section below. And then get back to work you slacker.

P.S. Elli has taken offense to the fact that she is not on this list. I am pointing out that I intended the list to just be about the Bemidji Crew, and she was part of the University of WI-Madison regime. I will say that throughout college, the summers and breaks that I got to spend time with her trump all other aspects of that time. Well maybe not the outing where Danno's muskie was caught. Come on now, that was a big fish!