The DNC

It's true friends, I've been spending every night the last 3 nights watching the Democratic National Convention.  It's surprisingly good.  I tend to be rather liberally conservative, so I was not planning on watching the DNC.  But I saw Clinton on for a minute (I'm NOT a fan, to say the least), and got enthralled!  He's a surprisingly good speaker... I'd forgotten that after the last 3 years of Bush speeches.  He was very impressive.  Teresa was not overly impressive last night, but Cait and Elizabeth Edwards were awesome tonight.  John Edwards hasn't been great so far, but we'll see.  He's going on and on about Vietnam and Kerry joining up to save our country and be a true American, but he knew even then that he wanted a career in politics.  So that's not quite the winning argument I need to hear.  I'm still leaning Bush, but we'll see after Kerry speaks tomorrow and the Republican Convention and a debate or two.  :)  I guess politics is going to be my new thing.

My other new thing is Tivo, obviously.  I'm obsessed with Jeopardy, this Ken guy has won over a million dollars and has set the Jeopardy all time records (all of them!).  He's cool.  They're taking 6 weeks off, he'll be back September 5th, but for now it is College Jeopardy, which is always a good time.  I also Tivo Clean Sweep on TLC every day.  And tonight I'm going to watch Amish in the City, THAT should be entertaining.  Tomorrow I'm going to Palatine for my Remicade (Crohn's treatment for those not in the know) and Laura's going to chill with me while I get it.  YAY!  If anyone's available for dinner, let me know.  I'll give you a call when I get done.  Friday I'm packing up Jake and Vinny and getting ready to go.  Jake is almost packed already, now it's just a matter of filling the small spaces with last minute items.  We should easily be able to get everything in. 

My dad was fired on Monday, which I say to you all not for sympathy or to be depressing, but rather to just let you know.  He's in the mindset that "the more people that know the better" because who knows who will have some great job for him?  He's looking for a project / product management job if anyone knows of any.  ;-)  So I guess that's just a general Public Service Announcement.

"Other than that, just hanging in there".  That's a very typical Doug phrase, and that pretty much sums up my life right now.  I was really bored today 'cause I'm really itching to get moving.  Tomorrow will be good since I'm going to Palatine, and of course I LOVE to pack.  I think I'll be annoyed a little bit to be in Tahoe for 4 days because I really want to GET to Portland, but I'll deal with it.  This time next week I will be just 20 hours away from moving into my new apartment.  I'm DEFINITELY getting excited.  :)  Soon enough.  Of course, that means I have to start work in 2 and a half weeks too... ;-)  Such is life.

Have a good one, folks!!

6 days to go!

6 days until I begin the big journey west, YAY!  I'm pretty much all packed and ready to go, still have some "last minute" organizing to do.  I know, I have 6 days.  Although one of those I'll be in Chicago for the Remicade.  If you want to hang out in Chicago for like dinner on Thursday, holla at me.

Friday my mom and I went to the outlet mall for some shopping, that was a good time as always.  The fam also went downtown to see the music, they have free concerts there on Friday night so that was a pretty good time.  Saturday we pretty much just all chilled, got some pizza for dinner, and had a generally good time.  I'm teaching my mom some computer stuff and so that's cool.  My sister's gym guy finally came over so I got to see and meet him, and B-Iowa is calling her all the time (the guy she met in Florida).  Today we went to church and then brunch, now we're back.

Nothing exciting to report, hence the lack of the blogging.  Hopefully there will be much excitement once I get on the road.  We'll see.  Gmail... :)

Alright, alright, I'm back

So Tuesday night Doug ended up coming home from work EAAAAARLY.  YAY, that was a huge surprise.  He normally gets home at 7 at the earliest, and he was home at 5:30!  YAY!  So we finished Monster, that was way fun.  Then we went to Westwood (where UCLA is) so I could go to Diddy Riese, the cookie/ice cream place that Neil told me about.  We saw where it was and then parked and walked to Olive Garden.  Yuuuuuum I'm such a fan of that place.  The Erin and The Russ have gotten me so addicted.  So that was yummy yummy in my tummy.  Then we walked by Diddy Riese and the line was OUT THE DOOR AND DOWN THE BLOCK.  Yikes.  Granted, it's homemade ice cream sandwiches for ONE DOLLAR in LA, but still.  So we nixxed that and just went home.  We chilled and talked and watched Law and Order CI in HD, and other random stuff. 

Yesterday was sort of a DISASTER.  My flight from LA to Chicago was fine, I had to ask TWICE to be put in Economy Plus (I've gotten to be a flying snob, I won't fly in Economy anymore, especially if it's not on a window and/or if there is someone sitting next to me), but of course I was.  And thank goodness I don't check bags or else I might have had to wait in a line at LAX (again, flying snob).  So we got to O'Hare like 50 minutes late because we we had to fly around all of this weather (we went around like through Indy).  Which gave me 10 minutes to make my connection to Cedar Rapids... yeah right.  So I checked the monitor, I had to go from Concourse B to Concourse F in 10 minutes... yeah right.  "Luckily" my flight was delayed for 65 minutes, which was actually going to be about perfect, to give me time to get over there, grab some food, and get on the plane.  The original flight time was 3:50, this new time was 4:55.  That was fine, but they they said 5:35... oh no.  One of those dealys that goes on all night.  But they let us board about 5:00 or so and we took off at 5:40 and landed at 6:12.  So that was pretty decent.  Then my mom picked me up and we came home and just chilled.

Today we went to Best Buy and my sister got an iPod... I'm sooooooo jealous.  We also went a Kohl's so she could use her discount and get some shoes and stuff, and we stopped by WalMart.  I think that's it... oh, and we went to Menards.  Slow day.  I've been doing a lot of packing and organizing for the big move (9 days!) so that's been fun.  I'm collecting all of my scrapbooking/memento stuff in one box so I can have TONS of fun in Oregon doing lots of scrapbooking.  That will be a way fun way to use my time especially in the fall after Keith and other interns leave.  Plus I do have those long weekends so that will be a nice little hobby to have.  I love scrapbooking.  I even found Doug's bow tie from my senior prom so that was super exciting.  My mom was like "how do you know that's his?" (I went to 5 proms...) and I was like I KNOW.  Then I found the one from my freshman year of college.  I don't know where the first 3 are, although I have an idea of where my freshman year of HS might be.  But I'm positive this is Doug's.  It's the only all-black one.  And the flowers he gave me that night are up in my room on my desk, so that's cool too.  Okay I know I'm getting a little sappy with the mementos here.  I'll shut up.

It's Tuesday!

So the manicure and pedicure trip was QUITE successful yesterday, yay.  :)  Unfortunately I am surprising Doug when he gets home from work by cleaning his apartment for him, and when I was washing the dishes I messed up my manicure a little bit.  Oh well.  I also set up this rolling cart thingy he's had from Ikea forever and hasn't set up, so that was fun.  I love setting up Ikea furniture.  Nothing as infuriatingly fulfilling as that.  :)  (Literally, every time, I have to go back like 8 steps because I did something *slightly* wrong... could the directions be more vague?)  Seriously though I do love it.  So now that this apartment is beautiful I think I'm going to see The Terminal this afternoon.  Starting tomorrow when I get back to IC, I have only 10 more days to pack, organize, and get ready to move to Oregon.  Then it's a few days at Lake Tahoe before I get set up for the rest of my life.  :)  Hopefully that all goes well! 
 
Last night Doug and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, it's right on Wilshire between 2nd and 3rd (as though you are all experts at your Santa Monica geography).  Anyway it's like 4 blocks away.  Doug had been in the car for like 5 hours yesterday because he went to his office and then to OC and then back to his office and then home, so he was like NO CAR.  So we just walked around and then rented Monster from Blockbuster.  We only watched half because Doug was tired, so we'll have to finish the rest tonight.  Anyone have any great ideas of where to go to dinner tonight?  Maybe we will just make dinner here, we'll have to see. 
 
Still looking for that gmail invite... :) 
 
Other than that, not too much going on.  It's sort of chill here during the week because I'm the only one home all day. 

Another day another blog

Well, I just promised Dena another good blog, so I guess I better live up to it.  I got up at 7:00 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, but then when Doug left for work at 8:30 I went back to sleep until almost 12.  Now that's the stuff.  When I was in Iowa, I was thinking about getting a pedicure, and all of the places cost right around $20, which didn't seem terrible unreasonable.  I didn't have time last week though, so I figured I would just get one when I got back.  But as Doug was driving around I saw a place that does manicures AND pedicures for $15.99, total!!!  I will say that for California, stuff like that is in so much abundance that it's just CHEAP.  It's in Venice though so I was either going to have to take the Big Blue Bus (that's really what it's called, it's the Santa Monica bus but it goes to other places right near Santa Monica) or look around here to see what their prices are.  And sure enough, there was a place that is 4 blocks from Doug's apartment that is $10 for a pedicure (didn't ask about both because I really just want the pedicure, but maybe I'll get both anyway!).  So that will be my big project for today... I know, rough life, right?  Last night we went to Doug's cousin's condo for a BBQ, and it was so fun.  We were up on his roof, which is basically his patio, if you will.  It's awesome because you can see the ocean and the mountains and everything from up there, and it was sunset so it was just gorgeous.  One of his friends had spent the week on vacation fishing, so he had brought back all of this fish that we ate.  I literally have never had so much fish in my life, and it was all fresh
and just really good!  We had fresh sashimi which was easily my favorite thing, so yummy!  I really enjoyed talking to Doug's cousin and all of his friends... they were all teasing me because last time I saw them (the few that I had met), I hadn't graduated.  So now I was all old and stuff.  I'm still the baby though, as always.  Anyway, it was an absolutely amazing night.  I had sooooo much fun.  Did I tell you about the bars in Hollywood?  One was called Star Shoes and one was called Beauty Bar... pretty fun, VERY chill.  A good night though.  Yesterday Doug and I took Russ to the airport and had brunch, and then came back home and read the paper before the BBQ... chill day, fun.  I'll let you know how the nail project goes later on... there might also have to be a lunch mission somewhere in there because I'm getting a little hungry.  :) 

Hello from LA

Hey guys... I'm successfully finally in LA.  I mean, I was actually here two days ago, I just finally stopped being a slacker and decided to give you an update.  So Russ actually showed up yesterday, which was AWESOME.  We went out for breakfast in Long Beach with him, then drove back to Santa Monica and walked around 3rd Street and the Pier and the beach.  We got some Starbucks and the boys got some clothes from Gap and Express Men.  It was quite amusing actually.  Russ and Doug got along really well... I was definitely the third wheel!  Oh well, better me than either of them I guess.  Then we came back to Doug's apartment to drop off their bags, then headed out to go look at Vespa's at the Santa Monica Vespa dealer and get Slurpees.  There were two silver Jeep Liberty Limited Editions almost exactly like mine parked in the parking lot at 7-11, so they got to see what the inside and outside of Jake look like.  Oh, the other funny thing is that I kept doing comparisons of Jake and Sam (did I tell you about Sam?  Samantha, Doug's Saab).  They are currently tied 5 to 5.  Jake got points for things like power seats and two-setting heated seats, and Sam got lots of points for her stereo and whatnot.  If I mention the name Jake one more time, Doug and Russ might kill me.  But I miss him!  Okay now y'all might kill me if I don't stop talking about it.
 
So then we came back to Doug's apartment and took a nap, then went out for a chill dinner at Johnny Rocket's on 3rd Street.  After that we came back to Doug's apartment and then went to some bars in Hollywood.  That was way fun.  I successfully got the boys into one bar that all of these guys kept getting rejected from... pays to be a girl sometimes I guess.  Then it was like 5 AM Russ's time and he'd been up since 4 AM the day before Russ's time, so he made us be boring and come back home and just go to bed.  So sad!  So here we are this morning, Doug and Russ are in the other room chatting (most of this chatting is about this alleged company they want to start together, Russ and Doug are going to roommates in Santa Monica and perhaps have this company... all of this scares me just a *little* bit, except for the fact that they're both so fickle that I really don't think any of this will ever happen).  So they're talking about firewalls and fun stuff like that, they think I'm oblivious and don't understand what's going on, but I understand every word.  I make an intelligent comment every now and then.  Anyway, I definitely feel very FEMALE since these guys have been together.  It's been a really interesting experience though.  So we're leaving in a few minutes to go back to Long Beach to take Russ to the airport, then Doug and I are going to church and then a BBQ at his cousin's place.  Oh, another funny thing was that I got a drunken phone call from Dena last night, but SADLY I was just getting to Hollywood so I had to go.  I'm going to have to call her back and find out what the dealio is what that later too.  More soon!

Big Day!

Ooooo-eeeee, we can add colors and fonts here on blogger now!!  :)  Good times.
 
So I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I went into the local paper office two days ago to put an ad in the paper.  It is appearing for 10 days and is also going to be in the "Ad Sheet" and some other local ad things that come out like once a week, as well as cars.com (this is all through the Iowa City Press-Citizen).  So today was the first day it was in the paper, and sure enough, at 8 AM this morning I had a call from a guy who wanted to come over at 8:30 and check it out.  I had to pull myself out of bed, but he came right on time.  His name was Marv and he was going to test drive it and take it to his mechanic, said he would be back in about 45 minutes.  Sure enough, 45 minutes later he was back.  "Good car, needs new brakes."  Apparently there is a 'squawker' on all cars, the thing that makes your brakes squeak when they are getting low, and my squawker is gone!  He said the left brake is actually almost totally gone.  The car was listed in the paper for $1500, and he said "well, new brakes will cost $200, I'll split the difference with you and give you $1400".  Sounded like a great deal to me!  And he knew I didn't know the brakes were bad, so that was cool.  He had no way to easily get the car home, so my mom and I drove it over to him, he lived in a nice house the next town over.  Really good guy.  Very glad it was so easy to sell the car, especially since the Jeep dealer only wanted to give me $500 and my dad thought there was no way to top that... my mom and I proved him wrong.  :) 
 
Speaking of cars, my new kick is naming of cars (hence Jake).  My aunt's family (who I stayed with in Houston) has named all of theirs, names as follows:
Aunt's Black X5: Shrine Mobile
Uncle's White Explorer: White Cloud
Cousin's Green Mustang: Big Bertha
Other Cousin's Black Mustang: BK (Black Knight)
Family Minivan: Minnie (And I'm sad to report, Minnie is no longer with the family, she was donated last week)
 
So in turn I came up with names for all of my family's cars:
Mom's Minivan: Vinnie (the Venture Van)
My Jeep: Jake (the Jeep)
"My sister's" White Malibu: Whitey
Dad's Mercedes: the Jalopy
My Escort: 'Scort (Named by Patrick last weekend, and as we know, this car is no longer with the family either)
 
Against his better judgment, Doug let me name his Saab today... her name is Sam, short for Samantha.  Sam and Jake will be friends.  :)  Jake and I are already good buddies, and as much as I will miss Jake this weekend, I'm looking forward to hanging out with Sam and Doug!  And Russell and I believe Patrick are coming to LA for the weekend, so that will be extra fun!  It should definitely be a good time.  Oh, and if you want your car to be friends with Jake, let me know what its name is and why.  :)
 
Has anyone caught Jeopardy! lately?  This dude Ken is a 32-day champion, he's won over a million dollars!  It's insanity I tell you, you MUST watch it or Tivo it.  He's ridiculous.  He's a computer software engineer from Salt Lake City and he freaking knows everything.  Everyday he goes into Final Jeopardy! in a position where no one else could beat him even if they tried.  There were a few things in the industrial category today that I knew and nobody, including him, on the show knew, but that's rare.  (Fitting though, with the IE love thing, isn't it?)  Anyway, definitely check it out. 
 
The other exciting news today is that I picked out an apartment!  It's called The Verandas at Hazel Grove, and it's decently nice.  It's significantly less expensive than many of the other apartments in the area, and as far as I'm concerned it's one of the nicer ones.  I had one intern acquaintance who lived there last year and seemed to like it okay, so I'm excited for it.  If you want to check it out go to www.verandashazelgrove.com, I have the Burgandy floorplan (the larger 2 bedroom). Apartments.com also has some good pictures of the same floorplan.  I don't think it's quite as nice as where I stayed last year, but they're not running the same specials as they were before, so this will do quite nicely I believe.  Jake and I will enjoy our home there. 

I think that's all for tonight... hopefully you can expect an update tomorrow from the West Coast, where I truly belong.  :)

Hello fans!

So today we went to the beach... yes Iowa has a beach. I hate the beach. It has sand... ew. I hate sand, hence the hating of the beach. But anyway, I suffered through it. Then, we took the garage sale leftovers to STUFF, which is a consignment store around here that apparently everyone goes to. The leftovers from THAT went to Goodwill. As an extra-special treat, we went to the Wednesday evening Iowa auction! It was soooo hokey. They have all of these crazy auctioneers auctioning tons of crap. They had huge lots of stuff like 20 Playboy magazines, 50 of the same type of tool, or little knickacks. And they only sell it buy the whole lot, so you can't just get one tool, you have to get the whole lot of them. The good thing is that you can leave your rejects there. And they put all of the stuff on old hospital beds, so you cart out whatever you want to your car on that. Hokey, like I said. Lots of Amish folk there. Then the fam went to dinner at Chili's in the new Jeep. For those wondering, his name is now Jake the Jeep. I just call him Jake for short. If you don't like that name, let me know. I'm still flexible and open for suggestions. My sister suggested Libby the Liberty which I like a lot, but I think it's more of manly car. Well, my Jeep is a man, but I actually think Liberty's are pretty girly cars. My sister also likes the name the Silver Bullet, but Jake is still top on my list.

So a brief update on my past week: Chicago for the 4th was fun. I got to see all of the P-Town crew, including Hart. He and I were the "tourists" so Patrick drove us around. Patrick also taught me stick shift, so props to him on that. So now maybe Doug will let me drive his car. Then we went to a BBQ at Tim's and saw the gang. Then fireworks and then I met up with Doug in Glen Ellyn (yeah Glen Ellyn... KT do you read this?). The next day, off to Houston. I had tons of fun staying with my aunt and uncle and hanging with my cousin, who is 18. The other cousins were all out town, but I got to see my grandparents. Mimi and Gaggy, for thsoe who know of all my crazy grandparent names. I came back to Chicago on Saturday for Jenn and Matt's wedding, which was WAY fun. It was absolutely gorgeous and really cool to chill with everyone. Between the wedding and the reception, we also hit up the outlet malls in Kenosha, and I found some great buys. Normally I hate the Banana outlet, but it was awesome this weekend so that was sweet. After the wedding we went to Lincoln Park and spent the night at Grant's. Sunday when we woke up I headed back to the corn. Good times.

My sister still has a full queue, as always. She's allegedly not dating her latest boyfriend from school, but he's coming to visit this weekend. She also has Brad from the gym, who is the most beautiful man in the world and she talks to every day when she goes to work out. Then there is "B Iowa" (his cell phone name), a guy she met on spring break. His real name is Iowa and he's AWESOME. He's in Florida right now with a camp, but he was here for a weekend and they hung out non-stop. He'll be back at the end of July. I'm a huge fan of him, as far as I know so far.

I'm headed to LA Friday for the weekend, and Russ of JetBlue fame and Patrick of United fame might meet up with me. Gotta love working for the airlines. That should be good times, and I'm looking forward to seeing the Doug.

Speaking of saying "the Doug", I say "the" in front of most places and people now. Like the Iowa, the Russ, etc. My new words, for those who are always entertained my my psycho language = "hut", which I say nonstop "hut, hut, come here, hut", etc. I say it nonstop. Hut. Anyway, it's amusing. Getting old already though. The other new one is "dody", pronounced dough-dee. The all-time funniest thing was when I said "This is the dodiest dodo!". That was referring to some stupid float I was trying to blow up at the beach. To finish that story, when I said "dodiest dodo", my mom laughed so hard that she snorted and it sounded like a horse. I said "Mom, puh-lease don't sound like a horse at the beach" and she goes "when can I sound like a horse?" Hahahahaha I'm laughing just telling the story. Anyway, you can also say dodin' in place of stupid. Like that show is so dodin'. I know at least Dena and Laura will be entertained my hearing about my interesting new words.

That's all for now because I know you don't read the whole update when I write too much. Shorter updates, more often. I know the drill. I'm working on it.

Got the Jeep!

Jeep Liberty Interior

So that's what the interior of my car looks like, the outside is your standard silver Liberty. Let me know if you want a picture of me and the outside of it, and I can email it to you. It was such a debacle to get this Jeep, it's been 13 days since we first went to the dealer and really started trying to buy it. They're not the best dealership as far as I'm concerned, but I'm very happy that I successfully have it.

I had tons of fun in Chicago and Houston the past 10 days or so... sorry for my lack of updates! And I'm off to bed tonight, but I will fill you in on the craziness of Chicago, Houston, and Iowa tomorrow.

YES, I still need that gmail invite please. :)

yeah, still want the gmail!

Okay, so does anyone have a gmail invite? I promise I'm still looking for one... when I get one I will dedicate an entire blog to describing the wonderfulness of the person who gave me one. Just think, that person could be you. And then you'd be cool.

The thing about gmail is that everyone gets one, but then they pass it on. So you could have had one, but already given it away. And you'll never get one again, because why would you? That makes no sense, you already have your gmail account. If anyone you know has one, tell them to IM it to me or email me. Thanks. I'm a huge fan of you. :)

The other thing about gmail is that by doing thos whole invite thing, Google just gets their stupid email to seem really cool. Which it is, I think, but I wouldn't know because I don't have it. Just the dumb screenshot. Which is again why I need you to help me out.

My new thing is craigslist. I'm SO addicted to craigslist! www.craigslist.org for those not in the know. But you can buy, sell, trade, get a job, apartment, find a girlfriend, find a boyfriend, make friends, give a rant, get free stuff, and so much more. I've found that the people in Portland are a lot more generous about giving their stuff away free than in Chicago. Then again, craigslist is bigger on the West Coast, so maybe it's just because there are more users. All the same, when I move out there I definitely am going to either get some free furniture or buy used furniture from craislist. And I love reading the missed connections "ummm, I sat at the table across from you at Starbucks yesterday, I was the guy in the brown hat, you were hot, email me". It's just so funny. How could you NOT be addicted? Speaking of (k)NOT, I'm not addicted to theknot anymore. Since I left school, there have been no visits to theknot.com. I know Dena will find this hard to believe, but it's true! theknot is so out, craigslist is so in. Of course, in is in by my standards.

Here's my agenda for the next few weeks for those wondering where I'll be:
July 3 - 5: Chicago-ish... visiting Palatine, Evanston, and Doug (who apparently is now an entity in Chicago)
July 5 - 10: Houston... visiting the grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins
July 10 - 11: Chicago-ish... Jenn's wedding, then maybe a quick trip through Chicago
July 16 - 21: LA. Clearly we all know what that means. :)
July 31ish: Leaving for Portland, but taking a trip through Reno/Lake Tahoe first. Getting to Portland around the 6th or 7th. WOO HOO!
August 16: Start work... the beginning of the rest of my life.

FRYS IS COMING TO CHICAGO! Actually it already has, the grand opening is tomorrow. This is AMAZING. For those of you who don't know, it is the most AMAZING place. It's like a Best Buy, Circuit City, ABT, CompUSA, Apple store, and MORE all built into one. It's huge, they have great deals, and it's amazing. I'm so excited. Granted, I'm leaving, but this makes Chicago a much more appealing place to come back to in the future. Just kidding, but it's just a plus.

I'm officially getting the car tomorrow, maybe. That doesn't sound so official. :) We'll see though, hopefully it will all work out! I'll keep you posted on that, although I feel that is an old subject here at the blog.

Was today's entry any better? I tried to spice it up and not just make it the same old "and then I did this, and then that". Maybe if I can just talk about what I'm excited about and everything this blog will be improved. I need to be more controversial... maybe I can aspire to that tomorrow. :)

gmail anyone?

Does anyone have a gmail invite that they would be willing to let me use? I'd be very happy. :)

So I went to the Jeep dealership yesterday and just about have my car situation figured out. Allegedly I'm going to be getting EXACTLY the car I want, delivered tomorrow or Saturday. It's going to be a silver Jeep Liberty... wish me luck on this one.

Planning to be in Evanston/Palatine this weekend. Let me know if you'll be around! :)

Corn

So the church yesterday was pretty cool. Then I finally actually set up Tivo and of course I'm already addicted. It's awesome because you can watch shows that are on at like 8 in the morning like Dawson's Creek on TBS. And who doesn't love that?! I can't wait to Tivo absolutely everything when I'm working. That's all I'm going to do on my days off, watch Tivo. Today I went to the mall and washed my car. I'm going to clean out the inside of it later on when it's cooler out.

Garage Sale = Success!

So the garage sale was a success! Although the people next door to us made more money than us, my sister and I both made $95, which wasn't too bad. The funniest thing was that back when I worked in Oregon, my friend Jen came to me and was like "hey, my friend that worked at Nike got these shoes and they don't fit me, do you want them?" I took them and never really wore them, so I put them out at the garage sale -- brand new Nike shoes! So the next door neighbor comes by and is like "hey, those are perfect for my Boundary Waters trip, let me try them on!" They fit perfectly, so he bought them from me for $5. Good deal for him certainly, and I made $5 from nothing so it wasn't bad for me either. Amusing, anyway. Then my mom and I did some shopping (not really fun, just errand-type shopping). Then we had Chinese for dinner, yuuuum. And THEN we hooked my sister up with this guy who is the son of someone my mom knows from work. He just finished his freshman year at DePaul and so she went and hung out at some apartment parties with him. She had tons of fun, which was cool because she has been so bored in Iowa. While she did this I organized, which to the average person may not sound like all that fun of a Saturday night, but I LOVED it. I love to organize. I love Iowa because it's a perfect excuse to be boring for a few months. Although I must say, IC is really not that boring overall. It reminds me a lot of Palatine, with about 100 times (literally) the number of bars. Good times. Oh, and you can see the corn everywhere. Other than that, it's P-town. So anyway, I'm off to try this new church... I didn't think I could handle going to my parent's church the whole summer. I need more energy. I'm hardcore. ;-) I'll holla more lata.

Same Old

Well I have to say that people in Iowa are SO nice. Plus we live on a cul-de-sac, as mentioned, which I think makes people nicer. I love all of our neighbors. I don't remember if I said this before, but I helped the people across the street (really 2 doors down, but we live at the end of the cul-de-sac) out with setting up their wireless network. So now both of their computers connect to the internet, but I can't get them to network together. Doug's trying to help me out with this, but it's a little harder than first expected. He gave me another idea to try tomorrow. And now my sister's wireless card doesn't work, so I have to uninstall her driver and reinstall it tomorrow. I might have to go back to Best Buy to buy a new card, I don't really know what the deal is. Hopefully I'll get all 3 computers here connected to the internet (current count: 2) and each other. Then I can get the neighbor's 2 computers connected to the internet (current count: 2!!), and each other. Hahahaha networking in Iowa. Bonus is getting to see their new baby every time I go over there, and she's a cutie!

The garage sale is going well. Those same neighbors hooked us up with their ping pong table to put more stuff on, so that is good. Hopefully we'll make *tons* of money at this sale. I hope U of Iowa students are around and come by to buy some stuff. Yeah right. Here's to hoping. It will all be over within 36 hours, I can hardly wait. I'm getting sick of this garage sale action! But then I want to organize a few more things and do some hardcore scrapbooking... I love scrapbooking, and blogging. I love that too.

:)

The long awaited update...

So I'm just going to assume that you have all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for the next update (yeah right). Anyway, here it is... starting with LAST Wednesday

Wednesday
Dorm reunions and senior formal. Dorm reunions were cool, it was awesome to go back into A-Hall and see everything and everyone. We've stayed close enough over the years so it wasn't totally crazy or anything, but there were a few people who've been gone this year because they graduated early who were back, so that was nice. Then I did all sorts of errand type stuff, going to Norris for cap and gown, getting grad tickets, etc. Then I took a nap, then got ready for formal. Sarah Yu did my hair soooooo cute... everyone loved it! It was a really fun formal, I got to see everyone and I got pictures taken with a lot of people I didn't have pictures with before that, so that was excellent. It was one of those things where the whole roll of film is just me and one other person and that other person changes throughout the evening, but whatever. It was cool all the same. Then I had to babysit one of my very drunk friends who shall remain anonymous. That was quite interesting, dancing with her and then getting her home and into bed. Overall, a good day.

Thursday
Met Jeni for lunch to pass on the DZ tech chair information, then met up with my parents and grandparents. We went to Bob Chinn's for dinner... yuuuuuuum. I love that place. It was cool to get to see them and spend time with them. Went to 1800 for the "last night out"... so sad! It was funny, it was my first and last night on the patio at 1800 Club. Definitely a fun place to be!

Friday
The weekend is such a blur. Obviously didn't go to bed until 3 or 4 on Thursday night, per usual, and then had to get up at 7:30 to be at the IE Senior Awards Ceremony at 8:30. It was cool though, my parents went with me and we had a grand old time! We ate lunch at Panera with the whole fam, and then went back to tech for the "ring ceremony", AKA Order of the Engineer where you get this cool little stainless steel ring to wear on the little finger of your writing hand to signify you're an engineer. That was fun, I got to meet Russ's parents and my family sat with his family. Then it was pretty close to time for graduation! My mom and I stopped by Sarah and Marie's house to meet the other parents and have a fun little pre-graduation reception, then went by DZ to put on my cap and gown. Then we grabbed a shuttle bus up to the stadium. During this time my dad was taking my grandparents back to the hotel (two of them didn't want to go to the graduation, they needed a nap!). So then my grandfather, dad, and sister met up with my mom at the stadium and I did the "big graduation" thing. Tom Brokaw was much better than I expected, and when it came time for each school to stand up, tech was by far the loudest. We deserve it after 4 years locked up in that crazy building. :) IE love! Then we went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes... definitely a totally different experience going with the family instead of the girls. FOR SURE not as fun. But not as painful afterwards either. ;-) Then my sister and I went back to DZ and did some packing until about 2. I was not feeling good at this point (I was getting a cold) and I was stressed about packing and about getting Doug an airplane ticket (long story), so I was a NOT a happy camper this night.

Saturday
As one final punishment, they made the tech graduation at 8:30 AM, and we had to report at 7:45! So my sister and I got up at 6:30 and showered and took the bus up to Welsh-Ryan. Being in the field house with all of the IEs was cool... it was the last moment of IE love! We marched into the arena and did our little graduation thing, they actually handed me a diploma which was awesome. :) Russ got a little thing that basically said "thanks, try again next time" which was amusing... he's graduating in December but got to walk now. So after graduation we did the picture thing and I turned in the cap and gown (by the way, I wrote IE LOVE on the cap, of course!). Then we went back to the house and packed up... I actually had a very minimal amount of stuff this year, so that was excellent. I had SO much last year, it was hidious. Then we took my grandfather to the airport (he wasn't coming back to Iowa with us) and I was able to pick up Doug's airplane ticket at the right time, which was GREAT. That cheered me up. Then my mom and I drove back in my car, my dad and his parents in my mom's car, and my sister in her car. When we got back, my mom made a great lasagna dinner (she had made it ahead of time, see that is a good mom, always thinking ahead!) and we ate it. Then I went to bed!! I needed to finally get some sleep!

Sunday
Sunday we woke up and started getting ready for my graduation BBQ! It was quite a success, except my chocolate cake turned out to be vanilla! OH NO! I looooooove chocolate cake, so I was a little sad. But it was cool to meet the neighbors and everything, and one guy asked me to help him out with his wireless network, which I did later that night. He was way happy, so that was awesome. :) I feel like a true Iowan now that I've had a party and actually know a few people. There are a lot of little kids in our neighborhood so it was crazy being around 4 and 5 year olds! And we got to meet the month-old baby from across the street, she is just precious! Good times were had by all.

Monday
My mom and I went to Hy-Vee and got our money back for the cake AND a free new chocolate cake for me. YAY! We chilled with the grandparents, and started hard work on the garage sale that we're having this weekend. Our whole block (which is a cul-de-sac) and the cul-de-sac that juts off of it are having a big huge garage sale. Supposedly it is a big hit and people come the day before and really early in the morning to try to get the best pick of stuff. So we are all selling lots of our clothes and stuff like old children's games and old appliances and stuff. I have very high hopes for this garage sale. My sister wants to get an ipod so our motto for this is "out with the old, in with the ipod". Very funny, I know. You're laughing on the inside. (Side note, this has got to be one of the more boring blogs in the history of mankind, it is just what I do every day. I need to spice it up). So anyway, then we had a nice family dinner and that was that.

Tuesday
The grandparents went home early in the morning, much earlier than I am awake! So then my sister, my mom, and I went to the mall and got some stuff. My mom and I got some scrapbooking stuff while my sister was at the gym, and then when we picked her up we got my sister Botche ball and my mom a fire pit so she can have bonfires. Then it was garage sale fun all day. Oh, and I got Tivo from my parents for graduation, so I was setting that up which was so fun! Turns out I don't actually have cable in my room so I'm going to need to set it up in the basement after all of the garage sale work is done down there.

Wednesday
This was a big day for the garage sale! I went through the entire storage room in the basement with my mom and basically unpacked everything that hadn't been unpacked and deemed most stuff worthy of being sold. If it hasn't been used in the last 6 months and we don't even know we have it, we're clearly not using it. That's my motto at least. :) So we got rid of tons of stuff, that was awesome. I'm also trying to re-do the entire basement in terms of making sure it's organized and everything, at least certain parts. I'm sort of just leaving the office because I figure my parents use that and they sort of know what's going on in that area. I'm just working on like the big room with the TV and stuff, because I want the TV to be able to be used and look nice, rather than just being mass chaos. Anyway, did a LOT of stuff on Wednesday.

Thursday
More work... took almost everything upstairs from the basement into the garage and started getting things in order for the garage sale. Sorted things into bins and onto tables to make it easier for people to look through. My dad and I are trying to make up some system to make a clothes rack so that people can easily look through clothes, that is much easier said than done. But hopefully it will be done eventually. I mean, it will have to be. Today I'm going to hopefully finish up on the basement and my sister and I will finish organizing all of the garage sale stuff while my mom is at work. I don't know but hopefully this will all work out. I'll keep you posted later today and I will try my hardest to be better about updating in general and about being more entertaining in my updates!

Thanks for reading

Boo Yah!

As Ian would say. ;-)

So today was STELLAR (that's my new word!)

I got up by 10, which was a world record, but I did go to bed at 12:30. I'm getting better, although somehow it's gotten to be 3 already. I don't know how and why I do this to myself. One day I will get up earlier! Anyway, so Erin and I decided to go to Woodfield since Laura ended up not being able to go to the mall. We left around 11:30, and called Beth (Doug's sister) to see if she wanted to join us. She was at a friend's house but said she might come with the friend and that she would call us later. So Erin and I had lunch at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Spirits (Oregon flashback!) and then went to Victoria's Secret, Nordstrom, H&M, and Forever 21. So fun! Then around 3 Beth called and said that she and Judy were coming out! YAY! So Erin and I got a snack at Starbucks, then went to Banana to shop for a bit. Then Beth and Judy called and met up with us. We went BACK to Victoria's Secret and bought more stuff... oh my! Beth is a horrible influence on me... but I love her! Then we went to Nordstrom Rack and Off 5th... Beth and I took this great picture of us being totally silly at Off 5th. I can't wait until she gets it developed! We grabbed a quick dinner at Wendy's and invited them to trivia with us, but they had to get back home.

So then we wore some of our cute new clothes and *bling* and went to 1-800-THE-CLUB for the final round of trivia. SO SAD! In GREAT news, my team won trivia for the first time EVER!! YEAAAAAAAH!! It was really random because this kid who is a friend of someone on my team came out to join us tonight, and we had a question about the Greek god Artemis. Now, we thought they said god, but then we were talking and we thought it was maybe a goddess. This random guy, Jeff, said "yeah, there was a girl named Artemis in my junior high, so I know it's a girl's name". I go "yeah, mine too! Artemis Bakapolis." He looked at me and goes "where are you from?" I just looked at him and he said "around here?" I said "yeah... where are you from?" He goes "Palatine", and clearly I said me too and we bonded. He was a Fremd kid, and went to Immanuel Lutheran for grade school. Interesting. So that was cool. Then Erin and I grabbed Steak and Shake and then rented Something's Gotta Give. Cute movie. And now I will sleep. And hopefully see Beth sometime in the next few days because I adore that girl! She is so much fun, and Erin and I were both sad when she had to go and couldn't come join us again. Maybe she'll come visit me in Iowa... THAT would be amazing. And it's fun bonding with her a little bit about Doug, just not too much, because that could get weird. But she's so fun... yeah sorority chicks!

STELLAR DAY!

So today was excellent! The senior week Great America trip was today, and I was sort of dreading it. I figured it'd be a long, tiring day, and that it'd be long lines and just overall icky. When I found out it was supposed to thunderstorm all day, I was kind of exciteed because I thought there was a chance it would be cancelled. So we got on the bus at 9:45 AM (after I went to bed after 4:30!) and it started pouring. By the time we got there, it was just drizzling, and by noon it was about 75 and sunshiney! And even BETTER, no one was there because of the morning bad weather. We were able to go on 9 rides in less than 5 hours... some rides you literally could just walk on! It was amazing. So we went home at 4 because we were just feeling good! Then Jenn and I went out for sushi... yuuuuum. I was so in the mood for that, I've been craving it for months. And on the bus ride home, I got a call from Courtney to babysit for Killian, so I got to babysit for 3 and a half hours, which was great. I just got home from that and I found out that I got STRAIGHT A's for the first time ever at Northwestern.

A little while later...
Just got off the phone with Doug... he is so great! We had a fabulous time talking, so that just improved my day. Now I'm going to try to get some packing done and then get to bed at a reasonable hour!

Whoops...

It's been a while, huh? Thanks to whoever told me to update!

Thursday
Had lunch with Katrina, hung out around the house, babysat Killian. I stopped by JJ's to hang out with her for a little bit since she had too much work to go play with the rest of us. Then I went up to Sig Ep for a fun game of flip cup. This was my first time playing, which was depressing because I only had 9 days to play again before I graduate. I am surprisingly good, so that made it even more fun! Unfortunately someone who shall remain nameless ahemIanahem was not so good, so my team only tied, or lost if you count the practice rounds.

Friday
Friday was fun! First I went to lunch at Noodles with Russ, it was great to catch up. Then I went to see Saved! with Erin... good movie. You know, typical teenage cheesiness, but good all the same. Then I stopped by JJ's again for the final goodbye... that was my first goodbye of the summer and it was quite sad. Then we went to the Beer Garden... the first senior week event! It was great to see people that I hadn't seen since freshman year and just have a good ole time! Then I came home and watched Freaky Friday with Pam and did some packing. Nice!

Saturday
I went to Doug's sister's Beth's graduation party... so fun! She's SO awesome, I really like her a lot. I literally spent the whole day there, from about 3:30 PM until after midnight. Some of her high school and college girlfriends were there, so that was amusing. Good girl talk! And Beth is literally the nicest person I have ever met in my life. I thought that was Doug, but Beth was just so nice. It was great. Who knew a family could have such wonderful children? (besides my family of course. ;-) )

Sunday
Got up, went to church. Last Vineyard ever, which was a little sad. I got over it though. Then I came home and rested for a while because I REALLY wasn't feeling good. Then Erin and I went to the alumni event for a little bit to get our nice leather Northwestern portfolios. That was cool. Then we took our final trip to Sweet Tomatoes. Heather and Dana joined us this time, so that was fun. Erin, Sarah, Marie, and I realized what Sweet Tomatoes dictators we are! We have all of these rules, but we really feel that it improves the Sweet Tomatoes experience. It is highly amusing. Of course we were stuffed as usual and felt like death, but it was so worth it! So then we came home for our naps and recovery periods. I watched The Parent Trap with some of the girls, and now I'm on my 3rd game of Monopoly for the night with Doug. If anyone's wondering, I won the first 2. For some reason, games.com seems to hate him... poor thing. It is ridiculous. But we're going to have an interesting discussion tonight so I'm VERY excited about that. He's so stellar.

So this was such a Ryan Boyle style post! I'm amused by my own antics. Tomorrow is Great America, so I'm super excited for that! It seems that the GIV kids are going to try to stick together for most of the day. Ian says to bring my a-game, because we're going to go nuts and go on every ride possible. I feel like I'm going to be the most exhausted person ever tomorrow night! We'll see. I'm also debating what sort of bag to bring, because I want to have a backpack but that is SO inconvenient and certain rides. Maybe I'll bring a small tote or something. Then that's no good on upside down rides though. I need a small backpack, but I already took mine home. I'll figure something out. And I need to move my car tonight, and attempt to get some sleep. Ahhhh too much to do! The fam comes to town on Thursday, so that will be exciting. Anyway, I promise more tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

WHAT A DAY!!

Today was a most excellent day! I got up around 11:30 and busted out to Palatine for my Remicade... good stuff! After I got the drugs, I busted out to Deer Park and went to Barnes and Noble and read Us Weekly. Then I met up with Mike, Stacey, Tim, Emily, and Heather at Max and Erma's. SO FUN! Then we went back to Stacey's to play games, and Randy, Laura, and Chad came too. What a great night... I haven't seen most of those people in a year and a half. SO much fun!! It was great to catch up and just chill and oh my gosh just AWESOMENESS.

SPECIAL shoutout to Randy who drove all the way home to see me -- THANK YOU!!

Then on the way home I was just sort of reveling in how blessed I am, and then I saw an OREGON license plate and right after that Chris Tomlin's Not to Us came on. I mean, how lucky am I? I got SO excited.

Then tonight I also got to talk to my friend from Oregon which is GREAT, and in the last 6 hours or so I've gotten TWO roomie offers in Oregon!!

My friend Caroline who worked in my group last summer (she is from Evanston!), who just bought a house. So she has this GREAT house near downtown that she rents (where all houses sell for at least $400,000) with another guy from our group. It would be through the end of November, at which point I'd have the option to renew the lease or go month to month, but the other guy is moving out then. So I could even keep the house after that, or if not it would be a nice place to live temporarily until I get settled in!

And my friend Sara, who lives on a farm about 30 minutes south of work, has said I could live with her. I've been to her house before, it's on a huge spot of land and is great. She always has different missionaries living with her temporarily and stuff and it'd be a great opportunity to get to meet different people and stuff and live on a farm!

So I think I'm going to go with one of these options, push myself a little bit and do something that I wouldn't normally do! We'll see, and they'd both be temporary.

Anyway, LOTS of great stuff going on today! And I'm meeting Katrina for lunch tomorrow, plus babysitting and going to the Keg and our secret party. Looks like another great day!

More soon!

SO FREAKING HOT

So yeah, it's hot. We know... we all wish we were in Southern California right now. Go Lakers. So last night Dena and I were so hot, and we were lying on the floor at like 2 AM. It was cooler down there so we decided to sleep down there, so we opened up the futon in order to get cross breeze between the windows and the door and had 3 fans on us. It was cool last night! Needless to say, we had pictures taken of us this morning. Then I sat around all day, but got to babysit for a few hours for Killian, which was great because it's air conditioned. AND I also got to go to the last trivia, and we were in 2nd place after 5 rounds. Then rounds 6 and 7 were together and they made round 6 worth 3 points each so we got shafted. Whatever.

From Jenni (of irishjenni.blogspot.com) for Ryan...
jenninews (9:53:40 PM): to ryan boyle (via kelly robinson) ... thanks for correcting my site
jenninews (9:53:44 PM): and i loved Shrek 2 also
jenninews (9:53:50 PM): i can't make comments on your site (there's no option)
jenninews (9:53:55 PM): so you get transmitted IMs

ooops...

so I don't even know the blogger email addresses, and I use blogger:
Arthur Crandall (8:42:33 PM): Your weblog post from today: URL should be irishjenni.blogspot.com (not dot net) - and yes, I'll admit, I clicked on a stranger's weblog. I like to see others' designs. Sincerely, ryanboyle dot net

Anyway, that's amusing. Not only because Ryan notices things (way to go), but also because he clicked on a stranger's weblog (not that odd because I read his girlfriend's all the time and feel like I know her from both of their blogs and pictures, although have never met the girl) and also because he signs his IMs ryanboyle dot net.

I love the internet. Today I woke up and went to Emery's prayer group... it was so fun! I liked getting to meet her friends plus they prayed for me and that was awesome. I went to tech to do some errandy stuff and then went to Giordanos with Erin. YAY for the last half price pizza night ever. I then chilled with McCracken and then babysat for Killian. Then I got into an awesome fight with Doug... great. Whatever, it's fine. Now I'm just chilling and hoping Rooms will wake up so that I can start packing. 'Tis all for now.

More P-Town News!

- Maggie was cast in a touring theatre company and they're performing in Macomb for the summer.
- Lisa is interning with KPMG and will start accounting next January after graduation
- Yoojin got into med school

Friend's Blogs:
- Jenni: irishjenni.blogspot.net
- Ryan: ryanboyle.net/weblog
- Keith: journal.keithaustin.net

Enjoy. :)

As for myself, I went to church in the morning, only one or *maybe* two more Vineyard's left. Probably 1 because I think my graduation BBQ is the next Sunday (the 20th). Anyone reading this is MORE than welcome to come if they want to make the trip out to Iowa City!! :) So after that I had brunch per usual, then played Monopoly with Doug... he's winning today's streak, 2 to 1. Darn it! I actually think he is better than me, hopefully he doesn't read that. Then I went to the Greek IV senior dinner, which was SOOO much fun. Tonight I've been working on a secret project and that's about it. More to come!

News from P-Town

So here's the latest from Palatine (unfortunately there are certain things that I'm not allowed to comment on):

- Maren is engaged (or married?)
- Jen Calhoun (my cheerleading big sis) has been married for like 2 years
- Julius is interning for Motorola in Deer Park and is going to go out with Emily every day
- Jenni is interning in DC for the summer, and going to grad school in the fall for a masters of human resources
- Patrick got his pilot's license (in January), and has a job interview on Monday
- Jennifer is going to Spain, then Australia, then Ecuador
- Anthony is going to be a teacher in Las Vegas and driving his Rav4 out there
- Stacey is working at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
- Laura is teaching at Lake Zurich High School
- Randy is interning at Argonne National Labs
- Nikki is working for Clorox in San Francisco (but touring Europe first)
- Tim is working with his dad for the summer
- Hart has just about received this amazing job offer
- Mike is going to China (maybe?)
- Heather is working at GNC and is going to move to Thailand in October (to teach)
- Kathleen graduated from Bradley and is moving into the city

Anyway, whatever. Today I got up and went to Chili's with Lucy... SO much fun. I really love that girl! Then I chilled with Sarah and Sara and Sarah, that was lots of fun. Sara and I read the knot for literally like 4 hours... we're SO LAME. But it was fun to just be a little bit of a pile and goof off a little bit. Then Patrick and Emily came down and we went to Nevin's with Julius. We played lots of cards... I love cards! It reminds me of the good old days of HOAD (Hang Out at Dave's) that we had in Oregon. Yet another thing that makes me so excited about moving back. Keith tried to convince me to go to Oregon like July 20th so that I can go to Creation, which I may well do. It sort of depends on my grandmother's situation and if I need to go down to Houston to help with packing up the house and stuff. I also really want to spend some time in LA visiting Doug... I miss him so much and it's been like 5 days. We're just getting a lot closer I guess. Too much sappy information, I know. Maybe he'll read this and get the hint that he should move to Portland. ;-) Anyway, I should also mention that I'm DONE with college, since it seems I haven't done that yet. Yesterday we had the final JetBlue presentation and the IE BBQ (IEMS FEST!), then I finished writing my negotiations paper and watched some TLC. Goooood times. It's fun being done, I just wish I had a little bit more to do. Oh well, I'll have a lot of time this week to pack and get really organized so that I won't have to do that as much this summer. If I didn't have trivia and all sorts of other crazy stuff going on, I could spend some time in Iowa this week, but oh well.

I'm off to bed... more tomorrow I'm sure!

More IE fun...

Trying to get Rishabh to come to the IE lab and help us...
Kelly94942: The Arena part BLOWS
rishabh2005: does BLOWS mean good or crap?
Kelly94942: CRAP

Hello from the IE lab!

So I think I've spent more time in the IE lab today than cumulatively all quarter. It's always a good time though. JetBlue is getting close to being done, but it's crazy. I've been in here sinec 12:30 PM. Except for the fire alarm we had in tech at 3:00. What a waste of 30 minutes... oh the joy. Anyway, so Aamer and I are in here, TRYING to do something of value to this report. Yeah right. So I'm checking my email every 5 minutes because that's what I do, and then I get up and go to the bathroom. When I come back, I check it again, and I see this:

From: Aamer
To: Kelly
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 8:31:30 pm CDT
Subject: (No subject)

Dear Kelly,

You left.

Regards,
Aamer

I start cracking up and ask "what the heck?" Aamer explained that I was said because I was checking my email every 5 minutes and had nothing, so he thought he'd send me one.

See why I love IE? :)

Another great JetBlue quote:
Kelly: "Where would I be without IE?"
Chris: "Not in tech!"

Hahahaha... more to come I'm sure as the night goes on and I get more and more punchy!

What's Up?

Okay, so somehow I managed to get back to Chicago. I even got a few hours of sleep on the plane and today, so that's awesome. The JetBlue poster is done, I have amazing friends who are taking care of stuff for the bonfire tonight (which is a total miracle!), and I just have to get through the next few hours of negotiations, poster presentation, and bonfire fun! Then my rooms and I are getting hardcore for the next few days. Awesome!

That's all for now. :)

Happy Memorial Day!

Well, actually, it's a little late for that. But what can you do?

So here's a rundown of my weekend...
Thursday - Got into LA late, around 8ish, ordered pizza with Doug and just enjoyed catching up!

Friday - Worked on JetBlue and my negotiations paper all day, Doug got home EARLY (4:15ish!) from work for the first time ever! That was so awesome! We went and played miniature golf and actually went to Arby's for dinner. For those wondering (Ryan Boyle?), that was my idea. He said he loves my spontanaity and that I'm willing to just be like "Hey, Arbys! I want Arbys... pull over!". So I should work on that, rather than being indecisive per usual. Oh, and I won at mini golf, if you were wondering!!

Saturday - Doug drove his cousin Dave to the airport in the morning while I watched TLC... then I wasn't feeling well so we just hung out and watched movies and TV for most of the day. We played some Yhatzee and just chilled.

Sunday - THE BEST DAY! Feeling way too much cabin fever from the night before, we got up and went to church (not early... you can go to church at 1 PM in LA). I LOVE Doug's church... it's in Hollywood and is a great time. The worship is awesome... the church is very ethnically diverse and the worship is mostly very African-American! I enjoy the dancing and being totally loud a lot (Keith Prickett, if you're reading this, you would LOVE it!!). So then we walked around Melrose and sort of window-shopped, then grabbed lunch at Johnny Rocket's. That was fun. After that we got his car washed and went grocery shopping so that I could make him dinner. I made salmon and asparagus... yuuum! Then we went for a walk on the beach up to the Santa Monica Pier (The Net? Remember the scene where Sandra Bullock is at the carnival type thing? It's the Santa Monica Peir). Doug lives only 4 blocks from the beach and maybe 10 from the pier, so that's fun! Then we went and saw Raising Helen -- we both totally liked it. It was soooo much fun, we had so much fun just hanging out together!

Monday - Today we got up and played Monopoly while I waited for my JetBlue team to send me their stuff for our report. He WON which was sad because I lost my all time winning streak. We're both really good at Monopoly (no one else will even play Doug 'cause he is so good!), so we're very competitive. It'd be more fun if I weren't such a sore loser. Then we went out for lunch. After that we saw another movie, The Day after Tomorrow. Also quite excellent! Then we went for another walk on the beach, and went out for dinner at Buca de Beppo. Yummy. :) Basically, we tried to re-create yesterday because it was the most perfect day. After that we came back here and watched the rest of the Thomas Crown Affair, which we started yesterday. And all the time during dinner and walking I kept getting JetBlue calls which was so funny 'cause I was all "Oh, I'm sorry, I have to take this call". So corporate... yeah right! Now he's sleeping and I'm writing a silly weblog. Oh well, I have stuff to do!

Tomorrow - He has work all day, which means a fun-filled day of JetBlue and negotiations. I have to finalize what to put on our poster and also of course work TONS on making our paper amazing. I feel confident that it will all totally fall together though. There's a lot to do this week, but I'll be done with college in 4 glorious days! YAY! Here's this week's crazy schedule for those interested... thanks for reading, and goodnight!

Tuesday
- JetBlue paper
- Virtual Victorian paper / closing
- Fire permit from Evanston
- Negotiaton prep

Wednesday
- Meeting with Emery
- JetBlue poster
- Negotiation prep
- Virtual Vic paper wrap-up (4:00 PM)
- Negotiations class
- Poster session
- Last GIV

Thursday
- Ethics paper
- Lunch with Katrina
- JetBlue presentation prep
- JetBlue proposal wrap-up

Friday
- Ethics paper
- JetBlue presentation

More Nifty Fifty news!

Doug's Nifty Fifty update!:

- Jeff Smylie: Bought a house in Wheaton, getting married to Meghan. In a band with Sean and Seth. Jeff just graduated from NIU.
- Leo Toyota: "Still finishing up in Purdue". (This is wrong according to Katie.)
- Eric Krueger: Just finished up school at Millikin.
- Libby Sullivan: A hairdresser at a salon in Chicago.
- Seth Mercer: Working at a warehouse and living in an apartment in Aurora. In a band with Jeff and Sean.
- Sean: Married to some girl. Working somewhere, got his degree recently. In a band with Jeff and Seth.
- John the bass player: Married, graduated from Wheaton.
- Andrew Cassin: Going to Columbia in Chicago
- Ryan Covert: Working
- Josh Lutz: Living downtown and working. In another band.
- Glenn Williamson: Married and has a kid. Married one of Doug's friends.
- Jason Burger: Not going to school anymore, working. Living with his parents.
- Mike Anton: Living in Indy, doing database administration
- Brian (AKA Bud Bundy): Went out with Doug and friends 3 weeks ago. Doug thinks he's now working in an office and no longer selling Cutco.
- Vinny: Living in Glen Ellyn, doing some kind of sales downtown in the NBC building.
- Doug Neuman: Living in Santa Monica, California. Working.

If you'll recall, this was Katie's update:

- Smylie: Engaged to Meghan
- Mike Anton: Engaged to Monica
- Leo: Just graduated from Purdue, living in Glen Ellyn for the summer
- Vinny: Whereabouts unknown, last seen in Glen Ellyn
- Bud Bundy: Went to UIC, last ween working for Cutco.
- Doug: Katie realized this was the kid she called "the kid with the hair"... and I'm dating him. (Edited: Andrew Cassin is actually the boy with the hair, not Doug. But you can pretend it's Doug if you want. It's more fun. Also Andrew went to Glenbard West, which is Katie's high school. Doug went to North)
- Glenn: Katie remembers Glenn vaguely

That's a first!

So even though I said Doug wouldn't come home early, he actually came home by 3:45. I'm so impressed. :) I just wanted to note that so that all of my loyal readers don't think that Doug is like the worst boyfriend ever!

747's and LA, oh my!

So Russ and I saw a 747-400 on the way to O'Hare yesterday... I FLEW THAT! It was by far the biggest plane I've ever been on -- AWESOME! United calls it their "flagship" aircraft... haha. I think that's quite retarded because they lose money every time they fly the aircraft. They're supposed to retire them because they're way to expensive to fuel. The sleeper "suites" in first class cost $38,000 each... they're so freaking cool! They have like 18 buttons on them and at the end you have to press reset and everything. The plane was going on to Australia after LA. It was fun fun fun!

This morning I'm getting lots of JetBlue work done and also working on my negotiations ethics paper. My team had a JetBlue meeting today and so I have lots more work to do, which is great because I love JetBlue. I hate negotiations though! I'm excited for Doug to get home from work, too. 2 - 5 more hours. He says just 1 but I know him too well to believe that. :) Anyway I should get back to work (yeah right) but I'll leave you with a fun IM conversation.

Amusing conversation between me and Patrick (and aren't they always?):

Kelly94942 (3:51:12 PM): I flew a 747-400 yesterday. It was AWESOME.
p i d a t 42 0 (3:51:19 PM): i like those
p i d a t 42 0 (3:51:23 PM): what airline
p i d a t 42 0 (3:51:24 PM): huge
Kelly94942 (3:52:00 PM): United.
Kelly94942 (3:52:02 PM): Yeah it was sweet.
Kelly94942 (3:52:10 PM): The sleeper "suites" in first class cost $38,000 each.
p i d a t 42 0 (3:52:14 PM): theres a la salsa in terminal 7
p i d a t 42 0 (3:52:17 PM): really?
p i d a t 42 0 (3:52:30 PM): ive been in one coming back from london
p i d a t 42 0 (3:52:34 PM): it was nice
Kelly94942 (3:53:02 PM): YEAH I KNOW!! I saw the La Salsa yesterday.
Kelly94942 (3:53:07 PM): You were in a sleeper suite?
p i d a t 42 0 (3:53:11 PM): yeah
Kelly94942 (3:53:12 PM): That's so cool.
p i d a t 42 0 (3:53:23 PM): i feel way too gluttonous in one
p i d a t 42 0 (3:53:32 PM): or however you spell it
Kelly94942 (3:53:33 PM): I love how you just randomly know what food is in what terminal of what airports. :-)
p i d a t 42 0 (3:53:37 PM): haha
Kelly94942 (3:53:37 PM): Hahaha why?
p i d a t 42 0 (3:53:50 PM): too much real estate allotted to just me
Kelly94942 (3:54:07 PM): LOL
p i d a t 42 0 (3:54:12 PM): ive also been in one coming back from denver but it was only 2 hours so it was pointless
Kelly94942 (3:54:33 PM): Yeah.
Kelly94942 (3:54:36 PM): It'd be nice on a long flight though!
p i d a t 42 0 (3:54:41 PM): yeah
Kelly94942 (3:55:15 PM): I like how United calls the 747-400 their "flagship" aircraft... when I'm pretty sure they lose money every time they fly them.
p i d a t 42 0 (4:00:35 PM): yeah
p i d a t 42 0 (4:00:47 PM): theyre supposed to retire them
Kelly94942 (4:01:10 PM): They're so retraded sometimes.
Kelly94942 (4:01:11 PM): No offense.
p i d a t 42 0 (4:01:18 PM): yeah they are
p i d a t 42 0 (4:01:25 PM): why would it offend me
Kelly94942 (4:01:34 PM): I mean, most every airline's 747s are just sitting in the desert. It's retarded to fly them at all... they're too expensive to fuel.
Kelly94942 (4:01:36 PM): But whatever.
p i d a t 42 0 (4:01:46 PM): does it offend you when i say textbook companies rip off college students
p i d a t 42 0 (4:01:53 PM): yeah
p i d a t 42 0 (4:02:03 PM): and the new airbus is even huger
Kelly94942 (4:02:31 PM): LOL.
Kelly94942 (4:02:32 PM): No.
Kelly94942 (4:02:35 PM): It doesn't actually.
Kelly94942 (4:02:49 PM): Yeah well airbus is stupid because they lose money on every aircraft they sell.
p i d a t 42 0 (4:02:51 PM): my dad does the operations
Kelly94942 (4:02:59 PM): Good point. :-)
p i d a t 42 0 (4:03:00 PM): was your flight on time?
Kelly94942 (4:03:03 PM): NO.
Kelly94942 (4:03:06 PM): And hour late to leave.
p i d a t 42 0 (4:03:10 PM): hes on vacation this week
Kelly94942 (4:03:11 PM): Got in like 45 minutes late.
p i d a t 42 0 (4:03:11 PM): haha
Kelly94942 (4:03:14 PM): HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

One day 'til LA YAY!

Jenni, I meant yearbook-writer-in. You're a great yearbook signer. Does that make sense?

Today I had my normal day, blah blah blah, BUT Trading Spaces was here. Okay, people need to SO get over Ty. YES, it's fun to see the designers and everyone working and just have this hub-bub on campus, but a 38 year old sketchy man is just not cool! Whatevz, dude. Things I've heard about Ty today:

Girl in my house (who wanted a picture with him): Ty are you busy?
Ty: No, wanna make out?

Girl in my house (different girl): You know, I was on the other team that was considered for this show.
Ty: Too bad. You might have gotten lucky.

It's weird. That said, it is cool.

Last Greek IV ever was tonight! We have our bonfire next week so that will be AWESOME. Greek IV was really fun tonight, and of course we went to JK afterwards. That is so our thing to do... we need to find a cheaper place to hang out! Soon enough... :) Then I came back here around 12 and was up until NOW chilling with some fun new people downstairs. Delta Chi's named Tom and Brian and their friend Cory from home. YAY for new people even though I leave soon. I'm at such an odd station in life... meeting new people and loving where I am and where I'm going to be.

Speaking of where I'm going to be, tomorrow that is LA!!! YAY I will be there in approximately 18 hours. WOO HOO and stuff. Definitely looking forward to that. I'll report from there, not to worry!

And with that, I sleep.

Awesome!

So today was like the BEST day ever. I woke up at 10:45 and worked hardcore on my JetBlue paper until 2:00... probably the most work I've done all quarter. I'm doing something kind of weird today... I'm "fasting" from extraneous internet usage (only things allowed today are school-related, weather in the morning, and blog in the evening). Jenn suggested that I fast from theknot.com and I realized how excessively I look stupid stuff up online, so I just fasted for everything. It was really helpful to me in a lot of ways. Anyway, the point is that I got a lot of work done during those 3 hours, probably in part due to the lack of internet. Then I had the most AMAZING 2 and a half hour lunch with Katrina... we talked about everything! It was so so fun, and something I'd been really excited about for like a week. It was even better than I'd ever imagined. It got me all jazzed up about God, just talking and sharing with her. I love talking about God and how He's affected my life, and she asked tons of questions and just let me totally share. That's like my favorite thing in the world! YEAH KATRINA! Then I babysat for Killian... always a good time. He was in a good mood today, he ate rice cereal and his whole bottle, then we played tons!! THEN we had a freshman year Allison Hall Virgin Vault Reunion! Michelle, Amalie, Hayley, Misty, Leah, Erin, Susanna, Sara, Danielle, Laura, Julie, Steph, and I were all there. YEAH! We talked about what we're doing next year and if we're dating anyone. Michy (my freshman year roommate) is going to Duke Law -- YEAH!!! Hayley's going to be in LA this summer so we're going to hangout, and Misty is starting a company in LA. And Laura's boyfriend just moved to LA so we talked about the LA-Chicago thing... good times (yeah right). It was just good times all around. Everything was so cool. Then there was trivia -- after the second round, we were in first place for the first time EVER!! YEAH US! I know we will persevere and win sometime in the next two weeks. I seriously am just having the best day. Then I talked to Doug and it was soo cute. He's adorable! Maybe one day we'll be in the same city and we can actually enjoy each other.

The only 3 answers I knew tonight at trivia that no one else on my team did were: What president won with the slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler Too (and who that took Freeman's class WOULDN'T know that?... 1840, first modern election!), What is Steve's bar on SATC, and how many NBA championship rings does Phil Jackson have?

Huge shout-out to Jenni Wright from Emily for being an awesome yearbook writer in. Way to go.

I feel that I should announce that Laura and Randy are engaged, in case anyone didn't know that.

I'm going to LA on Thursday so if I'm not available to write, that's why. But I'm sure Doug will allow me at least a few minutes a day for my loyal fans.

I think that's all that I have tonight. I'm sure more to come soon... when I'm allowed to use the internet tomorrow maybe!

Crazy day!

I feel like I have that title every day! I started the day of babysitting, Killian was NOT a happy boy today. Cried the whole time. In good news, he got a new toy (a little saucer thing), so that was fun! More fun for me than him maybe, but he could sit up in it and spin around and everything. Then I actually did some WORK, then went shopping with Emery and Chelsea, then went to class. Then I had a JetBlue meeting, had dinner with Russ, Rho Lambda initiation, Starbucks with Adria and Sarah, Greek IV JOINT exec(!), JK with Jenn, Heather, Ian, Chad, Andy, and Emery. SO fun! I got to talk to Jenn about all things wedding, and have a great time in general. Then I had the BEST conversation with Doug... the all time funniest thing he's ever said to me happened tonight... we were talking about Jenn's wedding and stuff like that and he was just giving me crap about talking about weddings so much and I'm like I'm sorry, you must hate me for talking about all of these people getting married and that's why you're giving me crap and he's like "No, not at all, I just wouldn't be a good boyfriend if I didn't!". It was so cute... and he's got such a good point. Guys have to give women a hard time about weddings and all of their planning and nonsense... but some part of them inside must enjoy them. And he is an EXCELLENT boyfriend.

Speaking of weddings, I asked Emily this weekend (during our fabulous brunch!) if Ryan Zordan and Katie Gruber were engaged yet, since I had heard that was happening soon. She said today "Joey Larocca's mom apparently confirmed Ryan Zordan's engagement to Katie Gruber, confirmed by Laura Tasch". A whole-lotta Palatine people in that sentence! Anyway, I don't know, but that's what I have for today. More to come soon I hope!

Jenni's blog: http://irishjenni.blogspot.com/ Enjoy!

Sorry for my hiatus

Sorry guys, I was in Iowa on Friday and Saturday and thus didn't have internet, that is how I'm accounting for the time I was gone. Iowa was fun as always... got to chill with the fam and do the good old Iowa thing. :) Other than that, a relatively uneventful weekend. I think I'm going to stay in Iowa (and of course visit LA) for the summer, rather than going to School of Leadership Training up in the UP of Michigan, which is something I was considering. I made that as a pretty much solid decision with my family this weekend, but I've been going so back and forth on it that I'm still very hesitant to say for sure. I just don't know what to do with my life. Today we have Delta Zeta initiation for the spring initiates and then we have senior wills, which have been known to last a while, so I'll be doing the sorority thing all day.

For those of you who comment, I generally comment back in the comments, so you can check that out if you want.

Just got pulled over!!

So we had a super fun GIV party again tonight... more to come in the next few weeks! So then I was driving Jenny and Ian home, and looking for parking... and as I was trying to park, I made a u-turn in the middle of an intersection. After I did it (I didn't really know it was illegal, but thought maybe it might be), I saw a cop and I go "watch that cop pull me over for that!" and sure enough, she did. She was all "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I said no, and she said because of the u-turn, and then she told me that I had a headlight out. I don't think she believed me that I didn't know it was out. So she asked if I was a student and then went back to her car and did some stuff. She was really cool and she was just like "No u-turns in intersections, fix the headlight". So I asked the rules on u-turns in intersections, so now I know. :-)

Moral of the story: no u-turns in undivided 4-way stops. And I heart NUPD!!

For those who are wondering, this is the second time I've been pulled over, and didn't get a ticket either time! :-) Hopefully that streak will continue...

Where it all started

For those of you who read the Chronicle article, here is the original letter to the Daily Northwestern (although HIGHLY edited by the good people at the Daily), and a few of the respones I got back in the Daily.

The Daily Northwestern - Letters to the Editor | The Drawing Board

The Daily Northwestern - Letters to the Editor | The Drawing Board

The thing that was annoying about the whole situation is how edited my original letter was, to the extent that it missed the point. The point was simply that not that Northwestern's not a good school or that we shouldn't take pride in that. I'm simply saying that being smarter than other people doesn't make us BETTER. You're right, being better looking or more athletic doesn't either, and you make a valid point that maybe we're not just smarter, maybe we're more involved, creative, or energetic than people at other schools too. But I refuse to believe that I'm any better than the next guy, regardless of the school I go to. I'm just a person, like we all are. (and this is essentially what I wrote in the comments section of the Chronicle)

Maybe this whole debacle only makes sense in my head and I'm just ruffling feathers for no reason, but I'm still annoyed about the whole controversy.

So I'll leave you for now with a little bit of amusement from Patrick, who for some reason refuses to use the comment section!

p i d a t 42 0 (10:23:44 AM): i was sitting here bored at work so i read your blog, which you predicted in said blog, and i read the article bashing you
p i d a t 42 0 (10:25:55 AM): my question is can a journalism major, no matter what school they attend, EVER make enough money to afford a driver?

Best Day!

Of course, I say that like every day. But today was fun! I chilled this morning and afternoon, went on a Starbucks run, all of that good stuff. Then I had class, my negotiation went okay but certainly was not stellar! Then I got to go out with Russ and talk about our talks for tonight... GOOD times. We went to Target and got food for Greek IV and it was fun. Then we went to Greek IV -- BEST GIV ever, even Andy Bilhorn said so! That was really cool to hear! It was 4 seniors giving talk and "wisdom"... super fun. I think it was really effective and there was great community and everything. And in the spirit of spontaneous GIV social events, we went to JK afterwards... me, JJ, HMG, Chad, Russ, Alex, and Evan! So fun! And Russ, Evan, and Alex were playing around on their guitars and basses after GIV so we got to sing and just have fun. We're really building the community in GIV that we've all been wanting for so long. I'm just on this super high! The only sad thing was that I didn't get to talk to Doug for more than 10 minutes today, but maybe tomorrow. :) :) :)

Wow I'm crazy

So I Googled myself tonight, just trying to see what one could find out about me. I found some interesting stuff that I didn't even know was there.

Something from the comedian Kappa Delta just brought to Northwestern (this is from like 2 or so years ago):
http://www.stevehofstetter.com/comments.cfm?Action=none

A letter from the Chronicle insulting me:
http://www.chron.org/tools/viewart.php?artid=546

A dude who copied my idea (albeit not original at all) to have a top 10 best and worst things about Northwestern. What's also amusing about this particular guy is that I'm pretty sure it's one of Russ's friends.
http://underscorebleach.net/content/jotsheet/older/2002/02/21

There was also something from my freshman year EDC project, something from a sophomore year physics project, and a small blurb about me in the Mustard Seed.

A great day

So I babysat, and Killian was perfectly sweet and wonderful. He actually slept most of the time and then was really good about eating and playing. His mom is SO sweet... we chatted and she paid me extra since I babysat way longer than I was supposed to yesterday. She so didn't have to do that! I then went to JK to get some pre-dinner dessert with KT, good times. She had some great Glen Ellyn / Old School Nifty Fifty gossip:
- Smylie: Engaged to Meghan
- Mike Anton: Engaged to Monica
- Leo: Just graduated from Purdue, living in Glen Ellyn for the summer
- Vinny: Whereabouts unknown, last seen in Glen Ellyn
- Bud Bundh: Went to UIC, last ween working for Cutco.
- Doug: Katie realized this was the kid she called "the kid with the hair"... and I'm dating him. (Edited: Andrew Cassin is actually the boy with the hair, not Doug. But you can pretend it's Doug if you want. It's more fun. Also Andrew went to Glenbard West, which is Katie's high school. Doug went to North)
- Glenn: Katie remembers Glenn vaguely
Anyone else with any GE updates, send 'em my way!

Good times. So then it was off to 1800 for trivia. Tuesdays are half price appitizer nights but tonight they were out of food which was unfortunate because I rely on that to be my Tuesday night dinner! My sister called and had a fight with my parents, and I talked to my mom after that too. No one is happy in Iowa and that made me sad. I wish I could be there to try to help and make people happy... I like making people happy. My GIV kids weren't at trivia so I played with last weeks winning team only to come in 2nd to last. I think I'm bad luck with trivia... :(

After trivia we went to BK so I could eat dinner, and as Erin and I were eating we encountered a man who told us he would sell us his watch for a dollar, or anything to get food. His wife kicked him out today and he said he'd been drinking a little but was in a solid state of mind. We didn't offer him money, but when Erin said she didn't want the rest of her onion rings, I brought them to the man and he was SO happy to get them. He actually left BK after that so it seemed that really was what he wanted. Over spring break I was on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, where there are a lot of panhandlers. There was a time when I was eating McDonalds and I could see a woman who wanted food. When I was done with my fries I didn't want to make her feel undignified or anything, so I just threw them away, and I've regretted the decision ever since. And ironically (or not) just today I was reading about being more generous and giving to others even if you think it's not enough or something like that. That chapter in the book I'm reading made me recall that situation in Santa Monica and regret it again, so I was so glad I had the chance to make a better decision tonight. I only wish I had stopped eating my own fries to give to that man. I feel really challenged right now in my own generosity so I hope that I can grow from this and make better decisions about giving to others what I have in so much abundance.

Another day another dolla

Well, no dollas yet today. I woke up and got some stuff done, that was a first for me. I just got back from lunch -- corndogs, yuuum. I feel like this blog is so me... it's all over the place.

Another thing I've determined is that my gossip is really just like a newspaper. Nothing is particularily gossipy, although I guess that's a good thing.

To summarize the Palatine gossip:
- Jenni's parents moved to Stark (definitely didn't know that!)
- Emily will be in Evanston later this week. Hopefully we're going out to breakfast on Friday!
- Tim's 22nd was last night, apparently it was a great time. And hey, we might as well throw in a blog shoutout... happy birthday Tim!

Evanston gossip:
- I got invited to my very first bridal shower and I can't go because I'll be in LA. Boo!!
- I've babysat more in the past month or so than I've babysat in all of my life up to this point.

Oh and one more thing... someone recently told me I should be a wedding coordinator. This is an interesting thought, because for the past 2 or 3 years I've had like 5 people independently tell me that I would be good at this. It's that Type A personality I guess, combined with a little creativity. I've been thinking about this for like a year psuedo-seriously, so it's time for a vote. Not like your vote is going to decide my future career, but I need to know if my own friends would at least consider hiring me. It'd be rough because it would be a lot of nights and weekends, but to a certain extent I could make up my own schedule and it'd be SO FUN. It's something I would definitely love to do. Let me know your thoughts.

Overly emotional...

Tonight was the last Greek IV exec meeting! What am I going to do without these guys? They've become my best friends over the course of the last year or so... they get me, and they're so much fun to hang out with. I'm going to miss being challenged by them and just laughing and playing and everything in between. We went around and told each other our strengths, which was insane. Of course I got all the "Kelly's so Type A, you're so organized, you're great at PowerPoint"... I expect that. I don't expect stuff like "You are so perceptive and able to see and bring out the best in people" or "You're the MVP of GIV exec" or "You're an approachable Christian, not all high and mighty". That's the stuff guys. That's what makes it all worth it... so thank you all for pointing that out, because I don't see it very often. If any of you are even reading this, I want you to know how much I love all of you and will miss you like crazy next year. You've made me laugh more times than I can count and are there 100% when it comes to the tough stuff too. Knowing that this was the last official time I got to hang out with you just made me realize that this is really the end. It's been real. :)

I have no problem with three blind girls touching my boobs

Okay this blog is just a list of quotes from my room tonight. We kicked it off with that one by yours truly.

"I think this is the love couch."
"What makes you think that?"
"Because Sarah Yu is mounting me."

The rest of the night consisted of me and Erin reading all of our bylaws to find a way to get out of initiation.

I'm such a small person for such a beast

McCracken said that. It was actually something mildly more amusing than that, but I'm not sure exactly what it was. Anyway, here's the story. First of all, she's the only person in the whole house who can pick Dena up and throw her over her shoulder. Second of all, she can lie on my bed, hold onto the bar on Dena's bed (above mine, for those not in the know), and hang like a monkey, then proceed to flip herself over. That's where being a tiny person and a beast comes into play. Long story short, McCracken is great. Now... to stir up controversy. Dena and I cleaned our room tonight... there's a scandal waiting to happen. But seriously, that's about the most exciting thing that happened all day. Other than that, there was just a 3 hour nap, a trip to the IE lab, and a Chili's excursion. Good times. I'm on the lookout for controversy though!

Palatine gossip

The problem with posting Palatine gossip is that I have none. I don't even live there anymore, which is unfortunate. I was actually there the other day... I drove straight down Willow to Palatine Rd., then turned right onto Plum Grove Rd., drove to Colfax, and went to the dentist. Then I turned around, retraced my route, and went back to the safety of Evanston. Just kidding. But yeah, Palatine seemed good. I noticed they were building lofts in downtown Palatine... dude, this is now downtown Chicago. Who wants to live in a loft in downtown Palatine? Although I know people do... it's all of that new craziness. I went to Durty Nellies with Patrick in January and it was so fun! That was actually the last time I was in Palatine though. My vote is to find a group of people to go there sometime before I move to Portland for the rest of the life. As far as actual Palatine gossip, Laura and Randy are getting married and that's the most exciting thing I know. The problem is that Patrick and Emily have all of the exciting Palatine gossip and they only give it to me in little spurts. I haven't had a spurt in like 6 months, so I got nothin'...

A riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a vest

A riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a vest

So that's the weblog that started it all, sort of. I went to church this morning... only like 3 or so times of going to Vineyard left, that's a super-sad thought! Maybe less than that, depending on when I go home and everything. I'll go next week for sure, but not the week after that. I might take a nap because I didn't get much sleep AGAIN last night. Vineyard was awesome because 11 of us went in "my car"... the original 5 of us (Katie, Sara, Sarah, Susan, and me) still all go, but we've been joined by more and more people lately. Kathleen is a regular now, and Alex has been coming often too. JJ joined us this morning, and so did Sarah's sister Hannah and Alex's sister Steph. We also had Meg come for the first time. So much fun! Dena's still asleep so I think I'll join her... it's time for bed in this room!

Sarah McCracken is the best person ever

So I made my stomach recover and actually got out of bed and went to OneLove. It was quite enjoyable, much moreso than I thought it would be! Then I called up my sister and talked to Iowa for a while... there's lots of gardening and walking to the barn going on. Speaking of Iowa and barns, Sarah McCracken is from Iowa and has a barn. So anyway, then I went to Blockbuster and rented Murder at 1600. Speaking of Murder at 1600, Sarah McCracken is a detective... but that's a story for another time. Then I talked to my sister a little more... I need to get my wisdom teeth out so she was telling me about that. Actually tooth. Just the bottom left. I think it's #16, but I can't say for sure. Oh I talked to Doug tonight. He was excellent especially since I was being all tired. He's at a sports bar watching the Lakers game for those of you who care. Probably none of you do care. You probably consists of only Ryan, Jenni, and Patrick. My goal is to stir up controversy on this the way Ryan does. I need to post about how Hooters is a great place to take a girl on a date, or something... he got 6 comments for that post! Comment away my friends...

I'm Back!

Well, Bonanza was as much fun as expected! There was a bonfire, hay ride, and games galore. Just another one of the "last" events that everything seems to be these days. I'm going to Sweet Tomatoes with Sarah, Marie, and Erin tonight. Good times! Sarah McCracken rocks my world. Then I have to speak at OneLove, but then I just want to watch movies or something ridiculous. I'm soooo tired still from the Barn! Other than that, not too much going on. Just chillin' and whatnot.

Bad Day!

So my day is starting out bad and it's only 11:30 AM! I SHOULD still be asleep. I woke up at the ridiculous hour of 7:30 AM and got up and went out to my car -- PARKING TICKET. Stupid street cleaning, and even more than that stupid me for not checking. I was bamboozled because I was parked in 2 hour parking so I was just thinking I had to move by 11 the next day and not even THINKING about street cleaning. I hate Evanston. Then I went to the dentist and the hygentist told me I'm not flossing under my retainer enough and I'm going to get gengivitis and then prenodontal disease or something and then my bones are going to get loose and my teeth will fall out. Melodrama... ridiculous. And she wasn't even nice about it. Then I realized it was the last time I'll go to that dentist, who has been my dentist for the last 17 years. And I don't even like him that much! Then I realized that I will have to leave Dr. Yegelwel, my gastroenterologist, who is the most amazing man in the world. He will come in early or take a short lunch or whatever he has to do to see me, even once coming in on a day he had a funeral, making me one of his only patients that day. Plus all of my friends are going to be here and basically I'll be 2000 miles away from the last 22 years of my life (minuts 6 months actually spent in Oregon). Okay now I'm being the melodramatic one, it just sort of hit me today (being in Palatine was weird). So now I have a meeting and then I'm taking a nap... then BARN BONANZA!!! That will make up for this day, especially if this darn rain lets up!

What's going on?

Since this will no doubt become my sounding board for all things Kelly, I might as well start now. So dominoes was fun... I was doing well after the 2nd round, after which point I left. I then went to the top secret GIV party for about 2 hours. SO fun. I love GIV, I don't know what I will do without it next year. I learned a lot from Chad... he totally has a lot of the same opinions I do on stuff and it was cool to learn that, because I think I'm a very odd Christian in that a lot of stuff annoys me (like Christians who are all uber-fake), and he agreed with that. YAY. Then I came home and talked to Doug for a while, and no doubt royally pissed him off. Why am I so afraid of commitment? I pretend not to be, but when it comes down to it, I'm SO afraid of commitment. It's like I want to find any detail of our relationship to ruin because I can't stand the perfection. And I'm sorry of I'm giving too much information in this blog... no one's forcing you to read it. I will try not to make it all about Doug, but I'm writing about my day and this is the end of my day. Yeah, I'm going to bed now.

So Sad!

So I did not dominate Greek Feud as I said I would. I was all over it... but then when they asked what is your favorite spot in Chicago I said Navy Pier instead of Michigan Avenue. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Totally dumb. Because had I said Michigan Ave., we would have won the elimination round and then we would have won the whole game (I say that so confidently because there were answers that other teams didn't know that we definitely knew, I know that because we practiced and I know what our answers would have been!). Basically I'm just beating myself up over it, because I lost all of Delta Zeta Greek Week points. NOT COOL. :(

This is just a test of the comment section?

Alright I'm going to officially start to blog now, hopefully. For now it will just say what I did each day, but since I don't do much it might not be very entertaining. I really just want my blog to be as cool as Ryan's... that's the goal here in the blogging. Today I woke up at around 10 and got ready and talked to Doug. Then I babysat at 11... but the thing is, the kid I babysit for (Killian) doesn't like to eat when I feed him at his 11:00 feeding. This just started this week, which is sad, especially since I was "fired" from my 11:00 job next Monday. I love this kid so I'm sad he doesn't love me back. After that I went up to tech for my 2:00 JetBlue conference call. That was good stuff... I feel like this project is really rocking and rolling. We have a lot of good ideas and we're beginning to pull them together to wrap up the project. After that I talked to Russ for a while... it was good to catch up with him, since I haven't seen him in a while. Then I updated my profile, that seems to be a hit so far. :) Then I practiced for Greek Feud by going over all of the answers as much as possible. Then I had dinner and surveyed the girls on the Greek Feud questions. Then I read Keith and Ryan's journals, which inspired this whole thing. Next I'm going to Greek Feud, then I'm playing dominos with Ducey, Jemma, Caroline, and Dena. Then maybe going to a top secret Greek IV party. That remains to be seen though, based on rain and my tiredness level. I have to get up at the insane hour of 7:30 AM tomorrow so I really don't know how I'm going to go to a midnight party. We'll see. More later perhaps!