Dear God I am A POSTING SLACKER. My apologies. But, with the Christmas season upon us, things have been nothing short of a zoo around here. So before I get around to my end-of-the-quarter post, I'll get my crap together and update a bit on the going-ons so I don't feel so guilty for not pouring my heart out on this page every day like I used to.
This past weekend was a bit crazy...Friday night was the fraternity/sorority outing to see the lights at the zoo. Despite the frigid temp, it was actually quite fun and I enjoyed embarressing Sarah in front of the talking tiger. We also watched a zebra-like gazelle lick his pee off the floor and then proceed to whip himself in the face with his overly-large tongue. That was sort of gross...but interesting none the less.
Saturday I cleaned all day and dealt with the bathroom problem Mike and I have been encountering...our bathroom sink has been ridiculously clogged but at least would drain after awhile and after two bottles of Drain-O, I lost it. My family was coming in a few hours and the water WOULD NOT GO DOWN. So I attacked it Xenia-style with a plunger. Luckily, Mike came to rescue me from the insanity and plunged while I scooped stagnet water out of the sink into a bowl...we ended up taking the pipes apart under the sink and after an hour of this madness, finally buckled down and called the landlord. Sink update? Fixed. My dad, step-mom, and sister came down for my dad's 50th birthday and it was ACTUALLY ENJOYABLE. No problems...no whining, no complaining, no incidents. We went to the Hofbrauhaus to surprise my dad because of his love of German food and he LOVED it. You know the man is in good spirits when he shares his stine of beer with me. We had the polka band play happy birthday...then we came back to my CLEAN apartment and had a cake and presents waiting. It was just a fun time. They left Sunday morning after we had lunch at Panera.
Yesterday was my big Christmas shopping day with Shannon and Sarah...we power-shopped for three hours and let me tell you how hilarious it is to watch those two. I'm an ok shopper, but don't pride myself in any special shopping skills...those two however. Insane. We went to Macy's to find informal dresses and I swear they have radar. Two minutes later they hand me a dress and say "hereitistryitonitsyoursize". Looking at it, I would have SWORN it would have looked like complete poo on me. But, I buckled down and put it on for them...and it looked good? Wow. It DID look good. It was actually perfect. And marked down TWICE from it's original price making it 1/2 off. Then of course, we went to almost every store in the mall and it was like magic. We would walk into a store and they would immediately walk to the clearance rack reach their arms in and come out with about 5 shirts that I wouldn't have found on that damn rack if I had tried. It was truly an art form. I had been shopping with both of them before for one or two things, but never an all-out power shop. Needless to say, we had a blast and bought some pretty awesome stuff. They crack me up so much. And thanks to them, my informal dress is off the hook. I wish our lives weren't so busy that the three of us could hang out more often...when we're together, we're an unstoppable force. I love those ladies.
In addition to all those goings-ons...we decorated our apartment for Christmas. Anna's aunt gave us a tinsel-green Charlie Brown tree. We put that up with as much bling as we could fit, some lights around our entertainment center, and the stockings my mom made for us with all our names. We also hung a wreath in the window and door. It's quite cute.
We have been having an on-going battle with the neighbors upstairs. They have spent the last few months blasting their music at ridiculous hours of the day and night, one party they threw, someone threw a full beer can at Michael's head in the parking lot below, they were playing football in the house and started making our light in the living room blink uncontrollably. Just ridiculous shenanigans...we have spoken to them several times about it with promises of them keeping it down then doing the same thing the next day...we've banged on their door, they've banged on our floor. They had been fairly quiet through exams and most of the week before but two nights ago, it started up again...we were hanging a wreath on our front door and pounding a nail into it when they went CRAZY and started jumping around on their floor/our ceiling to get us to stop...so we stopped but were pretty pissed that they would get mad at US? So the next night, they were blaring the music again, so we went outside and rang their doorbell as much as possible...don't think they heard it. So we took the hammer and let loose on the door until they finally quit. But this morning? Blaring the music. At 9:30 in the morning on Christmas break. And if they're going to blast that music that loud? At least blast something that isn't Christina Aguliara? I don't even know how to spell her last name, that's how much I DON'T LIKE HER. Those guys could have such better music tastes. I probably wouldn't have such a beef if say, "Stairway to Heaven" was being blasted. That I could handle.
We added a new member to our house...my new hammie, Rigby. He's a Syrian Bear hamster and probably the most sweet-tempered hamster I have ever seen. He's a big fat black and white guy and he's such a sweet-heart. I pimped him out with fun toys and chewies and such. He loves to run in his ball and instead of freaking out at the change of habitat, he took to our apartment right away...hasn't bitten or pooped on anyone yet, so thats major points. He's the new love of my life and as my mom said, "I am so glad you have a friend - one that won't turn on you or give you grief." True dat.
This weekend is Rent at the Aronoff with Nate and then I head home Sunday for about 10 days. I hadn't planned on going home so long orginially, but with my grandfather really sick and the lack of seeing my old friends as often as I would like, I think this "vacation" is in order. It will probably consist of a lot of card games with the grandparents, Denny's trips every night, and trying not to be too allergic to the cat...so good times indeed.
Mostly been working and playing with my friends...we were going to go ice skating last night but it was too warm and rainy so we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner in celebration of Anna's birthday.
Working on my write-up for the quarter and the end of the year. Gotta work at the band office, and then Cross-town Shoot-out against Xavier then hanging out with Julie.
THERE IS AN UPDATE FOR YA!