Update: Basketball Tickets

Rachel and her classmates had their "draft" for the basketball tickets the other day. Here are the games she picked:
UNC (Rachel will probably go alone)
Georgetown (I will probably get to go alone)
Wake Forest (We got two tickets to this one)
UNC-Ashville (two tickets)
Lenoir-Rhyne (who?) (two tickets)

So we each get to go to a major rival (UNC for Rachel, Georgetown for me) and we will also get to go to a few games together, which should be fun.

In other news, our friend Matt Seashore will officially be the first person to come and visit us! He is coming out in a couple weeks and gets to stay for a whole week. I'm sure I'll post a full update on what we did when he comes.

Duke Basketball Season Tickets

People in North Carolina like basketball. This, combined with the fact that Cameron Indoor Stadium can only seat about 9,000 means that going to a Duke University Men's Basketball game is kind of a tough thing to pull off. Undergraduates, who aren't eligible for season tickets, have to wait before every home game in order to get a seat. They camp out for the UNC game for weeks.

Luckily, as a graduate student, Rachel has a different route to get tickets. I won't say easier, because it's not. This weekend was the 2008-2009 Graduate Student Season Ticket Campout. Even though I'm technically a graduate student, too, they only let full-time students camp out. Apparently my $6,500 doesn't go very far at a place like Duke. Here's how it works. About 2000 grad students all bring tents and beer to a parking lot at around noon on Friday. Then, starting about 7:00 that night, everybody is required to stay around their tents until 6:00 AM on Sunday morning. In between that time, periodic "roll calls" are made. Each person is required to go and check in with the campout committee and prove that they are still going strong. At 10:00 or 11:00 at night, these checkins aren't that bad, but at 3:30 AM, they can really start to drain on you. And there isn't some nice lady with cookies walking around and politely telling you that it's time to check in. There is, however, a blow-horn blasted into a microphone. That just kind of adds to the fun.

So this is how we spent out time this weekend. I think we averaged like 2 hours of sleep each night. In return for going through all of this, you're not even guaranteed tickets. If you make it to 6:00 AM on Sunday morning without missing more than one check in, you get your name entered into a drawing, and you then have about a 30% chance of getting tickets.

In order to make it worth people's while, the Duke PA Program pools all of their tickets together. So, out of 24 campers, if 8 people get tickets these are split up amongst everybody. But only the people that actually win the tickets get first pick of the litter. Which means UNC tickets. Just to let you know, tickets for the Duke-UNC game at Chapel Hill this year (not the one at Duke), are currently being sold for $5000 a ticket on stubhub.com.

Somehow, Rachel won. Meaning that with the UNC game, she will get probably 7 or 8 tickets. We can either keep the UNC game (meaning only one of us could go), or she could trade her UNC ticket with other people in her group and get probably like 6 or 7 tickets in return for this one ticket. Then we could both go together to a bunch of games. I'm not sure what we'll end up doing. It will probably depend on how often we feel like going.

I know a lot of you must be thinking, "Jeez, just sell the fricking UNC ticket. $5000?" Well, they don't actually give you tickets to each game. They give you a plastic credit card-like thing that you can only use along with your Duke ID card. So scalping really isn't an option.

So, Duke-UNC is arguably the biggest rivalry in college sports. I know Ohio State-Michigan football is up there, too. But when you have the two biggest college basketball programs in the country and they're only separated by about 15 miles of the 15-501 highway, it kind of pushes things to a new level. So whoever ends up going to that game, I think it will definitely be one of the highlights of our time in North Carolina.

So, we want to know, what would you do with that UNC ticket? Would you keep it and go by yourself? Or would you try and trade it for a bunch of other games so that the two of us could go together? Let us know.

Our neighbors, Joy and Tyler:

Completely Non Durham-related Post About Cookies

This post has nothing to do with Durham, our new apartment, Duke, medicine, ancient history, or anything else pertaining to our lives right now. It has to do with cookies. It's a craigslist ad that was taken out for a roommate for a Manhattan apartment, and it's hilarious.

new york craigslist > manhattan > rooms & shares

$1 Room for ONE DOLLAR in bright, clean apartment (Upper West Side) (map)
Reply to: hous-834022781@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-09-09, 1:44PM EDT

I am looking for someone to rent the spare bedroom in my spacious 2-bedroom apartment on the picturesque and desirable Upper West Side. You must read carefully, however, as this situation is not suitable for all.

The rent is $1 per month, utilities included, as long as you bake me fifty (50) tasty cookies every day by 6 p.m. If you have not completed this task by 6 p.m., I will pour vinegar on all your belongings, throw them into the street, and have the locks changed. No exceptions and no excuses. Hell or high water, those cookies better be done and yummy.

Cookies are always cookies and never biscuits. I do not eat “biscuits”.

I will decide the specific type of cookie the day before and will submit my preference in writing by 9 p.m. of that day. You are responsible for the recipe and ALL the ingredients (at your expense, of course). The kitchen is large and well equipped with cookie sheets, rolling pins, mixing bowls, etc. You may NOT hum or sing as you prepare the cookies. You may, however, recite song lyrics in a normal speaking voice.

Forbidden ingredients include anise, marjoram, allspice, caraway, and oats. I will nevertheless request oatmeal cookies from time to time and you must find a way to make them without oats. Good luck with that. The worst ingredient of all, though, is NUTMEG. If even one speck of nutmeg, even the tracest amount of the stuff, is discovered in my home, I will pour vinegar on your belongings and chuck them in the street. You may assume the locks will be changed. You may use cinnamon, cloves, and raisins, though I am rather indifferent to these and will likely not be impressed. Chocolate is encouraged, as is vanilla bean extract.

You will be given three cookie cutters: a crescent moon, a star, and a doggie in profile. All cookies must be in one of those three shapes. The doggies must be given names and all the names must be different and cute. Cuteness is my call, not yours. For example, “Smuggins” is cute but “Lionel” is not.

The cookies must be artfully arranged on a lace cloth on a silver platter and garnished. Permissible garnishes include jellied fruits and candied flowers. Sugared figs are under review, but don’t get your hopes up.

Your room contains a twin bed, a dresser, a desk w/chair, and a TV with cable access. The TV is tuned permanently to the Food Network. You may watch only shows featuring cookies and cookie by-products.

If you are interested in this arrangement, please submit the following:

1) Your favorite cookie recipe
2) A picture of tasty cookies
3) A short original poem about cookies

Thank you.

86 at B’way google map yahoo map
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 834022781