Pony Up!"P"

Today I participated in the tradition of most colleges and universities across the country, but a tradition that I, being a student of the liberal arts at a football-less school, did not experience.

That's right.  Today, I participated in Homecoming...parade, tailgating, football game, and all.

I went tailgating last year (or "boulevarding" as it's known around SMU), but didn't stick around for the game because it started to rain, and missed the parade because we arrived late.  So really, last year I just stood on the street and ate some food with classmates.  This year was way more homecoming-tastic, including cornhole, an oversized jenga game, fire-grilled ribs, potato salad, and apple cobbler, and of course, the football game itself.  We played against Tulane, and won by something like 20 points.  And I got to see Peruna, the real live pony mascot of the SMU Mustangs, run across the field every time our team got a touchdown....that made me happy.  The only sporting events I ever went to in undergraduates were field hockey games, and we didn't have a live Pioneer to set loose as a mascot, so the big-college football game experience was quite novel and enjoyable for me...even if now I have a horribly embarrassing sunglasses-shaped sunburn to prove it.

Here are some pictures from the day!

Giant Jenga.

My friend Rachel and I on the Boulevard

Peruna, the SMU mascot

Dancing bricks in the parade :-P

My friend Katrina and I in the stands

My friend Miranda and I at the game

Peruna running across the field post-touchdown
(you can click the picture to make it bigger)

"Pony Up!" - the official SMU hand symbol...it's supposed
to be a horse ear, I believe.  Yes, it's weird.  Yes, we all did it.

Spontaneity and Symphonies

Today was a prime example about how one small decision can change the course of your entire life.

OK, well, in this instance it wasn't my ENTIRE life, but one small decision did alter the entire course of my day for the better.

Having slept until noon, I spent the first two hours of my waking hours being lazy and unproductive, mostly staring at Facebook and watching random YouTube videos.  After these two hours, I realized that there was a good chance I was going to do that all day...but, since it was a beautiful day outside, I decided to take my New Testament reading down to a bench by the lake with the hope of jumpstarting my productivity.  And so I went...little knowing how my day would change as a result!! (I'm making this super dramatic on purpose).

After an hour or so of reading (wishing that the book was more exciting), I started wandering back to my apartment, when all of a sudden I discovered my friend Rachel walking through my parking lot.  Even though we live in the same grand apartment complex, we live in different small apartment complexes (I basically live in an apartment subdivision), so seeing her in my parking lot was unusual.  It turns out that she was meeting our other friends Rachel and Amelia, and Amelia's fiance Brandon for a walk around the lake (by which I had been sitting), and asked if I'd like to come along.  Wanting to avoid the aforementioned dry reading, I happily obliged.  The rest of the people showed up shortly, and we had a fun semi-workout walk around the lake, doing all the silly par course things that we came across.

Afterwards, we were all thirsty and went to Sonic, and then Rachel invited Rachel and I to her apartment for dinner (yes, there's two Rachels...if you hadn't caught on yet), where we had tasty chicken with orange bell peppers and onions and tasty green beans.  It looked like this (Rachel took this picture and posted it on facebook, I'm just stealing it for illustrative purposes):

It was ridiculously tasty.  And healthy.  Also, I never want to eat canned green beans again, I will only eat fresh ones from now on.  There is absolutely no comparison.

So anyway, all of that socializing fun happened because I decided to read by the lake instead of reading in my apartment.  This is proof that a small decision can effect significant change.

Moving on, there was one more element to the day that was planned: my friend Miranda and I went to the SMU symphony!  The concert hall was GORGEOUS, with a beautiful and gigantic pipe organ, and the orchestra was really, really good.  The program was well-selected too...apparently Music History actually DID give me a greater appreciation for music.  Anyway, it was wonderful.  Here are some more commemorative photos...

Awesome Organ in Awesome Concert Hall

Miranda and I being all symphonic.

Also, after the symphony, I'm pretty sure I saw my future husband.  Yes.  He's probably the most attractive man I've ever seen, and he may or may not be a Green Bay Packer (Miranda and I based this judgment on the fact that he was exiting the SMU football stadium at 10:00pm, and the Packers are currently practicing there for the Super Bowl).  So anyway, you're all invited to the wedding...I just have to locate this guy, and we'll be good to go :)

Tomorrow's tasks: homework, homework, and MORE homework.  And laundry.  And homework.  See you then!