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?

more new jersey

   it was a busy busy last few days in nj! saturday was twin's wedding shower. it was a wonderful shower and it was great to see her whole family and meet most of her cousins and everyone. it all went smoothly and it was so relaxed. her mom & sister were wonderful as always and i can't wait until her wedding on august 18th! it is going to be so much fun! 

twin & i at her shower

visitors center

and since i've gotten my national park passport back in april ive been trying to get as many stamps as possible. i've had a goal to go to all 390 sites administered by the national park service and this is just making it more fun. so there are a few national park sites close to where i grew up and a few i've been to multiple times while others have been missed. so a few years ago i went to morristown and the washington headquarters national historic site - gw spent a winter during the revolutionary war here. and the continental army stayed at jockey hollow a few miles away so saturday after twin's shower i went to jockey hollow and got some stamps and learned about the harsh winter of 1779-1780 for the army. there is a ton of revolutionary war history by where i grew up and i have a goal to go see more of it!

replica cabins at jockey hollow

but my big fun this weekend was on sunday! twin and i made plans last week to go hiking on sunday with andy. we decided to go to my favorite area - the delaware water gap. which is also a national recreation area! (so more stamps!!) and i love to hike here and the area is just so pretty. and the hike we did goes to my favorite place in nj - the top of mt. tammany! we decided to do a combined hike and do mt. tammany and then go up to sunfish pond so in total we hiked 11.5 miles. and yes it was the most physical thing i've done since november 14th when i broke myself. but hey it made me feel a little more confident that i can run a half this fall because hiking 11.5 miles is similar to running 13.1 right? but it was a wonderful day out in the mountains with my best friend and her fiance and my favorite place! and my knee felt good - especially with wearing my brace for 11.5 miles and i wore the sleeve for the first time to see if it would reduce rubbing and it did which was nice. but taking it off when we got to the car was magical! but an absolutely wonderful day hiking!

with my national park passport excited about my delaware water gap stamp and the appalachian trail stamp as it runs through the area too! really i was ecstatic about the appalachian trail stamp!

view from the summit of mt. tammany- hello delaware river and pennsylvania on the other side!

heather & andy - he proposed on mt. tammany!

twin & i -  and my super sexy knee brace! 

sunfish pond - a glacial pond along the appalachian trail - it is a historic landmark!

so i'm now in the philly airport waiting for my flight back to charleston! yay! i'm going back! but only for 40 hours. i get in monday at noon and i'm flying out wednesday morning at 6am for my next conference which is in philly. i know - i just need to go home for a few hours, sleep twice in my own bed, switch clothes and everything. i am so excited! plus my camping gear needs to stop traveling around the country. but it is going to be a crazy week - my second  interview last week went well for school 1 so keep your fingers crossed! i should know in a few days about it. but i have an interview at school 2 on thursday morning. so i'm getting to philly wednesday morning - going to training because it is a new conference for me, driving home wednesday night (good thing i'm closeish to philly), interview thursday am, and then directly to philly for the conference where i'll be working 8am-11pm thursday to sunday. then flying back to charleston sunday night!

 hope you have a good week!

really bored

dear blog,
i still love you. i'd like to apologize for ignoring you. i'm sorry my life is boring right now and i haven't felt like writing about it. i will try to write more while in new jersey.
much love,
erin

so that pretty much sums up what i've been doing the last two weeks. i've read a redic number of books. my kindle and local library are even more of my friend than they used to be. i'm a huge fan of the free kindle section and some are great and others are not. i do keep track of the books i read each year and so far i've read 59 books and another 50 free kindle books (ones i have read, like & are book length, many free are shorter) and some of the books i read last week are:
girls in white dresses - catherine bybee - library
on sparrow hill - maureen lang - free kindle
falling star - diana dempsey - free kindle
the paris wife - paula mclain - library
nantucket nights - elin hilderbrand - borrowed from sister
19th wife - david ebershoff - library

i looooove that kindle now does library books and hey i have a stack of books i need to pickup from my local library too. so yay for reading!

and i had a fun weekend! friday night was my sorority's annual ornament exchange, so that was fun and it was great to see my nj sisters, who i've missed! and then saturday i went out to lunch with one of my former coworkers who i taught with and yesterday i went wedding dress shopping with my twin! it was great to see her and spend the afternoon with her, her mom & sister and then also try on a few bridesmaid dresses and then meet up with the boys to check out a potential wedding band. and i will say i never had so much fun people watching in a casino before.

and i've been having some fun with my hair - my sister wanted to try something out but couldn't figure out how to do it on her own hair, so she tried with me. but first she needed to curl my hair, which i haven't tried doing in years! but she just did it with a curling iron and while it first took some getting used to she has done it a few times and i really like it.

so just trying to keep myself busy, without spending money and i'm just overall not in a great mood right now, which i hate because i'm bored and not working.

i only post on monday

so apparently i only post on monday anymore.

last week just kept getting busier as the week went on. i was scheduled for mostly nights at retail job which ment that i could sub during the day. so i ended up working tuesday day, wednesday night, subbing thursday, subbing friday and working saturday night and sunday night and subbing monday. plus volunteering thursday and friday night. so the later part of the week was crazy! good crazy but a oops erin didn't really sit at the computer week.

so in reality not a really exciting week. at retail i was put on registers all week, which i enjoyed. i'm pretty good at it and i picked up quick so i have a feeling i'll be there a lot. and doing shipments on tues/thurs mornings. so if i could get a great schedule going of sub mon/wed/fri and retail tues/thurs am and one-two nights i'd be a happy camper.

i volunteered two nights last week for house tours. so that was a fun thursda/friday night. i was in the cutest garden thursday night in a gorgeous house that was quite livable as the family had 4 small children. and then friday night i was in the complete opposite. i was in the "living room" of a super flamboyant gay male that seriously was a museum. i mean who owns a greek urn from 2000BC (yes - BC) or a horse statue from the tang dynasty of china (618-900) or a cezanne, picasso, rembrant... charleston magazine did a piece on the house - check it out! i didn't get to go upstairs but the downstairs was worth it. so i had fun pointing out fun pieces in the living room to people friday night, and many remembered me from the garden thursday night, so that made it more fun.

after work saturday night i met amy, pam, julia and some other friends downtown for drinks where i ended up drinking quite heavily in the 1.5 hours i was out to get caught up. but we had a fun night playing quarters and laughing. sunday morning met up with julia for brunch. we went to the tattooed moose which was delish. we ended up getting lunch but my grilled cheese and duck fat fries were fab! and then we went to the charleston library's book sale where i ended up with 10 new books for $11!

and today i subbed the classes from hell. more on that to come. buuuuut my twin got engaged today! eeeeeee! sooo happy for her & andy! when she called me this afternoon i could tell as soon as she said hello so i started yaying and jumping up and down.

so hopefully i'll post a bit more this week!

birthday weekend

thanks for all the birthday wishes! it was a fun birthday weekend and it turned into a mini-road trip along the way and getting to see lots of friends!

i was off friday and despite things i still want to do on my dc list i was a lazy bum and didn't really do anything but relax, read, completely redid my blog, and watched some trashy tv. i kinda hate that i spent a day off doing nothing, but oh well. then in the evening i met up with mj, patricia and others to go see "stupid, crazy, love." and i really enjoyed it. it was more of a romantic comedy and i was seriously laughing the whole time. steve carell was pretty funny and ryan gosling was extremely sexy (he has only gotten hotter as he's gotten older)  and i love emma stone! there were a few awkward bits but overall it was funny, a cute plot and had some turns in there that were unexpected. i'd recommend seeing it!

ptrish being funny with the sangria

so after the movies patricia and i had made plans earlier in the week for sangria. so after the movie we ended up in chinatown and went to las tascas for some sangria and tapas, which were delish. we split a pitcher of sangria and had some great convos about life and everything and might have been a bit tipsy... but we decided since it was just after midnight to head to fado next door for another drink.

well it was now officially my birthday (and my mom called at midnight exactly as she was driving home with my sister from a tim mcgraw concert and kept sending me the funniest texts all night) and so we just ordered our drinks and were trying to find a spot to stand and patricia wanted to play "have you met erin" and "it's her birthday" but we were beat to the punch when a guy comes over to me and goes my friend over there thinks you're cute and well you should talk to him as it is his birthday... so patricia goes, OMG no way it is her birthday too. so we start chatting and his was from northern nj and it was pretty funny. so we take a birthday shot and soon find our way on the dance floor. and then i became that girl drunkenly making out on a dance floor. (which i haven't done since i left ireland) and it was a pretty funny evening. i mean really doesn't that start like a great beginning of a rom-com? meeting in a bar both having the same birthday. seriously i can't make this shit up. welcome to my life.  anyway as i'm leaving dc in 11 days it was a fun story and reminded me that i don't like randomly hooking up with guys i meet in bars so it is just another fun story i have.

watching movies in
the backyard

saturday was fun (after i woke up with a bit of a hangover) but i was headed to jeanne's house for travis's 30th birthday bash! it was a great chance to see a bunch of my college friends who i know i won't be seeing in a while and to have fun grilling, drinking in their backyard and just enjoying catching up with some of my favorite people. jeanne did make my favorite funfetti and strawberry frosting cake for me. and for some reason i was anti-camera so i didn't end up with any pictures from the evening. but the best part was that jeanne to surprise travis rented an inflatable big screen & projector so she could show a movie in their backyard. which was so much fun for us all to be sitting in their backyard watching a movie. buuut my recommendation is don't show "forgetting sarah marshall" on a large screen in your backyard. there are a few too many scenes where we were like oops, good thing i don't have many neighbors! but it was a great way to celebrate and a fun way to spend my birthday!

becca's adorable kitten and her cat 

so sunday morning twin and i had tried to make plans, but she had to work (silly girl scouts) but we made plans for the week i'm home. but i had been trying to make plans with becca and since i was in pa i figured might see what she is up to. and she was free so i drove to harrisburg and spend sunday evening with her and had fun catching up and just chatting and enjoying spending time with her and then was up super early on monday morning to drive back to dc for work.

with some of my staff

yesterday was the last day of session - so we cleaned up and got everything organized and had a little party for our staff to celebrate the summer. it is so nice to not be working 120+ hour weeks and well for the next 2 weeks back to a regular 40 hours. and i have lots of dinner plans this week and i'm seeing TAYLOR SWIFT tomorrow night with patricia! we bought tickets last week and decided we needed to relive the summer of 2009 when we met and both were obsessed. i can't wait! it is crazy i have 10 days left in dc and then i'm home for a week and then off to charleston. where is this summer going?



how was your weekend?

2010 in review

so 2010 wasn't the best year for me - it started out pretty awesome and then about halfway through the year everything started to change. it hasn't been horrible and i've really tried to look on the bright side, as i've been able to do some pretty awesome things. but it has been a rough year. but i've been really lucky as 2007, 2008 and 2009 (especially 2009) were awesome, so i hope 2011 will be a better year.

january:
had a fun new year's eve with erin hanging out, and i was super busy in january. with teaching, driving to bethlehem to see matt on the weekend, coaching the ski team. yea... january was boring. i was working everyday from 7am-8pm with school and ski. and there were seriously no photos in jan :(


february:
february was crazy! with teaching, ski team, zta recruitment, going to kansas, and other little trips.

kansas basketball game with patricia

at truman's house in missouri

lots of snow!

so it was the usual with school & ski. i also had recruitment for the college zta chapter i advise with a few late late nights, and the highlight of february was kansas! i was also hanging out with erin every week going to the movies or dinner (so nice to have a local friend). played in princeton for the day with jclark and i went out for a long weekend to see my friend patricia and had a blast in kansas! went to a kansas basketball game, played with history and ate a lot of amazing food. i also hit 2 new states - kansas and missouri! stayed a little longer due to a blizzard in jersey. lots and lots of skiing! the charity ball with matt, more snow, being hooked to the tv for the winter olympics especially the skiing & hockey.




march:

amy and i on our adventure

puppy and lillian kitten

march started out great. i went up to mystic for a fun weekend! i also got a new camera! yay! dyed my hair, seeing twin in pa, got new glasses, sadly had to put the sweet miss brandy to sleep :(
saw riverdance with erin which was fabulous and my present to myself for being back in the states a year! huge budget cuts in nj in education, but still loving my job and my students, still seeing matt on the weekends and having fun with him, super busy with work, being ztatastic and happy that it is no longer winter!


april:

monticello

gettysburg

april was a fun month! it started out with spring break! yay! a week off of school! and i was down to virginia to see my sister for easter with my family and then it was the civil war road trip. i went to richmond, appomattox, monticello, longwood college (where my sorority was founded), fredricksburg, saw where stonewall jackson's arm was burried, chancellorsville, wash dc, gettysburg and i got to see my pen-pal holly! so that was an amazing week. the rest of april was uneventful, loving my job but things were still uneasy with if i was going to have a job, but i was loving the spring weather and still seeing matt when i could and i bought my bike!

may:

fun weekend in philly

tswift

graduation

may was traveltastic! started out may with a much needed mystic weekend. i helped amy celebrate her birthday and a fun weekend of drinking and playing on the water. then the next weekend i was down in philly with jeanne, with a hilarious we're drinking like we're in college night and cheering on our college team rowing. still waiting to hear about my job, absolutely loving my students and teaching, seeing TSWIFT in concert which was ammmmazing! then the next week i was in baltimore to see my little & glittle for the weekend, which was an awesome time! and next was my fav trip of may - going up to boston to see jeanne graduate which was my 4 reunion! may went by super fast as i was traveling but it was so much fun!




june:

dixie chicks, keith urban & the eagles

eeeee! only a few more days of school before summer break! i signed up for a half-marathon, read a ton of books, loved seeing erin & my sorority alumni sisters & cut my hair with bangs! unfortunately found out that i wasn't getting rehired with about a week left in the school year, saw the dixie chicks, keith urban & the eagles in concert which was fabulous! survived my first year teaching and was extremely sad to not be teaching there again, went to graduation and then a few hours later was in mystic and camp started the next day! camp was crazy! the staff was fun, but man i wasn't used to the little kids!

july:

lots of sailing

lobster

lady a & tim mcgraw

summer was in swing at camp, which i was enjoying. but i was loving the weekends. 4th of july was great with the beach, boating & fireworks. lots of sailing, driving the launches, happy hours on friday nights, laughing as the boys drank on weeknights. twin came up and her amy and i went to see lady a and tim mcgraw and got drenched in a thunderstorm! the summer of arnold palmers, attempting to eat lobster, sailing, playing at the cottages in newport, my fab 25th birthday weekend of the bar, carson's, the beach and the rascal flatts with amy and captain! i also started up my photo365 again!

august:

sunrise over acadia

acadia national park

love it

still lots of sailing, realizing i should be running for the half marathon, the pranks at camp, and general summer fun. quickly realizing summer was almost over and slightly panicing about my life and no clue as to what would happen, i cried a lot this summer. camp ended and lots of cleaning. heading up to maine (yes! another new state) with amy for a few days camping at acadia national park. which i LOVED. lots of hiking, biking, watching sunrise, and just an absolutely gorgeous part of our country. sadly leaving connecticut and heading back to nj, where i became a statistic. started going on a few dates and did my 30 by 30 list and found out i'd be in dc only for a few weeks this fall.

little's bachelorette

yay 13.1 miles

world war II memorial

ft. mchenry

september:
had a mini breakdown when school started and i wasn't going back but it was a busy week, catching up with erin & barb, went hiking with becca, and then drove down to dc for a few weeks work. and on the way went to my little's bachelorette party in baltimore which was a blast! and then the history dork i am went to ft. mchenry and then i started what i thought was going to be two-ish weeks in dc. in dc i hung out with my fav mj and we were tourists and i got my library of congress library card! and then was so excited to be reunited with patricia and mj! training week was fun, and to end the week was the chestertown half marathon! i met up with jeanne and walburn and had a great weekend, running 13.1 miles in 2:11:56, which i was super excited about, and then some crew time and then hitting up the bird and drinking like we were in college! first session went well and i was asked to work more weeks! so i was going to be in dc a bit longer!







october: 

ft. sumter

magnolia plantation grounds

mom and i at army

little and i

conference life is crazy. i was loving the fun with ellie & mj and our lunch adventures especially with cupcakes! my groups were all pretty awesome, so i was lucky! little's wedding in baltimore was so much fun! she was gorgeous and it was a great party! and just crazy conference life. having a week off and going with amy to charleston, sc! took amtrack and had fun playing in a gorgeous southern city! seeing ft. sumter! and all the gorgeous architecture! the plantations and old houses! i was in love. tswift's new cd came out! ended the month with going to an army football game with my parents and heading back down to dc for one last week.











november:

ellie & i at end of cycle

erin and i hiking

thought there might be some good news, but there wasn't. but the last week of conferences were fun! and the end of cycle was completely hilarious! then i was back to nj.... november kinda sucked. i subbed a few days a week, read a lot, erin & i went hiking and were hanging out all the time. it was a really quiet month. i bought a bed. thanksgiving with my family was nice. joined the gym...



december:

amy & i in newport

walburn, me and jeanne 

christmas

lots of plans for december. the first weekend i met up with 2 college friends in the city for the day, then sorority christmas party, and saturday drove to philly to get jeanne and we headed to baltimore for walburn's christmas party! it was a great night and then met kaity for brunch sunday. continued to sub a few days a week, re-did my room, went to connecticut for the weekend and saw catie for dinner and then the usual mystic shenanigans. amy & i went to newport, the slumber party and a great weekend. christmas was quickly approaching, i booked the eurotrip! 3 weeks in january to zurich, prague, budapest, vienna, cologne, amsterdam and ireland!
yay!! took little bro into the city for
his present to see the king tut exhibit, which was fabulous. and then suz's christmas party in the city, which was hilarious and fun to see some people i haven't in years. and then lots of christmas and euro prep. a nice christmas with my family, where i got a kindle! and today a big snowstorm. the rest of this week will be getting ready for europe and a new years eve with jeanne and other college friends in philly.



2010 overall i did a lot, there was a major disappointment with not getting rehired. but i think i've done an ok job of looking on the bright side and having fun. i did some awesome things!

-3 new states (kansas, missouri & maine)
-successfully completed my first year teaching
-made a few new awesome friends
-restarted my photo365
-ran a half marathon
-saw riverdance, taylor swift/kellie pickler, eagles/dixie chicks/keith urban, lady a/tim mcgraw/rascal in concert
-lots of road trips to see friends

so i am extremely lucky that i was able to do so many things and have these awesome opportunities. i hope 2011 will be a better year, but i was lucky in 2010 for many things.