Dirty 30: Memories with Christy

It's time for another entry in my Dirty 30 series!  Christy celebrated her big 3-0 exactly a week ago, and she's more than deserving of a special spot in this series.

Christy and I met in February 2009 as we settled in for a semester of working as Program Assistants (fancy term for DC tour guides) at the National 4-H Youth Conference Center in Chevy Chase, MD.  She and I, along with seven other 20-somethings from across the United States shared a residence that semester, and boy did we make some great memories.  I blogged fairly often that season, so feel free to hop around and catch up on any of my posts with the following tags: DC, Warren Hall, tour guide, or internship (though some may be sprinkled with posts published before or after my stent there).

Currently, Christy lives in southwestern Ohio and works as a 4-H Educator and County Director in the area. An Ohio native, she received her bachelor's degree from THE Ohio State, and Master's at Purdue University.  Aside from her time in Washington, D.C., Christy has also briefly worked in Texas and Wisconsin before making her way back home to Ohio.  She occasionally blogs over at Traveling Soul.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite memories with Christy:

30 Memorable Moments with Christy

• Studying for the DC Tour Guide exam - 200 questions and even more pages worth of material to memorize.  Suffice to say we were all relieved when that was over. 
• Hanging out on "the meranda."  Forget relaxing on the balcony of our three story residence...at Warren Hall, it was called The Meranda.  
• Throwing notes to each other over the cubicle walls. 
• To celebrate my first-ever official snow day, Christy taught me how to build a snowman!
• ...And then we spent the afternoon sledding down the hill behind our residence on lunch trays from the Clover Cafe. 

• Exploring Bethesda.  Whether it be an evening walk, or Saturday stroll, Christy and I made the two mile trek to Bethesda on the regular.  Restaurants, shopping, and even neighborhood parks were all a part of the fun. 
• Playing Mardi Gras, eating King Cake.  When my mom sent me a care package for Mardi Gras, everyone went crazy for the goods.  Christy was most interested in learning about the traditions, and of course, enjoying the delicious king cake.
• Watching J referee an ice hockey game at the world-renowned Chevy Chase Country Club.  To this day, one of the most bizarre memories I have from that whole experience.  It was my first ice hockey game (I didn't even know kids actually played ice hockey) and my housemate was the referee.  I think the parents in attendance were equally confused at wondering who the rowdy college-age bunch was and what we were doing there in the first place. 
• Training Week scavenger hunt.  Our first real experience navigating DC on our own.  We barely even knew each other at that point.
• Turning someone else's cake into my birthday celebration.  Leave it to your roommates/coworkers/poor (basically) college students to snag leftovers from a client's party cake and shape the icing into your initials so you could celebrate your 22nd birthday.

• St. Patrick's Day Parade.  When in Rome DC, you partake in all the festivals...because, DC!
• Cherry Blossom Festival - parade, pictures, pampering. 
• Running up the down escalator.  Yep, you read that right. And no, it's not as easy as it sounds.
• Warren Hall Olympics. When you live with 8 other 20-somethings from across the country, the entertainment possibilities are endless. 
• Our day trip to Baltimore...trapeze school?!

• Magaritas as big as our heads, on more than one occasion.
• The Warren Hall water fight.  While I didn't partake, it was quite the view from the meranda that day. 
• WMZQ Fest.  What could be better - great weather, 11 country music performers, and a girls day trip to Virginia??
• P.A. Adventure Day:  lunch at Ben's Chilli Bowl, touring a real row house, and going to the top of the Washington Monument to celebrate before the new kids moved in. 
• Paddle boating on the Potomac.  Again, because DC.

• Leaving our mark in the concrete.  One day we're going to return and see if "WaHa '09" is still there.
• WaHa Reunion weekend.  A year and a half later, 7 of the 9 original housemates reunited for an entire weekend...epic indeed. 
• Pondering life at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. 
• Playing leap frog on the National Mall. 
• Showing you around N.C. State as you pondered grad school options. 

• Letting you take shots for me during my bachelorette party. 
• Sharing Nanna's gumbo with you. 
• Hearing stories of your trip to the marsh with Stu Daddy while I got pampered for my big day. 
• Watching you have a great time at our wedding. 
• Reuniting with you nearly two years later at our work conference in Minneapolis, MN. 

While most of the memories Christy and I share took place in the Washington, DC, area, we still maintain regular contact (thanks, Voxer!!) and Christy remains one of the most loyal friends I have ever met.  Her "Dirty 30" celebrations involved last-minute free concert tickets to see Garth Brooks last weekend, as well as a spur the moment reunion with one of our DC housemates as he dragged her to a wedding in Indiana this weekend. I'm sure she'll continue the celebrations on her trip to Portland for a work conference next week.  Christy, I wish you all the best for many years to come!

Happy Birthday.

Love, Lauren

Change Happens.

Change happens.

This small sentence is shaping up to be the basis of my next entry, as well as a concept I'm trying to train myself to accept. As much as one might assume I'm really good at adapting to change (given the status of my gyspy lifestyle), that really isn't the case. Actually, I feel like I'm really bad with change. Decision-making is terribly difficult for me, and I really do have to contemplate something or prepare myself for change with a considerable amount of thought and debate in order to feel secure with it. Even then, I always second guess myself and tend to get really attached to people and circumstances, especially whenever I transition from one situation or experience to the next.

With that being said, my transition from camp to home was better than expected. It was a good two weeks with a very nice balance of super awesome relaxation and family time. I spent a lot of time with my daddy (who had minor surgery right after I got back), and I saw the triplets a few times too. It was really nice. There was even some friend stuff in there; Victoria's bachelorette party was a great success. Lots of ladies, and lots of fun. Lendy flew in from NC to "catch a Cajun," aka, retrieve me and drag me back to the great state of NC. Though her trip was quite short, it was very sweet...literally. We saw an extraordinary amount of Louisiana in 24 short hours, before driving 17 hours straight back to NC. I didn't believe we'd make it (in one piece at least), but we did. Thanks again, Love.

A few highlights of the first five and a half weeks of school:

-I spent two very wonderful weekends with Lendy in the forest of wake--ahem--Wake Forest. We ate too much, played a lot of uno (er, deux?), and enjoyed some very tastey spirits courtesy of the Duplin family. Tehe.
-I attended my first ever NC State football game, as well as the CALS (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) tailgate. Note: I even hung out at the CFFA booth with Ms. Kara Miller. Yes, I really did.
-Speaking of NC State football, we're currently 4-0, for the first time in 8 years. It's kind of ridiculous, but I'm super thrilled about all the school spirit and cool events because of it. (Also, my LSU and BSU are rocking it out with an undefeated record thus far! Saints aren't quite there, but still...I'm learning to like football?!)
-Tomorrow continues my trek across the entire state of NC with Liz, as we travel to do focus groups for her thesis. Should be an interesting--and hopefully productive--ride! Look out, the GSG ladies are coming to an ag program near you!

Back to this idea of change...As regular readers are well aware, I tend to live in the past. I hang onto my adventures long after they are complete. Usually, I don't really think of it as a bad thing, but it does tend to leave me in a terribly emotional state. I mean, you've all seen it...my camp entries lasted well into September, despite the fact that I left Arkansas at the beginning of August. If it were up to me, I would write nostalgic entries on a regular basis. (Maybe that's where I need to go with this forum, lol.) Where am I going with this...

On Thursday, Nick (yes, ressurecting the WaHa family again! yay.) flew into Raleigh from Rhode Island. He, myself, and Justine met up with my three roommates to see Lady Antebellum perform at the Koka Booth in Cary. Lady A was great, but the venue was not. The 90+ degree heat (at night, in September--gross!) didn't help either. Friday morning, we explored NC State a bit, including the Free Expression Tunnel, and then headed north for the WaHa Spring '09 Reunion in DC.

For those of you who may be new to my blogging stories, WaHa translates to "Warren Hall," which is where I lived while I was a tour guide in Washington, DC for 4 months in Spring 2009. Warren Hall is located at the National 4-H Conference Center, in the bougie neighborhood of Chevy Chase, MD, 1 mile outside of the city. There, I lived with 3 other tour guides, and 5 other people doing various things in and around the area. Though I had seen 5 of the 8 people I lived with since I moved out, there had been no real group reunion since we left 16 months ago. However, it worked out for most of us to get together this weekend, so we planned a reunion of sorts. Marcie flew in from California, Nick and I drove up from Raleigh, Christy from Ohio, and Colin from Virginia. Amanda still lives in DC; Justin and Brian (who also live in the area) planned to meet us there, too.

Friday afternoon, Nick, Christy, and I visited with our former bosses, Molly and Freeman. It was fun to catch up with them. Later, Colin came over to the compound; we visited with Chef Z and had a tasty meal at the Clover Cafe. While waiting for Marcie and Amanda to show up, the four of us played The Farming Game (if you've never heard of it--check it out). The bobsey twins arrived around 10, and we all stayed up hanging out until almost 2. The girls had pillow talk until much, much later.

We slept in on Saturday, brought Amanda over to see Chef Z, and had another glorious meal at the Cafe. We also took our only total group picture which will contain the caption, "Virginia, Wyoming, Louisiana, Ohio, California, and Maine," depicting our respective states. (Love that.) Colin left us there, and the rest of us decided to go into the city. At the National Mall, there was a huge event--the National Book Festival? It was super cool with huge tents for each genre of literature, authors speaking all day, fun events for the kids, etc. We spent some time sitting with our feet in the fountain at the Sculpture Garden, and then took Amanda and Nick up to the top of the Old Post Office Pavillion (their first time). We walked through all of Chinatown, which included an amazing pitt stop at Fro.Zen.Yo and a little rest at Marcie's friend's apartment. From there, we metroed back to Bethesda, and walked the entire neighborhood before settling down to dinner at an Irish pub. After that, it was a short ride back to WaHa for another late night. Note: Nathan provided us with some wonderful entertainment...all the way from Seattle, Washington. Bahaha.

This morning, Christy took us to a hole in the wall diner a few blocks up Taylor St. (across Connecticut). What a find! I wish we'd known it was there while we lived there; it's so close, and so cheap! After, we moseyed back to the Center, and everyone said their goodbyes. I took Nick to the metro in Bethesda (where he later ran into the rest of the group--crazy), and the other's stayed behind to prepare for and continue their DC experience.

Not to be whiney, but it was a miserable drive back to NC. Aside from the ridiculous traffic and gross weather, I was an emotional basketcase. Thankfully, I know I'm not the only one who had a tough time with the goodbyes and transitions back to "reality," but this is why I say I don't do well with change. This weekend was amazing; I wouldn't trade the reunion and my time with these people for anything in the world. It was so natural. Everything fell back into place, and it was just perfect. Perhaps things would be easier if we had all drifted apart or there was some sense of awkwardness, or even if we didn't get along nearly as well as before. But, it wasn't like that. It was as if we had never left, and our house was still our home. (I suppose the fact that we increased the current number of people in the house by 125% did help a bit, lol.) What's the problem, you ask?

For me, I've had several opportunities to create bonds such as these over the last few years. It's indescribable the experiences I have had, and again, I wouldn't trade them for anything. I would think nothing of taking on another one of these experiences if the opportunity were to arise again. However, I will say that it truly does take an emotional toll on a person. When you live with people, work with people, bond with people, in the way that we have, it is impossible to break away from that bond. Impossible. There will always be something between us whether we like it or not.

Sometimes I wonder, though, is it possible to love more people? What capacity do we have for constantly making new bonds, taking on new experiences, ones with the depth and intensity of these? From time to time, I think it's time I settle down just so that I have the capacity for maintaining the ties I have already made, without shredding some just in order to build new ones. I'm content with what I've got. New and more would be nice, but not at the expense of the ones I already have. What does this mean for practicality's sake? I haven't the slightest clue. I suppose it's just something to contemplate...

What I do know is that I find it terribly hard to say goodbye, and even harder to be the friend that I wish I could be whenever I am so far away. It's just tough. After this weekend, I'm all torn up about leaving behind people that mean so much to me. Sadly, it will probably only take a few days for the emotions to wane...but that will last only as long as our distance is in place. We'll come back together again someday, and it will happen all over again. I feel like, if I were better at change, this wouldn't bother me as much as it does. It wouldn't stick with me for so long.

With all of this, I don't mean to say that this group of individuals is the only one that brings out such emotion in me. That's not the case. There are several groups, situations, and even individuals that invoke the same emotions. Maybe it's a character flaw of mine, or maybe it's special that I'm so sensitive. I'm not sure which. Regardless, I will continue to give away my heart just the way that I always have, and I hope life continues to reward me just as it always has.

I'll let you know how that goes.
-Lauren

Confessions to Make

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about blogging. I'm in a technology class--one that many would consider to be a joke--considering the topics we discuss in class. Some of you would be thrilled to spend 2 hours every week talking about Google and its many features such as collaboration tools (Docs) and social networking (Reader, Blogger, etc.). We had two whole class periods devoted to Google, but nearly every week, we have discussed various technology tools, which often included tutorials on the Google version of such tool. My point is with this technology class, I've had plenty of excuses to surf the interwebs of Twitter and Blogger on a frequent basis, though I've been terrible at updating my own blog.

For this reason, I've been contemplating...What do I want out of blogging? What is my purpose for recording my life? Is it practical to keep a blog if I don't write in it frequently? Honestly, my purpose for blogging (as opposed to say, an online journal such as Livejournal) was originally to keep a record of my Child Life internship process, and all things related as such. At the time, I never imagined my life would evolve into an adventure that included several years working at an amazing summer camp, a semester living in the most powerful city in the world, and two years in a place that has landed me on the biggest rollercoaster of life.

I still want to write about everything I've been up to; my life is just as crazy as ever. However, I guess this two-year stent has got me feeling bored and unsatisfied with the way my blog is going, at least compared to the way it was intended. I'm just not sure how to rectify the situation, other than by either (a) attempting to write more often (but really, who wants to hear about my life as a not-so-dedicated grad student?) or (b) putting my blog on hold until something more significant comes along. If I really did keep up with this blog the way I should, perhaps it could be worthy of chronicaling life as a grad student, but my grad school life is anything but typical, so how is that valid?

In any case, these things have been on my mind a bit lately. With that little confession out of the way, I'm going to get on with updating you all about my recent adventures. Mkay, thanks.

Annie's Visit: February 25-28, 2010
One of my amazing college roommates, Annie, came to visit for a weekend in February. Her brother swims for Virginia Tech, so she and her parents came up to see him in the ACC finals, which were held at UNC. Annie's parents stayed at a hotel in Chapel Hill, but Annie stayed with me in Raleigh. While she was here, we watched Trey swim a few times, and explored Chapel Hell (heh) a bit. We also had some good girl time. This was completely necessary, since Annie and I have not really had a chance to really spend time together more than once or twice since we moved out of our apartment almost two years ago. Crazy how time flies, and even crazier how much I miss Nicholls, and Thibodaux, and everything about it...especially because it was one of the last times in my life when I was truly happy. In any case, I very much enjoyed Annie's visit and I really hope she'll be able to make it out to my neck of the woods again in the not too distant future.

A Surprise at Home: March 4-7, 2010
By now, I'm sure you have all figured out that grad school isn't exactly thrilling for me, and traveling has become an excellent coping mechanism in my life. lol. With that in mind, I got it in my head that I was bound and determined to make it home for a weekend this semester. However, with everything going on, I wasn't sure which weekend to pick. In February, I got to contemplating the idea of going home near my birthday (Mid-March) or for Easter. As it got closer, things fell into place for me to take a different trip on my birthday, but I was still in a funk about the idea of missing both Mardi Gras AND my birthday for two years in a row. For this reason, I decided to book a semi-last-minute airplane ticket for a trip home during the first weekend of March.

The "surprise" part of this story comes in when I say that I only told one person that I was coming home--my mother. You got it, no one knew I was coming home, not my dad, brother, grandparents, aunt/uncle/cousins...no one! That weekend happened to be the one that fell in between my Nanna's birthday and my own birthday, so I figured it would be a great birthday present to the both of us. As it turned out, my weekend at home was better than I could have ever imagined. The surprise component worked out great--everyone was completely surprised and thrilled to have me at home. I think there were a total of 5 surprises throughout the weekend, which was so much fun! It was so nice to see everyone, and I really enjoyed the quality time I was able to have. Cajun food and people galore, what more could a girl ask for? I love Louisiana.

MooKim Day & Spring Break in Idaho: March 11-16, 2010
With my birthday as the first day of my Spring Break, I decided to peace out of town a little bit early, and get a jump start on my holiday by flying out to Boise on Thursday, the 11th of March. Let me just say that the 11th of March was one of the longest days of my life...I literally had 26 hours of life on that day. After dropping Jess at the airport at 5 a.m. for her flight, I went back to my apt to pack and get ready for my trip. Long story short, my flight was super delayed, so I got rerouted on a much later flight which left me with several extra hours in Raleigh. Thankfully, Wil was willing to pick me up and let me take a nap at his apartment for a while, cuz I was so darn exhausted by that point, and my travels hadn't even begun. Needless to say, by the time I made it to Boise, I rang in my 23rd birthday with a late night of reunions at the boys' house and then girl talk with Kim that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

Over the course of the next few days, I had the oppotunity to visit everyone at the hospital (where I interned in Fall 2008) and catch up with a lot of my friends in the area. We celebrated Kim and my birthday (MooKim Day) with a get-together at Kim's apartment and some fun times at both Bardenay and Jeff's apartment, too. I went on a 4-wheeling adventure with Derek, Jeff, and Jess (which has now become tradition for us). I also returned to the hot springs for the first time since my very first trip to Idaho 2.5 years ago. (Unfortunately, the experience was just as traumatic as the first, but in a different way. Needless to say, I will not be going back.) As always, I really enjoyed seeing everyone; so many of my Boise friends have been welcoming to me from the very beginning, despite our differences. I truly value their generosity and friendship and I can't wait to see everyone this summer in Louisiana for Kim and Joey's wedding...less than 2 months from now! Yay.

National 4-H Conference: March 18-26, 2010
For the fourth year in a row, I returned to Washington, DC as a Collegiate Facilitator for National 4-H Conference. In all my years of 4-H involvement, National Conference remains my all-time favorite 4-H experience. This year, the delegates to conference were, by far, the most quality group we have had in all of my years there. The kids were so great--passionate and driven like none other. Of course, the Tators had a great time bonding with each other and making memories to last a lifetime.

This year at Conference was a little different for me; I like to say I had the "graduate student" experience because of how many commitments I had throughout the week. Before applying to serve as a facilitator, I submitted a proposal to present a workshop with two people from back home. A few weeks after our proposal was accepted, I was selected to serve as a Facilitator. Then, one of the professors here at NC State approached Jess (who had also been selected as a Facilitator) about a research project for the Association of Leadership Educators Conference this summer. Together, we decided to do some qualitative research at Conference, which consisted of interviewing all 13 of the other Facilitators about the impact of their leadership experiences in 4-H. Needless to say, between developing all of my roundtable sessions, presenting the workshop in two sessions, and leading both focus groups and delegation interacts, PLUS the interviews, it was a crazyyyy week at Conference.

In the end, I very much enjoyed my experience at Conference. Nick (one of my former housemates and co-workers from my stent in DC), flew into DC on our last day of Conference. He came to see Christy and I as part of his Spring Break. For this reason, I convinced Jess to stay in DC with me for an extra day, so we got to hang out a little bit while he was there. Boy did I miss those kids...too much. Despite our distance, I talk to my WaHa kids on a daily basis, and DC will forever have a piece of my heart.

Easter in Eastern NC: April 2-4, 2010
Well folks, I guess it's about time I admitted it...I have a boyfriend. Yes, I just said that. Eeek. *Thinks to self: "Don't jinx it!"* For those of you who haven't heard, I'm dating a guy here in NC. We met in class because we've had pretty much all of our classes together since I've been here. Wil happens to be a student in AgEd. who was just offered a full-time position teaching agriculture at a high school in Morehead City, NC. (That's ON the beach, for those of you who are unfamiliar with NC.) *Congrats, Wil!*

Anyway, what does that have to do with the "Easter in Eastern NC" title? I figured I ought to give little background before going onto my rant about spending Easter weekend with a random guy and his family, heh. So now you know--Wil isn't random. Haha. In any case, holidays away from the family are always sad and a little bit awkward. It's nice of friends to invite me to spend time with their family so that I'm not alone on the holiday, but it's never quite the same. Needless to say, I was very appreciative of the Easter offers that came from several people here at school--Jess in PA and Lendy in NC, being two of them. However, things just kind of fell into place for me to go home with Wil to meet his family for Easter. Overall, it was a nice weekend; they were very welcoming and friendly, and I really had a lot of fun. :)

Girls Weekend on OBX: April 16-18, 2010
With the semester coming to an end soon, we ladies in the office decided it was time for a girls' weekend. Katie's graduating in a few weeks, so she requested a trip to the Outerbanks. I hadn't made it out there yet, so I was all in favor of the mini-vacay. Katie, Lendy, Jess, and I headed out on the open road early Friday morning with plans to make a few tourist-y stops before setting up camp on the southern end of the island near Buxton/Cape Hattaras.

Along the way, we visited Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills (largest natural sand dunes on the East coast), and the Cape Hattaras lighthouse. As luck would have it, we happened to tour on the 100-somethingth birthday of a Wright brother and the first climbing day at the lighthouse, so we got free admittance at both sites. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Lendy scored us a stinkin awesome townhouse at the Cape Hattaras hotel. With three balconies and a literal "on the beach" location, we were in Heaven. Moral of the story: we had a wonderfully relaxing, awesome, fun girl's weekend. Perhaps we ought to make a tradition out of it?

4-H Gala in DC: April 22-24, 2010
Randomly, one of my best friends from home, Victoria called me on Tuesday to say that she had an extra ticket to the 4-H gala in DC on Thursday. You all know how I am with last minute decisions and plans...they don't sit well with me. I freak out and get anxious, etc. However, since I had sort of worked on the gala project while working in DC last spring, I really didn't want to pass up the opportunity to attend the gala, especially when the tickets cost $750 each. On the other hand, I really didn't want to drive to DC for one night only, especially by myself. With that in mind, Victoria was able to score an additional ticket so that Wil could come along for the trip. (Since he'd never been to DC before, I had been telling him that I'd show him the city one day, and everything just fell into place for it to happen then.)

The gala was really nice; there were a good number of people and the set-up was super fancy. I really enjoyed seeing Molly, my former boss, and it was kind of funny to watch the other Council employees run around with their heads chopped off while I sat there and enjoyed the experience. lol. I think Victoria really appreciated our presence there, and I don't blame her--who wants to sit around at a fancy dinner and not know anyone, much less talk to a bunch of boring old rich people? Haha. I should also note that it was really fun to hang out with Tori for an evening, since I haven't gotten to see her since she and Seth's ornament (engagement) party in December. So, yay.

As for the rest of the weekend, I am forever grateful to Miss Christy Clary, one of my former co-workers/housemates (in DC) for allowing Wil and I to stay at Warren Hall for the duration of our time in DC. Although we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time together, I enjoyed seeing Christy and catching up with her about life in the good ole DC. Also, despite our short two days in the city, Wil and I were able to visit sixteen, yes SIXTEEN, different sites. It was crazy. We toured all of Friday and Saturday and made it back to Raleigh around 11 p.m. Saturday night. When it was all said and done, I'm pretty sure Wil really enjoyed his first visit to DC. Of course, there is still plenty more to see, but I'm sure he'll have another chance to make it out there eventually. It was definitely fun for me to play tour guide with someone who doesn't walk like a snail (aka: annoying 8th grade students) aaand who actually enjoys history, sometimes more than me, lol.

Grad School Sucks as Always
*Disclaimer: If you are in any way affiliated with my grad school or another, don't take what I am about to say personally. These are the thoughts and opinions of me and me only; it's my blog and I reserve the right to say what I please here.*

This semester has been a little better as far as coping with grad school is concerned, but a huge part of that is the fact that I have been traveling the majority of the time. In some ways, I've been considerably more involved socially, and my commitment to school has definitely fallen by the wayside. It sounds terrible, but I'm sure I would have reverted to my old ways (profuse complaining) once again. I guess I should note that these days I have decided I don't hate NC State, and maybe not even NC (as much as I used to, anyway), but I do absoultelyyy hate the whole graduate school process. Ughhh.

The thought of writing a thesis makes me want to vomit and/or burn down the building. It's not that I'm incapable of doing the work, I just don't enjoy it. Not one bit. In fact, I'm pretty sure I loathe it. Over these last 10 months of school, I've had a few tastes of research and scientific writing, and I've learned that this process makes me want to cut my throat. ('Scuse the morbidity here, lol.) In any case, I am absolutely dreading the idea of this thesis project. However, since I'm pretty much done with schoolwork for the semester, I really ought to get cracking on it. It's slightly problematic that I seem to be finding every viable alterative to writing. Oops.

Summer Soon!
In any case, I'm looking forward to some time for relaxing here in Raleigh before I head out for the summer. Looking to the future, Victoria is flying to Raleigh on the 16th, and we'll hit the open road for our 2-day trip back to Cajun Country with an ETA on the evening of May 18th. Our brothers graduate high school that weekend, and I'll be able to spend almost 2 weeks at home before I head out to Arkansas for 6 weeks at camp. My nieces/nephew (triplets) have a scheduled arrival for later this week, so I can't wait to meet them and spend some time pampering the little bebes during my short time at home. I'm not sure what else I'll be up to this summer, but I'll be back in Raleigh sometime around mid-August, I guess.

I'll do my best to keep regular updates, but you know how that goes these days...With that being said, I think this novel is long enough. Hey--maybe this will get you all on track for some summer reading; goodness knows it's long enough! Haha.

Until next time,
Lauren

New Year. New Season. New Blog.

New year. New Season. New blog.

.......New record for not blogging. My apologies, but I've been busy as all get out for the last two months. It seems like every time I think I've been as busy as I can be, and that it's all better afterwards, I am faced with another, even busier season of life. Speaking of seasons, the Spring season (semester) kicked off with a bang, and has been crazy ever since. Get comfy, this may take a while...

Carolina Campout (January 9th)/UNC Game (January 26th)
The day after I returned to Raleigh, I attended my first NC State sporting event, a men's basketball game. I had a lot of fun, and it really got me pumped up for the evening's activity--the Carolina Campout. Participation in this annual event is the only way students' can ensure receipt of tickets to the NCSU vs. UNC basketball, which is our biggest rival game each year. I signed up to camp with Jess's roommates and their friends; our group totaled 14 people. We put together a large makeshift tent and all huddled together for about 12 hours in the low 20 degree temperatures. There were 4 checkpoints throughout the night, and finally at 6 a.m., we were released. For our hard work and dedication, our group received 3rd and 4th row floor seats to the biggest game of the year!

Jess and I had our technology class from 6-8 p.m. on the night of the game. We rushed out of class to grab some food at Cookout (yum) and headed over to the RBC Center for the game. Although we were a few minutes late to the game, we had a lot of fun cheering on the Wolfpack. Of course, we lost (go figure), but it was still a fun time. Just another experience to cross off my Raleigh life list. woot.

Jeff's Visit/Weekend in Savannah, GA (January 13-19)
Jeff, one of my good friends from Idaho (long-time readers have heard about him plenty of times before) came out to Raleigh for a week in January. Over the weekend, he, Jess, and I traveled to Savannah, Georgia. We stayed with Chris, a very good mutual friend of Jeff and I. Jeff, Chris, and I have worked together at several national 4-H conferences and such; plus, Chris came to visit Jeff and I in Idaho in Fall 2008. Needless to say, it was our turn to visit dear ole Christopher. Anyway, the 4 of us had a great time exploring the Savannah area, and Chris was a great host. Jeff was particularly interested in checking out the campus at Armstrong Atlantic State University (where Chris graduated from, and now works), as he applied to their Physical Therapy program for later this year. After a fun-filled weekend in Savannah, Jess and I showed Jeff around Raleigh for the last day and a half of his time here.

PREAUX LIFE MARCH in DC (January 21-24)
Two days after Jeff returned to Idaho, I headed up to DC for another long weekend. (I sure do have lots of those, lol.) On my way into the city, I stopped to visit with the folks in Youth Opportunities at National 4-H Council. (Tthese people are my former bosses, from when I was a tour guide.) It was fun to say hello to Molly and Freeman, and as always, nice to catch up on the news of what's going on in the world at Center. Afterwards, I met up with Dawn (long-time LA 4-H friend and fellow DC obessant) and two of her friends, Chelsea and Jessenia. Dawn, Chelsea, and I stayed at Jess's apartment in Mannassas, Virginia for the weekend.

The Pro-life March was way way way cool, and I was super excited to have the chance to take part in the event. It's just one of those things that most people back home do at some point in their life, and finally I had my chance. Plus, in all my time I have spent in DC, I never participated in any of the marches, so that is just another thing to experience in the great city that is our nation's capital.

This weekend was pretty much amazing for me in the area of DC tourism because Dawn and I checked off a ton of things that neither of us had seen before. Among these were: the Rose Dinner (a benefit for the Pro-Life cause), the Presidents' Church, ice skating at the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden on the Mall, the Textile Museum, the Real World DC House, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, the Franciscian Monestary, and the John Paul II Cultural Center. Oh--anddd we even saw my favorite hometown band, L'Angelus play live in Maryland, too!! Needless to say, it was a GREAT weekend, and I can't wait to see my Sunshine in DC again soon!

Snoweekend??? (January 29-February 1, February 12-14)
Finally--I saw my first snowfall for the year! Even better, lots of snow was predicted in Raleigh, so Jess came over to get "snowed in" with me, and we had a grand time! To my happiness, it actually did snow a decent amount...3-4 inches to be exact, which is more than I'd ever seen in my life. Jess very much obliged my need for snow by agreeing to go on several walks each day with me, just so that I could take it all in. We also had this really awesome, impromptu snowball fight with a bunch of random people in my apartment complex. The roads in Raleigh were so bad that we even had a pseudo-snow-day off of school/work, and the public schools were out for pretty much the whole week.

The second snoweekend, came two weeks later. This time, it wasn't nearly as much snow and the words weren't treacherous. It was a pretty sight, though. I am told that the snow was better for snowman making, but I didn't actually go out and try it. (A travesty, I know!) I did get to go out and ice skate downtown on the 14th, though, which was pretty nifty.

SAAAE Conference in Orlando, FL (February 6-10)
In between the two snoweekends, myself, 3 AEE graduate students, and 8 AEE professors flew down to Orlando for the Southern Region American Association of Agricultural Education Conference. No, Agricultural Education is not even remotely an interest of mine, but here at NC State, I am surrounded by people who live, breathe, and eat it. Why did I go to the Conference, then? Well, Jess and I have been working on a project that involved designing a teen volunteer training and orientation program for the library at which we volunteered last semester. The instructor for our Volunteer Management course suggested that we put together a poster for the conference, and so we did. Since Jess and I are both in Extension Education, we took the trip as a fun way to travel together; Jess had never been to Florida, much less Orlando, so she really wanted to go.

Though the conference was of zero interest to us, we really had a good time with the other two graduate students, and it was an interesting experience to hang out with the professors for four days. Let's just say that I was pleasantly surprised. I'm so not a fan of Disney World but we did get to go on a "Behind the Seeds" tour of Epcot and probably the highlight of the trip was piercing Elizabeth's ears following the Saints victory! (Speaking of the Saints, I would like to take this opportunity to make a small rant about how I have been uber sad about missing such awesome events back home--snow, Saints Superbowl, and Mardi Gras. Ok, I'm done.)

Everything Else
Since Orlando, I've attended another couple of NC State sporting events, had some fun times with friends, and have been gearing up for a ridiciulously busy two months. My mom said that one day, someone asked her if she was sure that I was really in school. To be honest, it probably is kind of hard to believe that I'm really in school with all of this going on. However, I am holding steady in grad school for now. It's still not something I particularly enjoy, but with class only two nights a week (in the very middle, Tuesday and Wednesday), it's much easier to plow through those two days and enjoy the other five.

Ask me how I'm going to manage to write the first few chapters of my thesis with me being gone from Raleigh nearly every weekend of the semester, and I'll tell you that I haven't the slightest clue. However, traveling and doing all of these fun things is what makes me happy and helps me to get through it, so at this point, I truly don't care. In fact, I recently changed a portion of my Facebook profile to say "not-so-dedicated grad student" rather than "grad student with no life," lol. This is progress, if I do say so myself. (You may or may not agree.)

In any case, looking forward, there are lots of great things coming up for me this semester. One of my college roommates, Annie, will be coming up to NC next weekend, then I'm making a surprise appearance in an undisclosed state the following weekend. After that, I look forward to some time in Boise, DC, and Pennsylvania, all between now and the middle of April. It's going to be crazy, and I'll try to stop in and say hello from time to time, but don't get too worried if it takes a while. With that being said...

Catch ya on the flipside,
Lauren

Jet Setter

Back so soon!? Heck-a-yes-a!

I'm gonna try to work on catching up with all of my adventures...hopefully it won't take two months to do so!

4-H Brand Advisory Group: October 12-13, 2009
So, the day after I returned from Boise, I got back on a plane...for DC this time. DC, again? For why, you ask? A few days before I'd left for Idaho, I receieved an e-mail from someone at National 4-H Council; it was an invitation to attend a 4-H Brand Advisory meeting at the National 4-H Conference Center in DC (er, Chevy Chase, MD). Myself and about four other former Collegiate Facilitators had been invited to attend the meeting. Long story short, only three of us (Benjamin-MI/OH, Jennifer-UT, and I) were able to go.

We all flew into DCA on Monday afternoon/evening for a meeting the following morning. While waiting for Benjamin and Jennifer to arrive, I hung out with some of the old (and new) WaHa crew. Amanda (WaHa 2008-2009) rode in from Columbia Heights to hang out with us. She's the only former WaHa'er who's still local. Justin's still there, as is Craig (who moved in after I left in May), and two additional girls moved in recently. Shar (who was supposed to take my place when I left in May, but lived elsewhere instead) and Katie (who worked as a CWF PA in '08, and something in '07) are now living there. Craig's fiance moved in soon after, also. ANYwhoo. It was fun to hang out with all of those folks and be back in my glorious WaHa.

After a while though, I had to say goodbye because I knew Benjamin and Jennifer were hanging out in our (amazing) hotel rooms. The three of us talked forever about our predictions for the meeting the following morning, reminisced about Conference, and watched endless YouTube videos. It really was a grand time; I'm not sure I had laughed that much in a long time.

The meeting was an interesting one. For the most part, I'm pretty sure we all felt like our ideas were valued and considered. We're not totally sure what the result of our discussions will be, but whatever. Less than 24 hours after arriving in DC, my return flight to Raleigh departed. (Despite the fact that we'd been there waiting for almost 2 hours, I was distracted visting with Benjamin and Jennifer, and almost missed my flight as a result. oops.) In any case, we're always up for a trip to DC at someone else's expense, lol.

Alrights. There's another one of my many adventures that have been keeping me busy over the last month or so. I shall hopefully continue the updates again soon.

Ta-ta for now.
-Lauren

PS: My dearest American-English roommate (whom I lived with in Idaho) is returning to England for good (?) tomorrow morning. I wish her all the best and will miss her greatly. One day, I shall visit her homeland. I will hold Tessa and her beautiful, amazing, sweetness in my heart forever.

It's a Record

It's a record! I absolutely cannot fathom that it has been six and a half weeks since the last time I blogged. If I weren't careful, the whole month of September would have passed without an entry. This really must be a record for my blogging, cuz I'm pretty sure I've done a fairly decent job of writing every few weeks, if not sooner, for the last year and a half. (Has it really been that long? It seems like yesterday that I was applying and interviewing for my Child Life internship. Geez.) Anywhoo, the whole point of writing is to update everyone, not to rant. So here:

Time at Home
I don't remember much about what I did from the time I left Arkansas on August 8th and the time I left home again on the 12th. Since it was only four days, I probably spent most of my time with the family and packing up the last details of my stuff. It wasn't particularly interesting...oh! I do remember something rather exciting that occurred while I was home. To celebrate their recent engagement, my friends Victoria LeBlanc and Seth Richard had a party. Unbeknownst to the attendants of said party, the actual reason behind the party was to invite us to serve in the wedding. Yep, that means I'm going to be a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding for the first time! Woot. Dawn (Jason) surprised me by attending the party without telling me that she was coming to town (she lives an hour and a half away, near Baton Rouge). So, yay. Dawn and I are going to be serving in Victoria's wedding next fall--October 15, 2010!

Road Trip
On the 12th, I drove to Brusly to spend the night at Dawn's house. The next morning, she and I left for our very long road trip to North Carolina. Her house is nearly two hours closer to Raleigh (our destination) so it just made sense for us to start from there. Plus, we planned to make it to the Charlotte area in the first day of traveling, so that we could spend the night at her aunt's house there. 13 hours into our first day, we did in fact make it to Charlotte for the night. The next morning, we departed for the final few hours' drive to Raleigh, just in time to pick up the keys and paperwork for my new apartment. Yay.

Romping Around Raleigh
That weekend, Dawn encouraged me to explore my newest temporary home. She definitely would not have had it if we had just sat in the apartment all weekend. Once we got set up with stocking my pantry, unpacking, and doing some decorating, then it was off to check out the city. I encourage everyone to check out my Facebook photos for pictures of our adventures to two area museums, a park, and NC State's campus. Dawn also celebrated her 21st birthday that weekend, so that was another excuse to do some fun stuff. She wouldn't let me make her an alcoholic beverage, but she did let me take her to a wine tasting, which is as close as I was gonna get, I suppose. Thanks to her Raleigh-friend, Sarah Hardin, we also went to an authentc NC barbecue joint, and amazing comedy show.

Life in NC
I suppose I never did get around to telling anyone the purpose for this road trip and move to North Carolina. For those of you who haven't figured it out by now, I started graduate school at N.C. State in Raleigh. Although I made the decision in May, a few weeks after visiting the school, it just never felt like the right time to share the decision with the rest of the world via this blog. Now that I'm here, however, I guess I'm "a day late and a dollar short" with the news.

For six weeks, I have been an official graduate student in Extension Education here at NC State. Going to a "real" school as I have starting calling it, is very interesting. There are so many more opportunities and events at a school this large. For example, the first Friday after school started, there was a huge event called FridayFest. I guess it was sort of similar to Nicholls' Winterfest or Crawfish Day events. However, there was way more free stuff, and cooler things too, such as a FREE concert with Josh Gracin and some other local bands. Chuck Wicks was supposed to perform too, but he got sick and thus had to back out.

As for the mundane things related to school, I'll go ahead and say a little about my routine here. I'm taking 10 hours of coursework (9 is considered Full Time), and working 20 hours as a Graduate Research Assistant in the AEE Department. Neither are particularly interesting/useful, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. This means that I work in the office for 5 hours a day, Monday through Thursdays, with class for 3 hours on Monday and Thursday nights. I also have a 1-hr. seminar on Wednesdays and an online class, too. On Tuesday nights, I volunteer at a local public library (for my volunteer management class), and on Wednesdays I try to check out the events hosted by Catholic Campus Ministries (but lots of time's I've got too much homework to spare my only free evening). I'm also working towards volunteering with the Child Life Department at WakeMed, a children's hospital in Raleigh...because I'm crazy, yes, I know.

People here are nice, especially the ones who who hang out in the grad ofice at school. There are at least 7 of us who share 4 mini-offices, with a few desks in each little room. We have lots of fun and tend to get minimal tasks done (ie: no one wants to work on Mondays...Wednesdays we have seminar in the middle of the day...Thursdays are our Fridays...). Dawn's friend, Sarah, has also become a good friend of mine, as well as her childhood best friend, Suzanne. I see them a lot at CCM stuff, as it's very nice to have some Catholic friends here. My roommates were randomly assigned, and are seniors at State. They were very welcoming the weekend I moved in; in fact, they made Happy Birthday cupcakes for Dawn on her day. However, it's rare that we're all home at the same time, and for the most part, our lives are very different.

To be honest, I can't believe it's been only 6 weeks since school started. That means there are what--8 more weeks to go? Gahh. It feels like time is moving ever so slowly and it will be the next millinium before I'm home again. For the most part, I pour myself into school as a distraction. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. On the other hand, I have a few really great trips to look forward to this fall, such as...

Weekend in DC
...spending Labor Day weekend in Washington, DC. Of course, I hadn't been back to DC since I left in May, and since there were still a few of my former housemates in town, I figured it was a great excuse to go. (Plus, I'd kind of been planning on going since I left in May, lol.) It was also perfect timing, in a way, because I ended up there the weekend after Ted Kennedy was burried, so I got to be the first person I know to see his gravesite at Arlington Cemetery. Scott (WaHa housemate) and I went there and walked around the mall/monument area during the day on on Saturday. That night, we went to Amanda's (former WaHa'er, too) new apartment in Columbia Heights where we hung out with Brian and Justin, two other WaHa kids. It was a sweet little reunion. Sunday, we went to my first Nationals game and Scott's first time eating at Ben's Chilli Bowl. Monday, I left around mid morning for the 5-hour drive back to NC. Let's just say that even though I was only there for three days, it was amazing to be back in DC and back at WaHa. That place still feels like home and there are still so many pieces of me and everyone else that have been left behind. It's like we left our little marks on WaHa, just like all the generations of WaHa'ers before us. Pretty much amazing.

Fall Break in Boise
In about 10 days, I will be returning to Idaho for the first time since I left last December. I have been waiting for this moment for 10 long months, and I am about to burst out of my skin just thinking about it!! This will be the third year in a row that I am in Boise at this time of year, so it's just perfect. Actually, I wasn't planning on returning this Fall Break, but I came across some really cheap airline tickets toward the end of August, and really could not pass them up. I continue to think about Boise frequently and hope that one day I'll be able to return for an extended period of time. Until then, however I'm going to have to appreciate any time that I can manage to have there. Long story short, get excited--Lauren's coming to Boise!!

Child Life Certification Exam in Seattle
On November 7th, I am taking the Child Life Certification Exam in Seattle. This is the last step in becoming certified to work as a legit Child Life Specialist, a process that began years ago, truly. Aside from taking approved courses in related areas, my internship at the hospital in Boise was the next major step. Now, the remaining component is to take and pass this national certification exam. To be honest, the test is difficult and I believe I'm going to have a tough time passing it, especially since I have to study for it while working as a grad student with all of this other stuff going on. Plus, it's been almost a year since I was in a true hospital setting. However, I've been trying to devote nearly two hours most days to studying, so I'm really hope I can pull it off. In any case, the test is a great excuse to finally get out to Seattle and I am very much looking forward to that exciting aspect of the trip. I'm going to stay with Nathan (former Idaho resident, friend of friends, and now my friend...you know the story), and hopefully I'll be able to see some cool stuff while I'm there, if only for a short time.

Three states in three months? Well, four in four if you count my return home in December. Yep, you got that right. Does it surprise you, really? ...I am the gypsy, aren't I? lol. Needless to say, this entry has been extremely long (record-breaking?), and so I'm going to stop here. I'll do my best to write again in the near-ish(?) future, but feel free to give me a nice nudge if you feel like I'm lagging behind on this thing.

Hope all is well with all of you.
-Lauren

PS: For those of you who know me well and/or have spoken with me recently, I'm sure you realize this entry has been censored in several ways. You understand, I am sure. If you don't, ask. I may, or may not, reveal the truth. ;-)

Departing Days (Pt. 2)

Picking up from where I left off...

Dinner with HR (May 19, 2009)
As is tradition, one of the ladies in Human Resources takes each group of PAs out to dinner at some point during their stent at Council. Because of the craziness that is work with weird schedules, our group didn't find time for the outing until the very end of the Spring. It was mine and a few others' first time at Mongolian Barbecue, which happens to be a very cool experience. It's kind of hard to explain the process, but each person is allowed to pile whatever raw vegetables, meat, sauces, and spices into one bowl, and then the chefs cook it on a hibachi grill right in front if your eyes. It's the coolest thing ever; being creative with designing your own dish, but be careful not to be tooooo creative or you'll end up with a spicy mess that's too flavorful to consume! ...hehe.

My LAST group! (May 20-22, 2009)
Finally, finally, finally, I made it through my last group as a Wonders of Washington Program Assistant. I do have to say that it is much easier working with one bus versus two, three, five, or more. For the first (and last) time, I finally had a bus driver who actually knew their way around the city. By this point, though, so did I. lol. At least it was one less stressor on the job that week. For the most part, everything went according to planned. There are always minor tweaks in the schedule, but the kids saw everything except for one monument, so that was good. I will say that this group of kids was very critical of everything they saw in DC...not necessarily in a negative way, but rather they used critical thinking skills to really analyze what they were seeing and how they thought/felt about it. Sometimes their comments gave off negativity, but I really feel like it was more of an analytical thought than expression of a poor experience. In the end, I think the experience was still a good one, so that's what's important.

Memorial Day Weekend (May 22-25, 2009)
I was a little bummed about missing out on a weekend of camping with my family, but I had purposely purchased my ticket home for after the Memorial Day Weekend. From friends who previously lived at the Center during this time of the year, I knew there were many exciting events in DC that weekend, and I wanted to be a part of it all. I mean, really, when else would I have the chance to experience something so powerful as a local...and the reality of it, was that I truly was a local. (For the time being, anyway.)

• Friday --> Thankfully, I finished working with my group early enough that I had time to say goodbye to the boss and then cherish a few hours of solitude in WaHa by taking an afternoon nap. Our dearest former housemate, Miss Amanda Hale, came for a visit, as she'd moved out to the Columbia Heights neighborhood in DC two weeks before. To celebrate, the WOW kids, Amanda, and one of our new housemates, Zach, walked to Bethesda for the evening. It was definitely an interesting adventure, but I'll spare you all the details. lol. Thanks for visiting, Auntie Amanda; we truly enjoyed seeing you!
• Saturday --> It was a much appreciated lazy day. I started packing and getting things together for my departure on Tuesday. Also, I accompanied Scott to Friendship Heights as he purchased some food items (stupid Clover Cafe has been closed a lot lately). That night, five of us went out to Comet, a pizza restaurant/bar/ping pong place down on Connecticut in DC. Amber, Rachel, Jake, Scott, and I really enjoyed the evening out. Ping Pong tables at a restaurant/bar is pretty much a genius idea, if you ask me. It makes for cheap entertainment, and good times--much more interesting than sitting around a table looking at each other, lol. We even hung out chatting late into the wee morning hours once we got back to the Center. It's too bad that I would be leaving so soon, or I would have thoroughtly enjoyed many more nights at Comet. booo.
• Sunday --> Colin and I went to mass (for the last time) at St. Bartholomew's in Bethesda. When we got back to the Center, we realized the Cafe was closed for lunch, so we invited Nekeisha and Scott to lunch with us at the Karma Kitchen in Dupont Circle. Scott had just eaten, so he declined, but Nekeisha agreed to come along. :) The Karma Kitchen is an restaurant that goes by a different name during the week, serving traditional Indian food to its patrons. However, on Sundays, the restaurant is transformed into the "Karma Kitchen," a generous restaurant working off of the "pay it forward" idea. Everyone is served family-style, sometimes patrons make friends by sitting with strangers, and all of the staff are volunteers. The meal is free, with the idea that patrons will make individual donations as they feel appropriate, as well as commit to performing an good deed within the community. The food was very tasty, and I very much enjoyed the mission of the Karma Kitchen. Again, it's too bad that I wasn't able to experience this earlier during my time in DC, as it's something I would have enjoyed doing frequently.
• That night, five of the housemates went out to the PBS Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol. Angela, Jordan, Zach, Scott, and I metroed out there for the event, and I'm pretty sure we all thoroughly enjoyed the show (especially Angela, lol). I'd never seen the concert before (it's broadcasted annually on PBS), so I was kind of surprised at the variety--speakers, musicians, etc. I definitely sat in awe, realizing how special and lucky I was to be in our nation's capitol on such an important day. Surrounded by monuments, memorials, and endless locations of historical importance, I felt like the luckiest girl alive. Living in DC definitely has its moments, that's for sure. :)
• Monday --> Continuing the celebration of Memorial Day/once-in-a-lifetime events, 9 of us from the house woke up earlyyyyyyyyyyy (5:45 a.m.) in the morning to catch the first bus of the day, in hopes of making it out to Arlington National Cemetary in time to get a seat at the annual Presidential Wreath Laying Ceremony. Nekeisha, Angela, Darielle, Megan, Jake, Jordan, Zach, Scott, and I got on the 6:30 a.m. bus toward Friendship Heights, but upon arrival, we realized that the metro had not opened yet for the day. Instead, we had to hang around and occupy ourselves for about 15 minutes before it opened, and another 20 minutes once we got inside and realized the first train wasn't set to arrive for a while. Once we finally made it out to Arlington, we immediately got in line for the Tourmobile ride to the ampitheatre. The line was long, but not nearly as long as it became as time went by. Thankfully, all nine of us were able to sit together, only twelve rows from where the President was set to speak. Sure, 12 rows may seem like a lot, but the ampitheatre is small, and so we truly had a great view of the speaking area. Ironically enough, we also made friends with a family sitting in front of us--their daughter is set to start graduate school at American University in the fall, and they'd traveled down to DC for the weekend to look for housing. Of course, we recommended life in Warren Hall. hehe. And, without going into too much, I just have to say that it was a great to put aside all opinions about the leaders of our country and just appreciate the experience of this historical event. It's just another once-in-a-lifetime event that I could not pass up, though I'm still waiting on the pictures from those lovely housemates of mine. ;-)
• I spent the afternoon packing up all of my stuff, as I was set to leave DC the following morning. In the evening time though, I took a break from it all to enjoy dinner with our entire WaHa family, all 17 of us (er, minus a few who hadn't returned from their long weekends away). We'd somehow magically convinced Chef Z to give us some yummy food from the Cafe for preparation on our very own barbecue pit. Together, we all sat around the commons room eating and talking like old friends. Also, Darielle headed up a game where all of us submitted questions into a hat and then we passed the hat around the room, so everyone could take a question and answer it. Once everyone answered their question, we did another round. It was a fun bonding experience, and very interesting too. Later, after I'd finished packing completely, a bunch of us played Apples to Apples in the boys' room (Nick & Colin's). I think their ended up being 9 or so people who played by the end of it--Nick, Colin, Christy, Megan, Rachel, Darielle, Scott, me, and someone else... We all had a good time; it was definitely a good way to spend my last night in DC.

Looking back, though some times in DC were very tough, I learned a lot, and definitely developed a deeper understanding, appreciation, and love for the city. My WaHa kids will always hold a special place in my heart, as we have developed bonds that will exist forever. LoL, WaHa...that place has got some character. To think about all the talented and amazing people who have walked through those doors, and the great things that have emerged as a result, I can only say it is an honor for me to have been a part of that. We mourned the loss of our alumni board, replacing the tangible item with memories that can never be destroyed. All of us have been a part of something very special, and it is my hope that generations to come will understand just what that means. Who knows, maybe I'll even be a part of the Warren Hall family again someday. Until then, I'm going to appreciate the experiences I've had and look forward to the future, as more doors continue to open for me. I hope that life altering opportunities are ever-evolving, and who knows where I'll end up next.
For that, you'll all just have to stay tuned!
:) Lauren, the gypsy

Departing Days (Pt. 1)

It's official...I fail as a blogger. Okay, I really hope that's not the case, but I am pretty mad at myself for not making the time to blog in a month's time. Maybe after I finish catching up on all the busy-ness that was/is life, you will all understand why I never found time to write. This whole catch-up thing may take more than one blog; we shall see.

WOW PA Adventure Day (May 4, 2009)
For some reason, I forgot to mention our WOW PA Adventure Day in my last blog. With every set of Program Assistants, our bosses like to treat the group to a fun day of their choice. Previous fun days have included a day at the local water park (boringgg) or lunch at Hard Rock Cafe (even more boringgg...zzz.). Our PA group decided to be creative, so we threw out a bunch of ideas, some of which were feasible, others, not so much. In the end, we ended up having lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl (a Washington, DC staple), touring a real row house on the Hill, and finally visiting the top of the Washington Monument. I'm sure our choices appear somewhat boring to others--and cheap, comparably--but who cares. We wanted to be creative, and I think it showed. Thank you, M & F, for making our PA Adventure Day a great success. :)

WMZQ Fest (May 9, 2009)
As previously introduced in my last blog, Christy and I attended a huge concert in Bristow, VA. We bought the tickets months ago and were so pumped for the big day to finally arrive. The traffic was horrible to get into the Nissan Pavilion, but once we finally made it in, all was well. The three side stage musicians (Kate & Kacey, Catilin & Will, and Justin Moore) were better than I expected, and we even got autographs from two of them (Kate & Kasey, and Caitlin & Will)! Woot. For the main stage, we had awesome seats. It was so fun to watch Keith Anderson, Jason Michael Carroll, Joe Nichols, Little Big Town, and Rodney Atkins perform! I was somewhat disappointed in two of the performers' performances (yes, I said that), as they were not very dynamic or entertaining. However, I did develop a bit of a crush on Mister Jason Michael Carroll, lol. (Ask Christy about that one, heh.) In the end, I'd say $65 dollars for an 8-band performance and all day concert event (3-11p), was totally worth the drive. It was also nice to have a last outing before the arrival of a whole slew of new housemates.

New Housemates
Housemates, housemates, everywhere...new housemates! As of May 9 (same day as concert, yes), we'd lost 4 of our original housemates, and gained 2 more. Matt, Marcie, Brian, and Amanda had moved out, and Amber and Angela had moved in. On May 10, we lost another original housemate, and gained 7 more. Justin moved out, and Rachel, Nekeisha, Lauren, Darielle, Katie, Jake, and Jordan moved in. Finally, all the CWF PAs had arrived. However, we weren't done there...within the remaining 2 weeks of my time at WaHa (Warren Hall), 4 more housemates arrived. Those were Zach, Megan, Scott, and Jessica. All along, the WOW PAs (Christy, Colin, Nick, and I) remained in the house. Yep, you counted right--that brought the grand total to 17 people living in Warren Hall!!
For clarity's sake, I'll try to break it down a little better, into who's living there and why. Just bear with me. Rachel (MN), Nekeisha (GA), Angela (IA), Lauren (NJ), Darielle (MN), Amber (MN), Katie (NY), Jordan (AR), and Jake (WI), (9 people) are all working with the Citizenship Washington Focus program this summer. Basically, their job is very similar to that of the WOW PAs, except that they work with only high school 4-H kids, and their schedule is exactly the same each and every week (jealous? just a bit.). They're also working for a few weeks less than we did. Zach, Megan (GA), and Jessica are all "outside interns," which means they're working off-site at various places in Downtown DC. Scott (IN), on the other hand, is interning with the Resource Development team at Council, and also serving as the RA of Warren Hall.

High School Musical (May 12, 2009)
A few months ago, Christy won 2 free tickets to see High School Musical at Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia. She knew how much I wanted to go (I entered the contest too), and so she graciously invited me to go along with her to the show. Though the show wasn't exaaactly like the original, and the harmonies were a bit off, we very much enjoyed ourselves. It was definitely nice to get away from the Center for an evening. :)

Second to Last Group (May 13-15, 2009)
Christy, Nick, and I worked together on a 2-night WOW group during the second week in May. The group had 3 buses following 2 schedules. At times, it was an organizational nightmare, but for only the secondish time this Spring, I felt competent at my job. I think I lucked out, having only one bus to deal with (I was the odd bus out.) for most of the time. It was cool, too because I got to visit the Newseum again (3rd time, my favorite!) and a minor league baseball game where the group had a private suite all to themselves. We also enjoyed the rare moments of "PA time" to ourselves, as it's always fun to hang out with good friends in DC.

CWF PAs' First Weekend in DC (May 15-17)
On Friday night, some of the WaHa kids went out to explore the city a bit, but I decided to stay in since I was pretty exhausted from our group. On Saturday, 8 of us metroed into the city to do some fun things; three went to some of the Smithsonians, and 5 of us went paddle boating on the Tidal Basin. Paddle boating on the Tidal Basin is something I've wanted to do ever since I arrived (and probably even since Dawn did it last year), so I was very happy to finally cross it off of my "To Do in DC" list, only 2 weeks before leaving. Nick, Christy, Jordan, Angela and I had a a great time hanging out in the boats, though it's definitely tough work. Heh. Afterwards, we split up into even smaller groups to visit the Holocaust Museum, Smithsonians, and mall area. Along the way, we met up with some of the other WaHa kids, at various points. That evening, Nick and I ate at ESPN Zone so that we could watch the Preakness race on their huge tv screen. Nick is going to the Belmont Stakes race in June so he really wanted to make a point of watching the two preceeding races. (We watched the first one in Virginia Beach, if you rember.) I also decided that I'm going to make a point of watching the final race in Little Rock, as it's the day Allie and I are driving up to camp. I'll have seen all three races in very different locations. How exciting!
On Sunday, I helped to coordinate a church outing to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Angela and Jordan have a goal of visiting all the historic churches in the DC area, and Rachel and I just wanted to go to mass. Plus, Colin, my typical mass chauffeur, was out of town, so I was going to have to metro to church anyway. The church was just as beautiful as always, and I was glad that the gift shop was finally open (I've been there like 4 times before and it's never been open), so I was able to purchase Confirmation gifts for my brother and a graduation gift for Kyle (who just graduated from the seminary in Covington). All in all, it was a successful experience.

As for all of my adventures from May 18-26th (my departure date), those will have to wait for another blog. This one is long enough already and I really need to get going on preparing for tonight's trip to Baton Rouge. I'm hoping to catch up on blogging before Saturday, as that's when Allie and I depart for our summer at Camp Aldersgate in Little Rock. I never stop, do I?

Tune in soon.
Lauren

Mother, May I

Mother May I...please get in a better habit of updating this blog? aMEn.
(Don't ask, everyone's strange...it's not just me, heh.)

Anyhoo. I probably could have written here at least a few days sooner than now, but I'm finally sitting down and making myself update before I get ridiculously behind again. At least I know there are few people out there reading my ramblings from time to time (even though it's rare that they comment *hint hint*). Now, a new month, a new blog...here goes.

Last week, I had yet another group. I mentioned it before, but to re-cap, we had 5 buses worth of (250) students from rural Masachusetts for a few days. There are only 4 PAs, so one of our supervisors joined in for a crazy adventurous week. Though it wasn't a horrible experience, it definitely was not my favorite, and I'm choosing to block much of it from my memory. (And anyways, I'm not sure that anyone particularly cares about the random events of an 8th grade trip to DC--we all have our own memories of those, right?)

The night that "said group" departed, we had yet another tour assignment--9 buses worth of middle school age future scientists, also known as Science Bowl kids. Because of the size of the group, 3 former PAs were asked to come in and help with giving Nightview tours of the city. As it turned out, only 7 buses were needed, so Nick and I didn't have to give a tour that night. This was extremely fortunate for us because we were scheduled to leave early the next morning for our road trip...and I'd just come off of two other groups nearly back-to-back, and Nick had another group coming in this week. (Thanks Boss, for being so considerate.)

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Speaking of road trip, I guess it's about time I dish the scoop on that too. Yes, I rented my first car this past weekend (without underage driver fees, double reasons to say "go me!")...for a road trip to North Carolina and Virginia. The plan was to visit NC State in Raleigh and then head over to Virginia Beach for a relaxing get-away weekend. Thankfully, my housemate, Nick, agreed to come along for the ride...just as long as I promised to get him to a beach before it was all over and done with. I also decided that I wanted the "real" road trip experience, and therefore Nick and I hoarded a bunch of random food from the cafeteria (apples, cereal, milk, and bread) to concoct some crazy meals...rather than spending money on real food for the weekend. lol.

Friday, we left early (6:53 a.m. bus to Friendship Heights) in order to bus and metro to the airport (DCA) in time to pick up the car and leave by 8 a.m. We hoped to arrive in Raleigh by early afternoon so that I would have time to meet everyone in the department and walk around campus before it got too late to hit the road again (beach-bound) that evening. Despite a few crazy moments, we did, in fact, make it to Raleigh in one piece--early, in fact.

There, I was able to meet with the Director of Graduate Programs, Director of Extension Education, a researcher that I'd be working with for my assistantship position, and several students. Everyone was really welcoming and it truly does seem like a family there (which is what I'm looking for). Oddly enough, I could even see myself on campus there, and I found a place I'd like to live if I move up (down?) there.

In fact, people were so nice that a bunch of grad students had planned a night out to dinner with me. Isn't that pretty much amazing? It didn't really work out in my plan, though, because Nick and I already hoped to be in VA Beach by that night. So, I declined...Nick and I bought tee-shirts from the bookstore (gotta add to the collction! lol.) and then got back on the road, headed north(east?).

We arrived in "Vah Beach" around 9:30 p.m., and it took us forever to get a hotel because everything near the beach was either sold out or way to expensive. Finally, we settled on a somewhat-janky hotel/motel that had been recommended by our supervisor who happens to be a VA Beach native. By this point, we were so exhausted that we collapsed into bed almost immediately.

Saturday, we woke up fairly early (without an alarm--yay!), and spent a few hours laying out on the beach. It was surprisingly clean and warm (water, not so much)...gorgeous, in fact. We ate a late lunch and then rested in the hotel for most of the afternoon, because Nick just haaad to see the Kentucky Derby ;-). (He's going to the Belmont Stakes in June.) After the race, we were a bit more rejeuvenated, so we took a stroll along the boardwalk, found an old shop Nick remembered from a previous trip there, and watched a bunch of little cheerleaders run around doing crazy tricks (competetion, anyone?). Along the way, we discovered we were both extremely sunburnt and, therefore, our muscles screamed at us to stop using so much energy. lol. To appease our bodies, we gave up after a bit, and went back to the hotel to watch a really dumb movie ("The Breakup") on tv before falling asleep early yet again.

Sunday, we left VA Beach earlier than expected (around 10:30 a.m.), which turned out to be a good decison. There was an incredible amount of traffic on the road for the entire trip, and it took us nearly 5 hours to go the distance of what is usually 3.5 hours. Bah. We also decided to bring our stuff back to the Center before returning the car so that we wouldn't have to lug all of our stuff on the metro and bus again. Smart idea. Plus, we drove through the familiarity of DC (via Rock Creek Pkwy) rather than getting back on the beltway, which would have taken ages.

All in all, it was a great weekend getaway, and I'm very proud of myself for all such accomplishments--rental car, driving in DC and crazy metro area, road tripping with only a friend and no "adults," etc. As for NC State, I'm still undecided, but I do have a good feeling about the school. I'm really just a very indecisive person and making this huge decision is driving me nuts. Hopefully I'll figure out something...sooner rather than later.

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In my last post, I mentioned that summer had arrived? Yeah, well, apparently Mr. Groundhog was wrong or something. It's been rainy and gross for almost a week now, and colder too. Fifities and sixties have returned, much to our annoyance. Hopefully the warm weather will return soon...because I've got some exciting plans for the weekend...hehe.

As previously mentioned, the house continues to drop like flies. Amanda started her new job today (a temp. position with the world bank?) and will be moving out on Friday. Brian finished school and finals, and will be moving out tomorrow, I think. Justin's graduating on Saturday and moving out early Sunday morning...which would bring the house total to...four!?!? We wish. On Saturday and Sunday, 9 of our new housemates will be moving in. These will be the new PAs for CWF (Citizenship Washington Focus); they'll begin training on Monday and work for the program through the end of July. About 5 or 6 more people will also be moving in over the next few weeks, and include the summer RA, other Council interns, and outside individuals. Of course, after Justin, I'll be the next person moving out (3 weeks from yesterday), so there will be lots and lots of turnover in the coming month or so. It'll be crazy, that's for sure.

Also on Saturday, Christy and I will be heading out to the WMZQ Fest, an all-day concert event at the Nissan Pavillion in Virginia. There will be 5 big-name artists and 3 up-and-coming groups too. We're so excited!! Because of the concert, though, neither of us will be around for the new housemates' arrival, which means we've left Nick to hold down the fort and serve as the welcoming committee. A few people do come in on Sunday, though, so I'll probably hang around for that.

Whew! I'm tired from all this writing...alllllllmost done. Today, I'm having a relaxing afternoon out in the house because tonight Christy and I have a Nightview tour. We "worked" (lol) this morning, and will be leaving to meet the group around 4:30 pm this afternoon. Until then, I'm catching up on some e-mails, blogging (duh), washing clothes, and hoping to start cleaning/consolidating my room in preparation for the arrivals on Saturday. Speaking of which, I just realized my clothes have probably been sitting in the washer for way longer than necessary, and I should probably get off of my booty to put them in the dryer. (oops.) On that note, I'll stop here. Be looking forward to exciting new stories as I move into my final days (er, um, weeks) here in DC!

Happy Early Mother's Day to all the moms out there!
:) Lauren

"I think I can, I think I can..."

I did it! I did it!!! Finally, I made it through a group and felt successful!!! Yay. This 5-night (6-day) WOW group included 5th grade students from a private school in Florida. Despite three days of soaking rain (and more outdoor showers), the kids were great--enthusiastic, eager learners, and just an all-around wonderful group. Perhaps having nearly a week to get to know them helped the cause, but at this point, I don't really care why it was good...rather, I'm just thrilled that it went well at all.

On that note, thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers over the last few weeks. I know your efforts definitely influenced my success last week, and for that I am extremely grateful. Please don't stop there, though. I have four more weeks here in DC, and although I hope I am over the hump, I'm still a bit skeptical and would very much appreciate your continued support. Again, thanks in advance.

One disappointing aspect of last week, though, was the loss of yet another Warren Hall housemate. Matt left unexpectedly in the middle of March, and this past Thursday, Marcie followed suit. Her Marketing internship was scheduled to conclude at the end of May, but for personal reasons, she had decided to leave May 4th, instead. However, on Tuesday morning, I found out that she'd gotten an offer for a film project in California (she owns her own film company, remember?), and decided to accept it. The project was slated to begin on Friday (April 24th), so she ended up having to buy another airline ticket and leave early Thursday morning. Because I was working 12-18 hour days with my group, I didn't get to spend any time with her during her last few days here, nor did I really get to say goodbye. I was quite disappointed about her quick exit, but hopefully she is happier these days.

The rest of the house is dropping like flies, it seems. Brian will be moving out right around the 7th of May, and Justin will follow only a few days later, on the 11th, or so. Amanda has hopes of leaving just as soon as she can find alternate living arrangements, which means that pretty soon, only the 4 of us WOW PAs will be left. On the other hand, though, at least 10-15 new indviduals will begin moving in on the 9th of May, which means the house will be rockin' with lots of folks pretty soon. Until then, those of us that are left plan to enjoy the solitude and quietness of a small house, heh.

Speaking of solitude, I have been living like an old lady lately. Ever since the group from Louisiana left, I have been going to sleep between 9:30 and 10 pm on a nightly basis. It's very uncharacteristic of myself, but I actually enjoy it. For the past few days, I have been waking up between 7 and 8:30 a.m. without an alarm. It's kind of nice to get 10 ish hours of sleep, wake up early, and still feel extremely well rested. I love it. ...But be sure not to disturb my sleep, because I have "gone jihad" on many a person lately for doing just that. Ask the security guards. ;-)

Oh and, summer is quickly upon us; it's been 85-92 degrees and sunny here lately. I love the sun and the warmth, but I could do for a ceiling fan, if you please. Our house is regularly kept at 80 degrees in the summertime, but we use ceiling fans, which make it much more comfortable. This stupid house doesn't even have central heating. wtf. Hopefully the maintainance people will come to install the window units soon because it's getting to be pretty uncomfortable inside.

Bah. I really ought to quit writing and get back to being productive. We have yet another group coming in today (grr!), so I should put myself together and get to lunch so I can go to the office at some point before they arrive. This 250-person, 5-bus group is a middle school from rural Massachusetts. My supervisor swears it will be the most fun group of all, but I don't believe him for a moment. Five buses!?!? Are you kidding me? Nooooo thank you. ...Not to mention that Thursday night, after this group leaves, we have a 9-bus group coming in for Science Bowl. Thankfully, we're just providing a Nightvew, but my gosh, I can't wait to be done with work this week (and it hasn't even started)!

Friday, Nick and I will be heading out on our road trip adventure to visit North Carolina State University and hopefully some sunny beach along the way. I got an amazingly priced car rental, and we are ready to gooooooooo. Can't wait to share the details...and hopefully this will ether be a definite "yay" or "nay" on the list of grad school prospects.

Wish me all the best,
Lauren