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I moved to my new blog. You can't view this blog in IE anymore, so I switched over. If anyone knows how to fix this, PLEASE let me know. I want to keep this blog.

Spring Break in the Sunshine State

Okay, so get ready for the post to end all posts. My weeklong vacation in Orlando, FL is coming to a close and I’m going write a super-post about all my exciting adventures.

I went down to Florida my roommates Carmen (who lives here) and Kim (from NJ). They are my best friends and I really can’t imagine a better Spring Break than the one I just had.

Anyway, the night before we left we all cooked dinner at my boyfriend’s (Blaise) house off campus. We made Penne Vodka, Italian bread and salad and drank wine. It was really fun. It was nice to all get together with our boyfriends and say bye before the 3 of us jetted off to Florida.

All of us posing in front of our delicious meal!

We arrived in Florida on Saturday and immediately hit the ground running. As soon as we got settled we (Carmen, Kim, me and Carmen’s parents) drove to Ponce Inlet beach. The weather was beautiful, in the 70s, which was an improvement from Jersey. I felt right at home, but at the beach was windy which made it too cold to tan. Thus, I’m wearing a sweatshirt.

After the beach we ate a fun outdoor restaurant called Inlet Harbor. The view of the sunset was beautiful and I had a delish Mahi Mahi burger. Yum!

Sunset @ Inlet Harbor

Saturday rolled into Sunday and we all went to church in the morning. Then we met up with Carmen’s friends, Jessica and Jorge and her Dad took us all out to Titusville (near Cape Canaveral) to go on their boat. It was super fun, but then our boat broke down and we had to be towed to shore! Never a dull moment, I tell you.

We then went to Dixie Crossroads, a restaurant famous for its Rock Shrimp, which is described as “Little Florida Shrimp with the Big Lobster Taste.” Well I’ll try anything once, so of course I ate the shrimp, which were delicious with butter.

Rock Shrimp

Monday and Tuesday were a total blur of Disney World fun. We went to Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. I could honestly write a whole paper on everything we did @ Disney World, but I’ll keep it short. Epcot interested me the most because we have nothing like that in CA. I loved going to all the different countries and checking out their wares. Cristina, Carmen’s older sister came with us which made it all the more fun (especially when she bought us Margaritas in Mexico).

Epcot (Weird angle, oh well.)

Cristina, me, Carmen and Kim all dressed up.

Sipping on Margaritas (my mother would be proud).

In front of Cinderella's castle!

Wednesday was dedicated to some serious outlet shopping. Carmen lives by all these amazing outlets: J. Crew, GAP, Kate Spade, Nike, Neiman Marcus Last Call and others. I was in heaven! J. Crew had amazing deals and I got a cardigan and 2 shirts for less than $50. I also got an amazing ostrich Kate Spade clutch for less than $40! I love deals! Wooo! Additionally, I got my hair cut at the Aveda Institute (beauty school) so now my straight across bangs are gone and I’m back to side bangs.

That night we went to a club called Roxy. It was horrendous and totally ghetto but also a lot of fun. Every single time a guy asked if we wanted to dance, we said we had “really jealous boyfriends.” Usually I’m up for dancing with whoever and having a good time, but all these guys were so gross that I had to decline.

Thursday was dedicated to homework. I have a 7 page English paper due the Monday we get back so I finally had to buckle down and do some real work. The paper was completed successfully and Carmen and Kim just lounged around by the pool working on their tans. I didn’t really get too much color this break but then again I loaded up on SPF 30 whenever we walked out the door. Sorry, but cancer is just not worth it!

We fly back tomorrow and today I think we’re going to Tampa to visit the Salvador Dalí museum and maybe go out to lunch. Overall, it was an amazing Spring Break, I had so much fun and I really hope this turns into a tradition!

On a side note, Florida is definitely the weirdest state I've ever visited. I saw an alligator and armadillo by the side of the road (alive, not dead). Also, Carmen has really cool geckos that come into her house that her dog likes to chase around. The only problem I have with Florida is the ridiculous amount of specialty license plates there are--over 125! I mean, really?

Getting away from it all...

Soooo I haven't posted in a bit because the past two weeks at school have consumed all of my time. Why? Midterms. Ugh!

But midterms are over now and Spring Break is about to begin! Wooo!
I'm going to Winter Springs, Fl (right outside of Orlando) with my Carmen and Kim (who happen to not only be my roommates, but my best friends as well). It will be so nice to relax and to enjoy warm weather. I will be updating from Florida since I'm bringing my computer and digital camera.
I'm super excited! :)

Just a lil' free time...

Hello, hello. Just a quick update in my life because I don't know when I'll have the free time to write again.

I just completed my second interview for the RA position. I will find out in a month if I got it or not. I really hope I do. Not only will it be a great leadership opportunity, it will also save me about $10,000 in loans. Amazing!

In a little bit I'm leaving to go to CT with Blaise for the night. His friend from home is turning 21 so everyone is getting together to party and Blaise invited me to come. I'll be meeting his parents and his younger sister (who is my age). Hopefully I'll get a home-cooked meal out of it as well.

Yesterday I cut my bangs...myself! I didn't even have proper scissors, I used Kim's huge pair. I just watched a couple YouTube videos and then went in the bathroom and snip snipped away. I figured that if I screwed up really bad that it would just grow out. Luckily, I didn't screw up and my hair looks just fine.
I've been feeling like an independent college student recently, not only did I cut my bangs but I filed my taxes too. Everyone seemed to be amazed that I do my taxes myself. I mean, who else would do them? Big shout-out to my Dad for teaching me to be responsible and self-sufficient.

Back to the topic of hair. My new favorite style is to wear it straight (or wavy) with a little braid on the side. Liz does the braid for me. I think it's so cute and just adds a little something to my otherwise boring hair.

Braid is on the left. Blame the webcam, not me, for the quality. (Or lack thereof.)

My 19th Birthday Soiree!

Okay, so I finally have time to sit down and transcribe everything that happened over the weekend. Not only have I been sick, I've had a ton of school work which is the reason why this post is a little late.

On Friday I received a package from my wonderful Mother. (Who read my post where I lamented over the lack of birthday cake.) The package contained individually baked, wrapped and frosted heart-shaped cupcakes! They were conversation hearts and said stuff like "My Baby" and "Text Me" on them. So adorable and delicious! I was thrilled. Heck, I'm still thrilled. It means a lot to me that my Mom (who is a super busy person) had enough time to bake, frost, wrap and ship cupcakes to me in NJ. She's the best. I love you Mom!

Wrapped individually!

In a coffee filter!

A little messed, but still delicious!

On display.

Friday was also my RA group interview. There was a total of 150 applicants that were interviewed in smaller groups of 12 to 13. Of the 150 only 30 will be hired. Talk about slim chances! I think I did pretty well overall but I'm not going to stress over it because I'm working on only concentrating on things that I can actually control.
Friday night I ended up staying in and going to bed early because I was feeling so horrible. I had a cough, congestion and the chills. (I've had this horrible cold for almost 2 weeks now.) I figured that it would be smart to go to bed early and save up my energy for my birthday.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling a little better, but not great. Kim sat around and watched me open presents. (Brad got me a cool Holy Cross shirt and my parents got me an external hard drive.) We then got breakfast and went to the UConn basketball game. Blaise gave us a ride which meant we didn't have to take the school buses that are crowded, loud, and always seem to get lost.
During the game I was pretty unhappy. I felt so lightheaded and hot. Blaise offered to take me home but I didn't want to pull him away from the game and make a scene. So I just toughed it out. After the game (we ended up losing) Kim, Carmen and I were supposed to go see He's Just Not That Into You but I was feeling so lousy that I decided to take a nap and rest instead.
So far my birthday was turning into a complete bust and I was pretty upset. After resting for a little bit I started to perk up and feel better. Carmen and Kim took advantage of my down time to wrap my presents and when I woke up I was surprised with adorable hand-made cards, a martini glass decorated with puffy paint and raspberry-vanilla lotion from the girls. The cards were the best part. They were so nice and I could tell that a lot of thought had been put into them.

By Carmen Simmonds

By Kim Bauernfeind

This is the part where the night starts getting exciting.

Blaise had dinner reservations for 8:00P at an Italian restaurant in Livingston, NJ (not too far from South Orange) called Panevino. He surprised me with a dozen roses! The restaurant was really cute and rustic. I ordered salmon which was a delicious break from Caf food. He said he had "strict orders" not to let me order dessert (I knew something was up back at the room. That, or maybe Kim told him I was on a diet.) so we only had dinner and then headed back to school.
We got back to school, and but when I got to my room I was locked out! I heard a lot of giggling and screaming and I was wondering what the heck the girls were doing in there. Finally they let me in and the whole room was dark. When I walked in Kim and Carmen yelled, "SURPRISE" and turned on the lights. I was SO shocked!
The whole room was decorated with pink and red balloons and streamers. There was music, cake, and champagne! Yay! So amazing! I love my friends! I love my life! (Okay, I'm typing like I'm 12, but I'm still giddy over the whole thing. It was my first real surprise party.)

My cake.

Kim and the girls showing of their handiwork.

Me and Blaise. (Carmen insisted on throwing up all the balloons which is why I'm laughing.)

Champagne!

Cupcakes and champagne!

My roses.

Overall, the night turned out to be a huge success. I owe it all to Kim, Carmen, and Blaise (and all others involved) for making it such an amazing night for me. They made me feel so special and I never expected my first birthday away from home to be such a blast!

Definitely learning...

Well yesterday Kim, my roommate, confronted me.

I knew she was mad at me for some reason, but I wasn't exactly sure why. (Well, I actually had a pretty good idea but I didn't want to jump to conclusions.) It's not often that someone comes and talks to me when they have a problem with me. Usually they just talk about me behind my back or maybe just stop talking to me all together. In the meanwhile, I'm just confused/hurt/sad at the fact that I don't know where I screwed up.

I bring this up because I lost two of my closest friends from last semester and I still don't know why.

Anyway, I'm happy Kim confronted me because we talked out all our problems (which are too vapid to detail here) and now everything is all better and our friendship is actually stronger. Long story short; I'm speak my mind. Too frequently. Which ends up hurting feelings. Oops!
Honestly, (Oh wait, I am.) I don't really know what to say. I don't mean to hurt people's feelings or anything like that.

So now I'm learning to hold my tongue and think before I speak, which is definitely a test. This post is probably the most personal thing I've written about on here and it feels weird putting it up on the internet for everyone to see. I think a lot of the time people construe what I'm saying differently than how I thought about it. I don't want to be thought as mean, or bitchy. I'm just realistic about a lot of things. I am sensitive and I do care about others, it just may not seem like it off the bat.

Anyway, this post is turning into a total rant. I need to go and study Spanish. On a lighter note, my birthday is in 4 days, my RA interview is on Friday and I had an Art History quiz today that I'm pretty sure I aced. Woo!

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

The title of this post comes from a fortune cookie that came with my Chinese food on Sunday. I find it empowering, which is good because I could use some empowering.

The past weekend was eventful. I attended a basketball game on Thursday against Rutgers, our rival. Then I went out on Friday as well as Saturday for an Under-the-Sea themed birthday party. All of it was fun but I woke up Sunday morning feeling stressed and uneasy. I had failed to work on any homework over the weekend and had to play catch-up all Sunday. As a result I declined invites to Superbowl parties and instead ordered Chinese food and watched the game with Kim. There is nothing like going out to make you appreciate staying in.

Today is cold. It is 15° outside with a wind that penetrates even the thickest jacket. My class this morning was on the opposite end of campus and with every step I navigated through ice, snow and the whipping wind I wondered why the heck I'm in New Jersey.

I've been coming in and out of a sort of sadness the past couple days. I'll be really high and then really low and I just don't know why. I'm blaming the weather and my upcoming birthday. This will be the first time in my life that I won't be with my Mom or Dad. I didn't think I would be so affected but I am. Every year my Mom makes me a heart-shaped chocolate cake. This year I won't have any cake. I think that's pretty sad.

Last year's cake. Pretty yum, huh?

Today I read the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman. The story is about a mentally ill woman who is prescribed bed rest by her physician husband who is convinced he knows what is best for her. She is kept in solitude, in a room with yellow wallpaper. The whole story the woman talks about the yellow wallpaper, it's variance in colors, patterns, and the way she thinks it "moves." The story wasn't long, only 10 pages but it had a profound effect on me. The worst part is I don't know why. It just made me get all pensive and brooding which isn't the best disposition to have since I am currently at work. I should be cheery and more than willing to photocopy 40 pages out of some ancient textbook for a professor. But, alas, I am not. I'm sulking and I don't even know why.

Writing about being depressed is making me even more depressed so I'm going to write about the happy things in my life. Tomorrow I have an interview for Blue Crew, which is the group of students who give campus tours. Next Friday I have my RA group interview which will last almost 4 hours. I have no clue why an interview would last that long; I guess they want to find out my personality flaws.