Thank you, Commons Maintenance.

The South Campus Commons maintenance staff is terrific.  Whenever a resident of SCC needs a repair, the resident simply fills out a maintenance request online and a staff member is (usually) knocking at the door within the next 24-48 hours.  (I learned that if it is an imperative repair, note on the request form that it is a "health risk" for a repairman to be at the door in less than 24 hours. For example, a shot glass falls down the garbage disposal creating a scary monster sound echoing from the depths of the sink every time you try to get rid of some food particles? Health risk. Who knows what sharp, lethal, shards of glass could shoot up and puncture your eyeball at any given minute?!)

Have I ever mentioned that Katlyn and I are residents of the handicapped side of the apartment? Our handicap- accessible shower has no bath, and is virtually an extension of the grimy linoleum floors with an extra drain and a transitional shower head. Imagine the fun adventures we have cleaning. When we came back from our short summer break, I noticed some mold growing where the bathroom floor meets the "shower" floor. HEALTH RISK!!!!!

Needless to say, Maintenance responded to our request for our condition to be taken care of within hours. The repairman left this note on the comment section of the Work Order:

"Clean it off and paint it." It was accompanied by a strange, large, pretentious-looking smiley face. 

Excuse the poor cell-phone quality photo. My camera cord is M.I.A.

Katlyn and I debated the seriousness of this comment. It is hard to decipher whether or not smiley-face-accompanied penmanship is sarcasm or not. Was he telling us to get off our Commons high-horse and take care of it ourselves as any other apartment leaser would do? As if. 

No, no, this was yet another example of how poor grammar can go terribly wrong.  When we checked the bathroom situation, we noticed the floor was cleaned, and painted. Simple case of a verb-tense mix-up.  Silly repairman forgot how to use the past tense, apparently. He almost fooled us into thinking he wanted the floor cleaned and painted in the FUTURE. Phew. And to think I almost got really upset with our lovely SCC maintenance team. 

As much as I hate a grammar mishap, I'd hate to clean black bathroom mold even more. 

Ten on Tuesday

Haven't done this in awhile.... Utterly pointless yet guiltily pleasing.

1. What’s the recipe for your favorite drink? (Smoothie, alchoholic, coffee, whatever.)
   I am a smoothie connoisseur. I love me some greek yogurt, honey, sliced almonds, flax, mixed berries and ice in a blender. It's the perfect post-workout energizer. Yumm-o. 

2. What kind of razor do you use?
   Venus. I spend obscene amounts of money on the replacement heads and almost always lose them before I can finish the pack. Once, after buying a pack of some ridiculous amount of razor heads from Target (like, 13 or something bizarre like that ... but hey, I'm a girl and Target has a spell on us so it's not that strange. I think.) I moved home to NJ for the summer and left all of those glorious new razors on campus.  Broke from the spell of Target, I used the disposable schick razors my Mother keeps in the linen closet. Well don't you know I had the closest shave my stumpy little legs had ever seen? Once I run out of my endless supply of Venus razor heads I think I'll stick to disposables. 

3. Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?
   Elmo! Or, "Momo" as I adoringly called him in my toddler years. 


4. What makes the perfect salad? (Lettuce type, toppings, dressing, etc.)
I can go two ways when it comes to categorizing Salad Perfection:
1. Spinach, berries (blue- or straw-), vidalia onion, cucumber, and a homemade honey-dijon salad dressing.
2. Romaine, marinated grilled chicken, avocado, sauted green peppers, grilled onion, salsa or a salsa-derived dressing, and a tortilla strip garnish.

5. What was your favorite subject in school?
English, always English. I was and forever will be a nerdy grammarian who loves to read. 

6. What’s your favorite summer tradition?
 It used to be opening and closing the summer at Woodside. Now those days are over and I don't have a tradition per say. However, my favorite summer day includes waking up early to go to the beach and end the day watching the sunset, eating grilled food and drinking chilled wine. 

7. Do you suffer from season allergies? How do you combat them?
Yes, the spring is a bad time for my nose and throat. I am a poor medicine consumer as I always forget to take it. Therefore, I simply complain about my allergies until they go away. Seems to do the trick. 

8. How often do you have to charge your cell phone?
Approximately every 5 hours. Who cares?

9. Do you have a bucket list?
Yes! Check it out 

10. Do you have any desire to go back to school?
Still in school....and I have no desire to ever leave.  Thank gosh my future profession is leading me back through the doors of a schoolhouse. 

A Year Ago Today...

I was spending my first day in Spain.  (Read about it here. )

Today, instead of getting settled into a hotel in Madrid, getting acclimated to strange breakfast foods and meetings new friends, I am preparing myself for my first Open House (!!) for summer camp and packing for a girls weekend in Ocean City.

Not quite as adventurous as touring a foreign country, but still exciting nonetheless.

I'll be back Monday with a recap! Wish me luck meeting the parents of my Purple Roomers!!

Have a great Weekend,
Ms. Yelencsics ;)

Word of the Day

alexithymia (ah-lek-sah-THI-mee-ah) — 

inability to describe emotions in a verbal manner. 

Very appropriate for this week in my life where words don't seem appropriate nor, apparently, necessary. I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Hopefully I'll be back to my pithy blogging habits shortly. 


For now I've fallen victim to a severe case of alexithymia. Who would have thought. 

A Grammatically Incorrect Hallmark Holiday.

I'm confused.  Today is the day we are supposed to celebrate our Dads and all the hard work, love and inspiration they instill in us.  It's a day we grill outside and heighten Hallmark sales. But we are supposed to be celebrating all dads, right? Not just one? 

All the cards I pick up, all the tweets I read, all the annoying "to the best Father in the entire world!" Facebook statuses say "Happy Father's Day." (If I'm being honest, most Facebook statuses eliminate the use of apostrophe altogether.) Sure, you're celebrating YOUR dad, but the day is dedicated to all 700,000,000 of them. My point? ... Shouldn't the greeting cards say "Happy Fathers' Day" to imply that the day belongs to more than one father? Maybe it would be more correct to eliminate the apostrophe and therefore any possession, so that the day is just labeled and not owned?

Options as I see them:
"Happy Fathers Day" = Happy day named for the plural form of Dad
"Happy Father's Day = Happy day that is yours only, Dad.
"Happy Fathers' Day" = Happy day that belongs to all the dads in the world. 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't really think so.  In order to make all fathers possessive of this third Sunday in June, the apostrophe should be after the 's' not before. Maybe I'll just avoid the phrase altogether and avert the possibility of incorrect grammar. 

I hope everyone enjoys today, whether you are celebrating it singularly or plurally. 

Happy Day, Dad! xoxoxox

Do yourself a favor

and watch this video. Prepare to laugh, or in my case, cry hysterically because I am emotionally challenged. Enjoy!

Rules of the Road: Garden State Parkway Edition.

I remember my first time driving south on the parkway as a rite of passage. Being able to drive on it, alone, with the top down, meant freedom.

 No matter the time of year, driving Parkway South evokes a feeling of elation and the burning desire to wear dark sunglasses while pumping obscenely loud music from the radio. Even if the ultimate destination isn't sandy, Parkway South still means driving "dts:" a true slice of Jersey Girl heaven.

For those of you following who are Jersey foreigners, the "Garden State Parkway" is referred to by natives simply as "The Parkway." It connects Cape May (exit 0) up to where North Jersey meets Chestnut Ridge, New York (exit 172). It hits all the shore points, and the exits are numbered according to at what mile it is located. A lot can be inferred from what exit you get off on the Parkway. When I meet someone from Jersey at Maryland, the instinctual question is always "What exit?"  If it's anything under 82, I give an apologetic head nod. If they give me an exit off the Turnpike I feel even sorrier... they must be a Westerner.

There is only one bad thing about driving southbound on the Parkway. And no, Friday rush hour traffic isn't it (at least for a convertible driver - more traffic means more sun exposure.) The only bad thing about driving Parkway South is that inevitably, eventually, you must drive Parkway North. Away from the beach, further from heaven.

Some advice for the Parkway South amateur or naive at heart: 
- The Parkway ranges from 4 lanes (damn South Jersey) to 10 lanes (thank you Central Jersey) total in both directions. Please never take the express route if you are trying to get to the beach. The expressway always only has two lanes. If there is an accident, you're screwed.  If there is a cop, you're screwed.  There is literally nowhere to go and my GPS indicates there is only one trivial minute of a difference in travel time from exit 105 to exit 131. Not worth the potential traffic.  Unless it is 3 o'clock in the morning and you are certain you are only one of five drivers within a 5 mile radius, take the local.

- Moreover, the expressway is for BENNYs and people who don't frequent the shore enough to understand the expressway is for BENNYs.  If you're a seasonal beach tagger, you take Local. Because you fit in and you know your sh*t. You're not racing to get home an hour and half away in New York, you follow traffic patterns and get home quickly in the left lane.

-Ah, the left lane. Only drive in the left lane if you are going at least twelve miles over the speed limit.  It is not for the faint of heart, nor out-of-staters.

- If you see a cop pulled over, writing some D-bag BMW driver a ticket, DO NOT SLAM ON YOUR BRAKES. Just because you are going 71 in a 65 the cop will not, I repeat, will not, drop everything he is doing to veer out into the middle of the highway and pull you over.  He is busy, and I have places to go. Carry on.

- Get an E-Z Pass.  Again, I have places to go.

- Before crossing the Verazzano, never, never, never drive in either of the outermost lanes.  The immense merging is a death zone waiting for Staten Islanders to skip five lanes (because they insisted on driving the Expressway) to get over to one of the three lanes that splits off at exit 127.  Stay central and alert. Being on the outskirts of the merger is asking for someone to cut you off at 85 mph.

See you on the Parkway - I'll be the blonde in the red convertible in the (local) left lane with the black sunglasses and blaring music. 

*Please take no offense to the rants of this proud Central Jersey Girl. This post was written all in good fun after an enjoyable drive home from the shore. Much love.