Fore!

As I lay awake at 4:30 in the morning from over-consumption of coffee from earlier when I was studying, I thought what better to do then blog. The fact that I had to consume so much coffee in order to study for my 3 tests coming up is exactly the basis for which I wanted to post a new blog about. As Spring time slowly continues to trickle in, school turns the corner and heads fast for the home stretch and the weather is becoming nicer and warmer. These two things have a lot in common. Basically, I have less time to spend outdoors where it is nice because of all the work I have to accomplish. However, everyonce in awhile, a break is needed to maintain sanity. My favorite means of escape is to hit the links. Golf has been my favorite sport to play for many years now, and it is something that allows me to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I was on the golf team for 4 years in high school and it was something I greatly enjoyed. Now that I'm in college, I don't have as much time to play golf as I used to, so every chance I get to play is time well spent. It allows me to forget about the tests I need to be studying for and do something I really enjoy. This is important because as much as college is about getting good grades, getting good grades isn't all about living in the library. Taking time to relax once a week really does help. I'm less stressed when I get done and I am able to hit the books with less frustration and more motivation. If you haven't tried doing this, I really recommend it. Maybe golf isn't your style, but I know everybody has something they like to do that relaxes them and that they enjoy. And if you have never played golf, I really recommend trying it. Tuscaloosa and the surrounding area has many nice courses to play without driving too far. I have given lessons to many people back in Illinois during the summer so let me know if your interested and I'd be happy to help get you started.

The Great Flood of 08

When it came time to decide what to do for my first collegiate spring break, I had many options. The beach, skiing in North Carolina, going to Chicago....the options were endless. However, I(and my bank account) decided to just come home for spring break to relax, play some golf, and catch up with the fam. My spring break started off as normal as possible. I got to hangout with my friends who had their spring breaks a week before mine before they headed back to school. On monday the 17th, I hit the links and played some golf, something I wanted to do everday during spring break, and went to the high school baseball game. And that is where my spring break stopped being normal. The events that followed will go down in the annals of history and have left a tremendous effect on the small farm town I live in. Monday night it started raining, and raining, and raining, and even more raining. It didn't stop raining until Wednesday afternoon, 2 days and 1 foor of water later. Now one foot may not seem that much. But you have to remember that that means 1 foot of water every square inch of land. Needless to say my hometown was game over. Everything was underwater. One of our grocery stores had 3 feet of standing water inside of it. Harrisburg, Illinois was underwater and everybody was feeling the affects. My spring break turned into a flooded nightmare. The local schools got out of school for 2 days because of rain...A RAIN DAY!!! So as people try to recover and dry off, the water is slowly making its way to the Ohio-Mississippi River junction where water is close to the highest it has ever been. Needless to say, I can't wait to get out of this town and be able to see land. Now I know what the Pilgrims must have felt like when they came across the pond and saw the United States for the first time.

Help make somebody's wish come true

On Thursday, March 6th, Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Chi Omega sorority of the University of Alabama are hosting the 1st annual Make A Wish cookout. This is an all you can eat cookout in the Phi front yard where all proceeds will go to benefit local Make A Wish patients. I think this is a very good cause and I hope that the turn out is good so we can raise as much money as possible. The Make A Wish foundation raises money around the country and uses it to grant wishes of children with life threatening illnesses and diseases. This organization has been doing this for over 25 years and is still working hard to make sure every kid that has a wish gets it granted. So much negativity is placed on fraternities and sororities on the UA campus, where most people think they are all about partying and getting drunk every night. Philanthropy is a big part of most of the Greek letter organizations on this campus and thousands of dollars have been raised for very worthwhile charities. I hope that if you aren't busy on the 6th of March that you can make it to the Phi Delta Theta front yard from 5-7 p.m. and eat some good food and have a good time while supporting a very worthwhile cause at the same time. Hope to see you there!

History....the natural way

When I heard we were going to the Alabama natural history museum for class this past Thursday I was pretty pumped. One because we didn't have to sit in the sauna known as our classroom and because I had never been before. We made the treck across campus, took a cliche class photo on the steps of the museum, and proceded inside. The lady at the front gave her spiel about how great the place was and what we needed to see to get the most out of the museum. So we headed out, browsing the museum for some natural history. However, I soon noticed that most of the artifacts and "stuff" inside the walls had little to do with Alabama at all. There was the Alabama state fossil and the only meteorite to ever hit a person. Besides that, there wasn't much more to look at that was from or had to do with the state of Alabama. While I wasn't expecting something extravagant or mind-blowing in the museum, I was at least expecting to see Alabama natural history, and not the natural history of other random places. I think that whoever runs the museum should look into getting more original artifacts from the state of Alabama and less from other parts of the country. This would make the museum more interesting to visit because it would be more local stuff that actually had something to do with me, which would make it a better all around visit.

The Bear

Whether you're an Alabama football fan or not, it's hard not to know who Bear Bryant is. He is considered by many to be the greatest college football coach ever. He coached at Alabama from 1958-1982, which is a century in coaching terms. Rarely do coaches stay at one school for that long, especially now a days. His first season he coached at Bama was the first winning season the University had seen in 5 years. His second season he took Alabama to a bowl game, and did so for the next 25 years, which is a record that still stands. In his third season, he led Alabama to an undefeated national championship. The turn around in three years from a losing team to an undefeated national championship is almost unheard of. Over his coaching career at the Capstone, he won 6 national championships and 13 SEC championships. He also only lost 2 home games during his tenure at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Bear retired after the 1982 season, and died shortly after in January, 1983. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom posthumously after his death, which is the highest honor to be bestowed upon a civilian.

Paul "Bear" Bryant is still thought very higly of throughout the country as being a great coach and a great person, making sure his team always played with the highest amount of class and sportsmanship. His legacy at the Capstone still lives on to this day. His football accomplishments will never be forgotten. He donated lots of money to the University throughout his time here and there several buildings on campus named after him. However, behind all the money and football championships, he created a tradition at the University of Alabama that still stands today. He wanted to make sure that class was always something his teams had, and that philosophy still stands today. Alabama football is rivaled by few in the country and the fans make sure the tradition lives on year in and year out. The tradition isn't something you can see, it's something you can feel. It flows through the quad on gameday and follows the band into the stadium where 92,000+ fans are awaiting the kickoff. The atmosphere is amazing and the tradition flows throughtout the crowd. If this is something you have never experienced, then I highly recommend buying a ticket to a game next fall and see for yourself just how great of a tradition Bear left us all.

From the corn belt to the corn casserole....

Coming to the University of Alabama from Southern Illinois, I had no idea what to expect. I had only been to the campus 2 times before the start of the semester on Aug, 2007. Coming from a small rural farm town in the heart of the corn belt, a town like Tuscaloosa seemed like a major metropolitan area to me. There was an immediate change of surroundings and it seemed weird at first. No longer did I have to drive 45 minutes to go to a mall to get clothes or travel to the one grocery store to pick up food. My recources now seemed endless.

The most obvious change was the seperation from my parents. This is a very obvious difference. However, this change helped me to realize more what was around me then before. I have always been an independent person, trying to rely as little on my parents as possible in order to best prepare for what is to come. Because I was even more on my own then normal, I had to be more aware of what commodities existed in order to make best my four years at the Capstone. I have always believed in the power of the family owned greasy spoon restaurant. The hole in the wall restaurants always have the best food at the best prices. Immediately, I searched for the best local restaurant I could be called a regular at. The diner on 15th street had been rumored to be what I needed, but I had to check it out for myself. After one meal I was hooked. This southern meal was just what I had been looking for and what I anticipated upon arrival to the heart of dixie. It has all I need in more in a local restaurant and is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in T-Town. The moral of the story(even though it wasnt really a story, therefore doesn't need a moral and a moral doesn't make much sense but it sounded good so go with it) is that McDonald's can monopolize all it wants and turn us all into robot consumers, wanting all the same machine made food, but its the Mom and Pop restaurants that make us feel like we're back home again, and thats just what I needed after my 6 hour drive to UA.