I got 99 problems and Housing ain't one of them

Meeting New Friends and Going on Adventures

I always enjoyed those Mastercard commercials where a bunch of items would be bought with a Mastercard, but it was the experience afterwards that was priceless.

Now I did not buy my friends with a Mastercard, I simply met them living in my building at Oakland University, but the times and adventures we shared were priceless.  My mother told me before going to college that I would find friends that I would stick with for the rest of my life – She couldn’t have been more right!

My freshmen year one of my core groups of friends, Dan, Ben, Chris, John, Claire, Jill and Emily, decided we wanted to go somewhere during spring break.  After throwing around some ideas of places to go we decided on Chicago.  The stars in the heavens then aligned themselves to create the best vacation I have ever experienced.  Everything just fell into place.

 Emily’s parents ran a camp in Southwest Michigan (check it out here http://www.blbc.com/) and we could stay there for a night or two.  So we all packed into Jill’s minivan, lovingly named Cricket, and drove down to Emily’s camp.  Upon arriving and after unpacking we proceeded to the sled hill.  This was no ordinary sled hill; it was a monster sled/tubing hill of glory.  They had inner tubes that we could use as sleds.  After creating a huge sled train and reciting lines from “Cool Runnings”, Dan attempted to mimic the Michelin Man and see how many inner tubes he could fit on his 6’4” frame.  I believe it was 5, maybe 6, that he managed to “wear” and sled down with.  Afterwards we made our way back to the main dinner area and made a fire, drank hot chocolate and shared hilarious stories of our past.

The next day we woke up bright and early to head out to a little commuter train station in Dune Park, Indiana to catch a train into Chicago.  Being in college and therefore notorious for sleeping in, waking up early to catch the early train was not the easiest for us and we thought for sure we were going to be late.  Jill put on her Michael Schumacher racing face and we hustled towards our train station.  Mind you we did not break any road laws on our way, we just pushed the laws to their limits.  We arrived at the train station one minute before the train was schedule to depart, and there was not a train in sight…. Turns out Indiana is in a different time zone and we had arrived 1 hour early!  I guess you learn about time zones after your freshmen year of college.  After a quick, entertaining train ride with a quirky conductor we were in Chicago!

After a short walk to our hotel and gawking at the sure size of the skyscrapers, we checked in and got settled.  The guys had one room and the ladies had a room next door.  With out a moments rest we were out exploring the streets of Chicago!  We commenced a very cold trek across Millennium Park and headed to Shedds Aquarium, stopping for some classic pictures at the mirrored bean in the middle of Millennium Park.  Shedds was free for students that day and such an interesting place. SO MANY FISH!  That night we went to a classy Chicago style deep dish pizza joint and got acquainted with the huge pizza proportions that Chicago was famous for.  The next day we hit up Navy Pier, road the Ferris wheel, visited the botanical gardens and did some shopping.  Dan insisted on getting some world famous popcorn, so after an hour searching we finally found Garrett’s Popcorn!  Dan proceeded to buy the biggest tub of popcorn that money could buy to haul back home.  We caught a late train back to our station in Indiana and headed back to Emily’s for the night.  Before we retired to our rooms to sleep, we had to have more adventure at Emily’s camp! We went to the local Meijer to shop for s’more supplies and have grocery cart races.  When we returned to the camp we ate a few s’mores and headed to their indoor rock-climbing wall!  That’s where we found out that Ben should have been named Peter Parker.  He could climb a rock wall faster then I could blink.  He would start; I would bend down to tie my shoes and he would be at the top before I stood back up.  It blew my mind. 

Alas our fairy tale adventure came to an end and we went back home, glowing and ready to share our experiences with our families.  It was an adventure of a lifetime.

All in all, gas - $25, 2 hotel rooms split 8 ways - $37, Food - $40, an amazing adventure with new friends – Priceless.

Posted 1 year ago — 1 note

A tip for all my running grizzlies

I enjoy a nice run every once and awhile.  What I do not enjoy is running with key and my OU ID (you need both to get back into your room).  Running with an ID can get tricky and often times uncomfortable.  I won’t go into details, but trust me, not comfy at all. Luckily I have discovered a secret!  You can put your ID in your mailbox (you just need your housing key to open) and tie your key to your shoelace.  Voila!  Hands free running!

p.s. the picture is not my leg

Posted 2 years ago — 2 notes

My Adventure into the Realm of Intramural Sports

I like sports.  I lied.  I love sports.  During high school I played soccer, swam and dabbled in tennis.  It was nice. I made some friends, stayed in shape and had fun.

So when I discovered that OU has an intramural program and I could continue to play sports all year round, well I almost did a back flip in excitement.  I am glad I didn’t do a backflip though, because I don’t really know how to do one and would have probably ended up hurting myself. 

One of the first IM (intramural) sports leagues that was available was soccer.  It just so happened that there were around 5 people on my floor in Vandenberg that played soccer and around 5 others that had not really played before but were interested in joining in the fun.  My roommate, Dan Elliott, and I were elected team captains and we went to the REC center to fill out the paper work to create a team.  That’s where we learned lesson number one: some IM sports have a $25 “refundable forfeit fee”.  The fee was to encourage teams not to forfeit and at the end of the season a team could get that $25 back so long as they showed up to every game.  Back to the story.  Dan and I drummed up 25 bucks and registered our team.  The HC Shockers, a real creative name, I know. 

We had 6 games or so during the regular season.  At the start of our first game we learned lesson number two: always have your OU ID to play.  One of our floormates, who shall remain nameless, forgot his ID.  I have never seen Nick Hooper run so fast to his room to grab his ID.  Lesson learned.   Man, we had moments of glorious soccer and we had moments that just left us scratching our head.  At the end of the season I think we won just as much as we lost.  The regular season was only for bragging rights and a higher seed in the post-season tournament.  This was where true glory is achieved, and the title of IM sports champion is crowned.  Through determination, hard work, and a bit of luck, we won!  It was a sweet moment indeed, sharing the victory with a bunch of friends that live with me.  As the proverbial icing on the cake, we received free t-shirts that touted our victory in IM sports.  It was a beautiful thing.

After relishing in my victory, there was no break because we had to go right into flag football.  I never played football before, but hey, there were guys on our soccer team that had never played soccer before either, so I thought I would give it a shot.  Our team got slaughtered.  That was okay though because we couldn’t win at all the sports.  It was still nice to try something new and all-be-it we lost a bit, okay a lot, there were some teams that were comparable in skill level.  Then we did not get slaughtered, but had some really close games and I learned all about the throw “da bomb” very fast. 

Having a lot of friends on my floor that specialized in different sports really encouraged me to reach out and try some new sports.  My roommate was a basketball superstar and he started an IM team and put me on it.  Yeah basketball, never played it before.  Now I am in love.  Yes when that leather ball hits my hands, my body temperature rises slightly, and not just from running up and down the court.  If you know what I mean.  Okay that was a little weird, but I just wanted to emphasize  that by trying something new, I found a new passion in my life.

All in all, IM sports is something I look forward to doing every year here at OU.  I have meet some amazing people and played against some great competitors.  I hope that you give it a try sometime.  Go out and kick some @$$!

Photos to follow

For more information check out the IM sports website: http://www.oakland.edu/?id=1202&sid=90

Posted 2 years ago