• Last counseling session with Mike, family arriving on campus, Departmental Receptions, Filipino trip to Chuchay’s restaurant. 
• GRADUATION!
  
• Moving out & coming home
• Filipinas throw me a mini-grad party/dinner
• Major Thrifting successes with my sister: Weird-festive dress for Danica’s wedding, gold-strappy heels, J.Crew yellow-polka dot skirt, black shorts, white shorts, Detroit Tigers t-shirt, and Coach leather wristlet at Plato’s Closet; Black & white oxford kitten heels, skinny brown belt, & men’s denim button down at the Goodwill =$67.91. Summer staple pieces purchased. No more shopping until Minneapolis
  . 
• Whiskey date with Jimbo
• Unpacking, re-packing, de-cluttering
• Fruit market & good eating :)
• Skype date with Christina
• Coffee date with Bri at Plate 21
• Family connections & a house full of Filipina women

Weekend Wishlist:

• twin hangout
• catching up with girlfriends
• Celtics win, please!
• wine + stargazing

• Final Day of Finals Week - Dinner at Bombay & late-night drives
• Senior Week Warrior mode: Sunset-Sunrise Champagne Sleepover Party, Tennis Court Luau, CA End-of-Year Banquet and Retirement Party, Heaven & Hell, Velvet Ice Cream factory tour, Glitter & Garbage: The Ke$ha Party, Mathletes & Athletes, Wyandotte Winery Tour, Columbus Clippers game, the Rave, Senior Café, Guacamole and Ginger Vodka Tonic picnic, Fancy Photoshoot & Fancy dinner
  
• English department lunch, comments from outside examiners
• Comfort Women paper returned with an A+ on it and a comment that I should try to revise and publish (omg WHAT!?)
• Final Semester Grades: HELLO 4.0
• #twitterproblems @nicosroom
• Weird news, bad news? from home…and dealing with it.
• Thursday night manicure/pedicure

Weekend Wishlist:

• Introducing family to Chuchay & the gang at my makeshift Filipino home in Columbus
• 4-Years in the Making: Graduation
• Going home for a month or two

• Last Day of Classes! —The irony of only staying sober long enough to drive oneself to the liquor store, three new lipsticks, dinner at Griller’s Barbeque (in Howard, Oh), Sunset Boulevards, rainbow shots & Celtics 4th quarter with Kenny, hallway conversations, dancing at the rave.
• Saturday early afternoon driving country roads with the windows rolled down and the country music turned up
• Home, good food, rest, iPhone, purchasing a real pair of sunglasses
• Illness: body takes revenge on me for making several bad decisions in college, eating dining hall food, and staying up late over a four-year period.
• RESTRIFE UPDATE - 05.07.12 South: MY LAST DUTY NIGHT EVER.
• Guacamole & Whiskey-Lemon Ginger Tea Study Party
• CUPCAKES IN A JAR: Vodka-Red Bull Cupcakes for my last program as a Community Advisor
  
• Newly established arbitrary and ridiculous husband-qualification: must own at least one pair of Nantucket Red pants/shorts. “That’s how I know boys are rich” -B.S.M. 
• Note: iPhone’s front facing camera is extremely useful as a mirror for reapplying lipstick in the middle of the library. It is extremely important to maintain appearances during exam week. 
•  Kenyon endings: parting gifts & last papers
   
• Moscow mules & reading for fun: Memories of Philippine Kitchens -part memoir, part cookbook. SO GOOD!

Weekend Wishlist:

• Highlight: The Sunrise-Sunset Champagne Sleepover! 
   
• Stargazing
• New whiskey tasting
• CA Banquet and Retirement [Party]

• Friday—Summer Sendoff-sort of: Honey Lemonade, Mango-mint iced tea, Starfucker, Big Boi & hair that smells like cigarettes
• Saturday—Cold Front & Rain: essentially halting all desire to participate in Sendoff-2; Honors Exam Part II & Honors Reception; Soco-amaretto limes at the VI; Fiesta dinner
• Sunday—Honors Oral Exam; Honors Kids Brunch, mimosas & Enchanted; Honors officially bestowed; Sendoff-3 on sunny South Quad; Bathroom mirror writing & sign hanging with the Prince of England; smoothies & gossip with the Tafts kids 
   
• Thoughts on Summer Sendoff: “I was like, wow, the children are jamming” -Prof. Sylvie Coulibaly
• Tuesday night Study Party with fresh guacamole, salsa, and dark & stormys. 
• Wednesday: REACH dinner banquet, Constructing Crazy: Women & Madness presentation, & drinks at the VI on Prof. Suydam—graduate with women & gender concentration: Check. New Love: Washington Apples
• Imparting honors wisdom on the rising seniors & Pink cupcakes
• Extra hour-Asian Studies seminar & Filipina Comfort Women presentation
• Thursday night manicure/pedicure

Weekend Wishlist:

• LAST DAY OF UNDERGRADUATE CLASS
• Quick home trip
• iPhone
• Supermoon gazing
• perfect comfort women paper & be done with undergraduate career!
• Sunset-sunrise sleepover invitations

• LMAO: How to be a Lady
• Maple Bourbon Cocktail: hell yes.
• Restrife Update—04.20.12 South: LAST WEEKEND DUTY NIGHT EVER! 
• COSI Museum Trip—Race exhibit & long detours in the bus.
• Brittney’s real, legit birthday party.
• Saturday night study, gossip, laughter.
• Biology Final… i think I got a C… “Good. You need to be knocked down a peg or two, you cocky bitch”-D.S. 
• Alphabet noodles in the soup!
• Poem in your pocket day
• Gym 2x
• Great Hair Day
• Installation of the “Constructing Crazy” display
• Pineapple Upside-down-ish mini-cupcakes & Strawberry Lemonade
   
• FRIDAY MORNING BIO CLASS GETS CANCELLED: THURSDAY IS THE NEW FRIDAY.
• Note to self: Get wealthy many years from now with the benefit of marriage 

Weekend Wishlist:

• TRIPLE SENDOFF-HONORS WEEKEND featuring Starfucker, Big Boi, The English Honors Written Exam, The Honors Reception with the Outside Examiners, The Oral Defense, The Honors Brunch, The Awarding of English Honors, & Nicolyn and Mara’s Whiskey Date
• Stargazing

• Friday night: Liquid Cupcakes, Fried food feast, tulip stealing, Bingo, 24-hour Shakespeare Marathon & shameless flirtation with impossibility, & Motown dancing
• Relay for Life :)
• Sunday morning drives, country songs, & cupcake baking
  
• Gym 2x, yoga 1x
• Symone’s photoshoot: “Nicolyn, don’t complain about being a celebrity.” -J.V.
• Chocolate Chip Cookies & G&T’s
• Oops: did I really forget to wipe off my retro red lipstick before working out? Well, as mom says, if I meet my prince charming in the gym I don’t want my lips to be naked. 
• Honors Exam, Part I revealed: Second spring break is over. I have to do homework now. Fuck. 
• “Carlos Bulosan & Filipino American Language(s)” Presentation for Asian Autobiography seminar. Phenomenal. 

Quote(s) of the Week:

• “I would encourage you not to get perfectionist about this” -Prof. Ted Mason
• “I’d like something a little more sexy for our title” -Prof. Mary Suydam
• Overheard in the Writing Center: “You use too many commas. The comma, semi-colon, & the dash are all friends. I’m a big fan of the dash, it’s like a semi-colon and a half” 

Weekend Wishlist:

• Bust out honors exam essay
• COSI Museum
• Sisterhood discussions
• BSM’s Birthday Party
• Mini-cupcakes!

• Columbus Success: Tensuke Japanese & Belle’s Bakery, CAM International Market, Gosling’s Ginger Beer, Plato’s Closet Thrift finds:
  
  Grey Shirt-dress $6, Gold-shimmery-flowy top $4, mauve & lace tank top $4, denim jacket with the original H&M tag on it $10, red patent wedges $9. I guess it remains true that I really do have all the luck!  
• Disgraceful demotion to pauper status. 
• Saturday night workout/baseball/rejuvenation & Jewish-made chicken noodle soup
• Easter Sunday at Kenyon + Chinese for dinner with friends :)
• Kansas City postcard from Mom
• Late-night white board messages
  
• Gym 4x
• National Library Week Mini-Cupcakes:
   
• #realtrivialproblems: “The only reason I wear underwear is so that other people will see them. No man has seen my underwear in over six months. It is clearly a failure.”
• SO PRETTY: Professionally printed & bound copies of my thesis
   
• Resume workshop
• HELLA CUTE & UNAPOLOGETIC

Weekend Wishlist:

• Liquid Cupcakes
• Entertainment at the Housing Lottery - the glory & the pain
• Relay for Life-ing
• MRS-ing

• Woodchuck Spring, Surly Temples, & Dark and stormy Friday nights––literally; + D’lo’s performance; + Drinks with D’lo, Motown & doing good for ALS; + Complementing my wardrobe/winning the Reds hat
  
• Senior SYM––Presenting: the sexiest, bone thin WATERMELON you have ever seen + Bonus, flashback photo: my royal twin and me at our first SYM party. Things clearly haven’t changed much in the last four years. 
  
• Thesis Completion/Submission & Celebrating with my colleagues, honors kid style
   
• Accepted: Northeastern University
• “Normalicy” is not a word.  
• Wednesday night whiskey queening + stargazing 
• Opening Day - Red Sox at Tigers + dressing for the occasion. L 2-3, better luck Saturday :(
• Thursday seminar: what on earth was going on there? On the plus side, lemon cookies. 

VOTE FOR THE WORLD WHISKEY DAY PHOTO COMPETITION.

Weekend Wishlist:

• CAM International Market, Trader Joe’s, Thrifting, & eating adventures in Columbus 
• Sleeping
• Stargazing
• MRS-ing. 
• Easter dinner with friends?

• Sisterhood discussions.
• Outings: Whiskey tasting. Neat, please. + The Rainbow shots.
  
• Smelling the boy-deodorants with Anna at Kroger. Next chance you get, please tell a good-smelling boy that he reminds you of “exotic winds and spicy freedom.” Sexiest man smell ever.
• Cloudy-day cookout, country music, & salt and pepper cheeseburger.
• Iranian New Year
• Library Sunset watching
• Saturday-night-in oatmeal cookie baking. 
• Reality-check: Pseudo-summer’s end & spring/March in Ohio’s true colors coming out. 
• Senior Art Majors Exhibit at the Gund Gallery: refreshments and mingling like real people. 
• World Whiskey Day: “Oh my God, it’s better than Christmas and Sendoff combined!” Ladies and Gentleman, please bow down to the Whiskey Queens, myself and CVK. 
  
• LOTS of personal writing. I guess the Thesis has been sucking out my creative juices all year long. I’m baaaack & it’s great!
• Tulip picking!
• Warm, windy 2-hour afternoon power outage  + Sips dinner/studying 
• Adrian Piper Calling Cards: how awesome are these?
• Basically finishing my thesis during a seminar…multitasking!
• Chilly-night Bonfire with the CAs + Whiskey Day Part II, incase you were busy on the real one. Whiskey-Lemon-Ginger-Tea may possibly be the best thing ever. And you can pretend it’s good for your health.
• Senioritis…good thing it’s almost the weekend!
• Bench-sitting & chocolate eating

New Addition to the List of Goals: Since I’m about to turn in my thesis and my future-life plans are falling into place nicely, spend the last six weeks of college obtaining my MRS. Line up, boys. 

Weekend Wishlist:

• ALS benefit at the V.I.
• Shocking my mom + Watermelon Dress
• Stargazing
• Spring Woodchuck Cider + Surly Temples?
• Ke$ha party?

• Miami/Oxford exploring, research presentations, apartment tours, Patterson’s Café
  
• Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky hanging out & seeing the whole town with M.L.’s mom, possibly the greatest woman I have ever met. 
• Stopping at Chuchay’s Authentic Filipino Cuisine on the way back to Kenyon
• Catching up with friends
• Debut of the cupcake tree
   
• Thesis-ing for hours on end. 
• pseudo-summer’s arrival in mid-Ohio
• Shot glasses are for healthy snacks, too!
  
• Literature of Prescription exhibit & panel 
• Bri’s card + letter writing
• Dining on the patio + reading on the porch swing. 

Quote of the Week: “I don’t eat ribs in public. You have to have standards.” -Matt T. My sentiments exactly. 

Weekend Wishlist:

• Sisterhood
• Dressin’ fancy & reviewing my dinner etiquette
• Thesis-ing
• Warm-weather reveling: sippin’ whiskey at a legit cookout
• A thunder storm, perhaps?
• stargazing

LA Trip, continued:

• Venice Beach & Santa Monica Pier
• USC Men’s Volleyball vs. Penn State. 
• Lady Antebellum + Ke$ha = greatest playlist ever known to man? Does anyone else think they would have a powerful world tour? Or am I just mad?
• Hollywood & Highland: Road to fame?, Chinese Theater, Star walkin’, Crumbs’ cupcakes, local eats: In-n-out burger, Oxford shoes with a heel at DSW for 70% off=$13.88; Hollywood & Vine: Barry’s star, Roscoe’s, the Hollywood sign.  
• Bacaro LA-tapas and wine bar. 
• Sunday brunch at Jacks n Joe + Sunday relaxing and productivity
• Dinner at L.A. Live & the Clippers game on the TVs
• UCLA district shopping—flat brown oxfords at Top Shoes, Filipinotown, & Thrifting in Melrose.
• Pumpkin Ravioli in Vodka Sauce & Bobby’s 21st Bday Acai Vodka, yum yum

My return to the small-time midwest!

• What? Why are 6-packs of Yuengling only $5.89? I thought Yuengling was fancy?
• Patio-sitting Coffee Date with Thomas at Biggby
• Sent Full Draft of Thesis to my advisor. Weee. So close. Yet, so far. 
• Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Whiskey Buttercream frosting. OMG, yes. 
   
• Visit to Miami U: afternoon reception with beer and wine, networking, dinner at Kona; Creative Writing students reading at Quarter Barrel & whiskey-and-gingers. Alone in the Holiday Inn…what happened to the roommate they e-mailed me about?—I’m pretty much in love with this town and this school.  

Weekend Wishlist:

• Cincinnati exploring
• St. Patrick’s Day celebrating?
• Back to Kenyon for the final stretch. 

• New camera a la future step-father
• Reisling, Mini-strawberry shortcake cupcakes, & bowling with Amanda, Kaitlyn, Anthony, Danica, & Jimbo
• Coffee shop/library/airplane/USC studying-15 hrs.
• Got all my best friends on board and ordered a ticket for LADY ANTEBELLUM’s show June 1 in the Cleveland area. Omg.
• Nail polish & Lipstick shopping
• Skype with Bri
• Smoothies-oh, how I’ve missed you
• Manicure/pedicure + watched documentary Killer At Large
• Monday morning, almost-4 hour coffee date with Carrie!
• Red Lipstick Life. 

Trip to Los Angeles! 

• finished Gulliver’s Travels; Tried On the Origin of Species. Gave up. Started Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room instead
• Morning tea & reading Virginia Woolf on the sunny balcony
• USC campus tour
• Bobby’s Sense & Sensuality in Indian Religious Literature class
• Blueberry Mint Lemonade & Pumpkin Milk Chocolate cake for lunch at Lemonade
• Studying undercover as one of the masses in the Fine Arts Library/on sunny benches/etc
   
• Feminist Pride Day/International Women’s Day
• Thrifting: found this Maggy London dress at Southern Cal Goodwill 
• Downtown LA Art Walk! Syrup: Sweet Summer grilled cheese sandwich, featuring: strawberries, munster cheese, orange spread, mint, & turkey on light flaky cuban bread; Colin, Fraternity Row.
   

Philosophical Question of the week: What is more strange in human beings: Involuntary Asexuality or Voluntary Chastity?

Weekend Wishlist:

• Venice/Beach; Santa Monica; LA Live
• lunch from a food truck?
• Hollywood
• Salakot Sizzle & Grill
• Zip car-ing around L.A.

• Sisterhood discussions on relationships/dating/lack thereof
• Mask making
• Snow Trails
• Masquerading & Taboo & Tortilla Pizza
  
• Clear, clear, starrry night
• CA Appreciation Day + Dinner at the Alcove + The South CA Calendar
  
• ACCEPTED: Miami University (Ohio), English M.A. Program & they called me on the phone with the news–they know exactly what welcoming means. 
• LEAP DAY: 63-degree sunny day + Gund Commons Cupcake Date with Kenny + CA dinner at Fiesta
• Rejection Letter: Ohio State 
• Lack-of-academic-motivation-because-I-Have-Real-Plans-Now-Cure: Cinnamon Hazelnut coffee from Middle Ground and idling in the middle of the library where people can judge you for being on Facebook/Tumblr/Google Reader. 
• Wonderful dinner with friends in Middle Ground instead of the depressing dining hall. Great way to say goodbye before the two week break!

Weekend Wishlist:

• Home & home cooked food & home friends & home adventures
• Michael’s cupcakes?

Spring Break Itinerary:

• 3/2-3/5 Toledo 
• 3/6-3/13 Los Angeles
• 3/15-3/16 Oxford, Oh 
• 3/16-3/18 Cincinnati

OMG, I’m so excited for my life

• Cupcake Date with Brittney
   
• Friday: Toga Party-unsafe/dark/trifling—But at least my laurel was legit.
  
• Saturday: Dance-a-thon for the orphans; drinking at the bar like a real person, Soco-Amaretto-Lime=cinnamon water, mmm; Grilled cheese; peppermint hot chocolate & stargazing.
• Amazing Race premier!
• Rear brakes out=$482. Ouch. 
• Awesome Skyping with Bri
• Rejection letters: Wisconsin, Michigan
• Food poisoning. As if I needed one more thing this week. 

Weekend Wishlist:

• Eating solid food
• Masquerading
• Lodging at Snow Trails
• less depressing circumstances

• Fandango - wine and hor d’oeuvres with the professors, how adult. 
   
• Late night walks, talks, & breaking down walls.
• Black, White, & Red all over ball
• Valentine’s Day at the Lonely Hearts Club & the cupcake tree!
   
• getting work done

Weekend Wishlist

• Cupcake Date
• The Roman/Greek debacle of a Toga Party