So, this past weekend was the Honors Ball! It's been in the works since November, and it was a really fantastic night. I was one of the two co-chairs for the event, and that involved making the centerpieces, getting tickets sold, getting money from our fantatic provost and vice-provost, organizing everything with the venue (the food, the DJ, etc)... it was a little stressful, but now I almost miss it. I really just got so involved with every aspect of it, and it was magical watching all the guests arrive and have fun and be so happy. Good thing I want to be an event planner when I graduate!

Our limit was 170 people, and I am very happy that we met (and would have exceeded, if space had allowed) that! A number of professors joined us, and that was very exciting as well. The Ball was at Top of the Tower, which is the 50th floor of the Bell Atlantic Tower on 18th and Arch Streets down in Center City. Here are some pictures!

Our (sort of blurry) view

My roommates and me. Notice how we are loosely the colors of a Classic Crayola box (green, red, blue, and yellow)...totally unplanned.

In other news, this is the last full week of classes! SO much work to do between now and then, but I've got to make overloading with six classes pay off. This is also the last year I am eligible to live in the residence hall, so that's a little sad too. It'll be different, that's for sure.

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know how sometimes you see a brochure or a pamphlet or even those pictures that comes in frames when you first buy them and you think, "Oh, there's no way my vacation/university/friends will ever look/be/whatever like that."? Maybe you don't, but I do. So that's why I wanted to post some pictures of my real life surroundings and friends. They are just as lovely, if not more, than anything on Google images.

So look!

My friends look just as nice and pensive as people who come in those frames.

Mike D

Jonathan

A view of campus from Beury Beach, the patch of grass right outside Beury Hall, one of the science buildings.

A shot of Center City when I was stuck in rush hour traffic and decided to take pictures! I was driving back from South Philly...I went to the A.C. Moore down there to get materials to make the centerpieces for the Honors Ball (I'm making little skylines of Philly out of vellum, a sort of translucent paper, and then putting them around a candle-- stay tuned for pictures). The Honors Ball is on Saturday! I'm super excited about it, but have a LOT more work to do. One really good thing is that I was worried about not having enough attendees, but we're completely sold out and at capacity! I'm pumped.

My roommate Gannett is a film major, and a bunch of us were in her movie when she filmed this past weekend.

Gannett behind the camera

Eileen with Jamie, the puppet and star of Gannett's movie. Eileen and I took turns acting as her, a sororiety girl who cheats on her boyfriend and then is upset when he takes revenge with a sock puppet named Heather.

So, see!? My life is pretty. The warm weather is enough to make everyone happy and is definitely giving me the energy I need to get through these grueling weeks of school.

Hope you're enjoying the sun, too!

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is going to be a very random entry because I feel like I've been all over the place, getting lots of stuff done lately!

Spring Fling was this week! It's a huge street fair with music and free stuff. I wish I could have spent more time outside, but unfortunately I had a lot of class to go. Here's a very happy picture of my friends from the twenty minutes I made it to Fling, though!

Gannett, Bobby, Emily, Amanda, Phil, and Eileen

I made risotto today. It's my favorite food. It was just out of a box, but still delicious. I really like having a kitchen this year (as opposed to last year, because freshman rooms don't have stoves and ovens like the sophomore rooms). It makes making food, like risotto, a lot easier. Tonight was fun. Eileen, Amanda, Mike D, and Jonathan all hung out and tried to solve the crossword in today's Metro newspaper. It was really difficult, and it's still not done! I can't wait to see the answers tomorrow.

Risotto!

Last night was my event for my Program and Special Event Planning class! It went really well! The mission was to carry out an event smoothly. We've learned all semester on how to make it happen. My group of six students organized a sort of reception with desserts and a speaker from Fox Chase Cancer Center. We sold raffle tickets and gave all proceeds to Fox Chase. There were about 45 people, gave away some awesome raffle prizes, and made over $1200. It was a great experience, but I am happy it's over.

My group, our professor, and the two women from Fox Chase who helped us with our event.

Now I can concentrate on getting stuff together for this other event I'm planning, the Honors Program's End of the Year Ball. I also need to get the rest of my stuff in for that study abroad program I'm trying to do. I work better in the morning, so I'm going to go to bed so I can wake up early and get that done.

Good night!

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 1:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I rarely stay up all night long. In high school, school started ridiculously early, and on the weekends, my dad would make sure I was awake by 8:30. Which I was more or less fine with, and still am. I do like waking up and seizing the day!

So yeah, I don't pull all nighters. But this past weekend on campus was Relay for Life, a 14 hour party to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Teams of around ten people are supposed to have one people from their team walking around the track at all times. My team was Circle K, the community service club I'm in. Since the theme was Decades, we picked the 60s and rocked some tie dye.

We ended up staying up through the night til we went home at 6:30 a.m. It was a really great night, and brought in over 800 people! So good for us! Here are some pictures from the event:

Beka and Sarah standing in line to get in to the Pavilion, where Relay was held

Michael and Katie doing the same thing

What I look like heading home at 6:30 in the morning after I think 40 minutes of sleep

What Temple looks like at 6:30 in the morning-- much nicer!

I'm going to post again tomorrow, I think. Tonight is my final project for my Program and Event Planning Class! We're having a benefit for Fox Chase Cancer Center at Knowlton Mansion. We got a lot of donated food and raffle prizes, so it should be a really wonderful time. Stay tuned for an update on that!

Thanks for reading :) Good luck making your final college decisions!

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week was a doozy. I have tons of work to do. No, really. At least 2,000 pounds of homework is sitting on my desk. And I'm doing this whole planning the Honors Ball thing and finishing my application to study in Granada, Spain. So I've got a whole lot going on.

But! I had an awesome weekend.

On Friday night, Eileen, Gannett, and I went to our friend PJ's 70's Funk Party. It was a small turnout, but everyone there was really fun, and we had a great time.

Gannett, PJ, and Eileen on PJ's stoop. Note how fantastic they look.

Saturday was an awesome day! I'm taking an Event Planning class, and one of our assignments is to shadow a professional who is planning a large scale program or event. I shadowed a woman named Monica and also various committee members who helped to coordinate AcheiveAbility's Annual Fundraising Gala. AcheiveAbility is a wonderful organization that helps homeless or impoverished single parents get college educations to help them acheive self-sufficiency. The Gala honored their recent graduates, and hearing these women's stories were so inspiring. One woman became homeless when she was doing everything else right, but lost her job. She has five kids, was working full time, but still earned all As while taking 21 credits at the Community College of Philadelphia. AcheiveAbility has helped her find a home, get this education, and helped her children, too. I really admire this organization. Hopefully a lot of money was raised for this cause.

Mayor Nutter was there, too (He shook my hand!), and so that was pretty neat.

Then, on Saturday night, we went back to Price and Peter's house in Fishtown, and did nothing terribly remarkable, but we did enjoy each other's company. So that was good.

Oh! I did eat cheese curls (always Herrs, I really don't like any other kind) and read the Constitution. The book was neat because it gave what the Constitution said and then what it really meant. History is interesting to me. Good times...

And now I'm going to start writing the paper I need to write about Saturday's Gala!

Enjoy your Sundays!

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like tea. I really do. It just makes you so nice and warm inside. My roommates, myself, and random guests to our room collectively consume approximately seventeen cups a day. That's an exaggeration. But we like tea, basically.

So Emily, Eileen, (they're two of my three roommates) and I went to Peter and Price's house in Fishtown. Getting there was a doozy. The road that they live on was super narrow:

But Emily handled it like a pro.

Then we made tea!

Peter posed for this...Thank you, Peter.

Eileen studied for her art history test; I read Chapter 7 in one of my tourism textbooks; Emily was "designing a newspaper layout" but actually playing solitaire.

Then Price decided he wanted cookies. Lucky for him, we had brought cookie mix. So Peter and I went to make double chocolate chunk cookies. It was nice that Peter helped, because he doesn't even like chocolate dough. Like chocolate cake or brownies or anything like that. I don't like brownies, but these cookies were definitely delicious.

Finished product in a classy black and white.

The End!

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)