Collegiate onslaught

Many months ago, the Yale Alumni Association sent out a call for alums to host a small group of students participating in an internship program in Denver. As part of the program, the students would have a number of weekend excursions. Given that we live in a 'destination community,' the Roaring Fork Valley alums, in particular, were contacted to serve as hosts. The hubby, as a dutiful socialite, responded affirmatively.

Weeks passed. There were no details or background or anything regarding what was to happen next. Then, two days before the events was to occur we find out that we would be hosting 23 college students and their adult chaparones for a BBQ and spending the night. Ah-hem. 23?! Where were the other alums? The Aspenites who had a big mansions and sprawling properties and who were clammering to host and front the bill? Nowhere. No one else had responded.

FUCKERS.

Anxiety overload.

It is now twenty-four hours before the kids are to arrive and the details have finally been clarified. I stumble around Costco, piling food into the cart. At home, we work to 'proof' the house. My previously-held standards related to Yale as an upstanding institution are crumbling. For an institution that prides inself on being so prestigous, how can it fail so greatly in the area of basic planning and communication? I look glumly at my Hubby. This. Is. Not. Fun.

By 6pm on Saturday we have 23 people, none of whom I have even met, strolling around our house. I tried to put myself in their shoes. If I was a junior in college and out on a weekend excursion that involved staying at someone's house I don't know, what would I do? Hmmmm. Well, I wouldn't think about them at all and would just want to hang out and have a good time. With this realization, I poured a can of beer into my Dixie cup and proceeded to become a fly in the wall.

The jocks, the geeks and the loners were all there. The kids would cluster and then dissipate and then cluster again (kinda like the chickens, actually). What defined them all was an intense, inward energy. They were filled with the focus and excitement of being in college. The rest of the world, particularly if it didn't relate to them, appeared to not exist. They did, however, to be seriously lacking in my own personal collegiate abilities including partying too much and making out (I did hear a reference to having sex in the shower which made me feel slightly better...?). They discussed previous courses, gabbed about movies, life on campus and future jobs, courses and plans. Ah, the role of the fly.

The house did not burn down. I survived. (Okay. I barely slept at all). The toliet, however, did clog and there were some interesting cigarette butts...The hubby and I were commended for being "so brave" to host everyone. Brave, my ass, how about cornered?

And so the weekend goes...