Month: November 2012

Last Monday was my birthday, and I was feeling a bit anxious about it because: 1. it was on a Monday (who likes that? NOONE!!!!), and 2. how could it possibly fun without my old friends? We couldn’t go to my favorite restaurants or walk around and window shop down Michigan Ave in Chicago. I was not going to be woken up by my parents with birthday hugs and singing or yummy breakfast.

Or at least, so I thought……

I am blessed to have the friends I have here at Holy Cross. They really know how to make a girl feel special, and this past birthday is at the top of my favorite birthdays. (Right up there with the time my parents and I went to Disney World for my 7th birthday.)  In honor of my wonderful experience, I have compiled a list of things that you can do for your friends next year at college in order to make their day special.

Top 10 things you can to make your friend feel special:

1. If your friend is a night owl and takes showers at night, go into the bathroom while she is in the shower at midnight and sing Happy Birthday at the top of your lungs to her. (This has a great effect because you scare everyone else in the showers too.)
2. Once you know she is awake on the morning of their birthday, knock quietly on her door and when she answers, hug the snot out of her.
3. If your friend is a coffee or tea lover, give her a mug for their birthday. It does not matter if she already have one, I promise. Everyone can use at least two.
4. Decorate her door with streamers and put Happy Birthday banners all over the door, bulletin board, and white board.
5. Get balloons of that person’s favorite color, blow them up, and write funny messages on them. Then, when you know she is not her room, get her roommates to open the door and put the balloons on her bed and desk.
6. If you have time, get a card and have everyone on the hall sign it.
7. If she does not have any food allergies, order a cake, cookies, or special cupcake for her.
8. If you participate in a club or sport with this person, make sure you tell the superiors it is her birthday. Then embarrass her by getting everyone to sing to her at the end of practice/ meeting.
9. If you don’t have much homework, watch a movie together, go out to dinner, or just hang out together.
10. Tell she looks extra nice today, and how happy you are that she was born, so that you could be friends with her.

In case you were wondering, several of the things on the list happened to me. I will leave up to you to decide which you think happened……. 🙂

Sorry for the late post guys. It’s been a hectic week as the professors are adjusting their schedules and assignments to keep us on track to be ready for the finals.

Jess and I decided to nickname the three buildings that are connected on campus, Fenwick, O’Kane, Brooks, and Smith, FOBS. We think it works well because this way everyone knows the general direction you are going in. Since there are technically two Smiths on campus, (Smith Hall and Smith Labs) this solves everyone’s confusion!! 🙂 We have started popularizing it on campus, it is beginning to stick a little bit!! Our goal before graduation it to get everyone to refer to those buildings as FOBS. If you decide to come to Holy Cross, please help us accomplish this goal!!!

Last friday, my friends decided that it was going to be an experimental food day for me. I am not a picky eater, but I guess my friends think I need to try more things. After hearing that I had never tried an egg salad sandwich, Jess decided that it was time for me to try it in Kimball. I was not allowed to watch as she put it together, and once she handed it to me, I was not allowed to smell it. I had to simply take a bite. I looked at tentatively, and her response was, “I’m not trying to kill you Lauren; I didn’t put arsenic in the sandwich. Just eat it.” Taking a bite, I thought it was pretty good!! Jess had a smug grin on her face for the rest of breakfast as she considered her mission successful.  Then at lunch, my friend Gaby brought me a piece of homemade flan. I didn’t realize what it was at first, I thought it was cheesecake.  I stared at it for a good 10 minutes, then I decided it was time for a bite. Wow, it was tasty! A nice treat after going to the gym that morning. 🙂

Last weekend was an adventure. We decided that it was time to try and explore around Boston. As the typical college freshman girls, we got all excited and dressed up for our walk around the city on Saturday. Hopping on the shuttle that leaves Holy Cross on Saturday, we excitedly chatted about what we were going to do. Since this idea had been kinda last minute, we did not really have a plan. We thought we would just make it up as went along. Once we got there, we walked around Faneuil Hall, smelling all the delicious foods. It was great to be walking around a different terrain, which for most of my friends, was completely new and unknown. After doing some shopping, we ate a delicious dinner at this Mexican restaurant called Zuma. Getting back on the shuttle, I realized for the first time how easy that whole process had been. We resolved to come back downtown closer to Christmas so that we could have our shopping before we go home for break. Mission Accomplished.

This past week was just as action packed!! We had out first snowfall of the year!!! On Wednesday, the sky was gray, chilly and it was extremely windy. As I was walking back from classes, the snow started to come down. For me, this was the first time in while I was experiencing a real winter. It was so pretty to watch!! This is the start of sledding season, and I cannot wait!!! 🙂

A little bonus post today in honor of Halloween!! 🙂

My friends and I found the weather oddly appropriate for the Halloween today, especially since most of the leaves were blown off the trees during Hurricane Sandy. It was creepy because the sky was dark grey and we kept thinking it was going to rain. It was one of those days where you carry around your ponchos, rain jackets, and umbrellas because you are convinced it is going to pour buckets on you at any second,  but it never does.

I am not sure if you saw the Crusader news recently but Holy Cross bought Smart Cars and they decided to bring them out right after we got back from Fall break. I think the cars are really cool, except I would have made them purple with white writing. It is kind of funny to see these tiny cars zooming around campus. 🙂 One of the cars even had a friendly passenger today for Halloween!

It seems pretty crazy that this semester is already half over, I just started registering for 2nd semester classes. Registering for thee 2nd semester seems so much more confusing but also exciting than the 1st. Unlike over the summer where the thought process was something along the lines of, “Okay, just take something you like and see how that goes…” 2nd semester seems more focused on where the studies are going. It is neat and intimidating to start to draw up a master plan for college and see where you might end up. Thank goodness I am only a freshman and the possibilities are endless!!

Oh, I forgot to add this into the Hurricane Sandy post but here is an extra picture from being locked into our residence halls on Monday.