Dreary Erie

So it has finally hit me that school is not all that I had thought it was going to be. Sure, I have been involved in everything I could possibly get my hands on, but the friend situation sucks. I got hanging around a group of girls that are not in any way like me, and they have not made my transition into school any easier. The past few days have been a desperate attempt to find a new group to latch on to and so far I have been pretty successful!

First semester will be over in four weeks and I am VERY excited! If this semester went by so fast, I hope the rest of college goes just as quickly. I just want to go and travel the world on my Semester at Sea trip.

I have been feeling rather festive lately, so I have been watching lots of Christmas movies every night and planning out how I am going to decorate my room. Tonight I went to the gym to work out and ended up running and biking 5 miles to the tunes of Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Bing Crosby. Great holiday psyc up tunes, huh? I cant wait for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas Break. Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year; I love the festive-ness of it- the decorations, the cookies, christmas shopping, music, ice skating, hot cocoa! Let the holidays begin!

Finally Time to Relax

Things have started to slow down now that I have gotten adjusted. I have taken up a work study position in the research office at school. There is rarely any work to be done, so I get most of my studying done at my 4 by 3 desk tucked in the corner of our office. I actually am at work now and so far today, I have read 100 pages of a book for my Honors class, wrote a journal entry for Prose Literature, and memorized two pages of notes for biology. Speaking of biology, I took my first exam yesterday. I studied hard all week for it and only got an 84. I guess I cant complain, as the class average for the test was an 81. I decided I should get a head start on studying for the next test, so I'm going to try to read my notes after each class so I wont have to overload.
Right now, I'm enrolled in a night class, Fundamentals of Speech, that runs from 6 PM until 9 PM on Tuesday nights (today is Tuesday.) I get nervous walking home from this class because it is a bit of a distance from my dorm and there have been a few incidents over the past week with people getting followed home. Also, our vacations start on Tuesday nights, so when I want to come home my parents would have to pick me up at 9 and I wouldnt get home until 1 in the morning! And there is a Dave Matthews concert on November 2nd (a Tuesday night) that I wouldn't mind attending, so I decided that after work today, I am going to march over to the registrars office and drop that class. I have a lot of room in my schedule to take it in a different semester, but right now with 19 credits, work, cheerleading, PT club, sport and exercise science club, SAAC, and Honors, it is hard to keep up! By the time 6 o'clock rolls around, I'm EXHAUSTED! Time to get back to work!

Welcome, Class of 2014

I can't believe I have already been at college for a little over two weeks! Gannon University has thus far proven to be an AMAZING place for education! I am part of the honors program, so I was graced with a handful of the university's top educators. My classes aren't too hard.. as long as I keep up with my reading everything stays on track. I also am part of the cheerleading squad. Our first game was last thursday and proved to be very exciting! The Knights won the battle and our football team left the field with a 26-20 victory over Lake Erie College. It was a memory I will never forget. Being dressed in maroon and gold and standing in front of hundreds of my classmates was a bit intimidating, but it was great to be a part of this scene!

College parties > Highschool parties. I have had my fair share of Saturday night adventures since I have been here and there is nothing like waking up on Sunday and recollecting the night before with a group of close friends. The giddiness is always exciting and it is fun to see who has the most interesting story. College boys are creepy and must be avoided at all costs. When they see a decent looking freshman girl, they swarm. It is best to ignore them and NEVER give them your phone number!

PEACHTREE CITY!!!

I can not wait until tomorrow! My mom, sister, and I are going to Georgia for the next four days for my cousin's first communion. It has been so long since I've been on vacation.. I'm really looking forward to spending some time in the great Southern sun! I wish we were going for longer though.. four days isn't nearly as long as what I would have wished for.. I get to miss tomorrow and Monday in school (also a great releif!) Honestly, with all of my scholarship awards ceremonies and concerts and fun happenings coming up within the next two months, it seems as if I won't have a full week of school until school ends! I am getting so sick of waking up at 6:30 every morning. This week I was so lazy that I wore sweatpants/sweatshirts/sports t-shirts EVERY day.. my new record. Generally, I like to dress up and look nice for school but my sleep pattern has been disturbed from sleeping until 11 during Spring Break, so it will take me a bit to get adjusted back to where I should be!

I got my college housing papers in the mail yesterday and immediately filled them all out. I am getting so excited to move out and get some freedom! I washed my college comforter and put all of my dorm-room decorations in a big bin in the attic.. I can't wait to decorate my room!

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A Rather Blustery Day

So long nice weather! The past few days have been beautiful, but when I woke up this morning, there was no sunshine warming my face. Hopefully it will clear up; what with prom and dance recitals and concerts coming up within the next few weeks. Theres not much on my agenda now that I finished all of my projects. There is a pile of homework on my desk, waiting to be done, but honestly, my case of Senioritis has reached Stage Four, and there is no cure for it now. Honestly, I have nothing to worry about. My classes are all easy, theres not much homework, and the ones that do have homework are all electives and I don't need them to graduate anyways. For instance, College-Level Calculus. Looking back at 11th grade Danielle, I scream because there was NO LOGIC REASON behind taking that class. I completed college level pre-calculus last year which fulfills my pre-calculus requirement for college next year. Why Calculus? The class and teacher have given me so much stress; its really the only class I have that I actually worry about. No point in worrying any longer though! I can't fail now. I calculated everything with my grades and final and everything and figured out that I only need to get like a 45 on the final to pass the course. Really, the only thing thats been kind of bothering me is preparation for the AP Calculus test. Our school has a funny little system set up where they combined the College-Level and AP class into one unit, so even if I completely bomb the AP, as long as I pass the course itself I'll still get college credit. Want to know how much I have been preparing for the AP? Well, for the last seven weeks of class, we have been reviewing old exams. Other students have been taking their time filling out the answers and searching for formulas. Me, on the other hand, doodle in the answer space and write poems about how much I hate calculus. Next week while my fellow classmates will be cramming for the test which is on May 5th, I will be laying in the sun down in Georgia without a care in the world. That test was made for people going Ivy, not students like me going to small, catholic colleges. Gannon doesn't care if I draw illustrations instead of answers on that AP test. Well, I'm about to go tanning to work on my base-coat for next week (I don't want to fry in Georgia.) Here are some pictures of the finished products of the past five days of labor.

Nino's, How May I Help You

Tonight was my first night working at the pizzeria. Unlike the gig at the nursing home, I actually kind of had fun. The job itself was pretty easy and most of the night I spent talking with the other workers. It is nice being able to wear normal clothes instead of scrubs and NO HAIRNET! That was a huge releif! The pay isn't too bad, minimum wage. Last summer working at an icecream shoppe, I only made $4.60 an hour, which was really tough. I work again tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday.

My mom told me today that we are going to Peachtree, Georgia next Thursday to visit our family. Since I didn't go anywhere this week, it will be nice to go south for a few days. We will stay at my cousins house and I will spend ALL day every day in the sun to work on my tan. OOPS I forgot to go tanning tonight... bummer.

Black and White Overload

Day 4: Spring Break
Again today I woke up at 11:30, way later than what I had expected, considering I have been getting almost twice as much sleep as usual. It was nice again today, so I spent the afternoon outside being crafty. I finished half of my black and white checkered pots, but my arms got sore so I had to put that to rest until tomorrow. While painting yesterday I came across an old beat-up desk in my garage, and I was inspired to paint that courtly check as well. That became my second project for today. I ripped up rags of black-and-white fabric to tie around the handles and then painted the front of the desk black, the rest of it white, and then sponged a checker board in black on the top. Going along with the theme, I found black and white paisley scrapbook paper and lined the drawers and bought a strand of black beads to hang from the edge. For a days worth of work and only $15 spent on the project, I'd say it looks like a million bucks. Project numero three: I found an old mirror that was looking pretty weak and I tore up an old Mackenzie Child tissue paper and decoupaged the border of the mirror (also courtly check.) I topped it off with a big maroon bow and voila, another great looking project. Young Danielle (or should I call her Dodo) used to love doing crafts, but as I have grown older, my time has been scarce so my creative juices were depleated in school each day. Now that I'm on break and have a little time to myself, I've been searching for craft ideas.

My family and I went to Olive Garden tonight and had a GREAT meal. I ordered the Five Cheese Ziti al Forno with a bowl of Zuppa Toscana. Both were delicious and made my belly smile. Typically I don't like franchise restaurants- local family-owned grub hubs are more my thing- but tonight Olive Garden hit the spot.

I figure since I haven't done anything except blog and craft since Saturday morning, I should probably do something a little more structured, so I'm going to start my new book The Choice by Nicholas Sparks.

Love to the moon and back!

Wolves and Thrift Stores

Spring Break: Day 3
I've been trying to keep myself occupied since there really is nothing to do this week! Danny, (my boyfriend with rather bad timing,) called me at 11 o'clock, but I was still sleeping. Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" ringtone was enough to set me off though, so I jumped a little bit and reluctantly opened my phone. We only chatted for a few minutes because Danny had somewhere to be, but that was okay because I had a list of errands to run this afternoon.

I finally stripped out of my sweatpants and threw on an old pair of jeans and a Captain Hiram's t-shirt, grabbed my keys, and was on my way. My first stop was the post office. On the way there, I drove past a man on the side of the street selling hot dogs. They smelled SO good, but I didn't feel like stopping. The man looked at me in my aviators and saw my Swagger Wagon and laughed. I figured the line at the post office would be shorter at noon during the week. Wrong. I waited for half an hour just to send out two scholarship applications and a survey from Gannon.

Auburn Community Federal Credit Union was stop number two. To get there, I had to once again drive past Mr. Hot Dog Man. They smelled better the second time past.An old check from the nursing home needed to be cashed so I brought it in. Almost worthless because it was only a twenty five dollar check, but at least I can buy a new shirt or goldfish or something with it. Also, I needed to ask about my debit card since it wasn't working. The girl behind the counter was rather rude about it and told me that it wasn't a debit card but an ATM card. How was I supposed to know this? My mom's debit card looks exactly like my ATM card.. how confusing.

I left the bank and then went to the Printery (a local clothing-printing company) to get a hoody embroidered. Again, I drove past the hot dog stand and the man looked at me and chuckled. I think he had seen me drive past each time. For Christmas, my grandparents bought me a plain maroon zip-up hoody and I haven't ever worn it, but now that I decided that I am going to Gannon and their colors are maroon and gold, I wanted to have a sweatshirt made up. Contrary to the girls at the bank, the ladies working at the Printery were very nice and accomodating. They say my shirt will be done in two weeks and it only cost $15, which is a great deal considering a hoody from the college itself would cost over $50. I passed Mr. Hot Dog again on my way home.

My mom was in the driveway when I got there. She was just kind of standing there looking around. I'm not sure what she was doing. Before I got out of my car, I saw a huge black wolf wandering through my backyard. That was really weird because wolve's aren't common in our part of the state. We watched him for awhile and then took off to Walmart to buy flower pots for my graduation party. I made her stop at the hot dog stand and we each got a weiner. Yum. At Wally-world, I got some paint to paint them like a checkerboard to look like the Mackenzie Child Courtly Check design. We stopped at the thrift store on the way home to see if there were any antique-looking dishes to put candies in for my party. There weren't really any, but I did find a teacup that reminded me of Beauty and The Beast, so I had to buy it. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

The rest of my afternoon is going to be devoted to painting my flower pots and maybe getting some homework done. I also want to start my book, "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks. I've tried reading it before but I haven't been able to get through much of it.

Until Later!- DeR

Well since my computer is acting rather silly tonight I must sign out with my cell phone. Here's to a happy tomorrow and sweet dreams!

FREE PIZZA!

I think the man from Nino's Pizzaria must have ESP because as soon as I submitted my last post, my phone rang and it was him! He wanted to tell me that I got the job and that I would start training on Wednesday. I will continue to train on Thursday and Friday, so I now have a motive for my break! I am pretty stoked that I got this job. As I was saying before, working as a dietary in the local nursing home just wasn't my thing. I had to work almost every day of the week. The work I was doing was far more extensive than what they were paying me for (imagine scraping pureed ziti off of 97 dishes.) Yuck. The residents of the nursing home were very sweet. I got to know a few of them and looked forward to chatting with them each night. It's a shame that I'm not allowed on the premises of the home anymore (nursing home rule that no ex-employees are allowed to return) because some of my old pals have no one else to visit them. I could see myself going up to ANH to sit with them some days after school. This new job should be easy though. All I'll have to do is answer phones and take people's orders. I still have dance for another 6 weeks though and I am scared that work is going to interfere with my rehersal schedule. I have already missed so much dance because of cheerleading and volleyball practices; I can't afford to miss much more or else I will be lost during my recital in May! Hopefully my boss is understanding and allows me to take a couple days off.

Hello This is Nino's

So today ended up clearing up, but I actually did not end up taking my dog for a walk. Instead, I decided to go to the grocery store with Grandma to help her get some chow for the week. Since it is a Sunday, I decided to not get too dressed up, do my hair, or even put on a little makeup. That bit me in the butt though because while looking at stool softeners for Grandma, I got a phone call from the local pizza place that I applied to a week or so ago. They wanted me to go in for an interview at 4:30, so I said alright and continued shopping. When I looked at my phone and saw that it was already 4, I had to rush to get home. I quick ran my flat iron through my hair and rubbed on a bit of eyeliner. It took me all of fifteen minutes to get dolled up to meet my potential boss. I jumped in my purple Honda (the "swagger wagon,") and rolled off to Nino's. The restaurant is right around the street from my house so it didn't take too long to get there. I got inside and the person to interview me was actually not my boss, but a girl my age that works as a cashier. The interview took less than a minute and only asked me silly questions like if I play sports or can I drive. Hopefully I can get this job, since my last job at the nursing home stunk and I had to quit because the people working there were not exactly the sweetest bunch on the vine. I really need some money for concerts this summer and cash for college next year. Adios, amigos.

The Evil Not-Step Sisters

Day 2: Spring Break

My sisters (both of them aged 24+) woke me up because they were screaming at eachother about boyfriend issues and how much they hate eachother. Needless to say, I wasn' t too happy to wake up with a headache. I should have known though. This happens EVERY weekend. Both of them have graduated from college. Both of them have careers. Why can't they move out and find their own house so I can finally get a good night of sleep?

I had the strangest, coolest dream last night. A bunch of my friends went on a cruise and then we stopped at a port. There, we found a mall that was eighty stories high and had thousands of stores in it. Upon wandering through the mall, we found out that instead of stores, each room held a different party. We spent all day and night crashing these parties until we finally had to make it back to our ship. How cool would it be, to have a thousand parties going on under one roof?

There are no plans for me for today. A typical Sunday, another cold, wet day. Maybe if the weather clears up I can bring my dog outside for a walk? It would be nice if we could enjoy the spring time before it starts snowing again for winter!

Between the Toes

I can already feel the waves of laziness radiating through my body. What a waste today was. I have been in sweatpants since Thursday night and have not left my house except for school yesterday and a pedicure this morning.

My first pedicure actually turned out to be fantastic! If you haven't ever gotten one, make an appointment ASAP! My mom and sister wanted to go together, so it was a good girls-morning-out activity to take our minds off the awful weather. At first I was scared to go because I didn't want the people to scrape the dead skin off my feet with a razor, and then I was embarrassed because my toes have been so badly calloused from years and years of dance, volleyball, cheerleading, and various other forms of wear-and-tear. When I got to the salon, they had a chair all set up and ready for me to soak my feet. The back of the chair had a massager which felt great, and then the pedicurist massaged my feet and cut my toenails and made them feel nice and smooth. When she drained the foot bath and began to actually paint my toes, I admit I was pretty disappointed that the massage was over. I will definately need to go and get one done more often. All-in-all, it was probably the best $25 I ever spent!

My friend Patricia came over tonight to keep me company.. We mostly talked about college plans, boys, and how much our highschool has gotten out of control. It is so exciting to know that in four months, I will be off to Gannon University! I can't wait to make new friends and start classes. Gannon is four hours from my home, so of course I will miss my family and friends, but it will be nice to be out on my own for awhile! My boyfriend goes to school near Gannon so I know I will never get too lonely. I got a letter in the mail today from the college telling me that they had received my deposit and that I would soon be getting housing and orientation information! It seems like the past twelve years of school have gone by so fast... it's almost unreal that before I know it, I will be graduating from high school, leaving all my friends, and starting a brand new life in a town I am completely unfamiliar with! It's true.. I am scared to start Physical Therapy school and be alone, but I know the next six years of college will fly by.

Danielle has had a long, boring day, and she thinks it is time for bed.

Love to the moon and back.

Pizza Hut and Dog Urine

wow pizza hut pizza is really delicious and my dog just peed on my carpet... can this day really get any worse?

A great start to spring break

Why am I stuck in in Auburn right now? It's my senior year and Spring Break started yesterday! Typically I would have been on vacation in Vero Beach, Florida right now, but my Grandma and Papa have been rather ill, so we decided it would be better to stay home this year and take care of them. Shucks. I love them dearly, though. It's definately more important to be with them and make them comfortable instead of wallowing in my own satisfactions. Is it wrong of me to feel a tinge of jealousy, though, that while most of my friends are on sandy beaches bronzing their skin, I am stuck in Auburn, New York? Today the weather is awful. It's not like I can even pretend I'm on vacation. It's about fourty degrees and so grey outside that anyone would swear we were in the middle of December. My mother took me to get a pedicure this morning and on our way out to the car it started hailing! Balls of ice were stricking my freshly-polished toes and the realization set in that I wouldn't even be able to wear flip-flops for a long time. As soon as I got home, I found a warm pair of socks and slipped them over my pink toenails. Welcome, Spring Break 2010.