[[~ only the losers win ~]] [entries|friends|calendar] ally//sondra [ website | My Website ] [ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ] [ calendar | livejournal calendar ]

Wow. [20 Dec 2007|05:07pm] [ mood | bored ] It has been a loooong time since I wrote in here. Thought I might toss an entry up here since it's been more than a year. Especially considering that a lot has happened in that 14-month timespan. So, let's see... I last wrote in October. In December, Mike and I went to his cousin's wedding. It was a fun wedding, but the marriage didn't turn out as nice. =( We met my parents at the airport the very next morning to head to New York for several days. It was so beautiful up there in the winter!! Nice and cold, and all the decorations everywhere. We went up to the top of the Empire State Building at night, so it was crazy windy and cold. Mike and I went ice skating in Central Park. We all went to see Chicago. Mike and I also went to a Rangers-Islanders game at Madison Square Garden, which was awesome, and then took a horse carriage ride through the park, too. It was a great vacation before Christmas. Christmas came and went quickly. I became the associate editor at the Oracle, which made me lose my mind. I got to design lots of front pages, that was a lot of fun. I got to deal with more staff problems, too. Yippee. The first week of school, though, was crazy. Keeley Dorsey, a USF football player, died in the weight room at the Athletic Facility. That was really sad. =( In February, Alayna started talking to me again. We started hanging out again, and it was fun. =) In March, Mike and I had our two-year dating anniversary. =) We spent a weekend out in St. Augustine, and it was beautiful. It was a little warm during the day, so we got to enjoy the beach a little bit. We wandered around the historic downtown area, had a nice dinner. It was a wonderful weekend. Mike's birthday was in April. Mike and I took that day off work to go out, and it was the night of the Virginia Tech shooting. The next day at work was the worst night of my life in terms of work. I had to go through tons of AP photos and read through every story, compiling facts and a list of all those who died. I was having a really tough time handling all of it at work that night, and I kept getting really upset. I also covered my very first live event for a newspaper (I know, it took long enough, considering I worked at the Oracle for two and a half years). The Anberlin concert that was in April. =) I interviewed Stephen before the show, wrote a preview to the concert/review of their newest CD. And then I wrote a small review of the concert that night. It was pretty sweet. In May, Mike and I both graduated! We had a big party at Mike's house, and all of our family and friends came. It was great to finally be done with school, especially on time!! We spent a weekend at Disney with Mike's family, which was pretty fun. I also started working 32 hours a week at the Times on the sports desk as a copy editor. It's kind of crappy, because I still drive from Tampa four nights a week for work. But it's good experience, and most nights I enjoy what I do. In June, I went out with my mom to Bradenton for a night of Kids A-Flame camp. I forgot how much I missed being out there for the week. It was great to be there for the worship and message, and then get to see a ton of people I hadn't seen in a really long time! Then, at the very end of the month... ( MIKE PROPOSED TO MEEEE!!!!! ) So, that's it. At least most of it. Christmas is five days away, which is crazy. Thankfully, I have all my shopping done and I don't have to work on Christmas Day (I do have to work Christmas Eve, though). Hopefully I'll get to post again in a few days and do a picture update, too! In case I don't have time, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Years! <3 Love, Allison 6 comments|post comment

Nothing. [10 Jul 2006|12:04am] This entry turned out to be nothing, because it's not anything anyone else needs to see except for one particular person, who is already seeing it. Don't ask. post comment

Let's get these teen hearts beating FASTER, FASTER! [05 May 2006|02:03pm] [ mood | accomplished ] [ music | Panic! at the Disco ] This week, for the most part, has been so wonderful. Yesterday, we went to the beach for a few hours. We came home, cleaned up and made dinner. Then we went to the Devil Rays game. We came back and went and sat on a bench on the Intracoastal (which is our backyard, basically). We met some of our neighbors out there last night. This one guy we met has a bait box hanging off the dock, and he picked it up out of the water, and there were two sea horses in it!! He let Mike and I hold them, and then we let them go. IT WAS SO COOL! I HELD A FREAKING SEA HORSE! Pictures of the apartment to come soon.. Love, Allison post comment

This is so cool! [01 May 2006|02:40pm] [ mood | chipper ] I just moved! Ahaha! No, seriously. I have an apartment/condo in St. Petersburg through the end of August since I'm working at the Times for my internship. It was easier to find a place to live than to drive here five nights a week. So Mike and I moved out here for the summer. We moved today! WE HAVE OUR OWN PLACE! THIS IS SO COOL! We're still setting stuff up, but there isn't too much to do because it's furnished. Mike's playing his Xbox while sitting on the couch, and I'm over at the computer. We don't have any food yet, but his mom and my mom are driving over here in about an hour, and we're all going to go grocery shopping and get a few other things we need for here. I'm so freaking excited. This is the coolest thing ever. Mike and I have our own place. I'm so happy! Too bad it's only for four months. Love, Allison 5 comments|post comment

Fight with pride, and fight to the end [08 Mar 2006|01:51pm] [ mood | bored ] [ music | I Can Make a Mess Like Nobodys Business - WhisperingActually ] So I'm sitting in the office. I'm terribly bored, it's only 2, and I don't have class until 3:30. Sigh. So, I'm going to waste lots of time writing, which I haven't done in a long time. So this is your warning: It might get long. I just started three sentences with the word "so." And I'm about to do it again... So, lots of things have been going on lately. Besides being overwhelmed and constantly swamped at work, everything is pretty great. I've had a little bit of time to myself, some peace and quiet — actually, now is one of those times. It's completely quiet in the office, almost as if no one is here. But there's always someone else here. And everyone is always working. Last night, I got to meet Alayna's man. *teehee* He seems AMAZING! I'm so excited for her! <3 I was sick for about two weeks, but I never got a chance to rest and make myself better, because Brad was sick, too. He was sicker than I was, so he got to stay home. Brad and I almost have the same job, and if both of us aren't here, things are going to struggle. So I spent five or six nights at work when I shouldn't have been here, wearing a long-sleeve shirt, my jacket, the sweatshirt I got Mike for Christmas, Mike's leather jacket and wrapped in a blanket — and still cold. That's not exactly good. But I didn't have much of a choice. Finally, last week, I made Mike drive me home after work, and I skipped both of my classes so I could be home and rest all day. And I think that helped, and I'm finally healthy, for the most part. My classes are a little crazy this semester. I have 16 hours, and it seems like more. The best part is that two of them are online. One of them has an assignment due every Friday, and besides the fact that it's annoying because I always have to check out books from the public library for it, it's pretty easy. It only takes an hour at the most every week. The other class I haven't even started yet. Well, I made one post on this board on Blackboard, but other than that, I haven't started. There's some quizzes and stuff, and I'll probably try to do most of it over spring break. It should only take two days at the most to do the whole class. Then I have Basic American Sign Language, which I LOVE! My professor is freaking awesome, and I catch onto the stuff pretty easy. And I have Beginning Reporting Lecture + Lab, and Research Methods. That class and the lab are with the same professor, and she's CRAZY — in a bad way. The Beginning Reporting Lab is the class that is really stressing me out. The crazy professor assigns us these ridiculous stories and then gives us all terrible grades on them. The point of the lab is so we can write in class and she can help us, so that way when we do the out-of-class assignments, we can do them better — only we've never written anything during the class time, so it defeats the purpose of having a lab. Sigh. The assignment we had due today was easy, though. She's finally assigning us stories that relate to what the professor teaches during the lecture, so they aren't as difficult. So it's finally starting to get better, and that's nice. It just gets so overwhelming sometimes, and I feel like I have so many more classes than I really do because I'm always at school for work, too. Frustrating, but it's starting to calm down some. It's amazing how quickly time moves. In two weeks, Mike and I will have been dating for a year. A YEAR! What the heck?! I want to know where a year went. Regardless of how fast it went by, it's been an awesome year and I'm so thankful for everything that's happened, and I'm especially thankful for Mike. For our anniversary (Thursday the 23rd), I'm making us get dressed up (mainly because I want to wear this dress I bought with Alayna), and we're going to Maggianos for dinner. Then we're going out to St. Petersburg for the beach, and staying at the Tradewinds for three nights. It was originally two nights, but Mike decided yesterday that we should stay through Sunday; so I called today to add the extra night. So we're staying there Thursday night through Saturday night, checking out Sunday afternoon. Mike got us tickets for a Devil Rays spring training game Friday night. And then we have the beach all day Friday and Saturday. And it should be pretty amazing. I'm so excited!! Next week is spring break, and I'm really excited about that as well. It will be lovely to have a week off. God knows I need it. After work tomorrow night, since it's the last night we print until after the break, we're all going to Chris Gardner's like we did on the last night we printed of the fall semester. It'll be nice to relax after that, go to the beach for a day with Mike or something, lay around watching TV, not having to work. I can't wait. Well, it's been half an hour. Mike just got here, and he needs to use the computer I'm sitting at. I suppose I can go read until I have to go to class. Love, Ally post comment

So. This hasn't been done in a while. [04 Feb 2006|11:13pm] [ mood | unsettled ] [ music | James Taylor - Only a Dream in Rio ] I'm putting them each under a cut because I'm a weirdo. And I'm taking more James Taylor lines cause I'm even more of a weirdo. ( There was more... ) ( More than the shining eyes... ) ( More than the steaming green... ) ( More than the hidden hills ) ( More than a distant land... ) ( More than a million years... ) ( More like another time... ) 2 comments|post comment

The stained-glass curtain you're hiding behind never lets in the sun. [28 Jan 2006|12:09am] [ mood | bored ] [ music | Billy Joel - Only the Good Die Young ] Alayna just left. And I'm waiting for a little bit before I go to Mike's (I know. It's already after midnight. Hush. He's not there anyway). So I figured I could update real quick before I go. I'm really bad at this lately. And by lately, I mean the last few months. Or lots of months or something. However, I discovered some fantastic information earlier this evening. I checked my e-mail, and I found out that Ruth Eckerd Hall added an event for March 6th. I almost deleted the e-mail, but then I decided to check it -- maybe it was a Broadway show or something. Wrong. IT WAS JAMES FREAKING TAYLOR! <3 I'm buying my tickets tomorrow. I can, because I'm a member of Ruth Eckerd Hall. I'M SO EXCITED, LIKE YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE! However. Tickets = $87. I'm still going. The best news is that it's a solo acoustic show. DANG! <3 Ok. Enough for now. Byeee!! Love, Allison 1 comment|post comment

Reporting from Charlotte. [31 Dec 2005|02:59pm] [ mood | cold. but wonderful. =) ] I'm sitting in the press box at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. Let me tell you, this is kind of weird. But it's pretty freakin' cool. I've been in Charlotte for the last week or so. Since last Monday. It's been pretty awesome. Nice and cold. Sometimes too cold, because of the wind, but it's nice. I love it. Mike and I have been here. Our hotel is awesome. And we've been having a great time. It's so much fun walking around the city at night together, looking for places to eat, enjoying the cold weather and stuff. It's even funnier running into people we know when we're a couple hundred miles away from home. A short recap of our week here: -We stopped in Columbia, S.C., for Monday night to meet two of his cousins who live there. We stayed with them and had dinner and stuff. -Tuesday afternoon we got here and walked around a little bit to see what was here. -Later, we went to dinner. -Then we went ice skating at this little outside skating rink right outside of our hotel. It was awesome. -Wednesday, we ordered room service breakfast, watched a movie. Didn't do much Wednesday. Mike went and covered practice. Had dinner later. -Thursday, practice was early. Mike was back by 11 a.m. -We went to the Lowe's Motor Speedway and got to take three laps around the track as part of the Richard Petty Driving Experience. For free. At 170 mph. Coolest thing ever, seriously. -We got to see all the football players do it, as well. That was hilarious. Some of them were so big that they could barely get into the cars through the windows. -We went to dinner that night with his cousin and aunt and uncle here in Charlotte. Then we walked around some later that night. -Yesterday was the media luncheon. So we went to that. Mike came here to the stadium with the team for a walkthrough thing. -Last night, we had a nice dinner and walked around some more. -Today was the game. It was pretty awful, really. But it was fun up in the press box. I enjoyed it. -Mike's doing some interviews with the players. When he comes back, he'll write his story. We'll go back to the hotel, sit around for a little bit, go to dinner and stay up really late, since it's New Years. We have some people to hang out with here who we've met this week. It should be pretty cool. I'm really excited. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years. I also hope everyone had a great Christmas. I guess I'll have to write about that, too. Probably when I get home, though. We're heading out tomorrow afternoon to drive back, but traffic (or practice. Ha. Alayna. <3) will probably be pretty rough. If it is, we're going to stop partway home. My mom said she's get a room for us. And then we'll be home Monday. Or maybe Sunday. It all depends on traffice. Happy New Years, everyone!! <3 Love, Allison 2 comments|post comment

I forgot. [20 Dec 2005|11:54pm] [ mood | nostalgic ] Name 5 of life's simple pleasures that you like most, then pick 5 people to do the same. Try to be original and creative and not to use things that someone else has already used. -Giving the perfect cards to people just because they deserve it. -Laughing for hours about nothing in particular. -Taking pictures of everything while driving down the highway. -Watching the sun set while walking along the beach. -Laying in the arms of someone who loves you more than anything while you fall asleep. I tag Alayna, Olivia, Sarah Austin, Kellen and Kathryn. Ready, go. 2 comments|post comment

a long overdue update. [28 Nov 2005|06:16pm] [ mood | exhausted ] I guess I should say hello. It's been a long while. Um, since the very beginning of October. Almost two months to the day. Life is beautiful. Well, sort of. Things keep changing, and it's getting kind of weird. But whatever. I still have Mike. It was eight months the day before Thanksgiving. That's crazy. I can't believe it's been that long. I'm excited to have someone who I'm in love with to spend Christmas with. I've never had that before. And it will definitely be beautiful and lovely. I miss Alayna. I barely get to see her. I always have to work all week, and by the time the weekends get here, she's either busy or I'm exhausted, and still busy. But we got to hang out on Friday, and I have pictures of it that I haven't loaded onto my computer yet because I've barely been home since then. She is still my best friend, and I love her dearly. Thanksgiving was great. I had two meals, which was weird, but fun. Very filling. I got to see Liiiisa on Wednesday, as well as Reid. That was pretty cool as well. I didn't know Lisa was coming home for Thanksgiving until when she got on her plane to fly home! So it was lovely seeing her, and always grand seeing Reid, even though the concert we all hung out at sucked because I couldn't go near the stage. Rawr. Last piece of exciting news: I got an internship for the summer! I applied for an internship through a group called AWSM (Awesome): Association of Women in Sports Media. I want to be a copy editor at the sports desk, and this group offers sports internships for girls, including copy editing. The copy editing one just so happens to be in St. Petersburg, Fla. The lady from the Times called me on Friday and told me they were interested in selecting me for it, if I want it. So I got it! Starting in May, I'll work at the St. Petersburg Times at the sports copy desk for 10 weeks. It's going to be freaking awesome! =) That is all for now. I'll try and get better at updating more often then I have been, since, you know, it's been nearly two months. Love, Ally 2 comments|post comment

[30 Sep 2005|11:14am] This weekend will be pretty awesome! I'm so excited for it. So, it's 11 on Friday morning, and I'm at school. Mike and I, John and his girlfriend, Jen, and two of our photographers from The Oracle -- we're all getting ready to leave and head down to Miami for the weekend, for the game on Saturday. The nice thing will be that, since the game isn't until 8 p.m. on Saturday night, we have all afternoon today, and most of tomorrow, to hang out, go to the beach, stuff like that. It's going to be awesome! It'll be nice to get away for a weekend, take some time off, away from Tampa. Anyway, we're getting ready to head out, but I wanted to write that in here before I left!! <3 Allison post comment

Mmmm, pizza. [27 Sep 2005|07:29pm] Olivia and I just decided that I suck at life. I guess, really, just at ordering pizza. Actually, I need to leave to go get my pizza. I'll write something better later tonight. 9 comments|post comment

[07 Sep 2005|10:04pm] [ mood | depressed ] I just had the most exciting moment ever. And then it completely fell and turned into terrible sadness and depression. Weezer. And Foo Fighters. And Mae. All together. In Tampa. On Sunday night. Sunday night = work!!!!$(* ^_%{@UOIC @^@({@JN:KSCHAW*RU@ 4!${U!#!21!!1 Life sucks. For serious. It's probably sold out anyway, cause it's Weezer. So I'm going to just keep telling myself that so I feel better. And if someone tells me otherwise, I will seriously injure you. In a bad way. It will not be pretty. You will be down and it will be bad. 3 comments|post comment

I did another one cause I'm lame. And wanted Olivia to be on it. [06 Sep 2005|08:46pm] Click here. Take the quiz. Post your results. ( See the_burnout_kid's results. ) 12 comments|post comment

I gave in to the fad. [06 Sep 2005|06:54pm] 1. Go here. 2. Pass it on. ( my answers ) 10 comments|post comment

I don't, I don't, I don't! [29 Aug 2005|12:13am] [ mood | blah ] I don't want to go back to class tomorrow. I don't want to spend $470 on books. I don't want to have to search for parking tomorrow for hours. I don't want to walk all over campus. I don't. Although I don't mind going back to work. It means I get to see Olivia much more! =) And I'll always be garunteed time to see Mike, even in the midst of classes, all his stuff for The Times, football, etc. <3 But it means I'll get to see Alayna less. =( I already haven't seen her enough the past few weeks. At least she'll get to spend most of this coming weekend with me! <3 I also don't want to go through these next few weeks. I'm not ready for it. I don't know how I'm going to handle it. Too many changes are going to take place, and I don't think I'm ready for them. It's going to be really rough. *Ally 4 comments|post comment

Where did he come from!? [26 Aug 2005|01:50pm] [ mood | crazy ] At 1:46 this afternoon, I had a monster attacking my livejournal. ( GODZILLAAA!!! ) 4 comments|post comment

NEW ROOM!!!!!#PIU!)%I(^I [20 Aug 2005|11:33am] ( LOOK AT IT, LOOK AT IT!!! ) Yeah, so I'm a nerd. Shhh. =) 11 comments|post comment

Thievery is so much fun. Is that even a word? [16 Aug 2005|10:57pm] [ mood | cheerful ] [ music | some remix thing from my brother's room. ] ( What have you left me? ) Anyway. We finally finished my room, bought everything that's going to go in it, save a pillow for my new chair. Once I get everything set back up, which it should mostly be done by tomorrow, except for my shelves, which probably won't go up until Friday or Saturday, I'll take some pictures. I have to post them so Alayna can see, since she can't do anything this week. So everyone else can see them too. I bought Mike the Simpson's season six DVDs this afternoon and gave them to him at work today, but he was so excited for it to finally come out that he went and bought it last night at midnight from Walmart. Sigh. Silly boy. Serves him right, though. He was going to get them for free! And I got them for 10 bucks cheaper than he did, from Target. But he just couldn't wait. =) I was supposed to have jury duty tomorrow, but my number got cancelled, so thankfully, I don't have to go in. That would have really sucked, because I would have had to be there at 8 in the morning, so I would have had to wake up way early to make sure I got there on time. I'm so excited for my room. It looks so freaking rad, it's not even funny. My room is too cool for words, basically. Hmm. I want to go sit in my new chair and read now. So, the end. *Allison 10 comments|post comment

Warning: THIS IS LENGTHY!! [20 Jul 2005|12:37am] [ mood | 100% completely happy!! ] [ music | Waking Ashland - Overjoyed ] So, I kind of owe everyone an update. And because it's been so long, it will probably be a long update. Pictures included. But it will mostly be under cuts, so that way it won't get confusing. First thing's first. ( Some folks like to get away... ) The week that followed was nothing exciting. I watched the Home Run Derby on Monday Night. Tuesday night, I met Mike over at John and Jason's apartment, and we watched the All Star Game. Except we didn't watch it a lot. Jen and Priscilla came over, too (John and Jason's girlfriends, respectively). And Jason brought his friend from work, who just so happend to be Lindsey Lydecker, who I've known since high school because of marching band. We talked for about 45 minutes about people from high school ... a trip down memory lane that I was not prepared for. Haha. We all ended up playing cards most of the night. And we TPed Jason's car because he went to bed early. Wednesday, we had to work. Thursday morning, I babysat. And then a bunch of us were going to go out, but Mike and I decided to just go out for dinner. Friday, I woke up with my foot hurting really bad. I watched movies all day, and got lunch with my mom at Panera. Saturday, Mike and Jen came over for dinner. We played Yahtzee and watched Dodgeball. Sunday, I went to church. Saw Marissa, and we enjoyed a lovely time of catch-up and Waffle House!! And then I worked that night. (I can't believe I remember all that!) Then comes Monday... ( Oh, happy day... ) Today, I slept late, as usual. I went to lunch with my mom and brother. And I went to school to watch "The Oracle MJs" play flag football for summer intermurals. It was ... quite amusing, to say the least. *teehee* The team is my Mike, another Mike, Mark, Marlow, John and Justin ... i.e., the "MJs." And they aren't very good. Well, also, the team they played was way too good to be playing stupid college intermurals. In fact, all of the other teams are basically freaking amazing and have been playing for years ... and have coaches. It's a little crazy. Anyway, they lost their first game, which was no big deal, but they were all kind of pissed. The score was 49 to 6 or something like that. My dear lovely boyfriend scored the only touchdown, woohoo! Haha. Then Jen (John's girlfriend) and I went to get Subway, and then were going back for the second game at 9:15. But when we got there, the other team had to forfiet, so the MJ's won. Yaaaay! Haha. It was a thrilling night, full of humorous football-playing ... and lots of fire ants. Rawr. Tomorrow is the last night of work until we start working on the Welcome Back issue of the paper. We plan on finishing the paper as early as possible, and then going out afterwards to celebrate. Don't know what we're celebrating, because none of us are going to get paid for the next few weeks now, but hey! Whatever!! =) ( A few odds and ends... ) So. That is pretty much the end of my exciting update. I hope you all didn't think it was too long. But mind you ... I warned you all at the beginning that it would be lengthy. So there! =) Thank you for reading. Tune in next time (probably in a few day) for more of Allison's exciting life. So it's really not that exciting. The end. *Ally 9 comments|post comment

navigation [ viewing | most recent entries ] [ go | earlier ]