Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  There are so many things for which I am thankful.

Although I'm not going to list them here, since the Aggies vs. Longhorns game just started.  Gig 'em, Aggies!

Blacksburg is Beautiful

I love it here at Virginia Tech for so many reasons.  I'm getting an amazing education, there are oodles of opportunities, and there are lots of great people here.  And it's pretty.  I've been acting like a tourist these past few weeks, whipping out my camera every time I passed a pretty tree.  These are a few of my favorite pictures.  

The Newman Library, with trees.  Hokiestone and fall leaves contrast nicely, don't they?

One of my favorite parts about being a Hokie is that the trees get in on the act too.  These trees decided to line up in order of color darkness, and I thought it was cool.  And they're orange and maroon.

 

This is a tree just outside the Architecture Annex, aka the old Blacksburg High School way back when.  

  

Same tree.  It's huge.  

 

I love how this tree looks, with all of those wispy stems.  And Slusher Tower, the tallest building in the town of Blacksburg, in the background.  I live in Slusher Wing, which is attached but much shorter.  

Who knew I would pass a holly tree?  Just in time for the Christmas season, too! 

 

Those aren't leaves.  They're berries.  So cool, so strikingly pretty. 

A tree showing off on the Drillfield.  If you squint and look close enough, a bit of Torgerson Bridge is in the back.  

But most of these pictures were taken several days or maybe even a week or two ago.  Most of the leaves are fallen now.  But there is new outdoor eye-candy...

Yep, that's snow.  Taken from my dorm room window.  You can see tracks where people opted to sled (close to midnight, too; these people are snow enthusiasts).  You might even be able to see the snow angels.  

Looks aren't everything, and even if Blacksburg were an ugly town, I would still love Virginia Tech.  But I do appreciate this icing on the cake.  This heaping tower of extremely beautiful icing.

Bad analogy.  Bad.  Sit.  Stay.  

Oh man, how could I forget...

It's World Diabetes Day!  If it were earlier in the morning and I had remembered to post, I might have suggested you wear blue to show support.  But unfortunately I have been crazy busy.  Classes are almost over for the semester, but right now it is the final crunch.  The end of finals is slightly more than a month away.

Anyway, check out the website:  http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, by the way.  Hopefully when things calm down soon I will post more.

It's Diabetes Awareness Month

I just saw that on Kerri's blog that it is Diabetes Awareness month.  And I missed the day to blog about my diabetes (yesterday)(oops!), but that's ok.

I kind of feel like I should commemorate this.  Maybe I can use it as a catalyst to get the Virginia Tech dining halls to post nutrition facts information (sometimes it is hard to tell how carbariffic some of the foods here are...). How will I do that?  No idea.  Maybe there's a website for it or something already.  I just haven't found it yet.  Any ideas?

Fireworks!

Why fireworks?

We just won another football game 23:13!  I unfortunately didn't get to watch it in person, but maybe that was better.  When I'm in the stadium, I'm just staring at guys running around on the grass.  When watching games on TV, the commentators help me know who is doing what, since I don't know many of the players' numbers or much about football in general.  I still didn't have a complete idea of what was going on, but it helped.

Anyway.  I'm tired.

I voted!

I voted for the first time!  This is exciting.  Finally, after watching my parents hit the big red VOTE button for so many years, I can finally make my own voice heard.

I would have put a picture of me wearing my awesome "I Voted" sticker here, using my tablet's handy built-in webcam, but I figure you all either know what it looks like or you should go vote and get your own.  So go vote!

Fire Drill Count

#8

What better way to start election day than with a--BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Yep.
=)

Wow, I actually did something Halloween related! And it was awesome. Thanks, D!

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I would say what I did on Saturday night.  So, here we go.

One of my best friends in high school, D, decided to go to UVA instead of Virginia Tech.  She really seems to love it there.  One thing I did not expect was that she would somehow get interested in swing dancing.  But she did.

Virginia Tech's Swing Dance club decided to hold a Halloween party the day after Halloween, and they invited the UVA Swing Dance club to come to it.  D decides to go and emails me about it.  We're both excited, but I don't dance, so we decide to hang out, and I thought I might just go sit and watch everyone dancing.

That worked for about half a song.

Anyway.  D and I meet up, and we are both ecstatic to see each other.  She and I get supper, as neither of us has eaten yet, and we sit and talk for a while, just catching up on everything that wouldn't fit in our emails.  Then we head to the dance, where she says no one will mind if I watch, or I could try dancing if I want.  She dances a bit, and I can tell she's enjoying it.  D really is a great dancer.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.  I ended up dancing.  Very badly, but several of the guys with whom I danced were very good dancers and did not mind giving on-the-spot lessons.  Most of them were pretty nice about me having no idea what I was doing, and I had a lot of fun.  And my calves were aching a bit afterward.  Yay exercise!

I had been kind of thinking about maybe getting involved in the Ballroom Dancing club here, and now I think I just might.  Swing dancing was a lot of fun.  (Yeah, they're pretty different.  But I feel more drawn to ballroom for some reason.  And there's no reason I can't learn both, either.  Except time constraints.)  Or maybe the Swing dancing club is more for me.  We'll see; I'm still planning to wait until next semester so I don't have to go to a lesson only to have to study for finals afterward.

Well, D, you might have gotten me hooked.  You are a fantastic dancer.  As always, it was great to see you and hang out!  And thank you for letting me crash the dance party.  I had a blast!

Fire Drill Count

#7, I guess.

Ugh.

But thankfully, the nice people on my hall remeinded me to set my clocks back, which I had completely forgotten.  

More about yesterday later.  Really tired right now.