we get up

When I was in London, the girls I lived with and I began taking what we called "bridge jumping photos." The premise was fairly simple, any time we would cross a bridge, we would take a photo of the group jumping. Everyone's body had to be airborne and we had to yell "1, 2, 3, jump!" because let's be honest, it's pretty funny (in a morbid sort of way) to hear a group of girls yelling "jump" while on a bridge.

The album that resulted from this little activity spans nearly a dozen different countries. Each of us had vowed to take a jumping picture any time we crossed a new bridge.

Until I stumbled randomly upon a blog, "Jump. Because.", I hadn't thought about these photos in a very long time. Run by a few people in Richmond, Va., the blog asks for submissions of jumping photos and then asks the photo's creator to finish the sentence, "I jump because ..."

As I scrolled through, I became more and more nostalgic for the jumping I've recorded over the years with my friends, and I wanted to share a few with you. We're going to share a few with that blog, but I figured I'd include a bunch here also.

Why do I jump? There are so many reasons that I can't even begin to explain, but the biggest: I jump because I can.

(I'll add more as I find them...)





















Olivia and I in Prague, CZ

Olivia and I on Millenium Bridge, London, UK

Mandy and I on a bridge near the Vatican, Italy

friends in action

My girlfriends took me out last night for my birthday. We went to a new restaurant in Elon called 116 Oak, which if you live in the area, is fabulous, affordable and has a great atmosphere. Thanks girls, you are some of the sweetest, most beautiful and intelligent women I know. I love you all very much. A few friends weren't able to make it because of geographical issues, and they were heartily missed. You know who you are.

It's been a crazy year for me, filled with lots of happiness, sadness, changes and constants. The year to come won't be any different, but I feel so lucky to have people who I love, who love me, who I know will be there through it all.



(L to R) Kiersten, Ashley, Kim, Colleen, me, Christen and Lesley. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm short, I was the only one in flats other than Colleen, but she's 5'11" anyway...

I'd like to just say that in watch us below, none of us had consumed more than a glass of wine -- this is just how we roll. Video care of Colleen.

panorama ding dong

A life update will come soon, but as I'm in the middle of some reading and still have about 50 pages to go tonight, that can't happen now.

But, as I was doing this reading for my Methodologies in Art History class, I stumbled upon this really cool website when I looked up a piece of contemporary art that was being described.

It's called gigapan. It takes high resolution images, especially panoramas, and allows you to zoom in, zoom out and view different sections of the image in seriously high definition. Totally cool.

This easily distracted me for 15 minutes.