10 Random Facts!

1. I'm allergic to strawberries.
2. When I was 3 years old, I was dropped ACCIDENTALLY into the manta ray tank at Sea World!
3. I secretly wish my entire life was a huge musical. I will randomly burst into song from other musicals while I am walking down the street.
4. I have never been out of the United States of America.
5. I hate UGGs.
6.I really hate veggies. I dont know. Something about the different textures or something. I just really hate to eat veggies. I will always ask for my food at a restaurant specifically without them...and i will be really upset if they are on the plate!
7. I thought the Addams Family wanted to kill me when I was a kid. I legit thought they lived in my closet until I was 5 years old.
8. I have horrible relationship luck.
9. I teach myself songs on the flute. I try to learn part of one every week.
10. My birthday doesnt mean much to me. As a kid, I was always performing in dance recitals on my birthday so by the time I stopped dancing, i got used to not doing anything special for myself on my birthday. Sad huh?!

Michael Bryant Stanley  &  Diana Kelly

You always find your way back Home

 So my semester has ended and I have three weeks of vaca ahead of me. My father called me a few months back and asked if I wanted to come see him and some other family during break, since I hadn't seen him for a while, I jumped at the offer!


So i headed back to New Hampshire for Christmas vaca this year. I haven't been back to see my family in almost two years. I completely forgot how beautiful this part of the country is. Too bad it snowed like crazy while I was here! I'm staying in North Charlestown...also known as BFE...but it is close to my hometown of Claremont. Now, my hometown is a cute little New England town and it looks like i fell off the set of Gilmore Girls. This time of year, the town square is lit up with Christmas lights and the Opera House's halls are being decked for the Christmas pageant. When i was a child, i used to see these lights every year and they were just something i came to expect. They aren't as grand as I remember as a child but it is still very beautiful. I spent some time walking around this charming little town just looking at what had changed since the last time I had a chance to just meander around. All the shops Id frequented as a kid were gone. Some placed had been replaced with better or worse businesses and some were merely vacant store fronts.

So, my father and i decided to schlepp ourselves 3 hours to East Chatham New York. OMG what a boring drive. And when the weather is definitely not cooperating, it gets even longer. 3000 feet up to the top of Mt Crumpit....well...Mt Bromley actually. Up and over the top of Mt Bromley in the middle of a snow storm was the best slash worst part of the entire trip. I did get some really cool photos of the mountain and the ice forming...which i never see out west.

So I have a friend from my first CP who lives in lower NY state. I had really wanted to see him while I was in NY but unfortunately it didn't work out. My cousin was going to take me to Schenectady and we were going to party with him. Instead, we went to some small ass town in northern Mass. to see her boyfriends band. So we all piled into her tiny ass car and headed to North Adams. I met some great peeps and got some great shots with the bar peeps. So we schlepped back to New Hampshire and that was my great New York adventure.

My sister and I have never been out partying together before, and as of right now I dont know that it will ever happen again. My sister and i went out to the only open bar in the small ass town in Vermont, right across the border from where she lives. It was the worst little hole in the wall Ive every seen. However, they sure know how to charge your credit card like a big city bar! 19.00 plus tip for two beers, a drink, and a shot! Holy expensive drinks batman! Even still, my sister is a pre-school teacher and when she drinks, she treats everyone like they are one of her students. My sister with alcohol in her system, makes me sober up very quickly!

Stay tuned after this commercial break to see how my vacation will end!!!!

Corn Maze!!

On the afternoon of October 18th, the pledges and brothers of the Delta Lambda Phi fraternity took a trip to Center Grove Orchard. We had so much planned. From a trampoline bounce, to a bunch of farm animals to a 4-acre corn maze, there was a hell of a lot of fun ahead of us. We all started off with apple cider. I had never had a frozen apple cider before, it was like an apple cider flavored snow cone. SO GOOD! We all headed out into the yard to be greeted by about 15 free-roaming goats. I know petting zoos are usually a kids event, but when a pen of goats and cute little pigs are oinking up at you, how can you not feel the love. They were all adorable, but none were so sweet as the massive work horses. Two HUGE horses who could not have sweeter. They were very friendly and I must have smelled pretty good because they kept trying to eat my sweatshirt. That, or they must not be Cyclone fans.

After saying goodbye to my new equestrian friends, we headed into the nearest barn to find the corn pool. An area about the size of a four-lane, 25 meter swimming pool was barricaded with hay bails. The enclosed area was filled with about 18 inches of off-the-cob corn! It was an interesting experience. Wading through a pool of corn was much harder than I'd assumed it to be. We decided to race, because what could be more fun than racing through a pool of corn where a person can barely walk without toppling over! After the first race, which I lost by a mile, we decided to up the level of difficulty. Some brilliant person voted we race on our knees, with our hands behind our back. EPIC FAIL!! We all face planted after a few strides! Ha ha. With me face down in the corn, the brothers decided the best course of action was to finish the job, and bury me in corn....I'm still finding colonels of corn in my jeans.

We then headed off to the Jumping Pillow. It is basically one of those blobs that one would find on the water for jumping, except it is bolted to the ground and used as a trampoline of sorts. I hadn't been on a trampoline in many many years and I'd forgotten how much it can take out of a person. It was soo much fun though. We are men between they ages of 18 and 26 and we were all releasing out inner 12 year old. We played "break the egg". One person balls themselves up in the center of the trampoline and everyone else bounces around them until the sprawl open. A lot of fun, but possibly almost dangerous, as I rolled off the edge when it was my turn to be the egg. Ha ha.

We were all pretty tuckered out at this point, so we headed off to the Corn Maze, the main purpose of our visit to Center Grove. After getting only a tad bit lost in the orchard, we made it to the maze just as the sun set beyond the horizon. Good thing we brought flashlights! The corn maze has two purposes, to either just go in and try to find a way out OR to search out and document all 10 of the different wooden animals placed throughout the maze. We were only in the maze for forty minutes, but it felt like hours. Once you get in, you can ind many different ways out but it seemed harder to find your way back to the beginning. My big brother, Ben, and I were only one of two groups to find all 10 animals in the maze before we headed out. *sorry no photos of the maze as if was very dark*

It was so much fun. I can't wait until next fall when I get the chance to go back out there. After all, it is only a 20 minute drive from Ames, so it is a very doable afternoon outing. I highly recommend it to anyone in the area!