Sic 'em, Bears!

This weekend was a fun time in Baylor-world: Homecoming! I did not attend any homecoming festivities last year, but I remember having a blast with Robyn my first year here, so I decided to be a good team player and participate in some Bear spirit this year!

Below are some pictures of the fun time!

One of the two screens and the stage for homecoming. We're relatively far back on Fountain Mall (big strip of grass in the center of campus), close to where they lit the bonfire.

I went with Jordan and Megan H., two of the social psychologists in my department. Jordan is a bartender at my favorite pub and Megan is quickly becoming a good friend. We also met up with Nick, but my camera ran out of battery power before I got a chance to capture him!

One of the zillion Sic 'Ems we did. "Ahhhhh, sic 'em, Bears!" gets a little old after the 67th time...

So on Saturday morning (the day after the bonfire), Nick and I headed to the annual homecoming parade before we went to Special Olympics practice. It's always a sight to behold: thousands of people lined up for three miles of parade-ness celebrating a university.

The whole production is pretty crazy, as sororities and fraternities spend tens of thousands of dollars on their floats for the competition. I heard that the winning float was designed by an fraternity alumni engineer and funded by $50,000 of alumni money.

Apparently Homecoming is the shit.

Here's a float that won in one of the zillion classes. I'm not actually sure what it won, but the fact that it's old school Mario Bros and they had their fraternity Sweetheart be the princess won them cool points with me.

This float was very well done; if you maximize the picture, you can see some amazing detail. The outlaws in the "jail" all have UT, OSU, A&M, and Texas Tech hats on...it's wonderful.

Nick and Jake (his roomie) have gone to Kenya two summers in a row on medical mission/research trips, so they had a tent during the parade to advertise and try to gain support. Clearly they're pretty awesome men.

My lazy eyelid is out in full force! Nick and I after getting caught in the rain at the parade.

Jake took this of me and I find it extremely fitting. Crazy hair, super huge smile, and very genuine.

My good friend (and beautiful woman) Courtney was in the Homecoming Court as her boyfriend Bo's fraternity's sweetheart (he's the one driving the car). They recently got engaged as well; congrats, Court!

Here's the Judge's choice winner, which is the overall winner. The level of detail on this float is astounding! Note the roller coaster that goes around...

...and actually functions! It needed a little boost from the guy walking on the side of it to get it up the hill (it wouldn't catch the generator) but once it was pushed, it worked quite well!

I giggled that the Baylor Democrats drove a Prius...

...and thought it was fitting that the Baylor Forensics had "Dead On Arival" wildcat paws (Kansas State mascot, who we played later on Saturday) out the back of the Tahoe.

It was actually quite fun!

I worked promotions with my friend Casey prior to the game, as we're part of M2M Promotions team. Basically, that entails wearing Metro PCS shirts (in Unfortunate Kansas State Purple) and giving out products with Metro PCS's logo on them. I loved it, as I'm my father's daughter and have no problem talking to people I don't know.

I was going to go to the game--aptly referred to as Bowlcoming--because it was supposed to be a huge game! Baylor, if they won, would be eligible for a Bowl game for the first time since 1994! I waited in line for student tickets by myself (and was going to meet friends inside), but the line was so long and barely moving that I gave up and decided to go home. This turned out to be a great decision, because as I was getting into my car, I overheard a lightening and rain delay for the game.

After a few hours of rain delay, Baylor ended up kicking Kansas State's butt and winning 47-42 (okay, so clearly we have good offense and not-so-good defense). We are now ranked (!!) number 25 in BCS standings, for the first time since 1993. Everybody is crazy-excited for next weekend's game, as this will be the first time a ranked Baylor has played an unranked UT. Sic 'em, Bears!

To round out the weekend, Nick and I decided to spend Sunday together doing relaxing things. We met up for breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Cappuccino, and ran into a few PsyDs as well! We then went to Starbucks (yes, my favorite Central Texas Marketplace delight) and studied/worked non-stop for a few hours. We then both ran home to change and met back up at the SLC, Baylor's gym, to work out. I decided that running would be more fun and Nick wanted to lift, so the fact that we met up was rendered moot.

Because Nick and I didn't get to spend much time together working out, I told him I'd make him dinner. I had a recipe I've been wanting to use, so I busted it out and decided to rock it.

Greek Quinoa Salad, with my favorite pita appetizers as a side.

The salad was filled with quinoa, spinach, roma tomatoes, red onions, and avocados, with a lemon juice/olive oil/salt mixture. Thank you, Joy of Cooking cookbook, for yet another win.

Nick's photography skillz at work.

And that was this weekend!

What did you do this weekend?