A Toast to Greek Life

I  never planned to join a sorority. Besides thinking that  the hoodies with the stitched letters looked really cool, nothing else about it ever appealed to me. I haven't ever been a big partier or drinker, and I wasn't really the kind of girl who had a lot of girl friends. Sorority life was the LAST thing I thought I'd ever be a part of.

As it turned out, Greek life had other plans for me.

FALL 2008

Keeping this bit brief, I was unhappy my first year of college. I was homesick and lonely, and was feeling down about not having the love and Golden Ram Spirit I was seeing around me. I went so far as to begin applying to other schools closer to home before one of the few friends I actually had made asked me to just "come meet her friends."

"Now Jess," I began. "You know I'm planning to not come next year." I saw through this trick. She was trying to recruit me.
"I know, no commitment. Just come out and meet them." She was happy and had friends. I was envious of that. I went.

I remember that night as being one of the first times I was really happy in West Chester. These were my people.

FALL 2012

Nowhere in that room were the stereotypical mean girls from movies. I didn't see one single woman that I couldn't connect with in some way. I immediately knew that if these women would have me in their bond, I wouldn't be leaving West Chester. It was, as they say, love at first sight.

I spent the next three years as a proud sister of a chapter that certainly had some failings. We had low numbers, and occasionally some poor attitudes, but despite any other problems we ever came across, sisterhood was never a problem. We always truly loved each other- and I still love my sisters.

I had the honor of serving as the Membership Director- planning recruitment- and also as the Vice President. I was blessed with two amazing littles who have in turn given me a remarkable lineage of little-littles, littles to the third, and even to the fourth. I have memories of formals and date parties, of Greek weeks and homecomings, and so, so much fun with such an amazing group of women.

My two fantastic littles

And now, two years after becoming an alumnae of a group I love so strongly, I am still finding myself so proud of them. When I pledged Phi Mu, my chapter was sitting at about 25 women- a huge jump from the EIGHT only three years prior. During my tenure, we fluctuated between 18-30, never quite managing to reach the number goals set. While we were successful in other ways, this was out downfall.

FALL 2010 Bid Day versus SPRING 2013 Bid Day

As of the most recent bid day this past weekend, my wonderful, yet tiny chapter is now 85 women strong. I am still in a state of awe, after seeing a group shot. More women than I ever thought I would see wearing my letters, at my school.

I will forever bleed rose and white, living by my oath of love, honor& truth, and thanking my founders for what they have given me.

Congratulations, Phi Lambda!

[23/28]

Some things I've done lately

So, I just did pretty much the coolest thing ever- I made a handwriting out of my own font!. I can see it as I type, but unfortunately, you don't have it installed so you can't :( However, it will be my signature so you can see it there! It was so freaking easy too- just go to myscriptfont.com and print out the template, and then fill it out, reupload and install the font. Probably took me 15 minutes tops. I wish I would have had this two months ago, definitely would have made all of my thank you notes after my wedding and all that sooo much easier. Especially since I printed them all out anyway. Or addressing invitations! Damn, I'm so upset about not having this pre-wedding. But at least I have it now. Oh- and if you plan to do this, find a character you won't use (I picked a bracket, since I figured I wouldn't need brackets AND parenthesis) and make it something cute. My brackets - { & } are a heart and a smiley face! So, yeah, the heart in the signature is my handwriting too! Also, my ampersand, @ symbol, etc, are all unique too. You should totes do this! 

Another thing I did lately was this: My husband gets these protein supplements and stuff like that, and they all come in these cute red bottles, which happened to match my red and chrome kitchen pretty well.. Since I needed something to put sugar and flour in, I started saving his empty ones, printed some labels on sticker paper and voila! There's also a smaller size for baking soda, baking powder & whatnot, and a bigger huge size that I'm thinking I might turn into a cookie jar.  I'm pretty proud of these, especially because husband already had sticker paper from something he did, so this was free! 

Lastly, I did this for my fridge- It's just some cute stationary (from my sorority) inside of a picture frame with some magnets hot glued to the back. Instant dry erase board! Literally could not be easier. This would be cute with lined paper for a teacher, or blank sheet music for a musician- endless possibilities :) If I was still a collegiate sorority member, I'd definitely go to the dollar store and grab a whole bunch of cheap cute frames to put these in bid day bags. Maybe I'll make a couple for the the chapter I've started working wit as an advisor? hmmm. 

Well, now that this is apparently a craft dump post, here's what's next: I have an almost empty jar candle from a Bath & Body Works sale that I'm going to turn into a makeup brush holder, and I also need to come up with some way to display all of the birthdays in my family. Just being married and all that, I instantly gained like, 15 more birthdays I need to be responsible for remembering, what with my husband being one of FIVE and all of that. So yeah, those are my next projects. Feels good to be crafty again, for sure. 

omg it's so cuteeeeeee! (seriously, do this!)

Things That Are Good

There isn't too much really going on in my life to blog about, but I'm determined to keep up with this. So, in an attempt to blog with nothing to blog about: things that I'm pretty happy about right now.

1. Camp Rock is on tv and Chris is watching it with me. He isn't happy about it, but he's doing it.
2. I'm going to meet some of the Charleston Alumnae Chapter tomorrow. I miss being an active Phi Mu so badly, and that's not just from the move, but since I've graduate college, and it's time to make a change. I emailed the local alum chapter last week, and they're having a monthly business meeting tomorrow, so I'm going. One of the sisters emailed me today that the local collegiate chapter has some openings on their advisory council, so I might get involved with that, depending on how tomorrow goes.
3. Starbucks isn't terrible. The people are pretty nice, and most of the customers have the southern politeness that people in Malvern didn't, so that makes the job less awful. Plus, I'm only working part time, so there's that.
4. I'm 61 books into my 100 book challenge. Looks like I'll be exceeding my goal again this year. I'll probably end up hitting 120-130 if I keep on the way I'm going. I'm currently reading Fahrenheit 451 because it's the Nerdfighter Summer Book Club book, and so far I'm liking it. I love dystopian novels so much.
5. Did I mention Camp Rock is on?


The only thing currently stressing me out is that I left my car at a shop today to get the air checked out, and they haven't called me back? If I were home this wouldn't be an issue because I'd know who had my car, but I just randomly picked a garage close to me instead of a place my family has used for years, and I'm a little nervous. I want my car!

Also- here's a question I have: how does one go about finding blogs to follow/other bloggers?