ode to dad

happy father's day to my rockin' dad!  in honor of this glorious day and his glorious self, i've composed a little ditty just for tom.

and okay, it's not a little ditty at all.  it's just a straight up 5-7-5 haiku.  but whatever.  my blog.  my ditty.

handsome witty tom

never stays awake for gifts

christmas means he sleeps

and in case that wasn't enough for you on this father's day, here are 8 fun facts that make tom special.

8 fun facts you maybe didn't know about tom 

somewhere on that tree snoopy is flying in circles.

1.  one time mom had a snoopy christmas ornament.  snoopy was an angel of sorts and one of his wings somehow broke off.  dad offered to fix it.  alas, snoopy's wing got glued on upside down.  now snoopy appears to fly only in circles.











2.  tom drove me to school most days in middle school.  like all cool dads and daughters, we'd sing all the way from our house to the school.  the air force song was our favorite song to sing.    

3.  tom was my soccer coach before i realized i hated organized and competitive team sports.  one night he foolishly played goalie as we practiced our penalty kicks.  that is the night i broke his pinky finger.  he should've known better than to try to block my rocket kick.  sadly we don't have pictures of the broken finger.  but it's still funky looking today.  ask him about it.

we love to go to epcot and take this same picture each time.

4.  tom and i like to travel.  we try to attend both the renaissance festival and an atlanta braves game each year and soon-ish we're planning on conquering harry potter world.  one year i brought a friend along to a braves weekend and the three of us decided to play hide and seek in the hotel.  it turns out the hilton employees don't like it when you do this.  lesson learned from dad: be sneakier when you're hiding.

jennifer's not biting dad's neck. i promise.

5.  when my sister and i were little, my dad always played in the pool with us.  or at least i always remember him playing in the pool with us.  we had some really intense gliding competitions.  he always won, but i'm pretty sure it was just because i was 3 feet tall.  i demand a rematch now that i'm 5'2''.

cooking time!  and yes, my shirt says "mom's 30!"

6.  my sister and i enjoyed "cooking" alongside tom when we were little.  really we just put bags on our heads and pretended we were cool.  pretty sure we never made a thing.  but at least we looked so cute, right?

tom's third favorite school?  ecu.

7.  tom might be the only person in the entire world that truly loves both carolina and that other school equally.  i'm not kidding when i say that.  he prints out both basketball schedules and keeps them side by side on his nightstand and makes sure he schedules all of their games into his planner so he can coordinate.  and what about when they play each other?  he's always in a good mood because he says his team will always win.  frustrating much?

tom's moved me in and out of unc over 9 times.

8.  tom has moved me every single time i've moved schools, dorms, apartments, etc.  the only time he hasn't moved me was when i was little and he was at work.  that's when the gill girls moving company (don't you dare steal our name) would get bored with how things were and rearrange our rooms.  other than that, tom's a good little mover.  he claims to be done moving my stuff, but i'm pretty sure my furniture has a date with him scheduled in december.





 if you don't know tom yet, i'll gladly introduce you.  he's a riot.

it's hard to say goodbye

every three-ish years as a child i moved away from whatever town i was living in and looked forward to a new adventure.  even once my dad retired from the air force, we still moved houses every three years ... it was just always in the same city.

military kids just kind of get used to this and i truly believe it's because of this that i can't commit to anything longer than a few years.  it's probably at least partially responsible for my college hopping days, the fact that i declared over seven different majors prior to junior year, and the fact that i'm notorious for starting projects and throwing in the towel once it gets serious.  no thanks, dude.  i'm used to having an out.

anyways, i've always thought of myself as a person that's good at goodbyes.  i'm able to detach myself the appropriate amount in the months leading up to my departure in an effort to make the split as painless as possible.  you learn at a young age as a military brat that if you don't do this, the waking-up-in-a-new-city-and-going-to-a-new-school thing kind of catches you off guard.

but it turns out i'm not so good at goodbyes if i'm not the one leaving.  one of my dear friends (kate aka weirdstuff) is moving away next week to start her fabulous job in the big city, holler!  we had our goodbye cookout last evening and when i finally left i was in some serious denial that it wasn't me leaving.  i mean, i'm not quite ready to leave due to that last semester of grad school i have to finish up, but it just felt so sad leaving the apartment.  it was like it finally hit me that our undergrad days were over ... even if they've been over for a solid two years now.  

so in honor of moving, big girl jobs, and the wonderful days of undergrad, here are five of my favorite pictures of weirdstuff and our friends.  and don't worry, i'll tell you a brief story for all of them.

1.  tar heel baseball -- one of our favorite things to do during undergrad involved going to brunch and then lazily walking up to watch a unc baseball game.  it was magical and such a good use of our time.  i promise.

2.  quadding -- despite the allergies and the terrible pollen every.single.spring, we always loved to go quadding in the afternoon.  i don't know if quadding is near as fun as an adult or if you aren't laying under the beautiful carolina sky, but some of my favorite afternoons consisted of quadding.  this picture represents quadding, but actually occurred at some end of the year dorm party and i was making everyone pose as if they didn't have teeth.  i'm not sure why, i just know it's on the facebook caption.  i was a strange, demanding friend, obviously.

3.  birthdays -- weirdstuff and tater schemed to get everyone together to celebrate tan's birthday senior year and it was so.much.fun.  tan was completely surprised and somehow everyone was able to get there and keep it a secret and celebrate with her - hooray!  we also had fun decorating for andy's birthday one year with some bright pink streamers ...  which really just resulted in some ridiculous girl-band-ninja pictures, but i don't know where those are.  but i promise it was something that'd make you jealous.

  

4.  christmakate -- one year we took this gem of a photo during christmakate (thanks andy).  i originally thought it represented us perfectly (hello christmas photo!) and after a few years i'm still convinced.  no one can remember what prompted these beautiful faces, but i'm glad it's preserved forever. 

5.  cheerio, kate! -- sophomore year i was able to convince weirdstuff, tan, and tater to join me at cheerio over the summer and this beauty was snapped during counselor photos.  don't worry.  we took another one where none of us were looking like this, but i'm kind of partial to this one.  what's not to love?

happy moving, weirdstuff!  go ahead and break in the big city for us - we'll be visiting soon! 

i love the period after a storm

in case it wasn't obvious from the title/subject line, i L-O-V-E the period right after a storm has rolled through the area. i also love the time during the storm (and the awkward weather hours leading up to the storm when the temperature drops suddenly, the animals kind of freak out, and the sky looks like it's just really really angry at you ... i'm a storm chaser at heart thanks to a little movie in 1996 called twister), but anyways - the time after the storm?  awesome.

it's like everything is all nicely showered and fresh and the puddles just ask you to run and jump in them.  in the boiling hot summer it's often still cool enough to do all the puddle jumping with a light raincoat in case a lagging shower decides to creep up, but it's really just such a happy time.  in fact, it's one of my favorite times.

i went for a walk after tonight's evening storm and everything was just stunning.  the trees and bushes and lawns and everything just sparkled their little hearts out and i couldn't help but wish it was always like this.  i know the sun lovers will hate me for it, but if i was in control of the weather i'd have a storm every day.  i'm not saying for 24 hours a day ... even a rain loving girl can't deal with 24/7 soggy feet.  but a quick shower to freshen up the world each day?  i'm game for that.

i am beyond humbled by my lack of photography skillz.

as part of a self-enrichment thing i'm doing this summer (or at least i'm attempting to do during my last summer of freedom ... listen closely, you can hear me crying in the background as i think about the fact that in 6 months i will actually have to get a j.o.b.), i've signed up for a weekly photography class.  i've always counted photography among my hobbies, but to be honest that's really just so i sounded cooler than i am.  because the cat's out of the bag ... i'm actually not that cool.  i know, gasp!  anyone that knows me knows that i'm pretty much just a hot mess.  and an awkward one at that.  not exactly the definition of cool.

anyways, when the summer sewing class was canceled through the local community college (still grumpy about that), i decided i'd finally take action to make my hobby a reality.  the photography class meets once a week and is designed for beginners so i wasn't exactly sure where i'd fit in to all of that.  i mean, i do have a camera.  and i do know how to take pictures.  and i even know how to do basic photoshop tweaking to take wrinkles out of faces if you're into that kind of thing (not naming names here, but i have been asked to do this).  

but am i beginner?

oh good heavens, YES!  i now know i am in fact beyond a beginner.  in all the 19+ years i have been in school (okay, i didn't actually do the math on that but i'm assuming if i started when i was 5 then that's almost right?) i don't know if i've ever learned so much in one three hour class.  and it was basic stuff, but stuff i didn't know.  stuff that i feel is already going to make me better at photography.  

ex: i now know the name of my camera.  baby steps, people, baby steps.

the class was overflowing with information and i just can't wait to soak it all up.  am i intimidated by all the photography words i don't know?  you betcha.  but am i pumped about the day that i too will be able to have a clue what the smart people in my class are talking about?  definitely.  

in my most egotistical of days i might have said i've taken a good picture here or there, but i am beyond humbled by everything i learned tonight.  i might have gotten lucky once in a blue moon taking a picture of my pretty sister and her pretty dog, but even if that picture turned out good, i now know i was going about everything wrong.  

<insert humbling moment here>

this summer is already shaping up to be the second best summer ever.  and for those of you that think it's strange to rank your summers, i can without a doubt tell you that nothing, and i mean nothing, will ever beat the summer i got cornrows.  i just don't think you can top adolescent megan with tiny little braids.  

think about it.  awesome, right?

both nostrils need to be working unless you want to pass out when running

tonight i learned (the painfully hard way) that it's silly to exercise if both nostrils aren't clear and open.  my right nostril is playing this stuffed up game and it's generally not that big of a deal (despite my whining and pretending the world is ending), but alas, running when you're down a nostril is bad news bears.  after like five minutes you will in fact feel dizzy and once the world begins to spin beneath you, it's best if you call it a day and come inside to watch good luck charlie on disney channel (thank god my d.c. is back on ... it was a painful three days when it didn't work).

anyways, we all know i don't like running of any kind, and i wouldn't like it even if i had 80,000 open nostrils to breathe for me.  i only run when i'm being chased by robbers, or as my mom likes to remind me, the only time i'd run when i was little was at halftime of a soccer game because i knew i could take a break immediately after my sprint to the side. ha, mom, HA.  eventually i wised up and just quit competitive team sports altogether, but she just likes to remind me of my youthful days.

but seriously, i just think running is icky and incredibly boring.  and if it's your thing, more power to you, but i'd rather walk leisurely around the mall looking for sales and say i worked out. done and done.  

however, my sister and i are going to do a 5k in the fall making it necessary to do the training stuff so i don't sit down in the road 3 minutes after we start the 5k because let's be honest, those 5k people are wayyy more hardcore than the mall walkers.  but the million dollar question:  WHY did i agree to it?  i think maybe i was delirious or something when we were talking about it, but seriously ... why why WHY?  it's the question i ask myself each day i look for my sneakers and go outside to run (aka jog lightly and pretend it was a hardcore run).  i even had to buy socks for this little adventure because my sandals, heels, and flip flops don't exactly require socks.  

i'm thinking maybe my body is just rebelling against this running thing and making my nostrils close up so that i can relax inside instead of get all hot and sweaty in this ungodly heat.  either way, all i know is both nostrils need to be working unless you really want to pass out when running.  pssh.  i think i'll stick to my mall walking.