And Economy is soon going to be how I must live if I want to have enough money to live on since UK has apparently decided that its Staff are not important.
Now first, just let me say that I love my job. I really do. I love what I do and I love the people I work with. What I don't love sometimes is the University that seems to take things over from time to time. UK approved its budget for the 08-09 fiscal year the other day and let's just say that things did come out well for the Staff among us.
First, they are freezing salaries this year, which means no yearly raises. Now I guess that's not really a huge deal until you consider that the cost of everything is going up these days. My muffin mix from the grocery store has gone up from $0.79 to $1.29 these days. That's a 63% increase in just a couple of weeks! And that's just one thing. If my entire grocery bill went up 63% I wouldn't have the money to eat at all. Not to mention the $4.00 a gallon gas that I would need just to get to the grocery store.
And it's not just the cost of groceries and gas that is rising. UK is also raising the cost of parking for the upcoming year. I now get to pay a whopping $372.00 a year to park my car at work. Yea for UK! Let's cut pay but raising parking fees. Then people won't come to work and we won't have to pay them. In fact, the only thing that's not going up this year is our Health Insurance Premium. At least that is staying the same.
UK also decided to eliminate 188 positions. They make that seem like no big deal since all but 15 of those positions were vacant anyway, but when you consider that we've been under a hiring freeze since January 1, the 173 empty positions make more sense.
UK has also decided that in order to save money, they need to decrease the amount of time we have to use our vacation time. Previously, our vacation accrued starting July 1 of every year until June 30 of the next year. After that, we had 15 months in which to use our vacation time (so you had to use it by September 30 of the next year). Now they have shortened the time is which we can use our vacation from 15 months to 12 months. Not a huge deal, but still something of a crappy move on their part. You aren't giving us a raise, at least let us use our vacation time.
Now, the real kicker is this: The University doesn't have enough money to give us a raise, but they have enough money to give our President (who already makes $300,000 a year) a bonus of $150,000 this year. That's 50% of his salary! Who gets a bonus like that? I don't get a bonus at all. Grandly, President Todd only kept $90,000 of his bonus and gave the rest back to the university, but really, who needs $90,000 extra on top of a $300,000 salary? I could live well for 6 or 7 years on $300,000. And $90,000 is more than I will make in two years. Why couldn't they have put some of that money toward UK's staff.
UK has 11,000 staff. Why not give each of us a $100 gas card. That leaves $4,000 for the "bonus" which is still way more than most people I know get as a bonus (if they get a bonus at all). Or just give the money to the parking division and not raise our prices this year. Either way, I will be happy. You can't expect those of us most hurt by the lack of our yearly raise to be understanding when you give someone who makes more than everyone in my lab put together a bonus that is more than our yearly salary. Really, that's not cool.
Okay, I promise I'm off my soapbox now.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Better Late then Never.....
I just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, including my friend John who became a brand new dad at11:43 pm on Saturday night. His little boy Elliot is quite possibly the cutest baby on the face of the planet (although I might be just a touch biased). Congratulations John and Beth!
Also, because it was Father's Day, I should probably mention that I have by far the best Dad on the planet. Sorry if you think that's wrong, but he is. He loves me and puts up with all my craziness and never even blinks when I call him at crazy times demanding things like "Fix My Car" or "Make the Bugs Go Away" or "What are You Going to do with Your Other Daughter?" despite the fact that he lives 2 hours away. He just tells me what to do and walks me through it until I calm down and start to make sense again. I guess 25 years of putting up with me has given him just a little bit of experience to go on.
He's been a little tied up in building his new house lately, and I haven't gotten to see him as much as usual, but he is doing a better job of making time for me and my sister these days(after I called and laid a huge guilt trip on him). At least the huge new house is almost finished and by the end of this weekend, they should be all moved in. Maybe. Somehow I think this house will never be done.
Also, because it was Father's Day, I should probably mention that I have by far the best Dad on the planet. Sorry if you think that's wrong, but he is. He loves me and puts up with all my craziness and never even blinks when I call him at crazy times demanding things like "Fix My Car" or "Make the Bugs Go Away" or "What are You Going to do with Your Other Daughter?" despite the fact that he lives 2 hours away. He just tells me what to do and walks me through it until I calm down and start to make sense again. I guess 25 years of putting up with me has given him just a little bit of experience to go on.
He's been a little tied up in building his new house lately, and I haven't gotten to see him as much as usual, but he is doing a better job of making time for me and my sister these days(after I called and laid a huge guilt trip on him). At least the huge new house is almost finished and by the end of this weekend, they should be all moved in. Maybe. Somehow I think this house will never be done.
Friday, June 6, 2008
We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics. ~Bill Vaughan
The quote in my title is from Bill Vaughan, and is very apt these days since for the last week I have been at war trying to keep my apartment free from bugs.
Now before you get all "ewwww, gross" on me, let me first say that these bugs are not of the nasty variety (ie. cockroaches) or the terrifying variety (ie. spiders, millipedes). They are of the OMG they are taking over my room variety. Yes, the insect which has chosen to make its assault on my apartment is the Springtail which is the single most prolific insect known to man. They can reach numbers of up to 100,000 individuals per meter of topsoil. I think they reached nearly that number on the window sill in my bedroom.
Once I noticed the problem, I began spraying the sill several times a day with pesticide, which seemed to kill the bugs there at the time, but did nothing to keep new ones from appearing. Soon, they had claimed the window sill as well as my blinds and curtains as their 0wn. This prompted a call to the apartment office to see if they would have the BugMan come out a spray. They assured me someone would come out first thing Monday, and I figured that I had won the war.
Not so! BugMan sprayed Monday, but Monday night there were more than ever, and now they were trying to claim my bed! Not Good! They had also taken over my balcony. Apparently, spraying for bugs only made them angry. Tuesday I called the office again and got a very lukewarm resp once. "Give it a few days," was the best they would do. I don't know about you, but when I have bugs in my bed, I don't want to give it a few days. Tuesday night, I started sleeping on the floor in the living room.
Wednesday, I decided that a trip to the office was needed as the bugs were still increasing in numbers. I waited until the office opened at 9 and then went to pay them a visit. After much cajoling and refusing to leave until they did what I wanted them to do, I convinced them to call the BugMan again and have him come out and spray the inside and outside of the building. I also went and bought about $30 worth of bug spray myself at Lowes and treated my bedroom, bathroom, and hallway as well as scrubbed down and sprayed my entire balcony. This seemed to have worked pretty well on the balcony, but did little to help the situation on my bed.
Thursday, I asked the office to have the BugMan call me when he arrived so I could ask him a question or two, but they failed to relay that information. Instead, when I arrived home, I found that nothing had been done. This time, I looked up the BugMan myself in the phone book and called them directly. The lady on the phone was very nice, gave me all the information I needed, and even had the BugMan come out that day while I was home so I could show him what was going on and have him spray everywhere.
So, as of today, the bugs seem to be grudgingly giving ground, although they are still present in my window and on my bed. At least they seem to be losing numbers. I am going to give it until the end of the weekend to get better before I start making phone calls again. I will not lose my house to the bugs!
Now before you get all "ewwww, gross" on me, let me first say that these bugs are not of the nasty variety (ie. cockroaches) or the terrifying variety (ie. spiders, millipedes). They are of the OMG they are taking over my room variety. Yes, the insect which has chosen to make its assault on my apartment is the Springtail which is the single most prolific insect known to man. They can reach numbers of up to 100,000 individuals per meter of topsoil. I think they reached nearly that number on the window sill in my bedroom.
Once I noticed the problem, I began spraying the sill several times a day with pesticide, which seemed to kill the bugs there at the time, but did nothing to keep new ones from appearing. Soon, they had claimed the window sill as well as my blinds and curtains as their 0wn. This prompted a call to the apartment office to see if they would have the BugMan come out a spray. They assured me someone would come out first thing Monday, and I figured that I had won the war.
Not so! BugMan sprayed Monday, but Monday night there were more than ever, and now they were trying to claim my bed! Not Good! They had also taken over my balcony. Apparently, spraying for bugs only made them angry. Tuesday I called the office again and got a very lukewarm resp once. "Give it a few days," was the best they would do. I don't know about you, but when I have bugs in my bed, I don't want to give it a few days. Tuesday night, I started sleeping on the floor in the living room.
Wednesday, I decided that a trip to the office was needed as the bugs were still increasing in numbers. I waited until the office opened at 9 and then went to pay them a visit. After much cajoling and refusing to leave until they did what I wanted them to do, I convinced them to call the BugMan again and have him come out and spray the inside and outside of the building. I also went and bought about $30 worth of bug spray myself at Lowes and treated my bedroom, bathroom, and hallway as well as scrubbed down and sprayed my entire balcony. This seemed to have worked pretty well on the balcony, but did little to help the situation on my bed.
Thursday, I asked the office to have the BugMan call me when he arrived so I could ask him a question or two, but they failed to relay that information. Instead, when I arrived home, I found that nothing had been done. This time, I looked up the BugMan myself in the phone book and called them directly. The lady on the phone was very nice, gave me all the information I needed, and even had the BugMan come out that day while I was home so I could show him what was going on and have him spray everywhere.
So, as of today, the bugs seem to be grudgingly giving ground, although they are still present in my window and on my bed. At least they seem to be losing numbers. I am going to give it until the end of the weekend to get better before I start making phone calls again. I will not lose my house to the bugs!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Other things may change us, but we start & end with Family...
I spent this weekend in the loving arms of my family. It was the 33rd annual Carrico family B&B Picnic which, like most things my family does, is a big to-do. In all fairness, though, when you have close to 85 people in the family, everything is a big to-do.
For anyone who doesn't know, I come from a very large Italian-Catholic family. My dad was one of 11 kids raised in a small farming community in Western Kentucky called Fancy Farm. I swear, that is the name of the town--you can google it if you want. I have 28 first cousins on that side of the family--meaning there are 30 grandchildren all together--and there are currently 23 great grand kids with more always on the way. When you add in spouses the grand total of family members comes to well above 80.
Now, I know I'm not the only person out there who has a large family. In fact, I know of several people who have families similar in size to mine. What really tends to make my family unique is the fact that almost every person in the family lives in or near Fancy Farm. My self, my sister and one other cousin live in Lexington. I have two cousins up in Cincinnati and an Aunt, Uncle and three cousins in Atlanta. My dad lives in Glasgow and one cousins and his family who live in Tennessee. Other than that, the entire family lives within a 30 minute drive of each other.
As you can imagine, this means that any family event (of which there are many through out the year) turns into a huge gathering. My Grandmother has anywhere from 60 to 80 people over every year for both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. My Aunt Elaine's 4th of July pool party draws a crowd of close to 50 or 60, and a good portion of the family (20-25 people) cook together at least once every week.
Because they see each other so much, the family is really very close. And I love going down to visit them. I love the hugs. You don't realize, living by yourself away from most of your family, how little physical contact you have on a daily basis. But in my family, you hug everyone when you arrive and when you leave every time not just at the beginning and end of the trip. My days were filled with hugs, and it was great.
And I loved getting to see all the kids. I don't get to hang out with a lot of kids in my day-to-day life. But this weekend was all about kids. Kids of all ages from my 14 year old cousin Jailynn to my cousin Kelly's new baby who is only 9 months old. There were games to be played and stories to be told and hand to be held and things to be shown. My sister and I are the "cool older cousins" who live out of town and only come to visit a few times a year, so a lot of the kids compete for our attention. Nothing makes you feel more loved than having four little girls fighting to sit next to you at dinner.
For anyone who doesn't know, I come from a very large Italian-Catholic family. My dad was one of 11 kids raised in a small farming community in Western Kentucky called Fancy Farm. I swear, that is the name of the town--you can google it if you want. I have 28 first cousins on that side of the family--meaning there are 30 grandchildren all together--and there are currently 23 great grand kids with more always on the way. When you add in spouses the grand total of family members comes to well above 80.
Now, I know I'm not the only person out there who has a large family. In fact, I know of several people who have families similar in size to mine. What really tends to make my family unique is the fact that almost every person in the family lives in or near Fancy Farm. My self, my sister and one other cousin live in Lexington. I have two cousins up in Cincinnati and an Aunt, Uncle and three cousins in Atlanta. My dad lives in Glasgow and one cousins and his family who live in Tennessee. Other than that, the entire family lives within a 30 minute drive of each other.
As you can imagine, this means that any family event (of which there are many through out the year) turns into a huge gathering. My Grandmother has anywhere from 60 to 80 people over every year for both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. My Aunt Elaine's 4th of July pool party draws a crowd of close to 50 or 60, and a good portion of the family (20-25 people) cook together at least once every week.
Because they see each other so much, the family is really very close. And I love going down to visit them. I love the hugs. You don't realize, living by yourself away from most of your family, how little physical contact you have on a daily basis. But in my family, you hug everyone when you arrive and when you leave every time not just at the beginning and end of the trip. My days were filled with hugs, and it was great.
Me and my Godfather Richard (aka Sissard)
And I loved getting to see all the kids. I don't get to hang out with a lot of kids in my day-to-day life. But this weekend was all about kids. Kids of all ages from my 14 year old cousin Jailynn to my cousin Kelly's new baby who is only 9 months old. There were games to be played and stories to be told and hand to be held and things to be shown. My sister and I are the "cool older cousins" who live out of town and only come to visit a few times a year, so a lot of the kids compete for our attention. Nothing makes you feel more loved than having four little girls fighting to sit next to you at dinner.
Chase, Trey, Kristen, & Chance
My cousin Aaron's little boy Carson
My cousin's little girl Mallie
But of all the things I love about my family, the thing that I love the most is the fact that they love me totally and unconditionally. They love me because of who I am. They love me in spite of who I am. They love me for who I am. And everyone needs to feel that kind of unconditional love. After all, that is what family is supposed to be about.
My cousin Bryan with his girlfriend Courtney
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You...
So, if you are like me and live in Kentucky, today is primary day. Now, May primary elections in Kentucky are generally about as exciting as watching paint dry since most national elections are long over before we go to the polls and most State elections don't get interesting until the fall. But this year, somehow, Kentucky's vote actually matters. Not that the vote was in doubt--there is no way that a state that chose to be part of the South After the Civil War is ever going to elect a Black man as President of the United States. But still, at least I felt like there was a reason to go to the polls.
Not that I ever don't vote. I love voting. Something about it makes me feel very American. Maybe it's the fact that it is one of the few places you still see the American flag displayed proudly. Maybe it's because it feels like I get to be part of something that goes back to the days of George Washington and Ben Franklin. Or maybe I just like to feel like I have some say in what goes on in this country. Still, I always vote, no matter how small the election or how insignificant the outcome may be.
I guess my philosophy is that if you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain when things go sour.
Not that I ever don't vote. I love voting. Something about it makes me feel very American. Maybe it's the fact that it is one of the few places you still see the American flag displayed proudly. Maybe it's because it feels like I get to be part of something that goes back to the days of George Washington and Ben Franklin. Or maybe I just like to feel like I have some say in what goes on in this country. Still, I always vote, no matter how small the election or how insignificant the outcome may be.
I guess my philosophy is that if you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain when things go sour.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Missing Her So Much I Couldn't Breathe....
So, today is mother's day. Quite possibly, this is my least favorite day of the entire year. Now, I don't play the dead mother card very often, but I feel like this is one day that it is okay for me to say, "Hey, I had a mother too, and she's dead, and I miss her."
Mother's Day, for those of us who have lost our mothers is kind of like Valentine's Day for single people (which I am also an expert in) but worse. When you are single on V-Day, there is always the hope that maybe next year you will have someone to celebrate with. But I know that no matter what, I won't enjoy Mother's day next year any more than I am enjoying it this year.
In all fairness, though, Mother's day isn't the only day that I miss my mom. I miss her every single day. Most of the time I can put that aside and go on with life like everything is just fine. But every once and awhile, I just need the day to sulk and pout and feel sorry for myself before I can get back to living. Those are the days when it hurts. When I can really see what I've lost and how much I will miss.
My mother never got to see me graduate from college with my 4.0. We didn't get to take the trip to Europe the summer after I graduated like we had planned. She didn't get to see me land my first job, or to quit my first job. I won't be able to call her the first time I fall in love, and I won't have her words of wisdom when I fall out of it again. She won't be there when I get married or when I have my babies. I won't get to watch her grow old and play with her grandchildren.
I was 20 when my mom died, 17 when she get sick. I am 25 now. But just because you are all grown up doesn't mean that you don't still want your mom every once in awhile. Sometimes the hole feels so big that I don't think I can ever fill it up. There is a great line in the movie You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan's character is talking about getting her book shop ready for Christmas without her mother and she says she was "missing her so much I couldn't breathe." I never understood what she meant until I lost my own mom. Now there are times when I do miss her so much that even breathing feels like an effort. There are days when I don't want to get out of bed because it hurts too much. And there are times when I would give anything to be able to talk to her again.
My friends say I talk about my mom like she is still here. In a way, I suppose she is. I find that I get more and more like her as I get older. And for better or worse, she is the voice in my head that tells me when I'm going wrong or doing right. The things she taught me still shape how I do things around the house: washing dishes, folding laundry, cleaning the bathroom. And I get told all the time how much I look like my mom. I've never seen it, really, but then again I don't think you ever think you look like anyone else.
But all that doesn't add up to what my mom was to me when she was alive. She was my best friend. She was my mentor. She was my confidante. She was the one person I could count on to always tell me the truth and to help me figure things out. She was so intertwined in my life that before she died, I couldn't imagine a life without her, and now I sometimes wonder how I can make it work. But I do. And it does seem to get easier as the years go by. It's been 5 years now and I don't have as many bad days I as used to. But I still miss her every day. And I probably always will.
So, to those of you out there who still have mother's to celebrate with today, count your blessings, because there are those of us in the world who would trade places with you in a heart beat if you asked.
Mother's Day, for those of us who have lost our mothers is kind of like Valentine's Day for single people (which I am also an expert in) but worse. When you are single on V-Day, there is always the hope that maybe next year you will have someone to celebrate with. But I know that no matter what, I won't enjoy Mother's day next year any more than I am enjoying it this year.
In all fairness, though, Mother's day isn't the only day that I miss my mom. I miss her every single day. Most of the time I can put that aside and go on with life like everything is just fine. But every once and awhile, I just need the day to sulk and pout and feel sorry for myself before I can get back to living. Those are the days when it hurts. When I can really see what I've lost and how much I will miss.
My mother never got to see me graduate from college with my 4.0. We didn't get to take the trip to Europe the summer after I graduated like we had planned. She didn't get to see me land my first job, or to quit my first job. I won't be able to call her the first time I fall in love, and I won't have her words of wisdom when I fall out of it again. She won't be there when I get married or when I have my babies. I won't get to watch her grow old and play with her grandchildren.
I was 20 when my mom died, 17 when she get sick. I am 25 now. But just because you are all grown up doesn't mean that you don't still want your mom every once in awhile. Sometimes the hole feels so big that I don't think I can ever fill it up. There is a great line in the movie You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan's character is talking about getting her book shop ready for Christmas without her mother and she says she was "missing her so much I couldn't breathe." I never understood what she meant until I lost my own mom. Now there are times when I do miss her so much that even breathing feels like an effort. There are days when I don't want to get out of bed because it hurts too much. And there are times when I would give anything to be able to talk to her again.
My friends say I talk about my mom like she is still here. In a way, I suppose she is. I find that I get more and more like her as I get older. And for better or worse, she is the voice in my head that tells me when I'm going wrong or doing right. The things she taught me still shape how I do things around the house: washing dishes, folding laundry, cleaning the bathroom. And I get told all the time how much I look like my mom. I've never seen it, really, but then again I don't think you ever think you look like anyone else.
But all that doesn't add up to what my mom was to me when she was alive. She was my best friend. She was my mentor. She was my confidante. She was the one person I could count on to always tell me the truth and to help me figure things out. She was so intertwined in my life that before she died, I couldn't imagine a life without her, and now I sometimes wonder how I can make it work. But I do. And it does seem to get easier as the years go by. It's been 5 years now and I don't have as many bad days I as used to. But I still miss her every day. And I probably always will.
So, to those of you out there who still have mother's to celebrate with today, count your blessings, because there are those of us in the world who would trade places with you in a heart beat if you asked.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want to.....
So this week at work was Crazy! The deadline for abstracts to be submitted for the National Neurotrauma Society Meeting in Orlando in July is coming up on May 15th and everyone in my lab has experiments going on which means I have about 1 million things to do every day to try and make everyone happy. Add that to the fact that my experiment isn't working so well, and you can see how my week maybe wasn't the best.
But it wasn't all bad. At least this week marked the return of some of my favorite shows from their Writer's Strike hiatuses (hiati? what is the plural of hiatus?). Numb3rs and Moonlight were back on Friday and Thursday saw the return of Supernatural (with a very funny episode, and one of my all time favorites) and Ugly Betty.
This week it's Betty's Birthday and she has planned and "perfect" birthday weekend getaway with Henry (her boyfriend who got his crazy ex-girlfriend Charlie pregnant). But, this being TV, we know that any "perfect" anything won't actually happen because, well, that would be boring, and boring doesn't make for good TV. So anyway, Charlie (the Baby Mama) shows up just in time to ruin Betty & Henry's plans. Betty gamely makes up a new itinerary, but Charlie manages to spoil that too by playing sick so Henry has to take her to the doctor. Because Henry has bailed on her, Betty's friend Gio tries to help her out, but his efforts fail as well and Betty end her birthday with no dinner, no fireworks, a failed carriage ride, and a dress covered in Hot Chocolate. No the best birthday ever.
But it wasn't all bad. At least this week marked the return of some of my favorite shows from their Writer's Strike hiatuses (hiati? what is the plural of hiatus?). Numb3rs and Moonlight were back on Friday and Thursday saw the return of Supernatural (with a very funny episode, and one of my all time favorites) and Ugly Betty.
This week it's Betty's Birthday and she has planned and "perfect" birthday weekend getaway with Henry (her boyfriend who got his crazy ex-girlfriend Charlie pregnant). But, this being TV, we know that any "perfect" anything won't actually happen because, well, that would be boring, and boring doesn't make for good TV. So anyway, Charlie (the Baby Mama) shows up just in time to ruin Betty & Henry's plans. Betty gamely makes up a new itinerary, but Charlie manages to spoil that too by playing sick so Henry has to take her to the doctor. Because Henry has bailed on her, Betty's friend Gio tries to help her out, but his efforts fail as well and Betty end her birthday with no dinner, no fireworks, a failed carriage ride, and a dress covered in Hot Chocolate. No the best birthday ever.
I felt for Betty. I really did. Because I know what it's like to have a birthday where nothing goes right. I am the queen of bad birthdays.
For at least four years running I had some of the worst birthdays and birthday parties of anyone I knew. It became a joke with me and my friends that I was under some kind of birthday curse.
First, there was my freshman year of college where a group of friends and I decided to go out to Jacobson Park and ride the paddle boats. Great idea, right? Maybe not. First off, there were five of us and only two to a boat which meant someone got to be the odd man out. Now, logic would say that the birthday girl shouldn't have to ride alone, but unfortunately, that wasn't how tings worked out. Two of the people with me, Monica and John, were totally into each other. They weren't dating yet, but would be soon and so they went together in one boat. That left me, MaryAnne, and Nick to split up for the other boat. At that time, we thought Nick had a thing for MaryAnne (boy were we wrong there) and so MaryAnne insisted that she ride in the boat with Nick. That left me as the luck gal who got to ride alone.
Okay, no big deal. I can do this alone, right? Sure. And, while it was very tiring, it wasn't horrible. But then when it was time to leave, we all pulled our boats back to the dock. When they were getting out of their boat, somehow MaryAnne managed to trip and hurt her toe. It didn't seem like too big of a deal at the time, but we heard about that damn toe for the next three years.
The next year, I wisely said NO to the paddle boats. Instead, MaryAnne (who was now the VP of Fellowship for APO) planned a kayaking trip on the Kentucky Rive for the weekend of my birthday. I wasn't thrilled about the idea, but it sounded like it could be fun, so I let her bully me into going. Unfortunately, things didn't start well. That year was 2001 and my birthday is September 16th which made it 5 days post 9-11. After that, I had no interest in going anywhere except home. But, because if I didn't go, they wouldn't have enough people to get the group rate, I went. In fact, not only did I go, but I had to drive because no one else would.
The actually Kayaking trip was fun, and we were all tired when we got back, but the plan was to stay up until midnight and celebrate my birthday (since we were going to be getting up early the next day to leave). At midnight, however, Nick was sick and in bed, and everyone else was too drunk to care, so I ended up eating some "Birthday Cookies" by myself and then proceeded to sleep on the floor since there weren't enough beds for everyone.
The next year, I had planned a big dinner out and then a movie. It was going to be on a Monday night, so I wanted something low key but fun. MaryAnne, however, decided to plan an APO scavenger hunt that night and wouldn't hear of changing the day. And, since most of my friends at that point were in APO, we went scavenger hunting instead of to dinner and the movie got moved to another night (which also ended in disaster with me sitting by myself during the movie since the theater was packed and we couldn't find enough seats together.).
By my senior year (and my 21st birthday) I knew enough not to make big plans. I wanted a simple dinner out with some of my friends. They wanted to get me drunk since I was now 21 and legal. UK wanted me in class. I had an 8am physics exam the morning after my 21st birthday so needless to say, it was a quick dinner with friends and then I spent the rest of my night studying for my exam.
Thankfully, now that college is over, the birthday curse seems to have been lifted some. I've had several decent birthdays in a row now. But believe you me, I know exactly how Betty felt when all her plans fell apart.
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