First item checked off the 30 before 30 list!

excavate all the files I want to keep from my OLD computer before it is gone for good

Taylor and I decided to take advantage of a low-key weekend and the 1 terabyte external hard drive we bought on Black Friday and checked one of the items off of my 30 before 30 list. I have a Dell laptop that I got the summer after I graduated from Vanderbilt. It worked great for more than 3 years, but for some reason when I moved home to Ohio in December of 2008, it slowed to a near crawl and became virtually useless. Coinciding with that, I also got a laptop for my job, which meant that I didn't really need to have my own separate laptop. So, it has sat in our closet since we moved to New York and hadn't even been turned on in almost 2 years.

I have always wanted to make sure that I get all of the files off of it, so that was the project this week. The problem was, that I had no idea what the login password might be. After trying about 5-10 different passwords that I've had over the years and resolving that I'd have to deal with Dell Customer Service, Taylor had the brilliant idea to try just pressing Enter without putting in a password at all and, EUREKA! Turns out the password was nothing, literally.

So, once we were in, it was just a matter of waiting for the dinosaur to start up and then slowly moving all of the music, photos, and documents stored therein over to our external hard drive. I'm pleased to say it was an overwhelming success and I'd like to share some gems that were required. First, a photo from each year represented:

2000: This is the only digital photo I have from high school. It was taken by my friend Steve Kerr for a photo project, I believe. Junior year. I loved that shirt.

2001: This photo is from freshman year of college on a trip to the Opryland Hotel. Still some of the best guys I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
2002: I believe this little gem is from our Freshman year beach trip with the BCM. The combination of silly, sexy, and unnecessarily serious is cracking me up.
2003: This photo was taken my sophomore year on a winter trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This was actually taken about 10 days after I started dating Taylor. Kim and Will (to the right of me) were just barely dating in this photo too. Now they're married and living in Australia! And I must say R.I.P. Thomas Lindsay, who's just to the left of me (in the button down and sweater) and died tragically in the summer of 2005.
2004: It's the summer of 2004 and Taylor and I took a trip to Sedona, Arizona. That trucker hat was all my doing...What a cute photo!
2005: The night it all began. This is the night that I met some of my best friends at a party in Nashville! I wish Brittany was in this shot!

Also 2005. I had to include this one not just because of my *awesome* outfit (pink and green, really!?) but also because I'm working on the computer that this post is about.2006: This is my first apartment in NYC. And yes, it was that small. Fun :)

2007: Traveling to Nashville to run my first Marathon and wearing an "I Love NY" shirt, how fitting :)2008: This is an impromptu engagement photo that Taylor and I took of ourselves the day after we got engaged. He looks a little terrified, no?
Such a fun trip down memory lane.

Oh, and here's another gem, a poem my friend Kenny Lee wrote about me back in college. I think he went through a period where he wrote funny poems about everyone, so here's mine:

Hey I'm Carissa and I major in HOD

Everyone knows that means Hand-Out Degree

I'm really very smart, just like the famous MacGyver

When I'm riding in your car, I'm also a backseat driver

I love to study rocks, when I'm in Geology

And I really prefer boys, who are younger than me

My boyfriend is a freshman, which does seem very fitting

Unfortunately he's in love with Kim, wait, just kidding

I do everything really fast, so I can have a chance

To finish all my essays, three weeks in advance

I do a lot of community service, in case you didn't know

And I'm originally from, the state of Ohio

The guys I met in Italy, think that I'm a hottie

And don't be too surprised, cause I can be a little naughty

This 30 before 30 thing is great!!!