Fall Breakin' it down

I've got two glorious pumpkins sitting on my counter. One with holes, one with stripes. And I've got Christmas lights on top of my cabinets. White ones that glow with the glow of a thousand Who's singing "Da Who Dores" a.k.a "Welcome Christmas" on Christmas morning. Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talkin' about. I love it so much!

This weekend was Andrew's fall break from UNC, which meant that he had a few extra days with no classes to catch up on grading lab reports. We were still able to have some serious fun, though. The first, was Thursday evening. We volunteered to take tickets at the UNC game as a fundraiser for Engineers Without Borders, although in true Andrew Armstrong style we were late. Outside forces were definitely to blame, however, because we had to get cash for the bus and then we had to fight traffic to get to the Friday Center where we parked. Because we were late we ended up ushering, not taking tickets. Usheringggg. Also known as standing for three and a half hours. We had to wear khaki pants and a white collared shirt--they could have just said dress like tools--so we already stood out amongst all the baby blue, garnet and gold. Then they hand us these GINORMOUS plastic rain coat looking jackets that say EVENT STAFF on the backs of them. The jackets might as well have been neoprene--they did not breath at all. Definitely can cancel my appointment with the endocrinologist because I'm positive my sweat glands are in good working order. UNC played FSU, the school from whence my father gained his undergraduate diploma in 1967 (I think), and lost. Yup, FSU won by a field goal after stinking up the field for the entire first half of the game. I think the Seminoles knew it was my dad's birthday, so they decided to win. Long story short, I did not enjoy my first Carolina football experience. But, we ended up going to Top of the Hill on Franklin Street after we left to watch the rest of the game on the big screen, so the night kind of redeemed itself. But we still looked like tools.

Friday, however was a much more glorious day. I did pretty much nothing all day (and by nothing, I mean nothing) and then we went to the North Carolina State Fair on Friday night! Fairs are known for their rides, food, animals, etc.--but most of all, they are known for the people that frequent their dusty, noisy grounds. And those people--you know the ones I'm talking about--were out in droves. I know everyone knows about this phenomenon, I just wonder if some people know that they, in fact, are the people everyone knows about. I'm talking mullets. I'm talking "Hell yeah, I'm American" paraphernalia. I'm talking jorts (jean shorts), tattoos, screaming babies, cigarettes, neon colored bras under sheer white tank tops, and more. Unicorn balloons. Airbrushed personalized clothing items. Cotton candy. Funnel cakes. Fried Snickers. Turkey legs. Infants to octogenarians, everyone was at the fair. Everyone who's anyone, really. All of this not to say that the Durham Armstrongs are exempt from that kind of hillbillyness--I wore my Frye boots, come on now!--but just to say that there are loads of interesting people at the fair. And being that Andrew and I are "people watchers", we saw lots of interesting people. With our jaws slack and our eyes glazed over from taking it all in, we wandered into the animal exhibitions: We saw the biggest horse I've ever seen in all of my days, we saw big fat pigs and their cute little oinking piglets, we saw goats, donkeys, baby chicks, cows, sheep--pretty much Old MacDonald and his farm. Side note, this little girl with a serious lisp was milking a goat for people to watch and answering questions--she was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. And she was milking that goat like she was born to do it, yanking those teats like nothin' you've ever seen--it was mildly disturbing, but very impressive. Yes, I just said teats. Moving on. Confession...we ate fair food. Yes, I had a corn dog and Andrew had a Polish sausage and then we topped it off with a fried Snickers and fried Oreos. I know. I know. Paula Deen would have been proud. And yes, the treadmill is calling my name. All in all, a fabulous night. Many thanks to our dear friend Ann who got us in fo' free!

Yesterday, Saturday, we had plans to carve pumpkins and watch the Clemson game--and we did both of those things, but we had surprise visitors from Wake Forest come and join us! My old roomie Jess and her boyfriend Ryan were in the area and they came and watched the game with us--so good to catch up, laugh, and drink cider and eat sweet potato cookies and of course--cheer for the Tigers together! And cheer, we did! My heart was in my throat--I thought it was going to be a triple overtime repeat from four years ago. Whew! What a game. When Jess and Ryan left we carved our pumpkins into the glorious, if elementary, structures they are today. Not only did we carve them, we used power tools. Carving kits are for amateurs. :) While we were at Target getting our aforementioned pumpkins, I also picked up a few strands of Christmas lights from the very last aisle in the store that is just beginning to brim with the trimmings and trappings of Christmas. I have been looking forward to this for months.

Da who doooores, da who dore-es/Welcome Christmas, Christmas day!