Summer's here

Summer’s almost here! Only one final and a project separate me from finishing my undergrad and having the whole summer to slack off before I even have to think about applying for grad school. So until then I’ve decided to start a summer bucket list of things I want to do before August roles around. Here’s what I have so far on the list:

Visit a new city, probably Baltimore for an Orioles game and the aquarium

Get a tattoo

Master shooting clay pigeons

Catch a fish

Go camping

Learn how to play a fiddle

Take my hunters safety course

Go to a drive in movie

I’m sure once I graduate and move home I’ll be able to think of some more things to add to the bucket list, but if you have any other ideas or suggestions let me know!

In an Easter Egg Shell

Away to Elk County we go

Lots and lots of rain but thankfully no snow

To celebrate Easter was our main goal

Spent the weekend in a cabin we call a hole

Four dogs whom were muddy the whole entire time

Thanks to Mom we didn’t have to spend a dime

Colored eggs and played some games

Boy this Easter poem sure sounds lame

When it came time to go

Mom’s Escape said no, no, no

Broke down and stranded in the middle of nowhere

Only to find a few ticks in my hair

Now all four dogs and humans in one truck

Holy shit, what the f@#k?

The Escape is now three hours away

Til it’s fixed, it’s there to stay

Easter weekend was all but boring

Elk County, Pennsylvania you’re always alluring

Broken down with puddles the pup

As John Steinbeck wrote, “Even the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.”

This weekend was no exception. After planning a trip to our family cabin for months, it rained, stormed and our car broke down. The best part wasn’t even planned. While broken down, my boyfriend and I spent three hours on the side of the road waiting for my parents to find the right car part. We played baseball, walked our dogs and even played games that we had packed up for the trip home. Even though this was not part of our well thought out plans, it was defiantly the most fun part of the trip.

Oh no.. someone ate spaghetti in the shower again

All I have to say is watch Jabooody Dubs. Their remakes of infomercials are just as goofy as their name. With a handful of viral videos ranging from the Big Shitty Slider to Kaboom, they’re sure to entertain and make you laugh. Of course it’s hard to pick a favorite but I think the Kaboom commercial is defiantly in the running for the top two.  If you’re bored check them all out and let me know what’s your favorite!

Batter's up

I have four words for you: Go to Buc Night!

Last Friday despite the rain and miserable weather five of my friends and I headed to PNC Park to watch the Buccaneers take on the Colorado Rockies.  The game was set to start at 7:05 but of course we got there three hours ahead of time for ample pregame drinking. The tickets were only a dollar, along with Sugardale hot dogs and popcorn. Aside from the cold and gloomy weather we stayed for all 14 innings and ate our fair share of hot dogs, all for next to nothing.  

So next time you’re bored of Morgantown and are looking for something to do, check out this website  http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/schedule/promotions.jsp?c_id=pit&y=2011 and go to a pirates game!

Swim into Summer

Summer’s on its way and so is the swimming and drinking weather. Before you head home for the summer or graduate I’m sure everyone wants to head to Blue Hole one more time before they leave town.  But why not explore a new and less crowded swimming hole? 

Every time I’m at Blue Hole there’s always a plethora of people, garbage, and broken glass so I’m always in the search of a new place to chill out and swim for the day to avoid all the hubbub. That being said, I stumbled across a website that lists all of the swimming holes by states and provides directions, pictures and precautions to follow for each hole. It also informs you of what kind of vehicle is needed to reach your destination, all of which is very helpful for planning your next sunny day adventure. Even if you don’t stick around Morgantown this summer, find some new swimming holes in your hometown.

swimmingholes.org

Students Getting Annoyed

Who doesn’t love waking up to a text in the morning from a random number informing that I need to vote for the Pirate Party or getting a random email from a John Doe warning me that I don’t really want Ron Chen picking student government?  The only thing that the SGA should stand for is Students Getting Annoyed. If one more person walks up to me, hands me some free crap and pretends like they care about me, I’m going to scream!  I’m not a part of a sorority or a fraternity (obviously) so I really don’t care or am going to take part in this stupid popularity contest.  I’m not trying to be a hater and I think it’s commendable that students want to participate in the Student Government Association but is it that necessary to annoy students by emailing, texting and nagging the crap out of them?  Just today walking to class I had several students from the same party come up to me and offer me bribes to vote for them,  needless to say I took the snacks but will probably neglect to vote… oops.

Food for Thought

I love food, any type of food.  However, being in college has dampered my ability to eat mom’s good home cooking, or any home cooking in that case.  With spring finals coming up it’s more important than ever to have the nourishment that students need to fill up their gas tanks for test taking. That being said, put Chili’s, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, and any other chain restaurant aside and try Ruby and Ketchy’s.  A quaint little restaurant off the Cheat Lake exit is sure to hit a high note when it comes to home cooking. During my first experience there, I was greeted by the church crowd on a Sunday afternoon and also the men’s basketball assistant coach Bill Hahn. The items on the menu are just like something mom would make, fried egg sandwich with bacon, homemade coleslaw, fried chicken and even roast beef sandwiches with gravy. Don't just take my word for it, check out this blog http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Review/4116-4039/ruby-and-ketchys.

Back to Basics

             The word spring break means something different to everyone in a college town. To some it means the chance to go home and hang out with family and friends, while others view it as a chance to migrate to warmer weather and get drunk. This spring break   instead of heading to a beach and packing a suitcase full of bikinis and sundresses, I packed a duffle bag full of sweats, blankets, pepperoni rolls and ample amount of toilet paper.  I like to think of this spring break as getting back to the basics. Even though we only went camping for a couple days at blue hole, the trip was nonetheless interesting and left me craving for more outdoors. Instead of describing everything that went wrong, and the few things that went right, I though I’d try to create an acronym that described the highlights of my two day spring break camping extravaganza. Here goes:

Sleeping two people in one sleeping bag           

Peeing in the woods

Raining and thunder storming the whole time

Intentions of packing warmer clothes

Never having enough Busch Light

Getting hailed on while fishing

Being afraid that the inbreds of Wrong Turn were going to eat me

Remembering the tent needed waterproofed, after it was too late

Eating filets and tilapias that were grilled over a camp fire

Ascending a mountain trail, only to find out it led to Albright
Keeping company with the best people ever

Our makeshift campsite

            In lieu of camping, spring break also consisted of slaving away at the Texas Roadhouse, spending much needed time at Crockett’s Lodge, bowling for three hours on a Friday night and also going to see Justin Moore and Miranda Lambert in concert. It just goes to show that you don’t have to go far to have a good time, even if it is spring break!

Media Mania

The word social media is being thrown around like it has been in our dictionary and our word bank for years.  Social media is such a broad topic that covers everything from blogging to posting live videos on YouTube for the world to watch. After our class SWOT presentations, it made me think that with so many different social media sites, what ones are worth actually using? Facebook, the ultimate social media site requires photos, statuses, and comments to be constantly updated and uploaded to even be considered cool and worthwhile to follow. Of course having a Facebook has become mandatory for any college student, not only to connect and relive drunken nights through friends’ photos, but also to connect with teachers and participate in class room discussions.  That being said Facebook is a must, especially for any college student.  What about Twitter? It’s almost like a baby Facebook that only allows 130 characters and is pertinent to any social media user who has ADD.  I guess if you have anything worth while to say it makes sense to constantly update but I find it mostly important to keep in touch with what other more important people have to say.  So yes, Twitter is also necessary in this social media world.

Throughout my four years of college I have learned many things, especially that technology, and all of its possibilities scare the shit out of me. I have yet to venture out of my comfort zone of Facebook and Twitter, but I know one day it will be necessary to use such sites as Linkedin and Google Doc. So until the day comes when I find my big girl job, I will slowly and unwillfully learn more about the social media world.

March Madness

Hmmm I don’t understand all of this hype about the NCAA March Madness. I understand that basketball is manly sport and that it takes talent and hard work to become an expert in both offensive and defense, but if you’re almost seven foot tall shouldn’t you be able to make a basket?  Now, I also understand that these brackets give students, alumni and fans all something to cheer about when there’s no other interesting sport, besides hockey, to cheer for.  Hockey, in my opinion is a much more intense hard hitting game. Hockey players don’t complain when they may accidentally get fouled, they just suck it up and hit their opponents harder next time around.  Perhaps by hatred of basketball has stemmed from my awful experience trying to play the game in middle school. During games and sometimes practice, I would hide under the bleachers in order to be omitted from the lineup. Anyways, instead of wasting my March on building brackets, I will be celebrating national craft month, perhaps bedazzling or making things out of beer bottle caps.  However, I’m sure I’ll catch a couple of the WVU games in the tournament and perhaps even jump on the bandwagon when they get closer to the final four. That being said, LETS GO MOUNTAINEERS!

Fun with Food

We all love food, but as college students we don’t have the opportunity to eat very many things besides Ramen noodles.  However, we all have a pantry filled with random things that you might not even think about putting together.  Of course, these meals aren’t going to be as fancy as your mom’s homemade dinners, but they’ll get the job done.  

One of the first things we all have the ingredients for are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (not to be confused with peanut butter and Jilly sandwiches). But instead of making a plain everyday sandwich, why not grill it? It’s made just like a grilled cheese; first you butter one side of each piece of bread, then add the peanut butter and jelly to the bread and grill on medium heat until you reach the desired brownness.

Of course this is a generic idea, but it just goes to show that food you have lying around can be turned into an easy cheap meal or be recreated into something different, and not to mention you can save up your hard earned money for beer.

Top Ten

Given the task to come up with a top ten list was challenging. I couldn’t settle on just one topic to write ten things about, nor could I come up with all ten things to write for one topic. Point in case I tried to come up with the top ten things to do around Morgantown that don’t involve alcohol, I came up with about 3 ideas. Therefore, I’ve decided to make a top ten list of the top ten things that I was going to make a list for; here goes.

10.       Top ten things you can stuff more than two of in your mouth

9.         Top ten things you can and should bedazzle

8.         Top ten things you can do around Morgantown that don’t involve drinking

7.         Top ten things you shouldn’t do with your best friends

6.         Top ten bets you shouldn’t take money for

5.         Top ten things you would rather poke your eye with than watch "Sit and be Fit"

4.         Top ten things you can wear on your feet besides shoes

3.         Top ten things that you want silly bands to be in the shape of

2.         Top ten things you shouldn’t eat

1.         Top ten things you don’t want to smell like  

Well there you have it, the top ten list of the top ten things I wanted to make a list for.  Feel free to expand on any of the top tens or throw out your own ideas, the more the better.  And if you feel inspired by this blog and feel the need to read any more of my useless random thoughts follow my tweets at 

http://twitter.com/#!/search/jilladamson

Fun in February

If you're reading this it means you survived Valentines Day and are only a few days away from the weekend, what a glorious thought. Along with no worries and no class, hopefully this weekend will bring nice weather. The mere thought of a 66 degree day in February has Facebookers littering  updates saying that the porch drinking season is soon to begin. Just the idea of walking around campus without seeing people bundled up and frost bitten is a good enough, reason if any, to grab a cold one and post up on a porch. But if you're not busy drinking on a porch or studying, try doing something new this week.As a senior, I've learned that we all get in a rut and have the same routine every week. I have also learned that as college students, we're broke. Therefore, I have came up with a itinerary that incorporates trying new things while being cheap.  February

Monday- 99cents kids meals at Texas Roadhouse followed by cheap beer night at Mario's Fishbowl til 7
Tuesday-Mug night at Chick n' Bones, refills for only $1
Wednesday-Local night at Wisp ($26 for both lift and rentals) and all you can eat wings at Rhythms and Brews for $8
Thursday-  $1 chili dogs at Town Hill and ladies night at Sports Page
 

Cheap beer night at the Fishbowl

Beat the Blues

It seems like not to much good comes out of the winter months, but I have to say February has to be one of the most boring months. The Superbowl's over, and the only reminder of the Sunday night game are the crappy commercials. Of course Valentines Day is in February, but who really cares? Well actually I do, I love the idea of pink and red hearts everywhere and even though it's called a Hallmark holiday, I still enjoy it. I'd like to think that part of participating in this holiday would be due to my "hopefully" future career in creating greeting cards, no big deal really.  Anyways, this is all besides the point. February is no fun, so I've decided the next few posts will be tips on how to get through the boring month.
Today's tip: start a game night. Uno, Apples to Apples and even Wii games are a great way to beat the blues, and can easily be turned into drinking games. However, my new personal favorite game is The Game of Things. It's an easy game anyone can play and you pretty much control how it's played. Its a great game to play with your parents or with your dirty minded college roommates. Their website gives you a pretty good idea of how to play the game so hop to it .

http://www.thingsthegame.com/#

Here goes...

I've never been fond of the  idea of blogging. I would much rather talk about puppies, bedazzling, fishing and outdoor things, or bedazzling puppies while being outdoors fishing. I feel like my opinions on hot topics don't mean much, therefore, I've decided to make this blog a hodgepodge of topics and things, just like an episode of Seinfeld.
To start off, I'm a half-hearted Steelers fan from Eighty Four, Pennsylvania. Eighty Four? Yes, Eighty Four is the name of the town I'm from and there's no real answer as to how it got it's name. It's believed that it was the 84th train stop, or the idiots who  founded the little town wrote the year on the line where the town name was supposed to go. Regardless, I'm only excited for the Super Bowl because of the commercials. I'm an advertising major and aspire to write Super Bowl ads for Budweiser or write my own line of greeting cards.
If you're reading this blog and have already become bored, check out this link and send a personalized  email to a loved one:   http://host-d.oddcast.com/php/application_UI/doorId=860/clientId=317/?mId=