Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Addicted

Hi my name is Jenniac and I'm a Dave-aholic.

So this morning I was already have heart palpitations at the thought that I will be seeing my David Cook on THURSDAY. YES THURSDAY as in THIS THURSDAY. THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW! My sister is coming with me to the show and I don't think she knows what she got herself into. I am RENTING a car to drive to NEW JERSEY of all places to see him...if that's not love I don't know what is.

Well I continued to feed my addiction by buying tickets to see him at the Georgia State Fair on October 18th. Sadly this venue is an arena so it's not general admission, but I got 24th row CENTER so I guess I'll have to handle that. It will be my 14th DC show in like 15 months. If I can keep up the 3.5 shows a year pace I'd be MORE than okay with that.

At the moment I have a youtube playlist of David's songs from my Athens concert. I really don't think I've ever been this gaga over a singer, I don't know what he does to me, but I can't get enough.

This will most likely be my last post before I head to New York tomorrow afternoon, but I will try and blog at least a little bit from my Blackberry while I'm away. And for those of you keeping score next Tuesday is my birthday, the big 2-6. Ohmy. I just got used to being 25 and all of a sudden I'm gonna be 26, where does the time go. I must wish a Happy 26th Birthday today to my "j-twin" Christine "Patrick Ireland" McKenna!!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Tall Ireland Improv

I'm pretty pleased with the random title of my post, but really it isn't random since I wanted to quickly write about all three.

Most of you probably know that I am self conscious about my height...yes I know that's weird, but I have a "Jesse Spano Complex." Anyway I just saw this posted on facebook and I though it was interesting. Conan O'Brien: "A study shows that tall people perform better than short people at their jobs. That is, unless, your job is making cookies in a tree." I actually googled this and it's true. Tall people are better workers, are more likeable, seen as more powerful and make more money. AWESOME! I just still hate that I'm the same height as "average American males."

I have been itching to travel outside of the US for quite sometime and even have made it a New Years Resolution this year to get my passport (which I haven't done YET, but I plan to do once the school year starts up). There are tons of places I want to go, but I really want to make sure I hit up the countries of my own nationalities - Czech Republic/Slovakia, Italy and Ireland. After watching the movie PS I Love You again this weekend (after seeing the Ugly Truth with yummy Gerard Butler) I decided I want to hit up Ireland first. My goal is to travel to Ireland by my 27th birthday - so that gives me a little over a year. I am going to do all the research and then hope some friends would be able to join me for the trip. I thinking Thanksgiving/Christmas/St. Pattys(Spring Break)/My Birthday next year. I know friends are interested so I pumped, I want to make this happen and know that once I pop my "overseas cherry" I'm going to be doing A LOT MORE traveling!

Lastly I met with a startup Improv Troupe in the next town over last night. I had NO IDEA what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. They just formed earlier this summer and are still looking for members. There are 4 solid people at the moment and they were awesome. We played improv games for 2 hours last night and it was great. I'm really stoked to see where this goes.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Fierceness

Okay this is my first blog I'm writing from my blackberry so we'll see how this goes.This morning I had a hair appointment and I'm not gonna lie I was nervous because I liked my old girl so much and her prices were awesome. I've been long overdue for a cut and color, but camp kept me so busy I wanted to put it off until after camp. I decided to go where both my coworkers go and hope for the best. I was very specific because I knew exactly what I wanted and luckily my stylist was fantastic and I got EXACTLY what I wanted...a cherry cola lob. Now lwt me explain...I describe my hair color as cherry cola because it a warm browm that has a hint of red with black lowlights. A lob is a term for a long bob haircut...mine is short and stacked in the back and angel to the front which is shoulder length. My stylist impressed herself and even took pictures of my hair to add to her portfolio! The best part was that the price was all very reasonable!!! So I am thrilled to have found a new excellent stylist.
At the moment I am waiting at the car dealership on an oil change and a repair on my tire that had a screw in it! I have a bunch of errands I need to run today in preparation for NEW YORK. Yesterday I finally deep cleaned my closet and bagged up a ton of stuff in addition to going through some other things in my room to better organize my life. I felt very accomplished and hope to clean and organize more tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to the movies to see The Ugly Truth which is prob the first movie I've seen in theatres since the Dark Knight last year, I'm not a big movie goer.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Happy Anniversary

I'm officially a jerk. I missed my own blog's anniversary. My first post was July 22, 2008. Well happy belated anniversary MQLC blog! I'm pretty proud of my 115+ posts and the fact that I've written regularly. Looking forward to another great year...a year in which I will be 26...yuck!

Creative Outlets

I would definitely say I'm a creative person as least in the cerebral sense, but I wish I was more physically creative. I wish I could paint, draw, sing, play an instrument, or dance. I get insanely jealous of those who can do those things. For me music is intoxicating and powerful. I wish I could sing, play an instrument, write music and after watching a favorite clip of mine like this...dance.



I really do think I have NO business dancing. A favorite quote of mine is from college when I was dragged to a hip hop dance/workout class. After 35 minutes I couldn't stand it, I was too off rhythm and awkward. I sat down in the back of the class for the rest of it and watched. Afterwards I told my friends, "I wore plaid for far too many years to be any good at hip hop dancing" (I went to catholic school and wore a uniform). Any dancing though I am just terrible. I think part of it is confidence and although at times it seems like I have enough ego to spare I can NO confidence when it comes to dancing and I prefer to bop my head to the music and watch those that are talented do the dancing - and watch the fools that can't dance, but have confidence regardless.

My favorite creative outlets are in my writing (NOT HANDWRITING), acting, directing, problem solving and accessorizing. I actually have been e-mailing with my Calligraphy teacher about tattoos and ambigrams and after telling her about my tattoos and sending her some links in a lengthy e-mail one of the things she wrote back saying is that from my e-mail she can tell I'm a good writer. I guess it's in my storytelling and how I organize my thoughts - I THINK YOU ALL SHOULD TELL ME WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT MY WRITING IN A COMMENT! I guess I should mention my calligraphy class, it's interested, but I don't think I'm disciplined enough (story of my life). I do hope to maybe use my Calligraphy skills on some projects and possible gifts in the future. One of the major rules of calligraphy is to TAKE YOUR TIME, I try my best. I know in my regular handwriting I think waaaaay faster than I write and part of the reason why my handwriting is so atrocious is because I'm trying to get my thoughts out as fast as possible. Even my typing is sloppy because when I'm in "flow" I want to get everything before I forget or before I get too far behind. I am the queen on typos on the computer and I am a terrible proof reader because when I read things I like automatically "auto correct." I know what I'm saying so I really just skim it.

In terms of acting and directing I'm finally reconnected with those outlets. I am working with our community theatre for a one night only sceneworks. I am directing a scene with 3 awesome ladies and I'm really excited for where the it is going. We still have 3.5 weeks until our workshop, but I'm pumped regardless. Unfortunately I wasn't able to act as well, I just got too busy to commit to two projects especially while Camp was still going on. However the community theatre is doing acting workshops once a week which has been fun. God I miss acting class we had so much fun, one of the perks of being a theatre minor I guess. I actually just heard about an improv troupe that is trying to start up in the next town over so I am meeting going to a rehearsal on Sunday to meet everyone and see if it's something that I would be interested in committing to. My sister has really enjoyed her improv experience and I've enjoyed my minimal experience.

I also really love problem solving and thinking outside of the box. I think it's a great skill of mine and that other people really appreciate it. Lastly I said accessorising, because I try and put thought into it. I am REALLY into earrings, I think it's because I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 16. I like to try and coordinate my earrings with my outfits. I also used to try and coordinate my watches with my earrings as well, but I'm calmed down with that a bit. So yeah when someone compliments my earrings I ususally get really excited because I put thought into wearing them...almost more-so than any other article of clothing I am wearing! I swear I could be wearing PJs and if I have funky earrings in I feel awesome.

I'll stop rambling...obviously this blog is a superfabulous creative outlet for me.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Holy Cow!

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/teacher-charged-in-rape-of-girl-15-he-met-online-1.1316936

This is BIG news at home on Long Island. My mom left me a message saying someone from Rolling River (a day camp I worked at) was arrested and she was curious if I knew him...his name is Danny Rothbard.

OMFG...yes I knew Danny Rothbard. I worked with him for 3 summers. I was by no means "friends with him" especially since he was like always treated like the Golden Boy by everyone. I remember when he had to leave camp a few days early one summer because he was leaving for his freshman year of college at Towson.

It's so messed up and I can't believe I actually know someone in the news for something this crazy.

To end things on a brighter note...I didn't really care too much about Danny Rothbard, but I was too busy crushing hard on Danny Sloan those summers. I do want to mention I got an IM from one of my friends from high school saying she was panicked for a second when she read the article because she thought the Danny that got arrested was Danny Sloan and she couldn't remember Danny Sloan's last name...until of course she realized it was SLOAN. However it is totally understandable because we rarely referred to him as Danny it was always DannySloan - 1 word.

Monday, July 20, 2009

3 years wow

Can it really be 3 years since this http://campwareagle.blogspot.com/2006/07/closing-time.html

Yup, three years ago today was what I thought would be my last day working at Auburn University. Well as it turns out that wasn't the case. 2006 was such a great and memorable summer. As much as that feels like yesterday, it also could have been a lifetime ago. I have grown and changed so much in these past few years that sometimes I don't recognize myself - some times for better, sometime for worse - but that's all a part of growing up I suppose. I'm thankful to have the words of my former self to look back on and try to remember what it was like to be 22 going on 23. At the same time I'm very curious about what my world will be like in another 3 years. The past is written, but the future awaits...

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Goodbye CWE '09

Last week we had our last of 8 sessions of Camp War Eagle. What a summer! Great counselors, fantastic staff and decent weather (yes it was hot, but we had very little rain). Session 8 is always emotional for the counselors who only get to be a counselor for one summer and the head counselors who come back for a second summer to train/supervise the counselors. It was bittersweet seeing the War Eagle Welcome and Real World skits for the last time after seeing them a million times. As I mentioned in an earlier post I presented quite a bit at camp and I can't believe I presented 32 times this summer between my diveristy sessions and my out of state student sessions. What I remember most about session 8 is all the laughter...the staff grew so close this summer and we made sure to have a ton of fun. My favorite memory was Ella crying from laughing so hard at me laughing like Richard does and then Richard laughing and us both doing his awkward laugh - Ella lost all control of herself...it was excellent. One thing I won't miss about camp...the uniform...no thanks shorts, sneakers and polo...NO THANKS. Oh wait I have SOS in a few weeks and will have to wear my uniform, but it will only be for one day.

Friday night the professional staff and head parent/camp counselors all dinner and a wrap up meeting at Mark's house. Mark's fabulous wife put together a sensational Mexican dinner. Again a lot of laughs and enjoy eachother. I know for one I was so proud of our head parent/camp counselors for the stellar job they did and I am going ot truly miss them being in the office constantly (CODI DO YOU HEAR ME...I KNOW YOU READ THIS). Friday was a late-ish night, I got home a little after midnight after a exhausting week (camp combined with my NC trip).

Saturday I had to be up at 9:40am to get to the office to set up for the banquet. After that I ran some errands and got ready for the camp counselor banquet. I wore a SPECTACULAR orange dress than I bought in May at Ross for $20...It's heaven, no joke and I look SMOKIN' in it! It was fun to see everyone all cleaned up and get some pictures. The first part of the banquet which started at like 5:30pm was at the AU hotel and we have dinner (I tried creme brulee for the first time...yum), awards, freebies, pictures and then we headed back to Foy at like 8pm for part 2 of the banquet. Inbetween we got to change into comfy clothes. At the second part of the banquet we played slideshows, gave more awards, staff gifts, a HILARIOUS skit/roast that we put on making "fun" of the camp counselors, plus a suprise video from "Team Big Sexy" which featured Mark rapping (I will post the video as soon as it's online). Oh but that is not all...after all that - probably close to 2 hours we then started "speeches." Each of the 36 camp counselors gets 2-3 minutes to speak to the group (they usually give shout outs, talk about memories, cry, etc). There were A LOT OF TEARS THIS YEAR (suprisingly not a whole bunch from me...but I was wearing my fake eyelashes and didn't want to cry them offf haha). After all the camp counselors give their speeches then head counselors and staff give longer speeches. Honestly I love the banquet and hearing from everyone because it always reminds me how much I love my job and the changes I can make in people. Believe it or not the last speech ended at like 4:45AM. Then we had to say the creed and sing the fight song plus all the hugging and lingering. I didn't get home til 5:45AM. The banquet was over 12hours long, but I loved every second of it. I went home and pretty much went right to sleep despite the sun being out.

Sunday I slept from 6am til about 4pm because I had to be up for the Parent Counselor banquet. I pretty much walked Freddie, ate "breakfast" and got ready. I wore my cute dress from New Years which all featured a lot of orange. The whole PC banquet took place at the hotel and was similiar to the Camp Counselor banquet. We took groups pictures, awards, freebies, gifts, sideshow, video, dinner (I got my own yummy Creme Brulee) and speeches. There are less PCs and their job isn't as 24/7 as Camp Counselors so their speeches were a bit shorted Regardless the banquet lasted til about 9:30pm and I got home around 10pm. I went straight to bed.

Now that camp is over the office is SO much more quiet, but I am still busy with Welcome Week plans, SOS in a month, the University 1000 course I'm teaching and so other projects. The next few weeks without so many students passing through will be weird, but I look forward to another school year starting up!

P.S. Yes I gave you TWO blogs in ONE day since I was such a slacker!

Birthday Wish List


Well I bought myself a little early birthday present...a BLACKBERRY

I love treating myself for my birthday...if I had more money to spend I would have also liked these things:

GPS - Magellan, Garmin or a TomTom

Flatscreen TV

1 month rent free

Wii and Wii fit

Monthly massages

A hotel room at the beach for a weekend (Destin)

David Cook

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Friends, Fireworks & Fun

Wow the past 2 weeks have been BUSY with my trip to NC, session 8 of camp and then banquets galore. Since there is oh so much info and I don't want to write a crazy long post I will break it up in NC and camp.

So on July 1 after session 7 of camp and a bunch of meetings I sent Freddie off the the kennel and packed up my car along with my 4 Head Camp Counselors that were flying to Boston the same night. I have to say it was awesome having a full car for the drive. I've done so much solo driving that I forgot how great trips with a car full of people can be. After parking, security etc we had enough time to grab dinner because my flight wasn't until 9:20pm and theirs was at 9:50pm. Well with time changes and waiting to get seated etc...after we placed our orders and they would about to come out someone asked what time it was and it was 8:55!!! I like ran from the table and to the tram to get to my terminal...I made it with time to spare, but it was nerve wracking. The flight from Atlanta to Charlotte was only 42 minutes! I bought the books that True Blood is based on and haven't even got halfway through the first one yet! Anyway Drew and Jesse (2 Quinnipiac Orientation peeps) live super close to the airport so I called them when we landed and they were there in like 10minutes. I wish I lived 10 minutes from an airport (next move I make I swear I better be within 20 minutes...even though chances are I'll be in the Northeast and won't even need to fly often..well I guess down here and to TX to visit).

It was so good to see them...Drew and I have been best friends for a number of years now so it was fantastic to be hanging out with someone you have so much history with. Jesse I've always known, but didn't "know...know." They gave me a tour of their super cool apartment (aka 4 floors of "boxes") with a room deck with a view of the Charlotte skyline. I didn't get in til like 11pm, but the boys were down for some beers at a chill pub within walking distance so I was game. We hung out for a while catching up and shooting the breeze it was glorious.

The next day Drew had to work and Jesse was off, so Jesse and I slept in and had breakfast and coffee (lots of coffee) that morning. I apparently make a better cup of coffee than I thought. We also watched a quality episode of Full House. I actually wanted to be OL partners with Jesse my senior year since out group was going to be Jesse and the Rippers, but it didn't work out. So we got ready and Jesse gave me a mini tour while we drove to Davidson College where Drew works. Davidson was so cute and Drew gave us like a 2 hour tour on a golf cart even though we did a TON of walking as well. Davidson's mascot is the Wildcat and they have a statue that looks EXACTLY like the Quinnipiac Bobcat(which is supposed to be a one of a kind)...hilarious...the only difference was the paw position. It was cool to see a TINY private college and learn about it.

That night we all headed to Uptown Charlotte for Alive After 5 which is like an blockparty in a shopping center with coverbands, lots of beer and lots of 20&30somethings. It was TONS of fun and we met up with some of Jesse and Drew's friends. We ended up going to a wing place for a bit and then ended up at a dueling piano bar. A LOT OF FUN WAS HAD...so much so I don't remember all of it. We took the light rail back - which is a cheap little trap that costs like $1.50 we took it uptown as well. The light rail stop is only a few blocks from their apartment. Drew and I ended up swinging by the pub we had gone to the night before for some darts which was HILARIOUS and I hit a few bullseye (even with my eye closed and throwing all 3 darts at once). At like 3am Drew and I went up to his rooftop deck to talk life and nearly fall alseep...classic.

I hate drunk sleep...I feel like it doesn't count. Friday I did get to drink my Dunkin Donuts iced coffee out of my awesome cup I had bought the day before while getting another iced coffee. Oh Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee how I miss you. It's ridiculous how empty my life is without it. Jesse had to work Friday so Drew gave me a driving tour of all Charlotte which was fun. Friday afternoon I met up with STAR! Star only lived like 15-20 minutes from Drew which was awesome. It was weird/not weird to see Star because I haven't SEEN her since Sept '06, but we talk often. So basically I plopped down on the couch and we caught eachother up on the details of our lives. I got to meet her fun fiance Travis and see her wedding dress (which is like crumbled in a ball int he box...typical Star). We went to this fun little dive called Penguins for hot dogs, fries and deep fried pickles. Yum Yum. It's crazy that Star is like healthy and normal now, minus her ONE crutch which I think she is using for pity. Then They drove me to see where Star worked and where the wedding and reception are going to be. We also explored this GIANT Cult of a church and it's "campus" in addition to a fancy schmancy neighbor that Travis got us lost in. We went back to Star's place and then talked about Auburn and Camp War Eagle for a solid hour...Travis hid in the bedroom (good call). I'm so glad that Star is loving Charlotte life and is healthy and happy. It was great spending time with her and I'm excited to see her in August when she is down in Auburn for a wedding shower!
Friday night Drew and Jesse took me to NODA (North Davidson) which is a artsy/hippy part of Charlotte which was cool and then ended the night at this chill bar that outback made me feel like I was in a treehouse. Lots of random conversations...especially about dating/relationships/etc.

Saturday I said goodbye to Jesse before he left for work (that boy had the craziest work schedule) and then later Drew and I grabbed a YUMMY brunch before heading to Greensboro to meet Steve (from grad school that works at UNC Chapel Hill). Drew and I basically sang most of the drive...I love when people share the same taste in music with me. We get to enjoy the same tunes as well as recommend music eachother would like. So we met up with Steve and after we all grabbed a coffee (from Starbucks, not Dunkin Donuts sadly) I got to switch "custody" I said I felt like they were divorced parents with shared custody...haha. It was so good to see Steve I hadn't seen him since Alcoholiday in December 2007. Steve and caught up on the drive to UNC and then he game me the grand tour of Chapel Hill. It was a really interesting campus with some cool history and traditions (I'm such a dork). We also got to explore some residence halls which again I'm loser and found exciting. Steve's hall director apartment was sweet and being the stupid boy he is...he couldn't even fill one closet with clothes let alone two! We went to Raleigh aka Raleighwood for dinner and drinks and met up with some of his friends who were awesome. We got back to UNC in time for fireworks that were getting shot off from the football stadium. Steve took me to some highrise apartments on campus with balconys and we had a FANTASTIC view of the fireworks. That night we went to downtown Chapel Hill to the infamous Franklin Street and went to Top of the Hill for drinks. It was a really cool bar/brewery and I had drank tasty blueberry beer all night! The only part of the evening was walking back to Steve's on campus. It had taken us like 15-20 min to walk there, but Steve took a "short cut" and it took us like 45 min. The next morning we went to the Ye Olde Waffle Hut and then explore Durham including trip a trip to Duke (We also drove through NC State's campus the night before). Hung around the apartment for a while, grabbed dinner and before I knew it, it was time to fly home. No flight drama luckily, the only part that was no fun was driving home from the airport in the torrential rain. OF COURSE the ONE EXIT that there was an accident was ON THE EXIT RAMP that the Dunkin Donuts in Georgia is on. I was temped to go to the next exit and turn around, but I got a grip.

More about the Camp Banquets tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Carolina Triangle

I know my loyal blog readers...all 5 of you want to my blog about my North Carolina trip. I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that I wrote it. The bad news is that I MENTALLY wrote it. The past few days have been so crazy with play rehearsal, calligraphy class, bonding with Freddie and now out last session of Camp War Eagle 2009. If i get some down time tomorrow or Friday I promise to write. Just know it was fabulous and I had too much fun!