Call Me Grace

You know that kid in the movies that is always falling down and making a fool of him/herself and you think to yourself as you're watching how hilarious yet sadly unrealistic it is? Don't be fooled. Those scenes are based on some reality and I personally have the gracefulness, or lack there of, to prove it. My roommates are constantly making fun of me for falling up the stairs, tripping over things, and wiping out in the living room. And I'm sure you all remember the story of me crashing my bike this summer in the middle of the quad in front of about a hundred preview students. Well, now I can add yet another story. Enjoy...

On Thursdays I have meetings at work at 8am and I just walk to class after the meeting. So this past Thursday, I was walking back to my car after class, just looking around at all the construction, people eating outside, etc. All of a sudden I apparently tripped over something and was soon flailing like a chicken with its leg caught in a barbed wire fence and *SPLAT!* I face planted into the concrete. I didn't even know what happened but I immediately rolled over to see if anyone had witnessed my embarassing incident, jumped up as fast as I could, and quickly walked back to my car, laughing hysterically to myself. I then proceeded to call Molly and surprise her with a little birthday story. If only she could have been there...

In My Life

We did it! So here's the story. The Beatles' classic, "In My Life" was sung at Molly's parents' wedding. So being the maid of honor, Molly decided to get an a capella group together to sing an arrangement of it at her sister, Hannah's wedding this weekend, in place of her toast. After about 4 rehearsals, we got it all put together and Mike, Jenna, Nate and I drove up to Barrington on Saturday for the big surprise. Even though Molly may have skipped the entire last page of the song, no one really noticed and everyone loved us! Her parents and Hannah were so happy and everyone stood up and cheered for us! It was both cool and awkward at the same time... We then got to eat an amazingly delicious dinner in the restaurant downstairs followed by some incredible strawberry and banana cake. I wish we could have stayed longer than we did, but Mike wanted to get back to his dance party and we had quite a long drive home. Plus, we all had a concert yesterday afternoon. Singing at the wedding was pretty cool and molly and her family couldn't have been more appreciative of us! :)

Madrigal Mystery Tour

After being cancelled last year due to a supposed "lack of funds," mads tour was reinstated this year and couldn't have been more fun! Well...it probably could have been seeing as it didn't nearly compare to the pure absurness that occurred on tour freshman year, but still, we had fun. Our day began with performances at Normal UHigh and Normal Community West, followed by a very long drive to Frankfort where we performed at Lincolnway East and had a delcious feast at Jenna's house. Stomachs full and pants bursting at the seams, we all headed to the bowling alleys to show off our skills. We were all embarassed when we checked out and had to tell the bowling guy what name we played under. We had such characters as Lucy & Ethel, Betty and Wilma, KKizzle, Blue Pimp, etc... The best part was the 4 years old boy bowling next to us who beat Nate Coon's score! The kid later cried, ate something that looked disgusting, and threw up all over the floor. He then proceeded to bowl another game and beat Nate once again. Mike also pulled a Dad move and wiped out once. Our hotel was pretty deserted and under a lot of construction, but we still got good use out of one of the pools and hot tubs. We left early the next morning to perform at Conant B. High School and Hoffman Estates High School, both in Hoffman, had another feast at BWW's, and had our last performance at Crystal Lake.

Then the most incredible thing happened as we were leaving Crystal Lake. A girl was backing her car out of her parking spot at she was leaving the school. A guy was coming up behind her and instead of breaking while she shifted gears, the girl stepped on the gas and literally backed up on top of the guy's car. Molly and her parents got to see the whole thing. By the time we got out there, the girl had driven off of his car to reveal its smashed in hood and shattered windshield. Luckily no one was hurt, but the girl was pretty hysterical. There were tons of cops there within minutes which made our exit pretty interesting as our van was parked right next to the accident. Yikes. Imagine driving your car out of the school parking lot and all of a sudden another car is on top of you. Scary.

Basically, our hours and hours spent in the vans were full of hilarious, immature conversations, random trivia games played via walkie talkie with the other van, an abundance of priceless "that's what she said" jokes, conversations about muffins, and singing classic 80s songs at the tops of our lungs. We all passed out on the way home and were exhausted for days after... Now we just have to wait for our Madrigal Mystery Tour t-shirts...

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Sorry, Jess, I know it's been a while. I have been extremely busy with everything lately. Work is finally starting to slow down a bit. Funny how I am scheduled to work 20 hours a week and my check that I got yesterday had 62.5 hours on it! Considering that plus commission, where else can you work part time as a college student and bank over $600 in 2 weeks? I guess I'll try to start complaining a little less about work... We have rented over 270 apartments and have just 100 left! That is insane....

In other news...I was voted vice president of AMDA which I am pretty excited about. I don't know how much I am really going to be able to help this semester with mads and night class but next semester should be a lot better. I am also going to help with the set for the spring fashion show and am considering actually designing for it this year. I think I need to invest in a sewing machine...maybe I'll start a fund for it...

Classes are still going ok, I have 3 tests on Wednesday which is not cool but I guess I'll get through it. I changed my research project from transvestites (which my teacher wanted me to do) to tattoos. I was going to get pictures of transvestites, conduct a survey, and compare the results between guys and girls. It would have been interesting, but I was having trouble finding pictures. So I changed it to tattooing and I am going to compare 5 episodes of either Miami Ink or LA Ink. I am also going to conduct interviews with people who have tattoos (such as Molly). She's pretty excited. I think it should be pretty interesting.

Last night I was going to catch up on some reading but had a slight change in plans. Ally was abandoned by her roommate for the weekend, Rachel went home as always, Ashley went to Southern, and Debbie was at work. So I made Ally go grocery shopping with me because I have been desperate for them for about a week and a half. Then I made a delicious strawberry banana yogurt/jello/whipped cream pie for Grandpa's birthday on Sunday and a yummy pumpkin pie to take to my sister's tonight. Apparently I made too much pie-ness and it started to overflow! So...I also made some funny looking pumpkin pie cupcakes! Ally, Debbie, and Jessica all said they were delicious so I guess they must be good! Debbie was very proud of me for actually baking something right and put a note about it on the white board in the kitchen! She's funny... I'm very excited to see sister's new house and spend the evening with her and Other and see everyone on Sunday!! I feel like I haven't been home in forever. Ok I guess it's time to get back to work... (Or at least pretend to be doing work) :)

Angry Eyes

I finally made it to the eye doctor after 2 straight weeks of not being able to wear my contacts. I have no time to go home just for an eye appointment, so I found a Pearl Vision at the mall and had my appointment today. After several pictures of the inside of my eye, straining to read way too small letters, getting shot in the eyes with puffs of air, having orange dye put in my eyes and looked at with a blue light, I found out that I have an infection. How wonderful! I have an inflamed retina that has caused numerous white blood cells to flood my eyes. So...he wrote me a prescription and said I have to come back in three days. I pay my bill of $167.00 thinking it included new contacts. Not even close. It was $49.00 for the exam, $39.00 for having the retina photo thing, and $79.00 for the rest of the exam. Not cool. I then go to Walgreens to fill the prescription and wait 20 minutes in the store for them to fill it. They finally announce that it's ready so I go up and the guy asks again if I have a prescription insurance card. He said it wasn't going through so they had to call the insurance company, and if it wasn't covered I would have to pay $87.00. Ten minutes later it was finally worked out and I still had to pay $40.00. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper and I don't even want to think about how much I am going to have to pay when I go back on Thursday. I'm sure I will be charged for another office visit on top of what the contacts themselves will be.... Then I came home and took a 3 hour nap.

It's amazing how much your wardrobe grows once you do your laundry...or mine at least since I don't do laundry very often! I like to leave my closet doors open now so I can see my lusciously filled racks. O my, that sounds funny. :) I've survived another week of crazy work and class schedules. I don't have much on Fridays so in my mind my weekend starts on Thursday the minute I get off work. And it's even better when the next day is pay day!! It feels so good to finally have some checks coming in again. I still have to work a ton this weekend but I'm going to use every free minute I have to catch up on homework, study for the tests I have already next week, relax, and do some artwork. My walls are still too white and definitely need to be covered up with something. I know my art's not the best, but I take pride in it nonetheless and feel more at home with it covering the walls. Although, "Johnny Depp at the Piano" is probably my most favorite thing in the room and he makes me so happy every time I walk in!! I think Ashley and I are going to resign out here at the Oaks which makes me really happy. I love it out here and don't want to leave! We just need to find a couple new roommates which we are working on. I'm going to miss my Little Debbie!! Speaking of, I'm just waiting for her to come home from work so we can hit up BWW's for cheap boneless wing night! I love that stuff! My throat is itchy, I need to find something to moisturize it a bit...

I Solemnly Swear...

...to never eat kiwi again!! (the fruit, not the bird, of course!!) This happened a few days ago but I haven't had time to post anything about it yet. So....the other night Ashley and I went for a run and of course came back to the apartment hungry. I didn't want to eat anything that I would regret, after having just burned a bunch of calories, and remembered that I had bought some kiwi that I didn't want to go to waste. So I get them out of the fridge and cut up all 5 of them and put them in a bowl. Jessica, Debbie, and Ashley were all here too so I figured they would eat some too. I don't know what it was exactly about these particular kiwi, but they seemed especially delicious. I had eaten quite a few pieces when I started to feel a little funny. My tounge began to tingle and burn a little bit and my throat started to feel scratchy. I disregarded it at first but after a few minutes I said something to the girls about it. Then my throat felt like it was made of splintery wood and it hurt to swallow. Soon it felt like there was a piece of chicken caught in there. I kept biting my tounge as it got fat and bumpy. I started freaking out and didn't know what to do. I have eaten several kiwis in my life and never has anything remotely close to an allergic reaction happened before. My roommates and Jessica are practically rolling on the floor with laughter at my apparently comical antics. Sure, I was making a joke of it but I was a little frightened as well. Debbie ran and got me some benadryl and said if the swellingness didn't go down in a half hour or kept getting worse she was going to take me to the emergency room. Um...red flag here, I am terrified of hospitals and wasn't too excited about the idea of possibly having to go!! 2 benadryl and a bowl of soup later, the swelling and the tingling started to receed and I felt much better about life. I am just oh so sad that now I will never be able to eat kiwi again!! :(