Virginia Tech Commencement May 16, 2008

I went to my friend’s graduation at Virginia Tech last weekend, and since then have been trying nonstop to find the words to describe Friday night’s commencement ceremony. I still have not been able to put any coherent sentences together describing the emotions that I felt, and so I decided, rather, to share the experience with you.

Hoda Kotb was absolutely phenomenal. She had me in tears, although that doesn’t take much to do :). She also made me laugh. She made me want to live every minute of my life as if it were the last, and the best.

I just watched this video again, and was again brought to tears and laughter. And still, I have no words.

sup, g? May 5, 2008

so my grandma is in the hospital (not new news), and today the following came out of her mouth, to her nurse:

“true dat, g”

AND

“i’m down with that, dawg”

…but the best part is that when the nurse asked her where she learned that she said

“my grandkids!”

…not so sure i wanna be associated with that

Now What? April 27, 2008

This weekend I was asked to dogsit. Those of you who know me know how much I absolutely adore dogs (note the sarcasm). This really was the perfect job for me! Actually, Thursday and Friday were fine. The dog was still alive, and life was happy.

But then, on Saturday…

My friend and I went around 8 to let the dog out. The dog was (of course) excited to see us, and we walked outside with her. We played with her a little and she ran around the yard doing her little dog thing. We were getting bored and wanted to get back, so we called the dog to come back inside. I turned the doorknob, and it would not turn. My friend turned the doorknob, still no turn. CRAP.

We tried the front door, but apparently decided to lock that upon entering the house. I could not remember the garage door code for the life of me, but that wouldn’t have been any help anyway because the door from the garage into the house was locked too! Our cell phones were inside. The car keys were inside. EVERYTHING was inside! We did some quick thinking and got a CD out of the car. We broke it in half and used it to try and pick the lock. No such luck. I knocked on the neighbor’s door, but there was no answer. I knocked on another neighbor’s door, still no answer.

I remembered that Mr. and Mrs. R had a key to the house, but had no idea what Mr. and Mrs. R looked like, or where they lived. I started knocking on random people’s doors asking them if they knew. Nobody knew. My favorite response was from a kid about our age when I rang the door bell… “Sorry, no party here tonight!”

Then it started to rain. I was seriously about to cry. Finally I rang on a lady’s door that knew where Mr. and Mrs. R lived. I found their house, and Mr. R was outside. I asked him how he was and he said that he had locked himself out of the house. I don’t know if he was making fun of me, because his wife was inside. But I don’t know how he would have known that I was locked out! Weird.

Anyway, they let us into the house about an hour and a half later. Needless to say, we were extremely relieved. We had been considering our options of sleeping outside with the dog, or breaking a window if we couldn’t find these people!

kids say (write) the darndest things… April 21, 2008

while i was grading some 5th grade biographies from the civil war i came across the following quotes…

“george washington did a lot of stuff.”

“he was from pennsylvania, philadelphia.”

and the winner…

“do you love paul revere? if you do, saddle up and let’s ride!”

seriously, i love those children.
in other news:

*4 more days of classes. then finals. ahhh! stress?

*our paperchain til the end is getting so short!

*weekends are my favorite invention ever.

tomorrow… April 15, 2008

April 16th. Just the date says so much. Perhaps the scariest day of my life, and I was not even directly affected. I cannot even imagine having to live through such a horrific event. Our school is having a moment of silence, and we will ring the belltower 32 times at noon tomorrow, in remembrance. We will all gather and wonder why them, and not us. Why so many innocent people were taken. What someone could be thinking to go and do something so awful. How inadequate our tolling bells are in expressing how we really feel. I will pray more than I usually do tomorrow. I will wear my Hokies shirt tomorrow. I will cry tomorrow. I will call and comfort friends tomorrow. But more than anything, I will be grateful for my life and the lives of my friends and family tomorrow.

did you know Patrick Henry was fat? April 8, 2008

a conversation i overheard in fifth grade today, i think i actually laughed out loud…

Scene: boys researching “people from the past” on the computer

Boy 1: Man, Patrick Henry was really fat!

Boy 2: Really? how do you know that?

Boy 1: Check out this picture! He is so fat!

Boy 2: I don’t really think he was fat. I think the guy who painted him was fat. He probably didn’t want to feel bad about himself, so he made Patrick Henry fat too.

Absolutely hilarious. I love them.

deep thoughts on sisters April 3, 2008

I was reminded by my suitemate the other day of a lovely encounter that I had with a Kindergarten student last semester.

Student:  Miss D, do you have a sister?

Me: I do! Do you?

Student: Yeah, she’s a year younger than me!

Me: My sister is a year younger than I am also!

Student: Do you like your sister?

Me: Yeah! Do you like yours?

Student: Yeah.

Me: That’s good. Sisters are pretty cool!

Student: Me and my sister have the same last name.

Me:  So do my sister and I!

Student: Yeah, well me and my sister have matching backpacks. That’s how you know we are sisters.

Me: Oh. Me and my sister don’t have matching backpacks. Does that mean we aren’t sisters?

Student: Yeah, I think so.

So…I guess I don’t have a sister anymore. Because of our lack of matching backpacks. Precious.

dream big! April 2, 2008

I downloaded this song the other day, and it just makes me so happy!

Seriously, it is just super inspiring and I really enjoy it.

So does this weather! My bench and I have been reunited and it is just beautiful. That’s all for today!

we thought we got away… March 31, 2008

Our school has this awful horrible really mean i guess kind of fun tradition where all the other classes prank the juniors during junior ring week. It was Thursday night, and my roommate, suitemates and I were discussing how lucky we were to have gotten away without getting pranked during the week.

I guess we spoke too soon…

On Friday morning, I came back from the gym to find newspaper shreddings EVERYWHERE! ALL over the floor, in all my drawers, in my closet, in my bathrobe pockets, my jean pockets, our sink, the medicine cabinet, the fridge, my bed, and even my pillow case! It was actually pretty funny, except for the fact that we are STILL swimming in newspaper shreddings, even after cleaning them all up! We found the culprit, who thought it was the funniest thing ever. She told us that she wanted to take a picture of us on Friday night, and of course we complied. We were sitting on my bed cheesing, when instead of taking out a camera, she pulled out silly string. So now, silly string and newspaper. Everywhere. So disgusting. I guess it was nice to be remembered though, and I guess it was all out of love

Except on Sunday morning when I was leaving for brunch and my hand stuck to the door knob….maple syrup. Clever.

no news is good news? March 27, 2008

i guess. this week has been pretty uneventful, especially since all the kids on spring break…meaning no practicum OR babysitting! i have gotten to sleep in past 6:30 every morning this week, AND have had time to go to the gym every single day! and benchsitting has had an all time high! it has really been nice. i just can’t get used to it though, because the craziness starts again on monday! ahh!

in other news…

-i got a second job this summer! (piano teacher!!)

-unc is about to show everyone what march madness is all about!

-baseball is starting so soon!

-i am going to be a freaking senior soon! (we registered for classes yesterday…)

-junior ring week has been pretty sweet

-i LOVE spring weather!