Much Needed Monday Funnies!

HEHEHHE...No clue what happened to your lipstick, I was most certainly not involved.

Got this off pintrest and love this picture! If you're like me and need a pick me up on this early Monday morning, then here it is!

MLK and WWII Monuments

It was a rainy and grey day out but the bf and I had gotten up early by the miracle of God and instead of wasting life away sitting on the couch or watching tv, we decided to visit the city before heading off to Hannah's birthday party festivities. The main reason for going into the city was because I wanted to see the AIDS Quilt being displayed on the National Mall. Unfortunately either because it wasn't ready or they hadn't brought it out yet because of the rain, it was no where to be found :/ So we decided to go out and walk to a few monuments. He had never been the WWII memorial, so we walked to that. I had walked it before but never actually walked down into it. Well, I was surprised!!! The water fountains were beautiful up close and I saw the Price of Freedom wall below.

WWII memorial

Sign that explains

The Price of Freedom

Freedom Wall holds 4,048 gold stars. Each gold star represents one hundred American service personnel who died or remain missing in the war. The 405,399 American dead and missing from WWII are second only to the loss of more than 620,000 Americans during our Civil War

All of the stars on display 

Then after that, I mentioned I hadn't seen the MLK monument, so we went there too! I knew there was controversy and problems but I wasn't sure what it was. Well, this article sums up the problems with the quote:

The words, " I was a drum major for justice peace and righteousness" currently are displayed on the memorial.

Those familiar with the February 1968 speech where that message was taken from argued that those were not the original words said by Dr. King.

The exact words were "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness."

The more condensed version of that message was paraphrased for the memorial, but some say the way it currently reads changes the tone of the message.

The entrance to the memorial

One of the quotes in the marble around the statue

Statue from the side. You can't really see it, but the quote on the side you can see, was misquoted and there was a huge controversy around it.

Statue from the front

Forever Faithful Video

To go along with my last post, Phi Mu Fraternity just released this video about Forever Faithful. I saw myself twice in the video! How fun!

Random Convention Topics: Forever Faithful

If you are a Phi Mu, you might (hopefully) have heard about the new alumnae dues program called Forever Faithful. Previously, you may have paid your national alumnae dues along with your local alumnae chapter dues. Then your chapter was responsible for tracking and paying your portion to HQ. Well, now they (finally!) cut out the middle man :) Now you can pay HQ directly your $20 dollars. This is particularly important for those alumnae who want to stay active but are not located anywhere near an alumnae chapter. This is very important because all monies raised go to support many programs within the Fraternity and guarantees you receive all of the Aglaia publications.

I don't remember the exact number, but since introducing the program, something like 9,000 women who had never paid into a dues program paid their dues last year! I'd say its a success! If you are a Phi Mu alumnae, I'd encourage you to join!

Here is the announcement from Phi Mu from last summer when they introduced the program:

With great excitement, we announce Forever Faithful, the annual alumnae dues program. This annual appeal is an opportunity for you to support to Phi Mu Fraternity in a simple and meaningful way. When we each initiated, we committed to keeping our sisterhood strong, and your dues participation helps us to provide that stability for future generations of Phi Mus. The Forever Faithful alumnae dues program directly supports the growth and advancement of Phi Mu Fraternity by funding:

• Aggressive expansion at prestigious universities and colleges nationwide.
• Fraternity specific training, assistance and support materials for collegiate chapters, house corporations, alumnae chapters and chapter associations.
• Cutting-edge technology programs and tools for all members, including enhancement of www.phimu.org, Facebook applications, and collegiate & alumnae chapter / chapter association tools and websites.
• The award-winning Aglaia magazine

Your dues will ensure the continued success and growth of our vibrant Fraternity. Please consider showing your support today by paying your annual dues of $20 at http://phimu.org/foreverfaithful.

Musicals & Shows

My friend Teresa and I are going to see the Addams Family musical tomorrow tonight at the Kennedy Center! I love the Kennedy Center and I loved the movie that came out in the 90s. I'm excited to see how this is turned into a musical! I've seen at least two shows with Teresa (Hairspray in London and Rock of Ages in NYC) and I love that she's so passionate about musicals and love them as much as I do!


Here's a list of the musicals I've seen (I swear there's more but I can't remember):

1. Wicked (4 times!)
2. Billy Elliot
3. Rock of Ages
4. Mamma Mia
5. Radio City Music Hall Rockettes
6. STOMP
7. Hairspray
8. Grease
9. Les Miserables
10. Sweeny Todd
11. Spamalot
12. Avenue Q
13. The Addams Family 
14. Motown

Not necessarily musicals but shows I've seen:

1. Much Ado about Nothing
2. Afrika! Afrika!
3. Riverdance

Random Convention Topics: The Aglaia

At the sisterhood lunch on Thursday, we sat down at the table and there was this weird magnet on our table. I was quite confused and made a few snarky comments about how ugly it was and WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!. (Shocker, who would have thought?!) Well, when Kris and Peggy King (National Ritual Chairman) explained that they had been on a trip to Italy together and Peggy had discovered that this painting that she always loved was actually a picture of Greek goddesses, and one of them was named "Aglaia"!  And actually, in the picture the woman named Aglaia was wearing a quatrafoil shaped pendant necklace....HOW COOL!??!?! We'll never know if our founding sisters knew this and based our emblem on this photo or not. But pretty cool to ponder!

Its hard to tell in this picture, but Aglaia is the one on the left and her necklace is quatrafoil shaped!!

Just thought I'd share with you in case you ever wondered (like me!) where our magazine got its name :)

New Phi Mu Experience and Carnation Ball: Convention 4th day

Instead of old Phi Manuals, the Fraternity has decided to make a BOOK where Phis can write in their experiences and have a keepsake book! How cool!

The NEW Phi Mu Experience book

They're all convening with the Parlimentarian lady to figure out how to proceed.

We broke for lunch and decided to go back to the restaurant we visited the first day. Chris and I had such high hopes for this drink! Sadly, we were gravely disappointed. Just looking at it you'd think it was sweet tasting. Well, we were wrong! Grapefruit juice made it quite sour. We tried reviving it with sugar and OJ but sadly it was beyond help.

Yes, the vodka was filled to that bottom line. Woof.

This was the ceiling of all the conference rooms. Quite pretty!

Frances Mitchelson got up a lot during the discussion of alums/collegiates drinking together.I sat right in front of this :)

The Report of the Courtesy Resolutions Committee!

This part is the funniest part of Convention! The whole group comes up with funny items that happened throughout the Convention. I think I laughed so hard my face hurt.

Carlina saying her funny lines!

Now its time to relax and then get ready for Carnation Ball! Bre and I went round and round and round on the lazy river outside. It was nice to have a few hours of relaxation. I think it was the first big chunk of free time we had all week! After the lazy river, we went back and got ready for Carnation ball!

So I need a new picture for work so I forced Bre to take my picture awkwardly in the corner

Convention Roomies!

Beautiful sisters

Gamma Delta advisers!

Chris and her Gamma Delta girls

Centerpieces. The yellow rose is the Texas flower

The whole room!

The processional begins:

 

Pamela Wadsworth (Past National President, 1986-1990)

Lynne Bernthal (Past National President, 1990-1994)

Frances Mitchelson (Past National President, 1994-1998)

Mary Jane Johnson (Past National President, 1998-2002)

Kathy Williams (Past National President, 2002-2004)

The last president, Kathy Williams (Past National President, 2006-2010)

Here's Beth!

Our BEAUTIFUL President, Kris (Current National President, 2010-2012)

Darlene, the Executive Director, and her AMAZING dress. This picture does nothing to show how beautiful it was. She was like a greek goddess in this gold sequined dress!

The food was way too fancy for me!

Mel winning runner up Advisor of the YEAR! We are SO proud of her and the work she's done with the Delta Chapter at Tulane.

Woop woop, the DC Chapter won the first ever Founders Circle Award. 4 other chapters also won and the Tidewater Phi Mu chapter won the Wesleyan Cup.

Quatrafoil cake!

UM, I WON THIS $500 diamond pendant!!!!! SAAAAY WHAT?!?!?!? YES! I entered a raffle when I bought something at Carnation Collection. Up for grabs was a diamond badge and this diamond pendant. We're waiting in line to go into Midnight Madness and they start their announcements. First goes the badge. The crowd was upset because the badge winner wasn't there but was still getting the badge! They totally said you had to be there to win.  I say out loud, "I never win anything, why bother". Then Angela goes "You're totally going to win now". The announcer goes, and the winner is "Amber.........Overton!". I think I say "No fucking way!" HA!! I run up to get my diamond pendant and I'm actually shaking like I've won the lottery!! Well, I sort of did! The Phi Mu lottery :)

Award Ceremonies and Riverwalk: Convention Day 3

By the third day all of the activities and lack of sleep was really getting to me. I was exhausted. Not only exhausted, but thoroughly hungover. Now, I drink more than that at home (no, I'm not an alchy) but I found myself extremely hungover. Maybe it was not drinking water, being "go go go" 24/7, weird eating schedule, only eating a salad for dinner, or whatever but my hangover hit me like a ton of bricks Friday morning.

I was DYING. I'm too old to go on that little amount of sleep! I needed all of these things to help cure my hangover. I think my headache from being hungry was the worst, but I couldn't eat because my stomach was upset. Ugh. I finally drank that coffee in the afternoon after it sitting there all day.

Anyways, enough about me being irresponsible. There was a motivational speaker,
Peter Smithhisler, President and CEO of the North-American Interfraternity Conference. His presentation was awesome and one of the most compelling lines was "When was the last time you thought of your leadership role as a gift?". When do we stop thinking of a leadership role as a gift and more of a burden? He urged us to get up, go out, and do SOMETHING. No matter how small or large, we can make a difference.

And I absolutely love the line Kris said after the speech: "There has never been a better time for fraternity and there has never been a better time to be a Phi Mu." True story.

After the motivational speaker, we started talking about Phi Mu Foundation. The sorority recognized individuals and their giving levels. I was SO excited to accept my FIRST giving level pendant. I didn't know I had reached a level, so I was SHOCKED when my name was called to accept my Phi level pin, that is I've given $500 over my lifetime! Some of the women had given $1K, $1,500, $5,000, $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000!!!!! Two women were even awarded for their $100,000 contributions!!!! How AWESOME!!! One day. One day, that will be ME!

So I leave you with some more pictures to describe the rest of the day:

Some of the bling the DC chapter won!
Sisterhood, PR and Heart to Heart

All former/current Hampton Roads Alumnae women

The Bling bling from Hot Boyz (yes, I am dating myself) always plays in my head when I see this picture!

Bling bling

Everytime I come around yo city

Bling bling

Pinky ring worth about fifty

Bling bling

Everytime I buy a new ride

Bling bling

Lorenzos on Yokahama tires

Bling bling

ok...must stop myself.

Lambda Epsilon girls!! This picture makes my heart burst! There were 11 of us there, even an older Phi Mu that lives in Seattle, Washington, who was representing their alumnae chapter. See we go places!

That night we had the option of taking a bus down to the Riverwalk. My only reason for going on the Riverwalk was to see the Alamo and check off a life accomplishment box. We got there and went immediately to eat and then we drank and drank and drank some more at the restaurant. It was time for the buses to come before you knew it and I was mildly sad I didn't get to see it. While we were waiting in line, I shout: "WAIT, ISN'T THAT THE ALAMO?!?!" I could see it between some buildings while we were waiting. Thankfully the bus line was moving slow and a few of us RAN to the Alamo and took a picture. I, of course, checked into the Alamo on FB :) We ran back just in time for the bus to pull up!

Me in front of this weird bull thing. Everyone LOVED and I mean LOVED my outfit for the day. I've never had so many random women strangers (duh, they're at least sisters) stop me and tell me how much they loved my outfit! Why, THANKS!

Me with my idols!!!! Kris Bridges is on the left and Ashlee Forsecher is on the right (VP of Alumnae)

Some of the Riverwalk

Two of my FAVORITE people! 

ME!

A sign on the Rierwalk 

A map of the whole place