a bitter-sweet ending

I graduated from Kennesaw State University last week with my BBA in Management. I learned the morning of graduation that I was Magna Cum Laude, finishing with a 3.77 GPA - pretty impressive, huh?! haha Well, it'll only be impressive if it lands me a job sometime soon...

My friend Christina and I ran into Dr. Papp, the president of KSU, after the ceremony and got a picture with him. Pretty cool, huh?

So, that's where I'm at - an unemployed college grad... and a homeless one at that! Sounds thrilling, I know. I'm both hopeful and terrified for what's coming up next.

I'm moving out of quite possibly the best set up I could ask for in a few weeks. I've lived in my town home for 2.5. years, and quite frankly I don't want to leave. (Well, I wish I could move it down to Atlanta.) I just threw my last house party there the other night - a joint grad party for some friends and I. It was one of the best! Here's one of the few pictures I have from that night:

The plan (for now) is to move into my sister's house in Woodstock, save up some money, and move down to Atlanta in a few months. Hopefully by then I'll also have a job in Atlanta, and then life will be good again. Until then it's cover letters and positive thoughts.

Summer is coming to an end...

... for me at least!

I have two weeks left of summer. I'm leaving for Philly on the 22nd and then China on the 28th. It's crazy how fast the summer went by.

I have a few things to look forward to in my last two weeks of summer:
• lots of time with my man, K Peasey!!
• a quick trip out of town this weekend
• one-on-one day dates with each of my nieces (I never get to hang out with them individually)
• maybe a Braves game next week
• training day at Make-a-Wish!!
• my friend's wedding
• two more kickball games
• a possible camping trip next weekend

Things I'm not looking forward to over the next two weeks:
• finishing up my summer classes - papers, presentations, essays, and lots of reading :(
• taking my Typhoid medication (it's supposed to be pretty rough)
• preparing to be broke when I get home from China
• figuring out how to pack for 17 days in China in one suitcase (imPOSSible)

And when I get back I have a few short days before I start my last semester as an undergrad!! Two classes left and my internship at The Make-a-Wish Foundation!!

Meet the Edges

I saw a friend of mine, that I've known since probably kindergarten, get married this weekend. She was the first one of our little group. Years ago, we all made a list of who we thought would get married first and last and in between. Brittany (the newlywed) was #2 on the list... so we're already wrong - haha!

Here's my beautiful friend, Brittany, and her new hubby, Kevin Edge.

...he's a Red Sox fan; not sure if I approve :)

It was great seeing old friends; a ton of the girls I graduated with were there. We danced and sang... and took lots of pictures. After the reception we went out to a few bars. It was the first time I've ever had the chance to enjoy the Savannah night life (which is kinda ironic since I'm from there). Let's just say between the open bar at the reception and the 3 bars we went to afterwards, the night didn't disappoint. I left my phone at the hotel to avoid drunk texting, but I learned I need to actually hide my phone so I don't go straight to it when I get back. Sorry guys.. :)

On my first trip to Philly...

My first (of two for this year) trip to Philly sure didn't disappoint!

It started a little rough though... with 2 hours of getting through baggage checking and security with our large group, a rocky landing at the airport, and a bit of confusion with transportation to the hotel... followed by walking in the wrong direction in an attempt to eat a late lunch at Geno's and Pat's once we got to the hotel, resulting in an hour and a half of walking rather than the 15 minutes it should have taken (ugh). But we got our Philly cheese steaks and a beer and all was good.

The first night was the Rally of Champions opening ceremony for the competition. Everyone sprinted into the auditorium when they opened the doors to get the best seats; our team was front row! We were by far the most spirited of all of the teams there. It was a fun night, with dancing, singing, and speeches from some very powerful people in corporate America.


SIFE is such a huge and positive organization. There was a sign hanging that I felt really encompasses SIFE:


Monday and Tuesday were competition days. We didn't make it past the first round; we were all pretty shocked. But we made the best of it anyways. We watched the other teams compete and got some great ideas for how to improve on our program for the upcoming year.

Tuesday we spent the day site seeing. We went to the Rocky steps, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and literally walked all over the city looking at anything and everything.

We got back and rounded up the rest of the team for a sushi dinner before heading out for a night on the town. It was our last night in Philly, so we had to celebrate! The first bar we went to just happened to have an open bar! We spent some time there dancing and hanging out before moving on to the next place. We had a ridiculously fun time dancing like fools that resulted in my sandals breaking and me walking home barefoot (gross). Haha.

I really had a great time. I went on this trip with 29 other people, really only knowing about 3 or 4 of them, and walked away with so many great friendships with amazing people. We have a pretty international and diverse group. On the way home, I sat with one of the team members I didn't know much about, Offa, who is from Cameroon. He moved to the States 10 years ago. I asked him if he enjoyed living here or if he missed Cameroon. I asked how different the two places are and if he had a hard time adjusting; he said he was actually disappointed when he arrived in the States! He said, "Of course I'm exaggerating a bit, but I was expecting flying cars or something really awesome. Everything here is pretty much the same as the big cities in Cameroon." I guess the common perception of most place in Africa is that they aren't very developed, but Cameroon (as well as many other African countries) have cities that are just as developed as many of the large cities here, with sky scrapers, huge highways, cars, and public transportation systems.

Here's a picture of the team:
I'm looking forward to heading back to PA in two months!

a mere 15 hours in Milly

My best friend, Kristina, is graduating this Saturday, and I can't go to celebrate with her then... so I went down there for a quick visit last night! I was only there for about 15 hours before I had to drive back to ATL...

Wednesday, I left town in the pouring rain and in a little traffic - but nothing like I thought it would be. I get to Milledgeville around 5 and have dinner with Kristina and Annie before we go out for the night. Bar hopping, pitchers of beer, Firefly & sours (a new fav), lots of dancing, girl talk, new friends, more dancing, and Huddle House at 2am = a pretty great night! We got back to Kristina's apartment, I failed to change into pajamas, and woke up at 7:25 from my alarm going off (that I don't remember setting)... chapstick in one hand, phone in the other, still in my dress, and slightly disoriented.
I was in the car at 8am and heading back to ATL to be at work by 11. I stopped at a gas station in Madison to get something to drink. I came out of the bathroom and there were literally 50+ old ladies in the tiny bathroom and making a line out the door; I got the vibe it was a church retreat or something... making me feel worse about my obvious hangover, lol. I go to pay, and it keeps saying I'm entering the wrong pin... when I notice the card (that's identicle to mine) I'm swiping says Daniel P. Cenna instead of Amy G. Moore - wtf?! I call Kristina and she says that guy was at one of the bars we went to... the bartender must have switched them up somehow. Ugh.

Luckily I got to work on time, but I was basically a walking zombie the entire time I was there. And I didn't get to take a nap today like I had planned, so I'm running on a combined 7 hours of sleep over the last two nights and spent the day with a crazy hangover and headache. But I'd do it all over again in a heart beat! :)

Traveling

I am really excited about all of the traveling I'll be doing this year! I rarely get to travel, but it seems like more and more trips keep getting added to my calendar for this year - and I'm so thrilled!

• I already took a weekend trip to Aiken, SC a few weeks ago
• May 10-12 I'll be going to Philadelphia for SIFE Nationals!! I'm really excited about it. I keep hearing about how huge of an event this is, but I still don't think I've quite grasped it yet. I was blown away at how big Regionals was a few weeks ago... but this is going to be HUGE!
• May 16-17 I'll be going to Baltimore to the College of Notre Dame for a new chapter induction
• Sometime in June I might be road tripping it to Delaware with Kyle and Sam
• July 22-26 I'll be back in Philadelpha for National Convention, one of my new favorite times of the year!
• July 28 I leave for China for 17 days!!
  
• September might offer up a trip to Raleigh, NC ... and then again in November
• And if the SIFE team does well at Nationals, there's a possibility I'll get to go to Germany in October for the World Competition!!
• I also have a few weddings to attend this year in various parts of Georgia, some back home in beautiful Savannah
  

It's always been a goal of mine to travel more, so I think I'm off to a great start with my 2009 travel plans.

a beautiful saturday

This past Saturday was the first really nice day outside we've had in a long time! With the rain all last week and now the cold, it was nice to have one day of sunshine and warmer weather. Though I almost regret it now with how far I am behind on everything, I decided to spend the entire day on Saturday doing fun things and not touching school work or worrying about work or finding an internship. A day of leisure was much needed! I started the day early with the MS Walk at Piedmont Park. We walk each year in honor of one of our sisters' real sister, Elyse, that has MS. Below is a group shot of us before the walk started.The rest of the day was spent with good friends watching a softball game, getting smoothies, and making plans for upcoming weekends.

That night I went to a friend's house for a cookout get-together. We grilled hot dogs and all ate way too much food. The night turned out to be one of the funnest nights our group of friends ever had! Drinking games, dancing, and laughing with wonderful people.

I want some more Saturdays like that one.