10 Years of SigEp: The last 5

 

SigEp House 2003

Continuing with our top 5 in my 10 years of SigEp series.  You can read the first installment and second installment to catch up if you would like to.  At this point you either know what’s going on or you should go check those last two links out.

The First Class of Brothers at CNU.  E-board sitting in Front.  This Fraternity will be great.

#5 – The Ritual

I think that’s all that needs to be said about that.  The SigEps understand.

Charter 2004

Zollinger 2003

Carlson Leadership Academy 2006

#4 – O’Gradyfest: Also 10 years old this year

I did participate in the weekend events of the first O’Gradyfest, but I missed the biggest part which was the pig roast.  Since I started going 6 years ago it has always been at the Rivah and hosted by Richard’s family at their River House.  It is an event that I look forward to every year now.  One of the best parts about it now is not necessarily the pig but getting to see friends that we don’t get to see as often as we all would like.  The OGF family has become very much like our real family.  We’ve hosted it on cold weekends, in hurricanes, and thankfully usually on one of the last nice fall weekends of year.  It is turning into much more of a family event as we all start to bring our little ones, but that’s part of what makes it great.  The event has changed with us as we’ve all started to get older.  First it included our girlfriends, then we started to bring our wives, and like I said some of us bring our children now.   Here’s to 10 more years of Pig Roasting and relaxing at the Rivah.

#3 – The Root Beer Olympics: We were a dry campus

The Real Beer Olympics.  2008

The Country Club. 2004

Hooters 2004

Fall Festival 2003.

Jefferson East 2003.

Funanin' at the House.

One day we were trying to come up with an event to host for the CNU campus, something to raise some money, and to raise alcohol awareness.  The crazy thing is it all spawned from a challenge another fraternity made while out at the Boulevard on Wednesday night for $3 pitcher night.  They challenged us to a beer Olympics.  It never happened because we couldn’t figure out the details.  Since we were discussing all of this at E-board we decided we should do something on campus during Alcohol Awareness month.  So we did a Root Beer Olympics, we got kegs of root beer and cases of root beer and Regatta’s floor was never so sticky in all of its life.

At the event we had drunk goggles with an obstacle course, root beer pong, a case race, and pitcher chugging.  Now what we didn’t account for in any of this was the carbonation.  So the chugging and case races were not only a race of endurance but probably led to more people getting sick than if we used actual beer.  The beer pong tournament was a way for teams from all over campus to once and for all figure out who was the best beer pong team.  There would be no more arguments because anyone who ever uttered the words, show up at my party and prove yourself, finally had a platform on campus for all to see.

Root Beer Pong also not a great idea, carbonation is not your friend.  All I know is at the end of the night it was SigEp vs. SigEp in the final.  It was my roommate Richard and two other roommates, Paul and Nathan.  In an act of superiority Richard and I skunked the other two in the finals.  As a sign of their terrible play we made them sit under the table until the awards ceremony was over.  It was a great night.  The best part of the even was probably when two brothers rolled the keg of root beer across campus in broad daylight.  I’m sure a lot of people took double takes since CNU was dry, but it was only Root Beer.

Richmond Internationl Raceway 2010

#2 –NASCAR: Spring at Richmond



One of the best events of the year started the year after I graduated.  I invited a handful of brothers to go to the Busch Series race in Richmond with me.  We would go down on Friday and tailgate, then go into the race and have a good time.  It wasn’t hard to get people to come once you told them you could bring in as much beer as your cooler would hold.  It is still something that continues today.  There are years when 20 people show up and others when just a handful of us return.  It’s a great way to start summer, even if it is in April.  Just writing about it now, I can’t wait for next April when we return to Richmond for another race.  We take it all in too.  We spend a couple hours walking around the merchandise trailers; we get there for driver introductions and stay till the checkers.  We used to go to the tobacco tents to get free dip.  Now we usually just go get a picture with Miss Sprint Cup and race each other on the virtual machines. WAR TONY STEWART!  EARNHARDT! Kyle Busch is a b****!  Then after we get out of the parking lot we go to Waffle House which isn’t always a good idea.  The next morning we usually wake up and go to Shoney’s for breakfast.  Then some of us head to the Cup race and the rest usually go home.

Richmon 2006

Richmond 2005

#1 – Brothers for Life

None of the stuff in this list would matter with the brothers that made them possible.  There are stories I could tell for days about the crazy things I’ve done with my fraternity brothers.  There are just as many stories that would probably seem boring to most.  Each one has its own meaning to each of us.  These are the stories we didn’t know about when we decided to join SigEp, they are just the things that happened and made it the best decision of my life.  These things may not get published in the Journal or make HQ very happy all of the time, but they bonded us together.  I can’t wait for the next 10 years of stories.  I also can’t wait to hear about all of the things that the undergrads are doing in the future. 

Planning Casey's Bachelor Party at Shelly's 2009.

Post Game at Bent Willey's in Morgantown, WV. 

My Wedding.  2012

Jason's Wedding 2006.

Axiom Golf Tournament. 2005

14 Inning Nationals Game against the Rangers.

Nationals Game, the year the park opened.

Pink Party. 2009

Joe's Wedding.

Spencer's Wedding 2010

The passing of the Sun and the Moon.

Turkey Trot 2010

Wisest Wizard.  We were very wise.



SigEp Homecoming Tailgate 2012.

Damn Proud.

See you guys on Saturday Night.

Traffic Tickets and NASCAR

Today while I was driving to work I notice one of Spotsylvania’s Finest pulled over another resident in my neighborhood. The Sheriff’s Department randomly patrols the main road through the neighborhood from time to time which is good because it’s not hard to speed on that road. In high school I never drove the speed limit through the neighborhood. I had the need to speed. Part of me always wanted to race cars. Sometimes I did with friends back home on local roads. Yes I realize this wasn’t safe but the thrill was incomparable to anything else I did at the time. During my junior year of high school I received two speeding tickets. One while passing a cop in Stafford County after dropping my homecoming date off. Yeah I’m the guy who didn’t notice he was speeding up to go around a police car. The second I was flying down the road with a couple of other classmates when we got caught by a Spotsylvania Deputy parked on the side of the road. There is nothing more embarrassing then the entire school passing you while you are getting a summons. Thankfully I had friends to share the humiliation with. Either way my parents grounded me from the car both times until I paid the ticket off, which meant waiting for court because I was under the age of 18 and had to go before the judge both times. Thankfully this was before Virginia passed laws taking drivers license away from under 18 drivers.

The reason I filled you in on those two tickets and the car this morning is it reminded me of when my brother was pulled over in my truck in front of the neighborhood. I don’t remember the exact time but it was in 2000 around graduation, that summer, or right after I left for college. Somehow I was blamed for his speeding ticket. My mom stated, “The only reason your brother was pulled over is because he was driving your truck.” My first remark was to ask her if she thought all squad cars had a picture of my truck inside of them with the direction to pull this vehicle over whenever you see it because the driver is more than likely speeding. My brother didn’t even get grounded, to be honest I think he was offered the chance to take a driver safety course and have the ticket removed from his record. I still can’t believe that my mom thought I was the reason he got the ticket. I joking asked if she thought it was impossible my brother was speeding. Was I the only one with the speeding gene in the family? That answer was no because from my senior year on my parents tried hiding their tickets from me. Maybe I should get a pass and say that I only speed because the people who taught me to drive speed?

Still I didn’t learn my lesson. In college I ended up getting two more tickets. The last one was in New Kent County and if you went to Christopher Newport University and were caught speeding on 64 that was where it happened. When I went to court the entire courtroom were people I know from CNU. After college I got caught once in Maryland and that was the last actual speeding ticket I received. A couple of years ago in Fairfax I was driving on the parkway and not paying attention and was pulled over. I finally was stopped by an officer who cut me a break and it was probably the only time I was not intentionally speeding. I was written a summons for “failure to obey a traffic sign.” The lesson was finally learned when I realized I was not going to become a police officer because my driving record was so jacked up and my insurance for my truck was outrageous. I’m not going to lie to you and say I don’t speed. I’m just going to say I stay within a reasonable miles per hour from the posted limit.

No I’m sure you are asking how this has anything to do with NASCAR. Other than the driving fast aspect it doesn’t. But on Sunday Jeff Gordon won his first race in 66 attempts. (Over two years.) My father is big Jeff Gordon fan. We were listening to the race in the car on our way to meet my mother for dinner. All we knew when we went inside was Gordon was battling Kyle Busch for the lead. At dinner my father asked me what was going on in the race so I looked it up on my phone and found out Gordon won. When I told him his face lit up like I haven’t seen it before. My father who has watched NASCAR for longer than I’ve been alive is a fan of the sport. Sure Gordon is his favorite driver right now but my dad still will watch even when he is not winning. Much like Junior Nation is doing right now. But I have not seen my dad as excited about NASCAR in 10 years. This season is only two races old but it has been much more exciting than in previous years. I think NASCAR has finally figured out the new car, the point system, and the chase to a point where the drivers can just race and have at it. All I know is two weeks ago my dad was about to give up on NASCAR and now he appears to be back.