Dear Blogger.

My little cousin was involved a very serious car accident early Saturday morning. He drove his car off the road down in North Carolina and is down there in critical condition. It took rescue workers forty minutes after arrival to free him. He's a fighter and I know he won't give up for anything, but please keep him in your prayers.

Ryan and I grew up incredibly close and our mothers raised us like siblings. My Godmother is his mom and his Godmother is my mom, so we always called each other Godbrother and Godsister. Since we were kids we always promised to love and protect each other always. Since the day he was born our lives have been intertwined; most of my childhood memories have something to do with him.

Please keep him in your prayers.

Us when I was four, he was three. He was ALWAYS shorter than me.

Us in December; I'm nineteen here and he's eighteen. This was only the second time I had seen him when he was taller than me and it felt really, really weird.

Katie takes a a break.

Today is a lazy day for me!

I've had exams back to back for the past two weeks since break. I finally have time to watch an unusually large amount of Weeds episodes and random indie movies I never got to see on Netflix. I'm putting all my homework off until the weekend.

Stephanie is at home, and I'm jealous. I would go home if I could, but I have obligations both Friday and Saturday night. So maybe next weekend. I would like to see James again. Oh, it wasn't posted here I don't think: James and I are back together! After nine or so months apart, it just wasn't working. You can't just ignore a three and a half year connection. I'm not going to put a time frame on our relationship like I was before (what if we date for so long, and then I realize I haven't been with anyone else? Didn't know anything else?). As long as I'm happy and still enjoying his company, I'm going to stay with him. And that's all I need to focus on, yah dig?

Okay, I have to go make some Spongebob mac n' cheese that's staring at me. Man, nothing beats neon orange cheese on a lazy day.

If you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough.

Saint Patrick's Day in Boston with my closest friends. Hello, good time!

Oh, it was awesome, in a really nontraditional way. We went to dinner at Legal Seafood. The weather was warm, so we walked through the Boston Common at night. We played in the empty fountains and had a dance off. James and Ted attempted to climb a tree that left them with battle wounds. We probably looked like every other drunken fool, but we were sober (mostly... Ted is 21 and had a couple drinks with dinner, if I'm being totally honest).


Ted, off the camera, decided to sneak around the other side of this fountain and scare me.

Of course, in true college fashion, we did celebrate being young and alive. This consisted of sitting in Katie's room and talking, but it felt great to be with my friends.

The next day, Friday, was absolutely gorgeous. After getting breakfast with Katie and James, Ted and I explored the city. We walked about an hour to get to Harvard Square down the Charles, singing and playing Questions. We stopped in Urban Outfitters and The Hempist, where Ted bought a hackey sack. I had never played before, and we got to later. We took the T down to Park Street, then walked through Quincy Market. I wanted to show him a view of the skyline from a park in the North end I love, but I couldn't find it (and Cap, forever useless when I need him, didn't answer his phone to give me directions).



Eventually, we did find that park, but in the mean time we played hackey sack with this view in the background.

Have I mentioned before how much I love this city?

We're back at school, let Stress Week commence.

Getting back into the swing of things after having such a great break is really, really difficult. I have about a trillion and a half things to do before Wednesday, AND stats formulas to memorize.

Wah.

But the flip side of this is that James is visiting Katie either Wednesday or Thursday, so I'm sure that I'll see them and we'll go get crepes or something, and Ted is visiting me Thursday night into Friday. YAY!

Plus, on top of having friends visit, Thursday is St. Patrick's Day. I spent last St. Patrick's Day in Boston with Ben and Ethan, and I'm really excited for it. Plus, it's supposed to be nice out (except for Wednesday). YAYAYAYAY so it's stress week, but it's also good things week.

Katie's gagging on my optimism right now. Sorry babe.

Oh hey!

Yeah man, we got tattoos. I think I'm still in shock over it. I got an anchor on my back, because I love the ocean and feel so connected to it and I love Cape Cod and I love sailing and the anchor, out of everything I considered, seemed to be most "me". Plus, there was that one time where I was Googling anchor tattoos and Katie texted me with a picture of one she had drawn on herself.

The anticipation of pain was the worst, and it did hurt. It felt like I was being scratched really hard. I remember thinking as he was doing the outline "Okay, I really don't like this, can it just be over now?" But ten minutes of pain for a lifetime of self-expression is so worth it, and luckily my sister was there to hold my hand.



And a song I'm totally identifying with right now.

Katie & Stephanie prove they're grown up!

Because two days ago, while Spring was visiting, they went and got tattoos!

Yes!

It feels so surreal. I know I have been talking about my idea for two years now. I once had a sheet of temporary tattoos when I was a kid that were butterflies. I used them all making this intricate swirl pattern on my ribcage, making them look like they were flying. I really liked that I idea the more I thought about it, but I decided that if I were to get it for real, I'd make them birds. In the end I decided upon the silhouettes of three birds. Just plain black and simple.

The birds remind me of seagulls, which mean Cape Cod to me, and represent my family. The bird in the front is for my father, the one with the wings spread is for my mom, and the third one is for my sister, Rachel. As I've grown older I've realized how much I miss them, especially when I'm at school. Now I have them all the time!

The actual tattoo itself hurt, though not as much as I'd anticipated. I knew the ribcage was a painful place, but James was there to hold my hand. That helped. The outlines of the birds hurt more than the shading in, I remember. I love the final product.

I am so happy with it. I'm all set though, I don't anticipate wanting any more.

I'll let Stephanie discuss hers!

Spring break 2011!

I'm so excited that it's spring break and it's only Monday (well, technically Tuesday). And it has been so fantastic, even though we're at home instead of sitting on a warm beach sipping margaritas. :)

Let's recap!

Thursday night, Katie, James, Ted and I played Mario Party. It's kind of a tradition we have. Katie always wins. That's also part of tradition. It was really strange, though, because she didn't win. In fact, she came in third. James, who was in fourth when we finished, ended up getting all the bonuses and walking away with the win.

Friday and Saturday nights, we went to our friend Jamie's with a bunch of other friends. I felt really bad, though, on Friday I was in charge of telling Sam she was invited and got wrapped up in Beirut and playing with my friends that it wasn't until I had to tell her something that I wondered why I was texting here and she wasn't witnessing it in person. Anyway, she ended up coming anyway. :)

Sunday, I picked Ben up at the boat and gave him a ride to Osterville. Then I went to Katie's, where we ate Oreos ("Leave it to girls to plan to eat Oreos", thanks Ted) and took a nap. Then Sunday night my family celebrated an end of an era- my mom finally gave our tenant a month's notice to move out and she's not renting anymore. For the first time in as long as I can remember, we're going to have the house to ourselves!

Then Sunday night I went to the harbor with Ted, where we spent a good couple hours playing Questions. Everything from what's your favorite color to your ideal day to if you could have anything to eat right now, what would it be? I picked grilled cheese for the last one. :)

And today I went shopping with Katie and Lauren, treating myself to a shirt and nail polish from Forever 21. Then Katie and I made pizza for Ted and James, and then we watched a super disturbing movie with Gerard Butler. I did not appreciate it.


Mine is the traditional pizza on the left, and Katie's is alfredo pizza, on the right.

Tomorrow, Spring is coming! We're going to eat fried dough in honor of Fat Tuesday and then Katie is having a bunch of our friends over to pAArty. I'm so excited to see Spring, she is a boatload of fun. :)

Katie is a small failure.

Man, I suck at this.

I go through my phases where I'm really into it, then I get overwhelmed and forget. Now that I'm on break though, I hope I'll be able to catch up to Stephanie.

I'm just too tired at the moment, though.

Lata!