all of us on the trip plus Marie's sweet grandma. She had us over for brownies ;)

The background noise right now as I write this little post is honking horns, yelling college age kids, and loud yet distant music. Yep, I'm at one of the most popular beaches for spring break.
After 5 nights at 5 different places, we finally made it to the beach. On the way down we stayed at 3 friends' houses and I got to meet their families and understand them a little bit better. On Sunday, we went four-wheeling and chased cows and chickens. It was a blast.
Now here, our funny stories multiply every time we use the elevator. We saw a drunk girl stumble out of a truck bed (she's fine but no one seemed to care that she did that), I almost got hit by an ambulance (you would think I would hear it coming), Marie got an elevator full of people to break out in the C-A-T-S cheer (and they continued the cheer while we got off and they went back up), a drunk guy told my friend she looked like his ex girlfriend who cheated on him with a girl (really? that's the first thing that comes to your mind to tell a stranger?), and 2 of our guy friends from school hitchhiked all the way here. If we think we have crazy stories, we ain't seen nothing yet compared to their stories. We're letting them stay the night, get showers, and eat some food before they are going on to wherever their little hearts desire (or wherever people will take them). It's hilarious.
We are also competing with our friends who are in Key West to see who has the best spring break. We're each making videos and posting them so our other friends, who aren't with either of us, can judge them and award fun points. You can see our 2 videos at these links. The first one is of the town where Kateyln and Marie live (Holland is one of our friends in Key West, hence why he gets a shout out). We were there Friday- Sunday morning. The second one is where Taylor lives (I don't know why but I have a country accent in this one). We were there Sunday night-Monday afternoon.
All in all we're having a lot of fun.

It has been springtime on campus for the last few days. It's been glorious. I love the cute skirts and sundresses that us girls pull out of the closet, frisbee on the green, flowers and green grass, baby horses, perfect weather, sunshine, and smoothies. Our campus really comes alive as soon as the weather gets nice. It makes it really hard to stay disciplined to do homework but it's so fun to be able to be outside more. I love it.

(seriously? so cute. I can't wait to see more of these around the area)

Spring Break starts tomorrow. I'm so excited. No responsibility for 10 days. Of course some of the professors gave us work but I don't have to go to class or work or anything really. I can take a nap if I want to. (of course that's (not) all I'm really thinking about these days...)

courtesy to google for the images.

perpetual sleepiness

You might be addicted to sleep if :

1. As soon as you wake up, you want to go back to sleep.
2. You daydream only about napping.
3. You have frequent "tired headaches".
4. You would rather sleep then be at the "Celebration that your school just became a University" party complete with your best friends and chocolate cake.
5. You set your alarm and then "accidentally" turn it off because you subconsciously don't want to get up for work in the morning.
6. Your roommate who loves napping tells you you are in fact addicted to sleep.
7. You don't hang out with your boyfriend because you can't get out of bed.
8. In one of the most bizarre chapels in your University's history, you aren't paying attention but just counting down the minutes till you can sleep again.
9. You change your major to sleeping. ( and when people tell you that's not a real major, you just ignore them and go back to sleep)
10. When given the choice, you sleep and don't remember the other choice that was presented to you to try and convince you not to sleep.
11. You start forgetting daily activities and knowledge because you're always in a daze.
12. You lay in your bed and tell your friends you aren't going to take a nap but just lay there and talk to them. Despite what you tell them , they don't believe you and you fall asleep.
13. You fall asleep in many different positions not usually taken and on objects not usually used like standing up laying your head against the shelf.
14. You fall asleep writing this blog...

(this is how I have felt the last few days)

So my trip home was really long. I was going to be picked up at my hotel at 3am for the airport so I was told it was better not to sleep. So I didn't. I was so tired by the time 2:45a came and I was waiting in the lobby with my friend Vera. Well for some reason the shuttle that was suppose to pick me up to take me to the bus, never came. A nice hotel worker found out where the buses leave from and took me over there. The bummer was that he wasn't allowed into the parking lot (where the buses were) because he didn't have accreditation so I had to walk with all my stuff across the whole thing. I got to the buses and asked the drivers if they went to the airport and they said no. I had a little mental freakout and then borrowed their phone to find out I just had to walk a little more and I would get the right bus.
After finding the right bus, I fell asleep on the trip to Vancouver and woke up at the airport. It was 6 am by now. Got checked-in and then went through security and customs (even though I was still in Canada, it said "Welcome to the United States"). Short flight to Portland. I slept the whole way except for a quick glimpse of Mount Saint Helens (which was awesome). From Portland to Chi-town where I had a 4 hour lay-over that somehow felt a million years long. My phone didn't work so I couldn't call anyone. I did however make friends with a Canadian man who let me use his phone and gave me life advice. Then onward to Lexington.
I landed in Lexington and saw 2 Asburians I had seen in the Vancouver airport. We had all had different flights that all landed around the same time (kind of weird). Adam picked me up from the airport and helped me carry my bags :)
Then I got to see my friends and I talked to my roommate until 3 in the morning. I missed everyone so it was so good to see them.
The last two days have been a blur. I've been that girl who wears her Olympic coat because it's really warm and well just plain awesome. I've seen so many "you've been gone for so long and now are back" looks and been asked "How was it?" a billion times. How do you sum up 3 weeks that were so jam packed that it felt like years into one sentence because that's all people want to hear? It's hard but I'm getting good at it. It was a good experience is what I say because that's the easiest way to sum it up. I am really glad to be back though. I missed everyone and it's really fun to catch up and be friends again.

Home

I just wanted to let y'all know that I made it back to Asbury safely. I even had flowers and gifts from my boyfriend and friends to greet me when I walked in. It was pretty cool. Anyways, I'll blog later.

Day 17

Last night was my first real work party. It was really weird not seeing everyone in their smurf blue ski outfits. I actually didn't recognize some of them because that is all I've ever seen them in. It was really good to see everyone happy and normal though because a lot of times people can be rude at work because they are so stressed. The food was really good (and free ;) and everyone was in a good mood because our venue has gotten a lot of good recognition for our performance and we were almost done. I left after about 2 hours though because everyone was taking full advantage of the open bar and I really didn't feel good. So I laid on my friend's bed before finally making it to my own.
Today was exciting. A lot of people were regretting their decisions they had made last night but everyone was putting on a good face because it was our last day on the venue. Even broadcasters were in a good mood. The USA ended up getting gold, which was so exciting! My bobsled buddy wasn't on the winning sleigh but he was happy nonetheless and gave me a huge and signed my accreditation. I also saw Mellisa Hollingsworth (5th in women's skeleton) again and got her to sign my accreditation but then I accidentally wiped it off before it dried (that made me really sad). Oh well.
After work, I went to the Usher concert with my friend, Vera. It was really fun. I really like Vera so I was glad to spend my last night in Whistler with her. I now need to finish packing so I can catch my 3 am bus to the airport :(
This has been such an incredible opportunity and growing/stretching experience. I didn't make as many contacts as I would have liked due to the nature of my job but I worked with some really great people and it was very interesting to see how an event this size is put on. Thank-you guys for all your support through e-mails and comments. They helped a lot. See some of you soon.

My friend, Liz, and I waited this morning for an hour in line for mittens. Then the Olympic store told us we were only allowed to buy 2 pairs of mittens. I was like, "Excuse me. I just waited in the cold and I can only buy 2 pairs?" Oh well. Kind of sad but no worries because I'm going again tomorrow so I can get some more for you guys haha.

Work was okay today. It was cold and there were 6 crashes so the competition took longer but it wasn't too bad. One of the USA bobsledders waved to me (we're definitely friends) and a German sledder asked me to "look at" his helmet (what?). "Can you look at my helmet,? I have to go inside." Oh you mean look after it. Sure thing Mr. Athlete.
I saw Amy Williams, the gold medalist in skeleton, up in the start house today. I thought she was pretty cool so it was exciting to see her again.

Our crew has a party tonight. We've done so well during the games and especially with our rough beginning that they are paying for our dinner (and drinks- which I will not have any of). It's kind of exciting to get free food :) So I'm off to get ready for that.
Love you guys. I only have 1 more day of this exciting adventure. I really think I've learned a lot in the last few weeks. I've been stretched and put outside of my comfort zone so much but I think it was a really beneficial experience. I am looking forward to seeing your beautiful faces, though.