We are the Hokies...we will prevail

It’s hard to put down in words what we are feeling right now. It’s up and down…grief…sadness…pride…disbelief. We have been celebrating the life of our dear friend Stack (Ryan Clark), remembering all of our good times, and how awesome he was. (Because…he was absolutely AMAZING!!!) We’ve been grieving him, along with 31 other lost Hokies. It is difficult walking around our beautiful campus, our home, our alma mater, and understanding that this happened here. You never expect anything like this to happen, and it breaks my heart, as this is the place we love. James and I met in AJ, where the first shootings took place, we lived there for three happy years, and named our puppy after the hall. He looks like Hokie stone, and we wanted to always remember our happy memories at Virginia Tech in AJ (Ambler Johnston). Stack was killed in AJ, at 7:15 in the morning, doing his job as an RA. It’s hard to imagine that we were RA’s in that building last year, responding to arguments and strange situations all the time, never expecting to get hurt, only there to help. Stack gave his life trying to protect one of his residents, doing a job that he loved. Our lives will never be the same, but he is with us as we share memories and see all of the lives he touched besides ours. The outpour of love and support has been amazing, and the support from our fellow Hokie family has been indescribable. We love this community, and we support Virginia Tech and our administrators and police force. Though the Hokie stone is haunting right now, we still love it, and we will never ever forget Monday, April 16th. It is hard to move past what we still do not fully understand and can’t fully comprehend, but we know that we will. We love Virginia Tech, and the Hokies will prevail. We will prevail.

When Great Trees Fall

Maya Angelou dedicated this poem to Ryan, and asked that it be read at his memorial. So much of Stack is in this poem...it makes me cry...it is so powerful, we wanted to share it with you!



When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down in tall grasses,
and even elephants lumber after safety.

When great trees fall in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die, the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,see with a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines,
gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.

Great souls die and our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us. Our souls,
dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened as reduced to
the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.

And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.

Stack's Hokie Stone

329 Strong...

The Marching Virginians have always been 330 Strong...but now we are 329. We miss you Stack!!!

Candle-light Vigil

A beautiful film done by our very own Tim Leaton.

http://timleaton.com/candlelightvigil.htm

Remembering our fellow Hokies

WE ARE VIRGINIA TECH!!

We couldn't be prouder to be Virginia Tech Hokies right now. We would love for you to share in these two amazing videos with us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnuYyOjUA4M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snuc1hDDSiI


Nikki Giovanni said it all!! :-)

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

04-16-2007

James and I are both fine, but ask that you continue to pray for Virginia Tech, those injured, and the 32 members of our community who lost their lives today. Pray for their families, healing, and Blacksburg.

Winter?!

Spring is slow to arrive here in Blacksburg, well, throughout most of America. We left a birthday party in the middle of a night snow storm. The next morning we discovered many buds and blooms covered in snow. The Roanoke paper mentioned some damage to local crops due to the late cold snap. We had a very chilly Easter and several snow flurries. We bought new bikes a few weeks ago and have not had weather conducive to even trying them out! Hopefully for Spring Game next weekend the weather will cooperate with us!

Spring Celebrations

Being back in Blacksburg has enabled us to celebrate important dates with old friends. A few weeks ago, two friends from the Marching Virginians turned 21 and 23, respectively. A large gathering of people went to a few restaurants and bars for dinner and pool to celebrate. To make the event more festive, Angela found cheap light up crowns and wands for the birthday girls. The two (Sarah and JJ) also donned self made tee shirts, which were good for a few free drinks from charitable bar tenders. Angela felt old, as she can remember Sarah's first day of band-camp as a piccolo player. :-) Bic had a merry time, leading one bar in a chorus of song, "Ole, Ole, ole, ole, oleeeeeee, ole, OLE!" He is also pictured here stealing Skippy’s beer! We left for home amidst a sudden and unexpected snow storm.

Slasher film?

It was an awesome scene for a horror movie. Six unsuspecting college students pull off on a scenic overlook to enjoy the beautiful views…little did they know what was in store for them. Evil laughing. But really, the cabin was super creepy. There was this old man sitting in his beat up truck, just hanging out I guess, the entire time we were there. At first we thought he was sleeping, but then we realized he was kind of watching us…probably not really a creepy man, but he could’ve been. Bic scared me when he came back from locking his car, and was like…that guy isn’t in his truck anymore. My heart jumped for a second…and then he was like…Just kidding!! We hiked up to this creepy “love” cabin that had very nice views. It was quite an eventful little hike!

does this place EVER get warm?

Our Texas native...

On Top of the Big V A

Being adventuresome wine tasters, we stopped at a few overlooks along the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way back to Blacksburg. Living in flat Texas for even a few months left me longing for the spectacular valley views mountainous terrain can produce. Though the day was slightly overcast and hazy, we were still presented with great views of the Old Dominion. Being unseasonably warm, some trees were starting to bud producing pockets of color to be enjoyed. At our second overlook stop, a small trail abetted the parking lot that looked enticing, at least to David, Kris, and Mary. Angela, Bic, and I followed the three up the steep incline after locking the cars. At the top was an older, sketchy cabin with a fantastic view. After some candid pictures, gnats drove us off the mountain. The weekend was great and made us hopeful for Spring, but then Winter came back. We had snow on Good Friday and a frigid Easter. The few days of 70 degree weather are to be missed, but much more appreciated when they get here.

Blue Ridge Parkway

Chateau Morrisette

Last weekend Angela rounded up a small gang of people to go off to wine country! No, not Napa Valley, but South West Virginia. Nestled outside of Floyd County and along the Blue Ridge Parkway lies the Chateau Morrisette. Angela, me, Bic, Kris, Mary, and David arrived at a luxurious expanse of vineyards and timber framed buildings. The tour was short but great, there being many curious wine tasters there. One group of more wealthy students had rented out the Hooptie Ride from Blacksburg for the event, apparently in the anticipation of consuming much wine. The tour wandered through a gigantic timber framed building with hundreds of oak barrels for the dry wines and large steel canisters for the whites. The theme is a black lab, which was the owner’s only companion when he started the winery 25 years ago. Several labs later, the current Black lab wanders around the Chateau and apparently aids in the wine process by tasting reds to help decide when they are done. After the tour, we paid 5 dollars to try over a dozen wines at a nice bar within a gift shop. Attending a wine tasting greatly aided us decide which our favorites are. Angela loves sweet whites while I really enjoyed a buttery chardonnay. Bic liked an odd red, “Chambourcin”, which had a rather leathery taste. The last wine we tasted was an expensive desert wine. This was their “Frosty Dog,” and it reminded me of drinking spiked sugar water, but I can see the appeal. After the tasting we wandered around the property and gift shop, which was conveniently placed next to the tasting area. It was a very pleasant atmosphere, as you could buy a bottle of wine, have it uncorked, and enjoy it on a patio overlooking an expanse of mountains. There was an expensive restaurant attached to the Chateau, where there was a 130 dollar “Titanic” themed dinner later that evening. After enough site seeing we headed down the Blue Ridge Parkway to catch some Spring overlooks.

Gobble Gobble!

Spring Football Practice has begun! The stories this Spring center around the offensive line, backup linebackers, running backs and defensive ends, as well as any possible signs of a quarterback controversy. It seems that Sean Glennon has indeed stepped up his game in the weight room and Ike Whitaker is out of alcohol rehab… so I suppose Beamer is going to go with an established starter/white boy from NOVA over a talented but drunken Ike. Spring Game is April 21, and we are really excited! We really can’t believe we missed a football season for grad school. We should have prioritized better! I hope I can at least make the November games of FSU, UM, and UVA as well as the bowl, depending when/if the military wants to train me or not. In any case, I feel that Jim Weaver ought to post live turkeys behind each endzone. Whenever the opposing team scores we can feed those awesome turkey legs they sell at games to the turkeys, hoping the inhumanity will inspire our philanthropic defense!

OUCH!

So, throughout a normal walk with AJ today I noticed some odd behavior. He kept stopping to lay down instead of trying to mark EVERY post we come across. After inspecting him later we discovered a tear in his left hind paw and he wasn't putting much weight on that leg. We cleaned out the paw and wrapped it up so he didn't lick it... but the bandage was temporary.

Can you hear me now?

She said she'd call... but she never did :(