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April 30, 2006
Spring Formal and Concerts!
Last night was the Spring Weekend Psi U Spring Formal, so, of course, we had a beirut tournament in my room beforehand.
Spring Formal!
Brent and Me hanging out in my room:
Ted, Eric, Ben, and Nick playing beirut:
Crazy stripes! Brent wearing Garner's Brooks Brothers searsucker jacket:
Brian, Briggs, Ted, Daphne and Will:
Ted, Tania, and Brent making a really scary face:
Brent and Me:
Tania, Ben, Tom, Brian (Chris & Tom's friend), and Brent waiting for the "Alpha Alpha Party Bus" to take us to the party:
At the party (that's Garner on the right):
Best picture ever of Garner:
The party under a huge tent behind Psi U:
Aww:
Fabulous picture of Garner with his "new friend" and Ted and Ben looking on:
Brent and Garner:
Brent, Garner, and Joey at the party:
Joey and Me:
And that's all there is:
Next morning messy room:
Today was the most important day of Spring Weekend, the concerts. We had performances by Guster, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli and they were all amazing. Before the concerts, though, we had yet another BBQ.
People meeting on the patio for a BBQ:
Brent and Eric making burgers:
Garner and Ben:
BBQ-ing:
Burgers:
Brent and Me at the BBQ:
This is the only weekend that people can get away with drinking anytime, anywhere...
Example-- People playing beirut on the patio by our BBQ:
CJ:
BBQ:
Campus Safety showed up... and did nothing:
The guys lounging around and drinking beers:
Brent and I accidentally matched:
Eric and Joey:
Guster:
Our Islam professor at the concert:
Guster:
Back at the patio, the little BBQ we were having alongside the beirut group turned into a giant patio party:
Phil dropped his 30 =( :
"Guys, help me with these beerses!" -Phil
Brent and I switched sunglasses for this picture:
A tattoo tribute to Mos Def:
Chris, Briggs, Brent, and Tom:
Back to the concert where Talib Kweli and Mos Def were performing:
Talib Kweli:
Tania and Tom at the concert:
Brent:
Mos Def:
Lea and Chris:
After the concerts, we had a big BBQ over by "the Cave" where our luau was on Friday night:
Brent and the BBQ:
Me at the BBQ:
What a busy weekend. I have a Statistics project due tomorrow that I haven't started yet, so I have to get going.... I hope everyone had a great weekend!
Posted by lauren at 08:37 PM | Comments (2)
April 29, 2006
BBQ
Today there was a party at The Hall called Hallapalooza featuring Dizzy Reed from Guns and Roses, but a bunch of us decided to skip it and have our own BBQ out on the quad instead. We're all going to the Psi U Spring formal tonight, so we sort of took the afternoon easy with hamburgers, hot dogs, football, and some light drinking....
Out on the quad:
Here are some pictures of the guys playing football. My boyfriend is the cute blonde in the white polo:
Brent and Me:
BBQ on the quad:
Everyone gave me weird looks when I randomly took their picture, but oh well:
Brent and Me:
Another BBQ shot:
Garner taking a nap:
BBQ shot:
Garner trying to wear some girl's sweatshirt:
The vodka burned through part of this cup:
If you look closely, one of the sides is almost transparent because it got burned through.
Garner getting a massage from Joey:
Best Quote of the Afternoon: "You're not a small Asian chick, get off me!"
Some more random pictures:
Garner and Whitney playing football with Eric:
Grilling:
Garner, Eric, and Brent:
Nap-pile:
Kara and Me:
And finally, a perfect example of the "Why are you taking my picture?" picture:
I didn't put up a lot of names and captions because there were too many people to take the time to do it, sorry.
Check back later for Psi U Spring Formal pictures!
Posted by lauren at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)
Luau Pig-Roast
Last night began Spring Weekend, a 3 day party/concert event here at Trinity College.
Spring Weekend Manual:
As you can see, Last night was the Luau Pig-Roast featuring the band Kick. The music was great and the food was amazing. Of course, I took a ton of pictures!
Really funny safe sex poster in one of the dorms:
Brent and Me before the luau:
My skirt has tropical flowers on it, making it luau-appropriate, by the way.
Brent and Me again:
Pineapple palm tree and Brent:
Pig-roast:
Palm tree ice sculpture with pita, hummus, and crudite:
Another ice sculpture filled with shrimp cocktail:
Chocolate fondue with all sorts of fruit to dip in the chocolate fountain:
This is hard to see because it's dark out, but there was an actual waterfall coming down in front of the palm trees in front of one of our dining venues:
There were all sorts of tropical drinks, some served in coconuts! Here's brent holding his daiquiri of some sort:
Here's a picture of Phil dressed in a luau tourist outfit. I love the sandals and socks....
Flip-flop decorations:
The tent where all the food and cocktails were:
Really pretty lit up tree:
The band:
After getting some food, Brent and I headed back to Funtown to see what the guys were up to. First, Brent poured himself some Bermuda Black Rum, a souvenier from my sister Jocelyn:
We headed over to Club Guto where some of the guys were playing beirut.
Will, Ben, and Brent:
The shelves in Club Guto:
Carpeting to match the wallpaper:
Ted and Garner:
We all headed back to the luau after a while, where some of the guys got airbrush tattoos:
Brent and Garner:
Kick concert:
Me, Brent, and Kara:
Kara and Me:
After a while, we all came back to Funtown where the guys started watching TV:
Hockey... ugh:
I got bored so Brent and I entertained ourselves:
That's such a weird picture, but Brent's face was too funny not to put it up. Mine's pretty weird too, I know.
I love this picture of Brent and Me:
Well, that's all. I'm off to more Spring Weekend festivities now.
Posted by lauren at 12:45 PM | Comments (1)
April 28, 2006
Spring Weekend
Spring Weekend is upon us.... The next couple days will include a Luau pig-roast, all sorts of parties, a tug-of-war competition, a comedy event, Spring Formal, and performances by Guster, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli! I'm definitely not going to make it to everything, but it should be a lot of fun. I still feel really bad that I'm missing my Dad's birthday =(
Anyone who sees Davey this weekend has to wish him a happy birthday, especially on Sunday! So that you'll recognize him, this is what he looks like:
He's the one without the rubber gloves. Don't ask me what's going on in that picture because I'm just as sketched out as anyone.
Moving on...
Spring Weekend:
To avoid questions later, TCAC stands for Trinity College Activities Council... or something like that.
Sorry it has been so long since my last post! I didn't put any pictures up because the last few days have been extremely uneventful. Well, that's half true.... The last few days have been pretty boring, but a big part of the reason why I didn't put any pictures up was that I wanted the picture of Brent and me in the Webshots ad to be the first thing to pop up for a while because I thought that was pretty cool.
All right, I'm off to the luau pig-roast! Make sure you check back for pictures soon!
Posted by lauren at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2006
Almost Famous
So, Brent and I are almost kinda sorta famous! Well, not really, I guess.... Anyway, Brent's friend, Billy, found a picture of Brent and me in a Webshots web banner on www.CollegeHumor.com. It's a random picture of Brent and me from last year's 80s party here at Trinity College. Is Webshots allowed to do this without our consent? I have no idea, but I don't really care. Anyway, here's the web banner, you can see the picture of us in the computer on the left, and the camera on the right:
If you don't believe me, here's the actual picture:
We were singing 80s music.
So, today I read a lot of my new book, The Da Vinci Code. I got the illustrated edition which has pictures of all the paintings and buildings the book refers to. It's really cool, so I definitely suggest buying it.
Right now, Brent and I are actually watching the TV show "House." If you haven't gotten into "House" yet, you really should, it's an awesome show.
For those of you who didn't read my last blog entry, Brent is sick.... I just wanted to put that out there before showing these pictures of his outfit tonight.
Brent's feet:
And... the whole outfit:
How cute.
Before I end this, I'd like to mention that there was a rabid raccoon wandering outside the dorms today. That's all.
Posted by lauren at 12:48 AM | Comments (1)
April 22, 2006
TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!
That's right, last night was the Greek Week sponsored Crow Toga Party. Crow is the athlete frat on campus, for those of you who don't go here. The night started off with Christie and me in our room having cocktails before hanging out with our boyfriends. Christie's boyfriend, Steve, was on his way to Trinity from PA, where both he and Christie live, and my boyfriend was busy making ivy crown things for our togas. It took me about 80 tries to get my toga right, but I think I finally managed to cover up my entire body in a semi-secure way. I have to thank Victoria's Secret for creating such a sturdy strapless bra that I could pin my entire toga to it in about 10 different places to make sure it wouldn't fall off. Anyway, Brent and I had been at Wal-Mart to get fabric for our togas, and we ran into a bunch of the brothers from the frat who were all getting crazy colors and patterns, so Brent decided to make a Batman toga which was very cute. Here are some pictures of us in our togas before the party!
Brent and Me:
Brent and me making "serious Greek faces":
Brent and Me:
Brent doing his "Socrates pose":
Brent finishing off his drink:
Me doing my "Greek goddess pose":
On our way outside, a couple guys who weren't going to the party chanted "Toga! Toga! Toga!" at us as we passed which is an integral part of the college experience.
Brent walking across campus to the party:
Me doing the same:
Toga party!
Brent singing along to a Johnny Cash song that the band was playing:
Togas:
Brent and Me:
More togas (Colin is in this picture wearing a blue fleece jacket. Where's his toga?):
Togas again:
Kara and Me:
As you can see, the party was outside behind Crow, so Brent and I decided to walk back across campus before we froze to death.
Brent found Garner on the walk back:
We then passed the graffiti at the Hip Hop festival that Trinity is hosting:
Yes, that says "Inmigrnt Rights." I'm not even going to go there.
We saw Justin on the Long Walk and talked to him for a while, too.
Brent and Justin:
Fast forward a few hours... some IDIOT set off the fire alarm in Area... whatever area we live in, so everyone in our cluster of dorms woke up at 5:45am to the loudest fire alarm in the whole entire world. It is absolutely the most ear-piercing noise I've ever heard and I think I may have gone partially deaf from it. Anyway, that's JUST what I wanted to be doing on a Saturday morning at 5:45am....
I took a couple pictures of a big group of very annoyed non-morning people.
Out by my dorm:
By Brent's dorm:
Brent had a small cluster of people around him, including myself, because he was smart enough to bring out a box of Reese's Puffs cereal to snack on while we waited for the fire dept. I'd like to note that the fire department got there before campus safety. Interesting....
All right, that's all. Brent caught a cold from last night probably, so I have to go take care of him because boys don't know what to do with themselves.
Posted by lauren at 03:38 PM | Comments (1)
April 20, 2006
On the Catwalk
What girl doesn't dream of modeling in a fashion show some day? Well, it came true for me! I got to model in the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research fashion show here at Trinity College with a bunch of my classmates and my boyfriend, Brent! It was so much fun and I hope we have more of these events in the future. Brent got to model a Vineyard Vines shirt and khakis and I got to model a Vineyard Vines sweater, polo, and skirt combo, a Lilypod dress, and a C.K. Bradley dress. I pretty much only have pictures of Brent and me because that's what my parents took, and I had to harrass a bunch of other people who attended to send me pictures and that's what they sent... so I don't want to bother anyone for more pictures.
The fashion show was a great success with a lot of amazing clothes from Brooks Brothers, Vineyard Vines, Adrienne Vittadini, C.K. Bradley, and a few other outfits from Allen Collins, a boutique in West Hartford. It was a lot of fun modeling, we even had a professional model come in to choreograph our steps. She was a "witch with a capital B" as my mom would say, so we all referred to her as "the nazi." It was a lot of fun, though... so here are the pictures!
Brent and Me in Vineyard Vines:
Brent and Me again (we're going to send this picture in and see if we can get in the Vineyard Vines catalog!):
Really awkward picture of Brent and me doing our little walking around each other thing on the runway:
A girl whose name I don't know (sorry!) in C.K. Bradley, and me in the background about to come out in my C.K. Bradley dress:
C.K. Bradley dresses again:
I felt like a combination of a 50s housewife and a giant pink and yellow cupcake... so I loved it, obviously.
Brent in Vineyard Vines and me in Lilypod:
Me:
That's all! Goodnight everyone!
Posted by lauren at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)
April 19, 2006
The Colbert Report
Before I begin talking about our trip to NYC to see "The Colbert Report," I want to announce that last night's fashion show was amazing and you all missed out big time! I'm not posting any pictures yet, though, because Nicole, the girl who directed the whole show, is going to be sending me some more tomorrow and I want to put everything up together.
Anyway, Monday, Brent and I took the train to NYC to go to "The Colbert Report." For those of you who watched Monday's episode on Comedy Central, anytime you heard someone yelling louder than anyone else, it was Brent, and anytime you heard someone clapping just those couple claps too many, that was Brent too. We wanted to get our voices on TV, but Brent was the only one loud enough. The show was so much fun, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We arrived in the city around 3pm and started walking towards the studio on W 54th between 10th and 11th Ave. About half way there, we were famished and couldn't find a clean enough looking place to stop for a quick bite to eat (we have Connecticut standards of cleanliness). Brent and I walked into a brightly lit cafe called Cafe Metro.
Cafe Metro:
Apparently there are a bunch of them around the city, and I give this Cafe Metro place The Blonde Excuse seal of approval. They make sandwiches, pasta, and salads with anything you want in them as well as selling small Cafe Metro snack bags, fruit, drinks, etc.
Brent in line:
Perhaps the most important thing to mention is that the bathrooms were spotless! Well, as close to spotless as any NYC cafe bathroom can be. It even had a timed mister that shoots out pleasant-smelling mist every few minutes. Anyway, Brent and I both ordered chicken parm. sandwiches on focaccia bread and they were spectacular! It had fresh mozzarella slices that, when grilled in their sandwich griller, melted in the most wonderful way imaginable.
Our sandwiches:
I give Cafe Metro 100 points in the game show of life.
Brent and me at Cafe Metro:
Random truck outside with a clown strapped to the front:
Cool building:
After a long walk, we finally arrived at "The Colbert Report" studio:
Brent outside the building:
We waited in line for what seemed like forever (probably about 2 hours) and then someone came out with our seat tickets:
We got inside after another 35min or so wait, and got our seats. Cameras were forbidden, but I managed to sneak this picture of the studio. Shh... this is so illegal! haha
Studio:
The show was so much fun, Stephen Colbert is hilarious. I think his show is a lot funnier than "The Daily Show." For those of you wondering what he does during the commercial breaks, he sniffs Sharpie markers while making weird faces and plays in his rolling chair.
After the show, everyone left but Brent and I hung around for a whole hour waiting for him to come out... and he didn't. Apparently he was working on the White House Correspondents Dinner or something like that. I'm really glad we spent an hour standing outside in the cold wearing summery clothes....
The door where he was supposed to come out:
Brent and Me waiting:
Frozen, we started walking back towards Grand Central Station. We were so grateful to come across a Starbucks where we could warm up for a few minutes!
Some guy struck up a conversation with us about how he was in our picture and how we should make it into a poster or something and then referred me as Brent's daughter which was... weird.
We got hot cider and crumb cake:
Starbucks is the kind of place you don't have to look for, you'll just inevitably pass one at some point no matter where you're going. After warming up, we continued the trek to the train station and passed some really cool buildings:
This is the University Club:
Brent was being a loser because he had studied it in his architecture class. He told me about who made it, etc. but I didn't pay enough attention to tell you all now.
Finally! Grand Central! This is one of my favorite pictures of the night:
After getting home, I took these pictures of the flowers my grandparents gave my mom and me for Easter:
We all gathered 'round the TV at 11:30pm to listen for our awkwardly loud laughs and cheers on the show and then got some sleep because we had to wake up at 5-something the next morning... ugh. Yesterday night was the fashion show, as I already mentioned, and the pictures will be up later this week. After the fashion show, I went to The Goodwin Hotel with my parents for the night (they had come up to see the fashion show).
On the drive back to school this morning, we saw a chemical spill at a gas station:
Not very interesting, but I took a picture anyway.
And I guess Easter weekend is officially over... I'm not sure what this means but I thought it was blog-worthy:
That was on someone's door down the hall. All right, that's all. Have a great afternoon everyone!
Posted by lauren at 04:00 PM | Comments (4)
April 16, 2006
Happy Easter
Happy Easter everyone! Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for how long it has been since I last posted. I usually wouldn't let it go so long without blogging, but my BRAND NEW computer is broken! Ugh! It's not completely broken the way my old one was, but it's still pretty bad. Well, anyway, I'm finally posting again with a TON of new pictures from the past week!
Where to begin....
Well, first of all, I want to announce that Brent and I will be modeling in the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research fashion show at Trinity College on Tuesday, April 18th at 8:30pm! I'm giving all the details because it's not too late to buy a ticket, and I want a lot of people to come! It should be fun, there's going to be Hot Tomato's food, raffles, Vineyard Vines giveaways, and, of course, yours truly walking down the runway! Brent and I are both modeling Vineyard Vines clothes, and I might be modeling C.K. Bradley (a Trinity graduate!) also, because apparently EVERYTHING from her is in my size!
I was going to put up pictures of the Vineyard Vines stuff I'm wearing, but that would ruin the surprise.
So, Tuesday was the fitting for the fashion show at Allen Collins, a very upscale boutique in West Hartford, CT. I'm really excited because the woman who was in charge of the fitting chose me to wear a dress! Yay! I love dresses.
Random picture of me in one of the mirrors of Brent's car on the way to the fitting:
The past week has had some beautiful weather, so Brent and I have been spending as much time outside as possible. At some point last week, Brent and I had a piece of black magic cake at the campus bookstore (not the Trinity-gear bookstore, the mini B&N bookstore called Gallows Hill).
Brent with the cake:
We ate outside by one of the prettiest trees on campus. We're not sure what it is, but maybe a weeping cherry or something like that. I have a picture coming up later....
Speaking of pretty trees, here's the magnolia outside Brent's dorm:
And again....
Not a whole lot happened last week, despite the gorgeous weather. Brent and I would have liked to have taken better advantage of it, but we both had to turn in a paper comparing Locke and Rousseau... ugh. Too much time was spent in the library and that's all I can really say for the time-gaps in my blog.
Here are some more random pictures of Brent and me.
Take 1:
Take 2:
Take 3:
That's my cute new Lilly Pulitzer skirt, worn with my cute new Lilly shoes!
Brent walking towards the bookstore where we sit outside drinking coffee, eating cake, and reading:
Isn't he handsome:
Brent sitting at our table:
Me:
The pretty tree I was talking about earlier:
Brent and Me:
Brent:
On Friday, Brent and I drove to Greenwich for Easter weekend! We've had an awesome couple of days, starting out with dinner at the yacht club on Friday night.
Dad and Poppy walking into the yacht club (it was raining... obviously):
The pool looked pretty gross, but in about a month and a half it will be open for swimming!
Cute Easter display at the yacht club:
Mmm... dinner was so good. Brent and I both had swordfish, and the yacht club makes some of the best swordfish you'll ever have in your life. We didn't order any dessert because this is what we had waiting for us when we got home:
Cute little chick cupcakes! Brent, my parents, and I had cupcakes for dessert while watching King Kong... such a good movie.
That night, Brent and I played with my cat, Frisky, and I thought this picture was pretty cute:
Of course, I wouldn't want Chloe to be left out... she didn't stay still for her portrait, though:
Brent talking to someone in the kitchen:
Saturday morning, Brent and I woke up relatively early (meaning, before noon) to go for a walk at the beach right here in Greenwich.
Brent on the beach:
Brent and Me:
Brent throwing a huge rock off the bridge and making a wish (because that's what you do when you throw rocks off the bridge):
He spent a really long time digging that specific rock up out of the ground because that's the kind of thing boys do and girls will never understand.
We walked a little further to another stretch of beach (the whole beach isn't "beach" if that makes sense). There's a tree that fell down a long time ago and has been lying on the sand for as long as I can remember. It's really cool because, from all the ocean water, etc., it has turned into driftwood. That's not a scientific explanation... in fact, I may have made that up entirely... but it does look like driftwood. Here's Brent sitting on it:
Brent and I then skipped rocks. Brent is really good at it and makes me look incompetent.
Brent:
Me giving it a try:
I ended up throwing it directly into the stones around me and missing the ocean entirely. Don't ask how I managed that, I really don't know. I also fell off my rock as I did it.
Brent with another huge rock:
Rather than continuing on the usual path that people take, Brent and I took "the road less traveled":
We followed the path into the woods where there was another tree down that made a perfect camera tripod!
I guess you can't really call it a tripod, but it did the trick. That was Brent and me trying to look like explorers. I don't know what, exactly, we were doing to look like explorers... maybe it was just a mindset.
Woodsy stuff (the scientific term):
Back at home, my sister Jocelyn and her friend Jill arrived. Jocelyn brought Mom's birthday present, a gorgeous, leather Marc Jacobs bag!
Jill, Jocelyn, and Mom (with her new bag!):
Jocelyn and Brent:
Jocelyn brought home all sorts of souveniers from her trip to Bermuda with my cousin, Jessica. She brought Bermuda black rum for Brent and me to bring back to college! I'm sure you'll see it going to good use later on.
Me wearing my mom's new purse and holding our black rum:
Jill and Jocelyn:
We all had dinner and then got to the important stuff (not that your caserole wasn't important, Mom). "Important stuff" = Easter eggs!
Jocelyn, Brent, Me, and Jill getting our rubber gloves on:
Easter egg decorating was a little different this year because, in addition to regular egg dyeing, we had sponge paints and stickers haha.
Easter eggs:
...then we had a disaster. Davey being Davey put the cheesecake in the refridgerator balanced on the door... ugh:
What a tragedy:
Davey trying to explain his cake murdering ways:
Brent in a really cute apron:
"Jesus is our Lord and Savior":
Who doesn't love those little wax crayons that make surprise messages on the eggs....
Brent made an egg that had a bunny sitting on top of a cross (not pictured, unfortunately), and I made this "Jesus' Comeback" egg:
Jocelyn and Jill decided it was only fair to represent other religions, as well, so here's our BYU egg:
And our Jewish egg:
Our broken egg:
And some other eggs:
After watching SNL, we all went to bed to wait for the Easter bunny to come! Haha.
This morning, we all went on Davey's jelly bean search around the living room which he loves even more than we do. My dad likes to try to hide jelly beans in the most difficult places (like black jelly beans on top of black electric plugs underneath tables) and prides himself on stumping all of us, then walking around the room and telling us how many we couldn't find. That Davey.
Everyone moved into the kitchen after the jelly beans and Easter baskets were found, where we had a "kringle." Our Easter (and Christmas, for that matter) kringles come all the way from Wisconsin because we love them that much that we have to have them sent to us from faraway lands... like bakeries in Wisconsin.
Everyone in the kitchen (and Brent handing me my slice of breakfast kringle):
A half-eaten slice of kringle:
For those of you who don't know, kringles are giant danish type things.
Morning shot of Dad, Jill, and Jocelyn:
Brent and Me, early morning:
After getting ourselves cleaned up a bit, we headed over to Grandma and Poppy's for Easter dinner (dinner at 1pm, of course).
Poppy, Jessica, Andy, Jill, and Jocelyn:
Grandma, Mikael, Uncle David, and Mom by the dining room table:
Just to clarify, Andy is a very good friend of the family who spends a lot of holidays with us, and Jessica and Mikael are my cousins.
Brent and Poppy:
Brent and Me:
Jessica, Andy, Jill, Jocelyn, Me, and Brent:
We were the eating crew. We basically sat around the hors d'ouvres table consuming all sorts of cheeses, shrimp, and lots of champagne.
Brie en croute on the left, and assorted cheeses on the right:
The middle cheese on the right, or the "super expensive mystery cheese" was absolutely the best. Mmm....
Andy, Jill, Jocelyn, and Brent (eating cheese):
Dad, Jessica, and Andy:
Brent and Me:
Grandma and Me:
At the table, all the girls got beautiful flowers, and all the guys got cool new flashlights as Easter gifts. A bunch of them are gone because they got claimed early:
My grandma's really funny DAR Putnam Cottage wine glasses that she and Poppy drank out of:
I loved them.
We were short a chair at the dining room table, so I got the cute little wooden one:
Brent wanted me to take a picture of his cheese:
Andy, Jill, and Jocelyn:
My dad (not paying attention, by choice) and Mikael:
Aunt Sarah, Mom, and Jessica:
Best picture of the night... if not the best picture of my lifetime:
Yes, that was my dad attempting to kill my boyfriend with a ham knife. Ah, family gatherings....
Ham and filet:
My grandparents' cute silver cabinet in the counter that I had never noticed before:
A strange pineapple casserole that my grandma asked my mom to make. It has pineapples, cheese, and ritz crackers. It sounds really, really gross, but it was actually quite good. Think Hawaiian pizza, but in a casserole:
Jill, Jocelyn, and Mikael at the dinner table:
Mom, Brent, and Me:
Easter dinner was amazing with lots of cake and pastries afterwards. I always eat so much food when I'm home!
Later on that afternoon, Cathy and Pat came over for a "playdate." For those of you who are new to the blog, Cathy and I have been BFFs or "biffs" since pre-school, and Pat is her boyfriend and one of Brent's good friends now, too.
Pat and Cathy:
Cathy, Pat, Brent, and Me:
We played on the trampoline and ordered Chinese take-out. Brent and I drove Cathy and Pat home a little while ago, where Pat and Brent got into a stick fight. Boys are such... boys.
Brent and Pat playing with their sticks:
Brent:
Hilarious picture of Pat:
Pat and Cathy:
Pat and Cathy again:
Pat and Brent having one of their really cool high-fives:
The guys decided that they have really awesome high-fives together, so they had at least 20 over the course of the night.
And finally, even though I absolutely hate this picture and am embarrassed by the story that goes along with it, I promised Brent I'd put this up on the blog.
Let me being with the picture:
This morning, while trying to pick out an outfit (from my college laundry bag-- don't worry, it was clean laundry), I leaned in too far with one arm while holding up my towel with the other arm, and the laundry bag collapsed underneath me, leaving me half in the laundry bag, half out, with no way to get myself out of the situation without dropping my towel. My wonderful boyfriend thought this would be an awesome photo opportunity... thanks Brent. This was all after I accidentally flashed Brent in the kitchen when I lost my grip on my towel. Oh well, what can I say.
I guess I'll just say Happy Easter and goodnight!
Oh, and one last thing, Brent and I are going to NYC tomorrow to see The Colbert Report, so make sure to watch Comedy Central at 11:30pm EST!
And my third final thought, I need a job. Anyone want to hire me? I have skills, of sorts.
Posted by lauren at 10:57 PM | Comments (2)
April 09, 2006
College!
I had no better title for this entry than "College!" because last night is really what college (at least here at Trinity) is all about. Christie and I hosted beirut in our room again, and for those of you who don't know, beirut is the same thing as beer pong. Maybe it's a New England thing to call it beirut, I don't know. Anyway, the night was a major success with 30+ people in our room at once, probably more total for the whole night.
Before I get ahead of myself, though, Brent and I went to his house in Avon to pick up his new car! It's a really nice Saab 93 series (Is that what they call it? A series?) Anyway, when we got back to school, there was one of the most beautiful sunsets either of us have ever seen.
Sunset:
My super cute boyfriend, Brent, with his new car!
Back in the dorms, the Chinese food peope had been around, and all the guys attached the menus to CJ's door:
The night got started somewhere around 9pm when the guys arrived with all our "supplies." Joey thought it would be fun to make some Blackout Punch, so we all gathered 'round the table in our room to taste test and add ingredients. We started with grain alcohol, then vodka, then beer (adding beer is apparently called a "rip tide" See? I do learn things in college!), then all sorts of juices mixed in as well. We passed a cup around the room, each taking a sip (and hopefully not contracting mono or anything gross like that) and decided that "Joey done good."
Steve taste testing:
Joey mixing:
Blackout Punch:
It looks pretty gross, but it really wasn't that bad.
Christie and I, as the hostesses, had the first game of beirut with our boyfriends, Steve and Brent.
Brent and Me about to start:
Christie and Steve:
Brent and me taking our turn... this picture is funny if you look around the room at how much random stuff is going on:
Anyway, last night there were a number of themed parties. I think The Hall was having the Anything For Money Party, Psi U was having the Hoe Down, AD was having Get Rich Or Die Tryin' and TCAC (the campus-wide event planners) were having Disco Inferno. Our little group of Funtowners (and honorary Funtowners) weren't dressed for any of the above, nor did we have tickets to anything. We were mostly planning on spending the night in the room, but we did end up venturing out later on... but I'll get to that later. I mostly wanted to point out that there were themed parties to explain some of the outfits that people were wearing in a few pictures here.
For example, these girls were going to the Get Rich Or Die Tryin' party. Let's see how many names I remember.... Ben, Becca, Annie, and Lea:
Brent, Tom, Will, and Chris:
Brent and Me:
Garner and Briggs playing beirut:
That's Kevin in the background, I thought his name was Frank for a while, but it turns out it's not. He was visiting from somewhere else.
Tom, CJ, Liz, Brielle, Sam, Ben, and some guy... I might be making up names here, but I tried. Liz and Brielle (if those are the right names) are friends of CJ's from home:
I'm not a huge beer person, so I got Brent to drink my share of the beer from our beirut game (which we lost). He chose to funnel it:
Tom and Ben:
Brent and Me again (we have a lot of pictures of us):
Brent and Joey:
Christie, Steve, and Will:
Tania, Sam, and Me:
Sam wanted me to make sure everyone knew that she doesn't dress like that, it was her Get Rich Or Die Tryin' outfit. I met Tania and Sam at the beginning of the year when the three of us went with all the guys to go see Harry Potter.
Garner and Brent:
Me:
Ben and Whitney:
Becca, Garner, Brent, Briggs, Kevin, and Me:
That picture didn't really work out because we tried to set it up on a ledge, so we had a re-do with someone taking it for us:
Allie/Ally/Ali (I don't know how she spells it), Jenny, and Garner. The girls asked Garner why he wasn't in a themed outfit to which he replied (regarding his prepster attire) "The party is Get Rich or Die Tryin' and, well, I got rich!" That Garner....
Christie shooting:
Brent and Me (we look pretty drunk, but we're not... we're just bad at taking pictures):
Ben, Tania, Garner, Steve, and Christe by the full length beirut table the guys brought in:
Christie and Me (and Garner trying to get in in the background):
And now Christie and Me acknowledging Garner as part of the picture:
Brent and Garner:
Brent:
Brent's "in action" shot of me:
As you can see, I have a huge mess on my bed in the background. That's because to "clean up" for the party, I took all my stuff and put it on top of the bed. Other than that, the room was actually cleaner last night than it's been since about September!
Brent and Me:
Beirut sign-up sheet:
Will, Steve, and Tom doing shots of vodka out of styrofoam cups:
Brent told me that's how you spell "styrofoam" but I'm not so sure.... I just wanted to put the blame on him in case it's wrong.
Anyway, here's Chris and Ben playing against Kevin and Tania:
We were all ready to go out to the frats around 1am I'd say. Right around that time, I got a call from Julie and Kara who were on their way over. Kara lived with Julie and Kara H. last semester but then she had a knee problem and had to take Spring semester off :( It was great to see her last night, though!
Julie told Kara and me to make mad growling faces, and we did:
Me, Julie, and Kara:
Everyone temporarily separated outside Funtown and I started walking to Psi U with Julie and Kara while Christie ran ahead to AD and Brent hung out with Steve, Ben and Garner for a while.
Julie and Kara walking to Psi U:
Julie and Kara had 3 tickets to the Hoe Down, so they were able to get us in (thanks guys)! The whole Psi U basement floor was filled with hay and everyone (but us) was in hoe down attire dancing to country music.
Julie and Kara at the hoe down:
I had to go to the bathroom (never a great idea at a frat party) and it was SO GROSS! My sister, Jocelyn, has had disgusting bathroom contests on her blog, so I thought I should take a picture of this for mine.
EWWWWW!
The floor:
No they're not:
Outside the bathroom:
Back out on the dance floor, Kara was dancing with some guy named Travis, so Julie and I attempted to dance to the country music with each other. I think we made awesome dance partners, despite the fact that country music and Greenwich girls don't mix.
Julie and Me:
Joey and Me:
Some guy I don't know in overalls and some other guy wondering why I'm taking his picture:
People dancing (that's Ross in the middle):
Around that time, Brent called me and he was outside Psi U where they weren't letting people in without tickets. Julie and I walked out to the door where someone in a cow suit was bouncing:
We were having trouble getting his attention, so I pulled on his tail and called him "Mr. Cow." I hope he doesn't remember me....
We were finally able to get Brent in without a ticket so that we could all enjoy the basement barnyard.
Kara, Julie, and Travis:
Brent and Me standing on the straw floor:
I ended up going back to the bathroom at which point I lost track of Kara and Julie. I tried calling them, but the music was so loud I couldn't hear anything more than ".....upstairs......" so I went upstairs, but still couldn't find them... oh well. I hope they had a fun rest of the night!
Before leaving the bathroom, however, I took this disgusting picture of the sink:
There was some sort of purple vomit in the sink... almost the color of the blackout punch... hmm....
Enough of that.
Brent and Me dancing:
Some random alcohol on a ledge in Psi U:
This is another of my random party pictures, but check out the guy picking the girl's nose. I'm sure that's not actually what was going on, but it's still a funny picture:
Brent and I left Psi U and headed over to AD where they weren't letting anyone in without tickets, oh well:
With no luck at AD and me getting colder by the minute (I wasn't wearing a jacket), Brent and I decided to head back in the general direction of the dorms... on the opposite side of campus.
We stopped in Jarvis on the way back to see if Brent's friend from Martha's Vineyard, John, was around:
He wasn't.
We all had an amazing night and I hope everyone will come party in our room again soon!
This morning....
More:
All gone!
Trinity College's own beirut balls:
Brent came over at 11am on the dot to pick me up for Sunday brunch, a necessary conclusion to a good night. Trinity Saturday/Sunday brunch is the only place where it is more fashionable to show up in PJs with your hair tangled, and eye make-up running down your face, than it is to be well put together. It's what Brent calls, "hangover chic." You don't have to be hungover to be hangover chic, you just have to look like you had a good night. For girls, hangover chic is always topped off with giant designer sunglasses to be worn indoors and outdoors as one pleases. Basically, the entire room at brunch is a sea of pajamas and sweat pants with sunglasses by Prada (like me!), Chanel, D&G, Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, anything designer and awesome, making sure no one can see you looking so gross and disheveled. I like to imagine that behind huge, dark glasses, no one knows who I am, if they can see me at all, that is.... Yes, I like to think my sunglasses make me invisible when I want them to.
Brent and I made giant waffles for brunch. Check out mine (on the left) and his (on the right):
I'm the official waffle maker of our couple now.
Brent having second brunch after finishing his "waffle":
Brent and Me looking gross after brunch:
We bumped into some of our friends on their way to brunch as we were heading back:
Brent took this picture of me because he thought my hair looked funny, which it did:
After showering and getting dressed, Brent and I decided to take his new car out for a spin. We drove around West Hartford for a while and then went to Barnes & Noble to have some coffee and read our books.
Brent walking to the car:
Me:
Brent's cool high-tech looking computer screen thingy:
And finally, a list of all the things that got left in our room last night:
Come get your stuff everyone!
And for those of you who are entertained by random gadgets, check out how cool Brent's car's cup holder is:
Goodnight!
Posted by lauren at 10:12 PM | Comments (6)
April 08, 2006
Same Old Friday Night
Last night, Brent and I went to see the movie Benchwarmers about the nerdy baseball players. It was "stupid funny." We've also come to the conclusion that John Heder can never play any role but Napoleon Dynamite. Not that he can't be in other movies, but just that he'll always be Napoleon Dynamite in them. We're also convinced that his brother (if he has one) was one of the extras. At one point, they showed these guys in the stands with their shirts off and I think the word "N E R D S" written on their stomachs, and one of the guys looked SO MUCH like John Heder that we think it had to be his brother.
Anyway, after the movie last night, Brent and I got sucked into Club Guto where everyone was playing Beirut. Club Guto is one of the hottest clubs around. Basically, our friend Chris moved into Joey's room (they bunked the beds) and all the guys turned his old dorm room into "Club Guto." The wallpaper is a collage of beer boxes from 30s and the rest of the decor is alcohol related as well... except for Carmen Electra pole dancing and Hermione from Harry Potter. You read that correctly, Hermione from Harry Potter. Boys are weird.
Brent and Garner in Club Guto:
Will and Eric playing beirut:
Chris, Brent, and Garner:
Chris, Brent, Tom, Garner, and Eric in front:
Tania and Lea playing beirut:
Brent and Garner with a really gay looking high-five:
Tania and Lea again:
Brent and Me:
The shelves in Club Guto. Looks like Captain Morgan parties there a lot:
Wall art:
The boys were playing O-Town and a lot of those stereotypical 8th grade slow dance songs, so Brent and Chris seized the opportunity.... Check out Garner's face in the background:
And finally, Garner dancing to a late 90s power ballad of some sort:
Completely unrelated to this entire blog entry... this is one of the cats that lives on campus:
Brent and I are now about to leave for his house to pick up his brand new car! We're having beirut in my room tonight, so hopefully there will be some more fun pictures tomorrow!
Posted by lauren at 04:18 PM | Comments (3)
April 06, 2006
April (Snow) Showers
Ugh! Who else hates snow in April? If you ask me, it should snow in the few weeks before, and perhaps one week after Christmas, and then it should just stop. Everyone loves New England in December with all the Christmas decorations made even more beautiful by snowy lawns and trees and icicles hanging down over the garage, but NO ONE likes snow in April.
How very very sad:
I would like to add that I was wearing flip flops out in the snow on Monday morning because I was unaware of the weather outside. I think my math teacher should have thanked us all for getting out of bed before 10am to trudge through two whole inches of snow to make it to class!
More snow pictures (HOPEFULLY the last of these you'll see on my blog until next December!):
It probably didn't help that I had to walk through the ugliest part of campus where all the gross math classes are.
Icy drain:
Just a few days ago wasn't I posting pictures of Brent and me taking a nice Springtime stroll while eating ice cream and wearing flip flops and summer clothes? I could go on forever complaining about the April snow showers (which set a record for that particular date, by the way), but I'd like to move on.
Recently, Brent and I went to a political debate here at Trinity College between the Cambridge Union Society and the Trinity College Debate Team. The subject of the debate was whether or not Great Britain should become the 51st state of America. Four students from Cambridge (or other English accent places) flew in to disgusting Hartford, CT to argue that they should not become part of America. The debate was obviously meant to be a huge joke, and the debators took it as such. The nerdy little British guys were hilarious, which made me come to the conclusion that it's better to be a dork overseas than in America for their surprising lack of social awkwardness. At one point, one of the debators referred to the French as "cheese eating surrender monkeys." In the end, the entire audience (except for one person) voted for the Cambridge Union Society against our own Trinity College debators who were far less hilarious.
Debate:
Moving on... I want to recommend a book to everyone. Yes, I said a book. Up until college I was a relatively anti-book person. I did most of my reading on Spark Notes throughout high school. In fact, I usually couldn't even be bothered to read each chapter summary for assigned English class books; instead, I would read the "overall summary" or "plot outline" as it is sometimes called. So, as I'm sure you can see, the fact that I am currently recommending to my "vast readership" that you read a book says a lot. The book is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's a little strange, but it's a really good mystery without being the stereotypical mystery plotline. I actually have no idea how to explain it, but it's the kind of thing where you really can't even put the book down because you feel like every page might have some clue to the secret of the book. Over the course of two days, Brent and I both finished the book, and now I've moved on to Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons which I'm enjoying just as much. One of the characters, Hoyt, is from Greenwich, CT and went to my high school, perhaps even the exact same years I was there! I realize he's a fictional character, but it was still pretty exciting.
I Am Charlotte Simmons
Anyway, one last thought for the day.... At the most expensive college in America, is this what the Office of Buildings and Grounds should look like?
Well, that's obviously not the office itself, just the junkyard you have to walk through to get there. Hartford is so ghetto.
Posted by lauren at 01:24 PM | Comments (3)
April 02, 2006
Beirut
All right, this is going to be a huge entry with a lot of pictures. Where to begin...
Saturday afternoon, Brent and I went to Whole Foods to pick up some cups for our beirut tournament and to have lunch. Whole Foods is really cool because you can pick up food right there and then eat it at one of the tables or the little bar at the front of the store. Brent and I were feeling healthy so we both had berry bowls. They had strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, mmmm....
The sky before going into Whole Foods:
Brent on his phone outside Whole Foods:
Berries:
Brent:
Brent and Me (Brent was chewing):
And yes, I am well aware that I take far too many pictures. After Whole Foods, we headed over to the mall. I don't remember why, probably for nothing. Whenever there's nothing to do and we really don't feel like hanging out on campus, we always end up at the mall. While at the mall, those storm clouds turned into a huge thunderstorm with torrential rain.
Outside the mall:
Rain:
We wandered around the mall for a while until the rain let up and then came back to school.
After a few hours, Brent and I started setting up for beirut in my room while Christie and her boyfriend Steve (who has been visiting for a few days) got ready for the Tri-Delt Pink and Green Party.
Christie and Steve before leaving for their party:
Me setting up the cups:
Brent and me before everyone arrived:
Me:
Brent working on a playlist to listen to:
Brent and Me again:
The mini-bar:
The table (in Trinity's school colors!):
I thought this would look cool:
Getting started (Brent and Chris' back):
Erik, Garner, and Nick:
Brent and I played the first round of beirut against them and lost... miserably.
Tom and Tania:
Marissa and Tania playing beirut:
Brent, Will, and Tom:
Marissa, Katie, Me, and Julie:
Marissa doing her first funnel ever:
Marissa, Garner, and Katie:
Garner, Tom, and Erik:
Garner and Tom:
Prep school rivals Garner (Salisbury), Brent (Kingswood Oxford), and Will (Westminster):
Awkward:
Close up of Garner:
Katie, Marissa, and Julie... and that blonde hair on the left is mine:
Me messing up the funnel... oh well. I'm not a funnel person:
Brent funneling a beer:
Yes, Mom, we're dumb college kids with beer funnels.
Will:
Again:
Me, Julie, and Tania (all Greenwich girls!) trying to pour some drinks:
Cheers to Greenwich Girls!
Finally a semi-good picture! Check out Nick being "that guy" in the background:
Garner funneling:
One of the best pictures of the night. I don't remember exactly what happened but I think Brent accidentally kicked Garner somewhere bad....
Garner, Brent, Me, and Ben before heading over to the frats:
Brent and Garner told me to do a ghetto rapper pose... and I did:
Well, that's as ghetto as I get.
We don't remember who took this picture, but this is me walking to the frats:
Chris:
Brent, Chris, and Garner walking to the frats:
We ended up going to AD which is the preppy boy frat that never lets people in... ugh. We were all standing in a mass of people outside the door and the "bouncer" (aka some random pledge) wasn't letting anyone in. He let a couple girls in who were trying to push their way through the door and then pointed to me and said I could come. On my way in I dragged Brent with me to make sure he got in too. That's our new getting into frats strategy, I get in because I'm a girl and I drag Brent in as quickly as possible so that he's through the door before anyone knows what's going on. Tom and Tania were still outside, though, so I talked the bouncer into letting Tania in and Tania and I used the same strategy with Tom, both grabbing his arm and pulling him in. It's definitely good to be a girl at college, life's just a whole lot easier on weekends.
Brent and Me in AD:
Party in AD:
Anyway, it was a really fun night and we might have beirut in my room again this coming weekend, so you all should come!
I took these pictures this morning, and I'd like to title this set "Signs It Was A Good Night:"
I woke Brent up at 10... or I guess 11 with daylight savings time. He doesn't look very happy to see me!
I wasn't too happy to be awake either...
...but I wanted brunch.
Brent and I went to brunch where we had eggs and really gross orange juice. On the way there, we saw a magnolia tree just starting to bloom. I looooove Spring!
It was a really beautiful morning, so we thought we should take a picture to document the sunniness:
Brent at breakfast:
Me making a silly face at breakfast:
After going back to our rooms to get showered and dressed, Brent and I decided to go to West Hartford to CVS. There are at least 2 CVS stores closer to us than the one in West Hartford, but we wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous afternoon and we knew we could take a nice Springtime stroll through the downtown area of West Hartford.
While we were heading to the car, I saw the sunlight coming in through the trees and it was really beautiful so we took these pictures of us to show it. It definitely didn't come through as well in the pictures, but you'll get the idea.
Brent:
Me:
Once in West Hartford, we ran our errands at CVS and then got ice cream at Kaleidescoops and walked around enjoying the afternoon while we ate it.
We walked past a really cool car and here's a picture of Brent standing with it:
I have no idea what kind of car that is, so if anyone does, leave me a comment and let me know!
Brent and I went home after finishing our ice cream and the rest of the night was relatively uneventful.
Here's a picture of the sky above the English building. Brent and I thought it was an amazing color:
I guess that's all for now. Brent and I are currently watching Good Night, and Good Luck, so I have to get back to that. Goodnight everyone! (And good luck too).
Posted by lauren at 10:25 PM | Comments (5)
April 01, 2006
So I Go to the Rendezvous in April...
If you're curious about the title, click here.
It was beeeeautiful out yesterday so Brent and I decided to spend as much time outside as possible. We started by having a midday picnic out on the quad with a giant bag of Baked Lays potato chips, a big beach blanket, and a couple of books. We were enjoying the outdoors until our picnic attempts were foiled by a swarm of bugs and a beetle that crawled into my skirt and bit me on the butt. Everyone else was sitting outside, enjoying the fresh air, catching some sun, eating lunch... why didn't the insects attack them? Brent and I literally had a giant swarm of black bugs flying directly above us the entire time. While this did make us feel really popular, it got annoying pretty fast. We tried to stay outside and just swat the bugs away for a while until my unfortunate run-in with a giant black beetle. Oh well, so much for the enjoyment of nature. Perhaps we should just get rid of it all to make way for more cell towers or something.
Before getting attacked by bugs, we managed to take a few pictures.
Brent lying out on the beach blanket:
Brent and Me:
The Quad:
With our newfound dislike for all things outdoors, Brent and I found the time to finish The Patriot and then later went out to see Ice Age 2, both very good movies. After Ice Age 2, we came back to school, got comfy in PJs, avoided most of the drunk people, and watched some TV.
Brent and Me in atypical Friday night attire:
I know, we're boring. Tonight we're having a beirut tournament in my room with all the locals. And no, Mom, not the Hartford locals... the Funtown locals. I didn't want to freak my mother out that I was inviting people in off the streets. Anyway, hopefully I'll have some more exciting pictures tomorrow, but for now... Jocelyn said I needed to sex up the blog and sent me a really cute gift in the mail, so I decided to blog it.
Jocelyn sent me two On Gossamer thongs and a Betsey Johnson boustier, all very cute!
Betsey Johnson boustier:
All right, that's all for now. I hope everyone else is better able to enjoy the nice weather than Brent and I were yesterday.
Posted by lauren at 11:32 AM | Comments (1)