Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 was ...


2012 was …
…full of changes. I went from New York to Maine to Boston and from bring a student to working full time. With those, came even more changes.

…so much fun. I couldn’t have asked for more fun in such a short time period. Vancouver, not-so-typical Spring Break, Red Cat, the Coddington Olympics, Saturday morning deck setup with Ally, laying by the pool, city life, sister time, endless holiday parties and so much more!

…super emotional. I had so much fun in New York that when I moved back home and then to Boston my world was literally turned upside down. I was happy, then sad, then excited, then nervous, then happy again.
…about setting goals and getting after them. This started back in April when my boss at the time told me to figure out what I wanted to do and go get. Still getting it.
…Gronk-tastic. That’s self-explanatory. My super awesome NFL crush, Rob Gronkowski, had a phenomenal year with the Patriots and I loved every minute of it. I even capped it off with my very own Gronk jersey courtesy of Dad. 

…smothered in swag. This needs no further explanation. 

…one of the most memorable years I’ve ever had. No matter what I was doing, I made so many awesome memories.
…full of accomplishments. I received my Master’s degree, competed in new triathlon distances, conquered fears big and small.
…picturesque. I’ve got one picture for every day of 2012 – 365 shots to remind me of the year’s excellence.

…about reinventing. Everywhere I went I was meeting new people, doing new things and all about creating the ‘me’ I’ve worked for.
…not the end of the world. Sorry, Mayans, you were wrong and I couldn’t be more excited for the new adventures 2013 brings!

Sunday, December 30, 2012

2012 Pictures of the Year

As many of you know, this past year I decided to jump on the Project365 bandwagon and take a picture each day. Instead of posting all of these, I tried to choose one for each month and call them my pictures of the year. My favorite pictures aren't necessarily the more perfect aesthetically, but they do have some of the best memories attached to them. I am pretty bad at making decisions so you'll notice that some months actually have more than one picture. I guess that just means I had an extra great year, right?

January 

February

March

April

May


June

July


August

September

October

November


December

Saturday, December 29, 2012

#VancouvIgnorance


To say that I should have done this sooner would be an enormous understatement. You could also say that writing this 11 months after it actually happened means that I’m living in the past. At times, I am and I won’t deny it.

BUT, since it was one of my favorite memories of 2012, it most definitely deserves a recap. After all, I want to remember this when I’m old. I also promised Jackie that I would write this forever ago and I haven’t yet so this is definitely overdue.

This little jaunt to Vancouver was created as a supplement to our graduate education at good old Ithaca College and probably the best class I took for various reasons. We met cool people, went to fun places, learned valuable lessons, did once-in-lifetime things and did minimal school work. I think there were 12 of us total – mostly graduate students, but we allowed three super lucky, very privileged undergrads to join us and I know for a fact that they are still suffering from our corruption. Here are the grads ...


and the undergrads ...


As part of the education piece, we met with a lot of Olympic personnel, a few Vancouver Canucks Executives, the CEO of the Vancouver Whitecaps and a few others for informational interview sessions. It was super fun connecting with them and hearing stories about events I had watched on television. I am actually still in contact with a few of them which is super cool.

We went to a Vancouver Canucks game and it was such a different experience than watching NHL in the U.S. The fans were crazy attentive to the game and didn’t really take the loss to well. Being a Bruins fan I was obviously fine with it. Here are all the girls during the game:


While in BC, we also gave our best effort at a few Winter Olympic sports. When in Rome, right? First we learned curling which is much more difficult than it looks and a whole lot of fun! Here I am on my first, very shaky attempt at it:


Once we arrived at Whistler, we literally sped to the skeleton place. (At least the lead van did.) I did not partake in the actual skeletoning, but thoroughly enjoyed watching my peers go 50+ mph face-first down a sheet of ice with Liberty and Kyle.


The next day at Whistler we tried biathlon – a combination of cross country skiing and rifle shooting. It was the first time Daan and I shot guns so that in itself was super exciting! The cross country skiing left something to be desired though, I fell my share of times, as did Tony (look at him in this picture, he is covered in snow). Haha.


That pretty much summed up the scheduled portion of our trip. It snowed about four inches in Seattle and our flight home got delayed for over 36 hours. Here we are entertaining ourselves in SeaTac.



So, we booked a couple hotel rooms and made the best of it. The following day just so happened to be both Kyle and Tony’s birthday, so Sam and I went to the weirdest grocery store I think I have ever been in and threw the guys a nice little birthday celebration.


A few plane rides later we made it home, took the best showers of our lives and began our final semester of grad school ... 

Oh and you know those valuable lessons I mentioned? Well just to name a few: Always wear appropriate clothing when you are consuming adult beverages with college kids (that’s for you, nice couple we met at the airport). Don’t get in a car when your super-triathlete-Canadian-easily-distracted professor is behind the wheel. The correct way to ‘hohoho’ and when it’s best applicable … all day, every day.

This was legitimately one of my favorite memories of grad school and the most fun 10 days I’ve had to date. I made new friends, got so much closer with some others and got to explore some of the Northwest. This post doesn’t really do it justice, but thankfully Sam and I took a combined 800 pictures while we were there. Easily a top moment of 2012.


Happy now, Jackie?

Saturday, December 1, 2012

November 2012 Thankful List


At the beginning of November, I saw a lot of people posting their 'thankful lists' and jumped right on board. I'm so glad I did because I have such a great appreciation for everything in my life, even more so than I did before. 

1 – Father-daughter time. Today my dad had a meeting in Cambridge and met me for lunch. I don’t get alone time with him too often and we had so much fun, just talking and laughing.

2 – My BFF Sam. Today was her 24th birthday and even though we couldn’t celebrate together, putting together and sending out her gifts made me realize just how great of a friend she is.

 
3 – Student Workers. Without them, today’s seven-game home schedule would have been impossible. They have been great all year, but were super clutch today. I didn’t think I’d find great student workers at a Division I school, but their dedication to everything amazes me every day.

4 – The ability to run. Had a great six-mile run this morning and even though it was a crisp 28 degrees at the start, I enjoyed every minute of it. Running has become a big part of my life – I run when I’m happy, sad, stressed, whenever I really want and some people don’t have that ability.

5 – My physical strength. I joke all the time about my muscles and my manly build but I am forever grateful that I am healthy and strong enough to do things I sometimes think are impossible. Even when it’s moving an endless amount of tables and chairs.

6 – Warm clothes. We are going through quite the below-normal cold spell here in the Northeast and my longer-than-normal walk to the bus stop would have been much worse without them. Such a simple thing that I’ve taken for granted a lot. 

7 – My sister and her ability to text me at just the right time. Today I got a ‘good morning’ picture from her that absolutely started my day off on the right foot. I swear our brains are wired together sometimes. 

8 – Electricity. Today we had our second significant storm in about a week and there are so many people who are still without power from the first one. 

9 – Teamwork. The amount of teamwork that goes into making a basketball game go off successfully is outrageous. Without it, though, basketball games would be a disaster and tonight’s home opener went great.


10 – Co-workers. They not only make my job easier but also fun.

11 – The love my parents have for me. Dad missed an entire Sunday full of football to spend the day with Mom and I. We had a great day and I love that they are willing to take time off for me.

12 – Veterans. I can’t be more grateful for the people who risk their lives day in and day out to protect people they don’t know. 


13 – My iPhone. I know this sounds materialistic, but really, I don’t know what I’d do without this thing, especially living in the city. I use it for everything – work, the bus schedule, staying in touch with all my long-distance friends and so much more.

14 – My people skills. Without these, I wouldn’t be able to lead meetings, speak comfortably with my peers and supervisors or produce quality work at my job.

15 – My organizational skills. Without them, I would be even more stressed about the upcoming events this weekend, but I am confident that it will go smoothly.

16 – My growing Harvard family. I’m really enjoying my time at Harvard and the people I work with – from student-workers that come to say ‘hi’ during athletic events to Athletic Directors that hang around post-game to make sure I’m all set.

17 – Harvard Alumni. I met so many awesome people today that took the time to tell me stories of their past at Harvard while I escorted them to the Stadium.

18 – Being a part of one of the oldest rivalries in college football. I still can’t get over how cool yesterday’s game was and I am so grateful to have played a role in the successful event.



19 – Sleeping in. Day 1 of my seven-day vacation began sleeping in – something I never really got to appreciate until I wasn’t able to do it anymore.

20 – Sister time. No matter what we do, as long as we are together we have so much fun.


21 – My mother’s never-ending love. She accompanied me to the oral surgeon today just to keep me calm and entertained on the way to my appointment.

22 – Family photos. One of my favorite things that my family does every year and a great thing to look back on as the years pass.


23 – Family time. I’ve had so much of this the past week, and truly enjoyed spending the night Black Friday shopping and out to dinner with Mom and Shelley.

24 – Long-lasting friendships. Tried on bridesmaid dresses for the wedding of one of my best childhood friends today.

25 – Home-cooked food. There’s nothing like delicious food cooked by mom, especially around the holidays.

26 – My health. I can’t believe I waited this late in the month to mention that. I am pretty darn lucky that my biggest worry has been a root canal.

27 – My safe drive back to Boston. Barely any traffic and a super smooth ride back home to bang out a busy month at work before Christmas in Maine!

28 – The simplicity of Wednesday night basketball. A small crowd was welcomed the nightafter a quite stressful televised game. I got to actually enjoy the game and catch up with some of my coworkers.

29 – Thursday night phone calls with my grandparents. No matter if they are 10 minutes or an hour, my weekly chats with them are always seem to lighten my mood and remind me how lucky I am to have them.

30 – Old pictures and the power of laughter. I was super stressed this week and having an especially hard time today until Sam sent me pictures of us from last year. I temporarily escaped and did a whole lot of laughing, even if it was via text. 


Thursday, November 29, 2012

October post ... at nearly the end of November


Ugh. I broke my New Year’s Resolution. Damn it. I said I was going to blog once a month and I had been doing so well at it until the fall season hit. I have been so busy that putting off writing this post was much easier than actually sitting down and writing it. I could kick myself. Even worse, the first day of October, my roommate and I went apple picking and I took a ton of pictures so I could write all about the shenanigans. Great job, Andrea. (Even worse ... I'm just now posting this almost a month after writing it. Slacker.)

Enough of that, I guess I’m going to have to step it up as we head unwillingly into winter. First, with a condensed version of my October:

Apple picking with Jackie. So much fun! We picked 20 pounds in probably 20 minutes, then topped the day off with apple cider, caramel apples and apple salsa. Boom.


 
WTF is this Gangham Style crap? Jenessa so kindly introduced me to this when I was home visiting and since then, I see and hear it or about it everywhere. I don’t even know what the guy is saying in the song other than ‘sexy lady’ and ‘gangham style’ (and I don’t even know what that means) or what he is doing in the video. I will admit it has a good beat and the dance is entertaining but I still don’t get why everyone loves it so much. Our field hockey team even made a new warm up CD for their last game just to include this ode to sexy ladies.

Other than the fact that I go to bed by 9:30 p.m. , here’s a sign that I’m nearing real adulthood – I feel like Halloween didn’t even happen. Normally I would try and find the best costume possible or at least think about my options, but this year, I was more focused on making sure my athletic events ran smoothly. Other than the fact that I dominated pumpkin-carving with my sister mid-way through the month, the bus was crowded with people donning costumes on the 31st, the never-ending supply of candy at work and the few trick-or-treaters that came to my door, Halloween wasn’t really a big part of October’s end.


When I put it like this, I guess I celebrate Halloween. Go figure. 

Going off of the comment above, I also can’t believe fall has come and nearly gone. It’s like already Thanksgiving. Don’t get me wrong – I love Thanksgiving and everything about it, but already? I also haven’t had time to get an early start on Christmas shopping like usual so I think that’s contributing to the whole holidays-sneaking-up-on-me thing.

I’m currently at day eight of my 21-day no sugar cleanse. Why I thought this was a good idea, I do not know. I guess it was the growing bowl of Halloween candy at work that got me thinking about how I could totally not eat sugar if I didn’t want to. I already don’t eat much sugar in the form of candy (unless it’s Halloween because I love candy corn) so I decided to cut back on all things sugar – dried fruit, juice, you name it. 


Yesterday I found out that I won a drawing! I know this sounds foolish, but I never win anything and when I dropped my name into the bucket at this art store (I’m getting cultured!) in Shrewsbury I figured my inability to win things would take over. But it didn’t and I’m the proud owner of this awesome painting by Billy Jacobs. I was obsessed with it in the store so I’m pumped to hang this baby up!

I’m also hard at work at a ‘thankful list’ which will be posted on the last day of the month. I had heard about this before and a ton of my friends have been posting their individual lists on Facebook so I jumped right on the bandwagon. For those of you who haven’t heard, every day I’ll write something I’m thankful for that had meaning in my day. Eight days in and I think I could seriously write a new thing every day for an entire year.