Back to Cleveland it is for the start of 2008! I can’t believe how fast 2007 has flown by and all the amazing things that have happened this year. Reflecting back, I got to travel a ton this past year. Studying abroad in Australia allowed me to go to school on the Sunshine Coast, go to Sydney on St. Patrick’s Day, and go to the Great Barrier Reef. When I returned I went to Las Vegas (and didn’t win) and then for Labor Day I went to Chicago. I have been very blessed to do a lot of great things and I am definitely looking forward to what the future holds for me in 2008. I am hoping to figure out if I will attend law school for 3 more years of college life, or move onto the job market. It is a stressful but exciting time in my life but I am looking forward to it. My boyfriend and I are headed out for New Years Eve tonight with a few friends which should be fun. On the 2nd, I am starting my new internship downtown at a law firm. I am really excited to get started with that and get back into the swing of things at school and socially for……… the LAST semester!! = (

Well, for all of you who didn’t have a white Christmas…I’ll trade you. We have plenty of snow up here in Vermont, and I’ve threatened to mail some to my friends in warmer climates. I think there’s some coming down right now, in fact, but it could just be blowing out of the trees. Either way, I’m trying to get out of shoveling up the latest dusting. As pretty as it is, I’d much rather look at the snow from the other side of a window. Preferably with a cup of hot cider and a blanket.

A definite plus to being in Ohio: my parents are too far away to ask me to do chores. I mean, it’s not like we live on a farm or anything, so I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to milk the cows (though I have some friends who do). But getting up at the crack of dawn to shovel snow, even though we have no plans to go anywhere except for across the street? Now that’s what I call pretty silly.

By the way, the picture up there is my house, after the last big snowstorm. I might head out later today or tomorrow and get a few new shots, once it stops snowing.

Since I last touched base with everyone, I’ve done some exploring

Two days ago, my Dad and I went to “Lees Ferry” to do Spencer’s Trail. It took us an hour and a half to climb 1700ft. to the top of this one particular mesa. From the top, we could see all over the place. We took a bunch of pictures and felt a sense of achievement for making it to the top. I was sure to call my mom once we hit the top; I also called my roommate just to let him know how I was spending my time. I was surprised about our trip back down; I thought it would take us 30 minutes or so, but it took us just over an hour to make our way back down to where the trail started.

Yesterday, we went hiking again. This time we headed to Cottonwood Canyon, which is located in southern Utah. This hike was a lot less strenuous, and we didn’t climb to the top of anything, instead we walked in the divide between two huge mesas. At times, the canyon was probably about 20 yards wide, whereas other points were almost too narrow for us to pass through. It was pretty cool to hike this, since it was a completely different experience and perspective. In a few days, I’ll be heading with my family to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, and perhaps some other national parks/monuments within a few hours. I’ll be sure to update you all as I continue my adventures.

Post-Christmas boredom was starting to set in earlier this week, but the last few days have had some excitement. On Friday morning, I awoke at 5:45am to a text message from Corynn, my best friend from high school, saying that she had just had her baby ten weeks premature. She was due around the time I’ll be home for spring break, but Madison turned out to be a December baby instead. She’s tiny, only about two and a half pounds, but she’s remarkably healthy. I got to go back and see her in the nursery. Two pounds is obviously small, but I actually didn’t realize how tiny she would be. My mom is a nurse in the postpartum unit at the hospital where she delivered, so it’s actually kind of cool because she gets to be her nurse this weekend.
In other news, tonight my parents and I went to an Indian casino. There are several close to where we live because of the large Native American population and I’ve always wanted to go. This is the first time I’ve been home since I turned 21, so my parents gave me $21 dollars to spend and we had a fun night. I had the best luck of the three of us. I was up a little and I probably should have saved it as my funds are severely depleted after student teaching, but I decided to be a 21 year old and push my luck and ended up even.
Hope you have a great end to 2007!

Well, Christmas is now two days past, and of course it was some good times. On the Eve a bunch of my family came over our house, and we had a huge dinner. Where most families would have had a turkey or something, we made a bunch of Italian-dish oddities that I’d never seen or tasted before, but it was pretty good nonetheless. The next day we went to my great aunt’s house where a different group of family members were and had some more traditional roast beef and ravioli. On the 26th we went for an after-day dinner at my uncle’s on my dad’s side and had some really good beef stew and pork. Of course each dinner party was nice, and I got bombarded with question about how college is going, but everything went merrily until late the 26th when I got really sick. I don’t know if it was something I ate, but from 8:00 PM the 26th to late at night yesterday I spent over 24 sleepless hours in agony. I won’t go into details, but I’ll just say I’ve never been so sick or dehydrated in my life. I’m still getting over it, and it’s pretty bad still, but my health is definitely coming back so in no time I’ll be seeing friends again. I just hope I don’t get sick like that again on break (or ever).

I think its been atleast a week since I blogged. Last week I worked at various locations around San Francisco doing different projects on alternative winter break. I went with 8 other BW students and an advisor. We stayed in a really nice hostel in city center which is in the middle of little Saigon (Saigon is the former capital name of Vietnam if you don’t know your Geography). We did work at Glide which is run by a Methodist church that serves food to 600-800 homeless people a day. We also worked at the oldest cathedral in California bagging groceries for seniors and that serves almost 2,000 a week. We also did some various things like did yard work at a women’s shelter and so on. From the picture you can we got to some sight seeing. It’s a great city but I don’t know if could live there. Funny news paper headline from the San Francisco Chronicle “The Dog days of winter”…. The temperature while we were there was 45-55 degrees, they have nothing on Ohio

Well, it wasn’t a white Christmas here, but it was a good one. My grandmother passed away in March so this was the first Christmas without her. We used to go to her house for Christmas Eve dinner but my grandpa decided that because he didn’t want anyone to have to cook in her place, he would take us out to eat. We went to Macaroni Grill and had a delicious dinner. We ended up at my grandpa’s for dessert and a gift exchange. On Christmas Day we had dinner with the other side of the family. It was really nice to see everyone because all of the cousins get so busy with school and work that we never get to hang out. It’s weird to think that there aren’t any “kids” in the family anymore. I’m the oldest so it’s assumed that I’m first in line to start a family so that Santa can be a part of Christmas again! That won’t be for a LONG time though, haha.

Other than the holidays, it’s been nice to have some time off. I’ve worked a lot but it’s nice to just come home and not have to worry about homework! Break is going by quickly but I am enjoying my time away from the stress!
Happy Holidays!

First of all, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, I know I did. However, what we all realized was that this might’ve been one of our last family holiday for a while. Don’t worry, we’re not having family problems or anything, it’s just that point where we’re all going to be heading our own directions.

My brother got married this summer, and now that he graduated from the Border Patrol Academy, he will be stationed and living in San Diego, California. As I said, my parents now live in Page, Arizona. My sister is a junior in high school, and though she isn’t too far on her college search, she recognizes that she probably won’t be living at home for college, so she’ll be somewhere else in two years. As for me, I’ll be headed to graduate school and at this point I’m not sure where I’ll be landing. Though I would probably have time off for Christmas to head home, there are many other holidays that I will probably miss due to distance or school/work obligations.

Realizing this, we made the most of our time together and had a great time. My brother left this morning to head to San Diego, taking his wife with him. So now, I’m left here with my mom, dad, and sister, to enjoy the rest of my winter escape here in Arizona. I’ll check back in later about any new adventures I get myself into. Until then, enjoy the holiday season!

Merry Christmas! It’s been a nice day here. Even though we’re grown up now, we still stick to most of our old traditions which is fun. We put milk and cookies out for Santa, dad’s the first one out in the morning to check to make sure Santa arrived, etc. I got lots of nice gifts. My parents got me a GPS system for my car. I’m notoriously bad at directions, and though I can proudly say I really haven’t gotten lost at school, it’ll be nice to have. I also got some really nice jewelry, clothes, and movies.
During my sophomore year of high school we hosted a foreign exchange student from Germany for the year and we got to talk to her today. We still try to check in a few times a year and it’s always fun to catch up. She’s finishing up her last year of college in Germany too. I haven’t seen her since she left in July 2002, but she’s hoping to visit the States this summer after she graduates which would be great. We were very close while she was here, and it’s funny now to swap stories of school and boyfriends and how it’s so weird that this is our last semester as students, and see how similar our lives still are.
I grew up in Buffalo, and even though we moved to Arizona seven years ago, Christmas without snow is still a little weird. I have to admit that one thing that is pretty fun about Christmas in AZ is that we can go in the hot tub though, so that’s where I’m off to! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas all. And yes, i am in fact writing you guys a blog on Christmas. But once you open all the presents, then there really isn’t much to do. Except dinner with the family in awhile. I was pleased with the gifts, and i’m going to steal everyone else’s because they got all the really cool stuff. My mom got a first edition book of the journal Charles Dickens’ kept while traveling through America. My grandpa got “The Franchise” by Terry Pluto, the book about LeBron and the rebuilding of the Cleveland Cavs. My dad got a book called “Beer of the World,” which sounds interesting enough. (yes, we do like books here). I lucked out and got a version of Dante’s Divine Comedy with illustrations by Gustave Dore. The drawings are amazing; they really capture the mood i think Dante was aiming for. If not, they still look cool.

We also got our grades the other day. I aced my core classes and B-ed my chem and bio classes. I think that’s what i was getting in all my classes for exams, so i assume my final exam grades were the same as my class grades. I was happy enough with it. Just glad to have this semester finally over. Three more to go (maybe four since i switched my major, who knows). Well, hope everyone had a good christmas and that santa was kind to you all. Have a good break, you’ll probably hear from me soon.