Two posts, one day

So I feel like I have been a crappy guest blogger. Jsto will be back soon and I have hardly posted anything. So my fun news of the week is this: I have hit my first deer. I can't believe that I have been able to go 30 years (14 driving years) without hitting one. If you live in PA it is almost like a rite of passage to hit a deer. I know people who are on their third or fourth deer. And the best part of my story is: I never hit my brakes. Not once. Not when I saw him. Not after I hit him. The whole thing happened so fast I'm still not sure what happened. One minute I'm driving to work then there was a deer and a loud bang. After further examination it appears the deer may have jumped over a concrete barricade and landed in front of my car, hence my lack of reaction. But I'm not entirely sure.

I'm fairly certain he lived for at least a little bit because he ran off and he isn't currently lying on the side of the road. After I hit him I did eventually regain my senses and pull over, which was no easy feat since I was in the passing lane of a 3 lane highway. Granted it was 5 a.m. but there are still cars on the road that early and they drive just as fast (if not faster) as they do any other time of day.

Once pulled over I got out and inspected the damage. Upon the sight of blood and fur on my car I freaked out and decided to finish my drive in to work. When I got to work I got the facilities guys to come out and check my car to see if it was drivable. They decided to rip what was left of my bumper off and throw it in the back of my car. Apparently the bumper is not supposed to rub against your tires. Who knew? After removing the bumper they tell me that it is drivable but that they wouldn't recommend driving it far. Crap! I was going to go to Florida this weekend......

I go through the normal notifications (parental unit, insurance) and then wondered if I should call the police. I mean it was an accident but no one was hurt and I was the only one involved. I elected to not call which apparently was the right thing to do (I asked one of the statey's at work). He said the main reason to call is for insurance reporting but I assured the cop that there was plenty of blood and fur so there should be no speculation as to what happened.

After work I took my car to a body shop for repair and found out that there is almost $6000 damage and that it is reparable. They weren't going to total my car. Thank god. I also qualified for a rental so the rental company decided to give me the biggest (and possibly only) car on the lot. I have finally gotten accustomed to driving it but I really want my car back. It should be done in the next few days and I can hardly wait. I just hope they get all of the blood and fur off.....

Philly continued.....

So I realize it has been a few days and you are probably all just dying to know what happened for the remainder of my trip. There have been other fun things occurring in my life lately (actually bad things) that have prevented me from blogging. But my friends, that is for another blog. I will finish my Philly blog first.

So when I left you we were en-route to Philly. On a Friday. At 4 p.m. Do you know what that means? Traffic. Lots and lots of traffic. Add a screwy GPS and it was a blast. At one point the GPS told me to get off the highway and get right back forcing me to do some very scary merging. And the only reason I did it was because I was worried I was getting off on some "business route" of the same highway and didn't want to get lost.

As we sat our estimated time of arrival continued to change. It started at 4:43. Then 4:55. Then 5:02. Then next Thursday. Seriously. We were NOT moving. Lanes turned into exit only. Lanes ended. People were merging from one lane only to merge back into the previous lane. There was lots of merging. Now remember I picked a random address on the same road of the pier since the pier did not have an official address. Thankfully we saw signs for the pier so we turned the GPS off. We followed signs for Penn's Landing and before we knew it (6:00) we were there. Traffic was still shitty and was I getting sick of starting and stopping. I decided that I was parking at the first garage I found and walking the rest of the way.

We found a parking garage attached to a Hyatt and decided to park there. Although it had been raining on and off all day it was actually nice out when we parked. We walked to a map to find where the pier was. When we got to the map there was a couple and random single girl there also looking for the pier. We realized that the pier was 9 blocks away and decide to walk together.

As we walked the couple began to fight. The guy was pissed at the girl for parking where they did. They had to walk 9 whole blocks!! He tried to get a cab but the girl said that there was too many of us and we should just stay together and walk. It was, after all, nice outside. The couple started arguing and he stormed off. The rest of us followed but Derek and I kept our distance. The guy was approximately a block ahead of us but that did not stop him from turning around and screaming at his girlfriend. Derek and I decided that he was probably going to beat her later that evening. Eventually we put enough distance between us and them so we no longer had to listen to them (or provide witness statements). On the walk Derek found a sign that said "no swimming, sewer overflows". Seriously. Ew.

We finally made it to the pier and it was actually pretty cool. There was already a group playing and they were okay. At one point the lead singer asked the audience if there were any black people in audience. Uh....what? Awkward. He then said that we were all a bunch of dumb white people. Sadly it was near the end of their set and they had to go away.

Next up was a group called Fun who were more interested in talking about the impending apocalypse than singing. And I was more interested in the 12 year old girl with perhaps the largest head and largest mullet that I have ever seen in my entire life. She was wearing a lovely tie-dye shirt and maroon pants. Awesome. We also had possible old lady lesbians beside us who were wearing fanny packs. Also awesome. And finally, there were two guys who were standing way too close to one another and may have possibly been on a date.

There were beach balls bouncing around because who doesn't love some beach ball action at a concert? One of the balls was heading our way and some smart ass guy decided to spike it. In doing so he smacked the beach ball directly in the face of some fat awkward guy. Hilarious! Never laughed so hard in my life. The fat guy just stood there and didn't say anything while everyone around him laughed. Good times.

After all this fun Panic at the disco finally came on. During the middle of their set a group of 6 or 7 guys moved beside us and were basically a drunk mess. They eventually pushed their way in front of us and of course they were all well over 6 feet talk. Seriously, we're talking 6'7". They were huge. The one guy started yelling at his friend, asking him why he was so fucking tall. It was kind of funny. The first 10 times. After that, not so much. These guys then decided it was their goal to throw as many beer bottles into the crowd as possible. Thankfully the bottles were plastic and no one got hurt.

I missed most of Panic's set because of the antics of the guys but I didn't mind since I know maybe three of their songs. Weezer went on last and I was surprised how many of their songs I knew. The rest of the concert went on without a hitch and before we knew it, the concert was over. We walked to the car and attempted to drive home. After missing a few of our turns we finally found the highway (thanks to my lovely GPS) and went home. It was way late and I almost fell asleep driving but eventually we made it home (sans traffic) at around 1 a.m. Overall it was a good time and I highly recommend going to the pier at Philly for a concert if you are in the area. Just make sure you leave early enough so that you avoid all of the TRAFFIC. That was for you Nenna.

Philly, the city of brotherly love....

Hello fans of jsto. As she mentioned in a previous post, our lovely jsto is currently traveling the world, or more importantly, Italy. I would like to think she is on a gondola ride in Venice with some nice hot Italian man meat right now. And if the boat tips, hey even better. Anyways, this is Danielle, dear jsto's bestest of best friends. If you are a regular reader of jsto I'm sure you have read some about me. I was a guest blogger for dear jsto before in which I mentioned that I have a shitty job, no money and I live at home with my mommy. Well guess what kiddos! Only one of those things have changed since I last guest blogged: I now have money, woot woot! The job has changed but it is still shitty but it pays a hell of a lot more than my previous one so I guess I'll stick it out for now. I still live at home with my mommy but I prefer to say that she lives with me, cuz hey, I'm the one paying the bills now.

Anyways, as you can see from my lovely title, this post is about dear sweet Philadelphia, Philly for short. And before I get into the story, I would like to first mention one of my pet peeves (I have many). And maybe it isn't so much as a pet peeve as an observation. You can always tell who the non-PA natives are when talking about this fair city. They always refer to it as Philadelphia, which is just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It is Philly. Get it right people. Gah.

Okay, back to the story. About a week ago, a former employee of mine (and now friend) asked me to go to a Weezer/Panic at the Disco Concert. Since I have no life I agreed, despite only knowing a handful of songs by said groups. The concert was in Philly and he asked if I would drive due to lack of funding on his end. I reluctantly agreed, mostly because I get lost almost every single time I drive to Philly. And it is kind of sad because as I drive through Philly there are tons of times where I'm like, "hey, I remember that" or "I've been there before". And yet, I still get lost. Shameful.

So naturally, before we leave I am on a mission to find directions to the Festival Pier at Penns Landing. Unfortunately, it is a pier and therefore address-less. Great. What in the heck am I supposed to program into my GPS? I resorted to typing one of the roads that the pier is located on and to my non-believing eyes, that particular road spans 3 different zip codes. Three! I find the zip code for the pier on the internet and pick a random address on the street in that zip code, hit go, and we were off.

Now my friend Derek is a bit of a queen and since we were pressed for time, he had to resort to putting his eyeliner on while I drove. Not really a good idea. After a few close calls of poking his eye out, he decided to wait until I stopped to get gas. When I got back into the car after getting gas I see an antique automobile pencil sharpener and a mess of pencil shavings all over the place. I also see a broken eye liner pencil and Derek laughing hysterically. I decided not to ask. We get back on the road and the GPS says we should be there at 4:43. Plenty of time to listen to Derek's eclectic music mix and watch the world go by.

And sadly friends, this is where the story is going to end for today. I have many important things to do (watch TV) and this post is getting way long. So stay tuned for tomorrow where you will hear about the fun drive and maybe even a little bit about the concert. Don't you hate cliff hangers??

10 Things to Do During a Commencement/Hooding Ceremony

Ok, so I'm bored, so you are getting another blog. As many of you know my MBA commencement and hooding ceremonies were this past weekend. They can be somewhat long and boring so here are some things that we did in order to occupy our time.

1) Try to figure out where the crap your parents are in the mass of humanity.
2) Cheer wildly for anyone that has the same first name as you.
3) Enjoy the snacks and beverages that you have stashed away in the weirdo sleeves of your graduation gowns.
4) Look at random people and yawn to see if it makes them yawn.
5) Play hug/no hug. Will the person being hooded hug the person hooding them or will it merely be a handshake?
6) See if you can figure out what's going on by watching the sign language interpreter.
7) Count the number of people in the program that are from your home state.
8) Find the weirdest middle name/name combination possible. Foreign students don't count.
9) Play telephone.
10) Just be generally disorderly.

Fun times. I'm going to miss all my MBA classmates.

Things That Annoy Me

Last night I was exhausted, not sure if graduation caught up to me or what, but I fell into one of those sleeps that makes you think "Man, if this is what a coma is like, someone bash me on the head right now." (I apologize to all my comatose readers for the insensitivity of this remark.) Then at around midnight, my upstairs neighbor's security alarm goes off. At first, I have like a moment of sheer panic where I have no idea what is going on. Is it my fire alarm going off? No, doesn't sound like a fire alarm. Is it my security alarm? No, don't have one. Then I realize what is happening. I'm a little confused because I thought my upstairs neighbor had left for summer break since I hadn't heard her tromping around or having late night booty calls with her boyfriend like I normally do. Sure enough the alarm continues to blare, and I don't hear anyone walking around up there. I peak out the window...nope, no car in her parking spot. Is someone really trying to break in? I call the police. They had already received the alarm and were responding. Police show up, don't ever talk to me, but I hear them knock on her door and see a flashlight being shined around outside. I never do fall back into peaceful slumber, but I do fall asleep knowing that Winston-Salem's finest has checked everything out.

Also annoying, almost dying. Kathleen's car spun out 540 degrees yesterday on an on ramp to the highway (not her fault) and ended up facing the wrong way with a YWCA bus bearing down on us. We, however, did not die or even get injured.

Can't decide if I'm going to blog about anything from graduation or not. If not, I leave for Italy soon, but don't fear, we may have a guest blogger to keep you all entertained.

Bunny Haven

My yard has been over run with bunnies. At any given moment, my backyard looks like this.

I've circled the rabbits because if I get any closer to take a picture they hop away and no matter how much I zoom in, you can't really see them in the grass. I'm like super paranoid I'm going to run over one with my car.

Letters from Prison: Visual

I give her a lot of crap, but this is actually somewhat heartwarming.

My favorite part are the little pieces of confetti drawn throughout the letter. Kathleen likes the balloons that say "MBA".

Further Proof that Airlines Suck

I realize that since I kinda work (or whatever) for an airline that I shouldn't say that, but I am SOOO fed up with United Airlines right now that I can't even stand it.

Flash back to February: Somehow my reservation to fly back to PA for my grandfather's funeral got screwed up. I had to pay an extra like $50 for the new flight plus a $150 change fee which I was told could be refunded because it was in relation to a bereavement. Trying to get the refund was a pain in the behind: death certificate, wait 20 business days (aka 4 weeks), etc. etc. etc. I call the refund hotline, and it tells me that the refund was processed but returned because of an improper address that I have to mail my correct address to them. Then I received my credit card statement today and find out that not only do they not refund my $150, but they recharge me for the flight. So now i'm double charged for a flight, plus they still owed me the original $150.

I call United. Totally pissed. Can't for the life of me get a real person on the phone. Finally go to their reservations department just so I can talk to someone. "oh, i'm sorry, we don't have a phone number for that. Here's the e-mail address." REALLY? You owe me like $450 and you don't have a phone number for that? So after e-mailing them, AGAIN. I file a formal complaint with the Department of Transportation, which I only know to do because of working with AirTran this summer. The airlines can get fined and crap based on the number of complaints they have against them. So anytime an airline royally screws you over, go on the DOT website and fill out the little complaint form.

New York: Part 2

Well, I did some laundry, made a grocery list and figured I'd finish out this blog before I lost momentum. Saturday, Marcia and I woke up lazily and I took an absolutely life changing shower in Marcia's fantastic shower. We go to get coffee and a wonderful apple galette from a very eco-friendly place called Cafe O. The weather is absolutely wonderful. Perfect for picking up avocados at the Brooklyn Flea which is great because that's exactly what we need to do. Marcia is defending her title as people's choice for best guacamole at Guactacular on Sunday.

We take the subway to the Brooklyn Flea and after looking around for a while, start the absolute glutfest which we call lunch. We share everything because then we get to try more things. We start off with this:

A fantastic Maine Lobster Roll from Red Hook Lobster Pound. We followed that up with this:

A pork Huarache. And then this:

Grilled corn with cheese, chili powder, and butter. We washed it all down with some yummy limeade. My tummy was sufficiently full. Marcia then fell in love with a Herman Miller chair, so after searching for an ATM (cash only at a Flea market of course), buying the chair, and picking up the Guactacular avocados, we took a car back to Manhattan. There was some debate about whether or not we could take it on the subway, but decided not.

We took Maddie to the dog park in Washington Park. She was still chill as a lot of the other dogs ran around and were totally spastic. It was a beautiful day and fun just watching all the dogs. We dropped Maddie back at the apartment and went for some manis and pedis. I got my toes done in OPI "Purple with Purpose."

Yes, those are my little troll toes. While bright, they were completely shown up by Marcia's fingernails.

Neon is apparently really in now. I then caught a cab to LaGuardia and left my wonderful trip to New York behind me.

My Trip to NYC

I'm spending a lazy Sunday recovering from my two day trip to New York City. This post is going to be chock full of pictures and links. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to cover my trip in one complete post or if it will be split across two. I'm just going to play it by ear.

My final presentation for my Advanced Branding class was in New York City. Wake Forest was paying for the flight and so I figured, why not spend an extra day to hang with Marcia, my amazing roommate from Notre Dame who just happens to live in downtown Manhattan.

First of all I must say that I was not in the best shape when I boarded my plane in Greensboro at 7am as the night before was the official End of the Year party where like any good Cinco de Mayo party there were plenty of margaritas and tequila shots (and a bounce house with a climbing wall and a slide!!!). I suffered through my presentation and at around 2pm was finally set free to meet up with Marcia (well, there was some slight mix up and I apparently bailed on part of an office tour and may or may not look like a jackass...oh well...school's over).

I hailed a cab (cause I got cab hailing skillz) to Wogie's where Marcia was having lunch with some of her friends that were in from Toledo. I had a beer, drooled, cursed myself for eating so much pizza in my class presentation and watched them devour what appeared to be amazing cheese steaks. Then we went to BLT Burger, and Marcia ordered this:


That's a "Grandma's Treat" which is a caramel milkshake with Maker's Mark in it. I had a "Night Rider" which was a chocolate milkshake with Kahlua and Oreos in it. YUM. I was fading fast and so we went back to Marcia's apartment. Marcia made an amazing goat cheese spread with caramelized onions (cause that's what she does...see?). I watched Downtown Abbey and had her adorable dog, Maddie, lounge on me.
Maddie is the most chill and lovable dog EVER. We then caught the subway and took it to what was supposed to be a rooftop party Uptown. It was really windy and chilly on the roof, so the party stayed down in an apartment. After some drinking, eating, possibly drunk yoga, it either was warmer up on the roof (a little surprising since the sun had gone down) or we just didn't care as much (probably more likely).

Good first day in NYC. I'm going to pause here and will blog the rest probably later today.

MBA with a Concentration in Alcoholism

Further proof that I may have a slight drinking problem (don't fret, my dear friends, it's really not as serious as I make it sound.) Today was my last day of legit MBA classes. I say legit because I have a skit for Advanced HR management tomorrow which is not legit because a) it's for an HR class and b) it's a FREAKIN SKIT! Here's a timeline of my day:

11am--Business Analytics exam (which was pretty traumatic)
12pm--Drinking in the parking lot
12:30pm--Drinking in my MPA class (SN: During this class, this girl Katy ate 8 Krispy Kreme donuts and then promptly went to the bathroom to throw up.)
1:15pm-- Continue drinking in the parking lot
1:30pm--Drinking on the patio of the on campus restaurant
3:30pm--Drinking in my group meeting for HR (It's about a skit, ok? don't judge.)
5pm--Andy texts me to see when I'm ready to go to dinner. I reply that i'm sobering up at school so that I can drive home. He asks if I just want picked up at school. Of course I do.
5:15pm--I hop in Andy's car, and he says "My God, woman, I can smell it on you." Then after a few minutes says "you smell fruity, what were you drinking?" uh...sangria...holy crap I must've been doing some drinking.

I Have No Self Control

Lately I've had a history of convincing myself that I will not get too drunk and will leave at a reasonable hour from school functions only to get significantly shit faced and have Kathleen drive me to my car the next morning. This is not normally a problem; however, the end of the year party is Thursday evening and I have a 7am flight Friday to New York city for my Advanced Branding class (and to see Marcia). So while I would like to drive and be able to leave at a reasonable hour, I would be screwed if I have to leave my car downtown. I asked Kathleen how I got to such a point that I can no longer trust myself not to be a total drunk. Her response via e-mail:

"Business school happened to you. In addition to our degree we will all be graduating with a slight case of alcholism! Just sleep it off on the plane! I mean it's the end of the year party, you can't not be a shitshow, that would be wrong!"

This is in line with the other argument that I often get from people when I try to cut myself off which is: "stop being selfish!" When did drunken ridiculousness become some sort of civic duty?

I'm Not a Computer Person

I've had many somewhat embarrassing interactions with Wake Forest's IT department because I have no idea what is going on with computers. Compared to my mom, I'm a genius, but honestly, I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

I walked into the IT guy's office with a tiny spring in my hand, held it out to show him and said "this fell out of my computer. is that an issue?" Apparently it's not a big issue, but should get fixed.

"Why Men Are NEVER Depressed"

I got this e-mail from Meredith today and asked her if I could mock it for being ridiculous. She said of course. It's a pretty long e-mail, so I'm editing out some of the more serious, thought provoking points. While I enjoy a good theoretical debate on the wage gap or a female president or the miracles of childbirth, this blog is not the place for it. Here we go. My comments are in parenthesis.

• "Your last name stays put (depends on your last name...trust me. I'm looking forward to ditching this name)


• You can wear NO shirt at the water park. (Who says I can't?)


• You don't have to think of which way to turn a nut or bolt. (I'm a girl, not an idiot.)


• Wedding dress $5000, Tux rental $100 (ok, I'll give you that one)


• People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. (really? Gotta say, if boy's got some nice pecs, I'm looking.)


• One mood all the time. (dude, I know some moody ass boys)


• You know stuff about tanks. (why is this good? Andy did his informational speech on tanks, so I learned some stuff, and I have to say I don't feel like my life has been enriched having known that information.)


• You never have to drive to another gas station because the restroom is just too icky. (In the words of Meredith: "is wanting a clean bathroom such a bad thing? sorry that I don't want to catch some disease that the CDC hasn't identified yet.)


• If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. (wow...wow...this is some commentary about the bitchiness of women.)


• You can open your own jars. (I can open my own jars...thank you very much. I go to body pump.)


• Your underwear is $8.95 for a three pack. (pretty sure I could get underwear in a three pack...I just don't)


• Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. (Why would anyone want this? I would be so unhappy if I only needed three pairs of shoes.)


• You can play with toys all your life. (um...I colored yesterday...this implies that needs to stop at some point?)


• You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife. (but i like getting my nails done...and having them be pretty colors...and coordinating them with my outfit)


• You have freedom of choice in growing a mustache. (Darling, that's what waxing is for.)
  

No wonder men are happier than women. (REALLY? REALLY?...Wanna argue that point?)"

There were more than that that I could probably comment on, but I gotta get to bells, so that will be it.

My Easter Experience

Having only Friday off and my last full week of classes looming ahead (aka lots of papers and presentations due), I decided to just spend Easter in Winston Salem. I wasn't planning on any Easter dinner plans, just a nice relaxing day by myself until Erik, my neighbor and classmate, texted me yesterday at around 4pm and was like "We're thinking about doing Easter dinner tomorrow. You gonna be around?"

Let me just say that Easter dinner with 5 MBA aged men is a lot different from family dinner back in Pennsylvania. The hit of the meal was the person that brought Stouffer's Mac N Cheese because "making real mac n cheese is so tough. I don't understand why anyone would ever do it." We did actually sit down at a table which was up for debate for some time, but one person at the table was sitting on an end table for the meal because they didn't feel like bringing in another chair. We did, however, leave the Braves game on TV. Conversation topics were also very different from family Easter as I'm not sure we've ever discussed cults, steroids, middle earth, ninjas, Brett Favre's genitals, or cherry cola flavored condoms at my family Easter.

Happy Earth Day!

It's time for my annual 25 easy ways to love your planet post. I may be reposting some things I've already said before, but that's just because I think they're really important. Plus I want to remind you of some of the basics for some of my new readers. These are all things I do myself. I was reading a facebook post where someone suggested showering in nature in the rain. If you're all about that great. Frolicking naked outside in order to save water doesn't really fit into my life though, so here's some things that do.

1) Cold cook your pasta. I'm starting off with a ridiculous one here, so bear with me. When I read about this in the green cookbook my mom got me, I thought there was no way this would work, but it does. Bring you water to a rolling boil, put the pasta in, put the lid on, turn off the burner and cook for the time directed on the box. The secret is to not peek and keep the heat trapped under the lid. It truly works. At least try it.
2) Check your e-mail on a smart phone or crackberry. It saves the electricity of turning on your entire computer.
3) Give green gifts. When my friend Eli had a baby (who is adorable, ps), a notice came out in the baby shower invite saying she was going to be using cloth diapers. I was more than happy to give her a gift certificate to help with that. It doesn't even have to be that drastic though. How about an organic or local bottle of wine for your next hostess gift?
4) DVR your favorite shows and fast forward through the commercials. Less time with the TV on.
5) Give up your bath poof for a traditional wash cloth. Not only will it save that plastic from the landfill, but poofs have been shown to trap germs and bacteria if they aren't replaced every 3 weeks. (and really, who replaces theirs every 3 weeks?)
6) Buy the Mega rolls of toilet paper. Less waste, and less having to change the roll. Win Win.
7) Pack your lunch using a reusable lunch bag and containers rather than eating out. Saves money too!
8) Learn to drink tea (or coffee...but I haven't gotten there yet) without sweetener or creamer. When I went to China, a lot of times sweetener just wasn't available for tea and I realized how much more I could taste the tea. It saves all those little pink packets from the landfill and is better for your body too.
9) Don't transfer meals to serving bowls. Just have people serve themselves out of whatever you cooked in.
10) Pay bills online or by phone. Saves the paper of checks and the gas associated with all those bills having to be delivered by mail.
11) And while we're on the subject of mail. Call someone rather than send a card to say Happy Easter or Congratulations on your graduation!
12) Save water when washing dishes. Here's how I do it. Start with a mixing bowl that needs washed (or other big container). Pour your dish soap in there along with a little bit of water rather than filling up an entire sink to start. Wash your smaller items (knives and what not) in there first and as you rinse you'll gain enough water to wash bigger stuff.
13) And if you have a dishwasher, put anything you can in that rather than hand washing. Energy star dishwashers are actually better for the environment than hand washing. Seems like a paradox, right?
14) Look for products made from recycled material. They are EVERYWHERE now!
15) Don't put food down your garbage disposal. Most people think this is better than throwing it in the trash. It's not. Of course the most green thing is to not let food go to waste and to compost anything compostable.
16) Look for "Made in the USA". Not only will you be helping our economy, but you'll help save the energy needed to bring that item to market. Did you know the average cotton polo shirt travels 14,000 miles before it hits the shelves?
17) Donate your unused stuff to charity. Not only will you be keeping clutter out of your house and waste out of the landfill, but you'll get some good karma by giving it to someone who can really use it.
18) Want to recycle something (like a computer), but unsure how. Earth 911 will tell you how to do it in your area.
19) Return wire hangers to the dry cleaner. They will reuse them.
20) Carpool. It's always more fun having a friend in the car anyway.
21) Allow your hair to air dry at least part of the way. Unless you're dashing out the door right after your shower (which depending on where you're going may not be an issue anyway), air drying is better for your hair and will save electricity.
22) PLEASE take your own bags grocery shopping. I have two purple reusable bags that I take with me to Wal-mart and that is normally sufficient for all my groceries. I forgot them last week and came home with 15 plastic bags...FIFTEEN!!!
23) Freeze the leftovers. If you live by yourself, like I do, cooking one time means that I have meals for about five days. But sometimes, I just don't want to eat baked ziti for five days in a row, so I freeze the extras and have meals for sometime when I'm time crunched or sick and don't feel like making anything.
24) If you're going to buy disposable plates and cups (which I would rather you not, but sometimes it's necessary), get paper instead of plastic of Styrofoam.
25) Pass the word along. Today is a great day to post something on your facebook page or remind someone to recycle. A little tip can go a long way. (My grandma now uses reusable shopping bags!) WINNING!

That's Scary

From time to time I post conversations that epitomize the relationships that I have with certain people (Danielle, my mom, etc.), just so you can get a better idea of the people in my world. Today, I went out for celebratory sushi (because did I mention I got into the University of Minnesota...woot) with Andy...here's a conversation that only gives you a slight view of this extremely complex relationship. Background: I have a band-aid on my index finger.

Andy: What did you do to your finger?

Me: Oh, my cuticle is just all red and hurty.

Andy: Cause you were stressed out and picking at it?

Me: No.

(Andy gives me a look of contempt)

Me: (Sheepishly) Yes.

(The look of contempt continues)

Me: I'm sorry. It won't happen again.

Andy: Don't apologize...

(I interrupt him two words in.)

Me: (to my index finger) I'm sorry. It won't happen again.

Andy: That's scary.

(I apologize if the formatting of this post is all F***ed up. Blogger is being a bucket of hell right now).

Native Vines

Yesterday Kathleen and I went to West Bend vineyard. I had been there before with Amanda 1, and so when I saw a fantastic deal on a tasting on Living Social, I bought it. After finishing the tasting, Kathleen and I sat out on the patio while I had a conference call with AirTran (yes, I had just finished a wine tasting, don't judge). It was only around 3 in the afternoon, and we decided rather than head back to W-S that we should visit some more vineyards in the area.

The next winery we went to was Weathervane vineyard. It was nice. They had some awesome fruity wines (of which I bought 4 bottles) and the only issue was we were waiting for their slushy machine to freeze some wine slushies which never happened.

We next looked to go to Native Vines. (If the web page doesn't load, that's part of the Native Vines experience.) We should've realized something was wrong when my Garmin couldn't locate the address, but our winery map had directions that we thought we could follow, so we just wrote it off as GPS's being stupid and went on our way. We got slightly lost...I still really don't know how. We finally saw a nice looking Native Vines sign on the edge of a wooded area and pulled onto a gravel driveway. The first thing we came to was a sketchy looking run down house with furniture on the front porch and stuff. Kathleen and I looked at each other but then saw another Native Vines sign pointing further down the road....whew...We came to another run down house...still not it...though the sketchy looking possibly former cattle barn with the tires stacked beside it and a haggard looking dog staggering around outside was. There were laminated poster board signs to show us where to park.

Kathleen asked if I thought we would get to take our glasses home from this vineyard (as we had from the other locations). I answered maybe plastic ones. We walk in and are greeted by a nice but somewhat sketchy woman who is in need of a good bra. The room is half tasting room and half office/storage area and smells faintly of cigarette smoke. In the tasting area, there is a big screen TV with the news on it, two tables with chairs, and a variety of random Native American art. She put two plastic cups infront of us and filled a paper dish with some crackers. We discovered the tasting was $5, but we got to taste like 15 wines, and actually more than that because after we were done with the list, she offered to let us taste anything again. At some points, she had to dig through boxes to find the wine we were supposed to taste next. We weren't sure how the wines would taste because she gave us the wrong names for some of the wines and there were some weird descriptions: "We did this one in steel, but it sucked, so I put a bunch of oak in it and now it's really oaky." "We kinda forgot about these grapes, and they were really shrively by time we got to them. I didn't know what to do with them, and my husband was like 'just bottle them,' so that's what we did." They were actually really good. There was only one that we dumped out without finishing. I'm pretty sure that if we had been like "you know what would go really well with this wine? Pot." she would've pulled out a baggie and rolled us a joint. At one point some small kids with juice boxes came in and ran around the office area. So if you're looking for a kitschy winery experience in the W-S area, check it out. Not sure what you're going to get, but that's the fun of it.

Proof of Concept

I've recently received some gentle suggestions that I need to blog. I don't really have much to post right now...it's been kinda boring around here.

As many people know, I like to bake cookies for my fellow students here at Wake. (Who doesn't love cookies?) I know this is going to cause problems with all of you not in Winston Salem who don't get cookies...too bad. Every once in a while I get e-mails from my classmates with links to recipes or ideas for recipes and something like "can you do this?" written in the subject line. Of course, I can do it. Most recently, I was sent this link. Yes, that's a chocolate chip cookie with an Oreo in the middle. So can I do it?

Of course I can. They were amazing! So now that I know it can be done (AKA proof of concept), next time I'm going to use mini Oreos because the original batch had cookies the size of small children. I'm also working on perfecting Andy's favorite cookies. I have the flavor down but have been asked "Can you give the cookies more integrity? (like literally; not like, the cookies are liars.)" Those cookies WERE liars. Aren't you all jealous that you don't live near me now so that I can perfect your favorite cookies?

Possibly the Best Letter EVER

This may possibly be the most entertaining letter from prison ever. I realize that we've had some very entertaining letters about shanks in the past, but this one is phenomenal. And since I'm feeling kinda mopey about not having a job/any sort of future plan what so ever, I thought I'd blog. "Hey, how are you? Im good...Im sitting here watching american pie on a 19' plasma (that's one big ass TV if it's 19 feet) from my bed eating ritz crackers, chedder cheese, summer sausage and mustard! samwhichs im so stuffed..it doesn't even feel like im in jail (and they wonder why these people have trouble holding down a job after they get out) i even cans moke a couple cigs here and there were not spose to smoke in blues (i have no idea what blues are) but my celly gets em! don't say anything about smoking we can smoke in browns (don't know what browns are either) though I'll be in browns in around a month..I can't wait! do you like country music? (random) I do now...I like your spring stationary its cute! (why thanks...I use up all my random stationary I had from childhood on her)

Well me and James's relationship is crazy (oh yeah!) I actually met him 2 nights before I went to jail this last time (ha...she has to differentiate which time she went to jail), we really liked each other and he was ther efor me in the beginning I called him everyday, he came to visit me every week, wrote, sent pictures everything he was spose to do and I only knew him 2 days (sounds like a perfect jailhouse romance) I can't even get friends I knew 20 year to do that for me (Meredith, if I go to jail will you write and come visit?) so I really respected him for that! Then I got greedy and told him I wanted $ on my books (that is greedy) and he wasn't feeling that (no shit, he wasn't feeling that) so he stopped answering my calls...he ended up coming to jail a couple months after that for a parole violation (oh, he is a good guy) and I found out and wrote him and we settled all are misconceptions decided to be together and start a family when I came home (oh dear GOD! BAD IDEA ALERT! BAD IDEA ALERT!) then I called a mutual friend of ours last week and she told me what like 4 (this may be a 9, can't tell, but I'm going with 4) other girls are doing for him too...I don't know if its completely true but I wrote him a mean break-up letter so I waiting to hear his explantion! Thats the short version...my lifes like a springer show

thats crazy about the shin thing (i told her about the cancun wrestler guy) you shoulda filmed it and put it on UTUBE (awww...she doesn't know how to spell youtube) Im about to watch 3 hours of Family Guy (alright...what do I gotta do to get thrown in jail?) I love Family Guy. I heard about foam partys they sound AWESOME...I will attend one in my lifetime (so is this before or after you start a family?) That picture (the one on facebook of her face all f***ed up) was the end result of the night I got the charges for fighting Rickay and "stabbing" her BF (really? we have stabbing in quotes?) did I tell you that? apperently she kicked me in the eye...I don't remember though thats the night I met James too (sounds like a wonderful evening) oh well thats a drunken fight for ya (how do you not remember someone kicking you in the head? Do you know how drunk you need to be?) lol (we just lol'ed her "stabbing" someone and then getting kicked in the face.) hope to hear from you soon."