Shirley You Won't Forget February 10, 2014 haha

Anything is a holiday if you put it in a calendar. Write that down. 

Cat is the queen of Friendsgiving and Annie invented Friendmas Eve.

Recently I’ve gotten really into Evites. Sometimes when the cashier at Piggly Wiggly is double bagging a loaf of bread for no apparent reason, I forget that in Austin you can’t even get one bag, because modern America cares about dolphins and not about bread. I’m into modern America. I recently created an unsuccessful petition to put lights on timers in Starkville, because as much as I love stopping at ever red, I prefer the 21^st century. So save the oceans, plant a tree, send an Evite, and love your neighbor, ok?
February 10, 2015 was the one-year anniversary of Shirley Temple’s death. When she died at the age of 85, she had done it all. From film and TV to her role as a public servant, Shirley Temple embodies a perfect woman. (Disclaimer I am getting this from childhood memories and video montages on YouTube so if there was a scandal please comment and LMK – until then she is flawless). She was beautiful and hopefully known.

Last year we went to the home of The Shirley Temple. You were probably thinking Santa Monica, California, USA. But actually I’m talking about Chili’s. The waitress thought the gathering was hilarious and made jokes… but we made memories. This year we opted for a more intimate gathering… I sent out the Evites. I made a PowerPoint. Everything was ready.

I made the humans I love sit down and watch a seven-minute video montage honoring our fallen hero. Girls, just go ahead and get encouraged because right when Shirley thought she was the best she could be… (I mean c’mon she choreographed half of her own dances.) She got better: Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia... So maybe you think leggings and an oversized T is the best you can be (and don’t get me wrong… that’s the good stuff) but one day you’ll get a blazer, girls.  A blazer and a job as a social worker where you’re making 23,000 dollars a year with your masters so you end up making Shirley Temples at home that February because you can’t afford to go out… And you’ll take a sip and say, “now this, this is living.”
Take heart. This is Shirley Temple in the movie Heidi. This is the beginning. The best most cultured, Ambassador you is coming, ok? Don’t give up sisters. 

this is a picture of my friends, including Laura Simoneau,
watching the entire 7 minute montage.

 “To us. Who we were, and who we are. And who we’ll be.

To Shirley. And the Sisterhood.

And this moment. And the rest of our lives.

Together and apart…”

Cheers.

New Year, Same Us.

2014 began boldly. Friends boomed through the doors of the beloved, yet hated PinOak, and declared that our motto was “Open to Love 2014.”

Unfortunately “Open to Love 2014” plummeted disgracefully in a horrific, almost humorous (but not humorous at all) fashion by the end of December. In order to reverse our jinx and set low expectations, the motto has been adapted to “Closed to Love 2015,” though some friends have claimed to be “Ajar to Love,” “Open But Bitter to Love,” or “Considering Love Spring 2015.”

Expectations are low, yet we can’t help but think, “How could 2015 possibly be worse that 2014?” Though it began with a solemn start, as Geny Kate has taken a temporary leave of absence from the Purple Palace. I have missed her with my entire being, and I am confident that she feels the same based on this text exchange:

Me: “GK I miss you so much. Your room is a void of emptiness and despair.”

GK: “Happy Tuesday to you too.”

To quote Passenger, “Only know you love her when you let her go.” (JK I love you all the more when you’re here & am struggling in Stark without you). Before you come home next we’re going to substitute your door with beads. It’s in your best interest to come to Starkville quickly.

We've  picked up some healthy habits to start off the new year. The first and foremost habit being the art of bullying. Around 9:00pm, I’m taken over by the urge to bully Erin. It’s not hard since all I have to do is put her phone on the fridge so she can’t reach it. Unfortunately she turns to Cyberbullying, which we all know is not a joke. Around 10pm, Cat becomes argumentative about things she knows “everything about.” (TBT to when she yelled at us about Pluto not deserving to be a planet. OK Cat, well tell that to my 3^rd grade Solar System project. “We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams”). Erin had an upper respiratory infection and was forced to remain sober for ten days – she came out strong, resisting even a casual brunch Mimosa. Erin has also become very equip at creating formal E-vites. I only ate at City Bagel twice last week. My room is covered in construction paper as I so desperately want to be a Ms. Honey, but unfortunately seem to be the teacher who says, "Bueller.. Bueller" . We used our broken blender to create a music video, have consumed more tea & coffee this Monday than some finish in an entire semester, and have yet to miss an episode of the Fosters (viewer discretion is advised). My everyday choices derive from the question: "How would the puppy from the Budweiser commercial handle this situation?"

But don’t worry, though we’ve made some life changes, the girl gang still remains the same. “New year. Same us. We’re perfect.”

xoxo

pandas3x

Friendsgiving

All you really need to host a dinner party is a dimmer switch and a good playlist. Welcome to junior year and my purple house. On Sunday, we cooked and crafted and laughed and spilled. We shared and we posed and we played.

We sat in our circles with our plastic cutlery and pure hearts and talked about thankfulness and Shawn Johnson. The Climb came on just as things got serious. Is there any song more fitting for these tender feels in your whole life? “Listen to the lyrics, girls.”

I sat on the floor of my living room and couldn’t get over how thankful I am that we celebrate the small things in this house. Like the day we finally decided to decorate* our living room. It was yesterday. We moved in at the beginning of August. I am thankful that we celebrate the big things too: like friendships that matter and also, Dak Prescott.

I never got a chance to say what I was thankful for when we went around the circle. That’s okay, though. Because some of the greatest, most generous and kind human beings I have ever known sat on my couch and on my floor in this little college home and that was everything to me. Two years ago I had community bathrooms in the grossest dorm on campus and now I just have community and also my own bathroom and that’s what life is all about, I guess.

So, here’s to the Dawgs, to clear eyes, full hearts, and to able bodies. Here’s to friendships and to being fully loved and known. Here’s to weddings and to freshman years. Here’s to Cat for making a thirty-dollar ham and to me for trying to make a neon yellow shirt look like corn. No basics.

 

*and by decorate I mean we hung up an 8x10 of John Krasinski and Matthew McConaughey’s most quotable moments and called it a day

And We Danced.

Hallows' Eve began as any would. Throwing pumpkin pots off of Cat's balcony.

I ran upstairs in the rug I was about to force Geny Kate to wear all evening, but when I busted into her room with an inappropriate roar of noise, I realized that there were some sad eyes looking back at me. So we threw the potted plants off of the balcony in honor of school being the worst (but dawgs are number one).

"Supersticious" and the "Hedwig's Theme" boomed through the Purple Palace while we assembled our costumes with the help of paper plates and sharpie tattoos. We rolled out after 9pm, which is typically an hour before my common bedtime. But not today.

After a great night featuring Geny Kate dancing in a rug & Mallory Schmidt speed walking in orthopedic shoes (she was a little too excited about being a grandma), we joined Cat to go to a "rave" in Columbus. I know what you're thinking - "Annie, that sounds like your worst nightmare! You are too awkward for large social events!" Correct. But if Hillary Duff taught me anything, it's to "never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game." So Andrea and Erin hopped in the car as we sped off to Columbus while listening to the same Taylor Swift song on repeat (maybe the song changed, I couldn't really tell*).

We rolled up and were met with something monumentally worse than a large group of people losing their minds. Instead, there was a large group of strange people, standing around and talking to each other without costumes.  I was so terrified (mostly just cold) that I ran from the scene. But it was all worth it to see a huge group of people in their street clothes turn and see GK walkin' up to the club with her rug on.

In summary:          We danced.

                              And we cried.

                              And we laughed.

                              And had a really, really, really good time.

xoxo,

pandas3x

*= Just a joke, Taylor. Haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate, but you just keep doin' you girl.

We're So Classic

"I've never met someone like you till we met." --lyrics from MKTO's "Classic". That's the kind of well written lyric that can really define a purple house of four girls. Stay tuned.

Hello, blogosphere. I am so excited to finally make my debut! I'll keep the intro short. My name is Geny Kate, but no one ever calls me that (I didn't ask for this life). My nicknames vary from Virgin Kate to Jimmy to Crispy. I know I have over 30, so take your pick. If I were to describe myself in three words, they would be thundering, spicy, and rare.

Anyways, back to what really matters= Roommate Retreat 2014. What can I say? We lived, we loved, we laughed, and we rocked the hot dog tubing life. Thanks for the memories, Paul B Johnson state park.

The weekend started out with Annie and me going to visit our favorite people in the universe= Caroline and Kelly Jackson. What makes them so great? They're the kind of people who care about us so well, even our dental hygiene! We gathered at midnight to floss together. Then Annie and I (mainly Annie, I supervised) photographed them and future baby in all their splendor. It was glorious.

And that was just the beginning! From there, we met up with Erin and Cat in Hattiesburg to hit the lake. Andrew, Annie's man piece (some would rather say "boyfriend"), has a boat, so we were pumped to hit up the lake. In the words of Caroline Rose Wilson, "it's great because I don't have to have a boyfriend since Annie does!" We were pumped to get on the tube and show the wake and the waves who's boss. It was a rough start, but we rocked it (duh). Annie meanwhile stayed on the boat and worked on snapping some candid shots of her and her boo thang. 

The verdict was still out on whether or not we thought Andrew was good enough for Annie, but when he suggested that we play laser tag later that night, he won us all over.

Then he beat us really badly at laser tag.

I've never met someone like you till we met, Andrew! We listened to that song a total of at least 9 times in 3 days, combined with "All About That Bass" and "Young, Wild, and Free". Living young, wild, and free for us meant laser tag and watching High School Musical (Cat's first time! She's into it. Then Andrew realized that he and Troy Bolton are the same person).

We met Annie's youth girls from the summer, we hung out with her mom, Erin performed Blake Shelton's song "Austin", and we crashed some USM tailgates for free hotdogs (almost). It was everything you could possibly want wrapped into one weekend, and just what we all needed, honestly.

I love these girls, and I'm honored to be a part of the house. We've got a great year ahead of us, folks. Keep in touch

Table of Contents

Dads at One direction

Cat at One Direction

"Do you remember summer 09?" Harry Styles asks One Directioners everywhere in a hit song. 

"Well, you would if you made a powerpoint about it," we replied. And so we did. 

Except less about the summer after ninth grade and more about this past one. 

"Catherine got a diploma and I got a piece of humble pie"
A Memoir. 

Geny Kate takes Yakama.
The story of blood, sweat, and children.

A tourist guide to Huntsville, AL.
There actually are attractions. Namely a mosaic of Egg Beater Jesus. 

Blurred my address to keep the h8rs away when this goes viral.
Please DM my twitter for fan mail @erweava

 I really love a good powerpoint. (If anyone in History 1063TTH is reading this please email our professor and suggest he start making one for lecture... I'm drowning in pictures of maps and youtube videos. SOS.) I learned a lot. Like the time Annie sat on one of her youth group students and knocked the mirror off her car. Unrelated. And the time Cat bullied a movie theater attendant and went to her brother's wedding. I  saw pictures of the most tender Washington youths Geny Kate loves the most and I learned how to put music on my powerpoint. We lived and loved and laughed a lot and it's all we needed. (or something like that...) And as for our Monday night ritual: Table of Contents, "I've never wanted nothing more."

Summer 2k14, you mattered. But it's good to be home. #never4get

New House, New Rules.

Hey gang.

Put all of your preconceived notions from sophomore year behind. This is junior year. We moved from the unfortunate circumstances in 2300 into a Purple Palace. We traded in our small dog for Geny Kate. New year, new rules.

Each house member has come back to Blass2000 fresh & more fulfilled from the summer. Erin spent her summer days with walkie-talkies and Taki chips as a dream camp counselor at Camp Ozark and Crooked Creek Ranch. Virginia ventured through the United States’ majesties and the plains to serve Sacred Road in Yakama, Washington. (If you know nothing else about Virginia, you may know that she has a heart of gold & is constantly venturing to love sweet children across the globe). Cat was tearing it up in Huntsville, Alabama – scanning papers and taking names at the local professional agency. [One day I told Cat I felt like Pam, from The Office, and she told me she felt like Toby]. Meanwhile, I was in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, partying it up with the greatest junior and senior high students imaginable at First Presbyterian Church.

Gael

The girls are back, and in full force. I’ve taken home to the only downstairs bedroom, also known as the isolation cabin. One day Erin asked, “Have you even been upstairs?” Which by the way, I HAVE, because yesterday I came into Cat’s room only to find a red beta fish hanging from the ceiling, named Gael after her beloved actor, Gael Garcia Bernal (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0305558/?ref_=nv_sr_1). We are going to celebrate by watching Finding Nemo ("fish are friends, not food).

Tomorrow night is our very first Table of Contents meeting. Until then, lower-west siders.

xoxo

lonelypandagirl