This past weekend was Homecoming at Rose. I spent the vast majority of the time hanging out with my Brothers at the Pike house. The overall mood was much more energetic when compared to last year.

As always, it was good to see everybody. The conversations tended to start in a predictable fashion (“Where are you living?” “Where do you work?” “How do you like it?”), but many swung to more interesting topics. It seemed like I knew almost everybody at the house on at least an acquaintance level.

The chapter appears to be in good shape. Rush is going well and is (apparently) better organized than it has ever been. Improvements have been made to the house, most notably the (yet another?) remodeling of the formal lounge. Homecoming was well-organized and well-executed.

One of the neat things that the actives did during homecoming was to have a huge bonfire at the house. The fuel? A large pile of pallets. Once the fire got going, the flames were immense and the heat was intense. Good times.

The alumni were their usual messy selves, so I spearheaded an effort to clean up part of that mess in the house on Sunday morning. Tyler, Ben Leonard, and Edmonson pitched in, too.

Sunday night, I went to a chapter meeting for the first time in 16 months. In the meeting, I was surprised to find that I had been voted “Pike of the Week” for my cleaning efforts. I found it quite amusing.

The award was special in another way: my very first “Pike of the Week” award was four years ago, on September 24, 2001. What was it for? Cleaning up the house after homecoming. Thus, both my first and likely my last PoW were for the same task.

All in all, it was a good weekend.