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March 30, 2006

That Guy

Well, I'm home... again. I needed to apply for a summer job, so I put in an application at J-Crew on Greenwich Ave. If anyone has any ideas for me in case J-Crew doesn't go through, leave me a comment and let me know!

It was a really beautiful day today, I think it got up into the low 70s at some point. I love Trinity in the Spring, everyone sits outside in a whole array of pastel colors talking, working, playing volleyball out on the quad, etc.

Before I say anything else, I'd just like to mention that in my upper-level political philosophy class today, a senior, when asked, said that the sun, in fact, revolves around Earth, and not the other way around. He was completely serious, which was the best part. The entire class burst out laughing, but when asked to give a reason why we knew he was wrong, none of us could, so I guess we're all idiots. Oh well. I said that it was because Earth has less mass than the sun, so the gravitational pull has to go towards the sun and not the other way around. Our professor gave me a look and asked me how I knew that the sun was larger than the earth so I gave him a look. No, not a clever look, the usual look I give him, the "What are you talking about, please stop calling on me" look.

Anyway, I'm home now for the night. This afternoon I went to J-Crew for that job application when I was approached by some random man on the street.

"Nice day, isn't it!" he called out as I walked into the store.

I slowly turned, hoping he wasn't talking to me. I hate it when random people talk to me.

"Yeah... it is!" I replied, with a big fake smile.

I was obviously a little freaked out. What is it that makes people think it's ok to talk to someone, walking at least 10 feet ahead of them, who they have never met before? I went into J-Crew, talked to the sales people, filled out my application, and left a few minutes later out the front door where that same man was standing waiting for me. Oh man... here we go.... I thought to myself. I tried to dart past him before he could talk to me. I don't know why I thought that would work on someone who had no problem yelling out to me in the first place.

"It is beeeeeautiful!" he called out.

A crosswalk... of course. Of course there had to be a crosswalk and I had to stop at it. He caught up with me. I gave him that half-smile half-"who are you and why are you talking to me" look, which clearly had no effect on him.

"So, how are you enjoying Greenwich Avenue today?" he said, emphasizing far too many syllables.

"Oh..." I started, awkwardly, "it's just great!"

"Yes it is. This is a looooovely neighborhood, it really truly is."

I gave him a quarter-smile, three quarters "who are you and why are you talking to me" look this time, to which he replied "All right then."

What? Does that even make sense? All right then. All right then, I'll be crossing the street now! I sped across the street so fast that I almost ran into the woman in front of me, got into my car, and immediately locked the doors. The crazy man had followed me across the street and all the way to my car where he lingered for a few moments, then walked off looking for his next victim. Ugh, "that guy." Don't ever be that guy.

After reading the entry I just wrote, I realized that I give a lot of "looks." For those of you who know me, personally, is this true? Do I give looks? I hope so, I'd like to be a look-giver. That would make me feel important.

In completely unrelated news, some pictures from the American Heart Association Heart Ball in Massachusetts made it into BusinessWest, a business journal/magazine in Western Massachusetts. I'm not going to put the whole article in my blog, but here are some pictures, stolen from the BusinessWest website:

The ball:

Brent's Mom, Brent's Dad, Brent, and Me:

The auction part of the ball to raise money for the AHA:

All right, well, my sister, Jocelyn, told me that I need to "sex up the blog" so my next entry will do just that when I show you what she gave me as a gift from Bloomingdale's and no, I won't be modeling it.... It's very cute, so make sure you check back!

Posted by lauren at 06:53 PM | Comments (5)

March 28, 2006

Leaf-Blower Mania

So, yesterday I spent the afternoon at my house since I had been locked out and wouldn't have made it to class in time anyway. While wasting time at home, my mom and I heard the gardener/landscaper people arrive with their giant, blaring leaf-blowers. We stepped closer to the window to see what they were working on, and discovered that they were mostly just playing with their leaf-blowers in one of the gardens. They were pointing them directly at the dirt and mulch in the gardens and blowing it all into the driveway. They then blew their giant pile of dirt down the driveway and into the front lawn.

What were they thinking?

Hiding myself a little better behind the window this time:

Oh well. Anyway, I headed back to school and somewhere in Stamford I ran into this situation:

As you can see, there are two cars and a police car on the side of the road with a lot of broken glass after an accident. In this kind of situation, I believe it is customary for someone to direct traffic and if no one is available, for the cars in the opposite lane to allow people to alternate every now and then. Nope! I sat there as a line of about 25 cars drove past and not one of them let anyone through. Worse than that, every single car would come towards the accident, stop to look at it (ensuring that at least 5 cars lined up behind them) and then drive through. I was so mad! As were all the cars behind me, I imagine. The picture was taken right as we finally got to go through.

As I drove into Hartford, I went under this arch which I think is really pretty. It's some sort of veteran's arch, I don't know for which war (maybe all of them?):

When I got back to school I unpacked some things and then started to watch The Patriot with Brent. This is at least the third time Brent has tried to get me to watch The Patriot with him, and I'd say we got farther than usual! I promised to finish it this time, though, so that's probably what I'll be doing tonight.

Random funny trailer in Hartford:

This afternoon on the way to Brent's and my class together, I made Brent take a picture with me because I like to have "people pictures" on my blog whenever possible, especially when the other pictures are relatively boring slash taken while driving.

Brent and Me:

That's all for today, I don't lead a very exciting life, as I'm sure you all know by now. Maybe something fun will be going on this weekend, we'll see.

Posted by lauren at 06:43 PM | Comments (1)

March 27, 2006

Locked Out

It has been really nice being home this past weekend. I miss my family, the pets, the house, and Greenwich in general when I'm away at school in Hartford, so it's nice to have a few days back every now and then. Saturday was Molly's birthday and the night of her sorority's formal, so she was home for the day to celebrate with her family and get ready for the party. Molly had asked me if I would do her hair and makeup, so Saturday afternoon Molly came over to my house. It was a lot of fun playing makeover, what girl doesn't love to make-up their friends?

Molly after I did her hair and makeup. Isn't she gorgeous? Of course she's gorgeous without the hair/makeup done too:

I burned my arm on a curling iron while doing Molly's hair, but it was still a lot of fun to do. Here's my battle wound:

All girls know that trying to put a little curl in straight hair is a battle!

Molly sent me some pictures from her formal and she looked so cute!

Saturday night I went to our yacht club with my dad for dinner where we had the most amazing swordfish ever! It just had so much flavor and it was the perfect texture. After dinner, my mom and I watched Christmas With the Kranks which was a little silly, but still very cute. My mom cried.

Yesterday was another birthday, my mom's! We had to cancel her party due to unexpected circumstances, but we still had a little cheesecake at my grandparents' house and we all sang "Happy Birthday." My mom has a bay window above the sink in our kitchen and she loves to fill it with lots of flowers and she always makes it look beautiful. I wanted to get her something to put there that she could plant outside once it had finished blooming, so I got her an azalea and I picked out a really cute re-usable pot with it. I also framed a picture of my mom and me on Christmas and gave that to her as well.

My gift to the most amazing mom in the world!

The picture:

Mom's bay window with the new plant and pot!

My dad got my mom a beautiful silk scarf and a new Spring cardigan, and my grandparents gave her a really nice wallet and money to go inside! We'll be celebrating my mom's birthday with everyone as a joint birthday party with my dad on his birthday later on in April.

Now, this morning....

I woke up at 6am this morning to make sure that I would be out of the house and back to Trinity in time for my statistics class. I absolutely did not want to be awake that early, especially just for one class, but I dragged myself out of bed, got showered and dressed, had my coffe by Mr. T (what I named the Tassimo coffe magician) and packed all my things in the car.

My coffee being made by Mr. T:

My dad was off at work and my mom had literally just pulled out of the driveway to go to a doctor's appointment as I was walking outside to put my last bag in the car... not including my purse with my keys and cell phone that was still sitting on the kitchen table. I didn't want the dog, Chloe, to get outside so I instinctively pulled the door shut behind me as she ran towards it. As I walked to the car, thought to myself "That door better not be locked..." even though I didn't think it was a real possibility. I put my bag in the car and headed back to the door, tried to turn the handle... stuck. The door was locked. I walked to the front door, that was locked too. I walked across the deck, through the porch and tried the glass sliding doors there... locked. I tried the back door again, to no avail, and searched all around the garage for a non-existant hidden key. I was completely and totally locked out of the house. My mom had apparently made sure all the doors were locked before she left, because, you know... Greenwich, CT is a dangerous place. There might be gangs out there! Anyway, I looked into the kitchen window and saw the dog sitting there looking out at me, and I swear she was smirking.

I decided it was too early to wake the neighbors for house keys, so I walked to my grandparents' condo in Old Greenwich. It was actually a really beautiful walk through Binney Park and I wished that I had my camera with me, but it was in my purse along with my keys. I got to my grandparents' house where my grandma gave me some keys and very nicely drove me home. Now that I'm home and it's definitely too late to make it to my statistics class, I'm going to stick around for a little while and have lunch out at Bella Nonna with my mom and my grandparents.

Off to school (again) later this afternoon!

Posted by lauren at 09:27 AM | Comments (5)

March 25, 2006

Ritz Carlton - Naples, FL

These past few days I've been in Naples, FL with my boyfriend, Brent, and his parents.

Looking down on Florida from the airplane:

Brent's family invited me to stay with them at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples for 4 days and we had such an amazing trip! I flew down on Tuesday to meet Brent and his family who had been there since Saturday. Brent, his dad, and his uncle came to pick me up at the airport and then the four of us drove to Brent's aunt and uncle's house in Estero, FL. Brent's parents and his aunt and uncle played some golf while Brent and I played in their pool. Brent has pictures of this on his camera but refuses to walk downstairs to get it, so you can blame the picture delay on him.

When I say "played" in the pool, you have to understand that boys don't know how to play nice with girls, so basically I spent the entire time getting thrown around and nearly drowned by Brent who seemed to be enjoying himself. At one point I got slugged pretty hard in the shoulder but Brent had the excuse of "You can't blame me! I was flailing!" Brent flailed a lot at my expense.

After swimming for a couple hours, we got dressed for dinner and read for a little while until Brent's family got back.

Looking down at Brent from the 2nd floor in the house:

The six of us went out to dinner somewhere in or near Estero where we had some great Italian food and I heard some really funny family stories. After dinner, I drove to Naples with Brent and his parents to the hotel we stayed at, the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort. My room was across the hall from theirs and it was gigantic! I had a huge king sized bed with a featherbed on it and a down comforter that actually made me feel like I was sleeping in a cloud. My bathroom was huge too with three separate areas, the shower, the sinks, and the toilet room (which had a phone in it by the way). After exploring my room and then getting Brent's official tour of the resort, I finally went to sleep after a very long (but also very fun) day.

The next morning, Brent and I went for a walk with Brent's parents around the resort grounds and into a few of the neighboring communities (still part of the Ritz Carlton). Everything there is so beautiful. We saw a bunch of turtles in the lake and a big white egret. After our walk we made our way down to the pool where I got a much needed suntan.

The fountain outside the resort:

The pool (Brent's parents are sitting on the chairs in the background):

Brent and I read our books while sunbathing:

Brent and Me after going for a swim:

A bird eating out of someone's lunch tray:

Here's a whole series of completely unnecessary pictures that I'm only putting up because I swore on my life I wouldn't delete them. Brent thought it would be a good idea to take my picture constantly throughout the trip while I wasn't looking so that my pictures wouldn't look "posed." Well, they don't look posed, they look silly. Oh well. Here you go Brent:

That last one is especially flattering....

Those pictures were taken at one of the little tables by the pool where people could sit to get out of the sun and order something to drink/eat. Brent got a virgin pina colada and I got a Diet Coke because I'm boring.

Brent's dad came over to join us after the "photo shoot" and I took this lovely posed picture of them:

Brent and Me:

After we baked out in the sun (with plenty of sunscreen Mom!) I took a shower while Brent and his dad played some tennis. When I was done getting ready, I watched the second half of Brent and his dad's tennis match with Brent's mom. Brent won in a close match and said he'd help me with my tennis this Spring at school. After tennis we all went over to the big comfy rocking chairs outside looking over the golf course. The Ritz Carlton is so beatuful and everything was set up so nicely.

Out on the deck:

Brent and me holding hands...aww:

And here we go again with Brent's random photos of me that I promised to keep....

Me sitting in one of the rocking chairs:

Again:

Don't worry, I do it to him too later on.

Brent wearing his tennis gear, walking inside:

After enjoying the scenery for a while, Brent and I went up to our rooms to get ready for dinner at the Sanibel Steakhouse (not in Sanibel). This picture is either 1. another of Brent's random pictures of me or 2. the picture I took of myself to see if my smile looked weird.... I'd go with number 2, I do strange things like that:

Before we left to meet Brent's parents in the lobby, Brent and I set up my camera on the timer mode to get a picture of the two of us sitting together, but as I walked over to sit next to him, Brent scooped me up, creating this adorable picture:

Ha! I finally got him! This is Brent in the middle of a sentence while we were down in the lobby waiting for his parents to be ready for dinner (amazing, I wasn't last one ready)!

Isn't he handsome?

This is a random picture looking up at the Ritz Carlton from the end of the driveway. I love palm trees:

View of the resort from across the lake:

At the Sanibel Steakhouse Brent and I had our very predictable filet mignon cooked medium with french fries. It was very tasty, but the best meal was yet to come....

Thursday morning we all woke up early and got our stuff together for the beach. Around 9:30am we packed into the car with all our bags and books and gallons of sunscreen and drove a couple miles down the road to the other Ritz Carlton where we went to the beach. Guests at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort are allowed to use the Ritz Carlton at the beach as well as the golf one. When we got to the beach it was a little cloudy out, but the sun peeked through and I think we managed to get a little tan anyway. Brent, Brent's dad, and I went for a walk down the beach where we saw a fisherman who had just caught a baby hammerhead shark. It was really cute, but it was also a little scary that there were hammerheads lurking about. We didn't see any other sharks, but we did see a bunch of dolphins jumping out of the water right in front of us where we were sitting.

A very relaxed Brent on the beach:

Brent with his parents:

Me:

The beach:

Brent and Me:

The Ritz Carlton on the beach:

Brent walking in front of Gumbo Limbo, the beachside restaurant (also a part of the Ritz Carlton) where we ate lunch:

The stretch of land between Gumbo Limbo and the Ritz Carlton was very green and lush. There were a bunch of Ritz Carlton employees wandering about with machetes which I thought was pretty funny. I decided not to take their picture, though, because... well, they had machetes and you never know how the locals will react to having their picture taken.

Green:

After about six hours of relaxing, reading, and napping at the beach, we headed back to the resort where we got showered and dressed for dinner at Campiello's.

I think this is the "does my smile look weird?" picture I was talking about, but I actually sort of liked how it turned out because it gave me accidental cleavage, so I'm keeping it:

Brent and me all gussied up Florida-style:

Brent trying to watch Poker on TV while I tried to take pictures (I won-- you can't keep me from my compulsive picture taking):

Brent and Me again:

And again:

One more time:

When we arrived in Olde Naples, or "downtown," we went to Tommy Bahama where Brent and his dad bought some shirts. The power went out briefly which was pretty exciting, and then everyone cheered when it came back on a minute later. The store had an interesting setup, the men's side was on the right, the women's on the left, and in between there was a Tommy Bahama restaurant. After a little shopping (I think the shopping in Naples rivals Greenwich Ave.) we headed over to Campiello's. At Campiello's, we had the most amazing bruschetta ever, I mean it, and then some homemade pasta! Brent, Brent's dad, and I ordered the tagliatelle which was homemade tagliatelle pasta with spicy lamb sausage and sauce. If you like lamb, you must hop on a plane right away and get yourself down to Naples, FL to try Campiello's tagliatelle. After dinner we sipped cappuccinos and Brent and his dad had gelato, then we took a quick walk down the street again.

Campiello's:

Naples is such a friendly area, everyone says hello as they pass even though they clearly don't know us, and the sidewalks were filled with people chatting and mingling even late at night when everything was closed. The streets are so beautiful there, there are gorgeous lit up fountains everywhere you look and all the trees have Christmas lights reaching out to every limb (or just up the trunk of the palm trees). Speaking of Christmas, apparently at Christmastime, the streetlights are replaced with fake snow generators so that as people walk down the sidewalks, they're showered with "snow" to make it feel like a white Christmas. Snow without the freezing temperatures? I'm there!

Downtown Naples at night:

A beautiful lit up tree:

Putting my photography skills to work to take this picure of Brent on the sidewalk:

I thought it would be cool in black and white too:

We found the one man in America who doesn't know how to use a digital camera to take this picture of us. He was very sweet... but oh man:

When we got home, Brent's parents went to bed and Brent and I went down to the hot tub where we saw these snails all over the walls! Not the hot tub walls, but the walls around the entire pool deck:

The water was boiling hot so we didn't last long until we had to get out and go to bed.

Friday morning, Brent and I got up and got some breakfast to take outside to eat. We shared a giant blueberry muffin and drank some coffee on the Adirondack chairs looking out over the golf course.

Brent at breakfast:

I've decided that eating breakfast outside is one of my new favorite hobbies that I probably won't do again for a few months.

Golf course:

Brent and me at breakfast in front of the resort:

After breakfast, we showered, got dressed, and headed out to lunch at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club right next door to the resort. Brent and I had sandwiches with Brent's parents and then came back to the resort to play some pool before leaving.

Brent "breaking:"

I asked Brent if I could break and he gave me a look, so I had to prove him wrong. I managed to tap the yellow ball slightly out of the triangular thing which I am counting as a victory.

Me shooting:

Brent allowed it when I scratched about ten times on the 8 ball (that's what boyfriends are for!) so when I got all my balls and the 8 ball in before he did, he said "Good job sweetie, after only a few losses, you managed to win." Yes I did.

After playing pool for a while, we got back in the car and headed down Alligator Alley for Miami where we all flew home. I was on a different plane than Brent and his family because they were going to Hartford and I was going to NYC, but luckily I was sitting next to two very nice women who didn't try to talk to me. The ride home was a bit traumatic when we hit some turbulence, started swaying from side to side, and then started going in a general downward direction while the plane made scary plane noises. I actually thought we were going down, and I don't think I was the only one because I saw a number of nervous faces all around. We landed safely, however, almost exactly 24 hours ago. Brent and his family were so nice to invite me to Naples with them and I had an AMAZING time! You should all visit sometime, it's worth the scary plane trip.

Posted by lauren at 10:37 PM | Comments (3)

March 20, 2006

Happy Spring

Happy Spring Everyone!

It certainly doesn't feel like Spring, but I'm getting out of New England tomorrow morning! Yup, that's right, I'm abandoning everyone for Naples, FL and leaving you all in the cold while I enjoy the low 80s out by the pool at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort with Brent and his family. I can't make this a very long entry because I still have to pack, but let me start by showing you my new computer.

My old computer completely broke, so I got a new one and it's really pretty and blue!

New Computer:

Ooh Aah....

I've spent a lot of the weekend playing on my new computer trying to figure out the DVD burner, and the rest of the weekend I spent hanging out with my parents before I leave for FL and doing some last minute shopping. Today, I went to Bloomingdale's because I wanted to get a new Spring/Summer dress in time for going to Naples. I tried on a total of 12 different Lily Pulitzer dresses and made my final decision on the Brice Dress:

Isn't it pretty? I love it! The flowers have sequins on them and a cute little lady bug with beads for its spots.

I probably won't be able to blog until the weekend because I'll be in Florida, but wish me a safe flight and I'll be back in a few days!

Posted by lauren at 09:14 PM | Comments (3)

March 18, 2006

Happy (Belated) St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I hope everyone had fun on this past March 17th. I didn't do anything too exciting, but my parents and I did go to the yacht club for the St. Patrick's Day party there.

RYC:

I stole that picture from the RYC website.

My dad had a traditional Irish meal of corn beef and cabbage with a glass of Irish whiskey. My mom and I were less festive and both had the filet mignon and soda rather than straight Irish whiskey like the crazy people. The club had hired a group of Irish singers who came around to the tables playing the guitar and the achordian while singing Irish tunes. It was a lot of fun, especially when everyone in the club eating started singing along....

I saw Jennifer, a girl I know from Trinity... and middle school, at the yacht club. At least 3 or 4 Trinity kids that I know of go to our yacht club which is a strange coincidence. I decided not to go over and attack Jennifer the way Julie and I did last semester when we recognized her at Psi U at 2am and bombarded her with a series of "Do we know you? Are you from Greenwich? Do you know me?" questions. She said she recognized us too and was wondering the same thing... so it wasn't too embarrassing. Anyway, that's why I didn't say hello.

When I got back home I played with my new computer until 5am. My old computer is completely busted, as many of you who read my blog regularly already know, and my new one just came in the mail! It's a really pretty blue color and it's basically just the updated version of my old Sony VAIO. I had a special digital photography package added to my computer when they were making it, so I have Adobe Photoshop now which is sooooooo cool! I'll probably be playing with it all day and you can see my creations later. The reason I was up until 5am, though, wasn't because I was having fun playing on Photoshop, it was because I was trying to transfer all my pictures, music, and files from my old computer to my new computer with a jump drive (if you're confused, don't worry... I don't know what that is either). It took FOREVER, probably because I have about 2500 songs and a zillion pictures on my computer. I lost about 800 songs somewhere in the transfer that I have yet to find, but oh well. I probably don't listen to them anyway. Does anyone else have an iPod filled with a bunch of songs you've never heard before by bands you didn't know existed? I do.

Last but not least, a few days ago I was playing with the celebrity look-alike site on MyHeritage to see who my friends and I look like! I don't know if it's true or not, but here are a couple screen shots:

Rachel Bilson and Me:

Haha, when am I ever going to have another picture with that caption? Summer is my favorite "OC" character, so I was really excited and decided to put in a picture of my boyfriend, Brent, and me and look what we got!

Ryan and Summer?

After playing around looking up pictures of my friends and me, I decided to try my cat, Frisky, and apparently she looks like Zsa Zsa Gabor!

Zsa Zsa?

Frisky, or Zsa Zsa Kitty, is a little pageant queen for those of you who don't know! She got Best in Show in the one cat show I ever entered her in.

All right, back to... the weekend.

Posted by lauren at 02:10 PM | Comments (2)

March 16, 2006

When I Get Bored...

I do stupid things. But I'll get to that later....

Tuesday afternoon Brent had his first rugby practice which made me VERY nervous because apparently they tackle each other with no pads! I told Brent he's not allowed to break any bones. He's off at practice again right now, actually, so he better come back in one piece!!

Anyway, Tuesday night, after Brent changed out of his muddy rugby gear, we went to the Trinity event at the J-Crew in the Westfarms Mall. Apparently J-Crew has finally realized that about 90% of their products every season are going straight to the 2500 mailboxes at Trinity Colege, so they have decided to lure the money out of our wallets by throwing Trinity events with the promise of food and sales! They got me on the sales (we get a 10% discount with a Trinity ID every day now at J-Crew) and they got Brent with the food.

J-Crew, Westfarms Mall

I got a couple cute beach cover ups and Brent got his fair share of cookies. Right near J-Crew is Williams Sonoma, one of the most dangerous stores in the whole entire mall! I know what you're thinking, how could Williams Sonoma be more dangerous than Hot Topic? Well, Hot Topic doesn't cook delicious smelling food. As we walked past Williams Sonoma we smelled something delicious, like some sort of spice cake. Without verbally acknowledging our change in course, we both walked right in and started sniffing around.

"Where's it coming from?"
"I think there's an oven, look over there!"
"It's over there, towards the back! Go see, is that it? Can we have some do you think?"
We rush over to the cake display and start wildly sniffing at it like those hungry cartoon characters who suddenly levitate in the air and float towards the sweet smelling pie in the oven.
"It's plastic! It's just the display! Where's the food? Don't they have samples?"
We rush around the store some more.
"There's nothing here? Why would they do that?!"

That's about the time that one of the sales ladies noticed us and we got embarrassed and quickly evacuated the store right as she pulled a beautiful bunny-shaped cake out of the oven....

Williams Sonoma or, should I say, Biggest Tease EVER:

After missing out on the potential cake-eating opportunity, we angrily drove home where there was no cake to be had.

Yesterday was slightly better, food-wise. The Cave (one of the food places on campus) was making meatball subs so Brent and I shared one and then worked it off by playing squash, our new exercise hobby.

Brent is a far better squash player than I am, so I'm lucky if I even score a single point against him. To make the game more entertaining, we decided to play it out as an underdog movie. Following the typical underdog movie plot structure, I was a small town girl playing in the International Squash Championships not for the fame, but for the money so that Ma and Pa back in Kansas could afford to keep the farm while Brent was the defending champion from Australia. I was only in the championships as a last-minute fill-in for the previous American player who was actually killed when Brent hit him in the head with a squash ball during the preliminaries, dislocating his brain from his skull (think Cinderella Man). The match started out with little hope for Ma and Pa and the cat, Stinky, who got stuck under the porch 3 years back and got so fat from all the food we threw in to her that she needed us to hire a construction crew to get her out. Brent was winning, 8 to 0, when I made my miraculous comeback and tied the game, 8-8. Brent got one more point and we all thought he won, since squash is played up to 9, but then we were informed that, according to International Squash Championship rules, the winner has to win by 2 points, so I still had a chance to save the family farm from foreclosure. In an unexpected ending, Brent won the match but realized that he didn't need the prize money with his $100 million corporate sponsorships, so he gave it to me to save Ma and Pa's farm and then we fell in love and lived happily ever after.

Yes, we're enormous losers, but it made exercising more fun. Yesterday, Brent and I went to Uno Chicago Grill a the mall because my mom had given us coupons to get $5 off our dinner there. We ended up sharing an appetizer platter as our meal and it was amazing! Anyone who reads this must think my life revolves around food and, well, it does.

On the way back to school it was snowing harder than it has in a while and I was VERY upset about it! It's almost Spring! Ugh. This picture was originally supposed to show the snowstorm and demonstrate my anger towards said snowstorm, but then I realized that the car in front of us had used car markers to write RIP someone on the back windshield. I thought that was weird... so here's the picture I took:

This is Brent making fun of me because every time we get in his car I always play with the Yankee Candle car air freshener sticky thing and get my fingers caught in the sticky part:

This is the Mexican restaurant Coyote Flaco where a bunch of us went out to dinner last year... and I got violently ill.

This is a picture of us heading towards Trinity and how gross and snowy it was out:

A pretty Trinity building:

We drove past my beautiful car and I took this beautiful picture of her!

This is the "Library on Wheels" bus that mysteriously shows up outside Trinity late at night... Brent and I think it sells crack, like the 3am ice cream truck:

This is my self-portrait in the car mirror:

Someone cut down the pretty bushes by the tennis courts and now they look stupid... just like this unnecessary picture:

As I'm sure you remember, it was SNOWING outside... check out the difference between boys' and girls' footwear decisions:

Those are my cute new Michael Kors boots on the right and Brent in his silly flip-flops on the left.

Snow by the library:

Creepy tree by the dining hall:

Our ID cards haven't been working on the doors lately, so they put up these signs telling us to put in our ID numbers to get in. I had absolutely no reason to take a picture of that sign other than to annoy Brent who already thinks I take far too many stupid pictures. I like the face he's making in the background:

Brent wearing the cutest shirt EVER (I made it for him... can you tell?):

Brent and I got pajama-ed and then met up at his room again to watch some TV. Brent wanted some Easy Mac, but not a normal person's serving of Easy Mac, he wanted two of the Big Packs. Kraft couldn't possibly have been prepared for the fat kid tendencies of Brent and myself, so we had to make up the measurements and times ourselves. Brent asked me to do make the Easy Mac because, well, if he had made it I imagine there would be some sort of cheesy explosion in his microwave right now. I managed to get it just right, so Brent told me I will now be worshiped as a macaroni goddess! Just what I've always wanted!

Easy Mac a la Macaroni Goddess:

After Easy Mac, we were still bored... so we came up with a super fun activity! I read in Cosmo that if you paint your face with Elmer's glue that it will exfoliate your skin! Obviously we had to try this out.... My very indulgent boyfriend let me do his chin, nose and forehead and I did my entire face.

Brent getting glued:

And again:

I think Brent liked it, but as for me... well, I thought it was excruciatingly painful ripping glue off my face. Maybe that's because I did my eyelids....

And one last picture for the night, this is Brent warming his ears up in my jacket's hood and pretending to be Godzilla:

What a couple of weirdos... I know.

Posted by lauren at 04:54 PM | Comments (2)

March 14, 2006

Finally

I'm finally back to blogging! My computer is completely dead... well, almost completely. It takes me up to 45mins just to get the thing to turn on, so luckily I have a new one on the way that should be arriving this week. Anyway, that's why I haven't been posting recently.

Last week was relatively uneventful. Brent and I rented Yours, Mine, and Ours which was pretty cute. I actually can't even remember what else happened... so here are the few pictures I have:

First of all, here's a cool picture of Brent wiping the snow off of my car a loooong time ago! I keep forgetting to put it up but I think it's pretty cool so here it is.

Brent cleaning off my car:

Here's the hallway decoration in Brent's dorm:

Brent and Me looking weird:

Brent and I accidentally matched in our Lacoste polos that we bought together which I thought was cute in a really embarrassing way... so I obviously took pictures.

Brent and Me:

I tried to take one of my famous "in action" shots... but it was stupid. So I'll put it up:

Brent and Me again:

Saturday morning, I drove home to Greenwich to celebrate Cathy and Molly's birthdays, March 12th and 25th, at Vanessa's house while they were all home for their Spring break.

Kristina and I went over to Vanessa's house early to make a cake for Cathy and Molly.

The cake:

Vanessa, Kristina, and Me:

We had a small get-together with pizza, cake, and just catching up in general. It was so nice to get to see everyone, and I'm amazed that so many people were home at once! (By "so many" I mean 7)

Vanessa, Ali, and Nicole:

Cathy, Me, and Kristina:

Another "in action" shot; Kristina and Vanessa lighting the candles:

Happy Birthday Molly (21) and Cathy (20)!

All of us: Molly, Nicole, Cathy, Ali, Kristina, Vanessa, Me:

Birthday Girls!

All right, I think that's all for now.... Make sure you update your links to my blog and thanks again to everyone who helped me move to my new site: http://blondeexcuse.pixxiestails.com!

Posted by lauren at 01:47 PM | Comments (1)

March 11, 2006

My Blog Is So Pretty

Wow! My blog got so pretty! I'm not entirely sure who I should thank because I know that a few people have been working on this site for me, so I wanted to send out a general thank you to everyone who has helped me leave blogspot for a pixxiestails site instead! I will post very soon with new pictures and such, so make sure to check back at my new location, www.blondeexcuse.pixxiestails.com!

Posted by lauren at 12:09 AM | Comments (1)

March 07, 2006

A Surprise Visit

Although I already blogged about the black tie event that Brent and I attended with his family on Friday, I haven't said anything about the rest of this past weekend yet. I spent Saturday morning and afternoon at Brent's house until about 3:30pm where we watched Walk the Line and had some delicious home-cooked food. Once I got back to school, Brent came over to my room (he had been in his dorm) and told me that my friends (Cathy, Vanessa, and Molly) had just called his dorm phone looking for me because my cell was off and that they were on their way to Trinity to visit me! What a great surprise! I was even more surprised that no one had blown the surprise, but apparently it was a last-minute, spur-of-the-moment plan so no one had time to let it slip haha.

Unfortunately, this past weekend was pretty boring relative to the usual Trinity madness, but I think we had a lot of fun anyway. I was taking a certain medication that I couldn't mix with alcohol, so I had no drinks or plans whatsoever for Saturday night and campus was pretty dead anyway (I think a lot of people took last week as a vacation week the way it used to be rather than the 2 days they give us now). The five of us (including Brent and myself) had to find something to do, so we decided to do what we do best: eat food and watch movies. We went to IHOP where we all got pancakes and met one of the most incompetent waitresses ever. She messed up our order and forgot about us at least 3 times, almost making us late for our movie! We made it just in time to see When A Stranger Calls at the Crown Theater in Hartford. I enjoyed it, but it definitely wasn't the best scary movie I've ever seen. The plot was unoriginal, certain details didn't tie-in properly, the villain's character was undeveloped, and the ending was abrupt and, well, weird. I'm easily entertained, though, so I still enjoyed myself, and I got to see a bunch of previews for some awesome looking scary movies coming out soon!

Vanessa, Molly, and Cathy at IHOP:

After the movie we went to Cosi where we had hot chocolate and s'mores which ultimately led me to the decision that I can never take my boyfriend anywhere with fire.

The mini fire pit and my arm in the background:

Brent burned his marshmallows until they couldn't even light on fire anymore because they were pure charcoal at which point he moved on to burning the wooden skewers... then we left. After Cosi we went back to my room where we watched Clueless (one of the best movies ever). I can probably recite about 80% of that movie as I'm sure my friends can as well. After the movie Molly made an exciting discovery, that she's a full cup size bigger than she thought! After all that excitement we were pretty tired so we got into bed/sleeping bag/couch and talked for a couple hours, as girls do. It wasn't a night of crazy partying, loud music, and such, but I think we made the best of it and had some "good clean fun." Our mothers would be so proud! I hope everyone comes and visits again and maybe next time we'll do something cooler haha.

It's Monday now so I have to start getting back into academic mode, so I should probably go read... or watch TV. My final thoughts for the night are that 1. Reese Witherspoon is one of my favorite people ever and 2. Barnes & Noble makes good grilled cheese sandwiches in their cafe.

Goodnight!

Posted by lauren at 12:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 05, 2006

Black Tie

I haven't blogged in such a long time, but it's really not my fault! My computer hasn't been working well at all lately and I haven't been able to 1. Use the internet or 2. Get my pictures on my computer. Luckily I have a new computer on the way!

Anyway, I was home in Greenwich last weekend (not the weekend we're finishing right now, but the one before it) for Trinity Days. I already blogged about Trinity Days a couple times, so this entry is going to be about the car wash.

As boring as that may have sounded, it was actually the coolest car wash I have ever been to. The water/soap sprayers were all attached to little robot people who were spraying the car! I felt like I was in Disney World! I guess I'm just easily entertained....

Workin' at the car wash...

Pretty pink lights inside!

The robot guy at the end who waved us on:

All right, moving on to something more interesting. Brent's dad was presented with the "Heart of Gold" award by the American Heart Association at the Heart Ball in Holyoke, MA this past weekend. Brent's family invited the two of us to come to the event with them and we had a wonderful time. There was great food, a band, dancing, and silent and live auctions. Brent and I obviously didn't participate in the auctions, but his parents won a few of them including 2 box seats at a Red Sox game this summer and a limo ride to it!

Anyway, at the event, during the "social hour" we enjoyed lots of different hors d'oeuvres like bruschetta, shrimp, various cheeses, chicken satays... there are too many to list, but anyone who knows me knows how I love good food. We had our picture taken a number of times by the photographer there, so maybe we're pictured on some website or in some local magazine somewhere! After the social hour we moved into the dining room which was beautifully decorated in red and white with lots of candles and flowers everywhere. When we got to our seats, we each had a Chinese food container filled with a fruit salad covered with raspberry yogurt and whipped cream. Eating grapes with chopsticks was, well, "interesting" but it was so cute and so yummy! After our fruit we had salad followed by "surf and turf" which consisted of filet mignon and grilled shrimp with green beans and some sort of special mashed potato all rounded off with a dessert of bananas foster. What a meal! I was very full of delicious food when it came time for Brent's dad to receive the award and make his speech which he got a standing ovation for!

Brent's dad making his speech:

Brent and his dad:

Brent and Me all gussied up:

Brent with his parents (I loved his mom's pink top!):

I tried to take an "in action" shot of Brent:

As you can see, there are lots of people dancing in the background. Brent and I danced to a fast song and then to Frank Sinatra's "The Way You Look Tonight" sung by a live band (and Brent, who was singing along). It was so much fun being all dressed up and being twirled around the dance floor just like people used to "back in the day." Sometimes I wish I lived back in a time when dancing really meant dancing rather than just moving around awkwardly to loud rap music. Overall, it was an incredibly fun night!

After we drove home, Brent and I took a few more pictures just to take advantage of the fact that we were dressed up.

Brent liked this one best:

Yes, it's pretty much the same picture, but I liked this one better and it's my blog so I can put up whatever I want!

I think I was dancing... or just jumping around:

Brent lent me some pajamas and we took this ridiculous (and unplanned) picture in our silly stripes:

Brent didn't like the gel in his hair so he tried to wash it out in the sink with hand soap... because he's a boy and boys think things like that are smart:

Trying to take a cute picture:

Oh Brent... boys are weird:

I'm glad he looks so happy in this... oh well, it could have been cute:

All right everyone, I hope you enjoyed this and I'm sorry I haven't been blogging enough lately!

Back to the Oscars... goodnight!

Posted by lauren at 08:51 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 02, 2006

It's Been A While...

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm having some problems with my computer so I haven't been able to blog with any pictures recently and therefore haven't blogged at all. I'm going to try to fix the problem soon, so don't stop visiting my blog!

Posted by lauren at 08:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack