Hello all! So, the past million and a half years has been super busy, as usual. There is a lot that I need to catch up on, and I apologize once again for the disgustingly long hiatus; it’s really becoming a bad trend. I think my goal from here on out is to blog every Wednesday. Mark my words! If I don’t stick to it, feel free to beat me up (but not really, please)! But, onto good ol’ life…

Two weekends ago, I took a little road trip to Syracuse to visit my friend Jen a.k.a. Jenay! And by road trip, I mean a really long bus ride. Fun fact– I hate pubic transportation, so it wasn’t the most pleasant experience in the world. Jen and I met each other my first summer as an Orientation Leader (the summer after my freshman year), and we’ve been biffles ever since. I hadn’t seen her in about 6 months, and it was great to finally hang out with her again. Let me tell you, Jenay and I packed a whole lot of fun into one weekend! My first day there, we hung out around her apartment for a little bit. She is an ARD, which stands for Assistant Resident Director. Basically, she is one of the supervisors of her residence hall. With the job, she is given an apartment within the residence hall that she runs. The apartment was so cute! I was pretty much in love with it. Here it is:

Apartment 1 of 3! I know; the anticipation is killing you!

Apartment 2 of 3! In love with the red accents!

Apartment 3 of 3! RED!

That was just her living area; I figured I would preserve her privacy and not post pictures of her bedroom and bathroom on my blog. So, after catching up in her apartment, we went to the mall, and I met up with one of my friends with whom I interned at Alloy this past summer. I hadn’t seen her since the summer, and it was a lovely reunion! We literally spent 32 hours a week with each other, which sounds obnoxious, but we were pretty much the same person and got along great.

Day Two of my trip, we took an adventure  to the Finger Lakes and went to this really cute farmer’s fair, I think they called it. I invested my money in food, naturally. They had the BEST, and I mean THE BEST kettle corn I have ever had. It was the typical sweet and salty, but it was caramelized, which made it taste like Cracker Jacks, except a million times better. DELISH!

I couldn't wait to open the bag. The plastic didn't taste so good.

Yeahhhhhhh!

Me and Jenay in the middle of farmland! Ignore the road behind us...

That night we went to a Syracuse football game. Now, New Paltz doesn’t have a football team, so our school spirit is very much derived from the residence hall community on campus. Syracuse, however, definitely has that stereotypical “college sports team” pride. Was it different? Yes. Was it insanely awesome and fun? Yes! I had never been to a football game, and it was so much fun! Literally, everyone who was not there for the opposing team (about 5 people) were decked out in blue and orange, the Syracuse school colors (also New Paltz school colors). People were cheering at the top of their lungs and getting so into the game, and I have to say, I was right there with them! Oh, and the best part– SYRACUSE WON! I think I was a good luck charm of sorts.

Me in a football stadium? Who would've thunk it?!

Well, the trip home after the weekend was very interesting, to say the least. I was convinced that my bus back to New Paltz was at 1:30, but I was wrong; it was at 5:45! I ended up staying in Syracuse for an extra 4 hours, which wasn’t bad, but I did miss a lot of quality homework time…oops!

Back in New Paltz this past weekend, we expressed our own school spirit during Spirit Weekend. Now, a lot of bloggers have been talking about it, and here is my chance! Spirit Weekend is a competition among our 13 residence halls to see who has the most school spirit. We compete in field events, banners, scavenger hunts, and (my favorite!) lipsyncs! It is a weekend full of pride and excitement and is definitely, hands down, my favorite weekend out of the school year. And this year, Esopus Hall brought the heat! We won Scavenger Hunt, Lipsync, and…are you ready for it?…MOST SPIRITED! It was such a great feeling to see all of the residents pumped and filled with this contagious pride; all their hard work paid off, and they loved every minute of it. The theme this year was Building Our Future, to play off the construction that’s happening on campus right now. I think it was my favorite theme for Spirit Day since I’ve been at New Paltz; it was optimistic, and I’m all about the positive! The staff and residents were decked out in face paint and caution tape, and I went all out with a big Bobcat paw print on my face (the Esopus Bobcats)! Here are some pics from Spirit Day, and the video of Esopus Hall’s lipsync:

The Esopus Staff!

Gotta love the Bobcat paw print and the caution tape suspenders!

Me and some awesome residents!

411 behind the lipsync: It’s basically the story of New Paltz becoming one community. Everyone is separated and discouraged in the beginning until Bobcat the Builder (me!) comes in to help them get things together. There’s a twist, but you’re gonna have to watch it to see what happens!

Esopus Hall LipSync

I don’t know if you noticed, but there was totally some High School Musical 2 music AND choreography in there! On point.

Now, I failed to mention my incident during Spirit Day. On Sunday before field events, Esopus started up a conga line. I got really into it and was dancing around and such, and I ended up landing on my right foot wrong and hurting it really badly. It immediately began to swell. I couldn’t walk on it for a few minutes, but then it felt fine after I wrapped it and such. The day after, though, there was bruising on my foot and all over my ankle. So, I went to the orthopedist with my supervisor this past Wednesday to get some x-rays. Bottom line– I ended up tearing a ligament in my foot, I have an upper ankle sprain, and the connection between my foot and my ankle is sort of loose. WHOA! Now I am wearing a cam walker (that big black boot) for a month. Go big or go home, right? And why not go all out for my last New Paltz Spirit Weekend?!

Well, I think your eyes are probably bleeding by now from reading this extensive entry. Check back here next Wednesday! If there is no blog, you know the deal.

Strapping on my brand new footwear,

Chris! <3

Tags: Esopus, Finger Lakes, Football, lipsync, Orientation Leader, Spirit Weekend, Syracuse