I don't really like my natural hair color. I feel like it is more of a grayish brown. The only good part about it is it shimmers red in the sun.

I've been dying my hair off and on for a while now. I can say that because it isn't to cover gray's it is to cover another color! The last time I dyed my hair I got a box that also contained highlights for the hair also. I like my hair dark, this hair dye made my hair lighter, then with the highlights in even lighter. After spending a lot of time in the sun this past summer, and then again in the cruise...my hair has gotten even lighter. I didn't like it at all! So on the bus ride down to Miami, when we stopped near a Wal-Mart, Brittany and I got me some hair dye. A nice medium-brown, copper brown color. I like to have hints of red. We decided (with the help of my mom) to wait until after we'd been to the beach, in the ocean, and out in the sun a lot. So two nights ago, Brittany dyed my hair!

I love the way it turned out! She had no idea what she was doing, but I love it. Even if she says she doesn't know if she likes it. I like it, and it's my hair...it's what counts!

So here is a side by side comparison...if my html works out all right...

The first one was taken on the cruise a couple weeks ago. Light brown, ickiness. The second picture was taken tonight. Darker brown, with a hint of red. Love it! What do you think?

~Taylor~

Starting the beginning of December, I've been traveling a lot. Which is a huge change after barely getting out of Blacksburg month after month. It all started with the ACC Championship. We'd knew we'd be going as soon as we beat UVA the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This left us for a week to prepare. Ah, except in anticipation for the possibility of going to the Championship, we had already started the planning process. This did make us nervous for jinxing our chances, a lot of wood was knocked on!

The Marching Virginians flew three planes down to Tampa, Fl for the game. Stayed all day Saturday for the game, then flew three planes back to Roanoke, Va. It was a great game. Our team seemed to actually show up for the first time all season.

Flying back from Tampa, I knew I'd be returning in just a week and a half. My family went on a cruise for Christmas. December 18th, we left out of Tampa. One cruise terminal down from where the Marching Virginians had played in a fan fest not to long before.

Facebook albums from the ACC Championship: Album 1 Album 2 Album 3. (easiest way to show you, due to the fact that I take a million pictures!)

The cruise was awesome. We went down to Key West and then over to Cozumel. Key West we shopped around the town. Got Christmas presents for family and friends. One shop we went into had wine that was not made from grapes. Just wine that was made from oranges, bananas, strawberries, etc. It was really cool. I got Brittany some wine that was made from oranges that was fermented with chocolate! My mom said it tasted like those chocolate oranges that you bang on a table and it will open up into orange slices. (Those are way cool, are they still around?) The next day we were in Cozumel. We took a little boat over to a private island called Passion Island. It was an awesome place! When we got there we ate some fantastic mexican food. I hate mexican food, but this stuff was amazingly good! Then we swam in the ocean, soaked in the sun (what little sun there was due to the clouds), and played water balloon toss. It was a lot of fun. It was really sad when it was time to go. The next day was the day at sea, and I pretty much slept most of the time. That cruise I was really hungry and tired. But it was a cruise, and you can do whatever you want to do! I had a really good time!

Again, here are the albums from the cruise: Album 1 Album 2 Album 3 Album 4.

The day after we got back from driving up from Tampa, we leave our house again to go to my grandparent's house for Christmas. That was fun. I helped make food, which I never really do (other than cookies). For Christmas, our family got a family present which was a WIi with a bunch of games, including the Wii Fit. That was really cool. Also the next morning, I went with my grandma and my mom to Macy's and my grandma got me new boots and some nice clothes. I love my boots! They were such a great deal I was able to get them in brown and black. Also, my grandma gave me a VT quilt she had made! It's gorgeous.

Christmas Album

Two days after getting back from Northern Virginia, it was time to go back to Florida for the Orange Bowl. We took 8 buses from Virginia down to Miami. Stopping in Savannah for a night going down and coming back. It is so awesome actually winning a BCS bowl! It also made the ride back a lot better. I did get to see Kevin while I was down there too! I was in a 20 piece pep band that went over to his hotel, and I saw him there. Then he came over to my hotel for New Year's Eve to ring in the new year. I also saw him at the game! He got to fly down and back. No long, smelly bus ride for him. Don't get me started on our bus driver either. I've always known bus drivers to be nice and cheery. Not this dude. Exact opposite! Just lovely. So, my Marching Virginian career is over. Well, sort of. I have a couple more gigs, and Bandquet, but game-wise it is over. Some people are extremely sadden by that, but I am ready to be finished with marching. I'm just getting too old for it! Ha!

Orange Bowl Albums: Album 1 Album 2 Album 3.

So that was it for my travels. I summed it up for the readers own good. Otherwise this would go on for years. Feel free to ask questions about it though!

~Taylor~

This just amused me to see one right after another.

~Taylor~

Recently, Kevin has taken on the task to teach me how to make a website. I've always been interested how people can make these extravagant web layouts! So far I've been taught the basics. How to make a header, how to make the body, how to make a sidebar, how to style what you want in the side bar and body. Stuff like that.

Ever since I came across a blog that couples are keeping up together, I've always wanted one. I think it is so neat that they choose to tell their story in that way. Now, granted the people who tend to keep up these blogs are either married or getting married, and I am at current neither of those. However, I have been in a relationship for over 3 years now, and I am impatient. So, I bought the url taylorandkevin.com. (kevinandtaylor.com was already taken!) Now, for the past week, Kevin and I have been working on the website. It is almost ready to be functional! It is really simple, but I think it's pretty. I'm especially fond of the header to the page, I think it's just gorgeous. I took a picture Kevin took of the old oaks at Boone Hall Plantation down near Charleston, SC and cropped it and made it black and white. I love how elegant it looks.

Anyway, while I would love to share the site with you, I think I'll hold off until it is fully functional! I'm sure it will change a lot as time goes on, but I'm proud of my little website.

~Taylor~

Who charges more than $100 over the list price?!

~Taylor~

For what seems like years and years now, we have been watching those commercials about the switch from Analog television to Digital television. There have been many commercials on every channel, scroll bars while you're trying to watch your favorite tv show, and even a little reminder of which signal you have at the bottom of your screen. We get it! February 17, 2009 we are changing over to DTV! Finally, it is almost here and all those annoying reminders will go away. But no! This new president of ours wants to delay it?!

I don't care if you're out of money, there are other solutions to that other than delaying it. Do that whole rebate thing, where someone can buy it now, and send in a rebate to get reimbursed when the money is available. Or make a deal with the companies selling it, and have a little "financial" aid system where the company will get reimbursed if the people getting the converter box can't afford it.

They just showed a clip on our local television about how older people are having trouble understanding this transition. They need more time to get the box and understand it all. They even had an older person saying how she just didn't understand it all, and needed more time to figure it all out. We have known about this transition for YEARS now. Commercials and reminders have been around like crazy, they have had plenty of time to ask for help or to figure it out. It is going to happen. Whether it is now or in 6 months. And no matter what, they'll have to figure it out some way. Why delay it? They've had plenty of time!

It's just driving me crazy!!!!

~Taylor~

I went with some friends to go see Bride Wars last Friday. I loved it. I thought it was really cute and entertaining. It's not the best movie in the world, but I love Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, so that made up for it.

Then, while on twitter, I saw @b5Celebrity had put up a review of Bride Wars up. It was a review written by Jane Boursaw. Her review irritated me a bit. Maybe a little more than it should have because I'm already irritated about the whole analog/digital thing. Anyway, she claimed to have seen it with her 11 year old daughter, and thought the plot was all wrong.

She says, "...if they're such good friends, why don't they have a double wedding? Or just celebrate each others' joy, even though the weddings are on the same day? Couldn't this be fun?"

1) They address the double wedding issue in the wedding. Emma is tired of sharing everything with Liv, as they have their whole life. Liv has out shined her, and she just wants one day of her own, where it is all about her. Understandable!

2) They wanted to be at each other's wedding, they have the same friends, and Emma's family is like family to Liv since she lost her parents. It just wouldn't work out if they got married on the same day. At least not in the way they always dreamed of.

So no, it couldn't be fun.

Then Jane goes on to say, "Aside from the fact that all of this [all the sabotage they did to each other] is over-the-top unrealistic, a lot of it seems more sad than funny. A side-story involves Liv losing both of her parents at an early age, so aside from her brother, Emma really is like her family. It made me sad to think of two girls who are supposed to be so close acting in such a vengeful way."

They have to go through all that to realize what they really wanted. Friends have fights, and get angry at each other. It all started with a misunderstanding, and it all blew out of proportion. Which, is realistic. I've seen it and lived it! Not to mention it is a movie, and most movies are not realistic anyway.

Then a last point I'd like to make on her review, Jane says, "And while I'm at it, here's another unrealistic aspect of the movie: Hudson's attorney character could probably afford such a lavish wedding, but Hathaway's schoolteacher? I doubt she could have sprung for the whole "Plaza wedding" thing on her salary."

Again, this is another thing that the movie addresses. Emma said that she had been saving up for the past 10 years, since she was 16. Also, she sent her invites through email...saved on paper invites, and she wore her mom's dress...saved on the cost of a dress.

~Taylor~

Announced today is that Steve Jobs is taking a six month leave of absence because of his health issues. I knew this would be huge on twitter. So I went to summize.com...which is now twitter seach something or another dot com, but I just got use to summize.com and still am, and I saw it was a trending topic. I let the page sit open for one minute, and this is what occured:

That was about five minutes ago, and it is already up to almost 1,000 tweets with "Steve Jobs" or "Jobs" in it. I'm interested to see how Apple will do with out him. Even though they won't really be without him since he'll still be making major decisions.

~Taylor~

Again, I'm blogging about how amazing twitter is. Because it is.

A little over an hour ago, I switched off my dvr to live television, and I saw footage of a plane in the Hudson River. I immediately turned to twitter search and typed in "plane crash." There were tweets where people actually saw the plane go down.

There was one fellow twitter, @jkrums, who had left the city over an hour ago and twittered:

Then, not long after, he was on a ferry headed home. He then saw a plane crash, and people get out of the plane and get on the wing, and his ferry was headed over to help get them. He took a picture and posted it on twitpic.com. Not long after, twitpic.com went down because so many people retweeted his tweet and it was no longer able to support such traffic. Luckily, some smart people put it up on flickr as well:

Amazing.

Also, some of the first pictures up on flickr were posted on twitter as well. It was really amazing to see those pictures right away. Especially if people were not around a television.

So thankful that everyone survived. I can't believe what they went through. I'm sure it was one of those times where your entire life flashes through your mind. Just listening to the passengers being interviewed they are so calm and willing to give information about the experience. I know I'd probably be histerical. There were a couple guardian angels flying with that plane this afternoon. Hope they are able to get down to Charlotte as planned soon!

~Taylor~

P.S. When CNN was interviewing one of the passengers, he was saying how he saw a woman with her baby climbing over seats to get out, and he announced women and children first, and let her and her baby out. That is some story to tell that baby when he/she gets older. So thankful everyone survived! I'm still in awe!

BRR! It has been mighty cold here in Blacksburg these past few days. Single digits to teens. I tried not to complain too much about it since my mom was up in Chicago all week with negative double digits!

Last night when I went to bed, this was the temperature outside:

I had been out in that one degree! It made my lungs hurt, so I started coughing when I went out into it. Luckily I never had to be outside for very long.

I checked for today's forecast, and it is currently 27 degrees, but the wind chill made me shiver despite the "higher" temperatures:

That's just cruel! To have it be actually decently cold instead of bitterly cold, but then turn around and make the wind make it be just as bitterly cold?! Thanks.

And just a couple days ago I was shocked to see this on the car's outside temperature gauge:

I'm ready for spring. If it is going to be this cold and still not give us a decent snow, the cold can just go away!

~Taylor~

What is wrong with this picture?

Here's a hint:

Okay, okay, do you give up? It appears the twitterific app messed up and gave @garycope @calilewis's twitter icon. It really confused me for a second when I first saw it. @kevincupp explained that happens sometimes with twitterific. Nothing to worry about! :)

Can you spot the oddity in this capture?

I saw that today while I was at the couches in Squires and I thought that was too funny and random not to share. I always find it a bit humorous when people know other people will be viewing their library name or wireless name and they have a little fun with it.

~Taylor~

I like to be confusing. Let me explain...this is my last semester of college. Today was the first day of classes. Thus, my last first day of class. However, tomorrow is technically the first day of classes too. So, First Last First Day of Class.

I had three classes over the span of about six and a half hours. I had three and a half hours of down time, however. Once I get a job, hopefully I can fill up that down time!

I started out the day with an apple and some wii fit! It told me I had GAINED 1.5 lbs! The nerve! Whatever, the Wii Fit itself said the human body fluctuates by 2 lbs in a day. However, I did get to maintain for two days my age of 20! -1 years!

I drove my broken car (the emergency break is stuck down...) to campus. I finally decided to get a commuter pass since I'd no longer be parking at my work and taking the bus into campus. I forgot how much I hate parking the in commuter lot. Especially when it is COLD! But it is a lot more convenient to have my car around rather than waiting for the buses to always show up. My dad is taking my car to be fixed tomorrow! I'm so glad, because it is not good driving it around with that dang break stuck down! It makes it smell icky too.

My first class was Intro to American Indian Studies. It relates to my Geography major and I thought it would be so interesting to learn about them. I think it is so much fun learning about all their different cultures. However, the room the class is in in Torg you can see out to the bus stop and watch people walking around. It is so distracting! I'm just not use to windows in classrooms!

Then it was time for my break. Basically I spent it watching other people's stuff so they could go off and do their errands. It's fine. I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen since Miami. I forgot most of them didn't see my new hair color. Except some of them thought it was a hair cut, not a change in hair color. My color change wasn't as drastic as dirty blonde Keighley going to dark brown. I haven't seen it yet though! Not in real life anyway.

Then i walked with Shawn and Jeremey to class. They were going further than me, but still in the same general direction. I was headed to Medical Geography. In telling my friends where I was going, they basically scrunched confused looks on their faces. Medical Geography is the study of health and disease patterns over space. Should be a neat class, except the professor is trying to make it so it fulfills a Geography writing requirement that doesn't exist anymore.

After she let us out, I hopped the road back over to Torg for my last class of the day. If you've ever seen Torg there is a part of it around the back that curves. It is a big auditorium behind that big rock curve, that is where I was. It's neat because they have individual plugs for laptops. However in that class, Intro to HTM, he doesn't like us to use laptops. Mainly because people will surf the internet instead of taking notes. That class lasted 17 minutes. Awesome.

However, I hung around Torg until Kevin's class in McBryde was over so I didn't have to walk back to my car alone.

Over all, I had a pretty good day. Looking forward to tomorrow!

~Taylor~

I did the Wii Fit again this morning! However, it decided that I lost two pounds and my age was 26 years old. Goodness! I have found that doing Wii Fit in the morning invigorates me for the day ahead. When I was getting ready for class afterward, I was more alert and active than when I normally wake up at 8:00am!

I left at 10:00 to go to my 11:15 class. I'm just so paranoid about the parking! I got there an hour early for my class. Yes...it took me 15 minutes to drive to campus, find a parking spot, and get up the hill to Torg. However, I did have reading to do for class tomorrow, so I started reading that. Then it was time for Global Economy and World Politics...okay...so this class. It was interesting on so many different levels. Let's just start with what happened before class began. I was one of the first in the room, and selected to sit three rows up, and one over from the middle aisle, so I didn't have to sit right on the aisle. As the auditorium filled up, a guy, who was clearly in the corp will all his army garb on, asked me if he could sit next to me (the seat on the aisle). I told him that was just fine. Then he asked me if I was okay. Did I appear that excited about the class?! I told him I was just fine. He then proceeded to ask me my name, major, where I'm from, my favorite music...I don't mean to be rude or anything, and I wasn't to him, but I don't really small talk to people in class. I really just want to get through the class and then leave. It just seemed weird, having him talk to me. AND he thought I was a freshman. He was. Then throughout class he kept asking me if I was okay. I'm not sure if he is just a really nice person, or if he was trying to hit on me. I don't know, but it was a little creepy. Especially since I kept seeing him stare at me out of the corner of my eye. I tried to think of a way to mention Kevin without me being obvious that I was mentioning that I had a boyfriend...I don't know. I never get "hit" on or whatever he was doing.

Now, the next thing about this class is the professor. He yells, and is very...excited about his lectures. He mentioned something about how buying a big house with tons of square footage is a bad idea, and someone wanted to argue that. The teacher paused then continued on with his lecture. When he got to a stopping point, he turned to the guy and said, never speak up in my lectures again! Eek! Also, he likes to walk up and down the aisles and rows just shouting away! He is very...expressive. He just makes me want to hide under my desk and sneak out the back. It'll be an interesting semester.

After class I went down to Squires to meet up with Stephanie (my pledge sis!) to have lunch. She was in Disney World last semester doing Engineering stuff down there. Awesome.

Then we went up to McBryde and I went to Severe Weather class! This class is awesome because the person who headed the Storm Chase I went on in May is teaching it, and everyone who went on the trip that goes to VT is in the class. It should be pretty awesome.

As I am typing this, I just found out there was a murder in the graduate life center on campus...

How awful. However I have gotten no alerts about it other than what I saw on vt.edu and I found out from twitter.

Praying.

~Taylor~

Update:

VT just upset #1 Wake Forest. The twitter search on "Virginia Tech" is very excited and upsetting. Crazy confused.

@iam_spartacus puts it well in this tweet.

Yesterday was one of those days. Where things just don't go your way, and it seems like the world is against you!

First my mom woke me up from a horrible dream. At 4:30 in the morning! When I get home, I turn off the lights so my mom knows that I'm back home all safe and sound. Well, when I got home the night before last my brother was watching TV. So I just went up to bed, thinking he'd turn out all the lights. No...he left the light on. So my mom didn't know if I was home or not. I didn't mind being woken up from the bad dream, but I never was really able to get back to sleep.

Around 8 I decided I was way too tired to go downstairs and do Wii. I thought it would be cool to take a break anyway. THEN, I realized that I forgot to get my commuter pass out of my dad's car from using it the day before. My dad works in Radford and he was at work by the time I remembered it was in his car. He had meetings all morning so he couldn't meet me to give it back. So I got to drive all the way to Radford and back to get it. On the way I pass a crash and a dead cat. Which just made me very upset!

As soon as I get back, it is time to start looking for a parking spot in the commuter lot! There was no one leaving, and no spots open! Ack! I drove around for 20 minutes before I finally got a space. Not as lucky as I had been the past two days.

My first class we ended up being in "groups" and talking for almost the entire class. I took out my ipod and checking twitter. I saw a news article about the murder, and it gave more details...about how the girl who was murdered was decapitated. That just shocked me. It's just so gruesome! How does someone sit down to coffee with a huge kitchen knife, and then all of a sudden cut off her head?! Who does that?! In front of many people, as well! I couldn't imagine being one of those people who witnessed it. It all just makes my head a complete jumble.

My next class I found out that my Uncle's fiance left him. That was such shocking news. After class I called my mom and talked to her about it, and I felt better. Even though the situation is really confusing right now, I think it could be fixed. We'll see.

My third class went well. The TA in that class is really funny and makes it actually fun to learn. As kindergarten as that sounds...

After class, I saw Kevin and he gave me a big hug. I got to see him again after dinner and he made my day so much brighter! Thank goodness for a fantastic boyfriend! :)

~Taylor~

Bandquet, yes with a d, is all about celebrating the MVs in the football season we just had. My dad puts together a slide show that captures our shows and events we went to. We just hang out, drink and be merry! It is also all about taking pictures with your friends and groups...so instead of just telling you about it, I will show you some of my favorite pictures!

In this picture with me is my godmother and father! My godfather, James Sochinski arranges music for the Marching Virginians. They are good friends with my parents! It's always awesome having them around!

This is me with my mom and dad! Since my dad makes the slide show and is the photographer for the bandquet, my parents get to come! Kaley even made the comment that my mom was looking exceptionally beautiful that night. I told my mom and she told me I should have said, yes, I look just like her. :)

Photo-ops with each of my littles in TBSimga/KKPsi! It's great having Jeremey back at Tech! It's going to be weird leaving them and then they are the older ones with littles of their own. Well, my little sister, Liz is the little of my little brother, Jeremey. It's a little incestuous, but it is Liz's fault! :)

BFFs! She even helped me pick out this dress as well! But she wouldn't let me get bright, hot pink shoes to go with the dress...I think it would have been adorable...:P Her job is to talk sense into me, right?

Then of course, all the group pictures! Top left: Our Table! We sat back in the corner toward the DJ area. I finally got a good view of my dad's slide show, and we were the first table to go get food after the head table! Success! :) Top right: That's the current circle of Tau Beta Sigma - Zeta Omicron. Only 12 of us! Hopefully we'll be getting some new sisters this semester. However, four of us are graduating! Bottom left: Bone picture! Most of the 2008 edition of the MV trombone section. Then to the Bottom right: the four remaining bone babes! There use to be so many more! After Ro and I leave, there will only be two if they don't pick anymore up next semester. Craziness! Soon we'll be like the Tone section! (...you'd get it if you were in the band...)

I knew that my big brother, Lynn, would be out of town and not at bandquet. So I decided since I was not going to get a four year mug, because of my year at New River, that I would accept Lynn's for him. I was passing by Dave, and jokingly informed him of my plans. He then asked me if I would like to help him give an award to Lynn if he happened to win one, and that it might involve a phone call. So of course I said yes. And of course Lynn happened to win the director's award, so (using Brittany's phone since mine was dead) I called him up on the stand with Dave talking away about him. He was in Detroit drinking at a b-dubs and was sort of clueless as to what was actually going on. It was a good time. I have decided since my name is Taylor Lynne, I'll just had my name before his and an "e" at the end of his "Lynn" and make it my mug. :)

One last photo...

Kevin and I! He's a great date, and he's all mine! :)

It was a great last bandquet!

~Taylor~