kristin

Fortunately, I large group of us don't have class on Friday, so we were able to utilize a full four-day weekend as a result of Martin Luther King Day and leave Friday morning. The drive was easy, and we were in the city and checked into our hotel by late afternoon. We decided to use our free time to see the sights and just walk around - I have to admit I also decided to take my first take at gambling and lost $2 on penny slots... Later that night, we met up with some other girls from my sorority and had an awesome dinner at Social House before a night out.

The next day, we were obligated to participate in some necessary Vegas shopping (the girls that we are) and decided it was only appropriate to try our hand with at least a little gambling, which I must admit was one of my favorite parts. This was when my roommate Gaby introduced to this amazing phenomenon known as Casino War, which is exactly what it sounds like - the card game War, but at a casino table with a dealer and all. The nerdy engineer that I am did the math, and it turns out the winning potential on war is actually considerably better than in games like blackjack. We finished our day with another awesome dinner and night out.

On Sunday, we sadly had to drive back to LA to get some work done and catch up on sleep before a week of school, but not to worry, we most definitely made time for the In-N-Out stop that I've now learned is necessary to any road trip in California. 

Disclaimer: I am 21 and can legally attend all casinos and venues in Las Vegas.

As I would hope everyone knows by now... USC dominated (the) Ohio State in the ultimate college football match-up this weekend.  I was put in a very unique situation this past week as born and bred in Ohio -- the state where farms are abundant and football is life -- and die-hard USC fan and student who wanted nothing more than to see her hometown Buckeyes lose... badly.  I would love to get into the details of the describing the joy I felt as our beloved Trojans obliterated the Bucks, but I'm pretty sure it's been done enough and ESPN likely does a much better job at that than I ever would. 

Instead, I think it would be far more humorous to revisit July when former USC quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer, now the worshipped Cincinnati Bengals leader predicted the outcome of this game, much to the disgust of his Ohio supporters.  Before I continue, I want to reiterate that football is actually LIFE in Ohio, and anyone who trash-talks the Buckeyes should probably put extra deadbolts on their doors before going to sleep at night.  Carson, being the true SC fan and athlete he is, however, predicted the USC destruction of Ohio State and made public the annoyances all Ohio residents who are OSU fans experience as a result of OSU fans... because, in all honesty, they are obnoxious.  Carson said this to an LA-based radio station:

"I'm really getting sick of it [the build-up to the Sept. 13 game], and I just can't wait for this game to get here so they can come out to the Coliseum and experience L.A. and get an old-fashioned Pac-10 butt-whooppin and go back to the Big Ten."

As might be expected, OSU fans went crazy to the point that I thought they might just run their beloved quarterback right out of the city.  Now, I'm happy to say, the Trojans were able to keep Carson true to his word, and Ohio is once again back to (defeated and very upset) order.

As President of my social sorority, I'm definitely a very proud member of the Greek community here at SC, and very proud to say the recent Recruitment process went amazingly well for fraternities and sororities alike.  Recruitment for Panhellenic sororities generally always occurs on the first weekend of school in the Fall semester, during which the 850 prospective recruits visit each of the ten PHC chapters and, by a process of mutual selection, receive a bid to one chapter.

 I'll admit the process is certainly a little overwhelming at first, but many students say it's one of the best ways to meet a ton of people very fast at the start of the year.  Not to mention, the opportunities and experiences associated with Greek organizations are absolutely phenomenal.

 I'm very happy to say that after 5 days (we utilize the long Labor Day weekend, plus evenings on Thursday and Friday) and meeting about 850 awesome girls, my chapter finished the process with an amazing pledge class of 64 new members.  To kick-off a successful recruitment and the new school year, our house hosted a huge Welcome Back BBQ yesterday during which our chef Franz grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for all of the girls in the house and all of our guests, totaling easily over 500 people.

http://media.www.dailytrojan.com/media/storage/paper679/news/2008/09/04/News/Ifc-Panhellenic.Council.Offer.Record.Number.Of.Rush.Bids-3415220.shtml

Spring break has come, and now, almost gone...

And I've decided, I don't really like Spring Break. I realize that may seem like one of the most abominable statements ever, but I'll admit, I'm just not that into Spring Break. Now, don't get me wrong, each of the three Spring Breaks I've had as a college student have been fabulous and I would love to repeat them, but the truth is, they're really just not a "break." Students get to leave school, got to some fun, tropical place, and lay in the sun and hang out with friends all day, but, because it is Spring Break, during this break, I refuse to do any school work, purely on principle... as I think it should be. And somehow, that decision to take a "break" always comes back to get me.

Take this year, for example. I went to Cabo San Lucas with a bunch of friends (and by friends, I mean 12 fraternity boys) -- the quintessential Spring Break for a lot of SC students, kind of like a temporary relocation to a warmer climate. My friend Kristin and I thought we were being very responsible by leaving Friday and returning Wednesday afternoon, leaving us 4 full days to escape to Palm Springs and do nothing but homework and recover from Mexico. So we went to Mexico, had far too much fun, and came back Wednesday as planned, but then one of my best friends from home was in LA and I had to see him, and a bunch of girls from our sorority were also recovering in the desert, so we clearly had to have a barbecue with them, and then we obviously had to go out for a dinner/party for Kristin's dad's birthday. At this point, as of Saturday afternoon, we also have dinner plans this evening, a wonderful Easter brunch planned for tomorrow, and are still entertaining the idea of outlet shopping in Cabazon.

Needless, to say I have taken "break" far too literally and anticipate being very upset with myself come Sunday afternoon.

So, I'm a big golf fan... actually a really big golf fan.  And my cousin just moved to the San Diego area, and apparently has quite the golf hook-up, which means I get tickets to major tournaments in Southern California -- most notably, this weekend's Buick Invitational.  Now I realize that there aren't too many people who genuinely enjoy walking around all day, following old guys while they hit a little ball that most people usually can't even see, but I absolutely love it. 

My cousin and I went to the Buick all day Saturday, and it was probably one of the most exciting days I've had since coming back to school, as lame as it may sound.  We're both big fans of Tiger Woods so we spent a lot of the day trying to see him play, but just about everyone at these events wants to follow Tiger, making trying to get a glimpse of him pretty tiring.  Towards the end of the day, we were fortunate to get perfect spots right next to the tee box on the 18th hole and watched the last four groups tee off, which was pretty cool because those groups included Tiger (of course), Aaron Baddeley (new, young Australian kid), Boo Weekley (funniest guy ever to watch), Kevin Streelman (the last alternate to qualify who managed to be just a few shots back of Tiger going into Saturday who was cracking jokes with the crowd all day), and a ton of other big names.

I've also never really spent much time down in the San Diego area, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly I was able to get there.  I left Friday evening, with hope that I missed rush hour, and I was able to get to my cousin's house, north of the city, in less than an hour and a half.  I got back just as quickly Saturday too.

I must admit, though, that the best part of my day occurred when Tiger was walking from the 6th green to the tee box on the 7th, and I was right there against the ropes when he walked by, coming probably within a foot of touching him. 

I almost touched Tiger!