The Outer Banks

Every summer I spend at least a week in the Outer Banks which is in North Carolina. It's a long strip of land that is surrounded by ocean on one side and bay on the other. Each year the strip gets a little smaller because of storms. When a hurricane hits its usually bad news for the Outer Banks. Most people who own homes don't leave there year round. It has become a popular vacation spot, so popular that on check in and check out days (typically saturdays) during the summer you sit in traffic for hours just to get close to the realtor or the house you rent. Most of the homes are rented out by weeks to families who want to vacation there. Almost all of the houses are within walking distance of the beach and a private pool as well. The private pools are a recent trend that the new houses have built in, so in order to compete and get their house rented owner of older homes have put in pools too. The beaches are gorgeous. Not the caribbean blue water gorgeous but very clean and fine sand that doesn't hurt your feet. No one swims in the bay but they do water sports like tubing and jet skiing. Fishing and crabbing are big in the bay too. It's typical to get a sun shower during the day. It's really refreshing because it's still sunny and hot so the rain feels nice. If you get to witness a thunder storm while your there you are lucky, they are awesome. You can sit on your deck and watch the storm roll in over the ocean and see the lighting strike the sand dunes. If you ever get the chance go stay for a week. Every one is so friendly, the weather is great and it's a lot of fun.

Disney Movies

Disney movies are classics. Whenever I'm bored I still to this day can always sit down and enjoy a Disney movie. The best part is there are so many to choose from that you can never run out of movies. By the time you see them all Disney has come out with three new ones. I love all the Princess stories; Aladin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast. I don't think I can even pick a favorite out of just those. The animation movies are just the beginning. Any of the Pirates of the Caribbean are sure to entertain you. Not only is the story line good but the graphics are amazing. Any Disney blue-ray DVD is a good investment they are taking the time to digitally re-master all of the old classics to make them brighter and look like the new movies.Disneymovielist.com gives a list of the top 10 movies:

1. The Lion King
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. The Little Mermaid
4. Alladin
5. Toy Story
6. Finding Nemo
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
8. Robin Hood
9. Lady and the Tramp
10. WALL-E

I don't particularly agree with the order of this list but most of them should be on there. If I made my top 10 list it would be:

1. WALL-E
2. Finding Nemo
3. Little Mermaid
4. Cars
5. Beauty and the Beast
6. Monsters INC
7. A Goofy Movie
8. A Bug's Life
9. Hercules
10.Pocahontas


Of course every ones list would be different but these are only the animated ones. After looking through a large list of Disney movies I realize how much of a huge empire it really is and how much of an impact it has made on our culture.

Dance

I started dancing when I was five at Pinewood School of Dance. It was a huge part of my life until I graduated from HS. I took classes in all different styles; ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, pointe. My favorite was probably lyrical. It's similar to ballet but you use more modern and popular music. You don't have to be as stiff or structured eigther, I found it a lot more fun. Ballet is much stricter. It's all about discipline and really makes you work hard. You pretty much have to squeeze every muscle in your body at the same time in order to keep your balance and to control your movements so you look graceful. It may seem easy, but its not. Pointe is even harder but its a major thrill. Not many people can say they can turn around on their toes. Pointe shoes actually don't hurt as much as you'd think they would. There's a solid plaster that lines the inside of the shoe from the ball of the foot to the tips of the toes to create support. The hardest part is keeping the satin ribbons from coming untied. At the dance studio I studied we'd get in a lot of trouble if a ribbon fell out so we had to do things like hairspray the ribbons to our tights and even crazy glue them. My studio was so strict because we had a dance company. The director chose a group of girls from each age group to practice extra each week and learn a lot of dances to go to competitions with. We had to buy costumes, a certain kind of make up, certain brand of shoes, and even certain tights. It was expensive but well worth the rush of performing on stage. Our typical competition season went from January through May. But from May to December we spent every Saturday learning new dances and cleaning them to make them perfect. It was hard work but it paid off. My company won a lot of awards for the dances we performed and took home a lot of platinum and grand champion trophies. It was so much fun to be a part of and some days I wish I was still doing it.

My job

For the past year I've been working as a dental assistant in an orthodontics office. I absolutly love it and have so much fun. I work with 4 of the greatest girls ever and we are constantly laughing and talking which makes the day go by so much faster even though I think we get on the doctor's nerves a bit. He always tells us he wants quiet but he should know that hiring 4 girls won't give him any quiet at all. We usually see 40 to 50 patients a day. It sounds like a lot but it never feels like it. Even with a schedule that seems packed we still sometimes find ourselves standing around waiting for something to do. Typically I assist the doctor in putting the braces on our patients and taking them off. I also tie and un-tie the patients braces... in other words put on and take off the colors. It can be really gross sometimes because 8-16 year olds don't really know how to brush their teeth but after a while looking at the pre-chewed food doesn't even phase me anymore. I also take x-rays and do records. Records are the step the patients go through before they get their braces on. It involves x-rays, pictures of their teeth and a set of "mug shots", and impressions. Impressions are the worst, those are the molds that are taken of your teeth and they taste really nasty and make most of the patients gag. I usually have atleast one kid a day throw up next to my feet. The job sounds really gross but I absolutly love it. After I graduate from Manhattanville I'm going back to school for dental hygiene so I can become a hygeinist and I can't wait!

puppy<3

Growing up I never had a dog, actually the only pet I ever had was a fish... not that exciting. All I've ever wanted was a puppy and for my birthday my boyfriend finally gave in and got me Nikki. She is a puggle and is now about 10 weeks old. Puggles are a cross between a pug and a beagle. I am so in love with her, she's the cutest. We are working on house training her but she is doing pretty well. The hardest thing we've had to deal with is leaving her by herself a couple of days a week since I'm at school or work and Mike is at work. Our families help and let her out when they can but I'm looking forward to summer so I'll have more time to spend with her. Nikki has two sides to her. Some days shes a complete beast and runs around like a crazy dog barking like a typical beagle. Others shes calm and sleeps the whole time like pugs. I personally like her mushy pug side but she's a lot of fun to play with when she's hyper too. She is really good and stay close to us when shes outside, she usually doesn't need to be on a leash; she's scared of her own shadow so she likes to hide under my feet. I am soo happy I have her and love spending all my time with her. I wish I could bring her to school so every one could see her but I guess only the teachers get to do that :(

My 21st Birthday!

The long awaited day finally arrived. On April 5th I turned 21! I had such a great birthday weekend it's going to be hard to top. I spent Saturday picking out an outfit for that night. My boyfriend, friends and some family were going out to a bar in Danbury, CT called Molly Darcys. I hadn't been there before but my sisters and friends said it was a blast and they were right. At first it was kind of slow and there was a bunch of couples over 30 dancing and having a good time but by 11pm the "old people" disapeared and the party got started. Every weekend there is a live band and a dj. The band changes every week and the band that was playing the night I went was really good. Of course the bouncer had to joke around with me and give me a hard time saying I wasn't allowed in until midnight since I wouldn't be 21 until then, but of course he was kidding that would have been soo unfair. I spend the night dancing and of course drinking with my best friends and having the time of my life. It was a successful night I made it to see 4:30 am! 

The next night on my actual birthday I want to a hibachi restaurant in Danbury called Ichiro. Hibachi is my absolute favorite so there was no question about where I would be going for dinner that night. The chef was really entertaining and the food was amazing, I couldn't have had a better dinner. Overall it was a perfect birthday weekend and I'm excited to spend the summer legally drinking in bars.

Registration Hell

Every semester I dread registration week. The constant battle with registrar. Advisors never being available when you need them. All the classes you need being filled before its your turn. It's a nightmare. Manhattanville needs to find a new registration system and fast. Although I admit this years changes have made a little bit of a difference but that's probably only because I am an upper classman now and get an earlier registration spot. But to be a freshman or sophomore in this system must be horrible. I remember freshman year my advisor could register me at midnight the first day of registration. Whatever happened to that? A lot of my friends from other schools get to register themselves online. But somehow I feel that with our small school, and limited selection of courses each semester, online student registration would cause complete chaos.

But the added stress put on us during registration week always comes at the worst times. I don't feel we are ever given enough notice. I got the email this year on a thursday, and registration started that upcomming monday. On top of that I had papers and tests due which left no time to go through the course catalog and select the courses I need. To add even more stress I'm a psychology major and almost done with fulfilling those requirements but I have recently decided that after I graduate I'm going to go to school for dental hygeine. So along with fitting psych courses and english courses for my minor into my schedule I also had to make sure I took both Biology and Chemestry. I am completely dreading next semester. Though I am looking forward to next falls registration since I'll be one of the first groups to go and only have a couple of credits left before graduation. Can't wait!