Update on things... Finally!

OK, I have definitely failed with keeping up on my blog. However, I plan to be better about it because I have internet access now on a consistent basis. J

So here’s the deal. Life has been in a consistent state of upheaval for the last few months. Finally it has settled and I can tell you about it. Firstly, Mike and I moved into a new apartment back in May. We stopped having internet because it was a bill we just didn’t need. Anyone else freshly out of college will tell you a similar story. Student debt looms in the distance, and you find yourself asking yourself if you REALLY need to spend 6 hours a day on Facebook stalking your old friends and exes. (Though, I do feel that if you are still friends on Facebook with your exes, it isn’t exactly stalking. More like checking up on them to make sure they are alright – and that you are doing better. Don’t hate. You’ve all done it.)

Anyway, Mike and I moved to middle-of-nowhere Lincoln and were without internet. When we did want internet, we went to the library or NuVibe, an awesome little smoothie place with free Wifi near our new place. (Why I didn’t update my blog when we were at NuVibe? Because I wanted to allocate my internet time to Facebook stalking. Duh.)

In the meantime, things with Mike’s job took a turn for the worse. Let’s just say he’s very happy to be away from that place now… Around that same time, I got a call from the University of Oklahoma. Now, before you Nebraskans scream blasphemy, let me remind you that we had since switched conferences. I did a quick little phone interview with someone from the admissions department, and before I knew it, I was accepted there. At first, I didn’t quite know what to think. No offense to Oklahoma or anything, but I’d never really thought about living there. Ever. Ya see, Mike and I are more like polar bears than scorpions. More snow, less desert wasteland. Oklahoma is a little farther south than I’d planned on going. Yet, the timing of it all had me thinking that maybe I was supposed to go there. Call it divine intervention, a weird coincidence, or sheer dumb luck. Mike decided his place of employment was no longer for him, and we decided to pick up and move to Oklahoma.

For those of you a bit unfamiliar with U.S. geography (and really, who isn’t?) that’s a six or seven hour drive from Lincoln, to a state neither one of us ever really considered living in (remember: polar bears, scorpions.) Call us crazy, because we were. Our families were more than willing to help us and support us, which was by far the biggest blessing of all.  Mike’s family even made the trek with us and helped us move our stuff up to the third floor. I’m pretty sure Mike’s brother did about 95 percent of the work, actually. But, hey… I helped carry a loveseat. I feel like that counts for something.

Anyway, here we are! Living the dream (or a slightly more economically savvy dream) in Oklahoma City. We’re actually in a small suburb outside of the city, but downtown OKC, which is what all the cool kids call it, is only about 20 minutes away. 

I drive each day to the campus Norman, which is roughly 45 minutes from our home. The people here do not know how to drive. But that’s a different post for a different day.

I love school so far. It’s been the typical awkwardness for the first two weeks. And surprisingly it’s a lot like high school. Seriously, bells, lockers, lunchtime. It’s crazy. But again, that’s a different post for a different day.

 
One more thing about Oklahoma… they have armadillos here. How awesome is that?

More to come eventually!

-Allyson 

Inspiration Board.

So, some people may know that I'm planning a wedding.

What some people may not know is that wedding planning WILL DRIVE YOU CRAZY.

There are so many options, so many things to choose from.

It is with this in mind that many brides-to-be create what's called an "inspiration board". Basically, it's a compilation of all photos that they are trying to create a look from. Like... let's say you are planning a wedding with a theme of black and pink. You may create an i-board (yes, there is a catchy shorthand name for these things) using pink flowers, pink decorations, etc. You get the idea.

That being said... I have been thinking of how to do my hair for my wedding. And, thanks to the recent 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York, I have found my answers. So here, my friends, is my wedding hairstyle i-board. Enjoy.

A simple, yet bold look. Takes little effort, but looks like a million bucks. 

 

 

Obviously a more formal up-do.

A playful look.

Simple, innocent, elegant.

I think the importance of this look is how well it adapts to any change of pace.

Similar to the previous look, but with a little more flair.

But finally... This look takes the cake. 

Who could resist it? 

:-)

All joking aside, wedding planning is going pretty well. I'll try to keep my sappy wedding-ness to a minimum, but I can't make any promises.

Blog fail.

Well, obviously I have not kept up on my idea of blogging each week. However, my next goal is to blog more than once a month. I am currently working on a wedding blog (yay!) and everything has settled down here. I will update as soon as I get a chance again!


-Allyson

I used to want to be...

...a city bus driver. Laugh, if you must, but it's the truth. I think it was inspired by the "Wheels on the Bus" song. I mean, come on. Who wouldn't want to make the doors go open and shut, open and shut, open and shut? Especially when the wipers go swish, swish, swish, and the money on the bus goes clink, clink, clink? However, upon realizing that I may eventually get tired of the babies going, "Wah, wah, wah" and the mommies saying, "Shush, shush, shush" all through the town, I changed career paths. 

Next, it was on to paleontology. That's right. I was, and still am, a dino-lover. At the ripe age of five, I knew pretty much everything there was to know about the Mesozoic era and the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods within it. I knew about Apatosaurus (also known as Brontosaurus) and Brachiosaurus, which are both sauropods. That's a fancy way of saying they all have long necks and are REALLY big. As some of my dearest friends know, I am still a fanatic. (By the way, my sincere apologies go out to them for being around me and having to listen to me when I have recently watched a Discovery Channel special on any new findings related to the Dinos.) Yet, my career choice was not to be digging in the dirt, but under the sea.

Yes, I had decided to become a marine biologist. In the sixth grade, I even made my own business card in a technology class. It was blue, had a porpoise graphic, and said "Dr. Allyson Felt, Marine Biologist" in wavy font. I'm pretty sure my dad still has one hanging from his fridge. Embarrassing. Yet, I set my mind to my chosen career and began working at the Henry Doorly Zoo...in the gift shop. Not exactly diving with the sharks, but I just KNEW that somehow, my time there would be useful in my life quest to work with marine mammals. I plastered dolphins and whales onto everything I owned, watched Animal Planet obsessively whenever I could, and did almost every school science paper on something related to the anatomy of coral reefs, or the differences between a sea lion and a seal. Let me tell you... Elephant seals are some crazy creatures.

With as much time and effort as I put into that career choice (including putting some hours in at various science camps) in the middle of high school, I had a change of heart. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I loved acting. I participated in several community-theater group plays, with leading roles. Albeit, these roles were not exactly Broadway level performances, but they got me some great practice. And I had always loved acting. I'd done school plays, and even did work on a children's show as an extra once. That being said, the show never finished production, but I also chalked that up to good practice. Then my junior year of high school, I attended a women's convention and one of the speakers was a reporter/anchor for an Omaha news station. Then I knew. I wanted to be a reporter. Look out, Diane Sawyer, here I come.

Conveniently, I attended a Red Letter day at UNL (which means a day for you to go visit the university, look around, and see some of the colleges). I looked at Criminal Justice (mostly because of the show CSI, no joke) and Journalism. I fell in love with the J-School, as they so affectionately called it, and resigned myself to becoming a world correspondent for Dateline. I wanted to travel the world, reporting news from the far reaches of the globe. I wanted to be independent, never settle down, and essentially roam the planet in search of the next story.

And three and a half years later, here I sit, recently graduated, recently engaged, recently accepted to... law school?  And though law school is a far cry from city bus driver, I can't imagine my life going any other direction right now. Isn't it weird how that happens? I bet if everyone took a second to look back at their life, they are definitely not on the same path they set out on five, ten, or fifteen years ago.Which leads me to my next question... what could possibly happen in the next five, ten, or fifteen years that I am not expecting?

It's kind of exciting when you stop and think about it.

I guess this post kind of goes along with the last one. In order to look ahead, you have to look back and see how you have ended up at this point in life. Where has life taken you? Where will it lead you next?

I have just one thing to say to those questions:

Come on, life. Show me what you've got.


Allyson

A new start...

Hello, everyone!

This blog will be my lame attempt at one of many New Year's resolutions. I will attempt to post as much as possible, but let's face it, life can get in the way sometimes, so my goal is once a week. So to start things off right, taking a look at the future usually involves a stereotypical glance at the past. Here's mine...


The year 2010 brought me more things than I can possibly remember. It seems like just yesterday, Mike and I were ringing in the new year with our (very) recently married friends, Evan and Lindsey. Yet, here we sit, a year older and (sort of) wiser. Little did I know as we sat drinking leftover champagne, eating crackers with cheese while watching the South Park marathon, and watching Ryan Seacrest attempt to do Dick Clark justice that 2010 would hold so many more changes that I ever imagined possible. Even as I sit here and think back for a few moments, it's hard to remember everything that has happened.


I guess I'll start with school. In 2010, I took a total of 36 hours, including 6 this summer. One was Star City News, which was my debut into television. During the five week session,  I was the first ever female sports reporter, along with reporting the weather and news, anchoring, and producing. It was an amazing experience.

First time doing weather.

With two of the other students after going live for weather.

Another major thing was that I finished up my term on the College of Journalism Student Advisory Board as treasurer.  We had our first ever "First Fridays" event at the Apothecary, where we showcased student work for the public. It was a pretty good turn-out, and we made a lot of cookies. :)

Silly photo for the SAB door.

Final meeting of 2009-2010 SAB.

Another big thing when it came to school was my final two semesters as an active member of Alpha Xi Delta. Those girls have made a bigger impact on my life than I could have dreamed when I joined over 3 years ago. I finished up my time there as Chapter Life Vice President. We had a really strong recruitment and I'm excited to see where the house is going next year.

The 2010 Executive Board

The Seniors

Outside of school, I held three amazing jobs. One was for the College of Journalism as a production manager. The next was with Li-Cor Biosciences doing marketing research and creating promotional materials. One of my projects was to assist in creating a promotional video to be played at conventions around the world. It's a little cheesy, but it was super fun to work on. After Li-Cor, I began working as a runner for a law firm in Lincoln. I am still there and am very excited about it.

Many of the biggest changes of 2010 happened all within the last few months. I took my LSAT in the summer and decided to apply to various law schools around the country. I had been waiting to hear back from my schools, until finally, during finals week, I received a call from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law. I had been accepted! Two days later, I walked across the stage at the Bob Devaney Sports Center to receive my diploma.

With the diploma... It's official!

But the biggest and most life-changing event of all happened on October 2, 2010, at approximately 2:00 p.m. mountain time. My boyfriend Mike and I were visiting Denver to celebrate our two-year anniversary and to visit a few law schools. We took a few hours of relaxation by driving up Mount Evans. We ended up at a beautiful place called Summit Lake.

We walked over to a rock to be away from people for a little bit. Mike began to tell me how he'd been thinking about our relationship and how much I meant to him. He pulled a small, brown box out of his pocket, knelt down, and asked me to marry him. It was the most perfect proposal I could have hoped for. I, of course, said yes.

First picture as an engaged couple

My gorgeous ring

When I stop and think about it, 2010 will be pretty hard to beat. I was blessed with so many happy times with my family and friends. I am so grateful for everyone that I have in my life and I know that with them in my life, 2011 will be just as good or better.

So, here's to you, 2010. You will never be forgotten.



Allyson