Sometimes it's necessary to visit your college town for a dose of the "good ol' days"

Things that are cool: 

When one of your BFFs is from the area your college town is in AND is getting married there.

That means visiting aforementioned town.

Fellow Aggies, I present to you the new MSC!

I was just floored at how gorgeous it is. Nothing retro about this place anymore!

This has nothing to do with the MSC or Texas A&M, but how sweet is this sunglasses/mustache combo?

Best thing about visiting your college town:

Eating dinner at your favorite restaurant, followed by outrageously cheap Kyoto Sunrise shots. They're still as good three years later, FYI.

Just a little clip of why my alma mater is awesome

Because this happens at the end of each graduation:

The graduates sing the Aggie War Hymn and "saw 'em off."

Being an Aggie is pretty awesome :)

I am a football bad luck charm

I should know better than to attend a football game.

We lost.

But look how pretty this is!



The student section. It holds about 30,000 people. A&M has approximately 50,000 students. What up.



The band. Maybe I cry when I see them perform.



Not pictured:

The entire quarter I spent sitting by the concessions, due to sweltering heat in the stands. 

Then we drowned our sorrows.

Excuse the photo quality. For once, I forgot my camera and had to steal these from Caroline on Facebook. Not sure what happened between Facebook and Blogger.

Alexia and Carrie came out to play.

When in College Station, do as the college kids do...



This was my last football game/tailgating extravaganza for a while.

The next weekends hold events such as weddings and anniversary celebrations!

College flashback weekend

I could care less about the fact that football season has started.

As you all know, it's the tailgating that interests me.

I think I've done a very good job in recent months of being rather adult-like, and tossing aside [for the most part] my college-like behaviors.

But every once and a while, you just have to embrace the ways of the past.

So I did.

Oh College Station, I missed you.

These are called shakers. They can be found at our very favorite College Station restaurant [and probably in the world], La Bodega. PURE.MAGIC.

I hadn't seen him in almost a month. Ginger withdrawls!

We dominated college.

Former roomie. She has a pretty awesome blog. Read it HERE.

Basking in our pretend college times.

Our dear friend, Austin. We'll be having big times with him in Austin [yes, Austin lives in Austin] in a couple of weekends.

I didn't exactly take a lot of pictures during the actual game day. So here you go.

I came home to one cat locked in the bathroom while the other ran around with a catnip toy in his mouth.

Nothing like a dose of reality after a college weekend!

Sausage and mimosas...the makings of a perfect weekend

Tailgating season is upon us.

Oh yeah, I guess football is too.

Whatever, tailgating is better.

I'm off this weekend to my college homeland, where I will eat too many sausages and hamburgers, and my giant mimosa mug will be in full force.

May your weekend be filled with as much food as mine!!

P.S. I added those page thingies at the top of the blog. I'm really not technological, so don't expect too much.

Two years ago

Has it really been two years since I walked across a big stage in front of a crowd of thousands to receive that expensive piece of paper?

Seems like yesterday.

I can't quite put into words the feeling of melancholy I get when thinking back on college. Lord knows I've spent a lot of time pretending like I'm still in it. But it will never be the same as when I was experiencing it for myself. The mistakes, embarrassments, nights of wreckless abandon, traditions, friends who became family, football games, even the major I hated. They were precious times, I tell you.

This weekend the Class of 2011 graduates from Texas A&M University and goes forth into the world as former students. They have so much to look forward to, yet so much to let go of. Real life is hard, yet beautiful in its own way. I am still resisting, in so many ways, becoming a true "adult," and I can't figure out if this is okay or not.

I feel like I can't be the only one out there who has issues letting go of these memories. Call me pathetic, but I wouldn't mind being stuck in college for a little while longer. Well, only if it meant that upon finally leaving, I'd meet the world with my dream job handed to me and life completely hunky dory. No? Damn.

Congratulations, Class of 2011.

Gorilla juicehead guido heaven

Oh lawzy. Do y'all watch Jersey Shore? Trust me, I resisted with all my might for the first two seasons. Being a lover of all things pop culture, this was a feat for me. But I held my head high and turned a blind eye to the outrageous antics of Snookie, Sammi, JWow, Ronnie, Paulie, Vinny, and The Situation.

But now.

Oh man. Now, I'm singing a different tune.

Aaron and I randomly started watching season 2 episodes out of boredom last weekend and slowly but surely got ourselves HOOKED.

There was no going back.

Last night as I lay in anticipation on my couch, stuffed with sushi and a champagne cockatail,  I felt like a giddy school girl waiting for a glimpse of her ultimate crush to walk by. It was almost better than Christmas morning.

And thank you guidos and guidettes, for I was not disappointed!!

There were enough one liners and girl fights in last night's premier to last comics a lifetime. Twitter was blowing up every 5 seconds with people [like myself and Katie Jo] who felt the need to play-by-play tweet. It was one glorious American cultural experience if ever I saw one.

I won't ruin the episode for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, or for those of you who are now just dying to see what all the rage is about, but I promise it was PURE TV GOLD.

They may be trashtastic to the max, STD ridden, and tanner than Bob Barker, but my gosh they are entertaining. Plus, I guess you can't really fault them for what has become such an American thing to do: capitalize on your most unsavory traits by going on a reality tv show and making so much money that you can roll up in a luxury vehicle. Cha ching!!

Aaand on a completely different and non-trashy note, my alma mater is playing in the Cotton Bowl today against LSU. While I would like to be in Arlington tailgating and heckling the Tiger fans, must settle for blogging about it. Gig 'em Aggies!!

Thinking of titles for things stresses me out

Last weekend was one of the last home football games of the season. A&M played Texas Tech, a notoriously trashy school when it comes to fans/sportsmanship.

I couldn't be concerned with all of this, as I was too busy tailgating.

Much as I love it, I'm kinda over it now. I'll be ready again when next year rolls around!

Yes, it was Halloween weekend, but no, I did not dress up and go out with everyone else on Saturday night after the game. Womp womp. Aaron and I had every intention of procuring awesome costumes that would make everyone faint with jealousy, but this did not happen. Instead we stayed in and passed out from sheer exhaustion.

The actual day of Halloween was just as uneventful. I'm convinced that sometimes we are too lazy for our own good.

However, I did get to dress up that evening [in a costume thrown together in 5 seconds: a sorority girl, the morning after a wild frat party. I had on an oversized frat shirt, running shorts, Uggs, a side ponytail with a couple of bows, and no make up. Trust me, this is basically the traditional sorority girl uniform at A&M] and play bunko with Caroline and Courtney. They have a group that plays every month, and it was a lot of fun! In my mind bunko was always a game for retired older women, but alas, my opinion has changed! It got pretty intense. Plus there was awesome Halloween-themed food and drinks. A quality night I say! See pictures here.

Tailgating 101

I made mention in my last post about the glorious past time of tailgating. For those unfamiliar with such an event, here are some pictures for your education.

I'm not a beer drinker, so I came prepared with an over-sized jug of mimosas. I'm all about class, people.

Playing games, such as the egg toss, are a favorite past time. What is not fun, as Aaron found out, is having an egg break all over your hands when there are no sinks/soap near by. While the port-o-potties might have been of superior quality, they were not advanced enough to contain running water.

Tailgates are great for catching up with friends who live in more exciting cities and reliving the glory days of college.

They are also nice for quality time with fancy boyfriends.

I feel the same way about football as I do about beer [I'm a bad Texan, so sue me]. However, there is no denying that the student section at Texas A&M is pretty dang impressive. I did my duty when I was a student and never missed a game [except for once when I had to study for an Accounting test that I probably made a C on anyway. Accounting was NOT my strength], out of pure devotion to my school's love of tradition. This is my second season of football as a former student, and I must say that sitting on the fancy SHADED side is the way to go. I am quite content with marveling at the student section instead of actually being in it.

This weekend promises to hold more tailgating fun, and I am ready.

But after this fall of smoked meats, booze, and football, I will be quite ready for more cultural experiences, to say the least. Oh well, sometimes it's fun to take part in something that involves no real intellect or care in the world. Refreshing, I say.

Aggie Ring Day

Happy Friday!

I don't have anything particularly interesting going on, nor do I have any random musings to share, so I thought I'd dedicate this post to an A&M tradition that happens to be going on today: Aggie Ring Day.

For those unfamiliar with Texas A&M, the university prides itself on the many traditions that have culminated throughout the years.

One of the most visible and cherished symbols of being an Aggie is our ring. Therefore, Ring Day is simply the day when you get your ring. I have several friends getting theirs today, and I'm so exicited for them. Unless you're an Aggie, it's hard to understand how special and exciting this day is. In fact, I'm sure getting so pumped about a ring might sound silly to some people.

For a little insight into this day, I present to you some pictures from my own Ring Day back in Spetember of 08.

After waiting for my particular group number to be called, I lined up at my table and was presented with this gorgeous and shiny piece of gold.

This was before we were anything except friends (a little crushing was going on). Please excuse his weird hair. It was previously dyed blue (for another A&M tradition called Fish Camp...that's a whole other story for later), so he had to shave it all off in order to avoid looking like a crazy person.

Something you may not know about me is that I love taking jumping pictures. All the time. Everywhere. This was right outside the Visitor Center, where I worked as a tour guide through college.

Along with receiving one's ring comes the tradition of ring dunking. There's no way to add class or finesse to the tradition I'm about to describe, so I'll just say it. You put your ring in the bottom of a pitcher of flattened beer and chug it as fast as you can while all your friends watch it happen. I know, I know, this sounds a bit immature and perhaps even slightly dangerous. However, most people do end up doing this, though not always in beer.

The lovely ladies I dunked my ring with. Yes, we had shirts made. This is not uncommon at all.

After finishing my pitcher. 42 seconds. Yeah buddy.

I hope after reading this you don't immediately imagine all Aggies as ring obsessed, raging alcoholics. This is not the case! We are just proud of our traditions and like to have a good time :)