THURSDAY=Economics midterm and Accounting midterm
MONDAY=Final paper and presentation
TUESDAY=Statistics midterm

It's times like these I wish I were still working at Hannaford.

"Don't call it a come back! I've been here for years."
--Ladies Love Cool James


Man! I have really abandoned this thing, huh? Sorry kids-it's been a crazy couple of months. I feel like I had so many things I meant to blog about but I couldn't get it onto the page quick enough. So here's what I can think of right now.


Europe was awesome! I've got tons of pictures but haven't actually downloaded any of them onto my computer so why don't you just google "Prague" or "Budapest" and assume we saw whatever you can find.


Right after we got back, I moved into a new condo closer to school which is similarly awesome. (I feel like I need a new adjective) Right now, my mom is acting landlord and dad is maintenance. He's doing a great job, I'm just not sure how comfortable I am leaving my valuables around. He's got some pretty sticky fingers. Fun fact: After the first good rain, I was walking down the steps in flip flops and whoosh! Feet fell completely out from under me and I landed square on my posterior. Of course, there was some guy right behind me who was nice enough to make sure I was ok, but still...EMBARRASSING!


Now I'm firmly entrenched in school and papers and reading and the like. I'm trying to be a big girl and focus on the school work (which I've actually been able to do pretty well so far). But, you know, you gotta decompress a little bit, which is why I'm doing this post while simultaneously watching last night's episode of Gossip Girl. At least I'm multi-tasking my slacking off activities!


This was a pretty text-heavy post, so to make up for it, here's a little Julia-sized treat:

Have you ever seen such a hilarious sweet pea??

Since the TV season ended, I've been recording all the movies I've always meant to see but have never gotten around to actually watching. So I end up watching a few movies per week, usually in 1 hour increments because I end up falling asleep on the couch. Anywho, my point is--how do these movies end up as classics??? The music and acting is so over the top I can't take it. For instance, I just finished watching West Side Story and I realize it's a musical and all but I feel like the gangs could have been more effective at fighting if they didn't have to worry about pointing their toes during their pirouettes. Just a thought.

At the risk of pissing all of you working folk off, my last day at work was last Friday and it's been pretty awesome this whole week. Yesterday, my big outing for the day was going to get my student ID made (adorable by the way!!) and stopping off at Whole Foods for a blended mocha. And then it was right to the couch for a mid-day nap to refresh. I highly recommend this kind of life.

Tomorrow I leave for Prague & Budapest with my mom and sister so do me a favor and send good thoughts for A) the flight over there and B) finding vegetarian fair that isn't just bread and water. Peace out!!

Please take note of the following things that have freaked me out, as of late (feel free to add your own):

1. Snakes (obviously)
2. Plastic horses and/or deer on front lawns
3. Women over 40 who wear miniskirts
4. People who call into Delilah without any sense of irony
5. How much I enjoy calling someone a d-bag
6. Construction workers who stare at you as you drive by them and their nefarious SLOW/STOP sign.

However, kudos to the shirtless dudes who run up and down my street. Keep up the good work fellas!!

For the fourteen-ish months I've been down in NC, I feel like I've been straining to report the same kinds of interesting, odd, and mildly insane experiences I had up in D.C. Little did I know that, just like Dorothy Gale, if I ever go looking for craziness again, I won't have to look any further than my own office break room. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with. Is that right?

Oh of course it is! All this time, I was overlooking this abundant source of entertaining chestnuts--WORK!


As you can see from this picture, someone decided that it was "Mexican Week" at our offices. I can understand your difficulty in sussing that out, seeing as how every 3rd letter is cut out of white paper and then pasted onto...white paper. Trust me, it's no more readable in person. Everyone who comes into the kitchen has the same reaction; squinty eyes, furrowed brow, and the repeated mantra of "mx...an...ee??"


I can only assume that the da Vinci behind this masterpiece was too busy focusing on the details that represent life as a person of Mexican descent to worry about how legible the sign was. Details such as taco seasoning:















Or corn (née maize):




















Just an FYI, I've been to every Hispanic-advocacy group's website I could think of, and this is most definitely not any sort of nationally recognized appreciation week. So, clearly, this fool just decided to make up her/his own celebration. And who starts it on a Friday?? I ask you????

In the month or so since we've last spoken, so many wondrous things have happened. But above all of them, I'd have to say the most amazing one is hearing from Shacacca (TWICE!!) on this blog. Girl, call me!!

I'll touch on the more personal ones below but, as the weeks went by, I kept thinking about all the noteworthy things that were happening around me (of course I ended up being too lazy to actually write about it but whatevah). For the first time that I can remember, NC's participation in a presidential primary was of actual importance. I marveled as I stood in line for an hour and a half at Pullen Park waiting to vote early, and noticed how relaxed and non-gripey (for the most part) my fellow citizens were during this beautiful Saturday. I, myself, rewarded...myself...with a delicious treat from Locopops on Hillsborough St. A latte-flavored popsicle on a sunny, 75-degree Saturday is all kinds of allright.

And of course, the divine and holy savior to all that ills the world, otherwise known as Julia, turned one. She received a call from the Dalai Lama asking for her input into the tensions between China and Tibet but all she told him was "Hi!!" while waving her hand gloriously. Then she said "bubbles" and hung up on him. What can I say? I guess she wasn't in the mood.

Finally, my big news is that after getting the big heave-ho from both Duke & UNC Business schools (that would be their lovely rejection letters), N.C. State came through at the last minute with an acceptance letter. And better than that, they're giving me this graduate assistantship thing which covers health insurance, a stipend, and full tuition coverage. I know I kind of buried my lead there but that was how the email stated it and I got so wrapped up in the health insurance part that I didn't even see the full tuition coverage until Jennifer pointed it out to me. I guess working at an insurance company has rubbed off on me.

If you're lucky, and I get my act together, I'll try to post a picture of me circa 9/10 years old wearing a State cheerleading outfit as thanks to the MBA admissions office gods.

To quote Emma, PRAISE BE!!! I'm a little late chiming in with this but in a few months, I'll regain a little piece of beauty I left behind in D.C. This fall, the awesome Project Runway is moving from Bravo (the stupid channel that stupid Time Warner doesn't carry) to Lifetime (the fabulous channel that the increasingly esteemed Time Warner does carry)! I'm back in the loop suckers. No more trying to find 2 minute clips on Youtube. No more pretending I know what a "hot tranny mess" is. And here I thought that Lifetime was only good for reruns of Golden Girls, Designing Women, and Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?.

If you get a chance, check out the hairstyles that the employees are sporting at the Food Lion on Alexander and Page Roads. The dudes look kinda like this:

The ladies were participating too. They looked more like this:

Just Glorious.