I see how this works now -- when I get time off, I blog. Or maybe it's because someone has been encouraging me. Either way, not a lot has happened since I last posted, but it's enough to make for a short blog.

Yesterday was the Fourth of July and probably one of my favorite holidays (behind my birthday and probably Christmas) due in large part to the fireworks. But, I started off the day with the parade. It was ... disappointing to say the least. There wasn't a single float. Maybe Morgantown doesn't do it up like Wellsburg, and that's sad. There were a few people walking, some firetrucks and a few cars. Lame. The only two worth taking photos of were Cindy Frich (http://twitpic.com/22hilc) and Men's B-ball (http://twitpic.com/22hcyq.

After the parade, Heather (who I met on my Spring Break trip to Italy) decided to go to Eat'n Park. We went back to her house, drank a couple on her porch and watched the general shenanigans of college kids mixed with fireworks.

Then we left to go watch some fireworks. Her cousin said we probably wouldn't be able to see them from her house, so we went driving through the campus. We saw a lot of people gathered by White Hall, so we set up camp there. Their fireworks, too, left something to be desired. Fireworks Grand Finale (http://twitpic.com/22jvba.

I'm back at the paper tomorrow ... It'll be the first time we lay out the smaller edition, so I'm hoping it goes smoothly. Regardless, I'm sure it's going to be a late night. Thankfully, I didn't have to go to DC this weekend. After the last trip, I'm a little nervous to go back. I'm halfway done right now though. Four trips down, four more to go.

At work when we're waiting on a late story and everyone has been there for 12 hours, we start to get loopy. This usually leads to watching ridiculous YouTube videos at 2 a.m. I have literally 100s saved, but I thought I'd put together my favorites. These are my top 10 videos.

10. Buhlud (this won't embed, so check out YouTube for it)


9. Muffins


8. The Sneezing Baby Panda


7. Show Me Your Genitals


6. Backstreet Dorks


5. Big Mac Drive Thru Rap


4. End of Ze World


3. Nintendo 64 Remix (This won't embed, so check out YouTube)


2. WOW Freakout


1. Crazy Subway Girl


That was a lot more work than I expected. Luckily, I have excellent taste, so they're all really funny.

My new website is running: candacerosenelson.com. I'm surprised I actually went ahead and did it. There are a few tweaks that I need to do still, but I definitely have the majority finished. =] I expect this burst of constant posting to wear off soon, so happy Fourth of July.

What is this? Another blog post? Sure, why not. I went to see Toy Story 3 a couple days ago with two of my co-workers. I was never crazy about Toy Story, and I'm not even sure if I saw Toy Story 2. Nevertheless, I've heard Toy story 3 was amazing, and people couldn't stop talking about it, so I wanted to check it out.

The movie started out with the main characters I remembered from Toy Story 1, but there were some missing, and it was revealed they were lost along the way. This reinforced the fact that I really don't think I ever saw Toy Story 2. If that's the case, that's sad.

Anyway, this wasn't a happy-go-lucky type of movie that I generally enjoy. Honestly, I hate seeing sad or scary movies because I deal with enough death, tragedy and terrifying crimes in the news, every day. The last thing I want is to see more of it in my free time. No, I want something that will make me feel good.

So really it tugged on my heartstrings. There were two instances in particular that I had to remind myself to keep it together since I was seeing the movie with two boys and I wouldn't hear the end of it if I actually shed a tear. The main thing that was sad to me was that it was the end of an era. I do remember watching the first Toy Story when I was younger, and I even had Buzz, Woody and the Racecar toys. It reminded me I'm getting old, and in the movie, Andy is off to college. I kind of grew up with the kid.

So, it's been one year since I began this blog. I haven't updated as much as a I would've liked, but I'm not going to promise I'll get better -- because I know it won't happen.

I thought I posted about Paris, but I apparently didn't. I really learned a lot about not only myself but about perceptions of Americans. Right now, it's a mess because the school is saying I owe a lot back out of stipend than I do, but hopefully that will get sorted out soon.

I would've liked to have seen more, and I would've liked to venture outside of Paris and into the more country areas, but it simply wasn't feasible. I saw the Louvre, L'arc de triomphe, and, of course, the Eiffel Tower. The last night there was by far the best time I had. I really was immersed in the French culture and felt welcome, as opposed to the outsider I felt the majority of the time.

I posted a link in my last blogpost, but we had to change it. The newer one is http://sojfrance.blogspot.com/

I also saw the French AP, which was probably my favorite part. The French school of journalism was nice, but they certainly had their opinions about America.

My article (I had to publish about the trip) is here: http://www.thedaonline.com/opinion/now-is-time-to-study-abroad-1.1492324 I wish I was better at writing columns -- that's something I hope to improve in the upcoming year.

Now, I'm currently interning at USA Today every Sunday and Monday, which means I drive to DC every Sunday and come back every late Monday night (2 a.m. ish) to avoid paying to spend another night in a hotel. A Best Western runs about $100 per night, plus gas, plus food while I'm there... really adds up.

Tuesdays I'm editor-in-chief of the DA, which is up and down. I have great days and I have horrible ones. I like the work I do, but the people are sometimes difficult to manager. Luckily, most have become my good friends who I see even outside the workplace.

Wednesday is my day off! That, and Saturday.

Thursday and Friday are devoted to WV Living. This internship is a little break for me because I have time to myself to accomplish what they'd like me to do. Currently, I'm writing product descriptions and artist biographies for their website. I'll also be writing a story soon, so that will be exciting.

My two business classes for the summer just ended -- Thank God! They were the most inconvenient things I've ever had to deal with. I've learned my lesson: no more summer online classes. I do have another that began this part of the summer, but it's only my internship class for credit, and I write one paper per week. So far, so good.

I only have about four weeks left of this craziness, then I'll have a week off for vacation and the insanity of the newspaper begins and shortly thereafter, school. This year, it will include my capstone for English (which is an internship), beginning grad classes and doing EIC.

Sen. Byrd died Monday. It's a sad day across WV. In fact, the governor declared it a day of remembrance and state employees have the day off. Technically, this includes me, but I opted to continue our training this week since I already took the day off from my internship to train and we also have editors in for the week, and I don't want to put this off any longer because we'll just have to set aside another day to do it.

I just wanted to document my life a little bit, but hopefully if I get some more time, I'll update with more. We'll see how it goes.

Hi! Remember how I said I'd be going to Paris, too? Well, that's coming up soon! I can't believe it's here already. I've been running around like crazy getting ready. As part of the Kearns Fellowship, I have created a blog to use while I'm in Paris!

http://chezcandace.blogspot.com/

Chez Candace is the house of Candace. It's French! I think it's cute. I need to finish packing, and we head out Monday at about 8 a.m.

Also, I've been Editor-in-Chief of the DA for the past couple of weeks. Very stressful, but I'm starting to get in the groover of what my job is. Hopefully it only gets better from here. This summer will be crazy between USA Today, WV Living, The Daily Athenaeum and my two business classes -- woo! But it'll be worth it... at least, that's what everyone tells me =]