an adult halloween party

I think I may have attended my first adult halloween party. Not that kind of "adult halloween party." No scantily clad ladies or men, just several friends having a good time. I knew it was an adult party when we all whipped out our digital cameras so we could share photos of our dogs (that's our version of sharing wallet photos of the kids). It was upon sharing these photos and telling dog stories that I chuckled and thought to myself, "so this is what its like to get older." There was music, dancing, and drinking to be sure, but it certainly wasn't the focus of the evening. The night was more about visiting with friends. Telling stories over some kit kats, pixie stix, salt and vinegar chips and a blue moon (just including those things in the same sentence makes my stomach turn a bit). After a bit of low key fun, we turned back the clock, not to college days though...we turned it way back - to childhood. An impromptu game of hide and seek ensued....and it was fun! No keg stands, nobody throwing up, no police knocking on the door. As I was thinking about the night I considered that maybe this was just a boring party. But it wasn't. As it turns out, what really makes a party, for me at least, is quality time spent with friends. Connecting. Sharing. You could've packed the rooms full of beautiful, rambunctious people and cranked the stereo up and I still wouldn't have had as good a time as I did sitting around the table with the people that were there. Playing hide and seek, telling stories, and dancing alone in a room of friends and strangers alike. It was great!


A couple of girls at the party asked if we chose our costumes based on our personalities. We answered with a resounding, "YES!"

Few realize that in addition to halos and wings, angels also receive a perfectly shaped right breast.

I always knew the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet was in cahoots with the devil

Kate chooses sides

more pics

Hanover Homecoming

Oct. 13th was the date for Hanover homecoming this year, an event I've never missed. I'll admit I was a little unexcited about this one because as far as I knew none of my friends were going, however it turned out to be another great, albeit different, homecoming experience. None of my "group" of friends were there, so it would have been really lonely except I went with Jenny and Jenny and I can always have a good time together. The weather was gorgeous and my dad had let me borrow his convertible sports car to enjoy the drive. We drove in on scenic, as I always do when I return to campus, and parked near the football fields. Jenny and I took a quick walk through the tailgating area but recognized almost no one. We've been gone long enough now that many of the tailgaters are too young for us to know. Weird. We met Becca and then went on the the Phi Mu house. We engaged a couple of "sisters" in conversation about what the house was like nowdays. Apparently, Greek life is suffering on campus: Beta is no longer and Sigma Chi is down to just 9 men...their house is being converted to dorm space! Phi Mu had something like 46 people but they were expecting a pretty decent rush class. ...and get this, they were actually having a hard time getting people to live in the house! Most things at the house looked and smelled the same, the one exception being the bathrooms which got a bit of a makeover. The green stalls and tile have been replaced with newer colors and the plastic covers were taken off the showers to reveal the original marble (who knew we had marble showers!). The same Mary Cassatt painting is still framed in the second floor hallway and the usual dry erase boards, posters and photocollages adorned the walls of the rooms. We peeked in a few rooms and marveled at how we could have three people's possessions in 100 square feet of living space! Walked through the rack room and instantly felt the need for a nap in what may be the best sleeping space ever (remember the perfect temperature and the hum of the air vents lulling you to sleep). We laughed about which bathrooms were the "poop bathrooms" and the made fun of some of the composite pictures as we left. Thought about raiding the small kitchen for a bagel or peanut butter and honey sandwich but i didn't. Ah...what great days.

The rest of the day was filled with soccer, football, and quick visits with people that I barely remember (of course I wore a nametag so that no one would be caught offguard by me). Jenny and I were quite entertained by a slightly intoxicated fan at the soccer field. I had forgotten how funny 21 year old boys can be and how fun it was to have no cares except for sports and learning. It was the first time there was no alcohol involved in my homecoming experience, but it didn't really matter, Jenny and I had a great time anyhow. I certainly missed partying with my gals though. ...and as we were walking through the tailgate area Jenny said, "do you think the Marvins will be here with that tent thingy - what do you call it?" ... THE PORT-A-SESH! Awww, I missed the Marvin port-a-sesh, balloons flying so we could find it and a Hanover flag hanging nearby....and all the tailgating supplies they bring - beer, wine, full on fireplace for roasting all sorts of goodies!
Before we left we took the requisite stop at the point and just kinda soaked in the emotions of the day. For me, visiting Hanover always brings on a complex mix of joy and sadness. Remembering what were some of the best times of my life and longing for being back again but also recognizing that life moves us along to other adventures and if we spend too much time living in the past we might night fully experience the present.

For those of you who weren't there (which is pretty much all of you), I missed ya and look forward to a gathering sometime soon. Each of you occupied at least a moments thought as I visited our history. I miss you guys. (you can start singing, "sisters are the chains that allow me to be free, sisters are the mirrors that let me....." now if you want). Enjoy the pictures and you can pretend you were there!

a sh*tty weekend

Considering the sh*t i had to deal with this weekend, things actually turned out pretty well. As some of you know, my basement sorta flooded on thursday morning, and it didn't just flood with ordinary water, it flooded with sewage. What's could be worse that your basement flooding with sewage?...your basement flooding with someone else's sewage. Yep, as it turns out my house shares a sewage pipe with the neighbors on either side of me and since my basement is the lowest point, when things back up, they back up on me. The plumber pulled out all sorts of junk that didn't belong to me and it in order to clean it out more sewage had to be emptied into the basement. For those of you who are more visual, i've included some pictures! Finally, at about midnight on thursday, the plumber finished his work and gave me a number for a cleaning company. While I had been gone to work, my mom (have i mentioned how much i love my mom) had been cleaning up what she could in the basement and had knocked on the next door neighbors house with a bag full of used wipes that had clogged the pipes and said, "are these yours, because they just came out of my daughter's basement?" Mom's got guts. I slept in my smelly house on thursday, and went to work on Friday for what was supposed to be an "easy day" for me because I was going to leave early for a work conference. So I left work early as planned and when I got home there was mom, cleaning out my sh*tty basement. "What happened to the cleaning company," I asked. "They said it'd be a thousand dollars and I'm not paying it. We can do it ourselves. C'mon, let's get to work." So I pulled up my sleeves, put on some industrial strength rubber gloves, and spent the next couple of hours cleaning the basement. My papa (that's pronounced like pa-paw) came over with his pressure washer and helped as well. Thanks papa. I had to leave again for my conference, which I felt awful about since mom and papa were still cleaning my basement. When I returned papa was gone and mom and I finished up after about an hour or so more of work. What did I learn?

5. No matter how much you may think of yourself, you're never too good to clean up sh*t
4. Sometimes the sh*t in our lives isn't just our own, but other people's as well.
3. Complaining about the sh*t in your life won't make it go away.
2. Sometimes the solution is to throw out the sh*tty stuff...and sometimes you gotta clean it up.
1. My papa and my mom are AWESOME (and they can really put up with a lot of sh*t)

After all was said and done, I survived and ended up having a really good weekend...which I'll write about in another post 'cause I gotta go to work now!