Merry Christmas!

The printed version looks much cooler, but I figured I'd post it here anyway, after all the time I spent in Photoshop!

"What Have You Had to Drink Tonight?"

My friend Merrily is in town right now, and I went up to hang out with her in Maryland last night. On my way home, I came to a stop light. As soon as I saw what road it was, I realized I needed to turn right; however, there was a little median there. A quick glance behind me showed no other cars coming, so I reversed about 10 feet and made the right turn. And then I saw it. The cop coming the other direction, who also turned behind me. I went slow, and sure enough, his lights flashed on. AAHH! I've only been pulled over once in my life. So, I pulled over to the side of the road (which was basically just a few feet since there was no shoulder), and I was so nervous that I hit the curb of the road with my tires. Oops!

I pulled out my driver's license and registration. And I sat. For what seemed like an eternity! It was literally 5 minutes before he finally came up to my window and asked for my license. I handed it over, and then tried not to laugh as he said "what have you had to drink tonight?" I promptly responded "um, a diet coke." "No alcohol?" I said "No. I have not had a drop of alcohol in my entire life." Not the answer he was looking for, obviously. He then went on to say "I'm going to need you to step out of the car." By this point, I'm starting to feel my legs shake out of nervousness. I get out of the car, and follow him behind my car, where I thought he was going to wand me like they do in the airport or something. That's when I saw the other police officer standing there. I was so embarrassed!! He had me step up onto the grass, and asked if I wore glasses or contacts. Contacts. Were they in? Of course. Did I have any other medical conditions that would make me unable to perform a test? No (I decided it wasn't the best idea to be a smart alec and tell him that I might pass out). He said "ok I'm going to do a test, and depending on the results, we'll go from there." The test? Feet shoulder width apart, and watch the cap of the pen he was holding. Follow it with my eyes, "not your head." Ok, simple enough. "Ok well your vision appears to be fine. You can go back to your car now." I told him that I knew I shouldn't have reversed to turn onto the street. To which he responded "Well, we all make stupid mistakes. What really concerned me was when you hit the curb when you pulled over." Oh, that would be because I was just nervous, not because I had been drinking!

I got back in my car. Since my window was still unrolled, I could hear him, either on the phone or talking to the other officer, saying that he'd just been certified two weeks ago. Awesome. Another five minutes later, after he'd done whatever it is they do with your registration on their laptops in their cars, he came back, handed me my papers and license, and said "I'm going to give you a verbal warning." I thanked him. And left. And tried to stop my leg from jittering. All the while trying very hard not to laugh at the fact that he thought I had been drinking. Wow. What a night!

Temple Lights

450,000 lights, a Live Nativity scene, Christmas carols playing overhead, missionaries greeting you, different Christmas performances every night at the Visitor's Center ... how can NOT feel the spirit of Christmas here? So beautiful. I love the Washington DC temple, but most especially at Christmas time when the entire grounds are illuminated (and not just because the man at the recommend desk told me tonight that my name is perfect for this temple...)!

Thanksgiving in Pictures

What I am grateful for, Thanksgiving 2008:

1. Christine letting me come stay with her.
2. Anne and Betsy letting me ride up and back with them.
3. Watching the parade from Christine's heated office.
4. Thanksgiving dinner.
5. Thanksgiving dinner leftovers.
6. Pie.
7. HUGH JACKMAN.
8. Sleeping and relaxing.
9. Hallmark movies.
10. Did I mention Hugh Jackman?

I know, its a little late to be talking about Thanksgiving. It was so great though, that it can't go unmentioned (and unpictured, if that is even a word). Thanks to Anne and Betsy for letting me tag along in the car up and back ... 7 hours up and 9 hours back ... it was painful. If it wouldn't have been for the traffic, it wouldn't have been so bad! But everything else was absolutely perfect.

I stayed with Christine in her new apartment. We went to the Macy's parade on Thanksgiving morning, only to get out of the subway to find a billion people. We were trying to work out way over to Christine's office on Broadway, but we had a bit of difficulty maneuvering our way through the giant crowds of mean tourists and locals. I honestly thought one woman was going to start throwing punches. Luckily, we managed to tag onto the end of another group who pushed their way through. And then, we were free. Free to walk into Christine's office and make our way upstairs to a corner office, where we enjoyed the parade view from the top! It was fabulous. Right on Broadway, heat, and most of all, no crowds.
I bet you didn't see that Buzz's shoe said Andy on it from down on the sidewalk, did you? :)We had to take a picture by this sign ... all the rage ... and what was staring us in the face during the entire parade.Then it was back to Christine's to make Thanksgiving dinner. We had a lovely time, and an even lovelier dinner with her friends and the masses of food that they brought. We had round 2 on Friday. We didn't even go out to eat the entire time I was there because we had so much food! Including ... appetizers (Christine's amazing cheese ball and my pumpkin apple dip) ... And ... some of the pies ... these are the 3 that I made - banana coconut cream, lemon meringue, and derby (chocolate chip cookie-ish). Yum! On Friday we saw Australia ... if you haven't seen it, GO SEE IT! Hugh Jackman. That enough should be enough to convince you. Nicole Kidman (who I don't always love) was great. And the little boy is absolutely adorable! Its long (it is an epic after all), but plenty worth it.The rest of the time, well, that was actually incredibly fabulous. A lot of relaxing and a lot of movies. Hallmark holiday movies. The cheesiest of ALL cheesy movies. And we loved every single minute of it! Just the Thanksgiving weekend that I needed.

A Funny Thing Happened on the TV [at the gym]

Picture this: You are working out at the gym, and as you are casually looking around, you see yourself on tv. Wait, what??

Yes, that really happened to me. In my cardio ADD, I'd gone from the treadmill to the stair-climber and finished up on the elliptical. About halfway through my time there, I glanced over to the girl next to me, and noticed that she was watching "What Not to Wear." Not just any episode, but my episode. Ok, technically not my episode, but the episode that I took part in. How embarrassing! Well, actually, not really, because I'm sure no one would actually recognize me unless they knew me (and I can't tell you how many people have asked me if they really saw me on the show, followed by questions as to WHY or HOW I made in on the show). But it was still really weird to be in the middle of working out and seeing myself on tv! At least I got a good laugh out of it.

Its a Christmas Miracle!

Its the little things in life. For the last week or so, I have been scouring my belongings searching for something very important to me. Yes, it is baseball-related. I am putting together one of those fancy MyPublisher books to document my baseball stadium tour (still trying to come up with a title - any suggestions?) The majority of my trips are well photographed, in the "digital age," but there are still a few that happened prior to that. So ... I'm on the hunt for the negatives from those games, so I can take them to Costco and have them put on a cd ... voila! Digital pictures.

But wait. In order to do that, you have to first FIND the negatives. I'd found a couple random games here and there, but I was missing an entire summer. The summer I interned here in DC. I went to a lot of games that summer, and actually have it all scrapbooked. I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to peel the pictures out of my scrapbook, scan them, crop them, and hope that the quality was good enough to be used in a photo book. Better than nothing though, right? I was positive that they were somewhere at my parent's house, because in the last month or so, I've cleaned out my entire storage room and gone through everything, and nothing has showed up. My mom searched high and low for them at home, but to no avail.

I woke up the other morning with an idea - one more place to look. A little plastic file that I'd organized a bunch of pictures from BYU in (that I still haven't scrapbooked ... that was a hobby that, unfortunately, died a quick death when I moved here, um, six and a half years ago). I found the file and knew that was it when I saw my bib number from the Rex Lee Run on top. However, NO negatives were to be found. Only a bunch of fun pictures from my last year of college.

Well, last night after I finished saying my prayers (and yes, I did pray that I would find the negatives), I immediately thought to look in the basket sitting on my desk. I knew there were some old pictures that I'd used in frames in the past, but didn't think much of it. Well, I walked over to the basket, and what did I find underneath the stack of picture envelopes? A black plastic photo sleeve from World Wide Photo in Provo. Why wasn't this with my other similar envelopes, neatly stashed away in a box? I'm not sure. But what was inside? My negatives from Summer 2001. Including ... the Yankees, the Mets, the Phillies, the Orioles, the Royals, AND the Braves game from that fall. Prayers really are answered, even if it is over something as trivial as finding negatives to a bunch of baseball games. HOORAY!!!!! When I told my mom about it, she said "its a Christmas miracle" ... and I have to agree.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night because I was so excited. I keep thinking about all the fun games I have been to with so many friends. I think I have pictures from close to all of them ... but if I'm missing any that I went to with YOU, please email them to me so you, too, can be immortalized in my baseball book!

Suckers and Candy Canes

Remember when you were little and you loved going to the bank with your mom because every time you went, you knew they would give you a sucker (even if it was one of those nasty chalky sugar-free ones)? I hope that wasn't just me!

Well, last night I went to the bank last night after I waited patiently for the guy to ask me how to pronounce my name correctly (and wondered why the video screen wasn't working this time), I finally hear the whoosh of the plastic tube making its way back to me from the chute. Much to my surprise, I opened it up to find this ...

I don't even really like suckers, but the candy canes were an added bonus! There's nothing quite like sucking on a candy cane on your way to Costco to make you feel like a kid all over again and put you in the Christmas spirit!

What a Difference a Day Makes...

Yes, that is actually the weather today. It will hit the low SIXTY'S. In December. But don't worry, tomorrow it will be back in the Thirty's. Go figure.

Must Love Llamas

I saw this bumper sticker on the car in front of me on my way to work this morning and laughed so hard that I had to snap a picture of it. I'm sure the guy next to me thought I was crazy. Maybe I am. But actually, its just an inside joke. If you do not know about why I must love llamas, well, I'm sorry but I am not going to post it on my blog. If you do, however (Carina, this means you), enjoy the laugh that I did today!!

There IS Life After Baseball.

I know what you're thinking "wow, Shanna hasn't blogged since she went to the World Series. She must not have any other hobbies. What does she DO in the off season?" Well, my friends, I am here to tell you that, as Dwight would say, is FALSE! I have been busier than ever in the last month or so, and just haven't taken the time to blog about anything. Here's the quick and dirty run-down ...

1. Kelli came to visit from UT. It was sooo much fun to spend the weekend with her and "the girls." We had fun crafting until the wee hours of the morning and enjoying the time we had with each other.

2. A lot of time letting those creative juices flow and getting carried away with a lot of new projects. The good news: super cute (and personal) Christmas presents.

3. Thanksgiving in NYC. The parade, lots of food, friends, and movies ... so fun!!

4. Its Christmas! My house is all decked out and I LOVE it. I spent Friday night helping with the Lighting Ceremony at the Washington DC Temple Visitor's Center. This is one of my favorite events every year. Elder Neal Anderson was the keynote speaker, and the lights around the temple grounds are magnificent.

5. I'll Be Home For Christmas. I managed to snag the most amazing deal on airfare this year ... $219 round trip from Dulles - on the Delta nonstop both ways. Last year I had layovers in Atlanta (because its totally on the way from DC to SLC!) and it took forever. I swore I'd never do it again. And I'm not! So all my friends in UT, consider this your warning: I'm in town Dec. 23-30.

I'll try to post pictures of the above soon. But I am alive. I am well. Yes I am busy, but it wouldn't be December and I wouldn't be Shanna if it were any other way.

My World Series Experience

The World Series is the culmination of a season's worth of baseball games. Arguably the best teams in baseball come head to head in the Fall Classic. Granted, my team was FAR from clinching a post-season berth this year, but that certainly does not mean that I zoned out when October came around. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I stayed up night after night watching team after team face elimination, and eventually skidded to the end of their respective seasons. Two teams remained: The Philadelphia Phillies representing the National League, and the Tampa Bay Rays representing the American League. Who was I pullling for? Well, I can't actually like the Phillies since they are in the same division as my team, and the Rays were the classic "worst to first" story of the season. Having never had a season above .500, they managed to convincingly forge their way into the World Series. Who doesn't love a Cinderella story in sports?

Its always been a dream of mine to go to the World Series. A dream that seemed farther and farther away the more time I spent actively trying to manuever a way to make it there. After all, Philadelphia is only about two and a half hours away. The first game in Philly was on a Saturday night. It had all the makings of the perfect opportunity written all over it. When else can you just get in your car and DRIVE to the World Series? (Because sadly, I doubt it will be in DC or Baltimore any time soon.) Craigslist, eBay, StubHub, ticket brokers, and everything else I could think of became my nightly routine, hoping that somehow, some way, I would be able to find a screaming deal on World Series tickets. But to no avail, the cheapest ticket I ever saw was $465, for standing room only. Um ... the next day, they skyrocketed to over $500, and finally ended pushing $600. And that was just the beginning. People asking thousands of dollars for tickets was commonplace. Yes, I wanted to go, but there comes a time (price) that its just not worth it. Unfortunately, I wasn't willing to spend what anyone was asking.

A friend of mine suggested that we go up to Philly to watch the game at a bar near the stadium, since we could be IN Philly with the fans and could at least be a part of it all. Brilliant! I Googled bars in Philly and was reminded that there's a McFadden's actually AT the Ballpark. Perfect. That was the plan. Go up on Saturday afternoon to stake out our spot at the bar and enjoy the game. Wouldn't you know though that the three boys who were supposed to come, um, didn't come through. That's not going to change anything though - Jenny and I were still in. One of them tried to convince me to go watch it somewhere in DC and I said "yes, that would be fun, and I definitely think YOU should do that. But I'm still going to Philly." When I get an idea in my head, I kind of have to follow through with it, for better or for worse.

So Jenny and I got in the car around 3p on Saturday and headed up 95 to Philadelphia. Not without first stopping at the bank and securing some cash, with our price limit well in mind. We spent the entire drive trying to pretend that we weren't secretly hoping that by some miracle we would find ourselves in the Ballpark in a few hours. Talking about it seemed like it would only jinx the idea though, and I didn't want to get my hopes up for something that was a longshot anyway. We got to the Sports Complex (the Eagles football stadium, the Phillies ballpark, and the 76-ers basketball arena) around 5:30 and parked in the Eagles lot, and then made our way through the tailgaters donning their Phillies gear. It was a bit windy, but not really cold and I don't think we noticed the mist of rain because we were so caught up in the idea that we were actually AT the World Series. Well, at least at the physical location of the World Series, seeing all the fans that actually had tickets in hand anxiously waiting for the experience of a lifetime.

We walked around for awhile, soaking it all in. We weren't too thrilled about the prospect of McFadden's when we saw the massive crowd already in line, but give that much of a thought. Unlike regular season games, there were not scalpers following you around trying to sell you one of their many tickets. Rather, we walked down one side of the stadium without seeing any at all. So we went the other way. And there they were. Two men who were undoubtedly scalpers, who muttered "tickets" under their breath as we walked by. Both of us instinctively turned around, glanced at each other, and cautiously made our way back to them. I said "what do you have?" and one of the men told me that he had two standing room only tickets. We'd already discussed that we'd even do that - just to be there. And that was our best hope of getting anything, so we started talking. He'd just sold the other pair for $300 apiece, but he was really nice and offered them to us for only $250. Sorry, $150 was what we wanted to spend ... knowing full well after talking to a broker last week and having him practically hang up on me when I told him I didn't want to spend over $200! No way they were letting the tickets go for that price. So we worked our magic. We talked to them, we gained some confidence, and let them know that this was something we really wanted. A wink here, and a smile there, and before we knew it, we each forked over $160 and practically ran ... Citizen's Bank Ballpark, home to the Philadelphia Phillies, playing in their first World Series in 15 years, here we come!I handed my ticket over to the cute old man to scan it so I could enter the ballpark. When he handed it back to me to go through the turnstile, he said "This is your lucky day!" Boy was he right! This was the day I'd been waiting for as long as I'd been a baseball fan. The World Series. Unreal. We were there. We were handed rally towels and the plastic ticket holders as soon as we walked in.

Jenny and I were as giddy as I've been in a LONG time, and just kept looking at each other saying "we're at the World Series!!" I'm pretty sure we texted and called everyone we could think of, as we walked around and tried to soak it all in. The fanfoto employees were everywhere and it seemed like every time we turned around, one of them was asking us to take another picture.It was barely 6pm by the time we entered the stadium, and gametime wasn't until 8pm. Did we care? Absolutely not! We thought we'd be able to catch the tail end of batting practice, but quickly realized that the tarp was on the infield since it had been raining for the better part of the day. At the moment, however, it wasn't even raining, just a little windy. We enjoyed ourselves walking right down to the field and jealous that we weren't actually sitting there!
Standing room only - we had a lot of decisions to make about where we were going to plant ourselves for the biggest game of our lives. We concluded that about halfway between center and left field would be the best, so we stood there and made sure that no one took our spot. We bought our Diet Cokes, knowing that we would need caffeine to make it through the night, and also knowing that we needed the commerative cups to drink out of for the rest of our lives (and maybe try to figure out if we could really use those red nylon backpack bags as purses)! The weather had other plans in store for the foreseeable future, however. The rain had picked up a little, and we looked up to see the lights above the stadium shining on the ever-increasing rain. Then almost out of nowhere, it was literally like a SHEET of water came pounding into us. Immediately, everyone scattered as fast as they could to seek cover from the torrential downpour that ensued. It didn't matter if you had an umbrella, a poncho, rain boots, or none of it. Everything was soaking wet.I lost Jenny, and it wasn't for about a half hour that we finally met up again. I made my way through the crowd underneath a tent, which was covering t-shirts, jackets, hats, jersey, sweatshirts, baseballs and bats, and every other possible memorabilia you could imagine. All of a sudden, I found myself near the cash register, and right smack dab in front of my face were the World Series baseballs. The thought hadn't even occurred to me that I would be able to actually buy a baseball at the World Series. But there it was, and there I was, with nothing else to do than to pick one up for my collection! Done. Jenny came and found me, as we tried to figure out what was going on with the game. The unofficial word was that the game was postponed until 9:30 at this point, so we made our way outside and waited in line to buy our Philly cheesesteaks while we continued to wait. Twenty minutes later, and cheesesteaks in hand, we wound our way to a new spot - also underneath cover - and ate our sandwiches while we chatted with some new friends. A couple from Detroit, some from Philly, and all of them floored when we told them that we'd driven up that afternoon without tickets. They were shocked not only that we were able to get tickets, but at the deal we got them for. That made us feel pretty good! One woman, after hearing that I'd been to every ballpark, decided that the news crew should interview us. Right. We hung out there for quite awhile waiting for the storm to pass. It didn't seem to want to let up.So back to the cheesesteaks - they were huge. I couldn't even finish mine. And then all of a sudden, a guy (about my age) that we had NOT been talking to, looked at me and asked "hey, are you going to finish that?" Um...no. "Can I have it?" Seriously? Did a random stranger really just ask me if he could eat my sandwich? Yup. So I handed it over, and his dad said "did you really just ask her for her sandwich??" Whatever! After he finished eating, they left and he called out to me over his shoulder, "thanks for the cheesesteak!" People are so weird! And that's what I love about baseball games.

We continued chatting with everyone there, including a couple guys who tried to convince us that we needed to buy the hooded sweatshirts or something from the store. We weren't about to do that after we saw the $70 price tag on them though. We laughed as people tried to come into our group seeking cover, including a group of Rays fans. Interestingly enough, I heard about them before I saw them - it was hard not to when everyone started Booing when they walked by! Then everyone formed a wall and absolutely would not let them break through. Aahh, baseball fans uniting. It was starting to get a little chilly by this point, which was only exaggerated by the fact that every article of clothing on my body was sopping wet. No one knew what was going to happen. Were they going to play? Were they going to cancel the game? Would they really cancel a game when people had flown in from out of town, had travel arrangements that would have to be changed, as well as shifting all the other games in the Series? It was anyone's guess. And so we waited. We thought about what we'd do - stay the night in Philly and wait for the next night's game? Drive back to DC, sleep in our own beds, go to church and change into dry clothes, and head back up? Ugh. Then, a few minutes later, the rain let up, so we marched back to our self-designated spot. And wouldn't you know, another gust of rain came in and it was like de-ja-vu as everyone ran for cover yet again!?! We found our friends again, and our local Philly friend told us that this was the final push that they'd predicted (Not sure who "they?" was - because weather.com told me that by 7pm, the rain would end and it would be a chilly but dry evening - wrong!), and that we'd be set for the rest of the night. And guess what? She was right! You can't tell in this picture, but my jeans and shoes were totally soaked. We said our good-byes, and headed to re-claim what would become our home for the next few incredible hours. The tarp came off and here came the cheering. We were going to see a ballgame after all. And the excitement set in all over again! The starting lineups were announced. The Army National Guard carried a gigantic American flag out onto the field and Taylor Swift sang the National Anthem. Steve Carlton threw the ceremonial first pitch. Tim McGraw scattered some of his dad Tug's ashes over the pitcher's mound. And then ... "PLAY BALL!" The first pitch was at 10:06pm, the latest start to a World Series game in history.The Phillies boasted Jamie Moyer on the mound, a 45 year old pitcher. That's how it began, and the night was far from being over. The Phils scored in the bottom of the first inning, and it was nothing but incredible baseball from there. Stolen bases, home runs (including back-to-back home runs), double plays, strike outs, everything that good baseball is made of. And that includes tens of thousands of white rally towels being waved in the air. You've gotta love that!One of my favorite parts of the game was every time Evan Longoria got up to bat and the entire crowd would taunt him "E-va, E-va, E-va." He was hitless in the game. The fans are one of the greatest parts of baseball, in my opinion. Philadelphia did not disappoint. Sometimes you just wonder where they come up with the ideas that they do. Obviously not sober.There's always one dancing fan (who typically should not be dancing) somewhere in the crowd - and it always seems to be near me!And then there's the signs that people make. This guy was a few rows in front of us, with my favorite sign of the night ... "There's no cowbells in baseball." The home team was winning the game. 4-1 in the 7th inning. Then the Rays scored two runs. 4-3. And then in the 8th, the Rays tied it, 4-4. Crap. It was now already 1:30am and we would have to play the bottom of the 9th, and possibly face extra innings. We were definitely getting our money's worth this night! At the top of the 9th inning, everyone in our section turned around and started cheering. That's when we noticed that John Kruk and the entire ESPN Crew were right above us! Awesome. Then, in an uncanny turn of events, the Phils found themselves with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the ninth when Carlos Ruiz hit a walkoff infield hit down the third base line to score the winning run. And then the crowd erupted. Literally. Fireworks, jumping, yelling, screaming, dancing, high fiving, and any number of other celebrations! It was incredible. Positively one of the most exciting, adrenaline-filled moments of my life. So much for cheering for the Rays. After being innondated in such an experience, you are changed forever (though I'm not becoming an actual Philly's fan don't worry)! The game officially ended at 1:47am. We made it back to my car around 2:15 and were on 95 fifteen minutes later. Two and a half hours, and a lot of caffeine later (thank you Dr. Pepper), we walked in the door at 4:45am. I am actually not sure how we made it home! Completely exhausted, yet absolutely elated at the same time.

So there was a rain delay and once the rain (ie torrential downpour) stopped, the cold and wind honestly went right through every layer of our wet clothes (which were still wet the next day). My entire body was numb, I was on my feet for 9 hours (literally), my back hurt, our eyes were bloodshot, and every muscle in my body was frozen stiff. The game didn't start until 10:06p and ended at 1:46a. But who cares about any of that? We were there. We were a part of history, and I wouldn't change a single thing about it!! No questions asked, no doubt about it. It was unequivocally worth every penny, every minute of sleep we sacrificed, every sore and frozen muscle, and I wouldn't trade my World Series experience for anything!
I read an awesome article about the game, called "Night to Remember in Philly"which really sums it all up perfectly. (check it out!) I love what the Rays manager Joe Maddon said: "You had to love this game, I was sitting there in the dugout and thinking just that: if I'm a fan and a aficionado of baseball, it had just about everything. And it was a World Series game. What a night." I couldn't have said it better myself. What a night indeed. A perfect night. The Pinnacle of my baseball life (thanks CJ for coining the phrase). I can't believe I actually did it!!! You just don't get much better than this.

Best Saturday Night EVER. Period.

Gas from DC to Philly: $35
Parking at the Sports Complex: $12
Tickets from a Scalper: $160
Philly Cheesesteak & Commemorative Cup filled with Diet Coke: $14
Being AT Game 3 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Ballpark when the Phils beat the Rays in the bottom of the 9th: PRICELESS!!!!!

More to come :)

UVA-Maryland Football Game

Last night I went with some friends to Charlottesville, VA for the University of Virginia vs. Maryland football game. I haven't been to a college football game in a long time, and it was lots of fun. Despite UVA's less-than-stellar football team, they managed to beat Maryland 31-0! Its always entertaining to be at another college campus and see the quirks of their fans. One of our favorites: the school song that they sang after touchdowns, "The Good Old Song," followed by their chant - not just a regular "rah rah" chant, but this:
WAHOOWA, WAHOOWA
UNI-V, VIR-GIN-I-A
HOO-RAH-RAY, HOO-RAH-RAY
RAY! RAY! U-V-A!

The problem was that they did it so fast that we could hardly understand what they were saying, much less follow along! Entertainment, for sure.
I'd heard rumors of the "preppy" style of UVA students, but I didn't quite grasp the scale of it until we were there. Honestly, it was like J.Crew had a store on campus somewhere! During halftime, we walked around and I snapped a few pictures of unsuspecting fans ...

First, the bow tie ensemble:Next, the classic "preppy" look, sweater over the shoulders ... Now on to the student section ... this seemed to be the classic look of many of the UVA co-eds ... khaki shorts, blue or white shirt (or lots of gingham and pinstripes), an orange and blue diagonal striped tie, with a sportcoat ... (love the Boston Red Sox hat!)Here's a more casual version of the same thing ... hat backwards, sleeves rolled up, and seersucker shorts:And the dressy version ... full on suit.
I guess the moral of the story is that UVA exudes preppiness. J.Crew, take a look. Never discontinue orange chinos, because UVA Alumni apparently still wear them. We even saw khaki pants with tennis racquets embroidered on them. You would be hard-pressed to see anyone at BYU wearing that kind of ensemble! Either way, there's not a much better way to spend a Saturday night than at a college football game!

Birthday Dinner at Coyote Grill

Birthdays get trickier as you get older. Or maybe its just me. I didn't want to have a huge birthday party this year, so I decided that the perfect birthday would be dinner with a few close friends at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, right here in little Old Town Fairfax called the Coyote Grill & Cantina. My mom laughed at me when I started telling her who was there, because she didn't consider a group of 16 "small" ... but it was fantastic.

They had us all set up on the patio outside, and everything was perfect. Well, before everyone even arrived, the thunder and lightening seemed to be getting closer, and Charley (our waiter) kept going to check on the clouds. When they were definitely ominous, he strongly suggested that we move. Reluctantly, we did. We moved around the corner, still outside, but now underneath the cover of the roof. Sure enough, about 5 minutes after we moved, the rain came. It POURED. It was a typical Virginia thunderstorm, and it was actually really cool to be outside watching it, but under cover (although when the wind started blowing I think a few people got a little shower). Apparently the theme of anything to do with my birthday this year involved rain ... the Nationals game (which at one time I thought was what I wanted to do with everyone for my birthday - boy am I glad I reconsidered that!), the trip to Cooperstown (although it was beautiful while we were there, it poured almost the entire time we were driving), and now on my birthday dinner?

After we finished dinner, Jenny went to get the most amazing cake in the world out of the freezer ... a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cake from Maggie Moo's. Seriously, it was incredible. I think almost everyone had seconds (some thirds) and it was divine. And, you'd think with one little candle it wouldn't be a problem right? I think it was whoever teased me that I wouldn't blow it out that jinxed me ... because I don't know where I blew, but I really almost didn't make it! But, I did. I guess that wish has to come true now, right?! :)

And yes, those are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on top of the cake. Thanks to all my friends who came to celebrate with me that night. It was the perfect low-key birthday that I wanted this year.

And the prize for the coolest birthday present goes out to Jimmy ... a baseball trophy. Not one that he'd swiped from a little league tournament, but one that he had inscribed on the plaque, "Shanna Lillywhite * 30 Ballparks Before 30 * MLB 1987-2008." I should have known there was a reason he asked me if I remembered when my first baseball game was! (And by the way, if you're going to get technical, it is actually 36 ballparks - 6 of which are old ones that don't exist anymore, starting back in 1987. Of the current 30, I saw my first one in Baltimore the summer that I moved to DC.)

Birthdays are the best when you have good friends to share them with. Sorry to those of you who got wet, who had to drive through a torrential thunderstorm after a long day of work or after a late class - I really have the best friends EVER. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great day!