AWOL

Sorry for going AWOL, life got really crazy but I'm officially done with schoolwork, just work stuff now, & in 151 days I will never have hw again! WHOOT!

Okay, so to recap since my last post family time when I got back from TX was brief but wonderful. When I walked in the door my sister was ready with a belated vegetarian Thanksgiving feast, tofurkey,stuffing,and TWO kinds of sweet potatoes, traditional and Japanese(IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!) There was alot of family tension and drama in the room which is never unusual with the Duseks b/c they don't communicate frustations effectively but I ignored it and pretended like I was a 3 year old with Kayla all night. Here's some pics of her:


Being "scary bebe" like she loves to do lately


Being a crazy cookie monster while helping Nana bake


Who's cuter than her in her feeties?!

The next day we went to Port Jeff to meet up with Dena's friend from college. We had brunch at one of my fav' lil' places called toast. Their menu screams Noonie, including such wonderful things like sweet potato pancakes & waffles and THIS:

Graham cracker crusted peanut butter banana french toast with caramel sauce! YUM!

Elvis joined us for brunch as well which was really nice of him and completely unexpected. Here he is loving the menu tender:



Afterward we strolled around Port Jeff, went into the libary to escape the cold and entertain the kiddos with some


While there we heard Santa was going to come thru town for a parade so we rushed out only to be disappointed with a measly speedy drive by Santa who was awkwardly holding a pot belly pig. It was the cheesiest quickest poor man's Christmas parade I've ever seen. Kayla and Nana were pissed and called Mrs. Claus to complain:


Afterward we went to the mall so Kayla could take pics with Santa since he blew her off in Port Jeff. Here's my lil' snowangel tearing up Santa's home & throwing snow around while we waited in line as payback for blowing her off:


Kayla needed to look her best for Santa so she borrowed some of my gloss so she could have "lips" as she calls it. She's addicted to the stuff, look at this hot mess, love it!


Sunday Dena and Kayla flew back to FL early, and Roey and I went to visit my mom and grandparents. My grandma has lost all patience with my senile grandpa & his incessant repetition of crude jokes, interrupting, etc. While this may sound cruel and insensitive it actually makes me really happy to see her finally standing up for herself. My whole life he was an abusive monster who treated her like his slave, and now she's finally had enough. I honestly don't know how she does it, how she put up with him all those years and is still one of the most normal, kind, warm hearted, real people in my entire family. I love talking to her and never really get to b/c my grandpa usually takes over with his jokes and stories. When we were leaving Roey quickly whispered to me as our grandpa followed close behind to check out grandpa's newest lawn ornament. To give you a little background my grandpa is CRAZY, collects trash and puts it on the lawn, died his hair blonde in his 80s so he could be buried blonde, randomly decided to paint his beautiful brick house white with 1 shitty cheap coat that looks horrific,etc. He's a complete spectacle but this newest addition took the cake:

Yup, it's a plastic Barbie horse. So once seeing this I obviously pretended to pull away so my grandpa would go back inside then returned and snuck up on the lawn ninja style to capture this kodak moment.


That week was crazy, filled with papers, holiday parties, eating, stress, etc. Friday I drove to Hannah and Tooker's after work and Tooker prepared us a lovely broccoli fettucini alpesto (alfredo and pesto ala Tooker) dinner. Here's a pic of the cuties and our lovely meal:


Tooker and I split a bottle of Captain Morgan, laughed, played with the pets, watched "Role Models" on bootleg which was HILARIOUS, and passed out pretty early. The next morning Hannah made me a lovely egg sandwich with muenster and cream cheese (I encourage you all to put cream cheese on your egg sandwiches, it will change your life!). We then lounged around, and eventually I left for Oneonta in time for Terps. When I arrived at Cleary's, Nick and Dean were also there and delighted by my presence as Fairy GodNoonie b/c I came bearing treats. Terps was amazing, Jayson's creepy hip hop dance to "Disturbia" by Rihanna blew me away, I was overwhelmed with pride. For those who don't know, Jayson's talent is purely all his and natural, he's never once had a day of formal training or instruction, yet he shit on everyone else with his outstanding debut as a choreographer. Here I am bursting with glee:


One of the graduating eboard members also choreographed an Alice in Wonderland dance which hottie Joster designed the costumes for. Needless to say I was in absolute heaven watching my fav Disney movie and childhood story come to life:


The MCs were HILARIOUS which was so refreshing b/c the hosts have sucked since the first show I attended my freshman year. My fav was when they came out in black leotards and pretended to be dancers performing the dance they auditioned for Terps with. It was absolutely ridiculous, especially since the one guy was well over six ft tall, and the other was under 5 ft. They had "Tasty" written in glitter on their asses and did ridiculous things like simulate birth, flying, a snail, etc. (all playing off their ridiculous height difference). I was crying.

After that, Dean, Carolyn, Megan, Taryn, Nick and I all watched Pineapple Express (I was pretty disappointed, it was really over the top and ridiculous and violent and dragged on), and ate Chinese (<3 Hunan Gourmet and their vegetarian General Tso and Sesame Chicken!). Then we started drinkin' and had a ridiculous fun evening. At one point we walked over to Carney's who I haven't seen in over a year yet apparently he lives like a minute from Cleary and Taryn's, and saw a ridiculous amt of my old residents which was so crazy and great, especially Travy!

Here's a pic of Eddie, Dean, and Megan who all fought me tooth and nail b/c they didn't want to take pics as usual b/c they suck but I won as this is one of the most authentic and hilarious pic of them, truly captures all their personalities:


The next day I woke up bright and early for graduation. Dean, being the president and shit, had to sit on stage with all the big wigs which was just so darn funny to me b/c like he's Dean, that's ridiculous haha. I obviously cheered throughout the ceremony as they announced Dean being on stage, and Jaci, Mook, and Andy graduating even though we weren't supposed to b/c the December ceremony sucks like that. Afterward, while my graduate friends were taking pics galore I decided to kill one of my nasty old residents with kindness and was her family's photographer. Paying it forward and spreading joy! Here's some pics from the ceremony:

Oh how far they've come since Jaci started the Andy Fong fan club haha


The start of a beautiful life together


Obviously

After the ceremony we visited with Amanda and Dan. She got me a beautiful starfish bracelet to go with my earrings and necklace, so perfect! Then Nick and I visited with Cait for a bit, I ran errands with Meg, then head to Albany for a vegetarian feast compliments of Becky, her brother Billy, and Josh. They made sweet potato soup and homemade veggie ravioli from scratch. It was glorious! I left far too late, got back here close to 1am, then couldn't fall asleep until almost 5, so I'm running on less than 3 hours sleep and have to be awake in less than 5 hours but decided to blog instead of sleep b/c I'm silly like that and my mind was racing too much to lay down despite my extreme exhaustion. Today I officially moved into the main ACES office, I'm so official now. I love my new office, I have a beautiful view and windows, and am neighbors with Jim and Donna our boss whom I love! It's so nice to officially be in with everyone, makes it much easier to stay connected with my staff. Pics to come soon. Then tonight we had a secret snowflake with my cohort at our professors house. My gift went over smashingly. I got my friend a sketchbook b/c he likes to doodle, and a "Breaking Bad News with Baby Animals" postcard book.
It's absolutely hilarious, I was crying laughing in our bookstore when I found it. This is one of my fav cards:


Ravi got me a fuzzy little Husky dog that Rita named Snowflake, and elf hat, and a children's book about death in which a little boy's pet mouse dies and how he and his parents deal, EXCEPT whenever they talked about the mouse Ravi cut and pasted "Third Semester". It was PERFECT, Goodbye 3rd semester! I performed a rousing storytelling to my entire cohort wearing my little elf hat, playing librarian which apparently I'm really good at (Watch out Teresa! haha).

Tomorrow we're visiting Bridgewater State and Stonehill college and I have to be on campus by 7am. Gross, I regret this decision, but oh well. Wednesday I have a lunch date with Kendra, and a dinner date with Rita (and work of course mixed in there), Thursday I'm having lunch with my boss Donna, and Friday Mary, Hoween, myself and whoever else are gonna have an end of the celebration party, the Monday I'll be home!!!!!!!! Can't wait!

Things to look forward to:
1. Seeing my family!
2. Oneonta love reunion in NYC on the 19th!
3. Frismas! (ps whenever Kayla seeing Christmas lights she shouts 'FRISMAS LIGHTSSSSSS!'
4. Megan's 21st!!!!!
5. New Year's with Mary and Colin
6. FL and Disney with my fam!

WHOOT!