Category Archives: Elizabeth K.

May 5, 2011 · 5:25 pm

I Remember…AOL Instant Messenger

Author: Elizabeth K., C’04

When I started my freshman year at Penn, the only thing I used the internet for was AOL, and all that was good for was e-mail, instant messenger and (nerd alert) checking out The X Files fan page. Before school started, I got a Penn email address and I thought it was really cool to have e-mail that wasn’t an AOL account. Penn even gave me six choices for my email address. Unfortunately, both my first and last name were too long for their eight-character limit, so I went with “ehk2” because I thought it sounded nice and was easy to remember. Turns out, you can never get rid of your Penn email account. Not even if you come back to Penn five and a half years after graduation and join the administration. Thanks, 18-year-old self, for my less than professional work email address. Anyway, when I got this sparkly new ehk2 email, I had no idea how you would check email that wasn’t on an AOL account, or how the internet existed without AOL and a telephone line. To me, AOL was the internet.

While I was setting up my dorm room, an IT guy came by and explained our cable internet access. I didn’t understand and asked him how I would get online. He patiently explained that I was always online. I still didn’t get it and even my technologically-clueless Mom had to chime in and help him. The poor IT guy needed to see so many students that day, and here I was, needing my Mom to explain to me how the internet worked. I asked him how I could access my AOL X Files fan site, at which point he just gave me the phone number for the help desk. Sooner or later (probably later) it clicked, and I felt like I had won the lottery! No more weird staticky dial up noises while waiting to hear “Welcome! You’ve Got Mail!” Email arriving on my computer screen whenever it wanted to! And, best of all AOL INSTANT MESSENGER.

AIM Sign in screen

AOL Instant messenger, or AIM, was the chat part of AOL, except you could access it without signing onto AOL and be on it all of the time, except when you turned your computer off. You could also leave status messages. So, when you went idle your name would appear in italics and your status would say, “In class” or “Dinner with Terri.” A lot of people (not me) would leave AIM up all night long, with the status, “Sleeping.” It seemed absolutely necessary that your AIM friends should know where you were at all times. Another great thing about AIM was building your chat list as you met more and more people. A key part of a new friendship with someone was exchanging AIM names.

The Buddy List

AIM was great, but it also meant that you had to use your email name from your AOL email. I got my AOL account in 8th grade, and my name was “PBGiggle.” At fourteen, I thought this was brilliant, and I don’t have nearly enough space here to explain why. Suffice it to say that by 20, I felt like an idiot. So, I made a bold move junior year and changed my AIM name to “EdashLiz” (E-Liz, get it?). Because AIM was so omnipresent during college, our AIM names became part of our identities, and changing from PBGiggle to EdashLiz was like growing up. A lot of my college friends still call me “Edash.” AIM names also taught you things about people. For instance, my friend JUDE831 loved the Beatles and to this day I still remember that her birthday is August 31st. Another friend’s AIM name was fish3333, because she loved to swim (a habit she didn’t keep up in college). I probably never would have known of her swimming past without her AIM name. So much information in just seven to ten characters!

Eventually, when jobs and “real life” hit, AIM fell to the wayside, but I still miss it. I miss the excitement of seeing a boy I liked or a friend I hadn’t talked to in awhile sign on. I miss everyone’s colorful, fun status message for Spring Fling (“Flinging!” “Spring Fling!” “Fling, baby!”) It seems like students today use facebook chat, which I understand – it’s probably easier and you don’t need to remember some weird iteration of someone’s name in order to talk online. Plus, I’m part of the Facebook revolution (more on that in the next blog post) so I think it’s hypocritical to complain about it. But, part of me is sad that today’s students won’t experience the magic of AIM. After all, what would I call my best friend from Penn if she wasn’t “TBelle?” Not by her actual name – that’s just ridiculous.

AIM Chat

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March 31, 2011 · 3:50 pm

I Remember…Black Pants

Author: Elizabeth K., C’04

Back in my days at Penn, I was never a fashionista.  I shopped pretty much exclusively at the Gap and even the outfits on the mannequins there were too stylish for me.   My favorite outfit was from American Eagle – it was a khaki corduroy miniskirt with a stretchy white collared top and I wore it with platform shoes.  It was my “first day of school” outfit sophomore year and I can still remember the popular girl in my sorority complimenting me on it.  Greatest day ever!

When I was at Penn, the wardrobe staple, hands down, was a pair of black pants.  Even someone as clueless about fashion as me knew that.  These were different than black work pants, but they weren’t black jeans.  They were sort of a black stretchy material.  You paired black pants with a fancy shirt (preferably a halter top) and that was a “going out” outfit.  It was socially unacceptable for girls to wear jeans to a party.  I recently asked my fashionable twenty-year-old sister if she and her friends wore black pants to go out and she laughed at me, so obviously that trend has come and gone.

From what I can tell, the “skinny jean” is the new black pant.  These are very tight jeans that taper at the ankle.  They practically look like leggings, but shouldn’t be confused with leggings which appear to be on their way out as an acceptable fashion choice.  However, there are special leggings that look like jeans (or jeans that look like leggings, I can’t keep it all straight) that are called “jeggings.”  These leggings are still okay because of their close resemblance to the ever popular skinny jean.  Got it?  Skinny jeans are so tight that you have to wear boots over them, instead of having the pant cover your shoes.  Basically, think of Robin Hood.  Same idea.  There is no way this trend won’t look ridiculous in a few years.

To wit: Here is Robin Hood.


Stealing from the Rich...Giving to the Poor.

And here are the Robin Hood-style boots now popular on campus.

*Modern Day Robin Hood

Skinny jeans are one thing, but my favorite current trend, by far, has to be Hunter rain boots. To me, rain boots are a functional part of my wardrobe, something I wear on my 1.5 mile walk to and from work in the rain to protect my feet and clothes. To Penn girls, they are a wardrobe’s greatest staple. And, the boots have to be Hunter. Brand name only. Hunter rain boots are solid colors and pretty skinny on your calves, so you have to wear them with tights, leggings, bare legs or, of course, skinny jeans! My favorite look has to be the girls who wear short shorts or miniskirts and then have Hunter rain boots on. It doesn’t even have to be raining outside for these boots to come out.

Hunter boots

Partially sunny? Hunter rain boots. 20% chance of rain? Hunter rain boots. Flurries? Hunter rain boots. Hunter rain boots are everyone’s pair of gross sneakers that you keep around, except they are bright and shiny and $125 on Zappos. I see them everywhere. Evidence:

*Please note that it was not, in fact, raining on this day.

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March 25, 2011 · 2:58 pm

I Remember…Graduation 2004

Author: Elizabeth K., C’04

In 2004, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and cried for about a week straight.  I loved Penn and couldn’t believe that four years had flown by so quickly.  I was so sad to leave my best friends, my boyfriend, and the Penn community for the far off land of Los Angeles, where I was going to go to USC Law School.  Getting to hear Bono speak at graduation provided a little solace, but as people cheered and threw their hats in the air around me, I did it with tears in my eyes. Thirty minutes later, when I met up with my family I was a sobbing, blubbering, snotty mess.  My father, a 1975 alum, was also crying, which set my Mom off, then my Nana and before you know it our red puffy eyes ruined every single picture of my family with me in my cap and gown.  Thanks for the memories, Penn.

Cut to 2009.  It’s September, and I’m back at Penn, this time as a staff person.  After a brief, unhappy stint as a lawyer I decided it was time to find happiness in the very different field of higher education administration.  I loved school but after seven straight years of college and law school, I was done being a student.  So, I thought if I’m not going to be a student, why not work at a university?  Clearly, my first choice place of employment was Penn and I was so excited the day I got my job offer.  I was only nervous about two things.  First, would it make me sad and nostalgic to be back at a place I loved, but not as a student?  And, what if people mistook me for a student instead of a savvy Penn employee?

The truth is that Penn feels like a completely different place from my new perspective as an employee.  I still do a lot of the things I did as a student.  I buy my lunch from Houston Hall (better as a staff person because we get the staff punch card to earn a free meal), grab coffee from Starbucks or Cosi, eat at the Magic Carpet lunch truck, and cheer on the Hey Day parade.  But, all of these things feel new as I’m doing them in my more grown up, professional life.  I think the real difference is that at the end of the day Penn isn’t home for me anymore – home is the apartment I share with my husband that I get to go at the end of every workday.  I love that home, and my adult post-Penn life makes me very happy.  So, being here doesn’t make me miss being a student.  It makes me appreciate what I had, and the chance Penn gave me to grow and mature into who I am today.  I don’t want to go back, but I can look back with even more fondness.

And my fear about being mistaken as a student?  Completely unfounded.  First of all, I could never look as cool or stylish as the girls I see walking around campus.  I’m wearing stockings and heels, not leggings and Hunter rain boots (more on Penn styles to come in my next blog post).  Turns out, I look my age, especially when standing next to 19-year-olds.  I walk down Locust Walk and the students instinctively know not to hand fliers to me.  Sometimes I want to shout, “Come on!  I’m still cool!  I could go to your Strictly Funk dance show!”  But then my heels get stuck in one of the cracks on the Walk, I have to spend all my energy to stop myself from face planting, and my dreams of coolness evaporate.  One day someone gave me a sticker to try to get me to join their sorority.  I was elated.  It’s still on a bulletin board in my office.

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