Creole Wisdom

booked!

•I've never booked a hotel... ever.  But I've watched my parents enough times to know the basics
•Claire and I like a little luxury, life rough enough so at least you have to pamper yourself once and a while
•The night she arrives, we'll be spending a night at this posh place- the Hotel Monaco!

•Background story: I've wanted to stay here since dad came into town, but since our plans took us to Park City it became my dream deferred.  So now I finally get to stay here... ooo I cannot wait!
•I went online a few weeks ago and saw a perfect rate, $140 for one queen bed.  Talked to Claire, and then forgot to book it.  Went back this afternoon and the rate, same room, was up to $230.  Saddening. 
•So, I called them- since I'm not easily deterred- and they found me a better rate, $180- how great is that?  And get this- we get two full beds instead of one queen.  Just goes to show: ask and ye shall receive! 
•Claire called me earlier and says, "I saw they have in-room spa treatments.  We should get a couples' massage."  She's a girl after my own heart.  Um, yes please.
•So, for $90/night you and your sorority sister can stay in luxury!

a visit

you know how I just love to have guests.  this lovely lady, my Claire-bear, bear, and fellow Twilight enthusiast is coming to visit in two weeks!

(taken two days before school let out, May '08)

On the agenda:
•Salt Lake City Adventure
•American Idol try-outs (girl can sing!)
•Perhaps staying at a posh hotel
•Boys

good times never seemed so good

Formal was fantastic.  It always is.  So much fun.  So much craziness. 

•I went with our DKE sweetheart, Donovan.  He was crazy.  I spent a good part of the time just making sure he was okay, but he managed alright.  No babysitting! 

•The photo of the evening: Getting a piggy back from our other sweetheart, PhiPsi  Matt.  Ahh!  Pretty much sums up the crazy night.  Later that evening he changed into a grass skirt, with several flower necklaces around his neck, and athletic socks on.  Haha!

•I was going to wear my Lily Pulitzer dress but just decided to go the casual, easy route and donned the GAP kids dress.  It was perfect.  I was dancing all night, and did not want to worry about having my dress stay perfect. 
•Here's a fun video of another DKE, Mike aka my Republican Caucus/Mitt Romney buddy dancing/singing to the Sweet Caroline remix:

and warrior two!

It is my sorority's Omicron (er. sweetheart*) week and things are just amazing. Each morning I wake up to breakfast freshly prepared for moi et mes seours by a nervous fraternity boy.  Yesterday was bacon and eggs, today was smoothies and blueberry muffins.  Each night we hold different events: skits, bake-off (that was yesterday, let me tell you: food orgasm, food orgasm), and tonight is a charity event.  Each guy running is working hard to win over our favor.  Some were interested in yoga.  So, you know I had to break out my mat and show them how to do warrior 2.  Here we are caught midway through.  Basically this is the best week of my life.

*Sweetheart week: one member from each fraternity competes to win our competition. The winners (we choose 2) are crowned Omicron King or Prince.  As a result they are a "honorary" member of the sorority for one year.  Basically they hang out at the house whenever they want, take us to Target, watch TV with us, and attend our formals. 

scholarship dinner

So moving on after the last entry. My funk may not be gone, but I'm done thinking/writing about the whole thing. Keep in mind on Thursday that my friend I mentioned broke the news to me that she is engaged! Well, we shall see considering this is engagement #2 for her (#1 did not go through) and they have only dated since the middle of January. Did I mention they got engaged on Valentine's day? She likes to fly by the seat of her pants! But in light of my sad plight, thank you for your kind, encouraging comments.

But on to other things:
Last Monday was my sorority's scholarship dinner. Since I am the academics chair I planned the entire thing from the awards given out to the seating chart to the menu even the color scheme of the decorations. It was a blast to do.

A simple, inexpensive party favor/table treat to make:
I just got small brown bags from Target, red and silver confetti from there as well. I found these adorable Martha Stewart red and white labels for the front. Each girl who gets about a certain fall semester GPA got one.  Inside I put a few kinds of candy: Reese's peanut butter egg, laffy taffy, and Hershey's mini bars.

The tables were pretty fun to do, too. I requested red tulips with red napkins and paper place mats. In case you are wondering our sorority's color is cardinal red, so I wanted to stick with that. I am really happy with how it looked.

But, nothing beat the menu:
•Salad (baby greens, crasins, blue cheese crumbles, pears)
•Chicken fettuccine Alfredo
•Crusty french roles
•Steamed broccoli
•Brownies a la mode

I got lots of compliments from everyone, and our chef, Penny, was pretty accommodating about all my requests even though she didn't want to make the salad. LOL, I was insistent about what I wanted!

christmasy weekend 1

It was on crazy fun weekend.  I am loving the wildness that panned out.
Friday:
You know I was prepared to just give in when shopping for formal dress... and I didn't have to sacrifice too much except for my boobs.  At least it had sleeves! The ensemble line up: Free People dress, Macys everthing else, and borrowed clip- which I took out later because I did not want to look five years old.

Miss Emma and I before we left in front of our spectacular Christmas tree.  Now, do you see what I mean about the clip? Kinda an awkward combo with the cleavage and all.  From there we headed to Bayview out on Lake Minnetonka.  It was so festive, so beautiful.  It is times like these where my life feels magical.

My date Matt and I.  Dad would be proud, he's a Sigma Chi, too!


Our little sorority family; "grandma," little, and big (me). All on the dance floor together.  It was hilarious.
Saturday:
Ward Christmas party at the Bishop's house.  It was themed- "tacky holiday sweaters."  Now you all know that I don't really do themes, especially if they're gonna make me look bad.  I am still trying to find a husband ya know.  So I wore this ensemble instead. 

Due to multiple invitations Jana and I had to leave early.  We headed down to Rochester for Jonathan's Christmas party.  You know it was only fair we travel that far since he came up for our "work and the glory" party last Friday... And what did I just say about themed get togethers? Haha
Well, I will just be up front.  With men throwing parties you just never know what to except.  It might be bad like the time I ended up eating dry spagetti and a burnt roll (bless his heart for effort).  But Jonathan was pretty organized.  We ended up baking cookies, and you know I can take over a kitchen! A girl was there, and here's the convo that ensued.
Girl: What cookies are you guys making
Me: You know, the traditional herseys ones with the kisses in the center
Girl: Oh, actually those are called drop cookies (followed by a detailed definition of what a drop cookie is, I was thinking: does she know who she's talkin to?)
Me: Hm, well the recipes says "blossoms."
Girl: Well, be careful about your dough- don't add to much flour or it might get dry.

People kill me sometimes, lol.  But it all turned out lovely.  Jonathan gave me three awkward hugs and Jana and I left to head home. 

Sunday:
Church as usual, then Brian "finally" as he would put it, got me to go up and have dinner with his family.  We went to his cousin's place, and let me tell you they are the FUNNEST LDS people around (that I've met in real life, not to dog you blog readers ; ) What I like about them is that they have two kids, but are still hip.  They're funny and have a positive, playful, (a little crazy, too!) attitude.  We talked for hours then ran outside in swimsuits (barefoot) in the snow to the hottub.  The stars were out and it was dreamy. 

Brian loves the sorority.  He dropped me off after church so I could change (yes, I kicked him out of the room while I did the actual changing).  Here he is wearing Easter colors!

So that was it, and now I'm looking forward to a nights of rest under my divine flannel sheets.  Three guys in one weekend.  Ya, that sounds ho-ish, but I like to call it being busy. 

my serious heart condition

Let's just talk about scary stuff for a minute.  First of all, I do like a good horror movie.  Not anything like Saw or Hostel, but the Village, Disturbia and Flowers in the Attic.  More mystery than actual horror I suppose. Along with all the fun fall festivities that exist I am not a fan of anything where people dress up in costume solely to scare the hell out of you.  This is my idea of hell.  Flash back to August: my cousin begged, pleaded with me to go though our fair's haunted house.  It resulted in me crying and shaking for five minutes afterwards.  Not a fan of haunted houses.  Watching a scary movie is one thing, but being chased by men drenched in fake blood with roaring chain saws is another...

Flash forward to last night.  Our fall exchange with Kappa Alpha Psi.  We love these guys, we know it will be fun.  What wait, what is on the menu for the activity? a haunted house and hay ride.  And then- get this- you have to go through the house to get to the hayride. 

Well thank God for Claire, she can up with the brilliant idea of telling the owners that I, "have a serious heart condition, and cannot go through the house."  It worked perfectly.  She and I waited at the back door of the house where the hayride picks you up.

Now, are you wondering why I am such a wimp?  Let me tell you, some houses require you to sign a waiver before going in.  Yes.  A lot of houses, the scary people can touch you.  See why I had to wait out back?

The second part of the adventure was the hayride.  Nothing like a fun, fall hayride, right? Except this one is haunted to.  As a result you have 18,19,20,21,and 22 year old boys/men (whatever they are at this age) and girls screaming and clinging to each other as scary people JUMP from tree tops onto the ride and scare you.  Not to mention you are driving past scenes of horror movies where the characters run and try to grab you on the ride. 

<- this clearly was not taken by me- My eyes were closed tight during this!

Throughout the less-horrific parts of the ride we all came to a consensus that this activity in itself was the perfect setting for a horror movie.  Think about it.  A fraternity and sorority in the pitch of night go out to a haunted house and hayride, but then their hayride gets stuck... and it just so happens that a crazy man has escaped from the asylum... (okay, the last two parts were made up!) But still, a good horror movie in itself, huh?

I was shocked at how many kids were there, and many went through the house by themselves.  Shocking.  The best part of the evening however was when we were done and waiting for our bus to pick us up.  There was a dance floor with music playing.  Everyone started dancing, and when soulja boy came on everyone watched the boys...  They ended up getting t-shirts from the owners for putting on such a fun show for everyone else.

Yes, I am smiling in this picture because all the scary stuff is over.  But the night did not end there- we got back the bus and headed back to campus.  Of course, this is a school bus and it's bringing back all sorts of memories for me. However, the driver had the radio on, and everyone was up dancing.  This would of not flown in elementary school.

Back on campus we headed over to their house, but made a pit stop home for Halloween costumes. I was a ladybug!

More photos and stories to share later.  Enjoy your scary weekend, I hope it is full of (less frightening) festivities!

bid day

I love these motion shots because they express the excitement and fun of Bid Day.  Bid Day, for my non-Greek life savvy readers is the day, at the end of recruitment, where girls get their invitation to become members of sororities.  Recruitment is a long and often stressful process for those of us on "this" side, and for girls going through it can be overwhelming- and this campus only has 9 houses.  I cannot imagine being in the south where they have 2,000 girls go through recruitment and over 100 live-ins.  Eek!  That would be wild. 

The intense and fun game of Bunco, which resulted in one very loud room!  I love this game, it was the perfect thing to do on Bid day.  Everyone got to know the new members a little bit better, and since you have to switch partners and tables it kept it upbeat.  The best was prior to playing Anne and I did a little demonstration, my favorite part was getting to explain when you yell "Bunco!"

Can you tell how very serious I am about Bunco?  I am telling you... we were fierce with that game.  I don't even want to imagine what it would of been like had there been prizes!

Overal, it was a wonderful, fun event.  I am excited to get to know 18 new girls!

(Psst... I'm in one of the pictures.  Can you guess which one?)

 

get your head in da game.

For the past two days I have been seriously busy with sorority recruitment.  It's one crazy process that leaves me to wonder: if people only knew how much work, dedication, sweat, blood, and tears went into this those horrible stereotypes would quit.

It is unbelievable, enriching, and empowering. 

Today was "hour tours" and we shuffled 157 girls during seven 30-minute "parties" (there are about 15 or so in a "group") through our house.  Yesterday we had 200.  This is the largest recruitment this university has seen.  Ever.  After nine sessions yesterday and seven today all of us are tired beyond all belief.

Now that part one is over I feel like I can finally get back to blogging as usual.

Oh, and have you noticed sorority snaps?  Go check it out. 

It's recruitment time, and you just have to get your head in da game.

beach manners

The following is a true, and sadly hilarious story involving terrible beach etiquette:

It was supposed to be a typical end-of-summer beach trip. A few other ladies and I headed out after our morning recruitment meeting to enjoy this gorgeous weather we have been having...

Should of been perfect, picturesque times, correct? 

After settling down on our beach blankets and indulging in Sorority-free conversation a man sat down a few feet away from us.  Not a problem, the beach is certainly where I'd be on a pretty day at 3pm.  We asked a nice girl to take our picture and then proceeded to read our magazines and chit-chat.  Then...

Guy: "Hey, I am really afraid that I will sleep too long in the sun, do you think you can wake me up in twenty minutes or so?"

Sammy agreed, but we all had a good (muffled) giggle over how strange that seemed...

Twenty minutes later:

Sammy: "sir, its been twenty minutes"
No response. 
Sammy: "sir"
No response.
Sammy: "sir!"

By this time Courtney and I are cracking up.  This guy will not wake up!  Tears are running down my face. Where would we go from here?  Should Sammy leave her towel and walk a few feet over, to yell closer/tap his shoulder?!? 

Finally after about four more tries he woke up and we tried to return to our typical beach enjoyment (or so we thought). 

Wrong again  (I am sure you are thinking, how bad can one situation get).We were soon interrupted by our ex-napping nemesis with:

Guy: "I am just wondering am I hanging out?  I am worried because the wind is blowing up my shorts"
Sammy: "No, you are are fine." 
Guy: "Are you sure?"
Sammy: "uhmm"
Guy: "Alright, well I just want to be sure.  Are you positive?"
Courtney: "Yeah.  We are actually not looking over there."

Gross.

Sad, yet hilarious.  Are beach manners a thing of the past?