WARNING: This is a relatively long post and it pretty much sums up
everything I did in October up until mid-November. Nothing mind blowing.
Lintern came to visit me about three
weekends ago. It was the first time I'd seen him since December. The two of us
and James went to the Circleville Pumpkin Show which was super fun and would've
been more fun if it hadn't been raining. I’m the "stay indoors, roll up
into a ball, and watch a movie" type of person when it's raining, but Lintern
and James were not as easily deterred by the rain which is why we ended up
going despite the crappy weather which ended up being worth it thanks to the
pumpkin brownie, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pie, and other carnival food. On Saturday
we went to the Ohio State vs. Purdue game, but we made a pit stop at Universitees
first because he couldn't go to a game without some scarlet and gray gear. Lintern
probably bought the most obnoxious shirt at the store because it said THE Ohio
State University. The majority of the game was boring because we were making
stupid mistakes which is typical. The real excitement happened in the 4th
quarter with about 3 minutes left in the game. We were losing and Braxton Miller
was injured so Kenny G had to replace him. Kenny G led the Buckeyes to a tying
touchdown AND a 2-point conversion and forced the game to go into overtime. And
then we won 29-22 :) On Sunday I had a diversity training for Buck-I-Serv and
the Taylor Tower leaders social, so I pretty much had to ditch Lintern for a
good chunk of the day. I felt really bad, but luckily, James, being the
wonderful boyfriend that he is, offered to show Lintern around Columbus. We
ended the night with Jeni's (cuz let's be real, you can't come to Columbus and
not have Jeni's) and a movie. Lintern's flight was at 9:47am and James had a
meeting at 9am so we had the joy of waking up ridiculously early. "There's something very peaceful and special about getting up for a
sunrise walk. I fully intend to keep it that way by not doing this very
often" (quote james).
The following Friday James and I celebrated our one month together (which has actually felt like decades jk :P) and I finally got my Build-a-Bear. Her name's Lily :)
We went to a Mexican restaurant at Easton, but it wouldn't be a "normal" night if I didn't get a call from one of my students. Thus, we had to cut our dinner short and race back to campus. Oh the joys of being in Reslife. We went back to Easton on Saturday so we could make another attempt at having a nice dinner without being interrupted by students and also because I needed a jacket. The rain and cold weather in Ohio is just not doing it for me. #caliproblems We went to north face and I found an awesome purple jacket in the children's section. Woot! It pays to be short and small. Probably saved about $100. We also carved a pumpkin which we bought at the pumpkin festival. It was a big deal because Ihad never carved one before. Granted James did most of the work, but it was a team effort ;) I also faced one of my childhood fears and watched Hocus Pocus. As a kid I had watched bits and pieces of the movie and it was so scary! Witches were eating/drinking/slurping the souls of children, there were zombies...I mean there were lots to be afraid of. Nonetheless, I loved the movie and I'm glad James pushed me to watch it.
On the Sunday before Halloween, I got an email from martin asking me if I wanted to go reverse trick or treating with him on Halloween and I said of course! He asked me if I was going to dress up and I told him I wasn't on it, but I can if he wanted to. And sure enough, he wanted to dress up. He then emailed me this wonderful link, and when I say wonderful I mean not wonderful, with a list of the lamest costumes http://www.halloween.com/halloween-costume-quick-ideas.php
Martin went as a quarterback (click on the
link for context) and I went as a chef. I had my chef hat from move-in day, James'
apron that said "get the buck out of the kitchen" (I had to
constantly tell students that it wasn't my apron), and a pot to pass out candy
from. Before I decided to go as a chef (credit: James and Lintern), I had just
gotten back from fresh express with two bananas. Martin suggested that I wear
pajama pants, put the bananas in the pockets, and go as bananas in pajamas. Yes,
this is my supervisor everyone. Anyway, so my little pot was not big enough to
carry all of the candy that Martin had bought, so I had to borrow a ginormous
pot from the front desk and by the end of the night, my arms were sore. But the
residents definitely enjoyed it and that's all that matters.
The first Saturday of November, James,
Matt, Danielle (Matt's gf), and I drove up to Cleveland to see Russell Peters.
We got there a few hours before the show because we wanted to explore Cleveland
a bit. But as luck would have it, the one thing we wanted to see closed early for
some centennial celebration. What a fail. Who cares about a centennial
celebration anyway? jk That's actually a pretty big deal. So instead, we ended
up eating pho (which is always a plus), walking around downtown Cleveland, and
going to a chocolate bar. For those of you who were wondering, a chocolate
martini with chili spices is actually not bad. The show itself was absolutely
hilarious! All the comedians were hysterical. It was at a pretty small
venue (which isn't surprising because Russell Peters isn't as big of a deal in Ohio
as he is in Cali), so we got to sit at one of the tables close to the stage. In
conclusion, Russell Peters is still one of my favorite comedians and i would go
see him again in a heartbeat.
The GLACUHO 2012 conference ended early
November. Hallelujah!! GLACUHO stands for Great Lakes Association of College
and University Housing Officers. Ohio State had the pleasure (and the stress)
of hosting it this year. After countless early morning meetings, late nights,
and some last minute planning, it's over!! To be honest, the conference was
whatever. Nothing super spectacular. On the bright side, I learned a lot from
planning a conference for 450+ people, but I don't think I'll be doing that
again anytime soon.
Helen came to visit me during Veteran's
Day weekend. Since there's less to do (and less ethnic food) in Rootstown than Columbus,
I took her to a pho place which received her Vietnamese seal of approval. Then
we watched Skyfall which was AMAZING!! And the new Q is so adorable! I'm absolutely
in love with him!! (Sorry James :P) A new casino opened up in Columbus so we
went to check that out. It's nice for Ohio...but it's no Vegas casino ;)
The following week, James and I went to DC
to visit his friend who works at CNN and my friend from elementary school. If
you want to read about what we did you can check out James' blog at
jtyork.blogspot.com. We had so much fun and we've already decided we need to go
back in the spring because we didn't get to see/do everything we wanted to.