thankful

A review of the past couple of weeks showcases some of the things for which I am thankful, including friends, climbing, the weather, hiking, Graduate Christian Fellowship, Passion City Church, Stride Ahead therapeutic riding, horses, work, school, movies, and more.

November 16 I got to go climb outdoors again, this time in Sand Rock, Alabama, at Cherokee Rock Village.  David and Lisa went again as well as Craig, a philosophy PhD student I hadn't seen since the first week Emory's wall was open this semester.  It was chilly and foggy when we got there.  The fog cleared and it warmed up a little bit but stayed overcast the whole day.  I was able to climb routes that felt harder than the last place I had climbed with David and Lisa.

lisa leading a route that wasn't in the guidebooks

view from the rocks

craig leading "popular science"

Wednesday morning was a LONG four hours as all 14 research groups gave status presentations for their projects, with the entire class of 65 required to be present for the whole time.  Our group did well despite having our entire presentation reworked 22 hours earlier by our main adviser.  15 of us then went straight to yoga for another three and a half hours, and a couple of those students also had another three hour class after.  That had to be an incredibly long day - 8 am to 7:15 PM with less than one hour of breaks between class times.  I had wanted that other class as my third elective, this was one day where I was glad I hadn't gotten it!

Thursday we had a fundraiser to raise money to buy supplies for the PT service trip to the Dominican Republic next spring.  I am one of the eight students who have been chosen to go on this trip - I'm really looking forward to providing PT services and training, all in Spanish!  I helped out with the fundraiser after working for PT admissions for an hour (I'm now only answering emails, trying to help Annie, my fellow Graduate Assistant, catch up on hours by letting her do all the other tasks), and then went directly to Spanish class where I had to do a presentation on Costa Rica.  I already thought it would be a cool place to visit, researching it only made it more appealing.  Per my usual busy Thursday, about an hour after Spanish class I worked my shift at the climbing wall and then ran directly over to Graduate Christian Fellowship's Thursday Night Community Group.

holly, lindsay, meg, and angela at the dominican republic trip fundraiser

an interesting and random sight - monk on a bike

Friday night, I joined friends from Graduate Christian Fellowship to climb at Wall Crawlers in Decatur.  It's a great deal - students climb for $6 on Fridays.  Their routes are pretty challenging - harder than similarly rated routes at Emory.  Sunday morning I joined a bunch of other PT students from all three classes to re-certify for CPR.  Monday after class Jodi and I went to Stride Ahead and volunteered with the therapeutic riding lessons - Friday's lessons had been rescheduled to Monday because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

therapeutic riding instructor pam taking sarah the horse through her stretches
(for peppermints!)

Monday's weather was quite chilly, and Tuesday it rained cats and dogs!  I believe we got over 2 inches of rain in a 26 or 28 hour period.  Wednesday morning when I went out, there was a bit of slush on my windshield and on my landlord's umbrella which had blown from their porch into the side of my car.  I have been loving the cool weather and don't mind the rain even though I can get pretty wet walking to school.

hotlanta turned into coldlanta which morphed into wetlanta

and then it actually tried to snow a little overnight!

Thanksgiving day I drove up to Canton in the morning to meet my friend Aubrey from Passion City Church.  I joined Aubrey and her mother Sherry to go to Aubrey's sister Kelly's house outside of Chattanooga, TN.  Kelly's husband Brad smoked a turkey on their grill, and we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving lunch followed by a short walk in the neighborhood to work up an appetite for a plethora of desserts.  We headed back to Georgia in the late afternoon since Sherry had to work early the next morning.

brad was rightfully proud of his first ever smoked turkey

me, kelly, kelly's daughter skyler, mom sherry, and aubrey

Since it was relatively early, I ended up heading over to Katherine's apartment where she had hosted a potluck dinner for Graduate Christian Fellowship students and alumni who were in town for Thanksgiving.

moire, steffi, katherine, jen (and jonathan doing the dishes)

Friday afternoon, Aubrey joined me for a hike at Sweetwater Creek State Park.  The weather was beautiful - sunny, crisp, and clear.  It was crowded for the first half mile or so and thinned out till we were by ourselves at the far end of the loop we took.

aubrey and me and sweetwater creek

Saturday was mainly a lazy day, with some schoolwork accomplished before I took a stroll around the block.  In the evening, Marissa, Katherine, and I went out and saw "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" at Movie Tavern, where movies are only $5 with student ID!

me, katherine, and marissa at movie tavern