My life as I know it

The 06-07 College Football Bowl Contest, Pat vs. Emily part II has begun. If you refer back to a post I made last February, you will be reminded of last year's outcome. I did in fact lose the battle and had to make Pat dinner, cookies, and stay a night in his terribly dirty house filled with seven boys. Pat's bet is quite similar to last year's. If I lose, I have to cook him dinner again with dessert. The good news for me is that he no longer lives in a dirty house with seven dirty boys to bribe me with. Therefore the bet ends with dinner. With that in mind, the stakes aren't quite as high this year which is why I couldn't get away with the same bet I made last year. I was hoping to get one more shot at spending an evening with Pat scrapbooking and watching Sex and the City, but he refused to let me pick that option. He claims it's because it's not a fair bet since my stakes are so low and his would be so high. But if you want my honest opinion, he's sc...

Exuberant. That's the word of the day. It's the word that best describes the way I feel to be done with my first semester of grad school. According to my good friend, the Merriam-Webster dictionary, exuberant means: joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic. According to my other good friend, google images, exuberant is best illustrated by the image to your left. Grades were posted tonight at midnight, marking the official end of the semester. Technically I've been done for about a week now and I couldn't figure out why I still felt stressed, as if I wasn't done. After the grades were posted tonight, I instantly felt relief. It's almost like a rite of passage, viewing the grades online to mark the end of the semester. After my previous 4 years of remaining stressed until I see my grades in writing, I've become accustomed to this symbolic act. I'm proud to say that I earned straight A's this semester. That being said, I'm not quite sure how I did i...

First and foremost, Happy (belated) Halloween! Hope everyone had a good time dressing up, passing out candy, eating too much candy, ignoring the holiday completely or whatever it is that you do. As you can see, I dressed up. Wayne's World... Party Time... Excellent. It was a lot of fun partying Wayne's World style with Pat in Cleveland. Coming back to start another week of grad school however, not so fun. Part of me feels like I'm trying too hard to live the life that I used to have; working on school during the week and working on my social life on the weekends. I keep wondering how my fellow grad student friends are keeping up with all the work? The answer is that while I'm spending my weekends with my boyfriend, a lot of them are using their weekends to catch up on all the work they weren't able to finish during the week. Even though I know that I am not utilizing my time on the weekends as wisely as others, my relationship with Pat may be the only thing keepin...

Meant to be completed by those ADULTS out of high school) Tired of all of those surveys made up by high school kids? 'Have you ever kissed someone?' 'Missed someone?' 'Told someone you loved them?' 'Drank alcohol?' Here are some questions for the people who are a little more mature (or at least have smile lines)... Okay, okay... OLD FOLKS like us...... 1. What bill do you hate paying the most? Credit Card and now for the first time in my life, car insurance and medical bills. 2. What's the best place to eat a romantic dinner? Am I wrong or does anyone else think there's nothing really romantic about eating? You watch the other person get food in their teeth and worry about talking with your mouth full. I guess eating in Paris might be romantic. 3. Last time you puked from drinking? Hmm...it's been a LONG time. I don't even remember. 4. When is the last time you got drunk and danced on a bar? Our girls night last November (Mac West reunion...

If you look closely at my finger you can see his male genitalia. If you look even closer at my ring finger, you will see that I am either engaged or married as well. Wow. I have so much to tell you. Okay, okay, you caught me. That's not my finger and that's not my sister's uterus. The picture was stolen off the internet. But you get the idea. My sister is expecting a baby boy on January 27! The name is still in the works, but it's looking like it might be Cooper. And I'm going to leave the whole name topic at that. I know some of you might be expecting me to elaborate on the last name and how much I dislike it. But I'm not doing it. You can't make me. So the kid isn't going to have the greatest last name, who cares. I've taken some slack for the last name Steele and I'm sure this baby will take some slack for his last name as well. Okay, you twisted my arm. Let's discuss it. My friend Aubrey and I came up with an action-verb for the last na...

Not a big fan of Mondays and not a big fan of rainy days. Therefore today was just a blah kind of day. I spent 4 1/2 hours with Jerome again today. I keep telling Pat he has nothing to worry about but I think he's starting to get suspicious. My love affair with Jerome is neither here nor there however. Let's get down to business. On today's agenda, an update on Mark. Last Wednesday, Mark had CT scans done on his abdomen, chest, and neck. They were supposed to get all of the results that same day but unfortunately that wasn't the case. What we DO know: his abdomen and chest scans were great! We had to wait all weekend long not knowing about the neck. And of course, the longer you have to wait the more scenarios you put into your head. "Maybe they're taking so long because there's something wrong." Today Mark finally got a call about his neck scan but he didn't get to speak to the doctor. He spoke to the physician's assistant who gave him some ...

My sincere apologies, please take these flowers as a token of my regret. I have almost gone five months without an update. I just slapped myself on the wrist, twice. I could start making a list of excuses about how busy my summer was and how stressful grad school has been so far and maybe this would excuse my long absence. But instead I'll just admit that I completely forgot about my blog and my loyal readers. But fear not my friends. I'm back and ready for action. So what would you like to hear about? "How school isn't like it 'used to be' when I was an undergrad?" Would you like to hear me reminisce about the days before grad school when I actually felt smart in class and even smarter when I left class. Or maybe you would like me to compare and contrast the reasons I used to get excited for the weekends and the reasons I get excited for the weekends now. Maybe you want to hear about my experiences of teaching my first college-level course. I could tell ...

With only 11 days until graduation, stress is probably to be expected. With a to-do list longer than there are days left, I can't help but start to worry about how the heck I'm going to get everything done. I didn't realize how stressed I actually was until I got back from the library last night and my roommate said to me, "Do you have two different sandals on?" I was thinking to myself, of course not. What am I some kind of idiot? Then I looked down and saw this... Now let me clarify a few things. When I say "I went to the library," I don't mean I walked in, grabbed a few books, and walked out. I mean, I went to the library and stayed there for 3 hours. I should also add that I didn't go there and stay in one place for those 3 hours. I walked all around the entire library; saying hi to people I knew, went up to the 7th floor to get a pop, opened the pop and it sprayed all over me and started dripping [I think it may have dripped on my foot. Too...

Yes, that's right... I won the BG News NCAA March Madness Pool. What can I say? I know my sports! Sports Briefing - Sports

Well I guess I should start off with a big apology for my leave of absence. As some people have brought to my attention [Benjamin], I have neglected my blog for over a month now. Although I am "bowing my head in shame," I'm also honored that people have noticed I have been slacking because that means that they have actually been reading my blog! Even those people who don't like to admit that they care about it [Benjamin]. Now then, moving on to our next order of business... I have officially accepted the assistantship offer from BGSU's School of Communication Studies master's program. As some of you know, I also applied to BGSU's Counseling master's program. As of Monday I still hadn't heard back from the counseling program and the communication studies' program was eager to know whether or not I accepted their offer. I had to make a [quick] decision and I did. I confirmed that I did in fact accept the offer and now I just have to sign a contr...

You will have to see it to believe it! It seems my luck might be turning around as far as betting on sports goes! If you would like a chance to get some of the millions of dollars I could win, you better leave me a comment and root for Florida! :) P.S. If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, click on the link below. BG News

I got an email with some pictures that I thought were pretty funny. I hope they make you laugh too! I apologize for any vulgar content.

Okay, I lied. It's all about whether you win or lose, and I LOST my bet with Pat. The 05-06 College Football Bowl Contest, Pat vs. Emily, has ended (actually, it ended quite some time ago...). Fair and square and by a mile, I lost the bet. As one of my loyal fans , I mean readers, mentioned to me today, I forgot to do an update on who won the bet. I do whatever I can to keep my admirers , I mean readers, happy so here it is; I lost the bet. The stakes weren't as high for me as they were for Pat. I had to cook him a stir-fry dinner, my specialty thanks to my step-dad's help, and chocolate chip cookies. Eventually I will have to stay over at his house, but I haven't owned up to that part of the bargain yet...Don't remind him though because I think he forgot! I am somewhat bitter about losing. I feel as though my lack of sports knowledge was taken advantage of. It would be like me making a bet with Pat about which guy Carrie would end up with on the final episode of ...

I feel as though I might be entering a mid-life crisis. Hopefully I live to be older than 44, therefore not making this a mid-life crisis but rather a beginning-life crisis...but you get the idea. In case you don't know this about me, I do not handle mysteries or surprises very well. I like to have things figured out and know exactly what my future holds for me - very unrealistic, I know this. I took a personality test which told me that I "prefer traditional and familiar experiences" and I am "a generally anxious person and tend to worry about things." Thank you, captain obvious. As many of you may know, I was stressed for quite some time about getting my application in for grad school. I spent a long time working on the essay to make sure it was the best that it could be. It was a huge relief when I had my application turned in by the second week in January. All that could be done on my part, was done. The only thing left to do, was wait to hear back. Nothin...

Just in case you forgot... I have the best dog in the entire world! Well, he's actually quite bad sometimes, has no manners, doesn't listen to a word I say, and brings back dead animals every time he goes outside. That being said, I'm still obsessed with him.

Sorry there haven't been any updates in a while! I blame my mom! It's not like she has anything else to do besides write these updates (yeah right). Before I spoil the good news, I just want to personally thank all of you for all of your support. I can honestly say this battle has been one of the most difficult things I've ever been through. I don't know what I would have done without all of you and your continued support. One of the most difficult parts of this struggle was being away from home last March when I first found out and even this fall when I came back to school. When all I wanted to do was be home -and then when I was home and didn't want to be there either ha ha- each of you helped in some way to keep me going (and I know at times it wasn't pretty)! Anyway, I know that many people faced with these situations don't get to give updates like this with such great news and I don't take for granted how lucky my family is! Thanks again for everyt...

There have been a few requests for a new blog to be written about my experience meeting Pat's parents. Although it was an experience I would like to forget, I've decided to rehash the night anyway in hopes that it might make at least one person laugh. So, if you are in fact that one person that this makes laugh (or you feel like lying and say that it made you laugh even if it really didn't) leave a comment and let me know. It all started with me going to Strongsville on New Year's Eve to take the GRE for grad school. [Disclaimer: I do not wish this test on my worst enemy, well maybe someone I really hate like... anyway, you get the idea]. The test took me 3 1/2 hours and I was in a little room the size of a cubicle with about 5 other people taking tests too. The first five minutes went okay until I started hearing someone clearing the phlegm in their throat. If I could insert a sound here, I would. It was a sound you had to hear to completely understand. Instead, I...