Island Livin'

Now back to where we left off. As I was gathering my things to leave my weekend in the 'burg, I received another invitation for another trip away. 

This trip I was invited to would take me back to Maine. 

And that's how I ended up in a car on a Friday, with my best friend, Patti; her fiancee, Ben; and his little sister, Hannah. If you remember, this would be my second trip up to Maine as I spent time on the island with Patti back in 2011. I couldn't wait to go back!

Meanwhile, it was Ben and Hannah's first trip to Maine. But don't you worry, I had my fair share of Maine first times. 

For instance, my first Fluffernutter. For my friends who are from the Southern regions of the United States and aren't quite sure what a Fluffernutter is, let me fill you in. It's a sandwich with peanut and marshmallow fluff. Yeah, I was skeptical at first. But it's actually not that bad. Not sure it actually should constitute as a lunch sandwich though. 

Also, my first lobster roll. There are actually no words to describe this.

But while there were many firsts, I also revisited a few of my favorite spots!

For instance, the popcorn store! We also ate at Dry Dock again, which I think is a must-eat place in Maine. 

Anyway it was a great time! I can't wait to be back on the island again!

Homebody

It's no secret that I am outgoing. And I love going places that I've never been before. I was super excited when I received luggage for Christmas (and I got to mark something off my 101 in 1001 days list). 

My new luggage set

I spent the first two weekends of 2013 out of town. The first weekend, I headed up to Lake Caroline to spend some time with the best friend, Patti since I hadn't seen her since the last JMU game.

The second weekend of 2013 I headed down to Southport, NC to a wedding reception to celebrate the wedding of my birthday twin, which involved about 9 hours of driving alone in a two-period. 

So after two very busy weekends, I was perfectly content staying at home. In fact, most of the time I am a homebody. I usually prefer spending my Friday and Saturday nights wearing my yoga pants and watching Grey's Anatomy, which is what I did this weekend. Then I'm usually asleep by 11 p.m. and up the next day before 10 a.m. 

I'm getting kind of boring in my old age. Does anyone else feel this way about themselves?

Game 3: JMU vs Towson/Roomie Reunion

Game 3 took place on Saturday, October 6. Because the game was taking place two days after Patti's birthday, I headed up to Caroline after work on Friday. Patti and I then drove to Fredericksburg to meet Ben and his little brother, Jake as were taking Jake to his first Division 1 College Football. We met the boys at Target and then headed over to Cheeseburger in Paradise for lunch! 

Because it was Family Weekend, it was going to be an early game - 1 p.m. So we headed to bed not long after we got home from Fredericksburg because I had my alarm set 6:15 a.m.

The Outfit

Shirt, Forever 21, ~$8, Scarf, Old Navy, $10.99,
Jeggings, Target, on clearance for <$15,
Boots, Target, $34.99

                                            

My favorite outfit of the season so far. I don't think I will outdo this one easily!

The Tailgate

Since it was an early game, we had breakfast for our tailgate! Patti's family always makes the best food! We had pancakes, potatoes, bacon, and sausage!

Then for what I had been waiting for! This game was the first game that all 4 of the 13-I (my senior year apartment) girls would be attending since Fall 2009. We hadn't all been together since May 2010. Let me introduce you to my roomies!

Tyler, me, Natasha, & Patti

I could gush on and on about how much I love these ladies but I won't! I see Patti fairly often (if you're a reader you know this) and Tyler and her boyfriend have season tickets with me so I've seen them a lot recently. However, I had not seen Natasha since Homecoming last year so I definitely may have squealed when I saw her! 

The Game

Because the first two home games were on the boring side, this one just had to be exciting! It came down to the last two minutes but JMU walked away with the victory, 13-10! It was also Coach Mickey Matthews' 100th win!

STATE of aFAIRs

Before I get to the meat of this post (which you can probably guess the subject matter if you're smart enough), let me go off on a tangent for a second.

First we have the official unveiling of my 101 in 1001 days list. I first saw one of these lists on a girl that I went to college with's blog and I've been struggling to make my own - that's why some of the things on my list might be dumb. I finally completed making the list. Hopefully it will provide for some new adventures and some exciting blog posts! I've already done some of the things on the list so I need to cross this off.

Speaking of completing things on my list, that brings me to the subject of this post. Because of the 3-week break between the home games at JMU, my weekends have been kind of low key lately. 

So one day last week, I decided that I was going to do something this weekend with some of my friends because I miss hanging out with them. I called Patti up and we were brainstorming. I said, "Let's go to the State Fair," not really thinking she'd go for it. She went for it. Apparently neither she nor Ben had ever been to the state fair of Virginia. 


Not having been since I was in middle school, I took it upon myself to take them to the State Fair! Because Patti lives like ten minutes away from where the fair takes place, on Friday after work, I headed to the lake, stopping at Martin's on the way there to buy our discounted State Fair tickets! When I got to Patti's, we waited for Ben to get there and played with Lola, since Patti was also dogsitting this weekend!

Lola Loca loves me!

Sweet Caroline...

When Ben got there, Patti made us tacos for dinner and then I preceded to fall asleep on the couch while we were all watching tv because I work way too hard! 

On Saturday, we got up and went to the State Fair of Virginia! I went equipped with my camera but then realized that I had left my memory card in my lap top! Epic fail on my part.

The first thing we did when we got to the fair was visit one of the petting zoos. I enjoyed petting the goats who were super excited to be fed; one even tried to eat my raincoat!

After the first petting zoo we headed into the main section of the fair. The first show we saw was a tiger show, that featured 5 real live tigers! Tigers are one of my favorite animals - I think the whites ones are just so pretty. 

Look how tall the tiger is. Ignore lady and child that showed
 up in every one of my photos. Why am I so short?!

After that the rest of the fair was a whirlwind of events. Ben watched a freak show. Patti and I shopped in the little booths. We walked by rides that were way to expensive to ride and too scary. Ben attempted to win us prizes. He failed. Patti and I attempted to win ourselves prizes. We failed.

Note to self: Skee Ball is NOT my game!

We partook in the eating of fair food! By the way, funnel cake is my absolute favorite part of fairs, amusement parks, football games, etc.

Once we got through the main part of the fair, we headed over to the agricultural side, where we saw tractors, large pumpkins and another petting zoo. This is where I felt at home! We saw two baby cows that had been born at 5 a.m. that morning!

This pumpkins weighs 452 pounds. No big deal.

After walking around for a few hours, we decided to end our day at the fair.

Yes, we took this on our way out. We're a little backwards.

All in all, it was a fun trip! I think Ben and Patti enjoyed their first State Fair of Virginia experience. And it's something I can cross off my list!

Have you ever been to the State Fair, or any fair? What is your favorite part of fairs?

Fantasy Football Draft 2012

I can be super competitive. Know that. That's why the Saturday before last I partook (is that even a word) in one of my favorite end-of-summer activities: the annual Harrisonburg Fantasy Football League draft. 

I've been participating in this league for 4 years. The league has been around for 6 years. I am currently the reigning fantasy football champion.

On September 1, at noon, we gathered at our favorite fantasy football drafting location, the Buffalo Wild Wings in Harrisonburg. This year our league was made up of 8 teams, all of whom were present for our live draft, with the exception of one, which led to us having a celebrity drafter. That celebrity drafter happened to be:

My birthday twin!

With the help of your awesome sticker girl, Jessica, we all successfully drafted our fantasy teams. I had the 8th draft pick while Jeremy had the number 1 draft pack. Patti drafted 7th, which often caused problems when we tried to share her boyfriend consultant, Ben.

Jessica and I

Anyway here are the members of my nameless team!

Matthew Stafford, QB Detroit Lions

Steven Jackson, RB St. Louis Rams

Stevan Ridley, RB New England Patriots

Marshawn Lynch, RB Seattle Seahawks

Victor Cruz, WR New York Giants

Antonio Brown, WR Pittsburgh Steelers

Jermichael Finley, TE Green Bay Packers

Ravens D/ST

David Akers, K San Francisco 49ers

Dwayne Bowe, WR Kansas City Chiefs

Kevin Smith, RB Detroit Lions

Philip Rivers, QB San Diego Chargers

Robert Meachem, WR San Diego Chargers

Denarius Moore, WR Oakland Raiders

Kenny Britt, WR Tennessee Titans

Michael Bush, RB Chicago Bears

This league is one of two fantasy football I am participating in this year. Here's to hoping I can have a good season with both!

Do you participate in fantasy football? Who are your favorite players to draft?

Knee Deep in the Water Somewhere

My Facebook newsfeed has been filled with stories of people shipping off to the beach for weekend trips; this weekend I finally got to head to the water, but not to the overrated beach and all the traffic that trip would entail.


Instead, I was lake bound.

I'm usually not one for doing things alone but one thing I like to do alone is drive myself places. I have total jam sessions that I would not want to subject anyone's ears to, unless I hated them.


This road trip had its own significant problems. The AC in my car is broken. It takes me about an hour and a half to get to the lake and to my Cake. After reading fellow blogger Gretchen's horror stories about her own broken AC, I prepared to stay well hydrated on this drive.

They were both empty at the completion of my road  trip.

Anyway back to the beginning. Patti was having her boyfriend and his two littlest siblings stay at her house this weekend. She invited me to come up as well. We recently found out that Ben got this super cool new job so that was our first order of business: to celebrate!

When I finally got there on Friday, after driving during the hottest part of the day, we headed up to Massaponax to do some shopping. We went into a few stores, with the idea that we would return to them if we didn't find what we were looking for in Target. That was our first mistake. 

When we got to Target, it started storming. Badly. The lights were flickering. After we were in Target for a good 20 minutes, the storm knocked the power out. Luckily Target had generators so there were a couple of working lights, the doors worked, and after awhile, they got the registers working. It was definitely an interesting experience. 

However, the storm had knocked the lights out everywhere else in Massaponax. Our shopping trip there was cut short. We headed back towards Patti's to stop at Food Lion. While we were in that shopping center, we saw Anthony from afar. 

Backtrack: Sophomore year, when I first met Patti, we used to talk to Anthony on the phone all the time in our dorm. But I never ever met him in person. 

After Food Lion, we headed back to Patti's and awaited the arrival of Ben, Hannah, and Jake!  When we got home, Daniel, Evan, and Anthony were there. We ordered pizza, that arrived exactly as Ben, Hannah, and Jake got there. 

Our Friday night activities included pizza eating, Apples to Apples, ice cream cake celebration and watching Captain America. 

Saturday was  lake day! We woke up and made two batches of pancakes! The kids were so excited about getting in the water. To be honest, as long as I've been going to Patti's I'd never been in the water with the exception of one boat ride last June. 

Ben canoed us all over to Little Beach (making two trips each way) where we splashed around in the water some and played Frisbee. We then headed back to Patti's deck where we stayed for a bit. Then we decided we wanted to go bowling.


The last time I went bowling (during Fantasy Football weekend) was with Ben, Patti, Hannah, and Jake and I did awful that time. I had every intention of redeeming myself, which I think I did. The real story of the afternoon was Patti, who bowled 6 strikes (two turkeys) and a spare all in one game, finishing with a score of 193. In my defense, I did start my second game with two strikes!

Blurry photo! But Patti's score is the second line and mine is the bottom line!

We headed to Walmart for ingredients for kiddie cocktails and to pick up a RedBox movie. When we got back to Patti's, we played two games of Apples to Apples with Daniel, Anthony, and his brother Dom. Then we all had dinner, which was crazy awesome because Patti's mom extended the table and every seat was filled!


Then Steph and her parents came over! I just about tackled Steph when I saw her because I hadn't seen her since December! She's about to head to Maine for a bit and she promised to bring me some popcorn. Yum! I went on a night boatride with her and the rest of the adults, while Patti, Ben, Hannah, and Jake watched Red Tails. 


On Sunday, we woke up early and headed to Mass. Then we visited The Virginia Bazaar. When we got back, Patti's parents had hamburgers and hotdogs cooking on the grill! After lunch, we went for a boat ride and then went swimming in the lake. After we all showered, we sat around as our weekend came to a close. After staying for dinner, I headed southwards, road tripping home. This time in much cooler temperatures. 


Where's your favorite place to put your feet in the water?

Rendezvous in Richmond

For those of you who don't know, I currently work as a substitute teacher. While on a day-to-day basis, the job definitely has its ups and downs.


One of the positives is the schedule. Every day I'm off by 3:00 p.m. and I have weekends off, unless I'm hanging out at my alma mater on official school business.


And the best thing is I have still have Spring Break! Who says you have to give up Spring Break once you graduate from college. Last year I spent my break in Harrisonburg.

This year Spring Break was last week, April 9-13. I spent my entire break in Richmond. From Sunday to Thursday, I was helping Lynn make over and paint her new condo. I got paint all over myself.

On my skin...

On my clothes...

Even in my hair!

Exhibit A:

I was talking to Patti one day while I was painting and she mentioned that she had Friday off of work. She also mentioned that she didn't have any plans. Since it's been far too long since I saw Patti (okay it's been since St. Patrick's Day), I took it upon myself to make plans for us to hang out.

I toyed with plans of going to the beach or spending the day in Washington, D.C. but these plans sounded both expensive and exhausting. Then I thought, well I've been in Richmond every day this week, what's another day?

It took me awhile to narrow down what I wanted to do.

We decided on Carytown, since I hadn't been there except briefly since my senior year in high school. Then I wanted to check out Hollywood Cemetery.

I met Patti in Richmond with some directions from Google Maps since I'm not exactly the best at driving places I've never driven before or city driving. But I successfully got us to Carytown.

We decided to walk down one side of the street from end to end and then hit the other side on the way back.

Some of the highlights:

Cops on horses.

For the Love of Chocolate a.k.a. my new favorite place in the world. Think of any candy you've ever had (remember Warheads, anyone?), it's here.

Patti with a York Peppermint Patty.

Candy!!

Charms from the bead store

and Sweet Frog, which there are no photos of because it's so good and there's no time to take photos when you are that hungry.

Then we headed over to Hollywood Cemetery, except we got there at 4:40 and they close at 5p.m. So I only got to explore for a little bit! There are awesome views of the city and the river from the cemetery.

I'll do some more exploring next time!

St. Patti's Day Weekend

The people I usually talk to every day live the furthest away from me. 


That's what going away to college does to you. 


College forces you to live really close to people; people that you don't know.


College forces you to share a 3-sink, 3-toilet, 3-shower bathroom with 27 other girls. College forces you sleep in room with someone whose sleep habits do not match your own.

Hope you didn't feel this way about your roommate!

College forces you to become close to people in the shortest amount of time ever. College forces you to make the friends that you've been looking for all your life.


Then college makes you graduate. College splits you up from the four (or five or six) years of people it's been forcing you to be with. At least that's how I feel.


After a long span of time with zero road trips due to my lack of car, I headed up to Caroline County on Friday to spend the weekend with Patti and Ben. 


Patti is one of those people college forced on me! I met her freshman year after knowing nothing about her except what was visible on her Facebook and that she was going to be on of the girls living in my suite sophomore year in Chandler Hall. 


I wonder what each of us would have said if you told us then that we'd spend the next 3 years living near or with each other and being nearly inseparable; that 5 years later we'd still be friends.

Patti and me!

When college introduced me to Patti, I'm not sure that it intended on introducing her family to me but I'm glad it happened. I absolutely adore them!


Anyway, Ben, Patti's boyfriend, was the one who actually invited me up to visit with them since I hadn't seen them since December! It just so happened that the weekend he invited me up for was the weekend that Patti's oldest brother, Eddie was home from Hawaii, where he is stationed in the Army. 


It was a lucky (luck of the Irish, perhaps?) coincidence because a) I hadn't seen Eddie in ages, b) I got meet his girlfriend Jess, and c) there was cause to celebrate, which means PARTY! 


Which means food.

Green Deviled Eggs! Patti's idea!

Pasta Salad!

Which means family.

Patti and her brothers!

 Which means fun.

One of the many lawn games being played.

 On Sunday after regaining our energy and attending Mass, I got to introduce Ben and Patti to the amazingness that is Sweet Frog! They were so excited even our trip to Sweet Frog included me getting rear-ended at a stop sign! No worries, everything and everyone was okay. Frozen yogurt made us feel better! 

Patti! I have no idea what she is doing!

Ben and his Sweet Frog!

My creation!

How did you spend your St. Patrick's Day weekend?

Top 11 of 2011

I would say that it seemed like it was just yesterday that we were ringing in 2011, but in reality it seems like it was a long time ago!


I decided to make a couple of lists to commemorate 2011.

Top 11 Books I Read During 2011 (in no particular order)

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Read it now if you haven't already.
2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
3. Mockingjay by Suzanna Collins
4. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - One of the best classic novels I've ever read
5. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
6. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
7. Something Blue by Emily Giffin
8. Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee by Hoda Kotb
9. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
10. Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow
11. P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

Top 11 Roadtrips of 2011 (in no particular order)

1. Maine (July) - By far this was the best roadtrip ever! I am so grateful to Patti and her family for taking me. I got to spend a week with one of my most favorite families that treat me as if I am their own!
2. Harrisonburg (April) - I had the opportunity to meet one of my tumblr friends and tour the new performing arts center. I gotto attend two of Beau's baseball games and hang out with some of my absolute favorite JMU/Harrisonburg loves.
3. Charlotte (April/May) - Though I was down there for a job interview, I got to spend time with my old roomie, my birthday twin, and my boys! And I actually got to stay in the city this time and see more of Charlotte.
4. Arlington (January) - I brought in the new year with my roomies and got to go to Tyson's, which reminds me - I need to go back there.
5. Harrisonburg (August) - I always love going to Harrisonburg for fantasy football weekend. On this particular weekend, I got to catch up with one of my MCCs, go to the book fair, and go dance like a crazy fool at The Blue Nile, which was the absolute highlight of my weekend!
6. Norfolk (May) - I traveled down to Old Dominion University, a place I always feel at home, to celebrate my little cousin's graduation! A good time as always!
7. Arlington (August) - It was my first time in Northern Virginia during the warm months in years! I had a blast walking around D.C. in the heat and visiting museums and monuments!
8. Arlington (September) - I went to D.C. for some job interviews and it was the first time I rode the metro by myself and I did it correctly!
9. Harrisonburg (October) - Homecoming 2011 was amazing! I got to surprise my favorites! And watching the game with Jim in the brand new stadium was AMAZING!
10. Arlington (February) - This trip happened so long ago that I can't remember what I did. But I do remember not having to spend Valentine's weekend alone and I got to see my Bea! I think I also went to Potomac Mills and IKEA for the first time ever!
11. Blacksburg (August) - Moving my sister into college was fun because it brought back memories of my 4 wonderful years at JMU! And I got to spend time with my Little Duke turned Hokie, Tori. 

Top 11 Moments of 2011 (In no particular order)

1. My little sister being crowned Miss DHS in March.
2. My little sister graduating as valedictorian of her high school class.
3. My cousin graduating from Old Dominion University.
4. Watching my JMU Dukes beat those Richmond Spiders as my first game in new stadium for Homecoming 2011.
5. Watching the Dinwiddie Girls Cross Country team become regular season district champs and win the district championship. And I was there every step of the way!
6. The birth of my niece, Raina...but maybe not the part where I was actually in the room for it.
7. Being invited to vacation in Maine with Patti and her family! I swear the whole week before I went I was so excited, I'd just say Maine and smile like a goober because I could not wait!
8. The Earthquake of 2011
9. Seeing Wicked at the Landmark Theater
10. Having two articles and photos published in The Progress-Index
11. That moment when they announced that there was actually was going to be football this year, which led to me drafting not one, but two fantasy football teams!

I'm coming home, I'm coming home...tell the world that I'm coming home

So due to my poorness, I was planning on doing an extremely unbearable thing a couple of weekends ago.  I was going to miss JMU Homecoming for the first time since my freshman year of college. Anyonewho knows me (and some that don't) know that I love JMU and JMU Football almost more than anything in the world.


So Monday, the 26 (of September), my uncle offered to buy me a JMU Homecoming ticket. So we get online on JMUsports.com and low and behold they are all sold out. I saw a couple of overpriced ones on Stubhub and Craig's List, but not being crazy about sitting by myself, I decided that I would simply live JMU Homecoming vicariously through all of my friends.


Fast forward to Wednesday. I'm eating pizza at Giuseppe's after the cross country meet when I get a text from Jim, who asks me if I'll be attending homecoming. I tell him about how I tried to buy a ticket but to no avail. However, Jim had found some homecoming tix and needed some to sit with! I quickly agreed and that was it; I was going to homecoming!


Except I decided to keep it on the down low because I wanted to surprise everyone (a decision that would later come back to kinda bite me in the butt). So Friday after I get off work, I start my trip to Harrisonburg. I talked to Matt Rummel on the way up there and he talked about how sad he was that I wasn't going to be able to make it up to homecoming. In my head, I'm thinking, "Yesssss this is going to work out so well!" 


I get to JMU say about 7:30 and I start texting one of my baby Dukes, Erica, while I am still texting Matt, trying to stealthily figure out where I can park on campus. As I am texting both of them, my phone cuts off. I walk from the baseball lot all the way to Showker, where I plug in my phone that I've been trying to restart for the entire walk over and nothing is working.


Here I am, very close to my baby Dukes' dorm (in the treehouses) and I have no way to get in touch with her.  What am I to do? I turn around and walk back to my car and head to the Verizon store. Which they moved! It totally was not where it was, the last time I went to it. And strange enough, as soon as I walk into Verizon, I run into people from Dinwiddie. They were up there because their son goes to Bridgewater. 


I wait for awhile in Verizon while I am silently freaking out on the inside. You see, no one knows I'm coming to Harrisonburg except Beau and Josh because I was planning on staying at their place. The problem is, I don't have either of their numbers and I don't know what time Beau gets off work. 


Finally a lady comes and asks me what's going on with my phone. She looks at me, frowns, and says, "This is the third time I've seen this problem with this phone in the last two days." Umm yeah, that's exactly what I want to hear.  She takes it into the back to see if she can get it to power on. 


Guess what...it doesn't turn back on. And I'm telling her that I am 3 hours from home, going to a football game the next day and I don't have my ticket or the number of the guy who has my ticket. So she's like, let me set you up with a sales associate if you want to get a new phone tonight. And I am trying not to cry. 


So the sales guy comes over and I start explaining to him how I need a phone ASAP. He gives me two options: I can use the upgrade on our account (which is my dad's) and pay $130 for the phone I already have (with a $50 mail-in rebate) or pay $99 and file an insurance claim on my phone and get a replacement mailed to where I am staying in Harrisonburg by 11 AM the next day.


Obviously the smarter decision of the two is to file the insurance claim, so after talking to my mom, my dad, and Jeremy (he was the only person in Harrisonburg whose number I had memorized), I called the insurance people. The first time I called (yes, I said first time), the person would not let me continue because I didn't know the billing address on our account  (um, my dad lives in a different state than I do so no, I do not have his address memorized). 


So I had to call back with my dad's address and then the insurance lady informed me that A) my phone was still under warranty because it had been less than a year since I got it and B) that there was no way that they could have mailed me a phone by the next day (the Verizon guy said she was lying).


Here I am, stuck again. The Verizon guy (his name was Mike by the way) goes into the back and comes back out with a phone. He tells me that it is his backup phone and tells me to use it this weekend and then ship it back to him. He tells me to come in the next day to file an extended warranty thing to get a new phone the next week. 


He programs my number into his phone. Then I finally leave the Verizon (btw it was technically already closed when I left). Luckily, when I turned this phone on, Josh had texted me so I had his number. Jeremy texted me Beau's number so I was semi-connected again.


Then by pure coincidence I had an address book in my car that I bought for Stephanie because she is always losing her phone and losing all her numbers (is this not ironic or what?). Well since Jim is her brother, I had his number. So I called him and filled him in on the situation. I told him that he had jinxed me because I had made fun of him hours earlier about not having a smart phone and here I was in the same boat. 


I finally get dinner, get to Beau's, and then Jessica, Josh, Beau, and I head downtown to meet Jeremy for a little while. The next morning, I get up and get all JMU-ed out and head to the store to do some last minute Homecoming shopping. All the while I am texting Patti (her number was in Steph's address book as well - it's convenient when all your friends are related), telling her that I am going to have to live vicariously through you. She was sad because Aunt Patti had mentioned that she thought I was coming to Homecoming. 


Then I stalked out P-Lot waiting for Patti and her family to arrive, which I thought they were never going to! But then they finally did and I kinda jumped out and surprised them. Kinda. Patti will tell you that she thought something was up. 

Patti and I
Photo credit: Ben

And then began the task of trying to see everyone (which is difficult when you have no one's phone numbers). I was really happy though because Natasha, Tony, and Matt Rummel were truly surprised to see me and that made my day!! 
 

                                               

                                                               Tony and I




Matt and I



Matt, me, and Natasha



3/4 of 13 I-know-you-want-to-be-us

 After a couple of hours of tailgating, we headed to the stadium, which was very exciting since neither Jim nor I had been to a game in the new stadium! Our seats were way up there but they were awesome. We could see the entire field and the scoreboard. It was like having that view you get to see when you watch NFL on tv! 

Jim and I ready to watch JMU beat the Richmond Spiders!

The game was awesome! JMU won, of course! It started raining about halfway through the 3rd quarter so Jim and I snuck a couple of rows up so we could be under the awning and stay mostly dry. We stayed for the post game show and went down to the field with the MRDs afterwards to watch the trumpets do their thing.

Our view of the game.

View of where Jim and I sat from the student section.
 MRDs taking the field for postgame show.

The Jumbo Jumbotron!

Then we headed back to the car, in the rain. Needless to say, we were pretty cold and wet at this point. We grabbed dinner at Sheetz and headed to Matt Rummel's to hang out with him, Natasha, and Tony for a bit. Then we headed to SouthView.

Sunday, I got up and headed to campus where I saw 3 of my baby Dukes (Erica, Josh, and Tricia). I had D-Hall breakfast! Yum! Then I went to Jeremy's where I watched some football and had some taco salad...which was always the highlight of my football seasons in Harrisonburg. 

Then I went to Richmond to watch some football with Jim. We ended up going to Buffalo Wild Wings (yes, I was really well fed on this particular Sunday), where we couldn't decided what flavors of wings we wanted to try (there were two new flavors) so we got 24 wings between the two of us! Then we hang out for a bit before I finally headed back to Dinwiddie.