Maybe it's Time to Take a Break

Hi.

I don't care what anyone says- I think it's weird when men sit on the roof of my dorm building with a boom-box blaring some form of Hispanic music that I don't understand. That's especially weird because this is an all women's school- so we hardly ever see men. 

Oh but when we do see them... they're on the roof with a boom-box and singing in Spanish.

Awesome.

I'm happy to announce that Raleigh is finally getting the "Fall/Autumn" memo and temperatures have been rapidly dropping! And by rapidly I mean slowly (but surely!), and by dropping I mean it's no longer 100 degrees all the time. 

We're talking low 70's to low 80's for the past week. 

Ah... Fall. Makes me want to light a candle or snuggle up in a fuzzy blanket with fuzzy socks while drinking a pumpkin beverage. 

To be fair though, the mornings here have been quite brisk. Having tennis at 9:30 in the morning is definitely making me question the whole sweatshirt thing. But I refuse to give in until at least October!

Stay strong Caitlyn... stay strong.

This was our tennis morning. I will never get over the skies of Carolina. 

I can't wait until the leaves are finally changing colors- then it'll be all golds and reds against that bright blue. 

My toes are curling I'm SO EXCITED for Fall.

Just a side note- I'm listening to Frank Sinatra's Christmas album as I'm typing. 

Noel, noel. 

I also got my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season. 

Notice how I capitalized the name because in my mind, PSL is a proper noun. 

It was just as delicious as I remembered! I can't believe they make this a seasonal drink. 

Give me Pumpkin Spice or give me death! 

Drama. 

But isn't it just so pretty in that little cup? Such beauty. 

Mom also randomly texted me this picture yesterday. She obviously took it while she was driving- I'm assuming she was driving herself since she no longer has a chauffeur and Daddy would have been at work... 

So mom risked her life to text me a picture of a buggy in Lancaster. 

Thank you mother, for risking your life while you were driving 10 mph on this road that you drive every day to give me the gift of Lancaster. 

Thank you. 

 

Pretty blue-skied in Lancaster that day too. I'm impressed. 

And the corn is all gone. It was getting pretty stressful to pull out at some places because the corn was so high and I couldn't see around it. Good to see that they've fixed that and the next time I'm home I won't have to wreck my neck trying to be safe. 

Rhyming. 

Lynda and Carter also hosted Skye and I for our usual spaghetti night last week. We had fun- eating spaghetti and doing nothing else. 

Just kidding we did lots else. 

We went to a little coffee shop where I got yet another PSL and was in love all over again. 

Everybody got in on the picture taking at Sola. 

Then I volunteered with Lynda and Carter at the Food Bank's 24 hour telethon. 

We stayed all 24 hours. 

That's a complete lie. We didn't do that at all. 

We volunteered Friday night for their "Social Media Mixer"!

Lynda and I worked the Plinko board and let me just say, we were rock stars. 

We came up with numerous slogans to represent and market our product. 

My favorite was, "There's no losers- only winners in Plinko!" 

We would also shout, "Pa-linko!" 

We were the loudest ones in the warehouse and we raised a bunch of money. 

That's just how we do things. 

The Durham Bulls mascot, Wool E. Bull was also there for a few hours, and he liked Plinko. 

We're practically BFF's now. 

Between Plinko players and cheese-squares Lynda and I both found time to get our faces painted. The woman was INCREDIBLE. 

"So how long have you been a professional artist?"-me

"Oh I never had any professional training, I just like painting."-Mrs. Incredible (with a paintbrush)

She blew me away. 

I didn't know what I wanted, so I told her to let her creative freedom run wild on my face. 

A scary thought, but she did so well. 

Pumpkins??  

LIKE OH MY WORD WOMAN, COULD YOU KNOW ME ANY BETTER?

So this is our semi-awkward "let's show the world our face-paint" photo. 

Pumpkins and a butterfly. What do you think?

Then after our job was done with the Plinko board, we started to get really creative. There were these cans just sitting around, you see. So what else would we do but put them on and prance around the warehouse pausing and posing for the occasional photo. 

We learned later that we were actually being filmed most of the time we were in the cans. There was a live webcast going on and we definitely watched ourselves later that night. We had no idea. 

Yeah well- who else can say that there is a video of them on the internet where they are walking around in a soup can? 

That's right. 

I'm owning that one! 

The cans were pretty awesome though. Lots of kids were really into them (ha- literally in them as well as liked them) and of course Lynda and I thought they were a blast and a half. 

Last weekend was fun- lots of random events that kind of flew by. Then this week- um... hello Thursday? What are you doing here so soon? 

Not that I'm complaining... but Thursday are we serious? 

I've officially listened to the entire Frank Sinatra Christmas album. 

Word.

Next thing we know it'll be Christmas and the malls will be decorated and then it'll be spring and I'll be finished with another year of school and then I'll graduate and then I'll get a job and then I'll be married and then I'll be a grandma. 

Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed? 

I wore a scarf for the first time yesterday. It was finally "cold enough". Maybe I should say it was finally not hot. 

Either way, I wore a scarf.

s

That's me in my scarf. I cut off my head- oops. 

Tonight I have a date with some pretty cool girls to watch Sweet Home Alabama. It will be a fun time, I'm sure of it. 

Also, I just went and got myself a Pumpkin Spice Latte. 

I should've made it decaf, but hey- yolo. 

I might regret that decision later, but I'm definitely enjoying it right now.

What is life if we don't live in the moment? 

Also, I realize that my music is no longer playing on the page. That is super weird and I apologize. If I had a single tech-savvy bone in my body I would fix that ASAP. But I don't, so I won't. 

It makes me crazy sad that it won't play.

Now I'm listening to Zac Brown because I have to memorize all of their music before October 19th. 

They have lots of songs. 

Southern Ground Music and Food Festival- look it up. I'm going to be there =D 

"Life is like a ride on a party bus- turn the radio up and sing along with it."

Enjoy your dayyyyyy. 

Let's Be Honest...

I'll sacrifice my otherwise labor-free labor day to update again. 

Look at me, just giving and giving! I'm totally kidding because I'm actually really interested in doing anything other than reading for my classes and writing a report on the US Open. 

I have to actually watch a tennis match- can you believe the things they are making me do? Here's to hoping I can follow along while watching- enough that I can write up a paragraph or two about what I "learned".

Any-old-who, I have made it through my first 3 weeks of junior year. That deserves a reward, right?

That's what I thought. So I'll probably buy some new shoes. 

And some rainboots.

But come on- if this was your forecast for the upcoming week, you'd buy some rainboots too. 

Let's be honest. (ha.)

Not only will it be raining all week long, it will also be way too hot for September. 

I'm just sayin'- this is how I justify my otherwise unnecessary purchases. A new pair of rainboots will brighten my week because according to that forecast the sun won't be doing any brightening. 

I am keeping busy guys. That's a good thing, right? It still feels like I should be finished with the semester but whatevs. The days go so slow and the weekends are usually like on energy drinks. So that kinda stinks.

The first weekend I was in town I spent some quality time with the C-rains. You should say it like that because it makes them sound more ghetto. 

 

We went to our fav coffee shop in Raleigh and spent a little too much time drinking caffeine, eating homemade biscuits and taking pictures of ourselves. 

We're too fun to not take pictures though. 

Does that sound conceited? (crap.)

We're just having the time of our lives and love letting others laugh along with us. 

Or at us. We don't even care. 

And yes, that's Carter and I being divas as we tried to find a hat for Lynda's infamous "lake week". 

Those were both busts- but she did find one with just as much character. 

 

And yes, there is Carter debating those fab leopard pumps. Notice the target employee over his left shoulder- she was not impressed with our behavior. I'm convinced he would have tried them on and pranced around the shoe isle had she not been so obviously displeased.

Needless to say, she didn't laugh along and we were actually a little bit offended. 

Laugh along everyone- you wouldn't want to offend us. 

That weekend we also went to see the new Bourne Legacy movie. 

Let me just say that movie was AH- MAH- ZING. 

However, if you're like my mother and are only interested in happy-go-lucky, sappy love stories or something, this movie is not for you. 

Maybe just tell your kids to go see it?

Sorry mom. 

But I officially have a massive crush on Jeremy Renner (the "better than Jason Bourne" lead actor).

See the movie and you'll understand why.

Except you, mom. Don't even waste your time. 

Last weekend was also a fun time. I went with Ali and Camille to Winston-Salem, NC. 

We did a lot of random homework, watched countless episodes of Law and Order SVU, went to a baseball game and harassed Mark, crashed another University's move-in day, and had a blast!

Ali and I survived a whole semester of geography together last year (with the help of our beloved Skye). We spent way too much time talking during the class, but we both passed with A's and we're such good friends now- so I'd say it was worth it.  

We tried to take a picture of all 3 of us on my phone- but that didn't go so well.

 So Camille thought she'd set up Ali's camera on a tree limb so we could use the self timer. 

As inventive as her idea was, that didn't work either. 

Camille is Ali's "lil sis" who is super fun and one of the most entertaining people I've ever met. She can also eat herself into a food coma. I've seen her do it.

We did eventually capture a picture of the 3 of us. We debated asking the random Frisbee players to pause for a moment and help us out, but then we figured out how to set up the camera on some random metal structure in the middle of the open field. 

It worked like a charm.

 Oh and all of these field pictures were at Wake Forest University.
We almost got caught up in move-in traffic, but Ali pulled an excellent U-turn in the parking lot and we got the heck out of there.
Still was a blast. The campus was beautiful and there were boys.
I didn't just type that, by the way.

We also were kept in check by this ferocious guard dog at the neighbor's house.
Honestly I would NOT want to mess with this guy.
He did make us laugh like crazy though.
Poor thing...

The baseball game?
IT WAS SO FUN.
We sat in the outfield, first row.
And yes, this was a minor league game. But we didn't care- and neither did the drunk lady we sat next to. She was way too funny to ignore.

 

Being so close to the outfielders, we decided we wanted to get a few waves from the players right in front of us. However, the one guy (his name was Mark) was absolutely against being friendly in any way. We called his name, we jumped, we shouted- we got most of our section chanting his name. 

Nothing. 

Then the drunk lady started getting creative. This Mark kid was from California (she looked him up in the program). 

So this woman started yelling things like, "We're California dreamin' up here Mark!" 

 Every time this woman opened her mouth, we were in stitches. 

Between that line and, "I see you Mark!" we were pretty much full-on harassing the poor guy. 

Still- nothing... until we decided to give the opposing team a chance.

We waved at the other guy- his name was Gomez. 

After the first attempt we were rewarded with an over-the-top smile from Johnny Gomez. 

Well you can imagine our delight! 

And the drunk lady's delight. 

So after that she was team Gomez all the way. She started looking up facts about him and calling him by his first name. But she decided that the J in his name was probably silent. So she called him "ohnny Gomez". 

I'm not kidding. 

Then things got unfriendly with Mark. We started "ignoring" him by telling him that we were over him. We also mentioned Gomez's cooperation and how we were very impressed.

I think we really got to him. 

That's the last time he refuses to acknowledge his fans! 

So that weekend was a big success!

 

Skye and I also decided that since we never take pictures together (weird, I know) that we should start...

During our communication research methods class. 

 I think this was our "we don't like research methods" faces. 

You wouldn't either- trust me. Way too much library stuff for this girl. 

We had to take a lot. Just because. 

We also were probably in the class like 15 minutes before it started. We do that.

Early bird gets the worm. 

Or... early bird gets to take pictures before class starts?

You're right- that's not really exciting. We're just always early. 

Then MC sent me this picture of her and Shasty smiling. I couldn't help myself. I miss them both and I want them both to be here. 

Plus, look how cute Shasta looks when she's smiling. 

I just want my face to be in the bottom left corner of this photo. That would mean I am with them. 

Sighs.

Did you know there are only like 33 days until Fall break? Well there are. 

Hurry up September! I want October because it means:

1. Fall break

2. ONYX

3. Cold weather

4. Some music festival with the C-rains

What a great month October will be! 

Here we go, October!