Howl-o-ween Paw-ty!!!

Halloween was never a huge holiday for my family. We weren't allowed to trick-or-treat so instead we had family night. We'd make a big bowl of potato cheese soup and dye it orange, we'd pass out candy to the other kids who came by our house, and we would play pool and ping-pong. My dad always beat us... but it was fun anyways.

Now that I'm an adult, I'm still not that into Halloween. Dressing up as slutty anything just isn't on my to-do list. AND, since I don't have children to dress in adorable costumes yet, I had to go to plan B.

A few weeks ago I discovered the glory of meetup.com. They have a group for EVERYTHING! While I was on there looking for ways to practice my Russian language, I got distracted when I saw a link to the "Northern Virginia Pomeranian Group." Of course I joined.

So, today, I took Scarlett to the 3rd Annual, Tricks for Treats Howl-o-Ween Paw-ty! I know what you're thinking... how lame (and you would sound just like Caleb who called me a loser and said he wouldn't be caught dead there) but it was actually fun! There were about 30 pomeranians and Scarlett got to play for almost 4 hours! The humans had a potluck lunch and we voted on the best costumes. The top three won their human a prize and then each owner brought their dog's favorite treat and we made "trick-or treat" goody bags for each pom to take home with them. Here are some pictures of my THIRD PLACE WINNING costume on Scarlett!

 She was a cow with a cowboy hat and bandana so you could either call her a country/Texas cow or a cowgirl

 She really hated the hat so most of the time she looked like this

 How precious is this?

 This is what she looked like running around. I love it!

The cow costume even came with an udder! I think this is ultimately what won us 3rd place

There were so many different pomeranians there- different ages, colors, and temperments. It was fun to watch them all interact. Plus, their costumes were adorable. Here are some of Scarlett's new friends:

 This is not a puppy... it's Mini... and she is 7. Look how small she is compared to Scarlett... and that guy's foot!

 This guy wasn't too social, but he and Scarlett hit it off. By the way, his costume is his "birthday suit"- I must admit it was beautiful!

 A few of the poms playing! Scarlett, a witch, and a devil

 This is Doobie dressed up like a bumble bee

 Seriously so cute!

 This was Murray dressed up as a vampire

 I'm not sure this dog's name... but it was not very nice.

 Riley the shark! I actually voted for him and he won 1st place for best costume!

 Another witch... who didn't like her hat

 This little guy was a puppy

Cocoa and Mini are sisters. How cute are they?

Scarlett had such a good time! She's so tired all she has done is sleep since we got home. The group actually tries to meet up at least once a month at a park for the dogs to play and then they throw parties for the holidays. I can't wait for the Christmas party!!!!

Halloween may not be my favorite holiday but this certainly made it more fun! Happy Halloween.... and GO RANGERS!

The Town

Well... I think I am finally starting to feel like a "local" around here. I've learned when to take certain road and which train of the metro gives me the best opportunity to get a seat. I've learned (the hard way) which hours the grocery store is not packed with people and I actually feel comfortable giving people directions when I see tourists on the street.

I think I can also say that I have become a "regular" at the Starbucks on 20th and E street.... next to the Elliott School. Which... I guess is not a good thing. We may not know each other by name, but I "that person" that when I come in, by the time I get through the line and to the counter to order, all I have to do is pay because they've already made it for me.... They know I am a struggling Cowboys fan and try to convince me to join the dark side (deadskins) every time. They also make fun of the fact that I'm a Rangers fan and tell me this will be the least watched world series ever. The scariest thing is that they know my school schedule. I told one guy on Monday that I had a 10 page paper due on Thursday and that I hadn't started on it yet. He asked me about it the next day and offered suggestions on my writing block....

I am also starting to learn about weird "DC-isms." For example, did you know that last night was the 24th annual Drag Queen Race in Dupont Circle. And yes, its exactly how it sounds. Apparently its a HUGE deal. People bbq and party in the streets all day and then at 9pm, 100 people dressed in drag race about 3 blocks in high heels. My class literally got out early last night so that people could run over there and watch it. Oh, Dc....

So, this town is beginning to feel a bit like home. A crazy, frantic, stressed-out, over-caffeinated home, but home nonetheless. I can't wait to see what other DC-isms come out of the woodwork this year!

The Holiday

Caleb was out of town this week from Wed-this morning. He actually got a fall break (which I find incredibly unfair) so we decided he needed some R&R and he went home to Little Rock for a few days.

In the meantime, I slaved over my own midterms, grading my students' midterms, and cleaning the apartment. While I would never publicly accuse Caleb of being messy..... I did enjoy the opportunity to do a DEEP clean of our apartment. I'm not sure why, but having a clean apartment just makes me feel so much better about life.

Last night I spent about 3 hours folding and putting away weeks worth of laundry. While I folded, I watch the movie The Holiday. It is one of my all-time favorites. Not only is it a good movie, but it is also one of the moments when I knew that I was falling in love with Caleb.

When the movie first came out, Caleb and I were considering the whole long-distance dating thing. We knew we both really liked each other but weren't sure if College Station-Fayetteville long distance dating was the smartest thing at that time.

I remember that a few of my sorority sisters and I went to go see the movie. At the very end, two of the characters who have fallen in love but live in London and LA have to give each other a hug and say "I'll be seeing you" and then they go their separate ways. Of course, every girl in the audience was crying because its such a sad/sweet moment (I won't ruin how it ends). I was crying too, but for a different reason. I didn't want to have to keep telling Caleb "I'll be seeing you," I wanted us to be able to work it out and be together. So there you have it, one of the moments I knew I was in love with Caleb.

If you haven't seen the movie, its wonderful! Very Christmasy and puts you in a great mood. I highly recommend it!

Study Buddy

The good news is that the weather is starting to cool off and the fall is beautiful here! The bad news is that it hasn't COMPLETELY cooled off but the apartment complex decided to shut off the AC for the season this week. Sooooo, we've been spending alot of time with the door open or studying out on the balcony. The only problem is that a) you are constantly distracted by the eternal soccer match going on across the street and b) scarlett

My amish rocking chair is so comfortable out on the balcony. Unfortunately, Scarlett REFUSES to let us sit in it alone. If we're in the rocking chair, so is she. It's ridiculous. Caleb joking calls it my amish hug chair because when he sits in it he feels like he's being hugged by an amish person. I guess that means Scarlett likes amish hugs? Maybe she likes watching soccer? Who knows, but she loves that chair!

It is with heavy hearts that Caleb and I are announcing our search for a new NFL football team to be fans of. No, we are not turning into Deadskin fans, but we do need a team that actually wins once in awhile. While the search party is still out, at least we still have the Rangers!

Europe Trip!

I think this may be my last high school memory. I'm ready to blog about other things. One of my greatest high school memories was the Europe Trip. My parents made a deal with all of us that if we took 3 years of a foreign language in high school, they would pay for us to go on the school's Europe trip our senior year. This was easy for me because I LOVED French and even ended up taking all 4 years. My senior year, the trip went to Scotland, England and France. Of course, we went in February so it was FREEZING! Here are a few of my favorite highlights:

 We climbed a mountain in Scotland!

 What you can't see in this picture is the HUGE knife this guy has tucked into his sock

 Re-enacting the Chariots of Fire scene on St. Andrews Beach.

 Part of the old Roman wall.... I can't even tell you how cold it was here

 We tried but just couldn't get him to smile...

 Sadly, we didn't get to see the queen at Buckingham Palace

 We got to go see Les Miserables!

 Stonehenge

 Roman ruins

 Inside the Louvre

 I bought a painting from him 2 years before when my Gran to me to Paris. I ran into him again at Montmartre and bought another painting : )

 My favorite chateau in the valley- Chenonceau

Ya... I'm not sure who took this picture on the way home, but we were whipped! It was a wonderful trip.

I have to say a big thank you to Mlle. Cox, my favorite French teacher. She leads the Europe trips and we had a GREAT time! In the picture below, we showed up at the place to take pics of the Eiffel Tower and as we drove up, it started to snow, I got my delicious chocolate crepe and it could not have been a better moment. Merci Mlle. Cox!

Rascal and Sir Galahad

My sister is going to be horrified that I am posting this on the internet, but I feel it is important for this story to finally go public. The next random fact about me that you probably didn't know was that I used to have guinea pigs, and I loved them dearly. See, I didn't have alot of friends back in my middle school/early high school days, so I decided to have pets : )

My first guinea pig was named Rascal and he was albino. I used to brush him and I had a box that I carried him around the house everywhere. Here is his tragic tale (that has since become a joke in my family). Everyday before I went to school, I always said "goodbye rascal, see you after school." When I got home I immediately went to my room and checked on him and played with him. One day, I was in a huge hurry in the morning and left without saying goodbye. When I got home, I was upset about some stuff and didn't go immediately to me room. I suddenly panicked that I had not gone to say hello to him. When I went into my room, it looked like he was sleeping. I reached my hand into his cage, and he was cold. It was awful....

To say that I was traumatized would be a HUGE understatement. I mean you would have thought that a human being had died. My mom let me hold him and brush his fur one more time before we wrapped him in one of Grace's babydoll blankets, put him in a box, and buried him in the yard. We put a piece of marble on top with his dates and the lyrics to the Michael W. Smith song "Friends are Friends Forever" written on top in sharpy. We also placed a wooden cross there. In an effort to cheer me up, my parents took me to the movies that night. Unfortunately, we chose to see Armageddon, one of the most tragically ending movies ever. I wanted to sleep outside in a sleeping bag out by his grave that night but my dad told me I couldn't. RIP Rascal

I then got my second guinea pig to replace Rascal. I named him Sir Galahad because Sir Galahad was the second best knight after Sir Arthur. And, in my own reasoning, Laddy (as I called him) was the second best guinea pig after Rascal. He was a very good pet, but I actually don't remember exactly what happened to him. This picture is terribly embarassing, but it is the only one I have of laddy. I know I look like Medusa but those curlers were in style back then! Also notice the brush laid out as I have clearly been brushing his fur.

Anyways, all that to say that I was a really awesome person who had guinea pigs for pets. If you have never had them, I highly suggest them as faithful companions. Plus, they're big enough to ward off of pets/predators. My brother chose to have gerbils (all with names starting with P) and I think all 7+ of them died painful deaths due to our Scottie dog.... but that's another story.

Parker Pride

As most of you know, I am a terrible dresser. Seriously, I don't know how to make myself match or what's in style or how to accessorize myself. Thankfully I have a very fashionable sister who is willing to make sure I look at least half decent. However, I don't think my inability to dress is really my fault. From Kindergarten-Senior year (13 out of my first 18 years of life) I was forced to wear the Parker uniform. When I graduated and went to college, I seriously had absolutely no idea how to dress myself. I vividly remember standing in my dorm room freshman year on the first day of class just staring into my closet. As much as I despised the plaid skirts, button up tops, sweaters, and knee-high socks, as least I didn't have to think about what to wear.... I seriously had panic attacks trying to decide what colors went together and whether something was "in style" enough. So... as most of you know... I took the easy way out and typically opted for jeans and a tshirt (its hard to mess this up). Here is a picture of my Parker pride ; ) And yes, this is what I looked like pretty much everyday for 13 years with the exception of the lower school jumper days and the awkward middle school kulot shorts phase...

No we did not actually wear our uniforms the way they look below- we had a day where we got to wear our uniforms sloppy. It was awesome.

One of the best TCA memories and hilight of every senior's year is Uniform Desecration Day. On the last day that the seniors go to school, they pretty much destroy their uniforms, decorate it in their college colors and wear it to school. It's awesome and I really can't explain the joy that comes with destroying those skirts.

This is me and my friend Michael, who obviously also went to A&M. We HATED our senior English teacher, I mean really she was the worst. So, as mature high school seniors, we went and did a little dance in front of her room : )

So, obviously, my inability to dress is clearly not my fault. I choose to believe that my fashion sense was supressed by the awful uniform for so long that I have just not yet been able to recover. Of course, now that I have graduated from college, my closest family members have told me that I can no longer wear jeans and tshirts, that I need to dress like an adult, and not look like "a hobo." So I am working on in it. I'm still young, I can still learn : )

Latin Lives!

Here's a little fact about me you probably didn't know.... I technically took Latin for 8 years and even took the AP Latin exam. What makes this interesting is that our school only has 4 official years of latin study (5-8 grade). BUT, one of my all-time favorite teachers Mrs. Gannon went the extra mile for a few of us latin-lovers.

She decided that since a few of us wanted to continue our study of Caecilius and his family at the time Mt. Vesuvius erupted, Roman culture, and conjugating latin verbs, she would volunteer to teach us Latin at 7am every morning. That's right, for 4 years, we all got up and started our days off right, with some latin grammer! The best part is that we took class out in the portables which were not very weather resilient- when it was cold, it we froze, and when it was hot, we suffocated. Looking back, I'm not sure why we were all that crazy and while I really look back on those mornings fondly, I'm sure if you asked Mrs. Gannon, I probably complained about it every.single.morning.

Poor Mrs. Gannon even took on attempting to teach us AP Latin our senior year. This meant reading Virgil's Aeneid in its original Latin... If you've ever tried to read the Aeneid in English, you'll realize how much of a challenge it was to not only read it, but read it in a foreign language! While we all put forth a valiant effort, the AP test was a joke. We didn't even understand the essay questions- one girl wrote her testimony in Chinese instead to pass the time.

Sadly, the school didn't really like out 0 hour latin experiment and they no longer offer it for the latin lovers of TCA. I like that its something special the few of us and Mrs. Gannon have to always remember. It was crazy, some days we all hated it, some days we loved it, but I will always be grateful that Mrs. Gannon was willing to go out on a limb for us and let us continue our latin studies. Plus, I'm sure that is the reason all of our SAT scores were so high : )

Here is our little group (and yes, we are in fact all wearing AP Latin sweatshirts that we had specially made!)

On a separate note, yes I know that President Obama had a townhall meeting on the GW campus this evening, and no, we weren't invited to attend... surprise surprise. The worst part was that they blockaded my building off before he arrived so I couldn't get to my class until 2 minutes before it started. While I waited, I had to listen to the crowd chant "O-BAM-A!" for several moments and I got to watch the "protestors" hold up signs that said things like "don't tax me bro" or "obama on campus is the best propaganda your tuititon can buy" or "students want jobs not taxes" or "the unemployment line starts here." Pretty classy if you ask me. And no, despite Caleb's encouragement, I was not one of the protestors. Well, I better get back to cheering on my Rangers.... (fingers crossed!)

TCA Homecoming

I got to go home this past weekend and it was wonderful! We have hit the rough part of the semester, so a weekend to relax in Dallas and see my family was just what I needed!

Even better, it was my 5 year high school reunion! I can't believe I've been out of highschool for 5 years! Man the years have flown by! I flew home mid-Friday and spent the day driving around all my old favorite spots with my mom. We went and saw the movie Life as We Know It, which I highly recommend. It's very sad but also sweet. It's been awhile since a good romantic comedy came out. Anyways, that's beside the point. Friday night we went to the annual TCA Homecoming football game. Not alot of people from my class made it to the game but I did get to see my friend Laura and meet her precious little girl Scarlett!

I spent Saturday getting my nails done with my sister, watching all of my sports teams lose (apparently me coming back to Texas was a jinx), and seeing my sister off to the Homecoming dance. I remember those days where you spent all day primping before the millions of pictures, overpriced dinner, lousy dj and exhausting afterparty. One of Grace's friend's mom asked me during the pictures if I missed that. The answer was a definite no, but I remember how much fun they were back then...

Sunday I got to go to lunch with my gran, grandy and aunt Tammi at my favorite restaurant. I felt a little guilty that I was getting to eat it without Caleb... but not so bad that I did not make a pig of myself. I think my favorite part of the weekend was after lunch. Grace, my mom and I went back through my old high school year books, scrapbooks, and pictures. Let's just say we had a few laughs.

Sooooooo..... in honor of homecoming, I am dedicating the blog this week to some of my favorite high school memories, embarassing moments, and maybe a few things you didn't know about me.

Highschool Disaster #1- Yearbook pictures. To say that my yearbook pictures are bad would be the understatement of the century. I wasn't very "girly" in highschool, so having to make myself over for picture day was a pain, plus I had no idea what I was doing. I had long hair which I had no idea how to straighten, I did not usually wear makeup (too much trouble), and I didn't know you could/were supposed to tweeze/wax my eyebrows. I always wondered why I wasn't considered one of the "hot" girls in highschool. Looking back at these yearbook pictures explains alot.... haha

Observation A: Freshman Year

Observation B: Sophomore Year- ah the middle part years!

Observation C: Junior Year (I believe Grace's exact response was: what the heck is wrong with your hair!)

Senior Year- I actually like this one, so if you don't, it might be better not to tell me...

Luckily, one of the biggest lessons I have learned since highschool is that beauty is not just about your appearance but about your heart. The most important thing is for YOU to be happy with who you are and how you look. This was really difficult for me in high school, but I am glad for such wonderful college friends who taught me what true beauty is. While it was difficult back then, it is funny to look back now. At risk of never living it down, I am going to post Grace's favorite... my 4th grade yearbook picture. I must admit, I have absolutely NO idea how we got my hair to look like that- its HUGE, but since it was just 4th grade I'm tempted to blame this one on my mom....