My really close friends from high school have since been dispersed to the four corners of the earth. In alphabetical order:
Coming to college was a great experience. I was baptized just three weeks before school started here at the University, so I was a pretty new and fresh convert to the Church. But things went well. I made some very close friends... many of which I still associate with. The list is far too long to include here, but they know who they are. You may be able to spot them in the pictures on the page.
All incoming freshmen recieve a lot, a lot, of advice. Too much perhaps. But if you are soon to be making the decisions that freshmen make, I've got advice which I feel is beyond value: live in a dorm. The experience is without equal. I think that too often, one hears people complaining about this or that (dorm food, second hand smoke, small bathrooms, dirty bathrooms, messy neighbors who clog up the bathroom shower with hair, etc...) with regards to the dorms. The dorm experience transcends all those obstacles and provides the college freshman a very social environment.
As I mentioned on another page, I lived in the 10's wing of the 5th floor of Middlebrook Hall. In Middlebrook there are four wings on each floor (there are ten residential floors total). In each wing there are eight rooms with two residents in each room. If you doubt the power of dorm living, check out this stat: of the 15 other guys in my wing that year, I'm still in contact with five of the guys. No kidding. In addition, my current roommate, because he "lived" on the 9th floor, was adopted an honorary member of our wing, as was some guy from a different wing on our floor, and Eric W. from the 4th floor..
Here's the club, with their room number freshman year, their current status (you'll notice a definate web of connections), and a little color commentary, including how they fared, overall, in the wing's many Tecmo Super Bowl seasons:
Jason Q. Paulson, room #517 (my roommate), lives in "The Big House" with a bunch of other guys. Jason was also the first person to sign my guestbook, which has endeared him to me forever. He's from Rhinelander, Wisconsin. He played the Eagles a lot... 'nuf said.
Josh Dahmes, room #514, also lives in "The Big House". Works for the capitilist pigs in the Carlson School of Management. Recently cut his hair to M.M. length ("Mormon Missionary"). Pronounces his surname like "dams". I think he mixed up his teams. I don't remember what teams he played, but it's been a long time.
Rich Goldsmith, Josh's roommate, lives with his woman, Michelle, and their baby Zach. Rich and I have never had a fist-fight, and have, in fact, hugged (which he'll deny). That's remarkable because I'm a conservative Mormon who's studying history and he's a liberal Jew studying journalism and if any two people in the whole world were to fight, it would be us and that's why our friendship is all the more tender. He's from Ohio, and I bet that led him to play the Browns, although that's one of my favorites, so I'm not sure. Remembering these teams is tough.
Shane Drahota, room #513, studies down at Mankato State University in beautiful Mankato, MN. He periodically calls me and claims to be some famous Mormon athlete (Danny Ainge, Steve Young, etc...) who needs my help. We all pray that Shane will be joining us soon for graduate school or something. I'm sure he played Tecmo Bowl with us, but all I can remember right now is playing NCAA Football on his Sega (BYU or Alabama).
Tommy Moody, room #516, also lives in "The Big House". He's sort of the quiet, studious one. He has some Indiana Pacers fetish we can't figure out. He always played the chiefs in Tecmo Bowl because they had Joe Montana, who is now doing advertisements for Amoco gas stations.
adopted wing members:
Mike Kampmeyer, room #928, lived with Pres. J.A. Madia on the "Honors Floor". Needless to say, we were honored by his presence in our wing. We adopted him because, to put it lightly, he spent 12 hours a day with us. Not only did he fare well in Tecmo Bowl, but he also picked up Street Fighter II. Mike's now my roommate and is studying psychology, although a person's major is very dynamic and prone to much change.
Eric Allen Wahlstrom, room #415. I hadn't seen Eric in a long time until he came to Jason's 21st birthday celebration because he's at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire.
...and last, but definately not least:
Anthony Phelps!!!! I guess it's fair to say that the reason I'm giving Tony so much fanfare here is because, for the life of me, I can't remember where he lived. In fact, I'm not even sure that he lived on our floor at all. But that's neither here nor there. He now lives in "The Big House", but I think he plans to be an RA this year in a very special dorm... that's right, Middlebrook Hall. And so continues the circle of life. Actually, he's an RA in Comstock Hall.
