Dorm life is draggin' me down!

WOW. I never realized how exhausting moving into a dorm would be!! The last three years, i've been living on campus however, not in a dorm. I was doing dorm duty outside of my apt a couple days a week. In that respect, being in the dorm is great b/c i don't have to leave my house to do duty. HOWEVER, it means that kids are constantly knocking on my door, even on nights that i'm not on duty. And b/c they're freshman, they are understandably more needy than other kids. Most of the time I don't mind it, but for some reason this past week I hit my limit. I think the last straw was wednesday night. brian and i just got back from dinner with his parents (getting out of the dorm for a few hours felt great), we weren't home 5 minutes when a girl knocked on the door to my "study". I was debating whether or not to answer it (sounds bad but trust me, you wouldn't have wanted to either) all of a sudden i hear her calling my name, SHE LET HERSELF INTO MY APT. brian and i looked at each other in total disbelief. in what world is it ok to let yourself into someones apt uninvited!? I don't think i would have been AS ticked off if i hadn't dealt with a total wuss at work that day (they don't make football players like they used to). I was just so fed up with this place at that point. So I went into my study and asked what she wanted and told her i wasn't on duty. she wanted her mid term grades b/c they just came out...these kids and their obsession with grades! i guess it comes with the prep school reputation. So i told her i would find her when i was settled since we just got home. I went to her room with her grades, and asked what she was thinking walking into my apt. her response "well i knocked". I said "yes you did, and did i answer??" It just goes to show that when you live where you work and work where you live, no space is really your own! Just something I have to get used to...but let me tell you...these girls will get used to the fact that my space is my space, pretty sure after our little talk, she won't be doing that again. just thought i would vent. I like my job though, I really do. I think for the last three years though i've kind of just been hanging out, freeloading almost. Now, i'm earning my keep thats for sure!

nothing new

I don't really have much to write about lately! Getting back to work after summer vacation has proven to be pretty tough, do you feel bad for me? =) I think it's b/c i'm living in the dorm with the kids this year that is making me want to strangle them earlier than I usually feel like strangling them! It's definitely an adjustment, living in the same building with the girls, treating them in the training room, eating with them in the dining hall...it definitely burns you out faster. I don't mind living in the dorm though, don't get me wrong. Doing dorm duty from my living room is so much better than having to leave my home to sit in another dorm. I definitely see brian way more than i have during the week in the past, so thats good. there are some benefits of living in the dorms. Other than all that, i've started planning our 10 year high school reunion. I'm really pumped about it actually. We're going to rent out space at a rockcats game so everyone can bring their families. Then the night before or something we'll do an adults only cocktail hour(s) thing. I think it will be a good time. From what I hear, classes before us have kind of done a crappy job at planning these things so I'm really hoping not to be one of those! We'll see.

by the way...

the pic of the water right below this post is of the ocean NOT the pool. thats what i love most about the caribbean! the water is incredible.

St Maarten

Brian and I went to St Maarten last week with my old college roommate Joclyn, and her fiance Josh. WHAT A GREAT TIME! We were there from sat-sat, the weather was great, the drinks were cheap, and the company was perfect =) For those that don't know, we bought a timeshare on a whim while on our honeymoon - we knew it was either going to be the best thing we've ever done, or the dumbest. It's workin so far! We were able to save points from last year (we went cross country last year instead of using the timeshare) so we had enough to get us a two bedroom, two and a half bathroom suite with a balcony overlooking the Great Bay on the southern part of the Dutch side of the island. The resort was awesome. We did some excursions, but there were a couple of days when all we did was take our time in the morning, eat breakfast on the patio then headed to the beach. It was super relaxing. It would get so hot that we would have to go in the water after 20 minutes, the water was nothing to complain about! we probably spent an equal amount of time just floating in the ocean as we did laying on the beach. We rented a car so we were able to explore...it's a very small island, 36 square miles, but they pack a lot into 36 miles! One half is owned by the dutch, the other half by the French. We only drove ourselves to the french side twice, and had an unbelievable meal. Apparently the french side is the culinary capital of the carribbean. It was good, but the area was kind of sketchy so we didn't hang around much after that. Turns out the dutch side had food that was just as good and it was closer so it was easier for Brian to drive on that side...the people there drive like maniacs so it was good that we just went a few minutes away each night after that. It's so sad but every morning i couldn't wait for dinner!! We went to a lot of suggested local places which I love doing. When i go somewhere I like to go places that say something about the place we're in. Every place we ate, we had a great view of the water. It's their slow season so nothing was every packed. It was awesome. The resort had a restaurant and a couple of bars so every night we would go back to the room, shower, play setback (boys vs. girls of course) on the deck, then get ready for the night. After dinner, we would go hang out with our fave bartender Leroy and watch the olympics. It was happy hour from 10-11 every night so drinks were half price, it was great. After that we'd all be wiped so we were in bed by 12 every night! so sad. it would have been better almost if there were more people on our resort, happy hour would have been more interesting if it was more than just the 4 of us...then we may have stayed out later! One night I went to bed and couldn't move, I thought i was just exhausted from the trip but then i realized i was just THAT relaxed. It's hard not to be when you're down there. No one stresses about anything...everything is on island time, food comes slower at restaurants, no one is in a rush. (except for the crazy motorcylcists). I'm obsessed if you couldn't tell. while we were there we did some snorkeling, and an ATV tour of the island, and ziplining through a tropical forest. Some of the pics I posted are of our resort, Gizmo the parrot, us taking a complimentary chocolate raspberry rum shot (unbelievable), our pool, the atv's, and the picture of the plane is at the airport...the island is so small that the runway is literally across the street from Maho beach, if you google it you will see a lot of cool pics, this plane wasn't that big so it wasn't as close to the ground, but it was still really neat to see (and loud!). when a plane would take off, once the jets started the sand on the beach would get blasted into the water, you don't want to be stuck behind that!!! GREAT VACATION! now back to work =(

Weekend festivities

Friday night my parents come down and we walked to a cute italian place in the center of town for dinner. We had never been there before and I love trying new places. It was great, we were there for three hours! Not b/c the service was bad, we were just having such a relaxing time, sitting on the patio on north main st, drinking wine and eating great food. It was planned at all, very last minute...sometimes those are the best times!!! Saturday morning we left early for VT, this time we took amanda and we had a blast. the weather was awesome and the boat was working again so we got some tubing, knee boarding, and skiing in. Still feeling the knee boarding 5 days later...took quite the face plant. Anyhow, another great weekend to add to the summer =)

Take a hike....

As usual, i'm a bit behind in my entries! Last friday brian and I took Champ hiking on sleeping giant mountain in hamden. What we thought was going to be a 45 minute "walk" ended up taking 2 and a half hours...oops. Clearly we're not experienced hikers! We ended up hiking 5.5 miles up, around, and down the mountain. We were under the assumption that the trail we took just did a loop and that we would end up back where our car was...WRONG. we ended up on the other sided of the mountain and then had to take a different trail back. it was an awesome workout though, and it really tired out champ, he loved it. We were a bit nervous b/c the trail was really rocky and steep at some points, but as we were sitting there trying to figure out how he was going to climb up the first steep part, we looked and he had already climbed up. so we knew the rest of the hike would be a piece of cake for him. thank God b/c sometimes when he gets tired and doesn't want to walk anymore he just lays down. do you know how hard it is to move 78 pounds of dead weight? thankfully he was having a blast and didn't have one problem. we got to the top of the mountain and the view was beautiful, who would have thought it would have been?? it's hamden,ct afterall. right after i snapped a pic, we heard a clap of thunder...great. luckily it remained sunny for the rest of the hike, although the thunder kept getting closer. It made things interesting thats for sure. It turned out to be a great day all around...i think Champ has been feeling neglected with the move and all of our traveling to weddings and what not so it was great to be able to give him our undivided attention for a few hours!

Country fest 08

Joclyn and Josh are getting married! YAY!

Playing catch up...

Things happen faster around here than I can write about them! (was that proper english??) anyhow, let's play some catch up...a few weekends ago, we went up to boston to celebrate joclyns (my college roommate for 3 out of 4 years) engagement! we had a nice dinner with joc and her "fiance" and jamie and her husband. On our way there we dropped a rescue lab off with it's new foster parents...that was an adventure! rex is a chocolate lab, 110 pounds, and loved running around our backseat. total opposite of champ who just lays down in the car. he was great though, a fun loving guy! i hope he gets a great forever home! anyhow, the rest of that weekend was pretty low key, hot dogs at gram and gramps, a trip to ikea with bri and my sisters followed by dinner and hanging out. the next day we went to a mass for my grandfather and then had a picnic at my parents house, it was a great low key afternoon. the next weekend we were at gillette stadium for the country fest featuring kenny chesney, keith urban, and leann rimes...it was an awesome concert! long day though...left around 730, picked up some friends along the way, and finally got settled in our prime tailgating spot by 11 AM. it was wicked hot...great weather for a couple drinks! i'll post some pics when i upload them. the concert started at 4, didn't end until 1130. LONG LONG DAY. but totally worth it! for the next three days after that it was birthdays galore! sunday was shannons (my sister) bday, went to the movies and had dinner and cake, the next day was amandas (my other sister) 21st bday! had a great dinner at Hot tomatoes in hartford with the fam, then we all went to a bar nearby (pigs eye for the locals reading this) and things got a litte crazy! to give you a quick idea of how the night went, my mom was behind the bar ringing the tip bell, amanda was swinging from the lights that hang over the pool table (per the bartenders request), there was some dancing on the bar thrown in there somewhere too. it was great, so much fun. it was a monday night so we had the bar to ourselves pretty much. brian and i left before my parents did...sad! the next night we were at the casinos for brians best friends bday. crazy few days. this past weekend we were 8 hours away, the most eastern part of the US pretty much, in Calais Maine for a wedding Brian was in. drove all day friday, rehearsal dinner friday night, wedding from 130-12 (yup, you read that right), then drove all day on sunday. needless to say, we're still recovering! so there ya go, in case you caught yourself thinking "hmm, i wonder what brian and emily have been doing with their lives" there's your answer =) meg told me the other day she hopes our future kids are easy going b/c we're always on the go...i'm looking forward to them slowing us down!!

summer weekends at the lake

Brian's parents are in the process of building a house on lake champlain in VT...so far the basement is done with a fully functioning bathroom, a couple of bedrooms and a beer fridge =) the house isn't going up until next summer but we've proven we don't need a house to have a fun relaxing time while we're there. between the kayaks, the jet ski, the boat, and the quad, we keep pretty busy. and how could i forget cocktail hour by the campfire!? we went up late on the 4th of july to surprise brian's dad who was thinking he was spending the weekend there alone. it was great, he was shocked. saturday morning we went kayaking, the lake was so calm, and no one was on it, it was really nice. after we took the jetski out we were putting the boat in when bri's mom pulled in. another surprise for Mr. O. The rest of the weekend was great, very peaceful. the following weekend we went up again with brian's sister and her boyfriend for Mr. O's bday. Another great weekend. we taught my in-laws how to play a drinking game, hilarious. mrs. O. did a very good job drinking when told. Too bad it's a 3.5 hour drive, it would be nice to spend more time up there.

Weddings weddings and more weddings!

We've had quite a busy month, hence the lack of recent entries! I'm sure I mentioned this before, but we had 6 weddings in 6 weekends...makes for a bit of craziness! But every one of them was awesome. I know I wrote about Jamie and Matt's wedding in NC but I don't think I've posted anything about the others. I'll put up some pics. One weekend we had a college friends wedding in syracuse on friday then my college roommates' wedding the next day in CT. That was a fun weekend! We have been able to see so many friends this summer! thanks to everyone who got married and gave us a reason to hang out! On top of all the weddings, we had to pack everything up and move to another apartment on campus...plus I had to work a couple of camps and brian has been working 3 days a week at a strength and conditioning 'camp'. Doesn't sound like much work for us but when you add packing, moving, unpacking, and going to weddings and fam functions on the weekends, things get a little crazy! Here are some pics of the weddings we've been to =)