Saturday, November 22, 2008

Birthday Girl: Annie Chatenka

I, without a doubt, have the best roommate ever. I don't know how I lucked out so much, but I can say with 110% certainty, that there are few people in this world that I would enjoy living with as much as I do with Annie. We laugh at the same things, get mad at the same things. We just get each other.

My all-time favorite thing that has happened with Annie and I involves me, Annie and a nun. Senior year, Annie and I lived together in our cozy little Turrell Apartment at Seton Hall. I had been asked to speak in front of this group of big time donors to Seton Hall and explain why I loved SHU, what made me go there, etc. etc. I prepared this whole speech that explained why I chose Seton Hall (because of my grandfather - for those of you who don't know, i'd love to tell you the story) and I asked to practice it in front of Annie. She listened but on the day that I was to make my speech in front of these big time donors AND Monsignor Sheeran (president of SHU) she came with me because she knew how nervous I was. There was nun (I still don't know her name) who was preparing to introduce me to the group. She came up and asked how to pronounce my name and the three of us got to talking. She asked about my major, I told her i was a PR major, and said, "you know who you should talk to?" I asked "Who?" as she was closing her eyes and shaking her head to remember. The thing is, she shook her head with her eyes closed for LITERALLY about 5 minutes. Around minute 2 I started to laugh. And then Annie saw me laughing and she started to laugh. we were both trying to do this silent laugh so the nun wouldn't hear us laughing directly AT her but after the 5 minutes were up, and she finally opened her eyes, we were clearly peeing our pants in this nun's face. It might not sound funny to anyone reading this but it was by far one of the funniest moments in my entire life.

After they introduced me, I walked into the room to begin my speech when the nun invited Annie into the room to join us. I told her to stay out of the room because I knew if I saw her I'd laugh. We have contagious laughs and its one of the things I love most about our friendship.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of us. It was taken at graduation, and yes, I wore an eye patch as I crossed the stage and accepted my diploma and yes, Annie had her dad deliver popcorn to us during graduation. So, Annie, today and always I want you to know how much you mean to me. Happy Birthday, I hope you had an amazing day.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

how could i have forgotten..

I forgot to write about another reason that my mom is the best - my friends love her. seriously. everyone is almost as excited to see her this thanksgiving as they are to see me. phil can't wait for her to make his favorite meal ever - sausage peppers and onions - and even proclaimed so on her facebook wall (yes, my mom has a facebook...) and liz made it a point to call my mom this morning to wish her happy birthday (maybe even before i did...) and annie calls her by her childhood nickname. don't even get me started on tom - there are times he will go to my house solely to see her. she is so much a part of me and the fact that my friends get along so well with my mom is just another testament to how amazing she is.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

If you've read any of the posts I've written since creating this blog, you probably already know that I miss home. And the number one reason I miss home is because I have the best mom ever. I know this is something everyone says, but I swear by it. She is my absolute best friend and knows more about me and my life than most other people. She is there for me when I am sad and crying, when I'm scared or anxious but most importantly she is the cause of the majority of my smiles and laughter. It kills me that I'm not home with my family to celebrate her day but I am beyond excited to go home tomorrow night. I have off all next week, as well, so I'm excited to spend the upcoming 9 days with her. Words cannot describe what she means to me. Happy birthday, Mom, I love you so much and want you to know how lucky I feel to have you in my life.



Tuesday, November 18, 2008

mystery solved: part II

Dear Mernst, I know it’s you.

And really, I should’ve known all along. I do, after all, have excellent stalking skills. Which doesn’t explain why it took until today for me to figure this all out.

Let me start at the beginning.

My roommate, Annie, works at MWW Group and I work at Coyne. Coyne and MWW are apparent ‘rivals’ so some people think its funny that we live together. Apparently, I came up at lunch one day, where Annie mentioned me. Somehow, my business card was brought out and she came home that night to tell me that “everyone in her office wants to prank me.”

From then on, I was on the look out but I never really believed that this group of “strangers” would do anything that good (or anything at all for that matter).

Fast forward to last week, when Annie went into work to tell Studio MWW about how we found this licked cupcake. Cue Mr. Mernst.

Let me explain how I found you. The lovely and talented Melissa Mackey came to my desk today. Since I had told practically my entire office about this mystery, she casually asked if I had ever figured out who it was. I said no and she told me to google “micahwave” so I did. (Why I didn’t think of this before is beyond me). Googling “micahwave” resulted in your twitter page – which had a link to your website – which had a link to your flickr account. After creeping through your pictures, I found a picture of you holding a GIANT check (which Annie had told me about a while back…) which revealed your full name. I then googled your full name, and up popped your facebook account. Since we are clearly not friends, I obviously couldn’t view your profile but I could see 3 friends that we had in common: Frank Filiatrault, Ann Marie Chatenka and the sneaky Mike Petite. That’s when I knew.

What makes this even funnier is that last week I joined Annie, Mike and their friend Adrianna for dinner at the Shannon Rose. Since I was so creeped out by this entire situation, I decided to share it with them. Little did I know, they were holding back laughter because they knew the entire story.

I do owe apologies to my friends that I’ve blamed along the way. To Lila, Crissy, Marissa and most of all Chris – I am sorry for accusing you of licking my cupcake. (However, truth of the matter is that Annie swears she didn’t lick the cupcake, that she just relayed the message to Micah – which means the ACTUAL cupcake licker is still out there OR it was licked while drunk and the licker doesn’t actually remember).

ANYWAY, I tip my hat to you, Micah Ernst for having such gaiety and mernst. And to Annie and Mike for keeping the secret so well. However, I’ll have you know that this is not the end.

It.
Is.
On.

mystery SOLVED.

Dear Mr. Cupcake licker,

I've found you out.

Sincerely,
Shana

Monday, November 17, 2008

bridesmaids dresses

Why is it that bridesmaids dresses are always so hideous?

Seriously.

I'm going to be a bridesmaid for my good friend Jen's wedding in January. I found a few that I like but for the most part they are UGLY.

If you have EVER been IN a wedding or been TO a wedding, where the bridesmaids' dresses were not atrocious please give me some suggestions. Luckily for me, Jen is at least open to suggestions so I'm trying to avoid looking like this, at all costs:

Friday, November 14, 2008

i need your help.

Something very strange has happened to me. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, my roommate, Annie, brought home a delicious box of Entenmanns’s Halloween cupcakes. We quickly went through them, until there was one lonely cupcake left. I didn’t want to eat the last one, so I left it there. I assume she didn’t want to the last one either because the box sat on top of our refrigerator for a good two weeks. The other night, I glanced up there and realized the lone cupcake was still atop the fridge.

I take it down and get ready to throw it out, when I glance in the box to see this:


Someone has licked our cupcake and left it in the box for us to find! I have no idea who it was (okay maybe a little idea…) but Annie and I just laughed it off and threw it out.

THEN I sit down with my computer and go online to check out my lovely blog. I see that I have a comment on my last post (about sorority sisters) so of course I read it. It says: “on ur fridge eatin ur cupcakes, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.”

Now, I’m confused.

So I decide to write back to this person and ask them who they are. This morning, I see another comment from “micahwave” and it says, “Me? Just a big fan of cupcakes and your blog. I hear you're a Legend!”

What’s even more weird is that when I click on “micahwave”s link to his blog – it leads me to a blog with posts about the show Lost - from February. Which means whoever commented did not just create this blog to toy with me.

What the hell is going on? The combination of cupcake licking and comments has left me with a short list of suspects. You see, it could very well be Lila, Chris or Crissy because they each came over before going to Testa’s party on Halloween. It could VERY easily be a funny joke that my roommate Annie is playing on me. OR it could be my friend Marissa, who stopped by briefly on the Saturday after Halloween.

Please comment to tell me whom you think it is. Any information you may have that could lead to the solving of this case would be greatly appreciated. I’m even offering an award. What is it, you may ask?

A delicious, UNLICKED cupcake.

And to the mysterious cupcake licker, I know you’re reading this. You’d tell me who you are, if you know what’s good for you!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

sorority sisters

I never pledged a sorority while I was in college, however, two of my very best friends are in sororities. Liz is an Alpha Nu Omega at McDaniel and Desi is an Alpha Gamma Delta at Seton Hall. I never even considered pledging but being so close with two people who are in sororities, I get to see the other side of it as well. If I didn't have Liz and Desi in my life, I'd most likely think about what a crazy idea pledging is. You know, the whole idea of "why would you pay for your friends?" etc. But at the same time, it's a crazy bond that not many people could break.

This past weekend I visited Liz at her school for their Homecoming. As I mentioned before, I'm literally obsessed with quotes and when Liz was pledging, she needed a bunch of friendship quotes for something - and fast. I, of course, sent her a document like 20 pages long and needless to say, her entire pledge class loves me because of that. After she was done pledging I visited for a weekend and they were all so nice to me. So now, whenever I visit, they all take me under their wing and we always have so much fun.

Same goes for Desi. Because I lived with Desi while she was pledging, her and our other friend Amanda, would call me whenever they needed something. My favorite was when they needed to be dressed in black for something. they had to run back to the dorm and get it so they call ed me on their way and I had it ready for them when they got back. After that, whenever I'd be at cryans and meet a gam that I knew OF through Desi, I'd introduce myself. This happened so often that i slowly but surely got to know most of them. A few weeks ago, Desi invited me to Hoboken for this kids birthday, and it was just her and her sisters mainly but I went and had so much fun with them.

I just think it's funny to see the other side of "greek life" and sometimes it makes me wonder if I'd have done things differently knowing what I know now.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

22 years is a long time.

This past weekend I went to a good friend's birthday/Halloween party. Everyone was having fun, drinking, socializing, the whole nine. As the night went on we stumbled upon the topic of friendships. Everyone began naming which friend they've had the longest and for how long.

I didn't have to think twice - when I was asked who and how long, I responded "Adrian - 22 years."

Yes, I'm 22 years old. And honestly, if I could say MORE than 22 years I would. It's actually a bit ridiculous that I've made 20-something posts on this blog and have yet to mention Adrian. You see, Adrian's a year older than me and our parents were friends and neighbors before either of us were ever even thought of. After Adrian was born, in 1985, my parents began to babysit, etc. Then my mom became pregnant and almost a year later, I was born. Needless to say, we've literally been together from day 1.

Growing up, her mom would watch us before school everyday. There's so many things about my childhood that would never ever be the same if I didn't have her to remember them with. The countless New Year's Eves where our parents would get together and we'd sneak out to steal snacks when they thought we were asleep. The millions of Saved By the Bell episodes we watched - back when they were new. The Dolphin game and the Sonic the Hedgehog wars we had. New years at her Dad's apartment when we got older. Yelling Jason's name out the window to see if he'd find us (Age - on a completely different note, he's getting married!) The bus stop wars with an unnamed individual down the road. Literally being chased on our bikes by another freak down the road. The bike rides. We would always think we were so cool, and we'd always switch bikes. One day, Adrian decided to get herself hit by a car! And ruined my bike! and lost the tip of her finger (okay, so maybe she didn't LOSE it, but she had to get a ton of stitches).

Basically, Adrian has made me the person I am. A few years back (oh my god has it really been..4 years?) she moved to Omaha, Nebraska from New Jersey. Obviously, I haven't seen her nearly as much as I did when we were growing up, but she is one of those lifelong friends that will always be there when it counts.

For example: Her and our other good friend Ashley sat through the pouring rain at my high school graduation. Then when it came time for my graduation from Seton Hall, Adrian made sure she was there. Even a 22 hour drive from Omaha, Nebraska to East Rutherford, NJ cannot separate us. It's one of the best feelings in the world and I am beyond grateful to have someone like her in my life.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Election time.

I'm pretty positive that these kids know more about Tuesday's election than I do. Take a few minutes to watch this (click on more info for the lyrics).



I think this is amazing and their teacher should win some type of award. Check out Ron Clark Academy on YouTube for more videos. There's an interview session on there where these kids show off how well spoken they are and impress the hell out of me as well.