Life After Undergrad

What I'm Thankful For

2009-11-26T17:38:00.000-08:00

So... I haven't written in a really long time, and it pains me to write an entry without finishing up my top ten list from before, but I felt the urge to write an entry because there are so many things I'm thankful for.

Serious things:

My family: my parents are so awesome and supportive of me being a life-long student, and even though I should be financially independent, they still manage to help me out when I need it. They're the greatest!! My sister, aunts and uncle are great too!

My old friends: It's so good to know that no matter how far away they are, they're still my friends. Managing to keep in touch with everyone makes me really happy!! I'm looking forward to being reunited with people when they come to the area or I go to their area or we meet somewhere else. I promise to be better about sending birthday cards on time and making more newsletters!

My new friends: I could not have imagined making better friends in graduate school! It's so great to know I've met people with similar interests and that I can have a great time with! I've already had sooo many memorable moments in graduate school, and it's only been 3 months! It makes me look forward to the next 5 1/2 years and makes me sad a semester has passed so quickly! Also, the best office ever.

The Psych program at Purdue: I am so grateful to be in such a fabulous program with so many amazing people (students and faculty). My adviser is amazing, I could not have asked for anyone better!! I love the fact that they encourage collaboration, because I have interests in other areas. I'm also grateful that I seem to be getting along with classes and research well. The thing I was most worried about - coming up with new ideas that haven't been done before - is proving to be easier than I anticipated. The only thing I need is more time to do all the reading I want to!!

Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer, and the Florida Gators: They don't fail to disappoint, and they made my undergraduate years the best they could have been. Reading articles and watching press conferences about Tim Tebow's last game in the Swamp and the impact Tim Tebow has had on the Gator program make me cry. Saturday is going to be a really emotional day for everyone in the Swamp, me, and Gator fans everywhere.

Now just for fun (aka entertainment things I'm thankful for):

Nine: Daniel Day-Lewis coming out with a new movie is always something to be thankful for!! Add in the fact that this is a musical, and it's even better!

Wednesday night TV: Glee, The Middle, Modern Family, Top Chef. Wednesdays are the funnest night of tv!! While Thursdays and Monday are also great, I look forward to Wednesday the most! Though with Chuck coming back on Mondays in January and Glee not being on for months, Monday will probably take this title away from Wednesday.

Chuck: I'm soooo thankful it's getting a 3rd season!

Other AMAZING renewals: Better Off Ted, Dollhouse (at least it got 2 seasons), Parks & Recreation

The improvement of Grey's Anatomy: It's gotten soooo much better!!

My DVR: How else could I watch all of this magnificent tv?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! =)

Favorite Reality Show # 2

2009-08-09T23:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if people have enjoyed this blogging segment, but I really love lists, and I must finish it! Plus, I really hope it works in the future, because like I said I love lists. And the top 2 in this list are really good, so it's entertaining I promise!

Top Chef: It was a close call to make this number one or number two. It came down to not being able to taste the food the chefs create, yet fully enjoying the presentation of the designs on Project Runway. Top Chef is a great show, though, and as far as I know it began the trend of chef competitions that the Food Network has now spawned so many versions of (Chopped, Challenge, Ultimate Recipe Showdown, Next Food Network Star, etc.). While I enjoy Chopped and Ultimate Recipe Showdown and Challenge, Top Chef is way better. It is a continuing competition week by week, whereas all of those are just a one-time competition. The challenges are always super creative. I absolutely love when they have themed meals like the seven deadly sins. So clever. More so than famous guest judges they often have real people judge, which is good, however, celebrity guest judges are exciting and Project Runway has one up on them in that regard. Real people are not be ignored, though, considering chefs are often going to be cooking for real people. They often put the chefs in difficult places to cook (dorm rooms, the beach, etc.). The challenges are always incredibly challenging, possibly more so than Project Runway. I also love that there is a quickfire challenge on every episode (double the challenges!). This is something Project Runway lacks. We all know how much I love challenges, so the more the better, making this a great reality show. Also, while I believe shows can be good without drama (Top Chef Masters, Southern Belles), something this show does incredibly well is balance the individual drama with the intragroup drama with the competition. Another thing I love about Top Chef is when they compete on teams. Teams for cooking make sense, they can do different courses, it works. Teams for designing clothing, not so much (especially you The Fashion Show). The judges are great, they seem like they are friends. Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and Padma all seem to get along. I also never mind the temporary-permanent addition of Ted Allen who is credible and a great judge. He fits right in with the others. The judges are kind yet harsh, I love them. Plus, they eat everything! I really respect that. It would be very difficult for many people to be a judge, as most people have food they don’t like. These people eat it all, though. I look forward to this show every week, and I always make sure to save my dessert for the elimination challenge because it always makes me hungry. All in all, it says a lot when I HAVE to watch a bravo show the first time it is on, considering they replay them a million times. Sure, sometimes I end up watching them at 11 instead of 10, but rarely do I watch it the next day. It’s one of the shows I am always excited to see.

Seasons in order of greatness:
Season 1: Harold will always be my favorite Top Chef. Once again, a season where the person I wanted to win from the beginning did. I also loved Dave, and I LOVED the drama between Dave and Tiffani. So wonderful. Plus it was just so new and wonderful.

Season 2: 2nd to Harold, Sam will be my next favorite Top Chef contestant ever. Sadly, he didn’t win though. =( I also loved Betty and Marcel was always entertaining.

Season 4: I loved Stephanie and she won! YAY! I liked Nikki, Andrew, and Spike, everyone else was kind of boring, though. This was also filmed in Chicago, ultimately making it better than any other location (though I am looking forward to the next season in Las Vegas!!).

Season 5: I LOVED Carla and Fabio. Sadly, they both came close to winning but did not win. =/ Fabio was so great and Carla should have won clearly.

Season 3: I was not a fan of many people here. I LOVED Tre, but he was gone way too early. I liked CJ and Casey, too, but neither won. Not many people were very memorable, though.

- Best challenges of TC

Finale (Season 1): Because Harold won… and it was in Las Vegas.

Thanksgiving episode (Season 2): I love all of the holiday episodes. When else does cooking matter as much?

7 Deadly Sins Challenge (Season 2): It’s such a creative idea. Plus, I love inspiration episodes.

Where they cook outside a club in Miami (Season 3): Out of the boredom that season 3 was, I remember this episode distinctly.

Where they compete against each other making the same dish (Season 4): Such a fun idea. The contestants were literally on the same playing field as they were being judged on the same exact meal.

Where they create food based on their favorite movies (Season 4): I love movies and inspiration episodes.

Dishes inspired by the 4 elements (Season 4): …inspiration.

Tailgating episode (Season 4): Because it was for a Bears game, and it was a fun idea!

Dishes based on New York neighborhood ethnicities (Season 5): With the melting pot NYC offers, this was a great episode for different ethnic foods!

Thanksgiving episode (Season 5): I like holiday episodes.

12 Days of Christmas (Season 5): I like holiday episodes, but this is also an incredibly wonderful inspiration episode. Such a creative idea!!

The Last Supper (Season 5): Such a creative idea, contestants create a meal for famous chefs that they would want as their last meal. AMAZING!

Always Restaurant Wars: I love all of the Restaurant Wars episodes because it involves so much creativity.

- Worst challenges of TC:

None I can recognize, they are all good in some way!

Entertainment Update

2009-08-05T21:35:00.001-07:00

OK, I AM getting on a regular blogging schedule soon! I've just been busy and my computer is being fixed, so it was gone for a day, and lots of other excuses (such as needing to watch tv before I go to Purdue so my dad doesn't delete it all before I can watch it).

First, I am so happy to report a piece of news from comic-con:

*Viewers will get significant Richard Alpert backstory in Season 6. It may or may not be tied to Black Rock.

- I just want to know why he never ages and why he's so darn important!

2nd, I hear that Disney is going to be somewhat reviving their classic animation franchise. If you saw Harry Potter, I believe you saw the Princess and the Frog trailer. I think it looks great! And I am happy to hear that it is a musical as well! Next year they have a Rapunzel animation coming out which sounds wonderful! For some reason I have always loved Rapunzel. Yet I have not read for sure if it will be a musical. Kristen Chenoweth will be playing Rapunzel so it is quite possible it could be a musical. Then, 2 years later, another one! I'm very pleased! =)

Speaking of Harry Potter, I loved the movie. It makes me sad there are only 2 left! These actors have become the characters to me. Hermione has especially grown on me. Ron has gotten HOT. Plus, while there was sadly not enough of him in this film, Neville (and the actor who plays him) is awesome! Also someone else we saw very little of, Hagrid, and Professor McGonagall. This movie seemed incredibly focused on the main characters of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Draco and Dumbledore, with almost everyone else taking a backseat. I guess I better get used to it, though, since the 7th will basically be ALL Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Did anyone else notice how tall Draco seemed? Maybe he is just awkwardly proportioned or something.

There has been news on a new CW show coming in mid-season. It has been reported as more WB than CW, more like Gilmore Girls. Well, this excites me! Gilmore Girls is awesome! It is called Life UneXpected (the capital X really bothers me but oh well). It's about a foster girl who finds her birth parents (who are now separated) and she is put in their custody. Sounds interesting, plus Kerr Smith plays her dad, and he is HOT! And anything that is being touted as the next Gilmore Girls is good in my book!
The downside of this is my hoped for pilot, The Body Politic with Logan from Veronica Mars, was not picked up, but oh well... I hear he will be in an HBO show about politics soon!

Speaking of HBO, I signed up for comcast and will have HBO and Showtime in Lafayette! Which means I should be able to watch all True Blood, Nurse Jackie, Weeds (if I watch the other seasons first), Big Love, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The United States of Tara, a new show on after Curb Your Enthusiasm that could be funny... so many possibilities! YAY!

I'm actually considering watching Jay Leno's new show. I dunno why... perhaps I am just itching for more comedy television.

More Before & Afters... (thanks to my dad of course!)

Before...

After...

Before...

after

and there's no before but the after...

My New Obsession - iPhone & Old Obsession - Decorating

2009-08-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who don't know I got my iPhone Saturday! I have the new 32 gig 3G S. It's literally the most amazing technological product ever probably. It's like every portable technology you could want in one. It's a phone, a laptop, an ipod, a kindle, a camera, a video camera, a video player, etc. Anything you want it to do, it basically does. Needless to say I have been spending the past 2 days downloading applications and such yet don't even know how to turn the volume up so I can hear people when talking (it seems so low). It has a really pretty pink and black cover (like Colleen's --> we're phone twins! =), actually we may not be mine is white, i'm not sure if her's is white or black).

My main complaints so far are...
1.) The covers for the screen SUCK! I could not get it on without air bubbles or without getting dust underneath them. This makes me nervous about getting the screen dirty or scratched. I don't like being paranoid about it all the time. (However, this I do not blame on the iPhone but the company who made the screen covers.)
2.) The battery life has been disappointing. I need to figure out if there are things I need to set differently to gain battery life.
3.) I can't hear when I'm on it, where can I fix this? If you have an iphone and know, let me know! =) Thanks!!
However, other than that, pure amazingness!

Amazing things:
1.) Voice control --> so convenient for dialing numbers quickly! I just say "Call Dad" and it replies "calling dad mobile" in a british voice. LOVE it! And it actually understands, too (though google voice search understands less so, as far as I have seen so far, but ummm still, I can search for things on google by talking to my phone, who cares if it misunderstands sometimes?).
2.) The applications! I have downloaded A LOT of applications, after all, I have this space I need to use it. Applications I have decided to keep so far (haven't used them all yet) include:
- Google: with voice activated searching and such.
- Facebook: a little different than the regular fb, but still good!
- Twitterfon: Twitter! yay! Now I can update twitter more regularly. WONDERFUL!
- TwitPict: Now I can post pictures I take on my phone on twitter! YAY!
- Text Plus: Free texting, I feel I will use this more once school begins.
- Fandango: movie times nearby. It uses gps to locate me and tell me the closest theaters, though I can also favorite some theaters!
- Urbanspoon: the thing you shake and it tells you what restaurants are nearby.
- AroundMe: gets your location and tells you tons of things nearby including restaurants, banks, bars, coffee, gas stations, hotels, parking, supermarkets, etc.
- iWant: Kind of the same thing as aroundme. I need to compare, you know?
- Cheap Gas!: Tells me where the cheapest gas around is! WOW! What a great idea!
- Craigsphone: Craigslist for the iphone
- Chase: you know to see how much is in my account and all.
- Shazam: tells you what a song playing is! I always need this!
- Pandora: radio on the iphone
- College Fb: I am hoping this app will prove useful once the season starts!
- ESPN Scorecenter: All scores for all sports all the time.
- The Weather Channel: weather forecasts! The iphone comes with an app for weather, but I couldn't figure out how to change the location (LAME!), but luckily this app was available!
- NYTimes: News...
- Variety: Entertainment News
- Myhomework: organizes all assignments! Can't wait to test this out.
- Scramble: Like Boggle. I waste a lot of time on this!
- Living Social: Rating entertainment stuff. Might get rid of it... can't decide.
- Skype: Talk to others with skype for free. Let me know if you have skype and how to use it! I haven't used this app yet.
- Read it Later: haven't used this yet, but you can save internet stuff on the phone so you can read it w/o internet access later. Sounds useful!
- Grocery: Organizes grocery lists! It said it organizes by aisle and stuff! How exciting! I can't wait to use this!
- BetterLists: An app that organizes lots of different lists.
- To Do's: A to do list app where you can prioritize stuff. (may get rid of this or betterlists)
- Evernote: A note system that does more special stuff than the note app given to you on the iphone, but I forget what at the moment.
- Party Planner: Doesn't this just sound perfect for me?? Cannot wait to use it!
- Flickr Search: I haven't been on flickr ever, and I'm not sure why not! So I have joined and will begin putting pics on!
- Flickr sendr: add pics taken with phone to flickr!
- Cartoonizer: An app that makes cartooney pics out of the pics I take! Sounds fun!
- Mosaica: Another app that does fun stuff with pics! Cannot wait!!
- Touch Goal: Put goals and they do something with it, not sure why or how. Haven't used it yet.
- Sleeptracker: Determines stuff about sleep habits. Should be useful for me!
- 999 Reasons: Gives you ideas on how to do things better or something... we'll see.
- Target: I'm not sure exactly what it does, but I'm sure it's as amazing as target.
- Converter: Converts measurements! Useful for cooking and such!
- Documents: Create and transfer documents I believe.
- iQuotations: quotes!
- ArtCam: Turns pictures into different forms of art, such as degas and monet and other awesome things! Wow! AMAZING!
- Artnear: Tells you about nearby art galleries, shows, museums, etc. Perfect!
- NPR Finder: Finds the npr station closest to your location.
- Trapster: Tells you about speed traps near you.
- B&N eReader: an electronic book reader that gave me free books! yay!
- Kindle: the kindle on my iphone for other books!
- BookShelf: Another ereader that gave me free books!
- Wattpad: Another ereader that gave me free books!
- Children's classics: Classic children's books
- Classics2Go: More free books!
- Audiobooks: free audiobooks that can then be played through the iphone... OMG I LOVE it!
- Shakespeare: Works of Shakespeare.
- Grimm's Tales: Grimm's Fairy Tales
- Fairy Tales: Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales
- Wuthering Heights: the book
- Treasure Island: the audiobook
- A Tale of Two Cities: the book
- The Time Machine: the book
- Jane Eyre: the book
- What Would You Do With This Room?: A book about decorating!
3.) All of my e-mail accounts are hooked up to it and I can check them whenever I want!
4.) All of my songs are on there now, and I won't have to delete one to add another b/c I have so much space!
5.) All of my bookmarks from my laptop are synced with the iphone.
6.) I can leave myself voice memos.
7.) The user-friendliness of the phone.
8.) A Calendar that I can add stuff to!
9.) Internet I can go on whenever!
10.) 3G, as long as I am in a semi-populated area I can go on the internet anywhere for free (well... $30/month).
11.) ...but I can also use my own wireless (and Dan said I could use my wireless when I call people and it won't go into my monthly minutes! How crazy is that?!?!?).

Well, I've run out of things for now but I'm sure I'll think of more. But basically, it's fabulous! I can do almost anything I need to whenever I need to do it. And while the battery life might be bad right now, I have a wall charger, a computer charger, and a car charger, so I think I'll be alright! And also in normal life I probably won't use it quite as much as I am now!

Anywho, anyone with an iphone and suggestions for me, please share!! =)

Onto decorating. Things are going well with the townhouse!

My new spacesaver bathroom storage in my new favorite color, white!

Our new rug in our extra room. This room is nowhere near done yet, but I love the rug and color combination of teal and brown! Going to get pillows tomorrow, yay!

Before...
My shabby chic project. Goal was to replace purple flowers with pink flowers.

After...
BEAUTIFUL! All thanks to my dad! It was actually really easy b/c there were spots to place the flowers in! SO perfect!

Something to match them...

Wonderful shabby chicness!

And more wonderful white shabby chicness:

And more wonderful shabby chicness, this time in green:

matches the white frame above!!

And another before...

and after...

what a little bit of sheer curtains can do to add color to a space! And with a light green paint on the walls, oh my! SO excited!

Also in the works is white mirrors for my vanity area. I also plan on getting white curtains (probably sheers). I'm also working on finding a green rug for the foot of the bed. Also working on painting the room green, too. Not sure how I'm going to arrange anything aside from my bed, and probably my dresser which I angled against the corner so I can see my tv.

I'm getting teal and brown pillows for the extra room tomorrow. I also got 3 rectangular mirrors of different sizes to paint dark brown and arrange creatively. We may paint the wall behind the futon a teal color. I want funky wall art and perhaps a clock for the wall since there isn't another in the room... Kim has a dark brown coffee table for in there, too. That room is going to be rearranged also.

The reading nook is in the works. Did I post the pic of our chair yet? Well, if not, here it is:

yay!!!

In addition to this chair in the reading nook we're planning on putting a dark brown table Kim painted and is putting rust orange tiles on top. The rust orange rug and pillows I bought previously for the extra room are being moved to the reading nook. Kim got an antiquey lamp and we need to find a lamp shade for it. We're also planning on attempting to paint my old bookshelf dark brown. If this fails, however, I will buy a cheap espresso-colored one from Target. We also plan on painting the walls around the area rust orange.

We're going to paint the reading nook, our rooms, the extra room (probably just an accent wall) and the living and dining room. Possibly the 1/2 bath, too. Since I hope to stay at this place for 6 years, the paint will be well worth it! 1 1/2 weeks until official move! CANNOT wait!!! =)

Favorite Reality Shows # 3

2009-07-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Top Chef Masters: While I have only seen a few episodes, this is shaping up to be a fabulous reality show. I almost feel it is better than the original Top Chef, but it is too soon to tell. The first episode was great. I loved the chefs, I loved the challenges, and I was so happy Hubert Keller won (he reminds me of Dumbledore a little). At SPSP next year in Vegas I want to eat at Fleur de Lys, any takers? It makes me sad that we won’t see the contestants every week, but I guess it makes it more realistic to get great chefs as contestants since they don’t have to take as much time off of their real jobs. Plus, I feel like I get to know them fairly well since all of the attention is on 4 chefs for an hour. I also love their comradery, it’s refreshing. Once again, a show with not as much drama (like Southern Belles) that is enjoyed just for the sake of being a great show. There are also some great guest judges which the original Top Chef seems to lack, NPH, Zooey Deschanel, Lost executive producers. One other thing I don’t like about this is that it will be shorter than regular Top Chef. It is only 6 weeks of 4 chefs each week and then 4 weeks of one person getting eliminated each week (though this should be really fun, so happy Hubert Keller will be there), as opposed to the 10 + weeks of Top Chef eliminations. I also miss Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, but I like Gael Greene and I hear Gail Simmons will be on at some point! I would like to call right now that Hubert Keller will win which will make it even better. I am just so excited to see where the rest of the show goes and if they have more seasons of it. I love it already so soon. Also, did I mention they are competing for charity? They won’t be earning any reward themselves (besides publicity and public recognition à for the winners and are actually risking public criticism), they are doing it soley for the good of others. What lovely people they are.

Entertainment Update

2009-07-25T02:04:00.000-07:00

So the award for most useless blogger ever goes to… Julie Chen blogging about Big Brother. I am only sad EW is hosting her blog entries, they’re better than that. Listen to this priceless gem:
"when Casey and Chima won the opportunity to screen the upcoming feature film, “The Ugly Truth,” I think the baby kicked when I saw all those sweets and could only imagine the sugar high those two must have been on! Personally, I haven't had any unusual cravings during my current pregnancy, but I think that's because I've always had a healthy appetite, and now is no different. Seeing those sweets, however, DID make me want a jumbo pack of red Twizzlers and a giant box of Milk Duds with an ice cold glass of skim milk."

no one cares Julie... that is literally the dumbest thing I ever read, literally.

She also uses the terms ping and pong oddly.

“Ronnie certainly laid the majority of his cards down after nominating Laura and Jeff for eviction. But, it didn’t take long for two members of Ronnie’s current alliance, Lydia and Russell, to have their own screaming match, which then caused some to petition to backdoor Russell. (PING!) But, Natalie and Jessie appealed to Ronnie and Casey became the new replacement target (PONG!) That is, until Jordan jumped in and went after Ronnie for playing both sides of the house. Ronnie considered her “dead to me,” and decided she’d be the replacement nomination, if necessary (PING!). Just before the Veto Competition, Ronnie’s back to being excited about back-dooring Russell (PONG!). Meantime, after it’s determined who will play for the POV, Jessie, Natalie, and Jeff (yes, you read that right!) briefly met in the red room where they reached an understanding that Casey and Laura must not win...HUH? Jeff was conspiring with Jessie and Natalie? I guess it makes sense since they are still the Athletes’ Clique, but that was unexpected, to say the least! Anyhow, Jeff won and took himself off the block. Despite Ronnie’s desire to backdoor Russell, he apparently hadn’t gotten over the blowout with Jordan, so she ended up on the block (PING!).”

And wait there’s more…

“All of a sudden, the Houseguests, sans Ronnie, became sunshine and smiles when they realized that Ronnie was the source of all their problems (PONG!)...everything from misunderstandings, shortage of food, clogged toilets and the brief power outage in the house...it’s all Ronnie’s fault!!”

And more...

“Oh, then there’s Jessie, who snuck up to Ronnie’s HOH room at one point and told him to lay low...they have his back...but, do they??? (PING!)”

And oh wait more…

“As the hours unfold, Ronnie’s clearly The Plague of the BB House. Or is he??? Some of the Houseguests have begun to lick the wounds inflicted by the master gamer, Ronnie, and have started to rethink their strategy (PONG!).”

WHY??? It’s even too boring for me to read it, and I love blogs! WOW she is dumb and annoying!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0KRN69leV-Q/SmkyPiYZSaI/AAAAAAAAGgI/Qef36qLelGY/s1600-h/CHUCK_LP_CMYK+9.jpg

<3

Some amazing news: A Project Runway All-Stars with Santino, Daniel Vosovic, Chris March, Michael Knight, Korto, Uli, Sweet P, and Jeffrey (listed in order of how much I like them with a tie between Daniel V and Chris March). It will be August 20th and 8 pm on LIFETIME (not bravo) right before the new season premiere. I CANNOT wait!!! I hope Santino does a Tim Gunn impression. I hope Jeffrey loses terribly! I hope Santino, Daniel V, Chris March or Michael Knight wins.

Watch What Happens Live on Bravo Thursdays at midnight with Andy Cohen is amazing! I love the first few minutes where he talks about his obsessions in pop culture for the week. I mainly love that he refers to them as obsessions because I use the term as well. He’s hilarious, though. He has guests there and drinks whiskey and gives them quizzes. It’s basically amazing, and if it were on every night I would make time for it!

I’m not sure if I have mentioned on here that I joined twitter. I follow about 40 people (some of which are actually cnn, npr, etc.). My favorite people I follow are my friends (Colleen, Allyson, Jimmy, Ashley, Claire Long, Tim [new grad student], Kim [new roommate]), Tim Tebow (he rarely updates but often talks to celebrities like Miley Cyrus), Chelsea Handler, Alyson Hanigan and Alexis Denisof (just because they’re adorable and I love them but they don’t update frequently), Miley Cyrus and Megan McCain (because they update every 5 seconds, and Megan McCain is hilarious), and Zachary Levi (because he’s amazing).

My thoughts on the winner of the fashion show (SPOILERS): Reco should have won. Daniella’s collection sucked, I don’t know what they were thinking. I was satisfied with Anna as a back-up because she based her collection on Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (my favorite painting in the world) and was very floral and colorful (both things I like). However, as Reco said, he will be fine, he already has people calling him wanting clothes. DUH! He’s amazing!

My thoughts on Big Brother so far (SPOILERS): I’m terribly sad Laura is gone, though I still love Jeff and Jordan and actually Casey now. I didn’t think I would like Casey first as he was kind of crazy, but I do like him! I still like Lydia and Kevin as well, though I wish they would spend more time with Jeff and Jordan and less with Jessie. I also like Michele. I am annoyed with the whole last week basically, can’t even talk about it, everyone who watches knows. Then to top it off, Jessie wins HOH again!!! AHHHH!! How is this possible?? It was so close to being Jeff. =( And let me tell you if the two people I hate the most (besides Jessie) Russell and Ronnie are safe, it would be with Jessie. I also dislike Natalie a whole lot (also safe this week) and Chima needs to shut her mouth. I was fine with her until her little outburst at Casey (“I get to choose whose on slop since my team is in power… ummm…. BITCH!). I can only hope Ronnie will go this week with Jessie as HOH so my precious off-beats and populars and Michele are safe. Good news is Jeff will be safe with Jessie as HOH (unless a surprise from Chenbot comes saying they can put up people of their own clique).

Does T.R. Knight deserve a cover of EW for quitting Grey’s Anatomy? I don’t think so. Though he does look better in that picture than I’ve ever seen him, good job EW! But this cover and “Chen-a-Len-a-Ding-Dong” (as she was referred to in a blog) having a blog make me question EW.

Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

I LOVE it! So cute, clever, creative, unique! I could go on and on.

Also, in regards to awesome videos, a shout-out to my Gainesville people doing The Real AC. LOVE IT!!! It is sooo good in that it is exactly like all “reality” shows, the music, the names when people are talking, the drama. What a brilliant idea! It must have taken so much thought and hard work! GREAT JOB ALLYSON AND ANDY!!! (since you guys are the only people who may read this who are involved in it). If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Also, sidenote: love that you say what music is playing!

http://www.youtube.com/user/abcd4466

- still waiting for Episode 3 to be on youtube so I don’t have to download something to watch it on facebook…

New shows I like:

- Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Make it or Break It? Good job ABC Family!

- I kind of like Dark Blue on TNT even though it keeps getting negative reviews. I really love Dylan McDermott, and I dunno, the stories have drawn me in the past 2 episodes (ONLY episodes…).

- Lie to Me: For a procedural, amazing! Up there with Criminal Minds! I find it humorous a lot of the time.

- Top Chef Masters! I love it!! I’m rooting for Hubert Keller and Rick Bayless(?)! My dad is rooting for one of his favorite Food Network chefs Michael Chiarelli. As long as the really boring woman who never smiles doesn’t win, I’ll be happy, but not as happy unless it’s Hubert probably (he reminds me of Dumbledore!).

Movie I cannot wait for: (500) Days of Summer! The idea just seems amazing! I’m hoping it’s Away We Go-esque (which I loved!).

Movie I can wait forever for: The Ugly Truth. It was one of those trailers I saw and instantly knew it would be bad (like Fool’s Gold) and even though I love nothing more than a good romantic comedy, I would never pay to go see it and so bad I may not even rent it.

Ryan Reynolds, in EW, said one of his musts is a Kindle. Before he said this I never thought I would ever want one, but when he said how it is so convenient for travel, it changed my mind. It also holds newspapers and magazines. Eventually… like when they’re much cheaper and more necessary for my lifestyle. Also, recent scandal with them taking away books (1984, haha!) needs to be sorted out. I understand and don’t think it is anywhere near the burning books people are associating it with, but sort it out Amazon.
Also after reading a bunch of Time magazine articles on the influence of Twitter and why it’s good I decided to get a twitter account. Also, recent scandal with Twitter being the cause of movies doing poorly in the box office (this phenomenon is being dubbed the Twitter Effect, love it!), this is just more evidence that Twitter really is changing the way we do things.
Also, I think magazine articles have too much of an influence on my life…

Movie I really want to see that I should have seen long ago: Once. Andy said this was good, and now like a year and a half later I want to see it.

Miami Social is my least favorite Bravo reality show I’ve watched (except maybe Flipping Out, not too into that show), yet I’ll probably continue to watch it.

Also, my parents say I will be getting my iphone by the end of the summer (which is in like 3 weeks)… yay!!!!!!!

So bad at posting...

2009-07-17T23:37:00.001-07:00

I've been so bad at posting lately! Ahhh!! I figured I must update, but this is going to be a random assortment of updates. Hopefully I'll be back on track soon. I have 3 days with nothing to do so I should be able to get back into the swing of things.

- I hate ushering. I already said this I believe, but I really do.

- It felt like a nice November day in Florida today in South Bend. It was about 70 degrees and is about 60 degrees tonight. Isn't it July? I am confused...

- I've been reading up on Gator news lately, getting prepared for the upcoming football season! I've also been reading a blog solely dedicated to Tim Tebow and the Gators football team. http://www.timteblog.com/
It's great! So Urban Meyer said he would never coach for Notre Dame. The author's theory is that Tim Tebow will be drafted by the Patriots, Urban Meyer will stay with the Gators until Bill Belichick (his bff) retires from the Patriots, then Urban Meyer will be offered the head coach position of the Patriots where he will be reunited with Tim Tebow, and then maybe once he wins tons of championships there he will go to Notre Dame. I like this theory besides him ever going to Notre Dame, but it would be cool having the opportunity to run into him here in South Bend! =)

- I cannot wait to see (500) Days of Summer. At first I thought it was weird because I couldn't see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a romantic comedy role, though I was curious because I think Zooey Deschanel is wonderful. When I read about it, I was hooked! It's about a couple who break up and the guy is still in love with her and he remembers their relationship in moments, not in chronological order. He thinks of one happy thing that leads to another happy thing that may lead to an argument another time. So it jumps from possibly day 250 to day 7. I think it is so clever and unique. Unfortunately it's not playing here yet, but I will be anxious to see it when it is.

- Other movies I am looking forward to seeing: Harry Potter (I'm taking my sister with my free passes once I can use them); Julie & Julia - I cannot wait to see this!!! Amy Adams is so wonderful and the idea is so clever. I also love how it is actually 2 different stories yet also one. LOVE it!; Funny People - I have always liked Adam Sandler (sorry Hilary), I like Leslie Mann, and the previews have looked pretty good!; The Time Traveler's Wife - Just because I must. I like Rachel McAdams and how she seems in the trailer. I love how Eric Bana seems in the trailer. I don't like how the trailer portrays their love, though. So we'll see...

- Favorite tv shows from the summer: Royal Pains, Top Chef Masters, Mental, Make It or Break It (AMAZING!), Big Brother (I am OBSESSED with this season!), HawthoRNe, Dark Blue (only 1 episode so far, but it was good.

- Favorite new songs:
Talking Heads - (Nothing but ) Flowers: This is about the end of civilization and how the guy cannot deal with no technology. He goes, "If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower." DEEP! And it was written over 20 years ago. Talk about foresight and the sense of our dependence on technology. (From an indie cd from Gail)
Noah and the Whale - Jocasta: I am kind of obsessed with Noah and the Whale and wish I had lots of money to buy their cd. They're kind of amazing. (From an indie cd from Gail)
Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma: Really catchy beats. Lyrics don't make a whole lot of sense to me yet, but I am addicted to it. (From an indie cd from Gail)
Los Compesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!: Well... for those of you who follow my blog you should know why I like this song. The exclamation points in the title and artist name!!! YAY!! It's also just really upbeat and fun. (From an indie cd from Gail)
Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling: So fun. This is the perfect song to listen to while getting ready to go out for the night! I love it! (From Andy's ipod on the drive from CS to Gainesville)
I really want to listen to more indie music. I like a lot of it!

- I never really watch the Emmy's but with my new addiction to tv blogs, I heard all about the nominations and what they were mad about (almost everything). I do intend on watching the emmy's this year since love of my life NPH is hosting, so it is good to know what I'm getting into it. I am happy Jim Parsons who plays Sheldon on Big Bang Theory got nominated. It does take a lot to portray him so perfectly. I feel like he must be the same in person because it's so real, but I'm sure he's not. I am also happy that How I Met Your Mother got nominated for Best Comedy and NPH was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy again, I just hope he wins this year! These are the ones I'm rooting for. Most of the complaints I have read from people are that the nominees are the same every year. This is definitely an issue. I have heard the quality of shows have decreased (such as House and Entourage) yet they are nominated just because and they have been nominated so much before. One person they complained about this for was Tony Shalhoub for Monk. I realize he has been nominated a lot, but he has also won a lot showing that he deserves the nomination. If it is deserved, I don't think it matters if it is repetitive. The only time it matters is if it is undeserved. Plus the quality of Monk has not gone down, nor has his acting. His character is another I feel he must be the same in person because he's so good. They didn't complain about Alec Baldwin being nominated AGAIN, because it is deserved. Also, I find it entertaining that basically every major character in 30 rock was nominated, Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Krakowski. It's also interesting that NBC has the most nominations (I am pretty sure...) and yet has horrible ratings. They must be doing something right! I mean, they did keep Chuck...

I guess this is about it for tonight! I feel good that I actually posted something original!

Favorite Reality Shows # 4

2009-07-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

Real Housewives of NYC: No doubt the best in the Real Housewives franchise (though I haven’t seen the OC). The women are productive members of society, in fact some are ridiculously productive. My favorite character, Bethenny, is a natural foods chef who was on the Martha Stewart Apprentice, she just wrote a book, she has a catering company, she has a line called Bethenny Bakes. She does sooo much and makes her career her top priority. She is the only single one on the show, though, she has recently found love and I hear he will be on the next season of the show, yay! She totally deserves someone wonderful. Also, she tells it like it is while still being completely likeable. Also, she has a really cute dog. She is great! My next favorite is Jill Zarin. Jill is amazing. Her and Bethenny are best friends which is just so cute. She has a wonderful, rich husband named Bobby who looks like he’s in the mob. He’s really nice and quiet, love him! Her daughter is also very sweet and seems smart and great! Jill works at Zarin Fabrics and does something related to interior decorating, making curtains and such. She also does TONS of charity work, specifically for Juvenile Arthritis because her daughter Ally has it. Jill is really sweet and funny, love her! LuAnn is the Countess, who will no longer be a countess because she’s getting divorced. While she is sometimes controversial, she can sometimes act superior and bitchy, but I think she means well and is a good person deep down. She does not have a job, but she does a lot of charity work which is respectable. She has two children who are both charming and a maid Rosie. Her husband, the Count, is never really there, so it comes as no surprise they are getting divorced. Alex is also somewhat controversial like LuAnn. I like Alex a lot, but not so much when her husband Simon is around. Alex is a great, funny, adorable woman, but she is incredibly dependent on her husband and he is always coming with her to places that she is expected to attend alone. When he’s not around I love Alex, though. I don’t even dislike Simon, I just dislike their relationship. This season we saw more of Alex independently and she was fabulous, I would just like to see more of that! I really respect how she told Bethenny the truth of how her and Simon met online both looking for one night stands. How open and honest, I thought that was great. Simon is almost a seventh housewife because he is attached to Alex’s hip. He is an odd person, but I think it’s because he’s Australian (I think). He’s very into fashion and once wore tight red leather pants. They have two children who are very young and they talk French to them, one’s name is Francois and the other is Johan, a little odd. Now for my least favorite housewives. Ramona who I think is kind of crazy, but with the introduction of Kelly this season, Ramona looks totally sane. I do agree that Ramona has crazy eyes, though. Ramona has a husband Mario who is a big jerkwad. She has a daughter who seems very intelligent and nice. She tells her mom to dress her age which I find funny. I think all in all Ramona isn’t that bad, she just doesn’t think before she speaks and she kind of is rude sometimes, but she means well in the end I think. Her husband on the other hand… nutcase. Also, Ramona works as well, adding to the productivity of these women. Now Kelly, she is something else, I don’t even know. I think she is really insane. She is all like “I don’t want my name on a charity invitation, I don’t put my name on things.” Then she wants to meet Bethenny for a drink, shows up late, and tells her that she’s better than her and they’re not friends. Bethenny said ok, and Kelly treated her like SHE was the crazy one. FREAK! Then when Bethenny confronted her about it later in the season Kelly acted like it never happened, woah. She is truly insane. Not to mention the little clip in the middle of commercials where Kelly was running on the streets of New York probably with cars honking at her and talking about how she loves wearing short shorts because she has great legs. Duh, you were a model. I am sad she is friends with Sam from Top Chef because he is awesome. But her craziness and Ramona’s drama are real, they’re not drama created for the sake of drama like on Real Housewives of NJ. That is what makes them so great. Their lives are so full with careers, family, dating (Bethenny), charity work, and friends, it never gets boring (unlike NJ). They all have great personalities and are so active. It is great to watch! I absolutely love them and everything on this show. I can’t get enough of it.

Favorite Reality Shows # 5

2009-07-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

The Fashion Show: Even though this show hasn’t been on this long I love it! While it’s nowhere near as good as Project Runway, it’s still quite entertaining, and I just love fashion competitions! Isaac Mizrahi is fabulous, but Kelly Rowland is kind of eh. Their relationship seems too fabricated as well, it doesn’t seem genuine. It seems like they are forced to speak, it doesn’t seem like they enjoy interacting. I think replacing Kelly Rowland with someone else would make this show better. I also think the caliber of designers on this season wasn’t what it could have been, but I think this is because it was new and basically probably Project Runway rejects. I expect they will get better in the next season. The set also looks a little cheap, and an article I read brought up a funny point, the judges leave the room and go “judge” in the hallway, standing. Now, I know from reading about Top Chef that sometimes judging can take hours. If they are standing there that long, it’s crazy! They should make the contestants leave like every other reality show does, or at least add some chairs to the hallway. Reco is my favorite contestant. Some people think he is arrogant, but I just think he was frustrated with everyone else not knowing how to sew, and Johnny’s horrible attitude. I think Reco is the best there and I hope he wins!

Favorite Reality Show # 6

2009-06-30T23:42:00.000-07:00

Big Brother: Well, the first reality show I watched of course deserves some cred. Even though I haven’t watched the past 2 seasons, I intend on getting back into the swing of things this season! This show is the epitome of reality, it’s what reality television is all about. Much like the Real World (where I like to think reality tv began) except entirely cut off from the world. I will always love Season 6 and 7 because they had the best contestants (Kaysar, Janelle, and Howie). I also loved the torturous relationship between Daniele and Dick in Season 8. More so than on other elimination reality shows, I get attached to more of the contestants and remember them more now that it’s over. This can probably be attributed to the fact that Big Brother is on 3 days a week so I have extra time to get to know them! Which is also something great about Big Brother, 3 days a week! Perfect during the summer when nothing else is going on. It gets a little crazy once school starts up again, but it doesn’t last too long into the school year. I don’t see why they can’t just start it earlier in the summer, though (they start it in July). They always try to put in twists and built-in drama, yet, it stems from an organic place (unlike with Danielle on Real Housewives of NJ) so I’m alright with it. I love the competitions, too! They’re always so much fun! I love how there’s always a blonde everyone thinks is dumb but ends up being one of the smartest. I love the familiarity and stability of it, one day is nominations, one is veto, one is eviction. I love food challenges, veto competitions, and head of household competitions. Something about this show just feels so familiar to me. All in all, though, what makes this show is how much I end up liking and hating certain contestants, way more than on others.

Favorite Reality Shows # 7

2009-06-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

Southern Belles: Louisville: This is like the Real Housewives except they are mostly single and younger. I find it a nice change from the older, married with children women. These girls are still figuring themselves out. It’s great! Shea cracks me up, she took her boyfriend to look at engagement rings and was planning their wedding, though they weren’t even engaged yet. But when he did propose, it was very sweet. Also, her now fiancée looks like Jeremy Sisto (Elton from Clueless) who is really good looking but always plays a jerk, so he’s like a nice Jeremy Sisto. Love him! Kellie has been divorced twice and trying to start a matchmaking business, haha! She is so adorable. It was sweet when she approached an older man who was just sitting reading the paper and asked if he was single because she wanted him to go out with her mom. So cute! I can’t wait to see what happens with this storyline! I hope it works out for them! Julie is a model in her mid-30’s who has to deal with the fact that she’s not young anymore and will be playing more “cleaning supplies, soccer mom” roles. She’s sweet, though! Hadley, well, this girl has so many issues. Emily also, she just moved to Vegas to pursue her career (lucky!!). I think the greatest thing about this show is that there is little to no drama between the girls. This is something that the Real Housewives may not go on without, they always try to create drama. This is proof that it can be entertaining to just watch these women’s lives without any intragroup drama. They all have their own life drama, which is to be expected, but not within their friendship. I think it’s great!

Sad Things in the Midwest

2009-06-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

Signs people/things in South Bend are wrong:

When I was getting gas today a man was smoking a cigarette at the gas station... ummm... do you want to kill me??

No one drives faster than like 30 mph.

There are no medians.

There's rarely any left or right turn lanes.

The library charges for renting videos. Isn't the point of libraries that they are free?

Well, this is just the beginning... I'm sure now that I'm out in the world more (working) I'll discover more things wrong.

This is my life entry for the day. I will probably post one Monday, but after that simply entertainment until my return from Florida on which I will document my trip.

Favorite Reality Shows # 8

2009-06-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

Real Housewives of Atlanta: This Real Housewives group is entertaining to say the least! They’re drama queens and I love it! At least their drama seems more real and justified then a mistake made 20 years ago. Lisa is awesome, her and her husband seem to love each other so much, she loves working, loves her son, and she seems to be a great friend. She was my favorite housewife. NeNe and Kim’s drama was sooo great. NeNe is hilarious, I love her. She also seems to be a great mother and wife and person, she just tells it as it is. Kim is crazy but in a good way. She thinks she can sing, poor woman, and she throws her 11 year old $20,000 birthday parties. Oh man! Plus her mysterious boyfriend Big Daddy. She was so full of crazy antics and drama, I could not get enough. Sheree, I can’t quite figure out yet. She seems nice, but a little two-faced. I haven’t figured out how I feel about her yet. Luckily, I will find out soon when Season 2 begins!! DeShawn was awesome as well, great mother, wife, and did tons of charity work. She won’t be on the second season, though! I also loved the husbands of the wives in this season. They are very involved and seem very true and kind. I’m looking forward to season 2!

Pictures

2009-06-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

The delicious frozen peach bellini.

My ridiculously high bed.

One of the decorative pillows.

one of the decorative pillows

hand towels for the 1/2 bath!

My adorable table. I guess I could use this as my step stool to my bed...

My new quilt!

oh and p.s. I already hit my car on the bricks. Might as well learn my lesson early I guess. So the 2 negatives of the townhouse are the parking situation and the infestation of spiders and bugs (it's bad).

Update on Life

2009-06-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I actually have a life now which is a slight improvement from the beginning of the summer. Though, I've been really busy lately. I worked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday last weekend. Friday and Saturday I worked 6-close (which is about 11-11:30). Sunday I worked 12-8. I haven't stood for so long in a while so my feet were killing me. It was pretty busy Friday. We always get a nice rush around 7 because every movie playing starts within the 7 o clock hour. So that is always a fun hour. Sunday was fun because I didn't have to close. I was working with a girl Katie who is fun to work with! She's new, too. We were expecting a secret shopper so all day we were trying to spot who it would be and win the gift card to Target. We decided we would split it since we were both working hard. Unfortunately, they never came. I got home and my sister and I gave my dad his father's day gift (a wii!). We decided to get this for him as a father's day, birthday, and most of Christmas gift from us. We decided this because he loves the Tiger Woods golf games on the computer, but they don't seem to be making it for the computer anymore and only for video game consoles. So we figured we had to do it. He loves it and has been playing a lot! Today I worked 11:30-8. My feet were good after a 3 day rest and didn't start to hurt until at least 5. The 7 o clock rush was a bit crazy. There was a group of people who kept ordering separately. It was two adult women and it looked like their daughters. So one woman and her daughter ordered their stuff. So I figured it was for all of them and asked the people behind them (because there was a large line at this point) if I could help them, but then the other girl still wanted to order. So I took her order thinking it was for her and her mom, and continued to ask the people behind them (AGAIN) if they needed help. Then the girl's mother (or who I think was her mother) wanted to order something, too. So I felt so rude to the people who I kept asking if they needed help but then not being able to help them, and also to the people who were all ordering separately. So like 10 minutes later the lady came back and asked this other kid if she could speak to a manager. I was worried that she was going to complain to the manager about me for being rude. However, it turned out she was the secret shopper! Because I had asked her if she wanted to make her medium drink a large for 25 cents more I won a $50 gift card to Target! YAY!!!!!! This makes me feel less guilty about spending $186 bucks there the other night! I'm going to buy my sheets with it!

Well, back to Monday now. I drove to Lafayette Monday. It was an easy drive on the backroads. Pretty quick, too. When I got there I unloaded the stuff I had brought. Tim got to my townhouse soon after and we headed off to the campus (with some issues of where to park along the way). Finally, we parked, and walked around campus. We checked out the buildings we have classes in (Psych building, a building connected to the psych building, and Lilly Hall, which is across State St.[a major road through campus]. We saw children playing in fountains in their bathing suits (it was HOT!). We then went to the Union to get lunch. We ate at a place called Flatbreads. It was great, actually!! I got a brie and apple sandwich with a raspberry sauce. YUM! There's also a place that sells cereal which excites me, and I hope to go there the first week of school. Though Purdue is a Coke campus and that is disappointing... oh well, I guess I will drink less Mountain Dew and more coffee. Next we went to the bookstore to check out Purdue gear. I saw some cool shirts and VERY COOL sweatshirts but decided to check out another store I had a coupon for off campus. So we parted ways and I headed for the other store. I actually didn't like anything there, so I decided to go back to the on campus store. Not before getting a Mango slush from Basil Thai, though! It was great! There were chunks of mango in it! I will surely be going back there for milk teas, snows, and slushes, along with cheap thai food! I can't wait! When I went back to the campus store I got these awesome shirts for me and my parents that were on sale! Mine is yellow/gold. Yay! I also got my parents a cool mug I intend to use while home. After this I headed back home to greet my new roomie Kim! She is just as great in person as online! YAY! We went to SuperTarget later on which is where my $186 shopping spree occurred. I got my new quilt, along with 2 shams for it, and a decorative pillow that is amazing and sooo comfortable. That was where the majority of my money went. Which is alright, because it was the quilt I have wanted from the beginning (and the next day I returned the other two I bought to HomeGoods). I also got paper towels which is a necessity for next year, along with Advil. I also got an Etagere, one of those spacesaving over the toilet things, for $30!!! All of the others at Target were at least $70 and most are $100 or more, so $30 is a steal! I was very excited about it. I also bought a new hand towel to display in my bathroom. So I did get a lot, and a lot of necessities for the large amount of money I spent. However, now my sheets will be free because of my gift card! yay! I'm having trouble uploading pictures today, but pics of my quilt and stuff will be coming!! So we went to Don Pablo's for dinner, and it was good! We went to Wal-Mart and looked at paint samples! I can't wait to paint! Later that night we didn't get too much accomplished, she unpacked more than I did and we chatted. The next day we went to Indianapolis. First, I returned my stuff to Home Goods and got 2 hand towels for our downstairs bathroom. They are super cute. I also got a bath mat that is pink and adorable. Yay for homegoods! Then we went to Value City Furniture to check out the furniture Kim wants for the living room. I sat in the best reading nook chair ever, but it's $250. I decided, though, if we don't find anything by the end of the summer, I'm going to get it. We then went to Burlington Coat Factory where I didn't have any luck, but Kim got a great shower curtain! We went to a few local furniture places checking for chairs, and everything was too expensive. We then went to this store called Garden Ridge where Kim found three great bar stools for only $25 each!! For bar stools this is more than a steal!! They look great, too! Then we headed back to Lafayette. We got lunch at Jimmy John's (yum!) and went to Hobby Lobby. We both LOVE Hobby Lobby!!! It is very dangerous. I bought this adorable green, pink, and white flowered tiny stool that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet but it was cheap and adorable and I will find some use for it! I also got three pink and green prints I may frame together for my room. One is dresses, one is purses, one is shoes. Or I may just keep the dresses one and add it to my other dress prints. We picked out a beautiful black and white picture of the beach for the 1/2 bath and a thematic birchwood frame, yay! I also got two burnt orange pillows for the extra room. We're going to paint an accent wall of rust orange and we'll have these pillows, and I also got a lighter orange rug that will go by the sliding door. It's going to be great!! I'm very excited for that room! Plus, buying orange accessories will never be a problem because I can always have an orange and blue room in my future. =) We went to TJ Maxx where I bought one more decorative pillow for my bed. We also went to Star Furniture to check out chairs and couches. We found this great microfiber couch/loveseat set that was a little more expensive than the one at Value City, but more comfortable and Kim thinks more durable! So she is leaning towards getting that, but we don't need it for a while anyways! We got dinner at this Italian restaurant called Spageddies. It was delicious, but our waitress sucked. The highlight for me was the Frozen Peach Bellini. It was such a nice way to cool down and feel refreshed with the heat. It also didn't taste too much like alcohol but was delicious! Also, I've decided Champagne is one of my favorite alcohols, as long as it is mixed with something fruity. Light and fruity though. Such as the white grape peach juice I used on Election Night. We went home and relaxed a bit and then proceeded to work on the kitchen which is still a disaster. We put together the tv stand. Well, Kim put together the tv stand. I put in some screws and provided her with some entertainment. But Kim is so handy, I always seem to have very handy roommates and I am not handy at all! She is also very creative and thrifty and inspires me to be the same! She also has a wonderful midwestern accent, which btw, is my favorite American accent. Not the Canadian/Minnesotian accent, but the wholesome Chicaaago accent, love it! I feel I may begin talking a little like that if I am around it enough, which is alright with me. While working on the tv stand my phone screen decided to die. Lovely. So I couldn't set my alarm for the next day, and I told Kim to wake me up so I could attempt to help her with the end table and coffee table and ladder shelf. However, she didn't! I felt sooo bad, I woke up after she was already done! =( It was probably better for me to be out of her way anyway. Kim had to leave a little later to get back to Grand Rapids for work. =( But we are going to go down again in July to do some painting! Yay!! We also still need curtains for the living room and dining room and a rug for the dining room, along with the reading nook chair. Our townhouse is going to be the cutest townhouse ever, though!! I left when Kim did for my lunch with Giselle. We caught up and she clued me in to some Purdue stuff! Also, I don't see how UF possibly could have won # 1 party school in comparison to Purdue! They line up at 5 am in the freezing cold and in costumes on game days to go to the bars and start drinking when they open at 7 am. It's insane. I really don't know how we won compared to them! Afterwards I headed back to the townhouse to wait for my mattresses to arrive. I unpacked some stuff and waited it out. They got there at a decent time, 4ish. The mattresses are HUGE!! I have to jump up to get on my bed. The bed is as low as it can go, too! I'm going to have to get a stepstool or doggy steps or something. It's sad. My room will certainly look fit for a Princess, though! I would post a picture so you all could laugh as much as I did, but it's not working right now! It was hilarious to see, though!! I headed back soon after and made decent time again. I actually don't mind the drive at all, except for the one detour through LaPorte (I think) where I go through all different roads and have no clue where I am. My dad gave me one of his old phones to use until I get my iPhone, so my phone is now working well.

Now I've been working to watch stuff on the DVR so my dad doesn't delete everything while I'm in Florida (yay!). Today I worked 11:30-8 and won the gift card. I also worked with some new people who were great. I chatted with the manager for a bit about a play she is in and Las Vegas (how she loves it and how I want to go there). She's great! I went to pick up lunch at Taco Bell for us, too. I only work Saturday 6-close before going away. I'm glad because I needed some time off and need time to pack and do errands. Tomorrow my dad and I are going to see Star Trek with my weekly free passes (I get 2 free passes a week to the first run movie theater) and going to Target for me to get my sheets. I'm going to try to get my next 2 free passes Saturday which since I got my last ones Sunday I'm not sure will be a different week (but it is a different week according to the work schedule)... but they're pretty happy with my secret shopper success, so hopefully they'll let me have them. That way my mom and I can go see My Sister's Keeper or I may ask her if she wants to see the Proposal since it looks good and happy (unlike My Sister's Keeper). Only getting 2 passes at a time works out well since my parents cannot agree on a movie.

Everyone at work continues to think I look 17 or so. Saturday at work this kid Jordan told me I looked 17. Today this girl didn't believe I was 22 and thought I was 18 or so. Another kid thought I was 17... At least it is an improvement from 12 Mr. Cincinnati Art Museum Security Guard. Everyone also continues to wonder why I moved from Florida to Indiana. All I can tell them is my parents are crazy.

That is my life right now! Tomorrow will be an entertainment blog. Sorry about the days I didn't write. I will probably be able to write daily while I am in Florida, but it may all be entertainment, so it can be pre-written and posted daily.

Favorite Reality Shows # 9

2009-06-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

9. Real Housewives of New Jersey: I have not seen the Real Housewives of OC, but out of NYC, Atlanta, and New Jersey, New Jersey is my least favorite, though least favorite doesn’t mean anything, I still watch it and will watch the next season of it (as I’m sure there will be one). This is probably because the women do nothing thus making them kind of boring. At least the Atlanta wives who didn’t “work” did a lot of charity work. Dina and Caroline seem to be the only ones doing anything. Danielle, stop complaining you’re poor and either a.) sell your house and make millions of dollars or b.) get a job! I understand you want to spend time with your children, but they are in school most of the time. I can understand Theresa not working since she has 3 (soon to be 4) children who are fairly young and her husband is in the mob so they’re loaded. She cracks me up because she seems oblivious and she pays for everything with cash. Jacqueline, I like her even though she is sort of boring. I’m glad she just had a baby though, yay for her! Her daughter needs to shape up, though. As annoying and seemingly inappropriate as Danielle is, her children do seem very smart and well-behaved. Dina’s daughter is also awesome. This show focuses on the children more than any other Real Housewives franchise for sure (unless OC does, but I dunno). This is a bit of an issue with me, but considering it is their life I guess there’s no other option. I also don’t like that Danielle is the villain. Jacqueline honestly seems very nice and normal, and if she is friends with Danielle, she cannot be that bad. I think they just made her out to be the villain for drama, and I think it’s dumb. The drama surrounding her is so dumb. Ohhhh she did something bad 20 years ago so she’s not allowed around me or my “family” (hello mafia). PUHLEASE. I’m not impressed. If any show needs a new cast member this one is it! This installment needs more excitement. Show more of the mafia life, I love the mob, that would be exciting! Or show more of Albie because he is smart and very cute.

Also, I wanted to let you know I may have to break my post once a day goal! I am going to Lafayette tomorrow to do some shopping and unpacking, and we don't have internet yet. If I can get wireless from someone else, I will be able to post, but if not, I will be back on Wednesday (hopefully with more decorating plans!). =)

Decorating

2009-06-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking about decorating ideas lately. Since my room is pretty spacious I was thinking of adding a vanity area. I saw an idea on hgtv.com and it was three different shaped and sized mirrors in colorful colors on the wall and then a piece of painted wood as the vanity piece and a colorful chair. So far I have one mirror... lol!

This is the mirror I have, it was $3 at that awesome consignment shop! I'd like one larger oval one and maybe a small square one and I'd arrange them creatively.

This is another mirror I have, but it's not for the vanity area. Since my closet doors are so beautiful and white, they don't have mirrors which I'm used to, so I needed a full-length mirror. This is so beautiful, all mosaicey and I'm going to repaint the rim.

This is a new table I got (well not new...), it was $5 at the consignment shop! I'm probably going to use it as a nightstand on the other side of my bed. I'm going to repaint it probably green again.

These are for the wall in my room probably, but possibly my bathroom. I got them from my sister for $1 each. I'm going to take out all of the purple flowers and replace them with pink flowers.

This matches stuff in my bathroom, my mom was going to sell it at a garage sale, and I sniped it. I may put something in it, but I'm not sure yet.

This is a wall sconce I'm going to paint. I got two of them (for $5 at the awesome consignment shop). I'll paint them and probably put them on both sides of my bed, and today I bought one pink and one green candle.

This is a table my parents have in their room, and I'm going to paint and put in my room.

This was a great find at Marshall's! I'm going to use it for purses and such!

Now for the quilt options. This is one I got.

This is the other. Here is a link to a better view.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=110821&RN=42

There are positives to both. The positive to the Nautica is that it will probably match my varied shades of pinks and greens better. Plus, I really like it. The positive to the other one is that it will go better with flowery decorations which I like. If anyone has an opinion on which they like better, please comment and let me know!! I need to decide by Tuesday probably! Thanks!!

So I'm still on the look out for two chairs (one for the vanity and one for my desk, black doesn't really match my decor). I'm also still looking for two mirrors. I need new curtains for my bedroom since the window is so large. I also need stuff to drape on my bed, not really sure what I'm looking for yet. I will eventually get some cute pillows for my bed. I'm also constantly searching for a chair for the reading nook. Once we have the chair, we'll be looking for a lamp shade, pillows, a throw, and other stuff to decorate the reading nook with. I also want one of those over the toilet cabinet thingies for the bathroom to store stuff in. I saw one at Target today for $30!! That is really cheap compared to most others (usually at least 70 and more like 100), so I'm really excited! I'll update more about decorating once I've done something with this stuff or my townhouse or find new things!!

My Favorite Reality TV Shows

2009-06-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

So this begins my first top 10 television related countdown. This is pure reality, no shows on HGTV or Food Network (those will be a separate countdown).

10. The Bachelor/Bachelorette: I put this last because I do watch it, and I do enjoy it, but once this crazy circle of people being from each previous season ends, I will probably stop watching. The first Bachelorette I watched was the last one, DeAnna, and I fell in love with Jason, so I kept watching. Then of course since I loved Jason so, I had to watch the Bachelor starring him. Now, I am watching Jillian because she was ditched by Jason even though she’s awesome! And she is awesome, she’s very fun and easy going, and I appreciate that about her. Now, if Jake goes to the final two and doesn’t get picked and he becomes the new bachelor, needless to say, I’ll be watching again! That is because Jake is the best guy there, sooo hot and amazingly sweet, and a pilot! I hope the vicious cycle ends sometime soon, though! It takes up 2 hours a week on Monday, a prime night for tv viewing! If I’m lucky Jake will win and end up happily with Jillian (and if they’re lucky too).

Runner-Up: ANTM: I don’t think I will ever really make time out of my week to see this when there are much better shows that deserve my time, but when there’s a marathon on, and I have nothing to do, I’m there! I have exhibited this over the summer, I have watched at least 3 marathons since May. I just wish I could watch the photo shoot and fast forward to the judging, everything in between is kind of boring. And well, with DVR I can, but it wouldn’t feel right to skip more than half the show. Also, I think Make Me A Supermodel is better because they have a photo shoot and a runway competition every week. Both are important to the modeling industry, and ANTM doesn’t do as much with the runway. Plus, I hate the little “last minute challenge” on ANTM right before judging. Pointless, if you ask me.

Furniture

2009-06-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

Today we went down to Lafayette to move my first batch of things into the townhouse. First we had to stop at the water department so I could set up our account. I feel so grown-up having real utilities! Today we mainly focused on moving furniture. We moved my new bed, chest, bookshelf, nightstand, and desk down. My dad had put together the bookshelf, nightstand, and desk at home, so those were just difficult to get upstairs. While my dad began putting together the chest, my mom and I set off to get mattresses. We had gone to Mattress Superstore last time when Hilary was with us, and we remembered another one across the street, so we headed there first to compare the prices. We told the guy there we wanted cheap and he was showing me mattresses over $600, ummm by cheap I mean like $300... He told us that he didn't mean to offend us but if we wanted something cheaper than $400 we would have to go to a secondhand store. WOW! This was interesting because I was pretty sure that the one we went to last time was less than $400. He even said "You won't find anything cheaper anywhere besides a secondhand store, not even the store across the street." So we bid him farewell to head across the street. And what did we find but a $300 mattress? Now, I didn't get the $300 mattress because it wasn't pillowtop, but there was one for $350 that was a pillowtop. The man even remembered us and that Hilary is going to Harvard! What an awesome man! So I was able to get my mattress and boxspring with delivery and tax at $425 instead of what probably would have came out to $525 at the place right across the street. The store should learn to not tell people they have the cheapest prices when there is another mattress store across the street with cheaper prices. They should also not send us to secondhand stores. I COULD have bought a $400 mattress but I don't really care about a mattress enough to spend more than I need to. Well, he sucked, and Mattress Superstore is where it's at. If anyone is buying a mattress in Lafayette, go there! Next we headed to consignment stores much to my dismay. However, it ended up being amazing!! I was under the impression consignment stores were all expensive and gross, but this store was AMAZING. It's called Deja Vu, and I am totally going there again next week with Kim! I'm going to leave what I bought for another post because I'm going to post before and after pictures of the things I bought and how I'm going to fix them to match my decor. I feel like I'm on an HGTV decorating show, it's amazing. I haven't taken the pics of the stuff yet, so I can't post them. Plus, since not much goes on in my life, it is worth another separate post. We got A&W/Long John Silver's for lunch, and then my dad got to work on putting together my bed. However, he needed help with this pursuit. There were a few mishaps, but it came out WONDERFULLY, as you can see! My new bed is from IKEA. I am so excited about it because I can add cottagey draping to the top, yay! All of my other furniture is from the Delaney collection at Target. It's Sauder, so I know it's a good brand. I wanted a chest so it could double as a tv stand, and I LOVE the nightstand and the bookshelf so much! I hope to keep the desk in the extra room, but I'm waiting to see where everything is going to fit in there before I put it in. Excuse the mess all over the furniture, my dad was still in the process of putting the bed together so there were pieces and tools and garbage strewn about. As you can see most of the furniture blends in with the walls, so I'm going to paint the walls green! yay! You can barely even see the bed's headboard because it blends in so well with the wall! haha!

bookshelf to hold decorative objects

nightstand!

oh yeah and Princess was there cluttering things up too! =)

the chest. My dad messed up the last drawer lol. He's going to fix it, though.

After we were done with this we set off to Indianapolis so I could buy a chair from a lady on craigslist. Unfortunately she never answered her phone to give me her address! FINALLY she did and she told me to call her back in ten minutes and she had to get the chair from her storage unit first... I was sooo pissed. Then when I called her back, she didn't answer! RIDICULOUS! I told the lady I would be making a special trip for the chair and everything. So that sucked, but it's ok. There's a chair locally that I am hoping to purchase for the reading nook. I just hope the lady e-mails me back that it is still available...

Tomorrow I begin my job at the movie theater. I work 6-11:30. I'm happy I'm not closing to begin with. I also work Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday. I'm not sure what times on those days, though. I bought black sneakers, black socks, and black pants for the job. They supply me with a shirt, apron (?) and visor. While shopping for my black uniform, I of course found myself at Old Navy where I hadn't bought anything in a while (since February!). So I bought some fun things!! I bought a new outfit for my trip to South Florida, a teal skirt with eyelet details on the bottom and a white shirt to go with it (though I may return it since I have others). I also bought a cute 3/4 sleeve sweater that is white with tiny grey horizontal stripes, really cute! They also had it in grey with pink stripes, but I resisted! I also bought a pair of jeans which is more necessity than fun, I really need to stock up for winter!

Other than work, I'm hoping to begin working on my decorating projects, and I'll be posting those pics soon. Saturday there is a neighborhood garage sale and an art show in our neighborhood! I'm really excited to go to the show and check out garage sales for some other random things I need for my room. At the art show, I will mainly limit myself to possibly something artistic for the reading nook or if I come across something must-have. But since I spent lots of money at the art festival in Gainesville last year it is difficult to justify needing much.

Next Monday-Wednesday I plan to go back to Lafayette when Kim is moving in so we can meet up and do some shopping, decorating, and painting! yay! I also am having my mattresses delivered Wednesday, exciting... I have to decide which quilt set I want by then, too, so I can return the one I don't want to HomeGoods in Carmel (an amazing suburb of Indianapolis). I'll be posting pics of those quilts soon as well!

There are some exciting things going on I guess! PLUS, my trip to Florida is 10 days away! YAY! I can't wait!!! I'll be posting pics of my decorating projects and quilts soon! =)

Entertainment Update

2009-06-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

So I had this idea of trying to decide what the best options for the next Real Housewives franchise location could be. I realize they need to add something new to the table and be different from the others. So that is what I tried to come up with.

Real Housewives of Las Vegas: This would be amazing!! I think we see too much of a negative stereotype of women from Las Vegas and seeing some career and/or family oriented women from here would change people’s perspective. Plus, Vegas is just fun!

Real Housewives of Portland: These women would be super liberal tree-hugging sorts. I think it would be so interesting! Plus, I hear great things about Portland and the city should get more recognition!

Real Housewives of San Francisco: Perhaps there would be the first lesbian housewife? I think this would be a very interesting element. Why should only straight housewives be included?

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City: Mormon housewives along with non-mormon housewives, see that people who aren’t mormon live there and see the mormon household life. Of course the mormon’s privacy would be an issue here, but I’m sure there are some who would be willing to do this (though they may be disowned by the church in return).

Real Housewives of West Palm: These women would be preppy, classy, and awesome, because WPB is awesome! They would be very cultured and into charity work and fashion.

Real Housewives of Detroit: This would be very different from the others as they would be more affected by the recession. They may not be able to spend as much money as the wives in the other places. It could be interesting, too, because it could even be people who used to be rich and now are suffering because of the recession.

I promise I wrote my ideas before I saw this article, but fun for comparison’s sake!

http://www.film.com/tv/real-housewives-new-york-city/story/real-housewives-dallas-boston-chicago/28681658

I think Palm Beach, since it was one of my ideas, and Boston are the most likely. I guess I didn’t realize how much old money was in Boston to make it different enough.

Mario (Ramona’s husband on RHONY) is even more rude than I thought!! The comment about LuAnn is tasteless and uncalled for!! But check out the other posts, he’s really mean and sarcastic, yet somewhat truthful.

http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-new-york-city/blogs/mario-singer/stick-to-what-you-do-best?page=0%2C1

I’ve been watching the Burn Notice marathon I recorded. It’s better than I thought it would be! Funnier! Plus the main guy is super cute! There’s a good amount of action, drama, and humor here!

The Lost executive producers will be on Top Chef Masters tonight in what I believe will be an island themed competition! Wylie Dufresne will also be one of the contestants tonight! I predict he will win. I have also heard that NPH <3 style=""> Excitement!! I love them both!

What we’ve all been waiting for!! From what I see, I’m not entirely sure how I feel. At times it feels too happy, at times it feels too woe is me on Rachel McAdams’ part. Either the movie did a poor job of conveying the tone and feeling of the novel or the trailer did a poor job, I hope it was just the trailer.

http://movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/the-time-travelers-wife/1809937231/trailers/216/1757

Glee will be premiering on September 16^th at 9 pm. I know some people loved the pilot so I thought I would share this earlier than other premiere dates.

Some people don’t like the fact that Barack Obama is always on television. I personally like it because he told everyone he wanted to be open with America, and from what I can see, he is certainly delivering on that promise. Besides, Barack Obama is more entertaining than some shows on television. I believe he’ll be on at 10 pm next Wednesday to discuss health care. Gosh, how dare he try to talk to the American people about an issue that matters. Especially since what would be on the networks is reruns, news (and this is just a live version of the news basically), or something on ABC, possibly Primetime Crime (as if we need more of that crap). I think Barack is better than all of those options.

I am obsessed with Angel. I feel the character development is so wonderful. I also love all of the flashbacks to Angel’s evil life. I can already see Cordelia becoming a different person than she was on Buffy, and I love Wesley (he adds so much humor that the show did lack before he entered). I’m excited to see new regulars come onto the show.

I read that when Chelsea Handler presented Jennifer Aniston with an award she said this, "You have increased the visibility of women in film, and we thank you for that," Handler told Jennifer Aniston. Then she said, "You've recently decreased the visibility of John Mayer, so we thank you for that." I knew I liked her.

Bethenny Frankel from the Real Housewives of NYC has a new boyfriend! I’m sooo happy for her!!

http://blog.zap2it.com/korbitv/2009/06/real-housewives-bethenny-is-in-love.html

New episodes of Better Off Ted begin next Tuesday on ABC at 9:30 pm. I promise you are not likely to be disappointed if you tune in!

I know there has been a lot of confusion in the past with Gossip Girl’s timeslot. I have heard it will be switched back to 9 pm next season. I will of course remind you of this when I come out with the fall premiere dates and everything, but just a heads up. This is actually wonderful news for me because Mondays at 8 was one of the most chaotic time slots last year (GG, HIMYM & BBT, and Chuck). Now with the move of The Big Bang Theory to 9:30, it won’t be the amazing move it would have been otherwise, but now at 9 it is only GG on the CW, Two & A Half Men and The Big Bang Theory on CBS, Trauma on NBC, Dancing with the Stars on ABC, and Lie to Me on FOX. The only thing I watch is Big Bang Theory. I will give Trauma a shot, but I don’t have high hopes. I am also planning on watching Lie To Me over the summer and could grow to like it, but it’s certainly not a show I’ll be rushed to watch I predict. Now at 8, I’ll be able to give Chuck the ratings I never could before. Yay! However, this could be wrong, but I hope it is correct.

So far the new summer premieres have been slightly disappointing (aside from Top Chef Masters). Royal Pains also delivers good entertainment. Mental is good but not great (though I think it could become great, and I really do love the concept), The Listener is kind of eh. To be honest, though, I didn’t have the highest hopes for Mental or The Listener. There are a lot of shows I am looking forward to, though. NYC Prep, Merlin, The Philanthropist, Make It or Break It, 10 Things I Hate About You, Warehouse 13, and Miami Social are all shows I have pretty high hopes for. I hope they turn out better than the beginning of the summer premieres.

This is a fun little countdown, best 100 episodes of television ever. Not all are online yet, but they will be. So far 100-20 are. I think I will do something like this, but spanning much less time and probably terribly biased… oh well, something fun for me to do!

http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/feature/tvs-top-100-episodes-of-all-time-100-81-1409.html

I used to not like Samantha Brown that much, but I've been watching a lot of her shows lately, and she is definitely growing on me.

On Friday I'll be beginning a series of Top 10 Countdowns. It should be something fun for me to do and hopefully something fun for you to read (I know I love countdown lists). Since there's also nothing going on in my life for the time being, these may be every day instead of every other day. I'll have to see how it goes.

New Townhouse

2009-06-16T13:22:00.001-07:00

I was very excited to go visit my new townhouse, and I kept talking about my excitement regarding the garage! For those of you who don’t know my townhouse has a 2 car garage that I am in love with because it will shield my car, and thus me, from ice and snow in the winter! Yay!!! However, I also love the whole townhouse!!! SO it’s a greenish-grey, we couldn’t determine the exact color, and it’s amazing. We have a little white mailbox in front and a doorbell!!! There’s also adorable lights on the outside, soooo adorable! This is all before we even walk in. One downside to the townhouse is the parking situation is a little weird. There’s like 5 townhouses connected and we’re at the end of it, and to get to it you have to drive in front of all of the others on a long driveway, and our’s is the end (which is great) and it’s a curve to get into the garage, it will take some getting used to, but totally worth it!! It’s also great to be on the end because we have more windows on the sides, meaning more light, and only neighbors on one side, and a beautiful foresty area next to us! YAY!! So as you walk in there’s a tiled walkway (which looks amazingly like tile but Hilary said was actually linoleum, I never took my shoes off to feel it), and there’s a tiny half bath on the left. You walk further and curve a little and there’s a door to the garage (yay!) and a staircase, with a beautiful white railpost ::sigh::. Then to the right is a kitchen with all white, new appliances, and beautiful countertops and amazing wood cabinets. There’s also a storage closet before entering the kitchen and a huge pantry at the end of the kitchen. There’s also one of the hose things that comes out of the sink so you can reach things, amazing! This is what it’s like to live in a place not aimed at college students! Past the kitchen is the living room and dining room. The dining room is really large! The kitchen is long, and the dining room expands that whole length. There’s also a REALLY long bar area for bar stools. There’s two nooks as well that are spacious underneath the bar. It’s awesome!! We may set up a large fish tank and put pretty fish in it in the dining room! The chandelier is also beautiful! This isn’t your basic college apartment, it’s decorative and lovely. The living room is a little smaller than the dining room, but still lovely!! There’s a back door leading out to a large shared back yard. Going upstairs is fun, the staircase is swirly, not just straight up, there’s also a window along the walk up that lets light in. When you get up there is this really spacious area!! We’re going to create a reading nook there and it’s going to be amazing!! This is one of my favorite parts of the townhouse!! Across from the future site of the reading nook is a washer and dryer behind two beautiful white doors (I love the white accents). On the right when you come up is our extra third room we’re turning into an office/guest room. It’s an odd shape, but I like it! Through doors in this room there’s a tiny balcony where my bistro set will fit perfectly! Next door to that room is my bedroom, which is lovely and beautiful and big! I LOVE it!! There’s a closet, not walk-in, but really long, and it has more beautiful white doors, not mirrored sliding doors, white pull out, doors, sooo pretty and will go so well with my white furniture. The room is huge and will fit my furniture very well. I have a HUGE window in my bedroom which will be great to let the sun in! I love my room!!! I don’t have a bathroom in my room, but it’s right outside of it to the right, there’s also a linen closet out there, a linen closet! It seems so adult to have a linen closet! My bathroom has the fake tile floor and is a lot like my bathroom in the Estates really, a vanity area, a toilet, a shower/tub, except it might be a little wider and it has a ring on the wall for a hand towel, so it will declutter my counter space, yay! It’s also lacking the shelf that was above the toilet in the estates, but if I need it, I’ll buy one of those nice white bathroom accessories from Target. Kim’s room is the master bedroom across the hall which is also lovely! It has a bedroom, a bathroom similar to mine but with a double vanity, and a walk-in-closet. Oh, I also forgot to mention the little storage area under the stairs, a “Harry Potter” room if you will or a “my size room.” Words can’t really describe my love for the new townhouse and I can’t wait to put my new furniture in and decorate everything!!! I’m on the search for a chair for the reading nook! My room is going to have a cottagey feel to it, with all white furniture. I have already bought my desk, but that will hopefully go in the extra room if there is space, a 4 drawer chest, a really cute bookshelf that will hold decorative objects (picture frames, decorative gifts, etc.), a nightstand (yes, a real nightstand not portable plastic drawers covered with a tablecloth, yay!), and my bed (a bit of an off-white 4 poster bed). I also hope to paint a tiny table pink or green and put it in there. I’ll be draping curtains or something on my bed. We’re hoping to paint a lot so I am thinking of painting my room pink or green. If there turns out to be more room, I may buy a vanity table next year or something! I want a quilt (preferably patchwork) in pink and green for the bed and sheets to match whatever I decide to do for the quilt. I plan on using most of my same decorations, so I was thinking of painting the wall green to go with the pink accessories so it’s not a complete pink overload. We’ll see what ends up happening, though! For now, I’m just really excited!!

I've figured out how to load pictures, but I don't want to overload the blog with pics, though I may when I discuss my furniture. There are TONS of pictures of my unfurnished, undecorated townhouse on facebook now, and I will continue to post pictures as I move in and decorate!!

Jon & Kate Plus 8

2009-06-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have always been against this show, though I never knew why, it just for some reason seemed wrong to me. Now, all of my protests have been affirmed. The couple is falling apart and surely this is having an effect on the children. And truly, it is probably because their life is made public to everyone. While some docu-series’ such as the real housewives do take a peek into the family lives of the people, it is nowhere near what they do for this show. The cameras are constantly around the family here. It cannot be healthy for children to be growing up like this. And if the cameras are ruining the marriage, this also will have a detrimental effect on the children, especially the way it is unfolding. I was reading an article about the ratings of J&K+8 and they were always pretty steady around 1.4-1.7 million for the premieres of Seasons 1, 3, and 4 (I don’t know about season 2). The season 4 finale spiked up to 4.6 million viewers (probably because it was around this time news of Jon’s fidelity had been surfacing). And the real icing on the cake was the Season 5 premiere which garnered 9.8 million viewers (after all of the news about the couple separating and infidelity and their relationship being in shambles)! This is more than a lot of shows on network television! The next episode in Season 5 dropped to 5.7 million. It is a sad commentary on our society how many people tuned in to watch that premiere episode (that don’t normally watch it), most likely because they had read the magazines, seen it in the news, read about it online, and wanted to see if the couple’s marriage really was in ruins. Well, they saw what they wanted to, a sad marriage and the effects it is having on the children. I have never watched the show, but I saw all of the facebook statuses and the blog headlines about how sad it was to watch and the poor children. I’m guessing the people who stopped watching after the premiere were saddened by the state of the family and sad for the children. However, since I don’t know all of the details I can’t really know for sure, but is this marriage worse than any other couple right before they decide to get a divorce? I would assume it couldn’t be much different, yet, because of the media and the constant cameras, the fact that their relationship problems are being broadcast on television and the parents’ need for attention (I assume, since otherwise why would they be on the show?), the children are being messed up. Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I love me some celebrity gossip, but some of you also know my loathing for the media’s commentary on child stars (hello, US magazine and putting Dakota Fanning in the Fashion Police), and this falls much more along the lines of child stars. Not only are they now constantly in the media, but because of the current situation, people are always going to want to know how those kids are going to turn out. They will constantly be harassed by cameras and paparazzi. And why? Because their parents chose to broadcast their lives, it’s not like they had a say in it. It’s nice that people care about the children and their happiness and wanting to see them grow up, but in this case, is the best way to care about these children by watching the show and feeding into the idea that a ruined marriage will help improve ratings? And I’m sure the people who actually care about the childrens’ well-beings are those 1.7 million who have been watching since the first few seasons, not the millions who have joined in since the family became tabloid fodder. Chances are some of those original viewers are now tuning out because of the sad situation. I have seen articles about this.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/06/08/why-im-not-watching-jon-and-kate-anymore/

Anywho, I mean no offense to people who watch this show, especially since everyone I know has watched it for a while and I know they are true fans and not these “rubberneckers” as I’ve heard them being called. I know my friends really do care about the well-being of the children. Also, for those of you who do watch! Enjoy tonight's episode! I hope it is happy! =)

Hilary's Visit

2009-06-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

So I picked up Hilary from O’Hare airport on Wednesday. It was not nearly as scary and crazy as my parents imagined it would be for me to drive through the city (especially because I was really only on the highway), and other than a lot of traffic, it was a pleasant drive. I absolutely loved driving into Chicago on my own and seeing the skyline and being like hey I kind of live here… not really, but I’m way close, and I certainly go there a lot more than most people. I just want to live there so bad one day. So once I reunited with Hilary and she had her bag, we headed off to Hyde Park (a neighborhood in Chicago south of downtown where the University of Chicago is located, and where Barack Obama lived =)). We were planning on eating at this local place called Medici that is pretty famous, but we didn’t have enough time because we had bought tickets for the Harry Potter exhibition for 5:45, and by the time we got to Hyde Park because of all the traffic, it was already close to 5 once I had parallel parked. Parallel parking took longer than it should have because it was only my 2^nd time ever parallel parking, I never actually learned how to properly parallel park, and we weren’t sure if I could actually park where I was attempting to park so we asked people and looked for signs but no one knew and there were no signs – luckily, I could park there or no one cared if I couldn’t because my car was not towed nor did I get a ticket, and I also didn’t hit any cars, so I would call it a success! Yay for 2^nd great parallel parking job! I’ll need to get better and quicker at this if I ever fulfill my dream of living in Chicago. Anyways, back to Hyde Park. So we ate at this little pizza place instead, it was good, not amazing, but good. Then we rushed over to the Museum of Science & Industry for the Harry Potter exhibition. It was absolutely wonderful besides that we couldn’t take pictures. We saw tons of costumes from the movies (most of the dress robes from the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire), lots of Quidditch uniforms, regular-day clothing, robes, creatures from the sets (Buckbeak, Dobby, Mandrakes, etc.), wands, the dormitory sets of Ron & Harry, we were able to pull a mandrake out and it made a noise, we threw quaffles into their goals, Hilary sat in Hagrid’s large chair, and it was all fabulous. The people working the exhibition all talked in British accents, and I’m pretty sure most of them were fake British accents. And one lady kept following us around, and it was weird. She kept asking us trivia questions and got mad when we didn’t know the answers, and I’m pretty sure she should have only been in the beginning room, yet for some reason she appeared in every room we went to and kept bugging us (once while we were clearly listening to our audio guides, so rude!). We visited the gift shop after which was terribly overpriced, but they did have some cool, special stuff in there including recreations of the Marauder’s Map, but it was $50. =( I got a bookmark and a postcard. Also, Andy, it would be useful for you to be an Industrial Engineer for this museum because they suck at getting people to the exhibit. We had to enter the museum on the street level climb down 3 or 4 flights of stairs to get to the main entrance, and then climb up a ridiculous amount of stairs to get up the exhibit, yet it wasn’t actually the exhibit it was just where they sold audio guides and took your tickets after which they sent you down more stairs, through tents set up outside, and then finally to enter the exhibit. If you’re going to be running the exhibit after the rest of the museum is closed, can’t you find a more convenient way to handle the people coming in? Also, being in the museum with a lot of lights off and no people around reminded me of Night at the Museum, creepy! I was ready for stuff to come alive! After the exhibit we headed off on a mini walking-tour of Hyde Park and some University of Chicago buildings. They are soooo beautiful. I’m pretty sure it would be truthful for me to say it’s the most beautiful campus I’ve ever seen. Every building is gothic, and even one building that is more modern is still beautiful, not ugly modern like some can be. It was amazing. Also, did I mention it was about 50 degrees? In June! It’s pretty insane, when does summer begin here?? It’s like that in South Bend, too. It was nice, and not THAT cold, but seriously, it’s June! I have heard this is really abnormal, though, so that is reassuring. Also, it was 90 degrees in Lafayette the other day, so goes to show that weather can be totally different 2 hours away. We ended our tour back at Medici for some dessert. We both got floats because they sounded so amazing. Hilary ordered a float with pomegranate soda and chocolate ice cream, but she may have been given raspberry soda instead, but nonetheless it was delicious! I ordered a float with almond flavored soda and chocolate ice cream, it was also delicious! Some of the people were wearing shirts that said the name of the restaurant on the front, “Medici,” and “Obama eats here,” on the back. I wanted one. Also, it reminded me of the Top. After our wonderful dessert, we headed back to the car to head back to South Bend. This was going great, until I got PULLED OVER!! Unbelievable! The road had almost no lights and no speed limit signs, but I should have known by my drive in that afternoon that the area’s speed limit was 55, 55! Ridiculous! Needless to say, I was going 75… normal if the speed limit was 70, slow even. But it was not 70, it was 55. The man asked me what the speed limit was and I said I didn’t know, so he told me it was 55. Then he asked me how fast I thought I was going and I said 75? He said I was right, yay me! Then he asked if I was from Florida, as my license plate and Gators stuff would imply, and I said yes. He asked me where I was heading, I said, South Bend, my parents just moved there. He took my license and I couldn’t find my registration but he got sick of me looking through my messy wallet, so said it was fine. He said he’d be back in a few minutes. I wasn’t really that annoyed, more so that I really hadn’t seen a speed limit sign and it was 55 on a three lane highway. Also, I almost thought I was going to get pulled over in the afternoon because of the same thoughts, I hadn’t seen a speed limit sign and it was a three lane highway, but the cop went after someone else. So I should have been more aware, but I was just driving and chatting and having a good time. So the man came back, and he had only issued me a warning. Thank you William Hornsby III, I owe you one!! Hilary and I loved him! I was just so happy I wouldn’t have to pay a lot of money and do traffic school. I love WH3. And he even told me the mile marker where the speed limit went up to 70 and told me to be careful pulling back onto the road, what a lovely man. I’d marry him if he asked. So we continued on our way back to South Bend, arrived not too long after, and went straight up to bed because we were exhausted, though not before trying to trick my parents into telling them I got a ticket, but since my dad recently got one they weren’t surprised or shocked or that upset, and I think my dad was more mad that I got a warning and he didn’t.

Thursday we went to go see the Amish area. We went into a bunch of country shops looking for a quilt for my new bedroom. I wasn’t ready to buy anything yet. Then we went to this place that does this tour/history of the Amish/Mennonites. It was really interesting. For instance, I didn’t know that they believed people should be baptized when they’re older rather than infants, something I believe in. They also believe in separation of church & state, but because the state corrupted the church, not the other way around. I still think they think they’re better than everyone else wanting to be all separate and everything because society is the devil. Also, at 16 they go off and live in the real world and then decide if they want to come back or not. 1/3 of them leave, that’s a pretty significant amount. And I bet another 1/3 only come back because they’re supposedly shunned if they don’t, so they feel forced into it. So according to my calculations that leaves 1/3 who actually believe in their way of life. Also, I still don’t find it right that they eat at McDonald’s and apparently accept rides from others when they have to go places far away. It seems hypocritical to me. Also, a bit sexist, the women bake and sew and clean and the men go off to work, LAME! I respect them as a religion, though. I enjoy their religious beliefs, I just think they take it to an extreme with their simplicity. After this we came home and relaxed, we went for a walking tour around the neighborhood that wasn’t very descriptive unfortunately. We watched the Barack Obama special, amazing! I love him soo sooo sooo much! I love Michelle, I love their children, I love their dog, I love them all. They’re all so perfect. We watched the preview of NYC Prep!!! OMG!!! It’s AMAZING!! Hilary and I are obsessed!! Premieres June 23^rd at 10 pm. I recommend it to all! =)

Friday we went down to Lafayette for the day so I could sign my lease and check out my new townhouse! I was so excited to take Hilary there so she could see where I would be spending my next 5-6 years!! Luckily, it was amazing! So, let me say, one of the things I love most is when cities do the thing where different artists paint large animals differently and they’re put throughout the city and then auctioned off later on. SO to my lovely surprise when we got to Lafayette we found out they were doing dogs this year, and they have done pigs and frogs in the past!! I’m soooo excited!! I hope they do this every year!! I just think it’s such a great thing for cities to do! We walked around the downtown area, unfortunately the visitor’s center didn’t have any walking tour books, but I had printed out my public art information and we had a map of where all of the dogs were, and we headed off. We saw some public art, some dogs, went into some art galleries, walked across the pedestrian bridge connecting West Lafayette and Lafayette, and then headed over to the real estate agency. I signed the papers and then we set off to go see my townhouse (see future entry about townhouse). Everyone loved it, especially me, and Hilary provided me with priceless decorating ideas (thanks Hilary!!). After dropping the realtor off we headed over to Triple XXX Family Restaurant (yes, you read that correctly). It’s a tradition in West Lafayette. It’s an orange and brown striped building and there’s only stools and counter space to eat at. They have sirloin burgers (which I guess are better than regular burgers), good root beer, and it’s been there since 1929. I was so happy to treat everyone to a W.L. staple, and try it out myself! I had the Purvis burger which is a cheeseburger with creamy peanut butter on it, sounds weird, but it was amazing! It came with delicious fries, and I got a root beer! Everyone else got the Bernie Flowers (most of their burgers are named after football players) which is a regular burger. Afterwards we drove around the Purdue campus a little bit so Hilary could see some of it. I didn’t know what much was, and we didn’t get out of the car, but she said she thought it was nice. I think it is, too. Everything is beautiful brick, I love brick! We went to some furniture and mattress stores with no real luck, I did find a mattress but was not ready to purchase it yet, plus, a lot of stores weren’t open. So we set off on our journey back to South Bend, which was longer than I thought it would be, about 2 ½ hours. Hilary and I spent a lot of time discussing decorating ideas when we got back.

Saturday we woke up early and went to garage sales to look for things for decorating, I wanted a little table I could paint and put in my room, and a chair for the townhouse. We didn’t have much luck, but we did get a table for 50 cents that my dad said he’d paint and we’ll see how it looks. We also went to some furniture stores to look for beds and chairs, but no luck. I did get a jar to help decorate the half bath, along with a vase, and a cute hook for keys or oven mitts (or something else that hangs). I got a thing with 4 hooks on it for my bedroom that is green, it looks all antiquey yet was new, I love it! We came home and relaxed, I cooked dinner (my balsamic ravioli) and my parents weren’t in love with it, but Hilary liked it (or didn’t want to make me feel bad), Princess ate some, too, and she is sort of picky so I was sort of happy. We went to see Up later on, and it was AMAZING (see future entry on Up). It was soooooo sad, and I had read it was sad, but I had no clue just how sad it was going to be. It was like a balling sad, not a few tears kind of sad. Hilary and I were crying so much, and when we first realized we were both crying we started crying even more and laughing so it was loud lol! It was powerful.

Sunday we headed into Chicago. We had read the weather the night before and saw it was supposed to rain all day. So we decided to purchase tickets for the hop-on hop-off double decker bus tour so it would cart us around and talk to us about stuff at the same time. We also decided to drive in so we would have more freedom. Driving allowed us to go to the Garfield Park Conservatory first. It was beautiful! There were soooo many flowers, the place was HUGE. It was lovely! I then went to the gift shop to buy a magnet and asked the lady if they sold batteries because the ones in my camera were dying. She gave me batteries from their drawers, which was very nice. However, when I purchased my magnet and postcard she made me sign the back of my credit card! She said she didn’t want to see my id and she could steal my identity if I showed her my id. I don’t think so lady… Now my credit card is signed, when I didn’t want it to be. How did this happen?? We drove into the city just straight for tons of blocks (we were way west of downtown). We parked under Millenium Park ($25! Yikes!) and headed up to Millenium Park. I showed Hilary all of the usual stops, the bean, the Pritzker Pavillion, the Crown Fountain (though for some reason the images weren’t on at the time). We headed from the park to the Art Institute, which is sooo close and why that is where I want to live. If I live near the park and the Art Institute I can walk my dog in the park and go to the Art Institute anytime I want, which I can now do for free, since I got my membership! Woohoo!! So we got the Institute, I signed up/paid for my membership, and we both got in free (anyone who wants to come, it’s free for you and me!). We went on a highlights tour of it and saw lots of their famous stuff (American Gothic, Nighthawks) and not so famous stuff (Japanese pottery, prints). We then walked through the new modern wing and saw some famous earlier modern stuff (Picasso, Dali, Miro) and some not-so-famous kind of weird stuff (a video of a clown on a toilet, plain white canvases, etc.). I took Hilary to their amazing impressionism and post-impressionism collection. I never realized just how crazy their collection is. Maybe it is because they can exhibit more art now because of the modern wing, but there is literally a whole room of Van Gogh and a whole room of Monet (plus more!), rooms full of some of the most famous artists ever. It’s so amazing, and I love it more than ever. I want to go back once a month and just do one section at a time (since it’s free and all). After this we found a place nearby to eat lunch, Café Baci. It was an Italianish Panera bread. It was good! I had Portobello mushroom ravioli which is pretty crazy for fast food! They also sold Italian drinks and candies, but no Magnum bars! =( After lunch we headed up to the double decker bus stop and got on, but not before seeing a wedding party taking photos! SO exciting! We went on our tour and got off at a stop to get our free sample of Garrett Popcorn (my absolute favorite) that came with our bus ticket! We met a guy in line who is from Coral Springs and went to UF and is now in med school rotations and was doing one in Chicago. Crazy coincidences!! I also bought a bag of Chocolate Covered CaramelCrisp popcorn to try at home. I still haven’t opened the bag, I need to! Their caramelcrisp is the absolute best, adding chocolate to it can only improve it, right? We got back on the bus and took it to the planetarium. It was a free day at the planetarium so we thought we’d check it out. OMG!!!! It was soooooooo cold when we got off the bus because we were so close to the lake. I wore a dress because the weather forecast said 75 degrees, not to mention it also didn’t really rain! Weather people… It had to have been in the 50’s, we were numb when we finally got to the planetarium from the bus stop. It is JUNE!!! In May when Stacy and I were there I was shocked at how cold it was in May, well now it is June and the cold needs to end! I do hear this is abnormal, though. The planetarium turned into a place to go to the bathroom because we had to be back at the bus at a specific time for us to make the whole trip around downtown. We waited for a while before one came, but finally it did! We took it around the rest of the city. After it dropped us back off at Millenium Park It was a great day!! The bus tour is fun because they tell you things you may not learn otherwise, and the obvious feature of not having to walk, but I realized walking around Chicago is one of my favorite things to do. So next time Hilary is able to visit I hope the weather will be better and we are able to walk around more. I was sure to watch my speed this time on the way back! I set my cruise low and just went that speed until I was sure I could go faster. We got Chipotle (YUM!) when we got back. I hadn’t had Chipotle in I don’t know how long, so it was great! and we headed home.

Monday we went to Red Robin for lunch. I was excited to go to Red Robin because I kept seeing commercials yet could never go to one in Florida, because they didn’t have them. My burger was great, and their fries (which apparently they’re famous for) were great, too! I got a delicious berry-limeade as well. The robin mascot is more than adorable, too, which helps! Hilary’s turkey burger wasn’t what she expected, but luckily they gave her a burger instead which was better. After lunch we went to Notre Dame. This time I knew where to go for the tour, yay! It was similar to the tour I went on last time with Stacy, but a bit different. We went inside more buildings, but I felt like this time the girl didn’t tell us as much as the one before did. I’ll probably go on this tour everytime someone visits so soon I’ll be able to judge the best way the tour should be given, and I’ll also probably be able to give the tour as well. Hilary asked about the Obama controversy. She said a lot of her friends (probably her too) felt he shouldn’t be given an honorary law degree because his law practice does not go with Catholic beliefs. Did he represent abortion companies or something? I think this was an odd comment, but I may not know about all of the law he has practiced. The most entertaining thing for me so far on both is when we walk by the fountain students run in after away game wins and both tour guides expressed their displeasure with sucking, yet in different ways. The first person talked about how she hasn’t been able to do it much since she’s been there. The guide this time said when they did have 1 win this year everyone was there for hours savoring it. Sad, really. I love the Gators. We next went to the South Bend Chocolate Factory for a free tour. I like this tour because it’s not too long, shows you what you need to see, and gives you free chocolate. I had a chocolate buttercream, soooo good. After going there, we went back home and hung out for the night. Later on we went to Ritter’s for frozen custard, a big thing in Indiana. It was delicious!

On Tuesday we took Hilary to the airport really early in the morning! Another sad goodbye, but alas, I will see her in a few weeks when I am in Florida! After dropping Hilary off, my parents and I headed to Schaumburg, a western suburb, where they have an IKEA. Unfortunately it was 6 am and IKEA didn’t open until 10 am. So first we got breakfast at Richard Walker’s Pancake House. It was delicious. Then we set off to find a Target. We sat in the parking lot for a bit until it opened, but then we went in, didn’t get anything. Next we went to Meijer to kill some time. For those of you who don’t know what Meijer is, which is probably everyone, it’s like a Super Wal-Mart but clean and probably treats their employees like humans, it’s a great store! They have literally EVERYTHING! After there we went to Home Goods where I purchased 2 quilt and sham sets because I couldn’t decide which one I wanted, and there’s no Home Goods nearby in South Bend. I still have to decide which I like better. I think I’ll buy the sheets I want and see which goes better. Next we went to IKEA. It took a while for me to decide on a bed. I had written down 4 beds I saw online that I liked. In person, though, 1 was very off white and seemed almost plastic which I did not like. Another one looked too grey to me, or else I would have wanted it. Another was a little too pricey, and the last one I just didn’t like. However, I found another one that was beautiful! It’s still a little more off white than I would have preferred, but it won’t be a huge deal. It’s a 4 poster bed which I think adds to my cottagey look and will definitely allow me to add more details with draping and such. I’m looking forward to that, even though I haven’t figured out what I’m doing yet. I’ll update on all of that stuff, though, once I’m all moved in!

UP (slight spoilers, don’t read if you don’t want to know)

2009-06-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is one of the best movies ever. It is a rare movie that can combine drama, adventure, and comedy in one and do it so flawlessly. One second I was crying, the next I was laughing, the next I was on the edge of my seat. There are also few movies that can make you cry within the first fifteen minutes (perhaps Shawshank Redemption being one of the others) of it. Not just this but keep us continuously crying over a character we had met for about 5 or 10 minutes and had very little dialogue. It was insane! Also, it wasn’t just me crying, Hilary was also. And it wasn’t just us, I heard the crying throughout the theater. It was SAD. I mean, I had heard it was sad, but I had never expected to cry like I did. Not just tears, uncontrollable crying. But enough about that! I enjoyed this movie more than I expected. I keep thinking every movie Pixar makes can’t be amazing, but it always is! This is definitely up there with Wall-E which I was obsessed with. The characters were all great. I love old men, so the main character was a hit with me. The little kid was really cute and funny! Plus, the main talking dog was absolutely fabulous, along with all of the others! I enjoyed how the movie ended. All in all, great movie!

Schedule for Fall

2009-06-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

Today I learned my schedule for next fall! (Thanks Tim!) So I thought I would share it with everyone and my excitement regarding it! Everyone knows how I love schedules!! I still don't know what class I'll be taing for or what my schedule will be like for that (the class and scheduled office hours). This should actually be told to me soon, though. Hopefully! So this is only a preliminary schedule, but still a schedule nonetheless! This also makes me realize school is real, and I'll be there soon! I should make sure I have everything prepared and all... anywho onto my schedule!!

Statistical Approaches to Social Psychology
MWF 10:30 -11:30 am with Dr. Duane Wegener

Psychology of Attitudes & Attitude Change
M 1:30-4:20 pm also with Dr. Duane Wegener (I'll know this guy very well it seems! He was super nice when I met him the first time!)

Survey of Social Psychology
TR 3-4:15 pm with Dr. Margo Monteith (she studies stereotypes and prejudice and was also super nice when I met her [actually everyone was super nice when I met them])

Current Readings in Social Psychology (Journal Club)
W 2:30-5:20 pm with Dr. Don Carlston (He's also REALLY nice and is Tim's advisor and in charge of the social department I believe)

Current Research in Social Psychology (Brown Bag)
F 11:30 am - 2:20 pm with Dr. Kip Williams (Super famous ostracism researcher!)

So all in all, I wish the schedule was a little earlier in the day, but at least Friday doesn't seem so bad and I don't have to be there super early (though I actually may have to, I'll have to see how it is there, but it looks like everyone comes in early). I'm super excited that the statistics class is specifically for psych students taught by a psych professor, yay! I'm also super excited about Attitudes & Attitude Change, a topic I haven't learned much about! Journal club and brown bag are both fun. Survey of Social Psych will of course be fun! I love how my whole schedule is social psychology, it's perfect! I'll have details on the classes once I've been to them in the fall!

Speaking of fall, I also have my orientation schedule, and I thought it would be fun, but it sounds kind of boring actually. Important things I have to do are get my student ID and a parking permit. The orientation schedule is:

Monday August 17th: Payroll session 9 am or 1:30 pm; On this day I also have to see the department payroll person; this is probably also the day I'll try to get my ID.

Tuesday August 18th: Department Orientation 1:30-3:30 pm which involves a welcome and introductory remarks, business services, duplicating service and building deputy, computing services, sexual harassment, ethics in research - human subjects, ethics in research - animal subjects, graduate program policies & procedures, Orientation week schedule/registration/q&a. (I would have expected this to sound much more fun)

Wednesday August 19th: 8:15 am - 3 pm Graduate Teaching Assistant Orientation (all day! yikes!)

Thursday August 20th: 10:30 am - 12 pm Equal Access/Equal Opportunity Briefing

Friday August 21st: 9 am - 11:30 am Convocation for new graduate students; I'll probably try to get my parking permit this day.

So all of this seems pretty boring, where are the social activities and such? Hopefully there will be some we'll find out about when we get there!

Anyways! It's hard to believe I'll be living there in 2 months! The first week of class will of course we an excitement! I can't wait for syllabi day of course! =)

Entertainment Updates

2009-06-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

Well, since I’ve been following the trend of talking about my life one day and talking about television the next, I plan on keeping this up (though tv may sometimes be a movie or something, for example I will be writing an opinion blog on UP soon). So I’ve gone through most of my tv news and now I’ll be onto other things I hear and opinions on things.

Blonde Charity Mafia – The CW docu-series about women in DC was supposed to premiere over the summer, but I recently read that it has been pushed back to the fall or spring because the CW loves it so much. Let’s face it DC is totally hot right now, so why wouldn’t they want to put it on in the prime tv viewing season?

Speaking of DC being so hot right now, the next Real Housewives of _____ is going to be DC! How exciting!! I just wish Michelle Obama could be on it, but there are so many awesome things that could be done with housewives in DC even though she won’t be on it. While I’m upset Chicago isn’t getting a show, DC will be more different and fresh than a Chicago show would have been (too similar to NYC).

Speaking of the Obamas… a few thoughts I have had recently: 1.) Michelle Obama should be a guest judge on Project Runway. Who is one of the most fashion forward style icons now? Basically no other person could probably elicit as much excitement except maybe SJP, and she was already on. 2.) this isn’t so much a thought as an observation. There’s a book at Petsmart about Bo, their new dog. I kind of want to buy it… 3.) Also not a thought, but did anyone see the Inside the White House special? I’m convinced Barack Obama sleeps about 3 hours a night! Crazy! Also, I love him so much. 4.) If anyone watches Stephen Colbert, one of the funniest episodes I have ever seen was on Monday. If you don’t watch it, watch this episode, so funny! He is broadcasting in Iraq, and Barack Obama was on for a second. So great! I just cannot get enough of Barack. Click this link to watch on HULU!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/76566/the-colbert-report-mon-jun-8-2009#s-p1-so-i0

Also, the Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 2 will be premiering July 30^th at 10 pm. I recently watched a marathon of Season 1, and I enjoyed it. While trashier than NYC, it was very drama-filled and hilarious. It’s worth tuning in for, I think. Other than the New Jersey wives (and I don’t know about OC), they live the most lavishly in huge houses and with tons of people working for them, one even has a bowling alley in her house. Sidenote: I need to watch the OC ones so I can officially have watched all of them, but they never rerun the older seasons or the full recent seasons!! What can I do?

Speaking of the Real Housewives… for those fans out there next week on the Today show, 4 of them will be hosting, one being Bethenny whom everyone loves! I’m going to record them since I certainly won’t be up to watch. I’m not sure of the specifics involving it, but here is the article I read.

http://blog.zap2it.com/korbitv/2009/06/real-housewives-bethenny-danielle-nene-tamra-to-host-the-today-show.html

Speaking of Bethenny… read her blogs about the Real Housewives of NJ! So funny!! http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b128495_real_housewives_of_nys_bethenny_frankel.html

If you go to the bottom there is a list of her blogging, this is about the 5^th My favorite line from her is in regards to the 3^rd episode and the yucky young guy Danielle was dating, “As for her wanting to keep young to keep her 26-year-old, by the looks of him, she could sit on her ass all day eating Mallomars and get a guy like him. He is unattractive, sneaky-looking and just plain sleazy. Obviously, she can do better. Dating her gardener or the first person she sees on the street would be an improvement.” Bethenny is hilarious!!! episode, but she has blogs about the past 4 as well.

For any Mad Men fans, the new season begins August 16^th. I tried watching this show, and I thought I would love it, but I just couldn’t get into it.

Also, I have some info on when some ABC shows start, but I figure I’ll wait for that until closer to fall. If I hear of any shows that will be premiering in August, though, I will be sure to mention it.

I’ve been watching a Make Me a Supermodel marathon, and I may like it better than America’s Next Top Model, at least the format of it. It seems more organized than ANTM, and the fact that they have a runway show and photo shoot every episode is good I think.

One of my favorite people ever, NPH (Neil Patrick Harris) is going to be in two movies soon! I am soooo excited!!! He will be in a movie called Beastly (which I am excited about in general) which is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. The casting is interesting for this movie in general, Mary-Kate Olsen and Vanessa Hudgens will also be in it. The other movie is called The Best and the Brightest, which is about a couple trying to get their daughter in an elite school in NYC. NPH will shine in any role he is given! I’m so excited to see him in more than just Harold & Kumar and HIMYM (though he is fabulous in both).

If anyone watched the premiere of Nurse Jackie and loved it, good news, they’ve already renewed it for a second season in what could be the fastest renewal of a show ever, the day after it premiered. Crazy!

If anyone watched Futurama it will be coming back on Comedy Central.

I’ve been watching Angel Season 1 on HULU. AMAZING! I always loved Angel, and I think this show is just fabulous. Plus, I love the crossover ability they had, much like the Grey’s-Private Practice cross-over eps last season.

Also, if anyone’s interested in watching Bones, Season 1 will begin next Wednesday on TNT at 7, and will continue every week day at 6 and 7 pm (as far as I know). As far as I can tell they don’t show season 4 (maybe they don’t get the syndication rights until season 5 begins?), but I figure they will eventually, and I’ll catch it then.

Cincinnati

2009-06-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Stacy and I headed out for Cincinnati. We got there in the evening, just in time to enjoy a delicious Skyline Chili dinner, my first introduction to Cincinnati. It was delicious! After that we went back to Stacy’s dad and hung out the rest of the night. The next day we went to see Star Trek in IMAX. It was AMAZING! I am now obsessed with Star Trek and want to see all of the tv shows and movies, along with the new movie again, and I’m very excited for sequels. I was surprised at how much I liked it, it was just so fantastic and wonderful. Afterwards we went back to Stacy’s dad’s for a bit to relax before her brother’s choir show. We then headed off to that, and it was really cute. It was all ages of elementary school students singing and it was lovely. I really enjoyed myself! We then went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that seemed very traditional. It was great. Also, I must say being around a younger kid, Stacy’s brother, was an interesting experience. I have no younger relatives really and have never really been around children, so it was so interesting to see how they act. They don’t seem to like being in one place too long, and they always want to do something. Every time we would get back to Stacy’s her brother would ask her what she wanted to do. After he was done eating at the restaurant that he night he kept saying he wanted to go, even though not everyone was done eating. It was an interesting experience for me, and made me and Stacy wonder how we acted when we were children.

Thursday was a fun-filled day! We went to downtown Cincinnati. First, we saw Fountain Square, a very famous area in downtown Cincinnati. Then we went to the Carew Tower, which cost $2 to go to the top of, incredibly cheap compared to the $15 for the Sears, though it was about half the height. Still, the views were great and it was an outdoor viewing area, not indoor like the Sears. We noticed a neat looking building from the tower that we wanted to go explore, City Hall. So we headed in that direction afterwards. We came across a beautiful area with older buildings and lots of brick. There was also a tree-lined median walking space, much like in Savannah. We saw the City Hall and other historical buildings (a temple and a church) and then headed back towards the car. We decided we should get lunch while downtown since we had no clue what would be around the art museum area. We ate at Potbelly’s, a restaurant we kept seeing everywhere and were very intrigued by! It is super cheap and was delicious! After lunch we headed back to the car and set out for the Mt.Adams area where the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Krohn Conservatory were. We went to the Cincinnati Art Museum, free except for a $4 parking fee (such a cheap city to be a tourist in!). They have a Dave Chihuly piece hanging in the main entrance, so I was instantly in love. They had a Surrealism exhibit going on, and it didn’t even cost extra to get into it! We walked around the museum and saw famous artists’ not so famous work! It reminded me of the Norton Art Museum in West Palm Beach, one of my favorites, and this museum instantly became one of my favorites as well. The surrealism exhibit was crazy, including works by Dali, Magritte, Duchamp, Miro, Picasso, and more. There were tons of Duchamp’s famous readymades, including the urinal he called “Fountain.” It was wonderful and crazy and weird! All of the things surrealism should be! The museum had everything, Renaissance, Impressionism, Modern, Asian, African, Chihuly, anything you could want in an art museum! It was fabulous! However, the one thing they did not have were magnets in the gift shop! I was very disappointed to not add a magnet to my collection from this museum, so I settled for a postcard. We drove around the Mt. Adams area briefly, by accident, and saw some cool buildings, it’s a very historical and quaint little area. Next we headed to the Krohn Conservatory which was beautiful, complete with a waterfall and pretty flowers. Sadly, some of it wasn’t open, but we were able to see a good portion of it. We walked across the street to explore near this cool looking older building. It looked like a lighthouse, but it clearly wasn’t since we weren’t near a place where you would need a lighthouse. We examined the building, saw two people who were probably having an affair making out there, and asked these other men standing around talking what the building was. They said it was something to do with water filtering and such, but we weren’t satisfied. Why would a water filtering building have windows? Made no sense. Oh well. We then went to Eden Park and saw a great view from there. We explored the park a little, there were ducks, and then a statue of a man killing a duck which horrified me. There was also a statue of what I thought was a pig, but instead was the Shewolf. After exploring the park a bit, we headed back in the car to head back to Stacy’s. We stopped on the way for Stacy’s favorite, UDF ice cream! She’s right, it is delicious! Later on that night we went to Trader Joe’s with Stacy’s dad. This was exciting for me because I have always heard of Trader Joe’s but had never been to one! It did not disappoint! It’s like the Fresh Market, but cheaper because it’s all (or mostly) Trader Joe brand. We relaxed the rest of the night.

Friday was full of excitement as we headed to King’s Island. We were nervous at first because there were tons of school buses coming in, too. However, for the most part lines weren’t horrible, and we went on every single rollercoaster and then some! We started off by heading to Diamondback, the newest most popular rollercoaster. Stacy and I were actually both not impressed. I was glad, I thought it was just me (though she did like it better the second time when she went back with her dad and brother). I just found it somewhat boring. The seat restraint also freaked me out a bit because there were no over the shoulder restraint, just this tiny restraint that went over your legs and it did not seem secure enough for me. After this, we headed over to The Beast. This ride was AMAZING! It is an old wooden rollercoaster that was just so amazing! Fast, sometimes in the dark, curvey, wonderful! It didn’t even jerk you around like a lot of wooden rollercoasters do! Next we went to Vortex which was also amazing! It was also Gator colors, yay! It was an older steel rollercoaster. This jerked me around a lot, but I still enjoyed it a lot! It was great fun!! The first ride of the day that went upside down, too! After this we headed towards Firehawk, but the line was so long, we decided to come back later. We headed over to The Racer, another great wooden rollercoaster! Not quite as great as The Beast, but fun still! After this we went on Adventure Express, a Thunder Mountain-like ride that was nice and breezy and had some cool mist. It was wonderful! Next we headed towards the front of the park to eat lunch. We had La Rossa’s pizza, Stacy’s favorite, and it was incredibly delicious! I loved it! I also bought a souvenir cup at lunchtime that had 4 rollercoasters on it, Firehawk, the Vortex, The Beast, and Son of Beast, so I then had a goal of going on every one of them, even though Son of Beast was low priority before. We headed back to the Firehawk/Flight of Fear area and sucked it up and waited in lines. We went on Flight of Fear first because it was hot, and it’s an indoor line. We were near some of the nicest people in line, it made waiting much more enjoyable! Flight of Fear was a great ride, too! Everything was enjoyable and everything was better than Diamondback so far! Next we went to Firehawk, which the line was much shorter to because most of the kiddies had to go. Firehawk was one of the most unique coasters I have ever seen. You get into the car sitting up, like normal, but then it lays you down on your back. THEN, you go up the lift hill and as you come down a twist, the car turns to be facing out so you’re stomach is facing the ground, like you’re flying. It was incredible and scary and amazing! After Firehawk, we headed over to the Backlot Stunt Coaster (I also got a delicious watermelon freeze on the way to eat in line). There was no line, though! Also, it was an amazing ride!!! SOOO much fun! I couldn’t get over how great it was!! It was just a steel coaster that went fast, didn’t go upside down or anything, but it was so great! It also went inside in the dark at one point which made it better! Next we went to The Crypt which I had been very excited about all day, but it was slightly disappointing. It was just a thing that turned you upside down a lot. It was fun of course, but not as themed as I was hoping for. After this we headed over to Flight Deck. This is a hanging rollercoaster and it was spectacular! We went on again after the first time because it was so good (and there was no line). It made me sad that there was no line because I felt like it was because it was older and it was being upstaged by all of the newer shinier rides. I hope this ride stays here, though, it was one of my favorites!! Afterwards we went on Son of Beast, the highest wooden rollercoaster ever. I enjoyed it, but Stacy didn’t because it jerks you around a lot, and it hurt her. It certainly wasn’t my favorite, but being jerked around doesn’t bother me, because the vortex hurt me the most and I loved that ride! After this we headed to Invertigo, the last rollercoaster to tackle! But it was shut down temporarily due to lightning. I was so sad thinking I might not be able to ride every rollercoaster! We went on Delirium for the time being, though, a ride that is a circle and everyone is facing out and it goes up and turns you all around. It was fun! Then when we went back, Invertigo had opened!! Excitement!! This ride was fabulous except you’re facing people and I thought the kid I was facing was going to throw up on me which scared me a bit. It would have just gone right on me. Ewww! This ended our amazing successful day at King’s Island. We then headed back to Stacy’s and stopped at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, what a perfect day!! I had my favorite: grilled cheese, raspberry lemonade, and a banana cream cheesecake.

The next day we went to Stacy’s brother’s soccer game, which was also more entertaining children. Some were not very good at soccer, but some were. It was enjoyable to watch. Having kids may not be so bad after all! Afterwards we went to Loveland Castle, a castle in Ohio! It was built by one man, how amazing is that? We walked around, explored, and learned about it. Looked through the gardens, and then saw some “knights” sword-fighting. It was very enjoyable! After this we went home and relaxed, ate dinner, and then played Apples to Apples Junior! I actually did well for once! When we played the night before with only 3 people I did horribly! After this Stacy and I went to Graeter’s Ice Cream, popular Cincinnati ice cream. It was delicious! We tried to find a video store, but there was literally none! I have never driven in such a populated area and not seen a video store! We went back and watched a Dane Cook show, though, and then the Princess Bride. It was lovely.

Sunday I sadly had to leave. It was another sad goodbye. =( However, I know I will see Stacy next summer when she visits her dad and we go to Cedar Point and a reprise of Chicago! On the way home I stopped at a White Castle because I have wanted to go to one since Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. It was as delicious as I had anticipated! I luckily made it back to South Bend in one piece as a U-Haul practically ran me off the road, and didn’t really seem to care. But I am here in South Bend now, so it’s ok.

My Thoughts on Finales

2009-06-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

My thoughts on the finales so far… (spoilers on the office, grey’s anatomy, prison break, ugly betty, lost, himym, gossip girl, desperate housewives, castle, brothers and sisters, big bang theory)

The Office: I thought this was such a great episode. I love Holly’s character so bringing her back was great. I just hope her and Michael end up together in the end. They really are soul-mates. All of things he said that were uncomfortably unfunny, she thought were funny! It’s sooo meant to be!! I loved their Slumdundermifflinaire. I thought it was pretty clever! About Jim & Pam having a child… ugh. I was still hoping for them to break up and that seems unlikely now. I think one of the reasons the show has not been as funny lately is simple: Jim & Pam are together. It ruined one of the elements of the show. Not many people find them funny together. I thought Jim & Karen together was great! I was always pulling for them to get back together. I think Jim & Pam having a child is a terribly boring storyline. I don’t see how it could be funny or even entertaining. I miss the good ‘ol days when they weren’t together. One thing I am hopeful for in the new season to come is a return to Dwight and Angela’s relationship! This has always been my favorite couple on the show, and I think they provide so many laughs together! When the awkward friend of Dwight’s was making fun of Angela and Dwight yelled at him, Angela looked at him with a spark… I can only hope…

Grey’s Anatomy: Well, let me just say, I knew it was George messed up almost from the beginning. I recognized him. Maybe it was because I was somewhat expecting it because I knew he wanted off the show, but I thought they were just going to get rid of him with the Army. I dunno, from the second he tried to write something I knew it was him. Also, the fact that he wasn’t around the whole episode was a bit curious. I was so happy with them sending him off to the army (even though his reasoning for signing up was pretty silly) because it was better than killing him off, but then they decided to kill him off anyways, I thought that was a bit of a lame way to let him go. However, the army left a way for him to come back I guess, and if Shonda Rhimes hates TR Knight as much as I hear, maybe she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of being able to return if he changed his mind when he realizes he probably won’t be a successful actor outside of Grey’s Anatomy. So if that’s the case, good for you Shonda, I’m so sick of these spoiled cast members. So now they may not kill off Izzie, which I’m torn between. I almost feel the same way about George, Shonda should just let her go if she was so unhappy. Note to Katherine Heigl: your new movie looks like a stinker, so you better hold onto Grey’s if you can (though I did love you in Wish Upon A Star way back in the day). However, keeping Izzie would be some great drama next season with her battling cancer. All I want is for Meredith and Derek to get married on that mountain where his motor home is, just a small, intimate setting. That is all I want!! Please let them get married and be happy! I’m excited about Christina and Owen, I thought this was a great plotline this season! They deserve total happiness as well! Can I just say poor Miranda! I hate her husband and what he does to her. If he is so emasculated by her why doesn’t he get a job too and take kid to daycare or something? Doesn’t he go to daycare anyways? Why is he such an a**hole??? UGH!

Prison Break: I was so happy with the show before it panned out and went to “two? Years later” COME ON!!! WHY??? Why do you kill off the main character, the hero! Did Joss Whedon kill Buffy? NO! Why do you kill Michael? Other than that I was happy.

Ugly Betty: I was sad that Justin didn’t get into performing arts school! I love Justin! I was happy that Betty got the editor position, but sad that Marc got left out, I love Marc. Why couldn’t they both share it? Speaking of Marc, can he please be best friends with Justin and mentor him? I LOVED Matt and am really sad that he broke up with Betty, but I can’t really blame him… I hope they do get back together though! Though it will be interesting with him being her boss, he seems like somehow who will get revenge out through being a mean boss. I’m glad he’ll be around still, though! I must say one of my favorite things this season has been how they realistically portrayed the shamble that is the magazine industry right now. It brought lots of great drama and such. So sad about Molly. =/ Poor Daniel looked so heartbroken. I love that he calls Betty when he is sad, too. She’s like his bff, it’s so cute. I’m very excited to find out who was in Wilhemina’s apartment, Connor would be too predictable right? Also interesting about Claire’s child, I’m sure that will be resurfacing next season!

LOST: What can I say but WOW??? The most shocking to me was that Locke was actually dead this whole time!! Way to pull one on us Lost writers!! INSANE!! What a great twist!! I don’t know how they are going to answer every question they need to in the one remaining season, but please tell me how that man transformed into Locke? Also, where is my Richard Origins story??? Why does he never age, along with Jacob? I believe Richard should be the next Jacob. I want to know everything about Jacob and Richard and the man posing as Locke. Also, please don’t let Juliet die! I love her and I love her and Sawyer and Sawyer does truly love her!! I must say I was actually a little disappointed with this finale. I expected it to be like the season 3 finale where we in the end discovered it was actually a flash forward. I assumed the bomb would go off and then it would pan to a scene where maybe the crash never happened or whatever their plan is for the remaining 2 minutes or something, leaving us set up and thinking craziness for the next season. I’m a bit disappointed. I am completely intrigued by what is going to happen come January though! Also, why can Jacob die so easily yet be so powerful (that is if he died)? Also, why couldn’t the other man kill Jacob but he can if he’s disguised as Locke? Weird… I want to know EVERYTHING!

HIMYM: This episode was a bit anti-climactic. I loved the Barney and Robin scenes and the Marshall, but the Ted scenes were very disappointing. I don’t like liking Robin more than Ted…Well, I guess I don’t like her, just her scenes. I’m interested to see when/how Ted’s mother is in the class, he’s getting a little old to have a romance with a student in his class, unless maybe he teaches graduate courses. I’m hoping Victoria comes back if not as the mother, at least as a teaser, I just loved them together! All I can hope for really is NO MORE STELLA!! That character has tainted Sarah Chalke forever to me! I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to watch and enjoy scrubs, which is sad, because I enjoyed the few episodes I saw.

Gossip Girl: I loved the idea behind this episode of trying to out Gossip Girl, but yeah, it is true, Gossip Girl is everyone, they send “her” the stuff. Good for Lily & Rufus finally! Jenny being the new queen should be very interesting… Thank you Georgina for giving Dan his money back, so good of her! I’m so intrigued by her signing up at NYU and rooming with Blair. Should be really entertaining! I’m glad Nate went away with Vanessa. I am THRILLED about Blair and Chuck, obviously!! I just hope they stay together for more than an episode so I can see their chemistry in a relationship! Serena’s search for her father… I didn’t realize it was an issue before. I’m REALLY interested in Lily & Rufus’s son seeking out Dan and them and lying to his parents, THAT will be a good storyline! All in all, great finale!

Desperate Housewives: Great finale!! Action-packed! A great conclusion to a great mystery throughout the season. I love that he ended up in a mental institution where he belongs. Not sure what’s going to happen with Gabrielle and that girl… I’m not that excited. Bree and Karl? Really? I hope not! Lynette with two more kids!!! AMAZING!! Is Tom still going to do college again? Maybe he could take over her job with Carlos? PLEASE let Mike be marrying Susan!!! If it’s Katherine I will not enjoy the show anymore!! Mike and Susan belong together!! Plus Katherine was so conniving and kind of evil, she deserves to be ditched!

Castle: While just a procedural it had a very intriguing end with Castle finding out something very mysterious about the lady who’s name I don’t remember’s dead mother. I’m very intrigued! Can’t wait!

Brothers & Sisters: I hope they leave Tommy in Mexico forever. Ungrateful bastard. I hope Robert leaves Kitty and finds a sexier younger woman and Kitty is left alone, whore. I love Kevin and Scotty more than anyone on this show, so cute. Nora has gotten beyond annoying with her incessant search for Tommy, if he wanted to contact you, he would have. Good for Justin and Rebecca being back together, love them! I hope they rub it all in Ryan’s dumb face, AND Holly’s. Also, yay for Justin going to med school! I hope Kevin has a relationship with his daughter. So far he’s been a better father than Tommy. I’m glad Kevin’s mad at Tommy, Tommy’s an a**hole! I’m glad Saul will be back, he’s one of my favorite characters!

Big Bang Theory: This episode was sooo funny, especially the end when they’re in the north pole. HILARIOUS!

30 Rock: I thought the season ended so wonderfully! The last two episodes were some of my favorites ever!!

Let me know your thoughts! =)

More to come: Chuck, Friday Night Lights, Dollhouse, Heroes, Summer shows

Stacy's Visit

2009-06-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

After graduation, Stacy was kind enough to join me and all of my stuff on the trek up to Indiana! We had such fun on our trip! We listened to some good tunes along the way! We stopped in Atlanta to meet Stacy’s friend for lunch and we ate at the Varsity. This place is apparently very famous, so it was cool to eat at an “Atlanta” staple! They had amazing chili cheese dogs, it was great! We also drove through this amazingly gorgeous neighborhood where her friend lived. We continued on our drive and stopped in Nashville for dinner to meet another of Stacy’s friends! Man, frisbee gives you so many amazing social connections! We ate at a very fresh Caribbean-type restaurant and then drove around Nashville to see Vanderbilt and the downtown area. After we left, we drove a little longer and stopped right after we crossed over to Kentucky. The next day we continued our drive to South Bend, it rained the WHOLE time! We stopped at a place for lunch called Noodles & Company that was really cool! There’s one in West Lafayette, so I’ll be eating there again I’m sure! After lunch the whole drive was on a state road which was really annoying, but we finally arrived!! We went to Hacienda for dinner and then hung out.

The next day we slept in and started our day slowly. We went to Lula’s Café, one of my favorite places up here, they have a wonderful brie sandwich! It’s kind of like Maude’s but with more food and it’s a little brighter inside. I enjoy it there! We went to Notre Dame to take a tour, but I was dumb and took us all the way across campus only to be told the tour would be back where we parked. Luckily when we got there the tour guide had just left, and we were able to catch up with her! She gave us a wonderful tour of the campus! We learned lots of history and traditions of the campus. After this we went back to hang out for the night (I think – once again, it’s been a while so the details are a little fuzzy).

Friday we headed into Chicago early in the morning. We took the train, of which I slept most of the way while hearing screaming middle-aged women in the back of head. It was odd and annoying. When we got there we went to check into our hotel right away and then headed out on our way. We started off with Chicago pizza from Gino’s East or maybe Giordano’s? Why are their names so similar that I can’t remember which one I like! Next we headed over to the Chicago Board of Trade for a tour, but unfortunately it was mostly for little kids. But we walked all through the financial district, which is one area I haven’t seen much of. I was also able to show Stacy some cool buildings and public art along the way! We headed over to the Sears Tower, which raised it’s price significantly since the last time. Also, why don’t places have student discounts? So we took the 103 story elevator ride up to the top and got the view of the entire city (and probably some of Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin). On the way down we ran into Barack Obama near the gift shop. Well, not really, there was just a cardboard cut-out of him near the gift shop. We then headed over to Millenium/Grant Park. There was a short stop at Garrett Popcorn along the way, one of my favorite stops in Chicago, the caramel popcorn is just unbelievable. We continued our journey over to the park. We went to Buckingham Fountain first. This is something I had never done before because it’s usually too cold for it to be running. It was sooo beautiful though. And also it’s much larger than I expected! The fountain is also far enough from the city that the skyline in the background makes it even more fabulous. We sat watching and enjoying and nibbling on some popcorn. We had a conversation with a man who had moved to Orlando from Chicago, I love those random conversations with strangers while traveling. After taking a long sitting and enjoying the view break, we continued our walk through the park. We saw the Crown Fountain, which I also think I haven’t seen with water in it because of the cold weather when I visit. I even dipped my feet in to act like a child a bit, and make my aching feet feel better. We saw the Bean and took some great pictures, we saw more sculptures and gardens, and beautiful tulips. I haven’t mentioned the tulips. I have never seen Chicago more beautiful than it is in the Springtime with all of the amazing colorful tulips everywhere. It was such a beautiful day, we saw people playing frisbee everywhere and just laying on the grass. It makes me want to move there so badly! After leaving the park we headed back up towards the hotel, passing more public art along the way. We saw the moose and the new huge American Gothic statue that was not there in December. It’s amazing how I can see the city grow and evolve everytime I go there. I remember taking pictures of the new Trump Tower when it was practically nothing, and now it is practically done. It’s crazy how the time goes! We walked by the NBC building and saw them filming the news we think. We continued going down some backroads and down some stairs that somehow came out to our hotel, I’m still trying to figure that out. We relaxed a little and then headed out to find a good dinner place. We followed the suggestion of the hotel man and found a thai restaurant around the corner, it was amazing. I hadn’t had thai food in so long and it was such good thai food, and really cheap, too! After dinner we went back to the hotel to relax a bit and then when it was an appropriate going out time we went to the piano bar two doors down from our hotel. They didn’t believe we were 21, shocker, story of my life. I had a stoli blueberry and sprite that cost 9 dollars, it was crazy. There were a lot of old women there, it was entertaining. After the first drink, I only wanted water, and the waitress was so pushy, but I wasn’t having any of it, my gosh, imagine what the tab would have been! Insanity! After a bit we went back up to the hotel, watched bravo (of course!), and drifted off to sleep.

Saturday we woke up and got our free continental breakfast, which was pretty good, they even had a waffle maker! We set off to find H&M on the Magnificent Mile. We had success. I bought a sweater because it was much colder than I had packed for, and I bought a pair of sunglasses (hot pink) because I have no clue where my last pair went. After that we took the bus to the Museum Campus area where they have the Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, and Shedd Aquarium. We talked to these people behind us for a bit, always fun to talk to nice people! We arrived and headed to the Field Museum. We saw lots of stuffed animals, dinosaur bones (including Sue!), and ancient civilization stuff. It was interesting, but after a while it all seems the same. After the Field we got hot dogs and Polish sausages from the cart outside. Delicious, even though I don’t get a traditional Chicago dog which has a million things on it like a dill pickle and sauerkraut. We then walked around the Museum Campus area to get to the train station where we planned to buy our ticket back to South Bend, but the machine would not let us! So we continued on our journey to get to the main train station. We walked all through Grant Park and up to the train station. After getting our tickets we went to the Cultural Center to rest/wait for Stacy’s friend Ashton (another frisbee friend! SO great!). In our excitement over going to explore Wicker Park & Bucktown when her friend got there, we forgot to look at the Tiffany dome (something for next summer!). Ashton took us on public transportation, which would have been crazy scary if she was not with us. They were doing construction so lines were closed in certain places and we had to get off the metro and take a bus, and it certainly would have been disaster if Ashton. I’m so glad we went to Wicker Park & Bucktown, it was a great area! It’s definitely the hip, up & coming neighborhood where the indie folk gather. We got a slice of cake and drinks at a café called Earwax that totally reminded me of the Top. After that we went across the street to a used bookstore that was so huge and amazing I could have spent hours there! We walked around a bit, saw the Flatiron Building, and ate a delicious dinner at a Falafel restaurant before heading back to downtown. We did a few last minute errands and then headed for the train.

The next day was Mother’s Day so we were going to dinner with my sister’s fiancee’s family. We went to the diner his grandparents always go to, Top Notch. Unfortunately, we think Stacy got food poisoning and she was sick all of the next day. It was very horrible, and I still feel terrible about it, so I’m going to cut that description short. We hung out Monday hoping for Stacy to get better, and luckily Tuesday morning she felt better so we were able to head out to Cincinnati!

Also, side note, our original plan was to go to Cedar Point Monday before going to Cincinnati, but they didn’t open until the next Saturday! So unfortunately we didn’t end up going to Cedar Point because it would have been too much since we had to wait until Friday to go to King’s Island because they were only open on the weekends. But alas, more to look forward to for next summer! =)

New TV Shows in Fall

2009-06-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

With nothing else to do this summer I have been reading a lot of tv blogs. So I know all of the shows that were cancelled, returning, and picked up for the next season. While doing this takes away some excitement out of the Fall TV Preview Edition of EW and TV Guide, I don’t have all that much info on them, so I still have a lot to look forward to. After all, I usually know about movies coming out, but I do love the Summer & Fall Movie Preview issues of EW. Plus now that I live in Indiana, my EW comes 3-5 days later than in Florida… it’s sad. I do believe the mailman may be reading it before he delivers it. With that, here are some new shows coming on that I think should be given a chance. Also, please watch CHUCK and BETTER OFF TED. =)

I first must express some disappointment about a few shows I had heard were being considered for the new season but did not end up being picked up:

Masterwork: This show sounded amazing and right up my alley. It was a thriller about people trying to recover stolen artifacts and such. I’m sad it wasn’t picked up, and I’m not entirely sure how this whole pilot process goes since this is the first season I’ve followed it so closely, but I hope it gets picked up for mid-season or next season or by another station at some point.

Any show revolving around politics that should have been picked up since politics are very hot right now (including the previously mentioned Body Politic and a show with Donald Faison)

Legally Mad: About lawyers, and while it didn’t sound amazing, NBC picked up Trauma and Mercy, both medical-type shows that just sound mediocre. They could have had more diversity by picking this up.

The Show with Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls: I just wanted to see her on tv again.

No Heroics: A show with Freddie Prinze Jr. I just wanted to see him around, well, plus, it was about superheroes.

Pulling: About a bunch of single girls, could have been the Sex & the City-like show I was looking for.

A Comedy with Eric McCormack: once again, I just want to see him on a good television show.

State of Romance: described as a modern day Pride & Prejudice in Chicago, two of my favorite things!

Needless to say, I will be looking for some of these in the future. Mainly any Sex & the City like show, State of Romance, Masterwork, Lauren Graham coming back to television, Eric McCormack coming back to television, and more shows about politics and superheroes.

However, now onto promising shows that WILL be on in the fall or spring, times are subject to change though:

Accidentally on Purpose (CBS; Mondays 8:30 pm à don’t worry, HIMYM will be on at 8 and Big Bang Theory is moving to 9:30): This stars Jenna Elfman, the plot is a bit questionable the woman gets pregnant “accidentally” with a younger man’s baby and decides to keep the baby and the man. I will watch it because I love Jenna Elfman and she was hilarious in Dharma & Greg.

The Beautiful Life (CW; Wednesday 9 pm): Stars Mischa Barton from the OC and Corbon Bleu from HSM. It’s about models trying to make it. Sounds alright… doesn’t sound as good as Body Politic, but I’ll give it a chance. I also love the pairing of this with America’s Next Top Model, makes a lot of sense.

Community (NBC; Thursday 8 pm): a bunch of misfits at a community college; is being called one of the most promising new shows.

Cougar Town (ABC; Wednesday 9:30 pm): Courteney Cox stars as a recently divorced single mother exploring the honest truths about dating and aging in our beauty and youth obsessed culture. The title scares me because I don’t want her to be all cougarey, but I do love Courteney Cox and want her to succeed in a new television show!

Eastwick (ABC; Wednesday 10 pm): Three very different women find themselves drawn together by a mysterious man who unleashes unique powers in each of them. Sounds great to me, and it’s supposed to be like Desperate Housewives which is great.

Flash Forward (ABC, Thursday 8 pm): When a mysterious event causes the entire world to black out, humanity is given a glimpse into its near future, and every man, woman and child is forced to come to grips with whether their destinies can be avoided or fulfilled. Somewhat Lost-esque, I’ll be tuning in to see if it can be as good! Plus Harold from Harold & Kumar is in it, LOVE him!

Glee (FOX, Wednesdays 9 pm): A comedy/drama/musical. They previewed it a couple of weeks ago and it was very wonderful and clever. I’ll be tuning in for the uniqueness, clever comedy, and hot Glee Club coach. =) You can still catch it on hulu and fox.com I think!

Hank (ABC; Wednesday 8 pm): Kelsey Grammer stars in this timely comedy as Hank Pryor, a titan of industry who suddenly finds himself out of work, almost out of money and around a wife and kids for whom he's never made much time. Could be good, could be bad. I’ve been watching Frasier lately, though, and I just love Kelsey Grammer in it!

Modern Family (ABC; Wednesday 9 pm): Shot from the perspective of an unseen documentary filmmaker, this comedy takes a modern look at the complications that come with being a family in 2009. This is being given good reviews. It sounds promising!

Parenthood (NBC; Wednesday 8 pm): Four grown siblings sharing the headaches, heartaches and joy of being parents in a re-imagining of the movie with Steve Martin. This has a great cast including Peter Krause (Dirty Sexy Money), Maura Tierney (ER), Craig T. Nelson, Monica Potter (Boston Legal), and Erica Christensen.

Three Rivers (CBS; Sunday 9 pm): A medical drama that goes inside the emotionally complex lives of organ donors, the recipients and the surgeons at the preeminent transplant hospital in the country. It sounds like a different take on a medical drama that could be entertaining. Plus, Alex O’Laughlin from Moonlight is in it and he’s pretty dreamy.

The Vampire Diaries (CW; Thursday 8 pm): Vampires… need I say more? But for those of you interested in what it’s actually about: A girl is torn between two vampire brothers, one good, one evil.

Mid-Season:

100 Questions (NBC; Tuesdays 9:30 pm): A girl who has trouble with guys joins a popular online dating site, she gets a little help from her dating counselor Ravi (Amir Talai, "The Ex List") - who requires her to take a 100-question compatibility test. The questions aren't easy for Charlotte to answer, and each one requires her to recount a poignant and humorous time in her life. I think each episode will be a different question or something. Sounds HIMYM-esque, I’m loving the idea!

Day One (NBC; Mondays 9 pm): Tells the story of life on earth following a global catastrophe that has devastated the world's infrastructures. Another Lost-esque show, I’ll check it out.

The Deep End (ABC; TBA): Each year one of LA's most prestigious law firms recruits four young lawyers from the finest law schools worldwide. I like shows about law firms.

Happy Town (ABC; TBA): Haplin, Minnesota, "Happy Town," is approaching almost a decade of peace after being riddled for years by unsolved kidnappings. But in the wake of this small town's first crime in seven years, some dark truths are being revealed about some familiar faces. I think this sounds really interesting and different!

Human Target (FOX; Wednesdays 9 pm): When there is an unusual or imminent threat that can't be solved through "normal" means of protection, Chance is hired to completely integrate himself into his clients' lives to become the human target. Based on a comic book, starring Mark Valley (Boston Legal). Another unique and interesting idea I think!

Parental Discretion Advised (CW; TBA): The plot is very confusing so I can’t really explain it. I still think Body Politic or the GG spin-off would have been better pick-ups, but since they are still supposed to pick up one more show, I will be patient. I’ll watch it just because the CW is aiming at my demographic so maybe I’ll like it?

Past Life (FOX; Tuesdays 9 pm): A new drama series about an unlikely pair of past-life detectives who investigate whether what is happening to you today is the result of who you were before. A crime drama with a twist, I may check it out and watch it all online or something. I can’t see myself tuning in every week, but maybe it will surprise me.

Sons of Tucson (FOX; TBA): A comedy about three brothers who hire a charming, wayward schemer to stand in as their father when their real one goes to prison. Sounds weird, but it’s also being hailed as one of the more promising shows.

There will be more to come about cable shows that aren’t as definite yet!

Florida Trip

2009-06-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Also, I wanted to let everyone know that I have booked my trip to Florida! My schedule is Monday June 29th-Sunday July 5th in Coral Springs; Sunday July 5th-Monday July 6th in Gainesville; Tuesday July 7th-Wednesday July 8th in Tallahassee (things could change but this is it so far). Let me know if you'll be in South Florida when I'll be there or Gainesville when I'll be there!! =)

Graduation Time

2009-06-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

Graduation time was really emotional for me. I was sad to be leaving the life I had known for the past 4 years behind for something completely unknown. Especially because I don’t even live in Florida anymore, so it was saying goodbye to people for who knows how long (possibly forever, a year, 3 years, who knows). I felt so nostalgic driving around, no matter where I was going, even if it was somewhere I had never been before. I knew I would miss Gainesville, my apartment, how I lived 5 minutes from anything I could want to be near (except downtown), hanging out with everyone in Gainesville, knowing I had some of my closest friends right across the street, Sonny’s, the Top, Wine & Cheese Gallery, Motown nights at the Atlantic, basically the only Barnie’s left in the world, lab meetings, those cold mornings walking to class way too early (though I’m sure I’ll have plenty of that next year!), football games, walking around the beautiful campus every day, the excitement of winning national championship after national championship, the late nights at Starbucks or the library, the things you never think you’ll miss and the things you know you will. The last week was just a whirlwind of the last time I’d be doing something, the last time I’d be going somewhere, the last time I’d be seeing someone. But let’s be honest, it’s not like I’ll never be back in Gainesville (heck, I’ll be there in July), and it’s not like I’ll never see people again (I’m already planning visits with lots of people). It’s more the idea that this time, these past 4 years, was such an essential part of my life. 4 years that felt like 1, yet they encompassed enough to be 10. I’m not sure I’m all that different from when I graduated from high school, yet at the same time I feel college has changed me so much. I’m not sure how specifically, but I feel different, affected. I feel I hold incredible knowledge about so many different subjects. I feel I am liberal for a reason, not just because my parents are or because I grew up in an area that is. I feel I can watch or read the news and know what’s going on and be interested in it. The world means so much to me, and not just my little bubble. I know about art, architecture, history, I feel so much more cultured. So much knowledge gained, so many friendships made, and so much growing done, in such a short time. I feel I was robbed of time with people, it was never enough time for me. Some people seemed so excited to be done, I felt like I should have been staying longer. People I only became friends with in the past year or the past two years, we didn’t have enough time together. People I have known since high school or middle school, it was still not enough time together. Yet I am reassured in knowing that everyone is going on and doing amazing things with their lives and I plan on being around to know all about it. One day I will be reading about all of my friends in the newspaper because that’s how influential and successful they are going to be. I am reassured in knowing that I had the most amazing undergraduate experience anyone could ever ask for, meeting so many different people, growing closer to others, creating bonds that will last forever, studying abroad, winning 4 national championships in 4 years, winning a Heisman trophy the one year we didn’t win a national championship, taking classes I wanted to, not just classes I had to, voting for the first time in one of the most important elections in history, attending conferences, traveling with friends, dancing the night away to Motown music. There are so many things that touched me – walking through the swamp after a win chanting “It’s great to be a Florida Gator,” and feeling how great it actually was, or walking on University Ave. after a championship win and knowing everyone felt the same excitement I did and we were all 1 for that night, sitting with my roommates waiting to hear the results of the Presidential election, and knowing I had made a difference by voting, seeing the Duomo sparkling in the night lights for the last time as I left Florence, and knowing going to Florence was one of the best decisions I had ever made, singing the alma mater at graduation, spending those last moments with friends before saying goodbye. These are some of the moments frozen in my mind. Yet there are all of the small moments that led to these being so important. The feeling of pride and friendliness at every football and basketball game, singing “We are the boys,” after every 3^rd quarter, the car horns honking after the election results were announced, the times I had shared with friends in Florence, the friends I had made in Florence, knowing I had some of the most intelligent people teaching me every day, learning and accomplishing so much in so little time, all of the moments spent with friends - at football games, at basketball games, at restaurants, at the library, at a club or bar, at the coffeehouse, in class, eating Krishna food, in lab, in Europe, at meetings, at someone’s place watching tv or playing a game, or just talking for hours and hours, on Spring Break, at conferences, at Disney, anywhere we were, no matter what we were doing, those moments make up my memories of college. More than the moments, still, I will remember the feeling I get every time I think about college (and this is only a month later, imagine years from now). There’s no other feeling like the one I have when I think about UF or Gainesville or college in general. I will always remember and regard these times as some of the best of my life.

I know this was ridiculously sappy and dramatic, but I just felt that I needed some sort of homage to college. I promise this is not how my posts will usually be. Also, I realize this is an hour late and I'm sad I missed posting every day, but technically this is Saturday's post. Tomorrow Hilary and I are going to Chicago and it's supposed to rain all day, and I'm sad because of that! =(

Returning TV Shows

2009-06-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

TV SHOWS RETURNING

I would now like to share my excitement about shows that were renewed! Also, my disappointment with some shows that were renewed.

Happiness

30 Rock: It’s an Emmy gem so I wasn’t surprised, but I just love smart humor.

Better Off Ted: AMAZING show!!!! EVERYONE should watch this and support it next year!! A combination of the Office and Arrested Development, such an amazing hybrid. It’s so smart and funny and just plain awesome. PLEASE watch it!!!

The Big Bang Theory: Not a surprise, but I love it so.

Bones: I don’t regularly watch this, though I do plan on dvring all of them when they come back around to the beginning on TNT. I love David Boreanaz so much.

Brothers & Sisters: I love some of them (Kevin, Justin), I hate some of them (Kitty, Tommy), and this past season wasn’t amazing, but I am looking forward to better days to come.

Castle: I’m soooo happy this was renewed. Not because I love the show, but I do love Nathan Fillion and he deserves a great TV show. But the show, while only a simple crime show, it’s definitely better than most procedural shows because it is more humorous. The idea behind it is also more creative than most so I give them props.

Chuck: =) That is almost all I can say! One of the greatest shows on television, so smart, funny, and entertaining. Zachary Levi is also my dream man. EVERYONE should watch this and support it next year when it comes back (possibly not until after the winter Olympics, so you have PLENTY of time to watch Seasons 1 and 2). PLEASE!!!

Cold Case: I don’t watch this, but I’m just glad this didn’t suffer a Without A Trace like fate due to annoying CBS, though I would have preferred Without a Trace sticking around instead.

Criminal Minds: Another crime show that I don’t regularly watch, but I do watch when I come home because my parents do. This is one of the most clever crime shows EVER, and I am partial to it because it deals with criminal profiling (a once desired profession of mine).

Desperate Housewives: Love it, not too much else to say. I hope Mike & Susan get back together, though, or else I may not like it.

Dollhouse: YAY! I love when the underdogs get renewed. Also, I love Joss Whedon. While I have still only seen the 1^st episode, I will be catching up on this over the summer, and I’m very much looking forward to it!

Friday Night Lights: Love the underdog. Plus Kyle Chandler, AMAZING! Most of the cast is amazing!

Gossip Girl: I didn’t expect this to be cancelled, but I wanted to express my happiness that it’s returning.

Grey’s Anatomy: I thought this past season was one of the best, after Denny disappeared of course.

Heroes: I just want it to be as good as season 1 again.

How I Met Your Mother: One of my absolute FAVORITES!!! I love shows I can watch over and over again and not get sick of, and this is one of them. The more seasons they come up with, the more unlimited viewing of another wonderful comedy (there aren’t many) I’ll have! EVERYONE should watch this!!!

Law & Order: I don’t watch this, but I’m happy a classic was renewed. One reason I still believe NBC is better than CBS, even though they make some dumb decisions sometimes.

Lost: I knew this, I’m sad it’s going to be the last season, though. =(

The Office: Not a surprise since it’s one of NBC’s best performing shows, but I’m happy.

Parks & Recreation: I enjoy this show a lot. Especially because it takes place in Indiana and kind of makes fun of it… lol

The Real Housewives any city: So dramatic and amazing

Smallville: I don’t watch this, but hope to one day. Plus, like I said, I like to see classics get renewed.

Supernatural: I don’t watch this either, but I hear it’s amazing, and I want to watch the dvd’s sometime soon. The more seasons the better if it is as amazing as they say.

Ugly Betty: I always enjoy this show and think there are some wonderful actors and actresses on it (Amanda, Marc, Justin).

Disappointment:

90210: seriously? Now they’re redoing Melrose Place as well, instead of picking up the previously mentioned Body Politic, the GG spin-off, or keeping Privileged. UGH

Heroes: I put this in both categories because I just don’t know what to do with it.

One Tree Hill: Chad Michael Murray is the star of the show and he is leaving it, and it doesn’t seem like ER or Law & Order where you can get rid of the original cast and it will be ok… Once again, the CW makes bad decisions. I should make their decisions for them, along with CBS (hey, they’re owned by the same company, probably not a coincidence).

Private Practice: I love Taye Diggs and Tim Daly and ABC didn’t really cancel anything that disappointed me, so it’s ok, but this is keeping better shows off the air probably. Plus I’d rather watch Taye Diggs and Tim Daly in something good.

American Idol & Survivor: I didn’t expect them to ever be cancelled, but I’m really sick of them.

Also...

2009-06-04T19:31:00.001-07:00

I got a job at the movie theater!!! I hope they don't fire me when I tell them about my trip... =/ I'll be worried until I ask for the time off. I start next Wednesday with orientation!!

Conferences

2009-06-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

This year I got the experience of going to 2 major conferences. I went to the big Social Psychology conference, SPSP. It was great fun! I didn’t present or anything, only went to enjoy, and enjoy I did! I went to tons of talks, and saw lots of posters. It was in Tampa, which wasn’t very exciting, but it was close, so I can’t complain, because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have gone at all. I also met my new friend Will there, which was wonderful!

Also, right before spring break I went to present my own poster at the AP-LS (American Psychology-Law Society) conference in San Antonio, TX. The conference was great! I went to many exciting talks and presented my poster as well. I even won a $50 Amazon gift card for being a runner-up, yay! I was able to talk to the person I modeled my study after, he was really cute. Also, other faculty and students came to talk to me! It was great and made me feel pretty accomplished! Also, San Antonio was AMAZING! The first night, me and the graduate student I was with went to the RiverWalk area to get Tex-Mex. It was delicious! Definitely some of the best Mexican I have ever had, especially the appetizer of chorizo and some amazing cheese queso dip, it was a special cheese I had never had before, Oaxaca. One day I want to go back to that same place and have it again, it was so great! We took a cruise along the river and learned about a bunch of stuff in the area, it was really fun! We walked along the river back to the hotel, the area was so beautiful. I would love to live there one day! It seems like a touristy place to go to, but if I lived there I think it would be a fun place to be able to go, they had TONS of stuff, a Howl at the Moon, Hard Rock, etc. The next day we went there for lunch again, a bbq place where they’re mean to you on purpose. I never understood the appeal of a place where they’re mean to you and it’s supposed to be fun… but we just ate there because we were in a bit of a hurry. We also ventured over to the Alamo and walked around it. Nothing too much to see there, but another one of those things you should see before you die. Next time hopefully I’ll have time for the audiotour. It was a fantastic trip in many ways, and I definitely plan to return to San Antonio one day!

Also, we flew southwest airlines, and I must say, for all of the positive remarks I have heard about them, I was not that impressed. While the flight staff tried to be humorous, which was cute, I don’t like their organizational tactics. Why on a full flight would you not assign seats? I understand when there are like 20 people, on our way there it was like this, when it is full, it sucks! If you get there too late, you load last, and it’s almost impossible to sit by the people you’re with! Granted I was able to get a window seat like I prefer, but still annoying. Also, annoying kid behind me kept kicking the seat, control your children people!

Cancelled TV Shows

2009-06-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

I’d like to share my disappointment about tv shows that were cancelled this year.

Harper’s Island: While the same exact characters wouldn’t have returned and it would have been a different story, I’m sad this will be the end of the murder-mystery genre for the time being. I enjoy watching it and wondering who the killer is. Granted some of the acting is not top-notch, but my feeling is it’s supposed to be that way like most horror films which have bad acting. I am sad, but I hope someone will resurrect the idea eventually.

Lipstick Jungle: I really enjoyed this show that was the closest I could get to Sex & the City without watching reruns of Sex & the City. I thought Lindsay Price’s character was so sweet, and Brooke Shields was great as well. The woman from 24 bothered me a little, but still it was good entertainment to me. I’ll continue to hope another Sex & the City-esque show will come back.

Prison Break: While I’m sad to see the show end, it had run its course. Season 3 was an atrocity that was painful to watch, but season 4 did return to standards comparable to season 2 at least. While no season could measure up to season 1, I still believe very few seasons of television, if any, could equal the greatness of Prison Break Season 1. I do wish the show had ended differently, though… but that’s for another post.

Privileged: Not a lot of people may have watched this show, and even I only watched some of the episodes online when I was bored, but it was pretty great. I also love any show that takes place in South Florida, especially glamorous South Florida. Many people believed this should have gotten another season, but the CW is dumb and only programs 10 hours of television a week. Why they would choose to run an encore of America’s Next Top Model within that 10 hours as opposed to original programming is beyond me. Why they stopped programming shows Sunday night is also a mystery. They had a great choice of shows to air, such as this cancelled show, along with the GG spin-off. While not “great” it would have attracted a lot of the GG crowd. Plus the show Body Politic, with the amazing Jason Dohring (a.k.a. Logan Echolls from Veronica Mars, and the hot rich vampire from Moonlight) was not picked up for the fall season (though I still hold out for it being picked up in the spring because it combines politics and beautiful people, both of which are very hot right now). I’ll keep you updated on that because I’ll be thrilled if they announce it for mid-season! This concludes my rant about the CW and their lack of programming.

Samantha Who?: I’m very sad this show was cancelled because it was a clever and well-executed idea. It also had a hilarious cast, and I’ve enjoyed Christina Applegate’s comedic stylings since her guest appearances on Friends as Rachel’s self-absorbed sister (classic episodes).

Trust Me: I had only seen a few episodes of this, but I enjoyed it. Mainly because I loved seeing Will & Grace’s Eric McCormack back on the screen. Hopefully he’ll get another TV gig soon. I love seeing talented actors and actresses find other TV shows when theirs get cancelled.

The Unit: I haven’t seen this, but CBS is annoying for canceling it. Their ratings are soo good that they can afford to cancel a show that still performs well. CBS is so annoying. I LOVE Dennis Haysbert (the best president ever on 24), and I’m looking forward to watching this on DVD (or tv reruns) someday soon. He is another actor who deserves to find another TV show now that this one has ended.

Without a Trace: Another show I don’t really watch that was a victim to CBS’s amazing ratings. I used to watch this show when my parents watched it, but never watched it on my own. It was definitely entertaining and better than most of the procedural shows on television. CBS canceling this show is another reason they are annoying.

All in all my normal tv viewing schedule remained unscathed. None of these shows were essential to me, besides Prison Break which needed to end anyway, so I’d call it pretty good. One show I was pretty disappointed about being cancelled was Dirty Sexy Money, but that was announced a while ago, so I have somewhat come to terms with it. I love Donald Sutherland though. =/ I remain happy that my favorite shows and some of my favorite actors will remain on the air next season, though!

Off to pick up Hilary! yay!!! =)

School Visits

2009-06-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned I had been gone for practically a month leading up to Spring Break, and two of those weekends, I was visiting graduate schools! First, I visited Washington State University. This was an interesting trip… First of all, flying to/from the west coast sucks, the time change, the length, etc. The only good thing about the flight time is I have time to sleep AND talk to people next to me, so I feel more accomplished in my journey. On the way there I was next to a man I’m 95% sure was Mormon and he was super nice. On the way back I was next to a woman moving to Orlando for a new job, and she was super nice. Let me just say, Pullman, WA., one of the smallest towns I’ve ever been in. I knew it would be difficult to live in this place. It is so small there isn’t even a Wal-Mart. I don’t even like Wal-Mart, but come on, every place has one. There isn’t much at all in Pullman, to get anything you have to go across the border to Moscow, ID. One of the graduate students called Moscow the saving grace of WSU, when you have to go to IDAHO to have fun, there is a serious problem. Also, Idaho smells. The closest Target, 90 minutes away in Spokane. Granted, Spokane seemed pretty cool, but seriously, how could I live without Target? Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan of the area. I loved the school, beautiful brick everywhere, and lots of cool artsy sculptures everywhere that I liked. The professor I would have worked with was cool, a total hippie with long hair who wears tie-dye, interesting fellow. I’ll actually be coming into contact with him next year at Purdue because he’s going on sabbatical and spending some time at Purdue. So, I’ll still get to know him and possibly collaborate with him. The students were nice, but half of them were married with kids. It didn’t seem like the most social of places. It also was an Experimental psychology program, and the professor I would have been working with was the only social professor, so it left little room for collaboration, which I wanted more of.

Next, I went to Purdue, but since I’m going there, I’ll save the best for last! =) So right after going to Purdue, in the same weekend, I went to the University of Illinois at Chicago. I’m not sure if it’s because I loved Purdue so much or something, but I had this weird feeling at UIC the whole time, and didn’t really enjoy my time there. I stayed with a nice girl. The students there were basically the opposite of at WSU, they seemed more into being social than into school almost! We had a full day of interviewing with tons of other students, which was also part of what made it awkward for me I think. It felt much more competitive, and I have also heard from others that it’s a very competitive atmosphere there, which I don’t appreciate much. Plus, going there would have drastically lowered my chances of being able to work in Chicago sometime in the future, which I would love to do, so it was all in all, not that great of a match for me.

PURDUE, though!! AMAZING!! I loved everything about it! I loved the faculty, the students, the school, the area (as much as I can love a place in Indiana, it IS better than South Bend). The students collaborate with other faculty members and other students, and there’s a general feeling of cooperation and helping there. My adviser is totally awesome as well! The campus was pretty with brick buildings and public art sculptures, which I love, if you didn’t know or haven’t guessed by me talking about them! It’s a huge campus so there’s a lot going on as well! The more I read about the neighboring town of Lafayette (where I’ll actually be living), the better it sounds!! There seems to be lots of historical and cultural things to do there! Like, the Tippecanoe Battlefield, Greater Lafayette Museum of Art (hopefully I’ll be able to volunteer there), they have a symphony orchestra, a ballet company, a civic theatre, historic neighborhoods to tour, a Frank Lloyd Wright home, lots of public sculptures in the downtown Lafayette area, historic buildings as well (with self-guided walking tours, excitement!), wolf park (with real wolves!), mini golf courses, and more fun things! It sounds very exciting! I’ve also been reading up on school traditions and stuff! There’s one hill on campus people go sledding down when it snows, lots of cool bars (one complete with a piano bar, and one where they have a beer passport and you have all the beers from all different countries), there’s a pretty good basketball team, and while football’s not that great, I’m ok with it since I’ll be spending my Saturdays watching the Gators anyway (hopefully!). I’m really excited!! I know there were things I wanted to do in Gainesville but never got the chance. I assume I’ll be able to do more here since I’ll be there possibly 6 years and with a much less busy social life and I’ll be less busy in general. All in all: I’m excited to move down to Lafayette and start my life at Purdue! I also have a super cute townhouse with an awesome roommate! It's 2 stories, and has a 2 car garage, so I can avoid snow and ice on my car in the mornings! I'm so excited about that! It has 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, and it's only going to be 2 of us living there, so we have an extra guest room/office and we each have our own bathroom. I have only seen a few pictures, but it looks amazing! There's a tiny balcony on the 2nd floor, too! I'll be moving in sometime this month so I'll take pictures of the townhouse, but I probably won't take too many and save a lot of them for once we're all decorated. My roommate's name is Kimberly and she is from Michigan. She's going to be doing her master's in Meteorology which I think is so neat! I haven't met her yet, but I will this month, and we've been talking on aim and she seems awesome! She also did all of the work picking out our townhouse so I owe her big time for finding such an adorable and amazing place! I have also talked to one of the other incoming graduate students in social psychology, Tim, and he is awesome! We have tons in common and it's awesome already knowing someone! It stinks because he went to IU undergrad and it's such a competitive rivalry. It would be like me going to UGA, yuck! (Sorry, Corinne). But he's still excited so it's good! I've also e-mailed with the other graduate student, Megan, who is also super nice! She'll be working with the same adviser as me, Janice Kelly. Megan and Janice are both some of the nicest people ever, so I'm sure we're all going to get along fabulously and produce wonderful work together! Yay! I'm sure there'll be much more about these people once school starts (as long as people are still reading and I'm still writing).

Also, I wanted to say thanks to those of you who have been commenting (Colleen and Rachel!) and thanks to Paige for becoming a follower of my blog! =) and thanks to those silent readers, if there are any! =)

Something Exciting

2009-06-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

I actually did something today which is exciting and thought it was worth a post. I just had a job interview at the movie theater. We'll see if I get if! At this rate I'll be working for a month if they do hire me... I really hope I checked the summer box on the application because she kept talking about how they hire management from within and how after two months you can move up to projection, but I probably won't even be there two months...

This week should be the most exciting time I've had since I left Stacy's so I'm excited! Hilary is coming Wednesday!! yay!!! I'm so excited!!

Tomorrow I'm going to Bath & Body Works to buy some stuff from their sale and the grocery store to buy ingredients for my ravioli dish. I told my parents I would make it for them one night, and I figured what better time than when Hilary will be here! So that's some stuff for me to do. I'll have done more in two days at this rate than I did all last week. Sad, isn't it?

This whole month should be looking up though in excitement. I have to look through all of my stuff before I can move into my new townhouse which is June 15th I believe! So I do have an event-filled June. PLUS, I'm coming to Florida at the end of June I believe! More details about that will be posted when it's solidified, but heads up to anyone who has a place for me to stay! =)

Well, just thought I would update on my life presently since I actually did something! I'll keep you posted on if I get the job, my travel plans, moving in to my new place, and of course Hilary's visit! =)

Summer Television Continued

2009-06-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

Shows premiering in July: (shows in italics are premiering for the first time)

Blonde Charity Mafia (CW; Tuesdays 9 pm): This is a docu-series about the lives of Washington, D.C.'s most influential 20-something Alpha Girls. (Season 1 premieres July 7^th, 9 pm) Sounds amazing!!!

10 Things I Hate About You (ABC Family; Tuesdays 8pm): Based on the movie. (Season 1 premieres July 7^th, 8 pm) I’m REALLY excited about this show!! I have very high hopes that it will be great!

Warehouse 13 (Sci-Fi; Tuesdays 9pm): Two Secret Service agents find themselves abruptly transferred to a massive, top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota which houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. (Season 1 premieres July 7^th 9 pm) I was skeptical at first, but when I read that they take care of artifacts and relics it reminded me of the masterwork show that wasn’t picked up, and I decided I will watch it. For those BSG fans, some stars will be on it!

Big Brother Season 11 (CBS; Tuesdays 9pm, Thursdays 8 pm, Sundays 8pm): Another season of drama! (Season 11 premieres July 9^th 8 pm)

Drop Dead Diva (Lifetime; Sundays 9 pm): A shallow model-in-training dies in a sudden accident only to find her soul resurfacing in the body of a brilliant, thoughtful and plus-size attorney. (Season 1 premieres July 12^th 9 pm) A new idea, sounds unique and entertaining!

Miami Social (BRAVO; Tuesdays 10 pm): This show explores the lives of a group of hot, young professionals corporate types by day and party animals by night as they navigate the sometimes murky waters of Miami's hottest locales. (Season 1 premieres July 14^th 10 pm) Another docu-series from BRAVO? I’m there!

Leverage (TNT; Wednesdays 9 pm): Hard to describe but like Ocean’s 11 every week! A group pulls different con jobs but to benefit people who were screwed over by bad guys. (Season 2 premieres July 15^th 9 pm) It’s an amazing show, one of my favorites!! It’s so original Catch some of season 1 on tnt.tv

Dark Blue (TNT; Wednesdays 10 pm): This show follows the exploits of a crack undercover team of police officers so covert, many of their own colleagues don't even know they are involved. Dylan McDermott is in it and he’s a hottie! (Season 1 premieres July 15^th 10 pm) Anything on tnt is worth a shot if you ask me!

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC; Saturdays 10 pm): The remaining episodes from the second season will premiere. (Season 2 continues July 18^th 10 pm)

Ruby & The Rockits (ABC Family; Tuesdays 8:30 pm): This show follows a former teen idol who has chosen to lead a quiet life with his wife and two sons. But when his former Rockits band mate and brother, David, shows up unexpectedly with his new-found teenage daughter in tow, the Gallagher family's life becomes anything but normal. (Season 1 Premieres July 21^st 8:30 pm)

Premieres in August:

Monk (USA; Fridays 9 pm): The final season of this amazing show about an obsessive compulsive detective. I’m so sad it’s the last season! (Season 8 Premieres August 7^th 9 pm)

Psych (USA; Fridays 10 pm): About a guy who pays attention to details to solve crimes but pretends he’s psychic to everyone else. (Season 4 premieres August 7^th 10 pm)

Project Runway (Lifetime; Thursdays 10 pm): The amazing show about fashion changes over to lifetime AND LA! (Season 6 premieres August 20^th 10 pm)

Models of the Runway (Lifetime; Thursdays 11 pm): Follows the models of Project Runway. (Season 1 premieres August 20^th 11 pm)

Needless to say I’ll try tuning into at least the first 2 episodes of each show since I believe every show deserves at least 2 episodes. I’ll keep updating on my opinions of them. I’ll also be tuning into some shows that they re-run on cable networks. I’ve been watching Dharma & Greg and Frasier recently, along with some HGTV shows (House Hunters, My First Place) and Food Network shows (Iron Chef America, Food Network Challenge). Who knew you could watch so many series on tv and not need to rent them! This should totally keep me busy over the summer and possibly some through next year as well!

The Mentalist: I hope to watch all of the reruns from Season 1, but they are re-running them in weird orders, so I’m just saving up the recordings. I hear this show is great though and I hope I enjoy it as much as others do. If you’re interested it’s on CBS Tuesdays at 9 and Thursdays at 10.

Privileged: since it was cancelled, I’ll watch the season and be sad it’s over – being shown in reruns on the CW Friday nights at 8 pm beginning June 5^th; this was never confirmed, but I noticed it on the tvguide schedule, and I assume they will show it all.

Angel: I’m currently watching season 1 on hulu and am recording seasons 2-5 on tnt every morning (except Sunday) at 6 am and 7 am. For those interested, it will be ready to start at season 1 again sometime over the summer.

Charmed: I’m going to begin watching this also being rerun on tnt whenever season 1 comes around again.

Bones: I’m also going to watch this in reruns on tnt whenever season 1 comes around again. I’ve only watched a few episodes here and there, and I love it, especially David Boreanaz.

Las Vegas: I’m also going to watch this in reruns on tnt whenever season 1 comes around again (anything involving las vegas is awesome!)

The OC: I’ll be watching this in reruns on SOAPnet beginning with Season 1 Thursday, every day at 4 pm.(I’ve only seen seasons 1 and 2 and figured I should finish the series!)

Beverly Hills, 90210: I’ll eventually watch reruns of this on SOAPnet when season 1 comes around again.

One Tree Hill: I’ll also eventually watch reruns of this on SOAPnet when season 1 comes around again. I’ve never seen it and heard it’s great!

Moonlight: The first (and only) season is rerun on Fridays on the Sci-Fi network. Season 1, Episode 2 will be on June 12^th. I’m not sure why they aren’t showing the first episode, but luckily I’ve seen the first few episodes already! If you are interested but want to watch the pilot, I’m sure you can find it somewhere online.

West Wing: I’ll be tuning into the reruns on BRAVO, season 1 will be coming around soon!

Make Me A Supermodel: There’s a marathon on June 3^rd of all but the first 4 episodes of this season. I think I’ll like it better than America’s Next Top Model because it has Tyson Beckford instead of Tyra Banks.

True Blood: There’s a Season 1 marathon June 4^th-7^th at 8-11 every night on HBO2. My parents don’t have HBO, but my sister does, so we’ll be having a marathon (and I’ll be trying to avoid her slobbering dog while we watch).

If anyone knows of other shows that are rerun on cable networks, please let me know! I’m especially interested in Supernatural and Smallville.

Other things that are online that you may want to check out:

CHUCK! Season 1 is on thewb.com and season 2, episodes 12-22 are on nbc.com until September 20^th, hopefully they will add the rest soon. Everyone should watch this amazing show!

Veronica Mars – Season 1 is on thewb.com, check it out! It’s amazing!!

Rescue Me - all of the seasons are on hulu right now, and I highly recommend this to anyone!

Star Trek: The Original Series: All three seasons are on cbs.com and I hope to watch them all! (for those of you who don’t know, I’m now obsessed with Star Trek after seeing the new movie)

Southland: I’ve been hearing good things but the first episode didn’t catch my interest, I’ll give it another chance.

Greek - All of the seasons are on abcfamily.com! I can’t wait to watch!

Firefly - Another Joss Whedon show to watch! PLUS Nathan Fillion!! The whole season/series is on hulu.

The Prison Break 2 hour Movie: I heard this will NOT be aired on tv as previously thought, but it has been leaked online! I’ll be trying to find it!

Spring Break

2009-05-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

I realize the description is very late, but here it is!! The description of the most fabulous and wonderful spring break in the history of spring breaks!!

We arrived Sunday to our beautiful home very close to the beach in Folly Beach, SC. It was huge and amazing! Perhaps even more amazing than I had imagined. From the second we arrived there was a feeling of relaxation and fun in the air! We took a little trip to the beach which was a minute away, and we went to get dinner in Folly Beach. Little did we know they would be out of everything everywhere. Our first stop was this good looking Mexican place, but they had nothing including chips and fish for their fish tacos which was one of the main things on their menu. So we left. Then we went to a seafood place that was out of French fries amongst other things. How do you run out of these things? Go to the store and buy some potatoes! Weird to me. Anyway, we ended up at a pizza place that was pretty delicious! We went grocery shopping at the piggly wiggly which was awesome! What a cute grocery store! That night we hung out and played loaded questions I think? This is 3 months later so the specific details are a bit fuzzy. Nonetheless, loaded questions is always a good time!

Monday we decided would be the best beach day, even though it wasn’t and was a bit too windy and chilly. It was nice to lie by the beach, though, even though I got a terrible burn on the back of my legs that made sitting painful for a few days. It was so nice to just relax though after being on the road for basically a month straight before this (Tampa for two days for a conference, Washington State, Purdue and U Illinois Chicago, and then San Antonio). I was home maybe 12 hours from San Antonio when we left for spring break, actually. So needless to say it was nice to be somewhere and relax. Along with relaxing, I was able to introduce many people to How I Met Your Mother, and I love introducing people to great tv shows! We also came up with the nickname HIMYM, though I didn’t really invent it, but I first began using it here! Once again, I don’t remember the specific details of Monday night, but it involved fun and relaxing! Hilary and Colleen had taken a trip to an outlet mall, and Colleen came back with a pair of hot pink satin converses to match her hata-blockas. Colleen is so wonderful! I know some people went to “downtown” Folly Beach, I think Hilary and I stayed in to watch tv. Just my kind of relaxing night!

Tuesday was our first trip into Charleston. Let me say if there was a look of a city that matches me, Charleston would be it, pastel colors everywhere and classic houses and little brick streets! There’s a picture on this little street that people think is in Europe, because this city is so old and classic it actually resembles a European city, not like many cities in America. We began the day by going to lunch at a place that was decent but had very stale bread. We walked through the Old City Market where I bought a little straw basket, my souvenir, because it’s a famous thing in South Carolina. This was a fun little place to visit. We went to a candy store and sampled some free pralines that were very good. We walked along the water and found a park where we sat in swinging benches and then the coolest things, individual benches, I loved those pictures! We walked around a lot and found a place to get a snack (I’m not sure if this is the correct order we did things). We then began a walking tour which I narrated and got rave reviews, at least people told me they liked it. It was very stressful trying to give information about everything I could, but I love self-guided walking tours, mostly because of Rick Steves, and I do have a sort of secret dream about being a female Rick Steves for America, since he only writes books for Europe. We looked at tons of historic houses and the Battery area by the water. We walked by Rainbow Row, a beautiful row of pastel colored houses, I loved it of course. We were all pretty tired after this so we headed back towards the car, taking a detour into a mall to go to the bathroom, such a nice mall! Tuesday night I am also a bit fuzzy on… Tuesday night I think we did the murder mystery game which was great fun! Everyone brought so much humor and uniqueness to the game, it was fabulous! It’s something I would love to do again!

Wednesday, Stacy, Hilary and I headed into Charleston again and Andy, Colleen, Nicole, and Corey went kayaking. Hilary, Stacy, and I began our day by going to a temple which was very beautiful and interesting. This cute little old man told us all about the history of the temple and there was a tiny museum-like area. The man was nice besides the fact that he didn’t really care about my life and cared about Hilary and Stacy much more. He asked them what they were doing next year since we were graduating, yet he neglected to ask me. This also happened somewhere else, but I can’t remember where. Clearly people just don’t care about my life, yet I am writing this blog anyways in hopes my friends will care! =) We continued our day by going to Jestine’s Kitchen, a popular spot for good Southern food. It was DELICIOUS! This is where my love of fried okra began, unfortunately, I no longer live in the South to enjoy it. =( This meal was totally delicious, though. Sweet tea, fried chicken, fried okra, corn nuggets, etc. Totally unhealthy and bad for you, but delicious nonetheless. Plus, it’s a trademark of Charleston, so I’m glad we were able to go! There’s usually a line out the door, but we went pretty early and got sat right away. We also got very cheap ice cream from a famous seafood restaurant with an unfortunate name (Hyman’s). We continued on to visit a historic house. We walked around to get there and went on the tour of it, I forget which one it was at the moment… It was enjoyable, I love historic things. The tour guide was kind of bitchy and racist though. She was describing an easel they used to paint and how the slaves would carry it from room to room for the people and she goes, “Isn’t that nice?” No, lady, it’s actually terrible. One thing that I didn’t like about the area is the pride they still hold in their racist past. I understand it’s their history, but it’s kind of terrible to sell confederate flags everywhere and reminisce about the days when they had slaves. After our historic home tour we headed over to Ft. Sumter which was interesting and probably one of those things you should see before you die, but nothing totally spectacular that I’d have to do again or anything. If I knew where my book of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die was, I’d look it up, but I have no clue where most of my life is right now, so maybe by the end of the summer I’ll find it and be able to check some new stuff off, such as Ft. Sumter, because I assume it is on the list. I hope I find it soon… I would love to do a blog entry of the places I have been and whether or not I think they deserve to be on the list. That sounds fun! Anyhow, after Ft. Sumter we headed back to the car, which we purposely parked near Ft. Sumter so we wouldn’t have to walk far at the end of our exhausting day. However, we didn’t recognize the parking garage we parked in, as the one that we parked in. So we continued to walk around in circles for 15-20 minutes until we ended back at the garage closest to Ft. Sumter that we had parked in after all. It was pretty hilarious yet frustrating. Wednesday night I think it was (I may have mixed up Tuesday and Wednesday but I think I have it right) we went into Charleston to go to an improv show which was tons of fun and super cheap (thanks Hilary!). We came back to relax after.

Thursday we went different ways. Hilary, Colleen, Corinne, and I went into Charleston to go to the Charleston Art Museum, while Nicole and Corey went to the beach, and Andy and Stacy went to a plantation. I wish I could have done the art museum and the plantation, but alas I had to choose, and since I must go to art museums everywhere, I did. There was a lot of local art and portraiture at the museum, which isn’t necessarily my favorite, but it was still enjoyable. I especially liked the modern and contemporary collection which had some very creative art that couldn’t have been found anywhere else because of the locality of it! Plus, it’s always interesting to see what artists from different places produce. After the museum we headed back to Folly Beach to eat lunch and relax, we managed to continue watching tons of HIMYM, fabulousness if you ask me. We later planned our big final dinner in Charleston, we ended up going to a pirate-themed restaurant that Corey loved. It was called the Buccaneer and was very good. I was able to order Shrimp & Grits and be satisfied that I then had all of the southern food I needed on my trip. Then Andy, Stacy, Corey, and Corinne went out on the town, and Hilary, Colleen, Nicole, and I headed to Sonic for some dessert on our way home to watch more HIMYM… another wonderful relaxing night. I love Spring Break!

Unfortunately we had to leave Friday! =( Luckily, though, Andy, Stacy, and I were heading for a stop in Savannah on our way back! Savannah was beautiful and seemed totally livable. All of the squares in the city also reminded me of Europe, except a little more green. There’s also more amazing houses. We got food at a “local” Southern restaurant which was actually a chain, but I suppose a local chain, like Sonny’s, but not as good as Sonny’s sadly. We went on a walking tour of the city that we hired a lady to take us on, and it was slightly disappointing. According to Andy and Stacy’s reviews of the lady and me, I could be a better walking tour guide for hire (perhaps a profession for some extra side money in grad school?). We did go into a neat cathedral though that also reminded me of Europe because it was large and Gothic, and it’s not everyday you see those in America! We saw I think every square in Savannah and went near the River Front area, which was actually kind of scary and ugly (though this could be because it was a dreary day), and I wasn’t a huge fan of it. We walked by the art museum, which actually looked pretty great, and I’d love to take a trip back one day to go there! Unfortunately this concluded our spring break trip and we went back to Gainesville. But it was wonderful and I will always remember it!

Blogs

2009-05-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

If anyone has a blog please let me know via this or my e-mail nei0327@gmail.com or facebook! I love reading blogs! =)