Man, Why Did Football Have to Come Back? + A Dallas Blogger Meetup

You know that expression, careful what you wish for? Well I wished for the return of college football season, and I unfortunately got my wish last night.

Here's a quick little rundown on my evening....

6:15pm - I order an IPA for $4 and it is still happy hour until 7pm. Hooray! 
6:20pm - The bar we are at -- Frankies -- is kind enough to turn the sound on for the Vols game, rather than turning it on for the Cowboys preseason matchup. 
6:25pm - Some new friends CB and I made --Tennessee fans, of course-- at last week's SEC Mixer join us at the bar.
6:30pm - I get goosebumps watching the Vols run through the Power T.
6:37pm - Kick off. Can't contain excitement.
6:38pm - I look around the room, beer in hand, football on TV and yell to the table, "IT'S HAPPENING, IT IS REALLY HAPPENING! FOOTBALL Y'ALL" and we all cheers.

--------EVERYTHING IS GOOD IN SARAH LAND AT THIS POINT--------

6:42pm - Tennessee fumbles, I lose my shit, never recover. Wonder why I wished for college football to return.

I then spent the rest of the evening, mouth open, both hands on head, repeating over and over, "WHAT IS HAPPENING?!??!?!!??!" There might have also been a few many choice words involved that aren't relevant to today's blog post, most of them stared with -- WHAT THE ____. You can guess the rest, if you like.

So, let this be a warning to you. For those who have a team that plays on Saturday, don't do it. Don't watch. Do something else. Go play checkers. Maybe walk your dog. Try learning a foreign language. Whatever you do, just make sure it doesn't involve college football. You can thank me later, hopefully in Japanese or maybe even Mandarin.

For anyone wondering, Tennessee actually did win, but that is neither here nor there.
Dramatic much, Sarah? 

ANYWAYS...
I'm a big fan of the word ANYWAYS, such a great transition to basically give the middle finger to whatever it was you were just talking about.

ANYWAYS, my pal Helene had a great idea to host a meetup here in Dallas before she leaves for Germany! We are going to meet downtown at Harwood Grove on Monday, September 12th at 7pm and I hope that everyone in DFW can join us!

But really, come join us, it will be really sad if it ends up being just us. I guess if it ends up being just us, maybe we could finish that Q&A we started on Snapchat at 2am after Taylor's wedding....

I'm no good at Q&A's so please come join us!
Here are the details...

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Cute Gameday Outfit Ideas + Gameday Giveaway

I feel like I spend my entire year on the lookout for the perfect college gameday outfit. More specifically, awesome tees made just for women -- that ARE NOT pink, of course. Finding Tennessee Football gameday outfits in Texas isn't exactly easy, but thank the lawwwd for the internet! When I found Give Her Six's cute line of gameday tee's and tanks, I knew I had to contact them for a gameday outfit idea collaboration. 

Not a Tennessee fan? Aside from the fact that my initial reaction is, "WHAT, WHY?!?", Give Her Six also caters to other schools too, including gameday outfits and cute gameday t-shirts for Alabama, Auburn, Georgia,  Kentucky, Memphis and Vandy. 

I picked out a few of my favorite t-shirts and am pumped to share them with you today. The first shirt I LOVED and knew I had to get my hands on was their "Feels Like 98" tank. For those who are unaware ("WHAT, WHY?!") 1998 was the last time my dear Tennessee Vols won the National Championship. 

White Jeans 

+ Sneakers 

+ Chambray Shirt 

+ Feels Like 98 Tank  (also available in a Tee)

= Easy Comfy Tennessee Gameday Outfit idea 

Or... tie that same tee up with a denim skirt!

|| Tee Idea Number 2 || GBO Tee (also available in a Long Sleeves and Tank)
+ Denim
+ Cowboy Boots

Shirt #3 On Saturdays We Wear Orange Long Sleeve Shirt || perfect as an extra layer for night games

(also available in a Tank) 

Now... how about a GIVEAWAY!?

I've teamed up with Give Her Six to giveaway a shirt of your choice to one of my readers! All you have to do is enter below! Remember, they don't just have Tennessee gear either, check out what they offer for your school...

Tennessee

Memphis

Alabama

Auburn

Kentucky

Vandy

Georgia

OH... and don't forget to tag any and all of your sports photos this season with #GAMEDAYVIBES on INSTA! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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The Loss of My Hero

Due to recent events, it occurred to me that there was one woman who shaped my life more than she will ever know. She won't know, because I've never actually met this woman. She was a role model, a motivator, a fire cracker. She was the best who ever lived at what she did. She is the reason I chose the college I chose. Honestly, in some ways, I guess you could say she shaped my life to bring me to where I am today. 

I'm of course talking about the legend, Pat Summitt. When I was a kid, basketball was my life. I grew up watching Pat coach, and I'm not going to sugarcoat this, she was absolutely terrifying. There were so many times I swore up and down that we were all going to see her head literally explode from anger. To this day, I cannot believe that never happened. 

She was scary, but her players loved her. As intimidating as she must have been, I can't imagine the swell of pride that one must feel upon receiving her praise. Her players then and now would do absolutely anything for that woman, the woman who is still to this day, the winningest coach (yes, both men and women) in NCAA history. In 38 years as a coach, she never once had a losing season. 

Pat Summitt is the reason I went to the University of Tennessee, which was the greatest 4.5 years of my life. As a kid, I of course dreamed of playing for Pat. As it turned out though, you need more than a 3 point shot -- think height, speed, agility, stamina, heart, aggression, defense, perseverance, dedication -- to play for Pat. All I could do was shoot... and I had a bit too strong of a lust for pizza. 

For those of you that don't know, in 2011, at the age of 59 Pat Summitt was diagnosed with Early Onset Dementia and was forced to retire from coaching. I've dealt with my fair share of death of people close to me, but I've never experienced a family member go through what must be unbearable memory loss. I cannot imagine what that must feel like to have your own mother/friend/sister not recognize you. 

I wrote this post while Pat was still alive, but this morning I woke up to an alert from ESPN informing me my hero had died. I'm just really sad today. 

I'll end with a story I heard about Pat on Mike and Mike this morning. She boarded a flight several years ago and, when a flight attendant walked up to Pat and started sobbing.

Pat of course asked what was wrong?

The flight attendant told Pat that when she was a little girl she was in a wheelchair after an auto accident, and was told she probably wouldn't walk again. Pat had come up to her on the sidelines of a game many, many years earlier and told her to never let this chair define her future. You can do anything you set your mind to.

Pat, you will forever be one of my greatest heroes. You taught me that Tennessee is the greatest University of all time, that a woman can do absolutely anything she wants to do, that you can make someone pee their pants just by a single stare and that Geno Auriemma is quite literally the worst human on the planet. 

J/K on that last part. Except not J/K. 

RIP Pat. 

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I Said It's Great To Be A Tennessee Vol

I meant to post today's post on Monday, but seeing as I was hit with the viral plague, I was unable to do so. If I ride on an airplane in the fall I am going to get sick, plain and simple. I should test out that airborne stuff, has anyone tried it? Any success? I currently do not have a voice, so it should be interesting handling the calls that come my way today at work.

This past weekend my girlfriends and I met up in Knoxville for the South Carolina vs. Tennessee football game. I got into Knoxville on Friday morning, and my friend Magen picked me up from the airport and we headed for lunch at Ham'N Goodys, before a day of shopping and manicures. Later that afternoon, in true alum fashion, we drove around campus reminiscing about the days of old.

If you follow me on snapchat, you'll know that I had zero chill. Im not sure what got me so giddy, it wasn't like i didn't spend 4  4.5 years there as a student!

The weather all weekend could be described as BLEH. It wasn't pouring rain, but there were on and off sprinkles all weekend. Just annoying enough that you needed to tote around your raincoat at all times.

^^ It's pretty crazy to me that both Knoxville and Dallas have a sphere structure downtown. Above is Knoxville's, better known as the Sunsphere, which was built for the 1982 World's Fair. Dallas has Reunion Tower which was built in 1976... so Dallas wins this battle! 

Magen and I dropped our stuff off at our hotel and took a stroll around downtown Knoxville. I couldn't stop going on and on about all of the pretty fall colors, we don't have those in Dallas! Looks like Knoxville takes round 2!

Although we didn't stay at The Oliver hotel, I thought their perfect marquee sign deserved a snap. 

The girls and I had dinner at Tomato Head -- because, pizza -- and did some major country music dancing and singing at Wagon Wheel before calling it a night. 

Before we knew it, we were waking up to the sound of Rocky Top being played on repeat at full blast... it was GAMEDAY! 

The four of us clinked our Bloody Marys together, toasting cheers at Sunspot where we had lunch. After I ate enough pasta to participate in an iron man, we hit the road in our cowboy boots and headed to circle park to tailgate. 

We got to the game right as the Vols took the field, running through the famous Power T. Somehow, I accidentally videoed this on snapchat in super-fast mode. I'm still learning snapchat, I can't say I know exactly what I'm doing with that thing. 

In true Volunteer fashion, we managed to blow a 17 point lead in the second half. Luckily, and I do mean LUCKILY, we held on for the win thanks to a last minute South Carolina fumble. 

My flight wasn't until 9pm on Sunday, and I was flying out of Nashville. This turned out to be fantastic because it gave us plenty of time to explore! By explore, I of course mean watch football and sing along to classic country tunes. 

And that's all she wrote, folks. 

All 4 girls went their separate ways, scattered all over the country, with excitement and high hopes for the next girl's weekend adventure!

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I'm Sorry For What I Said When I Was Losing

I'm going to have to break from the social media world this morning, because all of the motivational Monday quotes and posts are just not doing it for me. I am exhausted, and quite frankly I'm pretty stuffed full of bitterness, sprinkled with dashes of lingering depression.
Let me start this post by issuing an apology to those of you at Henderson Tap House, somewhere in the 8pm range. Please allow my shirt to apologize for the things I said when I was losing.  

Ok, I already feel a little bit better. Now I'll tell my story.   We had plans to meet some friends and watch the Tennessee game on Saturday night. Originally, our plan was to stay home, drink some beers and watch it from the comfort of our own couch. When some Oklahoma friends asked if we wanted to watch it together, we jumped on that idea. "Homebody" isn't exactly a term you'd use to describe me, nor CB. 
The first place we stopped, hoping to find a table where we could watch the game, was called Clutch. Formally known as Prime Bar, USED TO BE a great spot to watch a game. To say I was underdressed in a t-shirt and converse would be a gigantic understatement. If you had told me that I had teleported to Saturday night at 1am in South Beach, I would have believed you. Not to mention they were using one of their 4 TVs to broadcast the Yankees vs Blue Jays baseball game.... ON A FALL SATURDAY AFTERNOON. We bailed.  Totally confirming my thoughts that sports bars are dead. We then proceeded to roam all over Dallas looking for a place to watch the game.
We tried to go check out a few others bars nearby. The next place, Oklahoma State watch party, all TVs will be playing that game. The next place, Notre Dame watch party, all TVs will be playing that game. The next place, Ole Miss watch party, all TVs will be playing that game.  
So, where do we end up to watch the game? At the official Oklahoma Sooners Dallas Alum watch party. It was the only place we could find that had the game and sound on every single TV.  Wow, did I feel uncomfortable. As a general rule of thumb, if you aren't rooting for the same team as I am, it's probably not in your best interest to watch the game with me. Saying I'm obnoxious is really putting it mildly. 
So here I am, an orange shirt stranded in a sea of red. 
CB, bless his little heart, wanted to support me and the Vols by wearing the Texas shirt I made him last year. Yes, he is a fan of that other UT.
 

He wore that shirt, to an Oklahoma Sooners ALUM watch party, to support me. Oopsies! Oddly enough, he got far more compliments than dirty looks. One guy even offered to buy him a shot for having the balls to wear that at an OU party! My friend Larissa even borrowed a Tennessee shirt to show her support.

Needless to say, we might have had a beer, or seven, as soon as we arrived. It made the horrific Tennessee meltdown a little easier to take. Thank you CB and Larissa for being such good sports, I won't force you to root for Tennessee again. Also this last sentence is more than likely untrue. I'll meet you guys next weekend at wherever the Western Carolina watch party is in Dallas. Let's just rain on everyone's alumni watch party parade! 
If you don't know what happened, don't ask. I'm not ready to talk about it yet. I'm happy to discuss that Cowboys game though, if you'd like to talk about that.... 

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