Many thanks to Miss Laura Allcorn for a fabulous Friday night and Saturday in Columbus. :) Here's a rundown... First up, FIglio a lovely little brick oven pizza and pasta place. Perfect for people-watching, it's a cozy little place. I got the tomato-feta, blackened chick pasta and Laura got the chicken diabolo pasta. This accompanied, of course, the lovely bread with olive oul and herbs.

After Figlio, we headed out to Bristol Bar. Bristol is a lovely martini lounge. Very dark, with black leather banquettes, a cool wooden bathroom and gooooood martinis. Laura stuck with her usual mojito and I got a REALLY good mango martini. I could drink those all night long.

The next morning commenced with a lot of shopping and a bit of food. We got desserts at Pistachio Sweets, a lovely little bakery in the Short North. Two words: Yum-O. Laura got the cassis and dark chocolate torte and the keoke coffee cheesecake. I got the dulce de leche torte and the caramel peanut butter chocolate crunch.

Finally, we had lunch at the Northstar Cafe where we read Vanity Fair and W, and were overall very cosmopolitan. With Thai chicken burritos. Mmm mmm mmm. :D

One For The Thumb.

Whoop whoop! Steelers won the Super Bowl! It was a very interesting weekend... Let me enlighten you.
Friday: Amish class from 9-10. Yes, I have a class about the Amish. I then proceeded to do NOTHING for the rest of the afternoon. Friday evening, I attended a very interesting party in Cara & Julianne's room. I played a few 'games' while drinking my new fave, a 'creme soda.' The problem with a creme soda is that I could drink it all night long, ha ha. I stayed there with those crazy girls and their respective boys for a few hours and headed up to bed when they headed out to go dancing at the Underground. (Never have I ever danced at the UG...).
Saturday: Up BRIGHT and EARLY at 7:30am to drive to Columbus. Since the girls I was riding with were at the party the night before and had gone out dancing, I got the early shift of driving. In the pouring down rain. In an unfamiliar car. Wonderful. And, since we had all gotten less than enough sleep, it took us more than a few miles to realize that we should have gone the 0.1 miles that Mapquest said it would take to get to the center off the exit ramp. Soooo... we finally arrived, 25 minutes late. See the Relay for Life Collegiate Summit post for more info. I don't really remember what I did Saturday night, thought I'm pretty sure it involved me watching TV alone in our room, being exhausted from the day.
Sunday: I got up at 9:30, and was headed home by 10. Why, you ask? Well, I just couldn't stand being so close to Cleveland for the Super Bowl, with people who didn't care one way or the other!! So... I headed to the motherland, back to Pittsburgh for a party with B's friends in South Oakland. Two hours/100 miles later and I was home. I took enough time to have lunch and bake a football-shaped, chocolate-iced cake and was headed to da 'Burgh. One hour/50-ish miles later and there I was. In the land of the Black-n-Gold. It was so nice to be somewhere that everyone was rooting for the right team, ha ha. We headed down to South Oakland, after winding through the labyrinth they call Pittsburgh. Arrived to Pete, Amy & Ketter's apartment. And there I was, in the land of the band. And yet I still didn't feel totally out of place. In another situation, these would be my people too. We went through the game, copious amounts of Iron City, Yuengling, and Rolling Rock were consumed. I had my first whole beer, a Rolling Rock. It was not the best idea I ever had... it made me sick but I think the heartburn from Antoon's Pizza might have contributed there... The real festivites started after the game, after the WIN, I should say. :D We went outside with the rest of the (drunk) crew. I got a little scared (being a country girl myself). Some one shook up and sprayed an Iron City pounder bottle like champagne. There were hugs all around (winning the Super Bowl makes friends of all...). There was an instance of a table being busted up and dragged outside to be burnt in the street. There were fireworks in the street and lots of yells. However, the most nerve-wracking part was when I walked outside and instantly heard the choppers up above, scanning the ground below watching for fires and dangerous mobs. It was seriously like something out of a movie. B & I headed back in after not too long, it was FREEZING! (The others didn't seem to mind...). We were watching the Channel 4 news and they were like "there aren't too many problems except for a report of a couch fire in Oakland. See exhibit A. I think that about sums up the evening.

Relay for Life Summit

Today I, with 9 other Woosterites, attended the American Cancer Society Relay for Life Collegiate Summit (some name, isn't it?). It was a gathering of RFL committee members from colleges throughout out Ohio. It was refreshing to see so many young people who care so much about Relay. Granted, it was a little hokey at times (who really likes icebreaker games anyway?), but everyone who was there was there for the right reasons, I think. I get goosebumps everytime I watch an ACS PSA or video. Ever since I've known C and gotten close to her and watched her go through her chemo and hair loss and hair growth and complete reemergence as a beautiful 21 year old woman, I have really adopted ACS and RFL as my 'thing'. It's hit close to home, that's for sure.

Senior Year

While talking about a high school senior the other day, B mentioned how when you're a senior you can get a little full of yourself. And I agree, you were a little arrogant, you were the top of the school and on top of the world. The same thing was true when you were a middle school "graduate." Maybe then you were a little scared to be going on to the big bad high school but, really, how scary was EPHS? It was nothing about which to worry. But now, for the first time, I am facing the reality of being separated from people whom I love.
I have moved once. To a house about an eighth of a mile from my first one. I have never known people that I have had to say goodbye to so completely.
That's why, I think, graduating college does not make you feel like you're on top of the world, ready to conquer what's next. It's more like all of a sudden that comforting, soft, beautiful Oriental rug that you've relaxed on for so long has suddenly been ripped out from under your unsuspecting feet. Your feet knew that you'd have to get up off the rug eventually, but they're not ready. They don't have socks OR shoes on. They're caught out in the cold, doing that hopping, trying to keep the feet warm on the cold tile thing...
Better get bundled up, feet, the rug is inching away.