Native Naked Wings

Monday September 5

Fun fact: Every single year on Labor Day Steph and I get invited to go on a hike, and every year we think about going but then we never do. This year though, Jenny wanted to go on a hike and I actually went... but I made sure it was an easy hike and that it was early in the morning before it got hot. So Jenny, Kenzie, Chandler and myself went and hiked the most complicated hike in Tucson... Sentinel Peak... haha. The sad thing is that it's a really easy hike but I was so sore for the next few days because of the incline, I am #soweak. 

After the hike I went and ran some errands, and then went shopping with the roomies for all the Labor Day sales. Forever 21 had some fantastic sales, as well as Hollister and Old Navy, so it was clearly a successful labor day. 

Even though it was Labor Day I still had to do Wildcat work for Tuesday, so that's how I spent my evening. It's kind of funny the way the newspaper business works... everyone got Sunday off because Monday was Labor Day but we did not get Labor Day off because Tuesday is not a holiday. When I wasn't working I was watching movies with my roommates... the only way to spend Labor Day really.

My roommates also started to make a snapchat filter on Monday night for our upcoming 70s party... oh yes that's right we are going to have our very own snapchat filter, we take our parties very seriously.

Tuesday September 6

Work was work... nothing too exciting. I went to dollar lunch afterward but I didn't have a dollar and I didn't really like the sandwiches that was being served so I just socialized. We told people about our snapchat filter for the party and Andrew volunteered to design one for us, so I told him what I wanted as the filter and then he went to work. If his turned out better than the one Steph designed with Snapchat's templates then we would use that one instead. 

My class on Tuesday was rough... I could barely stay awake. The great thing about this class is that every time a story is due we do not have class that day (and we have a story due pretty much every week) but the not great thing about this class is the day that we actually have class it's so terribly boring... just can't handle it. 

After class I worked at the Wildcat. It was a fairly easy production. I am kind of just in auto pilot mode with this job... which is probably a bad thing but you know I haven't messed up too bad... yet.

When I came home from work it was finally time to solve the mystery of who punched me at the YSA activity... It was between Jenny and McKenzie... and even though I was 98% sure it was Jenny... she would not fess up. It was a big ordeal that involved a lot of voting and a lot of interrogation. She did finally admit it that night but then quickly took it back (update: today she actually did admit that she did it). I am glad it's all resolved now.... and now I just have to punch her back when she will never know.

Wednesday September 7

Wednesday was a little out of the ordinary. 

I usually wouldn't talk about the bodily functions of women on my blog, but this was too much of a crazy situation to not blog about... so if you aren't interested in the topic, just scroll down a little bit.

The following two photos are screenshots of two separate messages on McKenzie's phone from me and Steph, pay special attention to the time stamps. If this doesn't make Steph and I roommates of the year I do not know what would. 

McKenzie wins the tampon fairy award.

My ASN class was cancelled so I hung out at the Wildcat for a little bit before I went to the Tucson City Council for my RPA class. There were a few items on the agenda, but I decided to write about spice, a synthetic form of marijuana that is taking over Tucson. After the item was discussed I decided to dip out of the meeting so I could start writing my article about it. The article wasn't due until Thursday @ 10 am, but I wasn't going to be on campus at that time so I figured it would be smart to just turn it in Wednesday night. If you know anything about me and journalism, you know that the photo side of journalism is second nature to me.... the writing and reporting side is a tad bit more stressful. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to write the article at the Wildcat where there is a bunch of people around. Wasn't the greatest idea especially since High School Musical 3 was playing on the TV and I just can't resist singing along. But it also wasn't a bad idea because I was surrounded by a bunch of journalists with writing as their second nature so they could help me out a little bit. 

Thursday September 8

I set up an appointment to go meet a rancher toward the US/Mexico border for my ASN class on Thursday morning at 8. Chastity is the real MVP and came along with me for the ride and to make sure I didn't die. She's seriously one of my favorite travel companions, so I am going to drag her along for all my interviews since this is our last semester together. 

The ranchers were Jon and Peggy Rowley and they're probably the coolest people on the planet. They are UA j-school alumni so they gave me a lot of valuable information to go into my article. I don't think I could ever handle being a rancher... I'm just no good with animals... but the amount of money that ranchers make is so insane, I would almost actually consider it. Right before Chastity and I left their house they showed us a couple of bulls that recently needed medical attention. Jon told me that just one of the bulls' heads weighs more than I do... so that's only a little bit terrifying and I just don't get bull riders at all. 

I was starting to get sick on Wednesday but I was feeling pretty good Thursday morning... up until we arrived back to Tucson, then it all went downhill. Since I requested Project FOCUS off for the day I just went straight into Wildcat to do production. I was pretty much dying by time I stepped in the newsroom. Luckily my EIC was really chill and told me I could go home when I got all the work I could do at that time (usually there are events and photos that come in later in the day that make me stay around the wildcat longer). I tried to finish my work as fast as I could, so that when I finished I could just go home and sleep. But just because I was at home, that didn't mean I wasn't working anymore so I had to keep the ringer on my phone on so I could wake up every time someone called with a question. Luckily I got in few hours of sleep during the day all together... but I just felt so terrible. This my friends is my September sickness. It happens every single year at the beginning of the school year when new people are giving me their new germs and my body just doesn't know hoe to react. Luckily Thursday was the worst day for my sickness, and I woke up feeling a little bit better on Friday.

Shout out to Steph for buying me a Ginger Ale, she's a queen.

Friday September 9

Like I said, I was feeling a little bit better on Friday but really only like a 5/10 compared to the 1/10 I felt on Thursday. I felt confident enough to go to work since I only had a couple hour shift. By the end of the shift I bumped myself up to a 6/10 as I went to EBoard at the Wildcat. Apparently a lot of the editors completely forgot about this weekly meeting, so it didn't really happen, and I got to leave early, which meant I got to catch more than just the last ten minutes of devotional, so that's a good time.

For the free food Friday lunch at the institute they were serving this delicious jalapeño grilled cheese sandwich, I highly recommend. While I was at lunch with a bunch of cool cats, the conversation somehow landed on us someday wanting to try all of the flavors of hot wings at Native. Andrew being the fun person that he is was like "let's do it tonight" and then the next thing I knew I was making a giant group chat for a bunch of people to go to Native to try all the sauces and rubs for wings. One of the girls who was part of the original planning committee can't eat gluten, so we looked up if Native had a gluten-free menu so she could be part of the experience too. Not only do they have a gluten free menu, but the gluten free wings have the best name. You just ask for them NAKED. I thought that was hilarious because Native also has chicken strips on their menu called "strippers" and I just thought about Diana ordering the naked strippers, and I just died. So that was the name of our group: naked strippers. For all the people who were sitting at the table when all the planning was happening it wasn't a weird name, but for the people who were invited later it was a little strange. Or if you're Travis (who wasn't at the planning table and had no idea what was going on when he was added to the group chat), you just think a group chat called "naked strippers" is a normal thing. I was dying.

The finalized Naked Strippers were: me, Steph, McKenzie, Jenny, Andrew, Abby, Rory, Diana, Harrison, Carly, Kara, Brittany, Sam, Travis & Derrick.

I know what you all are thinking... you had no idea I had so many friends... I had no idea either.

After lunch and planning what could have possibly been the greatest night of my life, I had to go to a few meetings at the Wildcat. I feel like I have a thousand meetings a week at that place, but I guess that's just part of being an editor. I also discovered that the Wildcat's telephoto lens was a little bit broken so I had to take that into a camera repair place. I am not the biggest fan of my photographers when our telephoto lenses just mysteriously break without it being anyone's fault... the Nikon one was unrepairable when that one broke (and we still haven't replaced it) so I am hoping the harm on the Canon one was very minimal so it can be fixed.

Eventually it was time for the Naked Strippers to shine. Unfortunately a few people couldn't make it, but Carly and Travis both brought a +1 so it was okay in the end.

If you are wondering how we went about this, this is how it went down. Each person bought 6 hot wings plain and then we had all the sauces and rubs in their own little containers for us to dip our wings in to try. So each person had their own plate of wings and then there were three platters of sauces and rubs. We divided ourselves up into three groups (really just three tables) and each group tried all the sauces/rubs on their platter and then once everyone tried all the ones on that platter we switched. It was genius, and probably the greatest idea ever. 

I think everyone agrees that ghost pepper is the best sauce, right Abby? Oh boy did it burn... I only dipped it in a little bit and my mouth burned for years, I can't imagine eating an entire wing smothered in that sauce.

Our waiter was the best person in the world and informed us that if we downloaded the Native app then we would all get 6 free wings... which meant a really cheap dinner for all of us (even cheaper for the Beezies because Andy is bae and picked up all of our tabs).

After dinner Kenzie, Jenny and I joined Rory, Sam, Taylor and Andy for some Settlers of Catan, I didn't actually play. I was there to socialize. Once again, another totally exciting and hyped up end to a Friday night. 

Saturday September 10 

Saturday morning I drove Kenzie and Jenny to the Buffalo Exchange $1 sale. I am never impressed by this sale so I just drove them there and then started doing my Wildcat work until they told me to pick them up. Turns out they weren't all that impressed by the sale either, but it was a good and hot experience for them nonetheless.

My family came for the football game in the early afternoon. Kenzie, Jenny and myself went to Blake's with them where my roomies and I played some of Avery's very exciting rhyming and syllable games that she makes up. They actually make no sense, and neither do her scoring rules, but somehow Avery and I won every time so I really can't complain. 

After lunch we went to the Bookstore so my father could buy his cousin's son some Arizona swag, since he was only wearing ASU attire at the family reunion over the summer. 

Afterward we split ways. Kenzie and I decided to go the YSA Mt Lemmon activity with Steph, Jenny and Andrew instead of going to the game. We figured a game happens almost every week, but this activity only happens once a year, so we went with the activity.  

The Beezies picked up Andrew and then made our way up to the mountain. We made it just in time for dinner. I was a little bit salty because there were hot dogs but no hot dog buns and a hot dog on a hamburger bun just seems like a ridiculous notion, so I went with a hamburger instead. After we ate dinner we went to the infamous rock where Taylor and Natalie got engaged, so we could take some photos. This is the perfect activity to update everyone's profile pictures. Last year people got mad at me for not bringing my camera, so I made sure I brought it with me this time.

After we took all the pictures we needed we headed back up to the camp for the devotional. We were all actually interested in this devotional because it was about the Tucson Temple, but the microphone was barely working so we could barely hear the temple workers... so instead we threw pine needles in Jenny and Mckenzie's hair and Andrew made rings for Abby, Steph, Kenzie, Jenny and myself so now we are all married. Steph had the biggest ring though so we all know who the favorite is. 

After the devotional it was dance time. I danced for quite awhile until Andrew disappeared and then Jenny, Kenzie and Jeremy disappeared trying to find him. So Steph and I went on a hunt trying to find them all. Andrew is known for just disappearing, so we were mostly concerned for the other three and their directional skills. Turns out they were all together star gazing and didn't think to tell us when they found Andrew... fun times. Once we found them all though Steph and I went back out on the dance floor. During our hunt we missed quite a few grand jams, but thank the heavens that Gabe warned us before Believe came on, so we were able to control the dance floor for that song.

By the end of the night my voice was completely shot. Half from my sickness (it was already pretty raspy before the party) and half from my scream singing. But no regrets. 

Sunday September 11

Church is all sorts of messed up right now because all of the people who had leadership positions are gone and they haven't been replaced yet. Everything was kind of all over the place and random, but it was still another great Sunday. There was also very few people that actually came to church, which is super lame because I was so excited a couple weeks ago about how big our ward was with all the new people moving in.

We also didn't have any speakers in Sacrament so we did a testimony meeting type thing where people could go up and share their favorite hymn and choose one verse for everyone to sing. I actually really love when we do this, but it always makes me wonder if the bishopric just forgot to ask people to speak and so they scrambled. 

After church Andrew came over to design the snapchat filter for our party, and then Rory walked a few steps to come party, and then Travis came over to hang out for a little bit... so clearly it's a Sunday party. There may have been some broken sabbath pizza, but maybe not...

For the rest of the day we are all just being lazy and watching some weird ghostbusters show that is apparently very serious but none of us can take it seriously. 

And yes... we did watch the High School Musical Bad Lip Reading multiple times this week. It really should just be implied at this point.