Thanksgiving Adventure

Okay, as always I DID enjoy my break. At least it doesn't ever go the other way around where I'm super excited and it always turns out shitty. This is definitely the better tradition.

The bus ride home was slightly on the rough side. I decided to go with the red eye on Tuesday and although I got in line at exactly midnight for my 1am bus, the bus didn't arrive until 2am and we didn't leave until nearly 2:30am. But... I wasn't terribly surprised because it was Thanksgiving weekend. Since I have more to talk about in this entry, I won't address my pillow issue or my mysterious unquenchable thirst at length. For the NY to PA bus, something huge hit the windshield. We had to pull over and the police came and we had to get into another bus blah blah blah. The whole shabang took over an hour and a half, but it was ok because I slept the most while the bus was stopped. Then I took the bus home, picked up a slice of pizza for my mom, brother, and me, and talked to my mom for about a minute before I passed out for an hour. I woke up again later, but I ended up going to bed at 7pm. I woke at 5:40am, watched two episodes of Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and went back to sleep until 10:40am.

We all made the Thanksgiving feast. Even though it was just my family, we insisted on making appetizers-- spinach and artichoke dip!!! And while eating said dip, we all played monopoly! (except my mom, because she doesn't really like board games)!!! And I won!! And we played until bankruptcy! EXCELLENT!

Then, before the turkey was done, my mom took me out to drive for the first time since I took my test... marking my 16th day of driving ever. I couldn't remember which peddle was gas and which was the brake, which I took as a terrible sign. But... it turned out fine. I thought my mom was going to have to drive me to a parking lot so I could remember how to turn, but she didn't. I pulled out of our driveway and rode around our neighborhood just fine.

Thanksgiving is hilarious because it took us about 8 hours to make and about 15 minutes to eat before we were ready to die. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, yams, rolls, and cranberry sauce. After dinner, my mom and I went driving again. This time we tackled highways and Philadelphia. Scary, but pretty okay. Then we played monopoly AGAIN, and my brother won this time. Although, when he was taking the last of my sister's money slowly, he tried to give some back to her because he felt so bad about taking everything from her. We told him he had to take the money because we weren't going to let his conscience off the hook, and he started to cry because he felt so bad! Cute.

The next day we registered my car. Then I watched a little bit of The Nanny Diaries, which was exactly like The Devil Wears Prada except, according to the 45 minutes I watched, less good. I guess that's not my official take on it though. Can't judge a movie in 45 minutes.

Then I drove around on my own for the first time EVER! What I learned... nay... what I reiterated to myself, was that I only know about 3 miles of my town in one direction from my house... which is fine when you walk, but scary when you drive. I drove to Claire's house. Then I drove to Sarah's house. Then I drove to other Claire's house. That was the extent of my knowledge. I got lost when I tried to drive past other Claire's house, and had a panic attack until I found familiar roads again... and I'm convinced that that was a miracle.

Later I WALKED to Claire's house and the five of us (Claire, Natalya, Claire, and Sarah) went out to dinner. Then we went to a bar because a friend told us to meet him there. He's a year older than us and told him that his friends were having an impromptu reunion. That was false. It was the 2005 five-year class reunion!! While it was interesting seeing the people from the year ahead of us (lots of weight gain, not that I judge), it was mostly scary and I kept my head down for a lot of it. Since there was a cover charge, we kind of had an obligation to stay for a bit, but we left around 11. Then we went down and essentially crashed a get together of some boys two years younger than us. That was nice... also a little awkward. Mostly, I went home with a supreme blast-from-the-past feeling.

Next day: Picked Elena up in Philadelphia. Stocked up on food. Drove the ENTIRE WAY TO BOSTON!! I wasn't even terribly nervous for most of it. The worst part was probably being in Boston. We were supposed to get off at exit 20 but the exits went from 18 to 22.... wtf. Buuuut I did some amazingly aggressive driving! What I learned was that the driving is so INSANE that it doesn't really matter what you do because people are merging all over the land anyway!

So it took about 9.5 hours and about $35 for gas and more for tolls. Plus I only peed 3 times. Amazing.

Things I need for my solo trip in 23 days:

1. Water bottle with a pop cap so I can open and close it on my own.

2. Tape converter thing to plug my ipod into the car (so I don't have to listen to Christmas music and the Dirty Dancing soundtrack on cassette-- left my my grandpa!)

Things I learned in general:

1. All lady talk radio personalities sound exactly the same.

2. Elena and I can only name like... 21 U.S. Presidents.

3. My brother's new youtube site. Please enjoy this Matt-classic.

When I got home, I watched Splash, which I rented from Netflix. I don't know how BAD the movie is, but Daryl Hannah isn't a great actress and it is just pretty dated. Whatever. But it compelled me to watch Sleepless in Seattle because of the young Tom Hanks and the fact that it has a lady radio personality that sounds the same as every other one.

Anyway, I used to not like Sleepless in Seattle that much, but I think I was resentful because that would never happen. This time I decided... well OBVIOUSLY that could never happen... most romantic comedies couldn't but they just aren't so obviously fanciful. Plus, Jurassic Park could never happen either. And what's the point of movies if not to make our fanciful dreams come true? Anyway, I liked it this time. Plus, it's the second movie that I can think of where the girl gets the man of her dreams when it seems like... EXTREMELY unlikely, mostly because they've never met, the other one being Sixteen Candles.

So... now I have to write a paper. Lame.

Also, I want to see It's Complicated. I just do.

A Little More Hanson and a Bit on Food

I just need to add that while it would have been nice to have someone with me at the concert to evaluate the opening bands-- Sherwood, Steel Train, and Hellogoodbye (all quality, but I particularly liked Steel Train), it was ultimately golden that no one was with me because then I didn't have to be ashamed as I danced and screamed (SCREAMED!) like a maniac, knowing all the words to semi-obscure Hanson songs... just like everyone else there. I need to point out that the entire audience sang EVERY WORD to "Crazy Beautiful" from their 3rd album (how many people in the ... normal? world even know Hanson has a third album? (and a 4th)...). I'm talking ALL VERSES. That's CRAZY! (/beautiful... heh)!

In other news, I'm nearly finished with the week of crazy. I have to write my reason for wanting to go to LA and a 3-5 page paper for health care sociology (which ISN'T a research paper... which I find strange and wonderful) and I'm academically in the clear. ALTHOUGH, I am unfortunately not gold on the readings anymore. C'est la vie. It the homework reading proficiency didn't seem likely to last forever.

Other things:

1. I lost my wallet this week. Well... not so much lost as dropped it and then had to go on a goose chase around campus to get it back. What's weird is a few hours before that I forgot my notebook at work and a few hours later, I left home without my keys. It was a forgetful/materials lost sort of 24-hours.

2. I made irish potato soup. Honestly the odds seemed stacked against me-- mostly of my own doing. All I knew was that I wanted irish potato soup like the kind I get at my favorite restaurant in PA (Maggie O'Neil's). I looked up 3 or 4 recipes and then did what I thought would be the least elaborate way to make the soup, which isn't too smart, especially considering my less-than-delicious cooking past. But miraculously, it was GREAT!!! Even Elena thought so (although her words may not have included "great," and she did concede that if it wasn't good, she would still tell me it was good... what I'm saying is that she isn't a reliable source ;) ).

3. Last week I had a salad week. One week of DEFINITELY getting the right amount of vegetables. I did enjoy it. The only problem (can I call it a problem?) is maintenance. I can't buy 2 weeks worth of vegetables because they'll go bad, so I have to go to the store almost every day to replace something that I finished up. Lame. I finally ran out of spinach two days ago. Thus endeth salad week.

Also, 30 Rock premiere tonight at 9:30pm after The Office on NBC!!!

Also, I'm seeing David Cross on Monday!!!

Cupcake Extraordinaire

My first test of the year is tomorrow. It's on health care and honestly... I feel like I've totally got it. I feel like it would PROBABLY be okay if I just showed up tomorrow without studying at all... although on a much more real level, it wouldn't be okay at all. But I HAVE been doing the readings and I HAVE been telling everything I know to anyone who will listen. Studying just seems so redundant right now. It's not a problem I face regularly.

In the name of procrastination, I would like to show you the most amazing looking cupcakes that one of the new Chords, Leanne, made.

Those purple swirly ones are completely rainbow inside. AWESOME!!! (If Claire reads this, the purple swirly ones would go GREAT with a Carnivale 2.0 party... which I think we should have in Las Vegas...)

Personal Late Night Dilemma and Pomegranate Advice

Ok having my TV back is both gold and... not-so gold. It's pyrite, if you will.

For one thing, having a TV can suck you into things you really don't want to watch and don't honestly have the time for. For instance, yesterday I watched Along Came Polly, which has to be my least favorite Ben Stiller movie, my least favorite Phillip Seymour Hoffman movie, and my least favorite Hank Azaria movie. To be fair, it isn't my least favorite of the Aniston flicks (She's Just Not That Into You, Rumor Has It) or my least favorite Debra Messing film (The Wedding Date). Still... the movie shouldn't be a temptation, yet simply existing seems to have been enough of a motivation for me to succumb.

ALTHOUGH, on the gold end, I almost died having to wait to watch Jon Stewart's interview with Rod Blagojevich.

Now since the summer, I've been watching my late night programs online. Because of CBS' lame website, I switched to Conan as being my primary late night talk show host of the 11:30-12:30 time slot (except I only watch the last half hour because Colbert trumps both). Well now that both Letterman and Conan are equal again (because I'm going to watch them on TV), which do I choose? I went to both of their sites and wrote down the guests for every day this week. With some simple math, I've come up with a good plan for each day.

(Conan on the left; Letterman on the right)

Monday: Drew Barrymore > Felicity Huffman = Conan

Tuesday: John Krasinski > Kelsey Grammer = Conan

Wednesday: Kate Walsh < madonna =" Letterman

Thursday: Michael Moore... =? Woody Harrelson = hard to say

Friday: Joshua Bell < david =" Letterman

Other information:

If you cut a pomegranate into 6 pieces and then put it under water in a bowl, you can EASILY get the seeds out. PLUS all of the peel floats to the top and the seeds sink to the bottom so you can skim the top of the water of all the peel and then drain the seeds in a colander. Then you've got all the seeds!! WAY better than picking them out of the peel individually, in my opinion.

PLUS, you can put the seeds into a bowl and mash the juice out by swishing the seeds with a glass. If you decide to put a pomegranate and a half of juice in a martini glass with 1.5 shots of vodka and a splash of lemonade, you get a pretty delicious drink. Then if you take a few sips and take a picture of it, I can only guess it might look something like this:

Worth it? Probably not (unless you get the pomegranates for free, which happened to be my fortunate circumstance at the time). Fun and delicious? HELL YEAH!

Big Bang Toast

Well I went crazy again and only have seven more episodes to watch before I finish the entire series of The Big Bang Theory. Thankfully it's only two seasons long so... while I clearly have some sort of a problem, I haven't given up my life completely...

On the bright side, it's now another choice for my final project for my TV writing class. PLUS, it's apparently the highest rated sitcom behind Two and Half Men (if I understood correctly) and it's a young show so it'll probably be around for a while after I graduate... all of this according to my professor... not my own observations.

Today I got a lot done before I realized that we don't have class tomorrow. Then I abruptly stopped. Oh well...

(If you can't figure out what happened to the rest of my day, refer to paragraph one.)

Here's one glorious thing. I obtained the new toaster-- the one that I didn't find on public ground. And it makes PERFECT toast!!! Breakfast just got infinitely more lovely! Peanut butter toast! Eggs and toast! Toasty turkey sandwiches... or dare I try making my own lovely, toasty CLUB sandwiches!?!! And if I run out of money again, there's nothing wrong with a little plain buttered toast. Did I mention that this toaster toasts BAGELS?! It even has a special setting for FROZEN bagels!!

BUSAAAY!

I forget how busy life is (I know that sounds like... some sort of flat exaggerated open-liner... but I am SERIOUS!)!!! A jillion people to see, a jillion things to do, and a jillion places to be. It's overwhelming!

In fact, I can't even list everything I've done every day (thank god for you) because there's too much (or more likely, my brain has lost the ability to retain even slightly large pieces of information). I'll just give you an example instead.

Yesterday I got up to go to Splash (the activities fair thing... the main attraction, in my opinion, was the hamburgers, which I talked about excessively up until the point where one was in my mouth... oh and also to promote Chords and get people to audition). I was intending on being at the Starbucks outside at 9:40am... but because of chronic-early syndrome, I was there at 9:30am. That's EARLY (in my opinion). Yadda Yadda hamburgers (THREE) yadda. There was also excessive screaming.

ANYWAY, then I went to help Caroline move for the second day! Now she lives four flights up ... a trip which leaves me winded when I go up ONCE with no intention of coming back down within 3 hours. Which is why ANTICIPATING moving her is torture. And she's got a LOOOOT of stuff... including a bed and futon!! Crazy. But actually it isn't AS impossible as you'd imagine. I don't know how, but somehow the stairs, while definitely painful, don't become AS awful if you're making 7 trips up and down. I don't know why. Although this fact certainly doesn't seem to diminish the back pain the next morning (today). I considered the two day activity as my body's physical warm-up before it plunges back into regular activity. I considered the screaming at Splash to be the vocal warm-up. Get used to talking again!

After that, I came home (with so many martini glasses that Caroline gave me that I can make martinis... and smash them to the ground after every drink and probably still get pretty off (a practice I definitely wouldn't recommend... being drunk around smashed glasses)). Elena and I had tea and apples and soup. Then we went to a bingo/ice cream/ Tiffany's and Coach prizes night, for which we left at 9pm, although it started at 10.

Bingo is HIGH anxiety. I have no idea why it is intended for the elderly. Also, after I was over the anxiety because there was no way I was going to win, I got really sleepy. Plus, the guy calling out the numbers started sounding REALLY annoying to me. I was not alone it ANY of these feelings. Everyone at the table seemed to go through all those exact emotions-- anxiety, sleepy, and then pissed at the caller. He WAS really annoying though. He seemed to get really pissed off at all the people and then he just lost enthusiasm completely. We were like, "Jesus! This isn't THAT hard of a job, here! Settle down!"

Then I went home and passed out.

That's far too many activities for one day! I feel like I could spread that out over 3 weeks! And all of my days seem to be scheduled like that! Where are my three days in a row of neither seeing nor talking to anyone, watching movies all day long? Gone? Gone for the rest of my life!? Yeah...

Submerged

Submerged in the world of people.

Amanda's mom took Amanda, Joanna, and me out for dinner the other day. It was FANTASTIC and I'm pretty sure I could not have been more appreciative (unless I was a native in a third world country... but that, I believe, is implied). Now, I pretty much have money again, and I certainly will... and I don't have anxiety about food TOO much anymore. All of these things I was trying to hide for a bit (relatively unsuccessfully... but still, I didn't reveal, even here, the extent of the situation) because I didn't want to sound like I thought I didn't deserve what happened, and I didn't want to sound like I was begging or whining. It was bad but it was a good bad.

ANYWAY, now that I have money, I don't feel as inhibited about talking about the situation I was in for a couple of weeks. I didn't THINK I was talking about it TOO much, but I guess I must have because after dinner, Amanda's mom offered to buy me groceries!!! Some people are so lovely that I can't handle it at all. I declined because my stomach no longer takes precedence over my guilt, shame, and courtesy... something I can't say was true 10 days ago.

Look at the word vomit. Awful. But... it is MY blog! And I'm not begging anymore... I'm just, apparently, really pleased with myself.

Anyway, I'd gotten up at 8:45am, done my 6.4 miles of moving, and after dinner, at 10:30pm, I was about to kill myself with exhaustion. After so much decadence and flexible consciousness in the summer, my body was like "WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!?!" So I went home, but unfortunately didn't sleep... until midnight when I HAD to because I still had a LOT of cleaning to do (All my fault, though. Can I stress this enough to not sound like I'm really whining? No? Sorry...)

So I woke up at 2am. I did laundry. Scrubbed down the kitchen and the bathroom and the bedroom. Threw away a shit-ton of stuff. It was intense... and not bad at all. Vanessa was supposed to come back around 6am and I finished everything around 5:30am. SOOOOO to kill some time, I did what I've become accustomed to doing... I assume out of solitude. I read ALOUD from my blog.... which I wouldn't even admit right here... but it's pretty important. Because I ASSUMED that Vanessa would call me when she got there... because what are the other options? She doesn't have a key. That's why had to wait for her.

WEEEELL instead, she came to the window, HEARD ME TALKING TO MYSELF, and shouted for me to come to the door. AT 6AM! HOW EMBARRASSING! My skin doesn't really have blushing capabilities, but I can guarantee if it did, this is when they would be utilized. Just to be clear, I don't really know Vanessa terribly well... at all. She didn't really say anything about it, for which I was very thankful. However, we ended up having a lovely chat for well over an hour, and at some point we were talking about living in the apartment and how there is a level of solitude that gets to be too much. She told me that she would get really lonely, and I told her that I wasn't getting LONELY so much as I started worrying that I was going crazy sometimes. And then I laughed and said "like how you caught me talking to myself at 6am just now!" And she looked and me and laughed and told me that she did hear me talking but she didn't make the connection that I was talking to myself. The weirdness hadn't even occurred to her. So... shot myself in the foot on that one.

That I came back to my south apartment at like... 8am or something, which was really comforting. I bet I'm more comfortable in this apartment than any other place in the world, which is good because I'm here now and sad because... of obvious reasons. Plus it was very cute making the trip to south because I had my plant... and you can't walk down the street with a plant and NOT be cute... in my humble opinion. Also, my plant has grown substantially since it arrived at the west apartment. It seems that the windowsill was optimum for jade-growing. I imagine my plant is sad to be in my south apartment where it has to struggle for survival... and certainly doesn't have the opportunity to thrive. C'est la vie.

Then I finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was gold! Pure gold!! Honestly, I couldn't recommend it more because it's so good and also it's very short and thus not much of a commitment.

Then Amanda came over bearing GROCERIES!! Because APPARENTLY, without noticing, I DID word-vomit about food too much! What an amazingly generous woman (Amanda's mom... and Amanda, of course)! I think I'm going to write her an email to thank her personally since I didn't see her when Amanda delivered them. She got me a ton of pasta, SAUCE (which I could previously not afford), apples and bananas, frozen chicken, organic peanut butter, two heads of garlic, a loaf of wheat bread, and two boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats. Can you even believe it?! I'm floored by the generosity and kindness some people give me... especially when I did literally nothing to deserve it.

Then we went to get my meal plan (this was yesterday, to clarify). The dining hall starts today... but the GSU never ended... a fact that hadn't occurred to me until I got the meal plan. So basically I had a huge feast. It was AMAZING!! Two feasts in a row!!! I couldn't be more excited!!!!

Then I promptly passed out. There was no other option. And it was lovely.

At some point I put up SOME paintings so I wasn't looking at white walls. I also watched I Love You, Man. It was PRETTY good. I thought it was funny, but it wasn't earth shattering in any way. Plus, they use weird abbreviations and awkward nicknames and stuff a LOT in the whole movie... which was good because it showed the level of awkwardness. BUUUUUT it started to be really painful. Every time it happened, it make me NOT in love with either of them. Not that you're necessarily supposed to fall in love with them... but... I think it would have helped. In summation: I would be more likely, for better or worse, to watch a comedy like that if I was in love with any of the lead characters, and because of a useful technique they used to show awkwardness, I couldn't be in love with them because I felt too strange about the language. That isn't an official review of whether it was good or bad as a movie. It's just how I feel it will be held in my own memory.

This morning I got my stored stuff from storeurdorm. It was VERY prompt. My window of delivery was noon to 2pm and my stuff came at like... 11:59am! Amazing! And they brought the stuff right to my room and everything. Very lovely. And I WOULD give them an excellent review, except that my TV is broken.

!!

I was pretty upset about it, because the screen isn't cracked, but it definitely isn't watchable. I honestly have no idea how it could have happened because the TV was in it's box with the original packing styrofoam. The point is that even if I called storeurdorm, they will only give me $100... which doesn't even pay for half of the TV. BUUUUT miraculously, Elena thought of the warranty. And the manufacturers DO give you a warranty for up to 1 year. And I bought my TV on September 4th!!!! Isn't that LUCKY!!?

I still didn't really believe they were going to fix it, especially since I didn't have the receipt, but it gave me hope. So I called the Best Buy people and they tell me to take it into the store. Although I DIDN'T need a receipt... because of the miracle of computers. I think they got my receipt just from my phone number. If that isn't a miracle, I don't know what is! But I also had the box and all the papers for it. I don't know if that helped, but it certainly didn't hurt.

So I took it into the store and they told me the manufacturers would still handle it and they shipped it out! So... MIRACLE!! I'll still only believe I will finish this business with a fully functioning TV when I see it. I'm not going to get my hopes up. BUUUT so far it's going as well as possible!! Excellent!

So today I'm thankful! I'm thankful for:

1. Food

2. Amanda's mom

3. Best Buy warrantees

4. Elena, for thinking of warrantees

5. Storeurdorm (for everything BUT the TV, obvs)

6. Tempur-pedic mattress pads

7. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

8. My life.

And surely more.

Food is LAME

Before I begin, let me just point out that before this summer, I have always been fed regularly. And even now I get a free-ish lunch ($40 a week). So really, I have to come up with dinner (breakfast is obviously a piece of cake (not literally, obviously) even though I've never eaten breakfast regularly in my ENTIRE LIFE until now-- for REAL) every night.

Here's the sitch: in the beginning, cooking is new and exciting. I bought a pan and a can opener and some utensils. I learned to make one of my favorite meals that my mother makes (even if I did essentially make vinegar chicken the first time). I encouraged others to help me learn new ways to cook. But now-- OVER IT! I've eaten rosemary chicken and tuna casserole about a jillion times. All of my stuff keeps going bad because I forget about it. Shopping is lame. I'm tired after I get home from work, and I'm not usually that hungry. I ate tuna on crackers for dinner four times (which is awesome on the wallet, btw)!!!

Anyway, I went grocery shopping for maybe... the second time this summer today. I got home, put my stuff away, came on the computer, and lost all inclinations to cook.
ALTHOUGH, I understand that I'm being a total jerk and that a lot of people don't eat NOT because of a laziness affliction, but because there isn't any food available. AND I appreciate my mother for cooking a few times a week.