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.