Birthday Weekend Recap! (Lots of Pictures)

Tunes:"Foggy Lilac Windows"// Frontier Ruckus

The last week has been a pretty great one, minus the terrible sun burn I got this past Saturday. There's nothing fun about a sun burn's itchiness keeping you up at night. Last night was the first I slept soundly through since before Saturday...perhaps the long phone conversation with an old friend right before had helped. Not to mention rolling over at quarter til' 12, which rarely happens.

Regardless of the semi-sleepless nights, my past week was filled with good people, sunshine, fresh air, campfire, folk music, crafts, baking and singing loudly when no one's been around to hear me. All things I love, really.

Friday was beautiful-- sunshine, a warm breeze, a free schedule. I spent the afternoon sprawled out on a blanket at my favorite park reading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, followed by dinner with Alie & Emily up on the roof of Dave's Taverna. We haven't hung out just the three of us since last summer, really. So it was long over due. Saturday I slept in and eventually moseyed to the other side of campus for Festival Fest- an annual outdoor concert and Earth celebration here at JMU. It was BEAUTIFUL and the music was wonderful, as was the company...

[Alexis (right) & the crowd]

[Trent Wagler & The Steel Wheels!]

[beautiful ms. Amanda...loves pigs]

[Sunshine & Taylor...]

[Josh Vana & his harmonica]

After I watched the bands I had really wanted to see, I ran over to Walmart to pick up some things for a BBQ and met up with 12 or so friends to drive up to Reddish Knob. I used my birthday (on Monday) as an excuse to get people together up there, and it worked. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and took in the view. It was wonderful...

[Kim explores the mountain top]

[Savannah, Danny & Bianca watch Josh make the fire]

[Stacey!]

[Like a 7 year old, Danny enjoys some Kool-Aid...]

[Kristen beneath the setting sun]

[Bianca, Sarah & Josh- 3 of my most favorite people]

[Kristen, Myself & Stacey...CSPA love]

[The View...]

[Everyone!]

[The reason we go up there...the sunset]

I slept so soundly Saturday night. Sunday Kristen and I went to the Little Grill for eats to start our day off right (Mum- I'm going to bring you all to the Grill on the Sunday you leave! You need to experience it). Spent the day getting some work done and prepping for the RA Recognition Celebration (or "Rec-Cel" as we affectionately call it). My staff looked sharp and I think overall had a really fun evening being dressed up, snapping photos and sharing a nice meal all together. I know I enjoyed it, despite the sunburn and everything...

[Treehouses 08-09]

[Trees...again...being our goofy selves]

[Bianca and I]

[2 of my best friends here- Bianca & Amanda...& I]

[dynamic duo- Bianca & Josh]

[Justin, LaRhonda & Liz...in a staredown?]

[Matt & Sondra]

[Oh, Bryan...]

[Whole staff! Wish Paigey would open her eyes, haha]

[My favorite Jersey girl, Kristen & I]

Monday was my birthday. It was gloomy, but still good. I got a lot of sweet things in the mail from people I miss tremendously and phone calls from family...I can't WAIT to go back home!

Posting all of those pictures took a while, so I'm going to get a move on with the rest of my day. Thank you for all the birthday love!
Hope all is well wherever it is you are!
<3 LA

Spring! Sprang! Sprung!

Tunes:"chinese translation"// m. ward

It's already been about a week since I updated last, hasn't it? This week began as most weeks do- and I felt completely overwhelmed by the amount of things I needed to get done in just the span of a few days. Also, as most weeks go, it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be.

This weekend I was on-call for the campus meaning every RA needs to call me if any sort of emergency happens in one of the 27 halls. It wasn't as bad as it could have been (Easter meant lots of people went home) but I did have my fair share to deal with. Needless to say, I missed out on a fun weekend home with my family...which was a tremendous bummer. Not only was their Easter on Sunday at Aunt Joce's but Saturday night I missed Aunt Kim's 50th!
In trying to keep myself busy, I prepped and made a huge breakfast for my friend Amanda, her parents, her boyfriend- Josh (he's an HD here with me) and another girl I'm an HD with, Sarah. I was even impressed with myself; I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull it off. But the Panuline's loved it and I felt really great being able to feed a bunch of people on a day that I'd normally be spending with family...they were my surrogate family for the morning. It was nice.

At current I am on duty for one of my RA's...sitting in the office, goofing off on my computer and doing rounds? I feel like I'm a sophomore again.
What's making this better is that I am eating lofthouse cookies...



Yes, the cookie IS as delicious as it looks. And yes, I have a lot of pride for the Sox lately...although they're kind of killing me. 4th to last place in the league?! Beckett suspended for 6 games??!! It's too much. I can not WAIT to be able to watch games on TV again.

Which reminds me, I got a phone call today from Nichols College up in Dudley, Massachusetts. And I will be visiting their campus/interviewing on the 1st of May! Exciting to feel like I'm making some sort of progress...even if they're the only on-campus I have lined up. I really like this school, though- so this really could be a great opportunity for me. Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

Tomorrow I'm going with Bianca to get her first tattoo...she even let me design it! While there I'll be talking to Margaret, the tattoo artist, about mine. She should have a sketch all ready for me and then hopefully I'll get it in the next few days!

There has been entirely too many exclamation points in this post. Sorry about that!!
ha.

Off to finish duty...and I'm going to bed EARLY.
so excited about it.

Much love!
-LA

Getting there...ever so slowly

Tunes:"good enough"// westbound train

So close to the end (exactly a month away from graduation!), yet so so so much to do and get done. I feel like I have talked like this all year. But really, the light is shining at the end of the tunnel. It's just a matter of time (a month) until I reach it.

In the meantime, I am finding ways to have fun amidst all of things I need to accomplish. Last weekend here in Harrisonburg was MACRock. It's this annual college radio conference where a lot of popular, college radio bands play showcases all over town and the public gets a badge and can go to all the different venues to check out the different musicians. BEST weekend all year. The weather was beautiful, the company I was in was wonderful and the music was just fantastic. Nothing beats some good live tunes. Nothing.

Highlights were these 2 bands:


[maps & atlases]


[patten is movement]

It was the best release to not have to worry about things, walk around town in the sunshine, drink cold beer on tap, watch some rocking bands up close and just...be. I feel so often down here I am constantly stressing about what I should be doing or need to do eventually. Last weekend though, nope. I just existed and had some fun. Was good for my soul!

As my time here is, again, winding down, I've been trying to determine the specifics of the tattoo I want to get to commemorate my time here and sort of cap it all off. I've been planning on getting a Cardinal (the bird) since last year and now it's a matter of finding the right style/picture/place. I'm getting there. My friend Erin is drawing me something along the lines of this one: here
My hope was to get it on my birthday in a week or so, but I might settle for getting it either when my family's here (want to hold my hand, Mum?) or if and when Ricker comes down to help me move home. I want it essentially in the same spot- on the back of my arm so I can "look back on" it (and the experience, too!)...I'm excited about it.

Now that it is 1:30am, I am going to get to bed.
I'm helping with load-in for a concert tomorrow. Fun!
Much love from the (getting green) valley!

an update from the conference...

Tunes:espn on tv (Brad's choice)

We (Stacey, Brad, Lauren, Kristen and myself) are sharing a hotel room here in National Harbor at the Gaylord where our conference (ACPA) is. It's this enormous and immaculate hotel that is charging us way too much to stay here (and not offer us a cot- so we're rotating sleeping on the floor) and way too much for food, so we can't eat here- almost literally. I have spent so much money this week, I get scared even thinking about it. Thank goodness for the enormous amount of money I am getting back from my taxes (and MUM for figuring that out for me).

So! I have been here 2 day's now, and have spent the majority of these 2 days in interviews with colleges and universities I could potentially work at. Yesterday was Siena, Hampshire & UMass Lowell. Today was SUNY Oneonta, Nichols, Keene, Salem State and Hofstra. Tomorrow I have 4 interviews- 2 of which (U of Southern Maine and Emerson) are first round. The others are second interviews (with Keene and UMass Lowell). I also was invited to go to a reception for SUNY Oneonta, which is just as good of a sign as the second interviews really. Hopefully I get a couple on-campus interview invites.

In short- this process is long and SLOW.

Today a lot more of the JMU professionals showed up, which made me feel more at ease. Tomorrow night they'll be having a reception and I am kind of excited to hang out with everyone dawning our Purple and Gold (duuuuukes). I may try and see Tyler on Tuesday after my interview with the School of Visual Arts. Yes, Tyler Kavanagh. I just really want an excuse to go up to DC.

I can not wait to go home on Wednesday, though. I am going to sleep so so so much.
It'll be glorious.

Miraculously the 5 of us in this little hotel room are still getting along so well. I thought we'd all be at each others' throats. But instead we're all being really gracious. And laughing often. I love them so. :)

Now, to bed.
Much love from National Harbor...

no rest for the weary...

Tunes:the colbert report.

This week was a big, big week for me and the rest of my classmates. Portfolio was due Wednesday at noon. I worked on it at the library for 17 hours just this weekend and then countless more last week and this week. I stayed up until 4am Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning to finish it. But! It is done. I am pretty proud of it. I feel like I did as well as I could given my procrastination.

And what I thought would be a really huge moment in my graduate career was extremely anti-climactic. Figures.

Kristen & I made a celebratory cake Wednesday just the same and had a bunch of our cohort over for a champagne toast to the end of that mountain of work. And then I was so ready to just collapse into a heap until graduation...but no. I spent all day today shopping for professional attire to wear at the conference I'm going to this weekend.
It was the crummiest day ever. It was grey and rainy and BLUH and I wanted to crawl under a rock. Instead I meandered around JC Penney for the better part of the afternoon. I did end up finding things to wear- thank God. But this weekend cannot end soon enough.

I have 9 interviews lined up total.
3 on Saturday: Siena, Hampshire, UMass Lowell
5 on Sunday: SUNY Oneonta, Keene, Nichols, Salem State, Hofstra
1 on Monday: University of Southern Maine

Monday evening there's this reception just for JMU people which is supposed to be fun, and then in theory I'll be done Tuesday. I may get asked to a couple second interviews. I may find it difficult to share a room with 4 other people for 4 days. I may be seeing Mr. Tyler Kavanagh while up there (the conference is outside DC)...
In short, I may go crazy while I'm up there. Ha.

All I know is this time next week I will be so less stressed out.
In the meantime...cripes. I really should pack.
Lots of love to New England- I miss everyone so much!
<3 Leigh

PS. This weekend (after 17 hours in the library) I went to a late showing on Sunday night of "I Love You, Man" and it is absolutely my new favorite movie. Nothing made my weekend better than watching Paul Rudd flounder helplessly with modern lingo and slang. Ha. so so so good...and c'mon, the man's a fox (yup, I said it)!!