I think I need to catch you up on my life, and all its many twists and turns.
Number one: College. Many of my younger viewers may ask, "Why, Clayton, how's college?" Of course, now I think about it, many of my older viewers and viewers within my peer group may be wondering the same thing. And my answer to you is: College is great! Here's a flash of my typical Samford week:
Sunday: Wake up, 8:30ish. Why I am up this early after likely staying up until one or two reading Harry Potter or watching college football highlights is beyond me. There is a knock on the door and there is a friend who I arranged to take me to church. The church in question is massive, as are many of the Baptist churches around Birmingham. The service was nothing remarkable, and then was Sunday School. I have not attended a Sunday School session outside of HFUMC since, oh I don't know, eight or ten years ago, probably. It was a very enjoyable experience, I think I might go back just for the Sunday School hour sometime. Arrive back on campus around 12:30, grab some lunch in the caf, then back to the room for an afternoon of NFL football. That's basically what Sunday consists of every week. Lots of football. Then to sleep for class.
Monday: My first class, JMC 200, begins at 10:30. I wake up at about 9 or 9:15, hop in the shower, head to the food court for a chick-fil-a biscuit breakfast, and head on over to class. Take some notes, fight some sleep, and then to Latin. Much of the same, although instead of the "take some notes" part, it's more "try to figure out what in the heck this thing means". Latin ends at 12:50, and that's class on Monday. After Latin, I hit up the caf for lunch, and head back to the room. Once back in the room, I open facebook (which will remain open long into the night), check emails, and get whatever work I have to get done. Today I'll get all my laundry done. I'm thirsty, so I walk to the mini-fridge and pull out a can of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. On this particular Monday afternoon, I pull up the 104.5 The Zone radio broadcast online, because Randy Moss is holding his first media meeting as a Tennessee Titan. I listen to 3hourlunch until 3, and then turn on the TV to NFLNetwork. I throw on my freshly-laundered band t-shirt, a pair of socks, and some tennis shoes, and head over to the band room. I then catch a ride to the gym because I'm playing for the basketball game. I play some music, shout a lot, and eat some pizza. Four hours later, I go back to the room, where I'll play on the computer, watch TV, and do some reading until I fall asleep at about midnight.
On Tuesday, I have one class. However, I am determined to make Convo this morning, even if I sleep through it. I get a can of lemonade from the room, and a chicken biscuit from the food court (I'm trying hard to cut down on my Bulldog Buck spending, I'm fast running out from my Chick-fil-A consumption), and head over to Reid Chapel for the Convocation. Today's convo speaker was surprisingly interesting, a United Methodist clergywoman and yet another great storyteller. Having not gotten my nap or the last four pages of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in, I go to my Tuesday/Thursday class, CP. I get that essay back that I slaved over on the previous Wednesday night. "This is surprisingly well-written," I find Dr. Putt has written on it. "First semester freshmen usually do not write this well. I even suspected plagiarism at first because it is so clearly written! Excellent work!" This brightens up my day immensely, even more than my first convo credit in two or more weeks did. I take about a page-full of notes about Gothic architecture and culture, and then we get out of class at around noon or 12:15. I head straight to the caf for lunch this day, and then after chilling back in the room for a couple of hours, go to band practice. It's our first Christmas band practice, and as I note to the facebook world, "I am fully aware of the irony of the fact that we're practicing Christmas music, and I'm wearing a tshirt and flip flops." The music is different, and moderately challenging. After dinner, I come back to the room, and Patrick is watching the new 30 for 30 film on ESPN about former superstar running back Marcus Dupree. It's a nice little piece, and I enjoyed it. After that, I make sure everything's ready for my Wednesday classes, read some Harry Potter, and go to sleep.
Wednesday is the day I buy my Harry Potter tickets. There's some finagling with Fandango, but eventually everything works out and I'm ready to go. Both of my Wendesday classes included getting tests back. My JMC grade, though not stellar, is still a solid B, which I will take. In Latin, I was expecting bad things from the test, but I end up earning a similar B. While in Latin, unbeknownst to me, there is a bit of a flash-mob rave dance in the caf in order to advertise tomorrow night's freshman class rave. Sadly, I miss it. After lunch, I head to the library to put in a couple hours of work-study time. In the end, I am not able to continue, and I end up staying for only an hour and a quarter. Dinner is yet another caf affair, and I return to the room with just enough time to watch yesterday's episodes of both Glee and NCIS. After my hour and a half of online TV dosage, I head to my small group meeting. It's a particularly good group meeting for me, and I do a little more reading before I go to sleep.
Thursday is a triumphant morning. For the first time in over a month, I am able to wake up in time to get to the caf for breakfast! I also make it to Convo, which is a very nap-worthy lecture about the church in China. Perhaps it goes too long, for I am still in a lethargic state when CP rolls around. The Renaissance is the topic of this class, and it goes until about 12:10, I think. I go back to the room for a 30-minute power nap (haven't had a good one of those in a while, either...) and then lunch in the caf. An hour and a half after I get done with lunch, and it's band practice time again. I'm not really feeling too well during practice, but I manage, and suffer through a small dinner just to keep my appetite regular. By the time I get ready to go to the aforementioned rave, I'm feeling much better and ready for a fun night of dancing. Well, except for the fact that after about forty-five minutes of constant jumping and moving, etc, I felt like my lungs were about to explode, so I headed back to the dorm for a couple puffs of the asthma inhaler and I was generally back to normal. Great dance, then I feel like staying up even later to get in some Harry Potter reading. I decide that I'm not even going to eat breakfast Friday morning, as I only have one one-hour class that day. I go to sleep, exhausted from an exciting day.
On Friday, I stumble out of bed a little before ten, take a shower, and find my way to my JMC class. It's a nice lesson about cable, I jot down a few key points, and class ends. I head to the caf, and have about an hour-and-a-half long lunch (not so much eating as the social aspect of lunch in the caf). After lunch, I spend a while in the room, before choosing to throw in a little bit of work-study in the library before it closes at 5. After I finish in the library, I run into Corey and Clayton playing frisbee. I play with them for a while, and then we all three head up to the caf for dinner. There we meet the likes of Patrick and Josiah, and after a nice evening meal, we decide to head up to the volleyball game, Senior night, at the gym. We are joined by Jamieson and Red Sea points leader Throck (it's a nickname, his last name's Throckmorton). We watch the volleyball girls fall to Georgia Southern 3 sets to 1, but in a valiant effort nonetheless. Some fingerfoods follow, and then Patrick and I so choose to head back to the room and chill for the rest of the night. I find myself, once again, in the midst of a very good Harry Potter Book (Goblet of Fire, which I've been working on the majority of the week) before going to bed once again.
Saturday gets a late start from me. I wake up shortly before 11, shower, watch some college football, and then head to the caf for brunch. There are some conspiracies regarding a birthday party, and I head back to the room. Corey comes in, I end up taking a run to Taco Bell with him and Zach. After we get back and while we are consuming our Taco Bell, Jamieson enters, detailing us about a certain prank to go down. I spend a large part of my afternoon on that effort after my weekly phone call to the parentals. After dinner, I anxiously await the next step of the prank, but we are foiled by someone close to a victim. I have a nice facebook conversation with this un-named source, and find myself compromised somewhat in the war of pranks that is happening throughout Samford. I suppose it feels a little like when countries entered the World Wars a while after they started. I await my just rewards. Meanwhile, I watch the fourth Harry Potter movie, and end up having to stop after a while, because it is so horrendous. I then watch the South Carolina-Florida and Alabama-Mississippi State games before catching the ridiculously awful ending of the fourth Harry Potter movie. Around this point, Patrick returns from the dorm lobby, and we watch SNL and some football and basketball highlights before he calls it a night and I turn to this, my blog.
Well, that's a sample week. Now that you know that, I'll just go on about some trivial stuff...
1. CUPCAKES. And I'm not talking about that thing that looks like a muffin but is much better. I'm talking about teams, like Louisiana-Monroe, like Georgia State, like the University of freaking Notre Dame, that college football teams play two, three, seven games against each season. Those ones that scream "easy win, let's get in here, play a little ball, throw our bench in, and get the hell out of here" on the schedule. It disgusts me. Every team in the SEC has played at least three, and while I'm a big fan of the SEC, I think they need to play easy-win teams that are a little more competitive by name, like Big Ten and ACC schools. Those of you that have been following all my crazy facebook action know my obsession with cupcakes and their complete lack of benefit.
2.
We've got Randy freaking Moss!!!! Thats right, boys and girls, Randy's a Titan. Get excited, it's going to be a great ride in Nashville for the second half of the season, and--dare I say it?--
playoffs?!?
3.
Oh, I gots me a youtube channel now! You can find me at
http://www.youtube.com/user/churdle76. I may or may not eventually be posting videos, but it's really just a thing for me to use for comments or liking videos or stuff like that.
4. And I've also gots me a tweeter!! Although I myself am not a twit, and do not tweet, I felt like I should get a twitty-thing to follow some other twits that like tweeting. So if you want me to add you to my followees, tweet me up @churdle76. If you want to add yourself to my followers (or, as I prefer, twitstalkers), just do whatever you do to follow a twitty type by searching the same tweetie-name.
5. What else, what else? Oh, I'm annoyed by Christmas coming before and above Thanksgiving again, I'm in the middle of a little No-Shave November action, and I get some more money in the bank this week. Also, my midseason NFL Picks are as thus: Titans, Texans, Colts, Jaguars AFC South; Steelers, Ravens, Browns, Bengals AFC North; Chiefs, Chargers, Raiders, Broncos AFC West; Jets, Patriots, Dolphins, Bills AFC East; Falcons, Saints, Bucs, Panthers NFC South; Packers, Vikings, Bears, Lions NFC North; Rams, Seahawks, Cardinals, Niners NFC West; Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Cowboys, NFC East. Playoff seedings will be Jets, Steelers, Titans, Chiefs, Ravens, Texans in the AFC; Giants, Falcons, Packers, Rams, Eagles, Saints in the NFC. Wild Card games: Titans over Texans, Ravens over Chiefs, Packers over Saints, Eagles over Rams. Divisional games: Ravens over Jets, Titans over Steelers, Eagles over Giants, Packers over Falcons. Conference championships: Ravens over Titans (you don't know how much it hurts me to say that), Eagles over Packers. To keep to my original pick of Super Bowl Champion, Ravens over Eagles.
Oh, last but not least, congrats to the San Francisco Giants for bringing home the World Series championship for the first time since your west coast move over fifty years ago.
That's it for now, folks, I'll be back with more action sometime later.
-clayton
