dr. troy and a police car

Remember that time that for two out of four college Halloweens, this guy has been responsible for getting my drunk ass home? Awesome.

it's okay, body. i'd hate me too.

My schedule this past weekend:
Friday
1:00pm-2:00pm--Build the Habitat house.
2:00pm-8:00pm--Successfully avoid studying for the FE.
8:00pm-10:00pm--Carve the pumpkin. Baked the seeds. Very traditional.
11:00pm--Get into bed with intentions of falling asleep
12:30amish--Actually fall asleep
Saturday
6:00am--Wake up.
7:00am--Arrive at the FE, admission ticket-less.
7:15am--Arrive at the FE, with ticket after the fastest drive home ever.
8:00am-12:00pm--Struggle through 120 general engineering questions.
12:00pm-1:00pm--Eat a Special K cereal bar. Make a bet with the old man on passing the FE, $50, 2:1 odds.
1:30pm-5:00pm--Take the industrial engineering part of the FE. Realize the irony of having a neckache from taking an exam on workstation ergonomics in a poorly designed workstation.
5:00pm-7:00pm--Watch Clemson lose by a point to GaTech at TDs. Drink nearly a pitcher in the meantime.
11:00pm-1:00am--Pregame for a Halloween party.
1:00am-4:00am--Halloween party. Get flipcup started, run down a very steep hill through the woods, fall over a trash can, stand way too close to a bonfire in incredibly flammable material, drink SoCo from the handle, pour beer down my friend's shirt.
4:30am--Take off costume. Take off pants. Pass out after a ridiculously intense 22 hours.
Sunday
All day--Suffer from the worst hangover and neckache ever.

It's okay, body. I'd hate me too.

you are me if...

you drunk dialed your 8th grade science teacher at 3am.

you can't go out to eat with your best friend without spending at least $35.

you spent four hours looking completely and utterly out of place at a traditional Indian wedding.

you've told someone the only reason they like having you around is to show you off.

who says that

Me: I'm really embarrassed; I really kind of like that new Ashlee Simpson song. She's my guiltiest pleasure.
RM: Oh I know. Sometimes I sing that song.
Me: So you go around singing, "I didn't steal your boyfriend"?




The old man: Pretty soon, public phone booths will be obsolete. And you really just have to ask yourself, 'Where is Superman going to change his clothes?'

reality check

"It's Mac's on a Saturday afternoon with a cheeseburger and a milkshake; it's the Esso Club during the summer; it's Littlejohn on the floor vs Duke; it's hating Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina; it's a cold night in November with 80,000 of your closest friends in Death Valley; it's walking across Bowman on the way to class; it's cutting class to go watch baseball at Kingsmore; it's saying hi to a person you had class with freshman year and you still dont remember their name; it's shaggin' on a Friday before a football game at Explorers in October...It's so much more, and most of all, it's part of you - It's Clemson - the Best Place in the World... and I honestly don't know how I'll live anywhere else. "

About two weeks ago, my friend and old roommate, Roe, came into town. We lived together two years ago, and she's a year above me, meaning that she graduated recently. We were riding home from downtown on a Thursday night, and she started to talk about how this visit back to Clemson was a reality check for her. The thing about Clemson is that the average college career here is over four years, so when she came to visit, a good portion of her friends were still here hanging out. The portion of her friends who weren't present were, or course, scattered all around the country doing the post-undergrad thing. Basically, every semester past your graduation, you know less and less people who are actually at Clemson. She told me to make sure and live it up this year because there will never be a situation where so many of your friends will be in the same place at the same time. It's very true, too. We're lucky at Clemson because the only thing that really thrives in this town is the college. When you go downtown, you see everyone you know. It's not going to be like that ever again. You'll never be able to walk into a bar again and see 15 or 20 people you know. I'm going to graduate on time, but I've had it in my heart that I want to stay here for grad school and stay here as long as possible, but things are inevitably going to change. It's hard--part of me knows I should give school more attention, but the other part of me knows I'm going to regret not spending time with my friends who start leaving as early as December. Then the question of relationships comes up. I know that it's best for me to stay single for a while just so that I don't end up neglecting my friends so that I can spend all my time with one person, but at the same time, what if something that could be great is standing right in front of me, but I'm too afraid to let my guard down?

All these questions evoked by a couple of 3am conversations with my friends... one more thing to miss...

fool me once, shame on you. fool me four times... well still, shame on you.

In Clemson, South Carolina, there's nothing quite like eating pulled pork BBQ at a tailgate 12 hours before a football game, eating greasy local diner food when you've got the worst hangover of your life, and gnawing on a quarter pound hot dog at a bar when the liquor has hit you a little too quickly. Unfortunately, when the heartattack sets in and you're looking for a nice place to eat out at, you're shit out of luck. There are a few options, mostly chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday's or the Olive Garden, but if you've ever met anyone from my family, you'd know that we just don't really appreciate the whole chain restaurant thing. There's always Nami, but unless I've got an extra $40 laying around, I really shouldn't go there. On multiple occasions, I've gone to this restaurant called Tokyo which is a local Japanese steakhouse. Here's why I've resolved to never step foot in this restaurant again:
(1) Three years ago, I had my first visit to this restaurant. I walked in and stood in the foyer with my friend, and we waited about 15 minutes before anyone acknowledged that we were waiting. We were told it'd be just a minute, which was weird, because about 80% of the restaurant was empty. Still, we waited for another half hour during which we were basically ignored the entire time. Finally, hungry and irritated, we left.
(2) Despite my first experience, I still went back again with another friend about a year later. To my surprise, we were actually seated this time, and we had a nice meal. The only problem was that we were charged wrong for one of our sushi rolls. We were charged an extra $4, and even though I don't usually like to nitpick, I still mentioned it to the waitress, and she flatly told me I was wrong. Okay...
(3) A couple of months later, my yearning for good food resurfaced, so I went back to Tokyo. Things went rather smoothly this time, except for the fact that one of our orders never arrived, and we waited for a ridiculously long time for the food to arrive. Not huge mistakes, but keep in mind this restaurant is always empty, and this was not the first time I've had bad service at this restaurant.
(4) Because I never learn, I went back yesterday and ordered beef tataki and tempura udon (because apparently, they didn't have sushi?). After waiting for about 20 minutes, they came out and told me they didn't have beef tataki, no big deal. They brought Anthony's food to him after we waited for about 30 minutes, so I figured my noodles were on their way. Nope. Another 30 minutes later, I finally got my food. And it sucked. Honestly though, we should consider ourselves the lucky table of the evening. I watched the table next to us sit with only menus for 30 minutes without so much as a drink order.
So moral of the story guys, don't go to Tokyo. Heed my advice, we'll take these guys down.

patience

I feel like a lot of people could be running out of patience with me. I can't make everyone happy, but am I just slowly rubbing everyone a little bit thin? I just need time to figure it out. I'm sorry.