Weekend Recap - Illinois vs MSU Basketball

Hopefully when you're reading this, I am waiting at the airport for my plane off to warm, sunny Myrtle Beach. I know this should've gotten up sooner, but I had other things to write about first!

Both my parents went to Illinois for college, and they have some how have remained die-hard Illini fans, despite their teams being pretty atrocious pretty much all of the time. I vaguely remember their basketball team was good when I was little, but that's about it. (Don't even get started on football!)

Every year when football and basketball schedules come out, the first thing we check is whether MSU will be hosting Illinois. Sadly we haven't hosted them in football since my freshman year of college (and Eager Feet Dad was already on a trip that weekend!), but we've had better luck with basketball. This year we got super lucky with MSU hosting Illinois on a Saturday afternoon.

East Lansing is only about an hour and a half from me, so I didn't even have to get up super early! I ended up meeting my parents at a Meijer parking lot and leaving my car there, so we only had to pay to park one car. (Shh, don't tell!)

I hadn't been back to campus since the football game at the end of August, so it was fun to be back. I had tried to think of a way to fit a run in on my favorite campus route, but there's no showers accessible anywhere without a student ID. I even thought about running after the game, but I didn't know where I'd put my stuff after changing.

The lots near the Breslin were all full an hour before game time, so we ended up parking by the football stadium. My parents are relatively familiar with campus, but mostly with the roads, whereas I'm almost useless in the car but can get us anywhere on foot.

While the drive from the Breslin to the stadium lot was long, the walk was short. My parents didn't realize this at first and kept insisting we hustle to the stadium as fast as possible, even though we had 45 minutes until tip. I didn't understand but went along with it, but it was funny when we got there, and they were like, hey, how'd that happen so fast? Spartan magic, my friends. Then my dad asked me who the statue out front was, and a piece of my soul died. (Hint: it's Magic Johnson.)

My parents bought the tickets on Stub Hub and must have splurged, because we got seats in the upper bowl with real backs! Normally we purposely buy tickets for the top row of the upper bowl (which is bleachers) so that we can lean against the wall. Man, my weekend recaps are just dropping life hacks left and right!

Empty arena before game time. Sadly, lots of seats remained unfilled even after tip off.

Michael was supposed to come but got an awful cold that resulted in him having to take three sick days. He was feeling marginally better, but he decided to keep himself quarantined. This meant we had a nice extra seat for our coats. I also could sit between my parents and catch up with both of them.

The warm-up music definitely caters to the players, so it features a lot of heavy rap. I think it wore on my mom a bit, and she was glad when it was over. My favorite part of the pre-game is the MSU video beforehand. They update it every year, but keep the same song and a few of the same iconic clips. It's pretty easy to make me tear up, and this video always gets me, as lame as that sounds. Honestly, my favorite part of sports seasons as a student was seeing the preview video at the first game.

I'll spare you the gory details, but MSU looked pretty sad. We missed lots of easy shots, but we went into the final minute, down two, with three free throws and possession (from a technical), and we still managed to lose by five. I wasn't even sad - if you can't win with those circumstances, you don't deserve to win at all. Even my parents were in shock. I'm only a little worried now since some projections show us out of March Madness. Inconceivable!

Here's a happy picture from halftime.

There was the cutest little girl in front of us that made up for the sting a bit. I despised sports when I was little (please note the only college games I saw were Illinois vs Michigan, so obviously not exciting!), and the kid in front of us was like a blast from the past. Before the game even started, she had curled up for a nap in her seat. When the clock hit two minutes left, she immediately bundled herself up in preparation for departure. She could hardly sit still when two game minutes turned into about ten real minutes. I felt her pain!

After the horror was over, food was our first priority. We ended up going to Grand Traverse Pie Co, and I got their french dip. I'm not a big salad person, but my dad's cherry chicken salad actually looked amazing. I'll have to try it next time.

We then made a quick pit stop to try to find Spartan kleenex for my mom's boss. Yes, you can get just about anything collegiately branded! Even the campus bookstore didn't have any - they must only make them at going back to school time. I'm shocked, I figure that's a branded item that must print money.

Following that failure was my favorite stop of the day - the Dairy Store! MSU has it's own herd of cows and manufactures its own dairy products on campus, including ice cream in tons of different flavors. It is pretty much the best ever. I'm glad I didn't discover how good their milkshakes were until the summer before my senior year, or I'd be 1200 pounds.

Vanilla is the only way to go.

And yes, I am sitting in a stairwell in that picture. My dad insisted we go to the "real" Dairy Store (there's also a smaller branch in the Union), and the line took about 30 minutes to get through, plus there were no tables open. Most of the rooms in the building are food labs, and therefore kept locked, so we found these stairs leading only to a locked door and hunkered down there.

I then I had to laugh when we went to use the bathroom before going back to my car. Apparently the one person bathroom in the dairy building randomly has tons of lockers! I'm totally keeping this in mind for future campus visits when I want to run. I easily could have changed there and locked my other stuff up while I ran. So random.

I'm glad I was able to make it to a basketball game this year, and it was really fun to catch up with my parents. When I went back in August for the football game, it was so very bittersweet knowing my time as a student was over, but the ache is easing a lot now. I see a few more Dairy Store visits in my future!

Did you like watching sports as a kid?
What's your favorite brand of ice cream?

Belated Weekend Recap - Snow Tubing

I know it seems a bit silly to recap a weekend that happened a few weeks ago, but I really want to have all my "adventures" documented on my blog so I can do a cool year in review like all the other kids in December. I thought about combining this with last weekend's recap, but I decided to leave them separate, for that same reason.

The day started out with me getting up early-ish to run. This is always something I want to do, but it's so nice, especially in the winter, to doze back off in my blanket nest on Saturday mornings instead of getting up. But I made it out the door before 10 AM. Baby steps.

It was even nicer than I expected being out in the morning. Lots of other runners were out (who knew!), so it was nice to feel like I was communing with them. Even if I didn't actually make any eye contact because that's awkward.

It also beautiful out, with sunny skies and no wind. It was almost 40 degrees by the time I finished! I meant to take a picture of my run, but I was too lazy to dig my phone out. Suffice it to say, it was a very refreshing final long run.

As soon as I got back, I shoveled some food into my face and headed over to my coworker's to meet up for tubing. We had invited a larger group, but it ended up being me, L (same one I ran the Scrumpy Skedaddle with), L's brother, and T, another coworker.

The closest place to us to snow tube is Snow Snake, just north of Clare. For any non-Michiganders reading this, we consider this the beginnings of "Up North." I sort of live on the border, so it's easy for me to cross over. It was an easy 35 minute or so drive up to Snow Snake. (Easy because L drove and I could continue, ahem, refueling along the way.)

An aside here, but it was so funny when I told people I was tubing the upcoming weekend. Almost every person asks me if I meant snow tubing. There is a place to go river tubing nearby as well, but I hardly think that's likely in January!

When we arrived, we were initially a little unsure about the tubing runs. From the parking lot, it looked like grass was poking through at the bottom of the runs. We watched some people go down though, and they didn't seem bothered by it, so we went for it, all except for L's brother. I think the only thing he won't complain about is drinking, so we sent him off to the lodge, and the three of us got our tags.

It was a funny role reversal, after helping L get into running, I flailed around with my jacket tag completely clueless. She was on her high school's ski team, and still skis regularly, so she very helpfully showed me the ropes.

Snow Snake's tow rope was very nice, in that attendants hooked and unhooked your tube. I went tubing once as a kid, and you were responsible for unclipping yourself. That's way too much pressure for me! Up we went to check out our options.

Awkward tow rope selfie.

Snow Snake had four different runs, and we ended up trying them all. A few we did multiple times, based on how short the lines were. We had only paid for one hour of tubing (a bummer that they don't give a discount for two hours!), so we wanted to maximize our time.

The three of us were allowed to go down as a group every time, which was a lot of fun. I almost lost my privileges though after accidentally dropping L's feet one time, and she almost sailed over the snow barrier from the momentum.

That run sounded so gentle. Lies, all lies.

There was a worker manning the top of each run, so the crowd was controlled. It was so nice not worrying if someone would come smash into you from behind! Much better than sledding as a kid. They would also spin you if you wanted. We were too chicken the first time, but the guy spun us anyway (gently), and after that we got over our fear.

Another tow rope picture, but you can see how steep the runs were!

We also discovered on our first run that what we thought was grass was actually hay. Because of refreezing happening that week prior, the bottom of the runs had turned to ice. Without the grass, our combined weight would have easily sent us flying when we got to the bottom. We tried to convince L's brother to join us again, but he was happy with his beers, I guess.

Gosh, winter boots are hideous!

The nice weather persisted for us in the afternoon. I usually run quite cold, but other than the very tips of my toes at the end, I was perfectly comfortable. Dunham's had actually run out of snow pants when I shopped the night before, so the only water repellent pants I had were my rain pants. I felt like a super dork, but they sealed around my boots well, and I stayed warm and dry! Now there's a life hack if I've ever heard one.

When our hour was up, we headed in to join L's brother at the lodge. It was pretty cramped, but we managed to snag a table in the bar area. I stuck to hot cocoa (which ended up being disappointing), but it was nice to warm up a bit and chat.

I'm so glad we found time that worked to go. L and T are hilarious, and it was awesome to go tubing with them. I think the runs I did when I was younger were more intense (I seem to remember us going over barricades and falling out of tubes), but this was a blast. I have a tendency to fall off sleds, so tubing is the perfect activity for me.

Maybe if the snow sticks around I will go again!

Have you ever been snow tubing?
What's your favorite winter activity?

Weekend with Hannah

As I excitedly announced last week, I was able to spend this past weekend with my best friend! She is going back to the Republic of Georgia this week, and then she won't be back until some time in July, so I'm glad we were able to make our schedules work.

Still not the state!

Her only Internet access there has been a 45 minute walk away, so communication has only been infrequent Facebook messages. Considering we used to eat dinner together almost every night in college and text all the time, this has been a huge bummer. But Hannah learned the wifi password for somewhere much closer right before she left, so hopefully we can talk more this time!

Any way, the weekend initially got out to a bit of a rough start. Hannah is from West Michigan -  where lake effect snow is a huge problem. My original plan had been to leave right from work Friday and spend two nights at her house. However, a huge snowstorm started Thursday night, and it didn't stop in her hometown until early Saturday morning.

The roads here were clear by Friday morning, but Hannah was reporting white-out conditions by her. I still thought about going (and taking my time, obviously), but then three major highways were closed Friday during the day due to fatal accidents. (The one on I-94 even made national news; you might have seen it - it was the one where 40,000 lbs of fireworks were set off from a crashed semi!)

We both decided this was way too dangerous for me to drive in. None of the accidents affected my route, but I worried that the highways I needed would be in similar condition. All was not lost, and we did have an awesome three hour Skype session! We hadn't talked since August, so there was a lot to catch up on.

The next morning I slept in until about 10 and then took care of a quick work task. Hannah texted, saying visibility was back and local roads were plowed. The Michigan State Police website reported my route had some snow and ice, but there was no significant drifting, which had been a huge problem Friday. (Some of the whiteout in West Michigan was due to blowing snow, not new snow!)

I set out, podcasts and music in tow, for however long the drive took. To get from me to Hannah, I have to cross Michigan and head down the western coast. I didn't expect the coast to be in good shape, but I wasn't sure either if the county roads I take across would have been plowed.

To my great surprise, all the roads were in great shape until I got to Grand Rapids, and even that wasn't bad. In fact, other than a few intersections close to Hannah's house, I was able to travel at normal speeds. The drive was a bit tiring since I couldn't use my cruise, but I'm glad it was safe. I jammed to my Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast (highly recommend!), so it wasn't even boring.

After shoving a sandwich into my face in about two seconds flat, Hannah took my downtown to see an ice carving competition. Her house is really old and cute and a quick walk from downtown. I do love my apartment's location, but I forget how nice it is to be in a truly walkable area.

The temperatures weren't too bad (at least compared to the past week), but the wind was pretty biting, so we did a quick walking tour. Some teams were still in the process of carving, which is always fun to watch. I'm so impressed by anyone with artistic talent, but I can't imagine what it would be like to take a chainsaw to a block of ice and turn it in to something awesome.

Once we were sufficiently numb, we warmed up by getting froyo. Hannah took me to a new-to-me chain, since the local franchise is owned by a family friend. Hannah is from a heavily Dutch-influenced area, so they even had stroopwafel for toppings! (Runners - I'm going to let you in on a little secret: Honey Stinger waffles are just marked-up stroopwafel. When I told Hannah people use them for fuel, she about died laughing.)

In the Netherlands, you buy them from vending machines.

The place was pretty dead (wonder why!), so we did some more catching up. Afterwards we walked back to Hannah's house and ate dinner. Both Hannah and her mom are super good cooks, so it was delicious, and obviously an improvement over my normal "meals."

I think we spent probably about five hours after dinner just talking some more. I had a ton of questions about Georgia. I've been keeping up with Hannah's blog, but she isn't able to post as much as she would like. Some interesting facts I learned:

-Georgians always tell time in relation to the upcoming hour (ie, it is not 15 minutes past 9, but 45 minutes before 10), so British/American time-telling is incredibly hard to teach.

-Women typically have white-collar jobs, while men have blue-collar jobs, so Georgians assume the pay gap in America is that women make significantly more than men.

-Very few Georgians have central heat (and none where Hannah is), so it's only about 10 degrees warmer inside than outside. Hannah said Georgians native to the region will admit it's cold, but are generally unfazed.

-Wedding receptions are held about a year after the wedding ceremony and are paid for by the groom's family and served potluck style.

I really admire Hannah for doing all sorts of adventurous globe-trotting. (She has studied abroad in Turkey twice, as well as for a summer in Azerbijian.) She knows all sorts of uncommon languages, too. We did have an interesting discussion about this, when I said I sometimes wished I had the courage to do things like her, but she assured me doing the 50 States is plenty adventurous. I thought it was an interesting reflection. I guess I immerse myself in so much 50 States stuff that it's my "normal," even though other people don't think so.

After staying up super late (I'm talking like 11:30 here, people), we slept in and had a lazy breakfast Sunday morning. Hannah then took me out to a local park on the waterfront. Again - it's so cool that she lives within walking distance of so many fun things! All I walk within walking distance of is a liquor store.

I will admit I did not quite come prepared clothing-wise.

It was about 10 degrees warmer than the day before with almost no wind, so it was quite pleasant out. I was comfortable in my peacoat and hat, but Georgian winter-adapted Hannah ended up stripping to just a hoodie and was still hot.

I do have to give props to the men out ice-fishing. I can't imagine sitting on ice and being exposed to the air. Without the 20 degree warmth bump running gives me, I'm a total cold weather wimp!

After this walk, it was unfortunately time for me to leave. I don't particularly like driving on the county roads after dark (especially when road conditions are iffy), so we had to say goodbye for seven more months. I am excited that Skyping (and maybe even texting!) will be feasible now, so the separation won't be quite as bad. I'll just think ahead to how fun it will be to catch up for twice as long this summer!

What's the most adventurous thing you've done?
Have you ever been cut off from a good friend for a long time?