Brittney Has Something To Say » Spring Break

Spring Break

Brittney — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:43:16 +0000

I suppose you’re looking for a Vegas recap, eh? (That question was posed mostly for my grandparents– all of my Facebook friends were subjected to updates and cell phone pics the entire week. Gotta love them smart phones.) In short, it was awesome, obviously. For a bit more depth, I suppose I could go into how I refuse to ever get in a car again if I’ll be traveling more than four hours away. I could tell you how great– kinda awkward at first, but great– it was to see Darin (best friend from my study abroad program who lives in Colorado, remember?) again and how amazing the pizza was at the local place he took us to. If you were wondering, it’s called Home Slice in Durango, CO. I could tell you how fabulous Thunder from Down Under was, but I feel that’s one of those “What happens in Vegas…” things. Having the roomies there was surprisingly fun– I don’t mean that in a bitchy way, I mean there are few people I could go on vacation with and not completely despise afterward, and thankfully they made the list. (So did NPH, but if nothing else, 50+ hours in a car with him only more solidified his awesomeness.) I’m also surprisingly sane for sitting alone in my apartment– sleeping, recently bathed basset sleeping on the couch behind me not included– on the last night of my very last Spring Break ever, catching up on homework, brushing up for an internship interview tomorrow, not all that concerned that there are only eight weeks before BLAM-O real life. Oh, speaking of aforementioned hound, apparently he was an absolute shithead (sorry, but that’s really the only way to describe it) for my parents when they watched him all week. An adorable one, but pretty misbehaved nonetheless. I do have to give them props, he seems to have taken some disciplinary lessons to heart, though he may still just be exhausted from having 12 acres to himself for six days. I shall leave you now with some photos since my brilliant literary descriptions could never be enough.

There was a LOT of this.

Glorious. The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time.

You can take the girl outta Germany...

Yes, after that much time spent together, we're still speaking to each other.

And finally, perhaps the most important part of the whole trip! DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN GET PICKLES ON YOUR IN-N-OUT BURGER?! I've died.

Things I’ve Learned On Vacation

Brittney — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:13:36 +0000

Having survived the 27 hour drive to Vegas, I’ve now had the chance to enjoy my Spring Break destination for three nights (because in Sin City no one’s awake during the day anyway, right?) and learn a few things about myself along the way.

-I am a morning person. Ok, so this realization has been brewing for several weeks & the two hour time difference probably helps, but I have been up with the sun every day since leaving home. This also means staying up until even midnight is a challenge, much to the chagrin of my travel companions.

-I’m not a sit by the pool and relax type of vacationer. I prefer to be doing something, even when I am sitting poolside. I may have brought my laptop outside with me to search for wireless to send something to my editor. Yes, I felt like a tool and was being far too self important, but even on Spring Break there’s deadlines and jobs to search for (anxiety much? Perhaps.)

-You can get pickles on In-n-Out burgers, upping the already insane delicious factor. Also, their fries really aren’t that great and should be skipped so as to not detract from the cheeseburger-y awesomeness.

-Vegas is different when you’re the one paying
for it. Shout out to my father, he’s always taken great care of all of us on vacation. Traveling as a group of college students facing the brink of unemployment is a whole different ballgame, however, making me more thankful for the nicer vacations I’ve had and weary about my financial future when paired with my wanderlust.

-Flats are better than heels when you gotta do anything besides sit around and look pretty. Or perhaps this post could be titled “Brittney Goes to Vegas and Realizes She’s Become an Old Person.” I promise my next bullet point will not be how I’ve discovered the joys of eating dinner before 5 pm.

That’s actually gonna be it due to fear of hand cancer from holding my Droid for so long. If this post is rife with spelling errors or errant punctuation, blame it on big thumbs typing on a tiny touchscreen.

So it begins

Brittney — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:52:19 +0000

I suppose it had to happen sometime. Honestly, I was expecting it long before this, but it still blindsided me nonetheless: the graduation freak out. I completely blame Spring Break for this (and the fact that the shorts I wore often in Vegas in June won’t, um, be packed for this trip) because I finally did some math and realized that when we return from the magical land of neon, In-n-Out, and yard-a margaritas, there will be only eight weeks left until the end of the semester. To be fair, our lease isn’t up until the first of August and the job I have will gladly keep me until then, but still. To prove your grown up-ness, you’re really supposed to have a job waiting to greet you on the other side of the stage. Well, the proverbial stage. I will not be walking across the literal one for a bevy of reasons, only one of those being that we have to be at the ceremony at 8:15 a.m. Oh and that they’ll be reading like 4,000 names. After some speeches. And a lot of picture taking. Yikes.

ANYWAY– back to my life revelations– I was in my room, throwing WAY too many clothes and shoes for a one week trip (no, I won’t tell you how many pairs I’m taking) into a giant suitcase, listening to some Kanye, then Gaga, then slowing it down with some Coldplay and Smashing Pumpkins. All irrelevant, but scene-setting, go with it. I don’t know what sparked this pity party, but all of a sudden I start thinking of good-byes and one of Neil’s roommates going to San Francisco for the summer and wait, I won’t be in ‘Frisco for the summer, which means we’ll be apart, which means none of us will know what to do because if there’s a walking definition of “codependent,” it’s me and them 713ers. Well, some of ‘em. My brain is a terribly anxious place to live. What are NPH and I to do when we both get fabulous job offers in two very different places? Fergus likes me far better, though I’m much less patient with him than Neil. Is there some sort of canine custody agreement we’ll have to enter into since ever living anywhere but Iowa City didn’t seem to cross our minds when making quite a snap puppy decision in Petland?! (Actually, Neil did think of that before we got him. I’m taking the dog. Cat’s, er, puppy’s outta the bag.) Yeah, yeah, I realize everything will be fine and this stuff happens to everyone all the time and that a public blog is probably the last place I need to be airing these very self-centered grievances, but alas, here I am. It’s probably not going to get much better from here and will in fact get much worse. Probably tears will be involved, yikes. Thankfully boot camp will be over so I can resume my Thursday night drinking. And Tuesday and Sunday. That was a joke, Mother.

Ho-Hum

Brittney — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:42:59 +0000

I know it’s time to blog when my grandmother texts me, “How’s NPH and Fergus?” To answer her question, they’re both fabulous. One is currently all wet and sleeping in a furry ball next to me, the other is at work. I’ll let you determine which is which. In an attempt to put off all homework this week until the very last possible second, I’m watching reruns of “Sex and the City” (the Alexsander/ Paris episodes are so painful) and dreaming of the 75 degree weather and lack of sobriety I’ll be enjoying in Vegas over Spring Break next week. Tired isn’t really a word in my vocabulary any longer, it’s more of a lifestyle. Tomorrow is the second to last day of bootcamp, something I’ve almost started to look forward to save for my alarm set for 6:15 am three times a week. I’ve been applying to jobs (well, more internships) like crazy over the past couple days. NPH isn’t so sure about the grad school route right after graduation, so he’s been joining me in this lovely circus we call the job hunt. He had a phone interview today though, the lucky (deserving) bastard, so he will soooo be picking up the check for a while until some sort of HR manager decides to acknowledge that I do, in fact, have a brain and slightly credible resume. I hate to give random updates and run, but I’ve got two deadlines looming for the same story– different spins– that should have been done hours, if not days, ago. Such is my glamorous life (and yes, I did just recite that damn Fergie song to spell glamorous correctly. I resent that.)

Trolls & Meat

Brittney — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:08:22 +0000

Someone found my blog by Googling “how long til adam richman gets a heart attack.” While humorous, I hope the answer is a very long time from now, or that he steps away from the eating challenges before then because I think he’s kinda cute in that lovable oaf kinda way, and Lord knows I’ve always had a thing for dark hair.

After reviewing yesterday’s post, I realized I had COMPLETELY forgotten to share with you my FAVORITE part of the trip (thus all the capitalization): MY NEW HAT.

Such a gem. So warm and…. Miller Lite-y. I wore it during a 30-second Aldi trip yesterday, and you can best bet there were a few um, glances. NPH posed a great question yesterday when, 20 minutes outside of Iowa City and over four hours into what was starting to seem like the longest car trip of my life, he asked, “How are you going to survive when we drive for 12 hours at a time going to Vegas?” Egads. My answer is that of course I won’t actually survive and he’ll have to dump my lifeless body somewhere in Durango, Colorado for D-Bag to find, since visiting him is the only reason I’m subjecting myself to the confines of a vehicle instead of a cushy less-than-three-hour flight.
In all seriousness, I did enjoy the road-tripping part of our Milwaukee trip sometimes almost as much as the actual exploring the city part (a stretch of the truth, but follow me.) We weren’t really on a time crunch to get back, so getting lost in Madison twice wasn’t really a problem, and we were able to stop off in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin– the troll capital of the world. No seriously, that’s their town motto. Their website is Trollway.com (why the town isn’t just called Trollway, we may never know.) Obviously we had to stop, only to find out that this place thinks it’s somewhere in England because every intersection is a roundabout. They had a McDonalds so we stopped for a sweet treat (ice cream cone for her, Oreo McFlurry for him) and were baffled because I drove right past the window to pay because it was on some diagonal hidden corner of the building. The guy in the window had to shout out for me to reverse and make another attempt because OH WAIT I’m sorry, I’ve never been to a freaky diagonal Mickey D’s before. Silly trolls.
Road trips are also that magical place when you find out weird things about the person you’re traveling with, such as NPH’s complete– do I wanna say obsession here? Perhaps just love– love for Culver’s. Yeah, that Culver’s, the restaurant with the Butter Burgers. Is the part where I say ew? But sometimes we take one for the team to make our loved ones happy, so you better believe we stopped for lunch on the way back so someone could cure that Culver’s craving. In defense of his arteries, there’s no Culver’s in the Iowa City or Chicago areas, so the only time he can get it is perhaps twice a year when he ventures away from those places.

SO– to end what has become a sort of Saturday morning ramble sesh, I will answer the question probably burning in all your brains since bacon ended up in my Bloody Mary: I’ve abandoned the whole vegetarian thing. Why? Well, in a simple answer, I do like meat. Sometimes. Still not a lot, but I did find it much harder to be a veg in certain situations. I will still always pick a veggie burger over a real one because somehow Morningstar Farms has managed to find heaven and pack it into their chipotle black bean burgers. Also, not to completely rip off Marie, but I LIKE VEGETABLES!!! Also, the doctor says my iron and protein levels are low. I realize I can take supplements for that, but I could also just pick up some meat sometimes. Because there are two things I’m going to get in Vegas over Spring Break besides obliterated: In-n-Out Burger and a turkey reuben from Canter’s. And yes, I mostly posted this confession for my two vegetarian roommates who I’ve been pretty scared to come out of the meat-eating closet to because well, they can be vicious. You shoulda seen the way Rachael attacked the Wii when our marathon session of Say Yes to the Dress stopped streaming on Netflix. Ruthless, I tell you.

Spring Break

Brittney — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:03:11 +0000

Long before dawn, I woke up this morning to work a very early event for my internship. I’d already been up for 12 hours when I got home at 3 p.m.– needless to say my head hurts a bit from being so tired. This past weekend was the last time I’ll be able to go to Iowa City this month, which is probably best for my car, body, sanity, wallet, etc. It seems whenever I go, I assault my body with an insanely shiteous eating, drinking, and sleeping schedule, leaving me in recovery mode until the next weekend when the cycle repeats itself. Not exactly the best lifestyle for a working girl like myself, not to mention one who needs to step up her training for a half marathon (which is in four months. No, I haven’t forgotten. No, I’m not running as much as I should be. When I do, yes I still love it. I think about it every day before going to work/ after collapsing from exhaustion after work. Move your ass, Brittney.)

March will be my final Spring Break– the big one, the one as a senior, the one where I’m finally 21 (which is the BEST. AGE. EVER. in case you were wondering.) As such, much planning needs to go into it and thankfully NPH has devised one amazing road trip destination: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. (My parents think I’ve been huffing paint for choosing Florida anytime near Spring Break, but they apparently don’t realize it’s the HARRY POTTER books only in REAL LIFE.) The best part of this plan is that by driving, we’ll have unlimited access to amazing southern barbecue joints that will probably be the largest slice of my Spring Break budget pie chart. Though, if you know me even a little, this is still in the OhmygodI’msoexcited phase in which I’ve found myself far too many times, only to never have the plans actually pan out. But only this time it’s Harry Potter and magic will be involved.

Vegas Baby

Brittney — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:37:55 +0000

My alarm will go off in six short hours, but I’m much too excited about the Harry Potter theme park-centered Spring Break road trip I’ve decided to go on to get any sleep. As NPH pointed out, there will be many great hole-in-the-wall barbecue joints between here and Orlando. I need to start breaking my paycheck down into Rent/ Booze/ Spring Break. Apparently I should also be saving heavily for life post-college, but I don’t see much room for that in the aforementioned list.

Yes, this post is evidence that I did indeed survive my weekend of post-21st birthday celebrations in Las Vegas. A grand time was had by all, save for perhaps our livers and wallets. I gambled for the first time in my life, perhaps $4 total into penny slot machines, and made not a cent of it back. Our flight from Omaha to Vegas on Thursday afternoon was delayed three hours due to a broken hydraulics system in the plane just before take-off. While we were less than thrilled, Southwest then provided free booze when we finally were airborne– not a bad deal at all. Unfortunately we began to think we were slightly jinxed when our limo tour around town also went kaput (thankfully on an exit ramp) and a few other transportation-related annoyances that are now a bit hazy to recap. Clearly we didn’t let any of that stop us and made it to IN-N-OUT BURGER, the super swank nightclub Tryst in the Wynn, Fremont Street, the hotel pool, THE HOFBRAUHAUS, and the Hard Rock Hotel bar a few more times than you might have thought possible. One of my friends in my program while in Germany lives in Vegas and was able to meet us at the Hofbrauhaus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <–that’s how I excited I was. We had the best time, and the menu was surprisingly authentic, though the music was not (“Sweet Home Alabama” isn’t exactly a crowd favorite in Deutschland.) NPH loved the German beer and my favorite mustard so I guess I’ll keep him around for a while. I’ve been trying not to think about how it’s only been a month since I’ve been back because it feels like a lifetime ago, and sometimes I have dreams where D-bag’s in ‘em or I’m speaking in German and I get very sad.

OVERALL, Vegas = giant success. I’m both pants-pissing excited and a bit fearful of future roomie Lauren living there after graduation; I’ve been there three times in as many years and don’t see any reason to discontinue the trend. Perhaps I’ll branch out from getting sickeningly stuffed on Canter Deli’s turkey reuben every time I go (not likely) or stay at the Paris on my next visit so breakfast can come from their bakery case every morning (has to happen.) Hopefully the bartenders at the Hard Rock don’t have that quick of a turn around rate since I’m now on first name basis with a few (shout-out to Greg and Joe, and yes, I’m name-dropping.) While I’m still love love loving my internship, the next countdown is now set for Lollapalooza: I’ll be seeing Lady Gaga in exactly two months.