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

Bliss at Blass2000

So recently my beautiful roommates wrote about their love for each other. And me being the most selfish person in the house (see: room size) said “What am I supposed to write about myself?!” and then Erin and Annie took me seriously and gave me something to write about: myself.  They threw me a surprise early birthday party featuring all of my favorite things: tea, doughnuts, cookies, all my favorite people and Laura and Margaret’s Martha Stewart style apartment. It was perfect. So I’d like to wrap up this year by being selfish and talk about myself.  Before we all leave this nightmare of architecture behind forever I want to just gush. About how happy I am.

Before I moved in last August I tried to imagine what it would be like to live with Annie Blass and Erin Weaver. Would we be friends? Would I be able to handle the amount of High School Musical references that Annie seemed to make? Who even was this Erin Weaver? Well ten months later I don’t think I can imagine living without them. It’s sooooo cliché but ultimately true. Yesterday after my surprise party I had that feeling that Buddy the Elf has when he yells “I’m in love, I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it!” But I wasn’t in love with Zooey Deschanel, I was in love with Blass2000, Starkville and all of the incredible people living in it. Because I realized that despite being the most jaded, surliest, non-morning-person member of this house I was also the luckiest. This year Erin, Annie and the entire cast of Blass2000 guest-stars have made my life jubilant. Even though I roll my eyes every time Erin and Annie do this “Bad Behavior” routine, I am seriously dying inside at how funny they are. When I wake up every Wednesday and there are fresh hot homemade pancakes waiting for me, and all I do is grunt my appreciation, I am actually trying to figure out how I wound up with a roommate who wakes up early just to cook me breakfast.Or when I have nothing to do on a Saturday and Erin takes me to Columbus for Bubble Tea, or Bops for a confetti cone, or just sits on the couch with me to watch a dumb TV show, I am wondering how I got to be so lucky. This year may have been the happiest year of my life. Everything from our collage of celebrity crushes plastered to our cabinets, to my recent introduction to the wonders of Texas via Matthew Mcconaughey has been so fun, and so perfect. I thought I was someone totally different when I moved in but thanks to Blass2000 I see myself so differently.  Thanks to everyone who came to Blass2000 and made this dumb house into a home of sorts. It’s like in Mean Girls when Lindsey Lohan throws out the crown. You are all a part of Blass2000. I am truly the luckiest person for having you all at our house to study, or make cookies or sleep over and watch the christmas episode of Lizzy McGuire.  I am actually sad to be leaving this ramshackle rental, but I am so excited to live like a rich southern plantation owner next year with Annie, Erin and Padfoot and to have cast a new season regular. I can’t believe it’s almost over. But we will be back bigger and badder next semester! Blass20004evr

If I blushed I would over how sentimental this is. If anyone asks me about this I will say my account was hacked. Ok I am going to go chop down some trees, eat a steak and watch Die Hard now.

Dream Weaver

Hello readers. I have missed you.

Sometimes writing for the blog is intimidating because Erin’s beauty and eloquent words are overshadowing. Once she told me, "If it's not worth blogging about, don't do it." But today I am brave. I am woman. (<--- That's for you, Cat). 

This is a shout out to my girls. Erin has written many a kind word about me, but let me tell you: she is a survivor. Once Virginia (formerly known as Geny Kate Gurley), Cat & I were discussing which Hogwarts house we would represent. (If you don’t know what I’m referencing, quickly minimize this tab, read all seven Harrys, watch all eight movies, and re-open the tab).  Erin is the only one who hasn’t read Harry, so naturally I was going to make her Hufflepuff so that I could assume the position of Gryffindor. Cat & Geny Kate would NOT have it. Even though Erin thinks that Harry Potter is a murder mystery, she is Gryffindor to the bone. Erin is the most loyal friend you will ever have. There is no extremity that she will not go to (I write this as she drives to Kroger through a tornado watch to bring my Brussels sprouts... Cat if you're reading this, it's too late. The house already smells).

One time I ran a 5k and most of a half marathon (that’s a different story for another time) and beforehand Erin gave me a basket of everything I could need. Every morning when I wake up, despite my efforts to hold him back, Padfoot sprints into Erin’s room, bursts open the door, and burrows in her bed. Erin has never complained, and the one time she was annoyed with him she said, “Oh, but I love you buddy.” When Cat was craving a cherry pie (which is every day), she opened up the freezer and saw one there. Last week after I took a shower, Erin was in my room and wouldn’t let me in. She said, “Don’t come in, you’re naked.” When I still tried to come in, she said, “We’re ALL naked.” Once I was allowed into my own room, I saw she helped Padfoot decorate my wall!

Do not sit next to Erin in Church unless you want to be looked down upon for laughing.  (But don’t worry, if you don’t laugh at Erin’s jokes she won’t notice- she’s too preoccupied laughing at them herself).  Her sympathy is so deep that last week when Padfoot was sick she laid in my bed and kept saying, “We’re BOTH sick.” (Unrelated, she also had a 15-page paper due the next day).

There is no craft that Erin cannot make. While Cat and I survive on broccoli and BLTs, Erin will quickly throw together a gourmet lunch. She & Matthew McConaughey share a deep love for Texas (alright, alright, alright). She remembers that only God can judge ya, so forget the haters, Miley. Ellen Degeneres can do no wrong. She got up at 5:30 am to practice basketball because "Michael Jordan didn't sleep through the Final Four." Young Life is her life. Even though Rafiki took his sweet time responding to her two-page letter, she will always live by his example. She will never miss an episode of the Fosters. Her skateboard skills could rival "Tom Honks." She helped my friend Deborah Jones get through a really tough time & is always ready to provide cookie dough when Don is on the rocks. Once she had 5 ice cream cones in one weekend (Only 1.6 per day). No matter how much I bully her (no regrets) or a small black dog jumps on her face, or I decide that NOW (midnight) is the perfect time to vacuum the house, she still lets me sleep in her bed (as long as we can listen to Adventures in Odyssey).“Daring, nerve, and chivalry.” That's some good behavior!

#blassbox20

Annie turned twenty years old this past Saturday. Her last day as a teenager was spent in overalls because why wouldn’t it be. She requested that Teenage Dream be the last song of the night and even did a lap around her high school track as a “goodbye to innocence.” (lol @ my Endless Love reference- if you haven’t seen the movie: the boyfriend punches the dad, then the house burns down, then I tried to gouge my eyes out so I don’t even know). “A quarter of a mile for a quarter of my life,” she said. So that was morbid, but when it’s her party she can say what she wants to. (@mileycyrus)

Annie was born in the year of the dog. Perfect because she has one. On Tuesday, that dog, called Padfoot, decorated Annie’s room while she was in the shower. He didn’t finish in time and made her stand outside in the hallway in a towel because it was about him right then. Despite having small dog hands, he cut circles and letters like a professional circle and letter cutter. It was really sweet. He really loves her.

On Friday, the eve of her birth, we headed to Atlanta, Georgia: Land of the free, home of the Brave(s). Five girls, one car. Bagels and laughter. Car games and cuddling. All of the feels. After too many country songs, Laura told us she “just really loves us, guys.” On that note, Annie grabbed her bible and started calling the trip a “women’s retreat.” She opened the book to 2 Kings for a little encouragement and read us a highlighted passage. “He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, ‘Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” It was an encouraging time for all involved.

Then they took this real picture.

I guess maybe the highlight of that day was when we shared hot dogs and blue Powerade courtesy of dear friends named Joel and David, or when she compared and contrasted Kimbrel’s fiery entrance at Turner Field to what Heaven will be like with Beth. But I think Annie most appreciated the firework show I asked Coach Braves to put on for her. That’s because just as her name lit up the sky and the entire stadium sang happy birthday to her, John Krasinski walked up behind her and told her he [platonically (hi, Emily Blunt)] loved her and that she was everything.

Atlanta is also the land of the Eastern Time zone. In other words, we were so excited to celebrate Anne Dearman Blass’ life that we literally time traveled in order to party an hour earlier. By party I mean car dance to Young, Wild, and Free, and decide whether or not she is already wrinkling. It’s a no for me.

When we awoke Saturday morning, it was still her birthday, because that’s how days work. There was coffee on the table and homemade biscuits. There was a hike up Kennesaw Mountain. There was the OK Café and there was Little 5 parallel parking. Saturday night, Annie saw Lion King on Broadway with her sister and I saw Justin Bieber with thirteen-year-old girls. It was the best of times. (At one point Annie tried to tell me I reminded her of Scar from the play. That was the worst of times.)

Just after midnight on Sunday, Annie announced to the room that finally “People are really going to take [her] seriously now.” So we are feeling blessed.