Just an Update

That Coach purse that I didn't buy when I was in Lancaster...yeah, I drove to the Hershey outlet today and bought it. And one for Amanda too! So let this be a lesson to all of you boys and girls. If a purse is telling you to buy it (to the extent that you carry it around the store for about 20 minutes) just buy it and save the gas.

Drumroll Please

I would like to make a big announcement. I have decided to accept an AMAZING scholarship package and attend Wake Forest. For those of you that don't know, I have been battling which school to attend for about six months now. I've also been accepted to Duke and Notre Dame, and applied to (but have yet to hear from Northwestern). Wake Forest has made me an offer that I cannot turn down, I just had to do a formal visit to the school to make sure.

This past weekend Wake Forest flew me to Winston-Salem for Scholar's Weekend. It was a great weekend (even though it rained the entire time and Wake lost in the ACC tournament). The amazing weekend started on my flight from Philly to Greensboro. I was making small talk with the guy next to me and as we were about to get off the plane he hands me his business card and tells me that if I would ever need anything or get in trouble that I could call him. How nice!

Then we had a shuttle pick us up and take us to the Graylyn. Great hotel! I checked in and they gave me a packet and little goodie bag with Reese's and bottle water and Goldfish crackers and things like that in it. Especially when the "butler" showed me the room across the hall from my room.

Yes, that says ice cream room. Did I die and go to heaven? Someone did their research! And inside the ice cream room was this:

Yes, that's a freezer full of yummy ice cream treats that were FREE!

That evening there was a reception where we met lots of great people. Then we split up into smaller groups and went to area restaurants. We went to Mozelle's, which had food that was hard to describe. They had thinks like filet and lobster ravioli and I had some crusted tilapia, but then there was also fried chicken, meatloaf, and shrimp and grits on the menu as well. It was all good. Everyone at the table was squirming as we got updates on the Wake Forest game via IPhone.

The next day started with a scavenger hunt. All the teams had three or four people on them, except for mine. We only had two because one of the people was delayed because of flights. But the other guy on my team was a Notre Dame alum too, so of course we were convinced we were going to kick butt...until it took us about a half hour to figure out our first clue. We weren't the last team done though, so I'll take that.

Then we went over to the campus and had a class and lunch at the grad school. I then met the student that I had been paired with for coffee. I don't know who paired me up with her, but we completely clicked and have so much in common that it is ridiculous. After that we headed to the dean's house (who by the way lives on the same street as Maya Angelou) for a game watch and dinner. Originally it was supposed to be a Wake game watch and they had bought us all Wake t-shirts and sweatshirts and stuff, but since Wake lost it turned into an ACC watch (more like a chat while the TV is on watch). They still gave us the shirts in case you were wondering. One of the coolest things for me was when we went out the door the Dean each handed us a little box with our name on it and said "hopefully this will give you some inspiration for the future. You'll understand once you open it." Of course, we were barely back in the van before I had ripped mine open. Inside was a silver business card holder with my monogram engraved on it and inside of that was a Wake Forest business card with our name, prospective e-mail address and class year on it.

So then today I decided that's where I'm going to go. YEAH!!! Gotta love perks!

Excerpts from a Letter from Prison

I opened my mailbox today to discover a letter from my one cousin in prison (I have two cousins in prison...so I have to differentiate.) My snide remarks will be in { }. I'll skip some of the boring parts because it was really long.

"How old are you, I can't remember? {that's always a good way to start off the letter.} You know I'm finally 21 and I didn't even really get to enjoy it! {what? being on the lam from police isn't enjoyable?} Are you dating anyone yet? I'm surprised you didn't get married and have any kids yet! But I do realize that your a career woman and very busy...{sister, you have no idea}. And your not even 30 yet, you have plenty of time!! {because if you didn't know, when you turn 30, your ovaries fall out.} I'm glad that I didn't have any kids yet {that makes two of us} cause I'm not ready. I'm gonna try to wait till I'm married! {I like the exclamation point here for some reason} "

"Well, I'm kinda in a lot of trouble {no shit Sherlock...you won't be able to get your driver's license till like 2013} because I keep doing stupid things. {there's the understatement of the year} but every time I do something I at least learn from that mistake {well hallelujah for that} and I'm pretty much out of mistakes now {somehow, I don't think that's going to be true} so if its God's will this will be my last time in prison! {how is God going to get blamed for this mess?}"

"Whenever I get sentenced I'm gonna be going upstate for a couple of years {do people really go upstate? I thought that was only on TV} and I'd like to keep in contact with you. {I'm so grateful} so our relationship can grow and you can be a positive infulance to me {not really sure what an infulance is, but pretty sure I don't want to be it to her} you are already like a role model to me! {well that worked out real well, didn't it?} and when I come home maybe we can hang out together {I can't stand the anticipation} and go to the movies, out to eat, {smoke some crack, roll a few joints, hold up a liquor store} and all types of fun things like we used to do! I really miss our friendship {yeah, sorry, but when you threatened to beat up my mom, that kinda ended me being nice to you}, our hanging out with you. I don't know about you but I used to have SO much fun with you and Aunt Jan {I had fun with me and Aunt Jan too!} Sometimes I wished Aunt Jan was my mom! {and sometimes I wished for a pony}. "

"How's your friend Danyel doing? {Danyel, how are you doing?} Well I hope everything with you is ok and that your in the best of health. {the best of health? who says that? are we in an episode of the Tudors? yeah, I'm ok, but my neighbor died from the sweat.} Please return my letter, I wrote you last time I was here and you never wrote me back! {didn't get the hint, did you?} I miss you and I love you."

I think I may actually write back this time because this could be ongoing entertainment!

I'm a Lemming

I've finally followed all of you off the cliff (yes, I know that whole lemming thing is just a myth) and joined Facebook. Ugh...Go out and friend me or whatever...but don't expect me to be witty and creative and funny on there. I use that all up here.

Probably Not the Smartest Idea that We've Ever Had

When Amanda 2 and I heard that BSC and John Fred were going to be in Lancaster, we immediately thought "SHOPPING!" because for those of you that don't know. Lancaster has some sweet outlets. This, however, turned out to be not such a good idea. We left my house at around 1pm to start the shopping extravaganza, but by 6:30 (when we were ready to leave for the concert) we were EXHAUSTED. I seriously wanted to go home and go to bed...but we didn't. We went to WaWa for a quick pit stop to pick up the caffeinated beverage of our choice. We were still pretty tired though, but found a wall space on which to prop up our tired bodies. It was a great, great, great, great concert (did I mention great?)

I was also a little concerned that we wouldn't be on the list because I talked to John Fred on Tuesday which was a little earlier in the week than normal. Normally, we play phone/e-mail tag for about three days and I finally talk to him within 24 hours of the concert. This time he answered his phone and threw off the whole schedule. But we were on there, so it was all good.

Next time I'd probably skip the pre-concert shopping trip (keep the trip to Sonic though...yum.) I didn't even buy much (though a wristlet at Coach is still calling me...Amanda is yours calling you too?)

My Night Without Power

Last night at approximately 10:30, my lights blinked twice and then went out completely. As everyone naturally does, I sat there in complete darkness for about a minute to see if this was for real. I guess it was. I made my way to a flashlight and then to the window. I was disheartened to see that across the street (actually more like across the parking lot) there were people in that building (still in my apartment complex I might add) watching TV and otherwise enjoying the blessings of electricity.

I heard some people talking outside, so I went to join the conversation and found the teenage girl that belongs to my weirdo/parking challenged neighbor that lives beside me and the sweet old lady neighbor that lives downstairs from me chatting. The weirdo teenage neighbor was in shorts and a t-shirt and had her front door hanging open (it was bitterly cold out last night). My old lady neighbor turned to me and said "well, Girl Scout, what do we do?" Um...Get a flashlight and some blankets (and not leave your front door hanging open) what do you want me to do? I can build a fire in the middle of the living room and have a singalong, but I don't really suggest that at the moment.

We all went back to our apartments. I read in my bedroom ::gasp:: and had the presence of mind to turn off my light switch and unplug my TV so that they didn't come back on at 3 am or whatever when the power came on. I brushed my teeth and washed my face using my Maglite (my cave tour guide flashlight) stuck upright in a shoe to illuminate the bathroom. I set my cell phone and decided to go to bed, but surprisingly found it difficult to fall asleep. Because I kept thinking things like: what if my cell phone dies and so the alarm won't go off to wake me up? how long will it take to get really cold in her? (that was as I imagined myself getting colder and colder...probably all in my head.) What if the old lady downstairs lights a candle and burns the place down? If I still don't have power tomorrow, where will I shower? Where will I sleep? And I probably shouldn't open the refrigerator so that everything in there stays cold, so what do I have that I can take for lunch tomorrow?

But all my planning was for nothing as around 12:30 AM, my lights came back on.

We Need to Change the Evals

For all of the programs that Kate and I have been doing we have to have the girls fill out evaluations at the end. Even if their in kindergarten. We get some very interesting spellings about what they liked best: coolering (coloring), esperimets (experiments), scits (skits), etc. But there's a question that no matter what age they are we always get interesting answers. It says something about if you could go to the coolest program what would it be. Sometimes we get normal answers like art, camping, hosbuck riding (horseback riding). But other times we get interesting things like skydiving, swimming in mac n cheese, skiing down a waterfall, meeting an alien, camping on the moon and hamster---that's all it said...hamster. While I'm sure these would all be really cool activities (I'd be the first one doing the back stroke in a huge vat of mac n cheese), I'm not sure they're Girl Scout approved.

Psychotic Thought of the Day

I know its been a really long time since I've had one of these. Maybe I've just been too busy lately to be psychotic....or maybe I've been so psychotic that I've lost all ability to think at all.

I was driving on a very twisty road and had to sneeze. Does anyone else fear for their life when they sneeze while driving? I was sure that I would swerve off the road and into a tree or ditch or someone's house (preferably the latter). But I didn't...probably because I was only going about 40 miles per hour. So that leads to my psychotic thought. If you are driving a race car and have to sneeze, are you pretty much screwed? Do you think that leads to some of those random multi-car accidents where for no reason at all one cars just swerves into another car?

"Can you explain what happened out there on the track?"
"Well, Jeb, I was going around the far turn on lap 374 and all the sudden my nose got a twitch and I sneezed and just lost complete control of the car."

Really Really Annoying

The most annoying thing that could possibly happen to a car, has happened to my car. I can't open the driver's door from the inside. I discovered this Thursday afternoon when I tried to get out of my car at the post office. It really confused me too. I'm locking and unlocking the door and checking all the buttons to make sure I hadn't child safety locked myself in or something. Then the next thought was "it's really windy out. Is is so windy that I can't open the door because of the force of the wind?" Uh...no

I get home. Call the garage and ask if I can bring it in. The mechanic guy says "here's the deal" That's not a good sign. He goes onto explain that they're going to rip my whole door apart and if they would need to get a part the car would have to sit there the whole weekend because they can't give it back to me all ripped apart. I'm taking it in Monday.

So until Monday, I either have to crawl out the passenger side, roll down my window and open the door from the outside or take Kate's suggestion and go "Duke's of Hazard" and just keep the window down in jump in from there. Ugh...so annoying.

Possibly My New Favorite Show

So last night after getting home from Ave Q (which is a whole other post in itself) and trying to get the images of puppet sex out of my head, I discovered FLN (the Fine Living Network). Wow, what a little niche they've carved out for themselves. At 11pm, I forget what show said it would be on but it wasn't and on came Whatever, Martha!. Now, if you haven't seen this show, let me explain. It's Martha Stewart's daughter Alexis and Alexis's friend Jennifer basically watching clips of Martha Stewart Living and making snide comments about how ridiculous it is. Sometimes they try to make the little crafty items along with the show and at one point last night Alexis had threatened to stab Jennifer with a bone folder. (Not a tool used to fold bones, but a tool used to fold that is made of bone). Anyway, I realized that if you had filmed Marcia and I in our dorm rooming watching Martha Stewart Living during college this is pretty much the TV show that would've come out of that. Thanks to the modern technology known as You tube. I can share this show with you.



This isn't the actual one a saw last night, but take your pick, they're all funny, so if you have time to peruse You Tube, watch more.

I Really Like Martinis and Fondue

Tonight I went to the Melting Pot for Amanda 1's birthday. (I'm sick of doing Amanda T. and Amanda L., so it's now 1 and 2.) As I was finishing of my 2nd Chocolate Fontini and debating the political correctness of sticking my hand in the pot and licking the melted chocolatey, peanut buttery goodness off, I wondered why I never make fondue or martinis at home. It's not like I lack the equipment. I have two fondue pots, a fondue cookbook, a martini shaker, roughly 8 martini glasses, several cocktail books and a shitload of booze. So with the blogosphere as my witness, I vow to have a martini and fondue party before I move to go to grad school. So if you live in the area (or even if you don't) and would like to be invited, shoot me an e-mail or post a comment.

I Think that I Might...

Want to go to Punxsatawny, PA for Groundhog's Day sometime...is that weird? While driving to the middle of nowhere for work this morning I was listening to the radio (because my CD player in my car is eagerly awaiting my tax refund to be fixed) and they had a live report from Punxsatawny. The reporter described all the guys in top hat that were members of the groundhog's inner circle, and the heated stump the groundhog resides in, and how pissed Phil looked when they pulled him out. Ever since we started exploring the New Year's Eve drops, I am totally into these podunk town events. (Though they reported about 10,000 people there, so I'm not sure how podunk that is.) Anyone want to come with me?

While I'm on the subject of Groundhog's Day, isn't it a little backwards? I mean if the groundhog sees his shadow, that means that its six more weeks of winter...but if there is a shadow, that should mean that the sun is shining which should theoretically mean spring is on its way, shouldn't it? Obviously, I've spent way more time thinking about this than any person should.

NO MORE PB E-MAILS

Have no fear! Your tagalongs and do-si-does are safe. Read the official statement from Little Brownie Bakers here. But if I see one more e-mail regarding peanut butter, I'm going to lose my mind. Not only have we received about 10 e-mails from other staff members regarding the Girl Scout council's stance on cookies containing peanut butter, but after it went out to cookie manager, each of them felt the need to copy me on their e-mails to their troop leaders. Then we received e-mails from the food bank about checking our stock for items with peanut butter in them. Luckily we don't order things with peanut butter because of all the crazy nut allergies out there.

The Giant Gummy Bear

I love gummies: ALL GUMMIES: sour, plain, bears, penguins, watermelons, fried eggs, army guys, whatever. I love them. So when we were in California at a candy store called It's Sugar and saw this:

A GIANT GUMMY BEAR!!! I knew I had to have it. (It's pictured beside a 16.9 fl oz coke just to give you an idea of the size of it.) I was a little concerned about it retaining all the properties of a normal gummy bear while being enlarged, but it did not let me down and is exactly like its smaller bear siblings. The only bad thing about it is that in order to eat it, you kinda have to gnaw on its head (or other body part of your choosing), so disturbingly it ends up like this:
My mom said it had mental problems and was given a lobotomy...she's so weird. But still this one minor issue does little to dent its total AWESOMENESS!

Well, The Inevitable Has Happened

First of all, let me say that this picture of a Dole Whip Float has absolutely nothing to do with this post except that I had one yesterday at Disneyland, and it was yummy as hell (if hell were a creamy tropical drink of goodness.)

This story actually starts exactly a year ago today. I was at the NAMM show, as I am now, and was just wandering around getting autographs from any random people that did not have a line. I came across a band called Black Stone Cherry that was signing. I started talking with the drummer John Fred (curly haired one in the pictures and yes, John Fred is just his first name) and discovered that he was a Ludwig artist. My dad works for Conn-Selmer (Ludwig's parent company.) Anyway, next thing I know I have his e-mail address and cell number.

Flash forward to this summer/fall, John Fred and I have exchanged e-mails, phone calls, voice mails, etc. and FINALLY the band is coming to PA. Amanda L. and I go to see their concert in Allentown and hang out with John Fred in a pizza shop afterwards. I feel beyond cool because not only were we on the band's list for tickets, but we got to chill out afterwards. We're talking about the different people that we know at Ludwig, and John Fred tells me that one of them has left. The next day I'm on the phone with my dad and not thinking say "Why did Todd leave the company?" My dad asks how I know this and of course I answer "well, John Fred told me." A whole conversation ensued about who John Fred was and when I had seen him and the whole story about how we met. My dad was a little weirded out about the whole thing, but it passed.

Flash forward to now. It was only inevitable that my dad and John Fred would eventually cross paths since he's a Ludwig artist and my dad pretty much works for Ludwig. As you can see, John Fred is your typical rocker: long hair, earrings, crazy clothing. Last night at some Ludwig thing John Fred introduced himself to my dad (not knowing who he was). When my dad introduced himself back, John Fred kinda froze (according to all accounts) and my dad (in the fatherly way) said "I think you know my daughter." My dad comes back after the event and says "guess, who I ran into...John Fred." Then today, my mom met him at the convention. Luckily, John Fred is the sweetest guy ever and has a ridiculous accent which makes him adorable, but I still feel like there's going to be a "responsibility" lecture coming. That's going to be fun.

The Wine Tour

I'm out in California with my parents. It's really warm. 86 degrees yesterday which is a nice change from the freezing temperatures of South Bend and Harrisburg. Except that when I pulled the weather report up for packing it was only supposed to be low 70's and they keep pushing it back that's its staying a lot warmer for longer.

Sunday we went to 6 wineries in the Santa Ynez Valley. It was a lot of fun. My dad and I drank and my mom navigated, shopped, and drove. My mom had premapped out vineyards, but based on suggestions from people at the other wineries (and ones we accidentally drove by) that changed a little. Even though my dad split a tasting at the all the vineyards (he likes reds, and I like whites, so it worked out well). We still managed to get pretty trashed which then got my mom all pissed off. I thought it was funny though. At Firestone vineyard, I spilled a plastic cup of water all over the floor. My dad busted up laughing and by mom looked all ticked off.

We started at around 10am local time (we made sure to mention that we were on east coast time, so it wasn't really like we were drinking a bunch of wine that early in the morning). We stopped to lunch in Solvang and then hit one winery on the way back to Anaheim.

On the way back, we spotted a glider and my mom decided to get my dad a glider ride for his birthday. So we pulled over to the little airport (aka meadow) and signed him up. It was so funny because he was like a little kid the whole time. "Are you going to get my picture in the glider? Look how high it goes, am I going to be that high up? Are you going to wave to me." Yes, I'll take your picture. It sure does go up high. Of course, I'll wave to you. It was a really good day...until we got stuck in L.A. traffic on the way home.

Fashion Trend

First of all, let me say that I am now safely in California...and so is my luggage which has to be some sort of miracle since I ran through the Cincinnati airport and they shut the plane door as soon as I stepped on.

Apparently, you no longer have to wear a cute cami with low cut sweaters as long as you have a lacy bra underneath...at least according to the large African American woman that I saw in the Harrisburg Wal-mart yesterday. And don't worry if the V neck is so low cut that it goes down below the bottom of your bra because that little triangle of skin that shows below the bra is sexy...um....not. Everytime I go to Wal-mart, I wonder why I'm there, but it always leaves me with good stories.

The Panookie

For those of you that knew me back in my days in the Bend, you may remember that one of my favorite restaurants was Hacienda. Not only because that had awesome Wet Burritos and Margaritas, but also because they also served the greatest dessert ever conceived by man...The Chocolate Mountain Mudslide. According to Hacienda's website it is described as "Two chocolate chip cookies baked on a skillet topped with heaping scoops of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce." Yum!

For Christmas (or my birthday...not sure which, it kinda all runs together) my mom bought me a "panookie maker" which is basically a skillet that you spread cookie dough on and make your own Chocolate Mountain Mudslides with. It was the BEST gift ever because it makes things like this.

New Year's Eve (Aka the Search for Free Coffee)

My normal New Year's Eve companion, Danielle, as in California for the Rose Bowl, and so Amanda T. filled in. First we went out for Chinese food, which of course was yummy. Then we went back to my apartment and exchanged Christmas gifts. Amanda then realized that she had a coupon for free coffee at McDonald's that expire New Year's Eve. I realized that I had three coupons for free coffee at McDonald's that expire New Year's Eve. (People realize that I drink coffee from McDonald's and everyone gives me their coupons). So at 7:10pm, we decided to go on a search for coffee. The first McDonald's that we went to had just closed. But we were really jonesing for some coffee, so we decided to go to Sheetz and just buy some. On the way to Sheetz, we realized that we were near another McDonald's so we decided to try that one. BINGO!! Open till 8pm.

We got our free lattes and went back to my house to watch the Notre Dame basketball game. We had planned to go to the Hummelstown Lollipop Drop for our New Year's activity. The wind was blowing ferociously, and it was crazy cold, but we went anyway. On the way there, we decided to try a third McDonald's on the way for free coffee, but it was closed. We stopped at the Sheetz nearby for a hot chocolate and to our surprise it was free for New Year's. YEAH!!

We parked in the my eye doctor's parking lot and sat in the warm car, sipping hot chocolate until 11:30. We then braved the cold. Took a brief tour of the New Year's activities on the square, paused at the fire twirlers, and then found a cozy spot up against a building under an awning and sheltered somewhat from the wind. At midnight the lollipop dropped (only approximately 5 feet, because of the wind), and then fireworks went off. The fireworks were slightly frightening because rather than go up, they blew directly sideways and went off about 5 stories up above the crowd. They also looked like they might ignite the houses nearby, but there was a fireman on a ladder in the middle of the fireworks making sure that there were no fire hazards.

The one things that really disapointed me is that there were no lollipops either for free or for sale. We went to the goat drop and they had goat juice. We went to the pickle drop and they had many pickle foods (pickle soup, fried pickles, and chocolate covered pickles). We went to the bologna drop and they had bologna (fried bologna sandwiches and free bologna samples...as disturbing as that was.) So what's the deal Hummelstown? Where's the lollipops? Are you cheap?

My Birthday

My birthday, like Christmas, was also low key. One of the best birthday presents I received was actually the night before when I checked my e-mail and discovered that both my "recommenders" for grad school had completed their recommendations. I had been freaking out a little because my one recommender had kept telling me "oh, I'll do it on Thursday" then Thursday would come and go, and he'd not have started it. This happened about three times, and the deadline for submitting was January 7th, so I was a little paranoid, but they were done. YEAH!! So I now have two applications submitted and two more to go.

My birthday start off with a trip to the Hershey Spa. Milt was my massage technician and although he was rather chatty, not really the buff young stud of a massage technician that I hoped for and his arm hair was sometimes scratchy, it was still a really good massage.

Then I met my mom, dad, and grandma at Friendly's for lunch and ice cream. Friendly's has always been one of my favorite restaurants and my dad kinda hates it so that makes it even better.

During the afternoon, my mom and I went grocery shopping for dinner, I kicked my dad's butt in Seinfeld Scene-It at least twice and I received a welcome phone call from Keli and Chelsea (my former coworker Stefanie's kids) and they sang happy birthday to me. It was cute.

For supper, my mom made round steak and gravy, my favorite meal and I had a shortcake cake with fresh strawberries on top that I had picked out from the grocery store bakery case and it was actually delicious.

My cousin Sierra decided to sleep over and watch Alice In Wonderland because shockingly she had never seen it before. She was actually one of the best house guests I have ever had. Goes to bed at a reasonable time, gets up at a reasonable time and is pretty much ok with whatever you have to eat, drink, or do.