Live for the moments other people don't notice

As spring break comes closer here at UMaine, and I am stuck up here the whole time working, I start remembering my past spring breaks.  Though I have not gone any where tropical or warm I have a had a few good spring breaks.  My favorite by far was Freshman year.



My best friend Molly is from Worcester, Mass and she and I were inseparable, so needless to say we spent spring break together.  It started with us renting a hotel room in Bangor so we could stay here and watch the UMaine vs. UNH hockey game, which was great.  We are huge hockey fans, and watching them beat our rival school was awesome.  We then road tripped 5 hours south to Worcester where we stayed for a few days with her family.  Her family is amazing and have become a huge part of my life and getting to know them for those few days was so much fun.  We met our boyfriends in Boston and ate and shopped for the whole day.  The weather was perfect and the atmosphere in Boston is amazing.  After we had spent the majority of our money we all went back to Molly's house and had a little barbecue even though there was still snow on the ground.


After a few more days at Molly's house my boyfriend and I drove back to Maine where we stopped for one night at my house in Gorham, and then continued on our way to Camden where my boyfriend lived.  Camden is a beautiful town and we just drove around and looked at all of the beautiful houses and beaches.  I met my boyfriends family for the first time, and met all of his friends from home.  We went to a house party at his friend from high school's house, where I felt out of place, but still had a great time regardless.  The following day his parents, who are Greek, made a dinner that I at first was terrified of.  The main dish was lamb.  I had never eaten lamb and never thought I would, but in fear of being rude I tried it anyway, to my surprise I loved it.  It was great eating and laughing with his parents and brother, but sadly after dinner I had to head out on my way back home.  I spent the remainder of my spring break with my family, which was relaxing and nice, but I seriously missed my friends.

Spring break always comes at the perfect time, and even though I haven't gone anywhere special I have spent it with some of my favorite people in the world.  I have learned that it does not matter where you are it really only matters who you are with.  My friends and I can have the best time doing absolutely nothing, which really comes in handy up here in boring old Orono.

Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful

This past weekend I celebrated my roommate Nicole's birthday with my friends by going out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.  This dinner was just like deja vu for all of the birthdays we have celebrated here in Orono.

From last years horrible birthday dinner.

This dinner started with us calling the restaurant (which will remain unnamed) ahead of time to reserve seats, or at least a spot in line.  They said okay we will have a table ready for ten people around 7:00, which was perfect.  We arrive at 6:50 just so we are not late, and we go and tell the hostess our name and they say about 20 minutes and our table will be ready.  We were a little frustrated by that but we understood because it was dinner time and they must be busy.  Our group was fine waiting for 20 minutes, until a group of 15 or more people come in sit for 5 minutes and go right in.  This made no sense, we called early and have a smaller group, but we let that slide too.  It was not until 7:30 and we still were not seated that we complained to the hostess and sure enough 5 minutes later we were finally seated.  Needless to say we were quite annoyed, but there is more.  We waited ten minutes for the waitress to come take our drink order, twenty minutes for the salad, and then ones we got the salad the food came out 5 minutes later.  The waitresses were rude and disrespectful, but the group of us still had one of the best times.  We laughed and joked and remembered all of the other horrible birthdays we have had together.  It seems with my group of friends, no matter where we go for our birthday dinner, the restaurants either mess up the name, don't write down the reservation, cant seat us all together, take forever to serve us, and even forget meals altogether.  

Even though we have had horrible luck with birthday dinners the memories and laughs we have had because of them is something to be remembered.  We might forget the servers name, or the amount of time we had to wait, but we will not forget the laughs we shared and the memories we created.  These moments made me realize that it is better sometimes that things do not go perfectly as planned, and I am forced to roll with the punches and be flexible.  The memories created when something doesn't go as planned can be even better than if everything goes off without a hitch.

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

Moving into the college dorms was one of the scariest days of my life.  I was terrified of meeting my roommate, my neighbors, and making new friends.  Little did I know then, that some people I met on the move in day freshman year, would be the people I live with four years down the road.  Molly, Nicole and Stephen were my neighbors in Oxford and I could not have asked for better people to be placed into my life.  The four of us have been friends since the first day, and have created some of the best memories ever.

Nicole, Molly and I went to Hawaii at the end of sophomore year, and it was the best trip of my life.  We did so many things, and it brought us so much closer together.  Traveling with the two of them was amazing but living with them last year was even better.  Of course there were arguments and fights, but there were many more good times.  Each of us finally turning 21, having a roommate we couldn't stand, shoveling our cars out, falling down the stairs in our heels, doing homework the night before it is due, and sappy movie mornings on the weekend.  These girls, were the best part of my year last year and it would not have been the same without them.  Having Stephen move in this year, was a big change, but adding him to our little strange family was the best thing ever.  He is the voice of reason in our crazy girl fights.  He is the best hair stylist I could ask for, and he makes me laugh more than anyone.  

My three roommates have played such a large part of who I am today, and I would not be the same without them.  I can't imagine not having them in my life anymore, and cant wait to make so many memories with them.  I asked Stephen the other day if we could have old school game nights when we are all grown up and old, and he said to me, "uh duh."  That moment proved to me that the friendships I have created from day one of my college experience are forever friendships that will last into actual adulthood.  These three people who just by chance lived near me freshman year of college, taught me about happiness, and how I do not need to have a huge group of friends and I do not need to have a boyfriend. All I really need are the few people who make me laugh until I cry, let me cry until I laugh, and of course laugh at me when I look and act like a fool.