Thanksgiving, or "The Long Journey Home"

Ithaca, NY, to Madison WI

Tuesday, November 23rd- Sunday, November 28th, 2010

Armed, as one must be when facing Amtrak, with the spirit of adventure, Robbie and I set out from Cornell at 11:30am on Tuesday morning. Our bus ride to Syracuse went off without a hitch, and we caught a movie (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1) in the Syracuse mall before returning to the train station to wait.

We hadn't exactly realized until boarding the train that our tickets in a sleeper car gave us first class, VIP status, but we discovered soon enough, as we walked into a tiny cabin with our names and destination already tagged on the door.

Me: "Wow, I'm exhausted. And kinda hungry..."

enter Ralph

Ralph: "Good evening, I'm Ralph, and I'll be attending to your every need. You've just missed dinner, but there's still food in the lounge car if you're hungry. Let me know whenever you'd like me to do your turndown service."

Us: blank stares of amazement "...Thanks!"

We managed the "turn down" ourselves, converting the chairs in the cabin into two (extraordinarily tiny) bunk beds, and actually managed to get some decent sleep before waking up the next morning to what we thought should be Illinois landscape.

Robbie, after situating the top bunk for me. It was tight, but would have been pretty comfortable if we had figured out the thermostat-- the blankets they give you are not designed for warmth.

Turns out, we woke up in Michigan.

enter Ralph

Ralph: "We're running a little behind schedule, but help yourselves to complimentary breakfast in the dining car, or coffee and juice just at the end of the hall by the showers."

Us: blank stares of amazement "Thanks, Ralph!"

The breakfast was fabulous (who knew french toast cooked at 190mph could be so good?), and we learned from other passengers that we had been rerouted up to Detroit, and were VERY behind schedule.

...Several hours later...

Robbie: "I'm starving. When do you think--"

enter Ralph

Ralph: "They're going to serve lunch to the sleeping car passengers, if you two are interested in cheeseburgers."

Us: blank stares of amazement "Thanks, Ralph!"

Seeing as we were supposed to be off the train by 10am, they only had lunch food for us VIPs-- very lucky for us, as we were starving, and hadn't brought any food. When all the sleeper car passengers ate lunch together, we could definitely tell that we were not the typical demographic. Most were around 50, and clearly traveled like this a lot. We finally made it to Chicago in the late afternoon, and even then, the drive out in rush hour traffic was a nightmare. It was late evening on Wednesday before we finally reached home at last.

Some of our escapades in Wisconsin-- I introduced Robbie to the true Sconnie spirit of hockey games, and we bought each other hats for the occasion

We discovered later that it was a derailment on a major Amtrak rail that caused our rerouting and delay, and luckily no such thing happened on our return journey. We arrived just a half hour behind schedule, safely returned to our Cornell campus to start exam prep... yay.

End of another Semester...

Donlon Formal

Willard Straight Memorial Room, Ithaca, NY

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

Robbie and I at the formal

With the semester wrapping up, Robbie's freshman decided to send it out with a bang. They threw a formal dance in Willard Straight, and I was lucky enough to be invited to see the festivities and blow off a little finals steam-- not to mention ignore packing for Ireland for one more day.

When it finally came down to packing time, it was tight. Like, really REALLY tight. Poor Baxter couldn't fit anywhere! And, since I absolutely couldn't leave him in the Dickson basement with all my storage stuff until August, Robbie offered to take him on a little trip to London and let me pick him up there.

Robbie took this picture after I left-- Baxter getting ready to head off for the UK! Baxter is actually a British citizen... it all makes sense now.

Magic Bars

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

506 Dryden Road, Ithaca, NY

Partly in to celebrate Halloween and partly in honor of Melissa officially signing off on a lease with Tahra to live at 506 Dryden for senior year, Melissa, Tahra, and I got together to make Melissa's signature treat-- "magic bars."

A freshly signed lease. Yay! I missed the moment of actual signing, and Melissa refused to pretend for the sake of a photo op. I'll be faster next time.

Tahra's baking/Halloween costume. She was Minnie Mouse, which worked out very well with her oven mitt from Disney World.

Cooking with attitude.

Me, in my lovely new apron-- whenever I bake for my residents, they all get very jealous.

The Fancy Camera Tours Campus

Cornell Campus, Ithaca, NY

October, 2010

In an effort to catch the fall color on campus before it disappears, I've been trying to take advantage of a couple nice weather days to play with my camera. I'm definitely still working out how to use it, and could probably benefit from a few lessons. For instance, one good note to remember-- when you take your camera out of your bag, *check what settings it's on* before you take an hours worth of pictures, because the dial might have moved while in your bag. When I uploaded them, I thought to myself, "I don't remember taking any pictures at dusk..." I didn't. Lesson learned.

Anyways, here's some of what I've got in my shiny new flickr pro account (thanks mom!)

Grilling Adventures

506 Dryden Road, Ithaca, NY

Here's a little peek at some of my smokey joe's adventures this semester-- it's been great to have around, and Tahra lets me keep it locked to her back porch in exchange for sharing the delicious things I grill on it.

Tada! All set up, first time out of the box. It looked a little to clean for my taste, so I thought we'd better hurry up and use it...

Inaugural first match lighting-- very exciting.

Tahra chopping veggies for one of our meals. Yes, college students CAN be healthy.

Yum... that's a lot of steak. Believe it or not, we ate it all-- nothing like a good grilling party to bring a lot of people together.

And of course, New York's first Brat Fest. After steaks and other such complicated things, I'd have to say I really appreciated how EASY brats are-- really idiot proof. Although a little skeptical (it's kind of hard to describe what exactly a brat IS), everyone really loved them. I'll have to see if they carry brats at Wegman's. Maybe in the exotic food section??

The Brat Fest was a combo birthday party for Robbie and I, so Tahra made us cookie cakes for dessert, complete with 21 candles.

New York, New York

Queens, NY, and Manhattan, NY

Friday, October 8th- Monday, October 11th, 2010

This year was the first time I left Cornell for Fall Break-- on a little trip to New York City. Robbie's parents came in from London (with a lucky break connected to his dad's business trip) to celebrate his 21st birthday with him. They invited me, Link, Tahra, Melissa, Dan, and Illika out for a very snazzy dinner on the town for Robbie's 21st birthday, and we all decided to make a weekend of it, complete with shopping and sight-seeing.

After long internal debate, I decided to bring my new *very fancy* camera, a birthday/christmas gift from my aunt and grandparents to New York with me. I was really worried about taking it somewhere with such a high risk of theft/damage, but I came to the conclusion that someday, I want amazing travel pictures of all the exotic locations I hope to visit, and that means that someday, this camera will have to be in risky situations, so why not start now and get some use out of it? I was really glad I brought it (especially since it returned safe and sound), and I was blown away by the photo quality.

So, rather than compress the pictures to post them here, I put all the pictures taken with the SLR on flickr. Sorry to make you do the extra leg work, but its really worth it to see the bigger pictures. Everything below was taken with my digital (or by friends, since sometimes I was busy with my fancy camera), and comes with the complete story. The flickr page is pretty much just the pictures. Click here for the flickr page

Friday, October 8th, 2010

Melissa and I took the bus down together on Friday, meeting up with Tahra (who hitched a ride) and Illika (coming in from Washington, DC, where she's studying for the semester) that night to share a hotel. We really liked the sign in the Port Authority bus depot telling us to respect the escalator-- I particularly enjoy the picture that tells you not to ride the escalator on your back, while throwing your suitcase in the air.

When you travel as a poor college student, sometimes it means getting cozy-- the four of us shared a room in a Quality Inn in Queens with one king sized bed. It was actually a lot roomier than I thought it would be.

...Of course, it was a LOT roomier if you had it to your self, as Illika is demonstrating.

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

(Robbie's Birthday)

Saturday morning, we snagged ourselves a continental breakfast and made our way uptown to meet the boys who, courtesy of a birthday gift from Robbie's parents, got to stay in the Four Seasons on Union Square. Not quite the poor college student digs for them. We shopped around Manhattan, including the largest DSW I have ever seen (...the boys went for coffee for that part).

Me in the subway on our way uptown, trying to get a picture with my fancy camera. Yes, I am aware of how ridiculous I look.

Tahra, Robbie, and Dan rocking their sunglasses in the Forever 21

We headed back to the hotel early to get primped for dinner that night. It was quite the process, including an amusing episode that required using my tree climbing knife (which was packed in the backpack I brought that weekend without me remembering it, and was the only cutting implement we had) to cut the bottom of Melissa's slip off, since it hung below her dress.

Melissa, taking a knife to her slip. It certainly made for an odd scene.

Illika's hair, in a very complicated French braid-bun-invention. It turned out lovely, and even lasted through the night.

Everyone's outfits came together beautifully, though, and we were only the slightest bit behind schedule when we left. Too bad the subway was much more behind. Our train didn't arrive for 35 minutes past when it was supposed to, and we finally gave up and went to hail a cab.

The beautiful sunset over Manhattan that we got to watch as we waited for our train to NOT arrive.

Even the cab seemed to be taking forever, and by the time we arrived at the Four Seasons, where we were supposed to have pre-dinner drinks, it was just about time to leave for the restaurant. Ah well, no harm done, since we didn't end up late for our reservation at the 21 Club-- a very snazzy restaurant where Humphrey Bogart once had a regular table and George Clooney often goes for drinks. I kept my eyes open for Mr. Clooney, but we didn't see him.

Robbie and I having a drink while we waited for our table to be ready

After dinner, we couldn't quite decide what to do late at night in NYC (not being the clubbing sort), so... to the 24 hour Apple store!

We were perhaps a little over dressed for the Apple store...

A fountain outside the store. Illika kept telling me to pose, but I'm not exactly the modeling type.

Robbie and I, walking around town

The guys

The ladies (minus Tahra, who had to depart to stay with family in New Jersey)

Robbie gave me a pair of the Four Seasons slippers to take back to the ladies' humble abode in Queens-- the boys felt a little bad about all their swag. They even had a remote control for their curtains.

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

The next day, after heading uptown and catching breakfast at a cafe, Illika, Melissa and I met up with Robbie, Link, and Dan to wander our way through Central Park and visit the American Museum of Natural History.

Walking through central park (I credit this and the following pictures to Melissa-- I was taking pictures with my fancy camera, and like I said, I can't post those pics here)

Me and my camera-- I kind of look like I'm trying to catch a cheating husband or something...

The skyscrapers made an interesting backdrop for all the trees and greenery

At the museum, our first stop was the planetarium for a fabulous show on the origins of the stars, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. Afterwords, we walked around the Hayden sphere, and wandered through some of the other exhibits before heading out for dinner.

The Hayden Sphere at the Natural History Museum. The planetarium show took place inside the sphere, and the planet walk wrapped around the outside.

Monday, October 11th, 2010

We didn't have a lot of time on the last day. Dan had left the night before for a conference in California, and we parted ways with Link before lunch, since he had to get back to Ithaca early for work. That left Illika, Melissa, Robbie and I to split up for lunch-- Illika and Melissa both had friends they wanted to meet up with in the city, and Robbie and I had plans to eat with his parents.

Robbie and I got stuck on the wrong side of the Columbus Day parade when we were on our way to lunch. We were a little late, but I think his parents forgave us.

Melissa, Robbie, and I had a little time to kill before catching the bus, so we hit the bookstore and FAO Schwarz. They wouldn't let us play on the giant piano, since we're too old, but it was fun to see anyways.

Legoland in FAO Schwarz

After that, it was on to the Port Authority bus depot and back home to Ithaca-- our very delayed bus made us arrive past midnight and quite ready to collapse into bed.

New Comforter Cover

I spent a long time this past year working on a new cover for my comforter, with the purpose of having something bright and colorful for my necessarily white-walled dorm room, and it has finally arrived in my room. My residents keep commenting as they walk by, and they can hardly believe I made it. The only unfortunate part is that my favorite of the embroidered squares usually ends up between my bed and the wall. Ah well.

Birds on a wire

This one is supposed to be horseshoe prints, but it didn't turn out like I would have wanted.  Probably my least favorite.

Lightbulb!

This is one where I embellished the fabric with some stitching, just for texture.

Here's another embellished one.  The idea with this one was to make the dots look reminiscent of the chairs at the Madison Memorial Union.

Fun flowers using a whole bunch of stitches.

Fish!  This fabric was once my sling from when my shoulder was dislocated.

A campfire and marshmallows

Paisely-- this is one of my favorites.  I had fun using loads of stitches to make the fun paisley patterns.  I just freehanded most of it, since the style is so relaxed.  I got the inspiration from the fun style in a book called Doodle Stitch, by Aimee Ray.

My favorite square.  It was the most intense, but it actually wasn't as hard as it looks.  I freehanded most of it, just filling in leaves and dotted lines. At least now you all can see it, even if I don't get to on a daily basis.

Fall Tree Climbing 2010

Monkey Run, Hoffman Challenge Course, and Stuart Park, Ithaca, NY

Fridays, September 10th, 17th, 24th, and October 1-2nd, 2010

Yet again, I taught Friday Tree Climbing for COE. This semester, I taught with Colin C, Colin E, and Drew. We tried to differentiated the Colins by renaming them Thing 1 and Thing 2, but no one could remember which was which.

This year's was another fabulous group-- really involved and engaged. I have high hopes that we'll even get some future tree instructors out of it. I also started to notice some of the ridiculous traditions that are becoming a necessary part of the course. For instance, we don't hardly even know why anymore, but we always keep snack a surprise, and refer to snack time as "super secret powwow time." Tree climbing is a pretty young program, so I basically know all of the instructors who taught it in the beginning, but the students we're teaching now know those people only as names attached to absurd stories and bizarre traditions. I hope some of these quirks will stick with the program-- I like to think that the other instructors and I have a lasting impact of some kind.

Our whole class up on the platform for the overnight. I was on ground crew for this one, which meant I got to carry out one of Devin's traditions: as ground crew, wait until everyone is on the platform and settled into their sleeping bags about to go to sleep, then ascend up and read them a bedtime story. Specifically, the Lorax. When you're done, you just rappel into the darkness. It's funny how peaceful it makes you to hear a bedtime story as you drift off to sleep-- all the students really love it.

This tradition's mine-- last year, I started bringing a pirate flag to the last day of climbing, and assigning it as a special mission for someone to climb up as high as possible with it. Zac took the job very seriously.

Welcome to Clara Dickson

North Campus, Ithaca, NY

As many of you know, I took an RA position in Clara Dickson Hall this year, as the live-in advisor for the 70 freshman on my floor, particularly the 36 girls living on my end of the hall. Seem like a lot? Dickson is actually the largest dorm in the Ivy league, holding over 500 students. Now imagine move in day with just 1 elevator-- we like to call it "barely controlled chaos."

Although it required quite a bit of scrambling and frantic packing, I managed to get the phone call offering me the position on a Thursday, accept the position by Friday, and move to Ithaca for training by that Wednesday. Talk about a time crunch. But training is what gives you the chance not just to learn the rules, but also to get to know your staff and your building (Dickson took me a while to learn to navigate, I have to admit), and I'm really glad I was able to make it.

After the intensive week of non-stop trainings, staff bonding, and bulletin board making, the freshmen finally moved in and hit the ground running with orientation week. It didn't take long to settle into the flow of RA life, running programs and being on call every so often.

For those of you who don't know, "on-call" means the Dickson staff takes turns being the designated staff member in the building. You hold the on-call phone, which receives emergency calls from residents, and you walk around the building a couple times to make sure everything is in order. The biggest issue Dickson has to deal with is lock outs-- because there are so many single rooms in Dickson and the doors lock automatically, residents are always locking their keys in their rooms and having to call us to let them back in. So far, every lock out I've had to respond to has been someone who forgot their keys when they went to shower-- bummer for them, locked out in a towel.

Just a few pictures of the set up in my room-- it took me a while to get moved in, but I got there in the end.

Pictures and posters help with the painfully white walls

RAs get free microwaves/fridges. Also note the pirate flag-- a birthday gift. Last year, my suite mates had flags from their respective cultures, but since I'm somewhat of a mutt, I somehow or other ended up with a pirate flag.

I'm really enjoying the position, so much so that I've decided to come back senior year. I hope to be able to stay in Dickson, where I know my staff (many of whom will also be returning) and my advisor, but apparently they can't guarantee that. We'll see.