Clare Enjoys an Evening Out

I had the opportunity to spend a little more than 3 hours away from home tonight as I was invited to the 70th anniversary celebration for the Phi Beta Kappa chapter at St. Catherine's.

Honestly, this was the first organized event that I have attended since leaving in 1994 and so it was fun to see the new Coeur de Catherine center that was built and also to reminisce about my days there from 1990-1994. Although there were hundreds of people there and I couldn't see every name tag, I never did run into anyone else from my induction year although I chatted for a while with my former professor and mentor, Sister Jackie O'Hara who hasn't changed a bit. I sat with two current juniors who were invited to the reception simply because they look like potential Phi Beta Kappas for the coming spring. It was very interesting to talk to them and hear about their St. Kate's experiences. Come to find out, the one from Lonsdale who attended Northfield High School had attended the A Vous la Parole oral French contest that I coordinate in the years of 2004 & 2005 (while I was coordinator!). The other one was a fashion merchandising major who currently has a professor who I was in class with in the fall of 1990. This Family & Consumer Sciences professor took a French class (for free -- a benefit of being a CSC prof) every so often to brush up on her pronunciation so that she was able to pronounce the French fashion words. We were in a class of 7 students together and so I got to know her well and told this student to give her my regards.

Being on campus reminded me that as an alum, I am able to take one undergraduate class per academic year (audit) at St Kate's (at no cost) for the rest of my life. Recently I was perusing the class schedule and thought that one of these semesters before I go back to teaching that I would try to take a theology class or something else of interest in the weekend college program just for fun.

To summarize, I enjoyed my evening at St. Kate's and Marta, Brian and Ray enjoyed splitting the babysitting duties 3 ways during my 3 hours away. Liam did well with everyone, yet both boys were in bed by 6:30 which means we are probably in for another 4:30 or 5 am waking like the last few nights. Sigh.