New York City

I was able to visit my dear friend Elsa last weekend in New York City and I had such a lovely time!  I took as many pictures as I could with the little bit of battery life my camera had.

 

First, I have to say, it was soooo amazing to see my friend, whom I hadn't seen in seven years.  We met at Speech and Drama camp when we were young, and now, she attends college in New York City and I am in California.  After all these years, I decided we needed to see each other again. 

 

I drove my car up to New York City and then parked in the closest garage I could find.  We rode the subway a lot, and it was my first experience doing so! I loved it...

 

 

I was able to see the statue of Liberty from a distance through the fog.  :)

 

 

This is a super old church right by Wall St. in NYC.  This is where Alexander Hamilton is buried.

 



 

My friend took me to the MET museum...I loved it!  We saw mummies, tons of artifacts and it was like being in a history class. 

 

 

I should have taken more pictures, but alas, my camera died on me. 

 

 

Anyway, I was able to drive home safely and now I'm preparing for my next trip: driving out to school in California.  Whooo!

Let it snow



Christmas break time~

I realize it has been forever and a day since I last posted on my blog.  I have been on Christmas break back in Pennsylvania...that being said, I'm sure you can imagine that blogging was not priority, spending time with family and friends was.  Anyway, now that Christmas and New Years are over, I have a little more time to write and study and blog like I'd like to. 

 

My first week at home was spent with these adorable girls...I babysat them and enjoyed it immensely.  They've both grown so much since the summer when I left!

 

 

The next few days I did some Christmas shopping and also spread a lot of Christmas cheer in the community.  I volunteered at the Salvation Army to ring the bell outside of Shur Fine.  Then on a Saturday evening, Oliver, Sarah and me went to the Hanover mall and I wore a bear costume and we wished everyone a Merry Christmas. 

 

Who would come up with an idea like that?

 

 

Of course, anyone who knows my brother, knows that it was his idea.  Anyway, we got a picture with the man who was ringing the Salvation Army bell outside.  You would not imagine the number of people who wanted pictures with me and wanted me to give them a hug.  I was hugged more as a bear in one night and I have in my entire 22 years as a human!  Pretty crazy!

 



 

Despite being strange and goofy, it was fun to do!

 

 

Christmas morning we had our church service early, and then me and Oliver and Sarah set out to wish the nearby Ville's a Merry Christmas like we did last year.  Last year, we drove around to all the nearby towns and rolled down the windows and simply yelled "Merry Christmas!" to everyone we saw.  A sort of the George Bailey kind of 'running down the middle of Bedford Falls' kind of thing.  Last year it was very successful and we had a lot of cheery "Merry Christmas's" back...but this year there was no snow and it simply didn't have that "Christmas" feel.  So after only hitting two Villes and Gettysburg, we drove to Grandma's house where we had the rest of our Christmas day.

 

I enjoyed spending time with my nieces and nephew!

 



 

Then just last week, I went with my dear friends to Longwood Gardens- a huge botanical garden near Philadelphia. 

This display of floating apples was pretty impressive to me...

But I had a great time and everything was so beautiful!

 

 

On New Years Day, as is the custom, we (the Keckler family) had our Christmas Day.  It was held at Katie and Ryan's house this year. 

Here is a cute picture of Hudson trying to open his present

 

I took a few "sister" pictures. 

 

Then when we came home, I wanted a few pictures with my parents and brother too...

 

In the 2 1/2 weeks I've been home, this is what I've done...and that's not counting the small things like pruning and baking Christmas cookies. 

 It's good to be home!

 

San Francisco here I come!

Before the semester ended, I took a trip to San Jose to visit my friends.  I had so much fun with them...and on Saturday they took me to San Francisco.  I haven't been there in 3 years so it was really nice to visit again. 

 

 

I just had to get a picture with these faces...

 

 

We were headed to Pier 39, and my friend put it into her GPS...well the GPS took us straight to the REAL legit pier...haha!

 

We had the WORST time trying to find a parking place...we drove for 2 hours around and around the blocks trying to find one.  When we finally DID find one, we were pretty happy...

 

On the pier, we visited the Krazy Kaps shop...

 

And saw Alcatraz from a distance...

 

And took a gazillion photos...

 

I got this picture taken with one of the silver street performers...he tried to kiss me.  haha

 

 

These are some pictures I edited...the first, from our freshman years, the second, our senior year.  Pretty crazy how much time has passed!!!!

 

 

Anyway, it was a wonderful visit and I look forward to hopefully doing it again sometime soon!



It's cold in Southern CA!

I don't wanna hear anymore nonsense like "Oh, you love California cuz its so warm and sunny...." and "When you come back to Pennsylvania, bring me some beach!"

 

THIS...is what Southern CA is like right now :)

 

 

 

It snowed a few days ago, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of it on my phone. 

But this morning all of the fountains were frozen over.  :)

 

I'm completely prepared to go back to Pennsylvania in just 7 days!

Common Ground

Isn't it funny that as humans we like to identify with something or someone else? Very few people in this world enjoy being alone, taking a stand alone, or taking responsibility alone.  In fact, I don't know of anybody who enjoys taking responsibility for their wrong actions...

 

Three examples I have noticed this to be true are found in Scripture.  In Matthew 16:1-12, I noticed that the Pharisee's and Sadducees (two religious sects who completely disagreed in their beliefs) joined forces against Jesus, tempting Him.  The second (and more poignant) example of this is found in Luke 23...In this example, Jesus is on trial.  After going to a trial with Annas, a trial before Caiaphas, a trial before the Sanhedrin, and a trial before Pilate, Jesus was sent to a trial before Herod  Antipas.  Though neither Herod or Pilate could find anything to condemn Jesus, one of the saddest verses in the passage to me is found in Luke 23:12.  This verse says that "And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves."  How sad to think that Jesus' unfair trial and ultimately His crucifixion, led to these two men having political peace. 

 

The last example that I noticed was in Acts 9:1-2 where Saul(a Pharisee), was commissioned by Caiaphas, the High Priest (who was a Sadducee) to arrest all of the Christians and to bring them bound to Jerusalem. 

 

The Pharisees and Sadducee's did not agree on many things.  Yet, they laid aside their many differences in order to see Jesus "caught."  Herod and Pilate had great enmity together...yet they found friendship on the common ground of "washing their hands" of the guilt of Jesus' crucifixion. 

 

Simply something to think about: be sure you aren't "jumping on the bandwagon" in order to see someone else's demise (as in the case of Saul's persecution of the Christians, and the Pharisee's and Sadducee's joining forces against Jesus), or in order to feel justified in the responsibility you have to take (in the case of Herod and Pilate). 

 

If you are going to decide to do something, take the full responsibility of that action, AND the results that ensue.  The desire to have someone else to fall back on, or have someone else to blame, is strong.  But the more I've thought on this, the more I'm determined to quelch this desire. 

These are just a few thoughts I've had over the past few days...I'm certain these thoughts don't make complete sense since I just typed them as they came to my mind.

Until later! 

Beauty in California

Two Sundays ago, I was able to go to a park in California where I saw greenery!  It may sound funny that I was so excited to see that, but in Lancaster, you see Joshua trees, dust, sand and not much else.  So when we were able to see green grass and a body of water...it was beautiful!  My extension church took me and my two friends Kelsey and Josh to this park for the afternoon and a picnic. 

 

 

It was relaxing and beautiful!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day!  I know I did!  I ate so much...and half-watched football.  My favorite part was when we all wrote down the things we are thankful for and then went around the room reading each other's "thankful" cards.  Some of the kids in the family got into it and filled up their entire card with things they were thankful for!  It was a little convicting to me...I have so many things to be thankful for that I should take the time to thank God for each one.  This trip to the park is just one of the things I was so thankful for.