Changes in Attitudes Changes in Lattitudes

So I'm sitting here watching the Goonies with my brand new computer and I'm realizing how far behind I am once again at keeping up to date. This time though its not really my fault. My computer died and I had to buy a new one. So here it is, the first posting from my brand spanking new computer! Its been a busy month for me so I'll try to remember it all.

September 12
Kyle took me to the West Virginia University football game for my birthday! I drove down Saturday morning through the drizzling rain. Not a very good day for a football game. But just as I reached his dorm, the rain stopped! The city was PACKED with fans! Being an alumni of good ole' Mercyhurst, I've never seen that many people in one place all dressed the same and so excited about football! We went and had lunch at Chick fil a and then headed over to the game. We got their early enough to find out seats pretty easily under the scoreboard.

It was a great game! WVU had some fantastic plays and the fans were all excited to be there. I even learneda few new cheers! It was so cool to see 60,000 people all chanting LET'S GO MOUNTAINEERS!!! We won the game to make it even better! A great birthday present!

September 15
I turned 22!! My favorite day of the year was a Tuesday this year. Even though I had to go to work, it was still a great day. The guys in my office took me out to lunch and the whole family go together to have dinner with me.

September 18-20
Homecoming at the Hurst! My roommates and I from college all decided to get together and celebrate homecoming in Erie. It was the first time we all got together since graduation. So we booked a room at the Tally-Ho Tel for the weekend near campus and headed down to school! We spent Friday night at the Cornerstone hanging out with all the alumni. It felt like we'd never left, there were so many alumni there! The only difference was now we were all legal! Catching up was fun, the gang was all there, all my roommates, and lots of friends. Some people have jobs, some going to grad school, and some are still figuring themselves out.

The next day we went to the Homecoming football game against IUP. We won the game and a friend of mine won homecoming queen! We checked out the petting zoo and I got close to a mini donkey before we took a tour of all the new buildings on campus. There's a new freshman dorm that looks more like a 5 star hotel than a college dorm. It's crazy! We went back to the hotel for a few hours and watched Lifetime movies and eat pizza before we headed downtown to the Cellblock for another night of seeing all our friends! It was a great night of talking and laughing and dancing and I know I was really sad when the weekend was over.

October 7-12
I took a vacation to Seattle to visit my grandparents out there. After a 7 hour journey with a layover in Minneapolis my Aunt and her family picked me up at the airport and we headed up to the islands. I love my grandparents house. They live in Annacortes, WA right on the water. When you walk outside their back door you are less than 10 yards from the beach covered in smooth rocks and massive logs. And out across the bay is Mt. Baker rising through the mist covered with snow. The next day we took my 5 year old cousins to the Seattle aquarium. We then took a walk through Pike's Place Market to see all there was to see. My little cousins wanted to buy everything in site, and especially loved the fish market! As we passed them by the fish seller asked little Kate if she wanted to catch a fish. She said no, but Aly jumped at the chance and quickly suited up in a heavy apron. The man grabbed a fish off the ice pack and went around behind the counter to clean if off. Aly kinda freaked out when the guy lobbed a fish over the counter at her and dropped it, only to discover it was just a stuffed fish! We kept wandering down the street until we found the Pike Brewery where we had dinner. My Uncle Bob loves all different kinds of beers and loved sampling the different kinds at the microbrewery. After our long day we headed back to Anacortes.

The next day we took the morning ferry over to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. The ferry takes about an hour and it was the little girls' first ride on the ferry so it was a lot of fun watching them get so excited to see all the islands and smaller boats passing us by. When we got off the boat we stopped first at the Whale museum to learn about the local killer whale pods. There are 3 pods of killer whales that stay around the islands during the summer. The K,J, and L pods are very visible during the summer months up there. Next we stopped at Lime Kiln park along the coast to see if we could see any whales. Unfortunately, the whales had already moved on for the season, but we did see a seal following us along the coast! After that we took the family up to this little churchyard on the side of a hill where my great grandparents and two great aunts are buried. I'd never really heard about them until this trip so it was interesting to hear some stories about them from my grandma. Then we wandered the graveyard for a while looking at all the cool graves and the stories they told. The girls loved trying to figure out how old people were and the funny names people used to have. After dinner at The Bait Shop we took the ferry back to Anacortes and hung out for the night. Kate, Aly, and I played hide and seek, told jokes, and watched Madeline movies before bed. We headed back to the airport the next morning for my 7 hour trip home again.

October 12
I got full time job offer at CMU! So it looks like I'll be staying in Pittsburgh for a while!!!!

And that's most of what I've been doing lately. Man, I have been busy! I think there's been more but I'm running out of steam tonight. More tomorrow!