Friday, March 19, 2010

Lots to Say on Friday

Hi everyone and HAPPY FRIDAY!!!! It's another beautiful day in Boston and I am headed to the Cape after work today with Eric to celebrate our 5 Year Anniversary! So basically I am happy all around. I'm so ready for a nice weather relaxing weekend.

What are YOU up to this weekend?

So before I get to Flashback Friday I have a few random things:

#1- My wedding dress has arrived and I tried it on Wednesday afternoon. I was so scared it wasn't going to fit but it zipped up, yipee! I still love it. I also saw my bridesmaid dresses. The pink color is amazing and I am truly jealous of my bridesmaids for getting to wear them, is that normal? That's 3 things I love about my wedding in one week: cake, my dress, my bridesmaid dresses. Look at me, lover of weddings. Haha.

#2- My college roommate has been in med school for the past 4 years in Chicago and just got "matched" today in Cincinnati for her residency. I want to visit her after she moves but I have no knowledge of Ohio at all. Should I fly into Cincinnati or are there other bigger airports close by? Is there anything to do in Cincinnati? Someone must know something, right? I don't know if I have any readers from Cincinnati but I have some Ohio readers, so maybe you guys know...

#3- I found Jillian Michael's Yoga Meltdown on On Demand yesterday morning. I remember hearing she had a yoga video and this is it. The video includes two 30 minute work outs (Level 1 and 2- I only have 1 On Demand). I was pretty excited to do yoga because I haven't done much yoga for awhile. I'm not sure if "yoga" is really how I'd describe this video. I mean, sure, there are some yoga poses included, but then suddenly you are doing repetitions haha. Also, there is a focus on breathing, but not in the way that true yoga focuses on breathing, more as a method to enhancing your work out. I would totally do this work out again, it was a great strength work out and I am a big Jillian Michaels fan (except for her diet pills?!). But it's definitely not authentic yoga, but it's yoga- Jillian style :) Oh and not like this will shock you with a Jillian workout, but I'm a little sore one day later. Not "shred" sore, but a little sore.

Now for FLASHBACK FRIDAY. Last Friday I began flashing back to my time in college with freshman year. Today I'll be talking about the summer after freshman year, or "coming home for the summer."

To recap last Friday's post, I had a good freshman year but I was still a little anxious for that "true," crazy, college experience. In the summer I came home and got a job working at a camp. I was a swimming instructor, which was probably my favorite job ever.

I have no real skill when it comes to swimming, but I was working with the littlest kids (including my most loved 3 year old group) so it was really more about being peppy and willing to jump in the water even when it was cold. I wish I could show you pictures of those kiddos because they were definitely some of my favorites. It's funny to look back on now since I'd rather do basically anything before I'd teach preschool. I'd still teach them to swim though. There is a difference between hanging out with 3 year olds for half an hour and managing their whole day.

Truthfully I'm relatively good at making new friends, but I'm not awesome at getting close with them quick. I think I'm always on the search for lifelong friends, and that summer I was just on the search for friends that would be up for any crazy idea I came up with...and find them I did.

I made a group of friends at work who were fully on board for letting me be as crazy and make as many bad decisions as possible. Fortunately, they were actually quality friends too, which I think is always important when bad decisions are involved.

I don't want to get into too many details about what went on, but let's just say there was not too much we did not do without some Bacardi Razz (which I recommend by the way). Oops! Let's just hope my parents are having too much fun in Florida to read this post too closely haha. Really I just don't remember caring about much of anything except when the next fun time was going to be. And maybe how I was going to get 3 year olds to not put their head under water more than 3 times in one lesson (that was a Water Safety Instructor recommendation at the time since you don't know if 3 year olds are swallowing water or not). I told my kids if they cough they had to take a little break because they might be swallowing water by accident. One kid told his mom he gets a "time out" if he coughs haha. Good thing she had a sense of humor!

My one major regret from the summer (and I am normally not one for regrets) is the biggest fight ever (which involved no real blow out at all, just sudden lack of talking) with my best friend which resulted in us not talking for 6 months. In hindsight it was probably 99.9% my fault and directly related to my ridiculous notion of what "college was supposed to be." Truthfully, this summer was probably the most selfish time of my life, other than maybe when I was 5 and not developmentally ready to understand that the world did not revolve around me. Why do I teach this age group again?

In the end though, I did learn a lot that summer and I did have a ton of fun. Plus, you can't complain about a time you had your best job ever, right?

What was your favorite job ever? What was so great about it?

What are you up to this weekend?

Don't forget to send any Ohio recommendations my way :)


17 comments:

  1. Looks like such a fun summer! Enjoy the cape!

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  2. Thanks for the Jillian review. I've been wanting to buy it but wanted to hear a review first.
    No real plans for the weekend here. Just lots of homework!

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  3. I was wondering how that Jillian workout was. I doubt I'll do it. When I want yoga, I want slow, relaxed yoga. Thanks for the review!

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  4. I love how my little 8th grade self had no idea you were going crazy on the side. If only I had been more aware of everything I think this would have been hilarious to watch you go through haha

    I wanna buy Jillian on iTunes. I'm debating..

    Oh and I know a lot of people who go to BC from Ohio, so there must be SOMETHING there. haha Sad Ash didn't get placed in Boston though : (

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  5. Inspired by your post last week I just posted a Flashback Friday of my drunk college years! LOL!

    So exciting about the dresses! Yay for getting excited about the wedding!

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  6. love the pics!!! haha bicardi razz ohhh that brings me back!

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  7. That looks and sounds like one fun summer!

    During my summer after grade 12 I went away to "french school" in Quebec for 5 weeks and lived with 6 other girls. We had classes during the way but got into some serious antics at night and on the weekend. SO MUCH FUN!!!

    Have a great weekend getaway and happy 5 year anniversary!

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  8. YAY!!! Only one week!!!!!!!!!!!! That's so exciting!!!!!! What color pink? I guess I'll have to come check back!!!

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  9. The restaurant job that I blogged about a bit in my first two college recap posts was definitely the best job I ever had. I was super close with all the girls that I worked with there and after work we'd just sit around and sip on wine and visit and eat appies and maybe go to the bar and dance our faces off. So, so fun. All the time!!!

    I'm glad you found friends that let you be crazy with them! I've actually NEVER had a really crazy/fun/memorable summer like that. Yet! ;)

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  10. I am from Cincinnati. Flying into Cincinnati can be expensive, but right now it's been $260 for direct from Boston. The airport is actually in Northern Kentucky, but it's about 20-30 minutes to downtown.

    If you go to Cincinnati, you have to partake in the local cuisine: Graeter's Ice Cream, Skyline Chili, and Montgomery Inn (BBQ ribs).

    Other things to do would be the zoo, the Museum Center at Union Terminal, or catch a Reds game (tickets are only like $15.)

    Where will your friend live? Let me know if you have any other questions.

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  11. Does your husband read your blog? If he doesn't can you give details about your dress?!?haha...I am a wedding nut!

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  12. love looking back through old photos and memories, great stuff. Happy Anniversary!!!! I bet you are gorgeous in your dress, yay! I'm still searching for that favorite job ever, but it was really cool working at a frozen custard shop in college. Good thing I was dancing all the time because we got a free cup and crepe every time we worked!

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  13. I was thinking about doing Jillian's Yoga Meltdown but I'm not so sure after your review. I figured it would be a lot more intense than regular yoga but when I want to do yoga, I want to do YOGA. I might try it once just to see...thanks for the review!

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  14. I worked as a wrangler at a camp for inner city kids for a couple of years - that was the best job EVER! My official title was "wrangler" but I really got to do a bit of everything - the horse stuff, help in the kitchen, help the program director, be a counsellor some weeks, direct programs some weeks ... it was always different. And it was cool to see how much the kids changed in one week :)

    Happy anniversary!

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  15. Yaaaaaayyy!!!!! For wedding dress perfection!!! I'm totally thrilled for you!!! :o)

    When do we get to see a picture? I tried to look at the old link but it had changed since you first posted it!

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  16. The Cincinnatti airport is actully in Kentucky. Cincinnatti is fun and like any city there is stuff to do.. :) Like if you go in summer you can hit up the Jimmy Buffett concert haha.. Riverbend does have a lot of concerts so if that is something you enjoy, you could check the schedule.. There is also a water park .. Reds baseball game.. and Skyline Chilli ..

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  17. Sounds like fun. My favorite job was the summer between junior and senior year of high school when I worked at a movie theater. All of my friends worked there and let's just say, we got away with some crazy stuff.

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