gamecocks vs. gators.

friday after work, rachel picked me up from my parents' house and we headed down to god's country for the weekend. once the rest of the gang showed up, we went out for pizza and then headed to the vista for the evening. the tin roof line was never ever ending, so we decided to give flying saucer a shot.   we ran into old friends, made some news ones, and had such a good time we were so confused when the lights came on meaning it was 2am. i love nights like that!

{gamecocks + panthers = how i do sleepovers}

dalton put us on a very strict schedule for saturday morning and demanded we wake up by 9:30am. it's important to know that the game was a 7pm kick. we woke up, had breakfast, went to the store, showered, cooked our tailgate food, packed the coolers, piled into the trucks and headed off to the tailgate around 1pm. 

after several hours of hanging out in the farmer's market, we headed over to ammie's parents' tailgate for a low country boil. yum! this was only my 2nd game all season so i had been seriously missing her  parents & their tailgate crew!

{biggest pot ever}

we finally headed into the game around 6:30pm. i know this to be true: i have never loved anything like i love the university of south carolina. 

the gamecocks tried their best to lose but we walked away with a W. conference play is officially over for the gamecocks. this weekend we play a cake team, and next week, the gamecocks and the other tigers will play a rivalry game for the books as both teams are ranked in the top ten. i feel nervously sick already. we waited for everyone to get back to the trucks and headed home.

sunday a few of us had bojangles (naturally) and hit the road. my sunday ended with this delicious filet with my parents & court at 131 main. 

it was a fabulous & long overdue weekend in columbia with my best pals. i'm a lucky girl. 

double overtime and rollercoasters.

friday night after work i met up with rach & britt for free movie tickets to the counselor. rach also had a gift card, so naturally we got this giant thing of popcorn. after the movie (which wasn't all that great) we went to sir edmond halley's for a a few beers before calling it a night.

saturday morning i slept in and watched gameday with lola before heading to rock hill to see the charlotte allstar teams perform.

around 6pm, a bunch of us met up at icehouse to watch the game. icehouse is the official "gamecock bar" in charlotte, so it's always packed with gamecocks on gameday. after 3 horrible quarters, our QB1 who didn't start because he has a sprained knee (and apparently also a flu bug) asked spurrier if he could play. and boy did he ever. i held my breathe, closed my eyes, and screamed my way through the next 30 minutes when the mizzou kicker hit the goalpost in double overtime and we won. it was literally INSANE. i felt bad for anyone who wasn't a gamecock fan that was sitting in that bar. and of course we had to celebrate, so we headed to all american pub to dance/watch caitlin bust her butt on the dance floor.

 

{girls at icehouse}

sunday after mellow mushroom and vegging on the couch, i headed to a coworker's house for a "end of wedding season" cookout for a bit before going to scarowinds. 5 hours and a lot of rollercoaster riding later, i made it home and in bed right before 1am. needless to say, it was rough getting out of bed this morning!

 

do it for the vine!

a slumber party & a football game.

after having some alternative plans fall through for the weekend, i was glad to have sweet cola to "fall back on." i texted kristin earlier in the week & asked if she would be home on friday. you see, i've been in cola a lot this fall, but she has her own games to go to and so we've missed each other every weekend! i was thrilled when she said yes and a sleepover was planned.

after dropping rachel off at nicole's and getting very lost, i finally found myself at kristin's adorable apartment. it is amazingly decorated with all sorts of awesome vintage pieces from her grandma, books, and candles. we drank red wine and talked all night, the best kind of evening with a friend you don't get to see much. in case y'all didn't already know, i really love that girl. i can't imagine life without her in it.

saturday i woke up and headed to nicole's to leave for the game. i have to work this upcoming weekend, making this past weekend my last game of the season. it always blows my mind how quickly football comes and goes, but this year it went even quicker. this was the first year we had our own tailgate spot, and it has been amazingly fun. we had a great time on saturday and stayed at the tailgate way past the sun going down and the lights getting turned off at the stadium. it was a perfect saturday to end another great fall cheering on my alma mater.

i love you, university of south carolina. forever to thee.

ten day highlight.

i've been a bad blogger. there has been so much going on that i haven't had time to sit down and type. so instead of feeling anxious about "catching up," i'm just going to give you the highlights of my first 10 days of october.

1. chelsea's birthday! my dear friend chelsea (aka chester, chelsman, chelsh) turned the big 25 on the 2nd. we celebrated on wednesdsy night at this little hidden restuarant called sir ed's with all of her closest friends. we then celebrated in a serious fashion on friday night with lots of shots & lots of love!

{birthday girl #1}

{birthday girl # 2: sums up our friendship perfectly}

2. GAMECOCKS! my goodness. i'm still not over it. saturday was one of my favorite days of life so far. after tailgating the perfect amount and seeing lots of old friends, we headed into the stadium for the loudest game i can remember in years, if not ever. the first quarter was amazing, and i have bruises on my shins from jumping up and down and hitting the bleachers in front of me. we absolutely killed georgia. the final score was 35-7, making this the first time in the history of the gamecocks that we have beat georgia three consecutive years. the ride home in the back of the truck with 6 of my guy friends was just the cherry on top. i can't remember that last time i laughed so hard.

{found brantley!}

 

 

{crocker girls + me}

 

{carolina sunset over williams brice}

{the ride home}

3. katie & mom's birthday! it's pretty awesome with two of your favorite people share a birthday! we went to dinner at zink on friday to start katie's celebrations. their actual birthday was on sunday, so i woke up early and headed back from cola to get the festivities started. we had brunch at kennedy's, then went to painting with a twist, and ended the evening at selwyn. it was a great day celebrating two people that bring me so much joy & love me so much even though i don't always deserve it. i love you both more than most things on this planet.

 

{my birthday girls}

 

{our paintings of lola!}

 

{b's & momma's}

 

{oh derrick...}

 

{sweet step dad}

 

{that is one tuckered out birthday girl...}

 

4. mary annie's birthday! i know, it's crazy to have this many loved one's birthdays in 10 days! it's hard to believe it's been 1.5 years since i've seen this girl's face. she is a former roomie turned forever friend that lives in mississippi. you can find her incredible fashion blog here and fall in love with her just like i did back in 2009. she is the ma to my la & i can't wait to see what the future holds for this girl - she is going to do some seriously big things. :) missing you more everyday, my sweet ma!

{circa july 2009: my fave pic of us}

gamecocks vs. tigers (the mizzou kind)

i bet you can guess what i did last saturday... ANOTHER home game! man, it's been a busy few weeks with an insane work schedule & 5 football games, but it sure has been fun!

i took a day trip to columbia and got to sleep in my bed both nights this past weekend for the first time in 5 weeks. i got to cola around 9am, we packed the truck, and headed to the game.

{me, britt, nicole, rachel rose}

bradshaw's dad got tickets for the game but ended up not being able to come, so we had 6 tickets to use. we ended up selling our season tickets (best $40 ever) and asking charlee & nicole to sit with us in her dad's seats. this was the best decision we ever made as these seats were in the shade and our seats are certainly not.

it was a super fun game - our first SEC home game of the year and also mizzou's first road SEC game. it felt like we had to show them what a SEC atmosphere is all about & i'd say we did a mighty fine job. connor shaw was FLAWLESS. he completed 20 of 21 passes, and apparently, if he completes the first 5 passes this weekend, he'll set an SEC record for most consecutive completions. pretty impressive for a good ol' georgia boy.

{tin roof made shirts about dj swearinger's suspension - hilarious!}

{williams brice}

{williams brice}

i headed home after pizza with my pals. sunday was spent sleeping and eating with two of my favorite girls, just the way every sunday should be. i can't wait to stay in charlotte this weekend!

{my sunday}

ps. this is my 100th post!

football. and more football.

after a crazy friday, i woke up early on saturday to head to cola for the game. i got there around 11:30am and we packed up the truck, grabbed lunch, and had our beers cracked open by 1pm. kick off was at 7pm - our first night game of the season! there is something magical about football games on cool(ish) evenings in the south - there is nothing quite like it. throw in a few fireworks and a lot of touchdowns, and you've got yourself a mighty fine evening.

{me & the crocker girls}

{sweet pals}

{williams brice sunset - and the JUMBOtron}

{firework show at halftime}

sunday i woke up really early & headed back to charlotte for the panthers  vs. saints game! our parents accidentally booked a vacation without checking the panthers schedule & are missing the first two home games which means we have scored their tickets. i changed quick & headed over to court's condo. upon arrival, we learned that our sweet/always late brother-in-law missed his flight, so we had 2 extra tickets. i called my roomies & told them to hurry up & come on. amanda had never been to  a game so it was fun to be able to take her to her first one. it was an awesome game - the panthers got a much needed win, 35-27. other than some rain, it was a perfect first home game of the season. can't wait to do it again on thursday night!

{panthers vs. saints}

 

{awesome surprise of chairmen of the board playing at halftime!}

{tired seester took a much need half time nap - sorry for posting this court but i had to.}

football & moonshine & best friends.

football season is finally here! that miserable stretch between the college world series & football season (also known as SUMMER) has finally come to an end. after receiving a bonus check in august for the exact amount i needed to buy season tickets, i took this as a sign and recruited rachel to be my seat buddy for the season. almost of our other friends also have season tickets with their boyfriends/husbands/parents, so not buying tickets seemed silly.

last weekend was the first home game. so after work on friday, i packed up and headed to cola. i love that 90 minute drive - it's the perfect amount of time to clear your head & listen to whatever song you're currently crushing about 20 times in a row. i met a few pals at one of our favorite places, rockaways, for dinner. after a declicious pimento cheese burger, we went back to nicole's apartment to cook & prepare for gameday.

as this is now our 3rd football seasons as alumni, we figured it was time to get our own tailgate spot. and what better place to get one than in the brand new, unbelievably beautiful, farmers market. and boy, it is beautiful.

 

{before: courtesy of gamecock athletics}

 

{after: courtesy of gamecock athletics}

12:21pm kick-offs are brutal. mostly because this means you have to start drinking at about 8am. our first tailgate was a success & i even got to see chester & jason! they came down for the game because they both graduated from ECU. once we finally made it into the game, we got to see this beauty: our brand new jumbotron. jumbo doesn't really do is justice. it's so exciting to see all of these awesome changes happening in and around our stadium. i think back to my first south carolina game 9 years ago and the stadium & the grounds are almost unrecognizable. thank you, steve spurrier, for your continual push for athletic improvements. we are forever grateful!

 

{before}

 

{after: courtesy of gamecock athletics}

the gamecocks whipped up on ECU for a final score of 48-10, and i got a terrible sunburn. the best part about football season isn't just the football, it's getting to see my friends on a more regular basis.  7 home games this year - i'll think i'll just leave my bag packed until december.

 

{ammie, rach, me}

 

{we used to be productive on gameday...}



 

{6 years later... we deserve every drink}

 

fun filled charlotte weekend.

after a pretty busy/exhausting week, thursday  night finally came and after visiting stepmom in the hospital, we headed to selwyn. one of my sweet friends was in town and came with, i was glad to get to spend some more time with him (we went to taco mac on wednesday, too)  since i don't get to very often. it was hot as hell, the gamecocks won, and we left the bar with a veggie pizza. talk about a good night!

friday  dragged on & on. britt & her boyfriend, blake, picked me & rach up and we headed to icehouse to meet the rest of our friends. the charlotte gamecock club watches all the games at icehouse so it was a fun atmosphere with lots of awkward encounters & other gamecock fans. once the game finally ended in a stressful W, we headed home & i talked to kristin as if she were my boyfriend until i fell alseep.

saturday  morning i woke up and met momma over at her new house! it's so cute and all one story for brian. i really love it, but its a huge space cut for them. i helped her clean the house & get it ready for move-in day. we met leigh & derrick at krazy fish for lunch & then amanda & i went for pedicures at polished. after cleaning up around the house and getting ready, we headed to katt's to pregame. some favorite friends were in town for the concert and it's always so fun to have them around. we went to angry ale's & ab's and had a super fun night.

{momma's new house!}

sunday  we woke up, got ourselves together and headed out to tailgate for tim & kenny. my sweet sister saved us a spot in the lot they were tailgating in & i'm so glad they did. it worked out perfectly and there was about 30 of us all together. things got wild quickly but all in all it was a fun day. tim played for about an hour, kenny for about 2 hours and then they played together for another 30 or so mintues. it was AWESOME. i rode home in a truck bed and talked to kristin on the phone.. doesn't get much better than that.

{roomie amanda & me}

{grill master yang pre drunken rage}

{thanks, rach}

{sunset at b of a}

{britt, sweet blake and me}

kentucky.

noon games call for "early" friday nights, mimosas and shrimp and grits.

hunter told us to strike a model pose. this is what we came up with.

baby cocky!

gamecocks dominate, 54-3. the connor shaw era begins. 

rainbow above the stadium. i think it was the big man blessing little connor.

san jose's for dalton's birthday.

got up early on sunday and came home for the panther's game with my fam. they lost, but it was still a great game and a great day for football. 

it's been a busy month! i'm traveling again this weekend to the beach with my parents. i'm really looking forward to going to BHI - it just may be my favorite place on this beautiful earth. i haven't been in about 6 years and am anxious to see how much it has changed.