This is Spinal Tap

What started as a routine eye exam to change the prescription in my glasses has now turned into a MRI and spinal tap. As many of you don’t know, I’ve recently been diagnosed with what they call papilledema, which is “optic disc swelling that is caused by increased intracranial pressure” (according to Wikipedia). I was completely freaked out when my optometrist threw out the words MRI and spinal tap. I’ve been freaked out for the past week because I didn’t know what the MRI was going to show. I was worried that maybe there was something more wrong with me like a tumor. So today was d-day and I experienced my first MRI. For an hour and a half I listened to extremely loud and obnoxious “techno” music. The MRI machine makes extremely loud noises and the noises and combinations resemble those of techno music. Let me tell you, it got old real quick. To pass the time, I played the game with myself of trying to figure out the patterns or what would come next. Having to lie still for an hour and a half is daunting. I could not wait until I was done just to be able to sit up! Luckily, my MRI was normal (no tumors yay!) and it showed that my optic nerve was swollen so then the next step is a spinal tap. I wasn’t planning on having my first epidural at 20 but I guess you roll with the punches.

I just want to say thank you to everyone for being so supportive! I believe Leemaw and Loco worried enough for me so they helped me stay calm! I absolutely love you all and thanks for being such a rock! I’m not real sure how they treat an increase in spinal fluid pressure but I guess we’ll wait and see! I just can’t wait to be able to read for hours and not have my eyes go blurry. What I’ve learned from all of this is you should never disregard changes in anything because they could be signs. If I didn’t ask Halfsie why my eyes would go blurry for periods of time or told my doctor about my focusing problem I never would have been diagnosed so the moral of the story is to always speak up and get things checked out even if they don’t seem like a big deal!

Stay healthy!

XO Katie

RHONYC Season Finale

No surprise here, but Katie and I are obsessed with reality TV.  Every week, both of us watch a selection of shows and text back and forth the entire time.  This week, we were eagerly anticipating the Season Finale of the Real Housewives of New York City.  Here are our reactions:


Katie:

Chic c’est la vie! C’est bon! C’est bon!

I really don’t know where to start. I am actually extremely disappointed in the season finale of Real Housewives of NYC. First off, I adore Natalie Cole and having her sing with Luann was just not up to muster. I feel like I would sing “Love” way better than Luann ever could. Also, who throws a one-year anniversary party with your boyfriend?  I actually agree with Jill and they shouldn’t have had a party unless they were engaged. Throughout the season I did notice that Ramona has been trying to steal everyone’s thunder so I wasn’t surprised when she decided to have her pregnancy hoopla happen during Luann’s party. This whole episode was just lack luster for me. I was expecting so much more out of the NYC housewives. The thing that angered me the most was the end of the episode when they list what everyone is up to. They tried to be too clever and frankly it was stupid. #notafan

All in all, I’m sad that the season has ended but I’m so glad that I still have my Jersey girls to watch and counting down the days until I can play Andy’s Watch What Happens Live drinking game.

Lynn:

Hummers, limos, and yachts. Oh my!

Unfortunately, the vehicles were the most impressive portion of the season finale of the Real Housewives of New York City.  Overall, this episode was truly disappointing.  In a season featuring camel rides, two huge Sweet 16 parties, and more drama than I can keep track of, I expected more.  The episode begins with the Countess taping her music video.  Can we talk about a free publicity stunt?  She "wanted to share the time with the other Housewives." #BS  It doesn't take a genius to figure out that she wanted the other ladies in the video for free in order to help promote it.  However, her plan failed and Ramona "Turtle Time" Singer, Alex "I Think I'm a Model, but Really I Just Pose Nude" McCord, and Sonja "Wow, I'm Broke...and Naked" Morgan all declined to appear.  Hmmm...surprise surprise - too smart for you Countess.  The most shocking moments in the episode occurred during the Countess's yacht ride.  First off, who hosts a one-year anniversary party? #ijustneedsomeattention  Second, why would the Countess think it's appropriate to sail by the Statue of Liberty?  Did she forget that her husband's family brought it to the US?  Even Ramona picked up on that one because....she wasn't drinking any Pinot! Because, even better, she thought she was pregnant.  Ramona, you're not pregnant, you're just getting old.  Don't even get me started on the end of the episode commentary on each woman.  This is usually a highlight of the season finale, but again, really disappointed this time.  Bravo, your "witty" quips and attempts at banter were flops - let Andy Cohen stay as the funny one.

XO Katie & Lynn

#ZTANLC

ZetaLand: (n) a mystical land where one can be united with hundreds of one's sisters in order to gain friendship, learn leadership skills, and win fabulous awards for one's chapter. I just returned home from ZetaLand where I was privileged to meet over 500 of my sisters.


Yes, you read that right.  571 sorority women united in one location at one time.  Here is an extremely brief recap of an incredible 4 days with my fantastic sisters.

Day One: Wake up crazy early to go to the airport.  Sit awkwardly in the gate area eyeing every college age female and debating if they are one of your sisters.  Manage to unite with several sisters and begin your journey to Indianapolis together.  I began in Philadelphia, flew to Detroit with 9 amazing women, had a one hour connection in Detroit, and then flew to Indianapolis.  About half of the flight to Indianapolis was composed of Zetas.  Arrive in Indianapolis and head to #ZTANLC.  Bob and weave through all 571 women in order to find the others from your chapter.  Link up with them and head to lunch and opening session.  Attend several sessions and workshops for the rest of the day.  NLC (National Leadership Conference) was themed "Create the Change."  We were all grouped into C.I.A. groups (Change in Action) for the majority of our workshops.  These women are absolutely incredible!

Day Two: Crawl out of bed in time for a Yoplait themed breakfast.  Yoplait and Zeta Tau Alpha are partners in the fight against breast cancer.  On Day Two, we learned that Zeta Tau Alpha would be receiving a $15,000 donation to the Zeta Tau Alpha Foundation from Yoplait in recognition of the pink lids we helped collect.  Day Two was spent in and out of multiple workshops and speeches addressing the theme of change.  The speakers included several Past National Presidents for Zeta.  We are privileged to have numerous living Past Presidents and all were in attendance at NLC.

Day Three: We were invited to attend a special breakfast to learn about the Traveling Leadership Consultant (TLC) position.  TLCs spend the year after graduating traveling the country in order to provide leadership, guidance, and assistance for Zeta chapters.  A record setting 100 women were in attendance to learn more.  After lunch, we were all shuttled off to 3450 Founders Road.  For those of you who do not know, that is the address of Zeta Tau Alpha's International Office (we are international rather than national due to our chapters in Canada).  Indianapolis is home to many offices for fraternities and sororities.  Around the corner from our office, you can find office space for Alpha Xi Delta, Theta Chi (they own the old office from ZTA), and many others.  However, I think ours is definitely the most impressive.  Tell me what you think:

It is a huge 20,000 square foot mansion.  It comes out of nowhere, and it is truly an inspiring sight.  This building is truly Zeta paradise, housing our Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity, Zeta Tau Alpha Foundation, and Zeta Tau Alpha Housing Corporation offices.  Any piece of Zeta memorabilia you could want can be located within this building.  After visiting the office, we all began to prepare for the Crown Chapter Award Ceremony.  Crown Chapter honors chapters that reach a standard for recruitment, leadership, programming, finance, and several other criteria.  My own chapter had not won this award since 2000.  Well, guess what....

WE WON!  This was probably the proudest moment of my Zeta career.  It was great to see many years of hard work finally pay off.

Day Four:  Before leaving Indianapolis, we gathered as a group for a special Zeta ritual.  Obviously, I cannot post the details of it, but it was a fantastic experience that I will treasure for many years.  It was very special to unite with all of my sisters around a ritual that bonds us together.  After the ritual, we all departed from the hotel and headed to the airport.  I linked back up with the 9 women I traveled to Indianapolis with and we reversed our trip, flying to Detroit and then Philadelphia.

NLC: 3 chapter awards.  Countless memories and friendships.  An unforgettable experience.

Zeta Love,
Lynn

Harry Potter mania: the end of an era

When I left work tonight I did a quick check of Twitter and Facebook and all there were were posts about Harry Potter. I get it. It’s an end of an era but the era ended a long time ago after the seventh book was released.  It’s just sad to think that something that has been around since I was in the 3^rd grade is ending. I remember being in school and first hearing about Harry Potter because they were worth so many points in accelerated reader. It also made us all feel so grown up because they were such big books for such tiny kids. I’m not a die hard HP fan but I did enjoy it and I enjoyed all the movies, but I realized when I watched part 1 I didn’t remember half the characters or plot because I read the book so long ago. I will say that I am jealous that a group of my friends up at school who are all together watching it while I’m sitting here at home after a day at work. I would love to go just to see all the hoopla and see everyone’s costumes. Life goes on. As I said to Franny earlier, I’m only sad I’m not at the midnight showing because it’s the last one but seeing Twilight at midnight is more worth it to me and I won’t miss that for anything, even dollar beers.

XO Katie

PS- woke up to a text from AJV that just said "sorry". Wow.  

And so it begins

This is not at all how I envisioned my first post to be, but as usual, nothing in my life goes according to plan.

First off, Lilly and I decided we needed to start a blog because people will not believe what happens to us on a daily basis. We also have a lot of opinions on everything Lilly, TSM, and anything on Bravo.  We hope that you will find this all entertaining and for you all who know us you will see another side of us.

I planned on having the first post about Lilly and I’s reunion this past weekend but greater things have come to light. Here’s the short version…Lilly’s plane was canceled not once but TWICE! I think the gods had it out for us so instead she arrived Saturday afternoon. We hit the local froyo place and had the most amazing flavor…cake batter! It was the closet thing I could get to a cupcake. Then we proceeded to head to the outlets where we did considerable damage at JCrew, which was well worth it. Sunday we drove all around the Burg to find a shower curtain. Who would have thought it would have taken 4 hours and numerous stores to find one. While we shopped we had people staring because we were wearing our matching vineyard vines letters. Don’t care. I was so sad when I had to take Lilly back to the airport Monday night but I realized in 5 short weeks we will be back at school and inseparable.

So here is how my night has gone. I had a good night at work. It was super slow and we had a monsoon again but whatever I love my managers so I had fun.  While I was at work I received a picture message from my ex-boyfriend, he will be AJV. The picture was of an Indian picture he hung on his wall. He is known for sending me stupid pictures like this. So I ask him if the Indian has a name. He called it FlyingKateEagle. Said that was interesting and then he told me that we should sleep together. Um hello. We have been broken up for over a year now and I literally have no attraction to him or enjoy his presence anymore. He has turned into too much of a hippie/yuppie. So all this flabbergasts me. I can tell that he has had one too many. He goes on to tell me that we’ll sleep together when I come to visit (never planned on visiting) because we can’t do it in front of the Indian. This is not real life.  I literally am speechless. This can’t be happening. So I’m going to just sit here and ponder the events of tonight and wonder what tomorrow will bring. #jokelife

XO Katie