#83: Check Out a Black History Month Event

            PATRICK WINS AWARD FOR BEST FRIEND! When no one else was willing, he was a beam of sunshine that asked to join me on my adventure to the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library downtown! In my planning and spacing preparations for ensuring accomplishment of the 111 things, it slipped my mind that February was such a short and busy month, so I almost ran out of days to go to a Black History Month event! 

            Ohill claimed to be celebrating on Wednesdays and Fridays by playing jazz music instead of pop, but I didn’t think that merited a “check”. I scoured the internet and was dismayed to find that according to the Office of African American Affairs, the “closing ceremonies” or whatever had been this past Thursday! Yet thanks to the wonderous technology of search engines, I finally found one event that fit in my schedule:

February 27, Sunday

DRUM CALL AND FRIENDS!
JMRL - Central Library.
Celebrate Black History Month! Groove to the beat of African drumming with drummer extraordinaire Whit Whitten and friends. Central Library.  Directions: 201 East Market Street.  2pm.  $free.  All ages welcome

Close, free, for kids of all ages?! HECK YES. There was a trolley stop right in front of the library, and when Patrick and I made it up to the third floor, there was no mistaking the room it was in. There was a woman in full head to toe African dress, at least a dozen different sized bongos and drums, and a man who had been to Ghana himself (“back in ’92”; he thought some of the 7 year olds might have been that old haha) It was super fun, and while 90% of me wanted to get up there and steal a drum from a 3 year old or start dancing with the older woman, I controlled myself—partly because Patrick wasn’t goading me too hard and partly because the number of parents there was intimidating. One of my favorite parts was the kid in the Batman shirt next to me who couldn’t take his hands off his ears!

            It was such a lovely day that we decided to walk back to Grounds and grab something to eat at Mel’s (because we were starving and it was on the list). It’s closed on Sundays for future reference. But we DID make it to Arch’s to get not only a free sample of Angel Food Cake (#41: Get a Free Sample at Arch’s), but to chow down on their delicious paid for fro-yo concoctions. What a lovely afternoon, thanks Patrick!!

"I bless the rains down in Africa." - Toto

#104: See a Show at Old Cabell Hall

            Thanks to V-Dubs I’ve sung on stage at Old Cabell quite a few times, but tonight I went to the UVA Jazz Ensemble’s concert featuring the Free Bridge Quintet. While I rearranged a lot of my schedule to fit this one event in for my History of Jazz concert paper which is due in the matter of days, I’m glad I had the opportunity to go. John D’earth (the leader of the ensemble AND lead trumpet for the quintet) basically co-wrote my textbook and we see samples from the famous band members (Jospe, Decker etc) practicing all the time in class.

            Probably my favorite part of the whole experience was reading the song titles and trying to imagine what the composer was going for…any shift in your perception makes a world of difference in what you “hear” from a song. This particular concert spoke to me as they played “Dolphin Dance” by Herbie Hancock and then actually dedicated the concert to Rachel Carson! D’earth wrote a new arrangement for this Green Chemistry movement that’s going on in the sciences right now… I just felt like it was the perfect concert for an environmental scientist named Emily to go to :D

            And there was a girl with adorable cheetah shoes and a pretty fine trombonist. I went by myself. I’m tired of going to these things by myself. More tomorrow I suppose.

“OOoooOOh Carrie likes the JAzZ man. JAZZ man.” –Big, Sex & The City

#59: Sing Your Heart Out at Baja Bean Karaoke

            I’m not even exaggerating when I say the twenty-second birthdays this year are giving those little 21^st girls a run for their money. Last night was Heather’s, and in honor of celebrating her life rather than her emergence from the womb, we delayed a day and went out on Thursday! We started the night off SURVIVING with about 3 2-dollar doubles each at Bilt and then stumbled over to Baja Bean for karaoke night!

            I love Baja. They have DOLLAR tacos on Friday and Saturday nights that are actually pretty delicious, comparatively cheap margaritas, and the Green Card system where you get points for trying different types of tequila shots! But Thursday nights, the Corner just shines, and Baja is no exception…they couple dancing upstairs with tequila and karaoke below. What had been earlier proclaimed a “vaginas only” group was temporarily amended as our new friend Thomas joined us in the ridiculous, timeless tradition. We got there a little after 9:45 though, and by then the wait-list was pretty lengthy as we sat or stood at the front tables through some heinous singers. Finally, my name was up, and Heather helped beat-box to my “Right Kind of Wrong” rendition in tribute of her birthday! After Heather and Jade did another Leann Rimes song, Heather and Molly transformed into Britney and Madonna for their “Me Against the Music” duet…Lauren featured as a sick backup dancer. We all fled the scene immediately in order to avoid more embarrassment, but the guys I talked to seemed to love our performances (probably our ensembles and current state of mind more…). But I had so much fun and am so glad I can officially cross this off my LIFE LIST too!

Ted: Why do they call it karaoke anyhow? Was it invented by a woman named Karey Okee? These are the kind of things I think about

-- How I Met Your Mother

#62: Make the trek up to Observatory Hill

     The Groundhog says that spring will come early this year, and so far I’m pretty happy with how quickly the weather has cooperated! Sunday the weather warmed up to about 52, an enormous difference from the everyday 20’s Charlottesville had been battering through. TJ’s ladies and I had had a wine evening the night before and agreed to get out and be active, so some of us packed picnic lunches and the other half grabbed Take It Away, and we began the journey up Observatory Hill! I’ve attached a map of the area; we found it would have been very helpful after a wrong turn headed towards the nuclear reservoir plant!

            Meagan and I had been up there for ecology labs back in the day, but it was a different trail entirely where we’d experimented. This week, the girls and I walked up the road to the back trails and took the upper one. We literally sat in the middle of the trail to eat our lunches until we felt like fatties and had to step aside when a group of runners came up the path! But we pressed on and made it up to the observatory and the cute little house (Alden House) that’s boarded up there. Check out this article…the professor is my own and apparently this little place is more historic than I imagined! I was so happy the girls and I got to go on the hike…it made me feel super productive and was a great variability in my workout routine! Our next hike is going to be at Crabtree…I’m excited.

"There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing." – Alfred Wainright

#88: High-Five Dean Groves

            So, I didn’t win anything at Casino night, but if we’d been playing for real money Joe would’ve been SO rich after his 45 minute roll of craps! The night was really fun, way better than the regular Corner bars, and a lot of fourth years came! I got a whiskey sours and headed to a blackjack table where an associate dean was dealing. I thought I’d ask him if Dean Groves was here and it turns out the man was at the next table over wearing a white tux! Couldn’t let an opportunity like this pass me by: I went over and straight up asked for a high five! In return I got a grin and the most solid high five of my life. I call that a life win!

Cameron:  “I remember once at a New Year's Eve party, stroke of midnight, he high-fived me. Two problems with that: One, gays don't high five. Two, gays don't high five.” – Modern Family

#106: Join the Alumni Association

I straight up have the best father in the world. As you may know he follows UVa very closely because he went here for undergrad! It slightly offended him that I mentioned I probably wouldn’t be able to buy the lifetime Alumni membership straight out of college (because I’d heard it was super expensive and took installments out of your paychecks or something crazy like that. Don’t know how true that is, but that was my line of thinking). He surprised me right after this semester started by giving me the gift of my life membership!

While the discounts the card offers you are minimal and mostly restricted to Charlottesville I believe, it does make me feel good to be able to support Alumni Hall. They’ve been great sustaining my livelihood with free class dinners, maintaining my enthusiasm for events like Taste of Charlottesville, providing me with presentations that helped me realize I really didn’t want to go to grad school right now and shouldn’t force myself into it, and finally supplying me with most of the cups we use in my kitchen! Actually, I'm on my way to go to Casino Night at the hall tonight. Maybe this little shoutout to the Universe will bring me luck in winning prizes! Stay classy, Alumni Association.

“I find that the three major administrative problems on a campus are sex for the students, athletics for the alumni and parking for the faculty.” –Clark Kerr

#64: Make an Impulse Buy in the UVA Bookstore Checkout Line

When buying my padres gifts from the University Bookstore, I saw this in one of the checkout lines. I know I’m the fan of Alice in Wonderland, but I was hoping Charlotte would like to find it in her stocking. She didn’t and made me take it back to become incorporated in my collection. They’re ENCHANTmints!

“I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!” – Alice

#47: Attend an AFC Drop-In Class

            I so wish I had learned about drop-in classes first year! Especially the Friday Happy Hours! At the AFC at 5:45 every Friday evening there is a FREE drop-in rotational pass. I didn’t know about those until I started working there this August. Charlotte and I went to one last semester called Boyband Boogie that was led by two best friends (a guy and a girl) who loved 90s music and only played Britney, Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, Destiny’s Child, and finally ended with “We No Speak Americano”. It was fun and definitely got my heart pumping, but not surprisingly, I prefer to groove in the dark!

            Tonight we went to “Partner Yoga” (something I’ve been stretching into since Joe got me a yoga mat and tape for Christmas). I loved it! In honor of Valentines day coming up the yoga instructor did a partner one, but it wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be! And there were a whole three Y chromosomes there as well! I feel stretched out for sure and have become reacquainted with my hamstrings and my back in a non-hunched position. Kudos to the productive day we’ve had, lady!

“The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren’t enough.” –Amy Weintraub

#48: Ride the Wahooptie

Oh baby, I’d been waiting for this one since first year! Wahooptie advertises themselves as “not your mama’s taxi” so obviously I was intrigued from the start. Wahooptie is a local Charlottesville taxi service, but the cars come in the most fun assortment of rainbow colors from an orange stretch limo to the pimped out sour green Cadillac. I always imagined myself drunk and stranded on the Corner needing a ride when I would need their services, but I was so much more fortunate!

            This September we celebrated Molly’s “Forever 21” birthday by riding in a Wahooptie to the Jefferson Vineyards (courtesy of her mother!) I was so excited and so grateful to join her in the celebration :D We got the big purple pimped out suburban and a scruffy tank-top wearing townie driver who was awesome nonetheless. He had classic dice hanging from the ceiling, but the iPod connector wouldn’t work, so we had to listen to his “pop” hits CD on the way which was kind of a riot and contained more Eminem than I’d heard in a long time! I got to share the awkward passenger seat with him on the way there! Good times. Your half birthday is coming up Mol, we should re-commemorate with something grand!

“After all, what is your host's purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself; if that were their sole purpose, they'd have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.” – P.J. O’Rourke

#16: Support Something That's Important To You

                                                          Katie and I are both AAGP PDs! P.S. No judging, the shirt was XXL

            Support is a word so incredibly fraught with strength that it can sometimes be overwhelming to think that you can make a difference or maintain control of the head on your own neck. It’s also easy to lose sight of the idea that support can’t be solely financial or physical or emotional. However, whether you’re holding the world on your shoulders or a loved one in your embrace, support is an act of giving. And my friends, it is so so important.

            One of my goals in life is to get better at supporting others whether they need it immensely or not. I hope to become a woman who plays an integral role in a few small parts of life and makes those parts all the more secure. The other week I volunteered some extra time at Madison House to put in more energy efficient windows—a generous donation from Dominion in the hopes of energy conservation. I loved watching my other fellow go-getters spring into action in every room of the building cleaning windows, removing packaging, and supporting the frames as they were installed. Madison House is always a welcoming and comfortable refuge for me, but that day I had never seen it brighter. I am so proud of the team who helped assemble the windows and the kindness of the Madison House staff as we worked hand in hand. The generous spirit that flowed in has definitely sealed any doubt in my mind about where I will be donating my Class Giving fund that I’ve been setting aside this year. I encourage you to please consider including Madison House in your class donations as well. The rippling effect of kindness flows so much further into this place and its > 32 programs where thousands of helping hands are delicately linked. Whether you donate to Madison House or not, please do give back somehow. Each and every one of you has changed over the past four years, and I bet you’ve had more support from invisible angels all around you than you may think.

“Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence.” -- Frank Zappa

#39: Pull an all-nighter in Clemons

All nighter in San Sal >>>>> Clemons

I just got my work schedule, and I still don’t have work or classes on Monday. And even though I ate a sizeable portion of my body weight in cheese and fat last night for the Super Bowl, I just don’t feel like going to the gym this morning! My day started off with a false phone call, progressed to blueberry bagels and vitamins, and I am so content to sit here warmly in bed with OneRepublic in the background and my astronomy book within reach—in case I feel like mental exercise. So vigorous haha!

            I’m feeling a bit antithetic as I choose this blog to write because a majority of my undergrad experience as an Envisci major and soc minor involved two to four hour labs in bio and the evsc departments accompanied by (sometimes) lengthy sociological papers. A complete creature of comfort, I never could get myself to write up these reports and essays anywhere near my comfy bedside. But I also have firmly resolved that I am still at least 60% little girl and require an exorbitant amount of sleep! So unless it’s really down to the crunch time, I never stay in libraries past 1am.

            In the spring semester of second year, I was probably near my all-time-low. There were a bunch of family problems, friend issues and issues in my Lambeth apartment, Joe being the whole campus away and us fighting a lot, my being fat… the list goes on. I was also completely stressed out coming from working my butt off in bio the previous semester and coming out with C-work; this semester wasn’t looking up. In addition, I had just taken on my first EVSC lab: ecology. Nowadays, people still complain about the Ecology Lab. THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO. Nowadays, the little buggers get two full lab reports and an “applicability” paragraph to write each week. Complete BS.

            In MY lab, we had a lengthy lab report every week. That’s eleven FULL labs. And by lengthy I mean BARE MINIMUM of 12 pages, usually15 or 16. It required extensive research for the introduction, complete understanding of how you were to go about calculating your results and why you did it that way, and a grasp of statistics that I had never been introduced to. I was constantly in my TA’s office (#57: Attend Office Hours): highly recommended: thank God for Erin (I can’t even remember her last name, but she changed my academic writing and scientific thinking and I am forever grateful). But with trying to balance a semblance of social life, Chi Alpha, seventeen credits, and reading and lab reports for biology, I rarely found time during the week to write my report. Until the day before when I would meet up with Haley Walker and Paige Mische in Clark to “crank it out”. Thank God for them too, I couldn’t have done it without someone sitting by my side to make faces at or just spontaneously start moaning with!

            One of the first two weeks of lab, Haley and I worked on it from 6pm until 5am straight. Checking our calculations. Formulating graphs and tables. Researching. Writing. I made myself go back to Lambeth at 5am and sleep for two hours before I got up to finish the stupid thing (and skip bio lab lecture). I was basically in hell all year, but I did it. That was my one night in Clemons—not even just Clemons but the 1^st floor, where everything goes to die: molding Chinese smells, creativity, sanity. I call it dehumanizing and it made me hate Clemons more than ever. I have to say if I had never had this experience I probably wouldn’t have made myself pull an all nighter in Clem just to finish these things…that’s how much I hate it. Unless I was watching movies and eating gummie worms on the couches upstairs. That would do, pig.

{P.S. I got an A+ in that lab, and I had never been more proud!}

“Staying up all night is a waste of sleeping, and a waste of sleeping is a waste of dreaming, and dreaming is important because the more dreams you have, the better chance you have of one coming true.”

#101: Complete the Dining Hall Marathon: 3 in 1 Day

            It is very early in the morning, very early indeed. But it’s a Tuesday, and being a Tuesday and day one of the week that I go out in public to look presentable, I suppose I need to shower. Ahh yes, that does feel better now. But hey, what a novel idea, I think I’ll skip breakfast…dun dun dun. No. I think not. That’s where the sorority girls who think they can cut calories out of their Joose diets go wrong. Well, one place anyway.

            Today is the first day of February…and my new philosophy is that a great way to start off the new month is by partaking in delicious food. So today is the day I choose for my dining hall triathalon: going to three dining halls in one day. Two years of preschooling and seventeen years of greater education have cultivated the great problem solving skills that I needed for this task: deciding the order of the dining halls and therefore which meal would be gourmet-ly buffet-ly bestowed to me.

                                                                                            <http://www.heinzproav.com/portfolio.html

The Meal: Breakfast (of Champions); Newcomb Hall; approx 8:20 AM

The Fare: Scrambled eggs and a buttered biscuit. Who am I kidding, I couldn’t resist that second buttered biscuit either, or the second cup of Pepsi.

The Rating: I feel like Newcomb was the safest choice for breakfast because there is NOT much else that Newcomb does well at all. Breakfast at UVA is pretty standard, but today was probably one of the worst ones due to the brittle dryness of the biscuits and lack of bacon, potatoes, and pancakes. I give this morning a 4/10. Oh Newcomb. At least I got my own table and had extra time to read before class!

                                                                                            <http://www.heinzproav.com/portfolio.html

The Meal: Lunch (of the loser whose friend never showed up to meet her); Ohill; 12:30 PM

The Fare: Turkey and Gouda on wheat bread, curly fries, and lemon chess pie

The Rating: I had a lovely lunch with Audrey who I happened to find at a prime table in Ohill by coincidence! Ohill has the  best sandwiches by far, but they also have a great lunch selection as compared with Newcomb. For starters, Ohill actually offers little fillets of chicken a lot; they heat their sandwiches and offer cheese varieties! Richard the sandwich guy always wants to give me extra cheese and did a little singsong for me when I told him I only wanted one piece. I was feeling guilty because I knew I wanted the curly fries, but not too guilty because I resisted the mac and cheese! Plus, the pie is delicious! I still feel like the quality of Ohill has gone downhill since first year, but I clearly have no complaints to being served delicious entrees that are right up my picky alley. Ohill, you are an 8/10.

                                                                                             <http://www.heinzproav.com/portfolio.html

The Meal: Dinner (without Jon after he said he would do the whole day with me and didn’t come to one meal because he was playing video games); Runk; 6:15 PM

The Fare: Grilled seasoned chicken breast, BBQ baked beans, mac & cheese shells, chocolate icemilk, cereal mixture with milk

The Rating: Runk has really surprised me with what they bring to dinners: I am rarely disappointed in the little gem that I rate 9/10 (on the UVA scale of course…this does not generalize to other campus populations whatsoever!) Joe and I ate based on Dave and Kalli’s recommendations and I loved the food but I was just so full from eating two big dining hall meals earlier I couldn’t bear to finish the big chicken breast.

Summary

1) All in all, follow my tour de Grounds, I think it will work out in your favor.

2) Also, three meals in one day may be too much. I didn’t even do that when I was a first year and didn’t have a choice (I remember eating 100 calorie packs of cookies for breakfast on my morning walk to classes).

3) Finally, don’t worry if you do have a big day on the dining halls. I weighed about three pounds less than average the next morning and didn’t even manage a stomach ache all day –a huge feat for me!



“An education is the most important thing in the world, next to family.”

“And pie.” –Gilmore Girls

#82: Grab Some BBQ in Belmont

            I grew up within 3 miles of the consistently rated Best Barbeque in Richmond, but if you know me you probably know how picky I used to be. It actually took me at least four years to try Alexander’s BBQ (the aforementioned BEST) which is owned by one of my best friends’ parents! But baby, it’s all in the sauce. Love Alexander’s for life, but I have been able to branch out so long as the BBQ isn’t vinegar based and the sauce is bangin!

            Also, it makes me really happy when Joe asks me to do anything with a plan in mind! He asked to take me out to Belmont BBQ which was on the list and darling you have no idea how happy that made me! When we were there he realized that Belmont really is more of a catering place and that we may have tried it at the Pi Lam Turkey festivities. Belmont is on the southeast side of downtown on a tiny little corner. There is one small counter that can seat maybe five people, but we didn’t have a problem because only one other person came in while we were there (for a takeout order). The menu was pretty reasonably priced… about $5 for a sandwich and a hefty side for about $2 extra. In my pre-restaurant research, I found that the jalapeño poppers are highly recommended as are the rib sandwiches. Joe got a large pulled pork sandwich with onion rings and cheesy potatoes (which he LOVED and were definitely super cheesy!) and I got the regular small sandwich with some bangerang fries.

            The sauces were really good…I standardly prefer mild, sweet sauces, but it was a little bland for me. I definitely preferred the hot sauce. But we didn’t get a chance to try the inferno sauce…maybe next time! There’re also several restaurants around the area that I’m looking forward to trying, including The Local where I just made reservations for Valentines day!

P.S. Here's the Belmont Challenge. It sounds somewhat easy...but those pint sized sides are HUGE! There was only one picture of a champion on the wall haha...if you happen to be into eating competitions bring me along when you do this, I'd love to see it!

“All normal people love meat.  If I went to a barbeque and there was no meat, “Yo Goober!  Where’s the meat?  I’m trying to impress people here Lisa.  You don’t win friends with salad.” — Homer Simpson