It’s been a quiet week.
Even as break started with the Yale-Harvard game, things were quieter than I had anticipated. On that Friday night I walked through the Buttery where some Harvard students were staying and all was quiet – just conversations going on. The same held true in the morning. The new brunch-before-the-game seemed to work very well and our senior get together was well-reviewed after the fact. I didn’t hear a thing during it – but did receive a request for a mop and bucket afterwards. On behalf of our custodial staff I thank the student who requested those items, cleaned up and returned that bucket and mop.)
Whereas I wish the outcome of The Game had been different, I enjoyed being there, seeing our Trumbull football team members play and hearing the Yale Precision Band (in which Trumbull is very well represented) play.
Although I was in Trumbull for the last game played at Yale (2013), I knew not a single alumnus who returned and attended the reception after the game. What a different experience it was for me personally this year seeing many students return to the house whom I’d come to know and love. (For those of you new here, keep in mind that every time The Game is here, we’ll host a reunion afterwards. We do the same during the official Yale reunions that follow graduation. Do plan on coming back, reconnecting with your classmates and updating us on your lives.)
I hope those who returned home or visited others’ homes, had wonderful breaks and a chance to reconnect with friends and family. Many of you stayed here right up to Thanksgiving with the Berkeley dining hall staff reporting having served over 700 dinners on Monday and Tuesday. About thirty-five of you joined us for Thanksgiving dinner at the Omni (I thought they did a great job and hope all enjoyed that) and just over that number joined in our informal pizza dinner on Saturday night and the early breakfast yesterday morning in the FARR room. I hope the break was a good one for you as well.
Now things pick up. The rest of the semester will be intense for almost all of you (and if it’s not – be especially kind to the rest of your fellow Trumbullians.) We’ll host many study breaks. Deb Bellmore has plans for another massage study break as well. We’ll be watching out for you.
I’ll reiterate my standard advice: Get sleep. Get exercise. Eat well. Socialize a bit. Be considerate of one another’s need for quiet. Be supportive of one another. Keep in mind that it is impossible to be perfect; fight inclinations to compare your accomplishments to one another.
Congratulations to two members of the Trumbull dining staff: Nicole Roseboro & Tyranita Harriott !!!
Every year dining services holds a chili cook-off on the Monday preceding Thanksgiving. Truth be told it’s a chili and chowder cook-off. Many of Yale’s staff and many community members attend. They pay a small entry fee, enter raffles, and vote for their favorite of many, many chowders and chilis. It is fun; it raised money for the United Way (over $12,000 this year!).
This year two of our own Trumbull chefs won top awards.
Nicole Roseboro’s chowder won first place for the People’s Choice Award (and I can tell you that the voting wasn’t even close; the pile of chips in the container in front of that chowder was far higher than those anywhere else!) and she also won third place for that same chowder in the voting by an official panel of judges.
Tyranita Harriott’s chili took second place in the voting by the official panel of judges. It was great.
I sampled both and, without realizing they were our own entries, I voted for both. I really wanted to be biased in Trumbull’s favor, actually, but the voting was blind and contest well-conducted.
Thanks also to our entire dining hall staff for their decorating while we were gone.
I was especially impressed with the transformation of our check in desk into a giant (hard to have wrapped!) gift.
Merrily We Roll Along
This is the first year I’ve managed to get to one of the Dramat’s productions. What was I thinking? I know now I’ll not miss another. The show was terrific. Congratulations to the Dramat generally and, specifically, to Trumbullians: Gina Doyle (Gussie Carnegie), Travis Gonzalez (Assistant Projections Designer), Laurel Lehman (Assistant Producer), Charlotte Newell (Scenes), Sarah Siegel (Trombone), Molly Williams and Chris Quazzo (Tyler). (It is great to know, however, that Gina Doyle is nothing at all like Gussie Carnegie.)