Friday, April 30, 2010

Get Down Mr. President

Here's why it's going to be a great weekend:

1. It's going to be in the 80s!

2. To ease myself into end-of-the-semester stress, I may or may not have bought myself a little present (read: SoCo and sour mix) to have fun and take my mind off the four papers I have to write.

3. Tonight is L.'s a cappella group, The Octet's, final concert! It's a really big deal. He just got elected President (yay!), and he has a solo in the concert tonight (Love and Memories by O.A.R.)

They're actually quite good, and they performed live in New York City with the band Motion City Soundtrack after the band saw one of their homemade videos (of L. singing, no less) and invited them to a concert at Irving Plaza! Pretty cool, huh? There were over 1,000 people there!

Here's my baby rocking out for the show's encore! Remember him when he gets famous!




But they're not always rockstars. Here's the more modest venue they'll be singing in tonight:


(The video is from Fall 2007, only a couple months after L. and I met, and we weren't yet dating, but were best friends. If you listen closely in the beginning, you can hear a girl yell, "I love you Lucas!" You can guess who that was.)


I'm so proud of him and I'm so excited to celebrate his solo and presidency this weekend!

4. We have some more things to celebrate this weekend-- L.'s and my 1 1/2 year anniversary! In honor of it, I'll probably be making an "About Me and L." tab up there at the top of my page, so feel free to read about the tumultuous and crazy story that led up to us finally getting together!

5. Despite the sheer awesomeness of all those things (whiskey, L., and celebrating special occasions are probably some of my favorite things), there's yet another that in its own way is untoppable.

On Sunday, in our college pub, my best friend C. and I will be playing some Jeopardy, or Jeps, as a blogger I love (and you should therefore too) kk calls it. However, this isn't just normal Jeopardy. See, C. and I both happen to be Poli Sci majors (at least, I am until the department finally figures out I haven't taken all the courses to fill the requirement for the major...already being an English major and pre-law takes up enough of my life, thx), and this is POLI SCI JEOPARDY. Like with students and faculty members (two students, one faculty member) on each team. Three teams.

BUT WAIT. It gets better. Prof C., whose infamy you may remember from this post, is one of the faculty members we get to team up with because, get this-- HE WAS AN ACTUAL JEPS CONTESTANT IN 2008!

Guys. This is a big deal. See, C. and I are a little...obsessed with Prof C. We giggle endlessly during his Con Law lectures (okay, today's was all about pasties. Not kidding. Come on!) and C. covets his cute baby while I just want his life (tenure track working for your alma mater with a nice house and married by your late twenties? Yes plz). So anyways needless to say it's more than a little creepy that we were the first to throw our names in the ring to be on Prof C.'s Jeps team. But whatever because it's going to be AMAZING. And there will be pictures. Oh, will there be pictures.

We thought about making t-shirts, but C. vetoed the idea. We need to keep some semblance of dignity.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Overdue Hawaii Recap (With Pictures!)

If you're like me and living somewhere where it's cold, rainy, and decidedly un-springy, then hopefully seeing some bright, sunny, cheerful pictures will rest your sore eyes and get you excited for Summer! (And not, in fact, make you more miserable...)

I still have my Hawaii tan, but the warmth of the sun and the tropical flowery smell is beginning to fade. So what better thing to do than immortalize it with a recap post! L. and I flew out to Hawaii from cold, rainy Boston on Wednesday, March 24 around 8 a.m. Just as a note of reference, we didn't land in Hawaii until 11 p.m. That's a LONG day of traveling. When we did land, everything was dark, but the muggy air, the fact that I didn't need a sweater at midnight outside, and the smell of flowers let us know that when we woke up in the morning...

...we'd be seeing this. And that's exactly what we did. On our first day in Princeville, which is the area of Kauai that we were staying on, we went to visit L.'s aunt and uncle who lived a few minutes away, in Kilauea, on a cliff JUST ABOVE this private beach (lucky ducks!). Kilauea and Princeville are on the North side of the island, which is a little less sunny (read: more rainy) and a little more residential, rather than the touristy spots. Accordingly, our beach was completely deserted. We walked down these vertical stairs built right into the side of the cliff--something like 285 in all, to get down here, but it was so worth it.


We spent Thursday hanging about lazily while L. and I adjusted to our jet lag (we were passed out by 10 p.m. and I was up bright and early at 7 a.m. each morning, which allowed me to tear through multiple novels by the end of our trip.) We had a great homecooked dinner of salad with goat cheese and homemade balsamic dressing (my favorite!), chicken and fish, and cornbread, which was heavenly.

Friday L. and his dad went golfing, so I spent the day shopping with L.'s mom and L's aunt, which is when I found that beautiful dress I posted about. (Note: I still haven't found an alternative! If you want to help, leave the link of your favorite place to online dress shop!)
On Saturday, L. and I went ziplining! For those of you who haven't done it, it's a MUST. I've been twice now--once in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with Big Relationship, and now in Hawaii. It's an amazing feeling to be completed suspended hundreds of feet above rivers, valleys, canyons, and even trees. Here I am about to fly through the air:


On Sunday, L.'s mom and I decided we'd go watch the boys play golf at the Princeville Golf Club, since it's right on the ocean and was supposed to have beautiful views. We forgot to take into consideration that the boys get quite grumpy when they play golf, since both are uber competitive (L. was the captain of his high school golf team and is really good) and hate to lose. Needless to say, with the boys getting grumpers L.'s mom and I decided to make our own fun, which consisted of creeping in all the huge beautiful houses right off the course (you could literally see into people's living rooms), and munching on all the yummy dried fruit and nuts we had bought from the Kilauea equivalent of Whole Foods called Papaya's. Too bad we made the classic mistake of feeding some nuts to some of the wild chickens that roam EVERYWHERE in Kauai. (They used to be kept in cages all over the island but years ago a huge storm broke open all the cages so now they are all over the place.) The chickens FOLLOWED us around the golf course and when we left the cart, we heard a big PLOP! and turned around to see a chicken trying to make off with our entire bag of nuts and fruit! It weighed more than him!


Here's the guys on one of the last few holes. I think the reason they look so happy is because they were almost done!

After golf L.'s mom and I announced we needed to relax with a drink, and the boys agreed. So we went to the St. Regis Hotel in Princeville, which is possibly the most beautiful hotel with the most beautiful views I've ever seen. We ordered some drinks on the balcony and watched the sunset over the ocean.


Everyone should be SO SAD that I didn't get any pictures of the burgers we got here too. Let me tell you. These were the BEST burgers I have ever had in my life. We met people who literally flew to Kauai to get these burgers. (And to go to the beach, blah blah blah).


On Tuesday, we all packed up our things and left our vacation home on the North side of the island and made our way down to the South side of the Island, which is known for being sunnier and generally more resort-y. That was fine with me and L., since all we wanted to do was sit on the beach, bask in the sun, and read books.
Here's the North side of the island again, for comparison. Remember that this side is more residential, with more greenery, and is a bit more humid and rainy. Not too bad, right?:

Now here's the view from the resort on the South side:


Mmm, Mama like. The South side was full of swanky hotels, swanky restaurants, and gorge views. Call me the opposite of old-fashioned, but I loved it. We got gelato every night, which, if you know me, know that gelato/ice cream are possibly all I need to survive. We ate at so many great restaurants, including one called The Red Salt, which had possibly the most delicious chicken I've ever had in my life. It melted in my mouth. Their name comes from the delicious, unsalted butter they serve with their bread, and the tiny bowl of red salt that comes with it. You spread your butter on the bread and then sprinkle the crunchy salt on top. It was SO addictive. Red salt, melt-in-your-mouth chicken, and a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc, and I was a happy camper.

(Red Salt image from Ko'a Kea Resort)

And look who we found one day when we were lounging on the beach! What a cutie! Hawaiian Monk Seals tend to just hang out and sleep on the beach all day. Combine that with my wine, chicken, and red salt, and I would never ask for anything ever again.

L. and I would have been perfectly content to snorkel all day long, but on Thursday everyone decided we should go to the "Grand Canyon" of Hawaii, which is actually pretty amazing, once you get up there. Too bad for me and L., we're both super motion sickness-prone, and the drive up the windy, tiny roads left both of us feeling pretty miserable. I may or may not have thrown up a little. The view was almost worth it:


On Friday it was time to come home and I can't say I wasn't more than a little depressed. Having been back in the misery of college life, replete with mountains of papers and obligations and very little sun, for about a month now, our trip almost feels like it never happened. L.'s aunt and uncle invited us to come back and see then whenever we'd like. Oh, if only they knew how much we plan on taking them up on that offer...

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Evolving

Can I just take a moment and say that I am proud of myself?

Here's the thing: I'm really bad at science, and math, and basically things that aren't humanities. Logic problems I'm okay with, but SAT Math was a nightmare for me.

That being said, I am SO proud of myself for the progress I've made in teaching myself (and by "teaching" I mean with the help of all the lovely people over at Google) HTML/CSS, etc. When I first started this blog about 9 months ago, I was stuck with the basic Blogger templates because I had NO idea how to go around and change everything up and I was terrified to mess with the code. Now, almost every day I'm messing around with the code, seeing what happens if I change values and definitions and tweaking almost every aspect of my blog.

I've also been teaching myself Photoshop so I could create a blog header and sidebar titles. I know I'm not a master yet, but having my own header makes my blog feel SO much more personal, and knowing I figured out how to make it on photoshop and edit the code to get it in there myself is terrif. Now I get the warm fuzzies when I log in.

I'm trying to make everything a little more interactive and more aesthetically pleasing. Now I have tabs! Check out the "About Me" section up there and the "Who's Who." More will be coming soon!

So far, I've put in my own header and sidebar titles. I'd like to keep working to develop a perfect header, as well as customized "Contact me" buttons (twitter, etc.), and try to get my titles to be the font of my sidebar titles.

I'm also planning on buying a nice camera soon, and then my goal will be to have pictures (taken by me) in almost every post. I hope all these things make the blog more fun for everyone to read; I know it's bringing a whole new level of fun to blogging for me!

Any other suggestions you have or things you'd like to see become a part of the blog? What do you think of all the new changes?

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I Am Not Your Mama

I have a professor who is not much older than me. As in, he is still in his late twenties. But being the prodigy that he is, he graduated Williams in 2003, got his Ph.D. at Princeton immediately after, taught at one of the Claremont Colleges for two years, and now teaches at his alma mater. Pretty crazy, right?

Anyways. said professor also married his college sweetheart and now has a small baby. Adorable, right? He basically has the perfect life. He's also super chill and accessible, and put his home phone on our syllabus and said for us to feel free to call him at home if we had any pressing questions or issues (as long as we don't wake up Prof Baby, in which case he'd probably fail us.) Today I was finishing up my application for a super cool job that I'm really excited about, and wanted to ask Prof C. to give me a recommendation. I thought I would utilize his generous call-at-home option to ask personally if he would be able and willing to write a rec for me.

I call Prof C. This is the ensuing conversation:

Prof C: Hello?
Michelle: Hi Prof. C, it's Michelle.
Prof C.: Hey Michelle, what's up?
Michelle: Blah blah I have this great job opportunity and I'd be really grateful if you would write me a recommendation.
Prof C: Sure, blah blah.
Prof C. must have been holding Prof Baby during the conversation, since I had heard him making little gurgles while Prof. C was speaking. But when I started speaking again to thank him, Prof Baby must have heard my voice through the phone, because this is what happened next:
Michelle: Blah blah blah thank you
Prof Baby: Mama! Mama!
Michelle: Laughs awkwardly
Prof C: No no kiddo, that is not your mama.
Michelle and Prof C laughing but awkward finish their convo with a kthxbye.

I don't know which makes this story more funny/awkward: the fact that Prof Baby confused me for his mother or the fact that, Prof C being only six or seven years older than me, it wouldn't be ridiculous if I were in fact the mother of a one year old and married to a late-twenty-something year old. I mean granted it certainly wouldn't be a favorable situation (and I mean a random hypothetical person, not the mother out of wedlock to Prof C.'s baby!), but it's still biologically and, for the most part, socially legit. I mean, I've dated men Prof C's age. Isn't that crazy?

Friday, April 16, 2010

Things I Meant to Say: Today is Neither 'Springy' Nor 'Flingy'

1. Welcome to another "Things I Meant to Say" blog post, in which I cue everyone in to the random things that have been wandering through my mind today. It's also a nice little confession that today I am feeling either lazy or whimsical...you decide.

2. This weekend is Spring Fling at Williams. Let's take a look out the window, shall we? 50 degrees, gray skies, cold wind. I am not feeling the love. The only thing this weather makes me want to do on Spring Fling weekend is maybe order in some Spring Rolls from the Thai restaurant and lay in bed while watching HIMYM.

3. Today is also decidedly un-"flingy." It's more like "monogamy-y." In the sense that the boy and I are having a date night: going out for Chinese (where I can satiate my now-present desire for a Spring Roll) and then going to see, yep you guessed it, Date Night. I'll wait here patiently while you go throw up.

4. Back? Okay. I'm actually really excited to see Date Night, since Steve Carell is probably possibly the funniest person ever since Zach Galifianakis. But Michelle, you say, Steve Carell has been around way longer than Zach How-do-ya-say-it. Well, I rest my case. Steve Carell is the funniest person, ever.

5. PERFECT SEGWAY! This weekend, we have an underwhelming Spring Fling band (Gym Class Heroes. If I wanted to dance to hip hop I'd get a DJ. Also, the Flaming Lips AND Ben Folds and SO MANY GOOD BANDS were on the voting list, yet our events planning group picked Gym Class Heroes. Which were not an option on the ballot. Just sayin') BUT tomorrow night we got...drumroll...CRAIG ROBINSON to come and perform stand up comedy!

Yes, that is in fact Daryl from the Office. (Now do you get my Steve Carell segway? See how I did that?) I am ants-in-my-pants excited for this. For really. And not to "use" Craig Robinson or anything, but he's biffles with Seth Rogen. And all I really want in life is to ALSO be biffles with Seth Rogen. So here's hoping Craig can make that happen for me.

PS I'll try to get pictures and post them!

6. After all this date-night-going-out and Craig-Robinson-manipulating, I also have this little thing called 7, count-em, 7, papers due in the next couple weeks. Sooo maybe I should rethink all my social endeavors this weekend.

Have a great weekend everyone! If yours also involves stalking celebrities or also getting Spring Rolls (or, you know, anything else really), let me know!

Update: It is now snowing in the lovely town on Williamstown, Massachusetts. So now is this weekend most certainly not Springy nor Flingy, it's more like Winter Fling. Now, excuse me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure we've already had one of those.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Pillow Fight!

I'm currently bemoaning my lack of a living room to design and LOVING these super fun spring pillows I've found all over. I arranged them all onto couches by color and thought I'd share them with everyone (and hopefully some of you can get more use out of them than I can!) Which of these do you love? Are you a neutrals person or a bright punch of color person?

(PS-- the sofa base is the Z Gallerie Stella sofa and I LOVE it.)

1. Jade and Sage


(Patterned pillow from Pier 1 Imports; Sage pillow from Bed Bath and Beyond)

2. Turquoise and Sage


(Turquoise pillow from Pillow Decor; Sage Pillow from Bed Bath and Beyond; Damask pillow from Pillow Decor)

3. Gray and Yellow #1


(Gray and yellow oblong pillow from Crate and Barrel; Solid gray pillows from Pillow Decor; Gray and yellow larger pillow from Orange Beautiful)

3. Gray and Yellow #2


(Gray pillow from Pillow Decor; Gray and yellow pillow from Crate and Barrel; Yellow pillow from Pier 1 Imports)

5. Sage and Plum/Chocolate


(Sage pillow from Bed Bath and Beyond; Chocolatey-plum pillow from Pier 1 Imports; Green berries pillow from Pier 1 Imports)

6. Tangerine


(Tangerine oblong pillow from Pier 1 Imports; Rust paisley pillow from Pier 1 Imports; Tangerine and Red embroidered pillow from Pier 1 Imports)

7. Yellow

(Yellow pillow from Z Gallerie)

8. Neutral


(Brown pillow from Pier 1 Imports; Tan pillow from Crate and Barrel)


There's also a couple of pillows that didn't make the cut onto the couches, mostly because they were just too fabulous to fit in anywhere:

(from Z Gallerie)


(from Pillow Decor)


(from Pier 1 Imports)


So there you have it. Which ones are your fave? I think mine is the turquoise combination. I love cool colors in an otherwise neutral room. That yellow pillow from Z Gallerie is truly gorgeous, however--and so perfect, you can't mess with it by pairing it with anything!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Clearly L. Needs to Accompany Me to the Bar More Often

Last night myself and two of my girls decided to go out and get a drink and chat at the bar. We were envisioning a chill night since the bar is mostly empty on Thursdays (although Thursday is quickly becoming the new Friday), but sadly for me that is not what we walked into.

The senior class had been having a party earlier at the Log, the old campus pub type place, and when that ended they all virtually stormed the local bar. And let me tell you--they were c.r.u.n.k. Like for realsies.

So the girls and I walk in and immediately I'm bored. (I tend to get bored and distracted very easily in party-type situations, especially when I'm not with L.). The girls I went with are newly developing friends--we'll call them Dentist Girl and Hockey Girl (the first is going to dental school and the second plays ice hockey, for duh)--but they're mostly better friends with C. than me, and so basically a quiet night sipping drinks at a table would have been much better for our developing friendships (which I'm super excited about ladies, if you're reading!) than a noisy crowded bar.

Dentist Girl immediately got swept up in the crowd (she's probably the BEST crowd-worker/flirt ever, period) and so Hockey Girl and I started talking with a couple of her senior athlete friends. Then I got bumped into, hard, by a big guy I immediately recognized--creepily, because we'd never met. No, I'm not a total creeper-- I used to be Sports Editor for our college paper, the Record, and this guy was a big.deal in football. Think about if you watch or follow a college sport--let's say football--and think about the guy who's the biggest deal on that team--let's say Colt McCoy of the Longhorns. Well, this guy was basically the Colt McCoy of Williams. (I hope he never reads this. This is giving him way too much credit.) Except he's not a quarterback--he's basically the best Wide Receiver that we've had in a long, long time and holds a gajillion records.

(L., this is all descriptive exposition, you understand. I'm not impressed.)

So anyways, Williams Colt McCoy bumps into me, and apologizes, and says "Hey, I'm 'Colt.'" (Yup. This is what happens when I protect identities, people. And to the real Colt McCoy, I don't think this is technically stealing yours, but if it is, sorry.) "Hi, I'm Michelle," I answer. And then add, "Youre Colt McCoy, right?"

"Yes!" he says, and then processes the fact that I'm probably a creepy stalker who has committed the entire football roster to heart. (Most certainly have not. What a bunch of jerks. [Mostly]) "Oh," says I, in my charming way, "I used to be Sports Editor, so I recognize you."

Phew. Not a creep.

Anyways. We get to talking, which is probably my first mistake. Here's my take on it: I'm at the bar. My friends are talking to other people. My boyfriend is not there. If a guy starts chatting me up, yeah, I guess most likely he's just trying to get some. But I'm starved for conversation here, guys! If you start talking to me, I'm gonna be my usual, charming, and flirty (it's not on purpose! I'm flirty by nature!) self. And then you're probably gonna think I want your shit, but I just like talking! So sue me.

Anyways. So we start chatting, find out our hometowns are super close, and I ask him is he sad football's over, blah blah, and he mentions he's talking golf lessons at the same place I took golf lessons (with Drew! Remember this post?) So I tell him all about Drew, and he admits he's never hit a real club before but is mean with a mini-golf putter.

Well this, I just cannot do. Let me get something straight here. I am the preEMINENT mini-golf player in our regional area. I have mini-golfed all up and down the New Hampshire coast, and everywhere in the middle. I am the BEST. But apparently Williams Colt McCoy thinks he's the best, too. Playful competitive banter ensues, and he mourns the fact that there's no mini-golf course close to Williams. But there is, I protest, about 20 minutes away.

Well, this just makes his whole night. "Is there ice cream?!" Um, for duh. "Cookies and cream?" he asks suspiciously. "I am sure the chances are high," I assure him.

This is when he commits his classic error.

"Well, perhaps I'll just have to take you out for mini-golf and ice cream, and we can settle once and for all who really is the best," he says.

Ooof.

Why does this always happen? I NEVER know when to play the boyfriend card. Some girls would have done it the second the guy bumped into me: *Bump* "OMG I have a boyfriend!" Which is just totally obnoxious. Some girls would have effortlessly worked it into the conversation: "Well, my boyfriend and I love to mini-golf," but that just also seems obnoxious to me and besides, there is never a really organic moment to slip that in; it's always forced and awkward. And I hate awkward situations. Remember when this happened to me on my birthday? I had to bring it up after the guy asked me back to his room, which was mortifying. Oh, and remember how he was also a Williams wide receiver? What is it with these guys?

So, I didn't answer. (Sneaky, no?) I just continued the taunts about mini-golf, while simultaneously trying to figure out how to sneak away and leave the whole awkward situation to die slowly in its little awkward hole. Plus, then I got the ego boost of knowing I was hot stuff and maintained mystery. Score for me.

And somehow, the universe played along with my coy little plan. Some girl came up to Williams Colt McCoy and clearly he was also involved in some other weird situation, cause here's how that went:

Girl: "Hey Colt McCoy, I'll see you in class on Monday, I'm gonna go."
CMcC: "You're leaving?"
Girl: "Yeah, I'll see you Monday."
CMcC: "You're not going to the bonfire?"
Girl: "No." (turns to me) "Why don't you go to the bonfire?" (presumably with CMcC)
Me: "Oh, uh, no, I'm not going to the bonfire."
CMcC (to me): "Will you excuse us?"

I slipped away. Clearly the bonfire was a bfd. I'm pretty sure these two weren't dating, since why would she be waiting to see him till class on Monday?, but if they were, I'm not sure if I think CMcC is a huge skeeze for hitting on me while she was in the same room, or impressed with his boldness.

Also, props to him for asking me on an actual date, unlike his birthday predecessor, who merely asked me to his dorm room.

A similar situation happened the weekend before spring break, with a super nice senior Biology major, who not only knew I had a boyfriend from the start, but bought me a drink anyway and sat and talked to me for an hour and a half. Aka, treated me like an actual, interesting human being. Granted, later I found out through friends that he quote "really wanted to make out with me," but he was a gentleman nonetheless.

The moral of the story? L. has gotta start coming to the bar because this is exhausting.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Best Years of Your Life?

The idea for this post came to me as I was struggling to fall asleep last night at approximately 3:30am, when I had to be up at 9am, and I was generally feeling frustrated with the college lifestyle and the sense of confinement I feel here.

Now, two caveats. The first: I just got back from spring break. There is no way that I can see Williams in a favorable light right now, since all I want in the world is to be back on the beach in Hawaii, sipping Mai Tais.

Caveat number two: I love Williams. I really do. This isn't so much an issue with Williams specifically, but more college in general.

That being said.

Everyone you talk to, and I mean everyone, goes on and on about how their college years were the best years of their life. But the more I think about that, the more I start to realize: really guys? Really?

Cause here's the thing. I think that college can be the four most tumultuous years of of someone's life, and while that can certainly lead to growth, it can also just get really, really old. I truly believe that many people, but for the most part men (sorry guys) are also at their least emotionally mature while they're in college. I say this because acting like a moron in high school is one thing, but at 21? 22? It's time to grow up and act your age, and yet there are just beezys running all up and down campus, throwing themselves and their bodies at guys who totally don't deserve it, while guys treat women with the same amount of respect they'd give a doorknob.

I'm not gonna say that I don't enjoy an occasional toga party or two, and that going out on weekends isn't quite possibly the only way to survive what is probably the equivalent of a 60-90 hour workweek once you take academics, studying, and activities into account. But can I also say that--gasp--I'm kind of over it? That, at the end of my junior year, I'd much rather go out for a glass of wine with my girlfriends on Friday and stay in--say what??--with my boyfriend on Saturday and watch a movie (preferably something with Paul Rudd).

Maybe it's because I'm in a serious relationship. Maybe it's because suddenly all I seem to care about is dogs, home decor, and my career aspirations--none of which really exist on a college campus. I hate when people spill beer on the counters in the kitchen when I want to cook and it's sticky and messy. I hate when people throw up outside my door at 3am. I hate that I can't paint my walls and screw nails into the wall and I hate, hate, hate that my work is never done because I'm always "bringing it home with me," so to speak.

I know I'm going to miss college when I graduate. Maybe all I'll be able to do come this time next year is curl into a fetal position and cry at the sight of my resume and the thought of a 9-5 workweek.

But doesn't everyone agree that the "best years of your life" should include things that really matter? Like getting married? Or having your first child? Or getting your dream job? Or truly making a difference in the world--not in the minuscule community that is your college, but the real world. Like adopting a pet (or child) that otherwise would have died. Or teaching English to inner city kids. I'm ready for all those things now. And frankly, the beer-counters and vomit-hallways and toga parties are really just standing in the way of my adopted-puppy-Ikea-purchases-constant-salary-making-a-difference-and-living-my-real-life-filled future.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Dress and I: A Star-Crossed Love Story

I'm still waiting on some Hawaii pictures which I want to include in the update before I write it, so that's on the way! I promise!

But until then, I can share one extremely heartbreaking moment that occurred whilst I was out doing some shopping and general girl-bonding-time with L.'s mom and aunt in the little town of Kilauea. We were browsing through this super cute clothing store and suddenly, it caught my eye.

The backstory:

Michelle's brother is getting married in September (yay!). Michelle needs a super cute dress for the wedding, which is going to be just outside of San Diego, in the early evening (so it's sunny for the ceremony) and the reception will be inside. Dress needs to be summery and bright enough for outside but demure enough for inside.

Enter the dress:

I saw it on the rack. I checked the tag. It was $325. I could never afford it. But it called to me. What the hell, says I. I'll just try it on for fun.

I try it on. L's mom and aunt, and the store owner, all swoon. I look in the mirror. I swoon. There is only one of these dresses. It is exactly my size. It fits like a glove. The designer will not ever make another one. And I can't afford it.

L's mom and aunt offer to buy the dress and I can pay them back. I can't convince myself to do it. I decline their amazing offer, and decide I will try to find the dress's identical, cheap, stateside twin.

That's where you all come in. If anyone can find me a cheap version of this dress (believe me, I'm looking too!), you will become my absolute most favorite person in the world. Here it is, in all its glory, and the amazing elements that I am extremely doubtful I'll be able to find on another dress.

1. The back. Look at those satin criss-crossed straps. Ahh! So gorgeous.


2. The color. It's AMAZING.

3. The detailing on the bust. Look at that beadwork! It's stunning.


My mum says I should just wear a dress I already own, but she's already bought two new dresses, four pairs of shoes, a bracelet, two pairs of earrings, and a clutch for the event. So, I think one dress is legit.

Will I ever be able to find it again?

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Back from Hawaii!

Yes, that's right. Begrudgingly, unhappily, and sadly I am back from Hawaii, and back at Williams, which amounts to over 24 hours of traveling and being awake for almost 36 hours straight (30 without time change). I have to catch up on the mountains of work I, rebelliously and stupidly, left behind at Williams (I was convinced I wouldn't get anything done on vacation and would end up dragging around my con law reading packet for nothing...though I did bring my People's History of the Supreme Court, because that can almost, almost pass for normal reading. I did however, get two great novels put away while I was on the beach-- The Time Traveler's Wife and The Women.

I don't have time for a full update now but until then I'm going to leave everyone with an amazing picture from Hawaii. And no, it's not a beach, or palm trees, but...: