2009 October Archive at Ben, ‘11

Archive for October, 2009

Keeping Busy

October 25, 2009

So, this week has been super busy for me. It was meetings after meetings after meetings upon classes after classes after classes. However, organizations that I’m involved with took up just as much time. So, I don’t have too much to convey to you from this past week except that academics kept me quite busy. As Events Coordinator for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, I just realized I am working on four events occurring within a ten-day span. That’s a lot of planning and work. There was a tailgate, Medallion Hunt, Housekeeper’s Appreciation Brunch, and a Halloween party. So, I haven’t had much free time. In fact, it is now Sunday evening and I have yet to touch my homework since Thursday, which is incredibly rare for me. So, what have I been doing since Thursday?

I put together a tailgate for one of my groups and decided to expand it to several other groups on-campus. We partnered together and had a great time. But, it required days of planning, prepping, cooking, and cleaning before the event was over. The weather was not pleasant almost all weekend, but it held off for our tailgate. Our head chef, whose dad is a tailgating enthusiast and has his own website for tailgating, did a great job. She (yes, I said she), manned those grills like none other while my friend and I (yes, both of us are guys) stood by clueless with the grills. How’s that for breaking stereotypes? Oh yeah, the football team won in the pouring rain later that day to remain undefeated and #1 in the Football Championship Series.

The three planners of the tailgate

Also this weekend was a sorority social that I was invited to. The theme was “Throwdown for Your Hometown”. So, I represented the great state of Wisconsin. I found some overalls, a Wisconsin t-shirt, and cut out some cheese slices. My parents actually shipped a cheesehead from home, but it didn’t arrive in time. It was held at a downtown club called “Element” that we reserved and I think everyone had a great time. I know I did.

Representing our respective hometowns

Quote of the Week: “Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” -Don Marquis
YouTube Video of the Week:

Ouch

Published by Ben on October 25, 2009 in Miscellaneous. 0 Comments

This Means War

October 18th, 2008

At first I didn’t think anything of it. It started as one simple incident that didn’t seem too sinister. But I now look back at it and realize that that one event was the Battle of Fort Sumter for the Civil War, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand for World War I. I began as an innocent bystander, but I have now been forced to enter into the thick of it. For, you see, my suite is at war. Don’t get me wrong, we are great friends and get along quite well, but we are in the midst of a Prank War.

There are four of us who live in the suite, two in each room, and we are connected by a bathroom. One day several weeks ago, an orange traffic cone magically appeared in the middle of my room. My roommate and I laughed about it for a few minutes, realizing that it was our one suitemate who did it, but then another traffic cone appeared in our room the next day. Another strange incident, but nothing too sinister. However, it then escalated quickly. The next day, a friend’s bicycle appeared in the middle of our room. At this point, my roommate and I knew we had to have a laugh ourselves. So, we kindly returned the two traffic cones to our suitemate’s room by hiding them in his bed. Little did we know that this was viewed as retaliation.

So, he responded by hiding the cones in our fridge and our dresser drawers. Several days later, he covered every square inch of our room in newspapers. We responded by taping “Caution Tape” all around his room, which provoked him to stuff our refrigerator with packing peanuts. I had stayed out of it for the most part thus far, but I now had to get involved. So, while he was gone for this weekend, we stuck hundreds of Post-It notes all over his entire room. Now, we must wait to see what his response will be. Below shows the progression of our pranks.

The original cones and the bike.

Newspapers covering the room

Packing peanuts in the fridge

Payback

Quote of the Day: “A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.” -Anonymous
YouTube Video of the Week:

In case you wanted to be educated

Published by Ben on October 18, 2009 in Miscellaneous. 0 Comments

Fall Break: A Reason to Not Shower for Five Days

October 13th, 2009

I have returned from an amazing Fall Break. My friends called it an “intervention” for me. I had no Internet, limited cell phone reception, and minimal homework that I brought along. They were determined to wean me from my addiction to schedules, organization, and busyness… at least for one weekend. My friend has a family cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania and she invited me and some of my other friends from school to come and relax there during our Fall Break. So, we journeyed to Pennsylvania for four full days of relaxing, hiking, games, and fun. We had home-cooked meals every day. There were fifteen of us that went and we were split between two cabins, conveniently located five minutes apart. My cabin became really close by the end… perhaps as a result of no heating or insulation in the cabin. All that we relied upon was a trusty wood stove. So, there were many great memories and several new friends. Through it all, I abandoned my homework for four days, which is a big thing for me, and simply hung out with friends in the middle of glorious nature and autumn colors. I’ll let pictures tell you the rest of the story, but I’ll first mention one fun, little statistic: 7 People, 5 Days, 2 Total Showers for the Entire Group.

The back porch of our cabin. Amazing, I know

Our trusty, little wood stove

Going for a stroll amidst the corn fields and autumn colors

Our cabin group enjoying the fall colors and the creek

Our joint dinner between the two cabins

Venturing into Pennsylvania and Amish country

A hike through a state park

Our collective group on the hike

The beautiful waterfall and us

Enjoying the autumn season

Saying farewell to our cabin and our new friends