Day 158

Today John and I learned how to snowboard.  Whew.  It's a little tricky!  I was getting pretty frustrated at times because I know how to ski and I would fall down on the shortest little green slope and just think, "If I were on skis, I would be going down longer and harder slopes!"  Oh well!  I'd always wanted to learn to snowboard and I will definitely do it again!

The road to the cabin.

At the top of our longest and hardest slope.  We both took a good fall on this slope!

Day 133

CHAMPS SPORTS BOWL!!  NC STATE vs WVU!!  Wahoo!!

WIN!  GO STATE!!

Day 102

Today is a big day.  It's NC State's football team's last game of the regular season.  We're playing Maryland.  The tuuurtles.  If we won the game today then we would get to play Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship in Charlotte, NC.  If we lose the game, then Florida State, whom we beat, will get to play against Virginia Tech.  But wait, there's more ifs.  If we beat Clemson and beat VT, then we'll get to play in a BCS bowl game: The Orange Bowl!!

However, we didn't win.  It just didn't happen for us today.  But on a happy note, I drank my wine out of a very festive glass.

GO PACK!

Day 101

This afternoon I went into Boston with Gary (John's uncle) to watch Matthew, Gary's son, play a hockey game at Harvard.  He was so cute, and good.  He even scored a goal and had at least 2 assists.

Alisa, Matthew's brother, and I went into Harvard's stadium.

And then afterwords we watched the Havard vs. Dartmouth men's hockey game.  And low and behold, Tukka Rask, the goalie for the Bruins was at the game!!

Day 95

Today was the NC State vs. UNC football game.  This is a big enormous game, especially in my family.  Both my mom and dad went to Carolina, and my dad was on offensive lineman for the team.  He even played with LT.  Needless to say both Chelsea and I were raised to be Carolina girls.  And boy were we ever.  Until it came to time for us to go to college.  Neither of us even applied to go to Carolina.  Granted they don't have the degree program that either of us went into, but it still amazes my parents how this happened.  We say it's survival of the fittest.

NC State has won the last 3 games against Carolina.  So I hadn't experienced a loss to UNC (in football....obviously State lost to them in basketball) since I became a Wolfpack fan.  Here's a few pictures from the game.

 

Oh hey.  WE WON!!

Day 88

It's game day in Raleigh, NC and the Wolfpack is playing in their homecoming football game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons!!!  And I was there!!  It was my first and last home football game of my senior year.  But man it was wonderful.  I got there plenty early and tailgated with some friends and then went into the stadium in plenty of time to get great seats.

Oh yea.  We won!!

Day 72

Tonight my NC State Wolfpack beat FSU (16)!!!  This is a picture of me and another one of the ladies in the NCSU Alumni Association cheeing on our Wolfpack at The Brownstone, the bar that we met at to watch the game.  I would like for you to know something that I did not know when I was walking into the bar.  This is the official bar for the FSU Alumni Association.  Oh imagine my surprise as I sit there, the first one to get there (I do not miss a kickoff), and I am surrounded by silly Seminole fans. 

That's okay Seminole people.  Our team is better.  We won fair and square.  But hey, at least any time that one of your sports teams plays a game you remind everyone that you know how to spell..... "F-L-O-R-I-D-A blah blah blah."

There may or may not have been celebratory shots of Patron.  I'm just saying.

Day 53

John and I spent our Saturday together up in New Hampshire.  We jumped on a train (a first for both of us) and enjoyed a ride up to Durham, NH.  If you haven't taken a train somewhere, I would definitely look into it.  First of all, there isn't the hassle of the airports or traffic.  Secondly, the seats are big and pretty comfortable.  There's plenty of leg room, too.  Last but not least, you just get to sit back, talk to the one you're with, and enjoy the scenery.  Luckily for us, the leaves were close to peak and it was perfect.

That's our train as it left us in Durham.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, especially for football.  This picture is from UNH's campus and just shows how blessed we were with a beautiful fall day.

I think this is the only picture of the day where my hair wasn't blowing all over John's face.  It was ridiculously windy.  Most of the game I had the lapels of my pea coat flipped up trying to protect my face. 

Then there's what we came there for...

Mark!!!   He's number 51.  Long snapper.  For those who don't know (Mom :) ) he's the one in navy in the middle of the picture bending over.  UNH won 17-0!  GO WILDCATS!

Day 25

First of all, today was the 9 year anniversary of the largest terrorist attack on our beautiful country.  Many people lost their lives today because of some extremists. 

I'm going to go out on a branch right here and make a little bit of a political statement: I wish that people would love each other and respect everyone.  If people would accept others' differences, thousands of people would not have lost their lives on that day and many of our brave service men and women would be able to be home.  God bless America and all of our world.

Back to what this blog is really about.

Today was a great day.  I woke up and went venturing into the city.  What a great day I had!  Today's post calls for more than just one picture and a few videos.  So enjoy.

First I went to Macy's.  No pictures.  But it was a mad house.  Everyone had $10 off coupons that ended at 1:00 and of course I got there right before noon.  Insane.  But I got a really nice Columbia down and water-resistant coat for only $87.  As my mom and her best friend always say, "there are 11 commandments, with the 11th being 'Thall shall not pay retail price.'"  Amen to that.

After Macy's I just went walking.  Downtown was buzzing with people enjoying the crisp fall day.  There were few clouds in the sky and oh how wonderful the weather was!

Look at that sky.  It was perfect football weather.  Too bad I had no football game to attend. 

In an attempt to find a Wells Fargo ATM, I heard faint music.  I followed it and ended up at City Hall in Government Center. 

Playing was a band from Honduras.  They were great!  People were congregating from all over to hear and watch.  There was also awesome and sometimes comical dancing.

I then continued to search for this darn ATM.  While searching, I stumbled upon a huge outdoor market near the North End.

I bought 2 Fuji apples for $1 and 2 containers of strawberries for $1.50!  Unheard of.  This market was at least 2 blocks long.

I kept going and came upon Fanueil Hall.  People were once again congregated, but this time is was around 4 guys putting on a show.  Here's a video of some of it plus the cutest little kid that is going to be the next best break dancer:

At the very end of the performance, the ring-leader jumped flipped over people from the audience.

I finally made it back to the house and completed my wonderful day by cheering my Wolfpack on to a 28-21 win over UCF!  GO WOLFPACK!

Day Eighteen

Today marked the beginning of the game season for my NC State Wolfpack and the beginning for many more college teams.  While it was so exhilarating to cheer my team to victory all the way from MA, it was very bittersweet as it was the first home game of my college career that I have ever missed.  I would have done anything in the world to have been able to be there, to hear the roar of the crowd as the "boys of fall" ran out of the tunnel and onto the field, to cheer NC State on for each "Wolfpack First Down,"  and to sing out Alma Mater with all of my fellow Wolfpackers.

However, instead of wallowing in my sorrows, Gary, John's uncle, and I put together an awesome setup so all could watch the season opener.  We hooked my laptop up to a projector and had two screens, one to accommodate the light and another larger screen to use once it became dark enough.  We also had the game going on in the living room just in case the bugs got to biting.  We had to go through so much trouble because the game was only broadcast on espn3.com (the old ESPN 360). 

For the first quarter and a half:

For the rest of the game when it was dark enough:

Not too bad.

Day Three

Today marks 11 days until I leave for Boston.  In the past few days it has begun to hit me that I will be missing one thing that makes my entire fall:  Football.  I catch myself thinking about football, NC State, tailgates, and anything related to those things about 95% of the time.  Today started with me and Mom's first experience doing Zumba, followed by mowing the grass, getting some delicious Greek food with Mom, and during some errands around the house.  The night ended with Picture #3:

Southwest Guilford High vs. the Other team.  How sad.  I don't even remember who they played, but SW won 29-0.  I don't think I realized how much a part of me football is until I now have to leave it all behind.  There are plenty of new adventures ahead of me, and it's just going to be a little hard to miss out on all of the wonderful ACC football fever that the entire south seems to get this time every year.  Thank goodness for sports bars.