Stephen Yeargin

I am attending my first “Family Day” as an alumnus of Sigma Phi Epsilon after skipping last year’s event. Samantha and I drove up this morning for the lunch and had a bit of car trouble. It probably would not be as distressing if we had not just paid for repairs to my vehicle. I suppose such is the case when both of us drive teenage cars.

Nothing notable has changed in this small, rural west Tennessee town. The main corridor of the business district is closed to traffic after being green-lighted for renovations, and four-story apartment buildings are on the rise on campus. That leaves only two remaining Y-halls to go before the university completes this stanza of housing upgrades.

Other than the luncheon and a two hour and a half hour Alumni Volunteer Corporation meeting, we have not done much at all on campus. We grabbed dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant in town and drove around through a few of the residential areas close to campus. It looks as if some of the houses have been abandoned, an unusual sight for an area with a high demand for low-rent housing.

My NCAA brackets had been performing unusually well this season, but today’s Memphis win closes out any chance of picking the winner. The way Kansas is (at the moment) shellacking North Carolina, I suspect I’ll end the day 0-2. I was last in my workplace pool, but the Louisville win over Tennessee actually helped put in the middle of the ladder. The math does not work out in my favor to be able to win the pool.