Cameron Crazies

Duke is well known for its basketball team. I guess they're good or something. *shrugs* Just kidding. Brandon has made sure that I am well aware of how great the team is and how amazing Coach K is. Anyway, they also have this teeny tiny little stadium (Cameron Stadium) that they play in. Needless to say, tickets are in short order. So, in order to get tickets, grad students have to participate in a 3 day, 2 night campout/lottery on campus. At random times, night and day, a whistle is blown and everyone has to run and check in to prove that they were there the whole time. You can only miss once. If you stay the whole time you are eligible for the lottery. If you are lucky enough to get your name drawn, they then "let" you shell out 150-some-odd bucks for season tickets. It's a big deal.

Campout was last weekend. On Saturday night the wives (Bran was in a group made up mostly by members of our ward) went up to the campsite for a potluck dinner. It's an amazing sight. Here come the pics (sorry about the quality... cell phone pics).

Most people camp out in tents. They were everywhere. As was the smell of beer (notice the trash bags filled with beer cans. They were by every campsite and volunteers were constantly hauling bags out to a trash truck).















Others rent moving trucks or RV's to stay in. There were two full rows of rv's/trucks. They lined up forever.















Bran stayed in an RV (smart). Here is some of our group from the potluck night















And here we are with my head looking extra large for some reason















Coach K talking to the ticket hopefuls















L playing on the beanbag with her friend Harrison



















L sitting on the curb watching the crowd. You can't tell, but her hair was in cute braids earlier in the day.















All in all, Bran's group did well with tickets and we should get to see a few games this year. As for how Bran himself did in the lottery... it's a sordid story and we don't want to talk about it.