Pucker Up

"She was flexing all the muscles in her cheeks." -Andrew describes Mom's face as Dad drove the Wrangler up one of St. John's steepest hills (she was not a happy camper).
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Can't Compete

"There were plenty of hunnies but they were all around Kenny for some reason, instead of me." -Jackson fails at picking up girls in the same bar as Kenny Chesney. Go figure.
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Belly Up

Jack: The drinking age in St. John is 18. It's going to be hammer time. I'm going to drink a mojito.

Whitney: Do you even know what a mojito is?

Jack: No.

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Creepy

"It makes me want to be a vampire." -Steph enthusiastically describes her obsession with the Twilight series.

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Skimpy

"I'm saving room in my suitcase. Instead of a real swim suit, I'm packing a speedo." -Jackson prepares for our trip to St. John.

Leaving today, back in a week. Don't be jealous ;)
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Love in the Mirror Aisle?!

"You have a man waiting for you at Lowe's." -the creepy Lowe's employee who told me I was smart and beautiful (I was wearing gross running clothes) and then decided we were going to be best friends (or more). Yuck.
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Merry Christmas

"Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends." -Margaret Thatcher

*photo = the girls (cousins) on Christmas Eve.

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Santa Clause Is Coming To Town

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What Lies Beneath

Stolen from Justin's blog ... too funny to pass up!
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East Coast

"Up men to your posts! Don't forget today that you are from old Virginia." -George Pickett

Headed back to the Old Dominion this afternoon...

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Modesty...

"Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it." -Oliver Herford
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Thomas Jefferson

Whitney: He's my other true love.

Matt: Well, I'm glad he's dead.

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A Toddler's Trauma

“A burn accident does not just inspire a relationship between a doctor and a patient. You really have to involve a multidisciplinary team from the get go. There are a lot of people who are going to have stakes in how a patient is cared for.” -Dr. James Kraatz, director of the George David Peak Memorial Burn Center at the University of Missouri Hospital. Read my story about a two year-old burn survivor here.
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Lawn Care

"I want a turf yard, or something." -Aaron's future plans don't include mowing the grass.
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Cold Day

"O wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?" -Percy Shelley
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If These Walls Could Talk...

"Peace, love and happiness for all who enter here." -painted on the wall of a house in Spokane (scene of Saturday night's shenanigans post XC Nationals).

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Horse of a Different Color

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XC Nationals

"It was fun in a weird, twisted, I hate my life sort of way." -Billy's reflection on yesterday's race.

Don't think I have ever been so cold in my life.
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Cooling Off

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West Coast

"Washington is nicknamed the 'Evergreen State' because it sounds better than 'The Incessant Nagging Drizzle State.'" -Dave Barry.  

Off to Spokane for the weekend to compete in the National Cross Country Championships with the Columbia Track Club.  Supposed to be cold and snowy. Yikes.

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Writing

"The whole process - sitting at your desk, focusing your mind like a laser beam, imagining something out of a black horizon, creating a story, selecting the right words, one by one, keeping the whole flow of the story on track - required far more energy, over a long period, than most people ever imagine." -Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Kind of how I feel this week ... literature reviews, research papers, stories, final papers, critiques, etc. Can't wait for the weekend.
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Party On

"An intellectual kegger." -theme of our last Mass Media class, to be held at Professor Hudson's home this afternoon.  Ziplines, labyrinths, basketballs and pianos will apparently be included ... among other things.  Sweet.
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Alamo Bowl

"Some are already calling this the Journalism Bowl, given the reputations of Missouri and Northwestern’s journalism schools." -Kansas City Star article about our just announced December 29 bowl game in San Antonio.
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An Old African Song

Do not seek too much fame

But do not seek obscurity

Be proud

But do not remind the world of your deeds

Excel when you must

But do not excel the world

Many heroes are not yet born

Many have already died

To be alive to hear this song

That is a victory.

"This is a theory, a concept, a big idea about how to live. Sometimes at these hectic points in the semester we forget - and then, maybe if we are lucky, we remember - how to live with vibrancy, clarity, and grace." -an Old African Song and good advice from a professor. Let's hope it gets me through finals week...

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The Urban Dictionary

Thanks to Meg for this. Find out if your name has a definition here.

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The Best Things...

"When what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, what's left to be gotten won't be worth getting, whatever it is you've got left." -Phil Davis (Danny Kaye), in White Christmas (played at the Missouri Theater last night).


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Professor Praise

"Whitney, your presentation was one of the best I've seen in my Mass Media classes. I encourage you to keep pursuing the subject." -email from Dr. B.H. that totally made my day. Maybe I'm not going to fail out of grad school after all ...
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Love and Food

Isn't this great?! (spotted in this store).

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My Brother's Beard

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December Evening

"Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star." -L.M. Montgomery




Last night's view from my balcony of the moon, Venus, and Jupiter.



Photo cred: Kristy :)
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Code Red

I feel like it's only a matter of time. . .

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A Country Tune

"There's no dollar sign on a peace of mind." -Zac Brown Band
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Dog Days

Whitney: I don't think those little dogs can get up those big stairs.

Clara (age 9): We'll carry them. They're travel size.

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A Real Cowboy

"I do all my best work with a beer in hand." - Beau, catching horses in the middle of the afternoon, rope in one hand, a bottle of Bud in the other.
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Happy Turkey Day

"Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast." -William Shakespeare
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Thanksgiving Tomorrow!

"Missouri ranks 5th in turkey production across the U.S. and producers raise 21 million turkeys each year." -Director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

Doesn't this picture (taken on I-70 between St. Louis and Columbia) make you want to chow down?!

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Dating Drama

"If you guys think the guy I'm marrying might be gay, will you please tell me?" -Drea's attempt to avoid a disaster further on down the road. What are girl friends for??
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29 Years

"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds." -The Notebook

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad x
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Cold Turkey

"Eternity: the length of time frozen turkeys can be kept in the freezer." -a fast fact from Vox Magazine. Good to know, especially since I won a frozen turkey yesterday for my speedy performance in the Freeze Your Gizzard Off 5k. Also, check out my Vox Thanksgiving article here.
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Athletics v Life

"I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism; and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master. " - Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children

Agree or not?! Either way, big games today for UVA (v Clemson) and Mizzou (v Kansas). Go get 'em boys!

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Old Dominion

“Tough girls come from New York. Sweet girls, they’re from Georgia. But us Virginia girls, we have fire and ice in our blood. We can ride horses, be a debutante, throw left hooks, and drink with the boys, all the while making sweet tea, darlin’. And if we have an opinion, you know you’re gonna hear it.” -Ashley Judd

Virginia bound today ...

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Mmmmmm

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Keep Looking

"For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought." -Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser
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Oh Dear

"We still have the same deer from last year in the freezer, except for what I threw out." -my mom arguing with my dad about what to do with Jackson's rapidly accumulating venison stock (perhaps the most redneck conversation ever, captured by Bea via cell phone and emailed to his siblings ... I'd post the entire thing here but I'm technologically challenged).
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Winter

"The sky is an empty hopeless gray and gives the impression that this is its eternal shade. Winter's occupation seems to have conquered, overrun and destroyed everything, so that now there is no longer any resistance movement left in nature; all the juices are dead, every sprig of vitality snapped, and now winter itself, an old, corrupt, tired conqueror, loosens its grip on the desolation, recedes a little, grows careless in its watch; sick of victory and enfeebled by the absence of challenge, it begins itself to withdraw from the ruined countryside." - A Separate Peace, John Knowles
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Xtreme XC

Apparently, the weather gets cold and Missourians get crazy: "Zombies, cereal mascots and other costumed runners dealt with snow flurries Saturday while taking part in the Cross Country Xtreme run held at Midway Sandbar. The runners also had an obstacle-laden course to contend with, which included men with chain-saws and crawls through the mud while firecrackers bursted nearby." -Missourian article. Click here for the really funny stuff.
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Time

-Da Vinci

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Can't Touch This

Spotted on my way to school:

And for those wanting the full experience:

Happy Friday!
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A Thursday Thought

"But if our philosophy tells us that each man is only a small part of the world, that his intelligence catches at best only phases and aspects in a coarse net of ideas, then, when we use our stereotypes, we tend to know that they are only stereotypes, to hold them lightly, to modify them gladly." -Walter Lippemann, Stereotypes
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Style Woes

"I can't be held accountable for this skirt, it was a present from my mother-in-law. We're in a recession and I can't afford new clothes." -a professor reflects on one impact of the financial crisis.
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Remembrance Day

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
- Lt. Col. John McCrae

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A Bountiful Burden

"Pressure is nothing more than a shadow of great opportunity." -76 year-old XC Coach Joe Newton in the Long Green Mile. A great movie and a great quote (applicable to many areas of life besides running!).
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(Don't) Show Me?

Story here.

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Die Running

"I've told my friends if I die here on this track do not call 911 because I do not want to be revived ... I say, wait a half an hour, maybe 45 minutes, then call the mortician. That's the way I want to go." -81 year-old Joy Johnson, who ran the NYC marathon last Sunday. What a rock star. Read the WSJ article here.

Cranberry Crawl 10k today. Wish me luck.

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Mizzou Frat Boys

(so says the t-shirt, but I have yet to see actual evidence)

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Ninth Grade Naivete

Funny because none of them can drive ... and also, aren't Canadians more liberal than Americans?
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A Green Ticket

"Righteous! Biking and voting!" -a ballot-bound cyclist to Kristy (also on a bike).
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Election Day

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Free Wheeling

"It was kinda like a float trip on bikes." -Kristy describes Sunday's Tribute Ride to Rocheport. Drinking, dancing, good company and gorgeous weather for miles and miles along the Katy Trail.
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Cookie Monster

"Grover!" -a girl's excited reaction to seeing a big blue creature walking down Broadway on Halloween. She obviously didn't watch enough Sesame Street growing up.
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M-I-Z Z-O-bama

"I'm by proxy smoking with the President." -some kid at Obama's Columbia rally, smelling pot wafting through the air.

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Happy Halloween

"Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world." -Shakespeare

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