Got time to kill?

I've got AOL.com to thank for getting me ridiculously addicted to this game. In between Facebook checkings and helping students, this is how I've been passing my time. It's called Boomshine and you have to break a certain number of bubbles in one attempt. Not only is it challenging but it's pretty too!

Back to the Heart

I haven't said this out loud just yet but one of my New Year's Resolutions was to remember where I came from.  No, not Jersey.  Sacred Heart University.  While I was born and raised in Jersey and have returned to my home state, I did the most growing up at SHU.  That place and the people I met there taught me so much about life, responsibility, citizenship, and just how to be a pretty decent person.  I'll never forget the lessons I've learned there, but sometimes I get lazy and take the easy route around things.  I owe Sacred Heart so much more than that (no, not student loans.)  I owe them demonstration of what they taught me...and I need to show that its mission and lessons are present in all that I do.  I know that it might sound a little cultish when I say that, but really, Sacred Heart means that much to me - it saved my life and made it all at once.

So, since I've made this agreement with myself, I can already see the changes happening.  My concentration levels have gone up and my productivity and clarity at work has increased dramatically.  

I've always said if I had a lot of money, I'd give a lot of it to SHU (probably just to their Res Life program, as that's where I learned the most). I don't have a lot of money (yet) so I need to give back in other ways.  Living by SHU's mission is one way, but getting involved is another.  So, this week I am participating in a phone meeting with the Alumni Executive Council and have also agreed to host an extern - a SHU student who will come and career shadow me for a day or so.  

I can't wait for the meeting to see what it's all about! The one thing I'm sure of is that it'll feature a group of SHU Alums who take pride in their Alma Mater and who remain knowledgeable of self, rooted in faith, educated in mind, compassionate in heart, responsive to social and civic obligations, and able to respond to an ever-changing world.

Happy SHU Year

It's amazing and absolutely true what they say: "The friends you make in college will be your friends for life."

For New Year's, Josh invited me, Bidds, and Kelly up to the Berkshires to surprise Dana for her birthday...and surprise we did.  After traveling all day from different directions in a snowstorm, we surprised the pants off of Dana in her own home.  

I'm not sure how many of you have actually been to the Berkshires in Massachusetts.  It's beautiful there with its mountains everywhere you look and small town America charm.  It's a simpler life there, no traffic and still mom and pop stores.  

Josh took the liberty of getting us a table at the local hot spot, The Bounti Fare, for their New Years Eve dinner and dancing party.  Clad in our 2009 glasses (purchased earlier that day in NY Penn Station) we strutted our city girl stuff into the wood paneled back room to enjoy the bountiful fare and Phil n the Blanks - THE cover band of the Berkshires.  Even though Phil and his blanks played mostly toward the 40-50-something crowd, my friends and I danced all night and shared some good laughs (mostly at the cost of others in the room - sorry Mullet lady.)

The 24ish hours we were there flew by way too quickly and we enjoyed every minute we were there.  It's amazing how four girls met randomly 11 years ago and still have the same amount of laughs we had back in West Hall 613 way back when.