It's really sad. I'm not a Penn State alum, but the school has some seriously excellent programs (e.g., MSE, political science) that, unfortunately, a lot of people won't be thinking about for a long time when they see PSU on a resume. It is total shit.

I successfully convinced my mom to get/make us Grumpy Cat Christmas T-shirts to go with our PJs that we get on Christmas Eve every year. I have not been this excited for Christmas Eve presents in years!

Inland Empire of SoCal native here. I say it the same way.

I think it depends. My best friend has been suffering from it throughout her pregnancy and has been hospitalized multiple times, IV'd up, etc. But she is a military officer, so she has pretty good medical insurance.

Yeah, I think a lot of my family would be instructed to mouth the words on something like that. My choir and opera friends, however, would be very much invited to do something like this. God I love Les Mis!

How did I miss this today? We stopped by there this evening for Gluhwein and I didn't even see this.

I watched it on the plane from Michigan to Berlin where I'm doing a post-doc and leaving my boyfriend in Ann Arbor. I cried so hard.

My boyfriend has been growing a mustache for about 3 months now. It's getting pretty impressive looking. Granted, it took until about 2 weeks ago to actually look properly like a mustache in pictures. But it brings me endless laughter. We'll see if the laughter ends when we see each other at Christmas and I kiss him…

The only people I have ever gotten something like that from are my boyfriend (he sent me an email with that today!) and my grandma.

I only freak out when I watch people row on the indoor rowers/ergs. I was a collegiate rower and when I see the trainers not correcting their form I have to just turn away because I feel like I'm about to lose it (seriously, do you think they are supposed to be hitting their freaking knees on every stroke?!). I…

I bought my dad the grumpy cat t-shirt. I think I also convinced my mom to get us some grumpy cat "bah humbug" t shirts made up for our X-mas eve pjs so that we can have slightly more hilarious than normal Christmas morning opening gifts shots.

Oh man. I didn't want to know that. I love anthropolgie's sales.

Yeah, I have only purchased things on supersale there. I do not anticipate ever being able to buy their clothes at full price.

Ummm ... seriously? They want you to try to start a new relationship (or start looking) one month after such a huge tragedy? That's plain stupid. You are grieving. Most counselors say you shouldn't make any big decisions in the first year after a major loss. Not saying you can't start dating, but you probably…

My dog Nilla, RIP, once ate two containers of dressing at Christmas. She figured out how to open the outside fridge and ate dressing intended for 14 people plus leftovers! This was the first or second Christmas after grocery stores in California started closing on Christmas day. My brother and I ended up driving in…

Not my story, but my mom's. Apparently the first Thanksgiving that she ever prepared was a little over a year after my parents got married. My mom is not particularly domestic (e.g., at her first apartment she once called my Nana asking how much grease you put in to make bacon) so she studied up and planned to make…

Why exactly do you think this bill is doomed? It isn't clear from the article why it would be, honestly. The Republicans currently control both state houses and the governorship and will continue to do so in January. As someone who pays Michigan taxes and will not be 12 weeks pregnant or more this coming tax year,…

Somewhere there is like a 12 minute video where she applies her makeup (obviously it is time lapsed) and it was oddly fascinating. A lot of it is the application of highlighting and shadows on her face. I mean, the large eyes, small noses, and pouty lips are pretty normal among many of the Russian women I know.…

I will one up her and write everything I am going to eat for the next week:

Not the manic pixie part but I've definitely filled the role of "dream girl" or at least "girl I should be interested in." Then they figure out that I'm actually a person and it ruins everything for them. I could have used that shirt as well.