Iron Bowl 2011: Never Again

For some reason that is the title of this year's Iron Bowl on Wikipedia. I would love if this began a long streak of Alabama wins like in the 70s. After this year, Alabama has officially won as many Iron Bowls in my lifetime as they have lost.

The weekend was amazing. I got to stay with my friend Sarah at her family's house down there, so luckily my car was in a place unlikely to be vandalized. Here's the portion of the blog in which I post a great picture of Sarah to remind you of who she is.


Sarah pulled a Total Huff Move and decided to not go try delicious homemade soups at our friend Michelle's house. Her mom made chili, potato soup, and a corn chowder, and they were all so good. After that Michelle, Nina, Jake, and I took a night time tour of downtown Auburn. This was by far my most pleasant adventure in the town that has caused me so much pain like sleeping in my car and being stung by a colony of something late one night in Hickory Dickory park. The downtown area by the campus can be really pretty when not covered with toilet paper. Our favorite addition was what we like to call the sniper tower watching over the trees on Toomer's Corner.


The next morning was Iron Bowl time. The game is at 2:30, so you have to get to campus pretty early if you want to do any kind of tailgating. Since Sarah actually had a ticket, I met up with Michelle, Nina, and Jake again to stroll around the campus, and along the way we ran into almost everyone I know in Auburn and other places. Here we are at a brief stopping point before settling down to watch the game.


The four of us went to Little Italy to get lunch and save a place for viewing the game. There were a slew of Alabama fans, so we were in good company. For the most part... We came across someone we loving refer to as Doormat Sarah and her more assertive friend. Someone dropped $10 on the ground, and these drunk girls were asking anyone if they dropped it, so Michelle suggested that one of us pretend it was ours. Nina took the bait. Twice they came back to our table acting as if they had dropped the money and we took it when they knowingly handed it to Nina.

This provided us with hours of enjoyment afterward as we developed an entire back story and constantly feared further retaliation. It should also be noted that both times they confronted us. No one talked except Nina, and for that we are all sorry.

After watching the glorious victory of the Crimson Tide. We went to a celebratory dinner at Niffer's, a taste of the town in Auburn. We had great food and an awesome appetizer that was paid for with the $10. If you ever visit Auburn, this restaurant is worth a try. There are so many more things I want to order and taste.

The rest of my stay was a blur of running into old friends, making jokes about doormat Sarah, and driving in darkness and rain. When I got back to Tuscaloosa, Sarah and I watched the season finale of Sisterwives and the new episode of All American Muslim. In between we saw a commercial for the new show Virgin Diaries. It included the most beautiful kiss of all time. You can watch it here!

Year with the Yeti

Gilderoy Lockhart stole the story from someone, so I figure I can steal the title of his book. This might also work since he isn't actually a person.

Tuesday was one of my favorite days because we went to Animal Kingdom. It is one of my favorite parks because it has the best rides, and you can do everything in the park at least once in less than a day. The first thing we did was get in line for the Kilimanjaro Safari on the Harambe Wild Life Reserve. It's important to do it pretty early in the day because the animals like to go back into the shade and take naps during the hot afternoon. Also, they feed them around 9, so they come running out to the savanna area quite literally. 

Also at Animal Kingdom, there are some of the better thrill rides in the Disney parks. They have both Dinosaur, originally known as Countdown to Extinction, and Expedition Everest. The former is a time travel themed adventure in which you are sent to retrieve a dinosaur from the very end of the Cretaceous Period minutes before the meteor shower hits. During the adventure, a Carnotaurus chases you. I guess if the world were ending, I'd want one last good meal too.

The latter is a roller coaster that is themed around an expedition to find the yeti in the snow covered caps of the Himalayas. It is by far one of the best roller coasters I have ever been on and is definitely the best one that Disney has to offer in Orlando.

That night Will, my dad, and I went to meet my friend Mallory who has been working in the Disney College Program since the summer. I was so jealous to hear how much fun she was having. If you get a good placement, Disney is a great place to work. She's a face painter/ pirate person ate the Pirate League in Magic Kingdom. I would love to do something with Disney, which actually sparked my most recent employment idea for post VISTAship, which will be discussed at a later date.

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom because we had lunch reservations at the Liberty Tree Tavern in Liberty Square. In general this restaurant has been a family style Americana place, but at lunch it's unforuntately not. My mother was also sad to see that they no longer have a sponsorship from Stouffer's. I just had to spend some time crying into my chicken mushroom alfredo because the Hall of Presidents attraction made me lose control of my emotions. I don't consider myself overly patriotic, but watching that show inspired some nationalistic feelings. From Abraham Lincoln talking about equality through JFK's assassination, Clinton crying over the Oklahoma City bombing vigil, and even Dubya speaking out of a megaphone at Ground Zero, I could not keep it together. Then it ended with Barack Obama speaking, and it just reinforced my love of him.

If you don't know, the Hall of Presidents is an attraction featuring animatronic representations of each President of the United States, but only the good ones get to say anything. My condolences to James Pierce and his fellow forgotten presidents for not getting lines in the show.

After lunch, Will and I rode the triumvirate of Mountains at Magic Kingdom, and our dad joined us just in time to ride the Carousel of Progress. This attraction was originally featured at the World's Fair to show the progression of the American family of the course of the 20th century. Now you can watch a version of that show in a rotating theatre featuring more animatronic actors. The best or maybe worst part of the show is that as the theatre rotates from scene to scene a terribly catchy tune is played. Since my family only goes to Disney World for vacationing, we have learned all the words to this song and choose to sing it during the show regardless of audience size.  

Our last day was Thanksgiving. We had to switch hotels for our last night, so that led to a pretty uneventful day. We went back to MGM to ride Star Tours again and Toy Story Mania. Then we had our final sit down lunch/dinner at the Rose and Crown Pub in the United Kingdom pavilion in EPCOT. I had a great shepherd's pie and a funny exchange with our waitress. I asked if they had sweet tea, and she said no because it's freshly brewed...

This is just even more proof that, save the panhandle, Florida is not a Southern state if someone living there doesn't even know how sweet tea is made. Disney didn't even have it as an option in the parks until about three years ago. I am so glad that has changed.

Part three about the Iron Bowl will be out soon!

There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

This is part one of a three part blog about my Thanksgiving week. The post would be so long that no one would read it if I condensed it into one.

The week started with an early afternoon flight from the crazily busy Birmingham International Airport. The person checking us in at the Southwest desk asked me if I was old enough to have an idea. Do I really look fourteen? If he saw what I actually looked like at that age, I don't think he would question it.

I wish more than anything that I had a working camera because I would have taken a picture of everything I ate in order to display it here. After I passed a certain age, our trips to Disney have become more about the food than the attractions. The first night we had my favorite meal of the entire week at the restaurant in the Mexican pavilion. I had a great steak, tostadas, black beans, rice, and a caramel crepe. Also my Spanish accent was complimented. She was just asking for a good tip. Here's a picture of the restaurant. It's inside, but they give it an evening ambiance.  

That was all we did the first night because Sunday was the Magical World of Harry Potter day. We LOVED it. My mom had obviously been doing some research and knew we needed to get in line for The Forbidden Journey ride as soon as possible. The line was almost as good as the ride itself. They have great property designers. One of my friend's dad actually made the desk in Dumbledore's office. The ride was amazing. I was screaming the entire time just out of giddiness. We even got to see the Triwizard Tournament Pep Rally. It was a great nerdy experience, and I was so happy that I was wearing my Quidditch on the Quad shirt.

Monday was another food filled day. My brother and I walked over to MGM, now known as Hollywood Studios, and spent the early morning doing the new Star Tours and the classic Great Movie Ride. We also ate at the ABC Commissary where I had a great chicken curry. It probably wasn't too legit, though. Then we met up with my parents to eat at their favorite restaurant: Le Cellier. It's the restaurant in the Canadian pavilion at EPCOT. The two things I love there are the Cheddar Cheese Soup and the literal chocolate moose.

That night Will and I continued our nightly activity of riding Mission Space and Test Track before having a friendly foot race back to the room at The Beach Club. This concludes part one of my Disney travels. Please listen to the song featured in Disney's Carousel of Progress that provided this instalment's title.

Listen to me

I Owe Ioway All I Owe, And I Know Why

I think the State Fair song sums it up nicely. We needed Oklahoma State or LSU to lose, and Iowa State delivered last night. Now my beautiful Crimson Tide has a chance to get back into the National Championship game. Even if we don't, it still looks like I'll be going to New Orleans in January.

This week was super busy with work. I taught five classes in five days. Some went better than others. Monday night was a quick second half of client casework with some great volunteers. Then I had a great dinner while getting to know our newest VISTA Cody followed by a string of reality television shows with Sarah.

Tuesday I taught the most fun class of any I have so far. It was a little disappointing that no one but Sarah and my two coworkers came, but we still had a great time. The class was a Shelter Simulation that involved talking through different scenarios and making decisions as if we were running a real Red Cross Shelter. There were some great one liners from this activity including "I'll make you a sandwich and tell you a joke." Then Sarah and I got home just in time for Ringer. If you guys aren't watching it, you should definitely catch up!

Wednesday, James and I took a little field trip to a Holiday Mail for Heroes card making party at the state office in Hoover. Every holiday season the Red Cross collects holiday cards to be sent to active American troops and those in Veterans hospitals around the world. We were the first two there and had five cards made before many more people showed up. After a quick lunch we picked up some dessert a McDonald's  and came back to town just in time for Mike and I to head to Panola, Alabama, for a Disaster Services: an Overview course.

This was an odd experience. I've never felt like I've been in a more rural part of Alabama, and this includes Guin and many other small towns. We got there thirty minutes early and had to sit in a grass parking area in the dark for twenty of those minutes. I thought it was great to be able to teach this course to a volunteer fire department, but I had heard that there were complaints from them about the Red Cross response during the tornado. My half of the class went very well, so I assumed the other half would. I apparently assumed incorrectly. I guess every class can't go as well as others.

This was evident in the class I taught Thursday morning. I somehow ended up with incorrectly made participant manuals and a classroom without a proper computer to show the powerpoint on. The class was filled with great people, but they were unimpressed with my preparedness. It made me look bad even though it wasn't my directly my fault that either thing occurred.

After I returned to Tuscaloosa, I went to check out an apartment possibility in town. The price was great, but the experience of looking at it was not. One of the roommates is leaving because he doesn't like the other. This was red flag number one. If they can't live with each other, how can I live with one of them? Then on my way home from seeing it, one of them texted me asking if I was seeing anyone. This was red flag number three because red flag number two was the fact that the first message he sent me was "I have a question????"

That night I taught Disaster Services: an Overview to the Shelton State Corps. They were all great even if one of them asked me "Who the f*** are you?"before we began. All the classes this week were obviously very unique. After class I went to watch the remake of The Parent Trap with Georgia and Sarah. It's always nice to see Lindsey Lohan before the fall. We also spent a good amount of time loling over Harry Potter pictures on the internet.

Friday was a pretty slow day at work. The nurses that were supposed to take to our class didn't show up at the office out of confusion or apathy. It has not been proven which. Natalie and I had a great lunch and catchup at Buffalo Phil's, which was beyond tasty. I am so glad that we've gotten this extra year to spend time with each other.

As soon as I reached work post lunch and voice lesson, I had to start a fire case with a client whose home at burned down the night before. Everyone who could do casework had left the office, so it was just Cody and me handling everything. It really proves how far we've come that we often run the office on our own now. I couldn't even imagine doing that months ago. I even got my fire case into the computer system with just a minor malfunction that was easily corrected.

Now I'm in Disney World, but I want to save that for another blog post. I may do two to encompass the whole trip. I also want to include pictures which never works out when I do it from my Mac. Until then I hope you are all enjoying how the football stars have aligned to get Alabama back in the number 2 slot in the BCS rankings. I've never watched the end of so many non Alabama football games in my life. Roll Tide.

Wisdom Pulled

Any witty pun involving Kirstie Alley and/or the Rock escaped me in trying to title this blog, so I went for an Ayn Rand esque configuration of words.


Before we get to the climax of my wisdom teeth getting pulled, we'll start with the rising action of the rest of the week. it really wasn't a very busy week with work after the craziness of Monday. Tuesday, Sarah and I watched Glee and Ringer. Wednesday, I taught Disaster Services: an Overview to my friend Lee and the rest of the fundraising department at the Hoover office. Only three of them worked at the office suring the tornado and wanted all of the newly hired members to understand how disaster services works and what their specific role would be in an operation. It was interesting to see how all the departments of an office come together during a disaster because I had not really thought of that since our office is too small to really even have departments.

After a quick lunch at the Hoover office, I came back to Tuscaloosa for my voice lesson and to teach a one on one Client Casework class before going to our next to last Community Emergency Response Team training course at the mall. Luckily this class was shorter than normal, and I was able to go help Mean Girls, the former Donner Party, start the off season with a bang getting 2nd place at trivia. We have now gone over a month without paying for dinner on Wednesdays because of our trivia winnings.  During trivia the Joe Paterno decision was announced on ESPN. I can't imagine how I would react if someone I knew and respected for years was caught up in that kind of scandal. Poor Penn State could not catch a break this week especially when you include their loss to Nebraska on Saturday.

Due to Veterans Day the Alabama region of the Red Cross had a half day Thursday, so the VISTAs had lunch with our supervisor Holli in order to learn about what we were supposed to be doing this entire time whilst supervisor-less. After a long nap, Casey, Sarah, and I went to eat at Los Calientes. I didn't know when I would be able to eat solid foods again, so I made sure to eat as much as possible that day. Casey and I proceeded to fail to get into City of Angels on the standby list, so I spent the rest of my evening before sleeping watching Being Human and doing Wii Fit.


I'm obsessed. Luckily, there are only thirteen episodes, so it didn't take up too much of my time. It's one of those shows that if you try to explain it no one would ever watch it, which is common among fantasy. Thus I will not try to explain my love for it, but I think it handles the popular werewolf vampire conflict better than both True Blood and Twilight.

After a night of dreams involving eating before surgery and IV complications, I was at the oral surgeon at 7:40. As I sat with my IV sticking out of my arm, the nurses in the hallway discussed their favorite desserts while I thought about how I hadn't been allowed to eat or drink anything since midnight.

Once the doctor finally came in the next thing I remember after a drug induced journey was walking to the recovery chair and texting a bunch of people and twitter. My dad then drove me back to Hoover, and I had to communicate with him via the American Sign Language alphabet.

The rest of the weekend was spent drinking broth, eating foods I wasn't ready for, and spending time with my family in Chattanooga. They're still not settled in from moving there after the tornado destroyed their homes in Phil Campbell, AL. If you're ever in Chattanooga, I did get a great chicken sandwich and fries at Nikki's Drive-In.
 

Yesterday was Alabama's second annual Quidditch on the Quad. Thanks to the American Red Cross I was unable to participate. I did get to pick up my t-shirt and see Alpha Psi Omega's excellent opening skit. The Quidditch World Cup was held in New York this weekend. I have to find a way to get in on that. I think I may be going to grad school for the sole purpose of playing Quidditch and getting football tickets. I'm not kidding. Quidditch on the Quad is one of the Top 5 best days of my life.



I have to give credit to my first little in Alpha Psi Omega and wonderful friend Alexandra Tucci. She was one of the major components in planning this event both years, and even though she hasn't been active in APO she still cheers for us and only us. Last night she, Sarah, and I shared a bottle of wine, some food, and religion based reality television shows. This is Alexandra and Casey.


As always we watched Sisterwives as they ventured to Boston for a college tour and question and answer forum. I know that they're kind of trashy, but I find these shows really eye opening. I have to admit that I would be naturally close minded to the thought of multiple spouses, so I think the Brown family has been able to persuade people into seeing a different view point. Last night was also the premiere of All American Muslim. We loved it. It shows a wide spectrum of how people practice Islam. I think it'll be a great show worth watching. In this week's episode a man converted to Islam so that he could marry his fiance. It looks like that will be causing some tension later on.

Now I'm just waiting for the day to end so that I can teach, watch RHOBH and A List Dallas, and have Wii Fit tell me that I am the only person in the world that gained weight after having their wisdom teeth pulled.

Here's a picture of Stanford's mascot. Mike just informed me that it is the mascot's responsibility to make his or her own costume.

Losing Bleauxes

This post won't be entirely about the LSU Alabama game, but it was sad that a wonderful day was blemished with a terrible "interception" and an insufficient offensive effort. Luckily, we are still #3 in the BCS, so all is not lost. Sorry, Stanford and Boise State. Here's a picture of our recception ruled an interception after Reid stripped it on the ground.
 

Before Saturday, work was a blur of taking and teaching classes. Holly was out of the office all week, which made some things difficult. It was mostly just a stressful week of attempting (an failing) to buy a ticket to the game. I suppose now that it's a good thing I didn't get one. I would have been much more upset to watch it in person.

Tuesday, Natalie, Jake, Thaddeus, and I had an excellent dinner at Ichiban by the Bama Bowl on 15th Street. It was really good food, but the service was not the best. The conversation helped alleviate the long wait between Thaddeus and Natalie's sushi being delivered and Jake's and my bento boxes arriving. Thadd didn't bring his wallet in, so Natalie had to pay for him, which brought a nice irony to the evening since most of our conversation had been about moochers.

Wednesday, after I snuck out of CERT training, I went to the Donner Party's last ride. We had to deliver an impressive performance to get back into the top five teams. Unfortunately, we got into the swing of things a little too late and ended up missing the cut off by 4 points. We're picking a new name for next time, but I have loved these months with the Donner Party.



Sarah Voluntary Service Langcuster and I had a great week of television watching Glee, A List Dallas, 1 Girl 5 Gays, Ringer, and RHOBH. We love a good catch phrase, and our current one is Chase saying "I have taken a lover, and his name is Levi." I am so glad to have someone with which to watch trashy television. I'll miss her greatly next semester. I wish I was cool enough to be able to photoshop a picture of her and Chase together.


Friday night was the return of the BPPFL. This was after staying at the office until 6 helping Holli with the very frustrating proccess of filling out a quartetly report. We probably enjoyed ourselves too much for how annoying the situation was. After finally getting it worked out, I went to Los Calientes aka Los Shoneys with Amanda and her friend Shannon. Tuscaloosa was PACKED this weekend. We weren't even allowed to go into Waffle House because there were so many people.

The game was a big enough deal that so many Alpha Psi Omega almuni came into town. I went to see them all Friday night, but the largest group of random people were at the Pink House resulting in all of the older people leaving. This left me with a bunch of the freshmen but in particular my beer pong partner for life, Kaitlin O'Bradavich. We have played eight games together and are still undefeated. I can only hope we can continue our hegemony. Here we are with out substitute player, Motell. This is also my Doctor Who Halloween costume.
  

Saturday was beautiful. Kaitlin, Lexi, Ameen, and I got free Moe's burritos and more importantly sweet tea. There was also some great Jambalaya at the APO tailgate. Since I never founda a ticket, I watched the first half of the game at The Houndstooth and the latter half at a graduate student's apartment with the APO alumni in town. Even though we lost, it was great to spend time with old friends.

That night Natalie got me to yet again take her to get late night food with three others. We went to IHOP this time, and it was a pretty big let down after our last late night eating experience. The lack of hot chocolate would be the main factor in this.

After a day of rest and CERT training on Sunday, I taught class at the Birmingham office downtown Monday morning. The class went well, but I was sad to discover that their office had been broken into over the weekend. They had a flat screen television in the lobby for people to watch while they waited.  guess it wasn't the best idea to have almost floor to ceiling windows through which anyone could see this TV.

When I got back to Tuscaloosa, Holli, Cody, and I helped Sarah and some other commuinity service volunteers move everything out of our mall store and set it up in a new store two doors down. We also took a quick break for lunch at Los Shoneys. Cody is our new VISTA that started Monday, but he's been around for a few weeks.

Last night I taught client casework in our new mall space, which is really nice. It was a pain that we had to move everything yesterday, but if we can stay there it'll be a great asset for teaching. I had two great volunteers in my class, and they put up with me speaking to quickly at least to quickly for a Southerner, as one of them pointed out.

Once class was done, I drove over to Sarah's for our daily dose of television and ordered what I thought would be a simple dinner from Hungry Howie's. It wasn't simple. Not only did he bring the wrong drink, he didn't have change! I had to give him close to a $5 tip. Before I even took a bite of my dinner, I went online and filed a complaint. My fingers are crossed for some store credit.

    

Now I am just letting Tuesday slowly drag on before going home for television with two of my favorite Sarahs and hopefully an early night's sleep. Tomorrow monring I'm teaching Disaster Services an Overview for the financial department at the Hoover office! I'm so excited to get to hang out with Lee and everyone.