Away game weekends are always *strokes chin* -- interesting. Everyone seems to go home for the weekend or just hibernate.

So, needless to say, when there are less people around, there is usually less opportunity for nightlife. But have no fear; there are plenty of ways to occupy an away game weekend. Here are just a few:

1. Go home. And yes, I believe the majority of this campus did so. I was out around 9:30 p.m. and State College had taken on an almost ghost town-like status. Although, there could have been more unseen nightlife thriving within the bars. Which brings me to option #2 ... !!!

2. Go to the bars. At least the bars will never go home on a weekend. At least they'll always be there for you. They're the "what do you want to do tonight?" stand-by and yes, it's where everybody knows your name.

3. Go ice skating!! A group of Collegianites took a trip to the Ice Rink Pavilion this weekend to test out their Michelle Kwan skills. I wanted to go dearly, but had already made plans to go see a movie (Away game weekend option #4). I feel like ice skating is one of those things that elementary school teachers would promote. It's a physical activity, it's social and it's a learning experience! Yippie! But in all seriousness, it is definitely a nightlife activity option and even if you can't skate, leaning up against the wall and pretending you can while pointing and laughing at those who can't is acceptable participation.

4. Go to the movies. I, myself, partook of this option. I saw "The Kingdom." It made me nauseous, and for two reasons - 1) It's really gory and 2) the cinematography is on crack. The camera kind of does a "through the soldiers' eyes" thing and it's shaky and flashes back and forth. But otherwise it was a decent movie. Plus, tickets are cheap here compared to everywhere else and will take up at least two hours of your time to fill with wonderful weekend magic.

5. Go to the mall. I can't remember the last time I went shopping. If you don't have a car, the bus sucks, and if you do have transportation, you're going to need someone to go with. So if all your roommates went home and left you to fend for yourself, you're probably not going to want to go alone. That's when you shop online. And fill hours adding things to your invisible shopping cart, oblivious to the total you're accumulating. Alas, the beauty of clicking a mouse.

6. Go ... no where. Stay in. Yeah, I've talked about this before, but staying in encompasses a lot of stuff. This could mean renting a movie, watching a heck of a lot of football OR hosting a drinking game (a "300" variety of sorts has popped up, where you watch the movie "300" and drink every time you see a six pack. *swoons*).

So you see, there's a cornucopia of nightlife ideas. It's like freakin' Thanksgiving! I know I'm thankful ...

- Erin