torstai

Completely forgot to mention the rest of my summer *facepalm*

Right.

I went to Ft. Lewis in Washington State for a month to do Army stuff. That was not as awful as I had expected, but really, did it have to be during the World Cup? Did they have to take my phone away for the duration? Ugh. Thankfully one of our instructors was kind enough to give us score updates so at least I knew who was winning. Sadly I had no idea who was scoring the goals :( but I can't have everything I suppose. I spent a lot of time tromping around in the woods, tripping over things (logs, vines, myself, holes, branches, myself, tentpoles, bumps on the ground etc), acquiring bruises, falling off things, chomping on 800mg ibuprofen, getting bitten by every bug that's ever existed, and not taking very many showers. The group I was with for the entire month (10 people, we call it a squad) was hilarious. And surprisingly good looking. The sheer amount of men in the Army is definitely a recommendation. Oh men. Gotta love 'em. Fun to be around but either not my type or taken. sigh. I wish he weren't.

First thing we all did when we got to the airport to go home? Headed to Seattle to drink. Yeah. We're college students, what did you expect? Never before have I felt so tipsy after a single margarita. Being away from college has seriously lowered my tolerance. I managed to get the large group of guys I was with to wander around Pike Place Market where they were throwing fish about and selling flowers. Lovely place. I wish I'd had more time to wander about and peruse the stalls. However, the guys wanted to drink. again. So I grabbed a pastry and we headed off to another bar. Thankfully they had cider. And then I ditched them all to do a bit of shopping.

Heading into Anthropologie tipsy is a terrible idea.

I'm lucky I escaped having only bought one dress. The damage could have been far worse. After some Starbucks and a trip to Sephora to restock on some things I was running out of I headed back to the airport to meet back up with the guys. Guess where I found them? In a bar in the airport. So cutely predictable. They made me do a farewell shot and then I made sure they all got to their gates. Yeah. I was the sober one again. Drunk boys are very friendly, hilariously so. Thankfully for them I hadn't had to deal with drunken boys in months so I didn't mind at all. That and they were entertaining. I'll probably never forget when one of them tried to grab an airport employee's ass on the escalator. Thankfully I managed to intercept his hand in time. That would have been a disaster.

Hm. The week after I got back I slept, painted my nails, slept, ate real food, baked, went through my email and caught up on everything I missed, slept... oh and slept.

And then I headed to DC for the weekend. I spent the morning at the Spy Museum and then wandered around the judicial district for a bit. I picked up some delicious gelato at Pitango Gelato and sat in the shade, ogling the hot policemen that walked by. Oh man were they hot. I met up with a sorority sister of mine after she got off work and we headed over to a bar/restaurant to wait for her Dad and then head home. Pomegranate Mojitos are fantastic. Especially when other people pay for them. She and I headed to Old Town Alexandria to shop the next morning, where I got hit on by a semi-cute sales clerk at a craft/art/folk shop. Might have had something to do with the fact that I didn't wear pants the entire weekend. Now don't get some crazy Lady-Gaga-no-pants picture in your head, I was just wearing dresses. Admittedly short ones, but dresses nevertheless.

I met up with different friends that afternoon and headed to the DC United match v. Portsmouth with them. It was quite an experience. We sat in the fan section and I'm really glad it was disgustingly hot out or I would have been extremely unhappy with the amount of beer that I got showered with. I swear. Those fans are nuts. They were tossing about beer every time DCU did something good, which happened at LEAST four times since that's how many goals they scored. Anyway, fun times. I ogled a few more men, really what are athletes there for anyway? And the fans... oh yeah... they love to take their shirts off when it's hot and most of the time I don't mind. Mind you (ahem, man in front of me), if you have an unattractive bod, please remain clothed. No one wants to see that.

I went to Eastern Market on Sunday and did a bit of browsing. Got hit on by more men, slightly less cute this time, much to my dismay (is it that I was walking around by myself? argh, sometimes I wish they'd be a bit less friendly). Grabbed a cupcake, a BLT and some lemonade before I made my way to Union Station to catch my afternoon train home. Lovely weekend and now I have a sandal tan.

I'm a bit bored at the moment, there isn't much to do around the house. Most of my friends are in foreign countries or doing internships in different cities. I'm ridiculously jealous of them all, but I can't really whine too much about my summer. It went well... now I just have to wait two weeks before I get on a plane and head back to uni.


--break in my boredom-- we went to the Tiffany exhibit today. Tiffany is amazingly gorgeous. Enough said.

I may clean tomorrow. The world is ending.

On the other hand, I might just go read a book and perhaps do some cross stitch. Or just read. I was contemplating a puzzle the other day. Perhaps I'll clean enough to clear off a table to put the puzzle on, provided we have one I have done that is 1000+ pieces. The ones under 1000 are just too easy.

Well, it's been an interesting summer. I had a REALLY long post all typed up about my trip to New York but then my computer crashed and LJ didn't manage to save it. I'll write up a something short...

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My sister is going to Rome in a few weeks and I am dying of jealousy. Yes, I've been there before and yes, this is her first trip to Europe. *insert childish wail* But I don't caaaaaaaare! I want to go back. I want proper Italian food and Giolitti and daily access to news stands that sell my beloved Chi and Gazzetta.

Why weren't my parents Italian. sigh.

I shipped a bunch of stuff home (the glories of going to uni 1010 miles from home) via FedEx and I've been sitting around waiting for it to show up...

Cleverly I packed ALL my purses and didn't take a single one on the plane with me. I'm really not sure what possessed me to do that, perhaps it had something to do with me starting my packing at 7pm and not finishing until 7am? yeah, most likely. Anyway, I've been waiting for my stuff to show up, since I obviously can't go to NYC without a purse. That would be odd.

So being the clever girl I am I seem to have lost the bits of paper that have the tracking numbers on them so I called FedEx. After much mumbling and grumbling with the automatic phone service thing that apparently doesn't do well with English I got a real person who promptly looked up my packages for me and informed me that the second box...




had been dropped off 20 mins prior to me calling.

She must have though I was a moron. Or really lazy. Neither of which are true, I swear! The box hadn't been there when I got back from my run and I called about it right after I took a shower. He must have dropped it off and failed to ring the bell. I'm blaming it on them... not my inability to open doors :P

Purses have arrived, along with more of my clothes... so packing should commence right? wrong. I haven't gotten there yet. Even though my flight is in 13 hours.

Shopping is addicting. I looked at my credit card the other day and came to the realization that I've spent as much on clothes in the past 5 months as I have on plane tickets. Er yeah.

Shopping is relaxing, what can I say? Clearly I've been more stressed this semester than usual. Well at least I'm hoping that's the reason behind my change in habits. I'd say that I'd stop, but I'm going to NYC for a few days and I plan on doing some shopping while I'm there. Nothing on 5th Ave, though I really do want to stop into the huge H&M and Zara while I'm there. I've been H&M deprived for ohhhhh 5 months? It's a travesty that they don't ship to the US. Which, by the way, I find rather silly. They ought to ship here... they have stores here. sigh.

I hope (hopehopehopehopehope) that I will manage to get a run in tomorrow. I keep meaning to, but never get around to it. I ate ridiculous amounts of bread products today and I really need to burn them off, not to mention the icecream I've eaten. Being home is detrimental to my health I swear. Send me back to my H&M-less uni! I eat better while I'm there. I think.

Anyway, NYC friday-tuesday... it'll be fantastic. Friday I plan to wander the LES and make a stop in Chinatown and Little Italy. It'll be my shopping day. Little Italy had better have my Pan di Stelle, I've been craving them for months (and too lazy to order them online, though I can't seem to find the specific ones I want) and I'm hoping Chinatown will be amusing, if nothing else. Saturday is the Met with promakos and hopefully a snack at Cafe Sabarsky where I plan to have some yummy Austrian desserts and/or coffee. I miss the european coffee. Why do I live in America again? Sunday is SERIE A WATCHING TIME!!! at Sora Lella with my fellow Romanisti <3 Win or lose (the Scudetto that is) it'll be a good time. Not sure what I'll be up to the other days... some people watching in Central Park maybe? Sounds promising.

I won't say I'll take pictures, because I still haven't replaced my camera that got stolen in Rome last summer... but I'll be sure to write when I get home. Because, y'know, I'm super reliable at posting on this thing.

I got back from Spring Break yesterday and I'm already fed up with school. Why isn't it summer yet? Thankfully I only have a month left of school before I get to go home for a few months, not so thankfully I have nearly 30 pages of papers to write between now and then.

Break was fun, I was far busier than I expected. I forget that other people don't always see vacation as a time to sit around and do nothing. That whole relaxing thing... I really like it. In a week and a half I only managed perhaps three days of doing nothing. They were lovely. If only I could have convinced my roommate and her family to let me do more of it. I went back to San Diego with my roommate and spent break with her family who are entertaining, most of the time. I managed to meet a whole new set of her friends (different from the last time I visited and FAR more entertaining... perhaps this is because this bunch were in their twenties like me rather than still being in highschool like the last bunch), go to California Adventures, go to Sea World with her grandparents, get some shopping done and finally head out to the desert for some relaxing.

The shopping was lovely... if unnecessary. kinda. I find shopping relaxing, so I suppose it was part of the whole relaxing-during-vacation bit, but I'm not sure my wallet is entirely happy with me. But ohhh it was a good time. I love Loehmanns and it's rather unfortunate that there isn't one near where I live. I bought two dresses, one short and one maxi, a v-neck shirt, a cardigan with grey and light blue rugby stripes, another cardigan (that makes 6 or 7 that I own, crazy) that is white with hot pink zebra print on it and a pair of bikini bottoms. I still have to order a top to go with them, I just haven't decided what to get. I didn't like the top that supposedly matched so for the moment I'll be tanning topless apparently. Not!

The last few days of vacation we spent in Palm Springs doing a whole lot of not much. It was fantastic :D though not very eastery. Painting eggs was the extent of my Easter. Very odd. I can't remember the last time I didn't go to church for the holiday or y'know... get an Easter basket. The trip out to the desert would have been far better if I hadn't left the bag I'd packed for the weekend in the front hall of the house in San Diego. Clever me. Thankfully there was a Target near by and I was able to pick up underwear and a bathing suit (now I have one and a half). But I still only had the maxi dress and sandals I'd worn out there. Which meant that when I had to go take pictures for my photo project... I was hiking around in the desert in sandals and a long dress... super intelligent. I'm pretty positive that the other hikers though I was nuts. And then I decided that climbing the small mountain of dirt and rocks with sandals was too much trouble so I took my shoes off and did it barefoot. Far easier, but I forgot that sand and rocks get hot in the sun and my feet ended up being not very happy with me.

Anyway, fun time and eventually I will upload some of the pictures I took for my photo class. I swear the desert looks like the moon in black and white. very odd.

It's my third Mardi Gras and for the life of me I do NOT remember it ever being this crazy... and tiring. You'd think by now I'd be used to the ridiculousness that is New Orleans, but I'm not. Mardi Gras this year stole my voice, gave me a cold and had me walking around like a zombie at weird hours of the day. Even with all that, it was an amazingly fun time. I caught some really cool beads (no flashing needed... you crazy tourists) caught a ton of cups (a cup from each parade I went to was my goal... and I far exceeded it... I filled the dishwasher with them) and met some entertaining people.

I'd also like to say that I'm tired of "Black and Gold to the Superbowl" and "Who Dat!" and "Stand up and Get Crunk" and everything relating to the Saints winning the Superbowl or just in general being a football team from this city. I wouldn't mind never hearing any of it ever again. Unfortunately I think the city is going to be singing about it and using "who dat" as a general greeting for months to come and the only way to get away from it would be to become temporarily deaf.

Yesterday (actual Mardi Gras) I stayed in and was a couch potato. It was amazing. I didn't go to any parades, I didn't drink excessively (I didn't spend any money on said drinking) and I didn't speak to anyone. Miraculously I became less zombie-like and my voice returned. Probably because I substituted tea with honey for margaritas. lol... Mardi Gras is an awful time to be ill.





Thank god Lent is here. Time to stop eating like a lard ball. No dessert or potatoes for the next 40ish days for me!

Packing is the devil. Usually I like doing it, it's rather soothing. Not today. All I want to do today is finish my book... the one I have to leave here in Virginia since it's a library book. My mum said "oh why don't you just mail it home when you're done?" no. I could just BUY the book for the same amount of money. sigh. I have to pack. Nowish. My plane leaves in five hours... better hop to it.

I hate knowing the scores of matches I haven't watched. I'm attempting to watch the Cagliari-Roma match from yesterday but I keep stopping it. We're up 2-0 and I KNOW that the fail happens soon. I know it and I hate it. WTF Roma. hatechu, yet not. I wanted to watch to see how Luca played. I'm fond of him in an Azzurri sort of way, not sure about him being in Rome. We'll see. I'm hoping he does well and helps us get a CL spot. Being a vaguely shallow person I like him for his aesthetic qualities. He looks good... he's a bit of a goof... and he'd better score some damn goals.

So because I know the score I keep getting distracted (which is why I started the match last night and am still not finished). Like how did I miss that Mirko got a huge tatt on his arm? HOW? I fail. So I paused the match and did a bit of research. Apparently I've been oblivious for a month. How can I have missed this?



fail.

I really don't want to watch the rest of the match. Not at all. Maybe I'll go rewatch one that we actually won?

Fra giving an interview next to a pool... It'd be infinitely better if he was in the pool IMO



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