When Disney friends reunite!

The bipolar rainy and freezing weather of this weekend couldn't bring me down because I had another treat this weekend, my friend from the Disney College Program, Jonathan was coming to visit! We hadn't seen each other since May 2012, nearly 10 months! What he didn't know was that although he was coming to visit me, there was a special surprise coming to Texas to come visit him. I'll explain a little later.

FRIDAY:
I felt most of our day was spent driving from one end of the Metroplex to the other! He found out that day just how BIG Dallas/Ft. Worth is! From Dallas to Arlington to Denton and a few places in between! We did stop for lunch at my favorite Asian Fusion restaurant, Bamboo Pho & Springroll. If you are ever in the Arlington area and craving pho and boba tea (which I am always craving), stop by this place! It's cozy and plays great music! There's also a HUGE TV on the main wall in the dining area that you CANNOT miss seeing! I always go for their lunch special $6.95 eggroll+pho+soft drink. There's also a bar area with drink specials.
The location is 330 Matlock Rd. #102 Arlington, TX 76015 
http://www.bamboopho.com/ 

The evening was spent in Dillards prepping for the fashion show (my previous blog post) and then Studio Movie Grill with my beautiful friends Bria and Sonia! I am so glad they invited us out to the movies with them because we had a great time. You know that feeling you get when you bring two groups of friends together and they mesh, I felt it Friday night and it was good. If you have never heard of Studio Movie Grill, the name does it justice; it's a dine-in theater. It can be a bit pricey but there are ways around it:
1) Groupon offers movie ticket+soft drink for $5 (unfortunately sold out that Friday night)
2) Student Discounts-use your ID and a ticket is $7.50 for peak evening which saves $2 off your ticket

Olympus has Fallen is what we saw. Of course with us being college students and all we questioned the accuracy of some of the events in the movie such as how much time passed between CERTAIN events (I won't go into detail so that I don't give anything away). Overall I liked the movie because I'm all about a movie with a few gun (or in the case a bunch) of gun fights. I'd pick a action/thriller or a romance movie any day of the week. If at least one person isn't shot in the movie, I'm bored! Point is, go see Olympus has Fallen.

Jonathan, me, Sonia, Bria
Studio Movie Grill

SATURDAY:

I spent the day with fashion show business and Jonathan spent the day with Fraternity business.

SUNDAY ie THE BIG DAY:

I told Jonathan that we were going to meet Matt and Diana, friends from high school, and there visiting friend from school, Steven at Six Flags. Which was true, but what he DIDN'T know was that there was also another group meeting us there, to surprise him which included our favorites Ashley and Taylor and their friends Kayla, Caleb, and Won Ton.

Ashley and I had been planning this surprise for weeks! And it was hard to not tell Jonathan that our friends from Oklahoma were driving down that morning to meet us!

The plan was to meet in Gotham City in front of the Batman ride, but we all arrived at different times and were in different parts of the line for this thriller ride. I feared our cover was almost blown when I happened to look up above at the exit bridge and see Ashley scurrying along! I was convinced Jonathan would look in the same direction I was looking and see her, luckily that didn't happen. The night before she and I thought the same fate when I had left my phone next to Jonathan faced up and Ashley sent me a text about where to meet up in the morning. He didn't pay the phone any mind, thank goodness!

There was a little miscommunication and Jonathan and I met up with Matt, Diana, and Steven, but headed to another ride that the Oklahoma group was going to ride. But they had came back to Batman! We are still unclear how we didn't pass each other but nonetheless, my friend Matt came through for me and we made a pitstop at the restrooms so that I could call Ashley in private to get everyone together!

Cutest reunion EVER because Jonathan was so surprised! Ashley ran up behind Jonathan and covered his eyes. He had NO idea who it could have been either! We had pulled it off, a successful surprise at Six Flags! And our group of 10 headed to ride Six Flag Over Texas' biggest roller coaster, the Titan! Actually we rode it twice! Our groups split up for a bit to do our own things and after 8 hours in the amusement park we ended up at Chilis for dinner.

Ashley needed wifi to finish a homework assignment due at midnight so we ended up at a nearby McDonalds before finally all heading home :(

Oh and we also ATTEMPTED to do homework lol

He was "helping me with homework" lol

MONDAY:

We definitely couldn't top Sunday. Monday was no where near as eventful since I had to be in class in the morning and Jonathan and I both had to study for tests the following day. It took us relocating to three different study locations, two libraries and the business building, but by 8pm we had enough of studying.
On the drive home we did a quick car tour of my city and took a few pictures of the lit up buildings. My mother cooked stir fry for dinner and my entire family rallied around the den for funny conversation. I think that was the best part of the evening just all laughing together.

TUESDAY:

Awake for the break of dawn, Jonathan and I headed to the airport for our last goodbyes. It wasn't goodbye though it was more like a see ya real soon (that's the Disney talking lol), December is the next reunion, at Disney World of course, and it will happen sooner than we know it!

In closing I just want to say how great of friends I have! They made Jonathan's weekend in Dallas truly memorable! Until next time, peace!

That is the Titan. Yeah, we rode it....T

I was caught off guard and didn't get any other pic of the reunion SORRY

Disney brought them together; distance can't keep them apart

Diana and I friends since High School!

Me, Kayla, and Ashley at All American Cafe
my hair had deflated at this point 

She's my absolute FAVORITE!!! <3 

TIRED, HUNGRY, & FREEZING last pic of the day
Jonathan, Won Ton (Daniel), Taylor, Ashley, Kayla, Caleb, me

Exploring Downtown

Merchandising Inc Fashion Show

I have been gone for a minute but I'm back again! This past weekend has been a flood of events! Lets start with the fashion show put on by an organization I'm a member of, Merchandising Inc. The spring show was this past Saturday and was a major success!!!

This season I wanted to be apart of the action so I joined the fashion show committee. Along with 5 other members and the 2 producers in charge, we put together the show,  from promotions and visuals for the show, to clothing catastrophes we rallied as a team, weekly to produce this baby! Props go out to Emily and Shala, the fashion show producers, who REALLY made the show a success through countless hours of hard work before the show and motivating everyone to have great faith in their cause!!

Speaking of clothing catastrophes, let me slightly elaborate on the matter: one store backed out completely of letting us borrow clothing, a second limited the number of items we could take (no pun intended, the store was The Limited), and a third completely put a damper on our plans the NIGHT before the show not allowing us to take all the clothes originally picked out! Yeah the producers had their work cut out for them. Luckily stylists, models, and members rallied together to bring in tons of clothes from their own closets for the show. When in a crisis the UNT army stands together!

The day of the show was a long one, about 8 hours, but totally worth it! Seeing the the visuals we made come together for our "Enchanted Forest" theme was like magic. As the models slowly got their hair and makeup done and practiced their walks during the rehearsal, there was adrenaline in my veins! The lineup for curtain call came and ten minutes after the hour I sneaked from backstage to tell the DJ to drop the beat, and it was that runway was on fire!

The theme of the show was A Twisted Tale, a 2013 twisted on classic tales such as The Frog Prince, Alice in Wonderland, and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. The money raised from the show goes to fund events/activities  held by the Merchandising Inc. Organization.

Enough with the talking I will just show you the pics! Not all are mine; model pics courtesy of Ryan Cheval.

The closing number: Villainess with a dagger through the heart!

 Me and one of the stylists T'iundra after the show

Why "The Long Way Home"

One of the reasons I was uncertain about starting a blog was because I didn't know what to call it. It couldn't just be about New York or just Disney. There had to depth to it with a variety of experiences to narrate about. While listening to a song I had an idea! Long Way Home. Steven Curtis Chapman's song on his re:Creation album always made me feel good and the lyrics were so inspiring. My travels and everything that I do are inevitably leading me down God's path to eternal life.

"Remember we ARE going somewhere, right, That this great adventure we are on is not just wandering around riding in circles but really the roads that we are on are going ultimately to one final destination and Jesus has gone and prepared a place for us and it's called HOME", (Steven C. Chapman).

Here are the lyrics to this powerful song:
 LONG WAY HOME: STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN

I set out on a great adventure
The day my Father started leading me home
He said there's gonna be some mountains to climb
And some valleys we're gonna go through

But I had no way of knowing
Just how hard this journey could be
Cause the valleys are deeper
And the mountains are steeper than I ever would have dreamed

But I know we're gonna make it
And I know we're gonna get there soon
And I know sometimes it feels like we're going the wrong way
But its just the long way home

I got some rocks in my shoes
Fears I wish I could lose
That make the mountains so hard to climb
And my heart gets so heavy with the weight of the world sometimes

There's a bag of regrets,
My should've beens, and not yets
I keep on dragging around
And I can hardly wait for the day I get to lay them all down

I know that day is coming
I know its gonna be here soon
And I won't turn back even if the whole world says I'm going the wrong way
Cause its just the long way home

When we can't take another step
The Father will pick us up and carry us in His arms
And even on the best days, He says to remember we're not home yet
So don't get too comfortable
Cause really all we are is just pilgrims passing through

Well, I know we're gonna make it
And I know we're gonna get there soon
So I keep on singing and believing
What all of my songs say

Cause our God has made a promise
And I know that everything He says is true
And I know wherever we go
He will never leave us
Cause He's gonna lead us home

Every single step of the long way home
(Keep going, we're gonna make it)
(I know, we're gonna make it)
(We're just taking the long way home)
(Keep going, we're gonna make it)
(I know, we're gonna make it)
(We're just taking the long way home)
(Keep going, we're gonna make it)
(I know, we're gonna make it)
(We're just taking the long way home)
(Keep going, we're gonna make it)
(I know, we're gonna make it)
It's just a long way home

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/stevencurtischapman/longwayhome.html

My First Post!

I was given the idea to start a blog about my experiences by my beautiful sister in Christ, Nicole! So after weeks of thinking it over, it's official! This blog will cover my vacation in Hawaii, summer internship in New York City, and my semester in the Disney College Program. Along the way I want to inspire friends and followers to go out and explore, make new experiences for yourself!