So... an embarrassing amount of time has passed since my last post. Don't get used to this blog layout because I think I'm going to make a few changes soon! Since I finally have decided to get back on here and write a few things. How can I possibly summarize my entire April-September experiences? Hopefully you'll get the idea with a few pictures, a few mission trip journal entries, and some of my thoughts about the summer. If I was smart, I would've written more in the summer instead of right now where my life is consumed by field hockey practice, friends at school, friends at home, making meals for myself (for the first time in my life, pretty much), work in the chapel office, work in the writing center, more field hockey, field hockey, field hockey.... oh, and classes. But my new (although I've tried this before) goal is to write on here once a day, ideally. So some posts might be long, some might be super super short.
What's consuming my thoughts right now:
1. Creating a nonprofit organization for my Intro to Nonprofits class
2. Field hockey game tomorrow against MIT (Yikes!)
3. My study abroad application for Orvieto, Italy (Due in a few weeks!)
4. Saving and earning money (This is because I'm taking Personal Finance and it's motivating me to save my money. First, I need to make some money to save!).
Anyways, that's all for now because I'm going to try and fix this blog layout...
Okay, so now I have to catch up on the last 3 days during my visit to Julie’s! We decided to step it up with the picture taking on Monday and Tuesday, but for Sunday we only have a picture of us after church in front of the St. Patrick’s Day parade. On Sunday, we woke up early to head off to Julie’s church which is in downtown Philly, I met a million of Julie’s church friends who all thought I was Lisa’s (Julie’s sister) friend because I was tagging along with Lisa while Julie was off doing important things at church. After church, the three of us headed off to Subway.
On Sunday night we did our usual dinner / TLC / hot tub / Dunkin’s / movie / snack / bedtime routine, but we also had a bonfire at Julie & Devin’s house! So that was added into our scheduled activities.
We slept in late on Monday, made a picnic lunch and headed off into downtown so Julie could be a little tour guide and show me what the city is like:
Tuesday (today), is a very sad day because now I’m on a seven hour bus ride from Philly to Boston and my snack supply is running low. Thankfully, Julie packed her whole kitchen into my lunch box but it’s hour #4 right now and I’ve already eaten both of my sandwiches (one of which was supposed to be for dinner). I’m not sitting next to anyone because I strategically spread out all of my bags and sweatshirts the second I sat down. I then proceeded to pull out my laptop and textbooks for a “frazzled student” look. It apparently worked because now I get two seats to myself! Before Julie dropped me off at the bus stop this morning, we went to a park by her house to kill some time and enjoy the weather! :)
Exactly a year ago, I was at Anna’s house for spring break when we met up with Julie & Devin for a hike:
Instead of catching up on two months of absence, I'm just going to pretend like it hasn't been exactly 2 months (since January 9th) that I've posted something here... #embarassed.
Here you go, Mom. Now you'll know what I've been up to! Crazy stuff, as you can see.
After doing two and a half or maybe loads of laundry (I made it fit into two washers), washing over a week's worth of dishes, some intense cleaning of my spacious dorm room, and eating the contents of my mini fridge, I was ready to head off to Philly with Leah in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday. At 8am we rolled out of Gordon and were on our way to what Leah called an "adventure." The only bad part of our 6.5-7 hour trip was that the weather was SO gorgeous that it was annoying to be in a car for song long instead of lounging outside. A combination of Subway, Dunk's iced coffees, and a few songs on repeat got us to Philly in what felt like only a few hours when it was actually the longest I'd been in a car for a while. Then we met Julie who greeted me with some donuts (you'll find out that the best parts of this trip have to do with not only friends, but food... obviously). We drove around and listened to more good songs--well, we only "drove around" because Julie got us a little lost on the way to her house. We then went to her flower appointment to pick out bouquet arrangements and boutonnieres for her wedding on June 3rd. We decided to watch Like Crazy... also know as the worst movie in the world. It was like one of those terrible Netflix ones that looks somewhat intriguing and somewhat decent but actually turns out to be incredibly horrid.
On Friday, Julie went to class before I was up (and she made me some delicious French toast!) while I successfully organized all of the pictures on my laptop and looked at pictures of funny cats, including my own. We went to Home Depot to pick out paint colors for the bathroom in Julie & Devin's house, went to the mall, I experienced Salad Works for the first time (delicious), Julie got a seriously dwarf-sized kid's meal at Chik-fil-A (even my pitiful dinners at Lane looked extravagant compared to her meager meal), we had dinner with her family, bought random stuff at the dollar stole, ate candy, went in her hot tub, and watched reruns of Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings. So obviously it was a great day. :)
Today, my father would've been proud of my as I worked my tail off with Julie and her sister, Lisa, at Julie & Devin's house. We cleaned out the basement, hauled stuff around, painted trim and the whole bathroom! Also, I had a Wawa hoagie for lunch and I'm wondering why we don't have any Wawa's around here in NH!!!! Ugh. It was delicious! Here's a flattering picture of us working hard:
Super cute, huh? Please note how Julie is the one covered in paint.
If I had a million hours in the day, I would most likely watch every show on TLC, bask in the sun by the pool (assuming it's summer), listen to Coldplay & the Goo Goo Dolls on repeat, write letters, make every meal a picnic outside, hang out with my friends, and read read read read read. Unfortunately, when I wake up at 11 or 11:30 every day I only accomplish the first item on my list: watching every show on TLC. Occasionally I make it to the gym and hang out with friends but that's the extent of my recent days at home. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about my endless hours of leisure time at all (even though this is going to be quite the shock when I head back to school on the 18th). Anyways, the point of this is that reading is one of my top favorite things to do in the world and I miss reading at school! I definitely read enough textbooks and other required books for class, but I miss having hours in the day to read outside in a hammock, preferably. The hammock part can be flexible. For example, I'm perfectly content when I'm swaddled up in my blankets during the winter while reading a book. Sooooo... here's a little glimpse of what I've been reading over the past month:
The first book I read over vacation was The Hunger Games. I can't remember if I posted about my frantic I'm-going-to-read-this-in-five-hours-without-stopping encounter with this book, but it came and went between the hours of 9:30pm-2:30am on Christmas night. I then read the next two books within the following 2-3 days! They were so good. Can't wait for the movie!
I've read excerpts from Bird by Bird in my Great Conversation class and my Intro to Creative Writing class, and during both readings in class I've embarrassingly chuckled out loud and then once I realized that great, my laughter is louder than I thought, I've had to resort to the I'm not laughing but I'm just shaking uncontrollably because I can't even hold in my giggles. Long story short, I find this book hilarious and I had to buy it for Creative Writing: Nonfiction this semester. Naturally, I decided to read it and I've laughed through every chapter. It's pretty much Anne Lamott sharing her tips and tricks about writing and how it doesn't always come natural to even the most successful writers.
My mom bullied me into reading this one (she bullied me into reading The Hunger Games, too). I'm only about 1/4 of the way through it, but I'm seriously addicted. It's about a minor character in the Bible, Dinah, and her life and the lives of other women during that time. As Dinah is the only daughter of Jacob, all of the mothers use Dinah as a means of carrying on all of their own stories. That's not the best description but hopefully you get the idea. It's really good so far.
What has Megan been up to for the past week, you ask? Well I'll tell you. Megan has been celebrating the lovely day called Christmas (celebrating = eating artichoke spinach dip 'til she bursts, receiving and giving presents, lounging by the fire on Christmas Eve&Christmas Day& post-Christmas day). In addition to this Christmas hoopla, Megan has also resorted to being a hermit for 3+ days as she read The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. Megan's friends and family were worried when they didn't see her emerge our of her basement cave/room during these ~72 hours. When she did arise from the depths, it was only to grab food and use the bathroom.
Here's a few pictures from the Christmas festivities! They mostly feature Rocket and his fat self:
- went out to breakfast with Monique & Victoria!
- worked at the preschool camp for a while, laughed at seriously everything the kids said today, then came home for lunch.
- watched What Not to Wear and Four Weddings
- visited SARAH and chatted with her (see previous post about Sarah & Olivia and my moping about never seeing them)
- opened my lovely gift from Olivia! Sarah got the bird and I got the cute little penguin!
Tiny picture from my phone
- went to the doctors for a follow-up about the headaches I had this summer (I haven't had many headaches, so I'm all clear for now!)
- bother my mom and Michael before finally going to Planet Fitness where I watched the History channel as I lazily/slowly biked for an hour and people-watched. Probably too relaxing for a gym trip.
- talked to Amy on the phone
- talked to Olivia on the phone to thank her for my gift and catch up!
- listened to the same songs over and over again because I can't take them off repeat. Here's a few of them:
Oh, and yesterday I Skyped with Anna and finished all my Christmas shopping with Monique in Portsmouth!!! So as you can see, I've pretty much see 80% of my friends in the past 2 days. Well, not really (I don't know why I said 80%) but I've loved talking with everyone :)
In the works:
- getting Coldplay tickets so Rachel and I can go see them in Boston on July 29, 2012! Might die of excitement.
- dragging my dad to the gym with me on Saturday because I have one free guest pass and he needs to see how buff I am (HAH)
- Christmas Eve services on Saturday!
So far, I have successfully accomplished the following on Christmas break over the past 2 days:
- slept until 12 on Thursday... and Friday...
- seen Michael play at his band/chorus concert
- wasted time on my computer
- listened to my CD from Gayle about a million times! :)
- TRIED to generally plan out my classes, possible study abroad, and other random stuff (I'm thinking about graduating a semester early...)
- worked at the Youth Center for a few hours playing four square with middle school boys
- babysat my favorite kids!
- organized my closet
- worked out a Planet Fitness. Once.
- joined Pinterest (I have yet to figure out how this works, though)
As you can see, I've been super productive (sarcastic). Hopefully I don't continue my habit of sleeping for 12+ hours every night--I'm thinking that maybe if I write that here it will make it happen because then I don't look back at my old posts and think oh, great, I still sleep until 1pm every afternoon even though I have nothing that should be making me as sleepy as I currently am.
Today I'm missing some of my very best friends, Sarah & Olivia. They're both living in the little city of Provo, Utah, while I'm in some unheard of town in Mass for the next week (then I'll go home, and I have a feeling that NH will be even FARTHER away from them!). Only by a few hours though. And according to Mapquest, it will take me 36 hours and 52 minutes to see them if I start driving now, so what's a few more hours if I start driving from New Hampshire? It's also 2045.28 miles... so I guess I could start running there now (but only if I upload some better songs on my iPod... because the 5 Rihanna songs I listen to while I run might not do the trick on mile #2040.
I need to buy some new sneakers if I'm running there. Or a new car! (hopefully you're reading this, Mom)
Anyways, Olivia recently got married this summer in August (I'm not sure if I can find any pictures of us from this but I'll try...). So she's living in Provo with Dalin. Sarah's going to BYU, and she'll be home for Christmas!!! :) Here's some pictures of us throughout high school. I'll try to get you a picture of Olivia and me in middle school sometime, but no promises.
EFY, August 2008
Christmas caroling, December 2010
:) June 2008
Gilford Beach, June 2008
Sawyer's, July 2008
Olivia and me visiting BYU (and Sarah!), November 2009
Olivia finally came home! August 2011
Before I left for preseason this year, August 2011
Sarah's graduation, June 2009
After our graduation, June 2010
I just realized that Olivia is probably in the middle of our picture 99% of the time because she's so short and if she was on the side it would make the picture slightly offbalanced ;) Anyways, I miss them a lot!
