Is it Spring yet??

Being plagued by frigid subzero temperatures, vicious Rochester wind, and blinding snow-reflected sun is pushing me to the edge. Of course, I still love snow, but I'm ready to move on. Time for some nice sun, green grass, iced drinks, and warm lazy days. Too bad that's not coming for another 3 months, minimum. I'm in the midst of planning my class schedule for spring quarter - I'm ready to be back on campus and back at my job. Co-oping has been an AWESOME experience, no doubt, and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year... but RIT has some charm that isn't too noticeable until you leave.

Well, time for some shameless promotion plugs - on my co-op I have been designing a promotion campaign for the Little Theatre in downtown Rochester. It's been a crazy experience (drowning in work, cutting deadlines too close, seeing awesome results). We've been planning a College Night for all area students to come and get some sweet deals while watching awesome films. The event is tomorrow, running from 6pm-close. The entire intern team and I are expecting a great turn out, so it'll definitely be an incredible experience. Our team was even featured in Rochester's local newspaper, the Democrat & Chronicle: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110124/GROUP01/110123011/College-night-coming-to-The-Little!

Speaking of advertising... the Super Bowl's coming up. Which means I might watch football for the first time this season. Apparently the Black Eyed Peas are performing the renowned half time show... something I'm not entirely excited about. Looks like the commercials will, again, steal the majority of my attention. No complaints there... though, if I see another tasteless GoDaddy.com commercial, I might just punch a wall. Or just lose some faith in advertising. Despite my doubts in some commercials, judging by the posted links by AdAge and AdFreak on Twitter about certain AFC/NFC Championship commercials, it seems like there should be a pretty solid line up for Super Bowl Sunday.

Stay warm!

Another One Down

Time keeps on moving too fast around here. I'm about to embark on week seven of my ten week co-op... which means I'll be sitting back in an RIT lecture hall in no time. I've been working on my schedule for the spring quarter, but that's proving to be difficult thanks to a few classes that I shouldn't let myself put off any longer. I suppose it's bittersweet... my absence from RIT's campus has certainly made my weekly returns more welcome, but I'm not sure I'm ready to move on from helpful real-world experience and work-free nights and weekends.

Yet again, I'm fresh off another wonderful weekend. Josh came up to visit and we had a great, hockey-filled couple of days. Friday's game was an easy win, 4-1, over Bentley... Saturday turned out to be a bit tougher. Who knew Bentley actually had a tough defense AND offense? Either that or we were seriously slacking. Thanks to a savior third period, we managed to tie it up 3-3 for the final. It was great to watch my Tigers light it up in that last period though. I can always count on an exciting time at Ritter Arena!

I've got some good things to look forward to in the coming months... the culmination of a lot of my work on co-op is next week, more Tiger hockey in the coming weeks, my 21st birthday, seeing Joshua Radin in concert with my boy, coming home for a nice break, the Super Bowl (an aspiring advertiser's addiction), the start of a new quarter, and more. 2011 has been treating me well so far, and I can only hope that that's a good indication for the year as a whole.

Back at It.

And so starts another work week after a gloriously relaxing weekend. I spent my time trying to figure out the art of baking bread (I made four loaves, but that art is yet to be discovered), watching old Bones episodes and movies, and of course, cooking. I dabbled in reading my gigantic travel book (which may have caused me to have an odd but awesome dream about scuba diving in New Zealand) and I was actually slightly productive on top of it all.

I've been surprisingly good at keeping to my resolution so far (whoo, one week in!) and have been cooking freshly made meals almost every night since I got back to Rochester.  My roommate and I got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning to trek over to the Rochester Public Market (a godsend, really) to get some cheap veggies for the week. I got zucchini, squash, peppers, broccoli, grapefruit, celery, and potatoes for a fraction of the Wegmans equivalent.  Here are some of the week's highlights:

 Steak, pan-fried potatoes, and oven-roasted asparagus

Rotini, spinach, sausage, and tomato-basil sauce

Oven-roasted veggies & potatoes, brown rice, and homemade bread

I've found cooking to be very relaxing so I'm looking forward to pursuing it a lot further.  Maybe I'll have to catch up on some Top Chef All Stars (guilty pleasure, much?) to inspire some more culinary creativity.

Things to look forward to this week: RIT Tiger Hockey this weekend, Josh coming up to visit, *hopefully* winding down the work for a ginormous project at Martino Flynn, and trying out some new recipes!

Hello, 2011!

It's January! I'm back in Rochester (solo, yet again *sigh*) and ready to tackle the new year.  Sort of.  I'll admit I was reluctant to return, considering the warmth of being home and the wonderful company of my parents and boyfriend.  Of course, I didn't want to leave those comforts - but I had to.  The continuation of my co-op awaits!  I arrived back in the ROC this afternoon, welcomed warmly by big fluffy flakes of snow falling on the airport runway.  Some unpacking and grocery shopping later, I am back in the swing of things.

My new year's resolution: eat healthier.  I've made a delicious menu for the week (which caused me to pay top dollar for about twelve different kinds of veggies... but I'm thinking it was well worth it).  Tonight's meal was pretty simple... roasted beets with olive oil and rosemary, broiled asparagus with shallots, and brown rice!

Tomorrow I head back to Martino Flynn to tackle some more advertising! Whoot! I had a wonderful break and, like all RIT students, I am not exactly ready to just jump back into things, but it'll be good to get immersed in it all again.

Make 2011 count!