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

happyhappy award

My bloggyfriend Vanessa from Caramel Covered photographs sent me the Happy 101 award a few days ago.

I always feel kind of cheesy talking about myself with these tags, but happiness is good, so here we go!

The rules for this one are:

1. List 10 things that make you happy.

2. Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.

I have tons of things to be happy about right now, since it is Christmas Vacation!!! My most favorite time!

1. Being on break, which means spending alll day in pj's, baking cookies, reading for fun, wrapping pretty presents, and staying inside all day guilt-free when it is icy outside.

2. Getting to see some of my best friends soooooon!

3. Being in love, even if it is mostly far-away love.

4. Having fun with my silly sisters. 

5. Playing my piano, which I only get to see a few times a year!!! Even if my little sister comes up and starts banging on it too whenever I sit down.

6. Reading at night in my bed to the glow of Christmas lights

7. Being able to RUN again after months of my stupid hip injury!!! (knock on wood it is really healed)

8. Knowing that I am on the right track in life, even if I can't see the end and sometimes get frustrated with the way things are.

9. Oatmeal for breakfast, made by my slowly perfected special recipe.

10. Looking forward to New Year's maybe even more than Christmas......

Now I am supposed to "tag" 10 blogs that brighten my day, but since that includes every blog I choose to read (and every blog written by all of you reading mine, you guys are just so hilarious and inspiring) I just can't pick and choose

sooooo

I am going to cop out and tag EVERYONE who reads this and would like to keep passing on the award :) because you make me happy and keep me amused and sane.

  

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

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.

Seven Things

Last week the adorable and hilarious Alex tagged me with a blog award!

I am supposed to say 7 things about myself that you don't already know.

This is going to be tricky since my family and bf read my blog...so sorry if you don't see any surprises ;)

1. I don't have tv in my apartment! Well, I have a television (that I bought at a garage sale this summer for $40) but I only use it to watch the rare and occasional dvd since I am too cheap to pay for cable! I would rather spend the $$ on groceries.  Blogging has pretty much filled my reality tv niche although I do miss Bravo!
   
   
2. Speaking of groceries, I LOVE grocery shopping. It is so much fun. I love seeing all the groceries and being inspired by all the things I could potentially make! Strolling the g-store is also very calming and therapeutic for me; I have begun to go there as soon as I get back from visiting Ben or as soon as he leaves from seeing me, since those transitional hours are usually pretty emotionally stressful.
   
   
3. I interned for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the past 2 summers/schoolyear (they are the agency responsible for enforcing and regulating the endangered species act, among other things).  I became a bit of a bat expert and spent many LONG NIGHTS netting bats to learn about the endangered Indiana Bat.  (FYI, little fuzzy bats are VERY CUTE and very smart)
   
   

(this is an ideal bat "flyway"...a tunnel of trees covering a stream)

(me setting up a net to block the flyway and hopefully catch bats!)

4.   When I was little, my childhood fantasies revolved around Peter Pan, the Boxcar Children, and the Trixie Belden series. I elaborately daydreamed that I was an additional character in those stories :) The day my local library "cleaned out" their inventory and got rid of the decaying Trixie Belden books was a bad, bad day.

5.   I get severe performance anxiety regarding pretty much everything in my life. I am so afraid of being judged, I guess...especially for things that mean a lot to me.  This covers piano recitals, tests, papers, running races, trumpet solos when I was in band, etc etc.  Even calling someone on the phone who I don't know that well.

6.  Ever since I spent 2 months at Holden Village (magical place of joy...I could gush for pages but will spare you) I have not minded washing dishes (since we had to take turns doing dish duty...which was actually really fun, since they make everything there fun). Doing dishes for 1 person (or even a few) is no big deal after you have washed the nasty pasta residue off 100 people's plates! It's gotten to the point where I actually like washing dishes. It's kind of therapeutic at the end of the day. Like grocery shopping. who am I???

Here's a random Holden pic, just in case you have never heard of it before :)

Oh heck, here's another one for good measure

7.  My favorite bird is an owl

photo

And my favorite animal is a Fennec Fox

(among many other animals)

photo

I just spent about 10 minute trying to choose the cutest picture...go here for the rest!

please don't stop the music

photo

For some reason, I have been music-depriving myself lately.

All summer I had no internet, so I never turned on my computer to use iTunes

Then they came out with a new version or two and I was just too lazy to deal with it

(Plus having to figure out how to move my music to my new computer... yeah, way too much work)

Now I'm going to have to make an effort to find out what new artists have emerged while I've been in hibernation and return the music to my life!

I've rediscovered the site Daytrotter.com.

It's a recording studio right in Rock Island that lets traveling up and coming indie rock bands stop by, record a few songs, and then puts the mp3 files on the site FOR FREE.  GO THERE.

Similarly, I don't even remember the last time I played piano. Maybe once this summer. I do know it's the longest I have gone since I started lessons in 4th grade. Um, I am now in what, 17th grade?!

I have already found the music building on campus; maybe this weekend I will crash the practice rooms and bust out the Debussy.

It's strange how sometimes, I am just not motivated or inspired to pursue the creative activities that make me who I am. I take my talent for granted and let it stagnate.

Why?