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Nov. 12, 2009

Tuesday, November 3

First, I just would like to publicly thank Katy Frierson for giving me this opportunity to write this week's edition of Road Trippin' with the Tigers. It's such a huge honor and I owe it all to Katy. Thank you so much!

It all began on Tuesday, November 3, 2009. We had a light practice at 9am and then we were on the bus all packed and ready to go by noon to depart for Orange Beach.

Bus rides are always a great time. Everyone either sleeps, does homework, or watches a movie which the seniors pick out. This bus ride started out with an 80's classic, "Girls just want to have fun!". We only got about 45 minutes into the movie until we stopped in Montgomery to eat lunch. People had the tough choice between Panera Bread and Zoes. I chose Panera and had the great pleasure of dining with Becca Howell Ashley Marks, and Caitlin King. At another table was Steph, Chelsea, Tammy Waine, and Coach Hoppa.

After lunch, we all got back on the bus to finish our journey to Orange Beach. We finished watching 'Girls just wanna have fun", then our seniors chose everyone to watch.

So we finally arrived to our condo's and everyone was assigned a condo with a senior. I had the lovely privilege of staying with Becca, Christine, and Ana Cate. We stayed in condo 1011 and it was very nice. We had about an hour to settle in until dinner time at 6:15. We went to a very nice Italian restaurant called Grazie. The spinach artichoke dip was delicious. I sat next to Lydia, Sammy, Lizzie, Ash, Caitlin, and Steph. The whole dinner Lydia was trying to figure out way to talk to the young waiter. She totally had a crush.

After a 3 hour dinner, we finally got back to Phoenix east and watched a little TV then went to bed to prepare for our big game against Ole Miss the next day.

Wednesday was the big day. Everyone woke up at 9am for breakfast in condo 1206. We had a variety of choices to choose from; we had Amy making scrambled eggs on the stove, Mary Puckett prepared a delicious fruit bowl where he hand-cut a variety of different fruits, assorted cereals, pop-tarts, bagels, every kind of cream cheese, milk, juices, and anything else imaginable to eat for breakfast. It was just sooo good.

We had two hours to kill after breakfast so my condo came back to 1011 and watched and E-special on plastic surgery. It was very informative on the do's and don'ts of plastic surgery. Becca decided she wanted to get her nose done and I'm not quite sure what I want to do yet but I have a pretty good idea.

Before we knew it, it was 11am and time to eat lunch. Yes, we ate lunch two hours after breakfast. Lunch was great! I had a PB&J and some goldfish and cheez-its. Other girls made turkey and ham sandwiches.

Immediately, after lunch we all traveled to condo 606 (JPro's condo) to have our pre-game talk where Coach Hoppa discussed our strategy for our game against Ole Miss. DENY, DELAY, DESTROY!!!, was the game plan. Some of the midfielders were a little confused by this but Coach Hoppa cleared the air and now everyone is on the same page. After a great team meeting we had around an hour until we left for the field. Some girls did their treatments with Cindy and others like myself, just want back to our condos and relaxed and got prepared for the game.

1:15pm we had to be dressed and ready to go on the bus. We arrived at the field only to see LSU beating Vandy 4-2. So we already knew we would be facing in the semi's. We had a great warm-up lead by Megan Young. We ended up breaking our three year curse of never advancing in the SEC tournament and also beating Ole Miss for the first time ever since the seniors and myself have been at Auburn. It was a great day. Mary Coffed and Julie King had two unbelievable goals and everyone played hard for all 90 minutes. We celebrated by doing our Auburn Soccer Circle and many others howled their hearts out.

Amy ordered 10 pizzas for the team and some of the girls went to eat with their families. Luckily, the Howell's adopted me for the night and I had the privilege of joining them and others at Cosmo's for a wonderful dinner. We dined with the Havrons, the Kings, the Marks, the Prescotts, and the Afanadors. We had a very eventful yet entertaining dinner that I really enjoyed! I had jerk chicken which was delicious but ended up giving me a tummy ache later on.

After dinner everyone went back to the Phoenix and went to sleep. We were exhausted! It was a long day.

Thursday, November 5

Thursday we had to be up by 9:45am to eat breakfast. Instead, most of the girls were awakened by a man hammering on the 4th floor at about 8:30am. However, I thought that I was the only one who could hear the noise and started to get a little scared. The next thing I knew the door to my bedroom opened by itself and nobody was anywhere to be found. So naturally, I just had to get out of the condo and went to work out with Karen (our graduate assistant trainer). I'm allowed to work-out on my own because I'm redshirting this year and not cleared to play yet. Anyways, it was a very spooky morning.

After our workout, it was time for breakfast. We had our usual feast of assorted cereals, eggs, fruits, bagels and juices. It was delicious!

We had a light practice at 12:30 where we jogged and stretched and then played a little game of 6 vs. 3. Lizzie, Amy Berbary, and I dominated on defense. After practice was over we all loaded the bus and Coach Hoppa treated us to Publix subs for lunch. We were all very, very excited. It was just so wonderful. So we got back to Phoenix after our wonderful lunch and we had a lot of down time to study, go to the beach, hang out or do whatever our hearts desired; except lay out! I went to the beach with Stephanie Fransoso, Lizzie Hamersly, Amy Berbary, Tammy Waine, Katy Frierson, Megan and Karen. Addie, Katy, Megan and Amy were playing a very intense game of Bocce Ball. I'm not really sure of all the rules I just know that there was a small ball, and larger balls which you threw aiming for the small ball....closest to the small ball wins. While they were playing, Lizzie, Tammy, Steph and I decided to play in the sand and somehow I nominated myself to get buried. So everyone helped bury me and gave me the appropriate body parts necessary for a woman. It was very fun.

Dinner was at Gino's at 7 so after play time at the beach we had about 3 hours to shower, rest, and get ready for dinner. I went to Lizzie and Chelsea's condo because Lizzie helped me with my Spanish composition. She is almost fluent which really comes in handy when I need help. By the time Lizzie and I finished my homework it was time for din din. We all loaded the bus and were on our way to eat a delicious dinner. I sat next to Lizzie, Lydia, Becca and Chels. We shared lots of laughs at dinner. Everyone really enjoyed their food. Most people got steaks and seafood. Lizzie and I had the "Chicken Manuer" it wasn't as tasty as everyone else's meal. The dinner rolls made up for it though.

We got back to the condo's and Becca and I watched E! until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. We watched our favorite show "Chelsea Lately" and got the very great pleasure of seeing her interview the newlywed couple Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom. They are just so precious.

Friday, November 6

Today is the day of our first SEC semi-final appearance since our senior class has been at Auburn. It was a really big day for them and everyone on the team. We woke up at 9:45 for our breakfast feast like we had been all week. It was delicious as usual. Immediately after breakfast we watched film and had our usual pre-game talk. It was very motivational and everyone left the meeting pumped and ready to play LSU.

Treatment people had to go to Cindy's condo to do their treatments and everyone else got some rest before the big game. Lunch was at 1pm. We had our sandwiches, meats, PB&J's and lots and lots of snacks. Lizzie, Lydia and I stayed and chatted for a while about our favorite Nickelodeon TV shows from back in the day. Rocko's modern life was a classic. Before we knew it, it was 3:30 and it was time to depart for the field for our big game against LSU. We had our usual warm-up with Megan. We were all looking pretty sharp and ready to go!

Everyone played and fought really hard for all 90 minutes again. Unfortunately we didn't come out with a W but our coaches were all very proud of us because we left everything out on the field. It was a very tough loss for our seniors but they all played their best and gave it their all.

The coaches ordered Domino's Pizza for the team and others went with their parents. I had the wonderful pleasure of dining with Becca and Lizzie and Becca's parents again. We ate at Live Bait with Addie Ragsdale and her father. Live Bait was superb and had a live band that played some great Jack Johnson songs. We all had some delish sushi that was oh so filling. We got back to the Phoenix and had to pack up all our things to get ready to leave in the morning! :(

Saturday, November 7

We left from the Phoenix East condominiums at 9am to make our journey back to Auburn, Alabama. We stopped for a delicious breakfast at chick-fil-a then we were on our way home! We watched Anchorman and Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, which I had never seen before. It was a little corny but it ended up being pretty funny. I didn't get to see the ending to Romy and Michelle because Big Lar's bus started experiencing technical difficulties. The service light came on because the engine was over-heated so we had to pull over on the side of the road for an hour before we arrived back in Auburn. It was miserable! Not only did we miss the end of the movie, but we had no air conditioning because the bus wouldn't turn on. Some people started getting a little claustrophobic. After about 30 minutes on the side of the road on a bus with no air-conditioning Big Lar finally fixed the problem and we were on our way again. Everyone was just so excited to be able to breathe again. We all made it back to Auburn safe and sound and unloaded the bus and everyone went their separate ways. All in all we had a great trip full of fun and laughter!

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