I always seem to write ten bazillion times more than you guys, so I am apologizing in advance for the length of this one…

First off, let me just say, I miss you guys so much!! I am all sorts of excited about all the neat stuff that I am reading about y’all, once again, thank you shira for setting this up for us!

as far as my world goes, this past weekend was graduation weekend, so I have been reliving bar crawl and the weekend festivities from last year very vividly. I’ve also been looking at a lot of the pics from moltenchocolate.com and seriously regretting not spending as much time with you guys as I should have. I am however, finding some pictures that DO have all of us while I am attempting to pack up all my worldly possessions. Moving day is this saturday/sunday (I know that’s two days, but I think I’m going in stages), and I have packed one box so far. I have two of the gigantic binghamton city garbage bags full of stuff I can no longer keep just for the fun of it, but there is still so much more to pack!

I’m moving to Holoke, MA to this great townhouse on Mt. Tom, right across Rt. 5 from the Conneticut River. it’s outdoorsy to the extreme, which makes me happy, and it’s only 6 minutes from my sister’s house, which makes me EXTRA happy. The problem arises in the fact that I am only renting a room in this fantastic townhouse, so I now have to squish my apt. style living back into one bedroom. it is 12 x 15, so it’s a little bit bigger than my first apartment here in bingo!! I have my own bathroom right off my bedroom too, which is definately a plus, and there is a backyard, DISHWASHER, GARBAGE DISPOSAL, WASHER & DRYER, and a living room I think I will be comfy enough to curl up with a book in. the living room even has a working fireplace!! (although Pam did mention it’s more for ambience than heat. well come on now, if I’m lighting a fire in the fireplace for ambiance, I’m hoping for plenty of heat elsewhere!!)

although the boy front seems to be a bit dry at the moment. apparently Mike my Army Guy is just like every OTHER guy I have met recently and took the one opportunity given to him to completely blow me off. He was on leave these past three weeks and talked a whole bunch beforehand of wanting to come see me, calling me, etc. guess who didn’t call? guess who DEFINATELY didn’t make any effort to get together? yeah. I understand if it turned out to be too weird and that he was wicked busy, but a little word would have been nice… Also on the boy front, things are very bizarre with Steve. NOTHING has happened (well, nothing news worthy, a little kissing and attention never hurt anybody… I think); but he certainly is being more friendly than before, and I’m starting to get sad over the fact that for the first time in five years, he’s not going to be a major part of my life, if a part at all. He’s going home at the end of the month, and then joining the peace corps as soon as he hears from them (I’m sure he’s going to get in).

as far as work and school go, I’ll be working at EMS Holyoke, working on finding a full time job, and school is a big question mark. apparently my program (graduate elementary education) usually starts June 7th, but nobody felt the need to tell me that, so all my financial aid is filled out for the fall. Eek! and Grrr!!

ok, this is once again, ridiculously long, so I’m going to stop here. I miss you all tons and love to hear about what’s going on in all your worlds. I will be sending out a mass email with my new contact information, and my email address will stay the same. love you sooo much!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Hey Ladies,

Can you believe this weekend marks the one year anniversary of our graduation? One year of no Thursday night television and Dick Fast Chick Love!Speaking of Thursday night, did you guys see the Series Finale of Friends? I can’t believe the show is over. I’ll definately be going through signs of withdrawal in September.

Speaking of September…..after some soul searching and problems I was having with my supervisors and program advisors, I have decided not to return back to Northeastern. That means I’ll finish up my summer school and then attend graduation in September and get my masters in Applied Educational Psychology. The rest of my classmates would be going on to get another Masters in School Psychology. It is definately weird realizing I am about to start the real world. Been searching for jobs like crazy and have a few possible leads, but who knows? I have also realized i am only 22, so i have time to truly find myself, right? I have been looking into something called a Child Life Specialist. It involves doing an internship at a hospital and taking a certification exam. Then I would get to work with kids who have been staying at a hospital for a while (chemotherapy, kidney transplant etc). So maybe that will be my new career!?!? Or I could always run away and join the circus as “Franny the Flying Jew”. It will be interesting moving back home after 5 years of being away. Thank goodness Caitlin, Jen, Tracy and Pia live in the area!

Everything else has been going pretty good. I am only taking 2 classes this summer. Plus I am making a little extra cash working with a 10 year old boy with autism. Besides that I am enjoying myself sleeping late and actually doing a little non-school reading. It has definately been a while since I have opened a book and not had a highlighter in the other hand.

On the boy front…..i have been hanging out a few times with my mom’s friend’s son who goes to harvard law school. i am sure i have mentioned him before. we have hung out off and on as we were growing up. his name is david, he is 24, adorable, sweet, funny, and so down to earth. however, he lacks assertiveness so there is some kosher flirting but NOTHING ELSE!! i have half a mind to get him drunk and just go for it. but just my luck, he doesnt drink. i guess i am just going to have to enjoy the flirting. he’s staying in boston for a while, so i am sure we will cross paths later. it will be like a lifetime movie or something. in a few years, we’ll see each other at some function, our eyes will meet, and then he’ll come up to me and confess his love, and how he hasnt been able to get close to any woman in the last few years because he has been thinking about me. (okay, i need to STOP reading the cheesy romance novels).

love and kisses to everyone!
fran

Hi there Ladays! So, tons is going on here in the big CA. After two weeks of job hunting, I’ve decided to move to Las Vegas and become a dancer!! I’ll be taking classes at LVU (Las Vegas University) and waitressing at night. HAHAHA!! GOTCHA!! Just kidding. That’s back-up plan D. Okay, so I am really moving to Nevada and will be living 10 minutes away from the strip on the edge of a golf-course in a swanky (feels like a four diamond resort after Hayes Community!) apartment with one of the girls I went to school with (fondly referred to heretoafter as J-Lo).

I have two very promising interviews on Wednesday, so will be getting there on Tuesday night. We can’t move in to the apartment until Thursday, however, so I’ll just be camping out in my car in a parking garage to save money. Or, perhaps get a hotel room.

I’M SO EXCITED!!!!

My interviews are at Renoir in The Mirage and Bouchon Bistro in The Venetian. Both very exciting and renowned restaurants–it should be interesting to see how things work in humongous hotels like these!

Our apartment is so hot. I’m just as excited about living in this apartment as I am about these new career opportunities! It’s a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with a living room, washer & dryer, kitchen with gas stove, dishwasher, microwave, disposal, etc. We have a real, working fireplace in the living room!! And two 24-hour swimming pools (one is laguna shape and the other is for doing laps) (not in the living room, but outside our front door).

There are also three spas (including a sauna), a workout room and a gym with lots of machines and full length mirrors, and a mini movie theater that you can reserve and have a party in with all of your friends! We have several walk-in closets, a roman tub, a little patio, covered garage and storage room! It feels like heaven!

Plus, it doesn’t really look like your run-of-the-mill cheezie apartment complex–it’s by a golf course and there are palm trees all around it, it’s sort of Spanish stucco style with a red tile roof. And, the real bonus is that it was built before they made the 30% Green Law (which says that only 30% of any property can have green vegetation because of the water shortage in the area), so our property is 70% green!!! Its not the typical Vegas Rocks scene–we have trees and grass! Ding!!

We don’t actually have any furniture or any money to buy any yet (Sin City may seem glamorous, but the pay is not all that fabulous), but I’m sure after we get our second jobs we’ll be able to afford some. OH! And that’s the other thing–rent is TOTALLY cheap!! It’s only costing each of us $400 a month to live here!! That’s at least $500 cheaper than any dinko one bedroom apartment in San Francisco–so it won’t be as stressful as living in the SF.

I like that we’ll be a little outside of the city too–since we’ll be in that craziness all day and all night, it will be nice to get away from it when we get a chance to go home. I can’t wait for you all to come visit!!! There’s plenty of room (as long as we don’t get furniture any time soon) for you ALL to come visit at once!! IMAGINE THE EXCITEMENT, LADIES!!! So much fun. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Hope you’re all well and happy and enjoying summerish weather where you are! Please come visit soon, I don’t know a single person in this new town and I miss you all desperately!!

Oh! And here are the pictures from Daiquiri Night at Caitlin and Luis’.

Hey girls!! Not sure if any of you have noticed, but it has been just about a complete year since we have all been together! how sad is that?!?! This upcoming weekend is graduation weekend at Binghamton…I wish we could go back and do that last week together all over…do you remember bar crawl? when we all decided to sit on the edge of the bridge railing for a picture? and how about those crazy headbands and bracelets Jen got for us? or when Shira starting crying at the first bar we got to? or when Dawn cracked her head open on the pool table? oh the memories!!

Things here in Chi-town are going alright…I am done with classes..and only have 3 more finals standing between me and two months off…after i take these tests I will have taken 30 tests this year..that’s like saying I took a test everyday in the month May! that’s insane!! but my first year has gone pretty good…didn’t fail anything (yet) and managed not to go too crazying studying all the time…

my plans for the summer aren’t that exciting..I am hanging around chicago till july…going to re-live being a Senior with Sam…then I will go home for a bit and see my poor 3 legged dog…and throw my sis a wedding shower…and then hopefully work in a trip to NYC before i come back here or pretty quickly after i get back here (sam’s stupid 6 weeks of training in NYC…i thought i gave up on long distance?!?) so those of you in NYC…look for me around the end of july/beginning of august…
well this is getting long…so i better go…but i hope you are all doing well…and those of you who haven’t posted in awhile..you better post something…updates from my girls helps me keep going when i am studying for finals!! i miss you all tons!!

so this is a short entry just to clarify the whole antenna topper thing…

remember i used to have the pink daisy on my antenna? that was an antenna topper and it was stolen a while ago in staten island (grrrrr) so i’ve been looking for another one and i found this and it was perfect. So it’s a little man in a little kayak sitting on top of my antenna.

oh, and on a side note…for my uncle’s funeral…since my dad’s a cop we had a police escort for the funeral procession. there were probably 7 or 8 police trucks from the beach, and then two highway cops on motorcycles that were go up in front of us and blocking all of the intersections so we didn’thave to stop for lights or stop signs or anything. I was really cool. I’m sure my uncle loved it.

I’ll talk to you all soon :).

Thanks to Carrie our archives work now!! So you can click on the links over here—> and read up on all the past entries that you missed. Yippee!