I know the heart of life is good

Tim and Ali had one of the most awesome receptions I've been to! Check out the beautiful couple!
This is a picture of Keeron, me, Christina and Curtis at the wedding reception.
I love the way the night pictures looked from this night!
Vanessa, Ellen, Ryan, Travis and me at the top of Turtleback.
No, this is not the waterfall that I slid over!! This is Rainbow Falls, which is maybe 1/4 mile hike down from Turtleback.
September so far has been incredible. The last few days have felt like the first days of fall, which usually doesn't happen until late October! I actually wore my hoodie last night when I went over to the outdoor basketball courts to cheer on my friends at their pick up game. Really, though, the weather has been so cool and crisp and the kind of weather that inspires me to wear a light sweater and want to drink my latte outside.
I didn't write much about it before, but Ali and Tim's wedding was beautiful! The weather was perfect, not too hot but not cold, and the sky up on the rooftop was perfect, and dusk is by far the best time to begin a wedding reception. I loved the night. It was an evening of good friends listening to music and laughing on a rooftop with white lights all around.
A few days ago, my friend Ellen and I decided to get a little group together to go up to turtleback falls and rainbow falls. These falls are about a hour and a half away from Greenville, and the drive there is always almost as fun as actually being there. Our friend Vanessa came along, as well as my new neighbor Ryan (Cate, you'd love Ryan. He just moved here after getting his masters in Amsterdam. While in Amsterdam, he went for two months to South Africa to do his thesis and help a tribe with environmental conservation, etc. He's a really cool guy). We drove up on Tuesday morning and met up with this guy named Travis when we got to the falls.
Turtleback is a waterfall that I've been to millions of times, but I've always been too chicken to slide down it. I know that at least once when I was there I saw an ambulance come because someone got hurt, so maybe that has always freaked me out. Or maybe I'm just chicken. But this time, I at least sat on the edge for a while and contemplated sliding down. After watching Travis easily and quickly slide over, then seeing Vanessa slide down (unintentionally; she was yelling for us to help her stop sliding but we couldn't reach her), I really wanted to go down. I mean, if neither of them got hurt, what were the chances that I'd knock my head against some rock or get pulled under some strange current or something? Probably not too high, right? But I kept sitting there next to Ryan, trying to psyche myself up to go over. Finally, Travis came back up to the top of the falls to go over again. I told him I wanted to go over but was too scared, so he grabbed my hand and we went over! Going over a waterfall is one of the most exhilarating and terrifying feelings that i've known. Once you do that final push off and your'e sliding and then in the air rushing along with the water you know that you cannot go back and change your mind. And when you finally go under the water in the pool below you feel so brave and like you can take on anything. At least that's how I felt.
Since our adventure at Turtleback, I've just been trying to keep ahead in school and I've been having a lot of fun with friends. I've spent a lot of time dancing and cooking dinner for friends (Anna: remember that curry chicken with the cheese sauce and rice? I made that last Thursday for some people. I know that was always something you liked a lot). Even though this month has delivered some major disapointments so far, life has also been very rich with great times with friends and family.