Here's a health Carolina!

This morning we toasted our Gamecocks with a 9 a.m. tailgate, followed by a thrilling victory over the Mississippi State bulldogs. We think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves so enjoy!

Nick kicked off the festivities!
Mandie, Dana, and I
Here's a health Carolina!
The SPA crew
In our seats for the game.

New Camera!

This one is for all of you, and I'm not going to name names Mom, who have been bugging me lately about the lack of pictures on the blog. I have great news - the new camera has landed! This morning I acquired a Canon Powershot A560 with which to document Nick's, Finlay's, and my existence so you can all look forward to many pictures in the future. In fact, you can probably expect some tomorrow or Sunday, so get excited!

For your viewing pleasure, I have added a selfie of my excited face, moments after returning from Wal-Mart with my new purchase. Please enjoy...

Imperfection

Salvador Dali said; “have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” I have certainly been reminded of that this week! It hasn’t been a bad week by any means. It has simply been one of those stretches of days that make me glad that it just simply isn’t up to me, or within my power, to achieve perfection.

As I mentioned before, I have been trying to get roughly 300 student organizations registered for the 07-08 school year. I spent a few weeks giving workshops, which is the first part of the process, and then every organization had to turn in a registration form by September 14. Turning in a single piece of paper doesn’t seem that hard, does it? Well, if you have spent time working with college students you are probably already chuckling. I too was afflicted by this strange aversion to meeting non-academic deadlines during my undergraduate experience. I understand – it can be tough to get that one piece of paper into the office! However, this has made my life at work much more difficult, as I try to track down each delinquent group. (As a side-note here I would like to apologize to those of you who might have been adversely affected by aforementioned aversion.)

Now, tracking down those organizations is a large part of my job, and working with the leaders of those groups is a part of my job that I absolutely relish. But. And this is a big but. But, I have had a few disheartening moments this week, wherein students call or e-mail me with messages such as “Thank you for your e-mail which reminded me of your total incompetence” or “I turned in that sheet! If you can’t find that sheet it’s on you!!!” I have encountered some very angry, and frankly some very rude students! As someone whose sole professional ambition is to educate adults for the real world, specifically to instill the values of good leadership and citizenship in them, these were not encouraging moments.

These were of course balanced out by some of the great students who are always popping into my office, wanting to help with my projects or just generally saying nice things. To be fair, the students I work with closely are wonderful, and I couldn’t think of a way to improve upon them.

Now, on top of these frustrations at work, I had to give a presentation, turn in a paper, and turn in my first legal case-brief this week. Thankfully, I was able to get the paper pushed back, which was helpful – thanks Dr. Wertz! Now, let’s talk about that case brief. I know at least one person who reads this blog has also encountered these. My respect for you grows with each Legal class, little brother! They seem simple enough, summarize a case, put it on paper, be as brief as possible. For someone with an English lit. degree, this assignment was most difficult. I don’t necessarily have the gift of brevity. In fact, when it comes to writing papers, most would say I am closer to my Grandpa’s “gift of gab.” We’ll find out how that brief turned out tonight in class.

The case brief was certainly a challenge, but so was the presentation I gave yesterday in my “Financial Aspects of Higher Education” class. Many of you who are perhaps familiar with my knowledge of financial concepts may be worried at this point. Well, just wait! Yesterday I gave a presentation on the university endowment. Daddy – stop laughing. I was really worried about this. I actually did a lot of research, but I honestly was unsure of how my performance would go down in class. Even as I was giving my presentation, and getting zero response from my classmates, I was really scared I’d get a bad grade! But then – a ray of hope! My classmates were impressed by my presentation, or so they told me after class. I had even used financial terms many of them didn’t understand. This apparently made me seem knowledgeable. (Thank you for those 3 mind-boggling semesters in the Baylor business school) I was somewhat encouraged following those remarks, but then, when I saw my professor in my next class – yes I have Dr. Wertz for 2 classes in a row – he congratulated me on a job well-done! A triumph!

Yes, this week has reminded me that I am most certainly imperfect. But I have also been reminded that just because I am not perfect, that doesn’t mean that I can’t still succeed in many ways and be loved by many people. I guess in the end, that’s all I can really strive for.

Coming soon…a report from the Gamecocks Homecoming game versus Mississippi State. We will of course bring pictures from our mimosa and breakfast buffet tailgate, but this time we will report from inside Williams-Brice Stadium! Thanks to some wonderful friends we have finagled a ticket for Nicholas so we will be attending our first USC football game on Saturday. Stay tuned!

A Few Pictures

Have you ever wondered what my office is like? Well, wonder no more because this week I took some pictures for you! I actually have a really sweet office for a graduate assistant.

This is my wall of fame. If you're not on it, send me a picture to put up!

Proudly displaying my Baylor diploma.
This is my whole desk...pretty spacious, huh?
And the whole office as seen from the door. Note the floor-to-ceiling window!

As I wrote yesterday, last night was the Freshman Council retreat. I was a bit nervous about how it all would go, but it really did turn out great. We have an incredible group of freshmen who have some fantastic ideas for improving student life at USC! Here are a few shots from the retreat.

Tara (my co-GA) and I are not looking our best, but really? It's 8 a.m. and we didn't really sleep last night!

They have some big ideas!

What a great group.

This is me, falling asleep on a bench after the bus arrived to take the students back to campus. I really need a nap!

Delinquent

We apologize to everyone for the lapse in time since our last post! This week has been a busy one in the Hall household. Nick's life at work has been absolutely hectic. Yesterday I tried to call him at work - I had to try 3 different office numbers before I found him! My life has been pretty busy as well, as I try to get 300 student organizations registered for this school year. Finlay, on the other hand, continues to lead a life of leisure at home. He mostly just sits in his favorite window and barks at passing dogs, cats, and occasionally people. As I am typing he is attempting to pry my hand from the computer with his paw. He has become amazingly adedpt at this particular move. Apparently he would like me to stop typing and play with him.

Tonight Nick and Finlay will have the whole house to themselves while I am at a retreat for one of the organizations I advise: Freshman Council. For those of you Baylor Bears out there, it's similar to FLO. Now, retreats, especially those where one must sleep in a tiny bunk bed and stay up all night, are not typically my forte. However, I am looking forward to getting to know my new FC'ers and hanging out with my SG (Student Government) students who will be there. And happily for everyone, the retreat ends at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

We should return to Columbia in just enough time for everyone to catch the USC-LSU game on T.V. Nick and I plan to watch it with some of our friends from school.

This will have to be enough of an update for now because Finlay absolutely will not tolerate my spending any more time on the computer. Until next time...

A New Tradition

If and when you are in Columbia, Nick and I will absolutely insist that we visit Rockaway Athletic Club, a classic restaurant in our neighborhood. Yes, I said restaurant - think Health Camp...kind of. Usually we would suggest that you order the classic pimiento cheese burger. Even for someone who is so-so on pimiento cheese (that would be me), it is to die for. In fact, Rockaway is so good that President Bush visited it on his most recent trip to Columbia.

Well, we thought it was great before, and I think my Mom and Dad would agree, but last night we discovered a new side of Rockaway that we will make a standing Monday night tradition. You see, each Monday night they offer 30 cent boiled shrimp, and during oyster season they also offer 30 cent raw oysters!!! This cannot be beat! (As a sidenote, I taught Nick how to eat raw oysters last night - it was pretty funny to watch). After our first plate of shrimp and our order of pimiento cheese fries we decided that we will have to do this every week.

In other news...

Happy early birthday to me! Nick and I will be flying in for Baylor Homecoming this year as my birthday present from my outstanding Mom and Dad (thanks guys!) We hope to see lots of you out there!

Also, I have changed the settings on here so that anyone can comment on the blog without being a blogger member so feel free to comment away! I'd love to hear what y'all think.

That's all for now, but we'll be back soon!

Gamecock Tailgate

Yesterday was Nick's and my first real tailgating experience. True-to-form, we didn't just attend one, we essentially hosted it. My fellow HESA (Higher Education and Student Affairs) students usually tailgate together before Gamecock football games, but yesterday our regular tailgate vehicle was out-of-town. Nick and I volunteered our Explorer as a stand-in and became de-facto hosts for the event, which was a blast!

I'm not sure what exactly we expected, but the tailgate felt a lot like a backyard barbeque. Nick had a great time grilling burgers and dogs for everyone, we had some fun games going on, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Of course there is always room for improvement. For instance, Nick has already committed our T.V. for the next tailgate. Apparently it can be hooked up and played from the truck so we can keep up with the other games on network t.v. while we tailgate.

I was amazed by some of our neighbors. For instance, did you know that in the SEC, women wear dresses, think cocktail dresses, to the games? I've also heard that the guys wear seersucker suits, but I didn't see any yesterday. Also, you would be amazed by some of the tailgating equipment we saw. Grills specially designed for truck-beds, full-sized satellite dishes attached to small trucks, and so many more "innovative" contraptions. There's also the matter of traffic. Apparently the entire city shuts down for games, and it's no small wonder since there is a steady stream of stand-still traffic, 3 lanes wide, going toward Williams-Brice stadium beginning about 3 hours before game-time. I guess the bottom line is that college football over here is just a completely different experience.

We'll be heading back on September 29 when the Cocks battle Mississippi State. We'll let you know how the whole T.V. thing turns out...

About Snapfish

After I posted the information and link for Snapfish yesterday, I realized that we will need to invite everyone to see our pictures on Snapfish before you will be able to view them. We plan to send some out after our exciting Gamecock tailgating experience today (well, we won't send them today, probably tomorrow) so if you don't receive a Snapfish e-mail from us soon and you would like to see our pictures, please call or e-mail to let us know!

Our First Time

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness...Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad

Over the two and a half years Nick and I have been married we have found ourselves travelling all over the world (maybe Nick moreso than I). Together we plan to continue this journey, which keeps us away from our true home and loved ones, for decades to come. While we know we have the support of all those back home, we also know that this makes us hard to keep up with.

So we have started a blog! Through this we hope to share with you our experiences (the good and bad) and give everyone a peek at our life.

If you haven't been kept up to date, we are currently stationed in South Carolina. Nick is working at Shaw AFB, and I, Lindsay, am attending graduate school at the University of South Carolina. Because we are city kids at heart, we have recently moved from base housing in Sumter to Columbia, SC, which is about 45 minutes from Nick's office but only 10 minutes from school. Finlay has especially appreciated our recent move as our new house has a big yard for him to run and play in.

We plan to occasionally post photos on this page, but we keep photo albums online at Snapfish. This way, everyone can get their fill of Finlay pictures. You can find the link to the right.

That seems like a good beginning but check back in soon because I'm sure we'll have a report from this weekend. It will be our first real college football tailgate ever! Until then, Sic 'em Bears! & Go Cocks!