Fall Break!

This fall break was the best I've ever had. 

I left late thursday night and caught a red eye to NEW YORK CITY!! It was my first time to visit NYC so I was very excited about it, but also nervous. I mean, what if it didn't live up to my expectations!?

Day!

My first day, after  quick tour of Columbia, Miah and I headed straight to Times Square! It was every bit the hustling bustling center I hoped it to be. I was surprised by how small the New Years ball is. I guess I expected it to be bigger, which is funny cause I've always seen the zoomed in view on tv... if I'd really thought about it I would have known it to be smaller. We had such a great time wandering around. I was over excited to walk through the M&M store, and then Miah took me over to the Library for a walk through. I really enjoyed it, and it was a little flashback to my fall in Europe. You know, it was grandiose, and a little over the top. I loved it.

Night!

We then headed back to Morning-side so that I could take a much needed nap. Miah and I had big plans for a Broadway show, but I could barely keep my eyes open at 1pm. Weird that 5 hours of intermittent airplane sleep wouldn't be enough... haha. Anyway. That was excellent. We then headed back to Times Square to get some broadway tickets. We snagged some tickets to West Side Story, which were expensive even though they were half off. Well... expensive for a college student. I'd never seen it before, well other than the movie, so I was very very excited. We studied it in my broadway musical class, so I was working hard to remember everything. I could only drum up a could of facts, so I guess I'll have to be patient till Christmas and get out my notebook. The musical was very well done. The dancing was just fabulous. I was shocked when Anita got raped, cause I had not idea that happened. I guess it makes more sense now... I always thought it was overly dramatic that Anita says Maria isn't coming after they push her around a little. After I got over that shock, I really enjoyed the show. It was great! I was very pleased with our selection. We walked around for a little bit, but not too long cause I was very very cold. I was amazed by how bright Times Square was at night. The sun was certainly down, but it was still so bright!

Trump Tower

Grand Central Station

The next morning, Miah and I headed to one of his favorite bars that has 25 cent wings on Saturdays. I absolutely am obsessed with wings so I was all about it. They were amazing, and even though I wasn't in Buffalo, I really liked eating them at least closer to their founding. (Oh wait... NEW LIFE GOAL: Eat Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, NY). We then walked around Columbia a little more and stopped by a Cathedral, which was fun. I miss cathedrals in my life, though it was a shock to exit onto a busy street instead of the MunsterMarkt. Then we visited Grant's tomb. I now FINALLY get the joke! Who's buried in Grant's tomb? Grant AND his wife. heh heh heh. Clever, clever. After another nap, we spent the evening crossing off things on my list of must sees.  We went to Grand Central Station, Trump Towers, and Rockafeller Center (rink and all). One of the big things on my list was to play on the gigantic piano in FAO Schwartz. It was such a great store, I'm obsessed. Unfortunately they were closing, so I didn't get to play on it. Guess I have to go back!! That night we went out with some of Miah's friends, and made it to a jazz bar! Pretty cool, but the best part was that we took a taxi to and from!

Sunday was a relaxed day. Slept in late, and the Miah had lost of homework too. So i got to pretend I was a student at Columbia for a day. I really wish I could be, but that ship sailed the fall of my freshman year. Ohhh well. At least I got some work on a paper completed. That was good. Then we headed to Central Park! We'd walked by before, but it was always dark before and I didn't want to die. So I was THRILLED to finally get to go inside. We went in through sheeps garden pasture or something. I don't remember, but it was fun. I really really really liked central park. We stood and listened to some music, and then some comedians who reminded me a little bit of something in the renaissance festival. But not renaissance at all. Hmm. That's a poor description right there! Then we walked down to the water by the Boathouse, which was of course beautiful. We ended up sitting under a tree on a hill looking over a bridge. Then it was dark so we walked out of the park past Yoko Ono's flat, and by Strawberry Fields. Embarrassing, but I was really hoping for strawberries. We caught a quick, and yummy, dinner at Gray's Papaya. It was, of course delicious. We got some dessert at Pink Berry, which is apparently everywhere but WA and the mid-west. So delicious, so healthy.

Lady Liberty

Greta & Adam

Monday I went on my own adventures while Miah was in class. I headed to Fordham University for my first law school visit. I really enjoyed it and am both excited for and am dreading my school search. I then met up with Greta Hanson who was visiting her boyfriend at NYU. We had a nice lunch and then adventures around Wall Street. We were trying to go to this coffee shop where BIG apparently goes all the time, but we couldn't find it. And then he was spotted heading there, and we weren't there and it's all very heartbreaking. Sortof. I was excited to see the NYSE and Tiffanys. We also walked through a reaaaally old cemetery (which Greta was pumped about) and walked past Ground Zero. That was a little chilling since it's just a huge whole in a city that has every inch filled. The memorial looks like it should be pretty neat. Then the two of us walked down to Battery Park and creeped on the Statue of Liberty. I do wish that I had gone to Ellis Island, but the water was super choppy as it was an extremely windy day. I'm alright with my decision not to. The the boys met up wit us for a quick dinner. We all walked over to China Town for dinner. I found the experience to be a little overwhelming. Unfortunately I was unclear as to what China Town is about, so I didn't get myself any cheap copies of anything. Or anything that OOPS! fell off the truck. We had a... vietnamese? dinner that was alright. I love Pho, but I wasn't ready for the lungs and stuff in it. I like my plain old beef kind. I'm a little pathetic. It was a fun evening though. 

Tuesday was a bittersweet day. I really liked the city, and there were a lot of thing I wanted to do but didn't get to. Like sit on the Met's steps, or seeing Starry Night at the MoMA.  We had a nice lunch, and then hung out on Columbia's campus till Miah had class. I ate... AN APPLE IN THE BIG APPLE!! Yessss. And then I hung out while Miah was in class, generally pretending as though I belonged there. Afterwards we each got a HUGE piece of delicious greasy NY cheese pizza. It was to die for, and I ate more of it than Miah. I consider that a great success. We ate them overlooking Riverside Park, where we fed some crazy bird bread and pitted them against one another. Awesome.

It was an absolutely amazing trip. I was so happy the entire time and had a blast. I cannot wait to go back. And who knows, maybe I'll be there for school next year! How great would that be!?

Best. Week. Ever.

I've had an amazing week. A lot of accomplishments, a lot of fun, a lot of big moments. I will start from the beginning.

Monday: I turned in my first paper of the year. I was pleased with my work and considered it a success.

Tuesday: Had my second calc exam, which went well. The afternoon with Tatum was great fun. My first landmark life moment happened with her! I dropped Tatum off at Liana's friends house. It was my first time driving a baby anywhere, and it happened super smoothly. She was very happy the whole ride and I am pleased. Here is the Tator-Tot with the balloon we have in our house. Whenever she is upset, it makes her happy. Mink and I covet the balloon for its magical powers.

Wednesday: Got back an exam from the week before and the essay I'd written for monday. I'm pleased with my scores. I even aced an essay within the exam, which out professor said rarely happens. GO ME. Then I headed to work, for what I thought would be an uneventful evening of calls. Nope! I am now hired as a deputy field organizer for the Washington State Democrats! BAM. Basically, I'm going to get paid for what I'm already doing! I'm absolutely thrilled. And THEN I met some people from the official side, who I blew away with my outstanding work ethic while I was making calls. I found out that Nikki has strongly recommended me for the spring official side internship for Patty Murray. Basically, I've secured myself an internship for the spring- given that Patty wins the election!!!

Thursday: I went and saw the pre-law advisor who soothed some of my fears about law school. And he said just with my GPA I can get into 50% of the law schools out there. I have to wait for my LSAT score to figure the rest... but hey! I only need to get into one to become a lawyer.

Friday: I MET JOE BIDEN! He came into Tacoma for a Get Out the Vote rally with Patty Murray and Christine Gregoire, and a couple other WA democratic Gems. He was an incredible speaker! Afterwwards a couple other people from the campaign and I ran out to shake JB's hand. He gave me a nice shake, and then I was trying to take a picture of him with my cell phone, and he grabbed it, handed it to a secret service guy, and leaned in for a hug. It was amazing. He smelled SO good. And then Patty Murray recognized me! Epic. Such a great day!!

Saturday: I got up bright and early for the LSAT. I thought it went pretty well. You know, it's funny because when people ask how it went I generally respond it went well. And I actually enjoyed taking it. It was fun! I enjoyed all the logic puzzles and stuff. I am so so so so so excited and nervous to get my score back in November! Eeek. Then I headed to the Homecoming football game for an hour. I missed the end of the game, but... I mean it was 35-0 linfield at half or something like that so... it's not like I missed a nail biter. I missed it, because I had to hurry home to get ready for my friend Erienne's wedding!  Erienne looked absolutely stunning! The wedding and reception were beautiful and we had a fabulous time. I must admit jumping around to all the country classics alongside the cha cha slide was awesome. I was legitimately super sore the next morning. I can't believe I'm old enough to be going to my friends weddings, but I'm sure loving it!

Sunday was blessedly slow. It was my first day on the job as a DFO. It was super fun, and I enjoy working with the two guys I'm in a legislative district with. Thank goodness, cause we're going to be spending a lot of time together!!

Looking ahead:
- I'm going to start writing my personal statement! Topic: All the things I never thought I'd learn Life-guarding!
- FALL BREAK!! This is the spring break I've never had, so I'm going big. Can't wait! It will be a joy to have some time off from school and the campaign!

What a weekend!

I had a really amazing weekend. Things are so busy with school and lacrosse and the Patty Murray Campaign  during the week that it's a huge relief to make it to 5pm on fridays!

But let's look back at my week. Wow. Ummm yeah. Very little happening during the week. I made it to the Matador for some chips and Salsa FINALLY. I'd been craving it for so long. And I had an exam and a project due. Both of which I feel pretty great about. That's pretty much it.

Moving on to the fun stuff: as I think I mentioned last post, I had a lot of firsts this weekend.

Mink, Cat, Pave and yours truly!

Friday night, a couple of us girls ventured down to the sound to jump in. I was hoping to jump in, but we ended up just running in! It was amazing, we decided that we're going to all go again in the spring. I really am planning to jump in off a pier, but I insist I go with someone who's done it before. I don't want to go so badly I'll risk injury. Here's the before and after picture!


Then Saturday was another HUGE  night. Three very exciting things happened:

First: I initiated myself into being a ducks fan. Pav said I earned the right to call them my ducks too, as I commentated a quarter for her and Pearce. So now I can saw I love my ducks. Also, watching that made me consider going to a big school for law. Like... get the big experience after the small one here at UPS.

The Party

Second: I attended my first Bachelorette party. My friend Erienne is getting married this coming saturday, which also means that I'm going to my first wedding. At least, she'll be my first friend to get married. It was so much fun.

First slot machine EVER.

Third: I went to my first casino! It was unreal. We started the evening off at the Surf and Turf buffet. Oh my god. Amaaazing. There was all you can eat Crad. I felt like I ate and ate and ate. Probably cause I did. Also, I tried Lobtser for the first time. Not a huge fan... but it was probably cause I had just eaten a bound of crab. Then we went out onto the floor. Pearce, Pav and I rocked the slots. I did really good at first. I think I probably won 20 dollars, throughout the night... but obviously played till I had nothing left. It was fine, cause I wasn't trying to win or anything. And then we finished out the night on the dance floor at Club Sno. It was super fun to just dance with the girls. I was made for casinos. I love the bright lights, and noises, and excitement. Awesome.

 Sunday Jen came down from Seattle and we made scrumptious jam. Of the Strawberry variety and our own concoction: pumpkin apple spice. They're so so so good.

Coming up:
-Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Murray with a GOTV rally in Tacoma!
-LSAT
-Erienne and Ed's wedding.

I sense a trend

Just like last fall, I have found myself super busy and forgetting to update. Only this year, my adventures are a lot less spectacular.

This fall has been so busy. I feel like my time is both super busy and slow. I guess it goes in chunks of time. Anyway, let's be systematic about this.

The internship has been great. I'm becoming much more comfortable with the staff and am having a great time. It's a pretty close race, so I cannot wait to see what happens. We have a super exciting event coming up, which is a Get Out the Vote Rally with Vice President Joe Biden. It's coming to be amazing. I cannot wait! I am working the event, so I should be able to meet him. I'll be sorely disappointed if I don't. In other news, I have met Patty a number of times now, and she's amazing. I adore her, and I think it's great to be working for a woman who is wonderful and stands for great things. Check out what she posted on her facebook!

My classes are great. It's funny though, cause I love what I'm doing in each class. I think the classes are interesting, and I like doing the homework. But I'm just finding myself annoyed with exams. Like, yes, I am in fact aware that much of my learning happens the days before and exam... but still. Things are swiftly approaching mid-terms so the workload is jumping. My wine class is so much fun. We had our first tasting the other week. It was really interesting. We had six different Rieslings, and I was amazed by how different each tasted. Pretty neat.

Each week, Mink and I babysit our coaches daughter. Tatum is so so cute. She's about 6 months old now, so pretty soon she'll be able to crawl. But not yet. Last Tuesday she played with a pink cellophane balloon for 20 minutes. Literally. It was great! Babies are so much fun... but I'm glad she leaves after a couple of hours with us!

My future is also heading for me at high speeds. I'm playing around with the idea of making a gap year to work in DC for a year before I go to law school. I'm nervous because I don't know what kind of law I want to pursue AND I'm not sure where I want to pursue it. That being said, I'm working on it. If I get into an amazing school... I am SO there. Here's the plan. I'm brainstorming personal statements now, and am generally working on getting my ducks in a row. I'm taking the LSAT on October 8! And my goal is to have everything in by Thanksgiving at the latest! I can't believe I'm making these huge life decisions. It's absolutely crazy!

And miscellaneous other life events include being entirely gluten free for an entire month, which expires october 20th. So far, so good. I found a great "tequila bar" downtown that has amazing happy hour nachos, which I prefer to get with sangria. Tequila? Pass. Also I've started watching Friday Night Lights. I'm somewhere in season 2. Aaaand I like to sing "Don't Stop Believing" at Karaoke. 

I have a couple of great events coming up:

-Swimming in the Sound

-Bachelorette party with trip to a casino (which will be a first. Also, since when am I old enough to have friends getting married?!)

-Go Kart Racing

Whale's tales

Things are busy here. I'm busy with school. I'm busy with PFPM. I'm busy with lacrosse. But things aren't quite busy enough. I don't know.

This weekend I had an amazing experience with my cousin Jen, whale watching! We drove up into the San Juan Islands (Well we drove to Anacortta and took a ferry to the islands) and it was simply amazing. Once we got there, we went to our campsite, which Jen had chosen for us. It was called "Glamping." Basically, we were in this great big canvas structured tent that had a bed and a futon. It was so much fun, though there were some gigantic spiders that kept it real. Then we headed out to watch for whales. We got these big suits to protect us from the spray and keep us warm, but also to help us float should we go overboard. Jen, Paige and I chose the front row, or the "Cowboy" seats as our guide explained. We zoomed out into the water, and I was on an intense creature watch. Those stupid bull whip kelps really tripped me up a lot. We ended up going really quite far, not stopping for anything. We finally arrived by Port Angeles (omg twilight ahha) and found 4 humpback whales. They were apparently originally swimming together and then split up. So we first watched the momma and the baby. They were pretty cute, I must admit. Then we left the other whale watching boats to pursue the second pair. Those two were fun! And then they swam around us and under the boat which was so so cool. They were gigantic! I absolutely loved it.

The next morning we woke up to the pleasant, relaxing sound of rain pounding down on our tent. We were all surprised when we left for the mess tent that it was a light rain, not the downpour we were expecting. Then we wandered around the island, making a fragrant stop at a lavender farm, and an interesting time in a whale museum. Whales are so cool.

Now I'm back at school. Things are really picking up. I have my first exam this week, and my first wine tasting for class. 

Ooh, I've created a bucket list for the NW. You know, things I want to do before I vacate the region. I'm really excited about it. There are some really cool things on there, like Climb Mt. St. Helens. Expect more to come on all the exciting things on the list.

Holy Buckets- I'm a SENIOR?

Hello Everyone!

I was talking to a good family friend who suggested I restart the blog. Well... why not? It's a lovely procrastination tool, and a great chronicle.

Things are sure different today then they were a year ago. Then I was unpacking into a funny little room in a bizarre flat in some German city. I didn't know what was going on, and was so so far from home, family, and friends. This year I'm still in a funny little room, but am in a house full of friends. Interestingly, move in this year was rougher than the last. It was hard, and I was unhappy- but thanks to Mom, my room is bright and cheerful and I adore it. I look forward to coming home to it each day. Now I know more or less what is going on, though I do find myself utterly lost and confused in some of my classes. I had a bleak moment in my Philosophy of Law course when the Philosophy kids... did their pretentious 'I'm smart, I'm an academic'  swagger. PASS- I plan to drop that tomorrow in favor of a great internship that I secured TODAY! I will be working on the Patty Murray re-election congressional campaign. It sounds like it's going to be great. Actually, I will have to keep a blog for the internship seminar- but it's going to be private. Besides, I signed a waiver so I don't think I'm really allowed to talk about it anyway.

My other classes are great. I really love my Global Security class. I surprise myself with what I know, and the ideas I have. It's a really good feeling, and so I'm looking forward to my thesis in the spring. My other class I am SUPER excited about- it's all about the politics of wine. My professor seems passionate about it, which is the best. Each week he's going to suggest a wine for us to try while we do our homework. We're not allowed to actually drink in class- which is truly unfortunate - but we have some wine tastings throughout the semester.

So the academic year has roared to life in a few short days. It's really wild how much I feel like I need to be making big, huge, life choices. However, since I've been feeling lately that whenever I make big plans they get annihilated, I'm taking a big huge break from planning. I'm rolling with the punches- or rather I'm trying. Let's be honest, I like making plans almost as much as I like getting what I want... so it's real hard for me to let go and go with it. New things are good though, right?

USA

It is so good to be back. I can't even convey how nice it is to understand what is going on all the time. It's been such a joy seeing familiar faces, and I do SO love the United States of America.

Picking up where I left off, Mom and I had a lovely time skiing the Alps. We ended up going to Axamer Lizum, which is where the Olympic women's team competed in some year or another. It was heavenly. The actual ski area was a lot smaller than, say, colorado resorts, but there were loads within 15 minutes driving time from one another and Innsbruck. We had an amazing time, and the coolest part was there was a sun dog the entire time we skied. Dad was definitely with us.

After skiing the morning, the three of us drove into Zurich for the night. That was a beautiful drive and we came to the conclusion that the Alps are very different than the rockies. Steeper, smaller, and jagged.

The flight home was a little bit of a nightmare, as we flew the day after those attempted bombings. We flew through Amsterdam- which was a mistake, as that's where those planes originated. First we had to cut down our carry ons to one item each, which was rough after meticulous planning and packing counting two carry ons per person. Mom and I sacrificed our backpacks to the checking system and crossed our fingers, after frantically pulling out laptops and anything else that might be considered breakables. Our short flight to Amsterdam was easy, Mom got a chance to shop duty free in Amsterdam (her favorite?), and we arrived at the gate 2.5 hours early- at the boarding time. We then proceeded to have our passports scanned & were asked a bunch of questions, went through security AGAIN, were patted down and had our carry ons dug through. We got on the flight to find a friend, Mrs. Janco was a flight attendant. She pampered us the whole way and it was fabulous. The only annoying thing about the flight was that the last half hour we couldn't have anything out. No books, no blankets, no water bottles, no nothing. Fortunately, we were allowed to continue using the little screens on the seats with the provided headphones. Using our own was a no no. It sucked, but I thought it was worth it to get home.