15 Things You Will Always Find at a House Party

I went to a party last night that got me thinking: just as there are certain consistent variables in museums or shopping centers or restaurants (i.e., the crying baby, unsatisfied customer, etc.), there are for house parties as well. Now, I’m not a huge party-goer, but I still feel like I have been to enough gatherings to have some mastery on this subject. Before you read, you should know that I have no leanings toward positive or negative emotions when it comes to these statements. I just find them to be truths of many parties in my opinion, and you can take them however you like.

Disclaimer: I did enjoy the party I attended last night, and most other parties in the recent past. If we know each other, please continue to invite me to events so I can write things like this.

15 Things You Will Always Find at a House Party:

1. The “drunk” girl with a “super low tolerance”. You know, the one that screeches at everything, than excuses it away by saying “I’m so drunk!” She hugs everyone and also has a beer in her hand that stays mysteriously at the 1/3rds left point the whole night, swinging it around at times like a weapon.

2. Guys wearing plaid shirts.

3. The house pet that everyone fawns over, becoming consistently more popular as the night wears on. A cat should never be called a “pussy,” no matter how drunk you are. And, for God’s sake, stop taunting it with a string. How would you like it if someone did that to you all night?

4. The “loose cannon.” The one man/woman you can set your watch to in the sense that will definitely do something completely unpredictable before the night is over. These are the people that take shots of disgusting liquor just to show off, insult their closest friends, and try to start some sort of game that usually doesn’t meet success.

Not at a house party, but one of my favorite pictures of some of my favorite people in New Orleans last year.

5. The person who is an expert at whatever game you are playing. Last time I checked, you can’t put “Beer Pong Champion, University of Wisconsin, class of 2010” on your resume. And if you do, prepare to be living on mother’s couch for many years to come.

6. Jello shots because “they’re delicious!” Which, in fact, they are.

7. A girl wearing something completely ridiculous. Either she ends up looking like she started dressing for the office and then changed her mind halfway through, or she mistook the house party for a New York City nightclub.

8. The person who is taking “time off” from work.

9. The boring people. You know, the ones that require you to carry the conversation by asking all the interesting questions. You’re usually exhausted at the end of these conversations and have made it through double the amount of drinks you normally would.

10. Someone that, no matter who you are or where your from, wants to make some kind of connection with you. Ok, I’ve been guilty of doing this, I admit, especially if the conversation is increasingly awkward. But sometimes it can just be annoying. A friend of mine started answering with, “Oh yeah, everyone in Iowa gets together for weekly bonfires to catch up” because she was so tired of people assuming she would know their friend from Iowa just because she was from Iowa as well. I guess Iowa is one of those states that people really don’t know anything about (I certainly don’t).

11. The attention grabbers. These people will go to any lengths to steal the show. Refer to number 1 for examples.

A fun picture from a recent outing (thanks Emily G.).

12. The annoying couple. You know, the one that refers to themselves as “we” constantly and don’t separate the whole night, so you’re forced to always talk to both of them.

13. The picture takers! I am totally guilty of this. You usually end up with good pictures. Plus, like Jim Halpert says in “The Office,” taking a picture is the best way to prove you were there if you need to make a quick getaway.

14. The clumps of “nerdy kids” v. “cool kids.” It’s like the high school cafeteria all over again.

15. The person who insists on making you the “special party drink”—which, don’t get me wrong, are usually quite delicious. Especially compared to my own drink concoctions, which taste like cleaner fluid (trust me, ask Rahul).

So there you have it, folks. And to end, enjoy Wikipedia’s definition of a house party.

The Good That Comes Out of Bad

So let’s talk about my week.

Usually I don’t like to make my posts so “me” focused, but sometimes that’s inevitable. And this week is one I want to write about.

If you’ve been reading, you know that for a few weeks, I was torn up over the fact that the fraternity I worked for and lived with, Pi Kappa Alpha, lost recognition from the university. Not only was I upset, but this was going to mark a big change in my life as well, as I was going to have to move. I was also not going to be able to work with a fraternity for a semester, which is essentially the biggest part of this job. Needless to say, I was upset. Lots.

But then something good happened! As luck would have it, the chance opened up for a few different organizations to have first pick at the house, if they had all their documents ready. Only one did, Phi Sigma Kappa, and this is the organization I now live with.

So here’s how my week went:

Sunday: The last of the Pikes moved out and I ordered Jimmy John’s for the second time that weekend. Oh, and the GEESE!

Monday: Went to the Hyundai dealership at 8 AM to do one of my least favorite things ever: get my car serviced. Then rushed to the President’s retreat at the university to introduce myself as a member of Greek life staff. Oh, and the biggest thing: cleaning crews scrubbing the entire house to prepare the facility for the transition to PSK, which they only had two days to do. Oh, and this is also the day I realized the books that still hadn’t been delivered to me had been addressed to the completely wrong address. Way to go, Katherine….

My beautiful planner. Now I can keep track of things again (as I am notorious for writing to-do lists on little slips of paper and immediately losing them.

Delicious! And all free!

Tuesday: More cleaning. Washing machine company came and removed the machines. Awesome 5-mile run that was much needed. My beautiful planner that I can’t stop looking at finally came in the mail. Then met the PSKs for the first time at their chapter meeting! This was exciting. Plus, the Sweet Green that was just built in the city offered free lunch to faculty and staff, which proved itself to be insanely delicious. This is definitely going to be a favorite spot of mine from now.

The cupcakes one of the member's girlfriends made for them on their move-in day!

Wednesday: Phi Sigma Kappa move-in day! Considering I thought this was house was going to be empty for a semester, this is remarkable. Plus, the fraternity is EXTREMELY excited to be housed on the row and just wondered through the house in utter awe. Their excitement excites me! The fraternity just recently moved out of colony status, and so now also having a house is a big deal for them. Plus, now I don’t have to move and I get to be a House Mom still. Oh, and this was also my first day of spring classes. NBD. And signed up to turn in a story for fiction workshop this weekend (as in, tomorrow.) Again, NBD.

Fresh flowers + Rahul = two of my favorite things.

Thursday: Got flowers from Rahul in the mail! He’s totally smile-inducing, all the time. Went to hear a prospective MFA faculty member read and then sat down with she and other MFAers and had a talk about the MFA program. Lately, I’ve started to realize more and more why and how I ended up here. The obvious answer is that I wanted to attend a writing program and get a Masters for something I already love doing. The one that has revealed itself to me after a semester here is that I love this program and these people. I’ve never before been surrounded by all writers who all love doing the same thing I do. I need to remember not to take these years for granted, as they will surely shape my writing life in a way I don’t truly see yet today. Plus, the people in it are fun, which always helps. I was also super tired this day, because a very confused, intoxicated student banged on the doors of the house for around two hours early Thursday morning. I lived with a pretty loud group last semester, yet they never woke me up, so the fact that this kid woke me up banging on the door was pretty remarkable. I guess school really is back in session…

Friday: Many, many meetings. More PSKs moving in, and 60 degree weather! I actually got confused at one point and thought it was spring time.

Let me also mention that Rahul and I are newly addicted to Homeland and have been moving our way through the show throughout the week.

This may not seem like many things but, for someone who likes to plan out her days and weeks days in advance, the fact that so many unexpected things happened this week and I’m still makin’ it by Friday speaks for a lot! Plus, this new PSK move has inspired me to clean up my apartment, which led me to finding many things I have needed, like my reading glasses, missing Tupperware containers, misplaced chocolates, magnetic strips to hang my bobby pins on, etc. I’ve almost completely finished a piece that I started less than 15 days ago, and I created tons of documents and formulated ideas for approaching House Mommery this spring.

So it’s like my dad said: sometimes things happen for a reason. And this time, something bad had to happen for something good to come out of it.

So This One Time, 50 Geese Hung Out on the Field in Front of My House

GEESE!

As you may have guessed if you’ve been reading, I’m a fan of all things weird and unusual in terms of the nuances of day-to-day life. I’m usually not the one doing the weird or unusual things, as I am a bit of a planner/over-organizer, but I enjoy witnessing the unusual around me. So that’s why yesterday I got overly excited when I noticed a flock of geese had landed on the field in the middle of the row where I live.

At first, it was around 36 geese but eventually grew to over 50 in number (yes I counted). For hours, geese were flying to and from the field, just chilling and flapping their wings and making noises at each other. I’ve seen geese at the lake near my house, but seeing them flock to a field is not as normal as seeing them on a lake, which seems more like their natural habitat. But I suppose this field was also once their natural habitat, before the university took it over. Sorry, geese.

Just to give you an idea of how close they were—this was taken from my window without a zoom. With my own bronze goose/duck in the windowsill. Yes, I know, I got way too excited over this.

Apparently the geese do this often too—they seek out the grassy spot amid the snow and ice. My friend Cassie finds them gross, but I think they’re cute! That is, as long as you don’t get too close and freak them out. Then that would be gross. And since I wrote this, the geese have come back again today, but they’re instead hanging down further away from my house, which is not as exciting.

So in the spirit of the geese, Rahul and I watched Fly Away Home last night. I remember loving this movie as a kid. This was Anna Paquin before she became a vampire in True Blood. Also before she filmed a sex scene in The Squid and the Whale with the man who plays HER FATHER in Fly Away Home (Jeff Daniels). Regardless. I was watching mostly for the geese anyway. I think I have this secret desire to open a zoo, so I’m constantly keeping track of animals that I think Rahul and I should adopt.

Plus, when it’s cold and dreary outside, what better way to cheer you up than looking at videos of cute animals? Or seeing them right outside your window within a 50 yard radius?

Midnight in Amsterdam

Rahul and I watched Midnight in Paris the other night, which was pretty good for a Woody Allen film. The reason I say this is because I’ve found many Woody Allen films to be annoying, but those are also the ones where Woody Allen acted in it as well. I don’t know, but I just find him to be too…Woody Allenish when he acts.

But, regardless, after the movie, Rahul and I got to talking about all the well-known people from the past we would like to meet like Gil does. For him, hanging with the likes of Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein in 1920s Paris spurred his creative thoughts and allowed him to communicate with some of the literature greats. And sure, those guys are great, but for me, I have a bit of a different list, including Flannery O’Connor, Eleanor Roosevelt, John Steinbeck, Anne Frank, and more.

The middle building housed Anne Frank's annex.

The closest I’ve come to meeting any of the following were through visits to the John Steinbeck museum in California, a Roosevelt vacation home somewhere in Florida (I think) and the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. I want to write about the last one because, for me, visiting the Anne Frank museum was literally a dream can true. And I know that may sound weird, but let me explain.

The copy of her diary that I have now, purchased at the museum.

I read Anne Frank’s diary constantly growing up. I also went through a period where I was obsessed with learning about her. I checked out virtually every book about her in the library, watched documentaries and movies—anything that was available to research and learn more about Anne Frank, you name it, I did it. Other things on the docket around the same time were the Titanic, the Holocaust, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Me and Anne Frank! (Or is it Anne Frank and I?) Either way.

But something about Anne’s story got me—it was like when I read her words, I connected to her. She inspired me to keep years of journals. What I loved about her diary was that, even though she was writing while in hiding (even though she had the diary for a month before), what we were experiencing at age 13 was not all that different. We both wrote about clothes, boys, make-up, family issues. Things we liked or didn’t like. That’s what I loved the most—that she was able to find the beauty in life when she was literally unsure about what the next day would bring.

She mentions the bells from this church in her diary.

Visiting where she and the other seven were in hiding had been a lifelong goal of mine for a while, and I was disappointed when I had two layovers in Amsterdam during my South Africa trip where we were confined to the airport for fear of not having enough time to make it back for our next flight. However, when I visited Amsterdam with my family on the end of our Italy trip, I found this fear was totally ridiculous because leaving the Amsterdam airport is literally one of the easiest things to do, ever.

A bit of Amsterdam.

But anyway. My family and I only had 24 hours in Amsterdam so, of course, we had to move fast. We visited the Red Light District and an H&M the night we arrived, saving Anne Frank’s house for the next morning. In typical family vacation style, we arrived to the museum early to ensure an early spot in the line. Works every time.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures from inside, but it doesn’t matter. It was incredibly chilling walking up the stairs that led to the bookshelf disguised as a doorway, then up the stairs to the annex. We walked through all the rooms, taking in the black covered windows, the photos of celebrities still taped on Anne’s wall (something I also did myself), the heights of the three children still marked. It was, to put it simply, incredible. After so many years of reading and learning about Anne Frank, someone I felt like I knew, it was surreal to see the last place she lived.

Some more of Amsterdam (and a girl texting with BOTH HANDS while texting, that's skill).

One of my favorite parts was her diary on display. I literally jumped in excitement and then bonded with a few British schoolgirls who were also taking in the red-checked diary in awe. That very moment truly spoke to the effect of her diary—that a girl from Tennessee and two girls from the UK could come together over words written in a diary by a young teenager over 50 years ago. Even though Anne was an aspiring writer, I doubt she ever dreamed her words would become so famous.

Even though my list and Gil’s are totally different, I still swooned just as much walking through Anne Frank’s annex as he did meeting the literary greats in Paris.

I Don’t Listen to My Voicemail

Something disturbing has been happening to me over the past few weeks: Constant Voicemail Messages.

I can’t explain it, but voicemail is one of those things I hate. I mean, it’s not that checking my voicemail takes up a lot of my time. If the message left is only 15 seconds long, it would technically take me 45 seconds tops to check the voicemail. But I hate doing it. Dialing the voicemail, entering my password, listening to the message—it literally drives me crazy. It’s one of those things that I can’t stand doing but don’t require a lot of work on my part, right up there with going to the dentist or getting my car serviced.

Usually, my hatred of voicemail doesn’t blossom into much of a problem. Most of my family and friends know by now not to leave me one. And really, the only voicemails I listen to immediately are ones that are from important people or things, like work. And that’s about it. Not that my family and friends aren’t important—I just don’t have a problem calling them back without first knowing what was in the voicemail.

But what’s really been bothering me lately is the amount of voicemails I have received. It seems that every time I finally clear my voicemail box and get rid of that annoying as hell voicemail sign at the top of my phone screen, another one makes it way to the same position within the day. I can’t stand it! Right now, I have one sitting unchecked (of course) and I’m pretty sure it’s from the delivery guy who brought me my food on Friday night. I mean, come on—what are my motives to check that voicemail. NONE. Absolutely none.

I do enjoy getting voicemails from really really loved ones, like my family or boyfriend. Rahul usually leaves me nice voicemails whenever I am flying somewhere, which I really like. But other than that, send me a text. I’ll check that within the minute. I can’t explain why I prefer this method. Who knows, maybe it’s a symptom of my “generation.”

At a liquor store in Cleveland Park. We didn't taste this one, but it made me laugh.

Homemade guacamole, yuuuum.

In other news, had a great time catching up with my friend Mary Beth yesterday. We hit up some wine-tastings before making homemade guacamole and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. I told her I learn so many things every time I go to her apartment, like what a

Kitchen Aid mixer, SO HELPFUL. Making cupcakes.

Kitchen Aid mixer is, and a food processor, and how awesome having your own kitchen is. The cupcakes turned out DELICIOUS, and the added plus was getting lots of time to hang out, which we hadn’t done in a while. Sometimes it’s nice to see people you’ve known for a really long time and just spend a few hours together! Plus, also nice to be in a real kitchen for a little while. And to hang out with her super adorable cat.

The spread (minus fondue).

She then made fondue for us and a few others, which I sadly did not get a picture of, but was delicious. The night ended with a game of Scategories, which was also new to me, but I quickly learned I’m awesome at. I still believe that Kinect counts as something K that would be found in a gym or health center, no matter what anyone else says.

Killing Fruit Flies with Windex

For the past two days, it’s been a bloody war between me and the fruit fly infestation in my apartment. I discovered yesterday that flies really will fly into and drown in a glass of wine, so for two nights in a row I left out a glass with just enough wine in the bottom that the little suckers would drown. Last night, I strategically placed this glass in my bathroom so they would collect in there. The wine got the majority of the flies, and I was left with my weapon of choice to get the rest: Windex.

Excellent book tags...at Capitol Hill Books

I spent half the morning spraying fruit flies with the stuff anytime I went near the bathroom and I think I got most of them. I felt kind of sad watching them succumb so easily to the Windex’s jet stream, but not really. At least I can finally eat in my apartment again without them driving me crazy. Plus, Windex proved to be a multi-purpose tool, as Gus Portokalos endorsed.

Pound the Hill

YUMMM! I love latte designs. And good biscotti. Yes to both.

I finally had a mostly productive day today where I did things I wanted to do, like going for a much-needed run and venturing into D.C. I hit up the Capitol Hill used bookstore again to search for the few books I still need to get for the spring semester. I only found one of them and nearly knocked over a huge stack of books in the

You know you have a good latte when the foam sticks to the biscotti like this.

process, as the book was of course at the bottom of it. But this was made up for by the shop owner yelling “Heresy!” when I told him I had ordered most of the books I needed online. And by the way, if you sold me a book on half.com (specifically The Lover because I need it, like, NOW) then please send it to me. Please? No more lies about saying your shipping it and then it still not having arrived like 15 days later.

Awesome wall map.

Pound the Hill

I added to my list of coffee shops to visit at the end of last semester and today visited Pound the Hill in Eastern Market. I loved this coffee shop!

So. beautiful.

The reviews online for it were mixed, but I thought it was totally relaxed, had plenty of seating, and delicious coffee and snacks. I was able to order right away and found a nice two-person table in the back sitting area near this awesome, enormous map of the world. One of my goals for January (as UMD doesn’t start back until 1/25) was to write and submit to magazines, and I was able to accomplish both of those things today. Plus, was aided by Mumford & Sons and delicious raspberry walnut biscotti.

If you’re in the D.C. area, I totally recommend Pound the Hill. Who knows, maybe I just visited it at a good time, but I’m definitely adding this coffee shop to my list of places to visit again.

This + surprisingly mild weather=perfect walk.

After that, the sun was setting, so instead of walking back to the Eastern Market metro, I zig-zagged through the city to the Union Station metro instead. This allowed me to walk right by the Capitol. One of the reasons I love D.C. is because you can walk from an area like Eastern Market, with coffee shops and small restaurants, to the back door

Hello, Union Station.

of the Capitol and other government buildings, with townhouses and residential areas mixed in between. Honestly, I think people who live in D.C. should wake up everyday thankful that they live in such an amazing place. Hopefully that is what’s happening, occasionally. I know it would be for me.

So, today=good day. Minus the whole Apple-headphones-being-difficult-and-not-staying-in-my-ears. Damn things.

Goodnight, Capitol.

25 Things that Amuse Me about the Entertainment Industry

One of my friends told me my last post was kind of depressing. So in an effort to make January more exciting, I’m listing 25 random things I wonder or think about when it comes to the entertainment sphere—you know, since it’s supposed to be a representation of “reality.” You might find that you’ve pondered some of the same things. You might also find that you definitely have not. Don’t worry. Like Loreali Gilmore, my brain can be a wild jungle sometimes and this is just a sampling of the things that go through my mind daily.

1. I don’t find it believable that NO ONE says goodbye when they talk on the phone on TV shows/movies.

2. Are they really drinking wine/beer/liquor on TV shows/movies, or is it something else? I’ve been watching a lot of “Friends” lately, and they drink a crap load of wine, so this question has been forefront in my concerns as of late.

My sister, mom, and I with a "Law & Order" tunnel in Central Park. I later saw an episode where they legitimately filmed in this very spot.

3. Christopher Meloni, pleeeeaaassseee come back to Law & Order: SVU. PLEASE. You AND your crazy large forehead.

4. Why does everyone use phrases that are never used in real life? If I ever use the phrase “Now if you’ll excuse me” in a conversation, I’ll be shocked.

5. Did anyone else throw their copy of HP6 and then apologize to the book for throwing it when Dumbledore died? Or was that just me….

6. I want a complete list of all the different ways Facebook has been referred to on TV shows/movies without actually having to say Facebook. My favorite: Facespace.

7. Do show pets have owners in real life like actors have real families?

8. Who the HELL 1) came up with the idea of radio talk show hosts on pop/current music radio stations and 2) thought it was a good idea to let them talk in the morning instead of just playing some good ol’ tunes? I haven’t had to drive to work early in the morning in a while, but I guarantee you I can find a truckload of people who agree with me when I say “It’s 6 am. Just give me some freakin’ music, please.”

9. To continue with radio talk show hosts (I HATE THEM), do they listen to the things they say? In the car yesterday, I heard these gems within 30 minutes of each other: “Adele has a big butt,” “Rihanna doesn’t like to wear pants,” and “And no, no depressants were used when writing this song (in reference to “Good Feeling” by Flo Rida). Not even Paxil.” WTF!?!

10. Do they film car crash scenes more than once?

11. I don’t find the amount of cheese sandwiches consumed or coffee drank in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo relevant to the plot.

12. Did Steve Carrell learn to play the guitar for Dan in Real Life or is it a previously acquired skill?

13. I miss The Hills. Sooo much better than Jersey Shore.

14. Pretty soon, Apple will somehow have landed product placement in every single TV show and move in existence. Don’t even get Rahul started on the Apple product placement in Mission Impossible 4. Now I have to see if my dad’s iPad will create a fake wall like the one in the movie did.

15. If Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga had a child, what would it look like?

16. Is it soooo hard to find someone to play Bruce Banner/The Hulk in more than one movie?

17. Is it really necessary to remix Adele’s “Someone Like You?” Can we just not listen to a slow song without an annoying beat in the background?

18. NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DRIVE IN MOVIES. If I drove moving my hands so much on the steering wheel like actors do, I WOULD DIE. Recent best example: Taylor Lautner in Abduction.

19. Let’s continue talking about Taylor Lautner. In his last movie, every time he cried it looked like he just had bad allergies (give Rahul credit for this). How long is he going to get by on just being pretty?

20. Pitbull rhymes “Kodak” with “Kodak” in “Give Me Everything.” Yeah, that happened. I still run to the song, though.

21. The movie version of HP1 is painful to watch now. Plus, they took out the best line: “HAVE YOU GONE MAD? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?” Yeah, I’m still bitter about it, even though the movie came out when I was in 9th grade.

Me "jumping" over the very same spot Ben Gates does in Independence Hall.

22. Why do all radio stations go on commercial at the same time?

23. Why was The Return of the Jedi so much better in my mind than The Empire Strikes Back? So far, no one I’ve talked to about this agrees with me.

24. Yeah, please. I’m not buying it that that’s what so-in-so character’s cell phone screen actually looks like it. I never received a picture message on a flip phone that took up the whole screen.

25. National Treasure is one of the best movies of all time. Period.

When All That’s Left is You

With a New Year’s Week that started with my boyfriend and ended with a debilitating stomach bug, I’m currently doing the only thing that seems right: watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 and writing, of course.

I’m not particularly excited about the events that are going to take place over the next few weeks, but I have to be an adult, accept it, and deal with it. Teaching was hard, yeah, but this job has given me a completely new appreciation for my dad as a Human Resources Manager and dealing with people on a daily basis. Because dealing with people is hard, especially when it comes to a job that places you in a position of confidante and leader.

House with no letters. (par. 9)

If you’ve been reading, you know I was a House Mom for the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at University of Maryland. I say “was” because the fraternity recently lost recognition by the university and is no longer allowed to function. And so now, after working with and getting to know the 31 brothers that lived in the house (and some of the off-campus brothers), I have to essentially start from page one again.

When I took this job, I had no idea what to expect, but I knew that I wanted to continue working with students. But unlike teaching, House Mom meant I saw these students on a daily basis. This was fine with me. Whenever I needed a laugh, I simply talked to the guys. They wrote messages on my board. I left them candy in their mailboxes. We developed a good relationship.

But the hard thing about this job (and I don’t think this is any big secret) is literally having to act as a parent, so-speaking. You can act as their friend, but you also have to reprimand them when they misbehave. And when they really misbehave, the university takes control of this, which is what happened in this case.

The sign is gone, yet the message remains.

So, unlike teaching, where most of the relationships created with students were connected to what letter grade the student was trying to get out of you, these relationships were based on enjoying each other’s company and watching out for them as individuals. Eating lunches together. Sitting on the front porch when it was nice outside. Talking about anything from school to favorite Disney movies to the difference between a “cute girl” and a “pretty girl.”

One of the only places the letters remain in the house (in a room that used to be full of composites and couches).

I had a really hard time accepting their dismissal at first. I felt like a parent whose child had misbehaved and couldn’t comprehend that they would do such a thing. I have a tendency to see the good in people. And I still do see the good in this group of guys but, at this point, there’s really not much I can do, which was the most heartbreaking part of it all.

I’m moved a little toward seeing the bright side of this situation—I’ll have a kitchen for a semester (as I’m being moved to an apartment), I’ll get to work closer with those in the office, and I’ll get to apply lessons learned to dealing with the fraternity I work with next Fall. But for now, especially as I’m still living in the house, all I see is what’s gone.

The rooms remind me of pictures of eerie abandoned/deserted places.

I left a house full of yelling and music and boy smells to return to a house with no letters on the front, no composites, and no guys. Other than my tiny apartment, I might as well be living in a stranger’s house. A few of the guys have already been by to gather their belongings, and it was good to see them. But I also know that from now on, no matter what I do, my relationship with some of them will be inevitably different. I’ve also learned the painfulness of social networking and how it can play right into my “If I don’t see or hear about it, I don’t know about it” policy. In the past, social networking was a fun way to connect with the guys. I once used it to ask them to turn down the music in the house. But, for the first time, this policy became relevant to a post on a social networking website, and it sucked.

Seriously, what happened here?

I know by the time this is all closed up and done with, I will have some good things to draw out of it. As my dad was saying earlier this week, “Everything happens for a reason.” This may be cheesy, but I like to see this as truth as well. This is happening for a reason. I may not see the reason yet, but it’s there.

I Went to Four Airports Yesterday

Yesterday was long and sad. It also included me traveling to four airports. That’s right, four. Four airports in one day, six airports in four days. By the end of this week, 10 airports in two weeks.

Sure, some of them are repeats, but every time a visit to an airport is made, I believe it still counts.

A picture from our Starbucks goodbye over the summer. Chose this picture because I wish it was as warm outside right now.

Rahul and I went to D.C. over the weekend to visit his sister and ring in 2012 (aka the year of the Mayans) together. This was the first year I spent the New Year’s NOT at my parents’ annual party—I’m not lame or anything, my parents just know how to throw a kickass party—and I told him he better show me a good time. And of course, being the wonderful boyfriend he is, he did.

It really worked out great because he was able to visit me in Maryland for the first time. He then said whatever we did on New Year’s Day would set the tone for the rest of our year. And what did we do? Lounge around his sister’s all day watching TV shows, of course. Which, in my mind, is this year’s way of telling us to relax more.

But, back to the subject of this post—four airports. I’ve never had much of a reason to fly before, but living in Maryland has provided more opportunities for going Up in the Air. And I have to say, I’m getting kind of good at it. I even now have one of those suitcases that wheels in all four directions and makes me look like a legit traveler. Sure, I still get anxious when it comes to being at my gate extra early for my departure time, but I don’t look like a fool anymore going through security.

I don't know what this is, but thought it was cool (BWI).

So yesterday I drove Rahul to DCA for his flights back to India (sad sad). We shared a piece of lemon pound cake, which is what we shared at Starbucks the last time he flew back from the states to India, so I’m thinking we now have to make that our official departure food. Anyway, it was really sad to see him go and I did my best not to cry (which was not the case when I flew back from India). One.

I'm telling you. OLD. But still convenient.

I barely had time to pack before jetting off again for BWI only to find out right after my arrival that my first flight had

Charlotte Airport.

been delayed. This gave me plenty of time to get to know BWI and read a ton of pages of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on my Mom’s old as heck Kindle, as I had essentially arrived three hours early for a flight that was now delayed so much it caused me to miss my connecting flight. Two.

Charlotte Airport. Shout outs to the Wright brothers.

The Charlotte airport is awesome. Definitely didn’t mind having an unexpected longish layover here. There was this beautiful big lobby area with Christmas stuff and planes everywhere. Plus, there was a TEENAGER playing the piano like a freakin’ music expert. I wanted to call out requests, but I didn’t want to throw him off his game. Not only that, but they also had wicker rocking chairs and personal attendants in the bathroom with peppermints available. The South, I tell ya’.

This kid was kicking ass playing the piano.

We know how to be hospitable, even right down to the free wi-fi. Three.

Memphis still gets me with its bathrooms doubling as tornado shelters. I guess safety first. The airport was super depressing at 9 pm at night, but I was happy to see 1) the gate I departed from to Delhi and 2) my parents waiting for me. Four.

So even though I was just traveling within the states, I felt like I had added several notches to my traveling belt by the end of the day, and rightfully so.