new years eve

in a completely lame move, i have decided to stay home for new years eve. my nephew's coming to chill at my parents' place so that his parents can party a little for a change. it feels ironic, because i'm always the one out partying and now i'm going to be the lame one at home. ah, well, there are worse ways to spend your new year's eve, such as, um...well...it could be worse, i'm sure.

so if you have any suggestions of how i could spend this lovely tradition, i'd appreciate it. last year was as good as it gets for me. pjs, pancakes, movies (or bad tv) and drinking, which sounds like a horrible combination but it was a lot of fun. especially when i had to pretend i wasn't drunk, haha. hahahahahahaha. i'm sure we can all guess how well that went....

in other news. i went to tour of a "new apartment building" near wilmington (www.theresidences.net - their sister company is the Residences at Rodney Square if this is any indication of the style of apts.), because my dad is working there. well, i wanted the blue collar tour, but apparently, the little concierge said no that the leasing agent would have to do it. so i went on the tour. fabulous apartments. absolutely beautiful and COMPLETELY out of my price range. the kicker was that she keep harking on the view. the view of the Christina river. if anyone's ever been to DE, they can attest to the fact that the christina river is the nastiest river in the state. it's so gross. there's stuff floating in it and oil/pollution on the surface. it's gross. not to mention that if you drive HALF A BLOCK, you are in DE premier redlight district. FABULOUS. other than that, the apartments are great.

lazy, lazy.

so i'm still at home(DE) because i would be horribly bored going home(MA). it's been nice being with my parents. i miss them a lot when i'm at school. vacation has been enjoyable. not doing work is so frickin' nice after such a crazy semester. although, i have to say, i did not really appreciate the reminder that i'm going to have to do more stats in the spring :-p. in case you were wondering, dan. ;-) (haha, thanks for the update on which version we need).

so today my mom and i journeyed to the mall, which wasn't as crazy as i expected. i took back a few shirts because they would have made me look about 40ish and instead got some much needed, uh, attire and some earrings. i also got my mom's bday present, my dad's bday present and a xmas present for a friend (haha, it's nice that i could have all this time to figure it out...). overall, a productive day. and by productive, i mean that i didn't spend it sitting in front of my tv playing N64. while saving the princess is important, it is not the most productive thing i can do with my life.

my mom got me moisturizer with anti-wrinkle stuff in it. my parents of course laughed at the idea that i have wrinkles. but i do. and they look worse when my face is dry.

anyway, tomorrow will be busy: meeting maggie for coffee and then off to see my dad's work and then off to meet some drc-ers. good times.

newark, new york!

due to a transit strike in the city of new york, my dear friends manuel and lauren and i had to cancel our plans to visit the "big tree." what did we do instead, you ask? we drank from 1pm until 6pm in the fine metropolis that is newark, del! :-) we went to 5/6 bars on main street, drinking at 3/6. and then we went bowling (i bowled a 100 -- and two strikes in the last frame!) good times!!! we took pics at all of the bars, although you probably can't tell which one is which :-)

early

i surprised my parents today by coming home two days early. it was fabulous. my mom literally ran out to my car. and then she ran inside and told me dad that he "had to come outside quick to see this." he got two steps out the door and was like, "what vicki, what?" and then he saw me standing a foot in front of him. hehe. it was cute. he was like, "you surprised the hell out of me!" super cute.

so i survived my first semester of grad school. i think it ended well. or at least, it ended much better than it started. i made some awesome friends and i hope that next semester I can get to know people better. overall, i think everyone has contributed in some small way to making it a lot easier. i especially don't think i would have made it without Lost nights with mj and starbucks/stats with courtney.

i have to go to sleep soon because after driving 4.5 hours from MA i'm worn out. i'm not sure if it's the drive or where i'm driving (MA, CT, NY, NJ...). my jaw began to set around hartford and the vein popped out around the tappen zee. by the time i got to the turnpike, i wanted to give everyone the "driving finger." being as its the holiday season and all, i didn't. you never know when "santa" is watching, after all. that and in a fight with a jersey person, my $$ would go on the jersey person.

anyway, i'll update this later. not that i have anything exciting to say. but it makes me feel happy to update and hope that someone somewhere is actually caring what's going on in this pathetic life :-).

drinking? dancing? sounds like a fabulous dept. holiday party...

this past wednesday was the dept holiday party. we had enough liquor to kill a cow, which served it's life-long purpose well. anyway, here are some pictures from the event (some of which i don't remember):

open mouth...

...insert foot.

yeah, done that a couple times in the last 6 days. it's been fabulous. at this rate, i might start pooping socks.

correction...

in accordance to a complaint i received via a phone call yesterday evening, i am ammending my last post. it's not that my brothers didn't help at all. it's just that i helped more. :-p sorry guys, that's as good as it's going to get. ;-)

speaking of snow...

my parents apparently (haha) bought a snow blower the other day (they went to get my mom a ring and came back with a snow blower - that's SO my parents...). why did they buy one after 21+ years without, you ask? because the kid that did most of the shoveling moved out. AND THAT CHILD WASN'T EITHER OF MY BROTHERS. ;-) take that gender roles! ;-)

welcome to new england's winter

we have a grand total of 10 inches according to my scientific method of measuring snowing via dropping my yellow ruler (which i've had since fourth grade...) into the snow. our first real snowstorm of the season! i think the weathers websites (both weather.com and accuweather.com) are out to get america by producing bad predictions. this was supposed to be a mild 5 incher. what the heck? dudes, you were wrong by 5 inches. if we were wrong like this all the time, we'd be at war with a country and have no way to get out of it. oh wait...my bad... ;-)

anyway, here's a collection of pictures from today: the first couple are from when i first woke up around 8am; one's from when accuweather.com said it was going to start flurry (that would be the pic in which it was snowing super hard); and the others are me goofing off for your entertainment ;-)

can i make it?

a big 12 days left in my semester. i am so exhausted i can't wait for it to be over. i have a lot to get through before i can declare myself free from the evilness that is grad school, but the misery will be over soon enough.

there's a department "holiday" party next week. i'm still debating whether to go or not. the idea of seeing faculty drinking might be rewarding after this semester. sociologists (in fact, most academics) are the most dysfunctional (mainly alcoholic) group of the bunch. it's hilarious.

so, we were supposed to get about 5" of snow. yeah, not a flake to be found in noho/amherst this morning. none. i was all prepared and woke up extra early to ensure that i could clean off my car and make it to school in one piece. yearh. apparently my parents' got about 4" in DE (because apparently it snows in DE when i move out of the stupid state...). for a storm that would monopolize the tv for about 2 days, up here, it gets no attention. craziness! :-) they also suck at plowing. in case you were caring about that. or maybe they're saving their precious resources.

so that's that. i'm too exhausted to write an intelligent post today. be thankful i've given you a two-second distraction. i know i appreciate them.

as one of my students ended his FORMAL ACADEMIC paper, "I can't do this anymore. I'm done"

the snow has arrived!

um, so apparently i pissed off mr. winter because he brought snow today. there's a hefty (by DE standards) bit on the ground. i'm excited :-) Everyone else is probably grumbling.

pictures to follow.

mr. winter, you're late

the forecast today: snow. oh wait - it's still to warm for that. i have to say that i am sorely disappointed about this new england fall. it's actually resembled a DE fall but a lot - crappy "warm" (for the season) weather and the leaves weren't so great. and the squirrels (which i notice because i'm obsessed) must be sweating their little, uh, "nuts" off (haha). they've been chubbin' out for the last few weeks, without it really being cold out. anyway, i'm sure old man winter will still have it in for us in the north come january.

only 17 more days in my semester (including the beloved weekends) -- unless it snows. i have two papers and a presentation to get through, 75 papers to grade, two exams to proctor, and two stats assignments to complete. it will probably be the most miserable 17 days of my life.

i'm keeping my mind on the goal: sleep and several weeks off.