Girls' Night In

Tonight consisted of: good friends + American Idol + mouse cookies.
That combination is always a winner!

I see why she was my dad's favorite sister.

...even if she was his only sister ;-)

I love my family! I just got off the phone with my aunt Kathy. This is the second hour long conversation with someone in my family in less than a week! I'm on a roll. haha.. no really, I do love my family but we are so spread out and busy with our lives that it's hard to have time to actually talk, let alone spend time together. I really love my Aunt Kathy...she's inspiring to me. She's so nice and normal, and she comes from the same crazy family that I do. She gives me hope ;) haha. I usually dont talk to her on the phone for that long, but it was nice. I'm hoping that once I move home I can actually spend some more time with her.

20 things I did on the road trip...

1. Drove A LOT (over 2,600 miles total)

2. Got woken up by crazy Mexicans.

3. Never spent more than 1 night in a single place, except Florida (2 nights, but still barely 24 hours there).

4. Watched a sunset on the beach!!! (my favorite!!!)

5. Ate fresh mahi-mahi (my favorite fish! especially fresh:))

6. Became a new fan of Jason Mraz.

7. Ate a LOT of Subway

8. Skipped my diet just a little bit - DQ blizzards were a car ride necessity.

9. Got Miley Cyrus stuck in my head - not sure how that happened.

10. Drove past Disney World, but sadly did not stop :(

11. Went to the Virginia Tech campus.

12. Saw Juno (LOVED it!) in a neat old theater.

13. Drove around Blacksburg, VA for probably 30 minutes (possibly more) looking for a dang place to park! Parking there is horrible, plus you have to pay for it in most places!

14. Ordered a huge calzone for dinner!

15. Went to the top of a mountain in east Tennessee

16. Stood in Kentucky and Virginia at the same time

17. Saw Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee from the top of the mountain

18. Visited Cumberland Gap

19. Broke my digital camera :(

20. Visited 7 states: Georgia > Florida > South Carolina > North Carolina > Virginia > Kentucky > Tennessee

Last stop!!

Phew! Our road trip is almost over. It's been fun, but really busy! I'm currently in our last hotel. We're in east Tennessee and Beth's interview should be done around 1:15 or so, and then we'll be on our last drive - HOME! Our stay here has been interesting to say the least. We got here last night around 8 or so I think. When we checked in we asked for a late check out. Sure, sure, that was fine. So we go up to our room, with the monster calzone that I mentioned in the last entry. We planned on eating it for dinner, since there was so much left! Well...our room didn't have a microwave, so we went downstairs to see if there was one in the area where they serve breakfast. Nope. So we asked the front desk if they had a microwave anywhere. He offered to bring us one to our room, but instead we opted for the backstage tour and used the one in the employees lounge. Finally the monster of a calzone was warm enough to eat so we head back up to our room. Afterwards we went to wash our hands in the bathroom (because we didn't have napkins), and what do you know - the sink won't drain! at all. We felt bad calling the front desk again but we kind of had to, because that was kind of important. They agree to switch us to a new room. About 30 seconds later they call back and say, "We don't have anymore rooms with 2 queen beds, will a suite with a king size bed and a pull-out sofa be alright?" SURE! So we got upgraded to a suite for free :) It wasn't quite as nice as our suite in Virginia with the flat screen TV (which we only stayed in because for some reason it was only about $3 more than any other room around there), but it's nice.

I'm trying to research digital cameras and figure out what kind to get. I'm a little more nervous to get a more advanced camera now since my little point and shoot is completely broken now. But I don't know.... I still think it would be a lot more fun. However, I have read reviews and people of course reccommend getting a DSLR instead because the quality is a lot better. Someone reccommended the Nikon D40 because it's easy to use and cheap (for a DSLR), but even at $500 (which I do agree is pretty cheap for a camera like that, considering they are usually like $1000+) it is still more than I want to spend. So I dont know. I'm not going to rush out and buy a camera though, because last time I bought one, that obviously didnt work out very well. So I'm going to make sure what I get is something good. Needless to say, the pictures of the day will be on hold indefinitely....

Virginia..

Well.... we are currently in Blacksburg, VA - Virginia Tech. Beth is at her interview, and once she is done (this afternoon), we will be on our way to the final interview in east Tennessee and we'll be home late tomorrow night.

Virginia has been pretty cool...it's no Florida, but it's alright. It's colder and has mountains instead of beaches. Not my favorite, but mountains are pretty :) it was really cloudy and dreary yesterday and there wasn't a whole lot to do. We ended up eating at a really neat Greek restaurant though, where I ordered a calzone. I asked the waitor if it was good, and his response was, "yeah, they are huge." Huge is never a good word when describing the portion of food that I eat, because I never eat a lot. But our hotel room has a refridgerator and microwave in it, so I figured I could just save it and eat the rest for lunch today. Well...let's just say I wont be eating the rest today. I'll be eating for the next 43 days. when he brought it, it really was HUGE! I think it is basically a pizza crust stuffed with cheese and chicken and folded in half. I took pictures of it, but my camera broke, so I dont know when or if I will be able to post them. more on that later though.

After that we stumbled across a little theater that was playing the movie Juno. We had both been wanting to see that and decided we really didnt have anything better to do, so we went to see it. The theater was really neat, it was like an old-time one. Anyway, the movie was hilarious! I liked it a lot!!! You should go see it, if you haven't.

So yeah...my camera is officially broken. I am pretty peeved about it, since it's not even a year old. It was bad enough when the little lid broke and it was a pain to take pictures, but now it's completely broken. I was trying to take pictures of the hotel room (because it's really NICE - we have a sitting area, kitchenette, 2 queen beds, a flat screen HDTV, and a marble bathtub), and anyway, so I kind of accidently dropped it a little bit - not even from very far, and it was on the carpet. Well, I dont know what happened, but it won't focus anymore (it has an error message), and the lens won't move. So apparently I dropped it on the lens. I don't know, but it's supposed to be shock proof from up to 5ft to prevent things like that. I'm really disappointed in it, so don't buy an Olympus!!! It's not even a year old!!!! I guess I will be buying a new camera... ugh.

A day at the beach!!!

The weather here is so nice!!! The high today was 80, and when we were out I saw somewhere that the temperature was 74. Perfect!

I could live here =)

On the way to Florida..

Hello, Georgia!

This picture does not really do a good job of representing anything in Georgia. It's just me in the hotel... but that is where all my time has been spent :)

We made it to Georgia last night around midnight....went to sleep around 1:30 or so. Beth had to stay up and try to get on the internet because she needed to know what time her interview was. For a hotel that advertises having free high speed wireless internet, it sure was hard to get on it. In fact, you could only do so by standing in front of the window. I am currently taking my chances by sitting down.

I got a late check-out time so I get to stay here until noon....instead of 10:00 I think. I wish they let the little mexicans who clean the rooms know when you are checking out late. I was trying to sleep and he knocked on the door, once at 9:45 and once at like 10:05. I ignored him the first time until he finally left, and the 2nd time I informed he we had a late check-out time. I'm not sure he understood me, but he went away.

It's freezing here! I thought we had gone south. Apparently it's cold here too.. I hope it's warmer in Florida!!!

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Road Trip!

I'm going with Beth to some med school interviews! Our schedule is kinda crazy, but I'm thinking it should be a fun little adventure...

Here is the itinerary:
we're leaving Wednesday afternoon for Atlanta, about a 6 hour drive . Beth's interview is there Thursday morning. After that we will drive about another 6 or 7 hours to Tampa, FL. Her interview is there on Friday. Then we will have friday night and Saturday to hang out at the beach in Florida! It will be about 80 degrees while we are there!!! Then Saturday afternoon or so we will drive about 6 or 7 hours to South Carolina, which will get us half way to our next stop - Virginia. Sunday we'll drive the rest of it. Beth's interview is there on Monday. After that we'll drive about 8 hours I think to east Tennessee where her next interview is on Tuesday. After that we will drive back across the state (another 8 or so hrs) home. I haven't added it up yet, but that's a lot of miles!!!

I'm going to get back to packing now!

Good one - Union tribute

I know, sorry, I will quit posting these soon... but this is a really good video made as a tribute to all those at Union.

Tornado damage video clip

Here's a short (26 second) clip of some of the damage done at Union.

Tornado pictures!

arial shot of campus (above)

I have uploaded all of the pictures I can find from the tornado aftermath to my website. That way everyone can see them whether or not you belong to the Union network on facebook, and even if you do, they are all in one location.

More pictures...

I know I've posted a lot today, but the pictures just amaze me so I felt the need to post them. I stole these from facebook, they were taken by various students.
(as always, they are clickable)

And to think, all of this happened in about 35 seconds....

Pictures of Jackson

Here are a couple of photos I was able to snap when I was out today. They are not nearly as good as the ones I posted below (which I did not take), but this is what I have so far.

(Click on them for a larger view)

What is left of Hurt and Watters (the dorms) from the by-pass.

Going down the street, the steel light poles are bent over like a blade of grass. I think the next one captures it better.

Only some crazy strong wind can bend steel like that....

Union update

Well I just got back from campus. Or rather trying to get on campus. They wouldnt let anyone on. It's a surreal feeling being on (near) campus. You can see the dorms from the by-pass, and it's just completely gone. It is so weird.

I am so completely amazed today. I know I have already said it, but I am incredibly grateful and lucky to be alive. I woke up thankful for life, and remembering and realizing that I should feel this way every day, but I far too often take it for granted (and even more, too often complain about things in life). I am amazed at God. He was definitely protecting Union last night. It is incredible that there were no fatalities at Union, and that sinks in even more after seeing the campus in person. I heard now that there have been something like 50 deaths in the south, about half of those in Tennessee. But absolutely none were at Union. I am just amazed. I feel like i keep saying the same thing, but I am truly amazed. I dont know what else to say.

I have been part of a miracle.

Official Union news: http://www.uuemergency.com

Here is a link to an article about it: http://www.baptistpress.com/BPnews.asp?ID=27342

Thankful to be alive!

I honestly have no words to describe last night, other than that it is a complete miracle things are not worse! God was really looking out for me, all the Union students, and Jackson.

I was exhausted yesterday and ended up trying to catch a quick nap yesterday evening. I briefly dosed on the couch and was rudely awakened to tornado sirens and urgent weather reports. I was home alone because Beth was still out of town. It got really windy and started raining really hard, so I got pillows and blankets ready to take into the bathroom. No flashlight - it was dead; and no candels - couldn't find a lighter. I'd been through tornado warnings before, but i was always at home where we had a basement, and they usually just passed with no great damage. Well, then the power went out. I had my battery-sucking phone with me with one bar of power left, so I was able to talk to my mom who was able to see weather updates via the internet. I have never felt as scared and alone as I did last night in my bathtub, by myself, the power out, having no clue what was going on outside.

Soon Amanda called and told me I was welcome to come over to their house. I figured that might be a good idea since there were 2 more rounds of storms coming and otherwise I'd be in my upstairs apartment all alone with no electricty. They don't have a basement but at least their house is actually on the ground. So when my mom gave me the go-ahead I grabbed a few things - in the dark - and left. Didn't get very far though... I ran into the neighbors across from us who I hadn't actually ever really met before.They told me the interstate was blocked off. Long story short, I decided it was probably not extremely safe to try to drive to Amanda's since it was 15 minutes away, on a good day, and I didnt want to get stranded in my car.

After talking to several friends (who had at first not answered their phones, but all of them were okay), I learned that the tornado had gone straight down Oil Well Rd, which is the road my apartment is off of, it's maybe a half mile down the street!!! The tornado (F4) also went straight through Union, taking out most of the dorms and several buildings. I had NO idea it was this bad when I was in my bathtub! I figured it was going to pass like it always does. But it was all happening half a mile and a mile down the street!!!! Several people were trapped at Union, but they have all been rescued now and there are no serious injuries!

I ended up meeting up with some friends at a house down the street. They had been on campus when it happened. My friend Britt said that from what she saw, it would be a miracle if only a handful of people didn't make it. God really does answer prayers - NO ONE has life-threatening injuries. That is amazing, especially considering the same storms have killed at least 44 people all over the south. As far as I know, no one else in Jackson was severely hurt either (several other places were evacuated, including the retirement home Beth's grandma lives in).

I don't think I have completely processed the storm yet... I ended up staying at Britt and Goley's apartment last night. We didn't get much sleep, but some is better than none, and we were happy to learn the power had come back on this morning.We are going to go down to Union in a little bit to see if there is anything we can do to help. On my way home this morning, it finally started to kind of sink in - I just started crying on the way home.I still cannot believe that there were no serious injuries, especially after seeing pictures of Union and hearing about how so many others have lost their lives just miles from here in the same storm. And I cannot believe that the tornado whipped straight down the street that I am so used to driving on every day, just 30 seconds away from my front door. I am incredibly lucky, to say the least.

The following pictures are some I have found from various news websites and the Union facebook group.

To get the full effect of the pictures, click on them.

This picture (above) hit me because I lived in Jones when I lived at Union.