i am related to Annie Oakley

You know what really happens when you "grow up" and move out of the house??

Your parents decide to take amazing vacations with your younger siblings,

to places like this

...but the point of this post is to showcase perhaps the funniest picture of my little sister. ever.

love it.

weird movie weekend

Ben came up to visit this weekend, and because it was so cold out we ended up spending a lot of time nesting up as cozy as possible and watching movies.

I am just realizing how weird the selection was...

#1 The Maiden Heist

With names like Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken, it was assumed that this wouldn't be a complete bust...and it wasn't. It was kind of funny, but more just weird. About these three old art museum guards who are each in love with random quirky works of art that are in a display being moved to Denmark, and who plan an elaborate heist to steal them so they can each be forever united with their respective paintings/naked sculpture. 

Weird, mildly entertaining.

#2 The Men Who Stare at Goats

We saw this at the dollar theater by my house, and it was even WEIRDER than the first movie, but also funnier. A new-age paranormal military program from the 70's gets a new "mission" and the climax is when the main characters end up sort of accidentally spiking the water of an army base in Iraq with LSD and releasing a shed of lab goats and prisoners into the desert.  Quirky but sometimes you wonder if you should really be laughing??

#3 What's Eating Gilbert Grape

A 1993 film starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio....very very 1993.  Leo does an amazing job portraying a mentally handicapped boy, and Johnny is his older brother. They live in podunk IA with their 500 pound mother and a couple sisters and it is a bit Lifetime-esque.

One of those movies that Ben vaguely remembered seeing ten years ago and thought it was good at the time....it's not bad but there are multiple parts where you go "wait...really????" and "why are we still watching this??" but then keep watching anyway.

p.s. my mom has saved my camera cord from the void of lost things and it will be on its way soon! so prepare to see yum recipes and nature pictures :)

winter has hit

Well after a couple weeks of practically balmy weather in the 30's and 40's and lots of pouring rain, winter has come to central PA.  With wind. 

It's still not as bad as the midwest though...the good thing about growing up in the bipolar climate of the Great Lakes states is that you will be prepared to survive ANYWHERE else.  Blazing humidity and 100+ degrees? check.  Ten below and an inch of ice everywhere? it sucks, but I have seen it happen. 

A very strange thing about living in the mountains is that they don't really have thunderstorms here.  It is so weird. There was one thunderstorm last fall that lasted about 10 minutes and the next day everyone was freaking out. [wimps.]

All this being said, I still can't wait until I can go out and run in the sunshine in the morning.  I'm starting to feel a little cooped up and sun-deprived.

But if it's going to be winter, I would rather have it feel like winter, and not this weird nebulous half-springish stuff that messes with my brain and makes me feel that spring is on the way. 

monday award

[unfortunately that is NOT what it looks like here today!!]

We aren't getting the midwest icestorms, but central PA winter is dark dark dark.

a few days ago I was hit with another

Kreative Blogger award

i don't know why the inventer of this game decided to be kool and spell creative that way

by Jackie at exposed brick !

[she has a beautiful blog and inspiring posts, you should check it out :)]

Here are seven things that are making my life whirl right now:

1. I still can't find my camera cord. !! So expect to see lots of random pics unearthed from my computer archive. I can't find my cord because I am pretty sure I left it at home over break.

I have a really bad habit of forgetting things when I travel, which has made me paranoid.

But quadruple-checking always fails, and my nervous apprehensive feelings of "i KNOW i am forgetting something..." as I leave the door is always justified once I reach my destination and realize what I have left behind.

2. I should never be allowed to have an electric stove. Especially one where the coils don't even change color when hot. It is SO easy to accidentally flip the wrong dial. Or forget the burner is still on.

Although recent perils of melting a spatula and cracking a glass Pyrex are not as bad as igniting a plastic jar of powdered coffee creamer...not that that has ever happened to me...

3. Eggplants bring me great joy for some reason.  Yup, weird. My uncle gave me not one but TWO (probably the 2 only) eggplant cookbooks for Christmas (for real...one is even shaped like an eggplant) and it was awesome. (I also never thought I'd be happy to get mousetraps for Christmas, but luckily I have not had to use them. so far.)

I haven't had a chance to try any of the recipes yet, but last night I diced and roasted an eggplant and I was surprised to find it was the highlight of my night! yyyeah...

It doesn't even taste like anything, so I honestly can't explain my obsession.

4. I am going to publicly admit right here and now that I have been sucked into the Twilight mania. A year too late, perhaps, but now addicted nevertheless.

5. I hated the movie Avatar. Yes, it was good, yes I got way too sucked into the plot, and I was emotionally traumatized for the rest of the night.  [Let me warn you NEVER to read political ecology about the plight of exploited indigenous cultures by neoliberal capitalist development right before you go see a movie about the destruction and exploitation of indigenous cultures.] Oh yeah plus, the redheaded scientist dies. Along with half of the main characters.

Make that five random things about me.

I think almost everyone who has a blog has been tagged by this award

so I will try to tag people who haven't said seven random facts about themselves in the name of Kreativ Blogger :P 

and sorry if you've been hit twice already...Feel free to make up new rules if so!

Karina

Caroline

Morgan

Katy

Emily Elise

Ivy

Megara

Book Review: Her Fearful Symmetry

(no spoiler ahead, don't worry).

Back in the glorious, long-gone days of Christmas Break when I had nothing to do all day except sit on the couch and read books, I finished Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry in oh, about two days.  DEFINITELY the best book I have read in a lonnnng time.  I read The Time Traveler's Wife so long ago that I can't remember enough details to compare the two books, but I would say if you liked that book you WILL LOVE this one.  It doesn't really fit into a specific genre; part ghost story, part love story, part life-contemplation.  Niffenegger has an amazing gift in making a non-realistic fantasy situation seem completely believable and never cheesy, and she is an all-around amazingly talented writer.  I rarely get sucked into a book deep enough to laugh out loud or actually cry but this book made me do both at certain points.  At the same time, it was serious enough to be entertaining and exciting on a much deeper level than typical popular fiction, but never too depressing that I had a negative reaction to the story (unlike certain movies I have seen recently....ha).  Plus, I am connected to the author by only two or three degrees of separation (or one? I don't know how it works), which I think is COMPLETELY AWESOME and I would probably be starstruck and intimidated if I ever met her.

Overall, a MUST READ for anyone, regardless of whether or not you have read or liked or seen TTTW. Amazing.

(photo source)

Have you read it? What did you think?

Life on Thursday

Today was a rare sunny day

and I took my camera to campus to actually take pictures; I think there are some pretty ones

but

I can't find my little camera cord to upload photos!!!!

did I leave it at home over break????!??

losing things makes me kinda freak out.

ughhhh oh well at least I've got my actual camera.

I am breaking in my new crock*pot by making

granola!

It's delicious so far, I am eating some warm with ice cream and peanut butter chips.

mmmmm

I dumped in

~2.5 cups old fashioned oats

-heaping 1/4 cup coconut

-lots of random nuts from my baking box

-raisins

-cinnamon

-vanilla

-between 1/4 and 1/2 cup canola oil

-and LOTS of honey to stick it together. not measured, just drizzled in.

Mix it all together and cook on HIGH for 1 hour, then LOW for 2 more hours, all the time uncovered, until the granola is dry.

NOMNOMNOM

I'd show a picture but yeah.... :(

so I'll upload one instead

photo

THIS is where I'm headed for the summer!

details to come...

[when I've figured them out]

p.s. my favorite word of the day is drizzle; can you spot it?

craziness

Hello world !
 I have not dropped off the face of the earth; I have just been sucked into life moving 4293847 mph.

I went to Baltimore over the weekend (first time since Halloween, crazy!) and it was an incredible escape from reality.

so warm there it felt like spring

We made chocolate chocolate chip cookies, I watched almost an entire Ravens game (personal football record!), went for sunny walks with chai lattes, had a delicious sushi and cocktail date, people and dog watched, and pretty much loved life.

I seriously fall harder for this guy every. single. time. we are together :)

Oh, and we saw Avatar.

I think I will save my review for another day....

...and the game is kicking my butt

aaaaaa I am only three days into the semester and I already feel SO BEHIND!!!

The next few months are going to be insanely crazy. For instance, I have to read 3 books by next week, and they haven't even been delivered yet!

But I think I will really like all my seminars. I just have to figure out what I am doing for my thesis...

by hopefully the beginning of next week...

Sometimes grad school makes me feel very very young, inexperienced, overwhelmed, and it all goes shooting way over my head. I am the second to youngest in my entire program! But I will make it!

Regardless of the craziness I am TRYING REALLY HARD to keep sanity and appreciate random nice things that happen every day like

-tonight I watched the most beautiful sunset out the window in my seminar, one that lights up the clouds from below in fluorescent technicolor

-talking to a random friendly mature sophomore at the bus stop last night

-finally impulse-buying a crockpot!!!

-and finding the most amazing crock pot cookbook at the library!

(still haven't had a chance to figure it out and use it...)

source

-discovering the elusive Celestial Seasonings Holiday Tea still at my grocery store! (on sale!)

-and most exciting: seeing Ben in 2 days

(also p.s. I have started getting my Better Homes and Gardens, Mama!)

back in the game

I hope everyone had a good Saturday!

I spent mine drivvvving...sunrise to sunset and then zooming up and down mountains under the stars in the DENSE DARKNESS of rural PA.  Kind of scary when you can't see anything 50 yards ahead of your car!

The trip included an unwelcome but scenic detour through creepy Beauty and the Beast-esque woods, over a river, and past a cute little mountain village still all lit up for the holidays and covered in snow.

I am SO RELIEVED to be back in my apartment with the drive behind me, although I have tons and tons to unpack and cleannn tomorrow!

It is 8:46 pm and I am going to crash.

denial

i don't want to leave my lazy life

snowlight filled house

and drive 12 hours tomorrow :(

Book Review: The Women

T.C. Boyle's The Women is a historical fiction/biography on the life of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, as narrated by a fictional Japanese apprentice and presented through the interactions of Wright and his four wives and lovers (thus the title).  I started reading this book because Wright was a midwestern architectural icon, and I've been to the Chicago suburb of Oak Park where he built several houses.  I'm not the biggest fan of the Prairie-style (sry Ben) but I thought it would be interesting to learn about his life, which was evidently quite juicy.  Since the book focuses on the perspectives of Wright's "women" instead of his own, it is a revealing and entertaining way to learn about him--evidently an eccentric egotistic jerk. The book is primarily fiction, but is loosely based on reality (the timeline of his life, his main relationships, etc.).  I don't know how accurately the personalities of some characters were portrayed because they are CRAAAAZY!!! but maybe they actually were....It was a bit difficult to read at times because it is told in reverse chronological order, starting with his last wife and proceeding backwards from there; as a result, it is easy to predict what previously happened, there is no real climax, and the plot loses a lot of emotional...hooks? Plus the "narrator" inserts distracting little anecdotes in the footnotes of random pages.  Overall, the book was entertaining but not gripping.  I liked it and learned a lot about architecture in the early 1900's, the media and press, and Japanese culture.  I would recommend it if you are interested in Frank Lloyd Wright or early/mid 1900's society.

New Year

I'm finally back home again in Illinois for my last week of Christmas break, after driving WAY too many hundreds of miles all around the midwest to visit family and friends.  I haven't been blogging much because I preferred to enjoy the "real" world and haven't had internet access much of the time!  I can't believe the holiday season is over once again; it's a time that I always look forward to and it always passes before I can think about it.  It's nice to be able to finally relax after all the whirlwind craziness though, and start to look forward to getting back into my own routine at school.  (but NOT looking forward to the drive back to PA).

I'm excited for 2010 because I know it will be an exciting year full of unknown changes for my family and lots of my friends.  I don't know if it can compare to the crazy tumultuousness(word??) of 2009 though. 

As I sit in my pajamas that I have worn for the past 2 days and nights, anxiously waiting to see if I will catch the deadly stomach flu that assaulted my best friend and resulted in a trip to the Emergency Room on Sunday during the last night of my visit (EEK!!! so far so good...shoveling down the malt-o-meal and tea) I feel like I might as well do a 2009 photo recap just because SO MUCH HAPPENED last year!

JANUARY

After kicking off the New Year, the festivities continued with my friend Angie's wedding! And my first time as a bridesmaid :)

FEBRUARY

I spent my (ridiculously early) senior Spring Break on a random/awkward/amazing trip with my advisor and another student to North Carolina to visit Duke and UNC on my grad school quest.

I fell in love with Duke, was accepted into their Masters in Environmental Management program, but decided I didn't want to go $80000 in debt :( and rounded out the trip with a drive up the barrier islands.

North Carolina, I love you.

MARCH

Spring Term of senior year at Augustana began, and also the bittersweet mad rush to create as many memories as possible.

APRIL

Birthday Month!

1920's themed formals and birthdays were celebrated.  I turned 22!

Aaaand after a long stressful process I decided to go to Penn State for grad school in Geography.

MAY

a BIG month!!

final posters were presented

Grammy turned 80!

Crazy Sigma Alpha Iota seniors said farewell with a bang

And I graduated on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Senior year I took on way too many responsibilities and classes, ran cross country, held 3 part time jobs, took the GRE and applied to 5 grad schools, had a rough adjustment to a long distance relationship, and completely burned out both physically and emotionally.  I was unprepared for the overwhelming feeling of relief that I felt on graduation, and it was one of the happiest days of my year.  I can't believe I made it through all that happened!  [And I still can't believe my BA in biology is virtually worthless in today's economy :P]

Right after graduation I took a trip to Baltimore to visit Ben and had a quick, random trip to DC for the first time!

JUNE

I stayed in Rock Island (my college town) for the summer with my roommates to work and adjust to "post-college life". [whatever that entails ;)]

My sister came up to visit for Gumbo Yaya, a ridiculous Cajun-themed summer festival. We all accummulated a lifetime supply of Mardi Gras beads :)

I picked up Ben, who spent his summer back home in the Chicago burbs, and drove to Indiana to meet my family for my Uncle's annual "going-away party" before he goes to Holland for a few months to work every fall.

[He designed and built the tiki hut by hand!]

I also traveled to the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania with my mom to visit my future school for the first time and sign for my first very own apartment!

JULY

I continued my U.S. Fish and Wildlife intern adventures, spending many days driving around the greater Midwest area and Mississippi River basin and many long nights netting and tagging bats. 

AUGUST

After four years, I finally said goodbye to the Quad Cities and my college girls to embark upon my next adventure!!

My dad, sister and Ben helped me move to Pennsylvania to strike out on my own, going wayyyyy beyond my comfort zone! Luckily everything worked out amazingly.

SEPTEMBER

I discovered I loved grad school, and also loved being able to DRIVE to see Ben!!!

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

...can be seen on the blog...

DECEMBER

I finished my first semester of grad school, finally made it home, and had a wonderful Christmas with my family in IL and IA.

The year ended in my all-time-favorite way...a New Year's party in my basement with my family and best friends from high school and college.  I have spent all the New Years Eves that I can remember at my house; when we were young my parents would invite family friends with kids our ages that we would only see once or twice a year, and I still think the best way to celebrate is the place where your own bed is only a floor above, waiting for you to crash :)

 WHEW what a crazy ride!

Happy 2010 everyone :)

a White Christmas in Iowa

My family traveled to my grandma's farm in eastern Iowa on Christmas day. I didn't think we would have a white Christmas since it had been pouring nasty rain up until the day of, but lo and behold windy blizzardy flakes turned into huge gently falling clumps of snow and soon the world looked like this. So I escaped the family and went for a walk.