IT'S A BIGGIE!!!

After much encouragement from my dad, I am FINALLY signing in and updating my blog :) Now, where do I even begin?...

So, the end of second semester came too slow! I was sooo relieved when it was finally over! One of my professors, ROSEMARIE, was just waayyy too over-the-top in bitchyness and in the assignment of tedious work; so I was over her only slightly into the semester. Having to deal with that along with the rest of my social work classes, a babysitting job, a part-time job at the law firm, AND 15 hours a week "interning" at the community center BURNT ME OUT! I could describe the last weeks of the semester as: GO GO GO GO GOOO! GO SOME MORE! FASTERRRR! LESS SLEEP! GO GO! ok stop. So when December 15th finally came, I was overwhelmed with my free time and hardly knew how to handle it. On my last day of class, I went straight home at 530p after handing in a 14 pg paper on domestic violence and the criminal justice system. At 6p, ghetto trace got here and we had pizza with steven and then went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert. It was a really great celebration of the end of my semester. But when we got home, and into the next afternoon, (ask sister for evidence) I ran all around my apt, cleaning, organizing, etc. thinking, "wow..do I really have NOTHING to do?!"

The next night, Friday, me and Steven followed Tracy home to go to Grandma Sandy's for the annual Christmas cookie day. Soo fun! I introduced Steven to gma, gmpa, some cousins, uncle pat, uncle bob and aunt sharon, and they all seemed impressed. Especially after gma complimented Steven by saying he had a nice coat and him responding with "Yea, all my coats are nice." Overly confident?? haha. I tease him about that.



Christmas this year was also very nice :) of course, ate waaayyy too much fyatty food , got really nice presents, and lots of sleep. But before that all happened, I came home and had to re-decorate the christmas tree, which inexplicably falls to the ground every year. Mom was pissed and just propped it against the wall and threw the lights back on. Christmas just wouldn't be the same if our tree went through the whole season without falling over.










Steven and I spent Christmas night together at his parents' house in Montello and I stayed there for the weekend and went with him to his family christmas. I had met most of his family at the wedding I went to with him in October, so it was nice to see them again and meet family members I hadn't yet. It felt reallyyy nice to spend christmas with him :) we like eachother.

For New Year's, I went up to Greg and Jen's cabin in Wautoma to hang out with the fam. Steven met us there after he worked at the prison. I got drunk, and mad at Steven for really no reason. But we made up :) and BOTH of my parents stayed awake past midnight! wowww!! it was fun.

After New Year's, I still had about 3 weeks off from school and interning, but I spent most of my time in Madison, working at the firm and babysitting. Steven and I spent the majority of nights together :) We also went with my friends Lindsay and Ross to stay a couple nights at a villa at Christmas Mountain resort in WI Dells. That was a nice little get away :) in Steven and my room there was a log-burning fire place and a two-person jacuzzi hot tub!! very romantic, and good for our relationship.

We had our annual Bob and Nancy Hans christmas. This year it was a pajama party theme!! Soo fun! Since he doesn't have any, Steven got pajamas as one of his gifts and wore them the whole night. We drank lots, danced lots, played Guesstures (which was soo freakin hilarious, by the way) and partied Hans-Family style. Great fun :)





I got to see my best friend KATIE KOSCH!! She was home in Oconomowoc for a few weeks (she goes to law school in California), so I stayed at her house for a night. We had dinner with her Gma and Gmpa, who live on Lac LaBelle. I love them. And I love her family. It's always so nice spending time there, and I finally got to have wine and coffee and real conversation with Katie!! It was really nice :) and I cried after I left because I miss her A LOT! she is an amazing person, and an incredible friend.

Stafford Rosenbaum (my law firm) hosted its annual winter party at a country club right outside of downtown. I got waayyyy too drunk! At the end of the night, I went into the coat room and fell on my ass because "I was trying to sit in a chair. I thought there was a chair...". But there was no chair. Luckily only two partners saw me.... ugh. Then we cabbed downtown with a couple co-workers and Steven met us out. He had to work that night so he couldn't come to the whole party. I was blacked out! And I was mad at Steven because he didn't want to meet me out, and I really wanted him to be there to meet my coworkers, blah blah. But, we made up and it ended up being ok.

Steven never wants to go out with me because he says that if something were to happen with me, he would stick up for me, and he doesn't want to get into trouble. He says he knows what guys think and what they're trying to do and it pisses him off watching it. So he would just rather not go out with me so he doesn't get pissed. I can see why he would get mad, and I always assure him that he has NOTHING to worry about. But, he still doesn't like it. It's good, though, that he doesn't tell me not to go out or anything like that. But it's also sucky because I always want him to be there! Oh well :) we'll figure something out.

January 15 I handed in my graduate school application at the UW. If I get in, I will continue school through next May, and have a Master of Social Work degree in May 2010. I only applied to Madison, so I'm realllyyyy hoping I get in. Otherwise, I think I'm going to be a working girl for a year and re-apply. I find out in the next couple months, so keep your fingers crossed!!!

Then....second semester started Jan 20. I am taking 16 credits this semester, which is a heavy load. Two social work classes, The History of Punishment, Abnormal Psychology, and Sociology of Agriculture. A LOT, to say the least! BUT, after this semester I will graduate with a Bachelor of Social Work degree, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Legal Studies, and a minor in Criminal Justice. Plus, with the accelerated social work program I was accepted into this year, I will only need to complete ONE YEAR of graduate school after I graduate to get a Master of Social Work degree.

My semester got off to a really rough start. I was really NOT happy during the first few weeks of school. I had been experiencing an increase in severity of depression, but attributed it "seasonal depression." I thought with all the time off and rest I had that I would be prepared and motivated for the second half of the year. But I wasnt :( my migraines were much more frequent and severe. I was always tired and started skipping class or calling in to work to sleep during the day. Then my anxiety would kick in at night and I couldn't get sleep. I was on two migraine medications through the first semester of school. Amitryptiline used to be used for depression but now works for migraines and is also a sedative, to help me sleep at night. Topomax is another migraine med that I paired with Amit. to offset my weightgain. I finally went to see my doctor about 3 weeks into school when my depression was out of control, and he immediately took me off the Topomax, which was worsening my depression, and increased my Amit. since my body was immune to the dosage I was taking. Within a week, I felt muchhhh better emotionally, and was finally getting sleep at night. So, I finally felt like I had control of my life and was more motivated to do work and proceed through the semester.

So nowww, I'm in the middle of my 5th week. The weeks have been creeping by so far, and I feel like I am in the middle of a high speed whirlwind or something.

Since the start of the new semester:

A couple weekends ago it was Steven's 22nd birthday (Feb 7) (and yes, I am 8 months older than him :)). I surprised him by booking a two-night stay at the Odyssey Resort in WI Dells. It's another timeshare resort owned by Bluegreen, like Christmas Mountain. It was a wonderfullllll weekend! Our first night we went to dinner, and then brought a couple bottles of wine back to our suite and spent a couple hours in our jacuzzi. The next afternoon we went to the indoor waterpark, Mt. Olympus. Went on some slides. And then got bored after like an hour. But still fun! That night, we met his two friends from high school for dinner. Logan and Jessica had a baby their senior year of high school, got married a couple years after, and are now expecting their second child. It was really fun to hang out with another couple and to meet Steven's friends. They were awesome and I'm excited to see them again.

We went to the resort Thursday night, and on Steven's actual birthday, Saturday, we went to his parents' house for the night. His step-sister and her husband and 11 year old nephew even came for the night to hang out. We had steak dinner and played yahtzee with his mom and Michelle. It was a really great weekend!!

Obviously, it was hard coming back to school after the amazing weekend. But I made it through and Saturday was valentine's day!! Friday night, we had a girls' night, 80s style!! It was super fun, and really great to hang out with all the girls! But I got really black-out drunk. Steven met up with us later in the night, but after that I remember nothing. Apparently I was super sloppy wasted and he brought me home and put me in bed. Then he left, since I woke up Sat morning without him there! I got really mad that he wasn't there, that he had left me passed out and went home. And when I called him that morning, after he had left me "Happy Valentine's day" messages, he honestly did not understand why I was mad. I was overdramatic, and got over it.

He came over early in the night to exchange gifts. I got him some heart-patterned boxers, and something from Victoria's Secret ;) and he got me such a sweet gift! It's a little pink heart-shaped jewelry box with a pig sitting on the top. It's really fancy, with sparkling diamonds, and the pig's eyes are even green! Then I opened it, and on the inside there's a heart-shaped mirror and engraved on the mirror was "Steven & Alicia". I almost cried! I wasn't expecting it. It was such a thoughtful gift :) Then we went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants downtown. We waited for 2 hours to sit at a table, which was fine since we enjoyed a bottle of wine in the meantime.

Then Sunday we watched movies all day. First we watched American History X, which is a movie about racism. OMG--soo intense and really sad! But soo good! Every single person should be required to see that movie at an early age in life! Seriously. Then we watched Braveheart, which was also pretty intense, and good, and sort of sad. But we had a nice day :) It was hard then again, coming back to a Monday after a great weekend. But here I am at Wednesday, half-way there.

Tomorrow I'm handing in a midterm paper for my History of Punishment class. We are learning about punishment and crime in ancient Greek literature. I'm good at essay exams, so hopefully I will do well.

Friday, we're taking some of the kids at the Community Center to the Mt. Olympus water park in WI Dells!!! Where Steven and I went just a couple weekends ago. It should be fun, the kids will love it!!

Sooo...there's the last couple months of my life in a nutshell.

I miss my family, so I really want to go home one of these next weekends. Steven is still amazing, and I think we're falling in love :) There's still time ahead before any big steps, but I am truly happy with him. He is greater than any guy I've known and I have been thinking that it's possible we could be together forever. He tells me he thinks we'll be together in a year, and as of now, I don't see why we wouldn't be. It's fun, but really scary, to think about!

OK, so I will really try to keep updating so I don't have to spend an hour summarizing long periods of my life. SORRY if this was too long, and uninteresting :) but THANK YOU for reading and taking interest in my life!! I love you all soooo much!!!! Miss you!!!

xoxoxoxo
Alicia