Bad Advertising

I mentioned yesterday that the shredding company managed to spill all their highly secure documents on the most windy day of the month so far. I wasn't lucky enough to grab a photo myself, but another guy at work snapped one that was far better than any I could have gotten from my viewpoint.

Enjoy!

You can't really see all of the papers that were flying around, but trust me. Not only was the back yard covered, but some even managed to blow up over the top of the building and land in the center of the pond on the other side. They didn't retrieve those. I suppose they were counting on the fact that ink mixed with water yields illegible documents.

So much for "secure document destruction," eh?

Thoughts of Late

For the first, oh, 23 years of my life, things just went along fine. There were struggles and joys, of course, but I can't say there was anything too out of the ordinary in either direction.

I feel like that's changed in the last two years. If we're talking day to day existence, life is very routine: I get up, I go to work, I do my job, I come home, I eat some food, I go to bed, and repeat. That, I think, is a major difference from college and prior, because during college and prior, every day somehow felt more unique. I would get up, go to a class, get some food, hang out with friends, go on various adventures, and find plenty of blogging material. 

I think that's why I've struggled with writing these days. There aren't enough minor, daily adventures to fill the (web) pages with regular goings-on. Life, it seems, has gotten...bigger. The things that happen are more profound, more important, and somehow less blog-worthy. Or perhaps more blog-worthy. I haven't yet decided. 

Previously, low points were friendship tensions, tough classes, and extreme amounts of homework. High points were random escapades, living with dear friends, and enjoying short term milestones. Now? Low points look more extreme - it seems like I hear of death far too often these days. My brother's best friend. An acquaintance from high school. A beloved community member from home. A college professor. Two grandparents. That type of life-content certainly isn't bloggable. Nor should it be. High points are also extreme: weddings, engagements, new babies (I'm not exaggerating when saying that I know approximately 10+ people who are expecting). Some of that is bloggable, but those events aren't things that are happening on a daily basis.

All that to say, it seems like the bits of life that I got used to writing about are now fewer and farther between. And I don't think that's bad. It simply means that I need to look at my life with a new viewpoint. Daily existence isn't boring. It's just different, and I need to train myself to look for the daily things that are worth capturing in writing. The routine doesn't need to be turned up to a hyperactive degree in order to see small, blog-worthy adventures. In case you're looking for examples, here are a few that happened just this week!

1. It was pretty windy this afternoon, which made for a bad day for the paper shredding company that was visiting our office building. Suddenly, the entire "back yard" of the office was covered in thousands of pieces of highly sensitive documents in need of shredding, and our entire team was glued to the windows watching the poor shredding people pick up the mess!

2. Wedding planning status: checking a ton of things off the list. Hooray for productivity!

3. Official Blog Fiance comes home from his 1,298,237,546,892nd business trip to London tomorrow!

4. I thought I made it through the entire season without catching a cold. But alas - I came down with illness the day after Official Blog Fiance left for London. Yuck.

5. This whole working-at-a-desk-all-day thing means a serious lack of exercise, and that's bad news right before having a wedding dress fitting. Enter 3-day diet. Thanks, Pinterest, for providing me with something that feels like it's working miracles. I think I'll do it again next week...

So there you have it. Five items that should have been blogged earlier but weren't. I apologize for both this post and yesterday's - I definitely don't think they have been the most exciting reads, so if you've made it this far, you deserve a reward! Here's an entirely unrelated picture that requires some recognition. 

My brother is awesome. 

The end.

Super Bowl 2014 - A Live Blog by a Fair Weather Football Fan

Alright folks, here's the back story:

Official Blog Fiance is from Seattle, and (it should probably go without saying) he's a Seahawks fan.  I've never been a huge football lover personally, but in an effort to add to pre-marital bliss, I'm now officially a Seahawks fan myself.

Official Blog Fiance unfortunately had to go on a business trip to Abu Dhabi over Super Bowl Sunday (whaaaaat??!), so he had to miss one of the few times that the Seahawks actually made it this far.  Because I didn't want him to miss out entirely, I figured I'd do a live-blog version so he can experience the game without having to watch the entire thing after the fact.


6:17 - The Seahawks head to the field.  Kurt Russell gives them a glowing intro speech.

6:19 - The Broncos hit the field.  Kurt Russell gives them a glowing intro speech too.  (Why didn't they pick two different celebrities for that?)

6:23 - Renee Fleming sings the national anthem five million times better than anyone else who's ever sung at a Super Bowl.

6:32 - Three out of the four of us miss the kickoff while going on a house tour.  Peyton Manning apparently misses catching the football, and Seattle mysteriously ends up with two points.

6:57 - We all finish making homemade pizza.  Seattle is up by 5 points, and we're six and a half minutes away from the end of the first quarter.

7:11 - I take the pizza out of the oven.  Seattle scored a field goal during the 10 minutes I was in the kitchen.

7:16 - First quarter ends.  Score report: Seattle: 8.  Denver: 0.

7:22 - Seattle makes a touchdown!  The following field goal brings the score to 15 - 0 (Seattle).

7:24 - Commercials.  More pizza.  This is definitely the best homemade pizza I've made yet!  Pepperoni and ham.  Good combo.  Tim Tebow's commercial gets shown!



7:38 - Denver has possession, Seattle intercepts, and runs the ball ALLLLL the way to the other end.  Touchdown!  Seattle: 20.  Denver: 0.  Shoot.

7:39: Field goal follow through.  Score report: Seattle: 22.  Denver: 0.

7:52 - Finished my pizza!

7:54 - Peyton gets to around 20 yards on 4th down.  Seattle intercepts and it's back in their hands.

7:57 - End of the second quarter.  Time to make cookies!  Oh.  And the half time show.  "Oh yeah yeah.  Oh yeah yeah yeah yeaaaaaaah...."

8:10 - WHAT.  Bruno Mars can play drums?  Really well?  "That's cool," says the audience in attendance here.

8:11 - Bruno predictably starts with the few measures that have been in every halftime commercial up until now.  Who knew that there's more to the song that "Oh yeah yeah..."

8:13 - This is a shocker.  I'm actually enjoying the halftime show.  I think I'll dance around the kitchen while making the cookies.

[via Google images]

8:16 - Well, scratch that.  The Red Hot Chili Peppers are pretty much the worst.  I mean, they're shirtless and wearing black shorts with patterned leggings.  What the heck.

[via Google images]

8:20 - It's ok.  Bruno came back, told everyone that we're beautiful just the way we are, and redeemed the show.

8:31 - Quarter 3 starts, and it's Seattle's ball.  

8:31 - Seattle gets an immediate touchdown.  DUDE.  Percy Harvin takes the cake.

8:32 - Field goal.  Score report: Seattle: 29.  Denver: 0.

8:55 - Yet again, we have a ball turnover from Denver to Seattle.  I'm starting to feel pretty bad for Peyton.  But...Seattle's winning.  So I don't feel that bad.

8:57 - Awww.  Budweiser outdid itself with commercials this year.



9:01 - Mmm.  Framboise Lambic is good from a bottle.  Now it's gone.

9:02 - Seattle makes yet another touchdown!  This. is. crazy.

9:03 - Field goal.  Score report: Seattle: 36. Denver: 0.

9:10 - I'm beginning to think that my high school SAT class teacher was right - I'm the world's worst guesser.  I guessed that the Broncos would win, and it looks like I'm being proved wrong.  I'm glad about this fact in this particular case.

9:11 - The Broncos finally get a touchdown!  There are zero seconds left in the third quarter, but they still get a 2-point conversion attempt, I guess, since they're still playing.

9:12 - Annnnnnd they get another 2 points.  Yay, Denver.  (Pity yay.)

9:13 - A commercial with a montage of teams including Seattle shows Pete Carroll saying, "We're going to New Jersey!!"  Audience member responds, "Wow, that's the first time that going to New Jersey is good news..."

9:15 - Fourth quarter starts, and it's Seattle's ball.

9:23 - Seattle makes another touchdown.  WOOOOOO.

9:23 - All the Broncos players look totally demoralized.  Pete Carroll looks beyond elated.

9:23 - Field goal.  Score report: Seattle: 43.  Denver: 8.  11:45 minutes left in the game.

9:28 - Richard Sherman is apparently hurt (for the second time).  Timeout.

9:32 - We're back, but we're now on injury number two.  Didn't quite catch which Seahawk it was.  Richard Sherman is out for the rest of the game.

9:41 - 6:30 left.  This is looking good.

9:44 - 5 minutes.

9:46 - 3:45.  Another ball turn over from Denver to Seattle.

9:50 - Richard Sherman is on crutches, but they're all so happy that he doesn't seem to care at all.

9:50 - 2 minute warning.

9:52 - I'm racing my computer battery here.  14% to 1:59 on the clock.  YOU CAN DO IT, OLD COMPUTER!

9:54 - Russell Wilson dumps an entire cooler of yellow Gatorade on Pete Carroll's head...out of extreme joy?

9:55 - THE SEAHAWKS WIN THE SUPER BOWL!!!

[via Google images]

Well.  There you have it.  And if you too want to become a Seahawks fan, just watch this video and you'll never turn back.

Too Much Recognition

Confession: I end up at Target probably three or four times a week.  Sometimes more, sometimes less, but on average, it's probably three times a week.  This has never bothered me - I love Target and I will never take it for granted because I didn't have one within a 100-mile radius until college, at which time it was miraculously only 7.7 miles away.  

I like Target because it's clean and nice and it has almost everything I need for day to day life.  It's big enough that I feel comfortably anonymous and no one notices how often I'm there.

UNTIL NOW.

On one of my recent trips on my way home from work, I wandered around for about 15 minutes, picked up the two or three items that I needed, and headed to the checkout.  Following my customary routine (which is probably everyone else's customary routine also...), I picked the shortest line and prepared to pay for my stuff and head out the door.  The cashier woman started ringing me up and, following protocol (no doubt), she asked, "Would you like to save 5% on your purchase today by signing up for a Target card?"  As usual, I declined.  Expecting that to be the end of the conversation, she surprised me by saying, "Well...are you sure?  You come here all the time!"

::awkward pause::

"Uh...haha...ha...you're right...I am here a lot..."

::pays and runs away::

Folks, it's one thing to be recognized at Starbucks or Pinkberry.  It's quite another to be recognized a Target.  I have a problem.

{via google images}

Vikings! Sequester! Ah!

The two subjects listed above literally have absolutely nothing in common except for the fact that I've been thinking about both of them lately.  So...one thing at a time!

Vikings

While listening to NPR (I admit it - I LOVE NPR) on my way home from work last night, I heard the beginning of an interview with the man who wrote the new Viking show on the history channel.  Being a small bit Norwegian myself, I found this interview fascinating, and since I had to turn off the radio before the interview was over, I decided to do some research myself.

-- Nerd Alert --

As a result of my research, here are five interesting facts about Vikings:

1. In reality, Vikings did not wear horned helmets.  Thanks for the historical accuracy, Wagner.

2. Most of the literature written about Vikings was composed by Christian and Muslim communities in the lands that the Vikings raided, which means that the Vikings' reputation is much more negative than they likely were.

3. Though I'm sure Christopher Columbus would like to take credit for discovering the Americas, that was simply not the case.  The Vikings - specifically Leif Ericson - sailed to L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland approximately 500 years before Christopher Columbus ever set foot on the continent.

4. Based on archaeological evidence, the Vikings were exceptionally clean people.

5. The Vikings didn't die out.  Instead, when raiding neighboring countries became unprofitable, they simply stopped raiding and settled in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Greenland.

Congratulations.  Now you know more about Vikings.


SequesterSequesterSequester!

At risk of sound criticism from the internet community, I am relieved that the sequester actually happened.  From my perspective, the amount of government spending is ridiculous and completely unsustainable.  If we were discussing personal finances, it makes perfect sense to me that if you're spending far more than you make in yearly income, you will be in too much debt to be able to repay.  The answer to debt is not to take more loans.  The answer to debt is to stop spending more than you have.  Plus, if you look at the graph, the sequester doesn't look like the "deep spending cuts" that we keep hearing about.

While I understand that cutting spending may have an effect on various entitlement programs, the military, and even every day life, it seems better to take a hit now before the debt gets worse.  There's no way to keep up with exponential spending when you're already in the hole without severe consequences, so if we have a chance to fix this with fewer consequences now, we should jump on that opportunity.  Plus, who would complain about the elimination of those awkward full body scanners that the TSA is so fond of?

A Baking Story

Life lately has been...stressful.  That's ok.  It's made me realize how much I appreciate when life is slower and I have enough time to stop and think about all the little things that make it interesting.  Like cookies, for example.

Part 1:  When I was younger, my mom heard from a friend that you can make cookie dough, scoop it into ready-to-bake balls, and then put the dough balls in the freezer.  That way, you can have fresh baked cookies whenever you want, and you can control the portion size so that you don't have a whole batch of cookies that you could never finish by yourself.  (On second thought, perhaps you could.  I've never tried).

Part 2:  I usually eat two out of three meals per day at work, and the toaster oven across from my is often filled with toast, leftover pizza, or whatever else people like to bring for lunch.

Part 3:  Discovery: toaster oven at work + frozen cookie balls = fresh baked cookies at work.  Easy to bake, easy to share, available to whoever wants them whenever they want them.  The hallway smells amazing.

Here's what to do:

A)  Mix up your cookie dough the night before the day you want to eat them.  Limitation: if you want them to be easy, they need to be of the variety that you make from dough balls and don't require extra toppings (i.e. frosting, hershey kisses, filling, etc.).

B)  Scoop your cookie dough on to cookie sheets.  It's easier to clean up if you cover the cookie sheets with wax paper beforehand, because then you don't even have to wash the cookie sheets.

C)  Freeze your cookie dough balls overnight, and place them all in ziplock bags in the morning.  Bring them to wherever you plan to eat them (as long as the place has a freezer).  Obviously, you can leave them at home if you feel so inclined...

D)  When you feel like eating cookies, preheat your oven/toaster oven to whatever temperature the cookies bake at.  Bake them for 5 - 10 minutes longer than the recipe calls for to account for the fact that they're frozen.

E)  Let them cool awhile and then eat them.  Make everyone jealous of the fact that you're eating fresh cookies, and if they ask where you got them, tell them they can make some too!

F)  Achieve fame for out of the box thinking and tasty baked goods.

Cookie recommendations:

Toll House chocolate chip
Chocolate mint chip
Chocolate chocolate chip
White chocolate chip macadamia nut
Oatmeal chocolate chip
Oatmeal raisin
Peanut butter
Snickerdoodles
"Chunky Chocolate Gobs"
Any of the Betty Crocker mix cookies
Funfetti cake mix cookies
...pretty much anything else you can think of that goes on a cookie sheet in a ball...

Next office dessert project?  Microwave cake.

A Bird's Eye View

Today was a great day due to a small thing.  As in...literally a small object.  But before I can talk about this small object, I need to provide some background information.

Our office building is luxurious in that everyone has his or her own office.  I am lucky enough to have a window office that looks out over a large field that may or may not be a swamp.  If it is a swamp, it's been enormously beneficial in allowing various animals to inhabit the area surrounding the office building.  My friend Maria and I have often spent a few moments of our otherwise busy time gazing out the window upon the likes of groundhogs, cardinals, Canadian geese (curse the geese...I'll never escape them!), and even a huge red tailed hawk.

(via)

That was a glorious day.  It sat in the tree next to my window for a full 15 minutes!

Enough background.

Maria walked into my office today with a Christmas gift.  Inside said Christmas gift was a bird watching guidebook and a pair of binoculars.

New.  Favorite.  Object.

I've never been a bird watcher, but all of a sudden I felt like I understood the heart of hearts of all bird fanatics out there.  I have a full book of 121 birds to search for and check off the list!  I have 121 glossy pictures to marvel at!  I have binoculars with which to peer into the sky and watch the 121 birds speed across the horizon!  HOW COULD ANYONE DO ANY WORK WITH BIRDS IN THE SKY??

So if you walk past my office for the next, oh, I don't know...year...expect to see me with the binoculars glued to my face.  I will put a check mark next to every single bird in that book if it's the last thing I do.

All else is for the birds.

How I Nearly Burned Down My House

You may have heard of a hurricane around these here parts.  If you didn't hear about it, you may either a) have no connection to the outside world, in which case you're not reading this, or b) live in a foreign country.  However, my parents living in Vermont had to stream live coverage of the hurricane from an Australian station, so my guess is that option b is out.

Moving on.

The hurricane didn't cause anything too catastrophic around here, but it did cause me to lose power at my apartment for several hours.  Which leads me the point of this post: how I almost lit my house on fire.

I quickly realized that I was going to need some light if I wanted to stay up past 6:30 last night.  At first, I lit my candles and left them in the kitchen, but quickly decided that I'd rather hang out on my bed under my blankets (no heat!) rather than at my kitchen table.  I put two votive holders on my desk and window sill, and I put a glass jar candle on my dresser.

The lighting was lovely.  It almost made me wish the power went out every night because it felt cozy.  I read for awhile, talked to my mom, and watched the flame in the glass jar get progressively higher.  Suddenly (after a good hour of candle-burning), I realized that I had left some pajamas next to the candle, and as the flame got higher it was getting closer and closer to the flammable material.  

I approached the dresser.  I touched the side of the glass.  My finger burned!  I blew out the candle.  I grabbed the pajamas and tried to pick it up...but it had fused itself to the dresser.

Thought process: This is not my dresser.  I've ruined the dresser.  It's so hot.  I need a potholder.  ::grabs potholder::  Ah!  Hand is burning through the potholder!  Must put candle in non-flammable area!  Run to the sink!  Put water on super heated glass jar!

Had I thought this through, I would have decided that putting cold water on a very hot glass object was a bad idea, but I wasn't thinking about the jar so much as I was thinking about burning the house down.  Naturally, the jar cracked as soon as it touched the water.  Awesome.  Judging from the state of the jar though, I decided it didn't matter.

The dresser, however, still had a nice ring of melting resin.  I grabbed my now-wet kitchen sponge and put it on the spot...which immediately started steaming.  For your general knowledge - seeing a solid piece of wood steam is not a comforting thing when you know all emergency vehicles are occupied with the massive hurricane and widespread power outages.

There's really nothing after that, so sorry for the anti-climactic ending.  But just so that you know it really happened, here's the candle:

Happy Tuesday.

New outfit?

Tell me...when was the last time YOU heard of a parka dress?

You know you want one.

Beach Walking

Yesterday, I walked to the beach.

BECAUSE IT WAS 65 DEGREES!

It was beyond glorious. I saw a man in a convertible with his bike in the passenger seat like it was his pet dog. I saw a lady wearing a flowing, flowery shirt and a hat blasting rap music through her open car window. I saw some tweenage girls huddled in a clump on the sidewalk, discussing the significance (?) of who had the best shoes. I saw a man wearing a sweatshirt and a rainbow scarf wandering down the side of the road.

But the weirdest thing I saw happened when I got to the beach itself. A girl and her boyfriend were meandering slowly near the water's edge. Suddenly, a dog, no more than one foot off the ground, ran up to them.

And the girl started screaming.

Not cute* screaming. We're talking oh-my-gosh-I'm-about-to-get-murdered screaming. Screaming screaming. And she proceeded to run around her boyfriend in circles until the dog finally decided to give up its efforts to play.

Better yet, there were two other dogs on the beach that within a five-minute span had elicited the same reaction.

The dogs' owner passed me as I was walking by and we shared an incredulous smile.

People are funny sometimes.

*Note: I have never actually witnessed an event where screaming could be classified as "cute." But you get the gist?

The Joys of Amazon

Today while looking for a bag on Amazon, I discovered a category called "Fashion Waist Packs."


Who knew that fanny packs were so chic?

On New Things and Sea Monsters

Ok...ok...so...I forgot about blogging for awhile.  But I promise I had legitimate reasons!  Although that doesn't mean much coming from me.  Judge for yourselves:

A) I moved.

B) I started a new job.

C) I gained a boyfriend (Google-suggested synonyms include "beau," "heartthrob," and "honeybunch." Awkward.)

All of the above are marvelous.  Fantastic.  Splendid.  Terrific.  You name it.  But that's not why I'm writing tonight.  While I'm sure they will be expounded upon later, tonight I want to talk about something important.  Historic, if you will.  Drumroll please....


THE KRAKEN.


Yeah.  I bet you didn't see that coming.  Ha.

On the way back from tonight's spontaneous journey from work to Pinkberry (rush hour + Friday night = poor planning; don't try this at home, folks...), I took a break from the classical station and turned on NPR.  I learned that there are fossils of nine ichthyosaurs, each about 45 feet long, lying in a Nevada valley, bones arranged in a peculiar order, with no particular explanation.

[source]

The paleontologist on the radio came up with a hypothesis, based on the bones' positions, that these fish-like dinosaurs were killed by what could have presumably been the Kraken, evidently an ancient ancestor of the modern-day octopus.  (Side note: in Britain, it's pronounced KRAAAY-ken instead of KRAAAH-ken.  Who knew?)  If you're really curious, you can read all about it or listen to the entire broadcast here.

I, of course, being the nerd that I am, sat in my car for an extra five minutes after I got home to hear the end of it, and then ran inside the new house to research it for the next half hour.  Let's be serious.  What else would I do with my Friday night?

Conversation Over Dinner

Small brother: "What makes the wine you're drinking a dry wine?"

Jillian and company: "It's not sweet - there's less sugar in a dry wine."

Small brother: "Oh, so the wet wines are the sweet ones?"

MA vs. VT

New fave picture from home.


Nothing in Mass can beat the superiority of VT cows.

On Fame (of the blogging variety)

At one point in time, I came up with a list of things that seem to make a blog legit. I have since realized that there is no way under the sun that I will ever become a Highly Successful Blogger (HSB). Here I present you with a list of reasons why that is the case.


1. HSBs can abbreviate any word and it sounds cool.

2. HSBs each have a Story. These Stories are different, life-altering, funny, sweet, or any other adjective that grabs your attention.

3. HSBs have husbands. Intelligent, good-looking, the-kind-you-see-in-movies husbands. From here on out, they will be referred to as "blog husbands."

4. HSBs know all the other HSBs, and are therefore unafraid to comment on each other's blogs.

5. HSBs have the best cameras available to mankind and know how to use them well.




DO NOT CHANGE THE CHANNEL; WE WILL RETURN AFTER THIS MESSAGE.

[Random side note: according to a common online acronym finder, HSB also stands for the Latin phrase "Hic Situs Bonus," meaning "This place is good." Somehow, that fits well with this topic, don't you think?]

AND WE'RE BACK.




6. HSBs are the most photogenic people in the world.

7. HSBs have the best fashion taste in the world.

8. HSBs can cook anything, with a recipe or without one.

9. HSBs have Highly Successful Blogs within a year of entering the Blogosphere.

10. HSBs have perfectly imperfect lives. [This is not universally the case, I know. But we're generalizing here, people.]



So that's my reasoning. One day, perhaps I will have a life story that merits widespread attention, but for now, I will resign myself to my relative anonymity. I have, however, coined the acronym "HSB." That should count for something, right?

Best part of summer?

OOOOOOOOOOH EEEEEEEEEEEEEMMM GEEEEEEEEEEEE. (That's code for "Oh my gosh," if you couldn't read it due to the excessive letters.)

Why the exclamation, you ask? I will inform you. Harry Potter (the finale, of course) will be in theaters on July 15th, and the they have finally released the trailer. It looks pretty epic. If you haven't jumped on the Harry Potter train by now, it's time you did. Just saying.

Fotobooth Fun

Hello world!

I am writing today in order to explain a photo collage which apparently grows larger upon the commencement of one clicking somewhere on the surface of it. This collage came to be in existence because my sister, the notorious and infamous Jillian Griffin, who i'm sure is known for her blog posts throughout the interwebs, opened photobooth on her computer... Apparently the fun does not end after this outrageous photo taking program is running. We spent nearly an hour creating funny and inexplainable facial expressions as well as body gestures to entertain ourselves in the evening.

One would think that you would use effects to have the most fun, but that is not the case. Simply have an excellent time on good old normal mode and off to the races one goes. You see, I have found that there is not so much ingenuity or perplexity involved in the making and observing of photos that rely simply on the effect to make them funny, like having two faces and four arms. All you really need is to have the soft susurration of your imagination prompt you, within three seconds, to plaster onto your features an indelible moment of creativity that is now saved to less than one kilobyte of space on your hard drive. Congrats you've made a photo!

Well over the course of that one hour, I had a most excellent and bodacious adventure. *Bill and Ted fans insert laugh here* I hope that everyone who reads this blog tries out their own version of photobooth or crystaleye or whatever type of program you have so that they all can have as much fun as my sister and I did. I dare you to try it :)

K, Later all

(Jillian's brother, not v v v)

Quote of Genius

I failed at continuing the word of the day, mainly because I didn't blog the last two days. Sorry. Instead, I will tell you the best quote I heard today. It came from my dear apartment-mate-now-summer-roommate Lauren.

Upon discussion of what makes for good blogging material, she said, "It might be harder later in life to find good things. College is like a hotbed of spontaneity."

Lauren, you get the prize for the most eloquent, accurate description of college I've heard. Ever.

Minor Changes

Since Saturday, I have packed all of my stuff in my car not quite single-handedly, unpacked about half of it, moved into another building sans kitchen, private bathroom, and apartmentmates (except for Lauren - I'm glad she's here!), and went back to eating cafeteria food. This is a weird feeling. One day I will move to actual housing....I hope....

Now on to finding a real job. If anyone - A-N-Y-O-N-E - knows of a job for an entry-level music teacher, office person, or anything else, I'd love to talk to said anyone. This is stressful.

On a lighter note, I now have time to practice again. This is a good thing, because I need to keep up my skillz. Now I just need motivation.

The other day I woke up to my alarm clock radio saying, "Darkening, darkening..."


And immediately, my half-asleep brain added, "YEAH!!!"


Rebecca Black, infiltrating my dreams is just too much. Please remove yourself from them immediately, and while you're at it, please take with you "Friday," which is currently stuck in my head thanks to Glee.




[If you haven't seen this, you may live under a rock. It may be better for your sanity if you stay there.]