cass is gone!

weep.
one of my best friends from home moved away today.

i guess this would be super tragic if we were still in high school and i went from seeing her every day to not seeing her at all, but it's still sad!
cass is like the center of social activity of our group at home..she's always up for going out, for cruising around with me, going to einstiens, or whatever crazy sign stealing plans we can come up with. and now she's gone! to new hampshire! stupid new hampshire.
hinsdale will never be the same.

atleast i can console myself with the fact that we made it through 4 years of different colleges, me at columbia, and her at illinois (thats like 800 miles apart!) and we're still good friends. so new hampshire can't do shit to us.

plus, she's coming back soon, and we're all road tripping it back to the east coast. so i won't be missing her the entire summer, but damn, things will be a little less fun around here without her.

cass, the best beirut partner EVER! 

pink eye.

"well your temperature is only 55 degrees, you have no pulse, no heartbeat, and your eyes are all puffy and sticky."
"oh no..you mean.."
"yes, i'm afraid the two of you have pinkeye."

ah, southpark.
but seriously. who gets pink eye?
growing up, i never knew anybody who had pink eye. and then bam! i get it in college. TWICE! who gets pink eye twice?!

anyway, yea, i woke up last week with another episode of pink eye, right before graduation, but thankfully it cleared up quite fast (like miraculously, 3 hours. those eye drops are amazing!) but apparently, i didn't use the drops long enough because it reactivated itself last night. ugh. its fine now, again. those eye drops have just about edged out ibprofun as my new favorite medicine.
but really, pink eye? what am i like, five?

in other health/medical news, i just came back from the nose doctor. he said my breathing is still messed up, and that the nose was definitely broken (duh). so he's 'highly recommending' surgery. and then he was like, oh while i'm fixing the deviation, i can also fix....this, this, this, and this. woaaah. i hadn't noticed half the things that he wanted to fix, but apparently, my nose is all crazy.
ugh, the grossest part is that he has to break the nose to put it back, but atleast if i get surgery, i'll be out and won't feel a thing.

allright, we're heading out to elgin to go visit steve's new restaurant. this should be fun!

my final week in NYC

i wish i had written about this earlier, when i remembered details more clearly. but at the time, the last thing i wanted to do was sit down at a computer and blog. but now, i'm finally home, i can finally stop go go going, and relax. and type.

i guess the big bang start of my final week was the ultimate team's EPIC party. we divided ourselves into good vs. evil, and were all dressed appropriately for the party, good in white, evil in black. it was a pretty great party..props to stoops and paul for being the most charming of the good team, dressed up in adorable white hats, and handing out white carnations to all the good team ladies. the party was a lot of drinking, a lot of dancing (especially to 'i get knocked down' because the damn cd player kept playing it over and over), and some awesome heart'n'soul playing by mara and myself (no worries, we won't be quitting our day jobs).

got up on friday morning for our final team picnic, which was lovely. i was slightly hungover, but any urges i had to run back to bed were completely obliterated by the M2M thug life wuuh-rap. i knew mara and maya were talented rappers from spring break, but GOOD LORD! this new rap was amazing, and i'm not just saying that because it was dedicated to me. (here's the lyrics, from mara's blog, but the lyrics don't really do the song justice...you really had to be there to understand the true amazingness of this rap. seriously, these girls need a record contract or something.)

saturday, i went to brooklyn with emily, which was a lot of fun. it was great to just wander around, with no specific destination or goal. there was also some senior event at the brooklyn brewery, but we kind of missed the boat for that. oh well. then, on sunday, i had breakfast with eric, and he picked up my lovely lipstick hanging plant. seriously, you better take good care of that eric...i want monthly updates! then, i went out with a bunch of civil's to harry's house in conneticut for a barbeque! it was great fun...especially the whiffle ball game that required all team players, including the pitcher and the batter, to be holding a beverage in their hands, preferably beer. yeaaa, needless to say, the batting average was quite low. the food was also superb; harry's dad turned out to be a barbeque genius! i don't know what he did to that chicken, but i haven't tasted chicken that good in a long time. (by the way, SUMMER GOAL #3: Learn how to cook)

then, there was monday. monday started off pretty bad, and i was pretty upset for most of the day. i finally figured out exactly how much in debt i was from frisbee, and realized that the people who still owed dues probably weren't going to pay (i don't know what more i could have done other than ask repeatedly..its not like i could hit them over the head with a shoe or something and force them to pay). in addition to that, my suite was starting to move out, and i had begun to dismantle my room, and it just put me in an even worse mood. nothing says, "you don't live here anymore" like taking down the pictures off your wall. the pissy mood stuck around until the seas dinner, which i arrived at still down from the day, but several (6? 7? who knows) glasses of wine soon wiped away those troubles. and then the champagne recepetion, with the GIANT chocolate covered strawberries! i can see why people become alcoholics; after that much wine, i couldn't even remember why i had been upset earlier.

after the dinner, i then decided to greet my family, who had just arrived. i had warned them i would be a little bit drunk, but i don't think they were quite prepared for it. i picked up my brother, and we met up with the rest of the civils at the west end. hung out there for a while, and then when people left to go to the senior toast, we went to lions head to meet up with frisbee people, where we had our own senior toast, perhaps an hour or two late.

needless to say, when tuesday came around, i was majorly hungover. our class day wasn't until 1.30pm, but even that late in the day, i was still suffering. i tried to enjoy the beautiful surroundings, columbia all decked out in its graduation glory, us engineering graduates all dressed up in our blue caps and gowns, and the gorgeous weather, but honestly, all i wanted to do was jump back into bed and sleep forever.

and now,
to be continued....because i don't really feel like writing anymore.

the civils, after the seas dinner (ie. REALLY DRUNK) 

good vs. evil. DANCE PARTY 

good vs. evil. nicki's got headbanging hair! 

good vs. evil. i just love this picture.  

Last Post...

at columbia.
for a while anyway.

so much has happened in the past week, and i want to write it all down at some point, atleast for my own sake, so i can go back and read it all years down the road and remember what a great week this was.

but can't write much now, as i'm getting kicked out of housing. i'm already half an hour beyond the check-out time. i hope they don't really mind....

DONE.

as in 4 years done.
wow.

REGIONALS TEAM '05 

mara and i, stretching. although mara might be pretending, this is actually my full out stretch. i am not flexible. and this was often a source of comedy at practices, especially for ben. "GOOD LORD GAINEY! STRETCH!" 

last dinner with the coaches. 

regionals weekend

wow.
as mara and were chatting about earlier, this weekend is incredibly hard to blog about. how do you put into words the things that have happened and the things that have ended in this past weekend?

actually, it might be impossible.
but i'll try.


well first of all. friday, i finished my paper. that was rough, but i finished earlier than i expected, probably because i actually was short 500 words on the assignment, but i figured, hey, after he's read 10 pages, he's probably lost count, and i also opted to omit page numbers from the paper, so maybe he won't notice...

on friday evening, we had our pre-regionals team dinner, which i somehow managed to stay awake and alert for, after only four hours of sleep the previous night. mara made her fabulous sauce, and eliza brought homemade cupcakes. sometimes i wish i could cook...and sometimes i even get the urge, but that quickly disappears when i see my grill cheese maker, or a box of cereal. i'm just too lazy to cook.

anyway, we also established our good and evil teams friday evening; i am number 2 good! i don't think i would have voted myself this high, but, hey, i'll take it.
and yea, the good team might lose miserably in any drinking competitions at the good vs. evil party, but we will destroy the evil team in a dance-off....come on, maya, tricia, mara, and jen..unstoppable!
"matty! it's thriller!"

right, so, saturday. REGIONALS! it was a fun day, our team played well, but not amazingly well or anything. we did go 2-2 for the day, and we did beat the number 6 seed (we were seeded 12)...to which the TD replied, "WOW...you guys are having a good day." but personally, i think my playing was off..i kept turfing throws or messing up really short ones. however, our team held it together, especially in the third game against pitt when we were down 4-0. that was a fun game. i guess its always fun to comeback and win, eh?

but our last game, the swat game, started off really bad. AND some girl pummeled me when we both went up for a disc...somehow she managed to strike my knee with something..a foot, her knee? who knows, but let me tell you, that was probably the most excrutiating pain i have EVER felt. it was if someone took a metal bar and hit my knee area as hard as they could. at first, when i was writhing on the ground, i thought i had actually broken a bone in my leg. but after a couple seconds, i realized it was just the shear force that was causing the pain. its finally starting to bruise now, but i still don't really know whats wrong with it, cause it will randomly shoot pain down my leg when i pivot or shift directions. however, as knee injuries go, its nothing to worry about, and i'm quite happy about that.

anyway, the rest of the swat game got better, especially after we threw zone. the super cup, nicki, kelsey and eliza started causing all sorts of trouble. although we still lost the game, we did come back from like 6-0 to 15-9. not too bad. all in all, it was a pretty decent day of ultimate.

it was also my last day of columbia ultimate.
weep. this actually hasn't set in yet, but i'm glad that we didn't do that circle after regionals, because i'm pretty sure i would have been crying uncontrollably, and i don't cry! i workout!

today was also the last day i'll probably see our coaches, for a while atleast. mara and i ran around all day creating a beautiful picture frame for each of them..i hope they liked it as much as they said they did, because we put alot of work in to those things..including taking self portraits of ourselves! we had a nice dinner at the cottage, and then we said our goodbyes. i am really going to miss these two. ben and eugene together...GOOD LORD. they were hysterical, and to be in the company of their amazing dynamic was just unreal. we certainly got lucky with these boys as coaches; they connected so well with our team, and i think they really helped alot of us improve, especially the rookies.

and once again, the reality hasn't set in; it still feels like that, come monday, they're gonna up at baker waiting for us at practice.

the week of extremes

it's so much fun, combined with so much pain, all wrapped up into 7 days.

sunday:
the start of pain. a 14 hour session in mudd working on our large scale buildings project. seriously, by the end of it, i was so delerious, i couldn't spell architect for the life of me.

monday:
more pain, until our large scale presentation at 4. we had been working all semester on designing this new york times buidling, and it was finally over. what a great feeling. and our presentation went well. perhaps it was the fact that we were the last group to present, and the guest representatives of the companies were too tired to grill us as they had the other groups, but i still think we had a good design and presentation.

and then,after the presentation..finally some fun!
the college kids had their senior dinner, and didn't invite us SEAS kids, but whatever, we had our own, super-awkward, lerner pub with the barnard girls. but i did finally get to meet up with people at west end, and had a good time.

not too good of a time, though, because on
tuesday:
well, today, duh. i have actually sat down at the library and begun to write my 17 page paper due on friday. this paper is going to be what comprises most of the pain of my week. first of all, its 17 pages. the longest paper i ever wrote was my death-penalty research paper in high school, and that was only 15 pages, and was filled with lots of lengthy quotes. second of all, this architecture paper is on a topic i have no initial knowledge of, and can't really bullshit. i really don't even understand the question because it is worded with so many vague architecture terms. so this should be intersting. but hey, i have 173 words out of 4,000. good start. i thought i should blog to celebrate.

oh but tonight! thats when the best event EVER happens...the civil department dinner. last year, i was just an unsuspecting junior, who had no idea how much fun it was to get drunk with all your classmates and your professors. and this year, they've added a COCKTAIL HOUR...as if bottomless wine at dinner wasn't enough to get us all drunk. oh its going to be so great.

and,
wednesday:
hmm, lets see. well i'm assuming i'll start out this day with a major hangover, so there goes wednesday morning. but hopefully, i'll make some headway on this damn paper. also have to finish the report and preliminary presentation for the senior design manhattanville project. uhhhh. shit.

thursday:
paper. pain.

friday:
paper. more exteme pain.

the weekend:
REGIONALS!
i'm really looking forward to playing. its most likely our last tournament of the year (unless we pull major upsets...yea!), and i think all the girls are going (our whole team together! finally! it will be the first tournament all year together!), and the boys are going, and we get a bus. it's gonna be a lot of fun.

allright. thats my week, all blogged out.

p.s. there are some annoying people in the library. seriously, why do you sit down right next to me when there are like fifty million open spaces? and she's chewing loudly with her mouth open. ugh. guess its time for music.