None of you is less surprised than me that I have let this blog die over the course of the summer. Me having too much free time leads to me watching entire seasons of shows rather than even feigning productivity.
But as I sit on my couch less than three hours before my graduate school orientation (I wrote this earlier today but am just now posting it as I steal Internet.), I have a sudden urge to write about everything that has happened in the past few months. For your sake, I’ll just hit the highlights.
1. I went to Alaska! I could’ve sworn I wrote about this already, but I guess I’m losing my mind. Scotty and I went on a business trip with our mom and got to experience Alaska’s natural beauty and delightfully cool weather for a week. Fairbanks and Fort Greely, two of the places we stayed, were admittedly very boring. But Denali was beautiful and made the entire trip more than worth it.
I saw wolves and moose and bears, oh my! (Yes, I have made this joke before. It’s still funny.) And every way you turned was a view even more beautiful than the one before. You could see those views anytime you wanted, too, because the sun never really set the whole time we were there. I would absolutely go back to Alaska, but it would have to be in the summer again; this Alabama girl is not cut out for negative anything temperatures!
2. I got my car back. Amen and hallelujah, y’all. I have not stopped thinking all summer about how lucky I was to not be injured or completely displaced by the tornado. But it was torture not having my car for 9 weeks! I went from enjoying total freedom my senior year of college to being immobile at my mom’s house most of the summer. Not my idea of fun.
Unfortunately, the shop did a pretty shoddy job on my car. My (after market) back window was ridiculously warped; it was dangerous driving because looking at my rearview mirror was looking through a carnival mirror. A shop in Huntsville replaced that window and repainted/fixed parts that the first shop hadn’t done right.
Again unfortunately, the saga isn’t quite over yet. Now that I’m back in Tuscaloosa, I’m supposed to contact my insurance company again to have my car reassessed and probably fixed again. But I’m not even that mad; mostly I am just happy to be mobile again! And to still have the car that Grandma worked so hard to get me. It’s a blessing.
3. My best friend got married! (I was the maid of honor, and this will probably get another more detailed post soon. With pictures!) Katie is now a Coppens, and none of us could be happier. My weekends in July were pleasantly consumed by a bridal tea, lingerie shower, bridesmaid luncheon, and bachelorette party. And those were some of the best weekends of my life! It was great spending time with Katie, her family, family friends, and my fellow bridesmaids. What an unbelievable month!
Then came the weekend of August 6. Friday was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. It’s no secret that I can get a little emotional, but I was a wreck that night! When Katie walked down the aisle to her entrance song during the rehearsal, I pretty much started bawling. Katie’s dad and Zack’s dad told me I would have to hold it together during the actual wedding or they might both lose it, too!
I also got entirely too emotional during the speeches at the rehearsal dinner. Zack’s dad got me crying right before I was supposed to talk, but somehow I held it together during my maid of honor speech. But I cried again during Jake’s, Katie’s dad’s, and Zack’s sister’s speeches. It messed up all the real makeup I had bought specifically for this weekend!
Wedding day was also an emotional rollercoaster, but it was one of the best days of my life. Katie was literally the most beautiful bride ever in history of the world. No, I’m not biased. I broke down right before the wedding seeing her in her wedding dress, but I mostly held it together during the actual ceremony. It was hard to keep my lip from quivering, though. But all the emotions were happy ones, and the ceremony was incredible.
After the I do’s (actually, I wills), we went over the Limestone Springs to dance the night away. I cried AGAIN during Katie and Zack’s first dance and when Katie danced with her dad and Zack danced with his mom. But it’s their fault for choosing such emotional songs! The music was great and the reception was a blast, and I cried for the last time when the newlyweds drove away in the Rolls Royce. It was perfect!
4. Just the Wednesday after Katie’s wedding I went to D.C. and New York with my good friend, and former across the hall neighbor, Matt. We went to D.C. to visit Chris, another very good friend (and another across the hall neighbor). Chris is going to Georgetown this year ( :) / :( ), and Matt and I took it upon ourselves to help him get settled in. Not like actually helping him set up his house but more like having tons of fun and forcing him to be our tour guide. Basically the same thing, right?
Either way, we had loads of fun in D.C. (and ate at my new favorite restaurant Roti… like Mediterranean Chipotle) for a day or so before Matt and I took the Bolt Bus to New York to stay with his friend Josh for a couple of days. We navigated the subway system, ate dinner at Shake Shack, saw Times Square, slept in Brooklyn, ate real New York bagels, spent hours walking in Central Park, took an entire afternoon (still, not nearly enough time) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ate dinner in Little Italy, again spent the night in Brooklyn, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, ate some not so real New York pizza, and took the Bolt Bus back to D.C. It’s exhausting just writing that, but it was so much fun! I don’t know if I could live in New York, but I would love to visit for longer.
When we got back to D.C. on Saturday night, it was time for our last big hoorah. We ate Afghan food (YUM!) and then hit the town with three other UA folks. It was a glorious night, and it ended with late-night empanadas. Perfection. Sunday was spent touring Georgetown, eating delicious cupcakes at Baked and Wired, schmoozing with important UA grads, touring monuments, and finishing it all off with a bottle of wine that we risked our lives in a storm for. Monday we went to Ben’s Chili Bowl (where the Obama family and Bill Cosby eat free), saw the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, toured more monuments, and then sadly had to pack up and leave. All in all, it was a great way to spend some of the last days before we all get sucked into the grad school vortex.
5. Speaking of the grad school vortex, these are quite literally the last words I will write before I am sucked into it. There are less than two hours now until orientation. I realized I never fully disclosed my graduate school plans, mostly because I didn’t make those plans until after the tornado. After April 27, I just couldn’t see leaving Tuscaloosa behind quite yet. So I accepted a fellowship, found an apartment, and went home to relax for the summer. Now, nearly four months later, I have moved back to Tuscaloosa to make good on my word. For the next twelve months, I will be working toward a Master’s degree in Applied Economics. I know it may sound terrible, but darn it, it’s practical. And somebody has to fix our economy, right?
15 hours this semester. Here’s to the end of my social life as I know it! Thank goodness my summer was so outstanding. Roll Tide.
