Well as many of you know MLK weekend was the yearly DGSC weekend which was held here in sunny Wilmington, NC. Maybe I'm biased but I believe it was the best one yet. My wonderful friend Sarah Clark deserves a shout out for allowing us to invade her apartment to accommodate my 9 guests - you are fantastic! We nick named ourselves DGSC - hawks for the weekend which was often followed by a "caw" sound by Makesha.

My dear friends also came out and supported my YMCA basketball team in our second victory of the season (we have since gone on to win our 3rd). Let me tell you, you think the NCAA tournament is intense, come to the Wilmington YMCA on a Saturday at 11 and you'll see intense. We have won our last two games in the final 5 seconds by one point. It has been incredibly intense and if it continues I may or may not need blood pressure medicine. My team is awesome, what can I say? I've got some rockstar players, one in particular who scores on average 16 of our 20 points in a game, Amani. She is a machine. I also have a player that is literally bite sized who has been lifted up when a player has tried to steal the ball: Ella aka sidepony. Overall I am really enjoying the team and coaching and would like to give a shout out to my friends who are teachers. I'm not quite sure how you do it every day. 2 hours a week is plenty for this girl.

This may or may not be when I told them they needed to play the best defense of their lives!

Overall it was an amazing weekend with the girls. They have decided I need to start identifying a DGSC girl of the month so I will start with the one who suggested it, Miss Angela Damiano:

Name: Angela Damiano
Birthdate: August 9th
Vocation: rockstart at ITT (are you with me?)
College: JMU (go Dukes)

Top 5 things I love about her:
5. She claps and laughs when I make an idiot of myself in public
4. She is always hooking a sister up ;)
3. She stays up late to have life talks with me on school nights
2. She comes from a loud obnoxious family like mine so she gets the guid in me
1. OBVIOUSLY  her love for changing the words to songs and performing. (Have you seen the latest DGSC performance "Plus Sized Dream"

I have nothing but love for Ms. Angela Damiano. Here are some of my favorite pics :)



Dancing at the No Doubt concert - summer 09

 




visiting this summer :)





being obnoxious at a DGSC dinner. Summer 07

Final thoughts....I am currently watching my family's favorite TV show on  Netflicks: American Dreams

For those of you who weren't captivated by this show in 2002 on NBC it's a show about a family in the 60s. The daughter Meg (who the late Peter Mancuso may or may not have had an infatuation with) dancing on American Bandstand (each episode a contemporary artist **including NICK CARTER** stars a a 60s music act). Basically the family experiences life in the 1960s. The show is one of my all time favorites but also reminds me of some great memories with the Mancuso clan. For those of you who knew my dad, you know how into using movies/tv shows to teach Peter, myself and whoever would listen about history and society and American Dreams allowed for that, some good music and overall a good hour show a week with my family.This tradition continued into Tabb Hall when I got to Longwood freshman year with my girl Lauren Kennedy who also had a love for the show.

I did however in researching come across some devestating news...NBC only released the first season on DVD, therefore after I get through this first season (I am on disc 4 of 7 right now) I will be unable to watch the show. So this is my cry for help...does anyone have any idea how I could potentially find episodes online somewhere or, if you work for NBC please put me out of my misery and release the other seasons. Thank you. Peace and Blessings.

Time for shout outs?

- Happy late birthday Mr. Adam Tate ... thanks for always checkin' my blog

-Happy early birthday to Mr. Sam Brown who probably doesn't read my blog but is clearly a celeb in my life

-Shout out to the Shanleys- thinking about Gram this week xoxo

-Good luck to Petey and PKT with spring recruitment

-Congrats to Adam Best and other Steelers fans excited about the superbowl

-Congrats to my big and Brian on building a house in Fredericksburg!

-Thank you Sarah Sunde for always being available for my student affairs freak outs

Tag Team Back Again...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I feel as though I need to start by apologizing that it has been so long since my last blog post. I was consistantly reminded over the past few months that I had not blogged but life got a little busy with the holidays and end of the semester... I know EXCUSES. I vow to be much better in 2011. Hmm...how to begin. Let's start with the Top 10 best parts of 2010:

10. 9 weddings. Congrats to all my wonderful friends who were married in 2010: Colleen & Ben, Jason & Rachel, Carolyn & Hoss, Kat & CJ, Mike & Christina, Angela & Chris, Lucy & Keith, Katie & Clay and of course Ashley & Craig

9. Opening Ceremony Game night/ John Mayer concert weekend with my CSPA crew in February

8. Graduating from James Madison University with my M.Ed in May

7. Being selected as the ACE Advisor (aka getting the BEST job ever!)

6. Massive snow days at  JMU filled with Wii Bowling tournaments, board games, going down the hill, portfolio and more girly movies than one thought was possible :)

5. Tons of visits from great friends (post my move to Wilmington): Mrs. Shanley, Kelly & Adam, Annie, LK, Angela/Katelyn/Audry/Kelly, Jimmy 0., Ashley & Brian & Jenny

4. Petey turning 21!!

3. DGSC weekend 2010: Washington, DC

2. Oh yea, there was that time I went to ITALY!!!

and the number one thing I will remember about 2010...

1. Moving to Wilmington, NC and starting an amazing new life with the most wonderful friends :)

So overall, 2010, a great year :) Now, as for 2011 there is a LOT to look forward to.

- DGSC 2011 in Wilmington (next weekend!)

-Reuniting with my JMU loves the first week of February

-My first Homecoming at UNCW

-The ACE Spring show: Friday, April 1st

-My 25th birthday :)

- NKOTBSB concert in June

-Weddings! Weddings! Weddings! Caitlin/Alex, Caitlin/Chris, Kelly/Adam & Kathleen & Mark

-Did I mention Kelly Ann Shanley is getting married... a sweet bachelorette weekend is the making

-Moving in with Ms. Sarah Clark

-much much much MORE!

Currently I am at home for a snow day. Yes in fact it is snowing in Wilmington...as you can imagine it's not snowing but so much but clearly here in the South we don't have the equipment to handle such a thing so you know. This is funny to me b/c as many of you know I was stuck in NJ at my grandma's for the snowpocalypse of 2010. This involved hearing the same stories 10 times, playing the same card game over and over, watching whatever movies were on TV and listening to my mom read aloud people's facebook status updates off her phone. Needless to say Peter and I have NEVER shoveled so quickly in our lives.

For those of you who haven't heard I am coaching a youth girls basketball team for the YMCA this season. The girls are 8, 9 & 10. I am proud to report that my team won 18-6 on Saturday and I must say I was VERY proud. I'm a little stressed that due to weather our practice is cancelled today and we could use some practice doing some offensive imbounding plays but ya know the Coach K in me needs to pipe down. I am really enjoying coaching and playing with the girls. They constantly are making me laugh and testing me. My favorite was last week at practice while we're stretching one of them asks "can we each say our favorite Christmas present" I was hesistant but said yes. The girl who asks starts with "I can't decide between my ipod touch and my new coach purse". WHATTTTTTTTTTTT! Why do you need a coach purse at 9!! Clearly I was floored. All in all I'm so glad I'm doing it. I really like working with them, playing sports again and a role model of mine always told me/showed me how important adults are in youth athletics so I felt like it was something  I should do. Especially because I am one of two female coaches in the whole YMCA.

Finally, I need to share that I saw Country Strong on Saturday and what a great movie. Do I think it's like Academy Award worthy, well the acting is great, but no. However I did LOVE IT. It had all the pieces I love about movies: love, good soundtrack, drama, suspense and cute actors :) If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to. The soundtrack is also pretty great for all you country music fans. Here is my favorite song from the movie (DISCLAIMER: on the soundtrack it's the Faith Hill recording):

Give Into Me

I suppose this is the longest entry EVER and therefore I should stop. I will end with this, I vow to be a better blogger in 2011. :) Thank you for reading.

Shoutouts:

-Happy first day of classes to those JMU Dukes

-Happy snow day GA and the Carolinas :)

-RCs aka Essential Employees of UNCW - thanks for working hard today. If anything you all deserve the break. Love you <3

-Safe travels to my DGSC girls who are traveling here this weekend. I am looking forward to a GREAT weekend.

-Thanks to JoJo for a wonderful holiday. She really rocks at the Christmas/New Years thing.

-Thank you to Ms. Sarah Sunde who sent me a very much appreciate late graduation present last week that I loved (thanks to all of you who contributed).

-Happy (late) 21st birthday to Jacob Roed who turned 21 yesterday.

-Welcome back to my amazing students I am so excited to see all of you.

-Congrats to my pledge sister Kathleen on getting engaged

-Go Auburn (shout out to Sarah).

-Happy late Birthday to my daddy who would have been 56 last week <3

MY BEST FRIEND IS GETTING MARRIED!!!!

So, clearly I am excited and many of you know but KELLY ANN SHANLEY is getting married!

Adam Best sure did propose on Friday evening, and she said YES! I can not begin to tell you how happy I am for the two of them. It's the strangest feeling when your closest friend gets engaged... I remember back to getting ready for dances and dates, holidays with our families, vacations, girls nights, trips to visit each other and now that this dream of her's has come true makes me feel so happy. So...shout out to you Kelly Ann Shanley :) I love your life so much! Let the planning beginning. I got your teeth whitening appointment scheduled ;)

Happy Halloween to everyone as it is 10/31/10. Halloween is one of those holidays that I have never really gotten excited about. This year I was in charge of organization an office decorating competition in the two unions.  We in CAIC let our students decide on the theme and they chose Snow White in the Seven Dwarfs. They asked me to dress as Snow White to which I agreed..then it occurred to me on Wednesday that I did not own a snow white dress. So, being the smart sorority girl that I am I went to Walmart to get some supplies. I was disappointed to find that Walmart no longer sells fabric and since I was in a crunch I had to get creative (scary I know) so I grabbed a twin flat sheet and some elastic and went home to get creative. I also took some white felt and went home to make the magic happen. Here was the result:

Here is me with "Prince Charming" (the student body president)

Snow White & Dopey (Keith, one of the Involvement Specialists)

Now, clearly I could not wear a bedsheet downtown last night (though I might have fit in) so instead I went with simple, comfortable and cheap: Derek Jeter

The ladies at Blue Post :)

 I also got to experience for the first time the Rocky Horror Picture Show (interactive). I must say I was amazed to see that many students in their...underpants? And so many of them knew the words and when to shout things. I was amazed. It was... an experience. Speaking of movies I did get to go see the Sound of Music Sing-A-Long. I learned many things seeing one of my favorite childhood films on the big screen:
1. The right words to most of the songs
2. The butler is who calls the Nazi's to come get the Vontrap family when they try to flee the country (who knew?)
3. It's obvious why I related so well to the movie as a child. For example, when Captain Vontrap sings to the children Edelweiss all I could think is that could easily have been me and my father, only the guitar would be invisible and the song would be "Born to Run".
4. The song Maria could easily be a song my friends would sing about me and lastly...
5. I hope to one day have children that perform at the galas I will throw in my house :)


Other than that...life is good. We submitted our first spring show offer on Friday. No, I won't say who it is and yes I would appreciate you crossing your fingers :) 

Next up: ECU vs. Navy game with the newly engaged couple, my second family and Casie Stone + Thanksgiving with the Wilmington crew. Should be good :) 

SHOUTOUTS:
- Happy late birthday to Shannon
- Happy Halloween birthday to my dear friend/future DGSC husband Casie
-to Lori Corley for a fantastic afternoon in Myrtle Beach today
-Congrats to my friends Leslie and Jake for moving into their new home 
-Congrats to Petey for being elected PKT president he will ROCK that chapter :)
-My students for having the greatest Halloween costumes and texting me pictures of them
-My grandma who turns 81 this week. Lets all have some red wine mixed with Diet Coke for her :)
-oh yea, my best friend Kelly Ann Shanley and her FIANCE Adam best who are getting MARRIED!


I think that's everything :)


XOXO


Stefanie Jo

Hits & Wishes of October

Ok, I realize it has been almost a month since I last blogged. I know saying October has been crazy is a lame excuse but I promise you that in fact October has been in fact pretty crazy.... however in true student affairs/virginia beach leadership workshop fashion I will share with you the "best of" in the form of Hits (things that have been great) and Wishes (things I wish would've or wouldn't have happened). Here it goes:

Hits:
-Adrienne making me take snacks and her Miley Cyrus cup to the ER at 3am when she pulled a ligmaent in her arm/shoulder
-Pretzel Combos at the local Target always a must with the girls = $2.68 of BLISS
-NACA South Conference with my amazing students in Chattenooga

The ACE group at the NACA Banquet

-ACE winning outstanding late night program for Festapalooza
-JMU and LU also getting some sweet awards at NACA including my boy Drew Midgette :)

Drew Boo and I at the NACA banquet :)

-ACEr's getting to meet Melissa our new middle agent
-More people taking the ACE spring show survey in the first 6 hours than took it last year (current count is 2300 students voting) - no I will not reveal who is winning
-A great housing collaboration program: Concert and Cupcakes = successful hall program in almost all areas on campus :)
-A VERY successfull Midnight Madness & Fan Jam



 -Good fall weather
-Signing up to run a 5K for my favorite girls on campus ADPis
-Learning to "Dougie" at Level 5 courtousy of a random guy and Clifton :)
-Discovering Modern Family and catching up on season 1
-Jimmy O moving in for 5 days
-Jimmy O loving Wilmington so much

 -57 successful PIT crew "graduates" - our pilot new member program has come to an end courtesy of Mr. Tyler Jones - the ever so hardworking ACE VP who worked so hard to create an amazing program for these new members who are so excited
-Discovering the lunch at Chris' Cosmic Kitchen is equally as good as the breakfast (happy late birthday shoutout to Jenn Smist)
-Todd Shanley Successfully moving to Sicily, Italy - miss you buddy hope you are enjoying the homeland the way I did.
-Being "type casted" as Snow White for our office Halloween festivities - if only my prince charming wasn't a cut out on the wall
-pumpkin candles
-Being introduced to (Thanks Sarah) The Clothes Mentor (the "adult" version of Plato's Closet)
-ADPis at LU still using the same pass down move from 2005 in their lip sync :)
-The Sound of  Music re-releasing in the movie theater next week as a SING-A-LONG!!!!!!!

Wish
-Adrienne tearing ligaments in her arm and having to go to the ER at 3am
-When A and I got to McDonalds at 4:59 am after time in the ER they would've been serving chicken nuggets still so as not to dissappoint her heavily medicated self :)
-My ACErs didn't create the term "NACin'" (like Mackin') and then live it at NACA South
-My students wouldn't have pranked me at midnight the last night at NACA
-We hadn't woken up an innocent hotel patron while my students were pranking me
-Students wouldn't write in the free response section of the spring show (concert) survey:
a.) artists previously listed in the survey
b.) Stefanie Mancuso
-Sprinklers wouldn't go on 20 minutes prior to our Fan Jam event forcing ACE to towel dry 3 large inflatables, tables/chairs and repackage 80 boxes of Dunkin Donuts
-I was better at driving the ACE golf cart and didn't risk lives when I did
-I wasn't dreading taking the NC drivers test so much
-Petey boo was a little more shy when it came to performing on stage ;)


Ok... I think that's what I have for now... shoutouts?

-My girl Hunter Bedard getting a sweet job in Boston: Congrats!
-Keith and Lucy get married in ONE MONTH and potentially ALL CHI 08 can go? AMAZING!
-Good luck to my grad Sami heading up a big time fundraiser this weekend ... you will rock!
-ACE rocking a great month of programming in October - so proud
-Happy Birthday next week to Shannon Mariner and Casie Stone
-My Yankees making a come back in this series...come on boys we got this :)

I wish I could make everyone in the world happy

An interesting notion, I know, however in talking to a friend this week we both realized that if we could just make everyone in the world happy life would be good. Now, I am realistic enough to know this is not possible but we should try, right? It's the difficult things that life throws us that we can not control that I think is the most challenging. At least that seems to be the case in my life currently. Sometimes life is challenging, it doesn't make sense. All we can do is go to bed and know tomorrow is a new day, and take that as a new opportunity. Perhaps I will just start out with making one or two people's day would at least be progress? I don't want to get all pay it forward here but realistically, could it work? Maybe. I'll just aim to make one or two people happy each day. Will you try to do the same?

Tonight ACE had an awesome comedian, Glozell. For those of you who have not seen her youtube videos definitely check out her videos. She was very funny and the audience seemed to really enjoy it. Watching her made me realize how simple comedy can be. It is pointing out the things that are obvious and a good delivery. Glozell does this very well and I believe she will be quite successful.

I got to spend a sweet long weekend with my dear best friend Lauren Kennedy. We celebrated Katie K's birthday in Wilmington on Thursday and then trecked to VB on Friday for our pledge sister Angela's wedding. Friday night was spent at YNOT for a traditional Shan-man dinner. LK is no stranger to these dinners and it was good to spend time with my (other) family as well as JoJo and Matty B! There is NOTHING like YNot garlic knots and pizza. Mmmmm... Laura Hunsberger joined us that evening and it was a night of reminiscing.  Saturday we headed to Herford, NC for Angela's wedding. Between the three of us we couldn't get the time for the wedding right and arrived an hour early to the beautiful wedding site. We had a great time at the beautiful wedding and I am so happy for Mr. & Mrs. Carly :)

Saturday night was a slight glimpse back at freshman year mixed together with a mini ADPi/my vb friends reunion. I can always appreciate a night where you think it will be nothing special but get surprised by how fun it turns out to be. That sums up Saturday in an appropriate blog way. It was wonderful to spend time with so many people I love and finish up the weekend with a great dinner w/ Adrienne, Katie and LK.

So life is good. UNCW has fall break Monday and Tuesday which I know is coming at a perfect time for my students so I am excited for them to enjoy the break and for all of us who work at the University to catch our breaths. So yes, that is all for now...

Shoutouts (clearly):

- So very proud of little bro Petey for a successful philanthropy week :)
-My love to my bff Katie ... make the most of your time at home. I know you will <3
-So proud of my ACErs for rocking the first half of the first semester. Great job :)
-Congrats to my sister Kirby for accepting a job!
-Love to the JMU Panhellenic for a successful recruitment. Miss you girls xoxo
-Wanna give some love to JoJo for being a great mom!
-Congrats again to my pledge sister Angela Hendricks Carly :)

Hello wonderful blog readers,

Whew...are we really more than half way through September? How did that happen! I suppose its a result of a pretty crazy start to the school year. Life in Wilmington is still wonderful. ACE has been rockin' it so far this semester with some amazing programs and had 113 students apply for the first PIT Crew (Programmers In Training) which started this week. We selected 60 students to go through a 5 week new member program for ACE to prepare members to be contributing and active members of ACE. We are excited to begin preparing and planning for the annual spring show (which may also double as my 25th birthday party this year based on date availability... who doesn't want 2500 people at their birthday party?). Overall, work is great. I am continually thankful to those at JMU who helped me through my graduate program to prepare me as best they could for this job. Hopefully, I'm making it happen. I survived my 90 day evaluation and still have a job so obviously something is going right :)

I have been able to do more than just work though. Last weekend I visited my best friend/soulmate Lauren Kennedy in Clemson, SC. As many of your know LK and I hadn't seen each other since April which is was crazy considering I'm not sure we've ever gone more than a month apart since we met. Needless to say it was great to spend time together. We got to see Clemson crush Presbyterian in football which was great. For those of you know don't know 1.) The beginning of Clemson football is the most exciting 25 seconds in college football 2.) they lasso in the middle of the clemson cheer EVERYTIME THEY SCORE.  I loved it..and seeing LK :) Luckily she'll be here Thursday and we get another fun weekend together in VB for Angela Hendrick's wedding.

Sorority bid day was this past Monday. Helping with sorority pref night confirmed that its the same conversation every where you go. The same tears, same drama, same T-shirts, same bid day cheers. However there is something equally comforting about that. It was also wonderful to hear "Deep in my heart I love my ADPis" being chanted. I was excited to see ADPi do well in recruitment and pick up some all-star upperclassman I've had to opportunity to get to know since I've been here.

TV starts again this week! I act excited like I'm that big of a TV watcher, but I'm hoping to become one. After watching the Emmy's I realized I am missing out. So far I have set the DVR up for: Greys, Glee, Private Practice, Modern Family & My Generation. Am I missing something I should add?

Also, for those who didn't get to see, the communion picture made an appearance this week, a favorite of many of my friends:

Well I think thats it... time for shout outs?

 - Love to Lindsey McDaniel who coordinated  a wonderful Yom Kippur dinner...so wonderful I'm not sure many of us could move afterward.
-Happy late birthday to my cousin Jackie!
-Good luck to my little bro who has worked hard to plan an awesome philanthropy week "Quest for the Kids" that starts this week at LU
-Happy early birthday to Katherine Ann Kolkmeier
-Happy 50th birthday to my Uncle Paul
-A late congrats to my JMU Dukes for an amazing victory over Virginia Tech last week!
-As always lots of love to my ACErs for rocking it week after week :)
-Love to Todd Shanley coming home before moving to Italy... excited to see you boo <3

Why don't men shop at Target?

Happy Labor Day All!

I hope everyone was able to enjoy a great three day weekend (except for you Dukes, sorry bout it :( ). Life in Wilmington was good to me this weekend. I spent time at the beach, celebrating birthdays and housewarmings and of course some great time with my amazing friends. Whether it was getting pedis, shopping, enjoying some Fuzzy Peach relaxing at the beach/pool or enjoying a good McCalisters lunch on the couch I would say this Labor day weekend was just what the doctor ordered. It all comes back to how lucky I am to live in such a great place with wonderful people. So shout out to all of you who make my life in Wilmington a great one :) Nothing to complain about besides the blank wall over my couch ;)

So my blog post title ties into a conversation Adrienne and I had the other day while enjoying our Pretzel combos at Target: Men do not shop at Target unless the are accompanied by someone. Think about it, how often do you see a man by himself shopping at Target. NEVER. Men go to Walmart. Why? I'm not sure but when discussing my observation yesterday with some friends it was pointed out to me that just the lay out of the store.is geared toward women When you walk in, the first thing you arrive to (besides the food court aka home of the pretzel combo) is purses and womens clothing. He had a point. However, I'd argue that the reason a women chooses target is the little things that can not be found at the local walmart, many of which are gender specific. For example: who doesn't love a good $19.99 dress? I DO! Or, a cute pair of earrings? A wonderful card for a friend? A good pair of shoes? You can get all of these while picking up a 36 pack of TP, toothpaste. cereal, a birthday gift for grandma and inevitably something for your home. Now, don't get my wrong I am WAY more likely to leave walmart spending less money than Target. I'm not sure anyone has ever spent less that $50 at Target, which is why it is dangerous but ask most women and Target is a store you can't live without. Anyway, I know there are some men who appreciate Target, and I appreciate you :) Just an observation I made. Thoughts? Leave me a comment!

I want to give a shout out to my friends, the educators starting school tomorrow, especially Ashley Carlton, Rachel Myers & Leslie Lehner starting for the first time. I am so proud of ALL my teacher friends...I have faith in the future of my job because you will do an amazing job educating the youth of America (or just Virginia, Massachusetts and Florida...haha)

I participated in my first Fantasy Football draft today. My cousin Anthony said I did well and I think he is smart so I think it was a success. I guess we'll see how it goes. We are playing for nail polish so really I'm not stressed out. I'm in it for the fun.

And no, we didn't have a Hurricane here :)

Shout outs? I think so!

- Alyssa Garnich starting her new job this week! Good Luck :)
-Fellow CSPAer Dana got a job this week! That makes all 11 of us employed, I like it :)
-My friend and Duke/SeaHawk Bradley Davis turned 25 this weekend! Happy Birthday :)
-The one boy who truly has my heart, my little cousin Torin starts Kindergarten tomorrow! I got to buy him his first day of school outfit: Tallwood Timberwolf colors :)
-My dear friend Annie Blewett moved to Spain yesterday!
-Lots of love to my sisters at LU who completed an amazing recruitment <> first finest forever
-JMU Dukes won this week again Morehead
-Good luck to UNCW greek women this week as you start recruitment
-Good luck to LU boys as you start recruitment (especially those PKT guys, I hear they are the gentleman's fraternity with a great VP)

Coming up next: A visit to see my soulmate/best friend Miss Lauren E. Kennedy at Clemson next weekend :)