Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama

Last Blog- hope this makes you laugh

So here’s the final blog. I had a hard time thinking of something to wrap up the year. Honestly, I haven’t done much outside of studying this past week and that didn’t seem like a very strong way to end this blog. As I thought, I noticed that some of my fellow class bloggers had posted some videos and remembered a classic video, which related to Mobile, Alabama.

Many of you may have already seen this but honestly it really is worth another watching. I certainly enjoyed my second look. So I could get the video on the post but didn't know how to get it into my writing section. Its above and this is the caption so just combine these two posts.

I enjoyed the theme of this class and was glad to have an extra incentive to explore the local Tuscaloosa area. In addition, the ideas of eating locally and better environmental choices have always been interesting to me but seem to be a more tangible goal now. Hope everyone has a good summer.

Downtown Northport

Recently I wandered once again into downtown Northport. My first adventure into this area was for the Kentuck festival earlier in the year. It’s an art festival in a park with music and food. It was really cool and you should defiantly keep your eye out for it next year.

Anyway, this time I went to eat at City Café. It serves home cooked meals where basically you pick out a meat and a couple of vegetable, or just vegetables and its only like $4. Considering this price, the food was amazing and well worth the escape to eat real food as apposed to the dining halls. It wasn’t anything healthy or fancy, but it was good home cooked southern food.

Behind the restaurant and off to the side there is also a little bakery called Mary’s bakery. It is really tiny and mainly makes cakes and other things I believe, but they do serve some lunch and have the most amazing pastries. Also they make homemade gelato fresh everyday. Downtown Northport is defiantly worth the visit and for college kids City Café and Mary’s bakery are a nice retreat from the usual food of living on campus.

Mythical Dead Week

Mythical dead week. Something the University created, from what I understand, as a week of for students before finals. At some point, this changed however, and now it’s supposed to be a week where students still go to class but don’t really do anything. First, this doesn’t make any sense. If I’m going to go to class, why would I just go to sit there, I wouldn’t. Secondly, what are the teachers supposed to do during this dead space, just review for their final? Well, what if they don’t have a final, as many of my classes this semester don’t.

Basically, the teachers have solved the answers to these questions. I don’t have a single teacher who is honoring the rules of dead week by giving absolutely no assignments. In fact, I’ve had more papers, tests, and quizzes this week than I have in the past. Why? Because it’s the last week of the semester and we still haven’t finished all of what we need to learn to pass the final.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not angry at my teachers for giving me something to do during this useless period of time set forth by the University, I just wish someone would make up their minds. Either refer to the week as dead week and give me the week off or just accept that we no longer have the mythical creature on campus.

Why not just have a last week of the semester. The library could still be open ungodly hours so that we can study for everything thrown at us this last week and it can be more properly described. Dead week no longer exists and the term is used almost as a false hope to students who are ready to be out of school.

Bottle Tree

On Saturday night, I got a call from my friend asking if I wanted to join her and a couple others on a trip to Birmingham. At first this seemed like a not so great idea, then she explained that her and her band mates had gotten free tickets to a music festival at Bottle Tree and there were supposed to be some really great bands playing. Of course, this led me to question, “Well that’s great for you, how much is it going to cost me to get it in.” The answer was $20. Obviously I still wasn’t sold on this adventure despite the fact that I had heard a lot about this new venue in Birmingham and what a cool place it was. I, of course, gave in and we set off to Birmingham for the night.

If I was 21, the $20 would have been more than reasonable. That $20 not only got you in but also a nice glass, t-shirt and free beer for the night. Sadly, I feel like much of my money went to things I wasn’t allowed to enjoy; however, I did get a cool t-shirt and a glass. Anyway, this little music festival was called the Raindrop Festival and turned out it supported the Hulsey Little River Trust. It was more than worth the trip and anyone who gets a chance to go to Bottle Tree should. It’s an artsy little restaurant/bar and sports a menu with limited meat and lots of vegan options. What really makes it special is that the people who work there are really nice and don’t present you with the snooty side of the artsy world. Finally, anyone who goes there has to talk to the guy, named Chris, at the front door. He is this awesome old many with great stories and an eye tattooed in his bald spot amongst his long gray curly hair. Possibly one of this nicest, coolest guys I’ve ever met.

Convenience

Recently I went home and looked around at how many things had changed in the small amount of time I’d been away. A couple of years ago they put in a new strip mall that was supposed to be just like the Summit. In theory this sounded great and everyone anticipated its opening. Now, as both neighborhoods and generally all business has traveled to the side of town where this mall is located, businesses in the rest of town are slowly shutting down and relocating.

One side of town is completely empty with a mall and soon to be shopping center that are abandoned. In addition, the shops in another shopping center just down the way have now begun building in this amazing all in one center. It seems like it today’s fast, ever convenient society, people seem to forget the consequences of their buying actions. If you place every shop that you might need into one convenient location, how is the business in the rest of town supposed to function.

This idea of super convenience dominates so much of our society and its consequences are slowly being seen. Fast food, the ultimate in convenience, is just now being renounced as its health effects culminate. Town businesses are dying as Wal-marts pop up everywhere. It makes me wonder to what extent convenience will come to control and alter our lives as time goes on.

4-20 on the Quad

In case anyone didn’t know, Tuesday was earth day, and last Sunday the University had an earth fest wonderfully advertised as 4/20 on the quad. It was possibly the most beautiful day I have experienced yet in Tuscaloosa and lying on the quad for hours was the perfect action to take in response to such a magnificent day. They had bands play from around 12 until 8, many of which were good if not very entertaining. Also, the sierra club was there giving out free grocery bags that you keep. You know like Publix and Target have been selling lately except with sierra club on the outside. But anyway, the outside wasn’t the exciting part, it was what lied within.

What was this you ask?...

I’m sure your enthralled right now.

Energy efficient light bulbs and press on tattoos with earth friendly slogans. Basically, since I don’t really change the light bulbs in my door, I was ecstatic about the tattoos. I sadly don’t have them or I would post some of their awesomeness up on the blog.

Anyways, the whole event was really successful and I don’t know the exact details of it but there was an article I noticed in the CW but I have yet to read it. Here However is the link where you can find the article and some of the pictures that they took. There was an excellent turn out and seemed to be a lot of support which resulted in people becoming more informed about helping the environment with all the little information tables they had set up.

Whoooooooo FOOTBALL TICKETS

As many of you know, this morning student tickets went on sale. I, like many others I’m sure, got up at the crack of dawn and signed on to the ticket site. I was told by many to get on early to ensure my ticket purchase. I woke up to hear that my whole dorm suit was awake and getting online. We were online at 6:30, only to be greeted with a virtual waiting room. While initially this made me panic because I thought, “Oh no I’m too late,” I soon realized that everyone was put into this waiting room until tickets went on sale. Once seven o’clock dawned I was quickly let in and had my tickets within the next 5 min. As far as I can tell, everything went smoothly with this system. I applaud the university in getting this large event organized, since in past years servers have been known to crash under the pressure of all of Alabama signing on to one internet site at once. Also, I’m pretty sure, this officially kicks off the next football system. WHOOO!!!!!!!!!

Sky Gazing

A few weeks ago, I ventured out to the Bama Theater. First, if you’ve never been here, find something going on and just go in and see the inside of the theater. Not only does it look like an old timey theater but the ceiling is painted like a sky with little twinkle lights to look like stars.

But anyway, Capstone radio was sponsoring a local music festival from 3pm to 3am called Tuscapalooza. It featured many different local bands, many of which I sadly did not see, but I did venture out to see the last 4 or 5 bands. The first couple were the usual jam bands expected from a college town, then the last 3 groups or so had a little more of an original twist, playing mostly their own songs. It was a blast. I had some friends in that I went to high school with that now go to Auburn or Oberlin. They are the ones joining me in the sky gazing in the picture below. Now, in explanation of the picture, this was at 2:30 in the morning and the band called the Bonky Bonks had thrown big balloons into the audience for us to bounce around. Obviously this was a little more entertaining than it should have been. However, their show along with the others I saw were entertaining and worth seeing. Again I say, go out and support your local music, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Spring has Sprung

Above are the beautiful objects that greeted me when I returned from spring break. By now I’m sure many of you have noticed these carefully chosen flowers around campus. Not only are they a reminder of the new amazing weather and closing of spring semester, they proudly show our school colors. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a college campus before where the choice of flowers was dependent on school colors and really I think in many ways it exemplifies the school pride on campus.


But anyway, the real reason I was writing this was because while I thought they were nice and well worth it because they defiantly made me smile when I returned to campus, I heard many negative comments in relation to how expensive they probably were. Generally the comments included “Oh so that is what my tuition is going too” or more often “It’s nice to see why my out-of-state tuition is going up.” While I see where these comments originate and the definite frustration in rising tuition prices, the campus does have to keep up appearances and landscaping is one of those costs. In addition, chances are, them putting in tulips is not the only or largest reason that tuition is rising. So I say, enjoy the brightness they bring to the campus and look at the positive side, not how much they cost.

Oh the off-campus housing in Tuscaloosa

In reading Sarah’s blog, I realized I hadn’t talked about my living quarters for next year and the struggle there was to arrive at it. Firstly, Sarah I hope you don’t think I’m stealing you idea but it was a good one. Ok, so me and a couple of friends decided to live together before Christmas. We were on the ball and ready to go. We started looking for places and found this perfect little townhouse complex off Hargrove Rd. We began filling out the paper work and getting parents to travel up to sign different forms. For starters, this takes forever and eight days and shouldn’t be as complicated as it ended up being. However, after about a month we all managed to get everything signed and in place.

While, we were slightly disorganized in gathering parents, the majority of this run around was caused by the lovely management at the place which covers a couple different housing places including capstone quarters and of course ours, which is the village at Brooke Meadows. The main problem was that they kept switching which person we were dealing with and therefore switching what could or could not be faxed, what we had signed and basically resulting in an all out mess.

Nevertheless, as I said, in the end everything was signed, well at least the important stuff, they recently informed us that there were in fact a couple more sheets but that we could sign them on moving day. I honestly believe however, that the run around and partial threatening of not having a place to live next year by a few of the employees was only because we were college students and had we been any other adults they would have treated us with a little more respect and been a little more organized. It makes me wonder if this was a result of dealing mostly with college students and becoming frustrated or just assuming that threatening was the only way to get anything done.

Surprised Once Again

So there are going to be a few posts in a row here that span a time frame of about a week before spring break to now. Okay, so two weeks ago I ventured back home to Montgomery because my brother came home for a combination birthday and Christmas celebration. While he was there, my mom and I searched our brains to go somewhere for lunch that was light and not a chain restaurant like Panera Bread. Finally, we settled on a little café located in historical Old Cloverdale. It’s name Café Louisa (take a tour) and it offers sandwiches, scones, gelato and coffee. When you first enter it has a quaint feel with wooden benches and tables. It also has an artsy feel about it since it also serves as an art gallery. I hadn’t been there in a while and was amazed at how good not only to food but coffee was. For those of you who might venture that way you should defiantly make it a pit stop. The coffee even surpassed my brother’s expectations who currently lives in Seattle.

Tiny town offers more in entertainment

Sometimes it amazes me how much there really is to do here in Tuscaloosa. During the fall, there is a never ending amount of excitement with football and thousands of crazy fans tailgating;However, the campus still offers many exciting options during the spring. From university sports such as basketball, gymnastics, baseball and swimming going on, to the fine arts plays and concerts, there is always something happening. In comparison to my hometown, Tuscaloosa is a great deal smaller. However there is much more offered in Tuscaloosa in comparison. Honestly about the most exciting thing that goes on on a regular basis is the movie theater or the outside shopping mall. Sometimes I hear people describing there tiny hometown and mention the same things as there only options. This makes me wonder whether teenagers just have a tendency to be attracted to these things or if somehow even though Montgomery is much larger, they just lack to incentive to create events for people to attend. Don't get me wrong, my hometown does offer Jubilee once a year which is like a musical festival and there is usually some form of a punk or heavy metal band playing somewhere in town, however variety is certainly not offered.

Support Local Music

Whenever you feel bored on a weekend, look through the paper and see what local bands are playing this week. This past weekend I ventured to Mellow Mushroom. My friend Beth play’s french horn in a local band called Squirrel House. I would try to describe them, but they’re a mixture of many aspects. I can say, however, that they put on a great show and will once again be performing soon. They are also putting out a CD in the not to distant future. If you by chance want to keep up with them, they have a myspace.


But outside of just their band and my short supportive spiel there, Tuscaloosa sports many local bands. Many of which are decently known around the area and are worth going to see. While I, as someone who is not quite 19, understand that sometime this can be a bit challenging since most places who have live bands won’t allow underage kid’s in. In fact, the most places on the strip hold this rule. To this I can only say hold out and wait to your birthday for some live appearances. However, I recently saw an advertisement that the capstone is going to be having live music on Monday’s on campus from 12-1pm called music at the fountain, which will feature local artist. I think this is a great addition to the campus and will hopefully help support local artist gain support.

An outing in T-Town

This past weekend I once again ventured to entertain my mom for a night. Last time this occurred, it sadly ended in us eating bar-b-que and returning to the hotel for a night of TV watching. Because of this, my mom’s second trip to Tuscaloosa proved a little more productive in finding something interesting because of a little research and preparation.


For starters, we went out to eat at a restaurant that I took the time to look up on a guide and be confident in. This restaurant goes by the name Epiphany Fine Dining and is an upscale place. Defiantly not somewhere I would go on a college budget, but since my mom was there and more than happy to pay in exchange for good food, we continued towards our destination. The restaurant is located just down from Mugshots on Greensboro and reflects the old style building both inside and out. The walls are brick with archways as you enter different rooms. The restaurant describes its menu choices based off local produce when available and chooses meat based on where and how they are grown. The service from start to finish was wonderful and the food defiantly lived up to its surroundings and price. I would defiantly recommend this dining experience if you have a night to spoil yourself and spend around $20 per meal. In addition, as a plus, the restaurant is correlated with Carpe Vino a local wine vineyard.

After this, and very full I might add, we ventured back to Coleman Coliseum for a night of bama gymnastics. This was my first time experiencing a gymnastics meet of any kind and I was thrilled to be seeing Alabama vs. Georgia, the number one team in the SEC if not nation. The student section was packed and seemed like a grand time for the average college student. However, I was shocked to see the number of families attending in relation to other events such as football or basketball. I would assume by the number of small girls running around, that many were at the time gymnast themselves. The entrances of the gymnast were extremely exciting with pyro techniques and music and in between gymnast performing the chance to dance to classics like YMCA were also offered. Though from my seat it seemed this was most enjoyed by those under 10 who squealed at the opportunity to dance. Overall everyone there seemed to enjoy themselves and for students a free time was available and for others fairly cheap family outing. Even though we lost by like .6 points, everyone enjoyed the experience and seemed overall happy to have attended. By the way the tide has another meet this Friday against Arkansas.