steph o.

Well, it’s getting to be that wonderful time of the year when 18-page papers, mile long exams, pop quizzes, and endless presentations are a daily occurrence.  I am definitely looking forward to graduation…even if it is 177 days away.  I still need to find a job and a place to live.  But before I start planning my life after Messiah, I should probably focus on passing the rest of my classes.

So how about the weather this weekend?? AWESOME!  This weekend was one of my more relaxing weekends of the semester. (it’s about time!)  Some friends and I went to see the movie Pirate Radio on Friday night.  I had never heard of the movie, but ended up loving it.  I’d say it’s a movie that you should probably rent though, mostly because it is all about music.  No crazy car chases, big explosions, or matrix-inspired fighting maneuvers can be found in the movie; but it is jam packed with awesome 60’s rock ‘n roll.  So if you are a music lover, as I am, put this on your list of movies to see.

On Saturday, Levi and I headed down to good old Finksburg to visit my family (Hi Mom! Hi Dad!) in his new car.  It was a nice afternoon ride, but by the time we got there we were starving.  Thankfully, Dad and Levi had decided to have a Chili Cookoff.  Now, seeing as my dad made one kind of chili and my boyfriend made the other, I am not at liberty to say who has my vote; but they were both very tastey!  Levi actually thought of the  idea to mix them together and that was good too, so I guess they both win.

The weather on Sunday was beautiful!  I don’t remember the last day we had like that.  Levi and I went geocaching ,for the first time ever, and it was surprisingly fun.  I am happy to say that I was the one who found the box of trinkets but I wouldn’t have gotten there if Levi wasn’t leading the way, because I am terrible with directions.

All in all, it was a wonderfully warm weekend….and I am NOT ready for winter.

This weekend Levi took me camping with some of our friends.  I had never been camping before and was very excited to go.  Thankfully, Levi knows everything there is to know about camping and set me up with all the right necessities.  We went to Pine Grove Furnace State Park, and started our trip by Fuller Lake.  For my first time camping I think that this was definitely the ideal location.  The hike itself was easy, nothing I couldn’t handle, and the scenery was beautiful!  We hiked up to Pole Steeple and camped close to the top of the mountain.  Once we got to the top, it was already dark, but the view of the stars was absolutely gorgeous.  I could have stayed up all night looking at the sky.

For dinner, we cooked some “Little Smokies” (small cheesy hotdoggy goodness) over the fire and the boys made “hobo packs” which taste a thousand times better than they sound.  Basically, a hobo pack consists of ground beef, cheese, tomato soup, onions, and potatoes wrapped up in aluminum foil and cooked in the fire.  They were delicious.  I could go for one right now, but maybe with some green beans in there too, and extra cheese.  You can never have enough cheese.  After dinner we had smores.  It wouldn’t be a camping trip without them.  In the morning we had a great view of Laurel Lake and the fall foliage.

For my first camping trip I would have to say that I truly enjoyed it and am looking forward to camping again.  My favorite thing about the trip was getting to climb to the top and look at all the stars.  My least favorite thing about the trip was that I wish we would have gotten to our campsite before it got dark out so I could explore.  Here are some pictures from my trip:

The view from the top of the moutain

Levi and I with Laurel Lake in the background

Last night two of my friends, Bekah and Devon, and I went downtown for dinner.  We decided to go to Cafe Fresco on 2nd Street.  We ended up just getting appetizers and sharing dessert, which was a great idea because it was just the right amount of food for a reasonable price.

One thing that I love about Messiah is that it is so close to Harrisburg.  I don’t think many people know what PA’s state capital has to offer.  From baseball games at City Island to great Restaurants hidden on each street, Harrisburg has something for everyone.

Some of my favorite things to do in Harrisburg are:
- Walk across the bridge to City Island
- Go shopping at the Harrisburg Mall (boys, they even have a huge Bass Pro there)
- Grab a bite to eat with some friends, or go on a romanitc date with someone special
- Watch the fireworks after a Senators baseball game
- Play mini golf
- Go to Negley Park and overlook the river
- See am IMAX movie at the Whittaker Center

The list could go on forever..but I think every Messiah student should experience Harrisburg on a regular basis

27 more days of classes until Fall Finals

34 days until my birthday

56 days until Christmas

18 weeks until Spring Break
28 weeks until GRADUATION!

…just in case anyone was wondering

Today is my first day back from Fall Break and I’m already feeling like I could use another break from classes, but I actually haven’t even had class yet.  Just the thought of classes makes my head hurt.  Anyway, back to break…

Thursday was the first “official” day of Fall Break, but many students chose to start a little earlier.  My break was full of time spent with friends, family, and a Strategic Management project.  It was my friend Rachel’s birthday this weekend so we went out to dinner with a group of friends at a great restaurant in Hershey called Houlihans.  If you ever go to Hershey Park or Chocolate World for the day you should definitely stop by Houlihans.  I had never been there before, but the atmostphere and the food were great!  Also, the price was very reasonable for the quality and amount of food.  I ordered the Brentwood Chicken Sandwich with mashed potatoes and was only able to eat half of it!  So, in other words, I had a great lunch the following day.

Another, more time-consuming, activity that I was involved in over break was with the upgrading of Windows 7 onto my poor little computer.  I went home Thursday to visit my family and to have my dad and Levi help install all that goes along with Windows 7.  I had no idea that upgrading to a new operating system could be so complicated.  I’m sure all you computer people out there have more knowledge about this sort of thing than I do.  Anyway, things were going smoothly, but taking forever and a day.  Long story short, I had to leave to come back to school and my computer wasn’t anywhere close to being finished, so I concluded that I would finish the installation at school.  But, before I could leave to go back to school, we noticed that some things that should have been on my computer were not there.  Thankfully, my dad is awesome with computer stuff and was able to fix it all and install the new operating system and brought it up to me quickly.  I guess something good came out of that mess — my family got to see me another day of break.

Fall Break this year wasn’t as exciting as some previous years, but I feel like I got a lot done and can start this week feeling a little ahead of the game…but I still don’t want to go to class. (sorry mom)

Yesterday all of the students currently enrolled in an art class went to New York for the day- I was one of them.  Thankfully, my friends Brittany and Aly went along too.  The day was full of fun food and people watching.  We also did a lot, and I mean a lot, of window shopping.  Personally, I was hoping to find the Cash Cab, win big bucks, then go to 5th Avenue and have a shopping spree.  But, unfortunately, that did not happen.

Instead, my day went a little like this:

• Walked down 5th Avenue and wished I was a kajillionaire
• Bought a hot dog from a street vendor (yes I know they are gross and bad for you, but I really wanted one)
• Went to the Apple Store, which was the biggest one I have been in
• Went to Tiffany’s and daydreamed
• Saw a guy dressed as Spiderman running down the street
• Got a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks and enjoyed the scenery
• Walked down to Times Square and debated where to have lunch
• Ate lunch at a little hole in the wall Deli, which was great
• Saw a guy dressed as the green Teletubby handing out coupons, I took a picture of course
• Bought some scarves for my mom and I from a street vendor
• Bought a gift for Levi
• Grabbed dessert at Serendipity 3
• Headed back towards the MET and saw tons of dogwalkers, that job market seems to be booming
• Did some more people watching and walked along side the MET looking at street art
• Hopped on the bus to go to Chinatown
• Ate some beef and broccoli
• Bought a knock-off purse
• Called it a day

All in all, I had a good time.  The day was a little longer than I would have cared for, but I got to spend some time with some great friends and explore the city.

I live in a 3-person apartment, which means one us gets to have the pleasure of sleeping in the top bunk (or death chamber as I like to call it).  Guess who drew the lucky straw this year… me.  So far in the year nothing too bad has happened, only a few times have I had trouble getting in and out of bed.  But Friday afternoon I decided to lay in bed and watch TV and hopefully get a nap in.  I decided to lay the opposite way in my bed to have a better view of the TV.  So probably about twenty minutes into my show, I drift off into a nice peaceful afternoon nap only to be awakened by the feeling of falling. Within a matter of seconds my left leg was being speared by my roomates bed post. (we have our beds set up in an L-formation in the corner of the room so her single bed is perpendicular to the bunk bed that I’m in..or was in) The bedpost was a little sharp and managed cut my favorite sweatpants as well as leave a nice trail on my leg.  Within a few minutes my leg began to swell and bruise.  I’d say the bruise is probably about an inch or two bigger than a softball and is black, green, and purple today.  And man does it hurt!

Moral of the story: try to move into your room first so you don’t get stuck with the top bunk

But if you do have the top bunk NEVER lay in the opposite direction of how you sleep because you think you have more room to roll over, but you really don’t.

I just want start off by saying that each week seems to be getting longer.  Last week, I thought Monday was Tuesday and I thought that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday were all Friday.  This week I feel like every day has repeated itself.  A little bit groundhog day-ish.  I am not a fan.

Well, with all that being said, I am sooooooo happy it’s FINALLY the weekend!  I got a good bit of my schoolwork done so I should have time to relax and spend some time with my friends.  Some of us are planning to go out to dinner tonight at a place called TJ Rockwells, which is pretty close to campus.  Then we are going to go across the street from the restaurant, to a place called Ashcombe Farm, and pick up some pumpkins to take home for a carving contest.  With my newly discovered art skills, I think I may have a winning masterpiece up my sleeve.

Hopefully I will be able to correctly identify what day it acutally is and break this crazy groundhog day cycle just in time for Monday to roll around again.

This past weekend Levi and I went to the National Apple Harvest Festival, in Biglerville, PA.  We met up with both of our families for an afternoon full of all things apple.  My family and I had never been before, but it was so much fun!  There were food vendors, crafts, and little shops lined up everywhere I turned.  There was definitely something for everyone.  I actually started off my afternoon food binge with some Bruster’s pumpkin ice-cream, that just so happened to be at the festival.  I then moved on to tasting the pumpkin funnel cake that everyone was sharing.  That was surprisingly good.  Levi got an apple dumpling, so naturally I had to have a bite.  Then I tried a little bit of his sister’s apple crisp.  I then proceeded to polish off a pork barbeque sandwich.

Much to my dismay, it was about then that I hit full stomach capacity.  But, the apple festival will be around next weekend too.  Same time.  Same place.  So I could always go back for more.
Here’s the website if you want to check it out, or get directions: http://www.appleharvest.com/