Happy Birthday to Me

Last week marked my 27th birthday... damn that feels old! But I've decided that I can still claim "mid-20s" for at least one more year...

Given that the semester ended in early May, I was a little afraid that I'd feel a bit like the kid in Elementary School with a July birthday, who never had a party because all the kids were on vacation. Or something like that. But I was convinced to have a celebration at Howl at the Moon, and was really overwhelmed by all of the people that came out... as well as how great all of the photos came out!

Jenn and Jim. Officially two of the most photogenic people I know!

Prom photo! Totally unintentional, btw.

Joel, me, and Jim. I'd like to point out that I am wearing 4" heels in this photo.

Ben and Drew and a drink in a bucket.

Me, Steph and Leela.

Jenn, Me and Steph.

Apparently a drink in a bucket is...

Jimbo and me. So sad he's leaving for Brazil for the WHOLE summer!

Amy

Probably the worst photo ever of Parker and myself. 

This is what Amy thought of our photo. 

Speaking of Amy and Parker... these two photos are too funny not to share. 

Thanks to everyone who came out and made this very non-milestone birthday very special!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

So guess what I did last week?

It's official now, so I can shout it from the rooftops... I'm moving! Fulfilling a dream I've had for a while now... I'm finally moving into my own place. All mine.

A friend of a friend is a realtor, and we'd spoken a while back about what I was looking for in a place, and where. There was really nothing available on the market for a long while... and then she emailed me on Memorial Day and said that a couple of listings had come up and we needed to view ASAP. On my lunch hour Tuesday, we went and looked at a bunch of apartments... and one was too good to be true. So I applied.

The didn't like that I was a student. They didn't like that my only available cosignors were in California.

But I got it! And to quote one of my favorite movies - It's All Happening!

And I move July 15...

More to come later, including pictures. This might temporarily turn into an interior design blog... but it's better than an empty blog!

Maine Day

Finishing the semester was great, and for a few days being on vacation was awesome. I cleaned out my closets, did laundry, watched down the DVR, and explored the city with friends. The weather was crappy - cold, muggy and rainy - so a lot of the activities on my summer to-do list were seriously out of the question. In short, we were all bored.

Then Molly had a great idea... let's use her car and take a day trip! It's just a short 2 hour drive up to Maine, so Molly, Parker, Shawn and myself packed up the car and drove up to Kennebunkport for a random day trip.

We wound up around lunch time at a great little pier, where some of our party decided to dip their toes on the Atlantic. I did not, so I took some pictures:

We found this awesome place called the Ramp, where we stopped for an authentic Maine lobster roll and some chowda. This was literally one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. The outside was decorated with lobster cage markers from the local area, and a giant rusty anchor that Parker models for us below:

 Shawn and I

The restaurant was covered in lots of sports and political memorabilia from the last 60 years. Local celebrities had even signed the walls... including two of Kennebunkport's most famous residents.

On the way back into town, we decided to see if we could drop in on George and Babs. The flag was up, they were home... but this was as close as we got. Which is pretty damn close if you ask me! The whole property was crawling with Secret Service... it was pretty cool though!

And speaking of the Bushes... the town was full of memorabilia about both George W. and George H.W. I snapped a photo of this shirt, which (at the risk of getting political) I found pretty funny.

 In all, Maine Day was a lot of fun and a great success. Kennebunkport is definitely work a visit!

Talent Show & Red Sox Game

The end of the semester culminated in one epic day... the day of the Cohort Cup Talent and Art Show, the awarding of the Cohort Cup, and then an outing to Fenway Park for my first Red Sox game.

We kicked off the day on Jim's roofdeck... with this beautiful view of the city.

Then we headed to SMG for the end of year festivities. At BU, we have this great Harry Potter-esque Cohort Cup competition. All year the four cohorts compete in a series of events for points, with the ultimate goal being the coveted Cohort Cup. The final event of the year is the Talent and Art show.

Cohort D's contribution to the art show was the egg-ceptional class room:

I'm the green egg on the far right, second row from the top.

After the art show, we had the talent portion of the evening, which included the Oh Susana singalong that I mentioned in an earlier post. We successfully got all 50 cohort members up onto the stage for the number!

After the show we all gathered in the atrium for a reception (a must in the MBA world) and awaited the decision. Our singalong came in third in the talent show, but it didn't matter... Cohort D still won the cup!

Jamie and Shawn with the Cup

Taking the ceremonial drink from the Cup...

We couldn't celebrate long, because we had to dash over to Fenway for the game. It was my first visit to the historic park... and my first baseball game of the new millennium I think!

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo was triply special this year. In addition to being the celebration of  the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín... it was also the last day of classes AND the day of Carl, Corey, Todd and Trevor's knighting at the BU Pub. So we did what MBA students do best -- we planned a pub crawl. 

Starting at 11 a.m., we hit up about 4 different establishments before landing at Cornwall's (aka Cheers, where everybody knows our names) and busting out the Cinco de Mayo gear that Jackie picked up at the party store. We'd had specific instructions from Carlos not to pick up any "offensive gringo tourist crap." As you can see, we listened:

Jackie, Carl and Jess modeling our decor.

Jess and her husband, Rob, who made his social debut at BU that evening.

Along the way, we picked up an Aussie who was travelling by himself. He stuck around for most of the day, and then tried to pull a pint from one of the decorative taps in Cornwall's. 

 Later that evening came The Knighting. The BU pub offers over 50 beers, and patrons can embark on the "Knight's Quest" if they so choose. To complete the quest, one must consume each of the 50 beers. At a maximum intake of 2 a day, it can take some time. Once your card is full, you're eligible to be knighted.

On the night of your knighting (hehe) your friends gather round and contribute different knight names for you. It's basically a roast. The pub staff gathers everyone at 11 p.m. and reads out your many suggested names. Audience response determines your new moniker.

Behold Sir Natural Born Leader, Sir Come and Live with Me, Sir Sleeps on the Kitchen Floor, and Sir I Married  a Sugar Mama. 

And in case you were wondering, Carlos eventually decided that the sombreros weren't that offensive.

And Jim, quite frankly, rocked it.

Cookie Time

There's one lesson that I've learned several times in my life -- high school, in the sorority, in college, my first job -- if you feed them, they will come. It still holds true in graduate school (though arguably you could exchange "feed them" with "give free drink tickets")... so when I ended up helping organize our cohort's entry into the talent show I decided to dust off my baking gear and engage in a little old fashioned bribery. I also finally got to use the new cookie sheets and other cookie paraphernalia that I got for Christmas - including the tool that Dad gave me that makes all the cookies the same size.  

Boat Day

Spring has finally shown its face in Boston! The weather is my favorite type... cool-ish, but with a big, bright warm sun. This weekend was exceptionally beautiful, and it was perfect for a boat day. My classmate Carl and his wife Jamie live on her Dad's boat, and they hosted a bunch of us this Saturday for some grilling and sunshine.

We also toasted with the first Sangria of the season, courtesy of Jackie. Sangria is one of those things that no one really knows how to make... we just make it up as we go along. The plan is to use the summer to perfect the concoction, so that by Labor Day we've got the best drink made up!

Humberto, manning the grill. We had a great assortment of treats, and a wide variety of sausages -- including a venison sausage made by Scott's dad (who shot it himself, btw)... which invariably led to a lot of jokes about "Scott's dad's sausage." I swear, we are in graduate school, not pre-school!

Despite the somewhat ominous clouds in the background of this shot, it really was a nice day! Note Trevor's super-appropriate "boat attire" on the left. 

His fiancée was thrilled at his wardrobe choice, by the way. Hah!

And there was one other very special attendee, Carl and Jamie's Boston Terrier, Maracas. So appropriate for a couple of BU alums! Most of the day she played with her fox... until Marcus and Scott distracted her with a plastic water bottle.

And that's all that I managed to capture on film before the camera died! :( But thanks to Carl and Jamie for a fun day out on the harbor!

And do not fear, bloggy friends... I'm charging up the camera in anticipation of the Cinco de Mayo festivities on Thursday, and the Cohort Talent Show and Red Sox game on Friday night! Now if I can just make it through this last week of classes alive...

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter, friends! I had planned on doing absolutely nothing today, except for tidying up and organizing myself for the last few weeks of the semester (and watching Country Strong on OnDemand)... but ended up getting pulled into an impromptu brunch with a few of my girlfriends. Within one hour, we'd converged on Molly's apartment with a host of ingredients (and a few pots and pans) and were hard at work on our Easter feast. My digital camera seems to be dying (sad face) so I don't actually have any photos... but once I get a hold of Molly's snaps I will post them up here.

In the meantime... enjoy this video. I probably would have responded the same way were I the little girl in the video!



I also enjoy how the parents are laughing... it reminds me of my own childhood! Love you Mom and Dad! Although, let's be really honest I'll probably be the same way when I am a parent.

Curtains!

As I've previously blogged... the purchase of my new bedroom curtains was a definite highlight of the month of April. Before you start thinking too hard about why you actually still read this farce of a blog... see the final pictures!

They really do make my room feel a bit more finished and grown up. And they make it possible for me to sleep in on the weekends. The fourth panel finally arrived from Target this afternoon (I swear, they hand carried it from Ohio), and now this project is done!

Here's a closeup of the curtain pattern in case you are curious:

Now... methinks I need a headboard...

Lots of Updates

So it's been a while. I mentioned to my mom that I had a free evening and she not so subtly mentioned, "you should update your blog!" I can take a hint.

One of the reasons that I've been a bit MIA is because of the dreaded MBA internship search. It's been stressful to say the least! I had one perfectly terrible "avatar" interview (imagine a Skype interview where you can't see or hear the other person), and a lot of resumes sent out into the void to no response... and the mounting pressures of 1) the fact that an internship is required for my program and 2) taking an unpaid internship was looking like a distinct possibility, which had another set of added stresses!

I didn't blog much about it because I knew I'd sound whiny and paranoid and insecure (and WHO wants to read that?)... but as you can see I'm back on the old blog. And that's because, yep you guessed it! I have an internship! To maintain some sense of digital anonymity, all I will say is that this particular company makes an item that you put on your feet when you workout, and they tend to emblazon their products with the letter "N." It's such a great opportunity, and it's in the exact field I want to work in (Cause Marketing) and I am so excited that everything worked out. It was surreal, actually... I interviewed at 9 a.m. and had an offer at 3 p.m.!

So in other news, Spring is FINALLY coming to Boston! The snow is melting, they are refilling the ponds and fountains, and I actually wore a COTTON jacket today! So many people have asked me how I am doing with the weather here, and the answer is "still loving it!" Spring has so much promise, with the crisp air, clear skies, and fresh fresh air. It's turning out to be quite pretty:

The other exciting thing in my life right now is... I now have curtains! Seriously, this is the most exciting thing that's happened to me lately -- THIS IS WHY I DON'T BLOG! My mom was here last week, and helped me with a little DIY project to hang curtains in my room, which is as bright as noon come about 6 a.m. I'm waiting for one more panel to arrive via Target.com, but here's a little sneak peek. Once it's all done, I'll post the full before and after.

And, yes, mother. I didn't make my bed today.

Other fun things from the almost-spring... visits from some of my faves - Kim, Alex and Mary, my first Boston St. Paddy's Day (which merits its own post), and celebrating Diana's big 3-0! It seems like only yesterday we were all celebrating our 21st birthdays, and now we are planning 30th bashes. 

And that's the update. I pledge to be better in the coming months!

On My iPod

I know I'm long overdue for a legit update... but in the meantime, this will have to suffice.

Every year for the last few years I've been making a playlist for the year on my iPod. I only place my most favorite songs from the year (either released that year, or ones I've just been listening to lately), and by the end of each year wind up with between 55 and 60 songs.

Anyway, here are a few selections from the infant 2011 playlist... enjoy.


"Young Blood" - the Naked and Famous



"Rolling in the Deep" - Adele




"My Body" - Young the Giant



"Animal" - Neon Trees

Because I Know You're All Dying to Know...

The first chip in my Shellac manicure has finally occured... just 2 days shy of the three-week mark!

So sad! But in all, I'd say a worthwhile experiment. You can see in the photo that it's also a little grown out, which is getting on my nerves a bit. Especially since I cut down and filed the nail to hide the chip, and it now is even more pronounced! Next time, I probably won't go with such a dark color. The gel really kept my nails strong and allowed them to grow super long -- but not strong. One of my nails broke under the Shellac, and I had to peel it out (I'm just not good with long nails!), and then cut down the gel and file it. 

It is starting to look scrotty though... I just don't have the energy right now to get it off. 

This might be the only downside to the Shellac -- you have to soak it in acetone to get it off. Which I do own (acetone is not as bad for you as people think), but it's more of a time issue right now. I still have two midterms to go... it's full power ahead until tomorrow at 9 p.m.! 

Obsessed.

Lately my life has been stuck in this constant school/study/sleep loop (with a little party/dance it out/sleep in mixed in on the weekends) with very little excitement. 

Ho hum. 

That was until one Saturday, in the midst of studying and mowing down my ever-growing to-do list, an e-mail from Wells Fargo popped up informing me that 7,500 or so of my credit card points would expire. I normally delete these e-mails, which gives you an idea of just how badly I was procrastinating this particular day. But there they were, my hard earned miles, about to expire. So I did what any sane person would do. I dropped everything and headed over to the Rewards website to see what I could redeem them for.

There's 4 hours of my life I'm never going to get back! Seriously. And the nerdy business student in me actually made an Excel spreadsheet, weighted the items, and then used "what-if" analysis to determine the best mix for a given point value.

I'm telling you people, I have procrastination down to an art. A fine art. 

At the end of those 4 hours, I did the right thing. I walked away. I slept on it. I dreamed of HDTVs, acrylic watches, diamond earrings, knife sets and gift certificates. In the morning, I woke up and went to the gym.

As a reward for working out, I went online and redeemed 1/3 of my credit card points for one of these little beauties:

And. I. Am. Obsessed!

So here are my feelings. I love books. I love to read. I do not, however, like storing books or having lots of "stuff" in general (remember how I moved 19 boxes across the country!). I purged a lot of books when I moved out of my apartment, and sold about 2 of them at my parents' garage sale. The only ones that I've kept either have special meaning to me, or are nice hardbacks that I'd one day display in a nice book case. 

I also am anti-iPad. Now hear me out on this one. They are cool and all... but they are expensive, easily breakable and basically remind me of an over-sized iPhone. And I figure that there ain't much that the iPad can do that my iPhone can't do. Plus, it's hard to read my phone in the bright sunlight, and that would get really old when reading books.

So I have my Kindle, and I've already burned through two books on it, both of which I highly recommend: "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness and "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. Love love love. Currently reading: "The Hangman's Daughter" by Oliver Potzsch, which is turning out to be quite good as well. It also pulled in all of my audiobooks purchased on Audible automatically, which was an unexpected bonus. 

So I'm a happy camper. I'd be even happier if my reading for school involved novels and NOT Harvard Business School cases. Le sigh.

Still Going Strong!

Shellac manicure after 10 days - still going strong! No chips or scratches, and the polish is still shiny. I've never had a regular manicure last this long... this might turn out to be a good thing for me.

Bueller? Bueller?

I did a bad, bad thing today.

This about sums up my anxiety level right now.

I skipped class!

Now, this normally wouldn't seem like that big of a deal, but for me it is. It really, really is! I am having major anxiety just sitting here typing this, when I should be 2 miles away at school. This is the first time I've done this in my graduate schooling career (let's not bring up undergrad or high school attendance...).

In my defense, I have a *lot* going on right now. I have internships and scholarships with looming deadlines to apply for, an info interview with my career idol to prep for, and a dinner for 4 to cook. And laundry to do. And I should probably read up on some obscure facts before trivia tonight. And now I'm stressing myself out.

This semester so far has been deceptive. There's not a ton of work (though there is a TON of reading), and nothing seems too hard... but I have a feeling that the midterms that we have in a couple of weeks are going to rip that false sense of security wide open.

So I'm going to close this blog entry and start doing an econ problem set. Because that's what responsible students do... when they cut class.

Delinquent!

I've heard from several of you that I need to post another blog. I have been so bad this semester! Partly because I'm not doing much more than school/gym/study/cook/sleep/&repeat... and also because I couldn't find my camera battery charger until yesterday. 

Oops!

So here are a few new things in my life right now...

I went skiing in Killington last month. I loved it in the morning during my lesson, I hated it in the afternoon when I fell down 30+ times on "Easy Street" which I do NOT think was appropriately named! This was the only picture I took:

I've also randomly done a lot of Karaoke this semester. This is interesting because I cannot sing to save my life... but that did not stop me from singing a rousing rendition of "Friends in Low Places" with two of my guy friends at a recent karaoke outing. Awesome. Video exists (damn this digital era) but I've hopefully suppressed its release. I can never run for office, PS.

Here's a video of a recent late-night karaoke outing... and the third straight singing of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Note that half of the room is singing the version from Old School, so it's got a few f-bombs in there. Why does karaoke so often come down to shouting?

I'm pretty sure we might be banned from there now.

The other most amazing thing that I have discovered is the Shellac manicure. For $10 more than a regular manicure, you get special "gel" color that is supposed to last for 3 weeks. I was totally talked into it this week by the ladies at St. Mary's Nails, and will be posting a series of photos to see how it all goes. Here's the day one photo (ignore the ugly stigmata-like scab on my hand -- cooking injury). 

And no, Mom, it's not black... it's dark purple. It's trendy.

xoxo,

Bron

Wintry Mix

So we've had a little bit of snow in Boston this winter.

Since December, we've had 70.1 inches of snow. For the record, that is 7 more inches than my height. It is also only 15" less than Shaq's height (as boston.com has been so great about documenting for us online). The average season sees about 41.8" in November - April, and the record-breaking '95/'96 season racked up 107.6 inches.

In other words -- I picked a hell of a time to move to Boston!

Today, despite many hopes and rumors to the contrary, was not a snow day for BU. It was for just about every other academic institution in this fair city, but not us (personally, I think it was because at 1 p.m. yesterday they made the call to close the school at 5 p.m. and cancel all night classes, and then it promptly stopped snowing at 4 p.m.). The photos above were taken during my morning commute to school (note the absence of any other forms of intelligent life).

I left about 10 minutes earlier than normal, just to make sure I had enough time to get to class. I boarded the T at Coolidge Corner, per usual, and claimed my bit of floor space. I was 5 minutes into a particularly trying level of Angry Birds, when I noticed we weren't moving. It seems that a train had stopped 4 stops ahead at St. Mary's and they were "trying to push it out of the way." After about 10 minutes or so, we crept to the next stop, waited a few minutes, then crept to Kent St. After a few more minutes stalled, our driver came back on the loud speaker to let us know that the pushing had failed, and they were going to try again.

So we waited. I conquered the Angry Birds level and moved on to another. The driver comes back on the loudspeaker to inform us that while this new attempt at pushing worked, the train then "lost air" and had to be "refilled." I really hope that has something to do with the breaks and not air for, like, breathing, because that could get scary. He reassured us that we'd "get moving soon."

But 15 minutes later, the doors simply opened. We were told we could walk back two stops to Coolidge Corner and take a shuttle to Kenmore, and that they were sorry for the inconvenience. So here was my dilemma - backtrack a quarter mile to shove onto a bus with a bunch of people to Kenmore (which is my stop) or walk three quarters of a mile to school. 

The walk seemed like a good idea -- until I realized that not one inch of Beacon St. had been plowed yet - the street or the sidewalk. 

And after class, I was greeted with a new kind of winter hell: the "wintry mix." This roughly means a mixture of snow, hail and rain coming down at the same time. Awesome. Let's just say that right now I'm wrapped in my duvet and my clothes are all in the dryer. 

But all of this is not to complain, just to communicate. My mother said I'm "making memories!" I'm also about to make myself an Irish coffee, to get through my accounting homework and class tonight!