she's a bad mamma jamma

that's the song my good friend kate comer danced to for the first time as mrs. monts. it was so awesome! i got to spend the weekend in hilton head with a bunch of my best friends for kate's wedding this past weekend. i got to know kate spring semester of my freshman year when i got placed on the same Young Life team as her. we got to know each other really well and connected on alot of levels. we were pretty much meant to be friends. we took stat 301 last fall and suffered through it together, but i told her i wouldn't let her fail, and she didn't. but on saturday she got married to david, who she's been dating for a long while now. she got married in the old sheldon church ruins, a historic site in yemassee, sc. the story goes that sherman burned the church on his march though the south, and it was never rebuilt, leaving the brick remnants of what once must have been an awesome church. after the ceremony, the reception was at a restaurant right on the water in downtown beaufort, sc. talk about awesome. the sun was setting and the music was playing. what a perfect night to get married. the rain held off and everything went smoothly and kate and david went on their merry way to their honeymoon, which he somehow kept secret the entire time and most people still don't know where they are! as much fun as the weekend was, this week is about to be crazy! 3 tests and 8 co-op interviews. woof.

of course i went to stc.

i knew wrangler trainings were coming up, but for some reason i wasn't sure i was going to be able to make any of them. i must have hit my head REAL hard when i thought that. an opportunity to spend an entire weekend at stc at get paid for it? duh. of course i was in. good thing i finally figured that out at 2 pm last friday (ie the day i was supposed to be there). but if i have learned anything from the past summer, it's that younglife camps always need help. so i scrambled to get in touch with ryan and after a few failed tries, i got an email, a voicemail, and a phone conversation from ryan all in a 10 minute span. and to know surprise they were short trainers and could definitely use my help. the decision was made, i was heading to stc for the weekend. i knew kristi, another ropes intern i spent the summer with, was heading there, so i called to see where she was. fortunately enough, she was just getting into sc, so i told her to adjust her route to swing by clemson and pick me up. good call. the car ride there was unreal. that pretty much describes our relationship. yesssss. but anyways the training went well. i had an awesome time meeting some new friends. athens trips will now be even more fun filled due to my new zit-popping buddies. but i'm home safe and sound in clemson now, once again missing the great stc and all its fabulous people. good thing i'll be back in a month!

beach, here i come.

after this week, i definitely deserve a trip to the beach. Young Life, a ministry I'm apart of here at Clemson, is going on our yearly fall retreat to Garden City Beach, which is right down the road from Myrtle Beach. We get to stay in this awesome church that is basically two rooms full of bunkbeds. While it may not seem very lavish, the people I get to go with are what make it one of my favorite weekends. school is definitely in full swing, and while I have alot of work coming up this week, thats definitely not going to stop me from enjoying good times with my best friends this weekend.

and i'll leave you with this sign. apparently now we need pictures (as if we don't already have enough distractions from the road)

empty nesters.

so since my brother is now in college, my parentals are living the dream. and apparently leaving my brother and i out of the loop completely. thanks alot.

i got an email from her yesterday titled "vacation". after rumors of a christmas getaway, i anticipated plans for a carribean adventure for the holidays. strike one. the email was to inform us that my parents and some friends were taking a little road trip. to maine. seriously? it was filled with names of places in maine that i don't think i ever would care to go to, information for realtors, phone numbers, etc. lame-o. so i figured, a weekend hiatus from sc is good for them, they need a break. strike two. 11 days. ELEVEN DAYS. so much for quick trips, they're in it for the long haul. just out of curiosity i decided to google the address of the house they're staying in. strike three. i'm out.

yeah. i know. $1,950,000. real cool mom and dad. well looks like they're living the high life but i guess i can say they deserve it. they put up with me for 18 years. this is compensation enough.

round two.

so for this blog, our teacher asked us to answer some questions about our writing habits. i didn't really want to do a blog in the first place, and i dislike even more the idea of someone telling me what to put in it. but hey, i'll give it a go. donkeys like bananas don't they? i can live with some instruction.

1. What are you're best memories about writing?

i really enjoyed learning to write. i thought it was the coolest thing since global guts whistles from cereal boxes. i think my favorite part about it though was the fact that we got to write on special paper with big lines. didn't you love how easy they made it?

2. What is the easiest thing about writing for you and why?

the easiest thing would probably be sitting down and writing an assignment all at once. i feel like once i get started, i'm like that bus sandra bullock tries to calm in speed; there's definitely no stopping me. i'm not really sure why, i guess i just like to get things done.

3. What is the most difficult thing about writing for you?

definitely thinking of what to write about in the first place. i contemplated the direction of this blog for a while before i finally settled on this awesome identity.

4. What different kinds of writing do you do? Who reads your writing? Where is your writing published or shared with others?

i keep a journal that i write in pretty much everyday, but other than that, just papers for school. and since packaging science is my game, those papers really only consist of lab reports which are, well, blah. no one sees my journal and i guess only teachers see the other writing that i do. its definitely not published. yet.

5. What materials and/or equipment do you like to have on hand when you write? What are these items for? Why do you have them?

well a pen and paper or my computer definitely. when i journal i sometimes listen to music. music kind of gets you in the zone, frees you from the world a bit to really think and write.

6. What steps do you follow when you write? Outline your writing process, using a simple, informal outline format.

heres an analogy for how much i follow steps:

commands:puppy

me:steps

just like a pup, i really don't listen at all. structure is something that i'd rather not have in my life.

7. Are you a procrastinator when it comes to writing? What do you try to avoid? What do you typically do instead?

with my journal, i write every morning while i drink my coffee. what a geezer. but for schoolwork, of course i procrastinate. who doesn't? instead i probably accomplish just as little, but atleast its not schoolwork.

8. What’s the biggest influence on the way that you write? Why does it make a difference?

the biggest influence is probably however i'm feeling. if i'm happy i'll probably write something funny or along those lines, and if i'm not in the best of moods i'll be a little more serious. pretty natural i think though.

9. If someone else were observing you as a writer, what would they notice? What would they see or hear?

they would probably notice that i hunch over my journal as i write. its just what i do. get over it. also i tend to chuckle or smile while i'm writing. i mean, it makes me happy, what can i say?

10. Overall, how would you describe yourself as a writer? What kind of writer are you, and why do you say so?

random, quirky, funny, emotive, loud. i guess i'm a writer who writes no holds bar. so gnar gnar.