Angelica's World

I'm sure many of you have heard about Locks of Love--the organization that accepts donated hair and uses it to make wigs for children who have cancer. Well, in November of my senior year of high school (over 3.5 years ago) I made my first donation to LOL. I wanted to do it for a long time and finally grew my hair long enough to cut it and still have it end up a decent length. Well that ended up being a very emotional day for me--even though I was excited to do it, I ended up crying immediately after the woman cut across the ponytail (which, when I got home I learned was actually 12 inches, not the minimum 10 that I asked for).

Anyway, after making that first donation, I decided that I would grow my hair out again and make another donation ASAP and hopefully turn it into a cyclical event. Well over 3.5 years later, my hair was finally long enough to chop again. So...today I finally cut off another 10 inches of hair and with no tears (but actually a few smiles) I will be sending in my 10 inch ponytail.

I wanted to write about this not to toot my own horn or pat myself on the back but to bring more attention to Locks of Love and encourage people to do what I did today. It's pretty cool, (almost) completely painless, and you're helping children. And...if you don't think you can part with 10 inches of your hair, Locks of Love accepts donations of shorter lengths but rather than use the hair to make wigs, they sell it to help offset manufacturing costs; either way it's a good cause. So go out and cut some hair!!!

As you may know, this summer I'm a Steinhardt Orientation Leader. Well, today we finished our 2nd Freshmen Orientation BUT we also finished our 2nd Transfer Orientation on Tuesday. So after the Transfer Orientation some Orientation Leaders went out to dinner. After some minor drama of picking out a place and selecting yummy sounding foods off the menu, we thought we were all set for a delicious dinner. Well, myself and another OL never received our dinners. It was difficult to read the waitress and decide if ours was on our way just not ready at the same time or if it was never our meal she was going into the kitchen for. We eventually just canceled our orders that apparently were never entered anyway and left with the group.

After contemplating what we could get for dinner, we decided on sushi and then decided to go to Sushi Samba since we were right around the corner. That's the same restaurant I went to for my birthday dinner with my family that's SOOO GOOD!

Anyway, since it was such a gorgeous night out and neither of us had plans afterwards, we both decided to take a stroll through the West Village since we don't get over there too much. We ended up going over to the West Side Highway and walking along that which I had heard was gorgeous but hadn't been to. It was so nice just walking along the water--there were runners, picnickers (is that a new word?), and just people enjoying this quaint area of NYC. Being surrounded by water and grass was such a great little retreat from the typical NYC feel. I really want to go back and have a picnic with some friends one day...and maybe even for a run. But for now, I figured I would share my thoughts about my walk along the West Side Highway (aka West St. -- from Houston St. to 14th St.). Hope you can get out and enjoy it one day :)

Scary thought! In just one year I will be certified as an Elementary/Special Education teacher for Grades 1-6. I've wanted to be a teacher my entire life and now it's just months away...where has the time gone?

That is, if I pass all my certification exams. Yesterday I took my first of four New York State Teacher Certification Exams. I took the Liberal Arts and Science Test (LAST) which is comprised of 80 multiple choice questions and an opinion essay. I had spoken to a few people who previously took the exam but still was a little uncertain as to what to expect. Fortunately, though, it was not as difficult as I had anticipated. Surprisingly, too, I finished the exam in a little over three hours although four hours are allotted to take it.

Something that was interesting though was that almost every time I told someone that I had to take a Certification exam on Saturday, people asked me "for what?" I have come to learn that many people are unaware of what goes into standing at the front of a classroom with 30 sets of eyes looking at you for all the answers. Anyway, I just hope that all went as well as I think yesterday and that I only have 3 more exams to take...keep your fingers crossed!

After years of being invited to go down to Florida and stay with my family for a vacation, I finally took them up on the offer. My friend and I went down to my Uncle's from Friday morning through Monday morning and had one of the best weekends!

We got down to Tampa on Friday where my cousin picked us up from the airport and we went to meet my aunt for some lunch. Shortly after my friend and I were lying out by my uncle's pool enjoying the great Florida weather (that was apparently only great while we were there as it's rained before and after our trip). We then proceeded to go for a little joyride in my uncle's "spare car"--a Mustang convertible. We basically just spent an hour driving around and enjoying the Florida life before going home for dinner with the fam and going out with my cousin and his friend.

Andrea and I went to bed planning to wake up at 9, have my uncle's delicious pancakes, and head out to Busch Gardens for a day on the roller coasters. But instead, we were woken up to my cousin's 7:40am phone call inviting us to the Red Bull Flugtag with a bunch of his friends. By 9:00 we were picking up some people and heading to Tampa...along with 100,000 other people who decided to spend the day outside in the 100 degree weather. Well we only lasted an hour and a half and by 2:00 we were having some lunch at Hooters before heading home for some more lounge time by the pool and another yummy family dinner and some hang out time with my cousins at their house.

Sunday was AMAZING!!! My cousins have friends who have boats so 15 of us took 2 boats out and spent about 5 hours in the water hanging out, tubing, and just having fun. We had SUCH a good time! And of course, what would a day be like without spending some time in the pool before the family dinner? Then it was out with my other cousin and some of his friends for our last night there. We ended up at a bar where the bartenders hula hoop on the bar and my friend and I got a chance to hula hoop too...but not on the bar. We even got free t-shirts. It was a great end to an incredible day and such a good weekend!

I can't wait to get back down there and spend some more time with the fam and their friends :)

As many people know--or maybe it's just fanatical Long Islanders who drop everything for Billy Joel--Billy Joel performed the "Last Play(s) at Shea" last week. Though I'm a huge fan, I wasn't even aware of his performances until after the tickets were sold out (not like that was particularly hard since the sales only lasted an hour). However, after I found out about the shows, I immediately called my brother--the biggest fan I've ever met.

Shocker...he knew about the show...and had purchased 6 tickets, the maximum allowed per person. He told me two were for he and his wife, two were for my parents as my dad's birthday present, and two were up in the air but likely for some combination of myself, my sister, her husband, and my brother's sister-in-law. Well my offer was quickly made to purchase one of the tickets, not even knowing the price at which he bought them (impulsivity isn't always the best route to go). So a few minutes later I was "in possession" of a ticket to my fourth Billy Joel concert for Wednesday, July 16 at Shea Stadium. Well when I came home to celebrate my birthday, I was surprised with the ticket as a gift (which meant some money that could be saved in my bank account for a little bit longer...phew!).

Anyway, it ended up being my brother and his wife, my parents, my sister and I at the show a week and a half ago and it was INCREDIBLE. Billy Joel had such an amazing performance and was even humble enough to invite Tony Bennett, John Mayer, John Mellencamp, and Don Henley onto the stage to perform with him at various times throughout the night. It was awesome to see multiple generations present at the show and even better when everyone knew all the words to his songs. Seeing as my brother is such a big fan, I have grown up listening to Billy Joel--singing his songs in my brother's car when I was little, talking to friends about him in school, learning the historical context of "We Didn't Start the Fire"--only my favorite Joel song ever!, and seeing four of his shows with my family (yes, this was possibly better than his Millenium concert at MSG). I've also heard about how my brother and dad got to meet him and chat with him for a few minutes while I was in Spain last summer.

I guess the coolest part of the whole thing isn't the fact that as musically-illiterate as I am, I still know a little something about one of Long Island's biggest icons, but that my family--the people who mean so much to me--has this little bit of excitement and commonality that we can share together time and time again. Being with my family all together last week and seeing everyone with smiles on their faces, forgetting about the burdens of everyday life for those 4 hours, can only put a smile on my face and remind me of how fortunate I am to be a part of my family and to have these people in my life to share memories like that with.

Anyway, take some time to enjoy the little things in life, become a Billy Joel fan (hehe), spend time with the people who mean the most to you--and remind them of how special they really are, and most importantly (and I have to continually remind myself of this) don't take things like this for granted!