"Sometimes you just gotta..walk awayyyy from the table!"

Easter basket from my Aunt Lisa! Lime-scented bubbles and every college kid's favorite: ramen noodles, included!! Had a great day today: going to church, taking the scenic route of the T to South Hills Village with D and Caroline, spending time with my relatives, eating amaaaazing food and feeling absolutely stuffed, and enjoying a nice walk with my little cousin. Really, I could not have asked for a better Easter holiday. I hope everyone else's was just as enjoyable!

Can't wait until...FRIDAY! :)

Globular Clusters!?

So today was basically a hands down gorgeous day. I slept in til about noon, had some lunch with D, Caroline, Maggie, and Amy and then began my adventure!

looooved this; locks. 

If there's one sort of "secret" place about Pitt that I love, it has to be Schenley Park. Seriously. It's like..this hidden nature walk in this secret valley right in the middle of Pittsburgh. From our dorm building, we walk down Forbes, cross over past the carousel, and walk over a bridge or two. Walk past the Phipps Conservatory and there it is. A steep set of stairs and suddenly the life of the city world is completely gone. You don't hear anything. No cars. No sirens. No construction. Just the crunch of the stones under your feet and the occasional panting of the dogs that you pass. It's beautiful. 

Daniela and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day (between the random spurts of rain) and to get some exercise at the same time by taking a walk. I told her that I wanted to show her Schenley since she hasn't been there yet and her first reaction to the place was the same that mine had been: "howwww did I not know about this place?!" There were so many people out too. We walked for close to two hours, stopped at some really pretty bridges, took some awesome pictures, and sat down by this little pond/lake sort of thing (I'm not really sure how to classify it) and watched this family with three kids playing with their dog just enjoying the nice weather. We talked about what our next three years are going to be like here at Pitt, and how happy we are to have found a place like this to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. *sigh* It reminded me a lot of taking walks at Wildwood back at home, and really, if anything else, made me really really miss our dog. I can't wait to take him for long walks around the lake in just one week!!!

So other than our escape from reality today, life in the Burgh has been pretty school-related. My last class of my freshman year ended Thursday morning with a test, and I spent the rest of the day being incredibly productive. I spent the night in the library with Lauren, Goop, and Maggie, and compleeeetely finished my Film Final Project. I worked a solid eight hours on it on Thursday and it feels soooo good to finally be done! And since I worked so hard on it, I took the entire day of Friday off from school work. It was a super rainy day anyway so I spent it watching movies and tv shows and sipping on some free Starbucks coffee (thank you Earth day!) It was just splendid ;)

  thank god for the Cathedral...it always

aids us in finding our way back from all of 

our adventures!

And now here I am, Saturday night, hanging out upstairs in the lounge with Goop and D. Casually studying for my Astronomy final and enjoying some free tea and cookies courtesy of the RA's of Holland. It really could not get any better. We'll probably be up here for awhile, end our night with some strange movie, and laugh until our stomachs hurt..because those are just the kinds of nights you end up having when you're in college with your best friends. It's really an awesome thing. I can't believe that I'll be out of here in just a few days. It's so surreal seeing people moving out of their rooms already, wheeling carts all over campus filled with microwaves and suitcases. Chances are, most of those things will sit in a pile until next semester, when we'll all pack our cars up again, move in again, and create a billion more memories together again. I can't even wait :)

if you look reaaalllly close, you can see Daniela, Lauren,

Kim, and Kimmy's future apartment in the background!

Happy Easter Everybody! I hope you all enjoy good food and good company! I know that I will...at my Aunt's house with my relatives, as well as Daniela and Caroline. Can't wait to see you all back in Harrisburg! :)

view of a portion of Schenley park from the bridge above :)

  

Blah Blah Blahhh....

Wow. What an awesome weekend. And now I'm back at Pitt, two days in, and I only have eight more days to go. It's craaazyyy. And I feel like I have so much to fit into these next couple of days, and I'm sitting her blogging, sipping on my Dunkin Donuts coffee and jamming to music...I really need cut procrastination out of my life. It's just soooo hard to be motivated when summer is literally just around the cornerrrr...one short week away! Ugh. I mean, it's not even like I have thaaat much to do...I have an exam tomorrow morning, a project due Monday at 3:00 (yes, this has been looming over me because I honestly just don't feel like putting together an annotated bibliography..snooze fest), and a final exam Wednesday night. I just need to get myself over to the library and stay there for an entire day. That sounds like a good plan, right? 

Cathedral of Learning.

Well ANYWAY, back to my weekend. After an eventful Thursday-Friday with my cousin Leah and an awesome festival in the Quad, it was time for Friday night! My friend Tanner from Regal came up for the weekend to visit some of his friends and invited me to hang out with them too! Let me just say, he has some really reallllyyy awesome friends. And his friends met some of my friends and it was just a whole lotta new friendships being formed! I really couldn't ask for more. It was great :) Not to mention that Tanner is absolutely hilariousssssss...so I was pretty much laughing the entire night away..

Tanner and Me!! :)

Saturday morning I got up pretty early to (sort of) pack. I went to breakfast at Market with Caroline and Alyssa and we got there before they even opened up...Saturday mornings on campus are emmmppptyy...it was like a ghost town, but at the same time, super enjoyable. So we had some breakfast and then I trekked on downtown to the megabus station, had an enjoyable four hour drive to Harrisburg, got picked up by my big brother Mike, and arrived home to my wonderful family :)

Myself, Tanner, and Maggie...new friendships!

It was a great night. We all pitched in to help Jim with an art final that he's been working on, and has finished by the way!...he had to make a mold of his face in order to replicate it three times. So we used sooome kind of material that my dad uses to make molds of teeth, and then we used plaster on top of that. It was definitely a sight to see!...his face was compleeetely covered and he had some straws sticking out of his nose so he could breathe (I definitely don't think I could have done this...) He couldn't really talk much either..so his form of communication was basically just some grunting noises and hand movements, until my mom thought of the good idea of writing on a white board. Oh my family :)

Alex walked in mid-project and said that he's pretty positive that he'll never walk in on something like this ever again hahaha...I have to say, that I am willing to bet that statement to be very veryyy true! 

Workin' on Jim's project!

 And here he is, plaster on face and straws in nose,

writing to my Mom about how it feels!

That night, Mom, Dad, Mike, Jim, Alex, and I went to dinner in Hummelstown at this place called The Gas Station. I had never been there so I didn't know what to expect..but it was aweeesome inside! Mike said it's also pretty poppin' on weekend nights too...they had some really good food too. I ordered a pretzel sandwich...huuuge but incredibly satisfying. Dinner was a great time, but I have to say that bowling was definitely the highlight of my night :) Our neighbors came along so there were eight of us all together and we had a ball (no pun intended!) It was SO much fun! We got there in time for cosmic bowling so the lights were crazy and the big screens were down playing music videos from just about every genre and everyone was dancing and joking around, clapping for each other, and really everyone was bowling REALLY well! It was just a great time. I feel so blessed to have a family that likes to do things together and has a good time doing them too. We bowled three games and by the time we got home it was 12:30 in the morning and we were all pooped! So to bed we all wentttt!

Sunday, since I had gone to church Saturday night with Mike, I went over to Alex's for the day. We had a great time...we went ice skating with his friends Alex (yes, same name..this is not a typo!) and Amanda, and then he and I picked up Carly and drove Emilee back to her house after she locked her keys in her car :P ...good ole' Em! The three of us had dinner and hung out for awhile talking and laughing and just being us :) Carly left and Alex and I hung out for the rest of the night, watching movies and shows and having some deliciousssss ice cream at Dairy Queen. I went home afterwards and watched some latenight tv with Mike and we hung out like we always seem to do :)

Alex and I, not from the weekend but I felt as if the writing-to-picture

ratio was definitely not equal in this blog entry :P

Monday I fiiinally got to sleep in! Mike and I went out to lunch together and I got a surprise visit from Steph...she's super excited to come to Pitt next year. I found out that she's actually majoring in Communications like I am! (yes, my major has changed yet againnnn...majoring in Communications, related area of study in English Writing, and a certificate in Writing for the Professions)...I'm actually really excited about this one! So Steph left, I stopped at Regal to put in my availability for the summer (soooo excited to go back to work for the summer!!) and then Carly stopped by!!! She recently tore her ACL for the third time so she's been pretty down (and I do not blame her at allll) so she and I dyed Easter Eggs!!! Yayyy! It was great :)  Then the famsquad and I had dinner..buffalo chicken cheese dip (SOOOO GOOOOD!...reminds me of all those basketball pasta partiessss) and then Mom and Dad drove me to the mall to get picked up by the megabus!

Easter Eggs!

The ride home was a little longer than usual because of traffic, but it was pretty empty so it was enjoyable. And I was even picked up in Pitt by my friends Kimmy and Goop. I've made the best friends here at Pitt...I mean, to come all the way downtown at midnight on a Monday, who DOES that!? I can't believe that I have to leave them all this summer for four whole monthsssss...I'm so sad :( But I know that the summer is going to flyyy by and that we'll be back here in no time and pick up exactly where we left off.

So now, I just need to get through this week. And I should probably try to be a little more productive.... But I have Sunday Easter Dinner to look forward to at my Aunt Lisa's house! And Daniela and Caroline are going to be joining me! Yayyy!! So until the next time I blog...have a wonderful rest of the week everyone and enjoy your Easter and the (hopefully) nice weather, and I'll see all of you back in Harrisburg in just one week! ;)

HAPPY EASTER!! :)

CARNIVAL!

Well, it's been absolutely beautiful here at The University of Pittsburgh! Yesterday, my cousin Leah came to spend the night! She had an interview at the UPMC ER this morning and needed a place to crash and I was more than happy to give her a place to stay! We enjoyed lots of great chats over dinner and breakfast and she got to meet sooo many of my Pitt friends.

goofs!

Right before she left, Lee and I were on our way to Schenley Park to take a walk when we realized that there was a mini-carnival happening right in the Quad!...so OF COURSE we went! We ran into even mooore people that I knew and she got to meet everybody :)

sand art.

The activities of the Carnival included: 

free pizza, Rita's, popcorn, and cotton candy.

balloon animals.

tie-dying (favorite!)

sand-art.

loudddd music!

blow up obstacle courses.

and lots and lots of free things!

my balloon animal!

Leah, Maggie, and Amy in line; tie dye in hand!

 Leah & Maggie & Balloon Lions

D, Kimmy, and Myself...enjoying some cotton candy!

I love all of the free things that college has to offer! 

Off to Harrisburg tomorrow morning!

Go Insane Go Insane; Throw Some Glitter...Make it Rain! -Ke$ha

AHHHH!! WHAT AN EXCITING WEEKEND IT TURNED OUT TO BEEE!

What I thought would be a weekend of strictly homework (and so many of our friends were gone this weekend too!), has turned out to be one of the funnest (and extremely different) weekends here at Pitt. So let me give you a rundown!

Thursday!

Went to my classes, film and creative writing. It was my second-to-last creative writing class...I am so sad!! I absolutely love this class and I can't believe that it's over THIS week!! Ohmygoodness. So on Thursday, I'll be turning in my final portfolio for the semester, along with a six page paper, and then we will be having a pizza party, courtesy of my teacher. I can't wait...but I'm also sort of sad to see it come. Cus, once a class is over, you don't see that teacher anymore, or those classmates. I mean, yeah you might see them around, but a lot of them are seniors! And they're graduating! It's insane. Really.

Afterwards, I went up to the lounge to get started on some homework. I have a final on Wednesday (that's right, a FINAL...my freshman year of college is almost over!!!) so I had to get crackin on the studying :/ It was nice though, I finished up my work, watched some Late Night while talking to Mike, and even had some company when Katie and Suds came up to hang out! A very chill, but totally awesome, Thursday night :)

Friday!

Slept in! And it was glorious! Went to lunch with the girls, and spent the entirety of my day doing hooomework. Blahhh. I wrote a paper and finished my Africa study guide and then, when I thought my day was just about done, Daniela and Kim came barging into the room to get me up outta my chair and hit the Relay for Life Dance Marathon with them! It.was.incredible. I've never seen anything quite like it! It was just this big white tent set up on Bigelow Boulevard, and it was FILLED with students (actually..even non-students!) in bright colored shirts dancing to an awesome dj! The event went from 6pm on Friday to 6pm on Saturday (yes, 24 hours of dancing)...some people I guess pledged to stay the entire time, and a lot of the fraternities and sororities had shifts where they had to attend for a certain amount of time. Well, Kim, Kimmy, D, and I went and danced from midnight until 4am...we were pooped! But it was SO MUCH FUN! I think the spontaneity of it all kind of added to the fun. We met soo many new people and just had a great time, and probably changed our clothes about three times because it was soooo hot in there, but hey, anything to raise a little money for cancer!

Myself, D, and Kim at the Relay for Life

Dance Marathon on Bigelow!

Saturday!

Slept in agaiinnnnn! Had lunch with the girls. Spent the day at the library with Goop!..and surprisingly we actually both got work done this time :P I put together my portfolio and wrote anooooother paper! And then, kind of just hung out and talked. Afterwards, got dinner with Kimmy and her cousin, and then she and I went to the new Razzy Fresh frozen yogurt place! It was my first time..and it was delicious!! I will definitely be stopping there again in these last three weeks at Pitt. 

Myself at Razzy Fresh...just a few blocks away!

After just hanging out for a little while, Kim, Kimmy, and Amy came over to make t-shirts for the Ke$ha Concert! And let me just say, that they all looked awesome. We were blastin' some Ke$ha, making our shirts, talking and laughing...and then...our power went out. Of course! But luckily, this really nice old man came up to fix it for us about ten minutes later and we were back in business :) We spent the remainder night chattin' it up like typical teenage girls do, and then we hit the sack!

 Kimmy working on her shirt..such a big Ke$ha fan..

definitely the best look-a-like there!

Amy working on her shirt!

Sunday!

Definitely my favorite day by farrrrr of the entire weekend! Woke up, got some coffee at Dunkin (my addiction) with Kimmy, and then we got ready for the KE$HA concert! Which meant, LOTS of glitter, big hair, ripped t-shirts, and sooo much fun! We looked sooooo good! And to make things even better, it was the absolute PERFECT day for an outdoor concert...80 degree weather!!! Shocking, I knowwww. 

 Amy and Kimmy!

Kimmy and myself..making faces, like we always

seem to do :P

After getting ready, we went over to Bigelow Boulevard and made our way through the huuuge crowd. We were about mid-crowd when Kimmy and I spotted some girls who really liked our shirts and glitter (which, let me just say, will take me this entire WEEK to fully get off) and they pulled us right up to the front with them! Talk about really nice people to meet! 

Kimmy and myself with the girls we met; they were actually

seniors who twirl for the Pitt Band!

So we were right up front!...once the rest of our friends got there, they made their way up to us (I really have NO idea how they managed that) and the concert begannnn! We got there at 1:30 and Ke$ha's opening act: Beardo, came on around 2:15. I had honestly, never heard of him before. He was..interesting. I mean, people got pretty into his performance so it wasn't AWFUL, but I guess I was just reaaallly looking forward to seeing Ke$ha :)  

Beardo!

 Kimmy and I right up front!

 Jackie, Kim, D, and Amy

Beth, Jackie, and Erin!

So once she came on....wow. It was epic. I mean, I'm pretty sure she was auto-tuned the entire time, but she was still an awesome performer. She just looked like she was having sooo much fun up there on stage. Wearing crazy outfits and doing cartwheels and just laughinggg and jumping around...she had so much energy! 

sooooo good!

It also helped that I knew just about all of her songs and that everryyyyone was so into the entire thing! We sang along to every single song, I'm actually really surprised that I haven't lost my voice :P She sang for an hour or so and came out for an encore as they always do ;) but what made it better? She crowd-surfed on top of us! Yeah, two concerts this year at Pitt and BOTH TIMES the performer decided to jump RIGHT where I was standing...epic. I had soooo much fun! There was glitter being thrown the entiiiire time! It was even shot out of these cannons and there was "Ke$ha money" shot out too...it was hilarious. She was just incredibly entertaining and had a great attitude and just made everyone laugh. I just wish it would have gone on longer!!!  

 one of my favorite pictures that I took

throughout the entire day.

crazy costumes and even craaazier dancers! 

glitter!

We met some of the members of her band afterwards and one of her back up dancers..sooo nice! Loved the entire thing..wish it would have never ended!..feeling so lucky for being up front to the last two concerts I went to. Wow.

Myself, Kim, Kimmy, D, and Amy with one of Ke$ha's

dancers after the concert!

"animal!"

Afterwards we all went to Market to fiiinally eat...and drink LOTS of water (sooo hot out, so great). Then Kimmy, Kim, and I walked around for a little while enjoying the nice weather. And then me, being the overly-excited person that I am often called (its okay..its a good thing...I think :P ), just couldn't waiiitt to look at the pictures that I had taken at the concert! So i put them all on the computer, and they've been loading all evening long just for me to put them on here! Looking back on them all, I STILL cannot believe how close she was to us. 

this is my absolute favorite picture from the entire 

day. I just cannot get over how close she was to us; how

much energy she had; and how much FUN the entire day was.

I wish I could do it all over again! 

Then, I attempted to get the glitter off of me (somewhat successful), got some late night food with Kimmy and D, and sat outside in the amazingly cool SPRING weather.  And now I am closing my night by blogging. Perfect.

 Myself, Kimmy, and Beth!

Kimmy, Myself, Kim, Amy, Beth, and D...showing

off our Ke$ha money!

Meeting Beardo at the end!

(Kimmy, Me, D, Amy, Kim, Erin, and Beth)

It's been one amazing and totally unexpected weekend. So glad that I have some awesome friends and that I go to a kick ass school that offers cool concerts for it's students. So blessed. 

17 days left in the Burgh! Definitely gonna miss all the friends I've made, but sooo looking forward to summer...and I know that come August, we'll all pick up exactly where we left off like we were never even separated :) 

<3