This time of year is always really bittersweet for me. Everyone always seems to be so happy about summer, but I sometimes tend to focus on the people I will miss. I know as soon as I go home and are surrounded by my home friends, things will be happy again, but heh, I can be sentimental. I feel like this semester especially, I have gotten really close to some new friends, and for that I am extremely greatful. But of course I remember from my days as a Brownie: “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am still extremely excited for summer. I have my actuarial exam to retake, a week in Williamsburg with my friends, a couple weeks at home, and then New York City for the rest of the summer with my internship. Although I will be away from home for awhile, I have been told by practically everyone I know that they want to visit me. Although I don’t know how feasible that is, I am totally open to anyone coming and hope you know it would be greatly appreciated. Luckily my good friend Pam is only in Newark, NJ and a short train ride to me, and I know a few others in NYC, and hopefully make more new friends. You know we will rock this city.

NYC is my favorite place to be, and hopefully, if all goes well with my internship, it is were I will be taking residence for a good portion of my after college-life. I have already been told by Peter that after I am living in NYC for a year, I am to get a two bedroom apartment so he can live with me. I was then told by John Williams that a year after that I would need to make it a 3 bedroom. Oh geez.

So all in all, this semester has been possibly my greatest one so far, and it and the people who came with it will be truly missed. The only thing that would have made it better, was if those who were studying abroad were here with me.

I don’t know if Jessie plans on keeping up this blog, but I surely will want to write about my New York adventures in the real world, whether its on this blog or a new one, we shall see.

As in the words of Out of the Box: “So long, farewell, to you my friends. Goodbye, for now, until we meet again”.

Mother Nature is now on notice.

Although, I did get to see both Julliet from Automatic Loveletter and Max from Say Anything perform little acoustic sets, which were both awesome!

Sunday, after tearing down the stage since 8am, I proceeded to the Singing Lions and NOTA concerts, both of which were excellent, and in between the two I washed myself in the fountain in front of the forum, lets just say I was a little muddy from that morning.

At least I got to see The Fall of Troy and The Dear Hunter that night, two bands I really wanted to see. Although, of course with the way my weekend was going, it didn’t come without its costs. I got my first black eye ever from someone banging me in the head. So worth it. I then proceeded to work on my stat project until 3am.

Last night Jessie made breakfast for me and Sarah while we watched American Idol suck. It was most excellent and should be done again!

I have a new obsession, that obsession would be Bare. For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, its a musical or pop opera that was performed here at Penn State for the past 3 nights, and I went to every performance (freak, yes I am one). I had a few good friends in the cast and one of them was the lead, and his voice is orgasmic. This show is not only filled with good music, but so much emotion that at the last performance, I, yes I, cried. Now if you know me, I tend to be outwardly unsentimental, but when that wall is broken, watch out, the flood gates will open. I have been continually crying all night, even through a mentor meeting I had to present at. Finding $14 bucks on the floor and getting creamery ice cream kind of helped.

If you thought I was obsessed, then you have not met my friend John Williams. This kid has been obsessed with this musical ever since its birth and closure right before opening off broadway. He came all the way from Millersville, missing quite a few things, and after seeing it once, had to stay overnight just to see it again.

It did cause me to miss American Idol, but it was worth it (sorry Jessie). But, I did watch some youtube videos because it was Andrew Lloyd Webber night. Carly: excellent; little David: excellent; Brooke: far from excellent, perhaps pitiful.

This is one if the songs from Bare, the first in a series of 12. I recommend you watch it and watch the other 11 that follow.

Also you should at least listen to “Bare”, the song that made me cry, at Bare’s Myspace

I am sorry if none of you experienced the amazingness of Bare, because I have been truly touched. And if you see me walking around campus tomorrow in tears, you know why.

Update: Jessie just informed me Carly was kicked off…not Brooke. I actually liked Carly this week too. Oh well…

I voted absentee in a Republican Primary that didn’t matter, but you can’t say I didn’t do my civic duty.

Lisa missed Idol because she’s doing… I can’t remember.  Maybe she’ll post later and tell you about it.  I know she’s real bummed that didn’t get to see Andrew Lloyd Webber night. 

The Blue-White game was this weekend.  All you SF-ers will be happy to know that Stefen appears to be starting and the O-line is looking good.   Of course, you’re not going to believe me when i say that, since I’m a girl, so I will back up my statement by saying that others of the male persuasion have been saying it, too.

In other Presidential Primary news, I had to write a column in Comm 464 last week about Obama’s “cling to guns and religion” comments.  I got a few points taken off for saying that I would rather vote for Ronald Reagan’s dead corpse than Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.  Apparently that comment was in bad taste.

House comes back in less than a week… but only in America.

And finally, on Saturday after the Blue-White game, David Jones of the Harrisburgh Patriot-News jumped bad with JoePa at his press conference.  I heard the audio; it was the most unprofessional way for a journalist to ask questions of anyone, let alone Joe Paterno.  Show some respect.

David Jones, you’re now On Notice.

On Saturday, I met Joe Paterno.  I shook his hand, and it was amazing.  Best weekend of my life.  Mr. Wisniewski, who is the man, introduced me and it was AWESOME.

Mr. Wiz, I salute you, sir.

In honor of finally meeting JoePa, this post is in navy blue.

Unfortunately, a certain wide receiver tried to ruin my JoePa high yesterday with a certain incident in the football dining room.  I’m not a journalist, so I won’t rehash the details here.  Nice try, Mr. Bell, but you cannot kill my JoePa buzz.  I shook his hand, and it was awesome.

Lisa’s here for American Idol right now.  AMERICAN Idol.  In AMERICA.  Where Amanda, Bri, Lisa, and Donny are not.  House starts up in just under 3 weeks… in America.  You know who else is in America?  Joe Paterno.

Did I mention that Joe Paterno shook my hand?  Because he did.  And it was awesome.

143 days until Football Season.

This is a picture of my brother eating his last Chicken Cosmo ever. He took it pretty rough.

Also, the only way to get one of those hella-cool “Cosmo-Not: The Sky IS Falling” shirts was to pick an egg and hope there was a picture of a chicken in it when you swiped in. Unfortunately, we were 0 for 4. There goes our luck. Again, my brother was pretty down on himself and resorted to trying to pick the lock of the display case just to get the poster. Turns out his burglary skills are not up to par. We may have returned home empty handed, but we still had our stomachs full of over processed chicken and hollowed hearts.

The Student Newswire brought news of a most grievous and life-shattering nature.  Brace yourselves, people.  THIS.  IS.  BAD.

No, we’re not talking about the Fergie concert being postponed.  That abomination was being associated with the Blue-White game, which is the highlight of my spring semester.

This is bigger than Fergie… who I’m told will be quite large, as she may be pregnant.  Although Lisa hears that’s not true.  But that’s neither here nor there.

No, the Newswire held news that will shake the very foundation of life here at Penn State as we know it.

The Dining Commons will no longer be serving Chicken Cosmos.

No, this is not an April Fool’s Day joke… not on our part a least.  The story can be found here.  Check the date… March 31.

Pierce Chicken Products, the vendor that supplies the Chicken Cosmos, will no longer be making them.  Apparently we were the only ones ordering them.

Peirce Chicken Products, you are now on notice.

Go to the Dining Commons this Friday (April 4) to say goodbye to the Chicken Cosmo… and get your free Cosmo t-shirt as a door prize.  We’re not making this shit up, people.

To Amanda, Bri, Lisa, and Donny:  You may be overseas, living it up with your lower drinking age, legal drugs, and Monarchies, but Lisa and I will at least be here for the Chicken Cosmo’s last hurrah.  Take that, Europe!

And to the Chicken Cosmo:  Farewell, old friend.  We shall miss you greatly… especially when we’re eating lunch at West.  God speed.

I thought now would be a good time for an update of “Teach Yourself Italian with Jessie.”  In Lisa and my post “Lisa and Jessie Do Geography” we started teaching you guys Italian and French, in response to Amanda’s feature “Teach Yourself Czech with Amanda.”  However, we haven’t done a very good job of continuing your lessons.

Since Easter is coming up, I think now would be a good time to teach you some phrases that you can use this weekend.

Buona Pasqua!
Happy Easter!

Dame l’agnellino per favore
Please pass the lamb

Salute!
Cheers!

Mangia!
Eat!

Mama Mia!  Il Coniglietto di Pasqua ha fatto un disordine quando nascondeva le uova di pasqua!
Oh my!  The Easter Bunny made a mess when he was hiding the Easter eggs!

Scusa, ma dovrebbe nutrire il bambino perche lui masticava il gatto.
Excuse me, but you should feed the baby because he was chewing on the cat.

Sta zitto!  Il Suono Di Musica è alla televisione!
Be quiet!  The Sound of Music is on tv!

Le cooooooooooolline sono vive con il suono di muuuuuusica!
The hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiills are alive with the sound of muuuuuuuuuuuusic.

Se tu lanci il tuo cibo, questo sarà la sua Ultima Cena.
If you throw your food, this will be your Last Supper.

I hope this helps to make your Easter a hippity-hoppity-happy one!!!!  Ciao!

 My Spring Break?  I read 3 James Patterson books, crocheted a blanket and watched Walker, Texas Ranger every morning.

Oh, but on Wednesday I went to the mall and met up with the fabulous Adam Scalese, on Thursday I went down to WVU to get lunch with the lovely Angie Servetnick (who happens to be Adam’s cousin, just FYI), and on Friday I got lunch with Ben, Jordan and Candace at Chuck E. Cheese.  I am a master at that “Loose Change” game.  I did much better than Ben did, but that’s because my arms are smaller and I could fit them under the plexi-glass easier.  All the mommies there were staring at us funny; we must have looked like lurkers who were waiting to snatch their kids.  I assure you, we weren’t.

So everyone who knows me knows that my taste in music keeps me listening to oldies religiously.  Aside from American Pie, which might be my favorite song of all time, the most listened-to songs on my iPod are by Earth, Wind, & Fire, The O’Jays, BeBe Winans…

 Sidebar: Lisa just told me that she thinks that her tongue is too big for her mouth

…BeBe Winans, The Commodores, Peabo Bryson, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder.

However, lately I’ve been in a bit of a Billy Joel phase.  It doesn’t really fit in with the rest of my favorite music.

Oh, except I love Neil Diamond.

 Anyway, I’ve been expanding my Billy Joel collection through Limewire, and I’ve noticed that alot of Elton John songs are being improperly attributed to Billy Joel, most often Your Song and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Okay, people.  Here’s how you can tell the difference between Billy Joel and Elton John.

If you’re singing along, and it makes you feel a little bit like a fairy, It’s Elton John.

If not, it’s Billy Joel.

If you feel like you should be wearing a tutu while dancing along, it’s Elton John.

If you feel like donning some dark sunglasses and rocking out, it’s Billy Joel.

Don’t get me wrong, Elton John has had some classics in his time.  He’s just different from Billy Joel, and I feel that it’s pretty obvious.

Candle in the Wind?  A little frilly.

We Didn’t Start the Fire?  Not so much.

So to recap:  I’ve been reading James Patterson, crocheting a lot, watching that crazy Walker, Texas Ranger, and now I’m on a Billy Joel kick.  Aparently I aged about 50 years while on Spring Break.

Let me preface this story with a surprising event. As my friends from home know, no one is ever allowed into Peter’s house, which is accompanied by a red light that you can see from the window that has been scientifically proven to be a direct portal to China. For those of you that don’t know Peter, all you need to know is that he is a Gaysian, meaning Gay Asia, and that is literally all you need to know. Well, Mo and I WENT INTO HIS HOUSE!!! I took a picture on my phone of the portal too just for proof. Lets just say his house is extremely Asian. I’m not sure if I was transported through the portal or not.

(Note: as soon as I connect my phone to the computer I will add the picture of the portal here)

Moving on, traveling with our trusty GPS system named Vic, complements of Mo, and with the life fearing driving of Peter, we made it to Hamilton to take NJ Transit into the city, the best (meaning cheapest) way to travel to NYC in my opinion. First on our list (after tackling 15 blocks in the rain) was meeting up with the fabulous Jake Braithwaite to grab some Thai for lunch. After fine food in the company of good friends, we proceeded to the theater to see Spring Awakening (AMAZING!!). I can’t believe it took me so long to see it, the music and singing is just fantastic! Let’s sum up my show experience with another Lisa Schmidt moment. For those of you that don’t know, I am a fan of Lost, and one of the leads of Spring Awakening was played by Blake Bashoff, who in Lost plays Ben’s daughter’s boyfriend. Anyway, when you attend a show with Peter it is mandatory to get to the stage door asap to greet every cast member, get their autograph on whatever merchandise it is that he bought, and get their picture. Well I requested to get my picture with Blake. Waiting like a good girl, I saw him come out of the door and told Mo to get prepared with the camera. When he approached us to get autographs I believe the words in my head were saying “Can I get a picture with you,” but what came out of my mouth was “blah blah oo wee gah pic ahh geez sorry I have a stutter.” Of course he was really nice about it, my friends laughed at me, and I apparently lost control of my eyes and couldn’t open them enough for the picture (forgetting to put on my eye makeup much earlier that morning didn’t help) . But I did get a picture and a good dose of embarrassment.

After Peter got all his signatures and the necessary Jamba Juice, we proceeded to walk along 5th avenue. One stop, if not the only stop, we made was the Abercrombie and Fitch mega store. Let’s just say its 4 floors of beautiful people who work there and thats all. Of course this is not a place you see me at often, and I of course purchased nothing. I just was there for the exercise from the stairs. Peter did proceed to buy a hoodie and received a shopping bag that he adored more than I have seen anyone adore anything else ever before. He could not stop going on and on about how he could use this nice thick paper bag with models on either side and the sturdy cloth handles to carry his laundry, use as an overnight bag when traveling, blah blah blah… (note this for the bitter irony that is soon to approach)

It was time now to head to Fordham in the Bronx, via grand central station and a short train ride, to see some of our friends who attend there and Jake as Tobias in Sweeney Todd. As we exited the stop at Fordham, a sudden downpour of rain and hurricane force winds decided to randomly attack us. So as we waited at the gates of Fordham, hell ensued. Not only did I get the brunt force of the rain on my back which remained soaked to my feet for the rest of the night, but Peter suffered a great loss. Peter first realized a slight tear in his Abercrombie bag, and as soon as he looked, the whole entire bottom just deteriorated. He tried to save it, but there was no use. It was a very sad, yet hysterical, moment.

We then proceeded to the show and Jake was amazing. After quickly saying “bye” afterwards, we hurried to the train station, where we saw the train leave as I was receiving 15 dollars worth of gold dollar coins. We were forced to wait in the Bronx at 11 o’clock at night for almost an hour for the next train. Luckily my music phone was there to keep us company.

After that, is was pretty much us facing 50mph winds, witnessing a guy getting rejected by a girl he just met on the train, getting lost in the car no thanks to Vic, and returning home at 5am. What a day.