Working for the Weekends

So it's been a while, but I must say that my life has truly only consisted of weekends since I've been back from California. My weekday usually looks like this: Crisp from 9-2, Lab from 3-5:30, Lion Line from 6-9:30. It's a long day, let me tell you. This is what I stare at on the computer screen for hours when I go into lab. It's pretty thrilling. The point of our lab is to try to find out how typical learners develop language and how atypical learners develop language with the hopes that we can then target how we teach atypical learners to match the way that they learn. That part is very interesting to me, but it's the analyzing data part that's really killing me.

So to break up the workweek, the past two weekends I have done well with entertaining myself (or rather, being entertained by my wonderful friends!) Two weeks ago we had a San Diahhhgo reunion with most of the kids who traveled to the West Coast (Leddy was still in CA, and Perri was sick, but everyone else made it!) We had canned wine, danced on the coffee table, got Iced, played card games, and brought out kitchen utensils:
All in all it was a fantastic weekend-exactly what I needed after throwing myself back into a 50 hour workweek from vacation. Weekend number two brought with it another incredible break. Saturday was Ambi's graduation party, so to prepare for our roadtrip to Allentown, Elaine, Kirsten, and I decided to cross one of the goals off of our summer bucket list before heading out: Whipple Dam. We spent a lovely two hours laying on the beach (the first time I had been outside besides walking across campus since I got back to the East Coast!) Our journey to Allentown then began. On our way there we stopped to pick up Coop who is in Reading for an internship for the summer. In a crazy coincidence, I discovered that he is living 2 minutes down the street from my Aunt's! An hour later we pulled up to Ambi's sister's house for the party. Before I even walked through the first set of lawn chairs I was being warned by a stranger that, "Mom's on the loose!" I looked at her confused before I heard a high-pitched yell, "Noellllle!!" I turned to see Ambi's mom, Nancy, staring at me from across the yard with arms in the air! "Nancy!" I responded, with a counter of, "We Are...!" This was the first of many times that evening that Nancy shouted my name, then the "We Are..." chant. Coop walked in behind me, 'terrified to meet the family' and introduced himself to Nancy, "Hi, I'm Will." "Cooper!!! Go Lakers!!" was her response. I informed him that Nancy is an avid facebook stalker, thus her knowledge of his last name and interests. We were all glad that Nancy set the bar so high for the consumption of alcohol for the weekend because we were ready for kegstands, canned wine, and karaoke. I would include the video of Coop singing "Genie in a Bottle" here, but he would murder me if he discovered that video made it to the world wide web.

After waking up the next morning and grudgingly leaving the wonderful hospitality of free food and drinks that came with the beautiful time spent with some of my closest friends (and their family), I was excited to make it home to Harrisburg for a quick stop to hang out with my Dad on Father's Day. After dropping Coop back in Reading I checked the gas gauge and decided we would be safe to make it back to the Hustle without stopping for gas. As we were taking the Linglestown exit the gas light dinged on, so I pulled into the station near my house to fill up. As I attempted to turn the ignition after filling my mini-van made a horrible yelling sound at me! I called my dad to tell him I was down the street with a car that wouldn't start...Happy Father's Day! So after several attempts and some very helpful gentlemen, we finally got the van started and Elaine, Kirsten, and I ventured to the coffee shop to visit with my sister, brother, and dad for a bit. A little while later I went to test the car and of course it would not start. So after jumping it again, my dad took my sister to test it out on the highway before we attempted to take it to State College. To make a long story short, it stalled out on the highway and my mom had to pick them up while the van was towed. She then brought Elaine, Kirsten, and I back to State College. Life is always an unexpected journey! (Update, the van is now fixed-woo hoo!)

This brings me to Sunday evening, just a short couple of hours after our arrival, we were reconvening at my apartment to celebrate Elaine's 21st! The three of us, plus two of the San Diahhhgo boys ventured to the Phyrst to ring in another year of Elaine's life! If pictures from this glorious evening ever see the light of day I will update with some illustrations, because we had quite a blast! Logan stole a tray full of french fries off an empty table for Elaine's birthday present-which may have been the hit of the evening.

All in all, my weekends have been full of laughter and wonderful memories with my friends. I am so blessed to be able to spend time with them! I am now getting ready to venture off to Millville, PA for my favorite week of the year, PA Vent Camp! I am looking forward to this week so much! Especially because one of my best friends in the entire world is joining us for a few days! After "graduating" camp three years ago, Kevin has been off spending his summers working for Obama (when he was still Senator), at internships in hospitals, and just being his fabulous self! But once again, he is joining us at camp, and word on the street is that I will be returning to the stage as a backup dancer for one of his famous performances! Stay tuned for evidence of my fabulous backup dancing moves!

California Dreamin'

A lot has happened in the last two weeks. Namely traveling across the country to spend a few days with my friends. Let me tell you, it was the best trip. It couldn't have come at a better time. We are all on the brink of adulthood, living on our own, working at internships, preparing for grad school and the real world and for 5 days we all got to be carefree kids again.



I can't remember a time where I felt more relaxed, laughed as much as I did, and just felt good from the time I woke up until the time I went to sleep. I hope that I can experience times like this with all of my friends and never lose sight of the joys of feeling like a child.

Stay Classy, San Diego

I'm preparing to travel across the country with some of my best friends to celebrate the 21st birthday of one of my most favorite people in the world. I've always dreamed of moving to California and becoming a surfer when I grew up. Well, I'm not really moving there (yet) and I've still never surfed, but you've got to start somewhere, right? I have in my possession the journal that is shared between my 5 best friends and I, and am super excited to keep track of my trip with it! Hopefully I will have some interesting stories to share upon my arrival home to State College...

In my spare time...

There are tons of things I would like to do in my spare time (the small amount that I actually have!) Cook. I love to cook. Homemade pasta is my favorite...making it from scratch with my mom and cooking it with some crazy sauce she makes up. I miss not being able to cook while I'm at school. Scrapbook. I love scrapbooking/creative journaling. I do find some time to do it, however it's just not in my budget to do a whole lot of it. Supplies don't come cheap. Travel. There are few things I enjoy more than driving around listening to music in cars...once again it's this whole lack of budget thing that I face as an in-debt college student that's killing me.

So what do I actually manage to do in my spare time? (besides this) I get tricked into cleaning the basement of my home away from home, The Hintz. This is where my beloved Blue & White Society calls its home base. And speaking of bases, the basement is pretty tragic. We only have a small section of it dedicated to our storage, but we really take advantage of every square inch. So this morning on my day off I trekked to the Hintz (with a pit stop at Dunkin) at 9:45 to begin our journey. We're not even close to being finished, but organizing is under way. Why is any of this significant? Well, we found a few gems while rummaging through bags and boxes. My favorite being these:
So, in my spare time I toss double XL men's tighty whities into the trash. Just a day in the life.

DCF? You bet.

This exists. We found it sitting quite conspicuously on the counter at my friend, Amberly's apartment. Intrigued by the fact that chocolate fudge existed in the 2 liter liquid variety, (and diet I may add) my friend Melissa and I stared at the foreign bottle while waiting for Ambi to get ready. I was challenged, "You won't try some." I tried some. It tasted very odd...like a chocolate tootsie pop melted and you could drink it. It wasn't bad, but I can't say I enjoyed it. Try it for yourself. You won't.

Senior Week 2010

So this past week I experienced my first college Senior Week. Let me tell you, it's pretty intense. Senior week is the week after finals and before graduation so all the seniors go on bar tours and basically drink all day. Now, I didn't participate in full effect, but I did my fair share of celebrating. Thursday was also one of my best friends' birthday so we had a two day celebration Wednesday and Thursday.
This might explain my lack of blogging. I found a load of change in my room and cashed it in at the bank and that became my budget for the week.

Wednesday night my wonderful friend, Eric, treated a small group to a delicious Italian dinner featuring the following: olive crostini, bruschetta, insalata caprese, penne all'arrabbiata, pizzelle con gelato, vino rosso, asti spumante, disaronno e limoncello. It was absolutely fabulous!


After dinner I went on to commence the birthday celebrations at the Phyrst where our favorite band, Go Go Gadjet was playing for the last time until the fall. We got there at 8:15 and the line was already halfway down the block! While waiting a lovely girl came stumbling along the line and offered us $5 to let her get in line with us. Obviously we agreed which was one of the best decisions of the night. Kelly introduced herself to us and pulled a pair of jeans out of her purse while looking for something. I knew then that she was a keeper. She entertained us for several minutes while waiting in line before she made a phone call and started wandering away. 10 minutes later she was walking down the line again presumably looking for us, but couldn't recognize her new friends so she walked away. I would call that a good investment.

After an hour and fifteen minutes of waiting in line we finally made it inside! I can definitely say that in the last three years as a student at Penn State, Wednesday night was one of the most fun nights I have ever had! The band was great, we had a connection behind the bar hooking us up with free drinks, it wasn't too crowded because the bouncers were cracking down on all the bar tours, and I was dancing like crazy with some of my best friends in the world!

I left our mark in the bathroom along with the hundreds of other Phyrst-goers that night.

Friday morning I got a text from one of my good friends saying, "My mom wants you to come to dinner and a concert tonight." I'm not one to pass on an evening out with some great people so I met him, his mom and her husband, and another friend at my favorite restaurant, Cozy Thai. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and killed some time before the concert by stopping at some of State College's finest establishments (bars, obviously.) We then went to the State Theatre where we were entertained by John Hiatt and the Combo. They were really great! I got to hear one of my favorite songs, Cry Love, which was incredible!


Overall, Senior Week taught me how good a hand I was dealt here at Penn State. I know some of the most amazing people in the world. I have been blessed to be treated like family by them and have made countless memories. Thou didst mold us, Dear Old State, and I thank you for that!

We Are...

“Wherever you go, Penn State will go with you. You are now a part of her. Her image will be cast in your image. Your reputation will become her reputation.

And her future—her ability to prepare future generations of young men and women for leadership in our complex society—will be determined in part be the image you create.”

President Eric Walker, Penn State’s 12th President, to the Class of 1958...Congratulations, Class of 2010!