Parrotheads Unite!!

I write here at the desk in the lobby of my dorm, playing the lovely role of HSA, at 1:03AM. While I would love to use this time to get homework done, I'm not sure how well I would actually be able to stay awake by just doing reading. So as promised, I now bring you the long-awaited post of the 2010 Jimmy Buffett concert.

The day started as any other Buffett day would...scrambling around the house, trying to get all the food cooked at the last minute, getting the booze safely packed away, and painting our classic Buffett phrases on the car windows. Dad was on edge as usual, trying to get out of the house as soon as possible. Mackenzie pulled up in her new minivan, and the men discussed their fears of being castrated just by riding in it; all in all, a typical Phelps family pre-departure gathering. This year, however, had an added twist. There was a miscommunication for my cousin Dennis getting to the house by 1:30 and he was not yet there. Long story short, the late departure put my dad even more on edge (as well as some other things), and I was one of the lucky souls who got to be in the car with his bad mood. Of course this was Ryan's first Buffett concert, to which he had an interesting beginning, and Kathy just kept pushing my dad's buttons. It was an interesting ride for the four of us.



When we finally piled out of the car at Jiffy Lube Live, we were ready to start the party. As it turns out, we were a little behind the times...all those riding in the "swagger wagon" (as Mackenzie's van was lovingly nicknamed) had drank all the booze on the way down and were already drunk. It was great. My dad had apparently also gained a new nickname from the passengers of the swagger wagon, "Uncle Mother-F***er." How that happened I have no idea, but it was entertaining as hell for the whole night. We then gathered up all of our stuff and headed over to Mike's trailer, where we had our own little setup, bathroom included. We had brought Grandma's beer bong along, which ended up being a huge hit to both family and strangers alike. I was introduced to the amazingness that is a Malibu bay breeze, and enjoyed the tailgating festivities as always. This even included my cousin Matt breaking his wife Kristi's camera, then proceeding to chuck it on the ground, at coolers, and eventually pouring beer over it. Needless to say Kristi was not exactly pleased; luckily we were all able to laugh about it, and the party continued without anything else being broken.



(This is the picture Matt took when he broke Kristi's camera--glad he didn't break mine!)

Now, with my recent milestone birthday of 21, there was quite the hype about it throughout the entirety of tailgating. We got way too excited about getting free non-alcoholic margarita mix from the Buffett golf cart driving by, and pretty much told anyone that would listen how old I was. We all got carded several times, but for me and my recent legality, I managed to get a few extra "happy birthdays" from the people checking my ID :)



The concert of course was fun as usual. We had pavilion seats this year, center section and decently close to the stage. But I must admit, I missed the lawn. We stayed in the pavilion for about half the show before heading out to hunt for the rest of the family on the lawn. After another awesome concert, we headed back to the trailer, ate and drank more for about an hour, then headed on our journey home and back to the real world.

Well, it is now 1:56AM as I finish writing and editing this post. I've killed about an hour with a few visitors here and there, and have managed to keep myself awake. One more hour til freedom and sleep!...after I ad pictures of course.

New Beginnings

Well the first week of school is finally over...and what a week it's been.

I must say that the past several days have been filled with a lot of fun. I saw friends that I haven't seen in months, moved into my dorm, celebrated my 21st birthday, and started classes for my senior year of college. Crazy to think that all of that could be squeezed into just a few days, but there it is. I guess I'll start my rambling at the most obvious point, the beginning of classes...

Senior year of college definitely stands out from senior year of high school on the homework level. Some education experts feel like senior year of high school is almost pointless...we don't really have that much more work to do, there's not much more we can do to make our college apps look good, and it's a pretty easy ride til graduation day. Not so with college. It's only the first week and I already feel like I'm drowning in reading assignments. We're trying to get anything we can to make our resumes look even better for grad school or the work force, and this year seems to matter more than all the others. I think it's going to be a good year, but it's going to be busy and challenging as hell. Time management skills, activate! Now, on to a bit more of a cheerful topic...

I'M FINALLY 21!!! I celebrated by having dinner with my dad on Tuesday at The Dubliner, followed by my friends joining me there at the bar for drinks. We had a really good time, and everyone else paid for my drinks! Woohoo! I was happy to see both old friends and new friends there, and truly felt special on my special day. Probably one of the most amusing things, however, was seeing so many people there who don't exactly like each other (or at the very least don't hang out together). The past three years have been so ridiculously drama-filled that a ton of people that may have been friends at one point have somehow or another been pulled apart; and yet here they all were, coming together for my birthday. While they all pretty much stayed apart and talked to the people they did like, I do appreciate everyone coming together for my birthday to make it a great night. Just want you all to know, it really meant a lot :)

The birthday celebrations continued on Friday night with a combined surprise party for my roommate Maura and me. Maura's 21st birthday was not only in the middle of the summer, but also in the middle of her intense army camp, and thus she had no way of actually celebrating. As it turns out, our friends had been planning this little gathering since before school had even started, and we were both pleasantly surprised. Once again, there were many people together in the room that otherwise wouldn't have been, but it was still a blast; and once again, I thank all of those people for putting up with each other.

Oh yea, and one more part of the birthday celebrations was last night's BUFFETT CONCERT!!! As always another great family gathering, but I think I'll refrain from Buffett stories for now...that could always deserve its own post ;)

One other thing that could be seen as either a good or bad thing (or potentially both), is my nostalgia for Spain. My newly-acquired independence has almost given me a bit of a smothered feel on this somewhat sheltered campus, and part of me just wants to return to my travels around Europe. I've found myself speaking Spanish to anyone that will tolerate it, and one of my biggest current goals is to try and meet a lot more new people this year. While these aren't necessarily bad things, it's definitely made me realize that I'm going to have to change my way of life at CUA compared to years past. I must admit that this can be a bit of a daunting thought process, but an exciting one as well. I suddenly find myself looking for other things to do around DC and even around the country (road trips have already been brought up in conversation). I'm so ready to branch out in the world and see even more new things...and while I can't exactly afford to return to Europe right now, why not start with exploring a bit more of my own country? I just hope that these new goals and desires to explore hold out for the year (and beyond of course) and I don't fall back into the typical college-ness (don't really know how to describe it) that I seem to have been stuck in until now.

So that's about all that's been going on and running through my head this past week. I realize that this post's length is probably disproportionate to it's level of being interesting, but that's ok. I need to get in what I can while I still have time to write a blog...work for classes, preparing for comps, and looking for a job are quickly beginning to take over my life :P

P.S. In case you didn't make the connection with my picture choice, it's because I'm sure I'll be needing a few drinks to make it through this crazy, albeit fun, school year!

It's Been an Interesting Ride...

It's the night before the last day of camp. I've worked at this camp all summer, my group specifically being with first graders. I wouldn't say it's the best or worst thing I've ever done, but it's definitely been interesting. Not to mention, I've learned a hell of a lot.

Since day 1 of camp, I've had one of the hardest groups in the entire camp. My co-counselors and I constantly had our hands full, and there wasn't one moment that we could let our guard down. Having never worked with kids before, this was a bit overwhelming for me, especially for the first couple weeks of summer. I had quickly started thinking that maybe I had made a mistake, that I wasn't cut out to work with kids after all. However, I gradually got used to it, figured out what to do, and realized that maybe I do really enjoy working with kids. The frustrations are more than many other jobs, but you know what? So are the rewards.

When I first interviewed for this job, one of the questions I was asked was "What is the most rewarding experience you've had working with children?" I didn't really have much to say since the only real work I had done with kids was a regular family that I babysat for. Now, after the summer that I've had, I could list so many more. One story in particular is one that I'd like to share. For the first several weeks of camp, I had some REALLY tough kids in my group. One of them was so tough that we never really knew what to do with him and didn't know how we were going to handle him for the time that he was there. Then, we started talking to our directors and getting some extra help, and his parents were helpful, too. We were able to use some methods to help calm him down and keep his behavior in check, and suddenly he got to be much easier to work with. He always had his moments, but the more summer went on, the more fun it was to be with him, and the happier it made us to see him smile. Suddenly we all began to realize -- while he is a tough kid to work with, he really is sweet, and truly does mean well. I got to see him and his parents tonight at our family night and can't tell you how happy I was to see him again. After talking to his parents a bit, they expressed to me how much they want people to see his good side. I'm so glad I was able to honestly say that I got to see it and enjoy it. His growth over the few weeks I had him was one of the biggest rewards I could ask for.

It's been a tough summer. Long, tiring, and a hell of a lot more work than I'd ever done at a job before. While I'm not sure whether or not I'll return to this particular camp, I am actually still considering working with kids some day. Despite the challenges, working with kids truly is a great experience. I'm not making any final decisions, but taking some sort of career path with children is certainly not ruled out.

Reminiscent

In an attempt to get me to "come back" and spend more money, Shutterfly sent me an email offering me 101 free prints. While I most likely will not be giving them more money due to a starving bank account, I am going to take advantage of their free offer. I see this as the perfect opportunity to get started on printing my pictures from study abroad. However, there's just one problem - while I have in fact cut down a lot of my pictures, I still have several hundred that I have to pick through to decide which ones are the best ones to print...not exactly an easy task. Due to the ever looming deadline of my free prints offer, I decided to take tonight to continue on my picture-sorting endeavor. What did this lead to? Really missing Spain...

The first folder I started to sort through was my "Best of Valencia" folder; all of the everyday stuff that just happened in Valencia, separated from special events and trips. I barely started scrolling through when I just wanted to go back. To be honest, while it was a bit of a sad feeling, that sadness actually made me feel quite happy...I suddenly remembered what I great semester I did have while I was in Europe. Every picture made me think of a random funny story or wonderful moment. As I flipped through I remembered how many of those wonderful moments I really did have, and how lucky I was to have them.

Now you might be wondering, why would I even question my happiness studying abroad? I got to go to Spain! Who wouldn't be happy?? While I always saw it as an amazing experience, I had started to wonder lately if I had really made the most of it. There were trips I wanted to take that I never went on, things I wanted to do that I never did...not to mention talking to friends of mine that did so much more than I did during their study abroad experience. After talking to them, I started to wonder if I had left too much of that opportunity to go to Europe slip away. But even looking at those few pictures, I remembered that I didn't let anything slip away. While I didn't get to do EVERYTHING I wanted to, I sure did a hell of a lot. I had good moments, bad moments, and everything in between...and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

By the end of my study abroad experience, my home-body self was ready to come back to good ol' Derwood. Now, as I look through these photos, I just want to go back. Going to Spain helped to open my eyes to so many things -- a whole wide world, my independence, and plenty of new life lessons. I had an amazing experience that made a huge difference in my life, and I'm so incredibly glad I did it. Now I just have to start saving my money so I can get back to exploring the rest of the world as soon as possible :)

Wedding Bells

July 17th 2010: a date that I (and many other people) have been looking forward to for the last 6 months. But the occasion that actually took place on that day? Something we've all been looking forward to for much longer.

For as long as Kelly and Matt have been dating, we've all known that they would be great together; and at least speaking from the Phelps side of the family, we've known that Matt would fit into our family just right. He's always been a part of our family, but Saturday's wedding finally made it official. Not gonna lie, I got a bit teary-eyed during the actual ceremony. While I admit that I seem to be crying at a lot more these days, it really was quite the happy sight to see those two get hitched. It's been a long time coming, and I couldn't help but think about what a truly wonderful event it was.

The ceremony itself wasn't the only great part about the day. Who could ever forget the reception? It was a blast. Great music, dancing, food and drinks, and a best man speech that should win an academy award...it was a night to remember. As to be expected at a wedding, everyone was lighthearted and happy, and having a great time; but from the way I saw it, there was something more. Now, I haven't exactly been to a lot of weddings, but there was something about this one that was extra fun, extra special. Maybe it was seeing everyone in my family together again; maybe it was seeing Kelly light up as she finally referred to Matt as her husband; maybe it was all that combined with so many other little things. Who knows? All I can say is, it really was a great night.

Congratulations Kelly and Matt, I'm so happy for you and love you both!