This is Living.

My brief lapse in writing was a mere result of living out one of the best weekends while here at home that I have had in a long while. 

I was elated when I found out that one of my best friends from school was going to be in Nashville this weekend, and she and I along with a couple of others hit the town. Her name is Amanda and she is the insanely brilliant author behind the lovely blog, Yours Truly.

Drinks, karaoke, music, dancing- the self proclaimed "wolfpack" was reunited, and we had a blast!

Amanda also gave me a belated birthday gift as shown below.

It is a brand new journal that is constructed out of recycled materials. The front cover is a shard from an old record.

Our psychic BFF powers must have triggered into the "on" position at a certain point because she had absolutely no way of knowing that for the past couple of weeks the thought of buying a new journal has drifted in and out of my mind on frequent occasion.

Also, as this was my last weekend home before leaving for D.C., Saturday was completely devoted to the boyfriend. We had a great day! We watched football, ate dinner at my dad's house, played tag with my siblings, versed each other in air hockey and basketball, and went to the movies.

My favorite moment of the entire weekend though was undoubtedly our impromptu midnight stroll that was accompanied by his dog, Emily. The weather was cool and crisp, and the experience was bliss. But don't worry, I won't bore you with anymore of the minute details on this affair. I will save those for my new journal!

Tomorrow morning I catch my one-way flight to D.C.
Nerves have yet to kick in because I'm a bit nonchalant about the entire ordeal. In other words, I have zero expectations. I relate the forthcoming experience to two summers ago when I studied abroad. I'm apprehensive about the unknown, but am otherwise handling the situation as it comes.

Fortunately, Gibbard and crew have inadvertently helped me get through the week.

Though this isn't the new year, it does, in a sense, feel as if it is my new year. I have an array of resolutions and objectives as well as goals that I would like to reach before the end of my stay.
However, I feel that as long as I come out of this affair in December with more experience and knowledge than I had prior to coming into it, then I will consider all of it to be a real success (despite its inevitable hardships).

Brace yourself Corporate World, Emmy is about to rock you super hard!!
Wish me luck!

Beloved Weekend.

Oh, was anyone interested as to how my birthday weekend unfolded?

Refreshing and just what the doctor ordered.

First, Eliot surprised me with some gifts:

The remainder of the weekend was spent as follows:

eating sushi

dancing

drinking wine

reading

cuddling

UT football and tailgating

spontaneous walks (through the recently discovered UT Gardens)

indulging in 3 Spoon's frozen yogurt

Of course, the fact that I was able to lay eyes on a couple of long lost friendly faces is a given.

I often wonder how the 18-year-old Emmy would have felt upon learning that her future, post graduate self would indeed eventually grow to not only love, but to actually miss the silly little town of Knoxville.

For the sake of my sanity, I hope that my next visit will be sooner rather than later- I miss it already!

Stereotypical.

Sunday evenings and Monday mornings- the posts are always eerily similar aren't they? A stereotypical weekend recap, if you will.

Oh wait, what was that?
You say that you want to hear about various, well thought out and carefully chronologically ordered moments that are worthy of mention from my weekend? Well I'm so flattered that you asked!

1. One of my favorite things that I did this weekend was go to see Ramona & Beezus with my little sister and company. Every female young adult has delved into the magic that is Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby, right?! If not, get to it!

Imagine the following scenario: During the film, as Ramona wittily decides to crack a hard boiled egg using the brute strength of her noggin alone, the audience is astonished to discover that the egg had actually been in its original state and not hard boiled as we were led to believe. As one could only imagine, after the branding crack, yolk oozed steadily and slowly in thick drips down poor Ramona's hair and face. Laughter immersed in the theater so I decided to look down the aisle at my little sister to see her reaction. 

Sara sat next to me, slouched down in her seat, bug eyed, mouth wide with both hands attached palm down onto her cheeks. I couldn't help but to think that she very much resembled Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone.You know this classic image.

Next to Sara sat her best friend, Nicole. Nicole was equally horrified at the situation as she was sitting upright in her chair, legs tucked to her chin with her arms linked around them. Our cousin McKenzie brought up the rear of our row. With both elbows placed on each arm rest, she sat with her pointer fingers touching the temples of her forehead, simply wide eyed.

I laughed gently at the situation presented before me, watching each of these girls mentally taking notes for what NOT to do in the classroom amongst their peers.
2. Sweetie Pie and Rex from the previous post simply made my Saturday worth while.

Collectively, my two families now have four dogs total- all quite unique in their personal attributes.

Daisy (a Maltese) is the eldest. Practically blind and deaf, her senses are only aroused when Cesar Canine Cuisine is at stake.

Max is our dachshund that is more commonly known as a "weiner dog." With legs that are way too short for his body, he is a hoot to watch waddling about the house.

Sweetie Pie is the exact opposite of Max. She is a mutt that is equipped with frighteningly long legs that leap and bound with the skill of a hyena. If it wasn't for her chihuahua-like face, I would seriously consider questioning whether or not domesticity is the best suit for her.
Finally, Rex rounds out our circle of pets- the youngest and smallest of the lot. Tiny enough to keep tucked away in a handbag, this weekend Rex began practicing his ferocious bark, more of a yelp really. So determined to be intimidating I'm sure, all I could really do while witnessing the affair was to crack a smile.
3. Last night I also finished my latest novel, The Thorn Birds, which was a story with flawless writing and an intoxicating, page turning plot.
"The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself, and die singing. At the very instant the thorn enters there is no awareness in it of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it."

U.S.A., not.

I admittedly took off on a spontaneous trip to Knoxville this weekend without any warning, and for that I am sorry. The good news though, is that I had a wonderful time! It was a great mini vacation, one that was much needed.

Nothing too exciting ensued upon our journey- simply time well spent with friends.

However, I leave everyone in the blog-o-sphere with one photo as a summary of our weekend.

This was taken before the U.S.A vs. Ghana World Cup game on Saturday.

Always one for a laugh and unable to come across face paint at this point in time (thank goodness), my boyfriend found the perfect ensemble for the event.

And yes, I had to sit next to him the entire time.

Feel sorry for me.