Vacation with a side of Engaging!

SPOILER ALERT: I'M ENGAGED!!!

Just thought I'd throw that out there so you didn't have to wait in suspense for too long.  Anywho, this is the story of BobShley's adventures through the southeast. Enjoy!

Stop 1: Nashville, TN

On Friday, we managed to get our butts out of bed and out the door by 6:20am.  We journeyed to the faraway land of Nashville for the sole purpose of experiencing the WORLD'S GREATEST BISCUITS.  Loveless Cafe is a motel-turned-restaurant that is known for its homemade biscuits and jams/jellies.  As Teeners knows, I could probably win an eating contest involving these biscuits, so I had warned Bobby that I planned to eat 17 of them.  He didn't believe me, but I did it!....almost...I ate 4, which is essentially a synonym for 17.  Then we drove home.

Just kidding. We headed to downtown Nashville for CMA Fest.  For those of you who are not country savvy, this is a four day long country music festival where there's pretty much live country music everywhere all the time.  We wandered Broadway (the main drag) for a while and then made our way to the riverfront stage where we first saw some old dude singer and later Eric Paslay and Chase Rice (I know them so this was exciting!).

Listening to good music and getting burnt

Other things we did included getting free samples of scented wet-naps, having a margarita flight at Margaritaville, and playing cornhole with our new friends!  We played against this guy and girl, and while the boys took the game very seriously, the girl and I were busy talking and I discovered that she's a nurse practitioner who works in labor and delivery and is applying to midwifery school! So we're basically best friends.  Also, don't worry, team BobShley won.

Margarita flight, best flight

We had planned to spend the night somewhere around Nashville, but by late afternoon we were super sweaty (which became a major theme of the trip) and ready to move on so we got back in the car for another four hours and headed to Atlanta.  But before we left, we were lucky enough to run into Blaine and have southern style fried chicken with our friend Emily.

Mini-Stop: Atlanta, GA

We spent the night with my aunt and uncle in Atlanta, and then got up in the morning to go see one of my favorite things.......babyyyyyyyyy!  My cousin Garrett just had his first baby a couple weeks ago (well his wife Ava did the actual baby-having), and it worked out perfectly that we got to stop and see her!  Her name is Leighton.  

Baby Leighton!

Stop 2: Savannah, GA

On Saturday afternoon, we arrived in Savannah aka our new favorite place.  The weird thing was that when we checked into our hotel, there was a bucket with champagne sitting in our room.  After much investigation, we learned that it was free (remember this detail....it will come up later in the story). Savannah is pretty cool because it's super easy to walk around and it's known for its 22 squares.  Each square has lots of pretty trees and places to sit with a statue commemorating someone in the middle.  Someone we got to know really well was James Oglethorpe.  Not only did he found the city of Savannah, he also fought lots of battles and did many positive things for the city.  He even has his own road!

They're basically the same person

We spent a lot of the day wandering into cute shops.  One store we really like is the Savannah Bee Company.  They make every honey and honey-based product you can imagine.  They also have lots of taste testers (another theme of the trip), and Bobby may or may not have tried all 20 flavors at all three of their stores.  Another food we got to sample lots was pralines.  These are pecans coated in a sugary, carmely substance.  Every candy store gives out free samples, which tend to be the size of a full cookie, so that counted as our lunch several days along with a side of ice cream/gelato.

Honey everywhere!

Desserts everywhere!

At night, we went to the city market, which is just a little strip of shops, bars and restaurants at the city center.  We ate outside and listened to live music/stared at all the adorable dressed up babies.  ALSO, we saw someone walking a cat! And it was actually successful!

Savannah City Market

On Sunday, we did some more explorin'.  We wandered through some of the squares and saw more trees and statues.  Our ultimate destination was Forsyth Park, which is the most awesome place in Savannah.  The park is pretty big with lots of room for activities, but the main feature is the fountain in the middle.  The fountain was built in 1858 and resembles this fountain in Paris.

Fountain at Place de la Concorde in Paris

Forsyth Park- maybe this is the true Paris of America

 Later, we walked along the river and stopped in some of the little gift shops.  Mostly we just wanted to steal their air conditioning.  One cool thing about this area though was that you're allowed to drink on the streets, so we got to refresh ourselves with some beers as we strolled.

He could get used to this

**If you're only reading this post for the engagement story, here is where you should start paying attention**

We had dinner reservations at a place called the Olde Pink House.  It is the oldest mansion in Savannah dating back to 1771.  Not only is it beautiful, it's also really a unique building.  The outside stucco is pink (hence the name) and it still kind of looks like a mansion inside with several different dining rooms decorated with paintings, mirrors, and chandeliers.  Our food was amazing and the wait staff was fantastic!  The weird thing was that multiple waiters/managers came up to us and asked if we were celebrating a special occasion, and we just kept saying no just vacation, so I think they might be psychic.  It is a stop on the ghost tour after all.

Bobby got chicken, sweet potatoes (which I
discovered I like), and collard greens (which
we discovered we hate)

I got filet mignon, asparagus, and a twice baked
potato. We like all those things.

After 700 attempts, we finally got a decent picture in front
of the Olde Pink House

After dinner, we headed to Forsyth Park again because we wanted to see it lit up at night.  We walked around a little and then made our way towards the fountain.  Bobby started to tell me that he knew where the mystery champagne had come from (I told you it would come up again).  He said that my dad must have sent it because he was the only one that knew where we were staying and he was the only person who knew....I never really got to hear the other half because at this point I was balling my eyes out (in a happy way, duh).  Bobby managed to get out "Will you marry me?" and pulled out the most gorgeous ring I can imagine!  I obviously said "yes" and I'll spare you the rest of the details because it gets pretty sappy from there.  But we did top off the night with a stop at Lulu's Chocolate Bar.  This place is known for its desserts and dessert flavored martinis.  It was the perfect end to the perfect night <3.

First photo as an engaged couple!  One thing
we've had to get used to is having me stand on
Bobby's left side because notice in all previous
pictures I'm on the right. #engagedwomanproblems

Lulu's.  Get used to seeing this hand.  It made
many appearances for the rest of the trip.

Celebrating with our champagne!  Side note:
My dad actually did not send the champagne,so it
will always be a mystery as to where it came from.

On Monday, my fiancé and I drove to Tybee Island, which is a beach town just outside Savannah.  We spent the morning laying on the beach and playing in the water.  Oh, I also made Bobby take really cheesy photos like this one:

Whoever wrote that did a really good job

At night, we wandered around and got some sweet daiquiris.  There's a chain in the region called Wet Willie's and they have about 20 daiquiri flavors that you can mix and match together.  Yum! Also, this happened.  Some guy just backed into it....casual.

Normal

And the night ended with some fascinating people-watching on the pier. It was a combo of adorable babies chasing doggies and fishermen with very unique clothing styles.  More lovey-dovey and ring pics were taken of course. 

We're really good at sunset pictures

How did that hand get in there? My bad...

Mini-Stop: Beaufort, SC

On Tuesday, we ventured to Beaufort in the morning.  This is another historic town along the coast.  We had lunch at a restaurant called Plums and then strolled down the main street with shops.  After getting nice and sweaty, we got back in the car and headed to Charleston.

Two of my favorite things!

And the heat index was 111 

Are we in love or what?

Stop 3: Charleston, SC

We arrived in Charleston in the afternoon, so we did some window shopping at the high-end stores.  Then we got cleaned up and ready for our dinner cruise through the harbor.  We were seated with another couple for dinner, who we liked but probably wouldn't be friends with because they said things like "the Mason-Dixie Line".  Our food was pretty good...mostly we liked the bread they served beforehand.  We also saw lots of cool things from the boat including a sailboat race, Fort Sumter, and water.

Go sailboats! 

Fort Sumter

Another very successful sunset pic

On Wednesday, our tourist game was strong.  We took our pal, Fodor's, and followed its walking tour through Charleston.  We saw lots of churches, government buildings, and famous hotels.

St. Philip's Church

I fit right in with the locals

The guard at the custom house wasn't very social 

St. Michael's Church and the Post Office. Rachael,
you would like this intersection because it's called
the "Four Corners of Law".  There's also a city hall
and courthouse right there.

Pineapple Fountain! Ahh I'm sorry, I really
don't know how that hand keeps getting in
the way

After our walking tour, we went through the city market, which looks kind of like a flea market but much classier!  There are lots of handmade things to buy and it is also surrounded by more stores (another theme).

City Market

In case you didn't know

In the afternoon, we went to Folly Beach for a couple hours.  It had really nice sand, and the waves were fun!  The only thing I disliked about it was that I had to take my ring off for this adventure.

Watch for us on the cover of SI July 2015

Our evening activities started with walking to the Battery, an area with cannon replicas, a park, and lots of HUGE mansions.  Then we strolled by Rainbow Row...no explanation needed, just see below for picture.

My future home. Yes, this is someone's house. 

Rainbow Row!

We had dinner at a southern BBQ place.  So much good food! Then we went to a rooftop bar called the Pavilion.  I had a mango mojito, and now I've decided I need more of that in my diet.  Even though we like being super classy, we were getting antsy, so we looked for a more chill bar.  And we found a Big Ten one! We watched the basketball game, and then played some darts.  I lost, but it was still pretty fun! I even got a bulls-eye once!

View from the Pavilion Bar

My view of the basketball game

Go Blue!

 Stop 4: Gatlinburg, TN

While we loved Charleston, we were very happy to get out of there, as the church shooting happened about 5 miles away from us while we were out that night.  It was pretty scary that such a horrific event was going on so close to us.  So we hopped in the car and drove to Gatlinburg, which is in the Smoky Mountains.  One exciting thing that happened was that when we were about an hour out, we got hit with golf ball sized hail for 20 minutes.  That was a new experience for both of us.

We first had to stop in Pigeon Forge to check into our cabin.  Since I can't do the awfulness of Pigeon Forge justice, I'll just say imagine all the things you hate and that's exactly what this city is.  Luckily, Gatlinburg was way less gross and over the top.  Our cabin was called "Cuddly Bears' Lair" and had a hot tub, sauna, and awesome mountain view.  We went grocery shopping and then made a honey themed dinner with the honey we bought in Savannah.  The rest of the night we just relaxed, hot tubbed, sauna-ed, and started to wedding plan!

Honey grilled carrots, honey soaked fruit salad, honey fried
chiken, and honey beer!

On Friday, we biked the 11-mile Cade's Cove Loop.  The scenery was beautiful with the mountains in the background, and there were several stops to see old churches and houses.  The unfortunate thing was that we had to share the road with cars, so that made it kind of stressful.  But we survived!  And almost saw a bear!

Professional bikers

Since we're so athletic and fit, we decided to take a hike to Laurel Falls after our bike trip.  It was all uphill on the way there, but it was ok because we saw lots of babies and even one Michigan one!  The waterfall was pretty too, and then we got to go downhill all the way back.

Professional hikers

After a long day of strenuous activities, we had a relaxing night in the cabin and drove home the next morning.  And I think it's only right to end this post with one last picture of the lovely Smoky Mountains :)

Thank you for reading!

Teeners isn't the only one doing cool stuff

I do things too...sometimes...

It's been so long that I posted, so I'm just going to share photos of stuff I've been doing and comment on them:

These are my coworkers at happy hour. We went to the bar that is literally underneath our building. It's German themed kind of like Heidelberg, but they actually have a woman walking around with an accordion. Accordion is far from my favorite instrument, but she's really sweet and makes up funny songs about who is in the room. Also, we always get kind of too drunk when we go there. It's German magic.

I saw Love and Mercy with Brie. There's this theater here where they sell alcohol while you watch! I realize now that the first two "cool things" I said I do involve drinking, but I didn't actually drink at the movie theater. But it does seem like movies are more fun knowing I could drink. Instead I just ate way too much popcorn.

Love and Mercy was actually a really great movie that I wouldn't have seen without Brie asking me to. It's about Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. The only thing I knew about him before came from the Bare Naked Ladies' song, but apparently he had like a complete mental breakdown and an almost complete recovery! And I guess it was pretty close to his actual life story, which was kind of a gripe I had with A Beautiful Mind.

I also ate maybe the biggest piece of carrot cake I've ever seen in my life right after the movie. It went with my huge bag of popcorn. It was at this really cool bar called Ted's Bulletin. They sell homemade poptarts too and a bunch of signature cocktails. If you guys ever come back/visit with me, we should definitely try to go here!

 

I went to Drag Brunch at the gay sports bar in town! It was definitely worth the money! It's $35 all you can eat with one drink, and a whole drag show. I went with Zack, my coworker Stephanie, her sister and her boyfriend. It just sort of ended up that Zack and Steph's boyfriend sat on the inside table, but I think that was for the best--the drag queens danced up on a lot of the men who were on the ends of tables and Steph's boyfriend for sure wouldn't have been okay with that. I think Zack would've been fine, but didn't NEED that kind of interaction. 

The food was pretty good, if maybe a little too varied. Like, who wants hummus, fajitas, grits and bacon all in one meal? The only other sad part was that we forgot to stock up on dollar bills to give out! They definitely deserved dollar bills! They were so great and beautiful. Also the MC of the whole thing told us how she volunteers with a bilingual multicultural LGBT shelter called Casa Ruby, which seemed like a great cause, and kind of brought a more real side to drag brunch. Like, it's one thing to enjoy all the fun stuff that the gay community brings, like drag queens, dancing, fun entertainment, but I do feel like it's a little too easy to forget about all the real issues a lot of people face.

Lady Gaga Realness.

Another arguably cool/fun thing I did was Convention. It was actually really terrible in preparation for Convention. Everything I needed to do was dependent on someone else's work/approval/input and everything was super behind schedule. So I ended up having to do a ton of work at the last minute when I would've gone a much more reasonable pace if I'd been able to. But whatever. I did it. It worked out.

Mostly once Convention started I just had to sit at the help desk and reprint name tags for people who lost them. That should've been low stress but someone took my box with all the supplies I packed myself! Like it literally just disappeared. And then my printer broke. So I really wasn't very helpful at the help desk.

Christen and I matched one day. That's a big deal in our office, so we had to take a picture together and sent it around so people could marvel at it.

One of the receptions was at the AFL CIO and they have a really great view from their balcony. This is a picture of my boss there. It was great, but super muggy that day. But more importantly I got to meet three Cornell Law Students! They were all super nice! And two were from the Midwest, which was kind of something I was worried about--that everyone at Cornell is from New York or New Jersey and that they'd think less of me for being from the Midwest. That was super nice. 

This is Max. He's a good dude.

Wendy Davis spoke at our Convention. The video is pretty interesting. She seemed really chill. No security detail or anything. Also, some law student really geeked out when she saw her and pulled out a pair of pink tennis shoes and rushed up to get a picture with her.

One of the two panels I actually broke away from the health desk to see was about reproductive rights and how poorly that fight has been going. Wendy Davis didn't actually speak at that one, but it was a very informative, if a little bit depressing. I did tweet a lot and got a few new followers! So I guess that's a success.

I also went to a panel on the death penalty. That had a way different tone. That's definitely a battle "we" ("progressives") are winning. It was mostly the speakers guessing when capital punishment will be fully abolished.

Also I got to meet another Cornell Law grad. He's also a Michigan grad and is an anchor on MSNBC. His name is Ari Melber. I only talked to him for a few minutes, but he was very nice, and willing to take a picture with me--and I'm pretty much no one!

I tried to organize an all staff picture. People acted like that was an insane request. It was surprisingly harder than I thought.

The highlight was definitely seeing RBG speak! She's very funny in person. And also so tiny! One of our former board members clerked for her so he interviewed her and they talked about feminism, gay rights, rap, and a ton of other stuff. Everyone at work was really nervous we wouldn't have a full house for her because she wasn't scheduled to speak until the very end of a three day conference. SO WRONG. It was so crowded! 

They told us that we definitely would not be able to take pictures with her, which was kind of a disappointment, but understandable. Not everyone can be like Sotomayor and take tons of pictures with staff. In the end, we got one single picture with her as a whole staff. Which, I mean, is pretty much good enough.

I was SO tired after convention. It's like working around 40 hours in three days, so it super sucks, but it's only once a year and is for a good cause, so you can make yourself do it. Plus I got Monday off.

On Sunday we went to Pride! It was really fun! We went last year too and that was also fun. Zack did not try on undies this year though. He just took a picture with the Shalom Felicia sign. I almost had to join a Queer Drum Troupe. Just like how I almost joined a sorority. The guy in the booth asked "Are you gay? Do you live in DC? Can you spin a flag?" And even though I answered no to all three, he still said I should come to try out. I def thought I had struck out. Other highlights include: A guy offering Zack many of the gold (big) condoms, seeing a Taylor Swift impersonator, and getting pretty bad tan lines.

On Monday I took it easy, watched 50 shades of gray while drinking sangria with my coworkers and played trivia at a bar. My team won though! There were 10 people from work, and they're all kind of used to me bossing them around, so no one noticed when I made myself a dream team! The only kind of sad thing was that the prize was $100 off your bar tab, which would've been great, but I had already closed my tab so I didn't get any of the money! I guess knowing we won is enough. Or something.

Now all I have left to do is 1) move into Steph's apartment for 10 days 2) send all my stuff back with my dad 3) fly to Japan 4) enjoy my last real summer, like ever.

Gringa Amiga

I went to Chile for the wine, and I ran into Amy Ketner!
(Amy, in case you forgot, is the one who loves Juan Pablo).
Amy lives in Santiago where she works in youth ministry and campus ministry for a Catholic church and nearby Jesuit elementary, middle, and high schools. She lives with three other volunteers and a pet cat named Pedro. She also speaks Spanish really well and really fast, which was fun and confusing to listen to.


In Chile, last Thursday was a holiday and schools had the day off. I think it was to commemorate some battle, but I'm not sure. I landed in Santiago Thursday morning and was met by this shining face and a lot of signs that I couldn't read.
The first day, we did a lot of activities. I met the roomies, ate a completo, drank Chilean beer, walked up Santa Lucia hill, and ate dinner with the host family of one of the roomies. The host family spoke little English, but they practiced some for their upcoming trip to Orlando with phrases like "this is a pencil" and obscenities not appropriate for this classy blog. I practiced Spanish phrases like "no espanol." We ate pizza, it was great.
Friday was a sandwich day, which means it was between a holiday and a weekend so it was another day off school! We took a day trip to Valparasio (AKA Valpo) which was so cool and is about an hour from Santiago by bus. Valpo is a port town and became really prosperous because of all the ships that had to stop there on their way around South America. Then the Panama Canal got built, and less ships come to Valpo now. Valpo is still beautiful, though, full of brightly colored homes built into hills that light up in the evening and twinkle off as night gets darker. There is also a lot of street art, exhibits A & B:






Saturday was another adventuresome day, but this time we stayed in Santiago. After breakfasting at noon on homemade bagels, we headed out to the mercado central (I put that in italics because it is another language). This was a really cool space that seemed to go on forever with fresh fruits and veggies like a farmers' market but also stalls for buying cleaning supplies and toilet paper and dry goods. We drank juice-smoothie-things and then walked across a beautiful park to the Pablo Neruda house. It was quirky and interesting and had an original Diego Rivera painting, which I liked because the DIA makes me think Rivera is from Detroit. Neruda was a communist and a big supporter of Salvador Allende, the socialist president of Chile who the U.S.ofA. helped to overthrow and replace with a dictator when we were in that phase (still in that phase?) where we try to control the whole world. Pinochet (the dictator) was a real jerk, so that ended badly. The house was restored by Neruda's lover-turned-wife after he died, and it was one of my favorite touristy activities that we did.


Saturday night we went out to a few bars Amy likes with her friend and I got to see Chilean night life, which goes on far too late for my liking.
Sunday was our relaxed day of hanging out on the porch and cooking together and sharing music. We also went to Amy's host family's house, which is right around the corner in the poblacion, which is what they call the poorer neighborhoods in Santiago. The family was nice to me even though I'm a dumb gringa and travel to Spanish speaking countries without knowing any Spanish. After hanging out with them we went to mass, roasted chesnuts over an open fire, and split a bottle of Chilean wine.
Monday was my last day, so we made the most of it by going up another hill (by fernicular, which is like an elavator/ski lift) and taking in the view of smog and mountains and the biggest city I've ever seen. There was a big old Mary on top of the hill and JP II said mass up there on his papal visit to Chile!

After the hike  down we ate chorianna, which is like chili cheese fries but with way better toppings, and drank pisco sours, which is the name of Amy's cat. I did a little souvenir shopping, we toured Amy's school, and then it was time to leave.
All-in-all, TeenerAdvisor gives Santiago a 5/5 star rating, in particular the accomadations at Amy's casa. And although saying goodbye was sad, Amy will be back in the USA this December (and will probably promptly leave to explore some other part of Latin America).
Now on to the next adventure: Uganda catch that plane!

#SBORLANDO2015

Our loyal readers have probably wondered of late, "What happened to CART? Why aren't they updating their blog? What will I read without them?"
I am here to answer your questions and to pressure the other 75% of our writing staff to pick up the slack a little bit (I'm looking at you Taylor).

So, what happened to us? Well, we all four have been busy with some pretty exciting lives since we last updated this blog, but one event in particular which all of CAR + the honorary B participated in was Spring Break 2015. Bobby and I are still students, so we get these nice little vacations throughout the year and are encouraged to spend them in sunny climates drinking and getting tan. Ashley and Rachael are working women, but they also get vacation time occasionally and if they don't use it all up on salmonella, they get to come to Florida, too! Taylor, unfortunately, is a teacher, and her spring break doesn't come until actual spring. This is a bummer.

Here are some pictures from our trip to the Most Magical Place on Earth: Orlando!

Siesta Key Beach: #1 Beach

Right before we clubbed at club

We clubbed at Uncle Drew's, too

This is not actually us, but it's from the Book of Mormon song called "Orlando", so it seemed appropos

Mostly Sports, But Some Other Things Too

So a lot of my life has been sporting events lately. I feel pretty good about it, but I'm also thinking maybe we should diversify our outings. 

Aaron and I went to the Red Wings game. I was like 95% sure he wasn't going to go if Zack and I didn't go, so I decided I'd be nice and go with him. They don't come to DC often, so you gotta see them while you can. Also, the tickets were only $20! And you can buy tickets up to an hour after the game starts, which seems a little crazy. But anyway, that means tickets go down to like $7 if you're willing to miss the first few minutes. So that's useful if you guys ever find yourself in downtown DC with time to kill.

The game was super close and the Wings came from behind to win! But, I noticed the guys in front of us took a snapchat of me and Aaron, which seemed kinda rude. But then, I'm pretty sure they thought we were on a super bad date. Like no touching; not that much talking; a lot of texting--all the signs of a bad date. Jokes on them though! We'll never date!

We we were Kris Kross for Halloween. We looked like this and I had a lot of vodka gummy worms:

The next weekend we went to the DC United playoff game, which Zack was pretty excited about. The sad news was that DC didn't end up advancing to the next round. It's a weird play off system that doesn't make a ton of sense to me. The sad news is that I was pretty sick at this game and Zack also lost his voice.

After standing in the cold for like 5 hours, we had to go home and then come back out for Samantha's birthday! You guys remember her, right? She just turned 23 because she's a baby. It was really fun! We played cards against humanity, which is apparently a game I can get into, despite not usually liking games, especially card games.

We had to leave the party pretty early because the next day we needed to go to Baltimore for the Raven's game! My boss gave us the tickets because he has seasons tickets, but wasn't able to go. I was a little surprised he gave the tickets to me, Stephanie and Zack, because he sort of has a reputation for being part of the boys club. But I definitely think it helps that Zack and I went to an NFL game by ourselves earlier in the season and that I talk Michigan Football with him.

I'd never been to Baltimore before, and I don't really feel like this trip counted because we just went to like Camden Yards and the football field--no sightseeing or anything. But, I guess I didn't realize how close Baltimore is to DC! I think we're going to try to make another trip out--but probably not until 2015, which is a little crazy to say.

The game was really fun! The Ravens won, we had a really good view, it wasn't that cold, there were a bunch of drunk guys behind us, and even though one of them threw up on himself, none of it got on us! (I'm counting it as a victory, because it was a close call.) But, the drunk men did manage to spill beer on us. So that sort of sucked, but not like I was wearing anything important anyway.

The sad news is, this was not good my health and I spent a lot of last week sick. Even Veterans' Day, which was supposed to be a fun day off.  Instead, I just spent a lot of time sleeping and coughing. Turns out it's an upper respiratory infection! Woooooooooo. It's mostly better now though--yay modern medicine.

#blackoutsparty

Which is good because yesterday I went to the Maryland-MSU game with Mattan and his girlfriend (who actually went to UMD)! It was a great time! So the Big House is amazing and I love it. Let's get that straight. But the thing is, this was so much more convenient than if I had tried to get three non students into the Michigan student section. We just bought the tickets, no validation required. We were able to sneak in two beers to the stadium. I got a free tshirt that says "FEAR THE TURTLE," which I think is an amazing slogan. We sat in the third row at the 10 yard line and had plenty of room to dance. Also, a freshman in front of me bought me hot chocolate for no reason? Maybe she was hitting on me. Maybe she was just super nice? Either way, it was only $4.25 so...I only feel a little bad.
I don't know what my rooting interests should have been, but both teams looked a little ridiculous. So I feel pretty good about us winning next weekend. One weird thing was that Maryland students didn't seem to get that MSU is not the same as Michigan. I guess they'll figure it out next week though. Jeez, get better at Big Ten, Maryland. Everyone else knows the difference. 

Some random things I want you guys to see:. I made fancy brownies and my flowers are doing excellent:

 Also, I have 4/15 law school applications in, so maybe I will actually go to law school. Who knows.

EDIT (11/16/14 8:48 PM): 5/15 law school applications in. Woo.

The Alumni-Student Paradox

(I feel like this could be the title of an episode of the Big Bang Theory.)



I still love you, Brady

I finally got to watch some Michigan football this weekend now that my moonlighting job has died down with the wedding season. I have a 2-0 record, so using science I can say that I am the singular reason we won yesterday, and against App. State. I also left both of these games at half-time, because it turns out I am a much worse fan now than I was two years ago. Also I was afraid my toes were falling off, don't judge me for being a wimp.


It's weird being a student and an alum at the same time right now, because half the people I see around Ann Arbor are old friends and half are new. When I'm in class, most of the people I talk to are from out of state or out of country, and it's all pretty focused on getting that degree. But then I see old friends and I feel like I'm still in undergrad. As much as I love Ann Arbor, this has shown me that I should not live here as a non-student, I would just be too confused.



So cold

Blaine was in town this weekend for the Indiana game, and just because she sometimes gets a week off at a time with her wacky nurse schedule. This was great, because I like Blaine! I went to the game with her and Kathleen and then dinner and then to this bar called Bab's that I have never been to before because it isn't on South U. and charges 8$ for a drink. But it was way classy and worth the 8$.
Lately I've been super busy, which isn't a thing I'm really used to since my job last year was a joke and I spent most of college watching The Bachelor. I feel like I'm always in class or at work, and most days I'm gone from 8AM to 10PM. This isn't that impressive, though, because Kirstin is awake and at work before me and also usually gets home super late, so we are just both absent roommates. Now that midterms are over I will get a little break from proctoring, so I can finally catch up on episodes of The Voice. Even though Shakira is gone and she was my favorite.

Today I had a meeting for what I am calling "Uganda Club," which is actually a group of students working with Progressive Health Partnership, doing grant writing and fundraising for their work in maternal and infant health care. I'm hoping that I can put together a research project and do my internship with PHP this summer, too, which will hopefully be more exciting than writing grant proposals, because that is turning out to be kind of a bummer. But I'm pretty into moms, so at least the topics are a fun time.


I just did a countdown, and there's only 3 weeks till CARTSgiving! I'm really excited for all the mystery train and Mexican food and to be all together again!