OH! And....

While I was down in Va Beach for Spring Break, I got to visit Williamsburg with Angel. I've never been and MUST go again, especially to do a run of historical Williamsburg. But we had lunch at the Old Chickahominy House, where the food is made fresh and mouth-watering delicious. It also had a really cute little store attached, which I always love.

For those who don't know Angel, she is a very generous woman. So in addition to taking me to Williamsburg and treating me to lunch, she got me two wonderful gifts. One is a teal blue wrap that I am wearing as we speak. The other is the most recent addition to my favorite thing to collect - teapots.

Isn't it fabulous? The picture isn't great because I don't have an actual camera yet, but my phone did an alright job. The flowers on the side are etched in a light green and the blue at the bottom is a rabbit. The pattern continues on the other side. I LOVE it! I think I'm going to try to find some blue or green teacups to go with it at some point.

Thank you, Angel!

The Strain of Today

So March can be summed up with the following: Flu, Midterms, Flu, Spring Break, SNOW??

Today, however, was a doozy. I have been in a panic since when I got home from break yesterday, my computer was doing a mean impression of a paperweight, but failing to do anything else...and I had a draft research paper due today. Not to mention a Calc Quiz due tomorrow. So that sets the tone for the day.

Got up early, made hair pretty (thanks, Aunt T, for all the advice!) and got out the door early enough to go to the cobbler to turn in leather boots from the winter that need some love. My heart broke to discover that my cobbler has gone out of business! I adored him and now I need to find another one. Very sad.

Work went well. I was booked the entire time I was there, which makes it go quickly, and one of the sessions was with a fellow Psych student who needed help with a lit review, so Jody (the director) assigned her to me specifically. I'm happy to be getting a good rep!

Checking in with the HC, I discovered that the bookstore messed up my book credit and told me the wrong amount at the beginning of the semester and thus I now owe them a ridiculous amount of money. I'm furious and the HC director is understanding of my fury. I'll go see them tomorrow to see what we can work out. FURIOUS.

However, a reprieve - In class I discovered that the draft was moved from today to next Monday. Happiness ensued. I can write it over the weekend and focus on my calc test that is coming up on Thursday. Oh happy day! I followed this with a wonderful discussion with my professor on a topic change (as well as discussing historical religious fiction such as The Red Tent and Mother of Believers) and she asked me to focus on a topic that she thinks I could shed a lot of light on even though it's not really covered in class. I'm thrilled.

A quick hustle off to Macy's to spend my gift card on the pair of shoes I've been coveting only to discover that the designers have gone off their heads this season and the toe box of the shoes doesn't cover the toe cleavage (tops of the toes). Now, I have previously railed against unnecessary toe cleavage in my livejournal. While I can accept it in casual shoes, such as flat, I find it rather horrid in heels, especially to the level that it was in this case. Nine West, Anne Klein...all of them! The shoes I really want, of course, are at White House Black Market, but I can't justify the expense. So I'm going to fume over this for awhile until I come to a solution.

Finally, to Best Buy in the hopes that the death of my Lappy is a a result of a faulty power source. They are ridiculously expensive, it turns out, but this entry is proof that the problem was indeed a power issue. I suppose I can be comforted to know that $80 is better than buying a new laptop.

Evidence of Spring

Walking to my car this afternoon, I heard the dulcet tones of geese doing their mating ritual.

Good heavens they're loud!

Our campus acts as a preserve as well as a campus, so for the second time in my life I share an area with animals who are highly irritating, if not kinda adorable in their innate biological demand to mate. Previously, I was stationed at Ft. Meade, along with a wetland preserve. Wetlands are beautiful...and loud. Especially in spring.

We had rain instead of snow. Twice now I've gotten a whiff of the wet and green newness that signals the earth awakening from its' sleep. It has me very excited. I can't garden since I won't be here to enjoy it, but I may plant in pots some.

I love spring. It's a time of rebirth. Winter kills off and wipes away the past and allows for new growth. Transition seasons are my favorite. As much as I enjoy the heat of summer and even the stark, cold beauty of winter, spring and autumn are the seasons that stir my heart. One of the few things I will miss about living in the northeast is the changing of the leaves. I am determined this year to take pictures. I'll bring them with me.

Victorian Manners Test

This is fun!

http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/games/game_0/

I took it as the female and got a perfect score - I'll try it as the male when it's not 2:30 in the morning. Take it and see how you do!

A Good Day!

Finally!

The weather was beautiful so I turned off the heat and opened windows to give my house a chance to air out a little. I got some cleaning and laundry done, as well as caught up on the ironing that has been building up. Knitting made some headway and I read for class tomorrow. No calculus, but hopefully some will get done tomorrow night.

I made rosewater out of the beautiful bouquet that Kyle got me for Valentine's (except the one that I pressed). I used the method from Care2 and it was pretty easy. I didn't remove the extract at small intervals and the initial amount was really strong, so I let it go awhile longer and got a slightly diluted form which I prefer. I left the pot on the stove (which was off) and let it perfume the house after I was done. Huzzah to a really good astringent and making use of something that would have otherwise gone into the trash. The remaining petals will be put in the flowerbeds outside.

Also watched the Oscars tonight (though I was on a delay to begin with because I got caught up in a Criminal Minds marathon and couldn't stop halfway through, so I DVRd the Oscars and got to fast forward through the commercials for most of broadcast). I wanted Hailee Steinfeld to win for True Grit, but Melissa Leo was so cute on winning that I couldn't be too upset. I also wanted Jennifer Lawrence to win for Winter's Bone (if you haven't seen it, go rent or Netflix it - it's amazing), however I knew there was no one who was going to beat Natalie Portman. And rightly so - Black Swan was utterly haunting. I hoped when she was thanking her parents that they would be shown so I could see her mom*, but I was disappointed.

My favorite speech of the night was David Seidler, the writer behind The King's Speech. His speech was funny and eloquent and seemed natural, rather than some of the forced humor in some speeches. I really loved his voice and it was just touching.

*Side note here: When I worked at Equinox, I had the distinct privilege of meeting (and signing up) Natalie Portman's mother. She was a classy lady who never once mentioned her daughter's name (she told me her daughter launched a line of vegan shoes, which she totally had) and was truly one of the nicest strangers I had ever met. I will never forget how sweet she was to me for the handful of months that I knew her and as much as I loved Miss Portman already, meeting her mother made me love her even more.

Putting my sickness to work

Another day of pain and thus, meds. There are certain things I can't do on medication reliably, such as studying or calculus, so I'm hoping I can do those things tomorrow. But it was sunny today so I was determined to do something. Yesterday was completely lost to sleep and that half awake space I get into when the percocet kicks in.

So today, I got some laundry folded and got some more laundry done. My biggest accomplishments were making tomato sauce for the rest of the week (or a couple, depending on my meals) and making a loaf of Moroccan bread. I cut the recipe, which should make two loaves, just to do the one since it's my first time. It turned out really well and I had some of it when it was still hot with butter and honey. It was delicious. I will probably need to make another loaf this week at some point since it turned out well and it certainly beats store bought bread. It doesn't replace sandwich bread, but that's why I want to get a bread machine someday.

I have this dream of getting to a point where more of the food I eat is freshly made. Pasta is really easy to make. I make my own sauces anyway, but expanding on that selection is good. Bread too, now that I know how. I already avoid store bought cookies (except Oreos, which are crack, and even though I've made Oreos before, it's not the same), so it's just a matter of expanding that. Knowing what is in your food is great. The Moroccan bread is flour, water, oil, yeast, salt and sugar. That's it. And I can name all of those ingredients.

Also, I finished the second of what I think will be a set of three washcloths for my sister. I've cast on and started the third, so I might get that finished this week. I don't have any major projects until I learn to do socks over Spring Break, so I may just knit up a bunch of washcloths in the meantime.

WC Lessons

Last night I covered a WC shift for another tutor. It was interesting - I knew I had a writer coming in for help right at the beginning because I met him on Wednesday and he insisted on seeing me again. Turns out I was completely booked the entire night. I worked with a girl who was trying to write a personal statement for law school and a woman who really just needed someone to listen to her go over her response to a reading - she self edited as she read and I didn't actually have to do much. We worked out some confusion issues, but she really did most the work.

Thankfully, I'm finding patience I didn't expect to have. It's hard not to just give them the answer, which we're really not allowed to do since our primary goal is to encourage critical thinking. But I'm learning how to ask leading questions. It's frustrating since some of them are really terrible writers and they're in college - they should be at least basically literate. But I think my time there will be well spent and the other tutors are nice to talk to. Several of them are graduate or post-graduate students and one of them got her PhD last week.

I didn't have anything to do today expect for the SVA (Student Veteran's of America) State Director conference call (I'm the NY SD). Which is good because it's been a pain day. So lots of tea, time on the couch and watching TV (I got caught up on Royal Pains) and snacking. Oh and knitting. Knitting has finally gotten done now that it's been rescued from Kyle's house. I have some things to get done this weekend, but mostly I think I'm staying home. I don't feel well and I can't risk getting sick and missing anymore school.