Welcome to Emo

Even though the excitement of summer is drawing in, I’m also really sad to leave this year behind.  It’s definitely been the best year of my life! The end of the year is always when I become nostalgic.  This was also the biggest change of my life as I moved away from home to be surrounded by a completely new load of people.  I’ve made so many amazing friends and even though we will all be reunited next year, it’s going to be tough not being around them 24/7 during summer.  Some of my friends are even graduating so I’m going to be super sad!  Even though I may complain about it, I really am going to miss my good ol’ dorm of Palmitas.  I love being surrounded by people all the time and having random people stop by at any moment.  Even sharing the bathroom has been really fun.  I don’t think I have ever been bored once in the dorms.  I also just love congregating with all my fellow dormians from each dorm for dinner at our cafeteria.  Even though we are all really over the food, it feels like we’ve all become a family from all of these dinners.  

I’ve seriously had so many memories this year that I won’t ever forget.  The best decision I made was joining my sorority Chi Omega.  These girls were the reason this year was such a blast and I really don’t want to leave them this summer!  Basically I am so happy I chose Cal Poly Pomona as my school and made all the friends that I did.  

I would sum up my first year in college with these words:

• Costumes
• Dancing
• Random trips to L.A. 
• Food Trucks
• Fun late night studying 
• Bruises 
• Yelling
• Car drives 

I don’t want this year to end!!!

I absolutely love Wednesdays! Why? Because I have no class so it is the perfect middle of the week break.  The past two Wednesdays I’ve spent at my favorite place: the beach.  The weather has been so perfect and making me so excited for summer!  Today I went to Laguna Beach with my friend Raechel.  We first spent the day exploring boutiques and vintage stores in the cute town of Laguna.  I absolutely love Laguna and really hope I can win the lottery one day so that I could live there.  The houses on the cliffs are so beautiful and seem to overlook the entire world!  I could definitely deal with that.  Then as the sun started to shine, we moved to the sand to catch some rays.  It got so hot that for the first time in about a year I got to go swimming in the ocean.  The water was so refreshing and reminded me of how much I have missed swimming through waves.  In fact, I just love the adrenaline rush that comes when a giant wave is about to trample over you and you cannot decide whether to swim under or over it.  

My goal for this summer is to become actually good at surfing.  I’ve spent the last three summers trying to perfect this activity, but have failed miserably.  However, when I went to Hawaii last summer I caught every single wave and thought I mastered the sport the whole trip.  But then I came back to California and realized Hawaii can make anyone good as I could not catch a single wave at home all summer!  I need to just keep trying because surfing really is just so delightful, especially when laying on the surfboard soaking in the sun and waiting for a wave to come.  Yay, summer is so soon! 

With the school year winding down and summer approaching, I have spent the last week on a huge job hunt.  I’ve applied to Buca de Bepo, Lazy Dog Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, Bubba Gump, and my favorite…Joe’s Crab Shack.  I applying to be a hostess because the restaurant environment seems like so much fun! 

Yesterday I had a group interview at Joe’s Crab Shack and immediately fell in love!  I would describe it more as “Play Time” than an actual interview.  The first thing I had to do was the Cha Cha Slide.  At Joe’s Crab Shack, all of the workers have to memorize ten different dances and whenever a certain song plays they all have to come to the middle of the restaurant and perform their dance.  I absolutely love embarrassing dancing so I know this job is perfect for me!  I also had to draw a piece of paper out of a jar and do whatever the paper said in front of the whole restaurant.  My paper told me to do an impression of a wild horse in front of all the eaters and I was super excited because I just love animal impersonations!  I really enjoyed how the traditional interview questions such as “Why do you wanna work here?” and “What experience do you have?” were not asked.  Instead we were asked “What color describes you best?”, “What is the strangest thing about you?”, and “If you could have any super power, what would it be?”  This is my absolute dream summer job and I really hope I get it so that I can have a super fun summer that even consists of a paycheck.  Another perk is that Joe’s Crab Shack is write on the beach at Newport so I would get to spend all of summer playing in the ocean.  I think I fit in perfectly with this restaurant’s environment so hopefully I receive good news in the next five days! 

Since Mother’s Day is coming on Sunday I’m going to talk about how my mom is the best mom ever! 

My mom is really the sweetest person on the planet.  This is so true that it can really be annoying, sometimes I just want her to be mean.  She is always wanting to meet my friends and do whatever she can to make them enjoy their stay at my house.  None of my friends have ever seen my mom in a bad mood (although I have).  My mom is also such a weirdo, I love it.  She is constantly singing random songs that nobody has ever heard in a very off-key tone.  It always brings a smile to my face.  She also is secretly a 16-year-old on the inside.  She has a huge obsession with random country-rock singer Casey James who she discovered on American Idol.  Every time I see her on the computer she is checking out his latest Twitter updates, although she tries to keep it on the down low.  

Most importantly, as cliche as it sounds, my mom is always there for me.  Anytime I’m sick, she is immediately there to help me feel better.  She is why she makes the perfect nurse.  I can tell her anything about my life and she won’t judge.  She also really trusts me so she has never been overly strict.  My mom definitely puts herself last in her priorities which is why she rarely eats the dinners she makes us since it is more important to her that the rest of our family eats first.  She definitely deserves a great mother’s day so I should probably make her a classic breakfast-in-bed meal like I always did when I was little.  I hope all of you remember your moms on Mother’s Day and celebrate with them :) 

This past week has been one of the most exciting and intense weeks of my life! Why? Because it’s Greek Week! I have been playing sports pretty much my whole life, but I have never taken part of anything this competitive.  I find it funny that the media has led most of the world to believe that all sororities do is paint nails and do crafts.  This is so wrong as it actually is super intense.  My main event I have been a part of is pyramid.  You basically just get ten girls together and create a human pyramid as fast as possible.  We have been practicing for months and to get our speed as quick as possible and I must say it has been a lot of work.  I was at the top of the pyramid which really gave me a lot of pressure because if I mess up at all the whole pyramid goes down which would ruin the chances of winning.  We got to show off our hard work last night during Greek Olympics and we did it perfectly!  There were no mess-ups and we definitely did the best that we have been doing.  The anxiety is killing me however because we don’t find out until Saturday who the winning sorority is!  In the end, I am just so happy for all the fun I’ve had climbing our pyramid that I don’t really care who the winner is.  

Monday’s event was Quiz Bowl where it was basically like Jeopardy and everyone was asked really random trivia questions.  Tuesday aka Can Day has been my favorite day so far because we all got to dress up like Whos from Whoville and our “Greek Goddess” was the Grinch and I pulled her on a sleigh as I was fully dressed as the Grinch’s dog Max.  Yesterday was Greek Olympics, which is what included pyramid and also fraternity relays and of course, TUG!  That day was also one of my favorites because everyone got to show their super competitive and athletic sides. Today was our food fair day and we sold super delicious bacon-wrapped hot dogs.  To help sell these dogs I dressed up in a bacon costume naturally.  Tomorrow is another very exciting day for it is Lip Sync which is like a skit, but with pre-recorded voices.  I’m super proud of our girls and all the Greeks and can’t wait to find out the winners! No matter what happens I am just so happy that this was one of the most fun weeks of my life.  Now I wish every week was Greek Week! 

So the past two weeks I have experienced the worst sickness I have ever had.  It started as just a normal cold with the good ol’ sore throat, stuffy nose, and fever.  But about a week later, my throat kept getting worse and worse to the point where I just felt like someone was stabbing me.  I finally went to the Health Center on Monday and got a blood test to discover I had…Mononucleosis (DUN DUN DUN!)  Finding this out just made me super upset especially since next week is GREEK WEEK, the most exciting week of the year for those in fraternities and sororities.  The doctor also told me that I have to stay away from contact sports for six weeks so that I don’t rupture my spleen.  This also made me super sad since I absolutely love sports (not that I’m super good at any) and I even just started a Chi Omega basketball team!  Monday through Wednesday I was basically a complete mess with my sore throat and fatigue.  The worst part was the low energy I had which sucks because I usually love just running around and being on constant high energy.  All I was able to do was sleep and rest all day which really is not my cup of tea because I definitely am not a fan of rest.  I am not writing this to make any of you feel bad for me, but to instead help anyone who is sick feel better about life!

This morning I woke up and felt so completely different!  I have so much more energy and just love life right now, even though I still have the evil virus.  Yesterday, I was spending too much researching mono and scaring myself by reading people’s stories about how their mono lasted three months and even though it’s been years since they had it, they still never regained the energy they used to have.  I realize now that that is very rare and I will not let that happen to me! Instead, I am just going to think positively and try to live my life through the sickness as normal as possible (with just a little bit more sleep than usual).  Once I am better, I am going to appreciate life so much.  In fact, I should probably become a motivational speaker.  For those of you who do not currently have mono or any other crazy sickness, I suggest being super happy you don’t and go run around as much as possible.  If you any of you do happen to have mono, seriously just be happy and surround yourself with people because I definitely found myself feeling the worst when I was by myself.  Also, eat a lot of ice cream and smoothies because it is just so soothing!  Remember, you sickies out there are not alone!

Even though my last post was all about how much I love rain/cozy weather, there is another type of weather I love…sunny!  You see, I either like it like cloudy, cold, and rainy or I like it super hot and sunny (no in between).  So now that this week has been in the high 80’s I have been super happy again!  It’s making me realize how close summertime is so I now am just really excited!  I am also a fan of how it does not get dark until late so there are so many hours to play outside.  This summer my goal is to stay away from the computer and to play outside all day until it is dark out.  I will probably deactivate my facebook like I did last summer to be more free.  

AH this is why I cannot wait til summer!!!

I am stoked to go back to Orange County for a whole three months where I can spend almost every day at the beach, which is my favorite place in the world.  I’m hoping I can get really good at surfing so I can also do that every day.  My other goal is to bike ride to the beach from my house, which takes about two hours.  I was supposed to do it last summer with my best friend but she ended up chickening out.  This year I will make her fulfill the quest!  

One of my favorite things about summer is summer clothes.  I have a sad obsession with high waisted shorts and wear them any chance I get, so during the summer I obviously have to wear them everyday!  The bright colors of summer clothes just make me so energetic so I always try to dress as happy as possible.  

The music of summer is also a plus of the season.  Surf rock is definitely one of my top genres and I get to hear it everywhere during summertime.  There are no words that describe the feeling of hearing a Beach Boys or Jan & Dean song on a warm, sunny day! Yay summer! 

It’s a rainy day today which makes me just the happiest person ever!  I don’t understand why most people I know HATE the rain…it’s the coolest weather ever! WATER DROPLETS FALLING FROM THE SKY, HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!  Most people say they don’t like the rain because it depresses them which I don’t get because rain makes me so energetic and happy.  There are so many things you can do outside to take advantage of such a rare occasion so I believe it’s important not to waste these days.  The most important thing to do is PLAY!  

Some of my favorite rain activities include:

Mud Sliding/Sledding

bike riding

going for walks and getting drenched 

singing/dancing/spinning 

jacuzzi-ing 

Basically, if you add rain to anything you do outside it becomes so much more fun.  If you are one of those people so turned away and afraid of the rain I suggest giving it a chance and taking a stroll because you are seriously missing out!  Even better than a normal rainstorm is when thunder and lightning is added.  Then the storm becomes so exciting.  As scared as I do get, I just love the thrill that comes from seeing a giant lightning bolt followed by ferocious thunder. I only wish Southern California had more storms like this.  That’s why it’s important to seize the rare stormy days that our sunshine state ever gets.  

WHY CAN’T WE HAVE LIGHTNING LIKE THIS?!?!?! 

I also just love how cozy the rain is.  After playing all day in the rain, my other favorite thing to do is put on a sweatshirt and leggings and just watch movies maybe with some hot chocolate and homemade cookies as well.

I’m a little sad that the sun is starting to come out.  Now it is awkwardly sunny/cloudy (my least favorite weather.)  As much as I do love hot and sunny summer days, there is nothing like a cozy, exciting rainy day. 

As I mentioned in my last blog, I have a passionate love for peanut butter.  The past 36 days have been the hardest of my life.  Why?  Because I gave up peanut butter for lent.

Before the day of Ash Wednesday began, my dorm was filled with two jars of peanut butter, Tag-a-longs (the best girl scout cookies in the world), Reese’s, and peanut butter hot chocolate.  I had to hide all these glorious foods in my friend’s dorm so that I would not be tempted throughout these bitter 40 days.  I am actually extremely proud of myself because I have not messed up once, as I usually fail with whatever I give up for lent.  Easter Sunday is going to be so special to me as I can finally redeem my peanut butter love.  Even though I know Jesus is the real reason for the season, I cannot explain how excited I am for Easter because I can finally eat my favorite food!  

I expect the Easter Bunny to fill my basket with goods somewhere along these lines: 

Seeing this GIANT egg at Target made me the happiest/hungriest person in the world! I can only imagine this to be filled with the thickest of all peanut butter.  YUMMMMMMM

If I do get all of these delicious candies I will probably devour them within a day.  I CAN’T WAIT!!!! This past lent season I have also been torturing myself by randomly looking up crazy peanut butter recipes, even though I never even bake.  However, after these forty days are up I plan to actually make some of these amazing creations to make up for my body’s loss of peanut butter.  Just look at how beautiful these are!

Reese’s Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie!

Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich!

Peanut Butter Brownie 

Cupcakes mmmmmm

Okay this is making me way too hungry and sad.  Just four more days, I know I can do it!  Just going back to my classic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and peanut butter cup mixed with Oreo milkshake will make me the happiest person in the world!  HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! 

Hi everyone, my name is Emily Morenz but everybody calls me Emo (not because I’m actually “emo” because if you put my first and last name together it creates Emo).  Since this is my first blog ever I’m going to let you all get to know me by providing these ten random facts about myself!

1.  My favorite food is peanut butter.

I can eat peanut butter all day, whether straight out of the jar or on top of cookies.  In fact, the best food I have ever eaten was a Reese’s peanut butter cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory.  I highly recommend trying it as it will completely change your life.

2.  I hate compliments.  

Compliments make me feel really awkward so whenever someone happens to give me one I will usually just respond with a really strange noise.  

3. My favorite thing to have for dinner is breakfast.  

Chocolate chip pancake and waffles always taste so much better at night.  

4.  I can quote the whole movie of Dumb and Dumber. 

It is a fact that no movie will ever be able to match this brilliance.

5.  I am probably one of the worst dancers in the world, yet dancing is favorite activity in the world. 

6.  I once conquered the giant Fatburger Triple King Challenge cheeseburger. 

I also highly recommend giving a try to this mighty challenge because you could surprise yourself and win your own certificate.

7.  Nothing grosses me out as much as wet, crumbled, or dirty paper towels and napkins. 

Please do not throw any at me as my friends enjoy doing.  

8. I live my life by the advice of Ferris Bueller. 

It is obvious that the best quotes come from this film.  

9.  I have an uncountable number of bruises on my legs from randomly falling throughout the majority of my life.  

10.  If I could have any animal in the world to be my pet and snuggle with, I would definitely choose a sheep. 

I hope you all have learned something about me and will follow my recommendations.  Stay tuned for more thoughts!