Stop #15: 26 & 52, Lafayette (#148)

Stop #15 in the quest brought us to a Steak 'n' Shake I know and love quite well, almost as well as I know and love the Steak 'n' Shake in Nora.

It brought us to the Steak 'n' Shake on IN-26 and 52 in Lafayette.


Which I had unfortunately confused for a Steak 'n' Shake in WEST Lafayette.

You see, I've been to this Steak 'n' Shake at least once a year since the spring of 2004.

Back then, I was a freshman in college, and had been active in Tau Beta Sigma (the band service sorority that ate my life for most of my undergrad time) for a whopping almost full semester.

As the semester's end drew near, some fellow sisters in my chapter said, "Hey! Let's go to the Purdue chapter's initiation in West Lafayette! Who's in?"

Being a freshman with not a hefty homework load and a probably almost unhealthy enthusiasm for band and all things related (considering I wasn't a major, anyway), I said "Me! Me! Me!", waved my hand around enthusiastically, and earned myself a ride in someone else's car. (My dearest Comadreja Negra was still in Fort Wayne, enjoying a lighter insurance policy because I wasn't driving her anywhere remotely near on a daily basis.)

And so began my relationship with Beta Sigma -- the Purdue chapter of Tau Beta Sigma -- and their favorite local Steak 'n' Shake.

I have yet to miss a Beta Sigma initiation since I first began attending them (sad, on the other hand, is that I *have* missed one of Epsilon's, my own home chapter, due to a rescheduling issue this past semester; on the other hand, I've been to the exact same number of initiations for each, because Epsilon put through a fall and a spring class in one year, while Beta Sigma only has spring classes).

I know, that depth of detail doesn't matter to most people, but I heart Epsilon and I heart Beta Sigma, and I heart Tau Beta Sigma.

So I've been to Purdue many a time. And because it is the Steak 'n' Shake they go to when they want to celebrate, I've been to the Steak 'n' Shake on 26 and 52 just as often. Even when it was against my best interests. Like one year, when the initiation was done Sunday night at 9 p.m. and I had a 15-page paper due Monday afternoon with only two pages done before departing for West Lafayette.

See, these are the kinds of excellent decisions I make when it comes to attending Sigma initiations. (On the other hand, I scratched out a chunk of that paper on the back of placemats at the Steak 'n' Shake, typed it up when I got home, and managed to get something like a B+ on my final product, so who's to say that the excellent in that previous statement really has to be said in a sarcastic tone?)

So the trip to Steak 'n' Shake #15 was significantly more populated than the standard Steak 'n' Shake trip is.


World, meet Beta Sigma. I feel obligated to mention, at this point, for those unfamiliar, that Tau Beta Sigma is a co-ed sorority. So don't feel confused by the presence of ladies and gentlemen.

"Well, that's not my biggest confusion," you're now saying. "What's confusing me is, what are those things that some of them have on their heads?" you are now wondering. "For serious," I'm sure you are asking, "are they high?"

Well, though they call those things on their heads "pots," I assure you they are not high. I even have one myself!


And I promise, I am not high, nor have I ever been high. What was the line? "I did not inhale"? Something like that. Except, I never had the opportunity to inhale. I mean, not that I'd call it an opportunity. I'll stick to my legal adult beverages, thank-you-very-much. Though not while attending something like this initiation.

Anyway. So a pot is a collection of various things, attached to a hat. Most kids I know that have them are band kids (well, scratch that -- every kid I know that has one is a band kid), and TBS kids at that, so much of the stuff attached is band-related or TBS-related stuff. For example, you'll notice that mine has a bead bracelet dangling, a pin, a slinky, some blue Mardi Gras beads, a nine of spades, and a rubber duck. The bead bracelet was a gift from my first MC class, the pin is the TBS pin, the slinky is from my big sis in TBS because through her I was in the slinky family, the blue Mardi Gras beads are actually rally beads from a basketball game I attended with the basketball band, the nine of spades was my ticket to get into the Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma formal my junior year, and the rubber duck was a gift from my little sis because we were part of the rubber duck family in the chapter. Also, though you can't see it from this angle, I've got a bulldog Pez dispenser on there, because bulldogs are the mascot here and because I was also a member of the Pez family. I mention this only 'cause I'm spectacularly proud of the fact that my pot has a Pez dispenser. I never have to go hungry!

The point is, as you can probably gather, the vast majority of the stuff on my pot is band- or TBS-related.

"Okay," you're now saying (unless you're a Beta Sigma member who has stumbled upon this post because you're awesome), "that still doesn't really explain what a pot is supposed to be. You're terrible at this, Marcy," you're adding. Because I am.

Which is why I asked a friend of mine more well-versed in these things how he would describe them. Neal's an alum of the Beta Sigma chapter, and so was around before I was and has had much more experience trying to tell people what these things are (probably because, if you attend a district convention at any point, you see this group of kids running around, and you are forced to ask one of them [and hopefully that one you asked was Neal] what exactly they have on their heads, and why). And as Neal put it, they're like "wearable scrapbooks."

Neal, this is exactly why I asked you for advice on the description. Because not only do you actually summarize it well, but you do it poetically!

My most recent, sad, attempt at poetry? A haiku, to my boss, to update him on the status of the building one particular evening.

Confucius say that
The night before Labor Day
Is no night to work

Terrible, but true. But wearable scrapbooks? Awesome. And also true.

At any rate.

So Steak 'n' Shake Stop #15 was attended by many many people, a large chunk of whom were wearing crazy things on their heads called pots. And one of whom was wearing something awesome on his head, called a fedora.


That's right. Mizener, first featured in SnS Stop #5, joined us for Stop #15. Also, Mizener is now a feature.

As you can see, Mizener was not only wearing his fedora -- but he was super excited about his Frisco Melt. And why shouldn't he be? Frisco Melts are awesome.


Also joining us at our table were current Epsilon members Kelli and Mike, non-respectively. They were asked to show how they felt about being in West Lafayette. Unfortunately, Mike must have misheard "Ohio" for "Lafayette," as that is what his reaction is more appropriate for.

I'm kidding, but only a little bit. Mike actually likes Ohio, apparently -- he's from there (I never said Ohio didn't make good exports; I know lots of native Ohio-ans who are fantastic people), and is going to grad school there, so hopefully he doesn't really feel that way about Ohio. More likely I'm projecting -- but can you blame me? I mean, it's Ohio.

Mike really should try to stay close, though. After all, once our food came out (small cheese fries, "Very Berry" strawberry shake, and a Coke for me), Mike gave his cherry to one of the Beta Sigma sisters. (He offered it to me first, but I unfortunately had to turn it down, 'cause it came in his milkshake, which also contained Reese's peanut butter cups, which also contained chocolate, which is something I can't have for another few days yet.)

So the Beta Sigma sister came over and got his number, 'cause, you know, someone gives you their cherry, you should maybe pretend to be interested in them outside of that one fateful night ....


Shh ... no one tell Mike that he was probably entered as "Brunette from the SnS".

While this was going on, I stole Mizener's fedora, 'cause it's awesome.


He stole it back. But that was okay. 'Cause I still had my pot. And an awesome "I'm Double-oh-seven, or maybe one of Charlie's Angels" pose.


Previous picture included 'cause Mizener was proud of us for looking awesome.

As at many of the stops in this trip, we entertained ourselves with a game.

At our table, we worked on the anagram puzzle on the back of the placemat. And discovered that with the letters

ZEN LBE MOO TAF SEAMRYMIZ

Steak 'n' Shake was trying to share the message that

MR. FAT AL IS ZEN, I BE ZOEY!

Meanwhile, everyone else at the super long table was playing the Steak 'n' Shake game, wherein one person writes a sentence to start a story, the next person reads the first sentence, adds their own sentence, then hides the first person's sentence so that the third person can read only the second person's sentence before adding their own third sentence, and so on.

And because my fancy schmancy camera can do video, I was able to capture this fantastic story!

Unfortunately, I just realized that it exceeds the limit for uploading video on blogger. Sad day. I don't even have the paper the story was written on, so I can't copy it over. Even sadder day.

Shortly after the story was read, people started heading out.

Because it wasn't really possible to get a traditional group picture of this:


We stuck with a traditional group shot covering the table I sat at instead.


Thank you for a fantastic night and quest stop, Beta Sigma and SnS on 52 and 26!