Happy New Year!

Happy New Year’s Eve!!

It’s the last day of 2013, the time to write all of your new year’s resolutions, reflect on the moments of the past year and ponder on what the new year will bring.

Gag.

But really, while all these posts and instagram photos are making me a little nauseous you all can’t help but take a walk down memory lane and remember the past year and events. Even me.

Oh 2013...

I was a senior at UC Davis and had the best 4 years of my life come to an end. 

I became the best of friends with old acquaintances.

I chose to pursue a career in Recreation.

I got in a hella gnarly bike crash.

I got a concussion.

I gave that bike away.

I partied.

I went to Las Vegas.

I got the SIU ga job.

I visited SIU.

I chose SIU.

I spent a weekend on a dirty house boat. I loved it.

I graduated from UC Davis.

I went to Paris.

I went to Disneyland

I met Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

I made new friends.

I had life talks with strangers.

I made plans.

I didn’t follow those plans.

I reconnected one last time before my closest friends went to all corners of this world.

I went to Giant’s baseball games.

I went to Seattle to see my best friend.

I ate lots of frozen yogurt, aka fro-yo.

I danced.

I rocked out at concerts.

I laughed. A lot.

I moved 2,150 miles away.

I had the best road trip ever with my dad.

I started 17th grade.

I cried. A lot.

I said good bye to my amazing life in California.

I made new friends in Illinois.

I became a Saluki.

I went to Notre Dame and Ohio State.

I thought about moving back. More than once.

I faltered.

I made mistakes.

I moved again.

I trusted too much.

I played.

I got played.

I won.

I lost.

I loved.

I had a broken heart.

I compromised. 

I survived.

I learned.

And I did a million other things in between.

2013 was a montage of ups, downs, twists, and turns, and lots of change. 

And through it all I can’t help but smile at everything 2013 brought me. A thing that I have always carried with me no matter what obstacles, or adversity life throws me is that one saying the old man in the fedora in a small cafe told me…  it’s all just the weight of living. It’s never the same weight but I’ll always make it. I’ll find a way, I’ll be ok. 

"Never stop learning, Shorty.” Dad has always said this to me. No matter where or how far life takes us, we can always learn more, do better.

I sit here now watching the fireworks over the hills of Southern California, the valley of Los Angeles and think “Man. 2013. That was one for the books.”

But they all are. Every year in it’s own right is one to learn from, remember the good and the bad and to always learn and to be better.

So thanks 2013. You were one hell of a ride. And with that I say, Ok, 2014…

Bring it. 

To be continued. 

Christmas Continued: Soft Alch, Stick Shifts and Sasquatch

Hello Lovies and a belated Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas was an interesting and very fun one here on the Allen farm! As you can tell by the rather odd title for this post. I'll explain promise.

So. Christmas Eve.

I'm trying to plan out a trip to see some college friends in the Sacramento area, but as I flew home, my baby Pearl is still in Illinois. My dad's company has a few trucks though, mid sized, that he uses to get the boys out to different jobs in the woods. Try taking a honda civic out in the back country, you just can't do it so he provides the trucks so they all can show up on time. But it's winter, they're not in use and so I asked to use one to travel down to see friends.

One minor detail though…they are all manual transmissions. Stick shifts. Pearl is an automatic. And my car before her too. I kinda know how to drive a stick but only if it's a tractor or the ancient feed truck that only sometimes can get in to 3rd gear.

Uh oh.

So my dad and my little siblings (they both can drive stick as they live at home and that's what we own now, manuals) have me driving everywhere and teaching me how to not kill it every time I make a stop.
The first couple times in town were pretty bad…I killed it 3x in one intersection and there were cars behind me and I got so flustered I almost got out of the truck and quit. My little bro was laughing and yelling "Come on!!! GET IT TOGETHER! Why do you get nervous?? C'mon man!"
Thanks dude that's superrrrr helpful.

How people behind me probably reacted to my driving. So much anger.

But now I'm a lot better and haven't killed it at all (fingers crossed it stays that way) I should put a bumper sticker on the back saying "Newbie behind the wheel. Stay back >10ft."

How I think I drive.

What my SeaStar and all other drivers say when I actually drive.

Christmas day was a pretty chill one. We did presents with the immediate fam in the am and spent the day cooking for our Christmas dinner. My sister had gone to some friends to exchange gifts and came back with all the latest gossip about the town. She's telling me and mom how so-n-so threw a bonfire party and got busted for using the parents' booze. "I guess the party didn't have any hard alcohol, but I don't know what the difference between hard and soft alcohol is, but that's all they had."

Keeping track of all the types of alcohol is hard, it's ok.

Yep. That's my goody two-shoes sister. Stay away from that 'Soft' alcohol…We all died of laughter.

She tries but she's pretty naive and doesn't care about drinking or partying and if it doesn't involve volleyball, basketball or cows or disney movies it doesn't matter to her. Never change SeaStar, you're still great even if you don't like soft or hard alcohol.

Yes you are, SeaStar. You are that innocent.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet, I got everyone SIU gear so we looked like the biggest Saluki fans but I'm perfectly ok with that.

One big Saluki Family. One stop shop for me!

And then that night we wanted to try out my brother's new hunting gear as he got camo pants and boots and head lamps. But it wasn't just for my brother to go hunting.
One fun fact about my brother…he truly believes in Sasquatch.

Yep. That Sasquatch.

I'm very serious. We live in the boondocks and he goes regularly out back behind our property searching for signs of bigfoot/squatches. He even watches the show Finding BigFoot to keep up on the latest squatching techniques.

So my bro, my sis and I got all of the camo gear on, head lamps and went out in the pitch black dark to go looking for Sasquatch. 

I wish I was joking. 

Ready to find us some Squatches!

We ended up walking around in the dark with these dinky head lights and visions of CSI and Criminal Minds episodes come to mind and now every little twig breaking makes me panic and sweat like none other. And it was 30 degrees and dropping. And not just dark but SUPER dark because we don't have many lights out in the boonies naturally. Nothing but 3 head lamps. Sweet. Then bro leads us up this super steep hill to check out this spot he thinks is totally a squatch den and then we end up to an area none of us have ever been and I had had it. "No. I'm done. I do not need to end up getting lost in the boonies and freeze to death or find a freaking sasquatch without so much as a pocket knife to protect myself. I'm going home." After much debate (mostly yelling at each other so even if BigFoot was out there he would have ran off anyway we weren't very quiet) we tried finding the trail to go back. 

Close to the house bro sees the big dipper and we all start looking at the stars. 

They're so many it was crazy. 

We feel safe enough to turn our head lamps off and just gaze up at the stars. Everyone should go out in the middle of nowhere and do this. It's too hard to explain, you can see every single constellation, the north star, everything, it's so beautiful. But then we start to get just a little frightened about being in the complete dark so we hurry on back.
Right as we walk back on to the property and can see the house, we call dad and bro goes "So we found a body but we don't know if it's BigFoot or human so we didn't touch it but you're going to want to call the Sasquatch Specialists and probably the CIA, FBI, NCIS, CBI, and CSI too. Oh and are you with mom? Can I talk to her?"

He's such a smart ass. So proud of him. He takes after his sarcastic, sassy sisters, that is a given.

We're giggling and pushing each other when all of a sudden…
"BAHHHRUUUHHHHH!!!"

SASQUATCH?!?

nope. just my dad. he had hid behind one of the trucks and trailers and yeah. he got us. good.
cue the screams.
"DAD!!!! OH MY GOD WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!?"

He's laughing so hard he can't breathe. Good riddance we got the crap scared out of us.

And that was my Christmas. Just another day in the boondocks.

Merry Christmas from some amateur Sasquatch Hunters. We clean up pretty nicely.

To be continued!

Winter Break- It's beginning to look a lot like a Christmas

I GOT MY SUITCASE BACK!!!

After 6 days of calling United too many times to count and airports galore me and Mom went to the airport just to try on our own and low and behold it was there!! THANK THE LORD IT HAS BEEN FOUND!

Hallelujah.

These really great people at the airport told us how they were shipping all the suitcases from the dozens of canceled flights and rerouted flights from various airports around the state by truck and that my bag just came in after going from St. Louis to Denver to San Francisco to Sacramento to back to San Francisco and then finally back to Medford. Sheesh.

But now I have clothes and gifts and I am so thankful! Whew. What a relief. 

Update on my winter break thus far.

And I love it.

I sleep. I eat. And then repeat.

Well ok, it's a bit more busy than that. So far not a whole lot has happened though so don't expect a blog worthy of any envy.

I've gone on errands with my mom and sister. I got my nails done with my mom (girls day and also to make me feel better about losing my luggage and all my cute clothes and new boots) and we did the bank thing, pick up parts for my dad, go to lunch with my grandma. Love time with grandma.

Oh and I cut my hair. A lot of my hair. I actually donated 12 inches of it to Locks of Love and now I have the shortest haircut since I was a toddler, I can hardly make a ponytail it's so short. 

But I have wanted to donate my hair for a really long time but was so scared to, hair is a big deal for girls. It's what makes us stand out, a bad hair day is wayyy worse than what most people make it out to be, and we get really attached for lack of a better word... My sister and I went in, the hair dresser put it in a ponytail, asked if this was a "I just broke up with my boyfriend" kind of mid-life crisis-esque decision or that I really wanted to I laughed said nope, no heart broken here and before another word she started hacking at my ponytail. I have a lot of hair and it took a while for her to get through it all, I think she needed a chain saw. I couldn't breathe, I was like "Ohhhmiigawwd!! AH! Oh gosh! Oh gosh!" "Pipe down, ain't no going back now." "Ok ok." And then it was gone. Uhhh ok then. That's that.

And now I have a short bob hair cut and it's awesome. It's easy maintenance, way less shampoo (still getting used to that) and I totally feel like a lawyer or big CEO, powerful, I-Am-Woman-Hear-Me-Roar, super woman with it. It's my "I'm a grown up now" hair cut.

Rocking that "I am totally only 22 and getting my MBA what do you do?" look.

Marissa Mayer. The CEO of Yahoo!. And my doppleganger. I wouldn't even have to change my name!

If anyone knows who Marissa Mayer is, she's kind of a big shot in the computer world. She was one of the originals at Google (yes...that google.) and now she jumped ship to be the head honcho at Yahoo! and she's arguably one of the most powerful women in the entire world.

And I bet I could totally be her stand in double. Attention Hollywood!! If you ever do her bio I can soooo play her part and I would be absolutely perfect for it!  I'd have to talk with my agent but I'm pretty sure I'd have time. *winkcallme*

Other than that, my break has been filled with a Christmas concert, piano and violin (I went with my grandma and sister and it was pretty cool even if me and sis were the only ones in the entire church, where it was held, under 40) a fun dinner with my family (where we got dressed up and went to a fancier restaurant in a nearby town where we know the owners and chef and it was super fun to get fancy only if it was just with my 16 and 20 yr old goobers for sibs and a dad who says the f-bomb every other word but hey, we clean up nicely) and went to see christmas lights. We went to this one house in Mt.Shasta that has thousands of lights. Yes. Thousands. It was like a theme park full of lights and you could walk through on a path so you could see everything and they had hot chocolate and cookies for their guests to snack on while you went through and saw all of the cartoon characters, snow men, reindeer, santa, etc.

The SeaStar and I in the world of fluorescent lights.

And with that, it is definitely looking to be a very Happy Holiday. :)

To be continued!

Holiday Travel = The Worst

I'm Back!

Finally after a crazy couple of flights I am home safe and sound. A cancelation and a reroute can't stop me! But apparently it can stop my luggage and it's been 4 days and counting and I still do not have it. Apparently they flew it to San Fran (i don't live there) and now it's MIA.

Just fuqing perfect.

So I'm without my clothes, my x-mas gifts and pretty much my entire life minus my phone. Cool. Not. I'm so pissed off and can't do anything about it.

He gets it.

I hate you United Airlines, you keep transferring me to someone in India and no fault to them but they haven't been the least bit helpful and I promise I will not fly United if I can help it.

I hate you and all of your stupid smiley stewardesses and I hate that you only offer soda, coffee and tea on your flights would it kill ya to hand out some peanuts and how I have to pay to watch the stupid little tv you have on all the backs of the seats but if I don't you just throw commercials at me on repeat that are not at all applicable to my life and I hate that I had to pay to check my one and only bag that you LOST anyway and now you're telling me you can't find it and that the file reference number YOU gave me is not in the system so I have to be transferred to make a new missing luggage claim for the 4th CONSECUTIVE DAY and I hate you for saying that it might be in San Francisco or in Sacramento but not at my ending destination of Medford since that's the closest place and that's the most logical place but no that's way too fuqing easy I hate you for not letting my relax during my fuqing well deserved supposedly stress-free winter break with my family but I don't even have my christmas pj's to relax in because they're in the suitcase that you LOST!

I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU, UNITED!!!! I hope someone who works for United reads this because I'm starting to realize why Southwest is the best airline to go through. Because this shit is getting old real fast. I want everyone to know that they SUCK!
SUCKSUCKSUCKSUCKSUCKSUCK I HATE UNITED THEY SUCK

If they just tried to care a little bit I wouldn't be so mad. I know I'm not the only one who's lost luggage. And it's the holidays and bad weather screws things up all the time. But come on…I have to file a different report every gosh dam day and still no one knows what the FUQ is going on?!? I just want to make sure I get my gifts for my friends and family. Is that so much to ask?

In other news, I got that A in my accounting class. I ended up getting 2 B's and 1 A in my first semester of grad school. Attaining my MBA no less while working well over 20hours a week. Not too bad for a 3.33. I'd love to take more time to celebrate but I just got off the phone again with the United people who know and do absolutely nothing and my energy and joy just gets sucked right out of me. 

Happy flipping holidays. 

To be continued.

Airports are so incredibly boring...

Good afternoon and Hellloooo Winter Break!

Let freedom ring!

I'm currently sitting in a deserted gate next to one of maybe 5 outlets in the ENTIRE St. Louis-Lambert Airport.

Sheesh. It's 2013 people, who travels without an electronic device?? And when you're going as far as I am you def need to re-juice the iPod, iPhone, lap top, etc,.

Oh! Ya I forgot, I'm going home today! YAY!!!

Sweet home California here I come!

Only thing in my way is a 2hr wait for my flight to Denver and then another flight to Medford and then an hour drive and then I'll be HOME!

I'm so excited and ready I can't handle it.

So a quick recap of my week. I left you with that I have B's in 2/3 classes. I had one final left and that went pretty swimmingly. 

And now for the dreaded wait for official grades to be posted. Ahhh the agony!! Like why do I have to wait til next week, it was a flipping multiple choice test it does not take that long TELL ME NOW! Oh, wait no, I don't want to know, I'm scared gahh stop it, I'm going to just pretend it never happened.

But while I play the waiting game I celebrated with some friends by going out to the bars. Obvi.

It was a fun time, and on the first night of celebration I literally ran into my professor from accounting.

WHAT. You have a real life??!? 

Weird.

No it wasn't that bad, we got to chat for a bit and he said that he was pretty sure I got a B or an A.

An A in accounting??? I would die. I'll def take the B and would be super happy with that. I would literally die if I got an A. I joked with him saying he confused me for someone else. 

I saw him again last night as well but we avoided the grades talk and talked about winter break plans. I love that I'm bros with my professor now. How cool is that?? 

I did get to see some pretty legit people before heading out of here for 3 weeks. And I saw my staff that is graduating today. We're losing some rather cool people and I'm pretty bummed they won't be around anymore. One is a regular in my blog…HotHead. Ok so I'm not THAT bummed about him but I may miss him a little bit. But I'm sure I'll get over it.

But the others I am kinda sad. When you don't have a lot of friends and then the ones you really like end up leaving, you get sad really really fast. I'm terrible at good byes too, I can't help but cry so it was good that it was in a bar and around a bunch of people so I couldn't have any tears. So I cried this morning when Kaylee dropped me off at the airport since I won't see her for awhile and it kinda turned into a 'let's just cry about everything all at once in a really public place.'

God I hate being a girl.

But even though I'll miss you all and I want you to stay with me so we can continue to work and play together I'm happy that they were in my life even for just a little bit. 

Congratulations to my friends back in UCDavis who are graduating today as well! Good luck in the future and here's to a quick and easy job search!! And remember that growing up is overrated.

Pretty much.

And now I got to board my flight! Later Illinois! California or BUST!

To be continued!

Final Grades….

I just found out my final grades for 2 out of my 3 classes…

Before I tell you them, let me remind you that in grad school you are not allowed to get more than 1, ONLY 1, C letter grade and then they give ya the boot.







Drum roll please….










In Shark-feeding Frenzy class aka BA (stands for Business Administration) 550, Marketing Management I got a…..

B stands for BEAUTIFUL!!! I was SOOO nervous about this one since it was my absolute hardest class I had ever been in and I have little to absolutely nooooo background in business or marketing.

But a B is not a C! YESSSSS!!!

And in my monotone professor from Ferris Bueller's Day Off class

aka BA 540 Managerial Organizational Behavior I got a…..

and this B stands for 'B'oisterous because I am making quite the scene in my apartment because I am so excited!!

And my last grade (Accounting... GAG) will have to wait for sometime but I'm pretty sure I will get a B in that one too! Fingers Crossed!

YAY!!! B's get Master Degrees BABY!!!

Me when I got the email. And currently. And probably will still be this way tomorrow too.

One more day of Finals and I'm home free!!!!


To be continued!!

My First Midwest Snow Storm

Top of the morning to ya!

For my European friends I guess that works, but it's only super late for the American ones.

Details, anyway..I left you with my shark feeding frenzy and a sever weather warning about an ice storm and snow that was supposed to hit Carbondale.

Go to your tv, turn on the weather channel right now. You'll see that majority of the midwest and the east coast and the south was/is being hit by a massive storm. Thursday it started around late afternoon with sleet, or rain in the form of ice. It's still not sunshine and rainbows right now either, 4 days later.

Yeah. That's a thing out here. Ice falls from the sky and it's little and not hail, it's ice. And it was cold and icy and didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon. But we had our staff holiday party that night at the local pizza place, Pagliai's or better known as Pag's. As it was storming pretty hard and people are in the middle of prepping for finals not all of the staff was able to make it. We did our white elephant exchange and had a good time though. I ended up with a kinda eclectic array of boxed cake and biscuits, mini alcohol bottles (so cute and so easy to take with you to take a quick shot before or after a final!) and well some other things you could use on a date night. At least I think that was the thought idea behind it…some dinner for 2, some classy booze and then um…ya…let's just say that it was good of them to think of safety first.

Never understood 'the birds and the bees' analogy.

But it was really funny to see people's reactions to that and the singing tie gift, the box of protein bars (classic gym rat gift) and reindeer antlers for your car (I secretly really wanted that one!) among some others. I was glad to say thanks and see some of them before we head off to break though. Gonna miss my goons!

Right then it started snowing and I had class and was struggling to get the ice off my windshield. So I bought an ice scraper real quick. And luckily class got out early because it was getting pretty nasty out. There was talk of other schools canceling but I didn't think the University would close since it hadn't shut down due to weather since like the stone age. 

But the next morning I woke up to this…

My poor baby Pearl!(she's not in this photo but still)

It was her first snow and she was not only encased in ice fromt the sleet but then covered in a good 5-7inches of snow too!!

And that ice as the first layer made it just about impossible for me to get into my car. It was frozen shut. Like wouldn't budge a little bit. So I called my boss to ask if I should use hot water or what was the midwest way of dealing with this crisis and he goes "Oh Cali…you just better stay at home, you don't know how to drive in this let alone worry about other dumb drivers."

So I don't have to come into work? Ok cool, but what about class?

"Class is canceled. The rec is still open and some other places on campus but otherwise no class."

Wait…what? A Snow Day? 

A SNOW DAY!!!!! 

I went out and did a snow angel right then and there and immediately regretted it because it was still snowing and I was only in a t-shirt. 

My last day of classes in my first semester of Grad school was a snow day! Is this real life?? YES!

I was so happy that after my snow angel I realized that it was 7:50am so I did what any normal 22 year old would do that early. Go back to bed. 

I woke up sometime later and it was STILL snowing. Not fun light snowing but blowing snow and windy and frigid and cold. Fun to be in for about 2.5seconds and that's it. But after cleaning the dishes, watching a movie, spontaneous dance party with myself and more laziness I got stir crazy. My boss then called me and asked if I needed anything from Wal-Mart. I was like oh that's ok, I was thinking about driving over soon to stock up on food (i did not stock up for the storm. Cali noob move). He was like yeah no you are not, I'll come get you.

So me and the boss man went to Wally world together in a winter wonderland. He's pretty bad with road rage especially with people not knowing how to drive in the snow. Pretty hilarious. i stocked up on baking goods and other goodies. On the drive back we had a good chat about the job and what we both want for the future of this program. And I'm feeling like setting common goals is good but voicing them is better so that we can actually achieve them. So it was a very productive trip all around.

Luckily it quit snowing but it was still very very very cold. I went out to eat with some friends to the only restaurant open, Applebee's, but it was still fun even if the wait was like 45 minutes. That night some friends were holding a graduating senior party for some kids so we ventured out in that shittayy weather. But it turned out to be a lot of fun and we had a good time. Nothing like a snow day to start the party early. But because it was so bad some friends that live farther out couldn't make it. One in particular, my friend Amy, who is graduating and will be out of here next week. She's a favorite not only with me but with most people and she is going to be sorely missed. Her and all of her south side Chicago sassiness. So a few of us decided we have to throw another party in her honor. And guess who had the brilliant idea of hosting? 

Me!!

So I threw a small kick back at my very unfurnished apartment. We wore ugly christmas sweaters, played cards, and laughed and had a jolly good time. The girls had gone to dinner before and we were just enjoying each others company and we invited some more to join in on the fun. And that lead to more people. And then their friends. And soon my little apartment had more people that I didn't know than I did know in it. Funny how that happens. 

Things I learned from hosting- 

-get more seating. Chairs, bean bags, etc. Just get more. 

-invest in a tv. watching my pink xmas tree just doesn't quite cut it for entertainment.

-invest in a stereo system. The portable one you got luckily at a gift exchange sucked really bad and blew out by the second song. 

-don't have your stuffed dog in your room and then let people use your bathroom connected to your room. They will think it's real and get scared and scream or make fun of you for having a stuffed animal or both. 

-do not let people put cans on your ceiling fan.

If they do, do NOT attempt to get them down. Just incase one happens to be half full and you end up spilling it all over the place. Thanks tall asshole…

But even if it wasn't the best or most raging party, I had fun and I think others did too. Good company, good times, good memories. 

On our way to the bar we did happen to run into some other friends from work. Well, they were outside of the bar after what looks like was a fight that had just gotten broken up. Can you guess who tried to take on 3 bouncers, by himself,  all 6ft 150lbs? Yep you guessed it, HotHead! He was belligerent…class act...we luckily talked him into leaving before anymore damage. Thank goodness his last day is over...no longer can claim him and I'm ok with that!

But we went to the bar and forgot all about the fiasco and it was good to spend some quality time with our very awesome albeit a lil bit ratchet at times friend. A good send off for her to remember good ol' Salukiville.

And Sunday I worked on some work stuff and tried to work on studying. But meh, I'll just blog instead. It's so much more entertaining anyway.

Here's some photos from last night. Sorry there aren't that many, I forget to take photos when I'm having fun!

When you ask boys to take a photo, this and about 200 others end up on your phone.

Ugly sweaters with my beautiful friends.

They left little presents underneath my tree.

To be continued!

Dun dunn… dunn dunn….

duunnnnn duunnnnn….dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunn dunn!!!

SHARK ATTACK!!!!!

So it happened.

Remember when I told you about how in my business classes that you have to come to class prepared with a powerpoint on a case you read and then the professor randomly calls upon a poor unfortunate soul to present in front of class and defend their claims, and arguments for the case while the rest of the class is required to offer counter arguments and basically said that it's supposed to be a shark feeding frenzy???

Yep. I was that poor baby seal getting mauled by a bunch of great whites. I woke up thinking "It's going to be today. I'm going to be presenting."

I should have stayed home, called in sick, claimed car trouble, anything. I went to  class, sat down, pulled out my notebook and laptop, in walked the professor, we're all silent waiting just waiting for him to call upon someone, and then…

"Let's see…. Marissa."

Gollydangit.

So I got up and did my spiel on a International Agri-business trade company based in Africa.

And it was just the start to my very bad day...

They literally attacked every point I made and my professor even got in on the bashing too. He even criticized my word choice. This is the same guy who made fun of me for not knowing what 'Pop' was yeah ok…word choice, you're the freakazoids. Obvi.

After presenting and arguing and defending for OVER 60 MINUTES, (in front of class, seats scaling up so they're all looking down on you and all I have to shield myself is a podium) I had to meet with him to discuss the presentation. "Well, you seem to understand the case well enough and you tried to argue it but was lacking in the validity of some of your defense points, blah blah business jargon, blah and at least they took it easy on you."

That was EASY?!?!? False. The last girl to present barely defended her case at all because he got side tracked and went on a rant about ethics for 20minutes and then you let us out early. No, I beg to differ, sir.

Whatever.

Anyways…after that I went to ref my first basketball game in the community. I was pretty nervous as I didn't know where I was going but finally found the jr. high school and ended up having a pretty good time. It was 7th and 8th grade girls' bball and it was pretty easy, mostly jump balls and ticky-tacky fouls only because they're spastic and don't have body awareness yet. But it was nice to get my mind off the sharks for awhile.

And then I had to pull an all nighter to finish a 7 page metrics case write up (stats + business + graphs + explaining why companies are in the red = terrible time) a 15 page case/research paper (the shark feeding frenzy class…ugh.) and a business simulation where we run a computer program in which we input all the variables of how we would run a company that sells a product to this fake population and it runs our numbers and tells us if we made a profit or not…super fun. But I finished and still managed 4hours of sleep. Solid.

I literally crawled through today clutching my coffee mug like it was my bible and when I finally got into work my boss goes "Hey, we have a meeting tonight. I can't go, so you're running it."
Awesome. Just what I wanted to do. How'd you know?

But I didn't say that, and it was fine and because I like to think I'm efficient we were in and out of that meeting in 20/25min. Normally they run close to an hour. Nope, move it along, questions? Sorry save 'em for the end, gotta keep going. No, I kid, but really, it was fast and I was happy.

And then I was ready to go home. But of course, as it seems to be the theme in my life, something pops up. Always. It's impeccable. So I go and help this sup because of some miscommunication, etc etc. It was the last night for some of our IM leagues which meant champ pics and t-shirts and sore losers and overly excited winners, the whole 9 yards. So I stayed and watched the last few games.

If not to just get away from my textbooks for a bit but also to make sure these IMs finish on a good note. So close to being done I can literally taste it.

So HotHead, and I watched a few games of dodgeball. He's graduating and has a big fancy real world job to look forward to now. He still teases me about not being a real GA and how he runs the show, it's all going to crap once he's gone blah blah I'm going to miss him (not the teasing at all, promise) but I had a decent time. Until I hit him jokingly with the binder and ended up hitting his nose and making him bleed. Sorry bout that. It was pretty hilarious though, and I'm pretty sure he teared up a lil bit (those nose shots sting man) but he now will probably have a scar all thanks to me. I'm such a loving boss…not. Happy last day on the job!

I'm sorry I laughed so hard after hitting you. Kinda. Not really.

And now I'm procrastinating on literally my last 4 things to do before the semester is over… 1 extra credit paper and opinion paper for my really dry and monotone prof who lectures at us about behavior in the work field. Gag. And then I have only 2 finals to study for, one in accounting and one in the behavior class.

And I'm writing my blog. #Priorities

Oh and did I mention that it's supposed to snow on Friday?! YEAH. Snow. Oh and the temp was 70 today. Kid you not. We went from frigid to flipping hot only to go back to frozen again and snow. Watch we'll probably have another tornado warning soon too or an 'ice storm' since apparently that's a real thing here. An ice storm?? What does that even mean?? All I can think of is hail or chunks of ice falling from the sky and that does not sound fun at all. Apparently though, my credit card as an ice scraper won't get the job done…gotta upgrade to a real ice scraper. And pour hot water on your car to just unfreeze the door handles.

Marissa is so not in Cali anymore.

To be continued!