I Love University Avenue

Well it's been quite a while since I've posted and as I've started out entries before, a lot has changed. Is it normal that every few months I seem to be saying that? If I recall correctly, a lot had changed for the better and the same is true today.

The end of Spring semester of my Junior (YIKES!) year was a whirlwind, but an amazing one. Since my first semester on campus I have debated whether or not I would run for a fraternity sweetheart. Freshman year I decided it wasn't appropriate given my relationship circumstances and this past fall, which is sort of a blur year because I managed to be a Sophomore and a Junior simultaneously, I really didn't know what I wanted. Long story short sometime over spring break I woke up knowing with every bone in my body that I needed to run for the ΣAE sweetheart. I'm not sure why the answer to these big questions just seem to come to me at the most random times, but for whatever reason they do and the results always seem to be great.

After a grueling Paddy Murphy week, I came out with a house full of 70-some gentlemen who are always there for me, are always looking to have a good time and have become my best friends. In high school, I had phenomenal guy friends and until recently I have really felt that that was missing for me in college. As of now, life feels pretty much complete.

I'm living on campus this summer in a fraternity which is an experience I will always remember. Our room is spacious enough and has a wonderful vantage point looking right out onto University Ave. I love it. Even when I hear brawls at 3 am, eardrum rupturing bass coming from the beater at the stoplight or the sounds of drunk people coming up to my window I can't help but smile. I love the sounds of the city and campus and I wouldn't trade my noisy post for anything. It doesn't hurt that I'm living here with two of my favorite people. I mean Kar and I have lived together for 2 years at this point and instead of getting sick of each other, I think we find ourselves wondering more what we'd be doing if we didn't live together. Alicia is our little ray of sunshine and our Blarney Gal always looking to have a good time with her D Chi boys.

I am feeling so settled which is something I haven't allowed myself to feel since high school. I feel great about my relationships both with friends and family, my relationship with myself and my body, and my purpose in life. I have learned to enjoy the little things like rocking out to my 70's playlist while watching out over the street and witnessing things no one expected to be seen doing or taking the bus to meet my young hot professional older sister at the Mill City farmer's market. I'm so proud of her.

More than anything I have learned what to really value in life. I don't value money, or what it can get me. I've learned that true happiness comes from being surrounded by those that you love and loving those who surround you.

Today is a beautiful day and I plan on going for my daily speed walk and basking in the sun the whole way. Right now as I sit here, Oh, What a Night by Billy Joel just came up on my iTunes and the bubbly pop sounds makes me laugh.

Stay posted because I think I'm going to try and pick this up :)

Love to all,

Kate

Erin Go Bragh

Hello all,

Well I feel as though this blog has really just turned into my sounding board when I really feel like I need to post.

Reflecting on the last year of my life, I feel as though I have really been on a journey.

I went from thinking I knew exactly where my life was going and being absolutely thrilled with the direction I was taking, to having absolutely no clue and being even more excited about that.

Over the course of the year, I have felt real loss. The loss of my first love, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of my other half to Northern Ireland... The list goes on.

Despite all this, I feel the happiest I have been in a long time. (Kar don't take that the wrong way you know I love you girl)

Now, I find myself staring into the future with so many prospects I hardly know what to do with myself. Or is it the opposite problem? I have so many things I want to do with myself that I'm not sure where to start...

Here's what I have for now:

• I'm graduating next spring



• I met with a Pediatric Dietitian at Fairview and she thinks that I am very qualified for an Internship. This is good news since I was worried how I would compare when in competition with a bunch of four year grads



• I have all of the sudden gotten a HUGE itch to do something with public health. I love helping people and hope that one day that might translate into my career



• Today I researched Internship programs and I found around 12 that I am VERY excited about. More than half of which are out east :)



• This means that I will more than likely be living out East in a little over a year. A much needed change of pace



• I am so excited by all the possibilities that my major provides and I can't believe how lucky I am to have fallen into it



• I am feeling extremely comfortable with myself. This is something I've never really felt. Either I've been unhappy with this or that, or I've been in a relationship and didn't know what I really wanted as an individual. This is an amazing feeling



• I feel very motivated and proud of all I am accomplishing in my life right now. I feel that I am moving in a forward direction and am proud of my priorities



• The relationships in my life could not be stronger. I have beyond fabulous friends and family and I feel that I am giving as much as I get to my friendships. It feels good to try so hard



• While I'm missing my other half in Ireland, I still feel an amazing connection with her. We don't talk as much as when we shared a tiny room together but still not a day passes when I don't wish I was sharing my experiences with her. Kar, you've taught me so much and next year we can learn so much from each other.



• Katie, Gurlllll what can I say. We're two peas in a pod. A pod that's unbreakable and never too small. Amazing how two people can live, work and play in the same environment and still never tire.



• On top of all this, there's still always culinary school, a dream I feel increasingly confident I will pursue.



• Most importantly, I am beginning to figure out my faith. I have always known I felt an intense spiritual connection to God, but now I am beginning to see how my personal faith fits in with the big picture. I still don't know all the facts but for now, that's OK. In fact, I never will.

Peace is a blessing.

Love and best wishes,

ERIN GO BRAGH

Kate

Long Time

Hey Ya'll,

Ok, so I know I haven't written for a while but I'm a firm believer in doing what makes you happy and for a while I'd just lost the luster for blogging.

Lot's has happened since I last posted...

The new year started out a little rough. My grandfather passed away for January 6, the day of Epiphany. I'm not going to go into it via Blog post, but when all is said and done, he went on his terms and was ushered out with a bang. All I know is that after this whole ordeal I have come to be even more grateful for my family and friends. I have found so much comfort in the presence of those I love. This is a life lesson I hope never to forget.

When the time rolled around to head back to school, let's just say it wasn't the first thing I wanted to be doing with my life. Bound and determined to make the best of it, I moved into room 7 and made it a place where I can relax and find inner peace while being productive and living my life in a wellness-centered manner. I feel really proud of the way I've been living my life these last 4 weeks. I've been striving for health, serenity, productivity and focus. Overall, I'd say I've been rather successful while managing to have quite a bit of fun along the way.

Two weekends ago, I journeyed to the Northeast to visit my love, Kenneth. It was his Yearling Winter Weekend at West Point Military Academy. I flew into Newark and took the train to Penn Station where I met Kenny and proceeded to take a two hour stroll through Central Park (one of my favorite places on earth) and about another hour through the textile district. Eventually, we realized our tummys were saying it was time for dinner so after navigating the Subway we found ourselves in the middle of Times Square and made our way into this cute little Italian place for delicious food and even better Tiramisu :) We all know how I feel about that dessert. The rest of the weekend was fabulous. I got to spend some real high quality time with Kenny. I don't know when the last time we got to do that was considering we're always balancing ridiculous schedules and flying in and out of our beloved hometown. (Mostly Kenny doing this) I met his friends who I absolutely adored. I feel so much better about him being out there. I have to say, if he didn't find friends who could pull disgusting and crude pranks with him I would have felt like a little bit of my soul had died. But, thank goodness he did. The ball was fabulous and it was so amazing to be able to see the whole "post" including the barracks and the beautiful new library. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I wish I could return to our fabulous little B&B with all ten of us gathered around the morning breakfast table for our yogurt and berries, chocolate stuffed french toast and frittata.

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to be elected to go the the AOII Leadership Academy 2009 in one of my favorite states, Tennessee. I've loved that state since I was a little girl who visited and got my first taste of Southern Hospitality at the Shoney's :) Meeting the leaders of AOII from around the country was an amazing experience that I'll never forget. I feel like the part of me that had lost some luster for the home I once adored so much was recaptured and my fire for this house has been recovered. Thank God for that. I love Chelle. That is all. She is our Pres and she's awesome. I wouldn't have gone to TN with anyone else. We were such an odd couple, seeing as though on the surface we're probably two of the most opposite girls in our house, but in reality we are a lot more similar than you might guess.

Tonight, we're reinstating dinner club and going downtown to Hell's Kitchen for some legit food that is bound to be a fabulous time. I feel great about my relationships in the house right now. Once again, I am stunned by how fabulous my friend's are.

I miss Karen now that she's in Ireland, but the time is going to fly and I'm getting frequent updates so I feel like her time there is good for us all. Katie, my roomie and other half are fairing fabulously in our beautiful room. I don't know how I got so lucky to have a roommate that I can have late night chats with every evening. I'll take a loss of sleep for good conversation any day. Hanacik and I are loving spending more time together again. I really missed her last semester and I'm glad we're back to our usual antics.

This weekend is Valentine's Day and I'm pleased to say I'll be spending it with my family.

All for now. Alpha love,

Kate

Perfection

New Years Eve was phenomenal.

It was the day I got to say my final words of consequence to my grandfather. He's rapidly slipping away and it's not easy to watch. As I headed into his bedroom, fear washed over me. What if this conversation, the time I'd been so eager to have with him, was nothing to be remembered? What if the amazing conversations everyone else had with my grandfather didn't happen for me? As I sat down with him and held his hand we bantered about relatively meaningless things, but then the mood changed and I finally got the chance to tell my grandfather just how much he really means to me. He's the only grandfather I've ever had and the best and only one I would ever want. He is the most loving, accepting and generous man I have ever know. I got to tell him that. We cried together, hugged each other, exchanged views of living your life and not others for them. I loved every moment and I feel so blessed I was granted those last one on one moments with him. I feel that I will always remember those minutes when I cried in my grandfather's arms, hyperventilating as I have been so often lately, just expressing my love for him in a way I've never been able to before.

After my emotional afternoon at the Mundt's I was picked up from work by Ellen, my little angel who's been so helpful after the red Honda finally broke down. I mean literally the engine cracked in half. Haha. Somewhat comical I think. Ellen, Taylor and I proceeded to go to Byerly's to get fixings for tacos, one of my favorite foods. We all met at Taylor's, made tacos, took silly pictures and headed down to the U. I felt so great as we drove down University. Man I love that place.

We first stopped at Sigma Nu, which as promised was classy and quaint. Perfect if you loves all those boys as I do, not so perfect if you don't know anyone like my girls from home. I completely understood and offered to go to SAE instead because it promised to have basically everyone who's graduated from our high school in the past 3 years and loud music. What more could you want? So we stopped at Beta on the way over to pick up Carl and Chad and made our way towards the golden lions.

The party was fabulous, jammed from wall to wall with familiar faces of my past. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The party was great and the girls were loving it. I felt like my night was incomplete, however, until like in a fairytale, my eyes met a certain somebody's from across the room and immediately a smirk came across my face and I knew what was coming. As he moved towards me, I mentioned to Ellen that he was coming and she immediately understood my excitement. The conversation was great, and a few minutes in he told me he had never gotten his midnight kiss which of course, I couldn't allow... So the evening ended splendidly with a great kiss, lots of compliments and a date to boot. Who knows what will happen, maybe nothing but regardless, the night was great. I love my girlfriends, guy friends and family.... That's all I could ever want.

I'm thankful for every part of life today. There are so many trials we must face in this life, but there is always a lesson. This is part of my conversation with my grandfather. I told him that although the past few months have been painstaking, one look at our family says it all. We have truly rallied around each other finally able to appreciate how blessed we are to have such a great support network. My selfishness has been splashed in my face and for the first time in my life I feel like i finally get that many things are so much more important than me. Seems pretty obvious right? Well it's a lesson that's a lot harder to learn than you might think. So though times can often be hard, they are always good.

All for now and love as usual,

Kate

Here's to a fresh start.

Heaven on Earth

Today is my girl, Katie's, birthday and I must say it's been fabulous.  The last few days have been absolutely wonderful.  This Christmas has carried such different meaning for me this year than any other year.  Christmas eve for the Field's was somewhat of a disaster what with two cases of the flu and no one making it to church.  But after driving myself home from the Auntie's and laying down in bed with a heat pack watching White Christmas I fell asleep to awaken feeling wonderful and ready for my Christmas caramel roll.  

I awoke at 8:30 and rolled out of bed to find my father tampering the kitchen with a hot pot of coffee at the ready for me.  I must say I thought it was heavenly.  My mom was putzing around and had already popped the caramel roll in the oven.  This Christmas morning was different than any other in that our whole family rolled out of bed leisurely, ate brunch together as a slow pace (rare for our family) and then casually suggested perhaps moving into the living room to do stockings.  Generally, we run down the stairs rush to the stockings, rip open packages and then get around to doing breakfast. I must say, this relaxed way of doing things was just up my alley.  After sitting around and opening a few gifts each, we broke to wait until the whole rest of the family showed up, after which all hell broke loose and Anna and Gabe came in like tornadoes ripping open all their presents. I loved not being the center of attention when it came to present opening. Heavenly.  

Afterward, I went for a Christmas day walk with my Aunt and Uncle from California and my Dad.  I love walking in the snow and it was uncharacteristically warm for a late December day.  When we returned late lunch was ready followed by sitting by the fire, guitar jam sessions and lots of merry making. How I love all that is Christmas...  

That evening I went with my immediate family minus Laura to see the movie "Marley and Me". I have never cried harder in a movie.  I don't even like big dogs but the central message of death was too much for me to handle. I ended up hyperventilating in the car on the way home I was crying so hard.  I think the next few months are going to be incredibly painstaking while we watch my grandpa whither away.  I am just thankful I have my wonderful family to lean on in this hard time.  

As I mentioned, today is Katie's birthday.  This morning we rang in the day with brunch at OPH and I have the fabulous Santa Fe omelet with no cheese and dry wheat toast accompanied by delicious black coffee (my third cup for the day :/ no judgement, Jon) Once again, heavenly.  After we went to Papa Bear's hotel (the Westin) and did some hottubbing.  Then we all returned to the Winter's home. Karen joined us and the three of us were once again reunited after a whole, gasp, week.  It was heavenly and we watched the Tyler Perry movie, "Why Did I Get Married?"  Hysterical.  I love those movies.  This evening we got Thai food and now we're sitting in the basement, just Katie's family and I, watching Planet Earth.  Sigh, I love my life.  

Today, I am thankful for my friend Katie's family, who has welcomed me into their family with open arms.  Also, I am thankful I have a family that treks all the way down to the shady part of uptown to listen to some bluegrass band at a hole in the wall pizza joint.  I love everyone in my family and I feel like I couldn't have fallen into a better niche of society.  

Love love love, 

Kate 

Ps. Can you tell I'm in a spectacular mood? I get to sleep in tomorrow! :) yay!

PPs. Above are just a few of my favorite things.  :) :)

Torn

Ok so I must admit I have been losing steam with the whole blogging situation. I blame it on finals really because I just didn't have the time for a little while there and then my ambitions sort of fell flat. Well, since I've last updated I've just been enjoying my time doing mostly nothing, or as close to nothing as I've experienced in a long while. I actually have worked out the last few days which has felt way more amazing than I even remembered.

Today, I finished up the last of my Christmas shopping I believe and I scored some completely killer boots today while out and about. My winter Ugg boots had definitely seen better days as they were going on their third season, so today when I was out and about and I saw some black Ugg style boots with studded flaming hearts on the back I had to have them. They're hard to explain, but they have just the right amount of edge and I love them. I must say I know my idea of being a badass is absolutely watered down compared to a really badass but sometimes I like to pretend. I mean I don't do everything cookie cutter. Tonight, my outfit for the Upperroom consists of my signature ballet pink sweater, skinny jeans, a gold ribbon in my hair for a headband and my boots for a little spring in my step :)

This morning I went to a church by my house with my family which was actually lovely, because I love the advent season and it was particularly amazing this morning because there were multiple positively delectable boys there. I mean obviously this is where they've all been hiding out. I must go back next week so see who I can find...

Tonight, I am going to Upperroom, as above mentioned, with Ellen and we're meeting Kenny and Ben there. I am so excited to be back there but a little nervous that a certain someone might go which I am definitely not ready for. I'll have to keep you posted...

After Upperroom, a Ms Geller will be having us over to her fabulous home to enjoy the first night of Hanukkah with some brownie making and merriment. I can't wait. I'll get to see Geller, Kate and Tess. What more could a girl want?

I start work tomorrow which I'm really not looking forward to, but I know I will have a great time once I'm there.

All for now!

Tonight I am thankful for my friend Kenny who I stayed up til two last night chatting with about I don't even remember what. When I left I found myself wishing I could stay the rest of the night just enjoying his company but my eyelids became heavy and I still have to trek out to the boondocks so I gave in to my fatigue and drove the 20 cold minutes home. I love my friends!

Mwah,
Kate

Free At Last

Well I know I've been out of touch for a few days here, but hey, what would one expect as finals are upon us...

Now that finals are over.... That means the holiday season is upon us!

Anyone who knows me well knows that this is my absolute favorite time of the year. Eager to avoid succumbing to the dreariness of finals, over the last few days I have enjoyed some very fabulous moments amidst my studies.

Firstly, Katie Harris' cookie decorating party. It was divine. Sunday from 2-5 I designated those 3 small hours to gathering 'round the table for some real cookie decorating. There were approximately one million cookies to decorate and at the end fabulous little pastel boxes to pack them away in for study treats :) This was the much needed break to my weekend of studying I needed.

Then Monday night rolled around and the evening of Jingle Ball was upon us... We purchased our tickets months in advance so I knew that I would have to study in preparation for a night of loud music and beautiful men... ehhhemmm Chris Brown and TI... Let's be honest here, knowing my taste in men, obviously I was enthused. So the concert was lovely and TI was delicious and overall, my finals week from hell is over and I had some fabulous times to reflect upon.

Now, I am back in my bedroom in Shorewood and I am feeling ridiculously content as I type this using my WiFi and basking in the glow of my twinkle lights that decorate the window frame. I am done with another semester... It's amazing how fast the time goes. Honestly, this semester scholastically was not my favorite by far, but overall it was fabulous. I made so many new friends, experienced many new things and discovered just how absolutely wonderful my baby girls at AOII are.

It is the time at last to realize what I have been fantasizing about for the last two weeks, baking cookies with my mother while listening to Harry Connick Jr. Christmas music and settling in for White Christmas, my all time favorite holiday film.

Tonight I am thankful that I was able to go to my grandfather's house for dinner. My aunt made us stirfry and made me a vegetarian version. :) I feel like Karen would appreciate this as I am slowly but surely converting. I am thankful for my vibrant and amazingly chatty 5 year old cousin who I haven't seen since she was two. I was able to spend some quality time with her tonight, playing Go Fish, of course. What else would a 5 year old want to do? She is so fun and her Australian accent is adorable. The innocence of youth really is an inspiring thing. It always seems to renew my faith in the innate goodness of the world.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night,

Love and Peace,
Kate