little change-up

In the 4 or so years I have been blogging, I've had several different headers, and I am sure I will change my mind again in the next few months to want something new again! But I am working on a new look for le' blog so I apologize if you come back in a day and things are all switched around or my fonts are crazy, but it's a work in a progress.

Here are a few of my vintage headers:

my first

my trees, I actually really liked this but updating the little owls , leaves and accessories on the trees for the seasons/holidays got tedious and I was too OCD to leave it one way all the time...

My favorite Lilly print

So, what do you think of the new look?

Pirate Nation.

I am linking up today with Erin @ Love, Fun & Football for "Football Friday"!

I feel like I can't even express just how proud I am to be an EastCarolina University alum or what it means to me to be a part of the Pirate Nation. However, I feel like sharing some of the things that set us aside from other college teams might help express my love for my team.

Our pre-game video:

Our videos before the game are absolutely amazing, the marketing team at Evolve, Inc. in Greenville does an unbelievable job. Here is the video from 2011 (I couldn't find last year's) featuring the poem "The Ghost on the Wind". 

Our Mascot:

Can you get much cooler than a Pirate? Not only do we have Pee Dee, our official Pirate...

Sawyer with Pee Dee at Meet the Pirates 2012

.....but also have this hottie right here who leads our team out of the locker room and also raises our flags. 

Our hype music:

Our pre-game fun in the stadium begins with your typical hype up music such as “Bring 'Em Out” by TI & Jay Z, “Tonight's Going to Be a Good Night” and etc. but we also have a song written just for ECU called “My Heart is Purple & Gold” that is so amazing.

We also sing "Hoist the Colors", you may have heard it in "Pirates of the Caribbean 3".

Our Fight Song:

via

Our Flags - The Jolly Roger:

Not only do we hoist our ECU Jolly Roger flag at the beginning of each game, but we also fly our flags high in the tailgate lot. 

yes, that's four flag poles on one car

Our flags - No Quarter:

At the end of the third quarter, we fly our maroon “No Quarter, No Mercy” flag as we all cross our arms in imitation of our jolly roger. Replacing our black Jolly Roger with the No Quarter flags mean we will be offering no quarter to our enemy, just like true Pirates.

Our colors:

We are so proud of our purple & gold, at the beginning of the game, and randomly throughout the game, our sides of the stadium compete take turns shouting "Purple, Gold" - my favorite memory of our purple & gold chant was walking out of the giant Bank of America stadium in Charlotte (where the Panthers play) after our victory over Virginia Tech and hearing all our fans shouting the chant as we exited the arena. 

Our Intro:

We enter our stadium through a giant Pirate skull... in purple smoke.... while Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix is playing. It doesn't get a lot better than that. 

*side note: Josh and I entered into our reception to Purple Haze too.

Paint it Purple Fridays:

On Friday's, we wear purple (or gold). During football season, you won't see me not in our colors that often, but especially on Friday's. 

Our Alma Mater:

While we do sing our alma mater, "Hail to thy Name So Fair" at the beginning of games, we don't actually sing it until the end when everyone screams the last three words "LOVE AND PRAISE!"

As I said before, I am so very proud to me a member of the Pirate Nation. I love our team, our family of fans and our tailgates. You should come down to Greenville, North Carolina and experience for yourself though, another tailgater is always welcome!

my first job.

When I turned 15, I got a job. Not just any job, a job working at the drug store in my hometown, the only drug store in town and also the drug store where my mother is one of the two pharmacists.

Some might think, “sweet, working for your mom must have been a breeze”. WRONG.

Don't get me wrong, I love my mama – but when your mom is the “boss” (when the owner Mr. JH wasn't there), it isn't fun. Your name is the first out of her mouth when something needs to be done or when something goes wrong. And if you screw something up at work, you catch it at home too.

my friend (and then co-worker) Cory thugging with my mother in the pharmacy.

At the drug store, the other kids and I had all kinds of duties. We did your standard stuff like clean shelves, stock and inventory merchandise, work the cash register in the pharmacy and at the front, take out the trash and put labels on incoming medicine and merchandise. However, we also had some... interesting tasks.

Taking refill orders over the phone/at the counter:

You never knew what some of the customers would come up with. Now, I know that medicine names are hard to say.... but could you at least try? Because saying “that square-round pill with the little number on it” doesn't quite help me out (yes, that was a legit refill request one time), nor does “that peach-colored one”.

Delivering medicine to home-bound customers:

This is actually no longer a duty at the drug store thanks to a few employees who couldn't quit wrecking the delivery car (which was a sweet, custom PT cruiser sarcasm) or getting speeding tickets on it. But when I was there, delivering medicine to customers also meant getting out of the drug store for awhile. We didn't just deliver medicine either, some times our home-bound folks needed batteries and other things from the store.

Jarrett pimping the Service Drug PT

Taking things to the storage building:

Our storage building was on the other side of the main street on the opposite corner from the store, so we'd load stuff into the delivery car (or sometimes Mr. JH's truck) and drive to the building, climb the terrifying stairs (the storage area was over another shop) and just THROW the things into the room. It was un-air-conditioned, un-heated and also un-lit. The hallway leading up the steps is graffiti-ed forever with all our names and dates of when we took things to storage.

horrible picture - but of me & Jarrett behind the counter (this was actually in the Service Drug yearbook ad our senior year and it said "Good luck Lar & Jarrett haha).

Another not so fun part? Trying to not notice what people are buying in the drug store, there are some embarrassing purchases to be made there: diarrhea medication, condoms, lube, special kinds of creams, pregnancy test... it's like judgement central.

However, working at the drug store taught me all kinds of things. I learned about having to work the public and how to smile and nod at someone telling you too much information. I learned about humility and how screwed up our healthcare system is as I watched people count out pennies for medicine they couldn't live without while I watched others working the system and getting free meds before buying three cartons of cigarettes with cash money. I also got to work some amazing people who I am still very close to.

 Sadly, this was the day of disposable cameras (as my friend Cory reminded me when I asked if he could send me any pics he had from our drug store days) so I  have hardly any pictures. So here the few I could find (or steal).

me at 15 with my friend Tracy

some of the Service Drug crew at prom

being silly with Cory, could I have more gum-mage in this pic?