There's a nocturnal mockingbird outside my apartment. I think he waits to mock the rest of the bird world until the late night when the others are asleep. It's safer that way. Less likelyhood of being beat up by the bigger birds.

I'm graduating. Crazy, right? I'll be done (God willing) in less than 2 weeks, and I'm about to pull my hair out. I have so much to do on this project!! I can't wait until I don't have to ever think about homework again. It's going to be great. great great great. Can't wait. I'm going to sleep SO much. Like a bear.

Mom had me put together a graduation announcement postcard thing to send out to everyone and their cousin. I realized in the middle of it all that I have no good portrait pictures of myself that are at all recent or decent. So. I had myself a mini photoshoot. It was a fun break from drawing 3D models on the computer.

I leave you with a picture of me and Jessica in 60 years, doing what we do best: being our wild and crazy selves.

Jump, Little Children

I will forever be in debt to Christopher Adkins for introducing me to JLC's music.  This band has been a lasting foundation for my ever-growing taste in music.  I can never listen to their albums too much, and I unashamedly admit to playing their tracks over and over for the past six years.  You can introduce me to as many artists as you want, but nothing can replace the love I have for Jump, Little Children.  Here's my absolute favorite recording of one of my favorite songs.  Listen to it, really listen to it.  Close your eyes, lay back, and just soak it in.  I'm going to get back to my homework now...

Jump, Little Children- B13

Big news today: Google has succeeded in providing the world yet another way to deceive. Now we can back date out emails so that they arrive in the recipient's inbox in the "correct" chronological order. Not only that, but we have the option of marking it as "read" so that Rita (or Bob, or whoever) thinks that she must have just forgotten that she received your email and read it LAST WEEK. Talk about making a person go mad. Of course we only get a maximum of 10 a year, just to keep us from abusing the new feature. psh.

I didn't update on the rest of my Phoenix trip. So, here we go. If you're interested in the trip's happenings, read on. If not, you're welcome to just look at the pictures and skip down past this paragraph... It was really great. Momma and I did a lot of exploring... and shopping. We went to Superstition Mountain, a beautiful park with this amazing jagged mountain, tons of cacti, and beautiful wildflowers. On the way there we came across an adorable wedding chapel called the Elvis Presley Memorial Wedding Chapel, and on the road back to Phoenix we passed an incredible sign for a nonexistent restaurant. That sign must have been at least 50 years old.

Monday night (St. Patty's Day) I neglected my Irish duty to visit with some friends that were driving through town. My friends Preston and Taylor (who is dating my friend Jeanette) play with a Birmingham band, Wild Sweet Orange, and the guys just happened to be stopping in Phoenix. It was fun visiting with the guys and I'm really glad that I went to see them, especially since there was a miniscule turn out (the venue had no booze, which doesn't allow for very festive St. Patty's celebration). Wednesday night I visited with another friend from Samford, my dear Xue. She lives in Tempe with her little sister now, and Birmingham misses her. We had dinner at the restaurant where she works, went to another show for a band that I had met in Birmingham a couple weeks prior (These United States), and wound up enjoying the night discussing music, travels, books, and rug contents with some really cool fellas.

Saturday mom, dad, and I jumped in the car and drove to the Grand Canyon. We passed through Sedona (a place with some of the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen) and Bedrock. We were a little unsure about the purpose of Bedrock and their means of staying in business, but it definitely was the highlight of the trip north... at least in my opinion.

Sunday morning we woke up at 5am to make it to the Easter sunrise service on the Canyon's south rim. It was absolutely breathtaking and incredibly cold. Dad took a walk (about 100 yards) later that afternoon down the trail into the Canyon so he could say he hiked in the canyon. Silly daddy.

After that we got back in the car and drove all the way back to Phoenix (about 4.5 hours), stopping in Flagstaff for lunch and a quick photo op on Route66. Monday morning mom and I did some last minute shopping before dropping me off at the airport. I'm so glad I got the chance to go visit. Phoenix is definitely an amazing city and I'm now even more excited about mom and dad's future there.

This past week has been very uneventful. I won't sit here and complain because yall definitely don't want to read that, so I'll just summarize the few things happening lately. I'm working nonstop on my thesis, trying to catch up to my calendar. Currently I'm about 4 days behind my schedule, which is a great improvement (last week I was more than a week behind). I haven't had much social interaction due to my constant schoolwork, but I did cook dinner with my girlfriends last night. I found a chicken corn chowder in my new Phoenix recipe book and it was DELISH. Thanks, momma.

Ten semesters of college makes one very tired. I sure do enjoy interior design, but after all this work I definitely wouldn't mind being a flight attendant. I know mom and dad don't like hearing talk like that (they are very generous to fund my education), and I'm not entirely serious, but you can't avoid being burnt out on the thing that's burning you out. And interior design is definitely burning me out right now. There are very few other times when I've had such an itch to escape and do something completely different and adventurous...

Doin' the Desert with the Debs

Mom and I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens today. It was gorgeous. Here's a few pictures.

It's off to Arizona!

It's finally my spring break and I'm thrilled to say that I am sitting here on my momma's new couch in Phoenix! I had quite a morning en route. On my flight from Birmingham I sat in the back of the plane surrounded by about 15 guys on a Russian tennis team... none of them spoke a lick of English, and of course I couldn't understand one word they said. It's incredible how self conscious you get when you can't understand anything that's said by the people around you.

Anyway, I had a hour+ stop in Dallas and nearly didn't make my second flight. Those silly airport people changed the gate for my flight at some point during that hour and didn't bother to announce it over the speaker... I thought it was getting rather suspicious when it was 15 minute to my takeoff and the plane wasn't even at the gate yet. Sigh. So I get to the correct gate after booking it halfway down the terminal, and the guy at the desk asks if I can sit in an emergency row instead of my assigned seat. I take the new seat and board the plane, approach my new seat, and find a man sitting there. He says to me, "You're 21B? Wouldn't you rather take 1st class?" Uh, heck yeah. He and his wife had been given seats apart from eachother and there had been a big musical chairs game so that they could sit together.... and lucky me wound up with his wife's original seat, in first class, at the window. It was awesome. I slept most of the way, so I didn't get the pleasure of food or complimentary booze, but I did get an incredibly comfy seat and a great view. I saw my first mountains from my first class window...

It's amazing how flat the land is out here. It's like the whole place has been steamrolled. And then there's these mountains unlike anything at home. There'll be miles and miles of flat plains with a random giant mountain in the middle. Phoenix has several mountains surrounding, and I'm excited to go exploring with mom tomorrow. Maybe we'll get the chance to see the botanical gardens.