June 30, 2011 5:15 PM

First 6 months of 2011 – CRAZY YEAR OF CHANGE!!!!

So I got this idea this afternoon – I have done a lot of things this year that are monumental in some way, shape, or form: why not write out a list of it all? Some of this stuff is the first time I have done this, some of it is stuff I’ve done before but still a big event, and some of this is just plain bizarre. They aren’t in any particular order, so just cruise on through the list and be amused. Enjoy! (Oh, and you’ll probably recognize some of these… and maybe be a little ashamed of some of these...)

Got a private tour of the Cleveland Clinic (#1 in Heart Surgery and treatment of heart disease) from one of RIT’s alumni who works there

Sold my car for scrap

Got an award for holding 2 part time jobs, maintaining full time status as a college student, holding more than 2 leadership positions in on-campus groups, and having a high GPA

Went ‘macrobiotic’ for two meals and gave up

Planned an academic trip for 22 students and faculty to Cleveland Ohio

My roommates tried to kill each other (according to the police)

I started and ended a relationship

I went on multiple dates with different people that amounted to nothing

Graduated college

After skipping church for a while, started going again, but didn’t go these past two weeks

Bought a car and paid it off completely

Got a NJ drivers license

Got NY and then NJ plates for my car

Wrecked my car after owning it for just over a month

Went to Wisconsin for an interview, all expenses paid

Went to Rutgers for a career fair having never gone to Rutgers for school (never applied there either)

Fought with one of my best friends for many months, cried a lot, and was finally muscled in to talking to him again (thanks Ann for being brutal with me)

Saw my parents and my brother only twice

Dealt with my coffee addiction (kinda)

Made myself a budget and stuck to it

Moved to New Jersey

Impromptu snow picnic turned into a hike and got people angry with me

Hung out with my favorite waiter outside of his job on multiple occasions

Went to the beach and didn’t swim

Lived on a couch for three days straight two times at two different places

Lived for over a month with a family that wasn’t mine

Hiked a mountain by myself (1500 ft)

Bought car insurance

Fell asleep in someone else’s closet (lol Mike)

Gave in and learned to love onions

Paid off college!

Went to two family reunions that weren’t mine

Weighed myself only once

Got sick from eating too much halvah at once

Didn’t watch the Labyrinth by Jim Henson for 6 months (NO WAY?!?!?!?!?!)

Ran events on campus while I was in class (texting = bad)

Got confronted by a professor for sleeping in class

Had a party that resulted in people throwing beach balls and wads of colored paper around the room

Considered flirting with a cop after a car crash

Planted tomatoes and cucumbers with Ann’s mom

Gave away the bacon couches for free

Boiled potatoes and ate smoked mackerel on one of my best friend’s balcony with our bare hands on the first warm Saturday of the year

Ate two dinners and a brunch at Ann’s cooking school, and they recognized me

Went to a psychic and had my palm read – going to marry a dark haired man with fair skin at light eyes at the age of 25 btw

Finally bid farewell to my stalker as of two years

Drove a friend to the hospital in light snow, having never driven in snow before (technically last year, but still a major event)

Didn’t speak with my sister at all – she occasionally cc-ed me on emails to Mom, and she never responded to my emails, calls, or texts

Went to Cleveland, all expenses paid, for a weekend with my idol – Catherine

Trained three successors – Tony for COSSAB, Stephanie for Honors, Sarah for Comp Learning

Planned a grad party for myself

Planned a party for Catherine that was a HUGE success!

My ex went to the hospital, came home with a new girlfriends, and still remained on of my best friends

After spending an hour on my hair and make-up, I went to an interview that turned out to be a scam

Had two deer walk right up to me (within hand distance with no fences or food)

Was frightened off a trail by a momma and two or three baby bears while I was on a solo hike (couldn’t tell, just ran like hell)

Got over my allergy to cats

Slept on a couch in a house with 12 birds, 1 cat, 1 fish, and 1 mentally handicapped squirrel

Left two jobs for unemployment

Got demoted from supervisor to mere minion

Did free-lance library work

Worked three days straight with only a few breaks no longer than 5 hours each

Kissed a cat

“Kissed the cook”

Kissed a guy in a relationship with someone else (and he was not at all interested in me)

Jumped up and down on the couch squealing like a little girl (all over a boy)

Ate vegan lasagna for a week straight

Ate 8 veggie burgers in two hours with chips, juice, and ketchup

Sat in a restaurant and never saw the menu (literally, they never gave us a menu)

Spent 22 hours where the only thing I ate was watermelon (no drinks either)

Baked on Easter Sunday for the first time ever

Cut my hair only once (and it was a buzz cut that was given by a friend who was doing everyone’s head in one go)

Went to bars three times and didn’t drink alcohol at any of them

Cried at a chick flick (Bridesmaids)

Had 3 cancelled flights, 2 delayed ones, and 2 that were on-time, no problems

Started a knitting project, unraveled it, and started doing the same thing again all in the same day

Was in a group where they didn’t think I was pulling my weight and then I did over half the project

Went to an art show put on by one of my friends and then made fun of all of her work (oops)

Was offered illegal drugs by someone I trusted and walked away

Made a paper airplane out of an important document and then realized that I still needed that

Ate my roommate’s last banana and then lied about it (oops- but I was hungry!)

Opened the door of my apartment twice to find cops there (not for me though!)

If you can think of any more additions, shoot me a comment, email, etc and I'll add it to the list!

June 27, 2011 5:50 PM

So, it has been a wild and crazy week that had a happy ending: I made it home safe and sound!

As my previous post stated, I climbed a mountain and had a car crash on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I sold the car for scrap and found out my Wisconsin interview would be on Friday. On Thursday, three of my flights to Wisconsin were cancelled, and I was sitting in the airport for about 8 hours, and the flight I finally got on arrived in Wisconsin at 12am local time (1am eastern). So I got to my hotel at 1:30am on Friday morning, hung up all of my clothes, set alarms, etc until I finally got into bed around 2:15am. I woke up at 7am and got ready, ate breakfast, and caught a car out to my 9:30am interview. I was bombarded with interviewing people (each lasting from 15 to 30 minutes), until I had lunch with the recruiter (approx. 4 hours). Then I went out to the airport and my flight was delayed, making me switch gates three times. Finally, I made it into New Jersey at 11pm on Friday night. On Saturday, I caught two trains out to visit my godmother's family on Long Island, and we went to Fire Island and explored for several hours. On Sunday, I went back into the city and to a date that Jersey (and an alien creature claiming to be Mike) had set up. I finally got back at 8pm last night, and I have been half dead ever since. Oh, and bruises keep appearing all over my arms, shoulders, and legs (delayed from the accident I guess).

Things could have been much worse, though. No one was really hurt in the accident, I did an impressive hike on Tuesday, my Wisconsin interview went pretty well I think, I used the airport delays as an opportunity to write out thank-you letters to all of my interviewers, I really enjoyed visiting my family over the weekend (and the food was fantastic!), the date wasn't terrible (and we got to see a lot of happy gay paraders!), and I got plenty of sleep last night. And most of the bruises only hurt if I poke them or the cat decides to sit on me. And the man who drove me to and from the airport was the company's private limo and knew the president personally (they chatted on the phone during the car ride and were going to each other's kids graduation parties next weekend). And my hotel got upgraded from a Holiday Inn Express to the Beloit Inn, which is the nicest hotel in town - and the room I got was a two room suite.

So here are some pictures from my hike (Mount Tammany in Worthing State Forest):

June 22, 2011 10:28 AM

Good morning.

So, yesterday morning I set out to hike a mountain - and I did! I went up 1500 ft!! It was exhausting and thrilling!!

But I got into a car accident on the way home - mechanical failure caused me to crash into a tree and spin out off the road. I'm unharmed, but my new friend Mr Grover is not.

Mr Grover had a long life, but I only knew him for just over a month. He was a great little car, and he took me from Rochester to New Jersey to Long Island to all sorts of places in New Jersey, including his final destination of Mount Tammany in Worthington State Forest. May he rest in pieces at the scrap yard.

Total amount I've spent on him:

Buying him off that college grad = $2,300

Car Insurance for six months = $581.90

In-Transit Plates = $12.50

Title, Registration, and NJ Sales tax = $277.50

NJ Drivers License = $24

Jumper Cables = $26.36

Towing = $85

Storage = $60

Cleanup, Labor, Yard, & Admin Fee (+tax) = $74.35

Taxi to Pay off the Towing Company = $20

Plus filling up his tank in PA on the way to NJ ($29.22), filling up in NY on the way back from Long Island ($42.08), and filling up in NJ before going to the mountains (??? I think around 33).

I'll get some money back from the scrapyard, but probably only $150 or so.

But Mr Grover was worth every cent (~$3565.91)! He was such a great car!!! I went to job interviews, visited friends, and had a whole lot of fun in that car!!! Besides, that's only $66 dollars over the asking price for it on Kelly Blue Book when I bought it!!! So talking down the original price of the car helped me out BIG TIME!!!

I love you Mr Grover, and I will miss you dearly in the coming days/weeks until I get a 'new' car or just decide to buy a bicycle instead (depends on where I get a job). And no bicycle will blast my old 'NOW' cds quite as loud as you did at that stoplight in Pennsylvania where that little old man gave me a funny look during that Aaron Carter song.

As for all of my human/people friends, I hope that you don't crash into a tree anytime soon, or suffer any kind of failure, be it mechanical, physical, mental, or just a really bad grade.

Tony, you'd better be taking good care of Super Grandma Princess Betsy!!! She needs to go on a bike ride at least once a week, and her chains will get rusty if you leave her outside during the rain!!!

June 10, 2011 1:10 PM

http://ozymandias3.blogspot.com/2011/06/who-cares-about-mens-rights.html

Usually, it's Joanna's blog that rants and raves about things, so here's a different perspective. Of course, there is some work that needs to be done on this idea, but at least it'll give you something to think about.

In the meantime, I am going to freak out and prepare for my interview in Wisconsin next week. You know, maybe memorize all of the stock market's movements in the past two weeks and the periodic table and everything I can find out about the company too.

Or just mail some thank-you letters.

June 7, 2011 2:45 PM

Ola!

So, I went to the DMV today, and I officially have Jersey plates, a Jersey license, and a Jersey title for my car! Now I just need to get it inspected in the next two weeks…

Better schedule that before I forget…

I finished “The Art of Eating In” and loved it. Like I said before, you should totally read it. But enough about that book – I think it’s time to talk about another subject.

*****WARNING - This is a whiny, complain-y post *******

Living in someone else’s house = weird. Bizarre, even. I ate what I was served and nothing else the first week unless I was specifically told it was OK, like the previous night’s leftovers. There’s no on-going
shopping list like at my parents’ house (where you write down things that you finished/are low on), so I don’t finish things. I accidentally ate VegAnn’s sister’s favorite breakfast cereal for two days. Last night I was making a sandwich, and VegAnn’s mother started questioning me about where I had gotten
the bread from. They had to train me to drink filtered water instead of straight from the tap, though honestly it all tastes the same to me.

Plus being unemployed is the worst thing ever for me. I’m such a total work-a-holic that I’m going crazy. I just keep applying to every job I find, and I’m getting so desperate that I’m considering taking the night
shift at a supermarket just so I feel productive. And it’s only been two weeks! Though honestly, I should have a job by now – isn’t that what I got my degree for??

Back to living in someone else’s house, I really have nothing to do during the day because I don’t watch TV and I don’t know what else they have to do around here. I’ve gone to the library so often that they
know me already, and the woman who runs the periodicals groans when she sees me with another fax to send. Everyone (including the people I’m living with) think it’s so strange that I’ll walk 15 minutes to the library instead of driving, and they were confused when I walked to church and back (took an hour plus
another hour for the service I went to).

And when I do find something to do (generally reading or fooling around on the internet) and someone walks by, I feel like I am the most unproductive mooch ever – despite the fact that I’ve spent the day filling out job apps anyways! And when VegAnn comes home from cooking school and asks me
what I did today, it sounds so pathetic. “No, I didn’t hear anything back except a couple of denials. I filled out more applications, went to the library, and read some more.” Every day!!!!

I just want a job and a place where I can open the fridge and help myself, where I can read my email and look at the news without feeling guilty, where I can finally empty my stuff out of the car instead of having to go pop the trunk open every time I need a stamp or my iPod charger.

I’ll stop now before you hear more of my whining. Hope you are all in good health and enjoying the summer!

June 1, 2011 2:45 PM

OK, so I ate some lunch and did a little yard work before coming back to this (yes, guys, I am very very bored of job-hunting).

Lunch: Two plates of salad: mixed greens, walnuts, celery, apples, and cooked beets. The first plate had a vegan horseradish dressing VegAnn brought home from cooking school, and the second plate was dressed simply with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (which I have rediscovered my love for after Mike's mother made a vegan pasta salad that was amazing on Sunday).

Yard Work: Basically nothing. Less than 30 minutes outside.

Book: Yes, I am reading "The Art of Eating In" again, and if you haven't read my previous post, skip down to that before coming up here again.

In Chapter One, she outlines what made her choose this experiment and the rules of the game. First of all, she couldn't eat anything 'out' (as previously defined) in the 5 boroughs of NYC. But, if she had a business trip out of state, etc, then she could eat out in other places. Secondly, she would 'respect' mandatory meals at the office, if her employer decided to host a holiday party or the like. If a group was headed to celebrate a birthday and one of her bosses was involved, she went. Next, if she was absolutely starving, like being stuck in a bus terminal for hours, then she would eat out (fortunately this was never the case).

Next, she wouldn't cure her own salami or do absolutely everything from scratch - it's kinda hard to make your own goat cheese, and she wasn't about to boil bagels every morning. But she wouldn't buy pre-prepared supermarket food or get bagels with cream cheese and lox. Finally, she would still let her friends eat out. If they wanted to go eat, she could come along and order drinks (drinking out is totally OK), or just not go. But she wouldn't order solid food.

I am really curious as to how the rest of this book is going to turn out, so that's all for now (unless I get the sudden urge to post about it again).

Oh yeah, and I think I'm going to get Red Cross First Aid and CPR/AED certified sometime soon.

June 1, 2011 12:45 PM

Good afternoon!

I began reading "The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove" by Cathy Erway today. She spent two years in New York City only eating her home-cooked food. No restaurants, no microwave meals, no take-out. She declined all dinner invitations, didn't go out to bars, and lived in her small apartment.

I haven't gotten that far into it (heck, I've just read the prologue and the introduction), but I am already intrigued. How do you meet people or date if you don't eat out? How do you hang out with friends? How do you get something to eat when you are running out of food, out of time, and have places to be? I know as a vegan (for the most part), I do a lot of cooking at home since there aren't that many vegan options out and about for everyday eating - but in NYC there is. And Cathy wasn't vegan - she ate pretty much anything.

This is probably an experiment I should take up, since I always spend so much on food when I am eating out. It'll probably be easier for me here than in Rochester or Houston - because there are so many memories I have associated with different restaurants. Heck, one of my good friends is a waiter I met by being a regular at his parents' place! And I every time I've tried to make an Indonesian peanut sauce (either from scratch or from a jar), it's never worked out quite like the thick, creamy sauce I can find at so many different places.

For now, I will keep reading her book (maybe updating you guys with some of her tactics along the way), and then I'll check out her blog - Not Eating Out in NY.

And, you know, steal a recipe or two along the way.

(In case you haven't guessed yet, I have a library card now!)

Miss you all during the day, and wish I was chilling in ROC not worrying about my job search!

XOXOXO Molly V