It’s been brought to my attention that people in New York don’t say pop, but instead soda. I had friends from California in college that gave me a hard time about saying pop too, but soda never really became ingrained in my brain. Now my New York friends have been hassling me that to be a “true” New Yorker I have to cut out my Midwest usage of the word pop and adopt soda.

Personally, I don’t think pop is leaving my vocabulary anytime soon, but I thought I would pass along the memo. Want to be like a real New Yorker? Soda is the word. What do you guys say? Pop or soda? There has got to be some other people in this world that use pop!

There is one thing in this city that makes me feel more at home than any other and it surrounds my Ala Mater. There are so many incredible places to visit, eat at and explore in this wonderful city, but the one thing that makes my heart melt and feel at home is watching my ducks play. And when I say play, I mean dominate all that is college football! 

Today’s game? UO vs UW, which is always a pretty heated game of rivalry. I can’t remember the last time UW beat us at Football, but for some reason the same threats seem to continue year after year. This year I decided to lay-low on my trash talking to my UW friends (all in good fun!) because I honestly expected the game to be a bit of a blow-out especially with their quarterback out. I will say that although the game ended up living up to my expectations the huskies did put up a pretty decent fight the first half of the game. 

Regardless of who we play and how we’re doing though being in a room with a sea full of yellow and green with people yelling O and high-fiving each other makes for a happy heart. There you have it. The key to my heart isn’t lavish gifts, fancy dates, or poetic spiels, but rather putting me in a room with my “people.” Oh yes, despite your previous knowledge of duck fans I need to fill you in that we should be classified as our own group. It’s the truth. For it takes a special person to understand just how intense about the ducks us fans are! Add in a couple thousand of miles that the fans have migrated from their once home and the intensity steps it up a notch. 

It’s something that words really can’t express, but once you’ve experienced your first duck game it all makes sense. Sense of why duck games in the city have become one of my favorite things to experience. So for those of you who haven’t had your first duck experience yet.. get on that. It might truly change your life, for the better of course! :) I love my ducks! Oh yeah, we play “Return of the Quack” at the watch parties too. Could it get any better? I don’t think so. Home sweet duck home in the city.

“Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week”