Meet Virginia

Friday, March 30, 2012
“She never compromises, loves babies and surprises, wears high heels when she exercises. Ain’t it beautiful? Meet Virginia.” – Train

During my second visit back on the road, I headed to fellow CC Jillian’s alma mater, Roanoke College, to visit the Gamma Eta Chapter! Roanoke is such a pretty campus, even though we didn’t have very good weather while I was visiting. It reminded me so much of Hanover. I stayed at the “Monterey House” on campus, which just so happens to be one of the most haunted places in the U.S. I slept just fine and didn’t have any ghost encounters. Every morning when I would meet the chapter, the first thing they would ask was, "Well...how did you sleep last night? Did you see any ghosts? Were you freaked out at all??" The only problem I ran into was the fact that my computer has a 3-prong plug and the only outlets in the house were made for 2-prong plugs because the house was so old. No worries though, a quick trip to Walmart solved that problem – just something to add to the packing list for next year’s CC’s!

as Jillian described it to me, "God's gift to Earth"

The best part of my trip to Roanoke was getting to see my sister friend and fellow CC Lauren! She is the resident consultant at James Madison University this spring. She drove down on her day off to get brunch with me on one of my free mornings. We had the best time catching up and pretty much spent 2 hours just laughing at each other. As always, it’s great to see a familiar face on the road, and I’m so grateful for the friends I’ve made this year!

she may kill me for this, but she ordered the entire menu
And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I could never survive this year without the other consultants! We have less than a month left, so get ready for the most emotional and sentimental blog to be coming about the friends I’ve made this year. Can’t say I didn’t warn you!
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Sister of the Month - This One's for YOU, Katie!

“There’s life to be lived and stories to tell, lessons to learn, we don’t know yet. Nothing to lack, looking back knowing that we have lived it well…with stories to tell.” – Dave Barnes

I mostly caught up on sleep and work while I was home...nothing too exciting. But Hanna and I did meet up to go shopping at the outlet mall halfway between Louisville and Indy. We were lucky enough to have time off scheduled at the same time, so we obviously had to meet up to do something! I also bought the new Dave Barnes CD and if you don’t have it yet, GO GET IT. It’s so good. I already know it’s going to be my summer CD. Early favorites include “Stories to Tell,” “Love Will be Enough for Us,” and “Missing You.”

we had to ask someone to take our picture...and that's actually not my jacket. #pinklies

My first visit once I left home was to Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY to be with the Rho Zeta Chapter! I have 2 good friends who I met at Hanover who go to Bellarmine, so it was great to see them and to hang out with them! I also got my very first, “Will you put me in your blog?!” during this visit. So Katie, here’s your shout out. And congrats on being the reigning Sister of the Month! Thanks for being such a faithful blog reader (aka stalker), even though I haven’t updated this in so long! Can’t wait to meet back up in May and get Frank Burgers J Love ya, my Zeta child!

Katie and Elizabeth! so great to see them again!

During my visit I got to attend the chapter’s annual philanthropy dinner to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network. They had a great turnout and raised more than they were expecting!

"a handful of change for a handful of love"

Getting back on the road after a few days at home is sometimes tough but visiting Rho Zeta was so much fun and I easily got back into the swing of things!

KATIE!
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This Might Be Dramatic, But...

“Down where I was born was Heaven on Earth, where Flint River washes that red Georgia dirt, the sun sets slow and the stars shine bright. We raised cotton and corn, a little cane and kids, you either lived on a farm or wish you did. Jesus always walked close by our side.” – Luke Bryan

This might be dramatic, but… it’s true. See below: “We also came down right through a black cloud aka a funnel cloud with gusty winds.”

After Philadelphia, I headed down to the Atlanta area for a few more visits. My first stop was at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA. My second computer malfunction happened during this visit when I turned it on during the second day of my visit and it said, “You have 35 viruses.” After screaming, searching for my flash drive, and thankfully getting all of my work saved, my computer went crazy on me. Even though I thanked them in person, I have to thank the Theta Epsilon Chapter again for being so patient during my meetings without my computer! Going old school and actually taking notes with a pen and paper was a new concept for me. I was so concerned about my computer, I didn’t take any pictures during that visit, but it was still great nonetheless. Also, big thanks to Jamie for meeting me for dinner and taking my computer back to the HQ to get fixed. I owe ya, sister.

Because of a Spring Break conflict, I had a quick 2 day trip to the University of North Alabama to help facilitate a Panhellenic Recruitment Bootcamp program. Getting there was one of my worst travel days all year…aside from when I spilled my entire diet coke on a guy’s rolling carryon suitcase on the tram in the Atlanta airport – we’ll save that story for another time. I knew there was bad weather in the area, but I didn’t know it would be that bad. First off, there were terrible tornados at home. As I was watching the tv screens at my gate at the Atlanta airport, they kept showing that Indiana was in a tornado warning and that a massive tornado had touched down. They forgot one minor detail…where exactly the tornado hit! Aside from my fear of dogs, my other huge fear is of tornados. I tried calling my mom, dad, and brother and no one answered, so of course I was freaking out in the airport. I finally got a hold of my aunt who told me that everything was fine and that the tornado struck in southern Indiana. Luckily, it didn’t hit Hanover, although it was very close. My thoughts and prayers still go out to everyone in Henryville who was affected by this awful tornado.

Once I figured out that everyone back home was ok, it was time for me to continue freaking out about the flight I was about to board. There had been tornados touch down in northern Alabama near Huntsville earlier in the day and they were still under a tornado watch. How it was safe for us to fly into a tornado watch beats me, but we did it anyway. It was the worst flight of my life and it took everything I had just to board the flight. Everything was fine until we started our descent and I’ve never experienced so much turbulence in my life. We also came down right through a black cloud aka a funnel cloud with gusty winds. Thankfully, we landed safely but had to race to campus to try and beat the next line of severe weather that was about to hit.

The next day we had the Recruitment Bootcamp and I think we set some attainable and realistic goals for the Greek system at the University of North Alabama. Each sorority had a national representative there, so I got to meet another consultant from Alpha Gamma Delta, a past National President from Alpha Delta Pi, and a past National Council Member from Zeta Tau Alpha!

 
a little Panhellenic love!

Then it was back to Atlanta for 2 more visits! I headed to our Theta Beta Chapter at Georgia State University in Atlanta and then went to our Mu Chapter at Brenau University in Gainesville, GA. I got to see some friends in Atlanta during this set of visits, which was a lot of fun. It’s always nice to see some familiar faces out on the road! After Brenau University, it was time to head home for a few days off!

Theta Beta townhouse where I stayed!

one of the best welcome baskets I've gotten all year!

Creed painting in the living room at Mu!
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The Life of a Traveler

“Last night in Memphis, tonight in New Orleans. Tomorrow I’ll be miles from here, ain’t nothing to me, nothing to me. Sweet gypsy highway, won’t you let me chase my dream? ‘Cause I got a song to take me there, and it’s something to see, something to see. Lord, I was born with a suitcase in my hand, living in a life that few could understand. Sometimes it gets so confusing that I don’t know where I am, but I always know who I’m with – I’m with the band.” – Little Big Town

The band = the other Phi Mu Consultants J

Now that I am a full-time traveler and not a resident anymore, I’ve discovered that I have no time to blog. I hardly have time to call my friends and family throughout the week, so this blog just got pushed the bottom of my to-do this. My apologies.

Let’s pick up right where I left off…

After leaving Tulane back in January, I headed to Bethany College in West Virginia for recruitment then had some much needed time off! I turned 23 (wait, what?!), had a minor “I’m-almost-23-which-means-I’m-almost-25-which-means-I'm-almost-30” crisis, and headed to Hanover to see my friends to celebrate! One of my very best friends from college drove up from Lexington, KY to help celebrate, and we had the best time reliving our glory days of college. Everyone should also congratulate Cassi on being accepted into a doctoral program at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine! Soooooo proud of her!!

one of my most honest friends and gives the absolute best advice
ps. I miss our bunk bed at the house

Then it was back to work, and my first stop was Philadelphia! I went to Drexel University to help facilitate the finance portion of Regional Officer Training. It was a long first day back on the job but it was a good first day back. Phi Mu does a great job with leadership training for our collegians, so it was great to spend the day with them watching them learn together. A huge thanks goes out to the Beta Tau Chapter for being such a great host!

Executive Committees from 7 chapters!

I didn’t get to do a whole lot of sight-seeing in Philly, but I did see the Rocky steps and statue (cue the Rocky music). Other than that, the view from my hotel downtown was good enough for me. After ROT on Saturday, I headed back with the Phi Lambda Chapter at West Chester University. Aside from my meetings, I spent a lot of time just hanging out with the chapter members! I did get to go to one of their COB events at a local froyo place, and if anyone knows me, you know how much I enjoyed that!

I really need to do a better job of taking more pictures on my visits. see above for that "having no time" detail.

After my visit to West Chester, I headed up to Muhlenberg College to visit our Phi Kappa Chapter. Muhlenberg is a small school, much like Hanover. I especially love smaller schools and comparing their college experience to mine! My visit to Phi Kappa was full of so many fun activities. Not only did I have a full schedule of meetings, but I got to attend their Sisterhood Retreat and Founder’s Day Luncheon.

one of my favorite activities!

And that pretty much sums up my visits to the Philadelphia area!
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