I missed blogspot.

New blog...after spending some time trying out tumblr, I sincerely missed blogspot. Follow my new blog at ameliatritico.blogspot.com.

I promise I'll stick with this one for a while. :-)

Love and peace,

Amelia

A new leaf.

This blog has served me well, but it's time to be moving on. Check out www.ameliatritico.tumblr.com to see all future posts, pictures and links. Thank you so much for reading! You have no idea how important your support is to me. :-) I won't delete this blog in case I ever want to look back on what I've blogged in the past, but from now on, I'll be blogging at the new address. Take a look!

Love and peace,

Amelia

Four days 'till Pura Vida!

That's right...four days until I get to see the gorgeous shores of Montezuma, four days until I see how much Spanish I actually remember, four days until I get to experience Pura Vida again....I pretty much can't wait. I can't believe it's taken me two years to make it back to mi segunda patria (my second home), but I'm finally going back. I'm a little apprehensive...kind of afraid it won't live up to the grandeur I've created for it in my mind, but I always knew that I would have to go back someday, just to see. Maybe I'm prepared for its shortcomings, though, since I've moved so much. Every time we move and then go back, the location itself never does a whole lot for me. The people and the memories...that's where it's at. There are definitely some awesome memories that I can't wait to share with my family. Like the place on the side of the road on the way to Montezuma where my friends Brittney and Renee' and I stood for three hours waiting for a bus...yeah, I can't wait to see that place again, lol. I think the number one reason I can't wait to go to Costa Rica again, though, is that I get to see the smiling face of my bro!!! I can't wait to see how living in CR has impacted him over the past six weeks, and I can't wait to spend some quality time with him and the family. The picture to the right was taken while I was living in Costa Rica and he came to visit me. The tables have turned now, and I'm so glad he loved Costa Rica enough to go back there to live and study. It really is an awesome place...one that I have a feeling will hold a special place in my heart forever.

So, my mind is currently consumed with Costa Rica, as you can tell, but other stuff has been going on. I went to the Summer NAMM 2010 show yesterday and had a blast! I was able to attend a workshop on using GarageBand, and I got to see Victor Wooten play live!! For those of you who have never heard of him, check him out. He's quite possibly one of the best bassists to ever live, but he's not like any other bassist you've ever heard before. He's probably most well known for playing with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, but he's becoming quite popular for his solo work including writing a book on his philosophy of teaching music. I'm going to be checking that out myself soon. The NAMM show was definitely a success, and I'm really glad I was able to go again this year.

I've had a couple more articles published with Strum Magazine...I put the links on the righthand side underneath my picture again. I'm still really enjoying seeing my name on the byline. :-) Makes me feel like a real journalist...

Time seems to be flying by this summer, and I can't believe that we're already over halfway through June. Honestly, I'm kind of thankful that it's flying, though. Maybe that means I'm that much closer to figuring out where to go next, lol! I wish there was an easy answer to the question: what should I do with my life? I suppose that if it were easy, though, I wouldn't appreciate the journey near as much.

Hope everyone is doing well! I'll try to post again while I'm in Costa Rica so my blog will actually be accurate again...ameliaincostarica.blogspot.com...ha ha. I really need to do something about that...

Love and peace,

Amelia

I feel like something good is about to happen. :-)

It's been a majorly productive week so far in Ameliaworld, so I've been feeling pretty good! I started out the week in Nashville, catching up with my best buddy, Ellen, and I was able to go to church with her on Monday night at this place called Emanate...great service and for the first time in a long time, I'm starting to feel God's love again. The light is starting to shine in on me again! :-D I feel like I've been wallowing around in the depths of darkness for months, and I'm finally starting to pull myself out of it. It's about time, lol...6 months is way too long to be depressed.

So, yeah, good things are happening...I've been writing even more articles for Strum, I'm starting to consider Nashville as a possible jumping off point for the next chapter of my life and my family and friends are being extremely supportive. I'm a blessed gal. :-)

This weekend is going to be jam packed with several funtivities. (Fun activities...an Office reference for all my fellow Office fans out there. I'm amazingly not working tomorrow, I never get Saturdays off unless I ask for it, so I'm going to be attending my dear friends', Brad and Macey, wedding! I'm excited to be there for their special day! (Is it just me or are there a lot of weddings going on right now, lol?) After a fun-filled evening under the stars for Brad and Macey, I'll be headed to Nashville on Sunday to help my boss at Strum at CMA Fest. Yes, I know I'm not exactly gung-ho about country music, but I'm excited to shadow her and learn some on hands stuff about magazine journalism. (I might get to meet some big name artists, too, so that would be pretty sweet!) It's going to be a busy, but fun, weekend!

I'll also be headed to Nashville again next weekend to attend Summer NAMM 2010 with my uncle! I'm always so appreciative that he gives me a pass every year. I get to see all of the newest most innovative products in the music biz, and this year...I get to write an article about it! How cool is that?!

So...yeah...exciting things are happening, and I feel like I'm on the precipice of something really great. God is good, life is good and it's summer, so the weather is good. Also, I get to see my bro in 13 days!! :-)

Hope everyone is doing well! Check out my articles and let me know what you think! (Every time I get another one published, I add it to the righthand column underneath my picture.)

Love and peace,

Amelia

P.S. The new Rooney album, Eureka, is now available on iTunes. If you're looking for some good summer tunes, check it out! :-)

Anticipating vacation...

So, I've changed my blog's background to express my extreme excitement that I will be on the shores of Costa Rica in three weeks enjoying the gorgeous waves, sun and sand! Okay, maybe not so much the sand part, lol. I think it's ironic that I absolutely LOVE the beach, but I'm not a big fan of sand...it just gets everywhere! I will definitely pay that price, though, because beaches are so beautiful!

Things have been going well since the last time I posted. I've been writing several articles for Strum this week, and I'm working on a few more. I added the links over on the righthand side along with links to articles I've written in the past for The Oracle, the Tennessee Tech newspaper. Everything seems to be going swimmingly in the writing department for me. My boss at Strum has been really pleased, and I might try to do some of my own interviewing pretty soon. The articles I've written thus far have just been me listening to the interview and then writing the story. Interviewing is a little intimidating, so I haven't asked to do any yet, but some of my favorite bands are playing this summer, and I would LOVE to interview them. Just to name a few...

The Dirty Guv'nahs are playing this Friday night! I can't wait to hear some good ole Southern Rock...I think they're a mix between The Allman Brothers and The Rolling Stones. I posted a link to their website on the right, so everyone should check them out! I've already gotten the go ahead to write an article about the concert, so I'm pretty pumped about that!

Also playing this summer: Rooney, and I might try to venture to Alabama or Kentucky to see She & Him. Two great musical acts! Rooney is the quintessential summer band, and She & Him plays a distinct brand of folk/country music that is truly their own. I would love to interview these two bands as well, but we'll see.

So, everything is going well then! My friend and roommate Bailey is back after being stuck in Guatemala for the past couple days due to the craziness that has been attacking Central America, so I'm glad she's back safe and alive! Frank is doing well in Costa Rica, soaking up the Pura Vida life, and learning Spanish like crazy, and I can't wait to see him in three weeks!

Other than that, not much excitement...just working and writing. Oh, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my life. :-)

Hope all is well for everyone!

Love and peace,

Amelia

P.S. If you're looking for a summer read and haven't read it yet...try Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Incredible writer and amazing book!

Savannah, GA

The past couple of days I was lucky enough to be able to get away from Cookeville and head down to Savannah, GA with my parents. Savannah is a gorgeous city, and it was nice to spend some quality time with the 'rents.

If you ever have a chance to get down there, I highly recommend it! For a semi-history buff like me, it was extremely interesting. We got to see several pre-Civil War houses, and I absolutely loved the architecture and stories behind them! The weather for the most part was agreeable, and as always, I loved being able to walk everywhere. I think the main thing we did, though, was eat, lol. There are so many amazing restaurants in Savannah, and of course we wanted to try as many of them as possible! I'm thinking of entering a major diet mode actually to cleanse myself of all the great albeit rich food we had. Of course we ate at the Lady and Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant, and had some of the best pecan pie I've ever had. We also had some great seafood along the riverfront, and we sampled incredible fried chicken at Mrs. Wilkes! All in all, it was a pretty successful trip I would say, and I'm in love with the deep southern mystique that Savannah has to offer. What a great little vacation, and a great place to brush up on my Civil War history! :-)

So, now I'm back in Cookeville and getting into the swing of work again. I'm writing a few more articles for Strum Magazine this week...y'all should check it out, I added it as a link on the righthand side of the page, along with all of the articles I've written for the magazine thus far. I'll also be continuing to work at the Market on the Square while I make a decision on where I'm going at the end of the summer. I think I've given myself an August deadline to make a decision. One last relaxing summer in Tennessee, and then who knows where the wind will blow me! I do know that I'm headed for Costa Rica in 4 weeks!!! 4 weeks until I see the beautiful shores of Montezuma while spending some quality time with my family!!

Hope all is well for everyone! I'll leave you with a beautiful picture of a ship docking in Savannah at sunset.

Love and peace,

Amelia

Can't sleep...I want a pinwheel.

So, it's 2 a.m., and I am yet again wide awake. My attempts to become an early bird have obviously failed thus far, so I guess I'll just have to try again next week. All of you people out there who don't have sleeping troubles...any suggestions??

Tomorrow, though, I will be forced to be an early bird. My dear friend Jess Padgett is getting married tomorrow, and she asked me to do some singing at her wedding. I'm pretty excited and honored to be a part of her big day! The wedding is in Kentucky, so I'll be getting up bright and early, along with my buddies Kristen and Jacquie, to head north to celebrate Jess's big day. I'm excited to spend quality time with some of my UTRI sisters. I met Jess and Jacquie last summer while I was interning at UTRI, and I love it when I get to spend time with them. :-) So, we're off to see Jess get hitched tomorrow, and we're praying for no rain because the wedding is supposed to be outside. No rain please!

On a more sentimental note, I said good-bye to my bro tonight for 6 weeks. I always get sad when I know I'm not going to see him for a while. Of course, he's not exactly sentimental, lol, guess it's not very cool. Him leaving, though, means I'll be chilling at Montezuma in 6 weeks...this makes my heart happy. :-)

So...lately I've been trying to be less thoughtful and more surface level. This sounds shallow, I know, but the more thoughtful I am, the more I analyze things, and the more I drive myself crazy. Anyway, the highlight of my day today was extremely thought-provoking, and today I was okay with that.

While I was at work, my boss's granddaughter was frolicking around the store just being a normal 6 year old. When she goes to the downstairs part of the store, she's always supposed to tell someone so that we can keep track of her. Today, as she was about to head downstairs, she yelled, "I'm going downstairs!! Hey, wait...what's that?"

She was pointing out the front door and windows, made entirely of glass, at a black and white polka dotted pinwheel stuck in a large flower pot right outside the store. She said, "Come hold the door for me!"

So, I followed her out the door and stayed there to watch her. The wind was blowing because it was pretty stormy this afternoon, so the pinwheel was spinning wildly. She just watched it for a while, then when the wind died down for a second, she blew on the pinwheel and moved it with her hands to make it spin again. This is where the highlight of my day comes in...

The wind picked up again, and the pinwheel started to spin. She looked at it, looked at me, and then just started to clap her hands, jump up and down, and laugh happily. I wish I could have taken a picture of her face. The sheer look of joy was indescribable and for what? A pinwheel? How many of us would be excited or happy to see a pinwheel spinning in the breeze?

I want this childlike fascination in my life again. Can you imagine how much happier our lives would be if we enjoyed little things more? A pinwheel...I want one...just so I can see that little girl's face in my mind and know that happiness really can come from the little things.

Well, I guess I will attempt to fall asleep now. 6 a.m. is going to come really early...

Hope all is well for everyone!

Love and peace,

Amelia

Writing and working!

Hello to everyone! It's been an exciting last few weeks since my last post! I completed one semester of graduate school, and I pulled straight A's! I was pretty pumped about that! Also...I can't remember if I mentioned in my last post that I got an internship with an online magazine out of Nashville called Stum Magazine. Today, my first article was posted online!

Click here to check it out.

I'm extremely pumped about this as well! I'm padding my portfolio! Things are going pretty well. Other than writing and finishing up my semester, I've just been working a lot. I'm working at this little shop on the square in Cookeville called The Market on the Square. For the time being, it's a pretty good job, though I'm definitely still ready to start looking for a grown-up job lol.

So, things are going pretty well I suppose. I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer. My bro is leaving for Costa Rica on Saturday, so I'll be sad to see him go, but I'll be headed to there as well at the end of June to visit him, so that's exciting!

Hope everything is going well for everyone else! Enjoy the beginnings of summer!

Peace and love,

Amelia

Up and at 'em!

Up and at 'em! (The phrase I heard every morning for most of my growing up years...I love my mom, but I think she knows how I feel about it, lol) So, I'm up early...okay, maybe 8 a.m. isn't very early for all you morning people out there, but for me that's pretty impressive! I'm going to try this whole getting-up-early thing for a while to see how it works out for me. I've always been a night owl but the phrase the-early-bird-gets-the-worm is starting to appeal to me. I'm about to start hardcore looking for jobs, but my current job occurs every afternoon. If you know me, then you know that doesn't bode well for my new job hunt. (Unless I have something important to get up for, I usually won't get up.) However, in order to facilitate said job hunt, I'm going to need more hours in the day, so it looks like getting up earlier is the answer! I know this isn't rocket science, but I've been fighting early morning wake-ups since I was probably 2 or 3 years old. I think it's time for some changes. :-)

I have one final this week, and then I will be finished with one semester of graduate school. As previously stated in my last blog, I'm taking some time off from school. So, after this week, you would think I would have a lot more free time to dedicate to job searching...it seems, however, that my class schedule is just being replaced with a new schedule. Instead of working for Habitat for Humanity and going to class, I'm going to be working at a new internship with an online magazine and studying for the GRE. So, no free time for Amelia! It's okay though, I prefer to be busy these days anyway...makes me feel productive. :-)

Travel plans have changed slightly. I am still going to Costa Rica at the end of June! Woo hoo!! I'm super excited to go back and see mi segunda patria (second home). I need some pura vida in my life again! Family vacation plans to the gulf coast have changed due to the oil spill...such a sad happening. I feel terrible for all the poor animals and shrimp fishermen down there. :-( It also looks like I might not be going to New York either. This saddens me, but I know I'll get up there someday. So, new family travel plans are in the works, not quite sure where we're going yet, but I'm already excited!!

Hope all is well for everyone out there! Enjoy the glorious spring weather!

Peace and love,

Amelia

Future?

Hello to all...I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted. I've been slammed working 2 jobs and taking 6 hours of graduate courses. It's been a crazy semester thus far, and I'm no closer to figuring out what I want to do with my life, but...I do know that I'm not ready to be a full-time graduate student. I am tired of school, folks! I would absolutely love a master's degree and maybe eventually a doctorate, but for right now, I need a breather.

So, what's next you might ask? I have absolutely no clue. I'm in the process of trying to figure that out actually, and honestly, it's been pretty frustrating. I have this whole "fear of failure" thing looming over my head, and I don't want to look back on this time of my life 20 years from now and think, "Man, you really screwed that up." It's stressful, annoying, frustrating...in all honesty, I'm ready to be out of this chapter of my life.

My general "plan" for the time being is just start applying for jobs in any place I can think of. I'm open to any suggestions or thoughts on the matter as well. :-) I'm thinking that I like the journalism/public relations field since that's mostly what I've been learning in school recently. I've had an internship with Habitat for Humanity this semester, and I've loved that! Since that doesn't necessarily involve my degree though...I'll take any type of job that combines the two, lol. Seriously...I'll take any suggestions anyone might have... I'm willingly to move almost anywhere, and I absolutely LOVE to travel. Ha ha...I feel like I'm selling myself to a potential employer. Oh goodness, I think I've looked at my resume a little bit too much lately.

In other news, my current travel plans for the summer include Costa Rica, the beaches of Alabama, and hopefully New York and Maryland. I'm going to visit Frank while he studies abroad in Costa Rica, and this will be the first time I've gone back since leaving so I'm pretty excited. The beaches of Alabama will be our family vacation for the year, and it's always nice to spend quality time with the fam so I'm pretty pumped about that, too. I'm really hoping that New York and Maryland work out, though, because I've never been to New England. Travel plans make me oh so happy. :-)

Three weeks left before finals, a month and a half until I take the GRE, and two months until I'm chilling on the beach of Montezuma in Costa Rica with my bro. The summer's going to be amazing...just hope the rest of the year follows suit...

Love and peace to all,

Amelia

So much for which to be thankful

Wow...what a crazy couple of weeks it's been. Where to start? Well, first, I graduated from college! Woo hoo!! I was pretty excited to finish up my undergraduate degree with a 4.0 semester, eating some good food with family and friends, and celebrating Christmas. I was extremely blessed this Christmas and loved the time spent with my family. All in all it was an incredibly successful Christmas season!

After Christmas, I headed down to one of my favorite places in the world, UTRI, to help out with the huge Navidad a Reynosa celebration. UTRI worked together with over 100 people from 7 states that came down to help the people of Reynosa have an incredible Christmas. It was an awesome day! We gave away 20 or 30 bikes and a car along with food and toys for all the people and children that came. It was cold, rainy and muddy, and I spent most of the day at the border helping Clay (one of the directors of UTRI) deal with some paperwork issues, but despite all of that, God showed up and the people in the dump of Reynosa were blessed. We were all blessed as well. I loved hearing the stories from everyone that participated in the event and how amazing things happened despite the rain, mud, language barriers, and cold weather. Over 100 people were saved, and over 1,000 people from the dump came to the event.

The highlight of the 4 days for me was a little girl named Gabriela. Gabriela is 11 years old and was born and raised in the dump in Reynosa. I met her the day before the event, and we talked about little things such as how many brothers and sisters she has, her favorite subjects in school, and what she wanted to be when she grew up. She had very little, and she lived in a little cinderblock house. On the day of the event, she wasn't even wearing a jacket. I arrived at the event late and had forgotten about talking to her the day before, but she found me and asked me to wait for her because she had something for me. She had been looking for me all day. I waited for a few minutes, and she returned with a stuffed animal and a drawing she had colored for me. On the drawing, she wrote in Spanish: To: Amalia, From: Gaby, Christ loves you. She looked up at me smiling, and I was truly touched. I spent very little time with her and yet, she wanted to bless me. Gabriela is a living example of Christ's love.

Spending time in the dump at Reynosa is one of the most humbling experiences I've ever been a part of. I love those people, and I love that country. The people there have so little in the way of material things, food and money but there is one thing they will never be short on: Love. I pray that I could love people the way Gabriela loved me with her beautiful drawing and gift.

What an awesome 4 days down at UTRI! I love that place, and I can't wait to go back!

So, it's the last day of 2009, and I'm doing my best to reflect on what's happened in my life over the past year, but it's kind of difficult. It's been a crazy year! So much has happened that I can't remember half of it. I know it's been a year of acknowledging change in my life. The changes haven't actually happened, yet, but I know that they're going to be happening very soon in 2010, so I spent the past 6 months coming to terms with that and trying to figure out how to adapt.

I'm looking forward to 2010. A new decade is beginning, and I'm going to embrace it with open arms. It's time to put the past in the past and leave it there. My goal for 2010 is to make it the best year in my life thus far. In January I'll be turning 23, and I have so much to look forward to in life. Of course, I have the normal New Year's Resolutions of losing weight/getting in shape and being less stressed, but I think my main resolution is just going to be: happiness. I want to be happy this next year no matter what changes happen or what life throws my way. I'm so thankful for such a blessed 2009, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to experience 2010.

2010, you're going to be an awesome year... :-)

Lots of love to everyone and Happy New Year,

Amelia

Almost there...

So...it's approximately 17 days until graduation, and I am so ready to be finished with school this semester! I'm stressed to the max with presentations, papers, and all the other little odds and ends that need to get done before December 19th. I can't believe it's almost already here! It's December, folks! How did that happen?!

Anyway, I gave 2 presentations today, I have another one next Tuesday and I'm pretty sure I'm functioning on about 3 hours of sleep right now...oh well. I'll be sleeping tonight for sure. :-)

Part of me is starting to get excited about this whole graduation thing. I've got some family coming in to watch it and some of my friends are coming to support me as well. It's going to be a fun day. This is what I'm focusing on. Yes, I don't have a clear plan for my future, and yes, I'm terrified of the real world, but on December 19th, I'm just going to focus on the fact that I will have a college degree. I'm pretty proud of myself for making it all the way through. :-)

I've been accepted at Tech to do some graduate work in the spring, so I'll be taking 9 hours of graduate courses. I'm kind of looking at it as a trial run...will I like grad school or not? We shall see...I'm excited about the classes I'm taking, though. For the first time in a long time, I'm going to be taking classes because I want to, not because I have to. Wish me luck!

In other news, I'm leaving the country again!! Yay!! I'm going to be headed down to Alamo, TX/Reynosa, MX the day after Christmas to help with a huge Christmas event at the place where I interned this summer. I'm super excited! We're going to be holding Navidad (the word for Christmas in Spanish) at one of the dumps right across the border. I think they're expecting to feed 3,000 Mexicans! We're going to be giving toys to kids and some sewing machines to a few of the women. I can't wait to see how God moves during this event! I'm also super stoked to use my Spanish again with native speakers. I guess I'm just pumped in general. It's going to be amazing, and I was starting to get cabin fever...it's time for me to leave the country again, lol.

I hope everyone is doing well and had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Christmas is right around the corner, so I hope everyone is excited and ready for a wonderful holiday season. Remember what it's all about! :-)

Love, hope, peace,
Amelia

The tunes of decisions....

Yes, I know, it's been a while. I seem to have forgotten that I had a blog there for a bit. I remembered today, though, so I do believe I will post something.

Things have been going pretty well I suppose. I received my cap and gown the other day, for free amazingly enough, and I'm having mixed feelings. Part of me can't wait to be done and the other part can't believe that I'm almost a college graduate. The next part of my life is not planned out. For the first time in 22 years, there is no plan. In short, I'm freaking out. I don't feel like college has prepared me for the real world.

Certain phrases keep coming to mind like, "The world is your oyster," or "Grab the bull by the horns," but honestly, having the freedom to do whatever I want and go in whatever direction I want to go is a little daunting. If I had a definite direction, I would probably be a little less freaked out, but I don't. I have ideas, but how do I know which idea is the right one? How do I know when I make a right decision? Aren't these decisions that could affect the rest of my life?!

Anyway, I'm sure I'm being a little melodramatic about this whole thing, but it's just something that's weighing heavily on my mind. For right now, I've made the decision to stay in Cookeville for another semester and take a class that I would need for Grad school. Is this the right decision? I have no clue, but it's a decision, and at this point I'm glad I'm finally deciding about something. I don't remember ever being this indecisive, but maybe I always was...

In other news, I've played one gig this semester with two more coming up. Next Friday I'm going to be playing as part of a fundraiser for TOMS shoes. For every pair of shoes bought from it, TOMS gives a pair of shoes to a child in a third-world country. It's definitely a worthy cause, and I'm excited to be a part of it! My other gig is on November 14, and I'm pretty excited about that one, too.

Fall is definitely here in Tennessee and in honor of that, and Halloween, my roommates and I are throwing a Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza on Saturday night! We're all pretty excited, and I'm definitely looking forward to spending an evening with friends and just relaxing. I think my mind needs to get away...lol...as do I...maybe I should plan a trip or something. The traveling bug always seems to keep biting me. :-)

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to update again soon!

Lots of love,
Amelia

Creative Success? :-)

Whew...another Monday has arrived. I can't believe it's the fourth week of school already. The semester is just flying by! Before I know it, I'll be graduating...eek.

Things have been going pretty well. I had a pretty relaxing weekend. I saw Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs in 3-D...it was super cute! Saturday during the day I just chilled and then Saturday night I opened for my friend Brooks at Poet's. He was coming into town and he was like, hey, come open for me! It was a pretty successful evening. I was extremely excited because for the first time ever, someone I didn't know requested one of my songs and was singing along!!! It was so cool to see people singing my song! It pretty much made my weekend!

This week is going to be busy as usual. I've been doing quite a bit of writing lately for class, and all of it is going to be critiqued/graded this week...it's always a little nerve-wracking to put myself out there creatively, lol.

So, three weeks until my gig on Oct. 10th, four weeks until fall break, and five weeks until my roommates and I throw a huge Halloween party entitled, "The Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza"! It's going to be a great month... :-)

Hope everyone is doing well!

Lots o' love,

Amelia

One week down...

Whew, the first week of my last semester of college is over, and what a doozy it was. I've got a relatively easy schedule, but for some reason this week just seemed really long. It's kind of weird to walk around campus and not know anyone...guess that means I'm getting old, lol. I am excited about this semester, though. I think it's going to be really fun!

I'm taking News Reporting and Copy Editing, Introduction to Public Relations, Introduction to Creative Writing, and Senior Capstone in Spanish. I found out that because I'm in the News Reporting class, I'm automatically on the Newspaper staff at Tennessee Tech, so that's cool, lol! I'll be writing 5 stories or so about the happenings in the foreign language department, and there's a chance they'll end up in the newspaper! Pretty neat! I'm absolutely loving my Intro to PR class...I'm not really sure what that means, but maybe it's a direction I can kind of steer myself in... Creative Writing is cool, too, I guess, lol. It is awesome that I was able to choose these three classes to take just because I wanted to. I don't really need any of them to graduate so it's a little less pressure.

My Senior Capstone, however, is another story entirely. It's quite a daunting task. I'm required to give several oral presentations and short papers in addition to the 10-15 paper and 15-20 minute presentation I have to give in Spanish at the end of the semester. I know everything is going to be fine, and I'm sure I'll do well, but it's still a little scary. I am kind of excited about the topic I'm going to be researching, though. I don't have an exact title, yet, but it's something along the lines of "The Oppression of Women in the Mexican Press." Apparently Mexico doesn't have free press like we do, and the women definitely don't have the same rights women do in the United States in the media. I think it will be a pretty interesting topic for me especially since I'm leaning towards some kind of career in the communications field. I'm not 100% sure, yet, that that's where I'm headed, but it is really interesting to me, so I'm excited about doing the research.

In other news, I have a gig set for October 10th, and I'm going to start practicing with the band this week. It should be a pretty fun, laid-back gig, so I'm excited! It's at a Train Depot outside. Outside gigs are always fun. :-)

So, that's what's going on in my neck of the woods. I can feel fall just around the corner, and I'm loving it...pretty soon it'll be time for football games, sweaters, bonfires, jack-o-lanterns, deep-fried turkey, scarves, hot cider, christmas carols, and the holiday season!! One of my favorite times of the year! Hope everyone is doing well! I'll update again soon!

Con mucho amor,

Amelia

Pictures...back in TN

Well, I'm back in TN after an amazing week and a half of vacation. I can't believe the trip went by so fast...it was so incredible! Here's a link to the pics:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2077572&id=52702346&l=f523c6ed74

So...I guess school is next, lol. I start next Monday, my last semester! I can't believe I'm graduating. Hopefully it won't be too stressful. I don't really have any travel plans for a while...kind of sad. :-( Maybe I'll plan some spontaneous trip... I'll update again soon!

Love all you guys!

Amelia

Under the California Sun

We made it!! After 5 days of driving, Ellen and I finally made it to California! What an amazing trip! We went through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California. I knew that we could do it all along, but I think it's still a little unbelieveable that we just made such an awesome trip! We've seen every kind of beauty you could imagine...rolling green hills, the desert at sunset, mountains that seemed like they came out of nowhere, city lights at night, and the flowing waves of the ocean. Wow...we live in a beautiful place...I took tons of pictures, so I'll post the link for those once I post them on Facebook which probably won't be until this weekend since I have limited internet access, but stay tuned! :-)

So...we just finished the most incredible road trip, but we're still only halfway through the trip, lol! Last night we saw (500) Days of Summer at this really cool old restored theater that was built in 1938...I think it was called the Lido Theatre...great movie, too. We spent today lounging on the beach, getting completely sunburned. There's an amazing bike trail to get to the beach that takes about 20 minutes, so we've been utilizing that yesterday and today. We decided to just take it easy today after the past 5 days of driving. Tomorrow we're thinking about hitting up the San Diego Zoo...we've been told that it's one of the best zoos anywhere, and we're definitely animal lovers, so we're going to try to make that work. As for the rest of the week...nothing's concrete, but we're definitely going to be dorky tourists and check out Grauman's Theater, Rodeo Drive, and the Hollywood sign, lol. Maybe a Dodger's game, too, while we're at it. :-)

It's been a pretty awesome vacation, and I'm so glad Ellen asked me to do this with her. I think she's going to love it out here! California is pretty hard to resist... :-)

Hope everyone is doing well!

Lots of love,
Amelia

Ready for the Road!!!

In two days, I'll be on the road!! Yay! I'm super excited! The general plan is to head for St. Louis first and then drive through Missouri, Oklahoma, the panhandle of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and finally into California! Whew...it's going to be a lot of driving, but I'm totally pumped. The open road is calling my name. :-) Ellen and I have been doing lots of planning and talking about everything that we're going to do along the way, and it's going to be awesome. I don't think it's really sunk in, yet, that we're about to drive across the entire country, lol, but we're excited nonetheless. There's going to be plenty of photo and video ops, so I'll post the link to the pics!

Nothing else really going besides the trip right now. I'm still dealing with the fact that I'm about to start my last semester of college, and I don't really have a plan for after that...the world is my oyster right now (or something like that), and that's pretty terrifying, lol. It's weird to think that for the first time in my life, there's not a next step. For 22 years my life has been scheduled around school, and now it won't be. So weird... I'm not really worried, I know everything's going to end up totally fine, but still...it's just strange.

In other news, I found a new artist that I really like. Diane Birch--check her out, she's pretty chill!

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll update after my adventure in the west! :-)

Paz,

Amelia

Working and anticipating

Overall, things have been going pretty well since my last post. I've finally been able to do some working...I don't feel quite so lazy anymore, lol, and it's nice to have an income again! Yay! God provides! Currently I am doing said work...I'm basically just sitting in an office all day long, answering the phone. It's a job, though, so I'm not complaining. Every night this week I'm going to be doing some other work in the form of babysitting...it's going to be a long week, lol.

The visit with my cousin David was pretty fun! We've seen some movies, had some friends over, and tried not to get into too much trouble, lol. Hanging out with family is always fun. He heads back to Louisiana tomorrow.

Road trip planning is going well...I can't wait to be on the open road again, and I can't wait to see some California sunshine!! I'm super pumped about this last hoorah of Summer '09! If anybody has been on Route 66 before and has any suggestions of things we just have to stop and see, let me know!

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

Paz,

Amelia

Swinging back into things

That's pretty much how I've been feeling the past few weeks...instead of getting back into the swing of things, I've been on a wild swinging ride into and out of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be back, and I love spending time with the people I love, but it hasn't been an easy adjustment. I'm not sure what made it so different this time, I just know that reverse culture shock is not my friend, lol. I've been trying to keep busy, though, and that has helped tremendously!

I've spent quite a bit of time with my friends and family. I've been out in the boat with my dad, enjoying the beauty of a Tennessee lake, and doing a little kneeboarding. I've been chilling with my bro quite a bit since we're now sharing an apartment together, and that's been super fun! I've helped my friend Amanda plan her wedding a little bit...we went dress shopping and had some success, I'm super excited about my bridesmaid dress; it's gorgeous! I've also spent a lot of time with my bud Ellen, chilling, watching movies and such...we haven't done a whole lot of planning for our road trip, yet, but we'll get to it eventually, lol.

This past weekend, I was able to attend the NAMM show in Nashville thanks to my Uncle Sam! The NAMM show is held at the convention center and is basically a "show", exhibits, etc., for small music retailers and stores to see all the latest in technology for musical instruments, equipment, and accessories. It's super awesome!! :-) I got to see lots of really cool gadgets and some pretty talented people.

So...I've done a lot of chilling, visiting, and driving, lol. This past weekend, I drove to Nashville twice and road once to Knoxville, plus a lot of driving back and forth between Cookeville and Sparta...I think I'm making up for the lost driving time while I was down in Mexico, lol.

The upcoming week promises to be fun, shopping with Mom tomorrow, finally doing some work at the Foreign Language department, and more hanging out with friends! My cousin David is coming in next week, as well, so that should be pretty fun!

Hope all is well for everyone out there. I'll update again soon...

Amor y paz,
Amelia