Everybody's Cooking for the Weekend

Once again, the weekend comes to a close. And once again, I'm mentioning that it's coming to a close.

Not a whole lot to say tonight, only thinking about how I spent the weekend. A lot of time wasted, but at the same time a lot of preparing completed!

Case in point? I now have five servings of soup made up, veggies chopped, and chicken cooked up for at least 4 meals. Although at the same time, I've come to realize that I have no supplies ready to make really anything else. Still trying to plan out meals. It's difficult for someone who isn't used to cooking.
I went over to my sister's house to help her make something called beanoa. (Like quinoa) It was basically veggies, quinoa and peanut sauce, but it was delicious. Funny thing is, our batch didn't have beans in it. The thing about the beanoa was that she had bought most of the ingredients specifically for that recipe. Before college, I did that a few times to practice cooking for school.

Now, I'm trying to find multiple meals with the same ingredients, so it's cheaper. It's hard. Perhaps there's a system to it? For now, I'm hoping that chicken I cooked is versatile. Next time I go grocery shopping, I need to find some stuff so I'm in charge of the next sibling-meal-time. It's a new concept from my sister. All I know is that I have to make something she wants to eat, and I don't think my soup or chicken are going to cut it. (Besides, the soup? Not that amazing. It's okay.)

The soup. I told you, it's hideous.

Speaking of food, a funny thing happened to me today. I ate completely vegetarian. Weird. For me at least.

Hmm. Seems I ended up rambling for a bit of there. Didn't mean to sound so journal-y. Ah well, it happens.

How was your weekend?
How do you plan weekly meals?

Upcoming Holidays and Scattered Productivity

So, when did it become the 18th? Seriously? I have one more present to buy, but this week certainly is going to be a holiday preparation week. The thing is, it doesn't seem like there's really that much left to do. Perhaps my mother is simply making me worried.

Anywho. Today began as a lazy day, but became a bit productive as the day went on. Cleaned my room, cleaned out a random closet in the parents' house. Little projects, all that jazz.

I just was ready for a rest day. Which, I pretty much got, but still got some stuff done. Also found some websites to waste time. Not a great thing for productivity.

On a random note (besides this post being super random), I'm in a mood to bake. It seems that there's much more motivation to bake when it isn't necessary. Thankfully, there are some bananas that are ready for mushing, and I'm somewhere where there are people to take food with them to work.

Hm. Thoughts are scattered for the evening. It happens. Hopefully with the new week, my thoughts will be coherent.

How did you spend your weekend?

Fair Days, Making Decisions, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes

My body doesn't realize that Fridays are rest days. Apparently, neither does my mind.

The local county fair has been going on this week, and today was my day to go to it. I recruited two of my guy pals to come, and to hopefully recruit more people as well. It ended up only being us three, but it was still fun.
I like group things, what can I say?
Fairs... They're never really that exciting. Truthfully, you go in hopes of seeing people you know, and maybe looking at the silly animals. Wandering is what we did.
One of the qualities that seems to be missing from my age group is the ability to be able to make decisions. My two friends are not exceptions. Somehow, I ended up making every decision of the day, making my vision of myself a lot less dependent than I thought. I felt kind of like a wife or girlfriend dragging her boyfriend(s?) around while shopping. You know the image, right? We managed to go through everything the fair had to offer, including seeing a freakin' tiger.
Why was there a tiger there? I have no idea, but it was sweet.
And there was what we though was some mutated rabbit.

After going around to everything, we realized there wasn't anything else to do. So we left, ate a late lunch in town, went in a guitar store that Aaron wanted to poke around in, and saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

As for the verdict of the movie? It was pretty good, thought there was going to be more monkey battle mayhem. Still, good and entertaining. Strangely enough, there were a few parts where I was thinking:

"Ha, that's kind of funny. Wait, am I supposed to think that's funny? ...I actually think I'm supposed to think that's funny."

Plus, if you've seen one of the two original Planet of the Apes movies (which you should anyway before you see this movie), you'll see two homages to the films before. One is extremely obvious, which is the classic line from the original, the other you see and simply smirk at.

Oh, and before I did any fair-ing today, I stopped by Market of Choice to pick up a few things... including some fancy cheese. Hopefully that will see the light of day soon.

On a final note, I've just got to say one more thing about apes. Orangutans are my favorite ape ever. I think it's because 1. They are orange, and I dig orange; 2. They have flat faces which I didn't think I cared about but then I realized I apparently have a thing for animals with flat faces. And the biggest one 3. They remind me of Buddhas. They are the Buddhas of the apes.

Are you the decisive one in your group, or are you the wishy washy one?

Beauty Pageants and Scale Speak

Well, Blogger was having issues while I was trying to update last night, so last night's post has been posted tonight.
The weekend, it starts tonight! Yes! And, considering the fact that we get Monday off, it's a four day weekend!

Speaking of the weekend, interestingly enough a family friend is participating in the Miss Oregon pageant this weekend. I've never known anyone who's been in one of these pageants, and I wonder what it's like to participate in something like that. I do like to dress up. I'd just need to get some abs. Speaking of which...

I'm thinking something is up with my body. My weight has been fluctuating like crazy, daily. So the whole thing started last Sunday, and I saw that my weight was quite a bit higher than usual. (I weigh myself weekly, mainly because my runner's log has a section for it and training screws up my appetite.) Because I let a thing like this get to me, I decided to watch where the scale was headed for the week. I've seen it go down and up in pounds. And I don't believe that I've been eating that much to cause such a stir. Something doesn't seem right, but I could be paranoid.

That's all from me tonight!

Have you ever seen/participated in a beauty pageant?

The Role of The Younger Sibling

Yep, it's Friday! Let the weekend begin!

As I've mentioned before, I have an older sister. Since I have an older sister, I've gotten used to being bossed around a lot. I've worked at not letting her get to me, but sometimes she just beats me. For instance, when we were younger she would always make me get a glass of water for her. It didn't even matter if I was getting up, or if I had just sat down. If I wasn't planning on getting her a glass of water, I was the most terrible person in the world.
Which brings us to this afternoon. You see, I had gotten a call during class from my sister. Foolishly, I returned the call. Chloe had called asking me if I could bring a board game down to our hometown for her. When I said that was ridiculous, she began ranting about how I was a b**ch for not bringing it down for her. No, she couldn't do anything else with her friends, she needed that game.
That's how I was guilted into driving home to give my sister a board game.

A BOARD GAME.

Simply ridiculous. What makes it even more ridiculous is that it's a board game she bought me for Christmas. No, what makes it even more ridiculous is that I was able to get guilt tripped into bringing my sister a game.

I'm quite tired tonight, but I must stay up! It's midnight movies night!

For the older siblings: What's the most ridiculous request you've ever made to your younger sibling?
For the younger siblings: What's the most ridiculous request you've ever gotten from your older sibling?

Black Swan and Rainy Day Cleaning

The sky is grey and rain has been coming down all day. Good thing I spent the day indoors!

Before I talk about today, I'd just like to say that last night I went to Black Swan at the Midnight movies. That movies is very bizarre. The whole time you're trying to figure out what is actually going on, but by the end of it you still don't actually know what just happened. Another thing I noticed was how incredibly sexual it was. I heard it was sensual, but I didn't know how sensual. Just... don't watch this with a parent. It will get awkward. Despite having no idea what was really happening, the movie drew me in. I wanted to know how the performance was going to turn out, I wanted to see the Black Swan! Oh, and there were a few scenes that gave me the heebie jeebies. I had difficulty trusting Nina around any object that could cause physical harm.

What I did today was clean my side of the dorm, and it was pretty in depth cleaning. I organized drawers, and managed to clear the cluttered space under my bed. Nice.
While working through the cave underneath my bed, I found some interesting things. One thing, that I knew was under there were my lovely roller skates.

I can't wait until the weather's nice to roll around in them again. Yes, I am a college student who has a pair of roller skates. It's what I wanted for Christmas when I was seventeen. Yeah, I am that cool.
I also stumbled upon a pair of shoes that I thought I threw away, but instead stowed under my bed. I think I wanted to try saving them, but look at these things:

It's time to let them go. They lived a good life.
Last two things I discovered were:

1. I always stumble upon some intense lipstick when I really dig deep into my cleaning, and I always end up putting it on. Why? I have no idea.
2. I have been using way too many plastic bags. I never throw them away because I think, "Oh, I'll use them again and it's bad for the enviroment. But this?

That is not a good thing. I think starting now I'm going to use the eco-friendly grocery bags. I have some that were just given to me for free, so why not?
Now, my side of the room is looking pretty spiffy.

I do need to vacuum still though. I just haven't had a chance to get my hands on the vacuum. Perhaps tomorrow, but tonight I'm off to eat some pasta with the fam for tomorrow!

What habits do you have when you do serious cleaning?

The Desire of Travel Yet The Reality of Staying Home

The days seem so much shorter when you sleep in, even if it's only two hours longer than usual.

Ah, it's crazy how much I've been wanting to travel recently. Maybe I'm getting stir crazy from winter, but I've been going mad about traveling. It also could be reading about being classy abroad or reading about Gingersnap's adventures in England. I've basically been craving chilling in Portland or traveling in Great Britain. Here's my metaphor for you: Say there's a person who all of their life only eats veggies. They enjoy veggies, and they've had a few different type of veggies, but they really want a slice of chocolate cake. Oh, they've had chocolate cake a few times, but not as often as they'd like. They also know there's two certain slices of cake that they would really love to have. One slice they've tried bites of before, but they want a whole damn slice. The other slice is a slice of cake that they've heard AMAZING things about, a slice of cake they've always wanted to try. Yet, there they are, sitting around crunching on their veggies.

Can you tell I've also been really munchy today? I think my metabolism is freaking out from lack of miles, yet still wants more. I can't really tell.

Off to do things!

What areas do you desire to travel to?

Just a Little Thing to Boost Your Spirits

Who out there is excited that the week is halfway over? Other than me? I'm quite pumped indeed. (I'm not sure if those words all work in the same sentence.)

The fates seemed to be trying to test me today, trying to bring my mood down. At times, they were pretty good at it too. They happened to start my day off right, with my Clinique clarifying bottle falling to the ground and breaking even before the clock hit seven.

My poor bottle!

I managed to salvage some of it, but it was not a happy thing.

It appeared to be one of those days where the key phrases were, "Well what else can happen today?" and "Oh, there's another thing that needs to be fixed/printed again." Pretty much a lot of things that didn't need to happen to make me busier.

However! As I started to prepare things for tomorrow, a song came on to my ipod that made me light up. I couldn't stop myself. I started to dance like a buffoon around my room, a big goofy grin on my face. After my jam session, I thought about all of the little good things happening in life. I got a lot of work done today. After classes tomorrow, I'll have no more homework for the rest of the week. I have only one class on Friday that starts at 11:00. My weekend is going to be amazing!

Take it from Calvin and Hobbes, they know what they're doing.

Thinking about all of the little bad things is draining. Thinking about the little things that are good is energizing! I'd rather have energy than be a lifeless shell of myself.

If you're wondering what song made me jump up and dance, I was jamming to Love Like Woe by The Ready Set. I don't know what is about that song, but pretty much every time I listen to it, I want to dance! Fun fact about me: I enjoy a lot of music that some may call seriously bad music. Like, music that is extremely ridiculous. Although, I do like tasteful music as well.

Speaking of which, I really like the free song of the week Marathon by Tennis. It's very old fashioned, but in a good way in my opinion.

That's all I think I have for you today. Get ready for the weekend!

What song just makes you want to dance?

Excitedness and Weekends

I think it's a bit sad that I'm already excited for next weekend, yet this weekend isn't officially over. Well, sort of.

I do have valid reason for being really excited for next weekend though. First of all and the biggest reason would be that the half marathon is next Sunday! I'm a little bit nervous, but I think I'm a lot more excited. It kind of takes me back to the days of cross country when I just wanted the race to be here so I could finish it. Next weekend is also when the Golden Globes are, indicating that award season is already in full swing. The added bonus to next week is Martin Luther King Day, which equals out to no class. It's like having a three day weekend again! That hasn't happened in awhile. Then again, it was just winter break...

Weekends always seem like more time than they really are. If you're anything like me, you plan to get more things done then actually are accomplished. I suppose I can check one thing off of my list with my trip to Target. I've been wanting an accordion folder for my classes, but the bookstore had them for very expensive. Plus, I had a gift card for Target and I've been trying not to spend real money. This is what I acquired:



Half the price of the bookstore? Aw yeah.

 I'm a little excited about this. No one should be excited at all for office supplies, but then again I've gotten excited about sketch books. I was able to finish up some homework as well, so I guess that's good.

Here's my last thing to be excited about, since apparently this post is all about excitedness. Yes, enjoy my made up word. I'm really pumped for tomorrow's game! Do I really have to say what game?

Ah snap!

Watchin' some stand up comedy with hall mates, then some sleep!

What little things make you excited?

The Not so Tasty Breakfast and Getting Work (kind of) Done

Friday is lovely, isn't it? It is here on campus. Most people have less or no classes this day, so it's pretty much a weekend day.

This morning since I didn't have class at 8, I went down to Valsets to have breakfast. I decided to try something different, so I had some oatmeal. I added some chocolate chips, some peanut butter and a dash of brown sugar. I thought it would be scrumptious. Uh, no. It was disgusting and had no flavor. I tried a few bites, then got rid of it and had my classic breakfast.


The bowl of not so deliciousness

I tried getting work done today. I guess I kind of did since I typed out my script for theatre and wrote up an Experience and Learn It for FYE. The only thing was I did more things that I could do later before I worked on things that are due sooner.

I am spending so much money lately. I need to start figuring out smart ways to spending. One of the things I spent money on was part of my Halloween costume. It's a secret for now, but it will be pretty sweet!

One of the biggest problems I find with blogging is that I always think of something interesting that I wanted to talk about, but when I get down to sit at the computer, I forget about it. Do you ever have this happen?

Danyon, Jason and I worked on a constitution for the club we are trying to create today. Very successful! We still need to get a few more people to sign up and to get a club advisor, but other than that we're almost there!

I ran 3.5 miles on a treadmill today for 33 minutes. The one positive aspect to running on a treadmill are no bugs. I cannot STAND bugs. They are seriously the dumbest things ever. For some reason they cannot see a 6 foot 7 inch tall female running towards them, even at an extremely slow pace. And they also seem to aim right for my left eye. A serious disgust I have against them.

Tomorrow is the Battle in Seattle! I'm really excited, it should be fun. Basically all day we get to explore in Seattle and then go to the game. I think I'm going to try as hard as possible to stray away from my room mate. Why, you ask? Why, because she is a downer. Almost on EVERYTHING she has to say, "Oh, this might not be fun, that could be stupid, etc..." It's a buzzkill. She's one of those people who doesn't want to do something until she tries it and then has a blast doing it. The before can just become tiresome though. I'm just ready to have fun and explore tomorrow!

A week exactly until my birthday! Yipee!

What's your biggest pet peeve when you run? What breakfast can you not stand?

My stereotypical college outfits...

Friday Friday Friday! Thank goodness it's Friday. Sadly enough, there is not much excitment in Monmouth on a Friday, so here I am once again in Canby. Alright, it's also because my cousin became Freshmen Homecoming Princess! How fun.

Hanging out with my cousin was fun, but it was kind of difficult because even though we're cousins, we are so different. I always forget how preppy she can act.

It was nice having only two hours of classes today, and then just being done. Today, my plans have changed a million times. It all started out with yesterday hearing there was a party going on tonight in town I was like, "Yes! Finally, something in town!" Then today around lunch I found out the party was in Corvallis. Everything is in Corvallis. I don't WANT to go back there, I want to escape my old home ya know? Then it was like, "Wait, we don't know what we're doing, maybe we could go hang out with my brother (Katelyn)?" Umm... I don't really want to party with Katelyn's brother. It's weird. SO, here I am. It's fun.

I've been trying to be the cute dresser for school, with fun dresses and shoes. Unfortunately, I've become the sporty dresser. This is because I have athletic classes 4 times a week, so I have to dress down! I suppose I just have to make it work.

I seriously can't concentrate right now because I am surrounded by talking. See you all later!

The Start of the the Weekend... College-wise that is.

I have heard and read everywhere that Thursday is the official start of the weekend in college. I wonder how true that is? All I know is that I don't have class until 10 then to noon and I'm done. 10 may sound early but remember I've been waking up for 8 am classes all week. Speaking of classes...

It turns out that apparently there's been a bug with the email service that hasn't allowed a lot of students to get mail. It's wonderful that I find that out the night before I need something and no one can send it to me. Thankfully, I talked to my teacher and I hope she understood. I emailed her through my gmail and she sent me the link this afternoon. Since we're on the subject of Individual Health Fitness, I'd like to mention the lab today. We need to do some tests like the 12 minute walk run, curl ups, etc. I thought I did pretty well for the running until I checked online. It turns out I only did average, which is okay but I thought I would have done better!
Today I ran 1.36 miles for 12 minutes. It's good to do at least a little everyday right?

Ugh. I feel liked I've been punched in the ribs. That ab workout in Weight Training got to me!

Before I forget! Bi-mart night was wild! There were so many people there, it was insane! It was pretty much deals on things and free stuff, including this cute little guy!



Nothing relieves stress like a cute fat panda.



Do you ever have those moments where you know you messed up, but it's not so bad because everyone else messed up? That is exactly what happened in Literature of the Western World today. We had to write this mini essay due today, and these are some of the mistakes that happened...
"Wait, we NEED page numbers?"
"What do you mean it was MAXIMUM of 1 1/2 pages?" -(me)
"I thought our names needed to be on the left side."
"...I just didn't do it."
So we all made a mistake. Fortunately I don't think it was really a big deal. I hope.

My cousin Ali is coming to visit me tonight! It should be fun. She goes to school in Salem and we are both freshmen, so we try to stick together on what's current.

I would like to say one last thing before I end this entry. A few days ago I was getting my key out to unlock the stair area when one of my hall mates opened it for me.She said she was just going to use the elevator to go upstairs but I convinced her to walk up with me. Today I saw that same hall mate using the elevator to go downstairs. Now, I live on the 4th floor of my dorm. I understand that walking up four flights of stairs can be tiresome, but walking down the stairs isn't that difficult! It just kind of disappoints me to see that people can't make the effort to simply use the stairs even if it's only when going down. It's a little something that helps you be a teeny bit healthier every day.

So please you guys, use the stairs. Like my PE131 teacher quoted, "Health is our biggest wealth." So use it wisely!
Have a wonderful start to your college weekend!