the world keeps spinning on

Gone, like yeterday is gone,
Like history is gone,
The world keeps spinning on,
Your going going gone,
Like summer winter break is gone,
Like saturday is gone

[Switchfoot -- Gone]

Last day of winter break. Am I ready to wake up at 8 am tomorrow and have a million hours of class? Nope, not quite at all. But it always manages to pull together last minute. Flight at 9 something pm tonight, getting in around 10:30. Then grocery shopping and unpacking and homework pulling together and catching up. Regular week; classes and work, hockey game at the end.

It's currently 25 degrees in MD and 10 in Rochester with snow as far as the eye can see. Oops, just kidding apparently it's going to be sunny and 15 degrees on Friday.

This blog everyday of the new year thing might end today because tomorrow classes are from 10 am until 8 pm with small group from 8-10pm. We'll see, no promises though.

sneak peek at my photo project numero three.

taco salad birthdays

my birthday is in 50 minutes =)

alison slept over last night, we woke up this morning and went to brunch with kristin at double t. we all go blueberry pancakes they were excellently delicious. came back and watched some full house with sarah. ate taco salad for dinner. sarah and i looked up super expensive houses in various states. alison and jimmy came over around 9 and we watched ella enchanted. now we're watching myth busters and the guys are swimming through syrup.

not sure what's up for tomorrow. maybe some delicious muffins, random hanging around and other fun things.

puppy fur

slept over at Alison's on Tuesday night. we got stuck in a torrential downpour on 32 but the rain slowed after a few minutes. watched secret life of the american teenager & how to lose a guy in 10 days. alison swept up all of gali's fur but then jim and gali decided to walk through it.

pictures

Picture dump, number one. my updating plan last week failed, so here are some pictures. 

Liz and I went to Silver Spring on Thursday. We ate some tasty breakfast at the Whole Foods, walked around the downtown, spent 3 hours in Borders, and went to Jeremy's rock concert. 

Wednesday night Dad and I took Ever and Lux to centennial park for the wednesday night music in the parks. 

This picture was from before mom and Sarah left so technically not last week but they were some pretty tasty cherry square thingamabobs.

day two/day three

Whoops okay, so this summer schedule has seriously gotten me out of the habit of blogging. I hope it comes back to me in the fall.

Anyway, yesterday included going to the gym in the morning, coming home and eating lunch and then hanging out with lux and mrs tonya next door for the rest of the day. Ever was off at camp and with everyone gone here it was nice to have people to talk to... and do arts & crafts projects with ;) Lux and I had a pretend plastic food picnic on the driveway, played some dress up and drew some pictures. Came home and a little while later dad came home and we ate some grilled cheese sandwiches & tons of fruit. Alison came over last night and we played uno and watched gilmore girls. 

Today included buying large 2 foot twizzlers for our roadtrip on Saturday, getting various other food stuffs for when i'm up there (the meal plan is not really going to cover the whole time) and going to the gym. In a little bit we're taking Ever and Lux to centennial park for the music in the parks and a picnic! 

jourth of fuly

happy 4th of july! 

i haven't forgotten about my blog... just momentarily busy with other stuffs. i'll update hopefully sometime this weekend about all of our midwest travels. 

yesterday we picked 22+ lbs of tart cherries.. it was ridiculous! but they are oh, so tasty. we'll be making cherry pie, cherry crisp, cherry ice cream for a long while. 

going over to the mariano's in a little while for some 4th of july crabs & pool time. possibly going to see the fireworks later tonight. 

new hair, new me.

life is splendid. i ate way more raisins than anyone should possibly consume in 24 hours. i played the sims 2 for the first time in forever. i made a sims family with 8 children and then proceeded to kick the eldest out to make room for more offspring. yesterday i got my hair cut. nothing too drastic, just 4 or 5 inches off and bangs again. yay! tomorrow is a 7:45 am doctors appointment to get the stitches out which is kind of funny because i didn't even remember that i had stitches in until i remembered the appointment. probably a trip to the library afterwards for some reading material. some packing and then we're headed off early saturday morning. 

lately i've been having this problem where i laugh so hard that i start crying and then i can't catch my breath. it's bad news bears if you ask me but apparently quite entertaining for sarah.

cooking

Apparently lately I've been in a cooking mood. Don't worry these did not all occur on the same night. First picture is pasta salad with avocados and tomatoes. Second is a pasta with peanut/honey/soy sauce/dressing, broccoli and those green bean things. And last but not least are the chocolate chip cookies that Sarah and I made last night! 

I've been searching around in the pantry, so we'll see what I come up with tonight. It's more of a fend for yourself-see what is in the pantry already kind of dinner so it could get quite interesting =) 

grumbly tummy

my tummy is a tad grumbly. 

last night i slept over at alison's, jimmy was walking like a pathetic drunk because of all of the meds the vet gave him. 

we also watched two full movies which never happens. ever.

we went to giant around 10 in the thunder and rain and bought some delicious cookie dough which we actually baked unlike the usual raw consumption. 

my room is fantastically clean and organized now it kind of makes me want to dance around a little. 

there is only one day left in this week but guess what? it doesn't matter because it's SUMMER and time means nothing. 

just thought you should know. 

time passing

where is the summer going? 

you'd think my schedule was as busy as it was during the school year by the way the days are passing. fortunately, it isn't busy at all and sleeping until 11 fits in perfectly. i've got a surprisingly long to-do list for there being no classes or anything else. it's nice though because nothing has a timeline so i can wander around in my pajamas and get some work done at my leisure :) 

went to the doctors yesterday to get another mole out-- that would be number 6 for anyone who is counting. alison and I made cookies last night and she seemed to think it would be a good idea if we stuffed a raisin in the place where the mole was. luckily she exercised some self-control so there is only a band-aid there for now. 

the rest of the week doesn't look too busy. need to get to the bookstore at some point to check out this 1200 page book i need for next quarter (seriously-- can you even begin to imagine how heavy that must be? it's hardcover). probably going in to visit river hill tomorrow afternoon because it didn't work out last time i tried. saturday is alison's birthday party. a week from saturday we're leaving for joel's wedding which is the beginning of our two week road trip-- that will be good for blog posts ;) 

jimmy's park adventure

yesterday morning alison and I took jimmy to centennial park for a picnic/dog walking adventure. it was so nice and sunny out. jimmy has an apparent fear of other people so walking on a path with bunches of other people was quite a large task. he seemed to do well and we eventually made it all the way around. had peanut butter and jelly, watermelon and brownies for lunch :) 

home for real

i'm home.

unpacking, reorganizing, hanging out with people, eating corn pudding, etc.

more blog posts & pictures to come once i locate my camera cord...

last day in rochester

it was another rather late night last night. ended up staying up until around 5 am. strangely enough, i woke up without an alarm around 8:30, took a shower, packed up a few things and then went upstairs to hang out. studied some for my last final (psychology), got lunch, watched the big bang theory (which by the way, is my new favorite tv show). dad came around 4:50 right as i was getting ready to head over to the final. i actually finished the test before it was supposed to even start. ive gotten in the habit of going to class at least 30 minutes before to look over stuff all quarter and so he let me take the exam early. went over to the ritz for dinner and then moved most of my stuff out to the car. wandered back upstairs and ended up going out to fridays with matt and ozzy for dinner except i didn't eat dinner twice so i played peggle instead which is a pretty awesome game with quite possibly the best sound effects ever especially when hooked up to a car stereo. came back here, hung around and such and now i'm just finishing pulling the last few things together before maybe hopefully going to bed at a semi decent hour? but it's already past 2 am so that's not really looking very likely anymore. as long as i'm not sleeping, i made it to stage 5-3 (only matt & ozzy will understand that if they ever run across this...).

mmm yeah, so bye bye rochester see you in a month or so :) 

a scone-less st. patty's day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

hope you remembered to wear green so you didn't get pinched :) 

in honor of this day, i'll use entirely green writing. i hope that's not a problem. it's ridiculously warm out today-- it got up to 60 i believe. amanda and i were walking from philosophy to drawing around 2 pm and just grinning from ear to ear. we never realized how wonderful warm sunny weather is, i think the winter makes you appreciate it so much more. i even saw some flowers sprouting today! of course, i did spend most of my time in windowless classrooms but my walk to and from them was so nice! unfortunately they are calling for snow on thursday, we'll see. hopefully not, i think i could get used to this nice weather. 

as for this weekend, i'm headed down to DC for an accepted students panel at a hotel in bethesda i think? i was asked a month or two ago if i'd join two counselors as well as two other ambassadors to go down and speak to a group of accepted students. i don't remember if i talked about this in my blog before or not. but it's something that i went to last march when i was still deciding on a school. it gives people a chance to hear about college life directly from us without even coming to campus. we're driving down at 12:30 on Friday (after class 9-12) and then driving back saturday night. originally i was planning on just going home for saturday night through monday night but with current ticket prices and my homework load i dont think that i'm going to make it home at all :\ i'm kind of bummed, but it'll only be 10 more weeks and then i'll be home for the summer. i just have a giant drawing (30 by 40 inches) due on Tuesday as well as a few other projects and it's kind of hard to travel with those. I think it'll be easier on all ends to just skip it. i really wish i could though! :( basically i'm missing BOTH hockey games and seeing family this weekend. bummmerrr. oh well, that's life. gotta make choices sometimes. 

all good things come to an end

just got back to rochester from a weeklong spring break at home! ashley was able to come home with me too so I got to show her all of the exciting things to see in maryland and dc. ironically the day we flew home from rochester was the beginning of the biggest snowstorm maryland has had in three years (only 6 inches of snow) but still funny-- or annoying. eventually it warmed up and we were able to have 75 degree weather today!! too bad when we landed in rochester today it was 38 degrees, foggy and rainy. oh well. 

this week included: two separate trips to chipotle, a Caps game at the verizon center with Amanda!, a day full of wandering around DC, a second trip to DC with dad, seeing jimmy (Alison's new adorable dog), visiting with Barb, Joe and Eric this weekend, mini golf and batting cages yesterday, Sarah's volleyball tournament this morning and other various fun things. 

verizon center

the white house

jimmy, alison's dog :)

mini golfing

tomorrow is the first day of spring quarter which means... new classes! i actually only have one class tomorrow so it shouldn't be too bad. class 9-12, work 12-4. 

home, james.

i freaking love hockey. end of story. 

tigers lost tonight 1 3, which puts them at #2 in the AHA behind Air Force. it was a pretty intense game with lots of cheering and orange! 

headed home to maryland in the morning (with ashley! and amanda will be on the flight too!). we get to wake up bright and early at 4 am, woohoo. can't wait, see you all soon! 

FIFTY ONE DEGREES!

I'd like to take the time to point out that it is currently 4 degrees warmer here in Rochester than it is in Clarksville. IT'S FIFTY-ONE DEGREES!!! Do you know how freaking exciting that is? Ashley and I woke up, opened our window and then decided to go frolick around campus in our PJs... with NO WINTER COAT. The only unfortunate thing is that when 12 foot piles of snow melt it produces a ridiculously large amount of puddling and mooshy muddy yuckiness.

Last night was excellently fun. After work we went to the Rail Jam to watch people snowboard down the piles of snow which was actually cooler than expected. Wandered back and met up with Francesca and Amanda for dinner at Gracie's before the HOCKEY GAME. The first period was seriously the most exciting thing ever... Tigers were up 3 2. They scored two of the goals about 15 seconds apart, it was crazy. Much to the disappointment of the fans, coaches and entire team, the Tigers lost 4 6 to Sacred Heart *big sad face*. It broke their 11 game winning streak and they've dropped to second in the AHA, one point below Air Force.

Today sets the record for the latest that I've ever slept in while in college... 1 pm! I guess going to bed at 3 last night made me tired super tired :) I was a good kid last week though and finished all of my homework on Thursday night that was due Monday!!!

Anyway, time to finish getting ready and such before going to another hockey tailgate and then the game! Movie night later tonight, perhaps? Last night we headed over to the guys floor again and watched Happy Gilmore.

Ah, the weather...

Rochester: SNOWFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE AT TIMES DURING BURSTS OF HEAVIER SNOWFALL FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING. STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO REACH 8 TO 12 INCHES BY LATE WEDNESDAY EVENING.

--------------------> Recommendation: Wear some gloves and consider zipping up your coat when walking outdoors.

Clarksville: 

PRECIPITATION WILL BE MAINLY IN THE FORM OF SNOW AND SLEET LATE TODAY AND THIS EVENING... BUT THEN CHANGE OVER TO FREEZING RAIN BEFORE MIDNIGHT. TEMPERATURES RISE ABOVE FREEZING WEDNESDAY MORNING... REACHING HIGHS AROUND 40 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. THAT WILL ALLOW PRECIPITATION TO PHASE OVER TO RAIN AND SOME MELTING OF THE ICING.

ADDITIONAL SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS LATE TODAY AND THIS EVENING WILL BE 1 TO 3 INCHES. THAT WILL BE FOLLOWED BY ICE ACCUMULATIONS OVERNIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY OF A TENTH TO AROUND A QUARTER OF AN INCH.

---------------------> Recommendation: Avoid the outdoors! Go immediately to your local grocery store and stock up on food for a good week, stay away from doors and windows... the inch of snow might collapse your house. 

Pancakes, Friends and Homework

Okay, another week please? 

Just kidding. Sure, it'd be nice to have another entire week full of fun and frivolity but like all good things, there is an end. I think a two week break is a perfect amount of time, it's enough time to disengage from busy life and relax. Of course, RIT has the added bonus of being in the middle of a quarter so yep, you guessed it... homework! How enjoyable. I guess it could be worse. I could have exams the week after break (like Harvard) or have a 10 page paper due (if i wasn't an art major). But, I'm not at Harvard and I'm an art major so, I draw! And draw and draw and draw and glue. 

These past two days have been friend-packed... if there is such a term. Thursday night I went over to Corey's house with Jenni and we watched some movies and had "girl time"-- something not found often on RIT's 70-30 guy to girl ratio campus. Had pancakes for breakfast made by mom... yummm! And sausage made by dad.. but I'll let Sarah tell you how that was :) After breakfast went over to Liz's house to hang out. Came back to do some homework-- okay, so I did watch an episode of the OC before doing so. And in a little while Alison is coming over to hang out and do some puzzles. 

Tomorrow is the last full day of winter break which means Sunday I make the trek from 40 degree Clarksville to snowy Rochester. As noted by my mom has gotten a record snowfall this December.. 46 inches. Luckily most of that has fallen since I've been home so I'm not sick of snow yet. But ask me again in March and we'll see if that changes. 

I guess that perhaps I should stop avoiding the inevitable and get back to work. 

It's a Wrap!

I'm home! I guess i've been a bit sidetracked because I've actually been home since last Friday morning! 

While most other people were sleeping,  I got a taxi to the airport around 4:30 am. Small airports are amazing. I made it through security in 10 minutes or less. In fact, we had so much extra time that Drake and I were able to watch an entire episode of Stella and STILL had a good hour and a half to wait. Made it home by 8:30 ish-- before Drake's plane had even left Rochester =)

Alison came over after her class at 11, it was really good to finally see her after THREE months! Went to Chipotle for dinner... mmmm, boy did I miss that stuff. Since Friday it's just been a lot of relaxing and hanging out! It's so weird to go from working all of the time to doing absolutely nothing. My mom has been making me deliciously tasty food -- mashed potatoes, pasta, broccoli! Mmmm.  It's nice not having to eat in a dining all all of the time. Sunday morning we went to church at 9 and then went out to brunch at Eggspectation with Alison and her family.  After breakfast I went over to Alison's house to help her clean her room and see Gali!

Monday afternoon I went over to River Hill to see Mr. Molfino and some other old teachers. It's so weird going back, I kind of felt like I was still in high school. Yesterday afternoon Sarah had volleyball tryouts for MDJRS down in college park so I rode along to go see Corey and Jenni! Helped with volleyball check in and then met up with Corey so I could see their dorm room and catch up. Walked down to rt 1 after Jenni was out of class and met her at Chipotle! It was really good to see them although it was really weird to be on a college campus that I didn't recognize! It's too bad there aren't more chances to see each other.. three months is a long time. Alison slept over again last night-- I believe that she's slept over every night except one since I've been home!