Happy New Year

How was everyone's Christmas? Mine was pretty good. You know you're old and married when the highlight of your gifts was a set of pots and pans lol. I've been enjoying my winter break by catching up and becoming obsessed with Glee.
What is everyone up to for the New Year? Mike and I are leaving here in a bit to visit my sister in Ohio. It's Brenna's 3rd Bday this weekend and I get to see the new baby!
Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! Miss you girls and our pig out grab bag gift night!!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas girls! Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday - any plans for New Years??

Thanks Mich! I had quite the weekend.... started out on Friday going out for sushi with Meghan, then we met one of my friends from work at the GPB. They sang my dirty birthday song to me again... but it was basically the same lyrics as last year so I think they need to work on some new material for my 24th bday!

Then Sat we had my company Christmas party. Started at 1pm with a downtown scavenger hunt... so much fun! Then we went to my bosses house for dinner and drinks. Also lots of fun! My goal was not to get too drunk and embarrass myself in front of my co-workers, and thanks to all the drinking I did the night before that was not a problem at all!

Sunday=Sleep!

Monday, my actual bday, Meg and I went rock climbing! We learned all about knots and shoes and safety gear. Meg def kicked my butt, but I think I was most improved :)

Miss all you girls!!!!

You guys are getting so OLD!

Happy Birthday, Amy! Tell us all about your celebrations!!!!

Breaking into the film world!

Hey Ladies.

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted on here. My work schedule got completely crazy. The show that I stage manage opens next week and on top of that holidays are beyond crazy for retail and I work in a mall. Luckily my store is completely overpriced, so it keeps down on the crazy bargain holiday shoppers. You will find no bargains at Restoration Hardware.

I found out today that I got another job. I'm going to be working on this documentary. It is actual a legit movie, that has high hopes of entering theaters. YEAH!! I don't get paid that much, but that on top of my salary from my retail job, should really help me out financially. It also will be a really great credit for my resume, which at this point could use some padding. AND the editor really seems like she wants to mentor me in the future, so this job could lead to future career possibilities.

I'm off to a meeting with a writer/director for a possible producer job. Wish me luck!!

Love you girls, and B, get ready for our phone date in a couple of hours.

Congrats Meg on your new place. Can't wait to see photos and I really hope Aspen calms down for you!!

xoxo,
Sarah

It's a Girl!!

My sister just had her baby girl! Annabel Jean Gehler : ) She has dark hair and is very tiny, but doing great.

New baby on the way! And no, not mine...

My sister Maggie is being induced tonight to have her baby! I'll keep you updated and hope all goes well.
I officially got the sub position to cover the maternity leave at school which I am very happy about.
Other than that, nothing too exciting here. Mike and I are finally going out for my bday this weekend. Dinner and the 3D Christmas Carol movie. I refused to see it before Thanksgiving.
I decided to knit scarves for some ppl for Xmas, which has been interesting lol. My friends and I eat lots of food, gossip, and crochet. We are such old ladies : ) Saves some money though.
Miss you guys and hope everyone is well!
Good luck with grad school apps, Meg!

Aspen

Hello girls! So Aspen and I have officially made it to the new place... though Aspen isn't adjusting very well =( She's busted out of her kennel twice and has gone all "when sharks attack" on some of my unpacked boxes... needless to say I'm not very happy. My mom came over last night with some stinky smelly dog chewy toys so hopefully that will keep her occupied long enough until she gets used to the new place!

In other news I officially submitted my first grad school app last night! I was cutting it a wee bit close... I had all the documents finally in about 1130pm and the deadline was midnight lol. Though I wasn't the only one! My last professor that was supposed to submit a recommendation got hers in about 11pm!

Hope you are all doing well! 24 days until Christmas!

Stuffed!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I ate way too much (as always!), but got to spend a lot of time with my family and friends. Although I realized this weekend that you have to be very forgiving of cousins and grandmas who just cannot seem to keep up... I think I was asked three times how I was liking my sophomore year of college!

Also got just about all of my Christmas shopping done! The mall we were shopping at in the Twin Cities had a table set up by Santa where they were giving away free chocolate chip cookies... I managed to "inadvertantly" walk past it at least half a dozen times!

Seems like everyone else is doing well! Crazy to think that it has been almost 7 months since graduation! Half of us have already celebrated another birthday since then... we are just growing up too fast (well not Meghan, she will always be the baby ;) )!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow with your families and happy full bellies : )
Sarah, hope your early Tgiving went well!
Love to all!

so soo long!

Ladies!!! Thanks for the birthday texts and calls..they really meant a lot to me :) My birthday was tons of fun I saw The Blind Side and New Moon, got my nails done with Char and went out with friends - pretty much a great day! lol Nothing is crazy new here just working and trying to have fun lol thats really what its all about.

I just finished making the stuffing for Thanksgiving - which I am sooo excited about! Meg and Amy I think about you every day I walk into work because we have been listening to Christmas music for about 3 weeks now - grr hahah.

Miss you all tons and tons and tons :) Have a great Thanksgiving!
Love you

Hi girls! And happy birthday Maggie! What are your plans to celebrate???

Absolutely nothing new here... work is going well. I had to give a presentation for career day at Johnston High School yesterday morning. Had to do the same 30 min presentation 3 times... I like to talk but man that was a lot of talking! And I don't know how high school teachers do it, those kids are impossible to entertain! Although I did get a few questions that I luckily enough knew the answers to!

I am planning on heading home on Wednesday after work for Thanksgiving, which I am really excited about. I was talking to a friend of mine who still lives in New Ulm and he said that my parents already have our Christmas lights on, the only one on the block to have them up before Thanksgivin. I have never been more proud of my parents :)

Happy Bday to Maggie in 4 hours!!!

Hello girls,
   My life is still pretty boring, so even though I noticed you all haven't been posting, I didn't really feel like updating lol Anyways, I have been waitressing a lot lately, though I finally just had a day off - I think I worked over 70 hours in a week, which is a lot on my feet in terrible black gym shoes lol But more importantly, I had a job interview with Oprah.com yesterday for an editorial itern position - keep your fingers crossed for me! I know, funny because she announced the end of her show today, but I can only intern until May anyways, so no problem there. Other than that, nothing too much, I still can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving, time has been flying lately, but I'm hoping something exciting happens soon - hope your lives are lovely :)

Mich

Hey!

Hola!

So apt update: I get my keys on monday! =) Hopefully I'll be making an IKEA trip (sorry chicago girls, the mn one is closer!)

Maggie- happy early birthday!

I hope everyone is doing well! How many are going to New Moon this weekend?? lol

Anyone out there?

Hey girls! So, we've been slacking on the blog. How is everyone??!!
My bday was pretty fun. BTW, thank you all for all the bday wishes! I wish you guys could have been there : ( Went to a lame piano bar (probably cuz you guys weren't all there to sing it out ; ) ), but ended up at this fun bar with dancing. Highlight of my night was Amanda throwing up on the side of the busiest road of our town lol.
Work is going pretty well. I was just offered a long term sub position for the end of the year when one of our teachers goes on maternity leave. That means more pay, which is obviously good. It's not set in stone yet, so we'll have to see.
My sister is a few short weeks away from having her baby. Mike and I will most likely go out there over New Year's to visit.
Amy, hope the job is going well!
Meg, hope the new apt is working out!
Sarah, let's stop playing phone tag!!
Mich, one of these days our schedules will mesh.
Mags, IT'S YOUR BDAY IN 3 DAYS!!!!
Just think girls, one year ago we were at the midnight showing of Twilight and I was puking my brains out lol.
Miss you and love you all!

Piano bar anyone?

Hey girls!
Hope everyone's Halloween was fun! We had a bunch of ppl over and then went to see a band at a bar. We even won second place in the costume contest! We won a whooping $100 between the 7 of us lol.
Meg, your apt looks awesome!
This week I have been helping a local jr high pom team by doing some dance workshops. I was walking in today and the girls didn't notice me and I overheard them bitching about me. I confronted them as a team at practice and then they kissed my ass after that lol. In an ideal world, if I were to get a job as a teacher in this school next year the coach said she would give the team to me : ) But like I said, that would be in a perfect world.
For my bday tomorrow both sets of parents are coming over for dinner but they are cooking. On Friday a bunch of us are going to a piano bar to celebrate. I sooooo wish you all could join : ( Piano bars just aren't the same without you : (
Miss you and love you all!

Moving!

Hello hello! I hope everyone's doing well! I think most of you know this already but I'm officially moving to a new place! It's in the East Village (so just by the Capitol) above Projects Contemporary Furniture store. It's absolutely beautiful!! I figured if I'm going to be in Des Moines until May anyway waiting for acceptance letters I might as well live somewhere cool! =) Here's a picture of part of the kitchen and some of the living room. Will post more pics once I actually move in!

November, already? Seriously?

Holy Cow - is it me or are you guys surprised it's November already too? I know I haven't been posting lately, I'm finally catching up with computer stuff today since I have to keep myself busy until work at 5. Eww, totally the worst thing about waitressing is working Sunday nights, which I always am - and next week I have a double at 10am and 5 pm, gross, real job... please find me!

Which brings me to my fingers crossed news - Harpo studios called last week (Harpo = Oprah!) and my God that would be perfect. They called about an editorial intern position, which is only $10/hour but its for Oprah.com in Chicago, so basically I'd do it for $2/hour lol. She talked to me for about ten minutes and told me to send a few things their way and that its the beginning of the process for this position so not to be discouraged if its a week or two before I hear anything, so that would be wonderful. I would actually be doing something related to my degree and I don't have to move and Oprah probably isn't going bankrupt or anything soon... so that's where I am in my job search right now. It was pretty nice because I didn't even apply for this position, but they kept me on file from a previous app, so that's a good sign too!

As for my current job, I don't hate it but I don't love it. I work pretty much 5-6 shifts a week and make about $40/lunch, $90ish at dinners, which would be ok except my shifts are anywhere from 3-8 hours which sucks because they don't post "closers" but just decide when we're there which means I can go in for a dinner shift at 4:30pm and end up there until 1:30am... without a break, food or the ability to sit down, except for the many times I take pee breaks of course lol.

The rest of my life is pretty boring filled with little bursts of baking and drinking I guess lol I went to a wedding last week and was told I had sexy calves lol and spent Halloween dressed as a bottle of ketchup with Bridge & Mags last night, so that was a nice add on to my usual work and sleep schedule.

Feel free to read my stuff at Cake Journal or nillarose and keep your fingers crossed that Oprah (or someone that works for her :) calls soon!

Hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed your extra hour of sleep!!!

Happy Halloween!

Meg and Amy, your costume sounds cute!
Where is everyone partying at this year?
Well I know where Mags and Mich are going lol. A bunch of ppl are coming over to our place then we going to a bar to see a cover band. I must say, I'm going to miss Halloween Hop this year, just not the part when I get obliterated and making a fool of myself : )
Today was my school Halloween party. It was lots of fun and the kids were super cute. We always do a parade around the school which is fun. My turtle costume was a hit : )
Other than that, Mike and I are paint the kitchen...for the 3rd time! We have bad luck with paint colors I guess : / I think we got it this time though. First it was baby room yellow, then it was school bus yellow, but now it's a nioce sage green.
I keep forgetting my bday is this week lol. I can't believe we're getting to be such old balls (well, except for you Meg : ) ) I dunno what I'm going to do to celebrate yet. Nothing spectacular.
Wish we could celebrate all these fun things together : ( Miss you girls like craaaaazy!

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

It's Almost Here!

Okay ladies.... this is it... Halloween weekend! Has everyone figured out plans?? It's weird to think that we won't all be together this year for our annual costume photo shoot =( Have the costumes been nailed down yet? I'm recycling Amy's Peter Pan costume from sophomore year and making the large leap to Robin Hood lol - but I'm in desperate need of a bow & arrow set! Amy is also recycling a costume - her oh so cute Red Riding Hood is now the German beer girl! Complete with beer stein!

Hope you all are doing well and I expect a LOT of photos from this weekend on fb!

Halloween

Soooo...what is everyone going as for Halloween? I know Bridget said she is going as a Ninja Turtle, which begs the question are you going to be Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, or Leonardo? Personally, I liked the Kate Gosslin wig idea and the Twitter Fail Whale option...but I'm still undecided.

Other than that there is not much else to report here. I am going home this weekend to raid our costume stash and hopefully put something together, and we are also celebrating both my parents birthdays this weekend since my dad's was last week and my mom's was this week. So hopefully my sister's remembered to pick up a gift for both of them, and then I can just sign my name to the card.

I have actually seen two movies in the last week, Law Abiding Citizen and Where the Wild Things Are. Both were really very good! Another exciting event in my life, I am going to Palmer's Deli tonight for supper with Meghan and I have never been there before! Big day!

Hope all is well with everyone! :)

Oh the dramz

Hey girls!
Meg, hope you are having a wonderful time in NY!
Sarah, I soooooo wish we could be there this past week to help celebrate!
As for me, life isn't all that exciting. Some dramz with Scott and stupid Amanda. They got in yet another big fight infront of us last week and now she is too embrassed to hang out with us. We saw them at church and Scott apparantly dragged her over to see us and she acted like a complete BITCH. So I told Scott this the next day and said she was being immature. He said she's afraid we think of her like we thought of Amanda. I was like well... So now we basically won't see Scott till she gets over this. And then she has the balls to invite us to her bday party (which of course is going by limo downtown to a club for the "great" deal of $35 all you can drink) and when Mike was making plans to go see this band on the same night she commented and said that we can't go cuz we're going to her bday. I was like um no hunny.
Sorry had to vent lol. The job is going well. 2 ppl are preggerz so Mike says I can't drink the water lol.
Hope everyone is doing well! Love you and miss you all!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 23rd birthday Sarah!

Hey girls! I haven't written in awhile because nothing has really been going on. haha Lane Bryant is alright we were the #1 store in the country so that was pretty impressive and now people from our corporate offices are coming to visit tomorrow. So we have been working tons of hours to make sure the store looks perfect :( NOT fun! We had our first hockey game on Saturday - we lost...big time! I guess we know what we need to work on now though. Thats really about it though :(

Miss you all!

Weather

It is really strange to hear about the cold weather. It has just gotten less hot here in the last couple of weeks. It usually gets to about 70-75 during the day and 50's at night. I was actually really happy to hear that it is supposed to rain this week. I know, I know its weird to wish for rain, but I can only take so much sun. In order to experience the fall, I have to drive down certain streets in LA. For some reason some streets have trees that change in the "fall" here, which makes me so happy.

I had my birthday party on Friday. It was really fun, but it was weird not to have you girls here. Thanks for all the texts from you guys that night. They made me smile.

Wish me luck with the rain (apparently LA gets even crazier when it rains, because people, specifically drivers, don't know how to drive in the rain.... CRAZY CALIFORNIANS!!)

Brrrrrr.....

Hi girls!
It is cold here! The window in my bedroom had a crack in it so I called my landlord to have it replaced and our repair man must be a genius because I came home yesterday to find that he had taken the cracked window out, but did not replace it with a new one. I guess he thought it was acceptable to start working on the job before the new window even came in. So there is just the storm window between me and the cold...brrrrr!!!!!

And to all our Chicago readers....sorry we didn't get a chance to meet up while I was in town earlier this week! Our schedule was pretty crazy and I think I was in bed every night by 9:30! But as I said on Twitter, the shopping was fantastic!

Halloween costumes.....hmmmm....you could always wear your Pippy Longstocking costume to school and then invest in a new one to wear out! I'm kinda stuck on what to wear this year too, I might have to go as someone who is going to climb Mt. Everest if it stays this cold!!!

And congrats to Michelle and Sarah on the jobs!!!

Suggestions Needed

Any good ideas on what i should be for Halloween? It needs to be school appropriate and a bonus if it makes a decent couple costume so I can wear it with Mike when we go to UofI to celebrate : )

yes.... snow

Can you believe it? Snow in the forecast already! It was just for saturday night and now it's for saturday AND sunday. Not a whole lot else going on... it's been pretty crappy gloomy weather for the past like two weeks. Except for yesterday! It was the most perfect fall weather you could ask for! Grad school applications are in process... still studying for the GRE - I hope to take it around the first week of November. B, I know how you're feeling about the stupid fees. $150 for the GRE and around $100 bucks for each application - it has me really reconsidering how many schools I'll be applying to lol =)

Hope everyone's week is going well! Tomorrow is Friday!

Boo Drake

Mich, sorry you are crabby with the job : ( At least you have the opportunity to meet new ppl and its a potentially fun nonsense job.
So I really hate Drake and never getting the right answers. I am STILL trying to figure out how to get my Illinois teaching certificate. I just found out I have to take ANOTHER stupid test. Even when I talked to someone a while back in IL about it, they said my Iowa test would count for it. Well, of course no one knows the right answer and I am still flushing away money on tests. I am seriously thinking about emailing ed profs at Drake and telling them the right facts so all those girls in the ed program from IL won't have to go through this crap. Ugh. Sorry, had to vent : )
Meg, I saw your status...SNOW??!! Ew! I always remember that time class got cancelled soph year and we ordered in Planet Sub at your dorm lol.
Sarah, as of this moment I am watching your brother get a massage on TV. Weird lol.
Well, I'm off to make dinner for both sets of rents. Love you all!

job update

So yesterday I began training as a server at Westwood Tavern & Tap, it's brand new and actually a pretty cool restaurant, but, I don't really want to be doing this and I dislike the fact that I have no prior skills because the other trainees have years of experience, and I don't like thinking that I'm spending so much time learning this and what if I suck at it or what if (hopefully) I get a real job soon and then wasted time training... but it will be nice to have food expereince so when I'm rich and open my bakery or chocolate lounge I've got somewhere to start :)
I also am interviewing tomorrow morning to be a fitness instructor at Village in the Park Apartments, which I'm hoping to get, but it's hard because I have the experience instructing from Drake, but I don't have any training certificates so I can't get an instructor position at Lifetime or Bally's or something, but hopefully this Apartment instructing job will work out, that would be great.

Right now I'm just focussed on training for this job and slightly crabby because I want a normal job with normal hours because my friends work during the day and I dont want to work every night, including until 3am on Friday/Saturday and then holidays too... holidays are my favorite and I'll be super sad if/when I have to wait tables instead of being with my family. But for now, I"ll just wait and see - it's werid to have no idea what's going on in life, very un-michelle! 

JOB!!!!! WOOHOOO!

Quick post before I fall asleep. I just have to tell you girls because I'm truly excited. I got a job...finally. I'm working at Restoration Hardware. It was quite the interview process. The second interview I went on, the manager started it off by telling me there was a good chance I wasn't going to get hired because she has only like one another person enough to hire them in the 8 months she has worked at the store. SOO of course when I got the job, I felt pretty good about myself. I start in a week, which means in a couple of weeks I can start to pay my own bills, which as you know will be the best feeling in the world. It really seems like a great job for me right now. Of course I just need to start making money, but this job allows me the time to continue to take these assistant editing jobs that I have been doing. For now this seems like all I need to get my life moving in the right direction. Love and miss you girls. Wish you could all be here to celebrate my birthday, but I will be thinking about you at my party and of course dancing to what I consider to be "our jams"!!

Is it a boy or girl?

Hey girls! Hope everyone's week is going well!
Meg, how's the grad school applications going?
Sarah, I loved the dog posters your bro got on his show lol. His show makes me happy : )
Amy, glad DMB was fun and keep us updated on your Chicago trip!
I'm sort of lame lately. Nothing exciting happening. Had a good weekend though. Got to hang out with Marge and had some good laughs : ) Had a girls night out dancing with Mich and got picked up by a black guy....literally. He was salsa dancing with me and picked me up Dirty Dancing style.
Work is still going well. Funny story today...there's a 6th grade girl who has a big nose and bushy eyebrows and is Indian so her name is Nereet so at first glance it's hard to tell is she's a girl or boy. Once you talk to her and see her boobs and pink hoodie you can tell she's a girl. Today in her class they had a sub and the sub kept refering to her as "he" and "son." I felt so bad for her, although she did have a really good sense of humor about it. She asked me if she should tell the sub that she was actually a girl, but I said since it was the end of the day that I would just let it go and maybe tell her next time she was in the class.
Miss you girls! <3

Hey everyone! So last night I experienced my first Dave Matthews Band concert...wow. I'm pretty sure I got kinda high from all the second hand smoke! It was an awesome show though! I actually ran into Cal Davis while I was in line for the bathroom. It was so pathetic, he was talking to me while I was in line, then he left to go to the bathroom and get a beer and he came back and I was still in line. I hate being a girl sometimes....

Tonight I am baby-sitting for a family through Nanny2Shoes. They must be getting busy again because I've gotten a lot of emails from them in the last couple of weeks asking for nannies. It will be nice to have the extra cash! Meghan and I are road tripping it out to Omaha tomorrow to do some shopping. I've got a wedding next weekend in MN so of course I need a new dress!

Hope all is well with everyone =)

Busy busy...

Hey girls!
So nothing too exciting lately, but I am really enjoying my job. I'm super busy getting remedial reading groups together, but it feels good to be able to put my reading endorsement to use. The nice thing is that not all the assistants get to teach this specific curriculum due to the fact it involves training and is an intense program, but they are letting me teach it without the training since I have my reading endorsement. I love my co-workers and our principals catered a taco bar the other day b/c we did a good job during a lockdown...which leads me to my next story..
A convict being transported to court or jail or whatever somehow handcuffed the 2 policemen in the car, handcuffed them, and stole their clothes and escaped right near our area. Due to this my school went on a lockdown (they just couldnt go out for recess). The guy stole a car and robbed a bank the next morning right in the Schaumburg area. The parents were all freaked out Friday and we were on lockdown again. He was caught finally later on Friday. Turns out he went to an elementary school in our district and went to school with my sisters. Freaky.
Hope all is well with everyone else! Love to all <3

Finally Starting...

So today I officially started my first grad school application... It's for the Art & Museum Studies program at Georgetown (my first choice!) It's very surreal, doing something that I hadn't really planned on doing. While filling it out, it greatly reminds me of the monotonous work of filling out the FAFSA =P I thought it would be a little bit more exciting lol. As I go through the questions I try to remember filling out the apps for undergrad, something I've apparently blocked from memory... I can recall very few details about that process, all except for using my dad's old school laptop from law school in the basement office trying to get them all filled out.

Not too much else exciting happening here, lots of classes and homework. Had a wedding this weekend that was pretty fantastic, but the obvious outcome of being WAY behind on schoolwork really sucks. Hope you all are doing well and hopefully we'll see each other soon!

Making an ass of myself...whats new!

Hey girlies! So yesterday my bro had his first varsity hockey game and it was pretty exciting. They made one of the goalies on the team wear a cardboard sign to school yesterday advertising the game so the student section of the stands was packed! They got a little intense too... I mean I remember going to the varsity games when I was in high school and they were a bit rowdy, but this was a whole new level! lol they of course would count down in each period until 4:20 was left on the clock to celebrate weed...welcome to Barrington! haha all the moms were like I dont get what they are counting down until so I had to explain that one...oh boy and then besides the "goalie goalie goalie, you suck dick" chants they were also telling kids they have "manginas" I refused to explain that one to the moms lol

So Char's freshman and sophomore roommate Annie is in town visiting so they came to the game too and then we went back to Char and Steve's to have a bonfire - we have been doing that a lot lately. Then Steve came back from the game and his friend Paul who lives in Cali, but is back in the midwest reffing for 6 months. Paul is nice - he knows how to charm you...he has slept with over a hundred and fifty girls - oh and hes married...His wife is still back in Cali working and he is trying to be an actor so since he isnt working he decided to come back and ref in the area. Within the first 5 mins of meeting him we were talking about how he must be missing his wife (they got married less than a year ago) and he said "ahh fuck that bitch" hmmm totally wish I was married to him! NOT!

Ya I had wayy to much to drink last night and feel kinda crappy today. I had to spend the night @ Char's because I couldnt drive home so I had my option of either sleeping with Annie or Paul...I chose Annie! hahaha Miss you girls mucho and hope you got a laugh out of this!

Hi Girls! How is everyone's week going? Mine is going sllllllooooowwwwwllllllyyyy. I feel like yesterday should have been Friday! This is probably because I don't really have anything going on this week. I know I should be learning to enjoy weeks when I have nothing to do, but I think the fact that I have time to sit around and contemplate my life is more stressful than having a laundry list of activities planned.

However, today I am super excited because I am finally getting cable at my apartment! I thouht I could be mature and save money by just going with the most basic package...and I was....for awhile. But now that summer is over and big time shows like The Real Housewives, Keeping up with the Kardashians and the Real World are back on the air, I have decided to live frivolously and go with the expanded cable package :) Plus...have you heard there is going to be a new season of the Girls Next Door with Hef's new girlfriends?!?! Yuck! I'll probably watch it though....

Hope you all enjoyed this post!

Puppy Fever and Crazy Week

Sorry I haven't been posting or commenting. For some reason my internet went out last week and then just decided to work again yesterday. Who knows. Its way beyond my tech skills to figure out why stuff like that happens. My week is incredible crazy. My show, that I stage manage, opens tomorrow and runs till sunday. So basically I'm in rehearsal until the wee hours of the morning and then on top of that I'm pug sitting for my brother. He and his wife took a little trip to Ireland for 10 days (which of course falls during the week that their reality show focuses on their sex life AWKWARD) and I said I would take care of their dogs. It worked out well, because I have been completely dog crazy the last couple of weeks. I really want to get a dog, but I just can't afford it right now. I think it goes along with me living by myself and having more time then I would like to just sit around and think about my life. I want a little friend to love me, haha. It's been really nice to have the company, although the pugs are a little bit weird and overly excitable.

I have to admit I'm kind of a puppy snob. I blame my mom, because we grew up with only buying breeder puppies, instead of getting our dogs from pet stores etc. This is all well and good, when you're a child and your parents are buying the pets, and all you care about is the moment they bring them home, but terrible for an out of work 20 something, who just wants and puppy. I began to look for breeders in the LA area to get an idea of what kind of prices I was looking out. Needless to say I was only disappointed and realized it is going to be quite a fucking long time before I can afford the type of dog I want.

Anyways, I'm off to pick up some things for the show and then to rehearsal. The nice thing about the show, is that we perform it in a theater above a bar, which means that me and the director can take back a few during the long rehearsals.

So sorry we missed your bday meg. I love you and hope you had a fun time!!

Boring, but at least I'm not sick anymore!

So it sounds like you all had pretty fun weekends, I'm so jealous we couldn't do midday drinks for your birthday, Meg - we'll have to make up for that sometime! I spent the weekend with kleenex boxes on the couch. I suppose it was from sharing germs and not sleeping over Labor Day, but it sucked because I missed out on my junior high dance chaperone night and I only got to babysit Madeline once last week instead of twice, so that 1/2-ed my income... which isn't much to start with. But anyways, I've recovered and continued job searching. I applied to 12 jobs at WGN yesterday and half of them are internships but I figure I might as well try to get my foot in the door somehow. I made a commitment to begin applying to work at restaurants starting next Monday so that I have some money coming in, but other than that not too much in my life. I'm running in a 5K with my brother Tommy on Saturday at the United Center, it's some Blackhawks event and you get to watch them practice so he's really excited and I'm happy to run and get a new t-shirt :)
I have been updating blogs, I feel like a giant blogger lately and I am thinking about starting a new one too, at least it entertains me. I decided to make my dating blog public now that its been awhile, and I've been adding to my other ones too - so if you're bored, feel free to read. I hope you are all enjoying some sun today!

~Michelle
dating blog
cakejournal
nillarose

Happy Bday Meg!!

Hey girls! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!
Mike and I went up to Michigan for a wedding. Friday, we went to Andy's place and went out to an awesome piano bar in Kalamazoo where one of the guys from last season's American Idol worked. There was this good looking girl wearing a sexy dress and it had this slit up the back. As the night went on, that slit rode up higher and higher as she was dancing for everyone to see. We got some major buttcheek action. Oh, and she was commando. I'm certain of that cuz this guy was dancing with her and pulled up her dress. Mike was very excited about it and enjoyed himself by trying to capture a picture of the cheeks. Since the stroke of midnight marked Mike's bday, Andy and I bought him lots of shots and needless to say Mike rang in his 23rd year of life having a grand old time. On Saturday we had the wedding, but it was in the country, no booze, and we had to fold up the tables to make room for the dance floor. We left early with Mike's college buds and went to yet anothger piano bar that had tons of bachelorette parties (brought back good memories : ) ) While in the bathroom at one point in the night this is a convo I heard...
Really Drunk Girl: "I hate my bf. I don't want to call him. Can you call him for me?"
Friend: "Just call him tomorrow."
RDG: "Yeah. I'm gonna flirt with a boy tonight!"
Friend: "Go for it!"
RDG: "Yeah, but my bf has a really big dick....which is surprising."

It took all my might not to lol from the stall.

Tomorrow is picture day at school so I'm hoping for a good hair day : )

Happy Birthday Meg!!!! Hope you had some Arbor Mist and margaritas! It makes me so sad that we can't all celebrate together : ( We should have an annual get together and just celebrate all the bdays at once lol.

Hope everyone else had a fab weekend! Love to all <3

Birthday Girl

Happy B-day Meggers! I hope you loved your bday message from Char, Steve and I last night!!! haha

It's the Weekend Baby!

Hey girls! Congrats, Maggie on the job! That's super exciting! When do you guys have your first practice?

Well it is quarter to 5, and I am just itching to get out the door, but I thought I would drop in and say hi first! What is everyone's plans for the weekend? I am very disappointed that none of you will be here to celebrate Meghan's bday with lunch-time margaritas and drunk shopping on Sat.! Meg and I have already made a pact that we can't let each other buy anything too awful =)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

Big Plans

Hey Girls - good job Mags on the job =)

So I've been waiting to post since I wasn't entirely sure what the plan was going to be... but I've decided to apply to grad school! I realized that it was completely pointless for me to stay in DSM and be a legal secretary for the next five years just to save money, I'd be completely miserable doing that! Anyway, I'll be taking the GRE in the next few weeks so I can get my applications started and sent in, the first one is due December 1st! Keep your fingers crossed for me girls and I'll keep you updated!

whoop whoop!

So just got back from my coaching job interview and I got the job! haha

My feet hurt :(

Hello princesses! My weekend was pretty good I went up to the lake house with my extended fam and Char came with. It was pretty cold most of the days but that didn't keep us from going into the freezing cold water. haha I almost killed DTQ because they would wake up at 7:30 and since we sleep in the same room they thought it would be a good idea to wake me up too...lets just say they stopped doing that after the first day! haha

So today was my first full day at work and I learned a ton...but the #1 thing I learned was I am NEVER wearing flats to work again! My feet hurt so bad I want to cut them off! lol I need to find shoes that are super compfy, but will also fit into our "business casual trendy" dress code...so let me know if you guys have any suggestions!

Charlotte and I have our coaching interview tomorrow at this bar in Barrington so we have been getting ideas together (like drills, off-ice training, and stuff like that). It should be super laid back since we know one of the dads on the board (Mr. Potts is the husband of my adult friend Kari Potts and I used to babysit their daughters) and its also in a bar so how intense can it get. The only thing we are nervous about is talking about salary..grr I hate dealing with money it makes me uncomfortable!

I think thats about it for me nothing too exciting...water aerobics is getting kinda boring so I need to find another class to keep me entertained. Miss you girls!

1st day of School

Hello lovely ladies! My weekend was good. Saw our friends and the baby wioth Andy, like I mentioned. Partied hard with the Abe's at Septemberfest and ran into many old awkward high school aquaintances. We had an early bday celebration for Mike with his family on Monday and then had a mini bbq at our place for our friends.
Today was my first day of work and I really enjoyed it! I got thrown into things right away, which was stressful but felt good at the same time to be teaching again. I share this super tiny "office" with 2 other assistants, but we're never in there so it's ok. I shadowed a fellow assistant in 1st grade classrooms and got to teach some lessons, which made me feel good. I'm over qualified being an assistant so the teachers were pleased to hear I could actually handle more curriculum. I signed up to be a Lunch Mom for extra cash lol. For those who don't know, it's what we call our lunch supervisors around here cuz our schools don't have cafeterias so a supervisor has tpo be in each classroom. When I was in elem school it was actually moms of students, although at my school it's teachers but the name still sticks lol. I was talking to the principal and she said she was surprised I wasn't snatched up earlier and would try her hardest at getting me my own classroom for next year. So that obviously made me very happy : ) The hours are great, 8:10-3:20 and I don't have to do any planning or take home anything. Pretty sweet deal for now.
Sarah, sorry your weekend was a bummer : ( I was watching Househusbands the other day : ) How do you feel about the sex subject matter??
Hope everyone is doing well! Love to all <3

Back to work...

Hey everyone! Sorry I have not been so great at keeping up with all the posts this weekend. I made a conscious effort to turn off my twitter, facebook, and email while I was at home over the weekend! I took Friday off of work, so I was in MN Thursday night-Monday. It was a great vacation...did some shopping, went to the eye doctor (whoop whoop), did some grilling and went out a few times with friends. Today has definitely been an adjustment getting back into the swing of things at work! Sounds like everyone else had a good weekend too! Septemberfest sounds like a lot of fun!

The rest of this week is looking pretty boring for me, so far the only non-work related event I have scheduled is laundry :P

Mini-Mommy

I hope you all had a fun weekend. Mine was only alright. I went to my parents house, like a said earlier, with way too many people. I ended up playing mom because no one else wanted to take charge and cook and clean. I was like I'm the youngest one here. I also had to stay late today after everyone left to make sure everything was back to normal. My mom was proud. She said I'm turning into a mini-Connie Smith. Which of course, was a nice compliment. I had to sleep on the floor and give up my bedroom to one of the couples... btw everyone there was a couple. UGH! Not a great weekend to feel good about yourself, but I did get a wonderful uplift in the middle of the weekend. I got two texts from B and Meg that were so sweet. Thanks girls, you really brought me out of the stupid funk/self-pity party I was in. Not having close girlfriends out here really makes me realize how much I miss you girls. This transition period in our lives just proves that we will have to plan an annual trip somewhere in the country to get together.

Love you all!

P.S. GOOD LUCK B, WITH YOUR FIRST DAY OF WORK TOMORROW!!!!

Happy Labor Day!

Sarah, those fires seem crazy! I saw this time elapsed of the smoke on the news.
Yes, this weekend is Septemberfest, full of drinking and concerts. Hey Amy, Andy is here ; ) He came in yesterday cuz we went out to see our friends with the baby, Sam and Kristi. He is soooo cute (the baby I mean lol)! So well behaved and has been sleeping though the night since the first week he came home. Mike told me to get my baby fix while I was there. He's such a softy for babies though and so good with them. Kristi had this "31" party, which sells bags and purses and stuff for women. I'm thinking of being a consultant for the compant since my pay for my new job is crap.
So, Andy is here to experience his first Septemberfest with us : ) The boys are trying to figure out how to use the new coffee maker as I speak lol.
Miss you girls! Be safe and enjoy the weekend!!

Happy weekend!

Sare - I read about those crazy fires - scary!
Meg - I hope your bed problems are getting solved!

And yes, Sarah, Labor day = Septemberfest in Schaumburg (where I live - and Bridge too now). It's a three day fest that is literally on the end of my street, so we live there, and lots and lots of guestes come over. Basically a three day party. You would all enjoy it and are welcome to come any year! It's kinda like Relays lol. So that's what today/tomorrow/monday will be for me. Just came back from the Craft fair with my mom and waiting for my nephew to arrive to play with him. Other than that, my intro post is up at cakejournal.com if anyone is intersted - ooo and I made some cute desserts today and will post them later.

Amy - I thought of you while making my jell-o shots for this weekend! I will think of you while I enjoy them - strawberry w/ bacardi O and strawberry/cherry w/ strawberry vodka.

Miss you guys - Happy Labor Day!!!

Michelle

Labor Day Weekend and FIRES!

Hey Ladies.

I hope you all have something fun planned for this long weekend. I got down to my parent's desert house late last night with a group of people, minus my parents (who are back at our lake house in MO). All I can say is that it is really hot and even though we have a pool, the pool water is also hot from the intense sun. Joy! It was pretty insane driving out her last night. I don't know if you guys have heard of these fires we have be having in the hills that surround LA, but its been pretty crazy. Anyway, driving out here the air was just filled with smoke. Its quite surreal and also a little bit scary. The entire population of LA might be dying of smoke inhalation.

What do you guys have planned? Chicago ladies, I heard there is some kind of festival?!?

Good Morning!

Good morning ladies =) I'm sitting here at work procrastinating, of course! Searching for beds is my taks of the morning. If you remember my bed, it's a huge four poster that you kind of have to jump up to get on. Well, last night I jumped.... and the bed crashed to the ground.... =/ I'm looking at IKEA, so who knows, a trip to Schaumburg might be in order to save on shipping!

But what will I wear?

I just got my very own school district ID tag! I feel so special lol. So I start work Tuesday and my principal said I would be in a couple different grade levels my first day. Wait, what happened to training? I don't even know the dress code or how to use my ID badge : ( Regardless, I just treated myself to some new professional clothes but cannot find suitable black dress pants anywhere : / Well I'm off...miss you girls!!!

Finally...

Hey girls! Miss you guys all more than you know! So I finally joined the blog - I know you are all so excited because I know my life is the most exciting...hahah

But really what am I up to? I'm taking the semester off school (so far it just feels like a really long summer haha) I've spent the majority of the summer at the lake or at Char and Steve's house haha I finally sucked it up and got a part time job at Lane Bryant. Retail sucks! haha but for part-time work its alright I get a 55% discount so thats AMAZING! haha I also found out tonight that the girls hockey team is looking for a coach and asked Char and I if we would be interested!

hmm what else of my life can I talk about??? I joined a gym by my house and I love it! They have all of these fun work out classes like "Core and Can" and water aerobics. I love the water aerobics cause its a bunch of grandmas who get sooo excited to talk to someone under 5o years old haha I've also been seeing a new therapist and she has been amazing! So everything is good on that front too!

Well I've had a bit to drink tonight haha and feel like I'm about to pass out ! I miss you girls soo much!

1/2 way to the weekend!

Oh, Amy lol you make me laugh with your responses.

I had two things to say today, I remembered that aside from Bridge, none of you were reading my August blog about my dating experience. It's over now but I still have the active blog - however, a wordpress.com account is necessary to read it, but I also have the document saved, so I'll try to attach it here or can send it via email if you're interested. It's pretty much a book lol so you'll need some time to get through it. It was an interesting experience, I'm glad I did it... but I'm glad it's over. Though I'm bored now.

I'm still poking around looking for jobs, haven't found anything yet. But I am still technically employed by our Park District as a Junior High Dance chaperone lol and also I have a new (unpaid, of course) writing position at CakeJournal.com - which is pretty perfect for me... minus the unpaid part. And I'm tutoring my cousin in math and my grandpa is paying me. So I'm not totaly screwed just yet.

But my mom did tell me something nice today about job searching. She told me that I have permission to do whatever I need to in order to find a job that I want, which was encouraging and helpful since my dad and brother are being buttmunches about it. My mom and I have been reading an "autobiography" my grandma wrote when she was 18 and it was so sad because she couldn't do what she wanted to because she had to give money to her family and my mom has always felt like she wasn't able to do something she loved either because the minute she met my dad she had a 4-yr-old and an-8yr-old to take care of. So points for mom on that one. We'll see what it means for me.... wish me luck!

Have a great Wednesday :)

Workin' Girl!

Congrats, B :) Looks like you are back to cookies out of a box, no more baking from scratch for you! You've got work to do!

Woo Hoo!

Lol Amy, your post made me laugh. Congrats on the published article!
So after my first interview I got a call from another school for a similar teacher's assistant postion and they wanted me at their school in a half hour, which is ok cuz it's literally a 2 min drive from my house. It went really well and the principals were great. They told me they had to interview a few more people and would call me later the next day. They ended up calling me not even an hour later and said they weren't going to interview the other because they would love to have me as a part of their team! Of course I accepted : ) I'll be helping all grades with small reading groups. The only thing is that because it's an assistant position it pays crap, but it's a great stepping stone and the principals seemed very supportive of that.
Have a good rest of the week, girls!!

Happy Tuesday!

Wow, funny enough though that doesn't surprise me coming from Scott! You must be a really great friend if he feels comfortable enough barging into your house and causing a rukus!

And Sarah, super jealous you met Amy Adams!!! In my mind you are living a super glamorous life filled with star-studded parties and red-carpet events :) If your life in LA is nothing like that, I don't want to hear about it, I will always tell people you are my famous friend in LA :)

Nothing glamorous about my life! My internship offered me a full-time position beginning in August, so I am very happy about that! I work with some really great people and am learning a lot. I'm still just adjusting to having to sit at a desk all day! I take multiple trips to the bathroom and break room everyday just to get up and move around! I got my first article published in Construction Business Owner magazine, which I know you all subscribe to so I bet you've already read it :P

I am heading home this weekend, since we have Monday off for the holiday. I haven't seen my family for awhile so I'm very excited about it! I think I'm even going to go to my high school team's football game on Friday night with a friend, how lame am I?!?!

Job Update and Locking My Door

So I think the interview went well. The teacher's assistant job would be working with kids for reading who perform on or above grade level. So as far as an assistant job, it would be ideal. I should know in a week about if I got it or not.
So this past weekend Mike went to a car race and I was by myself and bored and Scott and Amanda were the only ones who were around. Scott was being weird so it ended up just being Amanda and me (fun fun). Scott came at one point and Amanda was pissed he came (although I did invite him). So he leaves and they end up getting in a text fight about how they are both rude to each other and treat each other like crap. Scott ends up calling Amanda and she ignores it (flash backs of Kristin). Then he calls my phone and she begs me not to answer. Next thing I know Scott is barging in my front door yelling at Amanda to leave and talk to him. I hid in my bedroom and they finally left after a good 5 min of screaming. They called and apologized later and I told Scott he was an idiot and he told me he wouldn't have done that at anyone else's house (oh, great!). Needless to say, I'll be locking my door even when I'm expecting company. They are so dumb.

Legal Secretary

First off, Sarah I'm totally jealous! Second, B good luck on your interview! I know exactly how you're feeling about work right now. As an Art History/Graphic Design major I feel that I should be doing something meaningful and interesting with my life. Instead... I'm sitting in West Des Moines (ew) being a legal secretary. Don't get me wrong, the money's good and it's something for the resume. But there's this little part of me that keeps nagging away saying "get out while you can!!" I'm meeting with my senior advisor next week to talk about grad schools - keep your fingers crossed!

miss you all - love u lots!

Wish me luck!

Hello ladies! I'm up bright and early becuase I have an interview today. Not sure if I'm happy about it though cuz it's just for a teacher's assistant position. But it is at the school closest to my house and also the school that Mike and Mich went to : ) I'll let you know how it goes!
Other than that I've been feeling totally useless. Although Mike reassures me that my housewife duties are greatly appreciated. I even baked from scratch from the first time yesterday in between cleaning the house.
On a random side note, Mike and I won a 4 day cruise to either Mexico or the Bahamas! We had to sit through an hour long speach about time shares though. We have to research it more just to make sure it isn't a huge scam.
Miss you girls and I'll hopefully update you on the job hunting!
P.S. When I have more time later I'll fill you in on my latest Scott and Amanda story.

Settling in

I finally feel like I am settling in here in LA. Having my own place makes a huge difference with my comfort level and all of that. I still don't have a job, which is hard and frustrating, but I just keep reminding myself that its hard for everyone. I had my first real "Hollywood" moment on Sat. I had my first party at my apartment and guess who showed up... Amy Adams. I about flipped my shit. Totally made my evening. We had time to talk and she even hugged me at the end of the night. I was very happy at that moment that I had decided not to hang any of her movie posters on my wall. That would have been awkward. My guess is we will be BFF...... well maybe not.

So my thoughts with this blog is that it will be an easy place for us to just write funny things that happen to us, that we could normally just tell each other casually if we all lived in the same city. I miss you girls all the time and I just want to hear silly things (of course big stuff too) that go on in your lives.

I bet I'm the most boring! :) I am applying for jobs in my sweatpants. The highlight of my week last week was reading The Time Traveler's Wife, which was great and I appreciate the recommendation from you guys, yesterday I overhauled my room, and today was a biggie lol I went to the grocery store three times because alcohol tax goes up immensely in Illinois tomorrow and Septemberberfest is this weekend - you'd all love it, feel free to make the trip! :)

What is up my peeps! Keep me posted on your lives bc I have nothing going in mine!

Hey ladies! Thanks Sarah for starting this =) Hope everything's going well with everyone - I'm sure you all wish you were here in school with me ;)

love you!

Hey Ladies!

Now we can keep in touch this way. Feel free to post new thoughts or simply comment on each others posts!