NOW and THEN

NOW: On the bench. Five days in. Trying to decide what to get for Jonathan for his birthday.


THEN (12 hours ago): Was at Trader Todds at Belmont and Sheffield watching two Corey Hart enthusiasts belt out some classic hits on the karaoke stage. It was vote #1 Karaoke Bar in Chicago by Playboy. And runs a sweet campaign that if you bring in a jar of use vegetable oil you get a free order of fries.

THEN (38 hours ago): Was at Eva's Cafe in Old Town grabbing a coffee and catching up with Anneliese. Cute and quaint this is the perfect coffee shop to meet for hot pumpkin spiced cider and apple cinnamon muffins in late fall. The neighborhood is kind of shoddy with a horse farm two blocks away [yes downtown chicago]. We then hit up North/Clydbourne area for some J.Crew and Banana Republic shopping. Found a pair of $120 jeans marked down to $9.99

THEN (68 hours ago): Was at Cellular Field with the family to celebrate my Grandpa's 80th Birthday. Crazy that my Grandpa is getting that old. We celebrate first with brunch at my brothers and then headed to the game to watch them beat KC. Highlights include stealing all of my Grandpa's belongings or the random bowling pin mascot that was running around. Props to Cellular field for having the most awesome selection of treats and concessions. Yard margaritas, chicken salads, tofu sandwiches --> very vegetarian friendly

THEN (92 hours ago): Grabbing brunch with the girls at Stellas on Broadway. Scrumptious to say the least. Late brunch with the crazy happenings of the night before. But Stellas serves breakfast all day. Got to love the hometown feel of the restaurant with it being family owned and very mom and pop atmosphere. Post brunch hit up Threadless for their sale [all shirts $12 for the next two weeks!!!]. After a failed attempt at getting beach time with the impending rain we went to Wrigley for some shopping and then back to the apartment to prepare for the housewarming party. Major success by the way and need to give credit where credit is due. My June Cleaver skills gleaned with a full spread of tasty morsels [hummus, homemade gauc and tortilla chips, chicken and cheese croissant sammis, cookie bars]. Nati showed up with a case of beer, thanks love. Whipped out the foosball table which will definitely be used again. Introduced the boy to the parents only after he was belittled for wearing an ND shirt, sadly it was mine. This whole mockery business runs in the family what can I say.

That let me wrap a lot of unfinished story telling. Tonight the boy and I are grabbing dinner at Joy's, reviewing the 2 buck chuck I picked up at TJ's, and having ourselves an ice cream eating race. Check in tomorrow for updates....

Ravinia

Imagine where you were 11 days ago and then you might understand why this post might be brief. August 5th Anneliese pulled out her best game and swooned me into a cello drunked food coma state. However I most definitely won't complain.

That Friday after work I ran down to the CVS to grab a bottle of wine for our picnic at Ravinia to watch Yo Yo Ma. Initially when she brought up the idea of this trip I was picturing Bow Wow's cousin. Alas he's a world famous cellist. The CVS is two blocks away from OTC and upon walking, hilarious site. About ten people all in business dress either holding a case of beer or multiple bottles of liquor waiting at the cashier. Now don't tell ever try to convince me that us business people dont understand the importance of TGIF celebrations. After grabbing a bottle of severely discounted Barefoot Pinot Grigio (believe me when I say CVS has the best liquor sales), I jumped on the Northline to Glencoe.

Anneliese picked me up at the train stop and we went back to her house where she had a ridiculous spread of food ready to be packed. She bought hummus, pita bread, grapes, turkey and avocado sandwiches, two other bottles of wine, and two wine glasses. Maybe this is where I insert that we were biking to Ravinia with this all on our backs. I have no problem with bikes when I am not riding them. It's been about two years since I last rode and I am a strong believer in the saying 'if you don't use it, you lose it'. After packing our bags, scrounging around in the garage for fake look-a-like locks we both attempted to saddle up. Anneliese fell off before exiting the driveway and I found I didn't know how to break. Two rest breaks, an accidental run in with a car, and 1.5 miles later we were at Ravinia. We parked and "locked" our bikes up and headed into the show.

RAVINIA is something else. Think you've been to a lawn concert. You haven't. This place is gorgeous. The speakers are set up to observe the speed of sound. People have picnics set up with full tables, candles, and real chairs. It is a site to see. We parked ourselves down and began to feast and wine ourselves.

Yo Yo Ma wasn't to start until 9:00 and it was about 7:30. After eating all the grapes, almost all the pita and hummus, downing two bottles of wine, and half a sandwich each we both fell into a drunken stupor. Which let me tell you is the perfect mood to be in to listen to the world's best cellist. We laid on the blanket, giggled ourselves silly about stupid girl things, and almost fell asleep to the scoreplay of Romeo and Juliet. Yo Yo Ma was the perfect thing to wind down from a crazy trip to the south. And at Ravinia, you can actually see the starry sky.

AHmazing night.

Only to be further topped when we found a wig collection in her brother's room. Nothing tops a midnight Hansel vs. Derek runway contest unless you've got wigs and a camera phone...

ADVICE TO ALL CHICAGO-ians --> Ravinia is a must. And if you're going call me. I'm down!

BACK HOME AGAIN

Hello all loyal followers.


I HAVE RETURNED!! From the land down under! That might be a lie, but really North Carolina is as foreign to me as Mexico. This was my first real consulting gig and boy did it set some interesting expectations for those to succeed.

For one I got my project assignment Tuesday morning around 10:30. I was called by the project's engagement manager and told that I needed to book a flight for that night at 8:50 out of Midway and into Raleigh-Durham. Let me set the scene a little bit better. At about 10:15 I was sitting in my cube reading through the list of songs on the Phoenix YouTube channel. Upset with how many times they had Fences playing in a row I was attempting to rearrange the order. I then pulled back up a research article debating the merits of click through videos on social sites. An email entered my inbox explaining that I was being considered to jump on a project and when would I be available to jump on a briefing call. Response:
Any moment will do for me
In the call I learned a little about the project at hand:
  • It was a vendor assessment for a new eCommerce platform
  • I would be going to Raleigh, NC for two days
  • And I would be flying out that night

Giving how naive I am I immediately jumped on our AG Axiom site. This is a travel site that AG has aligned with American Express that is supposed to provide us with discounted fares and double points. We learned how to use it in training. But recalling this information in freakout mode is not as easy as it appears. Much later once at the client site I got made fun of by my team for using the site (why did they teach us to use it if no one uses it at AG anyways). Well I selected a departure city of Chicago selecting the O'hare airport NOTE FIRST MISTAKE and then selected arrival as the Raleigh-Durham airport. I was to purchase a ticket for the 8:50 Southwest flight. Alas no flights for Southwest to Raleigh were listed in my results commence anxiety attack. I even filtered my airline results strictly by Southwest. For some reason there were no flights to Raleigh for Southwest all day. Trying to right the situation a little light bulb went off in my head.
How about I use the Southwest site to book my flight! I am such a genius
Come to find out Southwest doesn't even fly out of O'hare only Midway. Ignorance is not bliss...

My PD let me leave the office after lunch so I could find my center and calm down a bit. AKA run to CVS and buy travel size of every toiletry, possibly located a suitcase, and ramp up on the client. Needless to say I got to Midway airport only two and a half hours early to find my flight delayed by half an hour...update three hours early now. No one else from my team showed up until 30 minutes before (true consultants). There were three of us flying together and we didn't land in Raleigh until 12:30. Upon jumping on a bus to the Avis lot we came face to face with the car that was ours for the next two days. Please picture my 6 foot project manager and my 40+ engagement manager and me staring at a teenage girl eco friendly car. Oh boy did that get more than a laugh from me. Especially when it took us a solid two minutes to climb up to 60 mph. We found ourselves checking into the hotel at 1:30 and finally climbing into bed at 2:00 only to wake up 4 hours later at 6:00.

The next two days were a blur of me documenting anything said, expressions observed, drawings from the whiteboard, and screenshots of various web transactions. Amongst all this I will note a few things:
  1. The CIO asking me if I had kids
  2. Dinner at a Best Western
  3. Later that night upon finding out I was born in 1988 asking if I would like to meet his sons and we saying No Thank You
  4. Kendra R from Hooters
  5. Biscuitville for Breakfast
  6. My EM's fondness for Hotwire
  7. My PD finding me asleep in the lobby Thursday morning
  8. Finding the car keys poolside Thursday morning
  9. What do you want from me - Adam Lambert style

All in all a great trip. Friday paled in comparison. Find myself now still working on the same task of compiling the 60+ pages of notes I took from the two day trip. Filing my expenses, clocking my time, and getting free breakfast and lunch! Got to love my company.

And one thing I left Friday with: there is a very high likelihood that I will be assigned to a project in Charlotte, SC starting in two weeks until the end of Thanksgiving where I will be traveling every Mon-Thurs. HELLO Marriott points!!!

Seeing as this post is long enough I shall end here...
But I will write soon about the amazing time I had at Ravinia on Friday night with Anneliese and Matt's bday last night at the Parthenon and Dave and Busters

MASCOT UPDATE


for my fellow brains out there. here is a special tribute to you! couldn't help but laugh myself silly when i found this under the mascot apparel category on ebay. nothing screams school spirit like a downtrodden donkey.

late night laze

how is it that i can lay on my couch yawning for 2 hours straight and as soon as i lay down in bed sleep is the furthest from my mind. myswell be somewhat productive even though the thought of how few hours i've slept in the past few days makes me cringe. think i'm gonna cut the afternoon soda out of my daily schedule. but really how can one pass up free soda pop at work?


today was my first real legit day at the job. no more NHO bootcamp. no more babysitting. i wandered into work at 8:03 AM. i was all fine and dandy making a mock website about how amazing i am, making a pie chart of my weekend activities until mohammed pinged me. 'diane what are you billing your hours to this week?' my heart started racing when i realized that i am now swimming solo in the scary world of consulting and i better get off this bench before my more frequent anxiety attacks start taxing my potential lifespan. so i met with my CAM and drafted all these awesome goals about who and what i want to be; any progress towards this direction is to not be discussed HORSE CART PEOPLE [thanks fessler]. in the afternoon i got a nifty little project to do. after talking big game about how easy it was going to be it only took me 20 minutes to realize that i know nothing. i cannot even determine if commerce done in canada would make a firm international or what the correct definition of a sub-brand could possibly be. let's hope tomorrow gets better.

on a more jovial note i did some second hand shopping with the lovely monica harvey on sunday. had a blast. bought 6 skirts and nothing else. keeps me from having to do laundry this week. i took her to, can you guess it, JOY's for lunch where we commenced to enter our third trimester of thai noodle baby. #9 Bai Tong you will always have my heart. after crawling home and playing family feud online for about 3 hours i hit downtown chi for some grouponing. brain and i went to see Friends With Benefits :-] the smiley face is referencing that i had a good time. as for the movie i would wait until it hits redbox. not bad but not amazingly good either. i wish we would have held out for smurfs 3D.

well i'm going to try and hit the hay. tomorrow i've gots post work plans so i have to get my beauty sleep now. thanks for listening!

This World Is Dearth

Finally done with my New Hire Orientation!! Yay dance around and keep dancing because I got my FIRST PAYCHECK!! Cue N'Sync 'Just Got Paid' and Rebecca Black's 'Friday'

On the flipside this means I must bid farewell to the days of my youth. No more mid day naps, no more Ellen, no more lunch cocktails. Wait who am I kidding I am a consultant I will still get lunch cocktails. And I don't have tv anyways so me and Ellen meet on twitter. And speaking of social media I have joined 4 sites this week alone! Hit me up on Yammer, Pinterest, Google +, amongst restarting this site. It is really useful though because half of my work focuses on understanding technologies, users, what touchpoints they engage, and how they connect and engage in sites. With so much free time in between training sessions eMarketer, after Forrester, after AdAge research articles were read. Learned some interesting things such as:
People are more likely to click through a video on a website on Wednesday
The day that Facebook experiences the most traffic is Thursday-plannning for the wknd

So our last day in NHO Bootcamp started with presentations to higher level managers and executive members. I presented on the Allstate Teen Driver....which by the way IS SOOOO COOL! They created a digital video format so teens can capture a live video or upload a video of them promising to engage in safe driving practices, which is then in turn approved by their parents and Allstate. Also there are some sweet games such as Street Sluth, Allstate Teen Great Race. Below is the link. If you want to waste some time and want to have a fun and cheesy time please click.

www.allstateteendriver.com/games/

If you are wondering what I would do at Acquity Group, this is a project that I could have been staffed on if I was here a year ago. However, given that the staffing manager is taking a week of vacation starting monday I am pretty sure I will be sitting the bench for at least the first two weeks. So CHICAGO 'pencil me in' as I like to say, I am gonna be in town.

I usually have to be super careful cause I LOVE making plans. And as of now most of my upcoming weekends are booked :-/ This next weekend I am coming home :-). The following [Aug 6-7] Lollapalooza with Nati. Then Becca might be coming the following weekend. The 20-21 is free but I feel like I have something. Then the next weekend is Milwaukee- YAY haven't seen Whitney in forever and the brother and wifey are coming too! Then it's Labor Day with the fam as usual out in boondocks Illinois. However this year will be special we've got a boat dinner cruise planned, my grandpa is turning 80, and I am two hours closer since I now live in Chicago :-o

I need to stop speaking about the future and tell y'all bout the last two nights. So my date went great. He took me to Feast out in Bucktown YUM! And all you need to know if were going out again this next Thursday too but my treat. As a noob to Chicago this is gonna be tough to pick something out- Clark Dog? Joy's Noodles [def an option lol]

Found out yesterday at work that my college buddy was leaving Acquity Group and it was his last day. Sad news for me for now I am a stray NH College kid. After work we went over to Jefferson Tap and had a happy hour with some pitchers of Stella. Needless to say I left with three new college buddies. I was so proud of myself though because I hate riding solo to meet up with people and I hate even more to go to an event where I don't know anyone really that well - makes networking a problem. But I went and had a great time and met a lot of people so props in my book. Afterwards I ran home and headed over to Duffy's to meet with the other new hires where we celebrates the end of bootcamp. $20 all you can eat and drink from 6-11. Let me specify for you readers that the all you can eat was loosely applied. When I visited there sad definition of a buffett they were three ribs and a scoop of mac n cheese. This bar was sooo fratty thought. However when I texted that to Nick autocorrect nicely changed it to this 'this place is so dearth'. Whatever that means? Later on in the evening Nick showed up [plently of interesting stories here but they best be told in first person] and Nati her boyfriend and her brother. We all headed out down the street to Matisse (love this place!) where we preceded to play Connect 4 and Jenga for the rest of the nite. Sounds lame but I actually had a great time. Love my friends.

Well anyways todays a new day and I must prepare. Cubs game in an hour!

miss meeeee?

sat in the same chair, in the same room, with the same people, looking at the same deck. FOR THE PAST 8 HOURS.

Good thing:
1) I enjoyed what we were going over.
2) The executive kitchen with the keurig and nice tasting coffee has access through this room.
3) The view of the Chicago skyline from the 22nd floor boardroom
4) We got free lunch from Potbellys

BUT WORK TALK IS BORING

sooo moving on- got to see my friend Kim +1 to my Chicago circle!!

While walking home from Ace to get a key cut Nick and I ran into two people on the streets. Yea we run this city...kk not really. We can't say "we run this city" until we go to Parrots per definition of Nick. But that was why I was meeting up with Kim. To give her a key to my Purdue apartment so she can get the table she bought off my roommate Leslie. When we got back to the house Nick goes "You should try out the key and see if it works." Sorry Nick but I feel that walking to West Lafayette (since I have no car or Zipcar account yet) would not have a nice ROI for how much my time sells for now.

But enough speak about today I have exciting news from last night's TRIVIA at Wild Goose. My team, and by my team I mean Rupert Murdoch's Ninja Wife team almost won!! We were first going into the second round, which came with an award of SocoLime shots. And let me be brief in describing this trivia but it was nothing of the sort I had ever seen before. First it was no question answer Trivia Pursuit. This was mind stumpers, rhyme time, riddle working, and hands-on activities trivia. Sadly we came in third....but nothing beats an amazing night of trivia with 80% of my friends from Chicago (aka 4 people; none of which follow my blog!).

Well anyways I best be singing off Miss Rolston here has a date tonight! And that's how the cookie crumbles Lakeview!

Another Day. Another Training Session

Day 8. Nothing is more exciting than learning about content migration. I know all you readers must be so jealous. Take note of my dual facing sarcasm; mocking my depressing follower count.

Last night me and some fellow Acquitians (AG employees) went to the ComedySportz DrekFest. Thinking I was in for a good laugh or two, boy was it a surprise when I didn't even chuckle once. Came to find out that the show for the night was the finals for worst 10 minute play ever written. The night wasn't a complete waste- WE FINALLY GOT INTERNET! No more wifi surfing and over consumption of coffee just to abuse the free internet at Starbucks and Caribou Coffee. I have as of yet to use it but given that our house is structured similarly to a bunker with no internet reception entering or leaving this is great news. Almost great enough to be posted on the GM media page that we just did a deep dive into for Adobe CQ demos.

Welp back to training! Over and out, keep it classy readers.

60657

I think I have a crush on my blog. Thank goodness Acquity Group's onboarding process included training on html since I have forgotten everything from this semester past. I've been working these past few weeks trying to tailor the template I downloaded to reflect me, myself, and I.

I now sit in the AG office- 22nd floor of Olgivie Transportation Center. Got to love the location since I'm such a foody and we sit atop a huge food court. However that's not what had me hooked. On my first visit into the office, I had a serene Devil Wears Prada moment. Not only did I have to use a badge to access the elevator lobby, but upon the opening of the elevator doors I was ushered through glass doors to an aped lobby from the movie set. Thank goodness the experience was sans Anna Wintour...I mean Miranda Priestly.

These were not the two reasons I took this job even though they rank highly on the list. But speaking on the subject I am so glad I did. My transition to Chicago has been seamless. I have a crazy energetic roommate you keeps me running for my sanity- love you Nick. Thanks to him, in the past two weeks I have come to be the sole caretaker (I know the fish is joint custody...but you have no case) of Frankie Muniz the beta and Flami the inflatable pink flamingo I found in my shower. But more on this topic later.

The workday is over and I am starving! Something about not moving fr 8 hours in a room set at a temperature of 55 makes me ravenous when the work bell tolls. I will return soon!

FOURTH

HAPPY 5th of JULY!!

Wow halfway through the summer. While sometimes I feel like the time has flown when I am sitting in my cube at work on Friday afternoons around 2:30 time has never crawled so slowly.

Work is going good. Since I am a PURDUE MIS student I was assigned a pretty sweet project. I have bimonthly meetings with the CIO and his Leadership Team. I get frustrated easily at work because our department is severely understaffed so I often lack direction and defined work goals. My manager has been in Natick about everyday since I have been here I feel horrible for her but she will be back Tuesday :] and she is super cool and funny. As for my other colleague one cube over...Svetlana boy does she add a dynamic personality to the cube farm. She is currently having an affair in her cube lol. As is her husband works as the CIO for another company and a BSC employee and her are doing the deed one cube over. The usual preteen giggles, spotted leaving the trails in the woods, caught red handed.... BSC such an exciting Corporate Experience.

But no for reals I am loving Minneapolis. I didn't know what to think of this place when I first moved here. The homeless people are so deranged I was slightly petrified of this city. This summer though is awesome. BSC helps by taking us to a new awesome place every week and footing the bill. Two weeks ago we went on a boat cruise along the Mississippi River. Buffet dinner and drinking tokens. Our managers came along. It was great to get to know some of my co-workers on a more personal level outside of work. For instance- Gary loves to bake (put in my request for an apple crisp pie) and he fishes! So next Friday our department is grilling out at his lake house, fishing, and enjoying pies!

This past Thursday all of us interns went the Twins Game. And traveled around the stadium with out $25 meal vouchers. I scored in on a chicken sandwich big surprise NOM! and two rum and diets from the rather flirtatious bartender in the Grill Ristorante. While I did not watch the game that much I saw a homer and cheered in a ridiculous manner for at least 5 minutes. It was a grand ole time. I met some new interns and hung out with the usual IS crew. Afterwards a big group of us went over to Drink and used our profit voucher money to float the bill for the rest of the night. Home at 1:30= worst day of work ever. The Friday before a holiday weekend, no sleep, and slightly hungover. It was a blast. I think I ran into the wall during lunch about three times.

As for our amazing IS lunches that happen everyday, there is too much to say. They are livesavers for giving me a break from the Dell stare. Ben with his kiddy lunch game of PBJ or ham and cheese, bumps on a log? Stupid antics. The cookie club that I am a proud and victorious member.

This weekend though has been a surprise. I had the option of going to Duluth, Summerfest, and down to Chi. I am soo indecisive I couldn't pick so I didn't and stayed here by default. Saturday morning I traveled out to Excelsior to meet with Anneliese for lunch. Had another chicken sandwich nom and a cocktail that got me buzzed more than it should have. Caught some grill time with the Page boys before heading to the Mall of America. Met up with Lori and her friend Jenn there walked around did some window shopping and gawked at the massiveness. Hugo the Creep Frog over at rainforest cafe, just playing with the weird flying slippery toys when who is breathing over our shoulder...

We headed to Canterbury shortly after....had a classic horsetrack day. Petted some ponies, had a beer, had a rum and diet. Put some money on the cute jockeys and watched them win :) Played some cards and people watched. Then stayed to watch the fireworks. Which thank you preteen for taking pictures of us during the fireworks. It wasn't creepy. It was a great time because I miss all my girls back home and they definitely filled that void. Afterwards I booked it home to meet up with Niraj and Timmy at Bario's a quick double shot and a blue moon. Headed over to First Avenue where I got kicked by Sean repeatedly, another double shot of Jager. Bounced from that scene and over to Seven where I hung out with the Pride Rock gang----met a man named Simba who can macro LIFE DOESN'T GET BETTER!!! Died laughing because from the rooftop we had a perfect view of a giant flatscreen billboard that was running advertisements for spaying cats and dogs.

Yesterday I slept in unto 10:30 and made my way over to the Farmer's Market to get some strawberries for the grill out and peruse the stalls. I want to go back to the market and get some fresh veggies and enjoy the lemonade and dogs. Came back downtown and a huge group of us headed over to 'beautiful' Powderhorn Park. Amazing afternoon. Had myself a hamburger some chips and dip, cookies and cream ice cream. And about two hours of soccer playtime. Running around playing my favorite sport :] After chilling for about 6 hours we headed back to Marquette and went to the roof for some fireworks. Coolest experience because we got a panoramic view of about 30 firework shows. We could see shows in the parks, downtown st. paul, the lakes. Just hanging out on the rooftop with good friends and some beers. Niraj, Timmy, and I went over to The Local afterwards and got some Gingers. Long day though so I headed in at 1:00

Today is lunch at Masa and then Toy Story 3! I love 3 day weekends :) work tomorrow please no haha

Peace out! Updates soon will be a visit from my mom and maybe some story drops from Kimmy's wedding last weekend- most amazing time of my life (stealing the words from Cindy Lauper myself)


First Week in Minne

It's been a week exactly since I moved into my lofty condo in Loring Park. From my bedroom I get a sweet view of the interstate and the creepy Sunshine 24 Hour Buffet. Surprisingly the former is quite useful in determining the latest time I can get up, battle through traffic and make it to work still on time. I have one roommate named Delia, pictures to follow. However Marquette Place is full of BSC interns. I met most of them at the daily continental breakfast on the 4th floor. Which sounds more amazing than it truly is. Unless donuts for bfast every morning is your dig you might want to still invest in morning groceries.

I am the newest Rolston family member to join the cube farm. I am a mushroom top. Monday was basically a whole day of orientation where we all forced conversation begrudgingly trying to get to know each other. The next day I sent my first corporate email which was as follows:

Hey Familia,

Two hours left in my first "official" work day at Boston Scientific. Wanted to fill you all in on how awesome I am. I now am a proud owner of a cubicle that is quite large and decorated in the minimalism style that comes furnished with a green squeaky chair. On the upside I got myself a ThinkPad company laptop woot woot, and an office phone line: (651)582-7021. Please call as the robot voice saying my name is the funniest thing I have heard in years. They are still processing my employee information so training doesn’t start until tomorrow. Today I have been working on becoming familiar with my project for the summer. Essentially my department is in charge of managing the project information for the information systems department support system here at BSC. We manage information for the information managers. That kind of makes me chuckle. Well yesterday during my ethics course I learned I can send brief messages that don't pertain to work but long ones could end me up in a holding cell in building 5 so I better sign off. I will call tonight and tell you about my manager and all that fun stuff aka free company lunch at BIG BOWL nom nom!

Love Muchos,
Diane


I have had an epiphany of sorts. All my life I would always ask my mom and dad when they came home from work: So what did you guys do at work today? The same mundane answer: Oh had a few meetings did a little of this, a little of that. And I was sooo confused. Hello you were at this work place 9 hours today and you can't give me a straight answer on anything that you did. So I came to the assumption that they really didn't do anything. So when I would call them at work to talk cause I was bored, I would be so confused when they said they had to go and couldn't talk long.
So my mom called me at work to see what I was up to. First off I felt horrible for interrupting business hours with such a personal call. And then when she asked me what I had been doing at work my answer: Oh had a few meetings did a little of this, a little of that. BAM ! I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I am now in my parents world. Where my hours are consumed by monotonous tasks that aren't even worth noting for remembrance.
Besides that I am loving the cube world. Got some decorations up, including my Taylor Lautner calendar which gets a lot of attention from my female coworkers :]. However the best thing about BSC is my phone. There is an automated robot voice for my voicemail. AHHH definitely not a Garmin voice, more like a scary female terminator death voice. Laugh everytime.

Well off to Lake Calhoun intern grillout. Caio!

It's been nine months since my last post. somethings have changed. i no longer live in the united kingdom, a topic on which i am still sitting on the fence when the question of how i am adapting arises. my tutor made an interesting comment the other day. see i am left handed and she said that a left handed person has the ability to best adapt because we have been adapting since birth. i asked her what i have been adapting to and she said living in a right handed persons world. maybe i see her point but when i really think about it there isn't much i have had to adapt to. a few instances come to mind. i am forced to use my right hand when operating a mouse, a car, or most game controllers. When I was younger and went to sports camps they never had a left handed club. i don't think that is the sole reason for my complete lack of skill in the sport but it could be a contributing factor. i also suck at bowling and there is no left handed argument there.

other things that have changed. i would like to announce that i have the cleanest driving record of the family. to everyone that knows me this will come as a complete shock but my mom and dad have gotten into wrecks since my european departure. and i know what comments the peanut gallery will begin to shriek, and yes i have only been back on the road for 4 months but I have been an agile and defensive driver thus far, let me add lucky as well. i have two new kitties Hogwarts and Blondie. Blondie's mother was a weed addict he is very demure and always has the im laid back swagger. Hogwarts mother had a different drug preference and its obvious she is a crack kitty. she is very excited and energized at all times. she is the first cat i have seen that jumps in the air to be petted.

right now i am home for fall break, a short period of time purdue grants to us students so that we may attempt to regain our sanity before hell opens up. i spent the first two glorious days locked in studio trying to catch up on my senior collection. i drove home yesterday and within 5 minutes had a plate in the microwave. i didn't realize how bland my diet had become. lean cuisines and fiber one. i really should try to diversify my food selection. my mom's refrigerator was the equivalent of DZ in my childhood. last night i went to a party one of my mom's friends was hosting. a one year wedding anniversary, pregnancy, house finished, husband gaining citizenship party. it was my first grownup party to say the least and i am quite proud of my showing. i was not raucously drunk like the lady downstairs, i made good conversation, and i was not a dessert table stalker like many...ahem father. it was neat to make talk with adults on adult topic things and pretend the most exciting event in my life was the awkward conversation i had with the kroger fruit manager this past week. they found the idea of breakfast club to be the most abstract idea and died laughing when i showed them past costume pictures. overall great night seeing as i finished it with episodes 1,2, and 3 of Seinfeld Season 3. Joe Dimaggio is a dunker?

Today my mom took me flu shot hunting thank goodness CVS and Walgreens were out I despise needles and really don't see a problem with lying in bed for a week with the most amazing excuse. Family fun day also consisted of traveling to Anderson Orchard in Mooresville. Weirdest concept is they have free test taste apples for each species so that you buy a peck of your favorite. So after four free apples, apple cobbler with ice cream, and apple cider my family and I left quite satisfied with ourselves and headed down the road for some more food. Gray's how I missed thee. Never disappoints.

At home I made myself sit down and read the current Time cover to cover. Topics from Obama's healthcare reform ideas and how they don't really fix the issue just patch the cracks, to how housing subsidies are becoming ridiculous in concept and in governmental cost credits are all over my head but its good to inform yourself so you can at least pretend your well educated on current issues. What I did gather is that I want to see the Coen brothers' latest film A Serious Man and that if America is to point fingers at a troubled regime in Iran the man to blame may not be the current President Ahmadinejad, who seems to be the poster boy of Iran but really only controls the domestic economy, but actually the Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. A man I would most likely run from if he was to ever to come within 100 miles of my secluded and sheltered life.

Signing off from Avon

so im kinda tipsy...i don't lie

tonight i was supposed to go out with girls from my fashion styling class. but between the excitement of learning lady gag was coming to town with pcd and that i really have no money. it became 23:00. going out at this hour with a cover fee of 5pounds aka everything you have with no transportation and class in 12 hours not a good idea. so i am staying in.  i just made a grilled cheese cause i found SLICED CHEESE YAY!!! it tastes AMAZING!! today marina and i went shopping the ritzy district. harvey nichols= purhcases nada. zara and h&m we keep our pride. met up with our flatmate for a drink that didn't happen. returned my dress at juicy couture. i must have been on drugs when i thought i could afford that.  but london definitely has a different vibe this term.  fall quarter had one big group of girls that was all friends. this term there are separate cliques.  my new flatmate melissa and the group. ellve, chelsea, amber, meg.  abbie, jennifer alyssa, group.  and the alumns from last term. kinda fringing on all of them.  then my roommate, i, john, carolina, svena, and on.  thanksgiving crew.  flat 33.

but needless this past saturday i went to CAMBRIDGE!! i choose the coldest day of the year to go -3 degrees celsius.  we got there walked 100 ft. stopped got coffee.  walked 200 ft. got lunch and sat for 2 hours. walked through a market got hot chocolate and got kicked out there for sitting too long. went shopping INDOORS. bought nothing. put on our toughest faces and toured the campuses.  in the uk colleges are similar to the varying schools at universities in the states. so university of cambridge is comprised of many universities. we toured the most famous ones. ate some cornish food. bought a cambridge uni sweatshirt. got a train ticket called it a day. 

sunday i went to church down in south kensington. a mass in latin. the guy wa about 5 minutes from death and faced the opposite way of the congregation for more than half of the mass. talk about fast food jesus. then i had homework to do at the v&a.  met up with friend kevin and john for a movie: ROle ModELs. not bad kinda typ. and then got dinner at this amazing italian food eatery called zizzi.   mushrooms are my life!!

second week of school. getting used to the fact this will be a cakewalk. no immediate homework.  this term includes vacations to: glascow, scotland. paris, france. florence, italy. stolkholm, sweden. granada, spain. and grecian islands. if all pans out. and a trip to oxford. 

well now i am way past tired.
goodnite crowd

life write about now

so i have been seriously neglecting my blog...i had an inkling this would happen ha! but anyways i am at my grandparents now celebrating christmas. my grandpa gave me a 5X Obama Tshirt and my brother a 6X, glitter and all. so now we both have a perfect outfit for the upcoming ghetto thug partys we have been invited to.

i just booked my flights for second term. i fly out january 4th which is only 8 days away. time has gone by way to fast. i flew home the 15th and spent the night at anneliese's after a dinner of oxtail and apple crisp. adding to the letdown i would receive once i returned to the kitchen of mama rolston. that monday we traveled to four airports in three different countries and used 4 different forms of transportation, surprisingly we were still in human form at the end. we flew out of berlin that morning into stanstead london. then we flew out of heathrow after a long bus ride into chicago ohare. the following day i met my brother for dinner, my first american restaurant in months. thursday night was the escada christmas party. watched my bosses and coworkers drink themselves in oblivion while trying on lingerie and posing playboy style for the hired photographer :] after our party crashed we headed over to louis vuitton for their holiday party...LAME! so we all went over to cheesecake factory for a few christmas drinks. then as usually nathalie and i set out to burn the city.

the next morning i headed out to geneva way of train to visit my uncle phil and aunt karen. we went to the little traveler, 3rd street and caribou coffee the highlights of this chicago suburb. the following night i had a wedding on the outskirts of geneva for my love amanda hermann now de silva. so for christmas my aunt and uncle bought me a dress esemble for the wedding! it was so kind of them. i got a red christmas dress from nyc, heels, jewerly, the whole package. they took me for pizza and i was basically drooling at the table. london has a funked up rendition of pizza, mainly sausage=hotdog so don't ever order that. and for some reason pizza hut is a sitdown upscale restaurant on the other side of the pond...we once went there to grab a drink cause we were so thirsty. but then we were greeted by a hostess stand and candlelit tables. no need to worry kfc was across the street haha so we hit them up instead.

anyways...the next morning after cinnamon rolls from brahm's i met up with whitney at C&B for wedding gift shopping..so typ of us to wait till the last day. but i missed whitney sooo much. i hadn't seen her since the beginning of august. and i hadn't heard her voice since the end of september. when i called her when i got off the plane we basically cried to each other over the phone. it was so great to see her. we met up with ross and ben, after waiting 30 minutes for their never arrival they picked us up and took us to panera. there we questioned their friendship responsibilities, even after they bought me lunch ha. i missed them both so much. while overseas and i don't realize how much i miss them cause i NEVER get to talk to them. my computer crashed but even then skype never worked on it. NEWS: the old man...santa, brought me a mac so no worries. whitney and i got ready at my aunt's. scarfed down chicken salad, and was just in time to get in for the wedding. laughing the whole way cause this is the story of our life. hanging out with ryan at the reception was a blast. amanda looked absolutely beautiful. it was so great seeing her and kara. we danced the night away like we had no pride. then the twins ahaha wedding horror story. ross picked us up around 1am. went back to his house. i slept in the other twin bed in his room and we caught up until 3am. then the next morning i poked him awake around 6.20 to take me to catch the train. nevermind the 10 degree weather or the fact we got 3 hours of sleep. THANKS ROSS!! then finally on sunday after tundra downtown temperatures, getting locked out of the condo, catching up at savor the flavor, i got on a bus to go home. 6 days after i landed i finally got to see my family and home friends. haha and on the way home i told my mom i get to pick dinner my first night home and she agreed. i go chicken and noodles and stouffers mac n cheese, to cut to the chase i got microwave meatloaf, my mac thanks, green beans in a can....its standard.

but anways back to my flight plans. i am flying back in may 29th. this is REAL different from original plans. i wanted to go to a school in denmark but i had to concede that so i could go to hong kong. the economy has taken a hard hit on my family and my college fund (which is in the stock market). with the unsure future and my mom's insecurities of my safety abroad i knew it wasn't happening. the school in denmark is krannert supported and does not charge tuition. in the end it is cheaper to go to this school than it is to return and take purdue classes. the housing option includes a meal plan. so $1000 for a month in denmark with 6 transfer credits..amazing deal. but my parents don't see eye to eye with me on my study abroad desires. and i was going to stay three weeks after the end of the aiu spring term to travel around europe. but my mom doesn't want me traveling alone and with the uncertainty of the economy they aren't sure if i will be able to stay overseas. i found about 20 different internships in downtown indy that are marketing and promotion directed that i am currently applying for. and they all require 10-12 weeks so i myswell head home for those. and i need money. so my new plan is living at home this summer with an internship and job and school. this next year i have decided to return to purdue to graduate within ADT. the fall semester of my super senior year i am going to Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute, it is accredited by CFS and Krannert. I will graduate in 5 years with both degrees and minors in marketing and fine arts. Then either next summer or the summer after my final graduation my parents will take me on a tour of Europe and afterwards I will be allowed to stay over to travel and see my friends and family...and maybe never come home hahaha. i probably shouldn't joke about that my mom doesn't find that funny. but who knows...america pales in comparison to me compared to europe and the other continents. and while i know this may make me sound ungrounded and unrealistic i really want to a) join the peace corps and maybe find a position amongst their organization and b) work for a cruise line and travel the world before i start to age and have to abandon my nomadic lifestyle. who knows...if i pursue this i strongly believe my family will disown me, which looking back at my santa presents i do not think i am willing to give that up.

anyways enough rambling. i leave next sunday and i will be home in five months time.

MELONHEAD



This is my melonhead that I made in class. I named in Maestro Gus Gus, a tribute towards my favorite mouse of history. The picture within the text is a chocolate ice cream covered waffle-yummers! I believe my melonhead closely resembles Michael Phelps...

Hey there Fernando

Wow three weeks in...time is flying by. So quick update. My roommate Roberto codename Fernando, he likes to poke moving objects with his dick and sometimes pays for it. We actually don't even need to speak in code around him because he doesn't really understand english, so if we talk fast enough we can say anything. For example, last night he walked him and I said Hey there greaseball sweet outfit. And then Anneliese added, did you just get finished having sex with your male counterpart Lorenzo. And he just laughed because that is his default answer to anything he doesn't understand so that was fun. But truely he was wearing skinny girl jeans with hightop shoes and he gelled his hair down and it look so diirrty. His birthday is next Monday so we are debating if we should do anything for him, we asked him if he would take us to dinner on the big day and he said he would think about it :].

Anyways school is absorbing my life. Four classes here is considered overload, 12 credit hours in 10 weeks. I have four sketchbooks only one which i have thus worked on, but my teachers are emphasizing to me that needs to change. We started drawing nude figures in life drawing. His name is Frank he is 60 something, deaf and blind(drew from observation), tattoos everywhere, and BUTT IMPLANTS...oh yea he is a cross-dresser and he tried to show some pictures to a girl in our class of something that our teacher grabbed away real quick and since then we have not seen her anywhere...mysterious. So my design research class, my teacher reminds me of my friend sophia if and only if she decided to do coke for the next 20 years. she is very interesting. she introduces our class by telling us a story about a vacation her husband and her took to spain in the 1970's where they ran into this family from 'The Yemen'. And she continues to refer to it as 'The Yemen' for 30 minutes. P.S. our class is about the Cold War...still no mention or correlation an hour in. And since our class is 5.5 hours long we usually get a half hour break in the middle. So our break is approaching and she goes so break how about 15 minutes. Groans and mumbles from the peanut gallery. She then says okay 20 minutes wow you guys are so greedy. We leave at 4.00 and all of us arrive back at 4.20. Our teacher, yea she shows up at 4.45?? Excuse me?? haha she is an interesting person. And my other two classes have the same teacher. Stuart McKenzie who is soo cute. He purses his lips when he gets mad or thinks real hard and I think its adorable. But he is so talented. In his class we just work on stretching the box of our artistic realm and exploring different themes and media. Yesterday I was telling Meg in my class how much I hate visors that when I see them I actually get chills an Stuart starts laughing and says I actually bought two visors this weekend, I was planning on wearing one today but it didn't match my outfit. The class goes dead silent, shit. And then he starts laughing and says bloody like i like visors. then we talked about the worst fashion trends ever, fanny pouch, ponchos, so on. In my digital imaging class with him we made a melon head and added various edible parts for face pieces Mine ended up turning out as a replica of Michael Phelps, big ears sticking out. So I told Stuart I named mine Michael Phelps and he goes whos that.....so I drew a picture of Michael Phelps in my sketchbook...and wrote him a peronalized note identifying him. Stuart lives underneath a rock.

Outside of school this past weekend I went to Scotland, which I have no idea how to identify..is is a country, a region, a state, a continent. Regardless, its wicked hilly and a 15 minute hike up a hill to our hotel is not a highlight. Oh and anneliese and I were so excited!! cause we sleep on wooden boards here in our biscuithead apartment. And the idea of a hotel bed was more exciting then dating Tony or eating a whole gallon of B&J. We stayed in hotel room #1...really never knew hotels had a room #1. needless, it was amazing, we even had a heater and a tv! So we went on a tour of old and new town of Edinburgh which roughly translates in german to 'Edin Castle'. Later that night we went to a Ceilidh which is a traditional Gaelic music and dance gathering + a bar and hot scotish men in kilts. so we all got a little tipsy then scotish people tried needlessly to teach us dance moves. While we drooled over their highlander beauty. There we plenty of times that we fell over and were dragged along the floor and were trampled while we were in deep thought about the next dance move but it was an amazing time. Afterwords we went out clubbing, which is very interesting in Scotland. At the door they give you a voucher to get into the club free.. and it was about midnight as we entered a club called faith and we were the only ones there-no joke. After five minutes three drunk people walked in and provided amusing entertainment. So we went in early cause the next morning we were headed to Holyrood Castle, the official estate of the Queen in Scotland. Ill bypass a history lesson and just say it was pretty sweet. Afterwords our group set out to climb Arthur's Seat a 820 feet extinct volcano mountain. It didn't appear too daunting, obviously our vision needs to be checked. Our teacher Tony, a gorgeous 40 year old man father of two children and also possesor of superhero speed, embarrassed us all. He scaled it in about 10 minutes only taking breaks so we wouldn't die and attemting to conger up something to talk about so we weren't too embarrassed. Just further imprinting the whole American Obesity idea. When we got to the top and after I arose from my collapsed position, I found out we weren't there yet...So we had to climb this rock wall in the rain to our impending death. The view was amazing. I dropped my memory card down the elevator shaft cause I am that cool, so Anneliese has all the pictures. It was soo windy too, Scotland as a whole is very windy and hilly. It was an awesome experience. The climb down wasn't exactly oodles of fun in the hurricane-like weather. But no worries cause we found a starbucks and we all refueled on hot chocolate. Besides Starbucks Scotland has Quizno's, Subway, KFC, Burger King, McDonalds (which we ate at haha). After all that physical exertion Anneliese and I went back and had a romantic night watching movies in bed and playing Speed. Which reminds me we had to ask the front desk for an extension cord for her computer and they go oh yes give us ten minutes we will bring you one. So when I heard a knock I answer the door and here they have a TIM the TOol MAn FreAKing Generator Extension Cord I died laughing it was interesting. We laid down in bed at 6.00 pm we did not leave till 9.00 the next morning, the reclusive hermits we are just to score on the free breakfast downstairs. Sunday was spent visiting the Edinburgh Castle which was originally built in the 12th Century and then shopping for various Christmas Presents. And then after a 6 hour return train ride--oh so much fun in which Anneliese rubbed in my horrendous softball skills, and we continued to stare at the man of our dreams--we were finally home. So there's a generalization of my Scotland trip. I am planning on going to Barcelona towards the end of November. Anneliese and I are going to Greece for 4 days at the end of term. Rome might also be in the books. And then in January- Ireland, Italy and Scotland often with Morgan and Jill, Spring Break is either Sweden or Germany.

My lone class for today was cancelled for a field trip on Friday to the British National Museum so last night we had drunked festivities in the apartment. Meg came up and along with Anneliese, me and Marina we played Swedish card games (which included RIDE THE BUS??), and took interesting pictures and planned our amazing upcoming week. Friday afternoon I have a ticket for Tea at the Dorchester which is $70 eek but its an eight course exclusive meal on silver china. Friday night is eating really tasty, scrumptous, delectable food if you catch my drift. And then Saturday is hair day going blonde? and then Mayfair at night with Swedish visitors. And I think next weekend we might be doing a day trip somewhere. But what the hoot. I am loving it here!

64 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!

psss.. me and anneliese need chipotle, potbellys, and noodle&co immediately. we haha bought macaroni and cheese in a can yesterday the first we saw of it. it was greenish in tent and made a glopping sound. we each ate one noodle...WERE DYING!!!

LONDON So Far

so i have moved in...obviously. i live in camden town tube stop mornington crescent on the northern line, for my numerous friends planning trips. thank the plane tickets are expensive, how about a grilled cheese sandwich for six dollars, or a glass of water for four? i moved in wednesday five bedroom flat with three other people, uglasvalvio hoffisio still has to show up? current my flatmates and me are under debate of this persons gender, nationality, and location in general seeing as school started monday. but anneliese and i are living together, and also there is Marina she is from Sweden and wicked as hell, and a bloke named Roberto who is from Roma. We live in a neighborhood with abou 200 students from AIU which includes a majority of Americans here for only one quarter. It costs about 23o pounds a week to live here which translates to 460 USD. Thats two months salary at Escada from this summer...ouch ha! But the first day we went on a tour saw the local marts and pubs. AIU put together dinner for us, we were thinking for the price we pay it might be some good eats. Quite the opposite, two frozen pizzas, pepsi, skittles, potato chips, and expired cookies. And when we went to cook the pizzas, a job I somehow was put it charge of, the door fell off. hahaha it was hilarious, first off we had a shitty dinner to eat and now we couldn't even cook it. and that wasn't even the first obstacle, the oven is in celsius here and there are pictures of unfamiliar and somewhat rubbed on oven settings that were most definitely not american.


since our oven door has been fixed and proves to be in workin order despite that the door refuses to close now. saturday we all (including parents) went on the day trip to greenwich, the center of world for prime meridian and time. however, everything there was educational and made our heads hurt. so we took a break to the pubs and paid for overpriced fish and chips and rings that later broke. however, there is a hill there called black heath which is where thousands of english men and women were buried after they fell ill to the black plague. it was also where the first game of rugby was played and the first place outside of scotland that golf was played. outside of the sports news it has the most spectactular view of london. View of London and Roomies on Black Heath in Greenwich

center of the world, our feet on the prime meridian

furball behind bars

sunday was my parents last day in london so we took a trip to HARROD's best department store ever and should be nominated for eighth wonder of the world. it was fun looking at the fossilized dinosaur nests, and while the anitques were a drag someone tried to steal a chair and i got to see him taken down. we checked out their pet world, where i almost bought a rat but i thought anneliese might kill me if i brought that home. by far the coolest was the food rooms, where they have every edible item in the universe for sale, things such as bananas, apples, bread, and sugar. but then caviar for $300 and $8 ice cream scoops. my parents and i went to dinner afterwards where the waitress tricked us into buying $6 bread while we were under the impression it was free. but i did drink my first alcoholic drink in the presence of my parents.

Gates to Hyde Park

back to the apartment which some truffles from harrods in tow. which later on roberto accidently threw on the floor. but early to bed for the next day was the first day of classes. it was hard saying goodbye to my parents i miss them a lot and my skype is not working at all so i can't even talk to them, but i have made a lot of friends here. our building is similiar to a dorm and a lot of us hang out together a lot. but london is amazing, cafes and crazy fashionable people everywhere. and next weekend we are all going to scotland. so living and studying here won't be too bad, eh?

Marina, Me, and Anneliese


Roberto, Marina, and Me


Tennesse (Davey), Me, and Nick

Having Fun at Beluchi's

In my apartment i cook dinner just about everynight so i won't have to do the dishes. the guys go crazy over this, woman in the kitchen idea. they love inviting themselves over for dinner, and every morning i wake up and find crumbs all over the kitchen counters when i just washed them before bed. midnight visitors so i might have to start setting traps. however my lawyer likes to me to refer to them as human temporary containment units (shout out to the ellen show which i dreadfully miss) we get a few channels on our unite televisions downloadable onto our computers but they only show one episode of a show a day...uber fun! plus it is kind of illegal for us to download the tv cause in london you have to have a license...we just keep it on the low down. in general we are turning into anorexic theives. we steal water from our university and eat sparingly. food is sacrified before other necessities such as shopping and traveling. oh yea i ride a double decker bus to school everyday. dont mind i get lost going to school everyday or that transportation costs an arm and a leg. i got stuck in a tube station one day, i couldn't get out cause i didn't have enough money hahaha. so i got fined woop!

Karoke Night at Tommy Flynns!

Updates From The Past

For labor day weekend there was a family reunion at Camp Emahaus in Illinois. Our family has been going to this camp since for over 50 years and my Aunt's ashes are spread here. My Uncle Phil who married Thanksgiving 2006 brought his wife Karen and she is so much fun and brought their dog Perry. Then it was my mom, dad, brother, grandma, grandpa, great aunt Edna and great uncle Dale, Gretchen, and great uncle Ned. It between building puzzles, camp dinners, and hiking, it was an awesome weekend. My uncle Ned flew in for Sunday and took us all up for a flight in his plane. Despite the lack of air conditioning, in-flight service, and baggage check, it was so neat to fly. His plane was really small and I got to speak in the headset so I felt real cool.


Last week was my mom's birthday week. On Monday...the big day I woke up at the break of dawn to make her breakfast. I kept hearing this weird clinking sound. But forged ahead with a three egg omelet, toast, oj, the works. Then I discover the source of the sound, it was my mom eating her cereal in her bedroom...awesome. Nonetheless, for dinner we definitely took advantage of the day and dined at Scholars Inn where I ate a $31 filet mignon dinner yum! And then the following weekend my brother came down and we tailgated for the Oregon game. He accidently left the tickets at his apartment so unfortunately we had to buy 6th row tickets holla! We were so close and even though we lost it was an awesome game to watch. On Sunday my brother and I had an Iron Cook competition. He created the entree dish while I battled for first place in the bakery department. The dinner was yummy but mom's week as coming to an end and kimmy's was on the horizon.

Bon Voyage

So this past Thursday I drove up to Purdue for the VIC MMM, even though I am listed on as assignment in London. Good thing I showed up too we celebrated May's birthdays so I got a cupcake and a dilly bar definitely worth the trip. After reciting the trusted to memory creed, toasting ourselves, and chowing down on subway the party was over. That night Morgan and I went out and mocked the audacity for the freshmen's attitudes and outfits, despite the fact that we were exactly the way they were two years ago. Plus we got to put my Pure Romance Phermones to the test. While Morgan smelled liked onions and I smelled like cooking spray we scored on the man attraction field that night.

The next morning I woke up to have Morgan poke fun at my use of Teddy the night before and the movie Moulin Rouge. With lunch plans at the union at 11:30 we had to book it. On the way into campus we tried to avoid stares, not easy when Morgan is wearing a komino with hot pink heels and we are loudly reminising the night before. While discussing the most convienent way for Morgan to get out of Italian is to fake tuberculosis, Ross turns around, standing right in front of us. He goes, wow I was just thinking to myself, there must be some really stupid girls behind me because that conversation was ridiculously dumb. At lunch we catch up on CSR gossip and make plans for Anneliese's party the next night. Next, during my scheduled conference call she reminds me of why I am really up at Purdue and presents me with a to-do-list that must be accomplished before I can return home. So I head up to the VIC, meet and greet with Melissa and Darlene, and ask Darlene to write me a letter of recommendation for London. Then I head back to the Union get a new Student ID, number cinco, after my wallet was stolen this summer. I turn my direction to Matthews Hall, and run into Susan and Nancy. After catching up on summer news and the new school year, and I ask her for a letter of recommendation letter too, I go to the sewing lab to meet up with my landlord for the weekend. Morgan and I hit up Hovde Hall for an updated resume, and then headed off to do what we do best, FATTENING UP. Straight to DQ for some ice cream yumm then Morgan left for work while I drove over to boy Morgan and Zach's place for dinner. After seemingly getting ditched by them which was just them really sleeping and not answering their phone we all meet up at Brittany and Brook's for winner chicken dinner.
Upon leaving we headed back to Zach's where we had a girl talk dance party and got ready for the night; which involved a flannel morgan look alike contest. We headed up to Theta Chi to check the brotherhood, at this time of the night I bought a I Love Theta Chi t-shirt, final sale for 5 pesos. Then Steve, Zach, and I left to meet up with my friend Emily at Brothers. It was a night of specials and we definitely took advantage of it. 6 rounds of jager bombs later and several toasts to random body parts we headed to Jakes to meet up with my sophmore year roommate. After catching up we did the typical Purdue activity, and hit up taco bell for some good eats. Then, I ran away to meet up with Morgan found her at Betas, I kinda broke in, and yes I was the only person there besides the brothers. We went to Qdoba where I ate a brownie and another taco. Sam and Morgan and I headed back to Sam's house where I passed on her couch in my I Love Theta Chi shirt.


After waking up in the morning, to an empty house, I went downstairs heated up my two other tacos ate them and watched Little House on the Prarie. Ryan called me and I went over to his place for a tailgate party. I stole one of his Purdue shirts and me, him, Brent, and Kara headed to the game. We parked in BFE and then took oregon trail to the game where we put on a short hula show for passerby's. With a pit stop at a closed Insomnia Cookie (are they stupid) and then went to McDonald's where we settled for McFlurrys. Across the street we scalped tickets, hahaha where one scalper actually made fun of us for our purchase of tickets. We followed Rush to the game and ran into Insomnia Cookie's selling cookies down the street, man! We went into the game after many distractions, mainly attributed to Ryan and got some sweet seats at the top. VIP we sat right behind Steve Irwin. We posed for pictures with his Hat and attempted to watch the game. However, we were surrounded by some amazing hairdo's and Avon people so game watching was not a primary priority. Later after watching excise's commercial and taking in some good sun rays we headed out. I hiked over to Emily's and 45 minutes later I finally arrived, not cool. Girl time was fun, we discussed my prospects of dating the princes and how the heck I was going to pack my life into two suitcases.

But it was time to head up to Anneliese's for her BON VOYAGE and Birthday dinner party. Morgan Katy and I set out and was almost late because we stopped for Wendy's! And it was the most amazing night ever. Anneliese's mother slaved over dinner and made a delectable menu. Crab spread and spinach feta for appetizers, italian pasta salad, lamb kabobs, roasted red potatoes, asparagus, grilled salmon, Scrumptious! And we were all dressed up, with all of us girls from purdue, emily and greta, torrie and ben, max, and the parents. Overall it was such a great night, Anneliese's dad was trying to get all of ladies drunk, and I can tell the star of the night had a wonderful time! Katy and I spent the night and woke up to real French Toast and I ate some more off the blietzberg birthday cake. Anneliese's dad once again tried to get a buzz started by offering to mix up some bloody mary's but it was time to hit the road.

Back in West Lafayette I visited Theta Chi and watch the brother's eat Arbys. Ross and I went over to Morgans to authenticate his BGR MVP award and watch the Colt Bears game. Outnumbered by the Bear Fans 8-1 and the embarrassing loss I split from town with my tail between my legs. But only after witnessing the long-awaited wrestling match between Ross and Morgan. Not to mention I got my butt-whooped by Morgan himself in the first quarter.

Chicago Vaca

So I just got back from Chicago...yea no big thing right? WRONG! While I lived in Chicago this whole summer I worked 50 hour work weeks, never went sightseeing, and went shopping once...with mi madre. Through our awesome planning becca and I found a ride to indy the night before our departure and a 2.45 am pickup after we already arrived in Chicago. But none the less I woke up really excited and talked from the moment I picked up becca at 7 am till when I passed out on the tundra climate zone bus. The first day we planned on going to the zoo, the beach, and wrigleyville. To sum it up we got to the zoo about 20 minutes before they closed, the beach was a no show in the daily visit, and we hit up wrigleyville around 9 pm.
So what did we do all day...what we do best mindlessly spend money on overpriced clothing that we will never wear YEA!! Becca finally gave into the midwestern college trend and bought the staple chestnut uggs and i bought my third pair of moccassins for the summer. After walking all over Lincoln Park we came back to the apartment and started a terse game of Scrabble. With both of us being competitive and without a dictionary or rule book present we soon abandoned the game so we could salvage our friendship and went up to Goose Island to eat. This is becca's favorite part of the trip, watching her younger friend drink alcoholic drink after alcoholic drink while she could not partake. When we got back to the apartment we started Rainman where I proceeded to pass out within five minutes of its debut. After the awesome planning applicability of the first day, we headed downtown Michigan Ave to blow through another $300+ and to visit my previous intern site. After much success we started to make our way down to THE BEAN. Due to our high susceptibility of distraction we made a pit stop at the Disney Store. Here we tried on the deluxe princess gowns with tips from the helpful sales staff and took part in a post-Disney-age photo shoot. Once at THE BEAN we took the necessary 100 photos of our reflection in the giant aluminum vegetable shaped artwork. Afraid of the middle aged men stalking us around THE BEAN we opted to take our own group photo...so lets pretend you don't notice I took this picture. Then it was time to head home to prepare for departure. We decided to stroll along Lincoln to make sure we covered every square inch and we came across OZ PARK...becca's dream come true! After visiting every statue and taking some very "creatively posed" pictures it was time to head home. The bus trip home was unsuper crowded but did not serve hotdogs or sprite which was bothersome but we made it home safely and slept till noon the next day. Let me highlight some more moments, spending 20 minutes in the McDonald's drive-thru catching up with Ben Briggs, discssing the pro's and con's of being able to walk through a car wash without a car, and the guest appearance of Eliza "becca hill" Thornberry. Chicago re-visited was so much fun!