Took a bath last night. I don’t do the luxuriating bath often but last night I really needed to wash some psychic particles and hobo spit off me. Yeah, working in the city has some disadvantages. What can you do? They are sick people thus the reason they live on the streets. At any rate, I watched Factory Girl which was okay. I wouldn’t recommend it. My alarm went off this morning but I stayed in bed until the last possible second. I am really considering taking tomorrow off or at least working from home 1/2 the day. I just need to get away from work for a little bit. I am feeling terribly drained.

The last wedding is coming up on Saturday. Joe, who was married to Judy, has found a lovely lady he wants to call wife. I am very happy for him. I am even more happy that this is the end of the weddings for this month. There have been so many events the last few weeks: Wedding Shower, Funeral, Wedding, Wedding, Wedding and in the beginning of June, Audra is having a baby shower. Gosh, I am simply exhausted.

I truly do love my XM radio. I hear music that I never heard before mainly because it’s simply not the stuff that’s overplayed on regular radio. The other day I heard Gene Pitney sing She’s a Heartbreaker. This doesn’t sound like his normal stuff– I really like it.

I also heard Boogaloo Down Broadway by The Fantastic Johnny C. Gosh, I listen to this song and all I want to do is get up and dance the Mashed Potato!

And then driving home from work today, listening to the 50’s station, I hear a song by none other than Sal Mineo! I didn’t even know Sal Mineo was a singer! Who the heck is Sal Mineo? He was a very popular actor back in the 50’s and 60’s. He’s probably best known as the boy who has a slight crush on James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. He was also in one of my favorite movies, Crime in the Streets in which he co-starred with a very young John Cassavetes. In the later 70’s, he was stabbed to death in an alley on his way home from a play rehearsal. Supposedly he made a pass at some guy who then knifed him but others say it was just a mugging gone awry. Who knows. The one thing I know is he had at least one cute song to his name.

Here he is dancing with Juliet Prowse in the movie Who Killed Teddy Bear? I miss Juliet Prowse!

And yes, I am going to practice dancing like Juliet Prowse now…. 🙂

I awoke this morning feeling pretty dreary. I wanted to stay home but I was expecting to close a deal today so staying home wasn’t an option. Instead I came into work and accomplished practically ZILCH. Sure, I got my sale closed and did some other good things but on a whole I feel like I wasted the day. I suppose everyone has a day like this every now and then.

Maybe I will go home a little earlier than ususal. Maybe. I should. There is so much to do at home. Chores and stuff. Of course, I will immediately lie down and watch TV. Factory Girl arrived from Netflix yesterday. Can’t wait to watch it. The other two movies I watched from Netflix were Tin Men and Lars and the Real Girl. I liked Tin Men but as a sales professional, I cringed over their sales scams. Lars and the Real Girl was a cute movie. It wasn’t what I expected. Put a sex doll in a movie and you can’t help but expect something a little less wholesome and respectful.

Gosh I am hungry. You know what my lunch was? I went for a walk at noon and right by Liberty Place there was some sort of promotion going on for Honey Bunches of Oats and Lipton Green Tea Iced Tea. I just happened to be walking by and I was handed one of each. Rather than paying 4.00 for a meatball sandwich as I planned, I ate the Honey Bunches of Oats (without milk) and drank the Liption Green Tea Iced Tea. I can’t honestly say it was satisfying. It curbed my hunger for a few hours. Still, I feel like I made out like a robber! Free Food! Love it!

Yeah, I wanna take off a 1/2 hour early. Why not? I usually work through my lunch hour, arrive early and stay late– I should be able to leave a little early if my brain feels foggy, right? Right. Yeah. I can do it.

Let me start this entry by stating that I attended Rosemont College, class of 1996. I am a Rosemonster through and through.

A few months ago I received an email about Rosemont’s new initiative, Rosemont College: Rethink. Everything. The email contained an invitation to a Strategic Planning Session. It was scheduled for 4:00 which seemed like an odd time to hold a meeting for alumnae. I wasn’t able to make it because of work obligations but my dear friend and old classmate, Audra attended and reported back that Rosemont is struggling and they are looking into going co-ed. I was shocked to hear this but figured this was a last ditch effort and other options would be explored. Audra said I should definitely attend the next meeting being held the beginning of May. When May arrived, I made sure to take the time off work so I could get to Rosemont for the 4:00 meeting.

I attended the meeting with one thought in mind– I must make sure Rosemont does not go co-ed. The day after the meeting I wrote an entry describing my experience but I never published it because I wasn’t sure if the post was even coherent since I typed it in such a heated mood. Over two weeks have passed and I realize if I don’t publish it now, it will be too late. Pasted below is the entry written on May 2nd:

May 2, 2008
Thursday night I went to Rosemont College’s Strategic Planning Open Campus Meeting and I tried TRIED TRIED to get them to change their mind about going co-ed. Turns out the decision has already been made and there was no talking anyone out of anything. It was stated that if Rosemont doesn’t admit men, they will close. I don’t buy this line of thinking! Rosemont is not going to suddenly flourish as soon as they allow men! I ask you, what man would want to attend Rosemont College? Especially when Villanova is right next door! I believe there are still girls and their families in this world that want want Rosemont offers!!!!!

After the meeting ended I stuck around and talked to some current students and a professor. I was told that Rosemont has changed big time since I attended. The girls, many of whom were in tears, told me they want to transfer to a different school but they can’t because other colleges won’t accept their credits. The professor told me that many of their staple classes have been canceled. There isn’t a Philosophy department anymore and almost all the Psych courses need to be taken at Villanova. The Liberal Arts tradition is apparently dead. He also said that the standards for incoming freshman have been lowered to such an extent that the classes had to be dumbed down for them. I can’t verify anything they said to me. I honestly don’t know if what they said was the truth. Of course, I don’t know why they would lie to me.

I went to that meeting believing I could rescue my school. Can it be that Rosemont is already dead? I refuse to believe that!

I truly believe there is still a place in this world for a Catholic woman’s college. It saddens me to know that the education I received may no longer be available. There are girls out there that need the type of environment that Rosemont offered. A place where they can learn without fear of being dismissed, invalidated, or teased. A place where they can grow and mature and blossom. I know there are women out there who can do this in any type of environment but there are girls who need a safe haven. Rosemont was my safe haven.

One of the things I loved about Rosemont was her tradition. It was special knowing we were paying tribute to Cornelia Connelly’s vision. Admitting men is against the tradition of Rosemont. It goes counter to our founder’s desire.

Admitting men is not the answer. The problems Rosemont is experiencing are not problems that just suddenly emerged. This has been going on a long time. It angers me to no end that they are going to spend so much money to make Rosemont a co-ed institution when they should have invested more wisely by keeping their standards high and maintaining the college’s traditions.

WE MUST RALLY AND SAVE ROSEMONT!!!! It can’t be too late! SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

I am almost ready to leave. I will be spending the next two days in NYC. My company wants me to stay overnight so I can wine and dine with my colleagues. Donna me no wanna. But I got no choice so I have a bag packed and I am about to take off.

Yesterday was Steve and Caren’s wedding. It was a nice affair. Good food, great company. A woman came over to our table and said in honor of Caren’s Jewish roots she wanted us to get them both on chairs and lift them up over our heads and we would dance and sing underneath them. The table where I was sitting, just looked at her like she had lost her mind. I wanted to say, “Do you honestly think anyone has the strength to lift these people up but even more importantly, the ceiling can’t be any higher than 7 feet– we’ll snap their necks!” I didn’t say anything and eventually the woman gave up and the tradition was forgotten. I do feel bad, it would have definitely been a great thing to do but I think you have to make sure you invite more young strong men if that’s your intention.

My father just uploaded this video to YouTube:

I just went through a ton of my boxes trying to find the lyrics to Rosemont’s Alma Mater. I can’t find them! UGH! I did find a bunch of old stuff– my old box of obituaries that I used to collect, more pinups of River Phoenix, CB Barnes, A-Ha, and Johnny Depp than I wish to ever admit to and quite of bit of Rosemont stuff but sadly no lyrics. I know I have them somewhere. I did find a black and white photograph of me sitting barefoot on a trunk, playing a harmonica flagged by posters of James Dean and Sir Laurence Olivier. I think one of the Bosnian twins took it for a photography class. I have bangs in it which means it must have been taken my junior year right after Audra gave me bangs in homage to Xena Warrior Princess. Such sweet memories of the four of us (Bosnian twins, Audra and me) sitting on my twin bed, watching Xena on my little Sony tv with rabbit ears and feeling so empowered. I have such wonderful memories of Rosemont… I can’t seem to stop them flooding back and I just want to cry knowing what is happening to my school. I know most of you can’t understand why going co-ed is so repellent to me. But Rosemont is a haven for a particular type of girl. And without that haven I despair thinking what may happen to these girls. They’ll go to some co-ed institution and get lost in the shuffle. It’s sad to me.

I just noticed I’ve had a bunch of people finding donnaville by searching for “rosemont college theme song.” THEME SONG? These can’t be Rosemonsters! No way! Rosemonsters know it’s not a theme song but an Alma Mater! Oddly enough, I’ve searched google and I can’t find it anywhere so here it is from memory. Rosemonsters who are reading this, please feel free to offer corrections since I am the girl who always thought Jimi Hendrix was excusing himself to kiss this guy.

Rosemont College’s Alma Mater
Down the halls of Rosemont through which her daughters go
Bring each to find the spirit we’ve come so well to know
The wonder of our college days will live though we’re not here
We praise our alma mater to her we’ll e’er belong

Alma Mater Alma Mater
Onward as we trod
Years of grace and true devotion with the help of God

And yes it is true, Rosemont will most likely be going co-ed. I am angrier than angry by this news. So angry that I have written about 10 different entries but haven’t published any of them. I can’t get past my anger to any coherence. Eventually I will publish my thoughts on this ugly turn of events. Probably just in time for the first sausage letting. !@#$%

What a horrible day I had yesterday. On the train to Philly I became terribly ill. Yes, on a train. Without a bathroom. I began to sweat and then I got chills. I swooned forward and held my head in my hands. The woman sitting next to me got up and moved to the front of the train where she stood for the rest of the ride. I prayed to God to keep me well until my stop. When the train stopped at the station before mine I decided that waiting was not an option for me. I won’t go into any particulars. I eventually got myself back home where I stayed for the rest of the day. This morning I got up and made it into work, just in time for a relapse. Again I held my head in my hands and wondered what the heck was I thinking coming into work. The thing is, right now I feel fine. But that keeps happening, I feel fine only to relapse an hour later. I just want this food posioning or stomach flu or whatever it is to be over. I am not used to being sick. I am a hardy lass. This type of thing doesn’t happen to me.

Isn’t it funny though? Just a couple days ago I blogged about needing to take a day off. I got one.

I slept in this morning! Don’t worry! It was on purpose. I have a late morning meeting which means I don’t need to go into the office just yet. I slept until 6:30! And now I am just lollying around, drinking coffee, waiting for my 8:00 conference call. I would love to have a job that would allow me to have a morning like this all the time. Of course not that many years ago I had such a job. I worked from home and completely didn’t appreciate it. Plus the benefits came with disadvantages (no line between work and home life). This lazy morning is possible because all my other mornings aren’t lazy.

I wish I could come up with an idea that would allow me to live and yet generate an income that could support my present lifestyle. Something that would be nonstressful and not as all encompassing as my present servitude. Hmmmm, perhaps I can become a drug dealer? Or a money launderer? Although I suspect those occupations have their fair share of stress.