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May 31, 2007

Over-Exposed

As I've already mentioned, last week my family went to Florida with Cathy and Mike's family. I didn't sort my pictures very well, I just uploaded them every couple of days without dates, so I no longer have any idea what day anything happened and don't care enough to go into the photo files and find out. Anyway, these pictures are in semi-chronological order.

Our condo in Florida is right on the water, so here's mike being "King of the World" on the corner of our balcony:

My mom on the balcony:

Dad and Mr. F on the pool deck:

Daytona Beach:

Despite being the "sunshine state," we had a few clouds every day that got in the way of our tanning experience. That's all right though, because the sun always wins:

Here it comes:

The ocean:

Almost every day we took walks on the beach and found a lot of interesting things. Daytona Beach tends to be really "clean," and by clean, I mean there's rarely any seaweed or anything washed up on the sand, but there were storms out to sea and some really strong winds the week that we were there, so we saw a lot of beach junk. I guess I shouldn't call it junk because it's not "junk," but you know what I mean. As I mentioned in a previous post from Florida, we saw two Portuguese Man O' Wars which are so poisonous that they have actually been known to kill people. Too bad, because they're so pretty:

Something else I found on the beach (what is it?):

More beach finds:

Shadow crab holes:

Fun beach cars:

After the beach, we drove around and went shopping for a little while and saw this fire:

Later that afternoon, we had to take Mr. F to the doctor because he was having an issue with his ear. We only made a minor scene at the doctor's office:

We saw a blimp from the waiting room:

That night, my dad accidentally exposed himself in his Playboy pajamas (trust me, I would NOT have taken this picture if I had known, I just thought I was taking a picture of his pajama shorts):

For dinner on our second night (but after our first whole day there) we went to Chili's where Cathy and I got 2 for 1 happy hour margaritas:

At Chili's (Mr. F, Mom, and Dad):

Mike, Cathy, and Mrs. F:

Me, Mike, and Cathy:

The lamp:

At Chili's, my dad and I got into a fight that went down a little bit like this.... He asked for a sip of my margarita and I said I couldn't finish it so he could have the rest, so he took the glass, sucked up some margarita, and spit it through his straw at me like a 5 year old. I didn't fight back because I knew I could figure out something better to do, so I slowly dripped water in his lap while he wasn't looking so that when he got up it would look like he wet his pants, then he threw ice cubes at me and my mom got really pissed at both of us.

Dripping water on Dad's lap:

We obviously had Krispy Kremes for dessert:

Followed by Mike making fun of his dad's nipples:

At night, we went down to sit on the pool deck and watch the ocean and saw what looked like a giant rabbit in a purple room in a nearby condo:

We still don't know what it was.

Mike and my mom on the pool deck:

That's all for now, but there will be a lot more coming soon!

Posted by lauren at 01:29 PM | Comments (4)

May 30, 2007

Kitty Emergency

Something has happened to Frisky.

Frisky has been doing so well now that she's on all her medications, but something has happened. Last night she never showed up for her dinner, so when we still hadn't seen her at about 1am, we started searching all over the house and couldn't find her anywhere. We checked the attic, the basement, under every bed even in the closed guest rooms, under couches, on top of closets, I mean everywhere. Finally, after searching the entire yard twice (even though Frisky is an indoor kitty) I found her curled up in a dirty little box under the steps in our garage. When I tried to pick her up, she could barely move and just slumped over in the box until I scooped her up and took her inside.

Once inside, her legs were shaking and I started brushing her to get the dirt off her pretty white fur, and we discovered a gash in her side. Apparently some neighborhood bully cat decided to slash my poor little Frisky. It wasn't too bad of a cut and it wasn't even bleeding, just a little scabbed over, so we decided to let her sleep the night behind the couch where she was hiding.

First thing this morning, I went to check on her and she was still behind the couch, not moving at all. Obviously I was terrified when she didn't move as I called and called her, but then she lifted her head up when I touched it. We took her to the vet right away where they gave her an IV with liquids, vitamins, and antibiotics. She spent the entire day sleeping and not moving anywhere, until she tried to jump up onto a chair and fell right over. We've been hand feeding her to get her to eat, but she just doesn't seem like herself anymore.

Tonight, we came home from dinner and discovered a drop of blood on the floor about the size of a quarter followed by another and another and another.... We looked Frisky all over and couldn't find anything wrong, but two of the drops of blood were up on top of a table (so it certainly wasn't the dog). We're very worried and don't know what to do for her since we can't find where the blood could possibly be coming from.

Poor Frisky:

Chloe has been very sweet to her and has been standing guard all day:

Please send Frisky all your best wishes because she really needs them!

Posted by lauren at 07:22 PM | Comments (5)

May 29, 2007

Birthday Weekend Day 3

The final day of my birthday weekend was my actual birthday, May 19th. That afternoon, Brent and I went out to lunch where Brent had a 20 oz. burger! As Brent pointed out, that's like having 5 quarter pounders at McDonalds:

That night, I celebrated with Brent, my parents, my grandparents, Jocelyn, and my cousin Jessica.

My mom got me a princess crown and wand since it was my birthday:

And these beautiful roses:

We drank this champagne while eating cheese and crackers and opening presents before dinner:

Brent and Me:

Grandma and Poppy:

Dad and Mom:

Grandma and Poppy gave me traveling money (thanks Geoff, Kari, and Jessica for the same!) and this cool champagne set with placemats, a basket, cheese and crackers, a bottle of champagne, and beautiful champagne flutes:

Grandma, Me, and Poppy:

My parents gave me a lot of camera equipment (lenses, a tripod, a case, etc.):

The most beautiful diamond earrings:

And three new Augusten Burroughs books. I read Augusten Burroughs' Running With Scissors and absolutely loved it. Just a random fact, I actually happen to go to school with Joe Cross who starred in the movie version of Running With Scissors. I actually have a bunch of pictures of Brent and me at parties with him in the background (Brent says we talked to him a few times but I don't remember at all... so it must have been a good party) but I don't want to seem like a creepy stalker.

Anyway, Jocelyn's gift to me is a trip to Vegas this July!

I can't wait and I'll definitely blog everything.

Jessica gave me this really cute shirt (and also traveling money as I mentioned earlier):

Brent made me this adorable giant card of Winston and George:

I really think he could be a cartoonist, especially since he writes so well too.

Brent gave me the Bose Quiet Comfort 3 headphones that I had really wanted for my birthday too! I had tried to order them online a while ago from someone who was selling them way discounted but it ended up being a scam. While I got my money back, I was still really upset not to have the most amazing headphones in the world. Seriously, you have to try them out. They have them featured at Apple stores so you can put them on and experience them. Once you turn them on, everything around you goes silent. They're absolutely amazing, and they're going to be perfect for traveling around Europe on noisy planes and trains:

As you can see, they come with their own purse! Bose certainly knows how to market confusing electronics to girls, just give them their own fashion accessories!

Brent also had this poster sent to my house for me:

It's a painting by Pino (one of my favorite painters) that I had pointed out to Brent at a gallery in Vermont a couple times and he remembered! Isn't he wonderful?

After my presents, Jessica had a few to open since we didn't see her on her birthday. I gave Jessica Philosophy breakfast-themed shower gels that smell like waffles, cream, and berries. I love Philosophy products, and definitely try them out if you haven't already.

Jessica and Jocelyn:

After presents, we went to the yacht club for dinner where I had a glass of wine with my dinner (but still didn't get carded!). I took this picture of the cupola (if that's what you call it) on top of the club:

The manager of the yacht club was out on the pool deck shooing away the ducks that wanted to go for a swim:

After dinner, we came back to my house where we had delicious birthday cake:

Cathy, Mike, Mrs. F., Mr. F., and Andy came over for cake too. Here's Cathy, Mike, Jocelyn taking a picture, and Mrs. F. hiding:

Birthdays are always fun!! Come back soon for pictures from our trip to Florida with Cathy and Mike's family!

Posted by lauren at 04:47 PM | Comments (2)

May 27, 2007

Birthday Weekend Day 2

Going back to the night of May 18th, all my friends met at my house to celebrate Kristina's and my 21st birthday! Isn't it a strange coincidence that one of my best friends has the exact same birthday as I do?

At my house we opened presents (even though no one needed to bring anything!):

And ate the delicious princess cake Kristina made us:

Kristina and Me (birthday girls!):

Brent:

After cake and presents, we all headed to the train station to get into NYC for a night of partying:

We went to Webster Hall because it's the only place that guarantees letting people in 19+ rather than 21+ (and a few of my friends aren't 21 yet). It was definitely nothing like any of the other places I've been in the city, but I think we all had a good time.

Alberto had the right idea:

Outside Webster Hall (still sober):

Webster Hall has four themed floors. We tried out the ghetto floor which was a little intimidating:

We also tried the Latin floor where Cathy and I discovered that we no longer remember how to salsa, and settled on the main floor which had a big video screen that showed the music videos for all the songs that were playing. It was also the only floor with stripper poles which was just what Kristina and I were looking for on our 21st, a chance to get drunk and embarrass ourselves in public.

To start off the night, we did tequila shots at midnight (to celebrate, of course) and drank countless other drinks that I can't even attempt to remember.

As you look through my pictures you'll notice that a lot of them came out really weird. There was a really lame no camera rule that I had no intention of following, but I didn't want to get kicked out so I left the flash off so that I would be less conspicuous. With the flash off, none of my pictures would have come out AT ALL on the dark dance floor, so I put my camera on a special setting that steadies flash-less shots, but only so much. When something is moving really fast (especially when the person holding the camera is also moving) the picture comes out not blurry, but just... distorted. I actually really liked the pictures a lot, though, because it's fun seeing how people were moving around on the dance floor with two versions of everyone in each of the pictures taken on that setting. Here's a perfect example of James, Molly, and me dancing:

For some shots I took my chances and used the flash anyway. These are mixed in with the other ones, and you'll definitely be able to tell the difference.

Alberto and James:

Suzanne and Eric:

Kristina and Me:

Molly has such beautiful green eyes:

Vanessa, Molly, and Cathy:


Brent and Me:

The whoreable go-go dancer in a gold bikini:

Cathy and me getting up on stage to dance:

Suzanne, Kristina, Me, and Molly on the stripper pole (the kind of skanktastic thing I would only do on my 21st birthday):

Kristina, Cathy, and Me:

Kristina, Cathy, Me, and Vanessa:

Kristina, Me, and Vanessa:

And an entire series of Molly going it solo on the stripper pole:

Molly definitely wins for highest BAC of the night... perhaps in the entire city.

Kristina and me with James and Molly in the background:

Alberto and Brent:

Kristina and Molly:

Kristina, Molly, and Me:

Molly and Me:

James and Brent:

Suzanne and Eric:

Eric and Brent:

Suzanne and Eric:

Brent and Cathy, just two Connecticut kids keepin' it gangsta:

Cathy, Me, and Vanessa:

After getting it on with a metal pole, Molly moved on to actual people:

We definitely all got groped by minimum 5 people on the dance floor that night, but I think Molly got it the worst from this guy who's reaching down to her "no touch zone." We learned in fourth grade that when someone gives you the "uh oh feeling" to tell them to get away from your "no touch zone." Instead, we laughed and took pictures. Make sure you check out Cathy in the background:

Kristina, Cathy, Alberto, Brent, and Me in the red-lit mirror:

Cathy, Vanessa, and Kristina looking at pictures:

Alberto and Me:

Cathy and Me:

Cathy, Me, Vanessa, and Kristina:

Cathy and Me singing and dancing:

Molly took her shoes off....

One of the bars:

Brent and Alberto playing pool:

Jenn took a bunch of awesome party pictures too and was nice enough to send them to me which I'm extremely grateful for, especially since so many of my pictures didn't come out well because I didn't have the flash on most of the time, and none of my pictures with Jenn in them came out at all! Here are Jenn's pictures.

Jenn and Molly:

Vanessa, Cathy, and Jenn:

Cathy, Molly, and Alberto:

Vanessa, Kristina, Molly, Me, Jenn, and Cathy (so much better with a flash!):

Brent, Me, Molly, and Alberto:

James and Molly:

Kristina, Cathy, and Me:

Kristina and Vanessa:

Kristina and Cathy:

Kristina, Molly, and Me:

Kristina, Me, and Brent:

Jenn and Vanessa:

Molly and Kristina with James, Alberto, and Cathy in the background:

Vanessa and Molly:

Thanks again Jenn for all the pictures!

Now back to my pictures... at the end of the night, we all took a limo back to Greenwich:

Brent and Me:

Kristina, Vanessa, and Jenn with James helping Cathy with her shoe in the background:

Alberto, Brent, and Me:

I think we all had a lot of fun and I can't wait for everyone to be 21 so that we can go out anywhere we want all the time.

Posted by lauren at 10:38 PM | Comments (9)

Make Your Own Blogs

Well, I'm home from Florida and can finally get back to my usual updates with TONS of pictures. I'm currently uploading all the pictures from my 21st birthday party in NYC which will be up for everyone to see sometime tonight.

I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my Who Are You People entry, I really loved hearing about all of you. I'm a creepy blog lurker myself and need more to read, so I wanted to encourage everyone to start their own blogs! I have a couple new ones to read now that I've heard from some of my own viewers, and I think all of us can say that having a blog is really a lot of fun.

Depending on how much you want to put into it, it can be a little time consuming (for example, it takes me 2-3 hours to "digital darkroom" photo-edit my pictures for really photo-heavy entries) but it's definitely worth the time. I have so much fun looking back at old entries and reading the stupid things I say. Also, if you don't have a lot of time to put into it, you don't need to! Plenty of people don't use any pictures and write just a short little paragraph every now and then with a funny story or something they've been thinking about, and their blogs are just as interesting as any other. If you have 10-15mins you can spare a few times a week, then you can have a blog.

If you want one, I suggest getting yourself started at Blogger. That's where The Blonde Excuse originated before I moved over to Jocelyn's www.pixxiestails.com domain. I've tried to get friends and family members to start blogs for a couple years now and everyone always says that their lives aren't interesting enough. This isn't true! My life can be painfully boring at times, but I always find something to say. Remember, no one has to read your blog, so you can be as boring as you want... and even so, I guarantee people will come back because we get personally involved in your life. I know this sounds a little creepy, but I really do get really into people's lives just like I do with favorite TV shows. Anyway, it doesn't hurt to try, so go out there and make a blog!

If you do make your own blog (or already have one of your own) I'll happily link it on mine (as long as you're not really creepy). Also, I had so much fun hearing about everyone who reads my blog, that if you're just reading this now and didn't have a chance to leave a comment about who you are and how you got here, please feel free to do so anytime! I always love hearing from people.

Come back REALLY soon for pictures from my 21st birthday followed by a week's worth of pictures from Florida and...

MAKE YOUR OWN BLOG!

Please, I'm bored and don't watch enough TV.

Posted by lauren at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2007

Who Are You People?

I've actually been meaning to do this entry for a while now and figured that my picture-less week would be the perfect time for this (aka I have nothing to write about without my pictures).

Since The Blonde Excuse started about a year and a half ago, I've had a number of viewers every day, currently averaging 84. I know that must sound like nothing to all you serious bloggers out there, but for me with my relatively useless personal blog, that's a big achievment! I'm sure a lot of you get here by accident, but even taking that into consideration there have to be a lot of completely random people out there who care on a semi-regular enough basis to check out my pictures and little life stories.

Let me get to it... who are you?

I know who some of you are... friends, family, regular commenters, etc. but who are the rest of you?

I get hits from random MySpace blogs that I can't access (which makes me really curious what you're saying about me!), from all sorts of different mail hosts (which means you guys are talking about me to your friends), and from a few personalized web browser pages and saved links in random other websites and blogs. Basically, you guys get to see a little into my life (well, a lot actually) so the least you can do is tell me who you are!

ANYONE who is reading this, whether I know you or not, please leave me a comment! If you have me linked somewhere, if you have me saved on your computer, if you've ever e-mailed a link to my site to someone you know, or even if you're on here by accident wondering why you haven't X-ed out of the window yet, please comment and tell me who you are! I want this entry to be my personal Guestbook because I really appreciate all my readers. I have really low expectations for this, but I hope you guys prove me wrong.

Friends, family, strangers, stalkers... comment now!

Thanks!

Posted by lauren at 10:24 PM | Comments (28)

May 23, 2007

8 Boxes Later

We're currently 8 Krispy Kreme boxes into our vacation on day 3 which makes us quite possibly the fattest family in America.

Today, we got a little tan (and a little burned) down by the beach, went to the mall, got dinner, and are now watching TV. I have a bunch of pictures and don't want to go too in detail about our trip because it will spoil my picture entries later, but needless to say, we're having a great time.

We drove by the old pier today where Brent and I went slingshotting last year (the giant bungee jumping contraption) and where there used to be all sorts of arcade games... but it's all gone now. Except the Slingshot which means that this summer when Brent is down here with me, he's going to make me go on it again.

Tonight, we went to Cici's which is a pizza place that Mike had seen commercials for on TV and wanted to try. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet which is always dangerous. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to eat ever again.

Tomorrow, we're going to the Animal Kingdom with Mike's friend Katie (also on vacation in Florida). We all really want to go on the African safari which is actually the one part of the Animal Kingdom that Brent and I didn't get to last summer when we went. Check out last year's Animal Kingdom trip here.

Again, I'm sorry for how boring my entries must be! I promise the real ones with pictures will be a lot more fun.

Goodnight everyone!

Posted by lauren at 08:59 PM | Comments (5)

May 22, 2007

It's Back

I've been telling Brent for a long time now that monkeys are dangerous. Monkeys are responsible for every horrible disease in one way or another. Here's the latest:

Bubonic Plague Kills Monkey At Denver Zoo

Upon further research (I love a good pandemic) I found out that people died last year in New Mexico of the plague, infected by food they ate.

I guess a monkey dying isn't exactly a pandemic... especially since Western US is filled with animals with the plague. I just thought the article was interesting.

That's all!

Posted by lauren at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)

Dial Up

I hate dial up internet.

I guess I hadn't mentioned this already, but I came to Florida for a week long vacation with my parents, Cathy, Mike, and their parents... and all we have is dial up. I have all my birthday pictures ready and a lot of Florida pictures to put up already, but no way of doing it!

I don't want to leave everyone with nothing for too long, though, so I'm going to try to update semi-regularly with picture-less entries. I'll be home on Sunday and I'll put up a lot of photo entries then.

So the day before yesterday we got on a plane to fly to Jacksonville, FL and then rented a van to drive the seven of us to Daytona Beach, FL. My family has had a place in Florida for a number of years and it's been in The Blonde Excuse a couple times in old entries. We got here on Sunday night and immediately walked to Walgreens to get shampoo, sunscreen, etc. We also picked up a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts which didn't make it out of the parking lot, so we had to go back in and get another box. Last night we got two more boxes... so yes, we have a problem.

Yesterday we spent the morning out by the pool trying to get tan and the afternoon shopping. For dinner, we went to Chili's where Cathy and I got 2 for 1 margaritas. I have yet to get carded for drinks which has been a little disappointing.

Today we went to the pool/beach again. We went for a two mile walk on the beach and saw two Portuguese Man O' Wars. I got pictures, but for now check out the link.

Tonight we're going out to dinner, probably at Lighthouse Landing which can also be found in The Blonde Excuse's archives or by searching for it in the search box on my blog.

That's all for now, this isn't a very fun entry since there are no pictures.

Have a great afternoon everyone!

Posted by lauren at 12:21 PM | Comments (9)

May 19, 2007

Birthday Weekend Day 1

My birthday weekend started on Thursday when Brent arrived for his visit. Before Brent arrived on Thursday, I baked a batch of cupcakes for us to decorate. We just saw Spiderman 3 so I made a bunch of vanilla ones to decorate with blue and red, and a bunch of chocolate ones for Spiderman's black suit that was in the third movie. Brent can never ever say I don't get involved with his interests!

I had a late start to the day, so I was running a little behind on getting the cupcakes baked and frosted. I couldn't frost cupcakes hot out of the oven very well, so I improvised. I put all the cupcakes in the drink-chilling drawer in the refrigerator to get them to the right frosting temperature! Whoever said blondes are dumb clearly never saw one in action:

When Brent arrived, he decided to make comic book-themed cupcakes rather than just Spiderman, so you'll see some others in there too:

And finally, Brent's zombie cupcake with flesh and blood coming out of its mouth, in honor of watching 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later during his visit:

Brent really enjoyed them:

That night, Brent and I went to Mediterraneo on Greenwich Ave:

The food was amazing and we both absolutely loved the dessert we ordered which included caramelized bananas, chocolate lava cake, and cinnamon ice cream:

Despite this actually being day 2 of my birthday week, not day one, the next morning I got up early to make breakfast for Brent. I made him cinnamon French toast which he really liked:

That's all for now but come back soon for pictures of my night out in the city with my friends!

Posted by lauren at 04:04 PM | Comments (4)

An Old Man Must Have Been Snoring

Last night I went out with all of my friends to NYC to celebrate my 21st birthday... but that's not what this post is about. I'm not really caught up because I've been super busy with birthday-related stuff these past few days. Also, a few of my friends brought their own cameras out last night so hopefully they'll send me pictures soon so that I can put everything up together!

Anyway, we had a huge thunderstorm a few days ago that gave Connecticut a tornado warning! Not a tornado watch, a warning because funnel clouds were actually spotted. Not by me, unfortunately.

I didn't really know how to properly photograph the thunderstorm without leaving the dryness of my house, so here are some terrible pictures.

Drip drip drop:

This picture was taken at about 3pm and it's so dark out! Ignore the brightness of the flag because that's just the camera flash, and look in the background at how dark it was:

It's Raining, It's Pouring (see really lame title):

The sky:

A short video clip:

Whenever I go outside in a thunderstorm (which is pretty often, actually) our dog, Chloe, gets very upset. She doesn't like anyone to be out in a storm and she'll come running out after you, nip gently at your heels, and chase you back inside.

Chloe:

I have some really fun pictures coming up soon including spiderman-themed cupcakes made by Brent and me, and lots of pole dancing.

And finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! I'm 21!!!

Posted by lauren at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2007

Cats

A few days ago I bought a little basket to put all my headbands and hair clips in in my room. I left it on the kitchen counter and Frisky stole it:

She loved it so much that I decided to just give it to her. Obviously I took a lot of pictures.

This one makes her eyes look like different colors:

She sits in this basket all day long!

Morning:

Noon:

And Night:

Anyway, there's a new cat in town. I found her under our grill on the deck:

She's REALLY big around the middle, so she's either someone's really fat housecat, or she's a pregnant stray:

I hope she's a pregnant stray so that I can adopt her kittens!!

I have more pictures coming soon and tonight I'm going to NYC with all my friends to celebrate my 21st birthday so hopefully there will be some really fun ones coming up!

Posted by lauren at 12:07 PM | Comments (1)

May 16, 2007

Drive-By (Photography) Shooting

Since I've been home, I've gone for a drive around the beach with my parents almost every single night. The beach is really close to my house and it's absolutely beautiful any time of year. I took a bunch of pictures, but you have to remember that they were all taken from inside a moving car so they aren't the best, but a few came out surprisingly well. Also, they're from multiple nights which explains the weather changes.

All right, I lied, these first few were not taken from inside a car:

The rest were taken from a moving car:

This is one of my favorite shots, doesn't it look like a painting or something? I didn't even touch this with Photoshop!

NYC Skyline:

A couple goslings:

When you pass through this gap in the stone wall you make a wish!

Brent will tell you that I make wishes on everything, but he's wrong. I only make wishes on folded potato chips, when it's 11:11am or pm, at special wishing locations like the one pictured above, when you throw a coin into a fountain, when one of my eyelashes falls out, when I find a cat whisker, when I see a shooting star, when I see just one star in the sky and no others, when I throw a rock over the edge of a bridge into water, when I cross a bridge, and when I find a penny (but only when it's "heads up"). All important things.

My dad:

One of the snack stands is in this building:

The other is here (with my parents getting snacks for us):

Another night, it looked really "smoggy" but if I'm remembering correctly, I think it was just a little hazy and getting late making the sky look brown-ish in the pictures... like this one:

I love the look of these mini-waves slowly rippling in:

Sorry for the foreground blur... I was in a moving car:

One of the basic rules of photography is to never shoot directly into a light source because the pictures will never come out. I disagree:

I liked the two different exposures on these ducks.

Under:

And over:

These people won the "Get out of the way or I'll run you over" award of the day:

I'm rollerblader-friendly because I've enjoyed it myself, but you do not need to do it in the direct center of a one-lane street.

Another little strip of the beach:

This little house (with a very big view) is on the market for over $5 million according to my dad, real estate agent extraordinaire:

That's all for now. I'm a little behind on posting pictures so I'll hopefully get some more up tomorrow morning before Brent arrives for my 21st birthday!

I'm so excited!!! Goodnight everyone!

Posted by lauren at 09:07 PM | Comments (6)

May 14, 2007

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, Jocelyn came up to Connecticut to visit for Sunday Mother's Day brunch at Mackenzie's in Old Greenwich with our parents, Grandma and Poppy, and me. Jocelyn gave our mom some great makeup that she wore and looked amazing and I gave her two Stargate SG-1 novels because she's a huge dork and watches that show on Sci-Fi, and Port finishing sauce from Williams Sonoma which I had sampled and was delicious.

Mom and Jocelyn at brunch:

Poppy and Dad:

Mom, Poppy, Me, Jocelyn and Grandma:

Happy Mother's Day Mom and all the other random moms that might read this!

Posted by lauren at 01:17 PM | Comments (3)

May 12, 2007

Tour Of Trinity

Finally, it's here! The Tour Of Trinity! As requested, I prepared a photographic tour of Trinity College for all my faithful readers who wonder where it is I go to school. First, a little background. Trinity College was founded in 1823 in Hartford, CT at the current site of the Connecticut Capitol Building:

Personally, I think they should have left it here rather than moving us to Frog Hollow which, despite the photos on the site I just linked making it look cute, is anything but.

If you want to know any random facts about Trinity, here's Wikipedia's list of Trinity College trivia. My favorite, of course, being:

The male character Cassidy in the famous opening sequence of Jaws (film) was a caricature of the stereotypical Trinity student. The College received its greatest mass media plug in the scene where Cassidy says, "Na, Hartford, I go to Trinity. My folks live in Greenwich."

That's me!

Anyway, you can do your Trinity College research there if you have any interest, but now it's time for the photographic tour.

Here's a map of Trinity's campus for reference.

On the north side of campus we have Vernon St., home to many of Trinity's frats along with the dorm that Brent and I will be living in next year (the best one on campus, of course).

Vernon St.:

Starting at the top of the Vernon St. hill is St. Anthony's Hall or just "The Hall" as we call it. They live in their own special dorm hidden behind these trees:

Their "party house" is an old castle right behind their dorm:

This part of campus is actually called Gallows Hill (despite the Gallows Hill student lounge being on the other side of campus). Gallows Hill is where, during the American Revolution, loyalists were hanged.

A little farther down is Vernon Place, the school's "social center" for school-sponsored parties with the best senior dorm on campus upstairs:

Across the street from Vernon Place is the English building, where all of the school's English classes are held:

Next to the English building is The Bistro, the best dining option on campus:

Next to The Bistro is the admissions building:

The back of the admissions building:

The walkway between The Bistro, the English building, and some other stuff:

A great knotted tree:

Continuing down on Vernon St. is Psi U, another of my favorite frats. The picture is taken in the dark because that's when I tend to see it:

Vernon St. has other frats and dorms but for The Blonde Excuse, this completes the segment on Vernon St.

Moving south across campus, we see the archway that leads from the admissions building area to the main quad of campus:

Through this arch is the main quad with the Long Walk and Lower Long Walk which run parallel on either side of the country's largest unbroken quad on any college campus! This is when it's going to get a little confusing because I'm trying to move north to south, but because there are parallel "long walks" I'm going to have to jump between the two a little bit.

Before anything else, Trinity's chapel is actually right next to this arch, so it's not really on one side or the other. The Trinity Chapel is absolutely gorgeous inside and out so I have a ton of pictures of the chapel and the chapel courtyard.

Trinity has a lot of beautiful magnolia trees like this one, right next to the chapel:

The magnolia I just pictured is on the right, and this is a view of the chapel from the Lower Long Walk. I love the little wooden doors all around the chapel (there are at least three and we have no idea what they lead to):

Back on the other side of the chapel (right near the arch on the quad side) is this beautiful walkway right near the courtyard:

Looking through to a different pink, flowering tree:

The outside of another similar walkway:

Little balcony looking over the courtyard:

The courtyard:

The constipated face on the wall:

The creepy face on the wall:

There are faces coming out of walls all over campus, but I think these two are my favorites.

I'm not sure what this is, but the numbers make me think it's some sort of weird sundial or something:

Leaving the chapel and walking across the quad, this is the view of The Hall's castle between the arch and the chapel:

Back on the Lower Long Walk, here's another angle of the chapel:

Lower Long Walk (facing north):

Facing the chapel from this angle, to the right of Lower Long Walk (east, I guess) are the sports fields:

The Bantam (our mascot):

Another random fact, Trinity's football team has the longest winning streak of any college in America.

This is a picture of the main building of Trinity which is along the Long Walk (picture taken from the Lower Long Walk):

This building has classrooms and dorms (and it's where Brent and I lived Freshman year).

Another picture of it, taken from closer to the chapel:

It's L-shaped and this is the other part of it, facing toward the chapel across the quad (the other part facing Lower Long Walk across the quad):

Looking across the quad:

Right next to this part of the building is Cinestudio, Trinity's movie theater, which is attached to the chemistry building:


Cinestudio shows a wide variety of foreign, art, classic, and even "right out of theaters" films and is one of my favorite places on campus. The theater itself is really old and even has balcony seating! If you're ever in Hartford, definitely go see a movie at Cinestudio.

Now for some pictures of the quad itself. First of all, the trees that you see there are elms and they're spaced out to make a giant "T." In the middle is a statue of some guy... I should know this but I don't remember:

This picture is cool just because you can see the Connecticut Capitol in the background with the gold dome:

Cannon (there are two on opposite sides of the statue):

My favorite tree on campus, in the middle of the quad:

Back on Lower Long Walk facing south (with your back to the chapel) you can see Trinity's library:

If you were to continue straight toward it and go down the stairs, you would get to the courtyard in front of the library:

There's a fountain down there that I, unfortunately, did not get a picture of but the water comes out of a lion's mouth and is really cool.

This is one way to get to Trinity's quadrangle (the smaller quad on the opposite side of the main building at Trinity -- the part that faces the chapel). The other way would be to walk through one of the two arches in that building.

From the library courtyard one night, I took this picture looking across the quadrangle:

Brent took these three looking in the opposite direction toward the chapel (with the chemistry building on the left):

This picture was taken from the other side of the quadrangle, looking at the library (right) and the chemistry building (straight ahead) with the dining hall on the left:

There are lots of pretty flowers in the spring here at Trinity:

Across the quadrangle toward the library:

In the front of the library is Peter B's, a coffee shop and cafe, where Brent and I often do our work when we can't handle the thought of spending the day in the actual library.

Here's a picture of the library from the back side:

The story behind the tennis courts you see there is that my Freshman year here, Andy Roddick was supposed to be doing a modeling shoot for Reebok somewhere nearby but rain had damaged the courts somehow, so he was taken to Trinity's tennis courts to do it instead!

This picture is taken from the quadrangle facing Mather which has our main dining hall, The Cave (another dining option in the basement), The Underground Coffee House (which I am terrified of), the campus bookstore, and a bunch of offices and meeting rooms:

On the quadrangle is the Austin Arts Center, which I don't particularly care for, and Gallows Hill which used to be a bookstore but is now just a "student lounge." This picture was taken of Gallows Hill in the winter:

A beautiful tree next to Gallows Hill:

Looking toward the Austin Arts Center in the fall:

South of Mather is something known as "The Concrete Jungle." It's easily the ugliest part of campus with old brick buildings from the 70s and cement covering EVERYTHING. I lived in The Concrete Jungle this year and last year and am luckily making my escape to Vernon St. for my senior year.

I did my best, however, to photograph it in its best light.

The Concrete Jungle:

Directly to the east of the concrete jungle is the Life Sciences Center (LSC) and the LSC quad. LSC is another of Trinity's architectural abominations:

The only thing I like about it is the ivy. This is a picture of the LSC quad taken from the opposite side (near The Concrete Jungle):

On the south end of the LSC quad is the MCEC building. I have no idea what MCEC stands for, but it's the science, math, engineering, etc. building and it's supposed to be shaped like a microchip (how embarrassing):

Behind MCEC is the Buildings and Grounds building which is right next to this lovely junkyard:

You won't see this if you go on one of Trinity's "official" tours; nor will you see The Concrete Jungle or the nearby crack houses.

At least Buildings and Grounds (not worth photographing) had some pretty flowers outside (Brent's picture):

And a weed that I liked and took a picture of:

While behind MCEC, I took a picture of the back of our giant microchip:

Also back there are the Summit dorms. Summit is another excellent dorm to live in because it's new, has enormous four person rooms and singles, and every common room has a grand piano! The only problem is the location, which is awful. It's as far away from the fun side of campus as possible, and if you're anything like me, you don't like doing your hair and makeup, picking out the perfect outfit, and walking ALL THE WAY ACROSS CAMPUS to the frats in freezing rain at midnight in high heels. That's why I chose to live on Vernon St.

Summit:

I would have taken better pictures but some girl decided to sunbathe on the Summit mini-quad topless and I felt awkward with my camera out, so I snapped this quick shot and left.

I guess that's it! There are definitely a lot more dorms, academic buildings, frats, the gym, etc. that I could have included, but didn't because there's too much on this entry as it is. I hope this gives you all an idea of the atmosphere here at Trinity which is, for the most part, a beautiful college.

Thanks again to my readers for suggesting this entry! Visit Trinity's website for more information.

Posted by lauren at 12:11 PM | Comments (9)

May 10, 2007

Neil Gaiman Linked Us!

Brent's hero, Neil Gaiman, linked Brent's PEN Festival entry on his blog pointing out the photos that I took! Despite the fact that it was Brent's blog that got linked and not mine, it's still really exciting that he pointed out my photos on his super-cool celebrity blog. You can check out his post HERE on Neil Gaiman's Journal.

Also, here's my entry PEN World Voices, and Brent's entries, omg i shook hands with Neil Gaiman and PEN Festival Photos.

Maybe some day I'll be a professional photographer and I'll nonchalantly bring up the mention in Neil Gaiman's Journal. It's hard to imagine the depth of how cool I am.

Back to studying Comparative Politics....

Posted by lauren at 03:58 AM | Comments (2)

May 07, 2007

Library Lockdown

So I just thought I'd share with everyone how safe Hartford is. We all just got a notification that students in their residence halls aren't allowed to leave and everyone in the library is on "lockdown" because of a violent carjacking by a Hartford local who ran onto Trinity's campus. We're all supposed to stay inside so as not to get killed while police helicopters scour the campus with searchlights.

Hartford is the best!

Posted by lauren at 11:43 PM | Comments (5)

May 06, 2007

Trinity in the Times

Alexis was nice enough to share this fantastic article with me, Pink Shirts Welcome, about a really preppy bar in NYC that's all about the Trinity scene. Now that I'm going to be turning 21 this month (yay!) I feel like I might have to check it out.

I especially like that the only thing Trinity ever gets recognized for is guys wearing pink and beautiful girls (apparently in the top 5 in the country!) And cocaine, of course, but that's less exciting.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with everyone while I work on my "Tour of Trinity" entry, as requested by one of my regulars.

Posted by lauren at 11:25 PM | Comments (2)

May 05, 2007

Spring Weekend - Kevin Lyttle and T.I. Concerts

The final day of Spring Weekend, last Sunday, included concerts from Kevin Lyttle and T.I. Trinity's previous concerts have included Ludacris, Fabolous, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli. I'm not complaining at all because I've enjoyed all the concerts, I just think it's interesting that Trinity (America's preppiest college) has had almost exclusively rappers and R&B artists for our concerts.

Anyway, Kevin Lyttle performed first:

I liked the faces this guy was making:

Brent loved it:

Brent and Me:

Kevin Lyttle Video:

More and more people started pouring in:

The combination of stampeding herds of drunk people and spilled beer made the ground absolutely disgusting:

Brent and I secured our position on this wire-covering island:

We're so smart.

While we waited for T.I. to come on after Kevin Lyttle left, I decided to have a "best head-wear" competition. You decide:

Team Heidi (Heidi v. Lauren from "The Hills"):

Green Sombrero:

Piñata:

Afro Wig:

Some guy running off with Kara:

Tom and Garner getting ready for T.I. to come out:

T.I.:

I was surprised at how many random friends of ours got caught in my attempts at taking un-zoomed pictures of the concert (I'm short... it's hard) so I decided to put them up anyway even though you can't see much. Here's Chris, Tom, and Garner:

That's Ben on the left:

Hexx stopped by to say hi (with the shirt on his head):

A different Chris:

Simba sitting on someone's shoulders:

Brent and Me (why does he always look so grumpy?):

More T.I.:

Some member of his posse:

T.I. then performed his song "Get Loose" and, foolishly, instructed all the girls to "get loose." A sea of Lilly Pulitzer-clad blondes have no concept of "getting loose" so when we failed miserably this girl got up on stage and took her top off, exposing her out of control boobs to the entire audience's terror and dismay. No topless pictures though, sorry:

T.I. performed a lot of songs I recognized like "Bring 'Em Out," "What You Know" and Justin Timberlake's "My Love" that featured T.I. He asked all the "baddest bitches on campus" (obviously including myself) to sing the Justin Timberlake part, and of course we did. You'll see all this in the...

T.I. Video Montage:

It was lots of fun and now I have a ton of studying to do for my upcoming exams. Wish me luck!

Posted by lauren at 04:03 PM | Comments (4)

May 03, 2007

Hold Up

Sorry everyone for the hold up on my last Spring Weekend entry (and for titling this entry "hold up" in a shameless attempt to get people to think something dangerous and exciting happened to me) but Google Video is eating my movie clips alive and destroying the flow of my blog.

My somewhat obsessive-compulsive nature makes the idea of having three Spring Weekend entries separated by this quick update almost impossible for me, but I feel like I have to do it.

Anyway, I've had a couple people ask about Frisky, and here is her latest update. It's the best of bad news, as the vet put it. Frisky definitely has cancer and it is in all of her blood... but the bright side is that there is no mass in her stomach, like we originally thought, just a large, cancerous lymph node. This sounds really bad and gross, but what it actually means is that none of Frisky's organs will be affected by her cancer. She won't need any sort of operation since the cancer is in her blood already, but because she has this very rare cancer that doesn't attack her organs, she'll go on living a very comfortable life for quite a while without most of the nasty side-effects of kitty cancer.

Also, she is eating more than ever. She now eats six meals a day and is almost back to her original weight! Whether it's her prednisone making her feel better or the C-Caps she's been taking, she definitely seems to be heading in the right direction. Her reishi mushrooms arrived today too so she got started on those tonight. I'm hoping that everything will work and make her live forever (yes, forever) but what's most important is that she's not in any pain and she's very happy.

Anyway, the real reason why I'm writing this entry, I guess, is because I have an enormous research project due tomorrow that I haven't started, so all distractions are welcome. Wish me luck!

Posted by lauren at 08:44 PM | Comments (4)

May 01, 2007

Spring Weekend - Psi U Formal

On Saturday night of Spring Weekend, Brent and I went to Psi U's Spring Formal. "Formals" here at Trinity definitely aren't all that formal, but it's fun to get a little dressed up and go out.

Psi U Spring Formal:

My dad, a huge wine connoisseur, gave Brent and me a bottle of wine to take back to college which was definitely a lot better than anything we ever drink here:

He gave us a corkscrew too because everything Brent and I ever drink comes from a plastic bottle or a can because we're cheap college students. After college, I'll never again be able to look at Natty Lite and $8 handles of Popov in plastic bottles... gross. I'm embarrassed to even be admitting to such things, I've probably permanently damaged my vital organs by drinking this stuff.

Anyway, the wine was delicious. Here's Brent opening it in black and white: