The End of Summer 2011

Greetings world! It's been quite a while since I last blogged and many things have happened in my life. First of all, my (three!) summer jobs ended. After working close to every day of the week this summer, I was more than happy for my work commitments to end and spend my last week or two with my family and friends before I headed back to school. Here's a quick re-cap of my last week home before I headed back to Saint Michael's on August 27th...

My last week home was by far my busiest week of the summer! On August 23rd and 24th I went to Rhode Island with my mom and sisters, Erin and Allison, so Erin could visit Providence College and Roger Williams University. We also were able to squeeze in a quick trip to the Providence Place Mall to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (NOM NOM NOM) after our tour on Tuesday and the Roger Williams Zoo on Wednesday before our drive back home. Due to conflicts between my mom's work schedule and mine, I wasn't able to go on any trips with my family this summer so it was great to finally be able to spend some quality time with my family (minus Dad unfortunately)! It was a great bonding experience and just thinking about it makes me realize how much I miss my family while I'm at school.

Left to right: Allison, Mommy, and Erin in downtown Providence!

Red Velvet Cheesecake - aka heaven on earth!

Me looking out into Mt. Hope Bay at Roger Williams University

On August 25th, the day after returning home from our Rhode Island trip, my whole family (Mom, Dad, Erin, Allison and I) drove down to the Bronx in New York City to see a Yankee-Oakland A's game! The whole car ride down our small red car was pelted with rain drops so we were afraid our five hour drive would be in vain. Fortunately though, the rain stopped and the sun came out just as the hour and a half rain delay ended and the stadium staff started prepping the field for the game. And it turned out to be an excellent game! The Yankees came from behind to beat the A's 22-9 and made history when the team hit three grand slams! Congratulations to Robinson Cano, Russell Martin, and Curtis Granderson! 

Again, it was fantastic to spend quality time with my family, especially doing something we love: watching the New York Yankees win at Yankee Stadium!

The field - there was an hour and a half rain delay

Left to right: Allison, Dad, Erin, and Momma

Allison and "Fur-Ball" - they were handing out stuffed animals at the game

Allison and I

Yankee Stadium!

My last day at home for the summer I spend with my UN girls: Alyssa, Liz, Melissa, and Morgan. It had been a great summer so we wanted to go out big. And what could be bigger than dressing up, packing a picnic, and attending the horse races in Saratoga?! I had never been to the races before or even gambled, so I was really excited to try something new.

From left to right: Alyssa, Melissa, Liz, Morgan and I at Saratoga Raceway!

My lovely friends watching the track

We had a really fun day watching the horses and making $2, $3, and $4 bets. We all ended up winning a little money (or winning back our own money I should say), though Liz won the most... $76.00 on her last race by winning the Trifecta! (For those readers who have never bet on horses before, a Trifecta is a bet in which the person betting forecasts the first three finishers in a race in the correct order.) We knew she won some money but we were utterly astonished when the clerk put Liz's ticket through the machine and it announced her winnings. All five of us screamed and cheered which the clerks thought was pretty hysterical. 

Lizzy, the big winner!

Since Liz is such an awesome friend, she treated the five of us to cheesecake with her winnings! It was very delicious and a sweet end to a terrific summer.

I'm not back at my second home, SMC, and after writing this post and reminiscing about my last week home this summer, I definitely feel more than a little home/summer sick. On a positive note however, now whenever I feel a little homesick I can read this post and think about what an amazing summer I had! Hopefully that will keep me motivated to stay focused in my classes at school because the less time I'm thinking about home, the less sad I'll feel, the faster the days will go and the closer I'll come to my next break home where I'll be reunited with my amazing group of friends and loving family! :)

A Weekend with Taylor!

This weekend one of my great friends and future suite-mates (20 days!), Taylor, came to spend the weekend with me. I hadn't seen her in person since we parted ways for summer vacation in May, so I was really excited to see her again before school started up again and introduce her to my friends and family.

Taylor arrived Friday afternoon from Connecticut armed with fresh bread from the Vermont Deli in Brattleboro (YUM!) and a moose-shaped dog cookie for my dog, Luke (needless to say, Luke decided that Taylor is his new best friend :)  Following a quick tour of my house, we had dinner on my front porch with my parents, sister Allison, and Grandma Barbara. After dinner my other grandparents, Granny and Pa, showed up so I got to introduce Taylor to them as well. We then took my dad's car (a black VW bug - Taylor had never ridden in one before!) over to my friend Emily's house for a fire and some s'mores. Here I introduced Taylor to my other friends Melissa, Morgan, John, Kat, Liz, her boyfriend Jared, and Emily's brother Grady. We had a fun evening gossiping and eating yummy treats! On Saturday, Taylor and I lounged around the house for most of the day reading our books and magazines, and watching tv with Allison. After we showered and dressed and grabbed some lunch, the three of us (Taylor, Allison, and I) decided to play the game of LIFE! We had a lot of fun and Taylor soundly beat Allison and I.  

(Me) Reading the directions.

Taylor and Allison

LIFE

After our game, we watched Dance Moms while helping my mom prepare dinner (Dance Moms is crazy! Watching that show makes me really appreciate how sane my parents are...). Mom made a vegetarian taco ring, which was simply delicious, and we followed with brownies Allison and I made for desert - YUM! Taylor and I had originally planned to go to Pond Hill Ranch in Castleton after dinner for Wild Cow Milking night, but the weather didn't look too promising so we decided to stay home and watch 17 Again with Zac Efron which turned out to be really good!

Zac Efron in 17 Again ;)

Sunday morning after another delicious meal by mom of scrambled eggs, bacon, and watermelon, Taylor and I parted ways. I hope she had a great weekend in Vermont with my family... I sure had a great time with her!  

Taylor and I Sunday morning before we parted ways.

All in all, I'd say we had a fun weekend :)

Songs of Summer

Today as I was pre-cooking tonight's dinner for my family (Florentine Shells and Garlic bread... NOM NOM NOM) and listening to my iPod, I started thinking about how each of my summers has it's own unique soundtrack. My friends and I always listen to music together, be it at a bonfire, a sleepover, or just cruising around in one of our cars, and each summer I can remember there were always one or two (or three or four) songs blasted and put on repeat (and sometime acted out in our own sort of interpretative dance...). So here's a tentative list of the songs I can hear as the soundtrack of my summers:


2007
The Great Escape - Boys like Girls
We'll scream loud at the top of our lungs
And they'll think it's just cause we're young
And we'll feel so alive

2008

Keasbey Nights - Streetlight Manifesto
Dear Sergio - Streetlight Manifesto 
Thunder - Boys like Girls
Your voice was the soundtrack of my summer
Do you know you're unlike any other?

Lake Bomoseen - the backdrop to my summers

The Slate Quarry

2009
I Gotta Feelin' - the Black Eyed Peas
I feel stressed out
I wanna let it go
Lets go way out spaced out
And loosing all control
Weightless - All Time Low

Clockwise: Me, Liz, Alyssa

Fourth of July!
Me, Sam, Liz, and Alyssa

Me, Sam, Alyssa, and Liz... plus our hand puppets :)

2010
Hey Soul Sister - Train (For the record, ERIC RAMEY and KYLE WILSON are guilty of making this the only song on my "summer soundtrack" that has negative conotations as it was way over played...)
Airplanes - BOB feat. Hayley Williams and Eminem (Okay, I lied. This one we made fun of repeatedly...)
Your Love is My Drug - Ke$ha
Alejandro - Lady Gaga
SHOTS - Lil John feat. LMFAO

Liz, me and Alyssa

Alyssa, Chad and I!

2011 (Still under contruction :)
Give Me Everything - Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack, Nayer


**Summer Girls - LFO... an every summer song :)

The United Nations

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words." 

Top: Morgan (CBI);
Middle: Me (USSR), Alyssa (UK);
Bottom: Melissa (Red China), Liz (USA), Emily (Free France)

Having written a previous blog post about my best friend, Alyssa, I was inspired to write another blog post about our group of friends from high school formally known as the "United Nations." 


The United Nations was officially formed on June 12th, 2008. We'd all been friends for a while; Melissa, Morgan, Emily, and Alyssa had gone to school together since kindergarten, Liz since 8th grade. We played on various sports teams together; Liz, Morgan, Emily, and Alyssa all played soccer, Melissa and I ran Cross-country, Liz, Melissa, Morgan, Alyssa, and I all participated in Indoor Track and were joined by Emily for Outdoor Track. The night of June 12th, we were giddy from having come from a party in my barn celebrating the end of the school year (there were boys at the party, too! OH M GEE!), and gathered around my kitchen  table to eat the cheesecake my grandma had made for us. Being the nerds we are, we somehow decided that we needed a group name (I believe we also decided we needed a hierarchy to control Liz... like that ever worked...) and landed on the UN! Each girl choose her own country based on the original UN formed after World War II (we ended up running out of countries so Morgan, being the gracious, unselfish being she is, ended up with a war front, not an actual country). Each country was supposed to represent something about ourselves. Since Liz's dad is in the Army she immediately stole USA (which is ironic because she wasn't even born in the United States...). Alyssa scooped up second-in-command the United Kingdom, Emily took Free France while Melissa was told she was Red China and I was assigned the Soviet Union. Not being able to think of any other countries, Morgan was assigned CBI. And from that moment on, we weren't merely six best friends but a single entity. No one referred to us by our first names anymore in school and it was always assumed that if one girl was invited to a party, the rest of the girls would also be in attendance.


Together the UN accomplished many great things: we helped win the Vermont Div II Outdoor Track state title four years in a row and were "Runners Up" to Essex four years in a row in Indoor Track, five of us made the National Honor Society, we were voted "Best Friends" in our high school yearbook (contrary to popular belief, though I was editor I DID NOT mess with the votes), and just helped make our high school a better place in general. I would even go so far as to say we were some of the most involved people in our class, if not the most involved. Sure, we had our struggles, fights, and hard times, but we made it through together and supported each other every step of  the way.

Graduation 2010 - We did it!

College Road Trip!
(I saw this in another blog and was inspired to create my own!)

Now that we're in college, things have become a little bit more difficult. We're separated by 400 miles total (I'm the farthest north, Alyssa's the farthest south) with different semester plans (Melissa and Morgan are on the trimester system, the rest of us are on the two semester system), and different vacations schedules and different work schedules (Alyssa is living and working in NYC for the second year in a row). It's been tough going and out friendship is a lot different from how it started three years ago, but I know no matter what happens or where we are in life, these five extraordinary girls will be there for me no matter what, just like I'll always be there for them. <3


THE NATIONS

Name: Elizabeth Nicole Alexander
Nickname: Liz, USA
DOB: August 1
College: Norwich University
Major: Psychology

Name: Alyssa Jean Dempsey
Nickname: Danger, UK
DOB: June 16
College: New York University
Major: Anthropology, Minors: Music Business, Spanish

Name: Emily Jane McIntyre
Nickname: Em, Free France
DOB: November 6
College: West Point
Major: Undecided
Sport: Track and Field - Sprints

Name: Melissa Ellen Childs
Nickname: Missy, LoLo, Red China
DOB: May 30
College: Middlebury College
Major: Undecided
Sport: Track and Field - Pole-vault

Name: Morgan Patricia Childs
Nickname: Mo, CBI
DOB: May 30
College: Middlebury College
Major: Undecided
Sport: Track and Field - Sprints

Name: Megan Mary Irons
Nickname: Margo, Bangs, USSR
DOB: January 1
College: Saint Michael's College
Major: Anthropology/Sociology; Minor: Classics

"Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold"

A Midsummer Afternoon's Dream

It was the good hair day that should have tipped her off. Alyssa's hair, normally thin and a little flat from sleeping on it while it was still wet, was voluminous and  fell perfectly around her oval-shaped face. She attributed the awesome hair to the fact that it was freshly cut, layered with the edges razored... very edgy if she did say so herself. She put on her cutest dress (with pockets), pairing it with a necklace made from a pocket watch she had bought at a yard sale last summer. She was in a particularly good mood because her boyfriend, David Atkins - guitarist and singer for the pop-punk band Morning Comes Early - was coming by train to visit her in NYC.

Not wanting to be late in picking David up, Alyssa left her apartment early to begin her walk to Grand Central Station. As she passed the local cyber cafe, Adam Cecil, one of her best friends since forever and fellow NYU alumni fell into step with her.

"Hey," he said casually.

"Hey," she said back.

"I hear David's coming today."

"Yup."

"Cool."

They continued their walk in silence until they reached the train station.

"What platform are we meeting him on," asked Adam.

Alyssa didn't question Adam's "we." Adam and David had also been best friends forever and she knew Adam missed hanging out with him. "9 and 3/4."

"Seriously?!"

"I wish. 10."

Just as David's train pulled into the station, Alyssa's cell phone went off.

(http://audiko.net/ringtone/Kim+Possible/kim+possible?ring=14632439#play)

"What's the sitch?"

"ALYSSA? ALYSSA?" Kyle Wilson had never quite mastered the use of a cell phone, so he thought he had to shout to be heard.

"Coach, COACH! Stop yelling! What's up?"

"I have a mission for you. Liz Alexander has stolen Brosidon's shell necklace and with his powers is threatening to turn NYC into the next Atlantis! You've got to stop her!"

"I'm on it, Coach." She snapped her Envy 2 shut (she still hasn't gotten a smart phone yet) just as David approached.

"I can tell by that look on your face that something is up," he said, as he pulled her into a hug.

"Not much... Coach just called... Liz is trying to take over the world... AGAIN."

David chuckled. "When will she ever learn? This sounds like it's going to involve costumes and  flying unicorns... LET'S GO!"

*****

By the time they were able to round up some awesome costumes from a vintage store on Broadway and summon the flying unicorns from their home on the top of the Empire State Building, waves of water had already begun making their way through the streets downtown. Merciless laughter echoed through the streets as the waves grew bigger and bigger. Hopping on the back of her flying unicorn Jack, Alyssa, followed closely by Adam and David on their unicorns, urged Jack on in the direction of the laughter. Reaching the ocean in the amount of time it would take an Olympic Athlete to run 100 meters, the trio of friends spotted Liz before she saw them.

"BLERGHHHHHH!!! I'm Liz and you can't stop me!!!" She shrieked as soon as she glimpsed the unicorns, "I HAVE THE POWER OF BROSIDON!!!"

"Quick!" Screamed Alyssa to her companions, "Distract her!"

The trio bombarded Liz with Cosmopolitan magazines, men with muscular (fat) necks, and double-rainbows.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Screamed Liz, for her friends had prayed upon her weaknesses: sex, men, and you-tube videos. Alyssa went in for Brosidon's necklace for without it Liz would be powerless and shrink back into her normal self. Just as she grabbed the shell necklace, Liz back-handed her, sending Alyssa sailing off of Jack and tumbling straight down into the waves below...

Splash.

Alyssa woke with a start. She sat up from the hot leather seat, realizing she had fallen asleep while tanning in Liz's boat. She looked over the edge in time to see David emerge from beneath the surface of the lake. "I thought you'd never wake up!" he said, climbing aboard and giving her a quick kiss. 

"Yeah, I thought you were dead," said Liz, who was laying out on the back of the boat.

"I wish you were," said Adam as he flew by on a jetski.

"I just had the strangest dream!" Alyssa exclaimed. "I was living in NYC with Adam and you were coming to visit David and I was a super hero and Liz had the power of Brosidon and was trying to flood NYC..."

"I wish..." said Liz as she dove into the lake.

"...And we had to save the day on flying unicorns!"

"Sounds pretty neat," said David, always the supportive boyfriend.

"Hey guys!" Liz yelled as she emerged from the lake, "Look what I found!" She help up a shell necklace.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Alyssa screamed as she jumped off the boat, grabbing the necklace out of Liz's out-stretched hand.

Taylor Virginia Mills

Once upon a time there was a girl named Megan. When Megan reached the tender age of 18, her parents shipped her off to Saint Michael's College to cultivate her mind by means of higher education (and some say to also improve her "value" so she might attract a future husband...). Here she not only grew intellectually, but also socially, meeting some charming women she would soon refer to as her "suities."

One of these girls was named Taylor Virginia Mills. She was vivacious and charming, but also a bit awkward if truth be told. Megan, being a bit awkward herself, felt an immediate bond with Taylor which further grew when she found out they both loved puppies of all colors, shapes, sizes, and species; music (except for Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros); sweets; and dark pigmented men... ahem. Over a little over a semester at college these girls transformed from mere acquaintances into best friends!

Now that they have gone their separate ways for the summer, Megan finds herself missing her good friend (along with her other suities). If only they didn't have 3 hours and 4 minutes of driving and two states separating them! Otherwise they'd be together everyday, all day! Even though they have so much distance dividing them, Megan knows that their friendship will stay strong with frequent texts, letters, Facebook comments, Tweets, and skype dates. Sooner than they know it, August will be here and they will be together again in Potigny 226!

*Let it be known that Megan does not agree with Taylor's frequent switches from omnivore to herbivore (just pick one!), nor her desire to put her dog on a vegetarian diet.