Five Months of Vacation

Finals Week Wrap Up

2009-12-14T18:13:00.004-05:00

A short video I made of some of the footage I have from hanging around the Pi house to study during finals week.

Finals Week Will Make You Go Crazy

2009-12-11T22:47:00.002-05:00

Exibit A: One of many study breaks and study break videos my friends and I made these past few days...

Wannabe Studying? from Reidamus on Vimeo.

The One With the Pediatrician

2009-11-25T17:15:00.001-05:00

Confession: I’m 20 years old and I still go to my pediatrician. I’m like Ross from friends, straight out of season nine, episode three. Now it is not quite as bad as it seems. The only reason I ever go to my doctor since I turned 18 and entered college is to get my prescriptions written every three months. Still though, I feel like it is time for me to get a more age-appropriate doctor.

The thing is, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my current doctor. I’ve actually only been seeing Dr. Baldrate since high school when my other doctor retired, but she is awesome. She is young, fun and takes a definite interest in my life when I do go to see her. I feel totally comfortable talking to her about anything. I don’t want to give her up… until I think about the fact that…

…my old field hockey coach and her sister take their two and three year old baby boys to my same doctor. And that is where I draw the line….

So now I’m looking for a new doctor in the DMV area that I can switch to before I graduate college. I prefer a younger-ish female doctor who has some personality – basically a doctor that I can relate to and get to know easily and that would be not scary to go to. If anyone really loves their doctor please please let me know!

CRUMBS is Coming!

2009-11-20T14:48:00.006-05:00

Anyone who knows me knows just how much I love cupcakes. I am absolutely obsessed. I love to bake 'em and I love to eat 'em, especially when they come from one of my favorite DC bakeshops. Georgetown Cupcake is by far my favorite, but I just found out some amazing news that could change that... CRUMBS is coming to DC next spring!

Ok, I lied. I don't think my loyalty to Georgetown Cupcake could ever be beat, but with one of the new CRUMBS stores being opened in Clarendon, I might have to stay on my side of the bridge to get my cupcake fix for once! Read the full press release below:

NEW YORK, NY (Nov. 16, 2009) – Due to a tremendous demand, CRUMBS Bake Shop, the first bake shop to introduce the gourmet cupcake, will debut their signature sized cupcakes and delectable sweet treats in the Washington, D.C. market in March 2010. The stores will be found in several neighborhoods including the downtown central business district, Georgetown, Cleveland Park, Foggy Bottom, Rockville (Maryland), Clarendon (Virginia) and Reston (Virginia), offering a variety of their delicious cupcakes, muffins, cookies, brownies, coffee and other baked goods.

“The D.C. market was the next logical choice for our expansion,” said Jason Bauer, CRUMBS CEO and co-founder. “The CRUMBS brand has strong name recognition in the market and we decided to listen to our fans who have been asking us for many months to come to D.C.”

The design of CRUMBS Bake Shops is inspired by old-time candy shops, creating a warms and friendly environment with wall-to-wall treats served on real china. The first bake shop opened its doors in March of 2003 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan by co-founders Mia & Jason Bauer. There are currently 18 locations on the East coast and five locations on the West Coast. The specialty of the house is cupcakes: however the menu also adds an irresistible blend of comfort-oriented classics and elegant baked goods. here are more than 50 varieties of cupcakes baked fresh daily with a new cupcake of the week debuting each Monday.

Only downside to these cupcakes is that thier website says they run at about $4.50 per cupcake which is absolutely ridiculous. I can get my cupcake fix at Georgetown Cupcake for $2.75 ($3.03 with tax - it is sad that I know that?). Still though, CRUMBS cupcakes are definitely bigger and if I don't have to deal with parking in Georgetown, well that's just another plus!

Is anyone else as pumped about this as I am?!

Update: I saw online somewhere that ther cupcakes cost $3.75, not $4.50 - maybe it is just certain special flavors? I guess we'll find out when they open their doors next year!

Battle Studies

2009-11-17T23:22:00.007-05:00

Whenever I listen to John Mayer I am always reminded about a very specific time in my life. His first album Room for Squares came out when I was starting middle school and reminds me of those (awkward) days.
Then his last album, Continuum, came out in the fall of 2006, field hockey season my junior year of high school. It was a few weeks before my neighbor Michelle Gardner-Quinn, a senior at UVM at the time, was brutally raped and murdered after a night out with friends. Some of those songs -- especially "Gravity" and "Heart of Life" -- helped me get through that tough time.
Heart of Life also reminds me of one of my friends Linden. I had my 18th birthday party in a suite at the Verizon Center to see the John Mayer concert that summer. When he started playing that song she walked over to me, hugged me and told me she knew what that song meant to me, and spent the rest of the concert glued to my side.
When John's song "Say" was released I was stuck in the middle of a fight between my two closest friends at the time. I ended up sitting them down and saying what I needed to say and what I thought about their issue.
Today John's new album, Battle Studies, came out. I've listened to it a few times through already and I love it. I just wonder what these songs are going to remind me of a few years down the road...

Carrie Prejean is an Idiot

2009-11-12T14:02:00.008-05:00

I don't dislike Carrie Prejean because of her views on "opposite marriage" as she calls it. If I hated everyone who didn't support gay marriage I would have maybe three friends in the South. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I respect that. What I don't respect is hypocrisy, and I therefore don't respect Carrie Prejean. She tries to make herself into this huge victim and makes all these false claims (a.k.a. lies) like she has never broken her contract with the pageant (even though it has been proven she's broken her contract about a million times) and tells everyone that she is just this "great christian woman who is going to stand up for what she believes in and blah blah blah."

All I have to say is... SHUT UP. You are not a victim. You didn't get the crown because the way you phrased your answer to the question sounded like a 3rd grader was saying it ("opposite marriage"?? really??). And if you go around saying bad things about the organization you represent and the people who run it of course they're going to fight back! Especially when pretty much everything you say is a lie. What do you expect?

The most recent scandal with Carrie is her solo sex tape. The tape was revealed during recent court proceedings where she was trying to sue the pageant officials for "religious descrimination" and is the rumored reason she settled with the pageant officials out of court for a million dollars which only covers her lawyers (in other words, she didn't get a penny). According to her, she made the tape when she was 17 because she was young and naiive and it was just a one time mistake (same excuse she gave for her nude pictures). Because she was a minor at the time the tape was made it has not been released. Well guess what, SHE WAS LYING AGAIN! Not only was the video made only two years ago in 2007 when she was 20, but apparently there are SEVEN more!

If this girl stood up and took some responsibility for everything that has happened with her (not winning Miss USA, getting her California title and crown taken away, the many breaches in her contract, her boob job, her naked pictures, her sex tapes, etc. etc. - this list could go on forever) I probably wouldn't hate her so much. But she hasn't. And she never will. Because she's a dumb b*tch. Who tries to lie her way through life. Does that sound like a good christian woman to you? Didn't think so.

I'm getting annoyed even writing about her right now, but I'll leave you with this Larry King clip where she throws a little temper tantrum and accuses Larry of being "inappropriate" because she doesn't want to answer his question (the Q is actually completely valid and not at all inappropriate):

UPDATE: After seeing Carrie's appearance on Larry King last night, Keith Lewis (pageant director) released the following HIGH-larious statement:

“The public is finally getting a glimpse of the real Carrie Prejean who lives in her own delusional world. The childish behavior, her negative attitude, the sarcasm and condescending tone, the disrespect and continual lying she is demonstrating now is only a fraction of what we endured during her reign and after. Anyone who buys her book is supporting a woman who is actually the opposite of everything she claims to be. I sincerely hope she is able to get the psychological help I believe she has shown to clearly need.”

Forget About Swifty, It's My Best Week Ever

2009-11-12T09:45:00.006-05:00

My Econ class has been cancelled twice this week. TWICE. As in no Econ class for me at all until next Tuesday. Ok, so maybe not as cool as hosting SNL and winning the best three awards at the CMAs, but still. Thank you God. I am a little worried because my professor isn't the kind of person who takes canceling class lightly, but I'm thinking he is just sick.

With all of the study abroad stuff I have been doing this week (getting together all the random forms I need to apply for a visa, booking my flights, study abroad orientation for USC, etc.) this couldn't come at a better time. Yay for classes getting canceled!

T-Swizzle's Best Week Ever

2009-11-11T23:14:00.004-05:00

This has been one EPIC week for Taylor Swift. First she was host and musical guest on SNL which got great ratings and was absolutely HILARIOUS. Then, tonight at the CMAs, she made history by becoming the youngest person ever (she's 19) to win Entertainer of the Year. She also took home the other two awards she was nominated for - Album of the Year (for Fearless) and Female Vocalist of the Year. To make the night an even bigger success for her, she performed twice, opening the show with Forever and Always and later getting the crowd involved while singing Fifteen.
I love Taylor Swift and am so so so happy for her. Some people don't see what's so great about her, but I love her because she just seems so real and down to earth. I love the little youtube videos she puts up of her just hanging out when she's on tour and when she's with her friends. Taylor's not afraid to act stupid, loves pranks and practical jokes, and has a great sense of humor in general. To sum it up, she doesn't take life too seriously and likes to kick back and have a good time.
People give her crap for making all of her songs about boys and relationships (mostly failed ones) and say that she needs to write about something else but I don't see why. She is 19 years old! Hate to break it to you, but that's mostly what girls our age thinking about and concerned with right about now. Plus, it makes really great song material:)
Anyways, here are a few highlights from tonight:

And here are some of her SNL highlights (I picked my favorite ones):

It's Official!

2009-11-03T18:30:00.008-05:00

I'M GOING TO FLORENCE, ITALY for Spring 2010!

While I have been planning this for awhile, I only recently figured out the logistics and applied to the program. I was nervous because I applied late and space is limited, but everything worked out and I'm IN!

Cute Italian boys, here I come! ;)

Ciao!

'D' is for Diploma

2009-11-03T15:34:00.002-05:00

An open letter to my econ professor:

I realize that you are head of the economics department in the best public international business school in the nation (second best overall), but do you realize that the 120 students in your 224 class have no idea what is going on in there whatsoever? We are non-majors, just sitting in room 105 of the BA every Tuesday/Thursday to fulfill an econ elective requirement and then get our butts back across campus to the Coliseum and the J-School where we belong. Econ is not a subject that comes naturally to us so it is a lot harder for us to understand and retain. Standing in front of the class, facing the chalkboard and essentially talking to yourself for an hour and 15 minutes doesn’t help us. When you scribble a few illegible terms and graphs on the board and then peace out to go teach your advanced classes full of business majors, we get nothing out of the experience. We actually need you to teach us the material.

I have never had a class where studying didn’t get me anywhere until I took yours. I studied about 20 collective hours over a weeklong period leading up to the first test. I bought a $50 study guide that goes with the book and signed up for a $70 subscription of myeconlab (has online practice tests, quizzes, and e-text) as supplementary study materials. When I went in the day of the test I was feeling prepared. Unfortunately, when I left I had no idea what had just hit me. Your questions were worded in roundabout ways and you forced us to make connections between ideas that we hardly covered or that we hadn’t had to compare before. It almost seemed like you did it on purpose to mess with us. After our second test today I felt the exact same way. The couple concepts that I thought I really knew completely threw me for a loop on the exam. I walked out more confused than when I walked in.

When over half of the class got a 40 percent or lower on the first test, you told us that you “must be doing your job if 10 students were able to get ‘A’s.” I hate you break it to you but you didn’t teach those 10 kids anything, they’re just naturally smart (and a few have taken econ before). Besides, you still failed to teach the other 110 of us anything. To top it off, instead of trying to figure out a way that you could work with us and help us understand, you gave up on us and recommended to anyone who got a 40 percent or below to drop your class… the day after the drop period ended.

While I realize that you are probably set in your ridiculously ineffective teaching ways, I do have one plea. I am PRAYING for a passing grade in your class. While I usually strive for ‘A’s and try to keep up a solid GPA (I got a 3.8 last year), I would love nothing more than to get a ‘D’ your class and get the heck outta there. A ‘D’ would be enough to fulfill that econ elective requirement for graduation. A ‘D’ would get me my diploma. So please, give me a 60 percent and we’ll call it a day.

Respectfully,

The Rasterbator

2009-11-01T22:16:00.007-05:00

I know this may sound a little dirty, but I love the Rasterbator! It is an online program (you can actually download a version for PCs but I have a Mac so I just do it online) that enlarges a picture of your choosing and turns it into a series of dots in a PDF file. Here is a picture of my face rasterbatorized on one sheet of paper:

You can choose what size you want your image to be and then print it off and hang it up. It is a great apartment decoration because it is super-cheap to make (it cost me $10 to print it off and to buy the poster tape I hung it with) and it looks great! For more examples you can look in the Rasterbator gallery. I decided to make mine personal and used a picture of me and some of my campers in Maine this summer but other people have used pictures they found online of celebrities, cars, flowers, etc. This would be a great rainy day activity. It took me about and hour and a half to rasterbatorize, print, and hang up. (Each rectangle is one sheet of paper)

Trick or Treat with the Greeks

2009-10-29T22:17:00.004-04:00

Every year Greek Life works with the Boys and Girls Club of Columbia and hosts Trick or Treat with the Greeks in the Greek Village. The kids dress up and go trick-or-treating for an hour and then everyone meets in the grassy knoll where each sorority and fraternity have set up games for the kids to play. This year ADPi teamed up with Pike and we did pumpkin bowling! How cute is this little girl?! Happy Halloween!

My Pumpkins are Gonna be on ESPN!

2009-10-29T21:45:00.009-04:00

A few days ago I got a call from one of my sorority sisters whose fiancé, Brian, works as Coach Steve Spurrier Jr.’s assistant as well as interns with the equipment managers for the Carolina football team. She asked if I could help Brian carve some pumpkins. I was a little confused at the request but after talking with him I found out that our football team wanted to bring pumpkins to put on the sidelines at our game vs. Tennessee on Halloween. ESPN loves it when there are themed decorations that teams bring to games and will use them for some shots when they televise the games. Last year Tennessee brought a pumpkin to our stadium and ESPN kept showing it on the sideline so this year Carolina wanted to bring a pumpkin to them. I love random craft projects so I told Brian I’d be happy to help.

Last night I did a practice round to test out my “skills” and see what I can and cannot pull off when it comes to pumpkin carving. I’ve never done anything too detailed before and I’ve also never done a pumpkin with the shaved look where you don’t cut all the way through. My test runs were okay, but my final products were definitely the best.

After work Brian came and picked me and the pumpkins up and we headed over to Williams-Brice Stadium to put them in a big refrigerator so they’d be ready to take to Tennessee in the morning. Brian was super nice and ended up giving me a mini tour of the stadium. I got to go in the locker room, several conference and pressrooms, as well as see the weight room, laundry room, and even walked out onto the field! It was truly awesome. At the end he and his boss gave me some (expensive!) Under Armour Gamecock gear as a thank you. I got a black zip up jacket for myself as well as a garnet pullover jacket for my dad and they’re going to send me a polo soon for my dad too. Looks like I’m done with Christmas shopping!☺

Although I did spend a TON of time carving the pumpkins – somewhere in the 14 hour range to plan out and carve all four – I had a lot of fun doing it and it was totally worth it! I doubt I’ll ever get another chance to walk out on the field at Williams-Brice or go into the football team’s locker room. Plus, my pumpkins might make it on ESPN!

We play Tennessee at 7:45 p.m. ET on Saturday so tune in, cheer on my Gamecocks, and look out for my pumpkins!

UPDATE: My pumpkins were all over ESPN! Before and during the game they showed them probably six or seven times and they were also featured on the gamecocksonline.com gameday blog. Here's a picture of them at Neylan Stadium in Tennessee!

An Apple a Day

2009-10-27T12:04:00.009-04:00

Apples are one of my favorite foods. I usually eat at least two a day when I have them at my apartment (I don't get to the grocery store too often since I'm car-less and it is a mile and a half away) and recently I’ve gotten into baking a lot with them. There is nothing that screams Fall more to me than crisp apples and warm apple pie.

After my apple-picking trip in Virginia over fall break I made apple
crisp and an apple pie. Both were very simple recipes and they turned out great! I expected the pie to be much harder and more labor intensive but once I had the apples peeled and sliced it was quick and easy!

Back at school I’ve been doing all my baking with apples. I made another apple pie, mini apple pies, caramel apples and baked apples. The mini apple pies were great because I could stick them in zip-lock bags and bring them with me for lunch or a snack. This is definitely a recipe I plan to make again and again, especially if I get my hands on one of these apple pocket pie molds from Williams-Sonoma. How cute is that?!

Here is the recipe I used for the apple pie:

1 box of refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts per box)
6-8 baking apples
1 cup of sugar
2 Tbsp of flower
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp butter
1 egg white

Directions:
Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Take one of the pie crusts and mold it into the pie tin. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples and put in a bowl. Mix in the sugar, flower, cinnamon and salt. Pour mixture into the pie crust. Put pads of butter on the apples. Top pie with second crust, brush with egg whites for a glossy finish, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 50-60 minutes.

*I used the same recipe for the mini pies except I cut the apples into smaller pieces once I'd sliced them so they would fill the crusts neatly. To make the mini pies I just used a 2 inch round cookie cutter to cut out the crusts (from the pre-made refrigerated pie crusts). Then I spooned a little filling in the center of one circle and brushed egg whites around the edge. Next I topped it with another pie crust circle, and sealed the edges with a fork. I brushed egg whites on each side and sprinkled them with sugar and then baked for about 10-15 minutes.

What apple recipes do ya'll like to make?

October so Far

2009-10-27T11:12:00.008-04:00

I know I went AWOL for a while but I’ve been really busy lately and needed to take a break from everything unrelated to school. This semester is definitely the hardest I’ve had in college yet and I’m not particularly fond of most of my classes. The one class I do enjoy, PR Writing, is for my major and is still pretty time consuming. I do have a couple things I’ve been meaning to post on so over the next few days there might be a surge of updates!

Not too much has happened since I last posted, but here is a little update on my life:

Parents Weekend was a few weeks ago and my mom and dad came down for my sorority’s Parents Cocktail and the football game vs. SC State. Parents Weekend is the one time a year when my mom visits (my dad has moved me in and out almost every year) so it is always fun to introduce her to my friends and sisters. They spent the next week after in Myrtle Beach but I got to go home for fall break! As you probably know from how I’ve talked about Megan before, I love my sister to death and would do anything to get to spend more time with her. I spent almost a week back in Arlington and the time flew by. I packed my schedule full of lunches, happy hours, shopping and catching up with Meg’s and my friends. I even caught a Caps game and went apple picking! It was a great week and I’m getting pumped to go home again for Turkey Break!

Last week was Homecoming and we played Vanderbilt on Saturday. Vandy was a big game for us because they have beaten us the past two years even though we should have won both times! Not gonna lie, it’s hard to be a Carolina fan sometimes. Also, my cousin Billy is my age and goes to Vandy so it’s a little rivalry between us. Luckily my gamecocks pulled it together and we won 14-10! It was also a great day because I got to see a lot of old friends who have graduated but came back to Columbia for the weekend.
Also, ADPi & SigEp won the homecoming float competition. We were even featured on ESPN! They did a segment on homecoming week at different schools and whenever they come to Columbia they love to mention how our Greek Life is huge here (they often show areal shots of the Greek Village, etc.). They talked about how involved Greeks are with Homecoming and showed our winning float on the segment.

Like I said I'm going to try to get back to posting more regularly and there are a bunch of new posts coming in the next week. In the meantime, I hope you are all getting excited for Halloween!

Mallard Madness

2009-09-30T03:30:00.006-04:00

Every year my sorority has a bunch of official social functions that are always a ton of fun. For those of you that don't know, official functions are paid for using sorority funds, which means that paperwork is sent in to Nationals, there's no underage drinking (unless you want to be called to Standards and be forced to miss the next function), etc. etc.

The first function for my sorority, and our chapter's favorite, is Mallard Ball, which we had on September 18. The theme, obviously, is duck hunting so everyone gets dressed up in hunting camo and neon orange and parties it up. Usually it is at a venue close to campus but this year our amazing social (who just happens to be one of my best friends) changed it up and had it outside on a farm in Blythewood about 25 minutes from campus. There was a fire with tons of stuff to make s'mores, hayrides, and an AWESOME up-and-coming band, McKenzie's Mill, from Nashville.

The general consensus from everyone's dates that came was that it was the best sorority function any of them had ever been to. I talked to one Sigma Chi who said, "I went to [another sorority's] function the night before and it was a mess. Girls were puking on the dance floor. Then I went to Mallard Ball and girls were shagging on the dance floor. I was the best function ever!"

I brought my flip along to record some of the action and finally had time to put some of it together. The first half (leading up to the buses) is footage from the pre-party that some people who couldn't go hosted. They hired a band, served all orange food to keep with the theme (cheetos, nacho cheese doritos, cheeze-its, etc.), and even set up tailgate games. The second half of the video is from the actual function. Enjoy!

I'm Not Always on Vacation

2009-09-27T00:54:00.004-04:00

Sorry I've been MIA this past week. I've had so much going on between school and initiation for the new girls in my sorority. Until last night I'd only slept 11 hours in the past five nights. I think my friend Julia over at If It Can't be Done in Flip Flops said it best:

"I'm not going to sit around and talk about how this has been the craziest week of my life at work - because I know you're all feeling it.

Every single person I've talked to - those working full time, students, my parents - everyone is saying this week has been hands down the most stressful week all year. It's nice to know misery has company."

I hope ya'll weren't as stressed out as we were and I promise I'll be updating soon!

My Weekend in Athens!

2009-09-17T04:00:00.014-04:00

Last week I purchased a Flip Mino video camera and used it for the first time this past weekend when I went to Athens, Ga for the USC/UGA football game. I didn't really get that much useable footage but it was fun just experimenting with it and trying it out.

I bought the Mino mostly so I'll have it when I go abroad in the spring to Florence, Italy but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy messing around with it. Hopefully this video blog will give you a little insight into how much fun I had this weekend:)

.....

I've recently decided to password protect my videos and have reworked some settings so that only my nickname is associated with my vimeo account so that not everyone can watch my video(s) - the password is "fivemonths" for this video.

P.S. Sorry for the bad quality... I had to compress the file for the web.

Kanye West Sucks

2009-09-15T17:09:00.004-04:00

So I've never been a big fan of Kanye West because he is ridiculously arrogant and entitled, but after his little temper tantrum at Sunday Night's VMAs I actually hate him. I did, however, enjoy seeing what some of the other artists in attendance had to say about the issue. I think these are my two favorites (Pink's tweet was within about 10 minutes of the incident, and Katy Perry's shortly after).

Something to Make You Smile

2009-09-10T14:42:00.005-04:00

My friend Sam's gchat status today:

Naturally I was curious and this is what popped up:

I don't understand... why are so many people looking "I am extremely terrified/afraid of chinese people" up?? HAHA

Reason 4: Classes Get Cancelled for No Reason

2009-09-10T14:25:00.006-04:00

Nothing brightens up my day quite like opening my g-mail and seeing a message like this in my inbox:

(If you can't read it, the message says, "There will be no class Thursday 9-10-09 for MGMT 371, see you Tuesday Dr. May")

What’s even greater about this message is that it is not an abnormal occurrence to get one like it. I have classes cancelled on a pretty regular basis (about twice a month at least) and it is usually for no good reason. Other times we are just let out really early, and that is even more common.

Last Thursday I was let out of that same management class with 45 minutes remaining because our teacher was going to meet his friend for drinks… at 2 in the afternoon. Also, last Tuesday I showed up for journalism to find that we had a substitute teacher. After he took attendance and gave us a handout with a new assignment he let us go. Heck, in my environmental science (101) class attendance is even optional! We actually get extra credit for showing up and answering questions with our iClickers, even if we don’t get the right answer.

In the real world stuff like this just doesn’t happen. You never get an e-mail from your boss that says “Don’t come in to work today. I don’t feel like being there either.” Point is, I think I’ll stay in school for a little while longer… Anyone want to join me?

Reason 3: Random Road Trips!

2009-09-08T00:47:00.005-04:00

While I may be in South Carolina, my heart is still in Readfield, Maine and with all my friends I made there. To keep me sane I’ve been planning weekend road trips around the South to visit my Laurel friends. I love road trips - bonding in the car with good friends, living out of suitcases, and making unexpected stops along the way all make each trip special in thier own way. I’ve got quite the itinerary set up over the next few weekends and I couldn’t be more excited.

Last weekend my friend Katie and I headed up to Raleigh, N.C. for the USC vs. N.C. State college football opener. Katie was a tennis instructor at camp and goes to school with me so we drove up there to spend the weekend with our friend Nick who was a member of the tripping staff. The weekend was great. When we got to Raleigh we headed straight to meet up with Nick at his friend’s tailgate spot. We dominated in cornhole, ate burgers and crawfish, met new friends, and had an all around good time. After the Gamecocks dominated (woo-hoo!) we headed over to East Village, the local fratty college bar where we spent a few hours before heading home to Nick’s best friend’s house.

Nick and I at the tailgate in Raleigh!

Katie and I with some random big truck we saw walking back from the tailgates - for some reason we felt it was necessary to document the moment, haha.

Friday was another good night. After a fun pregame at the house we stuffed 10 of us into a van cab and went to the Flying Saucer in downtown Raleigh. Our next destination, and one of the sketchiest bars I’ve ever been to, was called the Ugly Monkey. When I went to the bathroom I found some random chick in the bathroom who was so messed up that I told the bouncers that she wasn’t okay and needed help. Long story short, she was carried outside where the off duty cops called the EMS and an ambulance and fire truck showed up. While this bar definitely wasn’t my scene, I still had fun because I was with awesome people. Eventually we grabbed a limo cab (how cool is that?!) to take us back to the house where we hung out for a few more hours before passing out. It was the perfect end to a great weekend.

In a few days I will be driving down to UGA (with my road trip buddy Katie again!) for the USC/UGA football game. I’m hoping to see a ton of people I know down there. I’ll be staying with my good friend from home, Mary, but will also be meeting up with a group of… you guessed it, LAUREL FRIENDS! There are at least six of us who will definitely be there and hopefully another 3 or 4 will make it into town. I cannot WAIT to go out in Athens – I hear it is insane. Also, Kappa Sigma (a fraternity at UGA) has the Ying Yang Twins (!!) coming to their house to play after the game so I will definitely be going to that party. It’s going to be a great weekend!

What about you? What were/are your favorite college roadtrips?

Camp Laurel: Camp the Way I Like It

2009-09-06T18:39:00.009-04:00

I know I haven’t posted in over two months but this has been one of the busiest and most memorable summers of my entire life.

I spent the last two months of summer working at Camp Laurel in Readfield, Maine. When I got there I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I just hoped that I would have a fun and new experience, but I never imagined that the people I met and the friends I made would change me and make such a powerful impression on me as much as they have.

One amazing thing about camp is that everyone is so relaxed and real around each other. When you live with people and are around them 24/7 you can’t put up a front. I have never been more comfortable being totally myself in my entire life. I never felt that I needed to impress anyone or go out of my way to please anyone. In the real world I try to tone down my outgoing and crazy personality sometimes depending on my audience – in the “Laurel Bubble” that’s what people loved about me. Because of this I’ve made some of the best friends I’ve ever had. I have never been so honest with myself and with other people (especially that quickly) in my entire life. While I of course have AMAZING friends from home, college, etc. it took me much much longer to create bonds as strong as the ones I made at camp.

The “Laurel Bubble” as I call it was also a cool thing. Camp seems like the only place on earth when you’re there. Since I didn’t have my phone on me all the time and wasn’t constantly on twitter or gchat or facebook I was pretty disconnected from the outside world. I wasn’t able to read the newspaper or watch TV so my whole world was within the “walls” of camp. Laurel feels like the safest place on earth – you are in a beautiful place surrounded by people you love and who love you right back. If you ever need any help with ANYTHING you know that there are tons of people who would do anything for you. Unlike the “real world” sometimes, I felt like I could go to my bosses for anything as well. They weren’t just my bosses, they were my friends and my mentors and were some of the most approachable and sincere people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. All of these things just fed into the feeling of security I had while I was at camp.

Of course, the world isn’t a perfect place and sometimes the painful and unexplainable happens, even when you are in the Laurel Bubble. About halfway through the summer one of my fellow counselors and friends, Corrie Lazar, was hit and killed by a drunk driver when she was walking back to camp from “the Docks”, a popular nighttime hangout for counselors a few blocks down the road. Camp is broken up into six campuses by age and gender and Corrie was in the Baxter campus with me and 27 other girls this year and also part of the Arts & Crafts department. Corrie was an amazing and beautiful person. I’ve never met someone more perceptive and tuned in to people’s emotions in my life. She wanted more than anything to help her girls in her cabin be the best people that they could be and did anything she could to show them what was really important in life. She was a great friend to anyone who knew her and she has truly left footprints on my heart.

Corrie’s passing obviously had a huge impact on camp. It left everyone, especially the people who were with her that night, the ladies of Baxter, and those close to Corrie, devastated, broken, and feeling completely helpless. Our perfect, sheltered, Laurel world had come crashing down on us. Our bubble had been popped.
What I witnessed at camp after that though, was nothing short of amazing. I barely have words for it. People who were in pieces themselves were picking others up, dusting them off, and helping them get through this nightmare. This strength was especially obvious to me within Baxter. We all still had to go on with our daily duties – taking care of our kids, working in our program areas – and all with a smile on our face. Without each others’ love and support I think it would have been impossible to go on with camp life like we all did. I can’t even begin to express the tremendous love I have for my fellow Baxter Babes and what those ladies mean to me.

One of my friends and fellow swimming and Baxter counselors, Gretchen, made a slideshow about camp and put this quote in it. I couldn’t have said it better myself:

Baxter Girls: “If there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think, but the most important thing is, even when we’re apart, I’ll always be with you.” –Winnie the Pooh

At camp I also formed so many strong bonds with my campers. I never thought I could care about children who weren’t mine that much. I lived in a cabin, Baxter 12 (or X12), with two other counselors and nine 11 and 12 year old girls. I became so close with my girls that, to me, they were my children. I now know what it feels like to go through the ups and downs of being a parent. If they misbehaved I was so disappointed, embarrassed and upset that they could act that way. If they did something cool I couldn’t have been prouder of them. I was so excited when I got to see them in their dance recitals and the camp musical (I was quite the stage mother- haha), when they would pass a level in swimming, make something in ceramics, or come back from an inter-camp victorious. They didn’t have to be “the best” at whatever it is they were doing for me to be proud either. If they got killed in a tennis inter-camp I was just so pumped that they participated and tried their hardest anyways. If they made me a friendship bracelet that wasn’t done correctly and looked totally messed up (which definitely happened a few times…) I loved it and wore it proudly because MY girls had made it for me and it was therefore the best bracelet ever.

The last week of the summer the camp has College Days (similar to other camps’ Color Wars) which was five days filled with various athletic, artistic, and spirit-based competitions. I was honored to be chosen as a Staff Spirit leader for the University of California Bears team and College Days was absolutely insaneeee. It was quite the emotional roller coaster, partially due to lack of sleep I’m sure, but also the most amazing experience and I wouldn’t have traded it for the world. One part I really enjoyed about College Days is that I got to know some of the Super Seniors (the oldest campers who were the leaders of C-Days) a lot better since I spent pretty much every waking hour with them. I again formed this protective attitude towards them and think of some of them like little brothers and sisters. They are all great kids and I’m glad a lot of them have been making the effort to keep in touch.

The last day of camp I escorted a group of kids on the camp’s chartered flight back to Laguardia (in NYC). When we finally got to the airport all the parents were waiting and the whole process of giving the kids back to their families went very fast. As I walked over to meet the rest of the counselors at baggage claim to collect our stuff when we were done, I started to choke up – I felt like my children had just been ripped away from me. The whole way home I kept worrying about my girls – wondering if one of them would remember to have her parents give her her eye drops, hoping that another wasn’t still feeling sick like she had the night before, wishing I knew how another’s reunion with her 6th grade boyfriend went because she had been so excited about it. When I expressed my concern to my dad he politely reminded me that he is sure their parents are perfectly qualified and capable of taking care of their own children and that I needed to relax. Even though I know that this is true and that they are all fine, I still think about them every day.

So, camp is over, but the friends I’ve met, the lessons I’ve learned and the memories I’ve made will be carried in my heart. That said, I’ll leave you with a few quotes that I love love love and that remind me of these amazing people that made my summer at Camp Laurel the best summer of my life.

“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.” –Winnie the Pooh

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”

And these quotes from the video my friend Gretchen made:

“It’s not about where you’re going or where you’re from, it’s about who you take the journey with.”

“We won’t say we’re the best, but we’ll say there’s no one better.” (Baxter Babes ’09!<3)

"Missing someone is not about how long it's been since you've seen them last or the amount of time since you talked... but it's about that very moment when you are doing something... and you wish, you wish that they were right there with you."

"How lucky we are to have people that are so hard to say goodbye to."

...counting down the days until summer 2010!

S'more Camp News

2009-06-25T23:52:00.002-04:00

First off, I apologize for not posting, but this summer I won't be able to blog very often since I'm at camp in Maine.
So far everything has been going very well. This camp is run like a business and is very personal with the families that send their children here. Despite the constant rain this first week, I have been learning so much and having a ton of fun. Our kids get here on Saturday and I cannot WAIT to get my campers!
We just had our first day off and headed down to Portland for the night. A bunch of staffers met up at Ri Ra which apparently is a chain! I did not know this and felt very comfortable there since I go to the one in Clarendon (Arlington, VA) often when I'm home. Today we woke up and shopped all day in Freeport before heading over to Haraseeket in South Freeport for some (amazing) lobster. When in Maine...
I'll try and give another update soon but if you'd like more detail feel free to write me and I'll write you back! My address is:
Reid Cifrino
Camp Laurel
Box 327
Readfield, ME 04355

Arlington: The Rap!

2009-06-12T09:37:00.003-04:00

It is only 9:30am but I've already had a bad morning. I was venting over gchat to my sister when she sent me this video to cheer me up. It is freakin' hilarious, especially if you live and hang out in Arlington. This video is pretty much the story of my life. Enjoy below!

Music Minute: Shannon McArthur

2009-06-11T17:06:00.003-04:00

My freshman year of college I attended a Greek Conference in Atlanta through Campus Crusades and met a guy named Shannon McArthur who was a KA at the University of North Carolina. The first night of the conference there was a little social and Shannon, an aspiring musician, took the stage. He was AMAZING and I'm pretty sure every girl in the room fell in love right then and there.

Anyways, I wanted to share some of his stuff with ya'll because it is great music to relax to and he's a great guy!

Below you can listen to several of his different songs. My personal favorites are Side to Side (written after he attended a South Carolina football tailgate and was turned down by a girl he asked to dance with) and Tonight (a friend of his in LA helped him record a full band version which sounds great). I hope ya'll enjoy and if you want to hear more of Shannon's music you can buy his stuff on iTunes (just search Shannon McArthur) and visit his website.

My FIRST Award!

2009-06-11T15:06:00.004-04:00

Today I got my first blog award from my friend Rachel over at It's The Little Things That Make Me Smile and I am so excited! She awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award.

Here's the rules:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have newly discovered.

Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for the award.

I'm only going to tag two people. First, my friend Julia (If It Can't Be Done In Flip Flops, It's Probably Not Worth Doing) and also my friend Jenn (11:one) who just started blogging about her adventure of moving to St. Thomas this past Monday!

Thanks again for my first award Rachel!

I Love Summer BBQs

2009-06-09T22:25:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite things to do during the summer is grill out. BBQs are a fun and relaxing way to get all your friends together and enjoy the warm weather. In the past month I've been to at least five of these get-togethers ranging from six people to forty but it has always been a great time.

A few weekends ago my sister and I hosted our first “Cifrino Sisters’ BeerBQ” at our parent’s house and it was a lot of fun. They have a pretty and spacious backyard with a patio, as well as a side patio where our grill is connected to the gas line. We had a couple beer pong/flip cup tables and cornhole set up out back and provided some hot dogs but asked everyone else to bring something to share. This made it inexpensive for us as well as our guests and we still had tons of food.

Since it was such a success last time and our parents are leaving me the house again on my last weekend home before I head to Maine, Megan and I will be having another BeerBQ on Friday. It is the same deal as last time (BYOB and bring something to share) and it already looks like we’re going to have a big turn out. I am excited because it will be the perfect opportunity for me to say goodbye to everyone before I leave for the rest of the summer!

(Some pretty ladies enjoying themselves at our last BBQ)

Happy National Fist Bump Day!

2009-06-03T15:38:00.003-04:00

Check out what it's all about here: nationalfistbumpday.com

I Am One of the Luckiest People in the World

2009-06-03T01:35:00.005-04:00

I truly believe that I am one of the luckiest people in the world because I have the most amazing big sister, Megan. She is one of the most caring, outgoing, and beautiful people I know. While we haven’t always gotten along since we are so different (from about 1989 until 2004 we pretty much wanted to kill each other), I can honestly call her my best friend now.

When I was a freshman in high school and Megan was a Senior we fought all the time. Still, I secretly looked up to her and hoped that I’d be able to find friends as great as hers (I did) and be as cool as her (I’m probably cooler nowJ).

When she left for West Virginia University I was devastated but it ended up being one of the greatest things that ever happened to us. We started talking about our lives to each other more and became a lot closer. It only got better once I left for college myself.

Now that she is back in the DC area working we are closer than ever. We talk at least once every day and when I’m home we hang out at every opportunity we get. Meg and I tell each other everything and even though we still have fights about the stupidest things, five minutes later it is like nothing ever happened.

I think one of my favorite bloggers, Heather B. Armstrong (a.k.a. Dooce) said it best when talking about the bond between sisters. Every month she writes a letter on her blog to her daughter Leta and she is expecting another daughter within the next couple of weeks. This is what she had to say to Leta about the subject (at the time of this post last December she didn’t know her baby was going to be a girl):

“Mostly, I am excited that this baby will have you as an older sister, and not just because you will both need someone to call to complain about the fact that your parents are nuts. Sure, there will be times when you'll both try to kill each other either through physical brutality or embarrassment, but I know that at some point this baby is going to look up to you and think you are the coolest thing that ever walked on the planet. And while there is no way to predict the lasting dynamic of a relationship between siblings, I can only hope that you will have with this one what I have with my own, a bond so strong that it doesn't even matter that we have nothing but our parents in common. They are lifelines, people who were there, who were witnesses to everything that made me who I am, and I am the same for them in return. Is the relationship perfect? No, but we all know that we would sacrifice anything for each other, and one of the many reasons we decided to have another child was to give you the possibility of that friendship.”

So if you’re reading this Megs I want you to know that I love you so much and I am so glad that I was blessed with a big sister as wonderful and fabulous as you!

My Blog Was "Pimped" by Krizzy Designs!

2009-06-03T00:22:00.006-04:00

As you probably noctied I have a new (custom!) blog design thanks to Krystyn over at Krizzy Designs. The design I had before was a template from a free site but I wanted something custom and unique that no other blog would have. I love the design of my friend Christina’s blog over at Christina’s Favorite Things and she recommended I use Krizzy Designs.

I visited Krystyn’s site and saw some of her other work and decided that she would be perfect for the job. It was very easy to get started. I simply filled out a questionnaire that helped her get to know me and my blog and gave her an idea of the type of design I was looking for. Within a week (and 18 exchanged e-mails later) she had installed the design on my blog. It was so easy and I had a lot of opportunities to give her my input and tell her what I liked and didn’t like about the design so I could get exactly what I wanted.

So, if you’re looking for a custom blog design I definitely recommend using Krystyn -You can either click on the button in my sidebar or click here to get to her website which gives you all the directions for starting the process with her. I hope you all like my new design as much as I do!

Reason 2: I Get to Create My Weekly Schedule Each Semester

2009-05-27T10:14:00.008-04:00

Nothing is greater than getting to pick your own classes and scheduling them however you want. Once I graduate I’ll most likely be working 9 to 5 every day of the week, but while I’m in school I get to choose when I have to (or at least am expected to) show up.

After two years of college I’ve figured out that I like to have all my classes at once so I can get them over with at one time. For the fall semester I gave myself a pretty amazing schedule.

Basically my weekend starts at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday and continues until 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. I’m definitely looking forward to having four and a half day weekends all the time! I also like how I have Wednesdays off during the day to do work or whatever else I want and don’t have to worry about class until the evening.

How did (or do) you like to schedule your classes each semester?

Memorial Day Madness

2009-05-27T09:39:00.002-04:00

Every Memorial Day weekend the General speaks at the National Memorial Day Concert held on the West Lawn of the Capitol. Therefore, every year my family and I go. Over the past few years that I’ve gone I’ve seen many big name artists. The concert has also always been very emotional and it usually brings me to tears. This year was no different.

Katie Holmes and Diane Weist did an amazing job at presenting the story of American hero Jose Pequeno. It had the entire audience in tears. You can watch it here.

After the concert there is a VIP reception in Statuary Hall. An open bar and free food is enough to get me there already, but I enjoy the added bonus of getting to meet the performers there too.

Most years I try to get my picture with as many famous people as possible but this year I couldn’t really care less. Instead (after three large glasses of wine) I thought it would be far more entertaining to try and make Conner Cruise feel important.

For those of you who don’t know, Conner Cruise is Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s 14-year-old adopted son. He was there with Tom and Katie that evening and kept being awkwardly introduced as people were trying to meet TomKat.

After getting a picture with Tom, Conner, and my sister I thanked Tom and slipped Conner a little note that said, “Hey Conner! How long are you in town? J Reid” and had my phone number. Then his bodyguard called him over and said “I saw that!” and gave him a fist-pound.

A few minutes later as I was leaving, so were TomKat and the crew. Katie and Conner were waiting in the atrium for Tom to finish up talking to someone so I took the opportunity to say bye to Conner, make eyes at him, and smile, just to keep the charade going. Apparently Katie heard about my little note because she asked him, “Is that her?” as they walked away. Awesome.

Now obviously this was all meant as a joke and it really did make for an entertaining night. Megan and I got dropped off by Debby and my mom at Clarendon Grill where we met up with a bunch of Meg’s friends and they thought the story was so funny that they bought me a few drinks for doing it.

I guess the events of the night are another reason I love college - I can do stupid and slightly inappropriate things and no one thinks twice about it. All in all I’d say it was a fun and successful night!

Wordle Fun

2009-05-26T21:32:00.001-04:00

Thanks to my friend Julia over at If It Can't Be Done in Flip Flops I found this super cute site called Wordle that lets you generate "word clouds." She recommended turning your resume into a word cloud which ended up being very fun. Here's my resume, according to Wordle:Anyone have any other suggestions of fun things to turn into a word cloud?

Reason 1: Extended Vacation

2009-05-26T15:47:00.003-04:00

Whoever set up the college calendar is a genius. I go to school for about seven months out of the year and am on vacation for the other five. Considering college life itself is practically a four-year vacation already, I figure that I am usually stressed out and working really hard for no more than two non-consecutive months out of the year (around midterm/finals time).

My favorite time of the year is those fabulous four months between May and August where I get to choose to go wherever I want, and do whatever I want. Last summer I spent my time working at TMG Strategies, a communications consulting company in Arlington, Va. I got great experience there and met a bunch of amazing people who I still keep in touch with. After work and on the weekends I enjoyed going out in at some of my favorite Arlington spots like Ri Ra and Whitlow’s. I went to a bunch of concerts (Coldplay, Pearl Jam, Alicia Keys and The Jonas Brothers to name a few), National’s baseball games, and took weekend trips to the beach and to go camping.

This summer I chose to do something a little different with my time. I’ve decided to be a camp counselor for two months at an amazing camp up Maine. I’ll be teaching swimming on the waterfront and living with 8^th or 9^th grade girls. I couldn’t be more excited because I used to love going to summer camp when I was younger and I’m really looking forward to being a positive role model for my campers, just like my counselors were for me.

I leave for Maine on June 18^th but I’ve been home since May 1^st living it up. Some of the things I’ve been doing include hanging out with my friends from high school, catching up with old coaches and mentors and going out with my sister and her friends. I have also taken up biking. DC is so beautiful and very biker-friendly which makes for a wonderful combination. This past weekend I went to the National Memorial Day Concert (pictures and more details on that later) and I have my cousin’s wedding this coming Friday.

So far my summer vacation has been great, and I can’t wait to see what the rest has to offer! What are some of your favorite ways to spend your vacation time?