After a grueling week of sickness and despair, I am finally starting to feel like myself again. This “thing” going around is pretty serious, so don’t forget to take your vitamins!
On a more positive note, the holiday season is approaching and I can honestly say that it’s one of my favorite times of the year. For many people, Christmas is one of the best days of the year, but I think it’s a bit overrated. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas day falls in my top five, however there are two other days in the season that take the cake for me. I think a lot of it has to do with, big surprise, FOOD! Many of you may be wondering, “What about family”? Well, growing up in an Italian family, I have learned to associate the togetherness and bonding of holidays with food.
So what are my two favorite days of the year?
#2- Thanksgiving – If this were a logic representation of my previous statement, Thanksgiving would be number one on my list. Let me address that later. Thanksgiving is one of the very few days of the year that I actually look forward to getting up early. All the men in my family meet up at my uncle’s house to do some early morning skeet shooting – a tradition that has been going on since I can remember. Three hours, hundreds of shots, (gun shots, that is) and one sore shoulder later, we return home to familiar smells and a long list of absolutely nothing to do (besides help momma Romagni, of course). Since everyone in my family loves food just as much, if not, more than I do, we kick off the gluttony around 2. After many hours of food, coffee, desert, and reminiscing, Thanksgiving is over and I have several pounds of food to bring back to school!
#1- Christmas Eve – O boy! I think a lot of my love for Christmas Eve has to do with the fact that even after the night is over, you still have the next day to look forward to! When most other holidays start winding down, a certain feeling of loss sets in. After I find my tackiest sweater, (sometimes borrowed from my father’s closet) we head out to the home of our family friends for a night of great food and memories! Dinner usually includes, but is not limited to, pasta covered with linguini and clam sauce, breaded shrimp, frog legs, (don’t knock it until you try it) fine wine, and sparkling grape juice for the little ones!
I figured I would share some of my favorite traditions of this coming season. If you’re stressed with classes, work or life in general, sit back and take comfort in knowing holiday break is right around the corner!
As I sat down at my computer this morning, I performed my normal routine – I checked my e-mail to make sure none of my classes were canceled, glanced at the daily weather forecast, updated my Netflix queue, and last but certainly not least, logged into my Facebook account. No less than 10 minutes later, I realized that I was in danger of being late to work… This got me thinking (even though thinking can be dangerous for many college students before noon) about the black hole that is Facebook.
At this time, if you haven’t already done so, go ahead and log into your Stalkerbook, er, I mean your Facebook account. Now, it may seem like I have a grudge against Facebook, however that is really not the case. From my point of view, which is that of a college senior, Facebook is the ULTIMATE social networking tool. When used properly, of course.
In my opinion, here are some of the great things about Facebook:
Stay connected with people- It’s the foundation that social networking is built on. Whether it be a long-lost friend from the second grade or a close relative, it is almost impossible to lose touch with people. Especially now that Facebook prods you to write on the walls of friends you may have been neglecting!
Birthday reminders- If you are anything like me, you have a horrible memory. It takes me multiple encounters to remember someone’s name, so you can imagine how I do with birthdays. Thanks to the reminders, I no longer feel like a jerk because I forgot a birthday. I just feel like a jerk because Facebook had to remind me.
Facebook Chat- With the click of a button, I have instant access to every friend that is online. I think that feature pretty much speaks for itself.
Mass picture storage- Assuming FB isn’t going anywhere, I can rest easy knowing that I have access to all my photos anytime and anywhere.Though, if you are less than moral in your pictures, you might want to think about making your album private.
Communication on a greater scale- Need something quick? Just ask every one of your 800 friends via status update. There is a good chance that SOMEONE can/will help.
With the good, comes the bad:
A slew of pointless applications- For the last time, NO! I would not like to accept your Zombie Wars, Mafia Wars or Farmville request! Even worse are the thousands of surveys that serve absolutely no purpose. I can’t believe someone formulated an algorithm to tell me the exact day I’m going to die or the name of the person I will marry! Please, if you indulge in one of these surveys, think before you click the “Publish to Facebook” button.
Cries for attention- At least when people publish their entire weekend plans in a status update, others can take it into consideration when trying to make their plans. When someone posts an update like “So sick of it all,” they really just want to see how many comments they can get.
I saved the best for last:
Political statements- Are you just looking to start a fight? I suppose it is impressive that your post generated 35 comments, but in the end, the only thing that that comes out of these often one-sided posts is extreme animosity among friends. If you really feel strongly enough about something political, join a forum or get off your computer and actually get involved!
Like any other legal and addicting activity, please enjoy responsibly!
The recent (and rather abrupt) change in seasons has made me realize how quickly this semester has been going by. For me, this is a rather bittersweet feeling, as this will be my last fall semester! Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to graduate, but I will also miss all the experiences I’ve had over the past four years.
With that said, some of my best memories from UT have come in fall. I can honestly say that this is my favorite time of the year. Here are some of my favorite things about fall:
-UT football games
-The opportunity to break-out my favorite coat and fall wardrobe
-The absolute perfect temperature (my body runs a bit warmer than most)
-Homecoming
-Bonfires
-Halloween!!!!!!
-And most underrated, the crisp, fall air that seems to put that extra jump in your step
In addition to all those great things, fall break is almost here! Most people take this opportunity to go home before the madness of midterms begin but I think I’m going to take the time off work and class to catch up on some reading and enjoy some other great fall activities. If you are looking for a good book or if you are interested in philosophy, I’d recommend Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Considered by many to be one of the greatest philosophy books written in the past half-century, this book serves as a meditation on how to live better through the narration of a father and son’s motorcycle trip across northwest America.
In addition to great books, fall seems to put people in the mood for movies. I cannot begin to express my excitement for the Oct. 16 premier of “Where the Wild Things Are.” If you are around my age, there is a good chance that this was one of your favorite childhood books. In addition to looking like an overall amazing movie and being directed by Spike Jonze, it’s playing in IMAX theatres!
Before you go home for fall break, come join me Thursday, Oct. 1, from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. for the FIJI (Phi Gamma Delta) Farmers Breakfast at the Alpha Chi Omega house In McComas Village. Partial proceeds from the eggs, sausage and hash brown dinner will benefit the American Red Cross.
To buy a pre-sale ticket for $4, leave me a comment or you can buy a ticket at the door for $5.
It has only been a few weeks since this semester started but it feels like a lot longer. I think it could have something to do with my summer internship with the university and the fact that I can’t remember going more than a week without spending time in U-Hall. The only difference between my summer and fall on campus is the amount of students I see each day. I got used to being just another university employed individual sporting my dress shirt and tie. As soon as fall semester started up again, I began to almost feel a bit out of place walking around campus or sitting in class wearing my work clothes. It was just as this realization hit that I started to notice what the students were really wearing and let me tell you, I didn’t like it.
The thing that puzzled me the most about what my fellow students were wearing, other than the mass obsession with sweatpants (I won’t even touch that subject), is the amount of college gear being worn from other schools. Yes, I do understand we are close to Michigan and there are many Ohio State fans at UT but I swear, sometimes I feel like I see more t-shirts from other colleges being worn here than UT gear.
If at this point you feel slightly guilty for neglecting that “See you at the Game” or “Rocket Fanatic” shirt, but don’t fret, I have a way for you to clear your conscience:
Every UT student, faculty member, alumni, and Toledoan is encouraged to participate in a new tradition: Rocket Fridays.
Each and every Friday during the school year (not just game days), members of the UT family will be encouraged to show their school pride by “rocking” blue and gold! This new tradition extends past the classroom or office – if you run out to the store to pick up (insert school-appropriate item), throw on that UT sweatshirt and help spread the influence!
If you don’t have any UT gear for some reason, I have good news for you:
This Friday, Sept. 4 at 2:30 p.m. on the Student Union Steps, President Jacobs will deliver a presidential proclamation officially declaring each Friday a “Rocket Friday.”
In addition, men’s basketball coach Gene Cross will also speak and the Rocket Marching Band and UT cheerleaders will rally the crowd. Best of all, if you attend this joyous celebration of UT pride, you will receive a FREE ROCKET FRIDAYS T-shirt.
So, come help me usher in this new tradition each and every Friday and don’t forget to rock your blue and gold!
While navigating through the jam-packed parking lots this morning, I couldn’t help but think about how quickly summer came and went. I feel like I was barely able to squeeze in all my summer plans just in time to come back to reality.
As you may have read in my previous blog, Summer Vacation Part One: Chi-town, I planned two back-to-back trips to wrap up my summer and give me a fresh attitude to start the new semester.
A few days after I returned from Chicago, it was time to travel to North Carolina with one of my good friends for a weekend of motorcycle riding. The destination was Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort, AKA The Dragon.
Just a few of the 365 turns
Here are a few things I found out about this infamous road visited by car/bike enthusiasts from all over the world:
- The Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort is located at the south end of the famous Dragon, home to 318 turns in 11 miles of scenic and twisty US 129.
- With no distractions, the Dragon winds its way up and over the mountains of Tennessee into North Carolina and is the gateway for all NC has to offer.
- Multiple car commercials have been filmed on this stretch of road.
Friday afternoon after my friend got off work, we loaded both our motorcycles in his truck and prepared for the 10-hour ride to the Gap. Surprisingly, time went by pretty fast for most of the trip until we hit a traffic jam about two hours into Kentucky. By making friends with a Walmart truck driver and his CB radio, we were informed that there was an accident about two miles up that would end up putting us 2 hours behind schedule. Around 3 a.m. we arrived at Deals Gap Resort.
Killing time during our traffic jam
Although we were both exhausted from the trip, it was apparent that our excitement would keep us from some much-needed sleep. Instead of sleeping, we stayed up and learned a few more things about the Gap from three drunken Canadian campers:
<!–[if !supportLists]–>-<!–[endif]–>For the first five days of the week, the Dragon had already seen 10 crashes and five deaths.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>-<!–[endif]–>ALWAYS, ALWAYS ride within your limitations.
Parts gathered and dedicated from years of accidents/deaths on the Gap
The next two days included nothing but 2-3 hour rides, food and sleep. At night, all the most daring riders went out for rides (which is extremely dangerous because of limited vision) and the rest of the community hung out telling stories about their years of riding. Some of these storytellers spent more time drinking than anything else, causing a few interesting “incidents.”
Our checkout on Sunday seemed to come way too fast and it was time to leave our motor-sport paradise and head back to the real world!
You may have read in my previous blog, Tuesday’s Daydream, about my end-of-the-summer Chicago/North Carolina extravaganza! I do not even know where to begin explaining this awesome trip, but I’ll try anyways!
Chi-town
Originally, my roommate and I just wanted to head up to Chicago to do some relaxing and sightseeing. However, midway into our planning process, we discovered that Lollapalooza, a three-day concert, would be going on during our stay in the Windy City.
Here was the line-up that originally inspired me to drop over $200 on a three-day pass:
-Vampire Weekend
-Coheed and Cambria
-Cold War Kids
-Kid Cudi
-Silversun Pickups
-Snoop Dogg
-Yeah Yeah Yeahs
-Kings of Leon
-The Killers
Among others!
Our trip began with Friday’s (interesting) trip on the Megabus!
We arrived in Chicago with enough time to change and run to Lollapalooza to meet some old friends from high school! There were soooo many people crammed into Grant Park! The entire night was filled with awesome music and the best part was the end of the show when everyone flooded the streets of downtown Chicago!!
The insane amount of people crammed into one place!
The next few days were filled with more concert experiences and nightlife than I can fit into this blog. However, I did get to see some amazing sights, eat great food, (Pizza Uno) and hang out with a ton of friends that I didn’t expect to see. Even though I can’t describe every band we watched, the two I really enjoyed were Vampire Weekend and Snoop Dogg, for different reasons.
Vampire Weekend is one of my favorite bands and the best thing about watching them live is their sound quality. They sound just like they do on their original recordings and they get everyone involved in their set. Snoop Dogg was awesome to see purely for the fact that he is such a huge hip-hop star/icon. The best thing about his performance is that he got the crowd so pumped up during each song and left them wanting more!
The only downfall of the entire trip was the fact that I didn’t get to see my cousin. I had called to meet up with him and found out that he had clipped a fence riding his bike to work, causing him to break his arm. He had to head back to Pennsylvania shortly after that for some much needed recovery time.
I was extremely sad to leave Chi-town, however, I was super excited for my motorcycle trip to Deals Gap, AKA the Dragon the next day.
Good morning/afternoon/evening (depending on when you are reading this) everyone!
I hope you all are enjoying the beginning of a new month, I know I am! It seems like with the beginning of a new month comes a clean slate and limitless opportunities. To me, the first of the month is like a small-scale New Years day! The only problem with a new month is the arrival of new bills!
I have been so busy the past few weeks with things such as my birthday, getting ready for the fall semester, and final plans for my trips to Chicago and D’s Gap! It seems like all my planning was crammed into one weekend at home with madre and padre Romagni! First, my mother was doing her best to throw a three-person birthday cookout for my sister-in-law, my grandmother and me. While doing that, my dad took every opportunity to talk to me about my current financial situation and anticipated personal expenses for school. It can really be hard to budget money for an entire year, but I’m always grateful to have my dad’s opinion on things, as he is probably the most financially responsible person I know.
Even with all my time spent taking care of things around the house, I still found the time to go out with my friends.
Each year around this time, one of the guys that graduated a few years ahead of me throws a huge party at his property. The neat thing about this party is all the profits made from the $10 admission and refreshment sales go to a local family in need. I look forward to this event every year because it gives me the chance to see people from my high school that graduated up to 7 years before me! With multiple bands, hundreds of people and a few thousand dollars in profit, I can honestly say that the evening was a complete success.
Now comes the grueling anticipation for my trip to Chicago on Friday!
Stay tuned; I will have some exciting updates coming from the Windy City!
It felt like just yesterday I was taking final exams and praying for a day above 50 degrees. Now, I feel like I need to cram all of my summer fun into one short month. On the upside, this will be my last fall semester in school and even though I have had a great experience, I can’t wait to get out and grovel for a job! hahaha I often find it hard to believe that just 3 short summers ago, I was 18 and all ready to hit the college scene running.
Wow, to be 18 again would be a huge difference. Although I will only be 22 in a week, I can’t help but think about the major birthday milestones that come in a person’s life. Although it was nice to hit the bar with my older friends at 21 and get into some bars and dance clubs at 18, my favorite birthday was my 16th. For as long as I could remember, I wanted nothing more than to jump into a car and just drive. When I finally hit 16, you couldn’t keep me at home for more time than it took me to eat and sleep.
And just six years later, here I am not looking forward to the perks and responsibilities that come with a major birthday, but wondering what my future will hold for both my social and professional life. In less then a year from now I could be in a completely different state, surrounded by people I don’t know, places I’m not used to, and possibly nothing but the fear of failure to motivate me. Don’t get me wrong, I want nothing more than to be out starting my life, but with a new birthday comes the reminder of how much easier things were when I was 16 and driving around just to get away.
What comes after 22? Is it something as good as my freedoms at 16, 18 or 21? I will dare to say it is something better, or at least bigger!
Until next time, don’t forget your 16-year-old spirit!
If you have been following my blogs for the past few months, you may recall one of my first few blogs, It’s Fitness Time, when I outlined my new fitness routine and nutrition plan. For all of you recently tuning in, here is a recap of all the major highlights of my 90-day program:
- No fast food
- No soda
- A six-day workout routine
- A three-phase nutrition plan
- No eating three hours before bed
- Last but certainly not least, NO ALCOHOL!
Yesterday marked the 30-day mark in my new lifestyle and it has not been easy. In fact, there have been a few times this month that I have deviated from my goals. Skipping a workout at the end of the week and having a drink or two have been my major slip-ups. However, I can say that I am only human and I am doing MUCH better than I originally expected.
Now to the good news:
Since dramatically altering my eating habits, I have
-Lost 10 pounds
-Felt more energetic
-Felt better about myself
-And my clothes have been fitting MUCH looser!
I haven’t been able to see a huge physical difference when I look in the mirror – something that would have discouraged me a few years ago. However, I realize that I see myself everyday and will not notice changes like people I don’t often see would. Also, the largest physical changes in my plan will only start to become noticeable in the last 30 days, a point I will hit in another 30 days. The hardest part of this entire plan is finding a balance between the monotony of my routine during the weekdays (wake up, eat, work, eat, work out, eat, watch TV, eat, go to bed) and the temptations that haunt me on the weekends (bar trips, over sleeping, eating poorly, etc.) It made me realize I need something to look forward to that was out of the ordinary.
Just as I began dreaming of the perfect getaway, my phone rang. A good friend explained that she needed a break from her stressful job and that I should join her in a trip to Chicago.
If you have ever had a perfect situation fall into your lap, you can appreciate how well this played out for me. If you remember my previous blog, Tuesday’s Daydream, I mentioned making a trip to Chicago. We picked a weekend to go and I asked my roommate to join, thinking he would have other plans. To my surprise, the weekend we picked was perfect! I called my cousin in Chicago to let him know about our trip, and he informed me that one of the largest music festivals of the year, Lollapalooza, was going on that weekend!
I feel like this is going to be one of the best trips ever! To top it off, I will be using the weekend after my Chicago trip for my motorcycle trip to the Dragon’s Gap!
Sometimes when you need a change the most, an opportunity can be found. All you need to do is peruse it!
The other day, my mother and I were having what my mother likes to call a nice “chat” (to me it felt mostly like a slew of questions aimed at my personal life) and the topic of dating came up. Usually I try to avoid this topic with my mother, as most of the time I have nothing new to talk about in that department (only because I’m so busy bringing you stories like this). However, after spending a bit of time actually answering my mother’s list of questions, I realized how different dating was “back in the day” versus today.
Now, most of the time I am extremely grateful for the amount of technology I have the privilege to use, but after listening to my mother explain her dating experiences, I started looking at things a bit differently. People in my age group (21 give or take a few years) hit the teenage years when the cell phone became an affordable piece of technology. I know it may be hard, but try and remember what things were like without the use of your precious Blackberry.
Since I was young enough to receive a cell phone by the time I was able to drive, I had to rely on what my mother told me was the social norm in the dating world. Scary I know, but this is what I got out of the conversation:
When a guy or girl would be out with his or her friends and see a person whom they were attracted to, they would actually approach that person and start up a conversation. If it worked, most of the time the guy would ask if he could call that girl, then proceed to write down her number. During the week, the girl would receive a phone call asking for a date – not the day before, the day of, but multiple days in advance. The two people would go out and things would either continue or stop from there.
I realize that that was not the exact situation for every person in my mother’s generation, but compared to the way things work now, in my opinion, it sounds a lot less complicated.
Here is a college dating scenario from the present day:
A single guy or girl will go out with their friends to some place like a house party or bar and spend most of the night TALKING about the people that catch their eye. In most cases, the fear of failure keeps a person from pursuing a conversation. Here is where the problem with technology comes in. If a guy (for the sake of situational familiarity) somehow gets the girl’s contact information, what does he do? Call to talk and get to know her? Call to ask her out on a date? No, the word “date” has almost completely been retired from the vocabulary of young people. Replaced with “hang out,” a guy would most likely find this girl on some sort of social media outlet like Facebook or Twitter to make his presence known. At the most, he will find an excuse to text message this girl about things that really tell him nothing about what she is like, besides maybe the fact that she “likes to party” or is “hanging out by the pool.” By the time these two get to “hang out,” they realize that they have nothing to talk about that exceeds 160 characters in a text or wasn’t found in their Facebook information. The problems just get worse from there.
What ever happened to reservations at a nice restaurant or a long walk on a beach? Call me square, but I think we could all take a lesson from our parents on dating.
Jeff is a senior majoring in communi- cation, looking to pursue a career in public relations. He is currently a student intern in the University Communications office. Jeff is also a member of the Public Relations Student Society of America, Order of Omega Greek Honor Society and a proud brother of Phi Gamma Delta.
