Resolutions are lame but here are mine. I am a day late, but yesterday my ability to look at a computer screen was decimated by a migraine and it’s my blog so I can backdate if I want. Here are a few goals for the new year.
• A.B.M. (Always be Moisturizing)
Seriously. Everyone knows that white people age worse than everyone else. Have you seen me? It’s as if a white porcelain toilet left out on the lawn is reflecting sun into your face while you drive without sunglasses at high noon.
• Finish Graduate School
I have five classes left until I can complete my M.S. in Marketing Management and have my life back. If I maximize my suffering I can graduate this winter. Then if I really hate myself I can take the three extra six-credit courses to earn an MBA. Either way, prepare for more epic poop emoji-related posts after graduation. 💩
• Pay Off My Student Debt
Prepare to lose a revenue stream, federal government. I am on track to pay off my undergraduate student debt this year. Seriously, take your 6.8% interest and stick it, because this year is my year!
Paying off my student debt will also set my Murphy’s Law plan of getting Bernie Sanders elected into motion, because we all know if I finish paying off my $25,000 in student loans, Bernie will get elected and forgive all of the student debt. You’re welcome, America! 🇺🇸
• Take Better Care of My Body
I’m writing this in my iPhone notes at the chiropractor’s office. Right now it is week one and my spine wants to die but it’s supposed to get worse before it gets better, right? Right?!? 😭
• Use Up All of My Yarn
Don’t be surprised if you receive a potholder, scarf, or similarly rectangular hand-crocheted item from me this year. I hope I know your favorite color.
If you went to Delmar Elementary School with my dad, Walter Hovatter, from 1963 to 1964 – Here is your class photo. Dad is in the second row from the top, fourth from the left. I had my photo taken on the same stage many times, roughly 35 years later.
This recipe for onion salsa was taught to my boyfriend, Marc, by Ecuador’s culinary gift to the world (and Marc’s best friend’s mom), Leonor. You might not think you like red onions this much, but make this one time and you will be amazed. It’s like a pickled onion, but squared. It’s like an onion morphed into a space unicorn and drove Apollo’s chariot into your taste buds. Think of it as pico de gallo, but with a shift in the ratio of ingredients.
Ingredients:
5 Roma tomatoes
3 medium red onions
1 fistful of cilantro – varies based on size of fist
1/4 cup Kosher salt
3 limes, for juicing
water Optional – 1 jalapeño
What to Do:
1. Wash your hands. I know that you have been scratching inappropriately.
2. Slice onions lengthwise, then thinly crosswise. Slice once more to achieve see-through onion half-rainbows.
(1) Cut onion from top to bottom. (2) Slice each half thinly. (3) Cut the slices in half.
3. Transfer your sliced onions to a mixing bowl and cover them with Kosher salt. It should look like your onions are blanketed in snow (scroll down for slideshow visuals).
4. Cover the onion/salt mixture with cool water. Massage the onions, salt, and water together for five minutes. Let the mixture sit for an additional five minutes while you dice your Roma tomatoes and cilantro (and jalapeño, if needed). Do not add these to the mixture yet.
5. At this point, the onions should be limp and somewhat translucent. If the onions are still hard, let them sit for another couple of minutes. Pour the onion mixture into a colander and rinse with cool water. Return onions to mixing bowl, add water, massage, and repeat the straining process. This will ensure that your onions are not overly salty.
6. Return the onions to the mixing bowl and use a fork to juice all three limes over the onion mixture. To get the most juice, roll the limes on the counter and apply pressure by hand before you cut them.
7. Add the tomatoes and cilantro to the mix. Fold the mixture with your hands. Taste the salsa and add more salt if desired.
8. Select desired Netflix program and proceed to stuff face. This salsa is delicious when served with black beans and rice, or on top of some grilled chicken. Or get some Tostito’s Scoops and just go to town.
I don’t have the literary aptitude that it would take to describe life as a full-time worker and part-time grad student. All I can do is sit and marvel at the basket cases who do both of those things while running a household and being a parent. I do, however, have the ability to make a lot of lists, since that is how I keep track of things now that the capacity for short-term memory retention has been burned out of my brain. Presently I am in Week 10 of “Finance for Decision Makers,” and on the cusp of losing any semblance of sanity I might have had, so here are the three most important lists in my life right now:
Things I miss about not being in school: -shaving my legs on a regular basis
-doing laundry before all I have left are hole-y sweatpants and granny bloomers
-cooking healthy food
-eating healthy food
-exercising to relieve stress
-thinking that I knew was stress was, but not really
-reading for enjoyment
-sleeping
-not feeling compelled to binge-watch Doomsday Preppers while longing for life “off the grid”
Things I want to do when I finish school forever:
-sleep for two weeks
-eat food that wasn’t sourced from a drive-thru
-go to Costa Rica and look at lizards, birds and monkeys
-finally figure out what is wrong with my car stereo (a.k.a., replace the car stereo)
-take more dance classes
-stay up after 10pm
-not have night terrors about cost allocation analyses
Things I need to do today but don’t have time for:
-dishes
-laundry
No matter what happens in the last two weeks of this semester, I am going to see The Book of Mormon on August 5th. I just need to hang on!
What are the things about life that you miss when you are buried in school-work and work-work? Dig deep, you may surprise yourself.
Envision a world where I have a full time job with my art degree; a job where the checks clear and the snow days are plentiful. Where a supervisor is reluctant but not pissed off when two employees from his department buy tickets first and ask permission later.
This image sums up how I felt about not going to work for an entire week.
This review is long over due, but on March 13th I embarked on my first spring break trip with a friend from work, Kristen. We found an irresistible deal on Travelzoo from Apple Vacations to Barcelo Dominican Beach resort in Punta Cana. $1000 for seven days, all-inclusive! What a week.
I had never traveled all-inclusive and didn’t anticipate the amazing service that we were about to receive. The reviews were ominous, so I packed for a cross between Appalachian site camping and an Atlantic City La Quinta Inn. By day two, Kristen and I realized that there are some spoiled-ass punks on Google Plus and Trip Advisor. At Barcelo we found a place with upbeat people, delicious food, three swimming pools and a long stretch of sand, plus endless Mama Juana to help white folks learn to dance the bachata.
If you find yourself heading to Barcelo Resort in Punta Cana with Apple Vacations, here are a few travel tips—
Do:
Pack granola bars in your carry-on. These are handy if you don’t want to spend seven bucks on a mystery snack box from Xtra airlines. The attendants mention free snacks before takeoff but I think they mean that the snacks are free because they are imaginary. Spend three bucks on a box of Kashi and be happy.
Bring your own beverage containment unit and save $12 at the Barcelo gift shop. You will get tired of the small plastic cups that they use at the bars on site. We saw a lot of savvy resort guests with their own large cups full of Cuba Libre.
Pack an outlet converter. The outlets look similar to those found in the USA, but do not be fooled by this.
Have you heard of Poopourri? Good! The bathrooms don’t have exhaust fans.
Make a reservation at Don Quixote and order the salmon. It is delectable.
Tip in American dollars to the porter. We were fresh off the plane and tipped in pesos without understanding the conversion rate, so we definitely under-tipped and felt horrible once we realized what had happened. I felt slightly less horrible since I understood with my limited Spanish skills that the guy had talked some smack about us while we were standing right in front of him.
If you are with a travel company, visit your guide right after check-in. The guide will give you valuable advice about excursion planning, and can answer all of your questions about the resort. Ours told us about how the water at the resort was safe to drink after we had already bought giant jugs of Dasani from the Barcelo Mini-Mart. You can find the guides next to the Pizzeria and Photo Hut area.
At the towel bar you can pay $5 for a ten-minute catamaran lesson. Pop some dramamine and go for it.
Get iced coffee or Irish coffee at La Café. These drinks were so good I couldn’t believe they were included.
Play bingo before dinner. It is a fun multicultural experience because everyone is yelling the letters and the numbers to each other in their own language.
Make a left out of the front gate and walk one block South to Posada de Gladys. Fried fish, chicken, beans, rice, free wifi, and beer. Ask for sliced avocado; they are gigantic and cost less than a dollar. YES YES YES.
Walk a few paces North on the beach until you see what I call “The Russian Store.” They sell souvenirs, alcohol, jewelry, clothes and cigars; this place had the best prices and selection by far of any shops we visited. They also don’t hassle you while you shop. Come prepared, they only accept American dollars and if you use a credit card there is a 7% surcharge.
Make your dinner reservations ahead of time in the lobby. No one told us initially that reservations were required for all of the restaurants on the resort, so we were relegated to the buffet on our first night.
Go to the nightly dance extravaganzas near the lobby and casino. They are incredible! I am a bad dancer but I still went up on stage every night to participate with the dancers and other audience members. The shows are different every night and the costumes are incredible.
Don’t:
Pay for photos with animals on the first day. The resort keeps the photos the entire week and you will probably see more animals and get photos for free.
Assume the toilet in your room works. Check first before you get situated. We had to ask for another room due to a broken toilet and it is a common complaint about Barcelo on review websites.
Blame the resort when you get diarrhea. Instead, consider how often you actually eat Dominican food in your normal life. More than likely you are sleeping with the enemy (your digestive tract). Pack some Pepto Bismol.
Expect a hot shower. Sadly, the showers on The Bloque were no bueno. Prepare for low pressure and fluctuating temperatures. After a day on the beach it will serve you well to rinse off at one of the many outdoor pool showers to get rid of all of the sand before you shower in your suite for the evening.
Drink unpurified water. This is where a reusable bottle comes in handy. Free agua potable in bottles is readily available. The ice cubes and water served with meals is also safe at Barcelo. Produce is safe as well because it is rinsed in purified water.
Pay full price from the local vendors. Most places let you haggle. Get your friends a bunch of wooden sculptures and roll on. We couldn’t figure out a pattern but several nights there were tables set up around the resort with people selling paintings, sculptures, Mama Juana and cigars. If you buy a sculpture usually someone will carve your name, Punta Cana and the year for free.
Do a full day excursion in the second half of the week. Do it when you first get there and are still pumped and full of energy. Once you’re on island time, you will be in relaxation mode and thus too lazy for a 12 hour day of travel. I highly recommend a visit to Manati Park; skip Isla de Saona.
Go to the casino to gamble. The house always wins, unfortunately. However, if you are overheating after the nightly theater performance, they do blast the AC in there.
Bring your fancy DSLR camera. I have a Nikon but I left it at home in favor of a Go Pro and my Cyber Shot. Easier to carry, fits in a purse, and less potential for damage. This of course is subject to personal preference.
To reiterate, we purchased this trip all-inclusive with airfare for $1000 on TravelZoo. The reviews were bad but we couldn’t resist the price. I am so glad we went because this was the best vacation ever and ultimately I am the kind of a person who can tolerate cold showers and infrequent gastrointestinal distress for an amazing life experience. As I reflect on this now I am reading my notes from our second hour trapped in a hot plane on the Punta Cana runway because of snow in Baltimore. Bonus two hours of vacation for free! \__(^_^)__/
The people who work at Barcelo Dominican Resort are so customer service driven and thoughtful. They really want you to have an amazing time and it is easy to do when everyone you meet has such a positive outlook and good sense of humor. I don’t know how they select the employees at Barcelo but they are truly a fun group. The front desk called us in the middle of the week just to ask how things were going, and people around the resort quickly learned our names and always joked with us and answered our questions. I want to give a special shout-out to Angel, Shadow Black (Daivis), Ramon, Lino, Carmen, Fernando, Jean and Monkey Black, for being so amazing and showing us a great time.
I don’t know what people get at a five-star resort but Kristen and I had such a memorable and overwhelmingly positive experience here, I would come back again any time.
The annual Gaithersburg Book Festival is coming up on May 16th and my employer, the Universities at Shady Grove, is a sponsor. To support our presence at the event I designed a a static ad for the Book Festival’s mobile site as well as a bookmark to hand out to attendees.
Because taking two classes and working full time decimated my creativity and free time over the past twelve weeks, I haven’t been sharing much. Here are a couple of Wine and Cheese party e-vites that I made for work. Which one do you like better?
As a high school junior from 2004-2005, I took AP Art History at Delmar High School with Mrs. Judy Hearn. If you really want to expand your knowledge of art and see the world and its historical events in a brighter light, take an art history course. However, I will mention the importance of having an instructor that makes the subject come alive and cares about your outcome in the class. They should care to the point where you wonder if they secretly think you’re retarded based on the notes you receive on the tests you get back. In college I took Italian Renaissance Art History, but my instructor failed to capture the magic and her class became my twice-a-week afternoon siesta (I still earned a B).
After a lot of scrimping and saving (at least on my family’s part), our class took off on the inaugural Hearn Art History Extravaganza to visit various locales in France and Italy.
I will never forget the feeling of leaving the east coast of the United States and traveling by air for the first time, and seeing everything we had spent the entire school year learning about in textbooks come to life before us. I am hoping that one day again I will get to see the Eiffel Tower and police officers on rollerblades in France, and enjoy a view of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy after tracking down that restaurant where I bought the most incredible sandwich of my life in 2005.
Are you a social media manager for a community college or commuter campus?
It can seem impossible to engage students who aren’t part of a “captive” audience, as you would find on a residential campus. I have found myself at a loss when students on the commuter campus where I work remain unaware of such perks as free FAFSA help, resumé clinics, random snacks and campus swag giveaways.
At the #UMBCSocial Media Summit this month, there were numerous workshops to choose from and an abundance of knowledge to be gained. Here is what I learned at a presentation led by Jessica El-Zeftawy, UMBC’s Alumni Programming Coordinator:
How to Use Social Media to Connect with Commuter Students and Alumni
1. Use fun drawings in addition to your usual photos and videos. If the images are student generated, that is even better. After seeing Jessica’s waffle fries image, I realized that this could be a fun way to mix things up and show some personality.
2. Have a “Why You Love Our Campus” photo contest. The winner gets to pick out a free hoodie at the bookstore. This was a revelation to me, since at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) we aren’t permitted to give out cash prizes or gift cards. As a college student (and even now) I would never turn down a chance at a free hoodie! Bonus: if you are specific about terms and conditions, this can be a great way to collect royalty free images.
3. Share the wealth. Inform program directors and members of other departments that if they tweet with your username, you will retweet them (when appropriate).
4. Talk to your student staffers. Have you ever asked an open-ended question on Facebook, only to receive no response? It is common knowledge that the more people interact with your posts, the more users the post will be presented to (impressions). Enlist the help of student employees to serve as social media ambassadors to like, share, and comment to keep the conversation going.
5. TAKE VIDEOS. Even if they are not the best quality, people will click them. I’m not saying that you should spam your accounts with clips of a trash bag blowing around the parking lot; I’m encouraging you to explore video as a tool even if you just go out with your iphone and a cheap tripod. Don’t be intimidated by a lack of experience, just do it!
7. Set goals to measure your success. Twitter and Facebook’s analytics tools continue to become more user-friendly. Create a social media strategy (custom hashtags, contests, etc.) and follow through with analytics to see what really works.
8. Connect with alumni on Linkedin. Valuable information to boost engagement with alumni on Linkedin can include financial aid information for graduate students, professional development related news, enrollment dates for graduate programs, course sharing opportunities and faculty profiles.
Images provided courtesy of Jessica El-Zeftawy
For coverage of other topics that I learned about at #UMBCSocial, follow these links:
Randie Hovatter 