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.