Happy 30 Years...Wow!

            Happy Anniversary to my parents!  These two tied the knot thirty years ago today with an extravagant Southern affair complete with 400 of their closest friends.  If you ask me, 30 years is quite the feat considering they only dated for three weeks before deciding that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Three weeks.  And yes, they were insane.  I'm pretty sure that they would have a heart attack if I came home with a ring on my finger after only knowing a guy for three weeks.  But I guess some people just know!

Just babies...30 short years ago.

            Thank you for giving me such an incredible example of what love and marriage are all about...and for giving me the excuse to throw a ridiculously huge wedding when my Mr. Right comes along :-)

Back Tracking

            I mentioned a few posts ago that I spent 8 glorious days at Fox Point during my week long (really generous, Vanderbilt) hiatus between the summer and fall semesters.  This week was much needed and I spent hours upon hours soaking up the sunshine, eating Maryland crabs, loving on my family, and introducing some great friends to the fabulousness that is Fox Point.  And I have learned through some blog stalking of my own that people much prefer pictures to words when blog browsing so I thought I would share some pics of my fun filled week at the place that I love the most.

The week began with Pirates and Wenches weekend in Rock Hall, MD.  This is a "fantasy" weekend where some real characters come out of the woodwork in full pirate attire and proceed to get way to wasted and rub up against each other at the Harbor Shack.  Rumor has it, it is actually a swingers convention in disguise!

Guuuuuuurl.  Lemme get that dress in my size.

Freaks.

A Rock Hall legend getting down with his bad self at the Harbor Shack.

Okay, so my costume needs a little work but I just had to get a picture with one of the pirates to prove I was really there.

Hi Dad!

Hi, I'm Liza and I like to smile :-)  Even as I'm about to get tossed from the tube. 

Christmas card...Wake friends come to Fox Point!!

Logged a lot of hours floating in the creek.

This is one of the funnier things I have ever seen.  Studs on the mopeds.

Maryland is for crabs.

Love these people.  So glad you could come!!

Today's TO-DO List:

• Snuggle in bed until 9am
• Drink coffee in bed while watching Regis and Kelly
• Pool time with the roommate
• 1.5 hours of class (I think I can handle that after 7 straight hours yesterday)
• Gym or yoga at 12 South
• Bartender Bash at Union Station Hotel (where I will be sidling up to celebrity judge Ty, from the Bachelorette)
• Coco Chanel movie at the Belcourt
• Ending the night with totes the best hun cal froyo

So I hate cats but find this picture kind of hilarious

So far this semester isn't all that bad!  Hope you're having a fabulous day!

Things that are currently making me smile...

Back to school, back to school...

Year two begins tomorrow and I am very happy to be a second year rather than an anxiety-ridden first year.  Without all of that “new kid” stress, I will actually be able to enjoy the orientation events that are planned for this week.  Instead of worrying about whether or not we should drink a glass of wine and trying to remember the names of various professors at Dr. Webb’s dinner on Monday night, my classmates and were able to chat with our favorite professors and partake in an adult beverage (or two) without worrying about what everyone else is thinking.  Ahhhh…I feel relieved just thinking about it.  But despite the fact that I am a savvy second year, I am still terrified to begin one particular class this semester (I’m not gonna tell you the name of the course because I’m paranoid that somehow my professor has gotten the URL for my blog and will read this and then kill me).  This class is rumored to be the toughest in the program and is taught by a professor who scares the pants off anyone who enters her classroom.  She doesn’t try to be mean but she is just SO smart that she can’t really fathom how anyone else does not understand what she is teaching.  I pride myself on the fact that I have yet to cry in front of a grad school professor but you never know…this could be the semester :-/.

P.S.  Pics from the week at Fox Point are coming soon!  

Summer Reading

            This is the book that I currently cannot put down.  And that says a lot coming from a girl who prefers People to paperbacks and reads at a snail's pace.  If you still have room to sneak it onto your summer reading list, I highly recommend it!

Dres-Man

            Okay, I know the week vacay is not even half over yet but I'm gonna go ahead and call the highlight right now.  This morning I got to video chat with my little brother Andy, whom I affectionately call Dres, who is studying abroad in South Africa.  I hadn't seen his face in way too long (almost 2 months!) and I was thrilled to get to catch up on what is going on in his world.  He is loving life.  Spending his days surfing and bungee jumping...oh and a little class on the side.  I. am. jealous.

Hey Dres!

P.S. Andy informed me that my last post was a little misleading so I would like to clarify.  I am not spending this week on the yacht pictured in the post below.  I am spending the week at Fox Point which is located on the Langford Creek, (a tributary off of the Chesapeake Bay), which is the water featured in that picture.  Sorry for any confusion :-)

Time for a little R&R

            Well, we did it.  We managed to finish our summer finals without our heads exploding and with only a few minor meltdowns.  And now comes the fun part when we will be lying comatose, poolside, with a cocktail in hand for the next 7 days.  I plan on only using my brain to decide what to have for lunch and what beach novel to read next.  And this is where I will be doing all of that...

Don't mind if I do.

Almost There

            Hey everybody!  So it’s finals time once again in grad school land, (don’t ya feel like I’m always saying this?  I do.), and so I have been completing take home exams, writing treatment plans, and generally complaining about how miserable life is at this moment.  Sleep has been hard to come by and as a result I have been a little grumpy.  And remembering to be thankful for anything is probably at the bottom of my To-Do list.  Well…that was until I discovered a little gem that I think everyone should check out.  It is a blog written by a girl named Leah who writes thank you notes about everything.  I mean everything.  She even has a thank you note written to a Family Guy shot glass.  And though this may seem absolutely crazy, I think it’s a pretty stellar way to go through life.  Finding the silver lining and always thinking in glass half full mode.  Though I can’t say this is how I always live my life, it is something to strive for, right?  So CLICK HERE for a smile and your daily dose of gratitude.

Though I am a long way from giving in to my heavy eye lids tonight, considering that my Voice Disorders final is looming just 18 hours away, I thought this was pretty appropriate.

And in the meantime, this is how the ladies of the hotel are getting by!

Summertime at the Frist

             Nashville is a city of the arts.  From the struggling wannabe country singer on the streets of downtown to the fabulous art displayed in the privately owned galleries scattered throughout East Nashville, this city has no shortage off creativity.  Which is why I was thrilled to get the chance to check out the new exhibits at the Frist Center for Visual Arts when my sister was in town.  I didn’t include this in my post about her visit because honestly, I was so blown away by these exhibits that I decided they deserved a post of their own.  The first exhibit we toured was titled, “The Golden Age of Couture” and displayed garments from the most glamorous fashion houses in London and Paris during the years following World War II.  Annnnnd, I die.  The exhibit was organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which is another reason I loved it so much.  I have a slight obsession with London…and I may have visited four times while I was studying abroad in Barcelona and forced my then-boyfriend to do things like ride double-decker buses, take pictures in big red phone booths, and sing along to every song in Mary Poppins the musical.  Could ya blame me?

In the words of Rachel Zoe...this dress is bananas.

Pure sass...I love it.

So Mary Poppins :-)

Perfect polka dots.

            The second exhibit showing at the Frist at the moment is featuring Dale Chihuly’s blown glass and it is amazing.  It includes nine installations and a documentary called “Chihuly in the Hotshop” that shows how each of them was created.  The pictures don’t do it justice (especially since pictures were strictly prohibited so I had to be extra sneaky) but it blew me away.  I highly recommend it!

Home Sweet Hotel

            That’s right people…last Saturday was moving day and I am now settled in my new hotel, er, house.  It only feels like a hotel with my six other roommates (plus the adorable four legged one)!  And though I am absolutely thrilled with my new digs, getting moved in was an complete nightmare and I think I might have to live in this house until I am 85 years old because I am not planning on moving again any time soon.  The whole move started out just fine.  By noon on Saturday I was pretty much all packed up and had transferred a few carloads of smaller things to the new house.  All that was left was the big stuff that I could not lift on my own and that was going to be handled by Bo’s Moving Company.  Now I know you are thinking, “Bo’s Moving Company?  You really think they will be legit with a name like that?”  But they came highly recommended by my friend Lauren who used them a few weeks ago.  She assured me that though the men who moved her belongings looked like they were addicted to crystal meth (reassuring, right?) they were fast and cheap.  And that sounded just right to this broke grad school grandma.

            Little did I know, Bo’s Moving Company wasn’t going to be moving my stuff.  Instead they were going to be hanging up on me, refusing to show up, telling me I should call someone else, hanging up on me again, telling me they were too busy and too tired, hanging up on me, screening my calls, hanging up on me again and making me cry.  So I would like to just take a moment and bad mouth them to all 5 of my blog stalkers.  Feel free to spread the word.

            But after all the drama had subsided a little bit, my amazing new roommates helped me move all of my furniture and boxes until 1am Sunday morning.  They even made me take a break to eat some fro-yo at Sweet CeCe’s despite my claims that I had no appetite.  And on Sunday?  Well Marie may have driven my box spring up the street on top of my car while Keeley and I hung out the window and held on for dear life.  You do whatcha gotta do, right?  And though we all felt like we’d been hit by a moving truck by the time Monday morning rolled around, I have all my stuff in one place and am officially a resident at the hotel!

Still a work in progress...

P.S.  Bo’s Moving Company…I hate you.