great timing

this morning we took our connecting flight from boston to dc and arrived in dc around 8am. we got in our car and were on our way home when we got a call from my mom's best friend from high school who's family was housesitting/dogsitting for us while we were away.

the phone call bore bad news...my dog, Max, had died this morning. he had been seen awake and walking around around 6 or 7am, but by 830, Max had crawled under our dining room table and died.

the moment my dad turned around and said "Max died," K, L, and i all simultaneously burst into tears...i've never had an onset of sobbing come so quickly.

Max dying came as quite a shock...he'd been kind of slow and sleeping a lot for the past year, but we just figured he was getting on in years and was slowing down from the wildness of Max as a puppy, but now i'm wondering if he maybe was developing cancer or something? his seventh birthday was yesterday...and we weren't even home to celebrate it for him...i feel kind of bad, and i was wondering if he was putting off dying until we got home, but about an hour before we got back just couldn't keep it up anymore?

either way, i miss my pup terribly and am sad i didn't get to say goodbye :(

Max

12/29/2002--12/30/2009

who is john galt?

hahah i love this:

"you're the kind of person who just wants to know everything about everything, aren't you?"

ps: i know i've mentioned this blog before, but i absolutely love it, and upon browsing it this afternoon i found a post-it that i really liked. while i'm more the type of person who would rather know something about everything, i also appreciate the concept when flipped around :)

this christmas

yes, i'm aware i've slacked in my blogging for....well the whole month of december pretty much.

and sure enough i couldn't keep up my photo calendar for more than six days (ha!)

but here are my excuses:

-tampa trip

-finals week

-rowing winter training camp

-travel home, being home, etc

satisfactory?

anyway,

it's christmas morning, well rather, afternoon, as it's 1 o'clock, and as usual, things are unconventional in my house.

my grandparents have yet to arrive, which means we can't eat lunch or open presents yet...

and to further the disappointment, the thrill of my christmases is officially depleted.

looking over my pile of presents, i already know exactly what is contained in each one.

i'm kind of bummed that my family either doesn't know me well enough, or is just too uninspired to gift me anything that would be a true surprise upon opening.

so, basically it's a lot of waiting in the living room to eat, to open gifts, for my grandparents to arrive...and the rest.

the good news, is i go to london tomorrow :)

can't wait!

five & six

december 5th:

& december 6th:

more on my tampa trip tomorrow :)

A double C, got 'em beat already!

today, i depart for the beautiful tampa, florida!

i'm driving down with my friends Bt, Tl, and Ml in Bt's tiny little mustang (it'll be a cramped trip to say the least, but nonetheless deliciously fun!

we were each required to make a mix cd for the drive....i ended up making four (i couldn't pick just 20 out of the 72 songs i dragged to the playlist on my itunes...) and i'm excited to pop 'em in the cd player.

anyway, most of today will be taken up by the 10 hour drive to tampa, but tomorrow we have until 8pm to do basically whatever we want...which of course we will spend much of our time sleeping and tailgating out of Bt's car (haha)

at 8pm....the ACC football championship starts....and let's hope clemson beats out georgia tech!

december 4th:

altered book :)

j3r$3y sh0r3

that's right.

tonight marks the premiere of MTV's new show "jersey shore"

and i am SO THRILLED

my dad grew up on the shore, but the good news is he is not a guido. he does, however have cousins named "vinny" and "ronnie" so it's quite amazing he made it out alive. as a result, i have a strange sort of fondness for shore-life, guidos, and jersey girls. or maybe i just enjoy making fun of them....we'll see.

anyway here's the december 3rd picture:

piano typewriter! i love it :)

advent calendar

i arrived back in clemson monday morning tooooo an advent calendar from elav's mom! yay me i was so delighted...a chocolate a day to count down the days until christmas.

so, in the spirit of christmas and advent calendars, i will (do my best to) post a photo i find interesting here every day (in addition to any other daily musings i have).

and i know i missed yesterday so here is the december 1st photo:

i love mural-type pictures like this

december 2nd:

this man paints himself into backgrounds....can you spot him??!