T-shirt quilt

One of the things I was most excited about coming home was getting my tshirt quilt that my mom made me. 4 years of tshirts, from THON to Football to Mysic Festivals to food science, I think this covers my college career. Thanks mom! 

On my way home!

East coast here I come!

Soccer Tournament

Tonight was the final tournament for my soccer team's Fall Season. Because we did so well we got bumped up to the A league. 

Things didn't go so well. We lost in the semi-finals after being up 1-0 the whole game. The other team made 2 awesome last minute goals and we fell apart. It was very depressing. 

Oh well. Next season starts in 8 weeks! Time to start training! 

Sunday Road Trip

Since it is late November and a lazy Sunday, my friend Agata and I did what anyone would do on such a day. We went to the beach! 

Specifically, Santa Barbara. Just a 2 hour drive out of town. 

First stop food! We found another Diner, Drive In and Dives places called Mac's Fish and Chips 

Easily the greatest fish and chips I've ever had. But I've never been to England. 

We walked around town for a while. There were tons of cool shops to check out. My personal favorite was a little record store.

 But we finally got to the reason behind out trip: chilling on the beach in 77 degree weather.

The water was freezing so we didn't do any swimming. We did walk for a while though. 

We then went up to a little cliff side cafe for drinking and snacks 

And finally watched the sunset over the water

Overall it was a very relaxing day. I still can't believe this week is Thanksgiving. It feels like early September here! I'm going to freeze when I go home.

Listen to Serial Right Now

Over the past week I have been hearing bits and pieces about this new podcast called Serial. I ignored all the buzz as I am not really a podcast person, they tend to put me to sleep. But my Aunt texted me about it and said it was addicting so I googled it. 

The easy summary of Serial is that its a reporter looking into a 15 year old murder and reporting her findings in an olde timey radio kind of way. And its a true story. But she does it in a way that you can't. stop. listening. Today, I laid on my flood just listening to the case unfold for two hours straight. I didn't even realize that much time went by. I was so engrossed in the story. It was like Netflix for my ears.

I don't want to say anything more, and prefer to let people get addicted on their own. I already got a few people to listen to it, mainly because I need people to argue the finer points of the mystery with. Who is guilty? Who is innocent? I change my mind every episode.

Here is the link: http://serialpodcast.org/season-one/1/the-alibi

Warning: Don't listen to all eight episodes in two days like I did. It is agonizing that I have to wait until Thursday until the next installment. I went on to some forums to read what other people were thinking about the case just to fill the emptiness.

Good thing this week at work is nuts so I won't have time to think about how long until the next episode is posted!

Stay tuned for my first plant trial, rock climbing, and my soccer team's fight for a championship trophy all this week! (if all goes to plan. things are always changing here!)

Nothing.

Today, I did nothing. It was awesome.

My second job

Because I don't understand the concept of standing still, I picked up a second job! I'm a game day assistant for the local minor league hockey team.

I was really sad that I only got one season of working for penn state hockey, and through a friend heard that the Condors were always looking for help.so a few emails later, and boom! Second job.

This weekend has 3 games so it's a lot to learn fast. Luckily I'm doing a lot like I use to for penn state, promos and intermission games. But mainly I'm in the zambonie tunnel watching hockey. The condors are having a great start to the season and everyone is already talking championship! 

First Friday

Last night 3 of my friends and I headed downtown for First Friday! 

First Friday was an art street fair that takes place downtown the first Friday of every month. There were lots of cool things to buy (which I didn't) 

One of my favorites was wallets made from old comic books. 

There was a really cool henna artist so the four of us each got one. Luckily they fade in a week so our bosses won't get mad :) 

We then went to the local noodle bar so I could get my favorite food, Pho!

I couldn't believe there was such good Vietnamese cuisine in the middle of the desert. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but it was still really good!

Afterward we headed to a dive bar to check out a local band. They were awesome with a full horn section and a mixture of salsa music and big band Jazz.

Bakersfield continues to surprise me with how much it has despite being known as a not-so-great place to live. There is so much here once you really start to look! 

Halloween!

I My first major holiday in California! It was quite an interesting night. First, the biggest news...it rained last night!!! It was the first rain here in 18 months. Crazy.

So I started off at my co-workers party. 

She was Jessica Rabbit. My other friend is also a Katie and she is on my soccer team. I was lame this year and was just a pirate after I found a cheap costume at a consignment shop. 

The party was mostly married people, so my one younger friend came and "kidnapped" me to go to bars. We went to a haunted hotel that was built in the 20s. They were having a burlesque-themed halloween party. It was pretty cool.

There were girls on stilts

And fire eaters 

And an awesome live band

And this crazy performer

It was a really cool party. We ended up meeting some other young people from Nestle and made new friends. 

The craziest was I met a guy who went to my rival high school. It's a small world. 

And the best part was running out in the rain at the end of the night. I didn't realize how much I missed it. 

It was a very fun evening. Whoever told me there was nothing to do in Bakersfield was very wrong.

Road Rage

Today I was summoned to the mothership aka Corporate Headquarters in LA. I got experience true LA traffic for the first time.

It was so bad it made me miss the Jersey Turnpike AND the belt parkway. 

It took me over an hour to travel 15 miles.  I could have biked faster then that. 

On the way back it wasn't as bad. But still was painful. People in California really don't know how to drive.

P. S for those who were asking. I successfully did a week of no TV. I gave up because I had to watch Penn State Football. I'm trying to cut down on watching TV moving forward, but there are just too many good shows.

Plus food network on Netflix....