A Winter "Beach" Wedding

It's been a while since we've done anything mildly interesting, so I figure attending a winter "beach" wedding is worth mentioning.

Originally, Alex was going to be a groomsman in this wedding, but a potential conflict came up a few months ago, and he decided to respectfully bow out rather than leave someone hanging at the last minute.  Instead, we thought we'd make it into a bit of a "babymoon," but then after our exhaustingly long drive the day before, we didn't have much energy to put into dragging this trip out.  It was, however, nice to do something different, and having an excuse to get dolled up didn't hurt either.  ;)

The wedding party was pretty average sized (7 attendants total), but the chapel they chose was WAY too small for the 325 guests that attended.  (We barely managed to grab the very last two seats in the room!)  Additionally, the reception was held in the bride's backyard, so an announcement was made after the ceremony that people needed to leave their cars there and take trolley shuttles to the reception due to lack of parking (way to prepare people...).  Let's just say fearing porta potty lines, lack of seating, and the possibility of running out of food made this 31 week pregnant lady pretty nervous to say the least!

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find huge enclosed tents with adequate seating, a hot chocolate bar (yay, something for me while Alex enjoyed the beer), no lack of food, and "high end" porta potties (with lines to wait in the 40 degree cold, which I still think is pretty tacky, but whatever). We enjoyed the opportunity to have a night out, just the two of us.  And, you can't really argue with a nice dinner and decent entertainment, can you?  It's too bad we didn't know anyone to hang out with and make a party out of it, though.

Purple Sweet Potato Butter?
That will be interesting!

We peeled out pretty early (around 8:30 p.m.) and returned to the motel to enjoy television in bed, which is always a real treat for us.  Alex watched football, I perused the internet on my phone, letting ourselves start to catch up on some much-needed rest. The next morning, we took a minute to visit the beach, since we were on an island after all.  Of course, 35 degrees is way too cold to spend any real enjoyable time out there, so we snapped a few pictures and then went on our way!

Baby's first trip to the beach! 

On our way to Mass, we killed time by stopping at a few grocery stores in hopes of finding some jar roux to use in making gumbo for his parents, but no luck.  People had no idea what roux was, so despite the stores selling plenty of Zatarain's and Tony Chachere's brand products, roux was not one of those.  The gumbo will have to wait!

And finally, we enjoyed Mass before heading out of town, and then stopped to have Bojangles (!!!) for lunch on our way back to Alex's dad's house.  I have to say, one of my favorite parts of traveling is attending Mass at churches across the country.  We always keep a copy of the bulletin and add it to our collection to a scrapbook of sorts.  It's cool to look back on all the places we visit over the years.

What about you - do you have any interesting travel traditions as it relates to visiting churches on your trip?

-Lauren

Better Late than Never - A Birthday Trip

You may remember that Alex celebrated his 30th birthday back in November.  Since we have no family and friends nearby, it broke my heart for us not to be able to make a big deal out of the celebration.  In an attempt to make it up to him, I planned a weekend getaway to a secret destination after football ended in early December...Hot Springs, Arkansas.

At one point, I planned on heading to see the Christmas lights in Natchitoches, but further research indicated more exciting things to do in Hot Springs.  Then I lucked into being offered a free condo (a friend's parents' condo) for the weekend and that pretty much sealed the deal.  And let me say...that condo was sweeeeeeet.

We couldn't leave until after work on Friday and it was super foggy, so we arrived pretty late due to the four hour drive. On Saturday morning, we explored downtown Hot Springs, did quite a bit of Christmas shopping, and enjoyed our time exploring together.  We also stopped in at the local casino (which is really a horse track, just out of season) for a bit.

One of my favorite things to do when traveling is enjoy eateries that we don't have in Monroe.  Being back in Arkansas meant that I wanted to eat everything that reminded me of Little Rock, and then some. For lunch, we ate at the Dixie Cafe, then planned to grab a milkshake at Purple Cow after a faaaabulous Chinese dinner buffet.  Unfortunately, we had to scrap our plans for the Christmas lights at Garvan Gardens due to traffic, but that purple peanut butter milkshake made it allllllllllll worthwhile.

And finally, on our way home, I introduced Alex to geocaching as he scored his first-ever cache in the middle of nowhere, just north of the Louisiana state line.

The funny thing about this dog is that he was mentioned in the clues for finding the location.  LoL.

I'd say the trip to Hot Springs was well worth our time, and I would absolutely visit again (maybe in warmer weather?).  Since making this trip, I read about Stephanie's babymoon trip to Eureka Springs, and she definitely has made me want to visit there.  I mean, who could argue with sleeping in a treehouse or a castle?!  That drive is nearly twice the distance for us, so not great for a weekend, but maybe a vacation one day...So where is your favorite place to take a weekend trip?

-Lauren

Just Another Roadtrip

[Originally written on Friday, August 30th.]

It's practically September now and I want to squeeze in one more entry before the proverbial page turns on a new month. I planned to carve time out of my evening for this, but it's after 3 o'clock on the Friday before Labor Day and I have officially checked out.  After conducting three meetings today, my focus is shot and I'm ready to do something else, so here I am.  Way back when, I promised I'd write about our week-long trip to North Carolina in July and by golly I think today is the day.

Per usual, we loaded up and left after a full day's work on Friday (7/19), making our routine overnight stop at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  It's not a bad 4 hour drive to that stopping point, and nice to make it there early enough to get a full night's rest for the following full day of driving.  On Saturday evening, we rolled into Alex's mom's driveway right around suppertime.

We got up early on Sunday morning for 8 a.m. mass, which got us back to the house with plenty of time for breakfast and then services at his mom's church.  We practically had to run out of there afterwards because the service lasted for-freaking-ever, and Alex's groomsman, Christopher, planned to stop over and say hello on his way to Greensboro for a conference.  Thankfully we barely beat him there, so it ended up working out just right.

That afternoon, we loaded up (this was a reoccurring theme) again, headed for Topsail Beach.  Alex's mom made arrangements for the three of us to stay overnight at her friend's beach house down on the coast, so we were able to get our fill of the beach on that short trip.  The major sunburn we both took home was a great souvenir, I might add.  ;-)

On Tuesday, we drove from Dunn to Clinton for the second half of our visit.  The remainder of our week was spent with Alex's dad's side of the family, relaxing and spending time together.  There, we were able to enjoy delicious food, making up for the "diet" we'd been on the previous few days...

Wednesday was extra special because we took a mini-"pilgrimage" back to where it all began for us - Krispy Kreme in Raleigh.  Well, let me back up.  Before dessert, we had dinner at Mellow Mushroom with Kara, one of my bridesmaids, and Justin, one of Alex's groomsman.  Justin also brought along his girlfriend, Sarah, so we could meet her.  The food was good, as was the opportunity to spend time with friends.  (Remember my last entry?  Friend-time doesn't happen very often these days.)  During dinner, Kara and I joked about how it would be fun to have hot donuts for dessert, so we made an executive decision and told the group we were going.  Haha.

When I say we made a pilgrimage to where it began, I'm referencing the first time Alex and I met, and our terrible attempt/failed double-date at Krispy Kreme.  Looking back over previous entries, I'm realizing I didn't write much about that event.  Note to self - share that story sometime.  Double note to self - also, share the story of how we weren't legally married for nearly a month after the ceremony.  Anyway, back to what I was saying...Krispy Kreme is special to us, and Kara played a major part in that, so going back to Krispy Kreme together was pretty cool.  And of course, when hot donuts are involved, does the rest even matter??  It may have been a late night drive back to Alex's dad's but the fellowship was well worth the effort and I hope we can all do it again sometime.

We closed out our week on Friday, making the long leg of the journey to Tuscaloosa for the night, and returning to Monroe on Saturday afternoon.  My parents were there when we arrived, since my dad makes his annual trip for the tent sale at Simmons' Sporting Goods in Bastrop.  It's definitely been nice to see my parents so often while living here in Monroe.  In fact, "the women" (my mom, grandmother, and great aunt) are coming to visit tomorrow.  This is when I keep reminding myself there are perks to being closer to home...

In any case, ya'll be safe and enjoy the holiday.
-Lauren

Goin' Through the Big D

Ever heard that Mark Chestnut song..the one with the lyrics "I'm goin' through the Big D
and don't mean Dallas...?" This song instantly popped into my head as I sat here to begin writing about our weekend in Dallas.  The song, however, is talking about divorce and that is definitely not where I'm going with this entry.  Go ahead people, smile...SMILE! :)

Anyway, back to Dallas.  Alex and I headed out on the evening of Thursday, June 27th, for a weekend in Texas.  This was after a super traumatic visit to our new dentist here in Monroe and needless to say I was ready to peel outta there ASAP!  We made it to our hotel in Arlington just after 10 p.m., which made for a bit of a late night trip but we knew it meant we could enjoy two full days in Dallas if we went ahead and drove there that night. 

On Friday morning we went to a place called Top Golf.  Ever heard of it?  If you have, I bet you've heard only good things about it.  If you haven't, look it up next time you're in the area.  I seem to faintly remember there being locations in a few other states too, so just go ahead and check it out anyway.  For those of you non-golfers out there (like myself), imagine an outdoor bowling alley with each group of friends or family playing in a designated lane, called a bay.  Instead of rolling a ball, though, participants take turns hitting golf balls toward designated targets (or golf holes, whatever those are called).  Never fear - no need to be a pro at actually making that ever-desirable hole-in-one because the closer your ball gets to the target, the more points you earn, even if it doesn't make it to the hole! 

Alex and I had a great deal of fun at Top Golf.  We beat our "top scores" over and over again, even though we only played for an hour.  After our time was up, we headed down to the indoor café area for lunch (though food is available via servers at each of the bay areas and even in covered lounge chairs throughout the facility). Alex ordered a very tasty pulled pork barbecue sandwich and I had the "mushi" (think sushi-themed wrap).  The meal was pretty reasonable in price, considering I expected it to be fairly expensive for the area and the setting.  We were pleasantly surprised. After lunch, we went back outside to wander around and ended up finding a corn hole set, life-size connect four games, huge checkerboards, and a large-scale jenga game - all for free!  There was also an area for putt-putt, but temperatures had started climbing (no one loves Texas heat) so after a few board games we decided to head back to the hotel with plans to take a dip in the pool and grab a cold one before our evening activities. 

We spent the evening at a Texas Rangers game.  Conveniently, Alex planned ahead for us to stay at a hotel that came with a free shuttle to nearby attractions - the ballpark included.  It was SO nice to not have to deal with traffic, parking, or crowds.  Well, traffic and parking, anyway.  We did have to wait at least half an hour for a return shuttle after the game, but what's a little extra time whenever it's free and you've got no place else to be?  I will say the first part of the game draaaaagged on.  Alex's friend, Justin, made fun of/lectured me for being a bad wife in whining about how long the game was.  Seriously, though...I like baseball...I just happen to be accustomed to the timing of college baseball games, not professional ones.  The game ended with a fancy fireworks show in honor of the upcoming July 4th holiday.  While Alex was in hog heaven all evening long, I'll admit I was pleased to finally see the fireworks show, knowing that soon we would be headed back to the hotel for the night. 

Saturday we headed out to Forth Worth to check out the Stockyards.  This fun little neighborhood near downtown Ft. Worth is filled with western-style shops, restaurants, museums, and other attractions.  We moseyed down the streets checking out some of the souvenir shops and scoped out options for lunch.  Mid-morning, everyone flocked to the streets to await the first of two daily cattle drives.  I've been around livestock here and there, but these guys were huge - and beautiful - if cattle can be beautiful, that is.  Then, we decided to try our hands at a maze; the guy who worked there told us most people average something like 12 minutes in the maze...um...it took us thirty.  Oops?!  Actually, Alex finished before I did, but it couldn't have been more than 10 minutes apart.  We enjoyed the challenge and would probably go again if we were ever in a position to do so.  For lunch, we stopped in at one of the locally-owned restaurants, taking a break to enjoy the air conditioning and rejuvenate before wandering the streets a little longer.  As the temperatures began to jump again, we ended the afternoon with some home-made ice cream (and to Alex's delight - Cheerwine in a glass bottle) from a quaint little shop then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our date night out. 


Dinner and a movie is pretty cliché for a date, but I bet few of you have had dinner while at the movie.  Say what?  Movie theatre food is super expensive and resembles all that your nutritionist would nix on the spot, yes?  Au contraire.  The 21st century has arrived my friend!  See, Studio Movie Grill combines the two-step date night out into one.  Just purchase your assigned seats, get comfy, browse the menu, and buzz your waiter when ready to order.  Sit back, relax, and enjoy the latest big screen flick without having to lift a finger in the kitchen or plan ahead to time dinner at the restaurant just right for a 7 p.m. showing.  Really though.  We enjoyed dinner at SMG in Arlington while watching Monsters University with a hundred of our closest friends - ha!  The food was tasty (though a tad pricey, as one would expect at any other movie theatre) and we enjoyed the adventure of trying something new.  I think the dine-in movie experience will be "coming to theatres near you" very soon, so be on the look-out and give it a chance if you ever come across one.  And because date night wouldn't be complete without a little something sweet, we splurged and stopped by Steak'n'Shake on our way home to share a peanut butter fudge milkshake capping off our lovely evening. 

As for Sunday, the only exciting item on our agenda was packing up and driving back to Monroe just in time to attend Mass and catch the newest episode of Big Brother.  (Any #BB15 fans out there?!) Then of course, it was back to the grind on Monday for another short week due to the (July 4th) holiday.  More to come on that...next time!

-Lauren

Seasons Change

Well hello, hello. A little over a month later, I'm back at this blogging thing again. I figure I ought to get another update in before June (and all things summer) rolls around. Plus, I'm in a different state now (in more ways than one), so that calls for some blogging inspiration if nothing else.

Since I last wrote, school officially ended for the year (if you want to call it that). Classes finished during the last week in April, which was nice, but I had to wait around for two weeks to take my STATs final during the second week of finals. As it turned out, I finished the semester with an A in 526 (tech class), A- in 505 (trends/issues), and a B+ in the dreaded statistics course. I'm not a fan of the +/- system that NC State follows; I wish my GPA were a bit higher, but I guess it's not too shabby in the grand scheme of things. In the words of my Physical Therapist cousin, "C's get degrees." I guess it's true...no one will care what the grade was, so long as I'm qualified for the position, whatever that may be...whenever that may be.

As I said before, there was a decent gap between the time I finished most things academic-related and whenever I actually left North Carolina for the summer. In that time, I really was able to enjoy Raleigh and the wonderful people I have met over the last few months. I spent a good bit of time being social with new friends and exploring some new areas of the "Research Triangle," as they call it. I'm especilly thankful to the good friends who were there for me in my final days of packing and finding closure to this season that has been Grad School, Year One. Special thanks to: Ryan, Heather, Lendy, Katie, Kara, and several others that were there for me during those intense few days...Merci beaucoup!

Before I move on to the beginnings of summer, I really want to take a minute to express my gratitude to everyone who has been so supportive to me over the last 10 months. It's been a tough go at this whole graduate school thing, and I'm not saying it was easy (you all know that it was rarely anything LESS than a challenge), but I will say that I couldn't have made it through this year without you. There is not enough time--nor brain power--in the day for me to list everyone who deserves to be thanked, but please accept my apprecation as it is. Many of you stood across time zones and ever-changing depths of friendship, yet you never failed to support my endeavors, even when I was a stubborn ox who challenged every ounce of optimism you attempted to share.

As I look toward the future, I predict this second year of graduate school will be none less challenging, but I'm hoping that with one year under my belt--and a reasonable appreciation for the great state of North Carolina--that this one may have a bit more of a positive outcome than the last. Thanks to everyone who took me under their wing to show me around Raleigh, to teach me that the South is indeed different than the Deep South, and that maybe I can at least enjoy life in the moment as I accept the cards that have been dealt for me. I will do my best to remember these important lessons, but beg that you please don't forget about me in the Fall. I still need you--as teachers, classmates, co-workers, and most importantly, friends--individuals who will support and encourage me in the second part of this season of life. Seasons change, friends come and go, but one thing never fails--the memories that make them so. :)

With that out of the way, on to...SUMMERTIME! On Sunday, May 16, my friend from home, Victoria LeBlanc, flew to Raleigh. Her plane arrived at 11 p.m. that night, and by 8 a.m. the next morning, we were on the road, heading West. With plans to drive for about 12 hours, stopping in Mobile, AL for the night, our day flew by surprisingly fast. We caught up on the months (years even) of time we have been apart; there's a lot to say when planning a wedding and traveling the world. Heh.

By the time our 12-hour mark rolled around, however, we were about ready to be done. Unfortunately, there was not an empty hotel room in Mobile to be found. (Dang oil spill.) Instead, we had to keep driving, an extra hour, to Biloxi, MS. The fortunate side to this story, is that after a 14-hour day, we landed a room in a 4-star casino/spa resort. We were so exhaustd at this point, but super stoked about our luck. To celebrate, we put $8 (collectively) in the penny machines and got two free drinks (each) out of the deal. Let's just say we slept veryyy good that night.

The next morning (Tuesday), we had a short 3-hour drive to Lafayette, stopping for a nice celebratory lunch at Chili's before the final 30-minute trek back to Abbeville. Once again, I just want to give a huuuge THANKS to Victoria, my co-pilot for the trip. Without her willingness to share in this adventure with me, I'm positive that I would not have made it home in once piece. Thanks, girl. I can't wait to share in your wedding glory over these next few months!

Since I've been home, things have been pretty busy around here. There have been honor ceremonies, 4-H events/meetings, family to see, and parties to be had. My younger brother, Austin, graduated from high school this past Saturday night. We had a party for him at our house Saturday during the day, and then my parents were up all night at his Project Graduation that night. On Sunday, I met my godchild and his triplet sisters for the first time! Drew, Sophie, an Emma are just the tiniest, sweetest little things. They're right around the 5 lb. mark, and cuter than ever.

At this point, I've got about 10 days left at home before I head out to camp in Little Rock. In that time, I've got to make some real, intense progress on my thesis proposal, anddd I hope to spend a decent amount of time helping out my cousin, Laurie, with the new babies. Maybe I can find some joy in multitasking?

Once in Arkansas, I'll have a week of training, and 5 total weeks of camp with two weeks away, in between. I'll be taking a week off (unfortunately, Spina Bifida camp) to attend Kim and Joey's wedding in Louisiana, and then heading up to Milwaukee for the Association of Leadership Educators' Annual Conference. Jess and I are presenting a research paper there (remember the interview project at 4-H Conference?). Then, I'll return to camp for a week before the mid-summer camp break at 4th of July. No plans for that currently, but I'm open to suggestions, so let me know if you have any. After that, three more weeks at camp, and then twoish in Louisiana in early August. The plan is to fit in Victoria's bachelorette party and the babies' Baptism during those first two weeks before I head back to Raleigh for the Fall.

Are you tired yet, because I am!?

On that note, this is enough for one night. Enjoy your second dose of summer reading, and I'll try to get another entry out for you in a few weeks. Best wishes to all, and enjoy those...

SUMMER NIGHTS!
-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

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. ;-)

No Place I'd Rather Be

Boy do I have lots to write! It’s been almost a month since my last blog. Camp has come and gone, and it’s just about the same way with my short time at home in between here and my next adventure. I’ll get to all of that eventually, so sit back and enjoy the story.

CAK Week: July 19-24, 2009
My first week back at camp was called “CAK” Week—or camp for kids with Cardiac, Arthritis, and Kidney Disease. Allie and I were most excited about this week because we wanted to experience “heart kids” at another camp. We were slightly disappointed about the small number of campers with heart conditions, but it was fun to learn about other medical conditions such as kidney disease and arthritis. One cool thing about this week was that Allie and I were able to work in a cabin together for the first time ever. We were so pumped about it, and it was totally great that we had the same breaks. This meant that not only did we get to hang out together when we were off, but we also led the cabin together when the other counselors were off. Allie and I have always worked well together and it was such a relief to understand each other’s process so that the cabin ran smoothly during the times that we were in charge.
It was during this week that I was assigned to lead “Devo” one evening. Devo is short for “devotional,” which is very similar to “vespers” for those of you who attended 4-H Camp in Louisiana. Basically, each counselor was assigned a night to give some sort of inspirational story or lesson. For mine, I gave each camper an animal cookie and talked about how they each taste the same, but all look different, which symbolized how people all look different but are the same on the inside. Then, I played the song “Don’t Laugh at Me” by Mark Wills and afterwards gave a little summary to close it out. I think it went really well and I very much enjoyed leading Devo. I can’t wait to do it again next year!

Asthma Week: July 26-31, 2009
Asthma Week was a pleasant surprise for me. All summer long, counselors had been making comments about how Asthma Week is affectionately known as “Ghetto Week,” and that I should not bring any valuables to camp. However, I really thought the kids came from a great mix of backgrounds and there wasn’t any huge majority or minority, which was somewhat different from most other weeks. The girls in my cabin were great, really. As for their asthma, it really wasn’t a big deal at all (just like most kids at camp), but I very much enjoyed learning about the disease and how to manage it. It was also fun to work with Holly for her first week as Senior Counselor. I think we all bonded well and worked together to help make things go smoothly. Overall, it was just a really good week.

Cajun Night
On August 1st, Allie and I hosted a “Cajun Night in Little Rock” at Kyle’s apartment. We purchased the makings for jambalaya, red beans/corn bread, boudain, king cake, and beignets. Our original food list was a lot longer but then we realized we didn’t have much time or space to cook and didn’t have a real head count to know how much we should buy. At several points throughout the day, we thought it might only end up being four or five of us eating the food, but in the end, a total of about 12 or so people showed up. Allie and I were very disappointed in how the jambalaya turned out (it tasted so/so but the coloring was off majorly). Everyone was really nice about it and seemed to like it okay, but if we ever do it again, we’ll do a better job of making sure it turns out right. Oh, and we definitely went all out with setting the mood. My mom sent Mardi Gras beads so we decorated Kyle’s apartment with those, and for a while we had some fun music playing (I couldn’t find my Cajun music, but we improvised). Speaking of which, I think I left that CD in the player at Kyle’s…hm. Anyway, we all had a great time, and hopefully our Little Rock friends have a new appreciation for Cajun food. Tehehe.

Oncology Week: August 2-7, 2009
Boo…my final week at camp for the summer. On a happier note, Allie and I were both scheduled as Senior Counselors (for the first time ever) this week. We each had some challenges in different areas, but it was definitely a good learning experience for the both of us. I think we’d both love to have another go round at being SC, which we’ll hopefully get the chance to do if we make it out to camp again next year.
One extra special thing about this week was that the American Camp Association (ACA) finally came for their accreditation visit. Allie and I both have a decent amout of previous experience with ACA, as we’ve been through it at Heart Camp (me once, and Allie more than twice), and I attended one of their regional conferences a few years ago. So basically, we understood a bit about what was coming, which really helped with not stressing out as much as we could’ve. On the other hand, with working at the archery range, I had to be more conscientious than ever before. Morgan (fellow activity leader) and I went over the procedures over and over again to make sure that we were doing everything correctly and in a manner that someone observing us would be able to pick out every aspect of the process. In doing so, we developed a joke (“1 arm, 2 arms, 3 arms, FOREARMS!”) which really helped to lighten the mood and make things fun at the range this week. We definitely had a good time with our new joke, and it seemed to resonate throughout camp, especially when the kids continued the joke while up at Adventure Challenge, lol. Who says AC and the lake are the best activities at camp—not I!! Heheh.

Long Goodbyes
Since the drive home from Little Rock is about 8 hours long, Allie and I didn’t have the energy to leave after camp on Friday. Plus, we were really sad to go, so we decided to draw it out as long as possible. (After much badgering from Allie and friends, I caved in from the original plan to leave Friday morning, lol.) To enjoy our last day/night in LR, we went out with most of the staff to U.S. Pizza Company for lunch on Friday afternoon. There were more than 25 of us there, which is one of the largest, if not the largest, outings we’ve had all summer. In the afternoon, we hung out and rested back at camp with a few fellow counselors. For dinner, Allie, Sydney, Kika, and I went to Sakesui (sp?) for sushi. It was yummmmy and we got a pretty good deal for the price too. Afterwards, we walked around in Best Buy (I wanted to look at computers) and Old Navy (Sydney wanted to browse) before stopping to get Coldstone for ice cream on our way back to camp. Back at camp, we changed over our laundry and then Sydney and Kika left for evening activities. Allie and I hung out with Clair for a bit, but then we had to trek over to Kyle’s apartment to get all our stuff out of there since we were leaving in the morning.
Upon return to camp for the night, we helped one of our dear fellow counselors with picking the nits out of her hair. Yes, you got it, we had a small lice outbreak (kinda, not really) at camp this week, and with no one around to help her, Allie and I stepped in. This counselor felt terrible about asking Allie and I to help her, but we didn’t mind at all. Although we were up until 3 am working on it, it just felt like the natural thing to do. I mean, really. We’re at camp…we wipe 16 year old’s butts, insert catheters, enemas, and suppositories, poke to check blood sugars, give showers, etc, etc. Yanking dead bugs out of someone’s hair really fits the bill, if you ask me. Lol. Plus, we knew this lady would do it for us if we were in her position. It was really no big deal…anddd we had a great bonding experience entertaining ourselves throughout the night. Lol.
Finally, on Saturday morning, we got our things together and said more goodbyes—to Clair, Sydney, Kika, Bobo, and Eckess, this time. We never did get a chance to say bye to Ali Miller, Blain, or Kyle Fulton, which was a huge bummer. Guess that just means they’ll have to come visit us, or we’ll have to make another trip up here before next summer? Hopefully, the former, lol.
Allie and I finally made it back to Cajun Land during the early evening time of Saturday, August 8th. We said our own goodbyes, to another summer together. Without lives changing all the time, we can never predict if there will be future camp summers before the reality that is adult life overcomes our desires to spend forever at camp. All we can do is hope for the best and plan for the unexpected. Thank you, Allie, for another amazing summer; I can’t imagine a season without you.

Random Recap, Fun Memories
-Not sure if I ever told this story, but on our way to Raleigh in May, Nick and I thought we’d made record time by arriving an hour early…then we realized my GPS, Maggie, was still on Central time. Major bummer, but we changed it and went on with our day. Fast forward to June, and Allie and I were a bit confused at the late Arkansas ETA via Maggie. Then, we realized Maggie was still on Eastern time. Guess I’ll have to pay more attention to that on the future…hahahha.
-June 9th Text Message: “We’re in training which is mostly good. It’s so nice to have a week of fun times with old friends without kids. I have missed this place so much. This huge weight is lifted off of me…The one where I finally enjoy doing what I’m doing again. It’s inexplicable.” (For those of you who remember some of the struggles I had during my time in DC, you’ll appreciate that I finally felt “right” to be someplace again. DC was great but it’s not where I thrive, and so finally I was in my element again, and extremely happy to be doing what I do best. So yay.)
-June 16th Text Message: “It’s weird to transfer from tour-guide-leader-in-charge mode to laid-back-camp-follower mode.” (Although it took me ages to feel confident in my role as a tour guide, it was definitely an adjustment to switch back into a follower mode at camp. Granted, I wasn’t ready to be Senior Counselor right at the beginning of the summer, I just had to readjust my workings, I guess. Some of you may find that interesting. Shrug.)
-June 25th message from Christy Clary: “If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there.” –Lewis Carroll
-June 29, Channeling my inner Child Life Specialist: I provided distraction today by playing hangman with a camper as she received a bowel procedure. Annoying nurses surrounded us and I really wanted to keep her mind off things. It was a special experience.
-July 25th Tweet: “Don’t Stop Believing!” – Journey, Our 2009 camp song. Allie and I put this song on “repeat” in the car for a month. I’ll forever think of my “Home Away from Home” when hearing this song…
-July 29 & 30 Tweets: “Never been more happy for rain; swimming in freezing water at 10 to avoid rain, fml.” (For three weeks straight it rained at camp. It was a nice break from the usual monotony of heat and sweaty outdoor activities. However, swimming seems to be high on the totem pole at camp because one day we swam in the freezing cold water at 10 am just so that they kids would get a chance to swim before it rained. Then we had to get out because it started thundering. FoL.)
-July 31st Tweet: “Camp Aldersgate. There’s no place I’d rather be!” (I really don’t think this needs any further explanation.)

And on that note, I believe this blog is long enough. I had hopes of writing a bit more about what I’ve been up to since arriving home from camp, but I really need to stop here so I can finish packing. (Packing? Oo, for where? Guess that’ll just have to be in my next blog……) Hopefully the next one will come sooner rather than later.

Until then, peace folks!
-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.)

--

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.

--

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

Mmmmichigan!

Alrighty, Michigan.

I arrived in Michigan late Labor Day night (er, early September 2nd, really) and stayed until very early Saturday morning, September 6th. It was a pretty relaxing week, overall, now that I think about it....Basically my entire visit to Michigan can be summarized by a few interesting activities:
*Watching a decent number of movies

• Life Size (twice)
• Office Space
• some weird Munsters immigrate to the U.S. movie
• a movie about an woman adopting her niece after the parents' sudden death and thus falling in love with guy who threatens her job as famous chef (name being...?)
• one about saving the world from aliens, with Will Smith, whatever that's called
• The Family Stone (one of my favorites!)
• and probably more that I can't think of at the moment...

*Attending a MSU Block and Bridle meeting for the free food (lol) and meeting some of Benjamin's cool, awesome friends.
*Visiting/touring a real dairy for the first time. ...Benjamin's friend, Gail, and her roommate, Erin, work at the dairy (at really strange times, like 2:30 a.m.) and live in the nearby Hog Shed (house with strange name on dairy grounds? idk.). Because I'd never been to a dairy before or been very up close and personal with dairy cows, he convinced the girls to give me a tour. It was so much fun! The girls even did the whole little flight-attendant-acting-out-the-process drama. Quite entertaining. I only wish I'd had my camera. And, a few days after the initial tour, we went back for home-made mint chocolate chip ice cream! It was divine! ...The home-made beef jerky wasn't so bad either. ;-)
*Adventures driving Benjamin's car alone, in East Lansing...all for gas and goodies to make a very tasty Cajun Dinner! ...Yeah, I made jambalaya using the Zatarain's mix that comes in a box (I'd brought it from home), and easy king cake (using cinnamon rolls and food coloring-dyed sugar). Danielle (Benjamin's roommate), Gail, and another female friend of his joined us to enjoy the goodies. Of course, I cheated, because none of it was made from scratch, but that's okay. Their Cajun food experiences can only get better, right? hehe.
*Biking across the Michigan State campus only to sit through a very foreign (to me) genetics class. ...Biking as a form of transportation is definitely a new phenomenon, in my world, but apparently one that I should get used to, as I don't have a car here in Idaho. As for the class, I played sodoku the entire time and listened to Benjamin, Gail, and the other classmate friend of theirs, crack jokes the whole time. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. :)
*Thursday night Bull-a-thon. ...It's apparently tradition within Benjamin's circle of friends to go bowling for free every Thursday night from 8-10 at the bowling alley in their Union's basement. (Bowling alley in the basement? craziness. ...to be fair, LSU has one too...lol.) It was actually a grandly fun experience; I had a good time meeting everyone and really liked all of their friends. I'm only sad that I won't be able to hang out with them all again. (The name, I think, is based off of the fact that these are all "ag kids," but I could be wrong...)
*A very late night and VERY early morning departure from Detroit. ...Yeah, my flight was scheduled to leave DTW at 6:45 a.m., and since East Lansing is two hours from Detroit, we had to leave very early. We asked Gail to ride with us to Detroit because I was worried that Benjamin might fall asleep at the wheel on the drive back to EL, so we left Benjamin's apartment at 3:25 a.m., picked up breakfast (yes, a 24-hour McDonald's near campus?), and met Gail around 3:35 a.m. ish. They made coffee, and then we were off to the airport! I DJ'd the ride, using Benjamin's laptop, and it was just a grand ole time...as much as it could be for 4 o'clock in the morning, lol. At last, the pair dropped me off at the airport, saying their goodbyes, and that was the end of my Michigan experience... :-(
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Travels and arrival, settling into Idaho will come next...
'Til then,
-Lauren

Surviving Ohioooo

Much to all of your concern, I-am-alive. Yep, that's right, I made it through the storm, up to Idaho, settled in, and have since completed a whole 46 hours worth of my internship. What about in between? I realize it's going to take a while to write about all that's happened in these last three weeks, which is part of the reason it's taken me so long to write anything at all. However, there is plenty to write and for both your and my sakes, its about time I get to it. So, here goes...

• (On my way to) Ohio

I never did write about my adventures before even arriving in Ohio, did I? Well, on my way out of Thibodaux on August 26th, I realized I'd forgotten my phone in my car, so we had to turn around to go back and get it. It would have been really horrible for me to be traveling without a phone or important numbers. Because of this, I arrived at the New Orleans (MSY) airport at 5:21 p.m., with a flight scheduled to leave at 6:05 p.m. This meant that I had roughly 10 minutes to get out of the car, stand in line, check in, and go through security.
Luckily, there was absolutely NO ONE in both the check-in and security lines. When I checked in, I noticed that the flight had been delayed 'til 6:15, which made me feel better about things time-wise. However, by the time I made it from the check-in counter to my gate (maybe 10 minutes), the flight had been delayed again--until 7:15 this time. I made a few phone calls, letting people know that I'd made it to the airport, and would possibly be delayed but that all was well. Sometime while making these phone calls and grabbing a bite to eat for dinner, the flight was delayed again to 8:50 p.m.! Eek.
By this time, I'd become worried about missing my connecting flight in Atlanta, but I knew there wasn't much of anything I could do about it. My best defense was notifying friends in Ohio of the situation, making potential sleeping arrangements with a friend in Atlanta, and putting my "do-your-Delta-magic" friend Chris from Georgia on alert for flight changes, etc. To make a long story short(er), our flight ended up leaving at 8:15 p.m., and after a "hustle" in the Atlanta airport, I did actually make my connecting flight (thanks to its 30 minute delay) to Ohio. Thus, I arrived in Ohio at 12:30 a.m. on August 27th.
[I should note that this is the day that the FAA had some crazy computer glitch that caused flight back-ups across the country. I didn't get to see the news but I heard it was nuts.]

• (August 27th - 29th in) Canton/Akron/Cleveland/Columbus, Ohio

Kayleigh and Domenic, two co-workers from heart camp, picked me up from the Columbus airport, and we drove two hours back to Canton, as I planned to stay there with Kayleigh for my first few days in Ohio. We made it back to Kayleigh's around 3 a.m., so Domenic stayed the night in her basement, because he lives in Cleveland which is an extra hour away. [Yes, they have BASEMENTS?!?! oh em gee.]
Wednesday, Kayleigh and I got up fairly early because I had an early-afternoon meeting with a graduate program at The University of Akron, which is about thirty minutes away from Canton, if I remember correctly. Needless to say, navigating a city and university campus that is completely unfamiliar can be quite a challenge, but we did make it to the meeting on time, thank goodness. Child Life was the graduate program of interest at UA, so we met with a faculty member and two graduate assistants/students in the program. The students were very helpful and informative about the program, its curriculum, and life as a GA. They even shared their contact information with me in case I had any more questions or concerns...and now that I think about it, I really should write them about how all the hurricane stuff turned out... Anyways, it was a really poopie day weather-wise, but I felt rather accomplished after that meeting, so yay.
After the meeting, Kayleigh and I had a late lunch, then drove up to Cleveland to meet Domenic. We had tasty ice cream at his family's ice cream shop and then went to see Lake Erie. Yes--I've seen a Great Lake! Woot. Again, the weather was nasty...it was all gray, foggy/misty, and rather chilly...but hey--I SAW LAKE ERIE! Yayyyy.
That night, Kayleigh, her sister, mom, and I ate at Milk-n-Honey a really quaint hole-in-the-wall restaurant. We all had ice cream for dinner, which was just pretty much amazing. If you haven't ever eaten a true waffle sundae, you're missing out. It was absolutely delcious! :)
Thursday was a rather lazy day; Kayleigh and I slept in and then roamed around Canton for most of the day. She showed me some of the schools that she and her sister attended, cool buildings downtown, and we ate at a tavern (Domenic insisted that I see one, since "there are no real taverns in Louisiana," grr), and then went back to Kayleigh's. She had to work for the evening, so Domenic met me at her house to entertain me for a while. At this point, Hurricane Gustav had become a pretty powerful force in the Gulf, and so I was mostly glued to the TV. Kayleigh's parents took us to another quaint restaurant for dinner, and then we watched The Princess Bride (worst movie EVER!).
My mom called that night to say that I really needed to reschedule my flight for Sunday rather than Monday (Labor Day). I attempted to make arrangements with Delta that night, but after getting disconnected four times, and then talking with a crazy foreigner, I gave up. It was extremely frustrated and I was just so stressed out and upset that I couldn't do it anymore.
Friday morning, we woke up way before it was light out, and left around 6:45 a.m. with hopes of making it to Columbus before 9:30 a.m., since my meeting at Ohio State was scheduled for 10 a.m. On the way to Columbus, I spoke with a very friendly Delta representative who rescheduled my flight without any problems. We had a few extra minutes, so Kayleigh drove me around her school, Otterbein College, on our way to meet Mike (also co-worker from heart camp). Mike attends graduate school and is a GA at Ohio State, so I figured he'd be the best person to show me around and give the graduate student's prospective. We didn't have much time to talk before my meeting, but it was really nice to be able to bounce ideas/possibilities off him afterwards.
My visit to Ohio State was a jam-packed four hour session. I met lots of faculty members, went over the curriculum requirements for a Master's Degree in Agriculture and Extension Education, discussed assistantship options, and even toured the brand new Ohio State 4-H Office, which happens to be a very nice GREEN Building. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, and they were really interested in me and my experience, especially since I was from Louisiana, a state with a very strong 4-H program. They seemed to really "want" me there, and were willing to do whatever they could to make it work for me attending their program. It was a really cool experience, to say the least. [I must also note here, that I felt really bad when I later realized my National 4-H Conference collegiate facilitator friend, Katrina, works in the state office and I didn't get to see her while I was there. I did see her the next day, though, thank goodness.]
After the meeting, Mike and I spent some time catching up with each other; he didn't work at camp this summer, so we really hadn't gotten to spend much time with each other in the last year. It was good to have some time to really talk in person and things like that. I definitely see Mike as an older brother figure and appreciate the closeness we've developed over the last few years. As kind of a nostalgic Louisiana treat, he and I made red beans and rice together...though I guess I should say that Mike made red beans and rice, and I watched. lol. It was fun, nonetheless...and his Ohio friends sure liked it, hehe. [For curious minds out there, Mike is originally from Nacadoches, TX, but attended LSU for graduate school, and now lives in Ohio, so he's rather capable of making tasty Louisiana red beans and rice.]
I spent the night at Mike's apartment, and Saturday morning we walked to the little market a few blocks away. Basically it was an open market set up on the side of the street with various home-grown fruits, vegetables, and beautiful flowers for sale. Finally, the Ohio weather had begun to cooperate with my visit, so it was a gorgeous day outside. After returning from the market, it was time for me to pack up and get ready because Benjamin was on his way to pick me up; the plan was to visit his family and stay at his house for my last night in Ohio.

• (August 30th - September 1st) Just outside Columbus, Ohio

Benjamin, another National 4-H Conference collegiate facilitator friend, lives just outside of Columbus in Lewis Center/Africa. He came to visit Louisiana in May after returning from a semester in Europe, and so it was my turn to visit. We hung out at his house, playing video games with his siblings for most of the afternoon. His younger brother (Jacob-10), Benjamin, and I, played in the pasture with some air soft guns for a good bit, too. Surprisingly enough, it was pretty fun, lol. It was also cool to see some of his sister's (Katherine-17) sewing projects and study sessions for their upcoming county fair. Ohio 4-H in comparison to LA 4-H is a very interesting specimin, that's for sure. For dinner, we all went over to his extended family's house for a cousin's 11th birthday. Katrina and two other active Ohio 4-Hers came to visit, too. It was really cool to finally see Katrina and I think we all had a pretty good time catching up with each other.
Late that night, my mom called, worried about me getting stuck in Atlanta the following day due to Hurricane Gustav. She said I needed to decide whether I wanted to risk getting stuck in Atlanta or just stay in Ohio indefinitely, until I could make it out to Idaho for my internship. Of course, I was really upset about the idea of not going home before Idaho, because I never got a chance to say goodbye to my family or to pack up important papers and adequate clothing for three months away. When it came down to it, I decided that it was probably safer to just stay in Ohio with people who loved and supported me than to chance being stuck in a city where I know only one person (a person who happened to be very busy with her senior year of high school).
Thus began another late-night adventure with Delta representatives. Fortunately, however, this foreign representative had no clue what she was doing and somehow refunded my entire ticket to and from Ohio, meaning I ended up with a free trip to Ohio and plenty of Delta credit for a flight home from Idaho in December. It was pretty much amazing. Benjamin asked if I was Irish, because of my luck with airlines. ...I must say that the exceptions made by Delta for hurricane situations are really great; and I still love Delta, despite the occasional frustrations.
Sunday morning, I went to church with Benjamin and his family, ate at Bob Evans for the first time, we hung out a bit, and played some more air soft. Air softing is so much fun; even though I'm not very good at it, I only got shot once! woot. It was a pretty laxed day. I layed around a lot, watching the maps and listening to the storm unfold via Katc.com (Lafayette news channel). I also did some searching for airline tickets, because Benjamin invited me to go up to Michigan with him for the week (he goes to MSU), and I thought it sounded like a cool idea.
Monday, was also relaxed. We woke up pretty late and I listened to the hurricane for a while, too. Ms. Beth, Benjamin's mom, helped me search for airline tickets, and we finally decided on the Frontier Airlines flight out of Detroit early Saturday morning. We all went to eat at Cracker Barrel for lunch, which was a fun outing. Most of the afternoon involved Benjamin shopping for food and other stuff to take back with us to Michigan. There was another family dinner (at his house, this time) that night; we hung around waiting to see everyone and eat before heading out to Michigan, a 4-hour drive ending at nearly midnight.
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As this is the end of stories from my trip to Ohio, I think I'll stop here for now. Expect another entry from the visit to Michigan and my internship adventures in Idaho. As far as reflecting on Hurricane Gustav, it's hard to put into words all of the emotions I felt that crazy week. And now, it's especially difficult because we've since gone through a second storm, Hurricane Ike, and everything just really all blurs together. Plain and simple, hurricanes suck. Sometimes things can be exciting, but the devatation far outweighs the fun stuff. Louisiana is one special place, that's for sure.
And with that, I bid adieu.
-Lauren

Globe Trotter.

Now I remember why I haven't updated my LiveJournal in six months...Catching up when you're behind is a pain in the butt. However, I promised I'd keep up with this blog, so that I will do. Here goes it.

• 4-H Camp. (June 30-July 4)

After finding out I'd be off during this week, I offered my services as an Adult Leader at 4-H Camp. However, Vermilion Parish had an overabundance of adult volunteers (as always), so they didn't really need my help. Jeff Davis Parish, on the other hand, did need an adult leader; for this reason, I spent the week with an amazing group of Jeff Davis 4-H'ers. :) It was a bit strange to be at camp with, but not with, Vermilion. The Jeff Davis group was very welcoming, though, and I really did have a good time. (It was also great to finally spend time with my family. ...Sad that I had to go to 4-H Camp to actually see my mother and brother. First time in a month, last time for...about just as long.)

• Cross-Country Road Trip, to Boise (July 4-10)

I left very early Friday morning from 4-H Camp to meet Kim and her family, as we headed out on our cross-country road trip, final destination--Boise, Idaho. The trip took two and a half days, driving for 18 hours on both Friday and Saturday, and then 6ish hours on Sunday. This made for a 38ish-hour drive, total? Overnight stops included Dumas, Texas, and Ogden, Utah. The trip wasn't bad at all--in fact, I could have gone on for much longer. (Of course, I wasn't driving, lol.)
Upon arrival in Boise on Sunday morning, we got the keys to our new apartment! It's small, but the closests are huge and we absolutely love it!! The first few days in Boise were spent shopping for furniture and stocking up on all the staples (food, cleanings supplies, etc.). We also did a few touristy/relaxing things like hanging out with Joey, riding the bus downtown, and going boating at Lucky Peak Reservoir. I even went knee boarding and played Rock Band for the first time. It was such a blast! Can't wait to head back up there in September, yay.
My first two flights home-bound were great. It was actually the very first time I wasn't at all anxious to fly. (For some reason, I get anxious when flying, but not really nervous, sick, or upset..don't ask.) I had a feeling that the day was going to go well and everything would be fine. It was a lovely feeling, really. Up until I arrived in Houston, all went as planned. Chris (Nowicki, my personal travel agent/Georgia 4-H friend extraoridinare) called to say that I owed him big because he scheduled my itinerary to exclude Minneapolis and Atlanta, as there were major delays at both airports.
Unbeknownst to us, flight delays would become a part of my itinerary, as well. Yes, my plane was first delayed 40 minutes (not sure why), and then, as we were beginning our trek down the runway, the pilot announced that there were "maintaince issues," and we'd have to pull back in for repairs. As it turned out, the repairs would take too long, so we de-planed (?) and were sent to a few different gates before finally being assigned a new plane, scheduled for departure two hours later than originally planned.
OH! I have to mention that I randomly bumped into Rachel DeCuir, a fellow Ste. Anne (French immersion) Alumni 2004, at the Lafayette airport! Rachel just returned two weeks ago from a year in France, and was then returning from some time in Quebec. It was so random the way we met up with each other, but amazing, all the same. We did some quick, "What are you up to, where are you coming from, how's life," sort of stuff and then departed ways. As is the trend, we're both super busy, and continue to enjoy life as regular globe trotters. :)
I finally arrived home at 11 p.m., too late for the delicious rice and gravy that Nanna had waiting for me. Sadly, I settled for some peach yogurt and half an apple, checked my e-mail/Facebook, and collapsed into bed for an amazing night's sleep, in a real bed for the first time since Saturday. Nice.
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I'm home for a few days before CBC Staff Training and Camp. It'll be nice to spend time with the family; we are just so danged busy. Maybe I'll even get a chance to upload some photos to Facebook, for the first time in...nearly two months? (Don't hold your breath.)
Anyways, I'm heading out to ABC early tomorrow morning; "Mer Ben" is giving an Archery Training for the new staff members, and I'd like to be certified as well.
Have a good weekend everyone,
-Lauren
PS: Leave a comment/message if you'd like me to send pictures of our new apartment. They'll be posted on Facebook...eventually.