Personalization Preferences

Man, do I love a good alliteration. Anywho, as some of you might be aware. I'm a big kid now. I've got an apartment, soon to be co-habited my a roommate, a carpool, a t.v., and the ever elusive employment. At my lovely new place of paycheck sources, I do not have a cubicle.

What have I then?

I have my very own office (see stance of proud accomplishment). Well, technically, it's not all my own. I have an officemate, Corey who's pretty chill.

Since I do have an office, complete with desk, whiteboard, bulletin board, phone and dual monitors, how should I decorate it? I have a few favorite family photos and Gumby and Pokey currently on my desk. In addition, there is a mug that will never leave since Epic is aiding in fueling my caffeine addiction with free coffee.

I'll post photos soon, but today I forgot my memory card adaptor. Silly Sony Cybershot being all picky and exclusive.

I'm Not Homeless!

This past week marked a momentous occasion and the unloading of a lot of stress and paranoia. Why you may ask? Because I finally got my but in gear and claimed an apartment.

My future roommate, Rose, and I will be living in a new complex within 10 minutes of driving to work. For the first month, I'll be without a car, but I do welcome a 25 minute bike ride to work.



Also, two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a breakfast bar in the kitchen, and a den? For less than $1300 a month? Hells yeah.

I'm excited. Feel free to post decorating ideas!

Weekend in Short

The best remedy to a cold is life. Go out, throw on your best smile, and attack the fresh powder with vigor only matched by the delight of a good hefeweizen.

Adventures into the Unknown

2010-2011 R.P.I. Women's Water Polo Team

As promised in the discussion of my epic weekend, a post dedicated to the RPI Women's Water Polo team. For some brief history with my involvement with the team, my friend Alex has been bugging me to join since sophomore year. I met her through swim club, a mutual friend, and a general love of being covered in chlorine. Sophomore year, I went to one practice. I tried again Junior year and became more accomplished by going to two. Senior year, I promised myself that I would stick with water polo. While I may dabble in many things, once I commit to something, I stick with it 110%. This year, the only practices I have missed have been due to illness or job interviews.

Apparently in previous years, we have not had enough girls on the team to compete on our own. In the fall, the Water Polo Team competed as a whole in a co-ed tournament at West Point. Our team has varying skill levels from hard-core kids who have played for years to some who just picked up the ball for the first time this year. This really adds to the accomplishment that I feel we have as a team. It is a challenge to get individuals to work well as a group; it is even harder if you are starting from scratch.

The chronicle of the tournament started on Saturday. We all met around 8 a.m. at the Union, which is a bit of an accomplishment to begin with since there were birthday parties and the 100 Days' Party the night before. Now, we left on time. It should have taken us around three hours to drive from Troy, NY to Syracuse. That estimate, however, is under normal weather and road conditions. That does not account for 40 mile per hour winds, blizzard white-out conditions, black ice, and the length of three exits being closed on the I-90. Needless to say, our voyage was epic, fitting with an epic weekend.

Heading westbound on the I-90, we had to take a long detour on Route 5 to get to Utica to join up with the highway again. Sometime when I was sleeping (14 hours of sleep for three days is not advisable), all traffic was forced off the I-90. Apparently, coupled with the conditions, a tractor trailer collided with a snowplow on the road. To quote my teammate Anna,

‎"A tractor trailer verses a snow plow?! Who wins? It's like a bear verses a tiger"

Who wins indeed? The answer, my friends, is no one.

With conditions being a death trap, we somehow arrived in Syracuse only to find that it's horrible in the winter. I can understand Portland being unprepared to deal with snow and ice, and subsequently, have horrible road conditions. We don't get either conditions a lot, but Syracuse? Your city is in upstate New York. In the winter. It's not like it hasn't been an established city since 1847 or anything. Apparently, Syracuse does not know how to plow their roads in a timely manner, despite it having some massive hills. Again to quote Anna,

Syracuse: the virgin city. It's never been plowed.

Ah the fair virgin indeed. Our driver, Heather, lives in Buffalo. She's been to the Midwest. I do not question her driving skills whatsoever, so if she can't navigate the roads, I don't really know who can. While attempting to find Syracuse University, we slipped and slid around many roads and somehow did not hit anything. We didn't even hit anything once we found the campus, got lost, and headed down a utility road.

At this point, I would just like to mention the image I have of Syracuse now. There is a spot on their campus, that in the winter, with snow coming down and 30 mph winds, looks exactly like what I picture the aftermath of a nuclear fall out to be.

Due to our late arrival, the game schedule had to be redone, which caused us to end up playing our first two games back to back. That is 56 straight minutes of polo if you don't have a sub. I ended up playing about 50 minutes. Go try sprinting in a pool for that long after being sleep deprived. It's hard. Needless to say, much of the team was exhausted after that ordeal, and the exhaustion resulted in trips into the cold for food, caffeine, and then naps. Never has a concrete bleacher been so comfy.

Our last game on Saturday was at 8 p.m. against Colgate. I can not go into extreme detail about this game since, well I find it difficult to reflect when you are sprinting. I will say that we did win. That was the Women's Water Polo Team's first ever victory and boy did it taste sweet.

Actually, victory tastes more like bread sticks, salad, lasagna and a pomegranate margarita martini. Victory dinner was at the classy establishment of Olive Garden. If I die tomorrow and am fortunate enough to step through the pearly gates of heaven, I hope it's filled bread sticks. I don't think I've eaten that quantity of bread since District's for Swim Team at Jesuit. Despite our team's five-year-old maturity level, our coach was proud, our hearts were happy and our stomachs were very glad most of us wore sweat pants.

Sunday, the second and last day of the tournament, we played our last game against Syracuse. While we lost, it was a very close game. It served a greater goal of team unity and a sense of how to play with one another. In addition, it gave us another excuse to gorge on food, this time at a second breakfast at Denny's. Our ride home was fairly smooth and uneventful, filled with scenic views and loud music from the 90s. An epic end to an epic weekend.

Beginning of an Awesome Weekend

Sorry readers for my absence of postings. This past weekend was hella busy combined with a week jam-packed with academics subsequently resulted in a good deal of time away from the internet. That, and my "e" key still sticks on my laptop's keyboard, which approaches a level of annoyance that is ridiculously hard to stand. Minor grievances aside, the past few days have been awesome.

On Thursday, I was unfortunately late for my first class ever at RPI. Those of you who know me, are aware that I am one of those people, who if I'm late for class, I just won't go. I like to be between five to ten minutes early for class. My tardiness was well worth it though, because on Thursday morning, I received my first job offer! To say I was excited would be an understatement. As a senior, especially in this economy, having a job offer is a huge weight off one's shoulders.

Friday was crazy busy. After the job offer, my productivity completely went AWOL. Attempting to complete procrastinated graduate homework then became a challenge requiring a huge sacrifice of sleep to the integer programming gods. Friday subsequently dragged. I had class from 10-2, purchased groceries, helped friends plan some awesome 80's outfits (proof below), hosted the girl's Water Polo dinner, danced my fishnets off at the 100 Days' party, hit up my two favorite local bars and somehow didn't give in to exhaustion.


Above is myself, Erin, Sarah, Matt and Jason hanging out at Erin and Sarah's before the walk down the hill to the party.
Note: Crimping, hairspray and back-combing is awful to your hair. What were they thinking in the 80's?

On Saturday, I woke up deathly early for the treacherous drive to Syracuse for our first girl's Water Polo tournament. I will post more on that later, but all I can say, is I don't think I've consumed that many bread sticks in a long while. Also, I have no idea why anyone would live in Syracuse, NY. In blizzard conditions, it looks literally like a desolate wasteland after a nuclear fall out.

Stay tuned for the chronicles of Water Polo. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy not having class today and play some more Little Big Planet.

Stay classy readers.

To Those Who I Have Loved and Lost

Over the years that I have been dating, I have been fortunate enough to know and date some awesome guys. I say this due to their own credentials, personality, spunk, and smiles, but also for the lessons they have left with me. Everyone you meet in your life impacts you, and changes you, hopefully for the better, at some point. This is a note of appreciation to those men who helped make me a bit better.

Thank you for,
-Getting me to stop biting my nails and actually use a nail trimmer and/or scissors
-Remembering to brush my teeth before going to bed, that actually inspired me to floss
-Promoting my self esteem for myself
-Forcing me to do things on my own
-A lesson in empathy
-Teaching me to laugh at everything
-Encouraging me to try playing Rock Band even though I am horrible
-Enlightening me to legitimate New York bagels and pizza
-Showing me how great downtown Portland is
-Taking me to the East Side
-Giving me the confidence I thought I'd never gain back in a situation
-Letting me love fully and truly
-Becoming my best friend
-Watching Star Treck with me
-Encouraging all my little doodles
-Lessons in how to get along with roommates
-Forcing me to challenge myself

This list really does not serve much purpose besides a place for publishing a personal reflection, because I am fairly certain only one ex-boyfriend reads my blog with any frequency. Despite this, a lot of my life is fairly public, so it is only fitting to share the thoughts that make me think and appreciate.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

Today in Troy, the students and residents were sprinkled with light snow. While snow, is a fairly regular occerance in Troy, and most of upstate New York for that matter, snow always marks the coming of winter and cold. It is officially cold in Troy. For some though, it is colder than others. I remember back to freshman year at RPI. I was young, naive, and full of doe-eyed wonder and romantics about snow and the cold that accompanies it. Regular snowfall was like chestnuts for me: mythical, something only possible in storybooks. While I am now older, I am still filled with childlike jubilee at the sight of snow, however, something has changed. I am wiser.

Unfortunately, I have to honestly admit that I was one of those kids from the West Coast who froze their silly little heads off freshman year. It took a while, almost all winter, to realize how to layer in order to survive. I purchased my first pair of snow boots on my own and was introduced to "double panting" or the donning of a layer of long underwear under one's jeans. A friend from Texas, Los Angeles and myself learned the hard way that snow is not necessarily that cold, but the winds and Northeast temperatures that accompany it are.

Sophomore year I graduated to the level of winter dress knowledge where I could layer and not over-layer to the point of sweat induced exhaustion. Junior year, I purchased a new wool peacoat and gained tall, tan leather boots as a gift from my Mother. As a senior now, I am proud to say that I can dress for the cold, be stylish to boot, and not even be over-layered. While this might seem like a silly trifle for some, I'm pretty proud to be cutely prancing in the snow and smiling into the bitter winter wind.

Just remember, you can't go wrong with wool and gloves and hats are your best friends.