scenic view of tmi.

well hello bloggers. i'm sorry i left for so long. i'm finally in my new apartment, and shantae and i only got internet on monday.

so, the grad school adventure has begun. it's only been a week and a half, so any judgement i have is not fully correct. right now, i'm not as happy as i would hope. grad school is very lonely, especially at psu harrisburg. the campus was founded to cater to the working adult. i'm a baby here, in terms of grad students. i've only met one other student who is fresh from her undergrad. everyone else seems to be much older. almost everyone i meet is married, and even has kids (or in the case of my fellow amst assistant, brant, having a baby on tuesday). there is no real community. people come, take class, and leave. shantae and i were talking about that tonight. we heard about a comedy show on campus and wanted to take that in, but we couldn't find the community center. there is one place to eat on campus, resident or otherwise. the people seem nice enough, just too busy to be looking for friends. i'm sorta friends with brant, who is growing on me, and i'm definitely friends with shantae...she's awesome. but otherwise, i'm alone most of the time. thank god for fred and seth, who i see periodically and they really make my day. i love my professors and the people in the amst and humanities departments, but i'm not terribly impressed with some of the students. oh well. i'll just own, that's all.

the weekends really are my lifeboat. i either get to go to philly and see everyone (2 weeks guys!) or jason comes home and we spend the weekend at the apartment, or with friends. i've been getting very stressed out lately, and my computer is acting up again. i know i've been afforded this amazing experience, but i can't help but get meloncholy almost everyday. i just keep telling myself...just a year, just a year. in one year, i will have a master's degree in american studies and i can really get on with my life. i have no idea what i'll do, but i know better what i will not do. i will NOT sit in an office. i can't deal. I need to be doing something more. i need to teach, or dance or something...we'll figure that out. hopefully my advisors will help me with that.

i'm peachy.

ps: in reference to my title: i really do have a lovely view of tmi from my porch, and planes fly realllly low over psu to land at hia. it's crazy.

shock top and kaboom.

so, another week has gone by and i'm again here to write about it.

last week was pretty good. nothing terribly exciting, but also not painfully boring. on tuesday, it was dance again, and thank god beth was here again. it can be painful if she's not. i spent last week alone in the office, more or less, so going to dance was nice, even if just to see people. wednesday was dance, and trish taught, so we worked hard, but had an awesome class. we even got a full tap class with a combination. andrea and i were thrilled. to top off our sweet dance class, andrea, heidi, sarah and i went to friendly's for ice cream and food. it was a great evening.

on thursday i was supposed to meet up with amanda brothman to do dinner, but we both sorta forgot, and then were too tired to hang out. it was ok though, because i needed to get myself in order. i may or may not have an apartment in my future, so i needed to start looking at what i have, and pack for philly the next day.

friday was a very relaxing day. train to philly, wawa for dinner (as per usual) and we just vegged. we are so cool. saturday was work for jason, so i hung out in the apartment until lunch, then went back to library to read. i'm "in training" for grad school. i'm going to have to read actively all the time, so i'm really curious how fast i can really read and how much i can retain. if i keep my mind on it, i'm pretty good. phew. following an after-work/reading nap, jason and i went to nik's party at his new apartment in malvern. lovely. i got to catch up with some EP kids who i hadn't seen in forever and jason had a good time too. i also tried a new beer (shock top), which i enjoyed thoroughly.

on the way home, i was hungry, so jason and i went to wawa (i don't get enough wawa living in central pa). on the way there, i became very sad, for no reason. maybe i'm feeling melancholy about leaving la salle and going to grad school. i dunno. it was weird though, because normally when you feel down, you know why. i had no clue why i was sad. i got over it.

sunday was moving day. jason and i cleaned and packed until noon, when his parents got there. about 4 hours later, we were outta there. his new apartment is great, and he's not alone, which makes me feel even better. yay! after pizza, his parents drove me home.

nothing much to report otherwise. on thursday i'm going to a caddy auction in harrisburg with rosemary, which should be fun. i'm back in philly on friday to see the producers this weekend.

i'm peachy.

school supplies = joy.

dear five star,

thank you for sponsoring my graduate school education.

love, megan.

so, this past week was pretty good...it more than made up for the attrocity that was last weekend. i spent monday and friday in the office, but i got to spend tuesday through thursday at my boss's home in the blue mountains. i'm inventorying (?) her father's comic collection and attempting to sell them, so i was at her house taking pictures with her cannon rebel (sigh!) and watching tv and eating snack food. i went in late and left early. she was there on wednesday and we watched movies and had lunch at isaacs. we also listened to the broadway channel on satillite radio...which was awesome. the week went quickly and life progressed. i'm still looking for an apartment, and it is becoming a VERY frustrating experience, but it'll work itself out.

saturday was amazing. (Nerd Alert).

First, i slept in. I don't do that often. Either I have work, or something with Jason or I just can't sleep anymore past 8. But on Friday (after seeing Seth and MJ in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" with Erica), I went to bed at 11:30pm...and slept until 10 am. I really needed to sleep after being sick. I had an omelet (woot!) and got dressed and went to the new shopping center near my house, which houses the following stores (if you recognize some of these, you'll understand why having a place like this so near my home is so very cool): Wegmans, Target, Best Buy, Ulta, Panera Bread, Office Max, Ross, Bed Bath & Beyond, and many other little stores I haven't explored yet. All that...in one center. I first had to go to Target to return my bathing suit, which broke on vacation (on the last day, thank god). It was so cute, and I was so bummed because I loved it. Oh well...$15 back in the bank account. I needed to buy Nik a b-day gift and Jason an anniversary gift, so I did that. Then, school supplies. I love school supplies. New notebooks (in yellow, black, magenta, and lime green), a new binder (with clear, pocketed seperators), and pens. I had to stop at Best Buy to chat with the GeekSquad people, then to Office Max to get folders for Rosemary. There I saw color coded manila folders and matching (sort of) hanging folders. OH MY ORGANIZING GOODNESS!

As soon as I got home, I started the organizing process. For now, it's in the basement, which is a little inconvenient for now. However, once the apartment is gotten, I'll be all over that. I enjoy moving in to a new space and making it my own. I watched "Finding Nemo" and had leftover Caddy Shack wings with my parents (The Caddy Shack is a restaurant near my house that sits on a golf course. They have amazing wings and the sandwiches are named after characters from the movie. The Lacey Underall is a fish sandwich. Coincidence? I think not.) Mom and I started a puzzle (which is still in the works) and Jason came home, which is the highlight of my weekend when I have to stay home. I got part of my anniversary gift with dinner (a case of Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat!!!) and we saw "The Dark Knight", which was amazing.

On Sunday, we ventured to Hersheypark for our one year anniversary (aw...). If you haven't been in a while, make the trip. The 2 newest roller coasters are amazing, and the whole park is just hopping. We had a wonderful day. Good weather, although a little rain drove people away, and a lovely day. At around 6, we were exhausted, so we had dinner and went home. Jason's mom bought us peanut butter pie at Wegman's and we had that on the porch, before coming back to my house for some puzzling. Good weekend.

This week at work is nothing special. All alone for most of it, but I get to go home around 3 or 4 and I'll be back in Philly on Friday night. Dance class on Tuesday and Wednesday (which really helps me get through the work week). So...yeah.

I'm peachy.

Puke on your birthday: the home game

first, thanks to mandy bee and joe kain for use of their blog name.

this was not the best week...

i started dance this week, and i was in a lot of pain, despite all the fun i had actually at dance. of course, i'm going back tomorrow night. duh.

i've also had a cold all week, which went away by wednesday, but returned as allergies on thursday and really killed the rest of my weekend.

thursday night i left for philly, so as to attend the funeral for mr. grady (which was very touching and i got to see lots of people i missed). i got to jason's late, and pretty much fell right to sleep. i woke up, attended the funeral, went to wawa, and jason and i ran out to see 'mamma mia!' which was ridiculous. that night we were to go out with some of jason and i's friends. this is where the weekend took a turn.

after the weirdest cab ride ever, we got to kildare's in manyunk. i had a madras...in a pitcher. and drank it down. then i had more madras. then danced. i'm feeling fine at this point. the girls suggested we leave and for some reason, i forgot about jason and mike and we all left. the girls also suggested shots, which for some reason i happily indulged in. first, a dirty girl scout. then, a red-headed slut, which has the devil liquor in it. i didn't feel good, so jason took me outside, where i proceeded to sit on the curb with my eyes closed. i thought i was only there for a few minutes...apparently i was there for 2 hours. poor form. i graduated from college already...i can't do that anymore. i'm pretty embarrassed.

i paid for it in the morning. however, as the day wore on, i felt better, sort of. then after nik's party, i developed a fever.

sunday was nice, but at the point i felt like my entire weekend had been wasted with me being lame and sick. i'm still sick. i think what happened is that i was already getting sick when we went out for drinks, and the combo of that, and no real dinner was my mistake and i suffered for it.

on sunday, i went out to brunch and the franklin fountain with sara and michele, to give michele a send off as she leaves for nicaragua today. that was nice.

my train was delayed over an hour. that was not nice.

i didn't sleep well last night. that was not nice either.

i got another grant from penn state this morning. that was nice.

sigh...i need a nap.

(apologies for how lame this entry was).

i'm peachy.

Spiders and beaches and booze...oh my!

So, I survived my first vacation with Jason's family. Actually, this makes it sound like they are a problem or something, which is the exact opposite of the way they are. His parents are just really awesome people. However, as awesome as this vacation really was, it is a wonder we all survived.

1. Jason and I had a room on the first floor. On the first night, I turned out the light, rolled over to sleep and realized that I didn't know where my bracelet was and I didn't want to forget it. I turn the light back on and SPIDER! BIG BROWN SPIDER...IN THE FREAKING BED! I freaked out...and Jason did a little too, but he was manly and killed the spider. Ew. Over the course of the week, Jason killed no less than 5 spiders which were all different species. We also shared our room with some roly-polies, crickets, and flies.

2. There were 17 other people in the house, so it was bound to get noisy. However, for some reason, when I was ready to nap, the kids wanted to play pool...and the table was right outside our door. Oh well.

3. The beach was awesome (boy, do I love the beach). The water, however, was ice. I spent most of my time by the pool with Jason's mom and a drink in hand. On the first day, we had to wait until 4pm to get into our house, so we went and lay on the beach. The family next to us was conducting a scavenger hunt, and it was hilarious. People watching is a highly under-rated activity (unless you are Jason or a resident of IHOR...we know the true joy that is watching people). At one point, the little girls team was lagging behind and one of them started crying. Her uncle's response? "Stop crying and catch up!". It was intense.

4. Did I mention there was booze? Well, there was. I used the Magic Bullet every day and even created my own drink! The only money I spent down there was on booze. Some discoveries:
- Smirnoff has put out 2 new flavors of vodka: Passion Fruit and White Grape
- Malibu has a Banana Rum that is AMAZING.
- My new drink is called "the cat call". It might sound gross, but it is sooo good.
- One juice box of Yoo-Hoo
- Malibu Banana Rum (as much as you like)
- Splash of milk
- Ice
- Put in Magic Bullet and voila! Chocolately goodness...Chocolate syrup might be a nice addition.

This weekend is going to be interesting. I'm arriving in Philly late Thursday to attend Mr. Grady's funeral on Friday. I'm also planning on seeing (hopefully) both Mamma Mia and The Dark Knight. I'm having brunch with my ladies on Sunday and spending more quality time with Jason.

Work is good...I start dance tonight...I'm going Isaac's for lunch.

I'm peachy.

The Constant Gardener Strikes Again!

So, as most readers of this blog know, I spent most of my four years at La Salle working on the Masque family tree.  I even got an award for it at the Masque formal called "the constant gardener" award.  I dedicated a lot of time to it, but I easily let it go at the end of April, handing it off to Miss Val Ciaramella.  I didn't even try to make one for this year.  Val will do that and she'll do an amazing job.  

However, I noticed that my life has been lacking a project, and it fell in my lap yesterday evening with an email from my cousin Sasha.  She had began working on a McGee family tree, after she had been given a bunch of information on her mother's side of the family.  She emailed my mom, and we were off.  I am now making a real family tree online of my family.  This has been so much fun!  I knew my mom's family was big, but I had NO idea how many people were in my dad's family.  He is one of four (although my Aunt Kathleen died shortly after being born), but his grandmother was one of eight.  After numerous generations, there are quite a lot of us.  If I thought researching the Masque was hard, try researching family who came over from Ireland, England, and Germany, some over 150 years ago!  The site is amazing (and I have recommended it to Val), and I'm so proud of the work Sasha and I have done already.  Hopefully we'll have a pretty complete tree by the time her baby is born in late January.  

Aside from that, I've been having a pretty good summer.  I spent the weekend two weeks ago (May 29th) in Philly, drinking with Jason and Sara and some other suprise guests, taking Doug out to celebrate his MCAT's, and relaxing before my first week at work.  Work is my internship at Chiavetta Consulting.  I wrote a little bit about it in my Chex 2 blog.  The beginning of the week always moves fast, but the end, once the legisators are out of session, is realllly boring.  I got my security badge last Wednesday, but I haven't been able to use it until today, which was awesome.  This past weekend I spent with my dad's cousins in New Jersey, then back home to see Jason and hang-out with his friends.  Sunday was spent by the Albright's pool with Jason, then naps and West Wing.  I also found this amazing show called "When We Left the Earth" on the Discovery Channel.  It's going to be on every Sunday at 9 for the next 2 weeks and it celebrates the 50th anniversary of NASA and the first manned space flight.  

This week at work has been pretty quiet.  Rosemary and I went up to the capitol today because it was Zoo Day and there was promise of penguins...but when we got there, they had left already.  Lame.  We had Starbucks to pass the time between the lack of penguins and our meetings.  My meeting, I thought, would take a while, but it literally was over in 5 minutes.  

I have decided to call the capitol "my temple of conviction", because as much as one likes to poo-poo the government, there is a lot going on there and these people really do care about the things they legislate about.  Watch C-Span or PCN (the PA version of C-Span) sometime and watch them fight and yell at each other.  You don't just get worked up over things because you have a bill in play.  You have to care.  

I'm peachy.

Time Lapse

First, I probably have lost my readership completely due to my lack of updates...but here I am!

Life on the homestead has been...interesting. Actually, now that most of my friends are home, its become downright fun. I spent the first weekend after graduation...in Philly. I figured I'd get my long weekends in now before I start working on June 2. Jason and I went to a party, saw a couple of movies and generally just enjoyed being together without me being over the edge stressed, like I had been for the last eight months. I'm slowly unwinding from four years of very stressful (but fulfilling) college life and it actually feels good. To be quite frank, I believe the last time I was this unstressed was like the first grade. I'm a tad high strung. Anyway, Jason came home this past weekend, as did Erica and a number of my other friends, and we all saw Indiana Jones together, which we thoroughly enjoyed. My sister also came along, which was a good time. My sister has been working her butt off so far. She works at Hallmark all the time AND she just got a second job at a local park helping with their day camp. I haven't had much to do except get my life in order, so not having anyone around has been rough.

On Saturday, Liz, Kate, and K-Laz came to my house and the four of us and Jason went to York to surprise Amanda, which was awesome. It was awesome to see everyone. Sunday was a BBQ at Jason's house, which is always a good time. His family is fun and we had AMAZING food. (A-15: We had mashed potatoes, just like Jason made for us...and they were soooo good). Today, my family had a BBQ of sorts and that was relaxing.

Now that I'm adjusted at home, I'm pretty satisfied. I mean, life isn't perfect, but it's as good as its going to get for a while. I'll enjoy my friends, look forward to the beach in July and school in August.

I will be in Philly this weekend, starting late Thursday night. I really want to go out for Friday night (Finnegan's!) and Saturday to celebrate the fact that Doug finished his M-CAT's (go eldest!). Soooo...yeah. Also, Saturday during the day is pretty boring because Jason will be at work all day, so if anyone wants to go to see a movie (maybe "Sex and the City"?) I'd be pretty happy with that. :)

I'm peachy!