I cried today. Twice. Or was it three times. Who's counting anyway? It'll probably happen again a few more times this weekend.
I have always been a person who gets attached to a place. This place has been no exception. In fact, it's been stronger here than other places like, say, ole Riverside.
It started like this: I was in my car at the corner in front of Subway, on my way to get Amy for lunch. It is a beautiful day. I start looking around (for those who don't know--my family readers--this intersection has a prime view of campus) and thinking about how awesome Clemson is. It suddenly hits me that when I go to Washington I won't be here (brilliant realization, I know). Then I start thinking about all the people I won't see for 3 months. Mom, and Dad, and Shelly, and Julie, and Chris, and Paul. Let's not even mention that I might not see Amy until Thanksgiving except for one day. Yeah. And there's the whole graduating thing.
So I start tearing up. by the time I reach Amy's dorm, tears are just streaming down my face and I have to ask her to bring a kleenex with her when she comes down. So yeah. I get it together, start telling her why I was crying, and end up crying again. THEN we get to lunch and I say a prayer really quick and we both tear up over that. So, it's just been one seriously drippy day.
So there. Thought I'd share.

being a senior for a little longer

Who knew that I could find the time to post on here again before school let out?!
I am contemplating the best means of sharing with you. I think I'll use the usual photo thing.

Jess was with us for Easter. Thought I'd share a cute easter picture with you really quick. Don't we all look fabulous?Next we have my major awards (they didn't give me a leg lamp!). First there's dad with his fabulous girls. Mom will not be appearing in photos since, as usual, she is behind the camera. Mad props to mom. We took advantage of a beautiful day on campus to take a few pictures. Clemson really is such a beautiful place. (see sam? the girls in Clemson ARE good looking...wait...those are your cousins. well, there are others...promise!)Winner of a major award. Or two. The first was the Gilbert C. Robinson Award. It's an award for excellence in Ceramic Engineering and the ability to apply scientific principles in a laboratory setting. Essentially, it's an award where they say "hey, we think you have potential. we're telling you. now go and use it." I also received the Material Advantage Service Award (previously known by accident as the Laura Marie Burka Service Award) which is an award for service to the department. It was a busy day. I had quite the fan club there for me. It seems that I'm quite popular. Among a very small crowd, of course... There was an Orange & White game. It actually came before the award thing, but this is my blog and I can post pictures in whatever order I want. Jess and Becca and I went to that for a little while. We were supposed to look unhappy because Chris couldn't be there. Or something like that. He was taking his big test, so he had to miss all the fun.

We also went and got funnel cakes with David. There was a big festival with a carnival and everything and I had a craving for something bad for me. So we got a ginormous funnel cake.
Keramos seniors! We had our Keramos (the ceramics honor fraternity) initiation the other night. We actually had a good number of people there. But yeah, John and Mark and I are graduating (I know, you're very sad).
The whole group. We had four initiates, so most of this group is officers and members. The new officers are all girls. Except Alex. I think he planned it that way.
Jess and Stephanie sat across from me at trivia night. We always go to trivia after initiation. Our team name is the Porcelain Gods. We actually got second place this time. Yay for us! It's the best place in the history of Keramos going to trivia night. I think. We got a gift certificate which will be going into the pool to help pay for trivia next time there's an initiation, and we got a t-shirt, which will be going into the glass case in the hallway of our building.
I hope you're ready to see more of these people, because we have a picnic tonight. I'm going to Jenna's shower after that (yay!), then it's a nice slow weekend of working on projects. woo.

in the home stretch

Well, I'm in the home stretch. Every teacher is doing one of two things: either they are aware of the fact that we are seniors and no longer care and are thus slacking off as well or, the more common option, they don't care one bit if we're seniors or not and are trying to give us a much work as possible. Mind you, it seems that, in my major, we never get swamped at the same time as everyone else. So while everyone else is going nuts this week, we went nuts last week and will go nuts again next week and the next.
Funny though, my social calendar is much more crowded than my academic calendar. There are like a million things to go to at the end of the year. Plus, being a senior means EXTRA stuff. There's an award ceremony on Sunday afternoon, followed by a reception for my department. Big enough that mom and dad are coming to town for it. Saturday is Chris' FE exam (EIT for you who might recognize that name better. same thing), so he's going nuts studying for it. For those of us lucky enough to be in the one engineering discipline without a section on the FE, there is the Orange and White football game on Saturday. There are also baseball games all weekend. There is some banquet I've been asked to go to and will hopefully be able to avoid. There are end of year concerts the next two weeks. I have a recital myself on the last Sunday in April. Right at the beginning of exam week, I'm supposed to be playing a piece that I don't even have learned yet. Right. There's Paul's percussion ensemble and other events I've promised people I would attend. My church has asked all of the seniors to be present for both services on the Sunday of exam week (recital day!) so they can recognize us. I have a physics test that last week of classes. Take home, I think. My department loves take home tests.
During all of this, I have to keep my regular work hours. I also have to clean and clear my room so that there is space for Amy to live in there this summer while I'm in Washington. I'm pretty excited about Washington, but nervous still. I've got to apply for my apartment so that I can have somewhere to live. As soon as that is settled, I will feel a lot better about it.
Just wanted to share about the next month. Hope everyone else's month is a little less crazy for them.
Graduation is on Friday, May 9 at 9:30 am for those who need to know. I sent out announcements today, so you'll probably be seeing one shortly. Talk to the boss lady (mom) if you are planning on coming.