merry CHRISTmas.

its Christmas double deuce for me, but i still feel like a kid. waking up with the sun to open gifts and drinking hot cocoa by the fire with Nat King Cole Christmas playing in the background are just a few of our flaherty Christmas traditions. its a day when its ok to stay in our pj's until we absolutely have to change for the big family dinner, and when throwing away wrapping paper is the only work to be done (except for all the cooking mothers, aunts, grandmothers, etc). and even though it is fifty degrees outside with no signs of snowing--ever--on this particular Christmas day, it is still m a g i c a l.

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so as we all revert back to our childhood on this day, let us remember the child whose birth we celebrate. and if i may resort to the corny, yet truthful cliche- Jesus is the reason for the season! merry CHRISTmas to you.

*check out some more of the Christmas family portraits I took by clicking on "the more professional side" link -->*

the day the music died.

so about a month ago, i was victim to one of those rare catastrophes that you hear about and cringe over, but never consider could actually happen to you. as a macintosh owner and advocate, i always felt safe that my machine would never let me down. it has always been a champ, dutifully and efficiently performing all of my requested tasks. as a college student, graphic design major, writer, social butterfly, and creative enthusiast, i RELY on this device in order to accomplish most things related to these areas of my life. however, approximately one month ago, apple FAILED me...no, fail is not a strong enough word; brought me to my knees in desperation is more like it.

when i tried to turn on my computer one day and a question mark appeared instead of the usual apple in the middle of my screen, i knew something was horribly wrong. i panicked. and two days later i was informed that my hard drive had crashed and all the data was unretrievable. ouch. thank goodness i had just bought an external hard drive to back up my files...oh wait, i hadn't gotten around to doing that just yet. how excruciatingly ironic. so yes, papers, art projects, programs, photos, and basically my life, all disappeared into a black hole that took the form of a 2"x 2" metal block called my hard drive. the mac repair man was very comforting when he said he had never seen anything like this before and i believe his words were "the chances of this happening to anyone are almost unheard of. that really sucks." he was sweet.

but of all the things i lost that day, the most painful was by far my itunes library. i had worked countless hours organizing and updating it- it was immaculate and beautiful. my pride and joy. people commonly came to me looking to burn some music, because let's face it, i have exceptional taste and a wide variety to select from.

alas, as i sit here and glare at my now desolate 50-song library, i am wondering if there is even any point to trying to rebuild it. i suppose i will attempt it, though i suspect there to be many years of toiling and struggling to bring it back to its once glorious state.

donations accepted.

dueling banjos.

don't worry, this is not a post about the disturbing movie that mocks the hillbilly nature of eastern kentucky, although i recently saw deliverance and will never be the same....no, instead this post is about my recently new found love- bluegrass music. in the last year i have overcome my hatred for country music and have embraced it, especially a good banjo and fiddle tune. some of my favorites include nickel creek, chris thile, allison krauss and old crow medicine show (who puts on a GREAT show- go see them live).

i think that everyone needs to set aside any prejudgements on the matter and check out some quality music. here is a little taste, it is one of my favorite old crow songs...enjoy :).

champs.

i have a lot of responsibilities in life. as a college student, my life is duty-ridden with all kinds of important schtuff. with all of these life-altering decisions and responsibilities i currently have as a college senior, one of them always remains at the top of the list: intramurals. i am the intramural chair of my sorority and we are currently in the lead, with four championships under our belt. yes, we lay claim to the punt/pass/kick, and badminton championships, but the two most recent victories are no doubt ones for the record books.

flag football is by far my favorite intramural sport (water polo is a close second), and i was pumped that we had been doing well all season. so let me paint the picture for you: we made it to the final game of the flag football tournament, which was no big shocker. however, we were to play the dreaded softball team, who only plays one intramural sport because it is a guaranteed victory for them every year. and it has been that way for the last seven years. needless to say, we went into the game fully aware of our fate and just happy to know that we would at least be getting second place points. we got to play in the actual stadium, under the lights and all, which was AWESOME and one of my smaller dreams fulfilled. as cool as that was, it did not even compare to what went down on that field that night. the first play of the game, i found myself intercepting a long pass and going in for the touchdown...what just happened??--my exact thoughts as i stood in the endzone, post touchdown score. we were in the lead, WHOA. before i knew it, we had a few more touchdowns and not only beat the softball team, but MERCY-RULED them. they were pissed. and i must say that i felt bad for doing this to them...but my excitement far outweighed my guilt. it was GLORIOUS. possibly the climax of my college career.

As if that were not enough, we also faced the feat of playing in the championship soccer game later in the week. we were playing another sorority team that had previously beat us in a shoot-out, without even having two of their best players present. we were extremely nervous about this game, but half of our sisters ended up showing up to support us and that helped to motivate us. long story short, we beat them 3-1, ending the week in two monumental victories. celebration ensued.

we are one step away from reclaiming the intramural cup for the year and i feel satisfied in my efforts as the intramural chair, although it has mostly been the intensity, talent and passion of my girls that has carried us through to this point.

i am pumped to see what next semester holds for us...water polo here we come!

L-S-Who??

so i cannot let this past weekend's events go untold. they are by far too noteworthy to be forgotten. we shall begin with perhaps the most significant news: UK's double overtime victory over the reigning, FORMER NUMBER ONE seat team LSU. as my friends and i made our way to lexington to eat before our homecoming dance this weekend, the excited chatter that you would typically expect to occur on such a trip was instead replaced with complete silence as we all listened intently to the game via the car stereo. upon entering the hibachi grille, we joined the sea of blue-clad spectators crowded around the bar television watching in anticipation as the score remained tied with only minutes remaining in the game. realizing we needed to order and eat quickly in order to have plenty of time at the dance, we tore ourselves away from the game to do so. as soon as our orders had been placed we were back at the t.v., screaming and biting our nails as our wildcats pulled out the victory. an immediate phone call to my parents and brother made as a round of celebratory beverages was served. a great start to the night. it was time to party.

we left the restaurant and sat through the unavoidable lexington traffic- of course our dance had to be located in the heart of lexington on one of its biggest nights of the decade. but we didnt mind, it was a small price to pay. when we finally reached the hotel (which just happenes to be attached to none other than Rupp Arena itself) we entered on the bar side. we laughed as we witnessed the mass amount of gold and purple attire surrounding the bar. needless to say, the LSU fans were drowning their sorrows and more than willing to buy drinks for certain college girls dressed in formal dance attire. it was a beautiful sight to see the harmony between the blue and the purple that night. or maybe it was just the booze.

camping, caves, and crawdads

being surrounded by nature and good friends is one of my favorite combinations in life. i try to combine these two every chance i get- going camping is one of the best ways i have found to do this. after several weeks of getting readjusted to life as a student, it was time to escape the stress and craziness of school and just relax. so we packed up our tents, sleeping bags and coolers full of escaping mechanisms, and headed up to one of our favorite spots- the Gorge. red river gorge has been home to many a fun-filled adventure with my friends and i. hiking, fishing, caving, shimmying up trees, sliding down muddy hills, scaling giant rocks/cliffs, and braving sub-freezing temperatures at night are just some highlights of previous trips. this past weekend included several of these things as well as a few new ones to add to the list. i must say that catching, cooking and eating crawdads was a new experience for me as well as capturing a deadly copperhead snake...which i had no involvment in whatsoever due to my slight fear of snakes-and dying. our caving experience also proved to be quite dangerous as we climbed our way through the slippery caverns, inched along tiny ledges, and somehow emerged through a sinkhole by clawing our way out of the 90 degree surface. later in the night we built a cozy campfire in which we cooked our dinner consisting of hotdogs, some cold beverages and crawdads...yes, crawdads (we were curious). after some good stories and much laughter at each other's expense, we retired to our tents where we utilized each other's body warmth in a completely innocent and platonic way and laughed until we crashed. the next morning we arose early and ended a great camping trip with the traditional breakfast at waffle house. twas a good time- to be repeated many more times.

i've got soul but i'm not a soldier

this may be one of the most amazing shows i've ever been to. and i've been to a lot. the louisville palace is by far my favorite place to see a band. the intricate and overly-elaborate decor enhanced by a star-studded ceiling and beautiful lighting creates a magical atmosphere- an automatic improvement to any show. i highy reccommend seeing a show there. ANY show...(Nickel Creek is coming soon!!). picture this: the perfect venue (louisville palace), the perfect group of equally obsessed friends, the perfect band, the perfect song (all these things that i've done)...the perfect night. and as if it couldnt get any better than that, we ended the night defiling our bodies at a local waffle house. perfection. a story for the grandchildren for sure.

NEW BLOG ALERT!

i made another blog. this is the fun one, but the new one is all business baby. ok, maybe a little bit of fun too, or at least let's hope so. it is primarily going to be used to keep the more important public (a.k.a. potential employers, my professors, etc.) up to date with my most recent works. check it out! give me some hits!

here is the link: http://laurenkflaherty.blogspot.com/

C-A-T-S, cats, cats, cats!!

so my Wildcats are making an amazing comeback this season and i must say that it is sad how happy this makes me. we are currently undefeated, and i would like to specifically point out our most thrilling victory thus far- our win over the UofL cardinals who were in great need of an ego buster. we gave it to 'em, and it was glorious. Upon witnessing the violent reactions of many of my friends who are die-hard cardinal fans, i realized just one more reason why i am a UK fan, even though i was born in raised in the GREAT city of louisville. i have always been enamored by the UK athletics tradition. granted, basketball is where my heart truly lies, but with this current football season (and hockey i might add) i have been inspired once again by the greatness of the Big Blue. i actually get emotional during the intro's when attending a game at Rupp. there is just something about being within a sea of blue shirted and blue blooded fans, singing along to my old kentucky home and watching the big K flag circle the court. we are family. and we have class. and tailgating. oh boy do we have tailgating. we make it a point to make every game a celebration, passionately cheering on our boys to a victory. yes, this season has been a long time coming, but oh how sweet it is. and lets hope success is in the stars for basketball as well.

i laughed till i cried

as i laid on my friend's couch one night, preparing to go to sleep, i turned on the television and this is what befell the screen. maybe it was just because i was sleep deprived but i had tears rolling down my face by the end of this. i will never look at a hot pocket the same way again....enjoy.

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let's get this show on the road...

The Sesame Street theme song is running through my head as I set up and begin to create this here blog. It's as though I am a simpleton from the backwoods, trying to sing along to "abc, its easy as 1,2,3..." ok, so that's a Jackson Five song, but the idea still applies. I am still figuring this whole thing out, but it's exciting to be getting out there. Let the adventure begin...!