Random Tuesday: Garlic-icious

* I love getting postal surprises, but how ridiculous is my mom's most recent package?? (See below.) I kind of understand her reasoning behind it (I won't go into it now), but that doesn't take much away from how silly it is that she spent so much on shipping to send me a giant jar of garlic when I move in three weeks. So every meal between now and then will be... garlic-icious.

* Isn't Christoph Niemann's NY Times blog Article City great? My favorite is The Haunted Household.

* I desperately want to make lemon-poppy seed cookies. Speaking of cookies, did you know that Martha Stewart puts out a Cookie of the Day?

* This comic strip illustrates my life well.

* My first chapter needs to be done by Thursday night!!! Freaking out, ahhhh!

* That's all for now! Happy Random Tuesday!

<3

Random Tuesday: Organized

Somehow I managed to organize Random Tuesday. Oops!

* Random Letter:
Dear Mr Thirsty,
You chose the wrong person to gulp next to in the library.
Sincerely annoyed,
Me
P.S. If I can hear you swallow through my headphones, it's time to see a doctor.

* Random Thought:
I realized I haven't been having scary nightmares as often. I occasionally have a bad dream, but it's the sort about making a stupid decision, not about being chased/kidnapped. That's good.

* Random Illustration:
(How I'm feeling today)

* Random Optimism:
At least my friend Nora is arriving in Bristol this evening. She'll be staying with me, & she's cheerful, so hopefully my spirits will lift.

* Random song:

I randomly thought of this last night in bed & couldn't fall asleep until I have found it & listened to it. Oh how I miss the 90s.

* Random quote:

"You're a gigantic parody of yourself & you don't even know it." --Tara, True Blood

<3

Random Tuesday: chainsaws, blog excitement, & garbage disposals

Random Tuesday it is!

First a letter:
Dear Chainsaw Man,
What reason could you possibly have had to start up your chainsaw before 8:00 this morning? It was chilly and rainy today, so there's no "gotta get to it before it gets hot" excuse. Actually, considering your job only took you about half an hour, it's not like you can claim that you wanted to get the job started early 'cause it would take you a while. Okay, it's fine if you think the hedges in that corner of the parking lot that nobody cares about could use a trim. Maybe it's even okay at the buttcrack of dawn. But you do realize that there are apartment buildings in the area as well as an office building? Maybe next time you could alert us to your work plan so we don't LEAVE OUR WINDOWS OPEN to be awoken by the grating sound of a motor and metal on metal?
Thanks, Breenuh

Stressful day today. I was trying to finish my final essay by 5:00, but it didn't happen. It's ready to hand in first thing in the morning, though. Finally!

There's so much blog excitement coming up! I can't wait! June is going to be a month of change on my blog. We've got Travel Thursdays starting this week (yes, Kenya photos finally!), and I'll be doing some blogger interviews soon, too. There may be some other changes, but I think I'll keep you guys guessing!

Jonty and I started The Wire last night. I think we'll give it a few more episodes before we decide how we feel.

Garbage disposals are like water: You don't miss it till it's gone. Cleaning out our drain is so freaking gross. Ick! If only everyone would just clean it out every time they wash up... but I guess I have very little to complain about here in Flat 11, so I'll just suck it up and scoop out the mushy food particles.

Jonty calls garbage disposals "in-sink-erators" because that's the brand of the one my family has at home (one of the only ones he's ever seen... 'cause England is a weird place).

It's been a long day, so that's enough randomicity for now. Good night!

<3

Random Tuesday: Procrastination-style

Happy Random Tuesday! I bet reading this on my blog is funny, since every day is a random day around here :.) Feel free to hop on over to The Unmom to check out more randomness, and grab the button to random it up yourself!

* I'm in the library (yes, it's naughty for me to be blogging rather than essay-ing, but will you be the one to throw the first stone?), and the girl across the table from me is the fastest, smackiest gum chewer ever. She is chewing a mile a minute, smacking every chew. And then she'll stop chewing long enough for me to relax... and then she starts again. Gross. Have I mentioned that I hate hearing people chew? Ick. Keep it to yourself.

* So far in this post, I've invented two words: 'random' (used as a verb) and 'smackiest'. I have a tendency to (illegitimately) invent new words. My friend Brian and I invented quite an interesting word when I was in high school: 'nerkus'. The word 'nerkus' is a blend of 'nerd' and 'dorkus', and can also be shortened to 'nerk'. We (as with most of my friends) believe that being a nerd/dork is a good thing--it means you are true to yourself and don't care what people think, so 'nerkus' is an endearing term. Actually, my close group of high school gal pals also had a similar word: 'spec', short for 'specimen'... That's even more obscure than 'nerk' but basically means that you are unique. Wow, I'm cool.
Update: I just realized The Unmom says, "random up," and it must have been sitting in my subconscious. So I guess I didn't make that one up; but I've made up lots of others!

* I got my Graze box today. It's a bit smaller than I expected, but I guess that makes sense, considering that it's meant to be for one day's grazing. But it's got some great stuff and is still worth the small amount I paid. My box has: fresh cut pineapple, the "apple strudel" mix (dehydrated apple, apricots, and cranberries), and the "tropical praline" mix (dark chocolate hazelnuts, dried mango, and green raisins). YUM! I'm munching on the apple strudel mix at the moment, and it's really good. (I know, it's rude to eat in the library. But Smack-tastic across from me is the only person around to hear, so I'm not all that worried about it.) If you're in the UK and watch to try Graze out, type in the code NKZ6TL7 at checkout and your first box is free :.)

* Check out this bizarre video a University of Bristol undergrad made of one of our professors giving Philosophy essay-writing advice a few years ago. It's a bit weird, but for those who know him (or have a strange sense of humor), it's pretty entertaining:



How was this for random?

<3

Random Tuesday: Stream of Consciousness

Today is Random Tuesday, yay!

Even though my blog is pretty random every day, hence its title, today is fun because I get a special excuse not to need any particular theme or plan. Here it goes!

I went to Mocha Mocha again today, and went for a regular latte, rather than the splendid Hazelnut Mocha I had last week. While my coffee was good, it didn't live up to last Tuesday's expectations.

Does bread make you tired? It makes me sooo sleepy. I wonder if it's a natural property of grains, or if I'm in some way gluten intolerant. The reason that I'm asking is that I had a bacon sandwich on wheat bread for breakfast today (while sipping on my latte with my friend Dan) and now I just want to curl up on the bench in the sun behind the Grad Center and have a snooze.

In fact, I have already done that. Right when I returned from Mocha Mocha. It was so warm and loverly.

I'm happy that the sun is starting to grace us with her presence, but couldn't she just wait until after my essays are handed in next Friday? I just want to be outdoors all the time. But, unfortunately, laptops don't love the sun half as much as I do. And my laptop and I have to be BFFs at the moment.

I think I'm going to start dreaming about Plato soon.

One time, in high school, I dreamed in Old English. I was in a play based off of Macbeth and The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, reading Cyrano de Bergerac, helping my sister (a freshman at the time) read Romeo & Juliet, and had watched Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet that night. I don't remember what the dream was about; I just remember that the setting was contemporary but all of the speaking was done in Shakespearean prose.

I've started reading Julie & Julia. It's light and a bit girly, and I think it's the perfect read for that time at night where my brain needs to wind down from work.

Not that I'm working now. I'm blogging. And dreaming about all the lovely things I could be doing in the sun right now. I have a meeting in just over an hour, so maybe I should get back to started on work.

Maybe Random Tuesday should be renamed Stream of Consciousness Tuesday.

I hope you enjoy your day and appreciate the sun!

<3

Random Tuesday: My First!

This is my first time partaking in Random Tuesday! I've been meaning to for some time, and now I've done it!

Speaking of partake, I have a craving to watch When Harry Met Sally. I'm not that fond of chick flicks, but I love this film (and I think guys can appreciate it too!). The museum scene is one of my favorite movie scenes ever:



I love it when I have my iPod on shuffle and 'N SYNC (or a similarly random musical group from the 90s) comes on. Especially when I'm only half paying attention to the music while working on an essay and then all of a sudden I hear: "I need love, you need love, we all really need love. All I want, all I need... We all really need love."

I sometimes wish my blog was a secret from my friends and family. Every once in a while I want to write a post that I don't want other people I know to see. I suppose I could just keep a journal... but it still would be nice to share with the blogosphere and get some responses... Should I create a new, confidential, blog? But wait, if I did, how would I tell you guys??? Hrm...

Bananas are ruined for me after returning from Kenya. They were so fresh and delicious there, since they'd been ripened before being picked, that eating bananas here nowadays just isn't as satisfying. Isn't that depressing?

This morning I went to this cafe called Mocha Mocha and had the most amazing drink ever: Hazelnut Mocha. Oh. My. Goodness.

I need to get my dad a birthday gift today... What should I get him???

Okay, enough randomness for now. Back to work.

<3