This Does Not Taste Sinful October 31, 2008

I just ate one of those Dark-Chocolate Cherry granola bars that are advertised all the time.

The verdict?

It’s good, but it doesn’t taste like something you shouldn’t be eating.

It’s not sinfully good. (It’s very good, just not sinfully good.)

The following foods are sinfully good:

1. Tiramisu

2. French Fries

3. Oreo Cookies and Milk

4. Veggie Quesadillas (hey wait, that one is actually good for you)

5. Chocolate Mousse Cake

6. Fondue

7. Turtle Cheescake

8. Bacon

9. Better Than Sex Cake (The Name Says It All)

10. Heath bars

11. Ice cream mixed in with chopped up heath bars

12. Anything from Marble Slab

13. S’Mores

14. Kit-Kats

16. Skittles

17. cherry yougurt (hey, that’s good for you too, quit sneaking into my list health foods)

18. Coke Icees

19. funnel cake

20. pepperoni pizza

21. caramel apples dipped in nuts

22. Tortilla Chips and Queso

23. Chimichangas

24. Nachos

25. Vanilla Coffee with 3 packets of splenda (Damn you low-calorie things interfering with my list!)

26. PINEAPPLE MILKSHAKES (Haven’t had one? Oh, it’s glorious. Heaven in a styrofoam cup.)

27. Banana Splits

28. Buttered Popcorn

29. Three Musketeers Bars (Actually, these aren’t horrible for you either)

30. Hershey’s bars with almonds

31. All the various forms of Halloween Candy I will consume today.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

No H2O. October 30, 2008

So I’m getting ready to eat lunch.

What to drink?

Oh wait, the same thing I always drink. Water! So I bop on over and get my cup. I go to fill it up. Whaaaat?

Nothing comes out of the tap.

Wait! Maybe there is something wrong with this one!

I shall try the bathroom sink! Aha! A tiny trickle of water comes out.

Not enough to drink. I rummage in the fridge for my left over bottle of sweet leaf lemonade. I hear commotion outside my door. I look out and find my neighbors congregating in the hallway. “Is the water off?” everyone asks. “I guess.” mutters one girl, who took the time to step outside in a robe and towel around her head.

So apparently they turned our water off. I’d like to thank the fine, fine people of building management for letting us know.

Something better be busted somewhere or I’m gonna be pissed.

all the cool kids are doing it October 28, 2008

Middle-Aged-Woman and gathering.dust did it, so obviously I must do it as well.

Here you go, seven random facts about myself. I’m sure I have done this before, but one good turn deserves another.

1.  I watched “Little Miss Sunshine” for approximately the 99999999999th time tonight. That is one movie that never gets old.

2. I have extremely short toes. gathering.dust pointed out her long toes, so I will point out my short toes. I guess I could post up a pic, but you all have already seen my feet when I ripped off half my toenail, so I really don’t feel a need to. Plus it’s cold here and socks feel good.

3.  I have to listen to music in the car because if I don’t the thoughts in my head weird me out too much. I guess that one is a little freaky.

4. I have a magnet on my refrigerator that spelled Tennessee wrong. It says Tennesseee. This makes it many, many times more interesting than it would have been normally.

5. If I wasn’t going to be a teacher, I’d like to be a pin-up girl. You know, a cute 1940s one, not a skanky one.  If anyone knows where to find the application for that, let me know.

6. I am a supreme procrastinator. I have been extremely productive lately. Yay for me.

7.  I am unreasonably grouchy when I have not had enough sleep.

Smells of My Childhood October 27, 2008

Today I smelled two smells I hadn’t thought about in a long time.  I was walking down the hall of my building when they hit me.

The first time, it smelled EXACTLY like an old family friend’s pantry. When I was little, I was a fairly nosy kid (not that I ever grew out of it) and I liked to look around in people’s closets, pantries, drawers, etc. You get the picture. She used to let me look all I wanted, rearranging things in her pantry, picking my own neon colored straw for the drinks she always provided. I thought it was great fun. And her pantry always had this distinct smell. I couldn’t explain what it smelled like, it just smelled like her pantry. She got older, things started to confuse her more and more each day, and now she happily lives in an assisted living home. Oh yes, and my grandmother now lives in her old house, so I still see the pantry, but it does not smell the same. I guess it was some spice or something she kept in there.

Anyway, I was walking down the hall when it hit me.  I closed my eyes and it was like I was four years old again, standing in front of her pantry.

The second time, I was walking down the hallway in a different direction, and I smelled another familiar smell. The smell of another old family friend’s home.  It smelled vaguely like soft perfume, cigarettes, and clean dog. (Clean dog is not a bad smell, not at all.) I hadn’t thought about this woman in a long time.  I remembered her and her little miniature poodle that I delighted in playing with when I was little.  She passed away several years ago, but I have always had fond memories of her.  She was an interesting lady. She had immigrated from Germany and had many interesting knick-knacks in her house.

So twice today, I smelled two familiar smells completely out of the context I remembered them in.   I guess I thought it was a little odd, but not at all frightening or really even very strange.

This has happened to me several times before, not enough to be seriously weird or anything, but sometimes I’ll just catch a whiff of something that is familiar and comforting. One day while standing by my vanity I smelled my great-grandmother’s familar smell. Another day I might smell my late grandmother or my late great-aunt. My sister is the same way. I don’t know, maybe we have really powerful senses of smell.

They say that smell is the most powerful memory booster there is. We can recall so much more from a smell than anything else. I wonder why this is?

oof October 27, 2008

Whew! Everything is (so far) running much more smoothly this week. D’s dad came home from the hospital last night and is doing MUCH better. I finished my 11 page paper and turned it in this morning. (I actually finished the paper yesterday morning but decided to leave the sources crap for today, I think it was a good decision.)  I am no longer sick.

Sleeeeepy, but not sick. Am in desparate need of a nap, but must take shower and print things before class this afternoon, so probably no  nap today, will be going to bed EARLY though.

Empty Promises October 24, 2008

So I had all these great plans for a post for today, I was going to write about all the people i’d like to know, but it will have to wait because we have a lot going on right now.

D’s dad was taken to the hospital via ambulance this morning. We stil don’t really know what is going on. D is at the hospital, and I am here, getting ready to go to the hospital.  I’d really appreciate it if you all could keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  So funny how everything can be going fine and then all of a sudden everything is turned upside down.

On another note, I  am also on page 4 of a 10-12 page paper that is due Monday, so it may be awhile folks.

(On the upside, I am feeling better from whatever tummy lurgy I had this week.)

My Apologies October 23, 2008

I apologize for not posting anything in the last several days. I have this huge paper looming over my head and, as a special added bonus, I came down with some sort of stomach bug yesterday. Yuck. Real post later when things calm down.

Early Voting October 18, 2008

I voted yesterday!

This was my first time to get to vote in a presidential election, and let me tell you, I was EXCITED! Pushing the button beside Senator Obama’s name was thrilling. Imagine, little old me, voicing my opinion about who the next leader of our country will be. Imagine, my vote counts just as much as the current president’s vote.

Women in this country have only had the right to vote since 1920. In the grand scheme of things, that is not very long ago, at ALL.  A lot of things have changed in the last 88 years.  A lot of things have changed in the last 40 years. I cast my first presidential vote for a black man, something truely incredible when you think that only in the last 40 or so years has our country finally evolved and broke free from segregation.

I feel really excited to live in America right now. I feel so proud and honored to have cast my first vote for Obama-Biden; I feel like I am really getting to live what I feel will be a momentous occasion in American history.

“Cultivate your curves. They may be dangerous but they won’t be avoided.”-Mae West October 16, 2008

I love that quote. Middle-Aged Woman wrote a blog today that really got me to thinkin. She wrote about self image, which obviously made me think about my own self image. Which, at the moment, is pretty damned good.

Let me give you a small background of myself. I have had food issues/body issues for half my life. When I was 10, a relative (I won’t say who, because it is someone that I love VERY much, and I know they never meant anything hurtful) made the comment that we should both lose 10 pounds that summer. I. Was. Ten. Now I’m not saying that that caused the whole thing, the seeds were probably already in my mind at that point. But it still hurt. Then a few years later it really came into full swing. I won’t go into details here, because it’s a long drawn out, painful story, that I really don’t like rehashing out.

Let’s just say that I am five feet eight inches tall, and weighed 114 lbs at several points during my high school days.

Well, guess what? I don’t weigh that anymore! I don’t weigh anything close to that.  After I graduated, I finally came into my true skin. I don’t really care to share my weight over the internets, but I guess I am brave enough to tell you that I weigh AT LEAST 50 lbs more than that weight. Keep in mind that I said at least. Did the earth fall down because I gained 50 lbs? Nope. Did I turn into a horrendous ugly monster? Nope. Actually, (not to sound conceited here), I get more appreciative looks from the opposite sex now. I am proud of my body.  Is it perfect? No, of course not. Do I have six pack abs and super toned arms? Nope. Do I have awesome legs and pretty shiny hair? Yep. Do I have a pretty peaches and cream complexion that I am very careful with, never going out without sunscreen? Yep. Do I have two functioning arms? Two functioning strong legs? Yes, and yes. There you go. Good enough for me. Good enough for anyone.

That’s not to say that I am the all-self-confident-all-knowing-Rachel. No, not at all. Just today I slipped up. I decided to weigh myself. I weighed 5 lbs more than I thought I did.  Keep in mind that I had JUST eaten and drank. A good sized glass of something probably weighs at least a pound.  I won’t say that I just shrugged and put the scale away. It was enough to rattle me for a few minutes.  But then I thought of Middle-Aged-Woman’s blog entry and the comment that I wrote. I wrote that I thought of myself as “voluptous”. And you know what? That was true. I do. I’m happy to have hips and curves and to be soft and flowing.  Do I care if I gain five pounds? Yeah. Does it ruin my day? No. It just reminds me to eat a little better.

So, I would say that I have a good self image.

A few pictures, just to prove how really un-self conscious I am.

all smiles

happy girls are the best girls

this was my attempt at a sexy face

bookish October 15, 2008

I stole this from gathering.dust

Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random bookish things about yourself.
4. Tag sixish people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

I got this from gathering.dust. Love her blog!

Now for my six random bookish things:

1. I learned how to read when I was four, and I haven’t stopped since.

2. I can’t enjoy eating by myself unless I am reading something. I don’t read when I am eating with other people, but if I eat by myself, I must read.

3. I’m a fast reader. It usually takes me only a few hours (or at the most, a day or two) to finish a book I am interested in.  I read so fast trying to absorb everything that I often miss things. So as soon as I finish the book, I usually turn right around and read it again.

4. I could read the same 50ish books or so over and over and over again.

5. For me, going into a bookstore is like an alcoholic going into a bar. I just can’t get enough.

6. I get overly attatched to the characters in stories. I actually wept when Ed.ward went away in “New.Moon”. Oh and I cried happy tears at the end of the last book.  These are not the only characters I’ve formed strong attatchments to. Other examples of characters I feel are like family are : Laura Ingalls Wilder, from the “Little House” books, Francie Nolan from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”, Will Tweedy from “Cold Sassy Tree”, Ramona Quimby from the “Ramona” books by Beverly Cleary,  Scout from “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Holden from “The Catcher in the Rye”,  the “Sarah Plain and Tall” characters, and Becky Bloomwood from the “Shopaholic” series.