Thoughts from my Trip

For once, it's not good to be back home. I wish I stayed in Connecticut for much, much longer. Like the rest of my life. Haha. Here are random thoughts/happenings from my 3 days away.

Today it was actually warmer in Minnesota than it was in Connecticut. But it's abnormally cold in Connecticut at this time. Minnesota....well, it's quite a surprising state.
Let's start with Thursday:
-I was nervous that I was going to get sick on the plane, so in turn, I felt sick. I get really bad motion sickness (car rides, plane rides, you name it). But in the end, I was fine once we were up in the air. I even got a little nap in.
-Once we landed, I just knew i was home. It sounds dumb, but it was a gut feeling. My mom and i picked up a white chevy cobalt. It was actually super nice. There were even heated seats. We rocked that car with its Florida license plates.
-We stayed at the Mariott Courtyard in Cromwell. So it was an extremely familiar area.
-That night, I went to see Lorraine (my godmother and one of my mom's friends from when she worked at g.fox, a retail store when she was just out of college). She had a friend over, Gloria and they couldn't get over how much I looked like one of her granddaughters who is 11. They were like "oh, you are SO beautiful!" I had a yummy dinner.
-I had probably the worst time ever trying to fall asleep. I guess you could factor in the events of the day and how I was sleeping in a hotel bed. But honestly, I kept falling asleep and waking up. Then I looked at the clock and it was only 1230 in the morning. I thought I had been sleeping all night. Also, factor in my mom snoring and you have an awful night.

Friday:
-730 AM wake-up call. All righttt! My mom and I went out to Dunkin Donuts (& i totally just typed drunkin donuts, my bad). God it was wonderful to have that again. None of this Caribou bullshit, though it is quite yummy. They seriously make the best hot chocolate (talking about DD now).
-We headed up to Massachusetts. I got to sleep on the way there, woohoo. Oh, and since I'm on the topic of driving..well sort of. Honestly, thank god for CT drivers. I mean, I know there are some assholes on the road, but at least they can fricking drive. I noticed it when we were back in MN again today..but seriously MN drivers SUCK. I swear I heard more horns beeped in CT/MA than I have heard my entire time in MN. Because they don't patiently wait for people to realize the light has turned green, or if they're taking a long time to take a left turn. By the way, this is a positive thing, haha. Oh, and I noticed how many people from different states are in CT and MA. It's weird. I saw tons of license plates from MA, CT, NJ, VT, NH, ME, MD, & PA. If you don't know the state abbreviations, you're dumb.
-It was rainy and sleeting. Disgusting. Also, there was an accident on 91-N, so they completely closed it off. I saw tons of ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks. There was ahuge plume of dark smoke coming off of something, idk what and I saw the fire trucks spraying the fire.
-College visits. Yay! Just to note on that, the campuses were beautiful. Soooooo much better than the Midwest. & you know what I realized once I went back to CT? The people are actually friendlier. Like I know we can come off as snobby, but seriously they are a lot friendlier than Midwesterners.
-As a comparison, I loved seeing New England again. It's so beautiful compared to Minnesota/Wisconsin (the midwest states i have been to). It was a cloudy day, but in Massachusetts where we were driving in a certain part it got really mountainous/hilly..whatever it was, but the clouds sort of covered the trees, but not fully. It was gorgeous. Also, I LOVED SEEING TREES AND HILLS. Ah!! So much better than the flatlands out here. I loved going down the highway and being surrounded by trees. And the roads were familiar and ah! I can't get over it. It was absolutely surreal being back home. 3 years is along time.
-Also, Friday night I got to see ALI!! Omg, it was great to see her again. We met at Bertucci's (um fricking yum!!!). We caught up on the old times and wow, she hasn't changed. I realized how much I missed her when we were talking. When we got back together, I was like we are going to stay the same around each other, no matter what.
-Another terrible night of sleep for me. I don't know why!!!!

Saturday:
-Woke up at 730...again. This time, we met Bethany & Ingrid for breakfast at Bob's Coffee Shop (best place EVER in rocky hill, my hometown). I knew Bethany better than Ingrid, but they both worked with my mom in CT. Bethany got engaged and I got to see her ring. Ingrid is German and she has an accent, it's so cool.
-Sinec I'm talking about Rocky Hill. Wow, there have been some changes. New restaurants and stuff like that. But it's still the same, ya know? I drove by my old house....oh, god. Nostalgia x1000. They changed the color of our shutters and door, but it's still the same. I loved going down my neighborhood. My mom said it looked so old now, but I love it.
-We checked out of our hotel then went to West Farms Mall. Best mall ever. Met Grace & her mom. It was awesome seeing Grace again!!!! We walked around the mall a few times, stopped in some stores. Haha one time, we passed this creepy kid who I swear like growled at us. What a weirdo. I'm glad I got to see my two best friends again.
-My mom and I headed to the airport. We hung out for awhile there since we were a bit early. Um, the Bradley airport is sooo much safer than the Mpls/St. Paul one. At the security check-in, you had to stand in this little thing where it puffed air at you and made sure you didn't have anything on you. Plus, it's a lot nicer, I think. I was eating at McDonald's and there were some Harvard kids sitting next to me. They went to see Cirque du Soleil which was in town (I saw the tents).
-I fell asleep on the plane on the way back listening to my music. My iPod surprisingly lasted both ways...YAY!!! Btw, if you haven't checked it out already, listen to "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hasard. It's from "Once". Beautiful song.

Ok, I realize this is super long, but I don't fucking care, ok? Haha. I missed CT and this was an amazing trip for me, albeit short. I seriously like cried when I was back in MN. I don't want to be here. If i could transport my friends I made here and the MN Wild team back to CT, I would do it in a heartbeat. But this is my "home" now, and I have to accept it. I have for 3 years, but not sincerely. New England is so different. There's so much history. I fit in there. I love it and I'm almost 98% sure I'm going to college back there, even if it is in Red Sox Nation. Because there's a history there nobody can take away from it. Good night all. I'll be at the Wild game tomorrow, having a blast.

Going Away

Hi all. I'm getting very excited. Tomorrow at 1:00 I will be on a plane headed home. Home? Nope, I'm still in Minnesota. Instead I'll be headed to Connecticut, my original home of 14 years. I'm so excited because I have not been back there since I left in June of '05, quite awhile in my eyes! Of course I'll be visiting colleges up in Massachusetts as well, so it's not all fun and games haha ;). I'll be quite busy and I'm not bringing my laptop, so it's up to Elise to fill me in on all the details of happenings in Minnesota....uhhh...aka: the Wild game! One good thing is that it's supposed to snow here tomorrow, so I'll be leaving all of that behind for slightly warmer weather! I come back on Saturday night, sadly. I'm excited because I know I am at least seeing two of my best friends in Connecticut. It'll be amazing to see how much we've all changed. But I shouldn't be too down in the dumps because there is like a 90% chance I will be going to Sunday's Wild game at Colorado! A perfect way to end Spring Break (which flew by!).

Other happenings in my life don't include much, haha. I've been stuck at home while all of my friends have been away - texting really is a life-saver. The other night, the Wild had a terrible loss to the Oilers (so bad, in fact, that I started watching another show) but it's almost all good now because Elise & I just determined (through texts, of course) that it was all because my popcorn bag ripped while I was trying to open it. Terrible karma, I'll say. Tonight that will hopefully all change when the Wild face the Oilers on their home ice. Last night I had the good fortune of watching the Uconn women's #1 basketball team play #8 Texas who beat the Gophers the other night. They got off to a terrific start. Big East Player of the Year, Maya Moore, was amazing. From what I got to see of the game (they switched around a lot), she scored 4 straight 3-pointers and had an awesome block on one Texas player who had a clear breakaway. The final score ended up being Uconn with 89 and Texas with 55. Maya Moore ended with 24 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks. But get this, she's only a FRESHMAN. She's going to be quite some player when she's a senior. So, the women head to the Sweet 16!

Anyway, I will catch you all on Sunday...maybe. Feel free to send texts my way while I'm gone.

i want it alllll

Hello all. I haven't updated at all this week because honestly nothing much has happened. Tuesday and Wednesday I went to lacrosse practice. On Wednesday there was only a handful of girls there. Thursday I headed over to Sarah's with Ashlee and we were SOOOOOOO bored. Hahaha. The rest of the weekend I really did not do much. Fri & Sat night I texted Elise like crazy while watching the Wild games. She informed me that we sent 150 messages last night. It's weird because it doesn't even feel like it. Good thing we both have unlimited messages!!!

Currently, I am watching the Uconn women first round game against Cornell. They're killing them so far which is nice to see :). I want them to make it far because the men got booted out way too early, but at least it's not the only upset of the men's tournament (duke, georgetown..)

BTW, Happy Easter to everyone. I kind of forgot about it until yesterday because it came so early. Maybe due to the fact that there is still SNOW on the ground and it's still only in the 30's! I want SPRING. I want to be outside and stop wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts haha. Damn Minnesota weather...ya mostly hate it!

Well, seeing that this post is the most random and pointless thing ever, I'll leave right now and try to find something to do. Have a good night.

Field Trip.......to Dairyland!

Sigh! I'm FREAKING EXHAUSTED!!!!! I woke up at 6 AM, which is very earlyyyyyy. My parents and I left at the lovely hour of 7:15 and headed east towards Wisconsin. It was snowing/raining and there wasn't a lot of people on the road. After the llong drive, I realized how much I dislike trucks! They're so annoying especially when they pass you and spray your car with dirty stuff from the road! Well, my parents and I made it there alive, after a good 4 hours of driving, probably more. I was forced to drive the entire way (in my car tho, so i had complete control over the radio). Let me just say, Appleton IS SO FREAKING CONFUSING! The roads are set up so oddly and oh god. I had to parallel park in downtown Appleton, which was not fun. We got some Subway then headed over to Lawrence. Uh there was ONE other person on my tour, so it was my mom, dad, me, a guy from Madison and his mom. It was SO awkward!!!!!! Then it started to snow hard on our tour which sucked and it was cold and my hair was soaking afterwards.

We finally left around 3, but our little direction thing (omg totally blanking on the word) screwed us up so it took us an extra 30 min to find the highway. For the first time, I got pissed at this dumb Wisconsin driver. They were going slow (speed limit was basically 65 mph the entire time) so I went into the left lane and then passed them and went in the right lane, THEN they sped up, went in the left lane, got in front of me AND WENT SLOW! i was like you're the stupidest person ever! Then this other time, this guy was passing me too, then he cut RIGHT in frotn of me (nobody else was around and i mean NOBODY) and splashed water all over my car. My dad was like "what an idiot". Haha my dad & I bonded on this trip,w e made fun of everything. They called one highway..highway "x" then there was highway "xx". We went through the "first city" of wisconsin and the "most friendly wisconsin town" too. I also saw a HORSE & BUGGY cross the HIGHWAY. it was SOOO FUNNY!!! Then we saw a sign for "Chubby's".......a gentlemen's club which looked like a LOG CABIN! Oh boyl, what an eventful trip! P.S NEVER DRIVE ACROSS THE ENTIRETY OF WISCONSIN, IT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO BORING AND FULL OF FIELDS AND FARMS. Cruise control was my friend<3 I just cruised around 70 mph most of the way back so it was super nice, but wtf there were cops all around with their radar guns..theyre stupid.

In the sports world:

-YANKEES BEAT THE RED SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were up 7-0 after 2 innings, and eventually won 8-4.
-WILD WON!!!! They beat the Avs and we're in first for now! It was such an important win!
-Uconn women are #1 seed for NCAA tourney and Uconn men are #4 seed for NCAA tourney as well!

Spring Break

Finally. It's Spring break, what I've been waiting for for weeks. This last week has been busy to say the least. My school day was filled with me trying to get homework done during my free periods because I had lacrosse practice after school from 530-7. Oh boy. I was sore after the first day, how sad. I struggle so much at lacrosse, but I really do want to learn and get better every day. We had the day off on Friday which was nice, but we have practice next week. Friday I did absolutely nothing in my classes, which although it was awesome, it was boring too. We made ice cream in chemistry, I studied during 2nd period, French we ate food, talked, and watched Notre-Dame de Paris, la comedie musicale, did nothing during 4th period, played games in Math, nothing during 6th&7th, and took my history test 8th period. I found out I was getting an A-, 92% in history! I'm so proud of myself, I think that's my first A in history in awhile, unless I did well last quarter..i forget. I guess that 98% & 94% I got on my last two tests really helped.

Last night was the Swarm game which was really fun. We won, 13-9 and Sean Pollock scored!!! Watching them play made me really want to be good at lacrosse, but obviously it's unrealistic as some of those guys are just so athletic and skilled. I didn't take any pictures, sorry! Today I'm heading over to Sarah's house with Elise and Ashlee, and we're going to hopefully watch the Wild game if Sarah gets HDNet, whatever channel that is! I basically watched all of my Tivos today, but I still need to catch up on One Tree Hill, which I became engrossed in over the summer. Hey, teen dramas are awesome, ok? Speaking of being lazy, I should probably take a shower as well, but spring break is meant for me to relax and not do anything.

View from my old room.

My to-do list for Spring Break:

-Lacrosse practicing.
-Sleeping. A lot.
-Look into volunteering @ Humane Society
-History research topic for my paper.
-Work out.
-Hang out with friends.
-Clean my room....
-Read my pile of books
-College visits.

My pooooooool, that I miss!!

-Go home to Connecticut @ the end of spring break!!! I am SOOO looking forward to it. I have not been back there since I left which was the summer before 9th grade. I'm planning on seeing my best friend, Ali & her mom. I'm also hopefully seeing Michelle, Brittny, & Grace! I'm going to Friendly's & Dunkin Donuts & Bob's Coffee Shop <3 I'm going to see lots of trees and hills and my old house, all which I miss so much. I'm going to remember everything I haven't seen in awhile and remember all of the familiar streets I went on, and maybe go to the malls I miss, Westfarms and Buckland. It's going to be tough to do everything I want in only a few days, especially since one day is dedicated to going up to Massachusetts.

8th gradeee<3>

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUU!!

I just had to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MIKKO KOIVU!!!! yay!!!! Go buy as many sweaters as you want, buddy, cuz it's your day! &yes he's special enough for his own post.

Spring is Coming

I am excited for multiple reasons:

1) Phil Hughes is pitching in the Yankees Spring Training game today against the Twins and it's on TV. If you can't do the math, I get to see Phil Hughes pitch!!!! I think I saw him pitch a few times last year, but it's rare when you're stuck out here in MN. Oh, & I hate the Rays (minus garza and bartlett) because they ALREADY injured one of the Yankees' prospects! 22-year old catcher, Francisco Cerelli, has a fracture in his right wrist and is going to be out 8-10 weeks. Honestly, do the Rays have to play dirty ball already? It's SPRING TRAINING! You don't injure players during spring training ! Carl Crawford already slid in really hard in their game last Wednesday against Houston. Nobody's going to feel sorry for them anymore if they play dirty. I mean, I know they're trying hard and all, but it's just a spring training game. /end rant.
2) The Sharks play the Wild today! OK, technically that's probably really bad for the Wild who are struggling, and the Sharks who are not (8 wins in a row). But I'll get to see, in High-Definition, Devin, Torrey, Matt, and Marc-Edouard! Woohoo! P.S. Happy Birthday Brent Burns!
3) This Friday is SPRING BREAK & THE SWARM GAME!!!! 2 blissful weeks without school and warm(er) weather. We don't even have lacrosse practice on Friday, so Elise and I can get to the Swarm game early and get our free bobble-head. Excellent. Friday will be so much fun. But it still sucks that the Swarm have lost 3 in a row now. Bummer.


Well, that's my exciting news for the day. I bet you all got really excited about what's coming up today and the rest of the week, too. I should probably head out to get my lacrosse equipment because I have a busy day ahead -> 12 PM = Yankees game 3PM=Wild game. In between= english project (4-5 page creative paper).

Hockey games are pretty fun

Yesterday was quite successful in the fact that Elise and I got about zero studying done for our history test on the 1920s and 1930s, but that's ok because we were preparing ourselves for one of the better Wild games. For full details, check out her blog.

Brent Seabrook being gross.

The game was quite fun, despite the fact that we kinda sucked, but hey, what're ya gonna do? Elise and I spotted Toews and Kane right away on the bench since we were only 9 rows back from the visitor's bench. And boy, Kane does look short. But I like that. Toews was looking quite funny in his full-out cage. James played well and Mikko could've done better. While in the concession line, Elise and I spotted two seniors from our school, one of whom was in my writing sem class last semester. When they finished paying, he said hi to me. Potential awkward situation resolved.

That'd be our boy, Mikko!

One of the more .... disgusting moments during the game was when Elise realized I had something in my hair. I reached up and felt something wet. Yeah, FREAKING GROSS. I was freaking out because I couldn't tell if it was beer or spit. I washed my hair quite thoroughly last night.

& this, just to bug elise.

Fun Days Ahead

Well, hello all! Procrastination is quite fun, but even better when it's for tomorrow night's homework. OK, really I'm not that much of a nerd, it's only because tomorrow night I am going to the Wild game! So, basically I have zero time to do any work, except Elise and I will be getting a bit of the Great Depression studying in for the history test. Anyway, the game is against the Chicago Blackhawks. I decided to like them only because my friend Elise does. OK, I'm not really a follower like that, but they're a young, likeable team (minus Seabrook and Booby...Khabibulin- I call him that b/c it's hard to type out). Plus, Elise loves Jonathan Toews, a 19 year old ice hockey wonder. And I've taken a liken to Pat Kane, his buddy and fellow 19 year old. He's a bit on the cocky side, but I'll take it. Plus, he's short and likes the Yankees. Can you give me any better reasons to like him? ;)

Oh and I forgot to mention that there was a power outage yesterday and I was in the middle of watching the Wild game! I was so mad. I was bored out of my mind so I was keeping track of the game on my cell and reading by flashlight. They told us the power wouldn't be on until tomorrow, so I showered in the dark while there was still hot water, and a few minutes after I get out, the power is back on! Well, today..my day was quite uneventful. Just another Monday for you. There was a lot of homework and our chemistry presentations are finally winding down - I am so sick of PFC's already! Oh, in English today (Genders in Lit) we did a fun little arts & craft project regarding a passage we were given. Zuhra and I turned ours into a book..Mrs. Polk loved it. It wasn't as artsy as everyone else's, but hey I was born to do other things, ya know?

Anyway I will probably update with pictures tomorrow about the game. I'll leave you with two pictures of Jonathan Toews (1st pic) and Patrick Kane (2nd pic). See ya tomorrow.

Hi!

Well, this blog is going to be very random. I'll give updates on my life, but most of it will probably be revolved around sports in some way, mostly the Wild & the Yankees, my two top favorite sports teams ;). We'll see how it goes. I need somewhere to rant!

Today was really boring and uneventful. I went to Sports Authority and Dicks to look for lacrosse equipment for the spring. Practice starts in 9 days and I've never played before so I need to start looking for a stick, mouthguard, cleats, protective eyewear, gloves, etc. I used to play field hockey, so I'm used to the mouthguard & cleats. I think now they require you to wear protective eyewear, so this will be new for me. I still miss field hockey a lot. I still have my stick, but it's probably way too small for me now haha. I don't think I have any balls left over, so I can't ever go out and practice.

Next Tuesday I'm going to a Wild game! It's going to be so much fun. It's on a school night, so it's a nice reprieve from my mundane schedule of going home and doing homework. Plus, it's against the Blackhawks, who have as Elise calls them the "wonder duo", Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Two 19-year olds who just happen to be amazing at ice hockey. We have to think of a clever sign to make.

Oh and Spring Training has FINALLY started. It's so exciting!! The Yankees played their first day today and WON, 9-3 against the Phillies. Shelley Duncan had 5 rbis, and ARod already hit a homerun.

Anyway, not much else is going on right now. We'll see how the week goes. Here's a really funny/unfortunate picture I will leave you with of the Yankees during spring training: