What we do for fun part 2...

Would you believe that Chick-fil-A has never opened a free-standing unit in Kansas before? I was shocked when I found out, and even more shocked when I found out that the first one was going to be opened right here in Olathe - about 5 minutes from campus.

Naturally, a new fast-food place as an alternative to Campus Center is a big event in a college student's life, but even bigger is the chance for free fast-food. Chick-fil-A's opening special was an offer for a year's supply of combo meals (translated into 52 coupons for a combo of your choice) to the first 100 people to go through the doors this morning at 6:30.

Now, mind you, I had no intention of getting involved in the slightest degree. I had heard of the opening, but hadn't really thought much about it at all. Freshman elections were yesterday, and I volunteered to work as a teller for an hour just before supper. Afterwards, I was planning on grabbing a quick bite to eat, then spending the evening getting ahead on my homework and probably making a trip over to College Church for evening service.

While I was watching the computers for the voting, Brandon, a friend of mine, started telling me about Jonathan, another friend, and how he was out at Chick-fil-A for the opening. Not only was he already there at 5 o'clock last night, he had been there since 5 o'clock AM! He skipped class for the day and sat out in the parking lot all day just so he could be #1 on the list of the first 100! Jonathan is a chemistry major, but no one ever accused him of being too attached to his books. :)

After laughing at Jonathan's silliness, I finished out my teller shift and went to grab a bite to eat. Wednesday night is meat night at Campus Center, but it's best to get there early, or the meat selections are tough or soggy. I tried to get an edible piece and went to find a seat.

Jessica, yet another friend, found me a few minutes after I sat down and asked if I had heard of the Chick-fil-A promotion. I told her I had, and the next words out of her mouth were, "Would you go with me? I want to do it, but I don't want to do it alone."

I laughed a little at her before I realized she was serious. She said that the program was set up so that once you signed up, you were automatically in the top 100, but there was a pretty big catch. Once you sign up, you can't leave the restaurant premises, not even to go to your car. One major drawback to the idea for Jessica and me was that we didn't own a tent, and the idea of sleeping in a parking lot didn't appeal to either one of us.

I told her that if she could find a tent or decided to do it, I would go with her. I knew several people from the school who were out there - and besides, it's free food! Besides, what were the odds that Jessica would decide to go through with it?

Well, about five minutes later she was back, telling me she had heard that tents were on sale for $12 at Target, and she had found another girl to go in with us, so it would only be $4 apiece. I admit I was sort of surprised into agreeing to meet back at Campus Center in 20 minutes to head over to Chick-fil-A.

Leann, the other girl going in with us, came well prepared. She brought several pillows and a fuzzy blanket and a bag full of homework. I, on the other hand, showed up at the car with some homework, a few card games, and a pillow shoved into my backpack, and my gray cowboy hat on my head. Jess didn't bring anything at all. She did, however, think to call Jonathan to see if it was even worth us coming over there to try and make the list. He told her that they had just signed in #81, so if we were coming, we'd better hurry.

We made the decision to go straight to Chick-fil-A and bypass the sale at Target, and call around to see if we could find a friend who would come pick up our money and go buy the tent. We did eventually find one, but it wasn't until after 9:00 p.m.

We got there and signed in as guests 86, 87 and 88. They gave us each a little red wristband and warned us that they had a roll call throughout the night to ensure that no one left. They also gave us each a bag of Chick-fil-A waffle fries (oh, yum!) and a Chick-fil-A sandwich for supper, since we couldn't leave. Now, admittedly, I had eaten a little at Campus Center...but I wasn't about to turn it down! Besides, it tasted just as good a little cold when I was starting to feel hungry again. :)

Now, before anyone gets too worried, you should know that there were armed security guards all around the parking lot, and everyone signed an agreement to have no drugs, alcohol, or tobacco on the premises. Besides that, about 40 of the first 100 guests were from MNU, which made the night a lot of fun.

Someone had found a way to set up a wireless internet connection, so everyone had their laptops out. Someone else brought a TV and Playstation, and kept a crowd of people busy most of the night. Jess, Leann and I were the boring ones. We played several rounds of Uno, then settled in to do homework and talk on our cell phones to pass the time.

We had a roll call around 11 o'clock, which was one of the best moments of the whole experience. When someone's name was called, he or she would run up cheering and get in line behind the Chick-fil-A employee. By the time it got to our numbers, they had set up a line for high-fives - and the second half had formed a tunnel for us to run under. To hear all the shouting, you'd think we had just finished at Extreme Home Makeover or something. Of course, as I've said, free food is a big motivator.

As fun as the night was, the hard part was getting to sleep. We pooled our money and got two tents, which Leann and Jess decided to take with them (which means I get a full refund of the money I threw in for it). Leann took one, and Jess and I shared the other one. No offense to Chick-fil-A, but their pavement is not conducive to sleep.

The other problems included bright parking lot lights, loud neighbors, and the occasional news crew that would come through and pick people to interview. Jonathan got a lot of publicity because he is #1 on the list...and besides, he's crazy to have stayed there over 25 hours!

This morning about 5:45 we were awakened (or told to stop pretending to be asleep - I think I got about an hour and a half of sleep) and told to get ready for the opening. I don't know if you realize how cold it can be at 5:45, but I was in a t-shirt, and in no mood to get up.

We had roll call again, but it wasn't nearly so energetic. :) I can't imagine why. We each got a little bag with a Chick-fil-A t-shirt and a dorky little hat, which we were all supposed to put on for the news cameras. Isn't that just lovely? We're standing out in the dark, barely awake, and all dressed in matching shirts and those crazy hats (which I put over my cowboy hat). I'm sure the news got some great footage from that.

Anyway, I got an hour's nap after we finally got back to campus, but I'm certainly planning on going to bed early tonight.

On the up-side, though, I now have 52 free meals at an awesome restaurant, and had one of the most interesting nights of my life last night.

After all, what else do you expect us to do for fun?

What we do for fun...

Since the purpose of this blog is to show what college life is really like, I guess I should fill you in on what we do at MNU for fun.

Personally, my big "fun" is watching TVLand or TLC while doing my math homework, or getting to eat lunch with a big group of friends in Campus Center (the cafeteria), or getting paid to sit and do my homework in the Kresge Center (tutoring center) for two hours on Thursdays. I am a "peer instructor" (otherwise known as a tutor) and I have the night watch on Thursdays.

If I'm feeling adventurous I may postpone my homework for an hour or so and play for a while on Facebook, which is a pseudo-blogging site for students with email addresses ending in ".edu". Basically all there is to do on there is post notes to your friends or upload photos, or "poke" people, which means they get a message saying that you have poked them, and they have the option of poking you back or ignoring you. :) The real life version of poking is a lot more exciting, but for some reason, Facebook can be fun.

Despite the seemingly bland variety of fun, I have managed to find a way to keep life interesting.

Yesterday at lunch I was sitting with a big group of girls and guys that like to hang out together. Sometimes I eat with them, sometimes with other groups, but I usually have the most fun when I sit with them. I was sitting across from Riley, one of the guys in the group, and we started talking about TV shows. I mentioned that my favorite show is Bonanza, and he actually knew what I was talking about! That in itself is a big deal and definitely worth mention in my annals of college life. Most kids my age give me a huge blank stare and wonder what network I watch that they haven't heard of the show. :) Silly kids.

Anyway, as we continued the conversation, I suggested that Riley and I "get together" sometime and watch a few episodes, seeing as how I have several DVDS of the show with me. (Okay, so "several" might be an understatement, but really....there are worse obsessions!) Raman, a friend of ours, immediately jumped on my phrase, "get together," and asked if Riley and I were planning on becoming an item.

Of course we laughed her off and continued our discussion, boyfriend/girlfriend jokes are pretty much standard fare in this group and no one takes any of them seriously. Let me establish right now that neither Riley nor I have any romantic attachments toward each other, nor any feelings other than friendship for each other. (Boy, you can tell I've been reading Shakespeare this afternoon, can't you?)

Everyone left as a group, except Riley and me because we didn't have class at 1, and had no reason to get up and run off. As we were sitting there talking, one or the other of us made a comment about giving Raman a scare and eating dinner together one night in one of the booths, just to see how she would react.

Story break for a moment while I explain a few things about MNU cafeteria etiquette and the very healthy campus grapevine. There are a lot of long tables in the cafeteria, but the walls are lined with booths. If a girl and guy sit together in a booth by themselves, they must be dating. If they eat dinner together on more than one night a week, things are definitely getting serious. If this happens on more than..oh, five occasions, we can assume that they will be engaged before the semester is over. Such is the campus grapevine.

Back to the story. For some reason, this idea struck both of us as funny. We settled on a time to come in and eat, and agreed to dress up, just to play it up even further. So, at 5 o'clock last night, Riley and I appeared in campus center, him in a pinstripe suit coat and tie, and me in a black suede skirt and black western-style shirt.

Now, the problem with schemes such as this one is that it is next to impossible to keep a straight face when everyone is doing double takes when they see you. The other problem is that Riley and I didn't really plan out the details.

A guy came up to us in line, nudged Riley and asked who I was. Riley turned, doing his best not to laugh, and said, "This is Rachel...uh...Rachel...I know I know your last name - does it start with a G?"

Needless to say, that poor guy was completely confused when I had to introduce myself by my full name.

After that little incident we went and sat down in a booth, which happened to be on the side that most people come in - so probably 3/4 of the campus saw us. Miranda, my roommate last year, came in and did an extreme double take as she walked by. Actually, not only that, but she kept scanning the cafeteria for a place to sit, and looking our direction more often than not. She finally settled in the booth right behind us and immediately turned around to ask why we were so dressed up.

And if by this point you're wondering where we get our sense of "fun," the joke actually ended up being on us. After going through the huge charade (although we did let Miranda in on the secret), Raman didn't even come in to dinner last night. The one person this whole prank was set up for didn't even get to see it.

I just saw Riley on the way to work, and he said he's had no less than six people come up to him today and ask. So far I've had two, but I'm expecting a few more at dinner tonight.

So, now you know how Christian college students pass their time. ;) Actually, Riley and I were talking about extending it for a week or so, just to see how far the rumor would spread if we didn't say anything to prove or disprove it. But don't worry, we decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Next planned post: I'm going to show off my dorm room :)

Hello, All!

Well, due to the persistence of a couple of friends, I have finally managed to get this up and running. The blogging thing is new to me, so we'll see how well I keep up with it.

It is now the second day of the third week of school, and all my professors jumped in with both feet. My first Fine Arts test is later today, and we're already discussing our second play in Shakespeare class, and our second book in Writers and Movements (which is focusing this semester on 20th Century African-American Literature). We're supposed to wrap up the first chapter in Applied Math and Statistics tomorrow, and my other class, American Literature to 1860, is keeping me busy too.

Aside from that, my first article for the Trailblazer Times (the student newspaper here) is due tonight, and it will be published next week. After working for a daily paper all summer, this once-every-other-week stuff is really strange to me. But hey, I still get to work with the newspaper and that makes me happy. :)

I am now officially a member of the Rice Residential Hall Judicial Council, which basically means that I get to attend RHG (Residence Hall Government) meetings and keep the minutes, and weigh in on discussions about dorm parties or activities. Oh, and I also get to go on the RHG retreat this weekend. :) Other than that, I've been told there's not much to the job. We'll see if I'll let it stay that way.

Oh, and the picture is of me at the wonderful Scarlet Pimpernel musical I was in this summer. It is, to quote Zach Golden, "The best musical to ever grace the face of the earth." Aside from that, that picture is my favorite picture of me. :)

Well, I think this is long enough for my first post. Besides, I want to get in a little more studying for Fine Arts before chapel this morning.

Rachel