I am a T

After hearing about the Delta Zeta fiasco on John Stewart tonight, I'm proud as ever to be part of an organization that would never ask women of strong character to forfeit their membership.

Having met Deltas from many chapters and in various parts of the country, I know we are a respectable and successful group of women. I think my sisters are all swell and I cannot wait to meet more of them down the road.

Woo-Hoo! Interview Number One!

Normally I'm not one to announce to the world when I have something that might work out but I'm not sure. Because then people inevitably ask if you got it and if you didn't then it sucks to have to say "no I didn't get the job/make the cheerleading team/hear back from him/etc."

But I am so excited that I have my first real job interview!! I just have to share. Next week I'm going to have a phone interview with National Instruments for a public relations coordinator position. I am pumped.

With a Side of Karaoke Please

pre hot tub
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

Thank you Auntie Pam for basically rocking at life.

Auntie Pam (AJ's real auntie, my adopted auntie) made dinner for AJ, Megan, Kim and myself last night. Delicious pasta and meatballs. We had a little wine and cheese with a side of karaoke to start the night off. Then the aforementioned fab dinner. Then on to the hot tub for a couple hours. It was excellent! I don't see nearly enough of Kim or Megan and I couldn't ever see enough AJ. Great gals night...and one that saw me in bed before 11:30p.

Megan just signed a lease for her place in Chicago! I'm so excited for her. She's living with her sister and will be there pretty quickly after graduation. We've celebrated her new place in a cool new city and in a few weeks we'll celebrate my new place in a cool new city.
As Meg and I were dicussing, its a little scary but we are pretty OK with it.

Bring on the red robes BU, bring them on.

We Survived the Weekend of Feb. 16, 2007

The girls
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

"Survival" is usually the determining factor when Justin comes to visit. This President's Day weekend, like most in college, was Emal's birthday, a long weekend, a Justin-visit. We're so proud we walked away mostly unscratched. Way to go us :)

btw, I'm not the creative one here, all title credit goes to Val.

For the Love of the Move

I was talking to Nate the other day -- well we talk most days. But besides the point. I've generally been pretty excited for my move. I do my best not to get too excited to where my excitement for the future over takes my ability to enjoy the present. Really I try. But I've got to tell you...

Moving to Austin is going to be awesome!

Besides that Austin is just this cool fun small liberal city in Texas -- basically everything I want, its going to be great because of the people who are going to be there. Now I know some of them won't be there indefinitely but I'll take what I can get. Amy and Kelley will be there this summer. Fernie sounds like he will be in and out this summer. Shannon's local and if she has anything to say about it, Henry will be local soon as well. Louise is there. Dorian's going to be around at least for a little bit. KBR is there with her crew. Little brother will be there for the summer. Melissa is going to visit, as will Zach and Mandi and hopefully Jerry.

And NATE! Nate and I are going to be great roommates. First, he's told me that I can decorate b/c he hates to decorate. Sweet!! And then a couple days ago he asked me if we could have lots of parties and themed parties at that. I'm sorry, did you really have to ask? Just watch my inners southern woman/sorority girl come out! Themed parties are the best thing ever. Now we just need an apartment...

Oh yeah and a job. Does anyone have one of those they could give me? That'd be great, thanks :)

The Night We Drove to Rhode Island

Last night I was home for about 30 minutes when AJ and her friend Ben got to the house and told me that not only were we going to dinner but we were going to Rhode Island. To see a band at a place as Val would say. Only in places like Boston do you drive to the next state to see a small band at a small bar.

Let me just say that bars in New England but outside of the city are an experience in and of themselves. Val's beer was all but free and my cape codder had maybe a shot of cranberry in my vodka. Not to mention the overwhelming over 30 crowd. It was a fusion of the Landsdowne in Sydney which on Fridays would transform from easy going 20-something's bar to goth band bar and Sherlock's, the only pub back home in CL. Yup, we drove 45 minutes to go to Pawtucket RI's version of Sherlock's.

At least the singer in the band, Lourds, was amazing. That girl could play a wicked violin.

The Neighbor Kids

ice sculpture
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

The kids next door are a little eclectic to say the least. In the time I have lived next door to the purple house...
They have attended one of our parties and brought with them homemade jam. They've sent a scared freshman boy over to ask if he could attend a sorority party (while it was happening). Until recently they owned chickens. Sadly the chickens live in Vermont now. Once upon a time they had a trampoline in their backyard. Now there's a boat in the backyard. Last September they had camp fires (minus the fire) complete with singing and guitar playing. And sometimes when its warm outside, we open the windows and chat back and forth with them.

So on Saturday when a few of them were making sculptures out of slabs of ice, Bob and I thought nothing of it...except that it was wicked cool!! So Bob grabbed his camera, took this pic and now its in the Daily Free Press.

Randomly and only mildly related, I discovered del.icio.us today. If I can figure out a cool way to link it to this blog I may do that. I'm very much a novice at all things that cool but maybe one day I will learn and I can share. But if you see a del.icio.us link, have no fear. Click on it and I promise to bring you cool pictures and articles. Actually, I pinky promise.

Pin Me Baby

Pinning
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

My AJ left me this weekend. She's in Worcester where Saturday night, Joe pinned her at his fraternity Valentine's Day Formal.

I wasn't there or anything but I love this photo of them that she sent me. And I know how happy this weekend made her. She and Joe have really been looking forward to it. I can't wait to see her tomorrow so I can get all the details!

Jet Set is My Middle Name

Apparently "Jet Set" is my middle name; or so my friends are trying to convince me. In the past say 2 weeks, I've been told to go on or have discussed going on the following trips

Winter cruise with AJ to someplace warm
Bonnaroo with AJ, Joe, Bob, Ben, Val, Justin and whomever else they can convince
SB08 to Chicago with Lindsay to visit Megan
Vegas with Amy and Kali

I'm all about these trips but I think at some point, I will have to go to work to earn the money for these trips. And if I'm at work I can't be outta town -- as much as I would like to be in two places at once.

Its a rough life to have such awesome friends who all want to travel together. Rough life indeed.

Are We Almost There Yet?

100 Days
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

Soon enough. 100 days to be exact.

Lordy, Lordy. Graduation.

My Love Lives Here

Valentines
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

This is how we celebrate Valentine's Day at my house. Wine, flowers, candlelight and Chinese food that should be delivered any moment. Does it get any better than that?

Yes, all these things in an hour I would usually be in class but am not because school is closed due to snow! Honestly, if it weren't for an email from my dad, I probably would have forgot it was Valentine's Day.

From me and mine, to you and yours, a little bit of snow day love

The Law of Inconvenience

I have a theory, much like Murphy's Law actually; The Law of Inconvenience.

Say in life you would like Thing A. Just generally speaking, Thing A is thought to be a good. The Law of Inconvenience says Thing A will become yours/happen when it is totally inconvenient in life. Not inconvenient to the point of causing harm, just to the point of you would never pick that time in life for Thing A to actually occur.

And this friends, is how/why life stays interesting. It's happened to all of us. My parents, for example, decided they were ready to have a baby, figuring it would take a few months to get pregnant -- haha well I had news for them; I was ready to be conceived. My senior year of high school I was about as anti boyfriend as I could be, though boyfriends are typically considered a good in my life. What happened? Oh there was shortly a boyfriend of course, and ya know, he and I had a pretty good run.

All that said, with an openness and to-hell-with-practicality attitude that not even I am sure about at the moment, perhaps I shall have coffee with Thing A.

Happy Valentines Day yall

Obamania Hits 14A

AJ, Bob and I are so glad Obama finally announced his candidacy for president. I'll admit, at first I wasn't sure if '08 would be his year. And I'm still not totally sold, for the old cliche reasons.

1) He's young and unexperienced. But we saw what old did for us, so hey, lets run with something new.
2) He's black. Now I have no issue with this as I praise the ground he walks on but lets face it, its going to be a challenge he'll have to work past. I thought, and still sometimes think, a VP ticket may be the way to go on easing the country into this. Only the primaries will tell though.
3) His past isn't flawless. This isn't going to go away with time though and since I want him to be pres or VP someday, might as well be now as far as his past goes.

But I am LOVING Barack because
1) He is an outstanding speaker. A good mix of educated and common.
2) He's socially liberal but not way out in left field past the foul line. Its a nice happy moderate liberalism that I'm all about.
3) He has the youth wrapped around his little finger. Just check out his website (www.barackobama.com). He's onto the social networking addiction that everyone under 25 suffers from. Whether its him or his marketing people, this website is genius. Links to facebook YouTube and flickr. If nothing else, old Obama is the man for knowing to hire these marketing folks.
4) The man has solid education plans. I know a candidate will never be anything but in favor of improving education but his sound pretty solid. I'd be willing to take a chance on them.
5) Oprah says he's a good man. And if you can't believe Oprah, who can you believe

If I could figure out how to play John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" that would be the song I would insert here. So just imagine it playing in the background.

Cheers yall

The Weekend That Was

Pouty McPout
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

To recap, since my weekend began at 1:30p Thursday--

1 Lording
11 people sleeping at 14A (Friday night)
1 person sleeping at 14A who we did not know
5 Outta Towners
1 phone call to Australia
3 miles of Boston tour guide walking
2 parties
2 calls to Ankur
3 trips to the Linden Suprette
3 occasions of lost friends

One heck of a weekend

Out of Sydney, Into Boston

S8000254.JPG
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

Its sorta like if you saw a pilgrim. or a confederate soldier. You know they exist(ed) but they don't exist in this world.

I know my Sydneysiders exist but they exist in Sydney. Not in Boston. Except this weekend.

Over the course of yesterday most of them arrived in Boston and at the glorious home of 14A. Jake and Melvin flew in from Detroit. Liz took the train in from Worcester. Ashley in from Maine. And Mere and Kristina made the long long walk through Allston to get to 14A.

We really wish Al had been able to make it from Australia but he couldn't come to the party so we brought the party to him. With the one minute on Ashley's phone card we called Australia and yelled in disconnected unison "Al!!!" I think he finally figured out who we were and why we were happily yelling...I think.

Cheers!

Lord Robert, Sorority Man

Lording
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

Bob did it. He officially drank way way too much at the BU Pub.

Tonight we celebrated his lording, meaning he finished both the knights quest (60 beers) and the lords quest...some absurd number of cocktails and shots. AJ and I will never catch up to his awesome feat. But we can celebrate with him.

When one is knighted or lorded a series of nicknames is put on a mug for the honored one. Here's what we had for Bob -- the PG ones anyways.

Lord Robert, Sorority Man
Man of the House
King of the Couch
Where everyone knows your name...Bob
Thats not where the TV is

here's to my favorite sorority man

ZZZzzzz

Those are all my Zzzzs for the next 11 days. I had the realization in class today that the next 11 days, til Feb 19th, are just pure craziness in my life. Who needs sleep anyways right?

Thats Mrs. Manning To You

Did you see that game? It was great! My man, Peyton, he won! Not only did he win the game, he got MVP. Which is why I say "Yes Payton, I will marry you." My baby, Superbowl MVP.

Just don't tell Tom; he won't be too happy about losing a game as well as a girl to Payton. But hey, it happens.

Little Bit o' QT

not so much th yahtzee king
Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

Its been a weekend of serious roomie bonding.

Friday night AJ beat Bob and I at scrabble and yahtzee. And yesterday she beat us at yahtzee again. Personally, I'm done playing games with her. She always wins.

Better than board games though, I had a fabulous date day with my AJ yesterday. We went to the MFA and saw this sweet exhibit on fashion because one of my clients was involved in the production of it. And we had lunch downtown and then we went shopping. I sorta felt like her mom when I said "AJ...ya know whats here don't ya? If you want, we can go to Williams-Sonoma!" W-S is like her version of Tiffany's. So I took her hand and led her on a mecca. I swear the store just glowed as we approached it.

Then it was home to play with Bob a little. He's been printing pics for us and we're hanging them all in our kitchen. Its such a cute set of pics too! They are all roomie pics plus a few of Val and Kristin. But ya know, if Bob and AJ are my immediate Boston family, Val and Kristin are not so distant cousins.

I suppose there is nothing extraordinary about the weekend's events but it makes me so happy to spend time with them. Its been decided, we have to cram the next five years of bonding into the next 3 months or so.
Its like stock piling the love.

This Boston's For You

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Originally uploaded by cheryl_lynn425.

I like Copley Square. A lot. An unhealthy amount maybe. So give me a month T pass and an excuse to go to Copley or the BPL and I am on it.

I had almost forgotten how pretty this city is. It just adds to my internal conflict on moving. Again, I know I am ready to be done with college...but done with Boston? That I'm not so sure about. Chalk it up to being the first time I have lived really in a city (as opposed to suburbia), call it my college experience, heck say its just my comfort zone. Either which way, I like beantown. It makes me wonder "Can Austin compare?" God I hope so!

But like I said, I got to go down to Copley yesterday, BPL run, and KBR had just commented how much she loved seeing my Boston pics and never realized how much she would miss it. Inspired by KBR I took some pics -- This Boston's For You my lovely Texan friend.

And then I realized, I miss Boston too, even though I am here.