I'm on track to graduate!

I just got in from a meeting with my adviser and it went so well. Let me start out by saying that I really like my adviser; she's a sweet older nun who really seems to care about her students. When I officially declare my major (another story altogether, to be honest) I'm going to miss her.

Last semester I was not a good student. First of all, statistics is the devil's way of beating self-confidence to a pulp. Second, after Ryan's accident, I dropped off the face of the Earth. I'm not making excuses for my poor grades, but that's what happened. Ryan's accident happened at a really pivotal point in the semester--a little less than 3/4s of the way through, when papers and exams are starting to get even more serious and studying outweighs almost anything else you could be doing.

I didn't have the emotional capacity to even be away from my family for a few weeks, never mind write papers on gender and inequality. When I came back to school, I managed to make up for most of my lost time and I didn't fail anything. My GPA, however, suffered greatly, and I was put on academic probation.

That isn't who I am, you know. I'm good at school. I don't usually have to work too hard to maintain good grades and my GPA usually hovers around 3.2. When I got the letter explaining academic probation and the restrictions it has on me, one of the restrictions was that I could only take 16 credits.

Each class at Emmanuel counts for 4 credit hours and most students only take 4 classes per semester to graduate on time. This means I could only take 4 classes. In order to graduate on time, I have to take 20 credit hours (5 classes) for the next four semesters.

I struggled at first with this news, but slowly came to terms with it. If I have to stay an extra semester at Emmanuel, I will. I want my college degree. No, I need my college degree. Graduating college is something that's very important to me, and if it meant graduating in January 2014, I'd do it. Of course I'd do it.

(Why? I've come this far in my academic career, it would be dumb to drop out now. If I were to drop out, what would I do? Work at Dolci the rest of my life? No thank you, I smell when I come home from working there. Education was really important to my grandfather. I'll be the first one in my immediate family with a college degree. My parents are going to be so proud when I get my diploma, a diploma I worked my butt off for. It's like a big slap in the face to everyone who doubted me. Like, haha! I succeeded! The party we'll have for my sister's high school graduation and my college graduation is going to be epic. Not everyone can do this, you know. I want to be able to show the world what I'm worth. But talk minus action is worthless; I can spout off all my abilities whenever I want, but they aren't going to prove anything to anyone. That degree is what matters.)

Today, I found out that I am, in fact, a junior. I will graduate on time. I will walk across that stage adorned in blue and gold, and I will receive a diploma without having to go to school an extra semester.

Words cannot describe how excited I am right now.

Back in Boston!

I'm happy here. I missed the city a lot, and even though I really miss my friends from home, I'm happy here.

Classes are going well so far. It seems like a lot of work but nothing I can start on now, during my down time. That's kind of annoying. I have papers and things hanging over my head that I know I'll have to do eventually, I just don't have the knowledge now. Slightly frustrating, but it's really more of a champagne problem.

Where did summer go?!

This summer has FLOWN by.

In less than 36 hours I will be back in Boston as a junior in college. Holy crap! I'm like, old!

This summer, I can honestly say, has been the best and worst o my life.

Let's get the negative recap out of the way:
1. Drinking too much and getting sick, then having to work at 8am completely hungover. I had to leave early, I could barely stand. I went home, slept for six hours, then went back out that night. In my defense, that night was Ted's birthday, and I'm a champ, so...
2. So much friend drama. I spent far too many nights up late crying and venting with friends about other friends. It was so messed up. It was like no one wanted to get along and everyone was in it for themselves. Now, thankfully, everything is good, and I can happily report that I personally am getting along with everyone.
3. Work sucked. I hate everything about working until 11pm six nights a week.
4. The summer to do list did not get completed.
5. For a long time I just didn't feel like myself. I wasn't as happy as normal.

Now the good stuff:
1. I'm tanner than I've ever been.
2. My beach day with Ted that we spent seven hours relaxing on the beach only getting up to swim has gone down as the best day ever.
3. The night I walked out of work with Dyl to find all our friends waiting for us in the parking lot.
4. Meeting Mike Chase and Paige, who are two incredibly sweet people.
5. Six Flags (the first trip was better than the second).
6. Ending the summer by going to the driving range and then tidepooling until sunset.
7. Sleepovers at Katie's, waking her and Burgess up for pancakes.
8. That sleepover at Katie's before Six Flags where we watched Your Highness and fell asleep.
9. Winning my heat in the demo.
10. The failed glow in the dark game of capture the flag.
11. Growing a backbone.
12. Learning to prioritize.
13. Learning new nouns, such as 'Mike Chase special' and 'dickleech'.
14. The dinner train.
15. Various bonfires at my house, Katie's, Jeff's, Hamblin's.
16. The night we played mini golf then went hottubbing at Sam's.
17. Beating Theodore at go-cart racing, even though my win came out of a bribe.
18. Burning that Christmas tree.

Okay, so it's been a while.

But we've been busy, I swear. So much has been going on and as usual, the days are blending into each other. Work 9-5 on the railroad, drive home, have dinner, get picked up by James, drive, see friends, come home, sleep, wake up, go to work...

Literally. Every day.

But I don't mind it, though. It means I'm having fun, right? I feel like I'm fitting lots into my summer schedule. We did Six Flags, I went to Maine, attended a wedding, celebrated Dylan's, helped plan my sister's wedding, and celebrated Vanessa's birthday in Boston. The latter was just this past weekend I had so much fun seeing everyone. The restaurant we went to had some deal where you pick x amount of appetizers, salads, and pastas and they keep bringing plates of them to you, nonstop. I could go for some of what we had there right now. I wasn't sure how creepy it would have been to store tons of leftovers in her fridge overnight then hope it survives the ride home in the AC. Speaking of- I drove all the way through Boston! Granted it wasn't downtown, but the (scary) highway, whatever it is. But I was able to get through like nothin'.

Now is the part in my schedule where I pass out. I leave you with this picture that I really like. Wouldn't it be so cool if this were able to be painted almost photorealistically? I wish I could.

Vinny graduated!

Awwh my little baby Vinny is all grown up! Vinny and I have been friends for, I don't know, four years now? A long time. He got me the job at the cafe and we work practically every night together. I couldn't be happier for him!

Last night after work I went to his house for his party. We were late and everyone had already left, but it wasn't a problem. I've learned that my friends bring the party. We hung out with Vinny for awhile, eating delicious food and playing hackey sack. We also managed to play... oh God, I can't remember what Katie calls it, but I'm going to call it the circle game. We played the circle game, where everyone walks in opposite directions and you try not to run into each other. We got four people involved; our most successful yet.

Katie, as usual, gave Ted his insulin, and I had to laugh. She's going to be such a cool nurse. I can totally imagine her dancing around with needles in her hand. And then there's Ted and Samantha in the background like "Katie, that's not safe..."





After the party, Ted and I went back to my house to watch a movie, but during a commercial break we saw an ad for mint chocolate chip Klondike bars.

I wish I had caught our reaction on video.

My mouth drops open and I point to the screen. Ted goes "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?!" and I asked him what time it was.

I don't really remember there being a discussion about what was to happen next, I just know that I was instantly finding shoes and we literally ran to his car. We saw the ad at 10:20pm... do you know what time all the grocery stores close on a Sunday here? 10:00pm. We hit six stores before we gave up at 7/11 on Main Street and settled for ice cream and Poptarts. I'm still mildly upset we didn't get them and will probably end up going to the store today...