OMG - Operation Overload!

OK, I know I haven't written in more than a two weeks but, I have so much to post/blog about that I'm going to separate it into multiple blogs. First, I'll write about all the stuff that happened graduation weekend and other Cornell stuff.

So, on Sunday the 24th, I graduated (unofficially) from college! I'll get my diploma in the mail sometime in August after I finish the last class I have to take to satisfy all my requirements. Graduation weekend was, in a word, awesome. The family came up and I spent hardly any time in Ithaca. I know you might find this strange but I'm so sick of the place that I was just itching to have something to do as far as I could reasonably get in one day. Friday, my family helped be move about 80% of my junk out of my room. It took about 5 hours - thank god for air conditioning! I packed up a bag so I could crash with my siblings for the weekend and then we headed out to dinner at the Boatyard Grill. It's my favorite restaurant in Ithaca and usually, the food is fantastic. But, this time, they brought my blue crab stuffed shrimp and they over cooked it to the point of blackening it. So, they ended up remaking it for me and not charging us for it. And since I'm not one to complain about free food, I was a happy camper. We headed back to the hotel where Mom and Dad crashed and Andrew, KR, and I proceeded to stay up until 3 in the morning just talking about stuff and catching up on things.

Thus, we got a very late start on Saturday. But, we went to a local Cortland restaurant called Auntie Anne's (not the pretzel place but something very much like a Denny's) and I had apple cinnamon stuffed french toast. Delish! Then, the fun began... we went miniature golfing. Or as KR would say - put, put. Andrew and Dad totally kicked our girl asses and Andrew ended up winning by 2 strokes. I had the red ball. :-)

For our afternoon fun, we went and saw a movie (I'll go into more detail in my upcoming movie post) and then we headed back to Ithaca to pick up my cap and gown and get some food. We ended up at the Lost Dog Cafe which is another interesting place to eat in Ithaca. We all had really amazing food (Dad - burger, KR - rigatoni ala vodka, Andrew - apple cider pork tenderloin, Mom - some special, Me - whiskey butter filet mignon) and fried cheesecake which was so good!

We then headed back to the hotel in Cortland for a good night sleep before the 9 am start of the processional. Sunday (graduation day) kinda sucked. I helped my parents unload at the stadium and find decent seating by 8:30 and then I walked over to the part of the Arts Quad where the engineers were congragating. Then, at 10 am we all started marching and it took almost two hours to walk the (approximately) eighth of mile to the stadium. Luckily, the engineering seating was right next to the floor seating that my parents were in so my Dad was happily snapping pictures and taking video for the whole commencement speech. President Skorton spoke this year and I'm going paraphrase all the fun things he had to say to us graduates...

"The economy is shit. Less than 20% of college graduates in 2009 graduated with jobs and most of those are volunteer jobs. So, unless you want to go join the peacecorps or work for a non-profit organization, you're fucked. Maybe, someday, things will get better. Have a nice life." - President Skorton

Really? I'm so glad that I sat for 4 hours in a fugly black gown and paraded around with a silly hat on so that you could make me feel depressed about ever possibly being employed.

So, after the ceremony was over, I walked over to my parents (who were equally bummed out) and they suggested we bolt out of there and go see another movie. So, after returning the cap and gown, we headed off to the movies for an afternoon of fun followed up by the deliciousness of A&W Rootbeer.

Mom and Dad treated me to Dunkin Donuts before them and the sibs headed back to civilization. All in all, graduation was a rather painful experience and the only good thing about it was that I spent to much time with my family and so little of it in Ithaca. I'm just so relieved that it's over.

48 Hours of Drama!

So, I need to catch people up on the happenings in Ithaca. Yesterday, on my way to lunch (2:30 pm), my roommate Joanna called me frantic, asking if I had seen a car parked at the bottom of the back door stairs. When I answered that I had not, she started crying saying that she had her bf's (Josh) car while he was interviewing in NYC and that she had left the car parked there last night. I tried to calm her down, telling her that I'd never had any problems with my car which had been parked in that lot all year and that most likely someone had it towed. She was telling me about how she'd already called the police and the landlady to see if anyone had gone through them to have the car towed when I started to really think about what I had seen when I left the apartment earlier (1:40 pm) and I realized that I had seem an unfamiliar car leaving the lot. When I then asked Joanna what color Josh's car was, she confirmed it was gold - the same color car I had seen leaving the lot not attached to a tow truck. At that point, I had to tell her what I seen which pretty much proved that the car had been stolen. At which point she freaked out, I raced home, and we filed a stolen car report and I gave my statement to the police. As I was trying to answer the officer's questions in order to give him the most details I could about what I saw, his cell phone started to ring - it was the Law & Order theme song. I nearly pissed my pants but managed not to laugh for fear of getting arrested. The police officer warned us that because it was grand theft auto, anyone found with the vehicle would be taken down at gunpoint. Joanna assured him that she had the only key and that no one had contacted her about borrowing Josh's car. So, the officer said that he was going to leave to submit the case file and issue the report. Joanna, at this point, is hysterical about how she could have let this happen and what it was going to do to her relationship with her bf. On his way back to the station, the officer got a report in saying that a car matching the description was parked at a local fraternity. It turns out that Josh's younger brother had an extra key and, without giving Joanna a heads up, took the car to go grocery shopping. Joanna was so happy that the car wasn't stolen that she couldn't be mad. On the other hand, I was ready to go over to the frat and kick some bf's brother's ass!

Then, in an effort to not be a total recluse, I joined my other roommate, Tiffany, in the the common room for some TV. However, the movie Along Came Polly started playing and I don't like that movie so she turned over the control and said that I should pick something. I clicked the Guide button and there in the list was The History of Sex: the Middle Ages. I turned to my roommie and said that we had to watch and it turned out to be one of the most ridiculous hours of my life thus far. Let me give you an example, in the same era as Canterbury Tales, other rather lewd tales were being published like the story of the penis put on trial (yes, I said the penis, not the man with the penis). The penis was charged with seducing and defiling a virginal maiden, convicted, and sentenced to be separated from the man to which it was attached (wait, it gets better). After the sentencing, the maiden went over to the penis at which point, the penis 'stood' in her presence. Impressed by its politeness, the maiden argued that it was too kind a penis to be punished and thus the penis was saved. This was just one of many hilarious things discussed in the show.

In more important news, BREAKING DAWN IS A GO! Robert Pattinson confirmed this week at the Cannes film festival that Summit bought the rights to it and has unofficially green-lit it. I love Rob all the more when he exclaimed his interest in continuing with the Twilight Saga and how proud he was of New Moon. I love it when actors are proud of the projects that made them famous, even when they're not oscar worthy roles.

EW Magazine is having a New Moon spread coming out soon. It has pictures of the birthday scene, the meadow scene with Laurent and one hot looking kiss w/ Edward. I'm looking forward to it.

Rob is also #4 on Access Hollywood's list of Hottest Eligible bachelors. He tells a story about how some seven year old came up to him and said "I need you to bite me!" and that he was so overwhelmed by her intensity that he almost felt compelled to do it. (Maybe the little girl had some Jasper skillz... hmmm?)

SPOILERS AHEAD! I'll keep them all in the same paragraph so if you don't wanna know, just skip down to the next to the thing of the day.

There's some magazine that is claiming that they know of some major changes between the book and the movie. First, that Edward appears to Bella in visions rather than just his voice (yeah, we knew that one already since he was in Vancouver for a while). Second, that Bella's way of making Edward manifest is more dangerous than in the books (yeah, that was pretty clear when during the movie scene with Jessica Stanley, Bella actually gets on some guy's motorcycle and drives off with him.) Finally, that in the movie the ultimatum that Edward gives Bella for turning her into a vampire is NOT THAT THEY GET MARRIED! Ugh- If that's true, I'm freaking going to hunt down Melissa Rosenberg and interrogate her until I find out WTF she was thinkin! I will say, the site I read this on did claim that the magazine reporting the changes tends to exaggerate. I *bleeping* hope so.

Thing of the Day: Since today was such a New Moon heavy day, I'm going to do a few things. First, I came up with a potential playlist of songs that remind me of New Moon. I'm listing them below in order from best to least best (since none of them are bad). Secondly, I'm going to leave you with my favorite humorous New Moon quote.

This will probably be my last post until after I graduate so I hope you enjoy!

Lifehouse - Storm (perfect for Bella on the cliff)
A Fine Frenzy - Near to You (Bella about her relationship with Jacob)
Hana Pestle - Need (Bella about Edward)
Anna Nalick - In My Head (Bella about Edward)
Evanescence - My Immortal (Bella about Edward)
Kelly Clarkson - Haunted (Bella about Edward)
Avril Lavigne - Slipped Away (Bella about Edward)


"Only a teenage boy would agree to this: deceiving both our parents while repairing dangerous vehicles using money meant for my college education. He didn't see anything wrong with that picture. Jacob was a gift from the gods."

So, I'm just racking up the sucky days over here...

So, to outline what was so crappy about my day - I didn't fall asleep until nearly 2 am and then woke up at 6:05 for no apparent reason. When I finally managed to fall back asleep at 8:30, my roommate woke me up at 9:20 because she needed me to drive her to a doctor's appt (I'd already agreed to do it a few days before, I had just forgotten about it). So, in between dropping her off and picking her up, I ran over to Day Hall (home of the bursar & commencement office [weird... we have an entire office devoted to commencement - anybody else have one of those?] I digress) and I was able to pick up everything for commencement. Tickets for the indoor ceremony in the case of bad weather for everyone who's coming and parking permits for the rentals thereby redeeming myself for my previous failures. Although, I found out today that it's too late to submit a picture for the Biological & Environmental Engineering Ceremony so now, instead of my face, there's going to be a fugly bumble bee shown when I get my fake diploma... shit. Then, between picking up my roommate, preparing/eating lunch, and going over the material for my 3:30 meeting, 2pm rolled around at which point I took a 50 min power nap, which was nice but didn't really do much for me feeling sleepy. So, I got up collected my shit and headed over to campus to meet with a professor to go over my paper. Well, I get there and he, to put it in KR's words, was a douchebag. He said that my paper was disorganized and that he was going to make me do an exercise that would help me for the rest of my life. The exercise? to go back through my paper and specifically mark when I'm giving my opinion versus when I'm referring to the author's pov WHICH I FREAKIN DID WITH CITATIONS AND PHRASES SUCH AS "IN THE AUTHOR'S OPINION"!!!!!!!!!!! It was just a really humiliating experience and made me feel very childish. So, as a coping mechanism, I resorted to a jamocha milkshake from arbys. It kept me from going crazy and killing people so that's a plus. But, after that, I went to go fill up my car because it was running low on gasoline, only to notice that my gas card wasn't in my wallet... FUCK! So, my current plans are to finish this blog and go to sleep.

Things to do tomorrow: pick up my cap & gown, look into the gas credit card thing, set up a meeting with my Engineering adviser, head over to the career office and see if they have any interesting gap year opportunities, figure out where to make reservations for dinner on Saturday night for me & the family, and actually get my ass to the gym and work out.

So, the new New Moon poster is currently gracing my desktop and as you can see, I got a little preview & count-down going on here. My thoughts are I like how they're posed, very symbolic of Bella being involved with Jacob but always looking around him for Edward and also a good metaphor of Jacob's disgust with the vampires (having his back turned) but also standing as Bella's protector from them. And, in a high pitched girly voice - OMG TAYLOR LAUTNER IS SO HAWT. GO TEAM JACOB! Oh my, I have no idea where that came from... O:-) First, I really really wish they made Jacob look taller. He's supposed to tower over Bella and be a head taller than Edward but, I know they can only do so much. Also, in the promotional pictures for Twilight, Kristen Stewart looks very youthful - like a 17 year old should. In the New Moon poster, she looks older and harder (like she lost baby fat in her face...?? idk what I'm thinking). I don't know if I feel she looks too sexy (like the dark sultry look) or if she looks gaunt and exhausted like Bella's character is supposed to look like at the beginning of chapter 5 when she first starts to hang out with Jake. I'm wavering back and forth. What do you think?

And yes, I plan on obtaining a poster as soon as I figure out how to do so.

Thing of the Day: I'm sadly going to be repetitive and give you another song. If you watched this as a kid, you know you're cool.

Depressing Post

So I started my diet/exercise regime today. The exercising part is truly pathetic. I'm in horrific shape. I can't wait to go home and have someone to work out with though. That'll be a really nice change from mostly being alone up here. But, as far as food goes, I had a piece of toast (no butter) for breakfast and two servings of fruit around 4 for lunch. I haven't figured out what's for dinner. It'll probably be something quick and unhealthy because I really don't feel like hitting up a grocery store for food tonight.

Do you ever have those feelings like you're ugly? Not just physically unattractive, but like the kind of ugliness when your soul feels blackened. The feeling seeps out from your spine and spreads. You know you can't escape it, that it's contaminating every cell in your body. And as it moves through your insides and bursts through your pores, you feel like you don't deserve anything, like you shouldn't want anything - because you're ugly.

Thing of the Day: Marie Digby - Unfold

What I can remember
Is a lot like water
Trickling down a page
Of the most beautiful colors
I can't quite put my finger
Down on the moment
That I became like this...

I read over the weekend. Count's up to:
Twilight: 11
New Moon: 10
Eclipse: 10
Breaking Dawn: 10
Midnight Sun: 11

P.S. - First New Moon movie posters are supposedly being released tomorrow and the first movie clip is being aired at the MTV movie awards on May 31st, where it'll be presented by none other than Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, and Robert Pattinson.

A Disgusting Saturday Afternoon...

So, today's plans kind of went in the shitter due to an unexpected monsoon that's passing through Ithaca. I wanted to go for a run, do some laundry, enjoy my freedom... instead I'm sitting in front of my computer in sports bra and boxers with a giant floor fan (diameter the length of my arm) perched on my printer, set to high and hoping that if I don't move, I won't start sweating. Gross... I know.

Good news? I'm half way through Twilight/Midnight Sun which I'm reading simultaneously because Twilight just doesn't have enough Edward in it by itself.

In other news, I found out that I kind of forgot to take care of some graduation things. For example, I ordered my cap and gown and then promptly misplaced all of the pick up information. Whoops! And I kind of, sort of forgot to make sure I had tickets for my family for the indoor ceremony in the event of bad weather. Here's to hoping there's no rain! I know, I know. Bad Allison. I think that Monday may involve me schlepping all over campus and doing a lot of begging and pleading.

Onto really random commentary. I don't know if peeps know but, this fall I got laser hair removal. I'd done the math and figured that the $300 investment was a lot cheaper than a lifetime of underarm waxes since shaving doesn't really work for me. Results? Friggin awesome! I have almost no hair growth and what little I do have bows before my razor like a weak ass bitch. I only wish I could afford to do it everywhere. Where is my winning lottery ticket when I need it? I'm really glad that so far, only girls are checking out my blog. Otherwise, well, I can see a lot of my guy friends panicking in their rush to close the browser window.

Thing of the Day: So I was going to impishly post my colored in Twilight pic where I made Bella blonde and blue-eyed... sound like anyone you know? ;-) but my evil computer thwarted my plans and crashed before I saved it so I'm leaving you with a simple quote.
"The prince was never coming back to kiss me awake from my enchanted sleep. I was not a princess, after all. So what was the fairy-tale protocol for other kisses? The mundane kind that didn't break any spells?"

Thoughts on This Week's News

So there has been a lot of mention in the news recently about gay marriage rights. Several states ( I think it's up to 6) have passed into law legislation that protects the rights of homosexuals to marry and receive the rights granted to heterosexual married couples. Of particular notice has been the media's criticism of President Obama's refusal to comment on the passing of all the new legislation. Maybe I don't fully understand the issue, but here's my assessment. The 14th amendment guarantees equal protect under the law and the supreme court has already ruled that sexual orientation is a protected private right and can't be used as a means to discriminate. The fact remains is that either marriage, by definition, is a religious act and therefore government has no right issuing marriage licenses to anyone - gay or straight. In which case, the government should only issue civil unions as contracts between the two people and the government. Or, marriage has its own secular definition and therefore, the government is constitutionally obligated to provide that right to all who seek it. I don't understand how President Obama explaining the issue in this manner in a press conference to the American people could get him into any serious trouble.

In other, random, news - the big Twilight news this week was that a woman found a copy of the New Moon script and the new Rob Pattinson movie Remember Me (or Rememberance, I can never remember) in a dumpster outside of an LA hotel. Rather than selling them to the tabloids or leaking them on the internet, she approached Summit Productions and traded them for tickets to the premieres. My thoughts on this? First, wtf was a salon owner from Missouri (or wherever) doing going through a LA hotel dumpster to find the scripts? Honestly? Secondly, what kind of trouble did Anna Kendrick (Jessica Stanley) get into with Summit for leaving her copy of the scripts behind? I imagine it was a lot. Finally, I hope the weirdo was smart enough to get tickets to the premieres of all of the Twilight Saga movies.

So, today I stayed in bed until 11 am, I had time to hit the gym and I went out to sun tan on the slope which was gorgeous. Don't hate me people who have jobs! As soon as I graduate, I'll be going home to a regiment of work and studying.

Thing of the Day: In anticipation of June 26th (which I still think is the No Doubt featuring Paramore concert at PNC Bank Arts) here's my song of the day. Enjoy!

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

Oh, where to begin? I thought the quote from Casablanca was particularly appropriate seeing as how this blog is both a beginning and an ending. It's the beginning of my life after college (and the end of 4+ years of collegiate torture). Although it isn't a true ending just yet - my last final starts in two hours - I'm done studying for it and can start to truly appreciate my new found freedom.

Things I'll write about? Anything I bloody want to. Whatever strikes my fancy, whenever it strikes. Although, I think it's fair to warn you that there will be a heavy dose of Twilight Saga based commentary because it's kind of like my boyfriend right now. We're still in that lovey-dovey courtship phase where we can find no wrong with each other. So, along those lines I've decided to keep a running count of how many times I've read each book in the series in its entirety (if I counted how many times I read the meadow scene or the first night back from Italy scene - we'd be talking in the 100s). I think it's a fair guesstimate to say that I've read each book in the series from front to back at least 10 times. So I'll start there and see what happens. My prediction is that by 4th of July, all of the numbers will be in the 20s. What do you think?

Btw, I'm lucky I didn't send myself to the hospital this morning. I was eating cereal this morning before I had brushed my teeth (cuz seriously, if I already had, I was just gonna get 'em dirty again) and I chalked up the weird milk taste to that. Little did I know that this afternoon, when I decided to be very bad (earmuffs Jessica!) and have milk & double stuffed oreos, that as I was pouring milk into the glass there would be a giant chuck of congealed milk. Expiration date? 5/8 That's what finals do to you, make you so damn confused you can't remember how old your milk is.

Thing of the day: Feel like reverting to your inner 5 year old? Now you can do that AND cater to your Twilight addiction with Twilight coloring! Check it out.

Twilight: 10
New Moon: 10
Eclipse: 10
Breaking Dawn: 10
Midnight Sun (I know, it's not the real one. I don't care, I'm including it!): 10