Snowy Wedding Recap... AE becomes AV :)

On October 29, 2011 Miss AE became Mrs. AV after marrying Mr. AV in a beautiful wedding! The wedding was gorgeous, but I would expect nothing less from AE.  Before I go into their wedding and how beautiful it was, I feel like I have to give you a little bit of a back story between Miss AE and I... because let me tell you, we were not always friends.

AE and I met at Bucknell when we both pledge Chi Omega in the Fall of 2004.  Yes we were pledge class sisters, but we were definitely not fast friends.  We made it through 3 years of Chi Omega without talking too much... and I'm not really sure why.  Well I guess I am sure why... we had a different group of friends so we didn't really run in the same crowd.  If you had asked me in college if I were going to be invited to AE's wedding I would have laughed at you and said "Yeah right."

This is one of the ONLY pics I have that has both AE and myself in it from our Chi Omega Days

AE & I at a date party spring of our Senior year... this is one of the few pics I can find of us... literally don't see any from Junior Year lol

Fast forward to a couple of years after Bucknell when AE moved to the Philly area.  I could never remember why we didn't get along in college so I decided to reach out to her since we were living close to each other.  During the past few  years AE has without a doubt become one of my best friends... so much so that I am positive that when I get married she will be a member of my wedding party.  AE and I have had a lot of good times together over the years, so needless to say I was thrilled (and terrified at the same time) when she asked me to do a reading in her wedding.

NS, AE, EO, & I hanging out at NS's super bowl party

KH, AE, & Me :)  Readers in the wedding!

My entire weekend was filled with activities for the AE and AV wedding starting on Thurs night with a casual dinner a the AE/AV household... then Friday was a bridal party luncheon, followed by getting our nails done, followed by the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Then Saturday was the big day!  They had predicted snow for Saturday, but personally I didn't really think that it would happen.  Imagine my surprise when I woke up to snow on the ground.  I was quite nervous about the wedding because the roads were horrible, I couldn't wear my shoes properly, and my dress was going to drag in the snow.  I was also nervous about how AE was going to handle it because well I don't think many October brides think about snow on their wedding day.  Despite the snow I don't think the day could have been any more perfect (or at least it couldn't have been from my perspective...)

As always with weddings... a picture is worth a thousand words so here are some pics from all of the wedding festivities.

AE & her bridesmaids at the Bridal Luncheon on Friday morning

AE with her two FABULOUS readers at the Bridal Luncheon

AE and Family at the Bridal Luncheon

Lovely Ladies at the Rehearsal Dinner

Hanging out at the bar post-rehearsal dinner

AV walking his mom down the aisle

Proud Momma of the Bride

Here Comes the Bride!! 

It was such a beautiful ceremony

"You May Kiss the Bride"

We clean up nice... don't we??

NS and JG... 2 of my favorites... at cocktail hour

The Lovely Bride and Groom

Best Friends <3 

Big, Me, G-little ... Angel Family Love <3 

Dancing at the Reception

More Dancing!

Cake Cutting Time

Mr. & Mrs. Big, plus me & MD :)

Best Friends and our dashing dates

Miss these Chi Mu ladies!

Having fun at the reception

This may be my favorite pic of the night... girls looking cute... SR & MD acting like fools in the background

MB & I... LOVED AE's southern cousins!!

Me & the Lovely Bride AE


Congrats to AE and AV on a wonderful wedding weekend!  I wish you both all the happiness in the world! XOXO

"To be womanly always; to be discouraged never"

A couple of nights ago I attended an executive board meeting for the Philadelphia Area Alumnae Chi Omega chapter.  As always it is great to see some of the new sisters that I have met as an officer on the e-board, and this time I really enjoyed our meeting as for an icebreaker we each picked our favorite part of the Chi Omega Symphony and explained why it is our favorite part.  I guess before I tell you my FAVORITE part of the symphony, I should let you read the symphony because it truly is beautiful.

The Chi Omega Symphony

To live constantly above snobbery of word or deed; to place scholarship before social obligations and character before appearances; to be in the best sense, democratic rather than "exclusive", and lovable rather than "popular"; to work earnestly, to speak kindly, to act sincerely, to choose thoughtfully that course which occasion and conscience demand; to be womanly always; to be discouraged never; in a word to be loyal under any and all circumstances to my Fraternity and her highest teachings and to have her welfare ever at heart that she may be a symphony of high purpose and helpfulness in which there is no discordant note.

- Ethel Switzer Howard Xi, 1904 

As the title of my post suggests... my favorite line is probably "To be womanly always; to be discouraged never."  This is something that I personally struggle with at times as when things do not go as I have planned I do tend to get a little bit discouraged and feel like nothing is going to go my way.  That is when I have to take the time to think back to the symphony and to realize that being discouraged isn't going to get me anywhere and that I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and do something about my life.  It also reminds us that as sisters of Chi Omega we should be womanly and do things with class and poise instead of freaking out and mishandling things.  It makes me remember that I should always take a step back and look at things before I lash out or maybe say or do something that I will later regret.  This line of the symphony definitely reminds me of a lot and is something I really do try to keep in mind in my every day life.

As much as I do try to keep the symphony in the back of my mind when going about my daily life, in all honesty I have been feeling a bit discouraged lately and haven't been doing the best job of keeping it in mind. All it took to help get me back on the right track was to be at this e-board meeting and to listen to my sisters who I met through the alum chapter talk about how the symphony has helped them through various stages in their lives and about what it means to them.  It made me think about how if I go back to the basics of the symphony and apply it to my life that I can do anything with my life.

Speaking of, you all should check out my Chi Omega sister Danielle's blog The November Project, for some more inspiration and ideas to make your November Extraordinary!  Pats to Danielle and her friend Holly for coming up with such an amazing idea!  Looking forward to following their Extraordinary month and to trying to make my November Extraordinary as well!

PS, Special thanks to Harper and Danielle for coming up with the Symphony Ice breaker!

Tag-Along Thursday Blog Hop

I'm linking up with Miss Mommy, And Nothing Else Matters, and Punkin' Heads & Dooda Loo's for Tag-Along Thursday Blog Hop.  They host this party the first Thursday of every month.  Check out their blogs!  And while you are there you just may find some other awesome people to follow!

When it Rains, it Pours

... but then the sun comes out and feels so good.

I know I haven't blogged in a VERY long time, but in all honesty I felt like I didn't have much to say.  I felt like my posts were pretty inconsequential compared to the posts that I was reading from the blogs that I followed.  I didn't think that anyone wanted to hear MY story and about what was going on with ME.  Then I realized that it really doesn't matter if people want to hear what I have to say... I started this blog as an outlet for my own feelings and that is what I am going to use it for.

I feel compelled to start this again because as the title of this post suggests... when it rains, it pours.  I found out a couple of weeks ago that I did not pass the Pennsylvania Bar Exam.  It didn't really come as a shock since I had the flu when I took it, but it was devastating nonetheless.  I spent a good portion of the day sitting on the floor of my closet crying.  Why the floor of my closet I don't know, but that was where I wanted to sit and wallow in my own misery.

Not passing stirred up a whole lot of emotions for me and it brought me back to a place that I never thought I would go back to.  It brought me back to feeling like I did during my sophomore year of high school when I went through a pretty bad depression (& by pretty bad I mean really bad).  It is amazing how one seemingly insignificant even can bring you back to somewhere that you never, ever wanted to go again.

Besides being upset about not passing the bar exam I decided that it would also be a good time of basically accusing my bf of not loving me and not wanting to be with me anymore.  I know that it was ridiculous of me to do so, but at the time it just seemed to fit with all of the emotions I was going through.  I also had another freak out about money and how I think I'm never going to get a real job.  My poor bf received a few page e-mail (literally it was like 2 pages because after I sent it I copied it and pasted it in word to see what I had really sent him) explaining all that was going on with me and why I was just so inconsolable.  I really just didn't know what to do with my life.

What really helped to pull me out of my funk was first off that my AMAZING... and I mean AMAZING bf took the time to respond to EVERY SINGLE THING that I said in my e-mail.  I swear it put a HUGE smile on my face when I started to read his e-mail back to me that literally responded to everything that I had said.  I had thought that he would tell me that I was being ridiculous, but instead he seemed to understand what I was going through and showed me that he would be there for me no matter what.  I knew that I loved MD to death and that he was the guy for me... but this e-mail from him really truly showed me that he does care about me and that he loves me to death and that he would pretty much do anything for me.

It also helped that I had a few close friends who I told about what happened and they were all there for me to tell me that things were going to be okay.  My bestest friend, JG sent me 2 cards in the mail that made me smile like none other because 1) they were perfect for us and 2) they just made me realize that I really do have an entire support system out there and all I had to do was ask.

I was finally starting to feel better about myself and about everything that happened. But as if all of this wasn't enough I also managed to get into a fight with one of my friends and had to deal with a death.  Dealing with another death this year really put things into perspective for me.  This death was particularly hard because it was the former G.H. (president for all you non-Chi Omegas) of the Iota Lambda Chapter of Chi Omega at Villanova.  In case you don't know, I am one of the alum advisors for the Iota Lambdas, and this G.H. had just graduated last year.  She was hit by a car while she was back at Nova for homecoming, so it was a particularly tragic occasion.  The Iota Lambda girls seemed to handle it pretty well, because although I know they were devastated, they were all there to support each other and to show each other that being a Chi Omega is bigger than just their current chapter, that Chi Omega really is for a lifetime.

I know to those of you reading this blog, all of this may seem inconsequential... but for someone who has suffered from depression all of these seemingly inconsequential things really can help to bring you back to a place that you don't want to go to.  This is something that I struggle with all of the time, and sometimes it takes a lot to not go back to those dark days.  But what I do know is that even though bad stuff happens all the time, I have amazing friends, family and an incredible bf to help get me through it all.  So like I said... when it rains it pours, but then the sun comes out and feels so good.

Much love to all of my friends, family &  the bf for helping me through all of this!  Love you all more than words can express!

Done... and Done.

Last week it was time for me to sit down and take my 3rd bar exam within a years time.  And when I say bar exam I mean the bar exam that will decide whether or not I can be an attorney in Pennsylvania, not a bar exam that involves passing some test to become a bartender (because yes, when I told someone the other night that I had taken the bar exam their immediate response was... "awesome! you're going to be a bartender now?").  The exam was tough... I almost want to say that it was as tough as Delaware's because this time I didn't have a course to go along with my studying, but it really wasn't THAT tough. I am however worried that I didn't do well because I know that on a couple of the questions I definitely used Delaware law because well that's what I know best.  The MBE (Multistate Bar Exam) was very contracts heavy this time around, which is NOT good for me because I never actually learned contracts while I was in school.  That's what happens when you have a professor from Ghana who is VERY hard to understand and has never really taught before. Don't get me wrong, this guy was a GENIUS... BUT he did NOT know how to communicate ANYTHING with his students.  So now begins the wait... until October... for results to come out.

Besides this bar exam... I am actually now studying to pass my bartender test.  I have been unable to find a job as a lawyer for the past year now... and although I have not given up hope at finding a job, I am beginning to get a bit discouraged.  I got offered a bartending position at the restaurant I work at, so I'm in training to become a bartender and hoping that it will net me a little bit more money than serving has so that I can start to get myself on my feet.  This week begins round 2 of sending out resumes to various firms, but I just can't seem to get my hopes up because well I feel like I'm just never going to get a job.  (Sorry for being such a Debbie Downer in this post, but I just have a lot of pent up feelings.)

I've also been feeling really insecure about my relationship with MD these past few weeks.  I mean I know the guy still loves me, but recently I've been questioning just how much.  I don't like having these doubts, but I think it is just because of all the other stressers in my life that I'm starting to question EVERYTHING nowadays.

Alright, well it is off to the gym and then to work on resume stuff for a bit before heading in for a fun-filled night at work.  To end this post on a happy note, check out Little Miss Momma's blog for a fabulous giveaway!  She is giving away a Tiffany heart ring here and it is super simple to be entered to win.  And you definitely want to check out her blog because it is AMAZING... I think Ashley's blog is one of the few that no matter what I make sure to read EVERY SINGLE DAY!  And I don't even know this woman... but from what I see, she is pretty fantastic!

Wordless Wednesday... Castillo de San Marco

So a while back I posted here about my trip to Florida for my G-big's wedding.  I talked about everything that we had done except for our trip to the Jacksonville Zoo (see this post for more on that) and the Castillo de San Marco.  The Castillo de San Marco is an old fort in St. Augustine... it is absolutely GORGEOUS.  I don't think words can do it justice... so maybe these pictures will help give you a feel for what it was like....

Here We Go Again

Remember last summer when I was going crazy studying for the bar exam?? Well I am at it again... it is less than 10 days to go before the exam, and now I'm starting to get a little bit nervous.  I've been doing well ALL summer not stressing, but it definitely seems like the time is here to begin to freak out.

This summer I am only taking the Pennsylvania Bar Exam... which let me tell you people is NOTHING like the Delaware exam that I suffered through last summer... no sir.  It has WAYYYY less information that is being tested on, yet I am still SUPER nervous about it.  Maybe it is because I still haven't found a job as a lawyer and I feel like if I am barred in both Pennsylvania AND New Jersey it is going to open up all these new doors for me.  Whatever the reason is... I am freaking out!

If you don't hear from me, or don't see much of me on here for the next few days... well now you know why.  I will be locking myself in the house studying... and if I'm not studying I'll be working like a crazy person to make sure I have enough money to last me though the 5 days that I will not be working while I am taking the bar exam and recouping from taking the exam.