Boooriiing.

I am not gone! Just adjusting to moving home, having a job, and in general just notbeing in college anymore.

Or it could just be that now I am a grown-up, all the excitement has been sucked from my life.

Yes. That's it.

p.s. A lot of what makes this page tick is hosted on my university webspace, so there's a good chance that it will go kaput here in the next few weeks. Sorry about that.

Coveting California

While we were in San Francisco, Christina and I went to a little bar* that used a lot of exotic and little-known ingredients including Aperol, an Italian liquor made with rhubarb and some other less exiting fruits. (When I remarked that rhubarb alcohol was a pretty good idea, some guy [who we later learned grew up right outside the city, i.e. IN CALIFORNIA] leaned down the bar and asked me if I'd ever tried rhubarb pie. I was all, dude, I MAKE rhubarb pies.) The bartender, who grew up in Michigan, then went ahead and made me a rhubarb cocktail that used not only the Aperol but also some straight rhubarb juice. Now, I am obsessed with finding myself some Aperol. In northeastern Ohio. Ha ha, sometimes I am so funny.

*Here is an interesting little story about Aperol and the bartender who made me my drink (he's the one who made the milkshake).

We went to H&M and Urban Outfitters, and the only thing I bought was a headband (at H&M). There were about a million things I wish I could have bought, though, including this dish which I dismissed with "oh I'll just order it when I get my first paycheck, even though there are about 25 sitting right here in this stack which would not require my payment of shipping" and of course now cannot get out of my mind. Even though it is back-ordered online.

Working Girl

My suitcase showed up Monday, but I was not here to greet it because I was at my first day of work. There are a lot of things I like about having a job--and so far, I've liked this one in particular--but my favorite is probably being able to come home and whine about how hard I've worked all day and why isn't there any dinner on the table? Have you ever done this? It's almost as much fun as talking about how much harder you had it growing up in the 80's.

Unfortunately, being gone from 8 to 6 everyday has made it hard for me to sit down in front of the computer. My email has gone unread, my website has gone unupdated. My apologies. Speaking of which, a lot of this page is hosted on my university webspace, so any day now things could get a little ugly--I don't know when they'll be cancelling my account.

Completely unrelated:
I had dinner today with my friend Sarah, and we were talking about the suckfest that is United Airlines. The conversation went something like this:
"I've never flown United, but I did fly Lufthansa when I went to Germany. It's owned by United."

"Oh, Lufthansa! I've always wanted to fly on that. I love saying it. Lufthansa."

"No. Just keep saying it. Never fly on it."

Air Sick

The only bad thing about San Francisco was the travelling. Every time I fly I am certain that my luggage will not be waiting for me when I get off the plane, but I have never been right until this week.

I flew on United into Denver and met Christina, where we found out that our flight to San Francisco had been cancelled. We were put on a later Frontier flight, so of course when we got to San Francisco we had no luggage. Poor Frontier tried to take care of us, but it turned out that our suitcases were sitting on the floor in front of the United desk.

Fast forward to yesterday, when our first flight was delayed an hour and a half. I spent about two hours waiting in the customer service line, hoping to reschedule the second leg of my trip which I'd miss by about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, about ALL of United's flights were problematic, so everyone in the entire concourse was also trying to speak with the three slow, uninterested people manning the desk. I was six people from the front of the line when I had to leave to get on the flight to Denver.

After a long talk with Denver's United desk, I ended up staying the night in Colorado Springs with Christina and flying to Chicago this morning to catch a flight to Akron. This is fine, because the Akron airport really is the better situation for me, but I really don't like that my suitcase is somewhere in airport purgatory. Occasionally my mind wanders and I start thinking about all the great things packed in it, things like my brand-new Christmas ornament cookie cutters (I bought them in Sonoma), my favorite pair of jeans, my Little Black Dress* and generally a lot of things I'd like to have before I start my job tomorrow.

The moral of this story is that you should never, ever, EVER fly United, and I don't care if they are paying YOU to get on their planes, just don't do it. It sucks all the enjoyment out of flying when you can't trust that you're going to be where you want to be when you want to be there. United Airlines, this is my formal declaration of disgust for you.

*You know, the standard Little Black Dress. Which I love, and which took me forever to find.

Indulgent

We have had a great time this week, and I am excited to share all of our stories, but internet here has been expensive for us. To get free access Wednesday, for example, we went to The Crepe House and spent about $8 each to use their free-for-30-minutes service. But as you can see, it was a pretty great thirty minutes of Google Reader and Nutella fueled euphoria.

To California

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for San Francisco, in an effort to spend this entire week enjoying myself. Today I spent the day at Cedar Point, where I took pictures of roller coasters and got a sunburn while hanging out with some of my (wonderful) friends from Miami.

Now, I have to figure out what to pack. I am terrified of TSA regulations even though I've been through security so many times, and I always fear that I will somehow inadvertently pack a foot-long butcher knife or propane lighter in my carry-on. I don't know how it would happen, it just would. In addition, I am almost always in the middle of a knitting project when I fly, and I always want to take it with me on the plane. The list says knitting needles are a YES item, but I am skeptical because have you ever held a pair of metal knitting needles? I don't like to knit in a moving car because I'm afraid we'll wreck or swerve and I'll come out of it with one fewer eye. And I just don't believe that someone who won't let me bring a full bottle of shampoo thinks it's okay to bring sharp metal objects.

Anyway, we haven't made too many decisions about our itinerary yet, so if you have any suggestions feel free to share.

Made not with a need to prove her wrong, but out of sisterly love.

"I'm making you the soccer ball cake from that book mom got me...What? What's that look for?"

"Nothing."

"No, now you have to tell me."

"Well Loren, I have played soccer my whole life and drawing a soccer ball is like, really hard. I don't think you can do it, especially with icing. So don't mess up."

But just because she can't do it doesn't mean I can't:




Also, I know there have been a lot of photos lately, but there's just not much going on here. Seriously.

Yellow

daffodil Originally uploaded by LorenAnn03.


I never made it out to take any pictures of the flowers on campus this spring, but I did get a chance to get a few pretty shots of the daffodils outside my parents' house before they all wilted.

Wondering

if it's okay that the two times I've really felt poignantly sad about leaving school were when I talked to the lady in my apartment complex office and when I changed my homepage's weather location.

Finished!

More photos from today are here.

I loved you more before you looked like this

I think I made a mistake, and that mistake was Cleaning Out The Kitchen.

I love you, 202

Y'all, I am tuckered out. I had my last final exam today, and then my dad and I moved all of my furniture out of my apartment. And then we drove it all back to Loudonville and moved it into the house. And then I continued my quest to defy physics.

I tried really, really hard to be sentimental about moving out today, but it didn't work out very well because I had just gotten back from a terrible exam and I was hungry, both of which steered me away from heartfelt and more towards downright bitchy. But really, now that I have had dinner and can forget about statistics, I am able to think that this year I had such a great place to live. We have a lot of space, and for the first time (away from home) I have my own room. But I think the best part has been that a lot of my friends are my neighbors, so it's like having eight roommates, but without the mess! Which is good, because one of my friends? His hobbies include knife-throwing and shooting airsoft guns. But I digress.

The night we moved out of our freshman year dorm, my roommate and I watched the series finale of Friends, and at the very end they move out of the one apartment that has served as one of the main settings for the show, and it just so happens that they all somehow have a key even though only two of them should. And they all leave their keys and walk out together, and (bear with me, I know it's corny, trust me) then there's just the keys on the counter and the empty feeling of everything being done. I didn't experience that today, but I'm pretty sure I will later this weekend after I've spent the weekend celebrating with my friends and getting the last odds and ends packed up. And I'm sad to be leaving, but I am so glad that I have met the kind of people who I can be glad to have shared so much with for the last four years.