Brand New's latest Album: Song: At The Bottom

"I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine. "

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone!

It's been quite some time since I last posted which I apologize for; I have been very busy trying to maintain A's in all my classes as well as go to swim practice and try to think about applying to grad schools in the summer.

Luckily, spring break came at just the right time! I got to go home for a week and see my family and spend some time with my friends from home. It was great to get away from all of this cold and snowy weather we had the past few weeks!

Right before spring break, we had "the heaviest snowfall in 10 years." About 11-12 inches of snow...school even got cancelled!!

*I took this around 10pm on Sunday night it read about 8inches!!!*

I drove home to some awesome weather, it was in the 70s the entire time I was home. Had a few days where it was cloudy but it was great anyway.

*My friends and I went to the creek side of Pawleys Island*

*My two friends Mary Ashley and Laura and I at the beach house*

It was a great break just to relax and have some fun with my friends and celebrate my dad's birthday. But now that I'm back at school, I have come to realize that from here until May I am going to be very busy every week. With the first half of the semester over, the exams and projects are going to be in full gear. I've also got three swim meets in the next three weeks. The first will be at UNC Chapel Hill, then Georgia Tech, then NCState. Hopefully I'll get some great pictures and keep everyone updated with them.

It's a stressful time but the sun is out and the snow is melting, which couldn't make me happier!


Until next time,

-Abbie

"Why would I wanna be anywhere else?"

The new semester has begun and I am glad to say that I have high hopes for the next few months. My motivation is at an all time high and I find myself getting all my work done on time or sometimes even ahead of time. Although we are only a few weeks into the new semester, I am trying to keep a positive mindset and pray it will carry on through until May!!


I thought that a pictorial glimpse of the past few months would be fun, because everyone loves photos!

Even with all of the stresses of my exams and work, I managed to spend some quality time with my room mates and friends to spread a little bit of Holiday cheer.

*Our "Charlie Brown" Christmas Tree**we took our decorating skills to a whole new level*

After exams, I went home for a much needed break! It was a blast getting to spend time with my friends and family. My house was decorated with not one...not two...NOT three but SIX Christmas trees. It's not something that is a norm in my family, my mom just really got into the Christmas spirit...to the highest extreme!

*This is our traditional Christmas tree we have every year.*

*This is a tree that was decorated for an auction that raises money for Hospice*
*My mom used to have an aluminum tree when she was a kid, so now we have one too*
*I've had this tree ever since I was born.*

*My mom bought this red tree and used some old dough ornaments to decorate it with*
*We donned this tree in our kitchen*

To say the least, we had A LOT of trees in our house this Christmas!! Over break, my parents and I went to a place called BrookGreen Gardens. During the holidays, they have a festival every year known as the "Night of a Thousand Candles". Brookgreen is a place full of beautiful sculptures and gardens, and for four weeks they keep the gardens open at night on the weekends. There are many different white tents that house special events such as Christmas carolers and a reading of a Christmas Carol as well as the piano stylings of the famous Rocky Fretz.

*Rocky is one of the greatest musicians of all times, he used to play piano at our church as well as at the Carolina Opry. He is one of the nicest people I know!*
*At home it was never under 60 degrees...ever! I even got to go to the beach one day with my friend. The sun was always shining and we called it the Christmas of July. A bunch of my friends got together at my friend's house for a bonfire on one of the more cooler nights. Most of these people I've known since I was in 2nd grade; it's always great when everyone is home at the same time from our respective colleges.*
*Santa brought me a macbook and some sick skull candy headphones. It was a great Christmas!!*

When I got back to Boone, it was cold and snowy. These past few weeks we have been getting quite a lot of snow. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, my roomates and a friend got together and went sledding around campus. I came away from it without any injuries!!

*Sledding down a hill in Sanford Mall*
*My roomates, Emily and Channing, and I getting ready to go down the hill!*

2009 is going to be a year of new ideals and I believe great moments. I am looking forward to my classes and continuing my collegiate journey here at App.

Until next time,

-Abbie

"Life is wonderful, it is so wonderful, it is so meaningful."

It's a dark, rainy day outside on this special Wednesday. The one Wednesday of the semester in which I do not have to attend my classes, Reading Day. Although I am exchanging my three classes for some extra hours spent at work and studying in the library for my finals, it somehow seems like I have the day off.

The next couple of days are going to be a big ball of stress and studying. Yes, it is already that time of year, finals!!! I'm working hard to make all A's in every class with the exception of a killer class (Anatomy and Physiology)... I'll be lucky to make it out alive in the class with a C or a B. Anyhow, I'm spending most of my waking hours and even some of my dreaming hours studying for these finals in hopes for high marks, so be honored that I'm taking a break to update... HA

On a lighter note, Thanksgiving was a short relaxation with my family. We went to Kure beach (right next to Carolina Beach) and spent Thanksgiving with my grandmother. After a visit at Kure beach, I went back home to my beach in Pawleys and spent the rest of the time decorating the house for Christmas and hanging out with some good friends.

^^My Dad and I took a walk around Fort Fischer on Kure beach and I captured a few shots^^

^^I caught this guy braving the cold and cruising on a few good sets of the day^^

Anyway, I must get back to studying for an Anatomy Lab final I have tommorow on all the many muscles of our body and the origins and insertions of them.
Best of luck to those who are going through the same semester stresses!!

Until next time,

-Abbie

"Everybody's got a part in the game, and everybody's got a cross they can claim."

Just wanted to start off the November posts by expressing my extreme excitement for Barack Obama's victory!!!

Anyway, there's plenty of time to be excited about our new president-elect, onward to a recap of the last couple of weeks in October, and the start of November.

Halloween was a blast to say the least! ASU played...well more like DOMINATED over the Wofford Terriers and all of it was documented courtesy of ESPN2, along with all of the fans dressed up in their crazy Halloween costumes.
It was predicted to be a very cold night and with the game starting at 8pm, I went to all measures to secure warmth and comfort...as a result, one of my roomates who is in love with Halloween, let me borrow a chipmunk costume from her vault of many Halloween costumes. I was nice and warm throughout the whole game.

Saturday night, my roomates and I hosted a Halloween party at our house. I opted for a different costume and dressed as a referee. It was a blast!!

^My two roomates as Ginger fron Gilligan's Island and Mrs. Incredible^

This semester is coming to an end and it seems like just three days ago, I was starting these classes! This semester is by far the semester that has gone by the fastest in my three years of being at App. I'm trying to slow down long enough to try and enjoy the beauties of our mother Earth. It snowed at the beginning of this week, and even though I'm very much against the cold and blustery weather that we've been hit with recently, the snow was very pretty.
It's pretty scary to think about it because this time next year I'll be preparing for graduation.
I've started to really delve into the graduate school information and I'm working to take my GRE soon (the GRE is basically the SAT for college students that are trying to get into grad school, so sorry to say that you can't escape them once you leave high school). I'm also working with the coordinator of ASU's wellness center to develop a program for my honors thesis. Now that I have officially registered for my classes for the spring, the realization of that work that is to come is starting to hit hard.

Nevertheless, no matter how stressful the next few semesters will be, I'm making the most of every moment and working hard to acheieve my goals of getting into graduate school, in particular, the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

So I leave with these hopeful and encouraging words. There are many times when you might feel like nothing is going in your favor, but don't worry about a thing because it'll all work out. Work hard. Play hard. Everything is possible with a little faith and effort. I mean, we have a brand new President and he's African American. . . . most people would have never thought this situation would have ever been a real one.

Until next time,

-Abbie

"I can change the world, with my own two hands. I can clean up the earth, with my own two hands."

Last Thursday, October 23rd, one of my room mates asked me to attend a speech with her in Farthing Auditorium (An auditorium on campus where some bands come to play, dance recitals are held, and speakers come to reach out to our Appalachian community).

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr.!!!", my room mate kept saying it over and over again to me with an
enthusiasm I couldn't deny (not that either one of us really knew who he was).

I had just gotten off work and wasn't really in the mood to sit through something she was going to because of a mandatory assignment in one of her classes, but I agreed. Stocked with a small bad of Swedish fish, some chewing gum, and my nalgene, I squeezed by the the large crowds of people to what seemed to be the last remaining two seats on the first floor.

The start of the hour was a bit rocky. I wasn't in the right mind frame at first, and was paying more attention to Kennedy's mannerisms and voice rather than the words and meanings behind them. As my bag of goodies began to run out, I quickly became preoccupied with other things and wasn't really paying much attention. I remember thinking about how Kennedy's voice was so shaky, that it seemed that he was either EXTREMELY nervous or he was slightly intoxicated.
But as I began to listen and focus; the following moments in my life were ones for the record books. These were the moments that you live for.

Robert F. Kennedy is an advocate for environmental action. He feels and voices his thoughts that "Nature is the infrastructure of our community." He is the chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper project, which involves a major patrolling and law enforcing of waterways. Kennedy's main point of his speech was to discuss the environment, mainly the rivers and how protecting them is SO important, but he began to steer off that topic into his interests about energy.



We borrow about 2 billion dollars A DAY from foreign suppliers for oil. In ONE year we give over 700 billion dollars to these foreign oil companies!! Companies which reside in areas of the world that do not particularly care for the United States either. Kennedy also threw another number out at the audience. . . One Trillion. He said if we spend 1 trillion dollars into redesigning our infrastructure for renewable energy, we could provide FREE energy FOREVER!!

FOREVER!!! Imagine never having to worry about a gas crisis ever again, because instead of bartering with shady foreign countries and their policies, we're just using FREE renewable energy. Imagine a cleaner life. An easier life to breathe in. An easier life to live in.

If you're like me, FREE anything sounds pretty awesome. But this isn't something small, like those free, stale cookies that Harris Teeter leaves out for crying babies or starving college students, NO this is FREE energy we're talking about!

Kennedy is already working with a car company to make Israel an electric car hub. They're in the process of working on creating electric outlets for every parking meter in Israel. They're also working on an electric car that holds a travel time of 300 miles, and goes from 0 to 60 in less than 5 seconds. And yes, they've even gone so far as to look out for those people who have to travel over 300 miles. There will be stations (kind of like car washes) where cars drive in and the exhaust pipe (the battery basically) is replaced with a fresh fully charged pipe. . . for FREE.

Renewable energy is the greatest energy!! Kennedy's plans are starting in Israel and he plans to move around after that. He's already gotten the go-head with some areas in Europe and he says his plans for the future involve the USA too!!!

Robert F. Kennedy's ideas are amazing and very interesting!! He is so passionate about the environment! His passion for a better and cleaner world is so inspiring to me. It was great to hear that smart people in this world are using their powers for good and fighting for something worth while.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!! Check out ESPN2 at 8pm.. App is playing Wofford...and hopefully dominating!!

Until next time,

-Abbie

"Given the chance, I'm gonna be somebody."

This month has flown by and so far it has been an experience to say the least!

This year, 2008, is an epic year! With the election just around the corner, I can't walk anywhere around campus without being bombarded by advocates for McCain and Obama. But that is okay, because I am very inspired by the student involvement with this election! North Carolina is considered a "swing" state in this election, meaning that no one really knows if it will be a Red state or Blue state because the support for both candidates is somewhat...equal. I attended a forum last week where two representatives talked about particular actions that were and were not working for either political party. It was really interesting! I learned that according to some statistics recently gathered, 52% of people are going to be voting for Obama in North Carolina. 52% for any presidential candidate is considered extremely high, but for someone like Obama who is a minority and not particularly accepted by certain demographics because of his race, that is an insane percentage!

Here at App we've been given a great opportunity to vote EARLY! It really is a great idea, because the lines on election day are going to be really long. I went and voted already and it was a cool feeling because my vote is part of the growing voice for those who want to have their a say in what happens in this country by voting for who they think should be the leader of it.
For once I can have a voice in something other than a trivial decision of who should be the next American Idol or which video MTV should play at number 1 on TRL for a whole 20 seconds. No, this is a decision that will decide how the next 4 years of American history will pan out.

That is why I think it is SO important to, if you have the ability, VOTE! Vote or Die as P.Diddy would say it. I mean, if the youth of this nation would actually go out and register to vote and then actually vote, we would be the deciding factor of who would run our country, because we outnumber any other age group in this country. And, personally I think that we should take this to heart and vote because as we age, we're going to be the ones who run the country soon. We'll be the politicians and brokers and doctors of this nation eventually, so why not take advantage of what we have now....for a better tomorrow.

I'm not going to use this blog to tell you who you should vote for, but really it's time for a change! Anything is better than what we have now, thanks George.
And if I was going to use this blog to help sway your vote, I would be throwing out facts like the McCain campaign is spending over 22,000 dollars for Sarah Palin's makeup, just ask Amy Strozzi (the highest paid staffer of the McCain's campaign), she has her name on the paychecks for the past two weeks. But I'm not here to tell you who you should vote for, I just telling you to GO VOTE!!!

So go out there and raise your voice!

Until next time,

-Abbie