A memory of 2011

The first time I heard and actually thought about the "new years song" was probably when I became obsessed with the movie When Harry Met Sally, and Harry says to Sally "What does this song mean? My whole life, I don't know what this song means. I mean, 'Should old acquaintance be forgot'? Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot?"

I agree with Harry, what in the world does this song mean.  It never made any sense to me and why is it associated with New Years? New Years is the time to start something new , not go back to what you have forgotten. And why with acquaintances? Don't you want to be with legit friends???  Anyways, that is completely unrelated, so here is my memory and tribute of 2011 in a few bullet points:

- Beginning this blog. Pretty sure it was my New Years resolution of 2011 to start a blog. I was kind of successful, I started the blog ..... just failed at keeping up with it. Attempt #2 for 2012.
- I started driving regularly again, and realized how terrible of a driver I actually am.  (insert 'women are bad drivers' joke here)
-Attempting to wake up at 5am to watch the Royal Wedding, but failing miserably and missing 3/4 of the wedding. At least I had my mimosas and a crown ready
- 2011 seemed to be the year of Bar tours. From Senior week bar tours, to Cape May bar tours, to Philly happy hour bar tours, to NYC Bar tours. The bar tour fun never stopped
- Received an expensive piece of paper (For all those folks out there who are unfamiliar with my life, I graduated college).

Moment of silence for Amy Winehouse 

- Feeling completely satisfied with the fact I was able to use my graduation robe just one more time as a part of my Harry Potter 7, part II midnight release costume.  Slightly sad that the movies are finished. Thanks Warner Bros of 10 years of anxiety waiting for the next movie, and taking an extra 10 bucks from every Harry Potter fan out there by making an 8th film. Movies are really waaaaaay too expensive these days
- Hurricane Irene was a great way to boost Home Depot's finances. There wasn't a single battery or back-up generator left on the East Coast. Titanic was on TV that night
- Snow storms are completely acceptable in October
- Other things happened

And lastly, well I don't have a lastly cause the year isn't over yet! Two more days!

It's been nice 2011, totally over you though, no offense.   

Well, cya college?

Okay, so it's the Sunday before my last ever finals week, I sit here contemplating just about everything that has happened in the past 4 years. Right right, it's probably really annoying to constantly read and hear everyone talking about "whoah, graduating" or "where did these last 4 years go." But those last 4 years were spent galloping around Penn State, making new friends, sitting in class, and just.. life.

I came here to get an education, and well.. I got a damn good one. I was just discussing with my roommate the other day about how it seems that college students don't care about learning anymore, but more about getting that A and memorizing a book the night before the exam so you can pass the exam. Or that you can get that GPA to be accepted into your major.  Did you really learn from that though? Sure, there are those pointless courses that I learned absolutely nothing from and learned how to multitask in class or how to plan out classes so you don't have to walk to the complete opposite side of campus. Or how any class before 11am you just wont make it to, or won't be awake enough to pay attention. I did learn,  sometimes it's not going to be about the specific details of a novel that you remember, rather what you took out of that course.

And yes, for a lot of classes I did cram the night before and lost all knowledge of the subject two days later. But I have learned an incredible amount over the past years. As a psych major, can I spit out every disorder from the DSM(basically encyclopedia for mental disorders)? No. But I do know a thing or twelve-hundred more than I did in high school about psychology.  Sure, now I can write research papers, or know a bit about conducting research.  I still can't make good power point presentations, but thanks to course requirements, I am a better public speaker.  But overall, I grew as a person.  As in anyone's life, there were high points and low points but I battled through. No one said life was easy.

I really wish I wrote myself a letter before freshman year, and could look back and see how I was, what I wanted and if I've accomplished my goals.  The reality of graduating has been hitting me very slowly. I suppose it will fully sink in?

Now, I'm getting ready to move out those dorm-room accessories that I brought 4 years ago and have kept since, job hunt, and soaking up those last moments in happy valley.  As I was walking in the pouring rain today, I decided I didn't care that it has been raining for the past month - I was literally soaking up happy valley. (ha)

It's been quite a ride, Penn State. From toon-town, to an empty summer in happy valley with only my cousin, to a variety of great roommates, to loving psychology, to an adventurous summer in Europe, to all those activities... specifically CCSG and THON, to late nights and all-nighters, to the HUB, to some shitty semesters, to some of the best, to keeping in touch with friends and annoying them by calling them all the time and getting mad when they didn't answer the phone,  to some of the most unique friends I have ever made, to the friendships that got stronger, to the happiest of all valleys.  There are not enough words to describe the past 4 years.

Here's to you college and what you have given me. Thanks.

How I deliver the news

Alright here it goes ... the CDN. The what? Yes, the Chach Daily News. About a year and a half ago my one friend came to me with a concern - he didn't have time to read the news ever and he knew I always read the news each morning while drinking my morning cup of coffee.  He simply asked me to send him, via text, some of the headlines of the day. So I did. And then he mentioned this to another one of our friends who then caught onto the news. Next thing I know, I have over 100 subscribers. So, this is my own little personal business - free of charge that is. My grandma keeps wanting me to start charging people but I would feel bad taking money from people.  Yes, my grandparents are subscribed to the CDN and love getting a text every day.  Okay so what's a subscriber? Simply someone who receives a text message from me every day of a 160characters of the top news stories of the day.  Props to my mom who gave the name of the Chach Daily News -- yes, even my mom is subscribed! Before someone subscribes I always be sure to tell them, "are you sure you want to subscribe? you cannot unsubscribe (well you could, it would probs just hurt my feelings) and this text comes every day."

Over summer 2010 my phone died while I was out of town, so I was forced to go get a new phone.  Oh let me also just note that me and cell phones do not get along very well, we tend to fight a lot and they usually hate me, break, freeze, malfunction allll the time.  Because of this,  I am very familiar with the verizon store and how the operate, so when the day arrived to get a new phone I walked into the store with one major requirement -- to be sure the phone can send group texts - for the news! After about an hour of debating which phone to chose (my friend I was with hated me this day), it was time to leave. As the verizon man was setting up the features on the new dumb phone I told him about my "non-profit business" and the subscribers and how important it was the phone could have group texting. He was thoroughly intrigued by the fact that my career was to send a personal text to people each morning with the news -- or maybe he was just intrigued by the fact my friend had decided to rip his one sleeve off his button-up collar shirt and just wearing 1 sleeve -- either way I almost had him subscribed.  Luckily the next day he creepily called me and asked how the subscribers were! What nice service (not at all). 





 So, that's my business - the Chach Daily News.  I hope all you subscribers are satisfied with your news everyday. 

Wine, for the classy folks

Wine, the new hot commodity. I was recently reading an article about how the younger generation is now embracing the wine culture, making wine into the more fabulous lifestyle.  And yes, I would like to say I contribute to the wine culture.  People join clubs to go wine tasting, and want to be come wine guru. Heck, I'm working towards that (still have a lonnnnggggg ways to go).  I was recently reading an article about is this prestigious wine program to be certified as basically a wine connoisseur and being so wine knowledgeable, though this includes lots of studying and exams.   Growing up in an (american) Italian family, having wine in the house was normal, and it's not normal if there is no wine in the house. This past summer I ventured to Italy - the great wine country - and let me say, wine flows more frequently than water over there, and not to mention in restaurants a glass of wine is cheaper than a bottle of water.  I visited 3 different vineyards for tastings, which by each one the wine got better and better. I learned soooo much about the art of wine tasting, and how to properly taste wine.  What I thought was extremely cool was seeing how wine is made, stored, and served. Huge oak barrels fill basements of wineries which wine will set in for about a year - all depending on the wine.  Prime grape season is September, so I was not able to eat any fresh grapes, or do any grape stomping like that one I Love Lucy episode. 

I simply just love the art of wine. This even including wine glasses.  I'm currently into the larger bowls or the no-stem glasses.

Side note: something I know absolutely nothing about, beer. I recently went beer tasting - which I found that I enjoy the darker more robust beers. Anyways, this is just another topic that I want to learn more about, I barely even know how beer is brewed. Guess I'll start doing some research.


There's nothing classier than a great glass of red wine.

What can a toothbrush offer

You know what's gross, bad breath. You know what's awesome, brushing your teeth. I recently just got a new toothbrush and for some odd reason I have this obsession with my toothbrush now.  (Honestly, I have brushed my teeth numerous times today, a bit too many) I guess it's because I haven't found a toothbrush that I really loved before, and now I have finally found my match. After going home for a few days and completely forgetting my toothbrush I realized I did not have a back-up here at school, sooooo I ventured off to the store for a great new brush. I had my choices between the sweet Spiderman light up toothbrush, or the HelloKitty or the really unproportionate Cinderella. I chose Colgate.  The brush has some sweet features like a tongue cleaner and has a see-through bottom to it, oh and I picked the green one.  I even liked it so much I bragged to my sister about it and she is now going to buy the same one.

Anyways, my Monday may not have been too thrilling (except celebrating Big Bird's birthday today - fun fact) - but that new toothbrush really made my day.  Gonna go brush my teeth right now!

I really gotta stop blogging about objects.

Straws

Who decided that people should start drinking drinks out of long plastic tubes of all sizes? Honestly.. who?  Okay, so I know ... it was Marvin Stone in 1888 (thank you about.com) But why did he just decide one day to put a piece of plastic in a cup to make drinking easier?   Don't get me wrong, I love straws. I've got my favorites.. like the straws in slurpies with the little spoon at the bottom, or the small stirring straws for coffee or cocktails, or just bendy straws.  Or when you're out to eat and half the straw wrapper is still attached and you spit it at the person across the table, and they for some odd reason freak out... but in reality it's only a piece of paper - nothing too deadly.  My next question is - why the bendy straw? Is it so you don't have to tilt your head forward to get to the straw? I was out to eat the other day and got extremely excited because I remembered the restaurant had bendy straws. It's all about the cup and straw proportion. 

Anyways, why do people invent these things and become so successful. It's quite impressive. Why did someone decided it should be the norm that we should wear triangle/pointy hats on birthdays? Just a thought. 

Yeah, I just blogged about straws.

Only reason why I could maybe like Starbucks

Besides pumpkin spice lattes and scones, I'm not a fan of Starbucks.  I do like them for making this video.. so cool

Movie influences my day

I recently watched the movie - Eat, Pray, Love .. which is based off a novel written by Elizabeth Gilbert and today it totally made me realize a few things. (I completely meant to read the book first cause I hate ruining the book by seeing the movie first).  Eat, Pray, Love is based off Elizabeth Gilbert's true story of "finding yourself".  She ventures out of her normal boring American lifestyle and travels to Italy,India and Bali.  She completely drops everything she had and traveled, meeting new people and turning new friends into dear friends.  Learning new cultural lifestyles.  This is where I might ramble lots.....

I absolutely love learning, experiencing, watching new cultures. This being a different country, or just smaller aspects such as a family's culture.  Small things.. such as how a family eats dinner.  Some families have buffet style dinners, some families don't eat dinner together, some families grab and go.  For my family, dinner is the biggest, most important part of the day,  we set the table, everyone sits in the same spot each night, and we usually eat for an hour or more. If you are not home for dinner that night then you better have a good reason to why not.  Ever since elementary school when I would go to friend's houses for dinner every so often, I was so intrigued by who does what.

Anyways, this summer I had the most wonderful opportunity to live in Italy for a few months and experience a new culture. There's so much more that I want to see, so many more places I want to experience.  Goal: Win the lottery, so I can afford to travel more.  (or just work really hard and save money).  I've got a bad case of a travel bug. One thing I regret during my summer travels was not meeting enough people while traveling, hearing their story and what they are doing.  Ideally, I would love to drop my life and travel alone (or I could take a friend), meet those people, and learn from them.  That's the bigger picture.  Right now, it's about where I am right now. 
I've learned so much not from sitting at a desk and taking exams, but from experiencing and doing.  Taking opportunities, meeting people, going outside. 

Nicest quote anyone has ever said to me, "At least you know who you are Kelsey" - AKahn (I really do hope I know who I am).  So moral of this blog .... be yourself.  Do your thaaaang, live it,  influence others, inspire others and love life.    Find what you love, and go with it.

Here's to the next few months left of college and figuring out where to venture to next.  Pretty sure the way this entry turned out was not what I was expecting, oh well.

A friendly Shout out

One thing in my life that I can't live without, friends. I just want to dedicate this to my wonderful Lansdale friends today cause I miss them........

Shout outs toooooo:

All those friends who are currently doing big things -- creating TV shows, driving cross country, spreading their music by touring across half the country,  being creative geniuses, smiling, making other's laugh, making a difference in my life and wanting to make a difference in everyone else's.
You all know who you are :-)   There's not one day that goes by that I don't thank the wonderful friends I have.    Ps-- sentimental Chach. Rarely happens


Do big things.  

3 words, 3 phases. For The Families, For The Cure, For The Kids.

I don't know where to begin on this topic.  THON.  That's all that's need to be said.  For those who are not aware of THON - Penn State Dance Marathon - is a 46 hour no sleeping, no sitting dance marathon in efforts to find a cure for pediatric cancer.  This is the largest student run philanthropy in the world, and I am so honored to be a part of such an amazing organization.  THON was just held this past weekend at Penn State... ending over 46 hours ago.  My contribution to THON is as a morale committee member, where during THON weekend each moraler gets assigned a dancer and well, morales them all weekend long.  Moralers have shifts during the weekend where we will sleep for maybe 2hrs every 7 hours or so and get back to THON to pep up the dancers!

Throughout the weekend (and all year) we support those  families who have been effected with cancer. No parent wants to hear "your child has cancer" .... this is why we THON. We THON to help those families.  We THON for the cure, for the kids.  All weekend long, kids run around the dance floor with the largest smiles, playing with every big kid that walks by.  Within 10 minutes of THON starting I was soaking wet from being in a water gun fight with one little boy... I didn't even have time to fill my water gun up yet! Pretty sure he had a double shooter too. 

THON has made such an impact on my life and my life at Penn State.  For all the wonderful friends I have made through this organization, everyone has such a big heart.  Dedication, passion and love.  Every person carries such a passionate story which shapes the support Penn  State has to help find a cure. 

I had the most amazing opportunity to be on the floor for the last four hours of the weekend.  The last four hours are some of the best hours of the weekend, which includes the largest dance party you'll ever see, dancers motivating themselves to make it through, and family hour... when families have the opportunity to share their stories with all of THON and touch everyone's heart.    Looking around, seeing and hearing all the support the Penn State community brings to THON was indescribable.  I have never experienced anything similar to this past weekend.  It's extremely difficult to fully describe THON weekend to anyone who has never been there, but videos and pictures truly capture the beauty that is THON.

There's just so much to write about and I cannot find the right words to describe the essence of THON. It has taken me over an hour to write this.  A known quote about THON goes - from the outside looking in you can't understand it, from the inside looking out you cant explain it.     For The Kids.

A shout out to the apples, bros, my dancers and bffs.

Do what you think is impossible.

Sister ESP

It was only in time that I would blog about my sister.  So a few minutes ago I was thought to myself "Oh I should give sister a call." Within 10 seconds of that thought my phone rang and it was my sister. Creepy. We have decided we have something called Sister ESP.  For those of you who may know me well probably get annoyed with how often I talk about the ESP or just how often I reference my sister.  We're not even twins. Oh well.

I'm serious about how creepy our ESP gets. There will be days that we will be wearing the same clothes (when we're in different towns) and call each other because we just have this feeling we're wearing the same thing.  Sometimes its planned too.  I especially love the days we're both in the same place and walk downstairs wearing the same shirt, or the similar style.  note : see picture below, complete accident. Luckily that day I was flying to Italy so we matched in different countries.  Or when we say the same thing at the same time.  Sometime it's kind of like having a live mirror. 

We call me her external hard drive.  Back before she left me to go to college I was literally her human calendar, human GPS and side kick.  Technically, still am all the above. Recently sister moved to NYC.. now she has the worst sense of direction anyone could ever have so for a good week I would receive a phone call "Chachhhhh are you near a computer? I'm lost!" Luckily those calls have dwindled down to about once or twice a week now. We've also stopped called each other by our first names and just shortened it to 'sister.'  It's really fun when we quote Buster from Arrested Development and as he says all the time - hey brother  ---- we just change out brother for sister.

Anyways, having ESP is kind of cool, sometimes we don't even need to speak words at each other and just use our minds to talk -- that's when we are in the same room of course.   I could go on and on about our stories, but I'll spare you the time.  A sister is kind of like a best friend you can't get rid of.  Sorry Caitlin,  just gotta deal with it?

Shout out to you too brother (or as we like to call him, brother bear). I've completed disregarded the fact that my siblings have first names... they're just brother or sister. Kinda like the Bernstein Bears.  ha, oh childhood memories.

Too cute

Politicians win my heart

Bucket list item achieved.  Saw President Obama today.  Obama visited the Happy Valley today, and I was fortunate enough to snatch up a ticket for the event! And no, I did not camp out to get the ticket like other students, nor did I wait in line forever. Anyways, for awhile now I've been dying to see him speak in person, and it was everything I could have imagined!  Now I can add Obama to my list of politicians I have seen speak/seen, along with Rahm Emanuel, Wolf Blitzer (kinda... just ...The Situation Room with Wolf), Clinton, Biden,  oh and Sean Astin - Samwise gamgee- who was campaigning for Hilary? Totally counts.   I just get all giddy when they're in the same area, even room, as me.

Alright soooooo confession: I really like politicians. I have this weird liking for the Kennedy family. I mean, who wouldn't? Yes, I have looked through their family tree many times, taped Oprah when a Kennedy makes an appearance (very rare), etc. .... I should probably stop here.... have a Kennedy for President sign..... I got really excited when the Obama girls not only got a dog, but also a swing set. Or when someone asks if I could have dinner with anyone who would it be? My answer is always either JFK or FDR.  This is all probably getting a little too creepy ....

Anyways, before Obama arrived JoePa walked into the room and naturally, received a standing O from the crowd, along with multiple shout outs from Obama later on.  I should mention all the crowd waves (including Penn State's famous slow wave) the audience had going during the 3 hour waiting game.  During Obama's speech,  he noted how sexy (yes I sware) Penn State's energy efficient buildings are. Proof.. he really does love being energy efficient.  It's so difficult to describe the energy he brings into a room.  Though he did not speak for very long,  every second impacted his speech.  Unfortunately he did not chant "We Are..." today. That would have made today ultimate.

True life; I am liberal.

Boy band nostaglia

What happened to boy bands?  Have Gaga, Ke$ha and Katy Perry now taken over the popular music scene? Where'd BSB go (besides half in rehab)?  Where's NSYNC (besides one being in space)?  The Hanson Bros?  Or my current personal favorite, BBMak.... this is only cause my computer crashed this summer and I lost all my music and I only got to the B section of downloading all the music back onto itunes before I lost patience.  I must admit, I still listen to Backstreet Boys while at the gym, or sometimes jammin in my car... but why are they not on the radio anymore? Auto-tuned celebs and one-hit wonders are taking over. Helppppp! Slightly miss the boy band scene.  Although, why did my mom ever allow me to hang a shitton of magazine photos of the Backstreet Boys covering every inch of my walls?

So, this summer a few of my friends and I had the most wonder opportunity to see the one and only Aaron Carter LIVE at a bar close to home. Alright, yes Aaron is not a boy BAND but he's related... and I just like to share this story.  The best part of this is the fact that he was performing at a bar in the suburbs of Philly, not even in Philadelphia... kinda sad. Anyways, since he really isn't worth a $15 cover we figured we would get there 3 hours before so we could skip cover......yeah... that didn't work.  I kind of want that 15bucks back.  But to make the story better... we stalked Aaron out, then I bro-hugged Aaron Carter. I think my life is complete now.   I just wanted him to tell me how he beat Shaq, guess I'll have to wait til the next encounter.  Ever wonder why Aaron didn't get any bros? Why'd he go solo? Poor kid.

Anyways, as much as I was always a Backstreet Boys fan rather than NSYNC -- you HAD to pick one or the other--- I would be so satisfied seeing NSYNC getting back together, reunion tour.  The dancing, the great distribution of solos of each member, the looks, the songs.. all too good to be true. I'll trade in some Ke$h for old school NSYNC.  I guess Justin Timberlake's 30th birthday today inspired my boy band nostalgia.

My first blog-a-roooo

I did it. I have been talking about blogging for the past few months and finally decided today was the day.  I guess since now that I have this blog, I really can write anything I want.  I will try to make my life seem as thrilling as possible. Ya know, last semester senior year of college at Penn State... it HAS to be exciting. I promise my days are not all about drinking, staying up late, and complaining about exams.  I like to think I have some pretty interesting events going on in my life, inside and out of Penn State ........

Currently, I am slowly pondering what exactly I will type in this next line, and thinking to myself, "is this exciting? are people actually reading this?" My hands are just laying on the keyboard not knowing what to type.  I'm no writer, so I won't be whipping out those furbished, exciting and enthusiastic words, sorry.  That sentence was probably poor grammar too, oh well.  I just like to speak...but I will attempt to put some style into it.  Maybe I'll share a story here or there... I'm known for my stories. They're actually so terrible, that they could be interesting. And they usually don't have a point, and then I oftentimes find 5dollars after.

I feel like there's a lot of pressure with the first blog entry.  I feel like I'm supposed to really build myself up and say all of these wild and crazy stories I have, and what makes me so unique that people will really read my blog.  What if I said that I've tried fried veal brain before, or that I have a non-profit business and by non-profit, I really mean non-profit.  What if I said that this one time I won a free cruise, which turned out to be a free dinner for 2 to Olive Garden.  All of these things are true, though they weren't wild and crazy and I am just Chach.

I was going to express my feelings on business cards, even wrote out a whole paragraph. But realized how dumb that was.  I also wrote a story about this unknown number that contacted me today, but I erased that too. Still don't know who it is, so not worth blogging.  You know what might be worth blogging? The fact that the font a person uses describes their personality.  Or the usage of acronyms.

Anywho, for those subscribed to the CDN and would like to see the gorilla story, here it is.   Gorilla becomes human

CDN = TBDL. (To be discussed later)  ps -- why use an acronym in conversation when someone might not know what it means, and then you will have to say the whole phrase anyways in explanation. seems kinda pointless to me