frattin' is a habit

Brian and I just spent an absurd amount of money on two plane tickets to Jackson, Mississippi and – even though my bank account weeps – I could not be happier. I love Boston and really feel like this is our home now, but Jackson the first home I knew as an adult and it’s the place I met nearly all of my best friends and I haven’t seen it since May and I CAN’T WAIT.

We are heading back in a few weeks for his fraternity's Founder's Day weekend, which means we will spend two days wearing jorts (a delicious feeling that will be after this long and snowy New England winter), drinking beers, eating crawfish and generally reliving college.

this will be in my tummy so soon

Brian’s fraternity has a special place in my heart because during my junior year, they made me one of their sweethearts. It’s a pretty big deal and really very romantic; Brian had to propose it to his brothers and they voted, there was a secret ceremony and I get to wear their jersey with my own number on it. Each fraternity member (they are Lambda Chi Alpha) gets a zeta number when they are initiated, so my number is Brian’s half number: 1246 ½ – cue the awwwwws, ladies.

yeah, none of these people are Brian...
but apparently we never took good pictures together while I was wearing my jersey

They call the ceremony “dropping” which sounds like a) something nasty a bird does on your favorite sweater, or b) the guy is dumping his lady in a horribly blunt manner. This led to several versions of the same conversation, in which I would excitedly say the Brian dropped me and the other person would would try to comfort me for my loss.

Anyway, getting dropped would have been a gigantic honor no matter what, but it happened right after I had received a pretty big rejection – one that I’m not 100% over and probably will always be a little bitter about – and it made me feel special all over again and gave me a place that I always felt at home. So what if that place was a beer-stained fraternity house? It was especially nice to have all my “brothers” to hang out with when Brian graduated and we spent a year doing the long-distance thing. The LXAs always made me feel like I belonged there, even though Brian was a million trillion (or however far New Hampshire is from Mississippi) miles away. They became some of my best friends and I really think of some of the freshmen when I was a senior as the little brothers I never had.

See you soon, brothers!


EDIT: I would like to add that as soon as I published this post, the ad on the "it's now published" page said "Alcohol Abuse Problems?"... It really IS like college!