oh yeaaaa

oh hi blog. so things have been crazy with me and the next few weeks are no exception! i have some great news (but i can't share yet) but here's what i've been up to the last few weeks since i got back to charleston on the 8th spent a few days in charleston, drove to nj on the 15th for hb's wedding weekend and then just got back to charleston last night. so lots of time in the car! i'll do a whole post on the wedding once i have time to go through my pictures! and there should be an update tomorrow with what my next adventure will be!

this is still from when i was in dc - but spent a few days after the conference with my 2 good friends! i met these girls back in summer 2009 working conferences!

on my way back to charleston i stopped at the stonewall jackson shrine in guinea station, va- this was the house where he died on may 10, 1863 after he was accidentally shot at chancelorsville on may 2nd. hey a girl has to break up a long drive somehow - i go to historical sites!

saturday night at sullivan's island - the beach was empty and pretty calm after a thunderstorm! 

goats on an island - i drove up to murrels inlet last sunday to see my big whose family has a house there. spent the day at the beach catching up with her! and then went to dinner along the inlet. one bar has a goat island...

oh so then i had a few days in charleston, where i kinda packed and saw a few friends and on wednesday drove the 15 hours to nj. decided to check out an audiobook. it was kinda awesome and did help with the crazy drive! doing that drive a few times in a short period has started to get to me!

on thursday i went to camp to see my sister and it made me wish i was 16/17/18 again. kinda brought back memories because this is where i met hb - whose wedding i was home for!

sister and i at camp!

so friday i met twin up in the poconos to get our nails done and then kick off the wedding weekend festivities! 

i spent friday night with twin at the resort and it was a great night in the woods to catch up with my best friend the night before her wedding!

a little wedding sneak peek! heather made us all name hangers!

the wedding was gorgeous and the reception was a blast! and you couldn't have asked for a better day! sunday morning was brunch and then i lazily spent the rest of sunday with my parents and making plans! monday i was up bright and early for my drive back to charleston!

where i stopped in lexington, va (one of my favorite places) to say hi to stonewall jackson as he is buried in lexington. and walk around VMI and Washington & Lee's campus.  i'd been a few times when i was younger as my cousin went to VMI & married there.

and robert e. lee is also in lexington. he has a tomb in the w&l chapel and his family's crypt is in the basement. lee's horse traveller is also buried outside the chapel!

so packing, packing, packing this week as i'm out of my apartment on saturday, and enjoying the beach & charleston! and also trying to figure out everything for my next adventure!

how was your weekend?

worky and sleepy

so first, my computer is back!

last week was not fun without it.

especially with all the work i needed to do last week.

but she is back and luckily i had almost everything backed up on my external.

i lost a few pictures from this summer. but any of the good ones i have on a facebook album.

i hate computer problems, it is so sad how addicted we've become to the technology.

so school is going super well :)

my students are still good, three weeks in. so i'm keeping my fingers crossed they stay this way. they have their first tests this week. which should be interesting. which means that i'll have a busy few days grading 100 tests and essays wednesday and thursday. but despite the crazy hours i'm spending at school and crazy teenagers i'm happy. wednesday night i'm meeting with the other new teachers for dinner, and i'm excited to see them and share stories. yay teaching :)

so yea, i don't have much of a life outside school right now. i get home from work, eat dinner, maybe do some work and crash.

but over the weekend, i worked at camp. it was weird. i haven't been there in a few years, and it made me miss being 17. but a few of the girls i worked with were campers of mine back when i worked at camp, and now they are seniors in high school. and i was one of their first counselors.

and now i'm not grading, but i'm catching up on last weeks gossip girl and greek. btw, last week's greek, omg hilarious! the nerf gun wars and beaver! absolutely love this show! and this week's greek is pretty good too. them being high in the shower, and all the kappas being smart at the science party. and glee on wednesday! see what my life has become now. i'm no longer jet-setting around europe and hiking on the weekends, but teaching and talking about how excited i am about tv shows.

happy monday!

i'm teaching high school, i'm not the student!

so i still love the state of nj. they are making it super fun for me and my school to get my nj teaching certificate. so i had to run up my substitute teaching certificate to the school as a backup, because i probably won'y have my teaching one in time. grrrrrrrrrrrr! i love how they are so rediculous! and it wasn't like i planned on teaching in nj - i only applied to 2 schools in the state and there was no way i was paying the $190 certificate fee if i didn't have to.

and omg, was it raining today!! like from alllll night to 4pm just constant rain :(

how did i live in ireland for 2 years?

so my dad and i were running a few errands and i was driving... so we are at the drive thru at the bank. and as we are getting the envelope, she goes to me. driving with dad? did you just get your permit.... i burst out laughing and said, i'm 24. i've been driving for 8 years now.

it made both of us laugh pretty hard!

yay for being mistaken for a 16 year old, when i'm going to be teaching them in a few weeks!

and so as i've mentioned i'm in the process of cleaning out my room. and i'm a maajor saver. like i save everything. so it is quite a process and i'm trying to consolidate and not have as much stuff. so right now it looks as a tornado hit my room, but i'm doing a good job, i'm on like garbage bag 7 and 2 bags of clothes/shoes for donation. and tonight i had fun going through some stuff from college but more fun was my camp stuff.

i went to a girl scout camp for 6 summers and worked there for 3, so i have a lot of stuff. each summer i worked i had a staff manual, plus the end of the summer staff book with funny memories and camp love. plus countless song books, cookbooks and other random camp stuff. so it was fun to go through the 3 staff books and remember people and the funny stories and remember whens. i was good though, i finally got rid of the staff manuals but saved each weeks schedule and so i have a small folder for each summer. but i loved looking back and remembering. i had some of the best times of my life at camp. i made some of my best friends and camp was a huge part of who i was my jr/sr year of high school and freshman year of college. i miss singing around a campfire, waterfront hill, the craziness of the dining hall, counting trees, sitting on the porch, cookouts, nicknames, hiking, 1 &20, stargazing, homesickness, and being completely crazy. i miss camp.

backpacking summer 2002

the waterfront

the backpacking/canoeing program in 2003 - sunset over the trail

2002- 2nd year junior counselors at our campfire

but i am super excited to be camping this weekend :) the boy and i (i need to think of a better nickname) are hiking about 20 miles and enjoying the gorgeousness of the appalachian trail in new jersey!

hope everyone has a fabulous weekend :) any good plans?

a well thought out englilish paper

Amanda and I left work today and as we reached her car, she said hello to the sticker of the cheat on her car. And it made me laugh, because I haven't thought about homestar runner in years! It totally reminded me of camp and the summer of 2002 when we would quote them nonstop! So of course I had to go online and check out a few of my favorite Strongbad's emails.

And one of my absolute favs is the English paper with Kyle "The Yellow Dart" Smith and the hustle and bustle in the well thought out englilish paper!

Also I love the Dragon
a more different s, angry eyebrows, consament v's, trogdor the burnator...

I can't remember another one, but it has population: tire in it.

So that was a fun little trip down memory lane and thinking about all the funny/stupid little things that I haven't thought about in years!

It is a gorgeous, sunny Friday! And I wore my new pink shoes today! Now I'm spending my afternoon applying for jobs, writing a letter to Holly and trying not to disturb the adorable cat sleeping on my lap. And hopefully something fun tonight :)

What was your favorite Strongbad email? Anyone have any good weekend plans?

back to ireland

So my vacation is officially over. I am sitting in Newark airport waiting for my flight to Heathrow. I still have about an hour before we start boarding and then another hour before our scheduled departure at 9pm. The lines weren’t too bad, I had no wait dropping off my bags and security took the average 30 minutes or so. Which in Newark is not too bad. My plane just pulled up to the gate, so the flight I took over here that arrives at 7 just came in slightly late. I just love airports. They are just so interesting and really run like mini cities. I can people watch all day, I would love to be more talkative and just ask people where they are going. The few people who were around in security were interesting a middle-aged British couple who were here on vacation and recently bought a sailboat in Conn and were testing it out. The man behind me was going to Sri Lanka for 2 weeks to see his wife and children who’ve been over there for a few weeks on holiday. I just think it is sooo awesome. Anyway, I love people watching.

So the last few days at home were fabulous :) It was great to see twin and db on Friday evening. It was fun pretending like we were 16 and on our night off. I can’t believe the last time I saw Gina I was heading to Ireland the first time, pretty much three years ago. Crazy how we have not seen each other. I’ve known Gina since summer 1999. So that was a great night, just catching up on life and reminiscing about camp. Saturday during the day Becca and I met up for our windows down, Madonna blasting reunion. We had a great time catching up with stories from Law School and Ireland. We went to lunch, and then went to Target. It was great singing Madonna :) Then my sister and grandparents were over for dinner, it was good. Then I met up with Suz and Cate at Chili’s and had a great mini-HS reunion. It was good to hear what they and other friends were up to as well as all the great gossip! And there was some fabulous HS gossip about a few people. So that was fun.

Sunday I went over to my Uncle’s and he wasn’t there at first, so I talked to Oma until they arrived. It was good to see Scottie/Barb and the kids. The twins are still adorable as ever, I had Daniel most of the day. I also saw a family friend whose known me since I was about five and haven’t seen since I was 18. It was good to see everyone there and it was a gorgeous day! Then the little bro was headed to camp! This was super exciting, since I went when I was 10 (even though I started asking when I was like 8 to go), Kel’s first summer was when she was 7 (and she cried for the 3 days she was there, and waited 2 more years to go back). So I was super excited he was finally getting to go and get the experience. So I went with the parents to drop him off, he is going to a Ycamp and it is co-ed and it seemed nice. Totally different from Hoover, 12 boys/2 counselors to cabin for the 2 weeks. I always wanted to do one like that. So hopefully he has a great time. It totally made me miss camp! After we dropped him off we went to Outback for dinner, I got my pomegranate margarita :) Which was fabulous. That is what I am going to miss, the cheap drink. Oh well.

Today I was up early to take my Mom to work, then I came home and finished packing. I went on a major food buying spree and bought a bunch of food and that is most of what I am bringing over. The pile of clothes and such was so small. I am still not looking forward to moving at the end of the month, I still have so much even though I home a ton of stuff. How did I acquire so much stuff!! Oh well.

So my trip home has been fabulous. I had an amazing time visiting friends and family. I really got to see most of my friends, which was pretty awesome. I took advantage of all the food and everything I’ve missed. I will really miss driving though, that is my favourite. So I’m back to the ususal work/thesis routine. I can do it for 2 more months. I’ll give myself a few days once I get back, and by this weekend I want to be working on the thesis again. My goal is to have 3/4/intro/conclusion done in 2 weeks. So 5000 words in 2 weeks. And then I’ll start on the editing. My goal is to have it done around the 15th of September and then I’ll do all the little proofreading, nit-picky stuff. I want it bound about a week before I have to hand it in.

So I’m about to board in a bit, so next time I’ll be back in Cork!

i <3 jersey

so my vacation home is going by waaaaay to fast! i'm leaving for the shore tomorrow morning and then my weekend in the cape with my lovers. crazyness. so i am loving every minute of being home. and it is weird for me to say that, haha. normally i try to spend as little as possible time at home. but i am loving the sunshine and hot weather, driving a car, rnndom american food, more than 4 tv channels, being able to easily talk to friends, seeing friends and family and just everything that i've missed that i didn't realize i missed until i was around it. so it has been a good week, not super busy, but still fun.

monday and tuesday was just random things around the house, met my mom for lunch on tuesday and went to the library to get a million books for the shore, then jerz and i spent the afternoon/evening together. it was fabulous to see her, our schedules aligned for once and we actually overlapped at home for 3 days, so we spent the evening looking at apartments and driving around new brunswick. it was fun and great to catch up on life. wednesday i drove around and ran errands, thursday i went over to my aunts/cousins's to see them. i can't belive how big the kids are. a is sooo cute and kenzie is adorable and she talks now, but she was quite shy around me, i can't believe ky is almost 10! john made me laugh, he was like so when you getting married, i was like not for a long time. he then commented i was getting old, then thought for a second - jen was pregnant at 23. i rebutted i wasn't married the day after i graduated college. it just made me laugh and be like, ahhhh. it is totally crazy how if you look at something in perspective how it changes it. to be married and expecting my first child at this time in my life, ahhhhhhhhh. i'll continue to live abroad, finishing the thesis and traveling, being a carefree 23 (ok my 23rd birthday is in 10 days) year old please.

so then friday my mom and i went to the mall. it was good, the mall made me sad because they still had mostly summer clothes, and well as much as i love them summer things, i need fall clothes, i need long pants and long sleeves, not cute sundresses. but i did get a pair of khacki's and i do need to get another pair. it was so nice to walk into a store and see clothes that i wear, i missed gap, old navy, ae, jcrew.... and then today i met with twin! YAY!! and andy. we had a good afternoon, meeting for lunch, then coming back to play in tranquility, we went on a walk, played with the wii - omg, best thing ever, soooo much fun. even though i'm pretty bad. hello- horrible hand eye cordination! then went to yetters for dinner. hopefully plans are in the works for the week i'm back. i've missed my twin, we had a lot of fun laughing at pictures from our first summer at camp and just remembering funny times.

so i should finish packing for the shore! sooo excited to lay on the beach, read some books and just relax for 5 days. then friday i'm going up to the cape to camp with my lovers, and then meeting klast in the city on monday for dinner. it is a busy next week :)

and just for laughs, here are some old pictures i've scanned.

baby erin

happy 1st birthday - i <3>

daddy's little girl - i'm about 4 here

possibly my favourite picture - i'm 3 and playing with my baby sister

kindergarten graduation with my 2 friends

4th grade halloween
first day of 7th grade and kitten max
8th grade graduationfield hockey sophomore year
skiing junior year
begining of senior year - right after knee surgery
senior prom
high school graduation with becca