so much fun!

2007-12-21T07:03:00.001-08:00

Our trip up to the mountain cabin back in November.
I love fall!
Me at Paris Mountain
Arevig, Demelza and me at the Thandroyen party
Vaughan wins the prize for the tackiest sweater.

Quick catch-up

2007-12-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, so my last post was in October?! Here's the quick update:
School: I'm done with school and made a 4.0!! I actually had to say no to dancing for the last three weeks or so of school in order to get all of my work done, but it was worth it. I probably won't be a student for at least the next two-three years, so I'm glad I finished with good grades.
Job: I'm interviewing for positions right now, but in the meantime I've been working with Alice at a little boutique in town. We have so much fun wrapping gifts for people and listening to the constant Christmas music! I enjoy the job because it is constantly busy, unlike the last retail job I had where I had so much free time that I wrote down recipes out of books in the store because it was so slow.
Family: Grandpa is in town, and we had lunch together yesterday! And all my sisters are finally in town at the same time (this is the first time we've all been together since August) so we had a girls night the other night and had fondue. I just really enjoy every minute I get to spend with all of them, and it seems as if it will be more and more common that we only all get together twice a year or so. It just isn't probable that we will all live in the same city. Since Cate has been gone and Jess and Leah are busy with married life and their jobs, and since Anna is down in Columbia, Alice and I really have gotten to be great friends. We actually went to the movies last night with some of our friends. It's really cool to be able to consider my sister that good of a friend that we are sharing friends now.
Friends: My friends have been having nonstop Christmas parties lately, and I don't want to miss a single one! I don't know how much longer I'll be around here, so I'm soaking up my friend time.
I'm off to work, but I'll post pictures soon from the different parties in the last few weeks.

I love the fall

2007-10-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Jessica, Joel, Leah, Reagan, Alice and I went up to Sky Top Orchard to go apple picking. We had such a great time, even though there were no apples to pick (there was a bad frost last spring and most orchards in the southeast lost everything). It was a perfect fall day: chilly, blue skies, crisp! We wandered around the orchard taking pictures of the sheep and goats and just enjoyed being with each other. I know I say it all the time, but my sisters are my favorite people in the world! I only wish that Anna and Cate could have been there with us! Alice and I rode together because Jess and Joel had to meet up with a friend and Leah and Reagan were going to a bed and breakfast for Leah's birthday (go Reagan! good present!).
Al and I are pretty close lately I think because we are the only two single sisters here in Greenville (we miss you, Cate!). It is going to be strange in a couple of months if we both go away for school - everything will just be completely different. I had an aunt recently tell me that women live many lives, and I think that's true. I can tell that I'm on the brink of a different life right now. I can look back and see myself in high school or early college and feel like those were different lives than I'm living now. So Alice and I are going to be living different lives one year from now than we are right now, and it is exciting! I love not knowing what to expect from the future, but being able to rest that I have a heavenly father who loves me and wants the best for me.
I know I didn't write a whole lot about it, but my trip up to D.C. was a really important growing time for me. At times I felt empowered and stronger than ever, and at other times I felt like I have no idea who I am or where I'm going in life or what I want to do or be. I found myself succumbing to a very superficial mentality of worrying about what other people think of me and how good/bad my fashion is and how little/much I've traveled, etc. Then I came home and saw something that reminded me of everything I've been through in my life and brought me back to the reality that these little things that I want to try to impress people with (travel, education, how I look), while they have their place and I want them in my life, are not ever going to be what makes me me, or makes me important, or makes me special, or makes me a person who knows how to live and love other people. I want to be others-focused, and while on my trip I think I became very self-conscious and self-focused, worrying about whether I have what it takes to live in a city like this and find friends among the successful people around me.
I have two months left of being in this place in life. I want to enjoy the moments leading up to change!

This week in pictures

2007-10-26T08:52:00.001-07:00

The waterfront in Alexandria. So beautiful!! I enjoyed my first afternoon in the D.C. area here just reading and watching people.

My afternoon at the Smithsonian.

I spent Tuesday at my Grandmas house in Maryland. I can remember seeing the front doors after a 10 hour drive with the family and feeling so relieved, knowing that a huge meal awaited us inside. I love this house.

It is so good to be back home with my girlfriends! Cyrus and his family were perfect hosts, and I am so glad I got to know him as well as I did, but there is nothing like spending time with girlfriends. Last night we all went out to a salsa Halloween party! Riina (the geisha) almost won $100 for the best costume!

The Last Two NIghts

2007-10-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Thursday night I stayed up till almost 2 having a great talk. And last night I was up 'till nearly 5. I love good conversations! There is no better reason to stay up late!

Day 1 in D.C.

2007-10-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was so cool. I flew in to Baltimore and felt so nervous/excited about my interview that I had to make it to by 1:30. I picked up my car and started driving and didn't stop moving/driving/walking/taking the metro until literally 1:25. I made it to the building that the interview was in just in time to wash my hands and walk upstairs. I had looked great at 5am, but after flying/driving/riding/walking I looked a little desheveled. I came in and met the woman interviewing me and began filling out a standard application when the fire alarm went off and everyone started leaving the building. So I filed down the stairs with everyone else who works in the building. It was actually pretty funny! Just completely unexpected!
After the interveiw, I had about four hours to kill before I could go back to the house that I am staying in (everyone was working until 7:30). So my friend Cyrus told me of an awesome place to go and hang out near to the metro that I had parked at. It was in the middle of Arlington, and it was so charming! King street leads down to this great harbor with a dock and a really cool little restaurant called the Chart House (I want to go there sometime!). I got a caramel apple cider (my current favorite drink! I love fall!) and went by the waterfront and sat on a bench and read a bit of "Ender's Game" (thank you, Ryan F.) and also read some Billy Collins. I thoroughly enjoyed my day. While sitting there on the dock, I thought about my future self coming to this same spot with people I love like family and friends. I don't know what the future holds, but I have the feeling that I'll frequent that spot many times in the coming years if I move here.

I made a 99

2007-09-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

on my first statistics test!! Yay!

I know the heart of life is good

2007-09-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

Tim and Ali had one of the most awesome receptions I've been to! Check out the beautiful couple!
This is a picture of Keeron, me, Christina and Curtis at the wedding reception.
I love the way the night pictures looked from this night!
Vanessa, Ellen, Ryan, Travis and me at the top of Turtleback.
No, this is not the waterfall that I slid over!! This is Rainbow Falls, which is maybe 1/4 mile hike down from Turtleback.
September so far has been incredible. The last few days have felt like the first days of fall, which usually doesn't happen until late October! I actually wore my hoodie last night when I went over to the outdoor basketball courts to cheer on my friends at their pick up game. Really, though, the weather has been so cool and crisp and the kind of weather that inspires me to wear a light sweater and want to drink my latte outside.
I didn't write much about it before, but Ali and Tim's wedding was beautiful! The weather was perfect, not too hot but not cold, and the sky up on the rooftop was perfect, and dusk is by far the best time to begin a wedding reception. I loved the night. It was an evening of good friends listening to music and laughing on a rooftop with white lights all around.
A few days ago, my friend Ellen and I decided to get a little group together to go up to turtleback falls and rainbow falls. These falls are about a hour and a half away from Greenville, and the drive there is always almost as fun as actually being there. Our friend Vanessa came along, as well as my new neighbor Ryan (Cate, you'd love Ryan. He just moved here after getting his masters in Amsterdam. While in Amsterdam, he went for two months to South Africa to do his thesis and help a tribe with environmental conservation, etc. He's a really cool guy). We drove up on Tuesday morning and met up with this guy named Travis when we got to the falls.
Turtleback is a waterfall that I've been to millions of times, but I've always been too chicken to slide down it. I know that at least once when I was there I saw an ambulance come because someone got hurt, so maybe that has always freaked me out. Or maybe I'm just chicken. But this time, I at least sat on the edge for a while and contemplated sliding down. After watching Travis easily and quickly slide over, then seeing Vanessa slide down (unintentionally; she was yelling for us to help her stop sliding but we couldn't reach her), I really wanted to go down. I mean, if neither of them got hurt, what were the chances that I'd knock my head against some rock or get pulled under some strange current or something? Probably not too high, right? But I kept sitting there next to Ryan, trying to psyche myself up to go over. Finally, Travis came back up to the top of the falls to go over again. I told him I wanted to go over but was too scared, so he grabbed my hand and we went over! Going over a waterfall is one of the most exhilarating and terrifying feelings that i've known. Once you do that final push off and your'e sliding and then in the air rushing along with the water you know that you cannot go back and change your mind. And when you finally go under the water in the pool below you feel so brave and like you can take on anything. At least that's how I felt.
Since our adventure at Turtleback, I've just been trying to keep ahead in school and I've been having a lot of fun with friends. I've spent a lot of time dancing and cooking dinner for friends (Anna: remember that curry chicken with the cheese sauce and rice? I made that last Thursday for some people. I know that was always something you liked a lot). Even though this month has delivered some major disapointments so far, life has also been very rich with great times with friends and family.

Sisters!

2007-09-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

Anna is coming to Greenville, and I think all of us sisters are going out for dinner (except Cate!). I miss you, Cate! :( Out of all the people in the world, I think I would choose my sisters over everyone to hang out with. Jason and Joel will be at dinner, too. Fun times!

Photo journal

2007-09-03T09:14:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of Tiffany, Ellen and me at our friend Heather's wedding last month. It was a gorgeous garden wedding and reminded me of some kind of fairy celebration.

My friends are awesome! Here is a pic of Marco, Michelle, Tim, Ali, Mary Grace, Vaughan and me at a concert last weekend. We went to this great venue to see Bebo Norman, who is awesome in concert because he's so genuine and full of stories.

My friend Ali just got married yesterday! I have pictures from the wedding on the way, but here we are at her bachelorette party having a blast. We rented a limo and about 11 of us went out on the town. Here we are at some country dance club. I loved that she was wearing a white feather boa and a crown. Congratulations, Ali!

You know you're a nerd when...

2007-08-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

You catch your sister and you talking about how much fun the TI-89 calculator is.

Last night I had Leah, Reagan, and Alice over to my new place for dinner. I just moved in and wanted an excuse for cooking a good meal out of my new cookbook called "How to Boil Water." The cookbook is awesome and so easy to follow. It's made for those people who don't want complex recipes or directions but want straightforward, good food to cook. One of the directions for the balsalmic garlic chicken I made last night said, "Dredge (coat) the chicken." I love that - the person they made this book for doesn't even need to know what "dredge" means! Anyway, the meal was delicious (if I might say so!) and the company suberb! I wanted to have family over for the first meal here with my roommate because family is always so relaxing to be around. If I had had other people over I would have been so much more concerned with having everything looking perfect - this way we just hung out on our plaid couches (we don't have a dining room table yet - that's coming next week!) and just talked.

At one point, Alice and I started talking about our math classes that we are both taking. We both have to use TI calculators, and we started talking about how much fun it is learning all the cool things you can do on a calculator, and that's when Leah and Reagan rolled their eyes and Alice and I realized that we sounded hilarious. It's probably as bad as when Jess, Cate and I end up in some conversation about how we wish other people would figure out when to use "I" or "me" in a sentence.

School is going really well, speaking of school. I'm enjoying all of my classes and feel like I'm learning a lot every day, which is great. I'm still looking for a job for part of the week, but my schoolwork keeps me busy! My first test was yesterday in anatomy and physiology 2 and I did well even though I went dancing and to Brixx the night before! I need to stop going out so much, but lately I've been justifying it because I know in a few weeks I'll be so overwhelmed with school that i won't be able to go out. It's always been easy for me to live in the "sieze the day" mentality. I just lately have enjoyed my friends so much and have been putting time into certain people who I really enjoy and love being around. It's been a rich last month or so for great new friends and going dancing and going to Boston with sisters and just enjoying life.

Highlight of my summer...

2007-07-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

Every year, my five sisters and I get together for the "Sisters No Misters" trip. We started this tradition seven years ago right before the oldest sister, Anna, got married. Our fantastic and generous Aunt Tricia has funded our trip so that we have no excuse to not get together. Our first Sisters no Misters was fun, but every year it seems to get better. Maybe it's because we see each other less and less throughout the year as the years go on. This past year, Alice was in Australia for 6 months, and the year before Cate was in S. Africa. I feel like I realize more and more that these girls are my best friends and all of us as a group rarely get to hang out with each other, so the Sisters No Misters trip is the highlight of my summer!
This year, we all went down to Orlando for our Sisters No Misters. We had such a blast! We stayed in the Embassy Suites about five minutes away from Disney World, which was the perfect hotel for us. It had a sparkling indoor/outdoor swimming pool, a hot tub, free breakfast (pancakes and omlets cooked to order!), and happy hour every day from 5-7:30pm. The happy hour was definitely a favorite! We seriously got to try out as many mixed drinks as we wanted. After about an hour of getting drinks we had about 25 empty cups on our table that had been everything from white russians to malibu and sprites. Yum! Most of us girls are pretty frugal, so we never would have actually gone out and ordered and paid for that many drinks, so it was really nice to have that included!
We decided to spend a day at Epcot, since most of us had never been there. We had such a fun time! We rode on almost all of the big rides, and my personal favorite was one that made you feel as if you were taking off in a space shuttle. It was really amazing! Another favorite activity from Epcot was the "Honey, I shrunk the audience" performance. I've never been to even a 3-D movie before, so this was a lot of fun!
A fantastic fireworks show ended the evening for us. The show was in the center of the lake that all the little Epcot countries surround. The music and the fireworks were orchestrated perfectly and were absolutely beautiful!
The best thing about this trip was that we all got along so well. I would choose to hang out with one of my sisters over almost any of my friends! They are just wonderful!

Weddings!

2007-06-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Anna and Jason are so cute! It was especially fun to watch you guys dance and then the music paused and you thought it was over and then the music started back up again and Anna looked excited to still be dancing but Jason looked at his watch as if to say, "How much longer is this song gonna last??" It's okay, Jason, just stay away from the salad dressing and I'm sure Anna won't mind if you take a break from dancing.

I love this one of Charity and Paul. They look so happy! It was a gorgeous wedding!

My sisters and me on the back porch of the 1830s house that Charity had her wedding at. The house and surrounding area reminded me so much of my Grandma's house up in Maryland, with the deep green woods surrounding it with fireflys.

Pam is such a great friend!

Leah, the beatiful bride, right before her wedding!

Jess and I had very adorable shoes that made our feet very tired.

Jess is always a character.
The last couple of weeks have been so great! My sister Leah got married and then Charity Gould got married. Here are some of the best pics.

Prom and Polo

2007-05-07T10:55:00.001-07:00

On Saturday night I went to a prom. No, I didn't go with some 17 year old boy (i try to not date guys more than 5 years younger than me!! ha ha!). My friend from Rock Hill, Brenna, got me a ticket for the "Second Chance Prom" in Charlotte. All the money went to a charity, which made me feel better about going to a prom (I could just tell people, "Oh, I'm busy at a charity event this Saturday night...it's a sort of gala"). So my friends and I got all dressed up and danced the night away with other twenty-something/thirty-something/forty-somethings who wanted to pretend to be in high school again and get dressed up for prom. Patrice, Brenna and I ended up wearing almost the same exact dress, which we thought was pretty funny. "i just feel like I really stand out in this, you know, I feel so original," I told Patrice when she complemented my dress! We had a really fun night.

The next morning, I drove to Camden to go to the first Polo game I've ever been to. It was definitely a cultural experience!! There were women in all kinds of crazy hats (I think the woman in the lime green had should have won - it looked like she made it herself!). There was a group of women next to us, all about forty-fiveish, with the typical blonde hair and lime green capris with tank tops with grapefruits on them (you know the type of outfit), all drinking their wine with ice. One said her name was Dixie. It was so perfect! I did enjoy gettting dressed up, but I couldn't bring myself to wear the hat that Alice let me borrow. I think my head looks weird with a hat on it - some people actually look really cute, but not me!!

So in all it was a very busy, very fun weekend! I'm looking forward to this Tuesday when anna will be done with exams and she and Jason will be home sweet home!! We will go to Dads award ceremony for his poem that he won first place on!!

Recently...

2007-05-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Music that I've been especially in to lately: Band of Horses, especially "The Funeral."
Books that I've been reading: "A Walk in the Woods," (absolutely hilarious and it makes me think of Jess and Joel every day becauuse it's about the AT), "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (a bit sentimental, but pretty good), and "The Things they Carried."
Stuff that's been making up my days lately: I fixed my A/C in my car!!! So now I can have a cool car for the next summer that I own it and have a car that someone may actually want to pay money for whenever i sell it! Also I've been checking into transplant centers in the northeast. Pretty exciting, I know!

gorgeous days and cool nights

2007-04-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been so perfectly beautiful! And when I get my air conditioner fixed in my car things will be really perfect!! I'm taking my car in this Tuesday to have everything fixed. I finally realized that I may as well fix it now and enjoy it because if I ever want to sell this car anywhere in the southeast I'll need a working a/c!
Last night I met up with a couple of friends downtown and we just got ice cream and walked down to the west end. There were a million people out, the sky was that awesome bright blue that happens after the sun has gone down but it's still light, and the air felt not hot but not too cool. It was so nice!! I could have walked for hours!
Lately I've been coming home at a reasonable time (before 11) and I've really just been enjoying my time alone to relax, take a shower, get in bed, and read some good book. My current books that I've been working on are: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, about a little girl growing up in 1912 ish in New York and she's very poor; A Walk in the Woods, which is written about the App Trail and is hilarious!!; and The Things they Carried, a story about people in WW1 and the things that they were carrying with them the whole time. It's nice to finally be making time to read again!
My sister, jessica, pointed out to me that I don't have very many friends. We were discussing the fact that I am very critical of people sometimes, and I think that's a bad thing. I think that is part of why I don't have a lot of good close friends. But I quickly pointed out to her that she doesn't have a lot of friends, either. Then we started justifying why we just don't want to hang out with people who we really don't enjoy. But really, I think I'm in the wrong for being so critical. It is so rare that I meet people and really, really like them. Usually I find something that I think would get on my nerves if I hung out with them for long enough. I really want to work on seeing every person I meet and hang around in the best light and finding whatever there is postive about them! That's been my big resolution since yesterday. I want more friends - good quality friends. I realize that there are going to always be people that I dont' enjoy as much or who I don't click with, but I want to think as highly of everyone else that i can!

For Anna...

2007-04-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

We kept our swimsuits on just to take pictures, but you can even tell in the picture that there isn't that much sun out there!

On Tuesday night last week my friend Gwen called and asked if I wanted to go to the beach on Wednesday. Since Tuesday was so gorgeous, and since I actually have a work schedule that is flexible (which I won't have starting in May with school), I decided to go! We left early-ish on Wednesday morning and headed down to Charleston. The sky looked a bit overcast and it was kindof cold, but we kept saying that it would warm up. I mean, it HAD to warm up if we were driving all that way to hit the beach, right?

We pulled into the Chick-fil-A on Folley beach around 11:30, and it was still chilly enough to want a jacket outside. We ate our lunch and headed out to the beach. The beach was beautiful, in that deserted, it's-about-to-rain kind of way. There were four guys in sweats playing football, and there was us in our bikinis, pretending that those goosebumps on our arms and legs were not from the cold. We set out our towels and actually ended up getting maybe 30 minutes of sunlight that was warm enough to let us rest on the beach, but then it just got more and more cold and windy. After an hour and a half (at the most), we wrapped our towels around us and headed to the car.

Our main topic of conversation on the beach (besides the obvious topic of boys) was our weight and how neither of us want to lose weight, necessarily, but just tone up and be more fit all around. Get our "beach bodies" back, if you will. So what did we decide to do when we left the beach? After all that resolution on the beach about getting toned and fit, we promptly headed into downtown Charleston to the candy/gelato store near the market. Gwen bought a half pound of fudge, and I knew I couldn't just watch her eat fudge by herself, so I bought some, too. Then we got gelato. Then we tested out their taffy. What can I say? When you make it all the way to Charleston and don't even get to lie out in the sun you have to make the trip worthwhile somehow!

We ended up having a great trip despite the cool weather. It's always nice to nurture a friendship like that, especially when that friend doesn't mind an afternoon of eating gelato and fudge!

On Saturday, some friends and I went white water rafting with a group called the Venture Crew. Venture Crew is a part of the boy scouts, but is coed. We piled into a church bus (all 8 adults and 3 kids) and headed up to the Natahala. I love rafting!! Honestly, the most nerve-wracking part of the trip, and the time I felt the most unsafe and close to death, was while we were in the bus. The guy driving got lost in the mountains, and I think because of his frustration he was driving even more crazy than usual. Also, we were in the mountains, so every second we were on some kind of turn or switchback. I seriously thought we were all going to die by going off the side of the mountain. When we finally got on the river, even though I fell out of the raft in the first five minutes, I felt no fear of death. :)

Here is a picture of Christi and me on the bus we nicknamed "Heaven Bound." It wasn't as funny at the time.

Ryan's match!!/Alice is home!!

2007-03-16T10:16:00.001-07:00

It's been a great week! On Monday night, Alice returned home from living in Australia and India for seven months! Finally, all the sisters were together in the same house! We haven't had that since our beach vacation in August! Here is a picture of Alice and me in front of her very cool "down under" welcome home sign, made especially for her by Jess and Leah.

As if Alice coming home weren't enough good news for the week, Ryan had his match day on Thursday and matched at his #1 spot!! He's still glad that he interviewed at all 11 places, because you never know with the match process where you will end up, but he is pretty excited about getting into the Georgetown radiology program in D.C.

Here we are post match!

Black Tie/White Coat Gala

2007-03-04T14:10:00.002-08:00

Here is a picture of Ryan and me right before the black tie/white coat gala last Friday night! It was so much fun to take an evening just to dress up and be with friends and have "free" drinks and food! Most of the people at this event were USC med school alumni; needless to say, there was plenty of people-watching the whole night. A lot of the important people of Columbia showed up at this event. And the music all night was mainly catering towards those 40-somethings in the crowd! Ryan and I had a blast just dancing and having fun. At one point in the night, Ryan said he wanted another drink so that he could look as stupid as his friend, John. He meant it as a compliment, I think, because John had no reservations about breaking out his Cosby-like dance moves on the dance floor. The whole night was a lot of fun!

Another pic of Ryan and me at the gala

This was our group - they are Ryan's friends from down in Columbia

The next morning, Ryan and I met up with my awesome sister Anna and her very sweet, fun husband Jason. Ryan knew of a great little pancake house in Columbia, so we just met up and talked and had a very nice, very huge breakfast. It was great seeing Anna; since she lives in Columbia it's harder to get together with her! She looked beautiful and rested, and when I told her how bright her eyes looked she said,"That's because my baby's here!" It was sweet! :)

To Boston and back!

2007-02-21T08:35:00.000-08:00

I actually returned from Boston a few weeks ago, but I never posted about it! Now that I know that my sisters actually read my blog I'm going to be posting more often!
The trip to Boston was great. I flew up on Sunday to meet Ryan, who was already in the area doing interviews. It was so good to see him because we had been apart for about two weeks. My wonderful Aunt Tricia and Uncle Doug opened their home to us and we stayed with them until Friday! Ryan had interviews Monday through Wednesday, so I basically drove myself to dialysis and just had "me" time on those days. Monday night, Ryan and I went to the Harvard club for a dinner with other applicants to on of the Harvard hospitals. It was a lot of fun! We had a very nice meal and sat with some good conversationalists. I made fun of Ryan because he had been telling me how bad these dinners were, how uncomfortable he always felt, and then we ended up having this great time! "That wasn't so bad!" I told him. "No!! It usually isn't anything like that! It's usually terrible!" he told me.
Tuesday night we got to hang out with Tricia and Doug a bit. We sat around and talked and ate chicken noodle soup, an Uncle Doug specialty!
Wednesday night, we drove to Weston to visit Aunt Colleen, Uncle John, and Irene! Irene looks like she could be 17! She and my aunt are both so beautiful! We had a wonderful dinner and just enjoyed talking. I'm so glad my relatives got to meet Ryan!
Thursday was our big day in the city. We had planned all sorts of great adventures, and of course we were going to walk the entire Freedom Trail before going over to Harvard square for dinner. After about one block of walking in the twelve degree weather (and it felt colder because of the wind) we ducked into a Starbucks to recover. The entire Freedom Trail was NOT going to happen!! We did go to a few of the important landmarks and went into buildings as often as we could to get out of the cold. I think we should go back in July to try out the city again. January is probably not the smartes time to try to walk Boston.
We ended up going to Harvard Square to get drinks at this great little restaurant. We sat and talked and drank for about 3 hours. It was so nice to be in a warm spot in the middle of Harvard Square!
We stayed with Tricia and Doug until Friday, and then we headed to Pittsburgh, PA. We stayed in Pittsburgh until Tuesday morning, and had an interesting time there. It is sad; the best evening we had in Pittsburgh was on Sunday when we visited the Sceince museum and saw an omnimax movie and then went to a riverfront restaurant to get drinks and dinner, but that night we both woke up at around 1am to throw up. So I'm not so sure I love that restaurant, even though our time there was great. It snowed a lot in Pittsburgh, which I was very happy about! Boston only got a light dusting while we were there, and I love snow!
We ended our trip by dropping by Indianapolis and then driving back to Greenville. On the whole trip neither of us got tired of each other at all, which I hear is a good sign. :) It was great to spend time in all these different cities with the guy I'm in love with! And I'm so happy I got to spend time with the best relatives a person could ask for!
Oh, about that hat that I'm wearing in the picture: Ryan bought it for me the day after we spent the coldest day in the city of Boston. Aunt Tricia thought it was "so interesting! Isn't that something!?" I think those were her exact words. Okay, so she may not have been the biggest fan, but Ryan thought it was adorable! :)

And a Happy New Year!

2007-01-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I've thought that life is equally balanced with good and bad, so if you have a really bad morning you usually will have an unusually great night. That isn't always the case, but I know that when I think back on new year's eves of my past I see great ones and really crappy ones. One year I babysat the whole night and ushered in the new year by watching dating game shows. (Sad, I know!) But new year's eve 2006 was one of the best I've known! Yes, I was wearing my new dress that my wonderful boyfriend Ryan bought for me, and yes, we went to a romantic dinner and held hands and sipped champange for hours before heading to a party with friends, but I am convinced that I could have been equally as happy sitting next to my fireplace in p.j.s as long as I could have the same company. Being in love makes little things great!
I had a fantastic new year's eve this year, and I'm so excited about this new year. I love the thought that I have no idea where I'll be next new year's eve. The future feels so big and full of possibility! I'm teaching English as a second language as well as working my web design job, so I'm gonna be busy. Plus I'm planning on going to the gym 2-3 times a week. And I want to cook dinner for myself/someone at least twice a week. And learn guitar. And learn hip hop. And learn to sing. And travel. And learn Spanish/French.
So what about you? Where do you hope to be in a year?

NYC with my Sweet Boyfriend!

2006-12-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

Ryan and I had such a fabulous time in New York City on Sunday! Here we are with the famous Rockefeller tree in the background. The highlight for me on Sunday was our carriage ride through Central Park that night. Ryan knows how to treat me right!! :)

It's Christmastime!!

2006-11-26T16:33:00.000-08:00

The other night my roommate Ali and I decorated our Christmas tree! Don't we have the awesomest little cozy living room? I love it! We had friends come over to help with decorating, and we even ate delicious, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies! What a very nice night!

Top Ten

2006-11-23T10:15:00.001-08:00

Top ten thing I'm thankful for (in no particular order):
1. My boyfriend, Ryan, who shows love to me in little ways every day, and who fixed the faucet in my sink so that it doesn't splatter me every time I turn it on!
2-6. My sisters! Anna, you're such a great listener and good person to talk to! Thanks for being such a good friend! Jess, you always laugh at my jokes, because you really think I'm funny! I can't wait for you to be home for good. I love you, too! Cate, you're so fun to hang out with and talk to! I have a lot of respect for you and I think we have a lot in common - in other words, I think you're so cool! Leah, you make me laugh like no other, especially when you have a song for the perfect moment. I'm so excited for your wedding. And Alice, we all miss you! I miss taking pictures of you and Cate doing your faces. You are a great friend, and I think of you often.
7. Good laughs about episodes of The Office.
8.Thanksgiving poetry and haikus.
9.Mom and Dad, two of the coolest people I know.
10.My three huge windows in my bedroom that open up to a yard full of leaves. I love my room!

Proof

2006-11-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

See? I told you it was freezing cold!!!
We were all so happy to be out of there, but the entire trip was worth seeing this sunrise!