I Heart Gameday!

It is finally tailgate season as ASU just had their first home football game of the 2011 season. (We won - woot woot!) Next to Summer and March Madness, tailgate season is my favorite season. 

Since my undergrad did not have tailgating, I still get overwhelmingly excited about hanging out in the middle of Raley parking lot with the other grad students from my program, playing Corn Hole (bean bags to those of us from the Midwest), listening to either "Dirt Road Anthem" or "Black and Yellow" on repeat, chowing down on burgers and hot dogs and ending the day with some great Mountaineer football! 

Plus, how can you not love game day when you get beautiful fall days and a stadium that has a view of the Blue Ridge Moutains in the background! 

So for most of the remaining Saturdays this fall you will find me in the "back of a jacked up tailgate" loving life and cheering on App State!

SPRING BREAK in MISSISSIPPI

This past week I spent some time down in Pascagoula, Mississippi with a group of ASU students for an Alternative Spring Break trip. After a fresh shower and a meal that doesn't consist of PB&J I am beginning to reflect on a great week. 11 hours. 11 hours I spent in a 12 passenger van to Mississippi with a bunch of students I had only seen a handful of times. We had a vague idea of the type of work we would be doing in a place we knew nothing about. We got down to Pascagoula Saturday evening and soon made plans to go see a Mardi Gras parade in Mobile, Alabama the next day. What a great way to start out a trip! I never knew that I could become so excited about getting beads thrown at me!

Yay Beads!!

Throughout the week we worked on a house that had been impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The house had been flooded and within the last 5 years it has started to slowly get pieced back together. Apparently, soon after Katrina contractors would come to work on people's homes, promise to fix up all the damage but instead took off with their money and left their homes in ruins. Our group got to work on a home by caulking and painting the whole house. We started off the week with excess amounts of enthusiasm and nearly had the house finished painting by the end of the first day. After a little pep talk at the end of our first day, we decided to go back and be a little more meticulous with the work we were doing.

We worked with a man who had grown up in Mississippi but then moved around the country a lot. He heard about things taking place back in MS and decided to help out. What he does is he raises money from the help of donors and finds volunteers to fix up homes in the Pascagoula area. In the past two years he has helped over 50 families who were effected by Katrina.

While working, we kept ourselves entertained fairly well. We sang songs. We spoke in ridiculous accents. We turned the paint into face paint. We climbed up on the roof just to catch a few rays of sun. It was great! An older gentleman Ned was working with us on the house. Ned became a major theme in newly created songs, conversations and inside jokes. The best moments were when we got Ned to sing "Big Green Tractor" by Jason Aldean with us while working on the house. There was also another guy working on the house who was born in MN so of course we got to talking about the land of 10,000 lakes! He now lives in MN but has been coming back to MN in the summers to participate in the triathlon in Buffalo, MN. Crazy meeting up with someone familiar with my home town on a service trip in Mississippi.

Oh Ned!

The group was 9 girls and 1 guy - poor Clay! Everyone was great! On the ride down we were still figuring out each others' names, but by the end of the week we were laughing like crazy and crackin' jokes with each other like we had known each other for years. I don't think I have ever laughed so much in one week. It's funny to me how this group of strangers have seen the real me, while the people I go to class with every day have only - at best- seen a glimpse of who I really am.

Excited faces!!

Wednesday there was a storm in the morning that prevented us from working. We spent the day playing Sardines and taking naps. We also decided to take a little driving tour around Pascagoula. The houses that are now on the Gulf are million dollar homes but there are still a lot of empty lots right there on the coast. You can see other parts of the city are still abandoned and destroyed from the Hurricane. We also somehow ended up by the port just around the time everyone was getting off of work. I don't recommend doing that. YIKES! So many people!

By Friday we had the house all painted on the outside as well as the inside. We even got to grout the kitchen and bathroom floors, which was an unexpected but welcomed task. Our help wasn't a major impact like the home next to us that had 40 people working on it and was gutted and resided within the week. But we did get to move the house one step closer to being a place someone can come home to and hopefully be a continued sign of hope for the people of Mississippi.

The best part of the week was going to get some BBQ at The Shed. Rumor has it this BBQ & Blues joint has been featured on Dinners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It has some incredible BBQ and you can sit outside under the stars warmed by the heat provided by the nearby bonfire all while listening to a great blues band play hits from Johnny Cash and Elvis among many others. It was fantastic! If you ever end up in Ocean Springs, Mississippi you must go eat there! You won't regret it.

And then after another LONG 11 hour drive I am back in Boone. I am so glad I got the opportunity to go to Mississippi for this trip. I was glad to get to know some students that don't live in my building and to be a part of something bigger than myself. I was reminded that one person can really make a difference in this world. I know that I may not be fixing homes and restoring hope, but I do hope that something I am doing here at ASU is making a difference. So all in all - GREAT trip! Mississippi, it's been real!

Lock Picks and Jimmy Rigs

I believe that the events of tonight are probably going to end up being some of my favorite memories of grad school. The story begins when I decide to move from my usual working place of my RA office to my RD office. I don't ever use this office because I highly dislike the location and the way the office is arranged. But tonight for some unknown reason, I decided to give working from that space a go. Big mistake. I stepped out of my RD office to go grab some information out of a different office, but then realized that I needed my keys to access such information. When I went back to get my keys from my RD office I saw that the door was now closed and, to my dismay, was also locked!! Which wouldn't be a big deal if I had a spare or if the master key that can get into every other room in this 9 story building would work on this door. But no, this door has to be special. LAME! It also wouldn't be much of a dilemma if I wasn't currently the RD on Duty for the West Side of campus and all the keys I need for such a position are safely locked behind aforementioned special door. Double Lame!

One of my staff members trying to console my immediately produced anxiety offers me pizza. (thanks Brian) And then one resident comes down to visit and thus becomes the recipient of my retelling of this tragic tale. I beg, plead even, for her to attempt to pick the lock, which she claims she has done successfully before. While she is shoving and twisting bobby pins into the lock on my door, a group of boys from the 5th floor come down with tools in hand. Realizing that this special door wasn't going to be as easy to access as they hoped, they proceed to thinking of clever and inventive ways to get inside my RD chambers. With the right amount of man power and a little jimmy rigging they were certain they could get through my 2nd story outside window. Hoping to preserve them from any unnecessary injury a fellow RD Shane (MY HERO) recommends calling ASU police to see if they have a key for the door. Swallowing my shame I make the call. Hope has arrived! They say they can get into my door! While waiting for my rescuer, a larger mass of people come down to assess the scene. And then the officer arrives. With a lingering sense of doubt I see him fiddle around with his set of keys, and then........VICTORY!! The door opens! I jump for joy and have to seriously restrain myself from hugging the officer! I run into my office, pull out my massive set of keys, and place them securely around my neck! While glad I now have my keys safely in hand, the 5th floor boys walk away disappointed that they didn't have a chance to execute their master plan. I appreciate the support boys!  Tonight will probably be the last night I use my RD office for the semester. And therein lies the end of my tale. Never a dull moment!

Day with Dibbs!

Remember, the greatest gift is not found in a store nor under a tree, but in the hearts of true friends. -- Cindy Lew

This week I got to spend a day with my good friend Sarah Dibbern (Dibbs). This hang out time was greatly anticipated since I had only seen said lady once since the end of May. During our time apart, Sarah carefully constructed a list of things that her and I would be doing during my time here in MN.

Dibbs with "the list"

With the list in mind, we set out on our little day of adventure. First, we set off to do some shopping. She introduced me to a store named Charming Charlie. LOVE! It's this incredible jewelry store where the jewelry is all separated by color with all the handbags, belts, and other necessary accessories to match. Heaven on Earth I tell ya! After some more shopping, a run in with another great friend from college, and forcing Sarah to humor me and take some goofy pictures...

Yay Sarah!

...we were off to go ice skating in St. Paul. Yippee! As a child, I always had dreams of being a figure skater. On the lake behind our home, we would always clear off a spot to go skating. And while my brothers were off snowmobiling or making snow forts, I was busy daydreaming about skating for Olympic Gold with the likes of Kristy Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan. So, needless to say, I was so excited to relive my childhood dreams.

 However, it had been quite some time since I had been on ice skates and although at one time I was very sure of myself on skates, I was certain this ice skating experience was going to be a shaky one at best. We went to the outdoor rink by the Landmark Center and for only $2 it was a pretty great way to spend the afternoon.

Landmark Center in St Paul, MN

Story time: While waiting in line to rent our skates, Sarah spots this guy that she had a crush on all summer. I, not knowing who the fella was, asked her to point him out to me so I could be on the look out. "The one with the black hat and coat, over there by his family." "Okay. Got it." I was thinking that a little rendezvous on a skating rink made for a pretty great story, a "Meet Cute" if you will. (for more details on a "meet cute", watch the movie The Holiday) Sarah, on the other hand, was not having it. She did all that she could to try and stay away from this guy. I threatened her that I was going to shout her name every time he skated by me, but after she pleaded with me that I keep my mouth shut, I respected her wishes. Later on when we decided to retire for the evening - fall-free I will have you know - we were about to walk out of the warming house when... dun dun dun...her crush appears! FINALLY! He greeted her with a sincere enthusiasm, and I merely stood back and observed. But the one thing I finally noticed was that the guy she was talking to WAS NOT the guy I thought she pointed out. This entire time I thought her crush was some other guy in a black hat and coat skating around with his family. Wing-man fail! Sorry Sarah! But after a nice little chat with her crush, Sarah and I left to round off our evening with a nice dinner.

All in all it was a great day with Miss Dibbern and I am thankful for the time I got to spend with her. Dibbs, remember you are always welcome to come visit me in North Carolina. Love you!