Catch up

That's right! Two more weeks of school, well mostly finals, until I'm done with my first year of optometry school. I have two finals this week, and three next. It went incredibly fast, and I can't wait to be back home.

Since I've gotten my new phone, I realized I've taken way too many pictures. Some are great, others are....well, not so great, but I figured since I've taken so many, I could at least post some so you guys can see what I've been up to lately. {Hint: mostly studying, but procrastination can produce some wonderful photo sessions}



Our friends from Wisconsin came during their spring break in March. We took them all over the city. Here's just a picture of the Liberty Bell because it's stereotypical Philadelphia. I also found out Pennsylvania is spelled wrong on the bell. "Pensylvania." The story is that they hadn't decided on the official spelling of the state when they were making the bell, so the maker's (Pass and Stow) decided to pick one. They chose wrong. It's like the blu-ray HD-DVD debate of the 1700's.

We also did the famous "Geno's vs. Pat's" cheese steak contest. It wasn't really a contest because the winner didn't win anything...but I think the winner was Jim's (who ironically wasn't even part of the contest). We ate at Jim's the day before. I still prefer Jim's over Pat's or Geno's.

In early March two friends from school and I went to the Vision Expo in NYC. Here's just a picture of part of the amazing Marchon exhibit. The trip was topped off by my friends winning an iPad and iPod. I didn't win anything. I got a hot dog in consolation.





The boy and I have slowly been trying to get the cats closer to each other. Here's just one of our ideas to make them best friends forever.


*Also, we know Lily has an eating problem...she got through her entire bowl by the time Tip had barely started hers.*










Here's our most recent attempt. You can tell they really love each other.













Tipsy also has a new thing that she does. She sleeps, and then randomly out of nowhere she meows super loud and wakes herself up. She's probably dreaming, but the boy and I think she has a slight form of Asperger Syndrome. If you spent any time around her, you'd think so too.





Remember when I went snowboarding in the Pokono's mountains? Well when the boy and I drove to Ohio for Easter with his family, we drove through the Pokono's Mountain range. Breathtaking, wouldn't you say...?

Just for the record, I'm now calling the bluffs at home, mountains. Yes folks, I live next to mountains. I've already referred to Grandads bluff as Grandads mountain. It went over well.


I've also gotten better at cooking, and I know it might not seem like much, but I'm pretty darn proud of those grill marks on my grilled turkey and cheese. I didn't even use a George Foreman....Yeah. Skill.

Storm that scared me during our trip home from Ohio. Yeah..I'm 24 and still afraid of tornadoes.















This is the trail I run now. It's pretty gorgeous, and it reminds me of home. It's normally a great running trail, however, this morning there were two people that were...eh hem...having relations in the middle of the trail. Seriously. It was probably the fastest I've ever done a 180 in my life.

Intramural Dodgeball Champs!

You read that right! My team won the intramural dodgeball championship at our school! I've never won an intramural sport in my life, so this was definitely a milestone :)

My team consisted of seven members, five guys, two girls. We dominated the entire time. I don't even think we lost a game....well..now that I think about it, maybe one.

Either way, it was an awesome time. Hope to do it again next year and defend our title!

Here are some pictures of the team in action.

Chillin' before we started dominating the court.
Team huddle.
I'm working so hard!
I thought I'd throw this one in just for fun. Yep, that's me flailing around in the back because I thought I was going to get nailed with a ball (hey, at least I can dodge). Thankfully my trusty teammate caught it (as seen here) just before it hit me. *hint: click picture to zoom in, it really highlights the teams efforts*

Winners!

Photos courtesy of Eric Zhou and Michele Marzella.

75%

This week has been an interesting one.

It started out with a trip to the local mechanic because I heard a suspicious thumping sound coming from my front left tire area. Usually my car problems are not at all what you would call, quick fixes. I've had my new car for about a year and a half now, and so far so good, but I was just waiting for the one repair that would break this little girls piggy bank.

When I brought the car in, the mechanic took it for a drive. He comes back and informs me that there are two screws in my front left tire. Nope, not just one....two. That explains the tapping noise. I leave it there to get fixed, and he calls about an hour later telling me that 1.) the two left tires were put on backwards....(don't ask me how my previous mechanic managed that one) and 2.) the back left tire also had screws in it. The good thing was that they repaired my current tires. It was repaired within the hour, and I was off with a tiny dent in my piggy bank. I was happy :)

Thursday as I was walking out to my car to go to my two mandatory classes that day, I notice that my car looks tilted. In my head I'm thinking, 'Another flat?', but since I just had two tires repaired, I assumed it was just some optical illusion. Wrong.

You heard me right. Another flat. And on a completely different tire. Back right one this time.
I had a friend from school swing around and pick me up so I wouldn't miss class, and the boy was just getting home from school. He was amazing. He took the flat tire off (which from what he says was quite the workout. Read: it was rusted on, and he had to donkey kick it off), put on my donut tire, and drove it to the mechanics to get it fixed. This tire also had screws in it, and I needed to buy a new tire this time. Shucks, I thought I was done paying for tire repairs. There goes my happy piggy bank.

In the words of the mechanic, "You aren't the unluckiest person I've ever seen, but you're close." Oh good.

Three out of four. 75% of my tires had screws in them. I thought someone had to be doing this to me. I started getting paranoid.

What did I run over? A construction site? Nail gun? What did I do to this mean person stabbing screws in my tires? Do I have an arch enemy in Philly that I don't know about yet?

You guessed it, it was none of the above.

The security guard at school eased my fears. Some smarty-pants contractor dumped a box of screws in one of the only entrances to my school, and he failed to clean them up. I guess over 50 people have had screws in their tires. Some even had screws in all four.

The worst part is that we can't get compensation from anyone for this since it's unknown who didn't clean up their mess.

In happier news, remember that dodge ball game I mentioned a bit earlier. Well that game was today, and my team won the entire tournament!