Getting back into the groove

I've been busy filling my time with getting back into the groove of my American life and spending as much time as possible at Midnight Oil.

When I wasn't warming my spot on the couch at Midnight Oil in the past few weeks, I was busy buying a car, editing photos, and taking photos.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to photograph Nate and Erin Copeland's week-old baby girl, Kate Copeland. I'm fairly certain that baby photography is now my new favorite kind of portrait photography.



I'm sure after a few more sessions I'd get tired of that too, but hey, I like it right now, so that's all that matters!

My epic return

So, I guess it's about time that I officially reveal the fact that I'm back in The States. I arrived in New York City last Friday (Nov 30) and stayed with some friends until Monday when I took a train down to Philly and stayed with JCliff through Thursday. I made it back to Searcy last night and was biting at the bit to reveal myself, but only managed two surprise visits before it was too late to go knocking on anyone else's door, so the rest had to wait until today.

I've known I was leaving Greece for close to a month now, so the anticipation has been building for quite some time. I was determined to keep it a secret and made a point to only inform those that just had to know (like my mom, who would have started to get suspicious had she believed I was still just hanging out and being a jobless bum in Greece).

A huge element lending to the glory of my epic surprise return was the fact that I was coming back just in time to participate in the annual Christmas tree stealing out of Renee Lewis' office. Dustin Vyers has always been my partner in crime, and the first year (2005) started out as a war of tree snatching between the Student Publications Office and the Student Life Office. I, of course, immediately sold out and stole the Stud Pub's tree, showing my allegiance to Dustin and his cause.

Last year definitely raised the bar, as Dustin had accepted a job at Pepperdine and now lived in California. I connived as always, and stole the tree to send it off to Dustin at Pepperdine, who glady received it and later brought it back in person on a surprise visit to Searcy. During this visit, he and I secretly infiltrated Renee's apartment and stole her home Christmas tree, replacing it with the small one from her office with an attached Polaroid photo of us swiping the tree. Her reaction was priceless, as she had not expected Dustin to be in Searcy.

This year though, oh, this year would be good. I was living in Greece, and as far as anyone knew, wouldn't be coming back for quite some time. Our planning started weeks ahead, and since Dustin now lives in Texas, we had two outside recruits (Corey McEntyre and Nick May) vow their allegiance and scope out the tree situation. This morning was go-time, and as I sat in Corey's office (ironically enough, the Student Life office...he has Dustin's old job) in excited anticipation, plan after plan to lure Renee from her office failed, as she had a deadline to meet and would not leave for anything.

Stumped, and not wanting to stay in hiding much longer, Corey and I called and consulted Dustin, who decided that we should just rush in and grab it in plain sight. Agreeing, Corey pulled out a video camera and we headed out for the mission.

(*side note* As we were attempting to leave the Student Life office unnoticed, my friend Scott Light spotted me and as I started to run he ran after me yelling, "You can't just do that...you can't just come back and not tell anyone!!!!!! You CAN'T!!!" It was hilarious and wonderful and by far the best reaction I've had.)

After we escaped from Scott's scene-causing yells, we retrieved Corey's car and parked it next to the exit closest to Renee's office. Corey led the way, video camera in hand, and stepped into Renee's office. She was slightly confused and just about to inquire as to what he was doing when I dashed in, swiped her tree and high-tailed it out before she'd had a chance to even process what had happened. The rest was a blur, but I vaguely remember hearing her yell, "Wait...what? CHELSEA!?!?!!?!?!" before we busted out the door and hopped into Corey's car for our quick getaway.



This year's tree stealing shenanigans may never be topped.

Cutsie just ain't for me

For the girls' tea the other night, I volunteered to plan something for it, and went with an activity I'd done with my youth group in middle school. It involves paper or books with everyone's name and you pass them around the room for everyone to write something they love about the person in each one. It's slightly cheesy, but it has always been something I loved the idea of because no matter how cheesy it is, it's always uplifting to everyone.

Instead of simply having a piece of paper to write this all on, I dedicated a few hours to making little booklets for the girls...which turned out to be a really simple project that I'll probably use in the future for something else.

Behold...my girly-cutsie booklets...



It went over fairly well, and all the girls seemed to really enjoy participating. It ended up feeling more like a yearbook signing than anything, but hey, if they're happy, I'm happy.

I did get called out by DiMy afterwards about the fact that I'm really uncomfortable and awkward around the girls and completely at ease around the guys. To this day I don't know if I'll ever get over that, but that's just how I am...I just wish I could hide it better!

Free travel is upon us, so the students are emptying out of the Artemis and getting on their way. I'm not jealous one bit...it'll be ridiculously cold.

I suppose that's about all for my update...I hope those of you who are in school are hanging in there through your finals!

Tis the season

I usually get a freddoccino (an awesome cold frothy coffee drink from Everest), but when I walked in the other day and spotted their new Christmas hot cups, I had to opt for a cappuccino instead.

What do you think...best Christmas packaging ever?



The little tidbit on the cup says "Now you can be Santa Clause" or something of that nature. I'm not a fan of it...but I can handle it since it's in Greek.