Alina defended her Master's Thesis on Thursday and we had a celebratory dinner for her!
I was so happy to see her that night!
Anne made us a delicious dinner:
And we had cake (this photo is posed)
You would've thought it was just Anne, Alina and me at this party....but there were actually about ten other people there, looks like we just stole all the attention.
So unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera along with me, I took some photos with my phone though and have recently discovered an easier way to put them online. Friday night I had a lovely dinner with Julia, Ali, and Teddy, following with drinks. I also had my Hip Hop Final performance on Friday that thank god a bunch of people put on YouTube b/c again I forgot my camera, so here's the first part we danced in:
I'm to the right in all black. Here is the second part but the girl who filmed it cut me out of most of it, oh well you can see the awesome choreography anyways:
Saturday I went with Alina to Maia and Jed's house for what I thought was a holiday dinner party but turned out to be more just drinking with friends which was a really good time. Before we went I picked up the party essentials: chips and salsa. While I was in Stop and Shop I passed this brand of yogurt that's my name in one word: After a couple drinks I met Julia at the Watering Hole and kicked some ass in darts(that's my score on the left): After I had my fill of fresh squeezed grapefruit and vodka, we headed over to the Basement for some dancey dance time. Overall, a fantastic night, coulda been better but, coulda, woulda, shoulda....
So it's been eventful couple of days, and last night was the incredible Steve Herrell's famous alfredo pasta mix in dinner at his home. It was actually a pretty incredible evening, I know blogs are about honesty but I don't know who may read this so I'll keep certain comments to myself... but I certainly was not dragged into this event!
So let's get started! Of course Alina and I were the first ones there... we shared a magical moment while testing the pasta.
This photo was taken by Steve who used his camera phone the whole night because he still hasn't figured out how to use his new digital camera.
Our Host
Mandatory Sexy Faces
We re-enacted a photo of us three on the couch that was also taken last year at Steve's, this year there was the addition of Evan standing creepily in the background
Evan makes up for his creepiness in this adorable photo of the Herrell's Dynamic Duo/Couple
Let's just say that unlike Planet Fitness, Herrell's is not a judgment free zone, prepare to be judged...
The night ended with Alina and Patrice celebrating their birthdays (Alina's was august, Patrice's is end of December) with personalized cakes. Well actually it ended with Alina getting wasted and us watching Biggest Loser at Kate's house.
For someone that has been singing most of my life, I have only done karaoke twice ever. This past Friday night we all headed over to the WWII, usually where you can find me every Thursday night, to do some karaoke dance party craziness. I was so excited because Matt had announced that he would be singing a song which I've never seen him do. We had so much fun hanging out with everyone and some amazing photos emerged: Matt rocking out to Fat Bottom Girls-Queen
Alina's UMass Urban Planning Professor rocking out to Du Hast
Alina rocking out and looking super hot (she didn't remember this photo when I showed it to her)
Mandatory Sexy Face photo
John rocking the mic
It took three tries to get this picture, I didn't think it'd be so hard to make them look mad at karaoke night...
So this post is about bellies, first it's about them because I ate waaay too much this weekend. But second it's about Amanda Palmer and how she's a sexy bitch and how it's bullshit that her record label wants her to cut scenes of her belly from this video:
Also, photos to come soon of this weekend, possibly some video as well!
Ok Wow I'm back! I know I keep saying this but I really am this time. So let's update: So first of all, we finally got first place in trivia earlier this month, go us! Matt and I finally got to go to the Publick House in Brookline, right before Thanksgiving. The food was pretty kick ass and the beer selection made me feel like I was at the Dirty Truth, which is a very good feeling of course. This place was the second place in Boston that I actually wanted to return to (the first was Deep Ellum in Allston)
So now for Thanksgiving, we went to Susquehanna, PA and stayed at Matt's aunt and uncle's home there. It was great getting together with the fam and exciting to see snow on the ground! Matt and I woke up at 6am and headed out only to realize the rest of the family wasn't leaving their homes until after we would arrive there. I guess we were eager beavers that day. Those photos are of the drive to PA. FOOD! (and sherman)
Friday night we went bowling and as you can see from the score, I didn't do so bad!
So I have been hearing about these Jonas Brothers, and how crazy people are of them. So i looked on youtube to hear one of their songs, and I actually really liked it and it reminded me of my love for Hanson. I don't feel the same as their fans, but I an imagine if I was 13 right now I would be crushing so hard on them. I also want to check out the adding video feature on this thing so here's their video of Burning Up for your viewing pleasure (just so you know after watching this for the first time I spent the next hour watching videos for miley cyrus and other tween stars......it was guiltily wonderful)
Well, luckily I just got some great pictures from Matt's cousin from our few days in Susquehanna before we went to Montreal. We were celebrating Ania's birthday and also it was Jess's wonderful dog Sherman's birthday as well. To keep you interested until I have my Montreal pics, here are some from that weekend
Ania the Birthday Girl!
Playing with the paint guns....
Ok so after posting two of these pictures and realizing how freaking annoying it is, I'm creating a Flickr account, and that is that.
So ok,I know I have neglected this, geeze I barely even started it. But after people have requested me to update, which make me feel like ok maybe people will read this; I decided I needed to update. It started with the suggestion to blog my trip to Montreal (which was DIVINE); but then we didn't have the cord to upload the photos from the camera to my laptop. I DO have video though from our trip which I will upload very soon. So now I'm debating if I want to give you a word for word summary of our trip or if I should wait til I have pictures b/c i don't want to a)drag out the amazingness of my trip b)bore you to tears describing it
So....I have to think about this one. It shall be decided by tomm. morning. For now I'll give you all a bit of an update. For those of you close to me you may know that me going to back to school this Fall was a little bit up in the air the last few weeks. Unfortunately, that choice is ultimately in the hands of my parents who pay for it. So, I'm happy to say that I WILL be returning to Mount Holyoke but it means I'll be paying for half; which obvi I'm not looking forward to. Luckily I've saved up money this summer and when I go back I won't have to worry about buying my own groceries or paying any bills; but I only will have about half of the half by Sept. so I have to earn the other half during the year which means I'm going to have to work a buttload while I'm taking classes (which was one of the issues I was dealing with when I was there last, and one of the reasons I was so stressed out beyond belief and took time off.) I'm hoping that I'm in a much better place now though, and have enough motivation and desire to be there that I'm going to make this work. Ok I already feel like I'm getting boring and moving into the realm of self-reflection, so I'm going to spare you all. But Montreal UPDATE SOON!!!
So I had an amazing weekend all because I got to see (and touch) the love of my life, Joel McHale! About a month ago we bough tickets to see Joel do stand up at Caroline's Comedy Club Saturday night at his midnight show. We were literally the last people in line but we actually ended up getting really good seats. Well, before we even got in line things got pretty exciting. First I was pretty sure our driver was planning to take us to Central Park to kill and bury us, luckily I was wrong. So next we get to the Comedy Club, which I didn't realize was in Times Square which is actually a pretty interesting place to be late at night, and try to find an ATM for MATT. So eventually we find it in a Duane Reade across from the club, as we're leaving to cross the street Matt begins to freak out. I don't know if you've even seen YouTube videos for this guy but Matt loves him and we ran into him right before the show. Than I realized he was probably one of the acts opening for Joel. So that's when we got in the crazy long line and were last.... but anyways we sat right against the wall so that we we were to the left side of Joel and we were pretty close; but the club was pretty small. But the best part is that the comedians stood right next to us as they waited to get on stage. I think I almost passed out as Joel brushed past me to get on stage, and he was hilarious. I kept telling Matt I was going to hug him when he came back off the stage but then I got too scared and gave him a double high five instead! So yes, I touched Joel.
The night was still young, and as we left the club at 3am we headed down the block just to walk around a bit and lo and behold we see one of the guys, Nick, from the Real World. So I've decided this was he week of meeting semi-famous people.
So this morning our lovely building manager scheduled a plumber to come fix our kitchen sink (which we've been asking them to do for months)at 8am; so in order to get ready for work in time I got up nice and early so I could leave the apartment before he got there. Also wanted to leave in the rare case that the building manager came along with the plumber and noticed that more than one person was living in apartment....
Now that Mr.Matt has a job, the car is no longer available so I took the bus to Hadley today and since I was getting there so early I went to Esselon for breakfast. While I was waiting at the bus stop a young woman (young but older than me) handed me a pamphlet and told me"I'm handing these out to people waiting at the bus stop). My good judgement told me I didn't want this, but I thought maybe just possibly this had some important information about riding the PVTA. I was wrong, it was of course the only other possibe anwer: JESUS. I remember working at Herrell's we would find these little religious comic books all over Thorne's that were about how we're all going to Hell.
Is Northampton in dire need of being saved? Are we going to hell for harboring strong women and gays? Obviously I don't agree, but I was afraid if I said no thank you to her Jesus book that it would turn into some sort of argument. I could've mentioned to her that my sister is a nun therefor she prays enough for the both of us....
So as if my day didn't start out weird enough, then I go to Esselon where I think I'm safe. As usual the same people are working behind the counter, I always wondered if they notice me as a regular even though I'm only there twice a week (compared to the twice a day visits to Woodstar). Well today I got my answer, the unusually friendly barista went out of his way again to ask me how I was doing and served me my ice coffee. I thought I was in the clear, so I sat down with my laptop and of course I couldn't get on the wireless. So I had to ask them for help, which I think is what prompted the next interesting item of the day. After I was doing my daily blog checking I remembered that I had to pee ever since I got on the bus, so on my way to the bathroom ever friendly barista got my attention again. I thought maybe he was going to mention something about the internet, or just a funny tidbit, but no. Instead he decided to ever tarnish my future visits to Esselon by telling me that he just HAD to tell me that him and his co-worker were talking behind my back about how beautiful I was and that he thought it would be rude if he didn't tell me....
Maybe I'm bad at taking compliments, which could be shown through my reaction of stuttering,"ummm...thank you..." and turning and walking to the bathroom; is it just me or is that so awkward?
Hope everyone (which as far as people who read this blog is just one person), had a great 4th of July.
I worked at Herrell's on Friday and left promptly after to drive to New York for the evening; as we sped to the city we danced with joy because we were making such good time. I was looking forward to meeting up w/ my long lost friend Rika when we hit crazy traffic on the BQE just minutes from our exit. Apparantly the cool thing to do is park your car and take up 2 lanes of traffic on the highway to watch the fireworks, so it took us an hour to go what normally takes us 5 minutes. So sadly we just went home and went to bed; Saturday we did a little shopping and drove the rest of the way to Pennsylvania to see my fam. It was great hanging out w/ the high school crew and I forgot how nice it is to have your parents cook for you all weekend. We checked out the new outlets by my parents, which was surprisingly great shopping but I couldn't shake the fact that all these shops were built on acres of land that were previously used for farms. Kind of depressing.
Monday night we drove back home, the trip was way to short but I'll be back there for labor day weekend for my cousin's wedding. We had the trip from Hell from my parents house to Northampton thanks to Matt's Iphone, but I won't go into that.
Tuesday we went into Boston and I got to see where Matt will be working. We hung out, Matt got some shots and got some blood taken and then we headed to Class Action's picnic in North Amherst.
The picnic was exhausting, and after all that time in the sun I've realized my freckles are getting bigger, so I'm going to take care of that.
Maybe I'm too boring for a blog. The last few days have been pretty standard, especially when you're back to going to work. Tuesday I was working at Class Action, the best thing about Tuesday was that my Macro-Econ class is over so I had amazing amounts of free time. Too bad I used it sitting around and eating instead of going to the gym every day before PA like I had planned... Wednesday I worked at the salon and Matt got a job! Definitely the most exciting thing that happened over the last few days. He'll be working as a research assistant for a doctor at the Boston Children's Hospital and is starting next week which is crazy!! Thursday it was back at Class Action and then of course the highlight of our week, Trivia Night!!!! We thought we were gonna kick ass this week but we actually did quite terrible...
So today I'm working at the ol' ice cream shop, was looking forward to sleeping in a little but then they dragged me into training a new worker which I felt obligated to do since I recently left them....
Tonight we're driving to NYC to spend the 4th of July watching fireworks on the East River w/ my awesome friend Rika. Saturday morning we'll drive the rest of the way to PA to see the family. This should be a great post since I havn't been there in a year...
So in an effort to make the most of my day's off, which are few and far between, I've been planning some day trips. So today I went to Mass MoCA and with the suggestion of Sarah's, I took the Mohawk Trail to drive up instead of Rt. 9. It was a gorgeous drive and I'm going to attach some pics, unfortunately i was driving so I couldn't really soak it in but we stopped a few times on the way up. Mass MoCA is really in my top 3 favorite things about this area, last time we went I reserved a room at The Porches Inn and it was awesome but it was also dead of winter and freezing. It's great going up there in the summer and the new exhibits were really awesome. Last time we were there Eastern Standard was just about to open so it was nice to see that again and completely finished. The Jenny Holzer Projections is always an experience and I totally recommend people to go check that out (the bean bags are heat sensitive). Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape was really inspiring and is perfect for people interested in environmental issues and justice (really who isn't interested in it?) and they also had some interactive pieces. One room was filled with tiny "eco-systems" that were in clear containers hanging from the ceiling that you could stick you head in (you'll see those in the pictures). My favorite part was the installation by The Miss Rockaway Armada called Being Here is Better than Wishing We Had Stayed, it was a hallway filled with reclaimed materials (aka junk) used to make livable structures, it also had two old typewriters that you could use to type out your wish on recycled paper. My wish was for a bulldog puppy and world peace.
Afterwards we walked around North Adams which was much less exciting than I hoped, and when we got home instead of going out to dinner we bough burgers and junk food and cooked at home. Unfortunately we were hoping for the Season Finale of Tila Tequila but I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow night.
So maybe a good way to start with this is an update on what's been going on.
I took a year off from school, Mount Holyoke College, and I've been spending most of my time in Northampton,MA. I started out working as a Nanny for a family(summer 2007) and then in the Fall of 07 I began working at Herrell's Ice Cream and eventually became an ice cream maker which was pretty cool. All in all that job wasn't making me happy, which was essentially the most important aspect of me taking time off, so I began working as a receptionist at the Firefly Salon. Throughout that whole time I was working as an intern at Class Action Network, a non-profit org based in Hadley, MA. They provide resources, workshops, and consulting on issues of classism in the US. This May they hired me as an administrative assistant and I'll probably continue working there when I start classes in the Fall. Overall I've been really happy, I love living in the Pioneer Vally and I'm actually looking forward to starting classes again.
Also, just this past week I finished up a Macro-Economics course at HCC that I needed for a pre-req at MHC, so it was nice to know that I remember how that whole school thing works.
Ok so this is my second attempt at a blog now. The first one was..well it got as far as one post. I don't feel like I'm going to be providing the most exciting or inspiring posts ever, but I feel like I've been really bad at keeping in touch with people and I thought this would be a great way to let people know what I've been up to. Maybe also a way of inspiring me to make my life a little bit more interesting. So along with daily posts, I'll update music I've been listening to, great articles or books I've been reading, my favorite blogs, and hopefully interesting events that are happening locally.
