philly and happy birthday george!

i'm back from one of the most fabulous weekends i've had in a long time with friends. it was great to see amy & jeanne and play in philly! i've been to philly a bunch of times, usually along the schuylkill for a regatta, but a few times i was able to play. and so this time it was a super touristy day in philly but i LOVED it! the highlight was going to independence hall and seeing where they signed the declaration of independence and debated the constitution! i could just feel the love and magic of those amazing documents in that room.

where they signed the constitution and declaration of independence!!!

liberty bell

LOVE

view from top of city hall

irish famine memorial 

and then saturday amy, jeanne and i headed to chestertown to wish our favorite president happy birthday in style. but before we celebrated we went for a nice 3.5 mile run along the chester river. it reminded us of our college days and the crazy birthday ball competition practice we would have that morning with rowing. so it was fun to go for a nice, gorgeous run! and then went to get pizza for dinner and with our other friends walburn, kaity & her bf nate kicked off the night with a toast while getting ready! so we had some fun before heading to campus for birthday ball. i was really lucky as a huge percentage of my good college friends were at birthday ball. the girls and then my little & glittle and ash! so it was super nice to see so many friends in one weekend! so birthday ball was fun - the usual wac craziness! and of course the post ball midnight breakfast in the dining hall!

with my girls 

and my frippet

amy, me, little & kspice

happy birthday george!

this morning when we woke up we realized we were growing up when we weren't hungover after a birthday ball... and went to brunch before parting ways and heading back home. this weekend reminded me and my friends of why we need to see each other more and how special our friendship is!

so a busy week. i was gonna go skiing on monday, buuut it is supposed to rain all day, so we went to a back-up plan. and then wednesday i'm off to pittsburgh and the crazy of conferences for the next three weeks!

how was your weekend?

new jersey

so i've been able to relax for a week and has it been nice. though i'm kinda at the point of bored. like ok, what do i do now. especially without spending too much money. but it has been amazing to sleep in my own bed. i've spent some time unpacking - i hadn't quite unpacked from europe. i took whatever i needed for dc/seattle/indy out and have left the rest sitting in a suitcase. so that has been thrilling!

we got more snow sunday night/monday. i woke up to about 7" of white fluffy snow, which i was not happy about. especially as it was 65 on friday. it was quite disappointing only having one day of gorgeous weather and then it was 30 on saturday. but it means spring is almost here. i can't believe it is the last week of february already!

i had a really fun weekend and was pretty busy! despite the cold weather i went for a little walk in the woods on saturday afternoon which was fun and it was nice to get outside and enjoy the sunshine, and do something physical. and then i met up with erin saturday night and went out for a few drinks with her and her friend sarah, which was fun! it was nice to go out to bars and meet new people. i spent the night so it was fun to wake up the next morning and be lazy over breakfast and chatting. then i was lucky as my two friends from hs were both in the area this weekend so we met up for brunch at the local diner and chatted away and laughed about being 16 and everything. it is nice i've gotten to see them both so much recently! and then it was my family's february birthday party. so we went to my aunt's for the afternoon. which was good, as it was soooo windy sat/sun in jersey that our power line was down so we were without power for about 18 hours. (luckily i wasn't home for it)
                                

out with erin!

and now i'm really looking forward to this weekend! i get to see so many of my college friends in chestertown! it is birthday ball weekend - so i'm finally going back as an alum to birthday ball! it is a huge college-wide birthday party for george washington! and i'm going with my group of friends - amy, jeanne, kaity & meg. and then also getting to see a bunch of other friends who are also headed back. it is pretty much my college's equivalent to homecoming. and amy and i are headed to philly thursday afternoon to see jeanne and then have some fun in philly on friday before heading down to chestertown!
and with that a little belayted birthday wish to my fav president - gw!


and that is one of the many reasons why i love wac!

and i'm also excited because i printed out my fav europe pictures and put them in an album yesterday! yay! it made me smile when they were at the post office yesterday!  and i've also completely updated by photo365 blog. i hadn't updated at all in 2011 - so it was quite a task to go though and do 57 days!

yay photos!

indianapolis

so yay for another new state! indiana! state 28! i'm slowly making my way to all 50 states!

so i was really excited to go to indy, a bit more than anyone else i'm working with because amy is from indiana and well i've always wanted to visit where she is from! and well i like to travel and i go to new places and i can always find fun stuff to do!

so the conference went well in indy. i was working with my friend mj - so it was a bit funnier, but overall it was great and i'm having more fun with it! so i've also hit my 28.5 state - illinois. i'm not counting it as a full state yet, because i only spent a hour in the airport - but over the next few months i'll be flying in an out of o'hare a few times. so i'll count it then. but i wish i was able to actually go to chicago!

so one of the things i was most looking forward to in indy was getting to see amy's family!  she grew up about 30 minutes south of indy, and i haven't seen her family since college graduation in 2007. so sunday i went with her parents and brother to dinner and then sunday night i spent at her parent's house. it was great to see the town where she is from and everything. it was pretty funny though, that i was there with out her. but still fun. monday morning i went with amy's mom to school - she teaches hs spanish. and sat in on a class with her - where she was teaching a lesson on the culture of southern spain - and was doing the alhambra. which is funny because amy and i went there in january 2009!

lots of corn!

so after seeing amy's high school i headed off into indy! my first stop to speedway - famous for the indy 500! now it was winter and snow covered so i couldn't go on the track, but i went to the museum and got to learn all about the history of the speedway. so it was pretty cool - even for someone who isn't into indy car racing.
 

at the speedway

historic indy cars!

indy 500 trophy

and then after i went to the international office of my sorority - a bunch of the headquarters are located in indy, so i stopped by to look at the history exhibit and i was even given a tour! so it was awesome to see what they had at IO. and especially the letters between two of our founders before we had a name - and we went by ???. and they had some gorgeous antique badges too. so it was a fun thing to do and i'm glad i stopped in!

at IO

the letters between founders

gorgeous historic badges! i love the 2nd one in the 2nd row!

themis and our founders

the reception! all the fun zta things in there!

and then i just walked around downtown indy after that and took in the sights. i was kinda tired and wasn't feeling too great. so it was a fun day in indy!

home of the colts!

annnd then tuesday was my airport adventure day.... so i hung out in the indy airport alllll day!

but it was fun and i enjoyed indy! and i can't wait to go back with amy next time!

seattle

it feels like so long ago i was in seattle, but in reality it was only two weeks ago! the seattle conference went well, especially since it was my first time working that particular conference. but it was fun and i enjoyed working it, and i'm looking forward to the next few months of conferences. i had a minor freakout on friday morning, but that was just me stressing myself out about life and such, having nothing to do with the conference and just the crazy my life has become....

so after the conference ended sunday afternoon - we all gathered to watch the super bowl and had a fun evening watching football, laughing at the commercials, betting on the game, making fun of the glee episode and laughing. it was a great night of staff bonding and fun!

so monday morning i set off to explore a new city - seattle! it was also my first time in washington state - so another part of my 30 by 30 in the state category! i've now been to 27 states with washington! so i was uber excited to play in seattle, as i've always wanted to go to the pacific northwest and now i can't wait to go back! so i walked around the pike place market a bit, then went on a canal lock tour of seattle, which was awesome. then i popped over to the aquarium, which i was disappointed by. and then went to check out the space needle at night and had the world's best nachos for dinner. they were bbq chicken nachos and had the best salty and sweetness to them. i want them again! i was exhausted, so i went back to get some sleep! tuesday i set out to just explore the city and have fun walking around. and i did that :) there were some places i just didn't have the time to get out to. i would have loved to go to freemont, and explore u wash's campus, but i just didn't have the time. and i want to get a car and drive around washington, go to mt. rainier and the other national parks in the area. so i loved seattle and i can't wait to go back :)

view of seattle from the water

sleepless in seattle houseboat!

downtown seattle

on the boat - skyline

space needle at night

pike place market

view from the tallest building in seattle

mountains! and water!

so i had a blast in seattle and love that i'm getting to travel for work :)

the fun of traveling

so i've pretty much been traveling for the last 6 weeks non stop. and it has been one crazy adventure. my 3 weeks in europe were fun and i was visiting all new places! yay for 6 new countries! and then the last 3 weeks i've been traveling with work and it has been a different experience to travel for work. and to fly so much around the US. i've only flown a few times in the states before this. but overall it has been pretty easy, especially with all this crazy weather we've been having this winter. like i was a bit worried about my flight out to seattle with the ice storm, but luckily i made it to seattle on time - just had to run through the charlotte airport to catch my connection!

so i've also been lucky to get to go to 2.5 new states in the last 6 weeks as well. washington & indiana - (the half is illinois, as i didn't leave the airport, but by the end of the spring i will have flown in & out of o'hare 4 times... so i think it will count then!) and it has been so fun to get to see different parts of the country! and i've decided i would love a job where i could travel more.

so i've been at the indianapolis airport today for about 7 hours. i was supposed to fly at 11, so i got the airport around 10 (and i love smaller airports where you can do that!) and at 10.40 when we should have been boarding they made an announcement that we would be delayed for a maintance issue with an engine. ugh delay, but i'd rather be delayed for a safety issue than something go wrong (especially after the plane crash in cork last week) so 2.5 hours later they were like yea, we don't know what it wrong. so we can re-route you to cleveland leaving in 20 minutes and then you have 30 minutes and can connect to newark getting in at 4.45. fabulous! yay!

so we get on the plane - about half of it it the rebooked people from my first flight. and we leave the gate and we're about 100 meters away and just stopped... and the pilot comes on and says i hate to say this, but we need to go back to the gate. we are having engine trouble. we all have the look that says seriously, two flights in the same day with engine trouble. so we get off the plane, and we only had a 30 minute wait in cleveland, so we wouldn't have made that flight. so there was a flight to newark at 4.45 getting in at 6.45. so i'm now on that one and really hoping i can get home. spending all day in the airport when you didn't expect to is no fun. luckily they have free wi-fi, so that has helped. and continental was great about it all. the gate agents were super friendly to re-book (and to have to do it all twice!)  and keep us informed, we got meal vouchers and i realize this is out of their control. and i'd rather be delayed than have something go wrong mid-flight. so yay indy airport! and other airports.

i'm glad to be home for 2 weeks, looking forward to it. and actually having internet, i dislike that at nicer hotels you have to pay for it. i haven't touched my computer in almost 2 weeks, and now i have a lot to do with job searching, trying to figure out my summer, zeta stuff and pictures!

indy airport - yay superbowl 2012! 7 hours here today!

pretty view from seattle airport last week!

and i have lots of updates on my seattle & indy trips, plus my europe re-cap! and lots of pictures!

o what has been your craziest traveling story?

made it

I'm in Seattle!
I made it :)
I was a bit worried about making it out here but somehow I did. My first flight was delayed but luckily not enough where I missed my connection in charlotte. Though I did have only 20 min to make my flight so I didn't get to take.advantage of the nice rocking chairs. But both flights were good and I just finished the first day of the conference. And exhausted.

So I dislike hotels where you have to pay for internet. So I'm just on ny phone for the next few days. Might drive me crazy. Especially with all the emails i'm sending right now.
2nd rant. I don't like being in the pacific time. I just feel behind -like seeing tweets about lunch when I just got up... i'm ok with bring 6 hours ahead but 3 hours back bugs me. Oh well.

Anyway hope everyone has a good weekend. I'll be crazy until Sunday evening with conferences.

go away snow

the last week has been a blur. just totally crazy - but fun and full of adventures.

training overall was good - i had a few friends and met some new people. the curriculum for this set of conferences is a bit different than ones in the past. so i've had a few people ask what i'm doing - i am working at a leadership conference for 8/9th gradera where they learn more about their leadership style and how to be a better leader. i'll be in 8 different cities from now to the end of april doing this. so i'm super excited for this! and i'm headed to seattle and indianapolis for the next two weeks!

monday night mj & i met up with ellie and we went to founding farmers and omg was it amazing. if you are ever in dc go there! we had friend green tomatoes (which i tried for the first time) and then my grilled cheese & tomato soup, mac & cheese and then a turkey sandwich with awesome types of cheese. and to top it off a piece of amazing red velvet cake!

the delish dinner

and so there was a nice winter storm that hit the northeast last week and i had a little dc snow adventure. let's just say it took 2 hours to go 1/2 a mile from the grocery store to the hotel. and in that 2 hours we got about 4-5 inches of snow. and at one stage my car needed to be pushed up a hill. i now know why dc/nova shuts down with snow. luckily we had fun laughing in the car (for the most part) so it wasn't horrible. 

the hot mess the roads were from my hotel window

ummm the rest of the week was fun - went to see "no strings attached" with mj - which was cute but could have been better. i liked the idea - but the characters could have been more developed and so could the plot. friday night before i drove back to nj - mj & i had dinner with patricia!

saturday was busy - i ran a bunch of errands, got a much needed hair cut and colored it again, i love being a few shades darker/reder than my natural color. and i had a fun night out. 

                                                                                            sunday - we went on a little adventure in the woods. my dad heard that a bear was kinda hibernating/denning up the road. so we went on a adventure to see them. and we found a momma and a yearling up in a tree - where they have been denning. so that was fun. i see bears all the time but it was fun to go and try to see one on purpose!

yesterday i was busy all day - lunch with erin and then i had a bit of sorority things to work on and then a fun dinner with other alums!


and i'll hopefully be flying out to seattle on wednesday for my first conference. with the fun winter weather that is hitting most of the country i'm a bit nervous about that. today wasn't as bad as they were saying, so i'm hoping tomorrow is more rain than ice. so fingers crossed i get there! uugh - i'm so done with winter! we've just been getting slammed all winter with gross weather.

so any advice on fun things to do in seattle or indianapolis?