Richmond, my love.

I got to spend about 48 hours in Richmond and it was wonderful. Although I was sick and confined for most of it, at least I was sick at home. We watched the Redskins game, sat by a fire, and listened to Christmas music.

I went to HOPE on Sunday and it blew me away. I love that place more than I can say.

Oh and I even got to pick out a Christmas tree with my parents and Liza! You can tell that mom and I were obviously helping a whole lot>>


And now I am back in Harrisonburg (sigh) for three more weeks. And what a crazy three weeks it will be. Oh goodness.

thanksgiving. yeah. great.

I wish I could paint you an accurate picture of what happened over this past week. Most of it has felt much like an out-of-body experience. Quite surreal (because of its utter absurdness).

It all started when I got a call from a stressed older sister at 3pm on Tuesday saying that her roommate was leaving for Spain from Richmond in three hours and she forgot her passport in Harrisonburg. And guess who was taking it to her? My gracious older sister Clair. So I jumped into the car with her and we took a very impromptu trip to Charlottesville (an hour away) to meet her dad who was going to take it the other half. We ended up wandering the Downtown Mall and drinking coffee and then made our way to our favorite restaurant in Stauton for a greeeat dinner. Although her roommate was nothing less than an idiot for forgetting her passport, Clair and I had a great time and made the most of it.

We had a little sleepover (me and Clair that is) on Tuesday night because we were, no joke, the only people left at JMU. We woke early and started our journey to Charlotte. It was a good 6 to 7 hours . Yay. At least we had the likes of the new Damien Rice album and new Explosions in the Sky songs to comfort us.

And then we arrived. Immediately, I was nominated to keep record of the compeletely ridiculous quotes that were said throughout our stay. For the honor of those involved, and so that you will not hold a compeletely tainted impression of the rest of my relatives, I have decided to omit said quotes from this update. However, if you heard some of them, I am pretty sure you would either a) laugh hysterically b) be disturbed.

Many of you have heard that one set of my relatives drove their RV down to Charlotte and camped it out in my other cousins driveway. Its the truth. It was quite ironic. My cousin was actually throwing the football in the front yard and heard some passing walkers say "Looks like the rednecks have arrived." They were lovingly referred to as the Clampett's for the duration of our stay....



To shorten this and sum it all up:
Clair got sick for the entire Thanksgiving day. Poor sister.
The highlight of my Thanksgiving day was not only going to Starbucks in the morning, but receiving a festive red cup. I don't know if I should be saddened that that made my day or not....

We ate alot. You're shocked, right?
We had a very posh dinner at the Country Club on friday night where had a private room and even had menus with "Moore Family" written on them. Only if you were there, could you witness the irony of the whole situation.
We left early. Go figure. Me, Annie, and Clair jetted as soon as dinner was through and drove through Friday night.
The entirety of our moods can be summed up by this facial expression:


And that was Thanksgiving. I can officially say I have developed a bitter and cynical view on this holiday. I didn't want it to come to this, but this week finally pushed me over the edge. Oh well. I'm still open to have my opinion reversed, we will just have to see what next year brings.

"A Force to be Reckoned With."

I never regret for a moment that my home is only two hours away from my school. For reasons just like this past weekend. It was my big sisters 21st birthday today, and in her honor, Annie came up for the entire weekend, and my simply-amazing aunt Kat and darling littlest sister Liza came up for the day on Sunday.

Annie and I spent Friday night together hanging out with friends on back decks, and taking walks, and partaking in sisterly conversation about our struggles and frustrations, boys, genuine-ness, relationships, and the ever-forboding future. Yes, it was a great night.

Saturday night was a sleepover at Clair's apartment, in which we consumed obscene amounts of ice cream sundaes AND watched hours and hours of Anne of Green Gables (and subsequently, Anne of Avonlea). Call us losers, go ahead. But I will stand by that it was such a good good night. Check out this sundae...Yes that is ice cream, whipped cream, hot fudge, and raw cookie dough. Its really gross when I think about it...Oh well.



Then on Sunday, the rest of my "other half" came. The four parker girls were together, plus our aunt Kat, who is a mix between sister slash mother slash aunt slash close close friend. The five of us together are pretty much unstoppable. A friend of mine saw us grabbing coffee downtown and he later told me "I was almost intimidated by ya'll. All the parker girls...they seem like a force to be reckoned with." And even though I don't like to think that we scare people away, it was funny. But anyway, we watched the Redskins lose in my dorm room, and even though we were getting slaughtered, it was such a great feeling to watch the game again with my family (its a parker family tradition to watch the skins game every sunday together in the basement, by the fire, under blankets, yelling at the TV and crying over our sad team)>>



We gave Kat and Liza the official James Madison tour. Kat was especially fascinated by the statue of Mr. Madison. Its supposed to be life-size, and maybe people don't know this, but James was a man of quite small stature. Here is Kat against the height of one of our nation's founders>>



And then we had a lovely dinner together and had to part ways. Overall, it was a great weekend. I love my sisters more than people can possibly imagine. And my aunt.

For Brambor:

So i was looking through all my pictures on my computer tonight and for some reason, I had never really noticed this picture before...but its pretty funny (or at least it is for me). We had just said goodbye to the Davis family very tearfully, and to temporarily relieve some of the stress we were messing around with the fountain at the round-about on Americka. Without thinking at all, I stuck my hand in the stream of water, the water deflected and soaked Christa without any warning. This picture is the reaction. Oh well, I thought it was funny, and a good memory. Enjoy Christa, I miss the heck out of you.

A Case of Transatlanticism.

Thursday night was a "tapas locas" party hosted by some of my very closest friends here at J-Maddy. It was quite a suave party for being in college. Usually all parties revolve around some sort of dancing or shallow conversation or awkward mingling, but this one was actually worthwhile. With really good food! Which, for me, is always a big big plus.

On top of that, one miss Lauren Backenstose showed up looking incredibly stylish (big surprise there, she puts everyone to shame in that arena) and we proceeded to walk down memory lane and recall to our good friend Dorathy many of our hilarious and "special" moments in prague, which included but not limited to: someone peeing in their pants, someone peeing in a bush, someone losing their dignity as we ran to the clock (all names omitted for the honor of those involved), and countless others. Poor Dorathy. We went on for a while, and it was great, and I think she found it all to be quite amusing.

I think I am missing Prague more than ever now. I don't know why. Maybe because life is just life now. But I am missing people from all over the world so much my heart hurts. Maybe its just this week that this is happening. Maybe by next week I will be comfortable. Or maybe I never will be. Its hard to tell what is reality and what is fleeting here in the college world. I need discernment.

I have a great time here. It is really wonderful, really it is, but I am aware of the reality that my entire world is not contained within the JMU campus. It is all over this globe. And since I can never be at all of these places at once, I will always live with parts of me here living deeply in the here and now, and parts of me terribly missing the others I cannot be with. Its a tension of a lifestyle but its easier to accept it and keep living, than to live denying that you really do love them, those that are far.



That being said, I went hiking today and it was incredible. We messed around on rocks, looked out over the seemingly boundless mountains, and wore mittens and scarves and enjoyed the clear, but frigid weather. It made my whole body start itching for winter, for snow, for skis, for the slopes with my dad and my lovely sisters. I cannot wait to be out there again. It won't be long, no, especially at this rate of flying time. Before I know it, its going to be Thanksgiving in Charlotte, then home for christmas shopping and fires in the fireplace and christmas songs and family gatherings and all things wonderful about life. I can't wait.

this is the sound of settling.

These past few weeks have been insanity to say the least. After one rough week filled with four midterms and countless other readings and papers and what not, and after being accused of plagarism (yes, i FLIPPED out and everything is worked out now) and an overabundance of frustration and stress on behalf of bureauracracy within minstries, and getting my dorm room sprayed with a fire extinguisher by some drunken fool, and halloween gallivanting and traveling between three cities in two days...

life is beginning to slow down again. For a minute at least.



It will stay this way for about three more days and then the wave will crash again most likely. It's okay. I am learning to equip myself better these days.

Note-worthy happenings:
-Fall is fading fast here.The leaves are falling. And before you know it, it will be Christmas. Seriously.
-I've been rock climbing quite a bit recently, and yesterday I made it up the wall blindfolded. Sweet.
-I drove home last weekend and spent time with the family and got to go to Longwood with Annie. it was incredible.
-I signed my lease for my house next year. 8 girls, maybe even 9, will be living there. Wow. It will be interesting.
-Some things in my schedule have opened up, so its looking like theres a good possibility I will go abroad next fall. Any suggestions to where?
-I got Florez's new acoustic album and it has blown me away and pretty much made my week 23498723 times better.
-I may go to a Civil War battlefield this weekend. Wahoooo!
-This semester will be over very soon. Which means, it will be January soon, and what comes with January you may ask? My birthday? Yes, but thats not it. The super bowl? Yes, but thats not it. New Years? Yes, but still not it. The DAVIS FAMILY? Why YES! (as a heads up, I'm practically counting down the days)

I doubt these "happenings" mean anything to you at all, but it pretty much sums up the highlights and developments of recent, sans any sort of emotional or spiritual or mental goings-on. Oh well. I guess its as good as you can get over the internet.