I went from Pheonix, Arizona all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA.

Photo courtesy of Pinterest.

Didn't think it 'twas ever gonna happen. Then it hit me the other day, driving up the driveway and singing really loud Justin Bieber cool music like Angus and Julia: I miss flying. Traveling. JETSETTING.

Bahhhhh.

What's a girl to do?

Board a Delta flight to da desert, that's what! Today I depart my sultry, South-uhn, heart-blessin' world down here and join 600+ other Alpha Delta Pi's at our 160th Grand Convention! A few very exciting things will happen:

1. Leadership Consultant reunitation. It's been 3 weeks. Which is too long.
2. Voting on welp, just about a whole new Grand Council.
3. Extremely limited sleep/free time for those of us runnin' the joint. Welcome back to LC livin', Ashlyn! Welcome. Back.
4. Seeing all my precious collegians. I CANNOT WAIT TO HUG YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!
5. OD'ing on Lilly Pulitzer, lions and diamonds and violets, oh my.

The Arizona Biltmore. Of course, a sorority function would be at a fancy resort and spa that was loved by Marilyn Monroe and every American pres but Obama (No really. I'm not being political. He hasn't been yet.).

And then 6 consultant seesters will transport their exhausted little Pi-tastic selves to the shining jewelbox of Sin City. To layout like it's our jobs.

Weird. In one week, I'll officially not be a Leadership Consultant for Alpha Delta Pi...

Huh.

Oh well. LET'S GO TO ARIZONA AND SEE WHAT A DESERT LOOKS LIKE! Did you know Auburn won the 2010 National Championship in Arizona? Just wonderin...

So pi-tastic right now.

I JUST want to pet one. Is that too much to ask? Photo courtesy of Pinterest.

Calling all Alpha Delts: Behold, hosting the very first 160th Grand Convention in all of international sorority land 'tis upon us.

Why?
Because we're the oldest sorority in the land.

It sorta comes with the territory.

Anyway, in case you've been living under a woodland-violet-covered rock, a Grand Convention blog has launched to drum up excitement and offer live coverage of the Pheonix festivities. It's pretty adorable.

DISCLAIMER: Let it be said--I am NOT hosting this blog, I'm just guesting. I've had a lot of sweet, excited sisters email/Facebook me about post ideas, which I'm so happy to get! There is contact information on the blog for the sister actually runnin' the show. But I always love to hear from a seester.

And yes, for all of you who have expressed interest in an official Alpha Delta Pi blog, oh girrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll--don't you know my mind's been all over that since August. Just you wait, chica. Just you wait.

Somedays, I want to do this to my dogs:

Nahhhh. Just playin'.

But if I had a cat:

KIDDING again. Roar.

Happy Thursday!

I'll be your Mississippi.

I cannot get any further in this post without freaking out. Because:

WE'RE COLONIZING AT

MISSISSIPPI STATE, BABY!

Ring those cowbells loud--ADPi got it!

Maroon and white, prepare to meet your new friends blue and white.

The phone call from MSU Panhellenic just recently came into the lion's den over here in Atlanta.  Oh, Mississip. I told y'all I was gonna tell you just how sweet they were over at Mississippi State last week, and here 'tis!

Those sweet dawg fans (well, just don't bring up the whole UGA-is-dawgs-too thing to them) positioned this adorable welcome basket to be waitin' on us at the hotel. No worries--I nabbed the koozie. Because, ya know, 54 in the koozie drawer isn't enough...

In other news, they also gave me a cowbell. I think considering I complained about 'em in the spirit of SEC, this m'dears, is called "karma." When my father walked in the other day, I rang it in his face. "Amusing, Ashlyn. I think I've heard enough." Mwhaha. Luh ya, pops.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Anyway, the Panhellenic women and university administrators showcased nothin' but Southern hospitality at its finest. We trekked all over Starkville's pretty campus, drill field, and sorority land--duh.  Phi Mu, Pi Beta Phi, and Kappa Delta swung their house doors open wide to give ADPi the grand tour (ya gotta know what to tell your architect the campus norms when your new srat house gets built). Yes, they do all look like country clubs at State.

Awww, shucks. Thanks, y'all!

After a long day of meetings, we presented (with help from adorable Alpha Dee's from Eta-University of Alabama and Eta Zeta-University of South Mississippi) and I got a big 'ole Montgomery hug from Katherine, a hootie hoo Chi O. We deb ball-ed it together, and Kat's one of those amazing women who emailed me biblical encouragment all year. Dang. Love you, Kat. :)

Oh, and here Kappa Dee bestie Sarah--who knew me from Miss Magnolia before we met. And now we're real-life friends. Nbd. I told her she would be on the blog:

Sarah, me, and Katherine.

It's funny about visits to schools that uh, welp, don't have any ADPi's yet until we make them. Because these Panhellenic girls--who claim different letters--welcome me into their homes and hug me at the end of the day. Gotta love that.

Considerin' we'll be tailgating with y'all starting this fall,

that's pretty good "family" to join.

Blog post title: "Honey Bee" by Blake Shelton.

"I could really use a little more cowbell."

Photo courtesy of Truche, $50.

You know you're a workaholic when you get call from the boss to work on your spring break. Aaand you say yes. In other news and events, everyone knows I'd do anything for the sisterhood of Alpha Dee...

Mississippi State University

Starkville, Miss.

I'm headed to Starkville, bay bay! ADPi is presenting to expand at Mississippi State University, which means I'll be roadtrippin' down country roads next week. Everyone knows I love a good SEC Panhellenic at this point. Glad to hit up one more SEC visit before the year wraps!

But I suwannee, if you people have out those dang cowbells that really should be banned from football games (and ENFORCED as a ban), I'm pulling on my Cam jersey and finding a tree to roll. War eagle, and see y'all in Bulldog Country!

Blog Post Title: That SNL Blue Oyster Cult skit with Will Farrell.

Greater love.

Photo courtesy of Bippity Boppity Boo.

I get to the Austin airport bright and squirrley.

2-hour delay, no big. Normal.

Then "We're gonna turn around and go back to the gate
because this engine shows signs of being faulty."

Touch down in Chicago.

"Ma-am, you've missed your connection. We got you on the next flight out."

In 3 hours.

Which is delayed 2 hours.

Then a bunch of us miss the gate change because they called it out once.

So they put us going into LaGuardia, and me and my new friend-pack
sprint to L6.

Board.

Wait 40 minutes because one of the flight attendants was delayed in Tulsa.

Land around 2:30 a.m.--but in Newark.

Not LaGuardia. i.e. half the plane is outraged.

Really.

(I'd doubt my intellegenece/competency as a human if it weren't for 10 other humans missing the whole "destination city" thing, too.)

I call the girls, and they drive from Newark to LaGaurdia.
So we can drive to Connecticut.

We get in around 4:45 a.m. and I sleep for a couple of hours.
Back to work.
Oh but wait, my luggage has been shipped to another airport.
No one knows where.

I basically looked like a shacker all day.

Miserable.

** American Airlines, I hope you enjoyed the last business you will ever get from this girl raised on Delta. At least they're nice when they're delayed. Which is well, every Delta flight, but still. They'd have put me in a hotel. No one fly American ever.

God, ya sure lot of craziness to happen, and I kept blinking back tears in my sleep-deprived eyes. Thinking "'Be careful not to complain about anything, even the weather, since I am the Author of your circumstances. The best way to handle unwanted situations is to thank Me for them.' Satan, shove it. Just try to steal my joy. Just try."

Western Connecticut State University

Danbury, Conn.

Eta Omicron Chapter

So all this, on my last visit. Of what they say will be the hardest job I'll ever take. And after a day of meetings yesterday, I trudge back to the little dorm room I'm crashing in.

And see this:

This, accompanied with "You're almost done, Ashlyn!"

Dam broken. Flood gates opened. I bawled, literally, in front of the collegians.

Ha.

Oops.

Someone did that. For me. Someone went and printed off two pictures from my Facebook and put them in frames. No wait, not someone--my sisters did that. Joe Schmoe would tell me "I do not know" the girls I meet. I meet them for the first time in my life when I land. I'm usually gone in less than a week, and I may never see some of them again.

But when I tell them they shouldn't have:

"Ashlyn. Come on. 'I live for you.' It's no big deal. We're sisters."

I mean, how can a sorority consultant argue with her sorority's open motto?
Dangit. They got me on that.
So I laugh.

And sometimes cry.

They live for me.

"Greater love has no one that this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends."

John 15:13

I love it when God uses a Greek organization--what some people consider as the antithesis of Christ following--to bless me. Why. Do. We. Ever. Put. You. In. A. Box...

In Me you may have peace.

Photo courtesy of life-love-laughter. Thinkin' about you too, sweet girl.

Yesterday, I was talking to our Virginia Tech chapter's president. Sweet Brittany mentioned Eta Pi is assembling a scrapbook for the 4-16 massacre. In 2007, after the gunman fired his shots, I remember sitting in a white chapter chair down in Birmingham. Our Kappa president broke the news: one of our sisters at Virginia Tech had been shot. What on earth does that feel like for a sisterhood? For a campus? She was alive, but still--we wrote letters to those brave women at Eta Pi. As I'm confident many, many ADPi and NPC chapters did.

Brittany told me yesterday Eta Pi found my letter that I scrawled in 2007. Wow, ha. I remember where I penned that letter: laying out on the roof of Vail dorm (Vail Beach, anyone?) talking to my pledge sister who's boyfriend went to Virginia Tech. I never dreamed I'd actually meet these women or see that campus. God, You are just so cool...

I snapped this in Blacksberg. These are the markers on campus, in hokie stone of course.

Some sorority women only experience one chapter's sisterhood. Some go on to advise and what not, and get to experience a few more. Me? I think I'm up to like, 21 or something.  And you have no clue how being a small speck of an organization that six16-year-olds kicked off in Georgia in 1851 still touches me today.

It was a blessing and joy to meet my Virginia Tech sisters.

I'm thinking about you today.

That Hokie spirit y'all have up there is contagious. Palpable.

I love you.

Panhellenic women, don't forget that your organization is bigger than your chapter. You'll miss the stuff that's important in life.

When the sun is high in that Texas sky.

 Delta Chapter house.

I think my family is concerned I won't come home. I blame my mother though, you see. Mama was born in Fort Worth while my granddaddy was studying at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Then when people asked her what she was going to be when she grew up, she answered she was just gonna "marry a rich rancher from Texas." Ah, TSM, mom. TSM.

Well, she got swept off her feet by daddy (a good-ole-country-boy Alabamian in what he says was then the "cowboy" fraternity at AU) but I really think I was destined to love it out here. That's surely comin' for a girl that themed her first-grade birthday party "feista," right?

University of Texas

Austin, Tex.

Delta Chapter

Delta's that first chapter every ADPi memorizes. It's our oldest, and lemme just tell you: this sisterhood. Man, oh man. Am I lucky to be included for a week or what!

I never expected this year to include presents. Really, I didn't.

For the above, I partially blame the lovely April: she is a blog-reader and--get this--when she read I asked for and didn't get Walk the Line for Christmas, she got it for me. Oh, and they gave me a Delta Chapter Cookbook. And ADPi hairbow. #winning.

President Kelly and I trekked to the state capitol...

The Texas flag is the only state flag that can fly as high as the Stars and Stripes. Because they were once a country. Wow. They would. Cali, do you here this!? Claim your "republic" status! That's close enough!

Love you, GWB. And I'm sorry, did anyone else know that Davy Crockett was a real man?

Guess I wasn't listening in history.

Emily and Lindsay toured me alllll around campus...

 Behold, the tower.

Gates to Texas Memorial Stadium. I asked them if I was allowed to do the "hook 'em horns" thing. They said I was.

Fun fact: I discovered the reason God did not let me tour/attend UT. It is called there is a ballin' nice pool with layout chairs. It looks like a country club. I would have flunked out. Then the Exec girls brought me to Austin classics Kerbey Lane and Mother's Cafe and Garden...

Kerbey Lane. The amount of queso in this town--Oh my dear heavens.

And these people serve and eat it during breakfast hour.  Ka-CHING!

The one only second-year-LC-extrordinaire Jackie Mills drove over from A&M to take me to The Magnolia Cafe for breakfast! Hey Aggie Alpha Delts--YOU MADE MY DAY! I am lovin' my new shirt! Thank you! Jackie said y'all scrounged to find a size L just for me. I'm wearing it with Nike shorts as we speak, duh. 

Me and Jackie. Plus, I've only gotten fussed at once so far for wearing an A&M shirt around the Longhorns.

To finish, after my meetings today, I laid out on the house's stratio tanning next to some of my sisters. Reading Texas Monthly and the The Daily Texan. Good thing I'm not like, obsessed or anything.

Oh ya know, just like, one small WING of this mansion I'm living in. Literally.

This is one very, very small tiny wing. I have my own apartment.

Tomorrow, my sisters are taking me deeper into Austin to explore South Congress, buy my new cowboy boots, and go to Lonestar Jam (ELI YOUNG AND JOSH ABBOTT BANDS--eeek!).

 

Oh, and Mama--Haven't found my rich rancher out here yet,

but I guess I'm still lookin'?

"She get it from her mama..."

 

Blog post title: "Amarillo by Morning" by George Strait. The man who I have and will always have a crush on since the soulful romance of "Check Yes or No" mesmerized me in elementary school.

I think I'll go to Boston.

I just want to be good at photography. That's all. Fenway's blue chairs, the oldest in the MLB.

Ah, Bah-ston. 'Tis won this little heart of mine once, and goshdarnit if it didn't win it again this past week. Aiding in that endeavor were the Rho ADPi's, who are oh-so glamorous and showed me a TIME in Beantown.

Boston University

Boston, Mass.

Rho Chapter

Without further avail, let's hit it. Here's what ruled about Boston:


1. Yoga. I roll outta bed for meeting #1. Where does former chapter pres Sae take me? Back Bay Yoga Studio's Commonwealth Avenue (or, uh, Comm Ave as I learned to say to be cool). Done and done. Sae, you shall be my friend and Rho, I shall call you mine: I love hot yoga.


0.5 I meant to tell you this first: I arrive to the apartment I stayed in and adorable Chelsea and Maggie (pres and VP) present me with this. Diet cokes and SPK's were in the mug. If I could sustain life off those two food groups, I would. Score 2 for Rho.

As if being the cutest roommate pair in the world wasn't welcoming enough...

2. Dining. I gained about 5 lbs. Boston, hence the excessive workouts this week at Drake. Let us commence with everywhere I ate:

Stephanie's On Newbury

(Red Sox eat here. And famous people. ADPi's work her and meet 'em all the time.)

Faneuil Hall's Quincy Market

The Other Side

(Brunch with my sweet senior Alpha Dee's.)

India Quality

Sweet Cupcakes in Harvard Square
(Yes, I went to Harvard-land, and yes, it is a fairytale.)

Veggie Planet

Sunset Grill

JP Licks

Do you comprende me now? I would also like to add that if you are a veg, Bah-ston is très accomodating.

3. FENWAY PARK! I loooove me some baseball. Go Bravos. In celebration of MLB Opening Day, Hilary and I toured the oldest "pahk" in the MLB: Fenway. The Red Sox have been in my heart since 2007 when I first saw Papelbon pitch and I got weak in the knees. But it's the history of the Sox and Fenway that is so captivating to me, from Cy Young to Babe Ruth to Ted Williams... So what if they're havin' a rough "staht" to the season? No but really. They look horrid. Oh well. Fenway was cool.

 

Ta-da! Let us observe the Coca-Cola sign (go Atlanta) and the Hyndai sign towards center field (go Montgomery).

 Hilary. She wants to be Southern. She'd have had me 'bout fooled if it weren't for the fact

that sometimes she says things like "da-tah." Oh, lawdy.

(Translation: "daughter." #longislandproblems)

Wow. Good thing I'm not against posting embarrassing pictures of myself on the internet or anything.

A view from the Green Monster! Beauty.

p.s. For the haters that don't understand that I have one big baseball team and then a but-I-love-them team, I feel I am allowed one AL and one NL team. But really go Braves. Okay? GO BRAVES! I be choppin' all day over here in Massachusetts/Iowa/Ohio. Sue me.

4. Quincy Market at Faneuil Hall. yeah. Um, I think it's historical or something, but really Bev and I just went there because of the 36 international food vendors. Mazel tov, y'all.

Quincy Market.

5. Ronald McDonald House of Boston. RMH is ADPi's national philanthropy, and though I toss out the word flippantly, I really do love RMH. It's so interactive, and you get to actually see the families that we ADPi's raise money for. Some Rho sisters and I headed over to the precious Brookline 'hood to cook up some spaghetti and chocolate-chip cookies. Felt good to be in a kitchen and be in that house, lemme tell ya.

 

The RMH is blue and white. :) Look at my cute collegians waving for the cam.

Between the Southerners and the hospitality majors in the kitch, I'd like to say we did aight.

 

6. Newbury Street. If you have a wallet, do not take it to Newbury Street. Or to "the Pru." Between Lilly, Lululemon, Vineyard Vines, and Saks, I'm on a spending freeze indefinitely for forever. Fantastic. And now saving every penny.

 

Me, Phoenix, and Julie. Everyone wants a good <> pic with the LC.

 

They quickly took me in the phenomenal Boston Public Library. Why? ALPHIE! Roar.

 

7. Museum of Fine Arts. Get me around Picasso, Modigliani, and Mondrien, mixed with some good 'ole 17th century European furniture, and I'm yours. Precious Kenna and Kelsey took me, and we just had to get a pic in front of the wonderous new Chihuly piece. (He has blown glass stuff in the Birmingham Museum of Fine Art, holla. Tis how we met.).

Kenna, me, and Kelsey.

8. Date Party. Well, well. We all know at this point that when the collegians can talk me into a dance flo'. Cue Friday night, and they started calling boys. "He'd look so cute with you! No, no wait--call ___! Ahh! PERFECT!" Lawdy me. So they get me a date and Sarah tosses all their cocktail dresses on my bed. And buddy I jammed that Baseball Tavern dance floor like I would at any band party. Except uh, it's the north, and uh, they don't do the band party thing. But listen: when girls offer you a chance to hang out with Harvard boys in final clubs all night at a tavern tucked under Fenway's shadow? You take that chance.

Clearly, Rho rules and they take dang good care of a Southern girl 1,270 miles from home. Rock and Rho, baby, rock and Rho.

Rocky top, you'll always be home sweet home to me.

But really, war eagle.

I think I left half of my heart sittin' in the smokies.

Can't tell ya how much I bonded with the women of Alpha Kappa this past week--but buddy, Imma try.

University of Tennessee

Knoxville, Tenn.

Alpha Kappa Chapter

Me and Allison. But really, war eagle.

Major shoutout to Allison--the stinkin' adorable Head Gamma Chi--and her bf/IFC President Mason. The current reigning Ashlyn's Favorite Couple took me on a tour of UT's Neyland Stadium. HOLLAAAA. "Ashlyn. I saw on your blog that UF took you to their stadium. I'm determined to out-do them because we don't like the Gators." Collegians: When you take me on such tours, you win infinity cool points. We joined a little tour group and frolicked around Neyland...

Football recruiting, but not Pony Excess-bribery level, of course. But really, war eagle.

Precious. Somethin' about football boys...

"Well, you know it was a tough test for our defensive lines and linebackers..."

Then ADPi pres Marta and Jenny joined us to frolick around campus. Y'all are the best tour guides ever!

Marta, me, Allison, and Jenny. Photo courtesy of Mason and my iPhone.

Then, Mason announces that to give me a total tour of UT, he has made arrangments for me to tour two fraternity houses: Sigma Chi and Phi Gamma Delta. Dear everyone who knows me: I PROMISE I didn't ask to go in the Sigma Chi house. Promise. But that white cross is all too familar... And I needed to be around testosterone for once.

My sweet Marta filled every bit of my schedule with amaze (<--yes, that is an abbrev) activities. Do you Knoxville people know how spectacular your dining is? Tomatohead, Sunspot, Echo, Calhoun's on the River... And to the Auburn friend that took me out to a Cafe 4 brunch and left me a surprise Ryan Bingham album at the dorm front desk, you made my day. Market Square, I ran you ragged.

Market Square, Knoxville. Home to incred restaurants.

I also threw back a little sushi-and-wine at Nama with adorable former LC, Brittany, and with my little Vol Katy at Half Barrel (I'm putting this in bold since you say Katy "only reads stuff on my blog that is in big type"). Luh you both.

Considering my precious Knoxville-born Kappa sister Tara had a friend deliver Cupcakery treats to me my last night at UT, Tennessee felt a lil' bit like home. I love you, T.

Photo courtesy of Cupcakery.

So yeah. Maybe I got Rocky Top stuck in my little brunette head all week. And for once, I'm not singin' it with the altered "go to &%$#, Tennessee" lyrics I belted at band parties (Hey, I get a little fired up about college football). Miss y'all so much, Alpha Kappas. Can't wait for our AU-UT 2010 tailgate.

My girls: Marta, Brooke, me, and Shelby.