UF #1 in Something Other Than Sports?

Today the Princeton Rankings announced that UF was ranked #1 party school in the nation. While we can argue for days about whether that's true or not, I think it is directly related to our football team and high Greek involvement. If you ask every student how many beers they drink a year, you will get a huge number. However, if you subtract the drinks that are consumed on Saturdays in the fall - AKA tailgating - I would bet that number would be drastically reduced. The same probably goes from fraternity/sorority "socials". And it's all self-reported so who knows...

In other UF news, our Underwater Hockey team took 6th in the US Nationals this weekend in Gainesville. Our UF/Minnesota mixed team took 9th (I played one game with them!). And the team that myself and two of the other UF girls played on won first in the women's division! And I scored my first goal!

Welcome Back to the Sunshine State!

Well I've been back in Gainesville for only five days now. I got back in late last Wednesday night. The drive was boring and depressing. It felt like as soon as I crossed the Florida/Georgia border, all my anxiety and homesickness came back. So you can imagine how delighted I was on Friday afternoon when Andrew told me he was coming home three and a half weeks early! I got his flight moved up to Saturday and he spent the entire day flying from Madrid to Newark to Orlando, where I picked him up late Saturday night. We drove to his parents lake house in Dunnellon and spent the night catching up, exchanging souvenirs from our trips, watching movies, and eating good 'ole American food. We made a big breakfast when we woke up and his sister, Ashley, met us at the lake house around noon that day. We all went out to lunch and spent the afternoon fishing (unsuccessfully) and watching Cars. When we finally got back into Gainesville, Rags went insane. It's safe to say Rags missed Andrew as much as I did and they have apparently been bonding all day while I've been at work. I'm sure he's been busy all day especially trying to get his apartment back in order three weeks earlier than he was planning on.

Anyways, I am so glad he is home. I'm glad he went but I think that two and a half months is an awful long time to be in a foreign country where you don't speak the language, especially since his classes there ended a few weeks ago. It's great to have him back. Patrick and Alli will be back from their honeymoon in a week or two and Christina will be moving back from Baton Rouge in two weeks, so all of our friends will be back where they belong in no time! And before we know it, classes and football season will start, along with internships/jobs and organizations that we're involved in so who knows when we will get to all hang out. I'm glad we have a month before all that madness begins. Best of all, Andrew is back in time to play in Underwater Hockey Nationals this weekend, which neither of us were planning on playing in, but now that he's home, he can and he can also continue trying to convince me to play too. We'll see ;)

I finally uploaded pictures from Patrick and Alli's wedding and the rest of my road trip. Here's a few I like:

Lazy summer days

I have not done anything productive since I've been back in Longmeadow. Well, I visited my old office, went to lunch with some favorite former coworkers, bought a dress for Patrick & Alli's wedding (for a whopping $16 I might add!), and mowed the lawn at my parents' house. But I was sick at the beginning of the week and have been pretty lazy most of the week.

I leave tomorrow around noon to head to Charlottesville to pick up KD at the airport when her flight gets in around 10pm. We have a hotel for the weekend in Staunton, Virginia. Patrick & Alli are getting married on Saturday and then I'm going to head out early Sunday to go back to the Kiszs's in North Carolina. I am supposed to be back at work on Monday but that isn't happening. I physically cannot do the drive straight like I did on the way here. I'm going to take my time and be safe.

I am not looking forward to leaving. I'm so relaxed here. It's really hot but much more enjoyable than Gainesville weather. When I get back, I still have about a month before Christina and Andrew get back from their summers in Baton Rouge and Madrid, respectively. It's going to be a long month but Kayla is moving in at the end of July so that will be fun! I might be working part-time at Target, too. I'll be at my internship Monday, Wednesday and Friday so I can work at Target on Tuesdays, Thursdays, evenings and weekends. Hopefully I can save up some money and keep busy during the last stretch of summer. If not, I can work on my tan a lot!

I wish I had something exciting to post about, but I don't!

Home Sweet Home

As nice as my vacation up in the Adirondacks was, it's good to be back to civilization.

Saturday night we went to watch the fireworks in the same spot we have watched them from for as long as I can remember. And yet we could only see half of them. So that was disappointing, but the half we could see over the tops of the trees, those were good.

Yesterday we went out to breakfast and then went fishin'. All I caught were three trout the size of my thumb but I got a nice tan while doing it! I am looking forward to going bass fishing again when Andrew gets back.

I've been watching all the old episodes of The Office and I am now completely obsessed with Pam & Jim's relationship. I'm only halfway through season two but I watched the end of this season so I know they are actually a couple now. Everyone at my last job was also obsessed with the show, except for Jason and I. Everyone called us Pam & Jim. I was the receptionist who always wore pants, blouses, and sweaters and he was always hanging around my desk. I also got told all the time (and still do) that I look like Pam Beesly/Jenna Fischer. I also get told I look like Amy Adams but I don't see that resemblance yet. I wish! Anyways, everyone at the office thought Jason and I were secretly in love or that he had a crush on me. Neither were true of course, but now I understand why they called us Pam & Jim! And I am pretty much in love with Jim Halpert/John Krasinski.

Independence (a) Day (late)

Well my dad and I celebrated the 4th of July in true American fashion - driving 30 miles to the nearest Verizon store because my cell phone decided to crap out on me just hours after I sent out a super important press release about Jon Reep performing at Growl Growl. So after that took up our entire morning, we decided to hit the beach. I slept on the sand for a few hours, took a few pictures, ate ice cream, and then we headed back to the cottage. I've been sleeping a lot. Almost 10 hours every night and lots of naps. That's fine, because I never sleep enough anymore, and I'm on vacation so why shouldn't I?

We went back to the beach at dusk to watch the fireworks that we thought were going to be directly on the other side of the lake, but instead we watched a bunch of drunk upstate NY rednecks set off their own right on the beach. It was entertaining to say the least. We are going to the real big ones tonight in this cute little town called Northville, also on the lake.

Today we went white water tubing. Much like rafting, but in your own inner tube. The rapids are class II and III (on a scale of I-V) and they would be lame in a raft but were badass in a tube. It was cold and hard work because you have to paddle like hell to steer, but so much fun!

I've gotten to talk to Andrew a bunch over the past few days. He loves Israel. Every time one of us does something neat we keep adding it to our list of things to do when he gets back - windsurfing, parasailing, white water rafting/tubing, ziplining, skydiving, and of course lots of fishing and scalloping. I think we are going straight to the lake when I pick him up from the airport so we can get up early and fish all day the next day. Sounds like a plan to me!

PS: Rags is finally a real dog - he plays frisbee!

Rain, Rain... Fine you can stay

As much as I normally hate the rain, it's OK because I'm on vacation. A rainy day on vacation means you get to sleep in, wear sweats around the house, go shopping even when you have the most beautiful things outside to see, and do puzzles and eat bad food.

Fortunately we were able to get four solid hours in at Six Flags Great Escape - plenty of time for my dad and I to ride the only three roller coasters (out of a usual six) that were running today, including one kiddie coaster where my dad thought it was slow enough for a hat. Well, rest in peace Florida Gators baseball cap. It fell off on the ride and we made completely inappropriate jokes about climbing over fences to get a baseball hat and then possibly being decapitated (see Teen decapitated by rollercoaster if you don't know what I'm talking about). I know, wrong. But we laughed anyways.

It started to pour around 2pm so we headed back to the car. On the way home, my dad stopped so I could take a picture of this lady's yard in town, where she has a yellow flag for each US soldier that has been killed in Iraq. Today's running total is 4,114. It makes me really sad to see that number but I am glad she is making such a beautiful display to honor them. I find it very appropriate on the eve of the Fourth of July. Thanks to soldiers from nearly 300 years ago until today, I live the privileged life of an American. While some may question how what the US military is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan and everywhere else overseas affects us at home, I find it irrelevant. Someone has to do it and it sure as hell isn't me, so I am thankful every day for what Andrew and all the other soldiers have done and continue to do. I just hope they all come home, safely and soon.

On that note, time to go heat up my leftovers. I bought a bottle of local strawberry white zinfandel and a block of local extra sharp cheddar cheese for Juls and I to share when she got here, but now it looks like she isn't coming. Something about her brakes and Justin said he will drive her but he doesn't want to drive three hours then turn around and drive three hours home. Well unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, he is not welcome here. So I guess it's just me, dad and the dogs this weekend! I was looking forward to having her here, A. because we never get to spend time together since we live 1000 miles apart and B. because my dad doesn't talk much, but oh well. Now we are stuck with a $15 one-day fishing license. Julia's name is on it but I bet we could pawn it off to some girl at the beach who wants to pretend to be from Boston for a day!

Mountain Air

I forgot how much I love the Adirondacks. Much like in Beech Mountain, the air is so much cleaner up here. It's a good ten degrees cooler on the mountain and everything just feels so pure. We got here around 7pm and went to one of our favorite local restaurants called I-Go-Inn. When I was little, I ordered a grilled cheese for dinner. I think was about five, and up until then, I had never had grilled cheese at a restaurant. My mom only bought white American cheese and when it came with yellow cheese on it, I apparently flipped out and refused to eat it so they brought me a hot dog instead. That was just one of my many public temper tantrums as a child, but my dad always reminds me of this one whenever we go there. This time, there was no grilled cheese but instead a massive orange creamsicle alcoholic beverage that I just could not make a dent in. I was too focused on staying awake and devouring my beer-battered shrimp basket, mmmmm.

My dad took the dogs for a walk after dinner. Up here, there's no need for leashes. But Rags must be really confused by all this traveling we are doing and he is being especially clingy with me, so clingy that my dad hadn't even gotten to the edge of the yard yet and Rags came running back, crying at the door to get to me. So I had to stop doing work for 10 minutes and join them on their walk. Now everyone is passed or passing out. I am going to bed as soon as I'm done uploading pictures.

Here are just a few from North Carolina. The rest are at http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm305/kpackard1/road%20tripp%2008/.

Luck be a Lady

Well, no lady luck for me last night. I was doing pretty well, keeping even on the penny slots but then I accidentally bet $25 instead of $0.25. Nice one Kelly! Then after many drinks we found the big Wheel of Fortune game with an actual big wheel with prize amounts. I was way up but I had a bad influence in the form of Bryan and Slick on each side of me telling me to keep upping the bets. Eventually I spent the whole $20 bill, but it was fun and took a while.

Of course my camera battery died when we got there so I bought a disposable one and we only ended up taking a few pictures... or so I think. I don't really drink much anymore and these drinks were free and flowing so I am feeling pretty rough around the edges today.

In a little bit my dad and I are loading up the car and taking the dogs up to our cottage in New York for the weekend. Julia is meeting us there tomorrow night or Friday morning. Tomorrow my dad and I are going to Six Flags Great Escape. It is tradition that every time we go there (which my family has been doing since I was a tot) we go to Pizza Hut across the street from the park for dinner. I know, Pizza Hut as a family tradition? But it is so I am looking forward to that tomorrow night. More looking forward to going on all the rides tomorrow though!

Andrew called today! It was the first time we got to talk since Saturday and that is the longest we've ever gone. He is alive and well and loving Israel. He sounds much happier to be with the guys and out of Madrid. I am going to attempt to call him at his hotel tonight. I'm glad we are both keeping busy for the next two weeks because this is the middle stretch of his trip... a long time to go and a long time since he left....

Alrighty, off to do stuff for Gator Growl then head to NY!

Lata money!

No boat today. Just catching up on sleep, work for Gator Growl, and my internship.

We are leaving for the casino around 3:30. Bryan's parents are going for little while to bring their grandson swimming at the hotel and "have a few dirty martinis" with us before we head down to gamble our lives away. Actually, I always bring a $20 bill and usually leave with a few bucks leftover. I play the penny slots and you get free drinks as long as you are playing, so it makes for a great combination!

I am hoping there is no drunk-at-2am-update but there will be plenty of pictures taken and I swear I will get the cords to post them soon!

Now back to sharing my twin bed with two puppies...