Time: 1:20am
Picture: Matzah!! Yeah, it's Pesach... good times!

Hey! Yeah, I'm still updating.. Though, time sure does fly... I didn't even realize it's been 2 weeks since my last update. Oh well! A bunch has been going on- I guess I can't go day-by-day for 2 weeks, but I'll hit the highlights! Here I go!

Thursday, March 26th - Tuesday, April 7th
The first weekend in this range was pretty cool. We out for Chaiim's last night out (before shipping out to South Carolina for Navy duties) to to the Grill- good music, cheap beer, good times! hahaa! Afterwards, headed to Lulu's to meet Knabe and Allie for some dance-action... it was UNBELIEVABLY hot in there- pretty much a sauna... I came home and wrung my shirt out... it was grosssss hahaaa! Friday was a bit more disappointing... me, Ian, and Gregg headed to indigo to mack on some cupcakes (hahaaa?!)... no luck... at least we put an effort forth! Saturday, weary and discourage, Ian and I watched a movie- we watched BAGHEAD! It was really funny, and now I can go around saying, "I'm THA BAGHEAD!", to piss Ian off! The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. Went to the IST Scholarship banquet at the Nittany Lion Inn- good, free food! Wooot!

The following week was pretty intense- went out Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday... hahaaaa! Went to Mad Mex with Ali, Lane, and Angela for some bottomless burrrrritos and drinks on Monday- really good times! Wednesday, went to the Cafe in between class and a meeting... kinda put on a time crunch there haha! Thursday was really nice so I pretty much did EVERYTHING outside EVER!! Played some frisbee after lunch with Ian and Jill then went out for a loooong bike ride! And then after that, EPIC game of ultimate frisbee with Jill, Ali, Lane, Gregg, and some random people that asked use to play. There was one guy on our team that was bionic- seriously though... he was RIDIC! Thursday night... hmmm, not quite sure. I think I went to the Darkhorse for the first time and then to the Den... Darkhorse was cool- kinda wish a band were playing though! Friday was INTENSE!! hahaaa! Went out for a run, then hit up the studio with Ian. At night I went to Jill's semi-formal which was cool- We did some turkey basters there... and ummm other cool things I can't remember. I made some gnocchi for two beforehand... always a killer meal! Afterwards we (me, Jill, Whitney, Jordan) went to indigo for some dance-action... all I'll say is there was lots of being on a boat, a ton of ballroom moves, and some macking with chocolate cupcakes (...Jilll hahaa!). Overall, EXCELLENT night! Saturday night... emmmm, started a bit late. Went to Evan's business frat's party with Ian and Jill. It was hella crowded- Evan got me a Monster Java with rum... it was naaaassssstttyyy! We went up to the roof though... being on a roof is always fun- there was a couple making out in one of the rooms so we kinda knocked on the window... kinda lame of us... oh well! After we went to the Phyrst- finally got Jill a car-bomb! Evan was there- and Max and Pup showed up! There was lots of good times going around! The end of the night... ummmm, yeah, I'm gonna skip that... all I'll say is Sunday was DEF lazzzzzzzy sunday. Monday was my only day of class that week since I went home for Pesach on Wednesday... soo umm, read on it ya want!

Wednesday, April 8th - Sunday, April 12
Headed home to the jerzzz for Pesach on Wednesday. My grandma and uncle were there for the first seder. My mom made AWESOME food... as usual! Elissa, April and Andy also stopped by before the seder, so that was cool! Thursday afternoon was nice so I did the typical 7 mile loop! Later we went to the Sarna's for the second seder- good times and good food as usual! Friday I went to lunch with Elissa and Knabe- I got an omelette for the like the 1st time in my life.. hahaa! Alright, that's an exaggeration- but u know, I never order eggs. After I hung out with grams and my mom lol! At night I went to see Adventureland with Elissa, Jeff (E's bf), and Knabe. It was really good! Oh, me, Elissa and Jeff hit up jersey freeze beforehand... always good times! Also, me and Knabe established that we can see each other twice in one day and wear the same outfit without fear of embarrassment... so I guess that's a plus? Saturday (yesterday) I drove back to psu... went to the corner for dinner with Ian- I got a reuben minus bread... hahaaa! It was a pile of corned beef hahaaa! At night I stayed in and caught up on lost... it's not crazy, it's CRIZZZY!! Today (Sunday) I went to the studio with Ian and recorded final takes for nearly all the acoustic parts, which was nice.

Random Notes
So Jill is singing on some of Ian's tracks on the album. One song, Amber, is kinda sorta about a girl... but could also double as just the color. So we've been making fun of Jill for singing about staying up all night with a girl and seeing her in the sunshine... hahaa! She wants to change it, but thats doubtful-ish...

So I found out that I won't be starting work till September now- I've got about 4.5 months off now... kinda happy, and kinda bummed at the same time. I obviously would like all the time off I can get, but at the same time I don't wanna get bored. I've contacted some teen tours and such with no luck of jobs. I'm waiting to hear back from Shure (Chicago) if they're looking for any summer intern help. I hope they do... it would be cool to go back to Chicago for a summer! If not, I'll contact JLI and see if they still have a spot available for the Israel trip (I originally turned it down). If that doesn't pan out, I'll prob just go to the beach like everyday and work on my bronze hahaa! ORRRRR.... EPIC ROAD TRIP ACROSS AMERICA!!! I'll figure it out!

Anyway, that's all I've got I think... I was gonna write all about how it's the final push and whatnot, but whatever- I'll get to that another day!

~tannen

Time: 2:56am
Picture: Candy Pizza!! you KNOW you want it! hahaa!

It's the weekend!! So yeah, it looks like I might actually keep this updated... for now! hahaa!!! Anyway, not much has really happened since my last update. I had some class, did some things... some stuff. lol! Nah, I'll give you detailed breakdown, cuz I know that's why you read it! Also, the hit counter is back and has been RESET! Paul if you're reading this... I did it for you... you deserve for waiting all this time!




Monday, March 23, 2009
Just wakin' up in the morning gotta thank god
I dont know but today seems kinda odd
No barking from the dogs, no smog...

Haha... no, that's an Ice Cube song... my bad! But yeah, I DID wake-up... eventually. Overslept nearly an hour. Rather than rush to class, I hopped in the shower with no intention of beating the clock. Got out, really didn't care for being on time, so I made myself lunch for later... even toasted it! If you were wondering... it was a turkey sandwich on anderson health nut whole wheat complete with aged swiss, mayo, and oregano! Coupled that with some animal crackers... if that's not perfection, I dont know what is! haahaa! Went to ballroom... did some polka, some cha-cha... nothing new really- good times though! Went to my sci-fi class, i mean IST and pop culture... played scrabble the whole time... I pretty much OWN in scrabble right now! Went to my real class (enterprise integration)... talked on gchat the whole time with marilyn about how I don't wanna graduate and be a grown-up and that i need to find my future wife... hahaa! Got home, made some food, went to the gym... pretty normal night I guess...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Woke-up early for my Israel JLI interview... it was at 10, and waking up at 9am is REALLY early for me! Interview went well. Got texts from Ian and Jill about lunch... saw we were switching it up from the Waffle Shop and heading to Panera... nice! Chilled until some studio time with ian. I told him we were gonna record some final mixes. We basically went in and re-recorded 2 tracks worse than before... hahaa! At least we know the originals sound cool now!! Successful failure... perhaps? Pretty much ate dinner, went to the gym, and worked on some Honeywell project work all night... cool!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Wokeup, showered, had the usual bowl of oatmeal and granola... Went to ballroom- started out with some polka... not as tiring as usual since she didn't make as spin and jump for like 40 minutes straight hahaa! Instead we mixed it up with some merengue! It's all about those latin hips! We have a competitive dance in the class that's on a team, and he's pretty ridic... he was pulling out all the stops, dancing with the stars style, haha! Went to robot class... discussed ummm.... robots. Went to my real class... had a speaker- talked about service oriented architecture... neat! Met up with Knabe for some Rigatony's free-for-David-swipe-action for dinner! Everyone knows I love the commons b/c I can get free soft-serve ice cream... haha! After, I hung out with Ali a bit cuz she was MAD bored... she was looking up classifieds on craigslist... if she gets any more board she might sign-up for earn money to be a friend and activity partner... actually i'll just link you up: Earn money being my friend and activity partner (State College)! hahaaa! Anyway, got back, went to the gym, watched LOST... AHHHHHHHHH LOST is nuts right now... if you didn't watch it... WATCH!

Other Notes
So I got an e-mail from the JLI Israel program today saying I was accepted! The trip would be 3 weeks in June from June 4th-25th and I would be taking some classes, doing some exploring, traveling, hiking... should be really fun! Plus Jill's going... dave + jill + hebrew + israel = guaranteed good time! haha! Still not exactly sure if I'm going yet... I have to decided by next tuesday (March 31st). Gonna bounce the idea around and see what's best!
Tomorrow (Thursday) is Chaiim's last day in state college before he ships out to South Carolina for his Navy assignment... headin' to the Cafe and the Grill... should be fun!! Also doing some recording tomorrow, and Friday... and Sunday! Hopefully we get a bunch stuff done!! wooop woop! Anyway, I'm peacing!

~tannen

Time: 1:56am
Picture: Me, being INTENSE in Miami (South Beach, Biscayne Bay)

It's been almost THREE years since I last updated. This feels insanely weird! hahaa! I dedicate this one to my biggest fans... you know who you are... I wanna give shout-outs to Justin, Liz, Paul, Jillian, and Ian! I don't know where to start at all. I think I was prompted to post tonight by Justin, Ian, and some strange feeling I've had about this semester... Justin made me re-read all our wall-to-walls on facebook and Ian was like, yo you shoulda keep that blog goin' ya fool. To sum things up nicely: I went to college, I graduate in 2 months, and I'll be joining the grown-up club in late July and start working. The END! haha. Really though, I'm starting to get a little nostalgic now that graduation is coming near, which is probably why I started ::Tannenews:: in the first place senior year of HS- I was trying to hold onto everything I knew back home before I left for PSU. And here I am again, only this time it's the opposite- trying to hold onto PSU before I move back home and start working... So I don't know what's gonna be in this post... could be a bunch of rambling... so deal with it! haha!

So let's see. Penn State... it's been a crazy ride, and I can't believe it's coming to an end. At the moment I'm writing a "good times" document with Ian and Gregg (and other contributors perhaps) so we can take a trip down memory lane every now and then. We've got 2 months left, and I know I'm gonna get that weird uneasy feeling when I leave... though I KNOW I'll be back to visit... hopefully like a gagillion times!

Right before spring break, April and Andy came up to visit... AWESOMENESS!! WE beat IU in bball and just general awesomeness ensued for the rest of the weekend. Then Spring Break happened... Miami to visit Matt as usual... good times- hit the beach, zoo, saw the chicago roomies for some kayaking and rib-making awesomeness, south beach, coconut grove, the UM gym ahaa! For every winter or spring break I've either been to Miami or LA... how awesome is that? Twice to LA, the rest MIA... nice! Thanks Matt!

I guess I should write about like school and classes or something. I'm only taking 13.5 credits, of which 6 are independent study for audio recording and sound design. So that leaves me with class on Monday and Wednesday from 11:15-3:45!! I have 5 days off a week... it's gonna be a shock when I roll into the office 5 days a week, with only 2 days off :( I'll survive... i think. The independent study credits are for an album project I'm doing with Ian- 8 tracks of guitar awesomeness... now I can listen to some soothing acoustic finger-picking anywhere.. haaa! Jill is also singing on the some tracks... looking forward to recording that! I'm taking an IST class called IST and pop culture- it's basically science fiction class b/c all we talk about is robots, androids, cyborgs, and watch movies... not bad! My other class is Enterprise Integration and I'm working on a team with Honeywell to lead their software virtualization initiative- things are going well and I look forward to finishing it out! Also taking ballroom dancing... really fun! Glad I listened to evan and took it!

More recently, let's see. Every sunday Liz and I have "EPIC Story Time" to recount the happenings of the week and weekend. To ensure quality stories we have both agreed to go into the weekend with the intention of having EPIC times worthy of story time... hahaa! We've had some good convos- good times... I'm glad we've kept in touch over the years since Salad WORK(s)... it's almost been 4 years... weird!

So I guess I'll do a little day-by-day, haha... keep you guys updated on some recent happenings. I guess I'll start with last Thursday since that's when the weekend starts for me hahahaaa!

Thursday, March 19, 2009
Pretty chill morning. Waffle Shop with Ian and Jill as usual... they were on their game- the pancakes were nice and hot, and the butter melted right in haha! After I rocked the gym as usual, then just kinda hung out till the evening? Anyway, night rolled around with plans to head to the Saloon for some 1/2 price monkey boys (me, jill, chaiim), but Chaiim (Dave) ended up dipping out due to some stomach issues... lame! Jill and I headed to Inidigo to meet up with some people to get our dance on haa! They still had St. Patrick's themed Bud Light bottles... pretty neat! We got our dance on... good times. So it rolls around 12:45, me and Jill head back... and by back I mean she went home to go to sleep and I went to the Den to meet up with Knabe... Allie was there too ;) ...and some dude apparently from my ballroom class. Despite their only being an hour left, we packed a PUNCH! It wasn't too crowded, but we all felt like dancing... so we ripped it up with ballroom moves... swing, merengue, some polka moves, random freestyle that almost resulted in falling... good times. I dropped a drink at some point, but it was plastic so it was all good! I also saw Jenn Ronn... woot! Anyway, the night ended up with me running nearly 2 miles to retrieve Jenna's stuff from some drunkie who took it by accident... her bf could've easily driven for it like 10 minutes later, but somehow I felt obligated to run for it... perhaps it was my ENERGY LEGS thinking, not my head... hahaaa! Anyway, crisis averted... overall GREAT night!

Friday, March 20, 2009
Another chill morning. Probably ate oatmeal for breakfast. Kinda sat around till I had an IST meeting at 5 or so. It was short and to the point. Came back, ate dinner, watched BBall, chilled. During the night I hung out with Ian, Ali (of Agrabah), Jenna (S), Angela, and Gregg (eventually). Made some alls ;) hahaa! Headed out to the Den again... but it was much more crowded and loud than Thursday... so u know, not as cool. We didn't stay long, but Ali was hilarious! The night ended with some Jim's pretzels... cinnamon pretzel with sweet cream cheese- that's where I'm at!

Saturday, March 21, 2009
Woke-up for a full day in the studio with Ian. Packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so I wouldn't be hungry during the 4 hour sess from 1-5pm. Got a ton of shit done... recorded some new stuff, revisited some old. Jill came in for her first vocal session... and by golly she's good! Ian and I give her a heap of credit... and will now give her a heap of songs to sing hahaa! After the studio I rocked some dinner and got ready for the nightlife. Ian told me he's ready to PARTY, so we started at my place with some awesome music (pumping through the 30 year old Scott speakers... nice! still sounds awesome!)... started with some Ozzy... the intensity rivaled a nuclear explosion of air guitar, air drums, and head banging! Chaiim came over for a bit.. watched Powerthirst on my mp3 player so we could start fueling sweet rave parties with out glowing sweat... weird. Me, Ian, Gregg met up with Max, Nick, Jill, and Whit to head for Tony's. Line was waaay long so we went to Lulu's... saw Jenn Ronn on the way (she was going to Tony's, but I was like yo the line is long... so she ended up at Lulu's too). Anyway, Ian, Jill, and Chaiim got bounced (or rather left in mutual agreement with the bartended and bouncer) for refusing to pay for their overpriced drinks that were 3 minutes past special... LAME! Anyway, the rest of us stayed, drank, danced a bit, chilled... good times! Met back up later for some food and some hanging out at my apt.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon... I don't think I did anything. I think I went food shopping or something... yeah we were out of toilet paper... that's def what I did then, hahaa! I might have done work, not sure... sad, b/c that was only yesterday and I can't remember. Oh! Evan's sister came over and baked cookies at night.. that was AWESOME!

Monday, March 23, 2009
Woke up like an hour late... skipped breakfast, but made lunch. Headed to ballroom dancing... learning the polka and cha-cha. I'm pretty much a polka pro because I like to bounce and jump... cha-cha, not so much! Good times though! Then headed to IST 402 (IST and pop culture)... watched like 15 movie trailers, not even exaggerating... though I played scrabble the whole time! Then IST 421 (Enterprise Integration)... just kinda chilled... class got out early, went back, hung out, ate dinner... I'm getting really good at cooking btw... I can make chicken, pasta, gnocchi, salad, crumb cake... ummm other things?! haha! Started reminiscing with Ian then Went to the gym... now I'm writing this. lol!

Futurecast
The rest of the week looks pretty chill. I've got some assignments due, some more studio work, but otherwise should be chill. I have an interview with the Jewish Leadership Institute tomorrow for a program in israel (free trip!)... Jill might be going, so that would be cool! Still not sure if I would go if I'm accepted, but I'll figure it out if that happens. Chaiim is shipping out to South Carolina (Navy) on Friday so we're going to celebrate his last night in state college on thursday... weird to think he's leaving... should be a fun night! I'm hoping to make some more collisions this week (not physically, metaphorically... hahaa!)

Anyway, I don't know how long these updates will keep coming, so enjoy them while they last! Till next time...

~tannen

Time: 6:51pm
Picture: Hmmm... Red Bank KaBOOM pre-fireworks pose!!

So, its almost been 6 months since I've updated... weird - lol!! Anyway, now that I've been home for roughly 2 months I plan on updating more often - sorry about the hiatus!! It's going to be hard for me to pick up where I left off... so I won't!! haha!! This post is just a filler for now, showing everyone that I haven't forgotten about ::tannenews:: and that it will be operational shortly. So what should you expect this summer from the website you might ask? Expect the usual daily rundown of nonsense about my boring life and random rants about this and that. Also expect some new features as I'm going to use the site as a testing ground for some new web-development --> (new layouts, multimedia stuff, etc...) In addition, I might cut-down on the day-to-day mumbo-jumbo and write about more interesting things... as to what those interesting things are, I haven't a clue! Anyway, I'll be writing more tonight or tomorrow.

Happy Fourth!!

~tannen

Time: 8.26pm
Picture: Me, Tami, and Laura on the Party Boat en-route to the Magic Kingdom during the magical week we have all come to call EPIC Spring Break '05! I miss Disney so I thought this was appropriate.

So, it's been a while since my last update. In fact, it's been exactly 10 days! Anyway- a lot has gone on since then so I'll probably just write the highlights. I'm currently sitting in my IST 210 class writing this. And it's kind of funny because we're learning the basics of html, of which I already know. So if your reading this Mom, I'm not missing anything... you're still getting your money's worth! The past week and a half was pretty decent...nothing too exciting though- aside from my birthday that is!! My classes aren't too bad...actually some of them are pretty good! Aerospace Engineering is really intense!! The professor is awesome...kinda like Mr. G! IST isn't too interesting thus far. Right now we're in "boot camp"- learning the basics and such- most stuff I already know. Eventually we'll get into some more interesting stuff. English isn't too bad yet. Jewish Civ is kinda boring, but interesting at the same time...lol!! Econ is a lot of fun actually. My professor is hilarious and makes economics fun...if that's even possible...lol!!!

Thursday, January 12
Thursday wasn't really too interesting, but it did kick-off the Dungeon Nip/Tuck marathon! Max and I watched like 4 episodes of Nip/Tuck Season 1 that night! We've currently finished season 1 and are on the second disc of season 2! Once we finish season 2, what are we going to watch?!! Matt suggested Lost...maybe!

Friday, January 13
Over the weekend Max went to Pitt and Ian went home, so I spent a lot of time with Gregg and Evan. Friday night we went to the HUB and saw "...Waiting"- it was really funny...stupid funny, but funny...lol!! Then we went back to Gregg's room where I proceeded to use Gregg's screename to prank Liz. I told her that I was Omar from Georgetown and that I was in one of her lectures and that I really really wanted to go out one night. I utilized all my knowledge and resources to make the story believable, and it was...until some holes in my story appeared. Gregg called her and left two extremely believable voice messages...it was hilarious! She eventually called and caught me...damn! She told me that I had her going for a while though, but then like 30 minutes after she said that she told me she knew the whole time which is a bunch of crock! I don't believe it for a second!

Saturday, January 14
Saturday morning I woke-up to an alarm...nope, not my alarm! Max forgot to turn his alarm off, so I was woken up swiftly at 10am...ugghhh! I went right back to sleep, so it was all good...lol! I didn't wake-up until about 1:30pm or so...I clearly missed brunch. Instead, I ate an intense bowl of Cap'n Crunches Crunch Berries!! At night, me, Gregg, and Evan went to the Corner Room for dinner! After dinner, me, Melissa, Andrea, Andrea's friend Sean, Jess, Gregg, and Evan went ice skating!! Woooot! Ice skating was intense as usual! After skating, we went back to Andrea's room and watched the end of Billy Madison and The Truman Show!

Sunday, January 15
I don't remember much of Sunday... All I remember is going to the gym, maybe doing some work, and that's about it! If I remember anything more I'll come back and write it, but I doubt I did anything too exciting...lol!

Monday, January 16 = MLK Day!!
No classes!! Does anything get better? Probably not! Anyway- I'm pretty sure Monday went kind of like Sunday- gym, work, etc... The Nip/Tuck marathon that we started on Thursday resumed as well!

Tuesday, January 17
Tuesday was a pretty standard day in my opinion. Went to class, ate lunch, went to class, went to the gym, took a shower, went to dinner, did some work, watched Nip/Tuck... the usual fare...

Wednesday, January 18 = My Birthday~!!
Yay for my Birthday!!! Turning 19 wasn't as cool as turning 17 or 18. I have no new responsibility or privileges so it's kind of just an age I guess. On the other hand, it's my last year as a teenager...weird!! Next year I'll be 20 years old! How weird is that?!?!! Anyway- my birthday was good. My IST class ended 45 minutes early so that was awesome! For dinner, me, Max, Ian, Gregg, Evan, and Pup went to Chili's and all ordered steaks! [except for that unmanly guy (woman) named Ian!]. After dinner we went back to my room and ate cookie cake (thanks Mom, Dad, and Matt!)!! Later, me and Max continued the Nip/Tuck marathon- we finished season 1!! yay!! It was funny because Justin, Elissa, and April got my Nip/Tuck Season 2 for my B-Day and I got it that day. It came right on time! We started season 2 that night! Thanks to everyone for making my 19th awesome!!

Thursday, January 19
Pretty standard day. Reedy proofread my english paper and made like a gagillion marks on it...haha! Why? Because Reedy commands the English language like Grant commanded the Union army in the Civil War! The Nip/Tuck marathon continued at night and that's pretty much it!

Friday, January 20
Today was pretty standard as well. Aero was good, as was IST and English. I went to the gym then dinner. Now Max and Gregg are playing NHL 2K6 on XBOX 360 and I'm writing this. Not sure what I'm doing later. Maybe I'll see Saw 2...see-saw 2...haha!!

I'm going to LA over Spring Break with Matt...yay! What could be better?!! We'll be there for the Oscars too! I can't wait!

As for the website. I've updated the links bar at the top to reflect changes in JD's Blog and pictures. I have the link to JD's new blog on Blogger as well as his old Xanga. I also added a link to JD's new pics on Yahoo. I took away the guestbook link b/c I haven't had enough time to work on it. Also, I've been thinking about a re-design sometime in the near future. I'm not sure of what it will look like yet, but I assure you I will only re-design it if will be an improvement. I'm also thinking about moving the website off the PSU server and register the domain name tannenews.com - in addition, once I learn SQL and such I plan on adding a database for commenting on the website and perhaps a real guestbook. So all I can say is keep a keen on eye the site!

Until then...

~tannen

Time: 2:41am
Picture: Me and Elissa at Roosevelt Park ice skating! It was an intense night! Read on for details...

It's been a bit of a while since I last updated but it's alright. Why is alright? In the wise words of Mike Monafis, "because I had Subway for lunch".... haha! no really- it's ok b/c at least I'm updating now that I'm back at school! Anyway- it's been really intense since my last update! I'll pick up right where I left off!

Monday, January 2
I'm pretty sure I just sat around all day long... that's pretty much all I have to say!

Tuesday, January 3 = Trip to FL/ORANGE BOWL!!
Tuesday the 3rd was an INTENSE day without doubt! Anyway- We (me and my brother) had to leave for the airport at around 4am since our flight was at 6:45. In all my eternal wisdom, I went to bed at 1am, didn't fall asleep till around 2:19, and woke-up at around 3:15am. It was more of a power-nap! We left our house in Matt's rental car since his car was in the shop. On the way to Matt's friend's house (we were driving her to the airport) there was a plastic trash can lid in the middle of the road. Matt figures that they car could overpass the lid without a problem. He couldn't have been more WRONG!! He rolled over the lid and it got caught in the frame of the car! We couldn't remove it so we drove to his friend's house while the lid made a loud, unbearable scraping noise with the road. When we got to her house I looked under the car to see if I could remove it but it was gone! It was shaken loose when we drove up her driveway! Anyway- the flight was good- actually I can't say that since I slept for the entire flight! My grandparents picked us up from the airport and we went back to their apartment where I proceeded to take another nap. After that we rented a car and just chilled till we had to leave for the game.

We left for the game around 5ish and stopped by McDonalds for dinner to keep with the PSU football tradition! Once we got to the game it was madness! There were a gagillion more Penn State fans than Florida State fans! It practically felt like a home game! Anyway- if you watched the game you already know the intensity of the triple overtime, the injuries, the extremely defensive ballgame, the outrageous coaching match-up, and all the drama that went down. It was probably the most dramatic football game I've ever seen! It was like a movie! By the end of the game all me and Matt wanted to do was get something to eat and go to sleep...lol!! I'm pretty sure Paterno wanted to do the same! On the way back from the game we stopped by McDonalds again to keep with tradition. I was so tired and just passed out when we got back.

Wednesday, January 4
Once me and my brother finally woke-up we went to visit my Grandma Ruthie and then went the Cheesecake Factory for lunch at Sawgrass. We did some shopping and then headed over to the airport. The airport was full of PSU people! It was ridiculous. It was like PSU invaded Ft. Lauderdale! Evan (Coach) was on my plane going back to NJ so that was cool. About 95% of our plane was comprised of Penn Staters... if someone yelled out "WE ARE..", the entire plane would've responded, "PENN STATE!"... and that's no joke! The pilot also gave us updates on the Rose Bowl since the flight took off when the game started. Once we got back home I watched the rest of the Rose Bowl which was intense!

Thursday, January 5
Thursday was good- went out to Turning Point with Elissa for lunch and then went ice skating at night. Anyway- ice skating was just as intense as I thought it would be. In attendance was (in alphabetical order by first name): David (me...duh!), Elissa, Jillian, Kristin, Liz, Paul. Jillian proved to us why she's clearly the next Kristi Yamaguchi with her crazy figure skating skills...lol!! Liz also willingly took pictures that night...yay! I also almost knocked Liz over as I did an intense hockey stop right next to her! Paul attempted to race me- even with a 10 second head start he couldn't triumph! I shouldn't say anything as he could definitely beat me in a foot race...ughhh! After skating we went over to the Menlo Mall, played the Victoria's Secret game and won!, ate dinner, and just walked around for a bit. Me and Paul still have to out stair-running contest since we couldn't find a good flight of stairs in the mall. We left the mall and took an intense, scary ride down Igoe road near pleasant valley. Then we went over to CBA for no apparent reason...lol? Then we went back to Kristin's and congregated outside her house for about 5 minutes until we all left for our respective homes. Me, Paul, Liz, and Kristin didn't sit on a curb that night so that's still on the list of things today. Maybe we'll do it when me and Paul go visit Liz in DC sometime this semester- along with the other gagillion items on the list of the things to do in Georgetown.

Friday, January 6
Friday was my last day in Marlboro over winter break. I did the usual- Turning Point with JD and Elissa, Applebee's, Jersey Freeze, Elissa's house, etc... I also drove around in my car for 15 minutes without a destination since I was going to miss my car and the "superior audio" as Reedy would say in her celtic accent. I finished packing and then just went to bed.

Saturday, January 7 = Back to PSU
It was time to go back to PSU - and as usual, a combination of a lack of sleep and sitting in a car for 5+ hours put me in a bad mood...I don't know why though? Anyway- it was weird being back- I really wanted to stay back home and relax for another week, but oh well! I went to Wal-Mart and did some shopping then went to the Corner Room for dinner with my parents. At night I went over to 3rd floor Sproul to hang-out with Melissa, Reedy, and Jess- we watched Empire Records- always a good time! After the movie I went back to my room to unpack all my crap and get some things together for my parents to take back home.

Sunday, January 8
I woke-up early to go to the Waffle Shop with my parents- it was really good! Then I hung-out with Ian, went downtown, and ordered a pizza for dinner with Ian and Gregg. Ian was disgruntled with his Les Paul since he recently purchased a Stratocaster and just couldn't enjoy playing the Les Paul for some strange reason...weird? At night I went over to Agrabah (the Reedy Room) to see the princess of Agrabah (Ali) and the Queen of the Reedy Room (Reedy obviously). It was a really good time! Melissa came over and we pointed my laser pointer in other people's rooms to see if we could get their attention...haha! Then steph swung by and told us scary stories over the raging campfire (flashlight)...lol! Ali tried to seduce me in every way possible- throwing plastic bottles at me, using words like "doodey", among others...hahahaha! She also performed quite an amazing feat- changing into a towel without exposing any private parts! That kind of skill will take her far in life...lol! Anyway- when I got back to my room I watched Wedding Crashers with Max which was intense!

Monday, January 9 = First Day of Classes (2nd Semester)
Today (well technically yesterday) was moderately intense. Aerospace seems like a really good time! IST was pretty boring though... oh well! English didn't seem to bad. I'll have to see how things go tomorrow- Jewish Studies and Economics... shouldn't be too bad. Dinner was had in the dining commons- first time eating in the dining hall since I've been back and it was just as expected...lol! After dinner Ian came back and played some XBOX, then I went over to 3rd floor Sproul to hang-out with Melissa, Reedy, Ali (even though she was in an unfavorable mood), Jess, and other people that happen to inhabit the 3rd floor. I'm trying to become the #1 3rd floor Sproul groupie, but I doubt I can win- I can probably place second...lol! Oh well- I'll live with myself... somehow!...hahaha!!! Later on I did some HW, watched the Gonzaga game with Max, and now I'm writing this.

Wednesday nights have officially been set-aside as Movie Night! Me and Reedy decided that every Wednesday night we are going to watch a movie. Anyone can come... so come! So far we have the first 5 movies lined up: (in no particular order) Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Memento, Kill Bill 1, Kill Bill 2, Wedding Crashers. We're taking requests once we finish the first 5 movies! Movie Night should be INTENSE!!

I really want to go ice skating so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go ice skating this weekend. Friday seems good! So ummm- to everyone reading this at PSU- your now officially going ice skating Friday night...lol!!

Anyway I'm tired. Till next time...

~tannen

Time: 3:29am
Picture: Me and JD taking our first contemplation picture of 2006! It was intense! As usual, it took like 30 gagillion times to take! We never even like the actual serious picture- the outtakes are soo much better!

First Post of 2006! The intensity is so great; it makes my spine tingle...lol!

Thursday, December 29
The intensity of day was ever increasing. Using differential calculus we find that the tangent of the day is increasing at an increasing rate. Anyway, my phone rang at 8am AGAIN!!! I think it only rang once today, but I still woke up b/c I'm too stupid to move the damn phone from its current location roughly 2 inches from my knee. Every time I go to answer it, it stops ringing! I'm going to metaphorically strangle this person if they don't stop calling and waking me up! Once I decided to get up (roughly 12:16pm) I went to lunch with my Mom to Turning Point which was good. After that I decided to clean up my guest room which is currently cluttered with all my computer equipment (junk). I've been ordered to get rid of about 90% of it, so I've been weeding out the good from the bad- anyone need roughly 7 Pentium II motherboards?...or 5 power supplies that will surely explode when plugged in?...lol!! I still have so much to go through- I could build like 18 computers from the junk in that room.

The evening was where the intensity began to increase. I was talking to Mike Wis and I told him we should go ice skating...he refused- I ignored his refusal. I asked Dorit and Jenn Meye if they wanted to go and they said sure- I made them gang up on Mike to force him to go- he clearly cracked under the peer-pressure...Dorit said, "He'll crack like a nut!"...lol! We went to the Wall Sports Arena and skated for a bit over an hour. Skating was intense! I had a GREAT time... idk if I can say the same for Mike Wis though - he felt quite a number of times! Anyway- after skating we were going to head home so we followed the signs to 18 north, which clearly didn't lead us to 18 north, but Arby's rather! So we pulled into Arby's and the car next to us had two people in it and the windows were all steamy... so of course, being the youngsters we are, we commented on the steamy windows as we got out of the car. There windows we open of course- so we kind of felt like jackasses...lol! After Arby's, I drove Jenn Meye home and then went to Dunkin Donuts with Dorit and Mike. After that I drove them home and just chilled the rest of the night.

Friday, December 30
I didn't do much if I remember correctly. I woke up around 11 or so and just kind of sat around the rest of the day. I headed over to SaladWorks to pick up lunch though. Ines made my sandwich and it was only par- not sub par, but not super par. I should've went to Wegmans for a sub- but then again I wouldn't have been able to visit Liz- so I guess it even itself out. Howard rang me up, so any chance of a discount disappeared... lol! I just sat around the house the rest of the day. I watched MurderBall with Matt at night- it was really good! Then I just chilled the rest of the night... like usual- lol!

Saturday, December 31 :: New Year's Eve!!
The last day of 2005 was pretty intense, although the intensity didn't begin till roughly 9pm. What did I do with myself before then? Good question... absolutely NOTHING!! I kind of just sat around the house waiting to go to JD's at night. I took like 3 showers or something that day... out of boredom- haha! There was nothing better to do! I even took a nap... and I wasn't even tired!

Anyway- I picked April up and helped her with all her stuff to the car- champagne, sparkling cider, and an INTENSE two layer cookie cake (with frosting between the layers!). It was like a giant cookie sandwich! Anyway- we got to JDs around 8:42ish... lol- I added an ish to 8:42...hahahaa!! Anyway- when we got there, Rory was there already, but Beth wasn't. Word on the street was, "Beth isn't coming". She and JD got in a bit of a fight earlier, but I'm not going to get into that since it's none of my business. At around 9ish, Liz and Paul showed up- JD thought that the pizza guy was ringing the doorbell so he ran down scrambling for the money- haha! Anyway- JDs new 70" TV is INSANE... we were watching the Giant's game and I felt more "in" the game than I do when I sit like 8th row watching PSU at Beaver Stadium... well not really- but it's still really really intense!! Beth eventually came, so there was a total of 7 people. Anyway- the pizza got there within the next 20 minutes. JD ordered 3 pies for 7 people... haha! Everyone had like a slice, and Liz didn't eat (as usual)- well she said she would eat next year... haha! She did though, so I can't say she doesn't keep her word! After pizza we switched between the Giants game and Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. April got drunk on like 1 drink- she didn't have much to eat (bad idea!) so she was off the wall! At one point she asked me to make her a drink... I was like that's probably the worst idea you've ever had! Anyway- JD gave us our noise-makers at like 11:30pm... that was a mistake...lol! All you heard was an annoying whine from each noise-maker for the next 30 minutes- especially from April since she was wired! Leanna and Scott stopped by so they joined the festivities. Anyway- so 5 minutes before the ball dropped, Beth decided to leave- more drama... I'm not gonna get into it b/c it's still none of my business.

Anyway- so the ball dropped... totally didn't feel like New Years... idk why? Anyway- we all raised our glasses and drank to the new year... well actually the champagne was really bad so I went for some sparkling cider... haha- I would! Anyway- me and JD took our first pose of contemplation picture of 2006 which was intense! Liz ate and made JDs night...lol! JD was making some phone calls and Leanna asked him who he was calling. He responded with, "The World"...haha! For some strange reason I found it hilarious! Me and JD couldn't stop laughing! Andy called April from Israel so she was like a love-struck 15 year old. She was in lala land to begin with- after Andy called she was a damn looney-toon!... probably Tweety Bird...lol!! Anyway- as many of you may or may not know, JD has a bunch of fake things in his kitchen- fake cereal and milk, fake spilled glasses, etc... He also has fake hot tea! So, of course me and Paul started cracking up for obvious reasons! We tried to get Liz to take a picture with it for like 20 minutes and she flat-out refused! We resorted to force to get the shot, but still failed! The pictures we did get are...uhh....I'll just say "questionable"...lol! Anyway- JD went to take a picture with her, and she complied right away! What's with that! I told Paul that whatever Justin has, we'll buy it on eBay...hahahaha! Anyway- Liz and Paul left at around 1:15ish, but didn't actually get out the door till like 1:30ish since we kinda just hung out by the door for 15 or 20 minutes talking about random things- like how Liz hates us for trying to take pictures, and who my ::tannenews::'s biggest fan is- JD? Paul? The world may never know...lol! Leanna and Scott left soon after. Laurie and Paul came home about 15 minutes later, and told us we were weak b/c no one ate or drank much...hahaa!

At around 2am April went to sleep while me, JD, and Rory watched Blade 3: Trinity on the 70"...it was really intense! After that we watched Bill Maher... he was really funny! It was just a bit past 4am when we decided its time to go to bed.

Sunday, January 1 :: New Year's Day!!
April had to leave at 8am b/c she had to go back to Indiana... so of course she wakes me and JD up to say goodbye. When she woke me up I didn't even have a clue where I was- I couldn't even speak...lol! I woke up at like 11am and wondered if JD or Rory were up...but then I was like JD doesn't wake up till like 2pm so I just went back to bed till 1:30. I had an intense dream! In my dream, I tackled Reggie Bush! It was awesome! I ran at him and he was like, "Oh shit!", and I just took him to the ground! Anyway - at around 1:45 or so, Elissa called from St. Thomas (I think?) b/c she got cell service... it was nice to hear from her since she's been gone for almost 2 weeks. After that we hung out, watched some football, and ate bagels. At around 3pm or so, I left and went back home.

Once I got home I did what I do best...nothing! I was still really tired even though I got a decent amount of sleep...lol! At around 8pm I went to the Rec Center to play Manhunt with Ian, Dinowitz, Brown, Oran, and the Ticks. The game was alright- everyone was tired, the playing ground was too spread out, and the fields were wet and muddy. We stopped after one game...lol! We played some tag, but that failed to catch-on. After that I went to Wawa to get some iced tea and a hot pretzel...random- lol! Then I went back home, had tea with my Mom, and just chilled... now I'm updating this...lol!

Some Thoughts (For lack of a better title)
So it's 2006...It's kind of like your Birthday- it doesn't sink-in till like 6 months later. I found myself writing 2006 in 2005 though- so I'm like, isn't is 2007...lol! Nothing feels different, and I'm not gonna change much for the new year. I'm still lazy. I'm still gonna procrastinate. I'm not gonna change my study habits that I want to change. I'm still hopelessly in love with the same girl. New Years is a weird "holiday" if you can even call it that. First of all, everyone gets into fights over what to do New Years Eve. Out of any holiday, New Year's creates the absolute most drama! It's one night and it's sooo overrated. I mean, I had a good time, but you know what I mean. And the whole New Year's Resolution is a bunch of poppycock! If you really wanted to change something you would do it. New Year's Resolutions are usually the same things, thought of at the last minute, that you'll never actually carry-out. So what's my New Year's Resolution that I'll probably never do? I've gotta stop thinking and contemplating about everything and just "do it" as Max says. I spend so much time thinking, and less time acting. Can I do this? Probably. Will I? Probably not. Why? Because I suck at life...lol...jk! I don't really feel this negatively about New Years- it was just a mindless rant...lol! Hey- it happens!

I was thinking... since everything with me (for 2005) is EPIC _______ (insert event) '05... does EPIC _______ '06 sound good? I think '05 sounds better. EPIC Spring Break 05' sounds a lot better than EPIC Spring Break '06...lol! I guess I'll get used to it!

In other news- I'm going to Florida on Tuesday to go to the Orange Bowl!! I'm sooo excited! PSU is gonna rip Florida State's limbs off! Then their heads!

Also- my birthday is soon! January 18th! Keep your calendars marked!!...lol!!

Anyway- it's time for bed. Goodnight! Happy New Year!

~tannen

Time: 2:36am
Picture: Lia's foot is a "phone shelf"!!!...haha! Lia told me to put my phone on the "phone shelf", so I did! Then I put Kristin, Paul, and Liz's phone on too! If you can't tell- me and Kristin have the same phone and Liz and Paul have the same phone. Lia went to take a picture of her creation so I thought it would be funny if it looked like I was going to take a big bite out the phone shelf (her foot)...lol!

Wednesday, December 29
Today was a day of moderate intensity. The amount of intensity could have been greater if everything went according to plan, but it's all good...still an intense day! Anyway, here it goes...

My phone rang at around 8am this morning...and the phone is still situated like 2 inches from my ear so it was annoying as hell! After that I went back to sleep, but kept waking up intermittently- like every half hour or so until 11am. Anyway- I got up and did my whole morning routine. Then I decided to clean my car windows and the interior...that was fun...lol! I almost drained my battery since I was adjusting the amp settings on my monoblock without the engine on/alternator running...that would've sucked! Anyway- I went to Best Buy and bought the Best of the Pixies - Waves of Mutilation...it's awesome! I can't stop listening to it! Then I went to Saladworks for lunch with Liz, Paul, and Kristin. Lunch was pretty intense and I would rate 'super par' in terms of humor...lol- Liz was telling a story and she knocked her wrist against the table and was in some pretty severe pain- it wasn't funny...no, actually it was really funny! A new sandwich maker made my turkey club today...a woman! Ahhh! Saladworks can't have female sandwich makers- it doesn't apply to the gender separation within Saladworks - guys do sandwiches and girls do salads!...ughh! I can't say anything though- the sandwich was damn good!

After lunch- Me, Kristin, Paul, and Liz went over to the Manalapan REC to participate in various, muscle-intensive activities...lol! First we played "rough touch" football. The game was pretty lob-sided though. It was guys vs. girls so clearly me and Paul won. We stopped playing after we scored two touchdowns since they realized football wasn't there sport. We played an intense game of (beach) volleyball next...I guess "beach" applies- we played in the sand! The teams stayed the same, guys vs. girls. Liz and Kristin were winning for a good 15 minutes and so we (Paul and I) had to bring it. We eventually tied the game up and took the lead to win the game! Kristin claims that she'll be unstoppable by spring-time since she'll be practicing! After volleyball we went home to shower since we were all sandy and gross! Well, that's why I had to shower at least...maybe Liz had to shower b/c she's a dirty slut?!?!!!!...hahahaha!!!

We all met at Kristin's house with the intention of going ice skating...that never happened. All the additional people that were going to come weren't going to come so we decided to reschedule...plus Liz was whining that her leg hurt or something like that. We (Me, Kristin, Liz, Paul, and Lia) just chilled at Kristin's house for the night which was a lot of fun even though we didn't really do much. So the bottom line is...we didn't go ice skating...lol! But this doesn't mean anyone's off the hook...lol! We're still going!!!

Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow- Liz suggested I go to the mall with at like 6 in the morning- well not 6am, but you know...early! I most definitely won't be up by then, considering its 2:24am right now...lol! Paul will probably be dragged into going- I feel his pain...well not really. I want to play the Disney Store Game though, so maybe I'll have to go with them another time. I'll probably end up going to lunch with my Mom and sitting around the whole day...hopefully I'll do something productive though, like buy new sneakers. Anyway- it's almost bedtime....

--> till next time...

~tannen

Time: 5:53pm
Picture: This shot was taken in Elissa's room over Thanksgiving break. I clearly have no idea what's going on. I need some better pictures, so somebody better bring a camera tomorrow!

This is the first time I've updated in a timely manner since mid-August...hahaha! The amount of months that has passed since then feels doesn't feel like long ago in the least...it feels like yesterday! Anyway- I shall return to the day-by-day format since I no longer have an enormous amount of time to cover.

Monday, December 26th
Yesterday was pretty standard...didn't do much. I woke up at 10:30am to the deafening sound of my telephone that just happened to be situated about 2 inches form my head. The sound became even more annoying over time since it never stopped ringing! I disconnected my message machine when I went to college so my phone keeps ringing and ringing till the caller decides I'm not there! It was my brother, and he showed no mercy, letting my phone ring in excess of ten times!! Anyway- I walked downstairs and noticed my brother was gone, but his car wasn't. Then I looked on the driveway and noticed that my car was missing...he took my car! I was furious! I only spoke to him if it was absolutely necessary. Later in the day I went to the Red Bank Armory Ice Rink Pro Shop to purchase ice skates. I bought Nike Quest V-10's which are pretty intense...I'm not gonna lie. I ended up going to exchange them for a smaller size today, since they were a bit too big. Anyway- later that night I went to the movies with Justin and Beth to see Rumor Has It...it was alright- not great, not terrible....decent I guess (well maybe like sub-decent...lol!). After that we went to the diner and we all got our usual. I got matzo-ball soup, Justin got grilled cheese and a pickle, and Beth got like a feast for 12 (pancakes, eggs, potatoes, frosted flakes, toast, etc...)- keep in mind we went to the diner at like 1am...lol! After that I just came back home, watched Boy Meets World, and went to sleep!

Tuesday, December 27th
I had plans to be productive today, so I set my alarm to wake me up early. My alarm went off at around 10:22am and I didn't wake up till roughly 10:44am. I called the haircutters right away to get a haircut appt. Then I called the Red Bank pro shop to make sure they had the smaller sized skates, which they did. I got ready pretty fast and then started my day of productivity. I went to the ATM since I had about $5 in my wallet, then I went to the mall to look for a new pair of sneakers. I didn't find any, so I went to Dick's.

I was in a bit of rush so I was walking into the store pretty briskly. I'm walking towards the end of the store, and as I get close to the rock-climbing wall I look to my right and suddenly stop. Who was this I stopped for? I'll give you a clue...I was supposed to go to Dick's with her on Tuesday, August 23. Alright enough with this silly game lol- it was Liz! Then I peered a bit more to my right and saw Paul. There were no words to describe the hilarity of the moment. For some strange reason whenever I talk to them I'm either going or have just come back from Dick's. I also haven't seen them since I've been home, so it was quite the "running-into"...if that phrase even exists...lol! Anyway- Paul's telling me plans for tomorrow as he's going up the escalator and by the time he's at the top he's shouting. Well not shouting, but you know what I mean. I checked out the selection of sneakers at Dick's and found nothing to my dismay. I went upstairs and chilled with Paul and Liz for about 15 minutes. Well Liz was shopping so I really just talked to Paul. At one point we lost Liz...I theorized she would be near the hunting gear...haha! Anyway - I eventually left and went to get my hair cut.

After my haircut I bought one of the most random things- random but useful. I bought a NJ street map! Why? I don't really know...lol! It's always good to have a map though! After the map purchase I went back to Red Bank to exchange my skates and now I'm home. Not sure what I'm doing the rest of the night. I'm making a delivery for my Dad to make a quick $20, but that's about it at the moment. Anyway - I'll end it here.

--> till next time...

~tannen

Time: 1:34am
Picture: I'm totally ripping the idea from Justin's Xanga...but I don't care! It's a hilarious pic! It was mini-golf over the summer. The idea was that I would have one foot on the stump, looking all stately and serious, using the gold club as sort of a cane, while JD laughed at me. I couldn't keep a straigh face- we tried to take the shot like 1,000 times, and barely even go it...haha!...good times for sure!

So...I haven't updated in like almost 2 months. And it's sad...my only readers right now are probably Justin and Paul...hahaha...b/c Jillian's on a cruise and I doubt anyone else reads this anymore.

Alright - I opened up my file that contains all my entries and I realized that I had started to write something on the way back to Penn State after Thanksgiving break. So anyway, I'm not gonna delete what I wrote already - so here is what I wrote- new stuff will follow after the small bit that I wrote on the bus that day.

On The Bus --> Start
I'm on the bus right now- heading back to PSU! Gregg and I got to the bus station a bit early (after getting lost of course!) and caught an earlier direct bus to PSU. Our original bus was at 5pm and stopped in Harrisburg for 30 minutes. We left at 4pm and there's no transfer...flippin sweet with the mead!! Anyway- I really don't feel like picking up where I left off- I'm not gonna lie...lol! My last post was on November 8th and I came home the 18th....so pretty much the bottom line is- PSU the last 10 days at PSU before Thanksgiving break were pretty standard...and that's all I have to say about that. I'm gonna pick up from November 18th and Thanksgiving break! A didn't do much over break, but it was intense regardless~!! Anyway- here it goes...

Friday, November 18th
Friday was INTENSE...the whole day I was looking forward to coming home. I went to class and such and it was pretty standard as far as for the morning. After lunch I started to pack and get all my stuff together. My bus was at 6:15pm and I wasn't finished packing until 4:15...lol!! Anyway- Gregg and I left for the bus around 4:30. I went to Subway to grab us subs while he waited on line for the bus. It was freezing out, and the bus was late! We were standing outside for a solid 2 hours or so before the bus got there! Anyway- the bus was pretty standard- slept most of the way- no funny stories like the Binghamton bus ride. We got to King of Prussia at around 10:30pm and my Mom and Matt were waiting for me and Gregg. We loaded our stuff into the car and headed for Marlboro! Once we got into Marlboro it didn't even feel like I left- it was weird. Anyway- once I got home I sat in my room for like 5 minutes and then went to the bathroom without having to wear sandals!! After that I headed straight for my car and went to the diner with JD, Elissa, and Beth. I got chocolate chip pancakes...b/c what else would you get at the diner around 12:30am? After the diner I drove around Marlboro for a good 25 minutes. Instead of going straight home I drove up 9 all the way to 520, then took that to 79 and then took that home. and then I drove around my development a few times before actually going home...lol! Once I got home I fired up my computer- it was nice to see all the glowing cathodes and LEDs! I just chilled the rest of the night.
On The Bus --> End

That pretty much summed up Thanksgiving break I guess...lol! It was intense! Anyway- I'm not gonna bore everyone with my activities for the past month and a half- and quite frankly I can't remember it all. I'll write something brief about it...lol

College Life Since I Last Updated --> In A NutShell
Once I got back from Thanksgiving break it was 2.5 weeks of work, work, work! The work just never ended! The last 3 weeks of the semester were awesome though. It snowed a few times and there were 3am snowball fights in the commons area- I even got tackled by a drunk Ian Brodie...hahaha! Trips downtown were frequent in the snow...even one that involved me, Ian, a Uni-Mart (where we spent 10 minutes and didn't buy anything), McLanahan's (which was closed), and McDonalds of course...haha! (We ended up at Pup's that night). Finals weren't terrible, but studying for calc was a bitch! Me and Gregg prepared ourselves to our fullest, but were still stumped by some of the obscure questions on the exam. Anyway - grades turned out well for me --> made Dean's List...yay!! Anyway that's all I'm gonna say about PSU - that and it's awesome and I can't wait to go to Miami for the Orange Bowl!

Winter Break!
Being home is weird and not weird at the same time...it's hard to describe. I haven't really done much- in a nutshell, I've gone out to eat a lot, went to the gym (back and biceps for real), movies, and went shopping (ughhh)! Aside from that I haven't done anything too exciting. This week should be more exciting though- SaladWORK(s) reunion on Tuesday, Ice Skating with SaladWORK(ers) on Wednesday, among other festivities.
Even though I love school and want to go back, I'm happy to be home...it's relaxing and a much needed break from all the work at school. I'm also glad to be home with my family and back with the Crew and all my friends from home.

Happy Hanukkah!!
It's Hanukkah! Happy Hanukkah to everyone! Hanukkah was intense this year...I went out to Harolds with the family and family-friends...the Sarnas and Meyebergs- and everyone came - even the kids! The food was good and it was nice to have everyone together like old times, since usually the family get-togethers have transformed into only the adults since all the kids (idk if I can even say kids- the youngest is 15...haha! and the majority are 18), myself included. Anyway- for Hanukkah, my parents are sending me and Matt to the Orange Bowl...yay! Matt bought my Nip/Tuck season 1...yay!!...and a FOM pillow, monitor privacy filters (polarizers), and an intense face-mask for riding. The Crew got me Seinfeld Season 4! Thanks everyone!!!!

Anyway - I think I'm gonna end it here. This is untraditional for me to totally ditch the day-by-day format, but there was just to much to cover...since I have some time on my hands I'll probably update more often (over winter break) and return to the day-by-day account of my life...lol! As for now- I can't wait for --> ice skating, new years (what the hell are we doing?...lol!), Orange Bowl/FL, and just relaxing!

Anyway - till next time (maybe tomorrow!)...

~tannen

Time: 2:17am
Picture: Me posing like Bonnie at the Homecoming game vs. Purdue~!!

So yeah...pretty much, the bottom line is...it's been over month since my last update...(ughhh-rough) = (-)gross = -2...I'll explain later. Anyway- a lot can be said about the past month. I'm def not going day-by-day. I planned on updating two weeks ago so I had stuff written for that post- I'll start with those, then somehow bunch everything together. A post a month most def isn't working. Justin updates his like every 2 days- I'm jealous!...lol! I think I'll go week by week- emphasizing only specific days...probably the weekends. Anyway- here it goes...

Thursday, October 6
Thursday was most likely a standard day- that's all that can be said.

Friday, October 7
Friday was in fact not quite as standard as most days...perhaps because it was a Friday (?). Anyway- the day was pretty routine- calc, lunch with Gregg, then relaxation b/c I always skip my compsci lab. In the evening hours I went to dinner (most likely with the usual dinner crew), went to the Oven for a while (Ian's room), then went back to the dungeon for about 45 minutes, then went over to Pup's (Max's friend) apartment with Ian, REEEDDDDYYYY, and Jess to meet up with Max and some of his HS friends such as Mook and Steve. We played King's....I was the Beer-boy since I didn't drink. It was still fun though- it was hilarious! Some funny things that happened- Max told me and Ian that the number of people with accents and without accents were equal (4 to 4) and that we couldn't bash him for having an accent. We then told him that he was the only one, and that it was 7 to 1. Jess decided she wanted some hard liquor, so Steve grabbed cheap Vodka from the fridge- it smelled like rubbing alcohol!!! Jess drank it of course, because she's an alcoholic. Jess was pretty much WIrEd the rest of the night. We played beer pong...Ian drank my beer- what a pal!...lol! we lost, because we played against professionals...Steve and Mook. Ian and I decided that Max was a professional drinker...he had like 18 beers and he was still the same person, drunk or not! Anyway- Max has the same cell phone as Jess, only Max's screen is broken. We switched Jess's phone with Max's and told her she broke her screen. Jess flipped out- it was really funny! She was like, "OMGGGGGG.....did IIiI BreEeeaakKKkKKkK myyy phoNNNnNE??!?! Noboddyy TelL myy daaaDddd!! I HAvVe tooo gOoOoo to VerizzZOn tomorrroOwwW!" After that we gave her back her original phone but told her that Max fixed it and that he was her savoir...she gave him a kiss on the cheek! Anyway- we eventually left...I escorted Reedy and Ian escorted Jess home. Ian told me Jess was really funny on the way back. Unfortunately for me...I can't say the same- I told her the other day that she's not a cool drunk b/c she's not funny. Ian told me that Jess kept asking, "Iiiaannn, IS, Myyy pHonnee reeeealllyyy BRooKeNNn?"...haha!!! lol! Good times!...well sorta!

Saturday, October 8 = GameDay :: PSU vs. OSU
The Ohio State game was the most anticipated game of the season, and it was INTENSE!!! Ian and I strayed from the norm of getting to the game 5 minutes before half-time. We still played Mortal Kombat though. We also coined, "Klub to Death". It is used to describe an instance in which someone is doing something that is going everywhere at once. For example- if I'm writing a paper and starting and finishing it in the same hour- I'm klubbing the paper to death. Anyway, back to the game. We met up with Max and Pup and entered the stadium 1.5 hours before game-time...not bad. It was a night game so it was even more intense! I've never slapped so many drunk people's hands in my life!!! Whenever we scored, we went crazy- jumping on people, slapping high fives like they were hotcakes, etc... There was also a guy near us with a wicked mullet. It was awesome! One of the best mullets I've seen in my life. Also, Max went crowd-surfing!!! Anyway- the outcome...we won of course!! After the game, Ian and I went to 3rd floor Sproul to have dinner with the dinner crew. We got chinese since McDonald's was closed. It was an intense game!!

Sunday, October 9 - Thursday, October 13
Sunday I realized I had a ton of work to do that I should have done sometime before the Ohio State game. Anyway- I spent most of Sunday working on compsci HW and stuff for CAS (presentation). The rest of the week was spent doing work for my presentation on Thursday and studying for my Calc exam on Wednesday. It was intense week as far as work was concerned. I had soooo much to do! It sucked! Wednesday was by far the worst- I crammed for my exam that was at 6:30pm. At 8pm I had a meeting for my presentation which went till about 1am. It was such a long day! Anyway- Thursday came and we gave our presentation- it went well. We got the highest grade in the class too! Thursday was also Yom Kippur, so I was fasting the whole day. Me, Ian, Melissa, and Jenna went to the bus station to pick up our bus tickets around 3:30. We each went up to get out tickets separately, and asked for them in a normal way; except Ian! He got up to the ticket window and said, "Yeah. I'm going to Binghamton!"...hahahah! We pretty much said that all weekend long and still use "yeah" before most every statement. Anyway- me and Ian were soooooooo hungry. We were contemplating to just sleep on a bench until dinner...we didn't, but we probably should have. We went back to The Dungeon until dinner and pretty much just moped around do to our hunger. We broke the fast at McDonalds with Gregg, Melissa, and Reedy. Gregg was angry because me and Ian were complaining about our hunger- he was like, "Gees, I haven't eaten all day too and you don't see me complaining". We would've Klubbed him to death if we the energy. Anyway- The rest of Thursday was awesome!! I went to the library with Ian and REEDY! It was quite the time! On the way back we made up REEEEEEDY songs and harmonized. Also, Ian was looking for a book and the librarian pointed us in the opposite direction of the Paterno Library even though the Paterno Library was right next to her!! Anyway- later that night I watched Mortal Kombat the movie with REEDY while I packed for Binghamton.

Friday, October 14 - Sunday, October 16 = Trip to the Bing!
Yeah so pretty much, Justin and I planned a surprise trip to visit Jillian for her birthday. This story requires a bit of background. Back in October of 2004 (right before Jillian's 17th birthday) she told us how cool it would be if all her friends came to visit her for her birthday in college (because her birthday is clearly the most important thing in the world!). Anyway- in late August, a bit before she left for Binghamton, she told us again...and we're like yeah that would be cool, but it's not gonna happen! So how did this come to be? I realized I had a day off on Friday, October 14...my original plan was to go home, but then I realized Elissa would wouldn't be home and would in fact be in Binghamton visiting Jillian! I said to myself, I think I'll go to Binghamton. I called up JD and told him about it, and he quickly jumped on the bandwagon! I told Melissa and Jenna about it, and they also decided to come! So at this point, Jillian thought that only Elissa and Arielle were coming. Melissa told her that she was coming, just to make sure she was expecting at least one person from Penn State. So- she though 3 people were coming to visit: Elissa, Melissa, and Arielle. In actuality, 7 people were visiting her: Me, JD, Jenna , Genna (another surprise), Elissa, Melissa, and Arielle. She had no idea!!! Elissa also didn't know I was coming!! Read on for ALL the details!!

The trip to Binghamton was extremely INTENSE!!! In fact, it was EPIC!! Friday morning- Me, Ian (Ian came to visit Brian and Ari), Melissa, and Jenna headed for the bus stop. We took the white loop there- When we got off the bus, Jenna told the bus driver that his bus was "lovely"...lol!!! Anyway- we waited for the bus for about 40 minutes since we got to the station early. We got on the bus and the seating arrangements were as follows: Jenna (windows) and Melissa (aisle), and me (aisle) and Ian (window). Our bus made a layover in Wilkes Barre (pronounced "berry") and was roughly 5 hours in length. Activities on the bus (to Wilkes Barre) included sleeping, listening to music, eating animal crackers, having Melissa write questionable statements on my arm and hands, and creating one of the best rating systems EVER!...the MEAD SCALE...!!! the mead scale is scale used to rate pretty much anything and goes from 1 to 11. The scale is as follows:

1. Uuggggggghhhhhhh
2. Gross
3. Rough
4. Max's hand motion
5. I'll think about it
6. Dave's look of contemplation
7. Sweet
8. Sweet Mead
9. Flippin' Sweet
10. Flippin' Mead
11. Flippin' Sweet with the Mead
    
    

We've been using the scale to rate things ever since. Anyway- at the end of the bus ride to Wilkes Barre, Jenna starting getting cramps...grosss- she had her period...uughhhhh! Anyway- she was in need of Advil, but no one had any. Ian and I, being the gentlemen we are, took the hour in Wilkes Barre, PA to search for Advil. We went all around town. We were about to give up...we turned the corner and low and behold- a gas station Quickie Mart, an Eckerd, and a Wal Mart. We ran to the gas station and bought her advil. We then ran back to the station to catch the bus. We were her saviors...lol! Anyway- the bus to Binghamton was pretty standard- I slept and listened to music. When we got to Binghamton, we waited around the station for a cab. The cabbie was the funniest person alive...it almost justified getting ripped off!!! He said he was from Kurtistan, and that he always offered students the best cab prices- he clearly didnt! Anyway- he picked up some friends of his along the way to Binghamton and yelled from the cab, "C'mon n*****s, I've got people in the van!"....weird! He told us they invite him to dinner, but he never goes because he doesn't like their dogs. Anyway- we get to a stoplight and he says hi to the guy in front of us. The guy in the car in front of us gets out of the car and waves as the light turns green. Our cabbie yells at him and tells him there's a green light but can't hear. It takes him a good 7 to 10 seconds before he realizes and gets back into his car. When he finally gets back in his car, he drive off with is door wide open!!! haha!!!...lol!!! Anyway- he yells "hi" to tons of people when we get to the Binghamton campus. He was quite possibly the most popular cabbie I've ever known. He was cool, but still overcharged...though he did have a van...so maybe that's why it was a bit more.

When we got there, we first went to see Brian Brown and Ari Rubel. to my surprise, we also saw Rob Eng! We stayed for a while, then said goodbye to Ian since he was staying with Brian and Ari for the weekend. Saturday was the first day in about 2 months that I didn't see Ian...it was weird. Anyway- me, Melissa, and Jenna walked to Jillian's dorm in the rain...fun! Melissa called her for directions and we followed. When we got to her building, me and Jenna hid. All of a sudden I Jillian yelling (from a moderate distance), "David Tannenbaum! What are you doing here!?!?!!!"...she ran (barefoot in the rain) and hugged me! She did the same for Jenna and Melissa! We went up to her dorm, and met her roomie, Brianna. Her room was huge!!! Anyway- at this point she still didn't know the JD and Genna were coming, and Elissa still didn't know I was coming. I hid, so that when she got there she wouldn't think I was there (she had an idea I might be surprising her). Justin and Genna came with red bows on their heads...hahaha!!! I walked into the hall where Elissa was, and I said, "Hey Elissa", and she flipped! She screamed, "I'm not stupid! I'm not Stupid! I'm not Stupid"...? lol!! Anyway- we just chilled for a while, then ordered some pizza for dinner. Later that night we headed to a frat...we had to take a cab there...weird! Anyway- in the cab, Melissa told me that in the dark, I look like Tiger Woods...hahahah!!!!!!! The frat was pretty lame...I'm not gonna lie...but we made it fun...lol! We also had to pay to get in....gross! To show that you paid, they marked you with an "X" if you were a guy and smiley face if you were a girl...Elissa got an "X"...haha! Jillian and Justin played some intense beer pong against the champs...they lost- A for effort! One guy there had awesome hair...I can't describe it...it was equivalent to Sonic the Hedgehog. The cops eventually broke the party up so we left. The rest of the night was pretty chill.

The next day, we went to lunch at the dining hall...everything was a la carte...once again- weird! It also took forever! I spotted the funniest, and quite possibly my favorite machines in the dining hall...panini machines!! And yes, they were the same ones we used at Salad WORK(s)!! After lunch, we walked around campus and saw the sights. Then we went back to Jillian's dorm and watched the Penn State vs. Michigan game...no words. Me, Jenna, and Melissa we're yelling sooooo LOUD during the game...people in Jillian's dorm were like, "Who's yelling?"...they just don't understand Penn State football. Anyway- after the game Gregg called me and we pretty much just went back and forth about how pissed we were! Well, all I can say is...Michigan still SUCKS!!! Anyway- after that, we headed to dinner at Friday's!!! The waiter was hilarious...he told Elissa she had something in her teeth...haha! We played some intense word association too! Friday's was good...it was a while since I've been there and it reminded me of old times. Anyway- after that, we headed back to Jillian's room. Everyone played King's...I did my compsci HW...hahaha! Elissa didn't drink either, so we chilled. The rest of the night was intense though! JD tried to re-enact the scene from risky business and hurt is foot/ankle...it wasn't pretty...he put an ice pop on his foot b/c we didn't have ice packs...lol!! Also, Arielle broke Jillian's GJJLAM shot glass, so she got all upset and ran away. We found her, and made it all better. I walked Jordana back to her dorm with Jillian, which was supposedly a very long walk with big hills...but I was like, "Yeah, I go to Penn State- you don't know what a long walk is!"...lol! It wasn't a long walk at all!! Anyway- the rest of the night was spent watching JD ice his foot with an ice pop and trying to get to sleep amid all the drama.

Sunday morning was...well, early! We got like 2 or 3 hours of sleep...gross! We packed our things, met up with Ian, got a cab, and went to the bus terminal. The general consensus of the PSU Crew was, "Yeah, we're going home!"...we were really happy to being going back to Happy Valley for some strange reason...not that we didn't have a great time...we just missed PSU. The bus ride home was pretty chill...just listened to music and such. It was weird Happy Valley that night...everyone was coming back from wherever they were and it was just weird...idk

Monday, October 17 - Friday, October 21
I just asked Max what I did the 17-21...he said, "Spelling Bee"...lol! Anyway- I don't remember...I assume it was a standard week of school...calc, compsci, cas, ist...I doubt anything out of the ordinary happened. Well that was quick...onto the weekend then!

Saturday, October 22 - Sunday, October 23
Saturday was INTENSE...the game was away vs. Illinois. Ian and I watched the game in the dungeon. We ripped their heads off!!!! In the fist half we scored 56 points (28 points per quarter!). At half-time we went to Mcdonalds...my away message went something like this, "At this rate we'll win 112 to 6~!!"...awesome! Anyway- the final score was 63-10. After the game, me, Ian, and REEEEDY hung out in the dungeon...we talked about our crews at home...good times!

I'm pretty sure Sunday the 23 was pretty standard, though not entirely sure...I probably woke-up late, did the laundry, did some work...the usual. I have no memory of what actually happened so onto the next week!

Monday, October 24 - Thursday, October 27
Pretty standard school-week. I realized that I had an intense amount of work coming up, but did nothing about. I rather left it to the days following Matt and Elissa's visit...read on for details.

Friday, October 28 - Sunday, October 30 = Matt & Elissa visit PSU!!
Friday morning/afternoon was pretty standard. I went to calc, then went to lunch Gregg. I was extremely tired, but I knew I couldn't take a nap b/c Matt and Elissa were on there way. I just chilled in my room until I got the call that they were coming. When they got here I met them outside and helped them bring some stuff up to my room. Elissa bought me some awesome clothes at AE with her 50% discount...awesomeness!!...thanks Elissa! Anyway- we went to Wal Mart to pick up a few things and then went to Verizon so I could have them replace my broken phone. That night we went to the Corner for dinner...the waiter was really funny- he called everyone "Mam" or "Sir"!! It was also the homecoming parade that night, so we watched it while we walked to the Corner. After dinner went and bought beanies! And after that, me, Matt, and Elissa went to the Kanye West concert!! It was awesome! Fantasia opened...she kinda sucked- oh well! Kanye was really good though! After the concert, we went back to Jenna's room and order Wing Zone...delicious! Then we went to my room and watched the alternate ending of Titanic...lol! Then Matt and Jessica (Jenna's sister- she came to visit too) went back to Jenna's room to go to sleep (Jenna has 2 futons so Matt slept there). Me and Elissa just chilled and then went to bed.

Saturday was HOMECOMING vs. Purdue. We ripped their heads off!! Anyway- everyone woke up early for brunch- me, Matt, Elissa, Jessica, Jenna, Ian, Gregg, and REEEDDY. After brunch we headed to Beaver Stadium for the game! Ian made me hold his banana in my sweatshirt pocket...gross! I tried to snipe him with it, but he grabbed it from my hands! Anyway- the game was INTENSE...Reedy screamed really weird things...lol! It was all good! Anyway- after the game, we went down to McDonalds as usual. After Mickey D's, me, Elissa, Matt, Ian, and Gregg went ice skating!! I fell really hard because I'm not used to skating with figure skates. I chipped the ice on the spike and went gliding on my stomach down the ice...it was awesome!...lol!! Gregg also fell for the same reason...only he was in much more pain than I was...lol (well I guess it's not that funny). After ice skating, we (minus Matt) went to Jess's room and hung out with 3rd floor sproul. Melissa dressed up as a slut for Halloween (big surprise there...lol! j/k) and REEEDDY dressed up as a Renaissance prostitute...hahaha! Elissa fell asleep so we went back to my room. The rest of the night we just chilled.

Sunday morning we went to the Waffle Shop for brunch...delicious! After brunch, they left! The weekend was intense...it was nice seeing everyone, even though I had just seen Elissa two weeks earlier. The rest of the day was spent doing work, compsci and stuff for my presentation. I pretty much worked on the presentation research all day long b/c the presentation was the following Tuesday.

Monday, October 31 - Thursday, November 3
Monday was spent doing presentation stuff...Team FUNK~!! had a 7 hour meeting that night...lol! Tuesday was my presentation- it went decent. I started the Technology facet of my IST class too! It seems awesome! Wednesday was pretty standard I believe, as was Thursday. Thursday night I talked to Liz for like and hour on the phone...I totally forgot what we talked about, but good times none the less!

Friday, November 4 - Sunday, November 6
Friday morning and afternoon were pretty standard...calc, lunch, etc...Dinner was funny- Ian stole Jess's phone and told her Max took it. She went chasing after Max b/c he left dinner early! She got really pissed...lol! Friday night was pretty intense...me and Ian did some intense guitar playing/singing in the Oven. We played Seven Nation Army (White Stripes) and You Love (The Outfield)...it was most def intense! After that, we went to the HUB with Jess and Melissa to see Must Love Dogs. It was funny! After that, we went over to College Pizza for some $1 slices. On the way there, me and Ian were at least 20 feet in front of Melissa and Jess. Ian was like, "are they still behind us?", and I'm like, "I'm sure they are! Let's not look back until we get there"...that was a piss-poor decision! We got to McLanahan's and looked behind us...they weren't there! Anyway- we sat down at College Pizza and Ian said, "I can't believe they weren't behind us!"...I could only respond with, "Yeah they were!", as they stumbled into College Pizza!...lol! Anyway- the rest of the night was pretty chill.

Saturday was UBER INTENSE!!! It was pretty much the game that decided the BIG TEN champion! PSU vs. Wisconsin...yeah- we ripped their heads off! Anyway- we made it to brunch! I actually got up in time to make it brunch! I went to the game with Ian, Gregg, REEEDDY, and Jess- intensity! There was this really funny drunk guy in front of us...everytime we scored we tried to get him to the do pound where Ian grabs your fist...he couldn't get it. At the end of the game, he did it though, and sniped Ian...hahaha!! We sacked them 9 times...they had a total of -11 rushing yards...yes I said negative 11~!! Everytime we scored, we went WILD...it was really, actually REEEDDY, INTENSE...lol!! After the game, we went to McDonalds as usual. After that we watched the Family Guy movie...good times, but everyone was really tired and couldn't wait till it ended...haha!!

Sunday was pretty standard. Actually it wasn't- I made it to brunch again!! After that I started reviewing for my calc exam. I also did some compsci work. I didn't do much of anything actually.

Monday November 7Today (yesterday) was pretty standard as far as Mondays go. I woke up before my alarm went off though...that was cool! Calc wasn't too bad. Lunch with Gregg and Max was good. Compsci wasn't bad either! After compsci I went to the music store and bought Stellastar - Harmonies For The Haunted...it's really good!! The rest of the day was pretty standard...just chilled pretty much. Now, Max and I are watching Catch Me If You Can...good times!

The BCS Rankings came out today- PSU is #5!! We have a very good chance of going to a BCS Bowl right now, and our actually predicted to go to the Orange Bowl in Miami, and are predicted to play Miami. If that happens, me, Max, Gregg, and Ian are gonna go down to Miami for the game!! That would be awesome! I hope it happens!! The Rose Bowl (national championship this year) in Pasadena, CA would be even more intense!!

Anyway- I'm coming home in 10 days!!! I can't wait- there's sooo many things that I want to do! I'm coming home Friday, November 18th, late at night. I plan on doing multiple things that night- drive my car, sit in my room, boot-up my computer, use my bathroom, etc... Saturday I plan on going to Turning Point, Best Buy, Wegmans, Target, etc... I can't wait to see everyone!!!! It's gonna be INTENSE~!!

Anyway- It's pretty late, so I'm done with this post! Hopefully I'll be updating more frequently! Until then...

~tannen

Time: 8:22pm
Picture: Me posing in front of the dungeon! The sign on our door is truly EPIC!!

I'm trying to keep my promises of daily or near-daily updates! Yay!! Anyway- I can totally pick-up where I left off!!

Monday, October 3 (right where I left off!)
I finished yesterday's update on Monday, though I failed to include Monday itself into the post. Anyway- it was a pretty standard day...my cell phone alarm clock went off at 9:44am as usual, followed by me regular alarm clock at 9:46am. For some strange reason my snooze button on my alarm clock was set to go off every minute- so every minute for roughly 3 minutes, I woke up and said (not out loud of course!), "Hey! That wasn't a 10 minute snooze?!?"...lol!! Anyway- I went through my normal routine and left for class (calc) at around 10:59am. Calc was fun as usual-- yes I said "fun"! My professor is hilarious! After class I came back to the dorm and went to lunch with Gregg as usual. After lunch I finished writing the last past, then I went to class (compsci) which was boring as usual. In class he gave back our HW and lab assignments- both of which I got a 100% on!!!

Dinner was a disappointment that night...the dinner crew ditched us. Well not the whole dinner crew- just 3rd floor sproul...which comprises about 50% of the dinner crew...lol!! They went downtown instead! Ian and I were pissed! Me and Jacobson told Reedy we were staging a coup and were going to overthrow the entire floor (3rd floor sproul), bring them to the dungeon as prisoners. We would then let the executioner handle the rest!...lol!!! Anyway- me, Max, and Ian ended up going to Roxy's alone- dinner was decent- not quite as good, or even close to dinner with the dinner crew or lunch with the Salad WORK(s) crew though. I had a Team FUNK~!! meeting that night to go over out speech sub-topics. The meeting was decent. when I got back to the dungeon Ian was playing SEGA. He came really close to beating Mortal Kombat, but he just couldn't beat Kintaro~!!! Ughhhhhhh! The rest of the night I just chilled and did some work.

Tuesday, October 4 ~ L'Shana Tova
Tuesday was a pretty standard day, however it was Rosh Hashanah- so that morning I woke up early and went to services with Ian and Coach. Unfortunately we couldn't stay for the whole service b/c we all had class. The service wasn't the same as home (obviously). I missed going to services with my family and friends, and blowing the shofar with all my favorite shofar blowers! It just wasn't the same. I missed a bit of CAS b/c i got back from services a bit late and I still had to change and make some adjustments to my IST assignment. I met up with Team FUNK~!! at the HUB for lunch, then went over to IST. We started the People Facet of IST 110- it seems decent- doesn't seem too difficult. I just can't wait to get to the technology facet!! I stayed at the IST building a while so I could download Knoppix b/c using the wireless VPN doesn't count against bandwidth consumption and Knoppix is 700mb (half of the weekly download consumption). Anyway- I headed over to HUB after that to chill with Gregg and do some work (well I just kept downloading stuff...lol!). After that I went back to the dungeon where I kind of just sat for a while doing nothing. Dinner was had with the dinner crew at 6:30pm as usual. Ian and I expressed our extreme discontent with the group for not inviting us downtown on Monday- they made up lame excuses...lol! Gross!! After dinner, Ian, Reedy, and Aurora came back to the dungeon. Ian came really close to beating Mortal Kombat again! He best Kintaro, but he couldn't beat Shao Kahn! Uggghhhh! Flippin' NOT sweet!! I didn't do much at night- I did the laundry though. I waited for a washing machine for like 2 hours though! I didn't take my clothes out of the machine right away- so when I went to check on the machine, somebody took my clothes out already and placed them on top of the dryer- who does that?...honestly?!?!?! Then the same guy hogged both dryers so I had to wait like another hour to use the dryer! Ughhhh!! Gross!! I talked to Liz on the phone for like 30 minutes while I waited for the dryer to be available- so that was cool. According to Liz, the Salad WORK(s) Crew has to go shopping together- because apparently shopping with Liz is fun?!? I don't know how fun shopping could possibly get? She said some guy went shopping with her at school and had fun- I doubt that!...lol!! Anyway- the rest of the night was spent making fun of Max b/c he had a lot of work to do and was procrastinating. I also made some online purchases! I bought new headphones, a CD, and a DVD for Max (which he better be paying me back for!). I'll go more into the headphones later, but I bought Outside Providence for Max and the Long Winters - When I Pretend To Fall. If you don't know who The Long Winters are- they sing Cinnamon, which is probably my favorite song from the summer- 'nuff said!

Wednesday, October 5
Today was a pretty standard day, just as Tuesday was. I woke up at 10:13am, took a shower, then did some headphone research. I decided I also liked another pair of headphones, so I decided I would order it when I got back from calc. I went to calc then came back and went to lunch with Gregg as usual. The food wasn't too good today, but Gregg and I reminisced back to High School which was fun. We talked mostly about the end of senior year- which was the best time of High School by far! After lunch we went to check our mail, which consisted of junk! After that I went back to the dungeon so I could order my headphones. I couldn't decide between the Sennheiser HD 212 Pro and the Sennheiser HD 485. So instead of choose one, I bought both to compare with the intention of returning one of them. I'll be posting my impressions on them as soon as I receive them! After the headphone ordeal I went to compsci which ended up being boring as usual. We had a pop quiz which- it was only one question, of which I got wrong. He said it was more of an attendance quiz though, so I don't know how he'll be grading it. I brought my laptop to class- probably a mistake...lol! Instead of paying attention I talked to people on aim. I even talked to my Mom when I was supposed to be in class! I told her though, so it was cool!...lol!! After compsci I went back to my dorm, and now I'm writing this. Max is playing Sonic 2 and I'm listening to music. The song of the day is Headwires by the Foo Fighters...everybody go listen to it- it's really good! I've been listening to it for the past 2 hours, nonstop! Dinner was had with the dinner crew at 6:30pm as usual. Ian was 8 minutes late! I kicked him in the shin for it!...j/k! Dinner was a good time as usual! Anyway- we're watching the Devils/Flyers game in the dungeon right now. Roommate rivalry- Pitt vs. NJ!!! Devils better win!

Anyway- Paul was complaining how reading ::tannenews:: is no longer due to the lack of Saladworks stuff- so I decided I would post the last day of Saladworks video that Laura took on the last day of lunch at Saladworks. I wasn't even working that day. It was Laura's and Liz's last day of work though! To get the whole story, go back to the August 29th post and read "Monday, August 22". Anyway, here's the video:

EPIC Last Lunch at Salad WORK(s)
Windows Media [wmv]
Quicktime [mov]

I've got work to do- so, till next time!

~tannen

Time: 2:53pm
Picture: Jillian, Melissa, Me, Jenn ron, Arielle, Genna, Rachel- yeah they came to visit PSU!! Read on for details...

I've really started to SUCK at updating this! It's almost been a month since my last update!! This is a record for me- ughhhhh! Anyway- I'm totally not starting where I left off...in fact I'm not going to this post day-by-day (also a first)...I'll do the past few days in the regular format- then I think I'll just pick out some highlights from the month of September...hahahahaha!!! After this post this I'm definitely not waiting this long in between posts! I think I'm going to start with Friday and go through the weekend- then I'll start going way back in time...hahaha!!!

Friday, September 30
Friday was a pretty standard day at Penn State. It's weird how I can now say; "standard day at Penn State"...kinda like how I used to say, "standard day at Salad WORK(s)"...lol!! Anyway- I had calc in the morning (if you still consider 11:15am to be the morning). After calc I had lunch with Gregg ("gg") as I usually would on any Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Lunch was good in both food and humor, though it cannot compare to any given 3pm lunch at Saladworks. After lunch I just chilled in my room till compsci. My compsci lab was canceled and changed to a lecture...this meant I had to go. I usually don't go to my compsci lab because I do the lab on my own time. My professor scheduled the lecture in the computer lab...that was a mistake- I didn't pay attention at all...I sat online talking to Ian, Liz, and Paul! Now I know how Paul feels when he IM's me from class and I tell him to pay attention and FOCUS!! Ian told me to kick my professor in the shin! And no, I didn't heed his advice...lol! After compsci I went back and chilled in my room (known as "the dungeon" from here on in) for a while until dinner. I went to the commons (dining hall) for dinner with the dinner crew (me, Max, Ian, Gregg, Melissa, Jess, Jo, Reedy, and some people that come on occasion- Todd, Chris, Mike, etc...) then just chilled after. I went over to Ian's room (known as "the oven" from here on in) for a while, then we went over to the dungeon to engage in (mortal) kombat!

Later that night; me, Ian, Gregg, Coach, and Reedy went to the HUB to see Bewitched. It wasn't too good. Only one phrase could truly capture the mood as we made our exit from the theater..."NOT FUNNY!"...with lines such as, "Guess what, I'm a Clippers fan"...how could one be expected to laugh? Anyway- on the way back from the movie I told Reedy her life story- I forgot everything I said...but it was funny! Anyway- when I got back to the dorm I got ready for bed. At around 3:07am- Max starts knocking on the door because he forgot his key and couldn't get into the room. After that we both fell asleep.

Saturday, October 1 - an INTENSE day!
Game Day!!! PSU vs. Minnesota!! Anyway- the game started at 3:30pm so Jacobson and I employed our fool proof game day plan- waking up 1.5 hours prior to kickoff, eating at the Big Onion, and arriving to the game 5 minutes before kickoff! Our plan worked without fail as usual! The game was extremely exciting since a win for PSU = national ranking. Minnesota was ranked 18th coming into the game and PSU was unranked. Anyway- we RIPPED their HEADS OFF!!! PSU won 44 to 14- and we're now ranked 16th in the country...flippin' sweet!!....with mead!!!! This game was the most intense game yet...by far!!!

Anyway- during the game I got a call from Jillian. I couldn't here one word she said so I told her to text message me. This is how it went down (verbatim):

Jillian: We are 1 1/2 hours from penn state. If we come and surprise melissa and see you is that ok?
Me: Sweet! Do it! That would rock! Come!!! - tan,dave -
Jillian: Like will [we] be able to sleep somewhere and all that good stuff?
Me: Yeah! You can sleep in my room if you need to!!! - tan,dave -
Jillian: ah yay! i have to call my mom. Can you get melissa and jenna but dont tell them that we are coming
Me: Yeah! ill try! - tan,dave -

Alright- here's an explanation to the above. Jillian, Arielle, and Rachel went to York to visit Genna for the weekend. One of Genna's friends at York asked them what they were doing Saturday night. They said they didn't know. They asked her what she was doing. She said she was going to Penn State. 15 minutes later- Jillian, Genna, Arielle, and Rachel decided, "Let's go to Penn State too". The called/texted me, made the arrangements, loaded up the car, and hit the road! In the meantime- me, Ian, Gregg, and Coach went to McDonalds for the ritual "post-game" meal (though it's really only mine and Ian's tradition). The line at McDonald's was really long- but it was OK since we needed some time to kill till Jillian and the gang arrived. Before dinner I made sure Melissa would be around when I got back so they could surprise her.

We left McDonalds and I called Jillian- they were 9 minutes away! I stayed on the phone with them till they got on campus. They kept telling me how many miles and minutes as they got closer and closer! When they got on campus they didn't know where to park so they pulled over temporarily till I found them (on foot). I was on the phone with Jillian and she was describing her location until eventually she's like, "Is that you in front of me"...lol!!! She ran and gave me a HUGE hug. The same followed for Genna, Rachel, and Arielle! Anyway- we had to find a place for them to park...the plan was to park in the parking deck across from my dorm- unfortunately the intersection we had to cross was turned into a one way because of outgoing football traffic. We drove around campus in the crazy football traffic until we were able to get to the parking deck. We unloaded the car, dropped all their stuff in the dungeon and went to surprise Melissa. I went into Melissa's room and said, "Hey, I brought some friends...I didn't think you would mind"!!!...hahaha! Jillian, Genna, Arielle, and Rachel charged the room! Melissa had that odd, I'm in a state-of-shock look on her! We then headed over to Bigler to surprise Jenn Ron! Jenn was just as surprised!!

We spent some time in the Ron's room, then headed over to the dungeon for the remainder of the night. We ordered pizza, had a sing-along to two coins, the general, you and me, kiss me, seasons, among others..., played Mortal Kombat, watched TV, talked, etc... When Max walked into the room, he showed extreme astonishment and shock by the amount of people in the dungeon- his facial expression was priceless! Ian stopped by as usual and hung out with us for a while too. We didn't do anything too exciting- in fact we did exactly what we would've done at home in Marlboro...nothing!! hahahaha!!!! But I liked it- it was cool...it brought back good times! Anyway- everyone left around 3am...Jillian slept in Melissa's room, Arielle and Genna slept in Jenna's room, and Rachel slept in Jen Quinn's room. Jillian text messaged me that we were going to brunch at 10:30am so I had to get some sleep if I was expecting myself to arise at such an absurd hour.

Sunday, October 2
I woke up at 9:29am so I could get to brunch at 10:30! I never make brunch! Anyway- I met Jillian and Melissa at around 10:35 and waited till 11, since there was some misunderstanding with the rest of the party. Brunch doesn't start till 11am so it worked out. Brunch was good- it was weird having brunch with them- it kinda felt like we were on vacation and meeting for brunch somewhere...lol! It was a different experience even though I go to the dining hall everyday! After brunch I checked my mail- I totally got a package!! Matt sent me the new Bon Jovi CD...thanks!!! Max also got a package- he got a bunch of food, pac-man for Sega, among other things. After, I went to Melissa's room to get Jillian's stuff. Then we went to Jenna's room to get Genna and Arielle's stuff. Genna forgot her pillow so me and Melissa went back to her room to retrieve it. We met them at the car. We took a picture, said goodbye, and they were on their way!

So pretty much- Jillian, Genna, Rachel, Arielle- you made my weekend!...No! you made my week!!! I wasn't expecting it at all! Even though we didn't do anything spectacular- it was awesome and felt somewhat like home! Thanks guys (girls)!!!!

After they left, I came back to my room, did some stuff, and took a 3.5 hour nap! I fell asleep at 2 and didn't wake up till 5:30!!! I went to dinner at 6:30 with the dinner crew, then went back to the dungeon with Ian, Melissa, and Max. We just chilled for a while, then went over to Jo's room (presently known as "the pagoda") for family guy night with Jo, Jess, Reedy, Todd, and of course me, Ian, and Melissa. We watched Family Guy, American Dad, and Grey's Anatomy. Good Times for sure! Me, Ian, and Melissa created a new thing- clip-jobs!! haha! To odd to explain...but it feels good! lol!! Don't worry- it's nothing odd or disgusting- it's just really funny- I would explain, but you def had to be there! Anyway- I went to Good 2 Go after because Jillian ate ALL my food! She did some serious damage- 2 bags of pretzels, a can of pringles, a bag of potato chips, among others! Then I headed back to my room after and now I'm writing this!

So let's see- College is good! I got a 95% on my compsci exam (midterm 1)...woot! I got the 5th highest grade out of 53 people!!! Thus far I'm doing well in my classes, so I just have to keep it up! I think I'll go through some good times in the past month...lol! I left off on September 7th- since then sooooo much has happened. Anyway- most of my weekends are spent at Late Night (HUB)- I've been catching up on my movies (movies in between theater and DVD releases). A while back I played scrabble with Jacobson- he killed me, but I clearly made a humorous move in the game...I put down the word, "nine", and only got 8 points for it....hahahahaha!!! It's really tough trying to remember things that happened nearly a month ago. I think I'll just rant on about random things that I've done in no particular order. I got the action on my guitar fixed, in addition to a fret board cleaning and saddle replacement- it plays wonderfully now- and it only cost $30, opposed to $45 at home! Jacobson got his Les Paul from home along with his Vox modeling amp- the guitar is flippin' sweet, but I HATE his amp! He says to give it two weeks because he hated the amp for the first 2 weeks- I guess I'll see. I have big plans for my room (the dungeon)- first off, we're getting a motion sensor that will sense positive and negative velocity when the door is swing open. When you walk in the door, the Jurassic Park T-REX roar will sound, and will stop when the door closes. There will be two saloon doors in between mine and Max's desk, in addition to a center mounted, suspended disco ball! Also, a fog machine will create a fiery mood...lol! Too bad we probably won't do any of these things! My side of the room is much cooler than Max's, for obvious reasons- I have a the Kramer portrait poster on my wall! He denies it, but he knows my side is cooler! Anyway- we moved the micro-fridge into Max's closet, and moved the TV from Max's desk onto a TV stand in the center of the room we're the micro-fridge used to be. It's a great set-up! Some people think the micro-fridge move was a bit radical- we saw it as a necessary move! Most of my down-time here is spent online as it would be at home. In fact, I talk to pretty much the same people every single night, about generally the same subjects.

My family came up last weekend for Parents/Family weekend- it was a good time! We went out for dinner on that Friday (September 23)- it was really good! I hadn't eaten good food for a while so it was refreshing! Me and Matt tried to catch Batman Begins at the HUB, but we missed it. Then we tried to catch Flight Plan at the theater downtown- we also missed that! Matt's back was starting to hurt (from his surgery) so my parents picked us up, drove me back to my dorm, and they went back to the hotel. The next day we went shopping downtown and the went out to dinner at The Corner which was delicious! Later that night, me, Matt, Jenn & Jes Ron, and Jes Ron's friend went to see Corpse Bride at the nice movie theater! It was really good! The next morning (Sunday) we went to the Waffle House for breakfast- it was really good!

I just checked my final exam schedule- my last exam is on Wednesday, December 14!! So I'll be home a little earlier than I thought! yay!! Winter break is gonna be intense! Thus far I've got a few things planned- sleeping in my bed, driving my car 24/7 (except when I'm sleeping in my bed...lol), hanging out with the CREW, going ice skating with the Salad WORK(s) crew + Jillian (because Liz and Jillian are best friends now because they're both premed...yay for premed buddies!), basking in the ambiance known as Marlboro, going to Turning Point for brunch, going to Saladworks for lunch, going to Peg Leg's (Applebee's), among tons of other things I have to do. I don't remember much more- if I do, I'll update accordingly. I'm happy I finally got around to doing this- I put it off for soooooo long, and I eventually had too much to write about and then kept putting it off until there was so much to write about that I couldn't write about it. Anyway- till next time!!!

~tannen

Time: 2:03am
Picture: COLLEGE!!! John Belushi and his famous role in Animal House! I've been here for almost 2 weeks so I thought the picture was appropriate~!!

So let's see...I last posted Monday afternoon- since then a lot has happened...I doubt I'll remember much of it. Anyway- I forgot what I did Monday night so I'll just start from Tuesday!

Tuesday = first day of classes
I set my alarm clock for 9:47am...that also happens to be the time I woke up for Salad WORK(s)!...anyway- It didn't feel like I was getting ready for my first class- it was weird. My first class was "CAS 100B", a group-orientated public speaking class. My instructor, Brett, is pretty funny...I'm not gonna lie! He has that weird, kind of twisted humor. Not quite as twisted as Mr. Czyzewski, but odd none the less. He's cool though. The class is pretty small- roughly the size of a typical high school class. We basically just went over the syllabus and such. My next class was "IST 110", an introductory class to IST (Information Science & Technology). Everyone from my CAS class was in the IST class b/c they're joint classes, and we work in the same teams in the two classes.

Tuesday night, there was a broomball event at the ice rink for those residing in the East Halls. I went to play broomball with Gregg, Omar, Evan, Paul, and others...broomball was INTENSE!!! Seriously- they're were like 200+ people on the rink playing broomball. Oh yeah- if you don't know what broomball is...it's like ice hockey only no ice skates (sneakers are the norm in footwear), the puck is a ball, and the sticks are brooms. Anyway- people were slipping and sliding everywhere. Then people threw more balls into the game...it was chaos!...lol!! It was awesome though! After the game I was exhausted!! After that I just went to bed so I could wake up for classes the next day.

Wednesday = more classes!
I once again set my alarm for 9:47 as my classes started at 11:15 again. I went to my first class which happened to be Calculus...blegggh! It was a huge lecture hall! My professor decided to give us a precalculus proficiency exam- on of those, "if you do poorly on this test, maybe you should speak with your advisor" kind of tests. We weren't allowed to use calculators...for those of you that know me best- you know I cannot live without my TI-83+. We're not allowed to use calculators on the exams either! This means I can no longer create awesome programs! I think I'll still write the programs since creating the algorithm was always a challenge and eventually helped me understand the material better. Anyway...the proficiency test wasn't too hard. I got a 6/10- I scored higher than 503 people in my class! That's not saying much about the proficiency of my peers.

Anyway...I had a 3 hour break between calc and my next class, compsci. I went to lunch with Gregg, and it was really empty in the dining hall...it was nice and quiet for once! After that I just chilled (I think I just chilled...it was so long ago I really couldn't tell you) till my next class. I left for my next class at around 3:15 since it was all the way across campus. I took my bike on a nice trek across campus and got there in due time. The class was pretty dull since the professor regurgitated the text from powerpoint slides...not the most interesting way to learn, but it's alright. He said attendance wasn't mandatory, but I'll go regardless since I'm cool like that!

I don't remember much after that. It probably went something like this: Went to dinner, listened to some music, chilled, etc...

Thursday = Tuesday classes + 1 (or one add add-on as any veteran Salad WORK(er) would say!)
I woke up at roughly 6:42 on Thursday...why you might ask? An 8am Calculus study class is the culprit!!...ughhh! I didn't know where the building was and I figured it would be easy to find. I was wrong! I rode around for a good 20 minutes trying to find the building. I got to class 10 minutes late- and when I got there the professor let the class out since he basically handed out the syllabus and said, "OK, we're done!"...I talked to the professor and he went over everything I missed, so that was good! It was disappointing though...I felt like I woke up early for nothing! Oh well! I went back to the dorm and just chilled till CAS at 11:15. CAS and IST were pretty good...I can't complain. We got split into groups on Thursday for CAS and IST- the groups/teams will remain the same for the remainder of the semester. My group is cool! We didn't do much group work on Thursday so I'll mention more about the group in the latter portion of this entry.

After class I most likely "just chilled"...I wouldn't really know since I can't remember anything because I've SUCKed at updating lately! Actually I think I went to the music store with some guys on my floor. I'm just not sure if was Thursday...I think it was Thursday! I bought new acoustic guitar strings and a capo! Now I can finally play Wonderwall in the correct key!! I grabbed dinner with them in the dining hall, then just chilled for the rest of the night.

Friday = Wednesday's classes + 0...only better!
That's right- Friday is just like Wednesday...only better for the simple fact that it's Friday...yay!! My Calc professor is awesome! Math was enjoyable for the first time in my life...lol! Math...enjoyable...same sentence...weird! After calc I went to lunch with Melissa and Gregg. Everything about lunch was pretty standard up until one pivotal moment. Out of nowhere this girl suddenly slips and falls flat on her face right beneath our table! It was hilarious!!! The girl was fine, but she fell in like slow motion...it was really funny! I feel bad laughing at someone else's misfortune, but it was indeed quite a humorous feat! Anyway...I chilled until me cmpsci class at 3:35. The class was once again boring, just reading from slides...ughhh!

Friday night was interesting. I went to "football eve" at beaver stadium during the evening hours. It was a large pep-rally...20,000 people or so showed up to the event. There were tons of things going on...Blue Band, cheerleaders, dancers, football team, Joe Paterno, fireworks, etc...! The fireworks were really cool b/c we had such good seats in the stadium. They looked fake b/c we were so close. They were like the fireworks you see broadcast on TV from the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks extravaganza! After that I chilled for a while and headed out to a frat with Melissa, Bonnie, Ian, Gregg, and Evan (The "Coach"). We caught the Blue Loop to Frat Ro and ended up leaving Melissa and Bonnie to go to a different frat with Ian's friend Sam and her friends. We went to DTD (Delta Tau Delta)...it was a bitch getting in- well not really. It turned out that on of the frat brothers was Evan's neighbor from home so it was all good! We were just a bunch of goofy looking guys going to a frat party! The frat was everything I expected it would: hot, sweaty, crowded, random people falling all over each other, tons of cheap beer, enormous amounts of UV radiation due to the excessive use of backlighting, etc... Anyway- for those that know me best, you know I don't drink...things haven't changed now that I'm at college. We spent roughly 1.5 hours there just wandering about the frat house aimlessly while everyone got wasted. Me, Gregg, Ian, and Evan left the frat and went back to Gregg's dorm/floor. On the way back, Gregg got into a tirade; crusading against alcohol, and anyone who consumes it. Thought I don't really drink, I don't launch a holy war against those who drink. Anyway- we just chilled on Gregg's floor the rest of the night with the guys of 5th floor Tener and some girls from the 6th floor. It was a lot of fun actually...dorky fun! The "frat party" just isn't my scene I guess...not to say I won't go again- i don't really know...I didn't really like it and since I don't drink there's not much point to go I guess...Oh well...I'll play it by ear!

Saturday = Penn State Football MADNESS
I woke up at 12:16am and noticed I missed a call from Gregg. I called him back and he said he was already waiting to get into Beaver Stadium for the game. The gates were opening at 1:30 so he told me to get there soon. Rather than rush, I took my time in the shower and the rest of the rituals to get ready. By the time I left my dorm it was 1:20 or so. When I got to the stadium I gave Gregg a call- he was already in the stadium! I went into the stadium and then I realized that it's not general seating as I thought. You are assigned a sea!...ughhh! His section wasn't near mine so there was no way to get past the system....plus every seat was taken where he was sitting. I called Melissa and met up with her, Bonnie, and Jessica and sat with them during the game instead. The three of them painted their stomachs to say "PSU"...it was awesome. It was really funny though...Jessica was the "U" and she got split from the group. Melissa and Bonnie were the "P" and "S", so at least they spelled Penn State. Jessica just looked like a dumbass because she was wearing a bright orange shirt and had a random "U" painted on her stomach with no "P" or "S"...hahaha..lol~!! She eventually met up with us though so it was all good! Jessica was in marching band in HS so we had a good, dorky conversation about the dorkiest of things...marching band!!! ahhhh!!! lol! Anyway- the game took up pretty much the whole day...I got there at 1:30, the game started at 3:30, and ended at like 7 or so...i really forgot so that's just a guesstimate! Anyway- we won 23 to 123 against the USF!! After the game I went to McDonald's with Jacobson which was good as usual. After dinner, me, Jacobson, Gregg, and Evan ("Coach") went down to the HUB to watch Kicking and Screaming in the movie theater (for free of course)! It was quite a good time! After that I just went to sleep since I was exhausted from the game and such!

Sunday = I'm not really sure?!?!?
I have no idea what I did on Sunday. All I remember is that I watched Old School with Jacobson, Gregg, and Coach in the evening. If I end up remembering it later I'll come back to this and write some more...but I doubt it!

Monday = A day of Collegiate Study
Jacobson, Coach, and Melissa went to Hershey with Hillel...I was going to go, but I had a large amount of work to do so I passed on the opportunity. Instead I had a nice day of collegiate study with Gregg. We went to lunch at a reasonable time and then did some studying outside in the commons area. It was a nice day so I'm glad we took advantage of the weather and did some work outside. During our "study session", Justin Braz came over and a political bout between him and Gregg ensued. The contest lasted for nearly 1.5 hours and touched on topics ranging from the current presidency, the War in Iraq, gas prices, the 2008 election, etc...It was quite the debate! After that we hit the gym for a good hour or so. The gym (White Building) had a lot of the same machines as Elite at home so I didn't have to get accustomed to any new machines! After, we went back to our respective dorms, showered, and went to dinner. After dinner we went to the HUB to do some more studying! It was a studious day without a doubt!

Tuesday = Back To Class
Today (technically yesterday) I had to get back into the routine!...ughhh!! CAS was really cool today. We played Duck Duck Goose before class...and I thought this was college- lol!!! My IST class was also fun today. We had to pick a group name- we picked, "TEAM FUNK!". After class I sat down at my computer for a solid amount of time and did what I do best...talk to people online! I went to dinner with Melissa, Jessica, Jacobson, Gregg, and Coach. I've been drinking a lot of grape juice lately, heeding Jacobson's recommendation. After dinner I did some calc work and then hung with Jacobson, Gregg, Omar, Coach, Paul, and other 5th floor Tener people. I had a 35 minute conversation with Jillian tonight...that was fun! Now I'm pretty much just writing this!

I've almost survived my first 2 weeks of college! I really like it here- there's always something to do and I'm constantly meeting new people everyday. My classes thus far seem really cool, and I really like my major (IST)! Nothing has really changed though- I still stay up talking online to the same people about generally the same things. I haven't changed much...except I might be acquiring a slight Pittsburgh/Baltimore due to the "O" in Omar (Baltimore) and the fact that like a gagillion people here are from pitt (including my roommate). It's weird...this is the first post where I couldn't make reference to something that happened recently at Salad WORK(s)...weird!

Though I'm having a GREAT I still miss some people and some material "things". I miss my family, my CREW, my Salad WORK(s) crew, my EPIC Disney crew, my car, my bed, the summer, etc...

Aside from college...Jillian thinks her Birthday (now one month and 8 days away) is close...it totally isn't. In fact it's really far. Maybe when it gets down to two weeks I'll consider it close. A month and 8 days is not close at all! On another note I really want to buy a good set of ice hockey skates so I can skate at the PSU ice rink and perhaps play hockey!!

Alright well I'm extremely tired so I'm definitely going to bed! Till next time...

~tannen

Time: 2:55pm
Picture: Penn State Logo...I'm finally here!!!

It's been a while since I've updated...I have good reasons though....college...duh~! Anyway- I'll start where I left off and do the usual day-by-day bit. This is pretty INTENSE- first entry from college across the campus network. Anyway......

::Monday, August 22::
I don't remember much of Monday but I'll try my best! All I remember is that I went to Salad Works at 3pm (Liz requested that I come- to discuss Tuesday's plans). It was Liz's and Laura's last day so it was most definitely intense!! We (Liz, Laura, Kristin, Paul, myself) all had lunch (well I didn't eat) for the last time together. Ian thought I was working that day so he told Jill and she was like, "Hey, Ian told me your working but you didn't show up...what's that about?"...I went up to Ian and he was like, "Dude, what's the deal with you working today?"...I showed him the schedule and he quickly realized that I was NOT on the schedule...he felt like a dumbass...lol! j/k! Liz got off work at 3pm rather than 5pm (like usual) so Paul was left all alone till 5pm. Me, Liz, and Kristin went over to Target at around 4pm in search of cheap flip-flops. They only had girly flip-flops in bright colors so I passed...Liz couldn't find her size so she didn't get any either. In the end we all bought Orbit gum (it was on sale!)...and oh yeah- Kristin bought something for her hair (a diffuser? what the hell is that?). After Target it was time for April's last night in Marlboro.

Me and April went out to Goodfella's for some quality pizza! Elissa couldn't come due to her wisdom teeth extraction earlier that morning. After Goodfella's we went to Blockbuster to rent a movie to bring to Elissa's. When we got to Elissa's Dina was there so we all chilled for a while...nobody watched the movie. Elissa threw a shit fit because she couldn't come to the beach with me the next day because of her surgery. After April said her goodbyes I went back to her house for a while. She said her computer wasn't working so well- Stu (April's Dad) and I started to back-up her files, re-format her hard drive, and re-install the OS. I was there till roughly 1am and we still weren't finished- Stu finished the job from there. Saying goodbye to April was just like saying goodbye to her last year...she cried...I didn't...she leeched to me for a good 10 minutes...lol! I guess it's because I'm used to being away from her for a while so it won't be such a big change for last year. I will miss her though!

::EPIC Last-Day-At-The-Beach:: avec "Salad WORK(s)" (Tuesday, August 23)
Tuesday marked the last day at the beach for me. When I say "Salad WORK(s)" in the title I almost literally mean it- those in attendance were: Liz, Kristin, Paul, myself, and Lia (non-salad worker). When we were there we saw Lindsay [a fellow Salad WORK(er)] and on the way home we saw Andrew [a former Salad WORK(er)]...it was a pretty intense day for Salad WORK(ers). Anyway- we went to Belmar...we got a really good parking spot too! Belmar was awesome! We sat and chilled for a while, then went in the water for a solid 30 minutes or so. It took a while to get Paul and Liz into the ocean, but they went. Paul went in fully clothed, with his sorts and everything...no "swimming trunks" for Paul. we dried off for a bit, then we (I) decided it would be a good idea to bury Liz. We took a picture...Kristin has it so I must ask her to send it to me. After the beach I drove Lia home and me, Kristin, Liz, and Paul went back to Kristin's house for a while. We sat on a curb for a minute (for obvious reasons), then went inside for some thirst-quenching beverages. I drank like 11 cups of water...lol! Paul and Kristin had work at 5...clearly Liz and I didn't! We were both in need of some college stuff...most notably athletic/gym shorts. We decided that we might go to Dick's (Sporting Good's) later that evening.

Later that day I received a voice mail from Liz saying she wasn't "in the mood" to go to Dick's and that we should do it the next day (Wednesday). I called her back telling her that she would have no say in what type of athletic shorts I purchase if she didn't go. She eventually agreed to go- only there was a catch! She called me back and said, "Hey Dave! We have a visitor"...I ask who...she replies, "My Mom"- Yes, that's right...I met Paul and Liz's Mom. I get another call...a voicemail from Liz. Typing the voicemail would clearly not suffice...I recorded it instead- the actual voicemail is available for download...it's hilarious!!!...

Liz's BIG Lie

If you're reading this line of text and you haven't downloaded the file, your clearly not a true ::tannenews:: fan. So...download it! Anyway- I went to Dick's and bought shorts, but didn't meet up with Liz since she was running a bit late. I headed over to the mall to see if I could find some good deals on more shorts...I wasn't successful. I met Gregg and the rest of the Silvestri's in Abercrombie which was interesting (since Gregg goes to PSU with me)...Mr. Silvestri talked to me about Penn State football for roughly 30 minutes so...everything he was saying went straight over my head since I'm not such as big of a football fan as he might think...lol!

After that I headed over to Marshalls to say hello to Liz (and her Mom). Liz and Paul's Mom isn't as mean as they make her out to seem...in fact she seemed quite nice. I guess I don't live with her?!? Anyway...I helped Liz pick out a duffel bag for college...the choice was between a diaper-bag-like duffel and a standard athletic, FILA duffel. She chose the FILA (in her school colors...also my school colors- Blue and White!) since she didn't want to look like an old woman carrying a diaper-bag...lol! Anyway, we walked to our cars and said goodbye...it could've been the last time we saw each other until Thanksgiving or Winter Break...clearly it wasn't...read the rest of this entry for details.

Tuesday still isn't over!!! Tuesday was an extremely intense day! I went back home to drop of my purchases, then Elissa took me out to Mezza Luna for dinner. I hadn't eaten all day so I was really hungry...at least that's what I thought. I got pasta and ate like 5% of it...idk I just couldn't eat...it was weird. I was in an odd mood at dinner...it started to sink in that I was leaving soon and that I would have to say goodbye to everyone...and I had already said my goodbyes to Justin and April...it was intense. So pretty much...I didn't eat on Tuesday at all.

Tuesday still isn't over! On the way home from Mezza Luna I realized I didn't say goodbye to my Salad WORK(s) crew...I decided to head over there (with Elissa) after closing at around 9:30 to catch everyone as they left. As it turns out, Kristin called me on the way there asking about a text message I sent her that said, "Tell Paul I just met his mother!!"...I told her I was on my way there...when I got there Paul, Liz, and Kristin were sitting on the curb in front of Salad Works waiting for me...when I got there I was in such a good mood for some reason...The weird feeling in my stomach went away and everything got better....idk- weird. we spent a good 20-30 minutes just talking in front of Salad Works- it's what we do best! Howard closed the lights and left the store and we were still there! It was kind of like break/lunch with them, only outside the store. Anyway- we had an "official" goodbye...it was most definitely a proper goodbye. It was sad though...I miss my Salad WORK(s) crew as I write this!

After Salad Works I went over to Genna's to say goodbye to Jillian and the rest of GJJLAM (minus Melissa- she wasn't there and she goes to PSU with me so it wouldn't be goodbye)...Everyone was dancing in the street while Ashley blasted funky music from her car! It was intense!! Saying goodbye was tough...but I know I'll stay in touch with all of them...especially Jillian- she's been badgering me all week to update ::tannenews::

Anyway- Tuesday was a really long day...it felt like a week! Tuesday was action packed...beach, Kristin's house, Dick's, Mall, Marshalls, Mezza Luna, Salad WORK(s), Genna's house...and all the goodbyes...it was really INTENSE...

::Last Day In Marlboro/Matt's Birthday:: (Wednesday, August 24)
My last day in Marlboro was pretty typical...I didn't do anything spectacular or our of the ordinary...it was just a standard day in Marlboro, aside from it being Matt's 22nd Birthday....yay!! For breakfast/lunch...brunch, Matt and I went to Wegmans. Matt asked me if I had a duffel bag for college. I replied, "No". He told me that I needed a duffel for college...we went to Dick's to find a good duffel bag. Dick's didn't have anything good so we headed to the Mall to find one. We searched and searched but found nothing. We were passing the Disney Store and decided to play the Disney Store Game one last time before I left for college. If you don't know what the Disney Store Game is...you must walk to the back of the store (at a moderate pace), touch the back of the wall, and walk out of the store at a moderate pace) without being asked, "Can I help you" by a sales representative/staff member. Me and Matt were both victorious!! Anyway...as I walk out of the Disney store someone strangely familiar says, "Hi Dave", from behind. I notice the voice...it was Liz!...and I thought I wouldn't see her again...lol! We didn't talk for long...but it was weird b/c I saw Liz sooo much even before that. I saw her Sunday, Monday, Tuesday (three times), and then again Wednesday...strange...but good!...lol!! We went back home and then went out to Charlie Brown's for Matt's Birthday and my going-away-to-college dinner. After dinner I picked up a cake for Matt's B-Day with my Mom at ACME. We got home and celebrated- sang, ate cake, gave presents, etc...good times!! After that I went over to Elissa's to say goodbye. We went to Jersey Freeze for my last night out. I got an extra cup of my favorite Jersey Freeze rainbow sprinkles to bring to school! I went back to Elissa's after to say goodbye. Elissa got really emotional and started crying and such...just as I thought. I was prepared to say goodbye to her though...I knew how she would act that night. I came home and finished packing...went to sleep at 1:30...only to wake up at 4am...ughhh!!!...story continued below...

::Penn State Move-In:: Day 1 (Thursday, August 25)
I woke up at 4am (as stated above)...I got 2.5 hours of sleep...i was most definitely tired! I got all my stuff together, said goodbye to my room and car, and left around 5:30 or so. We stopped at a rest stop for breakfast. I slept the whole way there...I was sooo extremely tired! I had no feelings...it was weird. When we got there we started to unload the car and bring things up to my dorm. We had a lot of stuff to unpack. We started to unpack and get things together, then we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few last minute things. We were there for roughly 2 hours...it felt like an eternity, especially since I was soooo outrageously tired. We went back to my dorm and did some more unpacking, but left for dinner. we met up with the Berhang's for dinner at Damon's Grill (yes, there's a Damon's here). That night I slept at the hotel with my parents since my roommate was moving in the next day and nobody really moved in on my floor yet so it was a bit creepy.

::Penn State Move-In:: Day 2 (Friday, August 26)
Another day of unloading and unpacking!!! Matt came up with Jessica and Jenna [Ron(dash)] with the rest of my junk! We got a golf-cart-type vehicle to transport all my stuff to the dorm building so that saved a lot of time! I met my roommate, Jason, but people call him Max since his middle name is Maxwell...idk why though? He's cool though...a bit quiet, but he's chill. We started to organize my room and get everything together. Max brought a MASSIVE TV! I think it's a 24 or 27"...I'm not sure, and I don't have anything to measure it with. Anyway...I went to Wegman's for lunch with my family after...it was weird...it looks just like the Wegman's in Marlboro- nearly identical! Even funnier...the shopping center is nearly identical to the one at home. Both shopping centers have a Target, Dick's, Wegmans, Applebee's, and Verizon Store!..lol! It's practically like home! After lunch they dropped me back at my dorm. We had a floor meeting at 4:30, then we went to dinner. After dinner was the President's Convocation which wasn't too bad. After that was Late Night Penn State at the HUB- it was extremely crowded...we could barely move, let alone do any of the activities. Me and Max left and just hung out in the dorm the rest of the night.

::First Real Day Of College Life:: (Saturday, August 27)
I woke up in my dorm for the first time...weird! I had my usual pop-tart for breakfast, then went to buy a bike. I bought a Specialized Rockhopper- it's an intense bike! After that i said goodbye to my family. My Mom was crying...Matt texted me as I said goodbye to her...it said: "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE"...lol!! I just chilled for a while then I went to lunch with Melissa and Ian (Jacobson). We went to the poster sale and then chilled in Melissa's room for a while. I went up to Ian's room to play some guitar after. After I went to dinner with Gregg and some people on his floor...they were really cool...very chill! After that, Gregg and I went room-crashing to meet some new people...good times! We went to the Pep Rally after that which was a lot of fun! I heard the Blue Band- they're really good! After the rally we checked overtime of the Soccer game vs. Towson. From what we saw it was a good game...Towson won though...bummer! I went back to my room for the rest of the night (whatever was left of the night/morning) and did what I usually do...talk to people online...lol!

::Sunday...HOORAY!:: (Sunday, August 28)
Sunday was interesting. I woke up pretty late...roughly 11:24am. I went to brunch with Gregg and his floor people which was good. After brunch I went to the Bookstore with Melissa to buy my books. I only needed to buy 2 books today since 3 of my classes has "no book information"...I guess the prof's will tell us what we need the first day of class or something. After that I went to Melissa's room with Jenna (Ron) and hung out with them and Bonnie (Melissa's roomie from Thailand...and no, she's not Thai...she's American but lives in Thailand). Good times! After that I chilled in my room for a while. I went to dinner with Ross- we went to The Onion since the dining hall was closed. I went back to his room after and met his roommate and some other people.

The highlight of my night was when I went to Ian's to play guitar. We just started jamming as we would during any other jam session. this was different however. I played a funk chord progression that I wrote about a year ago...it's kind of like good elevator music. Anyway- Ian noticed the elevator feel to it. We decided we should take the elevator music to...well...the elevator...where else?!?!? Anyway- we played live elevator music for a good 20 minutes...it was hilarious!! We should've taped it. Our first audience called us the "elevator pimps". Some other girl asked as to play Dave Matthews Band because it made her horny...weird...lol! We had people dancing in the elevator...it was really cool. It was kind of dorky...but hey, we're just that cool!! the rest of the night i chilled in my dorm, watching the VMA's and updating the website.

::Today...Finally!:: (Monday, August 29)
I woke up at 8:49am, took a shower, and got ready for my IST (Information Science & Technology) meeting at 10:30am. I biked over to the IST Building all the way across campus (quite a trek, especially if you're walking). The meeting was cool- It was about 1.5 hours- mostly presentations and such but it was interesting and I got to meet some IST people! After the meeting, IST held a Welcome Picnic for all new IST students...it was cool- I met some new people and ate free food...always a good deal! After the picnic i biked back to the dorm and met up with Melissa and Bonnie for a bit, then headed back to the dorm and now I'm writing this. Anyway- I'll start some additional sections to the post regarding goodbyes, college-life, ::tannenews:: superlatives, etc...

::To The CREW:: Justin April David Elissa
Though it might not have seemed like it...it was hard to say goodbye to you guys! You guys are my life...almost literally! The past 4 years wouldn't have been the same without you. It's going to be weird not having you 3 around all the time. I could only hope for a crew at college like you guys!! Now I'm going to quote myself, "The CREW is like a rubber-band...we can be stretched far and wide, across the nation in several states, but we're still connected and can return to our original, unstretched state."

::COLLEGE 101::
I can't believe I'm finally in college! It's weird- everybody's been talking about college for months upon months...years...and it's finally here~!! It doesn't feel like I'm in college though...it feels like I'm away for the weekend. I guess after a few weeks it'll start to sink in. Thus far college is cool- all the people are really nice and friendly and I met a lot of cool people. I can't wait till classes start (tomorrow) so I can get back into a routine. I've haven't had a routine the past 5 days and I'm lost without one- I have way too much time on my hands! It doesn't feel like I'm going to be away from home for 3 months. It's going to be a whole new experience and I'm really excited to see how it turns out! I hope everyone else that just got to college is having a GREAT time!

::Things I'll Miss:: in Marlboro
My Family
The CREW
The Salad WORK(s) Crew and Salad Works itself (Liz thinks it's my second home)!
EPIC Spring Breakers
All my friends from Jersey
My Car/Car Audio- especially my Adire Audio Shiva (subwoofer)
My desktop (the machine that started my computer building frenzy)
My room

...there are definitely others, but I don't feel like writing them :)

::tannenews Superlatives::
Most concerned with the content of ::tannenews:: - Jillian Fischer, Justin Dickstein
Least concerned with the content of ::tannenews:: - April Katzanek, Elissa Goldberg
Most likely to Check if ::tannenews:: is updated but never read the content - April Katzanek, Elissa Goldberg
Most likely to refresh ::tannenews:: to watch the hit counter count - Paul Zielinski
Most likely to check ::tannenews:: to read know what's going on in her sister's life - Kate Katzanek
Most likely to tell me about what I did over the weekend before I tell them due to their concern for the content - Jillian Fischer
Name appears on ::tannenews:: the most - Elizabeth Zielinski - 117 instances thus far (appears as "Liz" on ::tannenews)

This is a short list of superlative I've compiled thus far...more may be on the way. When I compile them I'll put everything into one post.

....that was a long post...I can't fall this far behind again- if I do I'll either get wrapped up with work and never do it, or Jillian will hate me for life or kill me...so I think I'll start updating on a more regular basis now!

...till next time!!

~tannen

Time: 3:53am
Picture: Salty Dog Cafe Logo, Hilton Head Island (HHI), South Carolina. Today marks the 1 year anniversary of vacationing with JD and the Goldberg's on the island! Good times! I wish I was there right now!

So I lied...I said I would start updating daily again- clearly that didn't happen. Anyway- here's a recap of what's been going on from where I left off...

Salad WORK(s) becomes Salad Works (Friday)
My last day of work came as a bit of a shock- I never though it would come...I never thought it would come b/c once it did it meant college was literally around the corner (less than a week away). And here I am, writing about it 3 days before I leave. Work wasn't so standard that day- it was really busy! In fact I made tons of sandwiches- more than I've made in a long, long time. I don't remember too many specifics about the day, but I do remember that my last two sandwiches were a turkey club wrap and a fiesta wrap. The customer ordering the turkey club wrap requested no tomatoes- all I was thinking about was the fact that it was my last wrap and I totally put the tomatoes on...I quickly realized and was like, "Ughh!! My last wrap and I screw it up!". I made him another wrap sans the tomatoes so it was all good. It was a good thing that I had to make a Fiesta Wrap after that- I totally didn't screw that one up.

As far as lunch went- Ines commanded Paul and Liz to take their break at 2:30 which was a bummer since I got off work at 3:00 and it wouldn't be the same not having lunch with them on my last day. They went on break at 2:45 so we (me, Paul, Liz, Laura, and Sameer) had a little 15 minute power-lunch(?!?)...lol! And I can call it lunch for everyone- Liz actually ATE for once...she had angel food cake!

As usual, I stayed at work for some excess time. I tried to get Paul and Liz to come to the movies with me, Elissa, and April- that didn't work out so well (story below). Anyway- leaving work was pretty upsetting- I'm one of the only people I know that was sad to leave their job. It was upsetting though- work was a BLAST!!! By the end I didn't even care about the money- I cared more about when I was working and who I was working with. I didn't think it would turn out so well- the first week or so I was like, "Why didn't I just go back to the Swim Club this year? I would've been better off there. This job sucks!". Perhaps that was because I worked the night shift, washed dishes often, and hadn't made many friends yet. Anyway- it turned out much better than I expected! I want to thank everyone that made my time at Salad WORK(s) enjoyable...you know who you are!

Red Eye on Friday Night
As far as Friday night is concerned- I had plans to see a movie with April and Elissa and I figured I would invite Liz and Paul. So the movie started at 7:25- Paul called me up and said they couldn't go b/c they had to go computer shopping with their Dad- as it turns out April was running late so we figured we would see the 10:20pm showing. I relayed this information to Paul and he said it wasn't going to happen b/c it was too late and their parents just wouldn't say yes. I had a solid 16 minute conversation with him- it was actually more like bantering (of some sort). Anyway- they didn't come and I went to see Red Eye with April, Elissa, and Elissa's friends from school. The movie was really good!

Before the movies we went out to AppleBee's- AppleBee's was really depressing- why you might ask? They're re-doing the whole place so all the walls are bare and such- they ripped all the local and high school paraphernalia down. Why does this upset me so much? In the Boy Meet's World episode before they go off to college Cory gets worried and nervous about change. In the episode, Chubby's, Cory and the gang's favorite eatery, is transformed into a Peg Leg Pete's. Cory refuses to eat there b/c of the change. At the end Cory takes a bite into a Peg Leg Pete's burger, knowing that by eating it he was accepting the change; accepting Chubby's as just a fond memory. I've looked to the MHS Yearbook (Roundup '05) to quote Jillian Fischer, who quoted Eric Matthews in this very episode: "It's not the changes that matter, it's how you react to the changes. That's what makes you who you are." It's true- it's just really weird b/c me, Jillian, and Justin are Boy Meets World nuts and our eatery is undergoing a transformation right before we leave for college too (well JD is already there)- so many parallels! Me and Jillian call AppleBee's Peg Leg Pete's now!...lol!

Standard Saturday
As the title implies, Saturday was pretty standard. I didn't do much. I slept late (as I would do on any Saturday), went to the gym, chilled with Elissa at night, etc... I rented Hostage with Elissa- it was good! Elissa fell asleep in the middle as usual...lol! Other than that- it was a pretty typical day.

Sucker-Free Sunday
Though it's Monday, I'll be referring to Sunday as today since its 3:10am right now and clearly when I refer to "today", it means Sunday. Anyway- today was pretty chill. I slept late once again! I washed my car since it was in desperate need of a good scrubbing! At 2:45 I met April at Salad Works for lunch. I went roughly 10 minutes early in hopes of catching someone on their break- lucky me...I caught Liz and Kristin. Liz was eating again!!...angel food cake! I had Paul make me my signature sandwich (Roasted Turkey Club sans bacon) and April had a CYO (Create-Your-Own) Salad. As usual- lunch cost me $3.17- the price of a Chicken Saladworks cut in half!..lol! Me and April sat down with Liz and Kristin until they had to go back to their Salad-making and cashiering duties.

Me and April spent a solid hour there since she was meeting Kate at Starbuck's at 4:15. We did good considering all the time we needed to waste! After April left (around 4pm) I ended up staying at Salad Works for an extra hour. Liz doesn't think I have a home b/c I'm in there so much!...lol! I had good reason to stay though- we needed to figure out plans for later on in the evening. The original plan was to go to the movies to see The 40 Year Old Virgin with April, Elissa, Paul, Liz, and Kristin. Kristin and Liz were extremely averse to the movie idea and insisted we do something else. We decided upon "Plan B"- going to point pleasant. I spent ample time convincing April and Elissa to go to pt. pleasant- it was all good...until later that is......

I went out for dinner with April and Elissa to Chili's. Well- only Elissa got dinner b/c me and April figured we would just eat junk on the boardwalk. I called Kristin from Chili's to confirm the plans and to see if we should me at her house- we decided to meet at her house at 9pm. When I got home I got a text from Paul/Liz. This text message confirmed my worst fears- Paul and Liz weren't able to come due to harsh restrictions imposed upon them by their parental units. Anyway- a long text-messaging conversation ensued between myself and Liz- I would type it out but I had too delete more than half of it b/c my inbox was like 98% full and I wouldn't be able to accept any more messages if it became 100% full. It would've been too long to type out anyway. We decided that Tuesday afternoon was a good time to do something since Liz isn't working and Kristin and Paul are working from 5-close that day. Hopefully we have better luck on Tuesday!!!

Anyway- me, April, and Elissa went to see The 40 Year Old Virgin instead. We hit up Jersey Freeze prior to the movie- it was good, as usual! The movie was really funny! I really liked it, as did April and Elissa.

I can't believe I only have 3 more days left before I leave for college...time has been flying by- it still hasn't sunk in that I graduated from High School...lol! It feels like just yesterday that I was filling out college applications; thinking college was some distant future that would never come...and here it comes in just 3 days. It's weird talking to Justin in college. It doesn't feel like he's in college. It just feels like he's away for the weekend or something and he'll be back in just a few days. It's weird- soon it's my turn. April leaves on Tuesday so today's (Monday) the big goodbye. In fact- today is a lot of things:
1. Elissa gets her wisdom teeth extracted (she gets to join the club with me Kristin and Paul)
2. April's last day in Marlboro
3. Anniversary of Hilton Head with JD and the Goldberg's- ughhh I wish I was there right now!!!

Anyway- it's getting really late so I'm gonna go to bed...until next time...

~tannen

Time: 1:59am
Picture: Brett's non-existent fence that he "didn't build with his Mom"- read on for more...

This entry will by no means be as long as the last entry. I just wanted to write tonight before I forgot about it since it was an INTENSE night for sure!!! Anyway- here it goes...

::EPIC manHUNT '05::
Though I was the only "EPIC Spring Breaker" in attendance, the event is truly deserving of the "EPIC" prefix. Kristin requested all the Salad WORK(s) participants to arrive at her house early; 7pm sharp. Me, Paul, and Liz, all arrive at 7pm on the dot! When I got there I noticed Brett wasn't there (Paul/Liz were going to give him a ride). I politely ask them, "Hey, where's Brett?". They respond in unison, "He's not coming". I say, "What!!!". Paul then goes on to explain how Brett was grounded for "not helping his Mom build a fence". What kind of crap-ass lie is that! Who builds a fence, let alone with their Mom? Anyway- we went up to Kristin's room and looked at his away message- it stated the following: "fuckin funmania bitches". That's a pretty ambiguous statement if you ask me. We all reached a consensus to never speak with Brett again! Where does he come of creating such a heinous lie! Anyway- Laura was 27 minutes late to the pre-manHUNT festivities, which consisted of 20% small-talk, 30% laughs, 50% Brett bashing! At roughly 8pm the other team and Lia arrived. The teams were as follows:

Salad WORK(s) Crew (Liz, Kristin, Laura, Paul, Lia (not a Salad WORK(er), myself) vs. Joe & His So Called "Friends"

The United Salad WORK(ers) of America (USWA) hid first while Joe & His So Called "Friends" (J & F) took on the HUNT. The first game went decently- they eventually caught us all but we put up a decently long fight. Me and Laura had an awesome hiding spot! Liz had an awful hiding spot but it still took them a while to find her- she hid under Kristin's bench, right near jail! They looked under the bench and didn't find her until a few minutes later when they looked again...weird? Paul made every attempt to free jail-birds due to his extreme quickness- he most definitely moves with much celerity! The next game the USWA took on the HUNT. We weren't quite as successful. We got 5 of them in jail pretty quickly but they were freed just as quickly. After a while we came to a stalemate- we decided new teams were in order. I'm unsure of the teams exactly but my team consisted of Lia, Joe, Laura, and a few of Joe's so called "friends". We began the hunt I went straight for the Paul/Liz's Jeep- partly b/c Liz told me she was thinking of hiding there when I was on her team. Sure enough we found Paul and Kristin in the backseat. No sign of Liz though. I peered into the trunk, despite the window tints, and saw a hand- Sure enough- it was Liz! The game eventually came to a deadlock and everyone sat down for a breather.

So let's see- I now know that if I try to steal Paul/Liz's Jeep I could do so with extreme stealth. Why you might ask? The alarm only makes a sound if someone is there to scream about the car being stolen- otherwise the lights just blink...lol!

After some intense manHUNTing we went to McDonalds...pretty random if you ask me. My car was a full boat: (in clockwise order from myself): Laura, Paul, Kristin, Liz. Paul and Liz were complaining that my music was too loud (well who doesn't), that I drive to slow (when they slow they mean the speed limit), and that I actually STOP at a STOP sign. Anyway- I had a McFlurry but only ate like 1/3 of it- Laura ate the rest! We hung out at McDonalds like I would hang around Salad WORK(s) after I clocked out- just chillin for no reason at all! After that everyone wanted to pay Brett a visit at his house. Everyone was going to follow me but I was influenced (by Liz, Kristin, and Laura) to skip the excursion. We ended up just going back to Kristin's to chill for an hour or so.

The night was most definitely INTENSE!!! I'm extremely upset though- Today (Friday) is my last day of Salad WORK(s). And everyone knows how much I enjoy work! Though I only worked there 2.5 months I can't imagine life without it. It's not the job I'll miss though- it's the people (duh!). I'm going to miss everyone- those I knew before work and those I met through Salad WORK(s). It sucks- I want to hang out with people I met this summer, but time is dwindling. It's like- meeting someone for 5 minutes then saying goodbye right away. I'm going to ensure tomorrow it's not my last day I spend with Salad WORK(ers). I'll come visit on Sunday and perhaps we can do something like tonight- perhaps not manHUNT, but something just as fun!

Anyway- I must get some sleep so I can savor my last day at Salad WORK(s)- I know all we'll be talking about is our EPIC manHUNT game! I look forward to it!

~tannen

Time: 4:58pm
Picture: Cruisin'- RCCL Empress of the Seas docked in Key West Florida...read on for details...

I haven't updated the site since August 9th- ughhhh! Since then soooooo much has gone on- I doubt I'll be able to knock it out all in one post- so bear with me. Everybody's been badgering me to update so I figured I better write something soon...lol! I'm so back-logged so I most definitely don't remember everything, nor do I possess the immense amount of time it will take to write everything extremely detailed as I usually so. Anyway- I'm going to write the past week's events in chronological order- and I'll start where I left off...

::Tuesday, August 9::
It's hard to put my finger on what I did on Tuesday...all I remember was lunch at Salad WORK(s). All I remember was what I, and others, have collectively named the "undershirt incident". This is how it went down...

Kristin: Do all the guys here wear white undershirts?
Paul: Well I wear one.
Me: I wear one. I don't think Frank wears one?!?
Paul: No...Frank wears a wife beater!
Laura Well, I'm not wearing anything under my shirt~!!!
Entire Lunch Crew: [hysterical laughing ensues]

As for the rest of the day- I went to Best Buy and picked up two CDs: Radiohead - OK Computer and Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory? I give both CDs the two thumbs! After that I packed for my cruise. That's all I remember...lol! It's been a long time since then so if I forgot something don't get in a tizzy!

::Cruisin':: (August 10-15)
There's a lot to be said about the Cruise but I'll have to "succinctinize" it. I'll just give a brief synopsis of each day, or rather each port.

L'airport et Pre-Cruise- Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Wednesday, August 10)
We left out of JFK instead of Newark which was a bummer since I hate JFK- especially the Delta Song Terminal. The Delta Song terminal at JFK is my least favorite airline terminal of all time. It was designed like Sam's Club or an equivalent warehouse type store. We also got there early so we were sitting there for roughly 2 hours...ughh! The flight on the other hand, was extremely good! Delta Song has the whole satellite-TV and movie deal on board with LCD touch-screens in each seat. What made me even more excited about it was the fact that when they booted the system up I saw a familiar screen- yes indeed...it was a Linux boot screen- and no splash screen to cover up all the details at boot-time! I was able to see all the services they were running and such- the fact that the in-flight entertainment was based off of Linux made the whole experience much more enjoyable! On the plane they served lunch- of course they served Chicken Salad Sandwiches- which is extremely funny considering my Salad WORK(s) lunches are Turkey Sandwiches disguised as a Chicken Saladworks sandwiches since they're cheaper. I don't get bacon on my turkey sandwich, nor do I take potato chips so I shouldn't have to pay the full retail for the Roasted Turkey Club- the Chicken SaladWorks is how much my sandwich should cost due to the lack of bacon or potato chips on my plate. Anyway- we landed and went to a hotel for the night since the cruise left the next day. Happy-Hour was at roughly 6:00pm- free food and drinks enticed my family for sure. My Mom had a bit too much to drink so she was a bit loopy!..lol!! We headed out to Los Alos, a downtown area of Ft. Lauderdale, for dinner- we ate at this place called Ugly Tuna's...weird...lol! It was good though. We just walked around after that. We got back to the hotel and everyone passed out b/c the day was exhausting.

All Aboard- RCCL Empress of the Seas (Thursday, August 11)
We headed for the ship around noon that day. Once we got through security and such we checked out our rooms (Matt and I got a separate room from my parents~ phew!) and the ship. As for the rooms- extremely small, but since it was just me and Matt it wasn't so bad. We had a window so it was all good! We checked out the dining room and we noticed that we had a table for 8 when my Mom clearly requested a table for 4. She was pretty pissed. We were going to change it but the location of the table in the dining room was really good- it was a top balcony right near a window that overlooked the water...so we weren't so fast to move. I went to the gym with Matt before dinner...it was really cool since the whole gym had windows that overlooked the water- it's the first time I can say I had a good view while working-out! At dinner we me met our "dinner-mates"- they were from Miami- they were comprised of a: mother, aunt, 2 children (ages 19 and 20)- so it worked out that the kids were close in age to me and my brother. The dinner arrangements worked-out in the end though- they were really nice and we had a good time with them.

Key West (Friday, August 12)
Matt woke me up at an early 6:45am- ughhhh! We ate breakfast and got off the ship at around 8am in Key West, FL. Key West is beautiful! I wish we were there longer than we were. We walked around until 12:45 or so until the heat finally started to get to us. It was sooooo unbearably hot. We were drenched in sweat! Once we got onto the boat we cooled off, changed, and ate lunch. We laid out near the pool for a while (by a while I mean a few hours...lol!). I texted Paul/Liz everyday asking if the schedule was up and received a "NO", until Friday that is. This is how it went down (Paul, Liz, and Catherine were participants in the dialogue and I'm unsure of who said what so they will be collectively referred to as- "PLC")...

Me: The schedule is MOST DEFINITELY up?!?! Immediate response requested as CDMA cell towers will CEASE to exist in roughly 1.5 hours! - tan, dave -
PLC: SHUT UP
Me: Hahaha! Seriously, is it up? - tan, dave -
PLC: Yeah they put it up but you [not] on i think your fired
Me: Sure sure! - tan, dave -
PLC: Actually iM serious
Me: i will not believe such a statement! - tan, dave -
PLC: Believe it sucker eat that and weep
Me: If I believed such nonsense i would be pacing back and forth and clearly i am NOT! - tan, dave -
PLC: Well start pacing tutz
Me: ugh just text of [me] my hours! - tan, dave -
PLC: 11-3 on tuesday
Me: That's it? - tan, dave -
PLC: u work on wed
Me: Thurs and fri? - tan, dave -

I eventually called and asked for my hours since PLC (most notably Paul and Liz) suck at text messaging...lol! On Wednesday and Thursday the lunch crew called me from break so that was cool- I felt somewhat important! Thanks guys!

Cozumel (Saturday, August 13)
Matt didn't wake me up in the morning since the boat wasn't planned to dock in Cozumel until 1pm. I got my beauty rest- for once! We went snorkeling that day which was a blast! I wish we had gone reef snorkeling though since we only went shore snorkeling in hopes that my Mom would be an active participant- she ended up chickening out though so we could've gone reef snorkeling- but it was still a good time! After our undersea adventure we went back on the boat for lunch. Matt and I took a cab into town towards the "shopping area". The cab fare was only $6, but Matt gave him a $10 since he heard bad things about Mexican cabbies?!? Anyway- all the shop owners act like your best friends and follow you around the store like a magnet. And while your walking they all try to entice you into their shop- it was weird- some yelled, some came up and like gave you a friendly punch or something- it was really weird. Anyway- we went over to Carlos & Charlie's/Senor Frog's for something to eat/drink. Matt nearly forced something alcoholic upon me. I got some frozen drink in a Senor Frog's "Yard". It was kind of like an ICEE with alcohol- personally I would've preferred the ICEE since it wasn't so good. Matt had two "Yards" of Mexican Beer- he was a bit tipsy after. Matt decided we would walk back to the boat rather than take a cab- I'm sure the beer impaired his logical reasoning on this one since it was roughly a 3.5 mile walk back to the ship! It took us an hour to walk in the sweltering heat...ughhh! As we neared the ship we needed to use the bathroom desperately! When we got to the port-gate a large boat was docking so they wouldn't let us walk to the ship until the other boat docked. Those 5 minutes felt like an eternity!

Day-At-Sea (Sunday, August 14)
Sunday was the last day of crusin'. It was just a day-at-sea as the title clearly implies. I pretty much slept all day! At night there was a lightning storm so we watched it on the top-deck...it was awesome! Sunday was pretty chill- just a relaxing day at sea!

Random Bits & Pieces/Evaluation (on the cruise)
There were these two girls on the boat that walked around together all day...and guess what?...they looked exactly like April and Elissa- hahaha...well not exactly but you get my drift! It was really funny b/c when we saw them we were like, "April and Elissa, 9 o'clock!"...lol!!! Anyway- gambling was fun- I lost everything I gambled though. It got to a point where It wasn't a gamble...it was more of a donation to the casino...lol! Anyway- as for an evaluation...everyone enjoyed the cruise, however if I went again I would want to go with another family or with friends, because 4 days isn't really enough time to meet new people and such. Going with the CREW would be the 24/7 CRAZINESS!!! Maybe in a couple of years...lol! It could happen!

Day In Transit (Monday, August 15)
The entire day was literally spent in transit...ughhh- it was soooo immensely boring! We woke up early to get off the ship which took a while since we had to go through a myriad of security checkpoints, customs, etc... We took a cab to the airport. Our plane didn't leave for another 4 hours so my grandparents drove down to the airport to say hello since they only live 20 minutes from the airport. We finally boarded the aircraft at 2:22pm- it landed around 5:17ish. It took a while to get our luggage do to a snafu involving the baggage-claim carousel. We hit some traffic on the way home, but it wasn't so bad. I was happy to get home though- that night I went out with April, Kate, and Matt to Starbuck's and then I went to Elissa's for a bit.

...alright- so that's the end of the "cruise-talk"

::Tuesday, August 16::
Back to the daily-grind! It was back to Salad WORK(s) for me. It began like any other day- you know the drill. In the middle of the lunch rush however, things took a turn for the worst (kinda). All of a sudden the power goes out- ahhhhh...everyone's panicking!!!...alright nobody panicked, but it was interesting. We still had stuff on the panini grills which amazingly finished grilling before the grill got cold. The UPS's (Uninterruptible Power Supply) powering the phones and cash registers held up throughout the entire outage- I was impressed. Liz was ready to use the handy-dandy, one-line Salad WORK(s) calculator to ring people up- unfortunately she got no such chance. Paul finally told me his wisdom-teeth extraction story...waking up in the middle of the operation(?) and hearing them yank his teeth out?!? Paul has also become addicted to pain killers- he should most definitely get a "pill break" since he has an addiction- it just doesn't happen to be nicotine.

Lunch was pretty extended on Tuesday- we had an overwhelming amount of guests. Those is attendance were: Liz, Paul, Kristin, Catherine, Lindsay, Lia, Christina...(am I missing anyone?). Lindsay joined us for her first time since it was her last day at work- we will all miss her dearly! I can't remember much after that.

After work I went to Dunkin Donuts with the CREW for the last time before JD goes to school. April spilled her coffee everywhere...it was a waterfall of coffee...lol!!! We went to Best Buy after because JD needed some stuff.

At night I went to the Gelato place in Downtown Freehold with April and then we rented Guess Who? At the gelato place (Gia's perhaps...idk) I started to make April cry because I was getting all nostalgic about JD leaving and how the next night was the last night we'll all be together before college. It was intense! I made some pretty profound comments that night...but I'm saving it for a later post.

::Wednesday, August 17:: (Yesterday)
Work was pretty laid back on Wednesday (yesterday). In fact I feel as if I did nothing! I'm trying to remember if I spent more time making sandwiches or playing with puzzles and toys. Marilyn brought one of the twins to work so we all babysat when we should've been working- I did one of those slide puzzles for her...good times! At one point all 3 sandwich guys (me, Paul, Brett), cashier (Kristin), and Back-of-House Junkie (Liz) were playing with toys at once...no one was running the store...lol! Paul began to look at a flower catalog with Kristin (?) at around 2:12pm- why you might ask- nobody knows! Brett ripped out a "flower garden" from the catalog and gave it to Liz which she then proceeded to cut the edges since they were frayed because Liz is a perfectionist.

Harsh comments came my way from both Liz and Aly yesterday! So harsh and brazen that I could respond in only one way: "OUCH!". First off- Aly said Paul made the best grilled cheeses and then she said Brett was cooler than me which is totally untrue! Then Liz told me that nobody wanted me (referring to either at work or manhunt...I'm really unsure at the moment). The abuse didn't stop there...Liz just kept laying the insults one me one after the other. At lunch I gave her a black flower (bulb of some sort) from the catalog to signify her malaise towards me. We had our last lunch as the entire salad works crew. Those in attendance (in clockwise order from myself): Paul, Liz, Brett, Kristin. Lunch was humorous as usual. Liz didn't cry but she laughed for an extremely decent amount of time.

After work I came home and awaited instructions for JD's last night in Marlboro. We (JD, April, David (myself), Elissa and Jillian- I didn't put Jill next to JD for the "J" b/c we still haven't decided on the naming scheme and such- don't be offended Jill!) went to Court Jester for dinner and then to Jersey Freeze. The original plan called for bowling but there was a long wait for an open lane. It was intense to say goodbye to JD- I guess it's partly b/c I've known him since he was born and he was my first friend. It wasn't hard to say goodbye though- a couple of months apart can't undue 18+ years of friendship. Anyway- enough about JD's goodbye- I'm making a separate entry for it later since I've got a lot to say. I'm not sure if I'll do it tonight/tomorrow or before I go to school- I'm thinking I might do it before I go to school and put my goodbyes to everyone in one entry- I think that might be better- I'm not sure.

::Thursday, August 18:: (Today!)
Today was pretty standard- didn't do much. Woke-up, went to the DMV to get my unrestricted license (even though my B-Day is in January and I should've gotten it months and months ago), did some dorm shopping...ughh! It was pretty standard like I said. I'm extremely excited for tonight's manhunt game though! Salad WORK(s) crew + Lia vs. Joe and his so called "friends". We're gonna demolish them for sure!

Anyway- I forgot tons of stuff for sure. I'm getting back into the daily routine again so hopefully I'll be updating it daily like I used to...until next time...

~tannen

Time: 2:25am
Picture: Matt Tan! He came home from UCLA last night so I thought it was appropriate to include a picture of himself from his time in Los Angeles. Could I have chosen a better picture of him?...probably- in fact, definitely! This one's just funny in my opinion.

Anyway- I haven't updated since Sunday morning at 2:31am so here's a recap of the past two days

Salad WORK(s) (Sunday)
Work began as any Sunday at Salad WORK(s)...extremely slow. Customers filed in roughly every 10 minutes or so and there was lots of down time. I worked with Kristin, Dylan, Lindsay, Ines, Frank, Sameer, and Jill. Kristin and Dylan came for 15 minutes then left due to a lull in business. Anyway- we found odd ways to pass the time: cleaning the panini grill for roughly 30 minutes and waiting 15 minutes for Ines to get quarters. As for anything funny- Frank was doing the register for a bit and accidentally rang someone up with 16 fountain drinks...lol!

Kristin told everyone her operation story. The surgeon missed her vain the first time and it took them a while to finally stick the needle to get her sedated. When she woke up she said she was on her side on there was blood gushing from her mouth...all over her hands and such...ewwww! Kristin made the operation sound like open-heart surgery as compared to how I described it- nearly painless...lol!

At around 12pm the whole Beutell gang showed up for some lunch before they headed for the zoo (I think). I made a grilled cheese for one of their daughters and she seemed extremely content with it! Anyway- as they were eating lunch they (the owners, aka Howard & Marilyn, or the Beutell's for short) approached me, inquiring about a certain website- a certain website you happen to be reading at this very moment...I must put this into dialogue form as paragraph form just won't suffice...I'm unsure which of the two asked each question so they will both be collectively referred to as "Beutell's" in the dialogue...

Beutell's: I hear you have a website?
Me: Ummmmm. Yeah, I do.
Beutell's: We heard about it the other day from some of your co-worker's in the back. It seems to be quite the buzz.
Me: Oh....really?!? That's cool.
Beutell's: They say you talk about Salad WORK(s) quite a bit! I hope only positive things!
Me: Yeah! Only positive things for sure!
Beutell's: What's the address, we would like to see it.
Me: Ohhh....well you know, it's a really long URL I can't remember it off the top of my head right now...

...The conversation ended there. I must wonder though...what would they say if they did in fact see the site...or if they're in fact reading it right now? That would be interesting. My only defense is this- it's a personal website/blog-type journal that has no foundation of reliability or credibility. My personal views and the content of the ::tannenews:: is intended strictly as entertainment.

I left an hour early since business was slow and I had to pick up Matt at the airport.

L'Airport (Sunday)
I went with my Mom to pick Matt up at Newark. On the way we stopped for dinner. Where you might ask? White Castle...that's where! That was pretty random. It hit the spot though- almost like in Harold & Kumar, but not quite. The flight arrived on-time so the wait-time was minimal. In fact- he got his luggage really fast too- we were in-and-out in about 45 minutes or so...not bad! He brought home an assortment of goodies from L.A.- UCLA paraphernalia, Disneyland souvenirs, candy, etc...I haven't seen him since my graduation day (June 20th, June 22nd=Graduation Post) so I'm glad he came home!

Salad WORK(s) (Monday)
Work started off pretty weird today...Our first customer was really odd- When I walked in for work she said, "Your right on time! Right on the dot! You don't like to come late do ya?!?!". When she came to pay for her salad she told Kristin that our staff looks good. She continued by saying..."I've been places before and lost my appetite because the staff looked so awful and gross". Yeah- she was most definitely weird to say the least. As the day wore on...As it turns out- Paul didn't have his wisdom teeth extracted over the weekend- he's "supposedly" having them extracted this Saturday...hmmmmm? I made sandwiches in the back today for delivery and pick-ups as well as making two deliveries. Alba made fun of Liz today b/c she knocked her funny bone on a pan (perhaps it was a pan?) and started laughing uncontrollably...well not quite. A vandal (j/k) defaced my Soda cover today- I wrote "TAN" and when I got back from the bathroom it clearly read "TAN^-1". My vandalized soda top aside, work was decent today...nothing spectacular- but it was a Monday- and "decent" for a Monday is awesome!

Lunch avec (in counter-clockwise order from myself) Kristin, Liz, Paul
Lunch was pretty dull today- which came unexpected, since it was the usual lunch crew. I blame the slow-tempo classical music for the dryness at lunch. Liz didn't shed one tear today...very disappointing. Liz only had 3 packets of sugar today...she's come a long way from the days of 8 packets; she still complained that it wasn't sweet enough though. We did however make plans to play manhunt next week! Kristin volunteered to host the event. The participants thus far are as follows: Kristin, Lia, Joe, Paul, Liz, myself, and I assume everyone else from the Kristin/Lia gang and perhaps the Crew. That should be fun! To get a feel for how dull lunch was, Liz matched a group a manly men (so excruciatingly manly that they were eating salads) with their Hummer. I didn't take note that the hummer was black and I assumed the hummer was yellow and that she had no idea what she was talking about, so I said, "That's not a hummer". She replied, "Yeah it is", the yellow one's a "Nissan Xterra". I was quite impressed! The awful music playing was mostly rhythmic elevator music that lacked any type of melodic line...it was extremely bleggh. It made Paul extend his break 10-15 minutes...lol!

Nightlife
Me, JD, Jillian, and Elissa went to Zipp's for create-your-own Sundae's! Me, JD, and Jill decided that the marshmallow sauce was the shit! After Zipp's we went back to JD's house to watch National Treasure. After National Treasure, Elissa left, but me and Jill stayed to watch some shows JD TiVOed. We watched "Starved", "Weeds", and some other show (not sure the of the name). All were really funny! They're all on FX. I give them the thumbs!!!

Anyway- another day at Salad WORK(s) awaits me in just 9 hours! Visiting hours are 11-3, so come visit...

~tannen

Time: 2:31am
Picture: Greeting's From Avon By The Sea...continued below...

Short (well probably really long knowing the way I write) recapitulation of today (Saturday)...

::Avon By The Sea:: 10:12am - 5:02pm (including time spent in transit to and fro)
In attendance was the Crew + Daniella and Jay. Me, JD, April, and Daniella got there roughly an hour before Elissa and Jay. We chilled for an hour then went for some lunch at The Pavilion, as usual. Lunch started off pretty decently, but our waitress absolutely sucked- she just couldn't handle the mission critical tasks we confronted her with. Take for example- I ordered a soda- which was clearly dripping and had leak...she didn't care to get me a new one till I asked- and when I received the "new and improved" soda, she didn't care to fill it up all the way. Anyway- when we started ordering she started asking us all these questions about bread- white?, wheat?, rye?, whole-grain?, hard roll?, etc... We were just like- don't all the sandwiches come on the same standard roll. She replied with a not so polite, "NO"!...lol!!! So we all ended up getting our sandwiches with a "hard roll" (except JD since he got a salad). I ordered my usual Turkey Sandwich- simply turkey, lettuce, tomato, mayo- after she left and had taken out orders I looked at everyone and was like, "She's totally gonna forget my tomato and mayo!". Sure enough- I was right. Then when we got the check she tacked on an additional 50 cents per hard roll- since apparently a roll costs 50 cents extra. And apparently the sandwiches usually come on like standard white/Winder bread- what kind of place serves f*in' $7 sandwiches on Wonder bread? Yeah....so lunch so fun?!?!!...lol!

After lunch we met up with Elissa and Jay. We all laid/slept on the beach for a good hour then headed into the water. The water was a good temperature- I'm not sure of the exact temperature, but it felt like somewhere in the low 70s...maybe 72 degrees fahrenheit. The ocean was really nice until we realized it was infested with jellyfish eggs...it was pretty gross. So we chilled for another hour and a half or so then left to go to Strollo's (in Belmar). Strollo's was good as usual! Daniella expressed no desire to have more ices after her lack of enthusiasm yesterday for Ralph's Ices. She has a really awkward view of us- I feel like she thinks all we do is go out for ices...I guess it's somewhat true.

Anyway- the beach was good- very relaxing! I caught up on my magazines (most notably Wired), caught up on lost sleep, listened to good music, etc...Good Times!

::Nightlife/Cosmic Bowling:: 7:02pm - 1:03am
Dinner was had with Elissa and Dennis (Elissa's Dad) at Friday's. Dinner with the Goldberg's is always a good time! After dinner we went back to Elissa's house to chill till cosmic bowling started. Jillian and Jay came over too. Jay didn't come bowling with us since he had something/someone to attend to.

Cosmic Bowling was a BLAST!!!!...at least for me and Jillian. Jillian and I have been bowling together an enormous amount lately- roughly 3 times in the past like two weeks...lol! We've gotten really good- well good according to our standards. Jillian beat me the first game- but she got a 99 so she felt like crap because she didn't break 100. I won the second game with a 112! Elissa just flat-out sucked tonight! She bowled like a 30 or something...lol! Elissa bowls really weird- she starts out normal but when she begins the release she does like an armadillo tuck and then pops her left leg to the side as she releases the ball- it's really weird...I wish I had a video!! Our bowling names were as follows:

Jillian = Allegra as in Allegra's Windows
Elissa = Burny as in the movie "Weekend at Burnie's" - we changed the spelling of Bernie to Burny so obvious reasons!
Me = Acker as in Mr. Acker the gym teacher

After bowling we walked to Eli's Bagels (24 hour bagels = 100% awesomeness) to get something to eat (some might go as far as to say a "nosh"). After that we headed for Elissa's house so I could drop Jillian and Elissa there. Now I'm home writing this since I'm a slave to my own website.

I decided that I'm going to make ::tannenews:: awards/superlatives that reflect my unique readers. Prospective categories include:

Most Concerned with the Content of ::tannenews::
Most Concerned with the # on the Hit-Counter
Name Appears the MOST on ::tannenews::

I don't want to give all the categories away so that was a just a taste of what's to come- I've already got people picked out for most of them. I'll be posting them final results in my last post before college- either August 23 or 24. The post will also include some other good stuff...So keep on the lookout!

Tomorrow will be another day of Salad WORK(s)- I'm working with Kristin so the 11-Close shift shouldn't be too bad. Come visit! Paul had his wisdom teeth extracted today (Saturday) so let's hope he gains some wisdom back so he can return to sandwich-making as soon as humanly possibly...lol!

Anyway I've been extremely tired throughout this entire post. Matt comes home from UCLA tonight so there's good chance I won't update till sometime after work on monday- so if you don't see a new post Monday morning don't be alarmed!! Until next time....

~tannen

Time: 2:18am
Picture: Welcome to Marlboro Township! This picture seemed fitting as I showed Daniella around Marlboro- not that there's much to show...lol!

Anyway- today in a nutshell...

Tour Of The Area avec Daniella (Friday)
Tour Guides - Myself & Elissa

For those of you who don't know who Daniella is- she's April's friend/sorority sister from Indiana University/Sigma Delta Tau (EAT...lol!). I picked up Daniella first (at April's house). As it turns out- nobody told her the garage keypad code- and I don't know it. Anyway- the garage needed to be closed...I decided to press the button from inside and run out. Unfortunately my initial plan was thwarted due to sensors that ensured it wouldn't close when I ran through it. I had to resort to plan B. And no- plan B was not calling someone for the garage code! I hit the button, ran, and jumped over the sensors as the garage door was closing...to my surprise I cleared the sensors on the first try...it was solid. We went to pick up Elissa next- when we got there Elissa gave Daniella a grand tour of her house- or lack there of (due to the intense construction and renovation that house is undergoing). The only thing to see was knocked out walls, wood, and the progress of the construction workers.

We headed to Turning Point for lunch, despite the fact that it resides in Manalapan. We decided it was a tour of Marlboro and its surroundings, not a tour of Marlboro exclusively. Daniella gave Turning Point a solid two-thumbs-up! We stopped my Best Buy after so Elissa could flirt with Jay. I looked for a pair of headphones even though I knew Best Buy didn't carry Grado's or Sennheiser's. Well they do carry Sennheiser's...but a weak selection at best, and clearly not the ones I'm looking to purchase. Anyway- After Best Buy we drove Elissa home because she had to go to work.

We (Daniella and I) headed over to my house for a bit. She looked through the MHS Yearbooks, most notably Roundup '04 and Roundup '05. We tried to find all the weird senior quotes- well all the weird, yet funny quotes. It was fun. Our last stop was Ralph's Ices- at roughly 2:49 we headed their. On the way I stopped by Salad WORK(s) to get next week's schedule. I never feel welcome when I come for a visit...when I get there everybody already took there break, Liz gives me a look and tells me to "Go Home" as usual, etc...I feel my presence is unwanted :( -Anyway, Kristin called me to get her hours when I was there- it was convenient b/c when she called I was staring at the schedule...lol! She says her wisdom teeth, or lack there of, don't feel too bad- so that's good. Marilyn asked me if I could work tonight- I was indecisive so Paul said he would do it. As it turns out, neither of us ended up working tonight (read on for a better explanation).

After I left Salad WORK(s) Daniella and I continued our Epic journey through the greater western monmouth area to Ralph's Ices. Ralph's was good as usual. Daniella however, was not as thrilled with Ralph's- she said she preferred regular ice cream. Oh well- you can't please everyone. We headed back to April's house and waited till she got home from camp. We just chilled for a bit.

Salad minus WORK(s)
When I was at April's I felt bad that Paul was going to work a double-shift so I figured I would see if he wanted me to work the shift instead of him...the conversation will be dispensed in text-message format as it appeared on my phone; verbatim, case sensitive, and t9 text input mistakes. T9 Mistakes will be corrected with the addition of brackets: "[--]"...

Me: Who took the night shift tonight? - tan, dave -
Paul: I DID
Me: Oh! Right before your operation? i assume liz is working then too? - tan, dave -
Paul: NO SHES NOT
Me: Oh- well its gonna be pretty dull then - tan, dave -
Me: You sure you want to work the extra shift? - tan, dave -
Paul: UNLESS YOU WANT TO WORK
Me: I don't case [care] either way- ill come in he [if] you dont want to do it- its up to you - tan, dave -
Paul: HOWARD TOLD ME NOT TO STAY HE INSISTED I LEAVE NOW
Me: Oh so does that mean i MUST come in? - tan, dave-
Paul: NO HE DOESNT NEED ANYONE

I called to confirm that he didn't need anyone- just to make sure. And the conversation continued...

Me: So anyway...What are you two up to this evening? Clearly you have no plans since you were going to work - tan, dave -
Me: didst you receive the previous message? -tan, dave - [sent due to unresponsiveness]
Paul: YES BUT I DONT FEEL LIKE ANSWERING U

The text messaging brigade stopped there...but if I had to reply to that, it would've went something like this...

Me: Ouch!

Nightlife avec April et Daniella
We went to the Court Jester in Downtown Freehold for dinner. I forgot my cell phone at home so I couldn't get in contact with them (since I was meeting them there). When I got to the restaurant I couldn't find them, but I had no way to call them. I made an attempt to find a pay-phone, though I was unsuccessful. They eventually arrived so it turned out good. After dinner we went to the Cornerstone Cafe for dessert.

FutureCast
Saturday - Beach during the day w/the Crew + Daniella; night=???
Sunday - Salad WORK(s): 11-Close; Matt comes home from UCLA!!!
Monday - Salad WORK(s): 11-3
Tuesday - Salad WORK(s): 11-3
Wednesday-Monday (Aug. 15th) - Cruise to Key West and Cozumel!!!

It's time to rid my brother's room of all my junk so he can actually sleep in it when he comes home on Sunday. I've kind-of been using his room as a large closet for the past two months so it's gotten really messy. His floor, furniture, bed, etc... is cluttered with my crap- whether it be electronics, clothes, etc... I must remove it...Anyway- till next time......

~tannen

Time: 2:16am
Picture: Point Pleasant Boardwalk- no I didn't take this picture- JD didn't bring his camera tonight- hence we are imageless. Today (Thursday) was pretty chill- not much happened. But I'll put the day into the usual format since I have nothing better to do- here it goes...

Morning & Afternoon
Woke up at 10:11am to the cacophony of lawn mowers hacking at my lawn- not a pleasant way to be woken up. That aside- my laptop bag came today! It's awesome- it's a "BooqBag" Boa XM [system]. As my mom says- "It's built like iron"...lol! Yeah- it's a damn good bag.

As lunchtime rolled around, Elissa began calling me incessantly as usual. We went to turning point for lunch. Lunch with Elissa was chill. After lunch I went back home to fiddle with the guestbook I've been trying to install lately to no avail. I've almost got it, but I'm too tired at the moment to figure out the problem- maybe tomorrow or over the weekend. When it's up I'll give you a heads-up! At 3:30 I went to the dentist- always fun (?!?!?) - actually that's a lie- when is the dentist ever fun? After the dentist I went for a haircut that I desperately needed, then I ordered-in some chinese for dinner with my Mom. My fortune cookie read the following: "Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed". What kind of fortune is that? I want my fortune cookie to tell me I'm gonna win the lotto or something- not something deep or profound; nor something with a negative connotation- ughhh!

Nightlife
The night was spent with the Crew + Daniella at Point Pleasant- always a good time! I went to the arcade and won 7,900 points! I now have a total of roughly 15,500 points!!! As far as pt. pleasant goes- pretty standard trip...went on rides, walked on the beach, ate ice cream, played games, talked about life at the end of the boardwalk, etc...

Tomorrow (Friday)
Going around Marlboro with Daniella and Elissa. We'll be giving her a grand tour of the area- ummmm...kinda(?). It looks like we'll be going to Turning Point again...lol! Ralph's is also in store. So far I've only figured out where we're eating...lol! I still need to find something to do.

If Kristin is feeling better tomorrow (I haven't talked to her yet) from her operation, perhaps we'll head over to Salad WORK(s)- to check the schedule and give Paul a heads up on the operation- and perhaps wish him good luck...if he's lucky...lol! If Kristin isn't feeling up to it I'll probably still stop by to check the schedule since it's on the way to Ralph's- I'll probably be in around 3:00-3:30 or so. So if you read this before you leave for work (I know you do)- schedule a break accordingly (not that we can really pick out break time anymore).

Anyway- I'm exhausted from pt. pleasant so I'm cutting the post short (not that I had anything good to write about)...

~tannen

Time: 2:33am
Picture: Pinchot Hall- Penn State (East Residence Halls)

Recap of the happenings of the day (Wednesday)...

Morning
Normally I wouldn't put my morning into a headline- this morning however is unlike other mornings- it warrants the headline. I wake up at around 9:22am which falls into the common range (9:12am-9:33am). I take a shower, dry-off, etc... As usual I check my e-mail and a few websites before work. I went over to the PSU Housing website to see if they posted my residence/roommate assignment. As it turns out- they did! As I clicked on the link to my assignment, I feel an extreme rush of anticipation. I was hoping for the best- unfortunately my hoping didn't help much. I didn't get the specialty housing I applied for (IST House), nor did I get the Residence Halls on the west-side of campus. I'm in Pinchot Hall (East Residence Halls)- East Halls are where all the freshmen are so I guess that's good. I'm on the 9th floor- ughhhh! It's going to be soooooo unbelievably hot in my room. And oh yeah- eventually I figured out that Pinchot is an all guys dorm- blegggh! I most definitely did NOT ask for a single sex dorm- if they weren't going to give me the specialty housing they could've at least thrown me into a co-ed dorm. Oh well- I guess I'll just have to live with it (literally- pun most definitely intended!). When I told my Mom Pinchot was a single-sex dorm she said "Oh Boy"- I replied - "Yeah, literally"...lol!!! Pun intended once again! My roommate is from southwestern PA (not sure which town- I can only tell it's southwestern PA from the area code) and his name is Jason. I haven't called him yet but I'm going to give it a day or 2- b/c he might have not checked for the assignment as quickly as I had. One plus to the whole rooming assignment- Melissa's dorm is right next to mine and Jenn Ron's is pretty close!

Salad WORK(s)
After such and eventful morning it was time to go to work [enter Salad WORK(s)!]. The drive to work was pretty cool- me, Paul & Liz, Gina, and Lindsay all arrived at the same time. Paul told me my car was going to "explode"- I guess he just couldn't handle the impressive SPL emanating from my Adire Shiva- just a bit too much BOOM for him! Paul decided not to cheat me out of my spot today. The 4th spot was all mine today! Today the gender barrier was broken once again to mine and Brett's dismay- we were forced to do salads. I mixed since salad creation isn't my bag of lettuce. Brett did rolls- Brett is extremely proper when speaking with customers- women of all ages were "M'am" and men of all ages were "Sir". At got pretty decently busy during the "lunch rush"- so busy that Brett just couldn't keep pace with the rest of the salad assembly line- he had roughly 8 salads waiting to be transcribed at one point. He just can't stack up to my own transcription skills- I'm not one to brag, but I am THE scribe. Anyway- work went on like usual- the rush died down by 2pm and a lull occurred during the last hour (2pm-3pm). Anyway- onto the best part of work- lunch of course!

Lunch avec (in seating order clockwise from myself) Liz, Paul, Catherine
As I stated yesterday- lunch at Salad WORK(s) with the site's "BIGGEST fans" has become a daily occurrence- it's coming to a point where it's just the like lunch in High School- having lunch with the same people everyday at the same time- we have ourselves a little routine. Anyway- as usual it was a good time! Liz refrained from using 8 packets of sugar in her tea(just plain Lipton today)- but then she complained that her tea wasn't sweet enough- I guess you just can't win- it's a "lose-lose" situation. The lunch table abounded with humor from all participants- so much comicality in fact, that Liz started to cry again- she denies it, but we all know it happened! It seems like lunch was all about Liz- hmmmm?!? Anyway- lunch had to end- and of course I'm not working until Sunday so the lunch crew (formerly know as "Aqua Team") won't meet until Monday. Liz seemed upset with this prospect- so upset in fact that she said this (in dialogues form)...

Liz: Dave, this was a fun lunch. Since you're not working tomorrow (Thursday) I don't know if I'll even be able to eat without you - (something to that effect)
Me: (No audible dialogue- I give her a blank stare for obvious reasons)

She should've said- "Dave, I don't know how I'll drink my tea without you" - I would've felt somewhat important if she said that.

After-Work
I got home, played guitar for a bit, went online, etc....the usual. I was pretty tired so I took an hour nap or so. Nothing too exciting.

Nightlife (or lack there of)
I didn't do much tonight- I went out for pizza with April, then went over to Best Buy to pick a CD. I had no idea what to buy- I pretty much randomly picked something up (well not totally random)...I ended up purchasing Interpol - Antics. I'm listening to it as I write this post- so far I give it the thumbs! I also looked for an alarm clock at Best Buy and Target though I found nothing. I really want an alarm clock that wakes you up gradually- one that starts out low and increases in loudness/intensity if you don't wake-up. The clock will end up being at max volume till I wake-up since I'm awoken by a 240-watt sound system right now (complete with dual side-firing subwoofers)- normal alarm clock for college is going to be a BIG change. After my failure of finding an alarm clock- Elissa came over for a bit and we just chilled. Now I'm writing this...not such an exciting night.

::FutureCast::
Thursday - Dentist at 3:30, perhaps a haircut (I need one badly!), dorm shopping (?), Point Pleasant at night w/the Crew plus Daniella.
Friday - Taking Daniella around Marlboro- still not sure where I'm taking her...lol!
Saturday - Beach with the Crew (I think?)
Sunday - Salad WORK(s): 11-Close

On another note- Kristin had her wisdom teeth extracted today (Wednesday)...I haven't spoken to her yet so I don't know how it went yet, but I'm sure she's fine.

I'm looking at my calendar and I realized that my time at Salad WORK(s) is dwindling- my last day there is going to be August 19th. This is how I figure it- I'll be working this upcoming sunday, monday and tuesday (7, 8, 9)...then I'm going on vacation from the 10-15. When I get back I can only work August 16, 17, 18, 19. So that's only another 7 days. But I don't even count Sunday's b/c Sunday's just aren't as fun as the weekdays. So that's only 6. Ahhhhh- I don't know what I'm going to do- I'm going to be in Salad WORK(s) withdrawal at Penn State- ughhh! lol! College is sooooo close- now that I got my housing info and stuff- it's starting to sink in (just a little bit).

As far as the website is concerned I'm trying to put up a guestbook (as recommended by Kristin). The guestbook link will be in the link bar right underneath the "::tannenews::" banner. I've already implemented JD's suggestion of the time stamp (as you can tell). If the guestbook is up when you view this page- please take the time to sign it! Well until next time...

~tannen

Time: 2:52am
Picture: Mike's So Lucky (?!?!?...lol!!!) at the Animal Kingdom- Epic Spring Break '05! It took a good 6-7 hours to get this shot!

First off- I'm very disappointed that JD was the only one to IM with my AIM link.
Anyway- on to the occurrences of the day (Tuesday)...

Salad WORK(s)
Everything was going great- I left for work on-time, I had some good music playing, I made the two ridiculously close consecutive traffic lights on route 520, etc... Something however went terribly wrong when I arrived at work. I take a look at my spot (4th spot as you all may know) and noticed that has once again been burglarized...Who was the larcenist this time?...Why does one even need to ask- of course it was Paul. I asked his diabolical twin, Liz, how she allowed such malfeasance to occur. This is how it went down (in dialogue form)...

Paul: Liz, is Dave working today?
Liz: Yeah, why?
Paul: (No audible dialogue- Paul proceeds to pull his Jeep into my spot)

So that's how my morning started...As for the rest of the day at work- good times as usual! Approximately 12 minutes after I clocked in another incident occurred. This one differs a bit from the "parking" incident. I'm drinking water and Talking to Kristin and there seems to be some confusion during conversation. A whole bunch of "ummmmm's", "what's", "huh's", etc... escape my mouth. I go to the back for a bit. When I leave our "regular" morning customer asks Kristin if I was hung-over. Where did that come from? Where did she pull such an assumption from? It was funny though...I guess you had to be there- oh well! I was on salads today which wasn't pleasant. Not that I mind doing salads- it's just not quite as fun as doing sandwiches with Paul, Brett, and Ian.

Ed, a manger at work, was extremely annoying today...He was told to supervise this morning. His idea of supervising is leaning on a counter with his arms crossed, bossing people around castigating you for your wrongdoings- especially misconduct regarding the size and weight of salads. He told Lindsay to mix salads later in the day because I was making too much of a mess. It's not like he did anything to help- he stood there with a grumpy face, criticizing our every move.

Aside from Ed's beastly, abhorrent attitude and the fact that I was on salads...work wasn't so bad.

There's something that irks me quite a bit at work- the fact that all the employees that smoke can take a 5 minute break to smoke whenever they please. I should be entitled to a five minute break nearly every hour too whether I smoke or not...It's not my fault they're addicted to nicotine. Do they deserve this extra off time just because they smoke? If they do, then everyone should receive the same privileges. I would love to take a 5-minute break every now and then, but since I don't smoke I don't have a "valid" excuse...Oh well- I doubt this rant will ever materialize into something beneficial to non-smoking employees.

After-Work
Lia came to visit Kristin (and me I guess) at work so we (me, Lia, Kristin) sat down and talked for about 30 minutes until Lia had to go to work (Wegman's). I haven't seen Lia in a while so I'm glad she came for a visit.

Lunch with Paul and Liz has become part of my daily routine- always a good time. Some highlights...Everyone knows Liz doesn't eat lunch...instead she drinks tea. Today I took note of how much sugar goes into her tea. I counted a lofty 8 sugar packets!!! That's a shitload of sugar- how much sugar does one person need?!?!? Anyway- Paul paid a menial 30 or so cents for his lunch; toast. Somehow two scoops of chicken salad and 2 or 3 fruit snack packs magically found their way onto his plate. I sense the use of a certain system that was abondoned after the assassination of President James Garfield- if you said the "spoils system" you guessed correct! Anyway- lunch was funny as usual- I can't remember much since it's 2:09am at the moment. I do remember that I made Liz cry again due to the intensity of humor!

Nightlife
Went to Jersey freeze with the crew plus Jason K. Jersey Freeze always presents a good time. Elissa was trying to flirt with Jay and it was hilarious...she said the most random things- for example- "Jay, you cleanse your rabbit really good. It's really like bathed and clean and stuff!" After Jersey Freeze I went to Lia's house to chill for a while- in attendance were Lia (obviously), Kristin, Joe, and myself. Kristin was really nervous about her imminent wisdom teeth extraction (Wednesday/today). It's been a while since I chilled with them so it was a quality time...I give it the thumbs up!

Tuesday Night (Friday's, Bowling, Cold Stone)
Me, JD, Elissa, Jillian, Melissa, Genna, Arielle, Laurent (Lauren with a T) Ashley, Courtney, Nicole, and some other people (sorry if I forgot you...lol!). I finally beat JD! Not only did I beat him once...but twice! I bowled a 102 and a 118- solid! I was really in the "bowling-zone"- if such a thing exists. Afterwards we went over to Cold Stone- good times!

...So I still haven't gotten my housing/roommate assignment for college yet. Jenn Ron got hers though. Supposedly I get mine tomorrow since the server is down at the moment. Melissa didn't get her "official" assignment yet, but she did receive and e-mail form her supposed roommate. She's from Thailand. How weird is that. Well not really weird- just pretty random. Figures that Melissa would get a roommate from Thailand! I hope I get my assignment tomorrow- I just hope I'm not disappointed though- Jenn Ron is stuck in an all girls dorm...ughhh!

Anyway...it's extremely late and I still have to clean my room- well technically I'm cleaning for the cleaning lady who's coming in just a few hours. I still don't get why I MUST clean for the cleaning lady?!?!? She gets paid to clean...not me!

~tannen

Picture: For all you history buffs- you obviously know what this is. For those of you that don't...It's Thomas Nast's depiction of William "Boss" Tweed and the Tammany Hall Tweed Ring. Thomas Nast's cartoons of Tweed exposed the corruption associated with and surrounding Tweed. Why did I post this picture you might ask? Well I have good reasons. I feel that management at Work is becoming more and more Tweed-like lately for multiple reasons. First off- they decided that we can no longer have a free meal when we're working- instead we get 50% off- if we must pay I think 75% would be more reasonable. They shouldn't have given us free meals in the first place if they were going to change the policy midstream- we came to rely on, and almost expect the free meal- now that the coup has occurred- we want to CRUSH the revolution...lol! Secondly- When I got to work I noticed that my spot was taken (everyone knows the 4th spot is mine!)- and guess who burglarized my spot...you got it- Howard! This is something I would expect from a lowly co-worker of mine, but not my boss- I doubt I will find a place in my heart to forgive him for this type of heinous transgression. His lewdness didn't stop there though...(Thirdly)...Ricardo, the dishwasher, didn't come to work today so of course Howard asked me if I "didn't mind" doing the dishes. But he didn't really ask me- he commanded me. But in the end the dishes didn't really become too much of a burden as Liz, Catherine, and Paul overtook my dishwashing duties for the day- why did they do that?...I still have no clue...it worked out for me though! Anyway- if you're not a Salad WORK(s) employee you might think I truly despise management from this rant. In reality I don't...This rant is all in good fun ! But I must say- Boss Tweed--Salad WORK(s) Management - striking resemblance?

Aside from those minor infractions- work was a blast today (almost literally as I found myself being sprayed with water while doing the dishes)..lol! Anyway- I'll start from the beginning. I woke up at around 8:57am, had some delicious Fruity Pebbles for breakfast, etc...When I got to work my spot was taken (as noted above) which did put a damper on the first 12 minutes of work. After I clocked in Paul was eager to tell me a story. He begged and begged, and pleaded and pleaded to tell me this story...and being the nice guy I am, I acquiesced and listened to his babble. Alright I'm lying- Paul neither begged nor pleaded and his story was not mindless babble- it added some effect to the dramatization though- eh?!? Anyway- Paul and Liz went out to play tennis at roughly 8am (it could've been 7:58- who knows?!). On the way back Paul stops and watches a car back-up. While he engages himself in this mind-numbing act, a large black bug (genus unknown) flies onto his lip and bites him. A solid 7 minutes later and his lip starts swelling up. By the time work started the swelling went down so I can't vouch for the severity of the swelling or pain. I give Paul a solid two thumbs up for the story and the entertainment it provided this Monday morning. Later in the day a woman come to the counter to complain about her Tuna Salad Wrap. She said it tasted like a "box of salt"...She was so disgusted with the tuna salad...ughh...lol! We ended up making her an egg salad wrap which must've been decent because she didn't complain about it. The remaining batch of tuna salad was tossed and a new one was made since it was indeed extremely salty. As many of you know- jobs at Salad WORK(s) are for the most part gender-specific. Girls do salads, cash register, phones, etc... Guys do sandwiches, deliveries, etc... Today however, the gender barrier was shattered! To my amazement- I saw Liz and Catherine washing dishes. And they were by no means slacking or doing a half-ass job. They were doing dishes hardcore...lol! Props to Liz and Cat for the dishes today. Work ended at 3pm as usual. I had lunch with Kristin today...then I had an "extended" lunch with Paul and Liz...read on below for details!

Lunch avec Kristin
Due to the new "no free food" policy, Kristin and I were forced to pay for lunch. Conversation was primarily about college and the likes. We also talked about how we love to doodle in class- well really more like how I like to doodle in class and how she just likes to draw (not in class)...lol! She's worried about her wisdom teeth extraction this wednesday- but I told her not to worry about since I'm a "pro" at it. Lunch was still a good time despite its rising cost (literally).

Lunch EXT(ended) avec Paul et Liz
Usually Paul and Liz would go on break when at 3pm (when I get off work) and everyone would have lunch together. Today was far from the norm however. They had to attend to the sink to wash dishes while I had lunch. They went on break at 3:30 today- just when I finished lunch. Anyway- since I never go home on time I figured I would stay a bit. I actually brought the Honey Vanilla Tea in for Liz today- unfortunately I forgot to tell her about it- by the time I told her she already put the tea bag in - she had fruity, peach tea. I'll bring the tea in again tomorrow- just remind me so I don't forget again. Anyway- lunch with Paul and Liz is always a good time- I'm not gonna lie. Many things were discussed- such as the fact that they are the website's "BIGGEST fans"! I think Paul just likes to watch the hit counter when her refreshes the page over and over again. Liz might actually read the content...lol! Also discussed were the Zelinski parental units and their plots against their children. Many schemes- including selling them on eBay...lol...j/k!

I finally left work at around 4:07pm. Now I'm going out with JD, Jillian, Melissa, Genna, and others to Friday's and bowling (ughh I feel like such a dork now since Paul and Liz just bashed me for going bowling...and here I am- going bowling again!).

Till next time...............

~tannen

Picture: Office Space movie poster...I finally got around to watching it- keep reading...

Recap of the Weekend...

Saturday
Pretty standard day- I had work from 10-3. Coming in at 10am was weird since I've never been an "opener" as they would say. I wasn't too hard- in fact it was really chill- I broke down boxes for 1/2 an hour, then put some ice in the soda fountain, then just did various odds and ends around the store- not difficult to say the least. I worked with Kristin, Brett, Sharon, Ian, Maria, Amy, etc... It was good- not overly exciting though- Saturday's just can't stack up to the weekdays. It's weird- I guess it's because on the weekdays the same sets of people work with each other- on Saturday it's anybody's game- day/night shift employees collide and it's just not the same. April (and Kate, Dave, and Sharon) and Elissa came by to visit so that was cool. I had lunch with April and Kate- always a good time! Alba made sesame chicken with some "excess" fried chicken and heated oriental sesame dressing- I didn't taste it but she seemed content with the outcome.

At night I went out with April to Damon's (Grill) and Ralph's- good times~! Afterwards we rented a Office Space. The movie would've been more enjoyable if April didn't get a gazillion calls while we were watching it. We had to pause the movie at least 7 times so she could chit-chat with various people...ughhh! lol! We finished the movie eventually- good stuff! Then we just chilled as usual.

Today
Also pretty standard- slept late, grabbed a Wegman's sub for lunch, watched Bend It Like Beckham, etc... It was a pretty idle day- I didn't do much of anything. I did what Peter Gibbins in Office Space would do if he had a million dollars...nothing!

I can't believe tomorrow's August 1st- the summer has been flying by. In roughly 3.5 weeks I'll be in college- ahhhh!!! I'm definitely not ready! I'm still waiting for my roommate and housing assignment- I'm in, as Nishant would put it, "dormitory limbo". Official word from PSU says it should come this week so you know I'll be running to the mailbox everyday...lol!!!

In other news- I learned how to play Vertigo by U2 on guitar yesterday. I've been playing it all day long. I can't stop.

It's back to work tomorrow...hopefully it won't be as dull as Saturday- it usually isn't.

::7-Day Outlook::
Monday - Salad WORK(s): 11-3; night=no plans
Tuesday - Salad WORK(s): 11-3; night=no plans
Wednesday - Salad WORK(s): 11-3; night=no plans
Thursday - Dentist, Dorm Shopping (bleggh), various odds and ends
Friday - Taking Daniella out around Marlboro - I've been living here all my life and I still have no idea what there is to do in this damn town!
Saturday - ***Too Controversial to Post***
Sunday - Salad WORK(s): 11-Close; Matt comes home from UCLA!!!

::FutureCast::
August 10 - August 15 - Cruise-time: Key west and Cozumel!
August 17 - JD's last "official" day in Marlboro
August 22 - April's last "official" day in Marlboro; 1 year anniversary of Hilton Head with JD and the Goldbergs!
August 24 - My last "official" day in Marlboro
August 25 - Penn State move-in: State College, PA

Time is dwindling- let's get it ALL in before college!

~tannen

Picture: Monmouth County Fair Logo--read on...

It's 1:18am- I've been updating later and later- idk why? Anyway- the happenings of the past few days...

Thursday - Didn't do too much. Slept late- actually that's a lie. I woke up to the doorbell ringing- I looked out the Window- it was none other than a large, brown UPS Truck!!! I ran downstairs and low and behold- my laptop had arrived~woot!!! I quickly turned unpacked, threw the manuals aside, and fired it up! Quite impressive if I must say. I've been putting all my junk on it and configuring it and such for the past couple of days...good stuff. I'm going to take some pictures of it later on and post them along with some specs and other good stuff. After that I went out to Turning Point with my Mom for lunch. I had a 2pm wisdom-teeth check-up appt...it was really quick- He looked at my wisdom teeth (or lack there of) and said "They're filling in nicely! Just stay off popcorn for the next two weeks and you'll be fine! You're good to go!" The appt. took roughly 2 minutes. I went back home and fiddled with my laptop some more then headed over to Salad WORK(s) to pickup my paycheck. My paycheck turned out to be extremely disappointing due to the small amount of hours I've been receiving lately...ughhh! It's alright though- I requested more hours this week- hopefully during the day! When I got there Liz told me to go home as she usually does when I come in when I'm not working (even if I have a decently reasonable purpose for being there!). OF course I stayed longer...lol! I stayed a bit to talk with Catherine after she got off work- then I finally left. I went to deposit/cash my paycheck but the bank was closed when I got there...bummer! At night I went to the Monmouth County Fair (Fair Part Un-- see below/story continued)

Friday - Slept late (roughly 11:37am), went to Wegmans, watched some TV- pretty chill day. At night I went to the Monmouth County Fair (Fair Part Deux-- see below/story continued)

Fair Part Un
Who - Me, Jillian, Genna, and Genna's two co-counselors, Courtney and Nicole.
When - Thursday, July 28, 2005 - event commenced at 2100 hours.
Where - East Freehold Park Showgrounds - Kozloski Road, Freehold
What - We mostly went on rides- Alpine Bobs, Scrambler, Gee Wizz, Fun House, etc...
How - Transportation provided by Courtney (Black Lexus RX300)
Why - Something to do/Why not?
Funny Stuff - Jillian was hilarious on the rides. She was going nuts on "Raiders Of The Lost Mine"- it wasn't scary at ALL! But this is Jillian I'm talking about- the same person that thought a pirate rapist was going to attack her on Pirates Of The Caribbean (Epic Spring Break '05).
Final Impressions - I give it the thumbs(up)- despite the fact that Alpine Bob's, the himalaya-type ride, felt like a roller coaster of death (even though it wasn't a roller coaster).

Fair Part Deux
Who - The Crew (in order): Justin, April, David (me obviously), Elissa.
When - Friday, July 29, 2005 - event commenced at 1900 hours.
Where - East Freehold Park Showgrounds - Kozloski Road, Freehold
What - The full fair experience was had- rides, music, food, etc...
How - Transportation provided by myself (Blue Honda Civic EX) complete with the 90s Mix pumping through the DLS Magnesium's and the Adire Shiva.
Why - Event was scheduled roughly a week prior.
Funny Stuff - April on after the Scrambler- ahhh she (her neck) was sooo tense...lol...well not really. Me and JD eating dinner by the folk band (trumpet, banjo, tuba, vocals)- they were really good but we couldn't stop laughing because they were playing Yankee Doodle Dandy. Elissa trying to take pictures of Me, April, and JD on Gee Wizz. Dorit and I on the gravitron making fun of ourselves and peers for paying $3 to be spun around like monkeys stuck to a wall. Other good times were had...I just can't remember them all.
Final Impressions - Two BIG thumbs up! It was a good night! I really needed to get out- sitting at home all this time was letting my mind get the best of me.

If you didn't listen to the F.O.I.L. Incident- please do. I've got feedback from two people (not that I have so many readers)- JD told me I'm the funniest person alive and Jillian told me I was a "loser"- not too encouraging. Anyway- as for tomorrow...work starts at an early 10am...ughhh! I think Brett's working with me so that should be cool. Visiting hours are 11-3, so bring your appetite (how corny am I).

I'm going to get some pictures up here soon- hopefully, along with some more multimedia stuff (like the F.O.I.L. Incident)- most likely within the next week. But until then...later

~tannen

Picture: My F.O.I.L. Shirt- read on for a better explanation...

So it's roughly 1:31am currently...a GREAT time to update the website! As for current news- the fly is still inhabiting my room- it's pissing me off a great deal :( - Also, there is something crawling in my attic as I write this- some type of critter - squirrel, rat, mouse, etc...idk?!?

Anyway- a recap of last night (tuesday night) and today (wednesday)...

Last Night (Tuesday Night)
I wanted to go buy some new music before I went out so I hit up Best Buy for some new tunes. I bought The Bravery and Dispatch - All Points Bulletin. I wanted to buy Death Cab For Cutie but Best Buy didn't have it in stock. Due to this unsettling news I raced (a little bit of on over-statement!) to Target- lucky me- they had it! This is where the F.O.I.L. shirt comes in. So I'm waiting in line to pay and the cashier keeps looking at me. He was staring at me for a solid 37 seconds or so- it was getting kind of creepy. So the line moves along and it's my turn to pay and he starts talking to me. I would type it out but you wouldn't get the jist of it...instead I recorded a recapitulation of what happened with some blues in the background and an extended outro (a mixture of Sweet Child 'O Mine and random blues soloing). Instead of imagining how it went down- you can hear it! Anyway- I recorded it via my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum, Digitech Effects Pedal, WaveStudio, and some really old, crappy microphone- all in 24-bit stereo sound at a sample rate of 96,000Hz- unfortunately for you I had to compress the file to an mp3 since the original recording was 73MB for two minutes of audio. The mp3 is roughly 2MB- much more logical for streaming/downloading audio. Anyway here's the file: F.O.I.L. Incident - I hope you like it- I think this time off from work is killing me- I'm a dork with way too much time.

Anyway - after the F.O.I.L. incident I went bowling with Jillian, Melissa, and Nicole W. I picked up Jillian and we headed for Strathmore- when we got there Melissa called us and told us we went to the wrong one- she got confused when I said Strathmore and went to the bowling alley on Route 33 in Manalapan. Amid all the confusion Jillian and I headed to the correct alley. We got there and began to bowl. My bowling name was "Ms Hill"- woot...lol! I won both games b/c JD wasn't there to beat me. I bowled horribly though. My best game was only an 85- that says a lot for the people that lost to me...lol! On the way home I missed the turn-off for Route 9 North b/c I was having an intense conversation with Jill about why the Backstreet Boys SUCK. Well she was defending them, but clearly I WON!!! After I dropped her off I was extremely thirsty so I stopped by 6-12. It was 11:58pm- I was their last customer!

Today (Wednesday)
I went to the beach with Elissa. We got an awesome parking spot!!! The tide was most certainly not "chill!" It was most definitely high tide. The water was pretty cold considering the excruciating heat we've been experiencing for the past few days- the water was a brisk 67 degrees fahrenheit. The beach was pretty chill though- we just relaxed. Though lunch today cannot be "officially" rated due to the fact that it wasn't a Salad WORK(s) lunch- I'll rate it anyway. Lunch was "Dry" in both food and laughs. Lunch did not excel in either taste or humor...very disappointing :(

I came home then went to the Dentist at 6:45- I have a small cavity on one of my front teeth- ughhhh more dental work! I went out to dinner with my Mom after to Friday's which was good. Later at night I went to April's for a bit to meet her co-counselors/junior counselors- good times!

As for tomorrow (really today but since it's 2:14am I still consider it wednesday and hence tomorrow is thursday!)- more dorm shopping, Oral Surgeon for a wisdom-teeth check-up, and other errands. I'm going to go to Salad WORK(s) at around 2:45 or so- somewhere between 2:45 and 3:00pm- to pickup my paycheck- so if you're reading this before you head to work- take your break around 3:00 or so- I feel like I'm missing all the funny things that happen at work...

That's all for now...later

~tannen

As for the picture- Golfing at SwingTime with the crew- sadly this shot was not candid.

I hope everyone is enjoying the new tiled side-columns!!

As for today- with a day at Salad WORK(s) comes a day of intensity...I get to work at 11am, as usual, and the day starts out as any ordinary day at Salad WORK(s). As usual, funny things happen at work. Pranking seems like the "in" thing lately. Anyway- Scott expresses a mild desire to be a model. Perhaps not desire- he just thinks he could be a model. Catherine decides to use this to his disadvantage. She calls him up pretending to be Sophia Kinsley from a modeling agency. She asked him to be a model for "What NOT to Look Like"? (idk if that's what she said but it works for me) and asked him to call back. He never called back- Catherine thinks he knows he would be rejected so he doesn't want to face the rejection. Instead he's using the fake modeling invite as "bragging" rights. To top off the joke Scott was strutting down the hallway- when he got to the Soda Fountain he stopped, turned, and checked himself out in the mirror, showcasing his modeling "skills". We made up some nicknames for him- "Sizzling Scott Smith from Salad Works"- ahhhh so much alliteration!!! Scott hasn't figured it out yet so we'll see what happens in the future...funny times without a doubt!!!

After Scott's modeling career was calling (literally) things were pretty standard. I got off work at 2:30 since it was pretty dead. Catherine was getting lunch and the salad was a bit large- Ed decides to weigh it! Who does that?!?!? It weighed in at a whopping one pound, 14 ounces!- Just a "tad" above the 21 ounce recommended salad. lol! Lunch was had with (in ascending height order)- Liz, Catherine, and Paul (I'm just assuming Paul is taller than Cat- I can't really vouch for the validity of the statement though). Lunch was spent reflecting on Scott's prank and other crew members- especially those Catherine dislikes. Otherwise it was pretty standard- salads and sandwiches were consumed-- and oh yeah- I forgot: TEA! One day I'm going to bring Liz some quality tea to replace her typical Lipton Tea Bag. Oh yeah - she had cinnamon tea today to "spice" things up. I'm going to bring in some solid Honey Vanilla tea- that should be good! Lunch wasn't quite as hilarious as yesterday, but it was funny none the less. I'm going to start rating lunch on a scale that uses the intensity of Liz's crying as a benchmark. Yesterday we'll say was "balling" and today "sobbing"...lol! As lunch came to an end I called Sharon's mom pretending to be Sharon's Russian friend- that was interesting...?!? Anyway- then I drove home (yes~!- in the Blue Honda Civic).

I'm not working until saturday which deeply saddens me. I don't know what I'm going to do without my daily Salad WORK(s) fix. I feel like I'm going to miss an enormous amount of good times. Well you know me- I'll be there anyway, even if I'm not working. I can say for sure I'll be there on Thursday to pick up my paycheck.

I really want to bring in a camera to work to capture all the funny moments to post on the site. I also want to bring in my guitar one day but I doubt that'll ever happen since there wouldn't be much time to play it- if at all. I'll make an "Ode to Howard"...lol! or a like "Variations on a Salad Tosser"...lol!

If anyone is wondering why there are 200+ hits on the hit counter (almost a 100 hit rise over one day!) you can thank those with a last name that resembles a certain "shrunken" family (i.e. Honey I Shrunk the Kids). I do feel honored however that people are actually reading this.

Anyway- for the past three days there has been this fly just buzzing around my room. It's really pissing me off. It's too fast though- I can't catch it! It just doesn't quit. It's sole purpose in it's "fly" career is to annoy me.

So, my laptop- it shipped- I forgot to write yesterday where it started shipping from- KOWLOON, HK- Yes that's Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. It's really coming direct from the Lenovo factory.

So the crew (minus myself) is going to the Howie Day concert tonight so I have nothing to do. If you want to do something you know how to reach me.

~tannen

If you can't tell what the picture is- it's a picture of Dorit and John Rolfe slapping each other five in the Magic Kingdom one fine evening during Epic Spring Break '05!!!

I'll start this from where I left off. Bad News Bears- Liz happened to be right...ughhhh- It was alright. It didn't SUCK, it just wasn't good. It was average. Anyway...as for the weekend...

Saturday - Avon by the Sea, or for short- The Beach. Good times- the water was nice - JD said it best- "chill" tide. After that we went to strollo's- good stuff. That night we went to Redbank for Juanito's then walked by the marina...good times.

Sunday - ...NOTHING- if I said I did anything exciting on Sunday I would be lying...and let's not kid ourselves- we all know I'm not one to lie.

Today - Pretty standard day at work. Well actually it wasn't really standard since there was no rush and it was pretty dead all day long.

As usual- there is a funny story from work. Today Catherine called Paul pretending to be a Chinese Restaurant- asking him to confirm his order and telling him that they would deliver it to his house soon. Sadly, Paul believed it and started yelling at Cat. He started pacing back and forth across the sandwhich station with an extremely grim face. He eventually figured it out, but it was a good laugh...I guess you had to be there.

After that came lunch- with the usual suspects...Kristin, Liz, Paul, Eleonora. Good times most definitely. Lunch was by no means funny, yet Liz was laughing till she cried...idk?...lol!

I got home and checked the status of my Laptop order...It's shipping!!! IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad T43p- it's gonna be a good! When it comes I'll post some pics and such.

Now I'm deciding what to do later. It's looking like Ralph's. Anyway- till next time....

~tannen

Today was an intense day. When I woke up I would've doubted the intensity, but as the day wore on...It all started off like a normal, typical, regular, common, average day at Salad WORK(s). Salads had to be tossed, paninis had to be grilled, dishes had to be washed, etc... (ahhh so much parallelism in that sentence!). Names must not be mentioned- I have codified this person's name for cautionary purposes. This person will only be referred to as "120141165154". I'm not going to go too in depth but this is basically how it went down. 120141165154 came to work, left the store for an hour, didn't clock out, and went on a job interview- to 120141165154's dismay- no job! What a disappointment! 120141165154 was depressed for the remainder of the day.

***The information provided above is for entertainment purposes ONLY***

Anyway...I got off work at 3pm and had lunch with Liz, Brett, Jenn Meye, Amanda Mecker, and Eleonora. Good food, good jokes, good people, good times!!!

There has been increasing intensity throughout this week. Here's the rundown(what I remember)...

Monday - I continued to ice my wisdom teeth extraction sites. Saw Wedding Crashers at night- good stuff!

Tuesday - I woke up with a dull pain on from my lower right wisdom tooth extraction site. I went over to Ladman's office and he put in a "dressing". I found it hilarious for obvious reasons. And no- the dressing tasted nothing like caesar.

Wednesday - EPIC BOWL-A-RAMA '05!!! Me, JD, April, Elissa, and Jenn Meye went for Wednesday Quarter Madness. It was indeed madness! JD won, and I placed second for the majority of the games. I want to write more about this epic experience but time does not permit. We diner(ed) after bowling and had a run-in with some powdered sugar. I went to get gas on the way home at 1am- the gas attendant was extremely nice and surprisingly dressed professionally- perhaps it was the manager?

Thursday - NO work! I went to the DMV to get my unrestricted license since I've waited a solid 7 months to do so. I forgot to bring proof of address so I still haven't gotten it!! Arghh!!! I had to some cruise and dorm shopping with my Mom after that- fun I guess? I went back to Ladman's office to get my "dressing" taken out. I went over to Salad WORK(s) after that so I could take off for an check-up/follow-up of my surgery. All my co-workers think I'm love with the place since I'm "always" there. Oh well. I stayed around a bit to get some CD recommendations- I didn't get one good recommendation. In fact I got some crappy recommendations such as the Backstreet Boys, Gavin DeGraw (I think that's how you spell it), Jesse McCartney (Jillian's future husband), etc... You can see my disappointment (thanks Paul and Liz---for NOTHING!...j/k). I went to Best Buy and bought The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and The Doves - Lost souls. Both are quality discs. Later on the crew(minus Jillian) went to Jersey Freeze. It was pretty typical until I saw an old friend- Liz from Lakewood Prep who I haven't seen in roughly 3 or 4 years- it was good.

I'm off to see Bad News Bears now- I hope it's good. Liz told me it was going to SUCK so I'm not going in with high expectations. I'll write about it later. Cya~!

~tannen

So let's see. Since I last updated this a lot has gone down- well not really...lol! Anyway- I got my wisdom teeth "extracted" yesterday- all 4 of them (all 6 of them according to Elissa)!!! So pretty this is all I remember- I got hooked up to a nitrous oxide mask, they pricked me with a needle and hooked me up to an IV, the placed numerous other monitors on me, and the surgeon said "We'll get you all nice and relaxed now". The next thing I knew I was waking. I thought I was waking up in the middle of the operation since I didn't remember anything after the sedation...luckily I didn't wake up during the procedure! Anyway- I woke up with TONS of gauze in my mouth. I wanted to talk, but it just wasn't physically possible with the enormous mountain of gauze in my mouth. We stopped by CVS for my pain killers, then went to Wendy's for a frosty since I wasn't permitted to eat 12 hours prior to the surgery. It was really hard to eat the frosty since my entire mouth was numb- not jsut my mouth- my entire jaw was numb. It was really weird. I took the pain killers 30 minutes after I ate so that I wouldn't be cursing when the "numbness" wore off. Thus far I haven;t been in too much pain. In fact I didn't even take pain killers this morning- I just took advil. The prescription pain killers are SUPER strong- I took one and it knocked me out for a solid 2 hours. Today April and Elissa came over and we watched Hitch so that was cool. That was pretty much my excitement for the day...that and being able to rinse my mouth!

Friday I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I really enjoyed it. Maybe I just enjoyed Johnny Depp's extremely odd performance and the Ooopma Loompa songs- i don't know!..lol! Anyway- I thought it was a quality film- Depp really added a lot of character and personality to the film and really captured Wonka- as that mysterious guy who just despises children for no apparent reason.

The other day I decided that I really enjoy work. Yes, Salad WORK(s)! Me and Kristin decided that it was a good job because: good pay, good hours, good people. Salad WORK(s) is always a good time, especially when working with the right people.

I added a cool hit counter to the top of the website if you haven't already noticed. Other than that ntohing has been updated (aside from this post).

I need a cool tagline at the end of my entires like JD- And I obviously can't steal "G to the T", "GOOD TIMES", "GOOD to the TIMES", etc... Well until I decide on one...peace

It's 2:53am and I decided I was getting sick of lime green. I pretty much overhauled the website in pursuit of something new and fresh. I hope everyone's enjoying it. Anyway, I haven't updated this since June 24th- ahhhhh!!! I suck!!! lol!. Since then so much has happened- I can't even get into everything- I'll just touch on some highlights.

July 3rd - KaBOOM fireWORK(s) at RedBank! 100% awesomeness except for the ride home.

July 7th - JD's 18th B-day!!!

July 8th - JD's B-Day Scavenger Hunt - one word=craziness!!!

July 9th - Beach, War of the Worlds at the beach..lol!!, Fantastic Four, Mini-Golf - an intense day!!!

I had work today which was pretty chill. I have work tomorrow too- come visit!!! I'll be updating the site more often now- I'm diggig the the new look- I hope everyone else digs it too. If you don't- then too bad. Well if you think it's hideous- you know the number.

The website aside- I still haven't gotten my roomate or housing for college yet. That's gonna be interesting. I just want to get it already so I know where I'll be living and who I'll be living with. I still have to go dorm shopping- ahhhh! I have soooo much to get- I have pretty much nothing for college yet! Ugggghhhh so much to do! Oh well- it'll be fun. Well I'm extremely tired now- I'm totally not checking this entry for spelling or grammar. Maybe later in the day.

So let's see. There has not been much happening in Marlboro lately- I'm not gonna lie! Yesterday (Thursday, June 23) was pretty chill- didn't do much. I woke up, went out for lunch with my Mom and Grandma, paid a visit to the oral surgeon, then went to work. As it turns out- I've got an impacted wisdom tooth that must come out in addition to the rest of my wisdom teeth, despite them not be impacted- that's going to suck! They're coming out Saturday, July 16, so bring me some ice cream! So while April and Justin are seeing rent, I'll be drunk on anesthesia!

Today was pretty standard- woke up, went to Wendy's w/Grandma, went to (salad) WORK(s). Work today was AWFUL. Well not AWFUL- just extremely physically taxing and exhausting. I was a hardcore salad maker today- we were outrageously busy- the line was nearly out the door. It was ridiculous. To top things off, we were short-staffed for the night. When it was time to close we only had 5 people left and out dishwasher they just hired quit in the middle- that put us down to 4 people to close the entire store- it was ridiculous! I finally got home around 10:50. Then I went to Elissa's and hung out with her and Jillian for a while. Then I went to the Diner with Elissa since Jill went home. Out waitress was cool- she pretty much told us her whole life story- lol! Then I went home and now I'm updating the site.

As far as the site goes- I added the chief links in the sidebar to the left- obviously these links deserve to be there. If you feel I should add more links or if you feel a link deserves to be labeled "Chief"- e-mail me at faultyscrew@gmail.com. More things are on the way- hopefully some photos! Well keep a keen eye as always!

Ahhhh!!! We did it!!! I haven't had time to update this lately so the last couple of days will just fall into this post. I'll start where I left off. On Friday (June 17) I had my English and yearbook final which weren't bad. It's kind of weird writing about the finals when I just graduated- o well! After school- Waxman and I BLASTED Alice Cooper's School's Out roughly 10 times since we got held up behind the buses. Saturday was Jenn Ron's Graduation party which was a BLAST! Sunday was Father's Day- I worked- it was DEAD- we had about one customer per hour- it was ridiculous. We had some cake when I got home then I went to Jersey Freeze to meet up with my brother, his friends, and April. Good times.

Monday was THE day. Not only was it Graduation day but it was also my father's Birthday and my brother's Bon Voyage since he was leaving for UCLA for the summer the next day. During school we had graduation practice which was pretty boring. My row/homeroom called the "Teen Help Hotline" on the bracelets they distributed pretending they had real emergencies- they didn't believe us- lol!!! I drove Waxman home for last "official" time. We indeed had a good run. After I dropped him home I went out with Mike Wis for some Wegman's- then I bought paint to decorate my car. When I got home I washed my car and decorated it with phrases such as "Epic Graduation 2005"- I even included a hidden Mickey for those rowdy "Epic Spring Breakers ('05)". After that I got ready- too bad I wasn't paying much attention- I cut myself shaving pretty badly- it threw my whole routine into chaos since I had to be at school early for band. It ended up being alright though. On the way out the door I realized I didn't have my tassel. It turns out my Mom threw it out in the garbage!!! We retrieved it however and all was good.

As the scene mellowed from the chaos of my house I realized I was on the way to graduation- however it still didn't hit me- my mind told me I was graduation but it didn't feel like it in the least. I took pictures, talked a bit, and hugged those that needed to be hugged in light of such a momentous occasion. We started to line up when Mr. D called all the band members to the field to play Mars- that irked me. Anyway- Mars sounded AWFUL. Definitely not an MHS Band best performance. In fact it sounded worse than most rehearsals. Then it was time for that EPIC walk around the track '05. It did NOT feel like graduation at all- it was weird. I also couldn't hear Pomp and Circumstance since it wasn't amplified enough. Anyway- Mr. D then called AGAIN for all the Band members to play which irked me once again. We played Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful- the last two songs I will ever play with the MHS Band sans the Alumni concerts and such. Anyway- the speeches weren't so great. I got lost at the shipwreck in Matt's speech and I felt Andrew was trying to hard to get his point across and his message was lost in his efforts. Both speeches did have good messages however, the speeches themselves were a bit overly ambitious and wordy. Matt and Andrew are nice guys so it makes up for it. After the speeches it was time to make that walk to receive the "diploma"- well more like a diploma holder. They called my name and it still didn't feel like I graduated. I was kind of disappointed that no one brought a beach ball- o well. Throwing my cap up was cool but like I said- I just felt like I was going through the motions- it still hadn't hit me yet.

After Graduation I went home for dinner with the Katzanek's sans April (she was working). We catered in Jesse and David's- it was good as usual! We had some delicious cake for all 3 celebrations! Some of Matt's friends came over to see him off before he left for CA. Then the CREW came over to celebrate! I must say- April and Elissa got Justin and me amazing gifts! The thought that went into them and the creativity impressed me and I thank you both for them! Elissa made slideshows for me and Justin- both pretty much summed up the past four years and reminded me of some great times!

Anyway- I want to congratulate the MHS Class of 2005- We Did It!!! I also want to thank all of those who made High School some of the best years of my life- you know who you are! All I have left to say is- take advantage of the summer- after that it's off to college and I won't be seeing everyone everyday. so it's extremely important we make this summer GREAT- I just don't want to sit around all day- I wanna go places, do new things, etc...

As far as the website goes- it was slightly modded last night and there are more mods to come. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up and such!!! Keep a watchful eye for updates!!!

Today was the last day of "real" finals for me. I had pre-calc and western civ. I most likely failed pre-calc and I think I might have done decently well on western civ. After school I went out with the crew to Turning Point for a pretty typical crew-after-exams-lunch. I bought the new Foo Fighters CD- thus far I give it the two thumbs! When I got home I passed out for a solid 4-5 hours. I don't know why I was so tired though- it was weird. Well my grandparents are coming tomorrow for graduation on monday! Tomorrow all I have is the English final and the yearbook final so those should be pretty easy- I'm not too worried. In the car tomorrow Waxman and I are going to listen to the Beastie Boys since we listened to them on the 1st day of school- It's only right to make some type of meaningful cycle- The more things change, the more things stay the same! When exams are over we will be playing School's Out- so listen in the parking lot for it! Aside from the last day of "real" school being tomorrow- I've got work tomorrow from 5-closing (roughly 9:50) and just some relaxation to catch up on. I'm prepping myself for Graduation! I can't believe tomorrow's my last day of high school. Jillian was crying when she gave back her last textbook (Western Civ). Well I guess that's all for now- More tomorrow!

Another day of finals has passed! I had physics and gym today- I most definitely failed my physics final (no givens and diagrams on this one~lol!) and gym was a waste of time as usual. After school I went to Fuddruckers for some burgers with the boys- good times for sure! I was a lightweight as Mr. J Tick beat me out on the burger bonanza- o well. Afterwards I dropped Mr. Waxman at home and went home to get ready for work. Work wasn't too bad today- pretty standard. I did try a panini though- I give it two BIG thumbs up!!! That's all I've got for now- time to study for pre-calc and western civ. - blegghhhh

So finals started today! Woot! Well not really. I was exempt from my Band final so that was good. I've got some extra time to study for my physics exam now. I start work tonight at Salad Works at 5pm-Closiong. So that should be fun I guess. 4 more days of finals then graduation is on Monday- craziness!!! I can't believe that it's finally here! Well that's all for now- back to physics!

Newton is My Homeboy~!!!

::ArcTan Enterprise:: has officially been launched. The purpose of this diabolical website is to provide insight on the happenings of tan^-1 and to keep arctan busy by actually writing some html for once, rather then using Dreamweaver for all his sites. This is truly an arctan exclusive! Things to come: Blogspace, photo album, quotables from the MHS "All Star" faculty. Keep a keen eye on this site!