Plans Change.

Today is my last day in Providence in 2010. I will be hopping on a plane shortly. There have been changes in life plans these past few weeks. After stepping into my senior seminar class first day of winter trimester, it was made apparent that trying to cram in all of my major classes this year and transfer to Charlotte next year would not make any sense. After sitting down and really examining our reasons for wanting to go to Charlotte, then it really didn't make any sense for both Rae and I to go.

After that decision was made, all of a sudden it was time to decide where we wanted to live our last year in Providence. The apartment search was on. After searching through endless craigslist ads we managed to settle on the most mysterious ad to be our apartment for next year. The ad had no pictures and told us it was a 2 bedroom on Wickenden St. across from Coffee Exchange Heat and Parking included $550 per person a month. Call or text Ed anytime. So we texted Ed. He got back to us instantly, we looked at the apartment a few days later, and we signed the lease a few days after that. Cons of living in a city with 5 colleges: apartments are in HIGH demand so you have to act fast. The apartment is quaint and located above Amy's Cafe. It's not big, but it still feels roomy. We won't have to buy lots of furniture to fill it, and we'll have Brown students as neighbors. Still a little anxiety about signing my first lease but Ed hasn't given us a reason to not trust him yet...

All I have time to blog about now. Until next time...

Thanksgiving

I feel like I am blogging about this so far after the fact but Thanksgiving was just a week ago. I cannot believe that, this has felt like a really long week! For Thanksgiving Break, I decided to save the air fare, work a few days and stay in Providence. This has been the plans for months which gave time for my friends at home to be able to plan a road trip to come visit me and see my world up here. It was so weird/cool to have my two worlds collide. The Cove and Residential Life did not make it easy, but I did manage to entertain guests in my apartment.

I had been planning for friends from home to visit me ever since freshman year. In my mind I thought I had all these cool places to show them all over the place and by the time they came, I sort of blanked. We had lots of fun around Providence the first day they were here. I showed them the downtown area and where I go to school and then I showed them all over the East Side. We got pizza at Nice Slice, got coffee at Coffee Exchange, went to Prospect Park, hung out at the hookah bar, then went to Providence Place and saw Morning Glory. Great movie! I highly recommend it, only looks like a chick flick but the guys really enjoyed it too.

Tuesday, after I got off work, we took the commuter rail to Boston for the afternoon. It's a real shame how little I know about Boston when I am only an hour away. Luckily the weather was not bad, it was cloudy but not cold. We basically did a lot of walking around, but we did find an great coffee place over by Harvard Square called Cafe Crema. It's good because Micah was impressed, that's a big deal in the coffee realm.

Wednesday was a LONG day. Wednesday was the day that Anderson flew in! We picked him up and did an abbreviated tour of Providence for him before seeing 127 Days at the Avon Theater. I had never seen a movie there so I was really excited to go. 127 Days is the James Franco movie about an outdoors man who gets stuck in the crack of a cliff and his hand gets stuck under a rock. The movie is all about how he survived. Another great movie that I recommend. We were hoping James Franco would make an appearance since he's a RISD student now, but he didn't show.

After the movie we rushed to New Haven to take the MTA into Manhattan to get a really good spot for the parade the next day. Probably the worst idea of mine in a long time. Long story short, we didn't need to rush to New Haven like I thought, and NYC may be the city that never sleeps but that means the crazies never sleep (like us), it progressively got colder and colder the closer we got to daybreak, and we didn't even get that great of a spot to see the parade. But I have to remember the good parts of the trip....we found a 24 hour Donut Pub. It was great, and I saw it on Unwrapped the Food Network show just the other night.

When we finally got back to Providence by 3PM Thanksgiving Day. I luckily can sleep pretty much anywhere so I got a really great nap on the train, so when we got back to the apartment the guys took a nap and I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner. It turned out pretty great. I made a turkey breast instead of the whole bird and all of the trimmings.

The guys left Friday right as my roommates were getting back to town. All and all it was a very nice holiday and I am so glad my friends made the trip.

An SES Weekend

This past weekend was packed with all things concerning special events. Now if you remember from last year, I took a trip with Special Events Society to Disney World last spring break. The spring break trip was announced for this year; we're going to California! One must apply to be able to go on the trip and with such an increase in members, over 200 to be exact, I had to step up my SES game.

On Thursday I stepped out of class and directly into my car to volunteer at the EUHOFA Gala being put on my the University to volunteer. Rae and I volunteered along side lots of other Johnson and Wales students including the staff from the Johnson and Wales Inn and Leigh and Keith ( a cute freshman couple that I gave a tour of the campus to last year). I still haven't really figured out what exactly EUHOFA stands for, no one else really knew I either. Anytime I would ask, I would get the same response, "Europeans in the hospitality industry - very important people." The event was heavily over-staffed, they stuck us in the coat closet to work coat check. The event coordinator felt so bad about not having anything for us to do, she let us eat and leave early. And that is why volunteering at events is by far one of my favorite hobbies.

SES @ Yankees Stadium

Friday, SES set up a field trip for us in the Big Apple. For $50 I had the opportunity to take a coach bus to the city, tour Yankees Stadium, Radio City Music Hall, and the New York Public Library, and included dinner at Planet Hollywood in Time Square. The idea of living in New York City really overwhelms me, more so before I took the trip than after. Life is so different. The problem is that the majority of the jobs in my field of study just so happen to be in the city. I warmed up to the idea a little more as the day went on. My favorite tour of the day was touring the library. The other 2 were great, but they were tours for just regular people who want to see the facilities where the library tour was conducted by the events coordinator of the library. I find it so interesting that this library is so much more than just a library, it is an icon. I didn't realize that the library was a popular place to get married when I first watched the Sex and the City movie. I truly thought Carrie was being really unique and untraditional for her big wedding, turns out it is the most popular place to get married in the city. The woman who gave us the tour has the best job ever. She's not an event coordinator, she is actually head of marketing for the Library and handles the movie shoots that happen in the library and then she deals only with space rental for the library. The beauty of events in the library is that it is purely a space you are renting out. It works great for the client because they are not restricted to using any particular caterer or anything like that and it is great for the library because they don't deal with the clients but they deal only with the planners. The job skips over all of the hassels of the event industry.  There was also another highlight to this trip: the Forever21 in Time Square. I thought I was over shopping at Forever21, but this one had the best stuff and it was 4 stories! It is like it's own department store! I bought a few things... After dinner, we loaded up the bus and passed out.

Saturday I worked my last paid Open House (JWU Preview). I got a new job! At the start of winter trimester, I will no longer be a tour guide, but I will be the new Commuter Relations Assistant at Student Activities. I will have my own office, I am so excited! So this is where it begins, I am the assistant to the assistant director of Student Activities...kinda funny.
After the Preview, I went home and took a short nap and then went and volunteered at another event with SES. The event was TV Diner's (a Massachusetts tv show that goes around and reviews restaurants in the area) Annual Gala at the Lexus Dealership outside of Boston. The event was a fundraiser for homeless children (sounded kinda sketchy...more vague) it was $100 a ticket open bar and all you can eat samples from various restaurant booths. Our job was to serve hors' d'oeuvres and  keep the event space clean so basically clearing tables of stemware and dirty plates. They gave us baskets to load all of the glassware and dishes in to take to the back, meaning the half empty glasses of wine would swish all over the place. By the end of the night I had never smelt so much like alcohol and been so sober. We had a few issues with the caterer boss lady throughout the night (the troll they call her). Sydney had to demand for us to get a break, some water, and a little food. Definitely one of the more labor intensive events I have done, but in the end I had a blast. Once again, I got to go to a fancy party for free and get lots of free food and desserts at the end.

In the time that I have procrastinated to study for my finals, I had a chance to perfect my resume, volunteer logs and my SES California application. I turned it in tonight! So excited, I hope I get to go. Until next time...

America has spoken...

2010 Midterm Election Results
House of Representatives

This past week's midterm elections proved to be hugely successful for the GOP's. Congrats to them taking control over the House of Representatives!  Finally some balance in our legislature. Some states just still don't get it though, including: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California, Nevada... It's interesting how the states that are bankrupt do not connect economic policies with the people they elect into office. Why is it that Texas is the number 1 place to do business in the country and why is Rhode Island the 50th? Every time we talk about it in my classes with the liberal professors and I talk about how the government is spending too much money, they always talk about the money we're pouring into the "war" and not education.. not really the issue. It's a great tactic I guess, no one can deny bettering education, same thing goes for the environment. It still doesn't justify the wasteful spending, wasteful being the key word. Do Rhode Islanders think their state is bankrupt because of the 10 republicans in the general assembly?? We did go up to 18 for the next year, Travis Rowley (Rhode Island Young Republican Chair) predicts 30 for 2012. I wish them the best of luck. I do have more optimism for this state, the fact that it was the Independent and Republican gubernatorial candidates that were neck and neck in the end proves that the state is over traditional liberal politics around here. It makes sense that the Independent won, I have noticed that people up here do not feel comfortable affiliating with any particular party. The word Democrat and Republican really turns people off up here.

P.S. I am all for you believing that liberalism is the best way if you can back up your reasons factually and not just by telling me that my conservative politicians are idiots. I am sick of being insulted for my beliefs. You are far more convincing when you are expressing your beliefs with data instead of personal attacks.
That's my political rant for the time being. Until next time...

Freak Week 2010

The week of Halloween is Freak Week, 1 of the 3 major weeks UIB puts on throughout the year. Major Week means we have a different program every night of the week. A lot of the events are traditions but we experimented with a few new ideas. We tried dry erase marketing by just writing our events on the white boards in classrooms and personal white boards and we were getting lots of results by looking at attendance at the events at the beginning of the week. Towards the end, the marketing began to fizzle and so did our numbers. People were also heading out to the clubs instead of staying on campus. We program fun, free, or inexpensive events/activities for students and secretly provide alternatives to drinking. Alcohol usually wins over a school dance but we made the best of the dance Saturday. The important part of the dance was that everyone who came had a good time and some of the students who came probably wouldn't have had anywhere else to spend their Halloween night. After a while we all started to have a sense of humor about the low attendance and we decided to set up stanchions outside of Wales Hall and stand in line like we were waiting to get into a club like the clubs across the street. We got a lot of confused looks from people who were on their way to Ultra of Coliseum but we actually tricked a few people and they actually got in line with us. After a while most everyone had left except for UIB people so we started doing karaoke because no one was really dancing anyways. Francis started off by singing Green Day then his famous cover of Tom Petty's Free Fallin'. Greg and 2 other guys from the sailing team  got up and sang Backstreet Boys, then we got up and sang Spice Girls, it was nostalgic of our childhood.

UIB E-Board + Sott
Nightmare on Pine Street Vidoe Dance Party

Paint October Pink!

Ahh I finally have time to sit and post a blog. I know it has been a while and maybe you think I have fallen off the face of the earth. I have been busy as usual, but in all honesty, I have been meaning to post a blog for weeks now, it has been on my to-do list but I kept getting tripped up on the title. Once I get a witty title, I'm usually pretty good on the post from then on.

I know we are well into the month of October now, like I said, I have been meaning to blog about this for a long time now. I'm sure you have noticed that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and boy does Providence love supporting breast cancer awareness. Not this past weekend that just happened, but the weekend before was Providence's annual Flames of Hope, the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Waterfire. This is one of the largest events held in Providence every year and the Special Events Society plays a part in the production of the event. I had the honor of working behind the scenes during the torch processions, where hundreds of people who are either battling cancer currently, in remission for cancer, or any one who is caring for someone or who has lost someone to cancer carries a torch and walks down to the basin and lights the Waterfire. It is a really emotional ceremony, there were certain points where I got teary-eyed myself. Gloria Gemma weekend is a beautiful thing in Providence. The whole downtown turns pink, the State House is lit pink as well as a few other buildings for the month of October.

Next weekend, the President's Leadership Council will be participating in the Making Stride Against Breast Cancer Walk at Roger Williams Park. I am getting a really late start on fundraising. I set a goal of $100, a very manageable goal I think. I would really appreciate some support from all of you who follow my blog consistently. A small donation goes a long way. I am only asking $5. It's easy just click here!

It feels good to be blogging again. You will hear from me again shortly, I promise. Until next time...

So much to blog about, so little time.

Everyday I have thought of some great topic to blog about and then never find the time at night to ever post it. I can't believe it is Wednesday already and week 4 for that matter. Time flies. This past weekend was super busy one. I conducted PLC interviews, we had several UIB programs, as well as the Newport Mansions Food and Wine Festival with SES.

PLC 2010 Spring Banquet

Friday I had the opportunity to interview lots of great freshman for the President's Leadership Council. Johnson and Wales continues to raise the quality of students they are admitting so pretty much everyone we interviewed was fantastic and qualified. That made interviews very difficult because we had to cut some great students from the council. We have about 40 new additions to the council this year and I am very excited about the council this year. It is easy to get bogged down by the culture of students here at Johnson and Wales. There is such a dramatic difference in students here, there is one group where JWU is there dream school and they are here to succeed and another group of students who have wealthy families and that can buy them into a college degree even if they forgot to take their SAT's. It is refreshing to get together with a group of students who are elite and all here for the right reason and that is PLC. Honestly PLC saved me from this school. I hated it here until I got involved with the council. We interviewed so many students who were just so passionate about their major whether it was culinary, baking and pastry, or international travel and tourism, even criminal justice. I enjoyed hearing what their most favorite thing about JWU so far and what they thought there was still room for improvements on. So refreshing.

4 out of 7 UIB Eboard Members

I love my UIB family. Our E-board this year is incredible, we all get along. I enjoy all of the time I put into it. This weekend a few of us actually got a chance to hang out outside of UIB events and went to Waterfire together. We found a spot on the grassy hill overlooking the water basin at Waterplace, it was so fun to just hang out with people and relax outside. We had awesome weather this weekend, perfect 74 degrees ( my absolute favorite).

Marble House
 Newport, RI

Sunday Rae and I volunteered at the Newport Mansions Food and Wine Festival with the Special Events Society. Coincidently, Sharon, our friend we made at the Life is Good Festival was in charge of the kitchen pavilion we were scheduled to work at. What a great contact we made, I guess that's a huge part of SES: networking. It was so fun, we assisted in wine pouring and serving samples. I cannot stress how great volunteering for events is. I get experience, behind the scenes access, free admissions to events I would probably never get to go to, and we get free food and swag. Love it.

So on top of all of my extracurricular activities, I still have school work. School has not been my number one focus lately and it is starting to catch up with me. I am not doing A quality work for my classes and I need to step it up. I am so glad I got some time to squeeze in a blog post, but there is probably some homework I could be working on since we don't have a tour today and I'm sitting in the cubicle knocking out my Hulu playlist. Until next time...

Time for a change.

I feel that lately I have been bombarded with lessons on leadership in all different shapes and sizes. I have experienced leadership lessons as well as sat in on training sessions and just sitting in my leadership class. Not complaining, it's a good thing. Student Activities brought in a motivational speaker, Michael Miller, to conduct training sessions for clubs and orgs on campus. I happened to be in three of those training sessions. 1 for clubs and orgs in general, another for student government and another for UIB e-board, and our advisor arranged for the UIB president and myself to have lunch with him too. He is so great! He's very loud and very italian (meaning he talks with his hands). It was a bit overwhelming at first, but I grew to love it. It has gotten me to want to take all of the organizations I am involved with and go above and beyond with them. Why not? It is time to push up my sleeves and start a revolution with both SGA and UIB, but in 2 completely different ways.

It is time to stop complaining about SGA and start to try and fix SGA. The problem is simple: the leadership can't and will not work together, the members are unclear on the purpose of a student government, and the leadership is kind of talking the talk but not walking the walk therefore not proving any credibility in themselves or giving the members a reason to do what is expected. The time has come to turn around JWU SGA and make it one of the most prestigious roles on campus like it is at real colleges. No more running unopposed for positions and no more appointing people for positions because no one wants to run for it. 

UIB's situation is different. We will always do what we are supposed to do. There will be programs on campus whether or not it is done correctly, different story. It is very easy for committee chairs to plan, book, and execute their events. The hard part is effectively engaging their committee members and making them feel like they had a part in making that program happen. This year we are going to give more responsibility to the general board in hopes of keeping them engaged and committed to us. This year we will also fix the problem of students not knowing what UIB is. There is no excuse for the student body to not know what a campus programming board is. It's partly the students' fault for not paying attention, but it is mainly our fault for not effectively getting the word out. 

I am very excited for the potential this year has to offer. At this point, everything said is worthless. I want to see action. Talk is talk. We have realistic goals to be met this year. Now all we need is enough people to be on board and make all of it happen.

Life is good, BUSY, but good.

I can already tell my second year of college is going to fly by. It's already Friday!? This past week was pretty routine, but it started off with Rae, Mattie, and I volunteering at the Life is good. Festival in Canton, MA. It was such a great experience. It was a rough start but when we finally got from the volunteer parking lot to the actual festival grounds and after our first assignment at bocce ball, it was so much fun. Have you ever played bocce ball before? Enough said. Mattie and I took the first opportunity to move and went over to the watermelon seed spitting contest. It was quite entertaining to watch parents watch their kids try and spit the seeds and then the parents dying to try after them. The entire festival was to benefit the Life is good foundation for kids. There were so many families there as well as a great artist line up for the 3 stages. After spending a few hours watching people spit seeds, it was time to move on. While attempting to take a break and enjoy the festival, Mattie and I stumbled across the kid's drink bar and it was crazy. It was in the middle of a shift transition and busy as can be. Mattie and I stepped right in to help. We spent basically the remainder of our volunteering at the kid's bar making fresh squeezed lemonades and frozen fruit drinks. After the kid's bar shut down we scarfed down pulled pork sandwiches, sweet potatoe fries, and sweet tea before heading over to help at the real bar. Funny story on Rae's blog  about us trying to sell beer. We only served a few beers, realized we were in the way and went and enjoyed the Jason Mraz concert. So awesome! 12 hours working on our feet, rainy weather, and being short staffed still equaled a great day. It's funny how when you work a music festival, although there is a great musical line up, you're not terribly disappointed about missing the concert because you're working the event. There were a couple more acts I would have loved to see like Guster, Ok Go!, Brett Dennan, and Corrine Bailey Rae but I missed them because I was working and I was not heartbroken. Now if I miss Jason, I probably would have been more upset.

Monday was our PLC meet and greet. Met some awesome freshmen. Applications are due today and interviews are next Friday! Tuesday I had my first student government meeting with the house of reps. Not bad, it's gonna be a good year in SGA I think, hopefully there will be some changes. Being a representative, we deal with appropriations for other clubs and orgs.We had another successful UIB meeting Wednesday night. Thursday we had our first College Republican meeting. We were expecting more people, we had 6, but that's better than before. Rae and I have big plans to turn JWU CR's around, hopefully it'll be a good year with them as well, considering it being an election year. This morning I took care of some UIB business and fulfilled some of my office hours before heading to the admissions office for work. Phew....I'm exhausted. 

Until next time...

Week 1 Madness.

Week 1 of the school year was a success! I have a very neat but tight schedule for my weeks. I have work in the morning, class in the afternoon, and some sort of meeting in the evening. I don't get a lot of time in my apartment so I am glad we moved in a few days early to give us time to enjoy our new home. Unfortunately because I am never there, we have failed to decorate. The living room doesn't have a single thing on the white walls and frankly, I am getting to the point where I don't even care anymore. I am really only living there for 9 months, I can deal with the bland-ness and decorate a more permanent place when I decide where that is. Moving in was rough, move out will be worse if we buy more stuff.

This past Wednesday was our first UIB (University Involvement Board) meeting. We had about 80 new people come out of the 350ish who signed up for more info from the Student Activities Fair. Pretty good. Being vice-president is a lot of work, no wonder why I get a stipend for it. It's going to be a great learning experience, now that I've thought about it, I have never had a real leadership position before. Friday night, UIB sponsored the laser tag event for Welcome Week. It was a lot of fun but we were there from 7pm-1:30am working. Not much working, more like talking to new students about UIB. Saturday night, both CAT and SGA sponsored the casino night Welcome Week event which was also a lot of fun. I was the cashier and a blackjack dealer, pretty legit. Going to campus events is an obligation of mine since I am involved with so many different organizations. I was thinking of them as burdens on my schedule but after this weekend I have decided to have a better attitude about it. Even though the hours were long, I got to hang out with my friends and have fun. I expect other students to go to my events so I need to set a good example by attending campus events too. I cannot handle when people moan and complain about being bored and not having anything to do. I am always busy and always entertained, they can be too. There are so many opportunities offered on campus and the community, take them up, you're paying for it. Rant over.

Until next time...

And So It Begins...

I'm back!! Providence hasn't changed a bit, but I am excited to be back and getting back into the swing of things. I have a busy busy year ahead of me. Today is my first day back at work in the admissions office, thankfully I there are no tours booked today, so I can get some hours in and take care of some business from my computer. 

I'm realizing how it is easier to blog about nothing (like this summer) than lots of things. There are so many things I could tell you about these past few days, but nothing of real importance. Basically it was a consistent pattern of unloading the car, loading the elevator, unloading the elevator, moving things into the apartment/room, then repeat. After moving our on things in, we also volunteered to help freshmen and their families move in. It was hard work, but it is all worth it when I think about how appreciative the families were that we could pretty much get their things up to the room in one trip. Made the madness of move in a little bit easier to handle. 

Rae and I moved into our Cove apartment Thursday and had the place to ourselves until yesterday. Mattie and Jillian moved in and got all settled yesterday, some reason it took them no time and it took Rae and I DAYS to get out things settled. The apartment looks great, I am really excited about living in it this year. The bedrooms are a tad small but we have lots of room everywhere else. Mattie's mom, Chele, helped her move her stuff in yesterday and feng shuied the living room for us, and it looks so much better than how we had it before. P.S. We are in the market for a futon if any of you are getting rid of one, let us know. 

Tonight is the Student Activities Fair out on Gaebe Commons. There will be swarms of booths for all of the different clubs and organizations on campus and swarms of freshmen to talk to about UIB. Recruitment is one of my responsibilities as Vice-President so this is my night to get some freshmen to join. This is probably the first time I have ever had a real objective to accomplish in an elected position. I have to get better at focusing and tackling my objectives I want to accomplish this year. This is something I want to work really hard with this year so I can leave JWU and UIB thinking I did something to make a difference in. You can't ever really feel proud about anything without putting in time and hard work. 

I have to get a new camera this year, I have been in denial about dropping it in the Walmart parking lot last spring, but it is time to just suck it and buy a new one. Once I get one I will definitely post some pictures up of the apartment. For now I you can see a picture of the exterior. It's so good to be back in the mini-city, until next time...

Crossing another milestone

Last day of my first year of college has come so fast! Can we call this a milestone? Ever since I graduated from high school I feel like after every major event it could be considered another new chapter of my life, or some biography that someone will write about me someday.

The room is officially packed up. The storage people came Monday. Everything is out of the drawers and either in a bag of some sort or just scattered. It's a mess. Poor Rae finishes her finals at 11:30 at the latest today and I don't finish until after 5 today. That should give her a substantial amount of time to finish last details on the room and the rest can be spent reflecting I suppose. I have a lot of things to do as well. I have to study for my consumer behavior final and find a cd case to present my cd cover project for my desktop publishing class on top of having that professionally printed. I sent the file to alphagraphics online, I hope they stay on top of that. I also have to give a tour to a family on this yucky day. Is it wet outside. Perfect day to be giving a tour, running around town, and packing up the car.

In the midst of all of this craziness, I forget that this is good-bye. I am leaving almost immediately after my final today, there is no time to say bye to everyone. Yes, I am just leaving for the summer. The part that freaks me out is that there are graduating seniors who are acquaintances that I may never see again. There are also people I spend every single day with. College is the time where you're friends turn into family if they weren't already. We eat meals together, we sleep in the same building if not in the same room, we go shopping together, we take New England adventures together, we struggle, and grow together. I'm going to miss this life I live. Home and college are so far from one another, it really feels like I live in alternate universes when I leave one to go to another. When I go home, everything is almost painfully familiar and comfortable. I am really excited to go back, I do miss my friends at home. Life feels like it just picks up from where I left it when I come home from school. Life at home is so stagnant, things don't change ever. It's a big deal when they re-paint Wal-mart at home. Everyday is a new day here at school.  I am so fortunate to be able to have these experiences. I am blessed to have a mom that is able to send me to the school of my dreams. Yes, I complain about the ridiculousness I have to deal with here but I really do love it here. I am living the life that I thought I would sophomore year in ACT prep with Mr. Crawford when all I would do was research colleges. I found Johnson and Wales when I was in Denver and looked through the website every single day in that class.

Well this will be my last post on this blog for a while. I won't be in the mini-city for a few months. No worries, you'll see my new blog for the summer out soon.

Lots to do, gotta go. Stay dry out there, I sure won't be. I'm off to do a tour.

The Countdown

Our room is so sad looking, random boxes and luggage, bare walls, white shower curtain, no more bathroom shelf, you know what that means? 4 more days until we hit the road! I'm not 100% sure how I feel about it. Another thing it means is that I still have finals to prepare for and take in the few days that I have left here. Good news is that the more I pack, the more I realize that I won't be taking much home with me. I really just plan on taking clothes. There is no reason for me to take things home and just haul them back up in the fall. Rae got a head start today and put 2 very large suitcases in the car today. She has a lot of shoes. I couldn't think of one thing to put in the car today that I wouldn't be using in the next few days. I wish I could just layout 5 outfits and pack up the rest, I don't operate that way I guess.

The sickness is not getting better. Still no voice. I've tried everything but actually gargling salt water, I can't do it. I think I had a bad experience that last time I did it. I've tried eating cold things, warm things, cough drops, throat drops, hot tea, and gallons of water. Today I decided to move on over the natural and herbal remedies, I went to Whole Foods and bought some throat coat syrup and some natural lozenges. Throat coat tasted like honey and mint pleasantly, but the natural lozenge wasn't like a hard candy like a expected, it was more like a TUMS that tasted like cardboard, chalk, and a hint of sugar. I did learn that a common ingredient in these natural remedies is bark from elm and cherry trees?

Today we had our UIB E-Board "Retreat". It was such a good day. I am super excited about the group of people we have for E-Board next year. I think that we are all working towards a common goal and we all want to be in good communication with one another as well as the general board. That sounds like a recipe for success. It's also helpful that we all seem to strive for the same work ethic too. We are all team players and really excited for UIB next year. We have some fun programs planned for the fall. Of course we have our campus traditions like Freak Week, Winter Week, Snoball, Bingo, and New York City trip already in place. Rae is planning on taking a different approach with our mini concerts and how they are marketed. I will be working on recruitment efforts and member retention as well as working out a PR campaign for UIB next year. I plan on trying some fun new media strategies for utilizing Facebook and Twitter. Be prepared to see more videos with the Wildcat and possibly Francis at the Snack Shack.

I typed this last night but forgot to actually post it. Have a wonderful day, that's all for now.

Confessions of an Admissions Tour Guide

Yesterday I was sitting at Startbucks drinking my venti iced black tea, extra tea, sweetened and oatmeal cookie. I love reading days because I can swipe and use the meal plan all day at Starbucks, where as on regular school days I can only swipe until noon. That means I usually can't swipe at all because I would until 12:30. The occasional times that I could swipe during a work day are my favorite days ever.

Yesterday was the first day I had to give a tour at work all week. I had a nice break. At first I was really not looking forward to my tour but I decided to put on a happy face and give them the best tour possible. It turned out the prospective students on tour today were interested in my 2 favorite majors here, Sports/Entertainment/Event Management (SEE) and Creative Advertising. Luckily for them, I am the most knowledgeable on those two majors. One of the fathers on tour was a wanderer, you know the type, the one that reads all of the posters on the wall while I'm talking. He did ask some pretty good questions. The SEE major on tour was very interested and already pretty knowledgeable about the school, but her parents looked unamused. The only thing her dad talked about with the shot glass necklace he saw in one of the tour rooms. Once we got up to Xavier Academic Hall, I let the SEE girl and her family go across the street to Financial Services and took the ad major up to the Ad Lab. Luckily on the way up I saw Prof. Chilabato (my favorite professor) and asked him to talk to the family for a bit about the ad program. I feel like he really enjoyed it. Any time he gets a chance to brag about his ad team, he's happy. I feel like the father was sold on the school, the girl is still hesitant about living in the city. Understandable. Coming from a small town, I can definitely see where someone would be hesitant. Sometimes being a tour guide feels like being a sales person for the school. There are certain days where I really want to sell the school and I really want students to want to come here even though I don't get paid by commission. I think there are days I like to pretend that I do work off commission. That must mean I really do love this university. It's awful that our worst selling point is our student body. Interaction with the student body is the worst thing for admissions. That's why we schedule tours at the time that we do. Students are in class or its a Friday and students are still passed out from the Thursday night before. We're working on getting rid of the dead weight around here. No attendance policy next year. I'd like to see the students here fail because they won't ever go to class. We have also raised our admission requirements from a 2.75 gpa to 3.0 gpa. Such a good school, I don't know how we got the reputation that we have in industry with the majority of the students that we have here.

Today I am unable to do my tour. My sickness has progressed and transformed from day to day this week. Early this week I had body aches, chills, and hot flashes. Now it has progressed to me losing my voice, coughing, and runny nose. Hopefully this means I am almost over the cold, this must be the end of the cycle correct?

Now I must study for my final exams. That's it for now. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Facebook Detox

Today definitely feels like a Monday. I woke up this morning with a sore throat, chilled, and achy. I went and visited the school nurse and she gave me some ibuprofen and a hand full of cough drops. What I would give to be back in bed. I managed to get nothing accomplished sitting in this cubicle except catch up on Hulu and CWTV.com. I am over a month behind on my CW shows. I have decided to be cut off from Facebook until the end of the school year. It was too much of a distraction. Sadly enough, I have been much more productive without it so far. It's great that I am able to still post my blog up on Facebook without actually being able to navigate through it. So for those of you who stumble across this on my Facebook page, I am not cheating. What is our obsession with Facebook anyways. Its like a compulsive disorder. There is no need for me to be spending the amount of time that I do creeping on everyone's photos and statuses. 

After I get out of work in about 30 minutes, I have to walk down the street and print my desktop publishing project. I've never had a poster professionally printed before.Too bad I am starving, I would love to be able to get a nap in before class today. Then I have to make my presentation for my consumer behavior class. I am so excited for this project to be finished. Its the one big assignment that we had and it had been daunting over my head all trimester. I love Monday evenings because I don't have anywhere I need to be. Hopefully I can get some laundry done and clean the room a bit. 

3 more days of class!! I can't believe it. But that is all for now. There's a good chance that I will be updating this more than usual since I can't waste my time on Facebook anymore. I hope this brings some joy to your day.

Weekend in Review.

Hello all. I have been getting a lot of positive feedback on the blog lately. It seems to be a big hit among the mom crowd, not what I intended, but not complaining. Who knew posting my blog on Facebook wouldn't be targeting readers my age.

This weekend was intended to be a productive weekend consisting of homework, laundry, and cleaning the room. After many hours of staring at the word document and reading several articles and blogs about Hipsters, I finally finished my subculture project for my consumer behavior class about an hour ago. Didn't really get around to doing anything else yet. Since the laundry machines got fixed and I suddenly had to pay for my laundry again, I seem to lack motivation to actually do the laundry. As I look around my dorm room, I keep wondering how all of this clutter is going to be organized and put into storage boxes by the 17th. I am also wondering what I am going to do about the things I want to put in storage but I also need during the 2 days that I will still be living in this room. I plan on only taking clothes with me when I go home for the summer.

Netflix sent me The Blind Side this week in the mail. One of those movies that I had planned on watching in theaters the entire time it was showing in theaters but never made it. Such a wonderful movie. It made me remember the things that I sacrificed to go to this school. I may not understand football completely, but I really do miss it. It made me miss the south. Rae talks about missing the south all the time, but I try not to dwell and appreciate my life up here, and I really do. It still kinda upsets me that I won't have the classic college experience most everyone else gets. I won't be a part of a sorority that isn't repulsive. I won't go to football games that are televised. I won't be an alumni of a school that anyone is familiar with. I won't be attending alumni weekend events after I graduate from here. But then I remember how when someone asks "What's new?" I can tell them so many things that are new. When I ask people at home "What's new?" their lives really haven't changed tremendously since high school. I'm always so busy and exposed to so many awesome opportunities up here that I would never get if I were to stay close to home. I wouldn't be in classes towards my major if I decided to go to a traditional university. I have learned so much this year and I am so thankful for the opportunity to get out of the middle of nowhere and experience a new life. After watching The Blind Side, the roommate and I decided that it would be a Sandra Bullock weekend. Friday night we watched The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood and now we are watching Two Weeks Notice. Sandra is my favorite actress.

While I was sitting in my cubicle Friday afternoon, instead of actually doing something productive and finishing my homework, I decided to type out a to-do list while I watched Arrested development. I had Word up on the office computer and Arrested Development on my laptop screen. Multi-tasking. After the CAT Appreciation Activities, I decided to knock out a few things on my list and went to David's Bridal to pick up my bridesmaid dress for Misty's wedding. Of course I procrastinated and the only places they have the dress I need is Frisco, TX. Then I thought it would be a good time to take Babs (my car) into Toyota to get a check up and get it road trip ready. The bumpy Rhode Island streets had me convinced that Babs was in rough shape. After the check up, the only thing wrong was the air filter. Everything else was in tip top shape. They did a complementary wash and vacuum and she looks great!

Yesterday, instead of doing my homework I went to Target to check a few more things off my to-do list. I managed to run out of all of my everyday toiletries like contact solution, toothpaste, face wash, and lotion a less than two weeks before the trimester ended. It dawned on me that going to Target was such a treat back home. I wandered around for nearly 2 hours. The Target brand of everything looks so much cooler than the name brand I am always staring at the two and comparing to see if there is an actual difference in the product. I'm pretty sure I stood in the razor isle for a good 15 minutes just staring and debating on buying the razor refills or buying disposable razors. The refills are so expensive, but I feel so waste-full throwing away the entire razor. And of course I had to buy some new sandals and some new clothes. After Target I went to Trader Joe's to stock up on my Greek yogurt, fresh fruit, hummus, sorbet, and juice. Of course the bottom of my grocery bag broke and the bottle of juice exploded right as I was getting on the bus back to campus. Once I finally got back to my room, it was time to get dressed and head out to dinner to celebrate Mattie's birthday. We ate at Paragon and had a lot of fun.

That's all for now. I hope you had as nice of a weekend as I did. May this bring some joy to your day.

Hello Weekend.

Drinking holidays are stupid. Last night after returning from the bowling alley with UIB, we heard the sound of a block party going on outside behind the res hall. At the time, it was only 10PM, the music was loud but still somewhat early. When the party continued past midnight, that's when it got to be inconsiderate. That was a nice gesture Side Bar for throwing a party directly behind a college dorm. I bet you were selling drinks like crazy. I wonder if you considered the fact that not everyone in the college dorm was down at your party. Maybe there are some students who care about their early class in the morning and wanted to go to bed before the wee hours of the morning. The best part was when the party outside finally stopped, some drunk person thought it would be funny to pull the fire alarm not once but twice. The 5,6, and 7th floor had to evacuate the building at 3:30am. Everyone who was asleep was obviously not happy. What was even better was that when we got outside, there were people out there that haven't even gone to bed yet. While they were taking attendance, there were drunks that came crawling into Gaebe plastered and not thinking anything of people half asleep standing outside. I am sick of the immaturity and disrespect. My mom pays $30,000 a year in tuition for me to go to school with a bunch of kindergarteners.
I cannot believe how quickly the weeks are going by. It's much more noticeable when the class week is only 4 days. This weekend is going to be pretty tame compared to others. Tomorrow I have work, then a tour guide appreciation party. Saturday is the last Open House for the school year! And Sunday will be spent working on my Hipster subculture project due Monday.
That's it for now, hope this brought some joy to your day.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Another drinking holiday, you know what that means. I will not be doing anything any different than any other day. Week 9 is almost done. Today has been a splendid day so far. There weren't any tours scheduled this morning. The office had a Cinco de Mayo party. I got to take a nap before my 1:40 class. My professor didn't show up for class. My 3:50 class is postponed to 5. UIB end of the year party after class. No complaints. I am currently sitting out on the lawn on Gaebe Commons "second largest green space in downtown Providence" (tour guide humor) with intentions of doing research for my subculture project in my Consumer Behavior class. Of course I'm going to continue to put this off until this weekend. It seemed like the perfect time to blog.

I have been really loving sushi lately.The gay friend  and I went on a "date" to Sushi Express on Sunday. Sushi Express is this hole in the wall sushi place just a few doors down from Shark the "ritzy" sushi place. Sushi Express if actually way better and half the price, they also have bubble tea. A good indication that it is a good sushi place is that you see herds of asian people in and out of there.

I wish I had more exciting news to blog about. That's it for now. I hope this brought some joy to your day.

Lately I have been a junkie for taking on responsibility. Good thing right? I have so many interests and different groups I am involved with. I love all of the things I am involved with so of course I would love to get more involved within those organizations. Next year is my "last year" here and I want to make the most of it. I am starting to get a glimpse of just how busy I will be next year, because I am already so busy now. I don't like filling my plate with responsibilities just so I can show people just how busy I am, I truly just love helping and being a part of things. I don't do things for the satisfaction of being able to put it on my resume, I do it because I love the experiences from them. I have faith in myself to be able to handle my busy schedule, I do hope that I do not spread myself out too thin to now be able to be a good member or leader of the many things I am involved in. On top of that, I am constantly trying to fit 5 classes into the schedule and there are just not enough hours in the day to be able to do that on top of working 20 hours a week. 

Here is a list of responsibilities I have taken on for the next academic year:

• Vice President, University Involvement Board (5+ hours)
• Admissions Tour Guide (20+ hours)
• Student Government Association ( Representative) (2 hours)
• Special Events Society (varies)
• Presidential Leadership Council 
• College Republicans
• Rhode Island Young Republican

Here is a list of things I plan to start or get involved in for the next academic year:

• Campus Crusades for Christ
• Green Council
• TOMS Campus Club
• Ad Team

Big plans. But I have to remember that I am here for an education. Time to get to my studies, I have a macro test today I need to study for. That's all for now, I hope this brought some joy to you day,

Revived

This past weekend was a renewal of my faith in God. The roommate and I went to a Campus Crusades for Christ Leadership Summit in Boston despite the lack of information we had on the weekend. Rae had put our names in a while back and we never really heard more about except that our names were on the list. We knew that we would be staying at the Boston Sheraton, it was to begin at 8PM, and the whole weekend would cost us $20. Vague, I know. We took a leap of faith and just went. When we arrived at the Sheraton after our routine of getting lost and walking in circles around where we need to be and there was no sign of a Crusades conference what so ever. After wandering the lobby we ran into some CCRI students just as confused but we finally found where we were supposed to be.

Like every other conference or leadership thing I've been to, we all sat awkwardly in a circle in a conference room. We were asked to make an emotional weather forecast. I was currently in a fog and a bit frazzled but I hoped to be partly cloudy in the next few minutes. We did our usual introductions then jumped into what Crusades was all about. The weekend ended being so wonderful. I always have my doubts and hesitations at the beginning of every occasion where I have to meet new people and stretch a little bit out of my comfort zone but I am always glad that I did at the end. This weekend was the first time I had ever gone out and shared my faith with anyone let alone strangers in Boston. We went out of Boston Commons and just went up and talked to strangers about God. I guess I hide the fact that I am an introvert well. No one had any clue that I hated talking about uncomfortable subjects with others except Rae. It's amazing what one can accomplish by just putting your faith in prayer.

We met people from PC and CCRI and decided that we all need to collaborate on our Christ efforts next year. Providence is the least evangelized area of the country. I know that there was a reason why I ended up all the way up here for school, and I'm pretty sure it had something to do with God. Now I need to work out my own beliefs. This contemporary non-denomination stuff is still iffy with me. I have to find the balance between truth and grace. I ask for your prayers.

That's all for now, I hope it brought you some joy to your day,

Summer is near!

So I'm a little late on reporting back on last weekend's festivities. There was a great turn-out for the Tea Party Tax Day Rally for Rhode Island standards. I would say there were about 1200 people there. We almost didn't make it because Rae was recovering from being sick but it just conveniently worked out for us to go. Thursday was a combined YR/laundry/homework day. I have to say there was a lack of ridiculous tea party signs like usual rallies but we couldn't have asked for any better weather. Friday was crazy busy...I don't even want to talk about it. Mike Rosen flew into town for the weekend. I finally met him! We took him to Newport, we toured a mansion, ate brunch, and walked around the wharfs. It wasn't gorgeous weather, but I am thankful that it didn't rain. Sunday we went to church, ate at Tazza, and thanks to Michael's love of reading the newspaper, we found out about a roller derby at the convention center. After reading about the derby at Tazza we looked over and realized that the opposing roller derby team was sitting next to us eating at Tazza too. I had never seen a roller derby before except for in the movie Whip It! It's actually a really exciting sport. Rae is considering training and being on one. We were trying to come up with derby names for the both of us. Rowdy Rae, Rough Rider, Joy Stick, Egg Roll You Over, and many others. London Brawling killed our poor Rhode Island Riveters by around 100 points. Kamikaze Kitten just racked up those points like crazy.

The end of the year is approaching quickly. I can't believe that it's almost week 8. I feel like there are so many things to do in all of my classes in such a short amount of time. I registered for my fall classes yesterday. Nothing super exciting. I am still trying to figure out how I'm going to transfer down to Charlotte the year after next. It's complicated because they don't offer my major down on the Charlotte campus, so technically I would have to change my major to Marketing to transfer, then transfer back up to Providence to graduate with an Advertising degree. I love the idea of graduating a year early, but then I start looking at degree plans and concentrations and I just want to take every class available. To add to that, I also want to study abroad and do an internship or coop. These are common woes of JWU students...the focused ones at least.

Rae and I have confirmed our itinerary for our road trip home for the summer. We are leaving that evening when I finish my final May 19. We are going to get a head start and hit Philly and stay the night. Then drive all day Thursday down to Charlotte to see our JWU Charlotte Campus Friday. After Charlotte, we take off for our next stop in Biloxi. Maybe stay the night by the beach. Then we drive through New Orleans and end up in College Station to stay with Stevvi for a night, then head to San Antonio with her. Take a break in San Antonio for a day or two, then head to Dallas. Dallas is where we will part and I head up to Oklahoma.
n
View Larger Map

I finally decided to stay home this summer.  I had all these ambitions to get an internship in San Antonio or DC but it occurred to me that there are so many older people who are searching for internships so they could possibly get their first job to start a career. This will be the last summer of my college career that I won't be doing something super important. I am going to take some classes at NSU and then take a trip to China to see the family. I haven't been since the 7th grade and this will be the first time I go to China all by myself. I'm pretty excited about it but the thought of visiting my family alone is very overwhelming. I still receive updates on all of these intern opportunities that I want but I'm just going to wait. It'll also be good to take some general classes at NSU for 1/4 of the price of them here.

That's all for now. I am off to class. I hope this brought some joy to your day,

Happy Tax Day!

I am so thankful for my mother who is always on the ball on our finances. Since FAFSA has become a factor in our lives, Shirl's gets rollin' on the taxes on January 1st and gets them done within the month of January. This is great, but it leaves me clueless on the entire tax process. I just sign my name where Shirley marks in florescent "Sign Here" arrows.

But something I do know about taxes is that Rhode Island and a few counties in New Jersey get an extention on their taxes due to our great flood a few weeks ago. So congrats to you guys for getting an extention on your taxes!

For further tax day festivities, the Tea Party of Rhode Island is having a Tax Day rally in front of the State House today. Rae and I will be attending of course. I failed once again to make an obnocious sign, but be usre to look for me out there with those "Crazy Tea Baggers". On a side note...when I had originally typed in "Tea Party" onto my bing image search, the "Constitutionalist guy" from CPAC showed up!

Another crazy busy weekend ahead. Fridays are always the worst because people ask, "When are you free?" my automatic response is, "Friday." Therefore making my Fridays not so free anymore. If there is no need for a third tour guide tomorrow, then that eliminates the amount of places I need to be. Then Rae's dad (the infamous Michael Rosen) in flying in for a visit. Unfortunately, the weather is going to be rainy ALL weekend. Thats always how things works out though. I am pretty interested to meet this man. Rae has told me sooo many stories, the moment of truth is approaching, I get to meet him myself.

That is it for now. I will be reporting back on all of these weekend festivities soon! I hope this brought you you some joy...

"Just Another Manic Monday"

I don't think a weekly blog is going to work out. It's Tuesday and I already have so much to blog about. I realized blogging once a week wasn't easier, it's actually more difficult for me and all of you lovely followers because it is sooo long. No worries, one day I will get this blog thing right.

Yesterday was just a normal day for me. I've always loved having a set schedule and a system for doing everything. For extra credit I attend these completely irrelevant workshops. They hold them at 2 different times a week, but due to my tight schedule I can't make either one so I scheduled private workshops with a tutor at the learning center. The workshops are over things that one would think a student would have mastered upon acceptance to any university. My first workshop was "How to Write a Research Paper." I'm am not kidding. My lovely tutor Florence realized quickly that this was silly and we just sit there are chat about life. Yesterday's workshop was "How to be an Active Listener." Kinda helpful, I learned a new way to take notes, I will have to test it out sometime. I love these little meetings with Florence because I leave work at 11:50am and power walk over to Starbucks right before noon to use my swipe for my Venti Iced Black Tea, Sweetened 4 pumps of classic, more tea, less water,and a delicious oatmeal cookie. Right after Starbucks get go over to Market Place where I don't have to wait in any lines and I have my pick of any table I want.

While I enjoyed my perfectly choreographed day, Mattie found her roommate Theresa passed out on the ground in their room. She was rushed in the ambulance to the hospital while Rae and Mattie followed in Babs (my car). They sat in the hospital ALL day while they ran all sorts of tests on Theresa. Theresa seemed fine at around 7pm, they were all sitting in the room chatting and waiting on the doctors to come in and say that they could leave when Theresa passed out again. The doctors decided it would be best to keep her overnight for observation.

Meanwhile, I went to my afternoon classes as usual. I was given an assignment in Desktop Publishing to make a propaganda poster. I HATE propaganda. It's whole purpose is to manipulate the masses and it is used all throughout history by evil leaders. It has to be over a controversial topic and it must evoke some sort of emotion. Blah. After my classes, I went on a jog around the eastside again. I changed it up a bit and went up a shorter hill and went down the BIG hill. Hurts just as much going down as it did going up. Once I recovered from my job, Cameron and I met for dinner at Market Place and chatted about our interesting parents. We ended the evening with me introducing him to the wonders of Glee while snacking on hummus and pita chips. Poor Rae and Mattie got back from the hospital at 11pm after being there since 2pm. They were mentally and emotionally drained while Cameron in I were so enlightened by the silliness of Glee.

I have noticed that my entire life, I have always been shielded from any sort of drama or tragedy. While I am so thankful that God has always spared me from these awful things, I almost kinda wish that someone needed me at their hospital bedside. Anytime I have gone to the hospital for one of my friends, I was never needed. There was always someone more important or closer to the person to be there. I was always there to just take up room in the seating area. I shouldn't complain. It's such a blessing, but you always want what you don't have.

Thats all for today! Hope this brought you joy,

If my life were boring...I wouldn't have a blog.

So blogging is becoming a Sunday night thing. Maybe this will be a weekly blog. Maybe I'll make it to where it is published every Monday at 12am. Maybe one day it will be super popular and people will stay up on Sunday night to read my blog for the week? I like it.

The end of the school year is approaching. I can count the weeks on my fingers...i think. This week was pretty eventful you could say. Lots of things were planned including Passover Seder, UIB President and Vice President elections, Student Government Association "Meet the Candidates", Green Initiative Presentation for Dr. Schneider, and April Open House.

Monday I went to a Jews for Jesus Passover Seder with the roommate. She is a "Jewish Believer". Being from Oklahoma, I had never met an actual Jew before. Judaism is fascinating to me, I had never been to a seder, bar-mitzvah, bat-mitzah, or any sort of mitzvah for that matter. Rae had mentioned that I may be the only asian and to not be uncomfortable, it was no big deal. Little did we know that the seder was actually held at the Boston CHINESE Evangelical Church. Rae (the Jew) was ended up being the minority. I was dying, it was one of the most ironic moments of my life. We ended up at a table with a nice women's ministry group from CT and a nice family from Warwick. Of the course the people we met from RI knew someone that we knew, that happens when we go to any event. Vera and Hugh Fisher and their daughter Sarah and friend Casey were old friends of Pastor Ted...such a small world...such a small state. The people who were in charge of the seder were the nicest but oddest couple ever. The wife was a Chinese/Jew/convert to Christian and her husband was an Israelite...the Cohen's.

Wednesday were elections for UIB, luckily I ran un-opposed for vice president because I was a mess during my speech and q&a session in front of the entire general board. We had 2 really great candidates for President, I had a bit of difficulty deciding who to vote for. Both would be great. I feel that one was better at speaking in front of the board but the other one had more leadership experience. The more experienced one ended up winning. Now the 2 of us get to go through the applications for the other coordinator positions, I am really excited to start making some important decisions.

Black/White by joyliu featuring Forever21 tops

Thursday after class the Green Initiative Team got together to put "last minute" touch ups to our presentation Friday morning. As a team we were just expecting the presentation to come together on its own and it didn't hit us until the day before the presentation that we had a lot of work to do before this was ready to be presented in front of the University's President and Vice President along with the rest of the President's Leadership Council. The presentation ended up being pretty lengthy to where we never even ran the entire thing through completely. After that meeting, Rae and I had to rush over to the SGA meet and greet. We ended up being pretty late for it, it kinda caused a bit of a scene. I have to admit, I agreed to run for student government initially for a "resume builder", but after it was specifically pointed out that it was more than that, I am pretty excited to be a part of the House of Representatives for the school. The House deals with the clubs and orgs on campus, including appropriations and establishment of new clubs and orgs. This will be one more way I can get on the inside of this school. I am already in the Admissions department, the next step is obviously Student Activities. One department I refuse to take part in is ResLife. I have no interest in being an RA or FDM, no thanks.
Supporting TOMS One Day Without Shoes by wearing my TOMS. Barefoot in downtown Providence=some sort of disease.

Oh Wonderful Day by joyliu featuring TOMS shoes

Friday was the big day. Presentation day. We decided it would be a good idea to get there over an hour early to practice, considering we hadn't gone through the entire presentation w/out any stops once. The first run through was rough, but they improved as the morning went on. When show time came around, we appeared to be well versed and rehearsed. It ended up being very successful. We failed to mention only one thing and that was a budget for our proposal. We found out that our Johnson and Wales is a lot "greener" than we thought. The problem is that it is not advertised at all. Our new Harborside is LEED certified and we recycle over 400 tons of material in a year. Imagine how much we could be recycling if we had an "umbrella" recycling program all over campus. Our presentation impressed a lot of the PLC students and the faculty as well as get them really excited about going green.

Saturday, April Open House, was pretty much like any other Open House. Since I am a full time tour guide I have to take the big groups. Business Administration/Management/Undecided group had over 80 people. They made the 4 of us full time tour guides split it. It didn't end of being too bad except that this group of students are more than likely undecided so they're usually not the most enthusiastic bunch. They typically don't ask very many questions either so the tour has it's awkward silences. I got to wear my new CAT sweatshirt with khakis. I think that this should be the uniform for Open Houses, it looks really nice when we're in uniform. All those years of being in uniform with color/winterguard and band must have rubbed off.
Later that evening Rae, Cameron, and I went to see opening night of Urinetown. Te Jay was the star and Marc Coda was the villian, I had to see it. No way I was missing it. It was hilarious. Cameron was being a snob about how amateur it was since he went to a performing arts school. There is no way of enjoying anything if you are critiquing it the entire time. Yes, it was not a professional musical, that's why it fun. Considering that JWU is not a liberal arts school at all, the production was pretty good. I can tell they worked hard on it.

Sunday, Rae and I went to Downcity church as usual. Ted's sermon was on the Downcity church "covenant" that he had drafted. I have been feeling questionable spiritually. I know I don't discuss spirituality on this blog often. I don't really discuss spirituality much in all other aspects of my life either and that is a bad thing. I am requesting prayers for myself. It was brought to my attention that I am a "church dater", one who just goes to church on Sunday and forget about it for the rest of the week. I am not fully committed in my spiritual life, and I don't like thinking of myself as someone who fears commitment. I don't fear committing to anything else BUT the church. Struggling, but the first step is recognizing the problem.

In addition, since we worked the Princess Half-Marathon in Disney, I was determined to take advantage of this perfect weather and start running around the city. This week I finally dug out the running shoes and did it. Today Rae and I ran up College Hill, around the Eastside and back downtown. Nearly 2.5 miles. I feel fabulous...a little sore, but in a good way. I'm really excited about my plan to become a runner. My goal is to run a 5K in the near future. Who knows, maybe someday I will run the Princess Half-Marathon someday soon. To motivate me, I will be posting my progress.

Well that was my crazy week. I'm off to live another one.