Almost Opening (BEDA Day 20)

We’re knocking on the door of the opening of the school year! Tomorrow all of our new students will move in to campus and orientation will kick off, then next Monday classes begin and we'll be at the start of yet another academic year. Today, to set a positive foundation for the year, our involvement team within our staff did a bit of a retreat where we discussed our goals and hopes for the year, and finished the day with a bit of kayaking on the Charles river. It was a great day spending time with this subset of the staff and getting to know each other a bit better.

Clockwise from the top - me, Alexa, Matt, and Nick

I firmly believe that Humans of Higher Ed is saving our field, one hilarious meme at a time. Every time they make a post they nail it. 10/10 would recommend if you work in Higher Ed!

{source}

Finding Some Confidence (BEDA Day 15)

Things I did today:

-Dragged myself out of bed late and started the day running behind

+Laughed a LOT with my colleagues and a couple of students that are on campus early today

+Brainstormed some training sessions for students that I'm excited to present next week

+Managed a tricky situation at work and felt somewhat confident about it?

+Had enough energy after work to clear the sink of dishes and cook dinner

+Practiced drawing dogs (something I've always struggled with) while watching Jersey Shore with Brett, Craig, and Meg

Today was also my 1 year anniversary at my job, and I've been really feeling like I've been hitting my stride the last couple of days. I'm usually riddled with impostor syndrome and question all of my decisions, but for some reason I actually feel like I know what I'm doing?????? It's crazy what a year on the job will bring you. I still have so much to learn and I have a few major facets of my job that are brand new to me this year, but I'm actually feeling good in my role for a change. It's a nice feeling.

Admitting that I've been feeling somewhat okay (or dare I say... GOOD) the last couple days actually scares me. For some reason admitting that to myself makes me so nervous that I'm going to fall back into a depressive state. and an even deeper one at that (nothing like mental illness to make you think irrationally like that, amirite). I came across this comic from The Sad Ghost Club today and it really spoke to me. I felt really good today and was able to accomplish a lot of positive things, but "Doing My Best" might look different tomorrow, and I have to learn to be okay with that.

{source}

A Week of Surprises & Festive Fun

Another whirlwind of a week has come and gone! It really feels like the closer we get to the end of the year the fast time flies. There's just so much that needs to get done! This past week was no different.

The first major thing of note happened last Thursday when I came home to a mysterious Amazon package. All of my gifts that I had ordered online were accounted for, but I wasn't sure if I had ordered something and forgot, or that Brett sneakily ordered me something for our anniversary the next day (he swore he didn't -- I was skeptical). I finally opene dup th ebox and it turned out to be What If It's Us by Adam Silvera & Becky Albertalli sent from my good buddy Michael! It was such a surprise and so fun to come home to that after a long day of work!

Brett and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on Friday (!!!) and as we're trying to save up for the next step of our life (hopefully moving closer to Boston within the next year), we still wanted to celebrate, so we went out for a yummy dinner at a local Japanese restaurant for delicious sushi and scorpion bowls (our scorpion bowl was called the Godzilla - amazing). It's so wild that's it's been 6 years since our first date and it was great to have a chance to spend some time just the two of us before hoping right back into the insanity of the holiday season.

Saturday we went out to Brett's family's house for their annual holiday get together for food, drink, family, and a gift exchange! We had such a fun time hanging out with everyone. Everyone really enjoyed the gifts we got them (Sophia LOVED her books! I may or may not be conspiring to turn her into a little book worm... 😇

The biggest surprise of the evening was when Brett brought out a gift for me from EVERYONE, and it turns out that everyone came together and got me a NINTENDO FREAKING SWITCH for Christmas! 😭😭😭 If you read this year's Dear Santa post, you'll know this is one of the items that I would have LOVED to receive for Christmas this year. And welp... I got my Christmas wish! I am so grateful for everyone who came together to give me this extremely generous gift. I've already been playing it a bunch and I can't wait to continue!

This week has been my last week of work before we head down to Florida tomorrow (!!!) and as predicted it has been hectic AF. I tried my hardest on Sunday to get a ton of things done (groceries, editing, pre-filming, packing, etc.) but I was battling feeling kind of dizzy throughout the day and had to take lots of breaks to lay down. UGH. Always so frustrating when you don't feel well but also have a to-do list that's a mile long!

This week was packed with holiday festivities including two holiday parties, a night of making SO MANY COOKIES, a cookie swap (for the aforementioned cookies) and a festive readathon, all while trying to get mentally and physically prepared for taking nearly two weeks away from home over the holidays. WHEW. It's been a lot, but it's also been so fun in the mean time! Usually the busy-ness of the season really stresses me out, but this year I really seem to be enjoying it. (Although, not gonna lie, now that I've had time to breathe this afternoon the anxiety has been knocking on my mental door. 😣)

My TBR pile for the Christmas at Hogwarts readathon that is happening this week.

Blue circle: Lupita being *real* comfortable under the blankets
Red circle: Brett hanging on for dear life to the edge of the bed
Lupita's really pushing her boundaries when she sleeps in bed with us recently 😂

Enjoying one of my reads for Christmas at Hogwarts ♥️

I made chocolate covered Oreos for our staff Christmas party, both white and milk chocolate. The white chocolate are above. They were a huge hit with both my staff and Brett! 😂
You can find the recipe I followed here!

It's always so hard to say goodbye to Lupita and Poppy when we have to leave for a long period of time.
We always miss them so much! This is the cuteness we had to leave behind this morning... 😭

Today was my last day of work before a beautiful 12-day vacation! We're flying out of Boston tomorrow morning, so instead of driving all the way back to our place in central MA tonight just to drive all the way to the airport in the morning, Brett and I thought it would be smartest for us to stay with a friend in the city instead, which means he came to work with me today! I tend to get into work about an hour early as to beat traffic, so we went to one of my favorite breakfast spots in the area called In a Pickle in the time we had before the work day started.

My epic waffle at In a Pickle this morning. Leslie Knope would be proud. 

After breakfast we headed to the office, where I gave him a tour of the building that I work in and he got to meet my staff for the first time which was so much fun! He's been hearing all about my new job and my new staff for months now so I was happy he got the chance to come to campus with me for a day.

And he came on such a fun day as well! Our entire division did a Cookie Swap, which I had never participated in before, but was actually a lot of fun! The idea is that each person brings in a bunch of cookies of their own recipe, then we all set out our cookies and we get to take a variety of cookies from everyone else! We wound up with SO MANY MORE COOKIES than we brought, which was weird because I still have an entire box of cookies from what I made left over. 😂 Either way, it was a fun festive activity that I had never done before, so I was glad I got to participate.

I brought Peanut Butter Fudge No-Bake Cookies, which are some of my all time faves. I forgot to snap a photo for the blog, but you will be able to see them in my Happy Vlogidays Week 3 Vlog (which should go live this weekend) AND you can find the recipe I used here! It's actually super easy and produces the most delicious peanut butter chocolatey goodness you can imagine. YUM.

And that catches us up to right now, as I sit on our friend's couch typing this post and Brett snoozes next to me. I'll be waking him up in a bit so we can order dinner, but not before I get some Christmas at Hogwarts reading done. I may even pop open the champagne my director gifted me and sneak some of the cookies we swapped from this afternoon. The less I have to carry on the plane, the better, right? 😉 

Like I mentioned, we'll be flying down to Florida in the morning to spend Christmas with my parents. I'm SO looking forward to seeing them, Kiwi, and Mikey, and getting some sunshine. It is much needed! It'll be such a great holiday and I'm so happy it's here. 🌞 

What are you doing this weekend? Have any plans for the last few days of the year?

Let me know in the comments!

LINKS I LOVED THIS WEEK

Hogwarts House Uniform Wearable Snuggie-Like Throw Blanket from Geekologie

So Much Christmas Spirit: Video Of A Guy In A Truck Completely Covered In Christmas Lights Doing Donuts At Night from Geekologie

Home Alone Again with the Google Assistant from YouTube

Grasshopper Brownie Cookies from Oh My Veggies!

End of Semester Stress

Festive view from my bed. I love that my bookshelf looks like a little fireplace waiting for Santa!

LOL @ me for thinking that the semester ending would slow things down for me at work. NOPE. Had the opposite effect, apparently! Classes officially ended on Monday which means a lot of things were due for students in our office, including any financial transactions they wanted to make (which directly impacts my job). Of course students wait til the last possible minute to do what they need to do, leaving us to be a bit frantic about tying up loose ends on our side of things. It's been a little crazy and stressful, but we're getting through it!

That being said, not a ton of things of note have been going on in my life this week outside of work. Just really starting to get things squared away before we leave for Florida next week (!!!) and trying hard not to lose my mind through this busy time of year. Luckily people seem to be in cheerier moods and feeling festive and goofy which makes the stressfulness much more bearable. I definitely appreciate that! 😊

Monday morning brought something called the Basket of Goodness to our kitchen at work! Apparently, one former staff member (who is now retired) brings all of this HOME COOKED food into the Student Affairs suite around the end of the fall semester, including homemade English muffins, cookies, rice krispies, breads, butters, cinnamon rolls... basically any baked good you can imagine, for everyone to share! I was a big fan and this was my main source of breakfast for a couple days early in the week. Absolutely loved it, and continuing to love the family feel of being a part of the Bentley staff!

It's finals week for our students, meaning they are in full blown study mode. Our building is completely taken over by students and their books and laptops as they rush toward the finish line of the semester. I will say that Bentley does a fantastic job of supporting students throughout finals - better than I've seen on any other campus I've worked at. Yesterday morning there was free coffee and bagels for students, and throughout the week we've been pushing a Snack Cart around the building to the big study areas for students to grab some free study fuel and to-go de-stress activities like coloring books and fidget toys. I'm absolutely loving the idea of meeting the students where they're at to provide a but of joy and motivation throughout a stressful week!

I've never related so hard to something in my life 😂 #longcommutelife

Despite being busy this week, I've been able to get quite a bit of reading done! I finished One Day in December by Josie Silver on Tuesday which was the contemporary book I NEEDED to kind of remotivate me to finish my reading year strong. It was a great distraction to the stress of work! I had been reading American Psycho last week and while I'm enjoying it, it's hard to be in the headspace of an angry, psychotic main character when I was feeling so stressed myself. I definitely needed the genre change and I'm glad I was able to breeze through it!

I also finished Dare to Lead by Brene Brown on my commute into work this morning. This was the pick for our Professional Development book club at work and I am so happy that I got the chance to read it! Brene Brown always calls me out on my lack of vulnerability, being "armored up", and my perfectionism, and it is just so refreshing to hear someone speak so frankly about the big elephant in the room - we all need to be better about being honest, about "rumbling" (or having hard conversations to accomplish the goals that we've set out), and about being okay with being vulnerable because we *all* feel that way! Highly recommend you all check out this book if you, like me, suffer from anxiety induced perfectionism. 😜

Me AF 😂 Sorry, y'all - I'm not a hugger.

For some reason I keep stumbling across running mugs on Instagram that I would LOVE to have in my mug collection. I mean, I don't need them (I have approximately 85,000 mugs 😂) but the sayings are just so cute and I feel like they will cheer me up on a Monday morning as I grumble at the end to another weekend. What do you guys think?

So adorable! 😍

Speaking of things that I'm stumbling across on Instagram - THEY ANNOUNCED THE THEME OF THE NEXT SEASON OF THE CHALLENGE AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF.

Brett and I are huge fans of The Challenge so I instantly screen shotted this post and sent it his way. Both of our reacations: WHAT DOES WAR OF THE WORLDS MEAN AND WHY ISN'T THIS SEASON ON RIGHT THIS MINUTE?! 😂 Either way, we are very excited for this new season. I love that this has been a show we've been able to bond over throughout the entirety of our relationship and that we continue to get excited about every season!

This weekend is our last weekend at home for a little while. Tomorrow is our 6 year anniversary (!!!) I think we'll be doing a dinner out to celebrate. I can't believe it's already been 6 years! It does not feel like it's been that long at all. I think that's a good thing! 😊 We'll be spending Saturday evening with Brett's family celebrating Christmas with them a bit early, and Sunday will mainly be doing laundry/starting to pack as I will have little to no time to pack for our trip during the week. I can't believe we're leaving for Florida next weekend but at the same time I CANNOT FREAKING WAIT! I'm already so over this cold weather and the daily grind of work every day. I'm so excited to have a break, see my family and friends, and just ~relax~. Only 8 more days!

LINKS I LOVE THIS WEEK

Chocolate Dipped Oreo Cookies from Two Peas & Their Pod

High Fiving Grandma from HUUB Design

Me AF from Viral Videos

Alpha Kappa Alpha joins BSU from Bridgewater State University

One Woman Recreated Rachel Green's Greatest Friends Fashion Moments from Cosmopolitan

Violent Dog Attacks Delivery Man from UNILAD

A real-life Mr. Clean from Nameless Network

The Teacher's Pet Podcast from The Australian

Bot Watches 1,000 Hours of Hallmark Christmas Movies and Writes a Script from Twitter

Rock-A-Bye Puppy from Twitter

Happy Vlogidays! Week 2 (December 8-14, 2016)

I always forget how freaking busy this tim of year is! We are in full December mode in our neck of the woods with plans on basically every single day of the week. It is crazy. BUT it is extra fun and that's really what matters the most! 
On this week's episode of Happy Vlogidays, we find out about New Found Glory's 20 Year Anniversary Tour and IMMEDIATELY buy tickets, I run the Ugly Sweater Run with my parents in Boston, I have one of the biggest events of the year at work, and Brett and I celebrate our 4-year anniversary! I hope you all are enjoying these vlogs - they're some of my favorite to make every year! :) See you next week with episode three!

Family, Football, and Fall Festivities

It's been a while since I've sat down and given a bit of a life update here on the blog. I've been posting up my vlogs as I've been posting them on YouTube but I also haven't been doing a ton of daily vlogging lately, save for readathons which don't really focus on my daily life. I thought I'd pop by and give you all a bit of an update on what's been going on lately!

The school year is finally underway, I survived September, and things are finally settling down a bit. If you've been following along with this blog for a while, September and April are always the busiest months of the year at work. I'm really happy with how September went for us this year - we have multiple succesful programs, we're trying out new things, and - the best part - really connecting with the students. Our staff is still fairly new (the majority of us have been at MHC a year and a half or less) but there's definitely a difference in how we're connecting with the students this year which is making our work so much easier.

The Nichols football program is doing much better this year than they have in previous years! It's been great to see the football program Brett dedicates so much time and energy to finally make some visible and tangible improvements. While they're 2-3 half way through the season, Brett is confident that they have the potential to pick up a couple more wins which is amazing. I can't wait to see how the rest of the year goes!

I did lose my grandfather a few weeks ago. I mentioned this last week here on the blog and in my Tackle Your TBR vlog & wrap up but I didn't feel right writing a "life update" and not including this. He was a loving and hard working guy, and always ready to crack jokes and enjoy himself with his family. It's still weird as he's always been in my life and we will miss him dearly. <3

I'm running marathon #4 on tomorrow and I am NERVOUS. Training this summer went really well, but as the school year kicked off and my schedule got busier training got pushed to the wayside quite a bit. I'm trusting my body and my knowledge of fueling and stretching properly to propel me across the finish line, but I'm still pretty apprehensive about taking on 26.2 for the fourth time. (Can you believe it?! Marathon #4. I still remember everything about marathon #1 so vividly!)

Life is still quite busy but I'm happy with how most things are going. I have a huge stack of books I want to get through, I'm drawing, blogging, and YouTubing more consistently, and I would say that I'm overall content! I'm looking forward to the coming weeks that will be packed with family visits, holiday food, and lovely end of the year festivities. I hope all is well with you guys, too! Happy fall :)

August 2016 Goals

Happy August, everyone! Alas, it is the last month of the summer and the last month before another crazy busy year begins. I've really enjoyed the summer and am not looking forward to seeing it go, but I'm feeling like I'm just about ready to take on the year. These next few weeks are critically needed but once they pass I'm hoping I'll be in a good place to take on the 2016-2017 academic year! Now, onto my goals for the month...

Read four books - I have four books I want to read this month, and I'm actually already reading all four of them! I have a vacation at the end of the month and I am planning on reading until my eyeballs fall out. I can't wait. This month I'm hoping to finish reading Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (I'm listening to the audiobook on my commutes), The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson, Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Register for the Green Mountain Marathon - With how good I'm feeling in my training lately, the time has come to officially register for the Green Mountain Marathon. It's always a great (and scary) feeling when you're officially registered and really lights a fire under you. I'm looking forward to this fall and hoping it's my best marathon yet!

Get special events for first two months of the semester ready to go - This is a work goal - I'm responsible for our special events calendar that is planned by our office so I would REALLY life to get all of September and most of October good to go before September 1st, so I'm able to just focus on working with my students - the most important part of the job! I'm pretty sure I can make it happen. Just gotta stay focused!

Complete a painting - I haven't painted in a good long while and I figure my vacation would be the perfect time to pick up the brush again!

WATCH AS MANY OLYMPIC EVENTS AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE - Guys. The Olympics officially start tomorrow. And I am SO EXCITED. The summer games only come around once every four years and I love them so much that I really want to watch as much as possible before they're over yet again. I'm especially excited for my favorite events - the gymnastic and swim meets, the track and dive meets, and all the sports you don't typically see on TV like fencing and weight lifting and synchronized swimming and the marathon, of course! I cannot wait for the events to get started!

And those are my 5 (yikes) goals for August. I'm really looking forward to having this month to gear up for the school year and to squeeze every last drop out of summer that I can! I hope everyone has a fantastic August and make sure to click "read more" to get an update on my July goals!

#SAPro: Year One in Review

July 7, 2015: Snapchat from my first day!
Thursday was my *official* one year anniversary at Mount Holyoke! I can't believe how quickly a year has gone by and I can't believe how at home I feel on campus after only 12 months. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the experience I had in my first year. I had an excellent staff that had my back and became close friends of mine, I had absolutely incredible students who amazed me at every turn, and I became part of one of the most welcoming communities I've ever been a part of. I have learned so much this past year from my students, colleagues, and surroundings that I feel like a completely different professional and person than I was when I began last July. I'm so happy that I've had the opportunity to laugh, think, be challenged by my colleagues and especially my students, and to grow.


I took a bit of a chance on Mount Holyoke when I accepted the job in May 2015. The position wasn't *exactly* what I was looking for, but the staff and students I interacted with during my interview were (and are) people I knew I wanted to be around. So I took the plunge and accepted the job and it paid off. I have met some of the most incredible people and students and have learned so much from everyone I've encountered on this campus. I take a look at the photo collage above and I can't help but to feel overwhelming happiness for all of the experiences this job has afforded me. I gambled a bit on Mount Holyoke but I feel like I hit the jackpot with my first job as an #SApro. I can't wait to head into my second year at Mount Holyoke and see what will be thrown at me next!

July 7, 2016: Celebrating my one year workiversary with my amazing staff!

A Few of my Favorite Links {#21}

April....PHEW. 

It's been a whirlwind y'all, as it usually is. If you've been following this blog for a while now you can totally tell when things are crazy for me at work because that's when posts get a bit more infrequent (usually September and April every single year). I guess that's just the trend in my life! Anywho, we had our final *major* event of the year - Pangy Day - on Friday and it was super successful! We were gambling hard with the weather. All week called for rain and even thunderstorms but kept going back and forth on when the rain would actually begin. We had outdoor activities planned from 10:30AM to 3PM, and according to all of the weather sites rain wouldn't start coming down until right around the time we would be packing it in for the day, so on Friday morning we made the official call to stay outside and we. hit. the jackpot.

While it was quite humid (we were expecting thunderstorms, after all), the sun was shining for most of the day, everyone was in their summer clothes and summer spirits, and everyone was having a blast. It was truly such a perfect day (I keep joking that Mary Lyon was looking out for us) and the weather held right until we got the last person and last piece of equipment inside after breaking down at 4PM when it immediately started pouring, thundering, and lightning-ing. Perfect timing, to say the least! With a smattering of other weekend events, we closed out our year of student programming Sunday afternoon and I can officially say I made it through my first academic year as a professional! We only have Senior Week and Commencement to worry about before we can officially call it summer time! :)

I have a few really awesome links for you today which (per usual) involve 3 of my 

most favorite things in the world - food, dogs, and Game of Thrones. I hope you enjoy!

Super Filling Sweet Potato Tacos

If you've been following my weekly vlogs or if you were around for this blog post, you'll know that I've been making a bit of an effort to be a bit more conscious when it comes to eating meet and dairy products. I by no means have cut them completely out of my life, but lately I have been pausing to consider possible alternatives, often making the decision to take a vegan or vegetarian option when it's available, and have recently made the choice to completely stop eating pig meat all together (yes, including bacon) which was a pretty easy choice as I never was too crazy about it in the first place. It's a journey and while I don't think I'll ever go completely vegan or vegetarian (then again, who knows?), making these decisions little by little will help in the transition.

Source

Enter, this recipe. I just stumbled upon it yesterday and it is completely vegan! It looks freakin' delicious and honestly not that much different than a regular taco recipe. Just really replacing the meat with sweet potatoes which sounds pretty amazing in my opinion. I definitely want to try these out the next time I'm in the mood for homemade tacos!

Pet Portraits by Incandescent Design

Source

As I've come to find out, I'm all about customized pet products that create a fun memory of your beloved furry friend. Incandescent Designs offers up these fun pet portraits for a modest (sarcasm) $200. With a finely detailed drawing, a pop of color, and a little twist to show off your pet's personality, I think this would be a fun addition to any room in your home!

Chart of 40 Different Kinds of Pizza

Source

I'm not sure when I came across this chart but I do know that I came across it when I was borderline hangry and of course fell heart-eyes-emoji in love! There are some items on this list that I wouldn't really want to try, but the vast majority of these pizzas - sign a lady UP. I think the top three pizzas I would need to try at some point in my lifetime are the Scottish Pizza Crunch, the Pizza Cone, and I really want to try Cauliflower Crust Pizza as well! What one would you want to try?

9 Times Actual History Was More F*cked Up Than Game of Thrones

Source

In honor of Game of Thrones finally returning, I obviously had to include a GoT related link of some sort! This one showed up on my Facebook feed, as most BuzzFeed articles do, and I had to click on it because I love when fictional stories are put into historical context. It's crazy just how messed up the world was back in the day and it was just considered to be normal. I mean, could you imagine hearing about a party reminiscent of the Red Wedding happening in real life?! Yikes.

What links have you been loving lately?

A Few of my Favorite Links {#19}

Hello everyone! I took a little (unintentional) week's break off from the blog last week. I was feeling very exhausted throughout the week as a lot was weighing on my mind, and when that happens blogging is typically the last thing I'd like to do, but through journaling and creativity and of course the incredible support from B,  I've been able to process through it and I'm feeling much better. Sometimes you just need to take a mental health break!

Activities and events are back in full swing at MHC and it feels like I'm finally settling into my routine. My colleagues and I have come up with a solid plan so no single one of us is always caught at work late on Fridays or Saturdays. It seems like things are progressing forward in a very positive way which is always a glorious feeling to have while you're at work. I'm very lucky to be a part of such a cohesive staff! #blessed #sockgameonpoint

I'm creeping up toward a butt load of travel in these last weeks of winter and I'm super excited about them! First off I will taking a vacation down to Fort Lauderdale next week (!!!) with my friend Rob while Brett is recruiting for work. We found some really cheap round trip flights (Under $200 to get there and back! Uhm, yes please.) and I'm staying at this cute little Air BnB that's not far from the house the coaches are renting, and about a 10 minute bike ride from the beach! I'm definitely planning on renting a bike for my time down there so I can travel around in the warm Florida air easily. I'm looking forward to spending time far away from stress. I'm (of course) planning on hitting the beach, but in my down time journaling, drawing, reading, filming videos, and blogging. It's going to be so niccceeeee. Cannot wait.

Shortly after I return I will be travelling to the exact opposite climate - Canada. My friend and colleague Erin and I are going up to Montréal for the ACPA International Convention which will be so much fun! I'm excited to attend some educational sessions, network, and eat lots and lots of poutine. We're planning on doing some touristy things in our down time as well as Erin's never been to Montréal and the last time I went I was about 14 years old and was there for my sister's softball tournament so I don't remember too much of the city. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Now that we're all caught up on my life, I'm going to hop right into my favorite links as of late. First of which is very exciting... I'm published, y'all!

Changing Campus Traditions

My two BSU counterparts (my former supervisor, Matt, and former co-advisor, Casey) and I wrote this article that was finally published in the first 2016 issue of Programming magazine - the publication for the field of Campus Activities! We've been working on this initiative to make our Homecoming pageants more inclusive since I arrived as a graduate student in 2013, and thought that sharing our experience - both the challenges and the successes - would be a great thing to contribute to our field. I'm really proud of this article and proud of OSIL for being courageous in the face of changing a beloved campus tradition!

$100 Donut Iced with Cristal Champagne and 24k Gold

This.... this is ridiculous. I can't decide if I hate this because it's so ridiculous or love it because it's so ridiculous. I mean, the donut is $100 and made of gold, but it sounds pretty disgusting if you ask me. "It's a donut filled with ube mousse, champagne jelly, and covered with a glaze made from Cristal champagne and 24k gold flakes." Probably not something I want to be eating. What do you think? Either way this was too out of control to not share, so it's making this edition Favorite Links.

Cocktail Chemistry - Ice Ball Cocktail

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while! While this is definitely not a super simple process to recreate, you can't beat the presentation! I mean, how cool would it be to be served your drink in an ice ball?! I have a feeling if I attempted this I would fail miserably, but the idea of this is so awesome.

I Tried to Become the Most Popular Person on a Cruise

I loved this little article! This is the story of a guy who went on a cruise on his own and tried to make as many friends as he could. Being very socially anxious and introverted, stories of people who have the guts to take on a challenge like this is so fascinating and inspiring to me! If you need a little pick me up or a cheerful story, give this article a read!

Cuddle Clones

I basically fell out of my chair when I found out that this was a thing. HOW CUTE ARE THESE?! This company will create custom plush replicas of your pet and I'm IN LOVE. Granted, they are quite pricey, but if you're far away from your pet or want something to remember a furry friend that you might have lost in the past, I think this would be so incredible. Whoever thought of this is a genius.

New, Female-Powered 'Ghostbusters' LEGO Set Unleashed

In girl power news, LEGO has released their new Ghostbusters set featuring the new cast of lady characters! I love when toy companies great "girl toys" that are more than just pink, purple, princessey, and stereotypically "girly". Love. It. I bet I would love to have some female LEGO characters to play with when I was growing up. My sister and I had a huge box of LEGOs that we always played with as kids and I can't really think of ever having a girl LEGO person. This set features exclusively female LEGO people and it's awesome and deserves to be praised.

THE EIGHTH HARRY POTTER BOOK!

My brain basically exploded when I found out about this earlier this week. I knew this play was being released but I had no idea that the story was also being released in book form! I'm still not entirely sure if this is a novel or the script to the play, but either way I'm excited AF and am obviously going to pre-order it. How could you not?!

What links are you loving lately?

Fast & Fun Fall

What a crazy fall it's been! October flew right by with craziness at work and and was jam packed with fun things every weekend. It's true that life seems to go by faster with each passing year, but I personally think it's because as you grow older life gets more and more fun! :) Anywho, here's what I've been up to these last few weeks.

We were all clearly thrilled to be at trivia. Especially Cullen.

Erin, Cullen, and I hit The Quarters after work a two weeks ago for round 2 of Harry Potter Trivia! We went a few months ago for the first round of HP Trivia and didn't do so great. I think we did a bit better the second time around (this time we were named "Gilderoy Pop and Lockharts" XD) but it was packed with people so being competitive was tough for everyone. (There were teams that got literally every question right >_>... putting my HP knowledge to SHAME!) We still had fun, though, which is what matters the most!

1. Reunited with Brittany & Matt at the Pageant!

2. The Homecoming Court in their best duds!

Later in the week I headed to BSU for the Homecoming Pageant! The Pageant is my absolute favorite event that is put on every year, and this year was extra special because I knew pretty much the entire Homecoming Court through working with them during Orientation or through PC. As it does every year, the court made me laugh with their talents and costumes, and made my heart melt with their interview answers. Bridgewater students love their university and every year the seniors in the court reflect on their time at BSU - it gets REAL emotional and I love it. I'm so happy I was able to make it back to campus for this special event.

1 & 2. Jenna toting Erin around in the Student Life wagon after wrapping up FallFest! XD

3 & 4. Staff photo day! We love Dinosaur Office - can you tell?

As I mentioned before, work's been crazy busy. I've found that this part of the year has been even more hectic than September (at least for my position) which is crazytown to think! In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving Break we have multiple events on almost every Friday & Saturdthat ay, meaning the time leading up to the events is spent answering emails, holding meetings, and on Fridays and Saturdays I hang out at work til the wee hours of the morning. I'm so happy that I love the work I do, but I'm even happier that I have amazing colleagues to make the craziness all bearable! (Examples of how we laugh through the stress above!)

Birthday cake surprise at midnight!

Brett had his golden birthday last week - 27 on the 27th! Unfortunately he had to work all day, but I surprised him at midnight with a slice of chocolate cake, brought him some lunch, and we we able to have some Chinese food for dinner (our fave)! Later on in the week we were able to have some fun (Halloween weekend!!!) so having a nice low-key birthday was actually pretty nice. :)

1. I was Katniss at work on the 30th - yes that's a marshmallow bow!

2. New Found Glory at the Palladium! 3. My lovely date to the #NFGYC show!
4. Our costume for *official* Halloween - a Blue Barracuda & a Temple Guard from Legends of the Hidden Temple!

Then, my favorite part of the year, Halloween! This year was particularly fun because the holiday fell on a Saturday which works perfectly for both Brett and my schedules and we were able to plan lots of fun activities for ourselves! On Friday our office hosted a trick-or-treat for students so we all dressed up in costumes. I was dressed at Katniss from The Hunger Games and was complete with a marshmallow bow and arrow (these are the things you'll find in your office when you work in Student Activities). Everyone else had great costumes, so I highly encourage you to check out our Instagram page to check them out!

Friday evening was something that Brett and I had been waiting for since June - the New Found Glory & Yellowcard concert at the Palladium! NFG and Yellowcard both played for about an hour and it. was. awesome. It's so amazing to see such a passionate crowd and performances that had so much energy after nearly 20 years of each band being together. We had a blast belting out nearly every song of both sets and dancing around. Even though each set was an hour I wish they could have been longer! Hopefully, because NFG's 20 year anniversary is in 2017, they'll be touring again very soon!

Finally, on the 31st, we were able to hang out with Erin, Cullen, Tim, and a bunch of their friends for a Halloween party! Brett and I went as a Blue Barracuda and a Temple Guard from Legends of the Hidden Temple, a Nickelodeon game show from we were kids. True 90's kids right here! I loved our costumes this year and we got a lot of compliments on them (though there were quite a few people who didn't understand what we were, haha!). We had a really great time hanging out with everyone and having a fun, relaxing time for a change!

Clearly, things have been crazy, but they've been lots of fun as well!

How have things been for you all?