This is the first time I’ve updated since going to the Outer Banks for Spring Break. It’s been a good while. The beach was fun. A little cold, really windy. We only really had two good beach days, and lemme tell ya I took full advantage of those. The house was nice, right on the sound with awesome views out towards the mainland (By the way, Katie pointed out in my last blog entry that I had the next door neighbors’ house’s picture uploaded! Whoops. Ours was “Bay Spray” and theirs was “Bay Breeze,” hence the mix up). Anywho it was me, Jen, my sister and her friend, my parents, and grandparents. Had a lot of fun down there. I’m working on trying to get an internship down there at a radio station called Beach 104 for the summer, which would be amazing. I’ll keep everyone posted on how that’s coming along as I know more.

The past week since I’ve gotten back has been nuts. I’ve spent most of my afternoons making video promos for Wildcat News on the Marathon Dance, and after the terrible Virginia Tech tragedies, I decided to make a tribute video to show during the moment of silence on Friday. I didn’t mind doing that, but the Marathon Dance videos are stressing me out. I’ve had numerous computer problems ever since I took my desktop computer into school to edit video during the Marathon Dance and fried one of my two hard drives. I’ve also got a lot going on lately and it’s extremely time consuming to edit through more than four hours of video footage.

I had a nice, relaxing weekend for the first time in a while, though. On Friday, I went with Alex to see “In The Land Of Women.” I thought I was being dragged to yet another chick flick, but it actually turned out to be an okay movie. The plot was kinda stagnant, and it basically ended really abruptly and badly. But anyway, we randomly sat with Lauren and Rebecca who happened to be there, then Hillary and Ana sat next to Alex. It was really random, but cool. Afterwards I went back to Alex’s and we just chilled and did a little stargazing up at the Fox Hall Clubhouse.

On Saturday I went and worked on a Habitat For Humanity project with my mom and her office. She works for the Attorney General and he ended up coming out. Because he was there, CBS 6 came out and did a story on it. It was pretty cool. The Deep Run Key Club happened to be there that day, and when I got there everyone was looking at me like “you’re not in Key Club are you?” It was kinda funny. I’m going back with Gabby next week to work on the same house. It’s always a very rewarding experience to be a part of one of their house projects.

Saturday night I was out cutting the grass and doing yard work so I could meet up with some people later when my next door neighbor came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to a car show with him. So I ended up going with him instead just for something different and because I think he wanted the company. He’s in his early seventies, and collects and restores, from the ground up, all sorts of antique vehicles. He also has a tour bus he bought off a rock group, a plane, helicopter, and three motorcycles. So we rode out to Route 301 near Atlee Station in his old Roadster and checked out everyone else’s old cars. It was actually pretty cool. Afterwards he took me to dinner and explained how he built his businesses from the ground up. He’s done everything from designing the first boat and train air conditioners to inventing a way to keep a boat from nosing up out of the water when you gun the engine. And the one major impression he left on me is that whatever you do in life, you’ve got to be passionate about it if you want it to go anywhere. That’s what makes you successful. He told me you’ve gotta love what you do and be genuinely interested your job if you wanna see results. So it was really cool getting all of these insights from him and doing something different for a change.

Sunday morning I got up early and met Gabby at our favorite place, Golden Corral! Best breakfast around, I’m telling ya. We both had two huge plates of food and topped it off by both having a big bowl of ice cream. There’s nothing like dessert after breakfast! Then I took her to church with me and we came back to my house afterwards and hung out. All I’ve got to say is don’t ever attempt to play volleyball on a trampoline… it’s about broken… yep again.

We went to dinner at Outback with the whole family, cousins, and other extended family Sunday night, and today I stayed home from school originally because I had a migraine, but also to get some stuff done I’ve put off for a while, and just to rest a little. I’m just burnt out. This week should be good, with the Campaigners cookout Thursday night and the big golf tournament this weekend.

So it’s been exactly one month since I updated this sucker. So much has happened, I’ve just been too busy to update I guess. Where to start?

I’ve been spending a ton of time helping with various technical projects at church, especially this past week setting up for Easter. They reconfigured the whole auditorium and I was up on a thirty-foot cherrypicker moving lights around and setting up audio equipment and whatnot. I’ve also been going to the “Why” small groups. And of course I’ve been going to Young Life and Campaigners. I really look forward to Wednesday nights lately. Either Sarah and/or Winston and I usually do something before and then I drive a boatload of people from Young Life to Chick-Fil-A. It’s awesome.

I went to New York City with Yearbook late last month. We went to Columbia University and took classes in design, writing, etc. It was a lot of fun. We mainly just hung out for the most part. I’ll never forget going through about fifty different stores in Chinatown waiting for Becca, Cabell, Rachel, Catherine and them to find the perfect knockoff purse. I think I kind of brought it on myself though because I didn’t realize until later they were covering up all of their illegal goods with cloths when I came by because of my video camera! Whoops. Anyway it was fun spending a couple days up there and getting to know everyone on a different level being that we all spent so much time together.

The week after I got back was a difficult time for the whole family. BJ, our twenty-two year old cat (that’s right… born in 1984, four years before me), started getting the beginnings stages of kidney failure. She got really weak and wouldn’t eat or drink and we had to make the difficult decision to put her down. Put it this way- I’ve never seen my dad cry in my life. That’s how difficult this was. She was basically my parents’ first child before they had me or my sister. But anyway, we’re just relieved she’s not suffering anymore. Rest in peace, BJ.

The week after that, I got into VCU. It’s looking like that’s where I’ll be going. They have awesome programs in photography, graphic design, broadcasting, film editing/production, and things of that nature. I’m not sure what I’m going to major in yet, but something along those lines most definitely. Anywho, I’m excited about that, but at the same time sorry that I didn’t get into JMU. It would have been nice to get a little further away from home and all, but I might still live on the VCU campus despite how close it is to home. And who knows, I might end up transferring. It’s all up in the air.

It’s a mixed bag of emotions watching the course of my life unfold before me. I had always thought about where I’d go to college “one day” and it seemed like it was this far off, distant thing. Now that it’s right here staring me in the face and I’ve decided what I’m doing, it’s a strange feeling. I can’t really explain it. I’m confident this is what God has led me to do in my life, though, so I feel like this is the right decision.

Well just wanted to give a bit of an abbreviated update of the past month. I’m headed off this morning to the Outer Banks for the week with my family, grandparents, and Jen. We’re staying in Corolla on the soundside. Should be nice! Here’s the house (I don’t know if this picture will show up). I’ll update again when I get back.