Kicking the Bucket.

Today, I began to conquer my bucket list. My first task: jumping in the Hudson River.

Mission accomplished.

Sufficiently Creepy.

To be quite frank, blogging every day is not going to be a possibility this semester. I’ve got a very writing-intensive course load this semeseter, so I won’t always have time to write about all of the fun I had at the bar or how great my professor is. I’m sure you understand.

On a different note, came across two rather similar photos — one of me and my cousin, Brody and one of my sister and Brody. I got really creeped out when I realized that my sister and I are starting to look so alike, it’s scary.

That is me.

That is my sister.

Can you see the similarities? My mother and grandmother always used to dress us in matching outfits when we were very young, despite the two year age difference. I feel as though they were using the matching jumpers and swimsuits as an attempt of foreshadowing — letting us know that we are destined to be too similar for comfort.

At least we’re both pretty.

Lessons From the Beach.

Here is what I learned during my three day vacation:

• “The Time Traveler’s Wife” is a confusing but wonderful read.
• Nike sneakers are expensive, no matter where you buy them.
• There will always be traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike, no matter what time of day it is.
• Getting your ear pierced on a whim on a boardwalk at a random shop is strangely invigorating.
• Getting your ear pierced at said random shop also hurts. A lot. Especially when the piercing of choice is an industrial.
• There is no such thing as eating healthy while on vacation.
• Gay beaches do exist.
• I felt less self conscious about my appearance at the gay beach.
• Stores that are called “outlets” are really stores where clothing is marked down an additional $3 or so.
• I really like hemp and rope bracelets. And friendship bracelets. And bracelets in general.
• Grandmother’s can make vacations stressful, but they do it out of love.
• Jelly fish stings hurt periodically for up to 20 minutes.
• It’s hard to pee on command when you have a jelly fish sting.
• Beaches aren’t as fun when there are little kids running everywhere.
• Sunshine is wonderfully relaxing.
• I look very nice with a slight tan.
• Sideboob burn hurts. Aloe doesn’t work on sideboob burn.
• I still miss someone.

The beach is gone, I have a stuffy nose, and I’m sweltering in the A/C-less walls of the 8th floor of Champagnat.

Looks like summer is officially over. Expect a reflective post very, very soon.

Moving On (Literally).

So, what does a year of your life look like all packed into donated boxes from work?

Well, after over a week of putting off the inevitable, I’ve started moving my Upper West life into it’s temporary location in Champagnat.

The worst part is this is only half of my stuff. The rest, including two entertainment centers, a large TV, a fake tree and a few containers full of kitchen supplies, is all stored in the Fulton RA office. Everything else, including miscellaneous desk items and leftover clothes, was thrown into garbage bags and stuffed into my car.

Goodbye, Upper West. I’ll miss your summer. But that’s about it.

Best Day Ever (Part 2).

Question of the day: Is seeing a band live multiple times overkill?

The answer, my friends, is no — as long as the band is worth seeing.

Last night, I saw O.A.R. for the fourth time. I understand that people who have been listening to them for years have been to 40+ shows, and that’s great for them. But I am a poor college student who has been listening to them for about 3 or 4 years, so I think 4 shows is a nice accomplishment. But I digress…

It was my first time seeing them at SPAC. I have to say I’m not a huge fan of the venue. Saratoga itself is a gorgeous place, but I liked the Meadows in Connecticut better. Again, I digress…

Matt Nathanson opened the show. I saw him open for Lifehouse during my sophomore year of college, though I skipped out on his second Marist appearance this past spring. This guy is an entertainer. While the focus is on his voice and his guitar, he spends a great deal of time ragging on audience members and making up humorous stories about what inspired him to write his songs, like saying a song about sex was inspired by Rocky Road ice cream. Sure it was, Matt.

Another great thing about Nathanson? He announced before his last song that he would be hanging out at one of the Merch. tents behind the lawn, and invited fans to come meet him and get some autographs. I went. I held out my ticket for him to sign. In his rush (people were literally bombarding him) he knocked it out of my hand. It landed on my chest. He picked it back up to sign it. He accidentally caressed the top of my breast. He called me frisky and handed me my ticket back.

And thus, I was kinda sorta felt up by a crooner.

O.A.R. came onstage immediately after my brush with Nathanson; the timing couldn’t have been any more perfect. I ran into the venue (we upgraded our lawn seats) just in time to hear Marc and the guys open with “An Hour Ago.” As always, they put on an amazing show. Completely different set list from the last show I went to, but everything sounded amazing. I know from their Twitter accounts (@ofarevolution, @marcroberge, etc) that the show the night before in Pittsburgh didn’t go too well. Something about Marc not having a voice and lots of rookie mistakes. They definitely redeemed themselves with this show at SPAC.

While it’s hard to pick a favorite moment from such a great performance, I loved one thing that was completely new to any O.A.R. show I have been to — in the middle of their set list, the crew brought a large red curtain on stage. Everyone switched to acoustic instruments and moved closer together in the center of the stage. They played a span of four songs unplugged. Even from the back of the venue, I felt like I was sitting right in front of the band, listening to Marc and the guys play some of my favorites.

I’d love to hear them do an entire show unplugged like this. Although I have to admit, I would miss the sounds of Jerry’s saxophone…

They ended their initial set with “War Song,” which is off of their “All Sides” album. Written after performing in Iraq, the song is essentially about a soldier getting ready to go off to war. He reflects upon leaving the comfort of home to spend “summer in another world” (the desert) and cries for his baby girl to “wait for my love.” As the brother of an Iraq veteran, who will soon be shipping off to Afghanistan, how can I not love this song. The guys absolutely killed it, too. O.A.R. is in no way, shape or form a political band, but you don’t have to be political to be passionate about something. And they are passionate about the message being conveyed with the lyrics of this song — you can hear it in Marc’s voice.

And then came the encore.

Initially I was upset to see that they were playing “With a Little Help From My Friends” again. They played it during their encore at one of the shows I went to last summer, too. But when Marc asked Matt Nathanson to join them on stage, I got over the silly disappointment. Hearing them sing together… well, it sent shivers to my girly parts.

The encore finished with two of their more popular songs; you know, the ones that people who are only casual listeners freak out about because they actually know the words to them. I’m not the kind of person to be arrogant about really liking a band, but I was singing the entire time (with the exception of “Love is Worth the Fall,” which was just released on iTunes today). I would have liked to hear them play “King of the Thing” or “Dareh Meyod” or something older. I should have Tweeted it to them — they apparently accept requests via Twitter. Coolest thing ever.

Here is the set list, for those of you interseted in what went down. It’s in order. I want to go see them tomorrow night at Bethel Woods, but it doesn’t look like I can convince anyone to come with me.

Set List

An Hour Ago
Only in Time
Hey Girl
Conquering Fools
Patiently
Lay Down (unplugged)
What is Mine (unplugged)
Love and Memories (unplugged)
On My Way (unplugged)
This Town
About Mr. Brown
Black Rock
Love is Worth the Fall
Shattered
War Song

Encore
With a Little Help From My Friends (with Matt Nathanson)
Crazy Game of Poker
Night Shift

Best Day Ever (Part 1).

I knew that Sunday was going to be a fantastic day. Any day that I get to see O.A.R. in concert is sure to be outstanding.

But much to my surprise, I ended up just having a fabulous 24 hours. The Kappas and I went to the racetrack at Saratoga. I’m not a huge fan of horse racing, but it’s part of the upstate NY culture, and the biggest thing Saratoga has to offer.

We walked around for a while before watching any races. The weather was kind of a drag — a 5 minute storm would turn into an hour long mist, so it was temperamental. But as we walked, avoiding the “horse crossing” areas and keeping our eyes out for manure, Riley started to freak out. Why, do you ask?

Because Bobby Flay of the Food Network was sitting at a table behind us, autographing books! Many of you may not know Bobby Flay, but as an avid watcher of “Iron Chef: America” I am familiar with his style. Riley and her boyfriend often watch his “Throwdown” program, but I’m strictly an Iron Chef kind of girl. I was thrilled to be in his presence, even though it really isn’t that big of a deal. The line was astronomical, and not worth the 30 dollars that I would have had to pay to buy his book, so we didn’t get any autographs. But I did creep up on the table and snap the above photo with my phone.

After our brush with Food Network fame, we went in to watch the races. Alyssa convinced us that we couldn’t go to the track without placing a bet. So we looked through the book, and I put $2 down on a horse named “Minishaft” to win the second race. I’m not a big gambler; I’d rather have money in my pocket. But I figured $2 wouldn’t be a huge loss.

And then, I won $8. For me, that’s big bucks.

Then to top it all off, as we were walking back to the car, a group of cute-ish boys was passing us. One of them stopped in front of me, tilted his head to the side and stared. The following conversation occurred:

Boy: “I’m sorry, you look really familiar.”
Me: Silence. No response, because I am awkward. I smiled instead.
Boy: “I think Marist, orientation…”
Me: “Oh! Was I your O-leader?”
Boy: “No, I remember you from the end with the skits. You were the narrator?”
Me: “Yeah, I was!”

My friends laugh as boy and I begin to walk away from each other. Then he turns and says:

Boy: “When I first came to Marist, I thought it would be like this…”
Me: “…But it was really more like this!”

And that was the single greatest moment ever. I felt kind of famous, in a very Marist kind of way. Really though, who could forget this face?

More to come on the best day ever tomorrow. Anticipate: My brush with Matt Nathanson and my love affair with Marc Roberge.

Kait is Such a Player Chick.

I loved doing this when I was in high school.

Go to Googlism.com and type in your name (first name only works best). The engine will generate a list of snippets from random internet sentences that include your name. None of them make sense, but they’re entertaining to read.

Here are some of mine:

• Kait is going to be eaten by crocodiles in the middle of Africa
• Kait is one of those girls who can make a joke about anything
• Kait is such a player chick
• Kait is also a karnee shapeshifter
• Kait is a likable heroine
• Kait is a really sweet girl
• Kait is a dreamer who would rather scribble in a journal than almost anything else
• Kait is fairly normal
• Kait is great

What does your Googlism say?

Stress Relief.

I’ve been feeling strange lately. Not quite stressed, but anticipating the stress that is going to come with everyone’s return to Marist. I’m not looking forward to it. Sorry friends, but I’ve enjoyed living life this summer without all of the drama that comes with a fully packed college campus.

In an effort to combat this slump I feel coming on, I decided to color. I’ve got coloring books lying around from an old RA program I did regarding stress relief. Nobody came to the program so I ended up with some free coloring books and crayons. Not a bad deal.

I ended up turning a picture of three pirates into a likeness of my three housemates.

Megan is on the left, wearing her scrubs (underneath there is an arrow pointing to her shirt that says “Scrubs”). Cindy is on the right, in case you couldn’t tell by her fashionable shirt and “JEW” bandanna. Jess is in the middle, complete with her tie dyed, peace-sign T-shirt. Initially I kept her bald, but drew on the fabulous hair after a complaint.

*As an aside, the labeling of “JEW” on the bandanna is a complete inside joke

I think it helped take the strange load off my shoulders. At least for now.

Smooth Criminals.

This almost makes me want to go to prison.

(Okay, maybe not, but if I were to in jail and learning choreographed dances all day, I’d be a pretty happy inmate.)

Romping With The Wolfpack.

Well, that’s one awesome experience I can cross off my life long bucket list.

Last night, the girls and I took a train to the city with the intention of bar hopping around Manhattan until we caught the 6:40 a.m. train back to Poughkeepsie. I wasn’t sure we would make it, but I was definitely wrong.

The night started with Happy Hour at Tonic on Times Square. We got $5 cocktails (tasted a Blue Hawaii and loved its pineapple flavors) and ate dinner in one of those round booths that reminded me of a scene from Sex and the City.

(Image from my phone, hence the poor quality)

As we ate, we had a full view of a going away party for an intern at a city trading firm. The older employees were wasted, and the young guys who came to chat with us didn’t have much to say.

After Tonic, we headed to Rudy’s (I can’t remember location). The girls promised me free hot dogs and cheap pitchers of beer. That is definitely what I got.

The small bar was quite crowded, which was somewhat of a downfall considering initially we had trouble shaking these two round-shaped guys who wanted to sell us drugs. But after a while I settled in fine, especially after one of my Orientation friends met up with us to hang out.

After taking a token snapshot with the pig that sits in front of Rudy’s, we headed to Bleeker St. Jess said Bleeker was the place to be — all of the NYU bars would be here. So we hopped on a subway and blindly went where no Marist student has gone before; apparently, no students went there at all. At least not while we were there.

After wandering around a bit, I stopped off at Magnolia to get a cupcake (an expensive disappointment) and we finally started asking for directions. We ended up at some underground cafe that charged a $5 cover and had a two drink minimum per person, per table. The band was pretty good, and we didn’t want to waste our cover, so we skipped on the table and danced around in front for a little while.

As our buzzes started to wear, we left.

Having no idea of where to go next (Bleeker, which was supposed to be our crowned jewel, turned out to be a bust) we headed back to where we began the night – Tonic on Times Square. As we rode the subway there, we admitted that at this rate, we’d probably end up on the 1:40 a.m. train out.

But then we met the Dutch boys.

It’s always nice to show some American hospitality. These three — Richard, Rowin and Sietse — were finishing off a week-long trip around the country which included a romp in Vegas. They were great; very quick to buy us a few rounds. We ended up hanging with them at Tonic until the bar closed at 4 a.m. After they stopped at McDonald’s to recharge with some chicken nuggets, we parted with our Dutch boys around 5 a.m.

As no bars were open, our next conquest was to find a diner that served pancakes. Not knowing where to look, we ended up at McDonald’s, which had unfortunately started serving breakfast (I really wanted a burger).

And finally, as the sun lit the sky, we ended our night. As commuters left Grand Central to start their days, we took a 6:40 a.m. train out to end ours. All four of us passed out almost immediately after the conductor took our tickets. We didn’t wake up the entire way.

It was one of the most interesting nights of my life. I’m so happy to say that I have done it, and I can’t wait to do it again (Except this time, I’ll need a better plan of where to go. Any suggestions?)