Sunday, March 25, 2012

Such lovely people...

I have been able to do so many things with such lovely people lately. Let me just say first off that I think Daringside is wonderful! What or who is Darlingside you might ask, well Darlingside is a newer band that is starting to get their name out more. I got to see them play earlier this month and they are fabulous!
Surround - Darlingside
(the sound quality of this isn't the greatest, so you should probably go buy the album)
I love their music style and they band members are really down to earth and fun to talk with.
They were performing in the basement of an art building. Such a perfect venue!

Getting ready for the show.




I took my three youngest siblings out for an afternoon of skating and fun treats. The littlest one is 7 and has never been on smooth ice before (they skate on the swamp in the winter!) so he was falling all over the place! The first thing he asked when he got on was if there was a machine to make the ice so smooth. He was in awe of everything. We went across the street to Price Chopper and bought some snacks to munch on for the ride home.
He thought the individual Ben & Jerry's ice cream was the best and got it all over his face!

I've decided to make an effort to be more active and try to eat a little more healthy meals. I like to run so I've been doing that lately, but my friend invited me to go hiking with her and a couple other friends. We set off at the bottom mt. Anton at Merck Forest, VT., and made it to the top surprisingly quickly considering it was really steep. Coming back down we took some different trails which ended up being rather entertaining since we weren't exactly sure where we were going sometimes. We charted the hike after and found we had hiked about 6 miles and our legs were not very happy with us! The rest of the day we tried to do things that required minimal movement...at least with our legs.
We could see for miles at the top

Here's the group photo at the top. And, no, my friend an I didn't coordinate the plaid shirts.


I recently found out that one of my very good friends had never been skating in her life! Shocked and appalled by this information, I set a date to kidnap her and teach her how to skate. The first time we ended up sitting on the couch and watching Disney Princess movies all day. (Which, if you're not going to go skating, vegging out to Disney movies is a good way to spend the day.) But the second try was more successful. By the end of the afternoon, I got her to skate around the rink without touching the sides at all...so proud of her! ;)
Since she and I are both fairly tall (5'8" - 5' 9") we generally don't wear high heels....ever. So whenever we go to the mall we have to stop at a shoe store and wobble around on the tallest heels we can find. We're actually not too bad considering we never wear them!
The silver ones where completely covered in glitter.

Monday, March 19, 2012

March Comes in Like a Lion...

Every once in a while that phrase applies to the month and this March was one of those times for us. March first rolled around and with it came the first real snow fall we've had since October! My excitment was soon subdued when I realized my school was the only one in the state (ok, maybe not the state, but pretty darn close) that wasn't closing for a snow day. The funny thing is that for up-state NY, a 6 - 8" snow fall like we had is a normal event most winters, and most schools wouldn't think of closing for that little bit. But because schools hadn't been giving out snow days due to the lack of snow, they were ready to give them out now. Needless to say, not many people showed up for classes. I think the largest class I had that day was maybe 8 people in my Lit to Film class, which is normally one of the bigger classes I have.
Zeph helped me shovel out the van before I left.

I love country roads.

The drive to school was beautiful.

I love it when the snow sticks to all the branches.

When I got to school, I ran into the field house to get ready for volleyball, only to find that I was only one of two students who showed up for it! So we spent a couple hours passing and serving to each other... my bruised arms weren't very happy with me after that.

I love this weird thing hanging from the ceiling.

The windows are tinted shades of green, blue and a light purple-ish and its looks really cool when the light comes through the colors.

I spent my break reading, eating Nutter Butters and watching the snow fall.

It was kind of nice to be on campus when there weren't many people around and everything was so quiet. But I was glad to get home and be cozy under blankets with some hot tea and a good book.

The snow can make the campus look so pretty sometimes.

Monday, March 5, 2012

URL change

Just a quick update to say that I changed my URL. Still the same blog and whatnot, but it's easier to have the blog title and URL be the same. Just so you know. Have a happy day :)

Friday, March 2, 2012

Honoring the Men and Women in Uniform Before They Leave Us

 Last weekend my best friend who goes to school in P.A. texted me and told me she was coming home that weekend. At first I was delighted about this unexpected visit, assuming she would of course make time to play with me at some point, but my little bubble of happiness was popped when she told me the reason; her grandfather who had been struggling with multiple health issues for years and had been in the hospital for the last several months had passed away, and she was coming home for the funeral.
  I went to the funeral because, though I hardly knew her grandfather, her family fondly refers to me as their adopted daughter/sister and I wanted to be there for them. My friend came up to me as soon as the service was over and asked me to spend the night with her, the following morning was the burial and it was also her birthday, so I agreed to stay over. After that every chance they got, my friend or her sisters would come up to me and give me a hug, sometimes holding on for several minutes, I wished so hard that there was a way to take away their pain, but all I could do was hug tight and wait it out.
  We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking about one thing and then another until we were so emotionally and physically exhausted that our eyes finally shut. We realized when we glanced in the mirror the next morning that staying up until 2:30 am is not the best idea if you have to be out the door by 9:15 the following day, but it was nothing that a cup of tea and a dab of make-up couldn’t help with. J
  The burial service took place at a beautiful memorial cemetery for veterans. I’ve been there before because my own Grandfather has a memorial stone there, and it is one of the most incredible places. To see row after row of headstones honoring the men and women who defended our country is completely indescribable. The service was beautiful. There were two young men from the navy (My friends grandfather was in the navy when he was younger) who took the flag off the coffin, folded it and presented it to my friends grandmother. There were three shots fired by older veterans and then another played taps on his bugle, the shells from the shots were also presented to the grandmother and all the service men saluted as the casket was rolled away. It was one of the most unforgettable things I have ever experienced. It reminded me how much we should honor the men and women who serve our country before they leave us. I wanted so badly after that to search for my grandfather’s memorial site, but its was frigid out, so we all piled back into the cars and headed home.
  When we all got settled back at the house, I was told I had to get everyone in a happy mood so we could celebrate my friends birthday now. After a while, everyone was in the party mood and we had a lovely time eating food, playing games, eating cake, opening gifts, and eating more food (sensing the theme?) with friends and family. I didn’t even get back to my house until around 11pm that night…and that when I realized I had two tests the next day in school that I hadn’t gotten a chance to study for. Ah, well, gotta love cram sessions!