Oh. Em. Gee.

So, some pretty amazing shit has gone down today that I need to share. First of all, I'm having a relaxing day as we all went out last night and things were a bit crazy, so I'm enjoying some time off in my room.You wouldn't notice as you aren't here with me, but I had to get laundry that I left in and forgot. But I have a good reason as to why I forgot!
In my spare time, I like to browse ebay because a lot of times it has awesome things for lowish prices. Well, imagine my UTTER SHOCK today when, while searching for a piece for my Ren Fest costume, I stumble across this! (Hence my distraction from mundane things like laundry...)




Now you should all recognize it from my facebook as this (holy shit Alysia, I'm super impressed):

The seller even has a variety of colors to choose from that are awesome as well.
I am so seriously tempted to buy this dress. You have no freaking idea. The reasons why I am not-
1.) It is over $100. This is something that would not be an issue if a.) we weren't going to London, b.) I didn't owe my sister $200 for paying for a PS3 (AND I BOUGHT FINAL FANTASY XIII WHICH IS SO WORTH IT AND I'M SO PUMPED) and c.) reasons 2 and 3.

2.) I have already been working on my costume for this year, which is a peasant look utilizing my corset I bought last year. I already bought a new shirt and am searching for (and have a good idea about) the skirt that I am going to buy. Both costume pieces are still less than the dress.
and lastly,

3.) Because I am also spending some of my hard earned orientation money on Phantom of the Opera related things. As you may recall, I have a couple of music boxes related to Phantom, and have decided to use part of my first paycheck (or part of my last paycheck that I got from BK before I left, however you want to look at it) to buy another music box. Every couple of months I am going to buy one until my collection is complete. In that I mean I get all the ones that I really want, because there are a ton. Some of them are repeats that I don't need and some I don't want, like the Monkey music box. It is iconic, I know, but I don't want a freaking monkey in my collection of beautiful scenes from Phantom. It just doesn't work for me. So, in case you are wondering (and you probably aren't) what these look like, this site has a nice listing of them (although it doesn't seem to have them in stock).

http://corporate.marketplaceadvisor.channeladvisor.com/StoreFrontProfiles/deluxeSFshop.aspx?sfid=104472&c=40005440

Keep in mind that these are actually pretty expensive, as they were released in the 80s and early 90s and production has been discontinued. Hence my constant searches on the internet and especially ebay to see if I can find them for reasonable prices. I am buying one of these 2 (see below) tomorrow, hopefully, if the bids on ebay don't go too high for me. I still have to save a lot for London, you know! [The two that I already have are Christine and Raoul in her dressing room and Christine and the Phantom in the boat (non-globe)].

















The other ones I really want include the one with Meg and Christine, the one with Christine, the Phantom and the mirror, and the one with the Phantom at the organ in his oriental-ish robe. Aaaaand a couple of other ones, but still. I have to pace myself. And wait till Christmas and my birthday so I can not so subtly hint to my sister and mother that those ones are the ones that I want. Eventually, if I have the time, money and frankly, good luck, I will start buying the repeated ones, ie there is a Phantom globe with him and Christine in the boat, which is a repeat of the one Cesca got me for my birthday of them both in the boat, it is bigger and they aren't in a globe. So yeah, that will be happening someday soon hopefully.


So, I'm still blown away by the freaking Renaissance dress and how the hell that happened, excited about my Ren Fest costume, excited to play FFXIII on the new PS3 and HDTV that my siblings and I put our money together for, my trip to Phantom and a new piece to add to my collection (hopefully, if I win the bid...) and then saving the rest for London!!!! OMG I can't wait.


Also, just thought of this question. I can't decide if this one looks cool and is worthy of my purchase or it is weird. Opinions please?

First Session

So, today marks day 2 of session 2, which is the first freshman session for orientation. And that means its pretty much over for me, besides check out at 6:45 (kill me now), they just have to register, get their ids and then they can leave, so I'm not really super involved.

And I have to say, for all my fears and anxieties, I think it actually went pretty well. I answered tons of questions from frantic, frightened freshmen (did you like that alliteration? buahaha) and it felt really good to be knowledgeable and I felt that they looked up to me and respected me.

However, tomorrow begs to be another story entirely (sort of) since I have to be up at like 6 and we have another session beginning tomorrow, meaning I have to be energetic and enthused and act like I haven't done this like 2 days ago. Ugh. Although, our dance is freaking sweet (a video will hopefully soon be available) so I'm thinking it will energize me. Time during sessions seems to fly by, and I'm super excited for a new batch of bright eyed 'babies' to come so I can dazzle them with my charm, wit and knowledge (riiiiggggggghhhhhhtttttt). And they aren't babies. It just sounded cool with the flow of the sentence.

Sorry about all the parenthesis, I'm in a weird mood.

So that's the orientation update, and I'm so excited to be here and to be doing it again tomorrow! (That wasn't sarcasm, I am really super stoked). Talk to everyone soon!

So adorable!

I can only hope something this awesome will happen to me someday!

Zdravstvuite

Hey guys! That means Hello in Russian!!!! It's pronounced Zdra-stvooy-tyeh. I'm learning so much here, haha!

No but seriously, that is on one of my 5 bulletin boards. I should take pictures to show you how freaking awesome they are.

Also, I know a shit ton more about IC than I ever thought I would.

I'm exhausted, it's been a long week and a half, but we only have 1 more big training day (tomorrow), the transfer session (friday), a day off (Saturday) and rehearsals a bunch on Sunday. We are trying to organize a Toy Story 3 trip on Saturday, but idk if that's gonna work out. I know at least 1 person will go with me.

Other news, the power went out (again, it happened last Sunday morning) so we really couldn't do much in the towers. I'm on the 8th floor. No elevators. I don't even need to go to the gym. I'll just walk to my room. Anywho, we decided to pass the time playing soccer, which I haven't done in at least 10 years. Also, it rained a lot. We played outside of the fitness center. It was a lot of fun, some people take it too seriously, I fell about 95 times and am just noticing now that I think my ankle might actually be slightly injured. Whoops.

And that is my life here at IC. It is strange being on a floor by myself, I kind of can't wait for students to get here so I'm not all alone. Although, this is the first time I've ever had my own room, which is kind of awesome. The space is nice. It makes me want a single room forever. Not that I don't love roomies, it's just nice to have my own completely private space.

Well, I have another early, action packed day tomorrow. I'm even meeting President Rochon. I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined any of this happening.

Life is good.

Finally

I woke up this morning at 9:34 am, and it was the most glorious thing I have ever done in my life.

Maybe not, but after I've been getting up at 7 for the past week and then having 14 hours of training every day, 9:30 feels like it's so late. Plus, I have nothing scheduled for today, besides going for some food with Jake and I actually do have to do some work today on my bulletin boards. So it isn't a total day off, but I can work at my own pace and do what I want today, which is nice. It's nice not to have scheduled eating time.

Anyway, I'm learning a ton about Ithaca College, more than I thought possible, and I will probably be spouting random facts forever when I'm hanging out with everyone again. Being here is just so fun and exciting, and I love meeting these new people and making new friends.

Other than that, I've watched a whole season of Cake Boss on netflix (my sister got it) while making my door tags in my dorm room (which is so weird, I'm in my own room. I've never had my own room!) and I'm having a great time learning our dance. I can't wait till it's done and we can record it and I can show it to you guys!

Well, I actually do have things to get done, one more week of training then I'll be actually leading the freshmen! Whoa! See you guys later!

Orientation Schedule

Holy shit. This is going to be intense. Here's the basics:

I have training every day from about 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Except I have Saturdays off (thankfully). I will be using those to rest, I think.

We are having a ton of meetings informing us about everything from the different schools to just about every office/service available on campus. I will know more about IC than I ever thought I would after these two weeks, I think.

Among other things, we will be decorating the floors/bulletin boards, working in the office, going to information sessions and teambuilding. Oh yeah, and a dance. Yikes. I can't say I'm excited right now, I'm a bit frazzled and nervous, but I think everyone else is too... My mom texted me after she and my father left and said that "they wouldn't have picked you if you weren't awesome- go show that Christina to the world!" and in our OL training manuals, it says "trust yourself, you were chosen as an OL for a reason" so I guess I don't have anything to worry about. I hope I can find whatever it is that everyone sees in me and turn it up for these next couple of weeks.

Anyway, after these rigorous training days, the Orientation schedule doesn't seem to be that bad. Here it is for your reference, although Casey is probably the only one who will find this useful, as she is the only one that lives a convenient distance from Ithaca to visit for a short time.

• Session I (Transfer Students): June 18
• Session II: June 21-23
• Session III: June 23-25
• Session IV: June 28 -30
• Session V: July 7-9
• Session VI: July 12-14
• Session VII: July 14-16

Then I stay to clean up til the 18th of July and I'm done! So it really isn't that long of a time to be away from home, especially since I can be home the 30 to like the 6th.

Also, I'm thinking that since our OL training theme is Toy Story, we will be seeing Toy Story 3 when it comes out this June. So that is actually really exciting! Alright, well I'm off to get ready for bed. Cornell ropes course tomorrow! Yay!?

The way back

Well, I am going to be on the way back to Ithaca in short time. I'm nervous about making friends, of course, and also nervous about the amount of stuff I packed... I'm an excessive overpacker, but I can also usually squeeze a lot into my bags- ask Sarah, she saw me pack up my dorm room.

Anyway, my friends and I saw Get Him to the Greek last night. It was strange, crazy, vulgar and HILARIOUS. I didn't know what the hell was happening, but it was really funny and crazy. I still want to see Prince of Persia... Maybe I can convince some of the OLs to go.

We also finished watching season 1 of Spartacus, which I recommend if you like stuff about gladiators, or graphic blood, violence, profanity and sex. Because there was a lot of that. It was a really interesting show though, along the veins of Rome, which my parents watched. So yeah. Plus all the actors are suuuuper buff so that was a bonus.

Alright, well, my dad gets really impatient so I'm going to finish getting ready and go. Hopefully I'll have time to update you guys on how awesome (hopefully) things are going.

See you later!

Quotable moments from closing

So I haven't finished talking about my vacation, and honestly that's gonna take a long time.

Or not, I'm just gonna finish it right here without pics. Friday Nick graduated. They marched in formation with the band (video eventually cause its cool) and it looked AWESOME! Our group had a huge banner for Nick. We definitely won most devoted/enthusiastic family. Then, we lounged around the pool for about 10 hours and it was freaking awesome. It felt so nice to just chill and relax, especially since they had a hot tub. It was glorious. Then we drove back a total of 18 hours over 2 days. Note to friends: Don't drive that far with your 81 year old grandfather who can't hear despite hearing aids. Just don't.

Anyway, I'm very busy with unpacking, repacking, figuring out what I don't have, shopping for it, and working, I'm worn out. I've been closing for about half of my shifts, which means that I get there around dinner time and stay till about 1:30-2 in the morning. It isn't too bad if you're working with the right people, which, fortunately, I have been.

Tonight, after being in exceptionally good moods after a pretty smooth close, Cesca and I decided that we didn't feel like going home yet, because after you've been working for 8 hours, you don't want to just go home and crash, you feel like doing something because you're just so awake when you get home. So, we decided to hit up Denny's, which, besides McDonald's, is basically the only place open past like 10 in Lockport. So. Lame.

Anyway, we were pretty hyper so we got a few hilarious quotes out that I just had to share:

Cesca: *Looking at light fixture* DUDE! These lights have a covering so you can't get to the lightbulb! *goes to poke light fixture* Oh wait, never mind. They don't...

Me: This is what I'd be like when I'm drunk, except I'm just happy!
Cesca: You'll come to associate those two as the same feeling eventually...

and...

Me: Dude, I was so afraid there was going to be a tornado tonight!
Cesca: You only thought that because Jared said that... I didn't even know it was raining. I thought there was an alien outside going *attempting to imitate the noise the drive thru makes when it's raining* click cluck clock click!!!