What's 5 years between friends?

Here I am again - thinking an online journal is a good idea!

My life has taken MANY unexpected turns and now here I am in Portland, Oregon. Living with my boyfriend of one year - Matt. I have a Master's in archaeology and I'm working as a server/bartender at Outback steakhouse.

And that's me. All 26 years and 176 lbs of me.

I feel many feels, but I have to say that while I miss undergraduate, my life is much happier than I think I have ever been before. I miss my family, but I love it here and I know that I can really make a life here - and adult life with all the trappings.

I've been working on myself - working to lose weight, working to better my resume, and working to just do more with my time. Without the regiment of graduate school, I find myself forgetting that I can do ANYTHING I want before or after work... It's freeing and kind of scary. Scary that I can do anything and I might be missing it. Missing out. Wasting time.

It's good to know that while I am happy, I'm still looking for more.

Livejournal?

I got a Livejournal at the request of one Heather Allen. I'm not doing anything with it, but it made me think about how everyone is putting themselves out there. I don't know about the entirety of a person, but the idea that someone you just met and "friend requested" a la Facebook, can see your past and the person you present yourself as. After a minutes consideration, I realized that I do NOT want my first impression of a person through their electronic representation. I want to know them from my face-to-face interactions.

I think we as a society are losing something. The more we have access to, the less we know/understand about ourselves. Book by its cover and all that jazz.

Now What?

"What happens to the pretty people? The pretty neurotic people? Those who are blunt because they don't see the point in beating around a figurative low lying shrub?"

The pretty ones find themselves in a situation where looks cannot save them. The pretty neurotic people wind up worrying and wishing their lives away. The blunt ones scare off the majority of the populace due to the irregularity of the act.

I need to be more subtle. Less upfront I suppose because I start sounding like I'm mentally imbalanced. Then again, maybe it's not just a matter of SOUNDING imbalanced O_o. I kid, I kid.

I want to find something to rail against. Someone to be upset at but that doesn't particularly work when delving into introspective thought. The only person to rail against is Self.

Oh boy. Tomorrow will be better :)

Jeeeeezus!

I will write in my blog more frequently. I will write in my blog more frequently. I will write in my blog more frequently.

So many things have happened since my last post that I don't really feel I need to describe it all in detail. So I shall summarize~

August: Got dumped
September: Took 20 credits and decided I was certifiably insane
October:Dropped one of my classes, got laid off from one of my jobs
November: Discovered our Landlady had us housing illegally in a zoning issue
December: Turned 21
January: Went to Ohayocon in Columbus Ohio and befriended a Viking
February: Spent Valentine's Day alone and was totally okay with that
March: Signed a year lease beginning June1st. Went out on a school night (St. Patrick's Day). Met a great guy. Went to a hockey game.

This passed academic year has been a tumultuous one and probably the most noteworthy in regards to blogging. C'est la vie. I may do some flashback posts if I feel so inclined BUT I haven't had a chance to cook a lot of delicious things or read any good books so I hope to start doing more of that. THAT will be newsworthy information indeed.

Kitchen!

Okay, so I made the Greek Tilapia. The seasonings were great and perfect for dipping fresh crusty bread in. An incredibly simple recipe. I don't generally use measurements any more unless I'm baking because I have not yet baked enough to be THAT confident.

I used a glass 13 x 9 glass pan, coated the bottom with olive oil (just until the bottom was covered). Then I placed the Tilapia fillets in the pan so that they were not overlapping. I spooned some prepared pesto from the Wegman's olive bar onto the fillets and made sure they were covered with the green yumminess. Then surround the fillets with 1 inch cubed roma tomatoes. Covered all of that with Feta cheese and then poured olive oil over all of it until the fish was almost completely covered by oil. Baked uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes.

It took about 15 minutes to put together, and that was with me digging for the glass pan in my kitchen upheaval. It was quick and delicious.

My family is renovating our kitchen given that we have lived with a 1960's kitchen for a over a year now in our "new" house. Today begins the process which shall culminate with me having an electric convection wall oven and gas cooking range!

This week it's easy foods that don't make dishes or a big mess. I'm currently relegated to the half finished basement where we have a sink and our old gas stove. GAS STOVE oh how I have missed thee! No more waiting 45 minutes for water to boil and then to have my noodles, sauce, pudding, pork tenderloins, grilled tuna melts be scorched and blackened by the perverse heat of 40 year old electric coils!

*cue hallelujah chorus ( I feel it warranted)*

This joyful celebration is met with the severe annoyance of having to run upstairs every 2 seconds to dig through the numerous kitchen boxes that we have stashed in our dining room and livingroom until we get the kitchen done because "oh crud, I forgot a spoon/pan/strainer/salt/ tongs"

BUT IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT! I'm going to hijack my mom's new camera and take pictures of the new kitchen to post as well as the christening meal! Now to figure out the first meal menu...

Nom Nom NO!

I cook dinner for my family whenever I happen to not be at work. I recently joined chow.com which is a great little site containing tons of recipes and member questions and food pairings. From this site and a few googled links I have been making Main dishes and desserts for about two weeks.

Last night was German potato dumpling night. Dumpling fail on my part. I had to adjust the recipe to begin with considering what I had in the house and substitutions I thought that could be made (using premade mashed potatoes instead of mashing my own). Don't get me wrong, its not that I was adverse to making my own mashies, we just had a container of store bought ones heading on its way out in the freshness department. Given that the mashies weren't just plain potatoes, they already had "seasoning" in them, it said so on the package, I wasn't able to form actual dumplings. So after I made the filling I was stuck with mashed potatoes with flour and eggs and meat and veggies looking at each other longingly with no attractive way to unite them.

THWOCK - in they all went into a casserole dish (Kass-ah-roll) which is French for "ew". I baked the potato concoction and poured homemade gravy on top when I served it. It wasn't bad. Honestly the flavors were all there, just ugly.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not particularly like those groups of seasonings. Like Rosemary. The herb smells pleasant enough, but its not something I'm going to go out of my way for.

I have decided that I like sharper flavors. I know I'm not explaining it correctly, but I like a flavor that hits the tongue and stands out. Perhaps there were just too many things going on in last nights dinner. Too many flavors that left the eaters underwhelmed. The meal before that was Apricot ginger chicken over rice. That was different and clean. There wasn't a ton of things going on to confuse the palate. The next meal I plan on making is Greek Tilapia which is baked in the oven with feta cheese, tomatoes, and other seasonings. I'm looking forward to this, I have yet to cook fish.

Maybe I'll start remarking upon my kitchen adventures...

Femme Phantasmogoria

Here it is, performance weekend! My ancient comedy and performance class is putting on Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae, set in the 1970's at an ERA meeting . . .
The women of Athens are gathered in assembly to discuss how to bring down Euripides who can never seem to stop bashing women in his tragedies.

Comedy ensues when Euripides convinces his Kinsman to infiltrate the meeting dressed in drag.

Disco, cross-dressing, and phalloi abound. I'm a little nervous and excited.

That's the update for me right now. I hope to post pictures and whatnot as soon as they come up.

Free time?

I know, I know. I'm at college, how could I possibly have free time? Granted, I have work and schoolwork and club stuff for Circus Arts. Well, this is for Circus Arts, so HA! Mark used his camera to record himself and Edwin working on their dives, jumps, and flips.

Their hard work + Mark's camera + My fun with movie maker =

Acrobatic Evolution

This will hopefully be the first of many "Evolutions". I'm learning to tumble myself! Edwin and I are working out together and I'm working on becoming more flexible. I can do somersaults and shoulder rolls on the mat we have. It's exciting to see what else I can start learning!

And now...

It has been a while. A long while.

Okay, life thus far:

The classes I am officially in this semester (given that it is now just passed mid-term season):
Cicero and the End of the Roman Republic
Greek Art and the Making of Art History
Ancient Comedy and Performance
Renaissance and Baroque Set Design

All of these classes are of course informative and interesting and wonderful. They are killing me softly.

Let me give you a wonderful little demonstration of what I'm up against in my first 300 level Latin class:

Etsi vereor, iudices, ne turpe sit pro fortissimo viro dicere incipientem timere, minimeque deceat, cum T. Annius ipse magis de rei publicae salute quam de sua perturbetur, me ad eius causam parem animi magnitudinem adferre non posse, tamen haec novi iudici nova forma terret oculos, qui, quocumque inciderunt, consuetudinem fori et pristinum morem iudiciorum requirunt. Non enim corona consessus vester cinctus est, ut solebat; non usitata frequentia stipati sumus: 2. non illa praesidia, quae pro templis omnibus cernitis, etsi contra vim conlocata sunt, non adferunt tamen [oratori] aliquid, ut in foro et in iudicio, quamquam praesidiis salutaribus et necessariis saepti sumus, tamen ne non timere quidem sine aliquo timore possimus. Quae si opposita Miloni putarem, cederem tempori, iudices, nec inter tantam vim armorum existimarem esse oratori locum. Sed me recreat et reficit Cn. Pompei, sapientissimi et iustissimi viri, consilium, qui profecto nec iustitiae suae putaret esse, quem reum sententiis iudicum tradidisset, eundem telis militum dedere, nec sapientiae, temeritatem concitatae multitudinis auctoritate publica armare.

No, that isn't just online filler for form. Those are the words of the great orator Cicero opening in defense of his friend Milo against the accusations of murdering Clodius. Cicero's argument centers around "Yeah, he killed him, but it was the right thing to do for the good of the state!!!"
My test on the entire speech is this Tuesday. Nervous? yes.

Sexy right???

I have a handle on Greek Art, Renaissance and Baroque design has me making a model of a fire breathing dragon. Awesome? oh yes.

The academic light of my life is my comedy and performance class. We are set to perform the Aristophanes play Women at the Thesmophoria. It's loud, it's bawdy, and set in the 1970's at an ERA rally. I get to act and sing. It's the most fun I've had in a class since my first semester. It's also got me thinking about doing the open auditions they hold at the beginning of each semester. I love making people laugh.

I know this post is not very eloquent, or even correct grammatically. I'm typing it in my Renaissance and Baroque lecture. SHHHHHHH

Inauguration Day

The entire country is no doubt discussing this, I just thought I'd put my two-cents in.

I'm excited to see what this new administration can bring to our nation and the world. That being said, I sincerely hope that people do not expect Obama to pull out a magic wand and solve all of our problems. There is an intense amount of pressure on this new administration to be groundbreaking, I'm just hoping that Obama is a "good" president. If people place their hopes impossibly high, all they are going to get is disappointed. I feel that people think that because he's the first black president, he'll be the most noteworthy president, in league with Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. I hope he is. I truly do hope that he is able to help this country, and improve our relations with the world in such a way that places him on such a high pedestal. What an exciting time to be alive?

My opinion is: He is going to try. I hope he can do all that he says he wants to do. If he can't, I hope people don't jump ship, and turn on him, wishing that they had voted for option number two. That would not have been better by any stretch of the imagination.

In conclusion: I wish good luck upon the next four years, and look forward to "witnessing history"

More Focus?

Here I am, at the toy shop, after having just completed some computer inventory whatnots and whozits. Just wanted to post real quick about the Circus Arts blog I created yesterday. It has to be passed by the other members of the group, but I'm hoping we can eventually start blogging about our individual as well as group experiences.

As far as everything else goes, I shoveled my driveway yesterday while listening to Clive Barker's novel, Mr. B Gone, on my ipod with the audiobook function. I highly recommend this story. Whether or not you like to read, it's a good book, or audio track :-)

Warning: This book is dark.

Its an autobiography of a lesser demon from the 9th circle. Simultaneously hilarious and grotesque, Mr. B Gone was something I picked up last year at Barnes and Noble. I didn't purchase it, but had read it in a handful of hours while my boyfriend was shopping around. I'm very glad that I now have it with a greater degree of permanence. Barker's ability to make the main character, Jakabok Botch, sympathetic, is fantastic. While terrible things are occuring throughout the novel, you can understand Jakabok's mindset, if not sympathize with it. I'm currently at the beginning of disc 3 out of 6. In audiobook its a 6.5 hour performance. Great for long car rides or tedious chores that require little brain function.

Maybe that's what I'll do from now on. I'll give this blog a little more focus by reviewing books and movies and the like...

Mr. B Gone by Clive Barker, great for that little Macabre lover in all of us

In Reference to My Future Honors Thesis

In early December I had a meeting with the director of my department at college. My only homework assignment during this winter break is do chose 3 aspects of the material world which interest me in regards to medieval life. One of these three will ultimately become the focus of my senior honors thesis. The director actually got quite excited when I discussed my optimal future plans.

I want to make history more exciting to the general public. I love history and the way that it is presented is key to capturing interest. I recently went to the Natural History Museum in NYC. Even though I was anticipating this museum trip, I found myself getting lulled to sleep by the warm circulated air and the somewhat musty "museum" smell. If a person who is honestly looking forward to a museum visit is having a hard time keeping their eyes open, how is a non-interested student supposed to get caught up in the actual history?

I love public speaking and I'm not sure exactly how yet, but I want to make a difference in the way medieval history is shown to the public. In my opinion, history is strongly dependent upon it's presentation.

When I discussed that with my director, she decided to make my honors thesis divided into a paper and a mini-exhibit. I would hopefully be able to get into some area museum storage and have a few pieces transferred to my college. There I could work directly with a museum and some artifacts. Then I could present my paper alongside visual aids.

The Problem:

My library at home is abysmal. Every book I wanted to take out is out of circulation in their back room. As of right now I am interested in pagan religious articles, the symbolism behind heraldry (and any over-arching symbolism), and medieval medicines/herbs/tools of the apothecary/barber trade. I'm also interested in medieval performance arts such as buskers at street fairs, or holiday mummers.

In other words:

ARGH!

Thursday Night!

I had my first true downtown experience yesterday evening/early this morning. For those of you in my area, Chippewa St. is "the place" to go on pretty much any given night. My friend Kristen, along with her boyfriend Chris, invited me to accompany them. We spent the evening at Level, which I have linked below. It was clean, music was good, the bouncers were prevalent but not a pain. It's a great place to just have a good time.

Fun times were had by all

I miss high school for very few reasons. One of which being the school dances. You get to dress pretty and dance to techno. Now that I know how much fun that can be had at a real dance club, I really am apt to go out more often. I only had one drink at the very beginning of the evening, and I didn't need one to have fun.

Two weeks remain until spring semester begins!

SURPRISE!

My sister and my best friend from high school arranged a surprise birthday party for me after work on Friday. Although less than half of the invited people showed, it was really great fun. My sister paid for the food and kept it on the sly.

There was Rockband II and lots of girl talk, which was rather unfortunate for the two boys in attendance.

I'm here at the toy shop again and given the amount of wind and apparent flooding in the area, I figure today will be kind of slow. Tuesday is my travel day, 8+ hours on a bus all the way to NYC. At least there won't be any bus exchanges. I'm going to hopefully get to the station early and claim my seat.

For some reason the CD player isn't working at the store so I may just have to break out into song myself.

Much like last time, it is to be a long empty-ish day so I may post again with tidbits of all-important knowledge.

Some Blog-worthy Things. . .

My extended family is expanding by leaps and bounds. All the cousins are now getting married and having families of there own. As described in the last post, holidays are formulaic. This holiday the "adults" broke off and had a conversation about what to do now that families are growing and the "adults" are now becoming grandparents. The "kids" or better described as "the people getting married and having children" had a meeting of their own, discussing what is to be done. The young families are opting to attempt a bi-annual reunion rather than the hectic Christmases where they have to choose between family and in-laws. My father, and his sisters, on the other hand, who really have no say in the situation, were going to have their back-room discussion. When they came back out and we said we feel like Christmas should be done differently my dad got all up in arms about it. As my mother says, "to your father, 'change' is a four-letter word."

If my father has a hard time dealing with the extended family changing the way they do things, I can't WAIT to see how he is going to handle the next few years when it comes to me. I have to go to grad school. I don't plan on living at home after college. I don't plan on living near home either. These will be some rather fantastic hurdles for my father to overcome. Not to mention my continuing relationship with Edwin. Daddy's little girl is going to be somewhat of a headache for him. I love my father, don't get me wrong. It just can be so incredibly frustrating sometimes.

Considering I'm here 'til 4pm, I'm sure I will post again with some interesting links or something :-)

Christmas and the Like

OK, So today is my 20th birthday! YAY!

I am currently at the toy shop where I opened for the first time by myself. It's just me, the stuffed animals and a little Rockabye Baby U2. First customer of the day was a woman and her daughter returning a rather expensive present that the girl did not want. The woman in general was in a cranky mood and rather nasty. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO! The customers after that were nice so that fixed my put-outedness.

Onto Christmas:
I got a lot of nice things from my family. My family break Christmas up into 3 distinct sections. Christmas Eve = Grandma's house from my mom's side of the family. We open those presents then, then have a mini birthday thing for me. The next morning we open our presents at home then head over to my aunt's house form my dad's side of the family. Everyone at our house knows the best extended family presents come from my grandma's house. This year did not disappoint. I received a balloon animal making kit and some magic books. For my birthday I got a REALLY cool knife from my uncle (He's prepping my armory that I plan on having in my house when I move out on my own). On my dad's side of the family, excluding a beautiful earring and necklace set I got from my one aunt, I got sheets. 2 whole sheet sets. Granted they are nice sheets, but it still felt much like opening your package and finding socks. Pleasant, functional, and lackluster of that holiday enthusiasm.

So today is my birthday and now to decide where I will go with my family for dinner and a movie. I've narrowed it down to The Day the Earth Stood Still or The Tale of Despereaux. As far as dinner is concerned, I think I might say Red Robin because I know Amanda likes to go there.

I think I'm going to add a separate post about some other stories/ things going on. This appears to be a strictly holiday post. That being said:

MERRY CHRISTMAS
HAPPY FESTIVUS
HAPPY SOLSTICE
and
HOPE YOU HAD A ROCKIN" SATURNALIA!

I have come to the conclusion that...

I just don't have a life full of blog worthy things.

Perhaps it is related to the fact that I don't speak on the phone very well. It's not that I stammer or anything, I simply seem to run out of conversation. Now in person, that is another story entirely.

In reference to the video I last posted about, I ended up making a blooper reel in addition to the actual piece. Both are linked here:

The Actual Assignment

The Blooper Reel

Anywho, Christmas is literally upon us. That means my birthday is as well! I turn 20 on the 26th. I head to NYC on the 30th for a couple days with my boyfriend (who told me all I have to do is blog about how amazing he is. I countered with the fact that his awesomeness is common knowledge the world- over. He conceded to this).

Have I ever mentioned on here that I am hopelessly, unbelievably in love? I mean it's truly terrible. You suddenly have these gooey feelings and your brain tends to go all to mush when that certain person smiles. These gooey feelings have persisted for more than a year and i see no sign of a cure.

I wonder if it's terminal...

The Here and Now

Things have been admittedly hectic this semester. Therefor I am going to basically start fresh, just injecting little side notes and points of interest.

1) Has anyone out there heard of or read the children's book titled "The Wump World"?

• I freaking loved this story as a child and recently had it purchased for me
• I'm in an Apocalyptic Fiction class and while discussing Earth Abides, the story of the wumps came to mind. Ah kid lit!

2) Another question: Has anyone seen Twice Upon a Time?

• It's a fantastically fun movie
  
• You can find it on YouTube, granted it's in bits, but it's all there

3) Thanksgiving? Already? When did that happen?

• Ah well, good food cometh

4) I am currently working on a mini film for my creative writing class. I will post it as soon as it is completed.

Soon

Only 6 days remain here at home. That's 144 hours. 8,640 minutes. 518,400 seconds. But who is counting?

Honestly I seem to have finally gotten back into the swing of being home and now I have to leave again. I kept anticipating my return to campus, but now that it's almost here, I'm torn. Going back to school means school work, and my job on campus. It also means freedom. so i guess it all balances out.

After my time at the toy shop, I REALLY don't want to deal with food service. Ah well, we shall see what happens next...

It's been a while...

So, I haven't posted recently because there simply isn't anything going on in my life except work and the recent preparation for returning to school.

I just found out from my boyfriend that The Binghamton University Circus Arts Association is going to performing in the city of Binghamton on September 19th! It's so cool that a club that is only a year old has already done so much. I really hope that the circus that started in 2007 will become a staple at the university. So, it sounds like I will have many more posts in the future with cool circus pictures and everything. The club may even start a blog of their own and then we could get everyone to post about their experiences or whatnot!

I have a family party at my house this Saturday. After that, I really just have the move back to Binghamton on the 22nd, everything is packed, it's just a matter of the drive!

Today is not a good mood day, but, that will change, it always does :-)