26

I turn 26 this week. So...Happy Birthday to me! I have been spoiled over the years with having a birthday land on or around a football game. Throw in some amazing friends and I normally have a great celebration. I am definitely one of those people that look forward to their birthday. It's like getting a haircut - well, if you're a girl. You walk into a room and someone says (also most likely a girl), "Did you get a hair cut? It looks good!", even if it doesn't. On your birthday, everyone wishes you a happy birthday. Even if they really don't care if you have a happy one or not. It's like the one day that's yours. Most people get excited for gifts, maybe, but in my family we don't really do birthday presents. If you get one, its a real bonus, and a sweet topping to the cake that is your birthday. My family, does however, have a tradition of calling one another and singing Happy Birthday. My mother started it, but my sister Lindsay has really taken a liking to it. Only she normally sings along to the New Kids on the Block "Happy Birthday to You" melody. Its a real gem. The Hennessey kids can't carry a tune to save our lives. I remember driving to all of our 'activities' growing up and having my siblings (there's 4 of us) all fighting over lyrics between what's right and wrong. My mother would flick the rear view mirror of the Volvo Station wagon so it would suddenly give her site to the back seat. That meant business. She'd say, "There are no right or wrong words to a song, you can sing them however you want". Of course she was wrong, and someone would call her out, thus trying to strengthen their argument. I guess that was her giving us a creative license. Anyway, here's Lindsay's Jam:

This year is a real treat! Even though its a Tuesday, one of my most favorite people from back home, Hillary, is coming to visit me. I was the Maid of Honor in Hills wedding last year and her birthday is October 6th. She got a couple days off from work and the timing worked out perfectly. In addition I think I am grabbing some happy hour beverages with some people, too. So all in all, I couldn't ask for more. Work is always so good to me - Keaira, my office mate and department head, always decorates the place. She's too sweet. I guess you can see that we work in a laid back atmosphere....and yes, that is Rob Pattinson's Twilight cardboard cutout at my desk. I swear it's for work. 25 was good to me. Nothing too much to take on and nothing too over the top to share, that - lets face it - I haven't already. I look forward to the year ahead and hope when I blow out a candle that some of my wishes come true.  Happy Birthday Libras. Cheers.

Don't Eat Food Shaped Like...

I went to the mall today to find a few things that I "needed" and striking out on all them led to me eating lunch in the Food Court. I went to Sbarro's, got a slice of cheese pizza, a breakstick, and a medium drink, a #1 if you will. A typical food court meal. Because it was pizza, when asked "for here or to go", I said "for here". I sat down at a table facing the rest of the food court for some good people watching and instead, experienced something new, awkward, and most definitely creepy.....turns out, I was the one being 'watched'. Taking my second bite of my breadstick, I look up, and to my surprise the gentlemen weirdo across from me was taking my picture with his iPhone. I wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but when the flash went off and he chuckled, I knew exactly what he was doing. Lets just say, I didn't eat another bite of that breadstick (I found this picture online, very similar to my meal so you could really get a feel of what these breadsticks looked like. Use your imagination). I was about to get up and switch tables when two ladies sat down at the opposite end of my 6 person table. I didn't want them to think it was because of them so I stayed and made awkward eye contact with Sir Creeps-A-Lot multiple times throughout my meal. I did what I know best, and tweeted about my situation.

Within moments I got several responses, assuming from my #whatdoido question. One being from my friend Nat, who proposed the idea of taking a picture of him in return. So....awkwardly....I did. I thought about posting the picture on here. Then I thought, no that's terrible. Turns out Nat was kidding....only I found that out after I actually took the picture when he said I was just as bad. Which then made me feel like the creep. That is until someone at work told me I was probably now on the Internet somewhere (Creeper: 2, Me: 1). Great. After telling my tale to another friend, she replied with "Wait, is the awkward, creepy part that you were eating at the food court in the mall or that he took the picture". So now I'm the weirdo?! Wonderful.

Moral of the story. Don't eat breadsticks in public, specifically the mall food court.

Port-O-Oh-NO!

My random thought of the week.

We all have a biggest fear. Some people are afraid of public speaking, some are afraid of spiders, maybe yours is being afraid of someone hiding behind your shower curtain when you arrive home ready to attack (we’ve all been there, don’t deny it)…..all respectable fears.  Mine however, I realized last week. My biggest fear, bigger than a man behind my shower curtain, is being in a Port-O-Potty and it getting pushed over. Can you even imagine? I don’t care if it’s a fresh, 8am john that no one at the tailgate has used yet, I still can’t even imagine how terrible that would be! To realize this fear of mine, I wasn’t even close to living it. Thank God! But instead was in the middle “stall” of a row of about 5 port-o-potties at a recent Clemson game. Apparently the gentleman next to me was extremely intoxicated, which led to him banging around, possibly losing his footing. Who knows but with every action, there is a reaction, and mine was shear panic. As I’m hovering over the extremely used commode after a large Clemson victory and hot day, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. The wall to the left of me shook like an earthquake and I heard the line of people laughing….which made me think some drunk idiot was about to be hilarious (or so he thought) and push me over. Immediately my imagination got the best of me. I don’t think I’ve ever peed so fast in my life and got the hell out of there. Even though nothing actually happened the embarrassment on my face as I opened the door to come out, probably had the line curious as to what just happened in my own. Which obviously made me even more embarrassed, as I quickly walked away. I wanted to share my thoughts of terror, but went on my way, and back to my tailgate. As every social drinker knows, once you “break the seal” you have to use the restroom quite often during a day of drinking. So this wasn’t going to be my last visit to a possible nightmare. I never have been the girl who needs a friend to go with her to the bathroom, nor have I ever wanted to be, but perhaps now that I am afraid of what could be, I will have to start. I don’t know what would be worse; the actual act of being in there while pushed over, or having to come out looking like a smurf who just completed a mud run. So gross. I’d imagine at this point that while reading this, your face has scrunched, your eyebrows turned in, and your mouth is showing a few teeth in a grin of “eek!”…….so just remember there are worse things that can happen to you than needing to kill a spider, or come home to a dark house.  You could be pushed over in a port-o-potty. I think that wins.

Priorities

"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule,

but to schedule your priorities" ~Stephen Covey

What's important to me, may not be important to someone else and that's ok... everyone is different. What I find most important are not necessarily the tasks that I have to do at my job, what my home looks like all the time, who I'm impressing, what gadgets I own, or maybe even what I'm wearing. What I have come to discover about myself over the past couple years is that my relationships, whether they be with family or friends, are of the up most importance to me. I realized this early on in college when I had to tell my mother why I was receiving a D in 1 (or 2) of my classes (whoops!). Not only did I realize I had no idea what studying really was, but I came to the conclusion that I was more into making friends and building relationships than what a book had to say. Obviously I had to learn pretty fast how to balance it all out, but never have I passed on hanging out with friends over something some would call "more important"....if I can help it. Starting in high school and continuing on through college, and even still today, I (as well as my group of friends) have lost several friends to tragic accidents. Car wrecks, plane crashes, alcohol, cancer, fire, suicide, stairwells, and horrible acts I'd hate to even mention. These are the things that you never expect to deal with, and pray to God that even your worst enemy would never have to take on. Its all pretty depressing, right? Not really of my norm I write about, but on a day like 9/11 where you're surrounded by news coverage and documentaries on the tragic day 11 years ago...it makes me stop and think. Why doesn't everyone find the relationships in their life the most important?

Perhaps you have been lucky enough to never lose a friend or deal with an unthinkable tragic accident like I have, but at the end of the day all you have is the people around you. To see the network of people impacted by one of these losses I have experienced, makes me think of the thousands of lives lost on 9/11 and who they have touched. It sounds dramatic but we seriously have no idea how much time we or our friends have here. I for one want to soak everyone up as much as I can. Sorry if I ever come across overwhelming.

I try my best to be a great friend to others. You can have a "good friend" but are they really a good friend? Or just someone that is just fun to be around. Would they do you a favor at the drop of a hat, give you good advice, listen to your ups and your downs - or anytime when you need them the most? Are you a priority or something they struggle to prioritize? I am a firm believer in karma, as well as the whole saying 'treat others as you would like to be treated'. If you complain about not having these people then perhaps look closer at yourself. What have you done to be a good friend? Are your relationships a priority in your life? If they aren't, why expect that from others? Again..."The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities" ~Stephen Covey. Take a look at the things that are in your life that make you happy. Are they at the top of your list? Sure I hate paying bills, and taking care of life necessities - basically money in general - but after that my relationships and the people in my life are the ones that bring the smile to my face. 99% of the time I take a social setting over anything else. You mean more to me than a television show, an errand I can do tomorrow, and any everyday chore. You, my friend, are at the top of my list.

Don't go diein' on me....

It's Finally Here

Football. What ultimately brought me to Clemson. It was 2003, Clemson was playing FSU at home, and I was a senior in high school tailgating with fraternity boys and jamming to Outkasts 2 hit records from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below ("Hey Ya" and "The Way You Move") at all the parties. Mix in free beer and gin buckets, and you have the perfect storm for making an overwhelming college decision seem like a cakewalk. Not to mention that I wore so much Clemson gear during my senior year of high school that if I didn’t get in and head south, it would have been highly embarrassing. Anyway, as history will tell you, the tigers won the Bowden Bowl and as you can imagine the students were thrilled. As was this high schooler who fell in love with a town….and several upper classmen :)

Flash forward a few years, tailgates, boys, and digital cameras later and you’ve got the start of another football season. Last week the CU tigers took on Auburn in the season opener down in Atlanta. My bank account being as pathetic as it has been lately encouraged me to stay behind with a group of friends. I have serious FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) so it was difficult to see and hear about those heading to the ‘dirty A’ but my stay in Greenville was not to be discounted. Par for the course, I “lost” my digital camera on the first game. What started out as a calm, mature viewing party in the penthouse/rooftop of a building downtown, soon turned into me consuming the large amount of BL’s I brought - - which I referred too earlier in the night as “plenty”. Not plenty. Gone. So I headed back to my college roots and went for the offered Coors Lights my good friends knew I once had a passion for. Cadence counts and a win later, we moved onto flip cup, which turned in to a dance off, which turned into a dance party. Once it was ‘time’ we moved onto our beloved Chicora. After that blur we headed home….safely I’d like to note.

Anyway, I’d like to think we all know that feeling of when you wake up and are like “holy hell, that was a good night”. Well those who know me know that I take far too many pictures. I don’t know if it’s because I’m like my mother and document everything, or if it’s just turned into convenience to piece together a night like Saturday, but when I went to look at ‘what happened’ and my camera and other contents were missing from my purse, I couldn’t help but think ‘well, I guess it really is football season’. I got in my car and headed to Chicora. When I walked in the bartender just started laughing at me. I said “Obviously judging by my looks I was here last night”. I told him what I was looking for and of course nowhere to be found. I left my information, took any part of my dignity I could find, and went on my way. After tracking down the keys to the building I dominated, I went up, and of course, just where I imagined, there was my camera.  Sitting in the middle of our dance floor……and just like I predicted……awesome video footage of the dance party, and the night’s events.

Not even one home game down and I already had a shambly game day. Success. For the ones coming up though, the event planner in me has come out yet again. For safe rides to and from Greenville to Clemson, my friend Jill and I have orchestrated a shuttle bus ride for 20+ each game day. It will be filled game by game, but just knowing I don’t have to worry about driving or parking in Clemson opens a lot of doors for “gameday success”……scary almost. I briefed the owner of the bus company that “this type of crowd still wants to be in college” before asking if coolers and other tailgating paraphernalia were allowed on. He’s met me several times before when I have gotten these buses for wedding receptions in the area, so he interrupted me and told me “Lacey, not to worry, I know your crowd”. I followed with, “I don’t know what that means, but I’m glad we’re on the same page” and laughed it off as every awkward response deserves. Better safe than sorry. On all fronts I guess.

I love the fall and am so glad its finally here. September is going to be filled with football weekends. Followed with October - - throwing in my birthday and a mountain weekend, plus Halloween. Then onto November with more games, a concert,  and my favorite holiday. Bring it on Clemson. I’m ready for you.