Gratitude.

Today I am grateful for great schools close to home, a mom who drives across the state to spend the day with her girls, and a sister to share a new city with.

Happy Wednesday.

Baptized in a sea of maize: the redemption of football Saturdays

There were things I liked about Vanderbilt. Other things that I loved. Football Saturdays do not fall into either of these categories.

At Vanderbilt, I loathed football Saturdays. Home games meant music blaring from frat row all day, sidewalks covered in Natty Light and red Solo cups, and standing for a gazillion hours, all to watch a sport I could hardly feign enthusiasm for. I can count on one hand the number of games I went to. I’ve lost track of the number of Saturdays I spent playing with my yeasties in the lab. Stop. Geek is chic right now.

When I got an email from the Michigan athletic department offering me the privilege of purchasing season tickets to attend football games in the Big House for the low, low price of $300 more than I ever wanted to spend on football, I laughed in derision and sent it to the trash. I know what college football games are like. You’re not fooling me. Paying to spend all day on my feet and come home smelling like the floor of a bar without a pocket full of tips to show for it? I wasn’t born yesterday.

But then my mom sits my sister and I down and advises us to buy into this scheme. “It’ll be different”, she says. “These are great teams,” she says. “There won’t be another season this great while you’re a student,” she says. “It’s a culture thing, you’ve gotta try it,” she says. She got me on that last one. Curse my curious nature and insatiable appetite for new things.

So $300 and a few weeks later, I’ve got a packet of football tickets in my hand. I started the season off strong: sold the first one to a kid (who may or may not have been high) in front of Zingerman’s Deli. But the next game was the Notre Dame game. And Amy and I decided to do our first big Michigan football game together. There were two rules.

1. No one else can come.
2. We do what we want.

It turns out we wanted to buy matching t-shirts. And eat sushi and ice cream. And arrive an hour after seating started. And sit in the ninth row behind the north end zone. And wear flashing light-up bracelets on each wrist. And accept free water bottles from a well-meaning but sorely mistaken stadium employee. And wave our pompoms and sing the fight song a million times and yell our team to victory.

I concede. Football Saturdays aren’t all bad.

Go blue.

Happy Tuesday.

At this time, 18 years ago…

Happy birthday, Amy Turner. It is likely you’re the best sister I’ve ever had.

See below for supporting evidence. What not to miss: my dad trying to remember the term “flash mob” in the background.

Happy Saturday.

Pizza party.

Today, after a long hiatus, I had the divine pleasure of having lunch with my mother and sister. My whirlwind two weeks, Mom's work schedule, and the Vocal Music Workshop Amy was participating in had effectively stymied Turner-girl quality time, but on this blessed Thursday, the stars aligned and we were able to partake of some delicious pizza from Gus' Original together. We enjoyed sparkling conversation, the Spanaka and the Garlic Tomato, and soda in glass bottles. The rest of the family has been raving about Gus' for a good while and now I understand why. Phenomenal crust, creative recipes, and plenty of outdoor seating? I'm sold.

We rounded out the meal with a trip to the Pump House, our new favorite frozen yogurt source, and made a quick trip to Fruitbasket Flowerland to take advantage of a sale on Adirondack chairs.

A pretty excellent way to spend a Thursday.

Time to assume my role as the keeper of the tacos. Adios.

A flurry of friendship.

Surprise! I've snuck back a bit early to share photos from my adventures with Becca and my time on Big Star Lake. Upon further consideration, it hardly seemed fair to force the entire city of New York to share face time. So upon my return, my week in the Big Apple will get a post all to itself. Plenty of room to stretch its long limbs and breathe clean air free from taxi exhaust.

But before I hop in a van at 6am tomorrow and ride across the country, here is a summary of how I "rested up" and "prepared myself" for New York.

On Wednesday night, Becca arrived shortly before I got home from my New York pre-trip meeting. There was jumping and hugging and excitement and smiles, all the appropriate hoopla necessary for welcoming a friend you've been separated from for over a year. After hours of catching up and a couple Woodchucks, we headed to bed to get some sleep before our three-day adventure exploring the wonders of Grand Rapids and introducing Becca to life as a Turner commenced.

I took advantage of finally having an intrepid companion and took Becca only to restaurants I had never been to. I realize this strategy could have been catastrophic. Thankfully, it was quite the opposite and we enjoyed incredible food. We made stops at The Electric Cheetah, Parsley Mediterranean Grille, and Cherry Deli. The Electric Cheetah pulled ahead as the favorite in no small part due to the root beer list. Becca is quite the root beer connoisseur, so a root beer selection boasting 30+ brews from all over the country was right up her alley. Definitely recommend a visit if you're ever in the area.

We reveled in the beauty of the Lake Michigan shoreline and dared predictions of thunderstorms to come true.

We enjoyed a stroll around Reed's Lake and Gaslight Village in East Grand Rapids.

We watched my sister perform as Mayzie in Seussical the Musical.

And the next morning, it was time to send Becca off to continue her tour of the Midwest. So grateful for the opportunity to reunite with a dear friend. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak over to her new home in D.C. sometime this fall. A year is far, far too long to wait to see her face.

Right after Becca hit the road, I went into work for a short shift, came home to pack, and was off to Big Star Lake to spend the rest of the weekend with Alec and his parents at their cottage. It was just over 24 hours of great food, even better friends, beach volleyball, karaoke, water sports, and sunshine. It was the perfect way to relax and fill up my cup before embarking on what's sure to be an incredible week of spilling the contents of my heart all over some awesome high schoolers and New York City.

So glad you came to visit, Becca. Can't wait to see you again. And Spauldings--you da best.

Mmk. Time for a handful of sleep before I'm off to New York. See you in a week!

Splendid saturday.

This past Saturday night, my sister and I finally got it together and spent some time together. But not before I enjoyed a lovely afternoon of cider and homemade pizza with my dear friend, Alec.

When I returned home from Alec's, Amy, Annie, and I hit the road in search of sunflower fields in Montague, Michigan.

Of course, upon our arrival, we found only green fields for miles. It was then that I remembered the last time I had seen these wondrous flowers had been in mid-August. Spirits remained high since what this tiny country town did have to offer was just as lovely.

It should be noted that all of these pictures were taken over the course of about an hour during which Amy was driving I was occasionally saying, "Ooo! Pull off here!" at which point she would drive the car into the tall grass on the side of the road causing me to open my door and become immediately surrounded by field. Eventually, she decided she would be better served turning around so as to pull off on to the shoulder of the opposite side of the relatively deserted country road where the grass was shorter creating a more obvious landing strip. At least, this is the line of reasoning I had assumed she was employing until she abruptly turned the wheel and drove straight off the road and into a rather deep ditch. She promptly threw it in reverse and tried to get out, as anyone would, but it was immediately obvious that we were pretty securely lodged in this particular roadside depression. By this time, truly not even five minutes after we found ourselves in this predicament, at least four vehicles had pulled over to help us and several more had slowed down to make sure we were well attended. Within the next ten minutes, we had been successfully pulled from what could easily have been the pit of despair by a very kind-hearted gentleman with a pick-up truck and tow strap. We have both concluded that the country is da best.

I decided to spare my sister the embarrassment of having her folly recorded in sharp detail so I didn't grab Annie, but I'm not above instagramming her failures. Interested parties can find what they're looking for here.

At this point, we decided we deserved some food after what we had been through.

We followed up dinner with stroll around the nearby park and marina.

And then we made our way home. Of course, not before stopping to pick up some ice cream.

Hope your Saturday was as lovely as ours.