We had our last race of the season yesterday :( it was in VA, it was cold, but we definitely had fun ;)
so we left here at 5 on saturday, took off at 7, got to DC around 9 ish, long drive through DC VA traffic, arrived at the race course (charlottsville, UVA) around 3. it was cold!!! all we wear to row are these little spandex outfits... cold!!! so we rigged our boats and rowed for a little bit then time to head to the hotel... but our bus driver got us lost :( once we got there, quick shower then back in the bus to go to dinner. we got lost going to dinner:( crazy lost, over and over again... she was a really bad driver. then she got us stuck in a parking lot... this was actually best part of the weekend... she would creep up and back over and over again getting nowhere, almost hitting these cars over and over again for like 35 minutes and we were starving. our coach wasnt with us so she left myself and anna in charge. so anna's outside the bus trying to help her get around the cars, I'm inside trying not to let 15 girls charge out of the bus to go walk somewhere in the cold and get lost. then finally we just had onel ittle car in the way, just one... a little toyota camry. so i was like, ok guys lets go move it... and they actually followed me out of the bus, and everyone ran right for the car, got hands on and before i knew it, we were moving this car. first up to the curb, 2 men approached us, i thought we we gonna be in trouble, they were asking if we needed help... so then we got it up on the curb... the bus pulled out, we put it back... generally where we got it from, off the curb at least and we were off. again drove another 20 minutes, finally found a little shoppinhg center with a few little take out places... we grabbed something to eat (i got a sub) then a little shoppign around the plaza... we needed to be out for a bit after the little bus fiasco... then back to the bus, and what do you know, our hotel was 2 minutes away.... stupid driver
then the racing on sunday was good, we raced a bunch of "good schools" so good competition and stuff... but froze, it was soo cold. then loaded up the trailer, and back on the bus, from their to the plane then back here in miami by 10:45... SLEEP
unfortunatly, i was suppossed to write a paper all weekend, actually all semester... its due tomorrow at 3... but i just started it about 2 hours ago :( woops, i gotta get back to that now... but that was my moving a car story...

ok, so i have a funny story from this morning... but i suck at telling stories so it might just come out stupid, but here goes...
so i was at practice (rowing)
we were on the dock, getting our oars so we could launch
however, our oars were stuck under one of the oars of the other boat
so i thought i'd be nice and help them push off the dock.
so i started pushing tash's blade
but she wasn't pushing back so the boat wasnt moving, just her oar was
so i told her to push away (like gradually, ya know)
but she slammed her oar into the oarlock (pushing it all the way out)
however, i was right there
and her blade nailed me in the gut
it pushed me back about a foot on the dock
unfortunately i only had about 6" left of dock behind my left foot
so my left foot went in
as did my entire left leg
but my right leg was left up on the dock
with me in a very uncomfortable split
so i pulled my right leg in with me to get out of that position
so by this point I'm totally submerged in the water
but before i can lift myself out
2 girls from my boat grab my 2 arms
and drag me out of the water
then someone grabed a leg
and swung me around on the dock
i ended up sprawled on top of our oars
soaking wet
w/ a big bruise on my left inner shin
and w/ the most painful bruise in my crotch
so sorethe entire practice
and now i can't even sit properly w/o any pain "down there"
hehehehehe, so how did ya like my story???

that's it ;)

hey, go sign up for the turkey trot!!!

I'll be running with a big giant (my brother) and a few of his friends, but knowing them, they are gonna be really slow... ;)
well, go sign up!!!!

so a birdie told me it was snowing in buffalo today... is this true??? ahahaha... sorry, i just find it funny that its snowing ;)
i was up in GA this weekend and the mornings were like 35-40 degrees and were were absolutely freezing, granted we were on the water and all we had on were 2 layers of spandex and a sweatsuit on over... but still!!! freezing!!!!
oh, but we are back here in miami, hehehe, it was funny, this morning i had on shorts and a tee as i was walking outside and my roommate told me "oh, you are gonna be cold out there" so i put on a sweater... what was she talking about??? it was warm out!!! ahhh, i love it!!!
but what i did notice is that christmas stuff is already up all over where were were in GA, and there is NOTHING here, nothing at all, and they really never really have much except for this big santa that they put up on this one corner in the middle of Coral Gables (the city UM is actually located in) and that even looks weird, i remember seeing it freshmen year and thinking "christmas in july" weird though, weird...
ahhh, what am i thinking about christmas for, thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet... oh i can't wait for some good food (i just hope my mom's not cooking, jk) heheheh ;)
but have some fun in that snow for me!!! and leave a little bit for me so i can go sledding, then it can all melt ;)

herm, well I don't really know what to write... but I haven't written much lately... been really busy with school work, I hate being busy with school work, no time for play :( but I get my first "vacation" of the semester, well acutally just a race up in Georgia, but a nice little change of scenery... we get to see colorful trees with the orange, and red and yellow!!! oh, but the cold :( oh well, its 3 days...
speaking of going up north, im gonna be home for thanksgiving!!! is there anything going on around then??? between the 24th and 28th???
what about the turkey trot??? I've always wanted to do that... or oh, I don't know... im up for anything, I have 4 days, and I get really bored of my family FAST!!! even on thanksgiving... woops :( oh well... im off ;)

wow, its been forever since i've gone trick-or-treating... like at least 8 years i'd say, but as a senior in college, i had the irrestable urge to go trick-or-treating. and it was soooo mcu fun!!!
however, there were several things i discovered last night:
1) trick-or-treating around a college campus doesn't work so well... their on to us not being little kids :(
2) it's totally different to do it in miami than in buffalo... all i remember about trick-or-treating when i was little was bundling up in my winter coat and possibly boots, and then my costume on top, running from house to house just to stay warm... here complete opposite, we had wife-beaters and shorts on wiith just sheets on top and were were sweating like crazy :( trying to slow down and take breaks frequently to air out, sick eh???
3) it might not be a good idea to dress up as a group of blue and maroon ghosts... apparently people thought we were "terrorists" or "talliban" or "arabs" and one women taking her kids around even told us something about how we better not be voting on tuesday, whatever that means (???) We were ghost, colorful ghosts cuz those were the only sheets we had. GHOSTS!!!
4) it's hard to play off being little kids when 3 of the 5 of us were over 5'8", you can really only squat for soo long and its soo obvious when you do that too
5) (on a political note) of all the houses with "bush" signs, only one answered their door and gave us a treat. all but one "kerry" sign house gave ussomething, and one that was out of candy even gave us money (???) didn't expect that... this is just another reason to vote for John Kerry!!! Kerry people are nicer to kids!!!
6) it's not the good candy you are hoping for from the next house, but for someone to just give out some water!!! (back to the hot miami aspect of it)
7) even at the age of 21, trick-or-treating is soo much fun!!!!

hello, so i had my fall midterm presentation for my little Sr design class... its a group of 6 of us designing everything to build a building. well it doesn't really get built, but you get what im saying...
anyways so my part of it is the architectural engineering part, so i get to make the building look pretty, or at least flow together as a building ;) but all i have so far is the site plan with the general layout of the building and the parking lot and a few trees and a little oval which is supposed to represent an upcoming pond that will have a little fountain in it to add to the aesthetics of the building (if it were to ever get built, which it wont)
our site is very sketchy, it is surrounded by govt buildings, namely the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. and we think our site was used as a dump for all of the organic materials (trees and such) from when all the other lots around it were cleared for the buildings to be constructed... and the absolute best part about it is all the records of what happened on our site from 1962-1976 were destroyed by some computer virus, so there are NO records... and of course all the buildings around us were constructed during that period, go figure... but hey, here is the site plan, hopefully it will show up, sometime the pictures i've put up don't show up, i think they are the wrong kinda something, but about all i do on the computer is autocad and AIM, so that does kinda limit me, huh??? well here ya go, oh, and I'll throw in the southwest isometric view as well ;) (as you can see we are in very preliminary stages)



oh, well i kinda don't think its gonna work :( no pictures for you
maybe I'll figure out how to do it later, they are BIG files, even after being shrunk down

ok, so im a senior, and im trying to graduate on time... well thats not gonna happen, i'm coming back next fall to finish up two courses i still need to graduate... ok, thats not gonna kill me, i get an internship this summer (hopefully) then finish up easy stress free fall then i graduate then i join the "real world"
And then comes the FE test i have to take. It is the Fundamentals of Engineering test... offered twice a year, but you have to register like 6 months prior to taking it. so since i have been planning on taking it in April, i have to get the application in by the 15th, as in October... woops, kinda waited till the last minute to do that, huh??? so on friday i realized, while i was sitting in the school's health center in an hour long wait to be seen (i've been sick all week, Yeah!!!) that the due date is very quickly approaching and not only do i have to fill out a bunch of forms, but have to get papers signed by tons of people, i need the seal of the school, and get other things notarized... and all this on a friday afternoon since monday is a holiday (but we still have school) and it really should get sent out before tuesday. oh, and i needed a passport photo... how random i thought, but why do they need to know what i look like???? ok so miraculously, i managed to get all this done, some things "kinda forged" but not by me so i didn't really feel guilty, and i got the seal and after our afternoon practice i managed to find a notary on a friday at 4:45!!! and then after shower, dinner and watching the beginning of GO, and searching out 2 different convenient stores, i managed to get a passport photo (two in fact) and then a little bit of grocery shopping then home to find a post office nearby that would be open on saturday after i got back from practice to mail this out.
so after i have located 2 (just to be safe) post offices just nearby... i thought to myself, "well the test date is Sat. April 16th. We usually have races almost every weekend in April. I should probably check to make sure i don't have anything."
Well what do ya know... Our ACC Championships in SC are on Sun, April 17th!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
and of course the stupid test is only offered on that date nation wide... and it's an 8 hour test from 8-5!!!! so i asked my coach about flying up to SC after it and i talked to my teacher about any other possibilities, and what did i come up with????
I can' take this test that i spent my entire friday getting signatures and stamps and seals for and a picture too... UNTIL OCTOBER 2005!!!!!
ahhh, so frustrating... so there ya go

and a complete side note, why are there so many buffalo people in favor of Bush???? it seams like every buffalonian i talk to is all "pro bush" and "bush is the greatest" what the hell, buffalo has been hit crazy hard by his bullshit, there really aren't many people there anymore making enough for them to get any of those god damn benefits, and look at the jobs, or what jobs??? oh yeah, the factory/ assembly line jobs that were created to pay min wage while tons of "real" jobs went elsewhere or just vanished.... but yeah, bush is "good" right? cuz he has "morals" and "oh, he's soooo cute" (?????) and my favorite, "unlike kerry, he actually knows what he's talking about" (again ??????) well whatever, i just don't get it. I guess i am just a dumb "liberal" hehehehehehehe

So the past few days i have really started to get annoyed at the fact that the 1st pres debate was gonna be on our campus here in miami. there were fences everywhere enclosing us like prisoners, and we have had to wear our id badges everywhere to prove we should be here, and the parking inconvenience as well... but to be honest, after tonight, all those little inconveniences seem trivial.
It was soo much fun having soo much going on here!!!
first of all, free food, good food too!!!! all over the place!!!!
next, if you were watching any of msnbc's hardball this evening around 8:00-9:00 with chris matthews, there is a very good chance you saw me!!!
We got some signs, "Unidos con Kerry Edwards" yeah spanish, but come on, we're in miami remember... but we were the only 3 people with those signs. so if you saw that sign heald up by a girl in a blue polo... that girl was me!!!! we weren't behind chris matthews, but we were behind Ron Reagan and behind the 2 other guys at a different time!!!
but it was soo cool, we got to see/meet Al Sharpton when he was talking with chris matthews.
oh, and i can't forget the cnn stage with Anderson Cooper!!!! yes, you read that right, we met Anderson Cooper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he was surprisingly really friendly and talkative.
then during the debate they had these HUGE screens up in the UC patio which is a huge space they loaded with tables and chairs and of course FOOD!!!
but since we were messing around with the MSNBC people until 9:00 when the debate started we coudnt get a table. it was crazy packed out there, but luckily we each grabbed empty folding chairs and scooted up to the main big stage and had an awesome spot!!!
the debate was really fun too!!! the majority of the people out there were KERRY FANS!!!! well it seemed like that because we were cheering a hell of a lot more than the bush people, but come to think of it, there really wasn't much for them to cheer about. well the first 6 times he mentioned kerry's flip flopping thing they cheered, but i think they even got sick of that.
GO KERRY!!!!
and then after the debate concluded we got a little airtime on cnn's something behind wolf. but we didn't stay there long at all because the music was starting over across the lake.
Jill scott, who i had never heard of before, started off the music for "rock the vote" right after the debate. it was good, jazzy. unfortunately, we missed most of her stuff running around all the security people and across campus to get around the barricades to where she was playing.
following her was Vanessa Carlton, who did a really good job i thought. it was a relatively small audience, well what i could see, but people were all over, up in trees, around the lake, everywhere. but she was really cool and personal talking to us (the audience) a lot in between her songs. and she played a lot of her new songs and some of em were really good, so maybe she's not just a one hit wonder... but she did finish off with " a thousand miles"
all in all, it was a really fun evening, unfortunately a late night though, and a shower was definitely needed after a night out in that humidity... and of course, i've got to be up in less than 4 hours for practice!!!! but im not complaining, i love it!!!!!

GO KERRY!!!!!

this is a conversation that occurred about an hour ago between one of my room mates and myself regarding the secret service searching our apartment on thursday morning since the presidential debate is going to take place in a building about 100 yards away that evening, (exciting eh) well here it is:

Alex: "Julie! you know the secret service are goin to be searching our apartment on thursday? they're gonna find my tools!"
Me: "what tools???"
Alex: "you know, every woman has her tools!!! they're for when her man's not satisfying her. I've got 2! a white one and a black one! you tell'n me you don't have any tools?"
Me: 8*
Alex: "oh, come on, even your momma's got her tools"
Me: (again) 8*

am i really the only one who doesn't have any tools??? well i know my mom doesn't have any... or does she??? ahhhh