Weekend Recap

Okay, I think at this point anyone that reads my blog knows just how bad I am about doing the weekend recap. Yesterday I got back to school at around five and I was so exhausted/sick once I finished unpacking that I ended up taking a nap at seven and woke up at eight (just in time to hear my roommate comment on my sleeping habits...ugh!)

So this weekend two of my friends celebrated their 19th birthdays which means that I went home to celebrate with my "Philly Girls" or at least most of them. We were super bummed that Joanne couldn't come home this weekend because she had a ton of work due Monday (today).

Anyways, on Friday my Dad came down to Clarion and picked me up at around two o'clock and we got back around 4:30 so I did some bonding with my Little Bug before Billy's football game. Let me tell you, Jack is getting ridiculously silly. At one point he was lying on the kitchen floor flat on his back just "talking" and trying to repeat the noises I was making. The football game started at seven though and it was so cold and rainy and at one point it was hailing, but Prep won by a landslide - I don't think it should have been called a game at all. And naturally I ended my night with some sibling bonding with Billy; we just went to Sheetz and talked about life and I tried to help him out with Macbeth.

Friday is for high school football

On Saturday I went to coffee with my dad (it's seriously my favorite thing to do) and Jack. I was woken up at 7:30am and at first I thought I read the clock wrong, but I was good to go in thirty minutes - a skill that I've recently acquired with this whole "college" thing.) I visited my Grandma in the afternoon for a couple of hours before I went to visit some old neighbors for their annual pumpkin carving party and I got home with forty-five minutes to spare before I had to go to dinner with Jackie and Serena. 

The Birthday Girls: Jackie & Serena

Let me just say: I LOVE MY FRIENDS AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WOULD DO WITHOUT THEM. So Jackie, Serena, and I went to Olive Garden for dinner on Saturday to celebrate their 19th birthday which was yesterday. After that we went back to my house so I could change/get my car/they could take their birthday picture and then we went to Mercyhurst University to sit in Serena's dorm and figure out our next move. We ended up sitting in there until Joanne's brother called Jackie and we hung out with him and I saw an "old high school friend" who was going home because she was sick - it was awkward. We ended up going on what we thought was a haunted ghost walk around the Mercyhurst campus, but it was a mix of the two. MU has a lot of history and it's great, but Serena and I aren't about people jumping out at us and we couldn't hear anything so we ran away as soon as the "tour" went back outside. Jackie and John finished it though. 

Serena & I 

I finished the weekend with church - it was the one year anniversary of my grandpa's death last week so Sunday mass was for him. After church I had to run home and finish packing, but then I went back to my grandma's house to visit some of my family and do some cousinly bonding with baby Joseph. We definitely can't forget about the homemade lasagna - I live for my grandma's sauce too, I could eat just the sauce, it's my favorite!

What did you do this weekend? Does your grandma make any food that you could live off of?

Clemson vs. FSU

Okay, I know it's been a while since I've last posted and I also realize that I've really missed the weekend recap. I'm going to do a weekend recap anyway though because I don't care and I'm still so happy from this weekend. Sorry, the pictures are kind of out of order too. I had an exciting day - I'm going to NYC next month!

This weekend my cousin, Annie, and I traveled down to Clemson, SC for the Clemson/FSU game. We met up with my cousin Alyssa and her husband Renny who live there (Alyssa is graduating from Clemson in December... Eeeep! I'm so happy for her!) and my cousin Beth and her boyfriend Tom came up from Tallahassee, FL. Both Beth and Tom are FSU alums. Beth graduated law school from FSU and I'm not sure when Tom was there, but they're both lawyers. And to top it all off my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jamie came down from Charlotte, NC which was a nice surprise since they originally couldn't make it. The only one we were missing was Katie (and Billy, but he's too young - next year though)

So we all got in on Friday and since Annie and I got there before everyone else we went to dinner with Alyssa and Renny at 'Asian Bowl' or something and it was good, but our server... not so much. Then Alyssa took us to get Clemson gear since Annie and I are split - Annie's sister is Beth and I have no sisters so I truly didn't know who to root for. Just so we're clear, we sat in the FSU section and I probably looked very confused in my Clemson sweatshirt doing the FSU chants... I don't care though, I had a fabulous time! Once everyone got in we all piled into a car - no really, we had two people on laps, there were five of us in the back seat - and went out for pizza and pool playing and some bar hopping.

L to R: Aunt Debbie, Alyssa, Me, Beth, Annie, Uncle Jamie

SATURDAY!!! Game day, baby! We got started tailgating really late. Okay, I thought we started early, but compared to my uncle it was late. We started at around noon or two, I can't remember and he started at nine in the morning. Seriously, he had already been to five bars before we even got out the door! Haha! It was a riot though. I met some awesome people and it was a great game for FSU - Clemson though...not so much.

Top L to R: Renny, Annie, Me, Beth. Bottom: Alyssa

"FLORIDA STATE, FLORIDA STATE, FLORIDA STATE WOO!"

I know this was long and I didn't share any stories (I truthfully cannot remember any and the ones I can remember should not be shared!)

What did you do this weekend? Did you watch the game or a different one or a million ones?

There's No Ship Like Friendship

I'm going to be honest, I'm not having the best day. That's okay though. I'm determined to get through this on my own, but my current mood had me reflecting on life and it made me realize that as bad as my depression is and was it also helped me find my true friends. The people that I value very, very much and would honestly take a bullet for. It also had me realizing how hard I worked to hide my depression from anyone that didn't know me, but that's unimportant.

Amanda, me, Catherine, and Emilee (June 2013)

Truly, I do have the most amazing friends and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. I've noticed that I will have like two to three close friends at a time. I like to keep different friendships separate so a lot of my friends aren't friends too and some of them actually really hate each other, but I honestly don't care. I love my friends for how they make me feel and who I am when I'm around them. I don't have multiple personalities, but it probably looks that way when I'm around different friends, they just bring out different sides of me.

Jackie, Joanne, Sammi, and I (July 2013)

I have two sets of "close friends" that are very different people. I have Joanne, Jackie, and Serena who are still new to my life. They don't seem like it though. During my senior year I would spend every weekend at Joanne's house and then once summer came I was there literally every day. I'm not even kidding, I only came to my house to shower, change my clothes, and occasionally sleep. The four of us went to Taylor Swift this past July and that trip is what had me fully accept Serena into my life. Jackie has been best friends with Joanne for who knows how long and so she came with Joanne. I don't have sisters, but these three are as close at gets to family for me. Joanne's family actually means a lot to me. It's very personal though, but I hope they are in my life for a very long time.

Serena, Joanne, Jackie, & I (Philadelphia 2013)

I also have the two Emily's. I've known Emily1 since second grade when we both transferred to St. Luke's and I met Emily2 in sixth grade on the SLS swim team and I'm going to be honest - I was scared of her. However, I still remember the first pep talk Emily2 gave me so many years ago. I didn't truly become friends with Emily2 until our freshmen year of high school at a "Learn to Row" camp and I didn't form the bond that I still feel like I forced on Emily1 until a heart-to-heart over Christmas break via Facebook messages during our sophomore year. They've taken way too many hits from me and have helped me through some tough times and for that I am forever grateful. Also, fun fact: we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade almost two years ago and I convinced myself that our friendship was over when the trip was so in an effort to avoid the ending I slept the whole way home. Little did I know, they were there for me that January and it still means a lot.

E1, Me, E2 (NYC 2011)

Regardless of whether or not they're close or not close, friends are still friends. Muhammed Ali once said: "Friendships is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything." I couldn't agree more. I can sit here and talk about my friends and how much they mean to me and you could do the same, but we would never understand. My friends and family are put into one category, they have equal importance to me because of how close my friends are they are like family to me. My cousins and my closest friends are like sisters to me. I love them and I wouldn't have it any other way.

One of my oldest friends, Becky, and myself at graduation (May 2013)

Weekend Recap

Wow! I'm really bad at getting back to posting after the weekend. I have a test tomorrow that I have yet to start studying for because I've holed up in bed and began season 3 of Gossip Girl. I'm halfway through the series and I'm already starting to panic because I have no idea what I'm going to do when I finish the series.

So this weekend I went home (shocker) and it wasn't planned until around 1:30 on Friday morning. I was supposed to wait and go back the second to last weekend, but I got impatient and didn't want to do my own laundry. I ended up doing my own laundry. I also got to see Jackson and watch Billy play football and watch Mike watch reruns of How I Met Your Mother. 

Anyway... I got back on Friday and went to watch one of the biggest high school football games there is in my city - Prep vs. McDowell. It's a HUGE rivalry. Remember #AJO that I talked about? Well Alyssa went to McDowell and the game was the one month anniversary of her death. I walked into the stadium and the only thing you could hear was both schools chanting "A-J-O." I almost cried actual tears. Prep won and my brother got hurt, but every time I see him play I feel like he's a freshman again and I'm watching his first game and the man asked me who my brother was and after I tell him his name he says, "The quarterback?" I cried from pried and from wishing that my mom could be there to see it.

Like father like son

On Saturday I went to the pumpkin farm with my dad, Mike, Jack and some of the tenants. If you ignore the unwelcome guests then it was a great trip! Jack is in the throwing stage though (is that an actual stage?) so he didn't get the pumpkin that he was trying to eat because - you guessed it - he threw his pumpkin on the ground!

I also rearranged my furniture and cleaned my room and got some homework done. That's actually what I wanted to go home for. I wanted to go home when I didn't have friends in town and the ones that still live there were busy because I needed to get stuff done. And everything got done!

One of my favorite pictures of Mike and Jack

How was your weekend? Did you go to or watch any football games?

10 Days until I'm headed down to Clemson University for the Clemson vs. FSU game!!!

"It's October 3rd"

I very rarely pay attention to the date and it seems pointless because the days fly by so quickly anyway, but I can always count on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and a few of the stragglers still on Facebook to tell me that today is October 3. Last year it was perfect because it was a Wednesday and everyone knows that on Wednesdays we wear pink. Unless you're me and end up wearing pink every day whether it be nail polish or accessories (I don't own pink clothing, except for like two dresses). SO! To celebrate October 3 I'm going to do a post on some of my favorite movies!

Dirty Dancing is my ultimate favorite movie. I hate re-watching things, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen Dirty Dancing in the past year alone. I sing the soundtrack in the shower and dream about it. I'm addicted to Dirty Dancing. For those of you that have never seen Dirty Dancing: GO WATCH IT YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!!!

Another favorite of mine is a movie that I used to watch all of the time with my mom, The Sound of Music. We would watch The Sound of Music every time we watched a movie together and it was the last that we watched together before her passing. I mean we would watch other movies, but this was the movie. She died almost five years ago, but I've only watched it once since then and it was only a few months ago. That's how much that movie means to me, it's basically a very sacred movie and it reminds me of her and someday I hope to share this movie with my own daughter. I'll just have to buy it on DVD first... I still only watch it on VHS.

I'm leaving it at these two, but there are many, many more that I love. I didn't include Mean Girls even though I did make a couple references, but I don't know, I love the movie, but I get a little bored with it sometimes. Basically I just really have to be in the mood to watch Mean Girls. 

What are your favorite movies?

Music Notes On Memory Lane

I was sitting in the cafeteria today eating dinner with my roommates and a song came on and I just started laughing because not only did it remind me of a friend of mine, but I could close my eyes and I was 15 again. The song was "Kids In Love" by Mayday Parade and anyone that knows me, like honest to God knows me, knows how much Mayday Parade has done for me.

However, I can't listen to them frequently because of what they do to me. I listen to Mayday and I'm 16 and crying in my room. Every day. I get the indescribably feeling that I feel when I'm in the middle of a violent cry session and I end up having an anxiety attack. Music is powerful and Mayday Parade's lyrics are so powerful to me. "You Be The Anchor That Keeps My Feet On The Ground, I'll Be The Wings That Keep Your Heart In The Clouds" is the song that gets me the most. It brings me back to June 4, 2012, a Monday and I'm home alone. I close my eyes and I see that day and it kills me. But the song does what it's supposed to do, it makes you feel.

Another song that brings back memories is "All Signs Point to Lauderdale" by A Day to Remember. This song also came on while we were eating and I started laughing to myself. I was obsessed with this song at this time last year. I would roll down my windows on my way to crew practice and just blast it over and over again. It brings back good memories and those are always nice to have.

We all have songs that bring us back to certain times in our lives. What songs bring you down memory lane?

October!

Yes, it's that time of year again! I love October - the leaves are finally starting to change and it feels like fall! Ahh, it's my favorite time of year! I'm excited for this October more than any in the past though. This month I start with one of my old friend's birthday and then my two brothers have their birthdays. That same week my cousin and I are taking a trip down to Clemson, SC to see the Clemson vs FSU game on Saturday, October 19 and then I'll be going home the weekend after to celebrate the birthday of two of my other friends.

A lot is in-store for October and I couldn't be more excited!

October is honestly my absolute favorite month of the year - birthdays, football, and Halloween... you can't go wrong! The weather will hopefully cooperate too, I'm ready to bring my sweaters out and put my summer clothes away for good!

Birthday Girl #1

Birthday Girl #2

What are you most excited about this month? Do tell!

Don't forget to think pink; it's breast cancer awareness month