Ghost Tour

UGA does a ghost tour near halloween around the campus.  Mallory told me about it.  Wednesday night, she ditched class a bit early and we headed over to the arch in order to start the tour.  Earlier in the night, it had begun pouring, however, by 8pm, it was only a drizzle.  Rain gear in hand, we waited in eager anticipation for the tour to start.

5 minutes later, we figured being late must be part of the 'act'.

10 minutes later, we figured they may be late.

15 minutes later, we about gave up hope.

Even as we walked away 20 minutes later, we kept looking back in hope that someone would appear to give the tour.

Here's a pic of us waiting with excited anticipation! :)

Maybe next year...right?!  :/  But who knows, maybe I'll be the one having to ditch class early to try and attend the ghost tour ;)

Washington Farms Corn Maze

So I'm trying not to bury myself in school work.  This will be harder and harder the next fews weeks as projects are due, and I'm trying to prepare for hurdle #1 of 11 of the PhD process (oh, and passing every class, but I'm not adding those to the list).  

Last Saturday, I was invited to a corn maze.  I enjoy mazes, and it was a good chance to get out of the house and interact with some other doc students.  

Here are some pics from the night.  Below is Nikki, she's a first year doc student in the same program.

 The group of us ready to tackle the maze.  Well, errr, the picture was actually taken after, so more appropriately...the group of us that survived the maze.

 This particular field had two mazes, a short and a long.  One way to enter the long maze was via a homemade pipe slide.  Don't be fooled, it was a beast.  We watched little children slide down and they barely made it off the end.  Well, with a little extra weight (compared to a 10 year old) I slide down in a hurry...and laughed the entire way down.  Here's a pic of Jen (a doc student currently in dissertation phase; and look if she can walk away from writing and studying...so.can.I.) :)

(Below) they had a pumpkin you could stand next to to measure your height.  This just proves that I am taller than my sister :)  Or rather that I'm clever enough to stand on some hay to make myself appear to be 6ft. tall.

Overall the maze was fun and the company was nice.  I'm guessing that I'll make another trip back to Washington Farms multiple times in the next three years as they have all sorts of seasonal festivities.

30 Years Young

October 16th marked my 30th birthday.  In some ways, I already felt 30.  In other ways, I still feel like a kid in grown up clothes waiting for someone to discover the magic fortune machine I made a wish on.  Either way, I didn't panic about turning 30.  No pleas were made.  No tears were shed.  To be honest, 29 felt more odd than turning 30.

I am excited about my thirties.  I believe there are lots of things to look forward to.

For the last few years, my mom and dad have swapped coming into town for my birthday.  Since my dad and sister came out to Georgia to help me move, it was fitting that mom came for my birthday.

She flew in early Thursday morning and out early Monday morning.  We had a nice time celebrating!

Friday we toured UGA and all the important places in Athens...like Hobby Lobby ;)

Saturday at midnight, I opened my gift from my sister.  It had come a few days earlier from Target...tempting me to open it.

I was super excited about the espresso machine.  I had mentioned wanting one awhile ago, but my sister threw me off by asking me about everything else but the espresso machine on my list. :)  I LOVE it!

Saturday morning my mom made me breakfast, I opened some other lovely gifts and then we headed for the mountains of North Carolina!  Last year for my birthday, I crossed off a few states and this year...I crossed off a few more.  

As a side note, I'm down to ONE hand! Alaska, Hawaii, Connecticut, Road Island, and Kentucky are the only states left on the list.   

Here are some pictures from our trip through North Carolina.  We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville.  It was beautiful.  I would like to go back for an entire weekend. :)

 There were numerous tunnels.  They were a wonderful addition to the drive, minus driving out of the dark into the bright light...little hard on the eyes.

 I love fall colors!  I love brisk weather.

 Sunday afternoon we headed to Atlanta.  We were going to try and see Olympic park and the MLK museum.  Unfortunately, the MLK museum closed early AND Olympic park was kind of a bust.  I mean, it's a water fountain and a grassy area.

However, I had been craving some Panda Express and fortunately, Atlanta (unlike Athens) has one! Get excited, it's the little things in life. ;)

Sunday night was finished off with an ice cream cake.  I love ice cream cake.  It's the best of both worlds.  The selection was slim, but we found a supposedly delicious flavor.  However, when we cut into it, we were deceived.  White cake.  Boo.  It still tasted good, just not what we had anticipated!  We had the ice cream cake while sipping on lattes.  It was a wonderful ending to a fantastic birthday weekend!  I was glad my mom was able to celebrate the weekend with me and see my new home!

Celebration

My grandpa's 82nd birthday is Monday, October 11th.

A couple months ago, when he was diagnosed with cancer my family talked about doing a living memorial in celebration of his life. Often times, at funerals, people say such lovely things about the person who has passed. Unfortunately, many times those wonderful things aren't said to the person while alive.

Today my family is celebrating my grandpa's birthday and life in a sort of living memorial sort of way. They've invited people from all over. Family, friends, friends of family, even some of his doctors and hospice nurses are planning to attend.

I wish I was able to attend, unfortunately, living on the other side of the world (sometimes it feels that way), and school prevent me from being there. However, I was able to participate in the event through the creation of a video that will be played during the party.

Paul Rhymes, you are loved!

(since the video won't post...here is the YouTube link)
Happy Birthday Video!