Road trip!!

Hey Y'all,

Recently, I've realized that my friends and I have become some sort of adults. I've discovered this because my friends have all been moving out of state to obtain jobs or continue school. There is nothing more eye opening to the fact that your friends are no longer down the hall or on the next street than an twelve hour drive to see them.

This past weekend I drove a twelve hour trip to visit my friend/sorority little. Starting in Pittsburgh around 3am (Yes, I left that early.) I drove all day to end up in Memphis, Tennessee by 4pm.

(About half way there, I realized I could take pictures of myself/the road with my phone's camera simply by using my gps mount.)

The problem I find with traveling alone is that I can never take pictures of the state signs. I was so glad when I figured out how to do it with relative ease on my phone. I was also super happy to see this one after a long morning of driving. It was still a long way to Memphis from the Tennessee/Kentucky line though.

While on my way to visit my friend, I decided to be an opportunist and stop for a couple hours in Nashville. I have been listening to country music since before I was born. It was great to stop and see the place where many artists go to get their start.

 

(While exploring Nashville, I enjoyed my first real southern sweet tea. The stuff they serve at McDonald's in the north cannot compare. I also ate lunch at a bar where a live band was already playing at 11am.)

Surprisingly after twelve hours, I still had enough energy to visit yet another state with my friend. I met some of the lovely southern women who belong to the same sorority as us. They were sweet, welcoming, and so much fun. I'm so grateful that the alumnae down south have welcome my little into their hearts. It reminds me so much why I joined in the first place. 

(State number 6 of my day: Pennsylvania->West Virginia->Ohio->Kentucky->Tennessee->Arkansas)

Another notion towards adulthood was the activities we partook in over the weekend. (Well other than the somewhat random laser tag bonding event her work had.)

We built her a new coffee table because her old one had a broken leg. Yes, two single females were able to correctly follow the instructions and properly build the table. There were even no injuries (other than a small bump to the head and a splinter). It has stayed together...so far.

For some Saturday fun, we went for a walk in the park. We walked around chatting about life and how I should move to Memphis for about two hours. It was such a beautiful day. It made me want to walk around the park more when I got home. However, I will miss the conversation here.

 After sampling some delicious BBQ, we went to downtown Memphis and enjoyed some of the fun music filled bars. Surprised by the MardiGras decor, we laughed at the older patrons and vowing to be like them when we got to that point in our lives.

The last day we spent lounging around watching movies and comparing them to our lives. (Who says that life cannot be like Legally Blonde??)

It only took four days, but her cat finally warmed up to me enough to let me pet her...then she wouldn't let me stop.

Finally, we concluded our time together enjoying the grammy's and drooling over our childhood crush, Justin Timberlake.

The trip back I took it six hours at a time stopping only once in the middle to fill up on gas. My secret to staying awake the whole time was obnoxiously singing along to my music. It was a tough drive and I don't look forward to doing it again. However, I will do it again. While the trip to and from was terrible, the time spent reconnecting with my friend and learning about her new life was priceless. I'm glad to have her back in my life.

As you may have noticed, I have retitled my blog once again. One of the topics we discussed this trip was our single statuses including some of the benefits that come with it like just picking up and driving to Memphis because I could. Driving back, I remembered how nice it is to have someone to share the driving with hence the inspiration for my new title/theme for the blog.

#SingleGirlProblem Number 1: Having to drive the whole twelve hours on my own and not being able to pass it off to my man

Cheers,
Tabitha

I just...

Voted!!!

It is election day people. Get out there and do your civic duty.

I'm not going to share who I voted for or make negative comments about who I didn't. Voting is about using your voice to help make the choices about who runs our country. This is an opportunity a lot of people never get.

Hope everyone lets their voice be heard!

Cheers,
Tabitha

Um...this is a first.

So people have spelled my name wrong many times before but this is a first.

The lady at Starbucks wrote Tabbetha on my lovely plastic cup. While writing it she also gave me a look that said: really that's your name?

In my head I responded:
Yes lady the last time I checked my name was Tabitha. Has been since I was born.

Instead of being rude, I shocked her by purchasing a book for the charity B&N is currently supporting. Haha I love shocking people by going outside their expectations.
Plus doing things like donating a book will bring me good karma...I did get a free drink at lunch today so I gotta pay it forward.

What's the last good thing you did for someone else without promise something in return?

What's the worst someone has misspelled your name?

Cheers,
Tabitha aka Tabbetha

 

The week of the Greek!

Its that time of year again! Greek Week!

So for those of you not in a fraternity or sorority, Greek Week is a week full of events where we compete against each other all for the coveted 1st place trophy and bragging rights of course! I know what you are thinking wait girls vs guys so unfair. Nope it is the fraternities vs fraternities and the sororities vs sororities. So basically guys vs guys and girls vs girls. Now at bigger schools this can get pretty interesting as to who is going to win. However, at my school there are only 2 sororities that actively participate in the events. So in our minds its you're first or you're last. Last Year, we dominated and took home 1st place (after a 12/13 year losing streak) heck yeah! So, this year we are out to defend our title!

All Dressed up for the week. I even did my make up. Yeah it is that important! :)

Now you are probably wondering what kind of events we have, and if not I am gonna tell you anyway. There are the typical sporting events like football and volleyball. We used to play basketball, but that usually ended in fist fights...We also have some neat Greek themed events like Chariot racing, Greek Games (tug of war, 4x4 relay race, dizzy bat, mattress race, and pyramid race). Now you are probably wondering what all the races are. The chariot race is where the fraternities build a "chariot" and then one of the sorority girls rides in it as they race around a course. Mattress racing is where four people run while carrying a mattress that has a person riding on it. Pyramid racing is where six people run, build a cheerleader pyramid, and then recite the Greek alphabet before running back. These sound ridiculous but are really very fun!

  This is one of the chariots that the fraternities we were paired with made. On the negative side, neither chariot our partners made actually made it through both time trials.

We also have the non-athletic events for those that are coordinately challenged lol. These are the trivia contest and eating contest. Trivia you think would be easy, but I don't know where they find these questions. I think the only person who might be able to answer them all would be Ken Jennings lol. Of course the eating contesting is just scarfing down food like pizza, donuts, hot dogs, and zebra cakes as fast as you can without barfing. It is disgusting!

We also like to be community centered and raise funds for some charity. This year we are going caning in the city. I think that means we are wandering around like begging people for their cans? I am not exactly sure we'll see come Thursday what happens. Fingers crossed it won't snow!

Then there is the Holy Grail of Greek Week. Greek Sing/Airband. Greek Sing is where every group sings a song that is special to their fraternity/sorority. I can't sing very well so I don't usually choose to participate. Airband on the other hand is where we don't sing at all. Every group has ten minutes to perform a lip sync routine to any songs of their choice. Sometimes they have themes. Last year our theme was a time warp. We did songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and current ending with the machine breaking and playing Don't Stop Believin. The themes are top secret until the performance so that they aren't stolen by other groups. I'll let you know how this years goes after Friday night!

Here is last years performance that won us first place!

Cheers, 

Tabitha

Rain Rain Go Away

Come Back Again Another Day...

Does anyone remember the rest of that rhyme? I tried to Google it, but all I found where ones that I had never heard before.Oh well, it really wasn't important and was just supposed to be the title for my post about the rain. However, now I am going to spend the rest of the day attempting to remember nursery rhymes from my childhood. So I found this, but the last line was definitely not what I used to say...hum...

It's raining, it's pouring;
The old man is snoring.
Bumped his head
And he went to bed
And he couldn't get up in the morning.
Rain, rain, go away;
Come again another day

So, the real purpose of this post was to comment on the insane thunderstorms we had last night and this morning. Outside the building where I work part of the walkway was so covered with water that it looked like it was supposed to be a pond to begin with. Then steps had turned into a waterfall. When I finally made it into the building I was relieved to be out of the water. However, I was in for a surprise. I went down stairs to find that the inside was as bad as the outside. The floor was collecting water. Deciding that the combination of water and electronics was not a good thing I called to report it to the university's maintenance department. Rather than sit in the water I went to work form my laptop in the dry building next door. This is an epic fail for the flat roofed building. According to my boss, the same thing happened over the summer. Clearly this means that they fixed it so well...

I know that by the end of the day I am going to lose my umbrella. Since I cannot fathom the whereabouts of my small compact umbrella, I took a huge "golf" umbrella from the trunk of my car. It is the most annoying umbrella ever. It is pretty much a cane. I feel like I am an idiot carrying it around when everyone has their little baby umbrellas. I keep putting it on the ground under the table I am sitting at. I know that I will never remember to grab it when I leave. I know this because it has already happened once. I was sitting in the mp and I told myself "don't forget to grab the umbrella." Ten seconds later I was walking towards the library sans umbrella. Realizing this, I quickly back tracked and felt even more like an idiot. I have a feeling at the end of the day I am going to be roaming campus playing where's waldo for my umbrella. 

I wish you all better luck staying dry today than I have had so far!

Cheers,

Tabitha

Lacking...

...In my blog postings...

So I have been lacking in posting for a while. I am not sorry to say that it is because I am working on getting a life which is time consuming. So, I would love to say that me getting a life is extremely exciting, but nope nothing of the sort. I have really dived into my thesis. I am talking to more people and getting more ideas for my paper. The biggest thing I am doing now is working on my IRB paperwork. I think I am pretty much finished with it, so I am going to have my adviser look at it on Monday and if it is good turn it in :) yay!

I have also been spending a lot of time looking into some job possibilities. It is insanely hard to find a job on the internet. I literally spent hours searching and only came up with one. This is an omen. Either like I am meant to have that job, or I am meant to work with my mother at Giant Eagle for a while after I graduate. I am hoping it is the former because I would really like to be able to pay off my student loans sooner rather than later. 

There is also another way I am trying to get a life, but it is early and I don't want to jinx it. So, I am not going to talk about it. You'll just have to wonder :) unless you're Darlene or Kim (and that is a very likely since the two of you are like a third of my followers lol) then you know what I am talking about!

Well for some reason my phone is blowing up right now and I can't keep track. I am gonna go see why everyone wants to talk to me :)

Cheers,

Tabitha

Where is the Snow?

Epic Fail Weatherman & RMU...

So, last night I was told by the weatherman that a massive storm was supposed to be coming. Wasn't it supposed to rival Snowmageddon of 2010? Looking outside my car isn't even covered and the roads are clean. Which knowing my plan is impossible therefore we could not have had too much snow. So, even with the lack of snow my school decided to have a two hour delay. I am not complaining about this because it means that I don't have to go anywhere till I work at 1pm today. What I am going to laugh about is that my school has this text/email alert system for closures/delays. However, this morning my roommate Kim told me we had a delay before the alert did. Wow...really on top of things RMU. I think they are really just lucky that I wasn't already up and moving before I got my alert. I would have been upset...

Given that I was allowed more time to sleep this morning and even more to get ready. I got to sneak in a work out. This is exciting because I usually struggle to find time to get a work out in. This morning I had all the time int he world. It was fantastic! And now I am relaxing and watching the Price is Right. This is one of my favorite shows. When my Baba and Dzedo (grandparents) would babysit me when I was little we would watch it all the time. Well, my Dzedo and I would, he is a big game show fan. My Baba would change it to EWTN as soon as it was over. She is a big God fan. :)

Me telling them to bid $1

Well, now I watch the Price is Right whenever I am babysitting them :P oh how little the times have changed :) 

Kim just tole me that there is apparently new maps out for Call of Duty Black Ops today...She is downloading them as I write this. If only I didn't have to go to work in an hour. Darn! Well, we will just have to play later...maybe while she is at work :P 

Here's to hoping the "Snow" isn't going to make an appearance anytime soon!

Cheers,

Tabitha