A Reintroduction

She came and she conquered. After a stressful 72 hours and a nerve wrecking 4.  Madam President became Madam Treasurer, for the state of Illinois.  No big deal, I mean my best friend just became one of the biggest names in the FFA world in the state of Illinois.  So basically I'm best friends with a famous person.

Before she got elected though we had to go through the stress of the elections.  The candidates are allowed to have a runner who tells them what they should do for their next speech or how they are doing since all the candidates are only allowed to be on stage to give speeches for the position currently up and then they are put in a locker room in the basement of the conference center.  As Madam Treasurer's faithful sidekick I was asked to be her runner which turns out is a rather stressful job.  I impatiently awaited the few seconds I was allowed to go see her between positions to encourage her and give her bits of advice from our advisors.  When we got to the position of treasurer we were down to the wire and really wanting to pull this out.  The last three times I had seen her I had been able to get her to laugh or break a smile and I was getting told to help her relax.  Not an easy job when a person is incredibly nervous, but on this last time I was finally able to break her tension and got her to crack a smile.  She went out there and rocked it and landed the position of treasurer.

What a blessing it was to be the first person to see her after she came off the stage.  To see her start crying with excitement and relief on her success.  I am so proud of her and wish her the best of luck on her adventure for the next 365 days.  Bless the other four who are going to spend the year with her.   I hope for her sake that since she has to travel all over the state she takes Siri with her so she doesn't get lost.

I Made Them Just for You

This week is Illinois State FFA Convention. I'm attending for the first time as a non FFA member and as a runner for a state officer candidate. In honor of Madam President's impending election, I made her some brownies, hot mess brownies.

I told her they were for her because they're a hot mess and so is she. Unfortunately, due to unplanned circumstances events she's not staying in my hotel room like she was supposed to so she hasn't tried them. We'll see how they are liked. 

Oh and send up some prayers for her during elections on Thursday morning.

They're the Best

God blessed me with two amazing best friends who are willing to go to great lengths for my birthday.  I mean it's not just anyone who after getting their car backed into still wants to go out and celebrate someone else's birthday, or just anyone who wants to make sure they have perfect spot because they want to have a picnic while watching the sunset and then watch the stars, and it definitely isn't just anyone who will drive all over for an hour try to find an open place to get ice cream. 

Needless to say, last night I had quite the adventure with Madam President and J making it a birthday I won't soon forget.  They had planned to pick me up after I got done coaching swim practice at 6 and then we would head to supper.  Unfortunately, J's car got backed into and the adventure was postponed about an hour. Finally we got on the road and headed to B-N to start the evening with some Potbelly's.  Then I was simply allowed to know we were going to picnic with our sandwiches. I guess we were supposed to watch the sunset from a park but that didn't really pan out because the first park we were supposed to go to had geese and J is petrified so we headed elsewhere.  After 15 minutes of driving around Bloomington, we arrived at our new destination, geese free.  Unfortunately, (again) the whole sunset thing didn't pan out because it was cloudy, but we did get to enjoy a lovely pond with a fountain and a lot of super nice houses.  

Next on their plan was to go get frozen yogurt so we loaded back up into Madam President's car and got to Orange Leaf, five minutes after they closed.  Siri told us Cherry Berry was open until 10 so off we went to find our frozen yogurt. Fifteen minutes and a real struggle for J giving Madam President directions and we discovered Cherry Berry was also closed.  Next try Carl's.  According to Google, they close at 10.  We arrived at 9:33, the sign on the door said they closed at 9:30.   A Google search informed us that Cold Stone was also already closed, but Baskin Robins was open until 10.  Madam President stepped on it and with help from J to get back to Veteran's we made it to Baskin Robins with 8 minutes to spare.  I jumped out and grabbed the door to pull it open, locked, ran around to the other door, locked.  Solution to our  situation drive thru.  Thank goodness they were still taking drive thru orders because after an hour of trying to find a place that was open we were starting to get desperate, like to the point of potentially just running into the nearest Walmart, getting a tub of ice cream and three spoons and eating that. 

What I Learned Today

People don't appreciate you asking to write their eulogy. 

For the final speech of the semester, I have to give a special occasion speech. The TA told us we could do a toast for a friends wedding, an introduction for a speaker, announce an award, or a eulogy.  After class I texted Madam President asking if she would like to be toasted, introduced, awarded, or eulogized.  I was informed giving a eulogy was not a good option, I guess I'll be toasting.  

It's About to Get Real

Tomorrow my blogging skills are getting put to the test.  I have to blog for a national competition and we have to be up in 5 1/2 hours.

It's About to Get Real

Tomorrow my blogging skills are getting put to the test.  I have to blog for a national competition and we have to be up in 5 1/2 hours.

What I Learned This Weekend

1.  I can only participate in 5Ks on days with less than ideal temperatures. 

(example one: My first 5K with Bride and Mrs. MC)

(example two: The 5K last weekend with the Engineer and my Future Roomie.  We all would have had warmer clothes on but we all failed to bring them to Chambana.)

2. It's the little things in life that make the best days. 

After coming back to Newman and grabbing a delicious lunch with the Engineer, Future Roomie, and her man, Seventh Heaven surprised me by showing up in full force to escort me back home (after a tour of my "apartment" of course.)  

Next on the list of the little things was being able to eat home cooked food with Seventh Heaven and Big Bad.  After finishing off the ranch chicken enchiladas, we taught WiiMan and Elizabeth Taylor how to play 31.  

3. Dairy Queen isn't open late enough to catch up after two months of not seeing my best friends. 

Which is why we ended up sitting in the parking lot for two more hours...

You Can Tell We've Known Each Other Forever

Madam President needed to borrow tweezers, so like a good friend I walked my tweezers over to her dorm.  When I got to her room, I opened the door without knocking,  plopped down onto her bed, and threw the tweezers at her.  After she yelled at me for potentially scaring her for life because my tweezers could have killer her,  I went over to her fridge and pulled out a water bottle to ice my shin splints.   She yelled at me for that too, apparently rolling a water bottle on its side can contaminate the part you drink out of.... learn something new everyday.  

Sort of an Introduction

Mostly because I feel like she will probably be making many appearances on the blog, I introduce to you  Madam President.

Her name is due to her current position as the fearless leader of Section 9. This girl right here has been my sidekick, partner in crime, and whatever other titles you wish to bestow upon her since we were still in diapers.  We have done pretty much everything together since we met.  We were in the same class kindergarten through eighth grade, in high school we still had classes together, we went to most of the dances in the same group, and we did a lot of FFA together.  Two weeks from now the two of us will descend upon Champaign to try out the college adventure, watch out world.

In case you hadn't picked up on it, she's kind of played a big role in me growing up.  So it is only fitting she has a spot on this blog.

What I have learned in the last 24 hours is that Madam President and her dog are a lot alike.  They both get really excited about something and then they drag me along for the ride.  I have decided is that I prefer getting dragged along with Madam President more than Wrigley, mostly because the former does not have a leash that physically takes me along for the ride.