Stevens Admissions: Michelle's Blog

Last Wednesday a movie was presented by the Women's History Month committee in conjunction with our Feminism seminar (HPL460): IRON JAWED ANGELS. Our professor, Lisa Dolling, was asked to moderate a discussion after the movie. The movie is about Alice Paul (played by Hilary Swank) and the fight for women's suffrage. As homework for our seminar, we had to write a 2-3 page "reaction paper" about the movie - this is where I was best able to gather my thoughts about the movie (my paper is almost 4 pages long!) So all I'm really going to say in this post about this movie: WOW. What a powerful movie. I cried twice, and left after the discussion feeling so inspired, so motivated, so strong, all because of the women who gained the right to vote for the rest of womankind in this country. I really recommend for EVERYONE to see it - EVERYONE - it is such an important and incredible story, truly.

Also last Wednesday, in the evening (after the movie), my mom got balcony tickets to see... PHANTOM OF THE OPERA on Broadway! I was super excited! PHANTOM is one of my favorite musicals - second only to RENT (at least as far as plays go). It was, of course, fabulous - the singers were all incredible and the music is always so beautiful. I'm obviously more into rock and jazz, as far as music goes, not so much opera, but the music in this show is honestly something else - so beautiful. My favorite song in the play is "Past the Point of No Return" - sung by Christine and the Phantom - very, very sexy song. If you get a chance to see the show on Broadway, the experience is just indescribable - especially because they've been in the same theatre for 21 years! It is the longest-running show on Broadway - for a reason!

Over the past week I took the opportunity to explore the city a bit, despite the cold weather, particularly in terms of trying a couple of new restaurants. Wednesday, before the play, we found a place on 43rd Street called HB Burger - owned by Heartland Brewery, located between Heartland Brewery and Town Hall (concert venue). The menu consists of burgers, fries, milkshakes, and "adult" milkshakes (spiked!) The food is really good, not too expensive for Manhattan, and the coolest part - the place just opened on March 10th! It's literally brand new! Awesome...

The same day we also found a Magnolia Bakery on 6th Avenue, maybe a block south of Radio City Music Hall. Very sweet... last Wednesday was a good day :)

On Saturday I went with my boyfriend and his sister to a little burrito place on 5th Avenue (between 33rd and 34th Streets) called Maui Taco. Very cute place, and the food is... SO GOOD! And they make all kinds of weird random burritos. My favorite: have you ever heard of a burrito with potatoes in it? That seemed so random to me!

Tuesday, as always, is Strength & Cardio class with Roger Power. We did more sort of "interval training" in class on Tuesday - on the spin bikes for a few minutes, and then some body-weight work on the floor (stretching, pushups, lunges, etc), then back on the bikes, and then some stability ball exercises for arms, abs, and core, then back on the bikes, and then a few cycles of dumbbell exercises --> bikes --> etc. I stayed after class for 10 or 15 minutes spinning with Coach, and I was SO EXHAUSTED! I barely made it up the four flights of stairs to my apartment! And I can't wait until next week's class!

Wednesday (yesterday) was the beginning and end of my midterms - ie, my only midterm. Instrumental Analysis II is the only class I'm taking this semester with a midterm/final type of syllabus. The class is required for all Chemical Biology majors, as well as all Chemistry majors - we're learning electrochemistry, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy, and Mass Spectrometry this semester. The class is 4.0 credits, it has a lab component that counts for 50% of the final grade where we actually practice what we're learning in lecture. Very cool. Also very cool that "midterms" are over. (Although we were given a take-home exam in my Medicinal Chemistry graduate class tonight, but that's a completely different situation.)

So in my lab research, I've been working on two projects - the compounds are identical, save for one substituent. Last semester I completed the second-to-last step of the project using the first compound. This semester I've been working on the same series of reactions as last semester, but using the second compound - on Monday I completed the second-to-last step - and today in the lab I started the last reaction of the project, called Suzuki coupling. I'm very excited! Of course, there is still a lot of work to do - I used phenylboronic acid in my Suzuki coupling reaction today, and I'm going to run the reaction four more times with four different boronic acid derivatives. And then I'll have to do the same to complete the project with the first compound - five more Suzuki coupling reactions - but the end is in sight, and I'm thrilled! I hope to finish before graduation - May 21st!!!

Random tidbit: My roommate and I are in love with this singer-songwriter, Ray La Montagne - he's incredible - so this is one of our favorite "Ray Lay" songs, Let It Be Me. Enjoy!

Until next time~

So senior year (final semester) seems to be taking its toll on me! I had strep throat a few weeks ago, and am still dealing with a persistent nagging cough. Last week was spring break, which I spent in Chicago with my friend Kaylee - we had a fabulous time, although I think the rain and cold weather may have exacerbated the persistent nagging cough! But anyway, on to more important updates.

In my last post, back in February, I said that I was going to a graduate open house at Northeastern University. I was super-excited, Northeastern was my first-choice school (I've been infatuated with the city of Boston for as long as I can remember), and after reading about all of the professors' research projects online, I knew which professor I would most like to work with. Now comes the part of the blog where I talk about how important it is to attend an open house and visit the campus before committing to going to school there. In my case, looking at schools for graduate study where I intend to spend several years doing research, I've found that it is very important to meet the faculty before making a decision, getting an idea of with whom you would want to do research and where your interests lie. So I spent a day at Northeastern (beautiful campus, by the way!) - met most of the faculty and current graduate students, saw half a dozen of the chemistry labs on campus, attended a poster fair and saw posters of all the chemistry research currently being undertaken at the school. The whole experience was a lot of fun, the labs were beautiful, and all the people were very nice. But I also learned that professors' websites are not always completely up-to-date - the professor whose research I was most interested in was working on a completely different project! And just in general I felt that the department is heavily focused on analytical chemistry, whereas I'm more interested in polymer chemistry and materials science. So ultimately Northeastern was not the right fit for me.

However, I did make a decision as to where I'm going in the fall! I spoke with my advisor about it yesterday and mailed in my acceptance this morning. So in the fall I'll be moving down to Philadelphia and starting my Ph.D. at Drexel University. [I had the opportunity to meet some of the faculty back at the beginning of February when I visited campus and interviewed for a TA stipend - I wrote about it but didn't mention the school name.] I feel like there are a lot of great opportunities for me at Drexel, and I'm really excited...

Classes here at Stevens in my last semester may best be described as "business as usual," which is a good thing. My weeks feel much more routine than they have in past semesters, particularly in terms of homework from week to week. The week before spring break, I was so sick that I actually missed one of Coach Power's strength & cardio classes - I was devastated! But today's class definitely made up for it, we did intervals of spinning and dumbells - squats with dumbells, lunges with dumbells, shoulder raises, triceps extension, etc.. as well as pushups and ab exercises.. Excellent.

So I was in Chicago for spring break... My main intent was to see my friend Kaylee (we don't see each other often because we live so far apart), but of course we did some fun random things in the city as well... My favorite was the International Museum of Surgical Science (link), they had all sorts of cool old-fashioned amputation kits and other random creepy surgical tools. We also checked out the Lincoln Park Zoo (this was funny because it was so cold out, most of the animals were inside and we couldn't see them!) and the Museum of Contemporary Art. And Tuesday night we went to the House of Blues and saw Butch Walker!!! (I also saw him on Sunday night in Philly, with my parents).. and he is always incredible in concert, I highly recommend him as a live musician!

I guess I will wrap up this post. There is a lot going on, meaning there should be a lot to blog about in the coming weeks!

Random tidbit: My roommate and I saw this awesome funk band at Maxwell's a few weeks ago, they're called Jason Yudoff & the New Hotness (link)... They're honestly really good funky jazzy music, with a horn section and everything, and the rhythm section is UNBELIEVABLE!!! Here is a live video of their song, "You Should Be My Girl": click here for awesome music!

Until next time~

Insert witty title here-

Business as usual here in Hoboken. Chemistry classes, research, gym classes. Yesterday in Feminism we had a bit of a debate about whether women should be permitted on men's sports teams, particularly football - I was excited because I caused the debate, when I emailed the professor during the Superbowl complaining that there were no professional female football players.

I'm going to an open house on Saturday at Northeastern University, for the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology's graduate program - hopefully it goes well! I'll update a longer post when I get back from Boston!

Until next time~

February... The coldest month of the year!

Updates!!!:

Saturday 1/31 I went down to Philly, met my brother, and we went for cheesesteaks. Typically we are loyal patrons of Geno's, but the temperature outside on Saturday night was about 20F, and Geno's only has outdoor seating! So my brother took me to a cheesesteak place called Tony Luke's. Really cool place, basically a sports bar with cheesesteaks - the reason we went here as opposed to a different place was because Tony Luke's was featured on a Food Network show called "Throwdown with Bobby Flay", where Bobby Flay goes head-to-head in food competition with "the best" in a certain type of food. Tony Luke's was "the best Philly cheesesteak." And yes, the steaks were delicious. And they're served with potato chips and a pickle. Delicious, and always nice to spend time with my brother.

Sunday 2/1 was Superbowl Sunday... I'm a Giants fan, and my whole family are Giants fans, so the game was obviously disappointing because the Giants weren't in it! But for some reason or other, my parents used to root for the Steelers back in the '80s when they were first married, so we were all backing the Steelers in the Superbowl, and yay! They won! [Also, did everyone watch The Office after the game? SO HILARIOUS!]

Monday 2/2 I had an interview with a graduate school, specifically an interview for a TA stipend. I got accepted at one of my five schools (so far!), and they asked me to come in sometime this week to interview for a stipend, which is why I was in Philly and at my parents' house in the first place - I went in at 1:30 not knowing exactly what to expect, but still expecting a chemistry-based interview lasting a half an hour, or an hour tops. I was actually scheduled to meet with three professors in the chemistry department, all of them very nice, helpful, interested, interesting. While I was speaking with the third professor (whose lab I would hope to work in if I end up going to this school), he got a phone call from a fourth professor who wanted to speak with me. And when I was finished speaking with the fourth professor, a fifth professor (the head of the department!) wanted to speak with me as well! I felt so popular and in-demand! And also hope it's a good sign that so many people wanted to talk with me, find out who I am and my interests, and also tell me about their labs and their research and their interests. What a day! I was interviewing for TWO AND A HALF HOURS, it was mentally exhausting, and at the same time I felt so exhilarated and so motivated talking to so many brilliant chemists!

I can't wait to go into the lab on Thursday and do some chemistry!

Today was Strength & Cardio class with Coach Power - we did so many lunges, squats, and squat-presses that I thought my legs might fall off. So many shoulder raises, triceps extensions, and rear deltoid extensions that I thought my arms might fall off. INCREDIBLE class. As always, can't wait for next week!

Random tidbit: Sometime on Friday this song popped into my head, out of the blue, and I haven't been able to get it out! So I fished out my CD, which I haven't listened to since I got it back in 2005, and have been listening to it all weekend and beyond. Mae, "Someone Else's Arms", sweet sweet awesome song. Enjoy!!

Until next time~

A Mountain of a benefit show!

So Saturday night my mom and I went to a concert at Bergen PAC (performing arts center in Bergen County). It was a concert to benefit burn survivors... featuring Leslie West from some old rock band called Mountain, and kids from the Paul Green School of Rock. We were there because my oft-mentioned favorite singer was making a "special guest appearance," along with the guitarist and bassist from my favorite band. I saw these three guys from the band (Jimmy, Static, and Race) back in April at a benefit show for the 10th anniversary of Road Recovery, "Music Without Drugs," along with a bunch of famous musicians (Perry Farrell, Slash, Tom Morello, Denis Leary to name a few of them), and at this concert, each musician or group played 2 or 3 songs, and then at the end they all came out on the stage and played a few songs as a group. So I was expecting a similar setup at this benefit for burn survivors.

But of course when the show started I realized I had expected quite wrong!!! This concert was played entirely by the kids from the Paul Green School of Rock, with the different "special guests" coming out on stage for a song or two each and singing / playing with the kids. Jimmy, Static, and Race played a cover of U2's "One" with the kids, along with one of the band's original songs called "Moth" - the kids had learned it especially for this show. It was awesome. The other highlights from the show were the boy that sang Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" (he was incredible!), and the big finale, where all the kids and all the "special guests" came onto the stage and sang "We are the World." Overall a very great night for a great cause...

 

This week at Stevens marks the start of spring semester Group Exercise & Wellness classes. These classes are open to anyone at Stevens, and they last for twelve weeks... Almost the entire semester... And considering how long the classes last, they are quite a bargain! So my roommate and I decided to sign up for one this semester, and we both have a considerable break in our schedules on Tuesdays from noon to 4pm, and very happily... there is a class in that time slot! AND... it's taught by my favorite coach at Stevens, Roger Power, the strength & conditioning coach! (I've taken two P.E. classes with Roger Power: Strength & Conditioning, and Yoga, Strength, & Fitness; both of which were incredible and awesome and exhausting!) So of course when I saw that Roger Power was teaching a Group Exercise class, called Cardio & Strength, and I saw that it fit easily into my schedule, I got so excited! The first class was yesterday, and I'm so laughably sore, it's awesome. We did about 20 minutes of spin cycling, followed by lunges, squats, situps & pushups, some yoga, and a bunch of dumbell exercises. Awesome.

I thought my muscle soreness was bad yesterday / this morning... But I also signed up for another Group Exercise class (also for my final P.E. credit) - an Indoor Cycling class that meets Wednesdays at 7:30am. So bright and early this morning, when I could barely get out of bed because I was so stiff from yesterday's Cardio & Strength class, I managed to pull on my cycling shorts and drag myself through the snow, up the hill to the Schaeffer Center, and I even made it to the cycling studio early. Forty-five minutes of spinning later, I was trekking back down the hill through the snow, back to my apartment for a shower and breakfast. I had another class this morning (Instrumental Analysis II lecture, from 11-12:15pm), and let me tell you, when I got back to the apartment at around 12:30pm, I barely made it up to the apartment - my roommates and I share a 5th floor walk-up. Not even that I felt tired, my legs just felt like they were lead!

So all in all it may be a long semester...and I can't wait! I always think of muscle soreness as a good thing, keeps you feeling alive, and I know that I'll be back in the gym tomorrow because the only way to make muscle soreness better is to keep moving! Looking forward to next week's gym classes, as well as tomorrow - our Feminism seminar is meeting tomorrow!

Random tidbit: I keep randomly hearing clips of this song on TV and it's driving me crazy, so I thought I would share with all of you... Kevin Rudolf, "Let It Rock"... enjoy!

Until next time~

Feminism?

So I have one remaining class to fill my requirements for a philosophy minor, and this semester I signed up for an upper-level seminar called "Philosophy & Feminism". Each student had to be signed in by the professor, implying that the class would be really small, and I really had no idea what to expect. Especially when our professor sent us a written assignment due the first day of class! [Reading an essay by Mary Wollstonecraft and writing a 2-3 page reaction to what we'd read.]

Our first meeting was yesterday, in the College of Arts & Letters conference room. There are nine students in the class, more than the professor initially expected to enroll! And of course I was a bit nervous, I've never been big on class discussions (or participating in them) and I don't know the first thing about feminism.

I feel like "feminism" is one of those words that has a bad connotation - like when someone is called a "feminist" that person is actually being called a "man-hater" or something to that extent. [I feel the same way about the word "atheism" having bad connotations, like "atheist" is synonymous with "satan-worshipper" or "heretic" or "infidel". But anyway.]

Our professor told us that basically "feminism" means all different things to all different people - and in her case, she sees feminism as more of a study of gender differences. What makes men and women different, how our thought processes differ, possible reasons why we are treated differently in schools and in the workplace.

Yesterday we discussed (among other things) gender-specific toys - for example, pink Monopoly?? Also the former gender-specific aisles at big toy stores like Toys'R'Us, where the "girl" aisle would be all Barbie dolls and cutesy stuffed animals, and the "boy" aisle would be toy guns and G.I. Joes and Matchbox cars. We discussed the possibility of boys and girls doing better in school if they were separated into gender-specific schools (saving a lengthy discussion on this topic for a later date). We discussed marriages, women who give up their careers to raise their children, and then end up getting a divorce and not being able to afford to live on their own (even with alimony). We discussed the uncles and fathers who tell these women that they'd better remarry fast. We discussed different standards at the graduate school level (for example, medical schools that are reluctant to accept female students because at some point they may have a child and leave the workforce, which would be considered a "waste" of an education. For the record, not every woman wants to have a child.) We discussed the different standard now in terms of women asking out men on dates, and what is seen as "acceptable" to society.

Anyway, I couldn't believe how much fun this class was, the dynamic was incredible, and I left the class feeling impassioned and fired up! This is the kind of college class that you see in the movies! And something I feel I will look forward to every time we meet.

Until next time~

This is the final semester!

TODAY was the first day of spring classes... and myself and the rest of the graduating class are 127 days away from commencement! (If my counting is correct!) I'm both excited and terrified not knowing what is in store for me yet... I'm still in the midst of graduate school applications, and waiting to hear back from those that I have already submitted. Wondering where I will be relocating to in August!

So I went to California on vacation for New Years' and part of winter break with my parents... We went to Disneyland on New Years Eve, the park opened at 8am so we went first thing in the morning and rode a bunch of rides before the large crowds of people started coming in to the park. And then around lunchtime the park turned into a MADHOUSE!... Honestly, there were people spreading out blankets and sitting down, reading, playing board games... Camping out for New Years fireworks! It got so terribly crowded that we could barely walk, and so we stayed for the Holiday parade (which was adorable - dancing snowmen and gingerbread people, aww, along with all the favorite Disney characters) and then left before the fireworks.

Other highlights: we went to Disneyland and California Adventure two other days on the trip. Also went to Universal Studios two days, Knott's Berry Farm (a cedar fair amusement park), the San Diego Zoo, and Sea World. Three most notable occurrences:

(1) At Knott's Berry Farm, I was clever enough to be wearing flipflops in an amusement park, and I stubbed my foot, ripped open my big toe. Maybe I am exaggerating a slight amount, I didn't need stitches or anything (just a bandaid) but there was a lot of blood... and of course, when the blood is coming out of your own body, it probably seems like more than it actually is! But anyway, I limped to first aid (which was at the farthest possible location from my whereabouts when I hurt myself) and the EMTs cleaned me up, then I was just sore for a few days. And I think I bruised my little toes pretty badly, they're still hurting now!

(2) The San Diego Zoo is incredible!!! Particularly... the pandas!!! I was there at the perfect time - the mother and baby panda were awake and about and eating their lunch, bamboo and carrots!!! It was just incredible. Particularly because I went to the Washington DC Zoo back in August and around the same time of day, all of the pandas were sleeping...

(3) There are, or course, penguins at Sea World. Twice a day there is a presentation in the penguin building, where one of the penguin caretakers talks about the different types of penguins and what they do on a daily basis. At the end of the presentation the audience is asked a question... and the first person to answer it correctly gets to go inside and meet a penguin... and I got the question right!!! So I got to go inside the penguin "habitat" and pet one of the king penguins... He felt like velvet... And it was just so surreal.

But of course, it feels incredible to be back in my lovely apartment with my lovely roommates. I'm genuinely excited for this semester! And, of course, hoping that everything goes well!

Well, more classes tomorrow, as well as going back to work in the NMR lab... Things to do!

Until next time~

DECEMBER 2008

First allow me to apologize for my terribly long hiatus - it has been a LONG and hectic end to the semester, but it is over now, leading into an insanely hectic holiday season! So to help me better organize my thoughts, I'm going to separate into two categories... very original categories... work and play!!!

WORK!
Well, classes ended on 12/5. The end of the semester was REALLY hectic! For CH498 (Chemistry Research I), we had to give a 10-minute presentation about our semester's research, as well as write a two-page summary. My presentation was back on 11/24 - the Monday of Thanksgiving week - which of course I was annoyed about at the time (we always consider Thanksgiving break to be the time to wrap up end-of-semester work, so the prospect of putting this presentation together prior to my downtime was rather daunting at the time!) - but on the following Monday when more presentations were taking place, I was quite glad that I had already finished mine! Then I also had to write a separate report for my research advisor (Dr. Ganguly), which turned out to be considerably longer than the two-page summary - it was a detailed 12-page technical report including a full set of 2-D NMR spectra. Looked pretty impressive when it was finished, if I say so myself!
For CH681 (Biochemistry II), we had to write a short term paper - specifically a two-page literature review on a single recent journal article. We got to choose whatever topic we wanted, which was INCREDIBLE, as I ended up writing a paper about phototoxicity and mutagenesis of a certain chemical used in tattoo ink. I was really interested in this because I have seven tattoos myself! So I actually really enjoyed writing this paper. We also had a final exam on 12/8.
For CH650 (Interpretive Spectroscopy), we had a final exam on 12/9.
For HPL442 (Philosophical Logic), we had a final paper due this week. We got to choose our own topic, as long as it was relating to the essay "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" by Rudolf Carnap. This paper was so incredibly difficult and I was really glad when I had finished it!!!
And finally, for HPL421, we had some lab reports to finish, which were done by the last Tuesday of classes, and then my final for the class was TODAY at 1pm. This was terrible timing - it was snowing like crazy today!!! And of course, as it turned out, we were the ONLY CLASS having a final on campus in this time slot - because it was the very last possible time slot for a final for the fall semester!!!

PLAY!!!

SO MUCH has gone on!!! November was unofficially "2008 concert month" - 11/13 and 11/14 were Butch Walker concerts in Manhattan and Philadelphia (Butch Walker is an incredible musician as well as music producer... I actually heard of him when he toured with American Hi-Fi back in high school, he produced one of their records and then they toured together - and I love his music!!! Actually like him more than American Hi-Fi!!!).. 11/20 and 11/21 I saw my favorite band ever in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, the 27th and 28th times seeing this band (they were touring again with Plain Jane Automobile, who I mentioned earlier in the semester, and just for these two shows LUKAS ROSSI was opening as well. Lukas Rossi was on a TV show a few years ago called ROCKSTAR: SUPERNOVA - and he won! Of course I was a huge fan of the show, and he was my favorite singer/musician on the show, so it was INCREDIBLE to see him live! He played several solo acoustic songs at each show, and he was just breathtaking - his voice is HUGE and just overwhelming. Incredible.).. 11/28 I drove down to West Chester, PA to see God or Julie - they toured with my favorite band over the summer (this show was BIZARRE - it was the day after Thanksgiving, and the doors for the show opened at 3PM! A matinee rock concert, or more like a matinee punk concert?! Out of four bands, God or Julie played second, and they were the only non-punk-ish act on the bill. They just rock, hard! Awesome, awesome band. Always worth the drive.).. To round out the concert month, on 12/6, my friend Danielle invited me to see one of her favorite bands - a country band called Emerson Drive. The show was in Mount Laurel, NJ, not too far north from my parents' house, at a crazy restaurant / bar / dance venue called Prospector's. Emerson Drive played an hour-long set, and they were AWESOME!!! Obviously I'm more of a rock-music-type person, but WOW, they are really really great. (The funny part of this story is that I had seen Emerson Drive before, almost three years ago up at University of New Haven. This is Danielle's alma mater - she is now a PhD student at Stevens, studying Chemistry - and she was also at the concert!!! Funny coincidence!) The best part of the night was that Emerson Drive did a meet-and-greet after the set! Danielle met them back in August, and she had taken some pictures that day, so she printed out a few and we got them signed!!! SO cool! Here's one of me with the singer from Emerson Drive:

At the beginning of November my favorite band announced that they were taking a hiatus from touring as soon as they played all of their scheduled shows. (They want to record a few albums and take a break from the road - they've been touring for about four and a half years straight, with around a two-week break in September!) So my friend Kaylee and I talked about going to the last show on the tour - 12/22 in Orlando, FL. And looking at flight prices and hotel prices, realizing it was a feasible (if slightly crazy) thing to do - we booked flights - Kaylee from Chicago to Orlando, me from Atlantic City to Orlando - booked a hotel, thanks Mom & Dad for paying for this! Sunday 12/21 we both flew, met at the airport in Orlando, took the LINK bus into downtown Orlando and checked into the hotel. Explored downtown Orlando, ate at a crazy place called Hamburger Mary's, and watched part of Galaxy Quest. Monday 12/22 we walked to the bus station (conveniently located across the street from our hotel), got on a bus to Disney World. Went specifically to MGM Studios - no longer called MGM Studios!!!

Now Disney's Hollywood Studios! We totally went just to ride Rock'n'Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. Rode each several times - fabulous. Also saw the MuppetVision 3-D show (which I always love!) and rode Star Tours. INCREDIBLE DAY!!! To sum it all up:

Monday night was the show, an easy 10-15 minute walk from the hotel, at a venue called THE SOCIAL. Jimmy (singer from the band) actually mentioned the last time they had played at The Social, back in summer 2004 - and I was at that show! Funny coincidence! But anyway, the show was just... indescribable. Worth every penny, worth every irritation in the airport, worth the creepy guy on the bus talking to us, worth all of it. Just magical.

Anyway. To wrap this all up, Happy Holidays to all of you out there, and Happy New Year! I'm leaving tomorrow on a trip to California (visiting L.A. and San Diego with my parents for 12 days!) Will update about Cali upon my return home!

Random tidbit~ I posted some links to God or Julie and Plain Jane Automobile videos in my post on 9/21... Today I'd like to introduce you to Lukas Rossi, "Take a Chance on Me"... Hope you like it!!!

Wishing you a safe and happy end of 2008 / start of 2009, and until next time~

For fans of BIG BLUE

I mean BIG BLUE to mean several different things. First and foremost, BIG BLUE to me has always been Bob Harper's team on The Biggest Loser. I even have a blue Biggest Loser t-shirt from the NBC store. More recently, BIG BLUE has come to mean my apartment building... the exterior of which is painted blue. But primarily, and especially since this is November of 2008, BIG BLUE is the Democratic party.

Tuesday was election day - the Empire State Building was illuminated half blue and half red, for Dems and GOPs:

Wednesday was "the morning after" election day, when I was still in disbelief about Mr. Obama's victory, and the Empire State Building was illuminated entirely blue:

I did not want to be biased in Tuesday's post, but I am a registered Democrat and I was overwhelmed when the President Elect was announced on Tuesday night. GO OBAMA!!!

Random tidbit: On Wednesday afternoon, my roommate and her boyfriend and I were all sitting around, Tom (roommate's boyfriend) was playing guitar and Dominique (roommate) and I were singing along to some of the songs. This is one that Tom and Dominique did, I had never heard it before and I LOVE IT and I've been hearing it on VH1 all evening tonight! So here it is... Matt Nathanson's "Come On Get Higher"... Enjoy!!!

Until next time~

ROCK THE VOTE

After a very long and painful presidential campaign, today is ELECTION DAY! I am a Hoboken resident now (living off-campus, not in Stevens housing, in an apartment that my roommate and I rented ourselves), so back in September I registered to vote in Hoboken, and I got my sample ballot in the mail on Saturday. I was SO EXCITED! And thus found out where my polling place was - conveniently, the building 4 down from mine literally, with the entrance around the corner. So convenient! So I left my apartment today an hour earlier than I normally do, and stopped in to VOTE (oh my goodness!!!) which took less than 10 minutes. And which was awesome, since I was 17 for the 2004 presidential election and couldn't vote.

So for those of you reading this on November 4th, who are old enough and who are registered -- GET OUT AND ROCK THE VOTE!!!!! Use your voice!!!

In other news, last Wednesday my parents and my brother drove up for the day - we had four tickets to finally see WICKED! My mom's birthday was this past Saturday, so we got tickets for her birthday through this special offer - the only type of ticket deal that Wicked participates in - for four tickets and four vouchers good at a list of restaurants. We had dinner at this random Italian place, which we would have otherwise never stepped foot in because the prices were so exorbatant, and then we were in the Orchestra section of the theatre for WICKED - which, by the way, is INCREDIBLE! I highly recommend it!!!

And now I'm primarily focusing on graduate school applications! The first deadline is December 12, which is coming up very very quickly, but I'm done the bulk of the application process (the general and subject GREs, most of the actual applications, and handing out recommendations to three professors) -- all I have left is the hardest part -- the personal statement / statement of intent / essay. And of course each school wants something different, whether it is slightly different or drastically different, so I have these seven essays to write and I have a serious writers block! The goal is to have at least half of the rough drafts finished by this coming Monday so that I can get a few people to proofread them and then have time to rewrite them before the deadlines come up!!!

And that's about it...

Random tidbit: My roommate has had this song stuck in her head since last Monday and it is driving her crazy... Especially because every day or two I bring up the song to remind her of it and keep it in her head (such as right now, when I was looking for the video, I turned the volumn all the way up on the computer so she could hear it!) Hehe... enjoy!

Until next time~