making lemonade

i missed a lot while i was in my recruitment-world

and darn it if i didn't miss BLOG DAY!

i've been in soro world for the past 2 weeks, in case you couldn't tell.

pardon moi.

did y'all know i'm taking french now? yeah, it's soundin' REAL GOOD with my long saint louis aaa's and my slight southern twang.

anyway.

we're done with recruitment, yay! bid day was today and we got some BEYOND AWESOME girls! they are super cute and sweet and kind and so excited to be here, and i'm so glad they are because i wish i could be doing it all over again. the sisterly bonding and girl-time has be AMAZING this past weeks, but i won't lie... i need some male interaction.

not anything sketchy, no no no, just to talk/be around some testosterone. at some point you've bonded all you can, and you need to take a lil break.

tomorrow is labor day, so we don't have classes, and we don't have any soro stuff to be at, soooo i kinda don't know what to do with myself. for a long time it's been tri delta on the brain, we have ate drank and slept rush, every time i look at the clock it's only a countdown till "rollcall".

no rollcall tomorrow though! nowhere to be, nothing to do! i get a free day!

i'll probably do something super exciting to celebrate...

...like laundry and homework.

frankly, it's amazing we still have power

the only sound i can hear is that of blow dryers. it's unbelievable we haven't blown a fuse with all the drying and curling and straightening tools we have plugged in. walking through the suites in the house is like a scene from a sorority girl parody, everyone is up and showered and preparing themselves for the second and some would say most important day of rush.

this is the most fun- although it's also the most nerve-wrecking and the most tiring! it wouldn't be as much fun if we didn't do well last night, but we were all on our a game as they say, and the greatest girls we talked to are all coming back today!

this weekend is go go go, and now is finally my turn to hop in the shower, but i didn't wanna leave the blog up all weekend without an update!

....cause i know most of y'all are just DYING to see how it's going! ;)

i've been found out

i'm gonna like not having morning classes on thursdays. today i got to sleep in, talk to my mama on the phone, take my sweet time getting showered and dressed, blog-hop and now i'm blogging!

oh, did i say i got to sleep in? i should have said i tried to sleep in. steffie ran in at 9:15 screaming "YOU'RE FAMOUS! YOU'RE FAMOUS! LOOK HERE!!" and throwing herself on my bed she 1. scared the crap out of me and 2. proceeded to point out that my blog was listed in a magazine.

i have to admit, i didn't really mind too much that steffie interuppted my dream about a cute football player (although i was enjoying that) because i'm just glad she can do that now.

so, y'all know i'm a sorority girl. a tri delta to be exact. well, there is an offical tri delta magazine that comes out quarterly called The Trident. this last one did a small story about tri deltas who blog. (there is an awesome one called "What Would Sarah Say", as in Sarah Ida Shaw, our founder.) on the side next to the featured blogs and the article itself, was a VERY SMALL list of "more blogging sisters". there, among 17 other girls, was hannahgray.typepad.com.

on one hand this is very exciting! perhaps people will read that and run to their computers in excitement and check out all 17 of those blogs! (hahahahaha- so very doubtful.) on the other hand, it's kinda weird that they found me. i know i mention tri delta on this site, and there is a photo album of it on this page, but how weird to think that someone working at The Trident did an internet search and found my blog, read it, and decided to put it in their magazine.

huh.

they could be reading this now! um, hi tri delta national? hope you're having a good day?

who am i kidding, that was work-related. and no one EVER blogs or reads blogs AT WORK, right?

right y'all?

...

fun new things

as i've told you before, there is a little more HG than i would like there to be. (you know what i'm sayin'?) i'm actively trying to "get healthy". besides dragging my rump to the gym 3 days a week at 7am and taking long walks with friends in the evenings, and besides eating healthy foods and taking vitamins and all that jazz, i've made a few lifestyle changes.

isn't that fun? not a diet, a lifestyle change.

sounds like a magazine for post-menopausal women.

i would like to share with y'all the 2 purchases that have changed the way i live. first...

i jumped on this bouncing bandwagon. instead of sitting on a grumpy old chair at my desk, i've replaced it with a stability ball. this should improve posture and work my abdominals, obliques, etc.

let's be honest though, i got it because i like to bounce. so far it's been phenomenally fun.

second i got this...

 i. am. obsessed. with. this. waterbottle.

obsessed.

this thing has changed my life. The Roommate has one with her all the time and last week when she was sipppin on it i tried it and immediately had to run out with Stef and get one. i can't truely explain what makes it so great, but i'm pretty certain it's in the straw. the straw makes you wanna drink more and more water. and, unlike my (beloved) nalgene, it's BPA free. it's amazing. go get one today.

the only downside is i have to tee tee all day long.

so i'm on the path to healthy living!  do any of y'all have tricks that help you eat better/workout more/drink more water/etc? please share!

i've missed y'all!

i never realized how much i appreciated the blog world until this week when i was pretty much cut off from it. it's a nice escape to get away from your reality and pop into other people's lives! my mac is giving me issues with the internet right now,  so i can't do my methodical bookmarked blog-hopping (i need to set up google reader!) until i get that fixed (now! fix it now!).

anyway- update.

this weekend i had the stomach flu, so i spent saturday with my head in a toilet. tmi? yeah sorry. classes started monday which went well besides the whole my-ordered-books-haven't-come-in-yet situation. oh, and the no-stinking-internet situation.  oh oh, and the one-of-my-profs-is-from-china-and-i-have-no-idea-what-he's-saying situation. but other than that.

for the most part my classes seem good. only time will tell if i'll be getting another-one-of-these situations. i'll admit that i'm a little too excited to be going to the office supply store tomorrow to pick out the things i need for my classes. lord have mercy i love school supply shopping. other than that this week is more rush prep, and this weekend it commences.

question to all y'all; has your blog(/your big mouth) ever gotten you in trouble?

do you love how i say "all y'all" when what i really mean is "all 3 of you"?

i'm popular here at making lemonade.

i for real miss you all! i can't wait to get back onto all of your blogs and catch up. i hope you are having a great week!

told you it was cute

that's not even all of it! i designed it and it was made by the lovely and talented Terri Allen (you've heard me mention her fabulousness about 500 times now i know) for a queen bed in and apartment but i ended up with a twin in the sorority house. the bedding came cause please, that stuff is too adorable to leave at home, so there are a ton of extra pillows. but who is gonna complain about extra pillows?

i'm a show suite, so girls giving tours of the house during RUSH, YES I SAID IT, will be stopping by my room. i'm pretty confident my bedding will be the main reason we get the best pledge class on the row.

just kidding!

(but really.)

besides being incredibly busy and exhausted, work week is going well. i missed these girls so, so much. i was born to do this, i really was. i love being here.

i feel lucky and blessed to have been welcomed back by these girls after i left so abruptly. i know everyone probably says this about their houses but my sisters really are fantastic- they are great leaders, smart, loving, funny, beautiful, unique women.

that's what i love most about this house. i can be exactly who i am and be loved and encouraged to be just that and anything else i want to be. i am encouraged here.  

OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH SORORITY TALK! GOODNESS GRACIOUS!

i've been too busy to be homesick, which is good cause that will set in soon and the longer i can put that off the better. i've been too busy to think about classes starting which is not so good cause i need to set up a study plan and gather my books. heck, i've been too busy to eat (which has great for my waistline)!

paige is my sweet and wonderful roommate. even though we were SO TIRED the first night we got here from moving in and starting work week, we stayed up almost all night talking and getting to know each other better. i love her.

except when she wakes me up to go running at 6am every day.

then, not so much.

please excuse the lack of posts

it's that time of year again. that's right ladies and gentleman, r-u-s-h.

i'm spelling it because we're supposed to call it "FORMAL SORORITY RECRUITMENT" or something ridiculous and impartial like that. there are so many rules to these next two weeks it makes my head spin. and my time will be taken up by the organization that i so dearly love in these rule-laided weeks, so please excuse the lack of posts. i PROMISE you i will post pictures of my uhhhhdorable bedding and room/roommate (love her!) very soon. or when i have time. whichever comes first as i'm pretty sure they're mutually exclusive.

well, i'm going back downstairs to do TOP SECRET SUPER IMPORTANT FORMAL SORORITY RECRUITEMENT things (aka move furniture and talk about boys).

happy sunday!

"ain't nothin' real about me but my heart"

i don't care what anyone says, i love this woman.

anyone who can look that good at 62 has got it going on. besides being fabulous, she's an incredibly gifted songwriter (helloooo, "and i will always love you"?? anyone?? who DOESN'T like that song?) and last night at the concert (oh yes, i went to see dolly parton live in concert.) she played just about every instrument known to man. and all of the instruments had sparkles on them. 

i ask you, what's not to love?

she was a funny little firecracker, too. making jokes between songs that had me peeing in my velvet-covered seat. and she repeated 2 of her trademark quotes for us. 

"thank y'all for coming out and spending your hard earned money on me! i need it! i've said it before and i'll say it again, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap!"

she made a crack about seeing 2 drag-queens in the audience in detroit, "they looked just like me only 8 feet tall!" she's true to herself and grounded. she has a sense of humor about everything, including her plasticity.

"anything thats saggin' baggin' or draggin' i'm gonna have it nipped, tucked or sucked"

and of course she poked fun at her boobs every chance she got. she may look trashy but she owns that shit. you gotta love her for that. she is unapologetically herself, and i really admire that in people. 

she strutted her tiny frame around stage in her high heels, huge hair and sequenced dress singing with the most powerful set of lungs i've ever witnessed on a human. her voice is high and clear and she sang each song as if it was the first time. her voice could cut glass with it's clarity. she did some old numbers (9 to 5, jolene and the like), some rock and roll, but also did some incredible a cappella folk songs. she really knows how to entertain.

because of the classy broad i am, i begged stefanie to go with me to DOLLY PARTON'S DIXIE STAMPEDE when we took our day trip to the middle missouri outlet mall. she vetoed.  

little does she know that instead of going back to college on saturday, when she gets in my car i'm going to drive off to Pigeon Forge, Tennesse. what's in pigeon forge, you may ask?

DOLLYWOOD.

the animals will miss me

sooo i've kind of taken over the living room.
today i started a major "dump and regroup". i think this is necessary in all aspects of life, really. like when your purse becomes far too full and you just gotta turn it upside down on your bed and sort through all the junk you've accumulated in there.

sometimes you need to dump and regroup your thoughts. this can happen several different ways, but my favorite usually includes a dear friend, an vent session, perhaps some good old fashioned ridiculous and unnecessary crying, and ice cream. it varies though. sometimes instead of ice cream it's cheese.

i'm a sucker for cheese.

anywho, i'm dumping and regrouping my life as we know it. i have to evaluate what needs to go back to school with me and what needs to stay. i was promised an on-campus apartment but that has fallen through (grrr) so my at school storage abilities are extremely limited. thus, the mess.

i'm convinced gracie can tell i'm leaving. today she plopped down in the middle of the mess and wouldn't budge.
how could you do this to me, human? you're the only one who understands the cuteness of my black yips.
no. i can't even look at you.

oh graceface. i'll miss you too.

i started loading up my car. yes yes i know it's a wee bit early (cough 3 days cough) but i tend to be slightly (read: really very) OCD, and i like things to be organized and, well, done.

it looks as if someone has snuck in!

maybe if i sit real still, she won't see me.

oh graceface. you're not fooling anyone. come on outta there.
come on grace, out.

grace. gracie may! get out! come!
and even if you were going, you're sitting the wrong way. dumb dog.

woof?


i'm not even halfway done packing my stuff yet. crap.

but look how cute those pillows are!! love that bedding made by Terri Allen @ Pinch Me Designs, i will def post more pictures of that when i get it all set up.

well, better get back to work...
not you too, cat!

secret life of the american teenager

has anyone else seen (and/or become addicted to) this show? i don't care what anyone says, abc family is always cranking out the hits. i love their fake, cheesy, lame, dramatic, time-wasting shows. this is uncovering one of my secret guilty pleasures...i'll admit it; i enjoy and indulge in bad television.

i've started watching this show only because it was on one day in place of gilmore girls (sigh. i love the gilmore girls.) and since then i've kind of paid more attention, but i'm not really sure how i feel about it.

of course the material has got abc family skating on thin ice. it was rather bold for them to create a show with such a dicey topic. i don't think it's the place of a television station to educate young minds about their secret lives and the consequences. period.

do teenagers these days live this life? do they talk about their secret lives in between classes and have relations at band camp?? i turned to my 17 year old sister for answers.

"this show is NOT like real life AT ALL" she said. but when i asked her flat out if her friends talk about having secret lives (i'm assuming y'all get what i'm talking about by now...) she said "well, yes."

and then i asked her if someone she knew has had a pregnancy scare.

her voice got quiet. "umm, yes."

well then. i guess it's more true to life than she thought. take away the bad acting (and boy, is it bad) and the drama and the overall 7th heaven feel to the show, and that's a pretty real plot line.

"yeah, but it's unrelateable. my friends aren't like that." she retorted, wanting nothing in common with the show she called "really stupid" when she walked in the room (but then proceeded to sit and watch with me for the length of the entire show).

well of course not. her friends probably fall into more categories than 1. extremely promiscuous girl or 2. badly portrayed innocent close-minded christian girl and i doubt all the boys she knows think of nothing other than secretly living 24/7.

opinion formulated; fail.

it's not the job of abc family to educate teens and if that's what they are trying to do (which at points it does, like at the end of a show when the main character encourages talking to parents and visiting informational websites) they're really doing a terrible job at it. perhaps someone else could have pulled off this plot line and agenda more effectively (and more entertainingly), but from the creator of 7th hevean just comes another teen-soap drama, only this time perpetuating the stereotypes of "american teenagers" and christians.

hold up, the 13 year old sister has condoms?? oh wait- now Amy's dad just threatend to KILL a 17 year old boy. awesome.

this is a show where a man called the sausage king is the most rational of all the adults.

yet i can't. turn. away.

good thing micheal phelps is on, or i would have no hope.

but i agree with her, let's keep the secret life a secret.