The Road Map Has Begun

I've been struggling on what to say, shocker I know... do I talk about meeting my boys, the first game, randomly seeing the boys on campus and them yelling at me, what?  So I've decided this blog is going to be all of the above, so this is going to be a long one... but hopefully it will be a good one as well!

So, on Thursday the 14th, we got to have a Pre-Season party with the team, ask them questions, get autographs and take pictures.  That was pretty awesome.  They were so willing to sit there while all the Paint Crew went through and asked questions, and got everything under the sun autographed and then stayed after the party was over to take pictures with the people who decided to stay.

I had some pretty interesting conversations... Robbie and myself talked about our scars, and surgery, and rehab... we even compared scars. haha  But, the weirdest thing that was said was and I quote "I sure hope I never have to know the feelings that you had your senior year not being able to play with the rest of your class."  We didn't know how true that quote would be just a few days later.  That day was the WORST day I have had yet as a Boilermaker.  I thought it was a joke... a very dirty joke... but it wasn't.  Just read this from Twitter: ThePaintCrew I cant believe this RT @BTNBrentsBlog:Purdues Robbie Hummel will miss the 2010-11 season after tearing his ACL on Saturday.  There were some pretty interesting tweets after that.  It just showed the pure emotion that everyone in Boiler Nation felt.  I cried.  I called my dad and just cried.  What do you do?  Especially when you have that conversation with him just 4 days earlier?  But we have gotten past that now.  We are focusing on the team as a whole.  Not just Robbie, he wasn't our whole team and the boys will pick up the slack.  I know this.

Back to the party:  I got twitpiced.  For those of you who don't know what this is:  It is a picture that is put on twitter by someone.  Kelsey Barlow was the lucky one I got to get a picture with that night!  If you want to see the picture, and follow Kelsey on Twitter go here.

Here are some picture of the Pre-Season Party

Here! TwitPic this!

JJ was trying to be like LewJack and couldn't keep a straight face! At least Robbie was paying attention!

A good one of me and the "Big 3"

Coach Painter!

LewJack!  What a shrimp!

Freshman with the Freshmen... we got a lot of junk for this!

 

Coach Painter answering questions

 I see the guys everywhere on campus now... and some of them, especially Kelsey always feel the need to yell at me when they see me.  For some people, that is a HUGE deal for those just walking by, but I just yell back and then people are whispering to each other... "that girl just got yelled at by Kelsey Barlow or she just talked to JJ..." Yeah, it is awesome, but I guess I just take it as it comes.  Now... the first time I flipped out a little.


THE GAME! 


As I am walking up Gate B of Mackey Arena, JJ is walking by. He said "Hey! Paint Crew!" I sad "Yeah!  Good luck tonight!"  He said "Thanks I appreciate it!"  Some guy walked by after JJ went into the gym and he said "Do you know who that was?"  I said "Yeah JJ..." he was getting all pumped that he passed him.  It was funny.

So... I never thought this day would come.  The day I was in the Paint Crew during a Purdue Men's basketball game.  The year that we are going to go to the National Championship in Houston.  I got to Mackey Arena at 11:30.  I was helping work the lottery for the Paint Crew.  I was pumped!  I walk over to the gate that was next to where we were set up for the lottery and just looked in.  I had never been in Mackey when no one was on the court.  It was am amazing thing to see.  I will never forget that.  The lottery was complete.  Our group got LAST DEAD LAST.  But that was okay.  Because we were going to be in there.  That is all that mattered.

While I was waiting in my group, the guys were having their walk through, so we were aloud to go in and watch.  That was awesome.  It is just one of those things you can't explain. 

I went to my classes then pretty much ran over to Mackey.  I had to be there at 5:30 to help work, and I got out of class at 5:20 so I had to book it.  I got there, and helped get everyone in line.  Then we had to wait.  And wait... and wait. Finally it was time to go in.  I had to job of "directing traffic".  I had to tell everyone what gate to go into and make sure they didn't go into the wrong one; and make sure they didn't run.  I was so tired of saying go down to gate 8 by the time everyone got through, it was ridiculous.  I've decided that we need to make a sign that says "GO TO GATE 8!"

It's game time! After everyone gets in, I get to go get my seat... 2 rows from the top of the lower bowl... the seats weren't too bad actually.  The team came out!  We got crazy... and then Robbie came out... in a suit.  That wasn't what I wanted to see Robbie in this season, but he seemed as okay with it as he could be...

Shaking hands

Just hanging out... talking to the official book guy

It was finally time for the game to start... I think starting lineups got me PUMPED!  These biys were ready... they put their hearts and souls into this season and they were ready.  So were we.  The starting line up was a little different than I though.  E'Twaun, JJ, LewJack, Ryan Smith, and Patrick Bade.

E'Twaun

Patrick

Ryan Smith (He moved too quick)

LewJack

JJ

The Paint Crew was an awesome experience.  I was so excited to be apart of that, it was great to see how even for an exhibition game, we were so into it.

The boy's came out a little flat.  And to say I wasn't nervous would be a lie.  But, as I am looking back now, they never really got into a flow.  They were always subbing in and out.  Byrd, a non-started lead the way with 21 minutes.  JJ and E'Twaun only played 19 and 16 minutes respectively.  So thinking about that, it wasn't so bad...

At the very end of the game, Bre looks over at me and said I found Chris Kramer!  So what did I do?  I took his picture duh!  And I think this picture might be one of the best ones I've taken in quite a while...

He was getting so into it... watching him at the end of the game when the guys that don't play much were in, was just like watching him when he was on the floor... he got so into it.  It was pretty funny to watch.

The Boilers came away with a win over UIndy 82-59.  I am looking forward to what the rest of this season has in store for us.  This will be a great year!  I am sure of that!

Thanks for reading....

For now,

Boiler Up! 

I'm Going to Dream of the Sahara Desert Tonight!

When you think dedication, what do you think?  Getting up in the wee hours of the morning to go work out, shoot, lift weights, or run.  Something physical right?  Well, on Sunday, dedication meant something completely different.

Sunday afternoon, we get back from church and we notice people carrying futons, blankets and everything to camp out for the night.  They were headed to Mackey.  Monday were the sign ups for the all important Paint Crew.  I knew this was a bad sign.  We had church Sunday night so I was looking EVERYWHERE to try and find someone to stand in line for us while we went to church.  I exhausted all of my options after many hours on the phone I realized it was pointless.  We were just going to have to hustle right after church and get in line and see what would happen.  Because, there are only 1,779 people allowed into the PC.  That is 360 groups.  There were already a couple hundred people in line.

It's 7pm.... throwing stuff out of the truck... I yell to Tori (Executive Board Member) "How many spots are left" She yells back, "How many groups?" "3" "Your in by 4 groups."
Biggest sign of relief!  I was praying the hole way from church that we would get there in time.  Thankfully we did!  I don't know what I would have done if we didn't get in, but that doesn't matter now, does it?

Dedication:  What is it?  I think it might be the following:
We (Avery, Bre, and myself) starting at 7pm.  We got our papers filled out and were officially in.  Then, we began to set up camp.  When I say camp, I mean a tarp, sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, and hot chocolate.  No tent.  It wasn't aloud.  This was going to be a long night.  Sitting there, we weren't too cold.  Until the sun went down, then it got pretty cold.  But, thanks to Michelle and Andy, we had some fresh hot chocolate and some visitors.   Later, Brian, Justin, Jacob, and Jordan came up to camp for a while to hang out.  That made the time go by much faster.  We were having too much fun to realize that it was cold.

Later that night, around 12:30, after all of the boys had left, we got down in our sleeping bags.  I was pretty warm, even though we looked homeless... I told myself, I'm only going to be cold if I think I'm cold.  So I'm going to dream of the sahara desert tonight!  I actually got to sleep very quickly.  I was shocked.  From about 1am-4am I got good sleep, after 4, the concrete started to get to me.  I never realized how hard concrete was until I tried to sleep on it with just a sleeping bag and a tarp between me and it.  I don't recommend it if you can help it!

We woke up about 6:30 because we just couldn't handle the hardness anymore.  I felt pretty good about the sleep I managed to get, all things considered.  Even though we did wake up with FROST.  Yes, FROST on our sleeping blankets, I stayed pretty warm through the night.  Avery and Bre left at 7 when Audrey and Michelle got there, because they had early classes.  I had to wait for another hour.  But I knew I could make it.  I was never so excited to see Justin in my life.  He was there to take my spot with hot chocolate!

So I went to class, and then decided to go back up there again around 10 or 1030.  By that time, the line had already moved to in between Mackey and the IAF.  I knew it would be happening soon.  At 130 I got the text.  WE HAVE OUR TICKETS!  I was never so excited to see those words in my life.  The expectations for this season are so great, I was just excited to get through the line with no problems and have the tickets in our hands.

Now, if November 2nd would just get here.

Boiler Up! 

Why Should We Pick You Over Your Brother?

For many people this week involved the Industrial Round table interviews, but for me, I had an interview this week that was the most important one of all.  The Paint Crew Advisory Board interview.  If you don't know what the Paint Crew is, never talk to me again.  Just kidding see this.  As a "lil freshy" getting my foot in the door was hard enough, but thanks to the best big brother in the world, Brian, he got me into the Paint Crew last year, meaning I get all the e-mails that are sent out to all of the Paint Crew, including the Advisory Board application.  When I got this e-mail, I immediately decided I was filling it out.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to be apart of the advisory board, especially this season!  So I fill it out, and wait.  I get an email back from Tom, the president telling me I have an interview at 6 on Wednesday.  I was so ready! Especially since Brian had his before me, so he could help me out a little bit so I could be as prepared as possible.

The day is here....
I'm excited all day for this interview, I can't really concentrate because I just want to get my classes over with so that I can start this interview.  I get done with my English conference early, so I go on over to Rec 116 where my meeting will be.  I get myself ready, go over my card of stuff that I had written down; and wait, and wait, and wait.  I was there 45 minutes early, because my conference didn't take as long as I thought.  So I think I was making myself more nervous sitting there, but I had nothing else to do.  Finally, it is my turn.  I was so excited.  As soon as I walk in, I just felt like I belonged.  They were really cool about everything.  We did our introductions, and I immediately played the name dropping card, and as soon as I told them that, they were even more cool with me.  Mike Klein was the first person to say something, and if you know anything about Mike Klein, you would understand.  He was the first person to get kicked out of line, because no one from his group was there, and now he is the Vice President of the Paint Crew.  As soon as I said my name and the Brian was my brother, he said, I can tell... but you are pretty much the polar opposite of your brother, and I like it.  I knew this interview was going to go great after that.  Tom, the president, was next with asking the questions, first it was tell us something interesting about yourself, and I pulled out the ACL card, of coarse taking it back to the basketball team! I said how I was a lot like Robbie, Mike gave me the weirdest look I had ever gotten.  I told then at the end of my Junior year, I too tore my ACL.  But also, I told them that I hate IU more than I love Purdue.  They really liked that one.  :)
The first real question I was asked was why I wanted to be apart of the Paint Crew Advisory board.  I said this is going to be a special season. Sorta like Brian did in his blog, Final Four or DIE!  I said that I wanted to be part of the advisory board the year we won the National Championship.  Tom really like that answer.  I said some other things too, but I can't remember what they were.
Then, I get the question why should we pick you over the other people that applied?  I told them because not only do I love Purdue and have a huge passion for the Paint Crew, but that I have a much smaller learning curve thanks to Brian.  But since I put on my application that I was president of the booster club for school, they asked me about that and what ideas I had about making the PC better, I told them some ideas that I had... they seemed to like those as well.
The last question of the day was by far the best though.  Mike Klein looked at me and said "Melissa, look at me... I have a question for you." I though "Oh, great, what is he going to ask me?" He begins to smile, and says "If there are two people fighting for the 9th and final spot on the PC Advisory Board, why do you deserve it more than your brother?" I was shocked for a second, I didn't know what to say.  Tom looked at Mike, looked at me, and said, you don't have to answer that.  Mike said, "Oh yeah you do."  So I thought about it for a second, and decided that I was going to give them a pretty awesome answer.  I told them something to the effect that I am so much more outgoing than Brian, I would be willing to do anything for the PC to make it better, whether that be dressing up like an idiot, jumping up and down, standing on things, yelling til I lost my voice, anything to help make the PC the best student section in the nation.  They all started laughing, and Mike said... Far enough. Thanks for answering that.  It wont' leave the room. :) Then the interview was over.   I feel like I accomplished what I wanted with the interview, making myself sound like the type of person that is willing to do anything to make the PC succeed.  They seemed to really enjoy talking to me and I felt like I fit in with them so well. 
Hopefully, I will be letting you all know soon about the joys of being part of the Paint Crew Advisory Board this season!

For now,
Boiler Up!
Melissa

Weekends Like These

I officially LOVE long weekends as a college student!  Most students go home, so you really get to know the "core" group of people that you have been and will continue to spend your time with over the next 4-5 years.  For me, this weekend was one of those.  While a large number of kids from church went home for the Labor Day holiday, I stayed up here.  This was one of the best decisions I have made as a Boilermaker  so far.  The weekend went a little like this....

On Friday, I was sitting outside my Spanish class, waiting for it to be out time, and my professor walks by and decided to sit down with me, normally I would be a little creeped out by this, but I was watching a YouTube video that Brian had posted.  She is watching it with me.  I've decided from this, she is pretty cool.  Then I decide to show her (WHAT??) this awesome video.  She though it was awesome!  Then she proceeded to tell me that she was going to let us out of class early today.  She made the entire class happy then.  So after I get out of Spanish early, I go back to my dorm to realize my roomie has left me for the weekend!  I was sad about this.  When you are in a little room with someone for this long, you begin to be excited to get to go back and talk to them.  And plus I knew this weekend was going to be awesome!  So then around 6 we go down to a local park and decide to play "volleyball" no one was really into playing. But that was totally fun.  We made sand castles while we were waiting for it to be our turn, and just having a good time talking.  Then, Jacob, Michael and Andy decided to make a human totem pole...

As soon as we get there, everyone takes a couch, or chair or something, but the cousins wanted to love one another and decided to sit together.  Michael is very excited about this, Jacob on the other hand, make your own decision.

So after that excitement, we decided to go back to Avery and Katherine's house and get some pizzas and watch a movie, well the pizzas happened, but instead of movies, it turned into Mafia, and Catch Phrase.  Then all the carbs started to set in, and we were all really hyper, so thankfully, Avery has a park right across the road from her house, so about 10 of us went over there at about 11 and played Ghost in the Graveyard, Tag, Hide and Seek, all those game you play when you are about 8 out on the playground.  It was awesome!  There was hiding in bushes so we wouldn't get tagged, there was some random falling to the ground when a car would pass, because if you didn't know this, you aren't supposed to be in the park after dark.  Who knew?  After we worked off all of our carbs and were calm again, some of us needed to go to Wal-Mart and get some food, and other school stuff.  Since we were with upper class men, we decided it would be a smart time to go.  The ride over there was quite the fun ride.  I was in a car with Avery, Caleb (Avery's little brother), Jacob, and Michael.  Let's just say we had a lot of fun.  Between the singing and "dancing" it was a very eventful ride over to Wal-Mart.  Once we got there, we actually just got our stuff and went in line, but remember, this is like 12:30 AM and I had been up since 8 so I was getting a little sleepy by this point.  Then, while we are waiting on Kyle to get through the line, we are all sitting on the benches.  As Kyle walks over, he was like this would be the perfect photo.  Look homeless.  So we did.

Then, we decided to look crazy.... Notice the change in Michael's face.

After the midnight Wal-Mart run, we go drop people off and then I go back to Avery's and spend the night.  We stayed up til about 3:30 watching A Walk to Remember.  I love that movie! :)

Now on to Saturday:  I go back to campus and get ready for the day.  We are going over to Audrey's to watch the Purdue game...So at 2:30 Jake comes over to pick up the 3 of us who are going over there... Another fun ride! :) So we get to the house, I am helping with making the desserts and stuff for the game.  Everyone else gets there around 3 and we sit down to watch pre-game and we are being very HOPEful.... well, there was a very sad outcome to said game, Noter Lame got the best of us, but I did see some Hopeful things that came out of the game!  We ate dinner, and then came back to campus.  Laundry is what I filled my Saturday night with.  Thrilling right?  Not so much... But I had Sunday to look forward too because I knew that my friend, Ashlyn was coming up!

Sunday:  Get up, go to church, then after church we all decide that we want to go eat together.  Me, Ashlyn, Brian, Bryan Dallas, Micah, Jacob and Michael.  It was a good time! :) We had a lot of fun getting to just sit and have a meal together.  Then Sunday afternoon, Ashlyn and I walked around campus and I showed her the ins and outs of Purdue.  As I am showing her, a family walks up and asks me if I am familiar with the campus, I tell them yes I am a freshman this year.  That proceeds into a campus tour.  It was fun!  Then we all go our separate ways and Ashlyn and I go get Den Pops! Yummy!  Then we came back and hung out until the song service later that night.  That was such an uplifting time! :)  Then we went over to a families house and ate, played volleyball, and then when it got dark, we watch Up on the side of the barn! That was a cool thing! I had never done that before!  Then we rode back with Kyle and Michelle.  

Monday:  We got up, I did homework after Ashlyn left, and then played soccer with some people at church.  I got hurt too! Me and Rachel ran into each other and I messed up my jaw, oh well. I will survive! Then I went to eat with some girls on my floor, the by that time, ROOMIE WAS BACK! So, we went to play basketball.  And then the weekend was over. :(  

This weekend was one of the best for quite a while and I can't wait to have another one like this!

Boiler Up!

Students, Athletes, Community, Boilermakers.

College students... they're all the same right? WRONG! A student athlete walks down the road, and everyone stops and stares, or chases after them.  The first sighting of the year came on Monday, when I got into class (Human Development)  I happen to walk in with someone who I think is a basketball player, and then another.  I know for sure now that one of them is a fellow Freshman, Anthony Johnson.  I was in shock, but I didn't want to be the typical freshman who runs up to them and says DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?  Because, not only was I in a class of 400+, but I didn't want to make a fool out of myself if I was wrong.  But after talking to fellow blogger, here and brother Brian "The Lion", I did find out for sure that  it was him.  I'm still not too sure about the other one though.

I love breaks in classes.  They let you get your homework done, or in my case on Tuesday, go get my Biology lab book. As I walk over toward Mackey Arena to the University Bookstore, I was thinking, man how cool would it be if I happened to walk past Robbie or JJ or E'Twaun? Well, it sort of happened.  I was looking out the door while I was waiting on the lady to check me out, and I though to myself I said, "Hey there's JJ!", but unfortunately, it wasn't too myself.  It was out loud, and so the lady checking me out continues on to say "WHERE?" and I said walking down the street, but by the time she finally came back to realize what she was doing, I was afraid he was too far gone for help.  But thank goodness for crosswalks!  I got pretty close to him at the intersection by the Armstrong Hall of Engineering.  He is HUGE! I didn't realize how tall 6'10" was until I was behind him.  And SKINNY!  As soon as I was out of ear shot of him, I texted Brian and Bre, called Dad and told them what had just happened.

As if the week wasn't good enough, Thursday I was walking through Ford Dinning Court and get behind some guy, that I just thought was tall.  When I got back to the table, I said man that kid is really tall... he should play basketball.  Jacob proceeded to tell me that he was, it was another fellow freshman, Travis Carroll.  I was seeing athletes everywhere! I didn't think my day could get much better than following some random basketball player through the line at Ford, until we were getting ready to leave and we happened to look over to where Carroll was sitting, there was JJ, Carroll, and Anthony Johnson.  Seriously, I have the best luck!

Then today, was meet the football team day behind Ross Ade Stadium.  There were people everywhere and as Stephanie, Bre and myself walked up the hill, we hear the band playing Hail Purdue and we see people everywhere.  The first thing I notice is #9, a transfer, Robert Marve.  He is kneeling down talking to a little boy.  I though, now these are the kind of people we need on our football team and in our community.  As we walk over to get in line, I see him interacting with all of the other people.  He didn't care who you were, if you wanted to talk to him, he would talk to you, and say thanks for coming out to support us. When it was finally my turn, Bre took my picture first and he told me thanks for coming out, same with Bre.

Robert Marve and I

Then we continued on to look around to see who else we could find, and we saw the kicker, Carson Wiggs.  He had quite the line, but we were willing to wait.  He also was taking time to talk to the younger kids and make them feel special.  But finally it was our turn and so again Bre and I took turns taking pictures. 

We also got the opportunity to meet Keith Smith, future NFL draft pick, hopefully, and again, he was so thankful that everyone had taken time out of their schedules to come out and see them.

                                      

There we many other pictures taken, but these were the 3 that really stood out to me.  Not only how they conducted themselves, but how they interacted with the younger kids.  But I think the best part of the day was when we were getting ready to leave and I had just happened to look over at Marve's line, and I  saw a little boy come up and pull on his shorts, and he immediately stopped what he was doing, and got down on that little boys level and talked to him, sat on the ground with him to take a picture.  That just really brought into perspective what today was all about with them. Community.

Even though seeing some of the players from afar, and getting to talk with some this week, I think the best part was seeing the interaction with everyone else.  They know they are athletes and that everyone thinks they are awesome, but they didn't act like it.  They just seemed like they were any other student who happened to be gifted in athletics.  I made the connection today that no matter what we are, students, athletes, small children, or alumni, we are all Boilermakers.

Boiler Up!

Melissa

One Small Step....

            Walking into Owen Hall on August 14^th, I was wondering what had I gotten myself into.  I hear all around me “Hottie Hottie, Hottie, Oye, Oye, Oye” from these crazy people dancing around in bright colored shirts.  After 5 hours of putting stuff together and take beds apart, we finally were done, and it started to feel like “home”.  Bre and I went our separate ways for dinner with our families.  Then when we finally came back, and it had cooled off a little, we just hung out trying to prepare ourselves for the week to come.

            BGR started Sunday afternoon, but we went to church and decided we would just meet up with our teams.  Bre found hers right away, but I had to search for a little while.  When I finally found my group, we were getting ready to go over our first role call.  Then I began to realize why everyone was yelling hottie.  Our group was made up of Hilltop Apartments, Owen Hall, and Tarkington Hall (HOT).   We all walked into Elliot Hall and we are in the nosebleed section, 2^nd balcony!  But man, I still had the sensory overload.  There were people everywhere, yelling cheers and running up and down the asile… being in the 2^nd balcony on the first night was something to experience.  You see every other freshman that decided to participate in BGR.  All 6,000+ of us. 

            BGR was so fun! Our team leaders kept us on our toes and told us awesome random things about Purdue.  We figured out campus and then we all went our separate ways to begin our journeys.  Mine… From Brave to Boilermaker.