the journey begins...

i leave tomorrow for london for a few weeks. check out my other blog that will document my food finds in europe.

http://thewanderingveg.wordpress.com/

stephanie's travels

the countdown is on! only 4 days until i get on a plane to london. but before i get to start that journey, i get to go up to d.c. with my lovely dad and get a passport. after months of waiting anxiously for my passport i am less than a week from leaving and my passport is stuck in new hampshire. so now i get a mini road trip with the dad before i leave. this sudden road trip has sped up my plans a little bit, i'm having to pack a little earlier and get shifts covered at work, but it'll get done! i can now say i'm almost completely done packing. throughout this process of packing i have come across a few tips i'd like to share, some you probably know and some you might not.
1. travel sized fabreeze
like my mom i was in search for a travel sized bottle of fabreeze to bring with my in case my clothes need a little refreshing. since i have come to the conclusion it doesn't exist, i had to make my own! i went to sally's beauty place and got a little 2 oz. squirt bottle and filled it with fabreeze and voila.. travel sized fabreeze. just be sure to label the bottle so you're not spraying your hair with fabreeze thinking its hairspray

2. list making
i think list making is in the james genes, we all do it. but in the case of traveling, i make a very detailed list to be sure i don't over pack (which i probably did anyways) and that everything is in its place. in this list i separate things into three main categories: luggage, carry on, and purse. this way i can be sure that i bring all the necessary stuff with my on the plane and nothing extra. another category was "to buy" this is just for the miscellaneous stuff that you know you need to pick up before you leave and don't want to forget.

3. make all necessary reservations ahead of time
yes this sounds like a "duh" tip, but in my case it was very important. this is because on the plane ride from charlotte to london we will be served a lunch. as a vegetarian i needed to make special accommodations on the plane to be sure to get a vegetarian meal on the plane. now with these special requests be sure to put your patient hat on. first time i called us air i got hung up on when i was supposed to be transfered to international services. and the second time i got my first dose of offshoring when the operator had an almost indecipherable indian accent. but i think i managed to get my meal changed.

so i just have three tips for now, but i am sure once my trip gets going i will have many more! stay tuned i'm hoping to post stories as much as i can while i'm over there. i'm not sure exactly what the internet situation will be like over there, but i will try to keep everyone updated.

lazy sundays

so i set aside all of sunday to catch up on homework and do some studying. well it is officially monday morning and i have yet to crack open a book. school has recently become so uninspiring to me, the teachers are uninspiring, the subjects are uninspiring, i'm just all around uninspired. i'm so close to graduation but i feel i no longer love art as much as i did when i started. i am now at a crossroad where i am questioning everything i have been learning the past four years and might take a whole new direction. it's scary, growing up and all. making these decisions sucks.. i might just buy a magic 8 ball and let that figure it all out, or maybe i'll go to a hand reader or something and see what's up. but nonetheless the point of this post was to share the great information i found out tonight when i should of been doing homework but instead was browsing around on wikipedia... the creator of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is from Hampton, VA. fascinating.

that's all for now.

ho ho ho

Merry Christmas!!

best invention ever!

jennifer and i were on a nice christmas shopping trip today when i found the best invention ever! that would be the laser pointer key chain. now i bought it for a christmas present for the best dog ever (lexi) but i just couldn't wait until christmas to find out if she liked it. i was skeptical in the beginning whether she would fall for it... i mean like it... but alas she is mesmerized by the little red dot and i am one satisfied customer. i am offically buying them for all the dog owners i know because after 15 minutes of chasing the dot lexi is now sleeping like a baby.

101 in 1001

1. stop procrastinating
   
2. go ice skating
3. fly a kite on mount trashmore
4. adopt another animal
5. get a hot rock massage
6. send a package to any soldier
7. learn to play the piano
8. learn to knit
9. get into graduate school
10. make a blanket for project linus
11. get something from tiffany's
12. throw a penny in a wishing well
13. make bread from scratch
14. learn to write (neatly) left handed
15. meditate daily
16. do a disney marathon
17. buy myself flowers
    
18. throw a dinner party for friends
19. buy a hybrid car
20. get an internship
21. get straight "a"s one semester
22. volunteer at the humane society once a month
    
23. donate to charity once a year
24. walk lexi atleast four times a week
25. run a half marathon
    
26. learn a new word everyday
27. go on a picnic
28. go on a road trip
29. grow a vegetable garden
30. go a week without tv
31. vegan for a week
32. read 5 recommended books
33. play bingo with some old ladies
    
34. learn sign language
35. build a piece of furniture
36. go on a wine tasting
37. buy a piece of art
38. make my bed everyday for a month
39. ride a hot air balloon
40. play capture the flag
41. become EARS certified
42. visit a zoo or aquarium
43. sell a piece of art
44. complete 26 things challenge
45. renew passport
46. go to the movies alone
47. learn to drive stick
48. get first aid certified
49. ask 6 people for a number then play the lottery with those numbers
50. get a tattoo
51. learn cpr
52. visit marc at virginia tech
53. volunteer for a new cause
54. start an herb garden
55. put together a portfolio
56. donate old clothes
57. go rock climbing
58. send thank you cards for gifts
59. wash my car inside and out
60. get a facial
61. stick my toes in the pacific ocean
62. release a message in a bottle
63. take the gre
64. plant a tree
65. start playing cello again
66. buy a pair of sevens
    
67. change all my light bulbs to energy saving ones
    
68. carve a pumpkin
69. send a secret to postsecret
    
70. watch the sunrise at the beach
71. go camping
72. teach lexi a cool trick
73. try a new fruit and vegetable
74. invest my money
75. reduce, reuse, recycle
76. do a painting for jen's house
77. adopt an angel tree child
78. write and update my resume
79. study abroad
80. sew an entire outfit
81. bring my gpa to 3.0
82. learn a phrase in 5 languages
83. send handmade christmas cards
84. get lexi certified k9 good citizen
85. drive with no destination
86. stop swearing
87. meet a famous person
88. take 10% of each pay check and save it
89. vote in an election
90. go to london with the sister
91. learn to scuba dive
92. ride a horse
93. visit 5 states i've never been to
94. go whale watching
95. learn to invest my money
    
96. lose 10 pounds
    
97. drive the speed limit from greenville to virginia beach
    
98. take a yoga class
99. get a 100 on an exam
100. backpack through europe
101. have a party on august 8, 2009 when this is all over
     

7 years bad luck

so i am finally 21! and might a say what a birthday. i have such amazing friends that really know how to treat a girl on her birthday. but all of this joy was quickly overshadowed by a horrible, horrible event. after stumbling home from the club on saturday night, i go upstairs to pass out when, i knock over the mirror on my vanity and break it. now i am a super superstitious person, so of course i am horrified. the next morning immediately google how i can reverse the 7 years bad luck that normally come with breaking a mirror. they say wait 7 hours and then bury the pieces under moonlight. so to be sure, i am waiting 7 days (which will be tomorrow) and then burying the pieces. but until i do that i figure the bad luck is still haunting me. so this week has been such a nightmare. i won't go into detail, i'll just list my unluckiness that has happened this week:

• didn't know i had a world religions test and flat out failed it
  
• a water pipe broke in my front yeard
• cut my finger on the glass from the mirror
• cut another finger while dusting
  
• a lizard got into the house and is taunting me from the basement
• got a massive bruise on my leg, from running into something
• got shut out of the piano class i want to take, by like minutes
• i have a cold... again!!
  

there's more but i can't think of it right now. but the only thing that has kept me going this week despite the ghost of bad luck haunting me is that i have a date tonight. wooooo.

remote whore

lexi says, "if we don't watch what i want to watch, i will eat the remote so no one gets to watch tv!"

random memories

there are certain smells, sights, sounds, and taste that remind people of particular moments in their lives. everyone has them and they can trigger the most random events. well this week i finally got my screen door installed on the front door of my town house. well it was a wonderful investment (thanks to dad!) i can now take the trash out or go get the mail without deadbolting the front door and it lets so much light and air in. (scary i sound like a homeowner, bah!) basically i love it. well everytime i open or close the door i get this random memory of my grandparents house. for as long as i can remember they have had a screendoor. and i just have this memory of granddaddy showing my how to lock the door when i was little. i've seen many screendoors in my life, but it's funny how the sound of my new screendoor immediately reminds my of my grandparents house.

noah's ark

my house is slowly turning into noah's ark. (even though in case of a huge flood, my apartment might not be the place to be.) but recently i have noticed an increase of animals in and around my house. all include... of couse my little girl, lexi...my two fish noodle and gus (formerly peanut.. but after his suicide attempt and lots of counciling peanut changed his name to gus)...a stray cat that hangs out in my backyard in the afternoon, finn...a little tree frog that chills on my front porch at night, henry... a little turtle that sometimes visits my front yard, pepito.. and the neighbors dog that basically lives on my porch during the day because i leave water out for her. as long as there are not snakes or lizards in my house... bring on the animals! now if only i could have a cat that wears a helmet made of limes, i think i will call him oscar.

some philosophy with your coffee?

in every college students life there are professors that truely make an impact on who you are as a person and how you look at things. that professor for me was dr. handron, my psychology teacher from sophomore year. he was one of the only professors who looked at his students as real scholars and not just another herd of sheep he needs to move along to the next semester. he was so engaging and insightful i feel like i learned so much from him.
this semester i am lucky enough to meet another one of those professors, dr. jones, my world religions teacher. this class is only once a week from 6:30-9:30pm... normally this means naptime for stephanie. but dr. jones is one of those people who you can only hope that a little bit of his knowledge will rub off on you.
last night in class dr. jones went off on one of his tangents and started talking about education. he talked about how a student at ecu and a student at harvard can get the exact same education. he said your education is what you make of it. now this sounds so simple, and almost common sense, but it really got me thinking about my time here at ecu. i have reached the point where i will graduate in a year, and i feel like i haven't learned everything i wanted to learn. i feel i am at a turning point in my college career where i really need to make the best of what is offered to me.
so this next year i am making it my goal to exhaust all the resourses ecu has to offer. i don't mean reading every book in the library, but i am going to make it a point to attend lectures i wouldn't ever think of going to, concerts, plays, and take classes off the beaten path. i want to be sure that when i look back at the 4 and 1/2 years i spent here, i am truely satisfied with what i did.

happy world vegetarian day!

happy world vegetarian day!

spend the day eating like a rabbit or maybe a faux chicken patty would tickle your fancy.
give it a try, it's not as bad as everyone thinks.
and if you missed it... friday was hug a vegetarian day... seriously... so be sure to hug your local vegetarian next time you see them... which is probably me... so i expect a lot of hugs in my near future!

greetings and salutations

why hello there. after much deliberation i have decided to break down and make a blog. mainly to document the crazy, funny, sad, stupid things that happen to me everyday. expect many stories about my dog, my fish, my cousins, my family, my cooking disasters, my daily college whoas and much much more. and never ever expect any capital letters. so hold on to your pants... (got em?)... this is going to be an interesting ride.