• spring 2009: took a geology class in the final semester of college that completely changed my life and made me realize that I wasn't on the right path
• Graduated!
• moved back home and into my parents house (yucky)
• reconnected with old friends (probably the best thing that ever happened to me)
• bought a car
• got a kitten
• started going to the gym
• got a new boyfriend
• broke up with said boyfriend (sorry!)
• started working as a waitress
• FINALLY ended a way-too-long-and-toxic relationship
• put my 17 year old cat to sleep
• went to visit Maggie in Los Angeles and we went to Vegas baby!
• started dating Matt (yay!)

• Sugar cookie cut-outs
• Gingerbread men
• peppermint pinwheels
• jam thumbprints
• spritz cookies
• divinity
• fudge
• cream cheese mints
• funfetti cupcakes
• mincemeat pie

• crisp autumn air
• burning leaves
• rain
• play-doh
• honeysuckle
• freshly made coffee
• clean boys
• floor cleaner
• the inside of old drawers and cabinets
• books
• hair salons

• driving to St Louis with the boys and singing Celine Dion at the top of our lungs
• 40s nights
• skinny dipping on 4th of July
• sangria at parties
• the funeral scene from Secret Life
• sunbathing naked
• getting my abs back (and then losing them again)
• going to wineries and drinking delicious red wine
• first kisses
• UFC 100
• Air guitaring for three hours at Cory's
• Laura's filthy mouth at Chelsie's party
• visiting my family in Pennsylvania
• going to Gettysburg
• making smoothies & stir fry
• getting a kitten
• visiting Maggie in California and our trip to Vegas!

• curious
• CRAZY
• cuddly
• into EVERYTHING
• a food hog
• a cord chewer
• playful
• insistent
• stinky (sometimes)
• wide-eyed
• clumsy
• spikey (claws)
• stubborn
• plunkey

• Pink elephant with black horn-rimmed glasses on my right thigh just under my butt
• Compass rose in between my shoulder blades
• The word honesty on my wrist
• Ladybugs crawling up my feet.
• Lilly on my hip

• trashy fiction
• Gossip Girl
• Lofthouse Cookies
• Cute Overload
• spending way too much money on clothes
• laying out in the sun (and getting badly burned)
• sleeping naked
• nerdy boys
• twangy country music
• judging people's outfits. It's horrible, I know, but I can't help it.
• ABC Family
• Taylor Swift

• pesto
• sangria
• meatloaf
• chocolate chip cookies
• pecan pie
• coffee cake
• bread

• Meet everyone. Don't be afraid to talk to people. Make friends with lots of different kinds of people.
• Go to class. You'll be amazed how this simple trick can actually help your grades.
• Take advantage of the cheap/free medical care. Go to your student health center.
• Explore lots of different subjects in your first two years. Take biology, take math, take art. You may surprise yourself.
• See all those flyers and posters hanging around campus? Go to those events! They're amazing and it's a break from the monotony of constant binge drinking.
• Get to know the people in your classes. It makes the class a bit more bearable when you have someone to talk to.
• SAVE MONEY! You may think the fancy apartment is cool now, but graduating and being forced to move back in with your parent...

• fossils - dinosaurs, neanderthals. You name it we've got the physical evidence.
• geneaology of Indo-European peoples
• carbon-dating of Earth's materials
• adaptation - all species do it because it's necessary for survival
• sediments
• history - development of tools, religion, language, laws - these are also forms of evolution
• consensus of the scientific community
• lack of evidence from the opposing side

• Their apparent inability to get dressed in the morning.
• The urge to destroy property while drunk
• When they complain about having homework. This is college, what did you think was going to happen?!?!
• When they text/sleep/browse Facebook RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE TEACHER.
• Talking in the library.
• The fact that the epitome of social life is getting shitty drunk. Every weekend. Every single weekend.
• When its freezing cold but people are wearing shorts and sandals
• Having private discussions on cell phones
• Ignoring rules of the road. They apply to pedestrians and bikers too.

• plain cake donuts with no icing
• pink sugar cookies from Larry's
• lofthouse cookies
• East Meets West Shake from Serendipity
• red velvet cake
• blueberry donuts
• cupcakes!
• bran muffins
• pound cake with strawberry yogurt
• key lime cheesecake
• bananas foster
• green tea frappucinos

• gardening
• golf
• cars/auto repair
• sewing
• tying a tie
• designing webpages
• Excel
• scrapbooking
• photography
• poker
• play guitar
• speak Russian
• fly fishing
• chess

• Erasure - A Little Respect
• Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me
• The Divinyls - I Touch Myself
• Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing
• The Proclaimers - 500 Miles
• The Strokes - Last Night
• Simon & Garfunkel - Cecilia
• The Outfield - Your Love

• CHEM 332 - Organic Chemistry II
• GEOL 117 - The Oceans
• REES 201 - Intro to Eastern Europe
• SPAN 208 - Oral Spanish
• CHEM 494 - Lab Safety Fundamentals

• New Years 2000 - Dakota Hill kissed me at midnight. I had a raging crush on him at the time.
• Christmas 2004 - my boyfriend-at-the-time's family took me in for Christmas because my parents were out of town.
• Thanksgiving 2006 - my uncle and I decided to go to the winery while the turkey was cooking. We ended up missing the entire meal. My aunt was PISSED.
• Halloween 2004 - had a party at my house. Played drunken Twister. Took the infamous "panty line-up" picture.
• my 21st birthday (not a holiday but still) - my roommates filled the apartment with balloons while I was asleep and Lindsey made me a red velvet cake. The girls at work decorated the office too. It was the most attention I've ever gotten on my birthday and it felt good to know that people care about me.

• my roommates Maggie & Lindsey
• Uncle Johnny
• Nelson Mandela
• my absolutely gorgeous grandmother Elizabeth, who I happen to share a name with
• my co-workers Nazia & Lara
• John Stewart
• Zach Weiner, creator of SMBC
• the staff at cracked.com
• Jason Segal
• M.R.

• Love In the Time of Cholera/Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Eva Luna/Isabel Allende
• He's Just Not That Into You
• Don't Think of an Elephant/George Lakoff
• East of Eden/John Steinbeck
• The Alchemist/Paul Coehlo
• Atlas Shrugged/Ayn Rand
• Water for Elephants/Sarah Gruen
• The World Is Flat/Thomas Friedman
• Bel Canto/Ann Patchett

• Onions
• Narrow mindedness
• Cheaters
• Seafood
• Incorrect grammar
• Drama queens
• New England sports teams (primarily New York and Boston)
• Boy bands
• Rudeness
• The Chicago Cubs
• Passive aggressiveness - just say what you mean already!
• Hot heads
• Heights
• The smell of gasoline
• Riding in the backseat - I get car sick
• Long haired dogs
• Sexism in advertising
• Loud background music
• People who uphold negative stereotypes

• O Holy Night
• We Three Kings
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• Blue Christmas
• All I Want For Christmas Is You
• White Christmas (Otis Redding version)
• Baby It's Cold Outside
• Please Come Home For Christmas
• Carol of the Bells
• Just Put a Ribbon in Your Hair
• Only You Can Bring Me Cheer

• pay off student loans
• go back to school
• move out of my parents house
• buy dad a house in Florida
• send my mother to India
• create a scholarship
• donate to scientific research
• invest
• help Jake move out of his parents house
• hire a personal trainer
• buy an upright piano

• smoked a cigarette
• kissed a girl
• been to another country
• broken a bone
• worn red lipstick
• seen the second Godfather

• reliable
• smiley
• hard of hearing
• full of purrs
• a howler
• old
• very furry
• a tub sleeper
• a toilet drinker
• a vacuum lover
• patient (except when it comes to food)
• adorable
• a snorer
• friendly
• the love of my life

• Jumpsuits
• Harem pants
• Maxi dresses
• Printed leggings or tights
• T-shirts with cartoon characters or quirky little sayings on them
• Brightly colored pants
• Huge platform wedges.
• ruffles
• bubble skirts
• jeans that already have holes and tears in them. Why would you spend your money on something that is already ripped?

• Scrubs
• So You Think You Can Dance. I love it when Mary Murphy screams
• True Blood
• Grey's Anatomy
• Gossip Girl - Chuck Bass is hot
• How I Met Your Mother
• Bones
• Sports Center
• The Mentalist
• What Not To Wear

• heights
• bugs crawling on me while I sleep
• delivery trucks - I'm always afraid the back will suddenly swing open and crush me
• unfamiliar dogs
• being watched
• leprechauns
• losing my keys
• something being wrong with my tires while I'm driving

• being seen in your underwear. You'll walk around in a bikini on a crowded beach, but I can't take a peek at your Hanes?
• going to the bathroom
• asking someone to pay you back
• laughing out loud
• sex: having it, talking about it, wanting it. Just do it already!
• periods
• needing help

• dirty martini
• cranberry vodka - can't hate a simple favorite
• tequila & pineapple juice
• buttery nipples
• margaritas in the summertime!
• red wine
• sangria

• Catwoman
• Jubilee
• Domino
• She-Hulk - because she CHOSE to stay in Hulk form
• Poison Ivy
• Batgirl
• Rogue - 'cause she gets to snog Gambit

• the Earth is 4.5 billion years old!
• nebular hypothesis: who cares what it is, it sounds cool
• earthquakes helped us learned what the interior of the Earth is like
• plate tectonics - in a few million years all the continents will be in different places and none of our current conflicts will matter at all
• the East African Rift Valley is actually the formation of a new ocean
• The Coriolis Effect
• the poles reverse themselves every few million years. We are currently in a reversal right now.
• The moon is actually made up of Earth's mantle
• you can still hear the Big Bang
• Snowball Earth
• the horse latitudes are so named because when ships would be stranded out at sea f...

• Max the Cat
• Flower - calico cat
• Bess - bassett hound
• Steak - black cat, actually belonged to neighbors
• Shimoda - maine coon cat
• 2 tadpoles that we raised to frogs
• Tupper - black cat
• Zoe - farm cat
• Tuesday - tabby cat
• my kitten Olivia

• has got a great sense of humor and is not afraid to laugh out loud
• calls when he's going to be late
• can mingle. He doesn't need to be glued to my side.
• reads books
• leads a life he enjoys
• is self-confident
• tells the truth even when the news is bad
• is up for the occasional game of grab-ass
• likes sports
• doesn't mind getting his hands dirty
• can handle sarcasm
• is clean
• shows affection only when he truly means it
• enjoys mutual showers
• can talk about sex (and laugh about it too!)

• wildlife photographer
• large/rare animal vet
• game keeper at a refuge in Kenya
• dolphin trainer
• marine geochemist
• archaeologist
• translator
• geologist
• fiction writer
• lounge singer
• chemistry teacher
• poet
• comedian
• sexpert
• a rationalizer (Okay I made this one up, it's basically me calling everyone on their shit. I'd be really good at it though.)
• horse rancher
• marine biologist
• lizard catcher

• universal health care
• civil liberties for all citizens
• stop blindly siding with Israel and force the Israeli government to be accountable for their actions
• end the war in Iraq - I don't care if you are liberal or conservative, the war has to end eventually.
• WORK WITH OUR ALLIES instead of alienating them
• help negotiate and then fairly enforce an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty
• prevent American MNCs from selling arms to poor countries that are ripe for civil conflict
• work with other countries to tackle environmental problems such as pollution and climate change
• stop using racy topics such as abortion and gay marriage as campaign tools and actually talk about important issues like th...

• FAIL
• your mom
• no, no, no, NO
• i'm going to kill you
• SHINS
• Seriously?
• shwing!
• back up
• Honestly, right? Right!
• Fuck me running
• oh my damn

• learn Russian
• watch less tv
• be kind to myself
• fall in love
• floss daily

• DON'T SIT AT DIRTY TABLES. If you wait one moment someone will clean it off for you.
• Don't order carry-out and then sit at one of my tables to eat it. I'm losing money on you.
• Don't sit at your table for two hours after you finish, especially if it looks like we are busy.
• Don't ask me to get things for you when my hands are very full. I can only carry so much.
• My tables are my priority. Ask your own waitress for things you need.
• If you call in an order, know what you want and how you are going to pay for it. Every minute I have to spend on the phone is a minute that I could be helping my customers
• Please don't pay with change. If you don't have enough cash to cover the whole bil...

• gift shopping for mom, dad, step-dad
• pull out the decorations
• mail cards
• extreme grocery shopping
• bake 500 cookies
• and pies
• wrap presents
• give co-workers the okay to start singing carols
• make christmas playlist
• after-holiday sales

• Barry Louis Polisar - All I Want Is You
• Etta James - At Last
• Blue October - Calling You
• Don Williams - If Hollywood Don't Need You
• Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
• Lizzie West - Chariots Rise
• Robinella - Break It Down Baby
• Otis Redding - These Arms of Mine
• Dixie Chicks - Cowboy Take Me Away
• The Eels - Fresh Feeling
• The Weepies - Gotta Have You
• Hootie & the Blowfish - Let Me Be Your Man
• Alicia Keys - No One
• Joshua Radin - Only You
• Santana & Chad Kroeger - Why Don't You and I
• Ashley Monroe - I Don't Want To
• Alicia Keys - Tell You Something
• Chris LeDoux - Tougher Than The Rest

• Cake Batter
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• Chubby Hubby (my favorite)
• Chunky Monkey
• Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road
• Half Baked
• Karamel Sutra
• Peanut Butter Cup
• Phish Food
• Americone Dream
• Strawberry Cheesecake
• Raspberry Peach Cobbler

• Putting lotion/sunscreen on my back. There's always that one spot I can't quite reach.
• Clasping jewelry
• Zipping up a dress
• Cold nights
• Trying to open a jar
• Reaching something on the top shelf
• Needing a date to weddings, parties, etc.

I apologize for being a grammar Nazi.

• your/you're
• their/there/they're
• loose/lose. This one confounds me. At least the above are pronounced the same and have a common root.
• using an incorrect definition of irony
• affect/effect
• Shortening words to just letters. Y? How R U? I luv U!
• Bemused. It actually means confused, not amused.
• Blatantly misspelling words
• no/know. Now you're just being lazy

• a different sense of humor is always refreshing
• the way they can bring a new perspective to something you've looked at a million times
• swapping music, books, movies, etc.
• new activities!
• when they finally do that one thing that makes you realize "Hey, this person is cool."
• when you know you've made the same impression on them
• the possibility that this person could be someone very important in your life

• I have tons of little white scars all over my body from the chicken pox. Even on my feet!
• I'm sensitive about my arms
• irrational fear of delivery trucks and leprechauns
• the tops of my feet are insanely ticklish
• I talk to myself. A lot.
• when I'm truly upset
• I don't like girly-girls. I will be polite and smile and pretend that we can get along, but we will never be friends.
• how much I miss my family and home
• I love indie rock, folk, anti-folk, aaaaaaand bubblegum pop
• I sleep with a stuffed pink elephant named Carlotta
• how difficult the past few years have been for me
• dogs scare me. Just a little bit.

• Hills and trees!
• it's quiet
• no neighbors = walking around naked
• sunbathing in the row boat
• camping
• hiking
• wineries
• Sunset Concerts
• talking to strangers in line
• cheap baseball tickets to minor league games
• country music
• waving at everyone who passes you on the road
• bonfires
• grilling on the porch
• sun tea
• no Cubs fans

• drink water
• wear sunscreen
• safe sex (one in five adults has genital herpes)
• floss
• laugh daily
• keep up with your yearly doctors appointments

• Book: The Alchemist
• Movie: Love Actually
• Drink: H20
• Food: pesto with artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes
• Color: yellow
• Animal: red panda
• Season: autumn
• Flower: Iris
• TV show: Scrubs
• sport: baseball
• Smell: men (clean ones, of course)
• Language: Russian
• Ice Cream Flavor: mint chocolate chip
• Alcoholic beverage: dirty martini
• activity: naked naps (preferably with handsome company)
• word: piquant
• month: October
• holiday: Halloween
• website: xkcd.com

• Always be honest about who you are. Don't change for anyone!
• Smile at people. You never know how you are going to change someone's day for the better.
• Tell your friends when you are hurting.
• Stop worrying about what people think
• Playing with people's feelings is wrong. If you know that you don't feel the same way, cut them loose.
• Sandals, peasant skirts, and leggings are NOT formal wear
• Don't be afraid to change your mind. Admit mistakes.
• Keep in touch with friends
• If you are unhappy, do something about it.
• Don't give up too much of yourself for another person
• You can't expect someone else to love you if you don't love yourself

• Pablo Neruda
• E.E. Cummings
• Edna St. Vincent Millay
• Rumi
• Galway Kinnell
• Li Young Lee
• Michael Ondaajte
• Walt Whitman

• Rusty Ruggles
• Shlomo Melvin
• Zennon Duda
• Brock Boner
• Ona Wang
• Anna Popplewell
• Debbie Spunk
• John "Chubby" Cox

• we watch game shows together and get intensely involved
  • "Buy a mother-fucking vowel!"
• we have dinner together
• they're clean and fiscally responsible (may everyone be so lucky)
• Lindsey curses like a sailor during Bears games
• Maggie speaks Chinese
• they're both tragically beautiful and they don't even know it! grrrrr
• Lindsey knows all the words (and hand motions) to "I'm fucking Matt Damon"
• crystal light goes with all types of alcohol
• Lindsey is the trivia queen
• Maggie is the messy one
• when something exciting happens during on...

• it's a small library so I know almost everyone who comes in
• its designed like a throne room and has murals covering the walls
• the floors in the stacks are made of glass
• lots of cute Asian guys
• my coworkers
• I'm much, much smarter than my boss

• red pandas
• otters
• wombats
• icelandic horses
• ferrets
• raccoons
• sugargliders
• meerkats
• foxes (especially fennec foxes)
• bunnies!!!
• British shorthairs (breed of cat)
• slow Loris