I am still alive!

Wow, so internet access has been sketchy at best while I am on my trip. It has been freeing to not be attached to my phone all the time, but i have had a total of 15 minutes on the world wide web since I left the US. I am currently at Lake Como with Zach, and we leave tomorrow to go to England for 3 days before returning home. If you are wanting to know how my trip is, I promise--I have been faithfully writing in my damask-covered journal, and will relay the interesting stuff plus photos when I get back! Thanks for being patient. =) Now, Im going to go enjoy my last night in Italy. Sad day. Ciao!

Itinerary Italiano

My Visited Countries

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It's getting really close to the time that Zach and I leave for our European adventure! I'm nearing the finish line with all of my deadlines at work--thank goodness--and almost ready for the trip. Just in case any of you are curious about our time in Europe, I present our tentative itinerary. As expected, it's planned out well in the beginning and the end and the middle has room for the unexpected!!

July 16: Fly out of DFW in the evening

July 17: Arrive in Paris at 9:45 AM. We'll catch a train to Angers, France to go hang out with my host family from my study abroad and we'll stay with them.

July 18: Return to Paris from Angers and hang out around the City of Lights. Zach and I are planning to hit up gorgeous Versailles and I am very excited! We're also going to meet up with some French friends that I met during my study abroad and who came to study at A&M so they are Aggies!

July 19: We'll fly to Rome in the morning and take a train to Naples. After hanging out for a while, we're going to stay in Sorrento, south of Naples.

July 20: We are going to Pompeii and returning to Rome that evening.

July 21: My two brothers arrive in Rome--YAY! We'll explore Rome ont his day.

July 22: Hope to check out the Vatican. We'll travel to Florence for the night.

July 23: Florence, possibly a short trip to Pisa and back.

July 24: Florence, travel to Cinque Terre!

July 25: We'll be chilling in Cinque Terre.

July 26: We'll travel from Cinque Terre to possibly Venice via Milan.

July 27: Venice(hopefully)

July 28: Venice to Milan 

July 29: Milan

July 30: Jonathan and David fly home from Milan. Zach and I will take a train to Lake Como and stay in Varenna,

July 31: Leave Varenna to return to Milan and fly to London. Check out the sights and hang with my friend Stephanie, an Aggie and good friend who used to live in my apartment complex here in DFW.

Aug 1: London

Aug 2: We'll possibly visit Bath with Stephanie.

Aug 3: Fly out of London in the evening to NYC late. Stay in NYC one night.

Aug 4: Zach and I fly out of NYC early in the AM and arrive in Dallas in the morning!

I'll try to post while  we are there, but photos *might* have to wait until I get back!

Batman

Hello! I know I just posted last night, but I'm excited about my topic and I hope you don't mind. :-) 

Let's talk about Batman. I'll admit, I'm not a comic book fan. I liked the Superman logo, but Superman and Spiderman movies are definitely not high on my list of favorite movies. I don't even really like the old Batmans. I guess because they are all kinda fake. But Batman Begins is awesome. It's scary, it's intense, and the plotline is semi-realistic. I know, not totally, but it's a freaking cool movie. One of my top picks actually.

So when I saw the promos for Batman: the Dark Knight, I got really excited! I've been looking forward to it coming out for a long time. And Heath Ledger had always been an actor I liked... I think my friend Carissa and I nominated his voice as one of the top 5 hottest voices in Hollywood when we were in high school. May he rest in peace.

Dark Knight comes out July 18.... which means I will be in France--Paris, to be exact. I don't want to spend any time inside a movie theater when I'm in Europe because I want to enjoy every minute. Not even for Batman. But we fly out on the 16th... so I'll have to wait till August 5th after we get back to see it! That is a very long time!

The point of my post is this... I will love you forever if you have the hookup anywhere in DFW, where Zach and I could see an early screening on Tuesday or Wednesday(during the day) next week. I'm not against a midnight showing with all the people who dressed up. That would be awesome! So if you have any info about this kind of thing, I will be forever indebted. I know they have these screenings... they had them for SATC... and I saw the Matrix at midnight on a Tuesday. Anyway, please let me know if you have heard of any early showings.

THANKS! Have a great day friends!

Show me damask!

Score! I've made some changes to my blog. Music, blogroll, links--I've got it. I am most happy to have discovered a non-12-year-old looking layout in glorious DAMASK! woo woo! I think creating a blog is a lot like decorating an apartment. It can't look awesome right from the getgo. You've got to figure out your style, find the right decorations and *live* in it for a while. I'm still working on what I want this blog to be, so for now it's random and filled with shiny things that catch my eye or enter my mind to talk about.

Case in point: I dearly love Google, which I will probably write about in a later post because I really don't know what I'd do without it. I love to google everything. Tonight, in between transcribing hours of interviews from the World Show and booking lodging in Italy, I found some interesting information about my new favorite pattern. Check it out y'all: trivia about damask

You can also find DOWNLOADABLE damask wallpapers. I might start using one of those so i can have a less blinding background. We'll see.

Cliffnotes of the good stuff, in case you don't feel like learning too much:

-a type of intricate tapestry

-originated in places like China, India, Persia and Syria

-Got its name from the city of Damascus, because they made the best silks in this pattern in the 12th century

-Was popular in France during the period of Louis XVI.

-Also popular in Italy and Spain back in the day(dunno when, but I'm guessing the same time as in France!)

-Most popular design includes symmetrical stripes and pomegranate(a fruit I'm digging these days.)

So there you have it folks! Damask in a nutshell. Don't ask me why I like it, but I tend to go through phases. Like that time when I was 12 and had to have holographic everything: shoes, belts, purses.... at least this is a phase that doesn't involve hot topic. :-)

A few of my favorite things!

Hello all! APHA is nearing the end of the World Show, and I have a few minutes to spare to post! Happy 4th of July!

I learned that if you are viewing this blog from http://throughabbyslens.blogspot.com you can click on any photo and it will expand. Yay! It's way complicated to make the photos any larger, so just click on the photos if you want a closer look.

I've decided to expound on a few of my favorite things in life-- illustrated by photos, of course. :-)

In no particular order, because I haven't learned how to upload in the order I want, I give you:

Reading

I love to read a lot. Barnes and Noble is a wonderful place to buy books or just peruse. I could never work there because I would spend all my time reading rather than working!

Wine

The older I get, the more I have come to enjoy viticulture. I'm no expert, but it sure is fun to explore the taste buds! Apparently my cat Alfred also enjoys wine. More about that cat later.

Coffee

I love coffee more than any other liquid. :-) No other drink makes me happier!

International culture
I've visited Israel, England and France. Unfortunately, all of my photos from those trips are film, so I have none online. I borrowed this photo from www.seoglobalwarming.com, but i really just searched for it on Google. I'm going to France, Italy and England July 16-August 4 and you better believe I am bringing my digital cameras!! I'll post photos here so stay tuned!

Sunrises and sunsets

There is something about sunrises and sunsets that speaks to my soul. I took this photo after returning from working out right outside my apartment with a point-and-shoot.

Bubble baths

Ok, so I'm not scandalous enough to post an actual bubble bath pic of me, but here are my cats inside my giant garden tub. Taking bubble baths really is one of my favorite things.

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M gave me the absolute best college experience I could have asked for. I have a million pics, but this one I took at my brother Jonathan's Final Review spring 2008. I'm class of 2006 whoop!

Zach

Zach is the looove of my life and my best friend. We've been dating since Feb 2007, but we met seven years ago at a homeschooling bookfair and just kept in touch until I moved to DFW after I graduated college.

Live country music

This photo was taken with my point and shoot at a Gary Allan concert at DFW Mardis Gras 2007. I really love live music, especially if it's Texas Country. These types of events are just so chill and fun to attend. Related to that, another favorite thing of mine is...

Dancing

I love love love to country dance. Maybe it was my years at A&M, but give me some Aaron Watson and I'll be dancin' all night long! Shown here is my favorite haunt from college: the Texas Hall of Fame.

Horses

I know I've already written about how much I love my horse, but horses really are one of my great loves. Here's another photo of my Quarter Horse Willy.

Pierre

Pierre is my cat I got from a co-worker last August. He's a little over a year old and a TOOT.

Alfred

I've had my precious cat Alfred for three years. He's been all over Texas with me. Currently, little Pierre likes to bully him, but he's still the perfect British gentleman.

Nutella
Nutella is the greatest food you could ever consume. The end. It's like peanut butter, only with chocolate and hazelnuts. This European delight goes great with crepes, bananas, strawberries, toast, Ritz crackers, spoons, whatev. 

Shoes

I planned to do this awesome, artsy photo of all my shoes. Yeah... I changed my mind. I really love shoes. Any of you who know me, know this. Here is a peek at my closet with some of my shoes. Mom, please note that I threw a lot of them up there so they would be all in one place. This is not what it looks like alll the time..... :-)

Texas

I'm proud of my state! I've forgotten where I got this illustration. I think it was wikitravel.com

My job
I work at the American Paint Horse Association for the Paint Horse Journal.

I write and take photos. It is totally my dream job. :-)

Sunsets

This was taken in Amarillo. If anyone knows how to move photos around while creating posts, PLEASE let me know. Sigh.

Damask

I am totally crushing on the damask pattern these days. So far my love affair has translated into notebooks and a swimsuit, but I hope to buy this

when I get back from Europe. I REALLY want to have a damask background for this blog, so if you know where i can find one for blogger blogs, let me know! :-)

This concludes a way long post. Thank you for reading!