Blog — "syracuse"

This is probably supposed to be difficult. You know, writing about your life in 250 words. Mine's not so bad. My life hasn't been grand or fabulous. It hasn't always been easy-going either. But it has been a pretty awesome life.

I grew up in small-town Goshen, Indiana with my mom, dad, and sister. After years of the same school system, with the same people, and a city I didn't really like, I decided to apply to Syracuse University. If I got in, I'd attend. If I didn't, I'd work for a year and reassess. I got in.

I spent four years attending the university and one year living and working in a coffee shop in Syracuse. Four plus one is five. That last year? Andrew's fifth year of architecture school. I had met Andrew during our sophomore year. After he graduated, we found jobs. I entered a teacher residency program in Baltimore City-- what else was I supposed to do with an English major? I became a teacher and he got a job at a firm downtown. Two years later we got Lilah, our chocolate lab. Three years later, we bought a house. Three and half years later we got engaged. Four years later we got Finn, our orange tabby. And six years later? Well, that story will be soon to come....

And it will be amazing. I promise.

I know you all love teasers.

Now, was that my life story in 250 words? Yes, I think so. ;)



P.S. In case you wanted to know, this was Day 1 of Jenni's Blog Every Day in May.

Every year we go back to Syracuse to meet up with friends, go to a basketball game, and visit old campus haunts. This year's game was especially exciting with a sold out crowd and record breaking attendance for any college basketball game in history at 35,012. We were playing Georgetown, a long time rival, and it was the last game in Syracuse between the two teams as Syracuse is leaving the Big East conference next season. In addition, Carmelo Anthony was in attendance and his jersey was retired during halftime. This event was especially awesome for us since he led Syracuse to the National Championship our freshman year.

We enjoyed pizza at Varsity, the oldest standing establishment on campus.
Walked about campus and checked out the Hall of Languages. The Hall of Languages is Syracuse University's iconic building, happened to be the building in which most of my classes were in, and is recognizable from the Addams Family.
We enjoyed walking through the Quad rather than trudging through in knee deep snow as it usually seemed to be the case while we attended.
And of course, the Dome. Dome, sweet Dome. This year we headed there a little early so that we could catch the team during their pre-game warmup.
We were even lucky enough to get our photo taken at court side during warmups, thanks to a super nice usher that was willing to let us in for a photo op.
Our seats were pretty bad and the game was pretty bad, but it was still fun to be in attendance at such a historical game for Syracuse.
Aside from the outcome of the game, the weekend was just what we needed. Catching up with friends, eating lots and lots of food, sleeping in until 9:30 two days straight, free omelets every morning at the hotel, brews and fish tacos from Empire Brewing Company, coffee from Freedom of Espresso-- all around a good time was had. Can't wait to do it all over again next year.

While you're supposed to wear green on St. Patrick's day, we spent our day in orange. Saturday was quite the eventful day and I'm ready to enjoy a less productive and more lazy Sunday. We started our day running our normal Saturday errands to the bank and post office. Then we donned our orange and headed to the local Syracuse alumni bar, Dog Watch Tavern, for some March Madness basketball. Syracuse ended up beating Kansas State to go on to the Sweet Sixteen!

And if that wasn't enough Syracuse Orange action for the day, we then took the five minute drive up to the Johns Hopkins campus for a lacrosse game. Syracuse was in town to play Hopkins which only happens every other year. It was a beautifully sunny day to be outside and enjoy some lacrosse. Unfortunately, we were not as victorious in the lacrosse game as we were in the basketball game.



From the lacrosse game, we headed back home, quickly changed out of our orange and hopped back into the car. We drove a quick few minutes into downtown to the Hippodrome. A friend of ours had tickets to see The Addams Family, but couldn't go, so Andrew bought the tickets for some last minute fun on Friday afternoon. I'm glad he did. The show was hilarious and the perfect thing to end a busy day.


Our last stop for the night was Matthew's Pizza to pick up some very late dinner. Matthew's is possibly my favorite pizza place in Baltimore. In an East Coast city where thin crust pizza is king, Matthew's is the closest you'll get to the Chicago deep dish style pizza I'm used to in the Midwest. After a very busy day, it was perfectly satisfying.

How was your St. Patrick's Day? Did you stick with the traditional green? Or did you have other plans like us?

Hello there! I'm back from what I expected to be a cold and snowy winter wonderland. But instead, as we drove up to Syracuse, we were greeted by not a single bit of snow on the ground. My first reaction was that something must truly be wrong with the world if there is no snow in Syracuse.

We spent Friday night eating pizza at Varsity and hanging out at one of our old college bars with some friends.

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Saturday, we enjoyed a latte and cappuccino at Freedom of Espresso, the coffee shop I used to work at back in the day. Then we spent the late morning on campus before heading to the Carrier Dome for a basketball game.


Saturday night, we enjoyed dinner and drinks at Empire Brewing Company followed by a pint at The Blue Tusk. It was an enjoyable long weekend, but it flew by much more quickly than expected. And now we're back in Baltimore, diving right back into another week of work. Hope you all had wonderful weekends as well!