My Happy Place

*Last week was a mess but I WILL finish holiday posts this week.

The weekend after Christmas I spent the day in Chapel Hill! For the first time in a year. I still can't believe I made it that long. It definitely made being there all the more sweeter, but, I don't think it's necessary to be gone so long to make it sweet.

Mom and I started out with brunch at Top of the Hill. I spent so many nights there my senior year drinking with my friends, that it's still kind of weird to be there, during the day, eating food, with my mom. From there we went into a few of the stores on Franklin and all I bought were socks. Seriously. I have everything else apparently.

From there Mom went to do a little shopping at the mall while I took my time wandering around campus. I just love it so much.

I don't always have a lot of time to see everything I want to, but this time I did. I got to visit some places I haven't seen in awhile, like the Arboretum and War Memorial.

 

I took some time to just look up at the buildings, as "500 Days of Summer" taught me, and bask in the loveliness that is UNC.

 

I also made it to the Bell Tower, where there are plaques for the senior classes and their senior campaigns for raising money. (Starting with the class of 2007, boo.) It was very cold but I couldn't resist trying on the Tar Heel.

I met mom back on Franklin and we got cupcakes and hot drinks from Sugarland before heading to A Southern Season. I miss it already but I'll be back.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

April 4, 2005

National Championship Night

The Battlehouse, Chapel Hill, NC

December 22, 2011

2005 National Championship Trophy

Carolina Basketball Museum, Chapel Hill, NC

May 12, 2006

Two days before graduation

Old Well, Chapel Hill, NC

December 22, 2011

Three days before Christmas

Old Well, Chapel Hill, NC

Holiday Rewind Part 2c: Carolina Girls at the Carolina Inn

Yes, yes, another Chapel Hill post. But seeing as how I had not been there in nearly a year, did you expect any less? This is just to highlight our hotel, The Carolina Inn.

From their website:
"University Alumnus and former trustee, John Sprunt Hill, built The Carolina Inn in 1924 and was gifted to the University in 1935 to be ' … A Cheerful Inn for Visitors, A Town Hall for the State, and a Home for Returning Sons and Daughters of Alma Mater…'"

As four "Returning Daughters of Alma Mater," we'd each always wanted to stay here. And as we've done practically everything else you're supposed to do in CH, we're glad to have now crossed this off our list. It's the only hotel on campus and if you know anything about Chapel Hill you know its reputation. You never know if something is going to live up to your expectations, but I should have known that when it comes to Chapel Hill, they're usually exceeded. It just felt like an extension of our beloved University, and like we belonged there. A few tidbits:

• Our room door was Carolina blue.
• University and town history pervaded everything from the photos on the wall to the suite names.
• Due to the combination of booking early, my alumni association discount, and splitting one room four ways, we each paid less than $40 for the night.
• We got fresh cookies when we checked in and were (accidentally?) not charged for parking. (And if you know Chapel Hill, you know what a big deal this is.)
• They replaced our broken coffee pot, brought us (many) extra fresh towels, and found us a DVD player when we wanted to watch a movie.
• No one bothered us when we model walked in one of their hallways.

All in all it was a great experience and I hope to repeat it many times in the future.

Sign out front

Our room

Gingerbread Old Well

Each year they illustrate the 12 days of Christmas throughout the lobby.

These are 12 lords-a-leaping in basektball player form.

Holiday Rewind Part 2b: Carolina Girls By Night

In many ways, our friendship as a foursome was solidified during Chapel Hill nights. Around a table in Top of the Hill. At a booth in Carolina Coffee Shop. In the line at Qdoba at 2 a.m. On the living room floor in the house Brandie and I lived in our senior year. 

As the years have gone by, the scene has shifted to nights in Durham, Ocean Isle, and Washington, D.C., but the sharing has never stopped. We can talk about anything at anytime, from movies and tv to clothes and hair, but when we're together, our most serious discussions tend to happen at night, gathered around, drinks in hands. Broken hearts, fights with family, disagreements, health concerns, career decisions, life worries--they all come out. As a result, there are probably a good number of people in any place we've all been together that can tell you entirely too much about the four ladies at the table beside them. But that's ok, because it's about our friendship. 

It's about laughing until our faces go numb. It's about leaping topics, jumping sentences, forgetting words, and still understanding. It's about having our own language.  It's about our roots. It's about our shared passion and drive. It's about unwavering compassion and unvarnished truth. It's about feeling like nothing is right and then feeling like everything will be alright.

Posing in the Carolina Inn lobby before heading out

Campus

Dinner at Bandido's

Our favorite/the old standby: Top of the Hill

Three days before Christmas in Chapel Hill=deserted. 

So we took silly pictures in the street.

And then we took our patented "one person hold camera and all gather 'round" shot.

Empty hallway+4 tipsy ladies in heels=model walking

Yes, another group shot. But it never gets old. At least not for us.

Holiday Rewind Part 2a: Carolina Girls By Day

Three days before Christmas, four ladies, coming from four cities, gathered in the town where it all started, at a place where they'd always wanted to stay, for 24 hours of talking, laughing, eating, walking, drinking, and gifting. And this is what they did on a dreary, but unseasonably warm, December day.

After Jan and I checked into the hotel, we waited for B and K to arrive. Once they did, and after a little catching up, we set out for Franklin Street, a mere 3 blocks away, and had Sakura for lunch.

After lunch it was a walk through campus, stopping to make sure Davie Poplar was still standing, take a group photo with the Old Well, make note of all the still-loose bricks, and pretend, just a little, that we were students again.

A stop at Student Stores was in order, of course, in case there was any Carolina paraphernalia we didn't already own. For instance, this amazingly chic ram's head toboggan. (I didn't buy it though. Have to draw the line somewhere.)

After debating waiting for a bus or risking the likelihood of a downpour if we walked, we started hoofing it to South Campus to visit the basketball museum. First we had to walk by the recently remodeled/rebuilt football stadium. It's big. Really big. Especially for a never-going-to-be-a-football-it's-always-going-to-be-a-basketball school.

We got to the museum shortly after the skies opened up, and only 15 minutes before it was to close. (A fact NOT advertised on the website, by the way.) This was extremely disappointing as Brandie had never been, the four of us had never been all together, and we couldn't watch the awesome video introduction. However, we made the most of our 15 minutes and sped through.

There was even some time for some fun photos. We each posed "hugging" some of our favorite players. (Karey and Hansbrough, Brandie and Felton, Jan and Jamison, and me and Montross.)

When we finished the museum we headed out in the pouring rain and caught the RU back to our hotel to rest and then ready for the night's activities.

Gone to Carolina

Today I'm going here:

To see them:

And stay here:

To do this:

I haven't been to Chapel Hill since January. January, people. That's two weeks shy of a year. That's double my previous record of six months. To say I need Chapel Hill isn't strong enough. I crave it. And I need my best friends. In one time zone, one place, one room. This year has been awful and amazing, stressful and wonderful, debilitating and exhilarating. But this year hasn't had Chapel Hill and hasn't had the four of us. Yet. And it's going to be amazing, wonderful, and exhilarating.

Photos: mine, mine, here, mine, mine, here.

"Above all things, Carolina alumni find a way to come back home."

The UNC alumni association just released this presentation on Tar Heel Pride: http://alumni.unc.edu/membership/pride/

I watched it half a dozen times and then kept playing it on repeat in the background so I could hear the Alma Mater while working.

This has done a better job of explaining what being a Tar Heel means than I have yet been able to do.

I do believe when I go home in a few weeks, I will need to swing by Chapel Hill. (Hint hint, parents.)

Holiday Rewind Part 6a: "A dreary day in paradise." (Joey)

On January 2, the parents and I headed to Chapel Hill to meet Joey, who was on his way back from a new year's trip to the mountains. We met at the Hardees just off of 15-501, which I will always remember as where we stopped when moving me in, only I was too nervous to eat the hamburger. And Hardee's hamburgers are the best.

From there Joey and I headed to lunch at Brixx, which I ate at frequently the summer after graduation but haven't been to since. Then we set off for Franklin Street on the wet and gray day. Or, as Joey referred to it, "a dreary day in paradise." We hit all the requisite stores, including Shrunken Head, which has been closed the past few trips I've been. They cleared out some of the racks so you can actually move, which is a little odd. We also walked by the new Krispy Kreme! Oh dear, had this been present my senior year during 2 a.m. snack runs, I'd probably still be feeling the effects.

Joey bought me my birthday present, which was this Carolina zip-up hoodie.

We got some snacks and hot drinks at Sugarland. Then it was time to make our trek through campus. This is the third or fourth year that Joey and I have done this trip. This year was the first where he acknowledged it's become a tradition. It was cold out and I offered to walk to the Dean Dome by myself if he wanted to take the shuttle but he said, "No, it's a tradition. We always walk through campus." That kid makes me literally pull my hair out, but he is one of a kind. In the best way possible.

"I mean, isn't it crazy? How did a well, something you get water of, became the symbol of a university? Do you ever think about that?"

He may have been joking. He was probably joking. But I couldn't even respond, I was so moved and thrilled that he got it. Even if he was joking. But yes, I do think about that. All the time. Chapel Hill means so much to me and I feel forever blessed not only about that fact, but that so many of my family and friends share that passion.

Before I knew it, we were on hallowed ground.

Tomorrow: Part 6b, the game! I swear, I'm not purposefully trying to drag this out. Beyond the two months it's already been. My computer is so slow and I have so many pictures to share; I just want to make it good.