1. When do you feel happiest? Every night for dinner, my family would always partake in “family dinner”.  Usually, it would consist of any/every night except Wednesday (church) and Friday (out).  Our dinner would be okay, but usually, the dinner would end up with mom laughing so hard she was crying and blowing milk out of her nose, me with a stomachache, and Dad and Andrew quoting Monty Python or Lethal Weapon or something ridiculously funny.  I miss those.

2. How do you take care of yourself? This summer, I had the wonderful opportunity of not eating meat.  I felt great.  I ate mostly organic, absolutely no processed food, and, clearly, no meat.  It was glorious.  My body felt wonderful.  I drank lots of water and kale (which is not as bad as I thought).  I’ve promised myself that when I grow up, I’m going to have my own garden/farm where I’ll grow my own heaven.  Also, next semester I’m taking up Yoga and getting my lifeguarding re-certification.  Hopefully, this will help my wellness.

3. Are you internally or externally motivated?  I’m definitely externally motivated.  Looking at other people’s successes, I constantly think to myself “I can do that.”  Whether it’s working out, doing well in classes, or reading other people’s blogs, I think to myself “I can do that”.  External motivations all the way.

 4. What do you do for fun?  I sleep.  All the time.  Or I watch movies.  Sometimes I go out to eat or the organic side of Harris Teeter or Earth Fare all by myself. 

5. What intimidates you?  Seeing people happy at what they do.  I’m so scared that one day, I won’t be able to do what  I love, or even worse, I won’t know what I love..

6. What is something you are proud of?  I am proud to have the parents I do.  They are so….cool.  If you would have asked me about my parents in high school, I would’ve given you a dirty look and thought you were crazy.  But, looking back, and looking now, my parents could be so much worse.  I love them, and wouldn’t trade them for the world.

7. Finish the sentence: I never…go to bed late, unless it’s completely necessary.  I love sleep.

8. Favorite vacation spot?  Momma can give you better details about this- when I was younger, my family and the (I’m pretty sure it was them…)Morris’s (they have three kids, Jeffrey & Rachel, and Ben) would go to Myrtle Beach (before it got tacky) and camp out for a few days on a campground.  We had a camper, old school, and it was awesome. Best vacation ever.

9. Today is a (rate from 1 to 10)  Today was probably a 4.  I got a call this morning at about 3 am to go to Roddey (Residence hall across the street) to let some residents in.  Then, I couldn't go back to sleep. I woke up and walked over to Residence Life to say goodbye to a good friends who's studying abroad next semester.  I came back and slept practically the rest of the day.  Also, I didn't talk to Amy at all today.  No buenos.

My Christmas

I love Christmas.  It's my favorite holiday (besides my birthday, of course).  There are so many traditions that I participate in.

Started last year, my big, Diana and I get together at night (usually during Finals week), we eat dinner, make cookies, and watch the classic Christmas movies:

The Muppet Christmas Carol



Elf


The Family Stone


The Family Stone is probably my favorite movie..ever. With Elf a very close second.  We refuse to watch any of the clay mation movies- because those are creepy.  So Diana and I hang out, catch up, and snuggle- because we're awesome.

This year things are a a little different- I'm an RA in a building that technically never closes.  So, I'm on call..until Christmas Eve.  Normally, I'm home for a very long time, but, this year, I'll get home around 2 on Christmas Eve.  My grandparents will be there, with gifts, mailboxes to go on our tree (with money inside) and a big jar of "loos" change to count and roll.  As a family (which if you knew us, you'd know is super ironic), we go to the Christmas Eve service at church (again, ironic) and then come home and eat oyster soup.  We open one gift, always the pajamas.  Every year, Mom used to make our pajamas, and I have to admit, they were pretty awesome. Now, it's apparently cheaper just to buy the pajamas.

Christmas morning, Mom and Dad wake us up to open presents.  See how the times have changed? Now, our parents wake us up. Funny.  Dad makes this awesome Christmas Casserole that we eat while drinking coffee and watching the parade.

That's it.  That's my family Christmas.

This year, I'm especially excited.  Patrick has been stationed in Texas, so he and his wife will join us (at some point) during Christmas.  Andrew is living in Spartanburg, but in a condo in Converse Heights.  And I'm in Rock Hill.  All three of us are in three different places (which has never really happened before) coming to one place for Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Some people go to class.  Well, I hate going to class. I really hate being in school.  I feel like I'm always overwhelmed with papers and exams and having to work over breaks and weekends.

People say all the time they wish they could go back to college.  I don't understand this.  I can't wait to work, to have a constant schedule, and to leave work at work.  It's going to be an exciting transition.

Today, however, I decided to skip both classes.  It was Math and Social Behavior in Social Work- clearly, I'm not missing much.
Today, I decided to work on things that I thought I needed to catch up on- blogging, journals, letter writing, reading, photography.

I'm getting much closer to my artistic side- and I really love it.  I'm researching different blogs to read, mainly people who live in NYC (jealous).  It's a beautiful day.  Why go to class??

Today is a day to  catch up on the important things.

Cheers.

Tuesday was Election Day (duh).  Most college students would say "Hell yeah. No classes." Others are actually somewhat enthusiastic about politics and enjoy getting the chance to voice their vote.
Phillip, Brandon, and I drove to Winston-Salem for the viewing/celebration of Senator Burr.  We had no idea who this man was until we "google imaged him."  But he has been a huge supporter of ONE so we decided to support him in return.
We met up with Lauren, our fearless leader and mom, at the hotel.  We put our stuff down and went exploring to find the MellowMush.  We moseyed on down to the rally area and poked our heads in.  There were a whole 4 people there so we went back to the hotel for the managers special party.  2 glasses of wine and many conversations about random things later, we went back to the Burr party and hung out watching the poll  viewing on the news.  Senator Burr came in and made his victory speech, we got a picture with him..

That's pretty much what he looks like on google images too.

We grabbed a picture then headed back to the hotel to hot tub it up and watch more election results.  Spratt wasn't looking too good, and they'd already called Nikki Haley the new Governor.  Heavens.

We spent the rest of the evening, hanging out and enjoying each other's company.  It was a glorious time with a pretty good breakfast but awful coffee.  Headed back just in time for me to get to Math.

Politics have become increasingly interesting to me the last couple of months.  While watching the election results, I asked Lauren if she was ever strongly sided as far as Dem/Rep.  By working at ONE, Lauren has become non-partisan, which seems very hard for me to do.  The answer she gave me was a wonderful very legitimate one.  She said that she was very partisan in high school/college and worked on the Hilary Clinton campaign.  She then said that when she started at the ONE campaign, she found it rather easy to become more moderate and is optimistic that Democrats and Republicans should come together and make decisions- work together instead of always being angry at each other.  I wish I could agree.  I hope at some point, I will be able to agree- that everyone should stop being angry at each other.

Here's to hoping.

Cheers.

excited

later on tonight i will share my experiences on the political side of life including the last 28 hours.

until then, bret's borrowing delly to watch smallville.

Home is where the heart is...

I'm drinking my Apple Cider from my brand new mug (from Goodwill. I got 2 for $.98..awesome deal)

It's a lovely night for apple cider, but a better night for family- whom I'm missing a whole lot tonight.

I gave my house a call tonight just to talk to my parents.  Dad answered, and seemed very preoccupied but didn't mention that the rest of the family was there, eating dinner.  So I talked to Mom instead.  When I found out that Andrew, Lee, Becky, Patrick, Mom, Dad and probably Tiggs were there, I started crying.
For the last 6 months, every time something has gone on in Spartanburg, I haven't been able to be there. And I really hate it.  I'm so busy here at school, I just cant drive home (as much as I want to).

Patrick came home a few days ago for two weeks before leaving for Fort Hood in TX.  And, you know what's unfortunate?? I won't be able to see him at all.  And it's not that I actually want to see my brother, we've never been the best of friends.  But, my entire family's there, and I'm not.  And I hate that.

I realize that in a few years, I'm not going to be able to just drive home and be with my family.  I realize that in a few years, I'll be thousands of miles away and will probably not be able to see any of my family for most of that time.  I'll be ready for that .. in a few years.. Right now, I still need my family.  Things are still changing and transforming.  We are not even close to a time of "settling down" & I'm missing the changes.

I hate this.  I want to see my family.

out with the old..in with the new.

I have a tumblr.  And I've never been much for blogging so I guess I can't judge between the two.  But, the reason I got a tumblr in the first place was to stalk this girl who blogged from a farm in NC.  She seems to have the life I want- peaceful, calm, farm living with a dog and a boyfriend.  Any who, somehow I s"tumbled" (punny) upon her & started following her.  And, I've always tried to find a way to express my feelings.  I'm no good at writing songs, or drawing, or really writing for that matter.  I express a lot through photography and talking. At some point I'll probably start a video blog or podcast (awesome, right!?)

I love to take pictures.  For my birthday, my grandmother bought me a Nikon D-3000. I love it but I really wish I knew how to use it.  It's a wonderful camera and great for a starter camera, but I'm so confused by all the buttons.  I'm taking my first big trip out of the country to Nicaragua to learn about teen pregnancy in the Granada area.  I'm so excited and couldn't dream of a better group to go with.  I've started taking my camera with me everywhere I go - to capture life's awesome moments.

life.is.funny.
also. in regards to the picture, I'm going to stop looking back..I'm going forward.
Life starts today.