Fun Times During My Commute

Hola World,

Three days a week I take New York City’s finest buses and subways to Marymount—my commute is approximately two hours in each direction. But with finals coming up in the next week or so, I’ve been utilizing my commute wisely by studying. I have to study for finals in Intro to Journalism, Business and Society, and Survey of Film and Video. But I also found time to get some footage of my commute to give you an idea of what it’s like. Enjoy! 

Until next time,

               Cheers!

P.S. My dad bought Strawberry Oreos last week – I don’t recommend them.

Snowball. Snowfall. (It’s a NYC holiday)

It amazes me that Thanksgiving is over! Where has time gone?!? It was just yesterday that I was moving into 55^th Street dorms for Jump Start and meeting new people… now I am about to check out of 55^th for winter break !

Before I left to go on Thanksgiving break, one of my good friends, Savannah, had her family come to visit! They came to town to see Savannah perform in the Dancers at Work Show. They took the “Nuggets” (Devin, Savannah, Sarah-Louise, and me) to brunch before they left. It was so nice to meet them and spend time with them. It made me miss my family even more and made me wish for Thanksgiving to come sooner!

Thanksgiving was good. I was able to travel home to the good ol’ south to relax and see family. I ate so much, but now that I’m back in the city I can walk it all off again (and go to the gym). Breaks are kind of weird; I love going home to see my family and high school friends, but it’s just not the same as before. All break I was thinking about New York and wishing I was at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade instead of watching it on TV. Maybe next year J

I attended the Snowball dance this past Friday hosted by the Campus Activities... AMAZING! It was held at the Affinia Hotel Ball Room in Harold Square, lots of students attended and we danced the night away. I am already ready for the Boat House dance in the spring.

The Christmas tree is all-bright and now the countdown is on till Christmas! I can’t wait to travel home again to SC for the Christmas break to see everyone. But… before I go I have to finish this semester off strong: papers/exams/projects to be done!

Until then… Enjoy the Nuggets Elf-Yourself Video...

Stay in School.

-austin

Does it sound like Christmas?

I hear Christmas in the air! Christmas in the city is magical, I can already tell. Of course that means finals are right around the corner, but that’s ok because then it’s Christmas time and I get to go to Maryland to see my mommy! (Aand my other family, of course.) I’m so excited, but then it’s right back to the grind with the Communications Today course I’m taking in January. I guess they’re right when they say, no rest for the wicked!

Me and my Mommy Last Thanksgiving

But that’s ok, because it’s only one course. So it means lots of time to spend on Carma Monde and hostessing at PJ Clarke’s! And I’m also going to be staying at my friend’s apartment and getting to play with Jada, the Carma Monde “mascot” (aka my friend Carrie’s little doggy).

Jada!

I’m really not looking forward to finals, but no one ever really likes finals. Hopefully they’ll just go by fast and be over with. It really does seem unreal that finals are three weeks away. It doesn’t even seem possible. Didn’t I just come to the city a few weeks ago?

For the next few weeks it’ll be work, class, Carma Monde, and learning how to knit (for Carma Monde!).

Till next time…

Love Love!

Caitlin

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! (:

Hi again! Well, last week was Black Friday and I worked...in New York City...at a flagship toy store...on 5th Avenue. (:


Black Friday line into FAO Schwarz



It was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. I babysat in the morning for my kiddies (who's mom last week gave birth to a new baby boy!) and then went straight to FAO Schwarz to play with toys. I seriously have the best job ever.  

     

My family left this morning too. ): Sad news, but they have been here since Tuesday and it's been nice having them around! My dad was sick, but they still got to see a lot of NY, even though I've been in school and working. My brother bought a Myachi at my store and we made it a family game in my tiny apartment. We also had Thanksgiving here! In my kitchen/living room, around my coffee table! We watched Miracle on 34th Street and football, obviously, and I finally got to have southern food! Its so hard to find real comfort food in New York.



The before picture.

Sunday my roommate and I cohosted a Thanksgiving feast withfor a bunch of our friends. We brought mashed potatoes, stuffing, banana bread, Coke, punkin pie, and other stuff! Thing is...we were both rushing from work, and afterwards our kitchen looked like the apocalypse had happened. But it was yummy!

Thanksgiving aftermath

  

Ohmygosh!!! My birthday was on the 18th and I got the best present ever! My best friend from Virginia called me while I was asleep at 7am and told me to answer my door. He'd come all the way from VA to surprise me and spend the day with me! It was so sweet and I even skipped a class :X We ate Pinkberry and I wore the dress he bought me and had my favorite food, Dallas BBQ. It was lots of fun.

Overall I had an awesome holiday week. I'm trying not to think about the two papers I have due this coming week... (: See ya!

  





Time Management

Tick Tock. Tick. Tock. Do you hear that? Of course you don’t. All of your clocks are digital by now. But it’s the sound of your life passing you by. Under the pile of papers due, your stress from your job and extracurriculars, you can sense it.

I’ll admit, that’s me. This post is far too late for me to have any good excuse. Rather, I have several, but they all revolve around: busy, busy, busy.  Since starting at Marymount in August, I’ve been juggling:

·    Writing and editing my submission to the Marymount Manhattan Review

·    My radio show and other related responsibilities (I worked the Senior Soiree with another Griffin Radio DJ)

·    Preparing for my stage management interview. Cross your finger for me!

·    My work-study job in the Office of College Relations and Advancement. I get to write articles for the website and also stuff paper into envelopes. Guess which one I enjoy more.

·    Writing for MMC’s paper, The Monitor. I have a regular humor column called “Random Thoughts.”

·    Family obligations. It’s nice to live closer to family, but then they want you to visit and actually do things with them. Selfish!

·    Domestic stuff. Think showers, laundry, dishes. All of that icky stuff.

·    Oh yeah, and classes.

A big part of why I am so busy has to do with how often I get distracted by trivial things. So today, kiddos, I’m going to give you a short lesson on how to focus in college. 

1)   Ban Facebook. When you have a paper due, Facebook is the bane of your existence. It doesn’t exist. Turn off the notifications that go to your phone and e-mail. Or, better yet…

2)   Turn your phone on silent, or even just off. If you’re the type who has friends texting you every five minutes, it would be especially wise to do this. Every time your phone goes off it takes you out of whatever it is you’re doing (reading, writing a paper, creating a playlist for your radio show) and it’ll take longer to get done.

3)   Don’t multi-task. Especially if you’re multi-tasking a school assignment with a fun thing to do. Multi-tasking actually shortens the amount of time you’re able to focus on one thing. The only things you can do at once are my favorite combination: folding laundry and watching TV.

4)   Take advantage of downtime. Right now, I’m at work. I don’t really have a lot to do today, so instead of reading about the Queens of England on Wikipedia for fun (I wish to God I was kidding about this) I’m doing my blog post, because I know that when I get home I’ll be exhausted and not want to do it. 

Hey, does her necklace remind you of the one Ugly Betty wears?

Do any of my fellow bloggers or readers have some tips? Leave them in the comments and I’ll be sure to add them in.

Much love,

K.M.

:)



Sacred Heart girls <3

 Ahhh the holiday season is finally here! It's time to whip out my hat and gloves (even though I have had them ready since the beginning of November). 

 

I just returned from a very relaxing and lazy Thanksgiving break. 

It was nice to be home to eat my mom and dad's delicious home cooked meals, and even see some high school friends. 

I also visited my high school to see Sacred Heart's underclassman perform in the annual production of "The Nutcracker."

 

Victoria, Me, Mariel, and Meg <3



It was lovely to reunite with the girls who helped run the production last year with me :)

However, I was very excited to return to the city and start preparing for the end of semester, my birthday, and the holiday season in New York City. 

My roommates and I had been anxiously waiting to decorate our suite with Hanukkah and Christmas decorations! We just finished last night and it is a joy to come home to a “Winter Wonderland.”



I recently saw Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I went ALL out this year. I frantically bought tickets a month in advance to see it opening night. 

I also decided to dress up like Severus Snape, in an attempt to fully embrace the ever-awesome Alan Rickman. I think I carried his role pretty well ;-) I love the evil characters best.

 

He is just so good!



Me as Snape and Alexandra as Bellatrix

 

The film was dark and sad, as expected, but it didn’t disappoint.

And just as I always recommend the movies every year, I support the books even more. So go read!



Lucca and I messing around!

I’m really looking forward to this week because Marymount is having a holiday snowball dance themed “The Roaring Twenties” on Friday night and it will definitely be pretty fun.

Prior to the dance, my friend Lucca and I are going to see a Steven Sondheim concert full of some of his greatest works with many special broadway guests.  (Lucca was able to get us free tickets!) Friday will be a great kick-off to my birthday weekend! I just cannot wait to get dressed up and take lots of pictures haha!

But tonight I am going to go to Rockerfeller Center to see the Christmas tree light up!

For years I’ve watched it on television, but have never actually been there in person to see this happen in front of my very eyes.

Hopefully it won’t continue to rain….



Sadly, I will be turning nineteen next Tuesday… and I just cannot believe it!

It’s so crazy!! Life goes by so fast but on a happy note I will be celebrating it in the best city in the entire universe.

Wow, I just thought of that… ok maybe my birthday will be more exciting th
an I thought ^_^

So that is all for now! Good luck with finals everybody!! 



P.S.  I GOT MY BRACES OFF!!!!!! :D

This is me on Griffin Radio...