a tribute

I dedicate this post to one of my best friends, Alisha Lombardi.

She has now officially moved out of College Station and is headed towards Greenville, North Carolina on her way to graduate school.

Although we have only known each other for about four months, we have had a ton of fun and great laughs and converstations. I and College Station will miss Alisha and all of her wonderful qualities. I have learned many great things from her, like where to get a great sno-cone in CS, and back routes to many places. But she has been a good friend and will continue to be. I can't wait to hear about all of her awesome experiences and about what the Lord will teach her and show her in the coming months.

Here's to you Alisha Marie Lombardi!

nashvegas

we stopped off in elizabethtown on our way to Nashville, it was pretty cool.

then we passed the infamous dinosaur world (shout out to vanessa brooks)


ok, so i was supposed to have to work tommorrow, but the dates got all messed up and i am not working until wed. so we decided to stay the rest of the day in nashvegas! and now we are waiting around for the dudes to get off of work, then who knows what we will be up to.

then hopefully tommorrow we will make it back to the metroplex

Grove City and Louisville

So we didn't head over to NYC, but we did get to stop in Grove City to hang out with the Lewis family. And Alisha got in touch with her toddler side.

Then we stopped at the infamous Sheetz gas station.





After that we headed over to the Ville. To hang out with my friend Katie K. and we went and finally got to see Superman the IMAX experience 3D. It was awesome! and we got these free superman cameras.


Then we got up at 7 am to meet with Oren and Cindy Martin at Panera bread.

Next we are off to Nashville and then back to Jackson Metroplex. Our trip is coming to an end.

reading info

ok so i posted in backwards order so that you can read down and get the story in order. cool...i hope you enjoy

trivia and fun facts

here it is the huge trivia contest. email your answers to me, so that no one can steal your answers (vblakey@gmail.com)

1. In what state is the city Eutaw located?
2. Where is the CocaCola headquarters located?
3. Which state was the "first at flight"?
4. Where is the olympian Michael Phelps from?
5. In what state can you not take left hand turns, only right hand turns?

Ok, so email me your responses, there are some awesome prizes in store.

Aggie count - 8
Xclerator hand dryers -2

Day 3

Dear faithful readers,

We apologize first and foremost that we have not updated in the past four days due to the fact that we have not been able to connect to the internet. A lot has happened and we have many stories to tell.

back to the action...

Alisha met with her new roommate, Brandi, and found her new crib.



We also found out that people in North Carolina only name their daughters Brand(i,y) , because all of the girls we met were named that, Alisha’s new roommate, our waitress, and one of the graduate people Alisha met with.

Then we headed up to our nation’s capital. Once we made it through all the traffic, we got on the metro to head downtown. When we got off of the metro, it started to rain and we weren’t exactly sure as to where we were but then we found this….



As we were taking this picture, one of the secret service officers on patrol walked up to us and asked us we went to A&M because he was the class of ’02. We were glad he wasn’t going to arrest us.

Then we headed over to the Old Ebbett Grill, where FDR used to frequent, to grab something to eat, but the wait was an hour and a half.

So we started walking some more and finally stopped about 35 minutes later at this hole in the wall grill that had linoleum screwed into the wall. The food was ok. Then we headed back to the metro to go to Baltimore to stay the night.

this picture is a shout out to my new friend Karol, who is stuck in the cornfields of Illinois instead of being home in College Park. (Have fun this week with the new set of Leadershapers)

Once we got to B-town and figured out how to get to my friend Thao’s house. We laid down to go to sleep with all of the traffic noises coming through the window.

Day 4

We got up around 10 and Thao made some crepes and then we headed out to what she refers to as the “tacky” part of town. Where they have flamingos on the buildings and other cool shops, like comic book stores and antique/junk stores (Tracy Smith’s heaven).



Then we decided we wanted to become Mexican wrestlers aka libras.



After that we headed to MICA, the Maryland Institute College of Art (where Thao goes to school) and walked around the neighborhood.




Back to DC, to check out the Air and Space Museum, American History Museum, and the Smithsonian Castle.


a shout to all my fellow Mac users!



This is Lance Armstrong's bike, can you believe it's already in the Smithsonian?

Then we met up with Chris Felliesen and ate some good Thai food. We parted ways with Chris and started driving to Philadelphia, but got stuck in traffic at midnight and decided to stay the night on the border of Maryland and Delaware.

Day 5

We arrived in the city of brotherly love around 11:30. After going through ridiculous amounts of security (like taking off our watches and belts, but not shoes) we saw the liberty bell.





Then headed to the Visitor’s Center to get tickets to see the birthplace of our nation, Independence Hall. The park ranger that gave us our tickets asked us why there were so many Aggies in town (because I was wearing my tv crew shirt)? And we were so astonished, because we hadn’t seen any in Philly yet. He said he had seen “20” in the line. So there you go. We actually did see 2 Aggies, one was a former student and the other is about to be a freshman.



Tomorrow we are headed to NYC. So check back on Sunday hopefully for an update and more of our antics.

life is a highway...(Day 1...2)

Day 1 (the abridged version)
10 am - we head to the mechanic to pick up my car from getting the alignment fixed again, only to find out that they haven't worked on anything because they only thought that I needed new tires and then quit looking at it. So they are going to look and try and fix it after a bunch of discussion between me and the manager.

10:30 am - We head to the airport to get my luggage, successfully.

1 pm - I call the mechanic, they are looking at the alignment, they should be done "soon".

3 pm - We head back to the mechanic, only to find out that the alignment is perfect, "so it has to be the tire", after more discussion they finally agree to go and drive the car

5:30 pm - After driving the car and looking at more things, they tell me that it's not the alignment or the tires, so it's something they can't fix. I get a refund for the original alignment.

6:20 pm - We finally are on the road to Greenville, NC in my mom's explorer.

6:30 pm - 9:59 am sunset, music, cokes, pit stops, sunrise, and some good converstation

Day 2 10 am - We arrive in Greenville!!!!

some funny stories:

After driving through the night, it's around 7:30 in the morning, which means what - that the rest of the world is now awake as well, including Starbucks, so we decide that we want to grab some java. We are looking at every exit to see if there is a Starbucks, because in Texas there are billboards and signs pointing to them everywhere, but we look and can't find one. But we think that maybe there would be one further "in" town. So we get off at the next city and start driving around looking for one. We get to a traffic light and a man in a pickup truck pulls up next to us, we roll our window down and get him to roll his down and ask him where the nearest Starbucks is, he tells us there isn't one. Later we find out that it doesn't seem that there are any Starbucks on I95 between Lumberton, SC and Greenville, NC. We found one as we were pulling into Greenville.

A shout out to some Allerton peeps, I haven't been able to use a hand dryer without thinking about you, but this morning at random gas station in Fayetteville, NC I found one of these -


Aggies spotted so far - 1

no real pictures yet...

____________ tour 06

So I am offering a contest. Alisha and I are headed on worldwind east coast tour headed to Greenville, NC then to Washington DC/Baltimore, then to Philadelphia, PA then down to Louisville, KY then to Nashville, TN and back to Jackson, MS. So I want to name this trip (like rock bands have tour names, like the reunion tour or the Magical Mystery Tour), but I am having a writers' block and can't come up with anything cool, so if you can come up with something cool to call the "tour" post a comment and whoever we deem to have submitted an worthy name will be named the winner and will receive some sort of prize, to be determined.

Other than that you will be able to follow our journey on the blog, so check back daily to watch our antics.

And I finally made it back to Jackson, it only took me 11 hour without my luggage, which should get here sometime this morning. Delta is going to get some form of letter to me.

summer so far....

So I finally have a computer that is connected to high speed internet. Whoop! for that. I have spent two weeks teaching a video workshop for Jackson Public Schools. It wasn't that bad, there were definate issues I had with some of the other staff but it was a good learning experience in any sense. After that I got on a plane and headed up to Illinois to spend some time with my dad and to attend a leadership institute called LeaderShape. It has been hard for me to process my time there and to be able to put the experience into words. I was surrounded by 57 individuals who for the most part want to make a difference in the world and found out that it is possible for us to change the world. I was a part of a community that respected and encouraged one another and pushed each other towards change. I did a lot of inner reflection and had some meaningful converstations. I had a lot of time to think about the past three years and the experience I have had in the Corps. Anyways now it's time for some pictures...


we lived in a huge mansion with secret passageways and everything.


awesome peeps from the week.


my family cluster making fun of different things during the week.


we were extremely lucky to have such an amazing staff.

a new post

I apologize to all of my faithful few readers, I am sorry that it has been almost a month since my last post. I have survived the blisters from march to the brazos, finals, marched final review (pictures will come eventually), visited Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinatti, Ohio, seen my brother graduate, changed my major (woo woo for Technology Management, and read approximately 4 to 5 books in the last 2 and half weeks. So I have been too busy to post, actually I get tired of our dial up internet connection, so I usually don't bother. In about an hour I am headed to my home church's high school camp to be the green rec team leader. It's going to be a ton of fun, hopefully.

So if you have some time this summer, pick up a copy of the Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne and read it. It's amazing. It will either shake up your faith or remind you that you are not alone in your thinking. If I had a million dollars I would buy as many copies as possible and give them away. Pick one up or order it on amazon.com

I will post some pictures from final review and kentucky soon.

what was i thinking....

So my feet logged around 23 miles this weekend. No I don't own one of those step counters. I know because Friday night I ran the GLOW 5k with Alisha, Chris, and Julie. I was kind of nervous about not being able to do it, but really it was a good time. My first ever time to pay to run, who would have thought?! Then Sat. at around 7:30 the corps stepped off for a way too long march to the brazos. This year it was about 2 miles longer each direction, because we couldn't take the shortest route. I made it, again. So if I make it to next year's march to the brazos and make the trip there I will be the first female since the class of '04 to have done it all four years. Whoa, who really cares, I don't, but that's what my buddies keep telling me. But now I have some really huge blisters on the heels and balls of my feet, which makes it hurt to walk, so I have been walking on my toes, which makes my calfs hurt, so it's the inveitable cycle of pain. so now for some pictures.

cool music website

So my brother always tells me or acts like I am a loser because of my taste in music, which is usually more of what's popular or has been popular. I am not really into listening to music or trying to find music by lesser known artists. That probably due to the fact that it is a lot of hard work trying to find the music to listen to and then if you do find some cool lesser known artist, you usually have to purchase the album to be able to listen to more of the artist. And that can get expensive. But today one of my buddies introduced me to Pandora. It's a website where you can put in an artist that you like and it will play that artist and other artists that sound like that artist. So it's like you create your own radio station playlist based on different artist that you like. And they play a lot of lesser known artists, too. Anyways it's well worth your time to check out the site and listen to some music. The wesite is pandora.com

boot run...

so we finally did our boot run, which consists of six laps on the quad that equals approximately 3.3 miles. my feet were killing me, due to the fact that my boots are too big so my left foot kept coming out of the boot and going back in every time I took a step. but I did it. here are some pictures for proof.









on another note, I went home this past weekend. It was a good time. Maybe I will do a post about it soon.

boots...

so I haven't posted in a few weeks. Last week was the longest, hardest, and busiest week all semester. Two tests, a paper, and parents' weekend activities (including me being in charge of the outfit banquet and slideshow). But this week has definately slowed down. Tonight our team from "East Asia" had a reunion, but before Emory showed up, after he forgot about it all together, Vanessa had a chance to try on my boots.







if you want to try them on too, let me know, I will see what I can do for you.

getting fitted for my boots...

finally, I was able to get fitted for my boots. I thought it would be weird to put on my boots, and it was a little but not as much as I expected. They still really didn't feel like my boots because they didn't really fit as well as I thought they would, but that should change once they make the adjustments.

where should I live?

so I found this quiz online that would tell you where you should live based on a series of questions about things that you like and dislike. This is where they thought I should live...

1. Greenville, South Carolina
2. Knoxville, Tennessee
3. Tulsa, Oklahoma I really don't want to live in Oklahoma
4. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
5. Charleston, South Carolina
6. Clarksville, Tennessee
7. Chattanooga, Tennessee
8. Louisville, Kentucky
9. Nashville, Tennessee
10. Jackson, Mississippi I mean really it's not like I haven't spent enough time in this town
11. Athens, Georgia
12. Tuscaloosa, Alabama
....19. Bryan-College Station, Texas whoop!

I guess I have picked some of the right places to live or my preferences are due to the fact of where I have lived.

expectations...

Sometimes there are times when I know that I have been spoiled, especially within the church and body of Christ.

One of these times was this week. I spent a week in Grove City, PA with a church plant. I realized how my high expectations are for things, in general, but especially when they are related to God and his work. I went into the trip with an attitude of going and doing things. I really didn't know what those things were going to be, but I wanted to do something, get my hands dirty. But really the trip was about encouraging my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I had the privelege of getting to know the Lewis' (the family that planted the church in Grove City) and the members within the church. I got to go a local college's Christian student organizational meeting, a time of worship and teaching. I was able to sit in the church's youth group stuff. And during the entrire week, all I did was think of ways I would have done things differently, wanting them to be better. And the reason, I think, that I continued to think this way is because I have been blessed to be apart of churches and ministries that have the resources (people, wisdom, monetary, whatever) to do many different things to allow me to know God better. Which I took and caused my mind to have really high expectations. I am not saying that having resources and wanting to do things to cause people to know the Lord better is wrong, I am so thankful for those things. But those are the things that I want for the people that I came in contact with, for them to know the true God and all aspects of His character. But at the same time, I have to get over my way of thinking and see that the Lord works through different people and ways of doing things.

It was such a blessing to be with the Lewis' and the Church at the Crossroads, to learn from them in many different ways and hopefully to encourage them to persevere.

the adventures of Captain Crabby and Sergeant Sensitive

Our journey first began when we boarded this amazing crop plane, that felt as though we would plummet down to the ground and vomit on our pilots.


Once we landed safely in Pittsburgh, we headed on to the metroplex of Grove City, Harrisville, and Slippery Rock. After our long trip of driving and flying to our humble abode, we decided on who was sleeping where. Little did I know, I would be sharing a room with the coolest, most amazing cook, most fun, and glorious person I have ever met in my entire life, Alisha "Sergeant Sensitive" Lombardi.


As we continued in our travels, we stumbled upon the campus of Grove City College. During our time there, I had the amazing privilege of meeting a bronzed replica J. Howard Pew.


Later in our trip we took a tour of the largest privately owned waterfall east of the Mississippi River. During our time at there, a mountain man named Jack Stone came out of the woods for an all natural photo shoot in the elements of the forest. He laid down all of his manly mountain tools, such as his axe, and posed for this spectacular picture.



more adventures in the coming episodes....

signed off, Capt. Crabby

North Country

This weekend I rented this movie, really because blockbuster was all out of Walk the Line and Pride & Prejudice, which I guess was a good thing because I had seen both of those movies in the theater and hadn't seen this one. There were a bundch of theings theat were really interesting in the movie. (ok, so if you want to watch the movie don't read the rest, it will have spoilers)

The whole movie is about this woman who works at a mine and all of the women that work there are being harassed by the men. On the surface it would seem like the movie was all about the "liberation" of these women to be able to work in a man's enviroment. But that is not what the movie is really about.

Really it's about the story of this woman, who has this reputation of being a whore, but never in the movie do you see her engage in any activity that would be worthy of that description. The reason for that label is because she had two children from different fathers, and she left her husband because he was beating her. Her oldest child, she says that she doesn't know who the father is. And because of that her father is angry with her and alienates her. But in the harassment trial, the prosecution brings up her sexual history. Through that, she finally comes out with the truth that she was raped by her teacher when she was sixteen. And because of that she was pregnant, but instead of telling anyone about the rape, she tells people that she doesn't know who the father is.

So, all I can think about is that if she had told people that she had been raped, her son would have never been born because society would "approve" of an abortion. But she didn't do that, she gave up her reputation and dealt with all of the public criticism to have her son.

I don't know how much of the story was true, but if that part of the story was true, man, I have some kind of respect for that woman.

Radical Reformisson

So I ordered this book, along with 2 other books, on amazon.com a couple of weeks ago, and they came in the mail on Tuesday. I finished this one last night, it was pretty interesting and a guick read. My youth minister recommended it to me when I went to see him at the beginning of Feb. and none of the bookstore in town had it, so it took some time for me to get my hands on it.

The basic drift of the book is that we as Christians should not reject the culture around us, but understand the culture we have been placed in, so that we can communicate the gospel in a way that is relevant to the people around us. The book is specific in not embracing the culture so that we look like everyone around us, but by understanding it and still being in it. The whole "in the world but not of the world" idea.

The book had lots of questions throughout, that helped the reader to see what the culutre around them was like. It had practical ideas and suggestions as to what "reformission" looks like.