Whew!

I'm finished!

I just got back from my last official final of my undergraduate career! Clearly, I have another semester to go, but none of my classes will be "final test" type classes- just papers or portfolios! AMAZING!

And yet, as I walked out into the street the feeling of sadness sifted through me. And I remembered that I always feel sad when I finish finals. Not that I LOVE the stress, but that I love the challenge, and that I'm reasonably good at it because I enjoy learning so much.

The triumph of being finished for a whole months certainly outweighs that faint sadness, and yet I feel it with a bit more intensity this time, knowing its the last time I'll finish THIS way- just before Christmas, bursting through the doors of the Silver Center with a cheesy grin on my face, just like I did freshman year.

I've been feeling a strange nostalgia- or perhaps its not strange- for the last few years, and yet I'm so happy to be HERE. Now. But it has hit me harder than it has before that I am going to REALLY REALLY REALLY miss this place, and this thing- College- the atmosphere. I've had so many "I love NYU" and "I love Gallatin" moments (no, really... strange, I know) the last few days, and even today, in the middle of my essay test as I was writing away, felt that swell of endearment. Gosh, I'm a nerd.

I am, though, more and more ready to be in a new phase of life. While college has been so wonderful, I'm eagerly anticipating completing it. Less than two months until my Colloquium, and just under five months until I graduate. Wow... after 22 years I think I'm ready.

I'll never be ready to be DONE with school- never reach that golden brown stage of ready-to-eat academic achievement, and yet I think a change 'll do me good.

So there you have it. Some nonsensical musings about now and then and just now and all that... I'm sure you're in for a lot more of that as the true 'end' of this stage approaches.

For now, though, I wish you all very Merry Christmases and Happy Hanukkas and Fatastico New Years and Amazing Trips to Israel or Colorado or North Carolina or California or Minnesota or Georgia or Tennessee....

Update: Pictorial.

Wow!

Here is a pictorial update marathon! Well, really just pictures from weekend before last's good times. Friday night Staci and I went out with Josh, Laura, Laura, Brittany, and Allison! Saturday we went to the Ballet! Oh the culture!

See below for some of the pictures!

Josh! At Benny's Burritos in the East Village.

Me and Staci at Benny's Burritos.. where it all started.

Here we are at 2X4 on 2nd ave and 4th street.
Note the background- ol' Big Buck Hunt video game!

Staci and Josh with their "All you can drink Bud or Bud Light 'til Midnight" bracelets.

Staci, Me, Laura, and about a third of Josh's face.

Josh is happy!

Claire is... scared?

Brittany and Laura- so cute!

Staci and Claire- awww!

The ladies singing to a classic BSB song. You know it was me who requested it.
And you know everyone in that bar loved it!

Sing it Staci!

Yeeuh.

Everyone clapping to.... Stevie Wonder, I think.

This creaper behind Brittany... kept hanging around until Laura Rogers put a stop to him!
"NOOO!"

Speaking of, there she is! Miss Laura Rogers! Beauty!

We were happy or funny or something- goodtimes.

Allison, Brittany, and Laura livin' it up!

Josh is happy!

I have no idea why Allison is doing this, but I LOVE that the guy behind her is doing it too!

Josh and Laura!

Staci with our chocolate shake at Moonstruck Diner.

Me and the shake! Mmm.

R-L: Brittany, Laura Rogers, Josh, Laura Lorenzetti, Allison.

Josh started the laughing fit.

The hat had to happen.

It was a great time. We had a great TIME!

Below is our picture of the tree at Lincoln Center where we saw the Nutcracker which was FANTASTIC- the set was amazing! I'll leave you with that for now- hopefully I'll come by some good pictures from other peoples' cameras from this weekend (my battery died).

BOOKED!

We are officially BOOKED to go to JAMAICA for our Honeymoon!

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!




This is going to be us!


I am so excited! Only 244 days!

Progress Report.

Finals time. Yikes. I realized I haven't kept you very well updated, and some of you are confused at the goings on unless you talk with me daily or see me every few days- so here is the latest:

I turned down the internship- I believe this was the right decision and feel very much at peace with it. (yes (for those confused), I interviewed, was offered the internship, and then turned it down).

I am finished with Finals on Wednesday at 6:00pm (maybe earlier). Until then I'll be pretty crazed, but honestly things are going well. I have solid drafts of both papers due on Wednesday completed that need only minor changes and input. I have an Irish oral test that I'm taking tomorrow at 3:30. Tuesday is my final in piano. Wednesday I'll hand in my papers and then my last class is an essay test on Twelfth Night and King Lear. So overall, not too bad. Having last week's papers and groups projects happily behind me, the work I put in on Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Friday has really helped this week seem not at all bad. It is stressful, but knowing its the last of its kind (here I come 10 credits!!!) is a GREAT feeling.

I head home on Thursday morning- I'll be leaving the apartment around 4:45am! Woo!

So there you have it. Mostly this post was written for me to clear my thoughts, and for you confuseled kids to know what's up. And for Miss Whitney- to have a little more info on finals time so she can relish vicariously :) Holla.

Anyway. Should have some fun news coming up, and ideally some pictures. But hey, I know I'm full of promises....

Drowning in Jacques.

Yes. Its true. I'm drowning in Jacques le Fataliste.









And yes. That was a blatantly sad effort at procrastination.

But it worked. *

December 6, 2006.

I have elected to stay home this evening and work on some papers.

It should be good.

I'll be wearing this, an item I receibed in class today, in order to stay focused...

To Be or Not To Be...

An Intern.

I got offered the internship that I interviewed for on Friday. Hooray! And yet...

I would have a 45 minute (at LEAST) commute every time I went out there, another 45 back. It's not the most desirable location, nor is the office a traditional style office- it is located in a donor's apartment- this is a TRUE non-profit. It would be SUCH good experience, but I'm not sure that in the end it's what I want for my last semester here.

I'll keep you all posted, of course. Right now I've requested more info on the jobs and duties I would have as an intern, and we'll go from there.

I'm pretty tired and still have a group meeting to go to tonight at 9:15. It shouldn't be bad, but the paper I'm currently trying to outline is totally slapping me in the face and laughing at me like a frosting-faced little girl. Cruel!

Some day soon (or maybe this weekend...) I'll post more details and some pictures. In the mean time, leave me some love, wisdom, or inspiration!

I Do Exist.

Wow,

I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated! I apologize. That's kind of what the ol' Thanksgiving break/finals lead-in will getcha!

But hey- hey, settle down! I'll be updating tomorrow, hopefully, with pictures and stories and provoking thoughts for you, so buckle in.

And just you wait!

Also, very merry December to you all!

Some Pictures.

Here is a collection of pictures...

These two are me and Staci at Wicked. It was raining that night and we were both pretty wet despite our jackets and umbrellas. Note: I straightened my hair that day....




And the Dash!


Gilbert sends his love!


Dash riveted by Gilbert!


Just a note here: I am reaching over my shoulder like that because Gilbert there gettin' some kitty lovin!



And there you have a few pictures to feast your eyes on.

Thanksgiving, Ho!

Thank goodness that Thanksgiving is in sight!

It has been a long semester, and this break will (hopefully) be a truly restful one. I plan to keep hospital visits to a minimum this go round, and to EAT!!!

Just wanted to put that out there, and to invite you all to share your favorite Thanksgiving food/dish with me! Put it in the comments!

I love MAKING the stuffing (have done it every year since I was old enough to help!) and I love EATING the rolls, mashed potatoes, and pecan pie!

Wicked!

So the superly awesome roomate of my, Staci, got us tickets to go see WICKED!

We went last night and saw it, and it reminded me YET again how much I love musical theater, and more so, how AMAZING that show is!

AND just guess who the lead was? Yeah- who played "Elphaba" the Wicked Witch.... ANA GASTEYER. Not crapping you, no- from SNL for 6 seasons... she was AWESOME. I had NO idea that she had a voice like that- WOW! She rocked it, and it was so exciting!

Anyway, just had to share. Wicked is on tour so if you can see it in a town near you and you like theater AT ALL... GO SEE IT! Spend the money and SEE IT. IT. IS. WORTH. IT!

Humidity=Frizzball.

See Below.







Yes, my hair was ALL pulled back when I left work. When I arrived home it looked like THIS... and it wasn't even raining.

Pretty hilarious.

Pictorial: London!

Well folks! I survived the busiest international airport in the world TWICE- made it to and from London with no problems!

I left on Wednesday night at 10:30 (though my plane was late so I didn't actually get ON the plane until about 11:00) and arrive in the lovely Londontown around 12:00pm the next day. Besides the chanting coming from the seat behind me and the guy with the whopping cough in front of me, the old man spilling over into my seat wasn't so bad. Luckily the flight heading that way from here is only about six hours, and I watched "John Tucker Must Die" for free, so I can't complain.

Customs and Immigration was fine, and after six hours you better believe I went to the 'lou'. There I found this mounted on the wall, and thought it was neat so I took a picture!

I'm not going to recount every second of the trip because you don't care and I don't have time, so I'll just say what is happening in each picture. The one below is of my parents on the subway- so cute! They wouldn't sit still, thus the blurriness.

The whole purpose of the trip was to go to the We Are Scientists shows at Brixton Academy... see below!

A closer picture- the capacity is 5,500 and they sold that sucka out two nights in a row!

We arrived there at about 5:00 and got to see the guys do their sound check. Then we went to catering (yep, they have the full fleet in the UK- including great catering!) for dinner. Below are Ian and Elizabeth getting in a moment in catering!

And there I am with the pair!

Me with my WAS sponsored dinner (glasses due to tired eyes, not for fashion, clearly).

There's always a FACE. This was in the WAS dressing room- we had all access passes, no big deal.

It's hard to describe, but the show was the real deal. The last time I went to a concert with this type of production must have been in my NSync days because none of the people I've seen since have done the whole lights-and-fog deal. It was SO cool. They rought the lights low and cued up Phil Collins' "Against all odds" to being... then they came out dramatically and layered over the recording until it died out and they were jamming to the balled. So. Awesome. Here you get an idea of the lights and crowd. Sadly my camera isn't the best for these kinds of pictures.

More lights!
And them... they are there, Ian is on the right, Keith is left, Tapper center.

Another show shot.

Someone threw this sparkly hat on stage and Ian immediately grabbed it and put it on- and of course claimed it made him look more british, which it may well have. Hilarious. I love that they can go with the flow.

Another picture of the lights so you can get a feel for the extent of them- they really were so awesome!

A picture of the crowd. Now let me say the UK fans are INSANE. They throw beer like crazy- if you're on the floor you must be soaked by the end. They get so packed in there, and there is always a moshpit happening. Kids crowd surf like crazy, and I have a profound respect for the body guards at these shows. Kids keep getting tossed towards the front of the stage and they keep gently picking them up and setting them down in the corrale in front of the stage and crowd barriers so they can trot off back into the crowd and do it again! It's insane- and they are SO much fun to watch! I can see why bands love playing in the UK!

For their encore the boys came back out dressed in jackets and matching ties and sang "The End of the Road" by BoysIIMen-- amazing. Tapper sang lead vocals, Ian did the Barry White bass pleading with the "gurrl" with full jumping around for accentuating, and Keith added the "Hoooo"'s in his lovely falsetto. The entire crowd was SO into it- how can you resist a band with great live performance and music who isn't afraid to have FUN!!!?

The concert was great, and the touching part was when they were leaving on Friday several of the staff was in tears. I thought that was such a good indication of how they've been treating the people who work for them- I'm proud!
---
Below is a picture of the second gate entrance at the Tower of London- one of the main touristy things we did while there. The speared gate's edge you can see at the first inlet in the wall and it weighs over a ton-- kind of scary to walk under!

This is on the way across the London Bridge-- actually one of the least impressive bridges in the area, and yet historical. Go ahead, sing the song!

The Tate Modern Museum of Britain.. how I LOVE it! I can say that it is my favorite modern museum in the world, and probably my favorite museum of those in the.... 14 countries or whatever it is that I've visited. SO amazing. This time we only had a few minutes, but I got to see the slide installation that was there, and ride one of the slides! It was SOOO fun! I loved it, and would have spend HOURS there had we had the time!

There I am in front of the slides- aren't they beautiful!?

My mom and I don the millenium bridge with the Second largest cathedral in the world-- St. Paul's-- in the background. Who can name the largest?
This is where ol' Principessa Diana and Charles got married, as well as where ol' Wills will get hitched when he comes to that point. it is quite beautiful, but my fav-o still sits in Italia.

A view from the Millenium bridge (solely a pedestrian bridge) out onto the Thames.

Saturday we basically hung out with Ian and Eliz at the hotel. Ian is wearing my dads had and showing off a plate from the hotel....

It just gets creepier...

This one may shock you....and show you one of many reasons why I love my brother...

And here I am with a rather dull smile on because its like 2am in the picture. I am wearing a little red poppy which many were wearing the entire time we were there to celebrate armisist day. It was cool to see the people all wearing these, and they are so cute!

And there you have the pictorial post! There will probably be a few stragglers that I steal from my parents camera, but in the end you get the picture. I'll post more observations of the English when I have a chance!