my life now: anything but simple :)

So let me start out this first blog by sharing a few things about myself. I am a college student and have 60 roommates. All girls. They are all amazingly beautiful and talented... and competitive! This has won our sorority several first place titles in a wide range of areas: dance competitions, beauty contests, flag football games, volleyball tournaments, tennis matches, philanthropy events...should I go on? 

Our latest quest has been... drum roll please...an eating competition at a local pizza restaurant. They created a bracket and matched the various Greek organizations up against each other. Each week the group that has the most moves up the bracket. So, of course, five weeks later my sorority is in the top two. Our competition: our biggest rivals, the "pandas." 

Today was the last day, tonight: the showdown. Around 4:50p.m. a big group of us went for pizza appetizers and gelatto (before our 6 p.m. dinner of course). We finished dinner like champs, only to be surprised by our house mom that dessert was on her! So, we all walked down to the battlefield and had round two of gelattos! 

The rest of the night was fairly regular, a chill evening of having dozens of girls pop there head in the room to interrupt my every attempt of quietness. I was planning on calling it a quiet night. That was until 10:45 p.m. came around and the breaking news came: we were losing by 7 points and the "pandas" were ready to buy. 

Reminding you of our competitive nature, this information did not come lightly. We all changed out of our pajamas, grabbed the wallets and sped on over (parking and sneaking in the back entrance, of course)! 

The small restaurant was packed with giggling girls, all faking smiles and whispering as soon as you turned away. With only ten minutes left, we went into winning mode. With about 12 of us and 20 of them, we needed some serious strategy! So... obviously we started by multiple pizzas and four or five ice creams. Who cares that the prize was a pizza party and $500 to our philanthropy totally about $3,000 less than we had spent over the past weeks. We simply had to win. 

After locking the doors at 11 p.m. and serving the rest of people in line (we were going through for the third and fourth time at this point), they closed the register around 11:24, okay, not around... exactly at 11:24. The group of us were awkwardly waiting by the door, ready to make the quick escape just in case. Instead, when we were announced WINNERS it left all the "pandas" trapped between us and our prize! What a sight! All of us cheering and hugging, completely barricading the door... the scene was priceless.

The pride in winning felt great (in contrast to our stomachs which were bloated and in pain from too many pepperonis and gelattos).

The point of this drawn-out story is this: these moments in my life are priceless, and there is nothing in the world I would exchange for them. At the end of the day, however, I have had three dinners, spent $20, have to come back to a messy room, unfinished schoolwork and only six hours of sleep. I want to try and figure out how I can continue having and sharing these amazing experiences life offers, while learning how to simplify my life. When it is all said and done, winning this competition means what? That I got a funny story from belonging to UGA's most prideful and fattest sorority? I want to find ways to satisfy myself so that when it IS all said and done, I can be confident that I SIMPLY LIVED.