u.of.pitt.

i love my school.

i love my friends.

i just may be the happiest

person in the entire world

right now.

:)

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Thoreau

tomorrow i leave for pitt. and really, i couldn't be more excited about it! it's the packing part that's hard. i hate to pack in the first place. packing & unpacking...probably on the top ten list of things i really don't enjoy. i've got boxes to fill, clothes to fold, pictures to print, and lists to check off! of course i wait until the very last possible day to do all of this! and of course i still have yet to start; i'm sitting here blogging and facebooking and tweeting. gosh; my life. 

but i sort of tried to start last night. you see, i was going through all of the pictures i took this summer (as most of you probably know, i take a lot of pictures) and i got this incredible sense of nostalgia. this summer has been one of the most amazing summers of my life. i've worked hard, i've made new friendships and have made old friendships stronger. i've traveled across the country and flew home all by myself. i've gone to the beach and i've learned a little bit more of what it means to have your friends' backs.  i've worked 40 hour weeks and midnight premieres after midnight premieres.  i've laughed more than i've ever laughed, i'd say. i've cried. i've been up & i've been down. i felt free. i cruised around in my little convertible like i was on top of the world. i've stayed up all night with my girlfriends and had talks that i'll remember for a lifetime. and that's when it all began to hit me; i'll never have a summer like this again.  things change. people change. and just like rach put it to me last night, "life happens."  and she's absolutely right. life does happen. and even though none of this will ever be the same ever again, we have all of these things to look back on; to remember. and that's probably the coolest part. 

so here's to what lies ahead! to new jobs and harder classes! to summer internships and the opportunities to meet even more amazing people who will impact my life! and yes; to more packing & unpacking....

  

it's history.

i actually copied this from another blog that i follow, here, but it's from one of my favorite books (i have yet to buy myself a copy tho!), the catcher in the rye. (i'm one of those people who will highlight passages and write little notes and fold down tons of pages in a book because i swear i'll go back to them when the time is right...and i always do). this passage has always stuck out to me, among a billion other ones in that book. i love the idea of learning from other people, and in turn, others learning from me. makes you feel like you're really making a difference in the world if you really reaalllyy think hard about it and make an effort.

among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and sickened by human behavior. you're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. you'll learn from them--if you want to. just as someday, if you have something of offer, someone will learn something from you. it's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. and it isn't education. it's history. it's poetry.

the catcher in the rye
j. d. salinger

H vs. NO H.

i miss this trip. and alex. and of course i miss the biff too ;)

it's funny how you can spend 13 hours on the road 

every day for five days, and you still find yourself

wanting to go back to that...

welp, i've been enjoying my last couple of days here in the burg (no h) but i have to say, part of what makes me love this place so much is definitely the friendships that i have here. and now that most of my friends have already gone back to school, i find myself just counting down the days, hours, and minutes, until i leave for pittsburgh! the burgh (with an h).  so i've been spending my last couple of days here working some pretty long hours at the theatre and seeing lots of free movies! gotta get them all in before i have to start paying for them again! (yikes! the only drawback of going to school far away!!) i've still got lots of packing to do and lots of little last-minute things to get but it'll all get done! 

and that's my little update; because i feel as if i have nothing very exciting to fill you all in on!

oh thursday; come faaaster!

hope everyone is doing well!!! :) 

    

last friday night;

friday:

1. our last friday of summer together.

2. crab & shrimp feast!

3. little wooden hammers.

4. riding on exercise machines.

5. catchphrase! 

6. fruit salad.

7. bug spray.

8. countless stories & memories.

9. blankets.

10. bare feet.

11. wooden decks.

12. party lights!

13. corn on the cob.

14. countless hugs.

15. too many goodbyes.

well, we celebrated our last friday of summer together (in fact, our last day of summer together in general) as a group of old friends by having a pretty delicious feast at ashley's house. as much as i talk about how excited i am to go back to school, i can't help but get a little sad as i see my friends leave one by one this weekend. because, who knows what the future will bring; we may not be all together like this again. it's nights like these that i like to soak in and enjoy; nights like these that i'll think about every time i'm missing home just a little bit. 

"she will be loved"

i swear i've had the absolute best luck in the world these past couple of days.
two of my favorite bands ever were playing at the
hershey park star pavilion monday night.
maroon five and train.

i had wanted to get tickets forever ago but couldn't really settle any plans with any of my friends
until finally, carly (she's so awesome) and i decided that we were gonna go anyway!
we tried to get tickets every single day but the answer was always the same:
"it's sold out."
now that's some depressing stuff right there.

so monday rolls around and the two of us decide to go with ash and steph to sit in the parking lot
and listen to this amaaazinggg music.
but we said to ourselves, "if we get the chance to go in...we definitely are."
so wait, it gets better...

the four of us are sitting in ash's car, chowing down on some chips & popcorn
when carly says "did you guys just hear someone yelling 'tickets!'"??
so i jump out of the car, run down this old man....
and we get tickets!
we're in!

the concert was everything (and more) that i had hoped it would be.
we had fairly good seats
and we were on the aisle which was perfect for car's knee.
and we touched pat monahan (lead singer of train).
and adam levine (lead singer of maroon five) was standing behind us watching
train perform almost the entire time!
it was all pretty epic.
and to think we arrived with very low hopes of even getting in...

it rained a little bit throughout the concert;
but that only made it even better.
gosh; what a night :)

warning: overload of pictures to make up for my lack of blogging

1-old fashioned carousel; the reegz goes to hershey park. 2-old&new friends laughing over the coincidences of wearing clothes that match the walls. 3-"trey loves ice cream too." 4-swinging. 5-brownie mix; gone in a single day. 6-strawberry smoothies with carly. 7-lunch dates&computer whizzes. 8-sequence; the game of siblings (blood&non-blood). 9-shadows. 10-feeding the ducks. 11-eight shifts in a row with haley. 12-wisdom teeth&a bum knee; two peas in a pod. 13-trey needs some lovin' 14-coy fish feeding. 15-banana creme whoopie pies; only brothers would understand. 16-pepper with noses with dad.

summer is winding down now with only two more weeks until i'm back at school.

&& these are the kinds of moments i'm going to miss most about the summertime.

"the livin' is easy"

---

  

to my best friends:

People always say that you really lose touch with your high school friends once you go away to college. And I guess I can see where those people are coming from when they say that, but I'm also willing to bet that they weren't talking about best friends either. Because the friends that you can call up and put together a random bonfire with last minute, or the friends that you can just wander down the street to see and end up watching them bake cupcakes for hours while secretly eating their delicious chocolate icing...those are the friends that you'll never lose contact with. Because you won't let it happen. Because they won't let it happen. And those are the best kind of friends. The kind of friends you can cruise around in the summer heat with and listen to the same songs over and over again without getting bored. Because these are the friends from high school that I will never ever forget.

They are the friends that will always make this little city feel like home. Who I will always look forward to seeing around the holidays. Who I will always reminisce about "the olden days" with. Who I'll sit up late with, eating ice cream and looking at all of our old photos...putting together every detail of every day that we spent together. These are the friends I've grown up with. Who have helped me become who I am today. Who have not only helped me grow, but who have grown with me. They're a part of me. And for them, I am forever grateful. Because all of you make these summers back at home so worthwhile and so unforgettable.  Thank you to all of my best friends, who make me laugh every single day. And who make me realize just how lucky I am to be surrounded by such talented and inspiring people.

feeling incredibly blessed. 

  

time yet?

bargain back-to-school dorm shopping with my

best friend rach is the most perfect way to spend

a wednesday threatened with rain. 

*sigh* let's go back to pitt...

  

here's to the nights;

here's to nights filled with old friends, delicious dinners, and

even better desserts. to sitting around in the living room in 

comfy clothes and bare feet and laughing about every little

thing that's said. to crippled friends and athletic ones who have

been away at school for far too long. here's to those summer

nights that i just can't seem to get enough of. amen. 

  

"anything from the trolly dear!"

there are many perks to working in a movie theatre.

one of which, is having the ability to give all of your friends cool movie posters for free!

(trust me, college kids love movie posters).

the only thing cooler than giving them posters??

how about offering them giant harry potter standees to try and fit into their car and take home??

last night, i had the absolute pleasure of getting a visit from

my two favorite sisters in the world, colleen & jen.

i think they may even be bigger HP fans than i am! they recently

just got back from vacation, where they got to go through harry potter world

in florida! (talk about me being jealous)...

but anyway, they arrived.

i offered them the standee.

they said yes!

we folded it up!

they clambered out the doorway

(did i mention that they are two very tiny people??)

and they put this baby on the roof of their car and drove home!

how cool are they?

i officially have the coolest friends in the world.

so, picture this:

a little silver car, driving down union deposit,

with giant cardboard panels laying on the roof

(held there by the passenger no less!)

featuring none other than:

Neville Longbottom,

Draco Malfoy,

and Griphook the Goblin.

one word: epic.

love you McQ sisters! :)