Reasons Why I'm a Goon

1. I post way too many lists on this blog

2. I thought of my New Year's Resolution today, and got so excited about it that I wanted to start immediately...but then decided to wait until January 1st so that I can call it a New Year's Resolution.

3. I began drinking tea about a month ago because it's a romantic thing to do.

4. I cried four times watching Finding Neverland last night.

5. I read books aloud to myself sometimes.

6. I don't just love movie trailers; I analyze movie trailers as I watch them, picking out what's good and bad about how they're put together.

7. I secretly want to make movie trailers for a living.

8. I asked for a subscription to National Geographic for Christmas

9. I've had the same plastic key chain on my backpack since 9th grade. It's a plastic light-up skull that I found in a Froot Loops box, and I like to think that it got me successfully through quite a few Speech seasons. Now I just use it as a general good luck charm.

10. I spend a lot of time reading food blogs and bookmarking recipes to make at a later date. When I have an actual oven. And counter space. And money.

11. To fall asleep at night, I listen to an episode of the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast. A few nights ago I made the mistake of listening to the episode about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. Then I got scared and had to turn the light back on.

How to Feed Yourself While Still Leaving Enough Money So You Can Graduate in Four Years (A Food Network Pilot)

Here's what I'm considering:

Taking raw walnuts
A cup of Dole peaches
And cinnamon

And making "poor man's peach pie." (Aka putting the walnuts in a bowl and topping with peaches mixed with cinnamon)

Oh, the desperate lives we college-age dessert lovers live.

I should have my own Food Network show: How To Feed Yourself While Still Leaving Enough Money So You Can Graduate in Four Years. Or, How To Navigate Austrian Grocery Stores With Only a Pocket Dictionary to Aid You. Or, The Art of Grilled Cheese And Tomato Soup.

In case you're wondering if I'm serious about the "peach pie," I totally am. Photographic evidence will follow (later).

In Which I Bring Back A Souvenir

The funny thing about work is that you have to show up every day for it. And the funny thing about having to show up every day for something is that you can't possibly look (or feel, for that matter) your best every single day.

Last year, it was the Amidala Eyebrow Incident. This year, it's hives.

And they're all over. Legs, arms, feet, hands, stomach, back, shoulders, neck, face. Everywhere.

Last weekend was the big family boating weekend up on Lake Superior, and apparently I found something in the pure nature of the Northwoods that didn't agree with me.

I'm sorry for the pouty attitude, but I'm too itchy and too tired from 4-hourly doses of Benadryl to laugh at myself much right now.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm in the final episodes of Gossip Girl, Season 4, and I just have to know if Chuck and Blair get together at the end. (How I wish I were joking)

I Need Some Sleep, Part 3

Possible reasons for my current insomnia:

1. My blanket is too short. It's the perfect weight for 80 degree, albeit air-conditioned, fanned circumstances, but it's too short. My grandma had it made for me when I was a baby, and while I'm sure it was quite adequate back then, it's not entirely suitable for a 5'10" 20-year-old who can only sleep sprawled out like a drunken sailor.

2. Aforementioned fan is bothering me. Whenever I close my eyes I find myself waiting for the fan to oscillate until it's blowing in my face. The fan haunts my thoughts. It's blowing on my desk chair...now my dresser...now my feet...now my face...now my nightstand...now back to my face. And yet, I can't sleep without the darn fan. It's a cruel, cruel situation.

3. I keep thinking of my plans for today. And boy, do I have plans. Strawberry picking with Mom, strawberry jam making with Mom, cleaning my bathroom, cleaning my room, doing laundry, mowing around the trees (that's right; my mother is officially taking advantage of my newly-discovered mowing finesse), working out, reading more Hemingway, attempting to add some color to my translucent skin, feeling guilty about raising my chances of getting skin cancer in 25 years, watching Whale Wars (and wondering, for the zillionth time, how much of the show is legal, and how it even gets broadcasted considering all of the clearly illegal content. Possibly because it's only broadcasted AFTER the fact? Does that make a difference? I think so. I think so. Will look into this.).

It's a full life I lead.

4. I have a mosquito bite. On my cheek.

5. It's July 1st. Is the entire state shut down?

6. Austria. I'm worried about money, my friends. Especially considering the exchange rate. Especially considering that payroll is down at Target, due to nearby road construction. Especially considering that payroll will likely continue to be down for quite a while, as the state shutdown will postpone said road construction indefinitely.

7. I should brush up on my German. I will be so very disappointed in myself if I get to Austria and end up doing poorly on the German placement test and thus end up back in Beginning German. But it's difficult to study by myself, out of a textbook. To quiz myself by myself, out of a textbook. I don't know how Laura Ingalls Wilder did it.

That's it, I'm giving up. I'm getting up.

An Interesting Scene

I couldn't find the hand weights. So I did my workout using a bottle of ketchup and a bottle of Canada Dry.
And then I had fries and a gin and tonic.

In Which Holly Gets Off The Couch

I haven't done much today.

Actually, I haven't really done anything all week. Well, that's not true. Yesterday Mom and I went to the Apple Store so I could get my computer's battery replaced. Once that was done, we walked through Macy's on our way out to the parking lot. Darn Macy's! I knew there was a reason why I hate department stores!

I dropped my laptop in Macy's.

And even though it was in its case, the bottom right corner of the screen got bent, so that whenever I try to close my laptop, the bent corner scratches the corresponding corner of the base.

So tomorrow I get to bring Mac back in to the Apple Store for another repair.

Anyway, I haven't done much today.

Amy's working on sewing her prom dress (long story), Mom's grading middle school science fair projects (she has the same spring break as me), and Dad's at work...working.

As for me, I've been lying on the couch all day reading the Duggar's book (how I love that family) and petting the dog, who has finally gotten over her traditional 2-day aversion to me (happens every time I come home on a break from school).

To make up for my lack of productivity, then, I volunteered to make dinner. Now, this isn't really such a big deal. I'm not one of those kids who has never had to make dinner in her life. On the contrary, one year both my parents had to work extra late, so guess who had to cook every night? Plus, I watch the Food Network religiously. Plus, I actually LIKE to cook.

But still, you just never know how things are going to turn out.

So here goes-Pizza Margherita, courtesy of Emeril Lagasse. It's nice to be off that couch.

Things I'm Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving. I recall last year (or was it the year before?) I didn't want to talk about Thanksgiving. Not because I don't love it, but because there didn't seem to be anything new to say about it. Same old food, family, gratitude, etc. Rinse and repeat.
The thing is, though, this year the repeat part is what I'm especially thankful for. I'm thankful that we have a tradition like Thanksgiving that is the same year after year.

Right now I'm laying on my back in my old comfy bed. My laptop is propped on my knees. My throat hurts like the dickens. So does my head. Of course I haven't had so much as a sniffle the whole semester at school, but the instant I was home I got sick. So it goes.
I'm thankful for Nyquil. Is it okay for one to be thankful for drugs?

Other things I'm thankful for (besides the obvious (but still important) friends family health food shelter etc):
1. Sweats
2. Books
3. Cousins that aren't so little anymore
4. Dogs
5. Paul McCartney
6. Optimism
7. Garfield comics
8. The color blue
9. Strangers who smile
10. Part time jobs
11. Snow

Goodnight everyone. I'll see you tomorrow for some mad Black Friday shopping. I'll be the red-eyed one toting the Kleenex box. Hopefully I'll be smiling.

Never Let Me Go

I just finished watching Julie and Julia with my sister. We had an awful time tonight choosing a movie. It went back and forth with neither of us wanting to watch what the other person wanted to watch, while at the same time neither of us had a personal preference to offer to the other person. In the end, though, it was Julie and Julia, which Amy had never seen and which I had only seen once back in January. A good choice, I think, and when it was over all there was left to do was turn off the TV and head into our respective bedrooms. It is almost 2 a.m., after all.

I'm sitting cross-legged on my bed right now, with a blanket across my lap because the darn laptop is cold after sitting asleep on my desk for so long. The thunderstorm we've been trying to ignore all night has finally drifted away to the East, and although the dogs have settled down with its passing, I miss the background booms and flashes of light.

I've never been one to say that I love storms, and to run outside to watch the clouds as they flicker and the trees as they get ripped up at the roots and blown into the neighbor's yard. In fact, I used to hide under my covers and curl into a ball away from the window (because I didn't want my eye to be sliced out Spiderman 2 style if the glass broke, of course). Nowadays, I actually enjoy reading during storms. It seems like a sort of a cozy, romantic thing to do, doesn't it?

Anyway, as I said, the storm has passed and I am left as always in a silent house with my books, my computer, and a few thoughts rattling around up top.

Can't think of any at the moment, of course.

I guess I could tell you about the book I'm reading currently. It's called Never Let Me Go, written by Kazuo Ishiguro. I first decided to read it because I was making my usual rounds of my bookmarked websites, and came upon a movie trailer of a movie based on the book. The film has Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, two people I like very much, and guess what? The trailer actually looks really good. I know it's stupid to judge a movie by its trailer, but I'm very optimistic.

Despite my excitement over the movie, I wanted the book first. It's only right, after all, and as (as you're probably aware of by now) I don't entirely loathe the written world, I thought I'd crack open the novel and see if there was a good story behind the intriguing title.

Let me tell you, dear people, there certainly is. It's a good story, it's a well written story, and it's a story that is revealed to you bit by bit. I'm on page 142, which is roughly halfway through, and I'm completely enthralled. It isn't one of those books you can't put down, let me warn you. It's one of those books that is so fascinating that you have trouble picking it up, not only because you don't want it to be over too soon, but because you feel you have to read it somewhere special, where you can really sit back and savor it. This is not a book to be read on a bus or in a waiting room. You have to read it when you're alone, preferably outside.

But I won't make rules for you. Just pick it up for yourself and see what I mean. The Forest Lake library has four copies, if you're in the area, and when you've finished you can stop by Target and tell me how you liked it. I work 6 a.m. to 12:30 all next week and the week after.

Final

I just sniffed my shirt. I smell like smoke and the outdoors. Perfect.
Today was the Pine Hall Picnic. It was really fun. Kelsie and I worked the grill, and everyone just chilled and ate. Later on we took a Pine photo with all of the residents and CA's crammed onto the stairs/fire escape.
We limboed
We danced
We walked casually through each other's photo shoots
We joked
We chased stray wrappers across the mini mall
The best part,though, was the fact that everyone was together enjoying themselves. All the drama and cliques sort of melted away and we became one hall again.

It's 4:01 p.m. and I'm finally about to buckle down and study for my finals. I have Brit. Lit. and Crusades on Monday, and Physical Anthropology on Wednesday.
It was definitely worth it to hang out outside for awhile, though. Studying can be done later, but having a blast with people you're going to miss over the summer is a one time deal.

The Icing on the Cake

To tell you the truth, I've been thinking about writing this blog entry for a few days now. Furthermore, each time I thought about it, I came up with a different title for this post. In the end, however, I decided that this story (the one I'm about to write) was the one that needed to be told.
For your enjoyment (and because I thought they were both rather good,) here are the two rejected titles:
1. The Awkwardness of an Intercepted Wink
2. How Not to Get a Job at a Ski Place

You can wonder about them now if you wish, or if you don't care, you can just move on. I can assure you that The Icing on the Cake will be worth it.
So here we go:

I like my plans to work out. That's one thing you should know about me.
The following plan most definitely did not work out.
But you know what?
Sometimes that's okay.

It's my friend Tim's birthday today. My friend Maddie and I thought it would be a good idea to make him a cake for his 19th, and since he really likes 3 Musketeers bars, we decided to make him a cake shaped like one. Cool, right?
We went shopping yesterday for ingredients:
2 boxes yellow cake mix
1 carton of eggs
3 cans of frosting (2 white, 1 chocolate)
3 tubes decorator's icing (1 red, 1 white, 1 blue)
1 tube yellow decorator's gel
1 3 Musketeers bar
The cake took us about two hours to make, with King guarding the door to the kitchen with a Nerf gun to keep Tim out.
After it was done (and it looked amazing-you can take my word for it), we stashed it away and waited for it to be midnight so we could have a little party.

Midnight finally came around, and we managed to get Tim into the TV lounge. We lit the candles on the cake, shushed the gathering crowd behind us, and walked in singing happy birthday.

What did Tim do?
He ran of course.
Took his socks off first (so they wouldn't get dirty)
And then sprinted out the door of our dorm, down the stairs, and along the sidewalk.
Four or so boys chased him down. Apparently he struggled, so they picked him up and carried him back on their shoulders.
Meanwhile, Maddie was standing there holding the lit cake in her arms. She quickly blew out the candles and we headed downstairs. We set the cake on the floor in front of Tim's door, and climbed to the top of the stairwell to hide out.

Now, it's not that we were mad at Tim. It's just that when you put that amount of time and effort into something, you hope for a better reaction. I suppose we should have known the big surprise format would make Tim uncomfortable, but honestly we didn't plan for it to happen like that; people merely saw us making the cake and wanted to be involved. In short, they all wanted to celebrate with him, just as we did.

Well, Mad and I sat at the top of the stairs for a long time, listening to people look for us and sing happy birthday again (I assume there was no running the second time). Eventually Evan and King found us up there, and Tim shortly discovered us also. He wanted to know if we had forks and plates, because he had nothing to serve the cake on.

We didn't have any.

Anyway, a lot of drama ensued after that, but the main thing is that after awhile Tim texted us asking us to please come down and have some cake. So we did.

And can I tell you something?
It tasted awful.
I'd imagine that the darn candy bar-shaped cake tasted something like bitterness, and like not letting go of the little things that don't matter much in the long run.
The frosting was good, though.
The frosting tasted like King patrolling with the Nerf gun for hours, and like laughing over me icing Tim's birthday as 3/7/09 instead of 3/7/10.
But it mostly tasted like having good friends who love you even when you run, and even when you hide in a stairwell.
The icing on the cake was the best part.

The L's are silent, Mr. E.

For dinner tonight, my dad and I decided to make quesadillas. Well, he decided. By the time I made my grand entrance into the kitchen, he was already stirring a thin white liquid around in a bowl, looking puzzled.
The following conversation followed:
"Hi Dad. Need some help? I can chop the olives."
"Olives! Shoot! I forgot!"
"Hey Hol?"
"What?"
"Isn't this supposed to be thicker?"
"Um, yes."
"Okay, well, I'll add some more chicken. That should help."
"Maybe you could add flour. That's a thickener!"
"Yeah! Flour! Go get it!"
"Okay. Does that look like enough?"
"More. This stuff is really runny."
"There you go."
"I'll just start on the cheese."
"Dad?"
"What?"
"Is it supposed to look that disgusting?"
"I don't think so."
"Mom's home!"
"Quick! Hide the flour!"

Believer it or not, the quesadillas actually turned out fairly well. A little watery, though.