Jasper Doodle...

The new love of my life. My puppy Jasper. He's a bischon frise, about six months old now and starting to enter the teenage years of puppyhood. He's become sassy and disobedient at times and I find it hilarious. I never had the full puppy experience since my first dog, Bogie. Bogie was first a rescue to someone we knew who could no longer take care of him. So technically we were his third owners. When we officially owned him he was about eight years old. He lived very lavishly as a family member in our house until his passing this past September at age 16. That is a significant amount of time for a dog to live. No dog will ever outshine Bogie. He was possibly the best dog anyone could ask for until he got sick. His heart was enlarged and the medicine for his heart made his kidneys shut down so he was always having accidents. He had a terrible cough as well due to the fact his lungs were being pressured down by his enlarged heart. It was really upsetting to see him get this old and sick, and people asked us why we kept from putting him down. I could never put a dog down unless he was in absolute pain, but how do you know if a dog is in that much pain? They obviously cannot speak to you and tell you what their precise ailment is. I think we made the right choice in letting him go on his own, but then again I was not there when he crossed over.

Onto happier times. My hilarious new puppy Jasper, who we never thought we would have. My sisters and I really believed that my parents were not going to get another dog, we didn't even consider a puppy. But inch by inch we convinced them even though in a few years my youngest sister will be off to college. But now that I look at it, Jasper is their newborn child. My parents are ridiculous. One day they both took him to the vet like he was an infant going to his first checkup. As I saw them return, pulling into the driveway with this little white ball of fluff in my dad's masculine arms in the passenger seat of the car. I was laughing hysterically by myself watching from the window.

At one point in time he was smaller than a single Ugg boot. It was adorable.

Strutting through the living room. 

Whenever he drank out of this bowl he was mad that there was a paw print design on the bottom so he would always splash it, thinking it would come out of the water. 

Eating leaves, nothing unusual to Jasper. 

I forced him into a sweater that was once Bogie's. I know I'm terrible. It was only for a few minutes I swear! 

You do not understand how badly I wanted a puppy growing up. I probably begged at least three times a day, constantly bringing up the subject and annoying the hell out of my parents. But now that I have a puppy I can see why it's so much better now to have him then it would be when we were all so young and dealing with other things. When we got Bogie he was already trained, slept most of the time, very calm and mellow, and was playful when we wanted him to be. He was perfect. When my parents and sister went to pick up Jasper at the breeder in Long Island, they said he was the runt of the litter and the quietest. They decided to pick him due to his personality (at that point in time ha) and from how cute he was. He was only three pounds when they first got him! Now Jasper is about 7 pounds and showing off his personality more and more each day. It's sad that I cannot see it since I am away at school, but I know he must be a lot of work.

For some reason we started calling him Jasper Doodle.. the Doodle just came along after a while and it sounds good for some reason. The funniest part about my parents getting this puppy is that my dad did the math to see how old he will be when the dog is around the age that Bogie died, and my dad will be in his mid seventies. He joked, "the dog just might outlive me!"

Blacklight parties.. the new FAD

Lauren and I were waiting all week for Saturday, Darby's Blacklight party. Although we didn't figure out what white trashy shirt we were going to use until a few hours before, we figured it out! That's all that mattered. I used an old I <3 London shirt and Lauren took an old MAAC tournament t-shirt and put it inside out. We both cut the shits to make them an off-the-shoulder style. I rushed over to Spencer's Gifts to get blacklight neon paint to decorate our shirts. I have the pictures to prove how awesome they came out. Although there were some haters staring at us when we first got there, we ended up looking the best decoration/design-wise. 

We made highlighter mustaches on our fingers! We were so creative! 

Some random dude with "winning" on his head. Priceless. 

I miss London. PERIOD.

I'm missing London more and more each day. It's so depressing! Someone pass me a Prozac, just kidding. But seriously, I am super sad and jealous of anyone studying there right now. If only flights were cheaper I'd be on one now! What I miss most is the friends I made and my favorite drink, Bulmer's Cider.

At a pub right near Millennium Bridge. Got the Bulmer's Cider, I'm set :) 

Me and Vish on our night out for drinks and a movie. Yes, that movie still sucked Vish! Note to everyone reading this, do not see Unstoppable. It was terrible! 

Me and Ro at Karaoke Night at a College Bar

The night I met Daniel "da-da" Ives... my British mate! I miss this boy a lot and his quirky british sayings. 

Lionel made my life in London like a movie. He was our celebrity and he always took us out to such lavish clubs in London like the Embassy. 

 They don't sell it in the United States, and yes I've tried Half Time and they only have Magners. I do not think Magners is the same, I could fight all day long about the difference in taste! I've even contacted Bulmer's corporation via email to see if they could point me into a direction to find it. So far I've heard they sell it in California. If they sell it in California it must pass through the east coast somewhere, right? 

Wish I took a cool picture like this. 

I miss just walking through Hyde Park on my own watching everyone strolling with their kids or pets. Others rushing to work or taxis flying by. I can't forget those annoying birds either.I am terrified of birds by the way.

When I was in London my mom asked me if I would ever want to go back and live there full time after I graduate. I'm contemplating it now. I know it would be tough, but I know how much I love the city of London and the places nearby (Edinburgh, Wales, etc.). The only problem I would find myself having is being so far from family. I'm too much of a family person and I saw that the most when I first went away to school. When I was in London it really didn't phase me how far away from home I was. Yes, I had been to London twice before my journey studying abroad there, but once my parents came to visit me mid-October, I realized how much I missed the unconditional love. It definitely got to me and I do not know how I would handle possibly not seeing my family for at least six months or more at a time, maybe even once or twice a year. I don't want to think about it! Moving on....


Here's an A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder) moment for everyone... Can I just say how much I love Josh from Holly's World. It's currently on my television right now as background noise but his reunion with his birth mother is almost bringing me to tears. Speaking of tears, last night I returned from Darby's to find "Riding in Cars with Boys" on TBS and I had never seen it before. As I was watching it one part really got to me as the father was leaving for good and the son was running after him even going into the street. Talk about heartbreaking.

Domination

I beat Luke Shane at online Facebook scrabble. That is all. My life is complete

Relay for Life 2011

Relay for Life

Every year I partake in Relay for Life at Marist College for many reasons. Yes, it is simple to partake in while almost everyone at school gets involved in it, but it does mean a lot to me. A significant amount of people in my life have been affected by this disease and has definitely changed me as an individual. Almost everyone knows at least one person who has or has had cancer. In our current day society it seems as though more and more people are battling cancer more than ever.

As many people know my mom battled breast cancer during my junior year of high school. I remember the day I found out as if it were just yesterday. She went through surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation throughout the span of a year and ended up conquering her battle with breast cancer. I was so lucky. To this day I am so blessed to still have my mother, my best friend, the one who knows me best,  alive to celebrate more birthdays and memories. You see, that’s the new theme.. “Let’s celebrate more birthdays” as Celine Dion puts it in her new campaign advertisement. As cheesy as it sounds, its true.

Even though junior year was the toughest year in my life thus far, I know it shaped the person I am today. It has shaped how socially conscious I am, how understanding I am, and how easy it is for me to conquer simple everyday issues. Many may say the most difficult year of high school academically is junior year, but during this year I made the most out of it and accomplished a lot of positive projects. I earned my Girl Scout Gold Award during this year. Even with my mother’s illness I took charge of what I needed to get done. I may have been terrified for my mother’s life, but I lived everyday to the fullest and wanted to accomplish this project and make her proud for what I had done.

So if you could help me in accomplishing my team’s goal of raising $2,000 this year I would be so grateful! CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Thank you,

Melissa 

My love for Banksy

Have you ever witnessed some of Banksy's work? Yes, it's graffiti, but it has a way of moving almost anyone. I have about three poster copies of his work taped on the walls of my bland dorm room at school. The ones I have specifically are posted below. Some people think it's crude or too taboo, but I believe it is witty and different. I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of art whether it's modern or abstract. I was just never into studying types of art, but these pieces have me hooked! I enjoy coming across new spotting's of his work. It fascinates me completely as corny as it sounds. I think his messages are powerful no matter where they are found. It's almost as if you can interpret these work sightings in your own way. I know I do and if I tried to compare what I see to one of my friends I know it would be completely different. See for yourself. :)

I am IRISH.

When I was studying abroad last semester I met a lot of Irish lads. Some were cute, some were not. I always liked to say "Oh, I'm Irish!" and they'd respond, "No, you're American." This always hurt because I really do have Irish pride. I mean it's in my name, Gallagher. How much more Irish can you get? Yes Melissa may not be very Irish, but that's not my fault. My parents gave my sisters very Irish first and middle names, but not me. How depressing? So what if I'm not off the boat Irish? I can still say I am. And you know what? No matter how many people abroad told me I was American, not Irish, I still continued to say I was Irish to every person I met. 

(Me outside Gallagher's Irish Restaurant in freezing Dublin this past November)

Hi, my name is Melissa and I'm addicted to Facebook Scrabble

Hi, my name is Melissa and I'm addicted to Facebook Scrabble games.

Yes, it's sad but true. I have about thirty games going right now on the Facebook Scrabble application. It is so addicting and everyone knows it. It is the best distraction from homework since Facebook! This past weekend, when I was home in NJ, I played about four games of scrabble with Bob G. Yes, the King of scrabble. See, in my family Scrabble is a big deal. It's not a quick game like I make it on Facebook, it can take hours. When my Grandma, Aunts, etc. come to visit, its quiet because it's game time. Even though the pot of money for the winner is only around $10 a person, it still adds up and is played in all seriousness. I was never allowed to play during these games since I would lose patience over the hours they spend playing and due to the fact that my vocabulary was not as strong as my Dad and relatives. Whenever I did get the chance to play against my Grandma and Dad they would always try and help me. This would make me extremely frustrated and not want to play because I wanted to be able to do it myself.

My current battle within Facebook Scrabble are matches against Luke Shane. He is a beast. And in this game online it can go either way with luck. You could have 5 E's or no vowels at all while the other person has everything. So nowadays I find online scrabble to be more of a luck of the draw than actual skill. This does not explain how beastly Luke Shane is at this game. I'm still waiting to someday defeat him. I will post when I do!

As for now I will keep to myself in playing against random people on Facebook that I can play easy to difficult games with anonymously. 

PR Inspiration

This post was from MARCH 2nd. 

Lately I have been swamped with school work, my organization on campus, the search for internships, and midterms. There just seems to be not enough hours in a day!

I literally just returned home from an alumni guest speaker of Marist College. Gita from Gita PR spoke to an audience of mainly PR students here at Marist College. She brought along one of her clients from Bravo’s Top Chef, Angelo Sosa. Immediately you could see the relationship they have built together over the years since Angelo was one of Gita’s first clients. Hearing their background knowledge in their own industries provided the audience with a different perspective in the field of PR. It was not your typical PR guest speaker. Gita showed passion and determination in all of the work she has accomplished. I cannot believe how much she has conquered since her time at Marist College.

The most impressive aspect of Gita’s career path was through the way she developed her own agency right at her own kitchen table! Hearing Gita’s own personal journey definitely inspired me to really think about my own future in the PR world. Being a PR student made me feel as though you have to work your way up in a big industry to become a professional, but Gita pushed aside my preconceived notions. One can never foresee their own career path, but Gita proved to her audience from her own experience how she went after her passion and ultimately reached her goal.

I will most definitely keep her inspiration as my own personal motivation for seeking out a summer internship that encompasses what I am passionate about. This tool may also help me decide what aspects of the industry I do not want to pursue.

Fun Finds Us... Spring Break in Florida 2011

A week before midterms leading right into spring break I planned a short vacation to Florida with my friend Lauren and her friend Alex. Lauren’s Dad has a house down in Fort Meyers and everything seemed to be simple while planning the trip at the very last minute. Our flight was at 6am Sunday morning, the same morning daylight savings sprung forward for spring. Just our luck. I ended up getting around two hours of sleep and barely made up trying for it on the flight.

Sunday: When we arrived we went down and got our rental car where we were basically mistreated due to our young age. See, you have to pay more when you are under the age of 25 renting a car. We originally reserved a rental car with Alamo through Priceline.com, and it came up at $360.00, the Alamo sales associate told us they had “no connection” with priceline.com and that these “extra fees” were not added when we first selected them online. This was way too confusing for someone who has had very little sleep. The sales associate ended up charging us about $456.00. He also told us that our rental car was in "perfect condition" and boy was he wrong. We got to our car and got in without really looking at it, first mistake on our part. As we got to the grocery store we got a perfect glimpse of how scratched up this rental car was in the Florida sunlight. There were black scratch marks all over this white little Kia. There was even a pen width hole on the front hood of the car. Lauren immediately took pictures on her phone to note the date of when we saw this and to prove we did not do this. To add to this "in perfect condition car" the breaks were in terrible shape. It was impossible for Alex to ease into a red light or stop sign since there seemed to be nothing left of the break pads. I asked my Dad how bad a rental car should be on over 28k miles. He was outraged and said that rental car companies rarely give out cars after they hit 15k miles. 

It turns out after calling Priceline.com, Alamo was supposed to oblige by our confirmed statement on what we paid for prior to arriving in Florida. These issues are still being battled with today and I am trying to get my money back from Priceline.com since I didn’t even use their insurance, etc. It is complete fraud.

BREATHE.

When we finally arrived at Lauren’s house in Estero, Florida we headed to the pool. Since her Dad’s house is in a gated community there is a community pool. We immediately met some neighbors in the community who were older, but we learned quite quickly that this did not mean they were not fun to be around. Jean, our actual neighbor, was laying on a flotation device in the pool getting her sun tanning in, while Lynne, another neighbor close by, was smoking a cigarette and bopping her head and feet to a local rap radio station. We thought this was so funny, well mostly on Lynne's actions. We would never have pictured a woman Lynne’s age pumping up rap music. Jean introduced herself and told us about what hot spots that were a "must see" in the area. After enough sun and lack of sleep we headed back to get ready for dinner. We ended up just going to T.G.I.Fridays since it was the only place we found right away. We then met some friendly employees who gave us free buttons with phrases of “Kiss me I’m NOT IRISH” and “Kiss me I’m IRISH”. I still have my button. It’s so cute!

After dinner we went back and got ready for a night out. We just didn’t know where to go that was in a reasonable distance. We ended up calling up a local bar and eatery about a mile away where we explained that we were on spring break looking for a local place to hangout, etc. We mentioned that we were from New Jersey and NO, we were not to be associated with the cast of MTV's, the Jersey Shore.  We ended up finding out that the man talking on the phone with us was the owner after a hilarious thirty-minute conversation. He told us he would warn his staff that the Jersey Girls were coming in. Meanwhile he tried to do his best to brag about how much fun his place was and how there was going to be a decent crowd of people. We headed out via taxi to Uptown Larrys…raw bar and grill. We walked in and of course it was DEAD on a Sunday night. But yes, we brought the fun. We immediately met some of the staff and told them that the owner had raved about their bar. Although we were disappointed about how small the turnout was, we still made the best of it. I had hoped to meet the infamous owner we talked to on the phone, but he had mentioned he would not be working until Wednesday.

At Uptown Larry’s we met a group of college students from the area and made conversation with them on what they were studying, where they were from, etc. We ended up becoming friends with them and met them back at Uptown Larry’s that Tuesday and Wednesday night. We also became friendly with some of the staff and bartenders. One girl, Meghan, was so sweet. She wrote out an entire itinerary for our five days there… what beaches to go to, what places to eat, shop, and see. She even gave us her number if we had any questions. These people were just so friendly and we didn’t have to go far to find them!

Monday: We woke up, went to Fort Meyers beach since Meghan told us it was a must. We tried to get up as early as we could since Meg told us it would take hours to get over this one lane bridge if you leave around 10am, we left at 9am and still got caught in traffic. It was all worth it because we headed to the public beach and began enjoying the beautiful Florida sun. After about an hour Lauren and I decided to go check out the prices to rent a Jet Ski. We ended up signing up, but in order to rent one and ride a Jet Ski, you had to take a License test. It was hilarious that this was required because anyone could pass it. When we first got on the Jet Ski I must say I was a little nervous even though Lauren was the one starting to drive. I was holding on for dear life and was scared I was going to fall off or even pull her off with me. Fortunately, neither of those two things happened. When I began to drive the Jet Ski I realized how difficult it was compared to how simple I thought it originally looked.

We returned to our beach towels where Alex had stayed napping and decided to go walk around to see what places we could find that Meg had mentioned to us. We ended up at one of them after five minutes into our walk, the Lani Khai. This was a well known rustic hotel along Fort Meyers beach notorious for college students on spring break. Surprisingly we found a wide age group of people forming a crowd in front of a makeshift stage. We decided to see what they were waiting for. It turns out a group of firemen from Cincinnati, Ohio come down to Fort Meyers this time of the year to raise money for children with cancer. These men were of all age groups and sizes and put on a show for the crowd. This show was absolutely hilarious. These men came out dancing in speedos and other obscene outfits to get a reaction from the large crowd. In the meantime drunk college students from Iowa and Indiana State University were dancing and drinking out on their balconies hovering over this little. I do not know which act should have been more embarrassed,  the drunk students, or the half naked firemen? At least the firemen were sober and knew what they were getting into, right?

After watching the various acts the firemen put on we began our walk back to get our stuff and head back to the house for lunch. Later that evening we went shopping in a major mall complex a few miles down the highway where we then sat down for dinner at a nice cafe. Being a waitress for a short time you learn that tips are greatly appreciated. Ever since I began waitressing last spring I always tip around 20%, unless the service is completely terrible. Well this waitress was absolutely terrible and clearly was not trying. She should have realized how respectful I was when giving tips, but she lost that chance. After leaving dinner, angry about the service we had, we went into Barnes and Noble to buy Scrabble. As silly as it sounds we really wanted to play scrabble and I found a great travel Scrabble game for only $25.00. As we were leaving the store we passed by a woman in her mid-sixties asking if any of us knew how to get a key out of a locked car. We decided to immediately help out of nowhere. As we approached her white Toyota SUV we saw that on the passenger side there was about two and a half inches of window open for us to reach in. Unfortunately none of our arms were skinny enough to get to the unlock button on the car. I even tried calling 911 just to get the local non-emergency number to help get her keys out but it turns out that the Police do not help you get your keys out of locked cars, lucky for us. Mall Security was strolling by on his scooter just watching us. Then the woman we were helping, Peggy, gave us a long duster-like object to try and use to press a button to unlock the car through entering the window. We tried, but after ten minutes there was no luck with this device. As time progressed we wondered how we were going to get this done. We were so determined to help this woman and she even told us she was going to treat us all to drinks after which was really funny. Soon we got a man from Barnes and Noble to help us as he brought out a hanger to get the keys. After about ten more minutes we got it out! With all the help from mall security, to us, to Jose from Barnes and Noble, we succeeded! Even a kind man from Boston stayed until we had unlocked the car.

After it was over Peggy insisted that she buy us all drinks. The three of us were the only ones left and we decided to once again head over to Fridays. It turns out we ended up staying and chatting with Peggy for about two hours. It was so interesting hearing about this woman’s life, originally from D.C. now helping out her daughter in Florida with her new granddaughter. I was so inspired by all of the work she does down in Estero at her church and with a sex trafficking shelter for very young girls. Who would have known that sex trafficking is here in our own country? I knew it could be, but it never hit me until now how relevant of a problem it is.

After an amazing time meeting an amazing woman who suddenly turned into an old friend, it was time to head back and relax for another day at the beach.

Tuesday: We went to the beach again and laid low in the sun until we were ready to head back. We decided to just order in pizza that night and relax before we went out to Uptown Larry’s for another night out.

Wednesday: Headed to the pool, did some laundry, and went out to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. And ended the fun filled week at our favorite place, Uptown Larry’s.

The Switch

I just switched from Wordpress.com to Blogger.com for numerous reasons. I just feel as though there are more people I know blogging within this site, there are more options to utilize, and I can cannot my twitter account to this site as well. Am I really going to move all my recent posts over to this new site? I'm not really sure. As cheesy as it sounds I want to only because I have had some interesting blogs. Okay, not all of them are interesting to everyone, but I get a laugh out of a majority of them.