January 25th

Tonight, there was a candlelight vigil to celebrate Charles' life (affectionately called "Occupy Charles"). It was held at UMass Lowell's South Campus. As weird as this may sound, it was a great night. I would have to guess at least 100 people showed to share in a moment of silence and their favorite memories of Charles. While each story was different, they all had the same theme - Charles was the friendliest and nicest guy. He was one of those people that when you met him, it felt like you knew him forever. Yes, there were tears, but there was laughter too. And lots of hugs. I know if Charles was there, he'd have some funny quip or dance or song to make us all laugh and forget about why we were even sad in the first place. (and then complain about the cold and ask if we could move inside!)

I left the vigil with a new outlook on the situation. Yes, I am sad that I'll never get to see his big smile, hear him sing "VICKY DAYYY!", or give him a hug, but I know he lives on. And I know he would want us to smile. He would want us to live life to the fullest, grasp every opportunity and go for it. Go for what you want in life. I plan on doing just that.

January 24th

Today, the world lost a talented artist, rockin' musician, but most of all, the best friend someone could ever have. Charles passed away 3 am this morning suddenly and unexpectedly. The day was spent in Leominster/Fitchburg surrounded by friends and families and the sharing of warm memories of Charles. I honestly don't think anyone could say a bad thing about the man. He was a bright ray of sunshine and lit up any room he walked into with his energy and smile. Here he's pictured with the love of his life and my best friend Sarah. Sarah and Charles are the epitome of what true love is. They called each other "best friend", not boyfriend/girlfriend, and I absolutely love that. Don't worry Charles, we're taking good care of Sarah and always will :)

While Charles is no longer physically here with us, I know that his spirit and his memory will live forever on in every note of music, every beautiful piece of artwork, every smile, every giggle that turns into a roar of laughter, and most of all, in our hearts. I love you big bro <3

January 23rd

This was my night - just me and the cat! Nate drove down to Rhode Island for a work conference, so Cole and I lived it up (clearly). Sleeping in a California king bed alone feels like you have a field of a bed!

January 22nd

The New England Patriots are going to the SUPERBOWL!!!! Playing the New York Giants for a rematch. I have to say, watching this game had my heart racing until the very last second. As Brady said himself, he sucked, but the team pulled through. It came down to the Ravens kicking a field goal which they MISSED! MHK was definitely watching over the team that day.

January 21st

Today, my friend Maureen and I went to a Farmer's Market!! It was up in Tilton, but so worth the drive. I adore this indoor farmer's market, it was just so cool! They have lots of different tables for meats, cheeses, fish, soaps, and wine. I bought some meat, soap, veggies, and cheese. That night I made what I called my "New England Dinner" - Kielbasa and red potatoes from the farmer's market topped off with a Woodchuck! Yum!

January 20th

Today my mom's birthday gift came in! Look how cute the box is :) It helps that purple is her favorite color! I can't say what it is yet, but I can say that she will love it. Her birthday is on the 30th, so you'll just have to wait until then to see what's in the box!

January 19th

This is Sam! He's our director's dog, and he gets to visit our office from time to time. Thank God he does, because on stressful days/weeks like this, it's a nice little get away from the desk. How can you deny a cute face like his?

January 18th

This was my day. Paper jammed. This week has been pretty stressful. As I posted before, it's budget proposal time. I am in charge of updating and keeping track of the entire budget for the office. So while getting ready for the meeting we had today about budget, the printer decided to do this... several times. Each squiggle represents a different area where paper decided to jam up. How awesome.

January 17

Today's picture is of my new book, Eat Right For Your Type. My chiropractor told me about this book back when I was having some stomach issues. My doctor was prescribing some heavy medication that I would need to take for the rest of my life. Being a naturalist (well, I try my hardest to be), I didn't like the idea of needing to take a bunch of medications, when I knew there must be something I can do to change my diet. Enter this book.

The "type" refers to your blood type. I mean, it makes sense, once food is digested, all the good (and bad) from the food go to different parts of the body via the blood stream. What do you think goes through your arteries?

I read a little about my blood type, Type O. What I found interesting is that it says to eat a diet of animal protein and lessen the intake of eggs and wheat... pretty much the opposite of what I have been doing. It describes the ancestry of the blood type, why you should and shouldn't eat different types of foods, and how those foods interact with your body. It's pretty interesting and I'd suggest it to anyone who wants to learn what they should be eating for their specific blood type!

January 16th

 

Happy MLK Jr Day! Today's picture of the day is of my toolbar on my desktop. That's right, I've been working with 7 Excel Spreadsheets, 3 (or more) Access Databases, and a bunch of PDFs of invoices from this year and years past. 

Yep, it's spring time in the Office of Admission.

Not only have I been entering registrations for the six events we have this semester (many of which happen on multiple days), I have been preparing for budget creation. What does that entail? Well let me tell you! I have to create an itemized list of everything we've spent this year, make a projection on what we will need to spend for the rest of the budget year based on last year's budget, and then properly estimate a budget for next year based on what we spent this year and last year. Head spinning yet? It should be! As much of a pain it was, I'm very proud of what I have produced. Just another day in the life of the Office Manager!

January 15th

This is my mom! She came up to Manchester for the day, and we had a great time. Got lunch at The Bridge Cafe, discovered a brand new little shop downtown called Mill Town Market (sells local items, it's great!), and ended the day at Kohl's, which is where this picture was taken. My momma is very silly (hence the hat) but I wouldn't want it any other way! She cracks me up, and I love hanging out with her :)

January 14th

I love this man, love this team, love New England. I am a New England girl through and through: love the Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Revolution, and especially, my New England Patriots. I LOVE FOOTBALL! Today was the first playoff game, and we played the Broncos.. which meant we played the infamous "Tebow". We crushed them. As you can see, final score was 45-10, Boo yeah! Had a few friends over to watch the game, Christian, Jamie, and Max. After the game, we jammed out to my game Rocksmith. Over all, a great night!

January 13th

It's Friday the 13th!! Oooohhh spooky spooky! Even given the day, I still cuddled up to my little love bug - my black cat Cole! He's a sweetheart. Since Friday was pretty low-key, I spent it chillin' at the apartment, watching some TV, and hanging with Cole. The significance of the picture? This was the first day Cole slept on his new cat tree! The cat tree was half Christmas gift, half second anniversary of Cole joining my life! :)

January 12th

This is my view from work today. SNOW! First major snow storm of the year. It's been going strong ever since early this morning. Many of us were surprised we had work today (still hoping for a half day or early release!) Saw that my friend Adam had an hour long commute this morning, when it usually takes him 15 minutes. I love how no matter how long people live in New England, they always seem to forget how to drive when it snows.

January 11th

Picture of the day today is of my dad. Right here I snuck a picture of him laughing at South Park :) Today he came up after work and we had a sweet workout session at Planet Fitness! After we devoured some sweet quinoa with brussel sprouts and red onion (recipe will be on my food blog!). It was a great night, I love hanging out with my parents! :)

January 10th

Today was the NH Primary. For the past week, Manchester has been buzzing with candidates, past politicians, and news crews. It's been exciting, but annoying at the same time (no spaces to park downtown!). One exciting aspect of the primary was Mitt Romney using SNHU as his headquarters while he waiting for the results! I don't care what your political stance is, it's pretty cool for your place of work/school you graduated from to have such a big hand in something major that everyone in the country will be watching. SNHU is no stranger to political candidates. Obama gave our commencement speech in 2007 and played basketball with our president and the Director of Admissions (my boss...who ended up elbowing Obama in the game!). John Huntsman gave my commencement speech in 2011 when I got my masters. We also had MTV host the "Rock the Vote" here with John McCain and Hilary Clinton give a speech here as well. The list goes on... these were just the events that happened when I was a student here!


Romney ended up winning the primary, and while I was watching his victory speech on TV, all I could think was "look, it's my school!"

Bad part of all this? 1. Crazy people were coming into our office asking where to go for the campaign. 2. Crazy amounts of people on our campus, and I almost got hit by one of these Romney fanatics trying to leave campus. 3. They blocked off half of our Dining Hall (HQ) and all of our Hospitality building all day. Oh the wonders and joys of being a university in Manchester!

January 9th

Truth be told, I did not take this picture and NO, I am not pregnant. This, friends, is my new baby second cousin! My cousin, who is like a brother to me, officially told me today that he will be a dad come June! I'm so excited for him! They found out just this morning that it's a boy - Spencer James! I'm pretty much calling myself an aunt, as I'm an only child and he's the closest thing I have to a brother. I've been giddy all day! :)

January 8th

Homemade Peanut Butter - Delicious!! I really enjoy cooking. In fact, I have a blog dedicated to it! My Food Blog I love homemade foods, they taste so much better than store bought, don't you think? Making peanut butter was surprisingly easy. Just take peanuts (I got the shelled ones in the store), de-shell them, add the peanuts to a food processor, and process until it looks like the pic above! I added a little bit of honey for taste, but you can add whatever you'd like. It's quite delicious!

January 7

First Saturday of the year! Today, I had lunch and awesome catch up time with my great friend Adam! I caught him here off guard.. oops! :) Adam is the one who inspired me to start this blog. It's funny to think we've been friends since first grade... That's like... Around 18 years! Holy moly! Adam's one of my favorite people, and I know he's going to go really far in life :)

January 6th

First snow of the new year! What a way to start the morning. :-) unfortunately, it got warmer throughout the day, so it didn't stay. Still, I hope we see more of this lovely stuff!

January 5

I have little feet. I've known this all my life, and I'm damn proud of them! But I found it interesting that when Nate and I went to the mall to get him new work shoes, I tried on a kids size 6 (shoe on the right) and it was bigger than my adult size 6.5! What the what?!

January 4th

Today was a cold one. Into the single digits this morning, and with windchill, it's pretty much stayed there all day. I for one don't mind the cold weather; the colder it is, the more likely it is to snow. The more likely it is to snow, the more likely I can go skiing! Either way, gotta keep the gloves on to keep the hands warm!

January 3rd

Yum, am I right? This was the first red meat I've had since... well, I can't remember the last time I had red meat. It had been that long. I came home to my lovely boyfriend, Nate, cooking up a taco dinner. How can you say no to that? By the way, it was totally delicious!

January 2nd

As I started this blog technically on the 4th, I have some catching up to do! Next picture:

My work "cubby hole", as I so lovingly call it. Most people had the day off after New Years Day, but we got ours the week before. So, welcome back to work! Lots of budget crunching, event registrations, and miscellaneous things to do. At least I work with some pretty awesome people!

January 1st - The Beginning

This is my year, 2012, one picture at a time. Truth be told, I stole this from my friend, but I don't think he'll mind! I encourage you to do the same for yourself! How cool will it be, on December 31, 2012, to take a look at this blog and relive the year picture by picture? I'll start the blog off with this picture:

 

He's a happy bear!

This picture is of the bag I won at the Yankee Swap my girlfriends and I had. It was a fun little night in Somerville at my friends' apartment, or as we call it, Hat City (long story). We had a nice meal of BLT, chicken soup, and hilarious conversation. As it was the day after New Years Eve, we all had great stories to share of drunken mishaps, lost phone batteries, and interesting dancers at the House of Blues. I won a Dunkin Donuts hot coffee mug, iced coffee mug, and $10 gift card... right up my alley!