#57 Attend a fest

#57 on The List is a must for anyone who attends Ohio University. Come spring time, every students is ready to get into the nice weather and be outside again. Girls lay out in bikinis wherever there is grass, guys hold flexing poses while tossing football next to the girls, and everyone comes together on the weekend for wild fests.

This spring I re-attended Palmer and Mill fest. To those of you who are unfamiliar with the Ohio University way of fest-ing, it basically entitles shutting off an entire street, putting up orange temporary fencing around yards and the purchasing of many kegs.

Being a sophomore, I only know the rowdy and out-of-control Palmer fest. People tell me there once was a peaceful Palmer fest, but I associate it with riot police, couch burning and city fallout the rest of the school year. That’s why I left around 10 p.m. before all of that started.

Despite its recent reputation, Palmer fest is a great time to hang out with friends and hop from one house to another. Because Palmer didn’t end pretty this year, Mill fest was a little more strict. Despite parental warnings and cautionary tales, I still decided to enjoy Mill fest too.

Memories of these festivals will never leave me. Who else can say they were across from a wedding during a fest? (The wedding photographer took pictures of us cheering the bride and groom). Not too many people can.

People may look at us as a party school or being out of control (which I agree sometimes these fests attract the wrong kind of people and they do stupid things), but I still believe the fests are a good reflection on OU and the city of Athens.

It encompasses what we love about this place, why people who graduate from here always talk about it. It’s a city in the middle of nowhere, but it’s a city of friends. There are some amazing people that live here. Friends from OSU or UC can’t get over the fact of how nice people are here, and how we all view each other as neighbors in a sense…I’m finished being mushy.

There’s no other place I’d rather be than in Athens, OH come spring time. I love the fests. I love the people. I love it all.

#18 Catch a fish

I should have listed it as catch 10 fish in a week, because I outdid myself on this one.

My good friends (and future roommates at 42WC) Bob, Friz and Cody all got into fishing earlier this spring (mod-mate Justin went along too). I got invited along to go with them many times, but denied them thinking it wouldn’t be any fun. I just assumed I’d get invited to a lame fishing trip with someone, cross this off my list and then never pick up a fishing pole again.

Wrong.

I finally got some sense knocked into me and went fishing with them. I got a decent beginner pole ($20 – the Walmart gift card we won from tug of war), fishing license ($25), miscellaneous tackle box items ($5), and managed to catch a fish the first time out (priceless). The good quality time spent at Fox late was also, as you can guess, priceless.

I have sense fallen in love with fishing and go multiple times a week (weather permitted). I have caught a wide variety of fish, but my favorite is reeling in a catfish (pictured above as Bob goes in for a kiss). They put up a huge fight, and it’s usually a challenge to keep them on a cheap Walmart line without breaking it.

Needless to say, I’m hooked (I figure I’ll end this post on a terrible pun you might of laughed at).

#65 Win Tug of War

Some people say I’m cheating by adding things as I do them — so what?

Some things in life are unpredictable and I never see myself wanting to do certain things (play tug of war) or even think about them, so I add as I go. Newly added, newly accomplished-win tug of war. Oh boy did we…

My friends Andrea, Maura, Cody and Bob were all gearing up for the annual Turtle Tug (some Greek Week stuff…uh I’m clueless, not really a Greek) with my other friend Frisbee. Unfortunately, due to certain hangover conditions brought upon by heavy consumption of alcohol during Palmerfest (half the city goes through this), Frisbee could not make it. So I stepped in.

Our team was the Proud Koreans (Cody is Korean so we’re not racist). Our mission was to win. Our first match was against the ROTC in the co-ed division and we won without much effort. Well, this is very anti-climatic but we won the championship in the co-ed division with the victory because no one else showed up. However, we wanted more.

We challenged the winner of the championship between the men and women champions. The women champions pulled an upset over the guys and it was our turn to step up to the plate and claim the title of overall champions. And of course, we did.

The Proud Koreans are this year’s Turtle Tug Champions (won $10 to Walmart, $25 to Brenan’s Coffee and 10 gift cards to Chipotle) and I’m glad to cross this one off the list.

Oh, and the best part was the victory dive into the jello pit. Can you say delicious? (not really though, didn’t taste good and I was just miserably sticky) More updates are on the way for the list…2 more have been crossed off I just need some time for them to marinate and write about them.

#64 keep trying new things to help my journalism career

On Monday our journalism class Skyped (new technology) with an OU grad that has been working for the AP press for too many years. The constant theme in any journalism class is honesty, and the ever changing environment of journalism. Everything is going web, everything is going social media, everything is changing.

The grad (who I cannot remember his name, shoot) has been at the AP for so many years he remembers when they first put computers into the office. And then came…oh my…THE INTERNET!

His stories included old farts being afraid of all the change and refusing to help transition to the web. His one piece of advice was don’t be resistant to change. Try new things. Be open minded. And try dumb things, because although they may seem dumb then they will probably be relevant later.

Since I’ve already used Skype (new tech), Twitter (new tech), a blog (you’re reading it) (P.S. it’s kinda a new technology), I decided I should try something new. Tumblr (new tech). So here’s my page, check it out and enjoy.

http://awestendorf8.tumblr.com/

Another list of another kind

Check this site out:

http://1000awesomethings.com/

It’s a pretty cool list that Neil Pasricha made. It’s nice to cherish and look for the awesome things in life, and it’s pretty cool to check out the site daily and know there’s one more thing to keep a look out for that you can enjoy. Oh, and I heard he has a pretty cool book too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399156518?tag=1000awesthin-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0399156518&adid=06KYSP0Z2DBJPRSN4YC8&

#33 Give something up for lent

I did. End of story. It was a long 40 days and nights but I successfully gave something up.

#51 Tastes So Good

#51 Cook a meal for my family came by accident. Mom and I were talking today about our dinner plans and decided on the ever famous ‘breakfast for dinner’ meal. We got the necessary ingredients for a hearty breakfast and I began to cook. It slowly became me cooking for the family. The meal included:

Eggs

French Toast

Bacon

Sausage Links

Biscuits and Gravy

Goetta

Homefries

Orange Juice

It was a delicious feast. We managed to eat in near silence (a definite rarity for the Westendorf family) and everyone was on the verge of a deep sleep afterward. Matt was highly complimentary and asked me to come home from school more often to cook. I hope I can maintain the culinary momentum going into living on my own. I really hope to refine the art of the kitchen and become a master chef.