Free at last

With spring semester finally over, I must say it's a relief to be back home. Although there isn't too much excitement in Downingtown, Pa, it's relaxing. Sleeping in, visiting friends and hanging out has me feeling rejuvenated. But before I plunge into my online summer classes on Tuesday, I figured a trip to Bethany Beach, Delaware was much needed.
I hit the road Tuesday night to begin my four day journey with the sun and the sand. Aside from the hideous tan lines from where I fell asleep on the beach, the trip was a great way to kick off the summer. Relaxing, catching up on some reading and taking in the beauty of a fairly empty beach was refreshing.
With Fridays weather in the 80's, I decided to spend my last day at the shore the same way I spent all the other days--back on the sand. After pulling into a parking spot and dropping quarters into the meter, I saw something very, very strange. Across the street a large, brown, figure darted across the road and disappeared under an empty beach house. While I was still a little sleepy from the night before, I thought for sure it was a deer!
After walking over to the house and checking out the perimeter I didn't see anything unusual. I stopped looking, convinced myself it was just a large dog, and continued through the lot.
While soaking up the sun, I saw a massive heard of people sprinting down the beach, pulling out binoculars and staring into the water. Not wanting to miss out on the excitement, I decided to go see what was happening. As I neared the people, I could see out in the distance a deer floating in the ocean! It was bobbing up and down as people on surfboards tried to corral the tired animal onto the shore. The closer the people got, the farther out the deer swam. After watching this strange occurrence for about 15 minutes, it seemed as if the deer was certain to drown.
While heading back to my chair, the deer continued its struggle in the water as distraught onlookers gasped and turned away.
After another 15 minutes elapsed, the deer was making its way into the shallow water, while waves cracked on it's fatigued body. The deer finally pulled itself out of the water and onto the sand, where it began shaking uncontrollably. Parents hurried their young kids away from the animal who seemed like it was ready to take its last breath. While trying to pull the kids away from the animal, the children began bombarding their parents with questions about the animal's condition.
Then to everyone's surprise, the convulsing deer took off and stumbled back into the ocean! This time it was met by several teenagers who wrestled the animal out of the water. While onlookers applauded their courageous efforts, they carried the tired deer up the boardwalk and into the back of a pick up truck were they were met by police officers. The truck, escorted by the police, then left the beach area.
As for the fate of the animal, I can only assume it was released back into the wild. I then returned to my chair and thought about how eventful the past 30 minutes had been. I can only hope the rest of my summer will be as exciting!

New Year Means New Posts

So how did I let this happen again? Just like all of the people you see cramming the gym within the first few weeks of the new year, I too will be updating this blog just as faithfully! So I'm now back at school and after arriving to what amounted to be about 6 inches of snow and some blustery winds, I'm all settled in and trying to get back on track. Just sitting here at my desk and glancing up at my schedule posted on an extremely old and somewhat disturbing looking bulletin board, I sense this semester is going to bring me lots of challenges and quite a few headaches. I guess it's not a good sign if your head is already spinning after only two days. With math, psychology, article writing, cinema art, music and environmental science, I can kiss my free time goodbye. But as much as I am unexcited about the workload that is ready to hit me head on, I am ten times more excited about what's going on in the sports world. No, it's not about all the campus hype of potentially having an all Pennsylvania Super Bowl or the excitement of the Penguins beating the Flyers, it's about my favorite baseball team and their new Ace. Yes, I am quite pleased to see the Atlanta Braves have finally landed Derek Lowe! So what if he will be leading a rotation with many unknown and unproven players? Derek Lowe automatically improves the staff and with as many injuries the team suffered the past few years, I'm just glad they could pay all the medical bills and still spare $60 million dollars for Lowe. But as I watch highlights of Lowe run across my small dorm room tv, I catch a glimpse of former Brave, John Smoltz being introduced with the Red Sox. Watching the longtime Brave hold up the Sox jersey with the familiar number 29, I am reminded of how much of a business the sports industry really is. The business aspect of the sport is even hitting colleges hard this time of year as athletes try and decide whether or not to enter the NFL draft. If I was ever in a position where I had to decide between another year of college or a lifetime of financial security, the decision is simple. As a quote from Jerry Maguire perfectly sums it up, "Show me the money!" Don't get me wrong college is a great time, but a person can only take so many parties, lectures and exams until they start to be tempted by the cash. Isn't landing that fabulous, well paying job part of the reason why we're all here? I guess maybe there is the "bigger picture" in all of this and learning all the "life lessons" are what college is about. But, if anybody reading this is willing to pay me an absurd amount of money to play a game for however long it takes me to buy that new mansion and all the luxuries that go with it, sign me up! Until I get that offer, which will probably happen as soon as pigs learn to fly, I will be grinding through spring semester with a boring text in one hand and a bottle of Aspirin in the other!

From the Beginning

To those who know me and those who don't.... welcome! As a freshman at Penn State University, I've decided to start my blog about life at PSU. You may ask why talk about PSU, and my question for you is why not? Yes, we are the #3 party school in the nation and yes, we have the best student section in all of college football, so why not talk about Happy Valley a little more? With 40,000 plus students on campus, I assure you there is never a dull moment! OK, so it may be a little ironic that my first post comes from the cozy confines of my real home, but hey a week off is much needed and couldn't come soon enough. And what a better way to kick off my week-long thanksgiving break than by cheering on the Lions from Beaver Stadium as they clinched the Big Ten Championship last night? Even though it took a few hours of sitting in the warm car on the ride home to get feeling back into my hands and toes, it was well worth it. The weather may have been chilly, to say the least, but the energy from the stadium was breath taking, in a good sense. The 109 thousand spectators on hand surely saw a great routing of the Spartans and what a great end to the regular season. So as I sit at home tonight watching some more football, I realize how thankful I am for the pigskin and how great it is to have heat! So welcome one and all and be sure to check back for more updates from down in the valley.