merry christmas... happy new year... and all that good stuff

just thought that i would wake our hibernating blog for a brief post to both wish you, dear reader that remembers our blog still exists, a very merry christmas season... and to express my love for our game-playing friends.

so first off, i do realize that it is the day after christmas, but still, i wish you a very merry one. i love everything about christmas: the lights, the music, the food, the shopping, the magic, the love. i know it all can become overwhelming and the true meaning can get lost in the social expectations of the holiday... even still, i hope you were able to hold on to the truth and experience the wonderful gifts all around us. not the physical ones the santa left under the tree, but the gifts of time with family & friends, love for one another, and the opportunity to forgive. there is just something special about this time of year!

secondly, i would like to send many thanks to my friends who love a good game night. in explanation, for christmas i received one of my favorite games in the whole wide world, TABOO! taboo was not actually on my christmas list, but it was an extremely thoughtful gift from my mom, who, as i look back, must have endured many-a-story centered around a "tuscaloosa taboo game night." she was thinking more towards next year when jane and i will have our own place and will need a collection of games of our own. so, as most people do with toys received on christmas, i wanted to play my new game. unfortunately, there were many things wrong with that idea. in short, my family is horrible at playing games. tonight that was demonstrated in style as i attempted to orchestrate a jovial game of taboo. fail.

lesson learned: save the game-playing fun for either the nursing home... or college!

wishing you the best as you make your new years resolutions, good luck in their execution, and roll tide...

b

I was a junior chipmunk, and I had to be versed in all the woodland creatures.

I admit that this blog post comes somewhat belatedly, but the hilarity of the story, in my opinion, will never expire. This may end up being one of those And-Then-I-Found-Five-Dollars stories that only those involved think is funny. But that's sufficient for me.

Last Thursday, Miss Sarah Young and I were walking towards the Quad after our new tradition of Thursday Ferg Lunch where Sarah, Charlie, Shane, and I have grown fond of catching up on life as we eat Chick-fil-a and drink Izze Soda. I was walking with Sarah to her class in Lloyd because I didn't have class until 2. In the meantime, I was planning to take advantage of the beautiful day and do some reading on the Quad. As we often are, Sarah and I were engaged in Gilmore Girls-esque banter, admittedly paying little attention to where we were going as we walked.

As we traversed the stone pathway in front of Gorgas Library, however, we both snapped to our senses as we were ambushed by two seemingly rabid squirrels charging straight towards us. These were no innocent squirrels carelessly crossing our path. No, these squirrels were vicious. And they were out for blood. As soon as we spotted our assailants, we both stopped mid-sentence, clutched onto each other and screamed like the little girls we are. We were amazed as they hurtled full speed out of a tree and bolted straight toward us. By some miracle, they split paths and ran on either side of us, and Sarah and I were left clinging to each other for dear life, marveling at what had just happened. I faintly remember a guy sitting on Gorgas steps laughing at us.

We walked the rest of the way to Lloyd recovering from our near death experience and wondering over how desensitized the squirrels on campus have become towards humans. So much for that "They're more afraid of you than you are of them" thing.

Wikipedia tells me that squirrels can sometimes become defensive of their nests and will become somewhat aggressive to defend their territory. Message received, territorial rodents. You better believe that I'm walking to the other side of a sidewalk when I see a squirrel about to cross my path now.

Now with a phobia of the sciurus carolinenis,

Katie K.

when all we have is music

since i spent the entire summer away in vermont, i have been trying to spend as much time at home as i can this semester to make up for lost time with my family! my dad and i had tickets to go see the mississippi state vs. alabama game together on saturday, so i headed on home after class friday.

for dinner friday night, my parents and i went to eat at davenport's pizza in mountain brook village. it is my family's favorite restaurant, and i can't tell you how many times i have eaten there over the course of my lifetime. i honestly would be scared to know. even still, we continue to go!

however, this friday night was special. we were eating at davenport's because 32 years ago, almost to the day (november 11th would have been exact), my parents went on their first date there. it was back when they were in high school, mom was in 10th grade and dad in 11th. they went to dinner before the briarwood state championship football game. yes, my parents also went to briarwood... the whole story can really begin to make me sick.

as a child, i grew up hearing my parent's "love story," high school sweethearts and all. because of that influence, i just thought that high school was where all the magic happened. little did i know... but sadly, 10th grade came and went for me without even a boyfriend. as did the rest of high school. i had to quickly come to the realization that my parents are in a very small percent of people that actually work out the way they did.

as glad as i am that their story is not my own, i love it for them! getting to celebrate 32 years of dating (25 of marriage) with them was surprisingly special. they have one of the most genuine relationships that i have ever seen, and i don't thank god often enough for the incredible role models they are to me.

so congratulations mom & dad! i love you.

and similarly, roll tide! 10-0 feels oh so good.

why yes, i did just write a blogpost about red shoes.

i wore my red high heels tonight for the first time in a while. they are absolutely magical, thus making them my favorite shoes in my closet. no shoe fits more perfectly. i feel like a princess every time i wear them. the one and only problem with them is that they simply are not the most practical pair of footwear. but don't worry, i manage to find any and every reason to wear them!

as kellie pickler would say,

"well you can watch me walk if you want to, want to

i bet you want me back now don't you, don't you

i'm about to show you just how missing me feels

in my red high heels"

goodnight tuscaloosa

a toast to the happy couple

so my high school boyfriend got engaged tonight. talk about a text message you never expect to receive!

he texted to tell me... because "he didn't want facebook to tell certain people :)" yet again confirming my deep hatred for all technology.

note: the smiley face was his special touch not mine.

this whole situation is doing nothing to help with my fear of growing up! it is only adding to the uneasiness i get when i think about the responsibilities fast approaching with age.

sometimes life is weirdly unkind.

joanna banana

and now it's my turn to tell a funny story!

as many of you are aware, it is homecoming week here at the university of alabama. it's a week that we all love to hate... a week of delirium where sorority pledges are required to participate is a plethora of "fun" activities, pomping hours are at the top of your to do list, the machine gets to utilize their power, and all school work is ignored. fun for all! right?

well anyways, last night i was at the chi omega house pomping, just as an good chi omega would be. however, let me define pomping for you according to my terms: sitting on the computer in the chi-o kitchen laughing with lizzie and jane. i know, it sucks!

so we get in this conversation about names. we discussed both liz and jane's last names and how they would make such cute names for little boys. brazeal got thrown around, but i made sure to shut that down real fast! then jane decided to share with us what she plans to name her children. being the good friend that i am, i tune her out and begin to read katie k's newest blog post. while in my own little world, i heard jane say something about the name joanna. at this point, i figured it was time for me to say something. why you ask? because i have a big mouth...

i begin with, "have yall ever heard the name johannah? i just really don't like that name. what an awkward combination!" there were minor agreements from liz and jane with my comment, but of course, i didn't take notice. then i continued with, " and because my cousin is named this i feel that i have to right to say it, but i don't like the name joanna either." liz wanted to stop the train wreck, but it was unsalvageable. awkward silence.

yes, jane had definitely just been confessing her love for the name joanna and how she is without a doubt going to name her little girl that. there was no way to backtrack; thankfully, because jane loves me despite my stupidity, we laughed for 30 minutes about the whole situation.

along with a variety of other conversation topics that shall not be mentioned at this time, it was one of the better pomping experiences for me! and then i cleaned my room til 2:30 am. roll tide.

signed,

the girl with nameless children

***special apologies to those of you who are named either johannah or joanna (and to those particularly attached). thanks for taking one for the team!

Somehow I feel like that status was directed at me, Ellen.

I had a wonderful fall break weekend in Oxford. But that is not the purpose of this post.

I have a new most embarrassing/hilarious (because the two go hand in hand) moment.

Today, I was in my English British Literature class (I hate the abbreviation "BritLit" blech.) when I decided I needed a bathroom break. I got up from the riveting discussion of Shakespearean sonnets and trekked down all three flights of Morgan Hall to the bathroom. As I walked back to class, as it always does, my mind wandered and I started thinking about what life must have been like as a college student when my mom was here. Did the buildings look different? How had the carpeting changed? Did the stairs always look like this? Really important stuff. Embarrassingly, my interest in buildings as increased significantly since being on Capstone, evident in the fact that I asked Allie about every building we passed in Ole Miss. Anyway, because I was pondering the evolution of Morgan Hall, I wasn't paying attention to my route back to class and absentmindedly sauntered into room 318. As I walked in, I noticed that there was a powerpoint on the board entitled "short essay assignment." My mind immediately started thinking "Oh, crap, this isn't on the syllabus. And where did that projector come from?" Then I looked at the instructor who was looking rather befuddled at me, mid-sentence, then the class of about 35 students gawking at me and giggling.

You see, my class was in room 319. Yes, I was in the wrong room. The last time I did this was in 4th grade when I walked in Miss Howle's old room when I was in fact in Miss McCraven's class. But there was a subconscious reason. I had English in room 318 last semester. But no one in that class knew it, so I just looked dumb. I locked eyes with a girl in another one of my classes (whom I'm sure I will be mocked by tomorrow), froze on the spot, and laughed as I muttered a "Sorry," and walked out the door.

Of course, I laughed at myself for a good 10 minutes when I got to my rightful spot and have told the story to as many people as possible.

And then I found 5 dollars.

Katie K.

let it be.

i've gotten myself into this weird pattern where i can't sleep. i don't really know what to blame it on; it just is. i think being at home and off of my normal schedule is logically part of it... but with me, who knows? anyways, thanks to my sleepless night, you get a blog post.

i found today to be one of the more humbling days in my life. it's funny how humility always seems to be a goal, but no one really is constantly humble. it takes an event to bring you to a humbled state. my "event" was filling out job applications.

as mentioned in my previous blog post, i am unemployed which is not making my bank account very happy, soooooo i am simultaneously on a job hunt for a part time job in tuscaloosa and a job in birmingham for the highly anticipated holiday season. so along with "finding myself" aka choosing a major, all the festivities of homecoming week, whipping my body into shape, starting a healthy diet, and saving the world, one could say that my hypothetical plate is pretty full. i'll let you be the judge.

as with any overwhelming situation (and for those that know me, you know that i find most situations to be rather overwhelming... some even ending in panic attacks and such), it must be taken one step at a time. each step completed is a small victory, and i celebrate my small victories with much enthusiasm!

today (with a kick in the butt from the parentals), i decided to face the fact that i needed a job for christmas break. by about 4:30 this afternoon (mid-alabama game, i might add), i worked up enough energy/courage to walk store to store at the summit asking for job applications. with this activity, the boundary of my comfort zone had been crossed, but i did it! small victory. whoop yeah!

once back at home with my treasured job applications, the real work began. i filled out job application after job application as i pretended to watch the lsu/florida game. it was not a fun process, and the worst part about it was filling out my employment history. before actually having to write it out 10 times, i would have been pleased, possibly proud of my previous employment. i lifeguarded for 3 summers in high school... clearly a "cool kid" job. then i stepped it up a notch with a 5-6 month run in retail at anthropologie; however, rounding out my stellar resume is the glorious 2 months of slicing deli meat and cheese at the price chopper, a discount grocery store in the booming metropolis of burlington, vermont. write that out 10 times and then tell me that you haven't begun to question everything in your life. thus the humbling i spoke of before.

realizing that i spent 2 precious months of my life behind a deli counter wearing a black and white checkered apron asking, "now would you like that 1/2 lb of black forest ham sliced thick or thin," brought me to a state of humility. i'm pretty dang sure that bath&body works isn't looking for someone with special training with meat slicer or that vera bradley requires their employees to know the difference between a honey smoked and an oven roasted turkey. even still, the Lord will provide.

so that was my weekend in a nutshell. why didn't i go to oxford again??

roll tide forever,

b

i try to say goodbye and i choke. i try to walk away and i stumble.

hi. my name is katie brazeal, and i am the co-creator of this blog, double bird strike. you, dear reader, may have been under the impression that this beautiful little corner of the internet had died, but oh how wrong you were! welcome back to my life...

today, whilst playing around on my computer (i.e. facebook stalking), i noticed a hypothetically rusty bookmark sitting there on the toolbar of my internet explorer. what was it, you might ask? well it was none other than this wonderful blog. curiosity perked, i clicked on it. once back in the blogging universe, i decided to reread all of "double birk strike's" old blog posts and relive the days of yore. i got approximately one and a half blogs into the stellar sixty-one when i was reminded of why katie and i started this blog in the first place. we needed a cyber-shoebox to collect all of our college memories in, and here i am letting sophomore year go completely undocumented! for shame.

my next move was to stop reading the old blog posts... 61. who was i kidding? ...and start writing what you are reading now; however, it was not quite as simple as that sounds. i first ran into the difficulty of recalling the password i had set so many months before. after many unsuccessful guesses (but creative ones, i might add), i resigned myself to the fact that i would have to set a new one. after forgiving myself for forgetting such valuable information, setting up a snazzy new password, and re-familiarizing myself with the whole blog set up, i began typing.

sophomore year as a whole has been an adjustment. college has lost the mystery it once had. i don't mean that as a complaint; it is simply a fact. some days it is the biggest blessing, while others it is a bit of a drag. even still, i love college, and life is good.

and when i say life is good, i don't truly mean that. i am too much of a pessimist to utter those words in absolute truth. what i am really saying is life is just life. my life has a tendency to forever keep things interesting, and right now is no exception. the biggest news at the moment is that i am no longer in nursing school. my major is officially undecided, and i couldn't be more excited about that! i would just like to thank my anatomy&physiology 215 lab for helping me admit to myself that i don't want to go to nursing school. tuesday at 1:30 pm, amy in the career center is supposed to tell me what to do with my life. can't wait!

some less dramatic but still blog-worthy highlights from the past few weeks include, dropping my anatomy&physiology class (i am rocking a W on my transcript! yippie), celebrating chris and sarah's engagement, walking into the wrong dorm room only to be rudely dismissed, hanging up all of my zaps from freshman year, watching a rather large amount of "friends" episodes, potentially applying to victoria's secret (jury is still out on that one...), rediscovering my love for gorgas & rogers, adopting the most precious little chi-o sister, preparing to celebrate elizabeth price's 21st birthday (15 days!!), and specifically tonight, eating a bag of popcorn for dinner. i love college.

so welcome back! thanks to a lighter class load and the fact that i am unemployed, you will probably be seeing this blog come back to life:)

sincerely,

b

What I want, you got but it might be hard to handle.

Remember that time we used to blog?

Oh, wait...

I realized at the beginning of August how horribly lax I was becoming in blogging, but then it became a sort of game for me. I wanted to see if we could go the entire month of August without blogging. And we did! I'm not sure why that became a goal, but hey, small victory.

I'm not about to try to catch you up on all the things that have happened during our hiatus, but for my own peace of mind, here is a list summarizing recent events:

-I dressed up as Cho Chang for the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and was subsequently published in The Crimson White.

-Katie B. returned to T-town from Vermont.

-I returned to T-town from, well, Birmingham.

-Rush came and went, and we all emerged relatively unscathed. 

-We are sophomores. So now we can at least pretend like we know what's going on.

-Classes started. My TCF class consists of us watching TV shows and talking about them. On the syllabus: Friends, Seinfeld, and Buffy. I'm a happy camper.

-Katie and I LOVE our two-person room in Riverside. We don't care that's it's lame to still live in the dorms.

-I fell in love with Regina Spektor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

-I am single-handedly keeping the Hollywood 16 Cobb Theatre of Tuscaloosa in business. 

-I'm happy as could be being busy, back in a routine, reunited with my friends, and making lists.

So, now we're all caught up, and Katie B. and I can stop being intimidated by blogging due to the large gap of time that has elapsed. Look forward to our good ole random stories about our lives. Some will probably emerge from this weekend when I get to go to the Virginia Tech game and walk the field for the first time with Capstone! Can't wait.

Roll Tide in 3 days,

Katie K.

an apology

dear july,

i am sorry that you have been so ignored in the blogging world. please forgive me. hopefully august will make up for your loss.

sincerely, 

b

just checking in

i am in vermont! 

sometimes i have these weird moments where i just sit back and think about it. i am in the little "v-shaped" state in the northeast and have been for 2 months. i'm leaving in 2 weeks, and i am not sure it has really ever sunk in. 

today freaked me out a little bit. i got up this morning and went with a few of my friends to do some yard work at our church. we then packed lunches and headed out to go swimming at one of our favorite spots. unfortunately our little swimming outing was rained out. even so, we ran by work to pick up our schedules for next week and to say hey to friends. then we went down town for the farmer's market and found ourselves reading newspapers at a local coffee house. the day ended with a nap in my bed with the sun shining through the window on my face. it's amazing how comfortable i have become with this strange life that i am living. 

all that said, i still can't wait to be back in alabama... where i belong! 

wishing miss kate sparks a purple happy birthday,

b

one if by land, two if by sea

the past few weeks have been a whirlwind. my to do list seems to grow longer every day. the moment i check one thing off i feel like 3 new things are added. this week, thankfully, i have a rather laid back week, so top of the to do list is to regain control of my life! 

all though hectic, these past few weeks have been great... the highlight being that my parents came to visit! i wish i had the time to walk you step by step through our adventures in canada, burlington, and boston... but for now i hope these pictures will suffice.

for now, 

b

Almost Famous

So, there were many wonderful things about the recent Kallam family trip to NYC, but among the highlights is the celebrity sightings that went down. I'm not talking seeing Johnny Depp and Megan Fox on Letterman (which we did). No, I'm talking "Oh my gosh! Is that?" and then I play paparazzi as these poor people try to live their normal lives.

First, we were casually enjoying our matinee show of Shrek: The Musical (which was awesome, by the way) when a woman on our row comes back from the bathroom at intermission and whisper-yells to her friend "NICHOLAS CAGE IS HERE. HE'S IN THE LOBBY." Well, immediately the entire Kallam family is on our feet on our way to the lobby acting as if we have a sudden need for Twizzlers. It took me a second to spot him, but finally I saw Ghost Rider himself towering above the crowd with his straw hat and sunglasses on INSIDE the theatre. Very inconspicuous. His little kids were clambering for his attention as he glanced around trying not to be noticed. Everyone around him did the whole I'm-not-gonna-act-like-I'm-staring-but-I'm-really-gonna-watch-his-every-move thing, myself included. As the second act began, I noted his seat right below us and watched as he tried to get his kids to behave and didn't clap or crack a smile throughout the rest of the show. There was a really awkward moment where he got up to leave right before curtain call, but his kid pitched a fit so he sat back down and EVERYONE noticed. Here he is:

Like I said, I was creepin' from the balcony. I should have asked him not to make any more National Treasure movies.

Ok, second scenario. I'm sitting in LaGuardia airport, watching the luggage while my parents check us in. This guy with a heavy New York accent sits down a couple of seats over talking on his phone. Of course I started eavesdropping on his conversation. He was talking about how his dog got killed by a pit bull, etc. Nothing too exciting. But then, he mentions that he is there to escort some VIP flying first class through the airport. I perked up at this. Direct quote: "Yeah, dis guy ain'ta celebrity so I'm not gonna break my back fah dis guy. I don't even know how ta say his last name... Doo-ham-ull? Yeah, Josh. So anyway, about my dog..." WHAT?! Josh Duhamel? Of Win a Date With Tad Hamilton and Transformers fame? The guy that's married to Fergie?! A B-rate celebrity is coming through this airport?! So, of course when he went outside to meet the black SUV, I watched through the window and just HAPPENED to go through security at the same time as them. He was really tall and kinda sweaty. It was kinda sad though cause he was looking around waiting for people to recognize him and no one really did. I "texted" in his direction and got some sweet iPhone pics of him. It was funny to watch him go through security with all the regular peeps. See, stars really are just like US! (I read too much Us Weekly). I also thought it was funny that this other guy had no idea who he was. 

Ignore the fat, old guy in the foreground. So there you have it, I have a future with People magazine.

Your favorite paparazzi,

Katie K.

children obey your parents in the lord, for this is right.

i spent this past weekend in new hampshire with all the navigator girls. the weekend was designed to provide us with a change of scenery, time to get to know one another on a deeper level, and time to dig deeper into god's word. truth be known, i was anything but excited about this weekend. road trips with 25 girls, entire weekends without showers, and the state of new hampshire in general don't excite me. to me, it was a "let's don't and say we did" type of thing. nonetheless, i am a woman and i am spending my summer with the navigators, so it was off to new hampshire for me. 

i will not discuss, at this point, the weekend in it's entirety because a lot of it was simply empty farm land, stinky cows, and cold new england weather...  but there was one very special moment for me this weekend. it made putting my poor southern body through some unforgiving "new englandness" definitely worth it. 

our study this weekend was on the book of ephesians. we, first, spent time alone reading and studying ephesians. later, we discussed questions and topics from ephesians in small groups, and we closed out the weekend by having a group discussion... yes, 25 girls talking. i didn't know what to expect from the large group time. ephesians has so many things in it worth discussing; i had no idea what form the conversation would take. like always, people were timid in the beginning. there wasn't much talking or discussing, so laura, our leader for the weekend, directed our attention to chapter 6 verse 1. "children obey your parents in the lord, for this is right." we read that section together, and then laura simply posed the question, "what are some things that you like about your parents as individuals?" people began to slowly open up. small statements about love, kindness, generosity, etc were made. this question was something i hadn't ever really sat down and thought about before. most of the time i think about my parents as a duo.  i think that is a wonderful way to think of a married couple... but they still are two completely different people. here are some conclusions i came to...

dad, i love your sense of humor. the first thing i think of when i think of you is the way you make me laugh. you also appreciate my sense of humor which means the world to me. i also love the passion with which you do things. when you find something you love, you go at with all that you have. this is very respectable and is a great example for me. i also am inspired by the faith you have that god will work everything out. i don't say this in a careless way, but in an optimistic way. i love your worry-free approach to life.

mom, your organization is what holds our family together. i love your list-making addiction 

that i have shamelessly adopted, and the way you manage time, money, and every other part of life is beautiful to me. i look to your example in these areas because of the diligence you have. more than anything else, i love that in every memory from my childhood, you are there. everywhere from sitting in the car in the carpool line to sitting in the stands at the games i cheered for. i never felt forgotten. 

the next question laura posed was, "what would you change about your parents/childhood?" this question and the answers people gave are what really hit home for me this weekend. the group of girls here in vermont this summer is very diverse. we are from all over the country, all different religious denominations, and as i found out this weekend, very different upbringings. girls began to share about childhoods in non-believing families, childhoods without love, childhoods without fathers, childhoods with mentally unstable mothers, and the list goes on. i sat there in awe at the stories my friends were sharing. however, the thing that baffled me the most was that these stories were not shared as complaints. not one person told their story with resentment. their stories were full of love and forgiveness for the people that had hurt them the most. these girls ability to find the best in their parents and in their situations was astounding. i sat there and listened for a while, but there came a point when i couldn't keep quiet any longer... and this is what i shared:

i tried so hard to find similarities in my childhood to the ones being shared about, and yet not once could i truly compare. love was abundant in my house. my parents loved each other, and they loved my sister and i. communication was not an issue. never was i hurt physically or emotionally. my childhood was as close to perfect as my parents were capable of making it. the sad thing is, is that i have never thought of it that way. i always choose to focus in the negatives or, i my opinion, shortcomings. except in this case, my negatives aren't really negatives at all. they are all simply the selfish desires of my heart. the stories of my new friends were unbelievably humbling. i have a newfound respect for the parents god has given me and the childhood god blessed me with. 

this week is my beautiful parent's 25th wedding anniversary! i am so extremely happy for and proud of them. the example they have set for me is amazing. i know for years i have made sure my mom knows everything she has done and is doing wrong in raising me, but oh how wrong i have been! i am coming to realize that i would give anything to be for my kids half the mom my mom was and is for me. my parents are even spending their anniversary here in burlington just to be with me. i think that says a lot right there about who and what they truly value. 

i know this was deep... maybe a little too deep, but i needed to express in writing how blessed i truly am. the lord revealed this to me this weekend in a way like never before. i feel closer to my friends up here and to my family thanks to a weekend in piermont, new hampshire. who knew? 

be expecting a blog post soon covering my experiences in new hampshire. the pictures are plentiful... as are the stories! and if you get the chance, congratulate my parents on 25 years. that's a long time for a couple of high school sweethearts from birmingham, alabama. i can't wait for many more years to come!

respectfully,

b

Rockin' in the dance hall, movin' with you, dancin' in the night in the middle of June

I get a weird sense of deja vu when I come back to Tuscaloosa in the summer. All the places and sights are the same, but I realized the thing that makes me love this town so much is the people that inhabit it. When everyone's gone or busy with summer classes/jobs, it's just not the same. But being here in the summer is really nice in some ways too. I don't have any tours today, so I've just been killing time until the Capstone meeting tonight. I've been able to do things that I never really have time to do during school. Currently, I'm sitting in Panera with my empty bagel plate in front of me taking an entire table to myself while people give me glares because it's the lunch rush. Maybe I'll go to the pool later. 

I am getting in some excellent people-watching. These two guys to my left just conducted a full-blown, official job interview with a young woman, resumé in hand. I must admit, I took out one of my headphones to observe her interview skills and try to figure out what job she was vying for. The guys next to them are in a heated conversation about Alabama football which I am admittedly less interested in.

Last week was a good family week. We went to a wedding of a good friend from Atlanta up in north Georgia. The wedding was beautiful, and it was really cool to see someone I've known since I was born get married to the girl he's been dating since the 5th grade. It was fun to reconnect with childhood friends, too.

After the wedding, we headed to the beach. As usual, we commenced our annual Monopoly game, complete with 3 bowls of M&M's. Things were initially not looking too good for me as I only had 3 properties: Park Place, St. Charles, and Connecticut (compared to my dad's 12). Somehow, though, I was able to make some deals, and ended up getting second place to Ben. I've come a long way from the days when I would burst into tears because I couldn't understand the rules. I also read The Time Traveler's Wife and watched 4 movies on my "You Haven't Seen That?!" list of movies to watch this summer. And I didn't get sunburned. All in all, a successful week. 

Yesterday's tours went really well. I realized that I've missed showing people around the good ol' U of A and after a few nerves, I got right back in the swing of things. Despite our wonderful summer uniforms, I felt the Alabama heat in a big way. I learned my lesson to drink more water. 

Well, I'm going to repack again tomorrow to leave town again. Ben is flying out of NYC for Italy on Monday, so we're getting in a few days in the Big Apple before we see him off. I'm finally gonna get to see Letterman live! The guests? Johnny Depp and Megan Fox. I'm just a little pumped. We were going to see Guys & Dolls with Lauren Graham (see previously blog posts for my love of her), but it closed. So we're currently weighing our options for what will replace it. I don't really care; I will love anything. And I'll find some other way to meet Lorelai Gilmore. 

Having a wonderful summer,

Katie K.

mmmbop

last night, we had a "thrift store" dance. everyone went to consignment shops around burlington and bought outrageous outfits. we all had such a good time! i wore a swooshy dress and felt like the world should get to experience it through this picture...  

last night, i was reminded of how much i love to dance. 

i'm a novelty.

the longer i have been in vermont, the more i feel like an outsider. this statement is not in reference to the people i am living with. i love them and am establishing some incredible friendships, but instead, it has more to do with the state of vermont in general. i came to vermont with the crazy thought that all the differences between the north and the south were simply a myth. i had decided that movies like "sweet home alabama" were people's sole basis for the idea that the north and the south are two separate worlds. my first few days in the green mountain state seemed to prove my theory right, but as time has worn on, i have discovered that it is impossible to take in an entire culture in a short period of time. it's been about 3 weeks now, and i should be entering the "feeling at home" phase. i know my way around the city, i've seen all the big attractions, and i've already found my favorite coffee house, but everyday i feel less and less a part of what is going on around me. and i couldn't be happier about that!

if i have learned anything up here, it is that i am a southern girl, and it shows. maybe it's the boots or the over usage of the word yall, but it never gets old to these new englanders. i was at the mall just yesterday, and in 2 out of the 3 stores i went in, i got this strange look from the person ringing up my purchase followed by the question, "where are you from?" when i answered them, they both responded with, "ahhh, i knew it." they then went on to tell me every person that they have ever come in contact with from the south. "oh, i had a customer one time from south carolina; i think her name was sue." or " my second cousin married a guy from arkansas." they tell me these meaningless facts as if i should know every person who has ever ventured south of the mason-dixon line. 

i've been trying to compile a list of differences between the north and the south. living in this foreign culture, it is very easy for me to see the differences, but i have found it extremely difficult to put into words. so much of the gap between the north and the south is abstract...  but here is my best shot at the top ten tangible differences. enjoy.

1. only in vermont would you witness a nude anti-war protest. as long as you leave your house naked, public nudity is legal. 

2. only in vermont could you decide to see a brand new movie on a friday night, go to the theater in the middle of town, arrive 5 minutes late for the show, and still get tickets. 

3. only in vermont would you feel like you are going to hell because you have never recycled in your life. 

4. only in vermont is there a maple-flavored option for everything. 

5. only in vermont is ice hockey discussed with the same intensity as football in the state of alabama. using phrases such as the iron bowl, bear bryant, houndstooth, bryant-denny stadium, the quad, tailgating, and bbq create much confusion.  

6. only in vermont would you find the number of subarus on the road equivalent to the number of pick-up trucks in alabama. 

7. only in vermont would the coast of the lake be a lame excuse for a beach. they have no idea!

8. only mid-summer in vermont would you find yourself cold in your unair-conditioned dorm room.

9. only in vermont would you find yourself applying for a job at hollister when you don't even own one item of clothing from that store. (this one has more personal relevance.)

10. only in vermont am i a novelty. 

 

along with all of the cultural differences, i am also adapting to a new diet. here at the program, one of the student's job is to be the cook for the summer. our cook is harmen. he is a student from holland. he studied "abroad" in boston last year and got hooked in with the navigators during his time there. the leaders asked him to come be a part of the program this summer and to also cook for us. he is really funny, and his accent adds a lot... however, he cooks some off the wall dishes. i realize we are on a budget but still. the things he comes up with sometimes blow my mind. jalapenos and curry are his favorite ingredients to cook with. that right there poses a problem for me: i hate spicy food. thankfully, there are others that share my feelings in this area, so harmen has had to lay off the dang-spicy flavoring. nonetheless our meals are always a surprise. so far, my favorite dinners have been the moroccan finger-food dinner of couscous and other weird things, and last night's breakfast for dinner complete with dutch pancakes. i feel like i am having a taste of so many cultures here in vermont this summer!

i would like to also discuss my hollister interview for a few minutes. you may be wondering why hollister is even in the picture because i have been so vocal about my glamourous job slicing meat in the deli of the price chopper. sadly enough, the price chopper is not giving me enough hours, so i have decided to pick up job number 2, and naturally i went straight to hollister. well, not really. lizzie worked there last summer, so i decided to give it a shot since it is semi-familiar territory. yesterday was my interview, and in getting ready for it, i came to the understanding that nothing in my closet is either from hollister or even resembles the hollister style. the sad ensemble that i put together was my sister's american eagle shirt that somehow ended up with me in vermont, my kaki shorts from target that are i don't even know how old, my old navy flipflops, and my anthropologie bag. it was anything but a winning combination. still i raved about hollister's stellar style during my interview. my favorite thing from my interview was learning what hollister's catch phrase is, and boy is it original. "hey! what's up?" apparently, if you don't say that to every customer who walks through the door, you are not doing your job. 

in conclusion, i am going to leave you with one excellent reason why you do not want me to assist you with your deli meat needs. at work on wednesday, i had a sweet lady ask for a pound of kosher turkey shaved. now mind you, my knowledge of things kosher is non-existent. still, i wanted to look like i knew what i was doing when in reality, i had no idea. i ended up opening the turkey with a regular meat knife... apparently a big no-no. however, i went ahead and sliced the meat on the "kosher slicer" and gave the turkey to the lady anyways. i am a terrible person. 

hope all is well down in alabama and all the other places my friends and family are this summer! forgive me if i haven't called in a while or written; life gets busy. still, i love yall.

helping the south to rise again,

b

a quick update

this blog post will be short. i simply want to point out that in my previous blog post i miss spelled meat. no, i don't slice meet. oops... thanks cal for teaching me to spell. 

secondly, i must also acknowledge the the video messages that katie k and i have going. they are epic... and yes, they will be rewatched upon my return to the heart of dixie. no, you may not watch them with us.

and thirdly, last saturday i climbed the tallest mountain in vermont: mt. mansfield. although hiking/rock climbing is on the absolute bottom of my list of favorite things, it really was amazing on top of the mountain. here is alabama at it's finest...

(feel free to be proud of me)

missing yall (i find any excuse to use that word these days!),

b

Old habits die hard, when you got a sentimental heart.

Ok, I've been putting this off long enough. It's only June 9th and already I feel like I have had a whole summer full of experiences.

I'm going to sum up my trip to Haiti in as concise a manner as possible. I have a tendency to ramble on this thing. The keywords that I seem to be using over and over to describe it to people that ask are eye-opening, humbling, convicting, and shocking. I think those fit. I came back with a heart for the country, a love for the people, a desire to make changes in my life, and a new-found perspective. If you want to know details, just ask me. Trust me, I can ramble about that trip for longer than I was there. My new language to learn is Haitian Creole. Sak pase?

I just got back today from visiting family in Charlotte. I really love that city and could totally see myself living there one day. I wish that Charlotte and Birmingham were closer. I just love spending time with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We don't get to see each other often enough. I leave again for a wedding and the beach again on Thursday.

I'm barely in town for June, but July is a gaping hole with not much to do. I'm open to ideas to fill it. I also would just like for everyone to know that my roommate and I are staying in touch over the summer through sending video messages back and forth on facebook. I plan for us to sit down together at the beginning of the year and watch all of them and laugh at how funny we look.

New obsession = She & Him, thanks to Shane.

Jet-setter for the month of June,

Katie K.

just a little blog-o-doodle

greetings from the northeast!

just thought i would give the blog a little run down of my first few days here in burlington. i got here on sunday with minor flight problems. i navigated through the philadelphia and burlington airports all by myself, so i gave myself a pat on the back. hooray! i was welcomed at the airport in vermont by my "team" for the summer. my team is made up of me and three other girls involved in the program. erin is the team leader. she is from california, and we get along so well. we laugh at everything together... and she loves the bachelorette, too. we always collaborate after watching the show online. heidi is one of my other team members. she is a vermont native and actually attends the university of vermont here in burlington. she is sweet as can be! the final member of my team is my roommate, melanie. she is from penn state, and god bless her for putting up with me. she has been a very good sport because all i do is talk her ear off in my southern accent and then keep her up late at night because i am such a night owl. ha. 

i just love the diversity of the group and can't wait to get to know everyone better. and side note, this won't matter to any of you, but i'll include it anyways. before i arrived, there was a big team scavenger hunt all over the city. the winning team won extra money for "team weekend" that happens later on in july. "team weekend" is where you and your team can basically travel anywhere and do anything you want within budget. so guess whose team won. yep, mine!! i'm very proud. yippie:)

now i will move on and discuss the job i will be doing for the summer. gms (that's the name of the program i am at) requires that everyone get a day job to keep people busy/make some money. i got a job at a grocery store with 12+ other kids from the program. it really is a wonderful situation except for the fact that i have found myself assigned to the deli. doesn't sound too bad, right? welp, i slice meet and cheese all day. it's pretty bad. i will know all types of meet and cheese upon my return to the south, and how to slice and package them. however, don't try to find me behind the deli counter in tuscaloosa... i won't be there. ever.

on a positive note, i really enjoy the people i am working with. because i am in the same place all day and there are lulls at times, i am hoping to build friendships with these people and potentially form witnessing opportunities. we shall see. 

to conclude in humor, i will now enter the world of the southern accent. it's a big deal. i've got one, and it is apparently blatantly obvious. one guy from the program honestly could not understand what i was saying, and i had to repeat it. others just automatically ask where i am from. but the most humorous encounter happened yesterday at work. i was dealing with one costumer who had a couple different orders... turkey, bologna, cheese. you know, the whole nine yards. i kept forgetting what he had told me, so i had to keep asking him how many pounds he wanted, etc. i felt bad for this, and he was a really friendly nice guy... so i jokingly apologized by telling him that my brain had already turned off for the day. in response he said, "did you leave it down in georgia?" i was so caught off guard, all i could find to say was, " alabama actually." 

i hope everybody is having a wonderful summer... i feel like everyone is out on their own little adventures. i can't wait for everyone to be back together in the fall! 

until then,

b

bye bye south

i love the south. it's all i've ever known, so i would have it no other way. sweet tea, y'all, grits, yes ma'am, bbq, talking slow... it's all part of my "religion." however, tomorrow at 11:30 am i am going to begin the journey from the familiar south into the unknown north. as most of you know by this point, i will be spending the remainder of the summer in vermont. ahhhhhhhh.

so far, i have had a wonderful summer break. i have squeezed a lot into these past three weeks. i spent my first week being a bum and recovering from exam week. but yes it is true, i finished freshman year with grades i can be proud of. yet i still have plenty of room for improvement next semester. not a bad place to be... ha. the second week of summer was spent in a jefferson state community college classroom knocking out history 101 in a week. was this worth it, you might ask. yes, yes it was. 

let me lay it out for you. my teacher not only consistently let us out of class early, he showed a numerous pointless movies, gave bonus points out like they were candy, and gave us one test complete with only 50 multiple choice questions. besides the class being a complete joke, i got to experience it with dan young. dan lived with me and my family for the week, and he had quite an adventure, i am afraid. he was included in every family meal, referred to as the son, and even taken on the wal-mart shopping trip. needless to say, bill and leila are big fans of dan. he was a very good sport though, and we are both happy to announce that we got A's in the class. success? success. 

oh... and now dan's a movie star. i don't want to steal his thunder, so call him up and ask him about it. key word: sandra bullock 

third week of summer was spent laying on the beach in destin, florida. every year, my mom's parents take our entire family, cousins, aunts, uncles, the whole nine yards, to the beach. there are 16 of us, so they rent us a big, beautiful house right on the water. this year, like all the others, was a gorgeous week to be with family and relax. however, it didn't go without some excitement of its own. there were concussions, sting rays, sunburns, bathing suit malfunctions, putt putt tragedies... and last but not least, jon and kate plus 8. 

as wonderful as this past week was, i feel very unsure about what i am getting into tomorrow. i'm excited, but scared... confident, but nervous... happy, but sad. basically every emotion. i know it is going to be a wonderful summer; i just need to get there. 

and if you think of me, please write me: 

Green Mountain Summer- Katie Brazeal

Box 18

85 S. Prospect St.

Burlington, Vermont 05405

more to come as the summer progresses. i can't wait to relay the way god is working in me... and all the funny stories that are bound to result from this little venture. 

goodbye to those i didn't get to see one last time,

b

p.s. a belated happy birthday to kyle ogard! he's always wanted a shout out on the blog. i miss you, ky.  

raindrops keep falling on my head

"anyone who thinks sunshine is happiness has never danced in the rain." -unknown

i love the rain. i live for days that are overcast, the heavens threatening to open up at any moment. rainboots and umbrellas make me happy. i also love stormy nights. the rhythmic beating of the raindrops against my window lull me to sleep. rain makes sleeping more relaxing, movie watching more romantic, and driving more adventurous. life without rain would be much too bright and induce too many headaches. therefore, i plan to move to seattle. 

everyone should love the rain.   

ease my troubles, that's what you do.

writing this post makes me feel like i am being reacquainted with an old friend. i have not purposefully been ignoring the blog as of late, although it may appear that way; i have just been at a lost of what to write. there is just too much.

our initially plan in the making of this blog was to create an outlet for our funny stories/embarrassing moments. we figured that everyone might as well get a good laugh out of our lives... cause we sure do. and yes, the blog has in some ways served that very purpose. however, it has also been a place for us to release emotions and attempt to capture the feelings that we hope to remember months even years down the road. we are storing our college experience on this here website. oh technology!

over the course of these past few weeks, there have been many nights that i have opened up the trusty ole blog in hopes of putting my feelings into words. sadly, i have been most unsuccessful. there has been too much swimming around in my head, and i have been unable to organize it all. i think, though, that i am slowly becoming far enough removed from some situations that i can wrap my head around them a little more. 

moving home from tuscaloosa after freshman year ending was one of the weirdest experiences. my last blog post was written on my last night in ttown. although, i knew it was my last night, there was simply no way to prepare for what was to come the following day. i've told katie k this numerous times, but for me, things in high school moved at a snails pace. i lived my life always waiting for the next big thing: christmas, birthdays, summer, senior year, graduation, etc. i was never fully happy with where i was, and it was not that i was ok with that; it was just the way it was. i used to get mad at myself all the time for "wishing away high school." i had a couple of hard things happen to me during my junior year, and from that point on, i was just done. i had a hard time truly enjoying the rest of my days as a high schooler because mentally i had already moved on. 

i hated that position that i had found myself in and made a point for college not to be a repeat of the past. this year at alabama was so vastly different from anything i experienced in high school. something new and exciting was always going on, so there was no reason to be living for the next break or holiday. i felt like christmas snuck up on me. all of the sudden, fall semester was over, and it was onto spring semester. spring break came and went in a flash, and now summer is upon us. not once did i stop and wish it were not the day that it was. ok, that might be a lie, but hopefully you are catching my drift...

while i was overwhelmingly thankful that i had such an amazing time this past year, it posed a very interesting situation on may 6th. may 5th was just like any other day. i took an exam, got a good nap in, and camped out in a variety of libraries that night to study. may 6th even started out fairly normal. i took my last exam, ran some errands, and ending crashing in my bed. may 6th did not end like a normal day though. over the course of about 4 hours, my warm and cozy dorm room that housed every memory from the past two semesters was packed into boxes and loaded up in a sequoia and an xterra. there was absolutely nothing fun or poetic about it. i turned my room keys over to r.a. david and was schlotzsky's bound to grab dinner with mom and dad. everything was happening incredibly fast; nothing was processing. all i knew was that i had been on the verge of tears for hours at this point, and it wasn't going to be held back much longer. 

my drive home was one filled with dave matthews, many tears, and some pretty unforgivable driving. as i was driving that hour alone with my parents in the car behind me, i was hauntingly reminded of a similar day a mere nine months before. a few factors were different: the type of vehicle, the time of day, and the direction we were driving. but the big things were the same: a big life change was happening accompanied by a lot of tears. as i drove to tuscaloosa back in august, i was one scared high school graduate. i had no idea what i was getting into and would have given anything to turn my little car around and get the heck back to birmingham. obviously, i did not get my way. i moved into riverside that day. now a year of college later, i had shed the old riverside suite and was, much to my dismay, headed in the direction of birmingham. and as i drove, i came to the realization that yes i was sad this chapter of my life was over. i will never be a freshman again, but because of how much i have loved my life these past months, it must mean that the tears i was crying were tears of joy! 

the lord answered my prayers. i was allowed to cry, but i could be nothing but thankful. 

so this blog post turned into a short novel. if you have made it to this point, i applaud you! i have all the sudden become very self-conscious of  what i just wrote because i doubt many if any of you had similar experiences. you are all probably thinking that i will be back in the fall, so i should just get over myself. and yes, you are probably right. however, i embrace the emotion that i show these days as much as possible because i have not always been an emotional gal. there was a time in my life that i was physically incapable of tears. since i overcame that, i have become immensely grateful for those little drops of water streaming down my face. they are few and far between, so consider yourself lucky if you ever get to witness them!

i am going to close with that rather odd thought. i promise to follow this blog post up with some very "fluffy" ones. i owe it to the blog. i've got plenty of good stories racking up. just you wait...

excited that the bachelorette premiers tomorrow night, 

b

p.s. the blog will never die. don't listen to the blasphemous words of my roommate. 

Blog by popular demand

I have a deep fear that this thing is going to die over the summer. Thankfully, I have people like Kendall and Graham to keep me accountable.

Summer so far has been everything I hoped it would be. I have slept an unbelievable amount, gotten together with friends, and been an all-around bum. I finally finished High Fidelity after starting it over Christmas Break. I really enjoyed it. I liked how the ending was different from the movie because it made it fresh and interesting for me. 

Yesterday was a surprisingly eventful day. I got up early to trek back to Tuscy for tours. The campus was post-rapture dead. It was weird. The sidewalks that are usually packed with students were empty, and it was silent where you would normally hear friends conversing on the way to class. I ate a sad Chick-fil-a lunch in the deserted Ferg, but I got to catch up with Marge on the phone! After my tours, I drove back to Birmingham where Sarah paid a visit to the Kallam house! We caught up, facebook stalked, and ate spaghetti. Then, I introduced her to Doodles.

Now, for you non-Birminghamians (?) Doodles is a small trailer that sells delicious Italian ice. (Similar to Summer Snow for you Tuscaloosa kids). There is a big open field where you eat your frozen treat and there were a lot of families with little kids there last night. Sarah and I immediately tried to gather rapport with the children. There was one red-headed boy in particular that was rather annoying. He bounced around the field like a frog, loudly emitting the noise, "Whap! Whap! Whap!" Sarah and I began to recall our childhoods and how Sarah was often told as a child, "Don't make noise, just to make noise." Oh, the days of making noise, just because you liked the sound of it. I regret that we never made dandelion crowns. 

After Doodles, we watched Twilight. It was both of our third time, but we had allowed the proper amount of time to pass so that it was perfect. I remembered just why I love Edward Cullen as much as I do. It was also my first time to watch it since completing the book series. So I had newly gained perspective on the movie.

Tonight was the perfect night. I had the house to myself, ordered Asian Wok, and watched the LOST finale. (WHICH BLEW MY MIND BY THE WAY. I mean, I cried.) I leave for Haiti on Tuesday. It sure has sneaked up on me. But I'm still so excited to see what happens.

I miss so many of my friends! 

I realize this is a pretty boring post, but these are the most exciting things that have been happening in my life recently. I'm craving a cupcake. Someone bring me one, plz.

i murdered the dance floor. call the cops!

i realize that katie k just wrote a similar-ish blog post, but it's the end of the year... it's called for...

it is my final night in tuscaloosa. i am sitting in gorgas pulling my last all nighter of freshman year, and i find it ironically appropriate. i have come to love these long nights alone, just me and my computer. while i am not a senior and having to jump into the real world after graduation on saturday, i am allowing myself to be upset that my freshman year has come to an end. no one can take that away from me! 1/4th of my college experience is behind me... 1/5th if plan B has to be put into action. i have been talking about my state of depression for about a week now, but it hit me for real tonight. this is it. tomorrow night i'll be asleep in my bed in birmingham. 

these past 9 months have been the best months of my life to date... i have loved every minute of them. i could write a book full of the stories that have accumulated over the course of the school year. i have so many wonderful memories. the friendships i have made, i know will last a lifetime. i have found people that care about me and want the best for me. i thank god as often as i think of it for blessing me with such an amazing freshman experience at alabama. roll tide. 

here i have compiled a list of the year's highlights (at least those i could think of off the top of my head). they might make sense to you, but maybe not. enjoy decoding... 

tri kappa chi

b-stud

riverwood presbyterian church

the riverwalk

band parties. swing dancing. 

chicago marathon

rose towers

sigma chi rave swap

xo homecoming dance competition

alabama dominated auburn

old bryce

xo tacky christmas

double bird strike

how i met your mother

chi omega initiation... finally (coffin and all)

epic weekend at mallie's mountain house

13th street

game night... specifically taboo

brett dennen/erin mccarley concert

myers-briggs personality test

ato formal in nola

pulling all nighters... gorgas to rodgers to panera 

i'm on a boat

vero beach, florida

navigators

climbing the silo

adam naylor and i have to same birthday!!

discovering dave matthews... and my first dave concert

sitting on the front steps of gorgas

... and many, many more!

in closing, there are two people i would like to specifically shout out. there are so many people who have made an impact on my life this year and have been there for me through the good and the bad. but tonight katie kallam and elizabeth price are the lucky recipients of a blog shout out. 

katie k and i have known each other since elementary school. we have always had a special bond because we share the greatest name ever, but this year katie has become my best friend. she really is my other half; we balance each other out. we have lived together all year, and yet i can't think of one fight we have had. she loves me, listens to me, knows everything about me, and most importantly puts up with me. i can't wait for round 2 next year! what am i going to do all summer without her? i love you, katie.

lizzy, on the other hand, i met for the first time on pref night during rush in the chi omega house. she is by far the best thing chi o has done for me! i feel like i have known her forever, and i know that she genuinely cares about me. we talk about anything and everything, and i love that. even more importantly, she has been an incredible example to me of what a christian is. she has become irreplaceable in my life. oh and we have become convinced over the course of the year that we are actually sisters. can't you see the resemblance? thank you for everything, liz. i love you and cannot wait to spend the summer with you in vermont!

yours... for the last time as a freshman,

b

p.s. the title of this blog post is a quote from my new favorite website... textsfromlastnight.com... read it. love it. 

Before we're changing like the seasons in our dreams..

Ok, around finals time, I'm always looking for new means of procrastination. One of my favorite methods of avoiding work is reading other people's blogs. I find myself frustrated when no one seems to be updating, but then I realized that I hadn't yet blogged this week. So, for all of you out there looking to procrastinate, this one's for you.

Summer this year is a paradox for me. Let's look at this from both sides. On the one hand, it cannot get here fast enough. I'm so sick of classes, schedule, and work. I yearn for my front porch with a good book and a rockin' summer playlist. I want to sleep until I wake up and then catch up on Top Chef in the bonus room. I want to go to the pool and read Entertainment Weekly. I want to go to the beach with my family and play Monopoly and eat M&Ms. I want to get thrown out of my comfort zone to minister to the people of Haiti. I want to catch up with old friends and sit outside the Starbucks by Fresh Market on a humid night. I'm three finals and four days away from this bliss.

Then again, there are things I don't want summer to bring with it. I don't want summer to take Katie to Vermont and Margaret to California and Sarah to Africa. I don't want to move out of my dorm room in Riverside and the memories it holds. I feel like I'm just getting moved in. I don't want to admit to myself that my freshman year of college is over, and I'm three years away from the terrifying precipice of real life. I don't want to be separated from the people that I see everyday. I don't want my friends who are juniors to become my friends who are seniors and then go off and leave me. I don't want to experience withdraws from Jimmy John's, Pita Pit, and Bento. I'll miss watching shows on a Monday night at 13th Street. I'll actually miss not planning every hour of my day and working towards a goal.

But then there's next year. The summer will end, and I'll be sad to see it go. The fall will come and it will be exciting and familiar and busy. I'll be ready for schedule and something to keep me busy, but until then I'm left feeling nostalgic and sentimental and antsy as I should be studying.

So there you have it. A paradox within my personality. What else is new, though? I am a self-proclaimed walking contradiction. Here's to summer and an awesome freshman year. 

That was cathartic.

Happy Studying,

Katie K.

Your clothes never wear as well the next day, and your hair never falls in quite the same way

I tivoed Regis and Kelly the other day. Does that make me an old woman?

You start to think of these things when you turn 19 and realize that you only have ONE YEAR left as a teenager. If you know me at all, you know I absolutely LOVE birthdays. It's like your own personal holiday. Growing up, my mom always made a big deal out of them with the "It's Your Special Day" plate with waffles for breakfast, opening up an outfit to wear to school that day, and planning a fun party with all your friends. So, because I grew up learning this mentality, I make a ridiculously big deal out of my own birthday as well as those around me. Seriously, countdowns are involved.

This birthday, I was disappointed to see that my birthday fell on the same day as rush workshop. This was multiplied by the fact that my 18th birthday was spent at Panhellenic weekend, so that's two years in a row that sorority has overtaken my birthday. I had planned for my parents to come for dinner and figured that we would just get a group of whoever could come over to Hill and Graham's Saturday night to watch a movie. Little did I know that my amazing friends were planning a surprise party for me.

What we all learned from this weekend is that I am a difficult person to surprise. I feel terrible for making it so hard for Katie and Margaret to make this thing happen. I guess I just like knowing what the plans are or just go ahead and make my own. Either way (and it's mostly Ben's fault), I figured out that there was something cooking for Saturday night. We had planned a wonderful girl dinner, after which I was going to see Thoroughly Modern Millie (which was excellent, btdub). After, the show, I called Katie and she told me they were "about to pop in a movie." and would wait for me to start it. Ok, I KNEW there was a surprise party at this point. So, I got to 13th Street and acted shocked as my friends popped out of Robert's old room and attacked me with silly string (which Hill loved).

While I may not have been completely surprised, I still loved my birthday celebration. I felt so blessed to look around that house and see the people that I loved come out to celebrate with me. The strangest part was to think that on my last birthday, I didn't even know most of those people. And now they're some of my best friends. It was a wonderful birthday.

I always get the feeling like I'm going to cry around 10 o'clock on my birthday. I don't know if it's because I feel so loved or if I'm sad that my birthday is over, or if I'm nostalgic for the past. But it never fails, year after year.

So, another birthday a success. I have a very exciting next two weeks. Bring on the summer!

ATOh crap i suck at tennis

i humiliated myself today. i'm not really sure if i have friends anymore.

so today there was a little philanthropy tennis tournament hosted by the alpha tau omega fraternity called ATOpen. will debell pulled this event together and did a wonderful job. props debell. now you may be wondering why i am blogging about this. the fact that i am not athletic is probably running though your head right about now. and yes while you are correct about that, i am a stupid, nonathletic person. here it is...

elizabeth price and shane crawford were signed up to play doubles. unfortunately, lizzy had a conflict at the last minute, so being the friend that i am to both liz and shane, i stepped up to the plate. however, that was one plate i should not have stepped up to. my thought process consisted of one thought, " Tennis, how hard can that be?" in hind sight, that was most definitely not the right thought to be having! 

shane and i show up today trying to be upbeat about the whole situation. however, i must not have been doing a very good job of relaying that on my face because the first thing cal said to me when i walked up was, "wow, you look nervous!" he was correct about that, but my nerves soon turned to anger when i found out we were playing thomas gore and partner. that pairing was debell's one mistake, and an epic one it was. t-gore's prof pic on facebook is him playing tennis... says it all right there. from that point on, my ATOpen experience was a blur of tennis balls whizzing right by me and robert's shameless laughter.

we got worked. in an effort to lift my spirits post-match, shane said, "at least you only got hit with the tennis ball twice." and there concludes my story.

i am now going to take this opportunity to brag about my little sister. i know yall may not know her, but you probably should. her name is holly, and she is pretty cool. we are kinda exactly opposite which at times can be very funny. we have our ups and downs, but in the end, she is my sister. consequently, i am stuck with her. 

i bring her up in this blog post because she plays tennis... and is actually capable of hitting the ball over the net. she is capable of a lot more than that. just this past week, she won both singles and doubles sectionals! i was clearly unsuccessful at channelling holly's tennis skillz today. anyhoodle, i am so very proud of her and have included some pictures to praise her just a wee bit more...

oh and no she does not have a tumor on her hip. that's just an extra tennis ball. apparently that's the place to put them if you are legit. 

that's my girl...

about to kick butt!

doubles champs in da house

and this one is just for kicks and giggles

(we look nothing alike...i know)

signed,

holly's big sister

sweet you rock and sweet you roll

this blog post is a follow up to my easter/cat throwing up post. for those that enjoyed that story, you are bound to enjoy this one too.

it's thursday afternoon. i am laying on the front steps of gorgas library. jane, matt, grahm, kyle, and i are having an impromptu navs get together. we are in deep conversation about how we are all neglecting schoolwork in order to enjoy the gorgeous weather when suddenly i feel something wet and goopy land perfectly on my foot. scared to look, i begin to use process of elimination to figure out what it is. is it a rain drop? no, there is not a cloud in the sky. did someone spit on me? no, no one would ever do that. it had to be... no way, that's gross... wait, yes it is indeed... bird poop. that's right, a flippin' bird crapped on me. i'm not sure what i did to mother nature to turn her against me, but it must have been bad. first the cat puke; now the bird mess... i don't even want to think about what's next!

enjoying the rain,

b

p.s. the title of this post has absolutely nothing to do with the whole poop on my foot scenario. i'm just real pumped about dave matthews... tomorrow! now that is all. 

Maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me..

Studying is borrrring. I simply cannot do it anymore. I refuse. I'm giving it up cold turkey. Ok, I'm just taking a blogging break. 

Last night can only be described as epic. It began with a group movie, simple enough, and morphed into a free Matthew Mayfield concert, and a legendary IHOP experience. I love it when you start a Friday night with no idea what you're going to do and it turns out to be an awesome, memorable night. I especially love the friends that I am able to share these experiences with. They make it worth it. Ah, college. 

Also to be noted is the marvelous game that Ben, Sarah, Yates, and I played on the way from the Bama Theatre to 13th Street. Here's how it goes: you put your iPod on shuffle and yell out different description of what the next song will be before the title pops up. For example, "Theme Song of (insert your favorite couple here)!" then you go to the next song and it's their theme song. A lot of the time the song is a little too fitting for comfort, other times it is ironically hilarious. The crazier you get with the categories, the better. Either the way, the game brings joy to all involved. I wish I could remember some of the best ones from last night.

I hope tonight goes something like last night, because I need something fun to pull me out of my study funk all day.

Hey, actually blogged twice before Katie blogged again! This must be some kind of a record.

Now a President's Mansion expert,

Katie K.