New Year's Resolutions....

So, I don't believe in the idea of "new year's resolutions."

Mostly because every day is the day before the start of a new year. It's like your birthday, that's the beginning of new year too. So why only make a resolution to change something because the calendar is switching from 2008 to 2009. If you need to stop or start doing something, you should just get on it and not wait January 1.

I'm working on a resolution I made in November... I'll write an update on the specifics before next November... :)

Happy Christmas!

8 Sisters:

Natalie, Hannah, Rachel, Susan, Abigail
Julia, Caroline, Emma

Denver Apartment

This is clearly the best time to post a slide show of my apartment in Denver...



Enjoy!!!

Best typo.... ever

Can you spot the typo in the 2008-2009 Virginia Tech duty board???

First time back at the beach!!!

Entering the boardwalk on 85th street...

THE OCEAN!!!!!

Live at Red Rocks

Sounds like a Dave Matthews Band album title to me... oh wait, it is. :)

Beautiful day in Denver! The large rock on the left is called Creation Rock, the one on the bottom right is called Ship Rock. It's hard to see how huge they are.

I climbed into the rocks along the side of the road.

Elevation: around 6,500 feet

Sunrise through water...

taken on the drive back from Keystone, CO -- 12/01/08

Missy Higgins... two nights in a row...

First night-- Fox Theater in Boulder:





Joshua Radin opened for both shows. During his last song he decided that the stage was overrated and he came and sang right in front of me. Seriously, very cool.















Missy was of course amazing, even with a cold.












Second night-- Bluebird Theater in Denver:

I was not messing around tonight, so of course up against the stage right next to the microphone was the best place to stand. I didn't want to use flash photography and blind Missy or Josh, so I just took blurry photos from five feet away.


Josh again decided that it was best to end the night off stage in the crowd, but I was too far away to get a good photo this time. But I suppose being right up front for every other song was worth it.















I was totally all up in Missy's business...
you're jealous, try not to be.












This is exciting... new song by Missy, it's call Run So Fast... I think...

Officially Fall!: Part 2

It was previously mentioned that the return of Caramel Apple Spice to Starbucks also indicates Fall... Turns out it's available all year and called a Caramel Apple Cider now.

Not the same. I refuse to drink it during the summer. It's a Fall beverage.

First Day of Graduate School: 9/9/2008

Being the huge dork that I am... I found it only fitting to take a "first day of school photo" as I departed for my first class as a graduate student. And yes, I made Jenny take one as well.

This was obviously taken right outside of my office.

Yay grad school!!!

Officially Fall!

For me, fall begins with one very exciting event... the return of Pumpkin Spice to Starbucks. Also, the return of Caramel Apple Spice to Starbucks (but that's another day).

Today in Denver has been pretty chilly so not only did I enjoy my first Pumpkin Spice latte of the year, I also enjoyed wearing my cute brown scarf. Because White People like to wear scarves. I took a photo of the scarf/coffee combo, fun!

Coming soon: Sweater Weather! Get excited!!!

While finding the link for #97 Scarves, I realized that Coffee and Sweaters are also on the list.

Titanic

Towers took on water today like a sinking ship. First thing this morning we had a toilet overflow and it flooded the room it was in and dripped downstairs from the 4th floor to the 1st. Little did we know that the toilet was just preparing us for something bigger.

Below: photos from the sprinkler head disaster that started at 9:30 p.m. and ended at about 1 a.m.

Third floor hallway

Third floor hallway (other side)

Room on the second floor that was on the opposite side of the floor below.

Outside the building where the water was pouring onto the pavement.

Rock Star Staff

Last night we stayed up late making staff shirts, since our area shirts are lost somewhere on campus.

It's amazing what letters cut into cardboard and some spray paint can do.



From left to right:
Brian (Desk Manager), Me (GRD South), Jenny (GRD North), Nhi (RA), Jon (RA), Alyss (RA), Christopher (RA), Nikki (RA), Beth (RA), Jake (RA), Derek (RA), Austin (RA), Michael (RA), Nick (RA)

The Awesomeness of The Towers Staff

So basically my staff is incredible. I'm not a crier and they have made me tear up more times in the last week, it's been crazy! And not cry in the bad way, tears because they're great.

You know how usually you have one staff member that you wish wasn't on your team? I didn't get any of those this year. I got this group that wouldn't be right without all of them there. They are an incredibly respectful group, they encourage each other, support each other, communicate really well. It's wonderful to be apart of.

Yay, Towers!

Started but never finished

So I’ve been BUSY since I’ve moved to Denver. My “first day” of training was July 31^st --when we went to Water World (3^rd best water park in the country). Rough life in Denver, I know. Then the first Monday is training, we went to the top of a 14er. Mt.Evans to be specific, height: 14,264' There are fifty three 14ers in the state of Colorado. It was my first time into the Rockies and I went to the top of a 14er! I’d say that’s a “go big or go home moment.” The rest of training has been pretty good. Our schedule has not been as crazy as FTLW, even if it’s been pretty busy.

My apartment is pretty great, there is exposed brick on several walls and one of my living room walls is all windows. I’m going to paint something to put on one of the big walls. But with busy training and what not I haven’t done it yet.

Update!

So today, Carl sent me an IM and gave me a hard time about my lack of blog updates. Then my dad commented on the more recent blog to complain that I haven't updated in 3 weeks.

I'll write a real update this week!

2 baseball games in 2 days. Plus training and other fun things. I'm a busy girl! :)

Model RailRoading: Take 2

I have posted the pictures from the Model RailRoad Scavenger Hunt!

Enjoy!

The Truth About Model RailRoading

So as I am nearing the end of my visit to Kalamazoo, MI, it was realized that I had yet to visit the Kalamazoo Model Rail Road Society with my dad. This evening after dinner, my dad and I left to visit the layout while club members were running trains. We walked in and I was introduced to everyone, which I only remember most of their names, and then we began watching them run trains on the layout.

Let’s back up a second. My dad has been playing with trains since before I was born, meaning I’ve been around model railroading for my entire life. I remember when we lived in Old Town, ME, we had a layout in our basement. Yet, I never really knew what my dad meant when he was doing to “run trains.” I think I just assumed they put trains on the layout and did whatever they wanted on the tracks. But tonight my perceptions were changed, as I learned what they really do while they are “running trains.”

To my surprise, running trains is a little like role playing. There is a script and a schedule. At one point, someone even called “timeout!” Two trains had run-a-muck… they used some other word for it, but I like run-a-muck better. So there is the person in charge of it all, I suppose he’s the conductor (dad didn’t tell me his title), then there were two station masters (one on each end of the layout) and then there were people signed up to be engineers. So the conductor would tell an engineer that he was clear until a certain stop, while the station masters would manage the lights and the yards. It was a very interesting thing to watch. Especially with the run-a-muck trains.

Dad snuck the Wisconsin and Southern Breast Cancer Awareness boxcar onto the layout. I thought for sure that we were going to get into trouble when someone noticed and told the conductor on me!

The other really exciting part about the visit was that they gave me a scavenger hunt list of scenes on the layout! It’s like they knew how to sell the experience to me! There were some really cool things in the layout. I need to sort and label pictures, but I will post an update before Thursday and you’ll get the full experience!

3 Great Lakes in 3 Days!

My family and I took a tour of Michigan's Upper Peninsula this last week. We saw some really incredible places, it's a very pretty place. The most exciting part for me was that we waded into 3 Great Lakes in 3 Days!

Lake Michigan - warmest!


Lake Superior - beautiful (but obviously freezing)


Lake Huron - coldest!

Windy City

Since I'm close to Chicago, I figured it would be a good idea to visit the city... well really I just wanted to see Carson and Denise while I had the chance!


Amanda had the 8th and 9th off, so I took the train from Kalamazoo and we played all day!


Denise met us at the end of the day for a broadway show...

I finally got to see Wicked! I was SO thrilled!

Where are you?

So I've been getting a few text messages asking "where are you now?" This update will provide everyone with the events of the last two weeks.

The good news is that I'm sitting a little still until I move to CO!

6/24 – Heading towards Blacksburg, I stopped into Sweet Briar College to enjoy lunch with Alison Malloy. The area was BEAUTIFUL!

6/24—6/27 – Blacksburg!

The highlights include: Amanda Paez – Preston – Sheena – Colin – Maggie – Carl – Tricia – The MacDonalds – Justin – Gail Kirby! – Shawn – Kris – Matt Theme Housing – I’m sure there are some people I’ve forgotten.

I hiked the Cascades with Amanda and Sheena, and we’re pretty sure Amanda injured an animal on the drive home (we decided that it was most likely a mountain lion).

6/27 – 7/1 – Atlanta to surprise my family! My mom, Rachel, Abby, Julia, Caroline and Caleb were all visiting my Nana and Papa; I had told only my mom I was coming, Natalie didn’t tell anyone she was coming with me (really because she didn’t decide to come until 8 a.m. on the 27th). Natalie and I can now boast a wonderfully done surprise!

In Atlanta, I visited the Georgia Aquarium with my family, which was amazing! Everything was set up to flow really well (funny that somewhere with so much water would be designed to flow), so we saw some really neat animals.

I also got to hang out with Charles and his roommate, Matt. We had some delicious dinner and hung out at their apartment afterwards.

7/1 – I left Atlanta to head to Davidson, NC to visit Jason Shank; he had invited me to see Dave Matthews Band Concert in Charlotte that night. I stopped at Davidson by way of Clemson to visit Ms. Emily Kate; she gave me a fantastic tour, it being my first visit to Clemson. I tried to call Jon and Emily but apparently Jon doesn’t bring his cell phone to work!

Dave Matthews was amazing! As usual, I walked away saying “this was the best Dave show I’ve seen.” Well honestly, I think the Concert for Virginia Tech was the best Dave show ever, but this of course ranks a close second.

7/2 – Up early to begin the 11.5 hour drive to Kalamazoo, MI, which took me 14 hours.

Michigan decided to welcome me with open arms, or a GIANT thunderstorm. So the last three hours of my trip took me about 5.5 hours. When I got to Prairie Crossing, there was no power and trees were down everywhere! We got power back at about 4 p.m. on the Third!

7/4 – Celebrated our independence by watching Parker march in the parade and then we went to a baseball game. Kalamazoo Kings versus someone else: turns out a boy that I graduated high school with plays for the Kings! I didn’t remember him very well, but I did say hello to him after the game.

7/5 – Today, Dad and I went for a morning run and then we did stuff around the house. We’re hosting the neighborhood 4th of July Get Together.

Oh, this is the start of something good.. don't you agree?

Today I will begin a slow journey west...

I am leaving Virginia Beach until November or December, not sure exactly when I'll be back.

First stop: Farmville, VA to visit Alison Brandon :)

Things I'm NOT a fan of: update

So I was feeling homeless on Saturday while my dad and I were waiting for Emma to be ready to go to the baseball game. We had helped Rachel get Tommy's father's day present into her van and then Emma needed another 20 minutes to get ready to go. Which wasn't enough time to go back to the hotel and rest a minute before going to get Emma... so I said "oh dad, we can go get coffee." Thinking "there is a Starbucks around the corner."... Then I remember my vow to never visit the Starbucks at Red Mill ever again.

Thank goodness for the new Target in the area, since they have a Starbucks inside.

So I went there and had some Starbucks... without the lady being mean about my order!

12 on the 12th

So KK and Dan have been keeping a blog for quite a long time, and I stop in every so often to see what they are up to. They feature a cool monthly post called: 12 on the 12th-- where they post 12 photos from their. It's a pretty neat feature and I didn't find it until after May 12th, so June will be my first attempt. (Sidenote: Blogger hates me when I try to upload pictures, so the formatting is messed up)




8:22 a.m.
Awake (which I wasn't happy about), attending Julia's 5th Grade Promotion Ceremony (my thoughts on that at another time...)







10:05 a.m.
Leaving the elementary school for home. All the 5th graders got to make a hand mark in the hallway. It was cool, all the classes before them had done it as well. It reminded me of Winslow Middle School, where all the 8th graders got to make ceiling tiles before they moved on to high school.

12:00 p.m.

Making our way to a place to sit on the beach, Caleb refused help carrying the toys.











12:19 p.m.
Caleb's second bucket of water at his mama, thankfully she got out of the way this time.






12:20 p.m.

Caleb learning not to mess with his mama.

1:08 p.m.
Caroline lets the waves come to her.










2:31 p.m.
Last picture before leaving the ocean.

5:23 p.m.
In the car heading to see the Norfolk Tides play the Charlotte Knights

6:16 p.m.

Waiting for game time.

6:33 p.m.

That would be a little bit of heaven in my lap. I refuse to watch the Unwrapped on Hot Dogs, because I like eating them way too much.

8:49 p.m.

7th Inning Stretch

9:14 p.m.

The promotional item for the Tides game was thunder sticks... which gave me the BIGGEST headache EVER. I wanted to beat that child with the sticks....

Things I am NO longer a fan of: Starbucks at Red Mill and Walmart

So I needed an oil change. Yesterday when I got to Walmart at 9:30 a.m. it was a 2 hour wait so I decided that getting to Walmart this morning when the oil change part opened was a better plan. So I arrived at about 7:03 a.m. and was the 4th car to get there. So that’s like an hour right?
So the lady takes my information and my keys and says “it’ll be an hour and a half.” Which I figured was going to happen so I decided to walk to Starbucks and get a drink.

Now I understand that my coffee order is a LITTLE intense. The order taker was working the other day when I visited with Rachel and Caleb, she kind of teased me about my order then, but it was also 4 p.m. and so I wasn’t tired, I was just drinking coffee. (wow talk about a run-on). So this morning I ordered: latte, tall, soy, 140 degrees, no foam with hazelnut…. So she calls it and I only managed to catch that she got the temp wrong. So I said “actually, 140 degrees” and she says to the drink maker “oh, NOW she wants it at 140 (stupid laugh to herself about just HOW funny she is)…” I am not amused.

My drink gets made and I walk out of Starbucks, get around the corner down the way on my walk back to Walmart and take a sip. And hmm.. that’s funny, this tastes like hot soy milk with coffee in it and there seems to be no hazelnut. I looked at my cup and she didn’t add the hazelnut. And with my knowledge of the cost of a cup of coffee- today I paid for the flavor. I would’ve gone back but after the attempt at being funny about my drink I didn’t feel like hearing “oh NOW she wants flavor.” And I didn’t bother with a receipt so she could’ve made me pay for it again.

Quick side notes on receipts: when you buy something like coffee or a massage, something you’re going to eat immediately that doesn’t have a tip written on the receipt or something you can’t really return (like a massage)… isn’t the receipt kind of the service. Why waste paper when you’re taking a cup with you (free advertising)?

Now back to Walmart. I return to Walmart, crappy cup of coffee in hand to wait for my car to get finished. I look over some stupid magazine and see my car getting vacuumed and whatever. Then they move it forward to do the actual oil change. At which point I decide to wander the store because I wanted to buy Snappy Lube: The Greatest Place To Get Your Oil Changed EVER (Christiansburg store, not the Blacksburg one) a postcard that said Virginia Beach so I can send it to them and tell them that they are greatly missed. I mean seriously, how can I not miss the fact that they did a great job and always took 15 minutes or less? With two cars in front of you.. let’s be real, in my last five years of using Snappy Lube there has been one time that they have had more than a one car wait. And that was the time I went with a friend, so it wasn’t even a boring wait.

So I can’t find a card anywhere and walk back to the oil change part of the store. About five minutes later they are pulling my car out… so I go and FIND the employee responsible for checking me out and ask him if I can pay so I can leave. He comes over and my paperwork hasn’t come through yet… so we’re waiting… He asks the girl vacuuming another car where it is and she refers him to some other guy and he comes over and explains to the cashier that my oil pan has a stripped plug and they couldn’t change my oil because they weren’t sure if they would be able to get it back on. This was the point that the misty/humid air started to get to me, cause I think I was starting to fume a little. So the cashier comes back and he’s like, “I guess they couldn’t do it.. the manager is coming over.” (and we talk about what was wrong with the oil pan). And while I’m waiting I’m growing frustrated and I tell him “I don’t understand how there is something wrong, the place I’ve been going in Blacksburg has never had a problem changing my oil.” I can feel myself sounding harsh and frustrated, so I apologized to him because I know it’s not his fault. As we’re chatting, I can see the manager, NOT coming over. So I’m waiting another three minutes, which you’re thinking, “suz, it’s three minutes, calm down.” Which fine, think that, but at this point I’ve been waiting for an hour and a half—and NOTHING has been done to my car. Ok, I’m sorry, not nothing: they did vacuum it. But I am ready to go home.

So the manager comes over and the cashier says “this is the girl with the Honda” and she says “oh she’ll need to talk to Joe that worked on her car,” at this point I looked at her and said, “I think I’ve understood enough from him (point to cashier) that I don’t need to speak with him, I’ll just go home.” And then I went home.

We're all more likely to tell people about the bad service we receive and not the good.
Maybe it's because we rarely enjoy good customer service...

Family of Bloggers

Today two of my seven siblings started blogs...

check them out:
Rachel
Hannah

And my dad already has a blog:
Daddy Sherbak

It's like we're a family of computer dorks... when really they're not computer dorky AT ALL.

Take Me Out to a Phillies Game

This is a late update...

When I got back from Atlanta on May 20th, I checked the Phillies website to see if they were going to be playing at home while I was visiting South Jersey... and they were!

So when I talked to Ciani I was like "so phillies game on memorial day?" which was awesome because someone else had told her they would be in town and asked if she wanted to go.

We ended up going just to hang out with each other and not hang out with other people. We had an amazing time, cause Ciani is amazing. :)

Now to goal is to try to make it to at least two more Major League games this year. I'm thinking Chicago Cubs (because NL is better than AL) and Colorado Rockies. Which actually, I saw the Rockies play in Philly and it was NOT a good game for my Denver friends... they lost 20-5. YIKES!

Ten Days

the waiting is the hardest part...

Maine in less than 36 hours...

So this isn’t the first time something like this has happened…

In February 2007, around 7 p.m. on a Thursday evening, Ciani called me and I said “are you coming to see me?” and she said “no, we’re meeting half way. Come up to D.C.” I paused a moment and said “ok, I need to think about this while I finish my homework. Give me 30 minutes and I’ll make a decision.” (about 40 minutes later I was in my car driving to D.C. to meet Ciani.)

Friday, May 23rd was not that much different.
I arrived to Ciani’s house in NJ around 7/7:30 p.m. and as we decided what we were doing for the evening. I might have casually mentioned that we were only 543 miles from Old Town, ME… she then looked at me very seriously and said “we could go to Maine, I’ll go pack.” So I started laughing and was like “um. We could, I don’t know if my friend would be ok with that, but I’ll ask.” Which asking really didn’t much matter at this point since she was already headed downstairs to find a bag to throw clothes in, thankfully my friend was like “Seriously, you’re coming. This is awesome!”

So we were in the car and heading to Maine by 9 p.m. I was too excited to even sleep. I rested for a moment after NYC and before the Mass Pike. Then around 2 a.m., Ciani was like “Suz, can you drive? I’m tired,” so I took the wheel and drove for the next four hours to arrive on Main Street in Old Town.

Highlights of the drive North:
- Trying multiple times to call Liz to tell her we were driving past NYC
- Called Scotty to tell him we were on our way to Maine- to find out he was already there!
- Calling my sisters to ask the lyrics to the song: 16 Counties of Our State
- Racing the GPS to try to subtract minutes from our ETA (Ciani got us down 7 minutes)
- Asking the Toll Attendant on 295 in Portland what the state bird of Maine is, I said chickadee and Ciani wasn’t convinced, he thought we asked about the seabirds, but eventually confirmed that it was the chickadee- “What about seabirds?”
- Calling Mitchell to wake him up and tell him random things (M: the text noise is too quiet to wake anyone up, A: -from his bedroom- NO IT’S NOT)
- Finding my 15 minutes of fame/ Taking advantage of the fact that Ciani won’t tell me to shut up when I sing

We arrived to Main Street, Old Town, ME around 6:30 a.m., Mitchell came out to meet us and we headed to breakfast at Governor’s. Next we began the “Susan Sherbak History Tour,” Ciani needed to see the important places of my childhood. We visited the University of Maine at Orono, to show her all the exciting places my mom used to take us when we were little. And we got to see the lab Mitchell does sensor research in! We showed Ciani the weeping willow, the dance studio, the gym, the mall, the performing arts studio. In town we got to see the location of my old elementary school… since they tore it down, the back of my 4th/5th grade school, the YMCA, the paper mill (that isn’t really a paper mill anymore), my old house, the creek where we let fish go in the 5th grade, the deer sign with the red nose it, Pat’s Pizza (yum!), Stephen King’s house, Cascade Park, the hospital on the river, downtown Bangor, Super Shoes, and the Bangor Mall.

Highlights of Old Town/Bangor:
- Mitchell’s dad coming out of Subway just after our arrival and me avoiding saying hello (I was in pjs pants, that’s no way to make a first impression!)
- People drinking beer at 7 a.m. in Governor’s
- The Map Store of Downtown Old Town—just in case you got lost in town
- The Mad Scientist at work with the e.coli
- Ordering my calzone at Pat’s Pizza and Mitchell regretting not going first because he wanted the exact same thing (he copied me)
- Tin roofs- “Cat on a hot tin roof!”
- Mitchell moving his bike from parallel parked to perpendicular parked
- Andy calling Mitchell's phone to mock my car/cellphone rule... (imagine high pitched, "valley girl" voice) "oh my gosh mitchell, i met this guy and he's so great and we had ice cream and coffee and you know what this is too much to tell you on voicemail i'm just going to need to see you..."

Around 6 p.m. Ciani realized that she needed to get back to New Jersey to work in the nursery on Sunday morning at 11 a.m., so we returned to Mitchell’s apartment to get my car and on the road.

Highlights of the drive South:
- The L.L.Bean Store in Freeport, Maine
- The pimp at the Thomas A. Edison Service Area on the NJTP
- I finally fell asleep in the carThe McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Exxon all being closed for bathrooms, we used the Taco Bell bathroom
- Ciani dropping 14 minutes off the ETA on the GPS

Maine in less than 36 hours... (2)

Pictures from Maine:

Ciani and I infront of Old Town Canoe... she deleted the one I wasn't making a stupid face in...













The Mad Scientist hard at work...

The photo that does not count for the scavenger hunt... Mitchell and I with the Governor...

Take me out to a Braves game...

I finally got to see the baseball game I was supposed to see the day before my birthday!

AND Tom Glavine was pitching for the Braves… my heart was very happy! :)

I recruited a co-worker to join me, he’s a Boston fan… but really he loves baseball and that’s all you need to want to go to a game.

Going to the game was kind of drama… well leading up to it… I had LOST the tickets!
Thankfully they were found.. in the most random place in my apartment!

This is the picture from our seats:

The picture is bases loaded with one out... I forgot what inning... Kelly Johnson is at bat.

During the trip I also got to see my Nana and Papa. Which was WONDERFUL! I hadn't seen them since the day after my birthday, which wasn't that long ago, but a bunch has happened since then. Papa had open heart surgery but he is doing wonderful and looks great!

The List - 20 Days

This is me- publicly calling someone out.

1 down. 11 to go. 20 days left. Good luck!

haha