a taste of mississippi

I love visiting friends because I feel more connected to their lives. During college, I loved going home with my friends for the weekends because I felt like I understood them more. When they called me over breaks, I could visualize their home. The same goes with friends and their college campuses. Every college campus is the same - classes, dorms, a downtown/campus town. We eat in the food courts, we make new friends, we go out at night. But every college campus is also so different. Georgia is vastly different from Indiana, Miami of Ohio different from Illinois. Last weekend I went down to Mississippi for a visit to Ole Miss.

Last year, I missed the chance to go to Ole Miss with my Hilton Head friends, so when the opportunity arose this time around, I was sure not to miss out. It was so great to see Meghan and Doug and what their college life is like. Let me tell you, Ole Miss is unlike anywhere else I've been.

On Friday night, we went out to The Library, which is probably the biggest bar (Sports might be close) I've ever been in. A fun band - The Mustaches - was playing, so we enjoyed live music. The bars close at 12:30, which was a strange for me since at Indiana we wouldn't go home until 2 or 3. However, this was nice when we had to wake up early the next morning for the game and I had 6 hours of sleep instead of 3 or 4.

Which brings me to Saturday - GAMEDAY. Some of you might be familiar with tailgating at Mississippi, but wow. There is a field - similar to Indiana's student tailgate area - except it is packed wall to wall with tents. Everyone has a tent, and people are hired to put up tents the night before. Every tent has a flat screen TV to watch the games, there's tons of food, drinks, and some are decorated with chandeliers and candelabras. No joke. And every girl is dressed to the nines in dresses and heels, hair perfectly straightened or curled. I wore my 5 inch wedges and halfway through the day was convinced my feet were falling off so I had to change into flats. The game was great, the tailgating superb, and afterwards, we went to The Library to eat (took an hour to get quesadillas, thought I was dying) and dance our hearts out on the dance floor. After we went to another bar, Funky's, for more dancing, except instead of the Top 40, we listened to 80s and 90s - which I obviously loved. And when we went home, we enjoyed the lovely lights of Walmart in Meghan's backyard. :)

Meghan and I Friday night at The Library

Tents at The Grove

Hanging with Colonel Reb :)

My twin and me in at the Kansas City tent

It was such a fun weekend that I have been convinced (easily) to go back for the Alabama game in just a couple weekends. I can't wait!

stop. rewind. watch.

With Tivo and DVR, we love nothing more than skipping through commercials to get to back to our favorite programs. We don't have the time - or patience - to sit through commercial after commercial about coffee or pet stain remover... and when the OldNavy commercials come on, we want nothing more than to fast forward through the pain of the talking mannequins. However, once in awhile, there are some diamonds in the rough that make us stop fast forwarding.

Toyota recently released a new campaign for the Venza. The ads were done by Saatchi and Saatchi, and if you ask me, I think they are brilliant. I laugh every time. The ads are clever and witty, and give parents a break. Just because you're no longer in your twenties doesn't mean life stops!

I mean seriously. How can you not like these?

Adios summer!

image via torypedia

For most, summer ended in late August when they headed to back to school. So I might be a little late on this post, but forgive me, I've had some extra sunshine. I was fortunate to get 3 extra weeks of summer as I stayed in Hilton Head through Labor Day. But like all good things, summer came to an end as soon as I stepped onto my plane taking me from Charlotte to Chicago. When the pilot announced it was 64 degrees in Chicago, I knew the hot summer days in the HHI were gone. I couldn't ask for a better "last summer" before I enter the real world, whatever that is. I went to HARRY POTTER WORLD with my friends (yes, of course I had butterbeer), stayed in a theme hotel on Tybee, sang yelled karaoke, specifically "Walking in Memphis" everywhere I went with my friends, had dinner parties, party parties, went on a beach bar crawl, and so much more. As sad as it is to see the long days of summer go, fall brings cooler temperatures, sweaters and boots, changing colors (leaves in particular) and fun like football, HOMECOMING, Keeneland, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. So I say ADIOS summer! I look forward to next year with you :)

"life isn't about finding yourself. it's about creating yourself." 
- George Bernard Shaw