Oh, happy day!

I can't help myself.

I just have to blog about how awesome yesterday was.

The following things happened yesterday that put it in the running for best day in North Carolina:

1. I finished and turned in THREE assignments. Four days early.

2. Ashley and Hunter came to visit for lunch on their way to a wedding in Raleigh and I got to show them where I live and at least part of my new town.

3. UGA beat Florida. I'll say it again...The University of Georgia beat the University of Florida. I had the game on in the background while I was executing number 1 on my list, and couldn't believe it when we were actually contending for the W. When it got to the last quarter when we came ahead...

4. Tina and I went to a pizza place across the street to watch the end! That's right...two social events in one day! AND...

5. We were sitting next to Florida fans! Who groaned very loudly when we won and "mumbled" something about how we hadn't won in three years and have only won however many games out of a million. To which I mentally responded...."DURRRRRRR!!!!! That's why we're so excited. SUCKAAAAAAA"

6. Then after the game, some dude bought all four of us (me and Tina and two of her friends) a drink, but then just said congrats and left. Didn't even have to put up with cheesy pick-up lines. Incredible. At which point...

7. I asked for the least alcoholy-tasting beer, and what the bartender gave me was actually pretty good! Tasted like Ginger Ale. Just how I like it.

8. UNC beat Wake Forest! Sorry, siblings.

9. Duke lost! I never really follow Duke but this is just the cherry on top, mind as well add it to my list.

Intimacy Issues

After finishing a hell week, I decided to give myself last night off. My neighbor/classmate and I decided to get wild. So we got on our kicks and went to Bed Bath & Beyond and Marshall's.

Where things got "intimate":



Sexy.

Organically yours

Continuing on the fact that (all but one of) the people in my program are miles more liberal than I am, I have been given so much crap about what I eat.

Now, for those that are informed of my testy digestive system, you know that there are many foods that I can't eat and keep down. So when I find something that I can eat without worry, I stick to it.

Recently my diet consists of bread, carbs, raw vegetables, Lean Cuisines, english muffins, cream cheese, carbs, bananas, chicken, carbs and sweets.

Now, I recognize that it's not the most balanced diet. But it keeps me from upchucking in class, so my classmates should be thanking me.

One day when discussing what I microwaved myself for dinner the previous night, I got a lecture about how terrible Lean Cuisines are for me, and was offered to have someone list out all the preservatives in them.

These people I'm talking about make their own peanut butter, brew their own tea (to drink from a mason jar because plastic is bad), and grow a billion different spices on their apartment porches. They also scoff at anything non-organic. Anything.

I get it. I do. Making fresh food is good for you. I can't cook, and I don't choose to learn. It seems like a waste of time to me and if I'm going to take time out of my day to do something, it's not going to be for cooking. So sue me.

I'm not eating Big Macs for every meal, and considering the limits of my diet, I try to eat decently healthy.

Also. I'm a good person. I'm working on my third degree. I'm going to contribute to society and pay for my own healthcare. So what I choose to put in my body is of no concern to you.

Unless it is smoke and in that case feel free to bitch-slap me.

Point is, I have a decent amount of things going for me and at some point I just can't do it all. So one of the things I choose not to do...is cook.

But since I have been dubbed the young, irresponsible one of the group that doesn't cook for herself, I have decided to completely embrace it.

Conversation of the day with a guy who did the Peace Corps in Mozambique and eats seaweed for lunch (no, I'm not kidding):
-Dude says something about his French press
-Me: I drink instant.
-Dude: INSTANT COFFEE? That has to be so crappy. It's so processed. And it has so much less caffeine.
-Me: I like to drink decaf anyway so it doesn't really matter. Plus I know nothing about coffee so it all tastes the same.
-Dude: DECAF INSTANT COFFEE!?!? I can't imagine how terrible that tastes.
-Me: It tastes pretty great if you add enough sugar and flavored creamer.
-Dude: **blank stare**

Hey, if you can't fight em, be obnoxious.

Going Hamm

Thursday night, I decided to be somewhat social and go to the women's soccer game. UNC women's soccer has turned out some big names and the games are always packed. So I joined some other J-school peeps and to the field we went.



If there was one person you would hope to see at a UNC women's soccer game, who would it be?

Mia Hamm. That's correct.

And there she was.





At halftime Mia Hamm came out and talked about her philanthropy, showing off her pregnant belly. Turns out her philanthropy had a fundraising golf tournament that day and her and some other famous alum (Carla Overbeck for one) decided to come watch their alma mater play Duke afterwards.

Luckily it was an incredible game where one of our players scored by flailing her leg while she was on the ground to score in the last three minutes. And we beat Duke, which always means it was a good game.



Toward the end of the game, one guy asked us if we recognized anyone on the bench behind us and I said "No." But another girl did and told me that it was Roy Williams. And thanks to my UNC-crash-course-a-la-Hunter I knew who that was!





(He's our basketball coach.)

I hang with celebrities these days.

Like Ann Coulter

It is extremely rare that I am the most conservative person in a room.

Now I like to think that I straddle the political canyon, but everyone likes to think that. Within the people I've grown up with and gone to school with, I'm the crazy liberal that puts feathers in her hair and goes to Cambodia to write.

Here, it's a different story.

Somehow I've gone from the girl calling people out on their incorrect Bible references and carrying borderline-explicit signs to gay rights protests, to the one girl that has been to a church before and questions the legitimacy of Occupy Wall Street.



Also, I stuck up for the Girl Scouts the other day. Someone called the Girl Scouts a scam. That's like saying Mother Theresa had ulterior motives. But when did I become the spokesperson for the Girl Scouts? Unexpected to say the least.

Here I seem to be the spokesperson for both Greek life and SEC football. Now, I like both of those things, but never as much as the people around me for the past four years have.

It continues to amaze me how different people can see each other differently. I've never been your typical SEC sorority girl. And suddenly, to these people, I am.

Lisa is engaged!!!!

Now, she got engaged on Friday. I wasn't able to make it to Charlotte for the party afterwards (which I'll be kicking myself for until the wedding- which I WILL attend. Promise) but I am still very excited.

Of course, my future-brother-in-law is none other than the wonderful Matt Hinson.



Look at him, blinded by love.

Aside from my sheer excitement to have another awesome brother, I have realized two things:

1. There will be a whole nother series of wedathon events and posts! It's gonna be a while before they actually tie the knot so wedathon round two begins!

2. People that make comments like "You're next!" or "When is it your turn?" should fear for their safety.


Welcome to the fam (almost), Matt!

Lit reviews and lagging behind

As always, I apologize for my hiatus.

My sister told me this weekend that it's not as much about the content of my blogs or the utter hilarity (*hair toss*), but more so about the frequency. So I'll try to work on that.

The problem with my life these days, is that it isn't very blog-worthy. When I lived the sorostitute life in the brothel, or when I was hiking around Thailand, my life was easy to put into words.

Now my life can easily be summed up by this: School.

I don't like people that talk about how they have SOOOOOOOOOOOO much work to do. And since all I do is read, study, write, highlight and go to class, I haven't talked to pretty much anyone in seven weeks, as to avoid being that person.

But I have a feeling that for the next two years, my blog will make the shift from sarcastic, pain-in-the-ass undergrad sorostitute, to sarcastic, pain-in-the-ass graduate ass-kicker. I can be two types of ass at once. Bob would be proud.

So things I would recommend to first year M.A. students studying business journalism at UNC (ok, I'm only like 7 weeks in, but this is what I got- take it or leave it).

Well there is boring stuff like "always do your reading" and "go to class no matter what." But there are a few other little rules that are a bit more fun but just as true.

1. Don't look like the undergrads. This may be because I'm supposed to be mature and refined, or it may be because undergrad was SO five months ago and it would be embarrassing to look like an undergrad. And so, I have ditched my Nike-shorts-and-t-shirt uniform, chopped off my hair, and started to shower a little more frequently. It's exhausting.

2. Pick a schedule that works and stick with it. From Monday-Thursday I spend my days on campus at school, work, and talking with teachers. Friday morning -Sunday night I do my work. I usually treat myself to about half a day off, but more than that and my whole schedule is thrown off course and I go into shock. It sounds dramatic. And it is.

3. Inspired by a conversation with my roommate, and a recent assignment: NEVER mess with anyone's highlighters. This is what my week has and will continue to look like:



Every color has a different meaning and now that I'm halfway through the research, if someone borrowed one of my highlighters without asking or caused it to prematurely run out, I would suffer cardiac arrest. And I do not have time for cardiac arrest.

4. Learn to love the people you're stuck with. My cohort has 13 people in it. Between us and the first year PhD students, there are 20 of us. We range from 22 to Bob's age, all sorts of shapes, sizes, colors, and life stories. Not one of these people is like any of my friends from Athens. It's like a patchwork quilt. But I'm with them all day every day, and they're the only ones that understand exactly what's going on.

5. Sleep when you can. Wherever you can.

6. Have an outlet. Every night when I make (microwave) dinner, I sit down to a Netflix episode of early Grey's Anatomy. And for 48 minutes I get to fantasize about McDreamy, be glad I'm not in med school, and tear up over melodramatic plot lines. Hey, whatever works.

As I'm sure I've alluded to an obnoxious amount of times, I'm working hard up here. And it's not a drag and it's not terrible. It's just a different way of life but it's somewhat enjoyable. The most enjoyable part is knowing (hoping) that in two years I am going to have a degree in my hands that I worked myself to the bone for. And I'm excited to experience that kind of accomplishment.

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)