i just want to spend today talking about two of the best people that i know.
aka mom and dad.
i know that most kids think that their parents are losers, are still living in their glory days from way-back-when, won't mind their own business, yada yada yada... (there are occasions when i do wonder what planet they hail from, and if i really wasn't dropped off on the doorstep by a stork...) but i happen to think that my parents are the coolest cats since the invention of sliced bread.
i'd like you to meet my folks.
aren't they cute?
i think i'll keep them.
when i think of my parents, i think of:
my dad teaching me how to box out after a free throw at 10 o'clock at night in jr. high.
making me read ender's game.
first introducing me to pride and prejudice. (yes mom, it was actually dad that first showed me that movie...)
my mom making me do chores every. single. saturday growing up.
the slave labor before christmas when we made tons of food. (and i'm not kidding about the tons part.) and then we gave it all away. what's with that?
teaching me how to cook. so that i didn't starve to death when i got to college. because top ramen wasn't gonna happen.
of hour-long talks when driving to school, california, or anywhere else (when it was my job to keep her awake)
and all my friends thinking that my mom was the coolest person ever...
i miss this.
but next summer = graduation!
(and more adventures with mom!!!)
i don't know why this picture ended up on here...
i just thought it was funny.
:)
i love my family.
and now for a little thanksgiving food-for-thought:
call me a nerd, but i love science. call me an even bigger nerd that i watch youtube videos about science.
(you know you wish you found this first...)
but guess what? today is friiiiiiidayyyyy! :) and friday is the day that: 1- i can stop thinking about school for the next 48 hours 2- i can have adventures (and not feel like i should be at home studying) 3- no homework 4- my parents are coming up to visit! 5- did i mention i get to go shopping with my mom??? 6- i don't have to wake up at 6. (wait... that really happens any other day of the week???) 7- quality time with me and my book. because i promised myself that i will finish one book every other week. (by the way, this is book #2) 8- i don't have to be any where important. so i can sit on my butt and look up useless things like this:
(this just makes me want grilled cheese ohhhhhh so badly! i should stop torturing myself because i don't get to eat lunch for another 2 hours... this is just cruel...)
http://www.grilledcheesesocial.com/ has some of the BEST looking grilled cheese sandwiches i've every seen in my entire life. i mean, this chick has the art of perfectly grilling a cheese-which down to a science. nay, it is art. pure and simple.
if you really want to get down to the science behind the grilled cheese, check out the sporkful.
they are my new favorite when it comes to analyzing the nitty-gritty necessities of good cookin'.
10- lunch today: leftovers from last night's cooking escapade.
this is yet another one of those meals that just kinda... happened. we threw in a couple of onions, green onions in the fridge, an eggplant, peppers and jalapenos, leftover hamburger and spinach that was not lookin so hot... (not slimy... just a little wilty...)
toss it all in a skillet with some spices and BAM!
PRESTO!
the most time consuming part of the dinner was finding out how to get the blasted cabbage leaves OFF of the head.
how do you perform this feat you ask?
you toss the head of cabbage into boiling water for a few minutes, and then the leaves just come right off!!!
simple as that.
then we threw those in a casserole dish, covered it in prego or ragu... and then topped it with some cheese right before it was done.
i really think that i had forgotten how hard {wednesdays} were.
today has been brutal! (good luck i don't have a lot of homework or i would be pretty much toast...)
i know i talked about the soul-searching aspect that always seems to accompany the beginning of each new semester, but some people can say it so much better than i can.
so i am a pretty big quote geek. back at home, i have quote books from high school, i copy quotes and keep them on my computer, i type them in my phone and send them to myself so that i don't forget them... i love reading what people that are much wiser than me have to say about the world.
the last quote has always confused me. not that i didn't understand what it was supposed to mean, i knew what it was saying, i just didn't get it. i do now. having lived in a different country for even three months - leaving my family, having to fend for myself (ie not blow all the money that i had), meeting tons of new people was all part of an amazing adventure.
but coming home was special.
i don't know if i can quite explain it adequately, but it was an eye-opening experience to come home and see how blessed i am. and how often i take all of those blessings for granted.
like going for a walk by myself.
wearing shorts.
sitting on the grass under a crystal clear sky.
hearing my younger brothers fight. because i am with my family.
having to run errands for my mom, but getting to drive around in my car.
cooking!
sharing my beliefs with others.
having so many clothes that i don't know what to do with them anymore...
on another note, i read something really cool from this awesome blog - i love reading it... it always makes me laugh.
it also made me feel justified in bringing home six books from the library today... (i have no idea when i'm going to read them - but don't judge me! i couldn't put them back!!!)
-------------------
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but...she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
*** Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are. *** You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes. -- Rosemary Urquico
:)
and it this weren't random enough already, we have to speak of food! the world would probably explode if i didn't...
this looks pretty much like the ultimate in grilled cheese.
i can almost feel my arteries clogging up looking at it, but it looks so good!
