Day 104: Stanford Reunion, Fleet Street and here comes LA…

October 16, 2007 by Julie.

Well, this was going to be a blog about the hard hitting heavies roundtable that happened early in the morning this past Saturday at Stanford on homecoming weekend…but as the talk was long and involved (and my blogs tend to be long and involved) and as it is also apparently available on i-tunes in its entirety, i’m leaving it for now. I mean, it was cool. But it was supposed to touch on the issue of water, as well as oil, and it didn’t. I was disappointed that it didn’t touch on peace or simplicity, but rather on technology and making the internet more accessible to more people in the far reaches of the planet so that they don’t all become terrorists. Call me old-fashioned but it really does seem like consuming less and conserving resources is really the very first most common sensical thing to do…

We interviewed noone this weekend for YERT! The time was blocked out for the boys reunion (pretty handy that it was Mark’s 10-yr and Ben’s 15th). Ben and Mark were both chosen for their class panels to talk about what they are doing now, which was a great way to connect people to YERT and get some new ideas. I was along for the ride, happy to meet Ben’s old friends, happy to see people I had met once before at weddings…happy to see all their little families growing with kids running around. (If anyone is wondering, I am feeling wistful about family and HOME.)

We stayed with former Fleet-Streeter, Bill Moore, who put post-its on the light fixtures so we’d know which ones we could turn on in the house without going against our No Incandescent Bulbs rule (Thank you, Bill!) (Fleet Street is a tight-knit Stanford men’s A Capella group that both Ben and Mark were a part of. In fact, it is how they met). I played finger soccer with Bill’s young son, Clayton, and then watched as they set up the maddening Candyland game…We went to supper at Jing Jing’s with the current Fleet Street crew. Who are Younglins. That’s all I am going to say. Babes still in the woods. They’re making them younger all the time or something. We watched their 2 songs at the end of the homecoming show and my boys got nostalgic about their time and waxed on about how much things change…that’s what reunions are for, I guess.

The massive outpouring of support from friends old and new about what YERT is doing felt good. People want to know what is happening, what we are finding out in our trip around the country, and what they can/should do. We were happy to oblige…

I am feeling a little bit burned out on environmental bad news but fortunately Mark has been all over the planning for Los Angeles. And fortunately, our hosts, Jason and Aria Mayland today provided me with my favoritest kinds of distraction and stress-relievers ever: recording sessions and yoga class, respectively.

Ben is still working on that dang Illinois pod, and I am staying out of it. Good Luck, honey. I am going to bed. Tomorrow: into the fray that is LA.

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