Feeder 3.1

In Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horwitz explores the U.S. in hopes to find more about his deep interest in the Civil War. In two excerpts from the book, Cats of the Confederacy and Dying for Dixie, Horwitz investigates two separate towns within America and their ties to the war. In Cats of the Confederacy, Horwitz follows and observes the Daughters and Sons of the Confederacy in Lancaster, North Carolina. In Dying for Dixie, Horwitz researches the death of Michael Westerman over the Confederate flag in the small town of Guthrie, Kentucky. Within his writing’s, Horwitz portrays the South as a region stuck in the past while the world around them is rapidly moving forward. Individuals in the South feel as if they have to stand up for their “ancestors” even over 140 years after the war.
At the beginning of Cats of the Confederacy Horwitz is lead by locals in Lancaster, North Carolina to a woman named Sue Curtis, one of the members of the Daugthers of the Confederacy. Horwitz attends the Sons of the Confederacy meeting where the members introduced themselves as if they were generals or held a position in the Civil War. The beginning of the meeting was marked by a salute four separate flags, two of them representing the Confederacy. They celebrated Lee’s and Jackson’s birthdays with a Lee-Jackson trivia quiz that contained questions such as ”what did Robert E. Lee weigh at the start of the war?” It was rare that no one knew the answer to these far from important questions about particulars pertaining to these two individuals in the Civil War. Within this scene Horwitz mentions that the Sons of the Confederacy are among the “latter-day rebels.” Sue Curtis explained that the reason why the South still cares about the Civil War is because of family, all of their relatives that went off to the war and lost their lives. As these meetings are being held in this small town of Lancaster, North Carolina it seems as if no one takes notice to the world around them besides Tony Horwitz. As he steps out of his motel he is surrounded by a Kmart, a Waffle House, a Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, and several gas stations. This is the scenery in which there are “clubs” taking pride in their ancestors, acting as if they were in the Confederate army themselves, and pledging themselves to the Confederate flag.
In Dying for Dixie, Horwitz finds himself caught in a “war” inside the small town of Guthrie, Kentucky. Guthrie’s main street contained a Piggly Wiggly, convenience stores, and locals scratching off lottery tickets yet confederate flags were still flying as if the Civil War were present today. Interestingly enough, Horwitz finds that Todd County is not even rebel country when a large amount of its citizens are flying the rebel flag. Guthrie’s mayor explained that when he was a boy, no one had cared about the Confederate flag but today he believes people feel as if they have to stand up for what they believe. The younger southern generation feels they have to protect the confederate flag. A Sons of Confederate Veteran’s museum treated Michael Westerman’s death as if he was a confederate soldier who had died in the civil war calling him the “confederate martyr.” At the procession for his death, bikers on Harley’s recognized his “duty” to the Confederacy as they gathered beside the present day restaurant, Cracker Barrel. Horwitz makes note of what David Westerman, Michael’s father, says at the end of the excerpt and writes “They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like it’s still going on.”
As Robert Penn Warren once wrote “History, like nature, knows no jumps, except the jump backward.” Horwitz portrays the south as close followers and believers of its regional history even as businesses such as a Piggly Wiggly, a Dairy Queen, and convenience shops are prevalent. The Confederate flag and the Confederacy have the same if not greater meaning today than they did in the Civil War within the south.

Me and the South #2

Charlotte may be in North Carolina and it may be considered the South but to me, apart from less amazing shopping and less people, it is really no different than New York City. I never really considered that I lived in the South living there. I didn't even "realize" I was in the South until I came here for school. I feel as if every sterotype of the south is portrayed here at Carolina. When I think of the south I think of girls dressing cute everyday, hair up, nails done, high heels. I think of big victorian style homes with cute front porches and flowers in the front yard. I think of a small town in which everyone knows eachother. I think of the typical frat boy, all prepped out. I think of debutant balls and getting married at a young age. I think of southern bells with country accents and some of the nicest cars. I think of polite people, ones who will open the door for you or stop at a cross walk to let you walk. Now I don't know about any of you but at my high school we didn't have too much of any of that, I didn't even know what a "deb" ball was. Maybe the girls dressed all cute but I wouldn't call us any more Southern than a New Yorker. It was interesting to see the stereotypical south in real life and you know what, I love it! I love the polite people, I love the cute dresses, I love the victorian homes, flowers in the front yard, and small towns. Since being at Carolina I now know what its like to be a Southerner in my eyes and I am now a converted Southerner (minus the accent and the debutant balls).

Response to Dying for Dixie

As I was reading Dying for Dixie I noticed a pattern in the way Horwitz organizes his text through the Cats of the Confederacy. His writing jumps around a lot. For example, one minute he is talking about Redbone's, the next he is making references to Robert Penn Warren's childhood and a town names Guthrie. I believe this offers a comparison between two separate events, and that even though they are completely randomized, together they share a common rage (well at least in this passage they do). A biker bar on the edge of town filled with profanity and racism is no different from the small and what used to be quiet town of Guthrie. Two completely separate communities share the same characteristics. I also believe that Horwitz likes to display the "good and bad" sides of each case, the confederate flag bearers vs. the black individuals. With so much leeway open for biased opinions on each side of the case, Horwitz likes to keep a neutral position and leave the opinions to the reader. Who do we think is right in this situation? He likes to talk to people from each side of the spectrum and get their opinions on the whole situation of Michael.
I think its interesting that in a time of sorrow and grief that the whites come together and the blacks come together yet they only separate themselves farther apart. The South, which prides itself on family, just had its family split in two.

2nd Event - The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie was put on at the Playmakers theater on campus. Tom, Amanda, Jim and Laura are the four main characters in the play played by Ray Dooley/John Tufts, Judith-Marie Bergan, John Brummer, and Marianne Miller respectively. Tom has a low paying job in factory and wants to get out of town but can't because he has to support his mother Amanda and his disabled sister Laura. Amanda continuously reminds Laura of the importance of courting and finding a man. Amanda asks Tom to find a man for Laura and Tom brings home a friend from work Jim, a boy Laura had a huge crush on in high school. Jim used to call Laura blue roses. Laura is playing with her glass figurines or her glass menagerie when Jim comes in to talk to her, they begin to hit it off and dance. Laura's favorite glass figurine, her unicorn, gets the horn broken off and it is no longer "unique" so she gives it to Jim. Jim kisses her but freaks out because he actually has a fiance. Laura is heartbroken and Amanda gets mad and blames the whole ordeal on Tom. Tom ends up leaving.
This was the first play that I have attended here on campus and it was interesting to see that in the audience there were actually not that many students in attendance. I observed a lot of older individuals in the audience. Looking back, i see this older group who attend plays as their own microculture of Chapel Hill. Also, when reading through the playbook before the play it was interesting to read about the background of the actors and actresses. The man who plays Jim in the play, John Brummer, is actually a student in the Professional Actor Training Program here at Chapel Hill and the man who plays older Tom, Ray Dooley, is actually a professor here in the Department of Dramatic Art. I have been to many broadway plays before and this play was put on very well. As a student, I would definitely see another play or performance here at Chapel Hill in order to broaden my educational experience.

My first trip back from the south.

I was born in Pennsylvania and moved to North Carolina when I was four, living here ever since. Most of my family resides in Maryland. Maryland is where my brothers and sisters grew up. Throughout my younger years my "accent" (if i even had a northern one) never really changed. One event that sticks out in my mind though is when I went to Maryland for a family reunion the summer that I was 7 years old. Whenever I would talk to a member of my family who lived in Maryland they would say that I've "converted to the south" and that I "sounded like a true southerner". I hadn't even noticed this at all but I really took offense to all the people telling me that my accent had changed. I was never made fun of my accent in North Carolina so I couldn't understand why I was made fun of for my accent in Maryland. I remember thinking why is this such a big deal to them. Now that I'm older I don't get made fun of for my "accent" by my family members and I actually think they have a "more country" accent than I do. I never understood the separation between the north and the south. My family from maryland is to me, the epitome of a southerner. They live in rural parts of town, they say "yes ma'am and no sir", they go hunting, my Grandma makes the best fried chicken I have ever eaten. For my parents and I who have lived in North Carolina for a little over 14 years, Harris Teeter makes our fried chicken, we live in a big city, and besides my dad, none of us go hunting. It's just really funny to me that I used to get made fun of for my accent when I was younger by my Maryland relatives.

Response to C of C

My first reaction to Cats of the Confederacy was "these people are crazy." I couldn't understand why these group of people couldn't leave the past behind. I started to look into the reading more deeply and realized that these people used the Civil War as a connection between them and their family members. They have may have taken the aspect of the civil war too far for today but I could definitely see why they still believed in the war. I thought Tony Horwitz was very respectable to the individuals that he met yet when he wrote about them you could definitely tell that he thought some things were outright outrageous too, like the actual "cats of the confederacy" and "children of the confederacy". The whole time that I was reading this chapter in the book I kept thinking I was reading observations from 50-100 years ago. It seemed so old timey and as if the war had just ended. (I'm guessing that was the point Horwitz was trying to get across). One thing that I really enjoyed about this chapter was when Tarlton was talking to Tony and said the the sons of the confederacy was a place where many different individuals, such as doctors and farmers, acted as one and were all so respectable to each other. I really like how although these groups are so strict they are an opportunity for different people to come together.

Observation #3

For my third observation I observed the homeless people from 5-6 p.m. during the dinner rush on Franklin Street. During this time the passersby looked more to be students than professionals walking by and getting a bite to eat. The guitar man from the second observation was out again at this time and he sat in his chair and quietly played his guitar, not bothering anyone surrounding him. People were very generous in giving him money at this time a day for some reason and his money jar was more full than in my second observation. The streets did also seem to be more crowded too. A group of homeless people were again out at this time of day and were interacting amongst themselves, laughing and talking to each other most of the time that I was observing. They would stare at certain individuals walking by and those individuals would seem as if they were uncomfortable and move to the opposite side of the sidewalk then where the homeless people were. No particular homeless person asked for money. The group of homeless people stayed on the bench in front of starbuck's and on the corner of Franklin and Columbia for the whole time that I was observing with a few of them walking aimlessly down the sidewalk for a little and then turning around. These people seemed to have no particular destination and just walked back and forth with the flow of traffic. 4 cops came up to the homeless people at around 5:30 and focused on the ones that were walking by themselves. They looked to be asking them questions or having a conversation with them. But when the police were having contact with the homeless people the avoidance of the passersby seemed to go down and more individuals were walking closely to the homeless people and would even look up at them as the walked by. One man even smiled and waved.

Observation #2

My second observation was done between 12 and 1p.m. to observe the homeless people during lunch time on Franklin Street. I was still observing from Starbuck's and various other places on Franklin Street and kept my distance. At this particular time there were more individuals than in my first observation and they were all walking fast and seemed like they had some certain place to go. There was a group of homeless people today rather than single individuals on Franklin Street with a couple of people on their own. The people on Franklin Street seemed like they worked in a professional field and their were very less students at this time than during my first observation. The homeless people seemed to recognize the professional attire and were more aware of the individuals surrounding them this particular day. There was a different homeless guitarist outside today and he was sitting in a chair playing for passersby with a money jar in front of him. Compared to the guitarist in my first observation he was less invasive and never harassed people for money. He seemed to receive more money from people walking by this way. The group of homeless people were laughing and interacting amongst themselves and some even walked up and down Franklin Street with the flow of traffic. The citizens seemed more concerned with these people and tended to avoid them by moving away from them or talking on their cell phone as they walked by. The larger group of homeless people didn't seem to mind these individuals that avoided them and seemed to even laugh at these particular people.

observation uno

Yesterday I observed the homeless people on Franklin Street from the Starbuck’s window and the street itself. I went from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. I was interested to see that what I perceived to be the norm for their community was actually quite different. Normally they are all mostly found on the corner of South Columbia and Franklin but on this particular day I found them to be more alone and as partners spread out than as one big group in one location. One particular homeless man was playing the guitar by himself and walking up and down the Franklin Street sidewalks approaching the people walking by for money. The people seemed comfortable with him nearby until he quickly came up to them playing his guitar and singing a song. The passersby were startled and quickly walked away or moved to the side so as to avoid him. A ,male and female, homeless couple were together on the sidewalk by the bus stop on Columbia staring down students and workers getting on and off the bus. Many people either ignored or avoided them all together but they didn’t seem to mind and kept a smile on their face and even laughed at certain moments. I was surprised to the see during my observations that the homeless people really did not hoard people for money and with the exception of the guitar player they pretty much kept to themselves and did not seem to notice much outside of themselves. The homeless people community seemed to be strong within themselves and usually unaware of different people

SPRING BREAK!!

- I'm going on a cruise.
- Key West, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman!
- This is my first cruise
- I was required to only pack one suitcase.
- I usually bring two home for just a weekend visit :/.
- I spent so much money buying clothes for this trip.
- I now have no money for important things, like eat
- I have around 15 mini bottles of shampoo and body wash and stuff.
- Good excuse for two new bathing suits!
- There will be swimming with sting rays involved.
- Steve Irwin died from a stingray :(
- I think I may just have to watch.
- There's putt putt.
- I dominate in putt putt.
- I will have to skip the safety lesson to go watch the Dook game!
- I'm pretty sure an orange life vest isn't go to save me anyway.
- I'm going to run everyday.
- I can barely run on non-moving surfaces.
- 24 hour buffets!
- Hope everything still fits.
- The water slide is calling my name.
- No technology for a week.
- No school for a week.
- No emails from teachers adding more assignments for a week!
- Hopefully my paleness doesn't blind anyone.
- I'm hoping to come back tan and relaxed!
HAPPY SPRING BREAK EVERYONE!!

Feeder 2.2 Revised

The microculture that I plan to observe is the homeless people that are out on Franklin Street. This group of people are usually always on the benches outside of Starbuck’s, in the alleyways, or next to the bus stop. This microculture tends to look disheveled, yet happy. They tend to all stay together and converse among themselves. I have never really had contact with this microculture before; just walking past when I am trying to get somewhere on Franklin Street. They pique my interest because they seem to be such a close knit group, that even when times are hard they still have their friends, who know exactly what they are going through, to help them out. Students and citizens of Chapel Hill don’t really pay them much attention as they are walking past, except for the occasional man or woman who will give a dollar or two to the homeless man playing the guitar. My hypothesis of this microculture is that in their presence, people feel uncomfortable around them and go out of their way to avoid them, such as walking on the opposite site of the sidewalk, or ignore them all together. They are such an isolated group that there are hardly other reasons for their lack of interactions with the community. The reason why I would like to do this study is to understand the social aspects of the microculture itself and how they react to people who avoid them. How much do they care about individuals avoiding them? This study could be of importance to the community because the homeless people make up and are Franklin Street. They sit outside everyday and there hasn’t been a day when I have been on Franklin Street that I haven’t seen a homeless person just sitting or talking to his or her friends. I think they need to be better understood in order to prevent individuals from being so judgmental.

Microculture Hypothesis

The microculture that I plan to observe is the homeless people that are out on Franklin Street. This group of people are usually always on the benches outside of Starbuck’s or next to the bus stop. They tend to all stay together and converse among themselves. I have never really had contact with this microculture before, just walking past when I’m trying to get somewhere on Franklin Street. They pique my interest because they seem to be such a close knit group that even when times are hard they still have their friends, who know exactly what they are going through, to help them out. Students and citizens of Chapel Hill don’t really pay them much attention as they are walking past, except for the occasional man or woman who will give a dollar or two the homeless man playing the guitar. My hypothesis of this microculture is that in their presence, people feel uncomfortable around them and go out of their way to avoid them. They are such an isolated group that there are hardly other reasons for their lack of interactions with the community. The reason why I would like to do this study is to understand the social aspects of the microculture itself and how they react to people avoiding them. How much do they care about individuals avoiding them? This study could be of importance to the community because the homeless people are Franklin Street, they sit outside everyday and there hasn’t been a day when I have been on Franklin Street that I haven’t seen a homeless person just sitting or talking to his or her friends. I think they need to be better understood in order for people not to judge them so much in the future.

Disrupting a Space

The space I had observed previously was the Agora in Granville. As I said, in the corner of the Agora is a big screen T.V. where many guys (few girls) sit around and watch some type of sports game. As I was sitting in lunch, a golf game was on and around 10 boys had their eyes glued to the T.V. I walked up to the T.V. and changed the channel to MTV (Room Raiders was on) and sat down right in front of the T.V. and began to watch it. The guys watching the golf game yelled were very surprised and didn't exactly know what to do but just stared. Some guys behind me yelled at me to change back the channel. One even started to get up to come and change the channel himself. It was just so funny to see how people reacted when I changed the one thing they ever really did in the Agora during meals. Instead of sitting dumbfounded at the T.V., they all sat dumbfounded at me as I watched something other than sports.

This was fun.....I think I'm going to disrupt more spaces!

People don't know how to drive in the rain....

Why do people always change their driving when it's raining?
Today I went home and it was pouring the whole time I was driving (a good two hours worth of rain :))
Everytime I hit traffic there was a new accident.
I hit traffic about three times.
I usually don't hit any traffic when I drive home (then again I don't go home often)
I normally don't have a problem with cars coming into my line meaning it never happens but today I almost got hit by like 5 cars.
Every so often a car would swerve into my lane and then I would have to swerve and it was just craziness.
Cars were going about 45 miles per hour on the highway which I feel is unsafe when the speed limit is 65 and there are some people driving 85 -90 miles per hour that sped past me which were probably the accidents that I then saw later.
The trucks were the scariest part.
They would spray so much water up from their tires into the windshield of my car and would blind me even with my wipers on.
What I thought was the craziest was that the trucks were probably going faster than most of the cars.
Highway craziness thankfully kept me awake for the drive.

Observation #1 - The Agora

I observed the students within the Granville Towers Agora last night during dinner. The Agora is set up with separate cafeteria lines that contain different types of food and a table area where there are large tables for about 10 people and small tables for about 4 or 5 people. There is a lot of open space between tables. One thing I observed was that there were many individuals that were sitting by themselves. A lot of these people either had something to do or a computer or book in front of them. In the corner of the Agora there is a big screen T.V. that always plays some type of sporting game. 3 or 4 tables surround the T.V. Each of these tables had a group of guys at it, all of them eating and watching T.V. at the same time. There were very few tables that included girls and guys. Many of the girls interacted with other girls and many of the guys interacted with other guys. The girls sat in tables of around 3 or 4 and the guys either sat in a large group of around 5 or 6 or sat alone. The norm of the Agora seems to be that guys control and watch the T.V. while girls leave the guys alone for the most part and converse among themselves.

Cheesecake Factory = yumlicious

So I was saving this blog until tonight because I knew I was going to the Cheesecake factory.
Can I please just say that the Cheesecake Factory is amazing!!!!!!
The menu is like 50 pages long and has a bigillion different things to choose from on it, which all sound like they could make any depressed person happy.
I got the cajun chicken fingers with mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese --- p.s. I love carbs!
That entree could have fed a family reunion.
There were about 12 chicken fingers on my plate, two handfuls of mashed potatoes, and a whole bowl full of the most delicious macaroni and cheese ever.
There was no way that I could eat it all so I immediately asked for a to go box.
I ate probably 4 chicken fingers, a third of my mashed potatoes, and about 10 bites of my macaroni and cheese.
My to go box will last me a good couple days worth of meals --- delicious meals.
To finish off my amazing meal I had to get some cheesecake so I shared a white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake with my boyfriend. ----- mmm mmm good!!
I had dinner about two hours ago and I still feel full.
I feel like I'm going into hibernation.

----I LOVE FOOD!! :)

Went to Duke

So today I had the wonderful experience of going to Duke. My friend had surgery done at the Duke hospital and my roommate and I went to go visit him and his family. As soon as I pull onto campus I immediately think that I am part of the movie Hunchback of Notre Dame and that their should be talking gargoyles surrounding me. It was a very gothic looking school and very stony and gray, unlike the campus of Carolina which is any kind of brick invented. As I'm pulling into the parking garage to park my roommate begins to tell me about the time that her Dad took her car to Duke. Her car is lined with Carolina stickers and clearly someone in the family either went or goes to Carolina. Her dad was at Duke for a business meeting and parks in a parking deck. He comes out of the business meeting to find the car keyed all the way down the drivers side. Meanwhile I'm in the parking deck with my car covered in Carolina stickers and I'm thinking "omg, my car is surely going to get keyed."
I step out of the car and realize I have my Carolina Cheerleading jacket on with the carolina symbol on the front and "The University of North Carolina" written across the back. No joke, 3 separate cars honked at me and gave me the nastiest stares. It's safe to say though that nothing was thrown at me and when I returned to my car it was not keyed!!! As I pulled out of the parking deck though, creeper of the day, the parking deck ticket taker upper, was creepily staring at me and my carolina symbol on my jacket and asked me if I cheered for the school. When I said yes all he had to say in reply with was "I like"
AHHHH!!!

I posted this yesterday but it never showed up...round 2

On Friday the all girl cheerleading team leaves for Cheersport Nationals in Atlanta, GA, which if you didn't know is a major competition in the cheerleading world. This last weekend we did amazing at our competition which only pumped me up more for this weekend. We have worked so hard at practices and have accomplished so much in the last two weeks that we deserve to win a nationals. I have never felt so close to a team before in all of the years that I have cheered (which is coming up on 8) and I have never felt that my team has put their full potential on the floor till this year. This weekend is going to be stressful though. 800 teams from around the world come to compete at the World Congress Center on 8 different floors. If you think the Dean Dome is overwhelming you seriously have no idea. My team is competing against six other all girl teams from various colleges along the east coast, including NC State. The bus ride on Friday is seven hours long (i'm catching up on my naps) and then right when we get to Atlanta we have practice. Saturday we compete at 9:07 in the morning and Sunday we compete at 8:33 a.m. (these people must be crazy putting college teams that early).
I'M SO PUMPED!! Go tar heels!

Event #1 - Clemson vs. Carolina Game.

This was the highlight of my freshman year. My roommate gets tickets to every home game and invites me to them all but this was the only one that i HAD to go to. Clemson was my second choice school and I had always dreamed of going to a Clemson Carolina game (I didn't really care who won). Clemson was playing fairly well at the start of the game either staying ahead or keeping up with Carolina. When Carolina stayed on top and shot ahead in points I was ecstatic. Clemson has a very decent basketball team, but obviously we are better. Another thing that stood out to me at the game were the advertisements on the billboards (I know, so random). The advertisements really reached out to the student body along with the fans advertising food around campus, concession stand food, and awesome prizes that any fan could win.

This game made me realize that I belonged to the right school. As a university we are so united and have such outstanding traditions at games that I wouldn't trade those things for any other school in the country. I knew I was a Carolina girl not a "tiger" when we won that game. I always struggled with where I wanted to go to school out of the two but for some reason at that game I had just figured out that I was getting the better education and saving my parents money. It's pretty ironic that it took a basketball game for me to realize that. Also, if I didn't enjoy basketball at least I could try and win some prizes. With my luck, I might want to stick with enjoying basketball.

Verizon...so much fun!

So today I got my my third phone in a span of 29 days. It's safe to say that technology hates me. I originally had the Blackberry Storm and then my lock button wouldn't work for my key pad so I got it replaced with another Blackberry Storm. Then today (and the past week) my phone decided to restart on me 5 times. The blackberry is like a computer so it takes five minutes or so for it to "boot up". This is definitely not convenient when I'm trying to get a hold of my mom for some money!
I go to the Verizon store tonight and I get my phone replaced with the Blackberry Curve.... I definitely already love this phone much more than the Storm.
Anyway, I'm getting my new phone and the store closes because apparently they close at 8:30 p.m. on Friday nights....lame. It's my friend and I and the rest of the store employees left in the store and we are just joking around talking about the Carolina - Duke game (CAROLINA WILL WIN!). So I use my girlish ways (p.s. I looked like a bum) and the guy helping me gave me a refund for my Storm and a $70 rebate for the Curve. I LOVE VERIZON AND VERIZON EMPLOYEES.

p.s. my Friday night is lame....I HATE BIO!!

The Library...fun times

So I never go to the library and I decided to make a trip tonight to maybe actually get some work done. I have got to say, it's probably the most entertaining place on this whole campus. I walk in to the upper part of the UL to a guy just sprawled out on a table sleeping with his mouth open and drooling all over what looks to be some important papers. Then as I'm walking to my little cubby hole of studiousness I see someone just staring at the wall. I hope there's is something on that wall that's going to help him with his test or homework.
I'm pretty sure my room is more quiet than this library too. Everyone is sniffling because of the negative 2 degree weather outside and hurricane winds. Someone fell out of their chair and knocked over all their stuff (just kidding that didn't really happen but I may start coming to library more often to hopefully catch that happen). I was interrupted by like 50 people that I knew who were just saying hi and now I'm doing my blog and not what I exactly intended to do here at the library tonight haha. (atleast I'm getting something constructive done).

p.s. I have officially decided I need to go to an easier school.....this is stressing me out. I'm in need of a massage!

All Girl Cheer will be on the Travel Channel

I guess this is going to count as one of my events for the semester????
So last night all girl cheer got to represent the school on the travel channel.
The travel channel came to film at Timeout for Man vs. Food, the show, which is doing an episode on 24 hour college restaurants. We got to meet the star of the show Adam and hang out with him and his crew for a couple hours at time out. We were filmed chanting man vs. food and go adam go and we even did a UNC cheer for the show. Time Out was recognized for their amazingly delicious and greasy food that is perfect for college students on a late night. After we filmed the chanting we all sat down and got free cheese and chicken biscuits. Adam sat down with us at different tables where they filmed us talking about the food and joking around with Adam. He was really awesome. I have never seen man vs. food but i'm sure it will put time out on the map for a go to stop when staying in Chapel Hill. I realized how big of an icon it was when i looked on the walls and there were many pictures of old basketball players including michael jordan doing the time out hand symbol. As a team we got to be a part of that history when the owners of time out took a picture of us doing the time out symbol as well.. they said they would put a picture of us up on the wall. It was the coolest experience i have had since ive been to chapel hill.

COME SUPPORT UNC ALL GIRL CHEER!!! .......

PLEASE GO TO FIREHOUSE SUBS THIS SATURDAY JAN. 31ST FROM 3-10 P.M. 10% OF PROFITS GO TO UNC ALL GIRL CHEER!!!
MONDAY FEB. 2 - PITA PIT 5-10 P.M. 10% OF PROFITS GO TO UNC ALL GIRL CHEER
WEDNESDAY FEB. 4 - MOE'S AT SOUTHPOING 5-10P.M. 20% OF PROFITS GO TO UNC ALL GIRL CHEER
PLEASE GO OUT AN SUPPORT US. I KNOW WE ALL LOVE SOME FOOD!!!!!!

So I just want to say that GRANVILLE TOWER'S WASHER AND DRYER'S SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! plus 50 million more exclamation marks. I just spent 3 hours trying to do three loads of laundry because four of the dryers in granville east were working out of 10...4 out of 10. seriously? 3 of those four were taken up and apparently those people like some really really hot clothes because they must have been spinning for i would say and hour or more. I had to go all the way to west tower to dry my clothes looking like a crazy person with my quarters, clothes - underwear and all, and dryer sheets.
I'm tired so I really didn't want to deal with that. I had 12 hours of cheerleading practice over the weekend and my team got yelled at on tuesday's practice. ugh....

my physical ailment

ice baths for muscle pain

It's a new day

So to be honest I wasn't going to watch the inauguration at all but then I remembered how it was such a historical event. I guess i'm so upset about how this country has turned out that I really don't care who is in office anymore. Things are only going to get worse before they get better. The first thing I thought when Obama came out was that "wow he must be really nervous." I saw all the security and all the bullet-proof glass. That has got to be hard on someone knowing that there are some people in this country who really don't want him here. He has so much resting on his shoulders and while he was speaking I could tell that he really was going to try to fix this hole America is in. He had so much poise so much confidence in him that I really do believe he was the best candidate to win the Presidency this year. Mind you, this was not my first reaction when he won president but after listening to his inauguration speech I could tell that we are going to be in good hands. Bush seemed happy to finally be leaving and letting Obama take care of this nasty economy. I guess Bush's name can finally be put to rest and people will finally give him a break. Who knows if Obama will do a better job than Bush or not?
Politics make me upset. If you couldn't already tell. So enough about the politics of the inauguration...
Mrs. Obama's dress was crazy looking, but beautiful in the same way. I thought it was funny that Obama's daughter was taking pictures of her dad and the whole event (it's not like there aren't going to be thousands of pictures available anyway). And it's amazing to see all the living president's in the same place at the same time. Just think of how much each one of those men have done for this country.
I also thought it ironic that Obama got sworn in on the same day Chapel Hill got it's very first snow!

This is going to stink

So I have never created a blog before nor even know how to begin to write one so this may be kind of random. Hmm....what's going on in my life right now??? Cheerleading is definitely a big part of my life right now and it's almost worst than hectic. There are so many things to do for the routine yet so little time. My coach is flying in from Baltimore this weekend and we are all pretty nervous and I think it's safe to say that I'm freaking out. She is crazy and kind of scary when she gets mad so we need to hit all of our stunts and tumbling so we don't see her scary side. We are supposed to be practicing all day this saturday from like 10-5. YIKES!!! and then we have more practice on sunday. are you kidding me?? this feels really awkward...... just thought i should let ya'll know. ha.
well I hope everyone is excited for some snow!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!

p.s. I hope i did this right :/

yay! I created my first blog!