Happy Halloween!

Tonight Ben and I are dressing as..........

NOPE can't tell you--you'll have to check back and see ;-)

And I promise there will be pictures!

Interesting Afternoon

"What are you gonna do today, Caroline?"

"Whatever I feel like....GOSH"

(Napoleon Dynamite reference)

....and today I feel like locking myself out of my house. I've lived in this beautiful townhouse for a little over a year now and I am proud to say not once have I ever left the house without my keys in hand....until today. After classes and lunch with my friend Cara, I left campus riding the good 'ole Blacksburg Transit. Then I got off at the bus stop and started walking towards my house. I started searching inside my bookbag for my keys once I came up to the door when....oh no....I left them inside on my desk that morning! I panicked for a minute--rang the doorbell---texted my roommates to see if and when they would be home. Just so happens that today, of all days, none of the 3 would return until at least an hour and a half later. So now what?....do I go back to campus.....sit outside....start reading the Collegiate Times that I have in my hands.....no, I searched for an open window. First window I tried was the laundry room--nope that's locked. Then I went around to the back and low and behold--a miracle has happened. Only 1 of the 3 kitchen windows was unlocked but it was a chance. The window is almost 5 feet up so I really had to kick my legs up high to get in but luckily I have spaghetti legs. The window opened after a little forcing, I kicked my legs up, put them both inside the window, held onto the windowsill and started sliding through onto the kitchen counter feet-first. That was actually pretty fun. I then proceeded to reward myself with a little piece of cake.

See the open counter space under the window on the left? Yeah, that's where it all went down.

I haven't posted since Sunday....LAME

My 22nd birthday was on Tuesday. I had a pretty normal day--it's true that once "21" is over the rest of the birthdays are just turning another year older. I found that out this year. I wasn't bored or anything, actually I was pretty content with the small celebration I had. Ben took me out to The Farmhouse on Tuesday night--it's a nice restaurant just outside of Blacksburg. We had a good time; he's such a sweetheart.

My friend Lauren came over yesterday to bring me the cake she made for me... I couldn't believe she made me a cake but it's so cute (and so good too!!) She set the actual cake on top of Reese's candies (which happen to be my favorite candy) which I thought was very creative. Here's a quick picture I took of the cake (and she set it all in an enlarged martini glass--verryy cute)!

I should've taken the tinfoil off, but I think you get the gist.

And more good news--my friend Hannah is traveling up for the weekend!! (she now goes to school at UNC) I'm excited to watch The Office with her tonight...it was kind of our tradition before the show became really popular (yeah--we were trendsetters).

So my week did seem pretty boring to me but after typing all of that, it seems that it was actually pretty eventful. Hope you've all been having a good week!

Who has 2 thumbs and hates figuring out seating charts???

THIS GAL!

(if you've ever seen The Office you might be chuckling now)

Numbers complete me

So I got my GRE practice test scores back today...

I predicted quite accurately how I thought I did right after the test. Verbal: pretty darn good. Quantitative: YOU ARE A JOKE YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING

Haha that's not actually what it said, but it would be funny if it did. Honestly, I scored in the 9th percentile for the quantitative section... NINTH (ouch). I definitely did SO much better than that in high school on the SAT's--I will just have to study a lot more for this section and luckily that was not the real test.

Before you laugh at me, check out just 2 of the problems I got wrong. (And don't worry, it's OK for me to put these up here b/c it's a published practice test and they gave me the booklet to study from.)

Now you tell me the answer--I'll tell you if it's right and if you're a smarty-pants I'll give you an honorable mention on the next blog!

**Oh yeah--and no calculators on the test.

Hmm..

So Ben and I are at our regular hang-out spot (the Empo) and just look at what we have to look at. Please feel free to zoom in to get a better look. (I'm referring to the figure right behind me in the picture.) Ben says he sees this girl everywhere around campus and she ALWAYS wears heels and a tiny tiny skirt. Hmmm.....do you look in the mirror before you leave your room? Homegirl's short coat is actually longer than her skirt.....

Guess what came today!!!!!

Please believe that I heard the doorbell ring and immediately ran down 3 flights of stairs. In my pajamas. At 12pm.

This. Is. AWESOME!

Tag!

I was tagged by Rachel at Girl Learning along the Way for the Bookworm Award and the Kreativ Blogger Award...so here's my chance to show off my abilities:

Bookworm Award:

The rules are as follows...Pass it on to six other bloggers, and tell them to open the nearest book to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence on that page as well as the following few sentences. The CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL!!

So the closest book to me right now is actually The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. (Honestly, who hasn't read this book?)

page 56 says:

"I have some homemade bread that I was planning on."

"Homemade?"

"From a neighbor," he said as he put the pail in the sink. He started the faucet and began to rinse the crabs, holding them under the water, then letting them scurry around the sink while he rinsed the next one. Allie picked up her cup and came over to watch him.

Kreativ Blogger Award:

The rules are to list 6 things you value and 6 things you don't...and then pass this award on to 6 people!

6 things I value:

1. my faith

2. Ben--I'm so lucky to have found him so young

3. my family--I'm very close to them...both immediate and extended families.

4. lifelong friends--It's so great to grow up with some people and still be friends later on while watching each other grow...

5. time to read what I want--it's not so easy to find time to read what I want while in college...I probably won't be able to read a normal book (not a textbook) until this summer.

6. my stupid computer--even though it has a broken screen and has erased itself twice over the past 4 years, I just don't know where I'd be without it...we've been through a lot together :)

6 things I DON'T value:

1. dirty college apartments (I'm very big on hygiene and not getting sick)

2. definitely mornings (I'm so not a morning person)

3. "people who act stupid because they think it's cute" (I got this from Rachel and I definitely agree. It's part of the reason I can't stand Jessica Simpson or Paris Hilton because I know they're acting, and it's silly.)

4. cold weather! (I always have to remind myself WHY I chose to go to VT...in the mountains...in the winter)

5. laundry day (I've managed to buy myself enough clothes--and especially underwear--to last for 2 weeks so I don't have to do laundry in all that time--I know this will have to one day change, but for now I'm enjoying it!)

6. the night before a test (aka my procrastination comes back to kick me hard)

So for my 6 bloggers... I will tag:

The Klegin Family

Preppy Politics

and anyone else who wants to do it!! Sorry to be lame but I really don't know who else has done this already since I've seen it everywhere...

Enjoy, ladies!

Navy Ball

Last night I went to Navy Ball with my cute fiancee and his family. We had a great time dancing and the food was delicious. And even though we watched our Hokies fail to pull off a win against BC....again :( ...we still managed to have a good time. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

Ben, Me, Mr. & Mrs. Bond, Holly, Arthur

Holly and Arthur lookin' great at the VT Navy Ball

Ben in his new uniform--this is the one he'll wear for our wedding!

Mrs. Bond and her boys

Hey Katherine, recognize the earrings??

Road Trip!

This morning I woke up at 5:50am, showered, and got on the road with the Bond boys. We travelled to Roanoke to see Barack Obama. *** This is not a political blog and in no way will I try to convince people one way or another. I think people should have opinions, but I don't really agree with those (on both sides) who try to tell other people they're wrong for believing what they believe. I think it's perfectly okay to explain why you believe in something (of course) I just don't like it that people automatically dissociate with you just because you're doing something different than them (in this case voting). Everybody just be nice and vote your way. This election has gotten too ugly lately.***

Anyway, I just thought you might want to see what Obama looks like on a real person's camera. It was cool to see him and because we were there so early (and waiting outside for 2 hours in the freezing rain) we were pretty close to him. So here are some pictures:

The policemen were on horses. I took this picture for my mom.

My travel buddies...and yes...they are twins. I don't know why everyone has to ask them this everywhere they go. (haha)

Barack speaking at the Civic Center

So that's it. The road trip was pretty fun with the boys, although I must admit I was not too happy about waiting outside for 2 hours in the freezing rain. Everyone was pretty wet once we were finally let inside.

Well I'm going to go back to studying for my GRE tomorrow...that was a nice little study break.

Times are a-changin

I am tired!! This has proved to be another busy week (this month will definitely be killer). I just want to lay down on my bed and take a nap but I unfortunately have 2 more classes to go to today. So last night I was at the Empo studying with Ben (what else is new) and I get back to my house around 11:45pm so I can pack up my things and go to sleep. So I get on my computer and look at some of the emails I disregarded that morning (the ladies of the English department send about 10 emails a day each--so I usually don't read them even though they're trying to help me out--they sure do like to type). So I go ahead and read them anyway and one of them says that VT is giving a free GRE practice test this Saturday and I have until 12am to sign up. By the time I read it, it is 11:56pm. You better believe my hands typed up the registration so fast I thought they were on fire. But good news--I got in and with 1 minute to spare!! I guess that keyboarding class in 7th grade really did help out!! So I guess that's what I'll be doing this Saturday morning. (By the way, the GRE is a test I have to take to get into Grad School and mine is specialized in Education). I can't believe I'm already talking about Graduate School. If you would've asked me 3 years ago, even, I would've said I was definitely not going to Grad school--because I couldn't afford it and I didn't want to go. Now it's becoming more of a bare-minimum requirement (like college did). Oh and I still can't afford it.

**To Senators McCain & Obama: Here's an interesting thing to add to your campaigns---the government should pay for grad school for teachers. You're welcome for just getting one of you elected.

What a Busy Week!!!

Oh my goodness where has the time gone? I haven't posted in a week! This month is just going to be hectic. I have a calendar next to my desk and almost every day is written on--it's ridiculous. October is always a busy month, though. I finally got Cara's pictures of the Opera night in Roanoke which was amazing! I realized I never even gave a review and that was 2 Fridays ago...but we saw "Falstaff" (a popular character in some of Shakespeare's plays) and it was completely in Italian with screens at the top for English subtitles for some of the dialogue. The scenery and costumes were incredible, as were the voices on the actors. I was really impressed with the Roanoke opera.

Me and Benny outside the opera house

We went to the opera with my friend, Cara

This past Saturday I went to UVA with Ben, Arthur, Holly, Katherine, Shon, Papa and Sally to see the football game vs. ECU. I think Shon was glad to be back there (although he did not wear orange!!!) and it was nice for all of us to get together since I haven't seen so many of them in quite a while. I would post pictures, but I really don't have that many--I think KK has the jackpot on pictures.

THIS Saturday I'm going to Navy Ball with Benjamin. His parents are coming down too, so that will be fun. I'm sure I'll post a few pictures from that later. Hope you're all having a good week.

My Secret Love

Thanks for the advice on the jobs!! I will let you know what comes of it...

In other news:

So today I got a crazy, unmanageable craving for......

I love slim jims. I can eat them in my car. I can eat them at the bar. I can eat them on a walk. I can eat them while I talk. Seriously, they're amazing. The crazy thing is--I almost never buy them!! I guess I've admitted to myself that they're not really good for you and I can't imagine spending my last few dollars at the grocery store on a box of slim jims versus some bread for the next 2 weeks...so I guess I will never have a running supply of them in college. But maybe this is a good thing, because I'm pretty sure if I had a box that size I could easily finish it in a week. I'm pretty sure I only buy two or three sticks a YEAR. But don't be fooled--that statistic should not tell you how much I like them. It's almost like a secret I've finally revealed. And I am so not ashamed.

Question of the Day:

-->Where did you work while in college?<--

I'm looking for a job, so advice would be helpful too!

Stamp Proof

Here's the proof they sent me!! How cute :)

Italian Opera

So tonight I'm going to the Roanoke Opera with Cara and Patrick!! I've been looking forward to it all week...it's so great to go out and have new experiences. I went to see the Phantom of the Opera with Daddy a long time ago (that's the closest thing I've ever seen to an opera) and I just loved it. So when Cara mentioned she was going for her Italian class, I thought it was a great idea. Even better--tickets are FREE to students. Nice.

Monogrammed stamp!

So I thought of a great idea that would:

1) cut the cost of decorating my wedding

2) personalize my wedding

3) be used for years afterward

After searching online for the best option, I ordered this beauty:

Of course, it will have different wording--and I decided not to put the wedding date on the bottom so I could use the stamp numerous times after the wedding (instead it will just say "Caroline & Benjamin" at the top and "Bond" at the bottom).

I NEVER order things online. Call it a silly superstition, but I just don't like giving my credit card info out too much. But once I thought of the idea I just had to have it so after searching online for the perfect stamp, I fell in love with this one. (I tend to get excited about the smallest things--especially if I found them and if I know they will be incredibly useful. I know I'm a nerd.)

So I figured I could use the stamp

-to print on invitations

-on menus

-on wedding favors

-on envelopes

-to make my own stationary

Oh the possibilities are endless! Now I just have to wait 10 days to receive it...