Double Decker 2012

What a wonderful weekend this has been!  We kicked it off by celebrating Lindsey's birthday at one of the local Mexican establishments (there are so many in Oxford that I honestly can't remember the name).  It was great seeing everyone!  Julianne, Chris, and Julia were town so it was like a little reunion of sorts.

Lindsey and Nate

Next, we headed to the Square to listen to Iron and Wine.  They were in town playing for Double Decker.  Beautiful music.  Sam Beam's poetry is very different and almost nonsensical, but it works.

 Saturday morning Danielle and I participated in the Double Decker 5K run.  I finished in just under 37 minutes.  It was hot, but it felt good to run.  I have to admit, I haven't been pushing myself enough since the half-marathon.  We had a good time and even ran into Melanie.  Pharmacy girls represent!

Danielle, Melanie, and I after the race

Double Decker was so much fun this year.  Allan had some work in Southside Gallery, so he didn't have a tent.  Instead of working, we got to enjoy the festival!  The day was made complete by great friends, a "big as yo' head ice cream sandwich", and some super cute finds:  two handmade bracelets, a Christmas ornament, and a dish towel on which an art student screen printed the phrase "many hands make light work".

 After lunch today, Julianne and I sewed headbands.  They turned out really cute and were easy to make.  I got a sewing machine for Christmas and haven't really broken it in yet.  Hopefully once all of my board exams are over and we get moved I can really pick up sewing as a hobby.  We shall see! 

Tomorrow begins my LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL EVER!  I'm super pumped!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bachelorette

Since my last post I have started my eighth and final rotation for the year.  In three short weeks my time in pharmacy school will come to an end!  May 12th will be such an exciting day!  I'm so proud of my invitations that Allan made in his letterpress class. 

Thursday night was the annual pharmacy school crawfish boil and Friday was awards day.  It was good to see classmates that I haven't seen in awhile!  This weekend we celebrated Danielle's upcoming wedding with a lingerie shower/bachelorette party in Bay St. Louis/New Orleans.  It was so much fun!  The French Quarter Festival was going on this weekend so New Orleans was packed out.  Here are a few pictures from the weekend!  I can't wait to do it again for Ann Katelyn in a couple of months!

The French Quarter

Ann Katelyn, Pauline, and Ashley at dinner!

Mikki, Danielle, and I at dinner

The Last Spring Break

This past week was the last spring break I'll ever have and honestly I don't think that's anything to complain about.  I'm so ready to be done with school that the idea of never having another spring break doesn't bother me not one bit.  Nonetheless, since it was in fact, spring break, a small trip of sorts was in order.  Pooja and I went to see Melissa in Ocean Springs for a few days.  We ate, shopped, went to the beach, watched movies, hung out, and ate some more.  It was such a fun, low-key, relaxing trip.  Thanks, Melissa and Josh for being great hosts!

I also got to spend some time with my family for the first time in a few months.  I got to see sweet Megan and her pretty engagement ring.  I got to kiss Ava's cheeks at church today and bid Natalie farewell before her and Andrew's big move. I got to see Julianne and her parent's new house in Madison and I had a great dinner with Danielle on the Square.  All in all it was a great spring break, but I'm glad to be back home with Allan and Daisy.  Last rotation starts tomorrow! 

Sardis

Allan has a new hobby.  Metal detecting.  It makes me giggle just thinking about it.  Tonight we took a little family outing to Sardis.  Allan hunted for "treasure" while Daisy and I played on the beach.  She had the time of her life running all over the beach and chasing a stork.  She even jumped in the water which she usually would avoid.  The weather right now is amazing and it felt good to take advantage of it.  In just a few weeks we'll be sweating to the oldies even after the sun goes down.  Here are a few pictures to commemorate our little family outing. 

Sunset at Sardis

Diggin' up junk!

She's so happy!!

P.S.  I've been trying to "follow" everyone's blogs and blogspot won't let me!  It's driving me crazy!  I keep adding people and then if I refresh the page, the people I'm following disappear from my dashboard.  I know I'm not retarded because I got Allan to watch me do it to make sure I am doing it right.  For some reason the only two blogs that stay in my dashboard are blogs that I was following with my gmail account before I even had a blog and I don't remember how I started following them.  Tips?!

Girls Weekend

This weekend some of my girlfriends and I took a road trip to Birmingham to celebrate Christina's upcoming wedding.  It was the first time in forever that we have all been in the same place at the same time and we couldn't have been more excited to be together! We spent the weekend shopping, eating, showering Christina with gifts, and talking.  We LOVE to talk.  We've had many 3 hour dinners over the course of our friendships.  I'm going to miss these girls so much when we graduate and all go our separate ways!

Laura, Pooja, Courtney, and Christina

Me, Courtney, Ann Katelyn, Christina, and Pooja

Another exciting thing that happened this weekend was my brother's engagement.  I'm so excited about my new future sister-in-law!  Megan is one the sweetest girls I know and she will be an excellent addition to our family! 

Daniel and Megan at MSU graduation

Now I will go back to my PBS special:  The Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera.  It never gets old.  I've seen it live twice (once on Broadway in NYC and once at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.) and it was phenomenal both times.  I'm patiently awaiting the Masquerade scene.  It's my favorite!  I hope everyone has a great week!!

Oxford Art Crawl

On the last Tuesday of every month Oxford has an art crawl.  The Double Decker bus takes people around the city and throughout the University to visit all of the art galleries.  It always proves to be a fun date night - great art, free food/beverages, and good company. If you've ever had any desire to go to a gallery opening (or even if you haven't) you should try the art crawl.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.  Most cities have something comparable- find out what it is and go! 

Random:  Tonight we got to meet the famous pianist, Bruce Levingston.  I always love meeting people with successful art careers. 

In other news, Allan is taking a letterpress class and I've commissioned him for some projects:
1.  Graduation invitations
2.  Thank you cards that say "Thanks Y'all!"

Race Day

Race day has come and gone and can I just say how glad I am that it is over!  I'm so glad I did it, but it was ROUGH!  I finished the half-marathon in 2:59:15.  One day I'll be all hardcore and run it in under 2 hours, but for now I'm just excited that I was able to do it!  Not many people can say they've run 13.1 miles!  My biggest advice for anyone deciding to train for any type of race is to have realistic expectations.  In November I couldn't run a quarter of a mile without feeling like I was going to die.  I've never been a runner.  So for me, this was good and I'm pretty proud of myself.  

Before the race

610 people ran the 5K and half-marathon races

After the race with my medal!

Later that afternoon we relaxed with friends at Swayze Field!  It's baseball season!!

Thursday, the School of Pharmacy dedicated its new building on the UMC campus.  The new facility is amazing and I'm a little jealous our class missed out on using it, but not jealous enough that I would actually consider going back to PY3 year.  Enjoy future PY3s!!

Keynote speaker:  Senator Thad Cochran

Ribbon cutting ceremony

I should blog more often so that my posts are shorter.  I'll try harder.  Now I must fight the urge to watch yet another episode of Gossip Girl on Netflix to read the hypertension guidelines for my "topic discussion" with my preceptor tomorrow.  Happy Sunday!