Update!

So, I'm not great at posting, and I'm not great at taking pictures, either. It's a combination that makes for a pretty pathetic blogger, but hey, what can you do?


I suppose it's time for an update (I feel like the guy at the end of Unsolved Mysteries: Update! After our broadcast Sally's long lost grandfather made contact with our operators, with all the information regarding Sally's missing mother and siblings!). Anyways, here's the update: I'm still living in beautiful South Carolina and loving it. It's azalea season, so it's hard not to be cheerful while surrounded by thousands of bright flowers of various shades of pink everywhere I turn.


I'm still working for the ophthalmologist, and it's still paying the bills. :)


I'm currently obsessed with this song. Can't stop listening to it. It almost makes me cry every time.


My sister Tori is graduating law school tomorrow! Three cheers for Tori! I suppose that's really her update, not mine--but I don't have anything exciting happening in my life, so I'll steal from hers.


This past Saturday was the Regional Southeastern Day of Service (I probably got that title wrong), and our little branch joined in by helping clean up a little place called Wide Awake Plantation in Hollywood, SC. Here are some pictures that I stole from someone else's facebook (I already mentioned that I'm horrible when it comes to taking pictures).

Hard at work clearing out some stubborn plants.



Still working, with Sis. Peterson & Brad. Well, Brad said he was working... :)


At the end of the day the mayor of Hollywood made us a delicious lunch (so nice!), including this lovely chicken and the most wonderful shrimp & grits I've ever tasted! Oh, and the baked beans were spectacular. Yeah, spectacular.


After we were done, we of course had to climb a tree. (See my cute boyfriend, standing up like a crazy person?)


The view from where I was working all day--not too shabby.

Tadaaa! I'm going to try to start taking pictures of my own, but I'm not making any promises.

I Love Snow When It's a Novelty

All day long the weather-people were telling us that it was going to snow in Charleston, and all day long I rolled my eyes at them. Yeah, right. The last time it snowed on the coast of South Carolina and actually stuck I was four years old. That's twenty years ago, folks--and it was a freak occurrence even then.

But joke's on me--when I walked outside last night I was shocked to see SNOW piled on the ground and on cars, in tree branches and all over the roads. For a split second it was as if I'd gone back in time to Provo, but there's no mistaking the lowcountry oaks even when hidden beneath the snowflakes.

Now I've been up since 7:30 AM taking pictures and running around in the snow like a little kid. Gotta love the unexpected. :)

By the Citadel campus


Our backyard! CRAZY!

Jillian's super hot snow-woman. I like her colorful hair.

A little tree in our front yard

See how many inches there are!

Down by the battery with some excellent hot chocolate.


Next entry: Snowmen of a Snowless Town--a photo essay on what happens when snow falls in a place with no snow.

The Great Outdoors

Sometimes, when I'm super-extra bored at work, I read every single article on CNN's homepage. Today, the seemingly pointless enterprise actually paid off, because I found an article that I'm really excited about! No, it's not about Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia, though that is interesting, I suppose. It's an article about the amazingly awesome thing the National Park Service is doing on certain dates this summer--free admission, to all parks!

If I'm being completely honest with myself, I know that I won't actually be able to visit all the parks. I probably won't even be able to make it to one, though I'll keep my fingers crossed for a quick trick to the Smoky Mountains. But to all my friends out in the wild west, where a ton of parks are close by, please go, so I can live vicariously through you.


Seriously, look at these pictures! It's crazy to think that so much of the country used to look like this, before all us people moved in and needed houses and food and such. I'm so glad there are places like these left! (pics, in order: Yosemite, Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon).

Rock the Vote

It is, of course, election day, and I have proudly done my duty and cast a vote for the next President of the United States (I actually did so this weekend, because I am lucky enough to be at work all day today). An undeniable sense of excitement permeates the air on days like this, because the opportunity to have even a small part in such a monumental decision is truly amazing, even if I am not particularly enthusiastic about either of the two leading candidates.

Today I am proud to be an American. It's wonderful that in this, in voting, we as a nation can all come together. I am proud of every person who today, in spite of the formidable weather, heads over to his or her designated location and casts a ballot. The fact that our predecessors were able to establish a system that truly enables the peaceful transition of power is astounding to the nth power. Just ask, well, any pre-American civilization. Ask Bloody Mary or Joan of Arc; ask Louis XVI, Julius Caesar, or Openchancanough; ask even modern leaders, like Laurent Nkunda, Hamid Karzai, or Aung San Suu Kyi. Sure, Americans have encountered bumps in the road (there was that certain matter of the Civil War and the subsequent decades of Civil Rights movements), but overall, we make it look so easy. I wish more people could understand that, and were grateful for it. I wish we didn't take it so much for granted.

That said, I will be so glad when this election is over. I, for one, have heard about all the campaigning I can take. I'm sick of the mudslinging (in all directions), sick of SNL, sick of regular news channels. I'm glad they so diligently covered the issues, because they helped me decide which candidate to vote for--but that doesn't mean I'm not glad that it's all coming to a close. I think I was almost to the point of overload, possibly on the brink of a frustration-induced explosion. I will be tremendously relieved to not hear anymore about the race for the White House. Finally, we will be able to move on!

So, for those of you who share my sympathies, and want to think about something other than the election for a few minutes (after you've voted, of course :) ), here's an interesting tidbit about a previous November 4th, courtesy of the History Channel's website.

November 4, 1939
The first air-conditioned car is displayed

On this day, the 40th National Automobile Show opened in Chicago, Illinois, with a cutting-edge development in automotive comfort on display: air-conditioning. A Packard prototype featured the expensive device, allowing the vehicle's occupants to travel in the comfort of a controlled environment even on the most hot and humid summer day. After the driver chose a desired temperature, the Packard air-conditioning system would cool or heat the air in the car to the designated level, and then dehumidify, filter, and circulate the cooled air to create a comfortable environment.

Air conditioning is my friend. Packard, you are an unsung hero. I salute you.