Find me in Carter-Finley.

Today was going to be a very unexciting blog post if it weren't for 5 words: Wolfpack Football Labor Day Sale.

Oh yes.

Anyway, I slept until 2:00 this afternoon, which felt absolutely fantastic considering the shape my head was in when I tried to get up at 11:00.  I ate a little bit and checked up on all my computer stuff for about an hour before I knew I had to get to work.

For my International Political Economy class, the first half of the semester is being spent working our way through this gargantuan book called The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy.  It's pretty much the perfect book for the class, was a New York Times Best-Seller (which is rather unusual for a non-fiction book like this), and is rather interesting considering the material is something you'd usually find in a textbook, not on the NYT Best-Seller list.  I unintentionally procrastinated on this reading, but knew that considering there are 540 pages and only 8 chapters, I couldn't afford to be behind, so when I finished everything else on this week's list Saturday night, and I knew that Matt wasn't able to come down yesterday afternoon, I dedicated yesterday after church and today to getting through the reading that's been assigned so far in this book.  That way, I could at least start this week feeling on top of things. ;)

The good thing about Dr. Thornton (my professor for this class) is that he gives you questions to guide you through the reading.  Otherwise, there would be no way I'd remember and be able to process and analyze for an exam all of this information!  Yesterday, I got through the Intro, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2, which was 83 pages and 24 questions.  And surprisingly, I was done at about 11:00.  I have to cut myself off or I will get so into working that I work until my head makes me cry.

So today, all I had was Chapter 3, which doesn't sound like a big deal at all until you find out that Chapter 3 is 70 pages by itself.  I was exhausted before I even started, ha!  I started at 3:00, and by about 6:15 I only had 29 pages and 5 of the 10 questions left, so I decided to take a food/shower break to give my head a rest.  I pulled up my email as I made food, and immediately saw the email from NC State's ticket office about a Labor Day sale "TODAY ONLY!!!"  The deal was $25 tickets for this Saturday's game against Richmond, $40 tickets for the Maryland game the Saturday after Thanksgiving, or $50 for both games.  Which, anyone who's ever bought a ticket to a college football game at a major university can tell you that that is an INSANE deal.

I immediately called Mom, but she didn't answer, so I texted her.  Now, there are very few things in life that will make my mom or me use half a dozen or more exclamation points in a text message.  Heck, back in April, when she texted me to call her because she had to tell me I had to go to the hospital, all she wrote was "Call me 911" with no punctuation at all. (Bad English teacher! haha)  But anyway, Wolfpack sports are one of those few things that get us excited, especially opportunities to go to games.  So my text read: "I need you to call me pronto!! There's an AMAZING sale on Wolfpack game tickets that is only available today!!! Call me!!!!"  She did...eventually, and said she had to call me back so she could think over the options I told her.

Long story short, she and I are going to the game on Saturday, and we plus Mommom, Holly, and Michael are going to the Maryland game in November.  Seven football tickets for $240 including fees - you can't beat that!!  When I asked her what she was going to do about Blake because of course Chelsea works Saturdays. she said, "That's Chelsea's problem."  So apparently Chelsea is being her usual self - thankfully, while we were on the phone, Chelsea said a coworker's sister would watch him.

But anyway, that made my break take way longer than I expected it to because I had to finish eating and take a shower after all that, but I finished my work 8:00-10:00.  I'll admit, it was kind of hard to focus because I'm so excited about Saturday!  I've said it over and over again, but the atmosphere of a packed football stadium cheering on the team you've been raised to love since you were born...well, there is just nothing like it in the world.

So yeah, deciding to stay on campus for the weekend instead of going home to see Mom for the holiday turned out not to be a bad thing at all.  I get some one-on-one time with her on Saturday, and it's in one of our most favorite places.  So come Saturday night, if you need me, you'll find me here.