Ice Skating

A couple of weeks ago, Kacey had the "best. idea. ever" for all of us to have a typical Saturday (The Summit Church & Bojangles, obviously) and then head to Hillsborough for ice skating :) By "all of us," I mean, you know... just a mini CBHS class of '08 reunion, since over a quarter of us live in the RDU area now. Add in some roommates, boyfriends, and a couple of guys that I still don't know (whoops!), and you have our evening at Triangle Sportsplex.

The last time I went ice skating, I was with two eight year old girls from my church who had never skated before. It was perfectly acceptable for me to stay close to the wall and hold their hands, and if I did happen to fall, it was only because they were slipping all over the place and kept kicking my skates out from under me (right?) ;)

Unfortunately, I had no eight year old skating buddies to blame my lack of gracefulness on this time.

To make matters worse, we played "butt tag" on the ice, which became increasingly more violent as the night progressed.

We took a bunch of group pictures --- some functional, and some not-so-much...

...mostly not-so-much.

I had such a wonderful evening with such wonderful people... especially my two best friends in the entire world :)

Also, I would like to note that I (surprisingly) only fell once the entire night. William and Zach were the only witnesses, but don't worry. They laughed hard enough for everyone. I kind of wish I had that on video, but instead, I will leave you with my big trick for the night. It's okay to be jealous; not everyone can be as professional as me :)

The end :)

Procrastination

Well, Daddy has officially released the "if your summer internship applications aren't done by Saturday, then I'm driving to Durham on Sunday" mandate. I'm not exactly sure what would happen if he drove to Durham, but I really don't want to find out. Mind you, everything I'm applying for has a deadline of March 1, so I thought setting a personal deadline of February 5 was sufficient. Clearly not.

Therefore, I'm spending all day finishing my resume & portfolio... but everything else seems so much more appealing at the moment. I mean everything. I cleaned my room. I took out the trash. I made my bed. AND...

I did a little craft project :)

I bought a poster & a frame to go over my couch almost five months ago. However, Zach was playing with my hammer one weekend and the head popped off & flew across the room. (Yes, it hit me in the thigh. And yes, I still bring it up. I find myself able to win every argument with "remember that time you hit me with the hammer...?") :) Even when my hammer was fully functioning, I could only get nails into the wall about 20% of the time, so my poor framed poster has just been sitting in my closet and the space over my couch has been empty.

But not anymore! So exciting. And also incredibly easy. I just eyeballed the letters, but if that's not your style, you could type a letter per page on a word document in a font of your choice, print them all off, and cut it out over a sheet of scrapbook paper. Then just string them all together & hang it up. Mmm, I love me some Beatles :)

BUT, back to the internship applications. I really have spent a lot of time on them, and I am almost done, promise. After a few hours, however, I gave myself another break for my daily trip to the post office.

And look what was waiting for me!

Haha, blurred address. Sorry. You may not creep on my sweet Lauren.

However, feel free to creep on me. I was serious about the DAILY trips to the post office. It's my favorite thing ever.

In her letter, Lauren told me that she reads my blog :) It's so fun to find out who actually reads this thing, because I only know of about ten people. BUT, I just discovered the stats section recently, and I've apparently gotten over 1600 hits this month. What in the world? I also have followers. I don't know what that means, nor do I feel like anything about my life is exciting enough to even merit followers, but I have them. Awesome.

In addition to totally brightening up my day with her sweet letter, she also gave me a legitimate reason to take another break from internship applications and write her back! You're the best, llama.

Lastly, can we please just make note of my coffee cup? The "Pura Vida" coffee sleeve makes me think of Costa Rica, obviously. I keep catching myself reminiscing about our senior class trip, which is doing absolutely nothing for my resume writing. Solution? Remove the coffee sleeve. Brilliant, I know. However, when I took it off, I saw this little quote printed on the cup:

"Highly caffeinated people do more good."

Hahaha. Oh, my. I just lost all hope of being productive today.

$0.99 Songs

*EDIT* The links to the songs actually work now. I'm just awesome like that :)
I'm a fan of the indie singer/songwriter songs that nobody has ever heard of... you know, the ones that still cost $0.99 on iTunes as opposed to $1.29.



If you have heard of all three of these groups, then we should probably be best friends.
And if you haven't heard of them, I'd like to change that. The first one is my current "crank up the volume, dance around the room, and sing into a hairbrush" song. I'm not kidding. (You have to get about 50 seconds into it, though). The second is my "I wish my guitars skills consisted of more than "strum. strum. really-long-pause-while-I-change-chords. strum. strum" song. And the third is my "why did I quit piano when I was ten years old" song.

Don't blame me if you soon find yourself on iTunes adding these to your music collection. At least they only cost $0.99, right? :)

Better Life, Part 2

**WAIT. If you haven't read "Better Life, Part 1," scroll down and read that first. Then come back.**
As promised, here's my first ever stop motion video. I drew everything out in Illustrator (162 pictures total) and took screen shots of everything, then put it all together using iMovie. Not gonna lie---I'm pretty excited with how it turned out! And Zach absolutely loved it, which was the most important thing :)

Enjoy!

Better Life, Part 1

Oh my goodness, look at that title :) Yep, there's gonna be two blog posts in one day! I think it makes Wednesday that much more bearable.

One of the not-so-great part about long distance relationships is trying to make things better from so far away. Yesterday, Zach was having a really "adsfjkl;asdfjkl;" kind of day at work, you know... the kind where you just want to curl up in a ball and cry. I'm not actually sure if Zach wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but I most definitely would have. It was nothing a giant hug couldn't solve, but since my go-go-gadget arms can't stretch hundreds of miles and hug my sweet boyfriend, I had to be a little more creative with my approach.

Fortunately, creative is my middle name.

(That's a lie. Ann is my middle name.)

So, using my ALL-TIME favorite music video as inspiration, I made a video to send to Zach and make his day a bit more cheerful/a bit less "curl up in a ball and cry". Here's the original video:

Ahh. I could probably do an entirely separate post about all the things I love about this video, but for now, I'll simply direct your attention to the 3:05 mark. A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.

As far as the video I made? Ha---that's what the second post is for! Check back later today to see my first ever stop time video.

However, if patience is not your middle name (it's clearly not mine...), write a little comment on Zach's wall telling him how awesome he is and I will send you the link in an inbox message. If you're not Facebook friends with Zach, you probably should be, because he's my favorite person ever and I'm willing to bet he'll soon become one of yours, too.

Yay :) Check back later today to see my Better Life-inspired video message... or send a little love Zach's way & get the link early. A win-win for everyone! Happy Wednesday :)

Best. Monday. Ever

Yesterday was the best Monday ever. Seriously.

After a morning that consisted of sleeping in, doing some RA interviews/meetings, and going to class, I returned to my room and decided to (gasp) do homework. Granted, this assignment isn't due until Thursday, which normally means I wouldn't start it until late Wednesday night, possibly even Thursday morning. But I was determined to be productive!

I pulled out my textbook...

...and only died a little on the inside when I opened it up and saw that I'll be reading 600 pages this semester.

I labeled my page of notes like a good little girl...

...and even tried to get really excited about the first 45 pages I was going to spend the evening reading.

After about two minutes, I discovered that it was much more fun making hearts out of the pages than actually reading the material.

Haha, fail. But seriously, I was going to be productive! Just as I untucked the pages and flipped to the very beginning, my phone rang.

It was Kacey.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Beff. What are you up to right now?"

"I'm just in my room..."

"Well, I'm currently standing outside your dorm. Will you come let me in?"

Surprise! If that wasn't a sign from God that my art history homework could wait, then I don't know what is. I bounded downstairs, and as if seeing my beautiful Kace-Kace wasn't already glorious enough, she handed me a bag.

And guess what was inside?

OH. MY. GOODNESS. NO. WAY! The super adorable rosey prim apron from Anthropologie that I had fallen in love with just 24 hours earlier!

It's so soft and elegant AND it has pocketsss! Oh my goodness, it's just the most beautiful thing ever! Plus, now we have a cupcake making date on Saturday, so I'll get to wear it and pretend like I'm domesticated after all :)

Kacey Stevens, you're simply the best.

We sat on my couch and chatted until she had to go---she was meeting William at the movies at 10:00. As she was leaving, she suggested that I come too. I'm still not exactly sure what came over me---I'm the LEAST spontaneous person alive and I was not given at least two days' notice. But I came to the realization that I'm 21 years old, and I can go to the movies at 10:00 on a school night if I want to. So why not? The next thing I knew, I was driving to Raleigh.

We made a quick pit stop at the Dollar General to buy candy for the movie. As we walked up, Kacey said, "Isn't this the place that still sells Dunkaroos?"

I told her that I didn't think so; the Dollar General is literally a block away from my dorm and I've made many a trip throughout my years in Southgate. Yet Kacey insisted that we search every aisle, and the next thing I knew...

...Dunkaroos! We saw them at the exact same time and began squealing and dancing in the store. You don't understand. Just this past summer, Kacey & I wrote a "very elegant, yet demanding, email to General Mills demanding the immediate return of Dunkaroos." See for yourself:

Hahaha. Life with Kacey is never dull, that's for sure! Anyway, we purchased multiple boxes (as in... we only left three on the shelf. We thought about taking all of them, but figured that might be a bit much). Instantly, I had flashbacks to snack time in 1st and 2nd grade.

We even ate them the same way---using a minimal amount of icing on all the cookies, saving it all up for the last one. So. so. good. So good, in fact that we scraped out all the leftover icing. Do not judge :)

Ahhh. Told you it was the best Monday ever. Seriously. I found out that I got accepted to Duke on a Monday, and this Monday may have even topped that. But it wasn't over!

We met William at the $1.50 theater in Raleigh to watch The Social Network.

First of all, who knew $1.50 theaters even existed? Secondly, I loveeed it. I loved the nerdy awkwardness between all of the characters, only because I am SURROUNDED by it every single day. I loved the sarcasm & how funny Mark Zuckerberg's character was without even trying... adorable. Judging by the fact that I laughed at least 10x more than Kacey and William combined, I'm gonna guess that my sense of humor is slightly more nerdy than most, but I'm okay with that. We all agreed it was really good.

I drove back to Durham and saw my attempt at art history homework on my desk.

Hahaha, it was a good try. There's always tomorrow :)

Lord, Help the Mister...

Guess who came to visit me this weekend?

My sisters!

I'm still not sure exactly how it happened. Katherine was talking about bringing Corrie down here for the last weekend of the J.Crew warehouse sale (since her 16th birthday is in 39 days---she only mentioned that half a dozen times this weekend) and asked if they could stay with me. Needless to say, the concept of sister bonding excited mom so much that she sent her debit card along & told us that in addition to Corrie's birthday purchases, we could each pick out one thing on her AND go out to eat. Mom has dreamed about something like this happening for... well, almost 16 years now. She was so thrilled, in fact, that Corrie's resolution to "not return home single" only phased her slightly :)

I was on-call in the dorm, so we couldn't actually go out and do anything Saturday night. No worries. There was plenty of entertainment.

We woke up on Sunday and went to the 9AM service at the Summit. I absolutely love love loveee the Summit Church; if I don't stay in the RDU area after graduation, I think I'll probably miss the Summit more than I'll miss Duke. I didn't know how Katherine & Corrie would react, seeing as how we were raised in a church that is literally 50x smaller, but they loved it too!

After church we went straight to Chapel Hill for the J.Crew warehouse sale, and it was probably the most overwhelming experience of my life. I learned one thing: all three of us have something in common after all. We love a good deal, but we'd rather pay 3x more for something and not have to deal with all the people and clutter and unorganization (we've never been Black Friday shopping---can you tell?) I was done after about ten minutes; Katherine and Corrie lasted all of twenty. Hot mess. They each got one thing, and I'm fairly certain they spent more money on gas to get down here than they saved at the warehouse sale, but it was all part of the experience, I suppose. You live and you learn.

We ate at Chili's (thanksss, mom) and decided the only cure for our warehouse sale blues was a trip to Anthropologie, obviously.


This is my favorite store. Ever. In the world. Katherine loves it as well. But Corrie had never been! *gasp* Needless to say, she quickly progressed through the two stages of anyone who ever ventures into Anthropologie.
Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Hahaha, those were my two favorite Corrie lines of the day. She got a couple of shirts for her birthday, and I just wandered around the store wishing that I wasn't a broke college student (sigh). I tried playing the "What would I get if I was on a $500 shopping spree" game, but the fact that $500 would only get me a couple of pieces of home decor was probably more depressing than the fact that I really am a broke college student.
The new apron that I want (need) didn't help much of anything. Do I actually ever cook or bake anything? No. Would I ever cook or bake anything if I had this apron? Probably not. However, "probably not" is somewhat more likely than "no," so if anyone feels so compelled to test out the "will the Rosey Prim apron make Beth want to cook?" hypothesis, today is my 21 1/4 birthday and I personally think the quarter birthdays deserve presents as well :)

We've Got a Little Convoy...

Haha, the convoy song! Randy used to sing it all the time in high school. Little did I know that I would end up dating a guy who would be the convoy assistant driver on seven ton runs for the armory, meaning that he assists with things like backing and makes sure everyone stays in the convoy.

It also means that he sits up front in the passenger seat.

Fortunately, he was not in this passenger seat last night when the 7-ton flipped. (He was two trucks ahead). I see these things all the time on the highways around Jacksonville, and they absolutely terrify me. Even when there's like, four empty lanes, I would still almost rather stay behind them and go fifteen miles an hour (convoys are SO slow) than pass them. They are bigger than me, there are way more of them than me, and they could eat my car if they so wanted.

Apparently, some individual last night was infinitely braver (stupider) than I am and decided to pull out directly in front of one of the trucks...while there was ice on the road, mind you. The driver of the 7-ton swerved to avoid the car and ended up flipping. Thankfully, minus a few scrapes from the shattered glass, no one was severely injured. I also got a 90 second phone call out of the deal, and while I hate the conversations that start out with "I'm okay, but I just wanted you to know...," it was still nice to hear Zach's voice.

Please say a little prayer for safety during the rest of this 10-day field operation; they're halfway through :)

The Little Things

I absolutely love that quote. My life is full of little things :) Here are just some of the few little things in my life from this week:

This is my current favorite YouTube video. I'm responsible for roughly 17% of the total views, and I'm okay with that. It's just random... and absolutely hysterical, especially the more times I watch it. I can't make it fifteen seconds into the video before I'm laughing. And once I start, I can't stop.

I'm aware that it takes a unique person to appreciate the humor of Marcel the Shell, but I've found a fellow fan. And judging by the fact that I logged into Facebook today to see this:

...I think it's safe to say that Katie received her surprise mail from me today :)

Hahahaha! The other one is for Zach. (He also appreciates Marcel; there's a reason why we date). However, he won't receive his for another month---it takes forever for his battalion to get mail! Seriously. My letters will reach him quicker once he's in Afghanistan than they do while he's still stationed two and a half hours away. Oh, well. It's the little things, right? :)

I bought a new sketchbook, which is already starting to fill up. Most of the pages are actual sketches or notes I take in class, but it's been the perfect solution for my planning/organization obsession as well. I'm pretty convinced that brand new sketchbooks make the world go round.

Laura and I get Starbucks every Thursday morning, which has quickly become one of my favorite little things :) My newest favorite little thing, however, is the Starbucks peppermint brownie. Oh my goodness, best thing ever. I also wanna point out that I actually did share like the bag commanded, although I could've easily devoured the entire thing on my own.

Kacey came from Raleigh to Duke last night & we spent hours at the coffeehouse doing what friends do best: looking up pictures of pandas on pinterest.com, obviously. Hahaha. These were some of our favorites:

Too bad we left your new panda drawing on Sarah's paper at the Coffeehouse, eh Kace? However, this cutie is the most recent addition to my MacMac:

While I somehow doubt that I'll look back one day and think that the following little thing was actually a big thing, it was still really cool this week when I opened my Hersheys cookies & creme bar and a piece broke off in the shape of Virginia. As if I don't think about all my Virginia friends enough already... :)

Megan is BACK from spending last semester studying abroad in Australia, and guess what she brought me?? Timtams!

I don't really know how to describe Timtams other than "om nom nommy," especially when dipped in peanut butter. Since they're from Australia, the nutrition information is in kJ instead of calories, so I'm taking the ignorance is bliss approach and assuming they're not that bad for me, right?

As far as Grandpa goes, it's been eight weeks today since his accident. Physically, he's making great progress every day --- he beasted out 27 pounds with his LEFT arm this week, and took his first steps (18 feet) with the help of a physical therapist and walker. He's also eating three meals a day on his own, and they're only feeding him through the stomach pump once a day just to make sure he's getting all the nutrients he needs. Mentally, he's not progressing as quickly, but the therapists have reassured us that since he's making such great physical progress, they know his brain is active & working, and they're confident the mental recovery will happen within time.

With that being said, Grandpa gets really agitated at night when my Grandma leaves the Sticht Center because he doesn't understand why he can't go home too. Obviously he can't make a dash for the elevators in the middle of the night and run away, but the doctors were concerned with him trying to get out of bed and injuring himself. They started placing a giant screened-in tent over his bed at night that zips from the outside, so he can still see out, but he can't get out of bed while unsupervised. My family was really concerned that this would make him more frustrated, but to their surprise, he was quite pleasant after his first night in the tent. Why? Because according to him, he didn't spend the night in the room. He spent the night at McDonalds.

It took us a while to piece everything together, but we soon realized that Grandpa thinks he's sleeping inside a McDonald's PlayPlace :) It's kind of the most adorable thing I've ever heard.

(one of my all-time favorite XKCD comics)

And like I said, the doctors say everything will return back to some form of normal overtime---brain trauma patients can keep improving for the first year after their accident, and we're not even at the two month mark yet. In the meantime, I'm okay with the fact that Grandpa thinks he's sleeping in the playplace. However, I'm not okay with the fact that he said he didn't like Duke. That is false, Grandpa. You like Duke. Hmph.

Although he's currently insisting I should go to University of South Carolina (really?), the speech therapist did ask him if he could name any of his five grandchildren and he wrote "Beth" and "Corrie" on a piece of paper. He wrote some other random letters, but they did not spell out "Katherine," "Reese," or "Sophia." We all see who's the favorite :)

Lastly, Zach's unit has been doing a deployment-simulation type thing all this week & next week (because pre-deployment training in Virginia in February and California in March and April isn't sufficient?), meaning he's living in the armory, working a 16+ hour shift, getting a 2 hour nap/shower break, and staying up all night working again. Today he got to ride around in a 7-ton. Do not be deceived by his lack of enthusiasm. This was his "I-don't-want-the-other-guy-in-the-truck-to-know-that-I'm-taking-a-picture-of-myself-to-send-to-my-girlfriend-so-I'm-not-going-to-smile-or-look-at-the-camera" pose :)

Adorable. Since his schedule has been so insane, I've only talked to him once this week. On Wednesday, he worked from 2AM to 6PM and then got a short break. He knew I was busy until 7, so he waited patiently and called right on the dot. We only talked for a few minutes; I could tell he was exhausted, so I told him to get some sleep while he could. After we hung up, everything dawned on me and I texted him, "Wait. Have you been purposefully staying awake for the past hour since you got off just so you could talk to me?" His response? "Yes ma'am."

Sometimes, the little things really are the big things :)