My Daily Ramblings

Growing Up Sucks

2011-06-23T02:24:00.002-04:00

I spent most of my afternoon talking with my dad about all the stuff I now need to do and pay for now that I am a big kid and have graduated from college. I don't wanna be a big kid. I want to go back to the days when finger painting my body was acceptable. Actually, I don't know if it ever was acceptable, but I never got in major trouble for doing it.

Anyways, my dad informed me of all of the lovely things I now have to pay for on a monthly basis. The list goes on and on, but on top of rent and utilities, car insurance, health insurance, changing my address, getting a new drivers license, and a probably a few other things that I am currently trying to block out of my mind, being a grown up sucks. Why on earth do we need all of this stuff? Why does health insurance cost so much each month and then there is still a ridiculous deductible every year? Not cool.

I know that all throughout school you complain that you can't wait for it to be over so you don't have to deal with the homework and tests anymore, but right now I am seriously wondering which is worse; tests or bills? Yuck!

Learning to Walk Again

2011-06-22T02:28:00.002-04:00

Although the surgery went well and I am in almost no pain, the crutches have gotten on my nerves. I have become determined to walk without them because they are just in the way. I don't want to over do it and risk tearing anything again, but I am not in any pain, so why not walk without crutches? I've started putting more and more weight on my foot when I use the crutches and sometimes (especially at night), I'll just leave the crutches behind. There is no use taking them into the bathroom with me, right? There are enough walls and counter-tops to hold onto if need be. Anyways, so far so good. I haven't been too much of a klutz. Honestly, I thought I was going to be terrible at using crutches, but I guess when you actually need them, you seem to figure out how to work them.

On another note, my dad and I went back to my apartment today to finish packing up all the electronic stuff that had too many wires and cords for me to deal with. I got to see a bunch of my good friends and they even were sweet enough to help my dad and I pack a bit. I'm not much of a help these days with my two extra legs so I was so appreciative of their help. We even took a break to get gelato and Capigiro (only the best gelato ever). Today I got bing cherry and strawberry. It was delicious. I am definitely going to miss Capigiro in the south. I guess I'll have to start making my own gelato. I knew that ice cream maker would come in use someday.

So basically my apartment is all packed up in boxes. It is kind of sad. I have spent the past three years of my life there and it is going to be really sad to leave. I have had so many good memories in that place and I can't believe that it is already time to leave. I feel like I just signed the lease. Even my friends thought it was weird today. Everything is in boxes and it no longer looks like the cozy apartment we used to have potluck parties in every Thursday night. I think it is going to be really hard to walk out of the apartment next week and turn in my key. I get kind of teary-eyed every time I think about it.

I Made It!

2011-06-16T00:26:00.001-04:00

My surgery went really really well. It is one day later and I am in no pain. It is wonderful. I really did not expect to feel as well as I do and I am pleasantly surprised. I am using crutches, but can put weight on my right leg without any pain. I have been taking the pain meds, but haven't really needed them. Right now I am just taking them to prevent the pain.

I started my physical therapy exercises and only one of them is painful. My hip does not hurt at all, but using my quad muscles can be a bit tough at times. Overall, I cannot believe how amazing I feel and unless something changes, I think this surgery was a big success. Thinking back to how much pain I was in just a few days ago amazes me. I really do not know how I made it through twelve weeks of walking on a bum hip.

Not being able to do everything for myself is a bit hard. Just getting a drink of water requires some help and I hate asking my family every few minutes to get me something. I wish I could just crutch over to the sink, fill up a glass, and carry it back to the couch with me. Unfortunately both of my hands are tied up with the crutches and I haven't figured out a way to carry a glass while on crutches. Maybe that will be my goal tomorrow; to find a third arm!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!

2011-06-15T00:17:00.002-04:00

In twelve hours I will be on the operating table having my hip fixed. About three months ago, while in Korea, I tore my labrum. I have been waiting for such a long time and I can't believe that this day is finally here. I have not had much of a chance to think about the surgery with everything that has been going on lately. Tonight is the first night that I have been able to sit on the couch and actually think about the surgery.

I bought my crutches today and I think that is when it hit me. For the next six weeks I will be on crutches. I've never used crutches before and I am sure that I am going to run into many many walls. Usually I am a klutz so this is going to be interesting. I hope all goes well tomorrow and I'm not too dopey from all the medications. I guess we'll find out!

It's Sinking In

2011-06-13T02:57:00.003-04:00

Well, my college career has officially come to a close. I graduated on Friday and it was very bittersweet. Honestly, it didn't feel like it was over. I still felt like I had to go to class the following Monday. Now a few days have past and it is really starting to sink in.

My parents and I hosted a huge graduation party for all of my classmates and their family members on Saturday. We made a ton of yummy food and everyone had a great time. It is sad though because this is really it. I may never see some of my friends again. Of course we all want to stay in touch with each other, but it isn't going to be easy. We all agreed to get together for a reunion once in a while and I really hope it happens. I have formed such strong bonds with all of my friends and I am so lucky to have them in my life. Now that school is over and we are all heading off into the real world, I am afraid we will all forget about each other. I really hope we all do stay in touch.

I started packing up my apartment today. Boxes are all over my apartment and although I still have a lot more to pack, it looks so barren. I think the fact that school is over finally hit me today. Starting to pack all my things makes me think about all the good memories I've had in the past three years here. This place was my first place on my own and it feels so weird to just box everything and leave this place behind. This place has really become home for me and now I have to make another apartment, a few hundred miles away, feel like home too.

I've been waiting for the day when I graduate and move down south for years. Now that is actually here, I just want time to slow down. I want to savor every possible moment I have left here and I feel like I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do while I was here.

Is This Really It?

2011-06-06T22:29:00.003-04:00

I am officially done with all of my college schoolwork. Graduation is in a few days and I am finally starting to realize that my college career is coming to a close. My last class was on Thursday and it was a long one. I was at school from 10am to 10pm that day. My partner and I created a five-course meal for fifty people as our senior design project. We thought we had everything under control, but of course everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Half of our food was never ordered and the whole day was one big ball of stress. We both thought that once our meal was over a big weight would have been lifted off our shoulders, but it was not. We talked about it for days after and we are still talking about it. All we can think about is how we could have made it better. In the end all the guests were happy, which I guess is really all the matters. Unfortunately, I wish that what we had spent weeks planning actually turned out the way we wanted it to. Oh well, it is over now and I guess not everything will always go as planned. I am still mad at a select number of people and really want to go scream at them for not doing their job, but I guess it really just is not worth it. Maybe it would make me feel better, but honestly, I think I just need to let it go. I know that I did my job and I guess I need to be happy with that.

Realizing that I do not have any more homework to do is taking me a while. I still feel like I have so many things to get done. Granted, I do have a lot of things do in the next few weeks, including packing up my life and moving, but it still feels like I will be returning to school in a few weeks. Maybe it will actually hit me at graduation.

I am worried that I am going to be so bored without school. I have been in school ever since I was three years old; school is all I know. Now I have to become a grown-up and I don't wanna!!! I wanna be a little kid again when my only worries were what color play-doh to play with.

A bunch of my friends and I are heading down to the beach for two days. I think it is going to be a nice change of scenery from the city and we will all get to relax. We won't have to think about getting home to do homework or going to class. I wonder what we are going to talk about!!!

Why Does Everything Have to be So Difficult?

2011-05-18T22:08:00.003-04:00

It seems like everything I do is ten times more complicated than it has to be. Over the past few days everything I go to do either takes longer than it should or my computer somehow loses all the information and I have to start from the beginning all over again.

Yesterday I was working on an assignment for my online class and was literally about to hit the submit button when my whole assignment disappeared. I spent over an hour typing the assignment and was so pissed. I wanted to through my computer out the window.

Today, I typed a very long e-mail and sent it. Luckily I saved a copy of it into a Word document because I just got an e-mail from the recipient saying it was blank. I checked my sent folder and the e-mail had the message in it. What the heck is going on? Is the world out to get me? Why can't a catch a break? Why does everything I do have to be so difficult?

I've been so stressed out lately between finishing school, packing up my apartment, finding a job, and dealing with a bum hip. I can't wait until I can just relax and enjoy my life again. Ugh!!!

I Guess Procrastination Does Pay Off

2011-05-09T02:56:00.002-04:00

I knew the whole day that I needed to write a paper for my organizational behavior class on the movie Twelve Angry Men. I actually really enjoy the movie and have seen it multiple times. I spent the whole day turning the computer on, surfing the web, then turning it off, and not actually writing the paper. The paper only needed to be 2-3 pages, which seems like a breeze after I wrote the 36 page Korean one. I knew it wouldn't take that long to write, but I just didn't feel like doing it all day.

So, instead of doing what I was supposed to, I spent a few hours with one of my friends, sitting outside and eating gelato. We both have been so busy lately that we have not had time to get together, so catching up today was really nice. It was so gorgeous outside and very relaxing; just what I needed.

After our gelato date, I headed back home and stared at the computer. Then I turned the television on and watched meaningless shows for the rest of the night. Except for Army Wives of course; that is not a meaningless show.

Finally 2am arrived and I decided to brush my teeth and climb into bed. I brought my computer with me into my bedroom, turned it on, and started typing. Before I knew, it was 3am and the paper was complete. It is such a great feeling. Now if only I could have written this paper earlier in the day, maybe I wouldn't be finishing it at 3am. Oh well. At least I got it done.

Well That Went By Quickly

2011-05-06T02:50:00.002-04:00

That's how my whole day was today. Every time I looked at the clock, another hour or two or three had passed. Before I knew it, it was 2 o'clock and I had to get ready to leave for class. I felt like I had just woken up. I was pretty productive this morning though. My apartment was getting a bit too cluttered for my liking, so I spent the morning/early afternoon straightening up. It was much needed. Once my apartment no longer looked like a tornado had hit it, I headed off to class.

My senior design class is on Thursday and it is usually a long, tiring class. Today was weird though. The head chefs were not organized at all and all of us knew that going in. We all expected to be there really late and leave with the worst headaches. Surprisingly, throughout the chaos, we somehow were out of the kitchens by 9:30. I am still curious as to how that happened. Dinner is usually served at 6, but somehow the first course didn't go out until after 6:30. I looked at the clock as dessert was going out, after four courses had left the kitchen, and it was only 8 o'clock. I thought to myself, "No way, the clock must have died," but no, it didn't; it really was the correct time. I am still in amazement.

After class, we all hung out at Catey's place for a bit, had a few beers, and talked about how ridiculously unorganized everything was and critiqued all the food. Just the normal stuff us culinary students like to do to have fun. We aren't weird or anything.

Anyways, now it is 3am and I really should be asleep right now because I have to get up in 5 hours, but I am not tired. You would think that running around cooking a five-course meal for 50 people would make me tired; apparently not.

Since When is Falafel not Green Inside?

2011-05-05T01:27:00.004-04:00

I asked myself this question today as I bit into a falafel sandwich. My friend, Anna, and I went to a little place close to campus for falafel sandwiches. She said their falafel was really good and I was excited to try it. I haven't had any falafel in about a month and I have been craving it. The shop was really cute. It had about twenty seats and had that middle eastern feel to it. She had class, so we ordered our sandwiches to go.

We walked back to campus and she headed off to class. I sat down with Hannah, while she ate a bagel, and I dug into the falafel sandwich. First off, it was more like a wrap, and it wasn't even on pita bread. That made me sad. Then, as I bit into the falafel, it wasn't green. Falafel is supposed to be green. I was really confused. The sandwich wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't the traditional falafel that I was craving. Oh well. I guess I'll have to go find more falafel places.

Very Productive

2011-05-03T01:00:00.003-04:00

The past two days I have spent in front of the computer, writing papers and studying for midterms. I feel like I have accomplished a lot and I am pretty proud of myself. Unfortunately, the second I finish one thing, five more things pop up. I discovered the post-it note application and the whole right side of my desktop is covered in post-it notes with things that I have to get done. I feel like the list will never end. Each time I delete one thing, I have to add more.

Luckily it is week six of the term and it is going by quickly. I still have a lot to do before I graduate, especially a lot for my senior design dinner. Our goal is to have all of our recipes extended and have figure out the cost of all the ingredients by this Thursday. I wish all of my recipes were set, but none of them are. I am combining a whole bunch of recipes and I am not even completely sure they will all work together. I have a lot of thinking to do and all I really want to do is just forget about it. The only problem is, I care too much to not care. Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who could just not give a damn and not feel bad. If I don't care about something enough or try hard enough, it'll eat me up.

I really wish I had an outlet like working out, but I can't right now with the situation of my hip. I have never wanted to work out so badly in my life. I really just wanna go for a long run, sweat my ass off, and be so exhausted that all I care about is taking a shower and going to sleep. I haven't had a good night's sleep in a long time because of my hip and I seriously miss it. I have never had a problem sleeping in my whole life. Now, when all I want to do is sleep and forget about all the stuff I have to do, I can't. How fair is that?

14 Days in Korea = 36 pages on paper

2011-05-01T20:35:00.006-04:00

The required twelve page paper that followed our trip to Korea was due a week ago. Unfortunately, two midterms and a lot of other homework prevented me from finishing it on time. Luckily, Dr. Lee gave me an extension after she realized how much we actually did in Korea and how much all of us had to write about. Long story short, the paper took me around twenty hours and I finally finished it earlier today. When it was complete, and edited, it was a whopping thirty-six pages. Unbelievable. I knew we did a lot in Korea, but I had no clue we did as much as we did until I began writing this paper.

It is such a relief to have it finished. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Unfortunately, I have an additional two papers to write, an essay style midterm, and another test due within the next two days. I cannot wait until the next six weeks are over. This term has been the most stressful and has required the most work. Luckily, this term is my last and I will be graduating in June. It has been a long time coming and I am so excited that I am so close to finishing college. I just wish this term was more enjoyable instead of stressful!!!

Work, Work, Work

2011-04-22T01:15:00.002-04:00

This past week has been absolutely ridiculous. On top of dealing with a bum hip that is causing me a great deal of pain and lack of sleep, I have had two monstrous midterms, a 3-page paper, and a 12-page paper that has turned into a 30-page paper. On top of all these tests and papers was the normal homework amount that has seemed to increased drastically from last term.

Out of this whole list the only thing left is the 12-page, now 30-page, paper. During spring break I went to Korea for two weeks on a school trip to learn about Korean cuisine. The trip was packed full of tons of fun stuff, including cooking classes at universities throughout the country, and was such a great experience. I kept a diary of all the fun stuff we did while we were there, but now we have to write a 12-page paper on the trip. So, sticking with the diary theme, I am in the process of writing this 12-page paper. The only problem is once I started writing, I kept writing. Day #1's activities took up about 2 pages, single-spaced; we were in Korea for 14 days. Do you see my dilemma? I do not mind actually writing the paper because it is reminding me of all the stuff we did and all the memories we have, but I feel like it is never going to end.

Easter is this weekend as well, which means I am cooking for a lot of people. I was hoping to get this book done before this weekend, but it just is not going to happen. The two midterms took up all my time last weekend and I have been at school doing all sorts of ridiculous work that I have not had a chance to get it done. Next item of business, what should I make for Easter???

What a day!!!

2011-04-13T23:59:00.003-04:00

So I should have written this yesterday, but I was having such a day that I feel asleep before I could jot everything down. Let's hope that I remember it all. I started the day snuggling in bed with Adam down south, where the weather was beautiful and sunny. I could not have asked for anything better. Unfortunately, I had to return home because I had class at 6pm. No big deal right? My plane leaves at 1:30 and I'll be back in the city by 3:30 with plenty of time to go back to my apartment and relax before class starts. WRONG!!!!

I arrive at the airport around 12:30. Usually security is pretty quick and I am off to the gate with plenty of time to spare. Well, not yesterday. Apparently every person in line had no clue how to travel and had to go through the scanners multiple times. It was nuts. Anyways, I finally get through security with just enough time to grab a diet coke, go to the bathroom, and board the plane. Boarding went so smooth. Everyone was on the plane within ten minutes and I even got a whole row to myself. It was wonderful. They close the door, the flight attendants do their little speech, the pilot says we will be in the air in ten minutes and off we go. So, we leave the gate and start heading towards the runway. I was doing some reading for my class later that night and did not realize how long it was taking us to get to the runway until after about twenty minutes we came to a dead stop. The pilot then says, "Well ladies and gentleman, we have a problem. The shut a runway down at the Philadelphia airport because of bad weather and they won't let us take off yet. I won't know anything for another twenty minutes or so, but I will do my best to get us in the air as soon as possible."

To make a long story short, we wound up sitting on the tarmac for about three hours. Then, they took us back to the gate to fill out more paperwork and pick up more passengers who were on a later flight that had been canceled. So much for having a whole row to myself. Another hour goes by and finally we leave. I fell asleep on the flight until it became turbulent. Of course! We finally landed five hours late and I rushed to get on the train and back into the city so I could get to class. By the time I arrived at class, I was an hour and a half late and walked in to find I had to take a pop quiz. Of course, this would happen to me wouldn't it? Luckily class only lasted about another hour and a half more and then I walked home, suitcase in hand, in the pouring rain.

By the time I got home I was soaking wet and just wanted to go to bed. Unfortunately, I had an assignment for one of my online classes that I had not done yet and needed to be submitted by midnight. So, I ate some chicken noodle soup that I picked up from Wawa on my walk home, turned on my computer, and finally started working on the assignment. Five minutes later the power goes out. Of course!

At this point I was contemplating just going to sleep and saying screw it to the assignment, but then I remembered that I had a lot of other homework that I needed to get started on so that I was not slammed the rest of this week. Ugh! So, I packed up my computer and notebooks, in the dark, and headed back down to the library to get some work done. I wound up staying there until about 1am and then finally headed home so that I could go to sleep. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful my bed felt last night. What a day!!!

One Year Later

2011-04-10T00:40:00.003-04:00

It has been over a year since I last posted. Wow! Time has flown by. I cannot believe that I have been so busy over the past year that I have not been able to post even once. I think this means that my life has been way too busy. Here is an update:

I will be graduating from college, yes college, in nine weeks. Holy moly! I never thought I would get to this point where I actually have to become a grown-up. I want to be five years old again when the most difficult decision was whether I wanted strawberry or cherry jello. Such big decisions when you are five years old. Nowadays I am worrying about finding a job, paying for rent, utilities, insurance, and food along with all sorts of other stuff. Who knew life can be so stressful and cost so much money?

I just signed a lease today for a brand new and beautiful apartment with my boyfriend. After graduation, I will be moving 500 miles south and cannot wait. I have already started planning where each piece of furniture will go and how we will combine all of our stuff to make a cozy home. The kitchen is wonderful, about 3 times the size of my current kitchen, and I am sure that it will be full within the first week. Both of us have so much kitchen stuff and will most likely be spending the majority of our time in our kitchen. I am so excited!!!

Winter Term is Starting to Get to Me!

2010-03-02T23:02:00.002-05:00

I am in week #9 of winter term and the next 17 days are quite possibly going to kill me. This whole entire term has been full of stupid busy work. Lots and lots of ridiculously easy assignments, but ones that take up way, way too much time. Now I am in the midst of dealing with three group projects. None of them are too hard, but group dynamics are starting to become a problem. People are getting cranky because we all have a ton of stuff to do and no one wants to deal with any of it. No one is following internal deadlines and I am usually the one responsible for putting everything together which puts me in a bind. I hate doing things at the very last minute, but apparently I am the only one in any of my groups that feels this way. I have been trying to please everyone, but I am getting tired of doing it. No one seems to care, so why should I. Am I really the only one who cares about doing well and getting good grades? Because I am really starting to feel this way.

I have been super cranky the past few weeks because of all this drama and I hate feeling this way. I want to enjoy my classes and classmates. I am sick of drama and ridiculousness. I cannot wait until the next 17 days are over and I finally get a break.

Snowmaggedon

2010-02-11T02:07:00.003-05:00

Over twenty eight inches over the weekend and about another foot and a half today. It is white everywhere you look. As I looked out my window earlier, I felt like I was inside a snow globe. The snow we have gotten has been beautiful. The perfect flakes that make the perfect snowballs. None of that powdery stuff here in Philly. The snow was the perfect snowball making snow. Snow men have popped up all over the city and they are larger than I have ever seen.

Sledding down the Art Museum steps has become tradition here in Philly during humongous snow storms. Today was my first experience with this tradition, and let me tell you, it is the most awesome Philly tradition. A few of my friends and I waddled over to the Art Museum, since the snow was up to our knees, and slid down the steps more times that we could count. This followed by attempting to make Drexel's mascot, Mario, but a snow fight ensued instead. All of us got snowballs in the face on one occasion or another. We had a blast.

I was the designated camera person. Luckily for me this meant that I got the privilege of not getting a snowball thrown at me when I had my camera in hand. I got some pretty good footage. It is so much fun acting like a kid again. I do not think I have played in the snow like I did today in the past ten years. It was great :)

Pork Gyoza

2010-01-14T20:31:00.005-05:00

They were another item I discovered at when I went to Trader Joe's the other day. This is one thing I want to learn to make someday. I've actually folded them into their shapes, but I've never actually prepared the meat that goes on the inside. I'm sure it would not be too hard to do, but I just need to find a good recipe for them. Granted I haven't even looked for a recipe yet, but someday I will.

Anyways, while I was strolling through Trader Joe's a few days ago, I found a package of about 30 pork gyoza in a cute little frozen bag. I figured I would try them, especially since they were only three dollars and had no weird preservatives like MSG in them. I finished my shopping and then right as I was about to check out, I forgot that I did not have any soy sauce or anything to dip my little gyoza in. So I wandered back around the store looking for soy sauce and stumbled across a gyoza dipping sauce. It has soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and some other spices in it and looked pretty good, so I figured I would try it. Another plus was that it was only three dollars too.

So, tonight, after spending three hours in class and then another four hours at the library writing a paper, I came home craving the little pork gyoza I bought. I got out a frying pan, added a little vegetable oil, threw some of the gyoza in and let them brown. Then I added a little bit of water, put a lid on the pan, and let them steam for three minutes. (That is what the back of the bag said to do).

I added some of the dipping sauce to my plate and started eating. They were so delicious. I did not actually think that they would be as good as they were, but they were fabulous. The dipping sauce was great too. I am so glad that I picked them up.

Caramelized Onions

2010-01-12T20:35:00.002-05:00

On my walk home from the gym today, I decided that I was going to make a trip to Trader Joe's to buy some pizza dough. The one thing I like about Trader Joe's is that they sell pre-made pizza dough for only 99 cents. All you have to do with it is roll it out, put your favorite toppings on it, and bake it for 6-8 minutes. Delicious!

So, as I was driving to Trader Joe's (normally I would walk, but it was way to cold and windy out), I decided that I wanted to make a caramelized onion pizza. My mouth started to water. I just wanted to get to Trader Joe's, buy the pizza dough, drive home and pop it in the oven. Unfortunately I hit a whole bunch of traffic. Welcome to living in the city. It took me almost twenty minutes to get there and about fifteen to get home. (It is only about 1.5 miles from my apartment).

Anyways, about an hour after getting the idea to make a caramelized onion pizza, I was home and slicing up onions. Caramelized onions are the most amazing things in the world. They are super easy to make and taste delicious. The only this is, they take about 30 minutes to make. I think I was drooling as they were cooking. I could not wait to take a bite of my pizza.

The second the onions were done, I rolled out the pizza dough, covered the dough with the succulent onions, and popped it in the oven. I think I walked circles around my apartment just waiting for the pizza to be done. It smelled so yummy in the oven and I could not wait until it came out.

When it finally was done, I got so excited. I have determined that caramelized onions are one of the best foods ever!!

Day 1 of Winter Term 2010

2010-01-04T23:04:00.004-05:00

First of all, I want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR! I cannot believe that it is already 2010. Where has time gone? I feel like it was just 2000 a few years ago. Time is moving so quickly. I want it to slow down.

For New Year's Eve, Adam, Deb, Bill, and I went to a friends house for a humongous party. There was a ton of great food and lots of people. We wound up playing a poker tournament until almost five o'clock in the morning. Yes, that is right; I said I was playing poker. Deb, Bill, and Adam forced me. Surprisingly I wound up placing third. I have no idea how that happened.

Anyways, Adam and I saw the sunrise on New Year's day. It was really pretty. But once we saw it, we both realized that it was time to go to sleep. I have not stayed up that late in forever and my sleep schedule is completely off. Now that it is the first week of classes, I need to get back into some sort of routine.

Granted, none of my classes start before noon and they do not run past five o'clock any day. I have the easiest class schedule this term, but that is because I have two online classes. And even though I only have a few hours of class each day, I HAVE NO CULINARY CLASSES. I am not happy about this. I do not understand how our curriculum is formatted so that we have a nine month break from culinary classes (six months of co-op). Not cool!!!

I would much rather have five culinary classes than five hospitality classes. It is so weird to have to sit in a little desk for one to three hour periods. I would much rather stand on my feet for five hours than have a two or three hour regular class. Plus, I feel like regular classes have so much more busy work to fill up the time. I just want to learn what I need to know and then be done. I do not know if I would have been able to survive four years of college if I was a normal major, like business or something. I would be so bored!!

Well, all I can hope for is that this term goes better than last term. So far, after one day of classes, I already have seven chapters of reading for next week. I guess I am going to have at least one book permanently attached to my head at all times. What fun!!

It's Starting to Feel a lot Like Christmas

2009-12-06T00:41:00.003-05:00

Around 4 o'clock this afternoon I looked out my window and guess what I saw? SNOWFLAKES. Lots and lots of snowflakes. I felt like I was in a snow globe. It was so pretty. It finally hit me today that Christmas is fast approaching. It is only twenty days away and I still have a ton of shopping to do. However, I'm trying to put off thinking about the excitement of Christmas shopping until I finish my final paper for my online class and take my butchery final Tuesday morning.

It is so hard to not think about it though. Every year during the holidays I come up with all of these creative ideas for gifts and I want to spend hours and hours working on them. Unfortunately there is a thing called finals that gets in the way of spending hours and hours of fun. Instead I am spending hours and hours in front of my computer writing my final paper and then many more hours studying for my butchery final. Please remind me again why I am having a written final for my butchery class? Yea, I cannot figure it out either.

Anyways, as I was staring out the window earlier today, watching the snowflakes fall, I began feeling an overwhelming craving for gingerbread cookies. So what do I do, well, I bundle up and walk to the supermarket to go buy ground ginger. (It was the only thing I needed.) I head straight to the baking aisle and go right to the spices. I look and look and look and I finally found the ground ginger section of the spice rack, and guess what? No ginger. They were completely sold out of it. I was so bummed. I guess everyone else had the same craving as I did and bought all of it before I got there.

Oh well, so instead of making gingerbread cookies, I came home and starting gathering information for my final paper. It was probably the smarter thing to do, but making gingerbread cookies just sounded so much better!

So Tired of Writing

2009-12-02T23:42:00.003-05:00

I think my computer has been running non-stop for the past few weeks. All I have been doing is writing papers. Every single day I come home from class, turn on my computer, check my e-mails and Facebook, and then proceed to open a Word document to write a paper. Between my online culture and gastronomy class and my entrepreneurship class, this whole term has been spent writing papers. I'm so sick of writing.

And the worst part is that I have to take the second section of culture and gastronomy next term, meaning another ten weeks of weekly papers on topics like salt, saffron, and couscous. I just submitted my salt paper a few hours ago and now I am on to my last and final paper of culture and gastronomy part one. This will be my last paper of this term. Another 1500 words and I am free for three weeks. I cannot wait until I hit the submit button.

Turkey Day is Fast Approaching

2009-11-23T00:36:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that it is already Thanksgiving. This year has been flying by. The good thing about how quickly this year is going, is how quickly this term is coming to a close. Technically I only have 6 more days of class. Monday and Tuesday this week and then Monday through Thursday next week.

Of course these last few days cannot be easy though. Tomorrow I have a test in my French cuisine class. He usually gives us easy tests, but they cover all of the material from the whole entire term, so I have been working on studying all of that. I also have a paper due by Tuesday night at nine, but I'm trying to get it done by tomorrow night because I am leaving for North Carolina Tuesday night and will not be able to submit it by the due time if I do not get it done by tomorrow night.

After those two things are done, at least for this week, I can enjoy my five day break and Turkey Day. I'm so looking forward to it. Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays and I get to spend it with Adam and his family which makes it even better.

His mom and I are already planning everything that we are going to make and the list keeps growing. As of right now we are making a trifle, pumpkin pie, cornbread, mashed potatoes and of course the big bird. Others are bringing side dishes, but I am sure that we will acquire more things to make by the time I actually get to North Carolina.

It will be so nice to relax for a few days, even with all the cooking I will be doing. Just getting away from the city and not having to think about school will be awesome. Only 48 hours to go!!

A Little Taste of Italy

2009-11-03T22:28:00.005-05:00

Today I was head chef in my lunch class. I created an Italian menu with the title of "A Little Taste of Italy". Here is the menu:

Spinach & Fennel Salad

with orange slices and black olives

tossed in an orange olive oil dressing

Homemade Cannelloni

grilled eggplant and ricotta filling

with sauteed broccoli rabe

Italian Cream Cake

with blood orange cream anglaise

Time was tight, but somehow we got everything out on time. SEPTA went on strike at three in the morning, so none of my back of the house staff arrived at school until 9:30am. Note that class starts at 8:30am. I was the only one there at 8:30am. So for the first hour, I started rolling out and cutting pasta into five inch squares for the cannelloni. One hundred and twenty squares later the rest of my staff showed up. By eleven the cannelloni still were not in the oven and I was getting worried. However, somehow between eleven and twelve absolutely everything got finished. I do not know how it happened, but it does not matter. All that matters is that everything got done. We even got to clean up a bit before we plated the appetizer.

Service went really well. My chef instructor trusted me enough to leave the kitchen and go sit down to lunch. Plating all the food went amazingly smoothly. All of my back of the house staff listened to me and did everything I asked. It was a quiet and peaceful kitchen and I absolutely loved it.

Everyone seemed to love the food as well. I know everyone in my class was fighting over the leftovers at the end of service. We had absolutely no food left over and it was great for clean up.

Overall I was super happy with how everything went today. Only thing I wish I had a chance to do was take pictures of the plates. Oh well, maybe next time. I think I am going to have to recreate the whole meal for my family and friends who could not make it to the lunch. Maybe I will have them help me!!

Welcome to November

2009-11-01T23:17:00.003-05:00

I cannot believe that it is November already. Where has the time gone? I feel like it was just my birthday yesterday and it was already month ago. Time is just flying by.

This past month I have been super busy with school. Every one of my classes has been hitting me really hard with homework. I'm pretty sure that I wrote five papers last week and studied for three tests. It was absolutely ridiculous. I am so happy that I survived last week. Granted I did break down and cry a few times, but somehow I made it through.

This week, along with my lunch, I have another test and paper due. Tomorrow I will be spending about thirteen hours at school. I have to get there at nine, when the chefs get there to open up all the kitchens, so that I can make four, three layer cakes. The cakes have to be out of the oven not later than noon because at noon I have my French class. Class goes until five and then I have to do a base icing coat on the cakes and make about ten pounds of homemade pasta dough for my cannelloni. And sometime during my day I need to make sure that all of my food for the rest of the dishes for lunch is actually in the building.

I am trying to prepare myself for the long day tomorrow, but as of right now I am not thinking about it. I really should be studying a bit more for my test tomorrow, but I am just so not in the mood. I am also hoping that I do not forget to do anything tomorrow. That would not be good.

Game four of the World Series is on right now and that is about all I can pay attention to right now. Why are sports so addicting???

GO PHILLIES!!!!

A Rainy Day is a Great Day for Brownies

2009-10-15T15:17:00.003-04:00

I woke up this morning to the pitter patter of rain drops hitting my air conditioning units. At first I liked the sound and the fact that my room was still dark. But then, after about a minute, the pitter patter of the rain started to annoy me. There is just something about rain hitting aluminum constantly that gets annoying.

I walked out to the living room and everything was dark. This is how it has been all day. The rain drops have been hitting my air conditioner for hours and I have finally started to get used to the annoying noise. I turned the television up a bit louder, made some brownies, and even did dishes to occupy myself so that I would not go nuts.

The brownies just came out of the oven and smell delicious. I made the Baker's One Bowl Brownie Recipe. It is the one I always make because it is so simple and I always seem to have the ingredients around. It is fool-proof too. I have added all sorts of random ingredients to the batter and the brownies always come out delicious.

Of course, I could have been doing homework, but I think that that would have driven me even more nuts. I have about 100 pages of reading to do for next week and with a four hour class tonight, I was not in the mood to have a headache all day.

The smell of the brownies is pulling me away from the computer and closer to a knife to cut them. Off to get my chocolate fix!

Ah...It's October

2009-10-05T21:08:00.005-04:00

So I am officially no longer a teenager. Oh well. It has taken me a few days, but I have finally gotten used to it. Now I am realizing that it is actually October. Oh my gosh. I feel like it was the new year just a few months ago. Why is time flying by so quickly?

This past week the weather has decided to become cooler and windier. I have realized that I need to start wearing a light jacket or sweatshirt on my walk to class. No more cute sundresses and flip flops. I wore flip flops the other day and by the time I got to campus, my feet were freezing.

I guess the good thing about the weather cooling down is that the kitchens are not as hot as they were during summer term. Soon I will be cold in the kitchen which is something I will definitely appreciate after surviving the summer term and the one hundred degree weather in the kitchens.

School is school. Lots and lots of homework. I feel like after every class I have to come home and do homework. I think every chef/professor this term is out to get all of us. I should actually be posting something on the discussion board for my online class right now, but instead I am writing this. I am hoping that this will get me in the mood to post something, but it probably won't.

Is it Thanksgiving break yet??

My Last Day as a Teenager :(

2009-09-30T13:23:00.003-04:00

I do not know how I feel about this. I have enjoyed being a teenager for the past seven years and I am not sure if I am ready to give that up yet. It just feels weird. I cannot believe that tomorrow I will be twenty years old.

And what will I be doing for my birthday tomorrow? Well, probably not much. I have my lovely entrepreneurship class from 6-10 tomorrow night and then I will be heading home. I guess I can cuddle with my puppies once I get home. That will be fun. I am hoping one of them will sleep with me. Last time I was home R.P. did not sleep with me and it made me sad. Granted I did not have to worry about getting bit in the middle of the night. Sometimes he gets cranky if I move and attacks my legs. He is a crazy dog.

Anyways, I will be spending my Saturday night with a bunch of my girlfriends eating sweets and chilling out in our pajamas. I love pajama parties. You do not have to worry about how your hair looks or what your wearing cause you are all wear pajamas. How awesome!!!

Work, Work, Work, Work, Work

2009-09-26T18:16:00.002-04:00

All I have to say is that the next 10 weeks of my life are going to be a pain in the rear end. Every waking moment I will either be in class or doing homework. I am taking five classes, 16 credits, this term which is pretty usual for me. This term is just ridiculous though. Every class I have requires so much outside work.

I sat down yesterday and went through all of my syllabuses so that I could organize my planner. Here is a picture of it. Every little round sticker you see is either a test or paper or assignment due. I am not going to have a life for the next two months. I already can't wait until Christmas break and it is only week two of classes!

And then there are the papers. One of my classes is online and is called Culture and Gastronomy. It is a very intensive writing class about the history and culture of food. It requires a lot of reading and a one thousand word paper every week. Luckily the information for the papers are posted on Fridays and not due until Tuesdays, which gives me the whole weekend, but that means I am going to be spending a lot of my weekends reading and writing papers on top of all of the other homework I have to do.

The first paper for this class is due this Tuesday. I have to "make a case for cooking not fire as a 'revolution' in the progress towards civilization." I actually feel like I could write a lot about this. I just need to sit down with all the books and articles we had to read and go over them making sure that I use as much information as possible from these resources. I think that this is what Chef Bottone really wants. He wants to see that we read what we needed to and used the reading to guide our response papers. I think I am going to spend a few hours tonight getting all my thoughts together and actually writing them down on paper.

I think my dilemma for all of the papers that I will have to write this term is how to begin. I always feel like I need a good opening to my papers and sometimes it can take me a while to find the right words. I wish that I could write my academic papers like I write my blogs. For my blogs I just start writing. I don't really think about it, I just let my thoughts flow. Obviously for academic papers you have to be more careful about grammatical errors and all of that stuff, but I think I need to just start our writing my academic papers like I write my blogs. Maybe it will help all my ideas come out of my brain a little easier, and quicker.

And Classes Begin Once Again

2009-09-21T21:28:00.002-04:00

Well, fall term started today. I know some people are probably thinking it is September 21st, why on earth am I starting my fall classes today. Well, that is how Drexel's schedule works. Gotta love being on the quarter system.

Anyways, even though it is already September 21st, I still feel like I should have more time before I have to go back to school. I had a full three weeks off, that was absolutely wonderful, and I should be ready to come back to school, but I am not.

I think it is because there has been so much confusion with the schedule of my classes and the instructors. Up until last Thursday, we had no idea who was teaching which classes and when the were definitely going to be. And then there were the last minute e-mails telling us what books we needed to order and that we needed to have them the first week of class. Not cool. Sometimes you just can't get books in three days. Well unless you want to spend millions of dollars and I definitely do not.

And for the first time in my college career, I am taking an online class. I have had classes where most of the work was submitted via the Internet or we had to post on discussion boards, but I have never had a true online class. One where there is not a scheduled class time and if for some reason you need to contact the instructor, the only way to do it is through e-mail. That kind of scares me. I like being able to go to school and talk to a professor face to face if I have a problem. Oh well. I guess it is just something I will have to get used to.

Anyways, my first day of classes went well. I really cannot complain, except for the fact that I wish I was still on vacation!!!

The Rest of the Week at the Beach

2009-09-17T13:11:00.006-04:00

Luckily the weather cooperated for the second half of the week. Wednesday it was still a bit cloudy, but sunny. All of us ran straight out to the beach and stayed out there for hours. Well, except for Adam. He decided to walk to the lighthouse he could see in the distance. Two hours later he stumbles back and says that after an hour of walking the lighthouse did not look any closer. I think he was trying to walk to the lighthouse on a different island. Oops.

And of course we all got a bit burnt since why would any of us think to put sunscreen on when it is cloudy out. Bad idea. Adam looked like a lobster and I was constantly covering my whole body in aloe.

Thursday it rained again, but I think after all the sun we got on Wednesday, we were fine with staying in the house all day. The guys played many games of Tiger Woods on the Xbox and I sat there and watched them, all day long.

Friday was beautiful. Adam and I took a long walk in the sand and then spent the rest of the day fishing for blue crabs at the nearby Whalehead Club. We caught a lot of crabs, but most of them were not big enough so we had to put them back in the water. The rule at the club was that the crabs had to be at least five inches wide if we were to keep them. At the end of the day we wound up with eight blue crabs in our styrofoam cooler. We decided that it would be too much work to cook just eight of them, so we just put them back in the water for the next person to catch.

Saturday was nice too. We spent the majority of the day at the beach, spraying sunscreen on almost every half an hour. We even played some football for a bit. I am officially horrible at football. Later that night we went out to a seafood buffet and ate a million crab legs. The place we went to had nine or ten different types of crab legs. I did not even know that that many existed.

Sunday was check out day, so we all got up early and cleaned out the whole house, mainly the kitchen. We left the house by ten and all went our separate ways. Adam and I stopped at Wings and then went to Jockey's Ridge to go play in the sand. It was so beautiful. Then we drove home, stopping at Pizza Inn along the way; another place I had never been to before. It was yummy, especially the pizzerts!!!!

Day 1 of the Beach Trip

2009-09-07T21:24:00.006-04:00

I got the pleasure of waking up to the sound of rain drops this morning. If I was anywhere other than the beach I would be completely fine with it. Unfortunately, we are at the beach in a beautiful beach house with a direct pathway onto the sand and it is raining. Boohoo!

So instead of bathing in the sun all day, all eleven of us spent the day in our pajamas playing games on the Wii and the Xbox. We would have jumped into the hot tub, but it isn't working. Last night we turned it on and jumped in to find that it was more like a "warm" tub. None of the buttons worked and it was not very hot. And when we went to turn it on today, it did not turn on at all. Oops. We called the pool guy and hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.

Deb and I jumped in the pool for a few minutes this afternoon with Ladybug. It was cold and I'm not sure how much she liked being thrown in the water. We did find a crab chilling out near the steps. He looked like he had been bleached which was probably from all of the chlorine in the pool. Adam took him back out to the ocean so he could swim free.

Adam and I took a walk on the beach a bit later, looking for sand dollars. They are so pretty. Unfortunately, we did not find any as of yet, but we are on a mission to find one.

Then Deb and I made dinner which was a yummy stir fry with chicken, broccoli, red bell peppers, onions, bean sprouts, and water chestnuts. And then we had hot fudge brownie sundaes for dessert. What could be better than that?

Vacation Time

2009-09-06T02:12:00.003-04:00

I'm finally on my summer break. Yay!!!!

I know this is kind of deceiving because most people have already started back to school or are about to start in a few days. Technically I was supposed to have final exams up until yesterday for my summer term, but luckily I only had take-home finals and was done a week early.

I was very excited that I had three weeks off in between summer and fall terms. I even threw a dessert party for all of my fellow culinary and hospitality students at my apartment last Thursday night. I made more than seven different mini desserts and everyone had a blast. Unfortunately I had to send everyone home around midnight because I had a practical the next morning. Next time I'll make sure I will have a party on a Friday or Saturday night.

Anyways, about 7:30 the night of my party, I got a call from the security guard in my building telling me that I had a piece of certified mail that I needed to come down and sign for. As I got in the elevator to go downstairs, I was thinking to myself why on earth would I be getting a piece of "certified mail" at 7:30 at night. So, I finally get out of the elevator and Adam is standing there with a suitcase. I freaked out. I was so happy to see him that I was shaking. He drove all the way up from NC to surprise me and meet all of my friends. I was super excited.

We played Rock Band all weekend and drove back down to NC on Tuesday. I was so glad that I had someone to drive with. It is a long drive and it can get boring when you are all by yourself. We even stopped for Arby's on the way down. It was yummy.

Wednesday we relaxed and watched I Love You Man. It was a good movie. Then Thursday we went to N.C. State's opening football game. It was the first football game I had ever been to and it was a lot of fun. We spent most of the day tailgating with Adam, his roommate Beth, and a bunch of their friends, and then watched the game at night. Unfortunately State lost, but it was still fun. I was amazed at how many people were there. I think Adam said around 60,000 people were in the stadium.

Then Friday morning we drove to Adam's parents' house and spent the past two days moving furniture around so they could get their hardwood floors refinished. Moving a green couch up the stairs was the highlight of the night. It took four of us to get it upstairs and we even had to take the door off so we could squeeze it through the door.

We are off to the beach tomorrow for the week to relax. I can't wait.

Ah, It's Finally Week #10

2009-08-22T01:52:00.005-04:00

The past few weeks have felt like they have been months. Summer term was going by so quickly until it hit week seven. Then it came to a crashing halt. Finally it is week ten and I am almost done with my summer classes, all five of them. Luckily all of the work has been evenly spread out this term, which has been really nice. Normally everything hits you all at once. I feel like all of my professors and chefs get together and figure out when they are going to make everything due. And of course they have to make sure that all the assignments and projects are due in the same week.

Anyways, I am so glad that this term is coming to a close. I really enjoyed all of my classes, but I am ready to move on. Unfortunately ending this term also means that summer is coming to a close which is something that I am not looking forward to. I love the warm weather and it not getting dark until nine o'clock at night. I have noticed the past few days that it has been getting dark around eight. Oh well, I guess I should start gearing up for the cold weather again.

One thing I will not miss about the heat though is how hot the kitchens at school got. I do not think I have ever sweat as much in life as I have in the kitchens the summer. Everyone has. Some days I'll be in the kitchens and then walk outside, and even when it has been in the nineties, outside is cooler. It is crazy. The air conditioning went down for a few days. And of course that happened when it was the hottest out. I guess now I can look forward to kitchens that are a normal temperature.

Anyways, I just spent the past two or so hours working on my take home final exam for my vegetarian class. That is now out of the way. All I have to do is print it and hand it in. In the next week I still have two more practicals, two more take home finals, and a final version of a business plan. I guess it is not that much more. Break is only a week away. I can make it!

Computers Computers Computers

2009-08-17T02:20:00.003-04:00

Why do they have to be so difficult? Why can't they just turn on and do what you tell them to do? I seriously wanted to throw my computer against a wall tonight.

Yesterday I spent almost three hours importing all of my songs from my old computer into iTunes. I had everything organized the way I wanted it. I even gave iTunes the pleasure of being my default music program.

So today, I go to open iTunes to find that it was completely empty. Apparently the iTunes on my computer did not want to keep the three thousand songs I had imported yesterday in its program. How lovely.

Stupid computers.

Anyways, I figured I would restart my computer and see if it would help. Well, all that did was aggravate me more. Not only did my computer decided to take its sweet old time shutting down, but once it finally restarted itself, it took more than ten minutes to load.

At this point I was ready to throw it out the window. Then, once it finally did whatever background stuff it decided it needed to do, I tried to get on the internet. That pissed me off the most. Not only did it take another five minutes to open the browser, but once it finally did, it froze.

I was seriously thinking about throwing it against the wall. Not like that would have done anything, but it would have made me feel a little better.

Argh. Stupid computers!!!

Bad Polenta, Bad Bad Polenta

2009-08-13T22:08:00.004-04:00

So for class today, my partner and I had the pleasure of making empanadas, a date and honey tart, and something with polenta.

We decided that we were going to start with the polenta because it takes over an hour to cook. First off we had to boil water in a double boiler. This is where the problems started. Do you know how long it takes to boil water in a double boiler?? Well, let me tell you. It takes almost an hour. Argh!!!

During this time I made the dough and filling for the empanadas, as well as started rolling out the dough with a pasta machine. It is amazing what you can do in the time it takes to boil water.

So finally, once the water began to boil, we had to add the cornmeal, and some salt, into the boil water and stir it for about five minutes. Well, about three minutes into stirring the cornmeal and water, a little piece of polenta decided that he did not want to hang around with his fellow polenta friends. Little polenta wanted to jump out of the pot and come play on my forearm. I did not want polenta to jump out of the pot. I wanted him to stay in the pot with the rest of his friends. So, yea. Polenta did not listen to me and I now have a dime sized burn mark on my forearm. I am very upset with polenta. Polenta should have listened to me. He should have stayed in the pot with the rest of his friends. He would have been a lot happier.

Oh well. No we know that polenta is not obedient. Shame on you polenta.

Julie & Julia

2009-08-09T21:04:00.012-04:00

It is amazing how rainy days are awesome movie days. With all my laundry done and nothing else to do today, my mom and I decided it was a great day to go to the movies. Julie & Julia just came this weekend and we were both dying to see it. The previews looked so good.

But before we got to the movie theatre, my mom and I obviously had to do some puttering. Since that is what we do when we are together. We strolled through Chico's because she wanted to see if anything was on sale. That store is so expensive. Even the clothes on sale were still super expensive. So we did not buy anything there. Next door, and the next store we puttered in was Ann Taylor Loft. My sister introduced me to this store and every time I go I keep accumulating clothing from there. I like their stuff, but I wait for everything to go on sale because once again, their clothes can be kind of expensive.

Anyways, after some puttering in there, we found a very cute black sweater. I saw it when we first walked in, and then right before we left, I went back to it. Something about it was calling my name. So, I tried it on and it looked really cute. What made it even better was that it was only nine dollars. So we go to pay for it, and apparently today they were taking an additional thirty percent off everything. How awesome is that? So our total came to $6.92. I think that is pretty good for a sweater from Ann Taylor Loft.

So, after we spent a whopping $6.92, we decided to go to the movie theatre. It is amazing how much tickets cost these days. For two adult tickets it cost $21. And the best part is, no one ever checked for tickets, so we probably could have just walked in and watched the movie for free.

We finally get into the theatre, sit down, and notice that there is no sound. My mom loved it because she thinks that the commercials are too loud and hurt her ears. About two or three minutes later, one of the employees comes in and tells us that they were having trouble with their internet connection and that there would be no sound for the commercials. My mom loved it.

Anyways, the movie finally starts, with sound, and it was hilarious. We were all cracking up. Especially when Julia (Meryl Streep) took some cannelloni out of a pot of boiling water said something along the lines of "this is as hot as a hard cock!!" I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to fall out of my seat.

During the movie, Julie's goal was to go through Julia Child's cookbook from beginning to end and make every recipe, all 524 of them. She gave herself a deadline of one year to finish all of them and she was going to write a blog about it too.

One of the recipes she made required live lobsters. She wasn't too thrilled about killing them. It was either put them in a pot of boiling water or stick a knife behind their head. Julie opted for the boiling water. However, she got them in the pot, put the lid on and two seconds later the lid flies off and she runs screaming into the other room. Sounds like something my mom would do. It was so funny.

And then the last recipe she made required her to debone a duck. She was not too thrilled about it. However, she found it to be pretty easy. Of course she watched Julia Child's video of her deboning a duck, while Julie sat at her coffee table and did the same. I never thought I would ever debone a duck in my living room on my coffee table. Oh well, I guess there is a first for everything. Maybe I will try it some day.

I thought what Julie did was a great idea. I would love to take a cookbook and make every recipe in it. I think I would be completely sick of food by the time I finished, but I think it is an awesome idea. Maybe one day, when I have enough money to buy all the ingredients for every recipe in a cookbook and enough time, I'll take a stab at it.

After the movie, my mom and I grabbed some dinner at Bertucci's. We wound up getting salads, meatballs, and some tuscan grilled vegetables. They were so yummy. What a great way to spend a rainy day.

What am I still doing up???

2009-08-03T02:23:00.004-04:00

It is getting close to three o'clock in the morning on a Sunday night. What on earth am I doing still doing up? I have done all of my homework for the next week, searched facebook high and low for who knows what, done all of my laundry, and have finished the bowl of grapes I took from the fridge almost an hour ago. This is crazy.

And the funniest part is I have nothing to write about. I am in the mood to write, but I feel like I am having a writers block. How weird is that? Maybe it is because I'm still awake at this crazy hour. Luckily I don't have any classes tomorrow, but still, why am I awake?

Granted I slept for about ten hours last night and haven't really done a whole lot today besides drive home and do laundry. Maybe that is why I am not tired. I guess I should have gone for a long walk sometime today. That usually tires me out.

On days I don't have class, when I sleep a little bit later that I should have, I will go walk around the city for hours, just to tire myself out. Isn't that crazy? I think I need to find something to do with all of my spare time.

Anyways, I probably should go to sleep soon because I have to go to the DMV tomorrow to get my license renewed. That should be a ton of fun. I guess I should bring something to do while I wait in line. Maybe a picture puzzle book or something. I feel like no matter when you go to the DMV there is always a line out the door. I guess the downturn in the economy has not hurt their business.

Time is Flying By

2009-07-21T21:38:00.002-04:00

Where has it all gone? I feel like I just started summer term a week ago and now it is already halfway through week five. I'm excited that school is flying by pretty quickly, but then I realize that that means that summer is flying by too.

I had all these high hopes for things I was going to do this summer, like getting my butt to the beach on the weekends. So far that has not happened once since I've started back at school. Adam and I went to the beach in North Carolina when I was on break, but every weekend since then I've been busy doing I don't know what.

School has been enjoyable this term. Not too much homework, actually not very much at all. All my classes are fun too. Italian, Mediterranean, and Vegetarian are all lots of fun. I get to see a lot of my friends which makes the classes go by super quick. I have also gotten a chance to make a lot of things I have never made before. I got to make gnocchi with a Sicilian pesto sauce the other day in Vegetarian. I also got to make some halvah in Mediterranean too. I love halvah. Most of my other classmates hate it though. I guess it must be an acquired taste.

This past weekend I flew down to North Carolina to spend the weekend with Adam. I landed Friday around five. Adam says I'm not allowed to take that flight ever again, because we sat in traffic for almost an hour on the way home. Sorry babe. Later that night we went bowling with Deb, Bill, Degaulle, and Darrell. It was fun. I still did not score over 100 points, but I was pretty close. I think my highest game was a 97. I'm working on it.

We had planned to go to the beach, just for the day, on Saturday, but after staying out until almost two on Friday, we decided to sleep in. We chilled out the rest of the day and just relaxed.

Sunday we went over to Deb and Bill's for dinner. Deb and I made chicken parmigiana with garlic bread and broccoli for dinner and a berry trifle for dessert. Adam was not to happy about sharing the trifle. Next time I will have to make two, one for him and one for everyone else.

I flew home Monday night and now I'm back to my regular schedule for the week. Class, class, class, class, class. What a fun summer!!!!!

A Day With Celia

2009-06-29T00:21:00.005-04:00

Today was a fun day. I got to spend a few hours with eight month old Celia. She is absolutely adorable and such a sweet baby. My mom and I went over to visit early this afternoon.

And of course we brought some goodies. I made a chocolate wacky cake last night and my mom made her wing-it icing this morning. Wacky cake is one of my favorite things to make. It takes hardly any time to prepare and always comes out wonderful. And the best part is that it is low calorie, until of course my mom makes her wing-it icing, which is yummy too.

I also made some spaghetti sauce with ground beef in it for another one of my mom's friends who just had twins. But I made a double batch so we brought some over for Caroline and Celia.

Anyways, Celia and I sat on the floor with her caterpillar train and piano and played for a bit, while my mom and Caroline were drinking coffee and eating wacky cake. This was of course after she stuck her hand in the cake. Her reaction was really funny. She touched it and then started to cry because she didn't know what it was. She is so adorable.

Then a little later we went for a walk. I got to push her in the stroller. She loves being outside. And after about five minutes she fell asleep. We walked for about a half an hour and the second we got back to Caroline's house she woke up. I guess she knew she was home.

And the Summer Begins

2009-06-25T22:55:00.003-04:00

I finally finished my Spring term about 2 weeks ago. Finals went well and I was very happy with all of my grades. Getting a week off was just what I needed. The ten weeks of Spring term seemed like they lasted forever.

Adam flew up the day after his birthday and we celebrated with Chinese food and a berry trifle that night. I know, an interesting combination, but both are so yummy we just had to have them.

We went to Auxi and CG's wedding the next night and partied until almost two in the morning. It was a fun night.

Then on Sunday we went to the Phillies game with my two dads. We had great seats, three rows behind first base, right behind the Phillies dugout. It was fun, especially the eating cheesesteaks part. Good thing there were a lot of clouds that day, otherwise we all would have been roasting even more than we already were.

Monday afternoon we flew back down south and that night we went to Babineaus for a friends goodbye party. And then the rest of the week, we hung around Raleigh and just relaxed.

Friday morning, we got up really early and drove to the beach. It was beautiful. We spent the next three days walking up and down the beach, playing in the ocean, going on boat rides, and eating some yummy food Adam's mom made.

Sunday night I flew back home and Tuesday I started classes again. I just love taking classes in the summer. Although, I guess if I didn't have any classes I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I guess I always have to be doing something.

A Weekend Without Homework

2009-05-26T22:11:00.006-04:00

Friday at 10:45am marked the end of my week. I jumped on the train to the airport and hopped on a plane to North Carolina. I spent some time writing notes while I was waiting for my flight and for about 20 minutes on the flight. Then I stopped. I put my five-subject, purple binder in my bag and did not touch it all weekend. It felt awesome.

Adam picked me up from the airport, gave me a hug and a kiss, and I instantly felt relaxed. I did not think about going into the freezer and screaming once this weekend. It was nice.

On our way back to his place, we made a quick stop at Neomonde to say hi to Degaulle and pick up some hummus and pita bread. Mmmmmm, yummy. I think I could eat hummus and falafel every day.

After our quick stop, we went back to Adam's place and just relaxed. We watched tv, ate some hummus, and spent some time cuddling together.

Later that night we went over to Babs and saw my sister, brother in-law, and some other friends. We wound up playing cribbage and having a hilarious time until about 2am.

Saturday we slept in and the drove to Adam's family's house, about two hours away. His mom had made some yummy brownies for us. One batch was oatmeal butterscotch and the other was a triple chocolate. Adam claimed the oatmeal ones and I claimed the chocolate ones.

We wound up playing Super Jeopardy with his brother and sister until really late. I don't even remember what time we went to sleep. All I know is that we got all the way up to the final round and then Adam hit a wrong button and we had to start from the beginning again.

Sunday was Kelley and Jason's wedding. We went with Adam's roommate, Beth, and two of his friends from high school, Lauren and Megan. We had a good time. The ceremony was in a cute little chapel and the reception was very pretty. We danced the night away and had a good time.

Monday we slept in and played Dance Dance Revolution for hours. It was beautiful outside, but for some reason we decided to stay in a play video games. Oh well.

Today I flew home and the homework began once again. I don't think it will ever end.

Planting Flowers with Mom!!!

2009-05-17T23:49:00.003-04:00

On Saturday my mom and I bought $88 dollars worth of beautiful flowers and decided to fill the whole front yard with them. As we were leaving the house my dad insisted that we buy marigolds, of course. But we could not just buy marigolds. How boring would that be? So we bought a few marigolds and lots and lots of other flowers. We stuck with red, orange, and yellow flowers and I have no idea what
types of other annuals we bought. We bought whatever looked pretty.

We started digging holes all over the front yard. It looked like deer had trampled on all the dirt. There were tons of worms, at least 3 per hole I dug. Then we discovered some weird looking spiders with white egg thingys coming out of their butts. We weren't sure if we should help them pull the white things off or just leave them alone.

Anyways, we scattered all the flowers throughout the yard, alternating colors as we went. Each individual flower has its own name thanks to my mom. Bartholomew, Henry, and George were some of her favorites. She had a conversation with every plant she put in the ground. I wonder if she is going to go out every day and continue on with her conversations with them.

Then she decided to plant some sunflower seeds on one side of the house. And when I say some, I really mean like 10-12. They are the sunflowers that are supposed to be 12 feet tall too. Should be interesting.

I can't wait to see all of them in a few weeks when they start to grow and fill in. The front yard should look really pretty, especially if my mom keeps talking to all of them!!!

It's Been A While

2009-05-12T13:17:00.002-04:00

I've been so busy with school lately that I haven't had a chance to relax. Most of my days have been spent on the 6th floor of the Academic Building. Last week I spent a lot of time in the walk-in freezer searching for food that I could create a lunch from.

My Thursday class, A La Carte, requires that we create a lunch for 40+ people with only food that we have in house. The challenge is that we are not allowed to order anything. Hence my spending lots of time in the walk-in freezer.

The theme was Mother's Day. Originally we had wanted to go with a flower theme, having edible flowers in every dish. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Edible flowers were not in season yet so we had to totally revamp the menu. I think it still turned out pretty well. All of our guests seemed to enjoy our food, especially my carrot cake, which had little carrots piped on top. Which of course was just another excuse to make orange and green icing.

Happy Birthday Hershey!!!!

2009-04-24T15:46:00.003-04:00

Today is the 102nd birthday of Hershey Park. And for this special day, my friend Devon created this amazing three course lunch which chocolate in every course. Everything was delicious. One of the best lunches I've had at the Academic Bistro.

The first course was a chocolate chicken satay. A rectangular plate was brought out with two skewers of grilled chicken that had been dusted with cocoa and other spices, and was served with a Reese's peanut dipping sauce. Yummy! The chicken was cooked perfectly. It just fell of the skewer when you put your fork in it. And the sauce complemented it wonderfully.

The second course was a zesty flank steak salad. I thought it was a wise choice for a lunch and was refreshing, since it was warm outside. The flank steak was dusted with cocoa powder before cooked and the flavors were great. The salad of mixed greens and corn had a delicious tomato chocolate basil vinaigrette which I thought made the dish even yummier.

And for dessert, a Heath bar chocolate caramel tart. How yummy does that sound? I was helping her make them the other day and I couldn't stop eating all the scraps. She made a chocolate tart and then topped it with caramel, chocolate ganache, and crushed Heath bars. It was a great ending to a great meal. Milk was also served in cute little glasses that had been rimmed with cocoa powder. So cute :)

Good job Devon!!!!

It's Finally 70 and Sunny!!

2009-04-17T13:51:00.003-04:00

I feel like its been rainy for the past month. There weren't many pretty days in March or the beginning of April. Today its 70 and beautiful. Walking back and forth to school was lovely. Even on my second trip.

I had class this morning from 9-10. Then I had to run home and take an online exam, that was only open for a short amount of time, ah. On my way back, Devon called me and asked if I could pick her up 15 bananas. Apparently there bananas for the bananas foster went missing and lunch was being served at noon. So I went home, took my exam, which only took about 30 minutes, and then ran to the grocery store to pick up bananas. I think the lady at the checkout thought I was nuts. Oh well.

So with the 15 bananas, I walked back to school. Got there just in time. They were cutting up the few bananas they had found. The things we do for school!!

Anyways, walking all over the place was really nice. I love being outside when its 70 and sunny. I hope this warm weather stays!!

Six Cheesecakes and a Carrot Cake

2009-04-09T21:38:00.008-04:00

Two goat cheese cheesecakes, three Oreo cheesecakes, one regular one, and a carrot cake all in one week. I'm officially naming this week the cheesecake week. The goat cheese ones were for class today. I made them on Tuesday though. I wasn't a fan of making these. The goat cheese had been sitting in the fridge for a few too many weeks and there was no cream cheese mixed with it, so it was really 'barnyardy' as Chef B said. I think three people ordered it and I'm pretty sure that two of them came back because people didn't like them. I knew that, but the chef apparently didn't. Oh well.

Three cheesecakes and a carrot cake are for some people in my building for Easter. I made two cheesecakes and the carrot cake yesterday. Luckily my mom took the train in and brought me more spring form pans. She spent the day with me and watched me cook. We even went food shopping too. Found some awesome mozzarella balls at Fresh Grocer which turned into my dinner. They were so yummy.

Spent ten hours in class today, mainly running a dessert station. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Surprisingly the kitchen was pretty calm. We had some music on and were moving pretty quickly. By the time we were ready for service, everything was prepped and looking good. No one had to wait for their food, especially dessert, and everyone seemed to have good comments.

Got home around 7, made some taco meat for dinner, made the third cheesecake, and then sat down. That wasn't smart. I still have to make the icing for the carrot cake and decorate it tonight. Now I just have to get up and do it.

Oh Classes!!!

2009-04-02T22:35:00.002-04:00

Ok. There really needs to be a disclaimer on some classes when you are registering for them. For example, lets take my Professional Dining Room Management class. When registering for the two credit class, (yes I said two credits) it says that the class is from 3:30pm to 7:20pm on Thursdays. Yes, that is a four hour class for two credits. Seems like you aren't getting enough credits.

So, today was the first class. We come to find out, that not only does class last for four hours, but for three weeks, it lasts until at least 10pm, making a two credit class require about seven hours of work a week.

Normally, I'd be ok with it. Culinary classes never get out on time, so whatever. What stinks though is that I have class from 9am til 3pm on Thursdays as well. Having class straight through from 9am to 7:20pm was long enough and now they tell us that some weeks we will have to be in class for thirteen hours straight. Not cool.

Another thing that stinks is that we are all going to be in the kitchens for six hours, hot and sweaty, and then go and serve a seven-course dinner, looking presentable. Somehow sixteen of us are going to have to freshen up without taking a shower because there isn't enough time for all of us to go back home and take one. This is going to be interesting.

Where is Spring?

2009-03-31T23:38:00.003-04:00

I think it's hiding. I want Spring to actually come. It was warm out today, but not warm enough to not wear a sweater. I can't wait to wear dresses and flip flops. I'm sick of having to wear sweatshirts and jackets every day. I'm also tired of all the rain we have had. I want it to be sunny. Sunshine makes me SMILE :)

Back to Life

2009-03-30T15:31:00.003-04:00

Well, spring term started today at 9am. Waking up wasn't fun. The whole past week Adam and I slept until at least noon everyday. It was so nice. Now I have to get up at 7:45 four days of the week. I liked sleeping in. Oh well. I guess that's what the weekends are for.

I had my first class this morning. I think it was called Principles of Food Service Management, or something like that. Class only lasted for about 15 minutes and I was back home by 9:30. I tried to go back to sleep, but it didn't work. I layed on the couch and stupidly turned the tv on. Instead of falling asleep, I wound up watching Tyra's talk show and then the View. No nap for me.

I'm off to class again in a little while. I hope that we will get out early tonight, but who knows. I'm really not in the mood to cook until 11pm tonight. I guess I'll find out soon.

Spring Break in NC

2009-03-25T17:25:00.006-04:00

So I'm in NC for my spring break. I've having an awesome time. I love spending time down here. I've spent time with my sister and brother-in-law, it's still weird to call him that, and of course Adam. We drove down on Saturday and went straight to Deb and Bill's to play Rock Band. It's so much fun. I think we were up until 5am playing it.

Spent all of Sunday lounging around and watching basketball. Deb and I went over to the mall and got some cute things at the Loft. When we got back the boys were in the exact same spot we left them, still watching basketball. They are crazy about March Madness.

Adam and I played tennis and disc golf on Monday. I am officially horrible at throwing a frisbee. We also went for a walk around the lake. It was so pretty. I love the weather down here. It's so much warmer than at home.

Yesterday we slept late and then went bowling. Deb, Bill, and Adam are all in a league and go bowling every Tuesday night. They are pretty good too and bowling really well last night. It's a lot of fun to watch them.

And today, Deb and I are going for a one hour deep tissue massage at the spa. I can't wait. We went the day before she got married in August and it was amazing. I didn't want to get off the table. It's so relaxing. I'm so excited!!!

Wedding #2 of 2009

2009-03-16T23:28:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I spent the day in New Jersey at my best friend's wedding. It was nice to get away from studying for the day. I drove there with four of her friends from college and we had a fun time. Two of the girls were going over chemistry notes for a test they had today and the rest of us were trying to understand what on earth they were saying.

The drive actually wasn't too long, only a little bit over an hour, even with some traffic. Once we got there we headed straight for the bridal suite. Karen looked beautiful and was glowing. She was ready to go about three hours before the wedding. I think they left for New Jersey before seven in the morning.

The wedding was beautiful. About four hundred people were there and everyone had a blast. Lots of eating and dancing and running around in circles. It was fun.

I got back home around eleven, dropped my stuff, called my mom to say I was home, turned my computer on, and went back to the whole studying thing. I had to finish my essay on corn, which surprisingly didn't take that long. I was thinking about what I was going to write on the drive home which helped. Once I finished that I climbed into my warm and cozy bed.

Today, I woke up and walked down to school to drop off my thirteen page take home final. I got to see my friend's new puppy dog, Dewey, too. He is so adorable. I wound up spending about an hour playing with him. I wanted to take him home, but Devon wouldn't let me, so sad.

Anyways, I have got to get back to working on my twenty-six page paper. Luckily I only have one final left and this humongous paper, then I'm done. Well for a week, YAY!!!

Poached Pears with Anisette

2009-03-13T22:11:00.005-04:00

Yes. I had the privilege of making poached pears for my practical exam. How fun. I was actually surprised my chef gave me the dessert course. Especially since I told him I wanted to go into baking and pastry. Normally he makes you do something other than you want to do. I was really lucky with this one though. Poaching pears is one of the easiest desserts you can make.

Everyone else had to make weird stuff. The amuse bouche was polenta with forest mushrooms. The fish course was poached seafood quenelles served in a saffron fish broth (not like we ever learned how to make this stuff). The meat course was some variation of lamb chops with turnip puree, carrots, and green beans. (Yes, I said meat course, and yes, it is Friday, so just imagine how many of our guests couldn't eat it with lent and all). And then the dessert course was the poached pears.

Somehow everyone pulled it off. Everything looked wonderful and we served all of our guests in record speed. The first course was served at 12:10 and the dessert course was cleared by 12:55. I have no idea how that happened. We also had the kitchen entirely clean by 1:30. Of course we didn't get out on time though. Chef just had to spend 45 minutes going over comment cards and adding his opinion. What else is new. I don't think I've ever gotten out of a culinary class when we were supposed to, unless we aren't cooking (which has happened a lot this term).

Anyways, classes are finally over. Only the ten page take home final, twenty six page paper, and a garde manger final on Wednesday morning, then I'm free. Well, free for a week. Then spring term begins. Isn't college fun!!!

The Discovery of Something Yummy :)

2009-03-12T21:29:00.004-04:00

On Tuesday, one of my classmates made this tasty dessert that consisted of mini pastry shells, Nutella mousse, and bananas foster on top. When I heard they were using Nutella, I was instantly excited. Nutella is one of the yummiest treats ever. Some one introduced it to me years ago, and I'm so happy they did. It is especially yummy on honey wheat pretzels.

Anyways, back to the Nutella mousse. I had to ask how they made it. I was surprised how simple it was. All you have to do is beat heavy cream with a little bit of confectioners' sugar until it turns into whipped cream. Then add Nutella. Instant yumminess!!!

After class today, I was craving Nutella like no other. I didn't have class tonight because the professor was out of town, so I came straight home, dropped my stuff, and went to the supermarket. Nutella was the first item in my basket. I also bought strawberries, apples, broccoli, potatoes, chicken, ground beef, milk, and heavy cream (for the mousse of course).

Once my basket was too heavy for me to carry, I checked out and walked back home. I put everything away, except for the Nutella and heavy cream, grabbed the confectioners' sugar, threw everything into the mixer, and viola!!! Nutella mousse. Ahhhh, it is delicious. I quickly put it in the refrigerator so I wouldn't eat all of it at once, and I've been slowly nibbling on it all night. Mmmmmmmm, yummy :)

Finals = Yuck!!

2009-03-10T23:54:00.004-04:00

I would love to meet the person who invented exams. I think they must have been nuts. Exams are no fun. I understand that they are supposed to test what you have learned, but why do we need to know what we have learned and what we haven't. If you don't know it, you don't know it. And what is with grades. Why do we need those? Such a pain in the butt.

I had a great weekend in NC with Adam. We went to Crystal and Ben's wedding Friday night and had a fun time. After the wedding we went downtown to a club and danced there for a few hours. Then we went back to Deb & Bill's, played some Rock Band, and finally fell asleep around 6 in the morning.

It was beautiful down there too. 80 degrees and sunny. It was wonderful. I got to wear a skirt and t-shirt every day. It was awesome. I didn't want to come back. Especially to study for finals.

Anyways, I have a PR final tomorrow night, a take home final due on Monday, and another final next Wednesday at the lovely hour of 8am.

So I finished class around 6:30 tonight because of the crazy beer week event we had tonight. It actually went pretty well. I was running around like a nutcase since I was the helper chef. And of course I wound up doing all the dishes. Everyone seemed to leave me by myself with a whole pile of chocolate covered pots and pans.

After dealing with that mess, I came home opened my notebook and started studying for my PR final. And that's what I've been doing all night. My brain hurts.

Yay!!!

2009-03-05T23:44:00.002-05:00

I made it through the week. Yay!!!! I had my last entrepreneurship class tonight. The one that I had to dress up for. That part was not fun. And sitting through 7 team presentations wasn't fun either. Our presentation went really well though. Which I guess is all I can ask for. My team has been really hard to keep in touch with and I always wind up finishing stuff at the last minute. I'm so glad it's almost over. Now all we have to do is finish our final paper and do peer reviews. I think I can handle that, hopefully.

Anyways, I get to wake up in about 6 hours and walk to the train station, so I can go to the airport and fly down to NC. Yay!!! I can't wait. I think I'm going to try and sleep on the plane though.

Tomorrow is going to be a late night. We've got the wedding to go to, and then I think we are going downtown after. So a nap is definitely going to be necessary!!!

It's Only Tuesday

2009-03-03T22:55:00.002-05:00

I feel like this week has been going by so slowly. It's only Tuesday and I feel like it should be Friday already. Ok, well I want to to be Friday already. On Friday I get to fly down to North Carolina and see Adam. I can't wait.

Even though I didn't do too much today, I feel like I ran around like a nut. I got to sleep in until noon and then started walking to class around 1. Luckily I left early because I got almost halfway to campus and realized I left my uniform at my apartment. So I walked all the way back, picked it up and walked, once again back to class.

Class was fun. Garde manger is fun and I really like the class and my chef. He has so much experience in the food industry and is a great teacher. Anyways, we got to make sandwiches today. I was chosen to make a grilled vegetable and mozzarella cheese in puff pastry sandwich. I have to say it was kinda weird. I liked each of the individual parts, but I wasn't fond of everything once it was put together. When we sat down to try all of our creations, I was surprised how many of them were either fried or in puff pastry. When I think of a sandwich, I think of meat and veggies in bread. Oh well.

After class I headed over to the library, where I thought I was going to spend my whole night. Luckily no one showed up for the 6 o'clock meeting, so I just walked back to my place. Five minutes after I got home, calls started coming in saying that people were coming. I told them I wasn't going back to the library until 9:30 when I had to go back to meet with the other half of my group. I'm tired of running around like a nut for everyone else.

So I chilled out and relaxed for a bit, then went to the library for 9:30. Six out of the seven people in my group were actually there. I was really surprised. Anyways, we got done what we needed to get done. I'm still waiting on one person to send me their stuff, but other than that we are good. I can't wait until this group project is done. It's been a real pain in the butt.

Came home after the meeting, turned the tv on, sat down, and that's where I've been since.

Happy Anniversary!!!

2009-03-01T20:54:00.008-05:00

I can't believe it's been a whole year that we have been together. I feel like this year has gone by so quickly. We've had an awesome time together and I'm so happy that Deb and Bill introduced us. Well at least they sort of did. Deb and Bill told both of us that we had to come to their engagement party, because we had to meet each other. We weren't really given an option. I had flown down the night before and stayed up all night with Deb, planting plants and getting stuff ready for the party. Then we spent the day cooking and cleaning and getting everything in order for the party.

Seven o'clock rolled around. I was running around in high heals. I saw Adam come in, and I knew who he was right away. Deb and Bill never actually introduced us. But once I stopped running around, I sat down next to him and we started talking. Three hours later, Deb and Bill come over to us and ask if we had met yet. How nice of them. (The picture to the right was taken one year ago; it was our first picture together).

Anyways, we wound up staying up all night and had the best time. We've been together ever since. :)

Mommy Daughter Day

2009-02-28T18:42:00.003-05:00

So, I came home last night after I taught my little munchkins. They were so adorable and all of them skated amazing last night, which was awesome because I got to pass every single one of them up to the next level. Yay!!!! All my three years olds are now in Basic 2. I'm so proud of them. :)

Anyways, I came back to my parents house, sat and watched tv for a little bit, then all of us went to sleep by midnight. I've been really tired from all the fire alarm going off every night in my building, so I slept in until noon, when R.P. decided that it was time I woke up, and started licking my face. How nice of him.

Then my mom and I went to the gym and worked out for about an hour. Watching her on the elliptical cracked me up. The gym she goes to has tv's attached to almost every cardio machine, and today my mom decided to watch VH1 and the Disney Channel. She watched the Bret Michael's show for a bit. The one where he is looking for the perfect girl, blah blah blah. She couldn't believe how big the girls' boobs were and changed the channel after about five minutes of staring at the screen with her mouth wide open. Then she started cracking up at some show on the Disney Channel. I don't have a clue what show it was, but she thought it was hilarious.

After the gym we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond so I could get some spatulas for my friend. Then we went to lunch at Pumpernicks, and then went to the nail salon to get out toes done. That was an interesting experience. Wherever she goes, she is always making people laugh.

Then we came home. I came upstairs to get some homework done and I have no idea where everyone else went. R.P. has been laying on my bed whining the whole time because I think he wants to get off the bed, but he won't jump because he's a lazy bum. What a dog.

3 Papers in 1 Week

2009-02-26T00:05:00.003-05:00

How crazy is that? I went to my PR class tonight. And what is my assignment for next week? Well, it's not only one assignment, it's THREE!!!!!!! One of which is due by 8am. How nice. And of course, all three assignments are papers. I like to write, but not that much. And not only do I have to write three papers in a week, but one of them involves doing interviews. Luckily the people I have to interview I will see over the next two days, but still. I don't have a lot of extra time to begin with and this just killed all of it.

So anyways, I came straight home after class, even though I had planned on going to the gym. So much for that. I wrote the first paper, the one due by 8am, and got that out of the way. Luckily it wasn't too difficult. But then I had to compile all sorts of stuff for my entrepreunship group project, which is also due by 8am tomorrow morning. My fingers hurt from typing so much.

So now I'm down to 5 hours of cooking, a presentation on Pleo, cooking a whole bunch of hushpuppies, interviewing people and writing two more papers in two more days. Such fun! Is it Friday yet?

On a good note, everyone liked the cupcakes and the pink icing!!!

Cupcakes

2009-02-25T00:24:00.008-05:00

Well, I finally got to icing them.

Don't they look cute???

It's Mardi Gras!!!!

2009-02-24T22:22:00.005-05:00

And what did I make on Fat Tuesday? I made chocolate cupcakes that look like they were for Valentines Day. The cupcakes will soon have pink icing, since I just took them out of the oven and they are still cooling, and they are already sitting in heart paper holders. I think I'm a holiday behind.

Anyways, I got to sleep in today. And would have been able to sleep a lot longer if there weren't ambulances and fire trucks blaring their sirens as they drove down my street for TWO hours. It was not pleasant. So after trying to sleep through it, I finally got out of bed around noon. And of course, the second I got my butt up the sirens stopped. How nice.

Then I tried to turn my computer on. I don't think it wanted to wake up either. After restarting it a few times and running a few scans it decided to start working again. But by that time I had to leave for class.

Class was actually fun. I like my Tuesday class, Garde Manger. We get to make all sorts of cool stuff and none of the recipes take more than an hour to make. Everything we make seems to come out delicious. Today I had the priviledge of making an antipasto platter with roasted red and green peppers, marinated mushrooms, prosciutto, salami, asiago cheese, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and crostini. It was really yummy.

I also got to try a lot of Korean dishes today, too. This was my first experience with Korean food and I was pleasantly surprised. I have no idea what I actually ate, but it was yummy.

After class I went to the library for a few hours to work on the financial statements for my group project. That gave me a headache. Finances are a pain in the butt.

Then I can home, made the cupcakes, sat down, and haven't gotten up since. I guess I'll ice the cupcakes sometime tonight, once I get back up on my feet!!!

Pleo

2009-02-23T19:22:00.001-05:00

Isn't Pleo adorable???

Procrastinating

2009-02-23T11:36:00.002-05:00

Well, it's Monday. So far so good. I got up about an hour ago, even though I didn't set my alarm until noon. For some reason I keep waking up earlier than my alarm. It's kind of annoying. I like my sleep.

Right now I'm watching the View. I've recently taken a liking to that show. I guess it is because I keep waking up earlier than I have to. I have to say that I'm going to miss being able to sleep in 3 days of the week next term.

Of course, I should be writing a paper comparing Philly Magazine and the Philadelphia Inquirer, but instead I'm writing this blog. I guess I'm still writing though, so that counts right? I feel like I know what I want to write, but I haven't actually opened Microsoft Word to get it started. I'm always afraid that I will open a new document and then just stare at a blank screen for hours. I guess that is why I continue to put it off until I have like first paragraph written in my head. It has always been hard for me to come up with a way to start a paper. I know what I want to write in the body of it, but I just need that one opening sentence to get it started. Then there is the title. I always try and come up with something creative. Try being the key word. I don't actually know how many title I've come up with that can really be considered 'creative'. Oh well.

The reason I should be writin my paper right now is, I have to go tutor math for a bit and then I really want to go shopping for a bathing suit. But I'll feel bad if I don't get any work done before. This paper is the last bit of homework I have to do this week, besides my ridiculous group projects.

Speaking of group projects, I was in the library for almost 4 hours last night. And what did we do, we made 4 powerpoint slides on Pleo. Check him out at www.pleoworld.com. It's actually a pretty cool product and I really want one. But spending 4 hours on 4 slides was really annoying. And the best part is that we have to meet again to go over it because no one could decide which part they wanted to present. What a pain in the butt.

Anyways, I really need to go write this paper. I can get it done in the next hour right? It's only 1-2 pages. I think it can be done. Well, lets hope that it can!!!!

It's Finally Friday

2009-02-20T00:25:00.005-05:00

YAY!!!! I can't believe it is Friday. Even though this week went by quickly, its been a tiring one. I should be going to sleep right now because I have to get up in like 7 hours, but i'm not sleepy tired yet. Last night I was so tired at like 11, so I went to bed. I was tossing and turning til like 1:30, finally fell asleep, and then at 6:30 I was wide awake and couldn't fall back to sleep. I don't get it.

Today was snack food day in American. Basically everyone made something fried. We had corn dogs, chili dogs, philly cheesesteaks, sliders x 6, gyros, chinese dumplings, falafel, toll house cookies, coconut marshmallows, funnel cake, donuts, rum gelato (that had way to muce rum in it), banana walnut ice cream (which was yummy), and we were supposed to have cotton candy (which I was supposed to make), but the machine didn't feel like cooperating, so no cottong candy. Oh well. We always have a feast on Thursdays. It is crazy. Luckily I didn't eat that much cause I don't like hot dogs. I haven't had one in 6 years. So didn't eat those, and I tried not to eat any of the bread. I wasn't super full after class, but I still went to the gym. I felt like I had to work off all that fat.

And of course I went to the gym after scrubbing 1 pot for like 45 minutes. Our chef has decided that after like 10 years of neglect, our pots and pans need to look like new again. So every day we need to take a steel scrubber and scrub 3 pots and pan until they look like new. Let me tell you, it took me 45 minutes to do this one pan, and it still doesn't look like new. It's getting there, but it is a pain in the butt. My hands were black after the 45 minutes. Craziness.

So after I scrubbed my heart out, I went to the gym. Rode the bike, did some arm and stomach stuff. Then walked home in the bitter cold. The wind didn't help the situation. Got a text saying a certain someone was only an hour away. I was so excited for like 5 minutes, until he told me he was in his apartment, in North Carolina, cleaning his roomates fish tank.

Then my dad called me, and then my mom. I think they have telepathy. They always call or text at the exact same time. Even if they are sitting in the same room. Anyways, dad was driving home from Virginia and wanted to give me the traffic report. Mom was only a few blocks away so she walked over to my place and hung out for a bit.

Then I walked her back to the train station so she could get home and feed the dogs. Went to class again. Did a lot of sudokus tonight. I'll have to print out more for next weeks class. Found out that my team has to do a presentation on this neat thing called Pleo. Check out http://www.pleoworld.com/. It is really cool. Turn your volume up. I think you'll get a good laugh. I know I did.

Then came home, sat down, and haven't gotten up since.

I do really need to go to sleep though. I guess I'll go put some pjs on and crawl in to bed.

Yay!!!! It is Friday!!!!

what a night.....

2007-10-07T00:25:00.001-04:00

so i woke up at 10......and proceeded to cook and bake.....all day long....some of my friends came over tonight to celebrate my birthday.....and i cooked enough food for an army....stuffed shells were a must.....so i wound up making 4 trays.....ryan took one home....so he'll have that for lunch tomorrow....he can eat immense amounts of food.....its crazy.....we also had some healthy vegetables....but that was about it for the healthy part.....us skaters....we need some high calorie and high fat food once in a while......so of course there was the dessert.....#1....a yellow cake out of the martha stewart baking book with a little twist on the icing and decorations.....i decided to be creative and use some fresh flowers.......

i thought it turned out pretty cool......then there was #2......a spin on our traditional train cake that we make for almost everyone's birthday....this year i decided to make it a little more fun.....so i used basically every kind of candy i could find in candy isle for the decorations....it was a lot of fun to make....minus icing it though....that part was kind of annoying....but it was all worth it....cause it looked and tasted amazing......

we all sat at the table....my parents included....and had a blast.....we talked and ate.....and laughed.....a lot.....had some baby cries....and tigger calls throughout.....which made us laugh even more.....overall we had a great time......all surrounded with great food.....and great friends.....

and the fun begins.....

2007-10-06T00:08:00.000-04:00

even tho i have a huge list of things to do this weekend.....number one on my list is cooking for my party tomorrow....the menu consists of stuffed shells....with homemade bread of course......fresh veggies.....for us healthy skaters....then there's the unhealthy component of the meal...but way too yummy not to eat....so we are going to have a chocolate choo-choo train cake.....with an accompianing yellow layer cake.....of course decorated completely......from top to bottom.....i have all the candies and treats sitting in bags all over my countertops right now.....i'm so tempted to jump right into the bags and eat everything.....but i told myself i'd save everything for the cakes.....so they'd look spectacular....hopefully there will be no train wrecks.....even though those do taste the yummiest......

phew..........

2007-10-04T22:51:00.001-04:00

ok.....so tomorrow is friday.....FINALLY.....i've had so much stuff to do this week......i finished my accounting test last night....and the one this morning in class....it wasn't too bad....then i realized how much stuff i had to read for my research paper assignment.....uuugghhhh....lets just say i photocopied like a million pages from each book....and i haven't even finished photocopying all the books.....i just did 5.....all that i needed for my assignment.....so i read the photocopies at the rink.....and basically wrote what i was gonna write there......in between skating and coaching and working out with vika.....i think i was a speed reader today.....who knows if any of it sank in......anyways....i came home and wrote it.....that's out of the way.....then i realized that tomorrow was friday....and that i have a geography quiz tomorrow....on the countries of southeast asia and australia.....not too bad.......then tomorrow.....i'm finally going to get my skates sharpened....yahoo.....its been since july since i've had them done....and thats a super long time for someone who likes their skates really sharp......yea....that'd be me.....after that.....i have to go all the way back to ardmore to skate because iceworks doesn't have any ice tomorrow.....cause some huge hockey tournament is taking over all 4 rinks....how crazy is that......anyways....that should be fun cause....apparently no one from that rink talks to me anymore.....who knows what i did now.....probably nothing....as usual.....after that tomorrow....i can come home and plan what i'm gonna make for my party on saturday......ryan already requested shells.....along with an extra tray just for him.....so he'll have food for the weekend.....so i'm definitely making those......maybe a salad....and some garlic bread.....and of course dessert....now that's the fun part.....decisions decisions.....white cake.....yellow cake.....chocolate cake....or no cake at all.....maybe a pie....or a cheesecake.....or cupcakes.....or lots of cookies.....or maybe just a combination of everything.....yea....that sounds amazing....i can't wait......

so much to do.....and so little time.....

2007-10-03T21:49:00.000-04:00

aahhhhh.....so basically everything just hit me all at once this week.....i had a two part accounting test....one of which was due tonight....the other is in class tomorrow.....let me tell you that accounting tests online are not fun.....they take forever....and are a pain in the butt....anyways.....back to my to-do list.....i also had to find flights for my trip to sectionals.....which i finally did......then there is the english paper thingy due on friday....where i had to find at least 5 sources for my research paper.....which i finally decided was going to be on how to start your own business.....i didn't think harvesting fruit or migrant workers was for me.....anyways....with those 5 sources i have to write 1-2 paragraphs about each source and how it is going to contribute to my research paper.....how fun.....i haven't started that yet.....then i need to call birthright for my interview so that i'll be able to go to israel.....but i can only call between 9am and 6pm.....so i gotta find time for that.....otherwise i won't be able to go.....and i really wanna go.....then i need slava's signature so i can take my tests in november....cause of course he's my coach.....and of course you need your coach to sign your test form so you can take your test.....and i also need to call to get my skates sharpened....and find time to go down to wilmington to do that.....plus there is no ice at my usual rink on friday.....so i have to see if maybe i can skate at wilmington and get my skates sharpened then.....so i can kill two birds with one stone.....uggghhhh......i feel like i'm running around in circles.....i barely find time to eat and sleep and go to the bathroom.......hopefully i'll be able to relax on saturday and have an awesome birthday party......we'll see what happens......

a wonderful day

2007-10-01T22:07:00.000-04:00

so....today was my birthday.....nothing extraordinary happened....went to school....went to the rink....went back to school...and then came home.....but i woke up this morning to lots of text messages wishing me a happy birthday....and then a phone call from my best friend in israel....which really made my day......walked downstairs to find a beautiful new purse my parents had gotten me.....and millions of cards with beautiful sayings.....a hug from my mom.....and kisses from my puppies and i was off.....off to the normal monday i always have.....geography class...then english.....where i got many more birthday wishes......then to the rink....were i was attacked by people giving me the biggest hugs i'd ever had......i felt so apprieciated.....it was so nice.....it made me so happy.....i've never felt like anyone cared before....and now i know who my real friends are.....who actually cared enough to stop what they were doing.....even if it was only for a second....just to say happy birthday and give me a hug.....i was all smiles.....unfortunately i had to leave early....as i always do on mondays.....to go back to my math class......but that was the greatest surprise of all.....one of my classmates had made a birthday cake for me.....i was so honored....especially since i've only known this person for less than a month.....she was so sweet......i came home to my parents.....and my puppies....and a beautiful flower arrangement from my best friend in the whole world.....who unfortunately is half way around the world.....i miss her so much.....anyways, i had a nice dinner with my parents....and then appears another cake......omg....i've eaten so much cake today....lol....i'm glad i didn't eat a lot the rest of the day.....it was so good tho....so its worth all the extra calories.....i hopped online after dinner and came to find millions of birthday wishes.....i'm so happy that people actually care about me.....its really nice to know that you are loved.....thanks for making my birthday a really special one....i'll never forget it.....mwah <3

research paper

2007-09-30T19:48:00.000-04:00

ok....so i have this research paper thats due at the end of the semester....no big deal....only problem is....i don't know what i want to write it on.....a while ago i saw a show on how fruit is harvested.....so i thought that would be a really cool thing to write about.....like all the different types of machines and how they have evolved over the years from basically people picking fruit off trees and bushes.....to machines that can do it all by themselves....so i started looking up some stuff....and NOTHING.....so then i was like....well maybe i'll write about migrant workers....since that topic keep coming up.....but then i was like....why don't i just write about slaves.....really...i have no clue....and the whole thing that started this confusion is the fact that i have to have 5 sources by friday.....with 1-2 paragraphs written about each source and how it is going to help me write my paper....how fun.....i think i just need to sleep on it.....if anyone has some good ideas....don't hesitate to let me know.....i just love school......

take #2

2007-09-28T23:36:00.000-04:00

i get along with everyone......yes people have certain characteristics i'm not found of......but i get along with everyone.....i can have a conversion with anyone......even if i'm not very fond of them.....all i wanted to do was have a nice little get together with ALL of my friends....even some of the ones who i don't know why i really consider friends.....cause really....i couldn't count on them for anything.....i don't understand why people don't like other people just cause they are from a different area....in this case....a different rink....aren't we supposed to be accepting of new people...and new ideas....and new cultures.....this is some of my geography coming in here....which, by the way, i just spent an hour doing homework for..........anyways......the whole point is....my birthday is coming up....and all i wanted to do was have a party....with all of my "friends"......i just wanted to have a good time....laugh....dance....have fun.....but NO......we have to include all of the drama of...."well who is gonna be there.....cause if that person is gonna be there....i'm not gonna come....cause i don't like that person".......H-E-L-L-O.....last time i checked it was MY birthday party.....so yea....the main point of all of this rambling is that.....my party was supposed to be tomorrow night.....but i made an educated decision to postpone it to next weekend....and hang out with my true friends....the ones who i can count on.....the ones who actually call me back and talk to me when i call.....the ones who actually care about me....like i care about them.....so next weekend....we'll try this again......

why????

2007-09-28T00:40:00.000-04:00

why am i tired....but i can't sleep.....i can barely keep my eyes open....but the second i go lay in my bed.....i'm wide awake....its not like i have a ton of stuff to do......yes i have homework.....and i little geography quiz tomorrow....which i've already studied for......and i know at least 10 of the countries on the map....and where they are located....so i'm good.....after school i'm going to sk8....and then i'll come home....nothing new....nothing exciting....at least not more exciting than my normal, daily activities....yet i can't sleep.....it makes no sense......

making some brownies....

2007-03-11T10:21:00.000-04:00

yep....thats what i do....i make brownies....and basically everything else.....yesterday a few ppl at work were like....hey rachel....how about making some brownies for us....since i guess the chocolate cupcakes weren't enough on thursday....so yea....right now there are 2 13x9 pans of brownies in the oven...yep...smelling D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S....unfortunately there are no m&m's in them this time....i didn't feel like changing out of my pjs and running to the store....next time tho....mmmmmm........they smell so good.....

finally a day off....

2007-02-28T21:08:00.000-05:00

lets just say....its nice....after i sk8ed i came home....and sat on the couch....turned on the tv....opened up my laptop...and this is where i've been for the past few hours.....its nice.....

i don't like the snow....

2007-02-25T19:39:00.000-05:00

ok...so y does it have to snow....its like almost march already....i'm tired of the snow...ok yea...we have only had one snow storm this season...but still...enough is enough....and yea....it'll probably get me out of going to school tomorrow....but anyways...i don't like it....my mom called me home from work....like 4 hours early....not cool....if it got that bad, i would've just stayed over at hollister....i could've organized the whole stock room...it wouldn't have been that bad....uggghhhh...i don't like the snow.....

i'm a workaholic....

2007-02-24T23:22:00.000-05:00

well...i haven't written in a while....mostly i've been at work.....i worked 36.5 hours this week.....i really like it....now i'm working in the stock room....its a lot of fun...i know it sounds like it wouldn't be....but it is....i get to unload new shipment....sensor it all up...backstock it....and sometimes....take down all the clothes...and reorganize them....like i did tonite....i know...for some people...that would drive them nuts...but i like that kind of stuff....tonite i reorganized all the sweatshirts and half of the shorts...in like 4 hours...which is pretty good...cause we have a lot.....i'm hoping that everything stays the way i left it tonite....so i don't have to redo it....i like things to be nice and organized...it makes finding stuff a lot easier.....and if everyone takes the time to keep everything looking nice....everything is good....so yea...i'm workaholic.....and probably a little nuts....actually probably a lot nuts...but i love it...thats why i do it....

cooooookies....

2007-02-16T10:31:00.000-05:00

ok....so all day valentines day...and actually the nite before....i made a ton of cookies....chocolate chip cookies....snickerdoodles...sugar cookies...which didn't turn out too good....i think i overbaked them.....oops.....and brownies with the cupid's mix m&ms....they turned out amazing....i think the best ones i've ever made.....i was real smart tho and decided to look up the nutritional information after i had eaten lots of cookies....yea...that wasn't too pretty....i was amazed how much fat and carbs and calories r in each cookie...yikes....oh well....anyways.....i brought them all to the rink and work....and basically they disappeared before my very eyes....i brought like 4 containers to work...and yea....now they r empty....its so funny how we spend so much time baking and cooking...and its all gone in like 2 seconds.....

happy valentines day <3

2007-02-14T11:21:00.000-05:00

well...today is valentines day.....its snowing a lot....so there was no school....and the rink isn't open.....so i a stuck home...lets see....what could i do...well i could bake.....since yesterday i decided to go to the store and buy almost every type of chocolate possible.....hershey's bars....cupid's mix m&ms....chocolate chips....etc.....so yea....i'm gonna do that today.....all day...plus i promised all my coworkers that i was bringing cookies to work tomorrow.....guess i can't eat all of them...darn...lol!!! plus later on my valentine is coming over....yea...its gonna be fun....hope everyone has an awesome valentines day!!!!!!

work, work, work, work, work....

2007-02-11T23:36:00.000-05:00

well....i've been working so much...i think i worked like 25 hours this past week....its been a lot...but i've enjoyed it....i've needed to keep busy.....its been good for me....i've been sk8ing every day too....like i normall do...working out a lot too....especially with vika...i think i had her like 3 times this past week...so yea...anyways....thats life....work work work...........

so i'm back...

2007-02-04T20:09:00.000-05:00

nationals was a lot of fun....got to see a lot of my friends....and compete....we sk8ed really well...placed 13th....but still happy with how we sk8ed....unfortunately we r no longer sk8ing together.....kevin decided he wasn't happy and told me he didn't want to sk8 with me anymore.....so basically for the past week i'm been so out of it.....we got along great and had an awesome partnership....i was really shocked and still kinda am......i'm still not over it....and don't know how long its gonna take me to be over it.....i feel like i've lost something....its been really hard for me.....luckily i was surrounded by a lot of great friends who took care of me while i was at nationals.....i'm really greatful to all of them....

4 days left

2007-01-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

so yea....4 days left...on friday and 7am...we r off to spokane...actually to phoenix first...cause of course there is no direct flight to spokane.....duh....so yea....we r gonna be flying for about 9 hours....cause its like 5 to phoenix and then another 4 to spokane....talk about going totally out of the way.....u would think that they would put nationals...for the whole nation.....in the middle of the country.....but nope....they pu tit in the most northwest corner of the country....way to go....plus its gonna be freezing....the high today....was 7...yea....7....not cool....but anyways...i'm excited to go....its gonna be so much fun...i can't wait....

dancing the nite away....

2007-01-07T00:10:00.000-05:00

so yea.... tonite from like 6-11 i spent the nite with this awesome guy zach.... we dressed up.... and went to his winter ball...and partied it up....we danced forever....it was so much fun....one of the best saturday nites i've had in a long time.....

challah pics

2007-01-05T22:13:00.000-05:00

ok....so here are the pics.....the challah started out like this:

and this:

then i kneaded it, like a million times:

and seperated the dough:

and rolled it out:

and yea...this is how it turned out....at 1am i might add:

and yea....it turned out really pretty...and really tasty.....

happy new year!!

2007-01-03T00:40:00.000-05:00

well....its finally 2007.....pretty cool....so yea...i was gonan try and go out and hang out with some friends for new year's eve....but instead....my parents wanted me to stay in...what else is new....so i was like mom....what r we gonna do if i stay in...cause i'm not just gonna stay in and do nothing....so she came up with the idea of making challah....and that is just what we did....i think we started at like 9....and kneaded and kneaded and kneaded.....i think it was finally done by like 1.....it was fun...but my wrists hurt....its a lot of hard work....i'll post the pics later on.....hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year!!

bahama breeze

2006-12-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

ok.... so everyone finally got together tonite.... it was sooo much fun.... we went to bahama breeze.... it was a lot of fun..... we ate some good food.... laughed at some funny things.... and had a crazy discussion about how some people thought tilapia wasn't like a fish.... but like a generalized like type of white fish.... or something weird.... anyways.... chase looked it up on wikipedia.... on his phone.... and desputed all the non believers that tilapia wasn't a kind of fish.... aaahhhh... the stuff we talk about when we all get together..... anyways..... here's a pic of some of us.... some just ran away when i pulled the camera out.....

all A's

2006-12-23T22:47:00.000-05:00

so...yea....i just looked at my transcripts today....and i got all A's this semester......i'm pretty proud of myself...so now i have like a 3.864 gp.....since i got one B from my summer history class....oh yea....i'm just really happy i got an A in my history class this semster....it was a tough one....and i'm so glad i don't have to take any more history classes.....

fudge factory!!

2006-12-20T23:41:00.000-05:00

well...yesterday i made an enormous amount of fudge....for all the skaters at the rink....of course...all of us trying to get in shape for nationals....and what am i giving everyone....yeah i know....FUDGE.....probably the worst thing for us to eat...oh well....its my annual holiday treat...every year i make fudge for everyone....anyways....i must've made like ten pounds of it....cause it seems like from last year to this year.....the amount of people i train with every day has like quadrupled....so yeah....ten pounds of fudge...just about did it....and i didn't have any leftovers....this being a good thing....so i won't eat it....i did taste a few pieces tho.....just to make sure it tasted correctly....u know...all chefs must do this....u wouldn't want to feed someone something u haven't eaten yourself.....its just not right, lol!!! so yeah....the kitchen....well....it was kinda covered in chocolate when i was done....it smelled amazing tho....the fridge was full of tins or fudge....and all the pots in the house were covered in chocolate....lets just say....yesterday was a chocolatey day at the fudge factory....aka....my kitchen!!

i'm in love....

2006-12-17T23:31:00.000-05:00

ok.....these sweatpants are awesome.... i'm in love with them..... they are the comfiest things ever.... plus i get to wear them to work.... even better.... so everyone who buys clothes from hollister... please buy these sweatpants.... and even if u don't normally buy clothes from hollister..... go buy these sweatpants... they come in a million different colors.... and are the best sweatpants i've had.... and trust me.... i own a lot of sweatpants..... i basically live in them.... so....yea... go out and buy them.... so awesome!!!

first day!!

2006-12-10T19:47:00.000-05:00

so....i worked my first day at hollister...let me tell u...it was sooooo much fun...plus i got to wear the most amazingly comfortable sweatpants....EVER!!!! so for anyone who likes hollister clothes....go buy the sweatpants...they r amazing....basically....i had an awesome time....got to meet a lot of new people....and it was just so much fun!!!

Kiss Cookies <3

2006-12-05T22:24:00.000-05:00

so.....i found this recipe on line from a blogging friend....Sketched Soul....and these cookies came out amazing....plus they look awesome too....so they started out like this:
and this: and eventually ended up like this:

they are sooooo amazingly AMAZING!!!! Go to http://sketchedsoul.blogspot.com/2006/12/kiss-cookies.html for the recipe....omg....so yummy!!

lets glow!!

2006-12-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

ok...so i'm sitting in the computer lab at school....waiting for my next class...cause i got out of bio class....like an hour early...which is pretty normal...but its really cold outside....which isn't cool...i miss summer....anyways....so today...what did we do in bio??? lets see.....so....my teacher decided that making e coli glow would be interesting....so yes...we got to play with e coli today....let me tell u..it really stinks...we had to insert some glowing gene into it....and freeze it...then heat it...then freeze it again....and i had to be in the ice or hot water for exactly 90 or exactly 60 seconds....or it wouldn't work....omg...craziness......anyways...histoy is next...in like a half an hour...what fun....i'm so ready for this semster to be over with...aaahhhhh.....

happy turkey day!!

2006-11-23T22:38:00.000-05:00

hey everyone

hope u all had an awesome turkey day.....i did...it was really relaxing.... in between cooking and eating and cleaning up....my rear end was permanently attached to the couch....it was nice....ever since atlanta i've been sooooo tired....just in a daze....food was amazing tho....and hanging out with my adopted family was awesome as usual.....and we all prayed for nesh to get better.....hope everyone had an awesome day.....

we r going to nationals!!!

2006-11-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

well....we made it....we got fourth...and we r going to nationals...

i'm so excited....

its my first time....

and i'm sooooo glad to be going....especially with kevin....we have worked really hard....and all the hard work and stressful times have paid off....its a great feeling.....yay!!!

this picture was taken right after we found out we got fourth....

and this picture was taken at Miller's Ale House.....

of course we just had to go there....

and then this picture is my all time favorite.... minus the fact that kevin's head is a little cut off.... i just love it <3

off to alpharetta

2006-11-13T22:41:00.002-05:00

well everyone.....kevin and i r off to alpharetta, georgia.....we leave tomorrow nite at 8....i'm soooo excited.....i'm gonna be fidgeting through my whole math class....aaahhh...i'm so excited....for once sectionals hasn't stressed me out.....kevin and i were talking about it today and were just amazing at how we weren't freaking out....its kinda nice....we don't compete until thursday.....when we have compulsories and OD....then nothing on friday...and freedance on saturday....i'm pysched......i wanna leave NOW!!!

and the hunt continues...

2006-11-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

so...since about 3:30 this afternoon till about 10 minutes ago.....i was all over montgomery county looking for a white bow tie.....omg....no one has one....and some ppl haven't even ever seen one.....omg....kevin needs it for next week....i have been ot every formal place and department store there is.....craziness......

brrrrrrr...

2006-11-08T22:59:00.000-05:00

its been a whirlwind the past few weeks....we leave for atlanta in a week...and just trying to get everything ready has been crazy....kevin and i have been training sooooo hard.....doing tons of run thros....its good..but its soooo tiring...had to go to KOP on saturday to search for a hair clip....a very expensive hair clip...so i found it....and then trying to go home....the car died....4 hours later...we got home....that was fun....now kevin and i r on the hunt for a white bow tie....we need it kinda soon....should be interesting.....now i'm trying to figure out how i'm gonna pack my million pounds of luggage into one bag that has to be less than 50 pounds....we'll see how that goes....plus i have to start worrying about all my tests and papers due when i get back home.....i guess i should start that now....but have i??? NOPE.....maybe tomorrow...i like how i say that every day......maybe one day it'll actually happen...u know how it is....

my arm hurts

2006-10-27T21:06:00.000-04:00

ok...so i spent a whole week writing 26...yes i said 26...pages of notes for my history midterm....and did i even use them...NOPE....i think i opened it like once or twice when i accidentally dropped it on the floor cause i had too many pieces of paper on my lap....yeah...so not worth it...and now my arm hurts...i'm so pissed off....i have my bio test on monday and i need to start studying for that....but i figured i'd give my arm a nite off....now i have 5 chapters of notes for that test....aaaaahhhhhhh!!!

too many tests

2006-10-24T20:04:00.000-04:00

ok...so today...i think i've had the longest math test ever....it was like 10 pages....it was crazy....i was half way done and my hand started hurting....uuuggghhhh....anyways...the math part of it wasn't that bad...it was just soooooo long....friday...uuugghhh...my history midterm...i should be writing my notes right now...but i'm not....duh....and then i have my bio test on monday...i think i'll start studying for that ummmm...maybe monday morning...just kidding...probably saturday or sunday nite...yeah....so...i'm gonna go watch dancing with the stars and see what they r up too....

i feel like a turle

2006-10-20T22:34:00.000-04:00

so i finally uploaded the pictures from bio last friday...i know its been a long time....well here's one of data and darwin:

data & darwin

darwin is like 70 and data is his son, who is just 1....they were soooooo cute....that day was a blast....

this week i've felt like a turtle tho....i'm so stiff...probably because i've been really frustrated with everything.....the pressure is on....with sk8ing and school....i have a math test on tuesday...a monsterous history midterm on friday...and a bio test on monday....sk8 america in next weekend...of course in between all my tests....i really wanna go...but i gotta see how sk8ing is going by then and if my parents will let me....especially with all my tests.....we haven't had slava in a week and we really need him.....3 weeks till atlanta....