I won't worry my life away

Last weekend, Rachel, Danielle, and I participated in Waco's Annual Walk for the Homeless. Most cities have a 12% poverty rate, but Waco has a 27.6% rate--what?! Thus, the Walk for the Homeless' purpose is to raise funds and awareness about Waco's homeless population. The walk started at Waco's Meyer Center for Urban Ministries, a subset of Mission Waco. We went to five different areas in downtown Waco (about a 1.4 mile walk) and ended up at the Church Under the Bridge with a BBQ celebration of CUB's 17th Anniversary in Waco! Below are some pictures of the day.

The day started at 7:30, which is earlier than I normally have to be ready! Thus, coffee was needed and readily available. ;)

Here I am with Rachel and Danielle before the walk started, right outside the Meyer Center.

The group walking towards our first stop, Compassion Ministries. We had over 300 people participate!

Here Rachel and I are with Mike, one of our CUB regulars. Notice the Van Halen t-shirt? Classic.

I thought this picture was beautiful. This is right outside Waco's Salvation Army.

The walk ended at CUB. Here I am with Bill; can you tell he's a Cowboys fan?!

Group picture with Benny, Cindy, Bill, and Bill's son Andy.

Gratitude Attitude # 25: Waco's Church Under the Bridge. I notice that I always feel 10x happier after going to CUB, and it is due to the positive attitudes of everybody who attend. CUB puts life into perspective and helps me realize the truly important things in life.

Jason Mraz? Yes please!

I haven't updated for a while and there's a lot to talk about! But considering I need to study for neuroanatomy, I'll leave you with a video that I took at the Jason Mraz concert last week.

Dedicated to Mr. Christopher Ryan Hicks. Lovelovelove.

(Turn down your volume; it's really loud! It's recorded with my camera, not a video camera, so it's not amazing quality, but still, it's Jason so it's perfect.)

Gratitude Attitude #24: Jason Mraz's singing/lyrics/guitar playing/self in general. I don't think I can listen to him without being filled with love, joy, dance, and happiness. I'm lucky that I was introduced to his underground scene, and I'm lucky I was able to go to his concert! I'm also lucky that my best friend sounds ridiculously like him and will sing to me on cue. Glorious.

I'mma Let You Finish....

Gratitude Attitude #23: All of the hilarity that Kanye West is bringing to the world. We could all use more laughs, and generally, people love laughing at others who have made dumb (and very public!) mistakes. If you live under a rock (or--God forbid--don't have cable), Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's first MTV VMA award, stole the mic, and expressed his preference for Beyonce's video over hers. Taylor handled it quite maturely and when Beyonce won an award later that evening, she had Taylor come up on stage to "have her moment," which was really classy. However Kanye, even after blaming it on the a-a-a-alcohol and apologizing numerous times, is still getting lots of crap for it. Cue the internet sensation, because "I'mma Let You Finish" is the catch phrase of the season. Check out the website linked to read some more Kanye "I'mma Let You Finish" jokes!

Rain, rain...stay today!

Gratitude Attitude #22: Rain. Glorious, continuous, wondrous, warm, unstoppable, unpredictable rain.

NOLA? Yes please!

Last weekend was Labor Day, which for me usually signifies the end of summer and the beginning of a school year. I was supposed to have plans, but when those went downhill, I thought I'd be spending the weekend at home with Chloe relaxing and gearing up to get back into the swing of a semester. In steps Captain Sean, our favorite Apache pilot extraordinnare, with an offer I couldn't refuse: a weekend away from Waco, TX! In a mix between my availability and Sean's boredom, he decided on New Orleans as our destination, which I was excited for because I'd never been. We headed out for the 8-hour drive on Friday and stayed until Monday morning. It was a lot of fun and a good experience!

Unfortunately, it rained a few times and we kept getting caught! By the third time, I had learned and had my rain jacket in my purse (third time's the charm!) but it was pretty comical that every time we stepped outside, it'd rain! I love how you can see people in dresses, flip flops, and shorts, but it's pouring.

You can see how hard the rain is coming down! Look at the water coming out of the gutters.

Here's Sean, regretting that he's wearing a see-through (when wet) light green shirt!

New Orleans was amazing. Friday night, we ate at this restaurant called NOLA, one of Emeril Lagasse's restaurants (his second one out of eleven currently). Considering this was my first taste of New Orleans, I was excited to try something new. Sean convinced me to try shrimp and grits, and despite the unappetizing title, was the most amazing, buttery, flavorful dish. Sean got roast duck, which was pretty good as well, and we shared a delightful yet tame brie mac and cheese. Definitely a great way to start off the weekend.

Saturday morning, we went to Cafe du Monde, a famous French coffee shop that only serves beignets and coffee. For those who don't know what beignets are ("ben-yay"), they are essentially a delicious square doughnut-like puff loaded with a heap of powdered sugar glory. It's a French Quarter staple and probably my new favorite breakfast food.

Saturday afternoon we walked around the French Quarter, got caught in the pouring rain, jumped into a restaurant and ate raw oysters as a small lunch, and generally had a good, touristy time. Saturday evening, we went to a fancy restaurant called Commander's Palace. Commander's Palace opened in 1880, and the Brennan Family took over in 1974. The Brennan Family has a slew of restaurants, but this is their New Orleans pride and joy (along with the restaurant Brennan's, which we went to Sunday morning). I can't remember what I ate (some sort of fish?) but I do know that it was ridiculously amazing and probably entirely too expensive (...I'm pretty sure my next three paychecks should go to Sean).

Here's Commander's Palace. It's basically smack dab in the middle of a residential area, and the restaurant is actually attached to the Brennan family's house!

Sunday, we went to Brennan's where I had the most amazing eggs Hussarde (very similar to my favorite, eggs benedict) along with their famous Bananas Foster dessert. Mmmm. Added 10lbs to my hips immediately, but hey, it was worth it! Sunday afternoon and evening, we drove around the Garden District, took some pictures, drank some Starbucks (mmm!), and finished up sight seeing. For dinner, we stopped at a local Mediterranean restaurant and had pita bread and hummus, as we were so full from breakfast that we didn't want something large! Overall, it was an amazing trip.

Here's a random picture of a house in New Orleans; this is one of the smaller ones of the Garden District! I was surprised at how many huge houses there were!

Our pilot (who didn't drive, just flew really low) Captain Sean.

So that was the trip. I've also been hanging out with my baby nephew, Cooper!

He loves me so much that he couldn't stay away from me, even when trying to take a picture!

Big kisses from my baby boy!

Then he licked me to death. Here I am getting attacked with kisses by a 2.5lb Beagle puppy!

One last picture, Chloe-Bear and I say hi! She's kissing me too; apparently animals love me! We love and miss you all!

Exciting news!

I've been listening to entirely too much classic rock after making dad's playlists for his iPod. If you start me up, if you start me up I'll never stop...

Now, for the exciting news: I'm flying home the first weekend in October! I didn't think I'd be able to due to unexpected costs when I flew home in May, but my parents nicely bought me a cheap ticket through Alaska Air's recent sale! That means that I'll be able to attend my cousin Katie's wedding, so I can't wait! Plus, I've been homesick for a while and so I think this trip is just the ticket. YAY!

Chloe and I say hi and we miss you all!

Gratitude Attitude #21: Chloe-Bear. She is the most entertaining, sweet, loving kitty in the entire world. Sometimes she runs from my room to the living room, back to the room, into the kitchen, just because she can. It's fun to watch her explore something new or pounce on a threatening piece of paper. She's beautiful and wonderful and gives me a sense of self--she even follows me into the bathroom because she wants to be with me anywhere and everywhere when I'm home. She's perfect; I'm lucky to have such a cat. :)