Welcome back to Don’t Blink. It is time for your weekly quick read as I write about five random topics. Here is your latest Thursday Rundown…

Awesome Season Ticket Promotion – The athletic ticket office at Coastal Carolina University is always thinking up fun, yet strategic, promotions. The gift given to football season ticket holders this year is pretty cool. Capitalizing on the popularity of our teal turf, the athletic department took the excess pieces of the surface and distributed them to those fans who purchased season seats. Presenting them in a classy Chanticleer wooden box, it was an incredible idea. Since I am a season ticket holder I received my own piece of the teal turf and I currently have it displayed in my office.

I love my own little piece of our teal turf!

CCU’s Own Celebrity…Robin Russell – This week we returned to the studio to shoot our first two shows of the season for “Coastal Now”, our university news/features program. I am honored to have my own social media segment on the show (called the “Social Circle”) and because of that, I have the privilege of sharing the stage with our host and CCU theatre professor Robin Russell. After the show I asked her to take a photo with me on the set. She kindly obliged and I quickly posted it to Facebook. Immediately the “likes” started rolling in and they kept coming the rest of the day. By 8 p.m. the image had garnered 130 likes. As of right now, the photo has 158 likes. Besides the photo of me proposing to Sidney, I don’t know the last time I personally received so much social media love. Of course the reason for the attention was Robin. I tagged her in the photo and about 90% of the likes come from her Facebook friends. I plan to take more photos with her in the future.

Thanks to Robin, this Facebook post received 158 likes.

Hurricane Joaquin – Myrtle Beach is supposed to be impacted by Hurricane Joaquin! The next three days call for a 100% chance of rain and heavy winds. Rain accumulations are supposed to get anywhere between 5 to 7 inches! While some might think October is late for something like this, the truth is that hurricane season runs until November 30. Not too long after I moved here, Hurricane Arthur threatened our area but never did much harm. Time to see what Joaquin has in store.

Homecoming Week – For the sake of a decent Homecoming Weekend, let’s hope Hurricane Joaquin doesn’t wreak too much havoc. Yes, Homecoming at CCU is here and so far the festivities have gone without a hitch. The Miss Coastal Pageant, ChantFest, and other prior activities ushered this week off to a great start. Tonight is the student talent show which is inside. However, come tomorrow, things could get wet. Over the course of the next two days we will unveil a major landmark on campus, hold a bonfire, offer the fiercest tailgating of the season, and of course play a football game. Lots of people are crossing their fingers right now.

It is Homecoming Week at Coastal Carolina University.

Gatorade – The most popular sport drink on the planet, Gatorade, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. I was delighted by this Darren Rovell article chronicling five items we should all know about the drink. Back in the day when I would drink a lot of Gatorade, orange was always my favorite flavor. My second favorite flavor was a strawberry melon concoction they made for a limited time. I drank a bottle of it before each football game my senior year of high school. When I think about that flavor I can still taste it. The taste immediately transports me back to our fieldhouse where I would drink it as we went through our pregame meeting. My best Gatorade memory comes from the summer of either 2002 or 2003. My brother and I collected every 32 ounce bottle we drank for several months and then made a sculpture with them on our backyard deck. We took photos and sent them to Gatorade. I wish I had the images available.

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If you are out here on the east coast, stay safe. To my friends and family out west, I hope you have a fun and sunny weekend. If I am dry and still have a roof over my head on Sunday, I will catch up with all of you then. Don’t Blink.