Labor Day Weekend 2015

Hey friends!

I hope that as Labor Day weekend dwindles into weekends past everyone can look back with fond memories. As far as Labor Day weekends go, mine was mediocre, although I will remember it as the first Labor Day weekend in my college history that I've made the trip home. Mediocre or not, it's something.

Friday night, a night that for most was the start to a long weekend, was a long night for me. It was my first weekend duty this semester, and as far as weekend duties go, the night was a breeze. I met some new residents in my area and definitely bonded with a few, and my staff member Kevin was quite the clown for the night. His amusement made the night pass much faster than anticipated for a holiday weekend.

Saturday morning my dad arrived at Curry to pick me up, and naturally I over packed to the extreme. But it's cool 'cause I still had room to bring some food back. My dad got super excited to stop at Market Basket on the drive home, since we don't have any of the supermarket in Connecticut, (at least where I'm from we don't). I found out that Udi's Gluten Free bread is about $2 cheaper there than it is at Stop and Shop, so on trips home from now on, I plan on picking a few loafs up.

Later that day, once we had arrived at my dad's house, we took a trip to Aldi. For those of you who have never been to an Aldi, I highly recommend getting in the car right now and driving your butt over to the nearest store, because it is amazing. They have a killer gluten free brand, "Live G-Free", and I've yet to try something there that wasn't at least good, (much of what I've tried has surpassed good and gone straight to taste bud numbingly good). Aside from their gluten free foods, my family is always amazed at the quality of most of their products.

Aldi brand: cocoa crispies, fruity pebbles, snicker doodles (half eaten), and cinnamon drizzled rice snacks

Later Saturday afternoon, we headed over to the Orange Greek Festival, which was a short walk away from my dad's house. One of my stepbrothers, Chris, came with us to the fair. This is always a particular treat for my step-siblings, since they are Greek themselves. We kept joking with Chris that he should embrace his roots and hop in the dancing line. Opa!

Me and my 19-year-old step brother, Chris

I was on the hunt for a new thumb ring during this year's festival. I haven't gone in the past few years, but many years ago I purchased a wonderful sterling silver ring that I wore on my left thumb. Shortly after, on a vacation to St. Maarten, the ring slid from my finger while I was in the water, never to be seen again. Unfortunately for me, the jewelry selection this year was slim pickings, so I did not leave with a new treasure.

The Greek Fest this year for me ended up being a complete miss. With my new allergy, sometimes foods are hit or miss (especially when you don't want to ask if something is gluten free because you know they won't have a correct answer), so I stuck with a simple chicken souvlaki with a side salad. Without asking, they placed a giant hunk of bread over my salad, deeming it inedible for me, and my chicken was cold... and not very good in general. I disliked it so much that I couldn't even muster up the strength to photograph it. I went home after and ate some gluten free cinnamon Eggo's. Much better.

Sunday morning was filled with more waffles and White Collar. No, I did not do that for alliterative purposes, I genuinely ate waffles and watched White Collar. Matt Bomer is my imagination's lover, regardless of his sexual orientation. He is beautiful and I accept him for who he is.

My Uncle Dave had a picnic on Sunday for the holiday, and a bunch of family friends were invited to the occasion. Someone made some seriously bomb buffalo chicken dip and it made me realize how much I need that in my life. My step mom also made deviled eggs, and my philosophy is that no picnic is complete without some nice deviled eggs.

Sunday was also my cousin David's 31st birthday, so we quietly celebrated that. With cake in mind, I bought some mud slide ice cream for myself, knowing there would likely not be a dessert I could eat. My cousin Lindsay, David's sister, is also gluten free, though (and lactose free), so the possibility was there. I saw her sneak down with a piece of the gluten-filled cake, and my aunt said with the holiday off, she was biting the gluten-bullet.

I had a pretty quiet time at the otherwise loud picnic, mostly keeping to myself. I roasted a few (4) marshmallows over the chiminea, and enjoyed my golden-brown fluff on a stick. My ice cream wasn't half bad either, but unfortunately it didn't make the trip back to school with me.

My saving grace for the picnic was the pogoplug link that my dad sent me. He recently uploaded all of his pictures onto the website and gave me the password to look at the pictures. This was a very exciting thing for me, since many of these pictures had never been seen by me. My parents have been divorced since I was 7, so each parent has different pictures than the other. This still bothers my father.

The fact that this picture took this long to reenter my life is majorly upsetting. I was damn cute! I looked through these pictures for at least an hour, and I'm looking forward to further looking into the pictures of the past. It's definitely funny to see pictures of my parents before the divorce, as well as pictures of when my sister and I used to not only hug each other, but kiss each other on the lips. When did this change? Excellent question, that I may answer after I look further through the pictures.

Yesterday morning I had an 8:40am train back to Massachusetts. This put me back in MA by 11am, which was plenty of time to dilly dally in my room before my shift at the Student Center at 1:30pm. I'm not a huge fan of trains, mainly due to the short amount of time they give you to board and depart, mixed with the horror of finding a seat. To my luck, I ended up with a table to myself for half of my ride, until a woman asked to sit across from me. That was totally fine until I had finished the homework I brought with me... and then it just became awkward.

Although not the greatest quality, the view on the ride from New Haven, CT to Westwood, MA is beautiful. This was taken at the stop between Old Saybrook and Mystic. The picture doesn't do the view justice, but there was a wicked cool ship in the harbor. My train ride was pretty relaxing, but I always find traveling to be super tiring. I made it through with minimal stress, though, so that's always a good thing.

I spent a little time with some residents once my friend Peter dropped me off at my residence hall, I've really lucked out so far this year with the girls on my floor. Most of them are very easy to talk to and love saying hi to me around campus. I'm hoping they're feeling a decent connection with me, as I've tried to make myself as available as possible considering my busy schedule. Most of the time, if I'm around, I keep my door open, and they love to say hi as they pass by! My room is right by the bathroom so this is very helpful. It is also sometimes annoying, (the hand dryer is grossly loud).

I had a six and a half hour shift at the Student Center after that, This was my longest shift so far as Building Manager, but it was probably the best shift I've had. Bless this holiday! Most of my shifts have been extremely busy, but I had time to finish up my blog post and do a little bit of planning, which is always a plus for me. I love me some planning time!

Me & Dautey, another SBM

I seriously love my job though. I was pretty excited my whole ride home to come back for work. I know that most people probably don't like ending their holiday weekend early for work, but my job can be fun! Working at the Student Center is one of the most social jobs on campus and I LOVE IT. With my new promotion to Student Building Manager (SBM), I have a lot more responsibility, especially on holidays when there are no professional staff in the building, but I'm finally finding a rhythm as I go.

The rest of my night was pretty typical, and the holiday weekend was dying down. After my work shift, a few of my eboard members popped by so we could hold an impromptu meeting before our school's Involvement Fair, and I was reminded a bit of the dedication that lies within some of these people. Sometimes it's hidden and sometimes it just needs the cobwebs dusted off, but regardless of the stress that being a club officer sometimes provides, I love every second of it.

I hope that your holiday weekends were more eventful than mine, but that no matter how eventful, you enjoyed the past few days.

Abby

Book Review: Adventures in Neverland Series

Hi hi!

I've noticed my least favorite thing about scheduling my blog posts is that I frequently forget when to write more. I write in chunks, they all post, and then suddenly I have to write more! It just sneaks up so fast! I'm makin' it work, though, so in my head I'm totally killing the game.

Today's blog post is going to be another book review. Anna Katmore, an author that I am pretty familiar with, wrote two spin-off books on Peter Pan, and she killed it. I usually read Katmore during the summer months when I want lighter books to read, and ones that don't require much attachment to the characters. While I usually breeze through her books and forget about them after, the Adventures in Neverland series changed my mind on the author.

Photo taken from annakatmore.com

I will casually and ironically eat Pirate's Booty as I type this post. Giggles are currently being kept inside. Moving on!

In May I read the first book in the series, Neverland. The cover was cute, and I love twists on my favorite childhood stories, so this was a no brainer when I purchased it on my nook. The description of the book was quite short, but essentially, Angel (the main character) falls into Neverland somehow and ends up falling in love with Captain Hook--who's actually not evil at all. In fact, James Hook is pretty hunky in my mind, (although I did keep imagining Colin O'Donoghue as Killian Jones).

It's a much prettier sight than the cartoon image that pops into my mind, so Anna Katmore should be grateful that Once Upon a Time cast such a sexy villain.

I mean, take your pick, but I think the choice is a little obvious.

Although the plot line was pretty cliche--or as cliche as falling into Neverland can get--I ate up the whole story! I finished it in a split second and was eager to buy the sequel, Pan's Revenge. At the end of the nook version of Neverland, there was an excerpt from Pan's Revenge, and let me tell you, reading excerpts without having the next book lined up for you is pretty much torture.

Picture taken from goodreads.com

This cover was just as adorable as the first. Pan's Revenge, without giving away too many details, was the story of Peter's revenge (duh) on Captain James Hook. Pan believes that the only fair way to seek revenge is to go after the one thing Hook loves most--Angel. Pan leaves Neverland after Angel forgets all about the other world, to convince her that Hook was evil and Pan was the one she loved. But who will win? And why bring the sad teenager into the mix? Cliche, once again, but so addicting.

While these may not be novels of the year, if you are someone like me who hardly finds the time to read during the school year, (college is time consuming, man), I highly recommend this series! [On my nook] Neverland is 203 pages, and Pan's Revenge is about 230 pages, both including a preview to other books. Katmore put a playlist at the end of each book, which I found totally adorable, so that also took up a page.

Give it a try, I promise you won't regret it!

Abby

Fall 2015 Welcome Bulletin Board

Hi again!

I'm back with my very first post on my life as an RA. This year marks my second year in Residence Life, but my first year as a freshman RA. This is both an exciting and terrifying change for me. I feel as though this really is the RA experience, but it is very different from my junior living experience last year as a first-year RA.

This month I'm going with an UP theme for my door tags and bulletin board. While I do have two bulletin boards, (the smaller one is my update board), the bigger board, pictured above, is an introduction board to give my residents a bit of a taste of who I am before they meet me. Not to mention, that UP house in the top left corner? Yea, I hand-made that. Beat that.

If we zoom in a little on my hand-made house, you'll see me... or is it Russell? It's both! I put my head on Russell's body. It's a wicked old picture (about 3 years), but it was the only one I had on me at the time! I gave up a little on the porch, which you will notice is quite intricate if you look it up, but I spent a heck of a lot of time on putting this together, so that one little detail wasn't endgame for me.

I kept it pretty basic with my door tags (they do not have names on them yet, since I don't get my roster until tomorrow night!!), but I think they will suffice. I hand drew and cut out each and every one of these dang balloons, cut out every one of the characters and backed them on cardstock (that I also had to cut out), and taped them together with a piece of ribbon. Easy as pie, but super time consuming.

My fingers are crossed that these stay up through the month and that my hard work doesn't get ripped down, but realistically speaking, that chance is probably slim. Regardless, I'm proud of the work that I've done.

Catch ya next time!

Abby