Zack, Jessica, and a million watermelons for our event. 

This is Jenny with Tiki Bob - a crucial member of our team. 

This is my staff for WOW - Week of Welcome (see? we're all doing WOW with our FINGERS!!!) This is a greaaaat group. 

me, Amir, Zack, and Meg - the birthday crew 

celebrating! 

preparing for the Irish car bomb 

21!

Weeelllll, yesterday was my 21st! Two nights ago, I went out to my first BAR (at midnight, classic) and had some fun with Zack, Meg, and Amir. Many thanks to my stellar cousin NATALIE for sharing a few too many details with the fam (was the knowledge of the Irish car bomb necessary?). I have posted a few pictures below from the birthday celebration (doing as Uncle Phil requested and showing my dark site) and also pictures from Week of Welcome. I have been CrAzY busy with work this past week - we have a ton of events running all week. To see our full schedule, check out this site:
http://orientation.unc.edu/your_orientation/wow.html

So far, it's gone pretty well. The South Campus Beach Bash was a hit, and so was the Out of State Student meeting (my idea - we had over 200 students attend, which was way more than we expected. Go, me!) Last night, however, it rained, so we had to move the double feature inside, which was a bummer. It turned out ok, though. It was nice to have it be a bit more of a break so I could relax on my BIRTHDAY.

Thanks for all the messages from my loving family! It was great to hear from all of you.

new digs

I am all moved in! It was a HORRIFIC ride down yesterday - traffic from before Baltimore practically through to Richmond - and then POURING rain once we got onto 85. A normally 7 hour trip took 9. Very frustrating. BUT we made it, and moved in. I really like my new place! It is soooo nice, it's crazy. I'll get on the blog and post some pictures before long.

Today was a big shopping day, picking up shower curtains and other various items needed to furnish the apartment. Cameron, Kelly, and Amir were all doing similar things. My friend Kyle came over to visit for awhile, which was nice. We are about to go over to Emily and Jake's apartment to have dinner with the two of them and Ruth and Jim (Emily's parents, also Annie's parents). I still have a bit more unpacking to do, but I think I will do better when things have mellowed down a bit and I can focus. Things are still too exciting around here!

last day

Today was my last day at work! It's sad but happy...I'm ready to move on but I will definitely miss the people I worked with. They are all so great! Oh well. Hopefully I can keep touch with them.

Tonight I'm off to have dinner with the Higgins. My cousin, Kevin, has been in Afghanistan for the past few months - he is stationed there - and is home for 2 weeks on leave. After dinner, I have a date with Paul to hang out before I leave Friday. Then, I believe, I am Ben's designated driver when he goes out with Kevin and Ellen. Tomorrow is a huge errand-running day and then a massive amount of packing will occur.

The next time I blog, I will probably be in Chapel Hill...!

Family camping

Well, it was a very pleasant vacation with the family. We drove about an hour and a half on Friday, then set up camp, roasted some marshmallows, and chatted by firelight. Friday night was the WORST NIGHT OF MY LIFE. Ben snored like NOTHING I have ever heard. I was up on my own for the first two hours, and I continually attempted to make him stop snoring. However, he continually yelled at me and told me to leave him alone. Finally, Mom and Paul woke up, and Mom and I made the executive decision to go sleep in the car. This was not exactly what I would call pleasant, either, but at least we didn't have to listen to Ben SNORE. Saturday, we chilled around the campsite and then went for a hike to the Pinnacle (enjoy the pictures from the hike!). It was about 10 miles and it took us 5 hours. I was pretty exhausted by the end. Dicey hiked with us, and kept up pretty well considering her short legs! We went back to the campsite after our hike and had some tacos for dinner. We all sat around and read for awhile, but I was so tired I went to bed by 9:30. Ben had been banished to the car for sleeping, so I slept like a ROCK and didn't move til morning. We had breakfast this morning and then packed up. We stopped at Hawk Mountain to look around, but Dad couldn't talk us into hiking again (although he tried!). We stopped at an outfitter's store called Cabela's...this is THE HUGEST store I have ever seen, all full of camping supplies and clothes, etc. It was fun to look around but WAY too big and WAY too many people. We came on home, unpacked, and hung out til dinner. I'm headed out to my friend's house, but I didn't want to keep you all waiting too much longer!!!

Dicey, hard at work licking out a cup 

Mom and Dad...awww 

The entrance to a cool cave we found on the mountain. 

Looking down on Paul and I in the cave. 

The fam takes a breather and eats some lunch at the pinnacle. 

Gorgeous view from the top - about halfway through our 10 mile, five hour hike. 

more to blog

I'm off for a weekend in the wilderness with the family. We found that this was the only weekend all summer that we were all free- how sad is that?!?! We are so busy! Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that I will be back in action starting next week. Look forward to some hot pictures of the camping family, including lots of hiking, tents, and dirt. I can't wait!

The family picture just before leaving. Yes, Dad is hugging the bush - said he wanted it to feel included. 

Jane's birthday! 

Gorgeous New England landscape. 

The amazing sand castle. 

Tom's debut as a mermaid. That's Kennon, Paul's girlfriend, on the right, and my friend Annie next to Paul. 

The view from the bottom - I took this with everyone on top of me. 

The great pile-up.  

Dad tries to escape it all. 

Family dinner. 

Grandpa blows out the candles on his birthday cake. 

emergency blog

WHEW. I am finally getting to this. True, I am at work. But this is something my boss does not need to know. Last week in Rhode Island was awesome. It was great to be with all of the family and it was actually relatively (haha, relatively!) stress-free. Natalie, Jane, and I changed each other's voicemails which was a major highlight.

Common phrases to be heard at the beach house:
"You have just earned one MILLion...punches in the face"
"(fill in the blank). So hot right now."
Out of the mouth of Gerry, as Paul was up to bat for around 5 minutes without a hit:
"Paul. Not so hot right now."
In the event that something bad happened:
"Bad news Bears!" (I hated this one. Just for the record. It only exited my mouth ONCE and I immediately regretted it).
"GREAT JEAAAARRRRRBBBBB" or "GREAT JOOORRRRBB" Thanks to homestarrunner.com for that one.

A few questions about the week though: Why did Natalie insist on calling my cell phone multiple times when I was standing right next to her? How did Uncle Phil tolerate sleeping in the gross, gross, musty basement? Why is there still sand in my bed? Why was the mattress on Natalie and my bed SO THIN we were practically sleeping on bars? Why was the "den" aka kid's bedroom ALWAYS SO HOT?!! Does Natalie's radio play another station (we listened to Golden Forties - I kid you not - the ENTIRE WEEK.) Why did Natalie feel the need to push me in the face as I was calmly sleeping next to her? Will I ever be able to play Fishbowl again after this massive overdose? Why did Kennon (Paul's girlfriend) sleep UNDER our bed when she had a cot available to her? How did the boys manage to refrain from jumping on us to wake us up? AND: the most crucial question of them all - WHY did Paul betray us girls in such a harsh way and play "Taps" to wake us up the morning we left? All these and more are lingering in my head.

However, there were some highlights, including: making Tom (a friend of mine) into a mermaid on the beach (look for pictures of that on the blog later this evening), having 5 of my favorite cousins lying directly on top of me, the AMAZING sand castle, beach walks, many, many solitaire games, watching Annie mime "muffler," talking with my cousins until 2AM, changing each other's voicemails, listening to Grandpa talk about meeting Grandma, the homemade butter pecan ice cream, Hershey Bar Pie for breakfast, biking around Watch Hill (especially when the girls and I went to the beach comPLETELY loaded down on our bikes - that was fun), talking to Eric on the phone, watching Kerry's speech at the DNC, celebrating 3 birthdays, and much, much more.

I think this was one of the best family vacations so far. Of course, I say that every year. But I also mean it every year. Look forward to some hot family pictures to be posted on the blog, as well as my current musings on religion and humanity (in response to Jack's comment on my blog. You've had me thinking). This evening, I am NOT going out with friends, I am staying in and doing important things, like buying books online and POSTING ON MY BLOG, and sitting on my butt. And, of course, going to bed early. I am more excited for tonight than I have been for hanging out with friends every other night. Sorry, guys.

Thanks for your patience in waiting for this post =)