twas the day after christmas....

Merry Christmas to all!! there is a blizzard outside now! i hope every one had a fabulous christmas and i look forward to seeing the family again throughout the month of january! drive carefully!

senior snowball

today was my last day of classes for my first semester of my senior year. it's officially half way over. i can't believe it. my last fall semester. my last pre season for softball. my last thesis i'll have to write. it's all quite overwhelming. however with this next week being finals, i'm overwhelmed by the amount of work i have, but once that's over i'll be able to reflect on the fact that one half of my senior year is really over. but not too long to reflect because over break i will be figuring out what to do with my life after may. but trinity college was very nice in that they threw a formal for us this past saturday called senior snowball. at the beginning of the night each frat house is designated a freshman dorm and serves predrinks to us before the dance starts. it was so cool being able to see who i've stayed friends with since freshman year and who i have barely talked to since. then all the seniors get together and have a dance the rest of the night. it was an absolute blast and exactly what everyone needed right before finals as one last hooray for the semester. one more semester to go, it's going to be awesome!

senior blues

man, senior year is hard! i've been totally busy all the time. i'm in the process of writing my mini thesis for this semester and it's really hard, my internship is so much fun but really time consuming, and my classes aren't as easy and i thought they might be. we only have two more weeks left in the semester! yikes! two more weeks and i'm half way done with my senior year, what the heck! it's gone by so fast i can't believe it. and i'm not quite sure what i want to do after school either....real life is hard. but it's been a great ride so far, and i'm definitely looking forward to next semester. it'll be a little lighter on course work and next semester means SOFTBALL SEASON!!! yayyyyy. but for now, i'm studying and doing work basically 24/7, except when i'm sleeping i guess. wish me luck!

and i'm anxious about a certain new baby being born......

what happens in vegas.....

this was the hotel we stayed in
guess who??? while i know it's from the back, this is in fact snooki from the show the jersey shore, not just a really good halloween costume!

birthday girl!!

last weekend i went to las vegas, nevada for my friend's 21st birthday. i had a blast. there were 16 of us that went and it really was amazing. it's like vegas is it's own little world of party and craziness. we went to the strip, we gambled a little, we danced, we saw famous people, we went on rides overlooking the city, we stayed up late, we ate good food, we sat out by the beach, we had SO much fun! i went with some people i had never met before, some people i met briefly on my trip to japan, and some people who i used to be really close with at trinity but have fallen out of touch a little. so it was a good group of people, i think that's what made the trip. it's definitely a place that should be visited at least once in life, but not too much....it's just too expensive to stay for any length of time. it was a great way to spend halloween weekend!

career beginnings

this semester i am interning with a program called career beginnings. they work with high school students in the hartford area through the college process. they work with students who have decided that they want to be college bound and career beginnings helps them with finding a school, writing essays and resumes, filling out applications, finical aid applications, and sending in their final transcripts and applications. the kids that i see on a daily basis are just awesome. they have great passionate stories to tell for their essays, they are very motivated to come to talk to us and find out what the next step is, and they listen so well and usually get their work done on time. i've had so much fun with this internship it's making me wonder if i should take the guidance counselor/college prep counselor route...... some of these kids really have it tough and some of them are really lacking with writing skills. they usually don't have very good SAT scores, but here they are trying to go to college, some of them are first generation going to college. but they truly are great kids with great stories to tell.

lazy river

i got to go home this weekend for the first time since school started. i wasn't homesick but i was really ready to head home and relax. i got a little sick too so being at home has been just the remedy i needed. i've seen some friends, hung out with my parents, ate great food, done some shopping, i couldn't have asked for a better weekend! today is my last day to enjoy and then it's back to school, back to the books.

also, happy belated birthday to my sister elizabeth. 10 10 10!!!!!

gleeked out for the wire!

last year my show was lost. some how i was able to get through all 6 seasons relatively quickly. this year i have two favorite shows: glee and the wire. in case you didn't know, i LOVE singing and dancing and musicals and such. so my friend was like omg why have you never seen glee?!?!! so i watched the season 2 premiere and feel in love! then i was determined to watch the entire season 1 before the next ep. i would just like to say that i successfully watched 22, hour long eps of glee in one week. pretty cool. when do i do homework? i find ways! also, there's a class here called viewing the wire and it's all about this show called the wire and deals with the urban background of the show. i wasn't able to get into the class but my roommate is in and in the spirit of things she bought all 5 seasons on dvd. so i took a little hiatus when i was watching glee but now i'm back to watching the wire again. it's a very realistic cop show dealing with the narcotics unit. very cool. so if you've never watched either, i suggest it!

going for the bakers dozen

i know it only says 11 but i swear it's 12 i just couldn't find a picture!

fun little fact about trinity: our men's squash team has won the national (national!) championship 12 years in a row! not only that, but they haven't even lost a single match in 12 years! unbelievable!! and for those of you who know about sports being divided up into divisions, trinity is a d3 college, however since there are so few squash teams in the nation, they are all at a d1 level. overall, our men's squash team is the bomb. our women's squash team also usually falls within the top three teams in the nation every year. where am i going with this? well as a senior at trinity, i've never played squash, i don't know the rules, and when i watch the matches i usually have no idea what's going on. this semester i decided to change things up, so i joined a squash class at my school (and it's for credit, how cool!). it's AWESOME! i've had three days of it so far and i love being out there. it's so different from any other sport: it's totally contained, you stand directly next to your opponent, and really it's just awesome. even when the class is over i hope i play all the time. it's a great sport to get into and as long as there are facilities around you it's a sport that you can play for a LONG time after college. anyone game?

the beginning of the end

today is the last first day at trinity i'll ever have. kinda of sad and kinda of cool. i'm not really excited about starting school work but it's nice to be around campus and see people that i haven't seen in a while. i'm living in the same apartment as i did last semester with the same people so it's nice to be really settled in now to our apartment. i have an internship this fall working with high school kids through the college process, so that will keep me busy. and softball training will start most likely the beginning of next week. so i have a lot to look forward to and a lot of time to enjoy senior year!

love means nothing in tennis

fish serving

for the first time ever my mom and i went to the us open last week. we had a GREAT day. we started early and were able to get to the open before people were even allowed in. it was a nice sunny day and EXTREMELY hot. we were sweating all day. we got to walk around the grounds, see 5 americans (fish, oudin, dent, byron, blake) play, and we even got to see sharapova practicing and jimmy connors and martina nav-i don't know how to spell her last name- were hitting balls some balls. it was a great day and we had a lot of fun! we definitely can see another us open trip in our future.

on the road again.....

august is just flying by!!! i've been on a number of vacations which is making the time super fun, i think that's why it's going by so quickly. it started with a road trip to boston to visit a few of the softball girls. lots of fun. i got to meet some of their friends from home, spend time with some of their families that i know, and i got to spend some time at one of the girls beach houses. it was awesome to see them. esp since one of the girls is now graduated. my second road trip was a little longer....this time to south carolina! quite long, about 12 hours from my house. this trip was with all people that i met abroad, two of them i haven't seen since i got back! so my friend from rochester drove 5.5 hours to get me, we drove 3 hours to dc to pick up another friend and then we drove 9 hours to mount pleasant, south carolina (it's about 15 minutes from charleston). we went on a boat, we played in the ocean, we soaked in the history of south carolina, we walked around charleston, and spent a lot of time getting to my friends family who we were staying with. it was sooooo great to see these friends as they live a little farther away. but the fun wasn't over yet. once i got back i had two days before going upstate new york with some of the family. we did the usual, went hiking, fishing, boating, rummi royale playing, quading, smore making, tons of reading, and spending quality time with my frampa. it was a great way to end my vacations for the summer. august is half way through and i only have three more weeks before i go back to school but there are still a ton of fun things to come!!

putting the twinkle back in the diamond

today i started softball camp. when i was 10 i started going to this camp that was run by, who would end up being, my high school softball coach. since 8th grade i've been working as a counselor at this camp. this year is the first year that i am a co director at this camp. my high school coach has taken over the management side of things while i've taken over the teaching and demonstrating side of the camp. i was SUPER nervous before today started but now that i have the first day under my belt i'm starting to relax a little. i want to be a teacher some day soon but this is my first real time that i'll be in charge of a group of kids. today went well and i'm hoping the rest of the week does too. hopefully i'll have some pics to show you the kids!

isssssssssss-aaaaaaaaaa-bela, isabela, isabela!

unfortunately, i have some bad news to report......my niece, isabela, has left new jersey. she was here for two whole weeks and it was the BEST. she's just the cutest! and of course michele was here to visit as well! hehe! it was great, we hung out by the pool went to cape may, ate LOTS of ice cream, went to the ocean for isabela's first time, sang silly songs, played baby games, and most importantly we spent TONS AND TONS of time together! it was great to have her here and i'm sad that she had to go back home today. but we will skype lots so she doesn't forget us! isabela if you've reading this i miss you already so so so so so so so much!!!!!!!

the past to the present

this weekend was a great one indeed. on saturday my parents and i went to a graduation party for someone who i would probably say was my first friend ever. her, her sister, and i were all great friends since basically the time we were born. they moved to PA about 9 years ago and we haven't really talked that much, only the occasional run in or maybe even an email or two. well saturday night we got to spend lots of time with them and hear about their recent adventures and boyfriends and all those good things. it was great to reconnect with some of my past.....hopefully it won't take so long next time! on sunday we had a wonderful father's day. my aunt and uncles and cousins came over as well as a couple of family friends. it was a beautiful day out. my dad set the tv up outside so we could watch soccer, we played volleyball in the pool, kicked around the soccer ball, and even played a round of croquet. we finished with some dinner and dessert outside and it was a great day. i feel asleep in front of the tv around 10pm last night. it was a great weekend and i hope everyone enjoyed it as much as i did!

patriotism

this past weekend i spent the holiday in dc with my best friend from australia, jenna. it was a lot of fun to get away for the weekend and see jenna who i haven't seen in a whie. we sat out by the pool for most of the mornings and then on sunday we went down to the capitol where they hold an annual concert on the lawn of the capitol. very cool. quite depressing (after hearing all these tragic stories about fallen soldiers) but a very enjoyable experience. we were even able to walk around a little after, esp since it was still about 10,000 degress outside. the next night we went over to their family friends house for a small bbq and then to bed because we were wiped. i hope everyone else enjoyed their memorial day weekend!

home sweet home

yes i'm still here! i've been home now for almost two weeks. it feels great to be home! i love just being here with my parents in a town i grew up in. so far i've just done a lot of babysitting, went to a graduation party, went to the beach, have tanned by the pool, had a few bonfires, and today i'm going to see the sex and the city movie. it's been pretty chill so far at home. this summer i'm just babysitting as far as work. unfortunately most of my friends are leaving: i have a few friends moving to dc for work and one of my friends is going to africa. so this summer (maybe my last real college summer) will be spent making money, getting into shape, and spending time with my parents and the rest of my family. i'm hoping for a fun and relaxing summer!

!!!!!!!!!!!

SUMMER WILL OFFICIALLY BEGIN TOMORROW! i have one more debate for my last class and then i will be free for my summer months. no papers, no exams, no studying, no all nighters, just playing with little kids all day!! yay! junior year is over and i will be a rising senior as of tomorrow at 2pm!!!!! yay!!!!

she who has the will to win cannot be beat

20-14. not too shabby. this is the first time in 5 years that this softball program has won 20 games in a season. we went on an 11 game winning streak and ended the season on a very high note. unfortunately we did not make it to the tournament but we did have a great year. this team was really great and i loved playing with all of them. i will miss the seniors dearly and try to take from them their best qualities and bring them into next season. as for school, i only have 11 more days left until i leave but i have SOOOOO much work to do. where did junior year go? it's crazy how the time is flying. but the sun is finally out and warming us up all the way up here in ct. only a few more days and then i'll be free for the summer, where i have to work as much as possible or my mom might kill me! can't wait!!

i've seen better days.....

ugh. we are scheduled to play our last game of softball today against wesleyan. unfortunately, we did not make the nescac tournament this year. We are still waiting to see if we possibly could receive an at-large bid to get into the ncaa playoffs, but we still haven't heard anything yet. this season was one of our best yet, we just fell short when it came to crunch time. but on the upside we can get two more wins today, at home, on senior day and finish our season on a very high note! another plus is that school is very rapidly winding down, only 5 more days of classes! i have lots of projects and papers and exams that i'm finishing up, but soon junior year will be over. ugh is right!

11 in a row

man, the softball team was on a tear. 11 wins in a row. pretty good stuff. we beat some not so great teams and we beat others that are regionally ranked. we finally fell to tufts on sunday in our second game. tufts is our biggest rival, they are good team but we get them one more time and i know we can come out on top. morale is high on the softball and today we play a double header against manhattanville. don't know anything about them but i know we'll come out strong. as for school, it's very quickly winding down, only two more weeks until the last day of classes, but i still have SO MUCH work to do. being a junior is crazy!

junior year....gone

tomorrow signifies three weeks until the last day of classes!!!! the last day of classes as a junior!!! omg, where has the time gone??? i feel like there is so much left to do this semester: papers, research projects, exams. but only three weeks and then i'm a rising senior. that's almost hard to comprehend!!! the last three years have flown by. oi. may 14th and i'm heading back home after finals. some scary stuff, but also a lot of fun! this semester has been kicking my butt but just three more weeks or hard work and then the fun of summer can finally sink in!

7 and 7

whew! things at school have been ultraly busy!!!

well another spring training has come and gone, only one more left! it was tons of fun, as usual. unfortunately the softball wasn't great. we ended the week 4 and 7 but we're excited about the promise that the team showed (and a special thanks to grandma and grandpa for coming out to support!!!!!). i think we can definitely do better and we proved that some this past weekend. we swept bates! great wins for trinity; bates is a big nescac school that knocked us out of the tournament last year so it was good to get some revenge. my old softball coach came up on friday to watch me play. while he's seen me play hundreds of games he's never seen me play second base, dressed in blue and gold, wearing number 17. that was a lot of fun. especially since the weather was sooooo nice this weekend! i got super burned on saturday. saturday night i went out to dinner with my parents and roommates and then my parents came over for a lovely easter brunch. one of my roommates made eggs benedict, they were delicious!! then i spent the rest of the day on the quad enjoying the summer-like weather. the rest of the day was spent on work. LOTS of work that i have to do. i've had work almost non-stop since being home from spring break. and i might add it's april already!! only a month and a half left of school, where does the time go??!?!?!?!

busy as a bee

after being in australia for so long, i forgot what it's like to be super busy with work and softball and friends. it's definitely a lot on my plate right now. but enough to keep me working hard and not too much that i'm freaking out all the time. so that's definitely a good thing. it's nice to stay busy. some days are longer than others but i just take in stride. and this weekend my best friend jenna from australia is coming for a visit! it's her birthday on saturday (which seems to be the same day as someone else's birthday.....hmmmmmm!) so it should be a lot of fun to have her around. then one more week with two papers and an exam and then i'm off to florida for spring training!!! yay!!!! definitely a high light of the year! well speaking of busy, i better get to class!!

woot woot part 2

pics from my 21st!!!

not again

a week ago i got my car broken into (for the second time) and my whole purse was stolen. yes i'm a FOOL for leaving my purse in my car especially in hartford. but i was actually mentoring which only lasts an hour and it's in the middle of the day and i parked right in front of the elementary school so i figured not too much could go wrong, well i was wrong alright. for about a day and half i was absolutely furious. i went back and forth between being totally upset and totally horrified and totally angry at whoever thought they needed to break into my car. but getting some good words of advice from my parents, especially my dad, i just realize how lucky i truly am. within a week i haven't basically everything of importance replaced except for my license which should be on it's way soon. while crappy things may happen here and there i really am grateful for all that i have. i have an amazing family and has supported me time and time again. i have good friends that helped me out if i needed some money or a trip to get my window replaced. i am fortunate enough to be able to afford to fix my car window and replace all my credit cards, license, and insurance cards. so i want to say thank you, especially to my parents, for putting up with me and guiding me through life. i really am lucky, we all are very lucky to have one another, and while i might have forgotten that for even a second, i know that the next obstacle life throws at me, my family has my back. and guess what? i got theirs!

something new

at school i get a little tired of just being an athlete. all my life sports have pretty much occupied my time. for a while i took jazz class, horse back riding lessons, went to art camp, went to oceanography camp, yet sports have stayed consistent in my life. i do love them and i'm pretty good at them, definitely main reasons why they have stuck with me for so long. but every once and a while i get bored of just being the athlete. so in the past, i've tried to do things that branch out a little, and community service and volunteering are some of the things i like to do. this semester i have signed up to be a mentor of a 5th grader at a near by elementary school. i've only been once but it was amazing! we're called mentors rather than tutors because we don't help the kids with homework, unless they ask us, we just spend an hour with them: talking, playing games, hanging out with other mentors and mentees. it's really cool. today i'm going again. my mentee's name is yanise. she's adorable. she's in 5th grade and is hispanic. she really likes that she gets to hang out with college kids. she gave me a big hug after only playing with her for an hour last week. but it made me feel so good. can't wait to see her again today! i definitely think i will stick to mentoring through the rest of my time at trinity.

21 woot woot

february 23rd is a good day. i get to celebrate my birthday along with many other people i know, most importantly my dad. you would thinking that sharing your birthday would be something to not like about your birthday. but for me it's always been awesome. it's a cool bond that my dad and i have. we get to share it together. yesterday i turned 21, soooooo old. it's crazy. nothing too big, dinner out in west hartford, ordered my first alcoholic beverage at a restaurant, and a yummy cake that my friend made (i will most certainly have to post a picture of it when it comes out because it was beautiful!). it was a good day all around. birthdays are fun!

hugs and kisses, and maybe a sprint or two

today is not only valentine's day but it is the first day of softball starting. today we only have testing (timed sprints, push ups, and sit ups), tomorrow starts the first official practice of the season! i can't believe it's already here. i'm definitely pretty nervous since i haven't been playing softball as much as everyone else since i was abroad, but i hope that by working hard enough i'll prove myself capable. very excited for this season, we have a REALLY strong team, the freshman are great, and my two best friends are the captains, pretty good stuff! anyways, happy valentines day everyone!!!!

oceanic flight 815

so i know i'm a little behind BUT i have just finally gotten into the show LOST. yes i know the season 6 premiere just aired but i just started watching season 1. i'm on episode 7 or something like that. a friend of mine from school got me hooked on. i'm definitely obsessed. and i'm pretty sure there are lot of my family members that watch it so sorry that it took so long, but i'm pumped that i have something to watch now during my down times. and no commercials and no waiting in between season, pretty cool stuff. so for those of you out there like me who never got turned onto it, i would definitely suggest getting started. who knows, maybe i'll be able to catch up to the new season.....although work might get in the way of that!

do you shoot the rabbit?

well i have been busy busy busy at school. new apartment, some new friends, some old friends, lots of classes, lots of work already. but it's all been pretty great. the best thing so far that i've gotten to do was go to a coaching symposium. something that i was picked for after filling out an application. it's a trinity sponsored event, over the weekend, and totally free! it's only for female athletes in my conference, nescac, who think they might be interested in a coaching profession. since coaching is something i've always thought about, i figured this was a great opportunity. i got to listen to some great speakers on the history of sports, the history of women in sports, title IX, coaching philosophy, coaching fundamentals, teambuilding/chemistry, leadership theories, practice planning, recruiting, work/life balance, ethical/moral decision making, and gender in competition. some of the speakers were really fantastic! i also got to meet new people from my conference and different sports and we had some round table discussions. great weekend overall. it really opened my eyes to new avenues as a career that i hadn't really thought of. and it also gave me a new pool of people to work with to reach out to if i ever need their assistance. as we left we were given a certificate and whistle, ready to go! great experience and definitely worth my time, opened some new doors for me, always a good thing!

domestication

well after two very fun and exciting months at home, i am back at school. while i'm not looking forward to doing work again i am super excited about where i'm living!! i have my very first apartment! and i'm living with a girl that i met abroad. i'm super excited. the place looks great so far, a little messy with boxes and stuff but it's on it's way to looking amazing! i will definitely post pictures once the mess is all cleaned up. this is my first place where i am by myself (or at least without my parents) that has a kitchen and real feel of a house/apartment. today my roommates are moving in and tomorrow starts school. this year, or at least this half of the year will hopefully be awesome. it has some big shoes to fill because australia was amazing, but i think it'll one of my best at trinity!

let the sunshine in

last weekend was fun, exciting, and relaxing. on friday night i went into the city to visit my sister elizabeth. we went to ikea to buy some new things for my apartment. very exciting! and since she forced me to buy things that she thought i would need i think i'll have a good start to my kitchen. then we had a nice dinner out and mike joined us. and then we fell asleep watching the movie stardust (which i would actually like to finish, it seemed pretty good from the little i saw!). then saturday i met my mom and aunt and cousins for lunch in the city and then a broadway show. we saw hair. it was amazing! if you like out of the box, provocative, in your face type stuff along with lots of dancing and singing, this would have been right up your alley. the show was so good. it really made me want to fight for a cause and wear a lot of fringe! it definitely seems like it would have been a cool time to grow up in (60's/70's). after the show my mom and i took the train back home where we were greeted by elizabeth and grandpa. with my dad's help they were all putting together a vintage ceramic christmas tree that was smashed in delivery. it looks great now! then of course the night ended with lots of video game playing (although my dad played the longest because he didn't save our progress so he stayed up for another 3 hours redoing everything we did that night!). then sunday we had to say good bye to elizabeth and said hello to heidi and linda. i told them all about my australian adventures and we chatted by the fire, watching football, and eating cupcakes, yum! a very good weekend indeed. for the next few days i'm in dc visiting a friend i met in australia, good times again!

boys will be boys

the last few babysitting jobs i've had to do were with boys. this is always a different experience because i never played with boy toys when i was younger and the little girls always look up to me and want to copy me. i wasn't sure how the boys were going to react. one family has a one year old boy and a three year old boy. sooo adorable! we get along really well. then he pulled out his remote controlled train set. i was like uhhhhhhh. and he was like ok now we have to set it up. since he's only three he can't put the pieces together himself. i was so baffled the first time. i had no idea what to do, i'd never put together a train set. i was able to finally make a train loop and it seemed to work out pretty well. and the trains were all remote controlled, pretty cool. by the second and third time baby sitting for them i knew what tracks to put together and i was pretty intrigued by the trains. then for the past few days i've been babysitting an 8 year old boy (he's the oldest of 4 and has three sisters, but his sisters are busy doing other things). when i first got there he wanted to play guns. nerf guns. i'd never played before. i didn't know if it was ok to try and shoot him, yet he was shooting me and i didn't want him to shoot me in the eye or anything. so after a while, i guess i wasn't playing so well, he was just like ok can we watch a movie now! oh well i tried. it's been a good experience playing with boys and playing with toys that are gendered toward boys. it's a good experience to do new things, it actually ended up being a lot of fun! i felt a little out of my element but i think i'm getting the hang of it now.

ring in the new year

well a new year as started, a new decade has started. i can't believe it, 2010. i graduate in 2011, that's too soon. so far the year has ben pretty relaxing. celebrated the new year with friends and have been hanging out at home with the rents. but this week starts more babysitting, visiting friends i haven't seen yet, and cramming in as much stuff as i can before i go back to school. thankfully school doesn't start until the 25th so i have some time. i'm definitely looking forward to the new year and to see what it will bring. hopefully my schooling and health and family will continue to prosper. happy belated new years to everyone!!!! have a great year!