Vacationing.

I've been on vacation for a blissful 11 days now. Eleven. Chump change. This vacation lasts for another 20 days.
I got in a lot of family time. All the brothers and sisters and respective significant others and babies were in tow. We played games, ate a lot of junk, and mainly just sat around and made dumb jokes. My favorite thing in the world. Oh, and watched the babies be hilarious.
Tanner is still the funniest boy I know. We made lots of fart jokes and knock-knock jokes while we were riding around in the 15 passenger van (we sat in the back cause we're cool). Well, Lizzie caught on to the knock knock jokes and started in.
Lizzie: Knock knock.
Anyone: Who's there?
Lizzie: Knock knock.
Anyone: Knock knock who?
Lizzie: Knock knock. Hahahaha.

She is funny. Brooklyn is hilarious. She is so sweet and obsessed with being a princess. Anytime she sees a tutu, its on her in 2 seconds (sans pants and shirt - I've never seen anyone who loved being naked so much!) and she spins around so gracefully (esp for a 2 year old!).

Some pictures:

Mary's new fiance, Tim:Mary and Dad

Dad with baby Elijah (cutest baby ever, want to squeeze)

Brooklyn wearing my boots and Tanner being Tanner.

Mike, picture by Tanner

Me and Jen looking haaaawt

Laura and Tony (with baby Lijah)

Ok. So have I been vacationing unTIL monday. I started an internship that will last for the next few weeks. Here is me at my new job:
So I just got this internship at a renewable energy firm, doing research and record updates, and so far my boss is pretty decent. The first day he took me to breakfast AND lunch. It was really nice of him, and we even stayed late and had a good chat, just the two of us. I was kind of getting suspicious because he was being a little "too" nice if you know what I mean. The second day (today) we went to breakfast and lunch together again. I had to leave early to visit my family, so he walked me out as I was leaving. We got to the stairwell and he totally gave me a hug, then he went in for a KISS. I got really flustered and pushed him away, saying "Stop! Someone will see us!" Do you think thats creepy? I would, except this is my boss:
Ha. Yep, I got an internship with TH. I'm sure its violating some ethics code, but I got a B+ in ethics, so I live a B+ ethics life. It's pretty fun (read: mind numbing data entry) and I get a kick out of flirting with TH is front of his coworkers. Ok, I don't actually flirt. In fact, I'm afraid what people think of this arrangement, so I really don't say much at all. I just sit in the corner like a hunchback with a shawl and hack away at all the work, diet coke glued to my hand.

This internship will be awesome on my resume AND I will be able to buy a new pair of shoes. At the suggestion of TH. That boy sure knows me.

A little of this and that.

LALALALALALA

I am done! I go home now, ok?

See you soon, Virginia.

And then there was one.

In a last ditch effort to procrastinate for my final final exam tonight, I will now blog.

Am I going to talk about school? No. Shall I speak of activities I've engaged in the past week? No. There are none to speak of. So what then will I write about? Duh - TH.

TH came into town last night and he helped me finish my final paper. He is so handy. So handy in fact, that I QUOTED him in my paper. Hahaha. He is an analyst in the energy field and had a useful quote about my recommendations for Kenya's electricity profile, so I gall-dern put him in my paper. Merry Christmas, TH.

Oh wait, that was school. Crap.

I'm going home on saturday and nearly my entire family will be there. All 5 of my brothers and sisters and their respective husbands/wives/fiances will be together on Monday. What am I going to do? Will I play the sucker? Will I play the educated-world traveling sister? Will I not talk about it? Will TH be with me and we will get made fun of?

In all seriousness, I have been planning to be the "last one" to get married for a while. As soon as Jenny got married and it was just me, Mary, and Laura and then LAURA got married (my youngest sister) I knew it was for sure over because Mary is the most romantical person I know and she was always bound to get hitched before me. Anyway since I've been planning on this for years I am not the least bit upset. In fact, I feel kind of delinquint. I'm 26.5 and unmarried. Shouldn't I have at least 4 cats by now? I did just learn a new knitting pattern, so I can tuck that one away. I think my next steps from here will be:
1. acquire new cats
2. knit sweaters for nieces and nephews
3. invest in prune juice markets
4. get season 1 of golden girls

Anything I left out?

Uh huh, hunka hunka.

Guess what I did for the weekend before my finals week? STUDY? Psssshhhht. No. Who needs it.

Mei and Dave and TH came up to party at my ugly sweater party on saturday night! They drove up early saturday morning just to don ugly sweaters and hang out in NYC for a night.

TH and I went to school for a few hours because I had to work on a paper (ok, maybe I did study a little), but then later we met up with Mei and Dave at everyone's favorite burger place: The Shake Shack. They have one on the UWS now, so we hopped over there from Columbia. I had a relish dog (hot dog with no hot dog. Just relish and onions - sounds gross, but was actually pretty good. Then the boys got double doubles and I shared fries and cheese fries and some shake! So good. Oh and maybe I stole a bite of a hamburger while TH wasn't looking, but what are you gonna do. It was my first red meat in like 3 years and I almost stopped breathing it was so good.

After that we went to the ugly sweater party and it was such a blast! So many people came and I think everyone had a good time. If you are my facebook friend, then you have no doubt seen the photos of our ugly sweaters, but I'll post one on here JUST to be sure. Jess in her abominable snowman sweater and Evan's sweater matched mine! Tre ugly.
Dave won the nutcracker award for the tightest pants. Yowser.Me and Mei made these cheeseballs that look like pinecones. I'd never made cheeseballs before, but they were really yummy and so easy. Cheese, more cheese, butter, and more cheese. Ha. Gross. Except for they were soo good.We stayed up late (late!) and then got up so early I almost cried. I went back to DC just for Sunday to see Mei play her stringed instrument in church, watch Mark's Dad in the annual Christmas concert, and welcome Timmy home from navy training camp! Oh and we saw christmas lights at the temple. Pretty. It was A Christmas Celebration all day long and a celebration of friends, too. I saw so many good friends and it always is so hard to leave that city and come back. New York, you are lucky you're so cool or I would hate you for making me leave my DC friends. But I must admit I have some amazing friends in NY, too. And happy I know friends who will come up and visit me!!

Now onto studying for those finals...
I was taking up two seats on the train with all my books and laptop and papers, and the amtrak guy said "would you like to buy another train ticket for your seat?" Pssshtt. NO. I would just like to study in peace without having to sit next to some smelly person, is that too much to ask? Anyway, does anyone know anything about ANOVA tests and T-tests? Ugggg...

Allez!!

It's go time, ya'll. I've got one paper and 3 finals to write/take by Thursday.
Here is the schedule:
Today: paper
Saturday: paper and study for stats
Sunday: la la la la
Monday: study for stats and econ
Tuesday: stats final and study for econ
Wednesday: econ final and study for management
Thursday: management final and turn in paper
Friday: la la la la

So, as you can see, I have plenty of time for all the things I have to do.

In other news, my ceiling leaked again last night. Oh when it rains it pours.

Here's a look at the plaster pimple that I later popped with Sara's help. Mucky water everywhere.

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Taking it all in.

Grad school. Ugh. Whoever thought this was a good idea is deranged. (Me. I thought it was.) Only 9 days left of this insanity, then relaxation.
This crunch is tons better than the summer crunch, though. It's cold outside, so it's not like I have pressing matters to attend to outside, as I did in the summer. Tis the holiday season and I tend to not be able to stay in crabby moods during this month. I get to see my friends every day. It's not all bad.
My roommate painted a christmas tree on canvas to hang above our couch since we are not getting a christmas tree this year. I love it so much. It's my new boyfriend, I think I might go sit with it tonight and stare at it, adoringly.
In other news, I took a bath last night. First bath in forever. I covered the drain with saran wrap because we didn't have a plug and it worked like a charm. It was so nice to relax in pool of steaming water. I think we should find a hot tub locale in Virginia over the holidays and sit and stew. Any takers?

I've decided that navigating the sidewalks of New York is like playing Nintendo's, Paper Boy, in that I never walk in a straight path. It's more of a serpentine in order to avoid all the obstacles coming my way. Every other block I do "the dance" with someone else, where neither of us can decide which way to go to avoid the other. There are homeless people with bottles, stumbling around. There are homeless people with hands outstretched for money. There are children running around and tourists by St. John the Divine cathedral. I cannot avoid these people. They are everywhere. And I huff and puff it the 15 minute walk to and from school every day. I think I do a pretty good job walking the serpentine line.

This picture was on the board on the last day of my nuclear class. I took a picture of it because I am immature. The prof taught the entire class without batting an eye. Except Klaus did remark on it saying "what does that have to do with nuclear weapons?" Good question. Point, Germany.

Just another weekend in NyC.

Saturday, after a grueling 7 hours at school working on a power point, I met up with Ms. LMC for dinner. We met on the lower east side and walked to Curry Row. It is this street filled with nothing but cheap and decent-tasting indian food. We ate at a restaurant with a romantic candle-lit table and a sitar player in the corner. After the sitar and curry we went walking around the streets to look for something to do, and then...it started snowing!!
It was so beautiful - I'd never seen snow in new york before. It made everything look cleaner and innocent.
We decided to see something in the snow that we could only see in new york, so we took the 1 train down to the staten island ferry and rode out by the statue of liberty! It was really fun and for the first time in awhile I felt like I was being spontaneous. Oh what fun it is to ride on a one-horse open ferry!
After the ferry, we decided to keep up the fun and have a night of quintessential new york. We took the 4,5 train up to Roosevelt tram, and took the tram over the Roosevelt island, then back to manhattan. Then over to Serendipity for Frozen Hot Chocolate! They were like Washington Carvers at Tryst in DC but thicker and creamier. OMG I ate mine in like 2 minutes.

The whole night I kept thinking - man, this is crazy! What else can we do?! And I would think the thing I always think: Palm Readers. For some reason I think that is the craziest thing you can do in life. I live right on the edge, I know.

But weird things kept happening to me and Laura like we saw 3 cars get flat tires in a row. We saw a woman walking around with a large trench coat and high heels and nothing else underneath (we're pretty sure). Then there was this guy on the ferry that I swear was thinking about jumping off the edge. I had a plan to save him. Throw the life preserver over the edge and go scream inside for help. Well thought out, I know.

Anyway thanks to Ms. LMC for a fun weekend!

Oh, and friday night at my friends bday party I met the half the cast of brooklyn real-world and the mormon guy set me up and made me look really dumb. I can't wait to be on the real world.

Variations on a theme.

Theme? Posing in public transportation hubs.

I just can't get enough.

What is it lately? A lot of my friends who have been in successful and seemingly loving relationships have been splitting up and getting back together. It's an on-and-off love like my relationship with Monster Energy drink. I can't say I'm not also a dabbler in the on-again off-again relationship, but it is hard to see your friends go through it. You know they are both good people and you like them both a LOT individually, and together as a dynamic duo. But as my friend Bone put it - she's a hot chick, he's a good-lookin dude, why don't they hook it up?!

I know it feels satisfying to achieve some sort of equilibrium (especially given that it is nearly impossible to achieve this simultaneously) and I hope each couple can do this, or at least have the courage to give it up altogether. Which can be hard to do, I get that.

Also recently, lots of people close to me are getting engaged and pregnant. Some of these engagements are not surprising, but most of the pregnancies are. Having a baby is such a scary thing - I can't imagine bringing a baby into this recession, especially as a single mother. It always astounds me when people are grown-up enough to make these kinds of decisions. If I were faced with a decision like this, I'd most likely shut down, cry for weeks or months, or just pretend it wasn't happening. Healthy, right?

Anyway one of these people who are engaged (or close-to) is my sister. That makes 5 out of 6 of my family married/engaged. That makes me The Last Child Standing. Terrifying? Relieving? Empowering? More on this later.