The District

WWII Memorial. When you go tourist-ing with one other person,
all your pictures are "honeymoon" style: ridin' solo.

I'm crumbling under peer pressure: I'm updating my blog.

This is the priority order of my dazzling Leadership Consultant lifestyle:

1. Jesus time. i.e. staying human in the midst of all this.

2. Communicating to family/friends. This wards off lonliness even though I'm surrounded by 2-160 human beings at all. times. of. the. day.

3. Work. i.e. The Best Job Ever

4. Sleeping. Cat naps. Zoning out. You get it.

5. Playing outside. Adults call this "running."

6. Football. Pulling the orange section of USA Today first, scheduling meetings around kickoff, inhaling ESPN, purchasing an Auburn Network streaming membership (Don't worry, Mama. I put it on my card.), and scoffing at Yankees/Midwesterners "Oh yah, the Big 12, ya know? We love our football up hyere." Chyeah you do. Just come to my neck of the woods. I'm single-handedly fulfilling every Yankee sorority girl's expectations of a stereotypical Southern belle as I sit on the couch and yell. They're amazed. "Yous guys actually do like football, eh?" Shh. I'm trying to hear the call on that last play..

Playing in some cornfield in Lewisburg, PA with Megan the fellow LC

This is why I loved Bucknell University.

Then, somewhere between 7 and 100 are various and sundry priorities, are these. Priorities included but not limited to:
- Boarding the correct plane
- Maintaining my life, which fits neatly in 3 pieces of Heyes luggage
- Taking day trips to New York City. Or Hershey. Or D.C.
- Crumping with Alpha Dee's in the chapter room (coughBucknellcough)
- Maintaining the coffee IV flow into my body (grandeskinnyvanillalatte, please Starbucks lady.)
- Putting my pro-deer-hunter's-daughter sense of direction to the test (Subway? The woods? Same difference.)
- And sure--blogging.
 

So, sorority snaps to everyone who texted/Twittered/Facebooked/emailed my Gmail account/emailed my ADPi account/Skyped/BBM'd/or called me saying "Ashlyn Stallings. Update that dang blog." You know who you are.

Because TA-DA:  it worked! I decided to use the precious spare time
 to let you know what's up here in crazy LC land.

Let's go.

First of all, I'm now among the fightin', bitin' tarrapinns (newsflash: the mascot's a turtle) of the University of Maryland, which--who knew--lies 9 miles from where the sweet little Obama children rest their heads.  Monday, the darling ADPi chapter president spent her Labor Day to drive me into our Nation's capitol where we joined up with my Samford friend Ashley--I was in hog-heaven.

Ashley and I. Now everyone go eat the guac at D.C.'s Oyamel.

You see, I've never been to Washington D.C. (This is what happens when 9/11 occurs during the same junior high year your class is supposed to go on the traditional D.C. field trip.) Anyway, the second my little green eyes spied the Capitol, my heart stopped. From the Lincoln Memorial to Washington Monument to Korean War Memorial to the museums and everything in between, I was in heaven. Side effects of arguing politics with your Daddy at the dinner table since age 12 and claiming the Fourth (of July, not the ammendment) as your 2nd favorite holiday? You end up bred an all-American girl.

Dear Mr. Elephant, War Eagle.

As I'm weirdly obstinate about creating Facebook albums, here's a photo montage of the day:

Alright. Now I'll be a good little girl and blog like I said I would from now on.

*Blog post title: Name of a sweet band I discovered whilst Pandora-ing Matt Hires.