Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Ah, to be young and in love...


As I had previously said, my sister is engaged! This past Sunday, she and Warren made dinner for us at her apartment. Through the rain and odd smells, we made the car ride to Manhattan for a mouth-watering dinner. She made us breaded chicken...or maybe they were canaries? I don't know for sure because the chicken pieces she bought for us at Trader Joe’s were big so it was like we each had our own bird. They were delicious and I was super happy when I saw she made extra. One word came to mind; seconds! She also made eggplant parmesan. Rachel is a really excellent cook. This was not the case when she was in high school. Back then, I was the potentially good cook. The roles have completely reversed and now...I can barely make rice. It is sad...but true. I will learn again though. We provided this dinner party with dessert. My mom made a chocolate tree shaped cake with a new frosting recipe. So good! We brought our Christmas cookie spread along with us.

 While we were there, we took some photos of Rachel and Warren and the ring! I love her ring to death. It's purple topaz. Topaz is her birthstone. It has two small diamonds on the side, but the ring suits my sister. She is the least materialistic person I know. Diamonds are not a priority for her. They aren't really a priority for me either, but I will never turn them down. If my future husband is out there and reading this, then wipe the sweat off your brow because I will be happy as long as the ring is real.





I am just glad that my sister is happy. It is weird for me because she isn't just dating this guy anymore. This is the man she is going to be with for the rest of her life. When she leaves her house (apartment), he will be there. When she comes home, he will be there. He will be there every day, all day. It just feels unreal that my sister is getting married. They are looking at September 2016 as their wedding range. I think that sounds good to me...not that my opinion actually has any impact, but I'm just saying. It is good because then there will only be one person in school. I graduate in 2015. Gabrielle and Jonathan graduate 2016; her from Manhattanville and he graduates from Chaminade. Rachel will be graduating with her Master’s degree that same year. I think a wedding that year will be exciting! I was joking with my grandmother that she better start saving her pennies for gifts that year. A wedding and a high school graduation and he needs a laptop for school? My Nonna has bought us all of our laptops. When someone heads to college, she supplies that person with a laptop. We always get to choose the one we want, reasonably priced, of course.

2014 is going to be so much fun because these two will start making wedding plans. Since it is my sister and we are sort of close I guess, I will have a front row seat to what planning a wedding looks like. I have my shield and sword ready in case I meet any dragons along the way. It’s always the sweet, non-materialistic ones…if you know what I mean. 

My Christmas Story

Things have been so crazy here in West Hempstead between long work hours, Christmas preparations, and Engagements; it’s like a fun house. I came home from school only two weeks ago and I have not really had a whole day for just myself. That Wednesday, I wrapped gifts and went on a last minute shopping trip. Thursday and Friday of that week were long works days for me. I was back at my internship with Brussels Airlines and I felt like I had never left. I was doing mostly the same tasks as I had over the summer: debit memos, ARC reconciliation spreadsheets, and sending FedEx’s. On that Thursday, everyone was in the office: John, Margareta, Olivier and even Dave for a short time. It was nice that I got to have coffee with them before the holidays. My mom and I left so late from work that night that we stopped and had Subway for dinner. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Subway and I could eat it every day, but my mom is not the biggest fan and I felt bad that that’s what our dinner was. She seemed to enjoy her sandwich though. See, the thing about going to Subway is that when you have a teenage brother that is always hungry and he happens to love Subway, you cannot just go there and get nothing for him. So even he had Subway for dinner that night.

Even though it was night the night before Christmas Eve, as we closed up the office on Friday evening for Christmas vacation, I played “One More Sleep Till Christmas” from Muppet’s Christmas Carol. That is one of my family’s favorite holiday movies. The days until Christmas Eve counted down as we worked as hard as we possibly could to have everything ready. On Saturday we put up the tree. It was quite the family affair. We played our Christmas music, had our normal spats occur around the project and ended the night with a delicious dinner of Chinese food; one of my personal favorites. It was a long day that Saturday. As soon as that tree was up and decorated and the floor was vacuumed, I took a shower and got into bed. Zzzzzzz…

Sunday night we wrapped Christmas gifts as we watched our classic FHE holiday films: Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Santa Clause is Coming to Town. Monday night was the home stretch. We had one more thing to do in preparation for Christmas Eve; baking cookies. We made three kinds: Hot Chocolate Snow balls, Spritz cookies, and cut-out cookies. The cut-out cookies are a tradition long before my time in the Fidis house. Every year, my mom makes the dough and we all make a tray of our very own personally decorated cut-out Christmas cookies. We have so many different cookie cutters from over the years: trees, stockings, teddy bears, stars, wreaths, trains, lighthouses, candle sticks, snowflakes and so many more.

Well, this year, cookie day was a day of celebration as well. My older sister, Rachel, came home for
Christmas break. Later that night I had taken a shower and put on my pajamas, my mom says that Warren (her boyfriend) is coming over for dinner. I thought that it was weird he was coming to our house for dinner rather than home to his family since it was kind of late. We have dinner, Boston Market, and Rachel tells us not to scurry off because she has news. She pulls out a black ring box and tells us that Warren asked her to marry him and SHE SAID YES!!!!! I always knew this day would come soon. I had a sneaking suspicion it was coming because for that entire week, I was hooked on one song out of all the songs on my ipod; “Marry Me” by Jason Derulo. Perhaps, it was a sign of the coming news. I am really happy for them. Warren has been a part of the family since that very first Memorial Day BBQ he attended two years ago. Maybe I started seeing him as family when Rachel brought him to the Patent Pending concert we attended together. Either way, I am really glad it is Warren that she is marrying. Although, he is like the older brother I never wanted (just kidding…but really though), I love him all the same.
Christmas Eve, finally! The day starts with our traditional struffoli baking or should I say frying at my Aunt Mary Anne’s house. We do this every year and I am pretty sure it has been that way since the dawn of mankind. It is an event filled with laughter, dough balls and heckling. See, the thing about Struffoli day is that my Uncle Michael is the fryer and quality control manager of our little struffoli making “business”. He tells us when we are cutting them too small or too large. This year, we had some interesting sizes. We had Frito and popcorn chicken sized pieces which obviously would not work. All hands were on deck this year. Normally, we have some people on stand-by because work is not their forte. This actually really helped to speed up the process and for that, I am sure, my mother is grateful.

Struffoli. Check. After that, we head back home and put the finishing touches on the house and start cooking. In Italian tradition, on Christmas Eve, you eat seven different types of fish in representation of the seven sacraments. We have fried eel, salmon, calamari, squid salad, baccala, shrimp cocktail and linguini with clam sauce. I am not a fish eater so my cocktail was carrots and celery with ranch dressing. My linguini with clam sauce was buttered spaghetti with cheese covering it like the snow on Mount Everest. Coffee, desserts and an hour later and we are getting our coats on for church. Midnight Mass is my favorite mass to go to. Why, because it is short and sweet at St. Thomas the Apostle. The priest gives us what my family and I like to call the bum’s rush. It’s like he is desperate to get to bed. This year we clocked the mass at 45 minutes. I was home, in pajamas and teeth brushed by 1:45 in the morning.

Christmas day, I got everything I wanted and some things that I did not exactly deserve. I will go more into detail about that later, but I just want to say that Christmas was amazing for me this year. It treated me better than I treated it because I know that I have lost the meaning of Christmas over the years. I just hope that one day I can find it again. Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

3.4 and Rising!

Let me just preface this with my testament that this past semester was the most difficult and challenging one out of all of my Albertus years. I was so nervous about what my grades would look like. I have to admit that I did not do my best work and I missed some classes here or there. When my grades were posted online, I was nervous. I finally bit the bullet and took a moment to look at my grades for the fall semester of my junior year and you will never believe what I saw! Somehow, some way, I managed to pull nothing lower than a “B” for the 5th semester in a row and I am pretty sure I will be on the Dean’s list once again!

Can I just pat myself on the back? Well…I did. I hope that many other people had smiles the size of mine when they looked at their report cards. Yes, I do still call it a report card because that is essentially what it is, but it is online and not mailed to your house. Well, regardless of how my grades arrive, it will always be the best early Christmas gift I will ever get.

Now, I can just focus on relaxing for the next two weeks before I head back to campus for my winter class; The War Films with Professor Ron Waite. It should be fun because there are some war films I am interested in, and all of my friends are taking the class with me; the perk of being an RA!

Over the break, I anticipate lots of reading time, maybe some movies, hopefully (fingers crossed) playing some more Uncharted on my new PS3 that I hope to get for Christmas…maybe, and definitely lots of family time. My brother wants me to play Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag with him. It is the newest game in the series and he is convinced that since I am such a HUGE Uncharted fan that I will enjoy Assassin’s Creed because they are similar. I will have to update on how that goes. I have a feeling I blew my chance for a PS3 for Christmas because of two problems; I beat games 1 & 3 of Uncharted with my friend Ricky and my family does not really have that much money so it is kind of crazy to ask them for such an expensive gift. My back-up plan is to save up and buy it for myself; games and all! I asked for it because I have had the same game system since the 7th grade. My siblings and I share a PS2, but two Christmases ago, my little brother received an XBOX 360 which essentially costs the same thing…except we had a little more money back then. Not much…but a little more money.

Whatever I get for Christmas, I know, that I will love it just the same as I would have a PlayStation 3. My family always manages to get me really nice stuff and I have always ended up more than happy.

Merry Christmas to all who read my blog! I wish you and your families all the best. Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Christmas Time is Here


Here we are; first day of my vacation and I have been put to work. Don't get me wrong; this is my favorite job to perform all year; wrapping Christmas presents! 

This never used to be my job. Until I was about 13, this was my older sister’s gig. She would come over for a night of wrapping and Christmas tunes with my Nonna. When I found out that she was cooked my favorite meal (breaded chicken and soup) as part of the wrapping party, I jumped onto that train. Nonna and Rachel taught me everything I know about gift-wrapping. Now, I am the go to wrapper for every occasion. She taught me the precision in sizing and cutting the paper, decorating it with ribbons and bows and placing the label in a nice spot. My grandma taught the method that uses practically the whole role of tape on one box, but it gets the job done. Now, I can be considered the pro-wrapper. I come home from school and help her every year and I would not have it any other way.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

That's a Wrap!

It's finally happened! That time of the year is finally upon me! I have completed all of my finals. The papers are all written, tests have been taken and eportfolio pages have been submitted. Today, I will celebrate the end of my final exams by sleeping, drinking tea, reading and watching the snow fall. I never thought that I would see the end of this semester because it has been the longest and most painful semester ever. There were so many papers for me to write. There were days where I felt like my homework was going to take me hostage and hold me for a ransom. It was a little dicey for a while.

With the end of finals, comes the waiting period. I have to wait a whole week for my grades to come out on the portal. That's tomorrow's problem though. Let's not worry about that for now.

I just have to write about this because it was a monumental moment for me and my college experiences here at Albertus. On December 6th, 2013, I attended my very first Winter Wonder formal here at school. It was so pretty! This year's theme was Great Gatsby. The halls were lined with banners that had quotes from the Great Gatsby on them. There was a fully decorated tree with presents underneath it. At the check in table, you were given either a pink or orange ticket. The pink was for everyone under 21 years old. Those people, including me, were given a glass of sparkling apple cider in place of the champagne. Next year, I will get a 21 years and older ticket!  (I'm getting so old.) The actual dance was inside the BCR in the campus center. They had trees lining the whole room. There were tables with little lights on it that you could sit and leave your belongings at. The music was pretty good. DJ Bryan had some good mash-up songs from popular artists. It made me want to get up and dance...but I didn't.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Where to Begin?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am excited that I only have fourteen days left to this semester! Can you believe it? This break is going to be so amazing for me. Today, I hand in the first of my five finals; my creative writing portfolio. I am pretty pleased with the work I have done for this class. Creative Writing seminar with Dr. Cole is a blast and I recommend that you all take it. She has helped me to improve and work on my writing even when I feel my worst about a piece. I definitely want to take it again if I can. 

This is my last week of real school work and I don't know about the rest of you, but I plan to use these last days wisely. Tomorrow is Ethics day! That final is to answer three questions in essay format. It's so easy! Besides that, I have two papers, one open book exam and a portfolio of poetry that I handed in earlier today. Cross that off the list I suppose! Tonight, I will actually get to go to bed early! I am so excited! That means more time to read before I go to sleep and start the process all over again tomorrow. 

TTFN...ta ta for now!