The end of the quarter is always so crazy.

Hello!

A lot of beautiful things have happened since Wednesday when I last posted.

There was a cool double rainbow over high street, which ruled.

Hillel hosted the end of year bbq, with live music, free food, and lots of awesome people!

My sister turned 12 and had a murder mystery birthday party, which was hilarious and awesome.

Okay other than those exciting things what's been going on...

Well, right now my eye is twitching because I haven't been sleeping enough. Fail. It's super annoying (both the not sleeping and the eye twitching). Yikes okay so since it's the end of the quarter everything is piling up (tests, quizzes, homeworks, group projects, the list is never-ending) but luckily summer is quickly approaching. This means spending time with friends and family at home and other places. It also means live music, something I've seriously been missing lately. It also means lots of great opportunities to practice photog!

Something good about it being the end of the quarter is that people are realizing how many swipes they have left, which basically means I've been eating FO FREE. That's awesome.

Thanks to everyone who has been willing to share with me =) A couple of days ago we went to Woody's at the U and then we went to "espress-OH" (insert eye roll here) where you can get seriously outrageous portions of gelato for swipes. Awesome!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial day weekend! Personally, I am really looking forward to the Meshuganotes bbq tomorrow =)

I promise I didn't forget about my blog.

Shalom Chaverim! (for you who aren't Hebrews, or Shebrews for that matter, that means Hello Friends!)

I'm definitely trying to keep up with this blogging business, but as the school year comes to a close, it's becoming difficult to prioritize things that aren't research papers endless reading assignments brainless homework more reading and did i mention reading.

But I figure that since it's been since...what...last Thursday? It's time to update. In order to do that, I have to find my planner, because that's basically the only way I remember what things I did/have to do.

Alright so Friday was Meshuganote Shabbat, our last big concert of the quarter and also Axe's last actual concert (more on that later). So, for Shug Shabbat, we usually bust out a few new songs, get people excited about hearing us, all that jazz. This week our two awesome new jams were "Fix You" by Coldplay and, that's right ladies and gentlemen, "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. Wow.

I'll just give you a second to let that sink in.

Yes. We really did perform "Party in the USA". In front of a live audience.

Jealous?

Okay so after the concert were the customary festivities (success! go shugs for keeping it class, you guys rule) and then brought Saturday....a WONDERFUL day to sleep in! And then travel to Cincinnati! While Shug Shabbat might be our last big concert at Hillel for the quarter, we actually had a really busy weekend. That basically means we got to go stay at my house and enjoy some home-cooked deliciousness and family fun time.

Here are Abie and Steph enjoying hamming it up for the D90.

Obviously Izzy and Lulu were thrilled to see me.

After a couple of performances and more food than should ever be consumed in so few hours...and a Jersey Shore marathon...the ladies headed back to Cbus. But the fun didn't stop there people! We headed not to campus but to Stephanie's beautiful home where we had, you guessed it, a delicious home-cooked meal! Now, after 8 long weeks of less than home-cooked meals (even when I cook for myself it just isn't the same) this was something we could really get used to. Possibly more exciting than the excess of food, though, was the beautiful weather. I had a blast exploring around Stephanie's yard; here's some evidence:

Amazing! That photo is completely un-edited, folks. Straight from the sensor. Gorgeous!

After leaving Steph's house and returning to the real world where a 6 page research paper (not too bad but still has to get done) and 20857208214 pages of reading awaited brought us to Monday, one of my marathon class days. After all of those classes came something really exciting: a night with Coco!

Yes, Conan was here at THE Ohio State University, and he was really delighted by our reflexive response to the prompt "O-H!" and he made us scream "I-O!" as many times as he could. Reggie Watts opened for him (I found him hilarious although the guys next to me were less than impressed) and then Coco continued what was one of the funniest nights ever. See my twitter for some highlights. This is a great example of why I love going to tOSU. I got to go FOR FREE to see Conan at the Schott with a bunch of people who appreciate humor and free things and OSU. Win! Also I think we saw like 12 different University Ambassadors while we were there/in our section (wi10 hiring class represented!) which was super exciting. It was like a mini-reunion! Again, see twitter for more deets.

Now we're finally caught up to today, or what was "today" until like 27 minutes ago. Tuesday. Apart from the usual (class, meeting, etc.) was something incredible: rainbows on a hot, sunny day! Yes, I said "rainbows" not "rainbow" because there were TWO! Wow!!!

You can see them in this picture from the Oval this afternoon! One is close to the top, the other is about halfway across.

This evening Geoff and I journeyed upstairs in the parking garage for a peak at a beautiful sunset, which made me feel like maybe the ridiculous amount of money I pay to park there might actually be worth something.

Geoff was so delighted he was jumping for joy.

Later on, Becca and Jacob and Melis came over to join us for GLEE! I loved it. Glee going Gaga....what a recipe for success!

Okay now all of my text is stuck being centered which is annoying but I'm too tired to fix it right now soooooo that's too bad.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the week! Hopefully the D90 and I can capture some more stunning moments for you all this week in the sunshine =)

recently!

Hey everyone! It's been a busy, busy week. Go figure.

Right now I'm watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. What an epic film.

Lately I feel like I've been doing a lot but nothing really all that consequential. It was a paper week, which basically means my week was building up to me writing a paper, and once I turned in said paper, my brain was essentially fried and I haven't done anything substantial since then. That's just my operating system.

So, last week Vicki came to visit! I got to grab a quick lunch with her and Samantha, which was really exciting. It's always so nice to catch up!

That day was a really beautiful day (the last one until today, basically) but then it turned less beautiful. Sad. But here's a shot from when it was still pretty:

I don't actually even remember what day that was. Let's skip to things I remember.

Wednesday the Meshuganotes had our last official rehearsal of the year! Weird! I can't believe how fast college is going. SLOW DOWN!

Tonight, a bunch of us went to the new (beautiful, amazing, wonderful) Ohio Union to see Buckeye Showcase! There was some fanciness outside while we were waiting.

It was really fun to get to see all sorts of talented students that go to Ohio State! A-Band was there as a guest encore sort of situation to play different Buckeye songs for us, which was super exciting. Go Bucks!

In other important news....MESHUGANOTE SHABBAT IS TOMORROW! I seriously can't wait I am so unbelievably excited. More on that later! =)

this is getting to be a pretty nice habit.

Lots to say, not a lot of time, so, for now, just check out my awesome photo (which I already used in this very blog) which is today's osu image of the day =)

http://www.osu.edu/imageoftheday/

Good Morning

Hello, Sunshine.

It's been a couple of days since I last posted, probably because it's been busy around here. I'm sitting with one of my favorite coffee

mugs (hello, Andy Bernard), my nook (which TOTALLY RULES), and the book I'm supposed to be reading right now.

Okay so a quick re-cap of the last few days. Thursday night after Meshuganotes (we have 2 new songs for our concert next week so BRING EVERYONE YOU KNOW, just saying) a few of us went to the Short North. There was a little bit of fiasco, as there always is, but it ended up in Geoff and I going to Betty's, one of my favorite 2 ladies in the Short North. Can you guess who my other favorite lady is? I'll give you a hint...she makes splendid ice creams.

That, my friends, is Geoff with "Steve's Afternoon Delight" with bacon. Wowza.

Alright so that's Thursday covered. Yesterday was a beautiful slightly-less-humid day, which resulted in a lot of me being unproductive. But also slightly productive.

I was invited through the department of Sexuality Studies (one of my many minors) to see C. J. Pascoe speak about heterosexuality and homophobia in high schools. Her research was absolutely fascinating, and I was really interested to see how a lot of the theories I've been learning about for the last few years intersected in her findings. She talked about gender performance and masculinity, which are two things I've found very interesting, especially in my Sociology of sexuality class a few quarters ago. All in all, it was a great talk and I'm glad I got to go!

Then I had some downtime and I wasn't sure what to do. But then...something amazing happened. I tried Denise's for the first time!

Boy was that a delicious trip! I got to sample a lot of fun flavors. I seriously can't believe that in my 3 years living in Columbus nobody has taken me to Denise's/I hadn't tried it anyway until yesterday.

Here's Samantha's scoop, looking lovely in rainbow sprinkles.

I'm glad to have friends like Samantha who understand that sometimes you need ice cream. And you need good, delicious ice cream. And sometimes that ice cream just really needs some rainbow sprinks. Here's an only-kind-of-awkward picture of the lovely Samantha going for a bite with lots of sprinks.

Then after we enjoyed our Denise's it was time to relax before Shabbat. Which is one of my favorite things to do. Then we went to Hillel for services and a DELICIOUS dinner (including sweet potato fries, are you kidding me? Also I'm realizing that this whole blog is about food).

After shabbat, I had to remember and celebrate the life of a good friend, Starkeesha.

Starkeesha was Axe's hamster. She was da' bomb. She used to roll around in her hamster ball and run really really fast over the threshold into the kitchen, where the ground was smoother than the carpet and she could really pick up speed. She was hilarious.

Also, we had a funeral for her.

Axe played a beautiful rendition of "My Heart Will Go On" on her recorder (a la this beautiful version) and it was a really beautiful ceremony, with even complete strangers walking past, sharing their kind thoughts. We celebrated Starkeesha's life last night. She was a great hamster, and she will be missed.

That's pretty much all I've got for the last few days. Today I'm giving a tour, and then my hiring class is having a reunion dinner/celebration since we haven't all been together since training last quarter. I'm excited to see everyone!

Have a great weekend friends =)

Dinner & Tie-Dye!

So I'm sitting here watching the show "Undatable" on VH1 (literally one of the funniest things I've seen on tv in a long time) and I realized it was time for me to update my blog! Okay great.

Alright, it's Wednesday, which means I had 3 separate two hour classes. It's a draining day, but it involves lots of learning, which is, after all, the reason I'm here in the first place. Right? I think so.

Today I had some motivation to help me get through my classes today--my friend Sami and I were going to make dinner together today! We did, and it was an epic success. Sami and I have been friends since we were 11 so it's pretty special that we're still so close. She rules.

So what did we make for dinner? Well, curious and beautiful readers, I found a recipe on www.foodgawker.com (great website) for a lemon and rosemary chicken and asparagus and rotini....oh my gosh it was SUCH a success!

Okay so after we ate our delicious dinner we went to do some free and super-fun tie-dying! One of my very favorite activities. I can't wait to unfold the shirts tomorrow and see how they turned out! I know they'll be great because tie-dye doesn't have to be perfect and every shirt ends up being cool no matter what. I ended up making a huge mess but luckily we semi-water-proofed the floor so...NBD. No big deal.

It ended up being a great day despite the yucky weather, especially since Modern Family was new.

Okay that's all I have for today!

What a Tuesday.

So, it's been quite the Tuesday.

Class, meeting, studying...the usual.

Just a long day.

In my planner, it took all the lines for Monday and Tuesday and a giant post-it to write down everything I had to do today.

There are still a bunch of things left to be crossed off, but one of the important things was to get to the grocery store.

Feeling o v e r w h e l m e d, with lists of things to do running through my head, I went to the grocery store for some peace and quiet (and neatly organized fruits and veggies and snacks--oh, some order in this world!) and I got to see one of the greatest sunsets I've seen in a long time.

Wow. Lane Avenue bridge, you've rarely looked better.

The Idea.

Okay. I have 7 empty journals begging to be written in. I love stationary and fancy papers and cool pens....I also love talking to/about myself. So obviously journaling seems like something I would be all about, right?

Wrong.

I have always been a person who tries reaaaally hard to write a journal. But I just can't do it.

I'll go for like...a week. I'll write consistently on the things happening during the day, how I'm feeling, yadda yadda yadda. Then I'll just forget. Instead

of journaling, I'll watch an episode of some terribly addicting reality show I love to hate, or I'll read someone's blog.

So now, I'll just write my own blog! But mainly what I want to do is post pictures. This is going to serve as a way for me to photo-journal, and this way you all can see what I'm thinking/doing/watching.

It's like a journal I can share...which is probably the point of blogging, anyway.

Enjoy =)

Today's photo: this little guy was keeping me from my reading.