Preparing for my journey: The 10 days before

How does one prepare for such a year as I am about to have? Well, I have done several things. One includes working on my tan. I learned that image is very important, so I been doing my best to avoid tan lines and spend as much time as possible laying by the pool lost in a great book. I have done a swell job at that if I might say so myself.

Next, I have been trying to see or talk to as many of my friends and family as possible. For some reason, I have this vision that once July 20th comes around I'll be cut off from all things non-ADP; however, I also have a feeling that that's not how it will work, but in my little mind right now, I'm scared that I'll never see or talk to anyone again. So how have I been doing that, you might ask? Well I planned to have a wedding of my very good friends from home, Cabray Rauschenberg, ten days before I leave. Perfect time to see and catch up with my friends from home. Ok, so I clearly didn't plan that but am super pumped that it fell when it did. See picture below!

Here are my close girl friends from high school: Molly, Lucy, Cabray (the BEAUTIFUL bride), Elizabeth, Katie, and me!

We all had an absolutely fabulous time catching up in between dances. It definitely will be a party for the books!

What about those dear old college friends of mine? Good news! Lee Kiser decided to propose to my best friend, Katie, on Sunday and asked us to come to surprise her, so after the fabulous wedding on Saturday night, I woke up bright and early Sunday morning and drove to meet Caroline and Sam in Greenville. The three of use rode to Pawley's Island, South Carolina to meet Tricia and Ellen (all of the previously mentioned are best friends from school). We waited for the ok, and then went to the beach condo where Lee's family and Katie's family were staying. Lee took Katie to the beach and asked her to marry him. She said yes, after dropping to her knees too (see facebook album for a complete retelling of the story). After the proposal, they came up to the condo to see us. Katie and Lee both smiled the entire night, and all of the girls and family got to catch up. Everyone was/still is so excited!! 

Lee and Katie: newly engaged!!

Best friends (minus a few) throwing up the Diamond*

The newly engaged and me...so much love!

*I want to go ahead and introduce the term "throwing up the diamond". The diamond is the symbol of Alpha Delta Pi, and its members tend to express membership by making a diamond like in the previous picture. That's all!

Ok, so caught up with high school friends and the college gals, now on to packing. Here's the deal: I'm allowed to check TWO suitcases (under 50 pounds) and carry on one plus a "personal item". Well how am I suppose to fit my life into two maybe three suitcases? My life (or all that is coming with me, at least):

Lots 'o stuff!

After an hour of agonizing over this mess:

  

Two suitcases with all that stuff in them. Success! ehh, not quite yet. See that big one? Well I'm pretty certain it weighs over 50 pounds. I put it on the Hello Kitty scale, but the whole thing didn't even fit and already weighed 45 lbs. What am I going to do??? I'll tackle that tomorrow. I have exactly one week from today to figure out this predicament. Until then...