New Hampshire! part 2

Quote of the day: We should have brought a backpack... wait, let's just steal one! - Carl
Song of the day: How's My Driving by Less Than Jake

Carl keeps bothering me to blog about my trip to New Hampshire. Well, here it is.

I left my house at 11 am on Saturday to drive up to Keene to visit Carl for his belated birthday bash. It came at the right time because, only 3 days after I arrived at home from college, I was bored out of my mind. It didn't take as long as I expected to get there, and I arrived shortly after 1 pm. On the way I stopped and bought some candy as a present. I was the first person there. When I knocked on the door Carl's sister answered and yelled, "Carl, you've got a friend!" It was funny.

Anyway, we waited around for a while and ate some icing out of a bowl. Yes. Carl made it for the two cakes his mom made, and it was left over. It was delcious. After Eric got there he ate some too.

Carl decided to take us over to Keene State College to show us around. The first thing we saw when we got there was this squirrel eating A WHOLE BAGEL. Yes, a bagel. It was crazy.


The pool was closed so we decided to see if we could get into a dorm. Somebody held the door open for us at one dorm and lucky us, it was move out day, so there was tons of free stuff in the halls. We could get to all the floors via elevator and also went in the common room for a few minutes. Actually, all the rooms were unlocked so we went in a couple and looked around. Then we decided to try to get into another dorm. We waited around by a door but nobody showed up, so we walked away. Three seconds later a girl walked out, but we just asked her and she let us in anyway. The second dorm was newer and very nice. Lots of cool free stuff here too. I'm calling this picture "Like kids on Christmas" because that's how we felt haha. The grand total of free stuff we acquired:
Me: a lamp (it works, I tried it before taking it) and 3 rolls of purple leopard print wrapping paper
Eric: a DVD player, a Charlie Daniels record
Carl: 3 N64 controllers, a few N64 games, a string backpack, 2 frisbees
We could easily have had a few mini fridges, a toaster, a coffee maker, more lamps, and a crapload of other stuff FO FREE! It was sweet and a lot of fun.

We left Keene State because two of Carl's friends from high school were at his house. Carl's dad made some good stuff on the grill and his mom made chip dip and pasta salad. It was all really tasty. Rob showed up as well which always livens things up.
....

5/20/09 Continued, finally.

Carl had cookies and icing, so of course the boys ended up eating cookies with icing on them. Eric attached a cake server to his finger using a twist tie and Rob had a knife, which he used to cut the cookie box open (obviously completely unecessary). Normally I would partake in this cookie-icing deliciousness, but I wasn't feeling so hot so I didn't join in. :(

Carl's friend Aubrey wanted to take us go-karting, but apparently it wasn't open for the season yet. So we decided to go with bowling and a movie. But bowling wasn't open yet, or something. By this point Aubrey (and Meg) were also not involved in the plans anymore. Oh well. Finally we all hopped in Sarah's car and headed to the billiard parlor, which was actually a lot of fun. We got two tables and played one of cutthroat and one of one-on-one pool. The first game of cutthroat consisted of Rob, Sarah, and myself. Sarah and I attempted to team up against Rob, but he ended up winning. Then I played another game with Sarah and Carl, which I won. The last game I played was vs Sarah, and though she played well I ended up winning. Unfortunately it was a little hard to enjoy because I was feeling a little bit sick. Oh well.

After playing pool for a while we decided it was time to head to the movies. We were planning to see Star Trek (I think). By this time I was feeling realllllllly gross and the whole way there Rob was asking me if I was okay. Apparently I didn't look too good... as soon as we arrived I proceeded to promptly vomit in the parking lot. It was pretty gross but I felt a lot better afterwards. Anyway Carl took me into the theater and I cleaned up in the bathroom. Carl let Eric and Rob in an exit door, but Sarah felt bad (such and outstanding citizen... she is Mormon, after all) and bought a ticket for X Men Origins: Wolverine. Needless to say we saw that movie, and it was surprisingly good. I was very happy with it.

After the movie Sarah brought us back to Carl's house. I had brought overnight stuff so I went to get into my pajamas, etc. Eric and Rob brought nothing for the night. Carl's mom put out these little foam mattresses for them with pillows and blankets, and Carl slept on top of my sleeping bag with a blanket. I slept on the couch. We watched a few episodes of family guy and I texted with my mom. I deleted the messages and don't remember most of the conversation but the conversation ended with my mom telling me to "be a polite houseguest and not throw up everywhere... and tell Carl's mom thanks and I'm sorry." haha, thanks mom. Rob also told me that he would be legitimately mad and me if I got sick on him during the night (he was closest to the couch). I kept this in mind and I threw up at 3 am... but don't worry, I made it to the bathroom despite almost tripping over Carl on the way out of the living room. It turned out fine though, and I was all better in the morning.

At 8:50 am Eric's phone alarm went off, and Eric and Rob woke up. They were gone by 8:55. They had slept in their clothes and didn't want breakfast, so they just left (it was mothers' day, I guess they had to get back early). It was pretty funny actually. Nobody could believe how fast they were out of the house! I said goodbye but didn't get up, then moved down to where Rob had been sleeping because the couch was hurting my back a little bit. Carl had been up for like an hour already but he slept a little more after the boys left I think. At 10:45 he kicked my foot and asked me if I needed to leave by any certain time. I said no but I took the hint and got dressed, ate some honey nut cheerios, and was gone by 11:15. I made it home in about 2 hours after a nice drive.

I'll leave you with a picture that totally represents exactly how I see Carl.
New Hampshire is fun! Hopefully I can make it back up there again this summer, only more healthily. I miss Carl and Robbie and Eric already! :)

New Hampshire! part 1

Quote of the day: You're bored out of your mind, aren't you? -Carl
Song of the day: Stay Home by SELF

Tomorrow (well later today if you want to be technical) I am driving up to New Hampshire, and I'm pretty excited about it. Carl is having a slightly belated birthday party and he invited me to it! He lives in Keene, which is about 2.5 hours away from me. I've never driven that far before in one shot, but it should be fine. I'm staying overnight because I really don't want to drive there and back in one day. SLEEPOVER AT CARL'S! WOOHOO! Robbie and Eric should be there also for the night, I think. Either way it should be a good time.

I totally didn't get him a present. Perhaps on the way I should stop and buy a card. hmm.

Today I didn't do anything at all. I woke up at noon. I took many stupid quizzes on facebook. I found out that if I were a "Little Miss" I would be Little Miss Giggles, my "real name" is Delilah, my "actual age" is two, the animal that best fits me is the lion, the leading lady on Broadway that best characterizes me is Elphaba from Wicked, and if I were a sport I would be hockey. All this was a continuation of last night's escapades when I discovered that the personality I have is "the cutie," when it comes to randomness I am "RANDOM LEADER OF THE WORLD" (while my sister is as random as a fan... haha), I am a dork rather than a nerd or geek, and as far as swimming is concerned, I am, who would have guessed it, a butterflyer.

After my facebook quizzing I lounged around the house for a long time. I watched some tv with my mom which was cool. At 10 pm I went for a run on the treadmill (3 miles), then showered... most productive things I did all day.
Also started planning my trip to Canada. On May 29th I'm going to fly to Calgary to see my dad's side of the family. After that we have an idea but no tickets bought so far. Planning to spend a couple days there then fly to Winnipeg to see my mom's side for about a week. Then come home. woohoo! Unfortunately I will have to miss the Newport Chowder Festival on June 6, which I've been going to for a few years and absolutely love. Oh well, there's always next year I guess! Oh, and when I say I started planning my trip, I mean my mom started planning it. I gave a little input that required about zero effort.

One thing that I did do was find out my grades from this term. I didn't do too badly, pretty much what I expected. A in jazz history (92 on that paper...woot), A in financial accounting, and B in macroeconomics. I would have had to do extremely well on the macro final to get an A... apparently I didn't. Ah well. My GPA remains the same as it was, and I'm cool with that.

hmm. That's it. I'll report back with how the trip goes! :)

Home and My Jazz Final

FYI: Berge and I won the final MNC of the 2008-2009 schoolyear. Woohoo!

Quote of the day: Swiney swiney! - Colette
Song of the day: Best Imitation of Myself by Ben Folds

I'm home. And it feels good!

Tuesday was the last day of classes. I had a macro final (which I think went okay) and a jazz paper due (which I think I did well on too).
On Monday I had an accounting final (on the computer, 2 tries on each question) and ended up getting an easy A in that class. I also had my jazz history final...there's a story to go with that.

I was supposed to take my jazz history final at 11 am. This final was 100 questions. 50% was "circle the style with which the term fits;" so there's a phrase or person and you circle "dixieland" "swing" "bebop" "cool jazz" "hard bop" "avant garde" "fusion" or "world music."
The other 50% was related to listening. There were 5 listening examples. For each example you circle the style it is, the decade it came from, and 4 artists associated with that style. So the final was a lot of questions, but no writing, which is good. I don't like short answer questions.

Anyway, at 11:30 on Monday morning I wake up to, "Alana, it's 11:30!" CRAP! I get dressed really fast and run down to my class. Thankfully it was in the building next to my dorm. Oh how I love tiny campuses. I see the professor and say, "I just woke up, sorry I'm late!" There were only a couple kids (out of like, 50 originally) left taking the test. My teacher tells me to sit down in the front row. He says, "You know, you were doing so well in the class... too bad you're going to flunk."
....
"Nah, I'm kidding." He hands me the test. It's 11:35. The class technically ends at 11:50, and I have another final at noon. I work for a couple minutes then he plays the listening examples for me. At 11:48 he tells me he has to go to a recital down the hall but to bring him the test when I'm done. I could have stayed longer I suppose, except that pesky accounting final had to be taken. At 11:50 I go give him my test. Woah.

Remember how I said there were still kids taking the test at 11:35? I took my jazz final in 15 minutes. The kicker? I got a 91/100 on the exam. OWNED.

Kraft Marketing Fail

Quote of the day: ....want to share some muddy buddies?
Song of the day: Violet Hill by Coldplay

Below, you see a huge marketing failure that my family and I discovered at Target several weeks ago:

The Subject: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
The Failure: Nobody wants to buy any kind of Kraft Dinner except the original flavor.

This photo shows all the different kinds: thick n' creamy, white cheddar, three cheese, whole grain, Spongebob Squarepants, Spiderman, and original.

This one is zoomed in to show that only the row of original flavor has any mac & cheese missing. Poor marketing much? I know that all I wanted was the original flavor too.... somebody from Kraft (or maybe Target?) needs to get their act together on this!

In other news, Berge and I won Monday Night Cribbage for the fourth consecutive week. Well, last week Lauren was my partner but it's still a victory for our team and a loss for Dan & Chase. Next week is the final MNC of the school year; it's definitely going to be bittersweet :)

Stairway to.... Nowhere?

Check out these stairs. They don't go anywhere.

So I don't really have much time for a legit post tonight as I have to go to bed. But I will make a few brief notes.

I went to my first frat party last night. It was fun, lots of dancing and people having a good time. I enjoyed it for the hour or so that I was there. The best part was that it was a "sewer party" so to get to the party you had to crawl through this big maze of dark tunnels. There was a ball pit and a slide and some other ups and downs too. It was neat... it was so dark though I had to follow Toni's butt from like 6 inches away haha. Then once you go through the whole thing you get to look at it from the outside and it pretty much just takes up one whole room!


Well, that's it for now. Goodnight!

Struggles

Quote of the day: Asians count as two!
Song of the day: Stable Song by Death Cab for Cutie

So, I struggled really bad today. All over the place. Let me explain, timeline style.

6:45 am: My alarm goes off to tell me to go swimming. I go back to sleep.

7:05 am: I wake up and tell Toni to wake up. We decide not to go swimming and to sleep instead. I set my alarm for 9:15 so I will wake up in time to shower and go do some random work (aka identify seniors from meet photographs, which I've already done once but he lost the paper, which makes this all the more silly) for the assistant basketball coach at 10:15.

9:15 am: I am sleeping. Failure.

10:15 am: I am still sleeping. Failure.
10:45 am: I wake up and realize that though it was set I didn't turn my alarm on. Fail. I email the basketball coach and say sorry, and the teacher who usually swims with us in the morning, also to say sorry.

11:00 am: I am supposed to be tablesitting at daka. I am in my room half dressed. I text Keegan and say sorry. He replies and says it's okay.
11:15 am: I finally make it to daka. Go me. For the next almost 2 hours I don't fail too badly, except that only one person signs up for our frisbee tournament. Ah well. The assisant basketball coach (hereby known as the Coach) walks past me on his way into daka and I apologize again while looking sheepish. He says it's not a big deal but I still feel bad. On the upside Earl makes me the usual and, as usual, it is delicious. Ryan and I get food and eat it out at the table. Then we go back in and get more food. This is a good part of the day. The cookie I eat is tasty, as well as the apple and pesto pizza.

1:oo pm: I am finally done tablesitting. I go to Alumni to see if the Coach is there to make up my missed work. He is not. Failure.
1:05 pm: I go to the equipment room to submit my hours for the past 2 weeks. This must be done by 2 pm. It is supposed to be open from 1 to 4:30. It is closed. Failure.
1:07 pm: I leave Alumni and go to the campus center to check my mail. No mail. Failure.
1:10 pm: Upon leaving the campus center I am called to from behind. It is Colleen. She tells me that she recognized my bum and that's how she knew it was me. Weird.
1:15 pm: I text Lee inquiring if he wants to go to PriceChopper with me. He says yes. I run up to my room to get money and meet him outside.
1:30 pm: We arrive at PriceChopper. They have motion sensor doors. I wave to the motion sensor and walk forward to enter the store. The door stops opening halfway and I walk right into it. After I crash into it the door continues to open the rest of the way. boo. Another failure.
1:50 pm (ish): I go to the self checkout to pay. My stuff costs $8.82. I put a $10 bill in the machine. The computer tells me to expect $1.18 in change. I get back a $1 bill, 1 dime, and 3 pennies. As you may have noticed, this adds up to $1.13. I yell at the machine that it owes me a nickel. Nothing happens, and I don't press the issue. Whatever.

2:10 pm: From this point on my day improves immensely. I tell Molly, Juliana, and Cory about my PriceChopper experience and Cory gives me a hug. I change from my jeans to sweatpants. Cory is on my computer so I use Toni's. I bring some laundry to the laundry room and Cory stays in my room by himself.
2:45 pm: I go to Alumni and do the work I was supposed to do for the Coach. Success.

3:15 pm: I to the the equipment room and Rick is still working on the payroll papers so I submit for my hours. Success.
3:20 pm: I don't have enough time to lift now, plus I forgot my wrist straps, so I go back Riley. I lay in my bed a while and talk to Toni. It's nice.
3:40 pm: I put my laundry in the dryer. I remember dryer sheets and quarters. Success.

4:00 pm: I start my first swim lesson of the day. Jetta is not there to teach her student so I start with 2 students.
4:07 pm: Jetta shows up and I am back to my one kid class. During the lesson she loses her kickboard twice. She is 3 1/2 years old with no swimming skills. I save her both times. She is unfazed.
4:40 pm: My first class is over. I show my student a handstand and she jumps in. She still doesn't know how to swim. I save her again. She is still unfazed. She leaves and I swim some laps.

5:00 pm: My second student tries to leave because she doesn't recognize me while I'm swimming with cap and goggles. I say "Hey! Where are you going?" and she comes back over to me. During the lesson she learns to tread water as well as works on freestyle and backstroke. Success.
5:45 pm: The second lesson is over. I swim again. Carl is treading water and I swim into him on purpose. Alford tells me he was trying to use me as an example until I swam crooked. And the first time he tried to use me as an example I started doing backstroke. I show off my freestyle as an example. Then he tells me one of my arms is crossing the center line. Thank you Alford. I am used as an example for breaststroke. I'm not sure why.

6:00 pm: My third lesson starts. My 2 students are each 5 years old. Abby is good as usual and follows directions and swims on her own. Andrew refuses to relax or get his face wet. Eventually I force him to swim on his own with a bubble. He refuses to use his arms. It is a struggle to say the least.
6:40 pm: The third lesson is over. I change and go to the gym to lift. While I am there Toni shows up. There are no real struggles at the gym. I decide not to run today like I am supposed to. I do my abs then join Toni for hers. Her ab set sucks. a LOT.

8:00 pm: Toni and I are done at the gym. We shower and get dressed.
8:20 pm: We go out to the quad where the KAP/Phi Sig social barbeque is taking place. Toni is in Phi Sig. Lee is in KAP. I am not in either. I feel like I should not eat any of their food. Lee gets me a hamburger. It is delicious. Success.
8:40 pm: I get my laundry and take it to my room. I get ready for MNCOTN, where T stands for Thursday.
8:55 pm: I depart for Chase's apartment and arrive safely. Lauren and I win cribbage 3-1. Success. I get the same 16 point hand twice, and then again with a slight variation. Dan says he can't stand my "crap."

10:20 pm: Chase and Lauren drive me back to Riley. I am home. yay.