That time my mom almost burned our house down on Easter...

No really... almost happened.

But before that, allow me to tell you all about my Easter break. It was GREAT! I got to see my littles, make kielbasa with my dad and bought a dress for senior formal. Now I present the necessary documentation of said activities:

Making homemade polish kielbasa in my kitchen... with the Lipinski family meat grinder

The first year that I was allowed (or brave enough) to stuff the kielbasa myself...

Sweet little Sophia who got so big!

Don't you miss being 5 and a half years old?

The two littlest littles by the Easter Bunny!

Flying into Boston for the last time...

Good ol' Beantown...

So every year on Easter Sunday my mom hides eggs for me to find (yes, I'm 22 and no, I don't care) but since we were running late for our Easter dinner at a friend's house, I didn't have time to search for them before we left. So we spend a nice 5 hours at our friends', then return home and the first words out of my mouth are "What smells like burnt sugar?" So we all kind of walk around the house sniffing and I hear my dad go "WHOA!!"

Apparently my mother the Easter Bunny hid one of my eggs on top of a LAMP and forgot about it, so it was literally smoking by the time we got home. The plastic egg had melted onto the antique lamp and the candy inside was ruined. After the initial freak out, we all found it pretty funny.

The first week back was great, it was good to see all my friends again. Spring Weekend was last weekend which was also a blast and then last night was the BEST! One of my friends got tickets to the Twins/Red Sox game so he and I went into Boston first and had dinner in the North End and then met our other two friends at the game. The best part is Mandi and I were gonna get ourselves tickets to that series for our birthdays but they were too expensive so we got to go after all!

Even though the Twins lost it was still a lot of fun to go to Fenway again!

Well now it's only one more class and then the weekend... my last weekend before finals as a senior.

How has it come to this? :(

Last Time Home...

Throughout my four years at Stonehill I have spent many, many hours traveling to and from Logan Airport. Flying to and from school has become part of my collegiate routine, and tomorrow morning I'll be making my last flight home from Boston... ever. Since I'm driving my car home after graduation in May, tomorrow's 10:45 am departure will mark the end of my mile-high commute to and from school.

Since Northwest Airlines has a hub in my home city of Minneapolis I have been lucky to have mostly direct flights home over the years. But I've had plenty of stories along the way... like when I flew home at the end of freshman year on United Airlines with a connection in Chicago. I arrived at Logan in the pouring rain to find out my flight to Chicago was delayed and would I like to get on the stand-by list for an earlier one? After consulting with Papa Lipinski I decided to do so, but sat at my gate crying as I was worried I'd miss my flight out of Chicago and be stuck alone in Illinois for the night (mind you I had also taken 2 finals that day, packed up my room and bid my friends good-bye for a whole 3 months so I was a little emotional).

Thankfully I made it to Chicago (though if I hadn't gotten on the earlier flight I would have actually missed my connection) and sprinted through O'Hare towards what I thought was my gate. When I arrived panting at my gate I checked the board behind the check-in desk and saw that it indeed listed my flight to Minneapolis. Whilst on the phone with my dad, I noted how many Asian people were on the flight but didn't think anything of it until I was walking down the gateway to the plane and I hear a frantic "Miss Lipinski! Miss Lipinski! You're on the wrong flight!"

Ummm what?

I hung up the phone and turned around to see a flight attendant chasing me down the walkway who promptly informed me that I was on the wrong flight. When I told her what flight I was on she said the gate had moved, to which I replied "But the sign above the desk says this is the right gate"

"Oh yeah that's wrong," she replied. (Gee, thanks lady).

"So where's this plane going?" I asked. The response?

"China."

UMMM WHAT I ALMOST BOARDED A FLIGHT TO CHINA?!?!!? I quickly found the correct gate and made it home to MN only a couple hours delayed... and then my luggage wasn't there. Apparently it never made it out of Chicago (but at least it didn't go to China) yet it got sent to my house the next day.

I've had many more almost mishaps, like sophomore year when the car driving me to the airport called to say it was running an hour late cause it was stuck in traffic and they'd reimburse me if I missed my flight... (again, gee, thanks) or when I was going home for Thanksgiving this year and walked out to my car at 4:45 am to find it completely frosted over and I had to scrape the ice off of it, which meant I missed the bus I was aiming for and got to the airport much later than intended. Knock on wood though, I have never in my life missed a flight and I've been flying since I was 3 months old.

Because of the recent Northwest & Delta Airlines merger, I'll be flying out of Terminal A tomorrow instead of my trusty Terminal E, which actually bums me out a little (yes, I'm a loser like that). I've gotten to know Terminal E very well over the years and the Starbucks located in it has made for very pleasant early mornings. Though I know there's one in Terminal A too as that's where we fly out of for spring break.

I love to fly, if you can't tell. I'm able to get so much work done on flights or just chill and watch a movie on my laptop if I want. Also it typically leads me to places I really want to go; in this case, home to relax for a few days :)

I wish you all a very happy Easter, and remember, next time you fly... make sure you're at the right gate or else you may end up in Asia ; )

Less Than 50 Days Now...

I can't believe I'm graduating in some 40-odd days... it does not seem real.

Sorry it took me all week to get the pictures up from 50 Days. It was a total blast getting all dressed up and The Top of the Hub was awesome. The view was so cool! Here are some pictures:

Mandi and I all snazzy ; )

50 Days meant even the boys had to dress up!

So Mandi, Caite, Kate and I were all set to take a lovely picture of the girls... and then Chris and Paul realized it and saw a prime opportunity to have some fun!

Mandi, Janelle, Caite and I : )

So when JD and I took this photo we had no idea that the red arrow was there and now find it hilarious of how perfect this photo was placed....

JILLYYYYYYYYY!!!

Chris and I at the top of the hub!

Beautiful Boston!

This weekend should be fun. There's a men's rugby game tonight and then afterwards we're celebrating Dave's 22nd birthday. How can next weekend be Easter break already?!

WHERE IS THE TIME GOING???