Feel The Power: Part Deux

yum i love dinner.
so back to training. it's been a really good experience and i was very nervous in the beginning just b/c i didn't know anything and i had no idea what it was going to be like. but after the first and second day i started to settle in and it was better. we seem to all get along with each other as a group...we're not all best friends and we'll never be that way, but we will definitely be able to work with each other to get things done, which is awesome.
ok i don't know why i started a new blog b/c really...i have nothing much to say. so sorry i just wasted like...2 minutes of your time!
but on a funny note, vicky texted me from italy saying she was drinking a manhattan, then called me after i texted her back, and she was definitely on the right side of tipsy! i am a proud peacock! and i told lisa this and she said that our new years will be awesome this year. b/c in the past kristin and vicky have not joined in on the um.."festivities"..but now we'll make them. mwahahaha. we're such good friends.
mmmm k bye.

Feel the Power.

no i'm just kidding i don't think i have power now that i'm an RA. mwaaahaha. no i'm only joking.
soo i'm home this afternoon and tomorrow morning before i move in tomorrow afternoon, and i'm really enjoying the break. the past 5 days have been nonstop learning and talking and discussing and it just gets to be a little much at times, b/c we start around 9am and aren't done til about 1030pm or so. so it's been a long few days, and the next few days will be even longer i think.
so..friday i got to school and moved into Van Winkle with the other RA's, we were all living on the first floor, and we had our first meeting that afternoon, then dinner, then another meeting. same thing on saturday, then on sunday we went to a ropes course in swartswood. we got there around 830am and left after lunch around noon. it was actually a lot better than i thought it would be, i was really nervous going into it. but we split into 2 groups and went through the course doing lots of team building and teamwork and whatnot, and i think it was good for the group as a whole.
umm...we did more stuff when we got back to school...yesterday same thing...but we did mock rounds sunday night and last night, which was nervewracking. and of course the scenario they chose me for was an alcohol violation in bennett-smith......coincidence? i'm thinking NO. not so much. so that was an experience. and we did those a bunch of times with a bunch of situations.
then this morning we got together (the RA's) with the RD's and we were able to talk about some stuff we were concerned about. um ok time out i have to go eat dinner.

Last Day of Summer

hellooo there! i hope my pictures were enjoyable, i know i went a little crazy but when vicky explained to me how to put them in my blog i just got a little wacky with it.
So today is my last day of summer. tomorrow i go back to CC to begin training and learning how to make the little freshman do whatever i say..mwahaha. yeah right, i wish. so i should be packing for my week of that, but i really don't want to, so i'm doing this instead!
yesterday afternoon i met up with vicky and we saw "Garden State", which i really liked...it was a little unusual but more "real" than any movie i've seen in a while. although i can't say i relate with the Jersey that is portrayed in the movie (i don't do enough drugs to live here, apparantly), but the dialogue b/t the characters was very realistic. and i got a free little poster! well the old man gave it to vicky but i made her give it up b/c she's going to italy and has no way to pack it. so it will be on the wall of my room! along with other things that i will pack...next...wednesday. anyway after the movie we went to vic's house and i watched the michael phelps interview!! Awww he is adorable. but unfortunately for me he's moving to michigan to do some more intensive training. so far away! what's wrong with training in new jersey?! i hear we have good..pools? anywaaaay. oh vicky also showed me the tape of when jeter went head-first into the stands at yankee stadium...not pleasant.
then kristin came over yaaay! and we watched some olympics and some 'amish in the city'...thanks for that, kristin. i headed for home around 11:30 and had to say goodbye to vic and kristin :( TIL DECEMBER! :( very sad. but they're both doing blogs too! so i can follow what they do over there in italy, which is lovely. so they leave on saturday.
umm yeah that's about it. i'm bringing my laptop back to school tomorrow so i'll have it when i'm not in training and i can even update the blog with all the exciting things i'll be doing.......i'm sure you just can't wait.
alright then...it was a great summer, i'm sad to see it go!

Silly Face!

Looks like Lisa is evil and silly and I'm just plain silly. And that's Kristin on the end of the couch looking normal.

Hamish!

Me and "Hamish", a highland cow in Scotland! How cute is he! Awww! We had to take this pic very quickly, b/c Hamish had a tendency to try and itch his nose on the fence posts, which sent his horns flying everywhere. And that would be unpleasant.

Kat and Me at Manneken Pis

Kat and me in front of the Manneken Pis in Brussels! He's very small, he's the little statue above our heads.

Guinness Sign

*Sigh*

Kilmanhaim

This is the inside of Kilmanhaim Gaol in Dublin...very famous...it's the place where the leaders of the 1916 Rebellion were executed.

Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher on the West Coast of Ireland! You can't really grasp how huge these cliffs are...but on the bottom where the grass ends, yeah that's the edge. Scary.

It's Called Decorum.

And some people just don't have it! And by some people i mean some of the sprinters on the USA track and field team. i don't wanna go too crazy on telling you how much i do not appreciate their behavior, but i will say this: michael phelps won 8 medals and you didn't see him running around the pool showing off. and he's 19. i'm just sayin.
anyhooo i watched 'mystic river' last night, and i really liked it! it's weird when you see a movie after you read the book, b/c in the movie you get to certain parts really quickily..and in the book it just takes longer to get there b/c of more detail and such. but the movie followed realllly closely to the book, which i was impressed with, only a few major details that were different, but only b/c if they had been in there the movie would've been like 5 hours long. and sean penn was amazing, i recommend checking it out!
umm what else has been going on. let's think. today i washed my car and cleaned the whole inside.
oh duh, the other day i went down to ridgefield park w/ my mom and bro to visit my uncle alex and aunt donna..they're moving in 2 weeks and they have 2 little girls under 2, so we offered to go ahead and babysit for them so they can pack up and such. so i spent the day playing with my little cousins, aww! they're so cute, we went to the park and had fun. while i was there i got a call from a woman who works at CC with the RA's, she was just making sure iw as coming back? which was weird. it'd be really crappy of somebody to just not go back without telling anybody. and also we're apparantly doing a ropes course (flashbacks to blair's freshman year retreat) and going bowling one night. whee? we shall see.
ok that's all for me, adios!

Los Banditos!

ok #1: just found out there's an Ian Thorpe DVD titled "Ian Thorpe - Beneath the Suit"..and i think i should have that.
and #2: i love my girls! i had lots of fun, as usual, at lisa's house the past few days. kristin, vicky and i drove out to Bloomsburg in the Saturn on monday and it took almost 3 hours b/c of all the traffic on 80W..sucky. but we got there! and she drove down to the gate to let us in and we got the grand tour of her beautiful new manor - thing of beauty it is!!! really awesome and includes: elevator, movie theatre, sauna, and hot tub. and lots of other fun things! we went out to lunch at Town Perk which was very cute and nice and deliciouuuus. after that we stopped at a little card store, like hallmark but so much better b/c it was smaller and more intimate, but with MUCH better cards and gifts. and i bought fold and mail stationary..GUMBY! hehehe so cute. and theeen..what did we do. back to lisa's i think, to watch more olymipcs! which i think we were all obsessed with, honestly. mrs. katerman made us dinner which was excelente! and she and mr. katerman joined us and we had witty dinner banter and lots of laughs and were done in time to watch...MEN'S GYMNASTICS! on lisa's big ol' movie theatre screen. can we saaay, HOT?! and there was swimming also (ian vs. michael...conflicted!) and i think we were about 2 seconds away from drooling the entire time. or was that just me?
but it was so great, then we all camped out in lisa's room and talked for a couple hours before we finally fell asleep.
yesterday lisa had some appointments, so kristin and i helped her out while vicky stayed at the house (she was NOT feeling well, poor thing, needed to rest up). so we dropped off lisa's car at the Jeep place, took the saturn to the park and relaxed on a blanket with our books, kristin went for a run, then we took lisa to her haircut appointment and kris and i went to get her jeep and the people were running late so we had to wait in the waiting room. and there was a guy also waiting in there, and he had "montel" on REALLY loudly, and it was this woman recounting her son's story of how he was molested...rather graphically i might add. so i'm sitting there and the guy doesn't change the channel and the woman is saying like...nasty things and i felt really uncomfortable! and kristin stole 'martha stewart living'. hehe. then we took lisa her jeep and went back to the manor! and hung out until lisa came back. then we got ready to go out to dinner.
we went to Arizona Cafe for some mexican food (how appropriate for Los Banditos to do so!) and it was very good! but not the service. the food was quite delicious though. but we didn't we nachos and salsa like everybody else which was a bummer. and they didn't take credit cards (what? how? stupid.), but we all enjoyed our meal and i had the best quesadilla EVER! mmm.
then we drove over to the Drive-In and saw "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" - very funny actually, and "Collateral" - ....not impressed. i liked jaime foxx a lot, but overall i think the movie was weak..i think. but i was distracted b/c 'the village' was playing next to us so i kept seeing joaquin phoenix and he's so gorgeous. oops.
got finished with those around 12:20a, so we headed back home, vicky passed out and kris, lis and i stayed up a little longer to have a midnight snack and chat, then we also passed out!
this morning lis went out and got us Dunkin Donuts coffee and bagels! thanks lis! and we all had some, so good! then we packed up and i took vicky's video camera and we did a Cribs style taping of the manor so i could show my parents how gorgeous it is. then lis drove w/ us to the gas station and we said our goodbyes :( miss you lisa!
the ride back to jersey was so much quicker i couldn't believe it, we made it in like half the time, and when we drove through blairstown, kristin wanted to drive through Blair, so we did that and ended up staying and talking to Ms. Conforti (old teacher and coach) for awhile, catching her up on our summer and talking about Blair things (including the possibility of teaching there ourselves...sooo weird! both b/c it's possible and b/c...that'd be so weird and cool!!!). by the time we were done it was dinner time, so the 3 of us went to Franks for some yummy pizza and finally got to my house around 6:30ish and kris and vic went on their way.
sooo...yeah. downloaded some songs...try "the killers"..they have a song called "somebody told me"..it's really interesting and catchy! the more i hear it the more i like it, actually. but i do have to go watch some Olympics..b/c that's what i do. it could be my job, if only the Olympics came on more than every 2 years...i also think i need to find myself a Swimmer. b/c they are...yummy. rowr.
go download 'the killers' like i told you! and watch the Olympics!

Olympic Mania!

Ahhh, my favorite sports event has finally arrived. The 2004 Olympics in Athens!!! WOOO! I love the olypmics sooo much i get quite obsessed with them actually. Today Michael Phelps won his first gold..he could win 8 if he wins everything...sooo exciting! and tomorrow he faces Ian Thorpe...aaah that will be awesome. The Thorpedo! But of course i'll root for Michael, even though he's got those taxi cab ears...aww.
anyhooo it's all very exciting and you should all be watching! there's a softball game on tomorrow, that should be good and tonight there was men's gymnastics...so much muscle! how do they do it?! and they showed this one Russian gymnast who was on the parallel bars, and he dislocated his ring finger and the top half of his finger was sticking straight up, and he just walked over to his trainer and the guy popped it back in like it was no big deal - i almost fainted. then blaine wilson (u.s. team) fell off the high bar and i yelped. then he couldn't do the pommel (sp?) horse b/c he probably had a concussion! but he did the rings and was looking back to normal...and hot.
i know that kristin and i will make lisa watch the gymnastics on monday when we're at her house, but i'm sure she won't mind watching men with 0% body fat do athletic things that make their muscles bulge in spandex. hehe.
i also watched a little volleyball, which was cool. watching the olympics always makes me sad that i'll never get there as an athlete. it looks like so much fun..and plus it'd be cool to be that good at something. on a completely different note, on that vh1 show 'the best week ever', they were saying how at the 2000 olympics in Sydney, i guess there were condom dispensers around, and they had to be refilled EVERY 2 HOURS. hi there horny athletes! not that i blame them, everybody there is like...a perfect specimen of a person.
anyhoo that's my little olympic update for today...oh and i love bob costas.

Hot Hot Heat

The name of a band, but also a fitting description of my skin right now! Despite the fact that I was sporting 30SPF sunblock all week, and reapplying the stuff pretty much every hour, i still managed to burn my poor skin. i also managed to have a freckle explosion, particularly on my face, fingers, and toes (weird, i know.). but i love freckles so i don't mind really. LBI was great, we really lucked out with the weather, even though it was cloudy a few of the days, i was ok with that b/c if it had been completely sunny i can only imagine how red i would be. the ocean was tons of fun, big waves, warm water, no jellyfish or seaweed! and i made my way through 3 books...b/c all i do while i'm sitting on the beach is read, it's awesome. i finished "Sushi for Beginners", read "She's Come Undone" (which was sooo good but kind of sad and depressing...but worth the read.) and "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks who i really really like! and i borrowed "Mystic River" (the book) from my uncle and that is my next reading project! which i'm looking forward to b/c the movie had such praise..the book must be good. a few times on the beach it was really really windy, and the sand was attacking my face and felt like tiny needles. so that wasn't cool and i had to wrap myself in my towel until the wind went away...i'm sure i didn't look as ridiculous as i felt.
we went out for breakfast at ScoJo's one morning...aaah sooo goood. apple cinnamon pancakes, YUM! and last night we went to Octopus's Garden w/ my uncle Mark (he owns the beach house and lets us stay in it), and i had shrimp, if you can believe it. coconut shrimp, and it was really good.
this morning we were going to go to the beach but we decided not too b/c the weather didn't look good (hurricane charley!) and it's a good thing we didn't b/c it started to rain, so we just packed up and headed home. but it was a really fun week, i love the jersey shore!
so, if you don't know this than you either don't live in new jersey or you don't read the news, but our governor is gay and being hit with some lawsuit..Apparently he harassed some guy but tried to cover it up by giving the guy a high place in government, but the FBI wouldn't tell him anything b/c he wasn't an American Citizen...something along those lines, so now the guy is suing McGreevey b/c he didn't get what he wanted...i think that's the jist of it. so the gov resigning and i kinda feel bad for him. and his family. in the news conference his dad was standing behind him and was NOT looking pleased. and if i were his wife i would just be embarrassed, i think. anyway, it's all very scandalous.
i also can't hear out my right ear at the moment. and i'm not sure why that is. i think i'm getting sick but i don't know why that would affect my hearing.
oh! ok i have some ireland pics i want to show you all but i don't have a digital camera...but i haven them on a disc but i don't know how to do this. b/c you need to have them on a website i think. ok well that won't work. i'll keep trying to figure that out. adios people!

Family = Exhausting

aaah family parties make me tired. so many children to entertain! but more about that shortly.
let's relive friday, shall we? actually we don't really have to b/c i didn't really do much i don't think...oh wait yes i did! but not until that evening! around 6 i dropped alex off at a girl friend's house then i drove over to the Lombardi's for a Welcome Home Jen dinner! that was really fun and delicious, as always. we stuffed ourselves with ham, mashes, bread, and cheeeesecake and strawberries...aaah so great. then jen, suzy, vicky, kristin, and i all sat around the table for a couple hours just talking about old memories (listen to me..by old i mean like 4 years.) and had a grand old time. i left around 10p b/c i had to pick up alex from his friend's house, but i had a great time!
saturday was wedding day! not for me, but for Jeremy's brother, Justin! wheeee i love weddings! but there was a mini-crisis b/c i couldn't get in touch with jeremy and i had neither his home phone number nor directions to his house. so i had to do my best to guess his info, then look it up in the white pages, and on my 3rd try i got jeremy's mom and she gave me directions. got to his house around 2 just in time to jump in mr. hilgert's car and ride over to the wedding ceremony, which was lovely. the bridesmaids had really nice pink dresses and the guys were all in tuxedos (yaaay!) and after the ceremony i drove jeremy's jeep down to where the reception was. it was in an old bank building that was right behind the Crayola Factory...one of those places you'd never find unless you heard about it through someone else who had been there, ya know? and it was really cool, there was the dance floor downstairs then upstairs there was a big long table for the wedding party overlooking the dance floor, and across from their table were 5 guests tables also overlooking the dance floor...and of course lots of tables downstairs around the dance area. it was really fun, even though i sat with the bride's, becca, sorority sisters from college and i didn't know them. but we were sitting next to the table with all the single guys, who were justin's friends from college, and they were hilarious, they kept yelling across to justin and becca and they were just being loud and having a great time. jer and i left around 1030p, which is when the party officially ended, and we drove back to his house. i hung out there for a little while and headed home around 1230 to sleeep.
and of course, today was the family bbq! family started showing up around 2p and it was kinda hectic but in that fun kind of way, and i spent all day playing with my little cousins and helping my mom cook and took lots of pictures. had dinner and dessert and tons of great conversation, told people about ireland and how awesome it was/is and showed off my pictures (which i really need to get an album for.), then scary bat things happend.
my uncle and aunt were getting ready to leave and i kept hearing something over by the garage, and i kept asking my dad if he heard it, and he was like ' no, no i don't hear anything' but i knew i heard SOMETHING! then like 3 bats came flying at us and i screamed bloody murder and ran away. so my uncle alex, who loves this sort of thing, decides to throw little pebbles up in the air to try and lure them out..i guess b/c they have their little radar so they'd chase the pebbles, or so he says. and a few of them did, then my dad was investigating wehre they were living, and it turns out a HUGE family of them live up underneath the roof of our garage..and when i say huge, i mean like, several dozen bats. hi. hi there little bats! *snort* and at one point, i'm not exaggerating, there were no less than 10 bats flying out at one time, and just flying all over and swooping down and i was just waiting for one to fly in my hair and freak the hell out of me. but luckily they didn't. see, i don't dislike bats b/c i know they eat bugs and probably spiders, and i hate spiders way more than i dislike bats. actually i think bats are neat, it's just freaky when they're flying at my face. and they're weird. blech. but that's that.
tomorrow we leave for Long Beach Island! and i can't waaaaait, i love my uncle mark's house down there, it's so peaceful. i might try to take my laptop with me and see if i can tap into a wireless internet or something, so if i do than i can give you some beach updates, and if not, i'll give a summary of the week when i get back on friday! woo!

*somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near* somewhere i have never travelled...

Summertiiime....

and the livin's easyyyy...for the next couple weeks anyway! then back to CC to train for RAness. which won't be fun. but maybe i should have a positive attitude about it?! i think i should...it WILL BE FUN! i'll make it fun.
anywayyy let's see. on monday i met lisa down in blairstown and she followed me back to my house, we had dinner and vicky came over! we stayed up talking til about midnight, then vicky left and lisa and i were reading through magazines and catching up on things...kristin couldn't make it, sadly, b/c she had been up since 3am waiting at the italian consulate in nyc for her student visa! and that didn't help her at all b/c she wasn't feeling well, so she stayed at home to rest up for the beach fun on tuesday!
tuesday morning lis and i left the house early and were at vickys around 9, i piled in kristin's car with her and chris, and vicky rode with lisa. and off to the parkway we went! it was so gross out on our way down though, so hazy but i was kind of glad it wasn't totally sunny..made the sunburn factor a little lower.
made a quick stop at the Cheesequake Rest Stop and vic bought sunglasses, back on the road and after 2 close calls through the toll booth (lisa didn't see the need to WAIT! just b/c she has EZ pass. the nerve. jokes.) but we were at Point Pleasant by around 11:30a. paid $8 for a day of parking (grrrr) then $5.50 to get on the beach (grrrrrrrrrrrrr) but at least we got there early so i felt like i got my moneys worth, ya know? so we staked out a good place on the beach and planted ourselves there for the remainder of the day, putting on 30spf sunblock on the hour, every hour. and yet....still got burned. but in really weird spots...like there's a spot on my ankle and a spot on my knee...so odd.
then of course we got the token annoying mom camped out next to us, and her little boy just happends to be named "Mason" which is one of my top 3 baby boy names. or WAS. until she decided to say "Mason look at mommy! Look at Mommy, Mason! Mason! Mason look at the camera!" ABOUT EVERY 2 SECONDS. not even exaggerating. so i was really turned off to the name since i heard it around 5000 times. but hopefully i'll recover. b/c i really love that name. then there was a young couple...still in high school i think, and they were all cuddly on their blanket, but i guess after the were in the water they didn't want to bother with towels, and they were just rolling around in the sand...which i guess would have been cute but i couldn't shake the feeling of having sand ALL OVER ME. and in my hair and stuff...ugh i couldn't see romantic in that. so kristin got up to go get some water and had to walk by them, and all of a sudden chris says 'oh my god she's taking their picture' and i turn around to see what appears to be kristin going in someone else's purse and rummaging through it for something. we were all very confused until she took out a camera and took a picture of the sand covered duo for them...ah, all clear!
we packed up our stuff around 5 and went back to the cars to put away our things and go find something to eat, which resulted in...mexican! which was good, except there was a strange man who had finished a bottle of wine, alone, sitting next to us and he was odd. then our server was kind of clueless to the point of coming off as rude. but the food was yummy, i thought! but when we went to pay the bill the manager saw that we had separate checks (apparantly not allowed at this place) and was like 'well she shouldn't have done that. we don't DO separate checks.' like he was gonna go fire her or something! i felt bad. then lisa got into a conversation with him about why he doesn't, and how he should change his policy..not in a rude way just a helpful friendly kind of way. then when i went to pay my check the woman asked me if i owned a restaurant....? do i give off that "i own a restaurant" vibe? whatever vibe that may be?
lisa left us to go down to Avalon for some more sun filled beach days, and the rest of us headed back home! overall a very fun day and i'm happy we went..despite the sunburn! damn sun! evil UV rays! actually vicky ended up sleeping over and we watched "Cold Mountain"...which was...good? i think? i might have to watch it again, i have mixed feelings.
yesterday i went down to Ridgefield Park with my mom and we watched my Uncle Alex and Donna's little girls (ashley is almost 2 and jenna is 6 weeks old) while they went through their attic and packed it up...they're moving to a gorgeous house in Toms River...lucky. so that was really fun but challenging. but i love babies so mostly it was fun :)
today was slow, just did stuff around the house, but saturday i'm going to a wedding! wheee! the first non-family wedding i've ever been to, i believe. jeremy's brother is getting married so i'm going as Jer's date! i'm excited i haven't been to a wedding in forever and i love them! sunday is the joint welcome home me/happy birthday grandma party, then monday we're off to LBI til friday! i just live in a whirlwind now don't i. no not really.
i have been depriving you of e.e. lately, so enjoy!

*love being such,or such,
the normal corners of your heart
will never guess how much
my wonderful jealousy is dark* - supposing i dreamed this)

Americaaaaa!

so happy to be home! just writing to say that. i am home safely and soundly, despite a very turbulent flight that scared me and made me embarass myself...making loud girly noises on a plane is now on my list of things NOT to do. damn.
lisa is coming over tomorrow! and on tuesday the girls and i are heading to sandy hook for a fun day of beach! adios!