last week in review.

Last week was a crazy whirlwind and was entirely too short. It was a great spring break, but I hate to say I am back at school. The days go by so slowly here…

Last Thursday, I arrived in San Francisco to visit my beautiful sister. I had a great time exploring the city-it has such a cool, vintage, indie, diverse vibe. I loved it. We did a lot of shopping-wandering through stores I’ve never even heard of before. It was great! Too bad my carry-on bag didn’t have any more room- I could have bought a lot of cool things for our apartment next year! I could see myself living in San Francisco or on the west coast at some point during my life. Hopefully not yet, as costs of living are through the roof and I am broke as a joke. Everyone just seems so NICE there. Maybe I am just growing tired of the routine I am in.

On Friday, I anxiously awaited news from mark. about the internship. I slept in to make the day go by faster and woke up to an email :

“Dear mark Intern Candidate,

We have been amazed with the outstanding level of professionalism and enthusiasm from all of our candidates.  Thank you again for your dedication and commitment to mark.

Please note that you will hear directly from us no later than Wednesday, March 11 with regards to our 2009 Intern Selection.

Have a wonderful weekend,
The mark Team

WHAT!? I was FREAKING out. So I went on a walk to the dog park at the top of my sister’s street. All of the adorable puppies and a talk with Josh while overlooking the entire San Francisco Bay area made me smile again.

Saturday & Sunday I spent all day with Lindsay and Andrew. We went to a lot of bars and drank a lot of alcohol. I went out for Sushi dinner for the first time ever (I LOVED IT!).

Monday, I went and did all of the touristy things you do when you visit San Fran. I went to Fisherman’s Wharf, took pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, and went to In-N-Out Burger! Then I flew home on the red-eye, got a cab to Mason, drove to Yorktown, and slept for a little bit.

Tuesday, I went to Josh’s baseball game versus Norfolk State. I LOVED seeing him, but 10 minutes is not enough time. It seemed like I just said hello and then Coach Ikenberry was pushing Josh onto the bus. It was really great to see him pitch again.When I got home, I checked my email and received the good news about the internship!

Wednesday, I went to VMI baseball at UVA. Once again, great to see Josh, gone too soon. Mrs. McP took me out for a delicious dinner and martinis, so by the time we were back in the car, I had forgotten all about it.

Thursday-Sunday is a blur of hanging out with my yc girls and my parents, sleeping, & wishing I were with Josh. I need to get busy with schoolwork again, because it seems like when I am not busy, all I think about is him. (eek! I got mushy-this is gross). I also started another blog dealing with my makeup stuff, but it is still in the works, so I am not announcing it on here yet.

I am so excited for the next couple of months.

changes

Today, I got an email that shot my excitement through the roof! I was accepted to be a part of the mark. internship program for the summer of 2009!

So far, I know of a few other girls that got the internships and I literally can not wait to meet them and see what all of us can bring to the table at mark. I have a feeling we’re going to do GREAT things!

New York City, here I come!

<3A.

Disappearing.

Yeah, I haven’t updated in quite some time. I am very busy with a lot of things! I think I need to start updating this more. There is way too much going on in my head right now..As junior year is running full speed ahead, I’ve been applying for all sorts of internships. I’ve had little to no luck thus far, and I find out about the mark. internship tomorrow or Saturday. I am VERY nervous, since I know a lot of people applied and it is a really great program. New York City for a summer for a company I already love working for? SIGN ME UP!

Hopefully that will work out because my search for internships is starting to become hopeless. I’ve gotten a few rejections (thanks Macy’s, Norfolk Admirals, and IMG World), a few ‘we aren’t opening this position anymore due to rough economic times (BOO!), and a few interviews!! I’m still searching and hoping for GREAT marketing internships-but I really hope that search can end tomorrow!!

Other than internship searching, I am taking 17 credits, working, and giving tours for ambassadors. I’ve also gone to VMI for some baseball games and my spring break FINALLY starts today.

So, I can’t think of anything else to say.

<3A.

I have a problem..

I overbook myself. I’m starting to think I am too driven for my own good…I just want to do everything under the sun, but I don’t remember that there are time and energy constraints. haha. My first week back at school is going to be a complete nightmare, including mark. training (more to come in this post about that), Operations Manager training, and Mason Ambassadors Freshman move-in, but I know a lot of it will end up paying off in the end! I am actually really excited to get school started back up again.

I’ve found a new hobby, and it is the greatest thing ever. I’ve started selling mark. makeup. It is a brand by Avon that is targeted towards high school and college aged girls. I’ve purchased a lot of products and started to build my business. In the past week, I’ve sold about $70 worth of makeup-from TWO customers. I really enjoy it, and I get a great discount on makeup.

Soon after signing up to be a representative, I learned that mark. is doing a campus program, building relationships with universities around the country in order to market the brand. Turns out , they are coming to Mason in the fall! In the program there are five campus managers – who each have fifteen representatives under them. I am really excited because as of yesterday, I was selected as one of the campus managers!! Now I am starting to build my team. It should be really great marketing experience for the future..I’m going to be able to land some pretty fierce jobs!

<3A.

ENG302B

Business Composition..goody. I am finally on my last paper, which has to do with the biases of two popular political commentators: Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann..While this is extremely fascinating to a lot of people around the country..I can not get myself motivated to write this paper. I really wish I cared about politics right now, but at this point of my life, I am not interested. Is it weird that I am ALREADY exhausted from the democratic primaries and debates? Who even knows if I can make it to November. This makes me extremely upset. I’ve always wanted to vote..but politics to me means gas prices and unemployment rising, while more and more money is being cut from public schools, etc. I really just want to write my paper about what I’m doing this summer and how my parents picked the name Alison for me. UGH. Summer classes are stinky.

Meanwhile, I am working at Kingsmill..the ‘best place to live, work, and play!’ I’ve had several really interesting banquets to work, so that is keeping me entertained. Of course, there is always drama going on there-it really should be made into a reality show, but KM would never do that because it’d make people never want to go there. haha. I actually love working there though. It’s perfect for me for a summer job. Sometimes I wish I could work there all year…

Ah, just had to get some random thoughts out. Maybe I’ll actually get started on this paper..

<3A.

Trauma

I wrote this for my English class freshman year. I truly believe my professor brought out something special from my writing. It had a sort of life. Now I feel like writing memos over and over has zapped out any creative ability I have. This is why I started this blog.

When I get a hangnail, I suddenly become depressed and reach for the nail file. Running the file along my nail returns the nail to a curve. It ends up not as perfect as the previous nail that was immaculately painted and shaped, but good enough. Getting over a traumatic event is like a file to your nails. It wears you down and keeps wearing you down until you take control and put it into perspective. After a traumatic event, the world changes shape and it will never return to its previous perfection.

My grandpa died when I was fourteen of lung cancer. He hadn’t told my dad about his diagnosis of cancer (or about his diabetes that he had for thirty years) until he was nearing death and had to get a nurse to live in his house with him. He was stubborn, but he was the most amazing man I have ever met in my life. He was a high-ranked Marine and was always determined to do everything himself. He was an avid Packer fan and lived less than a mile away from Lambeau Field. He called every Sunday night to check in on how my softball games were going. He ordered our Christmas presents out of random catalogues and every year bought us personalized pencils for school. My sister’s were always pastel, and mine were always brilliantly bright colors such as Hot Pink and Orange. He always told me that he chose those colors because I was an outgoing and strong-willed “firecracker.” He knew the real me, and he loved me.

One day, I was walking home from school with my friend Kristin. I called my mom when I got to Kristin’s house to let her know I was going to hang out at her house for the afternoon. She replied that I could not stay there and that I had to come home immediately. I was confused and angry, because her usual response would not have been that. My mom came over and picked me up in our little blue VW Beetle. I got in the car, and she looked distressed. We drove to my house in complete silence. In my opinion, Frankie Valli was wrong when he said, “Silence is Golden.” It is disturbing to me.

She sat me on the couch and started to explain what had happened. My dad traveled to Wisconsin the night before to go to a Fraternity reunion. He got to my Grandpa’s house and found him on his bed, not breathing. I was numb. I couldn’t feel anything, except my stomach dropping like I had lost the best thing in my life. We got on a plane to Green Bay that night.

I felt as though the world had turned against me. Why did this have to happen to him? He didn’t do anything wrong.

The next Sunday night, the phone was beside me and didn’t ring. The grief of losing my grandpa still files away at me sometimes, but I know that everything is still okay. Trauma also gives a sense of hope for the future. Although bad things happen to everyone everyday, we still get through it because we don’t give up- just as our nails continue to grow after a hangnail.

<3A.

Long Distance

While I was at work the other day, a friend asked me why my friend Amanda and I even bother with long distance relationships. We really had no explanation and jumped into sarcastic voices saying things like, “Well if you REALLY love someone, it’s worth it.” but really, why do we do it?! I know I love my boyfriend more than anything in the world, but am I “wasting” my twenties on a boy that I only see MAYBE three weeks total over the course of a year? I spend countless amounts of dollars on gas to see him, hotels once I get there, etc. It takes an insane amount of trust, commitment, and compromise to be able to make long distance relationships work-and with a VMI cadet, it takes an insane amount of money.

After this discussion, I also started thinking about whether or not adjusting to life after a long distance relationship is hard. When Josh and I both graduate, will we find all new things to fight about? Will we fall out of love because we are too accessible? Will my habits annoy him? Hopefully not, but who knows what the future will bring.

Overall, we make choices everyday to make our relationship work..These decisions will continue to be made whether we are near or far away from each other. I guess it’s just weird to be questioned about your relationship in an environment where relationships usually aren’t discussed. Just some thoughts for now!

<3A.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Well, I’ve decided that my thoughts are well worth a blog. I hope someone reads it one day and realizes I am amazing and should be a celebrity. I’m going to put all of my random thoughts in here-I’ll try to usually keep it intelligent, PG and drama-free. but we’ll see how that goes…

<3A.