Sunday, February 28, 2010

Yee-ha, it's the Boilermaker Ball!

Friday night was the 3rd annual Boilermaker Ball. As a member of PASE BoD, I had duties to fulfill at the event. The primary duty of all of us BoD members was to be a bid runner during the silent auction. Sounds easy, NOT! Not when you have two tables to cover, bidding on 12 items and then winning 9. They didn't call us bid 'runners' for nothing, that's for sure.

Of course I was doing this in boots, chaps, horse show shirt and a cowboy hat. Sounds strange, I know, especially when the room is filled with Purdue University Trustee Board members, past Purdue Presidents and several other high-rollers who are big-time donors to Purdue Alumni. But, this year's theme was "Get on your boots," which allowed for the outfit.



My friend Jenna and I were two of the three 'wranglers' they had for the evening where were basically told to mingle among the guest, make sure they knew what was going on and then 'herd' them to their dinner tables when it was time to serve. While there were quite a lot of people there that got into the western theme, it was still a very formal, black-tie event at the Indianapolis Ballroom. So wearing the hat and all felt kind of weird, especially walking through the hotel to get to the ballroom, but actually, there were a lot of people who loved our outfits.

Jenna and I got to hang around Purdue Pete and help with the pictures too, which is always fun. Pete is a very flirtatious fella, but looked good in his formal attire. There are some recent pictures on facebook if you want to check them out :)

All in all, it was a successful evening and I got to network with some individuals that I'll be looking at applying to for a job when I graduate and the President of the Board of Trustees remembered me from the Mortar Board Leadership Conference. I was pretty excited about that :)

Hail Purdue!
Britt

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Genesis in Today's Terms

I'm the student leader for Disciple Bible Study at the Wesley Foundation. This is a huge commitment, with daily Bible readings, a weekly planning meeting and then a 2-hour class once a week! But I'm really enjoying it!

This past week was a lot of reading as we covered pretty much the last 2/3 of Genesis. While reading all the 'familiar' stories of Abraham, Issac, Jacob and his sons, including Joseph, I found myself picking out some little tid-bits that I didn't know before. So it was good to actually read them all the way through for myself instead of relying on those children book versions for all my factual and intellectual insight to those stories :)

Anyways, we got to do a little monologue about a character and let's just say things got interesting. I was Leah's servant, who had like 2 or 3 of Jabob's sons herself. Obviously, a sports theme found its way out of us as we were keeping 'score' of this baby race. But the funniest quote of the night came when Leah came back into the baby race for herself after having Jacob's first 4 sons, she then had his 9th and 10th. So then one of the students said, "Leah pulled a Brett Farve and had Issachar and Zubulan!" Needless to say, we laughed, a lot!

This is a great class and I love, love, love all of the people in the class as we grow together through the B-I-B-L-E! :)

Oh- random, but props to the female Canadian figure skater who skated beautifully after suddenly loosing her mother a few days ago.

Night y'all!
Britt

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Technology

I am now the proud owner of a new phone (well, reasonably new) and a new computer. I should get one of those 'house divided' vanity license plates and put it on my car as I am now a PC and Mac owner. Really, I see them all as just computers. I think my brother is more excited about my new computer than I am. Now the reasoning behind this investment: my HP had to be wiped for its third time during its lifetime, so it was just becoming slightly undependable, and my brother is my first go-to computer help guy and he's in love with Macs as in watches 'how to' videos for fun about Macs- dork, nerd, whatever you wanna call him. So I figured I'd get over the 'Mac learning curve,' with just a little practice and hopefully end up with a more reliable machine in the long run :)

As far as the phone goes, I got the Samsung Rogue and I really like it so far. I wanted to make the step-up to a Droid or a Blackberry, but the data package on those phones are just too much and kinda silly. But I can check my email on my phone which is awesome and I love the full keyboard :)

So ya, I think it's cool and all to have new toys, especially in a society that gets crazy excited about the new iPod or iPad and all. But, they are all really just pieces of plastic, metal and glass on the inside.

With all of that - my name is Britt and I'm a Mac and a PC.

Friday, February 5, 2010

To Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad,
So recently I've been homesick. Funny, right, I know but true. I think it might be that I'm finally so close, but yet I still have to get in my car and drive 2 hours (average depending on which way I want to go), to get home. Also, being back at Purdue, I'm under a lot more pressure and stress with the load of school work and extra-circulars I've got going. One would think that I would be more stressed out in a foreign country about school, but wrong again because I let myself embrace one of the major 'must-does' while studying abroad, and that is to allow yourself the opportunity to learn as much as you can outside of the classroom about the culture that you are in. Being back at Purdue, it is natural that this stress has come around, but it makes me think of how nice it is to go home as that typically means laying on the couch and watching tv with you guys and snuggling up in my bed with my dogs and attempting to sleep in.

Between being homesick and my recent speech assignment in my speech class, I have come to realize yet again how awesome you two are! My entertainment speech topic was giving a toast to both at you at your upcoming 35th wedding anniversary. The point of an entertainment speech is to be light-hearted and funny, but still get a sentimental point across to leave your audience with that warm-fuzzy feeling inside. A majority of the class gave wedding toasts and there were a few award presentations/ acceptances, but I couldn't think of a better topic than to toast to the two of you.

My speech talked about how unlikely it seemed on the surface the two of you were for each other, pointing out your differences but exemplified you as always keeping Christ in the center of their marriage, and being an awesome model to both my brother and me. The stories came out about dad taking mom to White Castle, football games and other 'classy' fast-food places on your first few dates. How dad blew the straw-wrappers at my mom, (yay for teenage-flirting tactics being pulled off by young professionals!), also came out. But somehow dad won you over mom, and needless to say, I'm glad he did.

35 years is a long time! I mean, you guys were married in the middle of the 70's! My closest connection to that decade is from watching Austin Powers. I know that you two have had your rough times like when dad attempted to put ketchup on your eggs mom. The divorce papers just about came out after that one, just kidding, but thank you for working through those rough spots and for embracing the good times and for just being awesome parents! I rarely heard the word 'no,' as you encouraged me in almost all of my endeavors, so when I did hear 'no,' I knew it was for a good reason. You made my childhood dream come true of becoming involved with horses and as I hope to have a career within that industry, I can not thank you enough for fostering that love and passion from an early age. And dad, I know it seems I'm picking on you a lot in all of this, but thanks for all of the hours in the saddle you've put in with me. Horses are very different than cows you had growing up and not too many men would dive into the world of horses the way you did, and I know it was out of love for me.

So again, here's to you mom and dad- I love you both with all of my heart and honestly can not imagine my life without the two of you :) Muah, and I hope this snowstorm doesn't keep me from coming home this weekend.

Love always,
Maddy