Summer Can't Come Soon Enough

Spring is here and summer is right around the corner. Yippee!

This is really the first summer that I remember being truly excited about it. Don’t get me wrong, I loved not going to school for a couple months and the random trips to the Midwest to see the family but we rarely went to the beach (my parents didn’t swim) or did anything exciting. During college I usually just worked and took classes so it wasn’t much of a summer. This summer is shaping up to be truly exciting though. Both Andy and I are planning to move; him back to Columbia, me into a new house with Miss Erin Egnot. We both have a ton of trips planned: everywhere from Myrtle Beach, to Maryland, to maybe Germany (for me and the Olsgaard clan). Any weekend that we don’t have plans, or I’m working :’(, I’m hoping to take trips around the state and visit all our friends who we don’t get to see very often. There are the Greenville girls, and the group sounds like its numbers will be growing again soon, Justin at Wofford, and the ladies in Charleston. Maybe we can even swing down to Florida for a long weekend to see Miss Celia!

P.S. We are having a mini SPTE/college reunion this weekend. Lots of people are coming into town and I’m so excited to see everyone! Of course I only get to see people sporadically because I have Disney on Ice at the arena this weekend. And I have to be here for all SEVEN shows of it! Are you kidding me? Oh well, that’s the price I pay for having a big girl job.

I’m currently reading: Second Chance by: Jane Green. It’s a little sadder than what I usually look for in chick-lit but I’m pushing through it to see if it gets better. The story is a completely knock off of the movie Big Chill, which I do like. (Best soundtrack ever!). I also just started reading Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracey Chevalier. I’ve always wanted to read it, so I am.

I Like Lists

So I don’t think I’m very good at writing in paragraph form, also I’m just too lazy to write in that format so I’m switching to a list form instead. If you dislike the style, so sorry, but too bad. Hehe I love you. ;)

*I spent my second weekend at the Family Circle Cup Tennis Tournament this past weekend. I’ve never been much of a tennis fan. (I mainly compare it to watching paint dry actually.) But it was surprisingly entertaining. I think the fact that watching anything in person makes everything more fun and the fact that the players were very good also helped. A completely random girl ended up winning which was cool. The winner was only 19 years old and the runner up was only 18! Wow do I feel slightly unaccomplished at the old age of 23. I guess I can always blame my parents for letting my have a wonderful childhood instead of forcing me to become a world class athlete.

*I think everyone I know got engaged over Easter weekend. Okay, not everyone but a bunch of people did. Congrats to all the happy couples. It is kinda funny how these events seem to come in spurts though.

*Somehow I became Facebook friends with people my brother goes to high school with a while back. Well they all had prom over the weekend and I had a good ole’ time looking through all their pictures this morning. It’s crazy to think that my last prom was FIVE YEARS ago! The taste in dresses and hair styles have changed only slightly since I went. It still feels like yesterday that I was shopping for the perfect dress. Both of my proms went very smoothly, no crazy or embarrassing stories. Anyone out there have any good prom stories????

P.S. I’m still reading the same books I mentioned last blog but I thought I would add that Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, will be coming out with a new book called The Lost Symbol on September 15th. For all you lovers of Brown’s work, get excited!!!!

Chicken Fried

So I thought I’d share my new favorite band, the Zac Brown Band. Chicken Fried is such a great southern song, even if it is about Georgia, it still works for SC! Something about the lyrics just speaks to me. Toes is pretty fun too!

You know I like my chicken fried

Cold beer on a Friday night

A pair of jeans that fit just right

And the radio up

Currently I’m reading: Something Blue by: Emily Giffin. I’m hooked on this series. Giffin is a great writer and makes you feel like you know all the characters so well. I’m also reading Society Girls by: Sarah Mason. I haven’t gotten too far in it yet but I think it’s going to be really cute too. I’m really enjoying my girly books but I think I’ll switch it up to someone of substance next time, we’ll see though. ;)

Here is a funny little survey that I thought some of you might enjoy. Once you get to the end copy it either to the comments or an email, then erase my answers, fill in yours, and send it back to me. Yay for procrastinating!

Two - by - Two
Two names you go by:
1 Foot Foot
2 Mama O
Two things you are wearing right now:
1 The necklace Andy gave me
2. Heels
Two things you love to do:
1. Travel
2. Sit on the beach with a good book, a good drink, and good friends
Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. To be in Charleston
2 Be outside to enjoy the sunshine
Two favorite pets you have had/have:
1. I’ve never really had an pets, just fish :(
2.
Two people who will send this back completed:
1. Andy
2. Rebecca
Two things I did last night:
1. Drove to Charleston and back with the family
2. I got to sit in the corporate box and watch Caroline Wozniacki play from the first row. Pretty cool stuff.
Two people you last talked to:
1. Andy Sipes
2. My mom
Trips taken in the last five years:
1 Maryland for New Years
2. Fargo, ND to see the family
Two favorite Holidays
1. New Years
2. Thanksgiving
Two favorite beverages:
1. Water
2. Ginger Ale, I know I’m a dork

Ramble On

I’m so excited, one of my favorite shows has started again, GREEK!!!!!! I know it comes on ABC Family and all but I love that show. It is nothing like my experience in the Greek System, although ESA wasn’t really a greek sorority, but I find it entertaining.

On a completely different note, I read about the weirdest thing yesterday. I’m reading Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot, who also wrote Princess Diaries, and the main story revolves around these kids who are supposedly elevator surfing. It’s when people climb on the top of an elevator car and ride it up and down. Apparently they can also hop from one moving car to the other. Isn’t that the craziest thing you’ve ever heard?!?! Anyway the book is interesting, not exactly what I was expecting though from the title, but then again I didn't realize it would be a mystery.

Also my Erin Egnot is back in Columbia, SC for the next couple of days. I’m so happy. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
Can you tell that I just learned how to insert pictures? Plus everyone loves a visual right?

Currently I’m reading: Size 12 is Not Fat by: Meg Cabot as mentioned previously. I’m also reading Something Borrowed by: Emily Giffin. Its super cute and just what I was looking for, a perfect girly beach book.

I miss my ESA ladies!!!!!

So I had a fabulous time at Relay for Life. It was so great catching up with all the ESA ladies. Its fun how our conversations have changed over the past year. I went to dinner with Lindsey, Natalie, and Whitney and instead of talking about classes and stuff we mostly talked about being an adult and relationships. We all are in different stages in our lives when it comes to relationships and we laughed the whole time over common experiences and the how boys are crazy sometimes. I had a ball!

Fab Four Relay for Life 2006

Fab Four Relay for Life 2009

Then it just got better at Relay. There was lots of screaming and hugging as we greeted each other. We all agreed that it is very weird to realize that we don’t know most of the girls in ESA anymore. The new girls were all giving us the ‘Who is that?” face and “Why are they wearing our letters”. It’s weird because we just wanted to say “They were our letters before they were your letters”, but instead we just met as many as we could and caught up with each other. It’s amazing how much I miss those girls. I guess when you spent every Tuesday of your college career with the same people you get a little attached. It was wonderful and we need to start planning our next ESA reunion. I’m thinking the beach, who’s in?!?!?!

Relay for Life

**Here is your warning: This is not a particularly happy, uplifting blog. If you aren’t in the mood for that, skip it. I understand.**

So I wasn’t sure if I wanted to writing a blog about Relay just because I have such mixed feelings about it. But then I wrote this and figured if I took the time to write it I should put it up. Plus I warned you of the content so there you go.

On the one hand I love Relay for Life. It was always my favorite event in ESA and I’ve participated in one every year since high school. I love how it brings so many people together and obviously it’s for a great cause. I would always be the crazy walking person because I would yell at the girls who would just go to Relay to get hours and then won’t actually walk any of it. That isn’t the point of the event; if you come you better come with your walking/running shoes on!

On the other hand, this year will be incredibly painful to attend Relay for Life. This is the first Relay I’ve gone to since my Dad passed from lung cancer in 2007. I don’t want to get too deep into feelings and stuff because there is no reason to bring all you lovely readers down, plus I’m not sure there are words for what I feel. I’ve always known people who had fought with or passed from the disease and it motivated me toward the cause. However, to lose a parent to it is something completely different. I don’t know if I’ve ever been able to describe the feeling correctly. The only scenario that I’ve been able to come up with is that it is like I was in a traumatic accident and I have a huge scar left on my body but no one can see it. It still hurts, but I’ve learned to function with it, but no one really understands what it feels like unless you have the same scar. And even if someone else has gone through the experience, it’s still different from yours. In last week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy Alex had a monologue about how he and Izzie’s life wasn’t supposed to go the way it was with her having cancer. My family and I said that over and over, still do, about what happened to my dad. ‘This wasn’t supposed to end like this, this wasn’t the plan.’ But sometimes you don’t get a say in life’s plan, and that was a big lesson I had to learn. Even as I write this the comparison doesn’t even seem to cover the half of it. Anyway, I learned, or at least I’m trying, to appreciate everyone around me because everyone contributes something to your life and that is a blessing.

Okay sad time is over. I’m going to focus more on the gathering together to find a cure, or at least something that helps this crazy disease. I’m so excited to see all my old ESA ladies, I love them and have missed them terribly over the past year. It will be a great night!

I'm still finishing up Breaking Dawn and Debutante Divorcee. I haven't had much time for reading but I did finish The Giver. It was an interesting book, it was a little George Orwell - Ray Bradbury for my taste, but I liked the relationship between the boy and the giver.