Classes on Monday

Monday is easily my longest day of the week. I have three classes, meetings, and work. Ehhhhh.

Sitting through my 9 a.m. this morning was ridiculously tiring. My eyes were constantly falling, and I could not have been less interested in the lecture. Not one bit.

The only thing getting me through this rainy Monday is knowing this is the LAST Monday of the semester. Whoa. And a few other things I have to look forward to in the next couple of weeks…..

Graduating (oh man….)….I’m going to be an Alumni. How old does that sound?? Weird.

Family Vacation….to the happiest place on Earth!

with some Roller-coaster action….I could seriously ride this over & over. All day.

Followed by some cross-country drivin’….Roooooad Trip.

Ending with a summer full of sunsets like this.

I guess I can handle this rainy campus for one more Monday. Gah.

The New Do

My hair hasn’t been “short” in over three years.

All I told hair-crush was that I didn’t want bangs, and I had to be able to pull it up……

This is what my hair looked like last weekend.

This is what my hair looks like now.*

It’s short. It’s bouncy. It’s alive! When my hair gets that long, it starts to feel heavy and ‘dead’ after a while. My head feels so much lighter. I also learned a little lesson last night while I was getting ready: when your hair is short, you use a lot less shampoo. and conditioner. and time fixing it up. It’s lovely.

LB says it makes me look older. Which is good in my case, because I usually get the questionable stare when I hand a bouncer my ID. Add in the fact that it’s from a state across the country, and you get five minutes of me standing there while they decide whether or not I’m actually 21.

We’re starting off the weekend at the Navy Ball tonight. This means two things-I finally get to wear the BCBG dress that I bought in February (Yay!!!!!!), and I get to play around with the new style and see what it looks like all fancyyyy!

In the words of Bobby:

“New haircut. Same attituuude.”

Happy weekending!

*((Apologies for the rectangle across the face. I realized that I’ve never put a picture of myself on this little blog before, and decided I’d keep at least a little ‘annonymity’.
The pic in the “About me” doesn’t show eyes, soooo, these don’t either.))

My Hair-cut Crush

Starting around age 8 and continuing through high school, there had only been one person who cut my hair. Once we started going to her, we never stopped. She did a few things I wasn’t crazy about, but that never changed the fact that I trusted her and only her. Just because.

Then came college.

I chopped it off right before I left home, just for something different. It was kind of a shocker, but I figured at least it would give me time to grow it out. I knew I wouldn’t find somebody I liked as much as her to cut my hair in this little town, so I didn’t really try…..Aside from one disaster freshman year…we won’t get into that. So, I just waited 4 months at a time. My poor locks probably hated me for it, but that didn’t stop me. Plus, what college freshman has the $$ to pay for a decent haircut?  NOT me. Nope nope. The stubbornness set in, and that was that.

Then came Junior year.

SJ’s (roomie) parents had moved to the town officially over the summer.  Her mom was trying to get settled in and figure out her ‘places’. You know, where’s the gym? what will be my favorite grocery store? who will cut my hair?! These are very important priorities. Well, she found a cute little Salon that was only about half a mile up the street from our apartments. We never even knew it was there. It’s hidden in an office building, in a first floor suite.

I had really been wanting/needing a trim.  As much as I did love the lady from home, I finally accepted that she really wasn’t the best.  I trusted her, and was comfortable with her, but sometimes I really didn’t like how it turned out. It was time to step out of the zone, and try something different. SJ’s mom loved this place, so I thought I’d give it a try.

For the first time in my LIFE, I had a guy cutting my hair. He just happened to have an opening the day and time that I wanted my appointment to be, so that’s who I was scheduled with. Obviously I had no preference, since I’d never been to the place before. I thought it would probably be awkward, and that it probably wouldn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it, so I went with a simple “I just need you to even things out”.

Well, well. I could not have been more wrong. He was from Georgia, with a lingering cute little Southern accent. He knew exactly what I wanted once I actually opened up a little bit. He knew exactly how to cut my hair so it would do what I wanted it to. I sat in his chair for almost an hour, as he cut-trimmed-dried-admired-dried-trimmed-perfected. I was in awe.

At home my appointments were never more than half an hour, and she was usually running late. So it was always a little rushed. She even answered her cell phone while cutting my hair one time. Um, yah. Enough said.

When he was finished doin’ his thing, he gave me a mirror and asked my opinion. I LOVED IT. And that’s all I had to say. It’s perfect! Thank you! I love it! I left on a hair-cut high. I was so happy. You know when you can’t stop fondling your own hair? I totally had a hair-cut crush. I couldn’t wait for my hair to grow out a little bit so I could go back again! Plus, I finally knew what it was like to have a quality hair cut. So professional and stylish and faaabulous.

Obviously we now have a hair-cut affair. All of my roomies have gone to him since, and are equally in “love”.   I have an appointment tomorrow, and it will be our last rendezvous, *sigh*. For the first time ever I plan to sit in the chair, and say “Do what you want. I trust you”. Mostly because I just want something different and won’t ever actually go for it, and also because I really do trust him. We’ll see what he comes up with…..

As “fate” would have it….

The class only met once a week, on Monday, from 4:30-5:30. There was little motivation to ever attend, aside from having to sign in. It was usually nice and sunny outside, the perfect time of day for a run, or laziness on the couch.

It had been three straight weeks of Informational presentations, each one featuring a different Internship program. We had begun to hear the same thing over and over; clinical rotation, food-service rotation, community rotation, 10-month program, etc etc etc. There was no reason to think this one would be any different. On top of that, it was in Maryland. I wasn’t looking to live in MD. I never thought I would live in MD (especially not after this disaster, ehhhhh). In fact, I thought I was ready to be back on the West coast. Therefore, MD would clearly be a step in the wrong direction. Right?

Using my better judgement, I went to class….

And it’s a good thing I did! I learned that this particular program had a special rotation. This set it apart from the norm, and would be the deciding factor in becoming my #1 Choice. For 6 weeks the Interns learn about Information Management & Communication. They get to take technology classes to learn how to be super savvy in this ever-evolving world of computers, html, CSS, Microsoft Office, etc. Basically, these people realize that without the knowledge to use technology as a tool for education, you will fall behind in this web-based society. Hello, perfect match!

I put my package together, wrote a kick-ass cover letter (seriously, it was pretty awesome), and had a good feeling about everything. I got the call, scheduled the interview,-and even bought a fabulous pair of shoes-all in one day. I drove there, did my thing (did NOT get lost!), and felt good about the interview. I talked about blogging (clearly I love technology!), writing, etc. I loved it. They loved it.

On February 15 it was all set in stone. Applications were in, and now we could only do one thing: Wait.

……………………

Yesterday felt longer than the last 2.5 months of waiting combined, and multiplied by 100. As of 1:01 a.m. we could sign on to the website and learn our fate.

………………….

At 1:25 a.m. I still couldn’t get on because the server was too busy. Cue-Crazy Panic Attack.

…………………

At 1:30 a.m it let me through. I signed on. I clicked on “View Match Results”.

“You have been matched with _____ in MD.”

Cue- rapid heart beat and HUGE relief and numerous phone calls and jumping around!!!!

………………….

And to think, I wasn’t even going to go to class that day……

“The Wake up Call”

I’m starting the week off strong; tomorrow morning I’ll be making my first radio appearance!

From 7-9 a.m., every school day, a small group of students run a radio show, “The Wake Up Call” (90.7 FM). They chat, and joke, and entertain us early risers in the area. A friend of ours (me & the roomies) is one of the DJs, she goes by “DJ Tomorrow”. She holds her own as the only girl, contributing her wit and charm with daily amusing anecdotes and commentary.

Last week, in a random side-note, she mentioned LB & I, and the company that we both did an internship with two years ago. It’s basically how we met (and fell in roomie-love), and we still “work” for them to this day. We had to thank her for the shout-out and she asked if we wanted to come on the show and elaborate. Yesssss!

So tomorrow morning, bright and early, we’ll be driving to campus to make our radio debut. It will be another thing to add to the list of “things I got to do at college”. Never thought I’d be on the radio. Maybe I should come in with a bang and think of my own DJ name. Hmmm, that might be going a little too far.

Alas, another realm of technology to conquer. Happy Monday!

Grooming Things

I’m really not a “product” person. I don’t wear much make-up, I don’t do too many crazy things with my hair, and I don’t do facials or home manis/pedis. I wish I were better about that kind of stuff, and I’m sure my skin does too sometimes. But alas, it’s just not me.

Despite that, I do have a few things that I simply can NOT live without.

Let’s start with “the” face-wash. I have been using the exact same product since my freshman year of high school. I’m not kidding. I love this stuff. I bought it on a whim before our first vacation to Hawaii, and have never gone back. To this day, when I actually pause to take it’s scent (kind of minty, maybe? ) it always reminds me of that trip. So in other words, its my little piece of paradise. Sound dramatic? Yes. But ya know what, I’m obsessed. I love the texture, I love the smell, I love how “Fresh” and clean it makes my skin feel. I can use it twice in a day to remove makeup and my skin doesn’t dry out. It’s woooonderful.

Without further ado…..

My next lover: Mascara. It is the only form of make-up that has never failed me. I always have it on. I don’t do eye-liner, and only put on eye-shadow for “going out” purposes. But Mascara? We’re attached. And here’s a new one for you….I use two different kinds. I have it down to an art. I apply Maybelline’s “Unstoppable” first: it stretches out the lashes and doesn’t clump at all. It’s my “base-coat” if you will. Then, I top it off with L’Oreal’s “Voluminous”, which I’ve had an affair with since day one. It makes your lashes look unbelievable. It can be a little clumpy, so be careful. But ooooh is it lovely when you get it just right.

1) 2)

Now, for the hair. I never use anything except Pantene Pro-V. Everything else tends to make my hair a little static, or flat, or greasy, or [insert undesirable hair texture]. Obviously except for Biolage, which is miraculous and smells amazing, but this is reserved for hair-cuts only. Because…$$… I’m a college student. I’ve always used their “Volume” shampoo….and I honestly think I picked this up for the first time because the bottle was purple. Ehhh. But I love it, and it works, and my hair comes out soft and shiny, so this is what I use.

Oh, and on occasion, I use their mousse. This is usually only for “going out”, when I want my hair to cooperate no matter what. I don’t use it daily, maybe I should? But it makes my hands kind of sticky. Although I do like the extra “oomph” it gives. Yes, I like this stuff.

Last, but certainly not least, is the lotion. I am obsessed with Bath & Body Works “Brown Sugar & Fig” for all seasons, the “Warm Vanilla Sugar” for winter/fall smells, and a variety of others for the summery scents. I only buy their Body CREAM. I hate when lotion is watery, this is just the right amount of “thick” and creeeammmyy. Mmmmm.

And these are my every-day “grooming” things. On a $college$ Budget.

Early Planning: Avoid too much Midwest

Pittsburgh, PA →New Mexico.

27 Hours 38 Minutes

=======================================================

That’s how long and how far I’ll be driving this summer in the trusty old SUV, across this country of ours. I’ve never done it before, and quite frankly….I can’t wait. My road trips thus far have included driving along the gulf of Mexico, all the way across New Mexico to Florida. If you think Texas looks big, try driving across it. Then let me know what you think.

After that, as mentioned below, Jack & I made the trip up the East Coast in late May. Hello, gorgy land! Green and warm and sunny and coastal, alllll the way. A whole strip of new states I had never seen….It was beautiful!

Now, the early planning stages for this trip have officially started as of, um, right now. For no good reason, while I was at work today I started Google-mapping my trip. It’s almost 2 months away, but that’s a lot of ground to cover, and I want to do right.

The first route that showed up took me here….

Pennsylvania::Ohio::Indiana::Missouri::Oklahoma::Texas::NM

..and that’s when it hit me: this trip will take me across the Midwest. No matter how much I try to avoid it. I’ll be landlocked for 28 hours of driving. No pretty new beaches rocky coasts. Ehhhhh. Plus, I have extended family in a midwestern state, I’ve been there plenty of times. I want to see somewhere new! And I’ve gotten to know Ohio & I-80 quite well in the last few years. Ew.

So I came up with Stop #1 that will change the route: Michigan to see Jack for a few days. Perfect! This time I go…

Pennsylvania:Ohio:Michigan:Illinois:Iowa:Nebraska:Colorado:NM

This is slowly improving. Except I don’t particularly want to drive all the way through Iowa and Nebraska.  Right? Colorado will be beautiful, especially during the summer. No trouble with that.

To change things up I dragged the little dot (if you’ve used Google maps, you know the ‘dot’…) down through Illinois and close to Kansas City, MO. The theory here is that I’ve never really been to Illinois and only seen the Kansas-side of Missouri. So now we have….

Pennsylvania:Ohio:Michigan:Illinois:Missouri:Kansas:Colorado:NM

==================================================

Approximately 8 states, 5-6 days, and 28+ hours of driving. Whoooa.

So my question for you: any suggestions of places to stop “along the way”??

Jack & Guns

Friday I made a little trip to see the boyfriend. There was some celebrating to be done….

…Two years ago…

He came to visit me while I was on my internship. He was my first official visitor, and I wanted to show him around. I didn’t know what to expect because we had never really been alone before, always with a group.

I got time off, planned out the week and picked him up from the airport. We spent 5 days exploring the parks, going on dinner dates, watching fireworks, and talking until the sun came up. It was the kind of vacation you think you’d spend with someone you’ve been dating for months, maybe years. We weren’t even “officially” dating……yet.

I hated saying good-bye, knowing the next time I’d see him was at least 3 months away. It would turn out to be the story of our lives, but at the time, it seemed crazy. When he did come back, it was time to drive back on up to PA with me. Road trip! The route took us all the way up the east coast, FL-to-PA. We had one stop to make: his family reunion in North Carolina at a beach house, for 3 days. He introduced me as his “girlfriend”.

He calls me “Guns”, because of my (lack of) bulging arm muscles. Yes, that’s a joke.
I call him “Jack” because its his pseudo-nickname.

We have spent two years traveling back and forth; my school & his school, Pittsburgh & Northport, my home-the Southwest & his-the Northeast. It’s hard, so we joke about winning the lottery or just becoming the next “Bonnie & Clyde”. We could totally pull it off.

We Are…Steppin’ it Up

Last Fall, the ratings came out; PSU had dropped to the #6 “Party School” in the country. There was an article about it in the campus paper, and one student was quoted saying…..

“I think everyone just needs to step it up.”

Oh, how right you are my friend. And that is exactly what we are doin’ around here. Don’t you worry!

The realization came last week; this semester has flown by, and will be over so very soon. This is not good! We have yet to officially taken our seat at the senior table. Instead, we have been reserving nights “out” for the weekends, and being productive during the week. Clearly this is why PSU is dropping in the ranks.

So, Mr. Penn State, this week we took some action. Last night (wednesday) the executive decision was made; We’re going Out. There was absolutely no reason not to. All semester the goal has been to start going out on weeknights, just because we can should. Obviously we have classes and things to do on Thursday, but why should that stop us? We’re SENIORS. This is our LAST semester to do stupid college things!!

Lucky for us the weather has been beautiful the last few days, so we went to the “Café”, where you can sit outside and people-watch and enjoy your drinks. And that’s just what we did. It was the perfect temp for jeans and a light jacket, and we sat there for hours sipping, chatting, laughing, and wondering why we hadn’t done this sooner. We headed back around midnight (I know. we’re Crazy) and basked in the buzz of a few good drinks and good friends.

Today, we took things one step further.

It was a gorgeous (and sunnyyyy!!!) 65° outside and everyone was floating around on a spring high. I was at work in the lab when I got a text from Em:

Café at 2:30.

See, the agreement all semester has been this-The first day it’s nice outside, drop everything and meet at a bar where we can sit outside (there are a few). No matter what. No excuses.

Well of course the first day it’s nice, my only class is mandatory. I must compromise. I reply that I’ll be there ASAP. At 3:30 I called, and since the Cafe was completely packed (no surprise), they had a table at “Pickles” on the patio. Yesssss.

We sat, and sipped, and talked, and people-watched again alllll afternoon. And it was everything we hoped it would be; a nice afternoon buzz from beer & sunshine. No, this is not the craziest thing any of us have ever done. But it is something we have all wanted to do since Freshman year, after passing these bar patios day after day and longing for our IDs to read “21″.

LB kept the trend going and headed out tonight. As much as I would have loved to join her, I have weekend plans that require me to be on the road & driving by 8 a.m. Not the best mix.

Not to worry, next week I’ll be all refreshed and ready to go again.

Happy weekending readers!! I hope that you too, are stepping it up!

Hi, I’m _____ & I “blog” because…

Last summer LB had a job working with these two fine people, M & M. They “blog”. She came to visit me for a weekend and let me in a little secret….she started blogging. My initial reaction was…..surprised? I thought it was pretty cool, but not something I could ever do. I’m not a “blogger”. I mean, it’s like ‘personal’ right? Like an online “journal” or something? What if people you know read it? What if you reveal too much about yourself?

Well, I started reading her blog, and I really liked it.

*wheels start turning…*

I had always said I wanted to be a “writer”. Not as in short stories and novels, not as in flowery fiction romantic whatevers, and not as in memoirs or biographies. I wanted to be a writer as in, I Love this website and I want to write stuff like THAT! And it hit me, if I want to write for a website, why not start by writing for my own??

That’s basically what these blogs are, right? This is MY page. My website. This is Me, now. I put whatever I want on this little thing. I control how it looks (ummmm…to an extent. Hi, I have no idea how to write a CSS code, but I would LOVE to know) and I make it purple, because I like purple. Sure, it’s not going to show up if you put my full name into a “google” search, but it’s here and it’s mine. Some people who know me know about it, but I’m not passing out fliers to advertise it.

I will admit, it took me a while to actually do it. It scared me that my writing would be accessible to the public. It’s here for all to see, which also means it’s here for all to criticize or to love. But that’s the reality of writing, is it not? If I want to have opportunities to do it in the future, I have to have something to show for it, right? I have to know that I’m okay with knowing that anybody can see these words. That’s the point of having websites and magazine in the first place. You want people to read them!!

So this was born. It started off a little rough, but I’ve gotten more used to writing about the ‘everyday’ things and the ‘cooking’ things and the ‘little weird things about me’. I don’t go too in depth about anything personal, and probably never will. I’m not sure why, maybe it’ll come at some time.

Now here I am, seven months later, and I “blog” because…..

::I have moved on to step 2! I was contacted by a fabulous person and now I write for this site once a week, about my life now & over the next year or so. Graduating, job-searching, baking, working, shopping, running…..the things I learn & want to pass on in the process.

::Now I am addicted to writing and reading a lot of other great blogs!

::It allows me to meet some pretty fabulous people, like this girl. And exchange fabulous e-mails! Because really, who isn’t addicted to e-mail? Don’t lie. And someone else who gave me tips while I was training and loves Stacy & Clinton as much as I do!

::Umm…I’m really entertained by the random things people type into a Google search. Seriously, weird. For instance, today I saw “adding chili to brownie mix”. What are you doing adding CHILI to BROWNIE mix?!?! Please stop now!! Because, ew, that’s not right. Chili to cornbread maybe? Chocolate to brownie mix?? What are you trying to do?? Agh, I’m so confused.

Anyway. Hi, I’m Heather. I’m totally a blogger.