Kaitlin Hanley '13

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  • August 28th, 2010

Today’s my last day of summer!  It went by so fast, but I’m more than ready to get back to HC life!  Here I am, all packed and ready to go :]

And that’s not even all of it!  I have a couple more things hiding behind the couch in the picture.  Needless to say, my mom is going to be happy tomorrow afternoon just to have her living room back to normal.  Meanwhile, I’m still busy collecting a few odds and ends and trying to find places for them in my boxes, as well as working on one of my essays for the College’s honors program.

Tonight we’re making one last home-cooked meal for me for a while and the weather couldn’t be better for a barbecue.  We’re featuring teriyaki steak tips from our local butcher, corn on the cob, fresh rolls, and my mom’s to-die-for homemade potato salad.  I don’t mind Kimball food, but there is nothing quite like a good meal at home, and I know tonight’s dinner is going to be delicious!

So good luck to everyone as they’re trying to gather the last of their belongings and enjoying their last moments of summer!  My next update will be from my new room in Mulledy Hall on the Hill!

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  • August 18th, 2010

Hi there everyone! Is it just me, or has it been a SUPER long time since my last post?  I can’t believe it’s already the end of August and I’m going to be on my way back to HC soon to start my sophomore year!  I’ve had a great summer, but I’m definitely ready to go back.  So what have I been up to?  Well, for one thing, I was lucky enough to have secured a job this summer at a garden center that kept me fairly busy.  Though I’ve been working for this company off and on now for three years, this summer was my first experience working in the main office.  It wasn’t the most exciting job in the world, but after seeing many of my friends struggle with their job hunts, I’m grateful to have been able to work so many hours this summer.

My summer wasn’t all about working, though.  I did have to take some time to recharge my batteries after such a busy school year.  I hung out with friends, spent time with my family, and caught up on sleep (3 summer essentials, in my opinion).  Here are just a few things I did:

Last week I also went to see an amazing Brooks and Dunn concert (part of their Last Rodeo tour).  Every summer has to come to an end eventually, and nothing reminds me more of this than my textbooks for this semester already arriving in the mail this week.  Though it’s been a great summer (despite the brutal heat and humidity we’ve dealt with this year in contrast to last year’s rainy summer), I think I’m ready to pack up and head back to the Hill for another good year of classes and to see all of my friends again.  I’ve got a lot to do in the next week and a half before move-in day (the 29th), and with my last day of work being Friday, I’m going down the Cape to this weekend to soak up some of my last few days of summer!

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  • April 21st, 2010

Hi everyone!  Today was such a nice day here on the hill–the sun was shining brightly and it got up into the 60s.  I studied outside for once with a few of my friends and it felt so refreshing!  Spring is here and in full swing, as we can tell by the mix of sunny days and April showers we’ve been getting lately.  However, it also means that my freshman year is drawing to a rapid close, with only about three more weeks left!  I can’t believe it’s already almost over…

Anyway, it’s been pretty quiet here these days with everyone preparing for final projects and essays.  With the semester winding down, all of us are ready for summer, even though we’re now approaching the busiest points in our classes.  For me, this means several essay workshopping assignments, readings, essays, a final project, two final papers, and two final exams.  But there’s always something to look forward to if you need a break from work.  This past weekend I used the WOO Bus to meet up with my friend, Kim, who goes to Assumption here in Worcester, and we went out to eat.  We had a great time, even though it was raining and freezing outside while we were waiting for the bus.

This weekend, my parents are coming down to see me.  They’re bringing me some boxes so I can start to pack away my stuff for the summer, and then we’re going to softball game (Go HC!), and we’ll go out to eat after (yay!).  Other than that, I’m not sure what the rest of the plans are for the weekend yet, since it’s only Tuesday, but Fools on the Hill (an amazing a cappella group here on campus) is performing their senior show on Friday, which we’ll definitely go to since we’re big fans. :]

Oh, also, housing selection is tomorrow night, so wish me luck!  It’s going to be hard to leave Wheeler, but hopefully Jules, Jess, and I will end up with a great location!

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  • April 6th, 2010

Hi everyone!  I’m sorry it’s been such a LONG time!  This semester has been extremely busy for me and I don’t even know where to begin to give updates.  Let’s just say I’ve been so busy with different assignments that I’ve lost track of time and now there are only five weeks left of my freshman year!  I hope everyone’s been having a good new year.  Here in Massachusetts we’ve gone through our share of snow storms and now we’re drowning under water.  When I went home on Easter break this past weekend, I found that my entire backyard had been literally turned into a pond.  That was our second round of flooding for the year.  Believe me, it’s not usually this extreme.

Anyway, on the Saturday before Easter break, my friends and I participated in a volunteer program here on campus called “Holy Cross Cares Day.”  This is a day where a couple hundred students volunteer their time to go all over Worcester in an effort to give back to the community.  Three of my friends and I were assigned to cleaning up a park on Shrewsbury Street.  Of course, Saturday’s weather didn’t follow along with the beautiful 60 and 70 degree days we’ve been experiencing lately, so I was actually wearing my winter jacket since it only got up to the 30s.  It was worth it, though, because we were able to spend a few hours giving back while having fun with each other as well.

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Jules, Jess, and Justin with their snappy blue volunteering t-shirts

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Jess, Justin, and me before going to the park

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A very dedicated Jules

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Jess

Everyone was busy last week finishing assignments due before break, and with spring in the air it was a little harder than usual to focus.  Now with a mere five weeks left, my schedule is filled again with final projects and papers.  Despite the mountain of work I have to climb, I still like my classes.  It’s hard to believe that I’m in the midst of course selection already for next fall!

I hope everyone had a great Easter!  I should probably get back to work now, though, so I can enjoy a little of the forecasted 80 degree day tomorrow! :]

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Hello all!  It’s been a long time since I’ve written so here’s an update on what’s going on in my life and at Holy Cross.

First of all, I hope that everyone had a nice holiday and a refreshing break.  I know I did!  After finals ended (they all went smoothly by the way, whew!), I had one last dinner in Kimball with my family and friends and then I made the 45 minute drive back to Tewksbury.  After a long semester, it felt really nice to finally be home for a month and to have no homework, projects, or papers for a change.  I kept busy, though.  I saw my friends from home almost every day and I was actually working about three days a week for the company that I worked for in high school.  We celebrated Christmas at my house with the entire family and for New Years I slept over a friend’s house with a bunch of our other friends (and stayed up absurdly late!).  Soon, though, it was time to return to Holy Cross for another semester of classes, all of which I am looking forward to.

This semester I am continuing both my Montserrat (which now becomes Postmodern Quests) and my Italian classes.  I am also taking Introduction to Philosophy and Introduction to Creative Writing: Fiction.  Needless to say, it’s only the fifth day of classes and I am already swamped with assignments.  Remembering last semester’s workload, I was prepared for that this semester, though, so it’s not really a shock that I have multiple essays and papers due between now and next Tuesday.  It will be a lot of work keeping up with two predominately writing-based courses, a language course, and another humanities course, but I think I’ll make it through like I did last semester.  Like all of my professors last semester, all three of my new ones seem very willing to help me out in any way and are all extremely friendly.

Not too much happened over the weekend as we were all settling back into the routines of college life.  On Friday, I went to my friend Nicole’s swim meet in the Hart Center here on campus to support her in her relay races.  On Saturday, I had my first shift at work for the semester from 10-2 which felt longer than usual for some reason, but all in all not too bad.  That night, I went out to eat with some of my friends and then came back to campus to hang out.  After a month apart, we all had a lot of catching up to do!

Anyway, I should probably stop procrastinating on editing my two page “Self-Reflections and Goals Statement” due tomorrow for Creative Writing.  Once again, I hope everyone had a nice break, and to any New Englanders out there, try to stay warm!  According to Stephanie (one of my roommates) it’s supposed to be 9 degrees here on Friday night, so bundle up!

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  • December 8th, 2009

Today was my last day of classes!  I can’t believe that the first semester is just ten days away from being over!  After Columbus Day, the time just flew right by!  The next few days aren’t going to be easy, though.  I’ve still got one paper due on Thursday, four final exams, and five shifts at work to complete before going home for break.  Everyone is busy, busy, busy, but we’ll all make it through to enjoy an entire month off from classes, homework, papers, and exams.  In my opinion, we ALL deserve it!

In other news, last weekend was Winter Weekend here on the Hill.  On Friday night, my residence hall had a Christmas party in the common rooms downstairs.  It was so much fun and such a great break from all the work I had been doing all week long.  There were cookies to decorate, ornaments to make, cards to write, and  hot chocolate and eggnog to drink.  Santa even made an appearance and we took pictures with him!  (Ok, so Santa was really one of the kids on our house council, but we totally ignored that!)  Basically, we just had a ton of fun.

Picture with Santa at our house Christmas party!

Picture with Santa at our house Christmas party! Left to right: Kim, Megan, me, and Jules.

On Saturday, my family came to visit me for lunch, and then we went to the Winter Carnival held in the ballroom at Hogan Campus Center.  That was also very fun.  There was more cookie decorating, ornament making, card decorating, candy galore, and pictures in front of a Candy Land themed green screen.  It was a fantastic way to spend the afternoon.  That night, my friends and I also went to see the Fools on the Hill (an accapella group) Winter Show, which was very entertaining.  They sang many well-known songs and then ended the performance with a lovely Christmas song for a preview of their involvement in the Holiday 10-Spot taking place tonight which will also feature Off the Record and the Delilahs.  I will be attending that tonight, along with our campus tree lighting to help spread the holiday spirit. :]

We're in the Candy Land Castle on the stange in the ballroom at the Winter Carnival! Left to Right: Me, Megan, Jess, and Jules.

We're in the Candy Land Castle on the stange in the ballroom at the Winter Carnival! Left to right: Me, Megan, Jess, and Jules.

Tomorrow, study period begins, so we’ll all be hard at work for the next week and a half studying and testing and probably stressing out way too much.  It’ll all be worth it, though!  My last final is next Thursday and I get to go home after that!  Until then, though, I should get back to work on my Montserrat paper and start studying for my first couple finals (Saturday and Monday!).  I hope everyone has a good week!

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  • December 3rd, 2009

Hello again!  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas–literally!  When we got back from Thanksgiving break, Kimball, our dining hall, was completely transformed with Christmas decorations.  There’s even a Christmas tree as you first walk in to remind us all that the holiday is just around the corner (yay!)!  In other news, my Thanksgiving break was great.  I spent a lot of time with my family and I was able to see all of my friends from home that I hadn’t seen in a while.  It felt wonderful to be home, but now that I’m back at school, there’s a lot to do before I can earn the long Christmas break.

Finals are on the horizon, and I have an exam in all four of my classes.  Also this week, I’ve handed in a paper for Psychology, given an oral presentation for Montserrat, and now I need to work on a paper for Poetry, a paper for Montserrat, and a final project for Italian all due next week.  Then after that, study period begins and, hopefully before we know it, finals will be over.  I can’t believe that it’s almost Christmas!  It certainly doesn’t even feel like December with the weather that we had today.  It’s 67 degrees outside!  I’ve live in Massachusetts for my whole life and I still don’t understand the weather here.  I’m not complaining, of course. :]

I’m not sure what I’m doing this weekend, but there are supposed to be a lot of on-campus activities taking place in light of the season.  I’m excited for a break from all the work I’ve put in this week.  I hope everyone’s doing well with their holiday shopping and had a lovely Thanksgiving!  Well, I should probably get to work on my papers now.  We’re in the home stretch! :]

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  • November 19th, 2009

Hi everybody!  Boy have I had a busy last few days!  I’m a little tired, but doing well.  Last weekend my three friends (Emily, Steve, and Dan) from home visited me and it was awesome.  We were going to go to the football game on Saturday, but unfortunately it rained (again!).  However, on a positive note, our very own Crusaders won the Patriot League Championship despite the weather.  Congratulations to them!

Anyway, since we were trying to stay dry, my friends and I went to Blackstone Valley to see a movie instead and then went to dinner at Red Robin.  We had a lot of fun, and now I can’t wait to see my friends and family again next week over Thanksgiving break (though I will definitely miss my HC friends!)!

On a different note, I woke up this morning at the crack of 6:30 AM (ew!) to register for next semester’s classes.  To my surprise, everything went smoothly, despite being warned by several upperclassmen that class registration would be five of the most intense minutes of my freshman year.  I ended up getting every class that I wanted, though, including Introduction to Creative Writing: Fiction, so I am extremely happy.  I’m excited that my second semester is looking very promising!

Also, only five more days until break!  November is just flying by!

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  • November 11th, 2009

Hello again!  I hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to Thanksgiving (I know I am!).

Classes are going smoothly, but my work load has been a little inflated for the past couple of weeks.  Thankfully, it’s slowing down a little though!  Don’t worry, it’s all paying off for I’ve done very well on my last couple exams and papers (yay!).

So last week I participated in a 3-day self defense program (R.A.D. Systems) that was offered by some of HC’s awesome Public Safety officers here on campus.  Even though I feel completely safe while I’m walking on campus (even at night), I wholeheartedly support this program for all girls.  It’s extremely important to know how to defend yourself because you’re not going to be living on a campus for your whole life in a gated community with Public Safety there to protect you.  I learned so much and  the program was also a ton of fun!  It really was a stress relief and I definitely plan to participate in review sessions later in the year if I have to chance!

I spent almost the entire weekend writing a paper for Monday, but I found a little bit of time to spend with my friends on Friday night to go to a comedy show sponsored by CAB.  With only a couple of weeks left before Thanksgiving break, these last few days have been very busy for everyone, but we still find time to wind down a little and have fun.  I’m particularly looking forward to this weekend because two of my friends from home are coming to visit and maybe my parents, too!  I can’t wait!  Also, my CAB committee is running a Quidditch tournament on Friday.  How awesome is that?!

Anyway, I should probably get back to doing homework, but I hope everyone is having a good week so far.  Happy Wednesday!

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Good morning!

I’ve been super busy for the past week and time is just flying by!  Last weekend, the weekend of October 24th, was Family Weekend.  It was nice to see the campus buzzing with families, even though it was raining.  My family, of course, came up for Saturday.  I felt like I had a little entourage following me around consisting of my dad, my mom, my brother, his girlfriend, and my good friend Kim from home.  We started the day by going to brunch at Kimball Dining Hall and, although my dad was disappointed that there was no bacon that day, it was pretty good.  Then we went to the football game in the rain, but it was all worth it to see our Crusaders win 42-28!  After the game, we went out to eat at Vinny T’s on Shrewsbury Street and had some great Italian food (yum!).  I had so much fun!

After Family Weekend was over, though, it was time to get back to work.  I had a midterm in my Montserrat class on Tuesday along with a 4-5 page explication for CRAW: Poetry due on Friday.  This week, also, will be busy since I have an exam for Psychology on Friday and a 5 page paper for Montserrat due next Monday–not to mention all of my usual homework.  Although it took a while to adjust to the coursework at the beginning of the semester, I think I’m finally getting used to all of the hard work that it takes to do well here.  Also, staying busy with classes and homework during the week isn’t so bad when you have the weekends to look forward to (and not just to get ahead on work either!)

This past weekend was Halloween and it was so much fun here!  Friday night kicked off the festivities with a special guest ghost hunter sponsored by CAB.  After going shopping for Halloween costumes on Friday, my friends and I decided to check out the ghost hunter.  He was very interesting.  First he gave a short presentation about what it’s like to be a ghost hunter and what his findings have been in the past, and then he actually took us to a couple of places on campus so we could find our own ghosts.  And let me tell you, Holy Cross has some places on campus that would be pretty accommodating for ghosts to live!

On Saturday–Halloween–I had to work at the dining hall from 5 to 9 in the evening.  I wasn’t exactly thrilled, but I got through it and they even let us leave fifteen minutes early!  That night, my friends and I got dressed in our costumes (I was a Greek goddess :] ) and we went to a dance in Crossroads at the Campus Center called The Edge.  It was fun for a while, but we ended up leaving after about an hour.  Back at our residence hall, we took some pictures of our eclectic group, and then ordered Chinese food and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas in the common room.  All in all, we had a really good time and now we’re also all ready for Christmas because of our movie choice!

Now I should get back to doing homework, though, since I still have a good amount of reading to do in Inferno before tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!  (There are only 24 days until Thanksgiving!)

Bye! :]

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