I am officially diseased

I finally went to the doctor like a good little adult. they made me get blood work done, and it was discovered that i have celiac's disease. Now, i suspected that for a while and didn't really do anything about it, nor did i care thinking you know, whatever, i don't like bread pasta or beer so who cares. Well, ya know what else has gluten in it? CHEERIOS! I am so mad/upset! no more cheerios for the rest of my life :(. also, granola bars are another. fml. i know that given the variety of other things i could have had its really not bad, but its really really annoying. that is all

plans, life

Amigos! This is less a blog posting and more a letter to the editor and readers of the FLF paper, but please continue reading anyway.

I have religiously been checking this site for updates from all of you. Despite my silence, I’ve enjoyed reading what everyone has to say, and I’m always happy to hear of the successful things you all accomplish. Game Stop, needle-stabbing, traveling to India, client management, unemployment, grad school, volunteering—one thing’s for sure: we run the gamut of successfulness. Sarcasm aside, I really do love hearing/reading from/about you guys. And as time goes on, I regret the time we didn’t spend together and miss the time we did.

Anyway. Gross. Enough of that.

The real reason I’m writing is because whilst I sat under my apple tree pondering life the other day, I happened upon a magnificent idea: we need to schedule a road trip. NEED. And rather than opt for something practical, my brain did me the extraordinarily kind service of running away to Candy Land with the idea. Don’t ask me what that means, but before long, I had planned a road trip that started at Disney World and ended in our nation’s capital not before it had – wait for it – taken us across FORTY-FIVE states AND to Vegas!!!!

I don’t know if you guys are as excited as I was at this point, but if you’re not, hold onto your corsets because this story still hasn’t reached its climax. While trying to figure out how to get to our multiple destinations, where to stay, etc., I thought, “Golly! Why don’t we rent a couple of vehicles to drive around the country.” That’d be cool: the FLF Armada. Has a ring to it, ja?

But then I arrived at my greatest idea ever ever. In fact, it left me wondering if my apple tree was the same one Newton sat under centuries earlier…. “No!” I said aloud (because you can’t confine ideas like this to thoughts only – they must be expressed). “Why don’t we rent a fifteen-passenger VAN and travel around the country together!!” Think about it guys: we could make peanut butter sandwiches, play musical instruments and board games, sing kumbaya, and maybe even have a CAMPFIRE in the back of a van WHILE driving around the country!! Not to mention the appeal of living out of the back of a van when young children are running around at Disney World... All things considered, if this idea isn’t Mensa-worthy, I don’t know what is.

Okay. Dreams and wishes aside, it would be cool if something like this could happen. I know ideas like this (though not nearly as awesome) have been tossed around since we’ve known each other. And I’ve started to accept that flexibility won’t ever be the same as it once was, but I’m still a believer in the you-make-time-for-what-you-want-to-make-time-for concept. To a point anyway. That’s not meant to call people out; I’m just defending my fantasticality (a sweet word that sounds made-up but isn’t) by pointing out that there are shreds of practicality somewhere in my story. Let’s try to figure something out. The beauty of a road trip, too, is that we could visit the friends that are too good to join in. I like those sorts of built-in guilt-trips.

Okay. That’s all. Just wanted to share my beautiful dream (that Bridget slightly contributed to as well). I hope all’s well with everyone. Please write more, too! – it gives me something to do during the day aside from applying for jobs and watching Days of Our Lives with my mom.

Thanks, fellow readers. Love and kisses.

They were dumb enough to let me play with needles, so of course I stabbed myself

Today in my clinical practice of medicine class we had an injections workshop where we practiced giving and getting injections (we didn't really practice getting them we just practiced on eachother so we got stabbed a lot). Anyway, our professor went through this whole long thing in class about being careful and not messing around while we were holding the needles cause he didn't want anyone stabbing themselves or anyone else. The entire time he was giving this little lecture, I was sitting there thinking, I'm not gonna be messing around and I'm still gonna end up stabbing myself. So we got through the intramuscular and subdermal shots fine and then came the intradermal. I opened up the needle and I could not for the life of me get the cap off. Being the genius that i am, I decided to just pull harder; well, the cap came off, but the needle proceeded to go into my left middle finger on the palm side of my finger on the left side of the finger...it went all the way across my finger came out the right side and hit my middle finger...that would be far ore impressive if you saw how small the needle was. I also managed to stab through multiple blood vessels so now I have a bruise across my finger. Being as coordinated as I am, after that I got a new needle, got it all filled up with saline solution, and then proceeded to drop it on the floor. It was slightly ridiculous. I felt like people felt like I was nervous about the shots or something, I knid of wanted to tell the boiling soup on my hand story or the slamming my head into the ceiling story, but I figured normal people that aren't me can only handle witnessing so much clumsiness in a day.

stupid heater

Today I got home from going to the sabres game w/ med school people (so not the same as nd games with you guys fyi) and realized I had to put my scrubs in the dryer for lab tomorrow; well, funny story about how my washer was open and still totally full of water cause someone opened it and stopped the cycle right at the beginning. There are two possibilities for this, the first is that I'm a dumbass and forgot to close it after i put my scrubs in yesterday. The second (and the one that I'm going with so that I don't feel like an idiot) is that I've had maintainance people in my apaetment the past two days because my heater is broken so I'm thinking for some reason they couldn't have the washer running while working on the heater and opened it and forgot to close it (yes its unlikely but it's what i'm going with.
today they told me that it was my air conditioner leaking that broke my heater. the best part about that is that I had my air conditioner set at 75 so I think its actually been on maybe 3 or 4 times since i moved in. fantatic. supposedly my heater will be fixed tomorrow which would be fantastic cause im cold.
Anyway, theres not actually a point to this. I'm just waiting for the washer to finish so I can put my scrubs in the dryer and go to bed. It's taking forever and I'm bored. It's pretty much all the heater's fault which I guess makes it all the air conditioners fault

Bridget: 1; Deer: 0

On my way home last night, I hit my first deer. I feel like I've done pretty well so far... I mean, I've been driving for over 8 years in the Midwest and have avoided plenty of them, so yeah... it was only a matter of time. It wasn't that bad though... there's not much damage to the car and I'm fine. But I think it's kind of funny so I thought I'd tell you all. Anyway, about 30 seconds after I crossed the state line and entered Iowa, I saw the deer in the ditch on my left. I hit the brakes and just as I was coming to the end of my stop, the deer kept running full speed across the road and collided with the front of the car. Then it went flying into the ditch on the other side. It got some pretty good air. The best part of all of this is that I was on the phone with Jeremy at the time, so he got to hear it all happen. I'm pretty sure I yelled some loud four-letter words (sorry about that, Jeremy). I don't think the deer survived... I didn't walk over and check, but it didn't look like it was moving. R.I.P., Bambi.

22.5

Late last night, I suddenly realized that it was my half birthday. Instead of being a happy moment, it was more of a "Oh shit! What am I doing with my life" moment.

It didn't help that on Tuesday, the very day Nick announced his sweet job (Congrats BTW), I had filled out an application to work minimum wage at Gamestop.

Thanks, cruel irony. FML



Don't worry, that's the end of the downer talk, because in reality life isn't all that bad. Actually, the Gamestop job is coming about because a good friend of mine let me know that they could use some extra help over the holidays. He's worked there since High School, so it can't be that bad. Plus, I could use the extra cash while I work on applications to grad schools and legit jobs.

Meanwhile, I may become part of a very interesting business adventure. The scoutmaster who hired me for camp and the canoe trip wants my help with a new idea of his. Basically, he wants to start selling stuff to the government, especially now that his new partner gives them veteran owned small business status. My job would be to look for opportunities that his company can bid for. I would do this on my own, and I wouldn't get a salary. However, if I found a lead that led to a successful contract, he would compensate me for it.

Yesterday, we went to a sort of meet and greet with other companies, and I realized that I'm probably in way over my head (remember, I went to engineering school, not business school). I'm still going to give it my best shot though. At worst, it just wastes some of my time, but if I can actually find success, it could be well worth it.

My incredible driving abilities (and possibly some other updates)

I've decided that being a medical student is going to wind up with me dying in a car crash. I seem to have too much school in my head to ever be capable of focusing on driving). My first story- I was with Gloria driving to her program director's house for a potluck dinner. This one actually has nothing to do w/ my inability to focus on driving thanks to med school- we were driving west at like 6:30 so the sun was right in my eyes and I had my little visor thing down so it was blocking my vision too. Anyway, I went right through a redlight. Didn't know it was even there until Gloria told me that I went through it. Luckily there were no cars or cops so whatever, but it was bad. My other one really is cause of med school though. I had a test today, it was my third in a week so my brain was pretty fried. Anyway i went up to a light to turn left. The light turned green so i went. About halfway through turning i realized all the lights turned green and not just the arrow so it was not actually my turn to go. Luckily there was a girl on the otherside of light that figured out that i wasnt actually trying to cut her off and just made a mistake and she let me go, but it couldve turned out rather badly. So anyway, i feel like i should not be allowed to drive while in medical school.
speaking of medical school, i had my first anatomy test on friday. There was one question that was an x-ray of a hand/wrist. One of the questions was pointing to the radius and asked what ligament attached there. I hadn't bothered studying ligaments so I was completely lost so i'm looking at it and looking at it and finally i decide to just bs an answer. So i think to myself, ok its on the lateral side and its in the wrist, I'll call it the lateral carpal ligament. So I'm thinking the graders are gonna be laughing at my answer. Turns out it was the right answer. I was really excited. I was even more excited when I realized the test was out of 210 points and not 220 meaning i got an 80 instead of the 76 I thought I got. Clearly i'm a genius.
Aside from school my life is pretty boring so not much else to talk about. hope everyone is doing well!

Splitting out

Right so, just posting to mention that I've started writing my own blog. Reasoning for the most part is explained here. Oh and in case you don't want to take the time to look - I now have a Job :).

Already posted this on my facebook, but if any of you are interested, I have an extra ticket to ND vs. WSU in San Antonio.

Any takers?

Sup?

Hey guys.
Just wanted to check in and see how people were doing.
For those of you in school, how's it goin?
And job-hunting?
And apartment finding?
And just chillin?
And volunteerin?
I'm gonna end the tech-diet soon (Oct 1st-ish), so expect a call from me sometime after that... or a text... :-)
Hope everyone is doing well!
I know I've been kinda inconsistent on Three|6ix|5ive, but hey, I gotta do work at work!
Peace everyone!
And Go Irish! (Beat those MotherLickers!) :-O

Classes get in the way of college

Hey Bro Montanas,

I'm back at ND, and it's sad that none of you are around (except Rachel, who I saw a few days ago, and Lauren, who I saw the other day, and Ale, who I didn't see the other day but I know is here, and Bridget, because nobody is really sad that she is gone). Anywho, classes started today, and I'm in a deep depression out of it. I scheduled my last one last night (apparently you're supposed to do that before the night before classes start?), but I'm still not happy with my schedule, so I'll probably add and drop a few things before I get it right. In honor of Jeremy, I may even add and drop a German or a French class. You'll all be happy to hear that the bookstore is still committing highway robbery. I bought books for ONLY TWO of my classes yesterday, and my bill came to...$357. I'll update you on the total price when (if) I finish buying the others.

In closing, I may just end up dropping all my classes and living here. I decided that's probably the way to go.

It's been a while

Hey guys,
I read this pretty often but I don't write very much so I decided it's about time. Actually, I started one of these a few nights ago but it was late and I fell asleep. So here goes my second try. Quick rundown of my summer: it's been pretty good, minus the fact that I have no permanent employment yet. Anyway, I went to visit Rachel in Minnesota at the beginning of the summer and then went to Cleveland with Maya to help her switch apartments. I went to South Bend and Chicago in July with Brian, Megan and Abby... it was SO great to see you guys!! (I came across my socks from that classy bowling alley the other day, haha.) At the beginning of August, I went to Montana to visit Jeremy... the drive from my house wasn't actually that bad. We went to Yellowstone, so that was fun. And just last week, my parents and I moved Justin back to South Bend. It was so weird (and sad) to be back there and not be moving myself back. He lives in Regis Philbin's old room this year, so hopefully I'll meet him during a football weekend, haha. In the meantime, I've been working for my dad doing advertising sales and stuff. It's not bad. So yeah, that's about it. When will everyone be back for football games? I'm going back in two weeks for Nevada and I know that Reed and Brian will be there for sure... everyone should come for that one!! FLF reunion? Between my dad and I, we have tickets for a few more games as well, so I'll be back for a couple more this fall.
That's about it. This is pretty long. (That's what she said...?)
I miss you guys. A lot.

I cut open a dead person today

Today was the first day of anatomy lab. We got our table assignments and bodies. My group has a rather large man with very tough tissue. One of the profs said he has two ways of classifying how easily the people cut: either butter or steel wool. Our guy is steel wool. We cut open his back and started dissecting the skin away from some gross stuff. At the end of lab the prof that explained everything to us gave me an imaginary gold star on my forehead for my superior skinning skills. I felt special. Ishould probably try to learn a little more anatomy (such as what the gross stuff is really called) if I want to continue getting gold stars and such.
I am officially done w/ my first med school class- medicine and society. We had our final today. It was basically a stats class. not terribly difficult. I'm expecting that to change quite quickly.
I was looking at old pics today cause i'm trying to figure out which ones to hang up in my apartment and it made me miss everyone a lot. I never really thought about how weird it would be to go to a school other than notre dame and without you guys. I don't like it very much yet but i didn't like nd very much in the first month or so either. I'm very bitter about the fact that i'm supposed to be trying to make new friends when i already have you guys. It makes me feel like i'm expected to replace you guys which is ridiculous cause thats not whats expected and would never happen but when im pmsing and exhausted thats how it seems lol. I should really go to bed. I have to clean first cause my dad's bringing me a tv this weekend and my apartments kinda messy (shocking right?). nowhere near as bad as my room at school was though.
I'm sure there's more but im done typing now

I got a bartending job! Woo!

It's only part-time, but now I have two part-time jobs which means one full-time job, right?

part-time + part-time = full-time

See? I'm gonna do so good on the GRE math section.

The place is a restaurant attached to a local small zoo and is in the same building as the aquarium, but it's a really cool atmosphere- the dining area actually has a giant shark tank in the middle. So hoorah, one piece of my life figured out...

I'm on a Boat, Motherfucker!

Except instead of a yacht, I'm going hardcore on a canoe. I've got my swim trunks but no flippy floppies (Because open-toed shoes are a BAD idea for this trip). If you're on the shore, then you're sure not me-oh (Since I will be in places only reachable by canoe).

. . .

Ok, enough of that.

After only three days in civilization to recuperate from camp, I'm heading out on my canoe trip into the wilderness of Algonquin Provincial Park. To be honest, I'm actually kind of freaked out.

For 10 days, I am one of only two leaders completely responsible for the safety of seven scouts. At camp there's a full staff on hand to help out if shit hits the fan, but deep in the park you're more likely to see moose than people. There will be three Eagle Scouts (myself included) on this expedition, so we should be all right, but this is still way more responsibility than I'm used to.

What also freaks me out is the complete cut-off from communication. Even at camp, I can access the internet at the nearby town's library, and we actually got decent cell reception at our site this year. However on this trip, there is none of that. Remember that big power outage that knocked out electricity to most of the Northeast five years ago? Yeah, I don't. That happened while I was on this trip as a scout. When we got back, we didn't believe it had happened until we saw news articles first hand and experienced the rolling blackouts in town. Who knows what will go down this time I'm off the grid.

Yet as much as I'm freaked out, I'm also crazy excited. This trip was one of the highlights of my time in scouting. The scenery is beautiful (as long as it doesn't rain), and the park is the most pristine location I have ever seen. I would do this for free, but they're actually paying me to go! Who knows, if this whole aerospace thing doesn't quite work out, I might look into making a living doing this kind of stuff as an outdoor guide of some sort.

I hope you all have been having a great summer, and I wish I was better at keeping in touch. As I will be officially unemployed when I return, road trips might be in order. So if you live within a day's drive of Rochester, be ready for surprise visits.

... updates?

Just wanted to mention that my little sister will be going to ND next year, and will be living in a studio apt at TC. No idea what dorm she is affiliated with.

Oh, and I signed up for google voice so I have another number that I may or may not use a bunch (its 920-524-9658 - which is a wisconsin number).

address, dance, marriage, cholesterol, and football

Hey everyone!! I'm finishing up my last week in Texas before I visit chicago/nd and then head off into volunteer land. I was gonna make this post more fluid, but given the sad state of my packing preparations and my apparent hunger at the moment, I'm just gonna bang out this update and tell y'all that I miss you.

I have an address!!!! And housemates!!!! I'm living at 57 Glendale Place, Buffalo, NY 14208 with 3 other volunteers. Our phone number is 716-881-2905
Jamie how close is that to you???

That music video job I got won't be in production until September so I can't do it :'( But I'm still really happy about the audtition and how everything else went down. I think I'm about 75% sure that after service I'm gonna jump into dance in Chicago and see if I can work for a company out there while I get stuff started.

As an homage to How I Met Your Mother, I wanna marry this guy pretty much based on the story of how we met. Short story: On a service trip to mexico senior year of highschool. Don't see each other for 5 years. End up sitting at the same table at a restaurant through a serendipitous string of events. I'm just saying, I think it's pretty cool... but we went out yesterday and I found out he wears Nike... so needless to say, I will not be proposing.

So I found out I have high cholesterol. WTH?!?!?! And a random extra bone of some sort in my wrist. I am either falling apart or slowly gaining super-powers.

Also, I did MAN ticket lottery for the Nevada game. I can buy two tickets, but I don't know if I'd even be able to make the game. Anyone in dire need of some tickets or know someone who wants to buy tickets really badly? I have til the 14th to buy them, but they're 80 bucks bc the extra money goes to the alum network. Lemme know and I can hold em.

Also, what is everyone up to? What are future plans/updates?

Peace all.

Romance, Drama and Unemployment

hey so
i was finally able to figure out how to get into this blog again hahahah woohoo!

anyway, quick tiny summary of my life since graduation (the good, the bad and the ugly)

so you all should probably know that kevin and i aren't dating anymore, right? we broke up like a week before graduation. after graduation i went to NYC with family and aedan came all the way from Portland to hang out (he has family in NYC). we hit it off because i no longer felt like i had to purposely be a bee-atch to him (i guess it was my way of distancing myself from him). got to know him in a different light and yeah... we started dating.

from the very beginning i told aedan that i would have to leave panama in a week so, was this a good idea? bla bla bla, it was all very much spontaneous (and quite romantic i might say, it was friggin sightseeing in NYC!). he ended up convincing me to go to Portland and meet his family (yikes!). i had a blast!

we broke up when i came back to panama. but we missed each other so much that we got back together in like 2 days. but then 2 weeks later i felt like i was lying to myself and that this wasn't really gonna work out (him being in college and me starting my career in a different country and whatnot)

anyway, yeah that's that.... i haven't been single for more than a month in 6 long years, so it's pretty exciting? i'm happy. aedan and i are still good friends. and i'm glad to say that after much much drama kevin and i are friends too. i feel like i need to grow on my own for a while, do some soul searching or something.

ANYWAY, romance and drama aside, i'm looking for a job in my country. so far many companies are interested but a lot of them don't have vacancies and the rest of them are taking long to get back to me (people are slow in this country). in the mean time i'm just working on little projects like organizing my room (which has been neglected for about 30 years) and cooking.

I MISS YOU ALL, besos y abrazos!

my new apartment

tomorrow i move into my new apartment. It is in a kinda crappy neighborhood but its like a gated community with security guards and evrything. Im getting a single. There are 40 other first year med students from ub living in the complex. Ill have to take pictures and stuff to show you guys what it looks like. it comes furnished but i have to decorate and stuff so me and mom hae been shopping for stuff. I now own dishes and pots and pans. pretty exciting. I really like the place so i'm pretty excited about it. Yay for not being homeless!!!

I'm at work! . . . sort of

Greetings from the library in the town of Tupper Lake, NY. It's the only place within an hour drive where I can access the internet. Yes, I am finally being a productive citizen and working my two weeks at scout camp.

This job has had its fair share of issues in the past, but this year looks like it might be my best yet. The kids are great, and we have been lucky enough to avoid troublemakers and homesickness. (Although by saying that, I've probably jinxed myself, and I'll get back to the site to find multiple knife fights and a kid crying that he wants to go home)

The guys I'm working with are great too. They're brothers that were in the troop with me, and now they work as firefighters for the city. They're also ND fans since they played football for the local high school known as the Little Irish (Complete with leprechaun mascot).

I still can't believe I get paid to do this, and I'm making the most of my time here. One of the first tasks upon arriving was to go to the local drinking establishment that very night. The Thirsty Moose is less than two miles from the camp entrance and is where all the staff hang out after hours. The bar is legendary at camp, and my dad even remembers it from his days working as staff.

Computers are in high demand, so I need to finish up. If I get back into town in the next week and a half, I'll post more updates, otherwise, I'll probably be out of touch for a while.

Semi- Ditto to Gloria's Post

Well I got a job offer today. It was not for the job I actually interviewed for today (if you want to hear an amusing story, ask me about it sometime).

I will be serving beer and wine in ASU's football stadium during all home games and probably the Insight Bowl. Woo! Okay, so it's not exactly the semi-stable night time job I was looking for, but it's a start and means I should be able to earn a bit of money in the next year even if no one else hires me. Pllleeeaaase someone else hire me. That's my bit of good news = )

I have a future!!! for a little while...

Wooohooo!
So I found out today that I got into my program in Buffalo. I am soooooo excited and so happy and a little bit scared about it. From what I hear... it's cold?
Anyway, I'm gonna be travelling in the next couple of weeks; prolly to Chicago/ND and then hoppin over to Buffalo. I'll be living with CCSC volunteers in a house in the city. The office is near Niagra square so Jamie I'm sure you know better than me where that is.

Ahhhh. I'm so happy. I have a future for the next 11 months!!!!! My director is awesome!! (judging by two phone conversations so I guess I don't really know her yet... but if she tells me she plays interhall sports we're becoming life-long friends)

Also, hey by the way I auditioned for this music video last week and got it! I dunno if I'll actually be around for the shoot, but they're gettin a production sched out soon and I'll be able to know then. This is the singer I'll be dancing for hopefully. And this is the song we're doing. jajajaja

This summer's been rough so I'm really really happy to be able to share some bits of good news. Anyone gonna be aorund Chicago/Buffalo between Aug 7th and 14th? Ima make travel plans soon.

Also, anyone heard FloRida and Neyo's song "Be on You"? If so... does anyone else think it just sounds like he's singing "I wanna pee on you?" And does that make anyone else think of R-Kelly? And by default, space jam?
Just wondering.
I miss you all. I will alert you all anytime I hear of another good deal like Vegas.
Peace

my life as a lifeguard

my life has been boring and i'm bored so i've decided to give you all a general overview of my past week. Monday I went to work. First i taught lessons...it was really cold so none of the kids wanted to stay in the water for the full half-hour and neither did i so most of my lessons lasted 10-20 minutes. Later that day, no one came to the pool. I got paid to talk on my phone for half an hour...it was fantastic. After work, me and a bunch of my friends went to Vizzi's (bar) as we do every monday. I was looking through Nick's (bartender) black book and discovered a fabulous new drink called neon. Don't remember what's in it but it was pretty and yummy. Next I offered to sleep with my brother's roommate. It made total sense; I said I had to leave and go to bed because I was really tired (I skipped over the part of my day where I got up really early because I don't remember why I did) and he said I couldn't because he was gonna be bored so I told him he should just come sleep with me. He was rather surprised by my suggestion and it made me miss ND cause i felt like if I made that suggestion to any of you guys I'd end up with like 3 people in my bed (i mean not really cause it was lofted and small but if i had my bed at home at school).
Tuesday I went to the dentist. Then i went to work. It was still cold. After work I went bowling with people from work. I got an incredble high score of 79. What's really sad about that is that i beat like 5 people. it was great
Wednesday I went to work again. It wasn't quite as cold but it certainly wasn't warm. After work I went to see Harry Potter which i recommend everyone do if they haven't yet and enjoy harry potter.
Thursday I had to go to the eye doctor. It took approxamately 20 minutes. Then I went to work yet again. It was nice and warm and sunny out so I got slightly overexcited and the tops of my legs are now slightly burnt and I have terrible tan lines on my back. I went home and watched 1/2 of moulin rouge while reading.
Friday I took my dad to the dealership to pick up his car (he had to have it fixed cause like a week after he got it he backed it into my brother's explorer). After that I took my mom to return dishes that people gave her food in. Then she and I went to get pedicures. It was highly enjoyable. I then proceeded to go out to lunch followed by apartment hunting. After dinner I went and took a nice bath and now I am here.
After this I am going to go paint my nails.
I hope you all enjoyed this glimpse into my terribly fascinating life
I miss all of you so much

Spam in a Can

Just a heads up, the powers that be (read: computer algorithms) have identified this blog as a potential spam blog. I got an e-mail saying that readers will see a warning page, but I can see things perfectly fine so I don't know what's up with that.

Anyhoo, if you can actually read this, don't worry about a thing. If you can't, I guess you'll read this when it gets unlocked, so this will just be an explanation of what happened.

I followed the e-mail's instructions, and requested a review, so things should be back to normal soon (If I didn't, the blog would have been deleted in 20 days!).

A few pictures from Malta

Here is a VERY small number of photos from Malta. Nearly all of them are completely unrelated to any of the others. I only pulled a few from one of the SD cards, and some of the photos are on my Dad's computer since one camera uses Memory Stick (bleh) and its small so it had to be continually emptied.

A quick primer -- the island has been captured and held by nearly every major power ever. There are fortresses everywhere due to the strategic location in the middle of the Mediterranean shipping lanes and having massive and deep harbours throughout the entirety of the island. The important ones are the defence of the island from the Ottoman Turks at the height of their empire, Napoleon taking the island during his brief reign, and the Brits taking the island and then barely holding off the Nazis during WW II (being bombed to hell in the process - to the point of the entire island being awarded the George Cross).

Photos

I'll post a video of the fireworks if ppl are interested whenever I find the right SD card.


The last one wasn't really from an area I think that I was supposed to be able to get into. The other passage that I didn't post could have been made by the Turks trying to blowup the walls of the fortress during the Great Siege (since thats how you do it -- tunnel underneath and blowout the foundation). Basically you had to walk down and scramble around the outside of Fort St. Elmo to get where the passages are.

I'm totally at work right now

Oh hey there guys and gals (yes, i said gals, i don't care how much you may judge me),
so, as my title says, i'm totally at work right now. and have been for like 6 hours. one of my bosses has left me alone (i have like a billion of those, though technically they're not my bosses since i'm now an employee but i'm so new they can pretty much tell me to do anything and i have to). soooo i did all the work i had to and had free time so i decided to do some MAJOR blog catch-up. apparently i'm one of the only ones that completely forgets to check this? my bad.

i miss you all so much that sometimes i wake up in a cold sweat from it. well. sometimes i wake up in a cold sweat, but that's cuz i have crappy ventilation in my room sometimes. but i DO miss you. like a lot. a lot a lot. because of this, i've decided to start some serious saving (since i guess i'm making some money now, weird) so that i can visit you guys or maybe we can plan a trip to somewhere awesome?

OH! in completely not important news, i've decided we should all go to vegas (again for some of us) together and do it RIGHT. which means we should probably all start earning a lot more than zero dollars. or whatever everybody makes.

well, back to work, the volunteers and parents/kids are arriving and i'm technically in charge of the children's program tonight. crap. these kids better not make my life too difficult; we're workin with glitter glue. GLITTER GLUE. do you KNOW what kind of mess that can create? i'm scared. fortunately, there's a really cute guy that volunteers tuesdays that eases the pain of 15-20 children acting up. yes, i could have left that part out, but why would i not wanna share my fortune? exactly.

A Life Lesson

I know I promised pictures of my hiking adventure weeks ago, but that will have to wait. I do have a quick lesson to share though.

Imagine that the rest of your family is on vacation, leaving you the house to yourself. You may be tempted to host a beer pong match on your kitchen table.

If you decide that this is a good idea, make sure you clean up before family members start arriving home the next day.

If you fail to do so, hope that the first family member to arrive lets it slide, giving you time to finish cleaning before the rest get home.

If you are successful at cleaning, make sure that in doing so you don't mistakenly set up the table in the wrong orientation.

If you forget which way the table goes and guess it wrong, pray that your parents still give you the benefit of the doubt, in which case you will still possibly get off scott free.

. . . As long as you don't leave a receipt lying around tracking your purchase of ping pong balls, cups, and beer.

My brother makes me look like a saint :-D

weird

Last night i had a dream; i don't remember all of it but it involved notre dame. We were all back there and we were sitting in church pews but they were outside next to a big white gazebo. The only other thing I remember from the dream was that we were all reading the Scholastic and whoever was in charge of the sitting around thing was playing Let it Be. The weird part is that for some reason I woke up missing the dining hall of all things. And not even actually the dining hall,but waiting in line to get into south. Just for the record, i never liked doing that so I dont know why i woke up missing it. pretty sure south wasnt even in my dream. Just thought I'd share

Lady gaga and the BEP

Just a random update from Malta. For the most part I've just been touring around and fishing (with hiking interludes).

On July 4th I saw one of the coolest fireworks displays I've ever seen, and was allowed to be probably 20x closer than you'd ever be allowed in the US due to safety concerns. There were fireworks first set to Italian opera, then things like fireworks flowers, discs, and stars set to techno music. The flowers opened and closed and the discs had four inner discs which spun around the larger discs. I'll post photos of those after I get them off my camera.

Tonight I managed to get a slick place at the isle of MTV concert. Which was a free concert in Valleta with metro station, lady gaga, and the black eyed peas. I managed to accidentally befriend the friends of the security guards so I got free food from the VIP section and allowed to stand on the security barriers about 40 ft from the stage (there were 50k plus at the venue). I have no idea if this was telecast in the states or not. Anyhow I'd never heard of metro station although I did know one of their songs courtesy of backer. I'd never seen a video of lady gaga only heard her songs so her outfits were definitely shall we say unique (although she was probably dying of heat in one of them). I did find it amusing that she made fun of metro station during her performance. Black eyed peas were awesome as always definitely got even more of the crowd dancing than even lady gaga although that may have to do with ppl leaving due to the time and thus freeing up more space.

Anyhow that's as much as I'm willing to write on my iPod. Might briefly go online soon.

Off to the Med...

Continuing the theme of trips with little planning. I found cheap tickets to Malta several days ago, and bought them. I'll be there for two weeks from Sunday onwards. I have precisely no idea of exactly what I'll be doing there, but probably stuff to do with fishing and sightseeing (and wishing that I had A/C). I probably won't have net access for the most part because unless one of my Aunt's neighbours has gotten wifi now (since four yrs ago), the only place is a net cafe a ways away.

I would have invited a bunch of you, however the second my parents heard that I found cheap tickets, they jumped on because they've never been to my Aunt's flat there and my mum hasn't been back to Malta since she was living there.

Guide to Going out and Getting everything for FREE (even dudes)

Preliminary Steps and Rules:
- be female. If you can't achieve this step make sure you are with a group of females.
- if you are not skanky by nature, just don't skank it up. It's distracting, not sexy.
- find a place to go out with several bars/clubs within walking distance of each other. This model was tested on 6th street which has about 7,000 bars within shouting distance of each other. But 5 or 6 should be good too.

Step 1:
- Choose a random night to go out. Best night of the week? Tuesday. It's important that there be no lines forming to get inside.

Step 2:
- Start early, but not too early. Get out between 10:30 and midnight. Every bar/club wants to get to capacity as early in the night as possible and will try to get you in their place.

Step 3:
- Take the largest group you can handle. Around 8 people or so is good. Make sure there's about 1 dude to every 3 or four girls. Decide ahead of time where you are going or elect one person (preferably the most sober one) to make ALL the decisions that evening. They will talk to bouncers and lead the group. The person, as you can see by the image to your right, is usually the most magenta and least grey of the group.

Step 4:
- Walk away from the bar/club. Pick a place you want to go to and walk past it as if you have no intention of going in. It's early in the night so there's no line, plus the bouncer sees a giant group of mostly girls walking away from the bar, at this point you will get offered free cover, reduced drink prices, a left kidney, ANYTHING!! to just take the whole group inside. Whatever the first offer is, just look at the bouncer like he's speaking Afrikaans. The second offer will be better. If you have no luck, just walk past the bar and on to the next one and repeat this step until it takes. If it still doesn't work you may have gone out too late, be out on the wrong night, or have too many guys with you. Try again later.

Step 5:
- Once in the bar, get whatever free thing you were offered and get it quickly. If you and your buddies got a free drink, make sure as many of you as possible tip the bartender. Make friends! Take a look around. If you notice any spunky female bar promoters, just finish your drink and move on to the next place. If you like the bar have some fun and enjoy your night. Make whatever good impression you can on the staff (maybe let your group spokesperson do this, they're least likely to do something stupid) and remember it for the next time you go out.

Step 6:
- Leave the bar/club with all (or most) of your clothes on and all ( or most) of the people you came with.

Feel free to test this out in your locales. It works, I promise. The only place it wouldn't work, is prolly South bend. We went out with a group of like 9 of us including two guys. Over the night we hit up 4 bars/clubs, never paid any cover, got a free round at the first place and got free drinks at the third place. (The third place was telling us it'd be $2 cover each. That's when we walked away. The bouncer ran after us, offered free cover and gave us all free drink cards)

Peace all. Drink responsibly. Drink for free.

G

I think I need a drink?

Hey everyone! Wow am I glad that Gloria set this up for everyone. I have been quite amused by all of your stories and have to say that I am quite jealous of your adventures! Sorry I have been MIA for so long. I have dedicated the past 4 hours of my life to trying to switch over email from ND email to alumni and forward it to a new gmail that i set up and to respond to emails that have been rapidly falling into my inbox that probably should have been answered over a month ago...oh well. I think that I have been in denial about life after undergrad and thus, refused to be proactive in getting anything important taken care of. Once again, oh well :) haha
Well, life has been pretty crazy around here. My summer started with a road trip to the west coast and then a 50 some hour ferry ride. It was a lot of fun, but I think I would have to really reconsider ever going on a cruise....unless there are lots of friends and booze. Let me tell you, it was a pretty boring ride. I would have been fine had I been by myself, but my dad just made me nervous. How? You might ask. Well, where I could sit and watch movies and read a book all day, he refused to read, listened to my ipod for 25 mins before gave up on that idea and instead, looked out the window for hours at a time while sitting next to me and asking me how my book was, telling me about the weather, wanting to play cards in the bar, etc etc etc. oh well. it was a bonding experience and we made fun of the "nature interpreter" who was "employed by the Tongass National Forest." I nicknamed her Suzy Sunshine. I just remembered that I composed a whole letter to you guys that I was going to email when I got home and off that ferry...but alas, I had forgotten about it. You might still get it and hear about me listening to "our flippered friends- how to tell the difference between a sealion and a seal." Hey, if I had to listen to it and and the tourists oohhhing and ahhhhing....we should all have to suffer! :) j/k....well maybe not.
After I got home, we got on the boat a few days later and have been fishing ever since. I got my halibut done and we are going into the 3rd week of salmon fishing. I tried to help a lady tie up her boat and as me and this other guy were pulling on the ropes to get it closer to the dock, the rope she tied around the post came loose and i happened to be leaning backward while pulling on it and went flying backwards into the ocean. Your favorite FLIPPER had to be fished out of the drink yet again. If I hear one more flipper joke...I swear.....
In other news: your weekly priest scandal update- Apparently people in the parish are not happy about my mother spending so much time with the priest and insist that she must be having an affair of something with him. Now, keep in mind, everyone in town is talking about this. Well apparently someone in town heard/ started the rumor, that he was coming to graduation at ND and I was quoted as "being livid" and this was sent to all of the church council and the bishop, etc. Well, this may have been true, but I didn't say anything to anyone in town about it, so I have no idea how this got out. So anyways, I got jumped by my mother about "WHO DID YOU TELL?" etc etc and I denied saying anything and that Jill had called me asking about it before I said anything and so then mom wanted me to demand that Jill give up her sources. OH DEAR. Needless to say...I just refused. I guess that shit hit the fan about the whole priest scandal 08/09 while I was gone one week and she wrote a letter to the church council just blasting them for believing/starting/supporting the rumor etc. All I can say is, OH JEEZE and THE RECORD KEEPS PLAYING, THE SAME OLD SONG! Sorry to bore some of you, but others who have been hearing about it for months probably can get a good laugh from this. Also, someone reported to the church council that my dad has been "stalking" the church to see if my mom's car is there when in fact, he is just out for a walk and only walked by the church 2 times in the month that he went on an exercise kick and could care less what she is doing or not doing with the priest. As I pointed out, if someone saw him "stalking" the church, there has to be someone else stalking the church to observe this. MERDE!
OTHER: The cousin (Nic) got his pregnant gf's parents to cosign a loan (or someone else, who i think might be a biker gang) for 175,000 so he could buy this big aluminum boat out of bristol bay and a permit. What a joke. Well, people used to call him the "evil seed" but are now calling him "the tinman" because the boat is aluminum and like the tinman, he has no heart. I got a chuckle out of that one.
There is a guy who gets called "Mayday" or "Mayday Ray" because in his early years fishing he was always calling in Mayday to the coast guard because his boat broke down and no one would go help him. Well anyways, he gets on the radio last week to bitch out a boat that passes him too fast in a narrow spot in the Narrows and someone jokingly gets on the radio and goes "mayday mayday" -obviously in reference to him and his being a dumbass. Well, the coast guard thought it was a real mayday call and Ray wouldn't tell them the story but kept harping on about this boat that passed him. So, the coast guard sent out a boat and team to investigate after spending an hour trying to pinpoint the location of the mayday call. i don't think they launched a helicopter, but if they did, $40,000 tax dollars were spent on a dumb hoax due to stupidity.
I got in at the University of Oregon.
Waiting to hear if they are going to give me any scholarship money.
trying to sell my car. Someone called and said "well I just wanted to know if that price is REALLY what you are asking for it." Since then, I have changed the # on the sign so they can talk to my dad because I'm scared to answer the phone and get another mean call like that.
I'm going slightly crazy because I miss you all so much and so much reminds me of stuff that we did together and memories and when I try to tell other people about them...they just don't find it as funny or look at me like I am crazy. EX- midnight tbell runs; I saw a replica of Angelica's drinking bucket from Florida while I was at the bar and I broke out in chuckles.
As a result of all of this- the title of the note- i think i need a drink?
My new email is tracy.a.welch@gmail.com or twelch2@alumni.nd.edu.
I love you all and sorry for the long and rambling message and applaud you if you made it to the end!
~Tracy~

Cross Country Trip

So I leave Pennsylvania for good tomorrow. I am very pumped for a change of scenery... so here we go.

Just writing this to let y'all know that if I do not survive this particular four day, giant truck and car carrier... it's been real. Love you all!

On Friday I will be in the burning heat of an Arizona sun.. and I couldn't be more excited.

Hey everyone!

Miss you all like crazy!

Not too much going on here in good old Funcie... lol Just doing TONS of paperwork for med school (ugh) and hanging out with friends (yay!)

Oh, and I get my wisdom teeth out on July 7 (I am sooo looking forward to that...lol)

I am definitely going to try to make it up to Chicago the weekend after that to see whoever else can make it up that weekend, though!!! I can't wait!!!

:)

Mountain Man

Yesterday, my friend Joe graduated from Dartmouth. To celebrate, he wants me to come visit and hike some of the Appalachian Trail with him.

Now, some people might remember that I've already done this before. Two summers ago, I was able to go visit and hike for a day. That's when the picture to the left was taken. We hiked a total of 25 miles that day, and my legs felt like Jello for days afterward.

This year, Joe wants to do a couple of multi-day hikes, spending the nights in the shelters along the trail. To be honest, this kind of scares the crap out of me. Not only will these hikes be significantly longer, but they will also require carrying a lot more gear. I'm not really in shape at all, so I will count it a success if I can walk at all when we are finished.

Oh yes, I also fail at following Jamie's advice because right now neither of us know any of the details for the hikes. I'm basically just throwing all my camping equipment in my car and hoping we come up with some semblance of a plan when I get there.

I leave tomorrow. If I survive, I'll be back in a week, hopefully with some great pictures like this:

Look What The Cat Dragged In

It's me! Since I know everyone is interested in what I'm doing, I decided I would let y'all know.

After reading Reed's post, I watched all 40 episodes of Dorm Life in 36 hours, and I would suggest that everyone else does the same. New episodes every Monday!

Saturday morning, my friend and I ran a 5K a few towns away. We didn't have the $20 to register, so we used the college student discount and just ran it unofficially. When we went through the chute at the end, they asked for our numbers, which we didn't have, so we just kept walking, but that wasn't the end of it. Some 80-year old lady who was approximately as tall as my kneecaps ran us down on the walk to our car and yelled at us for 5 minutes about how we committed a terrible deed and how we screwed up the results for everyone else. We suggested that they just subtract 2 from the placings of everyone who finished behind us, and everything would be fixed. Apparently that would've been too tough. My friend also tried to play the card that we were just out for our usual morning run, but that someone had placed a course and a finish line on our usual route. She didn't buy it, and I don't think she was amused. Anywho, we told her we were from the neighboring town that we hate, so everything was fine.

I seem to have a future

I got into med school at University at Buffalo. Really don't wanna be in Buffalo but ill survive. My moms really excited about me being in buffalo though. Still on the waitlist at NYMC. I think i like UB better though...I dont know, well see....I wouldn'tmind just not getting in there so I don't have to make a decision. Im tired of decisions. To celebrate I went out with some friends. I drank 2 bottles of champagne then proceeded to throw one of the up. no hangover though :). I'm just glad I don't have tot try to figure out what im gonna do next year. Makes my summer much more relaxing

My Study Days Never Ended :-(

Greetings to all from Maryland! Hope everyone is doing well! When I have not been studying for the MCAT (which I postponed to June 18th, so send me good vibes on that date) I have searched the internet far and wide for things to help me procrastinate studying. Continuing the theme that Gloria presented, I thought I would provide another enjoyable time waster for those who have the extra time, or don't and like me just don't want to be doing what it is we're supposed to. But anyways, this heralded procrastination device is a mockumentary called Dorm Life. While it does cause frequent episodes of nostalgia, it is also a healthy source of delicious humor. I'm on episode 18 of season one, which is by far the most hilarious episode so far (but warning, don't start with this one because you have to know the characters first or else it just won't be funny). To make the experience even better please sign on AIM or make a phone call and get me or some other FLFer to watch the episode at the same time so we say who each character reminds us of and relive those awkward and drunken days and nights at ND by watching some other people do it even worserly. Hope you all can enjoy it! Now off to studying the female gonads!

The First Days of School by Harry Wong

Yes that is the title of one of my ACE books. Yes one my professors said in class "let me get out my harry wong." Yes I bit my tongue so I wouldn't bust out laughing and acting like the middle schoolers that I will be standing in front of in t-minus 2 months. Also...one staff member has the last name Seamon and the other Cummings. Seriously now.

Let me start off with...

I am insanely jealous of all these stories of summer. I want to be camping, on youtube, waking up with no pants, traveling and all that jazz. But instead I have had class for a week and three days from 8 am to 8pm. BUT the classes are amazing, the teachers are amazing and I never EVER knew being a teacher was so much work. Did I mention I am so excited to teach come august!?!! I never knew class could be so much fun when you actually like what you are doing.

I have already turned in a 5 chapter plan of my classroom management and met my future community (who wants me to get a basset hound). My housemates are cool, all different and I can already feel some good times. BUT there are 6 of us. The house has 4 rooms. The 4 girls live on the 2nd floor in two rooms and share one bathroom. The two guys get their own rooms on the 1st floor. Looks like I will not be getting privacy . . . ever.

ND is so weird without you guys here. It feels wrong to be in McGlinn (woohoo Howard is being remodled so we get AC) with the girls living on floors 1 and 2 and the guys on 3 and 4 without all of you here. There are no parietals. COME VISIT!

I start practice teaching on Monday at Christ the King working through two weeks of labs with smart kids. Then the following four weeks I teach at Clay High School with 9th grade health. I have to teach sex and drugs. joy. hehe. We video tape one day of teaching and show it to our classmates and have an analyzing session. I'm terrified.

ok i could ramble on forever. but i just wanted to let you know that i miss you guys like crazy. being without you here is just plain wrong.

love love love,
abby

A life lesson

I recently learned a very important life lesson that I now feel the need to share with all of you. Never EVER agree to go camping without first getting every single detail.
My friends and I recently started doing a yearly camping trip. This summer will make our third trip. I couldn't go last year because I was back at school for it, but I went the year before and my friend Emily brought her pop-up trailer and we had electricity and whatnot, and it was fairly civilized. So when she asked me about it this year, I told her I would definitely go and I'd stay for all four days. (Little side note, when I told my mom I was going camping she laughed at me...I think I should be insulted by that).
Here's what I recently found out about our little camping trip: the weekend after next, I will be sleeping in a tent for three nights in a row. In my life, I have slept in a tent that was not in someone else's backyard a grand total of one time, for one night, in my life and I was too drunk to care that I was sleeping in a tent. Now here's the real kicker, in order to save money, we are getting a campsite that doesnt have electricity. I am slightly scared. I don't know if any of you have noticed, but I'm not really a camping kind of girl. My camping involves cabins with indoor plumbing, electricity, and heating. On my girl scout camping trips, we would order pizza. I blame my mother really; she raised me that way...she was even my girl scout leader who advocated ordering pizza and then burning the boxes instead of actually learning how to start a fire.
I'm thinking I'm probably going to have to drink heavily for this camping trip to work out. I'm sure I'll be fine during the day, its the sleeping on the ground part that is probably going to be an issue.
The moral of my story is: never agree to something without knowing exactly what you're getting yourself into. It is a bad idea!

The opposite of study days

So you know how during study days you always mean to study but are for some reason 20x more susceptible to all those little gadgets and games that help us procrastinate. Like the other day I decided to play a game of jetman. You know what, it's just not as fun when I don't have 3 tests and a presentation coming up. Don't get me wrong, it's still mind-numbingly fun! Well, now that we're well into summer most of us don't have the pressure of tests, papers, and presentations to make wasting time more appealing. The majority of us have loads of time and due to the surplus have begun doing unthinkable things. Studying for tests. Exercising. Reading books! I say end the madness. This post will equip you with many tools to keep your minds nice and mushy. Remember the UNCF mantra: "A mind is a terrible thing..."

- TFLN - www.textsfromlastnight.com
Let the area code stereotyping commence.

-Exploding dog - www.explodingdog.com
send titles. get pictures. it's simple

- Christmas? - www.isitchristmas.com
did i go to this site on christmas? Ironically, no.
you'll think it's dumb, but just wait until the second
time you check it.

- GMH - www.givesmehope.com
Kinda the opposite of FML

- FML - www.fmylife.com
speaking of which

- some youtube gems -
WTF blanket - the way the infomercial should go
comfort wipe - this is real. Thanks Liz.
sequel - mostly tho... that guy is built and has a yacht! I'll call the number.
hawaii chair - just wrong. Looks like a "that's what she said" waiting to happen
News fight - Dyaaaaaaaamn!


You're Welcome!

i woke up with no pants on today...

oh hey there friends. sorry for the lack of being, well, alive (according to the world wide web anyway). computers have been acting out against me, by which i mean my laptop is now, as the wise T.I. (ft. justin timberlake) would say, dead and gone.  but for realsies, it's gone, fr.simon tried to upgrade it, and instead it broke, leaving me computerless and thus less likely to go online. but i'll work on it.

i'm loving checking on this blog though, well done to all of you for actually contributing, unlike me. i'm totally down for road trips and scoreboards, and i'm ALWAYS down for a solid dorm disco party without warning j-dog first.

as for my title, i feel it describes my summer so far very well. not in the sense that it's been exciting, but in how sad it has been. i woke up without pants on because i fell asleep at 4am reading (or should i say re-reading) that fantasy series i've told most of you about. and then i vaguely remember waking up at 6 or 8 (i can't be sure, i was somewhat delirious, it could've been 10, god only knows) attempting to "get ready for bed" by changing. well i apparently only succeeded in taking off my pants. that was all. so yea, clearly this summer has been pretty darn exciting.

oh, i guess i did technically get an internship/volunteer/possibly soon to be paid job? at a non-profit for the homeless, so yay? i mean, i like it, but mostly i'm avoiding all real decisions about my future. you guys wanna enable me and come visit and distract me from making these choices?!?!? do it. DO IT.

ok, i'm out, sorry for the long post, but i figured i should make my existence known, or else how could i be sure to keep my hold on you all?

well this seems practical...

Apparently ND is getting new scoreboards (they'll look about the same... just a technology upgrade) and they're auctioning off the old ones. Take a look: http://auction.steinersports.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=105105134&prmenbr=55076099&aunbr=105451844
There's only one bid so far ($1,998).
So if anyone is in the market for a giant scoreboard, here's your chance. Don't let it slip away. Added bonus: UPS ground shipping is only $9.99! Someone needs to get on this.

In other news, I just learned that Justin and about nine other Zahm guys (most of whom are engineers) are going to put a disco floor in their common room next year. They're already working on it. Awesome.

Brian at the Brickyard

I have decided that this blog could use more pizazz, so I am going to attempt to add pictures and movies to this post. This works out well since I finally dug my camera out of my stuff today to download the pictures on it.

Now for the story. . . So, part of the reason I stayed behind in South Bend for as long as I did was so I could attend the Indianapolis 500 this past Sunday. My parents had seen the race way back in 1983, and they always recommended that I go. I figured this was the last time I would be in Indiana around this time of the year, so it was now or never.

Since Indianapolis is a good 3 hour drive from SB, I woke up at 5AM to get on the road early. This turned out to be a very smart decision since upon reaching the area, I had to spend three more hours just sitting in traffic to get to my parking lot. I was honestly close to slitting someone's throat. Luckily, my early start still allowed me to get to the race with time to spare before the start.

Once there, I set out looking for Emily and Rachael. They were on the infield which is tailgate heaven and full of drunken rednecks and college kids. Unfortunately, it was heavily slanted towards the obnoxious, shirtless, "Let's chug a beer bro!", fratboy demographic. I grew frustrated looking for them, so I headed back to my seat. The sheer amount of alcohol that was around was impressive. Since you could bring coolers and backpacks in with you, at least half the adults there had beer of some kind. I honestly don't know how they survived because it was rediculously hot that day. I downed the entire 3 liters of ice water in my camelbak, and I still felt like I was getting dehydrated.

Now, watching the race is actually a lot more fun and exciting than I imagined. As you can see from the video, the cars zip past quickly, and then it's watching the big screens for about 45 seconds until they come around on the next lap. However, seeing the incredible speed of the cars firsthand and hearing the roar of the engines does do a lot to bring you into the race. My seat was in between turns 1 and 2, but I started to wander, and I found a sweet spot right along the fence on the inside of turn 1.

Now for the crashes! When you watch racing on TV, the crashes are usually the most interesting part. But in person they actually take some of the fun out of it since you most likely won't see them, and the cars are much less exciting when they drive around under caution.

The first crash occurred, as expected, on the first start of the race, RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY SEAT!! Unfortunately, I was still looking around on the infield and completely missed it. Damn! Fortunately, most of the race was fairly incident free, and there was plenty of good racing. But then, towards the end of the day, the biggest crash of the race happened right in front of me, and I actually saw it this time! Now, both drivers were ok, so I feel I can safely say this, but that was one of the craziest things I have ever seen! The picture is of the cleanup crews getting the track ready to race again while the cars drive past under yellow flag.

In the end, Helio Castroneves pulled out the win after starting in pole position. As everyone was leaving, I took the time to walk around and see the sights. I was fortunate enough to catch them moving the cars from pit road to the garages. I also got to see the famous strip of bricks across the finish line. Police did a much better job directing traffic away from the race, and I got back on the road with little hastle. I would say the experience was definitely worth the trip, and I would recommend it to anyone that's interested.

So, now I am back in Rochester. It's boring and quite possibly detrimental to my health. Last night when a hunger craving hit, I ran out and got myself a garbage plate. If I make that a habit, I may get a heart attack within a year. Sorry for the very long post, and I hope all is well with everyone else.

I can't think of a clever title for this

So... I just got back from a three day trip to Minnesota to visit Rachel. We made a last-minute decision on Monday and I drove up on Tuesday. It was great to get away from home for a while. We went to two Twins games and the Mall of America (and rode the log ride... yeeeeah!) It was so much fun. In somewhat related news, I want to make more road trips before I have to settle down, so if you want to make this happen, let me know. Also, Iowa is always open to visitors... I'm just sayin.
Oh and speaking of Rachel... how do you invite people to this blog?
Hopefully I'll be in Chicago soon with a job. It's a work in progress. Also I'm thinking about doing something for my birthday in Chicago sometime in July, so you should all be a part of that. I haven't really worked out any details yet, due to the fact that I am still working on my future. But yeah. It'd be fun.
I just found a bunch of my old teachers on facebook and am sufficiently creeped out.
Gloria- I'm currently reading your emails and I AM SO EXCITED! The one in Hyde Park (same building as before) is my favorite so far.
Andrew- I'll keep your family in my prayers!

I miss you all.

A trip down good movie lane...

I guiltily admit that the first movie I actually wanted to watch when I got home... was Wanted. What can I say - I needed to watch something on par with say JCVD? Which excluding the delicious lack of plot, the straight up predictability of it, and dreams of wrecking Ferraris was pretty good - especially with the side benefits of DSL and decent action scenes (I only wish I could curve the path of a bullet too). I highly recommend the film so long as you aren't expecting something with high quality like say Sudden Death, Universal Soldier, or Street Fighter.

As for what else I've been up to -- nothing worthwhile (as usual). Trying to avoid having to redo some random part of the house as pennance for not having a job during the summer. For anyone in htown - I'm up for house of pies anytime and pretty much any day.

Gloria – your predictions almost made me cry! Kobes - so good to see you again at the dance – I’ll be praying for your dad and your family...
Ale – safe travels – a letter will be on its way soon! Liz – good luck with the interview and/or moving!!! Jamie – you are correct – American Outlaws is awesome! :)
and Brian... I'm glad that you are alive :)

Chi-city

Being home has never been so entertaining.  My mother is officially going bonkers.  For example, this is a verbatim conversation between my mother and I while talking about the sizes of my feet: 

"Your right foot is a WHOLE SIZE bigger than your left foot?!  You know what they say, the right side of your brain controls the right side of the body, so obviously you've been doing too much physics...cuz that's like left brain stuff." 

Then she handed me a book on Zen Christianity. 

"Here, read this.  It will stimulate the right side of your brain, so then your feet with e-qui-lib-riate."  

I stood there in wonder and worry that I'm half her genetic code, and replied: 

"So you're saying if I read a Zen book, my feet will change size?"  

Sorry I've been so out of touch lately, life on the home front hasn't exactly been peaches 'n cream.  A year ago my dad has a ventricular heart attack while I was abroad, from which he has recovered well.  But sadly, a few weeks ago he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  Good news is it's in the very early stages, so treatment is feasible.  But being 65 years old, he's no vigorous youth prone to fast recovery from treatment.  I've been secretly sneaking home to spend time with the family, and subsequently got very behind in my work/social life at the end of the semester.  For having gone "missing", I apologize. 

Well, it just became official - I have an apartment in Evanston, and I'll move in on June 1st.  I'll start my PhD work in the fall, but in the mean time I'll be bouncing back and forth between Northwestern and Fermilab (apparently I have to train to become 2nd in the command in the control room?...yikes).  I just got my grad text books yesterday, and I'm giddier than a 1930's school girl in a candy store with a 50 cent piece she got from a Mexican immigrant she helped smuggle drugs into the country.  

Also, did you know that Lady Gaga's song, "Poke Face" was inspired by the fact that she would think about women while having sex with her ex boyfriend?  Puts a whole new meaning to "bluffin with my muffin".

Of course, you are all welcome, if you're in Chicago, to crash at my place in Evanston (it's only a short L ride away from downtown Chicago).  

Off to mow the lawn...effing child labor.  

Tutte le strade portano a Roma...

This is an AWESOME idea-- mad props Gloria, this is a great way to be able to keep in touch!

Basically, this is going to be really short because I am leaving tomorrow for Italyyyy!! Surprise surprise, I know... I haven't packed yet and my room looks like Hurricane Ale has whipped through it. Hmm. Should get started on that...

Other than that I spent a great three days up in Berkeley, CA with my best friend from high school who graduated from UC Berkeley-- whoo go her! Her commencement speaker was clearly not as exciting as ours though... After that, I flew back down to SoCal and I've just been relaxing, unpacking and repacking (actually I havent started that second part yet), spending time with my family, and just chillin. Oh last night we went out to see Angels and Demons--- sweeeeeet movie, you should all see it. It's somewhat corny at parts (yay Tom Hanks for having a few corny lines...) but other than that its action packed and well, I have to admit, I think I loved it the most because I could recognize EVERY single place they were going around in Rome and the Vatican, even one of my favorite coffee shops by the Pantheon and the Scavi under St. Peter's! Perfect movie right before my trip to Italy, especially since I'll be in Rome for 3 days!

Ok so I'm really going to do this packing thing now... but I miss you guys all sooo much already!!! I hope all your summers are starting off very relaxing and chill!

LOVE YOU!!! <3 <3 <3
Ale

The Votes Are in!

A recent aim conversation between Reed and I gave birth to a few predictions/superlatives which I've decided to list below.

But first, props to Brian for the blog idea! Also, you should post that video once you add in whatever you wanted to add! I'm going to Chicago in the second week of June. I may be headed to South Bend for a day or two in there, not sure yet. Prolly just a day, as I can't see my mom being happy bout me ditching her for SB. Uh, I'm doing some freelance dance stuff out here for the summer. I figure it's good for my wallet, nomadic schedule, and my resume!! I promise you I am not stripping... much.

Gloria's Predictions AKA Your Destiny
Yeah, I've chosen not to explain or excuse these. I didn't make you futures, I just read them. Some of you will experience great and wonderful things in life... some of you will experience explosive diarrhea. C'est la vie.

• Most likely to be a cougar - Sandmonster
• Most likely to get away with a crime - Jamie
• Most likely to have the coolest spouse who we're secretly jealous of - Loveshovel
• Most likely to have a restraining order against them - Simonso
• Most likely to write a book and then never read it - Reed
• Most likely to be on the cover of a magazine - Megan
• Most likely to accidentally end up raising 9 kids - Brian
• Most likely to befriend movie star while on a plane to an unknown destination - Belma
• Most likely to beat up their kid's incompetent little league coach - Lauren
• Most likely to break up the fight after Lauren gets in some good punches - Tracy
  
• Most likely to furnish their entire home with IKEA furniture - Abby
• Most likely to unwittingly be the leader of a cult - Kobes
• Most likely to discover another dimension - Dan
  
• Most likely to live in 5 continents -Ale
  
• Most likely to party with undergrads until they are in their late 30s - Gimpy
  
• Most likely to get explosive diarrhea this summer - Jeremy
  
• Most likely to run into their last hookup and their next hookup in line at the bank - Bridget
  
• Most likely to have a sandwich named after them - Joe
• Most likely to be the reason for a rule against marshmallow guns in the office - Liz

Peace

My Life Sucks Without Notre Dame

Bravo, Gloria!

So I've been trying to be really productive in order to distract myself from the fact that I won't be returning to ND for band camp this year, and thus far it's worked out. Most of my life is still in boxes in the garage, but I'm moving in a month anyway so I guess it's not that big a deal if some stuff is still packed.

I went to the doctor because I was still sick so you're not alone, Jamie. Had a sinus infection so they gave me some horse pills (literally, these things are huge!).

I really don't have much to say. I applied for a job yesterday and within a couple hours received an e-mail asking me to interview. Problem was the interview was on the 26th of May. My official moving date to Arizona is 23 of June (actually more like the 26th cause we're driving cross country). Putting pictures on Facebook kind of made me face reality a bit so maybe the real world won't be that bad.

Maybe.

I am a loser

I have officially been home for just over 3 days, and today I left my house for the first time since I've been home; it was to get dinner. I do have the excuse of being really, really sick, but still. P.S. is anyone else that was sick before we left still sick? I keep thinking I'm gonna get over it and it's just not going away. uncool. Anyway, since I've been home, Ive read 2 books, watched a lot of What I Like About You and movie channels (American Outlaws was on SCORE!). Also in my slight obsession with the daytime lineup on ABC Family I discovered that there will now be a new season of Gilmore Girls (on ABC Family instead of the CW...weird), but it will be on mondays at 5 and i will be working then. yay DVR! The other day when i felt a little bit better I started rearranging my room and unpacking. it was a terrible idea and i almost immediately felt like crap again, but I at least did something slightly productive. I've gone to bed at midnight everynight and proceeded to sleep until at least 11am each morning. Ie also put off thinking about my future as much as possible. As my title said: I have been a loser since I got home. Tomorrow I'm getting a haircut and saturday til monday I'm going to my grandmas cabin in the adirondaks for the weekend so I think after that i will reenter the world.
I miss you all like crazy
also: completely off topic from anything else in this post, I activated my stupid alumni e-mail address so my new one is jengel@alumni.nd.edu. I think the other one still forwards stuff but i just switched it like an hour ago and haven't looked at it since so I'm not sure.
I hope you are all relaxing as much as i am

About Last Night. . .

First off, major props to Gloria. I thought this would be a good idea, but I had no idea what to do. So I consulted Gloria, and she put in all the legwork to put this together.

That said, I figured I should start this off with a crazy story from last night that I have already told multiple times.

So, in case you don't know, I am still in South Bend packing and getting the apartment ready for move out. Its pretty boring and lonely with no one else here, so last night I decided to quickly run out to Fiddlers Hearth for a couple drinks and to listen to some music. I had been hoping to get there one more time before I leave anyway. At the bar, I get into conversations with a couple of random people. One guy was a 50 something businessman from Detroit who had a meeting with AM General the next morning. Another guy, who I will call Joe, (Mainly because that was his name) was in his 30's and was married to an ND sociology grad.

As we are finishing our drinks, Joe points out that there really aren't any girls around and suggests that we go somewhere else. I think that he's on sort of a pre-midlife crisis, and I found out later in the night he was just now out of work. I am not drunk yet, and I judge him to not be creepy, so I agree. First we hit up a townie bar in the ghetto. He points out that just in case, there is a gun under my seat (!!) which is even more out of place considering that he has a baby seat just behind me. After a little while there, we head to a strip club. This being my first time to such an establishment, I find to to be an overrated experience, especially considering how much money guys have to drop there. I had already told Joe that I was out of cash, and he had to cover for me for the rest of the night, so I actually didn't spend a dime. After not too long, Joe ran out of money, so we left. I thanked him for everything he bought me, and we parted ways.

In retrospect, last night was not my smartest moment. However, I think I was the only friend Joe's had in a while, so I don't feel too bad. Ultimately, I did not get killed, raped, robbed, or arrested, so I'm counting it as a success.

Since I have had enough excitement for this week, tonight I am watching Lord of the Rings. I will be getting over the lonliness by eating ice cream straight from the tub. I might as well grow a vagina and rent some chick flicks.

yo.

good call on this, gloria! i was just thinking about the girls' blog the other day and how i hadn't been on it in so long.
anyway, storm lake is exactly how i left it. i'm already bored. in fact, today i counted the number of stoplights in town (there are 20). i want to see you all this summer if possible! i'm also working on job stuff since i have so much free time now. hope you're all enjoying your time at home! ok, time to unpack/clean my room now. ugh.

I woke up thinking it was Friday

Congratulations are in order. It's been a wonderful 4 years, but it's not over (lucky some of us get a fifth year!!!). A 6'3", blond, angelic, recent grad had the wonderful idea to start this blog to save us from mass emails, viciously long facebook threads, and the threat of losing touch. Yes, it's true, there is already an FLF blog, but it's probably a good idea to create a new, gender-inclusive blog. Share your thoughts, funny stories, big news, probing questions, random happenstances, embarrassing moments, minor gossip, major gossip, prayers, wishes, hopes and dreams (in that order).

Red Hot Magma \\\w///
Red Hot... \\\<>///

Peace