SO proud of my gals!

No, I'm not dead! I've just gone from being sick for a week with a stomach virus (only two days of actual virus-ing, the rest was an overblown recovery time!) to recruitment and now I'm sitting here putting off things I need to do...

I'm so proud of my girls, I can't begin to explain it! Here are some shots from recruitment and Bid Day when we met our 25 AMAZING new members!!

Danielle and Poel at the door for Open House

Walkway in for Open House

Goofy Chapter after Open House

Poel, my AMAZING VP Membership Recruitment and I after Sisterhood

Girls at the door for Sisterhood-- EmJ, Marie, and Katie mug for the camera

The girls went to Piedmont and took some BEAUTIFUL pictures to put on the wall!

Kentucky Derby Theme...

TOO CUTE!

This is Hannah, one of my advisees, doing her best Stepford Wife impression

Me and Diana after Sisterhood-- she is TOO FUNNY

Philanthropy Banner

Welcome Home!!

Chapter after Philanthropy

Balloon Party!

Kristen, Yasaman and I are stuck in the elevator!

Danielle and Poel before Preference

Gamma Sigma Alumnae at Preference

Chapter in Rose Formation after Preference

Vanessa, Jessica and Jessica with the Bid Day Bags

We're going 90's this fall!

Getting ready for Run Out

Chu-Chu with the Alpha!

Alumnae, New Members, and Collegiate Members!!

It was a long, hard, and stressful week for all of us but it paid off in the end-- our phenomenal new members are excited about AOII and we couldn't be happier to have them!

Fall 2011 Pledge Class!

Indiana Fun

Our neighbor Paige is from Indiana and, apparently, on long cold Indiana nights, they played Cribbage. It is an excellent game and I rock at it! Paige and I sat out on the porch this evening and had a Girls Night In with a bottle of wine, a deck of cards, and a cribbage board.

Jeremy and I have had a very long week with CSD out for "fall break" and us in for full day camp. The pay will be good, but WHEW we could use a weekend to ourselves!

Last weekend was recruitment and bid day for Gamma Sigma and Kappa Omicron, and I'm so proud of BOTH my chapters-- GS got quota plus one with 24 new girls and KO got 47 NEW MEMBERS!!!!! LARGEST PLEDGE CLASS EVER. I'm so thrilled, I can't wait to get back for homecoming and meet all the new girls!

Not much else to say, so I'm going to go to bed and get some sleep! Ciao for now!

What a weekend!

I'll just give a quick rundown of the weekend since I've told the story a few times now...

Thursday was the girls' preformal (date party) and the theme was Storybook Couples/Characters. My favorite was India and Houston who came as Calvin and Hobbes!

India's tummy was furry and she kept asking me to pet it, which was kind of hilarious. I also met Houston (her boyfriend) for the first time; he's a really sweet kid and I had fun talking beer and some academics with him. The girls were very well-behaved, but someone's date got way out of control and started a fight with the bouncer! I had to step in at one point, and was apparently pretty scary which is good-- it means word will get around that you don't screw up at an AOII event anymore! The girls are always great, but their dates have ruined stuff for them so many times, it's just not going to happen now that I'm here! The place we went to was called Cypress Pint and Plate. It was pretty good, but definitely on the pricey side-- they charged on average $2-3 more a beer than we do at Palate! $10 for a Hitachino White? Whaaaat? The food was pretty good, though, and the atmosphere was very well constructed. I wouldn't mind going down on a Monday night for their twenty cent wings and buying a couple beers then. After I broke up the fight with the bouncer, I came home and couldn't sleep because I was so wound up/ticked off. I wrote the chapter an e-mail explaining that I knew it wasn't their fault, but they needed to impart to their dates the severity of the punishment should they screw up on Friday at formal.

Friday we were on the Henry Grady River Boat at Stone Mountain for formal and it was AWESOME!! The girls and their dates were the most well behaved Greek organization the security folks could remember, and not only did we get our security deposit back, they actually *wanted* us to come back next year! The weather held out and was perfect-- nary a cloud in the sky and the moon was full and high in the sky, we couldn't have asked for anything better. I wore one of my grandmother's dresses, a really cute vintage number from the '40s. Everyone loved it, and so did I. I'm fairly set on having vintage dresses for my nice events from now on, they fit better and are just so pretty and so well made. They're quite expensive, though, so I'm thinking that it might be easier on my pockets to buy the vintage Vogue patterns and use similar materials.
Above is the view from the riverboat just before sunset of the forest surrounding the mountain.

Today was Susie's bridal shower, which was lots of fun. There was a woman there who is a "grace period" foster mother and I think maybe once Jeremy and I settle in and have our own who's a bit older, I'd like to do it, too. All you do is take in babies who are given up for adoption for the 10-20 day grace period Georgia gives a mother to change her mind so that the adoptive family doesn't have the baby and then get it taken away just as they've gotten it. All told, this woman's had 75!! She had her newest one who was only two weeks old with her, she got passed around and was a little shocked at the number of people there. Everyone was great fun, and my Mancala and Jenga went over well with Susie who loves those games as much as I do :) Her bachelorette party is in a couple weeks, I think, and should be a blast. I'm so excited to get to know Susie better, and Joanna as well-- I think we're all going to be really good friends. And it's appropriate, really, since Emily and I are very close now and met through a mutual friend, that I should be good friends with people I have met through her!

Work tonight was rough for a while, but not too bad-- and I really like working with Peter. If Shale gets in to medical school and heads on up to Philly, I'll probably talk to Jill about picking up Saturdays; they're a good money-making night and Peter and I just get along really well.

I'm so exhausted and have finally wound down enough to fall asleep maybe, so I'll leave you with a picture from my last trip to Florida-- my favorite billboard ever. Heck yeah, Chick'fil'A.

Yeah, yeah

So it's been a few days. I know you're all dying to hear more of my ticking-clock baby lovin' or rambling about my wedding, but just in case...

Watching the kids for Meg and Michael was really great, I love those kids so much-- and Julian, what an absolute HOOT! I think I taught him how to say "touche" which should be amusing. Three year olds, not so much with the actually grasping French parlance. As much of a nutter as he is, he does love his baby sister-- "My baby!" --and apparently spent part of the afternoon trying to convince Meg that HE was the one who carried Violet for 9 months! Every minute over at the Kavanaugh household is an episode of "Kids say the darndest things", I think. Also, it was nice to see Meg and Michael. I kept Meg up late (again) talking about the wedding stuff, and family stuff, and shared my invitations with her (which she seconded and approved), and poking at the baby who ate a little and then totally conked out. We both agree that babies are hilarious.

Sunday was low-key, but I got to catch the MotoGP race from Motegi which was nice. Even though that weekend in Indy was traumatic, I really enjoyed the race, and spending time with Jeremy, Josh, and Sarah! Sadly, Nicky Hayden got put out in the first lap by Takahashi, but Pedrosa didn't end up in first so I'll take what I can get.

Monday was loads of fun, it was our last AAC meeting of the year at CPK. I got there early to sit out in the commons at Atlantic Station and work some more on the Treasury office (I'm the financial adviser now for Gamma Sigma, and it looks like I'm going to do a really good job-- I'm so excited!) overhaul, and sat and talked to Vicki for a while outside while we waited for Lizzy and Becky. Dinner was OK, the best part was the appetizer. I know a lot of restaurants "known" for something don't usually have other good food, but CPK usually does! I got a panini that wasn't really anything special (though at least the Caesar salad was good), I don't remember what Vicki got, Becky got the Thai linguine which was good, but not stellar, and Lizzy got the pesto penne which wasn't really anything special, either! We also split desserts, which *were* pretty good and we certainly didn't mind spending the money since they had a deal that 20% of our check went to the Arthritis Foundation!

Anyway, I'm starting to get a little more excited about next year. It looks like Jeremy and I will be in Atlanta (since I can stay at Palate if I can't find a job anywhere else), which is really nice. I know I mentioned getting back in touch with all my old friends and their families, but I'm also really attached to these girls at GSU! Don't get me wrong, I would be ALL OVER being on AAC for Kappa Omicron, and I know it would make Rachel and Rebecca so happy, but I feel like not only do they need really good, solid, consistent leadership and alumnae support, but that I really am a part of the chapter now. Maybe that sounds silly to other people, but they really are like my sisters-- I love them, even though I want to shake them sometimes, and I can't wait to see what wonderful things they do with their lives and this chapter!

Tonight at work was SLAMMED. Thankfully, Matthew and Derek helped out in the dishroom, I don't know how we would have made it through otherwise! As a result, I'm able to keep my commitment for the collections payment this month for sure, and I can buy a bathing suit to take down to Florida with me! Huzzah!

Oh, and Jeremy and I are going to (most likely) split my gas to go down to Florida this weekend. I'm really excited, I miss him so much I almost can't stand it sometimes!

Off to bed with this tired girl! Ciao for now, pals!

Love those Gamma Sigmas!

My girls had a swap/mixer last night with KSig over at Tech, the theme was "Seven Deadly Sins" so being a good adviser, I was a little worried that it would look like Halloween at Rhodes where half the girls just show up looking like a prostitute and call it a costume. I am so proud and totally amused by them all! There were a few "lust" costumes, but they weren't too bad and pretty creative, too! My favorites were the following:

Gluttony-- some of the girls got inner tubes and decorated them like doughnuts and walked around offering snacks to people all night
Sloth-- several girls wore old terrycloth robes and bath slippers, and one girl went and got clever, tying Eucalyptus branches to herself to go as A sloth!
Pride-- India went as a self-loving prom queen/pageant queen, which is hilarious because it's totally not at all who India is!

Of course, when I think about it, I shouldn't have been worried-- we're all AOIIs and we do a pretty darn good job of keeping it classy!

And, for good measure, my Netflix waits for the week
Role Models
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Deadwood: Season 1
Pineapple Express
Quarantine

Not much change, though it's interesting Deadwood is on a wait-- great show, if you're in to the wild West!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's a few days away, but this week is going to be busy so I'll go ahead and say it.

Tonight was fantastic-- India invited me to the AOII Thanksgiving at EA's house which was a lot of fun. They serve by Alpha order, which means that being old pays off because you get to go first! Oct '03, baby! There was ham, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and Leslie made TWO turkeys that I got to carve with a butcher knife because nobody knew how to carve a turkey. It was great to get to know the girls better, and they were all so very sweet for me-- I'm definitely thankful for my wonderful new group of sisters! There was also a strange strawberry pretzel concoction that was wonderful, and chocolate cake with frosting and red hots on top. Yum!

I'm going to Emily's for Thanksgiving since I won't be able to go down and see Jeremy (sad) and we're doing a mini Thanksgiving and getting up (staying up?) to hit the outlet malls at midnight where Banana Republic and J Crew are having BIG sales on clearance stuff. It probably won't be as bad because nobody really has money, but I'm sure it'll still be crazy since it IS the outlet malls. I'm hoping to make some cash this week so I can get the Eiler's Christmas off to Marc and Jan and get some pants at either J Crew or Banana.

There's not much else otherwise. I'm so jealous Matt, Val, and Ana are off to Hong Kong this week! Talk about exciting. I should have asked Valerie to pick me up a postcard since I'm a major geek and don't have any from outside Japan as far as Asia goes. I'm absolutely exhausted from Casey staying up late all week, so I'm going to drink my bedtime tea and go to bed!

Again, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you can take the time to think of a few wonderful things for which you're thankful no matter how bad things are looking-- it will make you feel a little more calm inside. :)

Blargh

Well, Val, it's a night to make you glad you're in Singapore! It's been steadily dropping down to 24 degrees F here and I'm not really keen on that kind of weather...

The first chapter meeting with Gamma Sigma went really well, the girls are sweet and kind of remind me of Kappa Omicron (my chapter at Rhodes). Two of the advisers graduated from GA State, and then there's me and a girl who went to Kentucky at Bolling Green. They had elections tonight and were done in 20 minutes! UNHEARD OF! Anyway, I'm really excited-- the new officers for the offices I'm advising seem really excited and can't wait to get started. VP of Chapter Development is going to be tricky, it's the first time the office has existed but at least we're both starting from scratch.

I'm also not sure why I keep staying up so late... It's not like I'm really thrilled to be awake or anything, it just happens.

Oh, well, that's about it. I'm going to go research some identity protection stuff for Jeremy and hit the hay. Hopefully the guy with all the stuff in the garage won't be a jerk and try to do anything stupid like break in to the house. The former tenants left all this stuff there, abandoned the house basically, and then got ticked when even though Jeremy, Jeff, and Justin have been there for about three weeks now and he hasn't picked up his stuff, they gave him the ultimatum to pick his stuff up or buy it back from the DAV. People are really stupid sometimes...