Yeah, that's my life savings right there.

Because I’m making six pennies a year in my job after taxes, I follow a very strict budget that allows me to afford a moderate amount of food and a moderate amount of fun. There is no room for a savings plan in my budget so I just figured if I was extra careful nothing would ever go wrong.

Then last week everything went wrong.

I spilled sangria (or water according to the troubleshooting report I made to Apple) on my laptop, I dropped my straightener one time too many and it broke, and I found out my parent’s insurance company is onto me no longer being a student and has dropped me. For those of you non-accounting majors out there, that’s about 5 billion dollars worth of problems.

I had a minor panic attack. And by minor I mean I opened my window, stood on the ledge for a few moments, and thought about who I would haunt if I came back as a ghost. Then logic hit me and I realized that because I’m only one floor up I would just break a bunch of bones, sending me to the hospital and making my lack of insurance problem even worse.

So instead of jumping I thought of my other options. Luckily my grandparents who live in the city had a laptop I could borrow until I figured you out what to do about my laptop-turned-coaster. Unluckily it was designed for the partially blind. I’ve seen desktop computers more portable than this laptop. Hell, I’ve seen elephants smaller than this thing. The screen was about a football field long and the font was visible from space. This proved to be more than an inconvenience when I was blogging at WiFi cafes.  I was writing about STDs for one blog and let’s just say the employees at the cafe did not enjoy being able to read about gonorrhea while serving coffee. So not only did I have to blog from home all week, but I’m pretty sure I’m on a sex offender list now. Read More »

The super cool Real World house in the Dupont neighborhood of D.C.

I loathe checking my email.  I really do.  Because usually it just disappoints me by reminding me about my paper due the next day that I haven’t started or how my favorite band is playing the weekend that I happen to be going home.  So when I saw one with a subject line that read: “Cool opportunity in DC,” I eagerly opened it, only to realize that this was not a cool opportunity… this was an AMAZING, TOTALLY AWESOME, opportunity.

I was going to get to meet the Real World cast!

When word spread around GW that The Real World would be filming here, the student body went a little crazy. It’s all anyone could talk about. Where would they be living? Where would they be partying? How would we get an invite back to the swanky MTV pad?  I had been trying to spot these reality stars since September, but clearly my embarrassingly impressive stalking skills applied solely to Facebook, as I had no success tracking down any of the members.

But then I was offered the chance to meet and interview them! There was no way I’d be passing that up. Read More »

I’m gonna make a bold statement right now:

I got some serious game.

I know that sounds incredibly cocky, but it’s actually quite the opposite. You see, until about two years ago I was the girl who sat on the sidelines and watched as all my friends flirted with and won over the very boys I wanted for myself. I was essentially the hook-up water boy, holding everyone’s cocktails when they went to the bathroom and checking to make sure no one had anything in their teeth.  I accepted my role and went on with my life thinking I wasn’t pretty or skinny or perfect enough to be seen as anything more than the girl best friend.

But then something happened. I had a one-night stand with a boy who everyone wanted and – like that – everything changed. I started walking with a little swagger in my step, approaching anyone and everyone I wanted and suddenly I had developed my game winning moves.

I’m not kidding, if there were a Hall-of-Fame for pick-up lines, I’d be its first inductee. Read More »

"She's gonna get fat."

As college students, we are constantly inundated with new knowledge. It can be useful, thought-provoking, or crammed into our head on a Starbucks-fueled binge several hours before an exam. However, very rarely do we question the validity of all this new knowledge (unless you take philosophy classes, then you’ll question away).

That’s where College Candy comes in. We’re not going to debate whether or not the Theory of Relativity actually exists (a disappointment, I know, but I’m a communications major and stopped taking science classes after Baby Bio fresh year). However, we are here to thoroughly investigate the most widespread college knowledge (no, not rhyming): the myth.

Alright guys, I’m gonna level with you: I’m a big fan of the brewskies. I like Sam Adams Pumpkin Ale, Sweetwater 420, the occasional stein of Newcastle, and the slightly more frequent funnel full of Bud Light. I particularly like that I can drink copious amounts of beer without the consequences that would come from drinking the same amount of vodka, water & lime. Most of all, I like that beer lends itself easily to day-drinking.

What I don’t like about beer (besides how much it makes me want to sing drinking songs) is that it makes me fat.

It’s not even the eventual, slowly-creeping-towards-your-thighs fat. It’s like an immediate, “I’m so carbonated and delicious and I’m going to make you so full you can’t suck in anymore” variety of fat. So it’s no wonder that beer contributes majorly to the Freshman 15, right? Ehh, yes and no. Read More »

“Can I share with you my worldview? All of humankind has one thing in common: the sandwich. I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich.” –  Liz Lemon, 30 Rock

And that is exactly what I plan to do on this day, National Sandwich Day. Sit in peace and eat my go-to sandwich: the T.B.M sandwich from Cosi. With only a mere three ingredients, this sandwich somehow speaks to my soul and brightens even the darkest of days (no thanks to you, Daylight Savings Time.) If this sandwich was a man, I’d be rolling around in bed with it right now. Hell, maybe I’ll do it anyway.

My love of sandwiches and my love of men run almost parallel to each other on the mathematical graph of my life, intersecting only at the moment someone lets me eat a sandwich and have sex at the same time. That’s the stuff dreams are made of. And until that time comes, I’ve thought up a few sandwich ideas that bring my two weaknesses together. Read More »

It’s been a long night. The only thing on your mind is throwing the 12 decorative pillows (that your mom insisted you buy) off your big comfy bed and burying yourself under that warm, fluffy blanket.

You fight to keep your eyes open as you take the elevator up to your room. As you round the corner and get closer to your room you grow more excited to kick off your shoes, peel those skinny jeans off your legs (you swear they weren’t this tight when you bought them…) and take a one way ticket to Snoozetown.

And then you see it. Scribbled on the dry erase board tacked to your door: come back later.

The writing is messy, but the message is loud and clear. Your roommate’s got a boy in there and you are not welcome.

Angry, you stand there for a few moments taking it all in. It’s late on a weeknight. Everyone else is already asleep. And how long have they been in there?  Where the hell are you supposed to go? When can you come back?

You scan the hallway. Yup, everyone’s doors are closed and the hall is quiet. You are going to have to find somewhere else to pass the time. You take the elevator back down to the study room on your dorm’s main floor. You’re exhausted, but you decide you’ll do a bit more reading and try the room again in a half hour.

When you walk in you find another student in there reading on a couch. Read More »

We all have to admit that aside from the five days a week of partying, the sexy men, and the girl talk/Cheeto-fests that lass into the wee hours of the morning, there are those aspects of college life that aren’t so great. And we make sure everyone knows how much we hate ‘em when we whine to our friends over cafeteria slop/to our moms on the phone/to the rest of the world via our Facebook status updates.

And why not? Despite the stereotype that college students just eff around playing beer pong for four years straight, being a college student isn’t easy. (And, hello, we play flip cup, too!)

Over at US News, they documented some of the most commonly hated problems about being in college student. And we totally agree: getting closed out of the classes we need brings us to tears (and sends us into a pity binge of wine and nachos) and the boring professors make me want to rip the hair out my head.

But when I got to thinking about it, isn’t college really just one big love/ hate relationship? Sure we complain about a lot of things, but secretly deep down, we find the silver lining. Read More »

I am a serial shopper. It’s a problem. I’ve accepted it. (That’s the first step to recovery right?)

That being said, I see so many articles of clothing, pieces of jewelry and cool accessories in my daily internet perusals that I am rarely rendered speechless by something in particular. But girls, it has happened. I actually came across something that has stopped me dead in my Internet browsing tracks, screaming inside “OMFG! This is genius!”

Are you dying to know?

They are called Bandits, fabric boot embellishments that slip over the top of your adorable yet simple fall boots to make them fresh, new and totally awesome. Read More »

The jacket that started it all.

About 3 years ago, I was visiting my Grandma in… wait for it… Florida. Perusing her closet for vintage finds (clothes that are too young for her, clothes that don’t fit her, or clothes I think I can make look ‘cool’ all the while loving that I will be able to say “it was my grandma’s!”) is a standard for every trip down to the land where dinner is eaten somewhere in the 4 o’clock hour.

Over the years I’ve found some GREAT things in there. Amazing costume jewelery, crocheted ponchos (when they were at their peak) and the coolest belts. But this time, this time I stopped dead in my tracks. Behind her housecoats and orthopedic shoes, shining in all their amazing glory: 2 sequined, shoulder padded, totally rad blazers. And I was in L-O-V-E.

Keep in mind, this was long before sequins made their way back to the shelves, but I loved the extravagant elegance of it all. I loved putting it on and feeling like I should be back on stage doing my time steps and shuffling off to Buffalo. So I took them with me and finally got the confidence to wear them last year.

This season (as we pointed out yesterday) sequins are everywhere and if you haven’t gotten in on the trend yet, try it on for size. It’s intimidating on the hanger – maybe even ugly – but once you bathe yourself in the glitz that you used to only use for art projects in 2nd grade, you will never want to go back!

Of course, you gotta do it right or else you may end up looking like Cher circa 1988. The key to wearing sequin pieces is keeping everything else SIMPLE. Really simple. Super duper simple. Get it? Got it? Good. Read More »

One of the best things about fall (besides Halloween, candy corn, pumpkin everything, Honeycrisp apples, etc.) is switching up your wardrobe. If you live in a colder climate (read: hell. frozen. over) like me, each October you yank your tanks and dresses from your closet (shed a few tears) and swap ‘em out for the sweaters and boots stuffed under your bed. And then you hit the mall to add a few new fun pieces to your already warm and snuggly fall/winter wardrobe.

But what should you add? With so many trends happening right now, you don’t have the space (or, more realistically, the money) to load up on everything this season. You need the best of the best – the items that are cute and functional and will get you through until the snow melts…in June.

Perhaps we can help. This week I asked the CollegeCandy writers to share their fall/winter fashion must-haves. See what they’re lovin’ this season and stock up on a bit of it for yourself. Sure, they may not have the best taste in men, but when it comes to fashion, they know their ish. Read More »