What a trooper.

Out of everyone in the house, I must say Howie is quite the man. Here's why.

Howie works at the front desk of one of the dorms on campus. The shifts are all late night shifts going from either 9pm-12am or 9pm-1am on the weekends. He works around 3 nights a week (I think), sometimes on nights were we even have practice in the mornings. This means that while we are all tucked in bed - Howie's at work. By the time he closes up and bikes home it's around 12:15ish. Then by the time he gets to bed it's a little later. He sets his alarm like the rest of us and wakes up at 5:45am.

I could talk about Howie's unhealthy coffee addiction (just the other day he had two cups at home and when I saw him in the business building he had just bought a third), or about how I think we should start weening him off the caffeine - but I won't. Let's just leave it saying the guy is a real trooper and very committed.

Black Velvet

Saturday was our team's "Black Velvet." For rowing teams, black velvet signifies the beginning of the season. For East coast teams it represents the time where the ice breaks and melts, and the team can finally go on the water - not a problem for us. Regardless, it is a special event for rowing teams across the nation.

The day was filled with activities - from practice in the wee hours of the morning, to the open boathouse and alumni row in the afternoon, to the banquet in the evening. I'd say the entire day was a success, and although this post isn't exactly about what happened at my house, it is about something important that happened out all of our lives. Here are a few of my favorite parts!

The open boathouse is always something memorable. For the past three years the President of our school, Father Engh, has come out to where we row on Black Velvet to bless our boats. Because his brother rowed, he understands things about the sport that many cannot. He makes it a point to try and get to know the athletes and to make it to regattas throughout the year.

Our team with Father Engh

The dinner is my favorite part of the day however, and this is where my girly side comes out. I never have an excuse to dress up. You can pretty much always find me in sweatpants or athletic gear. Just this morning I had time to shower after practice before class. I had time to put on a cute sweater with cute boots. When I walked into the kitchen Tobe asked me why I was getting so dressed up. Like wearing leggings and a sweater is fancy? Anyway, you've all seen the dress I was going to wear featured in the Shopping post! My friend Karla (also a coxswain) told me a couple days before Saturday that she had made makeup appointments for us, which was really nice considering I had no idea what to do in that area! Everything came together quite nicely. I loved seeing some of my housemates parents - especially Tobe's. And because of them, I was able to finally get the picture I've been trying to get since moving in.

Spencer, Tobe, Me, Dan, Howie

Just a little sensitive

As I mentioned in a previous post, the boys know about my blog. Dan, Tobe, and Howie all found out at the same time, while Spencer was out of town. They immediately read every single post from the beginning - and got a good laugh out of it. It's really not a big deal now since I'm pretty sure Tobe's the only one who ever really checks it! That being said, some people in my house (spencer) are a little too sensitive to just laugh about it.

When he got back from Hawaii - that's another story - the guys obviously told him about the blog. He looked at it, basically skimmed it, but refused to read it. He won't read it because he said he's afraid he won't like some of the things in it. He won't read it because out of everyone in the house, he knows he fights with me the most. Today he was icing his hip flexor since it's bothering him a bit. He was sprawled out on the sofa, you know, sitting legs open like most guys do acting like they need more room for their junk than necessary. The ice was inside his shorts, giving the impression that his area was quite large. I tried to snap a picture of it to blog about - but Tobe warned him. This resulted in angry Spencer. He stormed off and yelled about how he can't even ice himself in his own home without getting blogged about. He wasn't very nice.

Hopefully he stops being grumpy and a little too sensitive. :)

Games nights and long weekends.

Last Monday was President's day and therefore we all received a much needed day off. However, just because Monday is a national holiday, doesn't mean we get off from practice! Oh no. We still wake up at 6 and head on over to the boat house. This means that while everyone takes small weekend trips or goes out and stays up late, at my house, we don't. I decided to plan something fun because of this, and created a game night! I invited all our friends over and the night was filled with Taboo and The Game of Things. We ordered pizza and had a great time. Now for perhaps my favorite part of the night - Tobe.

Tobe didn't play with us most of the night because he's an engineer and his nights are spent doing homework and blah blah blah. On top of the homework, he wasn't feel too swell and took NyQuil. After taking NyQuil, he decides to join our game. I think it was a combination of being tired, sick, and the medicine that did it, but Tobe was basically acting delirious. He was literally giggling throughout the game. I laughed and tried to snap some pictures.

Shopping

When you live with boys you have no one to give you advice on clothes or any other girly things. We have a Crew banquet coming up this weekend that marks the beginning of our season. It's a formal event with a dinner and all the alumni come. I always get really excited about it because it gives me an excuse that I never really have to dress up! All of the boys in my house will be wearing suits looking all handsome. Parents come in from all over (which is another thing I love) and we have a party afterwards. For the past two years I've worn a dress I already owned - I'm all about the re-wearing. But this year I decided it was about time for me to buy a new dress! I went shopping with my friend Laura one day on the weekend. We shopped for four hours. I bought nothing. It was miserable. I'm not a big fan of shopping in the first place, I know, quite un-ladylike. It drives my mother crazy. The point is the day was a huge letdown. The next day, in class I might add, I was looking online at this little store hoping to find something. I did!! The problem was they only had two dresses left, one of them in my size. Now, I can't go to the store by myself, I at least need one person to come with me!! It turns out that pretty much all of my girl friends were either in class or doing something. So I turned to the next best person, Howie. He agreed to come with me on the condition that he need not give me any advice. Needless to say, he gave me advice. And smiled and told me he liked the dress. He did all the things a girl friend would do and even zipped me up!

Here's Howie holding up the dress so I can send the pictures to my friends.
(real pictures will follow after Sat!)

Girl night + 1??

It's nice to know my housemates are confident with themselves.

My friend Kelly and I decided it was about time for a girl night with the two of us. It was a Saturday night so my other housemates were all out (Tobe being with Jessica!). Kelly came over, and we decided to watch "Just Friends" starring Ryan Reynolds. Just your typical romantic comedy/"chick flick" with the two of us.... plus Dan. Wait what??? That's right, plus Dan. Dan loves Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds is his man crush. So Dan was lovingly added to our night in. It was great. While Kelly and I laughed and quoted parts of the movie - Dan chimed in. He is probably one of the only guys I know who could actually make it through the entire movie with Kelly and me. It was the perfect night in. The best part? The night fully satisfied my need for a girls night in, even with Dan being  there.

We are all kids at heart

There are times when Spencer and I get along. Most of the time we are bickering - but it's like a brother and sister constantly annoying the other. Anyway, Spence and I had this big finance test today. We stayed in last night to study and both woke up early to study some more. We pretty much figured we knew everything with an hour or so left before class. It just so happens that (for February) it was a wonderfully sunny day. It also just so happens that we have a pretty awesome back yard. There is a little tree house, a stone pathway, lots open grass, and a beautiful tree that is currently blossoming pretty pink flowers. So, I opened our back door, went outside, and started to play.

When I say play, I mean play. I climbed our tree, skipped from rock to rock, went in the tree house - it was great. I had been so stressed all week about the test I was going to take in an hour that it felt incredible to just enjoy myself. I went back inside (singing to my music that was playing) and asked Spence if he wanted to come play with me. He looked at me like I was crazy. He said he was busy. (When I looked at his computer he was on youtube). I told him he should sing and come outside with me because it would make him happy - but he said he didn't like singing and that it didn't make him happy. He told me that I was such a child. I told him he needed to have fun before our test and to not be silly, everyone likes singing! Finally with enough encouragement, (or perhaps to get me to stop bugging him) he came outside.

I got Spencer to climb our tree. Later on I heard him whistling a song. Then on our way to class, I even caught him singing. So you see, everyone does like singing - and if you just give them time to show it, everyone is a kid a heart.