Subliminal Messaging

I dreamed about blogging last night.

I dreamed that I was writing a blog post. It was another list; like my previous ones. I think my sub-conscience is trying to tell me something. For once I have decided to listen. I haven't been taking any photos, so I haven't been writing any blog posts. It's a bad parallelism, I know.

I just never have my actual camera on me. However, I always have my iPhone on me. So I've been able to snap a few photos of my college life thus far.

Saturday nights, the cafeteria isn't open. ((You know you go to a small school if...)) This semester, my friends and I decided that we should get together Saturday nights and cook dinner.

The first Saturday it was supposed spaghetti with a cheese and red sauce, courtesy of my roommate and I (mostly her, I was just gonna make brownies from a mix). Well, she got stuck at work and couldn't make it. So, I ran to where she works on campus and recorded her telling me how to make the two sauces. Of course no recipes were involved in this discussion, nor any specific amounts. 'Just a bit of that, some that one thing, stir it for a little while, then it should be good.'

The tiny dorm kitchen was packed with all of us-- plus some other people who had the same idea we had. The scene was mainly chaos; me running about with a sack of flour in my arms, flicking the flour off my hands to a friend who questioned my cooking abilities, everyone laughing, talking, and shouting. The noodles were easy-- I almost had a heart attack trying to make the sauces. I borrowed half the ingredients from the other people cooking. I needed more flour, so I just stuck my hand in the bag a pulled out what vaguely resembled a tablespoon. The butter was evaporating, so I tossed more into the pot. The vegetable stock made it too runny, so I dumped more cheese in. The cheese wasn't melting, I ignored that, though all I could think of was 'how could this ever turn out into anything edible?' I had a few friends who helped try to tame the chaos that is a forty year old kitchen full of energetic college students with minimal cooking abilities.

It was so much fun. :D To my surprise, both of the sauces were not only edible, but quite delicious.

The picture was the noodle sculpture that resulted with one of my friends, not knowing the noodle box was opening, picked it up.

This is from the second cooking night we had; this time someone else, who had an actual recipe, was cooking, so it was less hectic. While waiting for the noodle dish to cook, we played this fun game called Banagrams. It's like Scrabble.

And this was my fortune from the Chinese we had tonight. There's this small Chinese restaurant right by campus-- they give you a ton a good food for not that much money.

So, life. I still don't have a date for winter formal...aka college prom. And here I thought high school was over. Guess not. Oh well, I'm working on it ;) We shall see....*ominous music*

Why I love Hendrix pt 3

And the epic series continues! ;) Hendrix is a small college tucked away in it's own little bubble. Even though I've only been going here for a little over a semester, I'm already in love.

Maybe I love it so much because of the amazing youth group I'm in, and the retreat we did at Branson. I was driving with my friend, and the second we saw this overlook our jaws dropped and we pulled over. Well, to be more exact, first I drove past it, then past the best place to turn around, had to whip into a steep, crumbling side road, throw the car in reverse and zoom out, as there was a hill and I couldn't see if anyone was coming, and the awkwardly cut over to the overlook.

Um, yeah. My questionable driving skills aside, the overlook was amazing-- it was one of those things that was so beautiful in person, yet so hard to catch on film.

Or maybe it's because of the crazy, late night Chinese runs my roomie and I have. Turns out, no Chinese restaurant is open at 9 o'clock Sunday night. Figures. Good thing Wal-mart is always open. :D

Or maybe it's because I was able to play in the orchestra here, where I got to lug this monster around. The piece called for two different clarinets, one in the key of B-flat, and one in the key of A. Yeah. I'm a music geek.

Or maybe it's the impulse late-night Walmart run my roomie and I have which result in Oreo ice cream and a dozen doughnuts...and then maybe some popcorn we popped in the room........yeah that was a fun night ;)

Or maybe it was how we decked out our dorm room for Christmas...

Or the little snow we got? Me and a couple friends ran out, squealing, looking for the shady patches where the snow had lasted.

Or is the thank-goodness-finals-are-actually-over poker night my youth group had?

Or maybe it's this amazingly trippy tunnel we have to go under a major road. Jackie and I stopped there once after a workout just to take a picture of its gorgeous color. It's lined with lights that change colors-- and there are things you wave your hand over, and it plays a pitch. There's a riddle-- one night this really drunk guy was stumbling about in the tunnel, and showed us what the solution to the riddle was, and made the whole tunnel flash and play this tune.

Or maybe it's the picture that inspired the whole thing? After I snapped a shot of this gorgeous sunset I thought about quickly posting it, just a glimpse of how beautiful Hendrix is and much I love being here. As you can see, it grew from one little picture and a caption to...this three part mini series. I'm lucky to love my home-away-from-home this much. There are so many reasons why I'm lucky; that could make up it's own mini series. ;) But for now, I'll just stick to why I love my hippie school. :)

Why I Love Hendrix pt 2

So I was totally planning on posting this yesterday but it was Friday, and Friday's are always busy. It's sad how much it hurts to write this-- like actually hurts. Quidditch practice killed my finger tips.

Umm...anyway! Continuing the love fest of Hendrix...

Maybe Hendrix is so awesome because of 1)awesome friends 2)who do awesome things like go ice skating. ;)

Or maybe it's because of the awesome church family I've made, who held a party at a pumpkin patch where this cute guy was ;)

Or maybe it's the fact that I joined the Quidditch team and then went to NYC to play in the amazing World Cup. :D

We flew to New York City for the weekend. We were up around six every morning and didn't get to bed till around midnight every night. It was an exhausting, but fun.

Also, it was sub-zero temperatures. That part might have been just a little miserable. ;)

Maybe I love Hendrix so much because of 1)the amazing friends 2)the way they talked me into dying my hair red on a whim

Or maybe it's because the opportunities I've had here, like to be apart of a chamber group. Two clarinets and a bassoon ;)

Or maybe it's because the only legit snowfall I've seen this winter was at Hendrix. The flakes were huge, softly falling to the ground. It wasn't anything more than a dusting, but it was still beautiful to watch.

Or maybe it's the amazing cafeteria/cafeteria staff, who decked out the dinning hall for Christmas.

So I really should do the physics homework I keep procrastinating about...or just keep watching Friends...

Decisions, decisions.....;)

Stay tuned for part 3!

Why I Love Hendrix pt 1

I used to do this facebook status, reasons why I love Hendrix. There were some pretty epic ones, like reason #17 I just saw the milky way for the first time, and reason #1 Veasey won shirttails. I haven't written one in a while, but this post is sort of like that on steroids. I can't rank these, they are all equally amazing.

Maybe I love Hendrix so much because the epically amazing orientation trip where we went to a dude ranch?

I mean look at that face. How could you not fall in love?

Maybe it's the amazing friends I have made here?

Seriously. This was Dr. Who night. It was a scary episode ;)

Or maybe it's this wicked arm tattoo I did back in the fall. (temp! promise;)
((and okay, maybe this isn't entirely relevant, but hey, check out that tat))

Perhaps it's because we have Sundaes every Thursday??

Or maybe it's this amazing little coffee shop we have, just down the street. Perfect for spending a lazy night with friends.

Or could it be because sitting out under a tree and reading a book is a perfectly common sight? ((Les Mis if anyone is curious;))

I realized that there was no way that I could cram everything I love about Hendrix into one post so! Stay tuned for pt 2...and maybe pt 3...and maybe more depending on how many pictures I have ;)

On Calculus and Frosting

aka, how my first day back at college went. It started with me staying in bed till 9:30, yay for late morning classes, and ended with my eating frosting from the can.

Good stuff ;) I had three of my four classes today; physics II, French II, and Calculus II. I have Intro into Film Studies tomorrow morning at 8:15. Which sounds like an interesting class so I'm excited. :D

Anyway, after classes, and band, and then dinner, we headed to the gym to work out, aka watch the new criminal minds episode. So good!

And now I'm eating my roomie's frosting out of a can. It's really good, even if all I have to eat it with are some crackers.

Still delicious. So worth it.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a short update. I refuse to ignore the blog during college like I did last semester ;)

Back to Normal

Whatever normal is. College normal in this case, I would guess. Classes start tomorrow-- luckily for me it's a relatively easy day, classes from 10-1. Tuesday is gonna be my hell day, class from 8-9, then 11-4. D: At least I have a break for lunch.

Anyway, today I picked up my music for band, which starts tomorrow.

Also, I went shopping around town with some friends. There's a winter formal coming up-- apparently a college version of prom-- and we all needed dresses. I wasn't going to buy a dress at all; I was on this whole 'I'm not even going to go, it's not like I have a date' rant, how I wasn't going to do a pity date and preferably not even a friend date. My entire high school career consisted of my asking my guy friends to go, just as friends. Just for once I want to have an actual date.

So, I entered the shopping trip thinking 'I'm a strong independent woman, I'm not even going to go to this party'. The dresses, for the most part, were absurdly expensive. Like five hundred dollars expensive. O.O My senior prom dress I bought at a consignment shop for 25 dollars, and I loved it. There was no way that I was spending that much money on something as temperamental as a dress. ((Now a camera...that's a different story ;))

And then, as I was poking around in the expensive store, I stumbled upon a dark corner, with a small, handmaid sign posted on the wall. 'Sale, short dresses 30 dollars'. Mildly interested now, I flipped through the dresses, my 'strong independent woman' resolve crumbling like a poorly constructed sand castle.

It's a pretty knee length black lace dress with a nice silhouette. :) I fell in love with it, and for the price, I couldn't pass it up. So now I have a dress...which means I'm going to the dance....which means I have to find a date...D:

And here I thought I was actually done with high school.

Think again!

Anyway, I thought that I would post a picture of our newly arranged and slightly picked up dorm room. I have a 18-55mm kit lens and while I normally am happy with the 18 mm focal length, it just couldn't fit the entire room in the shot.

So I made a panoramic ;)

Looking past the clutter-- which is actually the best it's been since we moved in-- you can see that we have a large open space in the middle, moving just about every piece of furniture in our dorm room had it's advantages. ;)

My Break in Photos

My break, sadly, is now over D: Back to like actual life and work now, like physics and calculus. Anyway, I thought I would post a summary of my break, in photos. Note, most of these were taken with my iPhone, so there may be a little lack of quality..;)

These pictures weren't actually taken coming to/from home for Christmas break. This was when I was taking a friend home. Still, same road ;) It's also considerably easier to taken photos when you are not driving. I might happen to know this by experience....

GIFTS

I got some amazing tennis shoes for Christmas; my other ones were literally falling apart. Side note, the stuff on the bottom of tennis shoes is actually important. It's tread. Cutting it off, and then trying to run is not recommended.

I also got the amazing new Zelda game for the Wii. :D :D Zelda was my childhood-- my memories are of my brother and I battling our way through Windwaker, with reliant K playing in the background :)

This actually wasn't supposed to be a Christmas present, but my parents gave my grandmother a similar one, and when I freaked out about just how cool it was, they gave me the other one they had found in France. This summer I plan on buying it film and experimenting with it ;)

CREATIVITY

I was on a creative kick this break. These are my delicious cookies that I whipped up one night on a whim.

These are my newspaper nails ;) Super easy, yet super cool

My greatest creative endeavor, making a skirt. I still haven't decided what I wanted to do with the green fabric-- perhaps cut it and sew it on the skirt rather than just tying it? I don't know.

Anyway, in other news, I traveled back to college yesterday. It was surprisingly hard to leave home, but I knew that after a month, it was time to go back. Classes start Wednesday, and we'll see if this semester is as crazy as last semester. :)

A Purse

My project, all of Christmas break, was to make a purse. Unsurprisingly, only a few days are left in Christmas break so I finally got around to making it. Purses are the only thing that I feel slightly competent making. It was perhaps a year ago when, stuck at home due to an extended snow break, I got bored, and then inspired. After all, how hard could it be to sew a purse? It's just a bag. So, I gathered all the scraps from my mother's sewing kit and set about to make a purse. No pattern or anything. And, against all odds, it's actually turned out and I've been using that purse ever since. Now, it's a little-- okay gaping holes-- worn out, so I found some cute fabric from the Walmart clearance section.

I used my old purse as a model to cut the new fabric.

I've never been one to cut straight lines, but it hasn't stopped me yet ;)

The purse is basically two bags-- one is the purse and the other is the front cover.

This is the fabric for the main bag.

This is the fabric for the cover flap.

First I made a bag of the blue, and then use that to cut out the fabric for the front flap. Haha wow, I suck at writing this out. I'm more used to talking about cooking, or taking pictures of flowers. ;)

Anyway, after making the two 'bags' I sewed the flap onto the blue bag, so it flips over...like a flap..flips.

Yeah I'm just gonna show pictures now....((I also cut a thin strip of fabric and sewed it to be a strap))

Fun, custom made purse : $4.50
Gratitude at you, the reader, suffering through my writing : Priceless.

Snow!

Or perhaps more accurately, snow flurries. :) Still, for someone who lives in Arkansas, snow flurries are sometimes the closest you'll get to snow. They are beautiful little creatures, like little puppies, eagerly nosing their way about. The wind blows them about, sending them scurrying left, right, and even up, a paradoxical ascent.

While these beautiful snowflakes are fun to watch, they are awful to try and photograph. However, I had to try ;)

To begin with, the snowflakes are on a different plane than the rest of the background-- they are closer to me. So, I did my best to focus on them, using manual focus and a bit of luck.

Surprisingly, I got better results once I gave up and went inside, looked out the window and grabbed my camera.

They were just so cute, rushing down before quizzically being thrown off their path by a brush of the wind.

It was completely unexpected-- the paper called for a cold, only partially cloudy day.

And while they were too small to actually accumulate on the ground, they were still fun to see.

After all, beggars can't be choosers!