Side note

I chopped my hair off again. I donated it about 2.5 years ago and it was getting long enough that it bothered me so I cut about 9 inches off. Here's the before and after on the day I cut it (my last day of work).



Time to drop my sorostitute look and be grown up and grad schooly.

SEC to ACC

So as an undergrad bulldawg, I got a good taste of what SEC football is. I am now getting a better taste of what it is, by seeing what it is not.

What it is not: ACC football.

I went to my first UNC football game today, and it was great. It was definitely not a Saturday in Athens kinda great, but I had a great time.

The stadium is significantly smaller than Georgia's, and there still weren't enough people to fill it up.




Now, I expected those parts. What I hadn't thought about is that I don't know the fight song, alma mater, or any traditions at all. Apparently I need to learn how to spell out C-A-R-O-L-I-N-A with my body. How does one make an "N" with their body? I'll have to figure it out. Part of me felt like a clueless freshmen, part of me was excited to get to learn all these things again, and part of me really missed Sanford Stadium.

Watching and amateurly trying to join in on the pre-game rituals was fun, but what was most entertaining was when the basketball team walked into the stadium. The football team? No. The basketball team. Half of them weren't even wearing UNC colors but everyone (but me, apparently) knew exactly who they were. They walked in from the bottom of the stadium in a pack



...and proceeded to sit only a few rows away from us.



I actually only took that picture in hopes that Hunter would recognize someone. Cause Lord knows I didn't.

This was also my first football game in four years not wearing a dress. I expected the UNC people to be a lot fratty-er than they are. This is the look I'm used to, modeled on a fine man I knew in undergrad:



Croakies? Check. Bowtie? Check. Jacket? Check. And are those seersucker pants I see? CHECK.

And here is what our girls look like:



Needlesstosay, people weren't as dressed up today. I'll give them a pass for the chilly weather (high of 62!).

While it was no SEC, I got to have a study break and hang out with some great people in my program. Overall success for sure.



Also, I realize that I've been very SEC-over-ACC, UGA-over-UNC these days, but come basketball season I suspect I'll change my tune. I have a sneaking suspicion that UNC basketball might prove to be strong competition for UGA football. Bold, but I'm excited to find out for sure.

These days

Life has been a-hummin' here in the last month, and here's a little look into what I've been up to.

1. Studying. Including, but not limited to, reading, writing, researching, homework, law cases, research methods cases, case studies, etc.

2. Enjoying Chapel Hill! Every Thursday night my program has happy hour at a different place downtown in Chapel Hill. Which is nice because it helps you see your colleagues as people and not just fellow workers. Plus you get to get out of the house. PLUS you get to know all the cool places in Chapel Hill.

Also, I finally made it over to the Old Well. The tradition of the Old Well is that you have to drink from it on the first day of classes and you'll graduate. Or something like that. (Opposite of the Arch at UGA, where you can't walk under it until you've graduated.)

3. I got to see parts of UNC's bid day! I must say, UGA knows how to do bid day. These girls tried, but I had to shake my head a little bit.

This is how UGA does it:



4. I got to see Duke! As part of my program I may take a class or two there and on Sunday they had a concert of Mozart's requiem in honor of 9/11. We headed on over there but the chapel was full. They had set up speakers outside and there were hundreds of people gathered on the lawn in front of the chapel to listen.

As much as I hate to admit it, Duke (the "four-letter word" as us Tarheels call it) is actually a beautiful campus.

As we were sitting on the grass listening to the wonderful music, everyone was quiet. There were some solemn faces and lots of closed eyes, soaking it in. Some people brought their kids and I couldn't help but think that they had no idea what was being remembered. And I couldn't help but think that my 12-year old self didn't understand it when it happened. About 45 minutes into it, a little girl in the corner by the speaker caught my eye. She was dancing.

It was a strong testament to what a breath of fresh air the innocence of a child can be. And it's a small reminder that beautiful things can come out of very ugly things.

ESPNoticed!

A random family friend/acquaintance wrote on my Facebook wall last week that someone had linked to my blog on an ESPN message board. I have no idea who this person was, but this is what the gist of the conversation was:

Person 1: UGA sucks!
Person 2: UGA rules!
Person 1: I bet none of the UGA fans even show up to the game on Saturday
Person 2: Oh, yeah? You think none of these people are going to show up? ***Link to the picture of "Frat Beach" in St. Simons on my blog about GA/FL weekend***


Naturally I had to go check this out, and there it was. I am now a reference. According to the URL the guy must have typed "frat beach st simons" into Google image and my picture came up. Which is does.

Two second-years in my master's program have quit in order to take incredible jobs at ESPN. It appears I may soon be the third...

Apartmentalizing

For the past two years I've lived in a house of five girls. Before that I lived in the sorority house with 60 girls and before that I lived in the top floor of my dorm with 40 girls.

This is the first time that I've lived in an apartment and lived with just one other person. There are some downsides (not always someone to play with) but there are some good sides too. If the kitchen is a mess and I didn't do it, I know who did. There is only one person that could be loud to annoy me. I get lots of alone time.

As far as living in an apartment, it's a very different experience. Luckily my 1200 square foot space is enough that I don't feel like I'm living in a box (like the dorms...that were about 100 square feet on a good day-about the size of my roommate's bathroom here). But there are always people around when I walk outside, mostly retirees. They said you have to be 21 to sign a lease here but I think they meant 71. Luckily, it's a pretty quiet place- nice for studying- and the pool is never overcrowded.

My first night here I was convinced people were "in my house," which they kind were. I live on the first floor but I'd never had people live above me. It wouldn't be much of a problem except that I'm pretty sure our upstairs neighbor is Hagrid. I have never heard someone walk louder. But only sometimes. Tina and I think maybe they just like to hop to the kitchen or something.

This is my wonderful room



And this is my wonderful bookshelf that I took forever to put together but has all my favorite things



And this is the building I'll practically be living in the next two years (Carroll Hall)