Showing posts with label everyone else is doing it.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label everyone else is doing it.... Show all posts

Thursday, June 30

10 years

16 year old erin
so i have a confession to make... i've been blogging for 10 years now. i started back in june 2001 and here i am 10 years later in 2011 and still blogging. i've been able to go back and read through a majority of those 10 years of my life and it really makes me laugh. the old entries from my junior and senior years of high school are absolutely hilarious and well i'm preserving my self dignity by not posting anything from back then.

the number one reason why i love blogging is that i am able to go back and read about the little things in my life and see where i've been and what at the time i thought was important. i've also kept a written journal for bits of time through all of this too, as well as my photo 365 blogs which i've done. i guess the historian in me loves that i'm leaving behind something and a while ago i found a website that transfers blogs into pdf's so one day i plan to print it out - but i know just from 2001-2008 it is over 800 pages... and i've written a lot since then. i need to print out my photo 365 for each year i've done it as well.

25 year old erin
but the fact i've been blogging for 10 years is crazy to me. i don't think i've done anything for 10 years, so the fact that i've kept up with blogging on a regular basis for that long is kinda awesome. who knows how long i'll keep on blogging but i'm going to be continuing to do it while i enjoy it and using it as a platform to help remember my life and to continue to make friends. i've enjoyed the friendships i've made blogging and getting to meet my fellow bloggers has been so much fun!

so i'd love today to get to know more of the people who read my crazy babble. so tell me why you blog and i can't wait to check out the blogs of those of you who i haven't talked to yet!


and how is today the last day of june?

Monday, August 30

30 by 30

i know many of my favorite bloggers have done a 30 by 30 and so i decided to write a 30 by 30 of the things i want to do in the next 5 years before i turn 30. these are things i want to do in addition to my regular goals of each year. so here it is, my 30 things to do before i turn 30!

1. go to 10 new countries
2. finish my college scrapbook
3. go to 7 new states
4. live by myself
5. fall in love
6. find a job i love
7.  publish an article related to my thesis
8. visit one of my irish friends wherever they might be
9. go skydiving
10. donate at least $250 to a charity of my choice
11. go to chicago
12. visit 3 new national parks
13. have one of my college loans paid off
14. get a slr camera and learn how to use it
15. learn to quilt
16. figure out my family's genealogy
17. hike the appalachian trail for 2 weeks
18. get a library of congress library card
19. be in the audience of a talk show
20. adopt a pet
21. have sex in a tent
22. go to a book reading
23. go to a professional conference
24. write a letter to myself
25. bake 10 new desserts - 0/10
26. run a half-marathon
27. go to a winery
28. read a biography for each president
29. donate blood
30. write a letter to a government representative

so here is to a great 5 years and lots of fun things to accomplish!

Monday, December 14

ahhhhh!

umm, so last week quickly went out of control. like from 15-60 in about 12 hours. i just had SO MUCH stuff to do! and like no time.

wednesday was a snow day. we got like 4 inches of super wet heavy snow, and up by school they got about 7 inches. and then it rained and made life gross. it was nice, though i hate using a snow day up in december. i slept, which was glorious. and then graded 40 world war II propaganda projects which took forever! and then thursday was test day, so i now had 100 tests to grade on world war II and antebellum america. and thursday i also ran practice, and i made my skiers do our crazy ab workout from college, haha! and then i went to the christmas concert at school. and i also had to make sure i had sub plans in order. i swear that is just as much work! because on friday i was going on the model congress field trip. so i was just like sjfsgkkdgkdkfdkfd.... and then i went to connecticut for the weekend to see the fabulous roomie and other mystic friends.

and i just finished grading the last few tests because progress reports are due tuesday morning at 9am. so tomorrow i need to go in slightly early and enter the grades, i just finished grading. and when my one class was like are we getting tests back and i said, no i didn't get to finish yours - i responded with sorry i had a life this weekend. i don't sit around all weekend grading tests, i like the weekends just as much as you guys do. they laughed. and i am so glad this is the last full week before christmas. i am soooo looking forward to 10 days off. and maybe i'll get some stuff ready in advance, so the next chapters will be easier? and with midterms and everything. ahhhh, so much going on. but i love it.

so i've been neglecting the best of 09. so here is the last week! how did that happen? eeek!

December 8 Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

moment of peace? all the long car drives i've made this year. i do a lot of thinking in the car alone, while rocking out to my favorite music and just wondering. or popping into my favorite coffee shop in cork - tribes on rainy sundays with a great book to just sit and relax for a few hours.

December 9 Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

best challenge is a tie between moving back to the states and my first few months teaching. both have been extremely rewarding and oh so challenging. but i love it. i'm so happy i'm back in the classroom and that moving back to the us has been as amazing as it has. honestly 2009 has just been incredible.

December 10 Album of the year. What's rocking your world?

ummmm, i think you know this. but taylor's fearless. i know it came out in november 2008, but it has honestly been my soundtrack this year.

thought for one in 2009 i'm quite fond of the glee soundtrack (yes, i went there)

December 11 The best place. A coffee shop? A pub? A retreat center? A cubicle? A nook?

ummm, best place... i can't choose. there are too many places i've loved. from ireland to my travels around europe to connecticut, dc, philly, maryland, new jersey....

December 12 New food. You're now in love with Lebanese food and you didn't even know what it was in January of this year.

red wine. wasn't a big red wine fan until the roomie and i went to spain in january. now it is almost all i drink! especially spanish red wine. now i want a glass.

December 13 What's the best change you made to the place you live?

ummmm, i lived in 4 different places this year.

cork, ireland - mystic, ct - westpark hotel - new jersey

December 14 Rush. When did you get your best rush of the year?

best rush. getting the phone call 4 hours after my interview offering me the teaching job. i was completely shocked and couldn't believe that i was going to be teaching this fall! it was so surreal!


how is everyone's week? i can't believe christmas is so close! my students remind me everyday! and i'm excited for this weekend and seeing my love in philly! yay :)


night :)


Thursday, December 3

pictures....

picturesofmylife

Ask me to take a picture of any aspect of my life that you’re interested in or curious about. It can be anything from the house I live in to my favorite shoes.. or anything. Be creative!

I feel like I have a lot of new readers hiding out there, so what do you want to see in my life??

(Feel free to snag the photo if you want to do the same thing)

Tuesday, December 1

blog challenge: best of 2009

so something on the 20sb blog caught my eye and we're going to see if i can do this.

it is the best of 2009 blog challenge. 31 days, 31 posts to look back on 2009 and reflect.

and as you might have guessed, 2009 was pretty awesome. like i still keep expecting to wake up and the last year has been an extremely long dream.

so december 1st is about a trip. your favorite trip in 2009.

favorite trip... where do i begin? i had some pretty awesome travels in 2009, but hands down my favorite was my college roomie coming to visit me in ireland and our trip to spain in january.

it was an amazing 10 days. showing my best friend the country i fell in love with and all over my home in cork. driving in ireland in peat the best rental car ever! and after a few hilarious adventures in eire we took a holiday in spain. i loved spain. from my interesting attempts to speak spanish, where i seemed to speak lolcat spanish, getting to see picasso's guernica, hilarious nights drinking red wine and tapas, playing in the mediterranean sea and drinking sherry... it was a trip i'll never forget and something that roomie and i'll be able to look back on and laugh :)

and for a bit of the amazing photography :)

amy and i at blarney castle
petting the fishies at the alhambra
gorgeous scenery in galway.... where i coined the term scenerygasim
amy and i at the med sea... loooved malaga
at the alhambra



venice in february
the colosseum!!
chestertown in november

Thursday, June 25

looking back: the day before i left

“This post is a part of 20SB’s Looking Back Blog Carnival, and Ben & Jerry’s is awarding free ice cream to lucky bloggers and readers!”
So 20sb is back with the blog carnival! yay! i've missed doing these. and i love this topic, a post from your first two months blogging.
i went with the entry from the day before i left to move to ireland, so it is from september 8th, and the second post from this blog.

TOMORROW - 8 September 2007

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! i leave tomorrow!!!!


so i am almost done packing, i need to make my bags lighter, so i need to go through it all again. but the coolest thing happened when i was packing. i bought a ring in kinsale, one of my first weekends in ireland and i wore it all semester and i lost it right at the end of my semester and i was really upset. so i brought out the bag i used for my laptop when i was in ireland and packing some stuff in it for my carry-on when i found my ring! i was sooo excited!

its just starting to hit me that i'll be in ireland soon, i'll be going to tesco, the english market, walking down patrick's street, going to the pubs, walking around campus, seeing signs in irish.

i have been waiting for this day since december 20th, 2005 when i left cork and now its finally here.
and i'm not going for a visit, i'm going back to live again.

i think i need to pinch myself to make sure this is real.
seriously.

my flight leaves sunday night at 7.25 and monday morning at 6.55 i should be in shannon and in cork around lunch time!

YAY!

Monday, March 9

more blog love

so recently i've been honored with some blog lovin!

-the amazing katie over at can i just say tagged me in the lemonade award!
-a fellow american abroad steph over at the adventures of jon and steph tagged me in the love ya award!
-and my fellow ireland lover pam over at relish gave me the your blog is fabulous award!


so with the craziness of the last few weeks i've been neglecting my blog love so here it is :)

LEMONADE

Lemonade Award Pictures, Images and Photos

1. Thank the person who was so thoughtful for giving you this award by linking their blog to this post.
2. Put the logo on your blog or post.
3. Nominate 10 blogs which show great attitude/gratitude.
4. Link your nominees to your post.
5. Comment them to tell them about the award they've won!

So thank you to Katie for this one! I love her blog, we share a very similar taste in books, she teaches middle school english and her posts always make me laugh!
and the award goes to...


LOVE YA


So here's what the "Love Ya" award is all about:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award!"

Thanks to Steph for this one! I love reading about her adventures with her husband all over Europe and their life in Germany!
and the award goes to...
- can i just say - katie
- martinis, manolos and margaritas - callie
- classy in philadelphia - jess
- lucy the valiant - lucy
-writing is my therapy - carolyn
- the post wac sketches - amy
-transient travels - susan
-kyla bea - kyla

YOUR BLOG IS FABULOUS

The abfab Pam - Relish gave me this one. Pam and I have bonded over Irish experiences and I looove reading her blog. She has recently written about a few hilarious childhood and adult experiences that have had me laughing.

So now it's your turn to spread the love. You must nominate ten blogs, link their blogs, and mention my blog in order to get this fabulous award.

and the award goes to...
-never sure of where i'm going - kelly
-laughing with the sun - em
-adventures of jon and steph - steph
-confessions of a jersey girl - rachel
-it's like i'm....mmmagic - brandy
-life in the left lane - bing
-pinknic - nic
-a blog of her own - shaba
-a blog - miss marie
-high heel diaries - high heel gal

so thank you girls for your love and i'm getting around to leaving a comment in everyone's blog :)

Tuesday, February 10

this post is brought to you by the letter b.

so the amazing bing over at life in the left lane gave me the letter b in the starting with the letter game...

so here are my 10 favorite things that start with the letter b:
1. backpacking
backpacking is one of my FAVOURITE things to do. i love going out with everything i need on my back and camping and hiking. one of my favourite trips was summer of 2007 when i took 6 high school students in the smoky mountains.
ps. i have a slight obsession with nalgenes...
2. berlin 
berlin is one of my favourite cities! i went to berlin in november 2005 for a long weekend and had an amazing time with my two friends laura and emily. i love german history so running around the reichstag, brandenburg gates, the berlin wall, and all through the city was just fascintating to finally see these things after 2 history classes on germany!

i <3>
3. babies
i absolutely love babies. though right now there is no way i want one of my own. i love playing with other peoples and babysitting, but like at the end of the day or when they are omg cranky to give them back. one day, but not for a long while!

with my cousin daniel at christmas
4. beer 
what is not to love about beer? i'm slightly a beer snob though. i think i drank too much crappy beer in college - mmmm beast! and now if i'm gonna drink beer, i want to like it. i obvi love my stout - beamish if in cork, guinness anywhere else, or heinekin and if i'm going cheap miller. 

whoa, glasses.... this was the day after st. patrick's day senior year, after the crew party post spring break training trip  the seniors went to the irish pub in town to celebrate me going back to ireland!

5. books 
i absolutely love reading. like i always have a book in my purse and i probably read about 100 books a year, no joke. i'm a fast reader and especially in the summer i love to do nothing else than sit out and read. i seriously brought 12 books to the shore for 5 days over the summer. and i usually get 2-3 books a week from the library, i read every night before bed and once i start a book i have a hard time stopping. some of my absolute favourites are red rose crew; eat,pray,love; sisterhood of the traveling pants; gone with the wind. i love reading chick lit and history.
a stack of reading from the library in the summer 2007 - i was slightly on an irish kick here with the maeve binchy (a fav!) and 2 historical fiction on ireland

6. bowballs 
ok, this one is slightly odd.. so in crew, each boat has a bowball. a little foam ball about the size of a ping pong ball on the front, kinda like a mini boat bumper to protect it from docks or other boats... and one of my favourite things in a race is when you are walking on a crew and as the coxswain i would just yell to my girls - BOWBALL, meaning that we were almost a full boat legnth in front of that crew and to take a few hard stroke to get that boat legnth. and nothing was better than on wednesday mornings when racing the boys to yell bowball on the little boys! gosh, how i miss rowing. i've also won races by a bowball and lost races by a bowball, literaly about a half a second over 2000 meters. 

a few of the boats, you can see the bowball on a few of them - the victor o. stango was my boat senior year, the clo was my frosh year boat.  i have some great memories in those boats.... and in the p fall too. haha - florida junior year.
7. blogging 
i've been blogging now since 2001. i've used a few different sites, but i love it. i love being able to read about my life since i was 16 and i also love reading other people's blogs :)

8. barry's tea 
my absolute favourite kind of tea. barry's irish gold blend. i drink about 4 cups of tea a day, and when i go back to the states i will be bringing back a ton of tea! in the year and a half i was back in the states, luckily i had friends go to ireland and they had to bring me back tea!
barry's and tea biscuits = heaven
9. billy joel
billy joel is one of my favourite singers. i grew up listening to him and i can sing along with almost any of his songs. i'm slightly jealous of my parents who've seen him in concert multiple times. my fav songs would be - the longest time, downeaster alexa, scenes from an italian restaurant, i've loved these days, and vienna. 
shhhh... i know it isn't billy joel - but my senior crewies remind me of him because our song was - the longest time
10. beach
i'm a jersey girl and would normally call it the shore... but the letter is b. so i love the beach. the feeling of the sand between my toes, lying out soaking up the sun, listening to the surf, long walks on the beach, maybe going in the ocean... i went to the jersey shore every summer for a week growing up and i love it. and i loved the few hours in florida in march during spring break, afternoons at betterton during college, the amazing sunset over the pacific, playing along the med, really anywhere there is a beach :)

at the jersey shore about a year old - 2 of my fav things a baby on the beach!! 
 
so there you have it, my 10 favourite things that start with the letter b!



if you would like to play, let me know and i'll give you a letter!

Sunday, February 8

my first bloggy award

So a few weeks ago the amazing Pam over at Relish gave me my first Bloggy Award! YAY!
Where I was presented with the:

So the rules of the award:
1 - Choose a minimum of 7 blogs you find brilliant in content or design.
2 - Show the 7 winners' names and links on your blog and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3 - List at least 10 honest things about yourself.


So here are my 7 blogs
Kristen at One Safe Place


And now 10 things about me!

1. I'm slightly obsessed with checking my email. Like my gmail is open most of the day and the first thing I do when I get home is check my email.

2. I am extremely indecisive when it comes to things like picking what to do when hanging out with friends or going out to dinner. I'd rather not be the one to make plans.

3. Five years ago this weekend (2004) I accepted a bid to my sorority and while it was something I thought I would never do, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I love everything about my sorority especially the creed and our philanthropy and I believe it is something for life. I regret not hanging out with my sisters as much in college as I wish I did, but by my senior year I was quite unhappy with the direction the chapter was headed and didn't want to be around most of my sisters.

4. One of my closest friends is my pen-pal. We've been writting letters since we were 13 and I look forward to her letters in the mail every week.

5. I am very organized from the outside. Everything is in its place on my dressers, desk, and there isn't clutter. But if you open up one of my drawers though chances are the clothes are just thrown in there and not all neat and folded.

6. I need to be extremely busy or I become completely unmotivated. I think that is one of the things why I've had such a hard time in Ireland, I'm not busy enough and spend too much time doing nothing.

7. I'm ready to move back to the US. I've loved living in Ireland but right now I'm kinda tired of living like a student and working in a temporary job. I'm ready to be a grown up.

8. I'm slightly obsessed with to-do lists. I'm always making them and I LOVE crossing things off the to-do list. And they are usually color coded.

9. At work I know most of the society people by name and what society they are from when they come in to get stuff done. I also recognize people who come in looking for accommodation all over the city. Chances are if I meet you once I'll be able to recognize you and figure out how I met you.

10. Only about 5 people I know in real life know I blog. I prefer to keep it that way. I'm much more comfortable with strangers reading about my life than people I know.


Saturday, January 24

i wish i could wear my little black dress everyday

so while amy and i are driving all around killarney national park, chasing sheep and taking a million funny pictures, hopefully making out with hotties with accents and drinking lots of pints- here is a fun trip down memory lane.

so classy in philadelphia inspired me to do this post.

last week she posted about her favourite dresses and it made me think about all the fun dresses i've worn to proms/formals/weddings/birthday ball and other fun dress up occasions.

so lets go back...

back to christmas 1988. you know your mom was like mine and each christmas you got a christmas dress. here is one of my favourites. wasn't i cute?

fast forward through all of the awk middle school years, because well those were painful. here is my freshman year high school semi formal - 2000.
and then junior prom - 2002 - i love this dress!
this dress also makes an apperance at my freshman year birthday ball in college with my berries (2004)

but my favourite dress is my senior prom one - 2003. i LOVE it. i still need to find an occassion to wear it again.


so one of my classic staples is my first little black dress, i got it senior year of high school and i still wear it. this picture is from my fall sorority formal sophomore year - 2004. it was also worn to the senior year fall one in 2006. and i think my freshman spring one in 2004 (i was only at that one for about an hour because of crew) this is with my berries.

now i also LOVE my sophomore year birthday ball dress - 2005. this is with one of my fav sorority sisters also sporting the same dress. (and we were classy drinking strawberry andre right out of the bottle)
and then onto lbd 2. my junior year birthday ball dress. yes, i wore flip flops. with my roomie! this dress has been also worn to both the ucc postgrad and clubs/socs ball in 2008.
this is another favourite, i first wore it to my uncle's wedding in 2004, and then this is from my spring junior formal in 2006, where yet again i was only at formal for about an hour because of crew. it was also worn to my spring formal year sophomore year 2005 (that was an absolutely hilarious evening). i'm with my little and glittle.

now at the end of junior year -2006 - i along with 2 of my loves, roomie and kaity , was invited to a black tie event to celebrate the george washington book prize at mt. vernon. and i love this dress, this is my formal black dress. this was also worn to senior year birthday ball
this is my little red dress, the exact same as my lbd, but red. i love it, and it gets worn all the time. this was senior year at our wine and cheese party, 2006. i'm with my friend em, and we studied abroad together.
so this isn't a real dress, but for an anything goes but clothes, the fab ladies of garrett c made formal dresses. and i'm pretty proud of my project runway skills. 2007


this is my graduation dress - i wore it to both my wac - 2007 and ucc - 2008 graduations. this is from the morning of my wac graduation, popping open the champagne :)

and last but not least is my most recent purchase. this is the dress i wore to coop's wedding in july 2008. i love it! i'm with all the other crewies at her wedding!
so YAY! for dresses.

i absolutely love getting dressed up, and my favourite theme party is lbd wine and cheese because it is an excuse to wear a nice dress.

Friday, January 23

interview me

So while college roomie and I are off running around Galway, admiring the Cliffs of Moher and hopefully making out with hotties I'm hopping on the interview bandwagon... My friend Kristen over At One Safe Place interviewed me, so here are her questions and they are GOOD!
The Rules:
a. Leave a comment saying, "Interview Me".
b. I will respond by e-mailing you 5 questions. I get to pick the questions.
c. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
d. You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
e. When others comment asking you to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions!

The Questions:
1. If you had to be stuck for hours in any airport in the world, which airport would you choose and why?
If I had to be stuck at any airport I would choose London's Heathrow. I've been to many airports all over Europe, some seriously nothing more than like a shed (Paris Beauvais, about an hour from Paris and where all the budget airlines go) and I've spent a few nights in airports (London Stansted with Em and Laura on our Berlin adventure, Dublin with my sister on the way back to Greece) but my favourite is Heathrow. It is GIGANTIC! And the thing I love about Heathrow is flights go all over the world, the US/Australia/Asia/Africa... so there are always awesome destinations at the gates and I LOVE to people watch. So I think about what the people are doing and why they are going there. Are they going home? Vacation? Studying? So many things to think about, and places to dream about going. And once you are through security, they have some decent seating by the shops that is actually comfortable, and about a million shops in case you get bored.



2. Who was the best teacher/professor you ever had, and what made them the best?
I have two. One from high school and one from college.
High School - Mrs. Tanis. I had her twice, for Biology sophomore year and then again for AP Bio senior year.
She loved biology! She loved teaching! And she got so excited about what she was doing, and it just radiated through her classroom. In my sophomore year I was the smartest kid in the class (I should have been in Honors, but that's another story) and she challenged me more by giving me more in depth work and making my lab partner someone who needed a LOT of help. And I really liked her for bio, and one of the reasons I did AP Bio was her. And AP Bio was a challenge, but she made it fun! She wanted us to do well and for the AP exam, since she knew she couldn't get to everything would do review sessions starting in January. We would meet during lunch once a week and then as it got closer to the exam twice a week and an evening session, now it was all optional, but most of us went. She did this on her own time because that's just how she is and also so we could do some really cool experiments/classes on stuff she thought we should know (but wouldn't be on the AP). She is the kind of teacher I want to be, and I hope when I have my own classroom I can be like her.
WAC- Hands down, Dr. O'Connor - my education professor. He is one of the smartest people I know. Has an amazing personal history and loves teaching. His classes were completely non-traditional. While sometimes he was slightly too theoretical about teaching methods and ways of implementing instruction, he was still amazing. I had him for 2 classes - Educational Pyschology and World Geography and then my ed block (student teaching) semester. The way he organized our student teaching was quite unique and the pure torture of the academy, but I feel prepared to enter the classroom in September. He made me excited to go to my education classes, got to know all of us personally and helped us recognize our own weaknesses and build them up, and how to play to our strengths. He was the best because he set up an amazing program, always kept us on our toes and from the first class was using methods we would use in our classrooms in our college classes. He also knew us and got us to stretch our comfort zones, experiment with new things and the funny little things about edblock, the notecards, video taping ourselves, naughty Sean in our classrooms, he let me be a t-rex in the classroom during edblock and he is just amazing.


3. If you could have tea with any person in the world, who would you choose?
Ahhh, this one is really tough, I don't know why. But to have tea with one person in the world I would choose to chat over a cuppa with Bono of U2. I know it is slightly random, but I LOVE his music and I think he is trying to promote change around the world and using his fame for good. He writes songs that have social and political leanings and that really touch people. I think he would be great to just have a little talk with.
Runners up - Michelle Obama, Harry Parker (harvard Crew Coach, who is one of the winningest coaches ever) and Hillary Clinton.

4. What is the most beautiful place on Earth that you've ever seen and what made it so beautiful?

sjfkkgfkkdkk, I can only pick one? I have a few different, but I guess my top choice would be Zion National Park in Utah. I went there in the summer of 2007 with my family on our western road trip. And I absolutely LOVED it. The canyons and cliffs are just breathtaking. You are at at base of them and just looking up, so many pretty colours, and different geographic shapes. And I'd never seen anything like it, I am dying to go back and do more hiking, go into the slot canyons and just bask in th

I wish pictures were able to show how GORGEOUS it is.


My runners up - Santorini, Greece and Dingle, Ireland.

Santorini, Greece

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland



5. If you could have a magic button next to your bed that did something awesome when you pressed it, what would it do?

Hmmmm, I don't want much just for my room and the bathroom to be super warm so it makes getting out of bed easier and I would have it right next to my alarm clock. You should see my still covered in blankets turning on my heater and then climbing back into bed for 10 minutes. I hate being cold, especially at 7.45 in the morning.

So if you would like to be interviewed, leave me a comment with your email and I'll get back to you with some fun questions.. it might be a few days, as I'm frolicking, but get excited!

Sunday, January 18

101

1. my name is erin. 
2. my favourite color is pink
3. my birthday is july 30th. 
4. i am a classic leo. i hit almost all of the characteristics to a t. 
4. i have a younger sister 21 and brother 13.
5. i currently live in ireland, though home is new jersey.
6. i love sports. i cheered (grades K-2, 7&8), softball (3-8), basketball (3-8), field hockey (5-12), ski raced (9-12), track (9-12) and rowed (4 years in college).  
7. though i've always played sports, my actual athletic ability is questionable. my hand eye cordination is almost non-existant. i'm pretty sure in the 5 years i played basketball i scored 10 points total and i only got on base in softball once i was taught how to bunt.
8. i understand the sports though, and get all the rules and strategy behind them... that's why rowing was perfect for me. i was the coxswain, so i steered, motivated my rowers, called the races and was the 'brains' behind the boat. 
9. i sometimes act like a t-rex. 
10. in college my friends freshman year named all my accents. 
11. i have a weird memory, i can remember dates, places and people no problem. but give me a list of 40 vocabulary words, and i'm screwed. 
12. when i was bored in college classes i would make lists. states, presidents, countries in europe. state capitals, counties in ireland...
13. i've been blogging since 2001. first on free open diary - though some of these were lost, when the server crashed and like 1% of their stuff was lost, and i was one of the people who lost everything (luckily i had saved most of them), then onto live journal in 2004, and on blogger since 2007. 
14. i still sleep with a stuffed animal. his name is bunny and i've had him since i was about 6 months old. 
15. one of my favourite things to do is drive. just put in a cd, roll down the windows and drive on little back roads, singing out to my heart's content. 
16. when i hear songs, i relate them to certain people, events or memories. 
17.  i absolutely love children's books. my favourites are eloise, make way for ducklings, if you give a mouse a cookie, and anything dr. seuss.
18. i was the dumbest smart kid in college. at graduation those who graduate with honours are in ranked order, after that it is alphabetical. 
19. i am an amazingly picky eater. i have gotten better as i've gotten older, but my diet is still mainly carbs. 
20. at home i currenly have 6 cats and a dog. throughout my life we've had 11 cats. i am quite allergic to them. but it doesn't stop me from cuddling them. 
21. i was a camp counselor for 5 summers - 2 girl scout camps and a day camp. and i taught at 2 academic summer camps. 
22. one of my nicknames is speedy. i was called it for 4 summers at girl scout camps. 
23. my other nickname is my last name. for most of hs and college more people called my by my last name than my first. 
24. i love national parks. i've been to great smoky, zion, bryce canyon and the grand canyon so far. my goal is to go to all of them. my favourite is zion.
25. i also want to go to all 50 states. 
26. so far i've been to - nh, vt, ri, ct, ma, ny, pa, nj, de, md, va, wv, nc, sc, fl, ga, tn, oh, mi, ca, az, nv, ut and dc. 
27. i also want to travel to all 7 continents. so far i've only done north america and europe. 
28. there also isn't a country i don't want to go to. 
29. so far i've visited the us, canada, ireland, england, scotland, wales, northern ireland, germany, france, greece and spain. (italy february 2009)
30. the first broadway show i saw was rent. 
31. for both my junior and senior prom, i asked my date to go. they were my co-captains on the ski team.
32. my favourite city is new york city. 
33. my favourite number is 33. 3 and 9 also work. 
34. my favourite alcoholic drink is a cosmo. i also enjoy sex on the beach, guinness, and wine. 
35. in college i won an oreo stack eating contest. it was on the bus on the way home from my last college crew regatta. i think it was 12 double stuff oreo sandwhich. (12 fillings inside 2 cookies)
36. my senior crewies are some of my favourite people in the world. we shared 4 years of sweat, hardwork, tears, teamwork, memories, laughter, rowing, and friendship. i would do anything for these girls. 
37. i've never had my hair longer than my shoulders. it is usually just below my chin. 
38. i used to be obsessed with beanie babies. my favourites are erin the bear (duh), speedy the turtle, pinky the flamingo, quackers the duck and seaweed the otter
39. i am absolutely in love with gmail. i currently have 38 labels, and they are all colour coded. 
40. i've read all the baby sitters club books, and owned about half of them. i used to pretend i was stacey. 
41. one of my goals is to hike the entire appalachian trail. all 2170 miles from georgia to maine.
42. i refused to read harry potter until the summer of 2002. when at camp a friend gave me the first book at camp. but she had gone through the book renaming everyone after camp people. she was harry, i was hermione and my best friend was ron. so i was reading about basil, speedy and ace. i became hooked, but i was confused most of the 2nd book, because i dodn't know their actual names! i read the first 4 books within 3 weeks. i then got 5/6/7 the day they came out. 
43. i love my sorority! i can't wait to be closer to an alumni chapter. i am currently in the uk chapter and met up with sisters living in europe twice and i'm going to london in march again to see them again. 
44. i love taking photos. i've been doing a photo a day project since july 31st, 2007. 
45.  my twin isn't really my twin. she is my other half. we met working at gs camp in 2001 and have been inseperable ever since. 
46. my core group of friends from freshman year of college were still my core group senior year. i love all our worch girls photos. from the mud fight to birthday balls to crazy theme parties to graduation. 
47. i love all things chocolate except chocolate ice cream. 
48. i've only ever worn clinique happy. 
49. i relate everything in life to friends episodes. i'm also slightly obsessed with the show, know every episode and could kick your butt in friends trivia. 
50. most of the places i've been in ireland, it has been for hiking. donegal, connemara, dingle, wicklow, all over co. kerry, west cork, some in co. waterford & tipperary. 
51. i majored in history and american studies with a secondary education certification at wac. 
52. studying abroad in ireland in 2005 was a major life changing experience. it changed what i wanted to do post-wac and introduced me to my academic interest - irish american domestic servants. 
53. my first boyfriend got my hooked on country music. and now it is mostly what i listen to. 
54. i love wearing high heels or flip flops. i hate socks. 
55. my favourite season is summer. i hate being cold. 
56. i am a romantic at heart. i love chick flicks and chick lit. 
57. facebook has become my lifeline while living abroad. i love being able to see what everyone is up to. 
58. i love  peanut butter, mint and chocolate together - ie, chocolate chip mint ice cream with reeses pieces. 
59. i'm always reading. ususally some random chick lit, but i read anything and everything.
60. in college i drank at least a can of coke a day. and i was on a permanent sugar high just to stay awake most days.
61. in ireland i traded the coke for tea. i'm addicted to barry's tea. i probably have about 4 cups a day.
62. i've been watching/following days of our lives since i was 9. 
63. i wish life was a musical. how much fun would that be? always breaking into singing and dancing!
64. i cry a lot. any little thing can make me start tearing up. books/movies are the worst. i cry reading pretty much anything. nicholas sparks/cecilia ahern books are the worst. 
65. i have my masters in history - specifically on the irish diaspora. i wrote 21,000 words on irish domestic servants in the us and great britain.
66. i've only had 3 boyfriends. 
67. i am an overachiever. i was in nhs in hs, and 2 different honour societies in college.  i was also in about a million clubs in hs, and on the exec board for most of them at one point and 2 year captain of the ski team. i also held 3 positions in my sorority and was captain of the crew team senior year. 
68. i'm short - 5'1'' and i absolutely love it. 
69. i prefer only using lower case letters. especially on my name. i've been writing my name in lower case letters since i was 16. i've only recently started (sometimes) signing my name with a capital letter. 
70. i actually had a professor write on a paper-  are you e.e. cummings? - thank you clayton. 
71. i love abbreviating words. 
72. i want to go back to college for my PhD is history one day. 
73. i still have not gone to coyote ugly. it is on my list of things to do. when i was 15 we made plans to have my 21st birthday there. 
74. instead i was in dc visiting one of my berries on the way home from north carolina and we went to the natural history smithsonian so i could see the t-rex, and then the american history one and then just had a nice lunch. my first legal drink in the US was a strawberry dacquri. 
75. my first beer was my freshman year in college - the first night of college at talbot. 
76. i love getting letters in the mail. 
77. i hate snow, but love skiing. 
78. i love italian food. but i'm not a big fan of marinara sauce. 
79. my favourite sandwhich is pb&j. but only grape jelly. runner up would be grilled cheese. 
80. i have a slight obsssion with crutons. 
81. my college roommate freshman year keeps me sane, even from 3000 miles away. we write each other amazingly long emails. we word count them... i'm not kidding. 
82. i love making mixed cd's. 
83. i wear pearls pretty much every day. 
84. the best decision i ever made in my life was to go to wac. those 4 years were absolutely amazing and i learned so much about myself and had some amazing opportunities. 
85. i once opened a bottle of champagne using a sword from the war of 1812. 
86. i set my alarm clock to go off at either a :7 or a :3.
87. i've been wearing a silver aids awareness bracelet from the body shop since i was 14. i have only ever taken it off for sports. 
88. i want to run a marathon. 
89. i am extremely ticklish. like you touch me and i'm spasiming. 
90. my toe nails are always painted red. and they have been since i was 16.
91. i love to-do lists.
92. i tore my acl playing field hockey right before my senior year of high school. 
93. i have to shower in the morning. it wakes me up. 
94. i love finding new blogs to read. when i find one i like i read their old entries. 
95. when i was younger i hated my name. i absolutely love it now. 
96. i am so glad i decide to move abroad after undergrad. 
97. working in an office has made me realise i don't want a desk job. i need to be active and constantly doing something different. 
98. my first concert was the beach boys when i was 7. i've also seen 3 doors down, oar , something corporate, rascal flatts (2) and snow patrol. 
99. the fastest i've ever ran a mile was 7:15 my junior year of hs for field hockey.
100. i only write in black ink. i hate pencils and blue ink. 
101. the most played song on my itunes right now is taylor swift's - a place in this world. i've played it 541 times since jan 8, 2007 (when i had to reinstall windows on my computer) 

so there you go :)

101 things about me. 
if you want to know anything else, just ask!

Tuesday, January 13

the one where it was sooo worth it...

So over on 20sb this month's blog carnival is about first kisses. So here is my rambly post all about my first kiss...

So while most people had their first 'boyfriend' in middle school or high school, I was one of those girls who kept waiting hoping that the next guy I like would like me back. That maybe I would have a date on a Friday night to the movies, that maybe I would get asked to the prom... But nope, my first kiss never happened in middle or high school. It wasn't like I was a freak or anything, I did have dates to both my junior and senior prom - I asked both of the guys I went with and they each happened to be my co-captain of the ski team that year. So when I went off to college I was hoping my luck would be different.

I went to a small college where EVERYONE knows everyone. You end up hooking up with the same group of guys, your friends have also hooked up with them and things get messy. It is just a part of life.

My freshman year of college, I had an amazing group of friends. We all lived on the same hall in our dorm, there was a group of about 10 of us from our hall of 18 who always hung out. So we had a lot of great weekends, going to our friend's dorm where we had the strongest cocktails known to man, or our favorite fraternity house. So when in the middle of September of our freshman year Hurricane Floyd was striking the East Coast, our college was closed for a few days, while some friends went home. Most of us decided to stay (we all lived too far to go home) so with the college mostly shut down, what else is a group of college students going to do but party?

(A lot of these details are from my original online journal - I've been blogging since 2001)
So Wednesday night we went over to our friends for some cocktails and celebrated the hurricane and Caps (He was a big Washington Capitals fan, I can't call him the nickname he was later given) was there. Now we had met a few parties prior and at the night before - martini night to kick off the hurricane weekend, we started talking. So Wednesday night there was a bunch of us there and after a few of my friends went off, Caps and I (along with 2 other friends) went off for them. And on the little adventure we started holding hands and since we couldn't find the ones who had wondered off, we ended up back at the dorm watching movies, now midway through roomie got a phone call - from a guy we nicknamed Booty Call Chris (hahaha! remember him) so Caps and I were alone, we were cuddling on my bed and talking. And pretty soon after roomie left, Caps leans in an all of a sudden our lips were touching (inside I was like FINALLY!!!) and then his tongue was in my mouth and after a second of panic (hello, I'm 18, a freshman in college, never been kissed and was all like ajdkjdjfgdj what am I supposeed to be doing, am I doing this right, I must be awful) but I just relaxed and it turned out into a nice LONG makeout session. So it was getting late and so we kissed goodbye, and I immediately called my best friend, even though it was 2am. Hello! first kiss! Sp I enjoyed it, and it was a nice sense of relief, that I had finally done it. Not gonna lie, I love making out. I see nothing wrong with it, and it can be a lot of fun, and a confidence booster....

So it was a memorable experience, with the hilariousness of that weekend. We ended up partying Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, and the makeout sessions continued with Caps. The rest of that story with him is quite funny. So after not hearing from him for another month and a half after Hurricane weekend, we talked all the time the month leading up to winter break and during break, to find that the first weekend back he makes out with one of my BEST friends. Slight fight amongst her and I until we realize he isn't worth it. So the drama kinda ends there with Caps, but I still saw him all the time freshman year, because I ended up dating one of his good friends... And then junior year when I studied abroad, his girlfriend (started dating sophomore year) was also in Cork with me, her and I became good friends... And I'm happy to say that him and his girlfriend recently became engaged.

Somehow most of my guy experiences have a funny story or a crazy ending, they just can't be normal.. yea we dated, broke up, don't really talk or made out once and that was the end..
But it makes me laugh, and while we kinda joke about how I was 18 when I was first kissed, I just laugh, because at least it was memorable and there was a funny story involved. And it wasn't an awkward 12 year old boy not sure what he was doing...

oh yea, the title is in reference to the title of the post on my old journal... haha!