back to school!

I am fiiiinally back in PA after a long long drive today! It was very unexciting except for my mini panic-attack as I couldn't find my camera while I was unpacking the car. EEEEEK!!!

Thank goodness it finally appeared again and was not sucked into the vortex of lost items (like my first iPod RIP)

I don't know if I am really ready to dive into the last two weeks of the semester, but I have no choice so here we go!

It was reeeally nice to relax at home and get away from school for awhile. Thanksgiving is great because you know you will get an even bigger and better holiday in just a month!  More time for sleeping in, reading books for fun, drinking gallons of hot tea and eggnog, eating way too many sweets and holiday foods, basking in the glow of sparkly Christmas lights (LOVE those xmas lights!!! I need to put some up in my apartment!), seeing old friends, and being silly and ridiculous with sisters:

Ellie this one is for you:

After the Thanksgiving festivities I roadtripped to Chicacoland to see Ben

[and that was when my camera ran away :( ]

We dove right into the Christmas season!!!!

Kind of went overboard, I realize now that I am typing this all out...

It was a quick visit but so much fun!

We listened to nonstop CHRISTMAS MUSIC on the radio! And participated in a massive gingerbread house contest at church! And went to the Glen Ellyn holiday walk, in which all the little shops downtown open for the night and pass out cookies, cocoa, hot cider, and everyone mills around under the sparkly lights lining the streets. This town is tooooo cute.  I also watched Elf for the first time and then we tried to go ice skating in Millenium Park downtown but everyone else in Chicago had the same idea so we didn't.  I wasn't even disappointed because I was evidently already saturated with holiday cheer. 

I am so sad I couldn't find my camera for Chicago!!!! It was a beautiful sunny day and I love that city. 

The Art Institute was all decked out for Christmas with really pretty leaf wreaths around the lions.

We walked through the park and across the new bridge to the modern wing that I hadn't ever seen

I'll just have to steal a picture...it obviously looks better in the summer! Now there is no green.

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Soooo pretty. I do not like modern art but I do like Monet :)

I could go to the Art Institute every single day; it is too overwhelming for one visit. My eyes always get so overstimulated!

aaand now I'm hoping to polish up my paper for tomorrow! (ugh)

I am too exhausted to deal with the mountains of clothes and stuff that are currently dumped in my room.

Multiple mugs of Sugar Cookie Sleighride will be consumed tonight.

Thanksgiving break thus far

Dreary November weather.

Cold, cloudy, rainy, wind sweeping over the plains like we live in OK.

I have spent way too many hours planted in front of my computer trying to drag out a paper. Homework on breaks is not good. No motivation plus no time constraints=much wasted time and mental agony.

Drinking several giant mugs of tea every day to combat dreariness and chills.

We have 25 boxes of tea at my house, I counted. Very nice.

I have started running again, and have discovered that I am very slow now.

The days are blurring together.

Today is for baking.

ways to wreck a turkey cake

My sister introduced me to the HILARIOUS blog Cake Wrecks, which features hideous and alarming cakes-gone-wrong. They do special features for all seasons! (veteran's day was good...)

Here are some of their recent posts on "top ways to wreck a turkey cake"

-"by sketching out your next art car for Burning Man"

-"by confusing turkey with Demon Snuffleufagus...from Rio"

-"by anthropomorphizing a mushroom cloud"

-"by angering the Tiki gods"

all credits to cakewrecks.blogspot.com

go there for more laughs!!!

home again, home again

I made it back to Illinois!

right before dark.

I definitely miss the cornfield skies; mountains are amazing too but they obstruct sunset colors!!!

p.s. books on tape are AMAZING

I actually had so much fun chilling in my car all day, getting wrapped up into the characters :)

Roadtrippin

ughhh I HATE packing!!!

I did not inherit my mother's and father's inherent OCD intense tetris-style packing additudes.

Maybe that's why it is a huge mental issue...I am just braced for my mom to come in, declare me a hopeless case, and unpack everything from my boxes and bags to repack so it is "better" :)

oh well.

I think I am finally ready to make the cross half-country trip home tomorrow!
(we get the whole week off for Thanksgiving! wooo)

The car is loaded with misc. objects and a case of Yuengling

(for Papa, not me... although if I get stranded and need a beer I'll be covered, bring the party...)

I have my bags packed...

snacks ready to go...

(yup definitely took me longer to prepare le rations than to pack all my clothes)

semi-trashy books on CD...

And I even swept the kitchen floor to discourage the muisjes if they happen to attempt a comeback.

(update in case you were wondering: I have NOT seen any mouse evidence since the super-trap and spray attack. Yay! for now. I am sure they will be back.)

I am going to try an experiment while driving for double digit hours all by myself tomorrow. Since I get sooo stir crazy sitting in a car/train/bus for long periods of time, I am going to drive wearing running clothes and every few hours or when I am getting sleepy pull over, find a safe looking area or fancy neighborhood and run a little bit!

I'm pretty excited for this, we'll see how it goes...I think it will be a great way to keep energized AND move around a little.

Well I'm going to eat a pumpkin scone, have a phone date and head to bed so I can get up in the "buttcrack of dawn" !!! (to quote Mr. D, HS band director)

Rainy Day

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Today we ended our weeks-long drought with a nice, back-to-normal PA downpour. All. Day.

It was an uneventful day; hard to believe it even happened at all and wasn't a dream

I have lots to do before my roadtrip home on Saturday eek!

procrastination

Last night I was just explaining to Ben how I don't really have "celebrity crushes" because I am only attracted to guys in real life...

But that was before my sister who is studying in Aberdeen acquainted me with the

SCOTLAND RUGBY TEAM

Just a few of them:

...so Laird-y

Hugh Grant's twin

all photos from the Scotland Rugby Team

on the upswing

Today I decided was going to be a better day.

I don't mind feeling down sometimes, because it's my mind's way of balancing emotions. But sometimes the pity-party gets old.  As in: You know you need to snap out of it when you start thinking of reasons to prolong the funk, like realizing it is your 18th month anniversary... of long distance. Booo nobody else in the world cares except 1 other person.

So I am going to be happy again now :)

Good things about today:

-getting 9 hours of sleep thanks to (strange) extreme exhaustion last night

-awesome elliptical workout thanks to this (free workout podcasts!)

-getting letters and exciting phone calls from best friends

-December in 2 weeks aka Christmas Month !

-coming home before dark to work on le neverending spreadsheet

(tons of tree data from Yosemite NP)

-baking pumpkin scones

-to go with my expanding Holiday Tea collection

mmmmm

Can I eat scones for dinner?

under the walnut tree

I've been feeling kind of sad lately

Even though the weather has been pefect and sunny and spring-like

I just put too much pressure on myself and can never keep up with my personal expectations

Luckily this is the last week before Thanksgiving (crazy!!) and I can go home for a week!

Delicious Alert

You may have noticed (but probably not) that I haven't posted any kitchen adventures in a while.

This is mainly because I've been busy on weekends and extremely uninspired and boring in the meantime when it comes to food....but no more!!!

The best thing about blogs, in my opinion, is the access to so many delicious kitchen-tested recipes

like the ones I made tonight and HAVE TO SHARE:

~*~Sweet Potato Blackbean Lime Coconut Curry Skillet Mash~*~

(I don't know what else to call it; but it very much resembles my favorite Kashi frozen meal of all time:

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which I also highly recommend)

Here are the INGREDIENTS (note the cheapness of them all!!!)

-one sweet potato

-can of black beans

-yellow onion

-curry spices, like turmeric, curry powder, cumin, cinnamon, etc

-unsweetened coconut

-cilantro

-plain yogurt

(MAKE SURE it's not vanilla, that tastes HORRIBLE with curry foods trust me)

and lime juice for garnish

Directions:

-chop onion and cook in a big pan with a little bit of olive oil

-in the meantime (I love it when recipes say "in the meantime," it means I will be forced to multitask like an iron chef and undoubtedly forget about something crucial, that is left in the oven after the timer goes off, since I have no assistants), peel and chop the sweet potato into large chunks and microwave for a few minutes until it sounds like it is going to explode, aka until it is soft when you poke it with a fork

-While the sweet potato is cooking, rinse and drain the beans and add to the onion in the pan.  Stir/heat and add generous sprinklefuls of spices.

-When the sweet potato is soft, add it to the pan too and mush everything around a bit with a fork

-mix in shredded coconut, chopped cilantro, and serve with a drizzle of lime juice and a dollop of yogurt!

Warning, contains lots of fiber.

(that's how I roll)

(recipe adapted from this post)

For maximum deliciousness, serve with

~*~Pumpkin Cornbread~*~

soooo good

recipe:

(passed throughout the internet)

Pumpkin Cornbread

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbs baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup cornmeal

2 large eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or freshly cooked and processed)

2/3 cup brown sugar

¼ cup canola oil

1 Tbs molasses

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 10-inch glass pie pan or 9-inch square baking pan.

2. Sift flours, baking powder, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in cornmeal.

3. In separate bowl, beat eggs lightly. Whisk in pumpkin, brown sugar, oil and molasses.

4. Make a well in the dry mixture. Add pumpkin mixture and blend batter with a few quick strokes (just until blended- don’t overmix).

5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cornbread is browned and the surface has a slightly springy feel.

 

Sheepy love

Last Wednesday I decided it would be a good time to check out the local mall.

Let's just say it's a liiiiitle sad, and my mall expectations are not even high to begin with, seeing how I was not priveleged to grow up in a Chitown suburb like the friends and have access to retail on steroids ;)

But what do you expect in rural PA; I did not move here for the urban culture!

Luckily, their Bath and Body Works made up for the saddness of the rest of the vacant space

LOOK WHAT HAS RETURNED TO STORES!

THE LAMBIES!

These are the softest, snuggliest little stuffed animals, EVER.

Seeing a whole display of them made my entire day!

I'm trying to decide if I want another one (would my well-worn Sheepy be jealous??)

But just knowing that they exist in the world is good enough!

Honest Scrap

I have been tagged with another one of these "awards" that circulate around the blogosphere!

Thanks, Ivy :)

The rules of the Honest Scrap Award are:  divulge 10 honest things about yourself. Then pass the award on to 7 bloggers who you believe will be 100% truthful!

Well, I like talking about myself so here goes

1. The best thing only good thing about being in a long distance relationship is having the opportunity to slack off in the leg-shaving and hair-washing departments (hey, it saves H2O and products!!)

(Ivy--I ONLY shower after working out too! Otherwise I don't feel dirty and it seems like a major waste of effort. 

Everyone else--don't worry, I work out almost every day)

2. I am a BOTTOMLESS PIT when it comes to baked goods. Dangerously so. The synapse or whatever that sends the signal of "I'm full" from your tummy to brain ceases to function when I am eating cookies, scones, cake, etc etc. When it comes to pancakes I can out-eat my ragingmetabolismed boyfriend. Which disturbs him. Because of this dieting trigger/addiction, I seldom bake cookies because I will stand over the stove and not be able to stop eating the dough. nomnomnom cooooooookies

3. I am so easygoing that I can't think of any specific person I actually dislike, but when someone proclaims that they do not believe in global warming (usually via college newspaper op-eds) I want to STRANGLE THEM. It pisses me off so much.  Dude, don't be stupid.

4. I express all strong emotions by crying (frustration, anger, trying to explain a cause that I am passionate about, shock of sudden happiness, love)

5. I also spontaneously start crying when a loud bang goes off by my head, and am terrified of popping balloons and champagne corks. (it's a lonnnng story.) 

6. I would call myself an environmentalist, but I feel like I can't because I am totally sucked in by the media and consumeristic culture, and I rely on globalization to bring me my delicious bananas that are probably destroying some native subsistence village and its soil.

7.  Like baked goods, I have NO CONTROL over myself whenever I step into Bath and Body Works (see #6...)  IT ALL SMELLS SO GOOD AND IS PRETTY

8.  I love my family best from a distance, and have come to appreciate and love them so much more since striking out on my own.

9. When my sister and I are together for too long we get really weird, (like, weirder than you can even imagine), and usually end up making up silly songs in baby voices. 

10. ummm I can't think of anything else.  Ask me something!!

TAG,  YOU'RE IT:

back at ya Alex from Happy Go Lucky

Abbie from AbbieBabble

Rhianne from For the easily distracted

Vanessa from Caramel Colored Photographs

Caitlin from The Twenty-Fifth Year

Laura Marie from A diary of little things and curiosities

and real life friend and baby-blogger Ella

whew!

Today was a RIOT of productivity!

Aaand now it's getting late eek so I am going to blow through this post AFAP (as fast as poss.)

SO I can continue my new wake up routine!

I have discovered that for me, 6:30 is the perfect time to wake up.

(I know it's not excruciatingly early compared to some people but I haven't really woken up that early since summer for work so there.)

After the first five minutes of disbelief and confused tiredness I am so motivated to start my day, since I don't want to waste the time that I woke up extra early for.

This morning I went to my all-time favorite coffee shop Webster's to do some spreadsheeting

photo

AND IT WAS AWESOME

to get out of the windowless lab

to hear the buzz of people and smell delicious coffee

and sit in front of the picture window and watch everyone walk by on the street

(WHY are leggings as pants the new fad for college girls? Last year they at least wore clothes OVER the leggings)

and drink my delicious double latte out of the rustic-ish earthenware crockmug

Webster's makes the best lattes in State College, and yes I HAVE tried every single coffee place, thank you very much.

PLUS did I mention it is also a used bookstore???!?

AND serves all local vegan food?

plus 80 kinds of tea

Yeah it made a great office for mind-numbing work, and I was able to feel productive while still giving my brain a chance to relax and think!

--------------------------

Here is some food for thought from articles I read today (on cultural geography)--

"we call India the land of the sacred cow because some Hindu customs seem strange- this animal is allowed to wander where it wishes, despite being edible it is not eaten, and it defecates wherever it goes. Of course...by the same criteria we could marvel at the USA as the land of the sacred dog"

-Marshall Sahlins, in Crang 2008

Also, a group of British Muslim businessmen started a new soda brand, Mecca Cola, to directly compete and take revenue from Coke because it epitomizes the "excess of corporate America" and thus all things neo-conservative of course.  Sales are significant in the Middle East and also in France, where there is a strong anti-American sentiment.

-Clennell 2003, in Sharp 2008

Are you a fan of Indiana Jones?

Can we say neo-imperialism??

"the films illustrate the triumph of the western individual hero...also of western knowledge and leadership," as "Indy rescues artefacts from the colonised world for the benefit of science...and to recognise the value of artefacts that the indigenous people otherwise do not value" (as well as saving the blonde female and the village).  Hmmm and the colonial-istic paternalism seen as the "good" natives are children under Indy's reluctant guidance, while the rest of the Orient are "bad guys"

-Sharp 2008
[I know you might want to debate this Ben ;)]

Don't you love it when your mind is opened?

Daylight Savings, you are annoying.

photo

A personal quirk I don't understand is that I can't force myself to get to bed when there's no one else around. I used to go to sleep around the same time as my roomies because I felt lonely up all by myself, but when it's just me, I would evidently rather do anything to stay awake. 

(As long as this anything is not productive or useful, of course)

I am going to cold-turkey shift my sleeping patterns by forcing myself to wake up extra early, in hopes that I will eventually be tired enough to go to bed earlier and fall into a routine.

And also to conserve daylight from the devious and intrusive darkness of annoying winter.

Blahhh.

p.s. More recipes coming soon, most importantly the infamous bran muff.

harbor colors

My favorite thing about Baltimore

(besides the gelato shop that I demand to frequent almost everytime I visit)

is the inner harbor

You will see

ships

dragons

yachts

barnes and noble in an old powerplant

the best aquarium ever

and sunset over calm water

birthday cake and lots of forest

This weekend, I

-baked a cake for Ben

 (Cake frosting was never one of my finest talents but I will make up for it in sprinkles!)

-went exploring in the woods

FINALLY made it to Bear Meadows

marsh wilderness!

 

-saw Where the Wild Things Are

(a bit too uncomfortably dark and disturbing)

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And now have a lot of work to do before tomorrow!