Boone

I spent fall break in the magical mountain town of Boone, NC. Home of Appalachian State University.

Drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway Trail

Take out from Mellow Mushroom for dinner...

And an overnight stay in the Hidden Valley Inn.

Magic!

Tobacco Road

Its that time of year, the start of basketball season in North Carolina! There are four major universities that are together along I-40 that are referred to as "Tobacco Road".

Duke University, 

University of North Carolina, 

Wake Forrest, and 

North Carolina State University. 

This past Friday was the official open of basketball season and each school had a big celebration! I was talked into going to "Primetime with the Pack" at North Carolina State University in Raleigh... and it was crazy...

I will tell you, I felt like I was out of a scene of a fanatical basketball movie! There were fireworks, inside of the arena, as each player came down through the crowd. All the cheerleaders, dancers, Mr. and Mrs. Wolf (mascots) were all on the floor dancing in unison. The coach, flew down from the rafters on a zip line! And then the basketball team had a scrimmage. It was a lot of fun. I look foreword to my first Duke game inside of the famous Cameron Stadium. :)

Kathy's Oktoberfest 2012

Cool autumn starts the first annual Kathy's Oktoberfest 2012! (no beer actually included...)

For fall break, just about a week from now, I am taking a road trip to western North Carolina along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Boone (Appalachian State University), Asheville and the Great Smokey Mountains!!!

Looking foreword another week, sister Jamie will by flying into visit me here!! She is bringing with her almost-ready-to-come-out-of-the-oven baby! I will get to show her around my new little southern home! :)

Happiest October ever! 

Count your many blessings

Today in class, instead of griping we decided to count our blessings. Because there are so many! We counted our blessings and counted deep tendon reflexes... I only counted 10 of those... :)

In other news, as of today my car officially has made the transition to becoming a true North Carolinian! I guess that I am next. This transition however, did not come with out a story... 

So I went to first get emissions and inspections done on my car. It received a "Fail" because my windows were too tinted for NC standards. I was discouraged at first, but after getting some tips from a helpful Jiffy Lube mechanic, I drove back in line, and did a little bit of resourceful window remodeling....

I did not however peel the little back window pictured below. That one was a different story all together. :) That is the story of last Christmas eve when Papa Crane and I went for a late night backcountry ski trip only to come back and find out I had locked the keys in my car. We were stranded in the freezing remote mountains on Christmas eve night!

I thought we would die for sure, but Papa Crane remained astoundingly calm. After a few hours, some desperation and dumpster diving, we smashed in this little back window in order to unlock the car. 

Needless to say, this special little window lost it's illegal tint almost a year ago... and left me with a little memory. :)

Of note that when my car finally passed emissions and inspections, that I was asked out to get drinks by the very same helpful mechanic at Jiffy Lube... when I declined his friend told me to come pass by any time. :)

This was a little sunset outside of the cafe where I studied today.

I love y'all and hope your having good days. If not, maybe count your blessings, or count your deep tendon reflexes... it might make your day better.

Minor League Baseball - Major Country Star

Oh how weary one can get! I decided to share some of my fun times from last week to keep from feeling so haggard. :)

The Durham Bulls stadium hosted the minor league baseball championship game! Exciting... but not why we sat in the pouring rain. And why did we? 

Because Scotty McCreery sang "take me out to the ball game" during the 7th inning!! 

For those of you who do not know Scotty, you should get to know him! He is a county music star from right here in North Carolina! He actually goes to school in Raleigh.

Also here are some pictures from the Blue Collar battle of the bands. It was at the American Tobacco campus in downtown Durham.

And lastly, I have come to terms that I would, in fact perish if I were to keep eating what I am eating. So here was my idea of a "green" lunch. :)

 

Warning: Flash Floods

 Flash flood warning last night for Durham and Orange Counties due to rainfall. Its a good thing I live in a third story apartment!

I am not sure what is going on along coast, but we have been having super heavy rainstorms that last all day. I guess it good to stay inside when you have homework. I never knew what homework was until I came here... My routine the past two weeks has felt a little bit like this: reading for a few hours in the morning, go to class for a few hours, go home and watch video lectures and do papers and projects, and then before I go to bed I will read for a few more hours to prepare for class the next day (that or go out and play hooky). On the weekends I work 12 hour shifts on both days and then come home and pass out. This week I have lived off of a solid diet of teddy grahams and nachos.  It was ironic that yesterday we had our abdominal assessment class, another classmate was pushing on my stomach and asked if I had any pain. :) 

Its time to start putting the rocks in my jar before the sand. But, this next month I cut back my hours at work and my classes start to back down on the work load. Overall I love it and am so happy! I am learning so much, meeting so many amazing people and am witnessing the love God has for me. The south is such a beautiful place inside and out. 

Maple View

Maple View is a dairy farm out in Hillsborough. If you cannot tell from the name, it is out in the sticks, but only a 25 minute drive from my apartment! Anyway, this dairy farm has a little ice cream shop with a wide front porch and rocking chairs that face the sunny horizon. :)

My classmate Kaci and I went out to get some fresh country air after a long pathophysiology class.