Hey everybody

Hey guys!
I hope everyone is well. I am going to Chi Town for New Years! Who's coming with me? Hopefully all of you will be there.

-Bre

misses

hey! what happened to the blog? I miss hearn stories about u guys!
alls good here, just studying :) I like school now, which is nice:) So who u guys are comin here for NYE? im sure ull have a blast. maybe ill need to plan another new york trip in the spring to visit. hope all is well!
amy

Video... Ad...

Yeah, this is a Cisco ad in the end but it's still funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6VIo6_0l24

And the link at the end:

http://www.donthaveameltdown.com/

Mark

NEW TRIP TO NY!

Ok so I just booked a trip to NYC!!! I'm coming July 18th (wed)- July 23rd (mon)
YAY!!!! I will be seeing ALL of you New Yorkers and i hope to bum a couch a night or two:)
Let me know if this is alright:) also I think Lo was thinking about coming that weekend also!!!
yay for summer trips!

I'm sorry Mark that I could not participate. This wasn't even a "I'm too busy thing." This was a "I don't own a digital camera thing". So I was thinking that I would borrow Justin's and all would be fine and great, but apparently his is broken. So then I kept telling myself "Well you should just buy a new digi camera" but then I had to pay my security deposit...and I had no extra money for things like digital cameras.

So.

This was not about "the will" it was more about "the way".

I'm sorry Mark. I will probably buy a digital camera eventually this summer. And then probably do the photo contest on my own. And everyone will be impressed. Because I like taking pictures. But as of right now....I was not able to:(

Contest Results

Hi,

I'm rather disappointed in the results of the contest, especially after so much initial enthusiasm. The only one to send in photos was Aaron and then I have mine.

What happened that everyone not only didn't even try but no one even said "Hey, I'll have mine to you on XX."?

I'm busy too but understand that when I planned on putting the work in to display all the pictures, get and send out (a) prize(s), and do my own entry, it wasn't something I thought would be too much.

If you're sending them in, send them in now. Make it somewhat exciting.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3qF5vRDwA4

Friday Friday Friday

Hi!

I'm excited for today because tonight is the Bay-area rivalry of the As versus the Giants, which I'm going to. Prime.. bleacher seating. I'll root for the Giants only because I'm not a fan of Oakland in general.

And Sunday is Bay to Breakers, a road race, in San Francisco where most people show up to walk/jog the route and drink along the way. In costumes! (The group I'm going with hasn't decided what our theme is yet. Michigan alum and some miscs.) I can't remember the last time I've bought cans of beer. The question is, do I get better can beer (Miller Lite) or go all out nasty with some Natty. Decisions, decisions.

Hope everyone is doing well on their contest entries. Remember, the 31st is the deadline. Send the photos that you're submitting with files names as such: (Number of Contest)-(Your First Name)-(Short Description).jpg

Example: 4-Mark-DancingMonkeysOnFire.jpg, which would likely win if #4 on the list was "Crazy fun that you write grandma about".

And the fact that the next two workweeks are only four dayers with me taking Friday off and Memorial Day, I'm good to go!

Sidenote: Is the Long Island airport out of the way for New York, New York friends? I think the airport code is ISP. I'm looking at September as a possibility for a weekend and Southwest does deals to there. I like deals.

La La La

Helloooo there. Its been a while:) I miss you all very much. A few shout outs--
Nick- I hope you are doing ok with ur boy moving:(
Maria- I wanna come visit new york again and see you, but i still feel like not a good idea cause of ryan.
Erin- I had soooo much fun with you in Ann Arbor, and miss you much. As far as my soulmate... i must wait until we have another chance encounter :)
Lo- yay, happy u just called me from work.
Devesh- happy u posted for me at my amazing cino de mayo festival
Mark- i love ur idea... we shall see if I have time to complete (having 2 full time jobs for the next 2 weeks).
bre and les- I know u never check this, but im excited for your visit to chicago:)



bye loves,
amy

i also love this idea...

...and i can't wait. i feel like i need to have my camera on me at all times now!

cali was supes fun. refer to facebook for pics. also fun seeing liz in michigan (don't ask) and mark in cali. the place we stayed at in Napa was amazing and we lucked out on weather.

back in new york now. which means work. and lots of it. blake leaves on saturday. wah wah. signing a lease for a new place tomorrow though. yay.

haha, yep that's about all! let the competition begin!!!

We're blogging from the cinco de mayo party... woooo hoooo

amy is going to be better at blogging now that I've shown her how to use gmail to log-in.

(devesh)

:-D
.

Sounds Like Fun...

Okay, I'm totally game for this scavenger hunt! I'm gonna start it today....

Guys...I just got hired for a tiny part on Guiding Light. How funny is that?

Amazing Idea

I love that idea Mark. LOVE.

I will be participating.

I'm a Dork... So Are You

I saw this while looking at a news article on a Cisco event and thought it would be fun to do between us.

Reasoning? You're all picture whores, in one way or another.

Here's the deal. Taking your nice little digital camera, your mission (if you choose to accept) is to take pictures of your surroundings (apartment is boring so shoot for city, state) with one photo aligning to one of the following words. There's 26 words so 26 photos (though if you fall short, that's fine.)

It's a scavenger hunt!

Be creative. Have fun. When you finish, you email them to me with the right word in the file name. I post them all in a gallery. We vote on each word. Add up the points. Someone gets a prize.

May 2007 Words:

keys
dance
fold
soft
tangle
panoramic
truck
sparkle
nose
round
currency
electronic
large
fake
stop
feast
multicoloured
before
after
landmark
from the hip
front page
a difference
telephone
the number 9
sticky

DEADLINE: Thursday, May 31, 2007

You know you want to...

(Life's all right. Lauren and Justin visited. Nick's visiting this weekend. Note the cool trend.)

Obviously....

So, I just moved into my new place with my new roomie. We're still getting settled in and we don't even have all of our furniture set up yet and today she tells me that she got a job on a cruise ship and will be leaving until november. This means that I am now in charge of figuring out all of the furniture she's having delivered AND get this.....i think she is going to sublet to this kid named steve. I will once again be living with another gay. I can't freakin stop. I was looking forward to fun girl time in the summer :( Oh well, that would happen....I was hoping that she just wouldn't want to sublet and I would get the whole place for 6 months. Ugh. But I will be here by myself in May if anyone wants to visit....

a lil update

hey everyone,

nothing too crazy going on over here in NYC. except that its finally GORGEOUS outside!! i was so excited to run outside and lay out on our patio:) so how's everyone doing?? anyone else think its crazy that its been a year since we all graduated, because um yea, i DO. its so weird to think about how long ago that feels yet in other ways, it feels like we graduated 2 weeks ago. haha. life is silly.

blake is in kansas this week so i'm living the single life again...which essentially means i'll just be watching more tv haha. but next week we are going out to cali which i'm supes excited for. and i get to see mark and my cousin ryan, yay! i'm extremely excited about Napa Valley though. i hope the weather cooperates.

in other travel news, i just booked my first plane ticket to go visit blake. haha, kinda crazy considering he hasn't even left yet! but we got some really good hotel deals (i.e. free) in Bali. So i'm going to be in Shanghai for about a week, Hong Kong for 2 nights, and Bali for a week starting September 21st!! the places look amazing and i think its good that we'll have something to look forward too. and p.s. after we booked the tix, i was like, oh look, the day that i leave is EXACTLY a year to the day that we met. so we'll be able to be together at least kinda on our anniversary:)

well i guess that's about it for me...i'm gonna go out and enjoy the weather some more and then go to work for a bit. ugh, i can't believe i have to go in on the weekend but it shouldn't be that bad. just like an hour and a half and i can at least get free dinner.

aight, hope everyone's doing well and talk to y'all soon!

-me

Of Running.. and Being Too Drunk To Run

For those of you who had trouble with the Boston Marathon website all morning, here's Leslie's excellent results.

11364 - Patton, Leslie A.

Checkpoints
5k - 0:25:36
10k - 0:50:32
20k - 1:40:00
Half - 1:45:22
30k - 2:30:50
40k - 3:21:41
Finish - 3:32:31
Pace - 0:08:07

Kristen did the same. And while I'm not really surprised Ann is doing so well at a 9:55 pace, but wow, she's 50? Looks not a day over 40, if you ask me.

As for my weekend, I didn't lose my phone but I did lose sleep partying with Jonathan over Xbox Live on Friday and talking to Elise for a hour that I don't remember, volunteering all Saturday, and then going out for my first time with a South Bay group in party mode that night while a friend from Clare was in town.

Yeah, I slept from 8:30 pm last night until 8 this morning. It was glorious.

There Goes Lo's Phone

Dearest Friends -

Due to my long illness I hadn't been out drinking in about 2 weekends. Apparently this it all it takes to get my tolerance down to absolutely zero.

Friday night I went to a bridal shower...was one of two girls secretly drinking rum (i felt awkward...alcohol helped me to be more social). Then I met up with John David and friends. Then magically met up with my roommate at a different bar, and then found myself in bed.

Now, this may sound like a normal night, but now let me tell you the things I did due to my newly found intolerance for alcohol:

• Spent $5 on alcohol...spent $35 on cabs
• Flat out fell on the dance floor while salsa dancing with some man
• Blatantly left my phone in the cab with zero attempt to chase after it
• Had to look up Justin's # on the facebook because I literally know no one's phone # aside from Breanna and my mother

So anywho. That was my long way of saying: hey everyone, I lost my phone...could you please send me your #? Also, if anyone needs to call me you can call my apartment phone # 773-857-1702. I can't make anything but local calls with it, but it has free incoming calls.

*sigh* time to find a new phone. (again)

Ann Arbs!

Hi Friends!

I'm finally all moved into my apt! It's beautiful... my bedroom is all done, and we are expecting furniture from Alexandra's mom in Texas tomorrow. Then we will finally have a dining room table and a couch to watch TV on the new flat screen!! (Obviously, Alexandra's purchase...I am way to cheap and poor for that. I don't know how Alex is affording it considering she is in my same profession....) I love my new neighborhood, it feels like a small town in a big city...yesterday I chatted with the made and the corner hardware store about the Cubbies. Love it.

Aaaaaaanyway, I'm also gonna be in Ann Arbor in a couple weeks (April 20-22)!! Just for fun, no big... I think that Amy will be there also...well that is if she doesn't get pink eye, the flu, SARS, or any other disease. (Vitamin C, girl!!) If anyone else wants to come play, come on up :)

Delicious Jell-O Mix

This post is primarily for Erin because I know she likes Jell-O and probably would make this:

6oz package of Cherry Jell-O
1 can of Oceanspray whole cranberry sauce
1 can of pineapple chunks
1 1/2 cups of sliced grapes

• Boil water for Jell-O
• Pour boiled water on top of powdered Jell - O
• Add cranberries and pineapples to Jell - O mix
• Put in refrigerator for 30 minutes
• Add grapes
• Let continue to chill in fridge until its all firm.

Delicious! I made this weekend for Easter because it felt like my mom was here. :)

Help Me.

Hello Friends.

I am sitting at work sad and sick. I have been getting progressively more ill and pukey feeling throughout the weekend until now. I have a doctor's appt on Wednesday. I am hoping this doesn't kill my NYC weekend excursion because this makes me almost more sad than the pukey feelings I have.

Looking for a new apartment sucks. I am not looking forward to any more searches after this past Sunday which was filled with disappointment. For those of you who have seen my current apartment you most likely understand my reluctance to leave. I love my current apartment.

I am a big Sick, Debbie Downer today. Wah wah.

Reminder: Boy Aaron Birthday tomorrow, Nick Birthday Thursday.

3's a party (and apparently a bottle of wine too)!

Short update today.

Mark sent me a bottle of wine called Menage a Trois...yes, they really do make it! Needless to say this made my day.

I will be running in Boston in 2 weeks (26.2 miles to be exact). Please pray for me.

My sis is interning in NYC this summer, so I will no doubt be planning a summer trip to the big city!

That's all for now.

St. Patty's Pictures and Birthday Pictures

Hi,

I really want to get home today. I have a couple things left and then I'm off to get some shopping done, packing for a weekend excursion to a park to play with some bears, and enjoy a drink!

Anyways, here's some pictures that haven't made it to Facebook.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mloesel/StPattySDay - Fun and awkward. Oh, and drinking here and there.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mloesel/MyBirthday - Fun though none of you were able to make the short drive over. I understand.

And Lauren came up with the blog idea. I just enjoyed setting it up.

Mark

Creepy Men From Lives Past

Hey kids,

So sometimes in life you have experiences that are so perfect you need to tell all of your friends about it, but how can one do so? Well this is the dilemma I just faced until I remembered the group web blog. (Thank you, Mark. Your genius will not go unnoted. I will be nominating you for a Nobel Prize in Physics this year)...

I was driving home from campus today and thought I'd grab some lunch, and what do you know but right in front of me was The Burrito Joint - a hardly noticeable, less than notable 1 table restaurant on Packard (I swear this all was fate). So I walk in to get some food to fill me up and guess who the cashier was...

VERADAY!!!! (i have no idea how to spell his name for real... or pronounce it)

You'll all be happy to know that he's doing quite well, splitting his time between The Burrito Joint and whatever else it is that he does. And you'll also be happy to know that the burrito he gave me sucked. It was like T-Bell but bigger and soggier.

and he has braces.

i'm not kidding, all out braces, top and bottom, it's awesome. It has already made my day, maybe even my week.

Other than that moment of perfectness, life has been quite alright. Turns out grad school is only hard if you have PhD research to do, so no complaints there. And my 2 man Euro Trash Pop Dance band has been coming along quite swimmingly - our repertoir now includes originals such as "Tiger Dance" and "Sex on the Dance Floor" as well as a stunning cover of Gina G's "Ooh Ahh Just a Little Bit."

Now I see there have been a lot of posts, and frankly, I think there are too many back-posts to read. So sorry for all of the bad things that have happened and HOOORRAAAYYY!!! for all of the good things. I promise to actually read this thing and post on it from now on.

Farewell one and all! Hope things are going great. Now that 2:30 is approaching I have a premature birthday/binge drinking celebration to attend. I hope not to die.

SOAY!

It's Springtime...

Hello Friends...

A lot has been going on lately! We finally hit above 70 degrees for a day or two here in New York. I've already purchased more spring clothes and shoes than I can afford, so hopefully I can wear them consistantly soon!

I'm finally moving into a new apartment (well, finally going to live somewhere for longer than 3 months...). I'm moving out of Manhattan and into Astoria, Queens. It's a great area with a Beer Garden (which someone told was about the size of a football field or larger!! NYC kids, we GOTTA go....) and a fantastic park on the water over looking manhattan. The apartment is a three bedroom, but we will be using one of the bedrooms as a living room. I'm so excited! My parents will be out on friday to help me move and to visit since they haven't been here since i moved...

It's also nick's birthday coming up!!! the big 2-3! Hopefully we can celebrate all weekend long....so excited that Lo and Amy are coming out to play too. I'm hoping to be all unpacked and moved in so that I don't have to worry about that when they are here.

Another highlight of my week was shooting an "afterschool special"-like video that will be used at colleges around the country. They paid me $100 for about 15 minutes of work.....and it was HILARIOUS. These were SERIOUSLY some of my lines...

"I used to go out five nights a week, hooking up with different people. The next morning I’d wake up and be like, 'Who are you?' I got tired of it. Now I’m holding out for a real boyfriend."

and....

"There’s a reason they call the trek back to your room in last night’s clothes “the walk of shame.” From now on, when I have sex, it’s not going to be something I’m ashamed of doing."

haha, awesome! my life is so funny. :)

Hope you all are enjoying the semi-warm weather!

IM coimg to NYC!!!! APril 4th- April9th in the morning!!!

YAY!!!!

nothin else new here. Trisha came to visit this weekend...good times:)

Feminism, St. Patty's Day, and Mark

Can I just say that I love that this billboard just went up next to my place. haha, HOW redic is that!?!?! now, i KNOW leslie has some good ol social commentary to make on this, so i will just leave that to her..

hope everyone had great drunken st. patty's days!!! we celebrated here starting with green pancakes at my place (yum) and then literally covered the four corners of manhattan in search of good times (which we happened to find at all) Highlights include:

• Green pancakes (obvi)
• Listening to good ol Irish music at my place like Madonna and the first NOW CD:)
• The Domino's pizza guy doing a keg stand
• Our friend Lindy (who is disgustingly nice) getting in a fight and SPRAYING beer all over this 50 year old man
• Thinking it was a "good idea" to finish the night with a car bomb. yep, finish it did

Alrighty I'm going to bed since i just got home an hour ago (yep, 11pm). oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hey Everyone,

I'm off soon (I hope) and won't be online tomorrow so have fun, be safe, and get drunk. I expect pictures on the facebook and let everyone know when they're up. This is my social activities coordination at its best.

Personally, I'm off to Monterey which is south of here on the ocean. I'll be a block off the Pacific hanging out with Jonathan and some of his undergrad/childhood buddies. I've met almost all of them multiple times so it should be a good time. Oh, and Kerry's showing up so that'll be awkward. Yes, I'm still not happy with the current non-situation. But alcohol and very high-strung tension? Woo!

Oh, yes! In honor of you, my friends, I'm pulling out the Catch Phrase and introducing it this weekend. No, it won't be our exclusing room in Dominick's but it'll remind me of home, being A2.

Take care,

Mark

Hello strangers

Hey Friends,

First thing is first. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LESLIE!!!!!!!!!!

Now that i got that out of the way...OK I know, I know. i too have lacked on the blogging. but that all changes. TODAY! (and so i'll write a rediculously long post to make up)

So last I left off, I had just returned from my voyage to ann arbor. Since then a couple important (some fun, some not so fun) things have happened

Fun:)

• Hoboken St. Patty's Day: essentially Hobokonen, New Jersey celebrates St. Patty's day every year 2 weeks early. So yes, I was up at 7, drinking by 8:30 in Jersey, wearing all green. Amazing to say the least. It was so funny to see all these people in green, drunk of their asses, and it not even be st. patty's day. weeeeeeee.
• Went to see Phantom last thursday w/mr. blake. I was so excited to see it on broadway finally. funniest thing was that i had surprised him with tickets at like 7:53 and the show was at 8. good thing he lives half a block away from the theatre!
• I had my first client meeting at work 2 weeks ago. I was so nervous b/c i put the book together and got to speak and everything. And it was kind of a hilarious company to have my first meeting with. good times all around
• Boy Aaron came to visit for a short 30hours last weekend. tons of fun and i got a lil bit messy;) we also ran in central park and i discovered that i'm yet again, out of shape and out of breath. haha.

Not so fun:(

• Blake heard back from China again. They gave him what looks to be their final offer. Its a pretty good offer and so i have a feeling he might take it. i am of course, not the most excited about this, for selfish reasons. I think he's gonna have to make the decision in like the next week or two, so i'm getting really nervous. oh well, i guess we'll see what happens...
• Parents and I got in another big fight again. Same issues as always. However we talked again this past weekend and kinda patched things up, so again, i guess we'll see
• Work has been insanely busy...lots of hours. but as you can see by the timing of this blog, today is a rare exception (and delight!)

So yeah, that's that. Looking ahead, Blake's mom and sis are coming into town tomorrow. so since they can't know about me, i plan to secretly stalk them (with blake knowing of course). I'm thinking it'd be hilarious if on st. patty's day, our group (with our green matching t-shirts) tried to drunkenly stalk them! speaking of st. patty's day...CAN'T wait! its gonna start off at my place with green pancakes. weeeeeeee.

Other than that, i'm currently looking at different apartment buildings to possibly rent from with kyle. always good times.

Aight friends, i think that about wraps it up. whew. that was a long post.

Big 2-3

Happy Birthday Leslie!!

Its been a while

Hey kids!
Im ashamed to say that I have been forgetting to check the blog for a few weeks!! I agree, we must step it up:) Lo thanks for the shout out, call me and we will play, how about a movie during the week? Im actaully sick again! booo, but hopefully will get better after stayin in this weekend. I start training for a new job next week! Its testing 5-6 year olds in schools individually on their reading and speech skills. It pays $17 an hour! yea so im excited (too bad it only goes till the end of the school year). I'm also doing gymnastics bday parties all day saturday and sundays which is fun and exhausting at the same time (especially when i go out the night b4 I have to work with little kids all the next day). Recently Here are a few highlighs: (im stealing Lo's bullet format...cause im cool like that)

• went to see bodyworld2 at the science and industry museum where they have real cadvers plasticized and u can see their organs, muscles, bones, nerves.... (Very cool)
• Found out another highschool friend is engaged (crazy!)
• Realizing the drama of juggling boys is indeed fun ( yes quasi-slutty amy is back!)
• Missing my ex-boy a lot still, but realizing it is less painful if we dont contact eachother very much
• Completed my application to Northwestern! ---- its the only school around here that accepts late applications soooo if i dont get in ill just take some undergrad classes in the city next year and apply to tons of schools all over the country next year (exciting!)
• Just watched the move "Y Tu Mama Tambien" ... a mexican movie that is really good and i highly reccomend it (but dont watch it with ur parents.... sexual explict scenes...)
• found out the guy who ive been letting take me out a few times a week for the last month (Chris) had a girlfriend the whole time! (i found this funny... I know im weird... didnt really like him)
• umm and i have to work on st. patties:(... (total bummer)

Miss u all tons... it took me a while to scramble up a post, but hopefully will be doing it more often!

Happy Bday bre if u see this!

St. Patty's Day!!

ok guys! it's about that time of year.... any fun plans this year?

and new york kids, what are we doing? i mean, OBVIOUSLY, we are getting up early, but after that.... nick? maria? anyone?

ooo I'll blog too.

Mark - I have a question for you. Is it possible to set up the blog so that it alerts your e-mail address when there is a new post? Because I think that would be WONDERFUL. It'd be like Facebook telling you helpful things like "you've been tagged in a photo" or "so and so has written on your wall." I direct this question to you because you are savvy.

To Everyone Else (well I guess Mark can read the rest too) - Chicago is sort of warm today. This has made me happy. Unfortunately it is very rainy and I feel like I'm in Seattle hanging with Kurt Cobain and the grunge crew.

Highlights of my last week included:

• Going to a comedy show with Justin and 2 of our other friends where the theme was drinking. And it was 100% BYOB. So we all got drunk and laughed at the improv skits.
• Two birthday parties to attend on Saturday. The last one was a co-worker's and everyone got drunk and gossiped about people at work. I loved it. I even learned about a budding co-worker relationship that I'm totally not supposed to be privy to.
  
• Went on a double date with Steve and his boyfriend on Monday at a bowling alley. It was lovely because I love bowling (and $2 PBR).
• I rebelled on Wednesday and wore jeans to work. I figured...my director left the company, my boss was in training, and I, too had training so what the hell. Whenever people said "whoa, what up with the jeans" i said "I'm taking a PJD- personal jeans day." Yea. That's how I rock out in Corporate America - hardcore rebellious.
• I just got the new Nelly Furtado cd - Loose. FAN - TASTIC. Really. It's so good.
  

Call out to Devesh - Um. You are back from India. I didn't return your phone calls last week because I'm a total flake. I'm sorry. Try again. I'm ready to play.

Call out to Amy - Let's play soon.

Call out to everyone - Breanna's birthday is March 9th. Next Friday. You should all call/e-mail her a happy birthday. :) She never reads the blog so she'll be so surprised!

That is all. Work, Life and Love are all wonderful on my end. Hope you can all say the same!

-Lo

Let's step it up...

Yes, the posts have definitely been lacking....myself included.

Let's see, what's new? Ross and his old roommate Craig and his girlfriend, Holly, came to visit this weekend. It was super fun...i took ross around to see the sights and then we all when out to Tao for dinner. It was super trendy, but unfortunately we didn't see any celebs. Tao was so funny because the music was SOO loud that you couldn't hear anyone across the table.... i mean, why would you want that to be a feature in your restaurant? haha, i must be old fashioned. :) but it was a fun weekend, ross and i talked....we aren't dating because turns out i live in NY and he's gonna be at Mich for another 4 years.

blog soon, everyone....facebook is boring me.

PS: did anyone else see all of the footage from the rats in the Taco Bell? ew.

Some Reasons I Love My Work

- Free drinks
- If I don't do laundry in a while and end up with those pants (you know, the last pair of pants you'd wear if you're trying to look professional - too short, odd fitting, wrinkly), I know that with all the engineers around here, I still look dressed up
- My commute during a high-traffic period is 30 minutes and 11 during a low
- I have a really, really fast internet connection being as that's our business
- My coworkers are pretty laid back but get their work done
- My rugged beard is complimented because it's something different and that's okay
- Flexibility in work times and places
- Candy shows up around here quite often
- I have a white board in my cube
- The ability to check the blog and see all the posts my friends come up with.... .... ....

Heat Wave in Chicago - 37 Degrees

Devesh. Are you seriously coming back on Wednesday??? What have I been doing for 2 months. I don't even know.

Also. Do any of you feel like going and getting our MBA in the Fall of 2009? It'd be like senior year all over again. Think about it.

Monday mornings are really awkward...

... when you have gone out clubbing with half your office the previous Saturday night (and watched most of them grind each other...)

(Coming back to the States Wednesday!!!!)

To My Friends...

Happy Valentine's Day friends!!

I'm Not Looking to Post Too Much But...

Seeing as it's significant and all..

Happy VD to all of you.

Ann Arbor...the results

So maria and i ventured to ann arbor this past weekend and it was tres fun (who woulda thought)

here are some lowlights (i love bullet points)
1) turns out u can't play quarters at the jug (or any drinking games anymore...at any bar)
2) charley's is closed
3) everyone is young now
4) i slept wit 2 girls (ewwwww) they were maria and angela:)

...and the highlights
1) maria and i bought matching business school sweatshirts...and wore them back on the plane to NYC
2) saturday i had had 6 drinks before 8pm. saturday night was fun.
3) on sunday, i had THREE breakfasts, back to back, at diff restaurants wit diff ppl...i'm a fatty
4) ran into will at the mall...he looked bad, and i looked good. yay for running into ex's! i win!
5) simon's bday was on friday night...he ended up throwing up ON angela at Ricks (also known as a lowlight for angela)


all in all a good trip, wit lots of funny stories that no one will remember b/c we were drunk for 80% of the time:P aka, we were back in college.

aight, time for bed. Happy Vday to everyone!

p.s. anyone else that is interested in coming to NYC April 5-8 (or any other weekend) is more than welcome to do so! it would be funnnnnnnnnn.

Blizzarding

its snowing like crazy here!! how are you all? Im doing well, I've been partying like im a freshman in college the past two weekends and Im still jobless...
But I have decided that between now and next school year (when I can hopefully start taking classes in speech and language pathology) Im going to coach gymnastics (hopefully) and nanny. Not a bad life, seeing that the going hourly rate is now 12-15 dollars an hour to babysit (for one kid!). yea so im enjoying this time and trying to not feel like a bum. As for other areas of my life... lo and I hung out this weekend (hence the partying like im a college freshman again) we went out for someones bday, im not sure who and I think it will forever remain a mystery to me, but had a BLAST. I was flirting with one of justins friends, I think, only to find out he had just broken up with his BOYfriend. no, he is not gay, i was corrected, he was bi. So now I can cross that off my list for things I have done ... flirted with a guy who just broke up with his boyfriend. yes...all in all a very successful night. (especially taking 6 shots of vodka BEFORE the open bar...)
that is all... no real news over here, adjusting to being single and not liking it.
-amy

Top 10 Reasons Everyone Here Should Move To California

1. It's not -148 degrees, freezing your blood before you even have a chance to shiver
2. The wine you buy at the store from California doesn't have to travel far and thus is somehow better; at the very least it's cheaper and you can still always get 2 Buck Chuck at Trader Joes, as it started out here
3. Go from warm weather to cold weather to middle weather to nude beaches that you didn't know were nude beaches until you saw an old naked guy walking 40 meters from you in just a couple hours
4. Rent is more than paying to cure a hooker's medical issues but there's always the possibility of an adventure earthquake!
5. You can learn to surf out here (though I haven't, nor will I, Elise. Salty tastes in my mouth... no.)
6. The majority of the people out here are very relaxed. I only hear people honking their car horns when I'm running in my hot shorts
7. Organic/healthy food is actually easier to do than trying to get your average East Coast/greasy joint food, which may or may not be a good reason
8. Diversity is great and that's California's middle name, next to Chlamydia (see #4. Rent)
9. I'm here. Seriously.
10. I'm here and I happen to miss all of you.


Happy Tuesday, everyone.

Announcement

I am coming to NYC.

April 5th to April 8th.

Prepare yourselves.

Binge Drinking Not My Fault

Turns out my heavy consumption of alcohol these days is 100% the fault of Chicago and my Midwest livin'. Read on for details....

Why Lo Can't Help Her Drinking

My body and heart are both cold....

Hi friends....my internet hasn't been working (which isn't surprising since we steal it from other tenants in the building...) so today was the first time i'm checked the blog in a long time!!

Let me say...it may be colder in Minnesota and Chicago, but it's still rather chilly here in NY...and i'm sure that you all at least have heat in your apartments AND places of employment. Thats right....no one seems to be turning on the radiators in my apartment so it's FREEZING and then i get to work yesterday and they tell me that the boiler is broken. yikes.

on the bears front. I'm still a little heart broken....it was going so well at first, i mean...Devon Hester = AWESOME (check out the devon hester facebook group that i joined a while back). But then Rex imploded in his usual style. sigh. but next year i heard that 20 of the 22 starters should be back. :) and the cubs are coming up.

what else, what else...i think i'm moving to queens in april. should be fun.

miss you all. stay warm!

My brother got engaged...

... and I was in the United States this past weekend!

So flashback to December when I first found out I was going to going to India. My brother asks me rather confusingly if there is any chance I could come back... for a ski trip. Now, first, I haven't skied since I was 12, and second, even if I was an avid-skier, would I want to travel 20 hours on a plane to come back home to... ski?

So I knew something was up. (backstory: he's been dating his girlfriend for eight years. Yes... E-I-G-H-T years. Their first date was senior prom) Anyhow, he calls me again, just before I am leaving and asks... again, "can you come back home... for a big party with all my friends." I say no.

Three weeks ago, he calls me and says "I have something really important to tell you... call me back." I call him back 4 separate times, and the first 3, he ask me really stupid questions like "My iPod doesn't work... what's wrong?" or "do you have any vacation time this summer?" Finally, I call him back when there is no one around and I ask (rather bluntly) "did you buy the damn ring yet," to which his response was "what? how did you know?"

point being: my brother is not the smoothest operator in the world. but he had managed to convince his girlfriend that he wasn't going to propose any time soon, while also getting all her friends from high school and college, all his friend from high school and college, her sister into Boston in the same weekend without anyone spilling the secret, while also getting her best friend to trick her into designing her "dream ring" waaaaaaaaaaay back in October...

so anyhow, after negotiating with my team (I had to trade in my business class return ticket to afford the round-trip airfare :-( ...) I got to come back (for a day)!

I left India at 1AM on Saturday (where it was 65 degrees), arrived in Chicago at 5AM on Saturday (where it was 4 degrees), boarded a flight to Boston which was canceled... got on another flight to Boston and arrived there at 12:30 PM (where it was 24 degrees). Hung out with all their friends at dinner and a bar (while eagerly awaiting text messages from him on the play-by-play... technology is amazing!), partied, got home at 4AM, got up at 9AM, hung out some more... and then boarded my flight back to Delhi at 5:30PM (via Newark). Got back to Delhi at 11PM Monday night (where it was 75 degrees).

Grand total travel time (including transit time to/from airport): 47 hours
Grand total time spent sleeping while traveling: 10 hours
Grand total time in Boston: 29 hours

Brrrr

Hi Friends,

It only hit 67 or 68 today, so I understand cold and all.

I was disappointed that the Bears lost.

Really just want to go home today/this week and am counting the minutes to a little past 5.

Mark

Bears Lose the Super Bowl - Chicago Cries Frozen Tears

Yes a sad day for the Bears. Everyone in the office is a bit subdued today (I blame the heavy consumption of alcohol on a Sunday).

But seriously...it. is. FREEZING. here. I hate it I hate it I hate it. And soooooo windy. I think only Leslie and fellow Chicago friends understand the sort of hell we are living in right now. New York is like the beach compared to this (I checked your guys' weather. It is not as cold as here.) And I don't even want to hear what Mark has to say. I swear it's warmer in Michigan than it is here.

This weekend Megan Hildebrandt was in town and it was o so fun. We hung out with some friends and drank and were merry. Which led me to fall into the severe throes of the most vicious hangover of 2007 all day Saturday. I sat in Spanish class very upset (and cold.) I then proceeded to lay on Justin's couch ALL day afterward because I physically couldn't do anything. I have to stop drinking.

Yesterday Justin hosted a Super Bowl party and I made dips. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed my spinach dip. And Steve had this delightful drinking game where you split into two teams and listen to "Roxanne" by the police. And then everytime the word "roxanne" is said one team has to drink...and then when "red light" is said the other team has to drink. It's funny. We also all played guitar hero afterward which is SO MUCH FUN. Seriously...best PS2 game ever. Overall very good Super Bowl Sunday (minus the Bears losing). Lots of people to have fun with...good times.

Ok. I'm clearly at work right now and not working. Back to Nielsen numbers. :(

Holed Up in the Apt.

Hello All!

Currently it is -9 degrees here! And the windchill (which I actually don't believe in and think is stupid) is -32 degrees. Yes, that's correct. I don't want to hear any complaining about cold winter weather.

Nothing much is new with me. I work a lot. I order Barbie dolls...yes, laugh it up. Leslie is ordering millions of dollars of Barbie dolls. I cannot even begin to make social commentary about this situation.

I miss all of you terribly. Nothing compares...lalala (Sinead O'Connor style)

AA

we're gonna be there from the 8th - 11th:)

the duce

when are you guys goin to ann arbor? please tell me it is not next weekend, but the weekend after. let me know... haha im kinda free over here (except superbowl weekend).

...and to add to the excitement

so wow, it seems like everyone has been having crazy weeks...so i felt that i needed to keep up wit everyone and explain my craziness.

this past week at work was extremely long. Thursday i didn't get out until MIDNIGHT. that was just gross. fortunetly with the long hours, i have also received a lot of positive feedback, and at least the week, atlhough long, goes by extremely fast! hopefully this week will be a little less hectic though.

also, to change up my life a lil bit...update on blake. so, i can't remember what all i've told everyone but basically, blake went to china last week. essentially...a wealthy family over there with a large amount of land in Shanghai wants to develop 2 hotels, a mall, and an office building. so they had heard about blake through a friend of a friend of a friend, and had a conference call wit him. they liked what they heard, flew him out the next week and at the end of it, offered him a job. this week he found out more details about it and it turns out they want him to be the project leader for the design and concept of the 2 hotels' interiors (the exterior of the hotel was already designed by the architects who have desinged the freedom tower which will replace the twin towers here in new york). p.s. for someone of his age, to be able to do this, is unbelievable...it could def launch his career so obvi i'm redic proud of him. HOWEVER, this means that blake might be moving to china in a short while. wah wah. and it would prolly be till 2011. so everything is up in the air right now to as what will happen, but at the pace everything has happened thus far, it seems we're talking soon. will obviously keep u updated.

speaking of that job, blake and i went to boston this weekend to see the intercontinental hotel (its the main hotel the family is thinking of collaberating with). so that was fun...my first time in boston. got to see elise again, which was hilarious since we JUST saw each other the weekend before! we def went to a dorm party (haha, thanks elise:)) and then went to a house party with my other friend meaghan.

so yeah, that's where my life is right now. i hope everyone has good weeks this week:) see u all at the brown jug soon!

Hello friends.

This weekend Steve's friends hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner Night and it was AWESOME. There were 8 of us and we all had to come dressed as our characters. I was a reporter named "Scoop" and Justin was a golf player named "Eddie." Steve was a gambler and his boyfriend had to come dressed as a woman...."Slinky" It was really fun and we all got really drunk and had a great dinner.

I also went to Spanish class. Hola! Me gusta espanol! Muy bueno.

Today Justin got a tattoo. It was just like watching Miami Ink. It looked like it hurt, but I secretly enjoyed it. It's so crazy. He permanently stained his skin. No tats for me tho. I'm too much of a baby.

Hm. That's all I got.

My goodness...

There has been a lot going on in everyone's lives!! Gosh... okay.

Mark - sorry to hear about Kerry, however let's be honest - I have never met her - but I know she probably isn't as great as you anyways. :sidenote: I love your pics from new years

Amy - I am glad that you have figured this out now versus later on in life, and you sound happy about it- so that is good. Life is too short to waste your time doing something b/c everyone thinks you should be doing it, or b/c it conforms to some sort of society ideal, blah blah. Basically - I am sure you will find your passion and you ARE only 22 so no worries!! (this also means you are allowed to be confused about Ryan, it happens)

Lofo - I too greatly enjoy cheese. Teach me your ways.

Erin - hahahaha. I freaking love that story. It was funny that night I noticed you were going to see a band at the "Mean Fiddler" from your away msg, and I thought - wow that will probably be pretty fun. Little did I know...

Devesh - sounds like you are enjoying yourself, even though the music may not be up to par. I have a feeling you are imparting some of your music education for the good of the rest of the world.

What is going on w/ the rest of you!? Elise came to visit Nick, Erin and I last weekend, so that was fun. I pretty much showed her some dive bars and dissected/dead bodies (the bodies exhibit, i'm not THAT creepy). Yeah... hmm, i will try harder next time. however - don't let this deter you from coming to visit us!!

I know I promised to be crazy and have fun stories (I am working on it), but really what could top Erin's right now? And why am I never there the nights she makes out w/ bartendars and gets into fights? She's always so freaking proper when we go out!!!

I learn nothing about the makings of cheese at my job. But it is fun, I like my team I work with even though it can be high stress at time. [imagine me running up and down the floor like a crazy person trying to finish books for a meeting while doing 20 other ridiculous things that clients think they want. rich ppl are needy, geez]. Trading is pretty cool though, and i went to my first client dinner this week, so that was a good time!

Okay wow this is long. I will stop rambling now and just close with this. Nick and I are coming to AA the weekend of Feb 9th (i think that's the date) soooo... if other people would possibly want to be in Ann Arbor that very weekend they should probably come.

<3 Maria

All right. Fine.

Having drank enough, here I am. I'm Mark. Kerry broke up with me on Saturday and well, life isn't the best right now. Amy has found her passion. Or at least has ventured out on what may be the beginning of hers. I haven't. I wish the best for all of you because I think the best of all of you. I had a good group of friends over and they're amazing. Yet. They don't hold a candle to all of you. Please. Have fun.

Quarter life crisis at 22

ok guys so... you may no longer know me as Amy, law student. I am un-enrolling today! I have no problem working hard, and it is not an issue of grades b/c i did fine last semester... it all has to do with the fact that i do not want to HATE what im doing for the rest of my life. You may ask, why did i even go to law school? And i may answer: i have no fucking clue! i guess the appeal of a scholarship and haveing a plan for the rest of my life was too enticeing to turn down, so much that I overlooked the fact that I am not interested in the law whatso ever. This decision came about once i returned back to school this week, i felt suffocated. I started crying all the time (again.... i did this a lot last semester and wanted to drop out in the middle of the semester, but the prosect of being a quitter was not appealing), and started to go back into the stressed, bitchy, depressed version of myself, not a good way to be. I know i have made the right decision, and im only out a $4000 loan...not bad(b/c of the scholarship).

Now, your question may be, what now?? that is what i am looking into. I have been researching being a speech therapist in a school which requires a 2 year masters plus an additional 1 year of undergrad courses either taken in conjunction with the masters or before you begin it. I am taking the GRE next week (yea i know, I'm crazy) and figuring out my options. Who knows i might spend the summer making money in mexico, or i might have to move back home, or i might start taking art classes and become a bartender while taking those undergrad classes next year, but i will NOT be taking law school classes THANK GOD. I am not meant to be a lawyer and i am quitting that law clerk job today (after only workign for 5 hours).

If feel liberated, a new year, a new me. Who says you have to know everything at 22? i certainly do not, but one thing i do know--> being a lawyer is not for me (and if i ever change my mind with in the next 2 years i can enroll w/o reapplying and get my scholarship back).

As far as ryan goes... whole nother story. Now that we are "on a break" b/c of the distance, we are talking much more and he is coming superbowl weekend/our one year... what can i say i wanna see him and i know i will have a great time when he's here :).... ahhh first loves

WOW long message, but jam packed. btw... erin i LOVE your story and laughed out loud in front of my computer (dont u love when that happens?). And Lo never knew there was so much to know about cheese...mmm i like cheese.

Erin McGrath is My Hero

I love that story. Love love love that story. I didn't love when she called me at 3:30am and I had to wake up at 6:30...but now knowing that a phone call to her parents soon followed I forgive her.

Today I made cheese. Cheddar and mozzarella. Ok, technically I didn't make the cheese...but the R&D scientists let volunteers help at various points of the process. My contribution was cutting the thickening fluids into curd cubes. Awesome. I know so much about cheese now. We spent THE ENTIRE DAY learning about natural cheese. I can tell you what sort of cultures you use to make different sorts of cheese. I can tell you how to be a good "cheese tester." Or I can tell you how many gallons of milk it takes to make 1lb of cheese. 10 gallons. Yes. 10% yield.

And get this. After cheese is made and has been sitting around for 45 days "aging" it needs to be checked to see what grade it is. (Because as we all know, not all cheese is created equal). Depending on the grade of the cheese (sharpness, firmness, texture, etc.) we decide if we'll make it Kraft branded or Cracker Barrel branded, along with what sharpness level it should eventually be. WELL. The person who does this has to be an expert cheese grader...like it takes more than 10 years to be even remotely good at this. We have ONE GUY who does all the grading for Kraft. ONE. His name is Marv. HOW INSANE IS THAT?? Do you know that we sold 250 million lbs of cheese last year? And that's just on the brands I work on...Shreds, Chunks and Crumbles. Marv's an important (and busy) guy.

So. If you have any questions about cheese...shoot 'em my way.

Why I Should Never Drink....But Will Continue To Do So

So i just thought that i would recount for you my night last night...

so i just recently reconnected with an old friend from high school that went to NYU and now lives and works out here. He's cool, we used to be pretty good friends back in the day. anyway, he asked me if i wanted to go and see his band play at this bar called The Mean Fiddler (awesome name for a bar...) last night. So i went and i had a couple of beers during the show, nothing big. So at some point after the show Steve (thats his name) says that we should get dinner and i'm like "yeah totally" to which he replies "it could be like a date"...and i think he's joking so i roll my eyes and say "totes!". after he keeps talking about our "date" i realize that he WASN'T joking and awkward erin kicks in full gear. so we are all hanging out and i'm still drinking and i tell steve that i'm kind of dating someone. i also start hitting on the bartender cause he's hot and i'm drunk.

things get a little fuzzy around this time...i remember getting into a fight (like yelling!) with steve about me being a bitch which i'm sure i was being. i also remember making out with the bartender downstairs. i don't even feel guilty about that part-it was fun. so this morning i wake up not having any idea how i got home and i don't have my credit card. awesome. thankfully, i found it along with "Alan's" number (the bartender i guess)....i might call.

my mom also called me today and said "is there a reason that you called us at 4:30am last night?" ....and so i thought fast and said, "oh i must haved called by mistake" thinking that she had just seen it on the caller id. nope. my mom- "well you talked to dad...." yikes. i then looked at my outgoing calls log and realized that i had in fact called half of the people in my phone book at 5am. i'm a mess.

i love you all. sorry this was so long.

since Nick yelled at me for being a bad blogger...

First of all, I just want to preface this w/the fact that it is not my fault I have not been blogging. I blame it entirely on the google/blog password strength-ometer. It told me my password was weak, so I, not wanting to be weak password girl/the weakest link in our blog group, thought up a very strong password...which I then proceeded to forget. Secondly, I also loooove Devesh's post, partially due to the horrible pop music, but really, mostly because of the Greek food taking over the world (nummy nummy nummy)

As for my recent life, I had exams AFTER Christmas break (I swear, the law school looks for ways to make the experience as unpleasant as possible). Then I was off for 5 glorious days of beaching and tropical drinks in Puerto Rico and then NYC to visit Maria, Nick, Deborah, and Erin. I decided NYC is great because of the food at all hours of the day (seriously have you forgotten me entirely) and because you can brunch with unlimited mimosas, something I sincerely doubt Boston's puritan founders would approve of. And now, the 1st week of a new semester, hopefully w/some more fun that will of course be documented in all its glory on the facebook.

My address: 7222 HLS Holmes Mail Center
18 Everett St.
Cambridge, MA 02138

400 W. 37th st
Apt 4X (yep, that's right, X...how great is that!)
New York, NY 10018

nothing too new over here. today i learned how to sew a button. I don't know what's more sad...the fact that i just NOW learned how to sew a button or that it was the excitement of my day.

929 W. fletcher
Chicago, IL 60657

not looking forward to starting a new semester tomorrow... and starting a new job. peace see you guys in may.

mine is....
462 W. 51st St.
Apt 3F
New York, NY 10019

...but don't get too attached to it. it will change again at the end of march.

Address

Maria made a good point. Everyone should post their address on here.

Mine:

3600 N Lake Shore Dr
Apt 715
Chicago, IL 60613

so last night, I hung out with a bunch of ex-pats (apparently, that's what you call a bunch of americans in india...) and one indian work-mate. we went to a greek restaurant in the delhi ghetto. it was called "it's greek to me" (ha!, better still was the fact that the e's were the greek letter sigma...).anyhow, I walked in expecting a shit-hole, but apparently it one of those places that only people "in the know" know about, so everyone was really beautiful and all dressed up...

and, apparently the top floor of this place (which isn't really a floor, but just the roof) is a club... and being a club in india, they were playing really bad american music all night long. i swear to god, i heard, in a row: "i saw the sign" by ace of base, "that thing you do" from the movie of the same name, "my humps," and then "sweet home alabama."

moral of the story: we really need to keep tabs on the pop culture we export as a country.

I will now be posting personal notes with smiley faces to indicate inflection...

lo: i've really enjoyed your blogging intensity - it makes me feel like I never left Chicago :-)
but of course, I have :-(

mark: if it makes you feel better, i totally watched the video about your digital signage, and I found it fascinating (yes, me = huge nerd) :-P

amy: sorry to hear about ryan :-(
drinks on me when i get back! :-D

nick: I went to the movies yesterday and spent 200 bucks for my ticket, snacks, a drink... but the thing is they call rupees bucks here, so that was like 4 dollars. and it a 3 hour movie in hindi (which I don't speak) :-/

finally, in an effort to make the blog even more interactive, here's a challenge: name your top 5 favorite bar songs...

Svetlana is Annoying.

...that'd be me referring to Svetlana on the RW/RR Challenge.

I don't feel like using full paragraphs so I will do bullet points.

• Sorry Amy about you and Ryan. We'll talk soon.
• My mom will be in town this weekend. That means a lot of shopping.
• I start taking spanish classes this week. Hola.
• Next week I will learn to make cheese at work. That's right. I heart Kraft.
• I think I'm coming to NYC the 2nd weekend of April. No one go out of town.
• I've been playing Scrabble a lot lately. (Justin thinks "eduly" is a word.)
• Today at work I got to go to a JA (Junior Achievement - volunteering) appreciation event at the headquarters building. And guess what? I got to take a picture with our CEO, Irene Rosenfeld. She's like...one of the most important women in business right now. I stammered "Hi I'm Lauren Foukes. I'm in marketing. NATURAL CHEESE!" Here's how important she is.
  
• Mark I think your Cisco page looks beautiful. You are such a good little worker.
• Tomorrow is "Bear Down, Chicago Bears" day at Kraft...again. I get to wear jeans and my favorite Bears apparel. And on my train...there is a large "Go Bears" sign attached to it. This city loves it's sports.

That is all.

awwww, sorry amy! that's no fun at all. but can we just take a second and note that out of ALLLL our friends, you would def be the only one who would find a law firm slash new rap recording company to work at. so random.

fun news over here. Kyle and I are gonna live together next year!!! Now, ppl should be both excited slash nervous. Kyle and I living together may or may not cause me to lose my job, but hey, at least it'll be fun:)

just got home. this week at work has been hell and it pinnacled today. I don't understand how a day can go by so fast when u put in 14 hours! oh well, its over now and only one more day til the weekend. Elise is coming into NYC this weekend (which you would know if she EVER blogged) for Maria's bday!!! Supes excited for that:)

Aight, gonna run right quick, and then go to bed. yep thats right, i'm gonna spend my 1 hour of free time running and then showering and then go to bed. thursday nights just aren't what they used to be...

On a happier note i got a job today! Im a law clerk at a small firm in chicago where there are only 3 lawyers who are all under 35 and all went to my law school. They are very casual, so much as to swear in the interview and wear jeans to the office. They even said they are starting a recording company on the side and just signed their first rapper. This is gonna be a fun job! part time in the school year and full time in the summer. yay! something to get my mind off of our breakup.

ryan and i are trying it single... 2 weeks before our one year. my life rocks right about now...

Hello Everyone!

Hi Guys! It is so great to hear that all of your lives are going so well. Its been a while! I am, unfortunately, stuck here in boring old Michigan for about six more months. I have sent out my applications for graduate school and am now anxiously awaiting responses. If everyone would be so kind as to keep their fingers crosses, it would be greatly appreciated. Well, my update isn't very exciting, no celeb sightings, no recent trips to Chi town, but it is posted with love to all of you.

A Nice Little Tuesday

Hi friends!

well, it finally got cold in new york....i, however, and still not convinced that it will last. I predict that it will be back in the 60's by next week. Totes.

I went and saw the new Rocky movie before work today. First of all, let me say that going to the movies is quite the experience in manhattan because not only is it $12 a pop, but you also have to go up SIX floors to get to the theatre. I felt like i was on the escalator that wouldn't end. But anyway, decent movie i must say. ( i will admit that i mostly went and saw it because milo ventimiglia was in it...Gilmore Girls? Anyone? Lo?) but i really did enjoy it. I am such a freakin sucker for romantic comedies and sports dramas.

my new roomie finally moved in. he's cool. or has been for the last two days.

Go Bears!

I love 24. did anyone else see jack bauer bite that dudes neck??

Celebrity Sitings this Week: Heather Graham came into my restaurant on sunday. Adrian Grenier and I had a pretty intense moment on the subway. he totally wants me.

You now know everything about my life. :)

Polishing Shoes

So after polishing my shoes (they needed it) here, I realized I maybe do in fact have time to post. And this blog is all about the big important things in our lives, right?

Biggest thing in my life: Cisco's Digital Signage launched today.

This is what I've been working on for the past 2 months. It's up as the top news story on Cisco.com (for right now) or directly, here. The cool little demo video is here under featured videos.

For what's visible for you guys, I helped with the writing on the pages and downloadable stuff.

(Sidenote: Now, if you think it's not that cool - do not say so. I got a less than lackluster response from someone else and I'm still not happy.)

Happy Tuesday everyone.

hey kids!
miss ya all. On friday nick, lo, B-ro, lindsey (lo's friend from high school), steve, and others went to tequilaroad house for an hour of free drinks... and as written before: nick didnt drink! craziness. We went back to steve's place to continue the drinking madness and played drinko w/ racial slurs. B-ro was yellow, Lo was black, and I was green... for hispanic? haha. But i think my body is givin me a sign: no more drinking 6 drinks in one hour! the next day i went downtown w/ lo and nick to meet up w/ blake, and soon enough i had to take a cab home. I had a fever of 102!! yea... soooo this is me, on my couch, reporting live from chi-town.
-amy

p.s. top THAT bitches;)

Hey all,

NiLo's here, reporting from the Windy City itself...chicago!!! Lo just met Blake (she LOVES him...and blake loves Lo (she told me to write that))...but it's true.

Lo has gotten me back on the drinking horse...it had been since wednesday night and to somewhat legitimize it, i suffered from food poisoning and lost 7 pounds...YAY FOR SKINNY PPL!!!

I...Lo...am very happy that Nick is drinking again. Last night I...Lo...got wasted and Nick was SOBER. First time that has ever happened in my lifetime. Ever.

Highlights of today:
-Lo said that the tie Jourdan got Nick looked like semen swimming on his chest. In the Burberry store. Classy.
-Blake insulted Justin by asking him if he grew up on a farm because Justin eats too fast.
-Blake still drinks from a sippy cup.
-Blake's mom bought a deep frier for Blake's sister's black friend and proceeded to make deep fried chicken...with gritz...and cheesecake:)
-Speaking of Black people....Megan yelled out "N is for Black!!" last night. and then felt bad she was racist.
-As we have reunited we have discovered we are as, if not more, conceited than ever.

The end.

Hope all is well and don't be strangers to this fabulous blog!

Just cuz I still love it:

Dick in a Box

Tired of Waiting on Mark

Dear Mark.

Post your New Year's pictures since you have nothing to do. That is a direct order.

Love,
Lo

Commencement

Stop with this 1/4 life crisis. We all know with the random acts we do while drinking, it's quite possible we're at least up to 1/3. Cuts and bruises don't lie.

Being Friday and such, I placed all my deadlines at 10 am. I watched some of them go by only to catch up by noon. Now I really have nada to do for the rest of the afternoon and with Monday officially a holiday here (although I'll work a little), I checked my mail. For the 10th time.

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=3058

What the Hell? While our speaker was good, this is who I've wanted since he got lucky and had to admit it. Ok, so beyond that, I'm a big fan.

To actually make this more of a post to tell you all how life is... This week I tried a hard cider. Eh.

Hi friends!!! I do love this blog idea - so fun, Lo and Mark - good job!! I bet this would get an A in BIT... or an F depending on the random scheme of grading that would be used by our crazy prof who refused to read emails...(okay maybe only Lizbo follows me on that one)

I agree I did relish in that OSU loss, but I was still a little sad for our big ten failures this bowl season. I say WHEN we make it next year - let's all go.

Missed the half of you at New Years that I didn't see!!! Happy belated New Years! From facebook stalking it looks like everyone had a great time, but we should def plan a reunion for next year.

NYC has been great so far - can you believe it has been half a year since we've started this wholë "real world" thing? scary. ew, nick started this with his 1/4 life crisis comment.

Anyhow - it is ridiculously late for my boring self - but can't wait to read the fantastic stories/life updates from everyone on this soon! I promise to try and go out, be crazy and have ridiculous stories for the sole purpose of blogging it :-)

I also agree wit lo...LOVED that Florida victory! espec b/c of all the stupid ohio state fans who were wearing red on monday. mwahaha, indeed.

in other news, i'm going to chicago to see lo this weekend, yay! and she's gets to meet blake, which is quite exciting (p.s. blake is my bf, if u hadn't heard...apparently liz was in that boat and i realized i hadn't talked to some of you in FOREVER...woooops) but yeah, 3 months...look at me being in a "long-term" relationship and all. beat my record of 3 weeks a LONG time ago (excluding the one girl i dated of course...we know that one didn't REALLY count). supes excited for the weekend though...we'll see if my tolerance can stand the test of chicago!

well it's 10:15 and that's clearly past my bedtime. p.s. has anyone else had like a 1st quarter life crisis lately, cause i sure did when i realized i was going to bed earlier than i use to start homework, and going to work earlier than i use to get home from a night of drinking after doing that "homework". 40 more years of work, here we come!

i completely agree with you lo. i mean, i'm all for big ten loyalty, but defeated buckeyes totally trumps that.

in other news, the lady that plays Magda (Miranda's housekeeper/nanny) on Sex and the City came into my restaurant last night. Famous? Maybe. Most exciting part of my day? Definitely.

Call me a bitch...but I LOVED watching the National Championship game tonight and seeing all those sad Buckeyes. I took some sort of sick satisfaction in my sad Wolverine heart to see them feeling like we did. Mwahaha.

India + Other musings

Hey! So first of all, great idea Mark. I totally love not being the biggest nerd in a group. Second, I totally feel short-changed on not being in the "group" picture... someone photoshop me in? Third, it is 4:32AM here in Delhi, and I am totally fucked for the rest of my day because of this damn jet-lag. (Wait, are we allowed to swear? fuck... oops).

Mark: as far as wine suggestions, I have two. One is super cheap, the other moderately priced. Both are Cabernet Sauvignon (a sweeter red, good for drinking on its own or with a good steak). The first is Ravenswood Vinter's Blend ($6-10/bottle). The second is (no joke) Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon ($20-25/bottle). I totally did buy a bottle as a a joke because of CSIB, but I really liked it. Rated pretty highly (90/100) too for a cheaper bottle.

A friend of mine told me about this website: Top 10 Rated Red Wines under $20

Everyone else: So I am in India for the next two months on a project. It's pretty exciting actually. I am working on a non-profit project trying to increase poor farmer productivity in rural India. I was walking around yesterday, and it's like 50 degrees... but everyone is wearing heavy winter coats. I was dying of laughter.

Super-excited about this blog! New year's pics anyone?!

The Diag

As I sit here at work and see the sun outside, I wonder why there are not more Diags in the world. It's 70 degrees out. Why is it not "proper" anymore to ditch everything I'm doing and go out and throw a Frisbee for a couple hours? Was it ever?

Also, suggestions for good wines are welcome (what do they taste like?). I'm in the process of stocking up in case California ever drops off into the ocean and I suddenly need bottles to send messages in...

Hello everyone!!

Very weird blogging when it isn't for a grade!

I will have to make sure and get some quality Brown Jug pictures so you can all still feel as if you are there!! I miss you all very much...but it is very fun seeing you when you stop by AA for a quick visit...BoyAaron and my apartment is always open for crashers - just ask Erin/Nick/Martar about the hospitality!!

hail.
Liz

fun stuff! well done mark

A little clip from New Year's....

Oooh, i've always wanted a blog to call my own. Best Chrismakkah present ever!

Whooo!

Super Fun! Facebook has really been letting me down lately, i need this! I must admit that this took an embarrassingly long time for me to figure out....but i'll keep working on it!

love,
eeeeeeerin

This is fun and dorky (kind of like Mark). I'm anxiously awaiting everyone's New Year's pictures. Let's get 'em up kids!

I'm gonna have to agree wit Lo. This is an AMAZING idea. silly us for not thinking of it earlier:) miss everyone!

I am very happy that Mark has set up this new blog.