[Stand by your Dan]

Last night Amber and Whitney came over and we spent much of the night flipping through my bound edition of Sidelines issues, laughing at our irreverent PSAs and Nick’s rambling columns. I could have really used another year of experience before I took on the editorship (the inconsistent gutters and white space drive me crazy, looking back. And some of the stories were absolutely awful. Advocare? Kill me.), but we all did the best we could.

Today I met up with some editors past and present at the new Sidelines office for a reunion of sorts. Jamie Evans was there. And a couple of other past editors I had never met. Phil Williams didn’t show. Niether did the 1992 editor who was president of the Raider Republicans during his tenure. We mugged it up for reunion photos and drank Coke from tiny styrofoam cups. It was fun.

Phil (Weaver, not Williams) and I spent the remainder of the evening packing and cleaning out the kitchen. We’re separating everything into categories: trash, sell, keep. I’m trying to emulate what I’ve seen on “Clean Sweep.” Those people seem to know how to dilute a packrat’s stash. I tried to throw away a mixed tape Phil made for me back in the day but he said I should keep it. I also ran across one of my most prized possessions: a letter from the MST3K fan club organizer, with a hand-written “Hope you enjoy the new episodes” on it. I can’t for the life of me remember what kind of letter I wrote to the show, but I’m sure it was ultra-geeky, just the way I like it.

The apartment still smells like food. Earlier, Phil grilled some chicken and made macaroni, mashed potatoes, and crescent rolls. Then he baked a sock-it-to-me cake. I’m still stuffed. We visited Kristin and Jimmy and played with the puppy and took them some cake. We laughed at a funny anti-Dan Quayle propaganda video from 1992. It made our political problems of today seem sickeningly serious, though.