Where I've Been

It's been a very busy month for me. I finished grad school and moved and am still working on last minute wedding stuff. My last class was May 4th, and I packed up and left New York on May 6th. The schedule went like so:
May 6 - drive from Brooklyn, NY to Columbus, OH (crying across Manhattan and through the Holland Tunnel :( I miss my roommates!)
May 7 - drive from Columbus, OH (which will eventually be my new home) to Bloomington, IN
May 8 - Michael's graduation
May 9 - Michael and I drive from Bloomington to Wheaton, IL
May 10 - Austin's graduation (lots of family time)
May 11 - Michael and I drive separate cars back to Bloomington to pack his stuff and continue back to Columbus
May 12 - we drive from Columbus to Kansas City, KS and stay with Michael's brother
May 13 - we drive from Kansas City to Albuquerque, NM and stay with Michael's parents
May 14 - we drive from Albuquerque to Scottsdale, AZ

We've been staying with my mom and doing wedding prep ever since. It's busy, but I feel blessed to have this time off to focus on family and the wedding. Really, Michael and I both see the wedding as a simple celebration of our relationship and a chance to party with loved ones. We're not too concerned about a "perfect" day. We just want to have fun with everyone, so I'm hoping that's how the day goes. I probably won't blog again until well after the honeymoon as we will have to make the drive back to Columbus. We won't have computers in Hawaii or much Internet access on our drive back home, so I'll be away from email, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc. for about two weeks. Should be interesting :-)

Here's a map of the drive:

Capstone Finished!

On Tuesday night I presented my capstone project. This has been hanging over my head since I started the publishing program fall '07. Though not as intensive as a master's thesis, this was still a research intensive major assignment required to graduate. I developed a business plan for launching a publishing venture and presented it to a panel of judges. My idea was for a magazine for secondary teachers. I think it turned out pretty well, and the presentation went smoothly. It felt so great Tuesday night to be finished- just a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. I had another paper due tonight for my Book Profitablilty class, which I struggled SO much with, but it's behind me now and one less thing to worry about. I only have two assignments left in my Children's Publishing class, and then I will be DONE DONE DONE with school!!!

for Sara or Cheese Nips vs. Cheez It

I went to the store on the way home from work to pick up some snacks for my fellowship group. I wanted Cheez-Its but only saw Cheese Nips, so I grabbed them. Then at the check-out counter, I found the Cheez-Its. I was inspired to get them both and conduct a taste test. I remembered liking Cheese Nips growing up, but I've only eaten Cheez-Its for so long, I didn't know which was really better. It turns out that I prefer Cheese Nips, but I seem to be the only one. Everyone else picked the Cheez Its. Which do you prefer?

Twilight the Musical

I stumbled across this hilarious musical satire of Twilight. The impressive part is that it is produced by a guy in high school. I really enjoy the opening number of part two. They seem to be releasing a new episode every few months as they create them (check out the site). There is only one song in each video, but I think they're really well done. The actress who plays Bella changes from part one to part two, and in the first part her wig comes down so far it's practically in her eyebrows. I enjoy watching it move throughout the video. Hope you enjoy...
Part One

Part Two

Easter 2009 (my 100th post!)

Life is getting pretty crazy. My capstone project is due on Monday, and I have to present my business plan on Tuesday night. The following Thursday I have a 15 page paper due analyzing the annual reports of a book retailer. I have to take the second Praxis teaching test on Saturday the 25th. I get a nice break from work that Saturday evening when I celebrate with my girlfriends who have planned a bachelorette bash for me. Then I have to finish my final assignment/presentation for my children's publishing class, which is basically a mini-capstone. I have to come up with an idea and business plan for a children's book imprint. That is due May 4th. Then, I'm packing up and moving out of the city on May 6th. It's all moving so fast.

One of the things I will miss when I move is my fabulous fellowship group. I've been leading a small group Bible study through my church (Redeemer Presbyterian) since September, and I really love everyone in the group so much. Once a month we have dinner at my house, and last week we included Peep Wars 2009. For those of you who have been reading my blog long enough, you may recall Peep Wars 2008. This (2009) was a great year as the bracket was expanded to 12 people. It was also great because I won!

A.V. and Sharn's Peeps face off in Round One.

The girls watch closely to see who the winner will be.

I took a much needed day off on Good Friday. Celia and I took took the bus down to DC to spend Easter weekend with her family in Northern Virginia. We attempted to work on capstone on Friday, but delicious Korean food kept distracting us. Laura came down on the train Friday night after work to join us. We spent Saturday touring around our nation's capital. The day started gray and rainy but turned beautiful and sunny.

I may not have gotten much work done, but I loved spending time with a family and reflecting on the meaning of Easter. Easter may be my favorite holiday. When I think about why I believe what I believe and why I have faith in God, Jesus and the Bible, it comes down to two things: lives that I have seen transformed by that same faith and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Weekend of Service

I had a very busy weekend. On Friday night, I went to see a performance of The Vagina Monologues because my former roommate was performing as the narrator. I enjoyed it more than I thought it would and felt much less awkward than I thought I would. On Saturday morning, my fellowship group and I went to a church in Brooklyn to serve breakfast to homeless and needy people. We had a great time sharing in the joy of a hot meal with men, women and children from the neighborhood. One 75 year old woman even showed us her dance moves as she tried to teach one of us the Samba and sang show tunes. She was fabulous!

I spent four hours Saturday afternoon locked away in the NYU library working on my capstone project, which is basically a business plan for a publishing venture that I am supposed to present to a mock panel of venture capitalists in order to get my Masters degree.

On Sunday morning it was back to volunteering as my roommate and I spent the morning in the church nursery. She worked in the 3-year old class, and I got to be with the newborns. It's been a while since I spent time with kids, and I cherished getting to hold and play with the babies. Since we missed our normal service time by being in the nursery, we went to the evening service where we also volunteered with more people from our fellowship group as ushers.

Busy, but a weekend well spent.

Maybe you had to be there

Dustin and I love to argue, or at least we argue all the time. Today, it was over the color of his pants. I thought they were brown, and he said they were gray. I conceded that they could be considered charcoal, but what was hilarious was when we walked over to our co-worker, Sally, and Dustin asked, "What color are my pants?" She replied, "Green."