Life in Pendleton

Sooooooo....


Junior year marks my first time not living in a residence hall (dorm, dungeon, cubicle, prison cell, whatever you want to call it). After a series of unfortunate events (among other things, signing a lease and then being told they're not building your house anymore) my roommates (brooks and lily) and I ended up moving to a bustling city, with tons of shopping, nightlife, and hot people (start making your vacation reservations now). I know you're probs dying to know where this metropolis I call home is located. Well it's about 15 minutes from campus in.....drumroll please....PENDLETON. Yes, that's right I'm living in Pendleton. 

Now I'm assuming you've never heard of Pendleton (let's be serious, no one has) so lemme just paint you a little picture of what it's like. Well first, I have to pass through exactly one traffic light on my home (never mind the fact that the average speed limit is 31). The big happenin downtown section of P-Town is shaped in a square. I'd say it takes about 137 seconds to walk from one end to the other...seriously. What swanky stores line the square?  Funny you should ask, Pendleton just so happens to be the mecca of antiques. Literally 5 of the 8 stores are antique stores (one of the non antique stores is a bridal shop complete with feather boas for your big day). Also the people are actually antiques themselves. I'm pretty sure the average age of a person living in Pendleton is 67.


As far as nightlife goes....it's magnificently sketchy. Driving home late at night during recruitment there were always cars parked in the street but no people in sight (c'est bizarre, non?). We were all convinced that Pendleton hadn't received the memo that Prohibition was indeed over and that they had some sort of speakeasy. Obvi I made it my personal mission to find it. I drove around the infamous square late one night and saw some light peeping out of a door. It turns out there's a real life bar called the Islander. All of the shades were down (sketchy) so I couldn't tell what was going on inside (i'm assuming old people boozing and discussing their recent antique purchases).



so ya, if you're in the market for some antiques or a new grandma come visit meeee

Best.Date.Ever.

Jarheads

All throughout orientation I've been a representative (along with Aliza, Greg and Karen) for the College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities. Our main job is to sit on stage (look sexy) while Eddie Smith wins the parents over (with his stories, charm, and great hair). If you don't know who Eddie Smith is, you might as well crawl in a hole due to shame and embarrassment (seriously).  He's a Clemson legend. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. This man has the gift of gab and has made it into a career. You should see how after he's only been talking for 2 minutes he's got the entire audience of previously disgruntled parents now googly eyed and drooling in the palm of his hand. I told ya, he's got a gift. What's even better is that despite the fact he's actually like 50, he's still basically 22 years old (you'll see what I mean later). I wish I had a picture of him for you because he's a BABE.

So at our last orientation session Eddie is all like...give me a call (he gives his cell out to everyone) and we can do lunch on Friday. We're all extremely giddy at the prospect of a lunch date with Eddie. Well Fri rolls around and operation Lunch with Eddie in in force. Greg calls him up and it turns out Eddie already has plans (he's just so popular). Sad day. Hopes and dreams crushed. BUT WAIT. Eddie suggests we should do dinner (at Wingin' It of course). OMG did we just secure a dinner date with Eddie Smith!?!? This is SO much more exciting than just a regular ol lunch date. Oh happy day! Hopes and dreams alive and kickin. We tried to make the time until the big date pass as fast as possible by going to Greenville. It worked. Before we knew it, it was DATE TIME. After some final primping we (Karen, Greg and I) headed downtown to Wingin' It (it's a bar/ wings place duh) to meet our love. Ahhh butterflies.

And so it began...


the best dinner date ever in the history of dinner dates. 

After we all sat down (in a cozy, romantic booth) the waitress comes over and asks us what we want to drink. Eddie (being the babe that he is) wants to get us a pitcher which then forces each of us in our under 21 glory to go around the table saying how we're only 20. Talk about embarrassing. But being the ever gracious date, Eddie takes one for the team and says he won't drink if we can't. This little incident opened up a lovely dialogue (it was Eddies doing) on fake ID's and where you can use them dt etc etc. This was just the beginning of assorted scandalous topics we would come to discuss with a professor. We all were happily munching on the tater tot appetizer Eddie ordered as he told us story after story of Clemson's glory days. Let's see... before karaoke they held Sing-a-Longs at what's now Sardi's Den.  Lyrics were written out on flip charts and if it was your birthday not only did you get to lead the sing a long but you also got to take home this sweet pointer that said "I led the sing a long." Eddie made it sound like the greatest thing ever. He told us about the midge with the raspy voice they all called Willow (among various other nick names). How could I forget about the time when he brought a 13 year old boy (he thought he was a senior in highschool) out to a party. Eddie (once again as the ever gracious host) asked one of his lady friends if she would show the kid her boobs....she did....and then the kid asked to touch them. bahah. This was Eddie's clue that he was in fact a boy just hitting puberty not graduating high school. Eddie was also super excited because the japanese students were going to be coming to town soon (he likes to make them sing "row, row, row your boat."). In other Eddie news, He was locked out of his house this morning in his boxers (who knows).  Apparently Eddie is having a party next week and we're invited because "no one likes a wiener fest."  He had us so enthralled in scandi conversation that we didn't realize he had already paid the bill. After hugs in the street, Eddie strutted back up the street to his apartment (conveniently located within a stumbling distance from downtown).

*sigh*