Hello, Leon.

List of 6 Excuses 

(for why I haven't updated since November):

1. I'm a full-time college student and full-time college students are overworked, overcharged and overly-exhausted people. 

2. My creative well was bone dry due to an increased amount of stress and displeasure experienced during the last few months as a direct result of reason 1. 

3. My iCloud refuses to work properly and I refuse to spend more than 30 minutes figuring it out. I am stumped and have not a clue in the world how to talk my iPhone into sending my photo-stream directly to my computer beyond what I've already done. It just sits there and laughs at me. 

4. I've taken on yet another role. Go ahead and call me Intern Caitlyn again. This means I have to spend 120 hours of my little life working for the American Diabetes Association before May 3rd. It's fun but calculate 120 hours into real life and full-time college student status and (HELLO) you understand why this has made it to the List of 6 Excuses.

5. My French class is all-consuming. 

6. My babysitting business is starting to take off. One or two referrals and suddenly I feel like every Raleigh mom is giving me the once-over when I'm at the grocery store. But I love it- there are some stinking cute kids down here. And they call me Miss Caitlyn so basically I'm a fan. 

So there you go. That should clear things up. 

But if not, then you can kindly take your negativity elsewhere.

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday (whaaat?) and super-storm Leon made his big debut. 

I was really looking forward to celebrating on a nice warm day but Leon had other plans. 

Pushy. 

We did manage to make our way over to Whole Foods and got me a birthday cake. 

It's from Whole Foods so really it's like the healthiest cake we could've gotten, right? 

 

We got 2 inches of snow which isn't the biggest of deals but down here that's more than enough to call off schools and cancel classes and shut down businesses and hibernate for a day or two. 

So that's what I'm doing. Sort of hibernating. 

I slept way too long this morning and so all day I've been kind of groggy-stupid. I just want to go back to bed but I've gotten plenty of sleep and more would just make it worse. 

Why do bad things happen to good people? 

You know when you sleep too long in the morning and you're like borderline awake but then you have the craziest dreams? Or is that just a problem I have? 

Well either way, I had the weirdest dream this morning. 

Mary Catherine was our new kitten? 

She was human, but we treated her like a cat. 

And we let her outside but then we went to bed and accidentally locked her out. 

So she shacked up with a kind possum family that lived under our porch.

Then the next morning I went out to find her, my precious kitty, but I couldn't find her! 

I called her name over and over and then the neighbor told me she saw her go down the street to the hospital. 

So I made my way to the hospital and there she was, little kitty/MC curled up in the corner sleeping. 

I was warned by the nurse that she wouldn't act like a kitty because she was basically raised by possums. 

I figured it would be fine, she spent like 1 night with them, how bad could it be? 

But then I picked her up and she screamed some crazy, possum-like scream. 

Scared the crap out of me. Then I realized I was terrible and had really messed up my kitty-sister. 

I woke up crying. 

And no, we don't have a cat or a kitten, there is no possum family living under our porch, and there is no hospital down the street. 

I am also not implying that my sister is an animal or that she was raised by animals.

I conclude that I have a wild imagination and that sleeping past 10 is no longer a good idea.

Clearly 22 means that I can't handle all that sleep. 

Goodbye youth.

Want to re-cap Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks? Because I want to!

I'll go ahead and get all the puppy pictures out of the way first. There are a lot, brace yourselves. Shasta's just so photogenic and Iris is so stinking cute. 

Danny is Iris's favorite person. 

She's a stunner.

See? Shasta was born to pose. 

I taught Iris how to play Scrabble. She wasn't very good. 

Shasta got a haircut and we made fun of her, shame! 

And Baby Iris officially loves shoving her face into the snow. Good for her. 

I may be slightly obsessed with those two, but can you blame me? They're adorable and they are so cuddly and I miss them so bad! 

Winter in PA was lots of fun. We had snow more than we didn't have snow. Or maybe that's a lie, I can't really remember if I'm being honest. It seems like a life-time ago. 

 But we tried to play in the snow at one point. It was cold and windy and Iris was occupying herself so we didn't feel the need to stay out long. 

I do remember hanging out with Carli Sue a lot. We decided to decorate the guest-book at the Corner Coffee Shop over Thanksgiving break. She drew a lovely turkey with a coffee and I wrote an impressive list of what we were thankful for.

 

I'm thankful for her! 

I also saw old high school friends and we did our high-school-friend thing where we called someone and took a picture and tagged them on facebook. Because we're so creative like that. 

 Yu Qing was on the phone. True story! 

I took so many pictures of all the happenings. I mean, it was Christmas would you expect anything less? Also it was my last winter break. The last time I'll get four weeks off for Christmas because apparently that's not normal and real people don't get that. 

That's a serious bummer.

And Kyle isn't in many pictures because he was gallivanting in Ukraine! We were super excited to have him back home!

This little Amish lady made me smile. I don't know why, but I found her absolutely adorable. And I felt bad that she was walking to get her mail in the cold, rain. I thought someone should recognize and document on her behalf. 

2014's going to be great, isn't it? 

So much hope for this year!

Fall Break, Last Forever!

My class got out a good 45 minutes early and I have at least an hour to sit in the honors lounge until my next class starts so I figured I would go ahead and update my blog since I have one and all that. 

Can you believe we're already through midterms?

Well, can you believe that I am already through midterms? Because I sort of am.

Except for the one I have tomorrow morning. Who does that?

Midterms after fall-break? Bad idea dude. 

I wouldn't have studied for it anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter when I take it. 

Don't tell dad.

(So since I'm so great at updating and all that, I actually took the exam before posting this. One word for that exam: Easy. Aced it. You're welcome, Dad.)

We can tell dad about the random hockey game that I went to- that was fun. 

I went with a couple true hockey fans, so it made more sense this time. 

I went my freshman year too- remember that? I do. Good times. 

Anyway, this time we went down to watch the warm-ups and I was pretty sure I was going to die. Jennifer told me it would be fun though, so I was brave.

These guys were slinging pucks directly at my forehead which was 1. rude and 2. scary. 

I did a lot of ducking. But let's be real, I loved it.

Being that close to a professional anything is quite exciting in my opinion. 

Carter and I also got to meet Stormy. I told Stormy we wanted to have a funny picture so he promptly stuck his finger in his nose and motioned for Carter and I to do the same.

Nailed it. 

There were also some really chatty Charlies behind Carter and me. They had something to say about everything that was happening- from the new guy on the team to the opposing team's mascot. 

"What's a saber?" 

"It's a big sword."

"Oh, like a light saber?" 

"No dude, like a sword! Like with a sharp blade and everything!"

"Wouldn't it be cool if they had a buffalo holding two swords as their mascot?"

"Yeah, he could like skate out on the ice with his swords and wave them around."

"That would be sick!"

"They should make the buffalo a cartoon too. That would be so funny."

Go ahead and re-read that dialogue with a thick southern accent. 

Suddenly it's a whole lot funnier, isn't it?

Well Carter and I thought so too. We also wanted to see what they looked like without making it obvious that we were turning around to look at them.

So we took a "Selfie" which they gladly photo-bombed.

Mission accomplished.

What else have I been doing? 

You know, just hitting bullseyes and becoming an arching sensation. I had to make my own bow and arrow and with Carter's help, it actually shot straight and true!

Well, not so true... but it did go forward and therefore I passed.

I guess you could say I was pretty confident in my arching abilities, so when I was home for fall break I asked dad if I could check out his bow. 

65 pounds? No big deal dad, I got this.

Turns out 65 pound draw weight is actually quite difficult.

I couldn't do it.

Moving on...

Fall break sure was fun! 

Did a little negotiating, moved a midterm and skipped a class and made it home on Tuesday night! 

So fun. 

Wednesday morning I woke up before mom which was super weird. 

The neighbors have a hound dog who has a very peculiar bark. 

The dog sounds like a child who is in great distress. 

And he's loud! The dog... not the child (there is no child). 

So as Miss Neighbor is walking her hound dog right past my bedroom window, something happens which startles the moaning-child-like-dog and he breaks out in moaning-like-song. 

I was awakened on my first day of vacation at 7:45am. 

Ask me how pleased I was with this occurrence.

I WAS NOT PLEASED. 

So I figured I might as well wake mom and the dogs and start my Wednesday right!

Still super weird that we have dogs. As in plural. As in more than one. 

But I can't imagine home-life without Baby Iris.

Let's talk about how adorable she is because I miss her spunk and her sass. 

And yes, bottom left is Iris hoarding her toys.

Shasta is still the princess- naturally. She's just not as in-your-face as the little one. 

She does love having her picture taken though. Diva-licious. 

Anyway, we spent a lot of our time at home listening to Christmas music really loud, drinking coffee, eating baked oatmeal, and blowing our noses.

Mom and I both had really bad colds- weird. 

I also got to check out the Corner Coffee Shop, where little MC is now a full-functioning barista! I got my pumpkin spice and was happy. 

We also ran around Kitchen Kettle because MC wanted to take pictures of trees. 

Turns out the trees she liked were in the parking lot and were not nearly as pretty up-close. 

So we just walked around.

We almost got run over by Alabama while he was trying to back into a parking space right in front of where we were standing. 

He passed us later on in the afternoon and gave us a friendly toot- weird, but it was friendly.

You'd feel bad too if you nearly ran over the three Martin girls. 

We also waved enthusiastically to the pickle-guy. Well... I waved enthusiastically to the pickle-guy. MC was embarrassed because she was convinced she probably knows him. 

Mom wasn't looking at him because she was looking at someone's gardens or something probably. 

But for real- does anyone know who the pickle-guy in Intercourse is? Because I think a lot of people would like to figure that out.

Any information regarding the pickle-guy would be appreciated. 

I also met up with Carli Sue-lee-loo while I was home =) 

We chatted like 12 year old girls while we drank our seasonal coffees. 

She's one of my absolute favorites and I was so glad that we could make a coffee date happen so last minute! 

She calls this her Asian face. I call it her adorable Carli face. 

MC and I did a lot of giggling and all that too. 

Tuesday night when she got home from work, she came immediately to my side and started telling me story after story of school, youth group, and work happenings. 

One of my favorite things she said was this...

"Caity, Mrs Scheuer says I need to apply to colleges before Halloween. She told me that in her office and I was all, 'Yeah, okay-sounds good' but really I was freaking out because I don't know when the heck Halloween is! Do you?" 

So I giggled and told her it was October 31st and her eyes got real big and she said, "Oh shoot, it's in October?! I DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME, CAITY!" 

Classic though- since when do the Martins celebrate Halloween? She really had no idea. 

That might not have been all that funny, but believe me when I say that it was hilarious. She's really the funniest person ever. 

She also asked me this, "Caity, what's that movie with the grinch? Oh! It's called The Grinch!" 

I just love her. 

Then just like that we headed off to Cardinal Hill for a weekend of bargain hunting and fall-foliage viewing.

It ended up raining literally all day on Friday, so our bargain hunting was moved to Saturday. 

It was so fun though- the whole Martin family, minus Kyle and Maria, was up. 

As for bargains- I didn't find anything particularly interesting. 

Except two DVD's which I completely forget now. 

Dan was even there- he was all giggly and fun. MC and I forced him into a dan-man sandwich and took pictures, much to his obvious delight. 

We missed you Kylie! You clearly would've balanced out each of our photos. 

We also went out for a drive on Friday because MC wanted to find some colorful leaves. So mom, Grandma, Aunt Melanie, MC and I packed into old grey and drove through the mountains of PA and took lots of fun pictures. 

Just farmland, mountains, and pretty leaves.

Oh and some cows because mom was positive, "This isn't a driveway, it's a road and it connects back to another road!"

It wasn't a road. It was a farm lane. 

Right now I'm listening to Brett Eldredge and I'm kind of dying inside. He's just such a fantastic country singer and I love him. 

Don't tell Tim Tebow. He doesn't need anything else to worry about right now. 

Seriously, don't say anything to him. He would be devastated. 

Anyway, Fall break couldn't last forever so Saturday afternoon we packed up and headed out.
Grandma loaded me up with some "Driving snacks".

"No grandma, those are peanut chews and I don't need more than 3" was my response.
10 peanut chews in my pocket later, we headed home.
And soon after arriving home, I drove even further south to Raleigh.

Fall break can't last forever.
So before I left, we all gave hugs and said sad goodbyes.
"Goodbye, dad. See you in a few weeks!"

"Yeah just hold on a second. I want to see this last drive."
Don't worry, I didn't take it personally.
And to be fair, it was a big play and I'm pretty sure the Eagles got a first down.
Speaking of Eagles, I'm really praying that their game will be broadcasted down here today.
Eagles v Cowboys- that has to happen today.

Today Mom, Kyle, Liz and I had a long conversation on facebook about how we want to visit The Netherlands real soon. So all afternoon I've been daydreaming about Europe and how awesome it is. 

Like seriously, I know we discussed a theory in Com theory but I couldn't tell you a single thing about it. And I just came from that class. 

I might actually have problems focusing.

And Liz guess what? In my next class my professor actually spent a good 20 minutes discussing the Netherlands! I'm not sure what he was saying, but I know it was about your people.
The class is about Mozart and Vienna, so the whole Netherlands thing really confused me. But I didn't ask questions!
I probably should have...

Freaking daydreaming- why must you be such a great escape?? 

Oh guess what? I got a little bit of a haircut. 

Remember that hair-obsession I used to have?
Yeah, me too.

Here's to hoping that it's not December before I post again!

I Think it Goes...

This is my 72nd post, can you believe that? 

Seems like just yesterday I was stressing over the fact that I was a college freshman, could not for the life of me think of a blog title, was worried that biology was going to ruin me, and confused with the fact that North Carolina which, contrary to its name, is actually a very southern state. 

North Carolina is the south. 

It's the real Carolina. 

(Or so I've been told.)

But here we are, on the home stretch and we now have 72 posts under our belt. 

Well, I have 72 posts under my belt. 

Not quite sure what you have. But the chances of you having 72 posts as well is highly unlikely.

And yes, the post title today is a lyric from a One Direction song. 

Best Song Ever. 

Look it up. 

Memorize it. 

Think of me- because it's fantastic. 

They're fantastic. 

You know what is frustrating me right now? My chair. 

This chair came with the room- it was a package deal- because believe me, if I had a choice (and a few extra bucks) I would have gotten myself a chair with an adjustable height lever. 

I seriously feel like I'm sitting on my desk rather than my chair. 

Talk about your neck-aches. 

I learned about ergonomics in Office Skills during my senior year of high school (shout-out to you, Mrs Wenger) and let me tell you... this chair/desk set-up has very terrible ergonomics. I may have just used that word in a very wrong context, but I don't believe I have used it in four years, so give me a break. 

I couldn't tell you many other legitimate terms from that class, but I do remember ergonomics for some strange reason. 

I remember the most random things. 

Like in Earth Science last year, for some reason the term "Albedo" was drilled into my memory. 

So now every time it snows or rains or something I'm all, "Hey mom, did you know snow and rain have a high albedo and that's why when it's raining or snowing you squint?" 

I'm such a random nerd. 

I think I may have referenced the albedo thing in a previous post. So sorry for the repetition but it just fit so perfectly and I couldn't help myself. 

Want to know what else is random? 

I have a box of Honey Bunches of Oats on my desk. Right beside me. 

Our cupboards are way too full. 

Food runneth over. 

This was the first year ever that I went home for Labor Day Weekend- isn't that good news? 

Lynda texted and was all, "Wanna go home?" So I responded with, "Duh." 

And it was settled. 

We drove up Friday night- that was exciting. 

Did you know they sell Turkey Hill in Raleigh now? They totes do and I was very excited about that. 

So I had a Turkey Hill tea to sip on in the car. That's basically irrelevant but you know- I'm an open book, baby. 

I took a couple of videos of Carter trying to sing all the lyrics to the pop station that we found in DC. They won't upload on here though, so you'll have to use your imagination. 

And if you're ever near me just ask and I'll show you. 

But it was good to be home. It obviously went way too fast, but what are we going to do about that? 

We might cry, but that's about it. 

And then our eyes are puffy and gross, our nose is nasty, and people think we're crazy.

Not that we care about what people think, but we also don't want to be ostracized by society. 

That's a whole other story. 

Anyway- the Blank family (minus the Randy Blanks) met up at Lapp Valley for a taste of the best ice cream on the planet. 

We also cuddled some 9 week old Yorkie puppies, considered buying a baby bunny for $10, watched a blind bulldog walk into a wall, and stared at some calves. 

This guy was borderline crazy. 

Do you see that eye? I think I may have gotten too close. 

But for real- this guy needs to learn to shut that eye. 

 

He's just going to freak people out with the intensity behind that eye. 

This cow was much calmer. 

She was all- "Oh we have company? Well they weren't invited and my legs are tired so I'm not standing up." 

 

It's a calf life. 

Aw shame, and MC took the cutest picture of the parentals. 

 

Dad told me not to mess with him after I asked if he got a vanilla ice-cream cone. 

I mean they have peanut-butter twirl, chocolate chip mint, and cookie dough. 

Nope. Vanilla for daddy-o. 

Then Daddy and MC boarded mom's new ride and rode on home. 

 

Mom's new toy is a 2013 Softtail. 

I would tell you the colors, but apparently I wasn't really listening to what Daddy was saying because I have no idea where to even begin. 

Metallic something? 

White? 

Good enough for me. 

Mom was all dramatic about riding before they get a windshield because apparently it's "Unbelievably loud" and "Unbearable" without a windshield. 

Drama. 

Just kidding mom! Totally kidding =D 

Dad loves riding his bikes so it doesn't take too much convincing to get him to break it in. 

Then the Blank family came over for an evening of hot-dogs on the fire, Aunt Darlene's tasty poppy-seed salad, pumpkin rolls from grandma, Aunt Lisa's perfect meadow tea, and Carter's ridiculously delicious kale chips. 

It was pretty fun. 

We missed Kyle, Vanessa and Alyson- boo. 

I sat down next to grandpa at one point and asked, "Hey Grandpa, we should probably take a selfie."

His response was, "I don't know how to selfie. Show me how to selfie, Cait." 

So we selfied.

He liked that he could see his face so he started to make it look funny. 

 

He's famous for throwing his head back and laughing harder than everyone else around. 

I love when I laugh like that- so hard that my head goes right on back. 

That's how I know I'm really happy. 

And I love, love, LOVE when he does it. 

 

Sam Brown (that's his Amish name- not even kidding) is officially a selfie pro. 

I'm not sure who it was (Uncle Randy) then shouted about taking a walk while it was pushing 3,000 degrees outside- so we leashed up the dogs and headed up the road. 

After making it this far (about 2 houses down from ours) we were all kind of wondering who suggested the walk, but no one was willing to take responsibility for the horribly awful suggestion. 

I sort of forget who was responsible too. 

(No I don't. It was Randy.)

Just kidding guys. We had a fun time.

 

It was just hot. 

Really hot. 

 

But we helped ourselves to the whole road and somehow that made the walk slightly more bearable. 

Then Jess and Jordan showed up, and we did this whole dramatic movie-scene run towards each other. 

No one was around to capture the moment, we were all running dramatically. 

But the lack of capture is a real shame because I'm sure we looked pretty hilarious. 

So to the kind folks of Kingsfield, you're welcome for the Saturday night entertainment. 

 

What else did we do over the weekend? Well no Amish lady donuts if that's what you're asking. 

But mom did make some PA style iced-tea. 

Not Southern, by any means. 

But still delicious and still one of my favorites. 

 

And then she makes it all fancy with her old-fashioned glasses and pitchers. 

She's just the cutest thing around. 

We also visited with Grandma Martin for a few hours on Sunday. 

She had knee-replacement surgery last week. 

But she's been a real champ- she's got spunk, that's for sure!

Her first question when I walked in was, "Do you want to see my knee?"

One word: Stitches. 

She's a real hero- strongest lady this side of the Welsh Mountain. 

No question. 

You keep doing your thing Grandma. 

She's going to set all sorts of records for healing and all that. 

No doubt. 

But the weekend is now long gone and I've been forced back into this weird routine where I wake up at 7am, two days a week, because I like to drink my coffee slowly and watch the news before I go to my 9:30 class. 

Who does that to themselves?

Latest happening: Caitlyn got her first Mr. Coffee. It's a beautiful relationship, really. 

 Mr. Coffee doesn't ask questions. 

Mr. Coffee understands. 

Mary Catherine laughs at me for waking up so early when it's not necessary. 

Hear me now: 

I don't care if you don't understand me, because most of the time I don't understand me. 

And now? Now I'm off to a meeting where they've promised to give important graduation information, to reveal our Cornhuskin' theme, and to provide free Bojangles. 

Who doesn't want delicious chicken and warm biscuits at 9pm? 

If I'm wrong, then you've never had Bojangles before and that's too bad. 

Nighty night!