photo diary: the craziness of chilifest 2013

You might remember my pictures from last year's Chilifest, or maybe you don't give a [insert word in your own vocabulary here] about my life and accidentally clicked on this link. All you need to know about Chilifest before looking at the pictures are a few things:

• It goes down in a huge field in Texas
• Country artists perform all weekend
• They say there's a chili cook-off, but I've never seen proof
• People camp out Friday night in the grossest of conditions

Now, allow me to show you how this year went down, with help from people on Instagram.

Before anyone really gets there, it looks like a fantastic place to party all weekend....

With a ton of booze you'd assume would never get finished.... [this much is stacked every 10-20 feet, BTW]

Some of the Greeks go a little above and beyond with their set-up...

Most focus on the important things- Like tents...

Poles... 

Or just room to sleep...

And one thing to know: You can wear literally anything you want, but the trashier or more 'Merica the better.

Friday night is normally nothing but a blur, but occasionally you'll remember the special things. 

Come Saturday morning around 7am, game on all over again. Wake up later than 8:00, and you might miss the first Thunderstruck game.

Or the cops demanding that two girls get up on the tables to dance, so they can give them dolla dolla bills. 

Before things really get crazy, you'll remember to "party your sunglasses."

You might actually make it up to the stage for a couple performances, just watch out for the flying beer...

Or maybe you'll accept the challenge of a boot chug...

But most likely your friends will pass out at an embarrassing early hour.

While you make sure not to piss the abundant flow of trashy ladies...

If you're Elizabethany, you'll accept a challenge of "The Wombat." Drinking beer that is in your fanny pack, while doing a handstand.

Eventually you'll realize you can't fit another beer, turkey leg, sausage, or chunk of mud in your mouth, and you'll make your way to the bus.

Leaving behind what looks like a hurricane or tornado stricken town. 

And go home with a ton hopefully a few memories to last you forever until the next morning. 

I won't lie- A lot of times I hate to admit an area does something better than where I'm from, but I really have never seen or even heard of anything like this anywhere near Virginia. It's something special, and no matter how many times I try to convince myself I can't handle it another year, I'll keep going until I have no friends/Team Murtaugh around. Then I'll make some new friends.

If you went to Chilifest, I want to see your pics! Everyone's experiences are so different, and it's really fun to see them. Post your Instagram link [or wherever we can find some] below!

Until next year, I'll continue training.

 love,
elizabethany

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photo diary: my trip to chilifest and college station!

Wow, it has been a CRAZY week, to say the least. I went back to College Station last week and came back to a mandatory "fun day" with the company. Needless to say, it's been hard to get back into work-mode whether I want to or not.

BUT... now it's time to show you the crazy!

Chilifest really has nothing to do with chili. It's all about the booze and some country music, if you actually make it to the stage. We get there on Friday afternoon and don't leave until Saturday night. I slept on the ground with no pillow [which may have been one of the worst things ever, #firstworldproblems], and woke up at 8am to go for round 2.

The Scene:

There were over 100 of us in a small area, all given "Jose" hats, which are party sombreros. We were surrounded by other "teams," but obvi I chose the coolest one, Team Murtaugh.
We had a huge bucket of beer constantly filled with cases, and as you can see, people loved giving beer showers. Why not? There's unlimited beer! That beer trashed our place, but luckily we didn't have to be the cleaner-uppers. My friend's dad made us delicious food all weekend, and some random dude passed out, naked, in front of the porta potties.

The Drinking



There was a LOT of Thunderstruck- the game. I probably never want to hear that song again. Well, not til next year anyway. There was also pouring of the beer [cuz why NOT get sloppy?!], slap the bag [you hit a bag of wine and start chugging... conveniently in a backpack], and packing many beers at once so you can walk around.

The Fun



Go figure- half of my friends don't want their pictures on my blog... but damn, they are some of the funniest pictures I've taken. We did have some karaoke set up which was pretty awesome, we also did some dancing, which led to my falling over [okay, maybe it was more humping than dancing at that point]. And, by the end of the weekend, my feet were pitch black and extra tasty.

The Friends



A lot of people asked me why I would go all the way back to Texas for Chilifest. First of all- don't the pictures show why?! Second- it's probably the easiest weekend for me to see everyone I know in the state. It was SO good to see everyone and kill our livers together.
PS: How awesome is my "Amurrica" shirt?! I got it at Forever21, FYI.

The Aftershow



I rushed back after Chilifest for a shower before heading out to see Tim Halperin perform in town! I was SO lucky that he happened to be there! It was the first time I saw him perform with a full band, smoke, lights... the whole get-up! He was great as ever, and I wonder why HE was opening for Jason Castro and not the other way around, but I guess I'm not important enough to decide anymore. After the show we rallied and headed out for way too many shots.

It was really so good to be back and see everyone. I miss Texas a lot, maybe more than I ever thought I could. It's crazy to think I've been gone for almost 8 months, but it really felt like no time had passed, and that was neat. When I went in to the office, people would say hi, then come running back minutes later finally realizing I wasn't supposed to be there.

Now, I'm still struggling to get back to working reality, but it'll happen soon. For you. I promise!

love,
elizabethany

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