my lips taste like cream soda

Seriously. My lips taste like cream soda. We have been saving our dum dum wrappers (we go through a LOT of them) and sending off for dum dum stuff. Our lip glosses came today, so we passed them out and I got cream soda.

I'm completely and utterly exhausted. I think I'll hold off on writing this post until I can think straight. Especially considering how many spelling mistakes I'm having to correct here...
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Break's Over!

I am STILL so tired I can't think straight, but I wanted to finish this post. I at least have food in my system. And now I'm watching Donnie Darko. Should go well with the fact that I'm already kinda nuts at the moment. Haven't seen this one in forever. Ooh! I need to upload pictures so I can put up a slideshow. BRB!
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So BRB was like 2 hours. It takes a while to collect and edit 6 months worth of photos. So this afternoon, I left work and went to Chris', then headed over to pick up Ozaria. She and I rocked some Michael Jackson (PYT!) on the way to the park, where we read our book, then played some football (man that girl has an arm. nearly took my head out), then I took her home.

Anyhoo, I just got back from Pittsburgh, where I was at the MS&T 2009 Conference. Before I get to that, perhaps I'll mention the rest of the semester and the summer. Julie Andrews always says let's start at the very beginning.

At the end of the school year, we had a church picnic down by the lake. Great fun, that. Got some awesome pictures of some friends. Slideshow!


Amy and I joined the official church softball team fan club again this year. Amy made a sign that said "good hustle" on it, because that's what we say when they're losing. It's a joke. Also in this batch, picture from the Fourth and from MRS volunteering in downtown Greenville.


Out of the blue, Mom and Chris and I decided to join Aunt Rose, Uncle Paul, G-ma, G-pa, Zach, Stacy, Wendy, and Andrew at the Outer Banks for a few days over the weekend of my birthday. Quite fun. Got to be all lazy and get a tan and I made myself a sandcastle birthday cake with the assistance of Chris and the verbal engineering advice from G-pa. Because, of course, it had to be a perfectly engineered castle with water added at the right times. Before that, we went to the Wright Brothers Nat'l Memorial. Very cool.


In August, we had a bridal shower for Julie just before the start of school. MRS had a welcome back picnic that was quite a success if you ask me. Football, always awesome. We've had an up-and-down season, but the home games have ALL been rainy. I suppose it's better than sweating like pigs and approaching heat exhaustion, but I don't like being wet and cold either. Maybe this week will be drier.


We had a surprise 40th birthday party for Drew, one of the guys at the lab. It was carnival themed and we had a tiger bouncy house for the occasion. Awesome party.


Julie, my best friend since what seems like forever, but for like 5 years in reality, got married in September. For what it's worth, I approve of Jeff. He rocks, despite the hard time he gives me. I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in this wedding, and it was really amazing to see these two families come together around Jeff and Julie with love and prayer. I already adore Julie's family, who were a complete blast to see again. I have to admit, I was sad to have to go at the end of it all. At least I got to do plenty of dancing! :)


And finally, here's my most recent adventure, my trip to Pittsburgh. As part of my role in the PCSA, I had to attend the conference to be a part of an officers' meeting. I flew up on Saturday and watched Clemson beat Miami on my laptop (actually, I missed the end, but that's not the point), then had dinner with an old friend (thanks Mooch!) in town. I was staying with Victoria and Clair, fellow PCSA-ers, across from the place the Penguins play. Meetings bright and early Sunday morning were surprisingly productive. We "conferenced" Eric in at the crack of dawn in Oregon and got right down to business. Then we sat in on the Volunteer Leadership Meeting, which was an amazing chance to meet people, make ourselves visible, and share what we need from ACerS. It turns out that we were on the same page, but it's always good to say it again, right? Sunday afternoon was the student speaking contest, where a Clemson student got 2nd place. Sunday night, I had dinner with Dr. Ballato and the Clemson undergrads. Pumpkin tortellini. It was muy delicioso. After that was the student mixer. What a blast. When I went to my first MS&T in 2006, nobody danced. Now, EVERYONE dances. Even the president of ACerS. Like I said, we all know I love to bust a move, even if it's a dorky move. Monday was a group tour of Anter Corp., then we went to some talks, followed by a quick break before it was time for the ACerS Honors and Awards Banquet. This year they had a magician or whatever he called himself perform at the end. He supposedly bent a wine glass with his mind. I'm not sure if I believe it. We have the glass though. There's a picture of it somewhere in the slideshow. After the banquet, we had folks over to our hotel to hang out, before we all realized it was 1am. The next morning, I woke up rather annoyingly at 4:30am. I couldn't sleep, so I eventually got up at 6, got bagels, and wandered to the conference center for my morning shift at Mini Materials Camp (I put the mini in mini materials camp!). It's where local students come to see different stations do demos about materials. At our station, we did light and fluorescence demos as well as freezing a bunch of stuff in liquid nitrogen and breaking it, etc. After that, I headed to the airport. I had to get there way early because of my ride's schedule. I spent the time in a variety of ways and then headed to my gate. My plane got moved to another gate, so we went there, at which point our flight was delayed. It was pouring in Atlanta. So we finally took off and I was enjoying a half-nap (I wasn't really asleep), when we started hitting turbulence. Then, half an hour outside ATL, we hit the kind of turbulence that rises and falls. Not fun. I did, however, meet the nicest man, whose daughter is coming to Clemson to work with the Navs next year. And we had an empty seat between us. We FINALLY landed, an hour late, and I went to baggage claim. It was probably half an hour before our bags came out. I kinda contemplated crying in the airport because I was so exhausted and frustrated. Dad picked me up and we headed home in the not very nice rain. I had to stay awake to keep him awake, so I told him stories about the weekend, but I talk fast, so I ran out of stories. Then I turned on the radio and hummed along to stay awake. At one point, I started mumble-singing along to American Pie, only to stop and fall asleep in 10-second spurts, during which I would have a really short dream that was very vivid, and after which I would wake up and start singing again. We made it home at 12:30. Dad probably got home at around 1:15. Poor dad. I ended up having a 20+ hour day. No fun. Slept in this morning, went to work, and here I am. Picture time! I made these bigger...


TTFN! Hopefully I'll post more regularly this year. I do like to blog. I just forget.

This weekend, I'm being a sparkly golden snitch for Halloween. I'm excited. Chris'll be Sheldon.