It's a bird...it's a plane...it's finally a blog post

Okay well I have a hot minute and I figured I reaaaaally need to blog. So I am gonna hopefully stay in order. Let's recap what I need to talk about... More Savannah stuff, Session 7 of CWE, Colleen's visit and stuff from this week.

Well a few more things about Savannah. While we were there I can up with a fabulous new nickname for Star...it's TiVo because that woman knows EVERYTHING on television and can pretty much give you a recap of anything she's ever seen. I really hope she goes on the World Series of Pop Culture and invites me to be on her team. Another thing while in Georgia was that we stopped at a Wendy's and I got to see my first full blown mullet up close. Sadly it was a lady mullet...but it was definately business in the front with a party in the back. I had a list of other funny Savannah things, but since it's been too long since I've written I have no idea where I put the list.

Moving right along. Session 7 of CWE was a grand time. I was in the parking lot this session for move in. I had wanted to see that process and let me tell you it was pretty seamless, too bad it was about 10,000 degrees out. I really may consider handling luggage at an airport after this summer because I can haul and sort bags with the best of them I swear. Other than the heat the weather behaved itself which was nice. We were finally back in Jordan Hare for the Pep Rally. Being inside for the Pep Rally is never as fun. The second day of cap was Tiger Cubs...aka the little brothers and sisters of the freshmen that are here for camp. This is was wild group of Tiger Cubs, thank goodness I have Katie Davis and Emily there with me. Honestly through two little boys Caleb and Braxton who were cute as could been were insane. It was hilarious, but also exhausting. Overall it was a good time...minus a few games of Simon Says (you'll have to hear about that story in person). Also with the Tiger Cubs we went back to the Sports Complex and Museum and got another fun tour led by Emily who also works there. This time Tommy Tuberville (the Head Football Coach) was not there, but we did get to go into his office! Don't you worry I took plenty of pictures I just need to find time to put them online. I know, I know I am bad at getting the the pic sonline, but I kinda have an awesome job and great friends here that take up nearly all my time. Overall session 7 was a good time in my opinion.

Soon after session 7 came to a close Ms. Colleen Powers came to Auburn. It was so great to see her! Pretty much first on the list after we got settled was to go to Toomer's for her to get some of their legendary lemonade. Not surprisingly Colleen really liked the lemonade. As we walked to and from Toomers I shared fun little facts about Auburn that I have collected in the 2 months that I've been here. Next on the agenda was to go out to Niffer's with an insane group that included Katie Davis, Natty Lite, Emily, Katie Doc, Oliver, Star, James, Phillip, Ross, Kendall. Let's just say we have almost tooo much fun at Niffers. The HCC's even got to reenact the "many uses of War Eagle" from War Eagle Welcome for Colleen. After dinner many of us has ourselves quite the night on the town aka showing Colleen some of Auburn's small, but fun nightlife including Skybar and Supper Club. I would have to say the best part about this part of the evening was Colleen just in absolute awe of Auburn fashions aka boys wearing lots of pastels, short shorts, boat shoes and all of them having bangs. For the girls it was pretty much getting overly dressed, but making random fashion choices like wearing a cute dress with a trucker hat. Anyway it was funny that Colleen reacted much like I did. It's just weird how accustomed I've become to it that I don't even notice it as much these days.

On the second day of Colleen's visit we spent a good portion of the afternoon at the pool at the exchange...Oh how I love the exchange and how everyday is like spring break there. WHEN I move to Auburn I'm gonna live there with Emily and Katie Davis (and Colleen when she moves there haha). Anyway had some quality girl time at the pool and well as poking fun at everyone at the pool, especially the guys who wear dockers and/or belts in the pool. Oh and that guy with the 80s pineapple shorts...what was that. Anyway I heart the exchange. After the exchange a few of us went to snobiz. This was actually the 2nd time I got snobiz...I went the first time after the Auburn fireworks on the 4th. Snobiz is really awesome shaved ice. My friend Eric made a summer goal to eat every flavor of snobiz, which is like 40, before the summer is over. After the exchange a ton of us went to Acapulco's for Emily's birthday. I love going out to dinner with 10+ people because it is ALWAYS a good time, ALWAYS. So after dinner we went back to Katie and Emily's. At their place Colleen and I showed them a fun party trick we do (you'll also have to ask me about that one). We bounced around Auburn for a few hours. Including making a stop at one of their friend's houses where Colleen met her future husband former AU football player Rory Carter. It was excellent watching her practically drool from staring, but she was able to make him laugh a few times, that a girl! Anyway then we were off to Bodega for a bit which was also fun. We met these guys who were in grad school that were studying fish sounds as like their major. We kept laughing and they'd get mad because they were serious and said fish sounds were important or something...either way it was hilarious. Oh and that night we hung out at our new favorite place, the back porch of Cater. It's fun back there on the swings and gliders, plus we get to see the people who are all sketchy walking around the quad late night, good times.

Sunday was chill for the most part. I took Colleen to Sonic which was quite exciting, followed by going to nearly everybook store in Auburn (there are like 7) and then a walking tour of campus/photo shoot. It was about 8,000 degrees out so the tour was quite the experience. I guess I have gotten used to the heat, but poor Colleen was like dying from heat stroke. Esp since the other thing we drank was "sugar water" according to Colleen in the form of Cherry Limeades and Toomer's Lemonade. Either way I showed her all around campus and in a few of the buildings, while we both took tons of pictures like the tourists we are. Then that evening the CWE prof staff had a surprise in store of the camp counselors. We told the counselors to meet us in a parking lot at 5pm dressed nicely. What we didn't tell them was that we contacted all of their parents and invited them to a little reception to honor the camp counselors. It was so fun to see all the counselors "cleaned up." I work with 40 very attractive students haha. The parents were told to arrive earlier so they could be in the room to surprised them and it was so funny to meet their parents and see who was exactly like their parents or the opposite of their parents. The counselors don't like secrets so they were very antsy and then we finally got them to the room and we had the door closed them opened it and all the parents said surprise, it was so cute. I was like teary eyed. At this reception Colleen (aka my date haha) got to meet a ton of the counselors and other staff members, all which she thought were great, because let's face it....they are pretty outstanding. After the reception another huge gang of us went to dinner at Logans and it was hands down one of the funniest meals ever. Ross was on a roll and we were all just insane...I like didn't want dinner to end because it was so funny. Good stories, good friends, good times. After dinner some of us went to Mamma G's to celebrate Emily birthday, it was dubbed a tshirt theme so we could all just dress down after having been all dressed up for the banquet. I wore my Ithaca is Gorges t-shirt which most people find FUNNY at home, but down here nobody got it. One because they don't know what Ithaca is and two because they don't know what gorges are. Southerners: Ithaca is a town in upstate in New York where Cornell and Ithaca College are and Ithaca has gorges which are like these canyons/springs that are there. So Ithaca is gorges is supposed to be like Ithaca is gorgeous. Get it? Funny huh? okay anyway I was sad for Sunday to be over because Colleen was leaving early Monday, but I was thrilled that Colleen had an amazing time. She loved Auburn, my friends and all the CWE people. I have her saying War Eagle now and I love it!

Monday I took Colleen to BBQ House for breakfast...sadly she did not care for the grits, but she liked the biscuits and sweet tea so it's all good. After Colleen left I had to go into the office to do exit interviews with some of the counselors. Exit interviews are basically the counselors just meeting with the staff to go over their self evals, talk about their experience and give them any constructive criticism/ advice. I had some great people to interview. I got to know some of them a whole lot better, or chat with them one on one when I hadn't had the chance prior to do so. I'm not gonna lie I teared up a few times. First off talking about how amazing orientation is in general ALWAYS chokes me up, also hearing about their experiences chokes me up and then there are others who said some really nice things about me like how they admire how I jumped right into CWE and really made an effort to get to know everyone with my loud and crazy personality I was able to fit right into a group that had already been together for over 3 months. SO needless to say I cried a bit, plus the fact that all this means that summer is officially winding down. Katie Doc was just a bad with crying. She's leaving on Tuesday which is even before me, very sad...I'm trying not to think about it. We also had the grand-daddy of all meetings on Monday with just the prof staff and HCCs talking about camp as a whole and things that need to be changed or improved etc. It was a very productive meeting...I loved being a part of great minds in action, and I was even able to chime in here and there. Tuesday we also had a ton of other meetings and just getting things prepped for session 8. During out lunch break on Tuesday I went to eat with my "Sneetches" group. Remember when I did Sneetched at training, well I told my group that we'd get together again this summer to catch up and do some more questions. Well it was great that we were able to get together again, especially since at least in my opinion I feel like I've gotten to know them all this summer, yet I can think back to that activity and when I didn't know them well. Actually I feel like most of the counselors that I know the best now were in my Sneetches group, probably because it opens people up and makes people feel comfortable. No complaints here because it was a great time. Much Love to Rachel K, Dana, Chuck, Tyler, Kitty, Bethany, Julia, and Ross. Oh Tuesday night I got to paint the tiger paws. You must be asking yourself what the heck are tiger paws. Well on one of the main roads on campus...the one that goes from the sports complex to Jordan Hare Stadium there are small tiger paws painted on the road and 2 giant tiger paws painted in 2 of the intersections. So every summer SGA paints them and invites CWE people to help. I had been excited about painting the paws practically since I got here. I had a lot of fun painting them ( aka getting my yankee blood spilt on the grounds of auburn as one counselors said). For the record in the middle of a tiger paw I while putting on a second coat of paint I made a "Q" so there! (you can't see it, but still it's the intention). Anyway it was alot of fun to be out there with 70 other crazy people running up and down the street painting paws with police escorts. Sadly we couldn't paint the paw at Toomer's corner...only the SGA e-board was allow (I was sad, but I was also tired we painted from like 10:30pm - midnight). It has been quite satisfying driving around Auburn seeing the paws knowing I had something to do with that.

Well right now we are in the middle of session 8. So far it has been the hottest, craziest and most tiring. I will write more about session 8 tomorrow. But I did want to say that yesterday before camp at our staff meeting I said the Creed with all the counselors! We always end the meeting with the circling up and saying the creed and since I didn't know it well enough I never did...but all the counselors wanted me to join them, so I made sure to know the creed well enough to join them and I did. Chuck stood next to me to make sure I knew all the words. I actually impressed Chuck with how well I knew the creed, he had doubted me. It was so powerful to be standing in a group of 40 amazing student leaders reciting these words that are so important, meaningful and precious to them. Again I almost cried. More so I almost cried when I go up later that day and stood in front of all the 600 freshmen that were there and said the creed with the counselors at War Eagle Welcome. A-MAZING, is pretty much all I can say about that. I will talk more about session 8 later I gotta get back to camp stuff.

War Damn Eagle!
Jenn