How has it been a crazy week and it’s only Tuesday night!?

This weekend I had my first day off of work in over two weeks. It was so nice to just kind of relax and not have to worry about things. My fellow blogger Steph and I spent the morning exploring Buffalo on a secret mission (I’ll talk more about it in the coming weeks). But it was really cool to see some of Buffalo’s most historic places. It makes me kind of sad that student’s can be here at the university for 4 years and never get a chance to go out and explore the city. Buffalo and Western New York offer awesome things for college kids to experience from all of our cultural festivals, awesome shopping areas and really cool historical places. My opinion on this city is that it is a city rich in all sorts of historical stories and yet has so much to offer college students who grew up with texting and IPODs. There are very few places left that you can get the best of both worlds and we spent Saturday morning going back in time.

Sunday started a week-long project. One of my roommate’s who is from the area was going away for a week and I offered to take care of her 10 week old beagle puppy. Now at the time I was totally excited about it. Guess what, they’re not joking when they say puppies are a lot of work! In the last two days he has chewed and peed his way through several of my friends houses. Needless to say as cute as his little face is he can get into just as much trouble!

Tonight a friend and I are going to take a quick trip on the NYS Thruway to go visit my aunt and cousin in Rochester. My grandparents are visiting them for a little while and so it’s a great opportunity to be able to visit (and it’s a great way for a college student to get a free dinner!). I just hope that the weather holds out, there are supposedly some nasty thunderstorms rolling in this afternoon. :-/

One of my favorite times of the year is football season, everyone in my life knows that. Once September hits I eat, breath and live with the New England Patriots. Now that has caused some conflict living here in Western New York but over the past three years I have quickly come to appreciate my hometown team, the Buffalo Bills. But even more exciting than what is going on in the Ralph Wilson Stadium is what is going on here on UB’s campus.

Just a few short years ago UB became a Division I school. For anyone who isn’t as well-versed in college athletics that’s the highest division that you can be a part of in the NCAA world. And although when I first got to UB our athletics were, well…a little shaky. The last three years have been a really exciting time, with only more promising times coming up. From football and basketball to tennis and crew our athletic teams have been taking home division titles at a faster rate than ever before! Being a sports fanatic it only makes it that much better that all of our home games are free for students (which makes it JUST the perfect price for a college student’s budget).

The reason I say this is because I recently joined our on campus student fan base, a club called True Blue. True Blue is an awesome fan base that keeps students updated on what athletic events are happening when as well as organizing really fun events before games. The new video just came out for our True Blue club, check it out!

This weekend was Italian Fest here in Buffalo (in case you haven’t noticed, Western New York is willing to throw any event in order to learn about culture and most importantly, EAT). It was a really cool day. There was a replica of Mount Vesuvius that erupted every hour and we also happen to show up just as the “Italian Idol” contestants were taking the stage so that was fun to see. Besides the sounds, the smells were amazing. The entire festival took over all of Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo and between the Italian sausages and cannolis the entire street was filled with vendors selling some awesome food!!! I just wished the weather had held out a little bit more, it was on and off rain while we were there and that kind of put a damper on the day.

Yesterday I worked in the Hadley complex from 12 to 8 by myself so I kept myself busy by putting together the syllabus for my UB 101 class that I am going to be a Peer Mentor for this year. My two instructors are Graduate Assistants in the Office of Admissions and are both doing internships this summer so I decided to put something together for them to look at and give me some feedback on. It took me over two hours so I hope they like it!

What an awesome summer this has really turned out to be! Sometimes I just want to crash on the couch and fall asleep for days on end (kind of like Saturday night-but we’ll get there) but no matter how tired I get or drained I am, I feel really lucky to be enjoying such great times with people who mean a lot to me.

Since I last checked in I got to go hommmee!! It was a great trip! It was so relaxing; spending some time up in Saratoga Springs at a park, laying around watching tv with my siblings, and popping in to give my best friend a birthday surprise for her 21st birthday. It was nice to finally just have some time to not think about where I needed to be next or to not HAVE to do anything if I didn’t want to, even if it was just for 48 hours. I also am not sure of when the next time I’m going to get home is so I was definitely appreciating this opportunity.

When I got back on Saturday I literally dropped my bag off at my apartment and turned back around and went to babysit. I was so exhausted that when I got back from babysitting I didn’t even make it into my bed! I must have just paused on the couch in the living room for a minute and the next thing I knew the sun was shining through the window. ((FYI: Sleeping in jeans…not the most comfortable thing I’ve ever done))

On Sunday my fellow blogger Steph and I headed downtown for the Taste of Buffalo, something everyone MUST do if they are in or around the Buffalo area during the summer. Like Steph described it’s this huge fair where they bring in restaurants from all around the area to have you try all of their food. We got everything from pulled-pork sandwiches to ice cream and a peanut butter pie. Needless to say it was good that we needed to take that long hike back to the car or I’m not sure the three of us would have fit in my little Cobalt…

I hope everyone had a safe and awesome 4th of July! Mine was less than exciting but was nice to have a day to relax and not have to worry about too many things. I grilled with some friends and then went to the fireworks here on UB’s campus. They were pretty cool, that show never disappoints!

Today I did an experiement for an engineering department on campus. Usually the different psychology experiements and things like that get the Psych 101 students to participate in their studies but with most of the students gone for the summer that presents more of an issue. Well the research must still go on so they usually post fliers around campus offering different compensation such as gift cards or sometimes cash, so it’s a nice way to pick up a couple of extra easy dollars. The one I did today was about reading comprehension and will help fill my tank so that I can head home on Thursday.

Yep, I couldn’t be more excited for my trip home! I felt like last time I kind of was home but it was such a quick thing, we went to the wedding and then I turned around and came back so I’m looking forward to spending a little bit more time hanging out and relaxing. Plus the weather was awful last time  I was up so I’m hoping at least this time I might be able to enjoy a little bit more of our pool. I was home just two weeks ago but after this weekend I’m not sure the next time I’ll be able to get there, especially once the semester kicks into high gear so it’ll be nice to be able to take this opportunity while I have it.

This gross weather that has settled on the Northeast is not very conducive to my summer plans. The rain better move on through because if all of July is like this I am not going to be a happy camper. ((Like I have any say in the weather))

So in the beginning of the summer I moved into my first big girl apartment. That’s right! After three years in the Residence Halls I have moved on up! Not that I didn’t love my time in the dorms, but it’s nice to be able to have a refrigerator that I can keep more than a couple of water bottles in or not have to wear flip flops in the shower. However, moving into an apartment means trying to remember what it’s like to feed myself, clean a bathroom and a kitchen, and trying to keep the rest of the place tidy. I have made many o’ trips to our neighborhood Wegmans in order to try out this whole adult thing, and I’m proud to say I’ve been doing pretty well! Now of course in the beginning there were your basic meals (spagetti, salad, sandwiches) but I have started branching out and making myself a decent breakfast on the weekends (eggs with peppers and onions) and even whipping up a dinner or two! Now I’m SURE my sisters would NEVER call me a “cook” but I think that I’m doing pretty darn well in my own right.

Now that you are all updated on my daily eating habits (I figured you were curious), life has been pretty quite the last couple of days and I have kind of enjoyed the break. I am on duty in the apartments this week which means that I have to carry around a cell phone between the hours of 8 pm to 9 am and I’m not allowed to leave the complex. That’s in case anyone gets locked out of their apartment, a noise complaint or if there was ever an emergency. So I have been catching up on some laundry, knocking out quite a bit of reading and enjoying some down time with some friends!