Rainy Days.

      Well, today was...wet. Very, very wet.  This morning, I awoke to a torrential downpour and tornado watches. I didn't have any classes today, but I did have to trek to school to turn in a paper. LSU, you should really have parking for people who need to be somewhere for fifteen minutes or less. I literally waded through a brand new pond in the pouring rain and had my boots filled with water just so I could turn in this stupid paper which I will most likely not get an A on. I felt victorious as I approached the submission box...until I pulled the paper out of my coat to see that it was soaked. Instead of fretting that I would lose points, I just put it in the box and soaked all the other papers. We can't all lose points...right?  Luckily, I got to spend the rest of the day at work looking at the rain instead of walking in it.  On my way home, I felt so bad for anyone that had to walk or bike through this...

That's not a ditch...it's a sidewalk.

      After work, I headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings to have dinner with Melanie and some of her friends. This is a note to myself that I need to look into a fundraiser like that for Jamaica! After dinner, I headed back to the apartment and was greeted by this lake...

My car was smoking after this...notice the waves
and fully submerged speed bump.

      As gross as today was, I think we'll be back to this great spring weather soon. I might not like to sweat, but I like it so much more than I like shivering. The cold is miserable to me! 

      I can't lie, the weather fit my mood pretty well today. It was all over the place, and nothing about it was pretty. I'll probably slap myself later for blogging about this, but it's 1am and I'm talkative. 0:)

Today would have been my three year anniversary if there was still an anniversary to be celebrated. Three years ago tonight, I told myself, "Emily, quit being such a baby and let the boy kiss you already." I'm telling you, that's exactly what I said to myself. If you know me, you know I obviously listened to myself. For weeks before, I worried that if I dared to leave the "friend zone", terrible awful things would happen. I was wrong...for a little while at least. Even today I still question if I made the wrong choice. I'm one of those people who doesn't regret things, but I'm also one of those people who questions how things would be if certain moments had gone differently in my life. There's just something about losing a best friend, no matter how long you've been friends or what your story is, that just sucks so bad. I've been there a few times, and I think it's safe to say this is the worst one. I guess because it's something I can never get back. The kid is a complete stranger to me now, but I guess that's the path we've chosen to go down. It's tough, but it's life. If people didn't hurt us, we wouldn't fully appreciate those who have our best interest at heart. If relationships didn't fail, we wouldn't value the ones that get us through each and every day.

      I let myself feel down today, but it's time to stop that. I would be foolish to let this obscure my view of all the great things that I have in my life. My friends, my family, my opportunities...I've been blessed with so much. I thank God, as often as my fallible mind can remember to, for this life that He has blessed me with.  I've got friends that I know will be my friends for the rest of my life. We'll be having wine parties at 80 while we reminisce about the ones we had at 20. I've got a family that supports me in everything I want to do. No matter what I approach my parents with, they do their best to put their reservations aside and let me live and learn. I'm currently going to the college I always wanted to and pursuing a degree in something that I know will make me happy when I'm out of school. The positives are infinitely greater than the negatives. I love this life, and if I ever try to tell you differently, please slap me. Later!

Busy Life.

      Time is seriously flying right past me. I've been insanely busy these past few weeks. I wish I could say it was because I was out having the time of my life, but truly, most of my time is consumed by studying and papers and a few minutes of sleep here and there. Spring break can't come fast enough! So much has happened in the past few weeks, so here are some of the highlights:
      I ran my first half marathon! You can find a whole post about that below this one, but I just had to say it one more time. It's crazy!
      I got my first F in college. No really, I've never done that bad on anything else in my life. I was totally miserable for a few hours, but as usual, being negative and pouting didn't make me feel better at all. Physics is ridiculous and unnecessary, and I will never use these formulas again after next fall. The professor knows it's true, so why is he trying to destroy my GPA?! Whatever, dude.
      I survived midterms! Although I failed my physics test, I managed to get a 100, a 96, and a 95 on my other exams during the week. It's nice to see some A's again! It's even nicer to know that the semester is at least halfway over. 9 weeks to go!
      I finished up my volunteering at the food bank. I'm really going to miss those people! The other volunteers never failed to make me laugh and look at things from a new perspective. Oh, and I will never, ever, ever throw trash into one of those red bins again. I don't think I ever did consciously, but still! I've seen the other side, and pulling someone's gum off of a can of corn is not enjoyable.  
      Molly turned twenty! That's right, we have added another member to the twenties club. Molly, my friend from good old Evangeline Hall, is our newest member. Check out her cake!

Yeah, it's a pineapple!

      I realized I've been single for three months now. Okay, I know you probably scoffed at that, but it's crazy to me! When you haven't for almost three years, it can be kind of a hard thing to get used to. Actually, it's ridiculously hard to get used to. All I can say is I'm much better off than I ever thought I would be, and I'm so grateful to everyone who is a part of that. Love you guys!

      Softball started SEC play. Over the past two years, I've started to like softball...but just a little. I mean I kind of have to like it since there will be two players in my apartment next year. As if Alex isn't smelly enough...

Basically levitating. No big deal though.

Self-proclaimed "best guy fan ever". I couldn't resist!

      Nicole is visiting!!!  Definitely the highlight of this week. Our dear Nikki abandoned us for Texas A&M after freshman year, and now she's finally reclaiming us and visiting! We all went to dinner last night, and I'm sure we'll get into something else when I get back to Baton Rouge tomorrow. I just love how even after not seeing each other for almost a year, nothing has really changed. We all still do embarrassing things in public and even more embarrassing things at home. I doubt that will ever change!

      As crazy as things have been school wise, there is still even more craziness to come. Tonight I'm hitting up a retirement party (it's going to be wild, I swear!), tomorrow I'm running the Race for the Cure in Lafayette, and then it's back to the school grind until next weekend when we have the Heart Walk and Groovin' on the Grounds! Let's hope I manage to post before another two weeks have passed. Later!

We Survived!

      One week ago today, I ran my first ever half marathon...and I survived! After a year of anticipation and preparation (well...a few months of preparation), I finally did it! This post will be solely dedicated to telling you how amazing (and brutal) it was, and if I have time tonight, I'll catch you up on the other events of my super fabulous life.

      Last Saturday, me, Stew, Melanie, and Madeline headed to New Orleans after lunch, and after getting turned around a few times and narrowly avoiding wrecks (stop signs can be so hard to see sometimes), we finally made it to the check-in at the convention center. I didn't realize how big of a deal this race was going to be! The convention center was full of people, but we got in and out pretty quickly. 

      After we got our shirts, numbers, and goodie bags, we decided that it was time to get some grub. We headed over to Mother's for dinner, and it was so delicious. Even though I still live in south Louisiana, I don't get delicious gumbo, jambalaya, and etouffee very often. Mother's had it all! As expected, we left there full and ready for bed.

      Lucky, a friend of a friend of a friend (I think?) opened up her home to us and was gracious enough to let us stay with her for the night. We got there not long after dark, but it felt like midnight! We stayed up for while talking about the race and other random things, but I'm pretty sure we were in bed before 10pm. That was a good thing though, because we woke up at 5am to head to the race! I don't mind waking up early, but I really do prefer waking up after the sun.

      We managed to leave the house a little before 6am after quite a groggy wake up, and we found some super cheap parking not far from the starting line. Finding cheap parking in New Orleans is like finding $20 on the ground. Or $50 even. It's freaking fabulous.  We sat in the car for a while convincing our legs that they could trust us, and then it was time to head to our corrals. Stew and I were in the same one, and Melanie and Madeline were in whichever ones correlated with their expected finish times. We got to the race just in time to witness the beginning of it all!

The really crazy ones.

      They started corrals sooner than we expected, so we had to split up pretty quickly. There were so many people!! Who knew there were 22,000 people in the world who wouldn't mind getting up at 5am to run 13.1 miles? Here's what I was expecting to be the last picture ever taken of me as a living being.

Some things are only possible when you're trying to beat your best friend, right? :)

      Before we knew it, we were at the start line and they were yelling GO! Ahhhh! Stew and I ran the first three miles in what was probably our best 5k time ever, and the next three weren't too bad either. I want to say things were just fabulous until about...mile 8? That's when I started getting stiff....and hungry. It's downright cruel to make me run by Cafe Du Monde! The last five miles got worse and worse, but we did it! We finished! In under two and a half hours! With our limbs still attached to our torsos! All in all, it was a good race. :)

      As soon as we crossed the finish line, I thought I was going to die. All of a sudden I found myself collecting bananas, bagels, marathon bars, water, gatorade, chocolate milk, and everything else I could hold. I don't know what got into me...I guess I was really famished! I mean come on, I burned 1500 calories! I also grabbed a nifty space blanket that came in handy, as you can see.

Why wasn't anyone else this exhaused?

      Eventually, our group was reunited. After a quick recap, we headed over to the shuttles and were on our merry way home. It's crazy that a year's worth of anticipation and preparation all came down to something that was over in less than three hours. Madness!

We did it! We freaking did it! 

My new bling!

Eventually I was able to stand again...yay!

      I'm so glad I decided to give into Mel's crazy idea and run a half marathon. Once upon a time, I could hardly run a mile straight! I never could have done it without being pushed and nagged by my dear friends to start training and keep training for more than three days at a time. It's been a week since the race, and I think my body has finally recovered. As crazy as it sounds, I'm ready for more! I definitely want to do another half, but I have my sights set on the Rocketchix triathlon at the end of July. I'll be embarking on this next endeavor with my equally-insane friend Victoria at some point in the next few weeks. I might be a runner, but can I be a runner, swimmer, and biker at the same time? We'll see! Later!

Last Post Ever?

      In less than 24 hours, I'll be running The Rock'n'Roll New Orleans half marathon! There is a terribly high chance that my legs will finally rebel, detach themselves from my body, and run the other direction so they never have to be tortured by me again. So, if I never post again, that's why. Before I talk too much about the race, let me tell you about the glorious week and a half I've had since Ash Wednesday!
      So far, I'm doing fabulous with my Lenten sacrifice and prayer. I haven't touch anything that is deliciously sweet, and I'm sticking to doing my Lenten devotional every night. I know that many people out there, Catholics included, think that Lenten penances are just a Catholic's second chance at New Year's resolution, and it's something that they only have to do for forty days! Well, there is just so much more to it. Although we are giving up frivolous, petty things for the most part, this penance still allows us the opportunity to grow so much closer to God. For example, every time I start to think that I want something sweet to eat, I take the opportunity to talk to God and thank him for all that He is doing for me. Do you know how many more prayers I say a day now?! I can honestly say that in the past ten days, I have been so much happier. Everyday, I find it so incredibly easy to see what God is doing through me and for me. Best Lent I've ever had!
      In other news, I've gotten a lot done future-wise lately! Last weekend, I took the practice GRE. Needless to say, I have some preparation to do. I have no desire to even look at those scores again! Also, I went to my junior meeting this week. It's this wonderful place where people print your audit, cross out everything you've taken, and circle everything you still need to take. Oh, and they tell you everything else you're supposed to be doing to get ready for grad school. They make you feel like you're on the right track and completely off track all that the same time. The highlight of that meeting was finding out that I only have 50 hours left to take to finish my degree. Wahoooooo! Mind you, it's basically 50 hours of upper level kinesiology classes and psychology classes, but still. I'm actually getting somewhere! I really need to start volunteering and shadowing, but working on campus takes up all of my time. The weeks need to have eight days, geez!
      Last Sunday, I did my last run in preparation for tomorrow. I meant to do more, but the past week was so incredibly busy.  I managed to pump out a grueling ten miles, which I hope come a lot easier tomorrow! While running, I did get to see this!

Pelicans!

I'm pretty sure that before Sunday, I hadn't even seen this many pelicans in my twenty years on earth. There were groups like this all over the lakes! They always make me think of the stork who brought me to my momma. :)

      Like I said earlier, the past ten days have been wonderful. I've been so aware of all the blessings in my life, and I've been able to keep up with my work without wanting to lose my mind. Although I have a super important week coming up (why do we have midterms anyway?), I'm still sooooo excited about the race tomorrow! Running a half marathon is something I never dreamed I would be able to do, and now I'm positive I will finish...unless my legs to in fact just run away from me. We're leaving for New Orleans in just a few hours, and I have some serious studying and packing to do before then. I'll leave you with some beautiful pictures from this week. Later!

The Quad is full of these things right now.

It's impossible to be grumpy when this is where you go to school.