The Night An Engineer Dressed Up

Last night was the culmination of Engineering Week, the banquet at Music Hall, downtown. It was only my second time attending, last year being the first year I attended the banquet. It was not a good night to be out and about, the weather was horrible; rain, sleet, and the onset of night was not a good combination of conditions to be driving in. But my resolve prevailed, (and the fact that I did not really care about the weather) I drove to Music Hall. I was there a little early to help Mike out with a few last minute things. When I arrived (on time) everything seemed to have been squared away already. After saying my hello's to Char & Mike, I took the chance to look around, admire the decorations, and take a few pictures before all the other guests (and my friends) started to arrive.

The DJ was still setting up, the tables were set, and the food was being laid out on the serving tables. I was relatively hungry, and all the food that was visible was not helping things out, so I moved away to quell the tempatation of acquiring some food. I did not have to wait long before the first bus from campus arrived dropping off people, including a large group of my friends. They were all fancied up too; the guys wearing sleek suits and the girls wearing alluring dresses, quite the change when compared to our usual wear around campus. Compliments were passed around, pleasantries were exchanged and coats were checked before making our way over to a table. There were too many of us to sit at one table, so we managed to split ourselves among two tables. I sat with Mike, Carley, Adam, Emily, Dusty, and two others that I do not know. Emily, Dave, Andy, and Stacie sat at a table next to us with some others that I do not know names of either.

After the dust settled in the scramble to getting seats, the mingling began. Casual chit chat was had, some went to get some of the appetizers that consisted of chips, veggies, and dip. I wandered around talking intermittently to friends. I went up to the entrance, where Roy and his wife and Janie were kind enough to check ID's and give out bracelets to those of us who were old enough to drink. Mike and Char were overseeing everything, answering questions as best as possible and not freaking out in the process. The buses were coming reguarly now and wave after wave of students came in, all fancied up as well. I think we were able to say that we were officially sold out of tickets, after all the final head counts were made, breaking last year's attendance record.

Soon it was 8 o'clock and it was time for dinner to be served. We wanted the the faculty, alumni, and sponsors to go first to get their food before the horde of students befell the spread like the ravenous beasts that we are. I am not sure how well it worked, I might have missed an announcement or three, because I was walking around only to see the people at my table in line and being informed that I could get food as well. Of course I did not hesitate to stake my place in line, because if this year's dishes were anything like last year's, I could not waste any more time. I mean, I had to get through the main course as quickly as possible to get dessert... What? Did you think that I was worried about getting the main entré? Please, the delictable desserts were not to be passed up. Though, the main entré is not to be pushed aside, because it was delicious. This year the entré consisted of two types of salads, one plain and one with a raspberry dressing, dinner rolls, steamed vegetables that consisted of brocoli, cauliflower, and carrots, a cheese sauce that was to die for, roasted chicken, cheese potatoes, roast beef and gravy, and of course one cannot forget about the buttered spiral noodles with 'Shake & Bake'. I might have missed a something, but that is what was on my plate and anything else must have not been appetizing enough for me to give it further thought.

Making my way back to the table, my plate properly laden with food, I sat down to dig in only to discover that if I wanted any more alcoholic drinks I should go now before the bar closes during dinner. Accompanying Emily to the bar, I asked for another glass of white wine (a Chardonnay) and a Screwdriver with a shot of Sprite, per request from Adam. We eventually made our way back to the table, after being waylaid a number of times, and I was finally able to eat. The cheese sauce was just as good as it looked, and it made everything on my plate taste much better. The chicken was a little dry, but with a little cheese sauce, all was well again. The salad was not the greatest, and so I did not focus on it too much, because I doubt that the cheese sauce could have improved it.

After a fascinating discussion about Mike's love of buttered noodles in highschool, we went and headed to the dessert table, which was hidden in the back corner of the hall. There was a lot to choose from, all which looked delicious; brownies, chocolate cookies, cream puffs, mini pies, fresh fruit (pineapple, grapes, strawberries, and cantalope), and lemon bars, with bowls of yogourt spread and a large bowl of warm melted chocolate. My choices were sadly halved due to giving up chocolate for Lent (yes, I'm crazy), but that did not stop me from enjoying all the non-chocolate dishes. Mike could not pass up the chance to tease me about the chocolate though. I enjoyed the fruit & yogourt and lemon bars the best. The creme puff was a little bland and I did not favor it too much.

Just as I was finishing up dessert, the more somber part of the evening began; the speeches and award recognitions. There were a couple of different awards, including the Herman Schneider Award and Professor of the Quarter Award. There was another, that even some friends were in, but I do not remember what it was. The best part of the award and speech ceremony was probably when the Electrical Engineering Coop advisor butchered the Herman Schneider Award's recipient's name that sounded very similar to the last two syllables of 'lasagna' minus the 's'. I'm sorry, but if you nominate the person and then mispronounce their last name, you have to see some humor in it. I almost forgot, the E-week competition winners were announced, but most of us already knew who placed in the top three. The team I was in placed 2nd, five points away from first place. If we had had perfect attendance or went just a little further in the food drive, we would have had clinched first place, but oh well, it was fun and I would do it again if I was not graduating this year. The winning team's captain gave a little victory speech, which was more of an announcement that they were going to blow their prize money on a kegger after the banquet. He really did sound the model partying drunk college student. A baritone voice that seemed to lack intelligence. I am probably being a little harsh, but it's my blog.

After Andrew, one of the three E-week co-chairs, finished stumbling through his little mini-speeches, the dancing was next. Before that there was a round of pictures before everyone threw off their shoes and loosened their ties for the dancing. There was a group picture of the Electrical Engineers attending the banquet, then one for the graduating class of Electrical Engineers, and finally a group picture of the Engineering Tribunal Executives. Nothing really happened during the picture taking, so I'll leave it at that, though I am sure Steve did something.

There is something that I forgot to mention earlier; Jeff was at the banquet. Jeff, the MSA racing fanatic, the one who refuses to do anything social unless it only involves drinking, the one who said he would come dressed in jeans and his most pit-stained shirt if he came at all, showed up at the banquet. He told those who did not know that he had bought his ticket on Wednesday and had atempted to keep it on the down-low, to surprise everyone. It was pretty cool that he came to the banquet. Of course he really did not dance... at all. Well, maybe he danced a little at the end with Char, but he must have been pretty inebriated at that point. Some of us later in the evening attempted to force Jeff to dance with us, but we were unsuccessful on multiple tries.

I am jumping ahead a little though. The dancing began shortly after everyone took pictures. Personally, I am not a big fan of dancing, especially that freestyle type of dancing, because I think I look pretty silly when I do eventually start dancing. It would be pretty boring to sit at the table all night long, not dancing. I had my camera and it was a good excuse to be on the dance floor and not dancing a lot. Janie danced a little at the beginning which was cool, I think I have a video clip of that. The DJ played songs that the majority of people seemed to recognize, which was a little passé, in my opinion. He played the usual songs, like Cotton Eyed Joe, Electric Slide, Electric Salsa, and other late 90's dance songs. Throw in some rap and a handful of slow songs and you have a pretty generic set that does not dissapoint the majority, nor does it make it very amazing. A couple of shining points in the DJ's set was when he played Kylie Minogue's Love at First Sight (per request from Adam in lieu of the DDR competition) and the one and only techno song of the evening, a remix of Darude vs. Robert Mile's Children of the Sandstorm (sample here). To me, that song generated the most energy in the crowd, but I favor that genre, so I might be a bit bias. You cannot blame the DJ too much for not straying from the safe confines of accepted music, but a little variation from last year's banquet would have been nice too.

You have to wonder though, would people dance like they would if they were not as intoxicated as they were? I probably had a glass of wine and few sips of drinks people offered me, the under-developed drinker, to sample, and even though it took me a little to warm up to dancing, I thought I swallowed my humility rather well without the need to be intoxicated. Of course my dancing style is probably an issue as well, but who is to judge someone's dancing when they look just as silly? And what do people really think when they see someone else dancing? Do they mentally judge the person's dancing capabilities? Perhaps some of my friends will enlighten me on that issue.

The dancing went on for about two and a half hours, a long time for dancing, but it seemed shorter, maybe because I was enjoying myself a lot. For someone who does not like the free style type dancing, club style dancing, I thought I covered my bases pretty well, I danced to the fast songs, to the line dances, some salsa, and even a couple of slow songs. Everyone else seemed to have managed too. Even Dave, who hovered at the edge of dance floor, and would do nothing besides mingle with people, danced a little too. I even dragged him through the dance floor once, so he could say that he was on the dance floor and not merely on the edge of it.

When the dancing ended, I was a little disappointed, because it meant that the night of fun was pretty much over and that reality would rush back in a very short time. As the buses started taking the partygoers back, people chatted among themselves, taking a few last pictures, before going their separate ways, either to get some rest or continue the party elsewhere. I was part of the former group, going back to get some rest. I said my goodbyes and left.

Overall, the evening was a blast, the food was delicious, especially the dessert, people had fun hanging out with friends, and enjoyed some dancing. I do hope that there will be more times like this before graduation and I think that others would agree with me.