A thousand a day...210 & 211

Wednesday, June 30

Tuesday, June 29

A thousand a day...204-209

Monday, June 28

Sunday, June 27

My Subway date/day trip buddy Rachel and I decided to go hiking in Harpers Ferry this beautiful (yet stifling hot) Sunday. We hiked two miles up the mountain and two miles back, drank through tons of water, were forever grateful for the lunch at the bottom of the mountain, and even more grateful for the air conditioning in the car ride home. Wildlife spotted: one squirrel (yay! though not as friendly as our Elon squirrels), daddy long legs under the rock we borrowed for a rest stop, and several beautiful butterflies. Unfortunately, no bears, though we looked really hard for them. 

Saturday, June 26

In keeping with our barbecue tradition (another great Pendulum journalism experience), Morgan Little and I went to the National Capital Barbecue Battle in Washington, D.C. for lunch. SO much yummy barbecue to taste and so little time. Overall, I think the festival earns 4 1/2 piggies out of 5. I think North Carolina still wins our hearts as far as barbecue is concerned. We ate at the BBQ joint with the most trophies, obviously...

Friday, June 25

I'm on an orchid spree...hard not to be when my mom has so many gorgeous orchids all over the house.

Thursday, June 24
Just blooming

Wednesday, June 23
My brothers just before spending a week hiking along the Appalachian Trail.

A thousand a day...203

After the storm

A thousand a day...202

A thousand a day...201

A new friend who has taken residence in our garden

A thousand a day...197-200: Ocean City

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A thousand a day...195 & 196

A thousand a day...193-194

My dad's beautiful new garden fence is finished with a gorgeous gate. Not gonna lie - the fence is epic.

And just for kicks, it was SO hot and humid today, that my lens fogged up and gave me this:

A thousand a day...190-192

The Elon Bucket List

Sometime around the end of sophomore/beginning of junior year, I started an Elon bucket list of things I wanted to do before I graduated and my friend Camille suggested I post it to see what I accomplished! Roomie and I added to the list during the past couple of years (I have to see what she did, too!) and today I decided to look back on that list and see what I scratched off that list...

1. Covet a brick: Done and done.
2. Study Abroad: Even more than I expected! Freshman Winter Term in London (with a trip to Paris), Sophomore WT in China (with a few days in Tibet), Sophomore summer research in Seoul, Korea (got to see my darling International Pavilion roommate, Hyowon, and my dear friends Dollan and Hye Man), Junior Fall in London (with trips to Wales, Rome, Germany and Prague), Senior WT in Japan.
   
   Here's video of a special moment in China...our favorite little restaurant in Lijiang had a wonderful entertainer who claimed he was Nicholas Cage. He loved us and sang "Carolinaaaaa" to us.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Movie on the Lawn: My first time seeing "The Hangover"
4. Take a kickboxing class: Done. And DONE! And it kicked my and Roomie's butts, too!
5. Do the Group X Superstar challenge: Roomie and I ended up with tons of stars on the superstar chart and fell in LOVE with Zumba, but alas. No prize for us....other than our health and happiness, of course!
6. Fountain Challenge (take a dip in every fountain on campus): My last night at Elon...it might have happened.
7. Attend a frat party: Though we had every intention of going to some school girl party (Roomie has had a skirt ready since freshman year), it never happened. Oops!
8. Polar Bear Plunge: You miss out on only one thing when you go abroad every Winter Term...but I made up for it with my #9!
9. Take a dip in Lake Mary Nell: ALWAYS wanted to do this and it was a highlight of my senior year. I got to take a dip in Lake Mary Nell when I went wading for leeches. I'll do pretty much anything to get the job done, and this time it was in regards to a documentary I assistant produced called "You Have a Pet...WHAT?!"
   
   
   
10. Ride a Cushman: It was a goal of mine to write a Pendulum story (and shoot video) on a day in the life of a Cushman driver, but it just never happened.
11. Rave in Belk: It wasn't even on the original bucket list, but once this greatness took place, I felt like adding it just so I could scratch it off.
    
12. Dance in the Pendulum office: Pretty much one of the greatest places to dance is the place where you work. Lightens the tension of the newsroom atmosphere.
13. Swim to Florida: Never had the guts...though I did go in our pool at least once!
14. Elonthon: I've loved dancing at least a chunk of our 24-hour dance marathon all four years. The photo below is of Audra and I crashing after Elonthon my freshman year.
    

15. Attend a basketball game: Yes! And shot video once, of course. The next game - when I was allowed to be biased in the bleachers - I got to root really loudly for Adam Constantine and see Dr. Danieley wave his white towel in the air. It was the EPIC Davidson game where we lost in LITERALLY the last second.
16. Attend a baseball game: And thanks to Conor and Corey, I understood it! And learned some cool new lingo. ...and learned it's very boring to shoot baseball video.
17. Write for every section of The Pendulum: Arts & Entertainment - the section I began writing for first week of freshman year. News - I was the editor for a semester, so there is an abundance of news articles. Features - no problem...it's my greatest passion in life! Special Projects - contributed to several spreads. Sports - WOO! I learned so much by writing sports stories about football, cross country, soccer, volleyball and cheerleading. I finished my goal in the last edition of the fall semester just before my term as Online Editor-in-Chief was up. My last piece was for the Opinions section. Usually I just don't have a strong enough opinion, but Morgan Little (the opinions editor) helped me find one for me by suggesting I write about the Twilight craze.
18. Shoot video of every sport: SO close, so I'm going to give it a scratch anyway. I've shot and/or edited: football, soccer, volleyball, cross country, baseball, basketball, and cheerleading. I'm missing softball, track & field, golf and tennis...go figure, the last two sports are the ones I play and fully understand.
19. Christmas at the Maynard House: I've always wanted to go and finally got to celebrate Christmas at the president's house my senior year just before the Pendulum party.
20. Luminary Ceremony: My favorite Elon tradition - the campus is lit up so beautifully to celebrate the holidays. This year, I was brave enough to go to the third floor of Alamance and climb through the bathroom window to stand on the balcony and get a bird's eye view of the campus.
21. Service trip: Spring break of my senior year, I went on the Katrina relief spring break trip to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, had the time of my life, made 16 new best friends, and will never forget a minute of it.
    

22. Accomplish all five of the Elon Experiences: Study Abroad (check! x4), Internship (check! x4), Undergraduate Research (check! presented my research from Korea this year at the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum: "Seoul Searching: OECD Ministerial Participants' Views on the Future of ICTs"), Service (check! Bay St. Louis spring break 2010), Leadership (check! Leadership Fellows, Pendulum editor positions, SPJ president)
23. Eat sushi: And love it. ...at least the Philadelphia rolls as of right now. ha Not brave enough for much else.
24. Festivus: It was time to let loose, put aside the homework for an hour, and roll in some mud. I had to have that experience no matter how germaphobic I am.
25. Help with polling: Sadly, I never got to call people to quiz them on their political views. It would have been quite the experience, though, so I'm sad I missed out on the character builder.
26. Attend the Greek Week Dance: Really wanted to go senior year to see some friends, but had to attend dress rehearsal of "Love's Labour's Lost" instead.
27. Visit Biltmore: Make the trek to beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, the last week of school. Biltmore was beautiful.
28. Move into the Oaks: WOO! "Worth the wait" was the saying when the Oaks apartments were first built. I wish I hadn't waited so long!
29. Play volleyball on campus: Sadly, no. Maybe when I visit Elon again!
30. Ride the mechanical bull: This needs to happen at some point.

And I suppose I should make my biggest bucket list goal graduation! It came down to the wire - and a full 18 credits the last semester - but I graduated with my journalism and communications (broadcast & new media) majors and international studies minor.

Can't wait to head back for homecoming...I have a few things to cross off this list still!

A thousand a day...188 & 189

Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Graduation announcements

Monday, June 7, 2010
My Mikey makes a speech at graduation. So proud of him.

A thousand a day...187

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

A thousand a day...185 & 186

A high school graduation party is not complete without a T-Rex pinata.

Connor makes a toss in a game of cornhole.

A thousand a day...184

A proper Ya-Ya tea (Typhoo...only the best of Britain) and red velvet cupcake (topped with a fresh an delicious blackberry). Then followed by episodes of "Glee." Ahh...beautiful Thursday afternoon.

 

A thousand a day...183

My second cousin/nephew was finally born yesterday (I've been anxiously waiting since graduation) and I was so excited to meet him today. My mom, dad and I drove to Georgetown to meet baby Colin Anthony Pheulpin. 7 lbs, 11 oz., 22 inches. Babyyyy!!! I brought him one of his first stuffed animals, a monkey my cousin Amanda decided to name George.

A thousand a day...182

Boys are hilarious. My brother and five of his best friends are having a joint graduation party next weekend, so today we had a photoshoot to get one solid photo to go on their cake. Problem: They are too hilarious/adorable to narrow down! Whether this makes the cake or not, here is my pick:

And here are some fun ones...