Homeless Creeper.

So, my mom and I were walking up to my apartment last Friday when we were passed in the stairwell by an obviously homeless man, carrying a bag of cans.  I kept seeing him lurking around the building and wandering around the block.

He wasn't this charming.

And then on Monday….I had a personal encounter.   I had just spent 20 minutes walking home from the Comm Arts building with 20 pounds worth of backpack, was talking on the phone with my mom and digging for my keys when I looked up to see Homeless Creeper COMING RIGHT AT ME through the glass door.  So, I grabbed all my stuff and booked it to Beaners, right up the road.   Totally gave me that feeling like I should be somewhere near people.  *shudder*

A call in to DTN resulted in the false promise of getting someone out “right away” to fix the door that hasn’t been locking properly.  It took 2 days, and multiple calls, but the door is locked and hopefully Homeless Creeper won’t make any more appearances.

Guess who’s back…

I have not blogged in AGES.  And I do apologize.

Two funerals in three weeks will do that to you, and I don’t want to go into details because it will make me sad.  Just let me say that my Uncle Joe and Grandma Betty will be missed <3

I start my new summer classes on Monday and my internship on Tuesday!!!  I moved into my summer studio last week, and it is fabulous.  I never want to leave, even though the bathroom is way too small.  I solved this problem by decorating it with a rubber duckie motif.  It is Le Cute now.

Some issues I have with my new home:

-The drunken idiot who appears to be dating some girl who lives down the hall.  Stumbling around at 3 pm absolutely obliterated is NOT okay.

-The laundry room.  Picture a walk-in closet.  Add washer and dryer from 1982.  Voila.

-Construction across the street.  It starts at SIX AM, people.

But that’s pretty much it.  And I have better cable than my parents do, so yay me!

Another topic of concern: Mike Lask.   He has been bragging to me about his grades for most of the semester.  Obviously, I am totally jealous (cough cough, what?) as this is  my highest semester GPA since high school, but whatever.   Naturally, I know what a notorious little liar he is, so I checked into his grades for myself.   He got one 3.0, a 2.5, and TWO 0.0s.  That’s right, he didn’t even make a mark on TWO classes.  He got ZEROS.   How the hell does one even pull that off?   I think you have to physically forget to take every test and do every assignment to do that badly.

Where does he come off bragging to me about his grades???  Yikes, what a con artist.  Dodged a bullet there.

Birthday Greetings Creeper-Style

I was proud of my creepers this year.  All but ex boyfriend Mike Lask left me mostly-normal greetings!

Congrats, Joe.

This year’s true champion?  Ex boyfriend Joe.  His message was so normal that I had to listen to it twice to make sure it was actually him.   Good job, Joe! I am so proud.  Clearly he is growing out of whatever phase he was in for the first 20 years of his life.  Thank goodness.  Though, I still refuse to attend one of his dad’s band’s concerts with him, no matter how many times he claims they are coming to Lansing.

This year’s loser?  Definitely Mike Lask.  Inviting me to come get drunk with your friends several times within an hour is ALWAYS the way to my heart.   Spending the rest of the day inviting me out for coffee, dinner, lunch, a walk, to hang out, etc etc is really captivating!  I am surprised I could resist his boyish (hahahahaa) charms.

Last Day as a Teenager

I turn 20 at midnight.  Here are some of the best moments of my teens, in pictures:

Tommy's 21st

Prom 07 with Manda

Summer 06

As Sarah Palin and John McCain, Halloween 08

Hanging out in London 05

With Maddie, family photo

Dancing with Sparty!

Tennis seniors

Good times at the lunch table

The day I sprained my ankle at the football game

Halloween 08 in Ann Arbor

Spirit week 06

Senior prom

Study sessions for calc

Spartan football with Naomi

Tuesday was pizza day

Hanging out with Naomi on Tommy's 21st

Manda's 19th birthday

Hilton Head 07 with the bests

Hanging out at U of M

Tennis 05

Homecoming 06 with Collin

Hilton Head 2006

In Paris on my 15th birthday!

London 2005

Homecoming 2004 with my best friends

Homecoming 2005 with ex boyfriend Joe

Homecoming 05 with best friend Amanda

Prom 05

Homecoming 2003

Final Four

Sorry!  I haven’t updated this thing in ages.  If you follow me on Twitter (allisonbartlett) you’ll see what’s been going on.  I promise, I have a LOT to write about.

But today,  I’m going to talk about Michigan State basketball….and how we’re going to the Final Four in Detroit.  I am so excited!  I have a test to study for, but I don’t care.  I’m in such a good mood, and I know that I only have another year and a half to feel like this.  Because when you grow up and get out in the ‘real world’, you don’t get to scream bloody murder when somebody wins a basketball game.  You don’t get to paint your face and run around like a drunken idiot.   You don’t get to chuckle when your peers get arrested for burning a couch in the middle of the street.   These are the days I should be living for, and I spend most of them worrying about my life after graduation.  Yeah, the economy sucks, but I’m only 19 and I don’t have to worry about putting a roof over my head or feeding my family.  I just have to worry about taking a midterm tomorrow morning.

In the grand scheme of things, I am the luckiest girl on the face of the earth, and 90% of the time, I’m wishing I was doing something more with my life.  It’s time to STOP, and enjoy what I’ve got, cause let’s face it, I’m not going to look like this forever.  I’m not going to have the chance to take a job I like that doesn’t pay me anything after December 2010.

I’m done worrying to the point of giving myself an ulcer.  Who gets an ulcer before they even turn 20???  It’s time for me to calm down and enjoy my life, becaues I’ve got a pretty great one.
Sorry, I know this is a ramble, but I was feeling inspired for the first time in over a week.

xoxo  Promise, I’ll be back soon,

Allie

Best Week Ever!!!

And no, I’m not talking about my high school guilty pleasure (that show on VH1 on Friday nights….when the cool 11th graders are out getting drunk).

It seriously has been one of the best weeks of my life.  It started off slow, I will admit.  However, St. Patrick’s Day 2009 will go down in Allie History as one of the Best Days Ever.

I interviewed with the Michigan Nature Association, in Williamston (which is the CUTEST little town I have ever seen!!!) and I was offered the position (which sounds amazing, by the way) on the spot!   I was so excited!  This is the job I have been waiting for.  Now I can ditch New Job for good, leave the stress behind, and cruise through the rest of this semester until May when MNA wants me to start!  I AM SO EXCITED.

A turtle and a bee!!

St. Patrick’s Day was also my 6 month anniversary (yeah, I celebrate that) with Tommy!  While I was at my interview (in the cutest town ever….did I say that already?) he went to a store nearby and bought the cutest cupcakes ever!   Such a fun way to celebrate.

Today, Tommy interviewed with the mayor of Lansing for an internship doing PR and communication work and he got the job.  So we both have internships lined up for the summer in the Lansing area.  We are sooo excited!  Yay.

It’s only Wednesday, let’s hope the week continues to be fabulous!!

I’m in a funk.

I don’t know if it’s because all my Facebook friends continue to update their statuses about how great Florida is, or because my grandma’s in the hospital.  Either way, I’m uncharacteristically emo, and spending way too much time laying around doing nothing.

Yesterday, it took all I had to even go out to dinner and a movie with Naomi.  And I love Naomi.  I came home exhausted and layed around for the rest of the night.  Blah.

I need to get out of Michigan.  It’s just depressing.  Everybody’s losing their jobs, it’s been below 40 degrees and cloudy since about October, and everyone’s just kind of an asshole right now.

If you are from the Detroit area and want to be even more depressed, go look at this.

I want to go somewhere warm.  With sun.     Is that too much to ask?

Can I go here please?

It’s been 8 weeks already?

I remember as if it were yesterday:  Tommy and I fought our way through a blizzard from my parents’ house in Clarkston to Novi for our first taste of what it would take to receive our New Media Drivers Licenses.   I walked into that room with a Facebook as my only link to the social networking world.

Since then, I’ve started THIS BLOG (don’t thank me), a LinkedIn profile (yay business contacts!),  and a Twitter (what began as a hate relationship has turned into pure love).  I’ve learned how to make myself both more findable online to potential employers, and more social media savvy, so those employers that find me can use me for something.

On March 21st, I plan on showing what I’ve learned to the world (or, those 50some people in that room in Novi) through a presentation that will blow everyone’s mind.  I hope.

I plan on highlighting what I consider to be the most important and useful things I’ve learned each week, including (but not limited to):

• setting up a WordPress blog, and using it without sounding like a moron
• establishing a presence in the social networking world through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
• Search Engine Optimization!
• Writing and submitting press releases (for free!), sans press.

And, of course, I’ll make the presentation simple, interesting, and spectacular!   Let’s hope I’ve proven to the world that I am ready for my New Media Drivers License.

Sure, I could handle that Mustang, but can I handle social media?

Feverish Musings from COM 200

Oh my god, I am so sick.   I have a fever, and a sore throat, and a wicked cough that makes me sound like a 95-year-old man who never gave up his pack-a-day habit, in spite of the emphysema. Quite honestly, when I looked in the mirror this morning, I almost mistook myself for a 37-year-old crack addict who just ventured into the sunshine for the first time in a month.  Yikes.

And I’m currently in class, contemplating life in a semi-zoned-out manner, not really paying attention to the notes.  I’ve been thinking about New Job a lot.  Those idiots over at the CAS internship office denied my request for internship credit, because (and I quote),  “we are unsure how you will represent the University, as well as the Communication department, until you have COM 240 under your belt.”  Apparently this COM 240 is essential to one’s function as a responsible adult, and working person.   I want to attach my resume in my response to this ridiculous response, but then again, part of me knows it will make no difference.  They won’t even agree to meet with me based on a really stupid technicality, so why do I want to deal with them?

When I emailed New Job Employer Man to tell him about the denial, he responded with “I suggest you take the course, do well in it, and then in the fall we go for the independent study”.  Which would be fine, but he seems to think I’ll work for him for no money and no credit until August.  Yes, that’s right, he wants me to essentially volunteer to work for him 15-20 hours a week for the next 6 months.   Yeah, I’m thinking not.

Since I’ve been getting sick quite more frequently this month than I ever have before in my life (even when I had those terrible stomach pains after I ate too many French pasturized products when I went to Paris in 9th grade),  I’m thinking I’m overworking myself and overstressing about this stupid job that doesn’t intend to ever pay me.  As much as I wanted a summer internship in EL so I could take classes too, this is getting stupid.   I don’t need to pad my resume that badly.  I have a delightful resume for a sophomore, according to everyone who’s seen it.   So, not to be vulgar or anything, but screw you, New Job.  I’m done.

Carson Pirie Scott, Wilmette, IL

Oh, what a special afternoon Tommy and I just spent shopping near his parents’ house in Niles, Illinois.  We had a great time with Starbucks creepers, and then we decided not to brave the wind and try any outdoor shopping.

This is not the 'right place' if you want to keep your sanity

Instead, we decided to check out Carson Pirie Scott, where I had never been before.  I spent a good amount of time checking out new sunglasses, and then Tommy and I made our way to the men’s department.   It wasn’t long before I discovered the 80% off rack, full of dressy buttondowns.

As Tommy spends most of his life in business casual, we spent a good deal of time looking through the disheveled shirts to find some in his size.   As we were checking out a rather yummy Kenneth Roberts in dark blue, the resident saleslady (who was about the height of an average 8 year old) approached us, remarking in her broken English about messing up the the shirts, mixing them in with non-sale items, etc etc.  We were confused.  Do Tommy and I really strike you as the type of people who are going to ransack a department store?  No.  Tommy very diplomatically (and wayyyy too kindly) told her that he hadn’t been unwrapping, opening, and unpinning anything.  She continued to act as if we were toddlers invading Grandma’s Forbidden Fancy Shoe Closet or something, standing in our personal bubbles, and stomping around our feet.

So, we went to pay for our merchandise at the other side of the store, where an ancient old woman spent about 10 years ringing us up.  But, she was a refreshing change from our poor experience in the other department.

On the way home, we realized that we had just spent $53 on merchandise from an awful salesperson.  So we turned that Equinox around and headed back to Carson’s, where we approached the customer service desk to return our product.   When the manager du jour asked why we were returning the clothes, Tommy explained that we had just had a very bad customer service experience, and Manager Man went “oh” and continued ringing us up, not inquiring further.

Overall, TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE.   Do not shop here!   On a scale of Angry Exclamation Points, I give it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I’d give it more if it wouldn’t screw up my formatting.

Other than that, I’m having a great time in Niles, and looking forward to going into the city tomorrow.