A Game to Remember

Posted on

Anna and I decided to watch a game of Women’s basketball, seeing as the student tickets were only $5 for one. Seems really cheap for something everyone is going to. It was the first game of the season, Iowa against Drake. And surprisingly? We did exceptionally.

First, we had trouble actually getting the tickets. It didn’t let me buy student tickets for whatever reason, and we had to troubleshoot that for like an hour at the library. Eventually, we figured it out when Anna called the help number to see what they could do. It would have been really sad if I couldn’t go.

I’m not sure what she’s doing here, but it’s funny.

I’ve seen basketball before, I’ve played it in my time, and I’ve watched it on TV. But I’ve never been to a basketball game in person, and for Anna, this was her first college basketball game. We got there late, so the front student section was all taken, but we sat next to the band. That was more of a mistake, because we couldn’t hear anything whenever they were playing. It was like our eardrums were constantly being attacked.

I decided to get some ice cream like we always do at any game, and so I went to get some cones. Bought a twist for Anna and vanilla for me. Except when I got to the stairs, a kid ran past me and bumped my arm. My ice cream? On the ground. But I did save Anna’s. So she still got something, and I cleaned up my mess, even if I didn’t have to. I felt obligated.

From what I was actually seeing in the game, Drake played really well on offense. They passed incredibly well and were really quick, but we outmatched them. 100-58, a massive win for us.

Seeing a game in person for the first time really is a new experience. I’ve never really seen a basketball game that wasn’t on TV, or I wasn’t playing in. So being at Iowa with the cheap tickets and plenty of opportunities, really is something else. I’m taking the full benefit of the perks that come with being a student.

Continue Reading →

A Weekend Away

Posted on

Last weekend, Anna and I took a trip to her grandparents’ house to get away from all of the college stress, and for Anna’s birthday. The little trip up to Manchester, Iowa, was incredibly fun. It was full of new experiences like hand cranking ice cream, looking around their farm with tons of history, and relaxing from the troubles of the world.

First, her grandparents picked us up from her dorm room and took us to get Dairy Queen. Sadly, I was unable to eat much because it was made in the same fryer as fish. So, I had to eat a burger. I couldn’t even get fries because of it. But Anna was really nice and bought me another burger since I couldn’t eat anything else. I will say that the burgers and Dilly bars were great, though.

Then we got to their house, outside of Manchester. There were tons of forests, fields, and all of them were planted by them! I was impressed by the number of amenities around, and all of the nature. The entire area of trees was planted by them. You never would have guessed by how dense the trees are, and how big they’ve gotten. Anna even got to paint a sign when she was younger, naming the little area. They showed me that too, and that was very fun to see. You can see she’s still proud of it to this day.

We explored more of the property, and they brought me out to their barns. One of the barns dated back centuries, and even the original wooden beams were still intact. It was fascinating to see the history in it. Their entire property seemed to have a lot of history as well, their property containing two native american burial grounds, as well as the barn.

They kept two horses still, and it was fun to see them. I’ve taken care of some horses in my time, so it wasn’t anything particularly new to see. It was fun nonetheless. I got to see the areas they kept them, and their really nice tack room. Apparently, they’d gotten a ton of awards and sold some really good horses in their days. The ones left were all lovey, and Anna got to name those, too, when she was younger. They had a whiteboard with names of all the kids that had been there, and I, too, had written on it. It felt kind of nice to be included.We went out to meet them, and for Anna to take pictures with the DSLR camera she brought. I was really jealous because I wanted my own, but she took a lot of pictures for both of us. She got some pictures of her horses, and so did I. The horse decided to slobber all over my sweatshirt, which her grandma washed for me. Luckily, all the stains got out.

After, we had some dinner and made ice cream with a hand crank, a tradition they all used to do on birthdays. They each get a little taste from the mixer, and they don’t waste even a little bit. Anna got what she could, but they got me my own ice cream from the store since the ice cream is made with eggs. But making it and seeing Anna so happy for it was worth sticking around.

The next day, we slept in late, drank hot cocoa, and had popcorn by the fire. I think we both needed a lot of sleep, because all of the stress had piled up. And for the first time in a bit, I had an actual bed that wasn’t made of rocks.

It was a fun weekend overall, and I got a lot of needed sleep. Sometimes, when life on campus gets a little hard, it’s nice to have a good break.

Continue Reading →

The Kitty Corner

Posted on

Friday night Anna invited me to hang out on Kitty Corner. Seeing all the kitties was such a fun experience, especially when the place was completely empty besides us. We came to the Kitty Corner at 7:30 at night, on a Friday. It’s surrounded by bars, so I guess the people are preoccupied with those. We even got to stay past our time since nobody else would be coming the rest of the night. So we got a lot of 1 on 1 time with all of the kitties.

Boo Bones

Personally, my favorite was Boo Bones. He crawled onto my lap and snuggled with me for half the time, only getting up once to stretch, then came right back to me. Anna fell in love with the small baby kitties that had a lot of energy. They loved to play, besides a few that were really sleepy. I believe it’s name was Jack-Skellington. That one loved to play with her. She snuggled with that one for awhile, and they all got very sleepy. I temporarilly tamed the cat in charge, it’s name being Carol. Carol sat on a high perch, watching all the other cats. She makes sure everything goes alright.

There were a few very crazy cats all around, one of them being Silvermist. She was a riot. She ran around, and was very wary of me at the start, but very quickly warmed up to me after I started petting the other cats. I think they all started to trust me a little when I started petting all the other cats. We met all the cats and snuggled with them, and will definitely be back to visit them again.

Anyway, for your time, you get to see the rest of the photos we got.

Continue Reading →

Peanut Allergies Suck

Posted on

Thursday night, Anna had been hanging out in her dorm room, watching one of our favorite shows, Psych. We grabbed some cookies from Insomnia Cookies, and sat prepared to watch our show when she took a bite of one of the cookies. I had asked what was wrong when she started coughing. Apparently there may have been some sort of cross contamination with one of the snickerdoodle cookies we had gotten. Both of us have a peanut allergy, so it’s probably not very good. I’m glad I didn’t eat one of the cookies myself.

She took a benadryl, some water, but the allergy went straight for her throat. She and I had an epipen prepared, but we realized it might be best to go to the hospital in the case that it was worse than what we thought. Ambulances are expensive so we got an Uber to the hospital and met a very nice old man who had gotten us there very quickly. He talked a lot about how he had been on campus, which was really fun to hear what the University of Iowa was like in the 70’s.

We arrived at the hospital, and we had to go through metal detectors. She got her pepperspray taken, whilst I got a multi-tool taken that I forgot I had in my backpack. We checked in, but didn’t have to sit for very long when a nurse called us back. They asked if I had to administer an epipen, or if she’d taken any medication. Simple questions like that of course. But we were very quickly given a bed. They only had rooms avaliable in the hall though, but it’s better than nothing at all. Afterall, the ER is always pretty packed.

Anna was given an IV, but she first had to get a needle in first, which she hates. So she had to close her eyes, and I held her arm down to keep her from moving. That was over quickly though. We called her parents and made sure they knew what was going on. She was incredibly cold because of the fluid, so I asked for a blanket from our nurse. I was ignored completely which made me pretty mad. Luckily, I came prepared with my sweatshirt, an extra flannel, and a towel for some reason. I always come prepared. I wrapped her up like a mummy in the mish-mash of clothes. Although it looked kind of weird.

We made sure she was okay, and only had to stay for a couple hours before she was able to leave the hospital. We just talked and listened in on the nurse drama. It was fun. Not how we thought we would be spending Thursday night, but it was fun. After, we decided to head back to her dorm and watch Psych until 2 in the morning.

In conclusion, Peanut allergies suck. I’m glad I didn’t take a bite of any of those cookies. Or we’d both be in a hospital bed.

Anyway, That’s all for now. See you in my next blog readers.

Continue Reading →

Retelling of an Old Tale

Posted on

On Friday, Anna and I watched the showing of Romeo and Juliet. We decided to watch it blind, and were shocked to see it was a more spin on the regular show, but more contemporary. As well as said by Anna, “Much more techno-y.” From what we expected, it was… a show. The acting was well done, no doubt. But some aspects of the show threw me off. I’ve read Romeo and Juliet plenty of times, and seen the show plenty more, even with contemporary aspects in them. This show, though? Threw me a bit off. The scenes remained some of the same, and the theme remained unchanged.

Of course, it is okay to change aspects of the play to fit your liking, but the things they added did add any real depth. In the original play, Mercutio plays a much bigger part, and his relationship with Romeo is built upon much more, showing what would have really driven Romeo to kill Tybalt later. But in this version of the play, Mercutio is acting much more lude, and makes plenty of remarks at Romeo’s expense. None of them really adds to the theme. Of course, this version is a lighter, much more comedic play. But it also just felt like the jokes were there, only to be there. Nothing significant was added to the play, while taking away what may have driven Romeo mad when Tybalt kills Mercutio. Although that’s my take on it.

Overall, from the play, I think it was very fun to watch. We had some laughs, joked a bit, and even snickered at the man next to us who fell asleep in the front row. We had fun watching the show, and I’m sure many others did as well. I say the show was worth the money, and the time, and much love to the actors there.

That’s all for now.

Continue Reading →

Iowa vs. Indiana

Posted on

Hello readers!

I’m back again with another blog, talking to you about my experience at Iowa’s homecoming game.

I started my day by sleeping in. I was pretty unaware that the game started at 2:30, so I was unable to get breakfast at Hillcrest. (It’s arguably the best of the dining halls, hands down.) I got dressed in some Iowa gear, but I took it really light so I’d still be able to get around on my crutches.

Anna came over to Petersen to meet me, and from there we went to the front gates of Kinnick. Outside of the stadium was this little mist shooting thing, and it cooled both of us off, along with some cups of free Powerade. We definitely took advantage of those free cups. We went through the metal detectors, and surprisingly, my crutches didn’t set them off. I was honestly kind of hoping they didn’t go off; otherwise, I’d have to get a cavity search. That’d be a little unsatisfactory.

We got some water, some popcorn, and ice cream. All was not too bad, except the popcorn made me really thirsty. It felt like licking a rock after a couple of bites. (And do not ask why I know what it feels like to lick a rock.) I took the outside seat in our row. It’d be easier to get out when we had to leave, but the number of people that I had to stand up for made it a bad idea.

1st quarter of the game was quite the fun thing. We got there a little late, and Indiana had scored a touchdown by then. But we quickly caught up in the 2nd quarter, where we got up by 3, the score being 10-7.

Anna mentioned that there were a LOT of people wearing red, and it was a little worrisome to see so many fans coming from somewhere so far away. She also really wanted cotton candy like normal, but we were unable to find the guy who sold it. I also wasn’t willing to walk around to search for him either.

The halftime show was also quite good! I got to see the marching band in action, and I think that was a very fun thing to see, since I missed them yesterday at the homecoming parade. The show was basically a guy giving flowers to a girl, and a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat. The music wasn’t half bad either, although the songs being played were contemporary.

In the third quarter, we got tied up at 13, both sides. It was a really close game for the rest of the game, until the final two minutes of the 4th quarter. An incredible pass was made to Indiana, and that was it. That was the game. A hard loss for Iowa.

Anna and I got dinner with one of our friends at Hillcrest, and it was packed to the brim.

Anyway, that’s all for now! Thanks for reading.

Continue Reading →

Homecoming Parade

Posted on

Hello people!

I’m Brody! As my first blog post on this website, I will be sharing my fun experience at the homecoming parade for Iowa!

My friend and I visited the homecoming parade and set up shop in front of Macbride Hall. She saved us a spot by the railing, so we could get a good view of the whole thing, and a quick exit for me. She lives much closer, living in Daum’s residence hall. I’m much further in Petersen Hall. I had to take the bus to get to the parade due to my crutches. I recently sprained my ankle, which has left me without the ability to walk normally. There’s only so much limping you can do before you lose your mind.

From there, she and I looked for candy that we could eat, and my crutches did quite well for getting it. Cripple perks? Possibly. Although the amount of Peanut M&M’s we got was criminal, neither of us can eat any of it. We started handing out anything we couldn’t eat to the kids around us, and I used my crutches to get anything that the kids couldn’t get over the railings.  Both of us found the parade very fun! Although seeing all the floats made us hungry. Especially the Panchero’s float. And honestly, as I write this, I could go for a good steak burrito.

Many of the floats we saw were very fun! One of them, we saw girls with little tiaras, and they totally rocked them. There was a float with a giant slot machine, and I know a few people who would love to spin that thing. One of my favorite floats that we saw was the one that included Marty McFly from Back To The Future. Quite a surprise to see that in a parade that is completely unrelated to it, but it is quite a funny thing to see.

One of the floats was throwing out little hats with pandas on them, and a kid next to me really wanted one. I used my crutches to get the guy’s attention, and he threw it our way, and I handed the hat to the little boy. He instantly put it on and wore it for the rest of the time. I wish I had gotten a picture of the smile on his face. It was priceless.

The floats were quite eccentric. There was a float that had Santa on it? I looked to my friend Anna and said, “It’s not even October yet. Why’s he already here?” and the boy next to me kept trying to say hi to Santa. It was pretty funny. We got a lot of candy from me yelling for it, and Anna jumping up and down. We even got a bag from a lady in the parade, which gave us more of a vessel to gather it. I even got some pom poms so I can bring out my inner cheerleader. All I need now is one of those dresses they wear, and a ponytail. I’ll also need a lot more flexibility.

Next thing I saw was a parade float about tap dancing, and I almost expected to see one of my new friends here, Keely! Sadly, she wasn’t on the float, and they didn’t give us any candy. So no props to this float. If they gave us candy or maybe some tap dancing lessons, then maybe I’d be a little happier. Do better, Iowa City tap dancing!

I may possibly join the tap dancing. It looks quite fun from the float. Although I’m not exactly sure how much dancing I can do with my leg in a splint.

Anna and I left the parade early so we could get some food, and so that I wouldn’t get run over by the extremely large crowd leaving the parade. So we missed the large marching band. I heard it was really good, though. We went to Burge to get some food, but it seems they closed early due to the parade. We got some food at the market there, and I also got a smoothie. Our other friend Gillian came to get some stuff too.

Overall, the homecoming parade was a very fun experience. I got some candy, spent time with my best friend, and saw a lot of cool stuff. 8/10 would recommend going again. The only bad thing about it was the fact that it was a pain to get there with this dang leg. Well, that’s all for now!

Continue Reading →