Now I Guess I'm a Real Person

I have graduated college. Lots of people have told me that college is the best four years of your life and it goes downhill from there . . . I can see where they're coming from.

Nah, it's not really that bad. Since I have graduated, I have had time to hang out with my friends and family, which has been very nice. And I got a job (whewwww) so I won't be health insuranceless or penniless for too long.

I will be a manager in a Potbelly Sandwich Works location in the Northwest Suburbs. It seems to be a really good gig. Hopefully they won't give me the boot when I show them the list of days I need off in the next two months because of the wedding and CAJE. :-) I start this coming Monday, June 2nd, with my 6 week long training. I'm really excited actually (and I get free food when I work).

So besides that, I am spending time today with Jer, Berland and Liz (who is leaving for Houston soon so it's my last time seeing her before Elliot's wedding :-/ ) which will be extremely fun. I've been able to spend a couple of days with Jer now which is great since he's also leaving soon and I won't see him for a month. So sad!

Mom, Dad and I are leaving tomorrow for Hava Nashira, the Jewish songleader's conference held annually at OSRUI. I am . . . excited to learn new songs but I was there two years ago and it was kind of culty so we'll see how it goes this year. It's fun that my parents will be there too. After that, I start training for the job. Last stretch of freeeedom . . . .

It's cold out and I am pissed. It's supposed to be summer!!!!

The Real World is LOOMING . . .

Graduation is now less than two weeks away and I'm pretty sure I couldn't be much more freaked out.

I at least have some sort of job (Hel's Kitchen) when I get home but other than that, I'm still pretty clueless. Luckily, I think that my songleading skills can probably carry me through next year but I'm hoping to find at least a decent paying part-time job so I can save up some money for Israel.

Besides that, school is fine. Three more tests until I'm done on the 5th and I'm pretty excited. I can't believe that the time to graduate has finally come. I'm pretty sure I want to stay in college forever.

Highlights of the last few weeks have been my winery trip assignment with Emilie, Relay For Life being a smash hit even though we moved it indoors and our senior barcrawl being amazingly fun on Saturday.

I've got two roommate's bdays this week, two tests Wednesday, one more next Monday (the only one I'll REALLY need to study for) and then Lane's birthday!!! After that, it's a few days of total freedom and fun and then a potentially crazy graduation weekend.

Overall I'm super excited to graduate but I'm just getting a little anxious about my job prospects for this year. Oh well, I'm sure everything will fall into place (or my parents will just have to keep giving me allowance . . . haha, just kidding mom . . . )

I'll post some pics soon!!!

6 Weeks Till Graduation

Well, holy cow. I can't believe it. I have five more weeks of actual school, a week of finals (well, a week between my last class and graduation when I would normally be taking finals but I rock and don't have any) until I graduate. I just can't believe it. The time has really flown by and I'm just shocked how fast it's coming.

This week will basically suck because I have two tests, one on Wednesday morning and one on Thursday morning. I also have a bunch of Relay meetings, I have to observe for my lab class (those little 2 and 3 year olds in the Early Childhood Development Lab are crazy), work out and study for those tests. It's going to be a lot of stuff between now and 7 pm on Thursday but then this weekend I will get to relax and do more Relay stuff so that will be good.

I got really sick last week which sucked big time so now yesterday I started off on my Body For Life challenge. I did my upper body workout and I'm feeling it this morning, not too badly though. I'm doing cardio today and I kind of want to try this class at CRCE called Kick and Core. It's like kickboxing with an emphasis on working core muscles (hence the name) and it's done with hip-hop kind of moves to fun music. Everyone who goes loves it so I may go with the roomie today. Besides that, I'm up at 8:30 now to study for my Wednesday test, then I have class from 12-5 with a few little breaks in between. Kick and Core is at 5:30 and then I have to be somewhere at 7 to hit the classrooms with Relay stuff. It's going to be a long day!!

Ahhh . . . sickness and senioritis.

So, I got sick two days ago. What the hey?!?! Lane was sick almost a week ago already so I don't really know if it was from him. But whatever, my nose is runny but I actually feel much better today. I'm getting a serious case of senioritis (don't worry mom, I am finishing that class). I think I am just done with undergrad classes. And the drama, I'm excited to leave the drama of the house and of living with all girls and blah blah blah. I'm still having fun (how could I not, today my classes are my fave psych class, bowling and wine!) but I'm just drained of it. AND I had last semester off in all relative terms. Blahhhhh.

Maybe when I feel 100% better, everything will look better.

This month is going to be great though, I have lots of work but then it's Relay, Passover, Lane's birthday and then GRADUATION!! I can't believe it. It feels like it flew by.

Ahhhhgrrrr. Off to class soon.

Spring Break 08

It's been a pretty super Spring Break. I worked last Saturday, I'm working tomorrow and then it's back to school for my last half of a semester as an undergrad student.

I had some amazing times in Milwaukee with my faves and got to hang with Laney a good amount. It's been really fun! I have tons of work to go back to school to so that will kind of suck but whatever. Only about 7 more weeks . . . so crazy!!!

In other news, I'm going to start another 12 week challenge this Monday. I'm excited. I want to lose another 20 pounds (or as much as possible) by Lori's wedding. The next challenge will take me to the middle of June. I'm pretty psyched . . . it'll be nice to be in a regular workout routine again!

What a few weeks!!!!!!!!!!!

Bar crawl with the faves.

Me and my love, at Pledge Dance

So it's been quite a few weeks. I have excelled in my ice skating class (and finished it already, awww sad) by learning not only how to be a better skate in general but I learned some elementary spins, jumps and tricks. Pretty fancy stuff. I've dropped photography since my last post because it was just taking up too much time. :-/ I really enjoyed it but that will have to be a hobby I pursue outside of class. Bowling has obviously been amazing and my wine appreciation test was surprisingly hard (I had to know specific aromas and their origins!). But no worries, I got an A on it.

My other classes ("real classes" for you skeptics) have also been very fun and challenging. I love my learning and memory class because I think the topics of how people learn and why their brains work that way are just fascinating.

So the last few weeks have been great. We had a barcrawl with AEPi and our spring semester dance, pledge dance. Lane was so sweet and moved his stuff around at school so he could come here for the dance. We had lots of fun with the friends and ate at this awesome restaurant in downtown Champaign called 7 saints. It's been my goal to try new places since I'm leaving so soon (sad face).

This past weekend I attended the NATE Kallah in Boulder, CO. I reconnected with my Judaism and I learned about myself in ways that I haven't explored since high school. I found a spiritual connection again and figured out that I have a future in Jewish Education (thank you Vanessa). :-) I'm so superly psyched because I think I have pretty much decided to apply to HUC in the fall.

A huge weight has lifted off of my shoulders since I have finally found something that I am so enthused about and I just can't wait to explore HUC more and look into the program even more in depth.

It's been a good few weeks.

Pictures :-)

Me and Laney during my "break" :-)

Celebrating Valentine's Day at Pheasant Run

At Egg Harbor with the fam

When I say "bar" you say "mitzvah" party!

07-08 Leadership Team

Awww, mommy, daddy and daughter.

Making my bartending debut!!!

My faves.

Me and my pledge kid (aka sister) at pledge dad night!

OOPS!! My bad. :-)

Sorry I've forgotten to write!!! It's been an exciting month back at school. I have been enjoying my classes immensely. I have learned t-stops and backward crossovers in skating, I've brought my bowling average back up to about 175 or so and I've learned to develop black and white photos. I've also learned some "school" ish things like about the brain and stuff. But obviously that's not nearly as exciting as the other things. :-)

My weight loss goals are still intact. I am still down 20 pounds since last February and going strong!!! I lifted 22.5 pounds on my bicep curls this week which is huge because I started lifting about 10 pounds at the most. I'm very proud of my little biceps.

Besides that, I have a few exciting weeks coming up. I'm actually going home tonight because it turns out that my permanent retainer is not so permanent. I must get it fixed ASAP so to not allow any movage in my teeth. I can't imagine anything worse than having to endure any more orthodontic work . . . ever again.

SO besides that, Lane will be here next weekend for a dance with the house. The weekend after that I'm going home because we are seeing Avenue Q in Milwaukee (yayyyy!!) and then weekend after that, I'll be headed to Colorado for the NATE conference. I am a lucky intern getting a trip to Colorado to learn about Jewish education. I'm excited, it'll be fun (right V?!). After that, it's Spring Break already!!!!

The semester is just FLYING by. CAC and Relay are going well. Disney marketing is also great. I'm having fun placing flyers everywhere. Mwuahahaha.

I did get to make my bartending debut two nights ago!!! My dream job (okay, well it's just something I've always wanted to do) is bartending and I got to test my skills. I'm actually pretty kickass. I've done a little bartending with Hel's but this was at a campus bar with all of my sorority there and I got to be a guest bartender (all of the tips went to a "survivors of domestic violence awareness" group). It was quite fun. I'll post a pic. :-)

I promise to post again before another month goes by. Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!

And the last has begun.

Second semester senior year. A dreaded time in a college career full of standardized tests, partying, fun classes (often referred to as "blow-off" but I don't really like that choice of terms), and endless questions of "So what's after graduation?".

My semester has been pretty awesome so far though. I have received a very nice welcome back from all of my friends. I missed Champaign, it's good to be back in a normal routine and not a crazy mixed up schedule week after week. The weather sucks and I keep wondering why I like Illinois. Where did the sun go!?

I have a pretty sweet line up of classes. My psychology lab (required for graduation) isn't too bad besides being at 9 am T/Th and my learning and memory class seems really interesting. After those two "real" classes, I'm taking photography, bowling, ice skating and wine appreciation. SO there will be no complaining by me about homework or anything this semester.

I am going to be pretty busy though. Most of those "blow-off" classes meet twice a week for twice the amount of time I actually get credit for (still so worth it) and CAC is going to be a little crazy. I'm also a Campus Rep this semester for Disney so that is going to be somewhat time consuming. It's going to be a good semester though, I can tell. :-)

I don't have any really funny stories yet except that I can't stop in ice skating. We learned a snow plow stop and I just can't get it. :-/ Meh, oh well. I'll learn sometime. I'll just run into little kids for now.